he was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas Day when the New York Times said 'God is Dead'

[luciazephyr]

So I was out grabbing ice cream because I royally fucked up dinner tonight and wanted to make it up to Mum. As I was making my way back, my headlights caught something shiny on the side of the road and it sparkled-

And I instantly had the urge to pull out my handgun and shoot it, in case it was a gem I could sell.

Someone take RE5 away from me now please.


Too often, we're scared of what we really want to say. Here's your chance to let out ten of your most controversial opinions. Tag ten people to do the same. No flaming, no wank! You're entitled to your own opinion.

1. The big one is that I'm a pragmatic antitheist. I think the world would be better off without religion. People would be stronger without that crutch, would remove one more barrier causing hate, would weakened many other prejudices, would prevent so much bloodshed. I don't see why the world needs religion and the very notion that we do boggles me. Can't we find other sources of inspiration in our lives?
   
   Relatedly, I feel a deep pang of hatred whenever someone uses the term "Christian/Jewish/Muslin/etc child". There is no such thing, there is only "the child of Christian/Jewish/Musilim/etc parents" parents. I think children should be kept out of churches until they are sixteen. Raising a child in a church is indoctrinating them, in some cases even brainwashing.



2. There is fault to be laid at the feet of stores that don't adhere to the rule of not selling M-rated games to minors, but the majority of it is with the parents. If you are not comfortable with your child's ability to handle the mature themes of gaming, you have one of two options; either you can monitor what games they are playing and try to keep up with what is full of sex and blood and gore (not a difficult task, my mother did so my entire childhood, from six to fifteen), or you can not buy them games. If you can't be responsible for your child's gaming habits, don't encourage them. There are other hobbies.



3. I don't like when someone talks about their slash pairing and says "oh, and [name] so tops". Why can't both top? Have you never heard the term "switch"? Yes, we enjoy writing certain people bottoming/topping more often than not, but it seems to me that there is this prevalent habit of assigning one character to a role and never letting them change from that. Which is stupid.



4. Being feminist and liking slash is perfectly fine, and people who dub slashers self-hating and anti-feminist can fuck off. Yes, in fandom, I'm a slasher a good 80% of the time. But you have no idea what I read outside fandom, and to paint someone with such a nasty brush when you don't know what their entire canvas looks like is ignorant.



5. Patriotism scares me. It feels too close to fanaticism for me to be comfortable with. I understand loving your country, but token phrases like "greatest nation on earth" and "my country, right or wrong" are just too far. For one, the most patriotic people I've met are also the one who have never left the state, let alone the country. For two, when your country does wrong, you don't sit around and mumble platitudes. You loudly proclaim it's wrong. When countries are wrong, people's lives get destroyed.



6. Live versions of songs are better than studio versions a good 98% of the time. The only exception I can think of is Ben Fold's "Last Polka", and even then it's a close competition.



7. Here's one I have never admitted: I find fanvids more impressive in every way than fic.



8. I pretend Metal Gear Solid 4 never happened. The more I think about the game, the more I hate every single thing about it and view it as Kojima throwing a professional hissy fit. I hate what it did to every character, I hate the frantic tying of loose ends, I hate the writing (and I love bad writing in games, people). I accept I'm probably wrong about some things I think about MGS4, but that doesn't stop the fact that when I say, "MGS4 is just Raiden having a continued nano/VR-fuel mental breakdown," I'm not completely joking.
   
   Oh, bonus opinion: the original MGS1 bugs the shit outta me because the camera is crap and I lack first person view. That's why I have yet to finish it. :|



9. Personal headcanon: Harvey Dent was the star of The Dark Knight, not the Joker. Also, the title doesn't refer to Batman, it refer to Dent. Listen to Gordon's final speech.



10. Yes, Resident Evil 5 is kinda racist at times (spear-throwing, shield-using tribal enemies? continued black-only zombies in places it's very easy to imagine other races?), but if you didn't speak up when Leon Kennedy was mowing down Spaniards in RE4, you don't get to complain.

Not tagging anyone because it's an uncomfortable sort of meme to have to do.

-Lucy

Comments

[kitten-of-rain.livejournal.com]

1-5 YES. WORD. Especially the labeling of children. It is so so disturbing to me when I hear stuff like, "when [...] was five, they accepted Jesus" because that is a child and they can't fully understand what that even means and asjfbk raaage.

And, yeah, the games thing. Hey, it's not that hard to not buy your kid games! Really! Same thing with movies, to a degree. Yes, parents can't be with their kids all the time, but that's no excuse to just stop caring and completely forfeit responsibility.

My History teacher in school used to preach that "greatest nation on earth" shit ALL THE TIME. Like it was fact. It didn't sit right with me in eight grade and it doesn't sit right with me now. I still kind of want to punch him in the face. >/

I haven't heard that song in for-fucking-ever.

[amethyst-wolf.livejournal.com]

8

YES

YES
God why did he do that.

I don't have much else to add that's actually, y'know, intelligent. But this meme is awesome, and I'll probably do it at some point.

[poppyash.livejournal.com]

I believe that patriotism amounts to loving your country enough to have the courage to call it out when it's wrong, doing what you can to fix the wrongness, and sticking around to do it.

easily Elton John's best. something so lovely about it...

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

Probably because he didn't want to make the games anymore, but to give into demand, make one anyway, and have it be so obviously spiteful (games make you a killer, what?!) is just pathetic. God, Kojima, I hate you so much. Why did you create so many characters I love to death.

I'll look out for it.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

If only the rest of the country thought the same way...

[nachomanlance.livejournal.com]

Concerning #6

I dunno... I heard a live recording of "She's Like A Rainbow" by Rolling Stones, and thought it didn't hold two stones to the studio recording.

Pun was.... shamefully intended.

In most cases though I would agree, but on a whole I'm on the fence. I've heard plenty of both that its hard to discern which really doesn't... sound bad. I guess it's just a matter of perception.

[peapods42.livejournal.com]

7. They certainly take way more talent than I possess! I am constantly amazed by fanvids. Even moreso than fic. So with you.

[gundamtsubasa.livejournal.com]

I concur. I think that what to be afraid of isn't patriotism, but jingoism. People like that I don't even refer to as Americans. I refer to them as Murcans, partly because I can barely think of them as human and partly as a way to make fun of the way those types often speak when they talk about turrists (terrorists) and furners (foreigners).

[hanachan01.livejournal.com]

WORD. I love my country, but it can make mistakes. I mean, people don't expect their significant other's to be perfect, but they still love them- it's like that, I think.

[hanachan01.livejournal.com]

1. I'm a fairly religious Jew (I'm a Reform Jew, though, so I'm not fanatical or anything) and I believe that religion is a good thing, but I agree about the children. Religion is a hard concept for children to understand- I know I didn't start to understand it until my Bat Mitzvah at age thirteen, and even now at age seventeen I still feel that I have a lot to learn about my religious self. As a child, I looked at religion as a bunch of fun holidays where I got to see my family. My parent were pretty lax about religion, so I wasn't "brainwashed" or anything, but I know children who were, and I feel uncomfortable.

2. WORD. My mother was really careful about that stuff until I was fifteen. She's more lax with my little brother now, but she know what he's playing and trusts that he knows it's just a game.

4. I don't get those people who think that girls finding two guys making out hot is anti-feminist. We don't say that guys who like watching two girls make out are man-haters.

7. I find fanvids are much harder to do well. I find there are a lot of bad fanvids, but good fanvids are always really, really good, whereas not all good fic is really, really good. Does that make sense?

9. In my TDK headcanon, Batman/Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes were extras, so its cool :)