Author: jonwuka

Categories
Opinion

Top Ten Mid-Level Big Hitters: Stoner Rock

Finally, here’s a lighter topic: music. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while but just took the time to start now. I want to talk about songs by lesser-known bands that still really hit for me. That’s the idea behind “mid-level big hitters”: a mid-level band (both in popularity and appeal of their music) who produces a song that’s way better than it has any right to be.

I get that this framing is kind of condescending, but I’m using it because this is how I think about a lot of these. It’s not that it’s a backhanded compliment (remember, the only thing you can really do with the back of your hand is slap someone with it), it’s that I think the fact that these songs are examples of a band kind of pushing past their normal limits. It’s not just that these are the bands’ best song; as I say in the write-ups (which I did before writing this intro portion), these songs are better than the best songs of a lot of more talented bands.

Continue reading “Top Ten Mid-Level Big Hitters: Stoner Rock”
Categories
Opinion

A Bias on Money and Coercion

I know I said that I was going to blog on a lighter topic today but I got a bug up my ass and I want to talk about money. More to the point, I want to get down some ideas about what I want to investigate in regards to money. My main interest is how money works as a method of persuasion-cogency-coercion. The reason I’m writing this is actually because I’m not finding a lot of literature on this already. I’m hoping that by laying out what I’m looking for, it’ll help me investigate further. And if it gives you any ideas on where I might look, let me know!

One process or phenomenon that I’m especially interested in looking into is what I call “financialization.” This probably already does have a name but I haven’t discovered it yet. What I will say is that this financialization is not financialization as typically thought of. I’m not talking about the creation of credit instruments right now. When I say financialization, what I mean is the process by which more things become accessible by (and in some ways interchangeable with) money.

Continue reading “A Bias on Money and Coercion”
Categories
Opinion

The Case for Taking Over the Democratic Party

I swear I’ll try to do something lighter next time, but right now I want to talk some politics. I want to make a case for the socialist left to try taking control of the Democratic Party in America.

This isn’t my first, best, most ideal path forward. I would like a new party to form in this country, one which isn’t beholden to the old ones which have brought so much misery to America and to the world. So what I decided to do was take a look at the times in which the two-party orthodoxy in the US has been challenged.

Continue reading “The Case for Taking Over the Democratic Party”
Categories
Opinion

Deep Waters

The thing about blogging, if that’s what I’m doing, is that I have to do it in the middle of the day. I can’t save it for later. And that’s a lot of why I haven’t done it that much, I don’t always hang onto things that I want to talk about in this medium. But I’ve got a bit of time and something on my mind so let’s talk.

If you’ve followed me on social media for a while, and if your timeline isn’t too cluttered, you’ve probably seen me doing a thread on an argument before. Not an argument thread, but a thread about an argument which is taking place somewhere else. It’s typically me breaking down how I think things went, devices I think worked, when people overextended, etc. A kind of post-game report.

If you don’t really know me, you might assume that what I’m doing is gloating, and there’s a little bit of that. But these aren’t like popular threads and I don’t do them with the expectation that other people are going to be interested. That’s why you will very rarely see me do that other popular move: arguing by quote tweeting. If I quote tweet it’s generally because someone has said something particularly absurd to where I’m not even taking it seriously. Much more often, you’ll see the other person quote tweet and then I’ll follow them with a regular reply. I don’t need an audience, though I don’t reject one; my arguing style is not sneaky, so there’s nothing to hide.

Continue reading “Deep Waters”
Categories
Opinion

Anti-Intellectualism on the Left

I just want to write about a trend that I have noticed on the “online left”, one which is probably common through all of the history of leftism, socialism, communism, anarchism, etc., but which is really striking me recently. I don’t know how long I will write but I need to put this into a space which is different than the one where I usually talk, and maybe having to slow down will help me come to more useful thoughts.

The trend I’ve noticed is anti-intellectualism. I could be specific and say “anti-academia” because that is how it usually manifests, but I believe that it is just garden variety anti-intellectualism.

Continue reading “Anti-Intellectualism on the Left”
Categories
Opinion

Religion in TTRPG Fantasy

Ganymede pouring Zeus a libation (Attic red-figure calyx krater by the Eucharides Painter, c. 490–480 BCE)
Ganymede pouring Zeus a libation

I recently watched a video that I’d had on my watch later for a while, so we’re here to talk about religion in fantasy worlds. Well, specifically, religion in fantasy roleplaying games which involve interacting with the gods. Seems like I’m narrowing it pretty hard off the bat, but it’s necessary. See, the video I watched was “Do Fantasy Pantheons Make Sense?” by the YouTube channel The Grungeon Master, and he says that this is common across all fantasy. I’m not sure that’s true. It is common in D&D, however, and in many other fantasy RPG settings that take tropes from D&D, so I want to talk about this in terms of worldbuilding.

There’s a lot that I agree with The Grungeon Master on, and the video articulated a feeling that I don’t think I’ve done a good job putting across before. Specifically, why is it that D&D-style polytheism feels so alien to people who have studied ancient polytheism like that of Greece or the Norse countries, or who are affiliated with modern polytheism like in Hinduism or various folk, regional, and new religions. Grungeon lays out several points (not in this manner, I’m paraphrasing here) which I think are important to fleshing out the dissonant feeling that tabletop polytheism gives.

Continue reading “Religion in TTRPG Fantasy”
Categories
Opinion

Pro-Wres Lab: Damage and Vulnerability

Bryan Danielson wearing kinesio tape
Bryan Danielson wearing kinesio tape

Let’s talk for a little bit about how pro wrestling matches themselves can be different. I’m talking about more than just skin-deep; I want to talk about the bones. If you watch WWE, AEW, NJPW, and UWFi (from back in the day) one after another, you’ll see that they’re all presented with significant differences, but they all move in a way that has basic similarities. There’s an underlying assumption that everyone shares about wrestling. This is what I call the “match theory”. This article is going to explain what I think the common match theory is, then I’m going to introduce my own match theory: vulnerability theory.

Continue reading “Pro-Wres Lab: Damage and Vulnerability”
Categories
Opinion

Pro-Wres Lab: The Agency System, Part 1 (feat. AEW)

Cody Rhodes after winning the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship at the original All In
Cody Rhodes as NWA World Heavyweight Champion

Let’s try and rethink wrestling. It’s an ambitious proposition, I get it, but I’ll have fun with it and maybe you will, too. What I’m going to do is propose a new style of wrestling booking: the Agency System. If I had to boil down the goal of the Agency System to one word, it would be realism. If I had a few more, I’d say this: we’re going to rely on naturalistic stories for wrestling rather than on artificial stories.

American pro wrestling is for children. When I say this, I don’t say it disparagingly as-such. That is, I’m not saying “American pro wrestling is for children and therefore bad, because children only like bad things”. What I’m saying is compare the beats of The Sopranos to the beats of Power Rangers (look, I’m not watching TV these days, work with me) and see what pro wrestling hews closer to1. Not just WWE. All of American TV pro wrestling is like this. It is loud, it is in your face, it is frantic. It’s almost desperate not to lose your attention.

Continue reading “Pro-Wres Lab: The Agency System, Part 1 (feat. AEW)”
Categories
Opinion

Stancil and Theory

I gotta get back to blogging instead of doing long tweet threads (@nearzone.bsky.social). I also gotta get better at transferring threads to the blog so they’re not quite so obtrusive. Maybe I’ll set myself reminders.

Anyway, here are tweets about Will Stancil and my theory (which you can check out on Journal of Cogency). I do want to try to keep politics off of this blog for the most part (and I swear I’ll try to do a light thing soon, been working) but it’s a series of tweets so it’s better for the silly blog.

Continue reading “Stancil and Theory”
Categories
Lit

Parts

I am like a billy goat
Whose horns are old
In a moldy coat
I will not shear a single hair
For I am not of Theseus or Jason
With rheumy eyes I watch the woman on the screen
And tremble