If the leagues are fair, within a given lifetime period you’ll see just about every team in every major pro sport win at least once. Having lived just about 38 years, about 50% of the teams in the NFL & NHL have one at least once during my lifetime and 70% of MLB teams have won. Despite following both rugby and association football, unlike say basketball, I’m not trying to figure the percentages there both due to the huge range of national associations involved and past experience with hardline debates regarding governing bodies and amateur vs professional play.
A bigger factor than either of those (in soccer, at least) is that the leagues *aren’t* remotely fair (in the sense that clubs have similar chances at the start of a season) and no attempt is made to even them out. In some national leagues (Portugal, say) the distance between a few elite clubs and the middle of the table is just ridiculous.
Like in US baseball, where the big cities with lots of money (most egregiously the New York Yankees) will poach all of the best players by making them an offer they’d have to be crazy (or a Boston native) to refuse.
Not gonna lie, that one scene made me cry. You know which one. That’s the second most evil thing a character played by that actor has ever done. (He also plays Theon Greyjoy, who literally killed children and even that still somehow feels only barely more evil than what he did in John Wick.)
I understand Ruth’s fear but Billie hasn’t actually been in her assigned room for weeks so will this really change their situation much at all except removing the power imbalance. Are there rules about students staying in other dorms for extended periods of time? If there is I feel like Chloe might say something if Billie is always there like she plans to be.
probably depends on the time frame. also while there are laws/rules they are often the ones that matter and the ones that if you have the time and desire to enforce it. or ones that are on the books only because nobody cared enough to remove it.
yeah its a matter of how much they care to enforce the laws. I mean heck there are lots of laws on the books that nobody enforces in america. If i remember right for example
in florida its illegal to sleep with your shoes on
in michigan its illegal for a married woman to get a haircut without her hubbys consent
and in one of those landlocked states like maybe montana its legal to kill whales
and another i forget the state its legal to kill indians who are chasing you, but only if you are in a covered wagon.
It’s weird to me people write off whole groups like that. Even for ducks isn’t that behavior primarily the males? What did the females do wrong to get denounced?
But even without them, I’m curious how typical that is of dolphins. There are lots of different species. And you hear even worse stuff about Homo sapiens, but I know it’s not all of them, just a very horrible percentage. Are dolphins more uniform in that?
I think the thing where Dolphins will just kill sharks for fun is probably fun for the whole dolphin family. I don’t think we have any reason to believe that even if not all dolphins HAVE killed for fun, any of them would. They’re smart, and amoral, because… they’re animals. You can’t really call them evil for the same reason, of course, but they’re still a hell of a lot less likeable than puppies. Puppies are so cute and good! Dolphins might murder you and laugh at your corpse.
Well, dolphins kill sharks when they can, but then, you know, those’re sharks.
Dolphins are far, far less likely to attack people than those sharks that they attack.
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for dolphins, I admit. Basically though, you’re right. They’re animals and not neotenous domesticated ones. Thus talking about “murder” or “rape” isn’t really meaningful.
It doesn’t make sense to apply human standards to animals, but I have tough time describing them as uniformly amoral. I don’t know about dolphins, but some primates have culturally transmitted behavior and notions of fairness and reciprocity. And at that point, it makes sense to talk about individuals as good eggs or assholes, doesn’t it?
Is it weird that I could not bring myself to harm a cat or a dog for someone else, but would be willing to kill another human for someone else? And is this something I should talk to my psychiatrist about? I’m genuinely curious.
Who the hell names their dog “Nazi”? That’s a sure sign of a bad owner, and a bad owner is what turns dogs into assholes.
…
Also, very sorry to hear about that horrid experience with dogs that you had. That would definitely leave a very bad impression.
Oh most definitely. It’s just…when humans are assholes to each other it makes me angry. When dogs are assholes to humans it makes me sad. I don’t know why.
I forget where you are and that could be important due to cultural differences.
In the US, and in Britain, animals, especially companion/domesticated, are revered. There’s a certain trust of people, especially dogs. And abusing that trust is monstrous and loathsome. It’s doing that to something which hasn’t got a wild animal’s.wariness (but hitting wild animals is bad too of course) or an adult’s ability to protect itself and be suspicious.
The tropes “kick the dog” and also “would hurt a child” exist for a reason. Would a professional assassin kill, or a thug beat up, an adult? Yes. Would they kick a dog or hurt a child? Well, that’s too far.
I wasn’t aware those were actual tropes, but historically the Nazis were the ones who created the first modern animal welfare organization with government funding and approval and support from the nation’s top leader. Although I don’t think that really improves their image that they considered animals to deserve basic human rights more than people that didn’t meet the demands of their twisted racial supremacy ideology.
Well, the Nazis weren’t anything if they weren’t crazy and inconsistent. They were basically the mad scientist trope with a huge dose of racism and a morbid focus on making warfare even crueler. Occasionally there were a couple advances that could be applied to peaceful purposes, the jet engine, green energy experiments, and pro-environmentalism (apparently Hitler thought the Germans needed so much territory in order to have an environmentally friendly country, and that only Germans deserved such a utopia) being prime examples. Everything else, horrible to a degree so extreme it makes one sick to even think about.
That is not weird in the slightest. There are big differences between them and adult humans.
Morally, we find it monstrous to attack something that cannot defend itself or understand why it is being hurt when we know it can feel pain and are able to sympathise with it. Because you know what else that applies to? Babies. And we treat our companion animals like babies or children – we want to protect them from needless harm, they don’t deserve to be harmed in our minds unless they are actively attacking you or causing you harm because they don’t fully understand the impact of their actions or the possible consequences of them.
And even with animals that we aren’t particularly fond of and don’t sympathise with as much as cats or dogs, we aren’t particularly fond of them being tortured needlessly or suffering needlessly because we know they won’t understand why that is happening to them.
An adult human on the other hand should know society’s morals. They are generally more capable of defending themselves and understanding why you would harm them. You are more likely to lose sympathy for them and find it acceptable to inflict harm on them because they are old enough to know the full impact of their actions and all the possible consequences.
Also, there is generally much less chance that a cat or dog or companion animal (excluding exotic ones that aren’t actually domesticated in the slightest) in general will do something to someone else that will make you want to hurt it than a human adult will.
Girl, I would snuff a puppy for you.
I would give a baby a wedgie.
I would tell a rabbit it was its birthday and that it should meet us at Applebee’s for the party and then when the rabbit got there, it would have to wait a long time to come sit down and listen to me day that it was not the rabbi’s birthday after all and that I had cancelled it’s credit cards and sold its family to some kids with shirts that said “I hate rabbits.”
Oh yeah, girl, this is accurate.
I’m just saying, puppies should watch out around me.
Because I would kill them, girl.
I would kill them for you.
I’m still very confused by that whole aspect. I understand why “Let me solve all your problems for you or I’ll beat this child” makes Ruth’s grampa evil, but I don’t understand how him solving all Ruth’s problems is bad. Billie’s weekend is ruined moving, but now she can Ruth can date openly and safely and without a weird power dynamic.
The point is that her problems are not solved. She is still the RA, which she doesn’t want to be, and which inhibits her mental health, and no she can’t “safely” date Billie because granddad doesn’t want her to.
Yeah, they could ALSO have dated openly without the power dynamic if Ruth was no longer an RA at all, and Ruth wouldn’t have had the additional source of stress and drain on her time and energy that are going to make her recovery more difficult.
Like, even if she ends up pulling herself together and keeping the job ends up being a net benefit somehow, the fact that he at no point spoke to Ruth about any of it before deciding what must happen would still be absolute god awful shit parenting.
It’s a control issue thing. he didn’t solve her problems, what he did was a straight power play designed to rob her agency. She doesn’t want the job, she’s shit at it, she knows it and it feeds into her depression . She needs room to recover and it was taken away. His moving Billy wasn’t a favor it was a display of control, the ability to move someone she cares about regardless of Billy wishes. It’s a threat and taints the real benefits of them being in different dorms.
He arranged things to his pleasure, grounded her face into her failures much of which he arbitrarily assigned to her. Demonstrated he could affect those close to her. Ruth is trapped no actual problems were solved.
I forget, is the rule we ignore all odd numbered Star Trek movies except for Search for Spock or is the rule we ignore all the even numbered Star Trek movies except for Wrath of Khan?
My rule is I ignore the all the Star Trek movies where Kirk is played by someone who isn’t Shatner.
By my usual criteria of evaluating a “good movie” (do I frequently quote it in completely unrelated circumstances?), the best Trek movie is VI. You haven’t experienced Star Trek until you’ve seen it in the original Klingon.
And also “You have been…and always will be…my friend” coupled with “Of all the souls I knew, his was the most…human”. Gets me in the feels every last time.
People are impressed by how hard tardigrades are to kill by means that would obliterate us, like heat and cold and radiation and space.
But they’re actually easy to kill by things we stand up to. They’re tiny. They get eaten and digested in large numbers by accident any time something is chewing up moss.
…
I wonder if any relationship is ever so dramatic as to be going through a hard time because someone is moving literally one block away.
(Yes yes more complicated. I know.)
No, because at the root of codependency is putting someone else’s needs excessively above your own for a sense of purpose or self-worth e.g. ignoring that your own mental health is falling to shreds while continually supporting someone else’s; always focusing on the problems of someone else while disregarding your own. It is taking on too much responsibility for others really – which then forces them to be hyperaware of your needs and feelings in return, which can then lead to them ignoring their own as well and becoming just as dependent.
It is by nature not healthy because it involves excessive caretaking at the expense of yourself and if the person you are caring for gets better, then you lose all sense of purpose and all sense of self-worth as your entire identity became tied into looking after them.
But Picard got his “whale” in the end.
…
What’s this, we aren’t talking about the Star Trek movie involving the Borg and the Enterprise going back in time to the 2030s? Ignore me then.
“That’s an awfully quiet baby you got there. It would be a shame if someone were to make it cry by barking at it, capiche? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a squirrel to ‘chase up a tree’ if you understand me.”
It still says puppy for me but if I view on an incognito window I get dolphin. Had to do that to check because my friend and I were having a debate about what the comic said.
Omg im so happy that this relationship is working. That they are actually in a more stable place and can be a good relationshipm billie iz being patient and not making it a big deal. Shes like checking on her and knows shes fragile and isnt taking ruths angry snark personally. Im rooring for them man
I think “snuff a puppy” has a better ring to it. Not entirely cool with either as an actual activity, but it has an almost poetic, rhythmic quality that seems somehow superior to “snuff a dolphin.”
That, or I just reread it so many times when I was still like: “Did she just? Did they just? Did Willis really?” and got too used to it.
puppy flows better than dolphin and to be honest i dont know why it got changed. especially since dolphins can be awful in so many ways i dont think people would be as sad or stressed about ending a dolphin or having one ended compared to a puppy. kind of takes a lot of the impact away from what ruth is saying in my opinion.
Does anyone have an archived image of the “snuff a puppy” version I hear once existed? Or must it be consigned to the realm of myth, like dragons, canals on Mars, and the film of The Last Airbender?
I actually think it’s both, a tank least in the US. Because dogs are damn near sacred here. And have been for quite a while. Hell, during the Revolutionary War George Washington returned General Howe’s lost dog when it came into his possession. That’s how much most people in the US (and the British Isles as well) love dogs.
For some reason, people (at least in America) feel disproportionately offended when someone mentions harming a dog. I may get hate for this, but I’ve beaten the absolute shit out of a dog, in the past. Of course, it was an actual threat to me…
If it was actually attacking you/being an actual threat, I’d say that’s not likely to earn you hate. There is a difference between a dog existing and you beating it up for no reason and you defending yourself from an actual dog attack.
The healthiest relationship is probably Dina and Becky, though Dotty X Walky is (annoyingly) pretty stable and healthy. Jacob and Raidah are also doing fine for the moment.
Ruth is the exact figure of my ex-partner of 17 years; build, hair, glasses, humor, depression, suicide attempts and all. It’s been 7 years since we have parted our ways and both got new lives.
On the one hand, I do find it a little weird how Ruth acts like they’re moving her to another continent as opposed to “somewhere else on the same campus”, but on the other hand I know first-hand how depression can warp how you think about just about everything, and we’ve seen how her Grandfather fucks with her mind.
Her grandfather screwing with her mind is likely why she is thinking this. He said Billie would forget her when she moves. Was that logical? No, it isn’t like she is moving very far, but that wasn’t the point; he got Ruth hyperaware of her relationship and how little she feels she offers Billie which was another way to make her feel bad and powerless and like a burden.
I only require a romantic partner be willing to kill bugs for me. (Getting rid of bigger pests like mice are a huge plus but I think it’s reasonable to get professionals at that point.)
What I mean is a non-resident living at the dorm. Kind of like the issue they had with Becky squatting in Billie’s room. Though probably less problematic since she Does attend this school.
I think officially the policy limiting overnight guests applies to people from another dorm as well. If it’s anything like my old school, it’s likely honored more in the breach.
It’s likely in place mostly so they’ve got something to point at when a roommate complains about suddenly living in a triple. Doesn’t mean it can’t be abused by someone like Mary though.
Wouldn’t that require a complaint from the roommate though? And Ruth lives in a single so there’s no roommate to complain. Plus Pudding Cup basically gave the wink wink nudge nudge for them moving right back in with each other again.
Well, I doubt the actual rule says “Only if a roommate complains”, it’s just that they’re the most likely to have a problem with it.
So when Mary raises a fuss…
Or maybe even Rachel?
Holding on with the fingernails of both hands, trying not to drop into the abyss. But at least she’s holding on. And some days that’s enough.
“sir” grampus’s bullshit has strong ties over her mind and there’s little doubt she is not replaying his message over and over again in her head, her depression making it seem as if a truth.
And Billie, doing all she can to reassure her girlfriend and defeat that voice that can be louder than anything as often as she can in as many ways she can.
And it’s working. Ruth is sitting up in that last panel. Having been in that state, I know how hard it can be to get to “sitting up”. And she’s arguing, which means she’s hearing Billie’s words through her depression.
Their origins are horrible, but I can’t help rooting for them here because I’ve been on both sides of this situation so many times. I was in the Billie position last night.
And we all want our partners to be well and survive that violent bully that is depression and its close friend and known associate PTSD.
yeah, sitting up… walking… focusing enough to see/hear… amazing how exhausting they can be at times.
I don’t wanna be depressed 🙁 I thought I was done with this shit.
I’m bored and I don’t wanna do anything and everything feels all twisty and wrong, and knowing that the twisty feeling might be ocd only makes it suck more. stupid NVoice keeps beating me up about how there is no cure and I’m just supposed to fight against it 24/7 forever or else I’m a Bad Person and none of that makes any sense so why am I believing it? *sigh*
it keeps tricking me with the “everything will feel horrible forever” myth. despite all evidence to the contrary. because depression. but I can’t seem to remember the way out. it seems pretty determined to make me feel miserable regardles., especially if I’m going in the right direction. so maybe pay attention to what pisses it off… like, why am I so convinced I can’t go to the gym? fucking hate the stupid gym and its stupid exercise. 😛 there’s always Reasons I can’t go, but they’re suspiciously vague and fluid. fuck it. maybe I’ll actually go today and find out how much BS that is.
I don’t wanna fight, but I’m sure as hell not letting NVoice win 😛
*hugs*
I hope you and your partner are ok, and that your partner is in a better headspace now. I’ve been in the Billie role before as well, and for me it sucks more than when I’m the one depressed. Because at least when I’m depressed I know strategies that help me cope with it. But when someone else is depressed it feels like I’m powerless to help and I get scared for said person.
…
But in response to your comments about depression, it reminds me of college when I wasn’t with my best friends anymore. Coupled with four of the seven of them dying within the past three years, and my preexisting depression (thanks overbearing perfectionist dad) is way worse. Clinging by fingernails is a good way to put it. Currently the anniversary of one of the deaths and I’m barely even functioning enough to force myself to interact with the comments, if only because that will kick start my actually doing things instinct and will keep me from laying in bed all day.
If it makes your partner feel better, feel free to let them know that a random Internet stranger who only knows that they are your partner offers them all the empathy, support, and sympathy possible.
…
Ok, I’m not sure that sentence is grammatically correct.
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“what if I put a Mets poster over it”
“and that helps how…?”
dang it
Did Willis change the hovertext again
Hey, the Mets won in my lifetime.
If the leagues are fair, within a given lifetime period you’ll see just about every team in every major pro sport win at least once. Having lived just about 38 years, about 50% of the teams in the NFL & NHL have one at least once during my lifetime and 70% of MLB teams have won. Despite following both rugby and association football, unlike say basketball, I’m not trying to figure the percentages there both due to the huge range of national associations involved and past experience with hardline debates regarding governing bodies and amateur vs professional play.
Don’t forget the promotion and relegation system.
A bigger factor than either of those (in soccer, at least) is that the leagues *aren’t* remotely fair (in the sense that clubs have similar chances at the start of a season) and no attempt is made to even them out. In some national leagues (Portugal, say) the distance between a few elite clubs and the middle of the table is just ridiculous.
Like in US baseball, where the big cities with lots of money (most egregiously the New York Yankees) will poach all of the best players by making them an offer they’d have to be crazy (or a Boston native) to refuse.
I first read this as “Hey, the Mets won in my timeline.”
I wonder if that timeline is much better, or if they’ve got an Artificial Humans situation on their hands.
Gotta get her into a winning mindset.
Everyones willing to kill a puppy for billy
On nintendogs
Holy shit, you can kill the nintendogs?
You can just throw the cartridge away. It would be like death for them.
PROFESSOR SNUGGLESWORTH!
Highly debatable. Demolishing the cartridge would erase the past, present and future of that fictional universe.
Less of a death and more of an uncreation.
oh so like what happened in the maze of many in the goblins comic.
What if you opened up the cartridge and just rubbed off the bit that lets your save?
That’s more or less just stripping yourself of your godhood.
Hm, a god whose main power resides in an element of the universe they create. That’s gotta be a main tenet of at least one religion out there.
Nintendogs are from Universe 9, so technically they don’t exist anymore.
Billie says she will never leave Ruth, but wait until she finds out that the RA across the street is an angsty redhead with family issues.
I’m reasonably certain the rules of drama dictate that this is Alice’s dorm.
Even better, Alice is her new roommate/neighbor.
What if it’s the McAwesome’s to Read Hall’s Shortpacked? Everyone has a counterpart, everything is different yet oddly familiar.
Mary would kill a puppy.
Not for Billie, just for kicks.
She’d do it for God.
She’d do it for a Klondike Bar.
She’d probably do it for a Yorkie bar too, but – they’re not for girls!
(according to their ads)
More like she’d do it just because and then justify it as being what God wanted.
I mean, why else was she so happy (I sincerely hope the hyperlink worked)
And I fucked it up. Hover over it for what I meant.
At least all of the elements you wanted were actually there, just in the wrong place, sometimes you ain’t so lucky
She would do it and say it was righteous because the puppy was sinning.
Well, that’s horrifying.
But still romantic :3
Nothing says romantic like killing a puppy for your partner.
The dialogue…changed, right? I’m not losing touch with reality?
Definitely.
it said puppy when i first checked.
And it changed again, I think. I’m not enjoying this.
Okay, maybe it didn’t change back and it was just my phone. Or a hole in the simulation. Okay.
cache magic. 🙂
The Matrix runs on Amazon AWS, and it’s still recovering from Prime Day.
Puppy killin’ relationships are keepers, a’yup.
… Amidoinitrite?
Man, I saw John Wick. That’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Not gonna lie, that one scene made me cry. You know which one. That’s the second most evil thing a character played by that actor has ever done. (He also plays Theon Greyjoy, who literally killed children and even that still somehow feels only barely more evil than what he did in John Wick.)
Well, Mary would be happy to do that, but only for evil/selfish reasons. because mary.
damn it, somebody already made that joke, and it’s better than mine
As someone who’s had a lot of long-distance relationships, this conversation is familiar.
I told my girlfriend today that I would not kill a puppy for her love.
She understood.
Well, even in the abstract (as Dotty would say) it’s a horrible thing to do, at least for me
how big a dog? some seem more effort than others.
If it’s true love, size never matters. *Eyebrow waggle.*
Billie drives a hard bargain, like dang.
Last panel Billie’s words sound like something Faye Whitaker might say.
Also her facial expression there.
I understand Ruth’s fear but Billie hasn’t actually been in her assigned room for weeks so will this really change their situation much at all except removing the power imbalance. Are there rules about students staying in other dorms for extended periods of time? If there is I feel like Chloe might say something if Billie is always there like she plans to be.
probably depends on the time frame. also while there are laws/rules they are often the ones that matter and the ones that if you have the time and desire to enforce it. or ones that are on the books only because nobody cared enough to remove it.
^ This. My campus had rules about entering and leaving via fourth-floor windows, but that didn’t stop students from doing it. :p
yeah its a matter of how much they care to enforce the laws. I mean heck there are lots of laws on the books that nobody enforces in america. If i remember right for example
in florida its illegal to sleep with your shoes on
in michigan its illegal for a married woman to get a haircut without her hubbys consent
and in one of those landlocked states like maybe montana its legal to kill whales
and another i forget the state its legal to kill indians who are chasing you, but only if you are in a covered wagon.
*plays the Stax School Students version of “Walkin’ The Dog” on the hacked Muzak*
Say what you will about Billie, at least the girl got standards
I have had this conversation with my partner…
Good. Dolphins are terrible.
Bloody rapists. Almost as bad as ducks.
It’s weird to me people write off whole groups like that. Even for ducks isn’t that behavior primarily the males? What did the females do wrong to get denounced?
But even without them, I’m curious how typical that is of dolphins. There are lots of different species. And you hear even worse stuff about Homo sapiens, but I know it’s not all of them, just a very horrible percentage. Are dolphins more uniform in that?
Alan Moore wrote an entire song about what the ducks do. Drinking, carousing, stealing cars, plotting and planning behind your back…
I think the thing where Dolphins will just kill sharks for fun is probably fun for the whole dolphin family. I don’t think we have any reason to believe that even if not all dolphins HAVE killed for fun, any of them would. They’re smart, and amoral, because… they’re animals. You can’t really call them evil for the same reason, of course, but they’re still a hell of a lot less likeable than puppies. Puppies are so cute and good! Dolphins might murder you and laugh at your corpse.
Well, dolphins kill sharks when they can, but then, you know, those’re sharks.
Dolphins are far, far less likely to attack people than those sharks that they attack.
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for dolphins, I admit. Basically though, you’re right. They’re animals and not neotenous domesticated ones. Thus talking about “murder” or “rape” isn’t really meaningful.
It doesn’t make sense to apply human standards to animals, but I have tough time describing them as uniformly amoral. I don’t know about dolphins, but some primates have culturally transmitted behavior and notions of fairness and reciprocity. And at that point, it makes sense to talk about individuals as good eggs or assholes, doesn’t it?
“They seem nice enough at first…”
Playful nature, high intelligence and amorality are a bad combination.
So you’re saying dolphins are Faerie then?
That would actually explain a lot.
Is it weird that I could not bring myself to harm a cat or a dog for someone else, but would be willing to kill another human for someone else? And is this something I should talk to my psychiatrist about? I’m genuinely curious.
I think you ought to reconsider the first part of that, anyway. Some dogs is assholes, man.
— someone who as a child got bitten in the ass by a Doberman named “Nazi”, and had to get tetanus shots and stuff
Who the hell names their dog “Nazi”? That’s a sure sign of a bad owner, and a bad owner is what turns dogs into assholes.
…
Also, very sorry to hear about that horrid experience with dogs that you had. That would definitely leave a very bad impression.
To be fair, a human who became an asshole because they were raised by abusive parents is still an asshole. Same goes for dogs.
Oh most definitely. It’s just…when humans are assholes to each other it makes me angry. When dogs are assholes to humans it makes me sad. I don’t know why.
Probably would have been worse if I hadn’t known the dog’s name. She backed off when I yelled, “Nazi! NO!” at her.
And probably some scars.
I forget where you are and that could be important due to cultural differences.
In the US, and in Britain, animals, especially companion/domesticated, are revered. There’s a certain trust of people, especially dogs. And abusing that trust is monstrous and loathsome. It’s doing that to something which hasn’t got a wild animal’s.wariness (but hitting wild animals is bad too of course) or an adult’s ability to protect itself and be suspicious.
The tropes “kick the dog” and also “would hurt a child” exist for a reason. Would a professional assassin kill, or a thug beat up, an adult? Yes. Would they kick a dog or hurt a child? Well, that’s too far.
I wasn’t aware those were actual tropes, but historically the Nazis were the ones who created the first modern animal welfare organization with government funding and approval and support from the nation’s top leader. Although I don’t think that really improves their image that they considered animals to deserve basic human rights more than people that didn’t meet the demands of their twisted racial supremacy ideology.
Well, the Nazis weren’t anything if they weren’t crazy and inconsistent. They were basically the mad scientist trope with a huge dose of racism and a morbid focus on making warfare even crueler. Occasionally there were a couple advances that could be applied to peaceful purposes, the jet engine, green energy experiments, and pro-environmentalism (apparently Hitler thought the Germans needed so much territory in order to have an environmentally friendly country, and that only Germans deserved such a utopia) being prime examples. Everything else, horrible to a degree so extreme it makes one sick to even think about.
That is not weird in the slightest. There are big differences between them and adult humans.
Morally, we find it monstrous to attack something that cannot defend itself or understand why it is being hurt when we know it can feel pain and are able to sympathise with it. Because you know what else that applies to? Babies. And we treat our companion animals like babies or children – we want to protect them from needless harm, they don’t deserve to be harmed in our minds unless they are actively attacking you or causing you harm because they don’t fully understand the impact of their actions or the possible consequences of them.
And even with animals that we aren’t particularly fond of and don’t sympathise with as much as cats or dogs, we aren’t particularly fond of them being tortured needlessly or suffering needlessly because we know they won’t understand why that is happening to them.
An adult human on the other hand should know society’s morals. They are generally more capable of defending themselves and understanding why you would harm them. You are more likely to lose sympathy for them and find it acceptable to inflict harm on them because they are old enough to know the full impact of their actions and all the possible consequences.
Also, there is generally much less chance that a cat or dog or companion animal (excluding exotic ones that aren’t actually domesticated in the slightest) in general will do something to someone else that will make you want to hurt it than a human adult will.
So let’s just pretend that it always said “dolphin”, so everyone thinks everyone who posted above this can’t read.
Yeah that was pretty surreal
You could probably use comment timestamps to pinpoint the exact moment it happened
Nah. There’s still a bunch of people talking about the ‘puppy’ version later than people talking about the ‘dolphin’ version.
I’ve updated it a couple times since I noticed the comments switch to dolphins. The comic still shows puppy for me…
I just got here and was legit confused.
Ditto
It was always “Berenstain Bears”.
Ever the romantic.
Ruth, dating someone in a different quad doesn’t count as long distance.
They might still want to take up sexting.
“I FUCKING HATE YOUR FUCKING FACE!”
“YOU ARE FAT AND ALSO DUMB”
“…wanna fuck?”
“keep the window open”
Girl, I would snuff a puppy for you.
I would give a baby a wedgie.
I would tell a rabbit it was its birthday and that it should meet us at Applebee’s for the party and then when the rabbit got there, it would have to wait a long time to come sit down and listen to me day that it was not the rabbi’s birthday after all and that I had cancelled it’s credit cards and sold its family to some kids with shirts that said “I hate rabbits.”
Oh yeah, girl, this is accurate.
I’m just saying, puppies should watch out around me.
Because I would kill them, girl.
I would kill them for you.
Anyone else trying to hear Bruno Mars’ voice sing that in their head?
I did except for the rabbit part, which I read in Andre 3000’s voice (specifically that one bit from Roses).
Ruth abuses her power, and Billie is the one who has to leave? That still upsets me. I’m impressed Billie took such injustice so coolly.
The whole situation is a shit storm. Ideally Ruth wouldn’t be the RA anymore but because Mr. Grandshitlord has power apparently this is what we get.
Yeah it sucks. Basically fuck Ruth’s granddad.
I am curious if she has an uncle named Robert.
I’m still very confused by that whole aspect. I understand why “Let me solve all your problems for you or I’ll beat this child” makes Ruth’s grampa evil, but I don’t understand how him solving all Ruth’s problems is bad. Billie’s weekend is ruined moving, but now she can Ruth can date openly and safely and without a weird power dynamic.
The point is that her problems are not solved. She is still the RA, which she doesn’t want to be, and which inhibits her mental health, and no she can’t “safely” date Billie because granddad doesn’t want her to.
plus she’s got people mad at her for keeping her job even though she didn’t have a choice in the matter.
and the lack of choice is itself bad for her mental health; feeling trapped and helpless just makes everything worse.
Yeah, they could ALSO have dated openly without the power dynamic if Ruth was no longer an RA at all, and Ruth wouldn’t have had the additional source of stress and drain on her time and energy that are going to make her recovery more difficult.
Like, even if she ends up pulling herself together and keeping the job ends up being a net benefit somehow, the fact that he at no point spoke to Ruth about any of it before deciding what must happen would still be absolute god awful shit parenting.
It’s a control issue thing. he didn’t solve her problems, what he did was a straight power play designed to rob her agency. She doesn’t want the job, she’s shit at it, she knows it and it feeds into her depression . She needs room to recover and it was taken away. His moving Billy wasn’t a favor it was a display of control, the ability to move someone she cares about regardless of Billy wishes. It’s a threat and taints the real benefits of them being in different dorms.
He arranged things to his pleasure, grounded her face into her failures much of which he arbitrarily assigned to her. Demonstrated he could affect those close to her. Ruth is trapped no actual problems were solved.
This.
Indeed, killing of aquatic mammals is the benchmark to which all true love stories should aspire.
Like Moby Dick. Or Star Trek IV.
I forget, is the rule we ignore all odd numbered Star Trek movies except for Search for Spock or is the rule we ignore all the even numbered Star Trek movies except for Wrath of Khan?
They’re all great. It’s just that most of them are also terrible.
That is highly illogical, and yet completely correct.
…
I still say Wrath of Khan is the best Star Trek movie of all time (so far).
My rule is I ignore the all the Star Trek movies where Kirk is played by someone who isn’t Shatner.
By my usual criteria of evaluating a “good movie” (do I frequently quote it in completely unrelated circumstances?), the best Trek movie is VI. You haven’t experienced Star Trek until you’ve seen it in the original Klingon.
That is a good criteria; I’m assimilating it.
I’ll give you “the original Klingon” quote, but only if you recognize the timelessness of “Khhhaaaaaannnnn!!!”
And also “You have been…and always will be…my friend” coupled with “Of all the souls I knew, his was the most…human”. Gets me in the feels every last time.
“The needs of the many …”
OTOH, my favorite ST visual is from Search for Spock – the Enterprise spinning away with the front half of the saucer destroyed.
What about Galaxy Quest?
Wrath of Kahn, The Voyage Home, and The Undiscovered Country, in no particular order. They obviously had fun making them, and they’re fun to watch.
Kirk’s reaction to Spock swimming in the whale tank, mind-melding with the whale, is priceless.
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, one of VERY few good examples of the Mysterious!Dugong trope
So… what sorta dolphin? Like a bottle nose dolphin? Or one of those Amazon River dolphins?
Hopefully not a Ganges dolphin.
a puppy dolphin apparently.
True love is always defined by what animal they’re willing to kill to be with you.
Tardigrades.
Oh god it looks like that flatulent pirate from Treasure Planet but much less endearing.
You take that back, because tardigrades are the most awesome living thing in the universe. Literally. :O
Except you can’t kill tardigrades. Go ahead, try it. I’ll be on the sidelines, pointing and laughing.
People are impressed by how hard tardigrades are to kill by means that would obliterate us, like heat and cold and radiation and space.
But they’re actually easy to kill by things we stand up to. They’re tiny. They get eaten and digested in large numbers by accident any time something is chewing up moss.
“I’m not trying to push you away. Just reminding you of the facts: I’m broken, worthless and entirely without positive qualities.”
—
RuthRuth’s depressionChallenge accepted?
Not challenging enough?
…
I wonder if any relationship is ever so dramatic as to be going through a hard time because someone is moving literally one block away.
(Yes yes more complicated. I know.)
Codependency yayyyy
Can’t codependency also be a good thing, assuming both are happy and improving each others lives, wouldn’t codependency be a source for good?
No, because at the root of codependency is putting someone else’s needs excessively above your own for a sense of purpose or self-worth e.g. ignoring that your own mental health is falling to shreds while continually supporting someone else’s; always focusing on the problems of someone else while disregarding your own. It is taking on too much responsibility for others really – which then forces them to be hyperaware of your needs and feelings in return, which can then lead to them ignoring their own as well and becoming just as dependent.
It is by nature not healthy because it involves excessive caretaking at the expense of yourself and if the person you are caring for gets better, then you lose all sense of purpose and all sense of self-worth as your entire identity became tied into looking after them.
But what if you meet someone willing to snuff a whole whale?
Don’t join his doomed crew, especially if he’s Patrick Stewart.
But Picard got his “whale” in the end.
…
What’s this, we aren’t talking about the Star Trek movie involving the Borg and the Enterprise going back in time to the 2030s? Ignore me then.
Nope, we’re talking about the USA network miniseries that First Contact was Stewart’s audition for.
Things I’ve Learned from Star Trek:
When your captain starts quoting from Moby Dick, it’s time to find an escape pod.
Things I’m figuring aren’t in Star Trek:
When your captain starts quoting Billy Budd, ditto.
The Caine Mutiny is another bad sign.
Oh, huh, Willis changed puppy to dolphin.
The puppy mafia is strong.
“That’s an awfully quiet baby you got there. It would be a shame if someone were to make it cry by barking at it, capiche? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a squirrel to ‘chase up a tree’ if you understand me.”
It still says puppy for me but if I view on an incognito window I get dolphin. Had to do that to check because my friend and I were having a debate about what the comic said.
Omg im so happy that this relationship is working. That they are actually in a more stable place and can be a good relationshipm billie iz being patient and not making it a big deal. Shes like checking on her and knows shes fragile and isnt taking ruths angry snark personally. Im rooring for them man
Dolphins are evil buggers and full of Heresy. They deserve all the snuffing they get.
Besides, it’s difficult to DELIBERATELY choose to love someone else. Affection isn’t that easily reporpoised.
Did you just
….. did you forget to dolphinish your sentence?
Dude, that one was WEAK. 😛
[Cetacean Needed]
Whale, that was an A+ comeback. :3
See, that’s better! 😀
Certainly a seaperior comment.
You stole that from what-if.xkcd.com
Not so! If you go to that what-if in question, you’ll discover that it’s version of that pun is still there!
You’re hilarious.
I just want them to be happy.
I think “snuff a puppy” has a better ring to it. Not entirely cool with either as an actual activity, but it has an almost poetic, rhythmic quality that seems somehow superior to “snuff a dolphin.”
That, or I just reread it so many times when I was still like: “Did she just? Did they just? Did Willis really?” and got too used to it.
puppy flows better than dolphin and to be honest i dont know why it got changed. especially since dolphins can be awful in so many ways i dont think people would be as sad or stressed about ending a dolphin or having one ended compared to a puppy. kind of takes a lot of the impact away from what ruth is saying in my opinion.
I can hear Sir’s words ringing in her head.
That fucker.
I don’t know that I can find more words than that today.
They’re in Indiana, where is Ruth gonna find a dolphin to kill anyway?
Is there a zoo nearby with an aquatic exhibit section?
They can swim up the Ohio river
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/sharks/
wouldn’t the sharks eat them?
http://www.indianapoliszoo.com/conservation-and-education/education/family-youth-experiences/dolphin-in-water-adventures
Evidently there is. 😛
Don’t you see, Ruth?
Billie’s saying you give her porpoise
:V
[cetacean needed]
Does anyone have an archived image of the “snuff a puppy” version I hear once existed? Or must it be consigned to the realm of myth, like dragons, canals on Mars, and the film of The Last Airbender?
…no reason, why do you ask?
There is no film in Ba Sing Se.
OMG Yumi that’s perfect
Don’t you dare mention that movie ever again. Shyamalan must pay the blood price for that…
So, is snuffing a dolphin more socially acceptable, or just more Refuge in Audacity than snuffing a puppy?
I actually think it’s both, a tank least in the US. Because dogs are damn near sacred here. And have been for quite a while. Hell, during the Revolutionary War George Washington returned General Howe’s lost dog when it came into his possession. That’s how much most people in the US (and the British Isles as well) love dogs.
They actually made a Pedigree dog food commercial over that;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3QiBLndU-k
For some reason, people (at least in America) feel disproportionately offended when someone mentions harming a dog. I may get hate for this, but I’ve beaten the absolute shit out of a dog, in the past. Of course, it was an actual threat to me…
Fuck, there was more to this, but now I forgot why I even brought it up.
If it was actually attacking you/being an actual threat, I’d say that’s not likely to earn you hate. There is a difference between a dog existing and you beating it up for no reason and you defending yourself from an actual dog attack.
That’s also why the meme is usually specifically “puppies”, not “dogs”.
Dogs can be threatening. Puppies are cute and harmless.
is this paradoxically the healthiest relationship in doa?
I can’t remember either of them mentioning dinosaurs even once
Paradox averted by a future pair-of-docs? I think I’ve seen this time travel movie before…
The healthiest relationship is probably Dina and Becky, though Dotty X Walky is (annoyingly) pretty stable and healthy. Jacob and Raidah are also doing fine for the moment.
The following morning, Billie found a dolphin carcass strewn across her bed as if left behind by a giant cat.
Eh, Dolphins are assholes. Fuck dolphins.
Noooooo, Willis! “Snuff a puppy” has such wonderful assonance! Assonance, I say!
Don’t ask her what an assy-thingummy is. She’s only longing to be asked. Say nothing and perhaps she’ll go away.
A Narnia joke that doesn’t involve Aslan, excellent.
That would remind them of Mary though.
Snuffing a dolphin? What porpoise would that serve?
Wow, that’s a flippperant pun if I ever heard one.
…You know, as in “flippant”, but with a reference to “Flipper”, the famous fictional dolphin who used to save Timmy when he fell down into a well…
FINE, not my best pun.
Not ONE pedant offering up that “Timmy in the well” comes from Lassie OR that it was actually NOT used in Lassie?
I’m disappointed in you guys… or possibly in favour of you not taking easy baits like that. 🙂
What was the original hovertext before the change to dolphin?
Same, but with “puppy” in place of “dolphin”.
Wooh double Billie release today.
And just like that, Dumbing of Age loses its Dolphin Safe rating.
Moving across the street? I hope their relationship can handle it. You know what they say, “short-to-medium-distance” kills relationships.
What do you mean, nobody says that?
Eh, Billie seems to know that, but Ruth’s got her depression and Sir’s last comments to her ringing in her head.
And Rachel’s. :C
Trying to remember whether either of these two has ever told the other “I love you.” I don’t remember them doing so.
I really wish they would.
They did, not too long ago.
They both have. I don’t have links for you, but it’s a thing.
They did a while back.
Here you go!
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/dynamite/
I’d forgotten. How could I have forgotten? Ruth looks so terribly vulnerable in panel 3.
Thanks to everyone 🙂
I don’t understand why “puppy” was changed to “dolphin”. Are puppies suddenly a protected group, or something?
The thought occurs that Willis may be intentionally attempting to create artificial controversy from people advocating for violence against dogs?
“Dolphin” is approximately 87% funnier.
Too bad it says “puppy” again. I have evidence.
…but when I save the image, it’s “dolphin” on that file. But my web page shows “puppy”?
You jackin’ my meme?
Is it a puppy? Is it a dolphin? IS IT A PHONE?
NO, IT’S A KNIFE! RUN FOR IT!
IT’S A PHOFE!
Dolphone.
That would be hard to pull off without the rest of the pod coming to their defense.
Oh, “puppy” is now “dolphin”. What a peculiar change; still funny.
Mary is the puppy killer…thought this was established all ready.
I was up to early 2015 a few days ago and i caught up to the current strip gosh darn-it!
Killing a dolphin’s setting the bar pretty low. Dolphins are the worst.
originally it was a puppy, I guess he thought that was too extreme
Ruth is the exact figure of my ex-partner of 17 years; build, hair, glasses, humor, depression, suicide attempts and all. It’s been 7 years since we have parted our ways and both got new lives.
My heart still bleeds when I read Ruth’s story.
On the one hand, I do find it a little weird how Ruth acts like they’re moving her to another continent as opposed to “somewhere else on the same campus”, but on the other hand I know first-hand how depression can warp how you think about just about everything, and we’ve seen how her Grandfather fucks with her mind.
Her grandfather screwing with her mind is likely why she is thinking this. He said Billie would forget her when she moves. Was that logical? No, it isn’t like she is moving very far, but that wasn’t the point; he got Ruth hyperaware of her relationship and how little she feels she offers Billie which was another way to make her feel bad and powerless and like a burden.
Yup, picking at the insecurities so you do the hard work of destroying yourself.
I only require a romantic partner be willing to kill bugs for me. (Getting rid of bigger pests like mice are a huge plus but I think it’s reasonable to get professionals at that point.)
Nonsense!
Get a big tent to cover your house then make some sort of nerve gas. (Mustard gas for instants)
Not like you would go to jail for pest control or anything… 😛
mice are what cats are for.
Not so good for romantic partners though.
I’m confused, is there anything actually stooping Billie from just moving in with Ruth while officially living somewhere else?
Mary telling on them to the management?
But Billie won’t be under Ruths jurisdiction ergo no conflict of interest.
What I mean is a non-resident living at the dorm. Kind of like the issue they had with Becky squatting in Billie’s room. Though probably less problematic since she Does attend this school.
That’s just because Becky wasn’t paying for a room. The college won’t care where Billie sleeps so long as she’s paying.
I think officially the policy limiting overnight guests applies to people from another dorm as well. If it’s anything like my old school, it’s likely honored more in the breach.
It’s likely in place mostly so they’ve got something to point at when a roommate complains about suddenly living in a triple. Doesn’t mean it can’t be abused by someone like Mary though.
Wouldn’t that require a complaint from the roommate though? And Ruth lives in a single so there’s no roommate to complain. Plus Pudding Cup basically gave the wink wink nudge nudge for them moving right back in with each other again.
Well, I doubt the actual rule says “Only if a roommate complains”, it’s just that they’re the most likely to have a problem with it.
So when Mary raises a fuss…
Or maybe even Rachel?
Holding on with the fingernails of both hands, trying not to drop into the abyss. But at least she’s holding on. And some days that’s enough.
“sir” grampus’s bullshit has strong ties over her mind and there’s little doubt she is not replaying his message over and over again in her head, her depression making it seem as if a truth.
And Billie, doing all she can to reassure her girlfriend and defeat that voice that can be louder than anything as often as she can in as many ways she can.
And it’s working. Ruth is sitting up in that last panel. Having been in that state, I know how hard it can be to get to “sitting up”. And she’s arguing, which means she’s hearing Billie’s words through her depression.
Their origins are horrible, but I can’t help rooting for them here because I’ve been on both sides of this situation so many times. I was in the Billie position last night.
And we all want our partners to be well and survive that violent bully that is depression and its close friend and known associate PTSD.
*agos*
yeah, sitting up… walking… focusing enough to see/hear… amazing how exhausting they can be at times.
I don’t wanna be depressed 🙁 I thought I was done with this shit.
I’m bored and I don’t wanna do anything and everything feels all twisty and wrong, and knowing that the twisty feeling might be ocd only makes it suck more. stupid NVoice keeps beating me up about how there is no cure and I’m just supposed to fight against it 24/7 forever or else I’m a Bad Person and none of that makes any sense so why am I believing it? *sigh*
it keeps tricking me with the “everything will feel horrible forever” myth. despite all evidence to the contrary. because depression. but I can’t seem to remember the way out. it seems pretty determined to make me feel miserable regardles., especially if I’m going in the right direction. so maybe pay attention to what pisses it off… like, why am I so convinced I can’t go to the gym? fucking hate the stupid gym and its stupid exercise. 😛 there’s always Reasons I can’t go, but they’re suspiciously vague and fluid. fuck it. maybe I’ll actually go today and find out how much BS that is.
I don’t wanna fight, but I’m sure as hell not letting NVoice win 😛
*supportive hug* You will win against the NVoice! I believe in you!
And one of those supportive hugs for you and your partner.
*hugs*
*hugs*
I hope you and your partner are ok, and that your partner is in a better headspace now. I’ve been in the Billie role before as well, and for me it sucks more than when I’m the one depressed. Because at least when I’m depressed I know strategies that help me cope with it. But when someone else is depressed it feels like I’m powerless to help and I get scared for said person.
…
But in response to your comments about depression, it reminds me of college when I wasn’t with my best friends anymore. Coupled with four of the seven of them dying within the past three years, and my preexisting depression (thanks overbearing perfectionist dad) is way worse. Clinging by fingernails is a good way to put it. Currently the anniversary of one of the deaths and I’m barely even functioning enough to force myself to interact with the comments, if only because that will kick start my actually doing things instinct and will keep me from laying in bed all day.
*hugs*
I made it to the gym and actually had good feelings! 🙂 All I was hoping for was less badness.
Hope your day sucks less too.
*supportive hug* I’ve got your back if you need it. And yeah, they seem better today. Yesterday was just super rough for them.
If it makes your partner feel better, feel free to let them know that a random Internet stranger who only knows that they are your partner offers them all the empathy, support, and sympathy possible.
…
Ok, I’m not sure that sentence is grammatically correct.
“If they’re not willing to kill a dolphin for me, then no deal.”
That’s right, Billie, stick to your standards!
Ah, dolphins. The rapists of the seas.
Exactly! I would rate killing a dolphin pretty low on the “crazy murder love” scale on that basis…
And so, as it squeaks out its final squeak, it translates as “So long, and thanks for all the fish”