cynicalclassicist

[cynicalclassicist]

Keep being wilful women.

“Those who have to insist on being women are willful women, and the arm becomes your resource, something that can lend its hand in a battle to be. Trans women are willful women; women who have to insist on being women, who have to keep insisting, again and again, often in the face of violent and repeated acts of misgendering. Any feminists who do not stand up, who do not wave their arms to protest against this misgendering, have become straightening rods. When I ask for a revival of the militancy of the figure of the lesbian feminist I am imagining lesbian feminism as in a fundamental and necessary alliance with transfeminism. Transfeminism has also brought feminism back to life. And can I add here that an anti-trans stance is an anti-feminist stance; it is against the feminist project of creating worlds to support those for whom gender fatalism (boys will be boys, girls will be girls) is fatal; a sentencing to death.”

— Sara Ahmed  - Living A Lesbian Life   (via currydyke)

[cynicalclassicist]

I have been reading more Jane Austen, the unpublished Lady Susan, and the unfinished The Watsons and Sanditon, which I've just finished Chapter 2 of. I got it from the library on the 13th and began on the 14th. #LadySusan #TheWatsons #Sanditon #JaneAusten

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[cynicalclassicist]

The Great Dictator remains relevant, even moreso now that fascism has seized many countries, even the US!

Because someone is on the ball, Turner Classic is playing (among other WWII films) The Great Dictator today.

If you haven't seen it, please do. It was produced by Charlie Chaplin in the late 1930s, when it became clear that the war was going to happen, and came out in 1940 after it had started. Essentially, Chaplin realized that his famous mustache was about to be usurped forever by a fascist, and that fascist was going to kill a lot more people in the future than he had already.

It's a parody, made before the worst horrors of the Nazi regime were known to the general public, so there is discomfort here (if you've seen Disney's Der Fuhrer's Face, you'll get the idea), but the movie ends with Chaplin essentially saying "fuck it, no one else seems to be speaking out about this and I'm going to use my platform to do that."

For context, this character is a Jew who has been mistaken for the dictator (for obvious mustache-related reasons), and has been sent onstage at a rally to give a speech. Instead of trying to impersonate Hitler, he says what he really thinks. And keep in mind, Chaplin was coming out of semi-retirement for this. It was the first time most people had ever heard him speak, and this is what he said:

[cynicalclassicist]

These issues have been around longer than we think.

An unfortunate... accident, about this thing about censorship getting censored.

[cynicalclassicist]

ASOIAF fans do oft miss the point.

idk some of y’all are using “ghost that haunts the narrative” a little too willy nilly for my liking

[cynicalclassicist]

So... I wonder how those swing voters will pay for their groceries now!

Trump’s Plans to Screw Over America: Ripping Away Access to Lifesaving Health Care, Skyrocketing Costs 

As Donald Trump enters his first week in office after enriching himself on the backs of his supporters by making billions through a new cryptocurrency grift, he’s made his plans clear from the start: he will screw over Americans at every turn in order to benefit himself and his billionaire friends. 

Donald Trump’s first order of business? Screwing over Americans with an anti-health care agenda, immediately rescinding President Biden’s EO on lowering prescription drug prices, putting the Affordable Care Act on the chopping block, cutting essential programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and undermining women’s reproductive rights. DNC Senior Spokesperson Hannah Muldavin released the following statement: 

“The first time he was in office, Donald Trump was one vote away from ripping away the Affordable Care Act, and now that more Americans than ever before have coverage under the ACA, he’s back to put it on the chopping block again. Trump’s ‘concepts’ of a health care plan are making prescription drugs more expensive by immediately rescinding President Biden’s ‘Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans’ executive order, gutting Medicare and Medicaid, screwing over millions of people with preexisting conditions, and doubling down on further undermining reproductive rights after getting Roe v. Wade overturned. Democrats won’t stand by as Trump tries to scam America out of our health care.”

January 21, 2025

[cynicalclassicist]

Terrifying. These people are probably already violent criminals.

The connection between domestic violence, white terror, paternalism, and MAGA is obvious.

Sex traffickers and sexual abusers, too. It's white there!

Electing a felon and rapist who empties the prisons of the the most violent people on Day One is white supremacy in action.

No law, no order. Criminals and terrorists, both individual and organized, have an ally in Trump.

[cynicalclassicist]

We can only hope that we are not doomed.

So are we ready to admit the world is doomed yet <3

No cuz I'm not a little bitch

[cynicalclassicist]

Ah well, do that then.

Well, if nothing else, Inauguration Day/Bad Birthday 2025 was at least good for my Tumblr notes.

At this point, I'm going to have to find the small victories.

[cynicalclassicist]

That is just beautiful.

Still Can...

[cynicalclassicist]

Then we should tell people that we love their fic.

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[cynicalclassicist]

Hmm... interesting on Patrick Stewart. And he can act gay well, I saw him in Frasier do so!

I'm kind of obsessed with how Patrick Stewart is Not gay. He's literally straight he just acts like that. Ian McKellen is gay so it's easy to think logically that so is Patrick Stewart but he's not. Unparalleled. Don't call yourself an ally unless you kiss your gay friends on the mouth

[cynicalclassicist]

Yeh, pretty much.

[cynicalclassicist]

Enjoying your cheaper groceries yet? Because if you're spending more on your medication... Trump is so obviously not on the side of the working-class that only a fool could think otherwise.

Trump just rescinded an Executive Order issued by President Biden to lower prescription drug costs for people in Medicare and Medicaid.

[cynicalclassicist]

Musk is a Nazi. The Washington Post is fucking failing in it's most basic duty, in not calling out a Nazi being right there.

How the @washingtonpost is covering Musk’s speech might be the most disturbing aspect of the whole thing

Elon Musk gives exuberant speech at inauguration

January 20, 2025 | 2:08 PM MST

Tech billionaire Elon Musk gave a high-energy speech at President Donald Trump's inauguration celebration at Capitol One Arena on Jan. 20. He has been tapped to co-lead the "Department of Government Efficiency" under President Trump.

[cynicalclassicist]

Just put that out.

Your first pride story was touching and all but you still married a man.

Yeah, bisexuals do that sometimes.

[cynicalclassicist]

Elon Musk is a Nazi. Pass it on.

“Incredible things are happening already lmao,” wrote Gab founder and Hitlerbot innovator Andrew Torba

At a post-inauguration rally Monday, Elon Musk thanked Donald Trump’s supporters with a gesture that resembled a Roman salute, first putting his palm to his chest and then extending a stiff right arm toward the crowd, at a slight elevation and with his palm down. It wasn’t a one-off. He later repeated the gesture.