A Jeb With No Name

@namelessWrench

The Only Rotten Dollhart Webring

They/Them
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A hideous fruit, disgracing itself.

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A Jeb With No Name @namelessWrench7/7/2023, 2:45 PM

Cliff 🦖 Pervocracy @pervocracy

Cliff 🦖 Pervocracy @pervocracy7/7/2023, 2:10 PM

As an example of what I mean by VSRD, here's some selections from The Nib's Headlines. I don't mean to pick on this one comic; the artists are expressing a mood you can see all over Left Internet. But what is the unifying message here? Is it really "we must save the planet" or "we must ensure workers' safety"? Or is it just "the end is nigh"?

not sure it counts as, i.e., calling out anti-immigrant bias if all you're actually saying about it is "see, yet another way everyone is stupid besides me"

#VSRD #politics

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in reply to @pervocracy's post:

Vincent Kinian @Video-Game-King7/7/2023, 4:06 PM

This hits on a problem I've always had with The Nib, or at the very least, with Matt Bors' and Mattie Lubchansky's comics for The Nib, which tend to be what people associate with The Nib. I'm the kind of person who bristles at the easy satisfaction of being told I'm a member of the obviously correct in-group, and that's the primary function of these comics. They* don't shed light on any of the greater issues of the day, or encourage reflection on our relationship with those problems, or direct any action we could take to address them. All they do is preach to the choir.

If I wanted to take this in a more cynical direction, I'd say you could read these comics as offering a substitute for performing said action. "Why bother doing anything about Issue X? Surely, the opposition's obviously wrong beliefs will lead to their eventual downfall."

*Again, I want to emphasize I'm talking about Bors'/Lubchansky's comics specifically. There are other comics on The Nib that actually do the things I'm asking them to do.

Cliff 🦖 Pervocracy @pervocracy7/7/2023, 4:54 PM

Yeah. And sure there's a role for vent comics, and sometimes venting is the first step towards action... but if all you do is vent then your work is psychology, not politics

Pastacat @MinimallyCrazy7/7/2023, 4:36 PM

In another... oh, the cycle usually takes about a decade, so I'd say we're halfway there... we'll see who was more wedded to the 'vaguely socialist' and who was really there for the 'resentful doomerism'.

(Sadly, it's usually about 5%/95% or thereabouts; the Dos Passos trajectory is depressingly common.)

Emily @fauxtrot7/7/2023, 7:22 PM

A video released yesterday also talking about apocalyptic thinking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGVe4Fju0P0

Rocket @Rocketknight7/7/2023, 7:47 PM

I think part of it is that the feelings of Fascists Are Amongst Us from the early Trump years created a sort of inverse McCarthyism, where a lot of liberal and left-wing spaces are constantly alert and ready to pounce at any sign that you might be one of them.

In that kind of atmosphere, everyone has to be extra careful that -they're- not mistaken for a ~~witch~~ fascist, so they make sure to avoid sentiments that are ideologically ambiguous. And since saying something is getting better is kind of like minimizing the problem, which is what a fascist would do, the only guaranteed-pure stance you can take is that everything is a gigantic, all-consuming horror and that any sign of progress is illusory and disappointment is inevitable.

You must loudly bear witness to suffering, but you are denied action or hope.