Adults are just as stupid if not stupider than kids. Basic every political decision I’ve recently become aware of is equivelant to how an 8 year old would solve a problem. (Or a problem they would start).
But adults can learn from their own and other people’s mistakes and not make them again. Note that I said can learn. Some people just keep doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation that the outcome will differ from the last time they did the same stupid thing.
Absolutely. When I was a kid, I had this theory I still really agree with. It stated that, while everyone had to physically grow older, the difference in how you turned out lay in whether you would convince yourself that you were an Adult and therefore any mistake you made was somehow made more noble just by virtue of age, or realising that you are simply a version of yourself that that grown up a bit, and using that knowledge to continue to evolve.
Do you have any idea how aggravating some adults are, basically stirring shit for no reason whatsoever?
I’m like… Think. Does this get you what you want? Does it affect you in any way? No? Then cut it out.
(My patience with people dictating how other people should or shouldn’t act wears thin sometimes. Yes, I am aware of this subverting what I said before. Luckily, non-robots can accept that two opposing messages need not cancel each other out.)
Quoting Andy Zaltzman from John Oliver’s Terrifying Times:
“(…)And not only have they officially confirmed for the world that
two wrongs don’t make a right, but they also now discovered that
three wrongs don’t make a right, nor do four wrongs, nor five, nor six,
nor seven, nor eight, but they do reckon that statistically there simply
must be a number of wrongs that makes does make a right and they
will carry on piling on those wrongs until they reach that magic number and the world can live in peace and harmony for evermore.”
Adults have the benefit of learning from decades of mistakes and usually are in a position where they’ve had to take responsibility for others.
Younger people can be more daring in solutions and try to solve stuff that older people didn’t even see as a problem because Adults are too careful due to responsibilities or just overlook certain anwsers out of habit, but odds are if they survived into adulthood; they’re doing something right and learning [at least a little] from a few decades of wrong.
Weeeell… Physiologically speaking, that’s incorrect. The logical part of your brain doesn’t fully develop until adulthood; even into your 20’s, you’re still functioning more on feeling and emotion than on reason. This isn’t to say that children and adolescents are unintelligent; rather, they have the same intellect, but they’re less likely to use it in concert with their ability to reason than an adult is.
Adults are worse than kids.
Kids listen; adults are sure they already know.
(And if you have to instruct a mixed group where the adults are certain the directions are for the kids…)
But we’re not dealing with KIDS, here. We’re dealing with TEENAGERS. Whole different ballgame. Teens have that heady mix of all the flaws of children AND all the flaws of adults
A friend of mine was a high-powered computer consultant – started his own business, became a multimillionaire. He highly recommended the book “Raising a Thinking Child” which teaches parents how to teach their six-year-olds distinctions like “a good time / not a good time.” My friend said that the book was amazingly useful when dealing with business people.
I’m going to admit right now I’m stupider as an adult and make worse decisions now than I did when I was ten…. a decade ago, as of two months from now precisely. But regardless, at least as an adult they call us an ass instead of stupid… or they call us an idiot.
Twenty isn’t really adulthood; hell the original poster is refering to Ethan as a kid here when he’s 18. It’s like late-teenager or maybe “young-adult”. Most people I know either did some crazy stuff when they were in highschool or university [sometimes both, but usually people who tried to keep it up 8 years straight weren’t learning from their mistakes and dropped out]. Usually when they first realize that they aren’t accountable to anyone but themselves and haven’t tested their own limits [myself included in this].
Give it a bit of time and soon all the crazy stuff will seem like too much of a hassle and you’ll likely have learn from your mistakes; it’ll be sooner than you think.
Yeah, I know it sounds condescending but all adulthood is is being 20 + experience. Oh yeah, and your body breaks down in, um, “interesting” ways. And of course the damned kids don’t remember the A-Team.
RvB’s Church said it best: “Take your current age. Now subtract ten years from it. Were you smart back then? Of course you weren’t. You were a God damn idiot. Fact of the matter is, you’re just as big an idiot today, it’s just gonna take you ten more years to realize.”
In the original comment, when Opus says that Ethan means well but is making mistakes he wouldn’t make as an adult, could someone explain what mistake Ethan is making. It looks to me like he’s doing a pretty good job here of exploring if he and Danny have a common cause without doing anything irrevokable. Where’s the mistake?
Yeah, they’re always banging on about those stupid pills, usually without bothering to explain them. I take some actual pills that are red on one side, blue on the other, which gives me a splendid idea for some quiet trollin’.
It’s a reference to the Matrix. I forget the choice of words, but the blue pill was for Neo to just think he had a weird dream, and the red pill was for him to learn the actual nature of the world.
Hrm. Alt-text isn’t quite right. Joe and Walky have talked about McNuggets and shoes, Ethan and Danny have talked about Danny’s hair, and Mike and Ethan have discussed Chick-a-fil, just off the top of my head.
The first one was actually done on purpose just so I could do the joke later during the Bechdel Test thing about how they have talked about things other than girls. It was kind of cheating.
How come it’s cool for snakes to spit venom and unhinge their jaw to swallow people whole, but when I do it, I’m the “antichrist” and I need an “exorcism”?
How come when Kirby skins his enemy and wears them as a hat it’s fine but when I wear a Tanuki PETA gets all up on my case?
-An MRA: Mario Rights Activist.
Replace “some” with “nearly all” when referring to Men’s Rights “Activists”. About the only place where men had any problems at all was in assigning parental rights after a divorce, and even that has gone away as protection for the children.
I’d argue here somewhat; Men do have stereotypes that they have to conform to or be shunned by other guys. Most of these though are covered by LGTBQ and/or Feminist groups already, however so people interested in promoting the idea of masculinity having many forms usually affliate somewhat with those groups.
MRA tends to specifically in favour of promoting traditional rights and masculine identity though seeing them as “under threat” by these other groups. The main thing with this philosophically is that all the other groups want to see is respect and equal treatment which is threatening to the traditional model.
Socially, a lot of them are awkward young males who feel uncomfortable with sexuality and see this as a means of protecting themselves and blaming society for their issues. Justice or anything like that comes second to, in my personal experience, them getting what they believe they are entitled to. Ironically, they do so while co-opting a lot of terms and flaws of the Social Justice groups they oppose with none of the good.
Reading this, I guess it should be clarified; Males as a concept don’t need a group to stick up for them, but Guys in practice don’t always naturally live up to the ideals/norms set by society [nor feel they have to] and I can see the need for those people to try and build a support group.
On the other hand, MRAs are not this and rather are just awful.
Yes. Our society could be better for men as well as women. But the future society that is good for men is the one most modern feminists are trying to build anyway. Feminism: not meant for men, but it still helps us.
Nearly all MRA’s I’ve come across think strictly in dichotomies. If they don’t get everything they want, they’re oppressed. Man vs. woman. Alpha vs. beta. Us vs. them. That’s not going to help them, because they can’t see that they are basically spoiled children.
I don’t know, the MRM of five years ago was pretty damn traditionalist, but nowadays the movement has a lot more liberal people who’d previously call themselves feminists. I think it’s got to do with the growing trend of “with us or against us”-type hostile attitudes among online feminists.
I mean, it might be satisfying to describe the people you disagree with as neckbearded, basement-dwelling virgins, but at best you’re making people who already agree with you laugh, and at worst you look like a jerk to the people who don’t.
Yeah, I totally agree with all of this… which is why I consider myself a feminist. Virtually everything that MRAs whinge about that they have a point with is a reflection of some women’s rights issue which, when fully realized, will naturally extend to men.
Angry that women don’t serve in the front lines in the military? Well, for one thing they do in some countries (Israel springs to mind) and for another that’s a side effect of the “women are always weaker than even the weakest man” trope. How about that men rarely get custody of their kids in divorce proceedings? I’ve seen studies that indicate it’s largely because they don’t ask, but that’s only walking up the question one step. The real issue there is that women are seen as natural caregivers; eliminate that stereotype and you’ll begin to see men asking to care for their own kids. And so on.
Their other main issue is false accusations of rape and domestic violence. Since males are statistically more likely to commit those crimes its rather easy for unscrupulous people to get an innocent man arrested for them. Even when found not guilty the guy’s reputation is still dead and it can kill men who have a job like teaching.
Unfortunately most ‘MRAs’ that are talking about these things are misogynistic assholes which is kind of killing any effort to have these issues seriously looked at.
Keep in mind . . . most rape cases end without a conviction and brushed easily aside. It is hard for me to take it seriously when women can be pushed out of their jobs and have their reputations ruined by shopping their face onto a nude body.
Well, rape cases not leading to conviction might partially be the whole problem of proving rape, but I know that police can be pretty crap at securing (time-sensitive) evidence.
The whole ‘false rape accusations can ruin a man’s life’ argument has always rung a bit hollow to me. I mean, look at the Steubenville case. Those guys were guilty. There was no question.
And yet our media depicted them as wronged by the system. That these guys lives were tragically ruined by this case, where they got literally the minimum sentencing and it was originally undetermined whether they would be added to the sex offender registry.
Also, considering the fact that very few rape cases ever get to the trial stage, I feel like we need to make a distinction between “false” and “unproven.” A rape accusation isn’t false just because the courts decided not to prosecute it.
If I was in first place in Mario Kart, I’d better damned have a bunch of things ready, because shit is coming my way in the form of EVERYTHING THAT CAN KILL Me. Just saying.
Men’s Rights Activist. A bunch of basement-dwelling dudes whose lives revolve around the fear of losing male privilege (a term I hate using since SJW’s on Tumblr ruined it, but I can’t think of a better way to describe a system that is designed to benefit men more than women)
Just to be fair, ad-hominem attacks(evidence free at that) aren’t really the best way to show the problems with a movement.
If I have one problem with how people react to the MRA movement, it is that. I seldom see people handle it rationally, preferring to hurl abuse rather than to hear and debate their assertions. Seems like treating people on a person to person basis, instead of judging them by group, would be the rational, progressive choice.
That would be great yes, but it would also be nice if MRA’s treated Feminists rationally instead of some Feminazi consipracy out to emasculate them and sap their precious bodily fliuds
Is your position that it sucks that somebody in your group is a loud jerk, so then people don’t know that *you* aren’t necessarily a loud jerk, too? I mean, yes, that could be a thing that is happening, and it’d be nicer for you if it wasn’t happening, because it’s unpleasant to be associated with jerks. However, given that we only have the time and energy to fight for a few things in a day, I think it’s a lot more pressing to tackle larger problems like violence and inequity, don’t you?
Thing is, “Men’s Rights Activist” makes as much sense as “Free Air Activist”. By identifying as someone who spends time fighting for something that already exists, has existed forever, and is in no danger of ceasing to exist, they’ve already disqualified themselves from being taken seriously by me. Whatever valid points they may have are not specific to them.
The worst part is that those virtual spiders had virtual mouths to feed. Most of them were underclass enemies and couldn’t get jobs that Mini-Bosses and Special enemies got. The spiders lived in desolate areas of the map where they could barely afford food, shelter, or mana. Each of them only had 1 hit point because they were so malnourished. Some of the spiders attacked travelers just HOPING that they would retaliate and end their spiderey lives. As Potions and Rations ran low The spider family finally decided to attack Amber’s character. Not to feed themselves but to support their family. Truly was a horrible site indeed. It was definitely an intricately coded game.
No, he told Amber he wasn’t eager to find out Amazi-Girl’s secret identity. Even if he did know he was talking to Amazi-Girl at the time, “don’t tell me this one specific thing” is not equal to “don’t open up to me about anything at all ever.”
I do hope Amber can improve her relationship with both fellows here, for her sake. I also hope she will be friends with Dorothy, too, because that’s adorable.
As a geek, I’m instantly reminded of Peter Parker and Ben Urich discussing Daredevil’s secret identity in vague terms in case the other was just lying about knowing it and trying to trick them. I’m kind of surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often, it’s a good bit.
Oh man, the circumlocutions necessary to probe whether or not another person knows the secret thing you also know and desperately want-or need- to talk about.
As discussed above, it does. The dudes tend to talk about *stupid* things, but they do talk about things that in all probability either do not have a gender of if they do have a gender it’s not female. (Chicken nuggets, shoes, Chick-fil-evil, that sort of thing.)
Okay, so it’s not much, and half of it is about a woman, but the second half is about McNuggets. Are there any more rules regarding the conversation itself?
Not necessarily. Meat generally comes from breeds bred for it – ie they mature rapidly and have more robust musculature. Egg laying breeds often won’t be eaten, as by the time they’re too old to lay, they aren’t very appetizing. As such, the only reason for the meat birds’ eggs is to make more meat birds.
Not a blanket rule, but for most livestock, there’ll be breeds specifically optimized to be farmed for meat.
You are correct, apparently! I grew up with Chicken and Rooster being used as gendered terms with no one really using the neuter term, like with Cow and Bull.
Interestingly, it’s the same in German. “Henne” (hen) and “Hahn” (cock/rooster) are only ever used for the adult animals. But most often when referring to a female adult chicken, the species term “Huhn” (chicken) is used, anyway.
*is confused* But…Ethan does know that Amber’s dad showed up, and for that matter he knows that Amber didn’t want to tell him about it. I mean, yes, what Danny’s talking about happened after that, but how would Ethan know that? And even if he did, it seems weird that he’s so shocked that Blaine was here when he knows Blaine was here just a few days ago.
He was likely shocked that he was there a second time and he didn’t hear about it at all. Made the mistake of assuming he wouldn’t be back for a while.
This actually looks like a pretty big plot whole because there doesn’t seem to be anything to indicate there was a second time here; Amber’s dad could have “tricked” Danny the first time he was there [maybe just got some sensitive information to pull on Amber or something else to mess with her as opposed to luring her out of the school to see him a second time].
DAMN YOUR PLOT HOLES, WILLIS!
Perhaps Amber had an offscreen conversation where she told him that was all that happened? Perhaps Ethan knew what date Danny meant through his unbelievably accurate understanding of male body language?
Blaine was kicked off campus. It makes sense that Ethan would assume that that was the end of it. That Blaine went home with his tail between his legs.
He knew that Blaine had been here at one point, but he didn’t know that Blaine was still around causing trouble.
Note: His line is “Wait… Her dad’s STILL here?”
No, Ethan is Batman. Look at the logo on his shirt.
Danny already said that Amber never tells him anything, so it is safe to assume for Ethan that Danny doesn’t know that she plays Wiggler in Mario Kart on the DS.
Hah, look at these two rubes, completely Danning it up! What with their being concerned about the self-destructive behavior and emotional well-being of a mutual loved one, and trying to discuss it in a respectful way to her privacy and safety. Total Dannies, can they do anything right?
I… Uh…
I don’t want to know, and yet I now have a sneaking suspicion I will never be able to banish. I hope you’re happy.
…hmm. Attempts to not think about it lead to wondering what Joyce would think of the Imperium of Man’s religion.
This is actually a follow-on from the themes of the previous scene. Tomorrow’s strip:
DANNY: You mean, she masturbates?
ETHAN: [Jaw drops] She WHAT?
[Awkward silence for 3 panels]
The thing is this, they both kind of helped screw her over a bit. Not saying they are the main problems, but they helped push her a bit to the left.
Ethan was kind of an ass with the whole Joyce thing. Could have handled it a bit more delicately. Like when he told her to be open with the floor about her father, but then she reminded him about his own openness.
Danny get’s more of a pass for just being dense. His own personal problem was trying to live out some fantasy. It just so happened that this had a negative effect on Amber.
To be honest, she was already unstable. Something bad would’ve happened eventually, even without these two and the events that happened at college.
Mmm. It’s hard to balance your own feelings with caring about your loved one.
And sometimes you mistake what is best for them for what is best with you. She was already unstable and to be honest, something bad was going to happen eventually even without those two. I hope this conversation leads to those 2 and her sitting down and talking openly and acknowledge that the 3 sides have made mistakes.
Y’know, Amber clearly needs to relax a little about the whole robbery thing, but on the flip side, I think Ethan could stand to be a little less casual about it. “Some girl”? Dude, she held you hostage at knife-point.
I think it just ended being how each of them perceived it. It was way more traumatic for her than for him. Remember, she was incredibly introverted at that point, only really talking to Ethan. Sal was a threat that could’ve taken her only friend away. TBH, it’s probably the part that happened after that is really messing with her. She tries really hard not to be her dad, and this was one of the 1st cases of her giving in to anger and harming someone via the knife. Unfortunately it was a mix of her father screwing with her head and the sense of being powerless that really imprinted the scene in her mind.
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Ethan is really a good person inside, but since he’s not fully adult he makes mistakes he wouldn’t as an adult.
Being an adult isn’t a magical state that prevents bad decisions and being stupid.
Adults are just as stupid if not stupider than kids. Basic every political decision I’ve recently become aware of is equivelant to how an 8 year old would solve a problem. (Or a problem they would start).
If I could like your post and timemonkey’s, I would do so tenfold.
But adults can learn from their own and other people’s mistakes and not make them again. Note that I said can learn. Some people just keep doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation that the outcome will differ from the last time they did the same stupid thing.
Kids can do that too, tho.
Kids do stupid things for stupid reasons.
Adults do stupid things for smart reasons.
…One of these is more insidious than the other.
Grown-ups are not the same thing as adults, then.
Absolutely. When I was a kid, I had this theory I still really agree with. It stated that, while everyone had to physically grow older, the difference in how you turned out lay in whether you would convince yourself that you were an Adult and therefore any mistake you made was somehow made more noble just by virtue of age, or realising that you are simply a version of yourself that that grown up a bit, and using that knowledge to continue to evolve.
I do smart things for seemingly stupid reasons.
Usually.
Do you have any idea how aggravating some adults are, basically stirring shit for no reason whatsoever?
I’m like… Think. Does this get you what you want? Does it affect you in any way? No? Then cut it out.
(My patience with people dictating how other people should or shouldn’t act wears thin sometimes. Yes, I am aware of this subverting what I said before. Luckily, non-robots can accept that two opposing messages need not cancel each other out.)
ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR-
In fact, kids are more likely to learn from their bad decisions..
But adults have made more bad decisions that they have learned from
Because they used to be kids, and built on top of that.
There’s a saying that applies here. “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent.”
I think the beer helmet was invented by adults.
>implying beer helmet is not the greatest advancement in human history
Quoting Andy Zaltzman from John Oliver’s Terrifying Times:
“(…)And not only have they officially confirmed for the world that
two wrongs don’t make a right, but they also now discovered that
three wrongs don’t make a right, nor do four wrongs, nor five, nor six,
nor seven, nor eight, but they do reckon that statistically there simply
must be a number of wrongs that makes does make a right and they
will carry on piling on those wrongs until they reach that magic number and the world can live in peace and harmony for evermore.”
Adults have the benefit of learning from decades of mistakes and usually are in a position where they’ve had to take responsibility for others.
Younger people can be more daring in solutions and try to solve stuff that older people didn’t even see as a problem because Adults are too careful due to responsibilities or just overlook certain anwsers out of habit, but odds are if they survived into adulthood; they’re doing something right and learning [at least a little] from a few decades of wrong.
Good at surviving, maybe. But an old person can easily survive while being very ignorant for a long, long time.
Weeeell… Physiologically speaking, that’s incorrect. The logical part of your brain doesn’t fully develop until adulthood; even into your 20’s, you’re still functioning more on feeling and emotion than on reason. This isn’t to say that children and adolescents are unintelligent; rather, they have the same intellect, but they’re less likely to use it in concert with their ability to reason than an adult is.
Adults are worse than kids.
Kids listen; adults are sure they already know.
(And if you have to instruct a mixed group where the adults are certain the directions are for the kids…)
“Kids listen”
But we’re not dealing with KIDS, here. We’re dealing with TEENAGERS. Whole different ballgame. Teens have that heady mix of all the flaws of children AND all the flaws of adults
Anyone who thinks kids listen hasn’t been around enough kids. This is known as the “how many goddamn times have I told you” argument.
Most kids listen. Between ages 5 and 10. Then you have to watch them.
Then they become teenagers.
And we mostly notice the one kid/teenager who’s being a brat for attention.
Kids are definitely stupider than adults, on average. Teens especially so.
A friend of mine was a high-powered computer consultant – started his own business, became a multimillionaire. He highly recommended the book “Raising a Thinking Child” which teaches parents how to teach their six-year-olds distinctions like “a good time / not a good time.” My friend said that the book was amazingly useful when dealing with business people.
I’m going to admit right now I’m stupider as an adult and make worse decisions now than I did when I was ten…. a decade ago, as of two months from now precisely. But regardless, at least as an adult they call us an ass instead of stupid… or they call us an idiot.
Twenty isn’t really adulthood; hell the original poster is refering to Ethan as a kid here when he’s 18. It’s like late-teenager or maybe “young-adult”. Most people I know either did some crazy stuff when they were in highschool or university [sometimes both, but usually people who tried to keep it up 8 years straight weren’t learning from their mistakes and dropped out]. Usually when they first realize that they aren’t accountable to anyone but themselves and haven’t tested their own limits [myself included in this].
Give it a bit of time and soon all the crazy stuff will seem like too much of a hassle and you’ll likely have learn from your mistakes; it’ll be sooner than you think.
Yeah, I know it sounds condescending but all adulthood is is being 20 + experience. Oh yeah, and your body breaks down in, um, “interesting” ways. And of course the damned kids don’t remember the A-Team.
RvB’s Church said it best: “Take your current age. Now subtract ten years from it. Were you smart back then? Of course you weren’t. You were a God damn idiot. Fact of the matter is, you’re just as big an idiot today, it’s just gonna take you ten more years to realize.”
^Thiiiiis thisthisthisthis.
I would argue that probably only seem stupider because you have more decisions to make and they come with a wider variety of bad options.
I disagree. I recently turned 18 and have made no mistakes since then. I also no longer get modern music and find technology frightening.
Having read Shortpacked! I can say with some security that tacking a few years onto his age doesn’t improve his decision-making process.
Same actor, different character who happens to have the same name.
If that was the case, I have no idea where the bad desisions I’ve made the last ten years come from…
In the original comment, when Opus says that Ethan means well but is making mistakes he wouldn’t make as an adult, could someone explain what mistake Ethan is making. It looks to me like he’s doing a pretty good job here of exploring if he and Danny have a common cause without doing anything irrevokable. Where’s the mistake?
“You know, when she keeps doing that thing she does?”
“…flipping tables?”
“No, Amber. You’re thinking of Jesus.”
Actually, I was thinking of Prowl…
*insert MRA rant here*
Ah! You must have read the Alt Text!
“Reverse Misandry!”
LOL Firefox gives “Misandry” the Red Squiggly Line of Doom
Jokes aside, the spell check in browsers is missing quite a few words, even by the standards of Word.
Interestingly enough they did have Urusei Yatsura in my spell checker. Proving the programmers were classic anime fans.
You see?! That’s how ignored a problem it is! We must educate the masses!
(Sarcasm, btw, since the Venn Diagram of people who talk seriously about misandry and people who don’t understand humor is just a circle).
Nah, its a small circle inside a larger circle. Plenty of people with no sense of humor don’t talk about misandry seriously.
This^
Does the larger circle include the people who need to properly label hypothetical graphs? 😛
NO THAT IS A SEPARATE CIRCLE ENTIRELY
But an intersecting circle with the group who don’t understand humor (a rather large intersection).
Something something mangina something something incel something something redpill something something hypergamy
Oh, forgot an important issue: “false raep accusation” [sic]
something something friendzone
something something alpha something something beta
Something something something Dark Siiiiiiiiiide!
Something, something, something, Danger Zone!
Yeah, they’re always banging on about those stupid pills, usually without bothering to explain them. I take some actual pills that are red on one side, blue on the other, which gives me a splendid idea for some quiet trollin’.
I grind them all up into a powder AND SNORT IT.
I SNORT YOUR PILL POWDER!
I SNORT IT ALLLL UP!
(The drug version of that scene was not as well-received)
It’s a reference to the Matrix. I forget the choice of words, but the blue pill was for Neo to just think he had a weird dream, and the red pill was for him to learn the actual nature of the world.
Hrm. Alt-text isn’t quite right. Joe and Walky have talked about McNuggets and shoes, Ethan and Danny have talked about Danny’s hair, and Mike and Ethan have discussed Chick-a-fil, just off the top of my head.
DON’T CARE MISANDRY RRRARRRGGG
Walky and Mike discussed pajama jeans is the first that popped into my head.
The first one was actually done on purpose just so I could do the joke later during the Bechdel Test thing about how they have talked about things other than girls. It was kind of cheating.
Cheaty Bechdel still counts as Bechdel. It’s all overrated, anyway. Just tell a good story.
Besides, you don’t get to choose if you’re labelled a misogynist/misandrist, that’s your ‘fan”s job.
Wack’d: Thanks for that, part of me wanted to archive binge just to confirm it, even if I was pretty sure that I could think of a few cases.
How come women get to bang lots of dudes and it’s fine but if I do the same thing they call me gay?
It’s only gay if you are the receiver or when balls touch. 😛
How come it’s cool for snakes to spit venom and unhinge their jaw to swallow people whole, but when I do it, I’m the “antichrist” and I need an “exorcism”?
How come it’s cool for Vampires to drink blood, but when I do it I get kicked out of the hospital!?
How come Mario can jump on turtles but when I do it Peta gets all up on my case!?
They got up on Mario’s case, too, but not for the turtles thing.
How come when Kirby skins his enemy and wears them as a hat it’s fine but when I wear a Tanuki PETA gets all up on my case?
-An MRA: Mario Rights Activist.
I love that they made a game that they would criticice, would it not have been made by them – bloody hypocrites.
How come cats can roll over in the street to get their bellies scratched by strangers, but when I do it, it’s just creepy and weird?
That thing with the ape was just a misunderstanding.
How come Edward Elric can perform forbidden alchemy and gain super powers, but when I do it, my mom thinks there’s something wrong with me?
This comment is beautiful.
It is a gorgeous flower in a sun speckled field.
MRA = ‘Merica Rifle Association?
Men’s rights activist.
Imagine you’re in first place in Mario Kart. Do you REALLY need to have a bullet Bill? The MRA’s say that they do.
I know the “A” is for “activist” but I swear my first reading every time is “asshole”
That’s because some ‘activists’ are assholes.
Replace “some” with “nearly all” when referring to Men’s Rights “Activists”. About the only place where men had any problems at all was in assigning parental rights after a divorce, and even that has gone away as protection for the children.
Well, these days everyone wants to have his own activist group.
I’d argue here somewhat; Men do have stereotypes that they have to conform to or be shunned by other guys. Most of these though are covered by LGTBQ and/or Feminist groups already, however so people interested in promoting the idea of masculinity having many forms usually affliate somewhat with those groups.
MRA tends to specifically in favour of promoting traditional rights and masculine identity though seeing them as “under threat” by these other groups. The main thing with this philosophically is that all the other groups want to see is respect and equal treatment which is threatening to the traditional model.
Socially, a lot of them are awkward young males who feel uncomfortable with sexuality and see this as a means of protecting themselves and blaming society for their issues. Justice or anything like that comes second to, in my personal experience, them getting what they believe they are entitled to. Ironically, they do so while co-opting a lot of terms and flaws of the Social Justice groups they oppose with none of the good.
Reading this, I guess it should be clarified; Males as a concept don’t need a group to stick up for them, but Guys in practice don’t always naturally live up to the ideals/norms set by society [nor feel they have to] and I can see the need for those people to try and build a support group.
On the other hand, MRAs are not this and rather are just awful.
Yes. Our society could be better for men as well as women. But the future society that is good for men is the one most modern feminists are trying to build anyway. Feminism: not meant for men, but it still helps us.
Nearly all MRA’s I’ve come across think strictly in dichotomies. If they don’t get everything they want, they’re oppressed. Man vs. woman. Alpha vs. beta. Us vs. them. That’s not going to help them, because they can’t see that they are basically spoiled children.
I don’t know, the MRM of five years ago was pretty damn traditionalist, but nowadays the movement has a lot more liberal people who’d previously call themselves feminists. I think it’s got to do with the growing trend of “with us or against us”-type hostile attitudes among online feminists.
I mean, it might be satisfying to describe the people you disagree with as neckbearded, basement-dwelling virgins, but at best you’re making people who already agree with you laugh, and at worst you look like a jerk to the people who don’t.
Yeah, I totally agree with all of this… which is why I consider myself a feminist. Virtually everything that MRAs whinge about that they have a point with is a reflection of some women’s rights issue which, when fully realized, will naturally extend to men.
Angry that women don’t serve in the front lines in the military? Well, for one thing they do in some countries (Israel springs to mind) and for another that’s a side effect of the “women are always weaker than even the weakest man” trope. How about that men rarely get custody of their kids in divorce proceedings? I’ve seen studies that indicate it’s largely because they don’t ask, but that’s only walking up the question one step. The real issue there is that women are seen as natural caregivers; eliminate that stereotype and you’ll begin to see men asking to care for their own kids. And so on.
Their other main issue is false accusations of rape and domestic violence. Since males are statistically more likely to commit those crimes its rather easy for unscrupulous people to get an innocent man arrested for them. Even when found not guilty the guy’s reputation is still dead and it can kill men who have a job like teaching.
Unfortunately most ‘MRAs’ that are talking about these things are misogynistic assholes which is kind of killing any effort to have these issues seriously looked at.
Keep in mind . . . most rape cases end without a conviction and brushed easily aside. It is hard for me to take it seriously when women can be pushed out of their jobs and have their reputations ruined by shopping their face onto a nude body.
Well, rape cases not leading to conviction might partially be the whole problem of proving rape, but I know that police can be pretty crap at securing (time-sensitive) evidence.
The whole ‘false rape accusations can ruin a man’s life’ argument has always rung a bit hollow to me. I mean, look at the Steubenville case. Those guys were guilty. There was no question.
And yet our media depicted them as wronged by the system. That these guys lives were tragically ruined by this case, where they got literally the minimum sentencing and it was originally undetermined whether they would be added to the sex offender registry.
Also, considering the fact that very few rape cases ever get to the trial stage, I feel like we need to make a distinction between “false” and “unproven.” A rape accusation isn’t false just because the courts decided not to prosecute it.
I love this analogy so very, very much. I’ll have to remember it. 🙂
If I was in first place in Mario Kart, I’d better damned have a bunch of things ready, because shit is coming my way in the form of EVERYTHING THAT CAN KILL Me. Just saying.
Mah Rights, AAAUIUUUGHHH!
Men’s Rights Activist. A bunch of basement-dwelling dudes whose lives revolve around the fear of losing male privilege (a term I hate using since SJW’s on Tumblr ruined it, but I can’t think of a better way to describe a system that is designed to benefit men more than women)
I wonder if you need a Man-Card to gain this male privilege thingy I keep hearing about.
No just honor. Honor and a penis.
I hear that you can buy penises online these days.
In their eyes, buying a penis loses your honor, so you still wouldn’t qualify. You’ll have to make the penis yourself.
E.g. with a permanent marker on a toilet stall door. This, some seem to think, would be very honorable.
That’s an electric nose-picker.
I found out it for-real takes tubes and skin grafts… X(
Even sex changes are better if you’re a man [AAB] than woman.
Just to be fair, ad-hominem attacks(evidence free at that) aren’t really the best way to show the problems with a movement.
If I have one problem with how people react to the MRA movement, it is that. I seldom see people handle it rationally, preferring to hurl abuse rather than to hear and debate their assertions. Seems like treating people on a person to person basis, instead of judging them by group, would be the rational, progressive choice.
But that’s just my opinion.
That would be great yes, but it would also be nice if MRA’s treated Feminists rationally instead of some Feminazi consipracy out to emasculate them and sap their precious bodily fliuds
“All right girls, they’re onto us! Put away the scalpels and the giant hypodermic syringes!”
The thing is, some do. But nobody talks about those people, because they don’t fit the popular image of an “MRA”
not all mras
I platonically love you, Willis.
Is your position that it sucks that somebody in your group is a loud jerk, so then people don’t know that *you* aren’t necessarily a loud jerk, too? I mean, yes, that could be a thing that is happening, and it’d be nicer for you if it wasn’t happening, because it’s unpleasant to be associated with jerks. However, given that we only have the time and energy to fight for a few things in a day, I think it’s a lot more pressing to tackle larger problems like violence and inequity, don’t you?
Thing is, “Men’s Rights Activist” makes as much sense as “Free Air Activist”. By identifying as someone who spends time fighting for something that already exists, has existed forever, and is in no danger of ceasing to exist, they’ve already disqualified themselves from being taken seriously by me. Whatever valid points they may have are not specific to them.
I think I know what they’re talking about, but I don’t want the people who don’t know in the comments to be spoiled. They still think it’s Sal.
They also still think Danny is the worst evar who dannys it dannying dannyo dan dan, so I think it’s best to leave them to their obsessions.
I’m listening to a song called “Tinker’s Wedding” on pandora and I swear to god they just said “dannying dannyo dan dan” as I read it.
That made my day, thank you.
*Danny turns around, panicking*
DAN DAN DAAAAAAAAAAN!
instant bro-ship
Ethan even got his hair cut after saying he liked Danny’s. (I think that’s how that happened at least…)
Well, there was also a little prodding from Mike.
Mike gave your mom a little prodding, for a nickel.
Am I doing this right?
I think so, yes.
Because she’s a prostitute.
I’m all aboard this bro-ship, for Amber’s sake.
I agree! That girl needs a support network.
(and obviously somebody in that network should be a shrink, but let’s take what we can get.)
He just wants to figure out how Danny gets it completely flat on top.
You’d think Ethan would be an expert at figuring out hair physics, he went to high school with Mike.
I had always assumed that Mike’s hair didn’t follow hair physics so much as defy it out of spite.
I hope this conversation segues into another few panels of dildo references.
That’s the thing-Sarah-does.
“OH THANK GOD SOMEONE ELSE WHO KNOWS SHE’S AMAZI-GIRL, FINALLY I CAN TALK ABOUT HOW FRIGGING INSANE THIS ALL IS!”
“What? I meant the thing where she spends all day locked in her room killing virtual spiders. Wait, she’s Amazi-Girl?!”
The worst part is that those virtual spiders had virtual mouths to feed. Most of them were underclass enemies and couldn’t get jobs that Mini-Bosses and Special enemies got. The spiders lived in desolate areas of the map where they could barely afford food, shelter, or mana. Each of them only had 1 hit point because they were so malnourished. Some of the spiders attacked travelers just HOPING that they would retaliate and end their spiderey lives. As Potions and Rations ran low The spider family finally decided to attack Amber’s character. Not to feed themselves but to support their family. Truly was a horrible site indeed. It was definitely an intricately coded game.
I’m quoting this. Somewhere, somehow, you will be quoted.
+1, if you care of such things.
Relevant.
Wait. Wait! WAIT! You’re not my Mom! YOU’RE NOT MY MOM!
It’s not fair! There was time, now. All the time in the world! It’s JUST NOT FAIR!
“ok, on 3… 1…2…3…”
“She’s Amazi-Girl!”
“Her favorite pony is Rainbow Dash!”
“Oh, I knew both of those…”
Who is Rainbow Dash? Is she friends with Sodomuffin?
… I almost made a very very very bad joke. I just thought you should know.
Whatever your very very very bad joke could have been? *That* made my day!
Applejackoff?
When I went to find links to this your comment was 4th in the results list.
Danny, you told her not to tell you about herself since you liked playing the superhero fantasy
She wasn’t going to tell him, anyway. He said it when she was worried he was pressuring her to tell him. I seriously doubt she was actually offering.
No, he told Amber he wasn’t eager to find out Amazi-Girl’s secret identity. Even if he did know he was talking to Amazi-Girl at the time, “don’t tell me this one specific thing” is not equal to “don’t open up to me about anything at all ever.”
I do hope Amber can improve her relationship with both fellows here, for her sake. I also hope she will be friends with Dorothy, too, because that’s adorable.
Next month: Amber discovers exciting new ways to be MPD, becomes Terribi-Girl
Meanwhile, Billie becomes Terri-Bi-Girl.
tenouttaten willis
bravo
Spoylers! DAM YU, WALLAS
What? What?
The ensuing legal battle will take up the rest of the duration of Dumbing of Age.
Dina will be Dino-Girl, dino coming from Greek for ‘terrible’.
+1
I make no claim of Greek speaking, but wouldn’t the full Greek version “Dino-Gyno”
[Proper declension be damned, let me have my rhyme!]
Dino-Puella
Because whimsically mixing Greek and Latin is the scientific way!
snerk
“Do you know what I know?”
“I know of what you know but I don’t know if it’s what you know so I can’t know if you know what I know.”
Exactly!
“I know what you mean.”
Thanks for clearing that up.
Who’s on first?
God help us all if she did.
God help us…in the future.
“You’re talking about her crippling addiction to Angel Dust and cough medicine…Oh…that wasn’t…forget what I said”
And when she does her eyes just go blood shot red and gets really violent then she just disappears at night.
Well, it’s possibly related to that…
Screw the haters, this is one of the funniest Dumbing of Age strips in a long while and Danny’s to thank for it.
It’s only so funny because Danny’s life is a joke.
Danny-haters gonna Danny-hate.
I don’t think anyone ever disagreed that Danny is hilarious.
As a geek, I’m instantly reminded of Peter Parker and Ben Urich discussing Daredevil’s secret identity in vague terms in case the other was just lying about knowing it and trying to trick them. I’m kind of surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often, it’s a good bit.
I think it has to do with people generally not trying to fight crime while wearing capes.
Oh man, the circumlocutions necessary to probe whether or not another person knows the secret thing you also know and desperately want-or need- to talk about.
Makes for some interesting conversations.
So the elephant in the room is Amber’s headmate Amazi-Girl.
Along side her second headmate younger Amber.
Don’t forget her animal spirit, Amazi-Squirrel.
Wait, so there’s an elephant in Amber’s head? Along with Amazi-Girl? Man, must be crowded in there.
Does the comic seriously not pass the reverse bechdel test?
As discussed above, it does. The dudes tend to talk about *stupid* things, but they do talk about things that in all probability either do not have a gender of if they do have a gender it’s not female. (Chicken nuggets, shoes, Chick-fil-evil, that sort of thing.)
This strip? No. The comic as a whole? Definitely.
Well now, hold on, Walky and Joe have a conversation here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/mcnuggets/
Okay, so it’s not much, and half of it is about a woman, but the second half is about McNuggets. Are there any more rules regarding the conversation itself?
Chickens are female, QED the logic holds!
[But seriously, yeah, it totally passes the reverse Bechdel]
You’re thinking “hens”. “Chickens” can be either sex.
I suspect more of the ones that end up in McNuggets are male, because they’re not useful for egg production.
Not necessarily. Meat generally comes from breeds bred for it – ie they mature rapidly and have more robust musculature. Egg laying breeds often won’t be eaten, as by the time they’re too old to lay, they aren’t very appetizing. As such, the only reason for the meat birds’ eggs is to make more meat birds.
Not a blanket rule, but for most livestock, there’ll be breeds specifically optimized to be farmed for meat.
You are correct, apparently! I grew up with Chicken and Rooster being used as gendered terms with no one really using the neuter term, like with Cow and Bull.
Interestingly, it’s the same in German. “Henne” (hen) and “Hahn” (cock/rooster) are only ever used for the adult animals. But most often when referring to a female adult chicken, the species term “Huhn” (chicken) is used, anyway.
False. Joe and Walky have talked about shoes.
Oh, and Walky totally talks about his fart here:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/03-the-first-step-towards-recovery/congratulations/
It was a female fart.
“The other thing Amber does.”
In her spare time, she is a circus clown.
Amazi-Clown!
Okay, I think I’d read that.
It’s funny because they both know what they think the other might not know but don’t want them to know it if they don’t know it…… I think?
Who knows?
But do they know she knows they know that they know?
Oh dear, I’ve gone cross-eyed.
Vague-ness Intenseifies!
…why the hyphen? ‘Vagueness’ is a word!
No no, keep talking in veiled euphemisms. That way lays wacky misunderstandings.
I know you think you understand what I said, but what you heard is not what I’m talking about.
Meantime, back at Ambers, while these guys have a nice honest, heart to heart….
And don’t take too long guys, ’cause as Ethan put it so well, that ‘Evil Fuck’ IS still on the loose.
Well, as “on the loose” as he can be in the hospital.
…He’s not UNPLUGGING people in there, is he?
Just the ones that owe him money.
*is confused* But…Ethan does know that Amber’s dad showed up, and for that matter he knows that Amber didn’t want to tell him about it. I mean, yes, what Danny’s talking about happened after that, but how would Ethan know that? And even if he did, it seems weird that he’s so shocked that Blaine was here when he knows Blaine was here just a few days ago.
Maybe he assumed Blaine ran off after being punched, and is surprised he came back. Which is sorta true.
The time he “put one over on me” was after that. Though I guess it would be better if Ethan said “…again!?” today to clarify that.
He was likely shocked that he was there a second time and he didn’t hear about it at all. Made the mistake of assuming he wouldn’t be back for a while.
This actually looks like a pretty big plot whole because there doesn’t seem to be anything to indicate there was a second time here; Amber’s dad could have “tricked” Danny the first time he was there [maybe just got some sensitive information to pull on Amber or something else to mess with her as opposed to luring her out of the school to see him a second time].
Ethan wouldn’t know either way.
DAMN YOUR PLOT HOLES, WILLIS!
Perhaps Amber had an offscreen conversation where she told him that was all that happened? Perhaps Ethan knew what date Danny meant through his unbelievably accurate understanding of male body language?
Good catch.
Blaine was kicked off campus. It makes sense that Ethan would assume that that was the end of it. That Blaine went home with his tail between his legs.
He knew that Blaine had been here at one point, but he didn’t know that Blaine was still around causing trouble.
Note: His line is “Wait… Her dad’s STILL here?”
That is certainly his line now. Last night, not so much. I feel mildly smug to have provoked a dialogue edit.
I’m guessing it’s just for clarity for those who didn’t read “her dad’s here?” as “Why didn’t her dad go the fuck home when he was kicked off campus?”
Yes, Ethan, Amber is Batman.
No, Ethan is Batman. Look at the logo on his shirt.
Danny already said that Amber never tells him anything, so it is safe to assume for Ethan that Danny doesn’t know that she plays Wiggler in Mario Kart on the DS.
Is it me or lastly 70% of the comic is about Amber? Not that I was complaining though 😛
Nah just this story arc.
Yep, ‘Up All Night To Get Vengance’ seems to be an Amber-driven arc. As can be derived from context.
With a title derived from a Daft Punk song…
I am delighted by that punchline, doubly so that it’s Danny delivering it.
Hah, look at these two rubes, completely Danning it up! What with their being concerned about the self-destructive behavior and emotional well-being of a mutual loved one, and trying to discuss it in a respectful way to her privacy and safety. Total Dannies, can they do anything right?
Okay, Fuck the Danny/Sal ship. I now ship Danny/Ethan.
Ooooooh yes.
WoW pony slashfics, amirite?
I… Uh…
I don’t want to know, and yet I now have a sneaking suspicion I will never be able to banish. I hope you’re happy.
…hmm. Attempts to not think about it lead to wondering what Joyce would think of the Imperium of Man’s religion.
Well, I know for a fact there is a WoW/MLP crossover fic. Never read it so I’m not sure if there is any slash in it.
Rule 34 dude/tte.
#androgynousnames
Ethan has to be very careful or Danny will guess Amber dresses as a superhero and beats people up in a college campus at night.
she has a double major…in justice!
AMBER HAS A SIXTH SENSE
IT’S HER SENSE OF JUSTICE
(She traded her Gaydar for it)
That sounds like a Tick quote – Love it!
Ethan should just point discreetly at the Batman symbol on his t-shirt. “So do you know about Amber’s, er, “hobby”?” *stabs self in chest with finger.
Then Danny would Dan it up and somehow completely misunderstand Ethan’s meaning: “That’s right, she’s playing Arkham Origins right now.”
Oh there’s more than one. Amber’s got about a million.
Reverse Bechdel test passed here, in the last panel. I think this is the first time, too.
I had a friend like that who was always so quiet and never told us when something wasn’t going well…
Me and the rest of her friends always ended up having talks like this whenever we met.
This is actually a follow-on from the themes of the previous scene. Tomorrow’s strip:
DANNY: You mean, she masturbates?
ETHAN: [Jaw drops] She WHAT?
[Awkward silence for 3 panels]
With an electronic nose-picker, no less!
That was Joyce. We don’t know if Amber’s solo erotic adventures are technologically enhanced.
Of course they are. She is Amazi-Girl, she is prepared for anything.
But if she’s Amazi-Girl, does she not have Amazi-hands that give Amazi-orgasms?
The thing is this, they both kind of helped screw her over a bit. Not saying they are the main problems, but they helped push her a bit to the left.
Ethan was kind of an ass with the whole Joyce thing. Could have handled it a bit more delicately. Like when he told her to be open with the floor about her father, but then she reminded him about his own openness.
Danny get’s more of a pass for just being dense. His own personal problem was trying to live out some fantasy. It just so happened that this had a negative effect on Amber.
To be honest, she was already unstable. Something bad would’ve happened eventually, even without these two and the events that happened at college.
Mmm. It’s hard to balance your own feelings with caring about your loved one.
And sometimes you mistake what is best for them for what is best with you. She was already unstable and to be honest, something bad was going to happen eventually even without those two. I hope this conversation leads to those 2 and her sitting down and talking openly and acknowledge that the 3 sides have made mistakes.
and that one time we thought it did, joc ended up being a girl the entire time
Things-she-does? You mean like fetishes or something?
Also, I don’t know if it’s on my end but everything’s centered AND I CAN’T HANDLE IT!!!
Y’know, Amber clearly needs to relax a little about the whole robbery thing, but on the flip side, I think Ethan could stand to be a little less casual about it. “Some girl”? Dude, she held you hostage at knife-point.
I think it just ended being how each of them perceived it. It was way more traumatic for her than for him. Remember, she was incredibly introverted at that point, only really talking to Ethan. Sal was a threat that could’ve taken her only friend away. TBH, it’s probably the part that happened after that is really messing with her. She tries really hard not to be her dad, and this was one of the 1st cases of her giving in to anger and harming someone via the knife. Unfortunately it was a mix of her father screwing with her head and the sense of being powerless that really imprinted the scene in her mind.