I Talk Frequently About How Ignorant Most Global North Citizens Are About The Immigration Policies Of

I talk frequently about how ignorant most Global North citizens are about the immigration policies of their own and other countries. When my husband and I (Global North citizens of different countries) got married, we had conversation after conversation with people who assumed that by producing our marriage certificate we could simply become residents of each other’s countries— and that we could not be refused residence in each other’s countries, as separating a husband and wife could surely not be allowed.

More interestingly, a lot of people seem to refuse knowledge about immigration, perhaps because it can’t be integrated into some deep and important picture of the world that they have. My parents can’t make themselves believe that my British husband would get in trouble if he overstayed his visa “just a couple of days” in the US, or that I (an American) would ever get deported from the UK, no matter what the circumstances. This is not only because they believe that British and American citizens, as Global North citizens, are specially exempt from the systems that are “meant” to regulate other kinds of people, but also because fundamentally they believe that government and its processes are rational and just. They must believe that government and its processes are rational and just, because otherwise their whole picture of the world— the means by which they understand it— would collapse.

This is all fairly simple and obvious. What is not so simple and obvious is the way that their privileged ignorance, the hothouse resilience of their fantasy world, is part of a mechanism through which the “work of knowing” in our society is outsourced to the underprivileged. (The privileged do not have to know in a way that disrupts their fantasy, because not-knowing has no consequences for them.) This is an interesting dynamic, because many postcolonial theorists (Sara Ahmed, Dipesh Chakrabarty, etc) have explored how the Global South is typically portrayed as that-which-is-known-by-the-Global-North, and therefore as not capable of knowing. So what does it mean that the tools of regulation remain in the hands of the Global North, but that the knowledge of regulation is a burden borne by the Global South? There is an element here of knowing as knowing-your-place, for sure— learning to be interpellated as the illegal and the undesirable. The knowing that is happening also constitutes the production of the illusive “just and rational” world that sustains the Global North. I’m interested in the way that the dehumanization of the Global South therefore serves to sustain the rational and just Human and humaneness of the Global North. There’s an abjectification that is necessary for this— as anyone who has experienced universal healthcare knows, more just and equitable care/distribution of resources often means that more privileged people get less-nice things than they have been led to expect, so if they want to continue to enjoy the same standard of living allowed them by unjust and non-equitable care, they must rationalize this somehow. And how does one rationalize having been, by chance, born in the right geographic area? One can’t. One must, instead, believe that this is not how privilege is allotted, which required not-knowing that this is how privilege is allotted.

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vaguely-ruth

3 months ago

as for fighting games my favorite is uni 2, its super fun. i also play a lot of blazblue and fightcade stuff. i kinda end up playing mostly old games though, cuz my computer is kinda bad, but i really want to play tekken 8, it seems really cool. i love switching games every 2 weeks and never improving, its the best!! i have enjoyed every fighting game i've ever played except for brawlhalla and i will play anything with any human. anyways thanks for the question i love you

tell me about mahjong. also what fighting games do u play

mahjong's really fun!! its an ancient chinese game in which you and 3 other anime women take turns drawing and discarding tiles, all trying to build your hand into one of many specific patterns, and whoever gets their pattern completed first wins. and if you get a really special pattern or a combination of a bunch of patterns you get a shit ton of money.

but watch out! if you discard the tile someone else needs to win, a big red button pops up that says RON, and then you get struck by lightning while the enemy catgirl yells her hand at you and sucks out your life points.

its a really high skill ceiling game about predicting your opponent's hand from their discards, building high efficiency tile shapes without sacrificing hand value and safety, and choosing to push or fold based on expected values and the gamestate. of course what actually happens is i spend 6 entire rounds of a ranked game trying to build fat hands just for my opponents to be luckier or faster than me, but i fold perfectly because i have infinite patience and am in tune with the flow like akagi, and then i make it to like south 3 without a single deal-in and FINALLY get tenpai with a riichi tanyao pinfu 2 dora sanmentan wait with a possible sanshoku doujun, and then this

Tell Me About Mahjong. Also What Fighting Games Do U Play

fuck ass cat tsumos some bullshit for one dollar and i get third for the 50 billionth time in a row because im cursed but maybe thats just gold room

the rules can be a little convoluted, but if you can find 2-3 friends to learn with its a real good time. ranked is fun if you're into orgasm denial and other exercises in futility.

also look at my leopard girlfriend she's so cute

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vaguely-ruth

2 months ago

Big Announcement!!

Found the big obelisk that causes mental illness and threw it into a volcano!! Everyone is cured!!! We can all focus on solving material problems and enjoying our lives lets gooo!!!!!

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vaguely-ruth

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it is 2027, and you are having a conversation on discord. suddenly, everything gets far too quiet. the ground around you almost seems to shake somehow, and the lights in your room dim. "oh god," someone says, "a nitro user is typing". at that point, it begins. lights start to dance around your screen, flashing and strobing every which way, becoming increasingly brighter and more colorful over the course of the next few seconds. blaring, triumphant fanfare plays, more blaring and more triumphant than you thought your headphones able to handle. you try to peel them away, but some mysterious force keeps them attached to your head. suddenly, lasers appear -- not on your screen, but somehow coming out of your monitor itself ! they dance around wildly as the fanfare begins to morph into edm. you think you hear a crowd cheer outside of your window. fog begins to pool around you, as if coming from an invisible smoke machine. you begin to panic, you wonder what the fuck is going on, but you cannot keep your eyes away from the screen. a deep voice begins to sound from all around you. "ARE YOU READY," it says, "FOR A MESSAGE..." and with another pause for effect, it finishes, "FROM WEEDBRONY42 !!" and the crowd goes fucking insane. the beat drops and a surge of pleasure emanates through your body -- you feel violated somehow. and as the fog and lights gradually clear, the music reaches a climax, and the curtains are dramatically drawn, your eyes are finally allowed to focus on a message telling you to kill yourself for your opinions on undertale.

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vaguely-ruth

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vaguely-ruth

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what the hell even is a webp image. i dont care fuck why cant you play nice and just be a png. asshole image

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i went to the dentist and i made sure not to swallow a single time while the lady was working in my mouth, in hopes that it would let her know about my gag reflex. just In Case

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vaguely-ruth

2 months ago

need to give up on my dreams and spec into being cute girl

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first person friday

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vaguely-ruth

2 months ago

why the fuck do i have to be bocchi the rock phenotype this fucking sucks ! shit!!!

having a nice and normal call with someone and then hanging up and instantly yelling "what the fuck what the fuck why did i sound like that AAAAAAAAAAAA" and feeling my body temperature drop like 10 degrees and i start biting chunks out of my hand and crying blood and rotating in a circle

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