12/14/24 - The opposite of thunderous rage is static pissiness.
[The last couple of days, there’s been a major upgrade to subway security in Guangdong. Chinese subways have always had security checkpoints, but before, you’d just walk through a metal detector, and if you were visibly carrying a drink or something, you’d have to take a drink out of it to prove that it’s just normal water/tea/whatever. But over the last few days, they’ve been making people take off their belts, take off their shoes, put their stuff through an x-ray machine, just like at an airport. Understandably, this causes huge backups during rush hour, with lines stretching on for more than an hour. And when you show up to work late, you can get fined by your company in China, so people have been very, very upset at this.]
#Shanghai security checkpoint. “This is the Jinsha Road 3-4 line subway security checkpoint at 6PM last night. The line goes all the way to the exit. You can’t just open your bag for them to check, it has to go through the machine. The people in the front have to take off their jackets just so they can get their bag down through security. The people in the back in a hurry to get home are complaining. First of all, is there an official requirement that we have to put our things through the machine? Secondly, are any of these security officers licensed? Why do they have such shitty attitudes like we’re all prisoners? Lastly, the only demand we have is that you just look into open bags. I don’t even care about the invasion of privacy. This is just basic respect. Don’t force anyone with a tiny purse to go through security. Please give your citizens convenient commutes. Life is hard. Stop making the people burden the people.”
Comments say, “I work subway security. They have under covers mixed up among you and if you don’t cooperate, we get put through the wringer. Please be more understanding. Is it that hard to pass your bag through the machine?”
“People hate this kind of ritualistic display. They’re getting wages deducted because of security checks. Please be more understanding. Is it that hard to note waste societal resources on pointless displays?”
“Don’t you guys know how to fight back? How much slave money do you earn a month that you work this hard?”
“Raise your own abilities and stop doing this kind of pointless, wasteful, enabling job.”
“Every industry has rules. You can not follow it and just trample all over it and see what happens.”
“You don’t have to ride the subway to work. Then you won’t be late and you don’t have to squeeze with so many people.”
“Why can’t you guys prepare a couple more machines? Korea and Japan don’t require security checks.”
“Lol, there’s no other country on earth with subway security. Some European countries don’t even check your tickets, much less do security checks.”
“There has to be a reason why it’s suddenly so strict. For the sake of everyone’s safety, just follow security requirements. Being home a little late is no big deal. It’s more important that everyone arrives home safely.”
“But does it actually work though? Everyone’s stuck at the door going through security, but they don’t give a shit at all about people passing stuff back and forth over the fence.”
“I called 12345 today [complaint hotline for the city], and the rail police responded that there’s no policy requiring that big and small bag all go through security. So this is something the security company is demanding, because they need to fulfill their machine quota. The police said they’ve received a lot of complaints like this lately, and maybe it’ll change in a couple of days, because the more people complain, the more likely they might edit these policies. So you gotta learn to call 12345.”
“It’s just an obedience test.”
“Why is everyone mad at subway security? I’ve come across so many lately, but isn’t this being responsible for the public? You forget what happened at the train station in Kunming? I don’t get it.”
“I support subway security. There’s so many Chinese people and so much societal pressure. What if someone wanted to get revenge on society?”
“What if someone left their house entirely happy and stress free and then ended up stuck in the subway station for half an hour standing line and now they’re out of time and super stressed out and decided to get revenge on society right at the security checkpoint?”
“There’s so much traffic in the subway station, if someone wanted to start stabbing people, they’d get a lot of victims. This really happened a couple of years ago in the Shenyang subway. After that, you have to get scanned manually before you can get through the security gate.”
“What don’t people complain about?”
“When something bad happens on the subway, it’ll be the same people complaining why there weren’t security checks.”
“Next time someone gets revenge on society, I hope the people here die.”
“And people complaining about helmet checks. I don’t get it. At least where I’m going to work, scooters are so aggressive. I’m so scared that I’m looking up online reviews for good helmets. If something happened, at least I’d have protection.”
“Sure, sure, sure, no security, then you’ll be happy when you get stabbed by that boomer waiting on the 9th line stabbing people in morning rush hour. You’ll be so happy you start cursing security and the government and posting online, “Got stabbed this morning, all because there weren’t any security officers here.””
“But when that happened, there was security. And if someone wanted to stab people, couldn’t they stab people waiting in line? I’m not saying we should cancel all security. I just feel like there’s something wrong with your logic.”
A compilation of how sad it is to be a boarding student:
“Roll over in the middle of the night and the bed starts creaking loudly. The scariest part isn’t your roommates yelling at you, but your roommates tsk’ing.”
“Wanted to roll over and bury my face in my blankets to cry, but my blankets stink too much.”
“My classmates say my alarm sounds like funeral music.”
“Bought a drumstick, wanted to eat it in secret, accidentally fell asleep, woke up in the middle of the night because I got too hot, wanted to eat my drumstick and felt something soft in my bed. It was a rat. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I split that drumstick with the rat. I scraped off the bits it had already bitten and gave it to it, and ate the rest myself. I put the bone in a trash bag and had him help me take it away, and it totally did. It even gave me a look before it left.”
“The morning horn sounds and I get up and fold my blankets just to realise it was only 1AM. Turns out, the school played it wrong >: (“
“Our school played a prank on us for April Fools Day and rung the morning bell an hour early.”
“Wanted to go cry in the bathroom, but it stunk too much.”
“Lived at school for a few days and I feel like an Omega that’s just been fucked.”
“At least the Omega would’ve had fun.”
“You guys have really been to high school. Still scares me looking back from college.”
“The opposite of thunderous rage is static pissiness.”
“Got up in the morning to pour some water, and found my roommate broke my water bottle.”
“One time, I crapped too big of a poop and it won’t flush down, so then my dorm started laughing and we got caught by by dorm manager. The next day, my head teacher asked me why, and before I could even reply, I couldn’t help but start laughing. My roommates ended up explaining this whole deal in class and I wanted to drop out T_T”
“I wanted to tsk, but there wasn’t any water and my mouth was too dry, and it came out as “ts-tsk””
“Cried myself to sleep at night, and when I woke up the next morning, my pillow had sprouted.”
A discussion on The Untamed:
“I saw the published book that some people have bought. You can’t really blame straight men.”
“My coworker watched The Untamed and thought Wen Qing was the female lead at first. Then Wen Qing disappeared. Then she thought Shi Jie [Wei Wuxian’s “older sister”/upper classman] was the male lead, and then Shi Jie married someone else. Then she thought Wei Qing was the male lead again, and then Wen Qing died. Then Wei Wuxian died. After he revived, she guessed he’d end up together with Mian Mian because there wasn’t any other options left. And then Mian Mian got married and had kids. After she was done, she ranted to me for a whole month, that the director was just forcing a tragedy for tragedy’s sake, wouldn’t let Wu Wuxian have anybody to warm his heart, forcing him to wander the Earth by himself. Then she stopped bringing it up and I thought she’d forgotten all about it. Then one day, she suddenly came over and asked me what was in the original book, and that’s when I found out that in a rage, she went and wrote OC female fanfiction to comfort Weu Wuxian, and after she posted it, a bunch of people yelled at her for being being a dreamer [people who ship themselves with fictional characters] and breaking up the official pairing, and that’s when she learned for the first time that everyone seemed to assume Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were a pair.”
“My dad watched The Untamed and insisted it was just camaraderie. I was like, “Don’t you think it’s a bit too much, though?” And he was like, “No, you guys will never understand the camaraderie of men!””
“My mom watching the Untamed: Wei Wuxian loved his Shi Jie, his Shi Jie loved Jin Zixian. Jin Zixian got killed by Wei Wuxian’s people, and his Shi Jie died too, so Wei Wuxian went crazy.
My dad watching the Untamed: The Wen family are dishonourable bastards. Kill them all. Wei Wuxian has fallen to black magic. Kill him off. Jin Guangyao is a petty bitch. Kill him too.”
“Before I ever came into contact with yaoi, I watched the Untamed, and there was a spoiler image of Wei Wuxian hugging Wen Qing or someone or other, and a bunch of people were mad about it online, and I was wondering what there was to get mad about…And I honestly, sincerely thought Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were just socialist comrades. I forget what happened but I ended up reading the original novel…and I just want to slap my past self in the face…you can’t break up the OTP. Wang/Xian forever.”
“A guy in my class got a version of “Wuji” from the bookstore. Yeah, the hard copy of the Untamed. Maybe because it’s the “official version”, it was censored, so from beginning to end, he thought it was just hot-blooded wuxia camaraderie. Because it was only the first half, after he finished, he was like, “That was random ending.” And other classmates gave him a complete, pirated, uncensored version. I’ll never forget the shrill scream he let out in the middle of the classroom.”
“I forget which elder of mine in my family watched the Untamed with me, but we watched a lot of it, and they kept saying how handsome Wei Wuxian was, how he was going to end up with Shi Jie, and how Lan Wangji was going to turn into a villain.”
”When my mom watched The Untamed for the first time, she was absolutely certain that Lan Wangji was going to end up with his older brother. And I was like, “Then what about Wei Wuxian.” And she was like, “He has a brother too. They’re not even related by blood.””
“This is such a good answer!
A netizen asked, “Why don’t they make Harbin’s Ice World out of glass and change it out every couple of years? It costs billions to build it out of ice every year, and there’s a lot of poor people in Heilongjiang who need the help. Why not build a couple of factories out of those billions? Out of all the major cities in Heilongjiang, which one of them aren’t poor aside from Harbin? It’s got the worst economy in all of China. There’s hardly any people left in Hegang, Yichun, or Shuangya Shan.”
And someone from Harbin responded, “Glass? Are you aware that ice is free in Harbin? Every year, the main cost that goes into building Ice World is labour. Most of that money becomes workers’ income. That’s actually helping people make money. Glass is expensive. Are you gonna fund it? And if we don’t build it every year, where are workers going to make their money? And who is going to travel thousands of miles to Harbin to look at an Ice World made out of glass? Now do you get it?”
I’m sure “let them eat cake” describes exactly these people.”
Comments say, “Ice is their signature. If it was made from glass, it wouldn’t even be set in Harbin anymore. Snow tourism isn’t just a way to make money anymore, it’s become a local culture.”
“Most of the money Heilongjiang receives is agricultural subsidies. Without Heilongjiang, we’d all starve.”
“They have a different theme every year to keep it fresh.”