just as much as I’d expect from the whitebred clout-chasing stenographers who have the nerve to call themselves “journalists”; they are no real allies, that’s for sure
No no – literal ones would absolutely be a good plan, cuz MAN does Mary need to get laid. Would hopefully mellow her out, and would also poke a big hole in her holier-than-thou attitude.
Unfortunately it definitely seems to work in reverse. I remember at the height of BLM this one white lefty influencer got a new boyfriend and then suddenly became more and more right wing.
I was like “Wow, some black dude really should’ve taken one for the team”
We know they made out in the hallway and she tricked him into getting his cock out in the women’s dorm (by saying his pants were woke, because he’s apparently 100% braindead), but we don’t know they fucked.
To be fair, supporting the US military while raking in big bucks is orders of magnitude worse than than anything an individual Christo-fascist can accomplish. At least Mary is powerless. Carla’s parents are actively murdering children for profit.
Mary is a pariah (for good reason) college student. She specifically IS powerless as an individual at this moment (Which is good). Yeah, I would say Carla’s parents are worse than a bigoted college student even if they invest their blood money into bettering the situation for American marginalized people (it doesn’t change the fact that their tech was used to murder third world marginalized people) — but that doesn’t reflect on Carla. She’s also just a college student. You can’t help who raised you, and her parents were supportive of her being a girl and have a loving relationship with her so obviously she will feel conflicted and confused and have all sorts of feelings to realize that her loving parents are war profiteers. She’s, what, 19? Her parents are awesome – they fought the government for her!! And her parents have the blood of countless other children on their hands. Those things aren’t exclusive. I really hope this leads to an arc for Carla realizing all this and struggling with the contradictory feelings it causes in her, and that the commentariat are normal about a 18/19 year old trans girl not being the perfect girl and exhibiting growing pains.
To amend, her parents are awesome TO HER. I do not think tech industrialist defense contractors are at all awesome as people no matter how good they are to their children.
I have to agree, while Mary is terrible as a single person, Carla’s parents’ company making tech for the US military is far worse. Ruttech is harming way more people than Mary can at this point.
considering what mary’s like, unless somehow there’s a twist of mary’s parents being the most hippie dippie chill ppl ever, i can imagine them also donating to ppl like that
If you zoom in, you can see there’s a bob for the shorter layers and bangs, and then a second border for what looks to be a front view of the ponytail behind her head
We’re just seeing her head from more of a straight-on angle, so the ponytail is located directly behind her. The bottom of the ponytail is above her shoulders.
I mean, saying that her parents aren’t exactly good people since they’re billionaires and presumably kept more money than they should have, was less than I expected when you said they predicted this, since the strip is referring to her family having military contracts.
Not wrong, but more fortune cookie than fortune teller levels of predictions.
Like if Booster were in the strip, I’d think they’d give her a look, but not an “I told you so”.
Fwiw, Jocelyn and Mary and presumably anybody that pays even a bit of attention to business news knows Ruttech is a defence contractor, its not a secret.
well it’s not a huge stretch to be like “billionaire ceos/businesses have probably done morally gray things to stay rich” but booster would know best if their sibling would have an issue with dating someone with parents like that
something -something ‘date an orphan/no contact with parents, (slightly) less baggage that way’ 8D
Ace people can kiss. Granted, I’m ace and I don’t kiss, but some ace people do. Also I’m just making a joke, these two don’t seem the kissy type but maybe they’re saving it for a special moment you know?
Wouldn’t be surprised if Mary is correct about this one thing. Maybe Carla can convince her parents to make Ruttech stop selling stuff to the military.
i mean, yo ucan have loving parents but i imagine even if carla is a geniusherself, not everyone would listen to a relative’s business idea unless she had a replacement on standby that’d make them just as much money
i mean that ‘hm’ doesn’t sound the most positive reaction to it so i’m sure charlie is politically/socially aware of some things even if it’s just booster lecturing/her being zoned out half the time
world is vast/wide enough to where someone terrible would have an overlapping opinion of something ‘good/popular’ (although the population has also grown enough to where ppl could be wrong about every single thing in their life and still function lol xP)
One awkward conversation with the parents coming up…right after the great sign swap prank…and after the great protest…and whatever other distractions come up.
Carla isn’t ignorant of her privilege, and yeah, that her parents’ company is potentially fairly dubious in some of their dealings. Guess it could be worse, though, like they still probably don’t come close to touching Nestle in evil dealings.
Is she? Aware of her privilege, I mean?
I haven’t particularly seen that.
But then, she’s also not responsible for what her parents’ company does. She is profiting from it, and if she doesn’t want to be complicit, at some point she’ll have to cut off the money, but I think it’s reasonable to not do that until she’s finished college and stands on her own feet.
No that’s quitter talk! We just need an Oceans Eleven style caper! Carla, Charlie, and Dina, sneaking into whatever RutTech office has the parent or two. The more convoluted the plan, the better!
I do wonder as to the level of complicitness. Not that there’s a happy, carefree level of shaking hands with devils, but neither are all sins equal.
“The military uses Ruttech software” is one thing, but “Ruttech makes custom missile guidance systems” or something would be way worse.
In either case, Booster did foreshadow that this would likely be an issue, and going by Carla’s expressions here, I do kind of suspect Carla anticipates it’s not a baseless concern.
Almost any weapons systems for the US are going to be bespoke designs, for security reasons, so unfortunately, her folks are neck-deep in the ugly shit, almost certainly.
I mean, from what we know, Ruttech makes all kinds of complex hardware and the software that comes with it (presumably). (And they the social media and the gig economy apps, don’t they? Honestly, Ruttech has always sounded evil as hell.)
If the Dumbiverse is anything like ours, Ruttech is in it to their necks. I don’t see how *any* company in that sector wouldn’t be.
I don’t know what Carla would do about it – I don’t think she can do anything – but I can see why Charly is upset.
Very curious to see what the resolution on this one is gonna be.
Carla isn’t, like, personally responsible for her parents’ decisions. College sophomores simply don’t have that kind of sway with tech billionaires. But that distinction likely doesn’t matter to Charlie and that’s entirely fair.
Don’t know where this is going to go but I’ll be honest, “explore the frightening chain of causality and complicity that lies at the bedrock of capitalism” doesn’t feel…within scope, let’s say, for this college drama webcomic.
Yeah, I don’t think there can be a resolution per se.
At some point in her life (after college) Carla is going to have to make a decision if she wants to be complicit with the evil shit her parents’ company does (I don’t see how there wouldn’t be absolutely atrocious shit with a company of that size in that sector). But I don’t think she can be expected to do that now.
i know what you mean. it really doesn’t feel like this will come to any sort of satisfying conclusion at large. like, carla and charlie may reach resolution in some way, but even IF willis pulls a “and then ruttech stopped giving assets to the military forever”, the military will just then get their goodies from someone else. the larger problem doesn’t actually go away. and then when we inevitably just go back to college relationship drama it’ll feel like we’re sweeping all that under the rug.
i dunno. i’ve been wrong before. maybe this’ll go in some crazy direction i never even thought of. but i’m with you, i really don’t see it happening, unless this comic dramatically changes what it’s about. and, like, willis HAS done that before, we were about superheroes for a hot minute, but then we went back. robin, too, feels like a good example of how this is gonna go. congress is still out there doing their nonsense, robin’s just not In Congress anymore. the problem is still there, she’s just no longer profiting from it.
got kinda carried away there, sorry. tl;dr i agree.
Even if Ruttech stopping selling to the military somehow caused an end to the US military entirely along with peace in Bulmeria, that would still be unsatisfying, since it would be pure wish fulfillment fantasy.
But the same applies to things like the protest: if it’s about making the university divest from military companies, that’s going to be a best an incremental step in changing policy. Especially on military actions by other countries. Doesn’t mean that it’s not a worthwhile step. It’s just incremental.
Yes this. It’s important to see characters try to make change within their personal scope, else the world (theirs and ours) will be populated by nihilists who think nothing’s worth doing unless you solve an entire worldwide issue by yourself. Those can be great stories too, I love a good world-saving plot, but not necessary or even desirable for activism in media to be “do nothing or solve everything”.
Explore? No. Jump to broad conclusions on while handwaving any real complexity? Hold my beer.
How many degrees of separation does there have to be between the bad thing, and you being complicit? There is a line somewhere. Anyone who says there is not a line, simply has stopped thinking of how connected they are. Not to mention, we are given really zero information about what is happening in Bulmeria, other than a blanket truth that whatever is happening there is bad and must be protested, because the protagonists are protesting it and the antagonists are not.
Is Ruttech evil because they provide technology to companies which make weapons which they sell to people who use weapons who then kill innocent people? That feels, to me, like saying that a steel refinery is evil because they sell their steel to Smith & Wesson who use it to make handguns which are sold to individuals which are then used in school shootings. That’s the same number of degrees of separation that Pepsi has, selling their soda to Chick-Fil-A, whose owners donate to organizations who, among other things, are generally hostile to LGBTQ.
And if they are evil, than what of the people who also benefit from the technology of Ruttech, or that steel refinery, or drink Pepsi? Oh, wait, no, that’s you and me. Well, scratch that, *I* can’t be responsible, *I’m* holding a sign. Phew.
Not to mention the whole complexity of “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” There is a fantastic argument for why we should not spend ridiculous amounts of money in coming up with more and more advanced ways to kill each other. Yet deciding to stop advancing and investing in that technology does not automatically mean that less people will die; rather, the opposite. If my tribe refuses to go from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, that doesn’t mean that my neighbors will.
Layers and layers and layers of complexity that can’t simply be boiled down to the harsh black and white that we’re all looking for.
Very true. All of us, (if we live in the US), pay taxes that help buy those missiles. Most of us have voted for representatives or presidents that have approved those purchases and the uses to which they are put. Are we less complicit than the Ruttens?
“There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.”
But we still have to eat.
To be honest, in this kind of situation, I’d be more concerned with Ruttech’s lobbying efforts than what they manufacture. If they’re pushing the US government for more support for Bulmeria so that Bulmeria has the funds to buy more arms made with Ruttech components, I think that’s a much bigger deal.
But even that’s an oversimplification. What is the situation in Bulmeria? Who’s attacking who? What is at stake?
There have been plenty of situations in history in which “standing to the side, not getting involved,” has resulted in far more deaths, or resulted in despots ruling their country through fear. War is not automatically evil, and pacifism not automatically good. There are always exceptions.
And for a corporation – especially a publicly traded one – the pursuit of profit is no more evil than the pursuit of air for a human being. It is not necessarily evil for a corporation to do something “because of profit;” it just means that the company CAN do it because it’s profitable. So whether Ruttech lobbying for support in Bulmeria is good or bad wholly depends on whether support in Bulmeria is good or bad, and not simply because they’re doing it for more profits.
Of course, if Ruttech is just lobbying for it simply because they don’t *know* if it’s good or bad, but business is business, then it’s bad, because that is literally advocating for senseless war.
Bulmeria is a pretty transparent stand in for Israel/Palestine: references to genocide, divestment, campus encampment protests, “Bulmeria has a right to defend itself”, so while the details of the fictional situation haven’t been made explicit, we can extrapolate.
It’s absolutely true that pacificism isn’t always the answer, even in the recent US past we should look at the very different situations in Israel and in Ukraine before deciding the military is entirely evil.
Corporations are run by people. They don’t get a special exemption from moral questions because they’re organized into a corporation. But yeah, mostly it’s bad if they’re lobbying for more arm sales because of profit, regardless of other concerns.
Our taxes also go toward funding Activision Blizzard (the Overwatch one, whether we want them to or not. That corporation’s official headquarters is a literal basement in Holland (which is not in the United States), but through loophole fuckery they manage to get millions in United States tax returns.
I won’t pretend to understand all of the no-doubt complicated ins and outs of US tax laws. What I know is what I’ve said, and the result is a billions-a-year corporation also qualifying as a welfare queen. Maybe they’ve changed that since I learned about it, but it’s inexcusable and unjustifiable for a toy company that large to get my hard-earned tax dollars when I can barely afford to live. They’re not paying in, so they don’t deserve to get paid out.
I cannot believe that they’re getting extra funding and yet we still haven’t gotten a new Lost Vikings game since, like, 1997. I pay taxes! They should be working for me!
And if you think that’s bad, check out almost any randomly chosen video by Stephanie Sterling. Tax evasion isn’t even the worst thing they do for money.
We pay taxes that help buy those missiles (as well as funding schools, funding medicaid, funding food benefits, etc.) because if we don’t pay those taxes we get put in federal prison. How complicit is someone when their actions are spurred on by threat of violence?
We vote for politicians who approve these uses and purchases because our system is broken and we effectively have two choices. The politician who will approve these uses and purchases or the other guy who will also approve of these uses and purchases while also defending schools, libraries, putting a quack in charge of public health, increasing discrimination against multiple minority groups, and other horrendous actions. Refusing to vote for asshole A instead of asshole B is a contributing factor to asshole B currently being the one in the White House making everyone’s life far worse than asshole A would have.
Until the Democratic party stops running assholes or something is done to break the two party stranglehold there isn’t an alternative to voting for representatives or presidents that have approved those purchases and the uses to which they are put.
We are once again left with no choice which makes it hard to see complicity in the act of voting for asshole A instead of asshole B. On the other hand the people who voted for asshole B knew exactly what they were voting for and chose to make things worse and are complicit in the actions of asshole B.
It never stopped anyone before but I suppose it would still be better if we didn’t not invent more ways to allow people the illusion that they can get less blood on their hands via more efficient weapons vis a vis the old ways of mass area bombing.
I think recent events have shown you can also absolutely use all kinds of weapons, smart or dumb or even not officially weapons, on people you are not supposed to intend to target.
it’s worth noting that blanket arms embargoes are not magic bullets to ending conflicts – they tend to benefit the side that already had an advantage – see Bosnia.
Not sure how they can help the side that has the advantage when the embargo is against that side and the embargoed weapons are part of what is giving that side the advantage.
More accurately, you can hit people with any kind of weapons, then claim, “That didn’t happen, anyone saying it did is spreading propaganda and is probably a Nazi!”
I say chuck ’em all into a volcano, smart or dumb. Cast that shit into the fires of Mount Doom, we really don’t even need it. If you’re gonna kill someone, do it to their face, don’t be a wuss.
I miss my graphing calculator. Gave it to my niece when she needed it for school, since I was in college and done with math by then, and “I think it’s neat” didn’t seem to justify making my niece pay $100 so I could occasionally hit some buttons.
I remember there were a bunch of games you could play on a TI graphing calculator, and if you had the right cables someone with the same calculator could copy their games over to yours. I used mine more for playing games than for actual schoolwork.
“I can ignore this ethical dilemma. My girlfriend who has memory problems isn’t having a rare moment of holding onto a memory where my supportive parents were shown to be supporting war crimes. I just have to prank, prank Mary so good, yes that will solve everything”
does she have memory problem? from what we’ve seen it’s more of some ‘delayed reaction’ or some kinda adhd /motor function since she was like “oh carla, she’s my gf i think” versus “oh i think this redhead has vaguely been in the same room as me a fewtimes”
I thought her main problem was simply not paying much, or any, attention to the world around her or where she is in it? That’s how she manages to wander into almost any situation.
Wait. I know the joke is that Carla is refusing to sincerely reflect on her parents’ political sway involving the war. But this could be fire if she pulls it off. Carla could end the war with this prank. I mean not really but it’ll be funny.
sometimes bigots do or say the right thing for the wrong reasons. Racist extraordinare Eugene Talmadge once vetoed a bill to sterilize “mentally incompetent” people because he joked that his job as governor would drive him crazy. so a man who was normally extremely bigoted got rid of a eugenics bill (this was in the 1930s)
Oh no, a rare attack of conscience that cannot be resolved through pranks. But what if we could use pranks as a distraction from the judgment of our peers?
Loading ...
or push her down a flight of stairs
just a suggestion
Reactionary GETS SHOVED down TEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS (PRANK) (GONE WRONG)
She’ll substitute it for a improperly kerned sign.
Push her down an improperly kerned sign?
Improperly kerned stairs are really easy to trip on…
Make it even worse – stairs of variable width! xD
She’ll substitute it for a improperly kerned sign.
That’ll teach me to keep clicking when nothing is happening. Oddly I still got a “looks like you already said that” notice.
no need to get her hands dirty, set up a ruttech device to do it and see if it’ll change her mind
I can already see the news:
Anti Blumerian racism AT ALL TIME HIGH in Universities!
just as much as I’d expect from the whitebred clout-chasing stenographers who have the nerve to call themselves “journalists”; they are no real allies, that’s for sure
That’s the responsible thing to do here. Deescalate.
If this is a pun on broken escalators just being stairs, it’s solid gold.
Any plan to fuck with Mary is a good plan.
Except literal ones
No no – literal ones would absolutely be a good plan, cuz MAN does Mary need to get laid. Would hopefully mellow her out, and would also poke a big hole in her holier-than-thou attitude.
… I wouldn’t be so sure about that, fascists aren’t something you can just “fix” like that, unfortunately
Unfortunately it definitely seems to work in reverse. I remember at the height of BLM this one white lefty influencer got a new boyfriend and then suddenly became more and more right wing.
I was like “Wow, some black dude really should’ve taken one for the team”
I’ve heard of “fixed by snatch,” but “fixed by crank” is a new one.
Mary has been getting laid, remember Peter?
We know they made out in the hallway and she tricked him into getting his cock out in the women’s dorm (by saying his pants were woke, because he’s apparently 100% braindead), but we don’t know they fucked.
What did ever happen to Peter?🤔
Got crucified upside-down
Wow, Farmer McGregor really stopped messing around…
Listen, Carla: your parents don’t have to be righteous for Mary to be the fuckin worst.
+1
To be fair, supporting the US military while raking in big bucks is orders of magnitude worse than than anything an individual Christo-fascist can accomplish. At least Mary is powerless. Carla’s parents are actively murdering children for profit.
How much Ruttech blood money do they pour back into political lobbying? Hmmm
Mary’s powerless as an individual you say?
don’t be so sure, the alt-right are actually very small in number, but make up for it by being disproportionately influential,
they’re by no means the most powerful players in US politics, but in current circumstances they basically control the meta
they often feign stupidity to get people to laugh at them precisely because that gets ’em perceived as less dangerous than they actually are
Mary’s not really alt-right, she’s more of a theocratic fascist, and they are distressingly common.
Mary is a pariah (for good reason) college student. She specifically IS powerless as an individual at this moment (Which is good). Yeah, I would say Carla’s parents are worse than a bigoted college student even if they invest their blood money into bettering the situation for American marginalized people (it doesn’t change the fact that their tech was used to murder third world marginalized people) — but that doesn’t reflect on Carla. She’s also just a college student. You can’t help who raised you, and her parents were supportive of her being a girl and have a loving relationship with her so obviously she will feel conflicted and confused and have all sorts of feelings to realize that her loving parents are war profiteers. She’s, what, 19? Her parents are awesome – they fought the government for her!! And her parents have the blood of countless other children on their hands. Those things aren’t exclusive. I really hope this leads to an arc for Carla realizing all this and struggling with the contradictory feelings it causes in her, and that the commentariat are normal about a 18/19 year old trans girl not being the perfect girl and exhibiting growing pains.
To amend, her parents are awesome TO HER. I do not think tech industrialist defense contractors are at all awesome as people no matter how good they are to their children.
I have to agree, while Mary is terrible as a single person, Carla’s parents’ company making tech for the US military is far worse. Ruttech is harming way more people than Mary can at this point.
considering what mary’s like, unless somehow there’s a twist of mary’s parents being the most hippie dippie chill ppl ever, i can imagine them also donating to ppl like that
Willis has said (on… twitter, maybe?) that Mary’s parents are actually awesome people.
Is it just me or did Carla loose her ponytail temporarily in the wider shots?
I think it’s just the way her head is turned.
If you zoom in, you can see there’s a bob for the shorter layers and bangs, and then a second border for what looks to be a front view of the ponytail behind her head
I think it’s a wide and fluffy ponytail
We’re just seeing her head from more of a straight-on angle, so the ponytail is located directly behind her. The bottom of the ponytail is above her shoulders.
Yeah, and your parents disappear when they cover their eyes.
Yeah, I always thought that was weird.
Unfortunately not an inherited trait. 🙁
Wow, Booster was actually correct in predicting this. Charlie’s expression in this strip is very interesting
Link to where they predicted it? I don’t have as good a memory
Here ya go
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/01-everybodys-looking-for-nothing/namedrop/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/01-everybodys-looking-for-nothing/spent/
I mean, saying that her parents aren’t exactly good people since they’re billionaires and presumably kept more money than they should have, was less than I expected when you said they predicted this, since the strip is referring to her family having military contracts.
Not wrong, but more fortune cookie than fortune teller levels of predictions.
Like if Booster were in the strip, I’d think they’d give her a look, but not an “I told you so”.
Fwiw, Jocelyn and Mary and presumably anybody that pays even a bit of attention to business news knows Ruttech is a defence contractor, its not a secret.
Ruttech is basically Raytheon.
Found it:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/01-everybodys-looking-for-nothing/namedrop/
well it’s not a huge stretch to be like “billionaire ceos/businesses have probably done morally gray things to stay rich” but booster would know best if their sibling would have an issue with dating someone with parents like that
something -something ‘date an orphan/no contact with parents, (slightly) less baggage that way’ 8D
It’s okay Carla, it’s not like Charlie has to make out with your parents.
Pretty sure Charlie doesn’t make out with Carla. Carla’s ace.
Ace people can kiss. Granted, I’m ace and I don’t kiss, but some ace people do. Also I’m just making a joke, these two don’t seem the kissy type but maybe they’re saving it for a special moment you know?
Well, Carla’s also been super vocal (like she is with everything) about finding that stuff gross.
She finds sex gross yeah but I don’t recall her finding kissing gross? Also, again, I was just making a joke.
She just needs some time to process this. Maybe she needs to have a talk with Anh Dang
Was seriously just thinking that – Jacques/Willis nightly one -two punch lined up super well today.
Two protests going on. One bigger than the other. (least, i hope the campus protest is bigger)
heh, actually I think Carla and Anh would somehow implode, since Carla is the best and Anh thinks she’s the best. ~<3
Googling “Anh Dang” only gives me a concept artist that works for Riot Games (???)
They’re referring to a questionable content character
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5595
More context and why people are saying there is a parallel
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=5529
Wouldn’t be surprised if Mary is correct about this one thing. Maybe Carla can convince her parents to make Ruttech stop selling stuff to the military.
i mean, yo ucan have loving parents but i imagine even if carla is a geniusherself, not everyone would listen to a relative’s business idea unless she had a replacement on standby that’d make them just as much money
Best to not think of the moral compromises our parents made to make sure we grew up comfortable.
Or in Carla’s case…. extremely comfortable.
TBH I wonder. Likelihood of Charlie caring about this more than Carla anticipates?
for all I know Charlie may very well cease the opportunity to infiltrate Ruttech as an inside job >:D
*seize
goddammit NG coffee THEN comment coffee THEN comment
Seize the opportunity to infiltrate Ruttech would be such a great pun except everyone involved is ace so.
Seize the opportunity to cease Ruttech it is.
godspeed to them — if they play their cards right, they can stop a lot of exploitation and save millions of lives
Are some people both ACE and “non-bonary”?
Good on Charlie for putting the kibosh on someone trying to infiltrate her girlfriend’s family’s business
Now I want a trio caper, with Carla, Charlie, and Dina, sneaking into a RutTech facility.
i mean that ‘hm’ doesn’t sound the most positive reaction to it so i’m sure charlie is politically/socially aware of some things even if it’s just booster lecturing/her being zoned out half the time
Carla is not ready to face that reality. Probably something she can’t change with words. . . But, maybe if she pranked her parents though. . .
Well this is sinking as fast as it started
so, a sign that only says “CARLA”?
“MIC? more like prank complex”
The sign says “Carla” and then the sign’s pole reveals a hinge, bends closed, and sign swinging down and smacking Mary in the face.
“Must… avoid… character development… at all costs!”
She views herself as perfect the way she is now – ergo, if she changes, she will become flawed
too real too real
back back back back back
heartbreaking: the worst person you know just made a good point
world is vast/wide enough to where someone terrible would have an overlapping opinion of something ‘good/popular’ (although the population has also grown enough to where ppl could be wrong about every single thing in their life and still function lol xP)
One awkward conversation with the parents coming up…right after the great sign swap prank…and after the great protest…and whatever other distractions come up.
well assuming carlas have time to talk w/ her
This makes it VERY clear that her personality is also partly rooted in avoiding talking about… exactly… WHY her family is rich
Carla isn’t ignorant of her privilege, and yeah, that her parents’ company is potentially fairly dubious in some of their dealings. Guess it could be worse, though, like they still probably don’t come close to touching Nestle in evil dealings.
Is she? Aware of her privilege, I mean?
I haven’t particularly seen that.
But then, she’s also not responsible for what her parents’ company does. She is profiting from it, and if she doesn’t want to be complicit, at some point she’ll have to cut off the money, but I think it’s reasonable to not do that until she’s finished college and stands on her own feet.
Welp, Charlie furrowed her brow a single time. Guess the relationship is doomed.
No that’s quitter talk! We just need an Oceans Eleven style caper! Carla, Charlie, and Dina, sneaking into whatever RutTech office has the parent or two. The more convoluted the plan, the better!
I do wonder as to the level of complicitness. Not that there’s a happy, carefree level of shaking hands with devils, but neither are all sins equal.
“The military uses Ruttech software” is one thing, but “Ruttech makes custom missile guidance systems” or something would be way worse.
In either case, Booster did foreshadow that this would likely be an issue, and going by Carla’s expressions here, I do kind of suspect Carla anticipates it’s not a baseless concern.
One wonders how much military contract lobbying they did piggybacking on LGBTQ lobbying (or vice versa)
Almost any weapons systems for the US are going to be bespoke designs, for security reasons, so unfortunately, her folks are neck-deep in the ugly shit, almost certainly.
I mean, from what we know, Ruttech makes all kinds of complex hardware and the software that comes with it (presumably). (And they the social media and the gig economy apps, don’t they? Honestly, Ruttech has always sounded evil as hell.)
If the Dumbiverse is anything like ours, Ruttech is in it to their necks. I don’t see how *any* company in that sector wouldn’t be.
I don’t know what Carla would do about it – I don’t think she can do anything – but I can see why Charly is upset.
Can we *tell* if Charlie is upset? A furrowed brow is little to go on.
Very curious to see what the resolution on this one is gonna be.
Carla isn’t, like, personally responsible for her parents’ decisions. College sophomores simply don’t have that kind of sway with tech billionaires. But that distinction likely doesn’t matter to Charlie and that’s entirely fair.
Don’t know where this is going to go but I’ll be honest, “explore the frightening chain of causality and complicity that lies at the bedrock of capitalism” doesn’t feel…within scope, let’s say, for this college drama webcomic.
Yeah, I don’t think there can be a resolution per se.
At some point in her life (after college) Carla is going to have to make a decision if she wants to be complicit with the evil shit her parents’ company does (I don’t see how there wouldn’t be absolutely atrocious shit with a company of that size in that sector). But I don’t think she can be expected to do that now.
i know what you mean. it really doesn’t feel like this will come to any sort of satisfying conclusion at large. like, carla and charlie may reach resolution in some way, but even IF willis pulls a “and then ruttech stopped giving assets to the military forever”, the military will just then get their goodies from someone else. the larger problem doesn’t actually go away. and then when we inevitably just go back to college relationship drama it’ll feel like we’re sweeping all that under the rug.
i dunno. i’ve been wrong before. maybe this’ll go in some crazy direction i never even thought of. but i’m with you, i really don’t see it happening, unless this comic dramatically changes what it’s about. and, like, willis HAS done that before, we were about superheroes for a hot minute, but then we went back. robin, too, feels like a good example of how this is gonna go. congress is still out there doing their nonsense, robin’s just not In Congress anymore. the problem is still there, she’s just no longer profiting from it.
got kinda carried away there, sorry. tl;dr i agree.
Even if Ruttech stopping selling to the military somehow caused an end to the US military entirely along with peace in Bulmeria, that would still be unsatisfying, since it would be pure wish fulfillment fantasy.
But the same applies to things like the protest: if it’s about making the university divest from military companies, that’s going to be a best an incremental step in changing policy. Especially on military actions by other countries. Doesn’t mean that it’s not a worthwhile step. It’s just incremental.
Yes this. It’s important to see characters try to make change within their personal scope, else the world (theirs and ours) will be populated by nihilists who think nothing’s worth doing unless you solve an entire worldwide issue by yourself. Those can be great stories too, I love a good world-saving plot, but not necessary or even desirable for activism in media to be “do nothing or solve everything”.
Explore? No. Jump to broad conclusions on while handwaving any real complexity? Hold my beer.
How many degrees of separation does there have to be between the bad thing, and you being complicit? There is a line somewhere. Anyone who says there is not a line, simply has stopped thinking of how connected they are. Not to mention, we are given really zero information about what is happening in Bulmeria, other than a blanket truth that whatever is happening there is bad and must be protested, because the protagonists are protesting it and the antagonists are not.
Is Ruttech evil because they provide technology to companies which make weapons which they sell to people who use weapons who then kill innocent people? That feels, to me, like saying that a steel refinery is evil because they sell their steel to Smith & Wesson who use it to make handguns which are sold to individuals which are then used in school shootings. That’s the same number of degrees of separation that Pepsi has, selling their soda to Chick-Fil-A, whose owners donate to organizations who, among other things, are generally hostile to LGBTQ.
And if they are evil, than what of the people who also benefit from the technology of Ruttech, or that steel refinery, or drink Pepsi? Oh, wait, no, that’s you and me. Well, scratch that, *I* can’t be responsible, *I’m* holding a sign. Phew.
Not to mention the whole complexity of “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” There is a fantastic argument for why we should not spend ridiculous amounts of money in coming up with more and more advanced ways to kill each other. Yet deciding to stop advancing and investing in that technology does not automatically mean that less people will die; rather, the opposite. If my tribe refuses to go from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, that doesn’t mean that my neighbors will.
Layers and layers and layers of complexity that can’t simply be boiled down to the harsh black and white that we’re all looking for.
Very true. All of us, (if we live in the US), pay taxes that help buy those missiles. Most of us have voted for representatives or presidents that have approved those purchases and the uses to which they are put. Are we less complicit than the Ruttens?
“There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.”
But we still have to eat.
To be honest, in this kind of situation, I’d be more concerned with Ruttech’s lobbying efforts than what they manufacture. If they’re pushing the US government for more support for Bulmeria so that Bulmeria has the funds to buy more arms made with Ruttech components, I think that’s a much bigger deal.
But even that’s an oversimplification. What is the situation in Bulmeria? Who’s attacking who? What is at stake?
There have been plenty of situations in history in which “standing to the side, not getting involved,” has resulted in far more deaths, or resulted in despots ruling their country through fear. War is not automatically evil, and pacifism not automatically good. There are always exceptions.
And for a corporation – especially a publicly traded one – the pursuit of profit is no more evil than the pursuit of air for a human being. It is not necessarily evil for a corporation to do something “because of profit;” it just means that the company CAN do it because it’s profitable. So whether Ruttech lobbying for support in Bulmeria is good or bad wholly depends on whether support in Bulmeria is good or bad, and not simply because they’re doing it for more profits.
Of course, if Ruttech is just lobbying for it simply because they don’t *know* if it’s good or bad, but business is business, then it’s bad, because that is literally advocating for senseless war.
Bulmeria is a pretty transparent stand in for Israel/Palestine: references to genocide, divestment, campus encampment protests, “Bulmeria has a right to defend itself”, so while the details of the fictional situation haven’t been made explicit, we can extrapolate.
It’s absolutely true that pacificism isn’t always the answer, even in the recent US past we should look at the very different situations in Israel and in Ukraine before deciding the military is entirely evil.
Corporations are run by people. They don’t get a special exemption from moral questions because they’re organized into a corporation. But yeah, mostly it’s bad if they’re lobbying for more arm sales because of profit, regardless of other concerns.
Our taxes also go toward funding Activision Blizzard (the Overwatch one, whether we want them to or not. That corporation’s official headquarters is a literal basement in Holland (which is not in the United States), but through loophole fuckery they manage to get millions in United States tax returns.
What the hell? How so?
I won’t pretend to understand all of the no-doubt complicated ins and outs of US tax laws. What I know is what I’ve said, and the result is a billions-a-year corporation also qualifying as a welfare queen. Maybe they’ve changed that since I learned about it, but it’s inexcusable and unjustifiable for a toy company that large to get my hard-earned tax dollars when I can barely afford to live. They’re not paying in, so they don’t deserve to get paid out.
I cannot believe that they’re getting extra funding and yet we still haven’t gotten a new Lost Vikings game since, like, 1997. I pay taxes! They should be working for me!
And if you think that’s bad, check out almost any randomly chosen video by Stephanie Sterling. Tax evasion isn’t even the worst thing they do for money.
Not to mention everything that Bobby Kotick got up to. Horrible company.
We pay taxes that help buy those missiles (as well as funding schools, funding medicaid, funding food benefits, etc.) because if we don’t pay those taxes we get put in federal prison. How complicit is someone when their actions are spurred on by threat of violence?
We vote for politicians who approve these uses and purchases because our system is broken and we effectively have two choices. The politician who will approve these uses and purchases or the other guy who will also approve of these uses and purchases while also defending schools, libraries, putting a quack in charge of public health, increasing discrimination against multiple minority groups, and other horrendous actions. Refusing to vote for asshole A instead of asshole B is a contributing factor to asshole B currently being the one in the White House making everyone’s life far worse than asshole A would have.
Until the Democratic party stops running assholes or something is done to break the two party stranglehold there isn’t an alternative to voting for representatives or presidents that have approved those purchases and the uses to which they are put.
We are once again left with no choice which makes it hard to see complicity in the act of voting for asshole A instead of asshole B. On the other hand the people who voted for asshole B knew exactly what they were voting for and chose to make things worse and are complicit in the actions of asshole B.
That should read defunding schools not defending schools. No one in the current administration is defending schools.
Carla I fear you may have just had one of the only possible responses that could’ve upset Charlie, please talk to your girlfriend
This. It’s Carla’s lack of concern that will do it, not her inability to change the situation.
https://www.ti.com/applications/industrial/aerospace-defense/overview.html
For Real world analogue
“Smart munitions” lmao
What a chickenshit invention.
It never stopped anyone before but I suppose it would still be better if we didn’t not invent more ways to allow people the illusion that they can get less blood on their hands via more efficient weapons vis a vis the old ways of mass area bombing.
They’re preferable to dumb weapons, which have a tendency to hit people/things that no one intended them to.
I think recent events have shown you can also absolutely use all kinds of weapons, smart or dumb or even not officially weapons, on people you are not supposed to intend to target.
…
Quite so.
it’s worth noting that blanket arms embargoes are not magic bullets to ending conflicts – they tend to benefit the side that already had an advantage – see Bosnia.
Not sure how they can help the side that has the advantage when the embargo is against that side and the embargoed weapons are part of what is giving that side the advantage.
You absolutely can, but it’s kind of hard to argue that makes the dumb kind preferable.
More accurately, you can hit people with any kind of weapons, then claim, “That didn’t happen, anyone saying it did is spreading propaganda and is probably a Nazi!”
I say chuck ’em all into a volcano, smart or dumb. Cast that shit into the fires of Mount Doom, we really don’t even need it. If you’re gonna kill someone, do it to their face, don’t be a wuss.
We could send all the ones going to Bulmeria to Ukraine instead.
I had no idea TI made military stuff. I only knew them from their graphing calculators I had to get for school many years ago.
I miss my graphing calculator. Gave it to my niece when she needed it for school, since I was in college and done with math by then, and “I think it’s neat” didn’t seem to justify making my niece pay $100 so I could occasionally hit some buttons.
I remember there were a bunch of games you could play on a TI graphing calculator, and if you had the right cables someone with the same calculator could copy their games over to yours. I used mine more for playing games than for actual schoolwork.
“Her protest sign…I’ll STEAL it!
NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!!!”
would be a shame if someone took a photo with her holding that, and published it on the net…
This is the perfect encapsulation of this comments section, right here
It’d be a PRANK, even!
“I can neither confirm nor deny”
“I can ignore this ethical dilemma. My girlfriend who has memory problems isn’t having a rare moment of holding onto a memory where my supportive parents were shown to be supporting war crimes. I just have to prank, prank Mary so good, yes that will solve everything”
does she have memory problem? from what we’ve seen it’s more of some ‘delayed reaction’ or some kinda adhd /motor function since she was like “oh carla, she’s my gf i think” versus “oh i think this redhead has vaguely been in the same room as me a fewtimes”
I don’t know, though memory problems doesn’t mean forgetting everything but also you could be right about what it is
Either way, Charlie definitely cares about this
I thought her main problem was simply not paying much, or any, attention to the world around her or where she is in it? That’s how she manages to wander into almost any situation.
Wait. I know the joke is that Carla is refusing to sincerely reflect on her parents’ political sway involving the war. But this could be fire if she pulls it off. Carla could end the war with this prank. I mean not really but it’ll be funny.
It would be truly an epic prank on the military a industrial complex.
sometimes bigots do or say the right thing for the wrong reasons. Racist extraordinare Eugene Talmadge once vetoed a bill to sterilize “mentally incompetent” people because he joked that his job as governor would drive him crazy. so a man who was normally extremely bigoted got rid of a eugenics bill (this was in the 1930s)
Oh no, a rare attack of conscience that cannot be resolved through pranks. But what if we could use pranks as a distraction from the judgment of our peers?
Nailed it. Nothing can go wrong.
I’m just excited to see Charlie visibly expressing a complex interior world (emotion- and values-wise). I want to see her character get more depth!
hey um speaking of big tech funding genocide
if someone were to buy a pre-built gaming laptop they could put windows 10 on, which corporation would be the *most* ethical choice to buy from?
and I don’t want some cynical answer like “there is no ethical consumption in capitalism”
cynicism is really just a thinly veiled form of acceptance,
even if you can’t do good with the choice at least you can take such action as to mitigate the damage