OP's POOOOOST

Upfront, let's get one thing out of the way quickly. Yes, I am aware that Astro is referred to using masculine pronouns in official materials. Someone or something can be an icon to a group whether or not they're part of it. You're probably well aware that Judy Garland was an icon to gay men and you're also probably well aware that Judy Garland wasn't a gay man.

Now, if you were coming into this thread to tell me 'well actually on the press release it says…' or if the suggestion that Astro is non-binary made you feel any discomfort or annoyance, I want you to keep that reaction in mind as we explore further, because I think there's something important to unpick there.

There's a popular way of analyzing art broadly referred to as 'the artist is dead'. You're likely familiar with it, but incase you aren't I will briefly explain it. Art should be able to be appreciated by itself. As such we shouldn't need to know what the artist intended their art to convey. Pretend that the artist died before they could talk about the work, and approach it from that perspective.

It was the intent when making Alien, that eggs were made from captured victims. There was a scene in the script where Dallas is found half turned into an egg, so they were designed with this in mind. That scene was filmed. Now, it didn't make the final cut… and when a different creative team came in to make Aliens, they completely changed the life cycle of the aliens from what was intended by the people who made Alien and who designed the creatures. The alien queen wouldn't exist if the creators of Aliens hadn't approached Alien from a perspective that 'the artist is dead'. Personally I think culture would be worse off without the fight between the alien queen and Ripley in the power loader and…

Astro Bot. This is about Astro Bot. Sorry.

Lets put aside everything other than what we know about Astro from within the fiction. Put aside things outside the fiction like tutorials, menus, credits, product descriptions, press releases etc.

Ignore your instinctual revulsion that his fictional character, a robot, is referred to with masculine pronouns, and remember that that the best media criticism is that which completely ignores anything to come to the conclusion I like . So we'll begin with ignoring all the fictional references to the character and the non-fictional representations of the fictional character... A healthy place for grounded media analysis.

Astro. Astro is a robot. There's no reason to presume that Astro's people reproduce sexually. Certainly no reason to presume that you need a boy robot and a girl robot to do some electric love in order to make baby robots, and that all of those baby robots should be a boy one or a girl one.

When we look at Astro, there aren't any obvious human gender characteristics. While some of Astros friends dress in male or female costumes, (and we'll get to that!) their bodies are uniform.

See?

So what do we have in Astro's case. Well Astro has some blue highlights the other bots don't. Blue=boy! I mean, it doesn't obviously. You could argue that it suggests that, but doesn't it seem like a bit of a stretch? If you aren't looking for reasons to put a robot into a gender binary would you find that compelling?

Given how little evidence we have that Astro has any physical characteristics suggesting male or female, the next thing we generally reach for would be to see whether or not Astro has any expression of gender. And… well Astro wears a cape and its blue!. Blue=BOYx2 QED!.

Again… that's it. Astro's expressions of identity demonstrate aren't stereotypically male or female, instead showing compassion and bravery and joy at belonging to a community. And what a community!

Astro's friends seem about evenly split between those that express a sense of gender and those that (like Astro) don't. I'm not sure if one group is bigger than the other, but certainly the plurality of robots express androgyny when compared to the groups that express masculinity and the group that express femininity.

Astro treats everyone equally, of course. Whether the bots belong to either of the minorities that express a male or female identity, they are still accepted. The fiction doesn't give me anything to suggest if these identities are chosen, or pre programmed from the moment they come online. Personally I believe they're chosen. That the wigs and costume items (and any custom gear or programming) are built by the robots as they choose to express their truths.

Even if androgyny isn't the default out of the box configuration, it remains the most common one.

And so I default to seeing Astro and a good chunk of the other robots as non-binary.

I think it's telling that we as humans tend to default to male pronouns when presented with a robot or alien race that doesn't have a gender binary. The Sontarans in Doctor Who for example. They're a clone race. One single gender. There are countless other examples I'm sure you can bring to mind.

Even when presented with a culture of robots where a plurality (if not a majority… I'm not going to do the math) present androgynously and only minorities present as masculine or feminine, why do we default to thinking Astro is a boy?

If you're one of the people who felt compelled to come in here and point to the 'fact' that Astro is referred to with he/him pronouns outside of the fiction, or who find an endeavor such as writing an essay on the gender identity of a robot in a video game annoying or frustrating, I really want you to try to reflect on why that upsets you. There are no genitals to check. No pronouns to ask for. No DNA test you can do. No gametes to measure. Because Astro is a robot.

If someone non-binary looks at all that and concludes that Astro is a non-binary icon, since they have an androgynous expression in a culture clearly accepting of masculine, feminine and androgynous gender expressions, and that has some value to them, what in any of that is cause for discomfort?

You can insert a computer code pun here if you want, I won't get offended. And thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

That's a lot of words to suggest that s*x-less robots, literal non-humans somehow also have the this guy's uniquely human concept of gender and gender expression... because they just do okay. How do the ERA philosophers react?

OP replies with

How does this make sense? Don't question it bigot

You didn't think about it because it's a game about being a cute robot thing and platforming and being a celebration of the Playstation Brand. Love how he calls it a fact at the end to validate the delusions

One person lets it slip that gender identity, especially NB, is a costume

Most reset-era tier replies. "I didn't play the game because I don't play games" & "TLDR, but I liked your title"

ANNNNND that's it. Thank you for coming to

where all the true g*mers gather

But it's ok because we know how to avoid the cattle cars and delousing now: just say no.

https://old.reddit.com/r/somethingiswrong2024/comments/1i8kt6h/comment/m8ujiwp/?context=8

I was actually going to post a large collection of replies to this thread and dives into the profiles of those who posted them but I'm too tired. But here's a pooner with obesity, a drug addiction, and a job at an Amazon warehouse:

https://old.reddit.com/r/somethingiswrong2024/comments/1i8kt6h/comment/m8urxfq/?context=8

Don't get me wrong, my life has improved greatly from transitioning, but I'm still having trouble with the simplest of things. I have a great deal of mental issues, I used to talk them out, but nobody wants to hear that shit anymore.

jeez I feel so unloved. If I felt like nobody cared about me before transition, well darn well ain't nobody care about me now.

Neighbor forgot how easy life was in female mode

It's a lot of "help yourself and shut up, do your work now and you can't ever be upset, if you cry you're not a man and if you get angry you're a threat."

Even the most effeminate gays hate a whiny gollum like creature

The stress is so much to me, I get to points where I'm just waiting to hit something. I can barely cry due to testosterone

Shoot up your elementary school, Audrey Hale

As long as I am upset, I will not rest and I need to do something about it, I can't just talk about it so I have to workout, which is difficult as is because I have fatigue issues and am paranoid about things lurking in the darkness of my basement

I feel like I'm growing increasingly more paranoid, stress and fatigue are driving me mad, the fact that no one cares drives me more mad.

But it would help if people at least showed some sympathy for me, I get their caught up in their own issues, they don't have to hear the whole story or give me advice just at least say like "that sucks". Idk man

COMMENTS

You might get your hormone levels checked. If fatigue, paranoia, and the detachment is out of the ordinary, if could be low testosterone plus mental health issues and stress.

That's it. Time to increase your T even more

It's true there's less social support for men than for women, but this sounds like there's something else going on. Hallucinating due to fatigue isn't a common experience for men.

OP: I did talk about the fatigue to my therapist, I've been going to the doctors to figure it out, they suspect it's due to low oxygen

Touch Grass

This is OP:

You think they pass for a teen boy but then you see her in a natural setting and yeesh

!chuds !nooticers

!Meowr !chads

Going to meet plant friends today!

!animalposters !cats

this is the natural conclusion of diversity politics. when you elevate foids and every other demographic to positions on the basis they are foids or whatever else, people become less trustworthy.

was this woman a competent pilot? probably, but it doesn't matter - diversity politics ruined any respect she might have.

i've been reading a lot of sirpings blogs and learning a lot from him, and I think he might be a genius.

https://bsky.app/profile/karaswisher.bsky.social

DOGE recommended firing workers at:-FDA, which oversees Neuralink-FAA, which oversees SpaceX-USAID, which probed Starlink-CFPB, which oversees Tesla's financing arm and a potential payment platform on X."Conflict of interest" is a severe understatement.

— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T20:15:07.904281Z

Look I know you don’t want to believe that Trump won the popular vote but there’s no evidence that Elon rigged the voting machines. Get out of here with that shit.

— Nick (derogatory) ✨ (@slothropsmap.bsky.social) 2025-02-18T23:48:16.663Z

In the fight between Captain America and the Red Skull, be like Cap.

— (@akatzel.bsky.social) 2025-01-21T22:41:22.499Z

BREAKING: One of Norway’s largest fuel companies, Haltbakk Bunkers, will no longer provide fuel to US forces overseas after Trump’s mistreatment and disrespect of Ukrainian President Zelensky yesterday.

They say "No Fuel to Americans!" and they are encouraging other Norwegians… pic.twitter.com/BaeuDvmOeF

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) March 1, 2025

Who India will side with? Depends on if the jeet is Ohio governor.

Das bist du 🫡 pic.twitter.com/HmqhCkw6yI

— vanessa k. (@VANKRAUT) February 14, 2025

A classical Greek tragedy about hard work, big egos, and French culture.

His fanatical attention to detail, frenetic work ethic, and discerning palate, propelled him to the top of his profession, and earned him a knowledgeable and loyal, but unforgiving and demanding clientele.

In the late 1990s, a new form of Asian-inspired "fusion cuisine" swept France, catering to an international corporate class and pleasing trend-driven "foodies" (a neologism of the movement), which Loiseau resisted.

Loiseau was downgraded from 19/20 to 17/20 in the Gault et Millau guide and received a strong negative media review from the gastronomic critic François Simon in the newspaper Le Figaro, but he still had his three stars in the Michelin Guide. Criticism continued to pour in and the media speculated about a possible future loss of a Michelin star.

But on February 24, 2003, the chef finished his lunchtime service, rolled up his apron and drove home. Telling his ten-year old son – one of three children – to go and play outside, he went upstairs, locked the bedroom door and shot himself in the head with a hunting rifle, a present from his wife.

After his death, three-star chef Jacques Lameloise said Loiseau had once confided, "If I lose a star, I'll kill myself".

Derek Brown, Michelin director at the time, said: "The idea of telling him about the concerns we had about some of his cooking was in order to give him an opportunity to consider whether he wanted to do something about it, which he did, as it turned out."

All in all, a messy story sparking many debates about whether reviewers should really be brutally honest, and if they are unfairly harsh. Perhaps it inspired Ratatouille (2007)?

Much better compared to the first marsey :3

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1ir8idw/comment/md6j97q/?context=8

Canadians, trust me, nobody outside of extremely online people have any idea you are boycotting us lmao

!crossword

The crossword we are currently solving is:

LA Times, Sun, Jan 12, 2025

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6802415-skob

SOLVED

NY Times, Sun, Jan 12, 2025

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6802473-fect

SOLVED

LA Times, Sat, Jan 11, 2025

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6802534-vonk

SOLVED

NY Times, Sat, Jan 11, 2025

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6802583-plusk

SOLVED

NY Times, SUPER MEGA, Dec 1, 2024

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6758915-ust

SOLVED

Thanks for playing!

the maymays said musk was gonna make genetically engineered catgirls why he makin the eggs cost more

One of the X posts made by the group — which proclaims "long live the student intifada"

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

Info- So is that all he got you for Christmas or was that just a side secret Santa thing? (43)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔘🔘🔘

First thing I thought of (76)

Same… (31)

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

INFO: Was the candle the only gift he got you? (27)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Good on you! NOT an over reaction at all. I'm a pretty low key kinda girl. I know I'm a bit hard to buy for. But my husband does try and today I got some very nice things from him. But if he'd done that? I'd be incredibly hurt. Really upset. Just shows no concern or love for you at all. He did not even try a little bit. That's just awful.So sorry you are having a shit day now. And nope. I wouldn't want to be hosting any darn dinner for anyone. Block the whole lot of them after sending them all a text telling them to frick off and leave you alone. And after only 3 years of marriage? Your husband is like this? That's very bad sign, Frankly? I'd review my marriage to that man. YOu are too young to already be stuck in a marriage where your husband treats you like shit. I've been married 30 years and we have had our ups and downs. But he has never treated me that disrespectfully and with such lack of kindness or decency. Think hard whether you stay with that man. Truly. (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

NTA for being upset about getting a thoughtless present from your husband. Been there. It hurts. But ABSOLUTELY YTA for cancelling dinner for EVERYONE??!! Wtf? Grow up! You ruined Christmas and you need to get out there and apologize to an entire family. If you're gonna be petty, you should've opened that candle in front of his family and started tearing up and excuse yourself until someone came to check on you.  You should've waited for someone to b-word at your husband FOR you. That wouldve made him the petty selfish one, not you.  (2)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

Why would the box with 'The Warlords' gift be under the tree?ETA: For everyone who keeps explaining why they keep non-family presents under the tree, none of you are explaining why a present for an online friend would be kept under the tree instead of posted to them directly. (7962)

That's not the only thing too. A blown up phone with everyone in his entire family telling her she's selfish and just being completely obsessed with her as if they don't have anything better to spend their time on. At Christmas Eve at all times. Secret Santa with names on the tags so it's not anonymous. Plus a $100 requirement "Hosting Christmas dinner every year for his family" even though they've only been married for 3 years.Last but not least is glazing a ham all day. What in the goddarn frick, nobody does that to a ham all day long. OP needs writing lessons. And someone to tell them to never, ever do any kind of elaborate crime. They will be caught within minutes with all the holes and arrogant stupidity throughout their obvious fake story. (545)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/ModsAreRadicalLeft

Score: 🐮🐮🔘🔘🔘

Number of comments: 3

Average angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

Maximum angriness: 😡😡😡🔘🔘

Minimum angriness: 😡🔘🔘🔘🔘

NEW: Subscribe to /h/miners to see untapped drama veins, ripe for mining!

autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramneurodivergents. Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion

… in a subreddit for listing available federal job positions.

Many are upset about this and start arguing in the comments.

There's a literal fricking hiring freeze, what do you want from us?

To follow the rules and not try to start some uprising here?

What federal hiring process? No one is getting hired right now, and also, who would even want to join the government at this point? You'd have to be desperate or stupid to hop on a sinking ship…

People are still getting hired. Jobs are still being posted on USAJobs. So go on, delete your comment or edit it to admit you didn't think before commenting.

I did think before commenting and stand by my comment that anyone thinking of joining the federal government in this moment is either stupid or desperate.

Even if you do get hired, everyone received the mass "please resign!" emails and I doubt that trend will end any time soon. And if you get hired, you're likely probationary which is an awful spot to be in. No one's job is special or safe or can't be done by a Musk crony according to this administration.

I mean, if you're already trapped in fed gov, do you. But now seems like an especially bad time to hop around because what boss is going to bat for a new employee?

Plenty of people want to join. There are still posts on this very subreddit of people looking for advice, showing their TJO and FJO. You want to call them stupid or desperate? Fine, but don't try to subvert the reason for the subreddit existing. So both your points, that no one is getting hired and no one wants to work for the administration are rendered null by the facts.

Yeah, good luck to them 👍 I truly hope it works out.

Amen. My heart goes out to you mods, I can't even imagine how busy you guys have been sifting through the extra 100K new bots and their nonsense.

If anyone wants to really visualize why this is necessary then everyone's history is accessible.

ALL (no exceptions as of 43 comments) who want non-stop rage bait politics here have never before set foot in this sub prior to the EOs.

ALL who don't like off-topic nonsense and support the mods, hammered with downmarseys, are top contributors who've been helping the sub for months/years.

We are being brigaded by trolls and bots, the only people who can possibly abide are the trolls and bots.

Do remember there are a lot of feds who have created burner accounts in order to participate without issue. Does make it much harder to tell who has been here before and who is a bot or troll.

New accounts would support that possibility, but none of them are new - all long term /r/politics users never here before.

Plus burner or not wouldn't change the fact that it is off-topic on this sub.

Did Elon post this?

Removing posts about what is going on only serves the interests of the new administration. Reddit should be a safe space for people to converse about their reality as a fed, or anyone affected by these EOs. We should be kept aware as the general public so we know how to help and join the conversation. Silencing the voices of people who are worried or unaware of the situation is how we got here and how we make it worse—not better. The teaching and nursing subreddits almost never ban ANYTHING. Why? Because everything is relevant in their public facing jobs, everything reaches them one way or another, the feds are no different. Shutting down the conversation is wrong and leads to/is fascism. Stop upholding arbitrary "rules" that support it.

Post them to /r/fednews where they belong.

It doesn't even belong there, but rprz and the other mods are terminally chronically online reddit jannies who are ignoring rule #5 of their subreddit.

Rule 5 there states no politics, but you can discuss current policies. So discussion of the Fork in The Road, the other HR(at)opm.gov emails, the RTO memos, and notices to probationary employees should all be valid.

Given that our work has been politicized to a higher degree than at any point in the past, I don't think the Mods are violating their rules.

Rule 5 there states no politics, but you can discuss current policies. So discussion of the Fork in The Road, the other HR(at)opm.gov emails, the RTO memos, and notices to probationary employees should all be valid.

If that's what were happening I'd agree with you. However the 100,000x fold YoY increase in the usage of the words "Nazi", "Fascist", and "regime" to describe our democratically elected government suggest to me that reasoned discussion of government policies is not primarily what's going on. When subredditors describe what they're doing as "doomscrolling" that word seems to have a negative connotation, in my mind. When "Solidarity from Moldova" type posts are upmarseyd to the top of the subreddit, that doesn't feel like a well-considered policy analysis by an informed stakeholder.

Enjoy a dead Reddit for a while, then.

Amazingly we existed just fine from the dawn of Reddit until a couple weeks ago when the bots invaded. We chugged along even without an off-topic chicken little post every 5 minutes.

That's funny, you're going to chug along with what job postings?

Yeah, thanks.

That's part of the problem. This can't exist in a vacuum. Everything that impacts hiring needs to discussed.

Feel free to post anything pertaining to the federal application process (e.g. questions, concerns, suggestions, tips, experiences, etc.).

The day one purpose and rule 1 of this sub.

What about the application process has changed due to the EOs? Go ahead, I'll wait.

Nothing? Correct.

Fednews (and THOUSANDS of others) exists, until an EO fundamentally changes the application process it doesn't belong here.

You're extremely pressed.

Uh, no. I think—like many of us—he's just getting tired of the 24/7 complain fest that this sub has devolved into. Go complain to your family and friends. Some of us come here for useful information—not to read people's diaries.

Not much federal hiring practice activity going on right now…

checks usajobs, sees plenty of jobs posted

Gaslamping doesn't work when people have reality right in front of them...

They're not "gaslamping"

They said "not much" is going on right now which is very true. Just because there is some still happening doesn't mean that the majority of possible positions are under a hiring freeze

Thank you. The person accusing gaslamping is literally gaslamping lol

An example of the comics in question

its got that twee millenial comic style you all know and love.

The tumblr post announcing the depooning

https://mantimecomic.tumblr.com/post/772596812377980928/hello-all

I'll preface this post by saying that it's not a political statement. I have no agenda here other than telling my own story, and I have no ill-will towards anyone in this community.

I'm detransitioning. I have many reasons – Some related to my medical health, some to my mental and emotional health, and some to changing feelings about my identity. I won't go into too much detail here, as I like to keep my private life private.

I will share that the medical issues testosterone caused me had to do with reproductive system health, blood pressure and cholesterol, undiagnosed polycythemia, and mental health issues. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not in a position to make any medical statements.

However I feel that I have the obligation and the right to share my story about how testosterone was harmful to me. Because of these side effects, and the psychological trauma I experienced due to them, I began to reconsider how I feel about my identity and my body.

I came to the conclusion that I'm simply a masculine lesbian woman. Transition wasn't the right path for me. So I've reversed course and am becoming the person I feel I was meant to be all along. My feelings of gender dysphoria have been resolved. Through detransition, my medical and mental health issues have also for the most part resolved, and I'm feeling much happier and more optimistic for the future!

That's my truth. Your truth may be different, and I respect that. Please take a moment to think before you send hate messages. I'm not putting any hate out here and I'd appreciate it if you all would meet me with the same respect. And no, my account has not been hacked. I stopped posting new work here because of what I've been going through, and because it started to feel disingenuous when my mindset about my identity shifted.

My intentions with this post are to share my story and to reach out so that followers who are going through similar things know that they're not alone and there is support. If you're struggling, feel free to reach out in my DMs. I can connect you to support groups and try to help you find any resources you may need.

Thank you all for supporting my comic and for the years of good vibes! I'll make an update if I decide to start sharing work on a new account.

Signing off 🫡

Tumblrinas in shambles

--

some tumblr sneed

musculargarbageman said: great. just pls don't become a transphobic grifter who does misinformation interviews for right-wing newspapers about how The Evil Trans Agenda or sth pressured you into HRT and how nobody told you that T has side-effects. have a good cisgender life queen 👍

learningtofindmybrightside said: As long as you still stand beside trans people, then you should be able to do whatever you want with your body

They sound very happy for her.

What do commenters on 4tran4 have to say about it?

https://old.reddit.com/r/4tran4/comments/1ibdbax/jesus_frick_ok_this_might_be_my_13th_reason/

For context, it's this artist. One of my biggest inspirations for trans guy art in general, if even they aren't actually a man, who is? Will everyone else detransition? Why do I keep seeing this happen??

>if even they aren't actually a man, who is?

brb kms I'm gonna have to rep forever if even this guy can't make it

so close

What the heck

god fricking darn it can ftms stop fricking detransitioning PLEASE

They're ruining it for the rest of us 😡

Do eff tee ems detransition more than em tee effs?

Anecdotally, a metric shit ton more of ftms detransition. I couldn't name one mtf that has personally

they noootice

Terf in 3...2...1...

this is pretty much why i rep. what's the point of transitioning when so many of ftms end up inevitably detransitioning anyways. iwnbarm and all that

The point is to become a stealth ftChad who will never de

Much more sneed in the 4train thread anyway. Stay strong pooners!

PATCHNOTES https://www.nomanssky.com/worlds-part-ii-update/

Worlds Part II 🪐

🪐Gas Giants
🌋New Terrain
🌞Lighting Overhaul
🧑‍💻Inventory Sorting
✨New Solar Systems
🪸Deep Oceans
🌴New Biomes
🥶Weather Hazards
🛸Starship Archiving
👻Abandoned Mode
🦑Deep Sea Creatures
🌊Dynamic Water
🧑‍🍳Improved Cooking
📖Evolving story
🤖Titan Expedition pic.twitter.com/ar8M3ejtGa

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) January 29, 2025

Sean did another little behind the scenes video

!nms

Highlights:

Jungles

Mountains miles high

Oceans miles deep

Local environmental hazards

+18 ship storage

MOON WATER IS BACK 🥹

Krakens and other deep sea megafauna

Sea atmospheric pressure

Supermassive planets with heck gravity

Gas giants

New stellar class

Water worlds

Enhanced variety for existing planets

New ocean flora and fauna

New surface fauna

+18 MT slots

Cooking overhaul

Auto eat options

Exocraft flamethrowers

Customizable fishing rods

The usual massive modernization of graphics and lighting

THEY GAVE THE FISHING BOAT A GRILL

9 YEAR OLD INDIE GAME CONTINUES TO LOOK BETTER AND PLAY BETTER THAN AAA RELEASES IN CURRENT YEAR