Comic update: I’ve finished the flipping renders! I know, smashing through it. It comes in at around 130 pages – just some speech bubbles to do and then BAM! It’s gonna be next Lithium out! Woop woop!
Excited about this one, had a little read through just now, did a little giggle and a little tear-up (only a very small one, but still), so I think it’s a goodie. I mean nobody might agree but heck this is my story so you lot can put up with my particular brand of madness! Well you’re the ones reading this so I suppose it’s also your brand of madness in which case HOORAY! LITHIUM COMIC #13 OUT NEXT WEEK!!!!!
Let’s have a minor American politics debrief.
Stewart Lee put it about Brexit:
Voting that way is like protesting your hotel room by shitting in the bed, and then realising you’ve now got to sleep in a shitted bed.
😂 such a great line haha!
After a little think about the Trump vote, my opinion falls somewhere very close to this:
… Pie makes some excellent points, as always. I do just wish he’d calm down a bit, but perhaps not as many people would watch him if he wasn’t so high octane. And called Pie.
My problem with the Pie debrief is that he misses a darker thing going on, in which American society has actively, thoughtfully voted in this man, and as such is directly or indirectly proclaiming It’s fine to be a bit of a rapist. and There are zero consequences for felons. and We must deport the ‘other’. … and this, though it pains me to have to point this out, is problematic in the extreme.
Isolated young men are watching total crap online, and coming away with the conclusion that relationship is about the man’s choice, about power, and about control.
It is no coincidence we have watched a massive rise in strangulation and actual femicide (killing women) cases in the years since Trump was voted in the first time. And it’s not just about America, but a lot of the crap that gets pumped out on Meta/youtube/tiktok does get absorbed by impressionable young minds the world over.
Sooooo … yeah. A very sad thing to happen, irrespective of what you think is going to go on with policies.
What would be more helpful?
Whatever your political persuasion, perhaps it would be more helpful to say: the Right has some good points and their policy needs to reflect this, rather than resort to finger-pointing or lying (if the points are good for the country, there’s no need to lie, right?). The Left also has some good points, and also needs to turn them into policy and cohesive arguments that address the legitimate questions of the populace, rather than resort to finger-pointing or lying.
Political discourse needs to involve actual experts in whatever field is being discussed. Otherwise, in an intellectual vacuum, you end up with … well, the Roman Empire springs immediately to mind.
Fascism and dictatorship tend to follow very, very closely behind.
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time” ~uncredited, quoted by Churchill. So good luck maintaining democracy at all, America. You’re riiiiight on the edge, old bean, be a bit careful there’s a good dear.
Anyway, enough of that bollocks. NEW LITHIUM OUT NEXT WEEK! WOOP WOOP!!!!!
That’s cool about your progress. You hear anything from Tira? As for the stuff in America, yeah it’s hard especially trying to figure out what world some people live in. I live in a very religious and conservative state; I learned the hard way not to openly discuss politics here. I thought people would have remembered just how bad Trump was but nope, a lot of people are lost to disinformation, and right wing new sources. Unfortunately, we’ll see the same type of stories we saw during his 1st term, like he’s hurting the wrong people, or I didn’t think he actually meant it. I’m really not looking forward to it, especially now that people are being honest about Project 2025.
Ah yes I think Tira forgot about comics; I’ll give them a nudge 😬🎁👈
‘Lost to disinformation’ is an interesting phrase that covers quite a lot of ground, yeah. Think we all need to stay hopeful and crack on with being kind to each other, not much else to do
Okay, okay, okay… I wrote a huge comment … I deleted it. I respect your opinion, I will keep mine to myself. I hope we can respectfully agree to disagree. I might not be as eloquent as you, I do respect you and your thoughts on our political system. That’s what makes our nation great.
As for the next comic… yea! We are all excited too.
Thanks B – you’re very welcome to comment here, yeah respectfully disagreeing is really important I think. It would definitely be interesting to hear people’s perspectives, I suppose it’s just heartbreaking (for either side) when people’s arguments are really just regurgitated headlines with no clarity or any journalistic rigour!
Question, if you could have the Lithium cast voice acted who would you play the characters that you’ve created
In terms of who I identify mostly with in my worries/struggles, I’d probably say Charlie, and I quite like the terror with which Bob joins the series. But I have this role IRL where I speak gently to people and ask questions to help them along, and so without getting too up myself, I’d probably say either God, or the red suit-wearing sensei who teaches Skylar and cameos now and then; both characters go with my general listening vibe and would be straightforward to voice. Good question though – who would you play?
From time immemorial we have been told that the government runs the country, a myth wholly embraced by the main stream media, who pump out their daily propaganda for maintaining the state and the status quo. We’re told those who ‘govern’ are public servants, a myth that most MP’s don’t give a tinkers cuss for as they lord it over us. Schooling children is to set them up for the grand lie, the hidden agenda of schooling being obedience and control. The grand secret that every government knows is that it is we, the people, who run the country, every minute of every day, and governments do everything in their power to keep us under their control. If just the cleaners stopped work for a week, the world would descend into chaos. Imagine blocking the M25 in the UK, London would quickly starve and cease to function. Cities like London, produce very little of the stuff of life, relying on the hundreds of thousands of people at home and abroad to provide for them. In the UK, the trades are regarded with contempt, and yet the trades are the backbone of organised civilisation. While the government makes laws, largely to benefit themselves and the rich elites, and tinker with the economy, we, the hard working ordinary people get on with making the country function in every meaningful way. If we could organise and stopped voting, at the very least, we might change things, as it is America has Trump, AGAIN and bullshit reigns. God help us all.
AS for the real good news, I think I’ll start rereading the Lithium comics again for the who knows how many-eenth time. Which almost guarantees a Boobie overlap and therefore a period of deferred gratification so that I am suitably pumped and panting by the time I can open the goody bag of Lithium 13. Happy days!
Yes, interestingly it’s that first section of your comment that has been leveraged to sway Trump voters; they’ve been fed the line of him somehow (in some bizarre twist of logic) being the voice of the workers. God help us indeed.
The shift in attitude of young men in the US can be easily observed by checking any 40K related Facebook group.
I had to look that up to see what you meant, hehe. I see lots of those images / AI art are used for memes, I suppose the struggling / loyal soldier taking a knee is something we all recognise in us. Tribalism is a comfort for the adolescent, and it seems 40K embodies that yearning for us to be valiant, misused, steeped in honour and downtrodden by the battles of life whilst slightly epic. It’s moving beyond that which gets us started with life, exactly the plot of Grace hehe