age 18+/gender is wtf/I write on politics and cults with side helpings of fandom/FUB free/I now have a carrd like real tumblr users! :D
Socials @ link below!
So,
#TWEWY
Nation, by popular demand: a 37-page, 89-footnote, 17,000+ word essay on Minamimoto in
#NTWEWY
There are major
#NTWEWYSpoilers
/
#NTWEWYspoilers
including for post-game content, so be mindful of this.
Comments appreciated, of course!
@jaketapper
@Alyssafarah
If Ornato wants to dispute this, let him do it formally, under oath, under penalty of perjury.
And if he persists, then ask him why Mike Pence wouldn't get in the car.
Hey
@TwitterSafety
and other Twitter employees, today in light of things that the new management is proposing, I'd like to give a quick thread on employment law and what is and is not legal for a company to do re layoffs/firings
(If you know a Twitter employee plz forward)
1/x
@maddow
Because...and I hate to be the one to outright say it, but it's truth...
Because that Medicare expansion would help the Mississippi Delta. Which is one of the three most impoverished regions in the US...and just so happens to be majority African-American.
1/2
@HenriettaElimi1
@FlicShis
@mintamolly
The UN have compared the conditions in parts of the US--particularly in MS and AL, as well as other economically impoverished parts of the US--to developing nations with severe challenges (less Nigeria or Kenya, more Haiti)
And yes, racism is involved
As I am not subject to the abuse of UK libel law as a SLAPP, and am also in a place with anti-SLAPP laws:
Yes, what JK Rowling did IS a form of Holocaust denial.
Nizkor Project, which tracks online Holocaust denial, recognized anti-LGBTQIA Holocaust denial.
in 1994.
1/x
On 13 March I tweeted that JK Rowling โis a Holocaust denierโ. That allegation was false and offensive. I have deleted it and apologise to JK Rowling.
@oneunderscore__
Again, I'll gently remind folks *this shit needs to be reported to the FBI, and via proper channels, which are not Twitter*.
IS the proper channel for this, and should be used to report this stuff on Twitter (and send screenshots to FBI if possible)
1/2
@maddow
And, to be extremely blunt, a lot of white folks in Mississippi are *STILL* to this day Extremely Salty over no longer being able to own African-Americans as livestock.
Which is *why* the Delta has conditions that the UN has compared to developing nations.
2/2
@RVAwonk
I've said it before, hell, I've said it since January 7th and I'll repeat it again:
It is SERIOUSLY time to invoke Amendment XIV, Section 3 on a *whole* lot of pro-sedition government officials, specifically under the "aid and comfort" clause
@CalesMcGinnis
The appropriate terminology is "Domestic terrorism", especially as there's evidence that far-right groups have been planning attacks on substations in a deliberate attempt to foment a race war since at least the mid-2010s and even are trading info on how to do so
@holovoid_
@iamharaldur
He's technically not in the US, but...the EU all around has more aggressive worker protection laws inc. for people with disabilities, laws re layoffs and firings, etc.
I've actually specifically recommended they contact the EU Commission and an employment attorney in Iceland
A rant in D minor on American game promotion in general re JRPGs, and SQEX US's promotion of non-KH, non-FF, non-Eidos titles in particular (and this is not exclusive to the lack of promotion of
#NTWEWY
which is actually a symptom of a bigger issue), a thread:
1/x
@oneunderscore__
Also: At least some of this goes far enough to breach Twitter's AUP against calls to violence, and apparently
@TwitterSafety
IS nuking posts (and accounts) calling for violence
So in many cases (to try to keep this to a dull roar) it is worth the report-and-block dance
2/2
@oneunderscore__
Honestly, at the rate things are going in much of the US, other countries may well want to prepare for the humanitarian crisis that Christian Nationalism is already causing (and make no bones about it, the New Apostolic Reformation types always WANTED a Gay Genocide)
1/2
@chrislhayes
Because this is the first time in American history you've seen an attempted autocoup, Chris.
The model in question you need to look at is *not* American. It's Guatemala in 1993 (Jorge Serrano Elias). Russia in 2011-ish (Putin). 1933 in Germany.
And the GOP Is Complicit AF.
Before people raise hell re casting:
Funimation almost *never* works with outside VAs and tends to exclusively use their in-house stable of talent (in other words, it would have been far more of a surprise if we'd gotten the original VAs as almost none of them work for Funi).
You have seven days to beat the Reaper's game or face erasure. ๐ฑ
The English dub of The World Ends With You The Animation premieres tomorrow!
Check out the cast and crew:
@Elizabe37915545
@ryanjreilly
Oh, not just admitting intent to kill.
Intent to assassinate a member of Congress, as part of an attempted overthrow of the United States government.
That's at *least* seditious conspiracy.
And constructive discharge, legally, is considered a form of wrongful termination, because the goal is to force people out in a way that allows a company to not follow obligations it is *required* to follow under federal and state labor laws
6/x
Because I know the whole damn TWEWY fandom is going to be Panicky on Main about this (not the least because of collective trauma from 2012), I'd like to note why TWEWY may actually *not* be as affected by this as some other smaller SQEX franchises
a thread:
1/x
Square Enix says it will focus less on mid sized games and more on AAA titles going forward.
"Focused strategy - less mid sized, more larger AAA console games, company said will take several years to impact" via
@gibbogame
Re the happy discovery in
#NTWEWY
that Minamimoto likes melon cream soda/melon soda floats:
It's in English too. From the official SQEX press kit and English media:
Constructive discharge can take one of two main forms:
a) Making job requirements so impossible to meet that people will inevitably be fired "for cause", usually due to performance metrics (like, oh, the request to implement charging for verified accounts in 7 days)
4/x
THE FIRST THING TWITTER EMPLOYEES NEED TO KNOW:
Learn about "constructive discharge", often known as "constructive dismissal", because that's a LOT of what the new management is doing to reduce headcount.
3/x
ATTENTION ZEPTOGRAMS OF THE
#TWEWY
/
#NTWEWY
NATION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
NEO:TWEWY NOMINATED FOR *MULTIPLE* CATEGORIES IN THE PLAYSTATION BLOG AWARDS INCLUDING GOTY
VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN, AND MAKE 'EM CRUNCH THE NUMBERS!
Don't be an uninteresting integer.
Add to the number voting for NEO: The World Ends with You for Best Art Direction, Best Soundtrack and PS4 Game of the Year:
@oneunderscore__
Like, if this is not stopped and stopped hard *NOW*, there is likely to be literally genocidal violence; by "preparing" I mean "start allowing asylum proceedings for LGBTQIA people in the US who feel they are at threat to their life and health"
2/2
and it can also take the form of
b) Making job requirements so difficult and the environment so toxic that people are forced to quit (like, oh, removing most moderation tools from
@TwitterSafety
employees and reducing headcount).
5/x
And I'm noting this because a lot of...what has been proposed, and a lot of what has been apparently put in place already, probably crosses a legal line--and CA and NY will definitely investigate and help out any workers affected by this.
2/x
There are three primary reasons companies tend to engage in this unlawful practice:
a) To avoid paying severance (to hide the fact there are not funds to do so),
b) To avoid workers getting unemployment (as retaliation or to hide they've not paid into the system),
7/x
@_Quittny
@sdrose
@cbouzy
@TimInHonolulu
@schwanderer
@Apple
As I put it: "Man who stuck his junk in hornet's nest is shocked to find he's being stung, he's getting disinvited to neighbourhood cookouts, and everyone now knows him as the Stuck His Junk In The Hornet's Nest Guy rather than as the Electric Cars in Space Guy"
@Cdbrow1
@iamharaldur
@MashaKrupenkin
@LisaBloom
In the US, true.
Where it gets genuinely FUN is that Iceland (where
@iamharaldur
is) is in the EU, and EU employment law makes the US look like the Wild West in comparison
Here are a few fun things I should point out for readers re EU employment laws
1/x
@timsquirrell
Very good writeup, and if I may embroider a bit on this from the other side of the pond (as someone who grew up in New Apostolic Reformation circles that have...adopted a distressing amount of this stuff and can be really considered religio-fascist in and of themselves):
1/x
And now for some happier
#TWEWY
/
#NTWEWY
news:
Shibuya Marui had a replica of the CAT Mural set up for the
#FIELDWALKRPG
on its 5th floor; the mural will remain and be visitable, even though the FWRPG finished its run on the 23rd November
1/2
If a company lets go more than 33% of their workforce--and in some states, like California and New York, it can be as low as 25%--legally they are required to file a WARN notice with the Department of Labor and the state labor board
9/x
and file for unemployment, and if the New Management tries to challenge you can counterclaim that you were subject to a constructive discharge.
(I strongly advise to *document everything*. A lot is in the news, and will help, but still, *document everything*)
13/x
And this in turn starts legal obligations, in that a company must give 60 days notice before a layoff, and must assist workers in things like where to go for job retraining, how to apply for unemployment...and they must legally pay severance
10/x
@Mediaite
Literally Amber Rose's source of notoriety is that she was a music video model who also happened to finger-bang Kanye West and being effectively the town bicycle for much of the West Coast hip-hop circult. (Yes, literally. That's the WHOLE source of her notoriety)
Today one year ago...we all learned that the wait of 3 countdowns and 14 years finally came to an end.
Today one year ago is when the
#TWEWY
fandom learned
#NTWEWY
was actually happening and we all went collectively feral (and even then it didn't feel REAL at first).
As, well...certain members of...certain boards ending in Japanese diminutives criticising English localization in general and a particular line in
#NTWEWY
in particular...
Let me post my final commentary on how they are, quite literally, fractally wrong on this subject:
1/x
Thanks to some good images of the Emotion Edge docs (from extremely early
#TWEWY
development/proposal), there's some interesting observations that I've not actually seen commented on in English before now.
A minor thread:
1/x
@bananadumbledor
Well, the fact they tried to eat the soy candle is troubling, but...in all seriousness, apparently people being unable to smell strongly scented candles *is* enough of a Covid Sign that epidemiologists actually have used it as a secondary metric of community exposure
Re KH, and "Nomura said Quadratum isn't TWEWY's Shibuya" et al:
Don't panic.
Yes, that's true...for *Quadratum*, which is probably the new Traverse Town in the arc. It can actually be a separate iteration, just as...Kingdom Hearts is its own game separate from FF & TWEWY
1/2
or c) to avoid filing a WARN notice, which we'll get into next.
With *actual* layoffs (where a company is simply reducing headcount because they have too many workers and not enough work), there are legal requirements a company must follow
8/x
@TRF_Stories
The...entire concept, as a whole, of NFTs is in and of itself arguably fraud (in that you are *NOT* buying an artwork, you are functionally buying an electronic *receipt* or *price tag* but not the artwork or its copyright itself)
1/2
And if you are or were forced out from Twitter due to impossible metrics (and fired for performance reasons or other "cause", especially if it is not within your 30 day window for corrective action) or are being forced to quit, you can also go to the state DOL,
12/x
@maxpcohen
Dear Mr. Manchin (Fifth Columnist-WV):
I will gently remind you that (pre-Gates Foundation) the largest philanthropic foundations in the US (the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations) were founded when the US had a 50% tax rate on millionaires.
Thank you.
If at all possible, do not use company resources to document (not even corporate wifi or company phones--use a personal phone, and use only cellular data, preferably using a VPN like
@ProtonVPN
to personal accounts if you must store anything off your personal phone)
14/x
Things I expected in
#NTWEWY
: Mathematical metaphor with Minamimoto
Unexpected fun with this in
#NTWEWY
's English localisation: Minamimoto doing "Do bears shit in the woods?" or "Is the Pope Catholic?" with TRIGONOMETRY
Specifically: There is a very specific sort of Holocaust denial that is common in anti-LGBTQIA Christian Nationalist spaces, which either claims LGBTQIA people were not killed (including transgender people) or that LGBTQIA people were its perpetrators or both
2/x
So short summary:
a) Document All The Things
b) If you are fired/forced out, go to labor board and file for unemployment, and also note your former employer is likely violating WARN act and you were targeted in a constructive discharge
c) Consider hiring an employment atty
24/x
@TMikaMouse
Oh, the ways this is actually *illegal*:
a) Companies actually *legally cannot* require notice. All 50 states (NE was the final holdout) are "at will", meaning both employers *and employees* can terminate the relationship for any (legal) reason or no reason at all
1/x
Also, file a complaint with the state department of labor and the US DOL that Twitter is likely trying to avoid filing a WARN notice and/or trying to get out of legal obligations under the WARN Act ().
(Seriously, this law is your Friend)
15/x
To celebrate the final ep of the
#TWEWY
anime....the countdown is being defictionalized (via multiple Live Board billboards across Japan, including one in Shibuya visible from the Scramble Square)
๐ฅTIMELIMIT WITHIN 7DAYS๐ฅ
ๆญป็ฅใฒใผใ ๆฑบ็ใพใงใใจ7ๆฅใ
ใชใขใซใฐใฉใฆใณใใงใใซใฆใณใใใฆใณใ้ๅงใใพใใใ
โ่ฉณ็ดฐโ
ใใฐใใใใใฎใใใ The Animation ร LIVE BOARD
#TWEWY
#ใใฐใใใขใใก
If a company does not follow these obligations, you can go to the state department of labor and file a claim (and the company can be forced to pay you severance you were owed, and possibly even hire you back in the same position)
11/x
@TristanSnell
Not just that...but doesn't this pretty much *officially* put the 14th Amendment, Section 3 into play?
(The part of the 14th Amendment that ORDERS persons who so much as aided and abbetted a seditious conspiracy to be booted and banned from office, to whit.)
ALSO AS A NOTE: The New Management is already Not In The Good Graces of the labor departments of California *or* on a federal level, as there is an existing lawsuit re racial discrimination at Tesla
21/x
@Esqueer_
Also: This is a point people should SERIOUSLY start looking into RICO laws (which did cut down on Army of God activity), because I'm *strongly* reminded of what the Army of God has done with *their* doxxing lists in past (which were meant to get clinic workers assassinated)
ONE FINAL NOTE to Twitter employees, particularly
@TwitterSafety
Enough of you are going to be affected by this that you're probably going to want to band together to fight this. Legally, *The New Management cannot retaliate against you for this*
31/x
@elpocoloko
@maddow
Infrastructure (not just healthcare bur things like availability of clean water and food). Employment opportunities and investment. The fact that often jobs that exist outside service industry are polluting. The fact *hookworm is actually endemic in parts of Mississippi*
1/3
@yashar
So what you're saying is...the guy who was fomenting Groomer Panic to promote his "documentary" about child sexual slavery...turns out to be a groomer himself and used the "charity" and legit concerns re sex slavery to groom women in an example of Haggard's Law
California in particular has specific laws that note political affiliation/belief is a protected class and the New Management sacking people who are politically opposed to a certain ex-president probably violates this
17/x
Honestly? This game was literally "one of those games that comes into your life when you need it the most to give you a message" and was literally lifechanging for me at a *VERY* dark period in my life
(also the soundtrack/gameplay/etc. do kick ass)
I looked at the Square Enix Cafe Tokyo menu (for the
#NTWEWY
cafe collab) and they have themed drinks...
...Minamimoto's is...ginger ale and cola mixed with *pop rocks* (I am serious)
This man is a kid in a 21-year-old body ISTG ๐คฃ
@acrider
@maddow
Honestly don't need to zoom in on the (swastika-laden) ring when you literally see the neo-Nazi slogan tattooed on the rest of the hand
(Which in turn refers to both "Heil Hitler" and another rather infamous white-supremacist oath.)
into not only creating a hostile work environment (particularly if you're in a targeted group--like if you're Jewish, or LGBTQIA, or African-American) but are arguably even discriminatory to the point of actually violating federal law (again, as constructive discharge)
19/x
Starting in the early 2010s, Christian Nationalist groups have also tried to infiltrate feminist spaces in the Commonwealth, especially those that already trended TERFy, and this specific Christian Nationalist Holocaust denial has followed them into TERF spaces
3/x
CALLING THE
#TWEWY
/
#NTWEWY
NATION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL, ZEPTOGRAMS
NEO: THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU IS NOMINATED FOR PLAYER'S VOICE FOR THE GAME AWARDS
VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN, VOTE FOR NEO AND MAKE THOSE HECTOPASCALS AT TGA DO THE MATH
@RepCharlieCrist
@KEBrightbill
Not only this, but DeSantis also explicitly gave exclusive distribution contracts for COVID-19 vaccination to a privately held company known for not only Trump and DeSantis donation but connected to funding of January 6th attempted coup; company in question (Publix)
1/2
@APZonerunner
I've said it before, and I'll say it a decillion times:
Square Enix US literally has *no* idea what to do with *any* franchise that is not Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts, and honestly the main reason they know what to do with Kingdom Hearts is because of Disney.
1/x
There's more stuff where the New Management likely crossed the line, though in this case it's a little more state specific.
If you are in California, and possibly in NY, you may have good grounds to have a third claim for wrongful termination
16/x
And some recent announcements on changes he's trying to force to
@TwitterSafety
(which would allow hate speech, more explicit calls to violence, and which would particularly target LGBTQIA people who are a protected class in California) also cross the line
18/x
They've also been the subject of lawsuits by investors () because of multiple reports of discrimination and sexual harassment--and honestly that's a lot of why The New Management is trying to take Twitter private (to prevent shareholders speaking up)
22/x
Apparently the
#TWEWY
anime is getting a rebroadcast in Japan--August 20th-25th (minus Sat/Sun presumably), 1am-2:30am JST (3 episodes at a run).
It's rare for anime to get a rebroadcast (esp. this soon!) unless it's done well and/or sold merch, so this is a good sign!
and which likely violate state civil rights laws in California and New York. (So
@twittersafety
, you ESPECIALLY want to document EVERYTHING going on there, and actually strongly consider preemptively contacting an employment attorney for a potential class action.)
20/x
RE EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEYS:
If you are low on funds, contact the state bar association and ask which attorneys are due for "pro bono work", and with the news coverage this situation is getting you may well be able to get an employment attorney on commission
25/x
@timsquirrell
So, while NAR types are a *little* more down-low on the really explicit anti-Semitism (and I emphasize a "little more down-low", because there's some very specifically NAR flavours of anti-Semitism, as I'll get into), there has (really as long as I can remember)
2/x
More recently, a tack among Christian Nationalist groups infiltrating feminist spaces is to deny transgender people exist at all (and in the context of Holocaust denial, claiming "transgender wasn't a category before the 60s-80s" as a form of Holocaust denial)
4/x
And you want to document this TOO when speaking to the labor board, because this shows a pattern of repeated abuse and violations of law--which makes it MUCH more likely the labor board will rule in your favor if you get or have been sacked/forced out
23/x
@saschasegan
@Fanged_Sniper
@HD_Kirin
In essence, pretty much *every* fundamental issue where the US is significantly behind developed (and many *developing*) countries CAN ultimately be traced down to a Fuck You Pay Me Issue
(See also: tax filings, healthcare for all, public transport, higher education, etc.)
What is typically never mentioned is, at the start of the Holocaust, there were only *TWO* clinics *WORLDWIDE* that specialized in gender and sexual orientation studies at *all*, ONE of these (the only clinic doing gender reassignment) was in Germany...
5/x
It is also pretty likely (due to the...egregriousness of the abuse, and due to the media coverage, and due to...the New Management being, well, the New Management in their "elephant electrocution" period of imitation of Thomas Edison's career) that you may have attorneys
26/x
you have an *additional* legal claim for wrongful termination, and you should not only go immediately to the state DOL but also file a complaint w/ the National Labor Relations Board ()
Good luck, and bring 'em hell.
33/end
@elpocoloko
@maddow
Here's the report itself from the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights:
(tl;dr a whole lot of it is racism-fueled systemic inequity.)
3/3
With people panicking over the "oh noes SQEX released NEO on Steam against P5R! They're trying to murder the franchise!"
This is the point I'm going to gently ask the
#TWEWY
/
#NTWEWY
fandom to collectively hakuna your tatas for 5 minutes and read a little thread๐ฑ
1/x
@elpocoloko
@maddow
(Of note: Hookworm is generally considered a "tropical disease", and has re-emerged due to water and sewage issues contaminating the soil. Alabama is also having similar issues.)
Not to mention educational opportunities, child hunger, and so on...
2/3
who will contact *you* in regards to potential class actions, and if so you'll want to vet them but a class action could actually be a pretty powerful tool to force change. (Be aware that with a class action you might not get as much compensation; here you're just
27/x
@steve_vladeck
Honestly Thomas should have recused himself (what with the *extremely* likely possibility his spouse is directly implicated in said records re the attempted autocoup) but hey, I'll happily take 8 out of 9 voting to release the documents :3
but I also do have my fair share of XP in life and have seen skeevy companies pull this enough that I'd pass along the things I've learned so y'all can give 'em hell.
And if any of the advice I give is at all helpful, well, I'm glad for it
30/x
@HatokTalk
@laffodile
Re Shoka's characterization:
Also: Localizers worked so close with creators w/ NEO:TWEWY they actually co-wrote parts of the soundtrack (yes, seriously)
So it's fundamentally dishonest to say that the creators didn't work with the localization team
@laffodile
@HatokTalk
I got ya
Original source is the followig KHInsider article translated from official JP: NEO guidebook:
Also KHInsider, translation of Gamer (JP) article:
Also Fanbyte interview:
really kind of doing the legal equivalent of a Zerg rush, but just like in Starcraft, sometimes these are surprisingly effective for actually getting some social justice.)
And if you're a Twitter employee, I would like to issue my commisserations
28/x
@Izanagi97
@basicSID
@LiamTriforce
This is probably before a lot of you remember (or were even *alive*, to be honest), but game companies (notably Nintendo and Capcom) *did* try to shut down the used game market (and book publishers did the same with used books).
Note: This is a survey probing interest in future developments for TWEWY as a franchise (for now, limited to people with JP Square Enix Members accounts), still a good sign though!
@the_nerd_skull
Even worse than this--I'm seeing real flags of *religiously motivated* child and domestic abuse, specifically this smacks of Gothard and similar Quiverfull abusive behaviour
And there is a whole Christian Nationalist Abuse Culture
1/x
@MARClANlTO
(Re original TWEWY)
On one level, a bunch of dead kids playing a Game to come back to life
On another level, dead kids learning what is most precious to them and learning to be better people in the end
On ANOTHER level, a meta-argument on stasis, reboot, or change for society
And that it was literally THAT CLINIC that was destroyed by the Nazis, & most of its records literally destroyed, save for what had been published in its own journal & the journal of another German group (ALSO attacked and shut down by the Nazis) & made it overseas
6/x