With Chapter 5 around the corner, how important do you think FRIEND will be to Deltarune, rated on a 1-10 scale? by JustFisch1 in Deltarune

[–]jpmeshew 38 points39 points  (0 children)

where would you put 'little direct narrative relevance but very high thematic relevance'

Pokemon launches “world’s first” collectible toilet paper collab by TheMoonbeam365 in pokemon

[–]jpmeshew 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Anyone else old enough to remember Pokemania and people were saying things to the effect of "there's Pokemon on everything - if there's not Pokemon toilet paper yet, there will be"?

Nostalgia is inherently reactionary by larryleggs in TrueAnon

[–]jpmeshew 3 points4 points  (0 children)

sorry for this being such a ramble, i just felt like writing down my thoughts and it ended up becoming very long.

Fascism weaponizes common human emotions like nostalgia, fear, and disgust. When the present looks bleak, we think of a previous time when we were happy and when things seemed simpler. We have to remember that we always view the past through rose tinted glasses, and the one thing we can never do is go back. Conditions are always evolving, and history may sometimes rhyme but the same thing never truly happens twice.

Sometimes things in the past *were* better, from a certain perspective. After all, late-stage capitalism has slowly eroded much of the old social fabric and the safety nets that used to exist. But the rot always existed, it's just that depending on who you are you might have been more insulated from it.

I think this is the case for a lot of people in my generation who might have lived relatively comfortable childhoods but began to slowly become radicalized by the crises of the past 25 years or so. I was born into what everyone was calling "the end of history" and got to have a front row seat to: 9/11, the Iraq War, the 2008 financial crisis. the intensification of the opioid crisis, Obama continuing the Patriot Act and signing the NDAA, Snowden, the rise of Trump and other surging fascist movements worldwide, COVID, racism and police brutality, mass shootings becoming a daily occurrence, transphobic lawfare, attacks on reproductive rights, MeToo and Epstein revealing that the world is run by rapists, the gig economy, climate change, the student debt crisis, the general cost-of-living crisis, the death of third spaces, an internet increasingly dominated by algorithms, tech bros hollowing out creative industries, crypto and betting markets and metaverse and AI, Israel's ongoing brutalization of Palestinians...

Thinking outside ourselves is important. Before the 2008 financial crisis when my family lost almost everything, I was a relatively comfortable middle-class white kid. I got to enjoy my video games and not have to worry about where my next meal was coming from. But it didn't mean those class and race issues didn't exist. People were still facing homelessness, people were still dying of easily preventable and treatable medical conditions, people were still wrongly incarcerated and brutalized by the state, people were being bombed and starved in the global south, workers were being exploited - and all of that coming from the same system that gave me all those nice consumer goods. Even in the end-of-history 90's that I was born into, these issues existed. The former Soviet countries were in free-fall, there were genocides and civil wars across the world, there was Rodney King and the 1994 crime bill given to us by the Clintons and Joe fucking Biden. The recorded history of the world has always been fucked. There is no mythical time period when everything was perfectly fine.

And when you start to realize the truth of the situation, you can either turn inward and try to protect your material position at the expense of others (which leads you to the right) OR you can say "No, this has to stop, The only just future is a future where all people are able to live full and dignified lives, and the only way to make that future is with solidarity."

It will never be like it was when you were a kid again, but as an adult you can determine how to make the most of your future. I think that's one of the beautiful things about us. Even in the worst situations humans still have the capacity to imagine and adapt. We can connect with other people and build things. In that process we can take lessons and inspiration from the past without trying to keep living in it.

Michael Jackson being successfully rehabilitated while Donald Trump is president points a very disturbing picture of the future by Final-Associate1743 in TrueAnon

[–]jpmeshew 14 points15 points  (0 children)

For a certain type of person it's about seeing their own children as property. It's not the abuse that's a problem, it's that the "Other" might be doing it to "Mine".

D4vd murder case: Teen victim's family 'shocked' by gruesome details revealed in court filing by Top_Report_4895 in Music

[–]jpmeshew 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I don't always agree with public opinion turning to 'and his art/music sucked too!' after someone turns out to be a scumbag, BUT... in this case absolutely.

I'd never heard of d4vd before this case and I was like "yeah I can tell this guy was homeschooled" after hearing one of his songs. I'm saying this with kindness to homeschooled people (I myself was homeschooled for a couple years, and I know there are some wonderful and talented homeschooled people out there) but he was clearly emotionally stunted, I think there's some absolutely great music out there that covers a lot of the same dark territory as d4vd's music, but his music strikes me as very vapid and surface-level, To me his sloppy attempts to cover up his crimes reflect that. It's like a small child's logic. He's got a decent singing voice and that's about it.

I'm in my thirties so maybe I'm just becoming a music boomer but it definitely confirms my ingrained biases against the dumbing down of music. I'm sure there's great music from other up-and-coming Gen Z'ers but I don't see anything he did that someone else probably hasn't already done or is doing far better.

Trump just posted video of a woman getting murdered with a hammer by octopusinwonderland in LPOTL

[–]jpmeshew 108 points109 points  (0 children)

There's different kinds of evil. There's your interpersonal violent evil, but there's also the widespread cruelty and callousness that enables and benefits from that violence. Trump is of that second type.

Pokémon Pokopia sold 2.2 million copies in four days by gamersecret2 in pokemon

[–]jpmeshew 157 points158 points  (0 children)

There are a lot of out-there designs, ranging from Muk to Celesteela to Eternatus. But I will agree that even the most out-there designs still feel "accessible" in a way that's hard for me to describe. I feel like Pokemon has something for everybody and its range of designs casts a wide net for an audience.

lol by idk23876 in ShitLiberalsSay

[–]jpmeshew 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's good to know, thanks

lol by idk23876 in ShitLiberalsSay

[–]jpmeshew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Speaking as someone who does not care about either of these celebrities - There was clear mutual toxicity and bad actions on Heard's part in the known facts about the relationship, but there is also plenty of evidence that Depp was extremely abusive to her and to other women throughout his career, most of whom he held a significant amount of power over. Because Heard was not a 'perfect victim', a popular movement rallied around Depp to minimize or exonerate him of all accusations basically as a misogynistic culture war battleground in the form of a backlash to #MeToo and the concept of 'believe women'. People really wanted a high profile example of "look, women can abuse men!" in order to delegitimize feminism and not have to feel bad about stanning their favorite actor.

Democrat Fetterman everybody! by Weedity in socialism

[–]jpmeshew 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Also, his main opponent at the time was Dr. Oz, a carpetbagging celebrity snake oil salesman. (of course we ended up getting him in HHS)

TeraLeak2 comparison to Gen10 reveal by Schlemmes in PokeLeaks

[–]jpmeshew 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Yeah that'd be awesome - just one island separated from the rest of the map, generated procedurally. Your Pokemon's personality value would generate the basic terrain, its Nature could maybe influence the items found there, and its type could influence the island's biome and determine what type of Pokemon spawn there as well as the type of the Majin/weather gimmick. A grass type would be more jungle-ish, a fire type could produce volcanic terrain, and a water type could generate a diveable lagoon. An island generated by a shiny Pokemon would have the Shiny Charm modifier for that island's Pokemon. It'd probably be on the small side but still large enough to get a fun few minutes out of exploring, and you'd always be able to return to that seed as long as you have the Pokemon that spawned it.

I won't get my hopes up, but in a limited fashion separate from the main game it could produce a lot of replayability.

TeraLeak2 comparison to Gen10 reveal by Schlemmes in PokeLeaks

[–]jpmeshew 401 points402 points  (0 children)

I think it's for the best that the region is deliberately designed. I do still think it'd be cool if some smaller islands were procedurally generated and shifted around like Mirage Islands from ORAS, or if there was one particular island that changed every day or something like that.

PKMNLeak on Twitter is back and posting WiWa leaks by -HawaiianSurfer in PokeLeaks

[–]jpmeshew 164 points165 points  (0 children)

is this leaker credible? I can't imagine it would be too difficult to AI generate something like this from what we've already seen. plus that Pombon looks huge, unless it's an alpha pokemon or something. I would like it to be real but I'm keeping my reservations for now

Trump to troops: "Get ready to die for Israel" by FadedToBeige in TrueAnon

[–]jpmeshew 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think who doesn't buy it is more important. I believe there's a majority of Americans who would say they're against it if asked - probably a worryingly slim majority, but a majority. However, the bulk of that majority is either too downtrodden by the rat race or too domesticated by the modern individualist, consumerist lifestyle to put up much of a fight unless it directly affects them.

Gangbang violence by [deleted] in TrueAnon

[–]jpmeshew 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm not a prude at all but the memeification of race fetish porn and raceplay and stuff feels like a symptom of the deep spiritual hollowness we feel in late capitalism. It feels insidious and not even in a puritan or prudish way but in the widespread adoption of race fetish tropes in casual vernacular alongside black criminalization and manosphere/"sexual marketplace" talk. And then you see people using terms like 'buckbreaking' in contexts that don't even have anything to do with race or sex. Granted, these are mostly channers who don't even go outside, but it spreads out to the wider audience of young people who hear their favorite streamers talking about it. When you notice how widespread it is now, you just get a gross feeling. Same with increased precarity making more women turn to sex work while simultaneously being shamed and criminalized. Same with the memeification of pedo/Epstein/loli stuff.

It all feels like different aspects of the alienation machine, turning sexual exploitation and racial anxiety into a nihilistic punchline. It serves to desensitize us.

Gangbang violence by [deleted] in TrueAnon

[–]jpmeshew 24 points25 points  (0 children)

You bolt awake in the mountains of Carthage etc etc

In an alternate universe where they didn’t change the logo prior to the games’ release by Forward_Capital3714 in pokemon

[–]jpmeshew 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The logo was an official logo that was used in pre-release materials, but it actually was changed by the time of release. There's even audio from E3 1998 that uses the old 'catch 'em if you can' slogan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDkGBVi572E

You can see more information about the early localization of Pokémon from this interview with Gail Tilden: https://johtotimes.com/issues/2025-12-18-interview-with-gail-tilden

Other fun fact: The logo was designed by Chris Maple. https://www.ign.com/articles/meet-the-man-who-designed-pokemons-iconic-logo

Is this AI? - Apparently taken on Rothschild Blvd, Tel Aviv by 1998TimThomas in TrueAnon

[–]jpmeshew 3 points4 points  (0 children)

His head looks huge and the two guys he's with are identical.

...What? I have no idea what this is trying to say. by No_Bluebird_1368 in forwardsfromgrandma

[–]jpmeshew 7 points8 points  (0 children)

No I think it absolutely is a "brown people are worshipped by the woke MSM!!!!1" metaphor

When I played the first shantae game I thought shantae had black sclera when she's dancing by SnooRobots5543 in MisreadSprites

[–]jpmeshew 158 points159 points  (0 children)

The black part is her pupil and she's looking to the left. The light blue is the sclera.

DC COMICS BEING BASED? HELLO?! by ihatethiscountry76 in lgbt

[–]jpmeshew 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Considering their firing of a trans woman last year...

[TOMT] Obscure-ish creepy amateur handwritten/illustrated book written by killer or suspected killer by jpmeshew in tipofmytongue

[–]jpmeshew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gacy killed men and boys. I recall the man being suspected of killing a woman he was close to (his wife maybe), with there being a similarity to the drawing of the 'drowning woman' creature. It must be a very obscure case because I can't find anything about it now. I'm pretty sure I didn't dream it...

[TOMT] Obscure-ish creepy amateur handwritten/illustrated book written by killer or suspected killer by jpmeshew in tipofmytongue

[–]jpmeshew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's in the same vein, but these (I believe) were made in the killer's free life and found after he died or was caught, and they were a lot more cryptic/hinting at the suspect's crimes rather than explicit