Let's just have less whimsy in the world, it's fine

Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences museum is closing
https://whyy.org/articles/academy-natural-sciences-museum-drexel-closes/

Just shy of its 200th anniversary, the museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia will close Sept. 30. By shedding its museum, the Academy looks to better secure its scientific missions. "Continuing to operate the museum in its current building and form would place increasing pressure on the resources required to safeguard the collections and sustain the research enterprise," a statement read.

I don't know why the article doesn't mention this, but this closure is only partially a casualty of post-Covid attendance drop-offs. According to Reddit, this is a direct consequence of DOGE cutting funding around this time last year.

There was a big protest on Tuesday morning, and at the time I was alternating between that and the Nintendo Direct about the Ocarina of Time remake. The National Endowment for the Humanities being destroyed by the Trump administration during an evil war of aggression is very scary, but man. At least there's Zelda. Like at least there's this nice little garden to explore in between bouts of fighting for our lives.

And then I go on Tumblr and see people acting like they're being oppressed by the trailer for a new Zelda game. As if Nintendo making a stupid little toy that doesn't appeal to them personally is on the same level as federal funding for education being reduced to zero in the United States (after public funding for education has been severely cut in the EU and across the Commonwealth). Because clearly the greedy capitalist pigs to get angry at in this scenario are the Zelda fans who pay $60 for a Nintendo game amirite.

Re: Let's just have less whimsy in the world, it's fine

Sometimes I read tweets
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdF8VUPj38G/

You want people to be vulnerable on Twitter dot com? This gladiatordom of powerless discourse and faux media activism, where the unfinished prefrontal cortex reigns supreme? Here?

This is it exactly. Social media algorithms privilege knee-jerk outrage, but it still feels absurd to watch people getting genuinely upset about the trailer for a Nintendo game when the entire surrounding ecosystem is "death cult politics are good actually." I'm not saying that I don't have criticisms of the Zelda series, because lord knows I have many, but it's become exceedingly difficult to express any sort of nuanced opinion online.

To give an example of what I'm talking about, I made a throwaway post (this one here) about Twilight Princess Zelda having a sword back in April. This is a screencap from Twitter that I posted on Tumblr so that an artist I was commissioning would have a reference, and it resulted in me having to weather periodic accusations of being a TERF and a Nazi all summer. This sort of culture isn't healthy, you know? Like I just wish people would put half the effort into supporting indie creators that they do into hating Nintendo.