There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Slightly Damned
Chu
Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
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Nope. If the cops arrest you, especially at a protest, you shut the fuck up. They might ask if you want some water, and if they do you shut the fuck up.
They’ve decided that’s ambiguous. You might just be saying “lawyer” because you like the sound of it.
You now need to say “I am exercising my 5th amendment rights, and I refuse to answer any questions. I demand to speak to my attorney.” And then shut the fuck up.
Well, based on who the current POTUS is and the fact that he is literally a convicted felon, a criminal record apparently can only help Dorothy’s chances of becoming POTUS herself (assuming she were still interested in such things).
Counterpoint, unless something changed recently and I missed it, apparently the current standpoint is that people can be deported without due process by claiming they are illegal immigrants, so they might just wind up disappeared for being politically inconvenient.
No, no… don’t you see? Only men are allowed to get away with that stuff. If you’re a woman who follows all the rules anyway, they just make up things to be angry at you for.
Agreed, Trump’s criminal record is only excused because he’s a rich white man. Minorities and women in the same positions need to be flawless, and as Tequila said, even then people will make things up to be mad about.
Trump’s supporters excuse his criminal record not because he’s white and rich but because they believe that they are (forgive the pun) trumped up charges that were created out of nothing for political purposes and that he’s not really guilty of any crime.
and the reason for that is because he is a white rich man, and as history has shown, rich white men get excused for their crimes, with always an explanation that makes them the victim of a witchhunt.
I’ll note that a recent poll showed that 4% of Trump voters admitted* to thinking he didn’t win the election legitimately, so THEY, at least, think the charges aren’t trumped up.
As someone in the South, I can say that when Obama was in office, people were making up weird things to be mad about. One example I recall is a story that he “went to a church” and “asked the church to cover the statues of Jesus/other religious figures”. I don’t recall ever being shown video evidence of this, or even hearing about Obama actually visiting a church in the news. It was just a bunch of angry Southern white women clucking about “oh that’s not right” and “oh I don’t trust him”. With no evidence at all, they believed that there was something “bad” about him, religiously (?) because they wanted to. And I’ll give you one guess as to why they wanted to believe such things about him.
Trump, meanwhile, can have video evidence and auditory evidence of actual awful things he’s done, but people will plug their ears and scream “fake news” because they don’t wanna believe it. I wonder what the difference between these two men is…
Oh, also I recall a lot of people, even a teacher at my school, in the middle of CLASS, speculating that Obama was a muslim and thus! Not to be trusted! His middle name is Hussein! I pointed out to my teacher that by that logic, anyone with Adolf in their name can’t be trusted, and she wasn’t very pleased with my retort! Buuut yeah, there’s… certainly a racial component to why Obama is just “untrustworthy” and “bad” despite never providing evidence to substantiate these claims about him whereas again, Trump’s charges and criticisms are dismissed wholesale.
The Obama is a Muslim thing was definitely going around, to the point that in the 2008 campaign, John McCain had to correct one of his supporters about it at a rally. Went viral at the time (Was “going viral” a thing then?)
Or birtherism, heavily pushed by Trump.
But it’s not just the white man thing, though that definitely helps. It’s Democrat/Republican too. Consider the narrative around Biden’s age/health compared to Trump’s. Or how Republicans can just publish their worst plans (Project 2025?) and they just get downplayed or ignored while people invent conspiracies of what Dems are planning.
A note on Project 2025: It wasn’t a leak. It was definitely released to the public deliberately, albeit in a manner designed to look like a leak. This is because the GOP has figured out one thing that the Dems still can’t grasp–people want a plan. It doesn’t matter if it’s a good plan or a bad one, it just needs to be a clearly stated agenda.
Project 2025 was just an updated, more awful Contract with America. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’ plan was… Don’t Be Trump? Sure, in a sane world, that would’ve been enough. But we’re clearly not living there, and the Dems couldn’t come up with a coherent message that worked.
Oh, and I just realized my post read like I was saying you were saying it was a ‘leak’, when obviously you said ‘published’. I’m just drawing a distinction that I think matters.
It’s a distinction that matters, but if anything it just doubles down on my point. They can just publish it openly and that makes no difference.
And no, Project 2025 is not just an updated more awful Contract with America, since that was basically a legislative agenda. Project 2025 is a plan to do all the awful things relying overwhelmingly on executive power and on disfunction in the other branches not being able to stop it. It’s a roadmap for an authoritarian takeover in a way that the Contract on America, for all it’s awful policies simply wasn’t.
But even that’s kind of beside the point. You’re looking at this from a left pov where the problem is that Harris didn’t have a plan or a coherent message, whether that’s true or not.
From the double standard point of view though, if there’d been anything even remotely similar to Project 2025 on the left, she’d have been crucified.
sigh, i hit the report by accident, pls don’t ban this person. dear mods, can we have a little CSS tweak to put like a warning icon next to the report button, and maybe right align it so it’s not right next to reply? moving the reply button to below the comment might also help.
probably don’t have any sort of conversation that reveals anything about yourself in a jail cell, you’re in a space controlled by people whose job it is to fuck you over, don’t do them any favors. idk if it’s legal to mic jail cells or not, but for cops it’s safe to assume “illegal” just means “not admissible in court” (to be worked around with parallel construction, evidence laundering, or just used as intel to target future surveillance/harassment)
i mean they’re not holding signs so maybe they can bluff their way outta it
but other than mary having a separate group in a labeled section far enough away but in the same area to be considered ‘counter protesters’ it’d be hilarious if she got arrested bc the cops didn’t bother reading their signs (i wonder if carla will do anything)
i mean if we’re talking visual storytelling, the fences being put up would definitely be the last ones going in. Sure in the real world it could be the first ones, but you wouldn’t show them to the audience if they wouldn’t matter. So i don’t think it would flow narratively for them to just be able to escape easily when things go bad. It would ruin the suspense that is building, at least in the way that Willis’ storytelling has gone so far.
Asma is also here and also not their friend, as evidenced by her earlier essentially telling them to get fucked when they asked her for help. (Not a judgment, mind you, she doesn’t know them like that, but if something happens with them, it’d be happening with Asma, too, as she’s also at the protest.)
Where they suggested they told a person who clearly doesn’t meet the criteria. Even if you don’t think it was funny you surely must realise it was facetious.
There’s a lot of obtuse, literal-minded joysuckery ’round these parts. You can say the most outlandish things (“Drown Rachel in the digital lake”) and some brainless horsefucker will come along and decide you certainly must mean a real woman should be drowned in a real lake and you’re currently dragging her there in person.
They’re both gonna die. That’s a shame. I’m sure Lucy alright carrying the new protagonist mantle. She just needs a sidekick to be gay with and all the other stuff will be covered.
Sarcasm aside, I wonder if this is going to lead to them being arrested and spending the night in a prison holding cell where they will finally talk about their feelings for one another?
A night in jail would be an interesting angle. It’s appropriately dramatic without potentially upending the comic. Could lead to lots of interesting outcomes. Just not sure we’ll actually go there with it. Seems slightly too high stakes in tone.
I feel like it’s more likely they might get put in the back of a squad car, then subsequently released once the cops either realize they’re just students, or decide they’d rather use the space for arresting someone more important to the protest.
Like I said: Joyce has not thought this through. She hasn’t accomplished anything by putting herself at risk. I hate to say I told you so, but… oh, who am I kidding? I love saying I told you so.
I may be ignorant, but I don’t get it. I’ve been to many protests in the past ten years. They were all fine and perfectly safe. I don’t get why they’re making this out to be such a big deal.
There have been a great many protests, especially ones at contests, that have become very much not safe or fine, with cops firing rubber bullets because it was a day ending in a Y, or pepper spraying people, etc.
It’s not a guarantee that things WILL go tits-up, but it’s unfortunately something with a great deal of precedence.
Did you forget that they have a Sniper pointed at the protest and the Cops are being called to stop the protests. This isn’t a protest against the government doing something, its against a private organization, it can go REALLY bad.
A private organisation that’s inserted itself into the command chain of the local police force. NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT HONEST WE CAN ALWAYS TRUST CAPITALISM TO DO THE RIGHT THING
It’s nice that the protests you’ve gone to have been safe. But a lot of them are not, because the police don’t have good records of treating protesters nicely. The police response to the anti-genocide protests on college campuses that these strips are a likely a reference to were not very nice in many cases, to put it mildly.
This seems to be based on real IU protests from last spring that ended in a lot of police violence, a few dozen arrests, and really did involve a police sniper positioned on top of a building.
This is not paranoia, and it really did go tits-up.
And presumably, Jocelyne is not just guessing that things are about to break bad. While our intrepid heroes comically lack situational awareness, Jocelyne probably has seen the fences go up and knows what kettling is.
I also imagine the fact that Jocelyne is trans is why they’re hypervigilant about potential issues. If the cops get involved, she would be in extra trouble.
Even if the cops are unrealistically kind to Jocelyne, and even if she only spends a couple hours in a cell, you’ve still got that maybe she’d be thrown in with either women or men who each might hurt her for being around them.
On the other, in this scenario she’s likely to thrown in with another bunch of protesters which is less likely to go badly than the average jail crowd.
A huge amount apparently get super violent and lots of people die I suppose? I live in a pretty deep red state and the protests I went to didn’t end badly, most of my concern involved someone passing out from dehydration or someone following me home (which didn’t happen, but I was taught political violence at the tender age of 12 when my mom was almost actually assassinated as the head of the Democratic Party for her district so I’m very paranoid about it). They weren’t at a major university though. They were just like… in front of the mall and the courthouse and stuff.
I don’t want to discredit or minimize anyone’s experiences though. The circumstances around what almost happened to my mom were also routine and mundane (she literally told her husband who she voted for and he complained about her online to the dude.) Just because I haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it’s not a real danger :\.
(Not meaning that in an aggressive/hostile way, just clarifying my thoughts.)
I really hope this doesn’t go downhill fast in the worst way, Joyce might be in just as much danger here as she was in the previous massively dangerous events she has been so far, if not more so.
I am very worried for their safety.
Ok, but why are things “about to get very–“?
Is there a known plan for something to escalate?
I’ll grant she may be a bit more aware of the general goings on of the protest, and yeah, the fences and sniper(s) are concerning, but I wouldn’t call them an outright indication of imminent danger.
Now, if we knew that the cops are surrounding the perimeter and all geared up (which the pair may have been oblivious to), then yeah, I could see the cause for alarm.
I think Jocelyn is more afraid of people getting black bagged into unmarked vans and disappeared. Which is, you know. An extremely reasonable fear right now.
of course, but believe me white privilege is VERY much a thing when dealing with police in the United States
hell, police organizations only grew as much as they did over here in scope and power in the first place because of desire to control racial minorities
But wasn’t nearly so much of a fear 9 months ago when these strips were written.
This scenario seems pretty closely based on the actual April protest at IU, which did lead to police trying to clear the area, some police violence and a bunch of arrests. There was a sniper spotted.
But no one got shot and I couldn’t find any reports of serious injuries. Nor does it seem like they arrested everyone at the protest – though that’s harder to be sure of. That’s what I’m calibrating my expectations to.
Definitely a scary scene, especially for novice (or accidental) protesters, but not quite to that level.
Wasn’t it mentioned a few strips back that the police had ordered everyone to disperse and the student protesters weren’t going to comply? I would expect arrests to follow.
It’s a little more complicated than that. And practically speaking it only matters if the courts agree.
It’s not entirely unreasonable to argue that long term occupation of a public space doesn’t have to be allowed, even if you’re doing it as a protest. Like it’s allowed to require permitting for protests, as long as such permits aren’t denied based on the content of the protest.
The fact that they passed a special law to make it illegal when it wasn’t before – presumably the people who passed the law did so knowing what the content of the protest was – should create a presumption that it was done due to the content of the protest
Fun fact: police arrest people in violation of their rights all the time. Police are not required to know the law. And you can be tried, convicted, and sentenced to jailtime for resisting arrest EVEN IF the actual arrest is found to have been unlawful.
Well yeah, they have to fill the prisons slave labor camps somehow. Otherwise, how would our for-profit prisons make a profit and keep the scary brown people off the street?
I suspect apple cop here means a cop that is a bad apple. Like how you might defend a bad institution (for example, the police) by claiming the bad things it does are done by a “few bad apples”, members of the institution that are exceptionally morally corrupt and don’t reflect on the organisation as a whole.
I see where they are going with the storyline, that there are going to be mass arrests here, but I don’t think a major university would respond in this instance in that manner. Not because they are the good guys but just because it would end up bringing more attention to the issue then just letting the protestors burn themselves out and go home. If they did want to pull off the arrests then they would have to frame the narrative properly first and send in some agitators to make it look like the protestors were actually committing crimes.
But yeah I do think people feel more than ever in the US that institutions and especially government are against them, and Black Lives Matter protests shows that under certain circumstances the US will pull off mass arrests. In this fictitious scenario though I think that would be pretty unlikely.
I’m in my thirties. I grew up with the US being a symbol for freedom. I’m currently adjusting to the fact that the American dream literally is a dream. Not real.
My brain kind of went “How did THAT happen?!” the moment there was a sniper on the roof. Like, NO.
A lot of Americans grow up thinking that our country is a symbol of freedom too. Most schools teach us a sanitized version of US history when we’re kids. I’m in my mid-30s now, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that the USA has done a lot of very terrible things for its entire history. I highly recommend reading A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I learned a lot from that book that I was never taught in my history classes.
The European view on US history always was a lot less.. cleaned. and we were always aware that the US has some politics that would be considered troublesome in Europe. like, healthcare. workers right. food safety. gun laws. Police training.
The general perception was that the US values freedom of all kinds so high that any politics that limit personal freedom for a gain in welfare or social safety is not acceptable. like, freedom over everything. especially the freedom to control your own fate, for better or worse. that seemed to be the US-American deal.
And now, drive for freedom somehow is… gone. That’s so, so weird.
In the Kent State massacre in 1970, four unarmed students were murdered (and nine more wounded) by the National Guard during an anti-Vietnam rally.
From 1942 to 1946, after Pearl Harbor, the West Coast held ~120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps. Almost 2,000 people died.
The Red Scare (1947-1957) was used as an excuse to deny free speech to leftist Americans.
Our freedoms being trodden upon when it’s inconvenient for us to have them isn’t a brand new problem, though it is very upsetting that it’s happening yet again (because it’s always upsetting) and it can be convincingly argued that this time looks different, permanence-wise.
This country has never really been about freedom for most people. The “founding fathers” were white wealthy men, many of them owned slaves, and they certainly didn’t care about the freedom of the native tribes who they committed genocide against and forced off their land.
Major universities have been responding to instances this is based on in maners like this for a very long time now. Have you not been paying attention?
To be paying attention, something usually has to be aware there’s something they should be paying attention to. Based on the multiple concerned comments from non-Americans, I don’t think our protest culture and the institutions’ homicidal response are something we should take for granted as global knowledge. Hell, even within the country, if you don’t interact with it much, you probably won’t know a lot about it either. It’s not like they taught us about these things when I was in school.
Yes, from overseas, there is only so much you can pay attention to in the world. But this comic helps to raise awareness. I have looked this up. Heck, even the tents Willis drew are authentic!
Yeah, a lot of overseas people have seemed unaware we had protests at all until recently (and thus just kind of assumed we were all on board with all the Everything).
I’m assuming this particular story arc is based on how the police responded to many anti-genocide protests on college and university campuses last year. I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but police in the US don’t tend to treat protesters nicely when they’re protesting against those sorts of things.
Unfortunately my friend, this ISN’T how it feels now. It feels much worse. The military is occupying our city for no damn reason. People who make protests against the treatment of Palestine have literally been disappeared without any right to habeas corpus. The politicians in charge of these disproportionate reactions have been comparing Palestinians, Immigrants, and LGBTQ people to vermin, terrorists, and rapists on a regular basis. And our courts, our police, our congress, do nothing to stop any of this. This strip was written when the whole ‘habeas corpus’ thing was still like you know ‘the law’ and ‘respected’ and at least the marines were like… Not used for intimidating our right to protest?
Some courts, but SCoTUS has basically handed trump W’s repeatedly, and the DoJ has proven that they can just ‘ignore the courts and not get punished meaningfully for it’.
We moved from America with what we could carry in our suitcases to Europe 9 years ago, no job offers and had to stay in a hotel until we could find a place to rent, because things were so bad. This decision has been vindicated.
In the rest of the world, the myth of America as a bastion of freedom only persists up until the point where you’re old enough to read the books without pictures in them. Usually.
Except for the sentiment, “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all
And fuck no, I’m not votin’ for you in the fall (Woo)
Undecided”
I’m not going to argue that Biden (and to a much lesser extent, Harris) were extremely short-sighted and misguided, but allowing Trump to be elected has unleashed something so incredibly much worse. Ethnic cleansing of the tiny shreds remaining of the Palestinian’s ancestral lands so that the rotted orange assclown can build condos?
Both major party candidates in 2024 supported giving more money and weapons to a state committing genocide. Biden and Harris did so for over a year before the election. For some of us, genocide was a moral red line that we could not vote for.
Long ago, when I was a busker, I would stand on street corners and sing the songs of World War Two and the Spanish Civil War. Elders who remembered (more of them were alive back then) would stop, and stand, and listen, and weep.
Oh, I’m not denying that. I’m just thinking that it might be remotely possible that catchy songs about rising up against your opressors that don’t come from a musical that ends with everyone who rose up against opression shot dead in the middle of the street and no real change happening might exist and we should exaust all of those before associating Le Mis with our cause.
For the English speakers, I’ll go with I ain’t marching anymore by Phil Ochs. I’m a sucker for a poetic turn of phrase, and the final lines the whole song seems to build up to, “Call it peace or call it treason, call it love or call it reason, I can’t marching anymore” gets me every time.
Though my favorite of protest songs is this one in Swedish. (You might recognize the tune.) It tells the story of a man going to all the wars in history to sharpen everybody’s blades, and is really happy to tell you about the importance of having a sharp bayonet or guillotine so you can win battles and be on the right side, and about how good his business has been. Some mildly dark humor.
Hands down? El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido — “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” (which is the best contribution Chile has done to international leftist songwriting.) Have it with English subs!
I like this version better though. from 5 years ago, when this country still felt like a place one could feel UNUSUALLY hopeful about |DD
goigsdg I’d legit love to know how it ended in there! It was composed in the 70’s by Quilapayún (a Chilean uni band led by the late Victor Jara)! :33 Maybe to skirt the censors somehow?
For something more modern, though. Have also “Latinoamérica” by Calle 13, which reportedly has also united our cultures with the Afroamerican and Indigenous North American though the “oh. Oh, my struggle is yours…” angle and its sheer beauty: “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA2FAVRAO2Y&list=RDrA2FAVRAO2Y&start_radio=1”
(DON’T LET ME GET STARTED, I’d love to compile a 101 List of Leftist LatAm Music for y’all.)
Please don’t just focus on the violence and the harm that can come from this situation. The violence is supposed to prevent and to discourage people from protesting and to discourage solidarity with those protesting. It’s always working somewhat but it’s not working completely. It can lend strength to the protestors’ position and backfire. The protestors are there despite the potential consequences and in my view that’s a great show of character strength and also at some point necessary to have a chance of fighting injustice.
All the people that avoid protests due to violence they have already won over into submission. Which is not to say that everyone can and has to participate but someone has to. Dorothy and Joyce are extremely privileged as white American citizens that live on campus and sadly in my experience it is often the less privileged, like openly queer, BIPoC etc who protest in such conditions because they are aware of the risk of not fighting, to which both Dorothy and Joyce are so far pretty oblivious.
What I’m also saying is in hindsight they’re probably more likely to regret that they didn’t go out to protest with the others fully prepared and intentionally instead of regretting that they faced police violence accidentally.
Yes, Anne Feeney is a treasure. I once met her, and handed her a handwritten parody/adaptation that I had written of her song, “Hold On”. Gotta seize that moment!
Wish I could still be out there fighting the good fight. Instead, I’m stuck with this broken, failing body. Arrest would be death for me, yes, but what I’m doing now can’t really be described as “living.”
goddammit, as someone who’s physically disabled 6 ways to sunday and knows what the cops often do to autistic folk, let alone my being barely provisionally white…
it’s just not fair
why do I always have to feel HELPLESS like this???
I don’t know about a single favorite, but I can give you a handful of songs I off the top of my head. They’re a pretty wide variety in tone and style: Chemical Worker’s Song (Process Man) by the Great Big Sea, Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis, Send The Marines by Tom Lehrer (satire, references American military violently meddling and briefly references racist violence), Annie by Fred Small, Our Daughters Will Never Be Free by The Indelicates (satire, references sexualised violence), You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught from South Pacific, Strangest Dream by Ed McCurdy, and Strange Arithmetic by The Coup (implications of police violence).
Maybe Carla will show up being boistrous and distract ppl assuming ppl don’t think she’s just being ‘performative’ or like some kinda semi-willing hostage/’meat shield’ if it’s like “You better not throw tear gas I”M A RUTTECH” or so
Yeah. Kind of funny because I don’t think anyone in the comments brought up that angle. Some were naive and confused about why it would be a problem at all. Others were like “Of course. Never bring a phone to a protest.”
“Things are about to get very—”
Very fun, because someone brought a bubble machine. Very musical, because the band arrived. Very sexy, because everyone is about to get topless. Very boring, because it’s time for the union-mandated nap.
Gotta be one of those or some unforeseen extra thing, because Joyce, Dorothy, and Jocelyne aren’t gonna die.
Hi!! Not everyone is capable of protesting for a variety of reasons, and any pressure we put on the forces in charge works in our favor! Maybe don’t be an asshole to people on your side who can’t do what you can do.
Possible reasons:
– Chronic Illness that is exacerbated by tear gas/loud noises/being in the heat.
– Disabilities that make it difficult to run, stand, walk at all or for long periods of time.
– Panic attacks or PTSD that might make them a hindrance in an emergency situation.
– Being the sole caregiver to children they cannot spend time away from.
– Being unable to take time away from work without losing their job.
Like, I understand that in a perfect world everyone could go to protests and help affect change that way, but it’s not the only path to take and it’s just not fair to treat people who use other means of protest (letters, calls, sending money to the right causes, etc) like they’re not making a difference or somehow not good enough.
I honestly read that comment as a condemnation of officials (“somebody who could have made a difference”) not doing shit except noting how bad things are rather than people who aren’t able to protest, but I guess dorjojoe could’ve meant either?
You’re still making some good points.
It’s also ridiculous to criticize elected officials for that, because the letters are literally part of their job and also help attorney generals build a legal case (it shows that Trump et al were in knowing violation of the precedent/rule/law).
Lotsa folks this year turning out to know much less about our government than they think they do. Lots of folks who don’t bother to vote in the midterms being loudly frustrated that Democrats can’t do more with the 0 branches of government they currently control, too.
Like. I understand being angry and scared. I am also both those things. But “no one is doing anything” is absolutely doomer talk as well as being untrue, and “the people who ARE doing exactly what they should be are instead doing something worseless and stupid” is worse.
I certainly don’t agree with all the strategic choices made by Democratic leadership, but at the same time, they’re in a really difficult political position. They don’t have the magic “Stop” button some seem to think they do.
I understand even some of the choices I don’t agree with. Their only real chance of affecting legislation, for example, means peeling away GOP votes on specific issues.
Yeah, basically anyone who’s given up and decided we’re permafucked can be silent forever. Things seem a lot more fixable when you don’t have an annoying bongo in your ear telling you to roll over and die.
i was talking about elected officials who never push back against the uniparty for doing this fascist garbage outside of publishing the occasional flaccid little “pwetty pwease stoooop” tweet because doing anything more would upset their donors and their party leaders by extension. And, of course, the vapid bootlickers who will eternally defend all the former simply for not being the other guy.
Under no circumstances would I ever be discriminating or criticizing an individual citizen for their availability (or lack there of) to show up at a protest. That is completely understandable. Everyone is just doing what they can.
As Grouch said, call a lawyer. They could also get bail. But I think the most pertinent thing is that said friends don’t panic because Joyce and Dorothy have mysteriously disappeared, again.
If they’re disappeared, then the friends can tell the families. So the families know to start checking with the authorities. If the families don’t know, that will delay things a lot.
I mean, I guess if they’re actually disappeared. Which is theoretically possible, but certainly not a common outcome of these student protests. More plausible now than when this was written, I suppose, but then it’s also more plausible they’ll simply be grabbed off the street and disappeared.
Back in the day people used to protest knowing they might be arrested…it was almost a badge of honor. It showed how strongly they believed in their cause…enough to go to jail for it.
I have to admit, I didn’t think the protest was going to amount to more than a background event and a reason to keep Jocelyne around longer, but clearly I was wrong. Now that I think about it though, we are pretty much due for another big dramatic event/action sequence. In 2015, we had ToeDad kidnapping Becky. In 2020, we had the mass kidnapping by Blaine and ToeDad. So in 2025, we get Joyce and Dorothy getting arrested? Seems like something to that effect is likely.
This could get dramatic, but it’s hard to see it really turning into an action sequence. Potentially some police violence and maybe even a chase, but I really hope we’re not going to see something like AG fighting off the cops or breaking Dorothy/Joyce/Jocelyne out of custody. None of that’s likely to end well.
I will be very surprised if this does more than, for example, provide Hank with a reason to drive into town out of concern for the girls (which could be merited, by a mass arrest, or overcautious, like Joyce and Dorothy coming here in the first place was).
Open to being wrong, of course, at which point I will eat my due crow for my skepticism like two weeks ago that this was supposed to be a very specific protest rather than a generic one that was inspired by real-life treatment of student protesters… and if it turns out to be a call to action, or otherwise really call out Israel, I’ll eat more crow.
Until then, I’ll still be in the camp of “this is a very very thorny issue to have chosen for the backdrop of Joyce and Dorothy getting caught kissing by a reporter, oof”.
if willis ever has to abandon the university setting for some reason and needs a place to relocate everyone where you’d have enforced proximity and roommates, well
She’s literally putting herself in an extremely dangerous situation. Her boyfriend would have a right to know what’s she is up to especially after all the danger she has already been through. I dunno seems kind of shitty of her to do to me is all…..
Uhhhh. I don’t know about a RIGHT? Like lmfao, a RIGHT to know? No he doesn’t. He would LIKE to know, but she’s not breaking some rule by not doing it. And Joe doesn’t have more of a right to know than literally any of her other friends who care about her. Like, for instance, Sarah.
Having a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship is much more intimate than a friend relationship. Especially like I said when the person you’re dating has been in dangerous situations before I think the partner has the right to know that the person they’re dating is in the safe situation. Likewise if the person they’re dating is in a dangerous situation. It just seems kind of rude to me that you would do something and not even let the person you’re dating know what you’re up to. Like if I found out my partner was out doing dangerous like activities without even mentioning anything to me about them that would be hurtful. It seems like you’re kind of neglecting your partner’s feelings by not letting them know if you’re in a safe situation or not.
I’m glad I’m not dating you. You sound like an authoritarian assbutt.
You could have said “man I bet Joe would appreciate communication about this.” But no its not what joe could like, its “Joyce is failing” a nebulous esoteric personal definition of “girlfriendness”
its a thought stating what you meant with out all that punishment language or authoritative nature.
Entitlement is a fiction and false no one is Entitled to anything ever.
Though large groups of people will and do act like it is and enforce entitlement frequently. But that’s them feeling like they have the right to force or have authority over things and then making it true via force “justified by the false concept “entitlement”
He does have a certain privilege to know though. Especially being in an intimate relationship with each other that’s supposed to be built on mutual trust. Like what kind of relationship do you people have with other people? I have none of you ever been in romantic relationships where you care about the well-being and safety of your partners? Or has your partners never cared about your well-being and safety? If yes to either of those questions and that seems pretty troublesome.
I don’t get mad at my wife because she failed my standards. we talk perhaps on what i would like but not on what she must do. not once and if i can i never will do such a horrid thing to her.
And we do care about each other and when we don’t we don’t punish each other or get upset because one of us missed an imagined standard. We move forward communicate needs and then continue loving being there for each other in anyway we can.
No one sets the “rules” for relationships but yourself. and you have weird authoritarian unilateral standards that would make you horribly toxic to date.
There’s no point trying to justify your relationship to an Internet stranger, tbh. What are they gonna do, doxx us and come kill us in our homes for having a relationship they wouldn’t personally want to be part of? Not likely. No repercussions are comin’, and their judgment is worthless.
Since you asked, yes, I’ve been in a dedicated monogamous romantic relationship for 12 years and 2 weeks. We’ve lived together for about 4 of those years. Somehow, despite having different standards for a relationship than you prefer for yourself, we’ve managed to exist on our own terms. Almost like we’re different people who aren’t you. I know, it’s shocking that those exist without your express permission.
Brag report, Poly marriage with major partner for thirteen years. Several other partners have come and gone as need for there life circumstance, but my core partner has been with me with those reality’s from day one.
I think it is you who confuse entitlement and respect. It is not disrespect to not consider ones needs, its life. Perhaps not being aware or at worst thoughtless.
You are conflating respect to be broken or not given if you don’t give what your entitled to. which is nothing you are entitled to nothing.
Again I think it’s just common courtesy in a relationship to let your partner know that you are safe and not putting yourself in harmful situations. So if someone is a drug user and they’re willfully putting their lives in danger by doing drugs their partners has no right to know about that because they’re not entitled to know about that? So what’s the point of even having intimate relationships with people that go beyond friendships? How would you define an intimate relationship where you’re calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend? You don’t think that comes with certain privileges being someone’s partner? I’m generally curious how you define being in a relationship with someone.
Same can be said to you if you don’t know how to act in a relationship that your supposedly in love with as person. You also avoid my question. So I guess to you doing dangerous things in a relationship that would be harmful to you is perfectly fine to keep that information from your romantic partner. That’s a yikes from me. Sorry if you think I’m toxic because it’s important to me that my partner is safe and isn’t in harm’s way. Guess that’s a crazy thing to want in a relationship 🥴
Ah yes dismis opposition that you hear becuse “you must be bad.”
You i pity any one trying to date your manipulative langued ass. you twist others words to make your point and cast other as villans to your judgment. its gross.
Because I didn’t say your toxic for worrying about your partners safety. That’s your self tailored lie mostly for your own ability to dismiss what i said to cast doubt for self.
What I did say is you are toxic because you think its disrespect to not remember to loop the other in. you judge them as bade for not predicting your wants correctly. That’s toxic as fuck. Controlling, judgmental, and manipulative.
You’re really reading way too deeply into this. All I said was Joyce wasn’t being a good girlfriend for not letting Joe know where she is and you turned it into a bigger issue. Now you are attacking me personally when you know nothing about me in real life. You have no idea my relationship history or what I have been through yet your attacking me. I am coming from this with real world experience just FYI. I’ve been in a number of protest including the Occupy Wall Street protests. Each time the person I was dating at the time knew was I was and kept tabs on me to make sure I was safe and could be easily accessed if I needed help. But go ahead and tell me about my personal life and the people in it
Yes I’ll totally put weight into what you say as someone who knows nothing about me and never talked to me before today. You’re options about me matter so much
Then you obviously shouldn’t need to rebut it. No one needs to be convinced that I’m wrong, but yourself.
So I can see that’s who you are and don’t care that you know I think it or don’t give a damn of my thoughts. I do hope others can see I’m right about what I say. But what I say is not for you. But you do that heavy lifting twist your “logic” in the wind as hard as you can. You know I’m right. Its why you protest. Because you hate I’m right, and need to convince yourself I’m wrong.
Otherwise you wouldn’t say anything because you actually don’t need to convince the unknown audience I’m wrong. So reply more you’re just confirming the perception I affected.
You can hope all you want but your hopes have no impact on my life. I just said one simple statement about a fictional character and you totally went too deep into it and lost your mind over it. So much so you felt the need to personally attack me and continue to do so. That seems like something a deeply troubled person would do. I was just looking at this comic through my personal lense since I have been in a similar situation in my real life. But keep beating your chest on this is it makes you feel better or more important in so way. Again what you do has no effect on me or my personal life. Thanks goodness for that
I’m honestly just skimming what you’re saying cause that honestly how little I care about what you have been spouting off. It’s like know you’re doubling down because you know you can’t really defend what you said so you keep just repeating yourself. Like it’s kinda crazy you’re putting this much energy into a stranger on the internet all over my options on a fictional character. Like that’s pretty wild to me not going to lie. It really just enjoy being a know-it-all I think even when you’re wrong. But that’s doesn’t surprise me a lot of people don’t know what accountability is anymore
It’s even crazier you’re calling someone you don’t even know a misogynist. Especially considering I’m a bisexual/biracial cis woman. It’s really giving projection at this point. Also pretty wild I’m trolling when you’re the one in arms on MY original post. You’re the troll here sorry to break it to you…… Next are you going to tell me what my living situation and employment status is? How about what kind of disabilities I have is any? Since you know me so well I guess you really depend dives into my life busy from these free comments. How impressive really
I literally said one thing about Joyce not being a great girlfriend and everyone else is losing their minds about it. How does that make me a troll when I haven’t been rude to anyone? Also no one had to comment on my original post that was my OPINION. I guess it’s a crime now to voice your opinions about fictional characters on a web comic you’ve been enjoying for over a decade now. Congratulations also in basing all your impressions on somebody with only knowledge you seen from a few comments on a web comic. Really seems something reasonable people do……
Also there is nothing objectionable to disliking misogynist trolling.
Only a misogynist troll would object to me disliking misogynist trolling.
A truly cleaver troll might say “I agree misogynist trolling sucks. because I’m not one.” but nope you just objected to me saying I don’t like misogynist trolling and assumed you would be described by that statement.
my statement “I don’t like misogynist trolling.” can be seen as bait, like unto misogynist says what?
I hardly ever comment and this is the reason why. You hardly can say anything without people jumping down your throat especially if it’s a personal opinion now apparently. Congratulations everybody for making this wonderful webcomic fandom so toxic. You’re not making any of us look bad at all
You’re repeatingly calling me a misogynist does not make me a misogynist. Again your words have no weight on my personal life or what my life viewpoints are. You can keep calling me a misogynist until you’re blue in the face doesn’t make it true. Again just seems like you’re doing a lot of projection at this point. Or you’re just lonely and looking for a confrontation. Either way it’s pretty gross at this point……
It’s obviously not a crime to voice your opinion, that’s very dramatic. People just disagreed with you.
People base their opinions of other people on the interactions they’ve had. I’m sorry you don’t like what your actions say about you, but that’s not a me problem.
I’m not sure if you know that you’re spinning out right now, but I want to point it out to you so you can take a walk or something to regulate your feelings.
Well your right there. Calling you a misogynist doesn’t make you a misogynist.
Your choice of words framing and statements are what identifies your misogyny not that its the totality of your person but you obviously got some or you wouldn’t have said the things you said or thought the statement “I dislike misogyny trolling” is the same as “you are a misogynist.” you assumed it was as you thing. You assumed it was because you feel it describes you. each comment is just more proof of such and more trolling. I’m playing convo mostly.
oh what makes you a troll is the victim playing and repeated “need” to provoke to drive replies you want. and honestly your dismissal and angers mostly about that I’d bet that and being called out for what you where doing.
That’s why I’m not trying to convince you just call out what you did here.
its gross and should be pointed at and then dismissed. I’m just kind of wondering how many times your going to prove my point?
If defending myself for being personally attacked and called a misogynist when in fact you people know nothing about my personal life or anything about me for that matter then that’s a really sad viewpoint to have. I consider it super rude that I’m being attacked because I was taking Joe’s feelings into account. A lot of people call this fandom toxic and have a lot of bad things to say about it I fully get it now. My original comment was literally a few sentences and everybody had to take it so personally and to such a deep level. It’s like you get off with making people feel bad. Sorry I’m not just going to sit by while my personal character is attacked. I have a right as anyone else to voice my opinions without being harassed for it.
Annarchy you really can’t just admit you’re attacking me and harassing me now because I don’t agree with your viewpoint. Me not agreeing with you does not make me a misogynist. You have no right to call people stuff when you have no information about their personal lives. You have no idea my experience or life situation is. But you want to know everything so bad that even when you’re wrong you just have to keep doubling down and spew toxicity. Plus you just keep going which doesn’t make your case look great. I can honestly I’m not even going to read your whole comments because you’re thinking is just delusional at this point. It’s crazy how you can form opinions on someone you don’t even know.
Again. No one needs to know your personal life to call out your current behavior. That’s just how humans operate, and I think you know that.
You were disagreed with. Not attacked. This is a public comments section, people are going to have opinions about your opinions. I’m not sure what you want here.
No one said you shouldn’t voice your opinion, but no, you actually don’t have the right to control the responses of other people. If you feel like their comments break the rules you should report them. Otherwise, your public comments are open for public replies.
I’ve explained everything, I think. Let me know if you have any other questions.
So me being called names is not a personal attack? So I should just sit by while being called a misogynist simply because I voiced an option that was different? You all exhibiting bad behavior then trying to justify it and backtrack does not mean you didn’t exhibit that bad behavior in the first place. Again I never called anybody names or personally attack anyone yet I’m the bad guy in this situation. That’s pretty wild to me this whole thread is getting pretty really insane.You all want to feel so superior that cutting other people down means nothing to any of you anymore.
Racism is systemic. Racists are persons devoted to racism ideologically. But every one has been taught racist things and accepted untruths that are racist. Some times we even do racist things and can be racists without being only a racist. So having a racist comment if your not trolling would have a reply like “oh hey that could be seen as racist I didn’t think of that.” no judgment or rebuttal just oh i see you see or feel that.
So
Misogyny is systemic part of patriarchy. Misogynists are persons devoted to Misogyny ideologically. But every one has been taught Misogynistic things and accepted untruths that are Misogynistic. Some times we even do Misogynistic things and can be Misogynist without being only a Misogynist. So having a Misogynistic comment if your not trolling would have a reply like “oh hey that could be seen as Misogynistic I didn’t think of that.” no judgment or rebuttal just “oh i see you see or feel that.”
But nope that is not your reply’s. Just more provoke comments play politeness troll. Again arguing for “don’t judge my Misogynistic comment, I’m not a misogynist.”
You called people the following things:
Rude, dramatic, toxic, defeatist know-it-all with no respect, deeply troubled, crazy, implied unreasonable, lonely, gross, delusional, and questioned the validity of their relationships and implied they didn’t love their partners because they disagreed with you about how relationships work.
Having someone tell you that a viewpoint you’ve expressed is a misogynistic one isn’t name calling. There is nothing wrong with people calling out misogyny, and again I’m sorry your actions aren’t coming across the way you want them to.
I’m not cutting you down, or behaving badly. I’m talking very calmly to you, I just don’t agree with your points. Which seems to really spin you up for some reason. Report the comments you think are rule-breaking, otherwise accept that people have agency, might disagree with you, and might tell you that your opinions have a bias you don’t like hearing about.
You aren’t going to get whatever you’re trying to get out of this. No one is going to say sorry for disagreeing with you.
Annarchy you perceiving that I am uneducated and don’t know about what either misogyny or racism is actually speaks to how prejudiced you are. Which by the way neither of those subjects have anything to do with my original comment and again you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Seems like the bigot is really you.
Nymph again so essentially you’re saying you all can attack me and when I try to defend myself and give that bad energy back to you then you have a right to personally attack my life and call me a misogynist? Please make it make sense because you’re just essentially trying to gaslight me into thinking my opinion is wrong. If you’re going to act like a rude toxic person I’m going to call that out.
No, I’m saying what I said. You rephrasing it into something else is just silly and doesn’t work.
No one is attacking your life, but yes people have a right to call you a misogynist. Of course they do, why wouldn’t they?
I don’t care if you think your original opinion is right or wrong, I’m not gaslighting, just explaining. I think your original opinion is wrong, sure, but that’s just called disagreeing. Nothing wrong with that.
And I don’t care if you call it out, I’m just pointing out that you saying “I never called anybody names or personally attack anyone yet I’m the bad guy in this situation” is incorrect. You called people lots of names and personally attacked several people. Which you’re free to do, just not without people reacting to it.
I have no claims to your education. Racism is the handiest present analogy. Most people already get the Racism example. But my not fully realize the same is identically true of Misogyny. Or see its untruths readily.
So I spelled it out that I called what you where doing misogynist trolling and said I dislike misogynistic tolling.
You said those comment’s described you as a misogynist. I haven’t made any claim you as a person are bad just currently what id call toxic to date and although you likely have rich relationships ahead you do have some internal misogyny. Unless you are fundamentally just a troll who is explicitly misogynist and just using foe upset concern trolling. Which I’m which leaning toward perhaps true?
Nymph so do you really call people pedophiles and Nazis based on no knowledge of them simply because you can call them that? It’s common sense not to be rude to people and call them names based on no facts about their actual life or belief system. What your gaslighting me about is you’re trying to frame your harassment/bully as logical and justified. I’m not going to be personally attack then just sit back and let it happen. If someone wants to call names does it mean they get to make up fictional justifications for it based on internet comments. You don’t want to admit how toxic this fandom is and that you yourself is the reason for its toxicity.
I do if they say something pedophilic or that aligns with being a Nazi, yes. I don’t need to know someone to be able to judge their actions.
I also haven’t called you a misogynist. I’ve explained that others are allowed to, and explained that women can be misogynistic. That’s all. I disagree with your original opinion, and I’ve kept any further discussion of it to zero.
“People are allowed to call you things” isn’t a fictional justification. It’s just reality. You’re trying to find new things to accuse me of and fight me on, moving the goalposts and pretending I’ve done you some great wrong… but I think the worst things I’ve called you were: silly and dramatic.
You are disproportionately upset about your relationship opinion sounding misogynistic to people. And, again, no one is going to apologize for that.
Nymph you’re the one that had absolutely nothing to do with this conversation other than to come in and stir the pot even further. You had nothing productive to add to this conversation as it obtains to my original post. You just have to keep going when you can simply stop and step away when this has never been any of your business to begin with frankly. But I’ve read your comments before over all these years of the comic and I know for a fact that you have just want to be confrontational. You only comment on things to rock the boat
Nymph exactly you’re using the fact that this is a public site to justify your rudeness and your opening provoking people. You won’t step away because you really do like adding to the toxicity of this fandom as much as you like to cry that you don’t. It really doesn’t surprise me that you’ve never noticed any of my comments before because you only are attracted to confrontation and negativity.
Oh Taffy you should have tasted this paneer egg butter curry we just ate. mmmmmmmmmmmm. Wife made it she’s so good at curry’s. Hope your day is going well. Who started this fire?
Oh, my day was great. Played some Final Fantasy 13 My girlfriend and I went to the carnival that comes around every year. Split some tacos, had some fries, she won a couple prizes at the balloon pop game, then we hopped on the Cobra to scramble our guts.
See, this is what I meant when I said “You’re trying to find new things to accuse me of and fight me on, moving the goalposts and pretending I’ve done you some great wrong”.
You’re throwing a tantrum because you don’t like that people disagreed with your opinion, and you’re trying to provoke an angry outsized response from me because otherwise you’ll have to admit that you’re the one being confrontational, negative, and rude to people. It won’t work though, because I’m not angry.
And I’m not getting dragged into whatever fresh arguments you try to start.
You had a take that people disagreed with. Some people found that take to be misogynistic and said so. They’re as entitled to their opinions as you are, yes even if those opinions are unpleasant to hear. Yes, even if those opinions are about you.
It’s a super easy concept. Other people have autonomy, you’re not the boss of them.
Thanks you all for making this such a incredibly toxic space. Hope you all feel better about yourselves and got what you wanted out of this interaction. You don’t give this webcomic and fandom a bad name at all
Sailor you think anyone cares about the imagined reputation of the comments section under a web comic? Do you often care really hard about the perceived positions that reinforce your accepted manufacturing of consensus? Do you need an echo chamber?
Same just at this point likely better to say it openly. We are basically trying to help someone who is using negative attention and is so lonely they will decide to be an overt jerk to others to gather engagement.
Hey, I am going to stop replying to you now. If you’re threatening suicide over a comic strip comment section you need serious psychological help and I hope you have access to it.
I’m certain you’re still just trying to provoke an angry reaction, but I’m not willing to take the risk. Have a good night, feel better.
It does look good Taffy. But I’m a anorexic women who just ate I’m good for days……… none sarcastically living my problem and is good I ate great advice gravatar by the by.
Yo wait, that link is to the Bad Webcomics Wiki, which is basically Kiwifarms but for specifically comics. And you’re bringing up real-life suicide cases out of nowhere. Looking at those two things together, Cakes can’t be anything but a malicious troll. Sorry for feeding them.
As shown here, she didn’t stop to tell anyone… she got charged up and was focused on her self-asigned mission. She’s rash in these situations sometimes, and it could be better for her to take more time to think things through. (But also I kind of love her “I will dive into danger to protect others” attitude, ill-advised though it may be.)
But I don’t think it’s a negative on her as a girlfriend in particular. I certainly don’t think Joe– who she’s been dating for about a week– has a RIGHT to know.
It’s absolutely not a reflection on Joyce as a girlfriend that she went somewhere without telling specifically Joe where she was going, no. It was absolutely an impulsive and rash decision, since she didn’t tell anyone at all, but that’s Joyce for ya. Girl thinks with her heart.
So your all put an intimate relationship between a girlfriend and boyfriend on the same level as a friendships? Like their is no difference between the two of them to you all? 🤨
Like, situations vary. But I don’t think these “levels” of relationships are at all universal. A week long boyfriend might not even be on the level of really close friends.
It’s an interesting situation, because I think if she’d stopped long enough to let someone know, they might have delayed her with protest visiting advice or even just waiting on them to get dressed, so the flimsy baby fence might have already been up when she finally arrived. A series of plain coincidences allowed this setup, which is neat to observe.
Why are you all getting caught up with him having a right to know I never even said he had a right to know in my original comment. I just said Joyce should have told him simple as that. Why can’t any of you wrap you’re heads around this being a respect things? You should have a certain respect for you partner to let them know when you’re going to be in a bag situation.
But you did say it. If Joyce had been planning on what she’s doing for longer than it took to change clothes and get there, you might have a point (though I wouldn’t particularly say more of one with her relationship with Joe than her other close relationships).
I mean it takes 10 seconds to text your boyfriend and let him know what is happening. It’s not such a far reach to think it’s unreasonable for someone not to take just a moment to let someone you’re dating to let them know your willingly going into a dangerous situation. Don’t you think Joe is going to feel bad that he couldn’t do anything to help or protect Joyce? Why is no one taking Joe’s feelings into account? He already feels bad he couldn’t help Joyce before and now he’s helpless again. That going to hurt
If you’re American and you’re wondering why no one is doing anything — consider this your sign to get more involved in your community and local politics, because things are in fact being done by people, including but by no means exclusively by elected officials.
If you’re frustrated that so many Democratic Senators and Representatives are writing sternly worded letters or authoring tweets (or whatever other form of social media), please understand that they’re both raising awareness and getting their objections on record, which is important for a lot of reasons, but among them: building a legal case. It is in fact important to demonstrate that Trump & friends are doing what they’re doing knowingly and willfully. It also provides major media outlets with easy quotes, should they be interested in at least providing the appearance of neutrality.
(Also, positive engagement with their social media posts (instead of sneering at them for not just accepting that we’re all doomed and/or inciting mob violence) also goes at least some ways to showing the DNC that opposition to Trump is popular. Which is important, as traditional polls continue to fail to capture millennial and younger sentiment.)
Also? I was very much in the same position as some of you before this year! You can’t know what you don’t know! But now more than ever, we all need to understand how our government is supposed to work.
(And while it’s completely fair to be frustrated with the Democrats right now and they’ve made decisions I don’t agree with either, it’s silly to compare them to, like, Mitch McConnels under Obama: for most of Obama’s presidency, Republicans had control of the House, the Senate, or both. And not just a slim majority, either, but filibuster-proof majorities. These two things are not the same, and there just is not a lot the Democrats can do when they control 0 branches of government.)
Somehow every time the Democrats are the minority party in Congress, they’re completely incapable of doing anything to stop the Republican majority from doing terrible things. Yet when Democrats are the majority party, they are still too weak to undo the things Republicans did, and the Republican minority can use all sorts of technicalities to stop Democrats from doing what they promised the people they would do before an election. The reality is the Democrats are complicit in what’s going on, because the two parties are both working for the wealthy, and they don’t actually care about the people in this country.
This is pure bullshit. Neither party can completely stop the other, but both can slow things down and put brakes on. How much they can do that depends on the margins of control and what the other party is trying to do.
The problem is people on the left tend to focus only on the Democratic failures and the Republican successes – ignoring that Dems do get stuff done, even if getting it past Republican opposition means watering it down and that Dems are able to do the same when the GOP is power: some stuff gets through, but it’s not as bad as it could have been. That’s how politics works.
And it’s really obvious if you spend time out of the bubble and listen to what the right says about it all. It’s all an echo of this kind of thing, but from the other side.
Most of the drive for Project 2025 was from what they saw as the failures of Trump’s first term. The point was to do ever more through executive action and rely on either Court support or the Courts being unable to undo things after the fact, rather than on legislation where Dems could fight it.
It’s almost like there are different ways of being “the minority party”, such as having control of both the House and the Senate and the Supreme Court but not having control of the presidency, which has been the state of the Republican Party since Trump’s victory handed them the Supreme Court, versus… having “control” of the Senate literally only because the Vice President casts tie-breaking votes, which is what was going on under Biden.
Idk, friend, I don’t think you’re as informed as you think you are.
Most establishment democrats think we’re still playing the game we were 10 years ago. We aren’t. What we are dealing with is the end of the 20th century neoliberal status quo, and the beginning of a new autocratic regime in the US.
I want my senator plotting assassination attempts, not building a legal case.
Do you think this is ancient Rome? Why would you want your senator plotting assassination attempts? That’s not their skill set. They’d be bad at it and they’re high profile so they’re likely to be caught and that’ll make everything even worse.
I was being hyperbolic, obviously. But I don’t want a senator who’s just going to keep following the rules until elections are cancelled and they get kicked out of the building by armed thugs.
They’re some of the most well-connected people in the world, and they have access to very deep pockets. They should fight dirty, however they can.
Okay, so all Joyce and Dorothy need to do now is gently nudge that flimsy-ass fence over and casually walk home. It wouldn’t be difficult, and the only thing trapping them in is the suggestion they’re trapped and the walls can’t be moved, despite the walls being literally moved to get them there in the first place. So, as long as their brains continue to function properly, they can get away from this situation with ease and grace.
Being overdramatic much? I never said she needed a chaperone I just said it would be considerate if she let her boyfriend know that she’s putting herself into a dangerous situation especially because she seems to be prone to dangerous situations. What if she did get hurt and arrested without Joe having any idea of it? Wouldn’t that be worrisome to Joe? Just kind of seems rude to leave your partner high and dry. I don’t know I’m just coming from my 20 plus years of relationship experience. I wouldn’t want my partner in a dangerous situation without me knowing about it.
No, actually, I was not “being overdramatic”, I was being flippant and dismissive. The entire gist and tone of my reply was “He’ll be fine if he doesn’t know where she’s at for a bit.”, which is anything but dramatic.
I don’t know saying she needed a male chaperone seems pretty dramatic to me. I mean in a typical situation he would be fine not knowing where she was like if she’s going shopping or something. But she is literally putting herself in harm’s way by being at the protest which she’s aware that she’s doing this. It just comes off as disrespectful to me.
My theory is that, if Dorothy and Joyce get arrested, their biggest concern (narratively) won’t be having to deal with cops. (They are young, blonde, white girls and will likely get treated the best, relatively speaking).
No… Their problem will be that their friends will figure out that Dorothy and Joyce, who have expressed feelings for each other, are now both nowhere to be found… and aren’t replying to texts. And someone will draw the wrong conclusion…
By the way, I say this as a blonde white lady… And I may no longer be young, but I do have a round face that makes me look younger. It’s like having plot armor (not all the time, but sometimes).
DON’T I BE SAYIN IT?
aaaah i really sincerely hope they ready to get the FUCK outta dodge X-X
It looks like Dorothy and Joyce are about to get criminal records.
all they gotta remember is that when the cops ask them ANYTHING,
even something so mundane seeming as “how was your day”,
that they just
Shut. The Fuck. Up.
*looks at title of web comic*
oh who am i kidding? X-X T_T
It ain’t called Smarting Of Age
They can’t even say “Well, not so good, really; I got arrested for no reason at all.” ?
Nope. If the cops arrest you, especially at a protest, you shut the fuck up. They might ask if you want some water, and if they do you shut the fuck up.
The only word out of your mouth should be “lawyer”.
They’ve decided that’s ambiguous. You might just be saying “lawyer” because you like the sound of it.
You now need to say “I am exercising my 5th amendment rights, and I refuse to answer any questions. I demand to speak to my attorney.” And then shut the fuck up.
Indiana State law requires that you at least identify yourself if a police officer requires you to do so. After THAT, you can shut up.
IC 34-28-5-3.5 Refusal to identify self
Sec. 3.5. A person who knowingly or intentionally refuses to provide either the person’s:
(1) name, address, and date of birth; or
(2) driver’s license, if in the person’s possession;
to a law enforcement officer who has stopped the person for an infraction or ordinance violation commits a Class C misdemeanor.
Ah, see that’s the trick: for that to apply the cops have to say WHY they arrested/stopped you, and often enough to be relevant they don’t.
Margaret Kiljoy: Whenever I talk to cops, I shut the fuck up.
Well, based on who the current POTUS is and the fact that he is literally a convicted felon, a criminal record apparently can only help Dorothy’s chances of becoming POTUS herself (assuming she were still interested in such things).
Counterpoint, unless something changed recently and I missed it, apparently the current standpoint is that people can be deported without due process by claiming they are illegal immigrants, so they might just wind up disappeared for being politically inconvenient.
No, no… don’t you see? Only men are allowed to get away with that stuff. If you’re a woman who follows all the rules anyway, they just make up things to be angry at you for.
Agreed, Trump’s criminal record is only excused because he’s a rich white man. Minorities and women in the same positions need to be flawless, and as Tequila said, even then people will make things up to be mad about.
Trump’s supporters excuse his criminal record not because he’s white and rich but because they believe that they are (forgive the pun) trumped up charges that were created out of nothing for political purposes and that he’s not really guilty of any crime.
But also because he’s white and rich and on their side. They certainly wouldn’t apply that same approach to anyone else
and the reason for that is because he is a white rich man, and as history has shown, rich white men get excused for their crimes, with always an explanation that makes them the victim of a witchhunt.
I’ll note that a recent poll showed that 4% of Trump voters admitted* to thinking he didn’t win the election legitimately, so THEY, at least, think the charges aren’t trumped up.
*let alone the ones who won’t admit it
As someone in the South, I can say that when Obama was in office, people were making up weird things to be mad about. One example I recall is a story that he “went to a church” and “asked the church to cover the statues of Jesus/other religious figures”. I don’t recall ever being shown video evidence of this, or even hearing about Obama actually visiting a church in the news. It was just a bunch of angry Southern white women clucking about “oh that’s not right” and “oh I don’t trust him”. With no evidence at all, they believed that there was something “bad” about him, religiously (?) because they wanted to. And I’ll give you one guess as to why they wanted to believe such things about him.
Trump, meanwhile, can have video evidence and auditory evidence of actual awful things he’s done, but people will plug their ears and scream “fake news” because they don’t wanna believe it. I wonder what the difference between these two men is…
Oh, also I recall a lot of people, even a teacher at my school, in the middle of CLASS, speculating that Obama was a muslim and thus! Not to be trusted! His middle name is Hussein! I pointed out to my teacher that by that logic, anyone with Adolf in their name can’t be trusted, and she wasn’t very pleased with my retort! Buuut yeah, there’s… certainly a racial component to why Obama is just “untrustworthy” and “bad” despite never providing evidence to substantiate these claims about him whereas again, Trump’s charges and criticisms are dismissed wholesale.
The Obama is a Muslim thing was definitely going around, to the point that in the 2008 campaign, John McCain had to correct one of his supporters about it at a rally. Went viral at the time (Was “going viral” a thing then?)
Or birtherism, heavily pushed by Trump.
But it’s not just the white man thing, though that definitely helps. It’s Democrat/Republican too. Consider the narrative around Biden’s age/health compared to Trump’s. Or how Republicans can just publish their worst plans (Project 2025?) and they just get downplayed or ignored while people invent conspiracies of what Dems are planning.
That’s very true, and very… very… disappointing…
A note on Project 2025: It wasn’t a leak. It was definitely released to the public deliberately, albeit in a manner designed to look like a leak. This is because the GOP has figured out one thing that the Dems still can’t grasp–people want a plan. It doesn’t matter if it’s a good plan or a bad one, it just needs to be a clearly stated agenda.
Project 2025 was just an updated, more awful Contract with America. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’ plan was… Don’t Be Trump? Sure, in a sane world, that would’ve been enough. But we’re clearly not living there, and the Dems couldn’t come up with a coherent message that worked.
Oh, and I just realized my post read like I was saying you were saying it was a ‘leak’, when obviously you said ‘published’. I’m just drawing a distinction that I think matters.
It’s a distinction that matters, but if anything it just doubles down on my point. They can just publish it openly and that makes no difference.
And no, Project 2025 is not just an updated more awful Contract with America, since that was basically a legislative agenda. Project 2025 is a plan to do all the awful things relying overwhelmingly on executive power and on disfunction in the other branches not being able to stop it. It’s a roadmap for an authoritarian takeover in a way that the Contract on America, for all it’s awful policies simply wasn’t.
But even that’s kind of beside the point. You’re looking at this from a left pov where the problem is that Harris didn’t have a plan or a coherent message, whether that’s true or not.
From the double standard point of view though, if there’d been anything even remotely similar to Project 2025 on the left, she’d have been crucified.
Sorry, accidentally reported you while scrolling. Collision of terrible UI designs.
Or deported, or sent to a secret prison. Things are getting rough in America.
Or sent to a not remotely secret concentration camp that sells merch because america has jumped the shark and kept going.
Yay for our exceptionalism combo of autocracy, capitalism, and theocracy?
You mean Alligator ̶A̶l̶c̶a̶t̶r̶a̶z Auschwitz?
well, bein locked in a jail cell will probably be a good time to talk things out.
sigh, i hit the report by accident, pls don’t ban this person. dear mods, can we have a little CSS tweak to put like a warning icon next to the report button, and maybe right align it so it’s not right next to reply? moving the reply button to below the comment might also help.
probably don’t have any sort of conversation that reveals anything about yourself in a jail cell, you’re in a space controlled by people whose job it is to fuck you over, don’t do them any favors. idk if it’s legal to mic jail cells or not, but for cops it’s safe to assume “illegal” just means “not admissible in court” (to be worked around with parallel construction, evidence laundering, or just used as intel to target future surveillance/harassment)
It’s either “be gay; do crimes” or “do crimes; be gay”. Either sequence, right?
due to the current political situation we have been updated to do gay, be crimes
Most damn sadly, yeah, that exact language seems correct.
i mean they’re not holding signs so maybe they can bluff their way outta it
but other than mary having a separate group in a labeled section far enough away but in the same area to be considered ‘counter protesters’ it’d be hilarious if she got arrested bc the cops didn’t bother reading their signs (i wonder if carla will do anything)
Fences got put around them as soon as they entered the square.
That may or may not have been the last fencing segment to be put up. They might be trapped now, or they might still have getting-out time.
i mean if we’re talking visual storytelling, the fences being put up would definitely be the last ones going in. Sure in the real world it could be the first ones, but you wouldn’t show them to the audience if they wouldn’t matter. So i don’t think it would flow narratively for them to just be able to escape easily when things go bad. It would ruin the suspense that is building, at least in the way that Willis’ storytelling has gone so far.
I must agree. Chekhov’s Fences.
A well thought out plan, truly.
A 9 month buffer, indeed. And in those 9 months since, they’ve pushed it to a **year**!
They told Asma
Asma is also here and also not their friend, as evidenced by her earlier essentially telling them to get fucked when they asked her for help. (Not a judgment, mind you, she doesn’t know them like that, but if something happens with them, it’d be happening with Asma, too, as she’s also at the protest.)
**whispers**
I think HueSatLight was making a joke.
Where? I don’t see it.
Where they suggested they told a person who clearly doesn’t meet the criteria. Even if you don’t think it was funny you surely must realise it was facetious.
You mean “realise it was… facetious.”
Well their name is PedanticJerkass…
Read their name! Pedantic’s comment was also a joke!
I’m sometimes not sure this comments section knows what a joke is.
There’s a lot of obtuse, literal-minded joysuckery ’round these parts. You can say the most outlandish things (“Drown Rachel in the digital lake”) and some brainless horsefucker will come along and decide you certainly must mean a real woman should be drowned in a real lake and you’re currently dragging her there in person.
It’s not always easy to tell if it’s a joke when it’s just text. Also some jokes are just not very funny.
oops
They’re both gonna die. That’s a shame. I’m sure Lucy alright carrying the new protagonist mantle. She just needs a sidekick to be gay with and all the other stuff will be covered.
The Lucy/Billiefer/Alice love triangle will be delightful
at least it won’t take so goddamned long for them to bang
Sarcasm aside, I wonder if this is going to lead to them being arrested and spending the night in a prison holding cell where they will finally talk about their feelings for one another?
A night in jail would be an interesting angle. It’s appropriately dramatic without potentially upending the comic. Could lead to lots of interesting outcomes. Just not sure we’ll actually go there with it. Seems slightly too high stakes in tone.
I feel like it’s more likely they might get put in the back of a squad car, then subsequently released once the cops either realize they’re just students, or decide they’d rather use the space for arresting someone more important to the protest.
Put in the back of squad car and busted out by Amazi-Girl while the cops are distracted
And then it goes from a scary hassle with the charges eventually dropped to serious crime.
Amazi-Girl, or Sal? Either one might have the skills needed.
they’re ALL “just students”! no one here’s actually doing anything wrong! joyce and dorothy are BY THEIR PRESENCE arrestable!
everyone handcuffed to different parts of the cell for a few hours, cramped but not technically cruel and unusual…
We all know the next time someone in this comic sneaks into a bar, it will have identical adventurers of similar levels to join the cast
Oh no.
Oh no!
Oh no!
OH YEAH!!!
Sorry, had to.
no no
never apologize.
“Oh no,” not “no no.”
So no “no no”?
Not really.
@TDKnave
You did exactly what I hoped someone would do when I posted the second “oh no”.
*tips imaginary hat*
They really didn’t think this through, did they?
9 months…
And now it’s officially at exactly one year.
… hm?
Oh, the alt text.
awe, congratulations Willis XD ^_^
children grow up so fast…
Ooh okay this storyline has finally hooked me. Ceasing my complaints to sit back and enjoy the ride!
A printer! My kingdom for a printer!
maybe Amazi-Girl bugged us directly… someone give our friends some binoculars!
Like I said: Joyce has not thought this through. She hasn’t accomplished anything by putting herself at risk. I hate to say I told you so, but… oh, who am I kidding? I love saying I told you so.
… who are you talking to?
I don’t recall any comment threads suggesting this was a good idea at any point.
Yeah, the closest I can remember were comments saying “Yes this is a bad idea, but here’s why dumb 18/19yos think it’s important and a great idea”
I assume he’s arguing with the
TVwebsiteWhen you think things through but not enough to have actually thought them through.
I may be ignorant, but I don’t get it. I’ve been to many protests in the past ten years. They were all fine and perfectly safe. I don’t get why they’re making this out to be such a big deal.
Yeah, this is reading a little paranoid. The ones on college campuses are especially safe
Ummm…
…sarcasm?
it’s cuz in the US protesters gotta deal with bigoted cops and tear gas and SNIPERS
There have been a great many protests, especially ones at contests, that have become very much not safe or fine, with cops firing rubber bullets because it was a day ending in a Y, or pepper spraying people, etc.
It’s not a guarantee that things WILL go tits-up, but it’s unfortunately something with a great deal of precedence.
First time I took a marksmanship class at the firing range, I was startled by a familiar smell.
I thought, “Why does it smell like a protest? Literally every protest I have been to has smelled like this. What is that smell?”
Then it hit me.
It was gunpowder.
Even the so-called “less lethal” and “crowd control” weapons use it for their projectiles.
This comic is…
…yeah. Bad memories.


Did you forget that they have a Sniper pointed at the protest and the Cops are being called to stop the protests. This isn’t a protest against the government doing something, its against a private organization, it can go REALLY bad.
A private organisation that’s inserted itself into the command chain of the local police force. NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT HONEST WE CAN ALWAYS TRUST CAPITALISM TO DO THE RIGHT THING
It’s nice that the protests you’ve gone to have been safe. But a lot of them are not, because the police don’t have good records of treating protesters nicely. The police response to the anti-genocide protests on college campuses that these strips are a likely a reference to were not very nice in many cases, to put it mildly.
This seems to be based on real IU protests from last spring that ended in a lot of police violence, a few dozen arrests, and really did involve a police sniper positioned on top of a building.
This is not paranoia, and it really did go tits-up.
And presumably, Jocelyne is not just guessing that things are about to break bad. While our intrepid heroes comically lack situational awareness, Jocelyne probably has seen the fences go up and knows what kettling is.
I also imagine the fact that Jocelyne is trans is why they’re hypervigilant about potential issues. If the cops get involved, she would be in extra trouble.
Yeah. For a trans person (and many other people) arrest can be fatal.
Even if the cops are unrealistically kind to Jocelyne, and even if she only spends a couple hours in a cell, you’ve still got that maybe she’d be thrown in with either women or men who each might hurt her for being around them.
On the other, in this scenario she’s likely to thrown in with another bunch of protesters which is less likely to go badly than the average jail crowd.
A huge amount apparently get super violent and lots of people die I suppose? I live in a pretty deep red state and the protests I went to didn’t end badly, most of my concern involved someone passing out from dehydration or someone following me home (which didn’t happen, but I was taught political violence at the tender age of 12 when my mom was almost actually assassinated as the head of the Democratic Party for her district so I’m very paranoid about it). They weren’t at a major university though. They were just like… in front of the mall and the courthouse and stuff.
I don’t want to discredit or minimize anyone’s experiences though. The circumstances around what almost happened to my mom were also routine and mundane (she literally told her husband who she voted for and he complained about her online to the dude.) Just because I haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it’s not a real danger :\.
(Not meaning that in an aggressive/hostile way, just clarifying my thoughts.)
Whoa!
🤯




…DANG!!!
…Is your mom OK now? Please tell her I said, “Thank you for your service.”
I am SO SORRY that happened to you and your mother. SO sorry!
fInE aNd PeRfEcTlY sAfE
Obviously they didn’t mean that one in particular, you malfunctioning rubber caribou.
Aaaand Amazi-Girl specifically said she planned to patrol the rest of campus, since all the cops would be here… so she won’t be looking for them.
In case you’re wondering where I got that from…
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/ice/
OHH. Amazi-Girl trusts that the cops will keep the peace at the protest, instead of instigating.
This looks like a job for Amber!
More like taking the chance of the cops all being preoccupied to deal with any other troublemakers that pop up
Also you know her own personal safety, I know she’s strong but even she’s not “take on a battalion of militarized cops and win” strong
I really hope this doesn’t go downhill fast in the worst way, Joyce might be in just as much danger here as she was in the previous massively dangerous events she has been so far, if not more so.
I am very worried for their safety.
Ok, but why are things “about to get very–“?
Is there a known plan for something to escalate?
I’ll grant she may be a bit more aware of the general goings on of the protest, and yeah, the fences and sniper(s) are concerning, but I wouldn’t call them an outright indication of imminent danger.
Now, if we knew that the cops are surrounding the perimeter and all geared up (which the pair may have been oblivious to), then yeah, I could see the cause for alarm.
I think Jocelyn is more afraid of people getting black bagged into unmarked vans and disappeared. Which is, you know. An extremely reasonable fear right now.
well,
i don’t know the likelihood that it’d happen to Joycelyn, but it’s likely not *that* high if only because while she may be trans, she’s still white
someone like Asma on the other hand
the getting disappeared into an unmarked van I mean
ICE surely ain’t picky as opportunists
White folks have been snatched up and held incommunicado without due process,too.
of course, but believe me white privilege is VERY much a thing when dealing with police in the United States
hell, police organizations only grew as much as they did over here in scope and power in the first place because of desire to control racial minorities
True.
Jocelyne*
But wasn’t nearly so much of a fear 9 months ago when these strips were written.
This scenario seems pretty closely based on the actual April protest at IU, which did lead to police trying to clear the area, some police violence and a bunch of arrests. There was a sniper spotted.
But no one got shot and I couldn’t find any reports of serious injuries. Nor does it seem like they arrested everyone at the protest – though that’s harder to be sure of. That’s what I’m calibrating my expectations to.
Definitely a scary scene, especially for novice (or accidental) protesters, but not quite to that level.
It’s Jocelyne, just so you know
the cops are in fact gearing up to break up the protest
Asma literally just told Joyce and Dorothy, as well as us the readers, a couple strips ago: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/trustees/
Wasn’t it mentioned a few strips back that the police had ordered everyone to disperse and the student protesters weren’t going to comply? I would expect arrests to follow.
They were ordered so in contravention of their rights. Arresting them is a violation of the first amendment.
It’s a little more complicated than that. And practically speaking it only matters if the courts agree.
It’s not entirely unreasonable to argue that long term occupation of a public space doesn’t have to be allowed, even if you’re doing it as a protest. Like it’s allowed to require permitting for protests, as long as such permits aren’t denied based on the content of the protest.
The fact that they passed a special law to make it illegal when it wasn’t before – presumably the people who passed the law did so knowing what the content of the protest was – should create a presumption that it was done due to the content of the protest
Fun fact: police arrest people in violation of their rights all the time. Police are not required to know the law. And you can be tried, convicted, and sentenced to jailtime for resisting arrest EVEN IF the actual arrest is found to have been unlawful.
Well yeah, they have to fill the
prisonsslave labor camps somehow. Otherwise, how would our for-profit prisons make a profit and keep the scary brown people off the street?Police can and often do arrest people regardless of whether that arrest is a violation of the first amendment.
Dorothy: Man, these must be a few apple cops that are wholly unique and not at all common of law enforcement.
Joyce: Dorothy, the phrase is, “A few bad apples spoils the barrel.”
Dorothy: What? That’s not how my parents used it at all.
I didn’t actually understand what that was supposed to mean
Dorothy is someone raised to believe in institutional fairness by her own words.
Joyce by contrast has gone further I suspect.
Also knows the phrase is misused frequently.
Not so sure that Joyce has internalised that one enough to apply it though.
Jocelyne, though? 100%.
I mostly referring to the “apple cop that is wholly unique” part.
I suspect apple cop here means a cop that is a bad apple. Like how you might defend a bad institution (for example, the police) by claiming the bad things it does are done by a “few bad apples”, members of the institution that are exceptionally morally corrupt and don’t reflect on the organisation as a whole.
Your understanding of Dorothy’s character is bad and you should feel bad.
I see Dorothy on a road to becoming radical and I’m here for it.
*stares at this whole storyline in disbelief in European* is… Is that how things now feel in the US?
Has been for a while.
Now? Thing have been like this in the US for a very long time, unfortunately. A lot longer than many people realize.
I see where they are going with the storyline, that there are going to be mass arrests here, but I don’t think a major university would respond in this instance in that manner. Not because they are the good guys but just because it would end up bringing more attention to the issue then just letting the protestors burn themselves out and go home. If they did want to pull off the arrests then they would have to frame the narrative properly first and send in some agitators to make it look like the protestors were actually committing crimes.
But yeah I do think people feel more than ever in the US that institutions and especially government are against them, and Black Lives Matter protests shows that under certain circumstances the US will pull off mass arrests. In this fictitious scenario though I think that would be pretty unlikely.
I’m in my thirties. I grew up with the US being a symbol for freedom. I’m currently adjusting to the fact that the American dream literally is a dream. Not real.
My brain kind of went “How did THAT happen?!” the moment there was a sniper on the roof. Like, NO.
A lot of Americans grow up thinking that our country is a symbol of freedom too. Most schools teach us a sanitized version of US history when we’re kids. I’m in my mid-30s now, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that the USA has done a lot of very terrible things for its entire history. I highly recommend reading A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I learned a lot from that book that I was never taught in my history classes.
The European view on US history always was a lot less.. cleaned. and we were always aware that the US has some politics that would be considered troublesome in Europe. like, healthcare. workers right. food safety. gun laws. Police training.
The general perception was that the US values freedom of all kinds so high that any politics that limit personal freedom for a gain in welfare or social safety is not acceptable. like, freedom over everything. especially the freedom to control your own fate, for better or worse. that seemed to be the US-American deal.
And now, drive for freedom somehow is… gone. That’s so, so weird.
In the Kent State massacre in 1970, four unarmed students were murdered (and nine more wounded) by the National Guard during an anti-Vietnam rally.
From 1942 to 1946, after Pearl Harbor, the West Coast held ~120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps. Almost 2,000 people died.
The Red Scare (1947-1957) was used as an excuse to deny free speech to leftist Americans.
Our freedoms being trodden upon when it’s inconvenient for us to have them isn’t a brand new problem, though it is very upsetting that it’s happening yet again (because it’s always upsetting) and it can be convincingly argued that this time looks different, permanence-wise.
This country has never really been about freedom for most people. The “founding fathers” were white wealthy men, many of them owned slaves, and they certainly didn’t care about the freedom of the native tribes who they committed genocide against and forced off their land.
Unfortunately, a distressingly high number of Americans don’t care about freedom, except when they can take it away from others.
I call ’em traitors.
This is literally based on an actual protest that happened at a university that did end in mass arrests in real life
This storyline is “ripped from the headlines” and based on the real life protests that happened at Indiana University literally last year.
Major universities have been responding to instances this is based on in maners like this for a very long time now. Have you not been paying attention?
To be paying attention, something usually has to be aware there’s something they should be paying attention to. Based on the multiple concerned comments from non-Americans, I don’t think our protest culture and the institutions’ homicidal response are something we should take for granted as global knowledge. Hell, even within the country, if you don’t interact with it much, you probably won’t know a lot about it either. It’s not like they taught us about these things when I was in school.
Yes, from overseas, there is only so much you can pay attention to in the world. But this comic helps to raise awareness. I have looked this up. Heck, even the tents Willis drew are authentic!
Yeah, a lot of overseas people have seemed unaware we had protests at all until recently (and thus just kind of assumed we were all on board with all the Everything).
Some of ’em still seem to think that, even on this website.
I’m assuming this particular story arc is based on how the police responded to many anti-genocide protests on college and university campuses last year. I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but police in the US don’t tend to treat protesters nicely when they’re protesting against those sorts of things.
(Dangit. Screwed up my html) A year ago, I’d have thought that too. But I live near Dartmouth College and a year ago the new college president <a href="https://vtdigger.org/2024/05/02/police-break-up-pro-palestinian-protest-at-dartmouth-college-dozens-arrested/"<called out state riot cops to throw protesting students off the green and arrested a bunch of them and some older peace protestors from the area. So, it turns out, very realitic.
Unfortunately my friend, this ISN’T how it feels now. It feels much worse. The military is occupying our city for no damn reason. People who make protests against the treatment of Palestine have literally been disappeared without any right to habeas corpus. The politicians in charge of these disproportionate reactions have been comparing Palestinians, Immigrants, and LGBTQ people to vermin, terrorists, and rapists on a regular basis. And our courts, our police, our congress, do nothing to stop any of this. This strip was written when the whole ‘habeas corpus’ thing was still like you know ‘the law’ and ‘respected’ and at least the marines were like… Not used for intimidating our right to protest?
Also historically the military has killed protestors and it is looking a lot like we are going to return to that time very soon given all of the above
To say courts are doing nothing to stop this would be news to Trump’s DoJ, and their warrants for arrest for judges who have sided against him.
Some courts, but SCoTUS has basically handed trump W’s repeatedly, and the DoJ has proven that they can just ‘ignore the courts and not get punished meaningfully for it’.
We moved from America with what we could carry in our suitcases to Europe 9 years ago, no job offers and had to stay in a hotel until we could find a place to rent, because things were so bad. This decision has been vindicated.
Good on you getting out at the best time.
In the rest of the world, the myth of America as a bastion of freedom only persists up until the point where you’re old enough to read the books without pictures in them. Usually.
jocelyn i love you so much
It’s Jocelyne, with an e!
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the streets
…. I knew it meant police but I just now actually got that line.
Really, it looks quite cold there is snow and everything!
….oh.
OK, OK, OK, it’s getting grim now…
Who’s up for a palate cleanser of a game, to take our minds off foreboding fears?
Here’s the themed question:
Q.: What’s your favorite protest song, and/or protest chant?
that one’s easy!
*plays “Get Up Stand Up” by Bob Marley on hacked muzak*
Rock on!!!
Off of that– Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.”
Oh, yes! So heartfelt!
also I can tell you having some real flashbacks, real sorry to hear, yeah it’s… not looking good over here in the US T-T
but I take comfort in the fact that if there is anything we have that the bigots do not, it is HOPE
where there is life, there is hope
life finds a way…
Best line from Jurassic Park (original). 🦖
Thanks, hon’. I appreciate you.
yee, best movie with most famous trans icons in film history <3
I like a lot of protest songs, but right now my favorite is probably Hind’s Hall by Macklemore.
And also Hind’s Hall 2
Haunting! So lovely.
I started respecting Macklemore after that one, gotta say, Good pick!
Is that the one he sang while he was wearing his giant foam Jew nose and fake beard?
Oh, wow, so apropos! Thank you for introducing me to this new song!
Except for the sentiment, “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all
And fuck no, I’m not votin’ for you in the fall (Woo)
Undecided”
I’m not going to argue that Biden (and to a much lesser extent, Harris) were extremely short-sighted and misguided, but allowing Trump to be elected has unleashed something so incredibly much worse. Ethnic cleansing of the tiny shreds remaining of the Palestinian’s ancestral lands so that the rotted orange assclown can build condos?
what exactly is israel doing right now that you think biden or harris would have prevented
Both major party candidates in 2024 supported giving more money and weapons to a state committing genocide. Biden and Harris did so for over a year before the election. For some of us, genocide was a moral red line that we could not vote for.
Fave protest song:
“Under My Feet” by Resistance Revival Chorus
https://genius.com/Resistance-revival-chorus-rich-mans-house-lyrics
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/resistance-revival-choir/the-rich-mans-house-chords-3434687
That and “Clandestino” by Manu Chao.
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/-clandestine.html
You’re a person of smarts and style, love the Clandestino mention
Thank you!
Oh, but then, you really can’t beat the classics:
Bella Ciao
L’internationale
“Zog Nit Keynmol” (Song of the Warsaw Ghetto)
“Moorsoldaten”
Long ago, when I was a busker, I would stand on street corners and sing the songs of World War Two and the Spanish Civil War. Elders who remembered (more of them were alive back then) would stop, and stand, and listen, and weep.
I know what I very much would like to never hear at a protest again. Anything from Le Mis. Especially “Do you hear the people sing?”
Aw, but it’s SO catchy! Infectious, even.
Oh, I’m not denying that. I’m just thinking that it might be remotely possible that catchy songs about rising up against your opressors that don’t come from a musical that ends with everyone who rose up against opression shot dead in the middle of the street and no real change happening might exist and we should exaust all of those before associating Le Mis with our cause.
Right on!
For the English speakers, I’ll go with I ain’t marching anymore by Phil Ochs. I’m a sucker for a poetic turn of phrase, and the final lines the whole song seems to build up to, “Call it peace or call it treason, call it love or call it reason, I can’t marching anymore” gets me every time.
Though my favorite of protest songs is this one in Swedish. (You might recognize the tune.) It tells the story of a man going to all the wars in history to sharpen everybody’s blades, and is really happy to tell you about the importance of having a sharp bayonet or guillotine so you can win battles and be on the right side, and about how good his business has been. Some mildly dark humor.
Huh, I was way off on what post I wanted to reply to but I don’t suppose it makes a lot of difference in this thread.
Phil Ochs… one of the great movement musicians!
That Swedish song — what is that tune? Yankee Doodle? I recognize it from a few songs.
Is it Whiskey In the Jar?
That’s it.
Ta!
If we’re going with Phil Ochs songs, my favorite is “Love Me, I’m a Liberal”
For sure!
Exactly!
Hands down? El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido — “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” (which is the best contribution Chile has done to international leftist songwriting.) Have it with English subs!
I like this version better though. from 5 years ago, when this country still felt like a place one could feel UNUSUALLY hopeful about |DD
Oh, yes: a classic!
Oddly, though, I first learned that song in a collection from the Spanish Civil War..
…it must have scurried back in time to sneak in there!
goigsdg I’d legit love to know how it ended in there! It was composed in the 70’s by Quilapayún (a Chilean uni band led by the late Victor Jara)! :33 Maybe to skirt the censors somehow?
For something more modern, though. Have also “Latinoamérica” by Calle 13, which reportedly has also united our cultures with the Afroamerican and Indigenous North American though the “oh. Oh, my struggle is yours…” angle and its sheer beauty: “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA2FAVRAO2Y&list=RDrA2FAVRAO2Y&start_radio=1”
(DON’T LET ME GET STARTED, I’d love to compile a 101 List of Leftist LatAm Music for y’all.)
Ooh, wow, gorgeous!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rA2FAVRAO2Y&list=RDrA2FAVRAO2Y&start_radio=1&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD
Dew eeeet
FDT. They’re a bit dated now in spots, having been released pre-2016 election, but still mostly relevant today.
Dang!
Another song I really like is Pete Seeger’s version of Which Side Are You On? The old classic union song.
Oh,yes, wonderful.
Pat Humphries does an amazing rendition of that song. Actually, everything Pat does is amazing.
But yeah. Pete is one of the great midwives of music. Right up there with Woody & Arlo Guthrie.
Okay I don’t know what went wrong with the HTML tag. My favorite is Have you been to jail for Justice by Anne Feeney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGUCUtCCIhU
It’s a great song to sing in jail btw.
Please don’t just focus on the violence and the harm that can come from this situation. The violence is supposed to prevent and to discourage people from protesting and to discourage solidarity with those protesting. It’s always working somewhat but it’s not working completely. It can lend strength to the protestors’ position and backfire. The protestors are there despite the potential consequences and in my view that’s a great show of character strength and also at some point necessary to have a chance of fighting injustice.
All the people that avoid protests due to violence they have already won over into submission. Which is not to say that everyone can and has to participate but someone has to. Dorothy and Joyce are extremely privileged as white American citizens that live on campus and sadly in my experience it is often the less privileged, like openly queer, BIPoC etc who protest in such conditions because they are aware of the risk of not fighting, to which both Dorothy and Joyce are so far pretty oblivious.
What I’m also saying is in hindsight they’re probably more likely to regret that they didn’t go out to protest with the others fully prepared and intentionally instead of regretting that they faced police violence accidentally.
Yes, Anne Feeney is a treasure. I once met her, and handed her a handwritten parody/adaptation that I had written of her song, “Hold On”. Gotta seize that moment!
Wish I could still be out there fighting the good fight. Instead, I’m stuck with this broken, failing body. Arrest would be death for me, yes, but what I’m doing now can’t really be described as “living.”
goddammit, as someone who’s physically disabled 6 ways to sunday and knows what the cops often do to autistic folk, let alone my being barely provisionally white…
it’s just not fair
why do I always have to feel HELPLESS like this???
Self care is a revolutionary act.
<3
Dropkick Murphys. Which side are you on?
https://youtu.be/SKWfnO7fhQM?si=JsS8A4mEhI6DU2vV
Dropkick Murphys is a hidden gem.
I don’t know about a single favorite, but I can give you a handful of songs I off the top of my head. They’re a pretty wide variety in tone and style: Chemical Worker’s Song (Process Man) by the Great Big Sea, Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis, Send The Marines by Tom Lehrer (satire, references American military violently meddling and briefly references racist violence), Annie by Fred Small, Our Daughters Will Never Be Free by The Indelicates (satire, references sexualised violence), You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught from South Pacific, Strangest Dream by Ed McCurdy, and Strange Arithmetic by The Coup (implications of police violence).
What a list! I only know a few in there, but they’re oldies & goodies!
Alas, this could have been prevented by post-laundry clarity.
pfffffffffff.
please, please don’t hurt Jocelyne.
Come on, she’ll be fine.
I’m less certain.
she’ll be back, and she’ll be fine. if there’s two things taffy knows it’s women and exactly what’s going to happen in the future
I can see the future long after it’s already happened.
Fave chant:
“¡No, no, no! ¡No más pantalones!”
Oops! Meant that to go up as a reply to the “game” thread. Sorry!
Maybe they will get lucky and Marcie will be security rent-a-cop again and take it easy on them
Maybe Carla will show up being boistrous and distract ppl assuming ppl don’t think she’s just being ‘performative’ or like some kinda semi-willing hostage/’meat shield’ if it’s like “You better not throw tear gas I”M A RUTTECH” or so
Congrats on the one year buffer!
Jeebus… I said it a day or two ago, but there are FAR too many ‘Whoops!’ moments happening in the last couple of in-comic days.
9 months? The buffer is due at any time!
… so, between the comic and the alt-text, we’re beating both sides of the bell curve when it comes to fore-planning.
I bet Hank’s already on his way up because now neither of his kids are answering their phones.
*Amazi Girl appears out of the crowd*
Yeah I figured you’d do something like this.
i knew from the moment i woke up this morning you’d pull some HORSE PISS. classic joyce
A pretty good lesson in ‘the rules about safety at protests are kind of for specific circumstances’.
Yeah. Kind of funny because I don’t think anyone in the comments brought up that angle. Some were naive and confused about why it would be a problem at all. Others were like “Of course. Never bring a phone to a protest.”
…Uh-oh.
You know where I’m from “you know where you find me I’m at the protest” would be a normal thing to say.
“Things are about to get very—”
Very fun, because someone brought a bubble machine. Very musical, because the band arrived. Very sexy, because everyone is about to get topless. Very boring, because it’s time for the union-mandated nap.
Gotta be one of those or some unforeseen extra thing, because Joyce, Dorothy, and Jocelyne aren’t gonna die.
It’s a peaceful anti-war, anti-coporation protest on a US college campus, what’s the worst that could happen? ::Harry Hill Side Eye GIF::
“Hey Dad, so it turns out it wasn’t Joshua at that protest, it was me!!! Guess we kinda look alike lmao”
don’t worry gals i’m sure somebody that could have made a difference will send a sternly worded letter about this
Hi!! Not everyone is capable of protesting for a variety of reasons, and any pressure we put on the forces in charge works in our favor! Maybe don’t be an asshole to people on your side who can’t do what you can do.
Possible reasons:
– Chronic Illness that is exacerbated by tear gas/loud noises/being in the heat.
– Disabilities that make it difficult to run, stand, walk at all or for long periods of time.
– Panic attacks or PTSD that might make them a hindrance in an emergency situation.
– Being the sole caregiver to children they cannot spend time away from.
– Being unable to take time away from work without losing their job.
Like, I understand that in a perfect world everyone could go to protests and help affect change that way, but it’s not the only path to take and it’s just not fair to treat people who use other means of protest (letters, calls, sending money to the right causes, etc) like they’re not making a difference or somehow not good enough.
I honestly read that comment as a condemnation of officials (“somebody who could have made a difference”) not doing shit except noting how bad things are rather than people who aren’t able to protest, but I guess dorjojoe could’ve meant either?
You’re still making some good points.
It’s also ridiculous to criticize elected officials for that, because the letters are literally part of their job and also help attorney generals build a legal case (it shows that Trump et al were in knowing violation of the precedent/rule/law).
Lotsa folks this year turning out to know much less about our government than they think they do. Lots of folks who don’t bother to vote in the midterms being loudly frustrated that Democrats can’t do more with the 0 branches of government they currently control, too.
Like. I understand being angry and scared. I am also both those things. But “no one is doing anything” is absolutely doomer talk as well as being untrue, and “the people who ARE doing exactly what they should be are instead doing something worseless and stupid” is worse.
I certainly don’t agree with all the strategic choices made by Democratic leadership, but at the same time, they’re in a really difficult political position. They don’t have the magic “Stop” button some seem to think they do.
I understand even some of the choices I don’t agree with. Their only real chance of affecting legislation, for example, means peeling away GOP votes on specific issues.
Yep.
I’m not saying don’t criticize them, but this specific criticism ^^^ from OP is just… wrong.
Honestly, at this point I’m just lumping the doomers in with the burn-it-down tankies. They seem to be working towards the same goal.
Yeah, basically anyone who’s given up and decided we’re permafucked can be silent forever. Things seem a lot more fixable when you don’t have an annoying bongo in your ear telling you to roll over and die.
Yeah……
Like at the very least it’s Useful Idiots territory.
critizing politicians is giving up? Lmao
I just thought it was a reference to Chuck Shumer. Nevertheless, I agree with the points Nymph and Li made.
>~<
THANK YOU T~T
(I have been in a bad place lately and felt really helpless, this honestly helped a lot just now)
<3 Take good care of yourself…
i was talking about elected officials who never push back against the uniparty for doing this fascist garbage outside of publishing the occasional flaccid little “pwetty pwease stoooop” tweet because doing anything more would upset their donors and their party leaders by extension. And, of course, the vapid bootlickers who will eternally defend all the former simply for not being the other guy.
Under no circumstances would I ever be discriminating or criticizing an individual citizen for their availability (or lack there of) to show up at a protest. That is completely understandable. Everyone is just doing what they can.
Don’t bring cellphone when commiting crimes
*supervillain taking nites, before entering Indiana University*
No crimes going on here but the state’s.
And the crimes of Mark, who’s setting cars on fire across the street.
God dammit Mark, we talked about this.
The state defines what crime is. Crime means “doing something that is illegal” not “doing something that is morally wrong“.
In my experience, police often define crime as something they don’t like no matter if it’s legal or illegal.
Also not entirely clear what good them telling anyone would have done? What are their friends going to do if things go wrong?
Call a lawyer?
As Grouch said, call a lawyer. They could also get bail. But I think the most pertinent thing is that said friends don’t panic because Joyce and Dorothy have mysteriously disappeared, again.
Now if it were Dina and Charlie…
If they’re disappeared, then the friends can tell the families. So the families know to start checking with the authorities. If the families don’t know, that will delay things a lot.
I mean, I guess if they’re actually disappeared. Which is theoretically possible, but certainly not a common outcome of these student protests. More plausible now than when this was written, I suppose, but then it’s also more plausible they’ll simply be grabbed off the street and disappeared.
To be fair, I heard it good not to have your phone on you when you get arrested or when you cross a border.
Back in the day people used to protest knowing they might be arrested…it was almost a badge of honor. It showed how strongly they believed in their cause…enough to go to jail for it.
Give them a break! Is their first protest, rookie mistake
I have to admit, I didn’t think the protest was going to amount to more than a background event and a reason to keep Jocelyne around longer, but clearly I was wrong. Now that I think about it though, we are pretty much due for another big dramatic event/action sequence. In 2015, we had ToeDad kidnapping Becky. In 2020, we had the mass kidnapping by Blaine and ToeDad. So in 2025, we get Joyce and Dorothy getting arrested? Seems like something to that effect is likely.
This could get dramatic, but it’s hard to see it really turning into an action sequence. Potentially some police violence and maybe even a chase, but I really hope we’re not going to see something like AG fighting off the cops or breaking Dorothy/Joyce/Jocelyne out of custody. None of that’s likely to end well.
I will be very surprised if this does more than, for example, provide Hank with a reason to drive into town out of concern for the girls (which could be merited, by a mass arrest, or overcautious, like Joyce and Dorothy coming here in the first place was).
Open to being wrong, of course, at which point I will eat my due crow for my skepticism like two weeks ago that this was supposed to be a very specific protest rather than a generic one that was inspired by real-life treatment of student protesters… and if it turns out to be a call to action, or otherwise really call out Israel, I’ll eat more crow.
Until then, I’ll still be in the camp of “this is a very very thorny issue to have chosen for the backdrop of Joyce and Dorothy getting caught kissing by a reporter, oof”.
Hey this is random but
Is this video not Sarah? XD
♥️
I thought of Sarah
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1335252804436086/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
They look chill about the perspective to be arrested. I would be panicked
i forgot this was a webcomic and these aren’t real people. Dawg you’d get tracked to the place you live in???
…and now, Dumbing of Age transitions into Orange is the New Black.
if willis ever has to abandon the university setting for some reason and needs a place to relocate everyone where you’d have enforced proximity and roommates, well
Dumbing of Age: Stone Ocean, coming soon.
So I haven’t said anything so far but I do hate that Joyce didn’t tell Joe where she was going…..Not great girlfriend behavior.
It’s extremely neutral girlfriend behavior.
She’s literally putting herself in an extremely dangerous situation. Her boyfriend would have a right to know what’s she is up to especially after all the danger she has already been through. I dunno seems kind of shitty of her to do to me is all…..
Uhhhh. I don’t know about a RIGHT? Like lmfao, a RIGHT to know? No he doesn’t. He would LIKE to know, but she’s not breaking some rule by not doing it. And Joe doesn’t have more of a right to know than literally any of her other friends who care about her. Like, for instance, Sarah.
Having a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship is much more intimate than a friend relationship. Especially like I said when the person you’re dating has been in dangerous situations before I think the partner has the right to know that the person they’re dating is in the safe situation. Likewise if the person they’re dating is in a dangerous situation. It just seems kind of rude to me that you would do something and not even let the person you’re dating know what you’re up to. Like if I found out my partner was out doing dangerous like activities without even mentioning anything to me about them that would be hurtful. It seems like you’re kind of neglecting your partner’s feelings by not letting them know if you’re in a safe situation or not.
toxic relationship description.
I’m glad I’m not dating you. You sound like an authoritarian assbutt.
You could have said “man I bet Joe would appreciate communication about this.” But no its not what joe could like, its “Joyce is failing” a nebulous esoteric personal definition of “girlfriendness”
its a thought stating what you meant with out all that punishment language or authoritative nature.
Dating someone doesn’t entitle you to always know there whereabouts and activities. She can tell him she went outdoors without a male chaperone later.
It never entitles you to anything.
Entitlement is a fiction and false no one is Entitled to anything ever.
Though large groups of people will and do act like it is and enforce entitlement frequently. But that’s them feeling like they have the right to force or have authority over things and then making it true via force “justified by the false concept “entitlement”
Authority is not “justified” it is taken.
He does have a certain privilege to know though. Especially being in an intimate relationship with each other that’s supposed to be built on mutual trust. Like what kind of relationship do you people have with other people? I have none of you ever been in romantic relationships where you care about the well-being and safety of your partners? Or has your partners never cared about your well-being and safety? If yes to either of those questions and that seems pretty troublesome.
Oh iu my mention im Married.
I don’t get mad at my wife because she failed my standards. we talk perhaps on what i would like but not on what she must do. not once and if i can i never will do such a horrid thing to her.
And we do care about each other and when we don’t we don’t punish each other or get upset because one of us missed an imagined standard. We move forward communicate needs and then continue loving being there for each other in anyway we can.
No one sets the “rules” for relationships but yourself. and you have weird authoritarian unilateral standards that would make you horribly toxic to date.
There’s no point trying to justify your relationship to an Internet stranger, tbh. What are they gonna do, doxx us and come kill us in our homes for having a relationship they wouldn’t personally want to be part of? Not likely. No repercussions are comin’, and their judgment is worthless.
Since you asked, yes, I’ve been in a dedicated monogamous romantic relationship for 12 years and 2 weeks. We’ve lived together for about 4 of those years. Somehow, despite having different standards for a relationship than you prefer for yourself, we’ve managed to exist on our own terms. Almost like we’re different people who aren’t you. I know, it’s shocking that those exist without your express permission.
Brag report, Poly marriage with major partner for thirteen years. Several other partners have come and gone as need for there life circumstance, but my core partner has been with me with those reality’s from day one.
Hope your love is fullest it can be.
Hell yeah, that sounds like you’re livin’ your lives by the only rules that matter: Yours.
It’s not about entitlement it’s about respect. Simple as that I think you’re getting the two confused.
I think it is you who confuse entitlement and respect. It is not disrespect to not consider ones needs, its life. Perhaps not being aware or at worst thoughtless.
You are conflating respect to be broken or not given if you don’t give what your entitled to. which is nothing you are entitled to nothing.
Again I think it’s just common courtesy in a relationship to let your partner know that you are safe and not putting yourself in harmful situations. So if someone is a drug user and they’re willfully putting their lives in danger by doing drugs their partners has no right to know about that because they’re not entitled to know about that? So what’s the point of even having intimate relationships with people that go beyond friendships? How would you define an intimate relationship where you’re calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend? You don’t think that comes with certain privileges being someone’s partner? I’m generally curious how you define being in a relationship with someone.
Your later replay is littered with assumed normals and more authoritarian toxic bull.
Common curtesy, normal behavior, all fictional manufactured consent to justify being judgmental.
Soooooo glad I’m married to not you.
Same can be said to you if you don’t know how to act in a relationship that your supposedly in love with as person. You also avoid my question. So I guess to you doing dangerous things in a relationship that would be harmful to you is perfectly fine to keep that information from your romantic partner. That’s a yikes from me. Sorry if you think I’m toxic because it’s important to me that my partner is safe and isn’t in harm’s way. Guess that’s a crazy thing to want in a relationship 🥴
Ah yes dismis opposition that you hear becuse “you must be bad.”
You i pity any one trying to date your manipulative langued ass. you twist others words to make your point and cast other as villans to your judgment. its gross.
Because I didn’t say your toxic for worrying about your partners safety. That’s your self tailored lie mostly for your own ability to dismiss what i said to cast doubt for self.
What I did say is you are toxic because you think its disrespect to not remember to loop the other in. you judge them as bade for not predicting your wants correctly. That’s toxic as fuck. Controlling, judgmental, and manipulative.
You’re really reading way too deeply into this. All I said was Joyce wasn’t being a good girlfriend for not letting Joe know where she is and you turned it into a bigger issue. Now you are attacking me personally when you know nothing about me in real life. You have no idea my relationship history or what I have been through yet your attacking me. I am coming from this with real world experience just FYI. I’ve been in a number of protest including the Occupy Wall Street protests. Each time the person I was dating at the time knew was I was and kept tabs on me to make sure I was safe and could be easily accessed if I needed help. But go ahead and tell me about my personal life and the people in it
Nice.
Misogynist troll.
Defeatist know-it-all with no respect for your fellow human
Name calling when you can’t defeated you mean spirited views. Very mature of you
Its what you are, you deserve no other reply.
Yes I’ll totally put weight into what you say as someone who knows nothing about me and never talked to me before today. You’re options about me matter so much

Then you obviously shouldn’t need to rebut it. No one needs to be convinced that I’m wrong, but yourself.
So I can see that’s who you are and don’t care that you know I think it or don’t give a damn of my thoughts. I do hope others can see I’m right about what I say. But what I say is not for you. But you do that heavy lifting twist your “logic” in the wind as hard as you can. You know I’m right. Its why you protest. Because you hate I’m right, and need to convince yourself I’m wrong.
Otherwise you wouldn’t say anything because you actually don’t need to convince the unknown audience I’m wrong. So reply more you’re just confirming the perception I affected.
You can hope all you want but your hopes have no impact on my life. I just said one simple statement about a fictional character and you totally went too deep into it and lost your mind over it. So much so you felt the need to personally attack me and continue to do so. That seems like something a deeply troubled person would do. I was just looking at this comic through my personal lense since I have been in a similar situation in my real life. But keep beating your chest on this is it makes you feel better or more important in so way. Again what you do has no effect on me or my personal life. Thanks goodness for that
reading comp fail.
I don’t hope you understand me. I know you wont and cant. Its your problem.
I hope “others” as in not you, understand me.
I don’t give a damn if your toxic ass wants me to drag you to understanding.
Not my job and I don’t care.
And as a aside nanay nanay bobo you stink at reading.
I’m honestly just skimming what you’re saying cause that honestly how little I care about what you have been spouting off. It’s like know you’re doubling down because you know you can’t really defend what you said so you keep just repeating yourself. Like it’s kinda crazy you’re putting this much energy into a stranger on the internet all over my options on a fictional character. Like that’s pretty wild to me not going to lie. It really just enjoy being a know-it-all I think even when you’re wrong. But that’s doesn’t surprise me a lot of people don’t know what accountability is anymore
I’m not a fan of Misogyny trolling trying to normalize misogyny.
It’s even crazier you’re calling someone you don’t even know a misogynist. Especially considering I’m a bisexual/biracial cis woman. It’s really giving projection at this point. Also pretty wild I’m trolling when you’re the one in arms on MY original post. You’re the troll here sorry to break it to you…… Next are you going to tell me what my living situation and employment status is? How about what kind of disabilities I have is any? Since you know me so well I guess you really depend dives into my life busy from these free comments. How impressive really
You can be a misogynist as a woman.
They’re judging by your comments, there’s no need to know you as a person if you’re showing a certain behavior.
You’re playing victim, but acting like a troll. If you don’t want to be called one, maybe act different, just a thought.
I literally said one thing about Joyce not being a great girlfriend and everyone else is losing their minds about it. How does that make me a troll when I haven’t been rude to anyone? Also no one had to comment on my original post that was my OPINION. I guess it’s a crime now to voice your opinions about fictional characters on a web comic you’ve been enjoying for over a decade now. Congratulations also in basing all your impressions on somebody with only knowledge you seen from a few comments on a web comic. Really seems something reasonable people do……
And the trade off to Nymph.
Also there is nothing objectionable to disliking misogynist trolling.
Only a misogynist troll would object to me disliking misogynist trolling.
A truly cleaver troll might say “I agree misogynist trolling sucks. because I’m not one.” but nope you just objected to me saying I don’t like misogynist trolling and assumed you would be described by that statement.
my statement “I don’t like misogynist trolling.” can be seen as bait, like unto misogynist says what?
I hardly ever comment and this is the reason why. You hardly can say anything without people jumping down your throat especially if it’s a personal opinion now apparently. Congratulations everybody for making this wonderful webcomic fandom so toxic. You’re not making any of us look bad at all
You’re repeatingly calling me a misogynist does not make me a misogynist. Again your words have no weight on my personal life or what my life viewpoints are. You can keep calling me a misogynist until you’re blue in the face doesn’t make it true. Again just seems like you’re doing a lot of projection at this point. Or you’re just lonely and looking for a confrontation. Either way it’s pretty gross at this point……
No one lost their minds. They disagreed with you.
You’re being very rude actually.
It’s obviously not a crime to voice your opinion, that’s very dramatic. People just disagreed with you.
People base their opinions of other people on the interactions they’ve had. I’m sorry you don’t like what your actions say about you, but that’s not a me problem.
I’m not sure if you know that you’re spinning out right now, but I want to point it out to you so you can take a walk or something to regulate your feelings.
Well your right there. Calling you a misogynist doesn’t make you a misogynist.
Your choice of words framing and statements are what identifies your misogyny not that its the totality of your person but you obviously got some or you wouldn’t have said the things you said or thought the statement “I dislike misogyny trolling” is the same as “you are a misogynist.” you assumed it was as you thing. You assumed it was because you feel it describes you. each comment is just more proof of such and more trolling. I’m playing convo mostly.
oh what makes you a troll is the victim playing and repeated “need” to provoke to drive replies you want. and honestly your dismissal and angers mostly about that I’d bet that and being called out for what you where doing.
That’s why I’m not trying to convince you just call out what you did here.
its gross and should be pointed at and then dismissed. I’m just kind of wondering how many times your going to prove my point?
If defending myself for being personally attacked and called a misogynist when in fact you people know nothing about my personal life or anything about me for that matter then that’s a really sad viewpoint to have. I consider it super rude that I’m being attacked because I was taking Joe’s feelings into account. A lot of people call this fandom toxic and have a lot of bad things to say about it I fully get it now. My original comment was literally a few sentences and everybody had to take it so personally and to such a deep level. It’s like you get off with making people feel bad. Sorry I’m not just going to sit by while my personal character is attacked. I have a right as anyone else to voice my opinions without being harassed for it.
Annarchy you really can’t just admit you’re attacking me and harassing me now because I don’t agree with your viewpoint. Me not agreeing with you does not make me a misogynist. You have no right to call people stuff when you have no information about their personal lives. You have no idea my experience or life situation is. But you want to know everything so bad that even when you’re wrong you just have to keep doubling down and spew toxicity. Plus you just keep going which doesn’t make your case look great. I can honestly I’m not even going to read your whole comments because you’re thinking is just delusional at this point. It’s crazy how you can form opinions on someone you don’t even know.
Again. No one needs to know your personal life to call out your current behavior. That’s just how humans operate, and I think you know that.
You were disagreed with. Not attacked. This is a public comments section, people are going to have opinions about your opinions. I’m not sure what you want here.
No one said you shouldn’t voice your opinion, but no, you actually don’t have the right to control the responses of other people. If you feel like their comments break the rules you should report them. Otherwise, your public comments are open for public replies.
I’ve explained everything, I think. Let me know if you have any other questions.
So me being called names is not a personal attack? So I should just sit by while being called a misogynist simply because I voiced an option that was different? You all exhibiting bad behavior then trying to justify it and backtrack does not mean you didn’t exhibit that bad behavior in the first place. Again I never called anybody names or personally attack anyone yet I’m the bad guy in this situation. That’s pretty wild to me this whole thread is getting pretty really insane.You all want to feel so superior that cutting other people down means nothing to any of you anymore.
ok ill try and walk you through it.
Racism is systemic. Racists are persons devoted to racism ideologically. But every one has been taught racist things and accepted untruths that are racist. Some times we even do racist things and can be racists without being only a racist. So having a racist comment if your not trolling would have a reply like “oh hey that could be seen as racist I didn’t think of that.” no judgment or rebuttal just oh i see you see or feel that.
So
Misogyny is systemic part of patriarchy. Misogynists are persons devoted to Misogyny ideologically. But every one has been taught Misogynistic things and accepted untruths that are Misogynistic. Some times we even do Misogynistic things and can be Misogynist without being only a Misogynist. So having a Misogynistic comment if your not trolling would have a reply like “oh hey that could be seen as Misogynistic I didn’t think of that.” no judgment or rebuttal just “oh i see you see or feel that.”
But nope that is not your reply’s. Just more provoke comments play politeness troll. Again arguing for “don’t judge my Misogynistic comment, I’m not a misogynist.”
Is this shit still going? Good grief.
You called people the following things:
Rude, dramatic, toxic, defeatist know-it-all with no respect, deeply troubled, crazy, implied unreasonable, lonely, gross, delusional, and questioned the validity of their relationships and implied they didn’t love their partners because they disagreed with you about how relationships work.
Having someone tell you that a viewpoint you’ve expressed is a misogynistic one isn’t name calling. There is nothing wrong with people calling out misogyny, and again I’m sorry your actions aren’t coming across the way you want them to.
I’m not cutting you down, or behaving badly. I’m talking very calmly to you, I just don’t agree with your points. Which seems to really spin you up for some reason. Report the comments you think are rule-breaking, otherwise accept that people have agency, might disagree with you, and might tell you that your opinions have a bias you don’t like hearing about.
You aren’t going to get whatever you’re trying to get out of this. No one is going to say sorry for disagreeing with you.
Annarchy you perceiving that I am uneducated and don’t know about what either misogyny or racism is actually speaks to how prejudiced you are. Which by the way neither of those subjects have anything to do with my original comment and again you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Seems like the bigot is really you.
Nymph again so essentially you’re saying you all can attack me and when I try to defend myself and give that bad energy back to you then you have a right to personally attack my life and call me a misogynist? Please make it make sense because you’re just essentially trying to gaslight me into thinking my opinion is wrong. If you’re going to act like a rude toxic person I’m going to call that out.
None of you could even have a civil conversation about this subject without turning it into something twisted and dark.
Go wash your fucking laundry.
“So essentially”
No, I’m saying what I said. You rephrasing it into something else is just silly and doesn’t work.
No one is attacking your life, but yes people have a right to call you a misogynist. Of course they do, why wouldn’t they?
I don’t care if you think your original opinion is right or wrong, I’m not gaslighting, just explaining. I think your original opinion is wrong, sure, but that’s just called disagreeing. Nothing wrong with that.
And I don’t care if you call it out, I’m just pointing out that you saying “I never called anybody names or personally attack anyone yet I’m the bad guy in this situation” is incorrect. You called people lots of names and personally attacked several people. Which you’re free to do, just not without people reacting to it.
It’s common sense
I have no claims to your education. Racism is the handiest present analogy. Most people already get the Racism example. But my not fully realize the same is identically true of Misogyny. Or see its untruths readily.
So I spelled it out that I called what you where doing misogynist trolling and said I dislike misogynistic tolling.
You said those comment’s described you as a misogynist. I haven’t made any claim you as a person are bad just currently what id call toxic to date and although you likely have rich relationships ahead you do have some internal misogyny. Unless you are fundamentally just a troll who is explicitly misogynist and just using foe upset concern trolling. Which I’m which leaning toward perhaps true?
Nymph so do you really call people pedophiles and Nazis based on no knowledge of them simply because you can call them that? It’s common sense not to be rude to people and call them names based on no facts about their actual life or belief system. What your gaslighting me about is you’re trying to frame your harassment/bully as logical and justified. I’m not going to be personally attack then just sit back and let it happen. If someone wants to call names does it mean they get to make up fictional justifications for it based on internet comments. You don’t want to admit how toxic this fandom is and that you yourself is the reason for its toxicity.
Wipe up the sauce you left on the stovetop.
Annarchy you fact spewing at me because you assume what my educational background is actually incredibly rude of you
Put your shirts on hangers.
I do if they say something pedophilic or that aligns with being a Nazi, yes. I don’t need to know someone to be able to judge their actions.
I also haven’t called you a misogynist. I’ve explained that others are allowed to, and explained that women can be misogynistic. That’s all. I disagree with your original opinion, and I’ve kept any further discussion of it to zero.
“People are allowed to call you things” isn’t a fictional justification. It’s just reality. You’re trying to find new things to accuse me of and fight me on, moving the goalposts and pretending I’ve done you some great wrong… but I think the worst things I’ve called you were: silly and dramatic.
You are disproportionately upset about your relationship opinion sounding misogynistic to people. And, again, no one is going to apologize for that.
Nymph you’re the one that had absolutely nothing to do with this conversation other than to come in and stir the pot even further. You had nothing productive to add to this conversation as it obtains to my original post. You just have to keep going when you can simply stop and step away when this has never been any of your business to begin with frankly. But I’ve read your comments before over all these years of the comic and I know for a fact that you have just want to be confrontational. You only comment on things to rock the boat
Learn how to make a new meal from scratch.
I’m commenting on a public site with a public comments section. It being public is what made it my business as much as anyone else’s.
I can absolutely just step away and stop replying, but I won’t. You could also stop and step away, but you won’t. That’s showbiz, baby.
It’s nice to know you’re a fan, though. I honestly can’t think of another comment of yours I’ve ever read or I’d offer similar compliments.
Nymph exactly you’re using the fact that this is a public site to justify your rudeness and your opening provoking people. You won’t step away because you really do like adding to the toxicity of this fandom as much as you like to cry that you don’t. It really doesn’t surprise me that you’ve never noticed any of my comments before because you only are attracted to confrontation and negativity.
Here’s a recipe that’s perfect for you, if you enjoy noodles.
Oh Taffy you should have tasted this paneer egg butter curry we just ate. mmmmmmmmmmmm. Wife made it she’s so good at curry’s. Hope your day is going well. Who started this fire?
Oh, my day was great. Played some Final Fantasy 13 My girlfriend and I went to the carnival that comes around every year. Split some tacos, had some fries, she won a couple prizes at the balloon pop game, then we hopped on the Cobra to scramble our guts.
See, this is what I meant when I said “You’re trying to find new things to accuse me of and fight me on, moving the goalposts and pretending I’ve done you some great wrong”.
You’re throwing a tantrum because you don’t like that people disagreed with your opinion, and you’re trying to provoke an angry outsized response from me because otherwise you’ll have to admit that you’re the one being confrontational, negative, and rude to people. It won’t work though, because I’m not angry.
And I’m not getting dragged into whatever fresh arguments you try to start.
You had a take that people disagreed with. Some people found that take to be misogynistic and said so. They’re as entitled to their opinions as you are, yes even if those opinions are unpleasant to hear. Yes, even if those opinions are about you.
It’s a super easy concept. Other people have autonomy, you’re not the boss of them.
Nice taffy. Nice.
Thanks you all for making this such a incredibly toxic space. Hope you all feel better about yourselves and got what you wanted out of this interaction. You don’t give this webcomic and fandom a bad name at all
Nymph the tantrum is to get comments to talk to them.
likely lonely angry.
Sailor you think anyone cares about the imagined reputation of the comments section under a web comic? Do you often care really hard about the perceived positions that reinforce your accepted manufacturing of consensus? Do you need an echo chamber?
Anarchy, that’s fine. I don’t mind talking to them a while if they’re lonely.
Annarchy it’s people like you that causes cases like Mikayla Raines.
CAKES, WILL YOU STOP FOR FIVE GODDAMN SECONDS AND LOOK AT THE DELICIOUS NOODLE DISH???
Same just at this point likely better to say it openly. We are basically trying to help someone who is using negative attention and is so lonely they will decide to be an overt jerk to others to gather engagement.
Hey, I am going to stop replying to you now. If you’re threatening suicide over a comic strip comment section you need serious psychological help and I hope you have access to it.
I’m certain you’re still just trying to provoke an angry reaction, but I’m not willing to take the risk. Have a good night, feel better.
It does look good Taffy. But I’m a anorexic women who just ate I’m good for days……… none sarcastically living my problem and is good I ate great advice gravatar by the by.
So I move your hands? I write your comments and drive you?
Yo wait, that link is to the Bad Webcomics Wiki, which is basically Kiwifarms but for specifically comics. And you’re bringing up real-life suicide cases out of nowhere. Looking at those two things together, Cakes can’t be anything but a malicious troll. Sorry for feeding them.
Ah but why trolling? And in this instance lonely then mad I’d guess. Which lonely is hard I get it.
As shown here, she didn’t stop to tell anyone… she got charged up and was focused on her self-asigned mission. She’s rash in these situations sometimes, and it could be better for her to take more time to think things through. (But also I kind of love her “I will dive into danger to protect others” attitude, ill-advised though it may be.)
But I don’t think it’s a negative on her as a girlfriend in particular. I certainly don’t think Joe– who she’s been dating for about a week– has a RIGHT to know.
It’s absolutely not a reflection on Joyce as a girlfriend that she went somewhere without telling specifically Joe where she was going, no. It was absolutely an impulsive and rash decision, since she didn’t tell anyone at all, but that’s Joyce for ya. Girl thinks with her heart.
Also, who would she have told that wouldn’t have insisted on coming with?
Certainly not Joe. Definitely not Becky.
Maybe Sarah?
So your all put an intimate relationship between a girlfriend and boyfriend on the same level as a friendships? Like their is no difference between the two of them to you all? 🤨
YES
Like, situations vary. But I don’t think these “levels” of relationships are at all universal. A week long boyfriend might not even be on the level of really close friends.
Yeah, a week-long boyfriend would be on nowhere NEAR the same level as a long-term close friend for me. No chance.
It’s an interesting situation, because I think if she’d stopped long enough to let someone know, they might have delayed her with protest visiting advice or even just waiting on them to get dressed, so the flimsy baby fence might have already been up when she finally arrived. A series of plain coincidences allowed this setup, which is neat to observe.
Why are you all getting caught up with him having a right to know I never even said he had a right to know in my original comment. I just said Joyce should have told him simple as that. Why can’t any of you wrap you’re heads around this being a respect things? You should have a certain respect for you partner to let them know when you’re going to be in a bag situation.
But you did say it. If Joyce had been planning on what she’s doing for longer than it took to change clothes and get there, you might have a point (though I wouldn’t particularly say more of one with her relationship with Joe than her other close relationships).
I mean it takes 10 seconds to text your boyfriend and let him know what is happening. It’s not such a far reach to think it’s unreasonable for someone not to take just a moment to let someone you’re dating to let them know your willingly going into a dangerous situation. Don’t you think Joe is going to feel bad that he couldn’t do anything to help or protect Joyce? Why is no one taking Joe’s feelings into account? He already feels bad he couldn’t help Joyce before and now he’s helpless again. That going to hurt
General PSA:
If you’re American and you’re wondering why no one is doing anything — consider this your sign to get more involved in your community and local politics, because things are in fact being done by people, including but by no means exclusively by elected officials.
If you’re frustrated that so many Democratic Senators and Representatives are writing sternly worded letters or authoring tweets (or whatever other form of social media), please understand that they’re both raising awareness and getting their objections on record, which is important for a lot of reasons, but among them: building a legal case. It is in fact important to demonstrate that Trump & friends are doing what they’re doing knowingly and willfully. It also provides major media outlets with easy quotes, should they be interested in at least providing the appearance of neutrality.
(Also, positive engagement with their social media posts (instead of sneering at them for not just accepting that we’re all doomed and/or inciting mob violence) also goes at least some ways to showing the DNC that opposition to Trump is popular. Which is important, as traditional polls continue to fail to capture millennial and younger sentiment.)
Also? I was very much in the same position as some of you before this year! You can’t know what you don’t know! But now more than ever, we all need to understand how our government is supposed to work.
(And while it’s completely fair to be frustrated with the Democrats right now and they’ve made decisions I don’t agree with either, it’s silly to compare them to, like, Mitch McConnels under Obama: for most of Obama’s presidency, Republicans had control of the House, the Senate, or both. And not just a slim majority, either, but filibuster-proof majorities. These two things are not the same, and there just is not a lot the Democrats can do when they control 0 branches of government.)
Somehow every time the Democrats are the minority party in Congress, they’re completely incapable of doing anything to stop the Republican majority from doing terrible things. Yet when Democrats are the majority party, they are still too weak to undo the things Republicans did, and the Republican minority can use all sorts of technicalities to stop Democrats from doing what they promised the people they would do before an election. The reality is the Democrats are complicit in what’s going on, because the two parties are both working for the wealthy, and they don’t actually care about the people in this country.
This is pure bullshit. Neither party can completely stop the other, but both can slow things down and put brakes on. How much they can do that depends on the margins of control and what the other party is trying to do.
The problem is people on the left tend to focus only on the Democratic failures and the Republican successes – ignoring that Dems do get stuff done, even if getting it past Republican opposition means watering it down and that Dems are able to do the same when the GOP is power: some stuff gets through, but it’s not as bad as it could have been. That’s how politics works.
And it’s really obvious if you spend time out of the bubble and listen to what the right says about it all. It’s all an echo of this kind of thing, but from the other side.
Most of the drive for Project 2025 was from what they saw as the failures of Trump’s first term. The point was to do ever more through executive action and rely on either Court support or the Courts being unable to undo things after the fact, rather than on legislation where Dems could fight it.
It’s almost like there are different ways of being “the minority party”, such as having control of both the House and the Senate and the Supreme Court but not having control of the presidency, which has been the state of the Republican Party since Trump’s victory handed them the Supreme Court, versus… having “control” of the Senate literally only because the Vice President casts tie-breaking votes, which is what was going on under Biden.
Idk, friend, I don’t think you’re as informed as you think you are.
Most establishment democrats think we’re still playing the game we were 10 years ago. We aren’t. What we are dealing with is the end of the 20th century neoliberal status quo, and the beginning of a new autocratic regime in the US.
I want my senator plotting assassination attempts, not building a legal case.
I’m gonna sue you for hijacking the government.
Do you think this is ancient Rome? Why would you want your senator plotting assassination attempts? That’s not their skill set. They’d be bad at it and they’re high profile so they’re likely to be caught and that’ll make everything even worse.
Let Senators do Senator things.
I was being hyperbolic, obviously. But I don’t want a senator who’s just going to keep following the rules until elections are cancelled and they get kicked out of the building by armed thugs.
They’re some of the most well-connected people in the world, and they have access to very deep pockets. They should fight dirty, however they can.
Okay.
Okay, so all Joyce and Dorothy need to do now is gently nudge that flimsy-ass fence over and casually walk home. It wouldn’t be difficult, and the only thing trapping them in is the suggestion they’re trapped and the walls can’t be moved, despite the walls being literally moved to get them there in the first place. So, as long as their brains continue to function properly, they can get away from this situation with ease and grace.
Being overdramatic much? I never said she needed a chaperone I just said it would be considerate if she let her boyfriend know that she’s putting herself into a dangerous situation especially because she seems to be prone to dangerous situations. What if she did get hurt and arrested without Joe having any idea of it? Wouldn’t that be worrisome to Joe? Just kind of seems rude to leave your partner high and dry. I don’t know I’m just coming from my 20 plus years of relationship experience. I wouldn’t want my partner in a dangerous situation without me knowing about it.
Wrong spot, champ.
Eh. I can reply here just as well, I suppose.
No, actually, I was not “being overdramatic”, I was being flippant and dismissive. The entire gist and tone of my reply was “He’ll be fine if he doesn’t know where she’s at for a bit.”, which is anything but dramatic.
I don’t know saying she needed a male chaperone seems pretty dramatic to me. I mean in a typical situation he would be fine not knowing where she was like if she’s going shopping or something. But she is literally putting herself in harm’s way by being at the protest which she’s aware that she’s doing this. It just comes off as disrespectful to me.
It was sarcasm bby.
They know that, they’re just acting up for attention.
As y’all are losing your minds because I said Joyce wasn’t being a good girlfriend haven’t forbid

Nope, that’s not what’s happening. You’re living in a fantasy.
That’s totally what’s happening it’s crazy how you guys get over comic strip charters
I’m bored with you now. Come back in a funny hat.
Never
K
You say you need a Man.
Fuck your patriarchy.
As my grandmother taught me to say in such situations. “Well, shit”
And this is when they discover the secret steam tunnel entrances that come up in Dunn Meadow.
My theory is that, if Dorothy and Joyce get arrested, their biggest concern (narratively) won’t be having to deal with cops. (They are young, blonde, white girls and will likely get treated the best, relatively speaking).
No… Their problem will be that their friends will figure out that Dorothy and Joyce, who have expressed feelings for each other, are now both nowhere to be found… and aren’t replying to texts. And someone will draw the wrong conclusion…
By the way, I say this as a blonde white lady… And I may no longer be young, but I do have a round face that makes me look younger. It’s like having plot armor (not all the time, but sometimes).