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So some of you may or may not have heard that Americans have decided in a show of pettiness and solidarity, to move directly to a Chinese social media app called Rednote (which is like TikTok) as a sort of "fuck you" to meta and the US government.

The Chinese people are not only hilarious and welcoming but they are very perceptive.

Someone asked the Chinese opinion on what's wrong with Murica from their perspective and they and other non Americans dragged our asses for absolute FILTH 💀

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"10 years ago, I had this tiny old man who would come through the drive-thru at the liquor store every other day. He wouldn’t even look at me, he would just hand me the money and say he wanted a six pack can of Natty. Now, I was at the store most of my day, and all you weirdos were like my family. I have a lot of you on my Facebook even now, years later. So, like, you get it. I wanted everyone to be my homie.

It made me crazy he never even acted like he knew who I was. After about a year of this, I started asking him if he wanted to hear the daily joke from one of my other regulars. He wouldn't say yes or no, but he definitely heard me butcher the joke every time. I kept telling him all I wanted out of life was to catch him smiling as he drove away. He mostly just shook his head and asked if I would stop holding his beer hostage so he could leave. I told him some day he would probably not hate me.

We did this for maybe another two years. By now, I really thought he was tired of my crap. I still never got more than a head shake, because he stopped telling me what he wanted and would just hand me money. THEN, one day, he threw something at me after I lovingly slid the hostage beer into his lap. It was a shirt which said, 'BEER ANGEL.' My life was complete.

After this we never talked about it, but I would see him smile a little every time I wore it. He started warming up to me, I felt, and it only took four years. Every now and then he would hand me a stack of jokes he printed out from one of his emails. I was in. He would bring me little things here and there he said made him think of me, like a little figurine of a cow lifting weights, and a candle he found outside by his trash can. One time it was a Playboy I still have on my bookshelf, because he 'liked the girl's earrings.' I had never heard anyone laugh as hard as he did that day.

So, about six years into the drive-thru friendship, he asked if 'Purple' and I would do him a favor. He handed me a debit card and a grocery list and told us we could spend $20 on ourselves if I could go to the store for him. He was on oxygen and just couldn’t even make it up to the door anymore. I literally jumped for joy as soon as I shut the window.

THEN he asked if I could cut his hair. He came into the shop a few times, but one day he was looking shaggy and said he didn’t think he could make it to the chair, unless I wanted to carry him. I told him I’d drag him all the way in on a blanket. He declined, so I told him I’d swing by after work. He greeted Violet and me (she was three at the time) with chocolates which had liquor in them. Again, I can still hear him cackling.

The last couple of years I would go to his house every few weeks and bring him lottery tickets and cut his hair while he did a crossword. I genuinely enjoyed him. He was funny without trying, and he was just awful in the best way. We would talk about our families and a lot of other weird crap. I was telling him about something my dad had said and referred to myself as 'Kate.' He said 'Is your name Kate??? I just thought it was 'butthole?' I told him my family all calls me Kate. It makes me feel loved.

A couple haircuts later, he hands me a check and I walk out to the car and see he put 'Kate.' I cried. The last time I saw him he called me 'sweetheart' as I walked out. I looked back at him and really looked at him. So tiny and frail. I told him I preferred 'butthole.'

A couple weeks later, I drove to Dexter for his funeral. Only a few of his family and friends were there. I stood awkwardly off to the side, as it was at a grave site, and I assumed everyone would think I was a freak show. I was sobbing. After the service everyone walked over to me and said, 'You must be Kate!! He talked about you all the time!!'

I have been thinking about Pete a lot lately. I haven't seen him in a year now, but Violet and I talk about him often. I sure miss him. Please be kind to people. Obnoxiously, annoyingly, insanely kind."

Credit Katie Sawyer

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Time to discuss drarry moment number 923074037286 in HBP. I think it's really notable how in the aftermath of Dumbledore's death Harry not only canonically doesn't feel angry at Draco at all despite feeling murderous rage towards Snape, but actually goes out of his way to recount events in a way that shifts blame away from Draco as much as possible.

First, Tonks asks how Dumbledore died and we get this bit:

"Snape killed him," said Harry. "I was there, I saw it. We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was . . . Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs. He immobilized me, I couldn't do anything, I was under the Invisibility Cloak -- and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him--" Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth and Ron groaned. Luna's mouth trembled. "-- more Death Eaters arrived -- and then Snape -- and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra."

Harry says there was a trap but doesn't mention anything about it having been a trap planned and set by Draco.

He uses passive, distancing language that doesn't even make it clear whose footsteps they heard on the stairs or under what circumstances Draco disarmed Dumbledore.

He doesn't mention anything about Draco having been assigned to kill Dumbledore, and almost makes it sound like he could've just happened on them and disarmed Dumbledore as a reflex or even in self defense.

And then he doesn't say that Draco held Dumbledore there at bay for a while, instead leaving it ambiguous as to whether the other Death Eaters arrived right away on Draco's heels.

And that's it. That's all he says. He puts all the focus and blame on Snape. Only several pages later when McGonagall asks how the Death Eaters got in does Harry even explain about the Vanishing Cabinets. Specifically the text says:

[H]e explained, briefly, about the pair of Vanishing Cabinets and the magical pathway they formed.

Again we see the same passive, distancing language that we saw when Harry mentioned "footsteps" on the stairs but didn't clearly say whose. It says he explained about the cabinets rather than something like "he explained about Malfoy's treachery and his plan to use the pair of Vanishing Cabinets to let Death Eaters into the school."

Harry directs the focus away from Draco and Draco's intent and involvement. I'm not sure this is even on a conscious level. His words are mimicking what his mind and his emotions are doing.

When someone asks what Snape shouted to the other Death Eaters as he ran past we get this:

"He shouted, 'It's over,'" said Harry. "He'd done what he'd meant to do."

Harry says he'd done what he - Snape - meant to do. Not what Draco had meant to do. Or what they'd planned together. So once again we see that Harry avoids blaming Draco or even revealing his full role in what happened.

And then, most interestingly, not till later when he's alone with McGonagall does he reveal that Rosmerta is being controlled. And the way he recounts it is REALLY striking.

"There's one thing you should know before the Ministry gets here, though. Madam Rosmerta's under the Imperius Curse, she was helping Malfoy and the Death Eaters, that's how the necklace and the poisoned mead--"

Again the use of passive language. He says that she is under the Imperius Curse rather than that Draco put her under the Imperius curse. In fact, he avoids directly blaming Draco at all. Harry merely says that she has been put under the Imperius curse by someone and that she was forced to pass on the necklace and the poisoned mead, leaving it ambiguous who cursed her and on whose orders she did those things, thus shielding Draco from blame.

He only brings up Draco to say that Rosmerta had been helping him and the Death Eaters rather than that it was Draco specifically who was controlling her. Given that the use of an Unforgivable Curse carries a life sentence in Azkaban this phrasing is certainly interesting. And it means that if Rosmerta did not see who originally cursed her, she might not be able to say who forced her to help Draco or possibly even whose idea it was to send the necklace and the mead into the school. That would make Harry the only witness who could prove Draco's guilt, and seemingly he doesn't want to do that.

Also. Draco IS a Death Eater. Harry's known it since the beginning of the year. And yet he says "Malfoy and the Death Eaters," because without even realizing it, he mentally puts Draco in a different category.

And then the next time Harry thinks of Malfoy is when he's looking towards where Draco usually sits and thinking about how Crabbe and Goyle look "lonely" without him even though given the tensions between them that we see in books 6 and 7 it's almost certain that they don't miss him at all. It seems much more likely that Harry is actually projecting his own feelings. In this context we get this bit of internal narration:

His animosity was all for Snape, but he had not forgotten the fear in Malfoy's voice on that tower top, nor the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters arrived.

I mean just what? All? ALL of his animosity? Draco is the one who let Death Eaters into the castle. He disarmed Dumbledore, thus (seemingly) enabling Snape to kill him. He also got Bill permanently maimed (though he didn't intend for that to happen).

If Harry simply felt nothing for Draco but dislike I don't think these circumstances would put him in the best mindset to start empathizing with him. Harry has a temper. You'd think he'd disregard all the extenuating circumstances and blame Draco for Dumbledore's death too.

I mean this is some of his narration about Snape, for example:

"So when he arrived at the fight, he joined in on the Death Eaters' side?" asked Harry, who wanted every detail of Snape's duplicity and infamy, feverishly collecting more reasons to hate him, to swear vengeance.

But no. That's not how he feels about Draco at all. In fact after thinking about how his animosity is all for Snape and dwelling with pity and concern on how afraid Draco looked and how he had lowered his wand, Harry actually starts wondering where Draco is and worrying about him and about what Voldemort is "making" him do now.

Because despite their rivalry, there's more between Harry and Draco than simple dislike. Harry understands him deeply. And he's immediately ready to sympathize with him and to protect him.

For all that they are stranded on opposite sides of a brewing war, they also have things in common. Harry is drawn to Draco and he cares about him. He knows Draco isn't a murderer and he can't bring himself to even pretend to hate him anymore. He just wants him to be safe.

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Harry: I don't think about Draco that much. Just because I happen to remember every single thing I saw him look at in Borgin & Burkes four years and coincidentally noticed the second he got a new traveling cloak because I have his whole wardrobe memorized doesn't mean I'm obsessed with him or anything. I'm just generally observant like that. It doesn't mean I care about him.

Ginny: You forgot about the time a piece of Voldemort came out of a diary and possessed me.

Ron: You didn't notice I was eating spiked chocolates right in front of you because you were staring at Draco's dot on the map...AGAIN.

Hermione: Do you even know my parents' names?

Harry: ... Huh. I was right Draco's skin is definitely a slightly different color than it usually is.

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Very interesting to me that Ron and Ginny feel comfortable saying the word in outrage, whereas James straight up cannot bring himself to say it. Thinking thoughts. Not fully formed yet.

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