welcome to the fest

He's losing it. He's in a fallen state. He's gone full-on blood-libel anti-vax. I do not expect him to return to reality. I do expect him to shed another layer of fandom, like a dying star entering red supergiant phase for the second time.

Yeah I would not read this as too serious a narrative. It's ridiculous enough to take as a case study of sorts. I'm not sure "losing it" would be quite accurate from my standpoint, I can extrapolate on something I touch on from time to time here. I am not anti vax. However, "Ice Man" Wim Hof did take an infectious E Coli variant shot to the arm (not a vaccine-- the disease) to prove how it wouldn't affect his body more than a mild fever thanks to his cold therapy. I myself practice this some, and took the vaccine on the principle that it is bad for me and I will still barely be affected anyway. Seems to have worked, also the part where I didn't get corona and did get the flu at my high school reunion after only getting vaccinatted for corona.... Guess it's been too long since my last flu shot. What I do with flu shots is get them only every few years since my body is still in the cold temperature adjustment.

Far more sinister global warming around the corner and at all turns though. Hof does runs out in the Acrtic in shorts yet the Arctic itself now sometimes sees eighty degree days. In my personal life I will fend off damn near everybody to live out in nature. Who the fuck thinks that it is dangerous to live out in those tempatures in the twenty first century when we do have the technology that makes doing so easy? I'll tell you what we don't have though: the time or money.

-Russly

And hoaxer. Don't forget hoaxer. That's really what bothers me the most. That there is no disease in his story. That no one died. That suddenly one day there was a fake, and for no reason people are told to wear masks, and suddenly there's a vaccine that's not a vaccine.

I'll accept that this is how it is in his story, but Fallen State 32,it's just too hard to know if this is commentary on real life. That is not how real life is, as far as I know.

Tanagra wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:27 am

Fallen State 32,it's just too hard to know if this is commentary on real life. That is not how real life is, as far as I know.

You should come study the Pacific Northwest (Portland and Seattle areas) where the rights of certain groups are a driving force. The homeless, you see, are disadvantaged and must be helped. Low-income people of color have a higher rate of interactions with the police and must be helped. Gun violence is increasing, and that must be helped.

So, we have regions where there are camps where women and children are trafficked but the police will not do anything because these camps are homeless camps and they have been ordered not to sweep or harass them. We have efforts to exclude Asians from being labelled minorities.
We have politicians whose notion of helping groups who have higher rates of infractions and arrest is to decriminalize the substances or activities (including drive-by shootings) that lead to arrest. Historically 60% of gun deaths in the US are from suicide but do we try to improve mental health access or do we focus our efforts on gun magazines that don't even factor in to suicide?

So, we quite literally have government agencies that would look at a woman and say "we know you were assaulted by this man, but he is homeless and we are trying to get him help and until we can do that we're going to release him until his next court date, which due to the pandemic has been pushed back by a couple of years." It is like a perverse version of Animal farm, where some groups are more equal than others, just in another way of harming society.

This isn't everywhere, of course, but there is definite basis in fact behind that strip.

Questions wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 28, 2022 11:12 pm

This isn't everywhere, of course, but there is definite basis in fact behind that strip.

Thank you for that explanation.
I weep.

Not for nothing, there is the arc where they have the black guy help them through that one escape I believe. That was pretty recent too, which suggests the comic's arrival at a point where it can now just be open to interpretation. Possibly his greatest challenge to the audience of whether they can see the comic as having an open ended nature. I sure did find today's to be a clear explanation kind of strip.

-Russly

He is on Facebook. I wonder if this might be more about trying to increase his fanbase. He moved the strip completely out of the misogyny, moved to include same-sex couples, but maybe there are just not enough people coming. He certainly does have a ready-made audience in the people who hate transgenders.

https://www.facebook.com/tatsuya.ishida.37266

Maybe he really pulled a full South Park and learned to remove any buffer?

-Russly

I just found the reddit.

I don't think he is losing it. I think he is starting to see it for what it is.

It's artistic in his telling.

JustaComment - strong agreement.

Tat is telling it like it is, and doing it in fine style.

It must be annoying to be a satirist. But it comes with the turf.

One way or another, satire is meant to bite someone or other (even if done poorly, that's kind of the point). So someone is, of course, going to get bit. We like it when it bites people we want bit. We hate it when it bites people we don't like to see bit.

As a friend who does (questionable quality) satire once said, it's a perpetual game of, "I liked it when you disagreed with those people I also disagreed with! Keep doing that." To, "You are disagreeing with something I agree with. Don't do that!" And back again.

Dilemmist wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 8:05 am

He's losing it. He's in a fallen state. He's gone full-on blood-libel anti-vax. I do not expect him to return to reality. I do expect him to shed another layer of fandom, like a dying star entering red supergiant phase for the second time.

Sadly I must agree. The more lost he is, the more radical (and vocal) those that remain become.

From someone that owns early books, wore the t-shirts, & loved the various incantations of Sinfest; at some point one has to let go. I was a member of the hardcore layer of fandom. :/

The attitude of pushing through and deciding to try and try again runs contrary to the idea that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing and expecting different results. An old dog can't do new tricks yet at the same time it's never too late to learn. In Steven Universe, Pearl explains that (and I'm assuming this references One Piece and a few other titles) that it's a cartoon, and therefore doesn't have to make sense. We are beyond retcons, I am just enjoying the ride. The Simpsons only make maybe one good episode per season now, but that's a season's worth of good episodes every say ten seasons.

-Russly