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EFFORTPOST [Effortpost] The Battle :marseythomas: drama rages on

https://www.sarna.net/news/your-battletech-news-roundup-for-january-2023

This is a continuation of this effort post here: https://rdrama.net/post/176154/effortpost-the-battlemarseytrain2-cries-out-in

You can read my previous reporting on Mechwarrior Online here: https://rdrama.net/post/114442/turns-out-bideo-game-marseyangryexosuitmarseyjanny-jannies

After another day of people seething and raging over this

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860639689290535.webp

and this

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860639690133197.webp

(yes these are real)

The community is still a little hot and bothered about it. Over on /tg/ one of the authors of the fanzine decides to stop by as they are also a channer. Remarkably, while people shit all over them they mostly just take the feedback and move on. Here are a few choice snippets:

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860639691476872.webp

:#marseybongosnoo:

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860639694356725.webp

Retvrn to Tradition

>My honest reaction to this anthology:

>You will never be a real Ghost Bear. You have no honor or prior knowledge of football. You are an honorless man twisted by furry porn...

https://voca.ro/1bEs7DPXgCzV

:marseyfurry: :#marseymini:

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860639697021902.webp

Turns out some of the gays hate the cliche gay storylines written by danger hairs. Speaking of dangerhairs I'm sure you want to follow them on twitter right? https://x.com/Detocroix/status/1664042859383644160

:marseytransimplosion:

The author is about midway down the thread with the RDJ image (https://archived.moe/tg/thread/89112168). Like I mentioned earlier, most just took the criticism and not too much drama. But later another anon points me towards some Sarna drama. Sarna is really well maintained wiki for all things Battletech, so if you ever want to look up some random shit about a giant mech you can. The last time I played the game was with my father and brothers as a teenager so it was pretty nostalgic looking through it.

:daydream:

But I digress, Sarna also has an editorial column where they talk Battltech news, after many complaints the author decided to move CURRENT YEAR topics to a separate section instead of woven into the article. Here's the most recent:

Our inaugural editorial comes courtesy of esteemed novelist and BattleTech writer Michael A. Stackpole, who declared on Twitter that “BattleTech has always been woke” following a post from Catalyst outlining the success BattleTech has achieved in recent years which counters the right-wing battle cry of “go woke, go broke.”

But has BattleTech always been woke? A certain tank that will no longer be reprinted seems evidence to the contrary. And the fact that both House Kurita and House Liao are still largely ethnically and racially defined, would beg to differ. Things got a lot better with the introduction of the Clans, with its egalitarian society that cared little for race or gender, only whether you were born in a test tube with combat-capable genes.

:#marseyhmm:

I’m sorry, but the idea that ‘things got a lot better’ for the setting in terms of wokeness with the introduction of the Clans just makes me laugh. Have we forgotten that the Clans openly practice eugenics and chattel slavery? To what possible degree is the Clan scientist caste tolerant of disability or mental health in selecting the best warrior genes? In what way is a society wherein the strongest fighters rule ‘egalitarian’? As has been pointed out above, ‘woke’ no longer means ‘alert to racial prejudice and discrimination’ (if it ever did), but is now associated with a type of toxic individual who endlessly agitates for changes to established lore and setting until the correspond with that individual’s particular real-world political views. To say that ‘BattleTech has always been woke’ speaks to a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the term.

:#marseyakshually: Human chattel is progressive now, just look at the Woman Queen: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_woman_king

Sean, in regards to the criticism of Battletech being “Woke”. Woke has become one of those words that has lost all meaning due to overuse and misuse. Woke no longer means “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination” because many individuals who claim to be “woke” are in fact quite bigoted, self absorbed and quite frankly, complete idiots. Calling yourself Woke is just asking to be compared to these people. Yes, Battletech has always been diverse in terms of race and sexuality, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but it has never sought to hold that diversity up on a moral pedestal and screamed incomprehensibly at people who disagree with it.

:#marseytransattentionseeker: :#marseyaaatranslaser:

Gay people EXISTING is not incompatible with battletech. This is like saying “its fine to have BLACK people but i don’ want to see them.” It’s nonsense. Get over yourself. Gay and trans people exist, and having them mentioned isn’t somehow an insult to you. There are straight s*x scenes in every other battletech novel but you’d lose your mind at two men kissing?

This argument, every single time. https://i.rdrama.net/images/1686063970008451.webp

Plenty of slapfights in the Sarna coments and on /tg/ enjoy

93
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The lone chud sits on the edge of his bed, thinking about all the hobbies he once loved becoming pro-trans and pozzed, a single tear falls down his acne'd cheek and he whispers under his breath "billions must die".

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https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860731756006908.webp

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>He then scoops up his dice bag and walks out the door

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>The glaring sun hits his eyes and he recoils for but a moment but his scorn drives him on. He boards the new all electric german vehicle the e-bussy

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Pour one out for the trillions of YouTube personalities I had to unsubscribe from because of the JK Rowling kerfuffle

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>muh dystopian fiction supports trans rights

Well yeah thats the definition of dsytopian

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https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860639690133197.webp

are you fricking kidding me

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RAWR OMGWTFBBQ XD

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860647761583247.webp

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SPORK!!!

:mars#eytrollolol:

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:#marseypenguin:

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:marseye#ldritchcarp:

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>:marseytrain2: self insert fiction

>still gives the characters massive manhands

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I love the franchise but I can’t imagine reading the books.

No idea how page #800 of “and then I launched another LRM-15ST salvo from a range of 983 meters at the approaching contact” could be a thrilling read.

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I love the franchise but I can’t imagine reading the books.

its fricking childrens toys get real hobbies jeez

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No :marseyautism:

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Lol like what northling? Curling? 😆

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playing sports, watching sports, hunting fishing, providing for your family, constructing a home, ??

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playing sports, watching sports

Peak poor

hunting fishing

Only if you're a ruralchad

providing for your family,

Neighbor that's a job not a hobby

constructing a home

Like more than one :marseyconfused:

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neighbor that's a job not a hobby

u could always work more

Like more than one :marseyconfused:

like fix up your place

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its less about reading about a catapult hiding in the rurals launching missiles and more the political intrigue.

Which I thankfully don't give two shits about. A freelance does not care where the $$$ comes from.

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:marsey40k: BATTLE BROTHER TITUS'S BOLTGUN COUGHED ONCE, TWICE, THRICE AS AUTOGUN ROUNDS PLINKED USELESSLY OFF OF HIS BRAND NEW MARK SIX POWER ARMOUR. "GLORY AND STEEL!", TITUS ROARED AS THE FILTHY HERETICS BECAME CLOUDS OF PINK MIST. "BATTLE AND HONOUR", BROTHER-SERGEANT DIOMEDES AFFIRMED, A WET LEOPARD GROWL CREEPING INTO HIS VOICE, "VICTORY AND DEATH."

:marseyexcitedexosuit: WHAT IS THE BATCHALL OF THE WET LEOPARDS QUIAFF QUINEG MASKIROVKA KERENSKY KERENSKIYY?!?

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frfr this is why 40k books suck too

Do you really care about the emotions of a roided up transhuman monster? I think not.

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He feels one emotion and it is RAGE

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This is why you read Cain novels

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It’s basically space game of thrones and p decent for trash genera fiction. The writers also make the franchise and more or less dictate everything. Or at least it was 20 years ago when @HailVictory1776 read some of the novels long live the ccp

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LONG LIVE THE CCP

Nah frick cappies

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Not enough Hodor to be GoT

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“The heck is this, b-word? I ordered a Steiner PPC! Why did you put bourbon in my goddarned drink?”

Oh heck. Don’t get involved. You’ve put on enough performances today.

John turned slightly towards the entrance as he sipped his drink, doing his best to keep an eye on the brewing storm while still distancing himself. Victor Smithson’s massive frame towered over the bar top, a look of indignant rage lining his weathered face.

“Sorry, my mistake,” Sammi began. “Our house special, the Steiner-Davion PPC, includes bo—”

“Nah nah nah, you’re not ‘sorry’-ing your way outta this one. Nobody disrespects the King like that. I know how you can make it up to me though. Lemme get a little peek at those ti—”

Sammi raised her hand in anger, only for Victor to reach out and grab her wrist mid-slap. She yelped as she struggled against his grip, suddenly realizing the danger her reflexes had put her in. Victor pulled her arm with a violent jerk, yanking her halfway over the counter. She continued to struggle as Victor’s free hand reached for her shirt.

“You either give, or I take. One way or another, I get what I want,” he sneered.

John slammed back the rest of his drink. Screw it. Gotta play my part.

“Lay another goddarned finger on her and the only thing you’ll be taking is a ride to the hospital, Vic.”

lame bar fight happens, characters go home

Her expression turned to a worried pout. “John, what’s going on? What was that all about? I’ve never seen you like that before. Did something happen?”

...

My whole life, I’ve been whatever someone else wanted me to be. When I was a kid, I was told I was gonna be a MechWarrior like my dad and Abuela Luz before him. When I didn’t meet expectations, my parents shoved me into military school to ‘toughen me up,’ to ‘make a man out of me,’ and I cocked that up too. Then I ended up here, playing a walking stereotype in some two-bit MechWarrior soap opera for grown-butt men, being told what to call myself, what to wear, how to act, and I can’t even do that right. Now I beat the shit out of some cocky peepeehead from my old school, I’m going to lose my job, and I’m not sure who I’m gonna be without it. I don’t know why I can’t just do what I’m told, be who I’m told to be, and not malf it all up every darn time!”

John buried his head in his hands. “All I know is I want to feel satisfied, free. When I watch you work at the bar, you always look like you’re having the time of your darn life, mixing drinks and changing lives. All I can do is ruin mine,because I can’t have what I want out of it no matter what I do. The Gauntlet’s not my favorite bar because of the ambiance or anything, it’s because I get to see you there. There’s something…special about you, and I wish I could figure out what the heck it is so I could capture that for myself.”

Sammi sat in stunned silence for a moment, listening to John’s anxious breathing. She caressed his back gently. “Why can’t you have what you want out of your life?”

John’s head rose, tears now shining in his eyes under the soft amber lights.

“Because I don’t know how I can be who I want to be.”

“And who is that?”

“Someone like you.”

“Oh, come on John, bartending isn’t JumpShip sci-”

“A fricking woman, okay? I look at you and I see what I want to be, what I’m not, what I’ve tried to be happy not being, what nobody will accept me as, and I just…I just…frick!” He buried his head in his hands again. “And now I gotta sit in here, while my life burns down around my ears because I did the manly thing, and look at that fricking photo on your dresser and be reminded that you had what I can’t!”

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1686079165489796.webp

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“So go ahead,” she hissed. “Get it out. Speak your mind. Are you going to go with ‘abomination,’ to make sure I get the insult? Or are you going to look at the freak and go old-school, call me a piggul or maybe a shekez, huh?”

He squinted at her.

“Oh, yeah, real surprised the stupid Muslim girl knows those ones? I’ve got a few more. I met another Goodman, bunked with him at the Academy, for a good, long, time. I’ve got years of this shit, ready? Well buckle up, buttercu—?”

“He’s wrong,” Goodman cut her off.

“…he’s…what?”

“He’s wrong. If I was going to go ‘old-school’ and call you an abomination, it would be a toebah, that’s the worst kind, and it’s what some Jews used to call folks who engaged in ‘perversion,’ like homosexuality. My grandmother, for instance, was fond of it,” he said, lightly, but the sort of light that a foil was. A sharp light. A cutting light. “But that would be wrong, too. So your Cadet Goodman – ope, sorry, Leutnant Goodman, now, I can’t forget that you all graduated nine whole days ago, nine days that Cho and I spent on half rations, to make sure we saved enough food for you – your Cadet Goodman was wrong, twice over. Once for not even knowing the insult to use, and once for using it.”

Hannah had lost all her momentum, now. Goodman had picked it up. He filled her doorway, broad shoulders almost touching both sides of the hatch, as he leaned in, but still didn’t step forward.

“A piggul’s just an illegal offering, and a shekez is what I’d call you for eating an unclean animal. But since I read your file, ‘stupid Muslim girl,’ and since I signed off on our food for this trip, I know you eat halal, which the War College considers close enough to my own kosher that the menus overlap, so I doubt that’s fitting either. So, no. No, he should have been going for toebah, this other, random, Goodman of yours, that I don’t share a brain with, if he just had to call you something awful, but found ‘abomination’ too hard to spit out.”

“He…yeah, well, he…” Hannah tripped up. She was finding everything too hard to spit out.

“But what he should have called you isn’t any of the old Hebrew words for abomination, but, rather, ‘Baronet,’ to respectfully reflect your future rank as Duchess, but if he just had to try and sound especially Jewish for some reason – oh! Is he one of those Donegal Jews, even my grandmother couldn’t stand those people – then he should have called you saris adam.”

“Saris what?” Hannah eyed him warily but, despite herself, curiously. “What’s that one accuse me of?”

“Saris adam,” he said again, carefully, pointedly. “And it doesn’t accuse you of anything. It’s not a type of abomination, it’s more an…observation. The halachal recognizes a whole bucketful of genders. Male, female, and a handful in between. Saris are someone who was identified as male at birth, but female later on. A ‘natural’ saris is a saris hamah, a saris through human intervention – say, someone taking advantage of the medical perks a cadet might be offered if her grandmother was good friends with the Leutnant-General of the military academy she was spending several years at – is a saris adam. The Talmud’s full of you people. Along with our old midrash, old law codes, you name it.”

He gave an off-handed wave.

“And please, don’t pull out the ‘Muslim’ thing again with my ‘you people,’ that’s not what I meant. Or your skin tone, either. We just left Buena, not New Capetown.”

Oh.

It hit her.

He hadn’t been smirking. His smiles hadn’t been fake. His good cheer hadn’t been forced. His greetings hadn’t been sarcastic. He’d been surprised, yes, no one had told him to expect a Hannah instead of a Yusuf, but he’d been…sincere, since then. Helpful. Polite. Protective of his crewmate. Determined to help everyone get along on a long flight. Determined to stock the galley with food his Muslim passenger would like. Determined to do a good job.

Decent.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860807425964112.webp

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I hate :!marseytrain:s so much its unreal.

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Fandoms really are the gift that keeps on giving. Nothing is funnier than people who make buying little pieces of plastic a core part of their identity getting inconsolably angry because the pieces of plastic were somehow ruined.

>One of the authors said they don't even care about Battletech!

Good for them, nobody should

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capeshitters just pirate everything and slap fight with the writers and artists and editors on twitter

vs MTG, Warhammer, and all that crap where they spend 1000$s on shit that is useless if they quit playing so they are giga buck broken. "But But Warhammer has muh based fashy Russian orthdox space marines :marseysoylentgrin:"

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WE'RE COMING FOR YOU GLOBALISTS :marseyraging:

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860733859198723.webp

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How many points of Misters of Battle do you own?

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I don't speak nerd I'm too busy telling Tom Taylor and Dan Slott to kill themselves

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I don't speak nerd

Don't you write effort posts about ancient comic books? :#marseykangtheconqueror:

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Nothing is funnier than people who make buying little pieces of plastic a core part of their identity getting inconsolably angry because the pieces of plastic were somehow ruined.

a truly great sentence.

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:#marseyhesright:

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Can strags enjoy any hobby without putting some stupid gay flag on it?

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Nerds were excluded all their life. The urge to pendulum to inclusion is too strong.

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No, trains need their flag and political statements in the fantasy setting because if it doesn't exist then they dont exist, and thats genocide, chud.

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https://i.rdrama.net/images/1686087474937781.webp

no

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No.

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But has BattleTech always been woke? A certain tank that will no longer be reprinted seems evidence to the contrary.

Ah, the old BIPOC mark IV.

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It's an old tank melee weapon that got memory holed a while ago

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860814560376134.webp

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And here I thought they meant the Rommel

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Battletech in current year takes the knee too our fascist overlords who say “trans lives matter” and “long live the ccp”.

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https://i.rdrama.net/images/1686066079981482.webp

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If your lance doesn’t have a pride color scheme, you’re officially no longer a signatory of the Aires Convention, chuds

:marseynukegoggles::marseymushroomcloud::marseymushroomcloud:

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Everyone else be like :soycry: we're no longer protected by the rules against nuclear weapons!

Taurians be like :psychojak: we're no longer bound by the rules against nuclear weapons

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Always knew Taurans were based chuds

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Then the :!marseytrain:s made a big mistake: They attacked MY OWN HOBBY! :chudtantrum:

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You dare refuse my batchall?!

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More like bitchall amirite

I bid one star of mechs in ludicrously bright colours

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just finished stackpole’s blood legacy. was soying a bit during half the stuff that happened at luthien. looking forward to soying out at book 3

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This face :#marsoy: or this face :#marsoyhype:?

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The first

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https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860640814393692.webp

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Oh and I went over the text limit again and had to cut some stuff. Here's the reddit post the fa/tg/uys are complaining about: https://old.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/141etzi/removed_from_rofficialbattletech_due_to_3d/

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Tried my hand at night camo

https://i.rdrama.net/images/16860642456562748.webp

But also :#marseytransflag:

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>No hideous :marseytrain: and BIPOC stripes ruining the composition

Get with the times, bigot.

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>my dsytopic horror fiction is pro trans rights

I honestly agree with this

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>Ghost bear Rawr.

Like the 40k universe, the battletech universe is home to openly fascist and slave holding governmental structures. I'm sure they love this though and will totally not LRM this behavior into oblivion.

Is it possible to portray trains in fiction without them being the punchline?

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theres a words words words post about this on the motte if anyone wants me to screenshot it.


Secured my spot as a top 100 most memorable rdrama poster

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Do it King

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The Gays Destroyed The "No Politics" Rule

Pride month began, and the moderators of /r/Battletech enforced their "no politics" rule as they have through elections, wars, referedums, economic crisis, etc. A long standing rule fastidiously kept by most Battletech groups I frequent. It's preserved Battletech as one of my escapes for long years as every other hobby I had got overrun with far left politics. Alas, no longer.

In response, Catalyst games launched /r/OfficialBattletech, specifically calling out the "bigotry" of /r/Battletech, and announcing Battletech is a "safe space". They parachuted in a community leader with experience moderating "safe spaces". People began making the sorts of spurious claims against the mods of /r/Battletech you are used to seeing, calling them being fascist at best, literally "Heil Hitler" nazi's at worst on the most spurious of circumstantial evidence. The originator of /r/Battletech came out of nowhere and completely removed the mods of /r/Battletech to make darned sure /r/Battletech participates in Pride Month.

Because it's not political. It's just being a decent person.

So I guess Battletech is explicitly left wing now. You are no allowed to opt out of their politics.

Hobbies/Fandoms I'm allowed in

Video Games

Board Games

Science Fiction

Star Wars

Star Trek

Battletech

Woodworking

And I log into youtube to watch Stumpy Nubs tell me how to sharpen a chisel every day in fear some flashpoint will have occurred. That the Eye of Sauron finally noticed that woodworking is too white and must be destroyed. And suddenly every content creator I watch will be posting these mewling apology videos for not doing enough to foster diversity and inclusiveness in this important hobby. And the rest of the month ends up being pride themed woodworking content. Making your own buttplugs on a lathe or whatever. How to add glitter to a poly finish.


Secured my spot as a top 100 most memorable rdrama poster

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Darn, you're really mad over this, but thanks for the effort you put into typing that all out! Sadly I won't read it all.

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Blocked and Reported also had some battletech drama last January for people who like that. You can play a fun game of trying to guess the s*x of the person harassing the author by their language!


https://i.rdrama.net/images/17187151446911044.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17093267613293715.webp https://i.rdrama.net/images/17177781034384797.webp

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Plus: Is "Battletech" problematic? Two lesbian nurses say so

Let me guess, Transbian nurses?

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