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Mom's New Apartment.

May's Employment Attempts.

Relationship Issues (take your pick as to whom)

Hanners and her HAAAAAAATTT!!!!

The Band!

Harriet officially joins the cast (with her pet bird YB)

Insert Meme Here (space ham, space tea, waffles, etc.)

Something completely different.

[DSL]

Suppose, just suppose, Dale is trying to get May to think she and the salesperson have something in common -- perception of self-powerlessness to change things --and to empathize, not feel shame. If you can empathize, you can seek common cause. Or at least figure out who is your enemy and who is not, rather than simply assuming everyone is.

EDIT: And also to not expect everyone else (the salesperson, in this case) to fight your battles for you.

I have a little bet with myself ...

[Sidhekin]

Yeah, I agree. I'd also argue being an ex-con puts her in a rougher position than someone who just quits a job because of illegal workforce discrimination.

... and how do you know that this someone is not also an ex-con?

Don't judge someone until you've at least seen their shoes ...

[Smallest]

They have no voice at all to me, and I'm really not sure why.

I'm that way with some of them. There are also a few whose appearance and demeanor reminds me of people I know, but those wouldn't make sense to anyone else who didn't know those people, or at least how they sounded.

Come to think of it, one of the things I dislike is when I see a movie of a book I've read and nobody sounds like they did to my mind's ear.

Most of them have voices for me, but as soon as I stop reading them I don't remember what that was anymore.

[Thrillho]

Is that not a tad hypocritical?

[Smallest]

I'm assuming the hypocritical comment wasn't toward me, since I was offtopic and forgetting something isn't really hypocritical.

On May: I initially found her quite annoying ('really? we needed yelling bird in comic?'), but I don't see why some people think she's truly, never-associate-with, awful. She swears a lot, but she hasn't really been outrightly mean to anyone- less so than Faye, and while that's not really fair since Faye was awful at points,I wouldn't really consider May outrightly mean ever. She pushes people a bit, and obviously with the tits thing she's rude, but when contested she backs down pretty much immediately. She's doesn't really fight or anything (even verbally), she just tests people- which isn't a great thing, but I think everyone does that, in different ways. And she's pretty much only been testing people she's in close contact with (Dale, Marigold, Momo)- the reaction to the jerk boss was understandable and while rude, she didn't pick a fight with the second shoplady (Raventai).

Also, Marten should reply with a friendship offering to Sam. This is mandatory according to the social protocol database. Maybe his old guitar?

He traded in his Telecaster to get his new guitar.
Also, how does Sam hold on to frogs for so long? I'm impressed. They usually hop right out of my hands!

By holding them under their armpits like that. Also, the big ones are usually a bit more sluggish, or so I've learned from the invasive American Bullfrog here, which I'm assuming is what she has since that is america.

[Neko_Ali]

I really don't see that Dale was trying to shame May. Rather he was trying to point out to her that the clerk was in just as untenable position. Putting up with something she didn't like because she was afraid if she spoke up she could lose her job. For most people, especially in this economy, losing a job is a major difficulty, with no guarantee that a new one will be coming any time soon.

[Thrillho]

I was responding to Valdis, didn't realise there was another page.

[FunkyTuba]

...I just wanted to use that picture of Dennis.

fair enough 

[Valdís]

Is that not a tad hypocritical?

For something to be hypocritical then it would have to be applied differently in the same situation. But it is NOT the same situation.

People who are targeted by oppression are not in the same situation as the ones enabling it. "I was just following orders" is not an excuse, even if it's a shitty position for them to be in as well (though not remotely as shitty).

I'm not saying it's an easy call for her or many other people complicit in any number of oppressions, but that doesn't mean she -isn't- complicit. Nor does it mean that the marginalized group aren't the ones hurt by her calculated inaction while she only benefits. There is no such thing as oppressor classes just "keeping their heads down" in the same way in which the oppressed try to minimize that oppression's impact on them.

Hm. I'll say something not-intended-to-be-analogous-(and isn't), more-so to get the power differential across. Say the two of us are hanging out together while I'm visiting you over in England or something, and one of your friends makes a transmisogynistic 'joke' because I'm there. Would you say it'd be hypocritical to consider you more responsible for dealing with that than me - as failing to do so would be a tacit endorsement of his behaviour (and you're the link between me and the main-asshole)? Or perhaps that my shying away from dealing with said transmisogynist for self-care is not equivalent to your not wanting things to be awkward with that friend?

(The additional power imbalance at play in the situation at hand is, however, also that she's economically marginalized relative to the boss, but people with all kinds of marginalizations uphold all kinds of oppressions all the time. And one does not cancel out the other. 'Understandable' is not the same as 'Not complicit'.)

[Kugai]

Lightbulb moment.

[Thrillho]

I can't argue with the definition of the word 'complicit.' But standing up for my friends in the face of prejudiced arseholes - which, by the way, I have done for my entire life - doesn't risk me failing to pay rent.

[Zwammy]

So - is Dale a fan of Magical Love Gentleman and wears a shirt proclaiming his love of the show, or did he buy and wear the shirt to win points with Marigold and get her excited, or did Marigold own it and puppy-eye him into wearing it and he is whipped enough to do it?

[Neko_Ali]

I think he's a fan of the show. Wasn't there a poster for it behind him during old scenes at his computer when he was WoW-stalking Marigold?

[Perfectly Reasonable]

Looking good, May! (Orange is so not your color.)

[jmucchiello]

Lightbulb moment.

A little more like a sudden abend and cleanup process trying to fix some minor damage to existing thought processes.

[T]

Looking good, May! (Orange is so not your color.)

Have Jeff ever joked about a character being naked waist down but nobody notices since it doesn't show in the comic?

[Method of Madness]

Looking good, May! (Orange is so not your color.)

Have Jeph ever joked about a character being naked waist down but nobody notices since it doesn't show in the comic?

Station, but they did notice it and it was shown in the comic, if memory serves.

[ankhtahr]

It was actually Spaceship.

[KOK]

I think he's a fan of the show. Wasn't there a poster for it behind him during old scenes at his computer when he was WoW-stalking Marigold?

He has several manga or anime posters, but none of MLG.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2359

[pwhodges]

Dale owns the entire MLG manga - see this news post.

[Redball]

Have Jeff ever joked about a character being naked waist down but nobody notices since it doesn't show in the comic?

Notice the Public Spelling Announcement post in this section, third one down. The comic creator/forum owner spells his name Jeph, and so do we.

[Method of Madness]

It was actually Spaceship.

Ah yes, my mistake.

Hodgy, newsposts are more snarky comments than canonical statements, at least I think so. Either way, he clearly does have at least a shelf full, so it's safe to say he's a fan.

[Zwammy]

Either way, he clearly does have at least a shelf full, so it's safe to say he's a fan.

Indeed. Dale and Marigold will have to battle it out in MLG Trivia for prizes at the next Nrrdcon.

[willpell]

So am I the only one who wishes this week had concentrated entirely on May's quest to overcome robocism, and not randomly had Samantics in the middle?

[Method of Madness]

We're not all...

(click to show/hide)

anti-Samites

[Loki]

If Sam goes down into the spider-infested basement, does she get Samantic web all over herself?

[pwhodges]

How long did it take you to come up with that?!

[Loki]

...all of two minutes, I guess.

[Kugai]

Well, she's always up to some antics.

[ysth]

Looking good, May! (Orange is so not your color.)

Have Jeff ever joked about a character being naked waist down but nobody notices since it doesn't show in the comic?

Close: http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=800

[Schwungrad]

People who are targeted by oppression are not in the same situation as the ones enabling it. "I was just following orders" is not an excuse, even if it's a shitty position for them to be in as well (though not remotely as shitty).

However, if we are to believe May's own words, her reason for not standing up against robot oppression isn't being oppressed as a robot - it's being an ex-con. And I agree with Dale that "I can't stand up against robot oppression because I'm an ex-con" falls into the same category of excuse as "I can't stand up against robot oppression because I'm a low-wage employee with no job security".

[Ben]

I might just be missing something, being British and all but is the "Hemp Store" the hippy-clothing one? There are stalls at places like Cambridge Market and Camden Lock, so I could see one fitting right in among some of the background in QC.

[Method of Madness]

Pretty sure it's a medicinal weed dispensary. "Medicinal" used rather loosely.

[SuctionCup Caper Two]

Pretty sure it's a medicinal weed dispensary. "Medicinal" used rather loosely.

There are also stores that sell hemp-based product...  however I would be very suspect of one operating out of a van.  Even if it is a nice van.

[Ben]

Pretty sure it's a medicinal weed dispensary. "Medicinal" used rather loosely.

There are also stores that sell hemp-based product...  however I would be very suspect of one operating out of a van.  Even if it is a nice van.

I did wonder. Over here it us either 100% illegal or in a Holland, sold openly as marijuana under certain controlled circumstances

[Ben]

Interesting, if predictable discussion about rights and laws between Dale and May. May appears to be an intolerant, foul-mouthed individual with little grasp on responsibilities - nobody invited her to Dale's place, and she didn't go to Robot Jail for over-exercise of whatever passes for a conscience among AIs.

As someone else has already pointed out, the salesgirl is in an untenable position and standing up for May in that sense, could very well amount to  exercising May's rights at her own expense - because people aren't going to be queuing up to employ her with that on her CV.

That's overlooking the clash between legal compliance and freedom of conscience. Why SHOULD someone with nothing to gain and much to lose, be expected to take a position like that, on behalf of an ingrate like May?

Political correctness is, on many levels, a process by which one group in society imposes the rights of a second group on a third group, without providing any balancing mechanism and in the knowledge that the third group have no reciprocal rights

[Is it cold in here?]

>Why SHOULD someone with nothing to gain and much to lose, be expected to take a position like that, on behalf of an ingrate like May?

Because it's the ethical thing to do. It's also the legal thing to do.

[Thrillho]

Which may not be worth the risk.

[Is it cold in here?]

Not in that case perhaps, and I don't condemn the sales clerk for lacking extraordinary courage.

[Thrillho]

I know that she should report the manager but my issue is that would get an independent store shut down and so even doing the right thing will lose her her job.

[DSL]

When someone *does* show extraordinary ethics/intestinal fortitude/other good stuff, all you can do is appreciate and admire and hope s/he inspires. Hectoring someone into above-and-beyond -- well, it backfires sometimes. You've got to have demonstrated sufficient moral authority beforehand -- walked the walk -- to make that work.

Damn you, why aren't you awesome?