Just when you thought you couldn't take things less seriously.

Very strange things are going on in Japan, worth keeping an eye on.

I wonder what Bor, norse king of the gods, has to say about Isr*el that warrants mentioning.

I see the appeal of being a conspiracy theorist. Sometimes a social trend is so bonkers or out there that you have to believe that it's completely artificial and being pushed by some shadowy group. But reality, I've found, is much more simplistic.

It's that time again, where Rings of Power is getting it's second season and Tolkien fans the world over (on social media at least) are pissed off about it. They swear up and down that anyone who likes it is either a shill or a fool because the alternative is too horrifying to comprehend. I'm not into ROP myself, because I'm not giving Amazon Prime a fucking dime of my money after being ripped off last time, but I've observed the fanbase and it feels natural to me. Plenty of fanart, fanfictions, character studies, the works. RoP has all the hallmarks of something people would be into. It's an adapatation of a popular fantasy series, it has a colorful cast of characters, beautiful men and women, and Orcs. Who doesn't love orcs? This is exactly how Game of Thrones and The Hobbit got off the ground back in the Tumblr days.

Another example is Velma, which got a second season. Twitter was alight with instructions begging people not to "hatewatch" and just let it rot. Then it became one of the streamed shows. At that point, I have to ask: Is it more believable that 10s of thousands of people watched Velma just to make mean reddit posts about it, or that a lot of people just wanted to watch Velma? Velma's a really funny case because it's not a great show, it's like 3/5 but the hate is so exaggerated and manufactured that you'd never know it. If you google it right now, you'll see thousands and thousands of 1-star reviews made by people who just did what they were told.

So to conclude, modern society really needs to grow up and stop thinking everything popular that got a bad video essay review is a scheme.

Hello friends, if you're a Zoomer like me (Well maybe, I was born in '96 so I'm either the last Millennial or the first Gen Z) you may have noticed that we're often the butt of many jokes. "The worst generation of snowflakes ever" or something of that nature. I will admit, we seem a little strange compared to old folks but when you actually take a step back and look at the facts it makes perfect sense.

1. Zoomers have dumb language. One of the biggest things Zs get mocked for is lingo: Skibidibop rizz with the gyatt, deadass smh at my goofy ahh uncle. Took me a while to realize it, but when's it's not just memespeak the reason there are so many nonsense words floating around now is because big tech and social media has become so ludicrously censor happy that you need to talk like a fucking baby to avoid getting your post flagged for one reason or another. Even saying too many normal words in the "wrong order" is enough to get shadowbanned these days.

2. Kids are inside and on their phones too much. What the fuck else are you expecting them to do? Putting aside the 2 year lockdown due to a pandemic, there's not many options for outside activities. Parks and playgrounds and other things just aren't safe a lot of the times. Whether it's animals, shady characters, or the jungle gym being delapidated. Teens can't go to the malls anymore because they're all closing and anywhere they gather is immediately swarmed with the cops. Nowadays, you go to any big city and the most happening spot is a McDonald's or something because at least you can eat and socialize without getting dirty looks.

3. Z's are immature and rely on their parents for everything. I had a professor tell me that a not insignifigant amount of zoomers show up to job interviews with their parents and that's bad. I'll admit that everyone needs to grow up eventually but...when did attentive parents become a bad thing? Most older people I know had a bad relationship with their folks or they passed away early, so they were forced to mature sooner. Now this one is purely subjective because I can't speak for every 20 something and their parents but this just seems like another generational gap that's caused by shifting social values.

I can go on but I just had to jot all this down. The kids aren't crazy, you're just just not noticing how hard they've been hit by the downward spiral of the western world.

Not even going to post a particularly cringe and creepy NAFO meme I found but that's what sealed it. Acknowledgement is confirmation as far as shill sccounts go.

I don't doubt it, but I think what's really happening is that they're getting rid of spam reviews by people who don't actually own the game and just leaving negative feedback for culture war purposes.

A lot of outrage over Kill the Justice League. Just imagine how much better life would be if young people could get this spun up over real problems like, you know, genocide or gas prices.

This shit is only going to escalate now that soldiers are able to come back from the genocide with absolutely zero reprecussions. The fact that this isn't front page news, that two foreign military personnel just carried out a chemical terrorist attack, is insane.

There's been a thought rattling around in my head for a long time and I haven't had a good way to articulate it until now, so I'm planning to ramble for a bit.

Everything going on in the world right now, in Palestine, in Ukraine and Africa is a good reminder that the mass killing of humans isn't some archaic practice that went out of style a thousand years ago. There are real consequences for dehumanization and calling for one group or another to be wiped out. It starts small, as many things do, as just a little grain in your head that some people are just lesser or worse and thus you'd be okay if they weren't around you. I find that a lot of this rhetoric comes from pop culure, you see it in books, movies, anime, and video games. Especially when it comes to the fantasy genre. For anime, you have stuff like Goblin Slayer or Frieren where Goblins/Demons are little more than animals and need to be genocided for the betterment of society. Books, you have Orcs in Tolkien (Something I appreciate about ASOIAF is that Grrm doesn't do this and always treats the idea of a full on massacre like it's horrible). But video games is where it goes all out.

--Nerd Speak Below This Line--

I've been playing a lot of Elder Scrolls lately, which means I've become reaquinted with the lore, and one thing aout TES that's always been a little concerning to me is how many of the backstories end in genocide and displacement. The Nords, the strapping 6-7 feet tall beautiful white people came down from the north and killed all the snow elves nearly to the last, the Orc homeland of Orsinium has been sacked and destroyed multiple times scattering them across the land, the Redguards showed up and killed pretty much everyone they could find for miles before being happy to stop in the desert, and the Empire has essentially been engaged in an extermination war with the Elves (who aren't saints either) for thousands of years. Two events that I think are really disturbing are Pelinal Whitestrake and Tiber Septim's conquest of the Summerset Isles. Now I'll be brief: Pelinal is this uber badass Terminator from the future who had a bad habit of murdering elves so hard that he came home from war covered in blood. Which wouldn't be too bad if they didn't specify that he often wiped out civillian populations and even other races that aren't even involved just because they look like them. Tiber Septim was mad that the High Elves were able to fight off his Imperialist bullshit multiple times and ultimately got a superweapon to go kill them all horribly until they submitted. Both these characters are beloved and their victims get the old "They deserved it" routine. And yes, the backstory does "justify" the purges because the Elves are almost always cartoonishly evil, but still. TES tries to be morally gray but that's kind of a lie because when all we ever see is what was written by the winners, it starts to look like that's what we're supposed to takeaway.

--Nerd Speak Ends--

When you wake up in the morning and see a news program about a school or hospital being bombed, seeing someone say "They deserved it" even in regards to a fictional species hurts in a deep way. People are programmed to think this shit is a joke from a young age. And some react violently when you try and pull them out of that mentality. So yes, I don't like genocide. Even if it's happening to to a nonsense race of animal people.

I doubt the tides are turning but still, it's refreshing.

Apparently the 14th Waffen SS was unique in that it was the sole branch of the Nazis that didn't do anything Nazi like, and never attacked the other Allies. Nope, just fought the communists.

How convenient.

Like the kind that made you stop and think for a second about how stupid the person advocating it is. For me, it's the classic "The biggest mistake in recent history was the Allies not pushing into Russia after the fall of Berlin."

There's just a level of imperialist arrogance and blood thirst in there that makes my skin crawl. The worst thing in human history was that the US didn't immediately betray the Soviets and wipe them out until they were sure communism was done for.