i hate how reward systems never work for me like i can’t just say “if i finish this assignment i can have a cookie” bc my brain is like “…..or u could just have one right now” and i can’t argue with that logic
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. Kids who grew up in the 90s manga boom weren’t old enough to get scanners and the like, so the first webcomics were Newspaper comics based on nerdy things.
Like General Protection Fault, which was an even nerdier version of Dilbert.
And, of course, 1999′s Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade’s success would inspire a million “two dudes on a couch playing video games” clones.
A dude saw Penny Arcade and convinced his artist friend to make a comic with him. He wanted a standard 4-panel comic just like in the newspaper. But his friend was a huge weeb, and wanted to have four vertical panels like in Japanese 4koma comics. So they found a compromise format and started a comic in 2000.
Megatokyo had a lot of video game jokes early on, but quickly morphed into being about anime stuff, which happened to be pretty popular. In lieu of video game jokes, it introduced some light sex humor, a woman with huge boobs who wanted to fuck the gamer dude, and a sentient android that everyone accepted as normal because it was a silly comic and a lot of early-2000s internet humor tended towards randomness.
So you had these two really popular webcomics with elements that had obvious appeal: Dudes on a couch playing video games, sexy chicks with huge boobs who wanted to bang the MC, robots, and a weird square format that happened to be easier to read at lower resolutions. But could these elements be combined? One man dared to dream they could. And in 2002 he made his dream a reality
Given what a joke it’s rightfully since become, I feel the need to emphasize that CAD was one of the big early webcomics, and helped inspire it’s own share of imitators. It’s probably fair to say that it was more influential than even Penny Arcade, in that it had more elements that could be slavishly copied and passed around.
(If you ever wondered why it took so long for anyone in Questionable Content to acknowledge the weirdness of all the robots, it’s because random unexplained robots were really popular in webcomics in the early 2000s)
Meanwhile, it its own little isolated corner of the internet, Bob and George was popularizing “sprite comics”, a genre that consisted of itself,8-Bit Theater the next year, and a trillion shitty comics not worth mentioning. These were less influential than the Penny Arcade ==> Megatokyo ==> CAD ==> Questionable Content progression, but even this early the tiny webcomic scene was start to grow and split. Questionable Content was much more grounded than other webcomics at the time, and it’s rom-com plot was a big step away from the gag-a-day strips, but its influence was dulled because a bunch of other comics were starting to spring up. In the early 2000s, everyone was reading the same things because there were so few comics worth your time, but by the mid-2000s you were starting to see some quality.
You were also starting to see people getting serious about monetization. Scott McCloud’s dream of selling your comics for ten cents a pop and making bank in volume had crashed into the twin peaks of “most comics are also good and they’re free” and “credit cards charge fees, idiot”. Some of the better, more respected comics started joining together into one site with all of them that you needed to pay to access, kind of like how Slipshine works now except without the porn.
This didn’t work out financially, and it also meant that the best webcomics of the mid-2000s like Digger and Narbonic had really small audiences because you couldn’t read them without paying a fee first. Advertising was less useless then than it is now, but times were tough for the webcomics business in the pre-Patreon days. But some webcomics realized that they could find a profitable niche by appealing to new audiences. Instead of the straight white boys who made up the general webcomics audience, they’d reach out to a new demographic:
Perverts!
And, more specifically,
Furries!
Because furries really wanted furry content, and they were willing to pay for it. Pay a lot for it. Furry cheesecake comics prospered, and even though they didn’t have mainstream success, they were pulling it the big bucks compared to your average video game comic. People were starting to realize that 1000 hardcore fans was better than 100,000 casual fans, and a lot of comics started searching for a niche. (This is kind of related to webcomics becoming more progressive/inclusive a bit later, but that’s a whole ‘nother essay that I’m not the one to write)
These webcomics were pretty tame PG-13 stuff like you’d see in the shounen manga its creators were fans of, with nary a nipple to be seen, and a lot of them would die out in favor of straight-up porn.
In the late 2000s, art students realized that making a webcomic was a great way to build a portfolio, and we were hit with the Great Boom Of Webcomics By People Who Can Actually Draw. In 2003, that TwoKinds art was not only acceptable, it was top-tier for a free comic
By 2006 it was not the top tier
By 2008 it was no longer acceptable.
The world of webcomics became flooded with high-quality work by actual artists who’d gone to school and everything. The first generation of webcomics creators no longer ruled as the comics everyone read. Doctor Fun, the first-ever webcomic, ended in 2006. So did Narbonic and Mac Hall. Applegeeks, one of the most successful PA clones, ended in 2010 alongside 8-Bit Theater. Ctrl+Alt+Delete ended and rebooted to the interest of no one.
While in 2001, a bad artist could build a following just by updating regularly and slowly improving, that became a lot harder to do as the Bush Administration ended. There were too many brilliant artists making great content for someone to break onto the scene with simple art or sprites. And one day a lot of people gave up on ever being able to make a successful webcomic if their panels didn’t look like a magic the gathering card.
And it just so happened that that day, the 13th of April 2009, was a young man’s birthday…
So in world history we're going over Spanish and American imperialism in the Philippines, and a bunch of kids keep saying how it 'helped' us. They say things like 'without Europeans, they'd still be living in the jungle' and other things of that nature.. As a filipinx, how can I address how wrong that is with them?
Good lord I’d like to recite my debate speech about how colonization fucked everything up.
1) Colonization is the direct cause of colorism in the Philippines.
It’s all rooted back to how the Spaniards differentiated us by putting us into categories according to skin tone. Lighter Filipinxs got better *house* jobs and darker Filipinxs got the hard outside labor.
2) It was the genocide of our culture and writing system.
Baybayin was the lost pre-colonial writing system before Spain. By the time Spain came, they were surprised at how we could read and write. Men and women.
Know what that means? It was more of an egalitarian society.
But oh no. We are just savages who lived in the jungle before the white saviors came.
3) The Philippines has been constantly exploited for over 500 years.
We’ve been colonized over and over and over again. Taken for our location and our resources. They made us hate our skin, hate our culture, and embrace everything that is white.
I need to make a longer post about this cause arguments like this really piss me the fuck off cause the more I read up on this topic, the more I realize how much the root cause of racism and colorism stems from colonization.
And the self-hate is passed down from generation to generation. You will get treated better if you’re light-skinned. Pale is beautiful. Brown is ugly.
This is something we’re told and grow up seeing and it’s all because some fucking white assholes imposed that on us.
We barely know any of our history cause it was all wiped out and forgotten. They didn’t do shit to help us.
They exploited us.
-Leah
4) The Philippines already had a strong and varied culture, economy, trade, writing system, and political setup. Though we weren’t a united country, the people of the Philippine islands had their own governments and systems of trade. Barangays (villages, named after the balangay, the first known form of transportation and settlement of the Filipin@ people) were lead by leaders, known as datu or rajah or etc., depending on where they were from. Barter trade was already popular in the country; we traded with the Malays and the Chinese long before the Spaniards came. We had baybayin, only one of the hundreds of writing systems created by pre-colonial Filipin@s. In the Filipino culture, men and women were fighters, leaders, and spirit-people (aka babaylan or katalonan). We were rich with gold – that was one of the main reasons why other countries traded with us. We could make jewelry, pottery, clothes even, out of all the gold we had in our country. The Philippines was already going strong before the Spaniards came and literally messed shit up and burned it all to the ground.
When they came, we weren’t allowed to worship our own deities. Anyone found guilty of paganism had theirwhole villages burned down.The Spanish threw away and burned down anything to do with our animistic religion and previous culture. That’s why we know so little about our pre-colonial history – because it was buried by our colonizers.
5) Colonialism set up poverty in the Philippines. Firstly, Spain and America exploited us for our resources (coffee, sugar, wood, etc.) in their “free trade,” which allowed them to do trade and business without any form of tax; on the other hand, Filipinos were heavily taxed for their trade with their colonists. Secondly, the Philippines was forced into the wars America was involved with because of its status as an American colony – America used us (and still uses us) as a military base, mooched off our natural resources such as wood and rock, and turned us into a battle ground for its wars in Asia. Also, because of our status as a colony, Japan attacked us, burned down entire cities, raped women, tortured and beheaded millions of Filipin@s, threw babies into the air and caught them with bayonets, and tortured us into submission, among others.
Of course, Spain did a lot of stuff like that in its 333 years of colonization, but the American and Japanese occupations were more recent and, in turn, had a greater effect on our economy. After the wars, the Philippines was left bereft of resources, security, and protection; we were forced to rely on America for our rebuilding. Though we were supposedly given independence, America still controlled the government and used us as puppets.
6) Long story short, colonialism set up the “colonial mentality” of my country, which has been passed down from generation to generation of Filipin@. We've been forced to love our colonizers, or else risk torture and death.
1946 — the commonwealth congress adds an amendment to the Bell Trade Act that pegs the US dollar to the PH peso, grants US corporations rights to openly exploit PH natural resources “free of customs duty,” and prohibits PH from manufacturing/selling/exporting products that may compete with US imports/exports. This went on until the 1970s, with US congress threatening to withhold post-war rebuilding funds unless the act is ratified.
Here are some examples of the things our colonizers stole/did to us. I’m not an expert mind you but holy shit does colonialism in the Philippines irk me so much. I’mma put this in points so it’ll be easier. I’ll try not to keep this long (but let’s face it my rage is long)
Colonialism set back Feminism in the Philippines
ok way back before Spain decided to fuck shit up. As OP has stated, the Philippines had an egalitarian society. Women learned and were taught skills just as much as men. Even the reigning nobility in certain parts of the Philippines during that time ruled equally. Kings sought advise from their Queen’s regarding the selling of land. Not to mention inheritance were shared equally regardless of the child’s gender.
Not to mention way before Spain and America came, Women had the rights to property, be chiefs of their tribes, marry who they want, divorce if they so choose and their children bore their names.
One of the highest positions in the community was mostly given to women as well, the Baybaylan, they were the shamans/healers/religious leaders of a given tribe. Everyone in their community looked up to them and often sought for them in times of illness and drought. Then the Spanish came, they were intimidated by the power/influence the baybaylan had over the “savages” so what they did was spread awful rumors about the baybaylan and coined the term of calling them Bruha (meaning witch). Also virginity was not a pre-requisite to be a baybaylan most of the time it was married women who were baybaylans.
Kalingas, powerful positions open to all genders, were like the political envoys/decision makers of pre-colonial Philippines. They made pacts with other tribes and if the pact was ever broken, the Kailnga gets to decide the punishment for the offender.
(well guess what went to shit once Spain came…that’s right everything I just listed.)
(yup no helping here, more like dragging us down to your level Spain)
Basically if anybody would read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo would understand how Spanish Colonialism affected the Philippines. greed, rape and abuse were rampant during those times.
America “helping” the Philippines
“Litte-brown Americans” is the word used by most Americans during that time…
America basically bamboozled us when they bought us from Spain. Like literally the Revolutionaries were promised freedom and they were preparing for said independence when they agreed to get help from the Americans. Then the Americans went on and basically said “oh, it’s just for awhile, just till you get on your feet and build a new government blah blah blah”….and that hold stretched till WWII.
And when WWII was over and the Japanese were to pay us reparation for all the things they did to us. We demanded a reparation like say around $6,000,000 (not actual amount) but since America needed Japan to rehabilitate quickly the amount was lowered to say $4,000,000 (not actual amount). Which is basically a slap to the face of the Filipinos.
Bell-Trade Act was utter shit. (I studied this act for so long and holy shit was it shit. I mean if you look up the word unfair you would the Bell-Trade Act in big bold letters)
Not to mention, the American government promised compensation for those Filipinos and Chinese who were in the resistance movement. They did to some extent but only for those resistance movements in their records. They disregarded the records kept in the Philippine Army. It was only just last year did the American government finally considered the records in the Philippine Army (actual thanks, Obama). Sadly most of the veterans are long gone. Only a handful of them are left. It pains me every single time I see these veterans crying because they witnessed so much and the Americans just basically took them for granted.
Effects on present times
Colonial mentality is rampant as hell here. Every bloody commercial you see here is 90% how to get whiter skin and straighter hair. (normally, Filipinos have darker tans and wavy/curly hair)
edit: forgot to add sources War Veterans: source, source,
Most of these are what I remember from my Philippines & Foreign Relations class
Do you know how good it feels to finally see this on this social networking platform. If you need super hardcore evidence on the negative effects of imperialism, you look at our country because god, I don’t see them leaving any time soon.
so I’ve been meaning to put this on tumblr and keep forgetting but, in the campaign I’m running my sister is playing an orc fighter, and one of the options you can pick for a fighter’s signature weapon is that it “glows in the presence of [fill in the blank].”
I was like, “oh, that’s funny because it’s a reference to that sword in The Hobbit that glows in the presence of orcs. Your weapon probably doesn’t glow in the presence of orcs.”
to which she responded, “FUCK YEAH it does.”
So now we have in the party an orc fighter with a club that glows in the presence of orcs. Or, as far as the character is concerned, a club that glows. It’s been in her family for generations since some ancestor won it in a battle, and it’s just always glowed. She has a sack to put it in when she’s trying to be stealthy.
name one native american intellectual off the top of your head, name one native american actor or actress off the top of your head, name one native american senator, one native american news anchor, or an author or a tv personality or a singer or a poet or a comedian, name a single native american teacher you’ve had, can you? probably not
ok so now think of one native american cartoon character you know of or a sports team relating to native americans whether it’s their actual name or their team logo, or a town you live in or near with a “native” name bet a lot of these things came to you right away i bet you didn’t even have to think
needing native representation in media, education and government are not decoy issues, the commercialization and appropriation of native cultures are not decoy issues, the lack of native representation is institutional oppression at work
White people specifically need to reblog this, I don’t CARE if it makes you uncomfortable–that’s the point. Listen to Native voices about Native issues PLEASE
MY TIME HAS COME
Her name was Thocmetony.
They called her Sarah.
I live in the same place where Sarah (Thocmetony) Winnemucca lived and breathed and I grew up in schools that never said her name. My teachers discussed Nevada’s early history by the means of how many pounds of silver the mines produced, and the “unfortunate but civilized” cannibals that died in our mountains (the Donner Party).
A woman who should have been The Most Famous Native American Woman by the end of the American-Imperialist era, Sarah Winnemucca has been all but erased from the US historical narrative. Half of the landmarks in northern Nevada are named after her, her grandfather Truckee, and her father Chief Winnemucca*, but the majority of our schools don’t bother to mention them. (*Paiutes don’t have chiefs; their white neighbors insisted.)
Sarah did so, so much. Often for so little - she won so many battles that were later ignored, overturned, or “officially” recognized but not locally. The freshly post-civil-war US government sought to economize the Native struggle, and Sarah fought back with the only thing she was allowed to fight with - words.
Like any Paiute survived the unpredictability of food and weather in the Nevada High Dessert, Sarah survived every battle she lost. She was a tree that sprouted two new branches to every limb cut off; she was a princess by White Title but also by the spirit of a willpower so great, the only definition that could be remotely applicable for it would have to be “R O Y A L”. She had no weapons but a voice, which was “very pretty to hear” according to many who heard her. (And she was heard by very many.)
Sarah is most known for her lectures. She traveled up and down the west and east coast, in an era that didn’t always include rail travel - in an era that didn’t always include horse travel. Years before any Native Americans began to gain any stage-fame, Sarah was preforming in little rooms crowded with 1860′s Western-Victorian women as (The Princess Sarah). In reality, the performance was a girl dressed in Fake Indian Clothes White People Expect lecturing them on the Paiute people. She would tell stories that charmed her audience but quickly focused lectures on the struggles of Native People, and Paiutes especially. Sarah lived during a time when it was appropriate for the local newspaper to suggest that they deal with the “Indian problem” via extermination.
But she did so much more than lecture. Sarah understood that her attention was needed more-or-less everywhere - the wives of the Men in Charge, the Armies of the Men in Charge, and the President of The Men In Charge.
She traveled back and forth between Native war parties during the Bannock War, working directly with U.S. Army Generals, endlessly negotiating for peace. She brokered for food whenever the government and/or locals decided to cut off their food supply (which was astoundingly often). In addition to learning English, she could to read and write (a time when illiteracy was common), and then learned Spanish after that. Just. You know. To talk suffrage with the Mexicans. Nbd.
She went to the President of the United States as an official “royal princess” with her father Chief** Winnemucca. She often helped beg for more land to grow more food, or to at least have the government supply it- the dessert is not an easily survivable place. Paiutes were forced to stay on reservations, and in the dessert, there just aren’t enough birds for bellies. (**Add “king” to the list of things that are Not Paiute, right up there with Chief.)
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE
Ya’ll know what an Indian School is? Cultural eugenics. It was a program that kidnapped Native American children, stripped them of their given names, and taught them to act More White. Kids were shamed for doing anything that might be deemed “savage.” Sarah fought to have Paiute children taught by Paiute teachers. She did it, too, until all “Indian children” were required by law to attend boarding schools. Regardless of this loss, in my experience modern Paiutes are hugely into supporting the education of their children and preserving their culture.
NOT ONLY was she super politically involved as an activist, but Sarah was also pretty damn bold with her personal life. She married several times, and to white men. Biracial couples were illegal at several points in her life. Homegirl had SEVERAL, bless her heart.
Tl;dr Sarah Winnemucca should be a common household name, more common than Sacajawea or Pocahontas. She worked tirelessly for peace. Don’t erase her from our narrative.
