Which is such a cool story.

Like Emma had been writing some awesome Morrowind mods for ages - she was involved with a massive project that brought children to the game, wrote some of the pioneering companion mods for that game - and then she got to collaborate with Terry fucking Pratchett on one of the best Oblivion mods ever made.

The Internet Archive - long term storage of as many books/films/music/journals/games as possible.

I’ve had friendships end over basically that statement.

The series is pleasant to read. It’s no different than reading a Tom Clancy or John Grisham or Colleen Hoover novel, just targeted at a younger audience. The fandom culture around it was fun - especially for those of us who essentially “grew up” with Harry by being roughly the same age as him at each release.

Not every novel needs to be Pale Fire or JR.

I rank them 3>2>4>1>5>7(w/out epilogue)>6>7

I think the ending of the first book was planned, just clumsily executed. It’s a mystery novel - she places all of these red herrings/misdirection. The reveal that Snape was actually saying a counter course with the flying bludger incident is “cute” and goes with the muddled messages and themes she has around that character.

She knew where she wanted to get to, it’s just one of the more “Idiot Ball” driven plots of the series (along with the fifth book). Harry does stupid impulsive shit because that’s his character, and the world just has to react to it. Harry logic isn’t normal people logic, so by the end of the story we’ve kinda lost track of the plot.

It’s no Earthsea but it’s serviceable paperback detective fiction for children.

Stories don’t have to have “hard” magic systems to be good. I’m a big fan of the magical realism popular in Latin American fiction - where the magic is ambiguous and never quite explained at all.

The problem is the way that Rowling uses magic.

Rowling was clearly writing mystery novels, while lifting a lot of ideas for her setting from like The Worst Witch series. She uses magic spells like a Checkhov’s gun kind of thing, usually establishing whatever magical principle will save the day earlier in the novel. With a relatively self contained story, it works really well. Prisoner of Azkaban is one of her stronger books - the way that she sets up the mystery with the time turner as well as the stuff with Sirius Black, etc - because it’s very “clean” in this way. She introduces a bunch of new elements to her world, but they are all tied around supporting her story. This is good writing.

The problem is that Harry Potter books don’t work as an overarching story. It is abundantly clear that the Horcruxes and Deathly Hallows were not planned from the beginning. Rowling got to the last two books, realized that she needed to write some kind of ending, and then completely drove her plot off the rails.

You could say because she didn’t have an established magic system, it made it easier to drive off the rails, but really, it’s more that she’s competent at writing stand alone mystery novels (which really, that’s what books 1-4 are and they’re the best in the series for it) and not larger narratives. She doesn’t know how to convey the scope of a war, she doesn’t know how to tie together an Epic fantasy.

I have called multiple democratic senators and representatives about the fact that employment and housing protections for transgender people have been stripped in Oklahoma - that it’s been a problem for the last 4 years. No one gives a shit.

I’ve got a TEACH grant that I did 3/4 years of before they made it impossible to continue teaching without moving to another state. I promised to teach in OK for 5 to get further financial incentives. I would love to be in a classroom but it is de facto illegal and several de jure things make that impossible.

No one has given a shit. No one gives a shit. We can get murdered, and our deaths might make the news, but then the state can cover it up (Nex, the trans woman in Grove). The Dems have left POC and LGBT people in the south to fight their States alone.

This is why being a chemistry teacher will turn your hair white.

Instructions are written out, I’ve modeled every step, “please read the entire lab first and make sure you understand every step before you start.”

But now one group is filling a beaker with indicator and another is fucking up their data beyond recognition because they forgot you have to tare the scale (which you already explained and modeled to that group personally, because they do this every time).

When you chose lab activities/materials, the consideration is “in what ways could the most determined teenager hurt themselves or others?” Kids will drink chemicals, spill them on themselves, and mix them at random. At least one group per period will fuck up any given lab beyond all recognition, in shocking and new creative ways.

It’s why so much is done with baking soda and vinegar. I can hit pretty much every standard and concept with those two and some alka seltzer tablets, and I can’t think of a way that a teenager could kill themselves with those things.

You do want a kindergartener to have number/letter recognition by the end. Able to count to 10 or 20, recognize the full alphabet.

I think without the hysteria, it wouldn’t have been death penalty and they wouldn’t have got Ethel. I should be citing sources but from what I remember all of the stuff Julius got to the Soviets was minor/stuff they already knew.

Yeah - why learn what words mean when you can make up your own definitions?

Pretty sure the historical consensus is that Julius Rosenberg was likely involved if not Ethel.

Who has defined fascism as such? How do the practices of Stalinism root in Italian authoritarianism?

Defining fascism as any form of authoritarianism broadens the term so much as to render it useless.

It’s useful to be able to talk about the ways in which the ideologies which governed Franco’s Spain and Mussolini’s Italy are more similar to each other than say, something like the DPRK under Juche. If we want to refer to something as authoritarian, we already have the word authoritarian.

What on earth makes me a Tankie? I’m not a Stalinist. I’m pretty anti-Stalin even - I think the doctors probably did let him die and that was a great thing. I just think words mean things.

Let’s go with Eco, because it’s been fifteen years since I read Griffin. And I’ll pull the wiki summaries for quickness.

“The cult of tradition”, characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.

Not at all characteristic of the Stalin regime. Rejection of tradition - rejection of Eastern Orthodox religion, traditional serf structure.

“The rejection of modernism”, which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement, as many fascist regimes cite their industrial potency as proof of the vitality of their system.

Also not accurate - Marxist-Stalinist thought saw time and modernism as progress.

“The cult of action for action’s sake”, which dictates that action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.

Also just doesn’t quite fit. Action does have purpose, and isn’t motivated by the Freudian death drive in quite the same way.

“Disagreement is treason” – fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.

This one is certainly true, the gulags undoubtedly qualify.

“Fear of difference”, which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.

Decidedly untrue. Stalin really loved showcasing different ethnic minority traditions. He was certainly antisemitic, but I’ve read too many accounts about Georgian dancing troops and linguistic revival to see this as accurate. Edit: I will be fair and bring up ethnic deportations and genocide which happened. But it’s not quite fascistic ethnic cleansing. There’s a difference in the way it’s presented to the public, in its motivations. It’s less the heroic struggle against Strangers, but more connected to historical conflicts. Evil and wrong, but not a fascistic “project.”

“Appeal to a frustrated middle class”, fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.

No, the Bolsheviks explicitly appealed to a lower class.

“Obsession with a plot” and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society. Eco also cites Pat Robertson’s book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.

This one counts, at least in the later years.

Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as “at the same time too strong and too weak”. On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.

No, propaganda tended to portray the battle against capitalism as being easy to win with solidarity.

“Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy” because “life is permanent warfare” – there must always be an enemy to fight. Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to not build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.

You don’t need perpetual war with the kulaks.

“Contempt for the weak”, which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate leader, who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force

Entirely incongruous with Soviet propaganda.

“Everybody is educated to become a hero”, which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, “[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”

No, they wanted engineers to build factories. Stakhanov is not consistent with the imagery of a fascist hero.

“Machismo”, which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold “both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality”.

Soviet state under Stalin was one of the first to decriminalize homosexuality. Iirc Stalin did a take backsie later. More women were doctors than men. (We seldom talk about women in the movement - lots of pushes for temperance, it was the woman who wanted bread for their children along with the men of the Potemkin right?)

“Selective populism” – the people, conceived monolithically, have a common will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he alone dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of “no longer represent[ing] the voice of the people”.

Also goes against the whole idea of “we want democratic control over our factories.”

“Newspeak” – fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.

I’d concede this element as present.

Again, I am not pro Stalin. I am not a tankie.

Stalin was an authoritarian leader (and terrible! bad! not good!), but his ideology lacked the characteristics that make an ideology fascist.

Whose definition of fascism are you using? Eco, Griffin? Which elements of fascism did the Soviet state exhibit?

Of Eco’s traits, I only see disagreement being treason. Nothing else particularly matches the goals or praxis of the Soviets. I’m not pro Stalin, but he wasn’t a “fascist.”

As a trans person that has been begging anyone to intervene in my state for the past 4 years - being told over and over again that the shit that was happening was not happening… yeah.

Kinda like how Nex Benedict murdered and no one cared. A trans woman in Grove disappeared a few years ago and her body just turned up - cops probably did it but no one will ever look into it.

It’s been happening here ALREADY. I’ve been SCREAMING about it for years and no one’s listened. Now the fascists are at everyone’s door.

Cops in Oklahoma routinely slaughter people. The feds have been trying to shut down OKC County jail for years because people die. They’ll often kick them out right before they are about to die so it doesn’t draw attention. Multiple deaths in Cleveland County jail too. Ten deaths in three years - just the ones they can’t cover up ofc.

Wanna see an OKC cop slam a geriatric man into the ground? I can’t watch the video - but our AG Drummond didn’t think it was worth pursuing charges. I’ve always felt safe - one year walking to Pride overhearing them complain about needing to protect “the gays, the Mexicans and the Asians.”

(If you really really want to go off the deep end - look up what happened to Terrence Yeakey - and think about how many shitbag OKC cops would have been upset about Waco. Flowers of the Killer Moon is a good indicator of Oklahoma’s commitment to investigations and justice…)

Idabel cops wish they could still lynch people.

Cops in Tulsa drug and rape kids.

Edit: re NEX because HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHY HAS NO ONE DONE ANYTHING

Hey doc - what’s the LD50 on Prozac and Benadryl? You can take a bottle of Benadryl - certainly a very bad time, but not particularly deadly. I know drugs have interactions, but that’s a pretty mild one. If it was the Prozac, wouldn’t the COD be serotonin syndrome…? Combined toxicity… hmmm…There wasn’t a chief coroner at the time either - Stitt was doing the Trump thing by just leaving a bunch of government offices unfilled while waiting for friends special enough to give the money and power to, and also was trying to pretend that COVID wasn’t happening.

First reports said they died of head injury in hospital. I hop onto /pol/ as I’m want to do, they start speculating on suicide. Pretty sure Alex Jones said it’s suicide? Lots of eyes on the state, National media attention. Owasso might have already even been under investigation for fucky shit with sped students (which, tbh every school in Oklahoma should be). Lots of talk about terrible Ryan Walters policies (he appointed LibsOfTikTok to like a content review position - she got death threats called into Union High I think - near Tulsa - because she harassed some librarian there).

[No one seems to acknowledge that trans teachers exist/are affected by these things lol - another of those things where I’ve called and been ignored by everyone from Lambda Legal to Tim Walz - like sorry, I shouldn’t be pissing next to your 14 year old daughter. Like yeah we had the staffs, but I also can’t make it there and back in 5 minutes without all of my bathroom scales being disappearing to be reused for far more economically productive uses. Fucking sucks, because I had year 3 of 4 done of the TEACH grant and was hoping for public service. Alons-y with the dreams of elsewhere.]

We wait for the report. (Istg people were pointing out the lack of coroner at the time.)

Report comes out. Ope, it was suicide. Sad sad sad. Another statistic. Another dead trans kid. Maybe it is a mental illness after all and they just need treatment. Lots of “her” and even lots of kinder but maybe misguided “him.” A complete amnesia that Nex was indigenous, tying this further into the curse that underlies all Oklahoman soil.

The Owasso investigation concluded with some really damning results. Those are worth digging up at least. I can tell you it’s bad everywhere. I’ve BEEN TELLING PEOPLE (FEDS, CONGRESS PEOPLE, DEMS, ADVOCACY ORGS) THESE THINGS FOR SO FUCKING LONG IM SICK OF IT!

I see a lot of teenagers falling for the “I’m a Gazan and need help getting out.” accounts too.

Hbomb’s video is a good overview if you have about two hours to spare.

For the paper he published - he got his subjects at a birthday party. Not all of them even had autism. He was positing that autism had something to do with the digestive track, and they did shit like lumbar punctures on some of the kids (one iirc had serious complications - they basically tortured autistic children with a bunch of painful and complicated medical tests).

The fact that The Lancet published a paper with such horrific failures in methodology, ethics, and even fucking sample size is an embarrassment.

Big part of it was the surprise illegal eviction my ex got to do when he wanted to move in his prostitute (cops in OK don’t give a shit about your rights if your trans lol). Navigating the divorce system with no money, all the paper work that I have no idea if survived the parents guest room -> friends couch -> apartment.

There aren’t social services here anyway at least lol

How fucked are you if you don’t file?

I didn’t file last year, because I’ve been in a clusterfuck of borderline homelessness and odd jobs for the past two years. Idk if I am even able to file this year if I didn’t last?

As a trans and possibly autistic New Vegas fan, I resemble that remark.

I think trying to police strict categories though is a problem - reality doesn’t fit genre. People don’t fit genre. My Bejeweled loving grandmother got hella into the newer Civilization games, my FIFA addicted ex would dabble into furry romance games.

Even within the same game, there’s vast differences in how people can approach gameplay - I play the Sims for fucked up historical roleplay. Other people use it as a wish fulfillment vehicle where their self insert characters live their dream lives - others cheat to give themselves lots of money and just build gorgeous houses.

Video games are a combination of art and toys. There’s no “right way” to appreciate art, and no one likes when someone else tells you how to play with your toys. Thomas Kinkade paintings makes me want to vomit, while Cy Twombly paintings intoxicate me - others will not have the same reaction, and that’s part of the beauty that makes us human.

(How on earth can human beings listen to Sargon for more than 15 minutes? Even the clips I’ve heard excerpted in Hbomberguy etc make me want to claw my ears out lol)