Strong Female Protagonist II

[Frozen_Feet]

What if, among the countless thousands saved, there are some exceptionally unscrupulous folks? A serial killer, corrupt politicians or business leaders, and such?

edit: for brevity.

They wouls cause similarly cumulative negative effect, of course.

Whether positives overwhelm the negatives depend on competence and selection procedures of the people who decide who the organs go to. Also on how much better availability of legal transplants directly reduces crime and incentives for it.

[RCgothic]

Oh Ali, your cluelessness is painful.

[Kantaki]

That is a awkward situation.
I almost feel bad for Clevin.

@RCgothic: Isn't it always?

[Kantaki]

New comic

I think I agree with Alison there. Unlimited icecream beats pancakes every morning. I mean who eats pancakes for breakfast? That's more a lunch in my opinion.

[Maryring]

Booger ice-cream.

[Kantaki]

Booger ice-cream.

Well, of course you would have to keep your nose clean. Still sounds like a better idea than waking up with pancakes and maple syrup in my bed every morning.

[Traab]

Honestly, while I get the point I think the comic is going for here, that this is supposed to lead to more self discovery for allison and how she is different from your average joe in more than being able to bench press main street, I do the same thing in these which would you pick style questions. I go for a solid cost versus benefit analysis and try to think what uses I could get out of either option. Then I choose which one I think is "right" Im sure this will lead to a fine discussion in the end, I just think the segue was weak.

[Dragonus45]

1. Pancakes forever. Easily the best answer.

2. I am reaching my limit with the people in the comment section who are conviced that literally everything Max does is a slick move by a puck up artist from a patriarchy driven rape culture who intends to take advantage of Alison by clearly and openly stating his intentions to her and treating her nicely.

[Shogo]

Haha, yeah. They're coming across as increasingly deranged, aren't they? I can only imagine what they'll say after this latest update.

I think I'd also go with pancakes. Ice cream is nice and all, but I would get sick and tired of the cold nose entirely too quickly for it to ever be worthwhile.

Otherwise . . .This seems like a pleasant enough date.

[Vinyadan]

2. I am reaching my limit with the people in the comment section who are conviced that literally everything Max does is a slick move by a puck up artist from a patriarchy driven rape culture who intends to take advantage of Alison by clearly and openly stating his intentions to her and treating her nicely.

I think it's because of his face and his unnatural appearance and posture. This page's last panel is the first time he looks normal to me. Not knowing which feelings his face is supposed to portray makes him feel untrustworthy.

[Nettlekid]

I think it's also because it fits the trope. This comic does get a little heavy on straw-manning, with people like Furnace or how every jerk ended up being a secret rapist for Mary to kill. I agree that it's taking it to an extreme to think this guy is scum because of his every action, but I don't think he'd be included in the comic if there wasn't about to be some twist. He's too boring otherwise.

[Dragonus45]

I think it's also because it fits the trope. This comic does get a little heavy on straw-manning, with people like Furnace or how every jerk ended up being a secret rapist for Mary to kill. I agree that it's taking it to an extreme to think this guy is scum because of his every action, but I don't think he'd be included in the comic if there wasn't about to be some twist. He's too boring otherwise.

Not that I wouldn't put it past them to make it so that the first real dating we see Alison do turns into him being some sleazy 1% date rapist type but I imagine even they know when to let up.

[Kantaki]

New Comic

Huh, not only do they both have a point and both points of view are compatible, but you have to combine them to make things work. Progress.
Now Al "just" has to find a way to change the world.

[Traab]

New Comic

Huh, not only do they both have a point and both points of view are compatible, but you have to combine them to make things work. Progress.
Now Al "just" has to find a way to change the world.

Yeah the fun thing here is that knowing the answer doesnt really help because everyone on earth has to agree with you and do the same thing. So she is still not even remotely close to "fixing the world" or whatever her goal is. On the other hand, i wonder if she will even try to engage the professor with this different angle and possible understanding of at least a part of his argument against her. Of course, the man is a MASSIVE troll, so its entirely possible he will find an angle to make her be wrong still. And remind her she has flunked the course for the year.

[Frozen_Feet]

Ah, collectivism and invidualism. Let me be the troll teacher and add some pragmatism: if we suppose it's possible to stick to both, how would that manifest in practice?

[Traab]

Seriously, is there ANY school of thought that cant be picked apart? Because im honestly getting the feeling that there is no right answer for life, the universe, and everything aside from 42.

I think I will stick with, "Be excellent to one another, and, PARTY ON, DUDES!"

[BRC]

Seriously, is there ANY school of thought that cant be picked apart? Because im honestly getting the feeling that there is no right answer for life, the universe, and everything aside from 42.

I mean, that's the whole idea behind the Socratic Method. Keep asking the right questions and you can pick apart any idea. Nobody knows anything, but if you know that you know nothing, you know exactly one thing.

[Vinyadan]

Either this guy is a "interest in a little of everything" person, or he really is putting a lot of effort in this date. This is one of the most unsexy discussions I can think of. On the other side, this is what Al is actually working with, so the feel she puts into talking about it may be a little less cerebral and somewhat more passionate than most.

Also, Anakin did this first.

[thorgrim29]

I like Individualism guy, I hope he's used as a way to show that good people can disagree with civility and respect each-other's opinion and really really fear that he'll turn out to be a bad guy. Their short debate reminded me of some discussions I've had with my sister (flirting aside of course).

[Kantaki]

New comic

So this is Brad’s Support Group.
Wow. Nice reminder that not everyone was as lucky as Alison.
I mean one of them has to travel in a Aquarium.
And one of them has four arms.
Now that is useful. Who wouldn't want two additional arms?
I could be twice as clumsy.

[Vinyadan]

You can tell he's a good guy: he used "they" instead of "he"!

I have been thinking about Prof. Stonesondesk. Maybe he will actually talk about it in another lesson, but he really didn't force anyone with a binary choice. The only binary choice is "thing or nothing": 1 or 0, day or not-day (which happens to be named night). What he gave wasn't a binary choice. It would have been, had he given a single stone to everyone apart from Mark (fantasy name) and then said, I am going to make Mark fail, if you don't all remain without stones on your desks. If there will be stones, I will give an A to those with stones, and make those without stones fail. This would have left them no choice, but to work within his system.
By giving 2 stones each, he actually gave them 4 options: white, black, black and white, nothing. The students went for black or white. If they had put nothing on the desk, they would not have risked failing, while Mark would have been saved (or not condemned by those with nothing on their desks). If they had put both, they would have shown that the system didn't function properly, because they would have received both a F and a A.
Maybe the prof addressed the problem before making his experiment? I didn't reread the part. But I think it was interesting.

[Traab]

Basically most of the class didnt pay attention past "If you put down a stone of this color you get an A" So even if he had given them a thousand options, they would have done the same. We also saw a few others offer reasonable reasons why they didnt even try to put down the stone that would have let the guy who was "doomed" to fail also get an a. It was very contrived to me as a lesson specifically for allison as she was forced to see that people can be "selfish" without being bad. "I couldnt risk my grade because im on a scholarship and couldnt afford school without it" is pretty far from, "Screw everyone else, my a is important." Which was how she initially took the fact that literally everyone but her picked the "selfish" option.

As I said, some admitted to not even listening past "If you use a white stone you get an automatic a" Some didnt dare risk it figuring at least someone would put down a white stone, which would mean they flunked. Some didnt dare risk it because the price would have been too high for them. And allison put down a black stone because she foolishly believed that everyone is going to choose to act like a hero despite the obvious proof that every single day many people DONT. She fought supervillains for years, you would think the fact that not everyone is going to be altruistic wouldnt be a hard thing for her to realize.

[Vinyadan]

It's instead of its. Whyyyyyyy.

[mpking828]

Ok, I had to register just to ask this question.

Who's the Guardian angel? Paladin? Too much of a smash cut for me to follow.

[Kantaki]

Ok, I had to register just to ask this question.

Who's the Guardian angel? Paladin? Too much of a smash cut for me to follow.

Judging from (lack of) context I would say yes. Lisa is the only (former) hero we know that wore some kind of armor and works with Alison now.

[Kantaki]

New Comic

As impolite Vanessa is, I have to agree with her to a degree. Sure, Carmen most likely has problems because of her green-ness and those are as important as everyone else's, but out of this circle she is the closest to being "normal".
Not that it makes a difference to those that have a problem with biodynamics (and specifically dynamorphs), but I can see how someone with more extreme changes*- and the resulting greater problems - could be offended by her relationship problems.

*Is that a gas bottle one of them "lives" in? Now that is a drastic change.

[The Glyphstone]

Reminds me of that German scientist from the Hellboy comics/movies, the one who was a ghost haunting a spacesuit or something.

[Traab]

It just goes to show you how irrational people can be. "I have it worse than you therefore your problems arent" Pain is pain. Someone doesnt have to suffer as much as you to still be suffering.

[Frozen_Feet]

Set point theory of human happiness: people have a certain level of joy they gravitate towards, even in spite of circumstance. Changes in this base state are temporary. If you're happy-go-lucky by nature, you might be elated to win at lottery or superdown if you lose an arm... year later you're back to happy-go-lucky.

More, people adjust their expectations based on their past. Someone's who's had an easy life will be hit worse by a sudden downturn than someone's who's got to that bad situation from something even worse.

[Vinyadan]

Also, this comic is like a version of Manly Men Doing Manly Things which takes itself (too?) seriously.

http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/ar...-drinking-beer