James Baillie @JubalBarca@scholar.social

I've been seeing too many people try and draw glibly neat lines between the resurgence of Italian fascism and crises of capitalism.

There are lines to be drawn between an economic system and forms of totalitarianism it is at risk of, but non-capitalist economies are not immune to totalitarianism, and whilst economic dislocation contributes to fascism, it's less simple than the glib "being poor made me a nazi" line which is a misdiagnosis the left can be susceptible to.

This is the gaur, a bovine who,
Is like to be more large than you,
For he weighs one tonne and a half
(Above the bison, or giraffe)
So heavily he wanders by,
Plains stretched beneath unclouded sky,
He bellows deep and whistles too:
Deliv'rer of the largest moo.

#poetry #wildlife #poems #nature

You can get ROCKPOOL exclusively thus far as part of this charity bundle put together by @nidorina - it's for a small young people's clothing/supplies charity in Cape Cod:
https://itch.io/b/1551/katelynns-closet-charity-bundle

There's also lots of super cool other things in there! And it's ther first time any of my RPG work has been actually for sale for actual money so I really hope people like it and find it worthwhile :)

#TTRPG #creativetoots

So, a few weeks ago, I saw that someone on here was putting together a charity itch bundle, said I may have something to add, and then slightly panicked and wrote a 12 page mini RPG over the course of a weekend.

The result is a game called ROCKPOOL, and it's about strange little creatures that live around rockpools and have strange little dreams for what they want the world to be like. You can fight terrifying rockpool wildlife and fey, craft things from flotsam, and await the changing tide.

I wrote up some thoughts on how to use creative play with the medieval to make it harder for fascists to claim medieval symbolism into a proper little article for @ExilianOfficial.

Would love to hear your thoughts:
https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6545.msg148959#msg148959

#medieval #creativetoots #history

That's not to say other forms of activism are at all easy! They're not, people are usually in my experience horribly stretched and trying to achieve the near impossible in small and sometimes fractious high pressure circles while desperately trying to make people's lives better.

But the specific challenge of "I want political parties to be better versions of themselves and to win power" is both one that we need and one that more people eye with a variety of forms of animosity.

I have managed to do one of the five pieces of writing I was meant to do this week and the rest of the time has been spent on politics, which is tiring.

I hope I'm doing the right things. Anything around party/public politics can be a tricky emotional wicket for people who have any level of introspection, because there's so, so much more natural hostility compared to other sorts of activism and engagement volunteering, and more people who think what you're doing is prima facie Bad Actually.

Hello from the hills above my city :)

#vienna #austria

Since I appear to just be in messy soft-launch as I am chaotic brained and spoon-low right now: I'm running!

Specifically, I've decided to throw my hat in to be a member of the Federal Policy Committee for the UK's Liberal Democrat party. Key bits of my platform for running will be to strengthen the party's commitment to UBI, to be more vocal on our support for LGBT and trans rights, and to retain & build on our pro restorative & rehabilitative justice policies.

#liberal #liberalism #libdems

If you haven't played Roadwarden, and you like choice-based adventures and good storytelling, you absolutely should. It's a genuinely brilliant set of interwoven stories to navigate through, and it's difficult and human and sometimes sad but with a level of heart that too many similar tales ditch in favour of Gritty Emotionlessness. I hugely recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv_RkRib63I

#gaming #indiegame #games

I wish people didn't always make fantasy dwarves kind of boorish. It feels like "they're earthy so they must be rough, direct, shallow, honest" is often the take - but I think for me the point of the dwarves is a bit the converse, not that they are rough like rocks, but that they can see the beauty and numinous nature of earth.

Anyone know what's going on with mastodon.social? I can't seem to toot from @ExilianOfficial at all this morning, it's giving me error 500s :( And I had an announcement I needed to get out, too.