Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3656-3660 (15th to 19th January 2018)
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: SpanielBear on 18 Jan 2018, 09:51 ---
--- Quote from: JoeCovenant on 18 Jan 2018, 09:27 ---
--- 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.
--- End quote ---
If I take my laptop to a repair shop, they check it over and see it is just a broken battery, and tell me I need a new one, they would still charge me a consultation fee. It's them valuing their time and the fact that they provided a service I could not. And that's before I make them touch something of unknown provenance. I'd find $100 bucks expensive (and very weird as I live in the UK), but a flat £40 consultation fee (around $50 I think?) isn't unusual.
What's more, you keep saying exploited like Melon is a vulnerable adult without agency. We know she holds down a job (however creepy), can manage interpersonal relationships and decide whether something is of reasonable value to her (see her complaining about the $75 ass repair). She may not know what a sex toy is, but she isn't an absolute naif. Faye could have asked for Melon to give her less, but to say that she *had* to or else exploitation is essentially saying Melon is a child who needs protection, which is not something the strip has ever implied.
What's more more, Faye is utterly surrounded by wacky AI high-jinks(tm). In one week she may be expected to create a robo-dong, fix an ass, repair a fighting obsessed accountant's punching arm on daily basis and then diagnose an angry sex toy. Trying to impose logic was a lost cause about 3000 strips ago, now just rolling with the punches is how she gets through the day. She has learned that AI's are agents, but not necessarily human ones with human drives or decision making. So she doesn't question when they do things she finds weird, especially on the rare occasions it benefits her.
What's more more more... I got nothing. Rule of three.
--- End quote ---
Hmmm.. see, *I* think that what you just described to me above.. *is* exploitation...
(I don't see any correlation whatsoever in checking a laptop's battery with unscrewing the battery cap on a 'massage aid'.
And any business that charged a full hour's "consultation" fee for 10 seconds of work would soon lose a LOT of work.)
Don't get me wrong... there are always REALLY weird things in this strip about money.
(Remember the "consultation fee" that Clinton was basically menaced out of?)
But this one jarred, because Faye isn't like that...
Yes, it was a joke, but at detriment to character.
(Sorry, I'm all caught up in "story-telling" right now (you probably notice din the Star Wars thread... things like this are appearing like raw, open wounds to me just now!) :) )
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: traroth on 19 Jan 2018, 04:54 ---You wouldn't use someone else's toothbrush, after all...
--- End quote ---
But you also wouldn't charge someone $100 dollars to look at it for 10 seconds and tell them they needed new batteries in it.
traroth:
Just one more thing: Yeah, it is a shitty comparison, Faye...
traroth:
--- Quote from: JoeCovenant on 19 Jan 2018, 06:46 ---
--- Quote from: traroth on 19 Jan 2018, 04:54 ---You wouldn't use someone else's toothbrush, after all...
--- End quote ---
But you also wouldn't charge someone $100 dollars to look at it for 10 seconds and tell them they needed new batteries in it.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, for that price, I would at least expect the new batteries to be provided! :-D
Actually, my comment was related to the previous comment about germs...
JoeCovenant:
--- Quote from: brasca on 18 Jan 2018, 11:19 ---The impression I get from a lot of people on this board is the only way to avoid ever hurting someone’s feelings is to avoid interaction altogether. :roll:
--- End quote ---
The discussion about this , I am sure, could garner it's own thread.
Suffice it to say that on the whole, I agree.
But not because of "the people on this board"... it just seems to be the way the human race is looking right now.
"The Offended" have never been so quick to play "The Victim" card.
And, touchy subject though it may be, the insidious "New Puritanism" is also a part of this Mega Offense Offensive that seems to be en vogue at the moment.
Few people actively go out of their way to deliberately offend people, unless they are media shills touting for the outrage dollar (Hi Katie! Got another job yet!?) but it's almost getting to the point where having ANY opinion which differs from ANYONE else's is being viewed as a slur...
(Case in point? Tova directed me to an article about the new Star Wars movie. Those who dislike it are explaining why (for the most part) intelligently and with reasonable debate... And those who like the movie are adding the words "these Fanboy" into their responses... which serves only as an attempt to undermine the actual meat of the argument as something trivial. (As if ANY side of such a debate ISN'T! Ultimately it's only a bloody movie... but that's speaking from a point of SOLID logic and ignoring any culture around it))
The culture of casual insult has seen the birth of a culture of constant offense.
I dunno what the answer to it is other than to scrutinise every single word and parse ever single sentence you may speak before you ever do so.
And that way leads both madness and a lessening of the human race.
Do we need offense? No, but we DO need to stop LOOKING for it... because if you are looking for offense in every interaction you make... you WILL find it.)
NB: And, now to ensure YOU don't take offense, I add this at the end to remind readers that the *you* at the end of my sentence is generic...
(See what I mean!) :)
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