DISCLAIMER & ADDITION - just a text, distancing myself from a specific writer i've quoted (but also no? idk) and the separation of artist and artwork (more superficial than in-depth for now!)

DISCLAIMER, 24th december 2021 & 8th january 2022: apparently, there could be some confusion regarding the ✨lesart✨, reading, of this medial artifact and maybe it's interesting in general if i'm adding the following.

so, for me personally, the lyrical i is in my understanding fundamentally different from the author of the text; a text is always constructed fiction, media is always mediated and therefore always shortened, pointed, staged, uses metaphors etc. additionally the lyrical i in this text might actually refer more to the internet in germany and specific debates here than to a broader context as i'm naturally more "involved" here. moreover, this game kinda relates to my poetic text "ich bin trans* und ich hab angst" ("i am trans* and i am scared", the euphony just doesn't work in english) [in: landpartie 21, edition pæchterhaus, hildesheim 2021], as this text tries to reexamine barlows declaration too, and i still agree and always will agree with its optimism and as i stated above, i really do like all of the cited texts that are baked into the dna of this game. i'd also recommend checking out these 2 links on barlow's text [1] [2]. (interesting btw on a sidenote, that to me, german is just my mother tongue, whereas english is always connected to the world, to the internet and to feelings of ✨ehrfurcht✨, awe.) anyways, it's just a text, but i also really don't think that online hate speech etc and a shift in tone regarding the earlier more naive optimism & strange kind of nostalgia towards the internet + the continuous rise of corporations dominating the internet and the resulting battle for capitalization of every inch of cyperspace are specific to my position as a german person?? (and also sorry, i forgor i'm an academic ☠️☠️☠️)

additionally, i briefly want to distance myself from taraella's other writing (and generally all the other quoted people's i guess, because if i knew more about them or more texts, there definitely is the possibility to... distancing myself from everyone? cancelling everyone? yep, i guess that's the best, everyone is cancelled! (i quickly want to add that it's like totally random that i've encountered more of her writing and not from the other quoted writers, so... everything is random, everything is fragile, everything is hugely constructed), as i found out more about her general political position(s) and ain't sure if i would quote her again now. (typical sjw move, i know i know, shame.) but i still think the specific text i quoted and the specific quote is a good one! personally i am far from being a (quote) "classical liberal" like her and as i'm more on the anarcho-communist side of the political compass i have to distance myself from liberalism (*sigh* politics) - but i also don't really understand liberalism's definiton in the united states & generally english-speaking-contexts tbh... (who are "the liberals"? the democrats? is it just a republican catchphrase to devalue criticism? - and why tf are there just 2 political parties in the u.s. anyway?!? - so many questions, so confusing!) so in germany the liberal party is the fdp and ugh i definitely strongly distance myself from this political party. but it's a really complex question, where to draw the line, whom better not to quote. (but i also don't think this is like """cancelling""", but maybe yes but also no? o.O) (for example i'm not sure if i would use music by let's say richard wagner (although i did in at least one little screenplay #guiltypleasure, although in an explicitly framed way) (i'm sure i wouldn't quote anything richard wagner has written at least, hugely problematic, although i like the word gesamtkunstwerk and i guess it's already a quote if i every use the word? like now?!) and when to separate the artist from the artwork - ah yes! basically the debate whether + when to separate the artist/writer from the artwork/text; and it's a very complicated and case-specific one to me. so, would i quote christian lindner, if he would... like... say something meaningful? hmm, honestly i don't know. would i quote trump in an unironic, not metaironic, non-parody-way? i definitely wouldn't, as i don't want to reproduce right-wing ideology with its closeness to fascism! or like in the case of j.k.rowling, my feelings towards quoting harry potter (or even mentioning hp as i just did, RIP, shame on me) today are more ambivalent! and there is also the general danger of searching for (for example) bipoc* voices while reducing a person to one aspect of a broader identity without an intersectional lense, like it blows my mind that there are black gay conservatives like christian walker, with ugely problematic views, who are still multiple-marginalized people and like ugh. it kinda makes me wanna cancel my subscription to... i don't know what. but also importantly(!) marginalized people are not a monolith, what the ✨mehrheitsgesellschaft✨ (majority society) would like us to be, as i as a (amongst other things) trans* autistic person generally do stan fellow trans* autistic people, but i guess not every trans* autistic person has like """the good views"""™, it's always case-specific, it's human including all the human flaws. i mean: it's still the violent dictation of the majority society to even bring people into the situation of clinging to every marginalized voice we could find, because marginalized people are still so immensely underrepresented in every single aspect of society, art and culture. (especially in germany, ✨i guess✨ ☠️☠️☠️) [beep beep what's that noise oh my brain just reached the maximum value on the complexity meter for today and for this little ((((((endlessly expanding)))))) disclaimer it desperately wants to be drowned in other content] - i'm gonna elaborate on this whole topic more in-depth in an essay (written in german) in the future, as this question is already an essay i've planned.)

during development i just wanted to find a quote that is critical towards wikipedia from a post-colonial, non-white perspective and found taraella's text, fittingly/interestingly an open letter too. initially i wanted to quote dumisani ndubane from the documentary the wikipedia promise, but i only had & have access to the german version of this movie with a german voiceover and didn't dare to translate the quote myself when working on this game. but well, here is the quote, more or less accurately translated:

"Wikipedia is heavily dependent on the western concept of finding the truth. If something was written down, it must have happened." - Dumisani Ndubane

that's it. that's my long disclaimer/addition/(random & not so random fried brain) braindump, edited multiple times. (sorry, but also not, but also yes. sorry for everything sorry for text sorry in general, have a nice night day evening afternoon morning or sth.)

- and also i wasn't able to update the game yet, due to uploads still being disabled because of the voting for the game jam still going on. at least i want to add 2 things i worked on during development, but wasn't able to implement within the deadline.