I always hated my step-mom, but it took me until my dad divorced my step-mom and got a new girlfriend that I was finally confident that I didn’t hate her just because she was my step-mom, but because she was a genuinely unpleasant person. Dad’s new girlfriend, in contrast, is great!
I have heard that statement before from friends from blended families and never understood it. Why would you marry (or live with) someone who already has kids if you don’t like the kids, it is pretty much a package deal.
My very limited online dating experiences so far seem to indicate “partner had kids, didn’t bother to mention it” might be part of the explanation. Like, I’m not sure what the idea here is – you’re afraid someone won’t be cool with you having a child so you hide that fact so you can get them to like you before dropping that one them..? Would you really want someone who sees children from a previous relationship as an issue?
(I am not very interested in dating single mothers – it’s an experience gap inferiority complex at a guess. But mostly the ones I’ve seen have basically listed wine, travelling and sports as interests aside from being mothers, so a bigger part of it is not really having anything in common)
Seems like it. So Robin’s yet to get over the stage of your life where you idealize the crappy parent who’s never there being a parent and you resent the one who actually WAS there. This is not unusual but she’s in her fucking 30’s and should probably have some adult perspective on this shit at some point but she’s Robin. The fact that she compares her relatively normal childhood angst to Becky’s situation is just fucking typical of her level of immaturity.
Uh. I mean her first comment about other people having crappy dads aside, Becky was the one who explicitly and enthusiastically drew that comparison. She may have been saying stuff in the first panel not to draw comparisons to herself, but to justify not being impacted by becky’s story, which is how I initially read it. So like… still terrible, but for the same reasons as in last comic, not anything new.
And like, Becky’s been intentionally downplaying this for normalcy’s sake anyway, calling him her jerkass dad instead of, like, her dangerously unhinged and abusive one. Quite frankly, someone insisting on making a huge deal about it would be more uncomfortable for her than this thing that she’s explicitly asking for anyway. See also, that time in the diner Joyce tried to say she couldn’t complain about her own parents and Becky did not agree.
Yeah yeah I’m another shortpacked Robin fan with unjustified hope for the character here, whatever man.
In the previous comment Becky brought up her dad who kidnapped her and then immediately following that Robin went, “You’re not the only one with a crappy dad,” Becky was willing to go along with it for the sake of bonding but Robin is the one who equated the two dads first.
No, what I mean is, I read that as another refusal to acknowledge what Robin sees as a political ploy to win her over, not that she INITIALLY was talking about her own dad. Guess it could go either way, but until I saw Becky’s response, I didn’t take it as comparison between the two of them. It coulda just been like “well your sob story won’t work, there’s other sob stories out there (and I as a politician have seen lots of them because politics)”.
And Becky’s over and over tried to keep her situation relatable to other people, so like… that’s presumably what she would have wanted either way? Kid wants to be normal except in the ways that are cool, like having a superhero car chase. But otherwise, like she said to Dina that one time, she doesn’t wanna be a downer, her identity is wrapped up in wackiness and a lack of real problems. Whether or not that’s ultra psychologically healthy is another deal, but it’s what she’s done at pretty much every opportunity.
I dunno, I read it as Robin trying to equate Becky’s absolutely horrific shotgun threatening dad with having a stepdad who is a bit of dork. Robin is being fucking awful basically.
I was gonna say this yesterday but I guess I can say it here. Robin isn’t the horrifying and unredeemable character she seems or that people have labled her as.
She’s guilty of a lot of things: Lack of empathy, obliviousness, complacency, pandering, hypocrisy, doing the bare minimum. I don’t know how she got her job but she keeps it by leaning the way her supporters want. If this comic was in say California. (I only use California because it’s a traditionally blue state and generally queer accepting…also I live there) and the bill she voted on was to say…allocate funds to housing for at risk youth. She would be a hero for doing the same thing she’s doing now. Sitting on her ass, tweeting bullshit, and voting whichever way the wind blows her party. No this doesn’t actually justify anything Robin’s done. In a way it makes it worse because it means she probably doesn’t have any values. But it does mean she’s probably susceptible to persuasion and education with enough time.
Robin being redeemable is not the issue. Robin being evil is the issue, the issue being, she is evil, your opinion is not acknowledging how many people her acting term in Congress in comic means and always will mean she is accountable for legislation that goes through or doesn’t go through or even gets argued on the floor. She is a Republican and her giving her vile supporters what they want so she can have what she wants means that entire groups of people get to be murdered en masse and there aren’t more consequences.
Robin is killing people. Sitting on her ass and tweeting bullshit in a position where you decide whether or not to give the laws of your country the time of day is knowingly going for the job that makes you the decider and you decide anyone but you can just die, and then they do die.
Robin is a closeted gay congresswoman in a district that doesn’t want her to exist. Putting aside ludicrously simplistic “she’s evil” narratives, what do you expect her to *do*? She doesn’t actually wield that much power, especially not now—now, with her campaign flagging, with her having to confront things about herself that she’s studiously avoided thinking about for years.
As for her being “evil” for failing to take proactive action to pursue legislation that would have no chance of passing—do you think pre-DOA Joyce would have done anything different, in her situation?
Because if not, pre-DOA Joyce was “evil”, too. Let’s just keep that perspective when we go making these sorts of claims. The difference between “evil” and “not evil”, by your logic, is a few conversations to challenge a worldview. Y’know, like the conversations Robin is having right now.
Robin wasn’t born into being a Congresswoman, or forced into it. She chose to work her way into a position of power, and I will absolutely judge her for the actions she takes or doesn’t take while in that position. What do I expect her to do? Something, anything, except take only the actions she thinks will keep her in power and never give a second thought to the responsible use of that power. (Well, no, that’s exactly what I expect her to do, but then that’s why I’m judging her.)
There’s nothing simplistic about the “evil narrative.” It’s a fundamental issue you have to take into account. Evil is a real thing (even if it is only a concept), and it has to be dealt with. Too much sympathy for evil people creates a desire to overlook how evil they are and easily be misled when they inevitably try to make cosmetic changes that don’t deal with the underlying problem.
Robin being evil is important to keep in mind. She is not merely some good person who has reasons for doing bad things. That may be true, but it makes her no less evil.
And I will repeat why I think this is important. Because I believe this attitude of ignoring evil is why people were able to defend someone as clearly evil as Trump.
The reason I was so upset at him winning was knowing how many people don’t seem to know the difference between Good and Evil anymore. Evil is not corruption. Evil is not maybe making mistakes with email or making the wrong military decision. Evil is hurting people, either intentionally, or because you just don’t care about anyone else but yourself.
And Robin is Evil in that second category (while Trump has some of both.)
I fear context has not done these types of defenses much of a favor. Like, yeah, a shitty democrat would be a shitty incurious democrat, but right now, the republican dominated house has sweetened their deal to kill millions of Americans by making it even more transparently cruel while their chosen leader is about to make it legal for health care professionals to straight up deny me care based on who I am.
So yeah, not really feeling the “all sides are the same” shallow tribal reads at the moment.
Also, the example you provide kind of reveals the central problem. Yes, if Robin instead of voting to actively harm queer youth and make it actively harder for them to survive had instead supported programs to make it easier for folks to survive, she probably would be viewed better.
And it’s not because “following constituents” or “tribal loyalty” but because one example you give is one where she is actively helping people survive and in one she is actively making it harder for people to survive.
Like, if we are really so far gone around that we can’t recognize the stark moral contrast there, then I’m not sure what else we can do.
Yeah. It’s a serious false equivalency because a shallow spineless Democrat who votes for whatever the party wants will like, try and feed some poor folks, while a shallow spineless Republican will literally cause people to die. They’re both shallow and spineless, but their impact is nowhere near the same ballpark.
While it may make her worse in some abstract moral sense, I’d much rather be dealing with the cynical, believes in nothing, out for themselves politician than a true believer. Unless the true believer agrees with me, of course. As you suggest, the cynical ones can learn. They can negotiate and compromise.
To frame it in the ACA repeal, it’s the difference between the more moderate Republicans being swayed by their constituents saying they need to keep their coverage and the Freedom Caucus demanding a total repeal with no compromise.
I didn’t get the feeling she idolized her crappy parent. Panel two reads to me as Robin saying that her view on dads in general is that they suck. Like, she’s not saying her biodad is great because he’s great, he’s great because he went away and she never sees him.
Same as Cass here. I don’t get the feeling that she thinks dads can be good period, what I do get is the feeling that she’s not telling the whole story of what’s wrong with her stepdad. She thinks it’s good that her bio-dad is not involved in her life! What kind of shit is she projecting on the possibility that he could have been?
I know lots of people have been complaining in the comments about how many people are turning out to have had crappy parents, but the thing is… lots of people have crappy parents. Like, that’s a pretty true to life part )=
Sounds like a debate worth starting: If you’re a crappy parent, or believe you would be one, is it better to stay in your kid’s life, or to remove yourself? Is it better for a child to have abusive parents, or no parents?
I mean, clearly, the best result is to have neither.
If you have reasons to think you would be crappy parents, don’t make/adopt kids. But… Well, if people were responsible enough to reflect upon themselves and be honest on their capacity to educate a child, child abuse wouldn’t be a thing, now, would it ?
And it’s better to have no parents than having bad parents, if only because with a bit of luck, other parental figures, good ones, can be found.
Please, don’t take this the wrong way, I honestly ask because I don’t understand: how can it be compulsory to keep a child when you know that their life environment would be bad for them ?
I can see cases where someone discovers that they’re pregnant too late for an abortion to still be legal, or where said abortion could have dire consequences on their health, but if they honest-to-goodness believe that a child shouldn’t be living with them… isn’t it why adoption centers are partly for ? Aren’t there governmental organisms put in place specifically to protect the children ?
It depends on how much you hate Star Trek, apparently? Looking up Robin’s mom’s appearances in Shortpacked, it looks like she never remarried, so his tie collection is the only thing we know about Mark.
Also according to the alt text another huge flaw of his is that he’s always telling Robin he’s proud of her. So he likes star trek and he’s supportive of her career. I mean that does imply his politics might be shit.
True but I’m wondering how proud of Robin he could be if her weren’t a republican himself. I guess he could just have a rule about supporting her but never actually discussing what she believes. I mean it’s not like anyone but (we can assume) Roz would really be eager to make a thing about it.
you really can’t slither your way out of having viewpoints when neutrality is itself a viewpoint. choosing the easiest way is a political opinion, especially if you work in politics. it’s not an easily defensible opinion, but it’s still an opinion.
My stepdad would be out of his mind proud if I became a congressperson, and he’s like, really conservative. Some people only take politics so seriously, regardless of their ideals, and while he’s voted straight ticket republican for like ever, pretty sure if I ever demanded passionately that he just not vote on an issue or something, he’d humor me. Lotta people don’t care THAT much, so the pride of having a congressperson child could still win over whatever they actually are doing in office. It’s a pretty big accomplishment.
Basically I don’t think we can infer much of anything about Mark besides that he is complicit in withholding everyday cereal from his stepchildren, so far.
You sound especially frustrated today – what’s wrong? May I offer internet hugs? (Jeeesh, I don’t even know how to ask such things without sounding all insensitive)
It’s just been really really shit politically of late.
Today, Trump will sign the Religious Freedom EO which will now mean everything I try to do as a trans person will now be a roulette wheel of whether or not they consider me enough of a person to do their job and that includes emergency services.
And the House is really close to enough votes to pass their version of the AHCA, which, yeah, most of my loved ones are lower income folks relying on ACA for any form of coverage and are taking medicine that is critical for whether or not they kill themselves or whether or not they stay alive. (So if any of you has a red representative, please spam their phone number). And would also mean the return of pre-existing condition bans. Being trans was a pre-existing condition. Hell, most things were.
We just had Comey joke and laugh around about his role in a deliberate act of treason to “elect” a dangerous fascist while the news media that aided him continue ranting about Obama and Clinton as if the world wasn’t burning right now.
And a woman is about to go to jail for a year, because she dared laugh at AG Sessions while all the “free speech” assholes who’ve been tongue-bathing nazis for the last three years have gone conspicuously silent.
And it’s all happening because of this toxic mix of tribalism and “both-sides fetishism” that is allowing the normalization of a party who is entirely about finding inventive new ways to actively hurt and kill marginalized folks just trying to get by.
Wow, that sucks far worse than I’ve heard from the news, unbelievable level of assholery. Sorry to hear that. But remember, there are still good people out there. (e.g. I wouldn’t think emergency doctors are the type to care about any stupid religious freedom stuff, hopefully?) Stay strong 🙂
Okay first of all you’re just wrong about doctors, period. Doctors are people. Often they are wealthy people. They are not less prejudiced than the average bear; in fact, they tend to be worse on prejudices like anti-fat bias (where literally tumors go undiagnosed for years because fat patients get told that the pain in their knees will get better if they lose weight, and that’s the end of their consultation). As any trans person will tell you, the medical community is hella transphobic.
Second, emergency care is not a substitute for health insurance. And it also is not free — emergency doctors will treat you and then send you a bill that you have no way to pay and sic collection agencies on you to ensure they get their money.
Like there’s a reason why people in this country sometimes break the law so that they can go to prison and be treated for free by prison doctors.
Third, Cerberus knows there are still good people out there. She’s just still upset and she has every right to be, because the mere presence of good people won’t save anyone if this shit becomes law.
I’m thinking he may also just be a super supportive guy.
Maybe putting her politcs aside to be encouraging, and honestly proud of her achiving the level of political office that she has 🙂
Star Trek is more of a liberal narrative, but in a way that people somehow entirely miss. I’ve seen it held up online as an example of golden age sci fi, when it was about tech and not SJW nonsense. At one point the head of the NSA made an Enterprise bridge out of his command center, apparently without noting the two display rather opposite values.
You can make an argument for 7 because hey you need one for every day of the week. Maybe even 14 because sometimes you have to put off doing laundry a week cause life. 16? 20?! Maybe question some of your life choices.
well just because they’re all Star Trek ties, doesn’t mean they’re the same ones. There’s like five different captains to begin with, different characters, all in various shades and colors, and just because you feel like wearing a tie with Worf on it in one week, doesn’t mean that next week, you might not prefer to have a simple one color with just the Star Trek symbol on it some other time…. just saying…
Wear them? Wear them?!? Philistine! Collectables like that should be kept vacuum-wrapped in cellophane and displayed in a glass-fronted case! Certainly they should never suffer the indignity of contact with the human body… or even unfiltered air!
“Yeah, pretty sweet ain’t it?” was originally “It suits ya.” I looked at it twice before I commented because it was such a great observation from Becky.
if nothing else, Enterprise gave the gift of Sir Patrick Stewart and Levar Burton’s popularity to the world, as well as re-invigorating the Star Trek franchise and being a source of stable work in an industry where that is far too infrequent.
a dad trying to kill his daughter with a shotgun gives the world nothing of merit and honestly it happens in real life far too often to joke about
Pretty sure she’s hating on the Step because he isn’t the Dad that left.
Plus whatever luggage/issues the step brings to the family, that she feels falls short of positive by a lot. Again, in the shadow of the “best” Dad that left.
Equal to Becky’s? No probs not by a long shot.
But not as horrific a comparison as it looks once you read the subtext.
Either way! She was already a shit!
This is progress!
Emotionally open vs defensive, closed, and cold!
Eh… I’d be onboard with this reading, except she says she’s happy her biodad left and isn’t involved in her life. “His is the amount of dad content I can tolerate”. Her associations with ‘dad content’ are very clearly negative. Whatever the reason she resents her stepdad, that he isn’t her biodad definitely isn’t the entirety of it.
Although that could be more of a sour grapes sort of mentality as a coping mechanism rather than a sincere statement. It’s a lot easier to deal with an absentee parent if you convince yourself you don’t even want them there anyway, though that CAN eventually become how you actually feel about them over time even if it starts out as a coping mechanism.
That basically.
There is so much mental weight on parents withing the mind of the child that solid logical thinking gets lost FAST once something like abandonment happens.
And it never goes away, so people get weird and stay weird/sort of broken.
In the same vein, either Becky is a super human cartoon or there will be one HELL of a fallout later as her happy mask wears off.
Yeah… like I don’t want to minimize what clearly is at least some real distress, but on the surface, that is a shallow to the point of almost being offensive comparison on Robin’s part.
He doesn’t even collect them himself, but Riley got in her head that he was a trekkie and everyone just ran with the joke. One tie each from all his step daughters each fathers day equal A LOT of star trek ties.
Really very pissed about Robin comparing a pleasant sounding dork to Becky’s father who fucking kidnapped her at gunpoint. Like…I’m sorry but that’s the kind of shit you grow out of eventually and she’s in her 30’s and she still not only is pulling that, “You’re not my REAL DAD bs!” but she actually sees nothing wrong with saying it’s just as bad as what Becky’s going through. She is just fucking exhausting. Becky has the patience of a saint.
If one’s stepfather really *is* a shitty person, I think they’re justified in not acknowledging them as their father, though. Robin’s reasons are nonsense, and she clearly disrespects him on the basis of his not having been her birth-parent, but it’s not the fundamental premise that’s at fault, it’s her reasoning. Not everyone develops an amicable relationship with a step-parent.
TBH I think the implication is there, if slightly hidden. Note how Robin doesn’t wish for her biodad’s presence in her life. She wishes she didn’t have a dad period, not a different one. Whatever she associates with ‘dad content’ in her life, it’s clearly negative.
Now, this could go anywhere between ‘obnoxious and embarrassing’ and ‘actively emotionally abusive and his ‘proud of her’s are actively conditional on her being a member of Congress despite being in no way ready for the responsibility of the position’. But, ya, there’s something there definitely.
She’s been watching Steven Universe, and breaks out the Steven Universe eyes in the last panel.
Yeahhhhh I’m leaning more to “these folk I’ve violently rejected are still offering to accept me as one of them, help what do I do” than “I’mma gonna insult you right now”.
I’m kinda extra horrified after reading some of the other comments here. It didn’t even register for me that Robin is using “Gay” as an insult here. I thought Robin is just referring to bonding with Becky as kinda homosexual-ish? But yea I agree with you 🙁 As cute as it is seems to be on the surface, it’s still very much a bad situation.
He presents Atop The Fourth Wall (amongst other things), where he drives himself mad reviewing terrible comics. Has unfathomable knowledge of all things Power Rangers.
He used to be fairly active in the Shortpacked! comments section, particularly when there were Batman jokes involved. Dunno if he reads Dumbing of Age, though.
I love Becky and her attempts at making sense of her shitty life by being a beeming sunshine person on the outside and bowling over any godawful congressperson who might be in her way with her positivity.
That’s honestly the best response ever to someone saying, “This is kinda gay”. Also, does this mean that Roz and Robin are half-sisters, or is Mark a more recent development? Either way, the whole “You’re not my real dad” trope really shouldn’t be in effect given how old Robin is. And implying that your dorky step-dad is comparable to the kidnap at gunpoint dad is bullshit. This better not be some sort of “Well, at least your dad actually stayed around” type of deal either.
….
And shit a couple possibilities just entered my head. Stupid brain stop making completely unsubstantiated theories.
Mother DeSanto’s genes might just be really dominant and Robin knows but Roz doesn’t because she and Riley (and x number of siblings) were never told.
….
Nah, that would be a really crumy twist.
….
Also, if Becky just “collected” Robin as a sister, does that mean she considers Roz and Riley sisters as well? Because I think Riley would find that cool at least.
We don’t actually know that 16 ties is Mark’s worst quality, it’s just the one that Robin led with.
Wasn’t it established that Roz’s dad cheated on her mom?
Was that Robin’s and Roz’s absent bio-dad, or their stepdad?
I would assume they mean bio-dad cheated which likely led into why they ended up having a stepdad. Not that stepdads can’t be guilty of it, but more because their mum would likely have divorced or separated from him by now if he had which would have given Robin something to focus on besides her irrational dislike of his ties.
It’s quite possible that Mark’s worse qualities are just not something you tell to a near-stranger on your first meeting. Most people are reluctant to share things like ‘withholds affection unless I act the way he likes’ or ‘treats my belongings as shared’ or ‘has screaming matches with my mom daily’ right off the bat. Becky’s open about her own shit because it’s all public already, but she’s still not exactly forthcoming with information about him driving her mom to suicide.
Robin has made a minimizing joke, which is intensely crappy of her re: Becky, but it’s quite possible that Becky’s situation is not the only one she’s minimizing, here.
That all makes sense. It’s still crappy of Robin to draw false equivalency between her folks and Becky’s horrible abuser. However, Becky doesn’t mind, since she can just masterfully reframe whatever dumb BS Robin throws at her, in her greater goal of helping them connect.
I think Robin’s noticing a tingling sensation in her hand from the field that Becky emits. Usually such fields require specialized “gaydar” devices to detect, but Becky’s is particularly strong
I think Robin realizes that Becky is her sister now. Which is tacit permission to drag her out in front of the media and use her to revive her failing career as well as betray any principles she holds.
As terrible as the “well, your dad may be a gun-toting, kidnapping psychopath, but MY step-dad’s a Star Trek nerd” comparison is, I find the whole “my REAL dad left, and I’m glad he’s gone” bit of dialogue in panel 2 to be the more interesting bit of information.
I also love how rather than get offended that this privileged asshole is comparing her wangsty “I hate my step-dad” bullshit to her own father kidnapping her at gunpoint and threatening to murder her best friend… she instead turns it around and makes it another point of commonality for them to share. “Hey, cool, we’ve both’ve got crappy fathers we hate!”
And then again in panel 5 when Robin attempts to use the term gay as a pejorative, Becky flips it around again and embraces it as a compliment and makes it clear that she takes it as a compliment. Becky’s got some kinda weird-ass anti-Robin conversational aikido going on here, and it’s fantastic.
i also feel like most of what robin may dislike about her stepdad is that he’s someone her mom chose for herself, not for her kids; and is explicitly only there because he makes her mom happy. which is a ton of what you need in a stepdad! but what robin needed is more complicated than that.
i really don’t remember much about original robin’s bio-dad tho
For anyone who might be eager to ask, hurray, Robin shows empathy to someone and a genuine spark of a connection.
In other news no I don’t think Robin hasn’t done anything good yet for all that she has finally shown the capacity to crack and show humanity toward people she’s voting against and yes I still think she is evil as of this moment because her being a petty exploiter of cognitive dissonance was never what made her evil, that just made me hate her a whole lot
Now that you get your nice moment here and I have the very hopeful if conjectural though that Becky switching hands she holds the phone with before high-fiving is an incredibly awkward thing to do unthinkingly and keeps it from Robin’s side.
Seriously. Oh no you had an absentee parent welcome to the fucking club the rest of us still managed to grow the fuck up and behave like goddamn adults. I am not sympathetic at all to this Tragic Backstory(TM).
So sad. Today at school during lunch I was one of about ten people ywjho found a student in the girls’ restroom trying to slit her wrist with scissors. Luckily we got an adult and talked her down. Sadly, she’s probably breaking up with my friend, who she was dating, and she hates her best friend now. I know how she feels. I’m sad for her friends though.
I don’t think Becky has forgotten for a minute that she’s fighting for her life here.
This is _simulated_ trust and warmth.
Robin is only slowly realizing how badly she’s outmatched here.
Keep an eye on the phone – I’m calling it that Robin does fight the smile, while coming to realize just how sharp Becky is – and then Becky uses the phone that she’s been holding onto for the past however-many strips, to make Robin chase her out of Leslie’s house.
I think Becky is perfectly sincere in her offer of sisterhood… but I don’t think she will be TOO surprised when Robin screws it up.
As for phone shenanigans, I like the idea of it but I bet you a package of arby’s sauce that it won’t happen like that. Becky CAN be sneaky if she wants to, but apart from ToeDad in the middle of the kidnapping she has never targeted anyone in that way. I think the full extent of her plan is what she is doing right now – be friendly, open, use herself as an example and trust God to sort out the details.
I forget, is that the one where they go back in time and save the whales? Or is that the one where Spokk’s half-brother randomly comes in and starts building a feel-good cult by using his Vulcan mind meld ability to “take away” people’s pain (actually regret/guilt) and they meet that floating head fake god that Kirk debunks with “Why does ‘God’ need a spaceship?”?
…
For the record, I enjoy both of them very much.
Oh man, I have such an ugly messy ball of disjointed feelings on this one. So this might be one to take with even more grains of salt than usual.
Panels 1-2: Nrgh. Okay, this is about to be one of the more emotionally disjointed ones for me, because well, I don’t want to regulate one’s feelings of distress about a family member. Like, what is awful for a person, what causes distress is real and powerful and worthy of recognition.
And it’s clear there is some real distress. At her dad for leaving, for her mom for remarrying, for her stepdad for being kind but not in a way that feels enough like a real father.
So yeah, I want to honor and respect that as well as how there’s aspects of this that are a real bonding moment.
… That all said… man is it hard to try and fully embody that ideal I believe in when Robin is comparing “dorky stepdad who is otherwise perfectly nice but just not what she considers her ‘real’ dad” to Becky’s “my dad tried to murder my girlfriend, my best friend, a well-meaning stranger, and me in order to kidnap me and torture my straight after putting me through 18 years of intense physical and emotional abuse and helping drive my mother to suicide”.
Especially as the beginning of Panel 1 shows that she latches on to it as a tactic to “win” against Becky. Like yeah, Becky called him a jerkass dad, but did so in the context of pointing out how he kidnapped her and Robin is actively trying to eliminate that context to justify minimizing it as “a lot of people have crappy dads”.
And she’s doing that minimization and false equivalence because she still sees Becky as a thing to defeat rather than a person and is refusing to see that she’s just a person and is instead fixating on viewing her statements as “tactics” she needs to dismantle and flip on their head to “win”. And she believes that by claiming universality of “crappy dads” she can dismantle what she sees as an underhanded means of making her feel empathy in a way that is inconvenient to her whims.
And it’s a false equivalence she isn’t even willing to fully stand behind, glancing away in guilt when Becky is fully willing to bond with her over crappy dads and accept that framing rather than pushing back in the way Robin was expecting. Because she knows that her situation is nowhere near equivalent.
But again, I recognize that this type of analysis is problematic, because well, distressing parental situations are distressing no matter what and a lot of people with abusive or monstrous situations minimize or discount them because they feel they didn’t suffer enough to count (like I completely minimized my dad punching me in the face when I was 14, because well, it’s not like he hits me all the time).
So yeah, tangled mess of frustrated feelings on that.
What strikes me about Panel 2 is that it seems to me that Robin is saying that her dad is great because he left. “More dads should do that. His is the amount of dad content I crave.” To me it seems that Robin does actually have a major problem with her biofather, and fathers in general. And that, kinda raises a couple red flags for me because it reminds me of one of my still living friends, but I can’t explain why because I promised to always keep that story confidential. And, even if it is anonymously on the internet, sharing it here would still feel like a violation of their trust.
Yup, which is why I’m trying really hard to live true to my principles on that, because well, so often red flags like this hint at a much darker backstory than they’re willing to share openly.
Panels 3-4: Chris Phoenix yesterday had a really astute observation about how Becky has been super slick with phones before and to keep an eye on how Becky treats Robin’s phone to see if she’s moving it further away from Robin.
And well, yeah, this seems to be support for that, because Becky has now moved the cell phone from the hand closer to the hand farther apart and is holding the phone in such a way that it would be easy for her to move it out of the way if Robin was to lunge for it as well as being able to type with her thumb if she needed/wanted to.
Which if Chris’s analysis continues to prove correct, we should keep an eye out for Becky walking off with Robin’s phone “accidentally” leading Robin to need to chase after her.
And now for more tangled feelings. Like, I love Becky here. Her pure heart, reaching out to folks, being so willing to see most anyone as family to replace the broken mess she had. It’s genuinely sweet and way more than Robin’s behavior would merit.
But it’s that last part that frustrates me, because well, Becky already has toxic family members and she has parts of Joyce’s family that try and belittle and put her down and get into her head and try and make her feel like shit.
She doesn’t need a confused bi anti-gay politician who has already tried to minimize what she’s been through to “win”. And my own experiences means I worry about Becky getting sucked into a situation of giving way too much psychic space to someone who will later prove dangerous while I also hope for her continued tack of coming in sideways to fully dismantle Robin’s whole shtick. Because the alternative is Becky likely getting really really hurt.
That’s valid, but it’s also because you chose to listen to them. : )
Also, it took a lot of different people and conversations to change your path, right? Nobody came in and shouldered your previous toxicity alone, nobody changed your mind in a single conversation. They probably all helped, over time… and they couldn’t have done it had you been unwilling to do the hardest part, ie, if you’d been unwilling to change and grow.
Is that true in your case?
Panel 5: Mmf. More tangled feelings. Cause yeah, Becky is awesome and I love her dismantling of Robin’s little bullshit here by being “yeah, sure, this is gay. Gay things are rad! Like me!” But…
Ugh, Robin. Like, she keeps giving just enough rope to want to continue believing in her. Like, she’s getting blushes and sparkly eyes at the idea of “gay contact” and so on.
But, well… it’s using gay as an insult. And worse is the context of it.
Like, there’s a particular type of closet case that is very dangerous. It’s the one that recognizes just enough of their non-heterosexuality to be scared of being read as gay to constantly monitor it, but terrified of anything that could “gay” them, they overreact to even the slightest contact between same-gender folks, interpreting very non-sexual contact as somehow inherently sexual and corruptive.
And that also ties into that whole off part of fundamentalism that views contacting a queer person or a non-white person as somehow corruptive. Like, Ron Paul refusing to sit on a toilet seat used by a gay person least the gay person’s cooties infect his bum and make him gay.
Like, Robin for the last two panels has been staring with deep suspicion at a very innocent high-five simply because it’s coming from a lesbian and is interpreting a very non-sexual high-five contact as somehow being “gay” and thus something she should be avoiding or reading into and pushing back against.
Like, Becky is all smiles and kindly not noticing all this or more likely, actively using her “best behavior” persona she tried to use with Carol to get through and remain guarded against bigoted shit like this.
And yeah, this is bigoted. Treating a gay person as infective, treating being gay as bad, interpreting perfect average non-sexual homosocial contact as somehow denoting sexuality. Coming from a Carol or a Toedad, it’d be even more stark, but it’s not very much blunted by Robin being a closet-case, because well, as mentioned above those can be dangerous.
My ex had some really dangerous encounters with closet case girls who flipped out on her for being openly pan and who tried to actively harm her to try and beat down their own feelings of queer. And I’ve certainly had several… memorable incidents from folks terrified that my existence digs up some hidden non-heterosexual part of them.
And well, Robin has already proven dangerous. She’s been sniping at Becky, feeling her out, and she’s done a huge number of awful things to Leslie all in the name of desperately trying to cling to her closet walls.
But, perhaps, this will all turn out well. After all, who is better than Becky at nuking closets from orbit?
The one and only part of your analysis I disagree with is Robin being suspicious of Becky’s high-five specifically because she’s a lesbian. If she was truly concerned about it infecting or spreading the gay to her, I imagine she would just outright refuse to do it rather than give in at the end (while calling it gay all the same). I feel like her apprehension stems more from just how much Becky is throwing her off her game and not reacting the way she’s expecting. Like, she’s trying to get Becky to fight and argue with her because if she does, then Robin can use her political experience and flat out bullshit to demean her further and ‘win’. She keeps throwing out the snide comments because she’s trying to get Becky to be confrontational, and her abject refusal to do so and insistence on being besties is throwing her off so much that she just doesn’t know how to react. Like, she’s looking at that handshake like it’s a trap and she’s trying to figure out how, because she’s convinced that Becky is an opponent she has to defeat. At least that’s how I’m interpreting it.
That’s how I read it, too. Robin’s confused: why is Becky being nice? What’s her Secret Agenda, what is this friendliness, why isn’t she rising to the bait and sniping back, is this how Becky wins??
So um… this is very off topic, but well… tomorrow, congress in a racist temper tantrum is planning to pass a bill that will make it so most everyone I know will lose their health insurance and that means they will die. If you have a republican representative? Please call them. Leave an angry rant. Do what you can.
Like it’s already gonna suck enough tomorrow now that it’s about to be legal for literally anyone to refuse literally anything for me and mine including governmental service, emergency healthcare, or even emergency response like being saved from a burning building on a “religious objection” grounds because we are trans or queer or both.
Cause I really don’t want to die/bury all my loved ones. So yeah, thanks.
You don’t deserve to be on it in the first place. I mean no one does, but especially not you. Not after all the shit you’ve had to go through and overcome. I just….*hugs* I hope it ends soon. And I hope you and your loved ones can be safe and healthy and live long lives in peace. Because that’s what you really deserve.
*hugs* Stay strong. And yeah, please call your reps and be prepared to call senators as well. Also ask them to speak against the LGBT+ EO, especially blue state gems or moderates.
*hugs* I wish I could do more to help. I live in a blue district, so my representative is already voting “no” on principle of it (the healthcare bill) being well, inhumane. And that’s what I think of the executive order. It’s inhumane. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a regular substitute teacher and am currently doing a long term substitution for a teacher on maternity leave, and I have a few LGBT kids in class. I’m getting resources ready for them and have told them that if they ever need someone to talk to or help at all to contact me. I’ve also set up a list of doctors who are decent human beings and aren’t going to use the “religious freedom” bullshit, which I’ve provided to the school and many of the parents. I’m royally pissed and doing my best to fight, because I’ve buried four of seven friends in the past three years and I don’t want to bury the three I have left and am living with. I’ve even got into contact with some of my Canadian relatives (one of whom works in immigration) and we’re trying to set up a pipeline to get people out of the country if we have too. So, in short, I’m fighting, but I’m scared to death for my friends. I’ve been crying myself to sleep lately too. I’m doing volunteer work for (and donating what little money I have to) my local LGBT activist organization but it just doesn’t feel like I’m doing enough. I’m frustrated and out of ideas of what I can do to help, but I’m determined to beat these two cases of cancer at my surgeries and live on to be as much of a pain in the side of this bullshit executive order as I can be. Also, and this may not mean a whole lot since you’ve said before that you’re an atheist Cerberus, I’m praying to whatever deity may exist and will listen that a federal judge or something like that overturns this order. Because, that’s the only tool I have left that I haven’t used.
Yeah, Trumpcare in its current form is going to create some really sadistic perverse incentives. For example, it changes the Medicaid eligibility rules so that just being low income isn’t enough to qualify, you need to be low income and have either dependent children or be disabled. So you’ve got a whole lot of HIV+ people that will lose access to the antiretroviral therapy that keeps them alive…..unless they have a child. Nope, I see absolutely no problems resulting from that situation!
Which is because it’s intentionally designed to try and kill queer HIV+ people in specific, because the people in power believe that AIDS was “God’s punishment” to wipe us all out and they’re hoping to tip the balance back so that “God” can finish the job.
Like, it’s stark how openly this is designed to just straight up try and kill us and that’s really hard to deal with, because what do you do when the entire system of power is not only passively encouraging your death, but actively plotting ways to make it happen faster?
I can’t do much on account of not living in the U.S., but I wish you and your loved ones all the best nonetheless. I hope you can find a ray of hope and somehow make it through all this.
Like real talk here….They don’t even know how many people would be booted by repealing Obamacare for this AHCA bullshit and it seems like they’re doing it just to say they did something regardless of how many people it screws over.
Shit like this makes me wish I lived in a red state so calling my reps would make more of a difference. (I’ve little doubt Keith Ellison knows what to do)
Those of you with Republican reps NOT voting for it, or with Dem reps in red states, give them a call too and encourage them not to flip. This is going to be much too close to take chances.
Even if it gets killed by the Senate, if this attempt gets through the House this time they’ll definitely try this again.
*support* Let us all hope that the new AHCA (now with more Evil, yes, they’ve found a way) sinks like the Titanic, catches fire like the Hindenberg and takes a meteor to the face like the dinosaurs, order optional.
I swear I had to triple-check that I wasn’t reading the fucking Onion when I read that being a victim of rape or domestic abuse will be considered a pre-existing condition. The whole fucking thing is so bad, that there’s a clause in it saying it doesn’t apply to the congressfolk and their families – that’s right, it’s such a fucking trash fire that even the rich white folk are afraid of being contemplated by it.
So call, folks. And, um, use whatever other avenues are available in the US to increase the chances of this not passing. And also, show up to vote in 2018.
I believe the implication was supposed to be that moderate Republicans and blue state Republicans basically just forfeited their seats in 2018. Still, though, timing.
It passed, because we’ve normalized hate with both side do it to the point where 217 representatives can feel really good about a bill that murders millions of Americans because hey it “shows” those liberals.
It passed and if it passes the Senate… Like being trans is a pre-existing condition. Being raped is a pre-existing condition and now even the emergency rooms can refuse to admit me. If this passes it will kill me and everyone I love. Not all at once, but by deadly inches.
And I’m putting this down in my will. If I die, drain my blood, take my ashes and dump them all over that sonuvadickwaffle Paul Ryan’s face.
Please call your senators.
And if you voted for this. If you voted for those that made this possible. Know I loathe your murder attempt as much as a human being is capable of loathing. This blood is on your hands and I hope you choke on it.
The Senate will be harder, but still possible. The margin is slimmer there and there are some hoops they’ll need to jump through to get it through on a simple majority. Only 3 Senators need to defect. Call yours.
The CBO analysis should also be in before they vote. It’s going to be grim, so that will help.
And all of it for tax cuts for the rich. That’s what it’s all about. Killing marginalized people is only a bonus.
I am sorry that so many people act like you are an acceptable loss, ever.
I don’t know what to say right now. I see you, and I appreciate you. It’s incredibly fucked up that anyone has to fight for basic human decency (such as healthcare), but since we do, I’m sorry, and I’m grateful that you’re here, and I’m very glad that you’re you.
I hope that you have somebody nice to hug this evening, or whatever self-care you most prefer. I am certain that you’ll remain unstoppable, and that we’ll keep trying, too, for all our lives, one day at a time.
What really gets me is Trump could have kept his promise to the middle class by just killing the ACA marketplaces and the mandate. The Medicaid expansion is largely unconnected to the marketplaces, it’s just an entitlement program that is being cut to provide a tax break to the rich. It’s funded by a 0.9% payroll surtax on income over $250k. That’s literally the tax they’re slashing Medicaid in order to eliminate.
Oh hun. I’m so sorry. How are you, your kids, and your fiancé cooping? 🙁
I’ve been in major freak out mode too. I have a preexisting condition making me disabled and I’m on Medicaid and Medicare meaning my coverage is about to get slashed if it passes. If they take away my ability to afford to see my doctors, I will end up in the hospital mire due to stuff I get from weak immune system and having to go to a neurologist for severe Hemiplegic Migraines and pulmonologist for asthma. Take away my meds and I will die a slow painful death over between a few months to a few years. My best friend has narcolepsy. Take away her meds and not only will she be unable to work, she won’t be able to reach deep sleep meaning she will be constantly too exhausted to write, play D&D, create art, care for her 2 cats, go out with her husband, or even function. My dad has 3 heart stints scheduled to be put in in the fall if treatment doesn’t help. My sister has sever asthma and has had to have both lungs re inflated (she said it was like this plaster of Paris stuff) and a kid with asthma. And so so many more in just my close family and friends. This is bad. This plan is evil and deadly. Hospitals will get flooded with acute cases that could have been easily stopped before it escalated by a specialist or even a PCP. People will lose jobs over sick days. Mental health crisis will spike. People will end up bankrupt or homeless over medical care… this is not good.
If this passes the Senate, this will kill everyone I love. Like, being trans is a pre-existing condition, almost everyone I love is on ACA and their meds are all that’s keeping them alive and they can only afford those meds with ACA.
We can’t lose hope yet. We can call, write, or whatever we can and hope that both House and Senate haven’t lost their god damn minds. If I goes through, we keep talking and put faces on all the lives this destroyed… and cost. My best friend is leaving the country and if push comes to shove you and your fiancé and any other partners that can and are in danger… run. Find a new home. Kick ass there. I can’t. I have to stay here if it passes, but I’ll tell anyone who will listen what it did to me. There’s a chance I won’t die… but it won’t be pretty. If I live, I’ll vote in every vote that comes up. If I don’t… well then I will have the most slanderous scandalous obituary my town has ever seen and have it engraved in a rock whereever somebody decides to stick it (I’m donating my body, but odds are my dad will still want a tombstone). I know where I’d want my monument stuck, but I have a feeling there would be a line. 😉
So, what are you saying, Robin? That you’re going to get revenge on your mother for marrying a Trekkie by stalking a Warsie? I’m not sure how that works!
Seriously, though, I really think that this strip shows Robin has absolutely no ability to defend against Becky’s relentless cheer.
If Robin is 30 and Riley is 12, then assuming Riley is both her youngest sister and her biological sister, then Robin couldn’t have been less than 17 when her biodad left. Which would mean there’s a lot of ways her biodad could have messed her up. (And also explain why she’s not too close to her step dad.). Which isn’t to say she isn’t being crappy to Becky with the comparison of dorky stepdad to gun-toting toedad, but we may not be seeing everything. (I’m not making excuses for her, I’m livid at her for pretty much everything she’s done in this comic thus far, just…I dunno, maybe a reason rather than an excuse. I didn’t notice anyone else mentioning this so I thought I would? If someone did already mention it and I missed it, sorry.)
Reading a few of these comments, I always find it weird how my family is actually weird. Parents had me after they were married, This is my parents’ only marriage, my parents are still together, me and my sister are both in college and out of the house and my parents are still doing great together, my parents were supportive when I decided I wanted to pursue a career in animation instead of telling me to get a “real job.”
I always thought this was the norm, what parents were like. Its not till everyone around me is talking about step-parents or not having a dad or something where I realize I’M the weird one. And I’m also an incredibly lucky one.
I think it’s more the case the the bad parents/family units are so horrifically bad that the loud noise and bright lights drown out all the supportive, stable and sane families.
This one. Plus, people with lovely families don’t need to vent about it as often.
I’m privileged with a stable/supportive family-of-origin too. Everyone without lovely bio-families can borrow mine — tho I know it’s not the same at all — come on over, my dad will tell you silly jokes and my mom will make you food, and they’ll be proud of your accomplishments, and generally think you’re great.
honestly families like yours are dreams of hope for the rest of us please never stop talking about weirdly lit surreal incidents of people “getting along” and “resolving conflicts” and “supporting each other”
unless it’s the kind of eery Andy Griffith perfect that makes u suspect that something fucked up is happening under the surface. embrace that raggedy edge of being human, we all need it
I’m relieved to hear this. I was afraid that it was basically waving my privilege around, to mention it at all.
Yes, there’s hope. It’s not in the cards for every family, but, nice families do exist, and you can create one if you haven’t already.
They’ll probably have questionable taste in clothing, and you will never escape their puns, and you will know exactly how they smell on a hot car ride… but if everyone’s into it and things go right, the family that you create will know you, and love you, and they’ll basically hope that you’re doin’ okay.
noooo!!!! i mean obviously there is a time and place for talking about good family relationships, but mostly people gushing about who they love is never going to be out of place! we get to experience them through you, which is a very unique and special thing. which means that in some small way we get to experience what it’s like to have them, through you. which means that we get to experience Not Having A Family That’s Completely Screwed and that is a gift
lololol….puns…i have walked through the valley of pungeon masters and i fear no evil, for my rod and my staff are with me….
Does anyone else see Robin’s eyes getting bigger/shinier? Becky’s starting to break the first lines of defense. God, why is Becky so fucking good? I wish I could be that awesome.
Becky is trying get Robin to recognize her existence/humanity, and is approaching it with endless patience (rather like the stories she’s heard about missionaries to foreign countries).
Becky doesn’t have to do that with Roz, though. Roz already knows that Becky exists, and loudly claims to be fighting on her side. Becky doesn’t trust Roz (because Roz will proudly sell out an individual lesbian for the Greater Good of the LGBTQ+ community).
Becky suspects Roz sold out one (assumed) lesbian. Robin on the other hand has absolutely sold out millions of lesbians (and gay men and trans people and non whites) to be reelected. A lot of Becky’s patience seems to be the result of feeling like Robin have some kind of inherent bond just because they’re both attracted to women. She’s going to learn it’s not that simple.
We’re seeing Robin trying all of her tactics, one by one.
For her, all of this is sparring, and she ‘wins’ when these pesky people & feelings go away. Surely one of her usual strategies will work!
For example, she tries to reframe Becky’s existence into something for which she already has a winning move. She knows how to respond to a pitiful sob story (those are only there to manipulate her! Ignore them!). But, Becky isn’t interested in being pitied, so she’s not a pitiful sob story, so… ???
Robin repeatedly tries deflection, of course, which works on pretty much everything (including Leslie). But, she only distracts herself, while Becky remains undaunted.
Robin can often defeat people when they’re angry (like, by wholeheartedly denying reality so that their arguments don’t matter). She tries to goad Becky into an argument, but Becky isn’t upset, she still wants friendship and high-fives. So Robin can’t use her skills there at all.
And she certainly can’t zany Becky into exhaustion.
Basically, Robin is confused because Becky isn’t trying to ‘win’. Becky is asserting her existence, she’s being a witness to her own humanity. Becky exists whether Robin agrees about it or not.
I think we’ll keep seeing Robin run through each of her tactics in the hopes that one will work. (I kinda want gaslighting to be next, and for Becky to be so confident in herself that she’s immune to it.)
The most crushing tactic would be: “Tell them exactly what they want, and then do whatever”. That one would suck for Team Becky.
Alright, I think I put my finger on the reason why the “Robin is Evil” (and, relatedly, “Republicans are Evil”) rhetoric. Because I’m liberal, right? I’ve been calling my representatives and all that; I’m disabled, and a lot of this legislation affects me in dangerous ways, not to mention other people I know in different situations. So why does the Evil rhetoric bother me?
Because I’ve heard it before, very recently. About Hillary Clinton.
Many of my friends, Bernie supporters and anarchist or libertarian or small-commune-living types, genuinely believed that Hillary Clinton is evil. She’s evil because she approved over a thousand drone strikes that killed innocent people. She’s evil because her covert and overt actions in Latin America during her term as Secretary of State resulted in coups, chaos, and destruction in Hondouras, Haiti, and Latin America. She’s evil because she repeatedly dismissed and stood against LGBT activists for decades. She’s evil because she vocally supported and defended the 1994 Crime Bill that resulted in massively increased incarceration and destruction of black lives.
Arguably, NAFTA also lead to the destruction of lives and communities.
The thing is? All of those assertions…are true. All of those actions resulted in death or harm. The people who died because of her mattered.
She also did good things–WIC and CHIP, her healthcare initiatives, saved lives. I don’t know if that outweighs the bad things. It probably doesn’t.
So here’s the thing: for a solid, I dunno, year and a half? My social media feeds were filled with messages about how Evil Hillary is. Then, suddenly, she’s the democratic nominee. She never addresses the issue of drone strikes, or her destruction of Latin America, or the 1994 Crime bill.
The conversation becomes, can we vote for someone evil simply because they are less evil than someone else? ARE they less evil than the other candidate? Is 1000 drone strikes and mass incarceration less bad than sexual assault charges and unscrupulous business practices?
Suddenly, it’s a moral quandary. It’s about whether each individual is Evil or Good. When, in fact, it should be a question of pragmatic choices–which candidate has the best chance of enacting plans that will improve the country? About their actions, not the state of their souls.
But nobody listened to me. The vast majority of my friends were insistent that Hillary is EVIL and you can never condone evil, that if you vote for her you have blood on your hands for every overseas catastrophe she causes, every unemployed person whose life becomes depressive and excruciatingly pained. There are two Evil candidates. Democracy is broken. We will not vote.
And they didn’t.
And…we know how that turned out. Republicans turned out to vote in the same numbers they always have. Democrats stayed home, demoralized, having lost a battle they believed to be about morality and integrity.
When the truth is? The fight is just to get things done. “There is no way things should be; there is what happens and what we do.” We’ve all got to strive to be wise, strive to find the truth, strive to treat others well. But judgements of Good or Evil, in my recent and intense experience, seem to cloud minds. It makes it hard to take any action at all, or to take actions that seem so less-than-ideal as to be immoral. If the person we condemn is our only hope, what then? What do we do then?
🙁
Bringing it back to the comic–I really appreciate what Becky is doing here. As others have noted, she *is* putting herself in danger. But, more importantly, disarming Robin with friendliness and sympathy is a good action to take–not because sympathy and friendliness are morally righter than anger, nor because friendliness feels good and thus is good. Rather, Becky’s actions seem to be WORKING. They’re effective, at least in this specific circumstance. They may even be long-haul effective, changing Robin’s views and actions dramatically, which might (optimistically) lead her to make better legislative choices. (More realistically, er, Robin *might* have to step down, thus losing her power to do much legislation-wise, but we’ll see).
Take a look at the motherfucking AHCA. The previous version of it was going to put an estimated 43 million people out of health care. This one adds a bunch of pre-existing conditions to the list, like being the victim of rape or domestic violence, or having had a C-section, so the count is going to be higher, but no-one knows what it is, because Republicans know it’s so bad they rushed the vote before the CBO could take a look at the bill. A bill so bad, they excluded themselves from it.
And for what? So they could save rich people a couple more tax dollars? If they’re not evil, then no-one is. But they’re something all right. And by something, I mean people who’ve made it very clear that the only thing they’ll ever do that’ll make the world a better place is die. The only pity is that they seem intent in taking so many others with them.
Honestly at this point the republican party is so over the top mustache twirling evil that to agree to go along with it either says that you are evil or close enough that it doesn’t really make much of a difference anymore. It’s why I have no patience for anyone trying to make me feel sorry for anyone who voted for Trump. They either wanted this or they decided their pain was worth more than the potential suffering of millions of others and that lacks empathy to such a profound degree I can’t begin to fathom or forgive it. It’s close enough to evil for me.
Hillary Clinton was a warmongering technocrat who presided with Obama over the implementation of assassination programs both with drones and otherwise as well as mass surveilance.
And she’s STILL a saint compared to the average Republican candidate.
I think it’s an extremely privileged position to choose to vote about somebody’s innermost soul, when we should be voting for policies, and their likely consequences on real human beings and the world.
I don’t care if a politician would be my pal, or if her soul is lighter/heavier than a feather. I care about the physical world, right the heck now and in the likeliest future.
Oh my god thank you for saying this. Yep! This is not about judging Robin to be Good or Evil! We are not the fucking St Peter at the gates or a Detect Morality spell! Like, yeah lots of people are justifiably wary and worried for Becky, sure. The moment someone convincingly brought up the phone thing, I got very worried too, because holy wow talk about putting yourself into the line of fire if Becky does try to pull that shit.
But all the “Robin is TERRIBAD because her actions were TERRIBAD and there is no other way to frame this” comments are just… twitching my eye a little. How about we don’t do that. How about we don’t divide people into Good and Evil? I swear to god my native language doesn’t even have a word for Evil, this thinking is so alien to me. Like, the closest my attempts to translate this statement into Russian get is “Robin is not a very good person”. And like, yeah, I can’t not agree with that. But acting like you’re a DM jutting down alignment charts is just… augh. WHY
A person having different political views from me, however misguided or repugnant, does not make someone evil. Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Slobodan Milosevich, Andrew Jackson, these are evil people who engaged in destructive genocidal campaigns that killed millions. An incompetent congress person making political decision based on the whims of her constituents isn’t evil.
I think most educated people can see the difference between cutting funding for social programs and herding people into camps for hard labor and eventually mass extermination.
You do know the concentration camps didn’t spring up overnight right? It’s a ripple effect. “Educated” people being willing to let a lot of shit slide and/or “Ignorant” people being willing to vote for the person promising them whatever the fuck they want at a cost to the undesirables and the ripples keep going until you’re living in a nightmare world “no one” saw coming. If you vote for politicians who will implement dehumanizing policies you are complicit in the damage they do. If you are a politician working for those voters you are complicit in the damage that will result and however far it goes. No decision exists in a vacuum. Actions have consequences etc and people should be willing to consider what can result from their actions when they decide to do something like vote for a particular party or try to get elected.
You do know slippery slope arguments were used to keep gay rights as a concept nonexistent for years right? Just because someone opposes social programs and views for any number of reasons that two dudes like me and my boyfriend shouldn’t marry doesn’t mean they have a planned end game final solution of putting me in a gas chamber. If you start seeing all of your political opponents as nazis it pretty much makes it impossible to cooperate and actually make positive change.
Just because people have used a similar argument to push bigotry that doesn’t make what I said untrue. Actions still have consequences and people should still consider what the fuck they’re voting for might lay the groundwork for five, six, or fifty years from now. For example consider what the fuck people being unwilling to take climate change seriously and voting for all these policies against environmental regulations is going to do to the planet eventually. It doesn’t really matter what people MEAN to happen. it matters what their actions or inaction eventually result it and what they helped lay the groundwork for.
To be fair, knowingly murdering people and destroying the world for money is pretty God damned evil, but Robin isn’t evil she’s just stupid. She’s the Rhino of the dumbing of age rogues’ gallery.
As a gay man born in the early 80s who grew up a military brat and spent at least half my life in the south I can accept that someone can think of me as morally wrong for being a homosexual and still not be a bad person. Ignorance is terrible and should be changed whenever possible, but ignorance itself isn’t inherently evil. And frankly while I might hate the results I’m not going to jump to calling a politician fulfilling the whims of the people who voted her into office as evil.
You’re acting like these politicians are as ignorant to the results of what they’re voting for as the people voting for them. They know what they’re signing on for. They know the real human cost. They’re not puppets with no choice in the matter. They actively work towards being the people with the power. If they’re voters want them to restrict access to abortion, list rape as a pre existing condition, destroy the planet, and deny trans people the right to use the fucking bathroom then their voters are ignorant assholes and they are fucking morally bankrupt.
Well at the end of the day if I had my day I would be supreme dictator enforcing socialized health care and basic human rights and dignity on all my citizens (just picture a chubby bearded dude that dresses and sounds like a grunge singer giving the “terrible queen” speech from lord of the rings). Unfortunately I live in a democracy and I know I’m not going to convince many people to my point of view by calling them evil and morally bankrupt.
People shouldn’t have to be “nice” to convince people of their basic humanity. If someone doesn’t want to get their feelings hurt about making decisions that will literally lead to millions of people dying maybe they shouldn’t vote for politicians bragging on national tv about sexual assault? Also it’s not like I’m going to a trump supporter screaming in their face about how I think they did an evil thing. We’re discussing this shit in the abstract and objectively these people ARE doing evil. But also I’m too tired to be nice about this shit. There’s too much on the line and right now if you can’t see this shit without someone there to talk to you sweetly and hold your hand through it I don’t fucking have time for you. Black people have been shit on over and over in this country for centuries and we still somehow manage to not vote for the politicians that will fucking doom everybody to hell. At a certain point you have to be able to figure out the right answer on your own without someone begging for their lives in front of you.
Evil really isn’t so much what you are as what you do. And Robin has done some pretty evil actions against the queer population, based on equally evil actions from her voters. However whimsical it might seem, these actions are still evil actions.
If you want to effect social change and make people think differently about how they view lgbtq individuals labelling them and their opinions as evil might not be the best approach. It’s wrong and based in ignorance, but there’s a difference between that and evil.
That’s what I thought initially after I wrote it and desperately wanted to edit it. But most sources indicate that in this instant it’s the opposite. It makes sense when you realize that when the verb means cause you write “to effect.” Still affect sounds write in my head so who knows.
No, you were right the first time. The verb ‘effect’ means ‘to bring about’, which is what you intended, I believe. The verb ‘affect’ means ‘to have an influence on’.
Effecting social change would be to cause it to happen. Affecting social change would be to change what happens. I suppose it’s possible to do both at once.
But it’s still 100% accurate to label it as evil. The absolute main thing that Robin and her voters are doing against the LBGQT community is to try and take their humanity away, and as an end goal, to damn well erase their very existence!
In what fucking world is deliberately taking away someone’s humanity not fucking evil? And in what fucking world should I sacrifice the accuracy of the statement “Those are evil actions” just to avoid some bloody butthurt feelings of those commiting those actions? I will not. I cannot.
And trying to excuse that by conflating it with “ignorance” doesn’t work with me; partially because that ignorance is one they deliberately keep alive by actively sheltering themselves from the consequences of their words and actions.
I have a feeling that Robin’s real dad is a massive arsehole, and that come panel two, Robin decided not to open up about him and vent about her dorky step-father instead. But I could be reading too much into it I suppose :X
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Becky’s collecting twinsies like Pokémon
GOTTA SNATCH ‘EM ALL
Heh….
…. you said snatch… I’m sorry.
Heh….
… so did you.. heh..
Heh…
… you said dotdotdot
And that’s Morse code for S! S as in SNATCH!
Could you explain your display name?
Read it upside down.
OH GLOB!
GENIUS
well https://www.dropbox.com/s/nw9st8euqb0agsm/2017-02-05%2016.07.05.jpg?dl=0
the label is the best part
btw, saving for reference
Alt-text confuses me. Is Mark actually a decent, if dorky guy? I look forward to these plot developments.
I didn’t like my “step dad” for a long time even though he never did anything wrong. I use quotations cause he never actually married my mom.
I always hated my step-mom, but it took me until my dad divorced my step-mom and got a new girlfriend that I was finally confident that I didn’t hate her just because she was my step-mom, but because she was a genuinely unpleasant person. Dad’s new girlfriend, in contrast, is great!
Hooray for leveling up (from yucky step-mom to great girlfriend)!
My stepfather never liked me (or my brothers). From Day 1.
I have heard that statement before from friends from blended families and never understood it. Why would you marry (or live with) someone who already has kids if you don’t like the kids, it is pretty much a package deal.
My very limited online dating experiences so far seem to indicate “partner had kids, didn’t bother to mention it” might be part of the explanation. Like, I’m not sure what the idea here is – you’re afraid someone won’t be cool with you having a child so you hide that fact so you can get them to like you before dropping that one them..? Would you really want someone who sees children from a previous relationship as an issue?
(I am not very interested in dating single mothers – it’s an experience gap inferiority complex at a guess. But mostly the ones I’ve seen have basically listed wine, travelling and sports as interests aside from being mothers, so a bigger part of it is not really having anything in common)
Seems like it. So Robin’s yet to get over the stage of your life where you idealize the crappy parent who’s never there being a parent and you resent the one who actually WAS there. This is not unusual but she’s in her fucking 30’s and should probably have some adult perspective on this shit at some point but she’s Robin. The fact that she compares her relatively normal childhood angst to Becky’s situation is just fucking typical of her level of immaturity.
Is she in her 30s though? She ran for congress at age 25. I agree with you though.
I just assume 30’s I have no idea how old she actually is.
Mary confirmed she’s 30.
Uh. I mean her first comment about other people having crappy dads aside, Becky was the one who explicitly and enthusiastically drew that comparison. She may have been saying stuff in the first panel not to draw comparisons to herself, but to justify not being impacted by becky’s story, which is how I initially read it. So like… still terrible, but for the same reasons as in last comic, not anything new.
And like, Becky’s been intentionally downplaying this for normalcy’s sake anyway, calling him her jerkass dad instead of, like, her dangerously unhinged and abusive one. Quite frankly, someone insisting on making a huge deal about it would be more uncomfortable for her than this thing that she’s explicitly asking for anyway. See also, that time in the diner Joyce tried to say she couldn’t complain about her own parents and Becky did not agree.
Yeah yeah I’m another shortpacked Robin fan with unjustified hope for the character here, whatever man.
In the previous comment Becky brought up her dad who kidnapped her and then immediately following that Robin went, “You’re not the only one with a crappy dad,” Becky was willing to go along with it for the sake of bonding but Robin is the one who equated the two dads first.
Comic not comment. The previous comic.
No, what I mean is, I read that as another refusal to acknowledge what Robin sees as a political ploy to win her over, not that she INITIALLY was talking about her own dad. Guess it could go either way, but until I saw Becky’s response, I didn’t take it as comparison between the two of them. It coulda just been like “well your sob story won’t work, there’s other sob stories out there (and I as a politician have seen lots of them because politics)”.
And Becky’s over and over tried to keep her situation relatable to other people, so like… that’s presumably what she would have wanted either way? Kid wants to be normal except in the ways that are cool, like having a superhero car chase. But otherwise, like she said to Dina that one time, she doesn’t wanna be a downer, her identity is wrapped up in wackiness and a lack of real problems. Whether or not that’s ultra psychologically healthy is another deal, but it’s what she’s done at pretty much every opportunity.
I dunno, I read it as Robin trying to equate Becky’s absolutely horrific shotgun threatening dad with having a stepdad who is a bit of dork. Robin is being fucking awful basically.
I mean Becky asked if she has a crappy dad and Robin says no, so I don’t really see this.
I was gonna say this yesterday but I guess I can say it here. Robin isn’t the horrifying and unredeemable character she seems or that people have labled her as.
She’s guilty of a lot of things: Lack of empathy, obliviousness, complacency, pandering, hypocrisy, doing the bare minimum. I don’t know how she got her job but she keeps it by leaning the way her supporters want. If this comic was in say California. (I only use California because it’s a traditionally blue state and generally queer accepting…also I live there) and the bill she voted on was to say…allocate funds to housing for at risk youth. She would be a hero for doing the same thing she’s doing now. Sitting on her ass, tweeting bullshit, and voting whichever way the wind blows her party. No this doesn’t actually justify anything Robin’s done. In a way it makes it worse because it means she probably doesn’t have any values. But it does mean she’s probably susceptible to persuasion and education with enough time.
This is my opinion. Thank you.
Robin being redeemable is not the issue. Robin being evil is the issue, the issue being, she is evil, your opinion is not acknowledging how many people her acting term in Congress in comic means and always will mean she is accountable for legislation that goes through or doesn’t go through or even gets argued on the floor. She is a Republican and her giving her vile supporters what they want so she can have what she wants means that entire groups of people get to be murdered en masse and there aren’t more consequences.
Robin is killing people. Sitting on her ass and tweeting bullshit in a position where you decide whether or not to give the laws of your country the time of day is knowingly going for the job that makes you the decider and you decide anyone but you can just die, and then they do die.
Robin is a closeted gay congresswoman in a district that doesn’t want her to exist. Putting aside ludicrously simplistic “she’s evil” narratives, what do you expect her to *do*? She doesn’t actually wield that much power, especially not now—now, with her campaign flagging, with her having to confront things about herself that she’s studiously avoided thinking about for years.
As for her being “evil” for failing to take proactive action to pursue legislation that would have no chance of passing—do you think pre-DOA Joyce would have done anything different, in her situation?
Because if not, pre-DOA Joyce was “evil”, too. Let’s just keep that perspective when we go making these sorts of claims. The difference between “evil” and “not evil”, by your logic, is a few conversations to challenge a worldview. Y’know, like the conversations Robin is having right now.
Robin wasn’t born into being a Congresswoman, or forced into it. She chose to work her way into a position of power, and I will absolutely judge her for the actions she takes or doesn’t take while in that position. What do I expect her to do? Something, anything, except take only the actions she thinks will keep her in power and never give a second thought to the responsible use of that power. (Well, no, that’s exactly what I expect her to do, but then that’s why I’m judging her.)
There’s nothing simplistic about the “evil narrative.” It’s a fundamental issue you have to take into account. Evil is a real thing (even if it is only a concept), and it has to be dealt with. Too much sympathy for evil people creates a desire to overlook how evil they are and easily be misled when they inevitably try to make cosmetic changes that don’t deal with the underlying problem.
Robin being evil is important to keep in mind. She is not merely some good person who has reasons for doing bad things. That may be true, but it makes her no less evil.
And I will repeat why I think this is important. Because I believe this attitude of ignoring evil is why people were able to defend someone as clearly evil as Trump.
The reason I was so upset at him winning was knowing how many people don’t seem to know the difference between Good and Evil anymore. Evil is not corruption. Evil is not maybe making mistakes with email or making the wrong military decision. Evil is hurting people, either intentionally, or because you just don’t care about anyone else but yourself.
And Robin is Evil in that second category (while Trump has some of both.)
I fear context has not done these types of defenses much of a favor. Like, yeah, a shitty democrat would be a shitty incurious democrat, but right now, the republican dominated house has sweetened their deal to kill millions of Americans by making it even more transparently cruel while their chosen leader is about to make it legal for health care professionals to straight up deny me care based on who I am.
So yeah, not really feeling the “all sides are the same” shallow tribal reads at the moment.
Also, the example you provide kind of reveals the central problem. Yes, if Robin instead of voting to actively harm queer youth and make it actively harder for them to survive had instead supported programs to make it easier for folks to survive, she probably would be viewed better.
And it’s not because “following constituents” or “tribal loyalty” but because one example you give is one where she is actively helping people survive and in one she is actively making it harder for people to survive.
Like, if we are really so far gone around that we can’t recognize the stark moral contrast there, then I’m not sure what else we can do.
Yeah. It’s a serious false equivalency because a shallow spineless Democrat who votes for whatever the party wants will like, try and feed some poor folks, while a shallow spineless Republican will literally cause people to die. They’re both shallow and spineless, but their impact is nowhere near the same ballpark.
While it may make her worse in some abstract moral sense, I’d much rather be dealing with the cynical, believes in nothing, out for themselves politician than a true believer. Unless the true believer agrees with me, of course. As you suggest, the cynical ones can learn. They can negotiate and compromise.
To frame it in the ACA repeal, it’s the difference between the more moderate Republicans being swayed by their constituents saying they need to keep their coverage and the Freedom Caucus demanding a total repeal with no compromise.
I didn’t get the feeling she idolized her crappy parent. Panel two reads to me as Robin saying that her view on dads in general is that they suck. Like, she’s not saying her biodad is great because he’s great, he’s great because he went away and she never sees him.
Same as Cass here. I don’t get the feeling that she thinks dads can be good period, what I do get is the feeling that she’s not telling the whole story of what’s wrong with her stepdad. She thinks it’s good that her bio-dad is not involved in her life! What kind of shit is she projecting on the possibility that he could have been?
I know lots of people have been complaining in the comments about how many people are turning out to have had crappy parents, but the thing is… lots of people have crappy parents. Like, that’s a pretty true to life part )=
Sounds like a debate worth starting: If you’re a crappy parent, or believe you would be one, is it better to stay in your kid’s life, or to remove yourself? Is it better for a child to have abusive parents, or no parents?
I mean, clearly, the best result is to have neither.
If you have reasons to think you would be crappy parents, don’t make/adopt kids. But… Well, if people were responsible enough to reflect upon themselves and be honest on their capacity to educate a child, child abuse wouldn’t be a thing, now, would it ?
And it’s better to have no parents than having bad parents, if only because with a bit of luck, other parental figures, good ones, can be found.
Sometimes kids are a legit accident. Even keeping them can be compulsory.
Please, don’t take this the wrong way, I honestly ask because I don’t understand: how can it be compulsory to keep a child when you know that their life environment would be bad for them ?
I can see cases where someone discovers that they’re pregnant too late for an abortion to still be legal, or where said abortion could have dire consequences on their health, but if they honest-to-goodness believe that a child shouldn’t be living with them… isn’t it why adoption centers are partly for ? Aren’t there governmental organisms put in place specifically to protect the children ?
Sort of feels like Robin never really had any interest in growing up.
It depends on how much you hate Star Trek, apparently? Looking up Robin’s mom’s appearances in Shortpacked, it looks like she never remarried, so his tie collection is the only thing we know about Mark.
Also according to the alt text another huge flaw of his is that he’s always telling Robin he’s proud of her. So he likes star trek and he’s supportive of her career. I mean that does imply his politics might be shit.
star trek is a lot more of a liberal narrative, tho
True but I’m wondering how proud of Robin he could be if her weren’t a republican himself. I guess he could just have a rule about supporting her but never actually discussing what she believes. I mean it’s not like anyone but (we can assume) Roz would really be eager to make a thing about it.
mmmm or maybe he’s a moderate and on the side of “trying to understand everybody’s viewpoints”, which would be pretty star treky
Robin doesn’t have a view on most of the things she does though. She just does them because they’re easy.
but see that is also a viewpoint
you really can’t slither your way out of having viewpoints when neutrality is itself a viewpoint. choosing the easiest way is a political opinion, especially if you work in politics. it’s not an easily defensible opinion, but it’s still an opinion.
My stepdad would be out of his mind proud if I became a congressperson, and he’s like, really conservative. Some people only take politics so seriously, regardless of their ideals, and while he’s voted straight ticket republican for like ever, pretty sure if I ever demanded passionately that he just not vote on an issue or something, he’d humor me. Lotta people don’t care THAT much, so the pride of having a congressperson child could still win over whatever they actually are doing in office. It’s a pretty big accomplishment.
Basically I don’t think we can infer much of anything about Mark besides that he is complicit in withholding everyday cereal from his stepchildren, so far.
I’m intensely depressed that folks like this are what’s going to kill me and everyone I love.
You sound especially frustrated today – what’s wrong? May I offer internet hugs? (Jeeesh, I don’t even know how to ask such things without sounding all insensitive)
It’s just been really really shit politically of late.
Today, Trump will sign the Religious Freedom EO which will now mean everything I try to do as a trans person will now be a roulette wheel of whether or not they consider me enough of a person to do their job and that includes emergency services.
And the House is really close to enough votes to pass their version of the AHCA, which, yeah, most of my loved ones are lower income folks relying on ACA for any form of coverage and are taking medicine that is critical for whether or not they kill themselves or whether or not they stay alive. (So if any of you has a red representative, please spam their phone number). And would also mean the return of pre-existing condition bans. Being trans was a pre-existing condition. Hell, most things were.
We just had Comey joke and laugh around about his role in a deliberate act of treason to “elect” a dangerous fascist while the news media that aided him continue ranting about Obama and Clinton as if the world wasn’t burning right now.
And a woman is about to go to jail for a year, because she dared laugh at AG Sessions while all the “free speech” assholes who’ve been tongue-bathing nazis for the last three years have gone conspicuously silent.
And it’s all happening because of this toxic mix of tribalism and “both-sides fetishism” that is allowing the normalization of a party who is entirely about finding inventive new ways to actively hurt and kill marginalized folks just trying to get by.
And it’s all… a little much.
Wow, that sucks far worse than I’ve heard from the news, unbelievable level of assholery. Sorry to hear that. But remember, there are still good people out there. (e.g. I wouldn’t think emergency doctors are the type to care about any stupid religious freedom stuff, hopefully?) Stay strong 🙂
It…
Okay first of all you’re just wrong about doctors, period. Doctors are people. Often they are wealthy people. They are not less prejudiced than the average bear; in fact, they tend to be worse on prejudices like anti-fat bias (where literally tumors go undiagnosed for years because fat patients get told that the pain in their knees will get better if they lose weight, and that’s the end of their consultation). As any trans person will tell you, the medical community is hella transphobic.
Second, emergency care is not a substitute for health insurance. And it also is not free — emergency doctors will treat you and then send you a bill that you have no way to pay and sic collection agencies on you to ensure they get their money.
Like there’s a reason why people in this country sometimes break the law so that they can go to prison and be treated for free by prison doctors.
Third, Cerberus knows there are still good people out there. She’s just still upset and she has every right to be, because the mere presence of good people won’t save anyone if this shit becomes law.
*sigh* apparently I failed at not sounding all insensitive. I just tried to be supportive, and theres not a whole lot I can do from over here :/
I’m thinking he may also just be a super supportive guy.
Maybe putting her politcs aside to be encouraging, and honestly proud of her achiving the level of political office that she has 🙂
Star Trek is more of a liberal narrative, but in a way that people somehow entirely miss. I’ve seen it held up online as an example of golden age sci fi, when it was about tech and not SJW nonsense. At one point the head of the NSA made an Enterprise bridge out of his command center, apparently without noting the two display rather opposite values.
That could be a real abuse tactic if he’s not doing that for everybody.
Dawwww
16 is a little overboard.
I agree, 15 is enough.
mark needs 20 star trek ties
Mark needs 20 *more* Star Trek ties
right, i misspoke, mark needs 20 more star trek ties
Mark needs ALL of the Star Trek ties.
You can make an argument for 7 because hey you need one for every day of the week. Maybe even 14 because sometimes you have to put off doing laundry a week cause life. 16? 20?! Maybe question some of your life choices.
Does one launder ties?
I mean I guess if you spill something on them.
Or maybe Mark uses them to floss his armpits. I don’t know his life.
http://www.ties.com/blog/how-to-clean-a-tie
well just because they’re all Star Trek ties, doesn’t mean they’re the same ones. There’s like five different captains to begin with, different characters, all in various shades and colors, and just because you feel like wearing a tie with Worf on it in one week, doesn’t mean that next week, you might not prefer to have a simple one color with just the Star Trek symbol on it some other time…. just saying…
Wear them? Wear them?!? Philistine! Collectables like that should be kept vacuum-wrapped in cellophane and displayed in a glass-fronted case! Certainly they should never suffer the indignity of contact with the human body… or even unfiltered air!
20 ties? SCORE!
….
*flees for dear punning life*
and here i thought puns were my fort, eh?
Good Lord, you’re worse than my roommate… I love it.
Okay, so you don’t like me exclaming “Score”?
Hmmm…
WIN-dsors!
….
If you had 16 ties in your closet, and you have some that you just bought in your hand, and the total is twenty, does that mean you have four in hand?
…..
Yeah, okay, I’m just being a pratt now.
reltzik, youre causing a chrisis
Yes, please do knot keep this up.
Tie puns now??
Do knot!!
“It suits ya.” That may be the most insightful thing Becky’s ever said.
Did the text in panel 5 change?
I want to know what you saw!
“Yeah, pretty sweet ain’t it?” was originally “It suits ya.” I looked at it twice before I commented because it was such a great observation from Becky.
Fictive kinship crosses all sorts of surprising boundaries!
Becky is cute at times, but a little bit of her goes a long way.
Owns 16 Star Trek ties, tried to kill you with a shotgun…same diff
If Mark is a fan of Enterprise, then yeah, I’d say they are about on par.
………..nooooooo.
….
….
nooooooooooo.
…
…
i realize you are probably joking but all the same: noooooooooooooooooooooooo
if nothing else, Enterprise gave the gift of Sir Patrick Stewart and Levar Burton’s popularity to the world, as well as re-invigorating the Star Trek franchise and being a source of stable work in an industry where that is far too infrequent.
a dad trying to kill his daughter with a shotgun gives the world nothing of merit and honestly it happens in real life far too often to joke about
That was Next Gen. Enterprise gave us the gift of shirtless Scott Bakula with a chainsaw.
ok im clearly not up on my star trek
i remember that jawline tho
ooh! also our first lady vulcan main character!!!
i don’t even know t’pol but i trust her
More like a reskinned Seven of Nine without the interesting characterization.
ok
i support her in living the perfectly boring life of her choice
No, you’re safe, it’s not Enterprise. They’re all Nemesis ties.
eyuuch Nemesis… that was a mess…
Robin’s last line is very similar to what a new reader thinks after 10 minutes.
…Robin…are you implying owning 16 Star Trek ties is a comparable level of crappy to trying to shoot your kid? I…lord almighty.
Also, you’re saying this in a room that has no less, but possibly more, than 2 Star Wars posters in it.
judges are in favor, that is what robins implying
Yeah, your dad was a homophobic sexist kidnapping gun-toting piece of shit, but my stepdad…collects Star Trek ties…
*silent screaming at the amount of ignorance*
… and Becky still turned it into a bonding moment.
Tell ya what, Robin. You get the couch in Becky’s apartment, and she gets your seat in the House. Everyone wins!
(especially Becky, who’s managed to score a sweet apartment somehow in this deal.)
Pretty sure she’s hating on the Step because he isn’t the Dad that left.
Plus whatever luggage/issues the step brings to the family, that she feels falls short of positive by a lot. Again, in the shadow of the “best” Dad that left.
Equal to Becky’s? No probs not by a long shot.
But not as horrific a comparison as it looks once you read the subtext.
Either way! She was already a shit!
This is progress!
Emotionally open vs defensive, closed, and cold!
Eh… I’d be onboard with this reading, except she says she’s happy her biodad left and isn’t involved in her life. “His is the amount of dad content I can tolerate”. Her associations with ‘dad content’ are very clearly negative. Whatever the reason she resents her stepdad, that he isn’t her biodad definitely isn’t the entirety of it.
Although that could be more of a sour grapes sort of mentality as a coping mechanism rather than a sincere statement. It’s a lot easier to deal with an absentee parent if you convince yourself you don’t even want them there anyway, though that CAN eventually become how you actually feel about them over time even if it starts out as a coping mechanism.
That basically.
There is so much mental weight on parents withing the mind of the child that solid logical thinking gets lost FAST once something like abandonment happens.
And it never goes away, so people get weird and stay weird/sort of broken.
In the same vein, either Becky is a super human cartoon or there will be one HELL of a fallout later as her happy mask wears off.
Yeah… like I don’t want to minimize what clearly is at least some real distress, but on the surface, that is a shallow to the point of almost being offensive comparison on Robin’s part.
“Almost”.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All of the love to our clever, beautiful, goofball lesbian queen!!!
Yes, totally! I just about melted with love for her today.
You too, huh?
In one panel they’re sisters, and in the next they’re kinda gay. These should be mutually incompatible thoughts.
“Sisters?!” “…we’re close”
Love a well-placed Rent reference.
times like this, I wish I could “like” comments XD
Reminds me of when I told my mom Tegan and Sara are gay.
Her: “What? No, they’re sisters.”
Me: “…They’re not gay /with each other./”
i’m ashamed of how long that took me to figure out
They’re close
Joyce agrees with you
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/forever/
RE: alt text: it’s probably help if he didn’t say it in Klingon…
*it’d
[“YOU ARE NOT A SHAME FOR THE EMPIRE”]
16? I personally wouldn’t settle for fewer than 20, but to each their own.
excellent
He doesn’t even collect them himself, but Riley got in her head that he was a trekkie and everyone just ran with the joke. One tie each from all his step daughters each fathers day equal A LOT of star trek ties.
My weirdest ties are all from Father’s Day. Wear them anyway.
I got a Shakespeare in original Klingon from one of siblings.
… at least the BB8 mug I got years later was sort of topical, if completely useless as mug.
What I’m saying is, doing a little research doesn’t hurt. I even prepped a wish list so they could have some idea of what I’m into.
Robin’s stepdad is the boys’ RA?
I /might/ be confusing star wars and star trek, but Mark better not be the beck 3 guy (99% sure he’s not, by the way.)
ACHIEVEMENT: befriend one desanto of an unknown number. can you find them all?
Beck’s RA’s a Trekkie.
But unlikely to be Mark, since he’s closer in age to Roz than to Mama DeSanto.
breaking news guys: found family is super gay
Really very pissed about Robin comparing a pleasant sounding dork to Becky’s father who fucking kidnapped her at gunpoint. Like…I’m sorry but that’s the kind of shit you grow out of eventually and she’s in her 30’s and she still not only is pulling that, “You’re not my REAL DAD bs!” but she actually sees nothing wrong with saying it’s just as bad as what Becky’s going through. She is just fucking exhausting. Becky has the patience of a saint.
If one’s stepfather really *is* a shitty person, I think they’re justified in not acknowledging them as their father, though. Robin’s reasons are nonsense, and she clearly disrespects him on the basis of his not having been her birth-parent, but it’s not the fundamental premise that’s at fault, it’s her reasoning. Not everyone develops an amicable relationship with a step-parent.
But most at least try.
Robin seems to have missed that step. Hard.
Oh yeah if he was actually implied to be a piece of shit I’d have no issue with Robin’s lack of respect for him.
TBH I think the implication is there, if slightly hidden. Note how Robin doesn’t wish for her biodad’s presence in her life. She wishes she didn’t have a dad period, not a different one. Whatever she associates with ‘dad content’ in her life, it’s clearly negative.
Now, this could go anywhere between ‘obnoxious and embarrassing’ and ‘actively emotionally abusive and his ‘proud of her’s are actively conditional on her being a member of Congress despite being in no way ready for the responsibility of the position’. But, ya, there’s something there definitely.
I’m assuming the alt-text means he’s a decent dude because if he’s abusive that’s a pretty fucked up joke to make.
Robin’s eyes …
I feel like I would have been better off using my good-aligned Palpatine joke here, instead of on Carla earlier.
:}
Star Treks on Star Wars Day? Yeah, that is EVIL.
*plays the MEGO version of the Ewok Celebration music from Return of the Jedi on Leslie’s stereo*
MECO, not MEGO. Toys on the brain, I guess.
oh great she uses gay as an insult, wheeeee i see why leslie fell for her
I mean… I’m pretty sure she’s using it in the bro-y “avoid gay by any means necessary” sort of way.
“I’m touching your hand (no homo).”
That kind of bullshit that only implies a more glaring lack of certainty about one’s sexuality.
From Robin’s expression, I’m not sure she means it as an insult
She’s been watching Steven Universe, and breaks out the Steven Universe eyes in the last panel.
Yeahhhhh I’m leaning more to “these folk I’ve violently rejected are still offering to accept me as one of them, help what do I do” than “I’mma gonna insult you right now”.
Also, sitting on the sofa with no pants, bonding with a cheeky lesbian, in the home of another lesbian, MIGHT also be a bit gay. Just sayin’.
“My dad is worse than yours, he’s a Trekkie and constantly says he’s proud of me.”
You gotta admire Becky’s unflappability.
gay teen bonds with area woman over star trek
A dad (or step-dad) who owns 16 Star Trek ties doesn’t sound crappy to me. He sounds pretty fucking awesome.
They’re Abramsverse Star Trek ties.
noooooooooooooooooo
Robin is still kinda shitty to Becky, but oh boy their bonding moment is still pretty much adorable here.
It’s a bonding moment where Becky keeps ignoring how awful Robin is being.
I’m kinda extra horrified after reading some of the other comments here. It didn’t even register for me that Robin is using “Gay” as an insult here. I thought Robin is just referring to bonding with Becky as kinda homosexual-ish? But yea I agree with you 🙁 As cute as it is seems to be on the surface, it’s still very much a bad situation.
Does Becky not know Robin has sisters – and she’s acquainted with one already to some degree of dislike?
Wait, what’s this?
An awful homophobic Republican piece of crap Representative suddenly has a queer family member?
THERE’S HOPE FOR ROBIN NOW!
…..
Actual hope for a redemption arc, or sarcastic commentary on the hypocrisy of conservative politicians? YOU be the judge!
i read this in linkara’s voice
Who’s linkara? No seriously who is that? I’ve heard the name mentioned before but have no idea who that person is.
He does humerus recaps and reviews of comics.
He presents Atop The Fourth Wall (amongst other things), where he drives himself mad reviewing terrible comics. Has unfathomable knowledge of all things Power Rangers.
He used to be fairly active in the Shortpacked! comments section, particularly when there were Batman jokes involved. Dunno if he reads Dumbing of Age, though.
Please point me to a politician that isn’t a hypocrite.
I love Becky and her attempts at making sense of her shitty life by being a beeming sunshine person on the outside and bowling over any godawful congressperson who might be in her way with her positivity.
That’s honestly the best response ever to someone saying, “This is kinda gay”. Also, does this mean that Roz and Robin are half-sisters, or is Mark a more recent development? Either way, the whole “You’re not my real dad” trope really shouldn’t be in effect given how old Robin is. And implying that your dorky step-dad is comparable to the kidnap at gunpoint dad is bullshit. This better not be some sort of “Well, at least your dad actually stayed around” type of deal either.
….
And shit a couple possibilities just entered my head. Stupid brain stop making completely unsubstantiated theories.
I think Robin, Roz, and Riley must be full biological sisters. They look really alike, plus this setup would annoy Roz more.
Mother DeSanto’s genes might just be really dominant and Robin knows but Roz doesn’t because she and Riley (and x number of siblings) were never told.
….
Nah, that would be a really crumy twist.
….
Also, if Becky just “collected” Robin as a sister, does that mean she considers Roz and Riley sisters as well? Because I think Riley would find that cool at least.
Roz and Riley refers to him as Mark, so he’s probably not their bio dad.
I mean, Robin straight up says she’s happy her biodad DIDN’T stay around.
We don’t actually know that 16 ties is Mark’s worst quality, it’s just the one that Robin led with.
Wasn’t it established that Roz’s dad cheated on her mom?
Was that Robin’s and Roz’s absent bio-dad, or their stepdad?
I would assume they mean bio-dad cheated which likely led into why they ended up having a stepdad. Not that stepdads can’t be guilty of it, but more because their mum would likely have divorced or separated from him by now if he had which would have given Robin something to focus on besides her irrational dislike of his ties.
It’s quite possible that Mark’s worse qualities are just not something you tell to a near-stranger on your first meeting. Most people are reluctant to share things like ‘withholds affection unless I act the way he likes’ or ‘treats my belongings as shared’ or ‘has screaming matches with my mom daily’ right off the bat. Becky’s open about her own shit because it’s all public already, but she’s still not exactly forthcoming with information about him driving her mom to suicide.
Robin has made a minimizing joke, which is intensely crappy of her re: Becky, but it’s quite possible that Becky’s situation is not the only one she’s minimizing, here.
That all makes sense. It’s still crappy of Robin to draw false equivalency between her folks and Becky’s horrible abuser. However, Becky doesn’t mind, since she can just masterfully reframe whatever dumb BS Robin throws at her, in her greater goal of helping them connect.
I think Robin’s noticing a tingling sensation in her hand from the field that Becky emits. Usually such fields require specialized “gaydar” devices to detect, but Becky’s is particularly strong
Robin cannot understand why Becky is being so nice to her.
Becky is… Becky. I guess.
I think Robin realizes that Becky is her sister now. Which is tacit permission to drag her out in front of the media and use her to revive her failing career as well as betray any principles she holds.
As terrible as the “well, your dad may be a gun-toting, kidnapping psychopath, but MY step-dad’s a Star Trek nerd” comparison is, I find the whole “my REAL dad left, and I’m glad he’s gone” bit of dialogue in panel 2 to be the more interesting bit of information.
I also love how rather than get offended that this privileged asshole is comparing her wangsty “I hate my step-dad” bullshit to her own father kidnapping her at gunpoint and threatening to murder her best friend… she instead turns it around and makes it another point of commonality for them to share. “Hey, cool, we’ve both’ve got crappy fathers we hate!”
And then again in panel 5 when Robin attempts to use the term gay as a pejorative, Becky flips it around again and embraces it as a compliment and makes it clear that she takes it as a compliment. Becky’s got some kinda weird-ass anti-Robin conversational aikido going on here, and it’s fantastic.
yeah that was…super interesting!!
i also feel like most of what robin may dislike about her stepdad is that he’s someone her mom chose for herself, not for her kids; and is explicitly only there because he makes her mom happy. which is a ton of what you need in a stepdad! but what robin needed is more complicated than that.
i really don’t remember much about original robin’s bio-dad tho
Yeah, and I wonder if Robin’s saying that about her bio-dad because of what he did or because of how the step-dad acts. Just, y’know, curious.
And Becky’s anti-Robin tactics are fantastic. She speaks her language and plays her game, and she’s WINNING.
Wow, Robin. Every new thing you say just showcases how you have no understanding of…. anything.
At what point is it not understanding and her just being an scumbag?
honestly why does there have to be a choice of these two options
sometimes the ignorance is part of the scumbaggery
For anyone who might be eager to ask, hurray, Robin shows empathy to someone and a genuine spark of a connection.
In other news no I don’t think Robin hasn’t done anything good yet for all that she has finally shown the capacity to crack and show humanity toward people she’s voting against and yes I still think she is evil as of this moment because her being a petty exploiter of cognitive dissonance was never what made her evil, that just made me hate her a whole lot
Now that you get your nice moment here and I have the very hopeful if conjectural though that Becky switching hands she holds the phone with before high-fiving is an incredibly awkward thing to do unthinkingly and keeps it from Robin’s side.
…IT’S BEDTIME!!
ENJOY THE BECKY SHE IS AWESOME B)
And to Robin,, boo-fucking-hoo you shitbag now get out of Leslie’s house
Seriously. Oh no you had an absentee parent welcome to the fucking club the rest of us still managed to grow the fuck up and behave like goddamn adults. I am not sympathetic at all to this Tragic Backstory(TM).
So sad. Today at school during lunch I was one of about ten people ywjho found a student in the girls’ restroom trying to slit her wrist with scissors. Luckily we got an adult and talked her down. Sadly, she’s probably breaking up with my friend, who she was dating, and she hates her best friend now. I know how she feels. I’m sad for her friends though.
My sympathies and an internet hug to you. I wish I could give one to her.
Thank you
All the hugs. I’m glad you found her.
That’s awful. I’m glad you were able to help intervene though. *hugs*
*Hugs*
I sincerely hope she is getting the help she needs now??
Just Here For
GodzillaBeckyA noble reason indeed.
Robin can just as well give up now – that is JOYCE level trust and warmth from Becky right there. Can’t fight the smile.
I don’t think Becky has forgotten for a minute that she’s fighting for her life here.
This is _simulated_ trust and warmth.
Robin is only slowly realizing how badly she’s outmatched here.
Keep an eye on the phone – I’m calling it that Robin does fight the smile, while coming to realize just how sharp Becky is – and then Becky uses the phone that she’s been holding onto for the past however-many strips, to make Robin chase her out of Leslie’s house.
I think Becky is perfectly sincere in her offer of sisterhood… but I don’t think she will be TOO surprised when Robin screws it up.
As for phone shenanigans, I like the idea of it but I bet you a package of arby’s sauce that it won’t happen like that. Becky CAN be sneaky if she wants to, but apart from ToeDad in the middle of the kidnapping she has never targeted anyone in that way. I think the full extent of her plan is what she is doing right now – be friendly, open, use herself as an example and trust God to sort out the details.
If you are right, however, it will be very epic!
Roz has been replaced.
Robin continues to no have any kind of relationship with reality.
Mark will explain to you in no less than five paragraphs why Star Trek V is actually a pretty good movie.
I forget, is that the one where they go back in time and save the whales? Or is that the one where Spokk’s half-brother randomly comes in and starts building a feel-good cult by using his Vulcan mind meld ability to “take away” people’s pain (actually regret/guilt) and they meet that floating head fake god that Kirk debunks with “Why does ‘God’ need a spaceship?”?
…
For the record, I enjoy both of them very much.
The latter. And I’m with you: at least it’s an interesting kind of bonkers.
Doesn’t sound that bad to me.
Comic Reactions:
Oh man, I have such an ugly messy ball of disjointed feelings on this one. So this might be one to take with even more grains of salt than usual.
Panels 1-2: Nrgh. Okay, this is about to be one of the more emotionally disjointed ones for me, because well, I don’t want to regulate one’s feelings of distress about a family member. Like, what is awful for a person, what causes distress is real and powerful and worthy of recognition.
And it’s clear there is some real distress. At her dad for leaving, for her mom for remarrying, for her stepdad for being kind but not in a way that feels enough like a real father.
So yeah, I want to honor and respect that as well as how there’s aspects of this that are a real bonding moment.
… That all said… man is it hard to try and fully embody that ideal I believe in when Robin is comparing “dorky stepdad who is otherwise perfectly nice but just not what she considers her ‘real’ dad” to Becky’s “my dad tried to murder my girlfriend, my best friend, a well-meaning stranger, and me in order to kidnap me and torture my straight after putting me through 18 years of intense physical and emotional abuse and helping drive my mother to suicide”.
Especially as the beginning of Panel 1 shows that she latches on to it as a tactic to “win” against Becky. Like yeah, Becky called him a jerkass dad, but did so in the context of pointing out how he kidnapped her and Robin is actively trying to eliminate that context to justify minimizing it as “a lot of people have crappy dads”.
And she’s doing that minimization and false equivalence because she still sees Becky as a thing to defeat rather than a person and is refusing to see that she’s just a person and is instead fixating on viewing her statements as “tactics” she needs to dismantle and flip on their head to “win”. And she believes that by claiming universality of “crappy dads” she can dismantle what she sees as an underhanded means of making her feel empathy in a way that is inconvenient to her whims.
And it’s a false equivalence she isn’t even willing to fully stand behind, glancing away in guilt when Becky is fully willing to bond with her over crappy dads and accept that framing rather than pushing back in the way Robin was expecting. Because she knows that her situation is nowhere near equivalent.
But again, I recognize that this type of analysis is problematic, because well, distressing parental situations are distressing no matter what and a lot of people with abusive or monstrous situations minimize or discount them because they feel they didn’t suffer enough to count (like I completely minimized my dad punching me in the face when I was 14, because well, it’s not like he hits me all the time).
So yeah, tangled mess of frustrated feelings on that.
What strikes me about Panel 2 is that it seems to me that Robin is saying that her dad is great because he left. “More dads should do that. His is the amount of dad content I crave.” To me it seems that Robin does actually have a major problem with her biofather, and fathers in general. And that, kinda raises a couple red flags for me because it reminds me of one of my still living friends, but I can’t explain why because I promised to always keep that story confidential. And, even if it is anonymously on the internet, sharing it here would still feel like a violation of their trust.
Yup, which is why I’m trying really hard to live true to my principles on that, because well, so often red flags like this hint at a much darker backstory than they’re willing to share openly.
But damn is Robin making it hard to do so.
Panels 3-4: Chris Phoenix yesterday had a really astute observation about how Becky has been super slick with phones before and to keep an eye on how Becky treats Robin’s phone to see if she’s moving it further away from Robin.
And well, yeah, this seems to be support for that, because Becky has now moved the cell phone from the hand closer to the hand farther apart and is holding the phone in such a way that it would be easy for her to move it out of the way if Robin was to lunge for it as well as being able to type with her thumb if she needed/wanted to.
Which if Chris’s analysis continues to prove correct, we should keep an eye out for Becky walking off with Robin’s phone “accidentally” leading Robin to need to chase after her.
And now for more tangled feelings. Like, I love Becky here. Her pure heart, reaching out to folks, being so willing to see most anyone as family to replace the broken mess she had. It’s genuinely sweet and way more than Robin’s behavior would merit.
But it’s that last part that frustrates me, because well, Becky already has toxic family members and she has parts of Joyce’s family that try and belittle and put her down and get into her head and try and make her feel like shit.
She doesn’t need a confused bi anti-gay politician who has already tried to minimize what she’s been through to “win”. And my own experiences means I worry about Becky getting sucked into a situation of giving way too much psychic space to someone who will later prove dangerous while I also hope for her continued tack of coming in sideways to fully dismantle Robin’s whole shtick. Because the alternative is Becky likely getting really really hurt.
Yeah, very much on that last. I love what Becky’s doing here. She’s doing a near perfect job and it seems to be working – despite Robin’s resistance.
But she shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t be putting herself at risk like this.
I… just want to say that for some very toxic, awful people, sometimes showing a bit of kindness can lead them down a different, saner path.
I would be a very different person now (or very much dead) if it wasn’t for a bunch of people I met 16 years ago.
That’s valid, but it’s also because you chose to listen to them. : )
Also, it took a lot of different people and conversations to change your path, right? Nobody came in and shouldered your previous toxicity alone, nobody changed your mind in a single conversation. They probably all helped, over time… and they couldn’t have done it had you been unwilling to do the hardest part, ie, if you’d been unwilling to change and grow.
Is that true in your case?
(Not trying to tell you what your experience was, only that this is how it usually happens. Was it like that for you?)
Something like that.
And they were three people, none of which are in my life anymore. And the help they gave me wasn’t apparent until years after.
That’s really neat. I wonder if they even know their positive impact on you.
Very unlikely. They have no reason to seek me out, and I… would rather not see them again.
Drama sucks.
oh my god Becky you most beautiful creature in the world
Panel 5: Mmf. More tangled feelings. Cause yeah, Becky is awesome and I love her dismantling of Robin’s little bullshit here by being “yeah, sure, this is gay. Gay things are rad! Like me!” But…
Ugh, Robin. Like, she keeps giving just enough rope to want to continue believing in her. Like, she’s getting blushes and sparkly eyes at the idea of “gay contact” and so on.
But, well… it’s using gay as an insult. And worse is the context of it.
Like, there’s a particular type of closet case that is very dangerous. It’s the one that recognizes just enough of their non-heterosexuality to be scared of being read as gay to constantly monitor it, but terrified of anything that could “gay” them, they overreact to even the slightest contact between same-gender folks, interpreting very non-sexual contact as somehow inherently sexual and corruptive.
And that also ties into that whole off part of fundamentalism that views contacting a queer person or a non-white person as somehow corruptive. Like, Ron Paul refusing to sit on a toilet seat used by a gay person least the gay person’s cooties infect his bum and make him gay.
Like, Robin for the last two panels has been staring with deep suspicion at a very innocent high-five simply because it’s coming from a lesbian and is interpreting a very non-sexual high-five contact as somehow being “gay” and thus something she should be avoiding or reading into and pushing back against.
Like, Becky is all smiles and kindly not noticing all this or more likely, actively using her “best behavior” persona she tried to use with Carol to get through and remain guarded against bigoted shit like this.
And yeah, this is bigoted. Treating a gay person as infective, treating being gay as bad, interpreting perfect average non-sexual homosocial contact as somehow denoting sexuality. Coming from a Carol or a Toedad, it’d be even more stark, but it’s not very much blunted by Robin being a closet-case, because well, as mentioned above those can be dangerous.
My ex had some really dangerous encounters with closet case girls who flipped out on her for being openly pan and who tried to actively harm her to try and beat down their own feelings of queer. And I’ve certainly had several… memorable incidents from folks terrified that my existence digs up some hidden non-heterosexual part of them.
And well, Robin has already proven dangerous. She’s been sniping at Becky, feeling her out, and she’s done a huge number of awful things to Leslie all in the name of desperately trying to cling to her closet walls.
But, perhaps, this will all turn out well. After all, who is better than Becky at nuking closets from orbit?
The one and only part of your analysis I disagree with is Robin being suspicious of Becky’s high-five specifically because she’s a lesbian. If she was truly concerned about it infecting or spreading the gay to her, I imagine she would just outright refuse to do it rather than give in at the end (while calling it gay all the same). I feel like her apprehension stems more from just how much Becky is throwing her off her game and not reacting the way she’s expecting. Like, she’s trying to get Becky to fight and argue with her because if she does, then Robin can use her political experience and flat out bullshit to demean her further and ‘win’. She keeps throwing out the snide comments because she’s trying to get Becky to be confrontational, and her abject refusal to do so and insistence on being besties is throwing her off so much that she just doesn’t know how to react. Like, she’s looking at that handshake like it’s a trap and she’s trying to figure out how, because she’s convinced that Becky is an opponent she has to defeat. At least that’s how I’m interpreting it.
I can see that. And that’s probably a healthy bit of it as well.
That’s how I read it, too. Robin’s confused: why is Becky being nice? What’s her Secret Agenda, what is this friendliness, why isn’t she rising to the bait and sniping back, is this how Becky wins??
So um… this is very off topic, but well… tomorrow, congress in a racist temper tantrum is planning to pass a bill that will make it so most everyone I know will lose their health insurance and that means they will die. If you have a republican representative? Please call them. Leave an angry rant. Do what you can.
Like it’s already gonna suck enough tomorrow now that it’s about to be legal for literally anyone to refuse literally anything for me and mine including governmental service, emergency healthcare, or even emergency response like being saved from a burning building on a “religious objection” grounds because we are trans or queer or both.
Cause I really don’t want to die/bury all my loved ones. So yeah, thanks.
I want off this shitty shitty roller coaster.
You don’t deserve to be on it in the first place. I mean no one does, but especially not you. Not after all the shit you’ve had to go through and overcome. I just….*hugs* I hope it ends soon. And I hope you and your loved ones can be safe and healthy and live long lives in peace. Because that’s what you really deserve.
Holy shit, dude. Uh, do your best to be safe, however you can manage it. There’s really no moral justification for this kind of repeal.
*hugs* Stay strong. And yeah, please call your reps and be prepared to call senators as well. Also ask them to speak against the LGBT+ EO, especially blue state gems or moderates.
*Blue state Republicans, goddamn me for not paying attention.
*hugs* I wish I could do more to help. I live in a blue district, so my representative is already voting “no” on principle of it (the healthcare bill) being well, inhumane. And that’s what I think of the executive order. It’s inhumane. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a regular substitute teacher and am currently doing a long term substitution for a teacher on maternity leave, and I have a few LGBT kids in class. I’m getting resources ready for them and have told them that if they ever need someone to talk to or help at all to contact me. I’ve also set up a list of doctors who are decent human beings and aren’t going to use the “religious freedom” bullshit, which I’ve provided to the school and many of the parents. I’m royally pissed and doing my best to fight, because I’ve buried four of seven friends in the past three years and I don’t want to bury the three I have left and am living with. I’ve even got into contact with some of my Canadian relatives (one of whom works in immigration) and we’re trying to set up a pipeline to get people out of the country if we have too. So, in short, I’m fighting, but I’m scared to death for my friends. I’ve been crying myself to sleep lately too. I’m doing volunteer work for (and donating what little money I have to) my local LGBT activist organization but it just doesn’t feel like I’m doing enough. I’m frustrated and out of ideas of what I can do to help, but I’m determined to beat these two cases of cancer at my surgeries and live on to be as much of a pain in the side of this bullshit executive order as I can be. Also, and this may not mean a whole lot since you’ve said before that you’re an atheist Cerberus, I’m praying to whatever deity may exist and will listen that a federal judge or something like that overturns this order. Because, that’s the only tool I have left that I haven’t used.
Yeah, Trumpcare in its current form is going to create some really sadistic perverse incentives. For example, it changes the Medicaid eligibility rules so that just being low income isn’t enough to qualify, you need to be low income and have either dependent children or be disabled. So you’ve got a whole lot of HIV+ people that will lose access to the antiretroviral therapy that keeps them alive…..unless they have a child. Nope, I see absolutely no problems resulting from that situation!
Which is because it’s intentionally designed to try and kill queer HIV+ people in specific, because the people in power believe that AIDS was “God’s punishment” to wipe us all out and they’re hoping to tip the balance back so that “God” can finish the job.
Like, it’s stark how openly this is designed to just straight up try and kill us and that’s really hard to deal with, because what do you do when the entire system of power is not only passively encouraging your death, but actively plotting ways to make it happen faster?
I can’t do much on account of not living in the U.S., but I wish you and your loved ones all the best nonetheless. I hope you can find a ray of hope and somehow make it through all this.
Like real talk here….They don’t even know how many people would be booted by repealing Obamacare for this AHCA bullshit and it seems like they’re doing it just to say they did something regardless of how many people it screws over.
*All the hugs*
Oh yeah I forgot the Republican overlords are still trying to kill us all for profit.
Shit like this makes me wish I lived in a red state so calling my reps would make more of a difference. (I’ve little doubt Keith Ellison knows what to do)
Those of you with Republican reps NOT voting for it, or with Dem reps in red states, give them a call too and encourage them not to flip. This is going to be much too close to take chances.
Even if it gets killed by the Senate, if this attempt gets through the House this time they’ll definitely try this again.
*support* Let us all hope that the new AHCA (now with more Evil, yes, they’ve found a way) sinks like the Titanic, catches fire like the Hindenberg and takes a meteor to the face like the dinosaurs, order optional.
I swear I had to triple-check that I wasn’t reading the fucking Onion when I read that being a victim of rape or domestic abuse will be considered a pre-existing condition. The whole fucking thing is so bad, that there’s a clause in it saying it doesn’t apply to the congressfolk and their families – that’s right, it’s such a fucking trash fire that even the rich white folk are afraid of being contemplated by it.
So call, folks. And, um, use whatever other avenues are available in the US to increase the chances of this not passing. And also, show up to vote in 2018.
….It passed. Maybe it will die in the senate. Republicans have much less of a majority there.
Yeah, I’m reading about it just now 8(
Oh, come on, and the Democrats sang? What even the fuck is wrong with these people and the people who vote for them?
Apparently in a lot of ways congress is like a highschool cafeteria.
I believe the implication was supposed to be that moderate Republicans and blue state Republicans basically just forfeited their seats in 2018. Still, though, timing.
*extra hugs* 8(
I’m so defeated.
It passed, because we’ve normalized hate with both side do it to the point where 217 representatives can feel really good about a bill that murders millions of Americans because hey it “shows” those liberals.
It passed and if it passes the Senate… Like being trans is a pre-existing condition. Being raped is a pre-existing condition and now even the emergency rooms can refuse to admit me. If this passes it will kill me and everyone I love. Not all at once, but by deadly inches.
And I’m putting this down in my will. If I die, drain my blood, take my ashes and dump them all over that sonuvadickwaffle Paul Ryan’s face.
Please call your senators.
And if you voted for this. If you voted for those that made this possible. Know I loathe your murder attempt as much as a human being is capable of loathing. This blood is on your hands and I hope you choke on it.
The Senate will be harder, but still possible. The margin is slimmer there and there are some hoops they’ll need to jump through to get it through on a simple majority. Only 3 Senators need to defect. Call yours.
The CBO analysis should also be in before they vote. It’s going to be grim, so that will help.
And all of it for tax cuts for the rich. That’s what it’s all about. Killing marginalized people is only a bonus.
I worry killing marginalized people is the point.
I am sorry that so many people act like you are an acceptable loss, ever.
I don’t know what to say right now. I see you, and I appreciate you. It’s incredibly fucked up that anyone has to fight for basic human decency (such as healthcare), but since we do, I’m sorry, and I’m grateful that you’re here, and I’m very glad that you’re you.
I hope that you have somebody nice to hug this evening, or whatever self-care you most prefer. I am certain that you’ll remain unstoppable, and that we’ll keep trying, too, for all our lives, one day at a time.
What really gets me is Trump could have kept his promise to the middle class by just killing the ACA marketplaces and the mandate. The Medicaid expansion is largely unconnected to the marketplaces, it’s just an entitlement program that is being cut to provide a tax break to the rich. It’s funded by a 0.9% payroll surtax on income over $250k. That’s literally the tax they’re slashing Medicaid in order to eliminate.
Oh hun. I’m so sorry. How are you, your kids, and your fiancé cooping? 🙁
I’ve been in major freak out mode too. I have a preexisting condition making me disabled and I’m on Medicaid and Medicare meaning my coverage is about to get slashed if it passes. If they take away my ability to afford to see my doctors, I will end up in the hospital mire due to stuff I get from weak immune system and having to go to a neurologist for severe Hemiplegic Migraines and pulmonologist for asthma. Take away my meds and I will die a slow painful death over between a few months to a few years. My best friend has narcolepsy. Take away her meds and not only will she be unable to work, she won’t be able to reach deep sleep meaning she will be constantly too exhausted to write, play D&D, create art, care for her 2 cats, go out with her husband, or even function. My dad has 3 heart stints scheduled to be put in in the fall if treatment doesn’t help. My sister has sever asthma and has had to have both lungs re inflated (she said it was like this plaster of Paris stuff) and a kid with asthma. And so so many more in just my close family and friends. This is bad. This plan is evil and deadly. Hospitals will get flooded with acute cases that could have been easily stopped before it escalated by a specialist or even a PCP. People will lose jobs over sick days. Mental health crisis will spike. People will end up bankrupt or homeless over medical care… this is not good.
I’m broken.
If this passes the Senate, this will kill everyone I love. Like, being trans is a pre-existing condition, almost everyone I love is on ACA and their meds are all that’s keeping them alive and they can only afford those meds with ACA.
Without it…
We can’t lose hope yet. We can call, write, or whatever we can and hope that both House and Senate haven’t lost their god damn minds. If I goes through, we keep talking and put faces on all the lives this destroyed… and cost. My best friend is leaving the country and if push comes to shove you and your fiancé and any other partners that can and are in danger… run. Find a new home. Kick ass there. I can’t. I have to stay here if it passes, but I’ll tell anyone who will listen what it did to me. There’s a chance I won’t die… but it won’t be pretty. If I live, I’ll vote in every vote that comes up. If I don’t… well then I will have the most slanderous scandalous obituary my town has ever seen and have it engraved in a rock whereever somebody decides to stick it (I’m donating my body, but odds are my dad will still want a tombstone). I know where I’d want my monument stuck, but I have a feeling there would be a line. 😉
For everyone this can help, I have a post on how you can all help with this: http://blenderbender1811.tumblr.com/post/160322231510/not-over-yet
I hope it helps.
So, what are you saying, Robin? That you’re going to get revenge on your mother for marrying a Trekkie by stalking a Warsie? I’m not sure how that works!
Seriously, though, I really think that this strip shows Robin has absolutely no ability to defend against Becky’s relentless cheer.
Becky, you treasure.
Point of order: If you’re trying to replace crappy family members, I don’t know if adding Robin helps the cause.
I guess maybe home invasion is a step up from armed kidnapping, buuuuut…
Give Becky some time and she might remove some of the rough edges off of Robin… She’ll probably need a jackhammer for that though…
Considering she IS Roz’s crappy family member.
I think Roz can attest that being sisters with Robin is a Very Bad Thing.
But the source of perks like free helicopter rides.
“Your hand is touching my hand, Robin! You sly dog!”
Sooo Robin’s step-dad had a son from a previous marriage. He is now the RA of the boy wing.
Headcanon accepted.
If Robin is 30 and Riley is 12, then assuming Riley is both her youngest sister and her biological sister, then Robin couldn’t have been less than 17 when her biodad left. Which would mean there’s a lot of ways her biodad could have messed her up. (And also explain why she’s not too close to her step dad.). Which isn’t to say she isn’t being crappy to Becky with the comparison of dorky stepdad to gun-toting toedad, but we may not be seeing everything. (I’m not making excuses for her, I’m livid at her for pretty much everything she’s done in this comic thus far, just…I dunno, maybe a reason rather than an excuse. I didn’t notice anyone else mentioning this so I thought I would? If someone did already mention it and I missed it, sorry.)
This is also very accurate btw. When I was making my original comments about the stepdad, I hadn’t yet realized that Riley is her bio-sister.
So yeah, it’s quite possible that ‘more dads should do that’ refers directly to bio-dad and HIS shit.
Reading a few of these comments, I always find it weird how my family is actually weird. Parents had me after they were married, This is my parents’ only marriage, my parents are still together, me and my sister are both in college and out of the house and my parents are still doing great together, my parents were supportive when I decided I wanted to pursue a career in animation instead of telling me to get a “real job.”
I always thought this was the norm, what parents were like. Its not till everyone around me is talking about step-parents or not having a dad or something where I realize I’M the weird one. And I’m also an incredibly lucky one.
I think it’s more the case the the bad parents/family units are so horrifically bad that the loud noise and bright lights drown out all the supportive, stable and sane families.
This one. Plus, people with lovely families don’t need to vent about it as often.
I’m privileged with a stable/supportive family-of-origin too. Everyone without lovely bio-families can borrow mine — tho I know it’s not the same at all — come on over, my dad will tell you silly jokes and my mom will make you food, and they’ll be proud of your accomplishments, and generally think you’re great.
honestly families like yours are dreams of hope for the rest of us please never stop talking about weirdly lit surreal incidents of people “getting along” and “resolving conflicts” and “supporting each other”
unless it’s the kind of eery Andy Griffith perfect that makes u suspect that something fucked up is happening under the surface. embrace that raggedy edge of being human, we all need it
I’m relieved to hear this. I was afraid that it was basically waving my privilege around, to mention it at all.
Yes, there’s hope. It’s not in the cards for every family, but, nice families do exist, and you can create one if you haven’t already.
They’ll probably have questionable taste in clothing, and you will never escape their puns, and you will know exactly how they smell on a hot car ride… but if everyone’s into it and things go right, the family that you create will know you, and love you, and they’ll basically hope that you’re doin’ okay.
-huuuuuuuuuuugs-
noooo!!!! i mean obviously there is a time and place for talking about good family relationships, but mostly people gushing about who they love is never going to be out of place! we get to experience them through you, which is a very unique and special thing. which means that in some small way we get to experience what it’s like to have them, through you. which means that we get to experience Not Having A Family That’s Completely Screwed and that is a gift
lololol….puns…i have walked through the valley of pungeon masters and i fear no evil, for my rod and my staff are with me….
<333333
Does anyone else see Robin’s eyes getting bigger/shinier? Becky’s starting to break the first lines of defense. God, why is Becky so fucking good? I wish I could be that awesome.
So Becky wont be friends with Roz but will be family with Robin?
Becky is trying get Robin to recognize her existence/humanity, and is approaching it with endless patience (rather like the stories she’s heard about missionaries to foreign countries).
Becky doesn’t have to do that with Roz, though. Roz already knows that Becky exists, and loudly claims to be fighting on her side. Becky doesn’t trust Roz (because Roz will proudly sell out an individual lesbian for the Greater Good of the LGBTQ+ community).
Becky suspects Roz sold out one (assumed) lesbian. Robin on the other hand has absolutely sold out millions of lesbians (and gay men and trans people and non whites) to be reelected. A lot of Becky’s patience seems to be the result of feeling like Robin have some kind of inherent bond just because they’re both attracted to women. She’s going to learn it’s not that simple.
honestly that wasn’t a refusal of friendship imo. it was a drawing of boundaries.
We’re seeing Robin trying all of her tactics, one by one.
For her, all of this is sparring, and she ‘wins’ when these pesky people & feelings go away. Surely one of her usual strategies will work!
For example, she tries to reframe Becky’s existence into something for which she already has a winning move. She knows how to respond to a pitiful sob story (those are only there to manipulate her! Ignore them!). But, Becky isn’t interested in being pitied, so she’s not a pitiful sob story, so… ???
Robin repeatedly tries deflection, of course, which works on pretty much everything (including Leslie). But, she only distracts herself, while Becky remains undaunted.
Robin can often defeat people when they’re angry (like, by wholeheartedly denying reality so that their arguments don’t matter). She tries to goad Becky into an argument, but Becky isn’t upset, she still wants friendship and high-fives. So Robin can’t use her skills there at all.
And she certainly can’t zany Becky into exhaustion.
Basically, Robin is confused because Becky isn’t trying to ‘win’. Becky is asserting her existence, she’s being a witness to her own humanity. Becky exists whether Robin agrees about it or not.
I think we’ll keep seeing Robin run through each of her tactics in the hopes that one will work. (I kinda want gaslighting to be next, and for Becky to be so confident in herself that she’s immune to it.)
The most crushing tactic would be: “Tell them exactly what they want, and then do whatever”. That one would suck for Team Becky.
Alright, I think I put my finger on the reason why the “Robin is Evil” (and, relatedly, “Republicans are Evil”) rhetoric. Because I’m liberal, right? I’ve been calling my representatives and all that; I’m disabled, and a lot of this legislation affects me in dangerous ways, not to mention other people I know in different situations. So why does the Evil rhetoric bother me?
Because I’ve heard it before, very recently. About Hillary Clinton.
Many of my friends, Bernie supporters and anarchist or libertarian or small-commune-living types, genuinely believed that Hillary Clinton is evil. She’s evil because she approved over a thousand drone strikes that killed innocent people. She’s evil because her covert and overt actions in Latin America during her term as Secretary of State resulted in coups, chaos, and destruction in Hondouras, Haiti, and Latin America. She’s evil because she repeatedly dismissed and stood against LGBT activists for decades. She’s evil because she vocally supported and defended the 1994 Crime Bill that resulted in massively increased incarceration and destruction of black lives.
Arguably, NAFTA also lead to the destruction of lives and communities.
The thing is? All of those assertions…are true. All of those actions resulted in death or harm. The people who died because of her mattered.
She also did good things–WIC and CHIP, her healthcare initiatives, saved lives. I don’t know if that outweighs the bad things. It probably doesn’t.
So here’s the thing: for a solid, I dunno, year and a half? My social media feeds were filled with messages about how Evil Hillary is. Then, suddenly, she’s the democratic nominee. She never addresses the issue of drone strikes, or her destruction of Latin America, or the 1994 Crime bill.
The conversation becomes, can we vote for someone evil simply because they are less evil than someone else? ARE they less evil than the other candidate? Is 1000 drone strikes and mass incarceration less bad than sexual assault charges and unscrupulous business practices?
Suddenly, it’s a moral quandary. It’s about whether each individual is Evil or Good. When, in fact, it should be a question of pragmatic choices–which candidate has the best chance of enacting plans that will improve the country? About their actions, not the state of their souls.
But nobody listened to me. The vast majority of my friends were insistent that Hillary is EVIL and you can never condone evil, that if you vote for her you have blood on your hands for every overseas catastrophe she causes, every unemployed person whose life becomes depressive and excruciatingly pained. There are two Evil candidates. Democracy is broken. We will not vote.
And they didn’t.
And…we know how that turned out. Republicans turned out to vote in the same numbers they always have. Democrats stayed home, demoralized, having lost a battle they believed to be about morality and integrity.
When the truth is? The fight is just to get things done. “There is no way things should be; there is what happens and what we do.” We’ve all got to strive to be wise, strive to find the truth, strive to treat others well. But judgements of Good or Evil, in my recent and intense experience, seem to cloud minds. It makes it hard to take any action at all, or to take actions that seem so less-than-ideal as to be immoral. If the person we condemn is our only hope, what then? What do we do then?
🙁
Bringing it back to the comic–I really appreciate what Becky is doing here. As others have noted, she *is* putting herself in danger. But, more importantly, disarming Robin with friendliness and sympathy is a good action to take–not because sympathy and friendliness are morally righter than anger, nor because friendliness feels good and thus is good. Rather, Becky’s actions seem to be WORKING. They’re effective, at least in this specific circumstance. They may even be long-haul effective, changing Robin’s views and actions dramatically, which might (optimistically) lead her to make better legislative choices. (More realistically, er, Robin *might* have to step down, thus losing her power to do much legislation-wise, but we’ll see).
Becky: Always My Fave
*I meant Houdouras, Haiti, and Venezuala, sorry
Take a look at the motherfucking AHCA. The previous version of it was going to put an estimated 43 million people out of health care. This one adds a bunch of pre-existing conditions to the list, like being the victim of rape or domestic violence, or having had a C-section, so the count is going to be higher, but no-one knows what it is, because Republicans know it’s so bad they rushed the vote before the CBO could take a look at the bill. A bill so bad, they excluded themselves from it.
And for what? So they could save rich people a couple more tax dollars? If they’re not evil, then no-one is. But they’re something all right. And by something, I mean people who’ve made it very clear that the only thing they’ll ever do that’ll make the world a better place is die. The only pity is that they seem intent in taking so many others with them.
Honestly at this point the republican party is so over the top mustache twirling evil that to agree to go along with it either says that you are evil or close enough that it doesn’t really make much of a difference anymore. It’s why I have no patience for anyone trying to make me feel sorry for anyone who voted for Trump. They either wanted this or they decided their pain was worth more than the potential suffering of millions of others and that lacks empathy to such a profound degree I can’t begin to fathom or forgive it. It’s close enough to evil for me.
Hillary Clinton was a warmongering technocrat who presided with Obama over the implementation of assassination programs both with drones and otherwise as well as mass surveilance.
And she’s STILL a saint compared to the average Republican candidate.
I get you. I’m a pragmatic issues-voter, too.
I think it’s an extremely privileged position to choose to vote about somebody’s innermost soul, when we should be voting for policies, and their likely consequences on real human beings and the world.
I don’t care if a politician would be my pal, or if her soul is lighter/heavier than a feather. I care about the physical world, right the heck now and in the likeliest future.
Oh my god thank you for saying this. Yep! This is not about judging Robin to be Good or Evil! We are not the fucking St Peter at the gates or a Detect Morality spell! Like, yeah lots of people are justifiably wary and worried for Becky, sure. The moment someone convincingly brought up the phone thing, I got very worried too, because holy wow talk about putting yourself into the line of fire if Becky does try to pull that shit.
But all the “Robin is TERRIBAD because her actions were TERRIBAD and there is no other way to frame this” comments are just… twitching my eye a little. How about we don’t do that. How about we don’t divide people into Good and Evil? I swear to god my native language doesn’t even have a word for Evil, this thinking is so alien to me. Like, the closest my attempts to translate this statement into Russian get is “Robin is not a very good person”. And like, yeah, I can’t not agree with that. But acting like you’re a DM jutting down alignment charts is just… augh. WHY
I’m confused. What about giving a high five because you have something in common with someone is “kinda gay”?
Too much bonding over personal stuff. Robin is equating “straight” with “emotionally isolated” in a way similar to the more stereotypical male model.
… at least that’s my guess?
human connection is gay
A person having different political views from me, however misguided or repugnant, does not make someone evil. Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Slobodan Milosevich, Andrew Jackson, these are evil people who engaged in destructive genocidal campaigns that killed millions. An incompetent congress person making political decision based on the whims of her constituents isn’t evil.
So if Hitler had been more “well, whatev’s ¯\_(ツ)_/¯” about the concentration camps, that would’ve been cool?
I think most educated people can see the difference between cutting funding for social programs and herding people into camps for hard labor and eventually mass extermination.
That’s not the point. The fact that it’s done out of incompetence, laziness or irresponsibility does not make it less evil.
You do know the concentration camps didn’t spring up overnight right? It’s a ripple effect. “Educated” people being willing to let a lot of shit slide and/or “Ignorant” people being willing to vote for the person promising them whatever the fuck they want at a cost to the undesirables and the ripples keep going until you’re living in a nightmare world “no one” saw coming. If you vote for politicians who will implement dehumanizing policies you are complicit in the damage they do. If you are a politician working for those voters you are complicit in the damage that will result and however far it goes. No decision exists in a vacuum. Actions have consequences etc and people should be willing to consider what can result from their actions when they decide to do something like vote for a particular party or try to get elected.
You do know slippery slope arguments were used to keep gay rights as a concept nonexistent for years right? Just because someone opposes social programs and views for any number of reasons that two dudes like me and my boyfriend shouldn’t marry doesn’t mean they have a planned end game final solution of putting me in a gas chamber. If you start seeing all of your political opponents as nazis it pretty much makes it impossible to cooperate and actually make positive change.
Just because people have used a similar argument to push bigotry that doesn’t make what I said untrue. Actions still have consequences and people should still consider what the fuck they’re voting for might lay the groundwork for five, six, or fifty years from now. For example consider what the fuck people being unwilling to take climate change seriously and voting for all these policies against environmental regulations is going to do to the planet eventually. It doesn’t really matter what people MEAN to happen. it matters what their actions or inaction eventually result it and what they helped lay the groundwork for.
To be fair, knowingly murdering people and destroying the world for money is pretty God damned evil, but Robin isn’t evil she’s just stupid. She’s the Rhino of the dumbing of age rogues’ gallery.
Stupidity can be evil.
Robin’s less evil, and probably even salvageable, but she’s still done some evil shit.
They are if those whims they are following are evil whims.
Yes, the first thing that comes to mind about someone that supports legislation saying LGBTQIAA folk are inferior people is, “pfff, totally not evil.”
As a gay man born in the early 80s who grew up a military brat and spent at least half my life in the south I can accept that someone can think of me as morally wrong for being a homosexual and still not be a bad person. Ignorance is terrible and should be changed whenever possible, but ignorance itself isn’t inherently evil. And frankly while I might hate the results I’m not going to jump to calling a politician fulfilling the whims of the people who voted her into office as evil.
You’re acting like these politicians are as ignorant to the results of what they’re voting for as the people voting for them. They know what they’re signing on for. They know the real human cost. They’re not puppets with no choice in the matter. They actively work towards being the people with the power. If they’re voters want them to restrict access to abortion, list rape as a pre existing condition, destroy the planet, and deny trans people the right to use the fucking bathroom then their voters are ignorant assholes and they are fucking morally bankrupt.
Their voters not they’re voters! Oh to be able to edit :'(
Well at the end of the day if I had my day I would be supreme dictator enforcing socialized health care and basic human rights and dignity on all my citizens (just picture a chubby bearded dude that dresses and sounds like a grunge singer giving the “terrible queen” speech from lord of the rings). Unfortunately I live in a democracy and I know I’m not going to convince many people to my point of view by calling them evil and morally bankrupt.
People shouldn’t have to be “nice” to convince people of their basic humanity. If someone doesn’t want to get their feelings hurt about making decisions that will literally lead to millions of people dying maybe they shouldn’t vote for politicians bragging on national tv about sexual assault? Also it’s not like I’m going to a trump supporter screaming in their face about how I think they did an evil thing. We’re discussing this shit in the abstract and objectively these people ARE doing evil. But also I’m too tired to be nice about this shit. There’s too much on the line and right now if you can’t see this shit without someone there to talk to you sweetly and hold your hand through it I don’t fucking have time for you. Black people have been shit on over and over in this country for centuries and we still somehow manage to not vote for the politicians that will fucking doom everybody to hell. At a certain point you have to be able to figure out the right answer on your own without someone begging for their lives in front of you.
Evil really isn’t so much what you are as what you do. And Robin has done some pretty evil actions against the queer population, based on equally evil actions from her voters. However whimsical it might seem, these actions are still evil actions.
If you want to effect social change and make people think differently about how they view lgbtq individuals labelling them and their opinions as evil might not be the best approach. It’s wrong and based in ignorance, but there’s a difference between that and evil.
Interesting side note for those who are grammar nazis. Is it “effect social change” or “affect social change” because I’m still not sure.
I believe it’s “affect.”
That’s what I thought initially after I wrote it and desperately wanted to edit it. But most sources indicate that in this instant it’s the opposite. It makes sense when you realize that when the verb means cause you write “to effect.” Still affect sounds write in my head so who knows.
No, you were right the first time. The verb ‘effect’ means ‘to bring about’, which is what you intended, I believe. The verb ‘affect’ means ‘to have an influence on’.
Effecting social change would be to cause it to happen. Affecting social change would be to change what happens. I suppose it’s possible to do both at once.
But it’s still 100% accurate to label it as evil. The absolute main thing that Robin and her voters are doing against the LBGQT community is to try and take their humanity away, and as an end goal, to damn well erase their very existence!
In what fucking world is deliberately taking away someone’s humanity not fucking evil? And in what fucking world should I sacrifice the accuracy of the statement “Those are evil actions” just to avoid some bloody butthurt feelings of those commiting those actions? I will not. I cannot.
And trying to excuse that by conflating it with “ignorance” doesn’t work with me; partially because that ignorance is one they deliberately keep alive by actively sheltering themselves from the consequences of their words and actions.
YEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
DID I CALL IT OR DID I CALL IT
HAVE I OR HAVE I NOT BEEN IN THESE COMMENTS BOXES CALLIN IT FOR WEEKS NOW
WHY ARE WE SHOUTING
EXCITEMENT
I don’t think you called it.
Sorry, couldn’t hear you over that sick high five.
“Specifically non-kissing sisters”
I have a feeling that Robin’s real dad is a massive arsehole, and that come panel two, Robin decided not to open up about him and vent about her dorky step-father instead. But I could be reading too much into it I suppose :X
For way too many people, today could best be described as:
What the fuck is going on in here on this day?
(With apologies to the ever-lovely Alyssa Edwards.)
“This is kinda gay” ……As opposed to holding a lesbian’s couch hostage so you could hang out, eat cereal and not wear pants?