Unfortunately, you’re right. Ethics was one of the first thing dumped after the GOP got control of the classes in Texas, because you couldn’t put it on a multiple-guess test and commodify it, so Ethics was dumped for test drills.
Ah yes, “satanic mind control”, the kind used by alien parasites like me so we can make your children gay, spread marxism, and feast upon your delicious unhatched human eggs! 😛👾
Your pitiful cries will bring you no mercy! HA HA HA HA!!!! 😈
Thanks for the reminder about the meteor shower. Also as you had no music for you muzak last night, I found a song that sorta goes with yesterdays strip. To be honest mostly I just think the video is funny and music great.
People like that, corporations like that, they have all the money, all the power, and they use it to make people like you go away. Right now you’re suffering under an enormous weight. We provide… Leverage.
LOL what a good take.
Yeah, same problem. it’s a terrible hourly rate if i tried to get a percentage of what people below my socio-economic standing are making…. sigh.
i guess i have no choice but to go eat the rich instead.
While that can be true, they tend to be upset about it afterwards. In order for it to be effective you have to depend on special circumstances to insure there aren’t negative consequences. For example, anonymity can be an effective shield if it’s dependable. Shame preventing the mark from admitting they’ve been defrauded is good, but tricky. Moving outside the mark’s sphere of influence is workable, though limiting as eventually you run out of spheres.
I’m sure Robin will cover all this in detail between panels.
It’s also worked with the elite telling the middle class that the working class* is hindering them from becoming elite.
*can be replaced with “refugees“ or any other group. Except elite, that would be too close to the truth we don’t tell.
as pointed out by Moist von Lipwig: the trick is to defraud people who are already actively trying to defraud you. Because then they can’t complain without exposing themselves 😀
Happily for Moist he lives on the Discworld, world and mirror of worlds. In this world, containing this comment system, high power defrauders very much will come after you. We are going to watch it play out again as Cryptocurrency and NFTs collapse. The Reacher Gilts of our world regularly crush the Moists when they catch them, and unlike Moist the Tyrants are backing the Gilts.
The charges she was convicted on were defrauding the rich, just like how PharmaBro ending up in jail for a short time. According to Wikipeadia: “guilty on four counts of defrauding investors – three counts of wire fraud, and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was found not guilty on four counts of defrauding patients – three counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.” Of course she has been out free this whole time, living the rich socialite life and having a baby. Sentencing in September. Fingers crossed they don’t take the baby-bait and feel sorry for her.
I know this is just showing how bad Becky is at keeping a secret but this kind of feels a little like mocking. I mean they’re both just lying to Joyce now, right?
Yeah, I’m starting to wonder at Becky’s motive for keeping her secret from Joyce. She seems to be enjoying this. Maybe I’m just cranky because I’m getting a bit tired of the charade.
Well, as far as I can tell Joyce didn’t leave the dorms at all yesterday, and I know there was a comment somewhere in the archives that the walls between rooms weren’t as thick as they needed to be…
Yeah, this is super starting to feel like another jab at Joyce. Which, while not only mean, is super counter-productive, since their cult most likely was NOT pro-sex, and even LESS pro-gay sex.
While I’m damn sure Becky WANTED to have sex, now she’s just weaponizing the fact she DID have sex, and it’s for absolutely no reason at all. The only reason I can think is that Becky wants to show Joyce how progressive she is, when that’s honestly a lie.
Maybe she wants to continue spinning the “Joyce is the hard-core fundie” narrative? That seems to be what people are assuming when Becky goes around telling everyone not to let Joyce know.
That seems weirdly malicious? Also weird, considering that Becky herself is still Christian and doesn’t think being Christian is bad, at least not the way SHE does it.
I think it’s more that—despite Joyce having previously outright said “you should have sex with Dina if you want to, the religious rules against it we were raised with are bullshit”—Becky doesn’t want to confront the possibility that Joyce’s regressive attitudes towards sex might have genuinely lessened as part of her leaving Christianity. Because that’s one more step away from Old Joyce, Becky’s Emotional Comfort Object, and one more tangible step for Joyce away from being Christian (and Becky vehemently, aggressively, is not okay with Joyce not being Christian). Insisting that Joyce Cannot Know I Boned isn’t about blackening her reputation (Joyce’s said prior regressive attitudes about sex were never even the slightest bit secret, she was pretty loud about them), it’s about stubbornly clinging to an image of Joyce that probably no longer exists.
Also entirely possible! Or she thinks Joyce will be smug about it. (I don’t think she’d react that way right now; she’s in too much pain for that, but the concern is reasonably founded. Of course, situation flipped, Becky would be just as smug, so *shrug* there’s no moral high ground on that front. It’s an obnoxious quality they happen to share.)
Looking back I agree that i should not have used the term “cyber stalking” since there was no harassment or other malicious intent. What i intended was to call attention the somewhat creepy detail of Becky and Dorothy tacking Joyce down with no warning.
There is definatly a bit of mockery there though if called out they would probably say it was all in good humor. I don’t think it’s ill intent but Joyce is getting tired of being good naturedly belittled.
More than a little. Willis drew her with a wink-wink-nudge-nudge pose (okay, no winking, but that grin is close enough, and that’s a huge elbow nudge), not a blank-nope-nothing-to-see-here-dorothy-play-along pose, and not a I’m-feeling-weird-maybe-guilty-and-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it pose.
And Dorothy isn’t technically lying, sometimes there really is no reason. The fact that today there is a reason doesn’t make her statement false, and we all know it can only be a lie if it’s not true!
(the definition of lying, as I use the word, is saying something you believe is false in order to deceive – if there’s no intent or knowledge, it’s not a lie you’re just saying something untrue – but also, a deception doesn’t have to be a lie to be hurtful.)
No apology needed, but for a moment I forgot about your fancomic and thought you were saying like… there wasn’t a DOA strip today. Which there very clearly is. So I was confused.
N.P. Yotomoe, Most of the US is so hot that nobody’s doing much of anything at all. I went down into the basement and it was cooler down there, and the bedrooms are too hot to sleep in.
No worries. Today is a day of rest. Or insane family stuff. Or other stuff. I just know I spent the afternoon marathoning a show I’m not even sure I like.
Afternoon and evening. I’m still watching it right now.
The calling Dina a “robot” thing? I could see that, especially since Joyce was pretty grumpy and out of it at the time. Not that it’s an excuse for it. Although at this point I think Dina is over it. She got a dig in too, and frankly their relationship has always been somewhat adversarial.
I think this has been discussed before, but I don’t think Joyce understands what was wrong with her earlier comment. I could be wrong but I don’t remember anyone explaining it to her and I don’t think she intended it as a general insult, just an explanation for why Dina couldn’t comprehend Joyce’s perspective on spanking (which, to be fair, Dina can’t wrap her mind around, just not for the reasons joyce thinks).
I once made a comment in a similar vein to an autistic friend in high school. I was intending to express how impressed I was by his verbatim memory of something obscure in our textbook. He was clearly very hurt by my comment and thought I was insulting him or insinuating he was cheating. I apologized profusely and learned an important lesson that day. But Joyce isn’t all that much older than i was. There’s no reason to assume she’s ever been taught about neurodivergence or even that she knows Dina is neurodivergent. That doesn’t make what she said right, but I don’t think she’s been agonizing over her phrasing all day either.
she probably doesn’t know what she said that made Dina angry enough to storm off, but she does know that Dina was angry enough to storm off (and call her an asshole and imply that it’s something she can never change (without a time machine, anyways)).
she doesn’t have to understand what she said that made Dina upset to understand that she might have done or said something to make Dina upset
If I were in Joyce’s shoes, I would assume Dina’s “asshole” comment was a reaction to not thinking spanking was that big of a deal, and just brushed it off as “Dina just really cannot comprehend how we were raised because she was raised so differently, it’s not really personal.”
If I were in Joyce’s shoes, I would have no idea what Dina was upset about. Spanking’s obviously not a big deal, so she’s the one being weird about it, and she wouldn’t be upset at me for thinking that. The conversation basically went: Dina woke me up in a dark room while sitting on top of me, then she asked about spanking because she asks me about things she doesn’t know much about, then she bragged about how she was never spanked as a kid, then I told her it was because she always follows the rules, and then for some reason she got angry and told me I was an asshole because I was spanked as a kid and stormed out. Obviously it’s not the spanking, because she doesn’t think Becky’s an asshole, so I must have done something else wrong today, because the feelings of everyone else are my responsibility as a good person, because I am definitely a good person, even if there’s no god to tell me so.
(yes, I know that’s leaving a lot of stuff and a lot of context out, but – memory is fallible, especially when you’re barely awake, and me-as-Joyce doesn’t have the luxury of going back and reading the comic strips to remember exactly what happened – and I at least more easily remember the emotional bits than the exact words or actions, and tend to put myself in the best light in my memories.)
(although, from a reader’s point of view, now that I think about it, she might have been spanked, just not by her parents: Dina hasn’t said that she wasn’t hit as punishment, just that her parents never struck her).
Hnnn yeah, I think that’s a plausible read on Joyce that’s easy to miss—that if, in her mind, her parents were justified for beating her for disobedience, Dina insisting that HER parents never hit her, not even once, is Dina bragging about being more obedient, i.e. better, than Joyce. Calling her “robot girl” is a frustrated, miserable Joyce, who does not want to be having this conversation at all, lash back and dismiss Dina’s “achievement” by implying that it doesn’t mean anything because it’s easy for Dina to follow rules.
This doesn’t necessarily make it, you know, better, or more flattering to Joyce. But it does make sense. That insult didn’t come randomly; it’s rooted in Joyce’s understanding of that conversation.
I’m still not wild about how Sarah and Dina handled that, I have to say. It is a good thing to put the idea out there that actually, that abusive behavior that has been normalized in someone’s mind *is* abusive and not okay, and that you didn’t deserve it. But especially when you’re talking about this in the context of a person they love or respect, you can’t just keep hammering at it to make them accept it immediately. It won’t work, and it will only make them defensive, and try to justify it. You put the seed out there, and you keep gently reinforcing it, and let them get there on their own. It is not productive or respectful to tell someone they’re interpreting their own experiences incorrectly, even if you’re damn sure that they are.
Oh well. It ain’t called Smarting of Age, as we like to say around here.
We’re not willing to go extinct until we can take the rest of you fuckers with us, you see. That’s a big ambition, I know, but with enough time and careful geoengineering I believe we can find a way!
In a sense yes. Still I can’t feel the students are being deprived of one of the most important lessons in political science. Namely, that corruption leads not only mismanagement and but can rot a whole society – economically, socially, morally leading to vast net losses across the board long term. Corrupt politicians are parasites – its good for a while but eventually you kill the host or its wises up and eats you for delicious high protein snack.
It’s not miracle, it’s basically: let snails fast a week and put in vinegar overnight (or just give them only herbs for a week), don’t overcook, and put so much garlic in it it will be the only taste. Works with onions and wine too.
Or more simply, here’s a recipe were snails are replaced with mushrooms (not hallucinogenic ones, but you do you) and you still oversauce them https://francevegetalienne.fr/blog/2016/2/11/escargots-la-bourguignonne-vgtalien-vegan
I suggest that, rather than turning them into cutlets, they be forcibly volunteered to provide their organs for transplant. Based on what I’ve seen from some of them lately, their hearts and brains have never been used, their legs are in great shape from running from their duties, and their arms are also certainly serviceable as demonstrated by all the patting of their own backs.
Hey now, surely us alien parasites can’t all be bad. 👾 😛 👾
As long as humans and their intrinsic vulnerabilities keep compelling them en mass to support concentrated powers that claim to act in their interests, they’re just gonna keep running into the same cycles of corruption, social pyramids, war and resentment over and over again.
A life form resulting from 4.5 billion years worth of happy accidents can only do so much right. I tell you, even just working with my human host body the way it is is a bongo and a half.
Something of an overlooked point in the various comments when she first got the job about how she’d be a good teacher because she’d had practical experience: political science isn’t really about how to get elected or how to function within the system once you do, it’s about the theory behind why things are structured that way (or why those weren’t good design choices.)
Robin is the best worst teacher. Also, Sarah is the worst best student. This is a duo I didn’t know I needed until this comic, and now I lowkey need more of them.
It’s times like this that I miss Mike.. if only because he would have cut through all of this stupid bullshit and force it out into the open. And while that did sort of happen eventually he would have kept it there instead of letting it settle into the toxic passive-aggressive dance everyone is doing.
Depends on which one, the character or finance/Crypto trade dealer? If it’s the latter than yes, nobody has trusted them since the GameStop
stock short squeeze incident.
I think this has been discussed before, but I don’t think Joyce understands what was wrong with her earlier comment. I could be wrong but I don’t remember anyone explaining it to her and I don’t think she intended it as a general insult, just an explanation for why Dina couldn’t comprehend Joyce’s perspective on spanking (which, to be fair, Dina can’t wrap her mind around, just not for the reasons joyce thinks).
I once made a comment in a similar vein to an autistic friend in high school. I was intending to express how impressed I was by his verbatim memory of something obscure in our textbook. He was clearly very hurt by my comment and thought I was insulting him or insinuating he was cheating. I apologized profusely and learned an important lesson that day. But Joyce isn’t all that much older than i was. There’s no reason to assume she’s ever been taught about neurodivergence or even that she knows Dina is neurodivergent. That doesn’t make what she said right, but I don’t think she’s been agonizing over her phrasing all day either.
At this point it’s starting to get close to where Joyce will be upset. This is just one moment so it’s too early to know, but there are troubling signs. It won’t be the sex that upsets her but the fact that her two “best” friends smiled in her face while enjoying lying to her.
Too early to call be we could have a c) All of the above option.
To be fair, not telling a friend another friends coital habits isnt really that big a deal, if anything it’s not even her place to say in the first place, just as Becky not wanting joyce to know is her own business too…
Though Becky is being stupid by telling everyone EXCEPT joyce and somehow expecting it to not come back to her as we have seen two people who specifically want to tell her, for the sole fact that Becky said ot to
Haven’t you been reading the comments today? This is a BETRAYAL and everyone is LYING to Joyce.
Not, you know, it’s maybe actually not her business if two consenting adults fucked or not, and if they don’t want to tell her, then that’s perfectly valid.
I know you are exaggerating for effect but you’d have to admit that Becky IS lying here, and the fact that they tell everyone EXCEPT Joyce intentionally is a bit rude considering they are long time friends.
If they don’t want to tell her, that’s fine, although bizarre considering they have very literally been running around and shouting about it to everyone else they know, including people they barely know at all.
The wink wink nod nodding about how they all know something Joyce doesn’t know is full on asshole behavior. They could be talking about the timeshare they’re getting in Florida and it would still be obnoxious.
Becky doesn’t have to tell Joyce anything, but the tone of this feels like it’s changing slightly from protecting her privacy to amusement and maybe even a little condescension that everyone knows something Joyce doesn’t. Blatantly lying is a bit of a red flag to me when you were better off saying nothing. But it’s too early to know yet. Becky just maybe is bad at keeping secrets. It’s probably not meant to be a big joke at Joyce’s expense.
They absolutely don’t have to tell her! But in the context of their friendship, this is a major life event for Becky that she is intentionally choosing to share with people she’s known for a few weeks and not Joyce.
Again, this is totally Becky’s and Dina’s business but they are making it very very public. They are crossing the line between choosing to keep something private, to denying something has happened.
In my opinion, this is one of two things:
Payback for Joyce not telling Becky about her change in faith, or a defense mechanism where she is gearing up for a fight and intentionally casting Joyce as the bad guy.
I just hope Joyce’s response when she inevitably finds out/ has the information shoved in her face is “…OK?” Really, isn’t it pretty egotistical of Becky to think Joyce will really even care that much (or at all)? Oh, wait, this is Becky… “egotistical” is basically all there is.
Not telling a friend another friend’s secrets is generally fine, but here it feels like Becky’s pushing Dorothy into actively conspiring to hide it, which is another step farther
She’s definitely enabling Becky to spread the narrative that Joyce can’t be told because she’s still a hard-core fundamentalist at heart though. Both Becky and Dorothy were present way back when Joyce said Becky should disregard their churches teaching on chastity. They chose to ignore Joyce’s character growth and belief change which Is a problem, their treating her like she’s mary.
I will give Dorothy credit and say I think HER agreeing not to tell people that Becky had sex is 100% about respecting Becky’s stated wish for privacy (even if Becky, uh, doesn’t actually want privacy), and not about Joyce herself in any way. Becky asked her not to tell, she’s not gonna tell, even if she knows Joyce might not react the way Becky says she will. That is being a good friend and treating Becky with the respect she deserves.
That said, Dorothy has not been terribly understanding or supportive of Joyce’s deconversion in general, has absolutely been prioritizing Becky’s feelings over Joyce’s to a degree that…kinda makes me go 🤨, given that she is Joyce’s closest friend and knows a lot about how much Joyce’s cultish upbringing has harmed her, and was making fun of Joyce behind her back like an *hour* ago, so that’s as much grace as I’m willing to give her in this whole mess.
The part about Dorothy agreeing to beckys requests that gets me is that she also did the exact same thing when Becky wanted to cyber stalk Joyce and directly disrespected Joyce’s privacy. There’s a huge double standard that Dorothy needs to get called out on soon.
“Cyber stalk” is extreme there, unless it’s in the casual way that kids these days regularly “cyber stalk” – like Amber cyber stalked Walky when they were first connecting. (or was that vice versa?) In which case, it’s no big deal.
Neither of them had any reason to think Joyce wanted to avoid them.
Unless I’m misremembering, they found out she was hanging with Liz via Liz’s FB activity. They weren’t friends with Liz, which does make it a little iffier, to me. Like if you’re tracking your friend not via *their* social media, but through the social media of a person who’s a stranger to YOU, that’s a little out of normal social media use and into deliberate prying, in my mind. Stalking’s a strong word, but…I think it’s fair to characterize what Becky and Dorothy did there as pushy and overstepping. (Particularly given that Becky’s openly stated reason for doing this is that Joyce wasn’t allowed to have another Christian friend, and she needed to establish her territorial rights.) And the fact that it resulted in a major blowup and a lot of guilt-tripping directed at JOYCE when they overheard something very, very, very clearly not intended for their ears makes the whole thing worse.
Every single aspect of that was a bad look on Becky and Dorothy, and neither of them has apologized in the remotest way because they don’t think they did anything wrong. I can understand the impulse to frame their behavior harshly, in that context, even more then is necessarily justified.
Depending on the Facebook settings of the various multiple parties involved, it’s possible to see activity involving your friend on the page of someone you’re not friends with, but who doesn’t have their own page locked down to maximum privacy settings.
FB is basically engineered to make truly private interactions almost impossible, but it lies about it and obsfucates its privacy violations to a heinous extent. I barely use FB and I get regular notifications involving people I am not friends with, because a friend of a friend with looser privacy settings than I have liked someone else’s camping photos.
Tl;dr: it is incredibly easy to track people down on FB via someone else’s account the way Becky and Dorothy did. You could also find Joyce pretty easily via her liking Liz’s local Taco Bell Instagrams. It’s still weird, though, and I don’t think it’s a normal thing to do. Like if you really want to catch up with a friend, you could….text them? Call them, even. Not pinpoint their location via third-party social media they didn’t know you had access to, and show up unannounced.
Honestly if Joyce does freak out, maybe it’s because Mary finds out before her somehow. Like if the theory of Becky having a deep desperate desire to be the cool christian rebel to the christian square bears fruit. That she wants a freak out of some description.
Granted Mary is not probably fun for that. I mean even given the lack of history they have together it’s… Mary. Mary takes joy in the idea of people burning in hell and Christian!Joyce didn’t.
Meh. Mary will probably hear it accidentally or something if she does turn up at all.
Honestly my guess is that Joyce won’t care, and that will actually upset Becky because making Joyce freak out was one of the ways she grounded herself in things not changing. Joyce not freaking out would just really mean another way that they’re drifting apart from their old reliable dynamic.
That would be an even better reaction. Joyce just so burnt out on the BS she goes, “k”. Becky tries to get a reaction, gets more in Joyce’s face, and Joyce just shrugs and goes, “Don’t really care anymore”
If I were Joyce, and had the presence of mind to grasp the parameters of the situation when presented with Becky’s “achievement” (i.e., she’s told everyone else, they assume I’m still hyper-religious which suits Becky, Becky is expecting me to freak out as some kind of weird validation of her choices/ undermining of my move away from our shared religious background), I would at least pretend to be completely indifferent to the “news”.
That’s my take too. Becky wants Joyce to still be her buddy in Christ. Guilt tripping and nostalgic music didn’t work so now she’s trying to control how everyone else sees Joyce by saying she couldn’t handle the news well, which makes people assume Joyce is still is a strict Christian.
This.
As previously noted, I want to see either indifference, or Joyce passing out cold (mostly for other health reasons) so that Becky gets to experience some Consequences.
I suspect the same. And/or she’ll just wonder what the big deal is (even if she’s embarrassed about talking about sex herself, it’s probably not a huge deal for her that Becky and Dina did it.)
Reminds me of Captain Cully from Peter Beagle’s _The_Last_Unicorn_, who likes to think of himself as the next Robin Hood, but as one of his own outlaws complains, “we don’t rob from the rich and give to the poor; we rob from the poor because they can’t fight back and give to the rich so they leave us alone.”
Man, I can’t wait until this secret thing blows up in Becky and Dorothy’s faces. And then have whatever reaction Joyce has blow up. This comic is NASCAR and I’m here for the explosions. The suspense is killing me. Someone pull the drama tag off of this business!
I’m not sure if Robin is the worst or the best polisci professor. Either way, I’d take it.
Such good friends, huh, I’m sure Joyce will be very thrilled to learn she was lied to by her so-called best friends. /s This plus how she was feeling already plus being betrayed by her family plus Dina literally sitting on her already painful body…
You know in actual real life when you’re upset about your friends deceiving you, people don’t play back their literal words and analyze them to tell whether they technically lied or not.
But “technically I didn’t lie to you, I just chose my words carefully with the deliberate intent to mislead you” is such a great sign of healthy friendship!
Let’s see if I’m understanding this. If Dorothy doesn’t tell Joyce that Becky and Dina had sex then she is lying to Joyce? She has no obligation to tell Joyce anything about it. She made a non-committal tangential statement that is true. How does this remotely equate to a deliberate attempt to mislead?
There’s no better sign that you’re interacting with someone you consider a friend than when you use your words like you’re being interrogated by someone with Detect Lies up while inside a Zone of Truth.
its not dorothy’s place to say anything on the matter at all. Becky asked her not to tell Joyce about it and she’s respecting her wishes. I think Becky is being dickish about it, but Dorothy is just not telling her.
It really baffles me how a bunch of people don’t get that. It’s fine to not tell. It’s NOT fine to keep dancing around and making it a game of deception
I swear half the comments just want anybody who is tired of Joyce being a punching bag to shut up so when Joyce snaps they can tear into Joyce for her life just continuing on a downward spiral of depression
Hell, I’M getting so sick of it I’m starting to wonder why I even read this stupid webcomic anymore. “Oh look, another strip where Becky is being wild and zany, and setting Joyce up for more hurt. Oh hey, comments are pro Becky and Dorothy. Oh boy I bet when Joyce snaps again the comments will call Joyce an awful waste of space and refuse to acknowledge that Becky is a genuine asshole”
Actually, why DO I keep reading it? Just out of habit? Really need to think that through, this story isn’t entertaining at all to me anymore, just… Infuriating
It’s okay to take a break from the comments section if it’s becoming a source of frustration. I absolutely get where you’re coming from, I’ve felt the same way at times (not just here, lots of places; there’s nothing unique about the sorts of interactions we see here), and it helped me to step back, and just enjoy the actual comic itself, while I disinvested myself from other people’s minute day-to-day reactions to it. Taking a break doesn’t have to mean quitting forever, either, it can just be taking a break!
As for the comic itself: as annoyed as I get with some of the characters at times, I’m hugely invested in the comic as a whole, and really excited and eager to see where it’s going! I have a lot of faith in Willis as a storyteller, and right now in particular, we look like we might be getting into some material pertaining to my favorite characters that I’ve REALLY been looking forward to, which is more than enough to carry me over storylines more focused on characters I care less about, or even sort of dislike at points. It doesn’t hurt that Joyce is by far and away my favorite character and the one whose journey I’m most interested in, and given the premise of the comic, I don’t think Willis will ever lose interest in her or do her dirty, even if they do put her through the ringer at times. This is true of everyone in the cast, I think, but especially Joyce: Willis really cares about depicting her thought processes and her growth arc and her relationships with a lot of care and nuance and complexity. And that is just so rewarding to me, as a reader, even when it means I wanna facepalm sometimes in reaction to how a specific strip or an encounter plays out. This strip is a journey, and I find it a lot of fun to be along for the ride.
I don’t feel about it as dramatically as you do, but I definitely am not looking forward to the inevitable moment where half the comments section treats Joyce as the villain for not reacting Perfectly to her shitty friends. It keeps happening and my tolerance for it keeps shrinking.
Please let the last panel be Robin getting that there is shit afoot. Becky and Dorothy getting called out on their current level of Really Pretty Shitty by ROBIN, who is basically all definitions of Really Pretty Shitty while also generally being pretty oblivious about it, could be epically satisfying to me.
But Joyce needs to have her decisions made for her, and the information she’s exposed to must be carefully curated! Otherwise she’ll just freak out, or passively put up with problems hoping they’ll go away!
DoA Robin was supposed to be a Trump expy, and then Trump won and Willis decided that maaaaaaaybe having a character like that in the comic wouldn’t be such a great idea.
When Robin was elected to Congress back in the old Walkyverse continuity, she was a Palin expy. Back when she set the absurdity bar.
Then along came some more IRL first-term Representatives who only got elected to make noise and kick up dust, and hooo boy…
(Yes, I know Robin’s trajectory was long since set by the time the 2020 election was in full swing. I choose to interpret it as affirmation the right decision was made.)
I admit, my post was pretty exaggerated. Though it occurs to me Robin always seems to need Leslie as a humanizing influence. She isn’t absent of the ability to care about other people; it just doesn’t occur to her to do it unless Leslie reminds her to. And in this universe their trajectories seem to run widely apart. . .
How did Dina hear them from that distance and behind a door? Even with an open door, that’s pretty good hearing. Oh, right. Dina has super powers when hiding behind a door.
Oh that could be interesting. She hasn’t been super welcoming towards Joyce’s learning curve in the past, but leaving your church/religion/god because it said your best friend would burn in hell for being gay is…more than baby steps.
And as smug as Roz can be, given that she came from the same family that produced Robin, I don’t think it’s a slam dunk that she was raised with the progressive values she espouses (the way Dorothy obviously was). She may have some experience with the painful exploration of personal beliefs that don’t jibe with your upbringing, and may not be welcomed by your family or childhood friends. That could absolutely make for some interesting conversations, at the least.
I’m a little leery about her as a sounding board about sex-related topics because it’s unclear to me if Roz’s brand of sex-positivity allows people to feel ambivalent or uncomfortable about having sex themselves (for any of a variety of reasons). It might! I just don’t know if we know that for sure. (There is probably some carryover on my part for how Roz treated Jacob in Shortpacked, which was…absolutely unconscionable. She certainly hasn’t done anything like it in the Dumbiverse, but it’s hard to shake the bad vibes off the level of boundary-violating disrespect and badgering she subjected him to. Thinking about it still makes me feel icky.)
Note that Roz doesn’t know but HIGHLY suspects Joyce suffered an attempted rape at the party. She was also the cast member that gave her the best advice (“here is the contact of a professional I trust, IF something happened you might want to reach out”), and this is after Joyce told her she was a “plucked flower” with lower worth.
Yeah! She has perfectly valid reasons to dislike Joyce (idk if she actually does, just that she’d be justified if she did) but that didn’t stop her from offering her an appropriate and respectful gesture of help when she thought it was needed. That says a lot about her. I feel like if something prompted Joyce to approach her in good faith, she’d be open to talking to her. In like, a nicer way than when she told Joyce that Joyce and her people were The Problem (true? Yes. A good way to open dialogue with someone who’s beginning to question her toxic value system? Very much not).
When Riley mentioned during Freshman Family Weekend that she thought both boys and girls were icky, Roz mentioned that asexuality was also an option. While she was very tired and engaging in sleepy banter with a hyperactive sibling, it does suggest that Roz definitely has a “you do you, or don’t do you, or whatever” vibe when it comes to sex.
(Not that I blame your wariness. Shortpacked!Roz was pretty assault-y with the whole “physically forcing Jacob to grab her boob” incident. I don’t care if sex addiction is or isn’t a real thing, Shortpacked!Roz, if someone’s indicated a belief that they have an unhealthy relationship with sexuality and that they want to step away from sex until they get themselves sorted, you don’t get to decide they’re wrong for it. But like I said, I think Dumbiverse!Roz is way better about this sort of thing.)
Joyce isn’t going to actually have the mind-melt reaction they expect. But her reaction is going to herald a reckoning with her friends concerning what she’s actually been going through in recent months.
Hussy Meltdown delayed by close proximity to Roz, who I’d wager knows more about birth control and its effects on regulating menstruation than everybody else on the cast put together.
Reminds me of the scene from Back to School where Dangerfield’s character is in a business class. The professor says they will create a fictional company over the semester & start-up costs but Dangerfield starts asking questions like what does the company make and how you’ll need to pay kickbacks and the like to get the permits and construction done and so on.
All that Becky needed to do here was keep her mouth shut. Joyce wasn’t asking *her* why Dina was waiting outside. But I guess mocking Joyce to her supposed friends (to Dorothy’s great amusement, just look at that fucking smile) was just too great a temptation to pass up.
“Oh, I have NO IDEA what you’re talking about with a completely different person, amirite, yet another completely different person, nudge nudge wink wink”.
She probably sees it more like she’s being playful friendly with Joyce but it’s also insulting to Joyce’s intelligence that both she and Dorothy expect Joyce to belive them. Especially since last time they joked about how Joyce was like a puppy that would need to be hand fed medication in peanut butter.
With dorothy yes and I also think Becky doesn’t think it’s a big deal with how shes treating joyce because even though she’s starting to act like a bully she’s still acting light hearted she still sees herself as Joyce’s best friend and gives herself a pass.hopfully someone calls her on this very soon.
This is likely because “haha, joke’s on you” has been a prevalent part of their relationship. In a strip that I can’t find for the life of me, Becky pretty much says how much she loves to BSOD Joyce. I, too, love making my friends so uncomfortable they need time for their brains to defreeze on a regular basis.
I think Joyce will soon understand everything, and hopefully she will be happy for her friend happiness. Robin is not so bad as a prof. But she’s too much sincere, this usually end up to backfire and then the prof will learn to be cold towards the students.
With all the Joyce has been through i don’t t think she has enough energy left for the epic meltdown they are expecting. She’s still in pain. Just had a heart to heart with Jennifer. She might get pissy about it, but i think that’s all she can manage right now.
Ok. So my thought is that Joyce is feeling like Dina is avoiding her because of the earlier conversation they had about spanking.
Which means that all the weird-ness she’s picking up on, because she’s obviously picking up on something being off, is going to attribute to hostility. I mean, she’s been fighting with Becky and Becky’s girlfriend is hurt by a thoughtless half asleep comment she made while in a lot of pain, it totally makes sense that she’d attribute it to people putting distance there.
I also feel like Becky is being an ass for the secrets/re-indoctrination stuff, but I think that when Joyce does hear about the actual cause, that she’s not going to freak out. She’ll be relieved it’s not about people being mad at her, which will take the wind out of Becky’s sails.
And that with that, Becky (and maybe Dorothy) will realize that they’re putting a lot of pressure and stress onto their friend and causing them to feel isolated and hurt.
I think ordinarily Dina would be doing her own thing at this time, as she doesn’t have this class. Joyce is commenting on Dina hanging out with their group more than usual today, although it’s phrased in a confusing way.
Becky is truly a perfect storm of conflicting desires. There’s a version of her relationship to religion that is healthy and isn’t defined by the one her community taught her, but until she actually sits down and thinks about the trickier parts of that culture, she’s just gonna end up replicating elements of it.
You can really see her trying to balance so many plates, viewing them as in conflict even though from the outside looking in being horny gay for your girlfriend doesn’t have to be in conflict, having sex with your girlfriend doesn’t have to be in conflict, your friend being an atheist(no chance of being a part of the same religion) doesn’t have to be.
But the only way that can happen is by spending some time thinking about cultural hangups. Which she kind of is doing, but also maybe bringing other people(Joyce) into your internal debates on spirituality is not the way.
But also saying your not gonna tell Joyce and then telling everyone is a little silly if that’s the plan, especially if your gonna be a giggling jerk while you do it
Kittens! And Art! And Art of Kittens! And Kittens doing Art (aka, “oh no, they got into the paints again and now I can’t see the floor for catprints”)!
It’d probably be better if they just tell Joyce that Becky and Dina had sex. I’m still betting that in her current situation Joyce probably wouldn’t be nearly as bothered by it as they think.
Yeah like: Robins classroom is small from what I recall and everyone seems smushed in together like sardines here everytime there’s a shot of the class. No space anywhere. I don’t get claustrophobic but I would not like it even if Robins classes seem like a hoot at times.
Well Becky is still better than Joe’s list thing. In that Becky having sex isn’t about Joyce, and she’s not also telling Joyce to weaponize it against her.
I mean Becky is kind of making herself having sex all about Joyce, since she’s using it as a reason to go around telling everyone Joyce still have fundamentalist views one sex and can’t be trusted with the most open secret on campus.
A very real possibility, or she just wants to manipulate everyone into thinking Joyce is still a Christian. Either way it’s hard to not notice how Becky keeps bringing Joyce in regards to her own sex life way more then she should be.
Huh! I certainly don’t think Becky’s weirdly conflicted aversion to letting Joyce know she’s had sex now is like….primarily about THAT, but it might maybe could be a factor, and part of the emotional stew she’s feeling about having HAD sex at all, with anyone. Odds that Becky’s not still at least partly in love with Joyce after a timeskip of just a couple of months, when she’d been in love with her for YEARS and was in love with her at the last point we checked in with her last semester, are, I would calculate, “nil”.
I’m beginning to really want Joyce to go ‘whatever’ about the sexytimes and keep quiet on the rest, and just… find better friends and spend time with them. None of her current circle respects her, and getting mad about it would just be a waste of time.
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wait, is this a How To lesson
Robin believes in practical education.
Student: “But professor Robin, is that ethical?”
Robin: “Does this look like an ethics class? This is political science. We are funded by the Kochs who are strictly anti-ethicists.”
“Ethics” is one of those hard-left mind-control things like “Critical Race Theory” that the right wants none of in education
Unfortunately, you’re right. Ethics was one of the first thing dumped after the GOP got control of the classes in Texas, because you couldn’t put it on a multiple-guess test and commodify it, so Ethics was dumped for test drills.
Ah yes, “satanic mind control”, the kind used by alien parasites like me so we can make your children gay, spread marxism, and feast upon your delicious unhatched human eggs! 😛👾
Your pitiful cries will bring you no mercy! HA HA HA HA!!!! 😈
*plays “Hypnotik” by Ken Arai on hacked muzak*
bleak laughter
How To Basic
This is a how to lesson lesson.
The furry days are numbered when I’M governor!
It’s a “Do Wrong, Right” lesson.
While Dina’s neurodivergent social anxiety stripes are surely a factor here,
there’s another, BIG reason she’s keeping her distance right now.
A reason that will make itself REALLY CLEAR in less than 30 seconds.
😗😗😗
Also, in other news…..
There’s a METEOR SHOWER TONIGHT in an hour from now!!!
FUCK YEAH!!!!
🤘😆🤘 🔭🌠🌌
*plays “The Star Festival” from Super Mario Galaxy on hacked muzak*
Thanks for the reminder about the meteor shower. Also as you had no music for you muzak last night, I found a song that sorta goes with yesterdays strip. To be honest mostly I just think the video is funny and music great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhjk5x54bsE
uuu-huuu-huuuu, *sob* *weep*
no meteor shower for me, we had clouds 🙁
I mean that is good advice. Too bad I’m not rich enough for defrauding people beneath my income level to be worth it.
You have to start small and bootstrap your defraudation.
Robin said nothing about income level.
Income level relates to wealth and wealth is a proxy for power. So you’re technically correct, but it’s implied in what she said.
While there are many meanings to the word “rich”, I’m not sure any of the others could possibly apply.
If your morally bankrupt or a sociopath it’s great advice!
Well, there’s money in defrauding the poor, you just have to do it in bulk.
People like that, corporations like that, they have all the money, all the power, and they use it to make people like you go away. Right now you’re suffering under an enormous weight. We provide… Leverage.
LOL what a good take.
Yeah, same problem. it’s a terrible hourly rate if i tried to get a percentage of what people below my socio-economic standing are making…. sigh.
i guess i have no choice but to go eat the rich instead.
Well, if you can skim say 1% of what 100,000 poor people make, you’re doing pretty well. It’s what most of capitalism runs on.
It’s a shame, because rich folk are easy fucking marks if you’re in the right place to defraud them.
While that can be true, they tend to be upset about it afterwards. In order for it to be effective you have to depend on special circumstances to insure there aren’t negative consequences. For example, anonymity can be an effective shield if it’s dependable. Shame preventing the mark from admitting they’ve been defrauded is good, but tricky. Moving outside the mark’s sphere of influence is workable, though limiting as eventually you run out of spheres.
I’m sure Robin will cover all this in detail between panels.
The fun version has you defrauding two different sets of rich people, and then framing each .group for the others’ losses.
… and that would be wrong.
But that doesn’t require them to be rich. I mean it’s worked with Democrats and Republicans for years.
It’s also worked with the elite telling the middle class that the working class* is hindering them from becoming elite.
*can be replaced with “refugees“ or any other group. Except elite, that would be too close to the truth we don’t tell.
Why is Jolly Jumper not white?
Sometimes they do say “elites”, but when they say it, they mean “Jews” and their audience knows it.
No it wouldn’t.
Poor people tend to be upset about it afterwards too, but they don’t have the same power to punish you for it
depends how many there are and what tools they have and if you run very fast or not
as pointed out by Moist von Lipwig: the trick is to defraud people who are already actively trying to defraud you. Because then they can’t complain without exposing themselves 😀
Happily for Moist he lives on the Discworld, world and mirror of worlds. In this world, containing this comment system, high power defrauders very much will come after you. We are going to watch it play out again as Cryptocurrency and NFTs collapse. The Reacher Gilts of our world regularly crush the Moists when they catch them, and unlike Moist the Tyrants are backing the Gilts.
Thanks, i hate roundworld.
Yeah, but Elizabeth Holmes ended up in jail eventually.
The charges she was convicted on were defrauding the rich, just like how PharmaBro ending up in jail for a short time. According to Wikipeadia: “guilty on four counts of defrauding investors – three counts of wire fraud, and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was found not guilty on four counts of defrauding patients – three counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.” Of course she has been out free this whole time, living the rich socialite life and having a baby. Sentencing in September. Fingers crossed they don’t take the baby-bait and feel sorry for her.
Exactly, even though the rich are easy marks they will eventually push back. Cheat the poor, you’ll get elected president.
The right place is often “even richer than them”, proving Robin right.
Why do I get the strange feeling that some of Robin’s lessons here are things that she was told by her advisors repeated verbatim
I highly doubt that Robin has the attention span or memory to have learned and repeated them verbatim.
Despite her silliness, Robin was at least somewhat competent at politics.
Her political career ended twice, and both times because she caught principles and quit.
I know this is just showing how bad Becky is at keeping a secret but this kind of feels a little like mocking. I mean they’re both just lying to Joyce now, right?
Can’t imagine why, I mean Becky would never ever mock Joyce
Yeah, I’m starting to wonder at Becky’s motive for keeping her secret from Joyce. She seems to be enjoying this. Maybe I’m just cranky because I’m getting a bit tired of the charade.
I’ve changed my hope from a completely apathetic reaction to hoping she already knows somehow
Well, as far as I can tell Joyce didn’t leave the dorms at all yesterday, and I know there was a comment somewhere in the archives that the walls between rooms weren’t as thick as they needed to be…
The comment was that the walls were actually quite thick, or Ruth and Billie would have been caught sooner. So, consistency!
Ah. Me and my crappy-ass memory!
Yeah, this is super starting to feel like another jab at Joyce. Which, while not only mean, is super counter-productive, since their cult most likely was NOT pro-sex, and even LESS pro-gay sex.
While I’m damn sure Becky WANTED to have sex, now she’s just weaponizing the fact she DID have sex, and it’s for absolutely no reason at all. The only reason I can think is that Becky wants to show Joyce how progressive she is, when that’s honestly a lie.
The guilty flee when no Joyce pursuith.
Or maybe she’s just still really excited about it and has trouble keeping it in?
Maybe she wants to continue spinning the “Joyce is the hard-core fundie” narrative? That seems to be what people are assuming when Becky goes around telling everyone not to let Joyce know.
That seems weirdly malicious? Also weird, considering that Becky herself is still Christian and doesn’t think being Christian is bad, at least not the way SHE does it.
I think it’s more that—despite Joyce having previously outright said “you should have sex with Dina if you want to, the religious rules against it we were raised with are bullshit”—Becky doesn’t want to confront the possibility that Joyce’s regressive attitudes towards sex might have genuinely lessened as part of her leaving Christianity. Because that’s one more step away from Old Joyce, Becky’s Emotional Comfort Object, and one more tangible step for Joyce away from being Christian (and Becky vehemently, aggressively, is not okay with Joyce not being Christian). Insisting that Joyce Cannot Know I Boned isn’t about blackening her reputation (Joyce’s said prior regressive attitudes about sex were never even the slightest bit secret, she was pretty loud about them), it’s about stubbornly clinging to an image of Joyce that probably no longer exists.
It’s also another avenue for Joyce to push her about becoming atheist.
But we’ve got having-sex-with-your-girl-friend-before-marriage-because-there-is-no-hell over here.
That might be on Becky’s mind.
Also entirely possible! Or she thinks Joyce will be smug about it. (I don’t think she’d react that way right now; she’s in too much pain for that, but the concern is reasonably founded. Of course, situation flipped, Becky would be just as smug, so *shrug* there’s no moral high ground on that front. It’s an obnoxious quality they happen to share.)
Looking back I agree that i should not have used the term “cyber stalking” since there was no harassment or other malicious intent. What i intended was to call attention the somewhat creepy detail of Becky and Dorothy tacking Joyce down with no warning.
Second. This got old pretty immediately and now it’s old and rude.
There is definatly a bit of mockery there though if called out they would probably say it was all in good humor. I don’t think it’s ill intent but Joyce is getting tired of being good naturedly belittled.
More than a little. Willis drew her with a wink-wink-nudge-nudge pose (okay, no winking, but that grin is close enough, and that’s a huge elbow nudge), not a blank-nope-nothing-to-see-here-dorothy-play-along pose, and not a I’m-feeling-weird-maybe-guilty-and-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it pose.
And Dorothy isn’t technically lying, sometimes there really is no reason. The fact that today there is a reason doesn’t make her statement false, and we all know it can only be a lie if it’s not true!
(the definition of lying, as I use the word, is saying something you believe is false in order to deceive – if there’s no intent or knowledge, it’s not a lie you’re just saying something untrue – but also, a deception doesn’t have to be a lie to be hurtful.)
“a little”
No comic today. Tried. Couldn’t get it done in time. Sorry.
No apology needed, but for a moment I forgot about your fancomic and thought you were saying like… there wasn’t a DOA strip today. Which there very clearly is. So I was confused.
The revelation of the decade: Yoto is the REAL creator of Its Walky! and Dumbing of Age…
Wait, yoto *isn’t* the original author? Then how yoto comic so good???
(joking, I know yoto’s not Willis)
How do we know that? Neither of them have stated so, have they?
No worries bruh! 😊
Take a break! And if you get the chance, enjoy the meteor shower!!! 🌠
You are allowed breaks on your passion project of a NSFW fan comic.
N.P. Yotomoe, Most of the US is so hot that nobody’s doing much of anything at all. I went down into the basement and it was cooler down there, and the bedrooms are too hot to sleep in.
No worries. Today is a day of rest. Or insane family stuff. Or other stuff. I just know I spent the afternoon marathoning a show I’m not even sure I like.
Afternoon and evening. I’m still watching it right now.
Be sure to check outside too! 🌠
We will love it whenever it gets done!
I bet Joyce is concerned cuz she’s feeling bad about what she said earlier
The calling Dina a “robot” thing? I could see that, especially since Joyce was pretty grumpy and out of it at the time. Not that it’s an excuse for it. Although at this point I think Dina is over it. She got a dig in too, and frankly their relationship has always been somewhat adversarial.
I think this has been discussed before, but I don’t think Joyce understands what was wrong with her earlier comment. I could be wrong but I don’t remember anyone explaining it to her and I don’t think she intended it as a general insult, just an explanation for why Dina couldn’t comprehend Joyce’s perspective on spanking (which, to be fair, Dina can’t wrap her mind around, just not for the reasons joyce thinks).
I once made a comment in a similar vein to an autistic friend in high school. I was intending to express how impressed I was by his verbatim memory of something obscure in our textbook. He was clearly very hurt by my comment and thought I was insulting him or insinuating he was cheating. I apologized profusely and learned an important lesson that day. But Joyce isn’t all that much older than i was. There’s no reason to assume she’s ever been taught about neurodivergence or even that she knows Dina is neurodivergent. That doesn’t make what she said right, but I don’t think she’s been agonizing over her phrasing all day either.
she probably doesn’t know what she said that made Dina angry enough to storm off, but she does know that Dina was angry enough to storm off (and call her an asshole and imply that it’s something she can never change (without a time machine, anyways)).
she doesn’t have to understand what she said that made Dina upset to understand that she might have done or said something to make Dina upset
If I were in Joyce’s shoes, I would assume Dina’s “asshole” comment was a reaction to not thinking spanking was that big of a deal, and just brushed it off as “Dina just really cannot comprehend how we were raised because she was raised so differently, it’s not really personal.”
If I were in Joyce’s shoes, I would have no idea what Dina was upset about. Spanking’s obviously not a big deal, so she’s the one being weird about it, and she wouldn’t be upset at me for thinking that. The conversation basically went: Dina woke me up in a dark room while sitting on top of me, then she asked about spanking because she asks me about things she doesn’t know much about, then she bragged about how she was never spanked as a kid, then I told her it was because she always follows the rules, and then for some reason she got angry and told me I was an asshole because I was spanked as a kid and stormed out. Obviously it’s not the spanking, because she doesn’t think Becky’s an asshole, so I must have done something else wrong today, because the feelings of everyone else are my responsibility as a good person, because I am definitely a good person, even if there’s no god to tell me so.
(yes, I know that’s leaving a lot of stuff and a lot of context out, but – memory is fallible, especially when you’re barely awake, and me-as-Joyce doesn’t have the luxury of going back and reading the comic strips to remember exactly what happened – and I at least more easily remember the emotional bits than the exact words or actions, and tend to put myself in the best light in my memories.)
(although, from a reader’s point of view, now that I think about it, she might have been spanked, just not by her parents: Dina hasn’t said that she wasn’t hit as punishment, just that her parents never struck her).
Hnnn yeah, I think that’s a plausible read on Joyce that’s easy to miss—that if, in her mind, her parents were justified for beating her for disobedience, Dina insisting that HER parents never hit her, not even once, is Dina bragging about being more obedient, i.e. better, than Joyce. Calling her “robot girl” is a frustrated, miserable Joyce, who does not want to be having this conversation at all, lash back and dismiss Dina’s “achievement” by implying that it doesn’t mean anything because it’s easy for Dina to follow rules.
This doesn’t necessarily make it, you know, better, or more flattering to Joyce. But it does make sense. That insult didn’t come randomly; it’s rooted in Joyce’s understanding of that conversation.
I’m still not wild about how Sarah and Dina handled that, I have to say. It is a good thing to put the idea out there that actually, that abusive behavior that has been normalized in someone’s mind *is* abusive and not okay, and that you didn’t deserve it. But especially when you’re talking about this in the context of a person they love or respect, you can’t just keep hammering at it to make them accept it immediately. It won’t work, and it will only make them defensive, and try to justify it. You put the seed out there, and you keep gently reinforcing it, and let them get there on their own. It is not productive or respectful to tell someone they’re interpreting their own experiences incorrectly, even if you’re damn sure that they are.
Oh well. It ain’t called Smarting of Age, as we like to say around here.
Honestly the most practical Poli-Sci class. Teaching how to play the game within a broken system.
It’s a miracle how you humans haven’t driven yourselves to extinction yet. 🙄
Don’t be so impatient. Give us time. We’ll get there.
It’s possible we’ve done just that, and it’s just a bit of waiting until climate change finishes us off.
Also, big oil’s one of the big rich don’t-cross-them guys that Robin’s talking about. … apropos nothing. Completely unrelated change of topic.
The coal lobby here, though they seem to have taken a hit in the democracy the Saturday before last.
We’re not willing to go extinct until we can take the rest of you fuckers with us, you see. That’s a big ambition, I know, but with enough time and careful geoengineering I believe we can find a way!
In a sense yes. Still I can’t feel the students are being deprived of one of the most important lessons in political science. Namely, that corruption leads not only mismanagement and but can rot a whole society – economically, socially, morally leading to vast net losses across the board long term. Corrupt politicians are parasites – its good for a while but eventually you kill the host or its wises up and eats you for delicious high protein snack.
So the true lesson of political science is that we should eat the corrupt politicians?
If you can stand the texture. I heard they are slimy.
Hey, if the French can work culinary miracles with snails, I’m sure that politicians should present no problems.
It’s not miracle, it’s basically: let snails fast a week and put in vinegar overnight (or just give them only herbs for a week), don’t overcook, and put so much garlic in it it will be the only taste. Works with onions and wine too.
Or more simply, here’s a recipe were snails are replaced with mushrooms (not hallucinogenic ones, but you do you) and you still oversauce them
https://francevegetalienne.fr/blog/2016/2/11/escargots-la-bourguignonne-vgtalien-vegan
And high in cholesterol.
I suggest that, rather than turning them into cutlets, they be forcibly volunteered to provide their organs for transplant. Based on what I’ve seen from some of them lately, their hearts and brains have never been used, their legs are in great shape from running from their duties, and their arms are also certainly serviceable as demonstrated by all the patting of their own backs.
Hey now, surely us alien parasites can’t all be bad. 👾 😛 👾
As long as humans and their intrinsic vulnerabilities keep compelling them en mass to support concentrated powers that claim to act in their interests, they’re just gonna keep running into the same cycles of corruption, social pyramids, war and resentment over and over again.
I hate how right you are.
Me too. But oh well, what can you expect really?
A life form resulting from 4.5 billion years worth of happy accidents can only do so much right. I tell you, even just working with my human host body the way it is is a bongo and a half.
“Intelligent Design” my ass.
Something of an overlooked point in the various comments when she first got the job about how she’d be a good teacher because she’d had practical experience: political science isn’t really about how to get elected or how to function within the system once you do, it’s about the theory behind why things are structured that way (or why those weren’t good design choices.)
Newcombe’s paradox, I guess?
The system isn’t broken. It’s working as it’s intended, which is for the benefit of the rich and the big corporations, not the rest of us.
Robin is the best worst teacher. Also, Sarah is the worst best student. This is a duo I didn’t know I needed until this comic, and now I lowkey need more of them.
It’s a good thing she’s not a chemistry professor instead since I can see her getting into some Walter White type fuckery only minus the cancer.
It’s times like these I really miss Mike.
Same. Except all times are like this.
It’s times like this that I miss Mike.. if only because he would have cut through all of this stupid bullshit and force it out into the open. And while that did sort of happen eventually he would have kept it there instead of letting it settle into the toxic passive-aggressive dance everyone is doing.
Mike was ironically my favorite character.
I was hoping we’d get a Donna here as well. 🙁
Unironically***
Either is acceptable. It’s Mike.
I’d also like to think it be a good idea to defraud the ones who have it coming, In a Robin hood kind of way.
….Robin would totally make a Robin Hood pun in her class.
Robin Hood had it coming?
Depends on which one, the character or finance/Crypto trade dealer? If it’s the latter than yes, nobody has trusted them since the GameStop
stock short squeeze incident.
I’m Robin hood, and I can rectify!
You can too, you just have to try!
Listen to me, and you will see,
Just how easy politics can be!
🤣🤣🤣
I think this has been discussed before, but I don’t think Joyce understands what was wrong with her earlier comment. I could be wrong but I don’t remember anyone explaining it to her and I don’t think she intended it as a general insult, just an explanation for why Dina couldn’t comprehend Joyce’s perspective on spanking (which, to be fair, Dina can’t wrap her mind around, just not for the reasons joyce thinks).
I once made a comment in a similar vein to an autistic friend in high school. I was intending to express how impressed I was by his verbatim memory of something obscure in our textbook. He was clearly very hurt by my comment and thought I was insulting him or insinuating he was cheating. I apologized profusely and learned an important lesson that day. But Joyce isn’t all that much older than i was. There’s no reason to assume she’s ever been taught about neurodivergence or even that she knows Dina is neurodivergent. That doesn’t make what she said right, but I don’t think she’s been agonizing over her phrasing all day either.
This was supposed to be a reply to yotomoe. I shall attempt to copy and paste it where it belongs.
….. holy shit, so this is gonna backfire spectacularly.
The only remaining question is:
a) backfire on Becky
b) Joyce will actually be upset
At this point it’s starting to get close to where Joyce will be upset. This is just one moment so it’s too early to know, but there are troubling signs. It won’t be the sex that upsets her but the fact that her two “best” friends smiled in her face while enjoying lying to her.
Too early to call be we could have a c) All of the above option.
Dorothy didn’t lie.
Technically she didn’t: she just chose not to say anything contradicting Becky’s statements. Future political candidate learning the ropes?
Dorothy would probably feel it’s not her place to say “hey, these two people had sex”.
To be fair, not telling a friend another friends coital habits isnt really that big a deal, if anything it’s not even her place to say in the first place, just as Becky not wanting joyce to know is her own business too…
Though Becky is being stupid by telling everyone EXCEPT joyce and somehow expecting it to not come back to her as we have seen two people who specifically want to tell her, for the sole fact that Becky said ot to
Haven’t you been reading the comments today? This is a BETRAYAL and everyone is LYING to Joyce.
Not, you know, it’s maybe actually not her business if two consenting adults fucked or not, and if they don’t want to tell her, then that’s perfectly valid.
I know you are exaggerating for effect but you’d have to admit that Becky IS lying here, and the fact that they tell everyone EXCEPT Joyce intentionally is a bit rude considering they are long time friends.
If they don’t want to tell her, that’s fine, although bizarre considering they have very literally been running around and shouting about it to everyone else they know, including people they barely know at all.
The wink wink nod nodding about how they all know something Joyce doesn’t know is full on asshole behavior. They could be talking about the timeshare they’re getting in Florida and it would still be obnoxious.
Becky doesn’t have to tell Joyce anything, but the tone of this feels like it’s changing slightly from protecting her privacy to amusement and maybe even a little condescension that everyone knows something Joyce doesn’t. Blatantly lying is a bit of a red flag to me when you were better off saying nothing. But it’s too early to know yet. Becky just maybe is bad at keeping secrets. It’s probably not meant to be a big joke at Joyce’s expense.
They absolutely don’t have to tell her! But in the context of their friendship, this is a major life event for Becky that she is intentionally choosing to share with people she’s known for a few weeks and not Joyce.
Again, this is totally Becky’s and Dina’s business but they are making it very very public. They are crossing the line between choosing to keep something private, to denying something has happened.
In my opinion, this is one of two things:
Payback for Joyce not telling Becky about her change in faith, or a defense mechanism where she is gearing up for a fight and intentionally casting Joyce as the bad guy.
And besides, Joyce was already on board with them being intimate with each other, despite saying it in a very cranky way. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/drop-2/
But when confronted with that approval, Becky chose to deflect and say something negative about Joyce.
I just hope Joyce’s response when she inevitably finds out/ has the information shoved in her face is “…OK?” Really, isn’t it pretty egotistical of Becky to think Joyce will really even care that much (or at all)? Oh, wait, this is Becky… “egotistical” is basically all there is.
I think people are more talking about the whole “shes standong outside for no reason, we have no special connection today” then the “we had sex” thing
comment comment comment comment comment drama comment comment comment comment comment comment
You are right, Becky doesn’t have to tell Joyce anything. It’s the way she’s going about all of this that makes her awful
Not telling a friend another friend’s secrets is generally fine, but here it feels like Becky’s pushing Dorothy into actively conspiring to hide it, which is another step farther
That smile tells me that it needed as much pushing as I do to eat chocolate cake.
It’s less cute here than it was when Joyce and Dorothy were conspiring to return Fuckface to Malaya without the RA catching them.
She’s definitely enabling Becky to spread the narrative that Joyce can’t be told because she’s still a hard-core fundamentalist at heart though. Both Becky and Dorothy were present way back when Joyce said Becky should disregard their churches teaching on chastity. They chose to ignore Joyce’s character growth and belief change which Is a problem, their treating her like she’s mary.
I will give Dorothy credit and say I think HER agreeing not to tell people that Becky had sex is 100% about respecting Becky’s stated wish for privacy (even if Becky, uh, doesn’t actually want privacy), and not about Joyce herself in any way. Becky asked her not to tell, she’s not gonna tell, even if she knows Joyce might not react the way Becky says she will. That is being a good friend and treating Becky with the respect she deserves.
That said, Dorothy has not been terribly understanding or supportive of Joyce’s deconversion in general, has absolutely been prioritizing Becky’s feelings over Joyce’s to a degree that…kinda makes me go 🤨, given that she is Joyce’s closest friend and knows a lot about how much Joyce’s cultish upbringing has harmed her, and was making fun of Joyce behind her back like an *hour* ago, so that’s as much grace as I’m willing to give her in this whole mess.
The part about Dorothy agreeing to beckys requests that gets me is that she also did the exact same thing when Becky wanted to cyber stalk Joyce and directly disrespected Joyce’s privacy. There’s a huge double standard that Dorothy needs to get called out on soon.
“Cyber stalk” is extreme there, unless it’s in the casual way that kids these days regularly “cyber stalk” – like Amber cyber stalked Walky when they were first connecting. (or was that vice versa?) In which case, it’s no big deal.
Neither of them had any reason to think Joyce wanted to avoid them.
Unless I’m misremembering, they found out she was hanging with Liz via Liz’s FB activity. They weren’t friends with Liz, which does make it a little iffier, to me. Like if you’re tracking your friend not via *their* social media, but through the social media of a person who’s a stranger to YOU, that’s a little out of normal social media use and into deliberate prying, in my mind. Stalking’s a strong word, but…I think it’s fair to characterize what Becky and Dorothy did there as pushy and overstepping. (Particularly given that Becky’s openly stated reason for doing this is that Joyce wasn’t allowed to have another Christian friend, and she needed to establish her territorial rights.) And the fact that it resulted in a major blowup and a lot of guilt-tripping directed at JOYCE when they overheard something very, very, very clearly not intended for their ears makes the whole thing worse.
Every single aspect of that was a bad look on Becky and Dorothy, and neither of them has apologized in the remotest way because they don’t think they did anything wrong. I can understand the impulse to frame their behavior harshly, in that context, even more then is necessarily justified.
I don’t really do Facebook, but I can only imagine they found Liz’s FB page from Joyce’s, cause otherwise would they even know to find Liz’s?
Depending on the Facebook settings of the various multiple parties involved, it’s possible to see activity involving your friend on the page of someone you’re not friends with, but who doesn’t have their own page locked down to maximum privacy settings.
FB is basically engineered to make truly private interactions almost impossible, but it lies about it and obsfucates its privacy violations to a heinous extent. I barely use FB and I get regular notifications involving people I am not friends with, because a friend of a friend with looser privacy settings than I have liked someone else’s camping photos.
Tl;dr: it is incredibly easy to track people down on FB via someone else’s account the way Becky and Dorothy did. You could also find Joyce pretty easily via her liking Liz’s local Taco Bell Instagrams. It’s still weird, though, and I don’t think it’s a normal thing to do. Like if you really want to catch up with a friend, you could….text them? Call them, even. Not pinpoint their location via third-party social media they didn’t know you had access to, and show up unannounced.
Honestly if Joyce does freak out, maybe it’s because Mary finds out before her somehow. Like if the theory of Becky having a deep desperate desire to be the cool christian rebel to the christian square bears fruit. That she wants a freak out of some description.
Granted Mary is not probably fun for that. I mean even given the lack of history they have together it’s… Mary. Mary takes joy in the idea of people burning in hell and Christian!Joyce didn’t.
Meh. Mary will probably hear it accidentally or something if she does turn up at all.
And she enjoyed cleverly not-lying in a way to mislead.
Honestly my guess is that Joyce won’t care, and that will actually upset Becky because making Joyce freak out was one of the ways she grounded herself in things not changing. Joyce not freaking out would just really mean another way that they’re drifting apart from their old reliable dynamic.
I hadn’t thought about “Joyce doesn’t freak out” in this manner, and now I just want it to be what happens SO MUCH MORE!
That would be an even better reaction. Joyce just so burnt out on the BS she goes, “k”. Becky tries to get a reaction, gets more in Joyce’s face, and Joyce just shrugs and goes, “Don’t really care anymore”
If I were Joyce, and had the presence of mind to grasp the parameters of the situation when presented with Becky’s “achievement” (i.e., she’s told everyone else, they assume I’m still hyper-religious which suits Becky, Becky is expecting me to freak out as some kind of weird validation of her choices/ undermining of my move away from our shared religious background), I would at least pretend to be completely indifferent to the “news”.
That’s my take too. Becky wants Joyce to still be her buddy in Christ. Guilt tripping and nostalgic music didn’t work so now she’s trying to control how everyone else sees Joyce by saying she couldn’t handle the news well, which makes people assume Joyce is still is a strict Christian.
This.
As previously noted, I want to see either indifference, or Joyce passing out cold (mostly for other health reasons) so that Becky gets to experience some Consequences.
Joyce will be upset but not for the reason they’re expecting. She’ll be upset because her friends are being jerks and treating her like a child.
I suspect the same. And/or she’ll just wonder what the big deal is (even if she’s embarrassed about talking about sex herself, it’s probably not a huge deal for her that Becky and Dina did it.)
In fact she’s the one who originally told Becky she should ha e sex with Dina if she wants to
Becky got annoyed with her for saying so
which is probably the very reason Becky wants to tell everyone except her.
I feel like it’s going to be Joyce not having much of a reaction, and that being more upsetting for Becky than a really strong one would have been
I’m hoping for this, would be a great counter to Becky and truly demonstrate that Joyce has changed.
Porque no los dos? Both would be hilarious.
Persuasion rolling high today
I am assuming Sarah is being sarcastic given that’s one of her defaults.
These are good tips if your a sociopath. (Or a politican)
Robin is very accommodating, I’ll grant her that!
And her lessons are very realistic and I hate that they are realistic.
Reminds me of Captain Cully from Peter Beagle’s _The_Last_Unicorn_, who likes to think of himself as the next Robin Hood, but as one of his own outlaws complains, “we don’t rob from the rich and give to the poor; we rob from the poor because they can’t fight back and give to the rich so they leave us alone.”
Man, I can’t wait until this secret thing blows up in Becky and Dorothy’s faces. And then have whatever reaction Joyce has blow up. This comic is NASCAR and I’m here for the explosions. The suspense is killing me. Someone pull the drama tag off of this business!
I’m not sure if Robin is the worst or the best polisci professor. Either way, I’d take it.
Such good friends, huh, I’m sure Joyce will be very thrilled to learn she was lied to by her so-called best friends. /s This plus how she was feeling already plus being betrayed by her family plus Dina literally sitting on her already painful body…
When did Dorothy lie to Joyce?
You know in actual real life when you’re upset about your friends deceiving you, people don’t play back their literal words and analyze them to tell whether they technically lied or not.
But “technically I didn’t lie to you, I just chose my words carefully with the deliberate intent to mislead you” is such a great sign of healthy friendship!
“What I told you was true, from a certain point of view.”
“and for a given value of true”.
Let’s see if I’m understanding this. If Dorothy doesn’t tell Joyce that Becky and Dina had sex then she is lying to Joyce? She has no obligation to tell Joyce anything about it. She made a non-committal tangential statement that is true. How does this remotely equate to a deliberate attempt to mislead?
There’s no better sign that you’re interacting with someone you consider a friend than when you use your words like you’re being interrogated by someone with Detect Lies up while inside a Zone of Truth.
its not dorothy’s place to say anything on the matter at all. Becky asked her not to tell Joyce about it and she’s respecting her wishes. I think Becky is being dickish about it, but Dorothy is just not telling her.
Then Dorothy could, y’know, keep her mouth shut instead of piling in on the deception and giving Joyce a shit smile.
It really baffles me how a bunch of people don’t get that. It’s fine to not tell. It’s NOT fine to keep dancing around and making it a game of deception
I swear half the comments just want anybody who is tired of Joyce being a punching bag to shut up so when Joyce snaps they can tear into Joyce for her life just continuing on a downward spiral of depression
Hell, I’M getting so sick of it I’m starting to wonder why I even read this stupid webcomic anymore. “Oh look, another strip where Becky is being wild and zany, and setting Joyce up for more hurt. Oh hey, comments are pro Becky and Dorothy. Oh boy I bet when Joyce snaps again the comments will call Joyce an awful waste of space and refuse to acknowledge that Becky is a genuine asshole”
Actually, why DO I keep reading it? Just out of habit? Really need to think that through, this story isn’t entertaining at all to me anymore, just… Infuriating
“comments are pro Becky and Dorothy”?
There are a few, but I think you’re reading a different comments page than I am. I see an awful lot more tearing them down.
It’s okay to take a break from the comments section if it’s becoming a source of frustration. I absolutely get where you’re coming from, I’ve felt the same way at times (not just here, lots of places; there’s nothing unique about the sorts of interactions we see here), and it helped me to step back, and just enjoy the actual comic itself, while I disinvested myself from other people’s minute day-to-day reactions to it. Taking a break doesn’t have to mean quitting forever, either, it can just be taking a break!
As for the comic itself: as annoyed as I get with some of the characters at times, I’m hugely invested in the comic as a whole, and really excited and eager to see where it’s going! I have a lot of faith in Willis as a storyteller, and right now in particular, we look like we might be getting into some material pertaining to my favorite characters that I’ve REALLY been looking forward to, which is more than enough to carry me over storylines more focused on characters I care less about, or even sort of dislike at points. It doesn’t hurt that Joyce is by far and away my favorite character and the one whose journey I’m most interested in, and given the premise of the comic, I don’t think Willis will ever lose interest in her or do her dirty, even if they do put her through the ringer at times. This is true of everyone in the cast, I think, but especially Joyce: Willis really cares about depicting her thought processes and her growth arc and her relationships with a lot of care and nuance and complexity. And that is just so rewarding to me, as a reader, even when it means I wanna facepalm sometimes in reaction to how a specific strip or an encounter plays out. This strip is a journey, and I find it a lot of fun to be along for the ride.
I don’t feel about it as dramatically as you do, but I definitely am not looking forward to the inevitable moment where half the comments section treats Joyce as the villain for not reacting Perfectly to her shitty friends. It keeps happening and my tolerance for it keeps shrinking.
Please let the last panel be Robin getting that there is shit afoot. Becky and Dorothy getting called out on their current level of Really Pretty Shitty by ROBIN, who is basically all definitions of Really Pretty Shitty while also generally being pretty oblivious about it, could be epically satisfying to me.
Its just her pointing at Dina going ” What she said”
Becky is a really good liar when she wants to be.
She’s also a really shitty liar when she thinks it’s funny.
They even leave the door open so she can listen in on the lesson
I hate this so much.
Well of course Dina’s behind the door… as usual.
Oooh yeah Joyce is going to end up upset but it’s because her friends are being smug assholes more than anything else.
But Joyce needs to have her decisions made for her, and the information she’s exposed to must be carefully curated! Otherwise she’ll just freak out, or passively put up with problems hoping they’ll go away!
/s
Stay good Sarah. Remember these tips are coming from Robin, DoA’s stand-in for pathologically narcissistic, orange haired frauds with too much power.
I feel like Robin has more of a conscience than Trump. Sometimes. Though there were a couple of gags comparing them.
DoA Robin was supposed to be a Trump expy, and then Trump won and Willis decided that maaaaaaaybe having a character like that in the comic wouldn’t be such a great idea.
When Robin was elected to Congress back in the old Walkyverse continuity, she was a Palin expy. Back when she set the absurdity bar.
Then along came some more IRL first-term Representatives who only got elected to make noise and kick up dust, and hooo boy…
(Yes, I know Robin’s trajectory was long since set by the time the 2020 election was in full swing. I choose to interpret it as affirmation the right decision was made.)
I admit, my post was pretty exaggerated. Though it occurs to me Robin always seems to need Leslie as a humanizing influence. She isn’t absent of the ability to care about other people; it just doesn’t occur to her to do it unless Leslie reminds her to. And in this universe their trajectories seem to run widely apart. . .
How did Dina hear them from that distance and behind a door? Even with an open door, that’s pretty good hearing. Oh, right. Dina has super powers when hiding behind a door.
Yeah. Joyce just needs a new suite of friends.
I vote Walky, Joe, Jennifer, Asher, Sal, and Danny.
Oh, and Roz.
Now that you mention it, I would like to see Joyce and Roz sorting a few things out together.
Roz unfortunately shows up so little that she only came ot mind because she’s currently right behind Joyce.
Oh that could be interesting. She hasn’t been super welcoming towards Joyce’s learning curve in the past, but leaving your church/religion/god because it said your best friend would burn in hell for being gay is…more than baby steps.
And as smug as Roz can be, given that she came from the same family that produced Robin, I don’t think it’s a slam dunk that she was raised with the progressive values she espouses (the way Dorothy obviously was). She may have some experience with the painful exploration of personal beliefs that don’t jibe with your upbringing, and may not be welcomed by your family or childhood friends. That could absolutely make for some interesting conversations, at the least.
I’m a little leery about her as a sounding board about sex-related topics because it’s unclear to me if Roz’s brand of sex-positivity allows people to feel ambivalent or uncomfortable about having sex themselves (for any of a variety of reasons). It might! I just don’t know if we know that for sure. (There is probably some carryover on my part for how Roz treated Jacob in Shortpacked, which was…absolutely unconscionable. She certainly hasn’t done anything like it in the Dumbiverse, but it’s hard to shake the bad vibes off the level of boundary-violating disrespect and badgering she subjected him to. Thinking about it still makes me feel icky.)
Note that Roz doesn’t know but HIGHLY suspects Joyce suffered an attempted rape at the party. She was also the cast member that gave her the best advice (“here is the contact of a professional I trust, IF something happened you might want to reach out”), and this is after Joyce told her she was a “plucked flower” with lower worth.
Yeah! She has perfectly valid reasons to dislike Joyce (idk if she actually does, just that she’d be justified if she did) but that didn’t stop her from offering her an appropriate and respectful gesture of help when she thought it was needed. That says a lot about her. I feel like if something prompted Joyce to approach her in good faith, she’d be open to talking to her. In like, a nicer way than when she told Joyce that Joyce and her people were The Problem (true? Yes. A good way to open dialogue with someone who’s beginning to question her toxic value system? Very much not).
When Riley mentioned during Freshman Family Weekend that she thought both boys and girls were icky, Roz mentioned that asexuality was also an option. While she was very tired and engaging in sleepy banter with a hyperactive sibling, it does suggest that Roz definitely has a “you do you, or don’t do you, or whatever” vibe when it comes to sex.
(Not that I blame your wariness. Shortpacked!Roz was pretty assault-y with the whole “physically forcing Jacob to grab her boob” incident. I don’t care if sex addiction is or isn’t a real thing, Shortpacked!Roz, if someone’s indicated a belief that they have an unhealthy relationship with sexuality and that they want to step away from sex until they get themselves sorted, you don’t get to decide they’re wrong for it. But like I said, I think Dumbiverse!Roz is way better about this sort of thing.)
Joyce isn’t going to actually have the mind-melt reaction they expect. But her reaction is going to herald a reckoning with her friends concerning what she’s actually been going through in recent months.
You don’t see this having the potential to bring up the religion conflict again?
Politics truly is the opposite of comedy.
Its been 30 seconds, where is my hussy meltdown?
Hussy Meltdown delayed by close proximity to Roz, who I’d wager knows more about birth control and its effects on regulating menstruation than everybody else on the cast put together.
Obviously, I knew Robin was a terrible person, but I’m slightly shocked at Sarah being all “Stealing from the disadvantaged, of course!”
I read that as deadpan sarcasm. Someone with as much pessimistic misanthropy as Sarah wouldn’t be surprised by government corruption.
If Robin’s lectures break any of our main characters, it will be Dorothy.
Second sentence of hers DOES make the first one sound like sarcasm.
I’m pretty sure Sarah is just going to do the polar opposite of what Robin suggests tbh. So in a way, it IS good advice.
Reminds me of the scene from Back to School where Dangerfield’s character is in a business class. The professor says they will create a fictional company over the semester & start-up costs but Dangerfield starts asking questions like what does the company make and how you’ll need to pay kickbacks and the like to get the permits and construction done and so on.
All that Becky needed to do here was keep her mouth shut. Joyce wasn’t asking *her* why Dina was waiting outside. But I guess mocking Joyce to her supposed friends (to Dorothy’s great amusement, just look at that fucking smile) was just too great a temptation to pass up.
Or she’s just bad at keeping secrets and this is played here for laughs. Why would you think she’s mocking Joyce?
“Oh, I have NO IDEA what you’re talking about with a completely different person, amirite, yet another completely different person, nudge nudge wink wink”.
She probably sees it more like she’s being playful friendly with Joyce but it’s also insulting to Joyce’s intelligence that both she and Dorothy expect Joyce to belive them. Especially since last time they joked about how Joyce was like a puppy that would need to be hand fed medication in peanut butter.
I think you mean “playful friendly with DOROTHY” not Joyce. Joyce isn’t in ON the joke, she’s just IN the joke, because the joke’s about her.
With dorothy yes and I also think Becky doesn’t think it’s a big deal with how shes treating joyce because even though she’s starting to act like a bully she’s still acting light hearted she still sees herself as Joyce’s best friend and gives herself a pass.hopfully someone calls her on this very soon.
This is likely because “haha, joke’s on you” has been a prevalent part of their relationship. In a strip that I can’t find for the life of me, Becky pretty much says how much she loves to BSOD Joyce. I, too, love making my friends so uncomfortable they need time for their brains to defreeze on a regular basis.
I have never liked that part of their “friendship”/Becky’s behavior toward Joyce, no.
She didn’t tell Joyce that she was homeless. Or how her mom died.
She keeps secrets just fine.
I think you may be looking to deeply into Dorothy’s smile here. She didn’t do anything.
All Dorothy is doing is is not telling joyce. Dorothy is hardly a terrible person for respecting Becky’s wishes on this.
Dorothy is also piling in on the deception while throwing Joyce a shitty smile. People who don’t want to get involved keep their mouths shut.
I suspect Dorothy is both enjoying not being the target of Becky’s “jokes” for once and taking Joyce’s forgiveness for granted here.
I really thought Becky was better at lying than this. Maybe she wants to get caught?
She is. Becky’s EXCELLENT at lying as a survival trait.
This whole thing is because making fun of Joyce is the point.
I think Joyce will soon understand everything, and hopefully she will be happy for her friend happiness. Robin is not so bad as a prof. But she’s too much sincere, this usually end up to backfire and then the prof will learn to be cold towards the students.
With all the Joyce has been through i don’t t think she has enough energy left for the epic meltdown they are expecting. She’s still in pain. Just had a heart to heart with Jennifer. She might get pissy about it, but i think that’s all she can manage right now.
Ok. So my thought is that Joyce is feeling like Dina is avoiding her because of the earlier conversation they had about spanking.
Which means that all the weird-ness she’s picking up on, because she’s obviously picking up on something being off, is going to attribute to hostility. I mean, she’s been fighting with Becky and Becky’s girlfriend is hurt by a thoughtless half asleep comment she made while in a lot of pain, it totally makes sense that she’d attribute it to people putting distance there.
I also feel like Becky is being an ass for the secrets/re-indoctrination stuff, but I think that when Joyce does hear about the actual cause, that she’s not going to freak out. She’ll be relieved it’s not about people being mad at her, which will take the wind out of Becky’s sails.
And that with that, Becky (and maybe Dorothy) will realize that they’re putting a lot of pressure and stress onto their friend and causing them to feel isolated and hurt.
I think ordinarily Dina would be doing her own thing at this time, as she doesn’t have this class. Joyce is commenting on Dina hanging out with their group more than usual today, although it’s phrased in a confusing way.
Becky is truly a perfect storm of conflicting desires. There’s a version of her relationship to religion that is healthy and isn’t defined by the one her community taught her, but until she actually sits down and thinks about the trickier parts of that culture, she’s just gonna end up replicating elements of it.
You can really see her trying to balance so many plates, viewing them as in conflict even though from the outside looking in being horny gay for your girlfriend doesn’t have to be in conflict, having sex with your girlfriend doesn’t have to be in conflict, your friend being an atheist(no chance of being a part of the same religion) doesn’t have to be.
But the only way that can happen is by spending some time thinking about cultural hangups. Which she kind of is doing, but also maybe bringing other people(Joyce) into your internal debates on spirituality is not the way.
But also saying your not gonna tell Joyce and then telling everyone is a little silly if that’s the plan, especially if your gonna be a giggling jerk while you do it
Well put.
Also I’m watching all of disneys movies and let me tell you they’re so weird but fascinating when put together.
The rotoscoping in black cauldron alone is something else
Also also I have 2 new kittens and started art classes with a really good teacher!
Kittens!!!
You should draw a picture of them for your art class maybe? (Anyway congratulations!)
I’ll try just for y’all
Kittens! And Art! And Art of Kittens! And Kittens doing Art (aka, “oh no, they got into the paints again and now I can’t see the floor for catprints”)!
That’s just a part of the process of art
All of this sounds so sweet and wonderful, Florence! 🥰
I am coming along very nicely with a creative project myself!
Funny you should mention rotoscoping, the project is actually gonna use that very technique!!! 😃
*plays “Emerald Tide” on hacked muzak*
That’s so cool! It’s a very interesting technique with so much potential
Yay! New kittens.
I’m probably adopting an older cat whose person can’t take care of her any more. Unless I talk myself out of it pretty soon.
Doooo iittttt!!!! Unless you can’t which is understandable but also doooo ittt!!!
I done it. Well, I don’t have her yet, but I agreed.
It’s knowing there’s heartbreak probably only a few years down the road that makes it hard.
They are so lucky to have you 😊
It’d probably be better if they just tell Joyce that Becky and Dina had sex. I’m still betting that in her current situation Joyce probably wouldn’t be nearly as bothered by it as they think.
Also, Dina is being super relatable again.
Yeah like: Robins classroom is small from what I recall and everyone seems smushed in together like sardines here everytime there’s a shot of the class. No space anywhere. I don’t get claustrophobic but I would not like it even if Robins classes seem like a hoot at times.
But probably not in the middle of class.
I hope that by they you mean Becky.
Well Becky is still better than Joe’s list thing. In that Becky having sex isn’t about Joyce, and she’s not also telling Joyce to weaponize it against her.
I mean Becky is kind of making herself having sex all about Joyce, since she’s using it as a reason to go around telling everyone Joyce still have fundamentalist views one sex and can’t be trusted with the most open secret on campus.
“I mean Becky is kind of making herself having sex all about Joyce”
What’s the over/under on this being because Joyce is the one she wants to have sex with?
A very real possibility, or she just wants to manipulate everyone into thinking Joyce is still a Christian. Either way it’s hard to not notice how Becky keeps bringing Joyce in regards to her own sex life way more then she should be.
Huh! I certainly don’t think Becky’s weirdly conflicted aversion to letting Joyce know she’s had sex now is like….primarily about THAT, but it might maybe could be a factor, and part of the emotional stew she’s feeling about having HAD sex at all, with anyone. Odds that Becky’s not still at least partly in love with Joyce after a timeskip of just a couple of months, when she’d been in love with her for YEARS and was in love with her at the last point we checked in with her last semester, are, I would calculate, “nil”.
Something to ponder.
Honestly Dina, fair
ugh, crowd…
I am just waiting for Joyce to completely snap, call everybody out, then tell them all to piss off and never contact her again
I hate how they all treat Joyce
I’d rather she just react calmly and quietly shame them all for behaving like dipsticks.
I’m beginning to really want Joyce to go ‘whatever’ about the sexytimes and keep quiet on the rest, and just… find better friends and spend time with them. None of her current circle respects her, and getting mad about it would just be a waste of time.
Itd be amazing if she lands on Roz as a new friend given their adversarial relationship at the start of the comic
Joyce is going to figure it out at this rate.
something something can’t remember