#-is not the same as it's citizens and that the citizens don't exactly have control over what wars and genocides the government decides to-

[gearboxsys]

what happened with eurovision half my non american mutuals r losing their minds please help m

Okay so a little bit of context for anybody unaware - the way Eurovision votes work is that you have the jury vote and the public vote. The jury vote is where Professional Music Experts from all the countries involved give points to the competitor that they want to win, while the public vote is where they average out votes from the audience and give points from that. The jury vote is historically kinda shit and people almost always disagree with it, and often it seems to be politically motivated to some extent as well (if you've seen people talking about "voting for their neighbours", it's because sometimes countries will continuously give points to a neighboring country, it's a whole thing), the public vote is usually a game changer unless there's some massive gaps between competitors from the jury vote.

By far the most popular entry this year was Finland's. You might've seen him around, he's the guy with the lime green puffer jacket that's just the sleeves. Personally his song isn't really my thing but I 100% get the appeal and it definitely deserves the hype. Sweden, on the other hand, had a more contentious entry. Personally I did really like it, but it's not like, a favourite - top 10 but not top 5, y'know? But I've seen a lot of people thinking it was kinda mid too.

The jury gave a lot of points to Sweden. By the time the jury segment was finished, Sweden was in first place by 340 points, a whole 163 points ahead of the second place contestant, while Finland was back in 4th place with 150 points. The public votes came in, and Finland did get a LOT from the public vote, bringing them up to 526 points, but Sweden ultimately won with 583 points, even though they got like 100 less points from the public vote than Finland did. So now people are rioting and are going to explode the jury

[bhaalsbabe]

This bed has seen everything

Pairing: afab!Durge Reader x Enver Gortash

Label: nsfw

Word count: ~2k

Summary/warnings: MDNI, afab!durge, durge is a magic user, unprotected sex, piv, creampie, some biting on both sides (and both sides like it), choking (receiving), the glove stays on, Gortash is a simp for durge but what's new, Gorty is more dominant here

Author's note: long expected part two of This desk has seen everything. Please enjoy and let me know your thoughts <3

You need to focus or you'll get yourself killed. The Emperor's stern voice rumbled inside your head, the force of his mind pushing your urge back, enough for you to see clearer again. You were standing next to an open manhole. Looking around to figure out where you were, you noticed an undead beggar you ran into after entering the Lower City a day before. You sighed, rubbing your temples as you made your way back to the room you had acquired in Elfsong Tavern. As soon as you entered the main square, however, you were stopped by one of the steel watchers.

"Citizen, lord Gortash is looking for you. Please return to Wyrm's Rock Fortress immediately," its robotic voice said.

"And what if I don't return?" You asked, not in the mood to deal with both Gortash and this annoying piece of metal.

"Then you'll be escorted there against your will."

You frowned, thinking about your options quickly. You hated having to follow anyone's orders. At the same time, you weren't in a position where you could take out the entire city's guards, and while you could turn invisible to slip out of this steel watcher's grasp, you would have to show yourself eventually and be captured then.

"Fine, I'm going there right now. Happy?" Your voice was dripping with malice that totally went over the steel watcher's head. It continued standing there menacingly, watching you as you made your way out of the city again. You walked as slow as possible, wondering what awaited you.

Gortash wanted you. That much was evident. The surprising part was that you wanted him too. This man, who was ready to doom so many people for his god and hunger for power, who hurt Karlach so much and sold her to Zariel... You should hate him and be planning his assassination, putting a stop to all of this. Yet instead, you were thinking of how familiar his touch felt on your body, how it made your heart sing in a similar way as killing did. Even without the memories that would explain the reasons for it, you craved him, his brilliant mind and his reverent touch.

As you entered the fortress, you were greeted by the mechanical voice of the steel watcher, telling you that "lord Gortash is awaiting you in his chambers". Two guards, these made of actual flesh, then lead you to what you assumed were the doors to his chambers. You waited until they left before entering, your heart speeding up in anticipation.

The room was big and expensive looking. It screamed 'important person resides here'. Currently dimly lit through various hanging lanterns, you could still make out the prevalent colours, red and black, with occasional sprinkle of green. All the way back was a king sized bed with canopy, with its owner sitting on its edge.

"You gave me quite a scare back there. I thought you'd start a bloody rampage in the open." He chuckled but you noticed he sounded almost relieved as his eyes set on you. You felt a pull towards him, your feet leading you to the bed on their own.

"I warned you I'm not as in-control as you might think." You replied, stopping in front of him. The dark lighting of the room made him look more imposing and you had to admit, it suited him. Black was his colour. His smile widened as he caught you staring at him.

"Can't help yourself? I don't blame you~" You resisted the urge to roll your eyes, instead choosing to ask the question that's been burning in you.

"What exactly were we?" You winced at how unsure and vulnerable you sounded. Gone was your usual confidence. When it came to your past, you were lost and helpless and it scared you. Part of you berated yourself for showing a weakness to an enemy of such status as Gortash.

But he didn't take advantage of it. His eyes softened and his flirtatious smile changed into a melancholic one. You had a strong feeling not many people had seen this particular expression on him. He stood up, taking both of your hands into his while gazing into your eyes.

"Allies," one of his hands left yours to wrap around your waist and pull you against his lean body. You let him do it, intuitively putting your free hand around him too.

"Friends," he leaned close to you, his next word whispered to your ear as if it were the most precious secret.

"Lovers." You heard him take a deep breath, almost like he was taking in your scent, his hold on you tightening for a brief second before he pulled away, reluctantly letting you go and stepping back.

Hearing him actually say it made a bit of your doubt and guilt go away. Of course your body recognised your lover, even if your mind struggled. You weren't betraying your friends by wanting to be close to Gortash. How could they possibly blame you for wanting someone you used to love?... You could easily do more mental gymnastics to defend your following actions if necessary.

Your breathing quickened as you pushed him back, making him fall into the bed, before climbing over him. "Good. Now I don't feel so bad for wanting to fuck you."

His eyes widened as he took you in, looking up at you as if you were a god, a self-satisfied smile stretching over his face.

"Old habits die hard~" He said before using his strength to flip you over. "You should know your place, however," his voice was deeper, his clawed hand wrapping around your neck, making it harder to breathe. You glared at him in defiance, displeased that he'd dare to do this.

"Oh, are you imagining slicing me open now? Frying me with you spells?" His eyes and voice were laced with amusement. He put more pressure on your neck, the sharp claws digging into the soft skin of your neck. He leaned close to your face. "Good."

The moment your lips connected, he released his hold on your neck enough for you to be able to breathe better again. His other hand made it's way under your shirt, mapping your body to his memory again. He sighed contentedly, almost getting lost in the simple kiss-

And then you bit his lower lip, hard enough to draw blood and to make him recoil in shock. He pulled away, touching his bleeding lip gingerly before looking back at you. His eyes seemed to get impossibly dark as he watched you lick your lips, stained by his blood. His pants got more tight as you gave him a mad grin, one that used to be on your face so often before your disappearance.

"I didn't think you still had it in you," he chuckled, looking way too happy for someone who could've lost his lip.

"You seem to be enjoying the pain. Aren't you supposed to be a tyrannical sadist?" You teased him, dropping your gaze at his quite visible bulge before looking back at him.

"Oh I can be, trust me, dear. You're just too special." He got near your face again, scanning over your features with his eyes. You could see the imperfections on his skin in return - the soft wrinkles around his eyes, the laugh lines, the scar on his chin - and as you shared this moment, you truly felt special.

You started kissing each other once again, more passionately and ferociously, both of you needing to feel, touch, taste each other. Gortash pressed his clothed erection against your core and you moaned into the kiss, your legs wrapping around his body to pull him closer, to stimulate the spot that was crying for attention. All of a sudden, none of you had the power to continue your playful banter. You needed him, and he needed you.

He started undressing you, his nimble fingers making quick work of your clothes and he didn't even have to stop kissing you for a moment. His hands kept exploring your body, squeezing in all the right places. He knew your body well.

His mouth left yours to kiss your jawline and continue lower, to your neck, your clavicle, and even lower, to give some welcome attention to your nipple. As he sucked on that piece of flesh, one of his hands started its journey over your inner thigh all the way to your cunt. He only dragged his finger through your folds, spreading your slick, and your hips buckled.

"Fuck... Enver, just fuck me already," you panted, your chest heaving heavily, your nails digging into his shoulders. He left your nipple with a 'pop', his dark eyes drinking in the sight of you before him, all desperate and needy, although he wasn't doing much better and you uttering his name didn't help.

"As you wish, my dear," he mumbled, removing his pants and underwear hastily. He didn't bother with prepping you, knowing you enjoyed the sting of his cock splitting you open and so he inserted his dick in you in one fell swoop. You tensed up, unused to this kind of pain, trying to hold back any sounds of discomfort. Gortash noticed it, kissing you softly on the lips, before whispering into your ear:

"You're doing great, my love, just relax." His fingers started playing with your clit, mixing the pain with pleasure and soon you were urging him to move again. He didn't need to be told twice, his hips pistoning into yours immediately after getting your permission.

He was thick, making the muscles in your vagina strain as they tried to accommodate his girth. It helped that you were embarrassingly wet, the squelch audible every time his dick moved in and out of you. Gortash buried his head in your neck, letting out whimpers that made you feel less humiliated about the noises you made.

"Ah, I've missed this. I've missed you. Thought I'd never see you again..." he mumbled into your neck, his breath hot against it. He cradled you close, as if you could slip between his fingers at any moment, his hips picking up speed. He wanted to enjoy this more, he truly did, but he was desperate to state his claim on you again, make you his once more. He made sure to rub circles into your clit in an effort to bring you to climax along with him. You were so responsive to his touch, like the first time you gave yourself to him, and he wanted to make sure you'll come back for more.

His clawed hand that held you close kept leaving bleeding scratches behind that you didn't mind at all, not when everything in this moment made you feel so alive. You thought killing felt great but this was actually better than that. He then bit your neck, groaning at the same time, his hips stilling, and you felt a warm sensation in you as he filled you with cum. With the continuous stimulation in and around your cunt, along with the small bits of pain he brought you, you followed him over the edge soon after, a silent prayer of his name on your lips.

You were both breathing heavily, still wrapped in each other as you tried to recover a bit of lucidity. Gortash finally pulled out, making his sperm spill out of you onto the expensive bedsheets but he couldn't care less. He laid next to you, pulling you against his chest, and he kissed your head sweetly. It felt unreal, that a supposed tyrant like him had the capacity to be so gentle, to an enemy no less, and yet here you were.

Well, let's just say you're heavily considering your alliance now.

[qqueenofhades]

Having seen what's currently happening in Venezuela, I feel so terrible for everyone to tried to vote Maduro out, and I worry about the US election. Will Trump and the GOP be able to do the same thing??

I agree that what's happening in Venezuela is bad and scary, but it's also not unexpected (unfortunately), and it doesn't correlate to the US election. It is very much a cautionary tale for us, but in the case of what could happen, not what has happened yet (and which we could and MUST still avoid). Here's why I think that.

First, Maduro is the heir of 25+ years of dictatorship (first the Chavez regime and then his), and that political machine has had a full generation to fix/control everything in Venezuela just as they want it. They've collapsed the economy, driven mass emigration/purges/brain drains, installed corrupt systems and destroyed civil society, staffed the government with cronies who will only ever do what Maduro personally says -- etc. In other words, exactly what Trump and the Republicans aspire to do here in America, but with 25 years' head start, so all those fixes are well entrenched. Outside observers were also warning well ahead of the Venezuelan vote that even an overwhelming majority for the opposition candidate might not be enough, because Maduro and co. can just fix the result however they want with imaginary fantasy numbers. (See Putin's "win" in the Russian presidential "election.") Because dictators all draw from the same playbook regardless of their professed ideological temperament, they always use the same tools.

Next, voting in Venezuela is all-electronic, which is obviously the easiest kind of voting to jigger, and which means that whatever the people actually select has little to no relevance to what gets published, recorded, or proclaimed. Now, despite the Republicans' constant screaming about ELECTION FRAUD, the 2020 elections in America were widely hailed as the safest, most accurate, and fraud-free in the nation's history. (For that matter, multiple investigations afterward have re-confirmed this, and the tiny handful of cases of election fraud that were found were committed by, you guessed it, Republicans.) This did not happen because of the Orange Fuhrer and co., who were busy trying to commit election fraud on their own behalves, but because America, however flawed, is still a participatory liberal democracy and citizens have the right to engage and to do so in a meaningful fashion. We had the entire investigation about how Russia meddled with the election in 2016, and changes were made. Cybersecurity experts were brought in; redundancies and failsafes were introduced; etc., and even the Russian campaign focused on psychological influence rather than actually, physically changing already-cast votes, because that is very, very hard to do in America. We are not an all e-voting nation; there are paper trails, hard-copy ballots, hand recounts, poll observers, election lawyers, and multiple other safeguards that exist. The Republicans have been attacking them as hard as they can, but they're still there.

Thirdly, the Evil Orange tried to fix the elections when he was the sitting president (don't forget the infamous "find me 11,780 votes" phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State that got him slapped with felony charges), but he couldn't do it even then. He also tried a coup as the sitting president, with full discretion as to whether, for example, the National Guard should be deployed to the Capitol on January 6, and that didn't succeed. As such, when he's a disgraced jobless felon who is not the commander-in-chief of the American military and holds no official or political role, he's definitely not getting it done now. There were reforms made to the Electoral Count Act to prevent another January 6, Biden and not Trump would be the president at any other attempted attack on the counting of electoral votes, and I can guarantee Biden would not sit around for three hours watching Fox News and cheering the rioters on if such a thing happened again. Trump has been threatening violence again because that's the only move in his playbook, and he wants to intimidate people into voting for him out of fear that he'll attack them if they don't give him what he wants, like any other psychopathic bully. But that does not mean he actually has the tools to successfully carry it off, and honestly, motherfucker? Try it one more fucking time. I double fucking dog dare you. Biden has 6 months left in his term and total immunity, according to your own SCOTUS. So.

Basically, Venezuela has already been a banana republic for 20+ years, the dictator has had a full generation to destroy it/remake it/turn it into his personal fiefdom, he allows elections only because he already knows they won't change anything or actually remove him from power, and that is precisely what Trump wants to do in the US -- but, and this is crucial, has not done yet. Which is why it is so, so important to Orange-Proof America and get rid of him once and for fucking all on November 5th. We can do it. So yes.

[howdoesagrapewrites]

Could you do both yandere hobie and pavitr x reader? Platonic or romantic, doesn’t matter really

𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙢 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙈𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙖𝙞 / 𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙣

Cw: lovesick!Hobie Brown x reader, lovesick!Pavitr Prabhakar x reader, murder, obsessive behavior

Notes: I didn't dive as deep in any of the scenarios because I didn't knew what you wanted, but you can always ask me to expand on a particular dynamic

>It's hard for me to see Hobie Brown as a yandere, he's a person that's against any form of control or unconsensual actions against someone, but it's not impossible

>We don't know what Hobie's canon event is, but his yandere nature could stem from it, being vulnerable and lost

>However, even as a yandere, he's extremely self aware and would prefer you never knew, he feels shameful about it, because even though his morals are a little fucked up in the eyes of the average citizen, he hates people who want to control others, who think they have some sort of authority over the people they love

>This goes harder if you're fem identifying because he feels the added layer of misogyny

>He has literally no problems killing people who wronged you, but he won't tell you. He won't deny it if you ask, but he doesn't go around bragging

>Most yanderes want to posses, protect or fuse with their darling, but Hobie just wants to have you close? He has all the characteristics of the previously mentioned, but his ultimate goal is uncertain, even to him, he's good having you around for now

>He's manipulative and certainly charming

>He's as equally as likely to become yandere for a platonic or a romantic bond, if you're close enough with him, it doesn't matter what kind of relationship you have

>I already touched on yandere Pavitr here, so I'll focus on how he'd work with Hobie

>In a poly relationship case, it's very confusing to you. On one hand you have cool, collected Hobie who seems to be always analyzing you, teasing you and wanting to see your flustered face

>And then there's clingy, desperate, sweet and openly whipped Pavitr, who who's always glued to you and whispering sweet nothings, also wanting to see your flustered face

>Pavitr is overly enthusiastic about both of you, but tends to go to you, since Hobie returns his affections lazily and prefers making out over cuddling

>Pavitr doesn't exactly agree with what Hobie does to people that mistreat you, but he loves him and accepts the violence as part of him, and if he's honest, sometimes he wants to do the same

>Hobie knows Pavitr can be a lot and sometimes you want personal space, but he's a sadistic little shit, so he encourages you to either voice what you want, or encourages Pavitr to keep doing it

>Your relationship with these two would be a roller coaster

>If they're both yandere in a platonic way, Pavitr wouldn't be as intense, but he'd still be pretty overbearing with protecting you, he may not be attached at your hip 25/8 but he's not letting you out of sight, why do you want that? You want to get hurt?

>He's like a worried mother hen

>If you get a partner or become close with someone, he's stalking them for some time before he can trust them

>Hobie is a like a cool older brother who's secretly a psycho

>It looks like he's just being nice and looking out for you, but you have no idea how many bodies he has left rotting in dark alleys the past few months

>If you get a partner or become close to someone, he never trusts them, but he doesn't interfere unless is serious, his signature style is making you think you actually have agency

> What you don't know, is that in a romantic setting, Pavitr is far more scary than Hobie at his worst

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

i love the incorrect quotes, but i dont agree with your political views. if its not much, could you explain why ur so anti bjp?(thats what i assume anyway)

You know, I actually think that the memes and the quotes are sort of a natural extension of our political views. I'll explain but it might get a little long. Stay with me here.

Firstly, I want to say that I think this way of perceiving politics is so fundamentally wrong.

"Anti-BJP", "Pro-BJP", "Anti-Congress", "pro-congress" etc etc. This isn't a cricket match where you're rooting for your favourite team. Politicians, as a general rule, are a bunch of liars. They lie to gain power and control. It's OUR duty, as CITIZENS, to keep them accountable and in their lane so they actually do their goddamn jobs. That's how the democracy is supposed to work. If they don't do their job properly, you vote them out of the seat. They work for us, and not the other way around.

In India, we grow up with this idea of not questioning your elders. Papa ne keh diya, bas keh diya. As children our natural instinct of curiosity and inquisitiveness is stifled. We go to schools and the same pattern follows. Don't question the authority. Keep your head down and colour inside the lines. We internalise this lesson to colossal degrees. Is it any wonder that we all struggle with critical thinking? If you're spoonfed "the correct answer" your entire life, you never learn to find if what you were told is correct or not. This exact thing is used by all politicians across the entire political spectrum. They use our learned behaviour of deferring to authority and never questioning power against us. The leader of the country becomes the patriarch. Papa ne keh diya, bas keh diya.

I have various issues with various political parties in India, in fact. I have no love lost for any of them. I don't exactly believe in unconditional loyalty to politicians.

Since you brought up the BJP, let's talk about that. My biggest issue with them is their politics of communal hatred. All they keep yapping about is hindu-muslim this and hindu-muslim that. For what? They could spend their time talking about actual issues but the low-hanging fruit of stoking communal hatred is easier to grab onto. Remember when the British did the same thing? It was bad then and it's bad now. All this unrest just to get votes. Imagine fucking up the mind of an entire nation like this and then demanding to be praised for it.

Their foundational roots are from the RSS and that entire organisation's existence is just insane to me. It's even more insane that they managed to go from a fringe ideology to becoming mainstream. "Hindu rashtra", it seems. Who even wants that? WHY do they want that? Is it such a bad fate to live in peace and harmony with other religions? A lot of their talking points are about how much they hate the islamic nations and how those are horrible and then they want to turn around and do the same thing?!? Is the hypocrisy not clear? So what if other countries are religious states? Why can't we try to be different? Maybe I'M the stupid one for thinking all humans are the same that we should treat everyone the same. Who knows.

There are also a bunch of other issues that the BJP has racked up during their rule. The demonetisation disaster, mismanagement of government funds to create public infrastructure, letting the interests of billionaire business ruin PROTECTED FOREST AREAS for mining coal that they didn't even need, introducing and passing HORRIBLE bills through the parliament without any thought or discussion, literally ignoring the plight of people dying in riots, CORRUPTION, destroying the public sector and letting for-profit capitalists free reign in a country which has practically no proper labour laws, aiding in creating a historical record of INCOME INEQUALITY that is higher than it was during the fucking colonial era, fucking up the press even more somehow to the point where they control all of the media houses.

This is not even scratching the surface. I could keep going.

My issue is not whether people vote for the BJP or not. Even if you like the BJP, my issue is that people seem willing to turn a blind eye to all the issues with the government and not even hold them accountable for it.

Vote for whoever you want. My only request is to keep your government accountable. Keep the power in check. The politicians should be SCARED of the citizens fury if they do something wrong. They shouldn't be free to do whatever and get off scot free.

That's our political stance, really. It's Pro-Exercise-Your-Democratic-Rights-As-Citizen.

We will always encourage others to be wary of people with too much power.

Now coming back to why I said the memes reflect our political stance, it's because it's obvious to see why we happen to be willing to risk being a little critical of a literary text. You have to be a little transgressive, in a sense. Perfect obedience and perfect reverence stifles people from engaging with something to their full potential.

I'm sorry to say that if you enjoy the memes and the quotes, you are also being a little transgressive like us. You're also questioning the authority of a religion to an extent. Perhaps our political leanings aren't as different as you might believe.

-Mod S

[whateversawesome]

SxF Chapter 91: Perspective, History, Empathy

Let me start by saying that I didn't think this chapter would make me so emotional. Was it the same for you?

A small side character like Millie, who we saw only as one of Yor's annoying co-workers, turned out to have a very sad backstory and gave us a glimpse of how things are for young people in Ostania.

This chapter talks a lot about people understanding and misunderstanding each other. Millie was just talking about her own experience and feelings, she was explaining why it was so difficult for her to help during an event like this, and that lady felt personally attacked because she saw things from her own point of view and her sufferings.

In no way the story discards any of those ladies' sufferings; what they went through during the war was very difficult, I'm sure. Nevertheless, comparing their sufferings and demanding Millie to act the same way just because they were able to do it, it's not right.

They both had different experiences because their circumstances were different, so they face life in their own way. That's exactly Yor's point.

Here, Yor demonstrates her best quality (and one of the many reasons why her husband fell in love with her): Emotional strength.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Yor is a very emotionally intelligent character. The way she stood up for Millie displayed all her emotional strength. She called out that woman in such a smart way!! She wasn't rude but her words were true and very wise.

One of the most important things Yor mentions is that we cannot bear the same load because we're different. And I couldn't agree more👏

Also, if we take it as a metaphor, Yor is such a strong person because she carried a very heavy load: as a child and an orphan, she had to take care of her brother. Because of this, a naturally kind person like her had to learn to murder in order to survive.

It was a beautiful chapter. On top of everything, we learned a few important things:

1.Yor did lose her parents during the war and because of the war.

2.Donovan Desmond did NOT start the war. But plenty of young people like Millie don't know that, so it's possible that since he was Prime Minister during most of the war, he gets blamed for starting it.

3.Donovan Desmond is hated by many. That's probably the reason why he's no longer in office. And it also wouldn't be surprising that the majority of people in Ostania who voted against him want to move on from the war.

3.Melinda still wears her wedding ring and, even though she's separated from her husband, she still counts him as an important person for her. I guess, you can hate a person's actions and opinions, hate what they have become, but care about them at the same time...their marriage is complicated.

4.Not only Yor and Twilight fear the SSS because of their jobs. The general population do too because they know rich and powerful people can make them disappear regardless whether they are spies or not. That means arrests and disappearences of innocent people are common.

5.There was a repression during war time. This means the state controls and restricts certain rights of its citizens. When war happens, the state may determine it's necessary to protect their country and citizens. Chances are that policing of others started then and Ostanians got used to living like that.

And now some questions:

Was Melinda being sincere? In my opinion yes (for the most part). Melinda is no longer campaigning for her husband. In fact, she's going there incognito. Since her husband is no longer the Prime Minister and they don't have any elections to win, she doesn't have to support this types of events. If you think about it, once a politician retires from the public eye, their spouse generally goes back to their normal life.

Something that caught my attention was that it was mentioned Melinda has a lot of enemies; probably because her husband has a lot of enemies too. If that's the case, it would be easier for Melinda to move abroad, where she could have a care-free life, yet, she has chosen to stay in Ostania. Why?

Melinda is still a very mysterious character. We don't know her plans or intentions. We don't know why she separated from her husband. My only guess is that she's suffered a great deal and that's why she's able to empathize with Millie, even though their experiences are different.

What do you think?

Bonus (to end on a light note):

This is the Sxf when we see Yor 😄

[hussyknee]

Fellas, is it an act of war against a Western European country to hold their citizens prisoner in the open air prison they're carpet bombing?

Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis have been launching attacks on US military bases in Syria and Iraq and firing missiles at Israel in tandem with Hamas's attacks. All three are funded by Iran.

(I am HEAVING with laughter at Vox and every single one of these propagandist chucklefucks calling them "militias" and "terrorist organisations" and trying to frame this as justification for continuing to fund Israel like. MOTHERFUCKER WHOSE REGION ARE YOU IN EXACTLY?? WHO IS GENOCIDING PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN SOIL??)

"But they're fundie theocratic military states!!!"

*looks at Israel*

*looks at you*

*looks at current state of US*

Oh, ARE they?

US officials have met with the Lebanese caretaker government in an effort to try and prevent the conflict from spreading into Lebanon.

Um. Was this before or after Israel poured white phosphorus on Lebanon? Do y'all even have any control over your dog?

(Btw if you MCU brainrotted Western leftists don't stop trying to pick a Good Guy out of this mess instead of understanding basic geo-politics and the horrific ground realities of the countries the US and its allies have left in tatters, you're frankly just as much of an enemy to the people in those countries as your leaders are. Every one of these people are fascist cunts.)

For those of you who have been BLEATING about Ukraine non-stop, like it's NOT an expendable non-NATO country they're only interested in defending in case Putin gets any bright ideas about Poland, here's an opinion that makes sense to me:

Tell me it wouldn't be perfectly on brand if the US government announced, "Our great democracy bows to the will of the people. We hear you, we see you. We will divest...from Ukraine."

The West has never given one singular shit about protecting ANYONE from genocide. Vulnerability is liability. The only difference between them and Putin is that Putin is greedy megalomaniacal fascist surrounded by self-interested yes-men and the US is run by a committee of greedy egomaniacal fascists surrounded by self-interested yes-men whose end goal is keeping the death machine spinning money rather than even "winning" territories. All they have to do to turn this around is divest from Israel and focus on Ukraine. And no, Israel can't throw in with Putin because it'll be too busy trying to fight off three countries at once without the sugar from its Daddy.

Putin will not stop at Ukraine, for the same reason the US didn't stop at Afghanistan. Empires are built on their military power and militaries need to be fed and kept active and kept active to be fed. The minute you stop, it tries to eat itself. If Putin makes a move on Poland, NATO has to respond, and if the West is also embroiled in an all-out war with the Middle East, well. It looks kinda like a global conflict.

Oh and btw, if this does escalate into another regional war in the Middle East, we're going to be plunged into an oil crisis. Which might actually be the last straw for the UK economy, but it very DEFINITELY will be for the rest of the Global South.

(Also Biden's already auctioned off the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska for oil companies for such an intensive scale of fracking that it's projected to tip the world over the edge of climate collapse. In the event of a war in the ME, the US is going to need that oil soooooo. Good luck stopping it.)

[0lshadyl0]

Let's talk about Umbratras Part 3/?

Continuing with the line of posts (part 1 and part 2 here) about this species until there is enough lore to start the Umbratra AU the yandere Batfamily x Umbratra reader (either batmom or batsis), in this part we will explain very briefly (because it is not that important actually) how the Umbratras came to Earth and other curiosities of this species and this time I will do this in questions and answers format, to add more variety

So how did the Umbratras end up on Earth?

Although they were already living on a planet that was about to self-destruct (remember, Tenebrae Prime was an extremely old planet) they had no way to escape from the planet and its impending end, (sure, they had magic, but not advanced knowledge of what to do with all that power and potential they had), they left their home planet thanks to "outside help"

Which basically means that a more technologically advanced alien species came to Tenebrae Prime and took the few resources left on the planet (the Umbratras were also considered resources); which means that this species was forcibly removed from its home planet by a superior alien species of conquistadors (but talking about them is a topic for another post)

These aliens initially tried to use the umbratras as food, but when they saw that they were more valuable as for labor than as food (the truth is that in the end they were not completely convinced by the "flavor") and thanks to the umbratras' ability to imitate, over the millennia, they made a name for themselves in the new alien society to which they belonged until they were finally seen as one of them instead of second-class citizens or slaves.

So over time the umbratras and the other alien species went and looked for other planets with resources either to conquer, colonize or control and that last thing is the reason why the umbratras are on Earth

Thanks to their mimicry abilities and high adaptability, they were tasked with patiently beginning to take control of planet Earth and its most intelligent species (humans) so the Umbratra throughout the history of humanity have infiltrated all circles of power all over the world to control humanity (insert any conspiracy theory here, just say an Umbratra did it and in this AU it might be true)

What do umbratras taste like?

Literally nothing, that's why it's not fun to eat them

Why are they called vampires?

That's the name that humans gave them, but they prefer the name that the Kryptonians gave them and that the other alien species later told them that was what they were called (they like Umbratra better because it sounds more mystical)

Why do they like the gothic style?

That was the fashion they imposed when they already had enough control over human tendencies, for them that is the coolest thing that exists (it is not a phase, it is a lifestyle)

Is it true that garlic is harmful to them?

No, but they don't like the smell of garlic and if possible they will try to get away from the source of the smell, even so they can eat food with garlic as long as they don't smell it

Can they eat human food?

Yes, although for pure umbratras human food has no nutritional value and they only eat it to keep up appearances, but in the case of umbratra-human hybrids, human food can feed them but does not increase their magical power

Are they afraid of crosses?

No, but it is something they invented and pretended they were afraid of in order to make humans feel that they had a way to defend themselves from them, the same with holy water or items

Why were they not reflected in mirrors?

This is a misunderstanding, in reality, umbratras are not reflected in silver, in ancient times mirrors were made of silver and it was for this reason that there was a time when it was easier to detect an umbratra/vampire, using mirrors

Why do they drink human blood?

Human blood is the closest thing, not to say that it is exactly the same as the liquid that the Sanguivium flowers produce and that was the main and only source of food for the Umbratras when they inhabited their home planet

Can they only transform into bats?

No, although this animal transformation is their signature transformation (it is literally the first animal transformation they used when they came to Earth) as long as they drink the blood or consume the animal they wish to transform into, they will take its form, although the color of the animal will coordinate with the hair color they have chosen for their human form

Why do they sleep in coffins?

At first, when they were adapting, they used cemeteries or caves as homes to go unnoticed, they would hide in coffins and pretend to be dead in their resting graves (also in cases where they needed to take naps for decades, they would pretend to die and be buried during their resting periods). In the end, it became something cultural for them and they continued doing it (plus it matched the gothic style they created and like so much)

Do they need oxygen or to breathe?

No, umbratras don't even have lungs and some of their hybrids don't need to breathe either, but they pretend to do so

I think that's all for now, see you in the next part or if you have more questions and curiosities I will make another post with this style to solve them

[waterfire1848]

Imagine a World's Finest AU, where the Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit meet for the first time?

Hello, @wingchunwaterbender !!! (The fact that Long Feng is the same actor as Lex Luthor in the animated series 😂)

Rather than benders and nonbenders, the world is filled with superheroes. Some of them do have elemental powers but others are more similar to heroes who make weapons and gadget's. When Katara was a child, her family discovered that she had superpowers. She could control any liquid, freeze it or turn it into a gas, heal people and control plants (or, more specifically, the water in the plants). Her parents were very clear that she was not to use her powers and she lived by their rule until she left the South Pole and moved to Ba Sing Se. (Sokka: Admit it. You moved here just because this city has a lot of problems and you want to help. Katara: Whaaaaaaat? That doesn't sound like me. Sokka: Katara. Sokka: Relax. I'll be fine. I have a plan. Sokka: And that plan it. Katara: *Holding makeup* First, I need a good hero name). And, thus, the Painted Lady is created.

Zuko was born into a family where superpowers are to be expected. His father has fire powers, his sister has fire powers, even his mom has the ability to understand and control plants, but Zuko was born without a single superpower. The family doesn't exactly flaunt their power too much, but when they do, Zuko is always left on his own because he can't join them. To make up for this, Zuko learns how to use swords, hand to hand combat and how to sneak around without anyone noticing him. By the time he leaves home for Ba Sing Se, Zuko is a master of the blade and knows how to sneak around at night without making a sound. He arrives at Ba Sing Se with the intent to make a name for himself as the a hero. He wants to show his family that he isn't a disappointment and can be just as much a superhero as them even if he doesn't have powers. Thus, on his first night in the city, he puts on his mask and becomes the Blue Spirit.

For a couple days, the two manage to work without the other noticing them until they start to appear in the paper. Katara and Zuko decide to find this other hero and see what their deal is. Zuko because he doesn't like that there's another hero around with powers (he's seen how power can corrupt) and Katara because she doesn't like anti-heroes/vigilantes. The two meet up after they both arrive at a club which was a front for selling weapons and demand to know who the other is. (Katara: ENOUGH! Who are you and what are you doing here? Zuko: I don't need to listen to you. Katara: *Tries to freeze him but Zuko moves out of the way*. Zuko: I know a little bit about people who throw their powers around and use them against anyone they meet. Katara: I'm just trying to help people. You are the one who's halfway killing people with your attacks. Zuko: I'm protecting people! Katara: Throwing someone off a roof and then catching them seconds before they hit the ground isn't protecting anyone!). The two go their separate ways that night, but neither notice the Dai Li watching them from a distance. The agents return to Long Feng and report to him anything they can about the two heroes. Long Feng orders the agents to keep a watch on them and to take them down if they disrupt his city anymore.

The Blue Spirit and Painted Lady continue to cross paths multiple times as they investigate the city and, for the most part, it’s just them glaring at each other or exchanging some harsh words but never anything more than that. Then, one day, Long Feng doesn’t like how close they get to disrupting the city (read as: he doesn’t like that they’re taking power from him by helping the citizens) and orders the Dai Li to attack them. The Blue Spirit is hurt and the Painted Lady takes him to her hide out for safety so she can heal him. (Zuko: Why? Katara: You were bleeding badly. I couldn’t just let you die. Zuko: Then you might just be different from some other super-powered heroes I know. Katara: That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t know who you’re interacting with but I’m not like them. Zuko: I’m starting to see that. Why keep my mask on? Katara: I hope you’ll extend the same courtesy to me if you ever get the chance to remove my makeup. Zuko: I think I will. Katara: Thank you. Zuko: We have to find out what Long Feng is planning. Did you see where the agents went when they disappeared? Katara: As a matter a fact, I did.)

The Blue Spirit and Painted Lady head towards Lake Laogai and manage to sneak in without anyone seeing them. When they’re in there, they find Long Feng’s brainwashing room, a planning room (which is where they see that he has the entire city and elite party under his thumb), and a room full of Dai Li agents. (Katara: This place is filled with everything. Weapons, his plans, his Dai Li agents. His Dai Li agents!). A fight breaks out between the groups and the two heroes are taken down. Long Feng comes to meet with them, allowing them to keep their mask and paint on but saying he’ll remove it in due time because he wants to do it in front of more people. While chained up, the two heroes get to talking, apologizing for how they treated each other and saying that if they escape they’ll try to be more understanding. (Katara: Katara. Zuko: What? Katara: That’s my name. My real name. Zuko: Zuko. Katara: That’s a really nice name. Zuko: Thank you.). Katara eventually gets the idea to freeze her chains and break them. Once the two are free, they focus more on escaping and not so much on fighting the Dai Li. They’re almost out when Zuko has a plan: he wants to flood the entire headquarters. Katara is reluctant because she doesn’t know if she has that power but agrees nonetheless. They escape and engage in a huge fight with the Dai Li agents while Katara uses all her power to flood the entire place, destroying their plans and sinking all their weapons. They flee before they can be caught again and return to the city. The next day, Zuko goes to find a Katara living in the city and asks her if she’d like to get some lunch with him.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

There is an excellent paper at JCPA showing how the EU spent over 1.8 billion euros to promote gender equality among women in the West Bank and Gaza - when the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are explicitly against women's rights.

As I looked a little deeper, I saw that Spain spent €300,000 on "Building a life free of violence against women in Area C of the Governorates of Bethlehem" in 2022. I wondered exactly what the problem is in Area C specifically, which is under Israeli security control.

According to UN documents and others, there is a real problem Since the Palestinian Authority police cannot operate in Area C, some abusive men flee to Area C to avoid being arrested. Also, Arabs who live in those areas do not have to worry about being prosecuted for abusing their wives because of the security vacuum.

So what can be done? 

One NGO report summarized recommendations, mostly to add a Palestinian police presence in Area C - which would erode Israel's security control over the area and endanger Israeli citizens. 

If Israel occupies those areas under international law, then Israel should be responsible for enforcing all laws including domestic violence among Arabs. Why do no NGOs demand Israeli police arrest Arab wife beaters? If the Israeli police aren't doing their legal obligations, shouldn't there be demands for them to step up? When I was reading about this problem, that was my first thought - this is under Israel's jurisdiction and therefore Israel's responsibility.

So why don't any NGOs or the UN demand Israel adhere to international law?

Because they hate Israel and would prefer Palestinian women be beaten and abused rather than support more Israeli security control over areas it already has control over. 

To be sure, Palestinian women are reluctant to go to Israeli police, even in Arab areas of Jerusalem. A Palestinian NGO explains: "If a woman tries to go to the [Israeli] police, the family and community stigmatize her for going to the occupation and harming her family."

But that does not absolve Israel of doing everything it can to prosecute crimes in areas it controls. That is international law. Israeli police have problems in Arab communities in Israel as well, but they have to solve the problem nevertheless - and they also need to in all areas under their control.

I cannot find one NGO that constantly accuses Israel of violating international law to uphold that same law when the lives of Arab women are at stake.

No, instead of insisting that these areas are "occupied" and therefore Israeli security must prosecute Arab abusers of women, they say that Israel must allow a separate, hostile police force into its territory - which erodes Israel's control of the area, and which is their real goal, just as the EU builds illegal Arab buildings, especially schools, specifically in Area C knowing that they will be torn down for being built without permits. 

Even for "human rights" NGOs, hating Israel is more important than women's lives.

[just-here-for-writing]

(This is a first time trying to write anything kinda COD related)

You ride through the town feeling weary, this last political outing had been more than tiresome and you were ready to be back at the manor and curled up in your own bed. So when carriage lurched to a stop you already felt a groan leaving your lips before you heard the commotion. There was yelling and you could hear your own guards shouting.

Curiosity had always been your weakness.

You lean to look from the carriage window and see a giant of a man being beat in the street. Your own guards are trying to clear the path so that you might safely reach your manor but another man with a switch seems enraged and unwilling to move.

The man you could only describe as a giant is on his knees, his arms up, trying to cover his head from potential blows.

The scene causes anger to bubble into your chest and despite your handmaiden's warning you step from the carriage with your head held high and a tight expression.

"What is the meaning of all this?"

The man with the switch stops arguing seeing you and ducks his head. "Just putting some things to rights my lady, I apologize for causing you delay."

"And what exactly are you putting into right?" Your gaze lingers over the man on his knees.

"My purchased help is anything but. He has broken many of the projects I've had him handle. He does not learn, a beating is the only language he knows, the only one we have in common."

"So you intend to mistreat your help in public?"

"He ran my lady. I used good money to purchase help and I won't let him just leave and waste that."

Anger festered. Lashing a man in the street was something you wouldn't stand for.

"And you would behave this way in public, in my town?"

His eyes widened. "My lady I swear to you I'm only doing what is necessary. He can't listen and when I'm lax he feels he can do as he wants."

"I have been gone from this town for to long then. I didn't realise the rules of decency were changed in my absence. Because here you are doing as you wish while my attention was lax. Should I treat you as you have treated him?" You gesture to the man.

The certifiable giant had slowly stood to his feet while this exchange was taking place. He seemed uncomfortable not just from the lashing but also from the attention of everyone around the square.

The man dropped his switch as he stammered. "I am allowed to oversee my property as I see fit."

"And I am allowed to oversee my town and it's citizens as I see fit. You said you purchased this man?"

He stammered more before telling you yes.

"How much?"

"What does..."

You cut him off. "How much? I intend to take him off your hands, since you are unable to control him and he is unhelpful to you. So how much? I will purchase him for the same amount you originally paid."

Your tone and expression leave no negotiation and you leave a guard to settle up with the man. You step towards the hurt man and gently tuck his arm in yours. He looks down at you with suspension, his slightly wavy locks stick to his forehead. You tug him towards your carriage and wave off the concern your guards give at your actions.

"Come we'll get you cleaned up and taken care of."

He mutters something in a language you don't know.

"Ah. I see." You speak to him with a soft voice as you coax him into the carriage behind you, propriety be scorned.

Your handmaiden eyes you and chastises your recklessness. But you ignore her and continue to speak assurances to the man that has to hunch awkwardly to fit in the seat across from you both. Even if he can't understand your words hopefully he can understand your tone.

When the man seems less unsure you try to learn his name. You point to yourself and say your name and then point to Lucy, your handmaiden and say her name. You repeat this a few times and then gesture to him.

He seems to understand what you want and simply says, "König."

Part 1/?

[hollowphobia-casual]

Starship troopers is (Not) Satire

Starship troopers is a 1997 satirical re-interpretation of the 1956 Sci-fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein, which went on to inspire the 2015 Satirical top down shooter Helldivers by Arrowhead Game Studios and later the 2024 Satirical sequel game Helldivers 2, by the same studio. But everyone knows this..., or do they? During the popularity of Helldivers 2 there was a large spike in people and players who didn't realize that the game was a comedic and satirical commentary on fascist governments. Even some close friends whom I played the game with didn't know this was the case and as the discussion went on there were people saying they didn't know or think Starship Troopers, the games very clear inspiration was also a satire.

And there were many people throwing around accusations or poking fun at people for not knowing this, but I feel like there was and still is an important discussion to be had around this, why didn't people know this? IT'S SO OBVIOUS RIGHT? Well..., no, when Starship Troopers initially came out many movie goers didn't see it as satirical, some people even thought the film was pro-Fascist and pro-nazi. And later sequels would tone down the satirical angle of the films. When I was younger I assumed the movie was just another sci-fi American war film about brotherhood and defying the odds, it wasn't until I was told of the films satirical nature did I stop and look for it.., so what went wrong?

I believe both the issue with the film and the video game is the framing of it. In the example of Starship trooper... The movie is about Rico, a young student who wants to join the military because of a girl he likes despite the wishes of his parents who want him to go onto higher education. Sadly the girl he threw his life away for breaks up with him, so he puts himself completely into becoming a great soldier. And he's really good at it, until his strive to achieve ends tragically when he gets one of his friends killed and is punished for it. Demotivated and blaming himself he wishes to leave, only for the bugs to launch a meteorite at earth, killing his family. Motivating him to return to service and fight. The initial assault on the bug home-world is absolute failure and a slaughter, but Rico manages to survive and we learn in a shocking twist that the bugs are a lot smarter than we gave them credit for. Responding to a distress call, we learn the existence of a brain bug, that is able to drain the brains of humans to gain information about us. We've learned where one of these brain bugs might be and we push for an assault on the planet. Rico lands, saves the girl of his dreams and the army is able to capture a brain bug, learning that for the first time that they are now scared of us and the chance to win the war is growing closer, happy ending. Now, many people will read that and think, wait no, your missing out key details or important observations. Well, what I told you is probably what most movie goers would of probably picked up on when watching the movie. The important satirical and anti-fascist details we are familiar with are essentially, background noise. They are very small scenes. Example, the needing the citizen ship to be able to have a kid detail? That is in one scene, it lasts for about a few seconds and isn't expanded upon. We were suppose to take away from it that the government is controlling who and who can't have a kid and enrolling into the military is essentially indoctrination, however, without more context there isn't much else to go on. The fact that the whole war is started by the humans first by invading the bugs territory? Again, it's a really small scene and we don't know what exactly invasion means in the grand scheme of things, but through out the movie we have ONLY seen the bug be the aggressors and the manner in which they aggress is incredibly violent, cruel, painful and indiscriminate. Casper Vein Dien, the actor for Rico, asked the director, Paul Verhoeven if the satire was a bit too heavy handed, with the director saying that the satire was 'subtle'. To which after seeing the reaction with most people missing the point of the movie, agreed that maybe they made the film, too subtle. And I agree, but I don't think it's the only problem. Helldivers 2 is WAY less subtle with it's broadcasts and use of propaganda. With videos and images of robots stealing baby prams. However, most of the fanbase, who are in on the joke have responded with Pro-propaganda and in doing so, many people take the game as a pro-war game. After all, you are fighting against mindless bugs and machines who attack you on sight, slaughter workers and stuff them into cages. Your just taking back your worlds from these invaders, right?

By framing both media as the 'hero', having you defend and fight against these attackers. you convey to the audience that you are in the right, especially when you compare how much damage the enemy do compared to yourself. There is no scenes of squashing sympathies, rebellions, or seeing what life is like for the average non-citizen, we get to see the world from the 'privileged', the rewarded, the heralded. The characters we are typically seeing doing right, but we aren't seeing them doing wrong. The context is there, but it can be missed by an average viewer and the fact it can be missed is a problem as it paints the setting as one of pro-war propaganda and doing what is right for the people. Like I said, if you aren't looking for it, you don't see it.

[threewaysdivided]

Gaza is NOT an excuse to sit out this election

I don't usually post about politics on this blog (if anything I try to avoid it since I know it can be a distressing topic) but, to be honest, the upcoming U.S. presidential election has me concerned.

This is going to be one of, if not THE most globally consequential election of our time, and I have been deeply perturbed to see people spreading sentiment that sitting this vote out (or even voting for Trump) is justified by the Democratic Party's handling of the genocide in Gaza.

I was going to write a post about why I think that's really dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric, but then U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders came out and said the same things far better so I'm going to share his video, and some key quotes:

"SOME of you are saying: "How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?" And that is a very fair question. And let me give you my best answer. AND that is that, even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right-wing friends are worse. In the Senate, in Congress, the Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza. [Current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible. TRUMP has said Netanyahu is "doing a good job." And has said Biden is holding him back. [Trump] has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. [...] AFTER Kamala wins, we will together do everything we can to change U.S. policy towards Netanyahu: An immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people. AND let me be clear: We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with [Kamala Harris] than with [Donald Trump], who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, right-wing extremist ally. [...] AS important as Gaza is [...] it is not the only issue at stake in this election. IF Trump wins, women in this country will suffer an enormous setback and lose the ability to control their own bodies. [...] IF Trump wins, to be honest with you, the struggle against climate change is over. [...] Trump believes [climate change] is a hoax. And if the United States, the largest economy in the world, stops transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, every other country, China, Europe, all over the world, they will do exactly the same thing. And God only knows the kind of planet we will leave to our kids and future generations."

And now I am going to editorialise a few more points:

Firstly, I want to emphasise that the upcoming election is about damage control and harm reduction, not about political allegiance or moral purity. The point of casting your vote is not to signal support for a candidate, but to cancel out a vote for the more damaging candidate by voting for their opposition in the two party system. Let me be clear on that: under the U.S.'s current first-past-the-post voting arrangement, voting for a minor third party or independent is functionally useless during an election of this magnitude. It is a symbolic gesture that's functionally and morally equivalent to sitting out.

Story time: I come from a country which uses a preferential ranked-choice system and where voting is compulsory for all eligible citizens (a system which lowers campaign costs, incentivizes governments to make voting more accessible country-wide and limits attempts at voter suppression not that right-wing parties haven't tried). Despite us actually having a few substantial progressive third parties, there have been several times where I've sucked it up and voted for the major centrist party specifically to keep the major conservative right-wing party from gaining or maintaining power. We call this vote-them-out and keep-them-out politics - it's pretty much the default approach here, and it should be yours too because the idea of a "perfect party" is a fallacy. When human rights are on the line, pick the least-worst major option. The aim is to cancel out a vote for the other guy. Even with this, we recently lost our state to the major conservative-right party (running on a platform of youth-criminalization and abortion-bans) by a mere 8 percent margin - just in case you want evidence of how much impact a small number of votes can make, and how dangerous it can be to get complacent.

Secondly, for those Americans who still believe that not voting will keep you from being complicit in the Genocide in Gaza. Let me speak to you as a White Australian: you are already complicit in and benefiting from a genocide. Multiple, in fact. You and I both live, learn, work and profit on land that was forcibly seized through the murder and dispossession of First Nations peoples, similar to how Palestinians are being murdered and dispossessed of their land right now. When you enjoy chocolate and vanilla, you are benefiting from spices that were brought to the Global West via the colonization of Latin America, and that were historically (and in chocolate's case still is) cultivated by enslaved people. The phone/tablet/computer you are reading this post on is likely made using conflict minerals. I'm sorry, but you don't get to wring your hands over Gaza at a distance and pretend that sitting this vote out absolves you of genocide, while ignoring the ones your (and my) ancestors committed to bring you that luxury. You just don't. And again, as Senator Sanders said, Trump wants to bulldoze Gaza and turn it into Netanyahu's beachfront property development. You don't get to pretend that standing aside and knowingly letting someone else vote for him to do that is the more moral option.

Thirdly I want to point to that last part that I highlighted in Senator Sander's speech. I am not a USAmerican, but this election scares me because of America's global impact. If you are an American voter reading this, you need to understand that your country is too globally influential for you to neglect your civic responsibilities. I was working as a member of my country's national public service under a right-wing government during the Trump era and things got bad. A woman was raped inside Parliament House, video emerged of male staffers masturbating on female colleagues' desks and our then-Prime Minister quipped that it was a "triumph of democracy" that the women who marched in protest weren't "met with bullets". There was the same sort of culture-war mismanagement and misinformation about COVID-19, there were Neo-Nazis, and there was a failure to properly condemn or correct either of those things. Progress towards sustainability and clean energy slowed, and our Prime Minister secretly tried to seize personal control over five separate government departments. Sure, some of that would have happened with or without a Trump administration after all, we didn't need a Republican U.S. President to produce an onion-eating misogynist who hates homosexuals despite his own sister being one but the rest of the world looks to the U.S. to set the tone on what is acceptable in government. When the largest country votes in (or sits aside and lets other people vote in) someone as egocentric, openly prejudiced, corrupt, anti-science, greed-motivated, war-hungry, and dictatorially-minded as Donald Trump, it signals to other leaders that that is the acceptable standard. Even when it's absolutely not. When you choose to sit out (or cast a meaningless symbolic vote) rather than effectively use your civic power as a U.S. citizen, the outcome affects millions of global citizens who never had the option of giving their input.

Finally, I want you to listen to this podcast by Dr Robin DiAngelo and think about what the choice to waste your vote signals to the people around you. To the members of your community who are women, BIPOC, LGBT+, disabled, have migrant parents or who live countries that are effected by American policy (which is all of them, by the way. Y'all are big). We are not asking much from you. Queue for a slightly-annoying amount of time, get your identity confirmed at a sign-in table and then cast a ballot. Tick a box that indicates you'd rather let a qualified centre-left attorney and former senator have a chance of improving things, instead of a dictator-lionizing convicted felon who openly wants dismantle voting systems so that he'll never lose again. That's it. Get yourself to a polling booth and tick a box. We are not asking you to make an effort. We are not asking you to volunteer. We are not asking you run petitions, or call representatives or donate money or do meal deliveries or any kind of community work. Just tick a box. Vote. Anonymously. No one even needs to know what box you ticked.

If that is too much to ask of you, then what right do you have to call yourself any kind of ally? Think about the enormous privilege you are displaying by deciding that you can neglect this, and the fragility you are showing by deciding that a simple anonymous vote is too morally taxing. What reason would we have to ever believe you'd help us compromise on future solutions when you've shown you'd rather throw away possibly the last meaningful vote you may ever get on a Nirvana Fallacy? Why would we ever believe that we could rely on you to help or defend us when you couldn't even work up the courage and stamina to tick a box?

If that's too much for you, then fine. You're a coward, but fine. Just don't pretend to be anything else. And certainly don't hide behind the actual, ongoing suffering of real people as justification for your civic negligence. Do not use Gaza as an excuse to sit out this November 5th.

This website provides information on how to check your registration, register if you haven't, and find a polling booth. So does this one.

Do your duty. Get yourself ready. Go vote.

Then buy yourself some ethical chocolate to wash the bad taste out of your mouth.

[threerattsinatrenchcoat]

Dance

Rejoining high society in Baldur's Gate had not gone smoothly, but in the slick way that only patriars could make something go "not smoothly". Like slipping down spiked ice. The process went quickly and slowly scraped away all of Wyll's resolve.

While Wyll was still a human, regular citizens seemed to regard him with the same discomfort as a tiefling—hell-touched, but maybe not his fault. Likely not his fault. He was, after all, the Blade of the Frontiers. And Karlach had taken every opportunity to remind everyone that he saved her. Perhaps, like a tiefling, he was simply paying for an ancestor's mistake.

But here, in high society, where everything was controlled and arranged, "bad blood" was a flaw worth judging. Most of the patriars had never actually met a tiefling, despite hundreds living in their city. Wyll suspected that his peers' frosty attitudes were less about the fact that he made a deal with a devil and more that he’d been caught.

Read more on AO3, or below the cut.

Nevertheless, whenever he returned from helping Karlach in Avernus, he played his part as a dutiful son: attending soirees, debutante balls, war games and gallery openings. He learned to coordinate his hair ornaments so his horns might also look like ornaments, to temper his smile so only his most human teeth showed, to keep his eyelids heavy so in dim light the red might be mistaken for brown. Harder to learn was to watch the dances and not hope to be invited, to accept that people assumed the thoughts he voiced were fiend-tainted and to settle for spending most events seated at his table, nursing a fine wine that tasted exactly as sour and dull as any wine he could get in the Lower City.

Hardest was to do it alone.

"A dance?" asked a voice. Wyll started at the proffered hand. The invitation might mean something… had Wyll not watched the asker and friends giggling over dares, then point to him and elbow each other as they drew straws.

"No thank you," he said.

"But—"

"He said no. You will leave," a low voice growled.

Wyll found himself looking up at Minthara and Astarion. The two least likely people he expected to see here. Coming to his defense. Astarion thought he was a pathetic fool and Minthara hated him even more than her standard Drow misandry. 

"How did you get in here?" Wyll asked.

"We were invited. At least, we should have been," Astarion said, hooking his arm through Minthara's. She immediately unhooked and pushed him a half step away.

"I am a hero of the city," Minthara said. "I am owed a certain amount of respect. If not given it, I will take it."

"You might learn something from her, darling," Astarion said.

"About breaking into parties?"

"About demanding what you are due. You saved this wretched place twice, after all."

"I didn't do it for respect."

"Ugh, I forgot how you you are."

"This conversation is going nowhere," Minthara said. Without looking, she grabbed a passing courtier, looked him over, shoved him back, grabbed another one and said, "Acceptable. Congratulations, boy. You will dance with one of the slayers of the Absolute!"

"Er—" said the courtier.

"He's an amazing dancer," Astarion drawled. "And you know what they say about amazing dancers."

"I don't need—" Wyll started, but Minthara gave him a look that suggested she would blow a blood vessel if a male said no to her.

"Sorry," Wyll whispered to the courtier, joining him in a circle dance. He held his hand up and straight out, ghosting over his partners' palms as they switched and circled, so close he could feel the heat coming off each of them. None of his partners made an attempt to speak to him, although they had no problem laughing and cajoling each other. After far too much time, the loneliest circle dance in the world ended.

Astarion caught him coming off the floor and dragged him back on, his hand cool on Wyll's. "Tell me, do you waltz?"

"Not with my friends!" The waltz was a scandalous dance, newly introduced with far too much contact. Wyll had practiced it alone in his rooms, imagining a kind partner, until he was so flushed he had to take a cold shower.

"Then allow me to expand your horizons. I'll lead," Astarion said, placing his hand politely high on Wyll's waist. "You really should come to the Lower City more. Everyone is asking about you. It's quite annoying. And you never wrote me back about slaying a spotted frilled cockatrice."

"I did! I told you not to try. A cockatrice is dangerous enough. Spotted and frilled? You're going to get yourself killed. Again."

"I suppose you'll just have to help me, then."

Wyll sighed. "I suppose I will."

"It'll be good for you! Look at you, when was the last time you saw some blood?"

"I've been in the blood wars!"

"Not fiend blood. Proper blood, blood you can really sink your teeth into." Wyll groaned. Why did Astarion insist on hinting at the vampire thing in public? "When was the last time you had a good fight?"

Too long. Everything itched. His collar was too tight. His everything filled with a yearning to escape. Magic tickled under his skin. He wanted to blast something, to hold someone. Not Astarion, who would make fun of him, or Minthara, who would stab him. Someone—

Minthara appeared suddenly. "Enough, Astarion. I have found him a new partner. A first son of a dignitary."

She shoved the poor man towards Wyll.

"I'm sorry about my friend," Wyll said.

"I'm sorry she hasn't brought you a daughter," he retorted. Wyll cringed. Minthara was… better, but still not as good as she could be. "Is she using me to insult you?"

"No. That's what third sons are for."

The son-of-a-dignitary laughed, a real open laugh, not the polite titters people had been using to appease the Duke. Wyll relaxed a little. 

"Your hands are… human," said the son-of-a-dignitary. "Linnacker said as much, of course, but with all the rumors going around…"

"Tis a shame when loose tongues flap about, embarrassing themselves," Wyll said, shocked to hear an Astarion sentiment march out of his polite mouth.

"Indeed! Especially after all you've done for the city. Your friend told me of how you single handedly outwitted a devil's contract, using a fiend to gain power, then saving the city twice! And to that, I say good show."

Wyll glanced to Minthara. She raised an eyebrow, clearly not in approval that he wasn't focused on her offering.

"Thank you," he said, and the dance turned into a fine conversation, the first one he'd had in months. The dance even ended with the son-of-a-dignitary waving over his sister, who was a marvelous dancer even though she was only fourteen. They led a line dance through the center of the ballroom. Minthara looked appalled. After, he was approached by another, and another. Some clearly saw him as a curiosity, but one introduced himself as a third-son and another made a brash joke about loose tongues, a clear invitation that Wyll gracefully turned down. By the end of the session he'd collected several calling cards and been invited to a card night at an Upper City lounge.

The life that he should've had, falling neatly into his lap, with only a few helping jabs by two white-haired multi-centurions. He raised a glass to Astarion as he was pulled past by a new friend and into a circle of other guests. 

"—just anyone in," said a pinch-faced woman. "And now listen to what they're saying. Vampires, running wild in the sewers. Tieflings taking over the Lower City! One controls the entire wizard's tower. How can we trust them? The first time a fiend so much as smiles at them, they'll run us through with those horns."

Wyll, who could only wear shirts with very large collars, went still. So did his companion. Astarion, like a shark to blood—no, no, like a vampire to blood, sidled up to the conversation, grinning maniacally.

"The city's gone to shit," said a hatchet-faced man. 

"Certainly the sewers were already there," Astarion said.

"Worse now, with that spawn filth crawling out and demanding we listen to them. I swear, the petitioners line at the courthouse smelt purely of feces. No one cares about your solar allergy and liquid diet. Szarr is dead. What more do they want?"

"Food," Minthara said. "There is a basic hierarchy of needs. Spawn are not immune to it. You might utilize it."

"Fine. They can bother the living after they've proven themselves useful and handled the rats."

Her arm jerked out to the side, luckily, because she caught Astarion right as he took a step forward.

Quickly, Wyll said, "They're victims. They and the tieflings. Don't you have any compassion?"

The pinched woman said, "It's not the burdens we bear, but how loudly we choose to bear them."

"I remember earlier this year, when merchant-master Grinhold came before the council asking for a grant because the almond harvest was poor," Wyll said. Her cousin, if he wasn't mistaken.

"He was advised last year to diversify," Wyll's companion said. "Druid's have been warning of a drought for months."

"That has nothing to do with this topic," snapped the woman.

"I thought we were speaking of burdens we bear and how we ought to be quiet about it," Wyll said. Gods, Astarion had clearly possessed his tongue.

"Some of us have been mighty quiet about it," said the sharp man, giving Wyll a look.

This was everything Wyll had hated about living in the city. Why had he poked these vultures?

"If you're speaking of my—our heroics against the Absolute—"

"Oh, please," snapped the pinched woman. "I've seen a brain before. It's not intimidating, not even giant. And a handful of backwater cultist? Any idiot taken in by that couldn't be a threat."

Wyll was so aghast at her flippancy his words stuck in his throat.

"The only reason the damage was so bad was that no one did anything until it actually summoned mind flayers," scoffed the sharp man. He gave Will a look that made it clear exactly who he was speaking about. 

"And what did you do?" snapped Minthara.

"I was vacationing by the seaside, if you must know. If I had been here—"

"I was vacationing by the seaside as well," Wyll said. "I came here."

The atmosphere felt heavy. Dangerous. They were speaking about honor, now, and history, and other foolish abstracts patriars loved to duel over. Loved to start wars over.

"Do not hold yourself in such high esteem," sneered the pinched woman. "You may be the son of a Duke, but my cousin—Lamora Whimpledimple—has told me about you."

"Oh? Interesting. She came to dinner last week." Wyll smiled warmly. He really did like Lamora. A funny woman who smoked like a damp fire and cackled like a hot one. "Lamora always has the most interesting stories about the most interesting people. Interesting, too, how she never mentioned you."

Astarion's eyes went wide, mouth twisting into a nasty grin. Minthara gave a single curt nod. The music swelled.

"You dare—" choked the pinched woman, before her companion pulled her back.

"Another dance?" Minthara asked Wyll, twisting her wrist. Tucked against her leg she held an open blade, a sickly green sheen on the metal.

"A dance?" he said, giving the smallest shake of his hand in regards to the blade.

With a flick of her wrist it disappeared under the cuff on her arm. "A dance," she repeated, holding out a hand.

Finally, an escape.

"Minthara, you do not need to dance with me," he said as they stepped away.

"I know. That is why I am not."

Then he was back on the floor, away from the conversation, sinking into the music. This dance was dizzying, his partners' palms pressing against his, now too much, too warm and too loud. Everyone wanted to touch him. His palms were wet with sweat, and he tainted the entire floor until he escaped to a balcony, swallowing hard, his collar threatening to choke him.

"I didn't know you had any skill with courtly intrigue," Astarion said, appearing next to him. "You always seemed so… pleasant. I must say, watching you cut with that sharp wit was a delight."

"I am good at many kinds of dances. I hate it," Wyll said. "The words are said and I cannot take them back. Everyone will remember this."

"Remember not to insult you."

"Remember that I would stoop to petty insults. I'm not that kind of person!"

For a moment, everything went quiet, then Astarion's cool, light hand alighted on his shoulder. "Defending yourself isn't being cruel."

"I didn't defend myself. I attacked both of them!"

"Some people will never stop until you show them you are not afraid to hurt them. Cheer up, Wyll. It could have been worse."

"How? Lamora Whimpledimple will hear of this."

"Yes, the woman hiring me to handle her little cockatrice problem. She will hear that you had a verbal spar with her cousin that she doesn't like and think, 'That lovely man who killed that spotted frilled cockatrice? He would never!' and continue hating her cousin. No, worse would be Lamora Whimpledimple getting news that her cousin died in a tragic accident, twitching ungainly on the dancefloor as Drow poison taught some respect."

"Good point. Oh, no, where is Minthara?"

"Stabbing the napkin stacks. She has a theory that she can get her blade all the way to the bottom in one go. Some seamsmith is about to make bank."

Well, it wasn't even midnight. Wyll was in his fanciest dress, he'd made his way around the dance floor half a dozen times, and finally given Lamora Whimpledimple's nasty cousin a piece of his mind. There was only one thing that could make this night better.

Wyll bowed when he approached Minthara and said, "Care to join us?"

"For what?"

"I fancy a final waltz. With a cockatrice."

"Good. No party was ever made worse by introducing blood."

Astarion grinned, flashing fang with abandon as he followed the two of them into the streets and out of town. Under the moonlight, to an orchestra of crickets, ducking under clawed wings, pivoting around the talons of a beast and weaving between two partners, Wyll got one final dance.

And Lamora Whimpledimple, when she came for dinner at the end of that week, didn't mention her cousin at all.

[synchodai]

Just finished the Fallout TV show! Observations and spoilers under the cut:

GOOD: It's actually pretty lore accurate and canon compliant.

I don't understand the complaints that it retcons New Vegas? People argue that the Battle of Hoover Dam and "the fall of Shady Sands" both happening in 2277 renders FNV non-canonical, but that's not necessarily the case? It was clear from the chalkboard the fall of Shady Sands and the nukes dropping are two separate events? Meaning Shady Sands "falling," whatever that entails, doesn't necessarily contradict the NCR presence in the Mojave. Shady Sands is the capital of the NCR — not the entire NCR. Even without control of Shady Sands, they would still have rangers and citizens in their other settlements.

I think this is because people are so invested in this narrative that Bethesda hates FNV, and yes, they could have treated Obsidian way better and shafted them in numerous ways during game development, but developer Tim Cain himself said that Todd Howard loves FNV.

Yes, certain details in the show can be contradictory to its source text, specifically with how they handle ghoulification, but it wasn't like the games ever had a clear canon explanation for ghoul biology either. Fallout 4 showed that exposure to radiation isn't even the only way to turn into a ghoul — and I was certain the previous games emphasized that ghouls are ghouls because of overexposure to radiation.

All in all, the little details they do get right — the brand names, the music, the general vibe of how each faction operates — vastly outnumbers the ones that are a bit iffy.

BAD: They revealed who dropped the bombs and it doesn't make sense.

The twist of the entire series is that Vault Tec dropped the nukes because it wanted to increase sales and recreate the USA as a utopian, monopolistic corporatocracy. This doesn't exactly contradict established canon. In fact, with Mr. House being part of the corpo meetings discussing this, it explains how he was able to predict the nukes and shield his beloved Vegas before the bombs fell.

What this mainly contradicts for me is just...logic. This show clearly wants to tell its audience that corporations will prioritize profit over public welfare every time. It's a good, clear, and necessary message. However, corporations — no matter how evil they are — just wouldn't wipe out their own customer base, right? Who would they make profits from if 90% of Americans were dead? And let's say they don't care about the poors who couldn't afford their products and services anyway — they've just significantly reduced even the one-percenters' purchasing power by basically scorching the earth. Capitalists want to extract as much resources as possible. They will abuse and torture their golden goose so that it'll lay more eggs, but they will never just...kill their own goose.

There could have been a more logical scenario here. War is a one of the most lucrative times for corporations like Vault Tec. And American corpos ARE known for orchestrating wars and destabilizing entire regions, BUT they always do so outside the US — a safe, far distance from the paying customers and away from the company's executives.

If that board meeting talked about purposefully disrupting the hardearned peacetimes they were in and dropping a bomb ON ANOTHER COUNTRY just to incite people to buy more vaults, then yes, I can see that happening. I can even see them anticipating nuclear retaliation, but they're too blinded by greed and the need for infinite growth that they're willing to take that risk. Add some dialogue about how this is their way of manufacturing and exporting American nuclear annihilation anxiety so they can take their tech global, and we have something that's closer to reality than just....one-step self-immolation.

House in FNV more or less had the same motivations to recreate the world as a technocrat dictatorship, but FNV handled it better in that House knew that people, even rivals like the tribes, were better kept alive and converted to paying customers and/or employees than outright exterminated.

Unfortunately, since the entire theme is about how corporate capitalism can lead to the destruction of the world, the show portraying the "fidicuiary incentive" as akin to an ideology (a set of beliefs on how the world should be structured) is misguided I think. A corporation profit motive isn't ideological because only people can have ideologies and corporations are not people. They don't prioritize profit because they think this is the best system we have to achieve a utopian society — they do it because it is what corporate systems are designed to do. They do not care about societal good anymore than a cancer cell cares about the body it is in. All they want is to grow exponentially.

Corporations like Vault Tec and its ilk are more like machines made to churn money, and that has resulted in sometimes progress and sometimes destruction. But it is always uncaring of those consequences and the methods it has to utilize as long as it fulfills its end goal of continually making profit — and THAT'S the problem of capitalism. Not that corporate execs want total political control. Because if lax control meant they could continuing exploiting and siphoning resources and pleasing shareholders, they wouldn't care about governance or politics at all.

STRAY THOUGHTS

Mr. House at that table gave me everything I wanted. I'm so excited for season 2 being New Vegas centered.

I love the portrayal of vault dwellers. They all had quirky and distinguishable characters and there wasn't a vault dweller character I wasn't entertained by.

Vault 4 is such a good episode! It was so funny and such a good way to show Lucy and Maximus that kindness is still possible in the wasteland without making it uncharacteristically sappy or too after-school special.

Norm is such a compelling character. I didn't expect him to be such a big part of the story but I'm glad he was.

They did justice to the scenery. I love the deer because it shows it's been a while since the atomic bombs and how life inevitably recolonizes the land.

The twist that Hank Maclean helped nuke Shady Sands because his wife escaped to it? It's kind of a weak excuse to nuke an entire area again. I hope this gets elaborated on in season 2 and why Vault Tec decided to let the NCR become a full-blown national power before taking action.

Cooper Howard? No notes. Perfect performance.

I'm not a big fight scene person, but I appreciate the tribute to the games with the splattered body parts and how main characters didn't just curbstomp their opponents.

The vault scenes were the funniest but I hope they also lean in more to how weird the wasteland can be too.

A lot of threads left hanging. Who is Lee Moldover and why are the refugees of Shady Sands worshipping her? Why did she need whatever was in the Enclave scientist's head? Whatever happened to Vault 33's problem with their destroyed water chip? Why did Hank give Moldover the code just because Lucy told him to? WHERE IS FINAL PAM???

CONCLUSION

Amazing adaptation. Well-written characters that felt very at-home with the setting. It understood the games deeply enough to know that Vault Tec is the overarching villain of the series. Plot has holes and logical inconsistencies, but aside from what I've already discussed, these aren't egregious enough to take away from character arcs and the show's themes for me.

**Fallout games I've played:

Fallout 2

Fallout 3 (only got through half of the game)

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 4

[laundryandtaxes]

Typing here because notes don't give notification but here are the fundamental points of disagreement I take with this framing.

As stated in my reply, it is no secret that Hamas considers itself to be acting on behalf of the Palestinian people or is aligned with their interests, including an end to Israeli occupation. Whether the Palestinian people are aligned with them I do not know, but let's presume for a second that they are, and that every single Palestinian believes that every Israeli citizen is fair game for any amount of brutal violence one chooses to inflict. This still changes nothing other than how Westerners view the moral position of the people. But even if a people had an entirely "bad" national character, it would still not justify their occupation and intentional genocide, which is at least a major part of the fundamental project of Israeli occupation and always has been.

No two situations are exactly the same, but consider the case of Aghanistan. There is a nonzero percentage of Aghans who actively support the Talbian. There is an even larger number who saw their lands and lives and livelihoods and families outright decimated by two decades of war between the occupying US forces and the various fighter groups trying to wrest control out of US hands, and wanted absolutely any end to the war possible even as everyone knew that would mean imminent rule by the Taliban. The US occupation of Afghanistan was terrible and violent and only added to the overall level of violence surrounding everyday people. Neither the fact that the US occupation was horrific, nor the fact that some Afghans support the current Taliban government, means that those egging on the end of US occupation were cheering for the Taliban. The fact that some Aghans support the Taliban does not mean I think women and girls should, in fact, be barred from school and most public life. But even if the national character of the Afghan people was such that every single one of them supported the Talbian during US rule, that wouldn't mean they deserved occupation and genocide for people of poor character. The West has had to outright lie about the levels of Nazi sympathizing and violent elimination of dissent baked into the Ukranian state's character. I acknowledge that this is a position you could call that of a "Soviet sympathizer," but among those in the left with this view of Ukraine, we still don't think the Ukranian people deserve to be tossed into a meat grinder and made to die in tremendous numbers for no reason. Ironically, it is the West with its talk of support that takes this view of the value of the lives of these people. So talk of what a people support or like in a region of the world where of course people have different values and ideas and goals than I would is not a useful barometer for anything imo.

If every Palestinian wanted every Israeli dead tomorrow, the state of Israel would continue to exist. If every Israeli wanted every Palestinian dead tomorrow, the Palestinian people might see a conclusion to their ongoing genocide in the region, because Israel has a state, it has a military, it has almost a whole nation of potential conscripts and gives itself 18 years to militarize and shape the viewpoints of those potential conscripts, it has its Iron dome, it has American backing, it has the aporoval of the "international community" and has been pushing the bounds ever more in the direction of internationall illegal actions for every year of its existence. It is not surprising that it's not the case that every Israeli wants that- it's a function of the fact that human beings generally dislike violence and do not wish to see war. But functionally, I could say the same, that everyone who is sending #prayersforIsrael thinks the people on the receiving end of IDR bombs signed by Israeli children deserved to die, and that every Israeli must answer for some Israelis setting up beach chairs to watch a bombing; ultimately that's what this sounds like to me. I legitimately think the national character of Americans is absolutely awful, and the project itself rotten beyond use, but if some new occupying force showed up tomorrow determined to enact a genocide on the whole nation, I would find that bad in the same fundamental way that I despise all genocide.