Be that as it may, Consider Phlebas is boring and I couldn’t get through it on the first attempt. Player of Games is a page turner

Skill issue. Just learn to read English and it’ll be fine.

I look at porn for the plot. I can’t cum if the plot is bad.

Thanks, I’m just mad. They take a perfectly good premise for science-smut exploring the ethical ramifications of slavery under novel circumstances, and then they ruin it by giving it the JK Rowling treatment! Admit the ladies you’re wanking off to are fascists, you cowards! I jerk off to 40k porn and don’t feel bad about it, because I’m a fucking adult who can separate ethical from hot.

There’s a certain kind of queer person I despise, because they respond to the horrors of the world by creating a “perfect” bubble world which is just as fucked up as the real one, it’s just horrific in a way that plays into their trauma reactions and only hurts people in ways they feel are deserved. And their smut sucks ass. Anyway, that’s the plot of WandaVision.

I have more fun having sex with a person than a doll. Well, except for dollgirls, but that’s another conversation. People are political creatures. Take the politics out of a person, and a doll is what you get. How can a plant be hot if she isn’t a nuanced individual? If a plant is turning me into a pet, she better exist as an individual (or a hivemind, I’ll admit) situated within a cultural context, with an internal world and life experiences. Otherwise what’s the point? You might as well tie yourself up for all the masturbatory character of the act!

The HDG fandom somehow found a way to take the doms out of domination, and it’s as soulless as AI art

Sometimes someone will ask a Rapid Offensive Unit why it, a fully automated warship, keeps a human crew. Many ROUs don’t, but those who do say that having humans around is nice. They’re good company on long voyages, and fun at parties. Fellow Minds contacted over hyperspace comm channels may make for faster and more erudite conversational partners, but there’s just something nice about having a bunch of little guys inside you. Humans are always up to something interesting.

Mortality is voluntary in the Culture. You can back up your consciousness or not, it’s your choice. Millions of people choose whether to be immortal based on what social media influences say is the current fashion. Every few years the fad switches from “it’s important to practice good safety” to “life is only precious if it’s finite” and back again. Nobody is going to force you into either choice, it’s up to you.

Masaq’ Orbital is a ringworld orbiting a slightly unstable sun. It has a very high backup rate in case a solar flare destroys it (which has never happened, but it might in the future). Because of the high backup rate, it’s also home to the most dangerous extreme sports. If you want to fly in a wingsuit or go lava-rafting across the unfinished plates, knock yourself out.

Most organic culture citizens live hundreds of years thanks to good healthcare and ethical genetic engineering. They also have 200 artificial glands full of non-addictive psychoactive drugs, which can be activated with a thought. Some people use them for improved focus or other useful things, but mostly they’re used for recreation.

There are no laws. Nobody steals, because nothing is scarce. Some people murder, but then a drone follows them around to stop them from doing it again, and they don’t get invited to the cool parties anymore. Very few people intentionally hurt others, because very few people want to be thought of as a loser.

A more grounded version would see humans gradually becoming pets because it was the best option rather than by the aliens turning those that fight them the hardest into slaves.

That’s what I thought HDG was before today! That’s what I wanted, not apolitical subslop. I’ve been seriously misled by my friend who’s into this fandom!

Also, the name sucks. A human domestication guide would be a resource for affini. The name implies an affini point of view. I was so shocked when I learned florets are almost always the point of view character and there’s nothing in this setting for people who want to keep humans as pets. What’s the point of the name then!

I haven’t read any HDG yet. I was planning to at some point, but after hearing they try to avoid writing about politics, I’ve lost interest. Science fiction has always been political, and it needs to be taken seriously. We can’t be treating slavery uncritically, even in kink, or we become accustomed to destructive ways of thinking. We should use science fiction as a tool to look within ourselves from a new perspective, and develop our ideas of right and wrong. If we’re into bondage and pet play, then we should use science fiction to examine what that kink means to us and come to understand ourselves better.

I like The Culture. Culture Minds keep humans as pets, but more like free range cats than like dogs. The humans have absolute freedom to stay or go as they please, and are treated like small and weak equals, not property. It’s definitely not slavery, it’s anarcho-communism.

Human Domestication Guide is a collaborative writing project about alien plant dommy mummies who keep human pets and do lots of imperialism, but nice. Instead of killing political dissidents, they use mind control pheromones and forcefem them

I would think if I were a sub, I would want dommes in my community writing hot stories for me. Subs need doms. They should try to welcome dommes into the community.

Subs who hate politics writing domme characters who are only ever portrayed interacting with their subs is… well I can’t possibly believe how that would actually be a gratifying story. In my experience, sex is way more fun when your partner enjoys it too.

I actually appreciate that rule for a kink setting. I think people like Elon Musk who sexualise breeding are disgusting and one step removed from pedophiles. And if you allow child characters in your smut, those people will try to infiltrate your community. Got any other examples?

Proton’s official Reddit account posted a now-deleted comment stating that “Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.”

Within hours, Proton deleted its response across social media accounts, stating that the post — which started with the words “Here is our official response” — was in fact “removed because it was not actually an official statement.” The reply went on to say: “Our policy is that official accounts cannot be used to express personal political opinions. If it happens by mistake, we correct it as soon as we notice it.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/proton-mail-andy-yen-trump-republicans/

I sure hope someone was fired for that blunder!

(he wasn’t)

You would not believe the rabbit hole you sent me on today. Or maybe you would. Here’s the end of it: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/36083095

I’m mostly mad that the cool dommy plant ladies I heard about aren’t cool or hot at all. I’m only attracted to three dimensional characters, I can’t believe these submissives would make a perfectly good alien species and then neuter their presentation by being all apolitical

All science fiction is political. Taking politics out of sci-fi just produces a thoughtless reification of the dominant local culture. In this case, it looks like a thoughtless reification of imperialism.

Hey, I’ll have you know fetish fanfics and community writing projects can be amazing. Look at SCP’s Antimemetics Division, or… um… well I want to give an example of the former but I don’t want to make my kink list known to lemmy…

But anyway, if HDG writers can spend 10 hours worldbuilding a feminine plant penis but draw the line at portraying the character doing her job… well I’m afraid the transbians have re-invented misogyny. Fetishising a character whose internal world you refuse to explore is what men have been doing to women for the past 3000 years. We’re just reducing dominant women to sex objects instead of all women this time.

See, I knew that when I first heard of them months ago, but just today I learned apparently the Affini aren’t the protagonists? Apparently it’s against the wiki rules to write stories about Affini culture and politics, because their whole society outside of the florets is noodle incidents?

I assumed the Affini were nuanced and relatable characters because I need to understand someone’s internality in order to goon to them, but apparently the fanbase is all submissives who don’t like to think about politics?

I gotta say, if that’s the case I prefer the Culture a million times more. Minds keep humans as pets but also have political intrigues going on that the story is actually about. And they can still be hot!

You’ll probably learn a lot from looking up attachment theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_theory

https://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html

You’re welcome!

When you make an account on any social media moderated by someone else, you’re putting them in a position of power over you. We haven’t yet figured out a technology for social media without these hierarchies, and until we do, the only choice we can make is who to give power over ourselves.

People want you to make an informed and measured choice on who to give power over yourself.