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wish literally any gay papers would talk about lil nas x cause every article is either written with contempt OR makes sweeping assumptions by only quoting the cops and blatantly lies about things they contradict in their own article. like how is there no coverage of support or efforts to keep an eye on his location?

shortest possible story is that he he got arrested and hospitalized after walking around outside at night, MAYBE having 'an episode', MAYBE he was drunk, maybe he was high, maybe he was just being loud, who knows. Dude was outside at night in boxers and cowboy boots and that's all he did to "invite" police interaction.

But cops claimed he assaulted them so he gets arrested. Then goes to the hospital. Then goes back into custody.

And then he's not heard of for a while, then days later says he's out and okay. But facing FELONY charges!

WHERE IS EVERYONE? Pinknews cunts? Them? OutMag? Hello??

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It’s important for me to share that in the 1866 draft of War and Peace (tr. Andrew Bromfield), Pierre snatches Natasha’s letter out of Anatole’s hand and eats it

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I have been re-evaluating the 2017 Tony Awards

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NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 at Streetcar Crowsnest

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Played The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood and had such a good time with it!! You play as a witch making a pact with a behemoth and end up creating your own tarot deck :>

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So beautiful how Zack/Cloud is het and Clerith is femslash

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Got my first ever tattoo yesterday... Every time I look at it I just hear my artist saying "This is one fuzzy bear"

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just found out in medieval france, having a lion on your coat of arms was so prevalent that there was literally a colloquial proverb to clown on knights for being basic and not having a real coat of arms. the hate game was so strong back then. imagine medieval hate anons

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what i’ve failed to understand since i was a kid is why these ghouls want war with iran so badly. is it resources? do they have money in defense contracting? is it just that iran is too strong an opponent to us hegemony? why specifically do they want to see iran destroyed?

There is not one singular motivation behind the drive to send the US to war with Iran. There are multiple motivations which often overlap, but which are held in different orders of prioritization by different advocates of war. Most of these motivations are irrational and/or immoral, while others are legitimate complaints that could be addressed through diplomacy far more easily than they could through militarism.

Here's ten common motivations and arguments for a US war with Iran which you might encounter:

Independence from the US: The Iranian government is among the world's least-willing governments to obey US demands and subjugate themselves to the US-led order. For certain US primacists, this independence means that their very existence poses an existential threat to US dominance (similar to North Korea, Cuba, etc.) To a particular type of US militarist, it is necessary for the Iranian government to fall in order for the US to remain the unquestioned leader of the world.

Real Fear of their Nukes: There is a substantial contingent who really does believe that Iran is close to developing a nuclear weapon and that they could well use it if they were to develop it. Logically, the best way to address this concern would be through a diplomatic deal similar to the 2015 JCPOA, which Iran complied with! But the intensity of anti-Iranian sentiment among US hawks tends to convince them that direct military confrontation is somehow a better option, thus explaining why Trump decided to break this deal.

Desire for Revenge: Many older foreign policy hawks in the US have never forgiven Iran for 1) the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis, and 2) the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Lebanon, which was orchestrated by a terror organization with ties to the Iranian government. In their minds, both of these incidents were embarrassments to the US' military prestige which we have never properly gotten revenge for. (These people tend to ignore the massive wrongdoings which the US has carried out against Iran during this same time period, like the US destruction of Iran Air Flight 655). There are people in and around the Pentagon who have wanted to bomb Iran over a grudge for more than 40 years now.

Iran's Regional Proxies: Over the last several decades, Iran has engaged in an aggressive campaign to expand their influence throughout the region by supporting proxy paramilitary forces in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, etc. Many of these proxies have undeniably engaged in acts of terrorism. This strategy is both opportunistic (taking advantage of the power vacuum caused by the US overthrow of Saddam Hussein) and defensive (countering the regional influence campaigns of Saudi Arabia and Turkey). This is probably the most legitimate cause of US anger towards the Iranian government, but it is a grievance which will only be worsened by backing Iran into a corner militarily.

Israel (and Saudi Arabia) Hates Them: Iran is unfriendly with two of the US' closest partners in the region: Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Israeli government, in particular, has long been laser-focused on the overthrow of the Iranian government, and they are fully committed to dragging the US into such a regime change operation. For the most fervent defenders of Israel in the US, overthrowing the Iranian government is near the top of their wishlist.

They Got Oil: Oil is a factor which is often overstated in these discussions, but it definitely is one of the factors. Iran currently produces 5% of the world's oil and has the potential to produce far more were the current sanction regime against it to be removed. They also have the ability to shut down the Straight of Hormuz, an important chokepoint through which 25% of the world's oil flows. Regime change in Iran would significantly increase the leverage that the US and its allies hold over global oil markets and further weaken the strength of OPEC.

And Other Commodities Too!: Though the separation between the US and Iranian economies hurts the US economy as a whole, there are certain sectors of US industry that benefit enormously from having Iran so heavily sanctioned. Some of the big names in the US pistachio industry have lobbied heavily to keep US-Iranian relations unfriendly, because the elimination of US sanctions on Iran would allow the massive Iranian pistachio industry to compete with the US industry. As long as these two governments hate each other, a few politically-connected US businessmen make way more money.

Diaspora Pressure Campaigns: Most Iranian-Americans hold the following two opinions at the same time: 1) they hate the current Iranian government and want to see it replaced, but 2) they strongly oppose US efforts at regime change in Iran. However, there is a vocal minority of Iranian-Americans that do support regime change efforts, and they tend to cluster into two well-organized groups that wage pressure campaigns against the Iranian government. The first are the monarchists, who want to see the son of the former US-backed Iranian dictator restored to power. The others are those who are loyal to the MEK, a cult and former terrorist organization which has been extremely effective at building relationships with US politicians. Both of these groups work full-time to push the US towards overthrowing the Iranian government so that they can step in and take over; it's fairly easy to find both of these groups in online social media threads about US-Iranian relations.

Who Cares, We Want War: As I have written about many times before, the US military-industrial complex encourages the US government to engage in militarist behavior in order to boost their profits. Iran is one of their favorite boogeymen to justify increased levels of US military spending, second only to China. These companies fund think tanks and other policy initiatives to argue that Iran is an immediate threat to us, and then they fund political candidates who want to spend more money preparing for this "threat."

They're Crazy! You Can't Trust Them!: We are led to believe that the Iranian government cannot be negotiated with because they are irrational, they're anti-Western religious zealots incapable of reasoned decision-making. This is a convenient excuse for war, but it's entirely incompatible with the restraint that the Iranian government shows in responding to Israeli attacks, their continued willingness to sit down for diplomatic talks with their aggressors, the way that they helped the US government deal with al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11, and a million other indications that the Iranian government is just as rational as any other government in its geopolitical decision-marking.

Add all of that together, and you get a deranged political ecosystem obsessed with inflating the scale of foreign threats, finding excuses for maintaining the trajectory of our militarist status quo, increasing regional tensions, and rejecting obvious opportunities for diplomacy and a peaceful resolution of our differences.

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Can the #gamers please calm their tits. War of the Lions was not that good

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I think the biggest reason I’m increasingly leaning away from “the player is literally overriding Kris’s autonomy/personality/emotions” as the game goes on, apart from any points about Undertale deep lore, or what Kris was doing before we got here, or what we see them do during the game, is that UT/DR are narrative games, and any fourth-wall-breaking elements have always been woven into the story.

Like, alright, let’s say the big point of the story is that we are puppeting around a helpless Kris. And they’re silent and don’t really emote much because we’re suppressing their personality.

…So what?

Seriously, why does this matter? Not from the perspective of “the way UT/DR deconstruct video game conventions on a meta level”, I mean within the story. The first time Deltarune spells out that we’re not Kris is literally five minutes into chapter 1. What else is there to say about it, really? Is Susie going to discover that Kris was never her friend at all? Are we eventually going to stop playing as anyone and watch it like a movie? Are we going to have a boss fight against Kris, like in Contact (DS), and then the game just stops? It's a reveal, but not much more than that—nor is it much of a reveal, as Undertale already did it. To me, this reading makes it harder to theorize about future chapters, rather than easier. The more I think about it, I simply can’t see this sustaining a 40+ hour narrative RPG.

“Then what on earth IS it about, if not that?” How about this—maybe “PC agency” isn’t exactly the meta concept being engaged with here. Maybe instead, it’s:

What would a silent protagonist actually be like?

Let’s make like Ralsei for a second, and close our eyes and imagine we’re not overriding Kris’s will. That (on the main route) it’s more like they are “hearing” our suggestions and going along with them. What would it say about this character that they will roll with basically any option presented to them? What does it suggest that they rarely speak up for themself?

Framed like that, it sounds less like “mind control” than “apathy”. Or even, “depression”. Someone who already feels like they have no control over their life. And Kris has plenty of reasons to feel that way, given traits like:

Being overshadowed by their older brother

Constantly getting dragged into their parents’ divorce

Sometimes having to take care of themself because their mom is drinking

Being fundamentally different from their peers and family in a way they have no control over

Recently having lost a friend under traumatic circumstances

No longer having anyone to confide in from their old friend group

Quite possibly, already having been manipulated into doing things they don’t want to do (and keeping it a secret) by a villain

Being thirteen

Perhaps it’s less that we’re subverting Kris’s agency than that they already feel like they have no agency. That their choices don’t matter, or possibly even that they don’t want to be Kris at all—the very first choice the game “offers” before snapping away. Which would be fair! It sucks to be Kris right now!

Now I think that would have plenty of narrative potential. In fact, the arc it suggests is consistent with what is already happening: They find a real friend who will stand up for them even when they don't stand up for themself, gradually come out of their shell and emote more, and increasingly make their own choices regardless of our input.

“Then what about the Weird route?” I mean, to be honest, the fact that there is a contrasting route where Kris so clearly is having their will overridden is part of what swayed me to this opinion in the first place. But I guess off the top of my head, it could be a contrasting answer to the same question: a silent protagonist is someone who doesn't get any say in the choices in the game, whose opinions and actions are at the mercy of the player (or whoever we are playing as; that “the player” will not have any canonical status in the game is a hill I'll continue to die on). Asserting that, despite all the evidence that Kris is still Kris, they are a vessel for our will.

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I can’t believe it…

ALMA’S ON THE COVER

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people are gonna start posting Final Fantasy Tiktoks

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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!! AHH AHHHHHH !!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHH !!!!!! AHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !! AAAAAHHHH AAAAAAAAAHHHHH !! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!! AHHH !! AHHHHHH !!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH !!!!! AAAAAAH !!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!! !! AHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!! AAAAAHHHH AAAAAAAAHHHHH AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH !!!

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I guess we must fight. Eaaagggghh!!

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to be fucking honest. i'm starting to view it as a big red flag when queer people don't have the media literacy to tell when a character is making fun of trans women. i'm sorry that man in a dress crossdresser joke is not queer rep it in fact thinks trans women are laughing stocks