spitedemon

[spitedemon]

The Substance (2024) dir. Coralie Fargeat

[spitedemon]

The Substance (2024) dir. Coralie Fargeat Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You. Only better in every way. Seriously. You’ve got to try this new product. It’s called The Substance. IT CHANGED MY LIFE. It generates another you. A new, younger, more beautiful, more perfect, you. And there’s only one rule: You share time. One week for you. One week for the new you. Seven days each. A perfect balance. Easy. Right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?

[spitedemon]

Life is Strange | otherplaces y.t 2/5

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (dev. CD Projekt Red)

[spitedemon]

The House of Hades

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Hi. I love Hades and Hades 2 as much as everyone else but we NEED to make some noise because Supergiant is refusing to sign contracts with fair pay and anti-AI clauses. And they are straight up recasting VAs to punish VAs who are striking (sag-aftra has been striking for 7 months).

We really need to make noise here because this mistreatment will continue if we don't.

I'm providing a link for the company contact page in the replies. Please send them a comment on their contact page and encourage others to do so. Maybe even leave a steam review about it, idk.

[spitedemon]

happy coulda been kamala friday

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There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[spitedemon]

The Demon of Vyrantium

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Literally sobbing. A judge, a US judge defended us. A judge brought up intersex people, using the term intersex, to *defend* us by not allowing our erasure. I'm having a lot of feelings right now

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My new Congresswoman had her first virtual town hall (over 9500 people joined the call), along with our Attorney General (both Democrats). They confirmed the Democrats are hearing a lot of complaints about the South African, and they're also hearing from a bunch of people about the immigration crackdowns.

They emphasized that the last time Trump was in office, they had over an 80% success rate in court with him.

Confirmed that Trump's anti-trans laws are in conflict with states with laws that force insurance to cover trans healthcare. OR/WA/MN are the states leading the charges in the courts and they feel pretty confident they will win.

Brought up how the Congressional Dems tried to bring up the Stop Musk Act, the Saving Civil Service Act; and the Veterans Affairs Committee is pushing back hard against the firings. Democrats are trying to get a formal hearing on DOGE, and said if the Republicans don't cooperate, they'll try to hold their own hearing.

Confirmed the courts have been agreeing that Elon and Trump have exceeded their authority with unlawfully cutting spending.

They encourage federal workers who have been fired or are in danger to whistleblow to the Democrats so they can help them sue. They recognize the fear of people worried about retaliation but emphasized the Democrats cannot help if people do not come forward.

AG said that certain states have more power to fight in the courts than others depending on how much Trump's EOs affect their individual states. So states with more federal workers (VA/MD/etc) are the ones who are holding the microphones, with other states that don't have as many federal workers backing them up.

People in the town hall overwhelmingly said "protecting democracy" is the most important issue.

Emphasized that Congress has the power of the purse and no funds have been approved in Congress to detain immigrants at Gitmo. Our state Democrats are not deputizing local authority to work with ICE and will not work with the Trump with anything that violates sanctuary state laws.

Said massive numbers of people were calling in when Elon and DOGE were messing around with our security data.

Democrats are overwhelmingly hearing from constituents to be bold (altho they're also hearing people demand they do things they can't, like arrest Elon). They emphasize that the definition of "bold" depends on the district you're in; deep blue district Democrats can be bolder than purple or especially red district Democrats, so be understanding that not every Democrat can get away with what deep blue Dems can.

Admitted sometimes Democrats hold back too long because they want to know what the "right thing" to say is before they respond to something, but they said that the Dems are working on a rapid response team to get over this hurdle.

Their messages going forward will be short, simple, and basically at an Eighth Grade reading level.

Emphasized they are not going to help the Republicans with budget votes without concessions.

Emphasized Democrats are even more unified now than the first Trump admin, which will make them more efficient.

Emphasized that Republicans control both chambers. Democrats will do what they can, but there's only so much they can as the minority party. Putting pressure on Republicans - especially on bipartisan issues like FEMA - will help more than dragging Dems.

Said the most effective thing individual people can do is be active and loud at all levels of government (they confirmed it's having an impact; it helps that Dems can say "Over 2,000 constituents told me to take a stand against Elon"). Make sure people know their rights.

State laws exist independent of the Trump admin. Get involved in contacting your local and state governments.

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nowhere am i advocating for harm against palestinians. all i stated was that this is not the time or the place for you to provide a lecture on social theories. again, find some tact and save the class presentations for your personal posts. now, because i myself am not jewish and would not like to be a hypocrite, i am leaving this conversation here.

never, never forget that when a 9 month old jewish baby was kidnapped there were people drawing swastikas on the missing posters of him.

[spitedemon]

Former Minnesota Vikings punter, Chris Kluwe, who was blacklisted from the league for standing up for marriage equality, speaks at a city council meeting where he calls Trump a Nazi. He is subsequently arrested and carried out by police.

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a post about the images of a murdered jewish infant being defaced with swastikas is not the place for your lectures on class consciousness or “well actually” moments. make a separate post or be quiet.

never, never forget that when a 9 month old jewish baby was kidnapped there were people drawing swastikas on the missing posters of him.

[spitedemon]

It's like we all collectively forgot as a society that friendship and just connection in general takes effort. Even if you meet someone you immediately click with, it takes hanging out about 20 times (!) to become friends. And guess what, some of those 20 meetings might be awkward or unimpressive.

We all want to reap the benefits (having a friend circle, having a partner, getting married) without doing the work (going to events, interacting with people, learning to handle conflict maturely, dating). Myself included. If I could, I'd never leave the house or go on another mediocre date again... except, that's part of the process.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the cure to the loneliness epidemic is touching some grass and building tolerance for tedious in-person interactions.

[spitedemon]

not caring too much about a fandom’s favourite guy is the worst. you’ll think “oh i’ll look into the tag see if anything new and cool’s there” and it’s just that fucking guy again