2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Follow the adventures of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Fran and Naga in this all-new humorous entry to the growing Poeverse.
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Nosy Neighbordroid
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2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Nosy Neighbordroid »

Discussion thread for Clean Up Your Act
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dark_lord_zagato
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by dark_lord_zagato »

"Thanks for all the years of bravery, sacrifice, and valor. Now we're gonna throw you under the bus to appease the mob and maintain public relations!"
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Forrest
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Forrest »

Not that it's particularly bad or anything, but I'm kind of starting to get an uncomfortably right-wing vibe from some recent comics like this, that I never really got from Poe's work before. I don't know if it's Poe that's changing or me that's changing or the surrounding social context that's changing.

I'm betting on the latter. While I'm not and never have been a fan of some trends on the social left like this is mocking, more and more I seem to hear unwarranted complaining about it coming from actually "deplorable" right-wing scumbags all over the internet these days, so something I might have laughed at in an earlier, more innocent era comes off as uncomfortably polemic now. Not because it's different or my views are different, just because of context.

Just some small feedback about a tone shift I'm starting to feel here. Speaking up sooner than I have on other comics before, hoping that this comic doesn't undergo a mirror image of what Sinfest did back in 2011. (It was delightfully irreverent and made friendly, not-mean fun of everyone, and then without warning twisted into a tract of radical sex-negative second-wave feminism with lines like an unironic "Kill all men!" as the punchlines to its "jokes").
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dark_lord_zagato
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by dark_lord_zagato »

I get where you're coming from, and I also think that most of the "anti-SJW" commentators on the internet have nothing of value to say. Although I strongly disagree with what modern feminism and BLM has to say I still don't want to be associated with conservatives, ever. That said though, I don't think i've seen any comics where Poe has promoted any right wing causes. Mocking feminism is one thing... I'm not going to take Sargon of Akkad's approach and say that *I* get to decide who is and who is not a real liberal, but I wouldn't think that Poe is changing just because he is critical of feminists and BLM.

It's hard when I support LGBT rights, for personal reasons, and vote for the most liberal candidates I can find every year hoping for real change, when a lot of these protesters act like being trans is some kind of edgy new trend where they can invent their own gender. Now i'm torn between who I dislike more.
Forrest wrote:Just some small feedback about a tone shift I'm starting to feel here. Speaking up sooner than I have on other comics before, hoping that this comic doesn't undergo a mirror image of what Sinfest did back in 2011. (It was delightfully irreverent and made friendly, not-mean fun of everyone, and then without warning twisted into a tract of radical sex-negative second-wave feminism with lines like an unironic "Kill all men!" as the punchlines to its "jokes").
I remember that. I read Sinfest from 2001-2011 and it used to be one of my favorites. I couldn't believe what I was reading when Tat started making anti-sex, anti-porn comics.
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Baeraad »

dark_lord_zagato wrote:Now i'm torn between who I dislike more.
Personally my answer is consistently: "Whichever one I've had to listen to the most lately." My political stance shifts sharply to the right whenever I have to endure a 500-word essay outlying, in eloquent detail and with many thoughtful references to prominent feminist thinkers, the many reasons why I, personally, am responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to the author in her entire life, and how if I had any shame or decency I would immediately fall to my knees and beg her for forgiveness. And then it shifts right the hell back to the left the first time some barely literate little pukestain squeals "YOU'RE A BETA FAGGOT CUCK! CUCK CUCK CUCK CUCK CUCK CUCK!!!!!" at me.

I swear to God, I'll join the first side who manages to go two seconds without insulting me.
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Graybeard »

Forrest wrote:Just some small feedback about a tone shift I'm starting to feel here. Speaking up sooner than I have on other comics before, hoping that this comic doesn't undergo a mirror image of what Sinfest did back in 2011. (It was delightfully irreverent and made friendly, not-mean fun of everyone, and then without warning twisted into a tract of radical sex-negative second-wave feminism with lines like an unironic "Kill all men!" as the punchlines to its "jokes").
Well said. Sinfest became almost unreadable when Ishida made that change. (There are hopeful signs that he may be getting back to actual character-development stuff, but I'm not optimistic that it will last long.) It would be unfortunate if DNPWWO made that same change.

I've never met Poe in the flesh, and given their move to Asia, probably never will. However, it's always been my impression that he delights in skewering pretense of any flavor. In this, good for him; but the latest tone ... well, I worry.
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Ugwump »

> [passive-agressive social pressure over perceived political alignment]

But you're fine with Falchion allowing Tecmage to pelt Westboro Baptist with orbital death rocks? http://www.doesnotplaywellwithothers.com/comic/pwc-0157
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Forrest »

Yeah that's fine.

And go back to 4chan with your pseudoquoting.
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Baeraad
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Baeraad »

Ugwump wrote:> [passive-agressive social pressure over perceived political alignment]

But you're fine with Falchion allowing Tecmage to pelt Westboro Baptist with orbital death rocks? http://www.doesnotplaywellwithothers.com/comic/pwc-0157
Yep.

And I'm fine with pissing on SJWs too. Just not all the time and with quite so much venom. I would, ideally, prefer a moderate amount of hate spread evenly over all the many and varied groups who deserve it. When one gets more than its share, I start feeling sorry for it, regardless of which one it is.
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Re: 2017-08-17: Clean Up Your Act

Post by Alice Machaer »

Also, there's a difference between putting anti-"SJW"/anti-"PC" talk almost entirely in the mouth of a character (Naga) whom Poe himself acknowledges is an amoral asshole (albeit a hilarious one), and putting such talk in the mouths of characters, such as Craig, whom we're meant to find somewhat more sympathetic, which is what I'm seeing in these last few strips.

But I'd still be okay with that as long as we get some more scenes of Jordan sticking it to hate groups and to corrupt, selfish corporate heads and congresspeople, who I'd argue are more of a threat to American society these days than a relatively small and ineffectual group of leftie placard-wavers on campuses.
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