So, this one is not for the LBGQTA+ people. Or people in ethnic minorities. You people have enough on your plate just surviving, and you have for years. Whatever choices you made to help you find strength to survive another day, I’m not in a position to judge that.

No, this message is for people like me, and I’m damn well one of the targets too here. This message is for all the cis people, all the white (and to a lesser extent, the white-passing) people, the straight (or straight-passing) people. And in particular, it’s about all of us that fucking did not give enough of a fucking goddamn shit about the real threat, that did not stand up enough to the real threat, that only wanted it to be “our way or the highway”; all because we could afford to play political games. All because no matter what, we would pretty much be safe.

Yeah, let me first get the following out of the way: I despise everything about Mark Zuckerberg. Everything. He’s a slimy little weasel who fell into a lot of power and money, neither of which he earned, and neither of which he learned how to use appropriately. Because of him and the equally slimy FB shareholders, there has been a lot of bad things happening, to say the very least. There are tons and tons of valid criticism about Facebook; most of which are currently being spread unironically by people on Twitter, despite Twitter being a place that suffers from practically all of the same problems.

Consider smells, and trees. Trees have smells, but generally we don’t notice it too much, not unless we cut them down and release all that smell inside. Generally trees smell pleasant enough, but we do not consider the effect to be major.

But we are not attuned to trees.

So, we’re finally getting over the worst of the nightmare that’s been USA ever since [censored] was elected president. Now, usually after such a dark period, it is customary to talk about a period of healing and reconciliation. So, it is in this spirit that I will reach out to various people here:

First of all, to LBGQAT+ people, to native Americans, to black women, and young black voters (all groups of which had a bigger percentage voting for Biden than anyone else):

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You absolutely rock and we’d be even more fucked right now if it wasn’t for you. Also, fucking sorry that the burden is still on you

To people of a certain amount of privilege (white, male, cis, hetero; or enough money/fame to make up for not belonging in these groups) that voted for Hillary last time and Biden this time:

Good. Thank you. But as a white cis-het male, I can tell you it’s not enough. We need to to better. In fact, inspired by the “it gets better” campaign, I have a slogan for you/us that you should keep in mind at all times: Let’s Do Better.

To people that voted for a more left-leaning third party last time, but Biden this time:

Glad to see that this time, you realised that yes, there is in fact a gargantuan difference between the two main candidates, despite your claims back in 2016. But remember, that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Trust me, before we can start leaning more left —and believe me, as an immigrant from Norway, I want USA to have universal healthcare, free education, et. al as much as you do, if not more— it’s important to fight to destroy the right-wingers. I know, I know, it fucking sucks. But consider how the GOP fought so hard to destroy ACA. You don’t think they’ll fight ten times as viciously to destroy UHC if given half a chance? You don’t think the enormously wealthy conglomerate of the private health industry won’t wield its massive power to resist? Don’t give them that chance. Work hard and work together to get more and more power, because without power, our precious ideals means nothing.

And another pro-tip for you: The heart of the Democratic voter base are the minorities. They didn’t just help Biden win the election, they also were the ones who helped Biden win the primaries. -And- they also voted for Hilary in the 2016 Democratic primaries.

If you ignore them —and Bernie most certainly did so in both 2016 and 2020— you will never win the primaries of a presidential election. They didn’t trust Bernie because Bernie never reached out to them. His campaigns fully focused on it being a class war, completely ignoring the immense racism fueling this class war.

To the people who voted Trump last time but Biden this time:

Not gonna lie, I thought there would be more of you than that. But as I said, this is a post about healing, and I’ve seen people of far less privilege than I accept your votes and your apologies; and far be it from me to override their decision.

However, there’s also plenty of people that haven’t accepted you just yet, and I’m not gonna override those people’s judgements either. You still have more work to do, more sins to atone from. And you are gonna have to accept that no matter what you do, the wounds will be too deep for some people to forgive your past deeds.

But for now, I’ll just say this one more time: Listen to minorities. Listen to what they have to say. “Let’s Do Better” goes double for you.

And finally, in this process of healing and reconciliation, we get to the people that voted Trump this time as well:

Go to hell, you racist, misogynistic, bigoted against everything not hetero-normative, selfish, greedy assholes.

What’s that, you say? You’re none of those things? Pssht, give me a fucking break. You’re not defined by what you say you are, but by your actions and deeds, and your act of voting for Trump a second time round defines you to be all those things!

Wait, you claim to have legitimate excuses? Pffft, as if. I mean, let’s go through all the things you said made you vote for Trump in 2016:

“I voted for the economy”

Yeah no, this wasn’t working out well. In terms of a healthy economy for ordinary people, Trump’s been a bust. Just like the GOP in charge has been a complete bust for ordinary people for the last 40 years; when they’ve been licking the boots of the extremely rich, and done everything in their power to make them richer while the rest of the country goes poor.

I mean, remember the history books telling you about 1929 and the big crack in Wall Street? Well, this wasn’t the first such bubble bursting; it was only the largest, after which laws were put into place to stop it from happening again.

Then the Reagan administration undid those laws, and now these things pop back up on a regular basis. But the rich people find a way to keep their money, so it’s always everyone else that suffers.

On top of that, it’s been known for many years that Trump is not a good businessman, he’s just been good at pretending he is. Which you would know had you ever watched anything but his auto-sycophant “I’m the greatest” show and right-wing “news” shows.

Law and Order/Drain the Swamp.

Hahahahahahaha! Good joke.

Wait, you were serious? OK, let me adjust my response: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Like, this argument was stupid and ridiculous back in 2016, and it’s even more ridiculous now. Again, it’s been known for years that Trump’s a fucking shady and corrupt businessman. And nobody, I mean NOBODY has put as many outright crooks in his government as he did. The list of people that’s committed felonies while under his employ is just staggering.

Of course, the rest of us all know what this really meant. “He’s gonna let the cops loose on black people.” Don’t fucking even try to deny it. Accept our judgement of you: That you are a fucking racist bastard.

“Trump is a proper Christian/the second coming of Jesus“

Honestly, I should just laugh even harder at this. Anyone who’s ever actually read the new testament knows for a fact that Jesus was pretty much the exact opposite of what Trump is. And thinking that someone who only ever goes to church if he thinks it’ll help his ratings is more Christian than someone who’s actually been an avid church-goer their entire life… No. Just no.

And if you even attempt to claim he’s a great donator or whatever, you’d better make damn sure it was a real donation, not something that basically went back into his coffers because he’s in control of the foundation these “donations” go into and skims off the top, sides, and bottom of it.

Show me some real fucking evidence from a trustworthy source. No, Breitbart is not a trustworthy source. They would gladly support a claim that the Earth was flat if Trump claimed it, especially if they could spin it into a conspiracy from “the Jews” that the Earth is round.

Let’s also not forget he’s an adulterer, he’s a self-admitted sexual assaulter and most likely also a pure rapist. He steals (even now, after the election is over, he keeps stealing from people by auto-deducting money for his campaign,), he covets, he lies, and his actions kill people while he couldn’t give a fuck. He doesn’t worship any deity but the Golden Calf/Toilet. The only commandment he follows is the one about not working on a Sunday (And yes, I know that technically/pedantically speaking, it’s the Sabbath that should be the day of rest), but that’s just because he doesn’t work any day at all if he can help it.

He is not a politician

Well, this one is actually true. He isn’t. And that is precisely why he’s been such a complete disaster. He had no skills to speak of, just a tremendous ego born from being born into wealth and never having to do a single day’s work in his entire life.

Next time, vote for someone who actually knows what the hell they’re doing. These last four years has been like watching a car mechanic trying to perform heart surgery. It’s been hideous and bloody and everyone’s just about ready to vomit looking at the end result.

He isn’t elite

Gods, this one too is just too goddamn fucking rich. I could just keep laughing and laughing and laughing until my sides ache, except I’m just too depressed just knowing that people genuinely bought this “argument”.

Trump is -exactly- the Elite. He embodies it. This is what the real elite is really about, folks. It’s about being born into money and having other people do your work for you while you just sit on your gold-plated toilet or go play golf.

He has nothing but utter scorn for the working class people. Nothing. He despises each and every one that isn’t also rich and famous; and again, this has been evident for many years. He despises them and he avoids being in contact with them whenever possible. He prefers dealing with small companies because they are easier to stiff on the bill, as they usually don’t have the money to hire lawyers good enough to make him actually pay them.

Hillary was a public defense lawyer. That’s a job where you get in touch with the common people. That’s where you truly learn their problems, their issues. You get to see those that can’t afford their own lawyer and relies on being extremely lucky with who they assign to you; because the US system has been rigged to work against them

And she was good at it. She cared. She dealt with people without the resources to fight, and she fought their battles for them.

Abortion/pro-life

I am not going to spend this point talking about the merits of thinking that a small clump of cells without cognitive thoughts and ability to feel pain should count as a person. Instead I will tell you this:

The Republican party’s leaders couldn’t give less of a fuck about abortions in itself.

If they did, if they really did, they would’ve voted for things that actually -reduce- the number of abortions. Proper sex education in school. Easy access to birth control. Better healthcare for pregnancies and birth. Better healthcare and school for all children, not just those with rich parents.

The Republicans would also be disgusted with how USA’s infant mortality rate is staggeringly high compared to the rest of the Western world.

Spoiler alert: They’re not.

Instead, these are the same people that will turn around and “urge” (read: force) their mistresses (of course they have mistresses) to get abortions.
Though it’s not exactly just plain hypocrisy either. In fact, if they thought they could get away with it, this is exactly what they really want: That the -men- should be allowed to make the decision of having abortions, not the women.

That is their real goal.

They just know that this won’t pass and they will lose pretty much all their white women voting for them with such a policy, so they’ll settle for second prize of just making abortions illegal in general, to make sure that women don’t have control over themselves. Because they should belong to men.

“But I am in this [minority group] how can I be racists/sexist/transphobic?”

Most of the people in this group is severely rich/famous, and as I alluded to earlier, money is an excellent (but not perfect) insulator from a lot of the oppression the rest of the people in their group follows.

But for those of you who don’t even have money: You’re just their tool. You are their alibi, the person they prop up to show “we have this minority, how can we be racist?”

Malcolm X made an immensely good speech about people like you, referring to you as “the house negro”. You hope that serving them, you’re invited to eat at their table, instead of the pig slop that the people in the plantations eat.

Trust me when I say that if they ever get what they want, and they no longer need you as an alibi, they will throw you away with the same disgust they’ll throw away a used handkerchief full of snot. You will immediately become a field negro.

Oh, and there is a particular subset of this group I’d like to address:

“We are Jewish, and GOP is Pro-Israel”

Again, not going to go into the debate of what needs to be done with Israel. But again, know that any non-Jew Republican talking about being pro-Israel mainly falls into one of these two groups:

The first group is the smallest, but the most visible one: They are the severely religious fanatics that believes that somehow, it’s important to make Israel start Armageddon; and somehow, it’s important that as many jews as possible is in Israel before this can happen. They literally want you in Israel so that the world can end. I can only assume you’re aligning with these because you know they are complete nutjobs… But these same people will gladly also spouse all sorts of anti-Jewish conspiracies that hurts people living in the USA.

Even if you support not only Israel’s right to exist, but Israel’s right to exist as an apartheid regime; you’re throwing your fellow Jewish man under the bus by aligning with that group. And if they ever smell a chance to turn on you, do not doubt for a second they’ll go in for the kill. Literally, if they think they can get away with it.

The second group is the one you never hear about (because they don’t mention this openly), but they’re actually the more dangerous ones because they wield more power: They are the ones that just want all the Jews in USA to move to Israel, already. The very second that the very last Jew is finally put in Israel, they won’t hesitate to completely withdraw all their support and close the borders, hoping that Israel then gets into a nuclear war with its neighbours, thus exterminating both jews and Arabs in one fell swoop. All without having to do anything themselves, leaving their hands “clean”. A localized armageddon, so to speak.

Did I mention how you’ll be thrown away like a snot-filled handkerchief?

“I voted party, not Trump”

Oh, just fuck off already.

——————————————–

So, in the end, every single reason to vote for Trump in 2016 has been shown to be at best misleading, and at worst just completely, laughably wrong in every way possible. The only thing that Trump promised you was that he would make racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. acceptable again.

That’s the only thing he’s succeeded at. That’s the only reason you voted for him again.

Rot in hell, you piece of shit.

So yeah, Kingdom Hearts 3… Well, it is good, but it seemed to have quite a few issues, big and small. And perhaps what annoyed me so much is that so many of these issues reeked of sloppiness. A game that’s been a decade in the making, and they seemed to avoid dotting the Ts and crossing the Is. A lot. Or possibly the other way around, even. And this from a company that prides itself on spending time on their major projects because they want to get it -right-.

Over the last couple of years, some game companies has tried to cash in on the magical feeling that certain classical SNES JRPG games created for millions of gamers around the world. Which I would call almost a fool’s errand, because of the many, many pitfalls one can fall into. But someone finally managed to get it mostly right, and as such, I would like to talk about “The Octopath Traveler“, and about the lessons we can learn from this game, as well as from the two failures before it.

OK, so first of all, I’ll use David Sirlin’s definition of video game secrets: A video game secret is a secret that is carefully and intelligently placed, and that is meant to be found. I’m -not- talking about easter eggs, by the way; those are a sub-category that this blog will not touch upon.

However, there is another aspect that he does not go into, and that is this: That a secret can be hidden in two ways: It can either be hard to find, or it can be hard to get, or both (though in my experience, it’s mostly one or the other).

So yeah, there is a new DuckTales. I was not planning to see it, because I never got into the old one, for reasons of personally and -very subjectively- finding it to be one of the weakest Duckburg universes. Keep in mind that as a Norwegian, I had regular access to not only Barks/Rosa, but also a lot of different European Donald comic artists with their own takes, so I was fairly “spoiled” on this account.

But this new DuckTales, is pretty much exactly what I wanted. Instead of just simply copying Barks’ plots like the old show often did, they now show how the Barks/Rosa universe is clearly a big inspiration, but still only that: An inspiration. And there are so many things to love about it. The spoilers are about to start (though they will be different types of spoilers than usual), so please, please, PLEASE check the two pilot episodes out on Youtube (Disney put them there themselves, so they should stay there forever) before coming back to my analysis.

You finished? OK, here we go:

Oh yeah, I forgot to put up a link to our 4th episode, didn’t I? Well, here it is!

Today’s episode is having a very special guest star: Cerberus’ kitty!

Also, we learn that Jason is just about the shittiest teacher aide ever in so many ways. Have a listen! https://soundcloud.com/user-956738444/episode-5-jason-needs-to-leave-those-kids-alone

As always, lots of easy links to all the comics referenced.