I found this awesome presentation/essay on tumblr on super-heroes as an anti-collectivist power fantasy on paper vs how we actually engage with these fantasies
TL;DR
“The superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson…
The best thing we can do with Power, is give it away.“
Yeah, I think that’s a pretty good take on super-heroes and an angle I hadn’t really seen before. It covers a lot of the appeal and why they’re more of a positive influence than they might seem.
OTOH, that all falls apart if you try to analyze them more seriously. To ground them more in reality. To look at how they’d work in something more like the real world. That’s why deconstructions of the genre can be good, but almost invariably get really dark. The whole thing only works because of the genre conventions. And that’s great, those conventions can be inspiring. They can make people want to be heroic.
And they can of course also be twisted – there’s definitely right wing appeal to the trope of fighting endless criminals in a decaying urban environment, even if the right sees that very different from how Batman or even the Punisher does.
Fundamentally though, it’s a fantasy not a system. AG’s system doesn’t work as a model, since it relies on individuals with great power or skills doing the right thing without oversight and usually at great personal cost.
Nymph
The joke about AG’s system was about her DID not about her methodology
Clif
This ^
Clif
Or more specifically, it’s a pun based on both meanings.
turns out completely self-interested people, who literally have no firmly-held beliefs beyond enriching themselves, are not actually cut out for bringing change to the system
Ehhh… realpolitick sucks. Yes, it’d be wonderful to stop Netanyahu’s willful genocide. But there’s a very plausible chain of events that starts with, “US cuts military aid to Israel,” and ends with 12 million dead Arabs. I don’t agree with maintaining the status quo–Biden should’ve not blocked the UN resolutions or disputed the ICJ rulings, in particular. But a full-stop on military aid could be disastrous in ways a lot of folks just don’t want to seriously consider.
Part of the issue I have is that, ironically, a lot of progressives don’t seem to get just how monstrously evil Netanyahu is. Ten minutes after the US cuts aid, Bibi would be on the phone with China. “Hey, yeah, it’s me. Look, we need a new source of loan guarantees for our attempt to finally quell the Palestinians. You know, like you’re trying to put down those seditious Uighurs? Yeah, yeah. Look, I know you can’t provide the level of funding we were getting, but even a modest line of support at this point could let us bring this to a close, especially since we won’t have to pay lip-service to Western namby-pamby-ism any more. Now, of course, in exchange, I’d be happy to formally recognize your claim to, what’s that island again? Right, right, East China. Of course, so you can have a better idea of what we need, we’d let you have your technical experts examine all that hardware we got from the US–you know, let them examine them in close detail so you can really see how they work.”
And here’s the thing–the really nightmarish scenario can occur whether or not China bites. Because cutting off US aid would absolutely encourage Iran, Lebanon and possibly Syria to kick off another round of warfare. Either they’d fail miserably, in which case Israel still kills/removes all the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, and then the fighting sort of dies down eventually just because there’s nothing left to save, OR… they manage to seriously press Israel, finally getting troops (rather than just terrorist fighters) into Israel’s official borders–at which point, mushroom clouds appear over Tehran, Beirut and Damascus. Maybe even tactical nukes on the Palestinian territories, to boot.
Because Netanyahu is absolutely evil enough to initiate a nuclear exchange if he think Israel might actually be defeated.
I just finished a 4-day full archive binge of this and the entire Walkyverse in time for the new strip, I wanna be an early commenter for once.
It’s honestly amazing how much stuff gets buried in your brain reading a daily strip for 15 years straight. I completely forgot about Amber stabbing a dude, Carla is a lot more likable in binge form (especially her prank on Mary), and yeah, all that Joyce and Dorothy shipteasing my dumb straight brain just dismissed as “gals being pals” years ago. I can’t believe this comic’s been going nearly half my life. When DOA started, it was kismet, because I was just starting college myself. Here I am years later, and my life’s had a lot of ups and downs. Honestly, mostly downs. But all these dumb college kids are still here entertaining me and keeping me invested in their weird drama, even if they do drive me nuts half the time.
I guess I just wanna say, thanks, Willis. I’m so glad you decided to experiment with an every-day release back in like year one and then built a massive buffer and kept going and never ended the experiment. DOA’s been one thing I can always look forward to. Life doesn’t have a lot of that kinda thing, so the ones that do exist are a real treasure.
Dorothy thinks she can dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools.
Oh poor thing.
Stormtide Leviathan
Not… necessarily? I mean a bit yeah, that’s definitely in character for her and I think we are gonna see more of that as she starts butting against the system more. But also she *is* right; taking political science courses is still useful in the sense of knowing more thoroughly what you’re up against and how it works, and I think that’s more what she’s talking about here
Lys
The reason you cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools is that as long as they are in his possession, he commands them. However, if you take his tools from him, if you make them yours, then they act in accordance to your will rather than his. Dorothy is after knowledge, and knowledge is a tool that can be wielded by anyone, for ignorance is an ally only to those who would rule you. Karl Marx knew this, that is why his magnum opus was Das Kapital, a decades long project to understand and critique political economy.
Historically there comes a time when you stop trying to dismantle the house and dismantle the owner instead, with his own tools if necessary. Not saying that’s Dorothy’s intent here but it happens a bit too frequently to ignore.
At least the bar has been raised from Committing Something Mildly Subversive Which at Worst Will Serve as a Humanizing Anecdote and not as Anything Truly Threatening to the Power Structures at Hand.
Well Dorothy I hope you’re ready to also get disillusioned with the idea of dismantling the system from within. Learn from my mistake and just go ahead and switch to a history major early.
nah, girl needs to join a progressive side of whatever party exists in this universe and experience the soul-crushing work that is dragging the center kicking and screaming into the light.
Better yet, join up with your local leftie org and experience interpersonal drama and burn-out like you never have before
Big Z
Oh Lord yes. For several years I was one of two non-college-aged non-accelerationist-anarchists at my city’s Food Not Bombs chapter.
Do you know how hard it is to cook food for the homeless when only two of you are aware how to sharpen knives and/or how not to “vote for Trump because he’ll tear the system down faster”?
Big Z
I hate to be snarky but every “leftist/socialist/anarchist” org I’ve ever worked with followed the pattern of the membership being basically the follows:
1) a couple of grumpy older leftists who sick of discussing whether the system needed to be reformed or destroyed and just wanted to get something useful done. (75% of the productive work, 5% of the members)
2) a squad of 20-something leftists who didn’t know what they were doing but knew they wanted to help (usually women, 30% of the work, 60% of the members)
3) a squad of 20-something anarchists who didn’t know what they were doing but knew they wanted to talk the most performative nonsense about tearing everything up and building a world where the anarchists would be followed out of the rubble into a shining new future (usually men, -5% of the work, 35% of the membership, half of them were of no specific actual politics but assumed lefty women were sluts and that’s why they were here)
Li
That type of anarchist has entirely too much in common with the people who daydream about zombie apocalypses (and are just SURE they’ll not only be among the survivors but also finally be appreciated by their families and friends and coworkers), or, you know, the rapture.
We literally need both people working within the system and people working outside of it, and people who sneer at folks who go into politics as inevitably corrupt are so exhausting. Sorry that I like having legal rights, I guess.
C.T Phipps
For years, I didn’t identify as an anarchist because I was like, “Do I REALLY want to be associated with these guys?”
Yes, I was a hipster anarchist.
Big Z
It’s always deeply funny to me, and this is also related to the Great Comment Schism, because the D&D heads at these gatherings invariably end up identifying me as the paladin of the group after being weird for a meeting or two because I do frankly have cishet white cop energy IRL until I open my mouth.
I’ll be the one kicking the levers of the system (or throwing wrenches in the gears, as appropriate) after talking my way in the front door while y’all build the better way outside. 😉
I’d assumed she meant she was gonna learn how it works to dismantle it from the outside. I’d hope she’s not naive enough to think she can effect change from within without being tainted
I don’t think there is any quality about Dorothy that leads me to believe she will attempt external reform without being horribly disillusioned about internal.
Unless you are planning a violent revolution, you need people on the inside to affect any change. Every progressive legislation we have ever had required actual legislators to draft and vote for it. Enacting positive change that improves people’s lives is far more important than maintaining your personal purity. Also, even if you are planning a violent revolution, once it is done and a new system is in place you will still have to get your hand dirty with politics to protect the vision from those who would hijack it. So either way, there is no escaping the necessity of doing politics.
Throwatron
“Having people on the inside” is the exact thing the far-right has been achieving, in aim of their goals, literally longer than most of us commenters have been alive. I’ll never fully grasp how there’s supposed to be zero-value in normal, non-monstrous, non-corrupt, non-fascist citizens infiltrating the system, and holding positions of power. Yes, the system itself is inherently bad, but every non-Nazi in a position of power, is one less person who will wield the unjust power of the system as a Nazi; and, actual citizens will have a marginally lower chance of being forced to be vulnerable under the power of a Nazi. That is a good thing. That will always be a good thing.
Big Z
The real trick, it seems to me, is this:
It’s nice when people who want to accomplish good get their hands on the levers of power, and when they do they can accomplish real good in a tangible way.
But then they let go of the levers and go retire.
Meanwhile, the people who want to have power grab the levers and don’t ever let go.
Every system will eventually succumb to this until it’s part of praxis that you need to have people who aren’t particularly power-hungry continually going in and grabbing the levers of power as a spoiler/blocker if nothing else, which is hard because running for office and/or being a bureaucrat is a lot of hard work for much less reward than a private-sector career — things were designed that way to try to only give power to people who weren’t motivated by personal gain, but ended up (due to lax enforcement of rules and norms) so that the only people who are consistently willing to do it are the “wants power for power’s sake” and “the blatantly corrupt” and “both!”.
She’s defo gonna try dismantling it from the inside, but even if you’re dismantling it from the outside having extensive knowledge of how it all works will certainly help
I really want her to do the politics and end up meeting/joining up with anarchists. Shes got the mind for understanding politics and power, great with coordination and planning, and actually seems like she needs/wants to do something practical for the good of others and just doesn’t quite know how. A collective would benefit from her skills and also give her the direction she needs to grt out of her funk.
There’s just no characters I can think of that might be believably connected to an anarchist collective.
I’m hoping this strip (and previous strips where she’s touched on this topic) means Dorothy is learning that the system can’t be changed from within. It has to be dismantled and replaced with a better system, one that benefits the workers instead of the wealthy.
Fighting the system requires emotional resilience, gay sex with your girlfriend gives emotional resilience, therefore Joyce and Dorothy having sex is an integral part of their fight against the system!
If it’s seriously burned, I hope you’re receiving medical help. I don’t like drugs messing with my brain, but when it comes to pain, go for the good stuff.
The methods I use to deal with pain would be useless to you, but if you want to go for distraction, reading through the archives is a good thing. Beyond that, the best I can offer is soothing virtual hugs.
Oh, yeah. And whatever you did – please don’t do it again.
It’s second degree, but I’ve got basic first aid medical supplies at my house and no money for an ER visit. It didn’t occur to me to take pain medicine though. I’m on a lot of meds for various reasons, so I never know what I am allowed to take.
eh, whatever
I’m 12 hours late, but still: COLD WATER. Running cold water. Lots and lots and lots of it.
314 thoughts on “The system”
NGPZ
“All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned…”
Clif
Amazi-Girl’s system is amazingly effective.
I’m just not sure it scales.
NGPZ
I found this awesome presentation/essay on tumblr on super-heroes as an anti-collectivist power fantasy on paper vs how we actually engage with these fantasies
TL;DR
“The superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson…
The best thing we can do with Power, is give it away.“
NGPZ
oh wait i found the link last minute lo XD
thejeff
Yeah, I think that’s a pretty good take on super-heroes and an angle I hadn’t really seen before. It covers a lot of the appeal and why they’re more of a positive influence than they might seem.
OTOH, that all falls apart if you try to analyze them more seriously. To ground them more in reality. To look at how they’d work in something more like the real world. That’s why deconstructions of the genre can be good, but almost invariably get really dark. The whole thing only works because of the genre conventions. And that’s great, those conventions can be inspiring. They can make people want to be heroic.
And they can of course also be twisted – there’s definitely right wing appeal to the trope of fighting endless criminals in a decaying urban environment, even if the right sees that very different from how Batman or even the Punisher does.
Fundamentally though, it’s a fantasy not a system. AG’s system doesn’t work as a model, since it relies on individuals with great power or skills doing the right thing without oversight and usually at great personal cost.
Nymph
The joke about AG’s system was about her DID not about her methodology
Clif
This ^
Clif
Or more specifically, it’s a pun based on both meanings.
QueenofSodor
very excited for more Activist Dorpy Arc
C.T Phipps
I admit, I kind of expected Robin to become the AOC of the DOA verse with Becky’s help.
Then she just…didn’t.
Throwatron
turns out completely self-interested people, who literally have no firmly-held beliefs beyond enriching themselves, are not actually cut out for bringing change to the system
Fail Earnhardt
After AOC ran cover for Biden’s Israel policy last year the Robin parallels may not be entirely off anymore
Freemage
Ehhh… realpolitick sucks. Yes, it’d be wonderful to stop Netanyahu’s willful genocide. But there’s a very plausible chain of events that starts with, “US cuts military aid to Israel,” and ends with 12 million dead Arabs. I don’t agree with maintaining the status quo–Biden should’ve not blocked the UN resolutions or disputed the ICJ rulings, in particular. But a full-stop on military aid could be disastrous in ways a lot of folks just don’t want to seriously consider.
Part of the issue I have is that, ironically, a lot of progressives don’t seem to get just how monstrously evil Netanyahu is. Ten minutes after the US cuts aid, Bibi would be on the phone with China. “Hey, yeah, it’s me. Look, we need a new source of loan guarantees for our attempt to finally quell the Palestinians. You know, like you’re trying to put down those seditious Uighurs? Yeah, yeah. Look, I know you can’t provide the level of funding we were getting, but even a modest line of support at this point could let us bring this to a close, especially since we won’t have to pay lip-service to Western namby-pamby-ism any more. Now, of course, in exchange, I’d be happy to formally recognize your claim to, what’s that island again? Right, right, East China. Of course, so you can have a better idea of what we need, we’d let you have your technical experts examine all that hardware we got from the US–you know, let them examine them in close detail so you can really see how they work.”
And here’s the thing–the really nightmarish scenario can occur whether or not China bites. Because cutting off US aid would absolutely encourage Iran, Lebanon and possibly Syria to kick off another round of warfare. Either they’d fail miserably, in which case Israel still kills/removes all the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, and then the fighting sort of dies down eventually just because there’s nothing left to save, OR… they manage to seriously press Israel, finally getting troops (rather than just terrorist fighters) into Israel’s official borders–at which point, mushroom clouds appear over Tehran, Beirut and Damascus. Maybe even tactical nukes on the Palestinian territories, to boot.
Because Netanyahu is absolutely evil enough to initiate a nuclear exchange if he think Israel might actually be defeated.
Vivvav
I just finished a 4-day full archive binge of this and the entire Walkyverse in time for the new strip, I wanna be an early commenter for once.
It’s honestly amazing how much stuff gets buried in your brain reading a daily strip for 15 years straight. I completely forgot about Amber stabbing a dude, Carla is a lot more likable in binge form (especially her prank on Mary), and yeah, all that Joyce and Dorothy shipteasing my dumb straight brain just dismissed as “gals being pals” years ago. I can’t believe this comic’s been going nearly half my life. When DOA started, it was kismet, because I was just starting college myself. Here I am years later, and my life’s had a lot of ups and downs. Honestly, mostly downs. But all these dumb college kids are still here entertaining me and keeping me invested in their weird drama, even if they do drive me nuts half the time.
I guess I just wanna say, thanks, Willis. I’m so glad you decided to experiment with an every-day release back in like year one and then built a massive buffer and kept going and never ended the experiment. DOA’s been one thing I can always look forward to. Life doesn’t have a lot of that kinda thing, so the ones that do exist are a real treasure.
Steamweed
I love having the time to binge-read this comic and my loved others.
NGPZ
the treasure is the journey itself
and same here, I look forward to more plot from this comic always
and more Dina T~T <3
and more 3D printed cast models, those are also cool
darkoneko
too early huh
Sirksome
Don’t trust the system. Real low hanging fruit there.
Pocky
at least its better than bein one of those apolitical “we live in a society” folks lol
Lee
I’m convinced Willis wrote this one specifically for you.
C.T Phipps
Dorothy thinks she can dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools.
Oh poor thing.
Stormtide Leviathan
Not… necessarily? I mean a bit yeah, that’s definitely in character for her and I think we are gonna see more of that as she starts butting against the system more. But also she *is* right; taking political science courses is still useful in the sense of knowing more thoroughly what you’re up against and how it works, and I think that’s more what she’s talking about here
Lys
The reason you cannot dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools is that as long as they are in his possession, he commands them. However, if you take his tools from him, if you make them yours, then they act in accordance to your will rather than his. Dorothy is after knowledge, and knowledge is a tool that can be wielded by anyone, for ignorance is an ally only to those who would rule you. Karl Marx knew this, that is why his magnum opus was Das Kapital, a decades long project to understand and critique political economy.
Risky
Historically there comes a time when you stop trying to dismantle the house and dismantle the owner instead, with his own tools if necessary. Not saying that’s Dorothy’s intent here but it happens a bit too frequently to ignore.
Needfuldoer
The system. Is down.
The system. Is down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1TlbLfaJp8
Leadsynth
At least the bar has been raised from Committing Something Mildly Subversive Which at Worst Will Serve as a Humanizing Anecdote and not as Anything Truly Threatening to the Power Structures at Hand.
AeromechanicalAce
Joyce, I’m POSITIVE your church said the system is bad for ENTIRELY DIFFERENT reasons than what’s ACTUALLY bad about it. Like, Zero overlap.
Jon
And also, Joyce, you were right, your church is bad.
Cholma
This is where we insert the “Why not both” meme GIF. 😀
ZombieKyrik
Give them some credit; they probably agree the system is corrupt. They just do not feel the same parts are corrupt.
Spoiler: Most of it is, probably on everyone’s sides.
C.T Phipps
“The government is corrupt, evil, and oppressive with a tyrannical police state just around the corner!”
*institutes police state*
“Finally, THOSE LIBERALS ARE GONNA GET IT!”
Dwampre Scorrigank
A police state? In this economy?!
someone
Just like a thief thinks everyone else wants to steal from him, a Conservative thinks everyone else wants to oppress him.
june gloom
And in fact they are both bad for very similar reasons!!
Tan
Oh there’s overlap. It’s called hypocrisy and it’s a feature.
Thing 2
They’ve changed…
Alongcameaspider
Wait until she finds out how entangled the church is with the system
Alongcameaspider
I didnt mean for this to be a reply
RassilonTDavros
This.
Dot
Well Dorothy I hope you’re ready to also get disillusioned with the idea of dismantling the system from within. Learn from my mistake and just go ahead and switch to a history major early.
Pocky
nah, girl needs to join a progressive side of whatever party exists in this universe and experience the soul-crushing work that is dragging the center kicking and screaming into the light.
C.T Phipps
Dorothy has a strongly worded letter ready for the President!
yak
Better yet, join up with your local leftie org and experience interpersonal drama and burn-out like you never have before
Big Z
Oh Lord yes. For several years I was one of two non-college-aged non-accelerationist-anarchists at my city’s Food Not Bombs chapter.
Do you know how hard it is to cook food for the homeless when only two of you are aware how to sharpen knives and/or how not to “vote for Trump because he’ll tear the system down faster”?
Big Z
I hate to be snarky but every “leftist/socialist/anarchist” org I’ve ever worked with followed the pattern of the membership being basically the follows:
1) a couple of grumpy older leftists who sick of discussing whether the system needed to be reformed or destroyed and just wanted to get something useful done. (75% of the productive work, 5% of the members)
2) a squad of 20-something leftists who didn’t know what they were doing but knew they wanted to help (usually women, 30% of the work, 60% of the members)
3) a squad of 20-something anarchists who didn’t know what they were doing but knew they wanted to talk the most performative nonsense about tearing everything up and building a world where the anarchists would be followed out of the rubble into a shining new future (usually men, -5% of the work, 35% of the membership, half of them were of no specific actual politics but assumed lefty women were sluts and that’s why they were here)
Li
That type of anarchist has entirely too much in common with the people who daydream about zombie apocalypses (and are just SURE they’ll not only be among the survivors but also finally be appreciated by their families and friends and coworkers), or, you know, the rapture.
We literally need both people working within the system and people working outside of it, and people who sneer at folks who go into politics as inevitably corrupt are so exhausting. Sorry that I like having legal rights, I guess.
C.T Phipps
For years, I didn’t identify as an anarchist because I was like, “Do I REALLY want to be associated with these guys?”
Yes, I was a hipster anarchist.
Big Z
It’s always deeply funny to me, and this is also related to the Great Comment Schism, because the D&D heads at these gatherings invariably end up identifying me as the paladin of the group after being weird for a meeting or two because I do frankly have cishet white cop energy IRL until I open my mouth.
I’ll be the one kicking the levers of the system (or throwing wrenches in the gears, as appropriate) after talking my way in the front door while y’all build the better way outside. 😉
Cassie
I’d assumed she meant she was gonna learn how it works to dismantle it from the outside. I’d hope she’s not naive enough to think she can effect change from within without being tainted
C.T Phipps
I don’t think there is any quality about Dorothy that leads me to believe she will attempt external reform without being horribly disillusioned about internal.
Lys
Unless you are planning a violent revolution, you need people on the inside to affect any change. Every progressive legislation we have ever had required actual legislators to draft and vote for it. Enacting positive change that improves people’s lives is far more important than maintaining your personal purity. Also, even if you are planning a violent revolution, once it is done and a new system is in place you will still have to get your hand dirty with politics to protect the vision from those who would hijack it. So either way, there is no escaping the necessity of doing politics.
Throwatron
“Having people on the inside” is the exact thing the far-right has been achieving, in aim of their goals, literally longer than most of us commenters have been alive. I’ll never fully grasp how there’s supposed to be zero-value in normal, non-monstrous, non-corrupt, non-fascist citizens infiltrating the system, and holding positions of power. Yes, the system itself is inherently bad, but every non-Nazi in a position of power, is one less person who will wield the unjust power of the system as a Nazi; and, actual citizens will have a marginally lower chance of being forced to be vulnerable under the power of a Nazi. That is a good thing. That will always be a good thing.
Big Z
The real trick, it seems to me, is this:
It’s nice when people who want to accomplish good get their hands on the levers of power, and when they do they can accomplish real good in a tangible way.
But then they let go of the levers and go retire.
Meanwhile, the people who want to have power grab the levers and don’t ever let go.
Every system will eventually succumb to this until it’s part of praxis that you need to have people who aren’t particularly power-hungry continually going in and grabbing the levers of power as a spoiler/blocker if nothing else, which is hard because running for office and/or being a bureaucrat is a lot of hard work for much less reward than a private-sector career — things were designed that way to try to only give power to people who weren’t motivated by personal gain, but ended up (due to lax enforcement of rules and norms) so that the only people who are consistently willing to do it are the “wants power for power’s sake” and “the blatantly corrupt” and “both!”.
SevenFerns
She’s defo gonna try dismantling it from the inside, but even if you’re dismantling it from the outside having extensive knowledge of how it all works will certainly help
Bogeywoman
I really want her to do the politics and end up meeting/joining up with anarchists. Shes got the mind for understanding politics and power, great with coordination and planning, and actually seems like she needs/wants to do something practical for the good of others and just doesn’t quite know how. A collective would benefit from her skills and also give her the direction she needs to grt out of her funk.
There’s just no characters I can think of that might be believably connected to an anarchist collective.
Throwatron
I mean, if any of the characters in this strip are, maybe they’re just good at it, and that’s why we don’t know they are?
Kyulen
I’m hoping this strip (and previous strips where she’s touched on this topic) means Dorothy is learning that the system can’t be changed from within. It has to be dismantled and replaced with a better system, one that benefits the workers instead of the wealthy.
Jon
It’s easier to break things when you know how they go together.
Nono
Climbing ladders is exhausting.
Breaking stuff can be fun!
Clif
Well, yes but you have to time it right. If you break stuff faster than it can be built, you run out of stuff to break.
Zero
Great idea, Elon.
Astariel
So yes, Joyce, the church is bad and the system is bad, but at least you’ve still got gay sex with your girlfriend, and that’s very, very good.
Lys
Fighting the system requires emotional resilience, gay sex with your girlfriend gives emotional resilience, therefore Joyce and Dorothy having sex is an integral part of their fight against the system!
Tequila Mockingbird
it’s exercise too, so it’s also physical resistance! most fun kinda cardio you can do!
Li
also, bluntly speaking, living a happy queer life is a radical act when society wants you alone, miserable, and dead!
Lumino
I think this is the first time I’ve enjoyed a Joyce and Dorothy strip in months. More of this, please.
ZombieKyrik
The system is more complicated, and in dire need of reform more than it is strictly good or bad, but that’s too much for many college students. .
In other news, I seriously burned myself so if anyone has any good things to help improve my night, please feel free to share.
C.T Phipps
Vibes and good will toward you! Heal well!
Clif
If it’s seriously burned, I hope you’re receiving medical help. I don’t like drugs messing with my brain, but when it comes to pain, go for the good stuff.
The methods I use to deal with pain would be useless to you, but if you want to go for distraction, reading through the archives is a good thing. Beyond that, the best I can offer is soothing virtual hugs.
Oh, yeah. And whatever you did – please don’t do it again.
ZombieKyrik
It’s second degree, but I’ve got basic first aid medical supplies at my house and no money for an ER visit. It didn’t occur to me to take pain medicine though. I’m on a lot of meds for various reasons, so I never know what I am allowed to take.
eh, whatever
I’m 12 hours late, but still: COLD WATER. Running cold water. Lots and lots and lots of it.