Not just American.
AFAICT it is the human condition.
Even those who are advantaged beyond all reason, rich beyond the dreams of avarice, seem to go out of their way to abuse those less well off, and the poorer the better.
Actually, I’d say you’re missing the point. There have been very rich eccentrics that have been “put down”,by very conformist peasants.
In this particular case, it’s not about the power structure Of pack pecking order instinct. (I must be the most important, and you exist to serve me)
This is about the wish for conformity, The urge for regulation, wanting to feel safe because everything is “normal“. And controlled. (They’re not behaving in the way I like, and I’m going to teach them a lesson, for making me uncomfortable)
I mean, most of the weirds we met in story don’t choose to be weird by their own accord (mad geniuses set aside).
Its kinda bad to exterminate sapient beings just because they are not regarded as normal and not because what they do.
In the end, what actually is “normal”? Some fake data point agreed upon by the majority? In which case, nobody is normal or sane or average because everybody falls on one side or the other of the bogus ideal. Screw normal, fly your freak flag.
I am not certain mad geniuses choose to be weird, either. They are mad after all. I think that mad directly leads to weirdness. And i don’t think they are mad by choice.
Pretty sure they were weird long before they broke through into Madness.
Take Helen for example… other 6-year-old kids ask for soccer balls or Barbie dolls for Christmas. But what does a 6-year-old Helen ask for? “The BioBeam 8000 gamma irradiator with 5-liter containment chamber, Cesium 137 radiation source, optional remote monitoring station, and a thing on the top that tells the time”
If by Tip’s ilk he meant other humans helping defend the non-humans, that might make evil sense. But he’s including Tip’s non-human allies, and he can’t figure out why they want to continue being alive.
He may not have actually tried very hard.
Yeah, I think that’s a given. In spite of being an evil genius, Mr. Green doesn’t seem to have much, if any, self-awareness. Tip didn’t used to, but he’s grown. Perhaps he can help Ari Green grow before it’s too late for everyone.
Okay, now I’m imagining an ending where Mr. Green, having had an epiphany and swearing off Evil Masterminding for good, takes up a new job… as a security guard at Skin Horse.
(bonus: he accidentally falls into one of his own mind-control thingies and has his memory wiped. “Who am I?” “Uh… Ira. Yes, that’s right, you’re Ira.”)
“But I don’t want to go among weird people,” Ira remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said Tip: “we’re all weird here. I’m weird. You’re weird.”
“How do you know I’m weird?” said Ira.
“You must be,” said Tip, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
“Your existence, although it doesn’t actually affect me in any meaningful way, threatens my fragile privilege in a way that I can’t articulate. Therefore you are the problem and must be eliminated for the sake of my comfort.”
Fascists who fight imaginary fascists, racists who pretend they are fighting racists, and, yes, people in denial of XX and XY chromosomes, are by far the most privileged groups to be seen in the modern world.
Please just relax, sit back and enjoy the show. The writers will take us where they intend to go. Until then, please chill with the politics. To a lot of us, this is our escape from all that.
Well, strip away the weirdness that Ira complains about, and what have you got? A bureaucratic government agency staffed by people who are trying to do good, but any good they do is in spite of what they’ve done, not because of it. (At least till they went rogue.)
There is an argument to be made for A-Sig. A lot of these people and entities are in fact extremely dangerous. The collective just ate Pennsylvania, which would be an unimaginable atrocity if this wasn’t a comedy. As we know from Narbonic, most Mads are evil and probablyhave only failed to conquer (or destroy) the world by now due to their profound lack of common sense. Unity is a known baby-eater. (Evil babies, sure…) “Curing” Mads and doing an SCP on a lot of the creatures out there is rationally arguable, if not the mass killing Ira seems to be planning. HT really should have been locked away years ago for killing that rhino (?) man.
The trouble with Ira is that he doesn’t seem to be approaching this from a really rational point of view. He just seems to find the nonhuman and mad science community _personally_ offensive.
HUMANS are in fact extremely dangerous. Maybe you’ve heard of Hitler? Mussolini? Stalin? Perhaps you are familiar with human-made nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, etc?
We’re the species that devised neutron bombs – capable of killing entire cities of people, but leaving the physical structure of the city itself intact and ready for rapid occupation by the people who murdered the original inhabitants.
We’re the species that invented cobalt bombs – purpose built to poison the earth and render an area uninhabitable for literal centuries, as opposed to the mere weeks of fallout that typical nuclear bombs would produce.
We’re the species that decided that for the very first physical contact we would ever make with another celestial body, we would just hit moon with a literal “propaganda bomb”, specially designed to litter the moon’s surface with shrapnel prominently emblazoned with Soviet iconography. (Look up the Luna 2 mission! It’s nutty!)
We’re the species that has caused more extinctions in the past few centuries than there have been in millions in years.
We’re the species that has set off a now nearly unstoppable chain reaction of global warming that is going to radically transform the planet in ways no one can predict, likely causing even more extinctions and untold suffering for our own species, all purely so that a bunch of oil companies could get obscenely rich.
If we’re going to judge sapient life on its potential to be dangerous, than the human race is first in line for the guillotine.
After the Apocalypse, life goes on as a young boy is walking home from school. His eye catches a spot of color beneath the foundation of an old bridge and, curious, he investigates.
By some miracle, a dandelion has survived and struggled into the wan sunlight. The last flower in all the world. The boy has never seen such a thing and is wonderstruck by its beauty.
So he picks it and takes it home to give his mother.
(I mean, parallels to actual real-world oppression only go so far. Most black people aren’t Out to Show Those Fools, and very rarely can shoot death rays from their eyes.)
Somehow, it feels poetic that this story ultimately all just comes back around to simple old bigotry. Not some long game plan for accomplishing some massive goal or even using the abnormal as weapons; just Ira wanting the whole world to look just like him.
Kind of makes me think of the Wizard’s plans in Wicked causing the Animals to all lose their ability to speak, to be honest.
Both sides have a point. 😀
No they don’t. 🙂
Baron Mistycorn has a point.
I mean, he do be calling it as he sees it though
If Ira really wants to survive he’s going to need to embrace the weirdness and ask Tip out. He’s certainly hit on him enough via android.
Whether he and Tip would be willing and able to mojo their way to safety is another question. Not so likely at this point.
He spent years pretending to be a guy with dissociative function. He’s already embraced the weirdness.
Now YOU’RE on point! 😉
Contemporary American politics in a nutshell.
Not just American.
AFAICT it is the human condition.
Even those who are advantaged beyond all reason, rich beyond the dreams of avarice, seem to go out of their way to abuse those less well off, and the poorer the better.
Actually, I’d say you’re missing the point. There have been very rich eccentrics that have been “put down”,by very conformist peasants.
In this particular case, it’s not about the power structure Of pack pecking order instinct. (I must be the most important, and you exist to serve me)
This is about the wish for conformity, The urge for regulation, wanting to feel safe because everything is “normal“. And controlled. (They’re not behaving in the way I like, and I’m going to teach them a lesson, for making me uncomfortable)
I mean, most of the weirds we met in story don’t choose to be weird by their own accord (mad geniuses set aside).
Its kinda bad to exterminate sapient beings just because they are not regarded as normal and not because what they do.
In the end, what actually is “normal”? Some fake data point agreed upon by the majority? In which case, nobody is normal or sane or average because everybody falls on one side or the other of the bogus ideal. Screw normal, fly your freak flag.
Hear, hear!
Normality is a form of insanity embraced by the majority.
I’ve always wanted a T-shirt declaring “SANITY – you can’t miss what you’ve never had.” 😉
I’d wear that T-shirt.
I am not certain mad geniuses choose to be weird, either. They are mad after all. I think that mad directly leads to weirdness. And i don’t think they are mad by choice.
Mad geniuses *can* choose to un-be weird, these days, but that’s a recent development.
Pretty sure they were weird long before they broke through into Madness.
Take Helen for example… other 6-year-old kids ask for soccer balls or Barbie dolls for Christmas. But what does a 6-year-old Helen ask for? “The BioBeam 8000 gamma irradiator with 5-liter containment chamber, Cesium 137 radiation source, optional remote monitoring station, and a thing on the top that tells the time”
They’re going to have to resolve this via hand puppets.
That’s one way to get the Wizard to jump off the platform.
If by Tip’s ilk he meant other humans helping defend the non-humans, that might make evil sense. But he’s including Tip’s non-human allies, and he can’t figure out why they want to continue being alive.
He may not have actually tried very hard.
Yeah, I think that’s a given. In spite of being an evil genius, Mr. Green doesn’t seem to have much, if any, self-awareness. Tip didn’t used to, but he’s grown. Perhaps he can help Ari Green grow before it’s too late for everyone.
Okay, now I’m imagining an ending where Mr. Green, having had an epiphany and swearing off Evil Masterminding for good, takes up a new job… as a security guard at Skin Horse.
(bonus: he accidentally falls into one of his own mind-control thingies and has his memory wiped. “Who am I?” “Uh… Ira. Yes, that’s right, you’re Ira.”)
That would be fun.
Ouch! “You’re ruining everything by being weird” is the story of my life. And the faux-kind, reasonable tone of Ira’s voice just leaps off the page.
So. Ari Green is just a bigot, plain and simple. He can’t accept others who aren’t like him.
You’ll have to do better than that, Ira.
Anasigma isn’t exactly what I would call normal, what with the axolotls and brain transplants and all. Is Ira repressing his own weirdness?
“But I don’t want to go among weird people,” Ira remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said Tip: “we’re all weird here. I’m weird. You’re weird.”
“How do you know I’m weird?” said Ira.
“You must be,” said Tip, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Hey, that’s not Oz. That’s Wonderland!
It’s also classic Shaenon (sort of)…
http://narbonic.com/comic/july-17-22-2006/#comic-strip-image-6
Thanks for the ref, awgiedawgie! That was a great moment in Narbonic.
Welp, that link cost me a (very enjoyable) hour of archive-diving…
Nice ref, glitterboy2098!
So much fun in the comments! Thanx!
I know, right! I’m going to miss all you guys when this thing finishes!
—Help me stop this thing from rising!
—Look at it down there. It’s so beautiful.
In another universe there is no Ira Green, and these exact same lines are spoken because of Tip’s mojo.
When correctly viewed / Everything is lewd / I could tell you things about Peter Pan / And The Wizard of Oz? There’s a dirty old man!
– Tom Lehrer / Smut
… I cannot believe how apt that is for Skin Horse
“Jane! Stop this crazy thing!”
I loved that show! I still want flying cars to be a normal, everyday thing.
Just kick the thing. Sometimes that works.
They’d like it to work slowly.
Hmm, I wonder if I could get certain other boomers of my acquaintance to go to therapy using this method?
The damage, Tip can’t override. With Ira, he’s fit to be tied. Activities secret their future looks bleak, it with Ira and sapiocide.
I can’t say just how much I love “sapiocide”.
Green really is the perfect villain for this comic.
Mmm, I always worry if I’m not the weirdest person in the room
Well, you’ve got some pretty stiff competition around here.
Everybody knows something you don’t.
Corollary: Everybody is someone else’s weirdo. I pride myself in being several.
And once again, I must ask… you are several weirdos?
That’s just… um… weird.
Weirdophobe! Or perhaps a Weirdophile…both?
I’ve been weird since childhood. I loved dressing up in a suit with vest and carry a briefcase in second grade…
I wasn’t bullied nearly as much as I deserved.
“Skin-Horse, Skin-Horse, off the wall. Who is the weirdest of them all?”
“Your existence, although it doesn’t actually affect me in any meaningful way, threatens my fragile privilege in a way that I can’t articulate. Therefore you are the problem and must be eliminated for the sake of my comfort.”
Boy, what does that make me think of in this day and age?
Does it rhyme with BLM or Antifa? CRT?
Anti-anti-fa. Fa for short.
Wait, what’s “fa” short for again?
Ah yes, african americans, transgender people and people who are against fascists, the most privileged group I can think of.
Fascists who fight imaginary fascists, racists who pretend they are fighting racists, and, yes, people in denial of XX and XY chromosomes, are by far the most privileged groups to be seen in the modern world.
Ah, conservative logic
But they aren’t today’s oppressors… the Other Guys are.
Stop being so mean to the fascists! =(
Please just relax, sit back and enjoy the show. The writers will take us where they intend to go. Until then, please chill with the politics. To a lot of us, this is our escape from all that.
Seconded.
Well, strip away the weirdness that Ira complains about, and what have you got? A bureaucratic government agency staffed by people who are trying to do good, but any good they do is in spite of what they’ve done, not because of it. (At least till they went rogue.)
But… It’s always been weird.
There is an argument to be made for A-Sig. A lot of these people and entities are in fact extremely dangerous. The collective just ate Pennsylvania, which would be an unimaginable atrocity if this wasn’t a comedy. As we know from Narbonic, most Mads are evil and probablyhave only failed to conquer (or destroy) the world by now due to their profound lack of common sense. Unity is a known baby-eater. (Evil babies, sure…) “Curing” Mads and doing an SCP on a lot of the creatures out there is rationally arguable, if not the mass killing Ira seems to be planning. HT really should have been locked away years ago for killing that rhino (?) man.
The trouble with Ira is that he doesn’t seem to be approaching this from a really rational point of view. He just seems to find the nonhuman and mad science community _personally_ offensive.
HUMANS are in fact extremely dangerous. Maybe you’ve heard of Hitler? Mussolini? Stalin? Perhaps you are familiar with human-made nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, etc?
We’re the species that devised neutron bombs – capable of killing entire cities of people, but leaving the physical structure of the city itself intact and ready for rapid occupation by the people who murdered the original inhabitants.
We’re the species that invented cobalt bombs – purpose built to poison the earth and render an area uninhabitable for literal centuries, as opposed to the mere weeks of fallout that typical nuclear bombs would produce.
We’re the species that decided that for the very first physical contact we would ever make with another celestial body, we would just hit moon with a literal “propaganda bomb”, specially designed to litter the moon’s surface with shrapnel prominently emblazoned with Soviet iconography. (Look up the Luna 2 mission! It’s nutty!)
We’re the species that has caused more extinctions in the past few centuries than there have been in millions in years.
We’re the species that has set off a now nearly unstoppable chain reaction of global warming that is going to radically transform the planet in ways no one can predict, likely causing even more extinctions and untold suffering for our own species, all purely so that a bunch of oil companies could get obscenely rich.
If we’re going to judge sapient life on its potential to be dangerous, than the human race is first in line for the guillotine.
After the Apocalypse, life goes on as a young boy is walking home from school. His eye catches a spot of color beneath the foundation of an old bridge and, curious, he investigates.
By some miracle, a dandelion has survived and struggled into the wan sunlight. The last flower in all the world. The boy has never seen such a thing and is wonderstruck by its beauty.
So he picks it and takes it home to give his mother.
Evil? I think not.
(I mean, parallels to actual real-world oppression only go so far. Most black people aren’t Out to Show Those Fools, and very rarely can shoot death rays from their eyes.)
Oof. Reminds me of interactions with GC folks on twitter.
Oh dear. That’s… two explicit Oz quotes in two consecutive strips. Are we… nearing the finale?
(…wait, hold on, no, I’m wrong. I don’t know why I thought that was a quote from anything.)
Somehow, it feels poetic that this story ultimately all just comes back around to simple old bigotry. Not some long game plan for accomplishing some massive goal or even using the abnormal as weapons; just Ira wanting the whole world to look just like him.
Kind of makes me think of the Wizard’s plans in Wicked causing the Animals to all lose their ability to speak, to be honest.