Daedalus, Author of Wonders

I've been beaten to this particular punch several times over, which I will blame on Slay the Spire and forgetting that not everyone is following Daedalus Aegle (which you should be.) His blog here is an incredible and insightful approach into the fandom's current embroilment.

And seriously, go follow him. His Star Swirl was blowing the canon one out of the water back when we didn't know more about the bearded wizard than his name and his love of bells.

(And yes, I dropped MtG Arena only to pick up another computer card game. I see no issue here.)

Comments

[UrsaMajor]

Deleted my comment because I thought you were making a joke — Daedalus is a boss in Monster Train, which has a lot in common with Slay the Spire. If you like Slay the Spire, you might want to check out Monster Train as well.

[Wydril]

That was a lot of navel-gazing tripe, honestly. Seriously, this part:

My goal is always to be on the side of the disenfranchised, not because I think they are better people or that their opinions are always factually correct but because I want to move in the right direction, towards a more just and fair world, and that is what that looks like.

"Even if 'they' are wrong I will support 'them' (but I'm cheekily not naming specifics!) because I want to virtue signal, the only right direction is against the existing structure because that way I get to portray myself as a champion of the underdog."

There's no 'victory condition' here, no clarification of what "a more just and fair world" is, no specific goal to accomplish or circumstances to reach. 'Employment figures perfectly match population demographics' is a goal, 'elected officials perfectly match population demographics' is another, but this guy just wants to constantly attack something, anything, for personal validation and a false sense of purpose.

I expected better from you, FanOfMostEverything.

[Chyre]

Yeah, I have to agree with Wydril on this one. Daedalus seems to think non-dominant cultures cannot be racist, which is fundamentally not true. Bigotry is a part of all cultures, not just the dominant ones. And one of the big issues in the current political moment is that the supposedly "anti-racist" crowd have become raging racists themselves, just in the opposite direction than it went historically.

[Daedalus Aegle]

Thanks for the kind words, and the boost. Good luck slaying the spire!

[FanOfMostEverything]

5303235
Thanks for the recommendation.

5303311 5303360
Feel free to direct these criticisms to the person who actually wrote the piece. As of writing this response, I'm noticing a marked absence of your comments on that blog. It's not that you don't have valid points; you just need to point those points where they'll actually be relevant and constructive for the purposes of debate.

[hawthornbunny]

5303311

this guy just wants to constantly attack something, anything, for personal validation and a false sense of purpose.

Why do you undermine your own valid criticism by pretending that you know the author's motivations? You can't possibly know that.

[Wydril]

5303390
Seeing as how he posted to this blog, he's already seen them. And seeing how I didn't know about this individual before reading your signal boost of him, I most likely wouldn't have read it without your endorsement of, and tacit agreement with, his own blog. And you can already see the state of comments in that blog itself; taking a look just now, there seems to be a witch-hunt going for "evil downvoters who are racist and nazis". Here's one such comment (with a nested quote):

What's with the down votes? Do you have people scouring FimFic just to find post of yours to hate on?

Would not surprise me. I have been vocal lately on the topics of Nazis, racism, and bigotry. More likely that someone following Daedalus downvoted me for highlighting the part of the blog that was very clear and direct.

You can't possibly expect that any kind of actual conversation or debate can take place on that blog, especially when marcelojj posted that letter about the acceptable types of discourse:

While we have come to expect this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture: an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.

And the author of that blog posted a response about how his social-circle's generally-perceived reaction to that letter was highly negative. If that's not poisoning the well for any possible discussion that doesn't turn into shouts of "Nazi! Nazi!" (well, further shouts) then I'll eat my hat. There was zero chance of that blog having any relevant or constructive debate, and that is the author of that blog's implicit intent. Of course, having read this deconstruction of it, perhaps he will rein in the overly-zealous commenters.
5303391
By analyzing his words. He doesn't have an end-state or goals that he wants to reach, as I pointed out. "Justice for this ethnicity, comeuppance for that marginalized group, reforms for that police force over there", nothing of the sort. He just wants to constantly be fighting, and by constantly fighting for "the disenfranchised" he gets a nice feeling of self-righteousness and noble purpose, whether or not either are real or justified and regardless of whether his efforts help or hinder them.

It's a pattern we've seen play out many times. If you would like a specific example, look at modern third-wave feminism. Does anyone actually believe that they're "fighting" for equality any more? The answer is a resounding no, and this is backed up by multiple studies across numerous groups, most notably people who no longer self-identify as feminists. Modern third-wave feminists don't have a specific goal, they don't have an end-state to reach and say, "Okay, good. As long as it stays this way then everything is fine, and we don't have to work to change anything else." Instead the ones still bearing that standard are constantly and completely on full-throttle offensive, treating any possible imagined slight in any possible form as if women were being dragged into town square and stoned. Scientist lands a probe on a comet and is wearing a shirt that a female friend of his gave him? OUTRAGE! The new Ghostbusters movie does poorly in theaters? MISOGYNY IS RAMPANT! A new video game has a male main character? FROTHING RAGE, especially since games like the Metroid series, Perfect Dark, Bayonetta, etc. don't exist!

It is a cycle that people fall into where they seek validation and approval from the act of fighting itself, rather than fighting for a specific outcome.

[Thought Prism]

I feel like this was my fault. Sorry?

[FanOfMostEverything]

5303409
No need to apologize that I can see. Dipping one's toes into more political waters comes with the risk of piranha.

[hawthornbunny]

5303403

It is a cycle that people fall into where they seek validation and approval from the act of fighting itself, rather than fighting for a specific outcome.

I agree that such a cycle exists and that people can fall into it. However, you seem to have insight into the very specific personal motivations of someone you admit to knowing nothing about, which is impossible. You say he's doing it for personal validation; how do you know that? You say he's doing it for a false sense of purpose; how do you know that? You say he's doing it out of a sense of self-righteousness and noble purpose; how do you know that? How could you know that? Are you his mom?

[Thought Prism]

5303420
No, I meant mentioning Slay the Spire in front of you, LOL.

[Wydril]

5303442
No, it is not in the least bit impossible to ascertain someone's motivations from their statements and actions, especially when they directly and explicitly state them. You seem to be taking this rather personally, and the "Are you his mom?" bit is childish.

[Dustcan]

Okay but we also knew Starswirl was a hairy potter at the same time we knew he loved bells.

[Wydril]

5303390
Oh look, constructive debate is now impossible.

Sigh. You know what, screw it. I let myself get roped into tolerating the racism and right-wing talking points too long. Blocked.

Man, if only someone could have predicted that happening. This is why I expected better of you FoME, you signal boosted a closed-minded echo chamber and it was pretty obvious from the start.

Edit: I am shocked and appalled. Well, not that shocked, but still appalled:

Here's another bigoted POS you ought to block... just about everyone else has: