Oh No :'D

[yvannairie]

So this thing started getting notes because it was reblogged by someone popular and I have already made the "anthropology is descriptive, dipshit" addition to it before, but now I'm very tempted to make the other addition, which is just me, in-character as robot evopsych scientist, rambling about Megatron's poor post-function politics and how it was always gonna turn out to be some fascist-at-worst-utopian-at-best nonsense akin to the Monoformer movement, but I don't know how to make that post without throwing some extreme shade on the parts of the fandom I was throwing shade at with the original caricature of the "Functionist scumbag".

Like I'm just saying in a fandom obsessed with Functionism Bad at lot of people don't seem to realise that the politics they put into the fiction would diegetically make them functionist, y'know?

Comments

[sexytronians]

I am having thoughts tbh. I feel like there’s some folks who talk pretend robot politics in a purity culture ‘The bad robot politics are wrong and I don’t support them because I’m a good person!’ way.

Which leads to shallow exploration of functionalism because of a fear of even exploring ‘bad’ robot politics lest you support the ‘bad’ things they’re supposedly reflecting.

Even in universes like g1 where functionalism doesn’t exist and I would bloody like to write about frame type coding differences without worrying about people acting like I’m reinventing TERF nonsense or something.

(I am very tired and possibly grumpy. I may not be being charitable here.)

[yvannairie]

I think the bad politics just kind of stem from thinking that Functionism is the Bad Politics of the Bad Guys, and exists solely as a vehicle for bigotry and to justify the oppressive structures in the story. And fair enough, if you read Functionism as entirely a race and gender metaphor, that might make for a sensical frame, since there are no racist stereotypes that are founded in reality.

However, if I lean towards an allegorical reading, I mostly lean towards one of class and ability -- and while ableist stereotypes sound similar to racist ones, some of them are actually tenuously based in reality, which means that countering them requires a completely different strategy, and flat denial won't fully cover them.

It's why I make the distinction between lower case functionism as a framework of mecha sociology and and upper case Functionism as an overt political position. Both IDW and Aligned technically only have upper-case Functionism but that simply means lower case functionism is fully left as an unexplored field for me to take a stroll around, y'know?

(Another thing is that I don't think it makes a ton of sense, if you're trying to map real world liberal-socialist politics onto the robots, to argue that anti-Functionism is the communist "to each according to their needs" position. Megatron is much more of a toxic individualist than anyone, the Decepticons are founded on a principle of Fuck You Got Mine -- if you want to explore real-world political allegory, then his revolutio would be a Chicago School one, not a communist one.)

[sexytronians]

I’m more awake and yeah as someone who is disabled and brain weird the idea that certain robots minds work differently because of their bodies or vice versa just makes me think of me and my friends.

For example the idea that warbuilds are impulsive emotionally and express themselves by growling and making other noises is something I write as an allegory for being ND. Because I am the weird noise man.

I like that distinction. I like it a lot.

This makes me think of a potential for anti-functionalism as a form of Bad Politics. In the way the social model of disability can be used in ways that ignore chronic pain.

“With the right adaptions you won’t have to worry about your function, you can do anything I can do!” The car alt says.

The feline cassette looks at xer paws. “I don’t think anyone can society me into driving on the highway.”

[yvannairie]

Yeah, but that butts up against my deep hatred of biological determinism. You can make broad categorical statements about different frametypes sometimes, but going "all warbuilds are maniacs with poor emotional regulation" -- that's Functionism, baby!! That's literally the kind of thing that would get use in-universe to justify warframes being too unregulated to be allowed in society, let alone to be allowed any power over other mecha, because they're judged to be untrustworthy.

And that is the kind of thing I see a lot. Frames X are like this, frames Y are like this. It's not actually challenging the idea that the only way to value someone's differences is figure out which combination of traits is the "best" one, and how all other combinations of those traits are inferior.

Like for once I would like to see some conversation about how, maybe, labour frames aren't all shouty and emotionally closed off because they're ~inherently predisposed~ to experiencing more muted feelings, but rather an acknowledgement that, for example, their social groups tend to get packed thick, which means that they don't often have the social space to express anger until it becomes unbearable.

Also yes lmao, I've absolutely compared Megatron to a libertarian STEMbro who thinks that if you lack an ability then sucks to be you, society should only cater to those with abilities regardless of their origins and that any leveling of the playing field to account for genuine irreconcilable differences is just as bad as arguing that quadwheel bipedal mecha are inherently more adaptable and socially capable due to their low specialist hardware threshold.

[sexytronians]

Yeah good point. And I like the point about labor frames *looks at Constructicons* I can see ways to do things with that. Or Bulkhead because he feels like someone else this could be explored with?

Megatron as a libertarian kinda appeals a lot to me as a way to write his politics. As well as why they suck and how he’s fucked up other people indoctrinating them into them. I.e. Motormaster.