Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3656-3660 (15th to 19th January 2018)

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SpanielBear:

--- Quote from: JoeCovenant on 18 Jan 2018, 02:40 ---
--- Quote from: Milayna on 17 Jan 2018, 22:02 ---...And I see nothing wrong with Faye taking the money that Melon offered. I don't understand how people are saying that Faye "took advantage" of Melon - to what length is one supposed to go to to refuse a freely-offered benefit to prove themselves "not a terrible person"?
--- End quote ---

That's an easy one.
"Is $100 Dollars enough?"
"Nah, that's WAY too much... gimme a $20."

(And even *that* would exploitation)

Faye's reaction showed quite clearly that she KNEW Melon had no idea how much she should be offering.
But she still took the money.

However... as someone stated above - this may well be an indication that Faye isn't doing too well financially - IE casting aside her moral compass to keep the cash she sorely needs, from someone who doesn't "know the value"... but it doesn't make it any less exploitative.

--- End quote ---

This is something I only just noticed/thought of, but given the disagreement it's worth mentioning- when Melon first brought in the free-range sex toy, it was buzzing and Amanda described it as 'angry'. This at least means it already had batteries in it, and may mean it was broken. Given it seems to have been, uh, pacified by the next comic, that means that Faye would have:

- handled a strange sex toy found on the street
- maybe fixed any mechanical faults
- worked out how it functioned (I.e how to turn the damn thing off) and shown Melon how to do so.
 
Given the above, and *especially* point one because even with gloves that's pretty squicky, she has actually earned a wage there. Her confused reaction to Melon offering $100 could be because she feels that's a lot, but she's gonna take it because a) small business and b) she did work for a customer.

That's supposition on my part, I accept, but it does seem to fit with what we're shown

fayelovesbubbles:
My reaction to Evie's behavior is WANTING to punch her. I wouldn't actually punch her if she was a real person, but I would definitely tell her that what she's saying is not cool.

She has a very bad case of campus brain. And her being a black, gay woman is perfect because it does show that yes, even oppressed minorities can be shitty to others. Being a half black, mixed race pansexual woman myself, I think I can safely say there's no need for Evie to act like this. I do think she's so soaked in the echo chamber of academia that she forgets basic manners. I started to rage when Bubbles CLEARLY told her she was being offensive by comparing AIs to nuclear weapons, then Evie backpedaled. No apology, just "that's fair, it's an offensive comparison, BUT I meant OTHER people think that." I'm sure Bubbles is already perfectly aware that ignorant people make that comparison, Evie is just talking out her ass at that point. The correct response would be "I'm sorry. I did not at all mean to draw a comparison like that, I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I just got so caught up talking about my research." She seems not to understand that Bubbles is a PERSON.

For me the last straw was when Bubbles said "my life isn't a case study" and Evie was like "I KNOW, right? My friend is studying me studying robots." Just the sheer obliviousness...ugh.

A few things:

Evie has been annoying in other ways besides how disgustingly rude she was to Bubbles. From the time she appeared I just knew she was going to be shitty. You know when you meet someone and you just KNOW, like "Ugh, this one is going to be a problem"?

Faye at this point is unaware of the conversation that took place between Evie and Bubbles. When she finds out what Evie said there will definitely be consequences for Evie. Faye is around AIs all the time and has a real understanding of the bullshit they put up with. Evie is going to go on her shit list pretty fast. This goes double because of how Evie has treated her friend.

Evie is not winning any points with her potential future sister in law.

Is it cold in here?:
The horse on the dining room table here is that until a few years ago AnthroPCs were treated as pets at best, property at worst.

Evie knows that.

So why claim that AIs don't carry the persecution baggage that other minority groups carry?

I can see why someone might want to fool themselves on the subject but that's a really inappropriate thing for a researcher to do.

JoeCovenant:

--- Quote from: SpanielBear on 18 Jan 2018, 07:45 ---Her confused reaction to Melon offering $100 could be because she feels that's a lot, but she's gonna take it because a) small business and b) she did work for a customer.

That's supposition on my part, I accept, but it does seem to fit with what we're shown

--- End quote ---

Quite apart from the fact that Faye's reaction (I would not remotely call it "confusion") came from the fact that she KNEW being offered $100 for turning off a battery powered... 'massage device'... was utterly insane...  (By the sounds of things she didn't even give her new batteries. ("It NEEDS new batteries", not,  "It only needed new batteries")

$100 for a 30 second 'fix'? Nah, Faye was *wrong* to take it.

And the important part is not that the $100 was offered. It's that it was offered with the words "Is that a good amount to offer you?"
Faye, instead of saying "Whoa! Dude! That's like WAY too much!", saw the cash and answered in a literal sense that it "was" a "good amount" to give to her, because $100 is a good amount of money. That was what her reaction was.

But she knew she was exploiting Melon... that is undeniable.
And that's what is jarring when we look at Faye's character.

As has been mentioned above, if that little nugget got out, the business would collapse screaming.
And it really seems out-of-character for Faye to rip someone off like that... that's all.

rtmq0227:
I think we're getting caught up in the Melon panels here with regards to Bubbles reaction.  I reserve the right to be dead wrong, but here are my thoughts:

Historically, when someone in QC is aware of a conversation, but not part of it, there is at least one frame showing that they are paying attention, especially with regards to Bubbles.  As another note, if Bubbles was concerned that Faye was taking advantage of an AI or harming their business, she would speak up.  We have seen her unafraid to do so with regards to UR.  What Bubbles seems to have trouble with (historically) is speaking up for and defending her personhood to strangers, especially when they are discussing facets of her identity.

Given the framing of these panels, Bubbles behavior in the past, and to be honest the general vibe I got, she is reacting poorly to Evie's seeming inability to recognize and respect her discomfort.

As an IT professional, a lesson you learn repeatedly that real experiences should never be trivialized.  If someone is describing an experience/issue, responding with "Okay, but here's why that's wrong" is not helpful to either party.  You don't learn anything by rejecting their experience, and they're certainly not better helped by your rejecting their reality.

I do reserve the right to be totally wrong about the outcome tho.

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