#All In The Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way

[prettyvintageafternoon]

As a pro-choice person, let me say this about the anti-abortion movement overall:

Conversations like this are incredibly telling - and extremely late. They reinforce what pro-choice people have said for decades: anti-abortion activists want all the credit for forcing someone to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term — and none of the responsibility for helping that person raise a child, or for the ways abortion bans devastate people’s healthcare and lives.

Many of you "pro-lifers" act like you’re Katniss Everdeen for fetuses, when in reality, you voted for President Snow and the Capitol — so long as it meant making abortion illegal. (And mind you, most of you live like you’re in District 12 and don’t even have healthcare yourselves.)

Many of you vote for conservative politicians when you have nothing to conserve.

Of course, the anti-abortion movement has a fascism problem. White nationalist groups have long found a home in it (and have shown up at multiple anti-abortion protests), and let’s be real — the modern U.S. anti-abortion movement didn’t rise out of love for “the unborn.” It became a politically useful rallying cry after school segregation lost ground.

Evangelicals didn’t suddenly care about babies. They got mad their segregated schools were losing federal funding and needed a new unifying issue to stay relevant.

(And that’s before we even get into how conservatives—including conservative women—have publicly advocated repealing the 19th Amendment because they don't like how women vote for liberal policies.)

(And that’s before anti-abortion activists and the politicians they support literally made online platforms to report people suspected of getting abortions — expanding the police state they claim to oppose.)

Let’s also stop pretending people like Abby Johnson or Donald Trump came out of nowhere. Conservative anti-abortion activists chose them and platformed them. They looked past the racism, the hypocrisy, the cruelty—because those individuals promised to criminalize abortion. That’s all that mattered.

Abby Johnson has always been a fraud. That didn’t stop the movement from elevating her. Never mind that she’s had multiple abortions or publicly labeled her own Black son as a potential criminal. Y’all gave her a platform she now uses to make money while spreading harmful misinformation.

Meanwhile, it’s women like Amber Thurman, Brittany Watts, and countless others—especially Black women and women of color—who suffer the real cost of your movement’s cruelty and indifference. These women are suffering because anti-abortion activists, who SWORE that they were doing it for "black babies," went on a decades-long vanity project to make abortion inaccessible - all while blaming the doctors for following the anti-abortion policies they asked for.

Trump has always been racist—from demonizing the Central Park Five to screaming about “radical Islamic terror.” Anti-abortion voters didn’t care. He said he’d “save the babies,” and the rest — his authoritarianism, his cruelty, his open bigotry — was not a concern,

Now, after years of calling pro-choice people Satanic, some anti-abortion activists are just now realizing that their idols are demons.

And yes — pro-choice people have long understood how unaffordable healthcare, systemic racism, wage stagnation, housing insecurity, lack of parental leave, and the cost of childcare devastate families. But for the anti-abortion crowd, this sudden realization comes too little, too late.

Feminists and pro-choice advocates have been saying this for decades. Meanwhile, many of you fought against every policy that would have made parenthood sustainable — healthcare access, paid leave, living wages, reproductive education, and most of you still advocate against these things. Instead, “pro-lifers” spent years shaming women for not “keeping their legs closed,” as if pregnancy happens in a vacuum, and demonizing Black women for using government aid by reviving the tired “welfare queen” trope.

Let’s also talk about this line from the original post:

“We should not be EXPECTING Pregnancy Resource Centers to bear the weight of a whole broken system.”

Why not?

These centers chose to position themselves as the “compassionate alternative” to the “evil, Satanic abortion providers”—completely unprovoked. They claimed they were equipped to help women navigate pregnancy. They’ve received over $400 million in public funding between 2017 and 2023 across 49 states and D.C.

So yes — we should expect them to deliver on what they promised. Especially when they spent years lobbying for the end of Roe and helping defund legitimate healthcare providers like Planned Parenthood, and using false stories about them selling baby body parts to try and discredit them.

If PRCs can’t support people through pregnancy, then they shouldn’t have pretended they could.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Anti-abortion activists pushed for decades to criminalize abortion. They swore they’d support women and babies. Then Roe fell because of the president most of you voted for — and they scrambled. There was no real plan. Now maternal healthcare deserts are growing, OB-GYNs are fleeing red states (because anti-abortion politicians an attorneys are trying to prosecute them), and pregnant people are being turned away from hospitals.

And what’s the best solution conservatives have offered—the ones anti-abortion voters put in power in the first place? Bribe women with $5,000 to give birth — funded not by billionaires (who are getting the biggest tax cuts from anti-abortion politicians), but by already struggling taxpayers, many of whom are parents themselves.

The anti-abortion movement didn’t eradicate abortion.

It just made parenthood in the United States so undesirable that many people don’t want kids anymore.

More effectively than any feminist catlady, anti-natalist group, or imagined “depopulation agenda,” the anti-abortion movement made having a baby seem like a trap.

Congratulations.

A Pro-Life Callout

So in response to my last post, one of my followers reached out and had a very good conversation with me in my PMs, which led to this post.

To be clear, I am prolife and have been my entire life. And it’s because of these beliefs that I’m here to say: we as a movement need to get our house in order.

Let’s start with a couple basic assertions:

1. The pro-life movement has a fascism problem.

2. Abortion is a bandaid on social problems that the pro-life movement, on a whole, has not taken an active part in solving.

3. Assertions #1 and #2 make the pro-life movement hypocritical.

***

1. The pro-life movement has a fascism problem.

I’m not saying that the broad majority or even a majority of pro-lifers are fascists. What I am saying is that the movement, as a whole, is way too comfortable having fascists in it. There is no better evidence than that Marjorie Taylor Greene herself was on the stage for the latest MFL speech portion.

Let’s talk a little about what fascism is. Robert Griffin famously defined fascism as “palingenetic ultranationalism.” That is to say, it is a form of ultranationalism—extreme nationalism that places itself above all others, such as by promoting patriotism as the ultimate virtue or by insisting one’s own country is inherently superior to others—which relies on a palingenetic myth. The palingenetic myth is that the country once experienced a golden age from which it has since fallen, and that a revolution of some sort is necessary to “rebirth” it into a new golden age.

Griffin theorized that this myth could be a powerful source of energy in acquiring voters to the fascist party who had otherwise become disenchanted by traditional politics. These followers will follow a strongman figure who claims (key word there) he will fight the establishment by any means necessary (including force) and bring them into a glorious tomorrow of national rebirth. All internal disagreement against this mighty hero is viewed as weakness or, worse, heresy, which must be excised from the fascist party.

Palingenetic myth + ultranationalism = fascism.

This should sound familiar to anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last six years. To prove my point, think of a recent slogan which invokes national rebirth into a new golden age.

Yeah. I didn’t even have to say it. And that’s the problem.

The violence inherent to fascism comes from the fact that this golden age never existed, and perpetuating support for the ruler and his upper circle requires cultivating absolute loyalty. This is done getting the lower-tier followers very, very angry, and then pointing them at an “enemy” to expel all their anger at—after all, nobody questions their leader in the middle of a “battle,” and to do so is tantamount to “treason.” This enemy, usually, is one or multiple groups of social minorities, who can be blamed for the “downfall” of the country from its golden age. While the supporters target this minority group, the ruler and his upper circle continue to enjoy the angry mob’s financial and social support, and when of course the new “golden age” fails to develop, any people who point this out are culled from the support group and the ruler merely shifts the target to some new minority who was secretly behind it all.

Think about how quickly, for instance, hatred over the last few years has shifted from Mexicans to Muslims to Asians, depending on what the political situation required. It’s a shell-game. The perfect future is always just out of reach, under the next targeted minority, no really, we promise.

Now that we understand what fascism is, we can identify some important things about it:

1. Conservatives are particularly vulnerable to it. There’s an important difference between believing some or even many things from the past were important and should be maintained, and thinking that the past was a perfect era which should be returned to—but that distinction tends to get blurred during times of fascist ascendancy.

2. Believers in “traditional family values” are particularly vulnerable to it. This is for essentially the same reasons as point #1. Whatever that term means to you—and it can have a whole range of definitions from the neutral to the sexist—if you believe in something along those lines, you have already been identified by the fascists as a target for their propaganda.

3. Angry people who want to be part of a revolutionary change are particularly vulnerable to it. One of the wild things about fascism is that it often attracts a very similar group of people who might otherwise get involved with more left-wing or progressive forms of activism: anger at the current system is an important driving factor of fascism, the same as any other revolution. And a lot of terrible ideas can be “justified” when people are angry.

At this point you might be thinking to yourself, “FFcrazy15, are you telling me that every Trump flag I’ve seen at a pro-life march is a fascist flag?”

Is it a flag promoting palingenetic ultranationalism at the expense of minority groups?

Yes. Yes it is. And therefore, it has absolutely no place, no place in the pro-life movement.

Fascism is a problem in our movement. If it’s not, why is Marjorie Taylor Greene allowed at the Pro-Life march instead of getting booed off stage? Why is Abby Johnson allowed to publicly espouse racist beliefs about cops profiling her own son without being called out by the movement to the point of having to make a public apology?

Why is Donald Trump himself acceptable as a speaker at the March?

Excise it. Get rid of it. Or it will destroy us.

***

2. Abortion is a bandaid on social problems that the pro-life movement, on a whole, has not taken an active part in solving.

Sex leads to pregnancy. Consenting adults having sex should be aware that they might become pregnant with a human being, and unless they are willing to respect the rights of that human being, they should not have sex.

Now that that statement is out of the way: this country does not make it easy to be a parent.

One of the great failures of the modern prolife movement is the utter failure to acknowledge that abortion is a bandaid on real systemic issues. It’s a horrible bandaid that involves transferring oppression from one person to another, but it’s a response to actually existent problems.

Among those problems are the insane costs of healthcare and health insurance in this country, racism, rising housing costs, increasing income disparity, lack of federally mandated paid maternity and paternity leave, lack of affordable daycare options for parents, inability of most households to survive off a single income, the fact that we still do not have a living wage minimum in this country, and the utterly sexist expectation that a woman has to biologically function like a man in order to have a career and life outside the home.

These issues combine together to create an absolutely hellish experience for lower-income households and single parents. Consider a recently married couple that relies on a dual-wage income to pay their rent and necessities and are currently saving up for a house. What exactly are their options in the case of an unplanned pregnancy? If the wife has paid maternity leave at her work she might be in luck, able to take the necessary time to safely have her child and bond with it before returning to work, but if she doesn’t she’ll have to take two weeks off of work at least to have the baby (losing essential pay in the process), and then she’ll have to find and pay for daycare, which can be expensive. If the couple is lucky they have health insurance through their jobs, and the birth might cost almost four thousand dollars; if not, hospital bills can run into the tens of thousands of dollars for the uninsured. The couple will also have to choose between owning a house someday and providing for their child’s college fund.

I’m not making this scenario up. This is me and my husband’s scenario, if we have an unexpected pregnancy. This is real life for many people. And I’m not even touching the ways that pregnancy is infinitely harder for women of color or women who work labor or service industry jobs, women who flatly do not have the money for daycare, or whose jobs do not provide insurance, or whose husbands and partners have not stuck around to help raise the child.

And these women cannot “go get a better job.” Let me be clear about that. “Getting a better job” requires a college degree or at least specialized training, which is expensive and takes up working hours that those women need to be using to make rent money. If you don’t believe me that poverty is a self-perpetuating cycle, play the game “spent” here. I dare you.

The response to this from many pro-life activists has been Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs). And while I would never decry the wonderful work done by these centers, the fact of the matter is that they cannot bear the weight of a whole broken system. We should not be EXPECTING them to bear the weight of a whole broken system.

When pro-abortion activists say that we “only care about the baby before it’s born,” this is what they mean. They don’t mean that you don’t give to charity. They mean that you don’t care enough about babies and their mothers to fix the broken system that makes these people vulnerable in the first place.

We cannot charity ourselves out of this mess. The system itself has to change. And many pro-lifers, selfishly clinging to their conservative identities over their desire to help real mothers and children, have actively refused to consider that anything about the way America treats women, pregnancy, and working-class families has to change.

It needs to change. Or else more babies are going to die. And we as prolifers will be just as, if not more, responsible for letting it happen than those desperate women who choose abortion.

***

3. Assertions #1 and #2 make the pro-life movement hypocritical.

Fascism is inherently incompatible with pro-life values. So is the current state of American life for most working- and lower-class families.

If we as a movement are not actively working to eradicate hateful ideologies from our movement, and anti-human anti-family factors from American life, then we as a movement are being the worst kind of hypocrites.

We need to stop pretending like we can just show up at a march once a year with a couple of colorful flags and scarves and call it activism or a “pro-life revolution.” It’s not. It’s a field trip. Real activism means taking a look at the root causes of serious issues and working out how to solve them, even if it costs us socially, even if it costs us personally. Anything less is performative. Anything less is self-aggrandizement.

Anything less puts the blood of children on our hands.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Julia Métraux at Mother Jones:

When his uncle Donald became president, Fred Trump III—whose son William, due to a rare genetic mutation, has seizures and an intellectual disability—saw an opportunity to advocate for disability rights.

In a Time excerpt of his forthcoming book All in the Family, Fred Trump revealed a disturbing conversation with the then-president following a White House meeting in which he discussed how expensive caring for people with complex disabilities can be. Donald Trump said of some disabled people, his nephew recounted, “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.” [...] It wasn’t the only concerning conversation Trump’s nephew alleged that they had. When a Trump family medical fund for William’s medical and living expenses was running low, Fred said his uncle told him, “He doesn’t recognize you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.”

Donald Trump has ZERO respect for people with disabilities.

According to Fred C. Trump III in the All In The Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way book, he recounted an experience that Donald said that disabled people “should just die.”

This isn’t the first time the Donald mocked and disrespected people with disabilities, as the infamous mocking of Serge Kovaleski in 2015 revealed.

See Also:

The Guardian: Trump told nephew to let his disabled son die, then move to Florida, book says

Time Magazine: My Uncle Donald Trump Told Me Disabled Americans Like My Son ‘Should Just Die’

[im2tired4usernames]

Ugh I was excited for today until I found out I'd have to spend it with people that actively make me hate being alive hate the future and drain me off all energy physically mentally spiritually like a vampire I can't stand to be around her she is the definition of stupidity and even then that's generous as fuck this bitch has filled her brain with so much garbage I watch her brain cells die at alarming rates every single time she uses her vocal cords her giggles make me want to jam a sewing needle into my ear repeatedly so I can never have to hear it again its a friendly reminder that my parents decisions this time my dad's constantly makes me want to die

[enfinizatics]

dear americans,

as a polish queer woman and human rights activist, i know exactly how you're feeling right now and what to expect from these elections. i lived through the 2015-2023 regime of pis, a right-wing populist party that divided families in the same way trump did. i’ve experienced the rise of fascism in poland, the influence of far-right parties like konfederacja, and their “santa’s little helpers”—ordo iuris, an ultra-conservative catholic organization (banned in many countries, mind you) that helped enforce a near-total abortion ban and runs anti-queer campaigns in public spaces. i supported the black protests in 2016 as a middle schooler when they first tried to ban abortion. as an adult, i actively participated in the 2020 women’s strike, running from police tear gas daily after they finally passed the ban. i supported friends who faced charges.

i’ve lived through intense homophobia in poland as a queer teen and adult. i survived the first pride march in my hometown, where far-right extremists threw stones and glass at us. i endured the anti-queer propaganda spread by the ruling party in state-owned media. i survived the “rainbow night,” poland’s own stonewall moment in summer 2020, when police arrested around 50 queer activists following the arrest of margo, a nonbinary activist. i survived the "lgbt-free zones," the targeted violence, the slurs from strangers on the street, and the protests i held against queerphobia. it was hard as fuck, but i survived.

but just because i survived, it doesn’t mean others did. many women died because of the abortion ban—marta, justyna, izabela, dorota, joanna, maria, and many others who didn’t survive pis’s draconian anti-abortion laws. milo, kacper, michał, zuzia (she was 12), wiktor, and other queer and trans kids and young adults took their own lives because of the relentless queerphobia.

despite all of this, our experience in poland can serve as a guide now. here are some tips for staying safe and how we, polish queers and women, organized under the regime:

safety first, always. if you know someone who’s had an abortion, no you don’t. if you know someone is trans, no you don’t. if you know people who help with safe abortions, no you don’t—at least not until you know it’s 100% safe to share. if you are queer or have had an abortion, only share this with people you trust fully. most importantly, not everyone has to be an activist just because they’re part of a minority. if it feels unsafe to share that you're queer, trans, etc., then don’t. it doesn’t make you any less queer.

use secure, encrypted messaging like signal for conversations on potentially risky topics, such as queerness, abortion, organizing counter-actions, protests—anything that might be used against you.

stay anonymous online. if you want to research or report something without surveillance, do not use regular internet. get a vpn (mullvad is affordable and reliable), download the tor browser (for both onion and standard links), and if you plan to whistleblow, consider using a riseup email account.

organize and build networks. community is everything now. support each other, foster independence, because your government won’t have your back. set up collectives, grassroots movements. create lists of trusted professionals—lawyers, doctors, etc.—who can offer support.

to lawyers and doctors: please consider pro-bono work. this is what got us through poland’s hardest times. your work will be needed now more than ever.

for protests or risky actions: always write a pro-bono lawyer’s number on your arm with a permanent marker.

get to know the anarchist black cross federation and other resources on safety culture: "Starting an anarchist black cross group: A guide"; Still We Rise - A resource pack for transgender and non-gender conforming people in prison; Safe OUTside the system by the Audre Lorde Project;

for safe abortion info or involvement: get familiar with womenhelpwomen.

stay radical, stay strong, stay informed: The Anarchist Library

if i forgot to (or didn't) include something, don't hesitate to reblog this post with other resources.

[weirdmageddon]

i was thinking about this since i posted earlier about us needing to address the trend of gen z men being pulled into alt-right pipelines might have contributed to the outcome of this election.

i think contrapoints is really smart, and from what i’ve seen, has been way more effective at getting people out of harmful ideological pipelines than i’ve seen from the majority of leftists online who instead berate and drive a greater wedge of antipathy (though i understand why! and it can be very hard to have empathy for the people who see you as a threat). that antipathy makes the right more radicalized because they don’t feel like they can talk about anything without the “crazy lefties” who won’t even engage with them. where did these issues come from?

what i’ve noticed, and i’m even guilty of this, is that people don’t interact with groups of people whom they refuse talk to, which makes realities more hypothetical in the minds of their opponent since they aren’t open to seeing reality from their perspective. this is true on both sides. from what i’ve observed, it seems to originate from hypothetical perception of the opponent, but when people treat those perceptions as though they are real, it becomes real with their actions, which then makes the antipathy justified to someone. again, on both sides.

what makes contrapoints so successful at breaking this down is that is that she creates these socratic dialogue skits that represent real people and ideologies, has a sense of humor, isn’t afraid to discuss these things, reframes how we see these things by introducing nuance to both sides. she’s a leftist, but she also knows how to engage without ripening division, of meeting someone halfway and being completely humble about it. she is able to soften extremes.

she is able to get into the mind of people who aren’t aligned with her views, understand the nuance and rationales from a realistic perspective, breaking down a big block of “this is all bad” into “ok, some of this makes sense…”, what this does is create a space for self-reflection that doesn’t feel ham-fisted (which could otherwise cause people to double down on their beliefs instead of opening up to other perspectives outside of their bubble). while also being entertaining and well-produced on top of it.

what she is doing is creating these scenarios and socratic discussions that SHOULD be happening in real life but aren’t in this polarized social climate.

i graduated from new college of florida this spring, the small liberal arts college that was in headlines across the country for ron desantis’s board of trustees hostile takeover and exodus of professors.

new students and student athletes from conservative walks of life were being basically incentivized to go there who were taught to fear the lgbt boogeyman growing up in their conservative communities. but once they actually interacted with lgbt students there, many of them they felt like they understood them, and they weren’t as bad as they were told they would be. new college of florida was also famous for getting derek black (child of the man who created stormfront, and godchild of the kkk grand wizard david duke) out of white nationalism. their peers at NCF called them out but also interacted with them, invited them to dinner. black wrote a book about it.

now of course some people are too far gone and you shouldn’t waste your time with them, like derek’s family for example. but i also think a lot of people who voted for trump are not informed, are operating off of emotion and knee-jerk mentality because it’s easier than thinking, and they are not seeing the discussions that need to be had to change their mind because fuckin…nobody is doing them.

and we feel this visceral disgust to people of the opposing party because of its associations. i just want to know how it happened and how we got to be like this. i think social media is partly to blame and also the algorithms that take people down dangerous pipelines and sharpen them, insulate them.

i myself understand the vitriol you might have for anyone that voted for trump. i feel so disappointed that half the people of this country voted against our collective benefit. and i’ve seen a lot of sentiment from the left today saying “every single person who voted for trump is dead to me. i disowned you”.

you can see the reality of trump’s demagoguery, and it’s so obvious, but what i want to know is: what do they see? why did they vote for him? emotion and entertainment travel faster and have more reach than reason. and it’s that’s why i think contrapoints’s videos are exemplary at tackling this ideological divide. this is something i’ve been thinking about for months before today and i thought now was a better time than ever to give my two cents on it.

[poorrichardjr]

The Banana Republic

In 1977 the Republicans in Congress forced then president Jimmy Carter to sell his families peanut farm because they feared that some entity would use it to funnel money to the president. Well, not really, but it was a justifiable concern. Carter, did the right thing and sold it because he didn't want to give even the appearance of impropriety. The country had just come off of the Nixon scandals and Ford's unsolicited pardon to "heal" the country.

In 2016, a new president decided differently. Instead of divesting in his businesses or at least putting them in a blind trust where he wouldn't have undo influence on their profits, Trump decided to hand off his businesses to his sons, but did not take himself out of the loop. In fact, it is more than speculated that a few foreign nations and local oligarchs paid Trump, his businesses, or his hotels large amounts of money to "influence" him. There were halted investigations that proved that foreign nations paid Trump in various ways to get what they wanted.

This is the sort of thing that goes on in corrupt nations, and sadly, America is just as corrupt as any Eastern European nation during the reign of Communist Russia. Tomorrow, Trump is getting back into office, but this time he isn't just content to get millions of dollars from foreign nations through his hotels, or tax funded trips to Saudi Arabia or Davos. Nope, now he has a new con, and a much better way to hide the vast amounts of money nations like China or Russia will be willing to pay him just to get what they want.

Cryptocurrency is a godsend for someone like Trump. Anyone from anywhere can buy into it, but it doesn't really exist. It's like money for nothing. Except it isn't going to be nothing. We aren't going to be able to monitor who buys this illusionary currency put out by Donald Trump, and it is absolutely guaranteed that someone in Trump's orbit is going to suggest to all those entities who have business in America exactly what they have to do to get what they want. It's just modern day bribery in the Banana Republic of America.

President's often got out of office with major debts they had to repay. That didn't happen to Trump last time, and it's absolutely guaranteed that it isn't going to happen this time. The man doesn't know anything about running the country, but he sure knows how to pull off a con, often badly. A lot of very bad things are going to happen to this country. After all, a man who's only concern is how much money he can make, doesn't have the countries interests at heart.

[lunajay33]

Searching for You

•🪽🧺🧟‍♀️•

Summary: Reader and Daryl have been together since you were teens, you have crazy news for him but then the world falls apart and your searching for him every second

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x f!reader

Warning: Pregnant

•Masterlist•

I finished picking up the surprise cake I had specially ordered for the bakery in town for the news I have for Daryl, we live in cabin on the outskirts of town it’s simple but so cozy plus I’m staying with the man I’ve loved since I was in highschool

I got home setting up the surprise, the cake was a round cake with lilac frosting around the edges, with the words baby on board on the top, it was cheesy but the joy I felt trumped that feeling

Soon I heard the rumble of his motorcycle pulling up the drive way and the engine cutting off, my heart pounding slightly nervous of his reaction, sure we’ve been together for years but I knew of his past and how he feared of becoming like his old man

I push those thoughts aside when I hear the door open and his subtle sigh as he flicked his boots off

“Sunshine?” I walk out of the dining room and meet him at the door

“Hi my love, I have a surprise for you” I smile as I wrap my arms around his shoulders as he pulls me close

“Really, more that this cute lil dress ya got on” he smiles making me blush

“Oh stop come on” I take his hand leading him to the table

He read the cake then back at me then down at my belly

“Really?” I nod my head as I wring my fingers anxiously

“Are you mad” he wrapped his hands around my waist down to my little bump

“Ya know I can never be mad at ya……we’re having a baby” he sighs gently

“I know it’s scary but she’s ours”

“She?” He smiled

“Just a feeling, call it mothers intuition”

•

We went to the doctor the next day and found out I was only a month along, we get home and I slump on the couch exhausted

“What me to run out and get ya something for supper?”

“I’m reeeeeeeally craving Chinese”

“Then that’s what ya get sunshine” he smiles giving me a gentle kiss before he was off

I waited for him, when an hour went by then two I started to get nervous it’s a small town I never took more than 20 minutes, I tried his phone but he never answered

I pull on one of his hoodies and my boots, taking the keys to the truck and leave the house, I drive into town and the streets are empty, confused I keep driving until I get to the Main Street where all I see is carnage, people dead and ripped apart blood everywhere, as others are the ones ripping them apart

“What the hell?” I scream when one slams up against the window, I quickly turn around speeding back to the house where it’s still safe hoping Daryl made his way back, I get there running inside screaming for him, begging to any god that he’s here

I run to every room and all I get is silence, what is happening we were just about to start our family, what do I do?

I remember what Daryl and Merle taught me, drilling all the survival skills into my head over the years, I pack a bag full of clothes, weapons around the house Daryl had, food and a note

“Daryl my love, I don’t know if you’ll see this but I’m scared and I don’t know what’s going on, I packed a bag and took the truck I’ll go to the quarry where we went camping I hope you find me, until then”

I suck in a breath trying to hold the tears at bay as I left the home I loved so much hoping in the truck and taking off

•

I finally get to the quarry, and there’s a few people already there, some setting up tents, one man already there with his RV, pretty smart, I get out of the truck nervous hoping they’ll take me in

“Welcome im Dale we’ve had a few people already making themselves at home, are you bite?”

“No i…..I don’t even know what’s going on, I went out to find my husband and I didn’t know where else to go”

“Oh honey it’ll be okay, just relax for now, I have an extra tent if you like to settle in”

“I’d really appreciate that, thank you”

A week goes by and more people have come everytime I pray it Daryl maybe even Merle

I wake up to the sun shining through my tent, a few voices outside already stirring

“Got some fine ass around here” my heart lept, I knew that graphic voice from anywhere, I unzip the tent like a crazy woman and jump out, seeing Daryl and Merle, my knees buckle and I try to keep myself upright as his eyes lock with mine

I run to him until his big strong arms and holding me tight, see the others gather around

“You found me” I cry as he hides his face in my neck

“I found yer note, I’m sorry I took so long” he set me back down holding my face with his hands gently brushing my tears away

“I don’t care you’re here with us now”

“She’s okay?” I nod as I look over at Merle

“Don’t mess this place up Merle, it’s nice here” he scoffed

“Ya don’t get yer panties in a twist”

The group dispersed and I showed Daryl to my tent

“I was so scared D, and I never got my Chinese” I laugh trying to lighten the mood

“Don’t seem like yer gonna be getting that Chinese anytime soon sunshine”

“Well maybe I can get something else Mr.Dixon”

“Maybe ya can Mrs.Dixon”

•

It’s been a crazy month but the camp was coming together as we were becoming a small community, although Daryl and Merle stayed to themselves keeping that hard demeanor

I was helping clean some clothes with the other girls when we started chatting about our old lives

“I still can’t believe that you, the sweetest thing is with that Dixon” Lori said

“Hey he’s just reserved, trust me he treats me like a princess and I love him more every day”

“Well atleast you got someone to get some” Andrea laughs and my face goes beat red

“What you don’t think we here you darling” Jackie giggles as the other join

“Something funny ladies” Ed groans as he comes up behind us

“Nothing ed just swapping war stories” Andrea states as we all fall silent

“Got something to say?”

“How about you shut your mouths and get back to work”

I gather my clothes putting them in my basket and try to leave I can’t risk this getting out of hand with my baby

“Where do you think you’re going” he states as he grips my arm so tight I let out a whimper

“Let me go Ed” I push at him which only made him angry, he raises his hand and punches me across the face making me fall to the ground

That’s when all hell breaks out, everyone screaming trying to hold him back from me, all I do is scream at the top of my lungs

“DARYL!”

In a split second I see him running down the hills path straight to us with Merle on his tail, Merle can be a hard ass but he cared for the both of us in his own twisted way

“What the hell did ya do ta her” Daryl growls as he takes one look at me on the sand and me hold my face and back to Ed, the anger like fire in his eyes and he made his way over and took one swing and he was out cold on the ground

Merle came down to the ground checking my face, noticing the blood and the purple spreading across the left side of my face, sighing as he helped put the clothes back in the basket

Daryl now infront of me gently brushing my hair back to get a look

“How bad is it D?” I choke out a sob the pain still blooming

“Your eye……it’s blood shot, can you see me”

“It’s fine but it hurts so much”

“Come on sunshine let me get ya cleaned up” Merle took the basket following behind us as Daryl led me back up the hill

Getting to our tent I took the basket from Merle giving thanks as I got back in the tent with Daryl as he pulled out the first aid bag, he disinfected the cut and braided my hair to keep it away from my face

“Thanks for coming down like my Prince Charming”

“Always, how’s the baby?”

“She feels fine, he only got one hit before the others held him back

“I….i miss our home D, I miss you coming home and meeting you at the door, I miss you holding me from behind while I cook and bake, I miss holing up in bed during a thunderstorm while we played music faintly” I sigh laying down with my head on his legs as he ran his hand up and down my back

“I know, when ya told me you were pregnant I started thinking about how we’d make her room together, paint it purple like the cake, me and Merle would make her a crib, and then when I couldn’t find ya I felt like my whole world disappeared”

“Maybe this’ll all blow over and we can go home…….im scared Daryl, what if…what if I get bit what about the baby”

“Hey calm down I ain’t ever gonna let anything happen to ya”

•

Part 2

[andhumanslovedstories]

There's so many horrible things happening in America right now that it has been interesting to see what individual horrors hurt me personally the most. I grew up going to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Musicals, plays, concerts, that weird bust of JFK, playing around on terrace during intermissions, putting on a velvet dress that you're going to ruin dropping a milk dud in your lap and not noticing until it's fully melted, wearing the pinchy shiny shoes that are the training bras of women's formal footwear, operas I didn't like but did love, jazz I didn't understand but still fascinated me, red carpet, big stairs, the absolute nightmare amount of experiences I had as a new driver as I repeatedly got trapped in the Kennedy Center's fucking private DC island or whatever the hell is going on traffic-wise, free performances on small side stages, getting to see an enormous production on the Center's most enormous stage, all of which was accessed by walking through that a long, tall hallway lined with flags of the world that made you feel like a dignitary attending the most important even in the world.

And now Trump's taken it over. He fired its board. He appointed one of his loyalists to run it. I want to throw up.

Sometimes I miss DC so much. I love the Pacific Northwest and expect I'll live here for the rest of my life, but this isn't my hometown. I grew up the edge of the District. I've lost cumulative years of my life stuck in traffic on the inner loop and outer loop. Because of the Smithsonian, it used to be so baffling to me that anyone ever had to pay to get into a museum. I've used the Washington DC zoo as a shortcut to a different part of the city because it's free to enter. You couldn't count the amount of knockoff Spider-man popsicles that I've eaten sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. My reading tastes were molded by Kramer Books in Dupont Circle. I spent afternoons walking around the National Mall, normally just a big empty field until there's an event--book fair, country music program, international cuisine, whatever--at which point for a day or a weekend or a week it becomes a sea of tents and stages. I went to protests outside the Capital and the White House about the war in Iraq. I froze my toes off watching Obama's 2008 presidential inauguration.

It seemed like everyone's family touched the federal government in some way. Everyone's family had moved here because they were military or state department or a political consultant or worked with an NGO or some other reason that meant you had to be here, in the nation's capital. Plenty of people had connections to the federal government that we more hush-hush. Like kids in class straight up going, "I have no idea what my parents do for a living. They're not allowed to tell me." High schoolers regularly, accidentally drove into the CIA parking lot and got escorted out because the premises were that accessible. My family moved here because my dad is a reporter who ended up covering international trade. (Imagine how much his job sucks right now.) He switched beats one summer to cover the White House instead. He got to fly on Air Force One. He got official Air Force One M&Ms. I was SO disappointment my dad didn't work there for Bush to call on him by nickname.

Every day my family got The Washington Post. I read the comics and the kid's page, then the rest of the Style section, then Metro, then news. I learned to read from it. We wrapped our delicate Christmas ornaments with its pages. We used yesterday's papers to clean our windows because they didn't leave streaks. I took journalism in high school. You can't IMAGINE how much and how frequently we talked about Watergate. When Post changed its motto to "Democracy Dies in Darkness" after Trump's election in 2016 that meant something to me. I knew Bezos owned the paper now, but that was still my paper, and the motto spoke to something I fervently believed: if people just knew what was happening, they wouldn't allow it to happen. If you expose a problem, people will naturally agree that it is a problem and that we should do something to fix it. Flash forward to Trump's third fucking campaign, and the newspaper wouldn't endorse a presidential candidate. Chickenshit cowardice. Then they change the motto. "Riveting Storytelling for All of America." Eat shit. You're nothing now.

Politics in America is just telling everyone how much you hate Washington, DC so that they'll elect you so you can move to DC. Well, guys, the city fucking hates you too. Republicans will never give the District actually meaningful political representation because no one in that city would vote for them. It's not just the policies; it's the contempt. No one in the new administration loves the city they schemed and lied and stooped to take over. It's just iconography to them, and all they care about is taking that iconography for themselves. Trump doesn't give a shit about the summer program for the Kennedy Center. He has never seen a show at the Kennedy Center. When he was president, he never attended the annual awards. He's trying to destroy one of the most significant places of my life and I'm genuinely unsure if he has ever stepped for inside of it.

[pitviperofdoom]

High School Time Travelers, Part 2

It's finally here! Follow up to this story.

***

“So. Spill. What the fuck is going on with you and Angelique?”

Raph fidgeted uncomfortably, and something within Erin roared out in protest at that. They were in her room, surrounded by her clutter and band posters and the stuff he kept at her house to keep his mom from throwing it away. He wasn’t supposed to be uncomfortable here.

Eventually, he took a deep breath. “I time-traveled last night.”

“I’m serious—”

“So am I,” he said wearily. “I woke up in a house I haven’t set foot in for years, across the hall from someone I promised myself I’d never talk to again. It happened, and if you’re stuck on that part then this conversation can’t continue.”

Erin got up and paced her room, kicking aside her backpack, nearly knocking over the guitar stand in the corner. “What the fuck.”

“That’s what I said.”

“What the fuck, Raph.”

“I didn’t mean to!”

The absurdity hit her instantly—he didn’t mean to time travel, as if they were talking about him forgetting his homework or getting in Monica Dillon’s way during passing period. She wanted to laugh.

But then she remembered some of the weird things Angelique had said—about friendships imploding, about college, about shit not mattering in high school, all with the easy certainty of experience.

“Prove it,” she said. “Can you do that thing where you predict what I’m about to say?”

“I’m not stuck in a time loop, dumbass, yesterday I was thirty-three!” Raph snapped. “I had to go through math class trying to pretend I still remembered my teacher’s name!”

“Okay, okay, Jesus.” Erin held up her hands placatingly. “There’s gotta be something.”

Raph sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I dunno. Anything meaningful and unchangeable I can remember won’t happen for a while, so if you’re willing to wait for the Trump presidency or the global pandemic, there’s that.”

“The what.”

“Wait, who’s president right now? It’s still Bush, right?”

Erin pulled a face.

“Next one’s Barack Obama, he’s gonna do two terms,” Raph informed her. “First black president.”

“Oh, huh. Cool,” Erin said faintly.

“Let’s see, what else, um… Balloon Boy? Has Balloon Boy happened yet?”

“No, what the fuck is Balloon Boy?”

Raph brightened. “Yeah, so at some point this family is gonna release like, a homemade weather balloon? Or something? And there’s gonna be this huge panic because they think their son is stuck inside it, but then it turns out he was fine and hiding in the basement the whole time and it was a hoax.”

“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for that I guess?” Erin sat down again. “You’re seriously not fucking with me right now?”

“I mean, if you want, we could forget this conversation ever happened,” Raph offered. “Continue with our normal lives, while I keep under-reacting to devastating world events.”

“Christ, I don’t know.” Erin pressed her palms into her eyes. After a moment, she lifted her head again. “Wait a minute, we’re getting off track. What does this have to do with Angelique?”

Raph’s silence could not have been louder.

“Raph,” Erin said, a little desperately.

“First you have to promise you won’t be mad,” said Raph.

“Did you sleep with her in the—” Erin paused to do some arithmetic in her head. “—eighteen years between then and now?!”

“She’s my wife,” Raph blurted out.

Moments later, Erin’s mother knocked politely on the bedroom door. “Everything okay in there?” she asked. “That’s an awful lot of screaming for a Tuesday night.”

Erin continued howling into her pillow. “She’s fine, Mrs. Yokota!” Raph called. “We’re looking at—uh—creepypastas!”

“Creepy what?”

“Uh—crap, are they still called that?—like, ghost stories and stuff!”

Placated, she left them to it. Eventually Erin recovered enough to lie back and stare listlessly at the ceiling.

“Dude.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“What the fuck is your life?” Erin demanded. “How did that even happen?”

“We ran into each other at—so my friend Hazel got roped into being in their college roommate’s bridal party and dragged me along for moral support, and Angelique was in the same friend group but with like six degrees of separation from us,” Raph explained. “It took half the reception for her to recognize me because at that point I’d been on T for a few years, but the second she realized we went to the same high school she turned fishbelly-white, pulled me aside, and apologized for how much of a bitch she was back then. It was really awkward.”

Back then, he called it, even though for Erin it was still right now. “And you married her?”

“Like eight years later, yeah.” Raph ran his hand through his hair, not quite hiding the small smile that stole over his face. “She really turned over a new leaf.”

Erin was silent for a while, mulling over this new information, combining it with what she already had from that afternoon.

“Is your name still Raphael?” she asked. “She sounded really surprised about it. And I know you said you were just taking the name on a trial run, but you really seemed to like it. Not that there’s—you know,” she added. “I know that—just because I picked it, I knew you might not… you know. It’s fine, I was just wondering. If I should call you something else.”

“I did—I do like it,” Raph assured her. “But, uh, some stuff happened. My dad found me.”

Erin’s eyebrows shot upward. “Wait, really? What’d he have to say for himself?”

“That Mom ghosted him when she got pregnant because her side guy had more money.”

“Dude, fuck your mom.”

“Don’t fuck my mom, she’ll ghost you for money, weren’t you listening?”

Erin burst out snickering. “Fuck, sorry, this isn’t funny.”

“It will be in eighteen years,” Raph said with a wry smile. “Hindsight. Anyway, he found me in—he’s gonna find me in two years unless I reach out first. He’s a good guy. My stepmom’s pretty cool, too. And I have sisters? So that’s awesome. And yeah, he had this friend who passed away when he was younger, and he always wanted to name his son after him, but then Mom disappeared and he only ended up having daughters, so when he found me, it kind of worked out.” He hesitated. “I’m Damian. Damian Raphael Harker.”

“That’s such a cool name,” Erin sighed.

Raph—Damian—tilted his head back to grin at her. “Yours is cool, too.”

“Shut up,” she said fondly.

“No, seriously,” he said emphatically. “Your name is unspeakably cool.”

There was something odd in his tone, sticking up and catching like a loose nail. It bothered her, the same way something Angelique said earlier had bothered her.

“Hey, Ra—Damian?” Erin said cautiously. “Earlier, when Angelique sat down with us, she didn’t recognize me.”

“She does, don’t worry.”

“No, she didn’t,” Erin pressed. “It took her a second to realize who I was, and she stopped herself from saying why.”

Suddenly Damian looked deeply uncomfortable. “I, uh.”

She took a deep breath. “Was I dead in your time?”

“Wh-no! No no no no, of course not!” Damian looked horrified. “We played Pathfinder like last week, you’re not dead.”

“What’s Path—no, never mind. Something’s clearly up. If we just played whatever-that-is last week, and Angelique is your wife, then why didn’t she know who I was?”

“Uh…” Damian’s hands had worked their way deep into his sleeves. “You look different, that’s all. You kind of reinvented yourself in college.”

“Oh,” Erin said, momentarily relieved. Then— “Wait.”

“What?’

“Damian. You’d—” She hesitated. “If I was a guy, you’d tell me, right?’

“Oh my God,” Damian mumbled into his be-sweatered hands.

“Damian.”

“You’re... not...”

“You’d tell me, right?”

“See, I don’t know if I would!” Damian answered, in a strained high-pitched tone. “That’s—look. If you were a guy, that’s something you’d have to work out for yourself!”

“Damian, I swear to God.”

“I can’t crack your egg for you, that’s like violating the Prime Directive!”

Erin seized a pillow and started to buffet him with it. “You are such a nerd!”

“It’s your personal journey, you can’t use me to cheat!” Damian cackled, fending her off with a plush horse.

***

“Yeah I’ll get the banana split.” Angie bounced on the balls of her feet, eyes raking over the array of toppings. “Can you put caramel and chocolate sauce on it? And Heath bar pieces, chopped strawberries, and M&Ms.”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

It took all of her self-control not to press her nose against the glass as she watched them make it. Some small part of her balked at the sight of three huge scoops of ice cream and all the toppings, but she quieted it. She had a second shot at being a teenager, and that meant never taking her garbage disposal stomach and body made of rubber bands for granted ever again.

She hummed absently to herself, only to pause halfway through the tune. How did it go again? She tried repeating the first half, only to get stuck at the same spot. Oh, this was going to bug the crap out of her. It wasn’t like she could look it up, not when the song wouldn’t come out for almost ten years—

Her phone vibrated in her purse, and she checked it absentmindedly, zeroing in for a moment on the DAD displayed on the screen. After a moment, she put it back without answering. If it was that important, he could text.

Sure enough, her phone gave a short buzz. New text message—he hadn’t even bothered to leave a voicemail.

DAD I need you to talk to your brother.

Angie checked her banana split’s progress with a glance, and replied.

lol why

DAD He’s not listening to me. We both know the courts favor the mother so if we’re going to beat her I need both of you on your A game.

Angie ground her teeth until her jaw creaked.

what do you need me to do

DAD Just coach him on how to talk about her. You’re a smart lady, I know you can do it. He’s always getting scuffed up at practice, just have him say the bruises came from her. Throw in a drinking problem if you have to, just keep your stories straight.

why father dearest i’m surprised at you you want me to lie under oath?

DAD Just talk to him, will you? Keep your stories straight, don’t get too outlandish, and we’ll get out of this with everything we want. You’ll never have to hear the word no again, I promise.

ok daddy ill do my best!

DAD Good girl. You’re the smartest girl I know. Smarter than your mom, smarter than her bitch lawyer. Love you!

“Order up!”

Angie brought her banana split to the table with the clearest view of the door. It took her a moment to decide how to begin, then nearly a full minute balancing equal parts ice cream, banana, and toppings in a single spoonful. She managed it in the end.

Mood lifted, she unlocked her phone again and made a call. “Heeeey, Anika.”

“Need I remind you that phone calls are billable,” her mother’s lawyer said dryly.

“Yeah, I’ll be quick, I have some incriminating text messages I think you’ll be interested in?”

The sound of rustling papers paused. “Go on…?”

“Dad just told me to lie to the judge,” Angie explained, twirling a thin ribbon of caramel around her spoon. “And to coach Eric to lie to the judge. I took screenshots.”

Anika cursed softly under her breath. “Thank you for telling me. Send them to your mom, okay? Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

The bell above the ice cream parlor door jingled, and Angie perked up as both Damian (Raph?) and Erin walked in. She waved them over, grinning when both pairs of eyes widened at her treat.

“That thing’s half the size of your head,” Erin pointed out.

“Sure is, you guys came just in time.” Angie nudged it across the table, along with the two extra spoons. “If we split it, I’ll have enough room for a milkshake chaser.”

“You’re a monster,” Damian said delightedly. “Oh shit, are those Heath bars?” He dug in without waiting for an answer.

“They’re peanut butter cups,” she said solemnly, once he’d taken a bite and could probably tell they weren’t. “I added them just to hurt you.” Damian rolled his eyes and dug his spoon back in.

Erin stared at her, probably still baffled by the gentle banter, but at least she looked more curious than infuriated, like instead of being suspicious she simply didn’t know what to make of Angie.

“So, you guys talked?” Angie asked carefully. “Are we… all good?”

“I think so,” Damian replied, shooting a cautious glance at Erin.

“You’re on thin ice,” Erin informed her as she helped herself to the chocolate scoop.

“Fair.” Angie didn’t remember Erin putting up quite as much of a fight, but then, it had been years when they’d reconnected before. This time around, it was still fresh.

“The ice cream helps,” Erin added, slightly muffled by the spoon in her mouth.

“Noted.” Angie paused, weighed her options, and shrugged. No harm no foul, probably. “Hey, you’re a musician, right?”

Erin swallowed. “Yeah, why?”

“And not just a performer, but you write music too, right?”

“Yeeaaah?” Erin squinted suspiciously. Beside her, Damian shot Angie a warning glare.

“If I give you half a tune, could you resolve it?”

Erin was staring at her like she’d grown a second head. “Probably.”

“Great!” Angie hummed the earworm from earlier. “How would the next part go?”

Erin repeated it to herself, nodding along. After a moment, she said, “Probably like—”

And sure enough, there it was. The rest of the chorus’s tune came rushing back to Angie’s memory, and she breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Thanks! That was driving me nuts.” Angie returned to her banana split, ignoring Damian’s growing scowl.

Later, when Erin was in the bathroom and  Angelique was standing in line to order her promised milkshake, Damian dug his elbow into her side. “You’re not as slick as you think you are,” he muttered.

“What?” Angie said innocently. “I didn’t give anything away.”

“You just taught her half the chorus of a song she’s eight years away from writing!”

“I’ve planted a seed,” Angie insisted. “I’ve created a stable time loop.”

“That is not what you did and you know it.” Damian pursed his lips, clearly trying to stay annoyed with her. “I barely avoided spoiling her transition, and that’s after she asked me to my face.”

Angie grinned. “So you haven’t told her she’s a genderfluid punk rocker yet?”

“No. Because she’s not a genderfluid punk rocker yet.”

“And now, when she becomes one,” Angie said with a smile, “she’s going to look back on this day and laugh.”

[dufferpuffer]

Longbottoms boggart wasn't Snape.

I mean you'd think this would be obvious enough - but people who hate Snape bring it up as their sort of trump card. "He was so bad he was a 13yr olds biggest fear!" No. He wasn't. Boggarts don't quite work like that. Boggarts are not themselves your worst fear - they make you FEEL your worst fear. Hermione isn't actually scared of McGonagall. (I'm sure alot of first years are scared of her though I mean she is strict and stern and a little scary at first.) Did she have some irrational fear of suddenly failing all her classes? Yeah, maybe a little bit - but it is BECAUSE she is scared of not being good enough. From the first book we see her struggling to fit in with her peers. She is muggleborn, she learned she was a witch so suddenly that she poured herself into being the most perfect witch she could.

Professor McGonagall, a stern and strict witch she respects, telling her she isn't good enough despite all of her best efforts makes her FEEL her worst fear. It has nothing to do with Minerva personally - honestly it could probably be replaced with Dumbledore or someone... its just she has far more interaction with Minerva.

SO - Longbottom and Snape: How do I know that Snape isn't his absolute worst fear? Because he still attends Potions every fucking week!!! Do you think RON could attend Charms if it was run by a spider?!? He can pass Snape in the hall, he can sit in the same room as Snape, he can even be teased and bullied by Snape. His parents were tortured to insanity by Death Eaters. Severus Snape is NOT his worst fear, that's stupid. Snape just makes him FEEL his worst fear - like McGonagall makes Hermione feel hers. SO what is Neville worst fear? I think the clue comes with him quickly saying that he also wouldn't want the Boggart to turn into his grandma. Inadequacy. Neville has never been good enough. He has low self worth. The tiniest bits of praise overwhelm him. He never wins any house points and losing some devastates him. He got his magic late, his family kept trying to tease it out of him, thought he was maybe a squib. He has a proud legacy to uphold and he is terrified he cannot. He is the worst potions student Snape has ever had.

Snape makes Neville feel inadequate. His grandmother makes him feel inadequate. But mix them together... and suddenly these two very scary people that seem to have such control over his life... look a little ridiculous.

DO you think Lupin is LITERALLY scared of the moon...? Or does the moon make him feel powerless and dangerous and inhumane? DO you think Harry is LITERALLY scared of Dementors...? Or is he scared of how powerless he is against the horrible way they make him feel - the trauma they bring up from the deep recesses of his mind?

Snape was not so horrific, so awful, so scary, so mean - that he as a man became Nevile's worst fear. He, like his grandma, makes him feel inadequate.

[libraryspectre]

After the 2016 election, I was alone on a college campus in Texas. The only queer person I knew in real life was my girlfriend, and she lived across the country. I had very few friends on campus and my entire family had voted for trump.

The next morning I got up and went to the student queer center for the first time. Before, I had been too afraid of been seen as a queer person to be in queer spaces. It took an existential threat to get there, but I'm forever grateful that threat drove me toward community rather than scaring me away from it. It was such a relief to be around other queer people that I ended up joining two queer student groups. I wasn't outgoing or comfortable enough with myself yet to make the most of those connections, but they were truly one of the major factors that kept me from collapsing in on myself.

I wanted to say this because I'm seeing a lot of good posts about how you need to get involved in your local community, but if you're exhausted and scared that can seem really daunting. But I want you to know that as much as they need you, YOU need THEM. You need to survive, and even live if possible. Do not underestimate the healing and motivating power of being with your people. If it can't be other queer people, build connections with anyone sympathetic, and with other people who are having to batten the hatches right now. We should all be building ties with those people anyway.

And this is really important - allow yourself community with those you don't totally agree with. Now is not the time to let infighting and ideological purity get in the way of growth. Be safe. I love you.

[hrrtshape]

Hi Emma I just wanted to talk about the consciousness and multiverse theory for a bit! Id like to hear your perspective! So the multiverse theory is that there are pre existing realities that exist right? They just exist and the consciousness theory is that we create these realities by becoming aware of them! My beliefs aren’t exactly the most normal in the law of assumption community(I am not a law of attraction person if thats what your worried about!! Not at all!)

I’m seeing more and more shifters start to follow the consciousness theory here on shiftblr, also due to law of assumption which is cool and all, but as someone that believes in the multiverse and listened to so many perspectives I’ve developed my own set of beliefs due to info from other shifters as well. So what we are is nothing. We are simply awareness, or consciousness if you want to. I prefer using the term awareness.

We have no physical form. The reality that we live in(the world we experience with Trump, seven continents, climate change, our world is a reality CONCEPT.) For example the lord of the rings reality is a reality concept, it is the way a reality functions in a way, for example there is magic because it is a part of that reality CONCEPT but there is no magic here because it is not a part of that reality concept.

Of course we can manifest it, but it’s not NATURALLY a part of this RC. That’s how manifesting and shifting are the same thing. We never stay in one reality, but it appears to be that way when we manifest because we are staying in the same reality concept, everything is the same, Donald Trump is still being Trump, we still live our lives. When people say we stay in the same reality when we manifest and we shift every single second they are both right.

We stay in the same reality CONCEPT and we shift realities every single second, because blinking is shifting. However blinking doesn’t make us leave the reality concept we are currently in. Reality concepts are the “world building” for example your “Better CR DR” is a reality concept, because there it has its own system, no oppression for example, but here oppression is a part of our reality concept.

I’m seeing more people believe in the consciousness theory because the multiverse theory might not make sense cause how are all those realities pre-existing?? How do they just come about?? But I’ve read testimonies and stories of people that were born in DIFFERENT reality concepts and shifted here and told their stories, I read an account of a girl that was born in a primal reality where she was a hunter with her family, and she somehow shifted and found herself in this reality concept.

As awareness’s we are control our realities and we shape them, but we only simply shift to realities on the 3D. This might be controversial to say in the Law of Assumption community but I don’t believe that we create realities in the sense that this world exists because of us, as awareness’s we are not bound to the 3D, we don’t create it. Instead we experience and can change it to our will, by simply shifting, we can shift wherever we feel like but we are not creating realities. Simply experiencing the multiverse.

The multiverse is this infinite collection of infinite realities and reality concepts, the 3D world is malleable to us, but we don’t need it. As pure awareness if we wanted we could just stay in our natural home the void state if we wanted, but because of our desire to experience we go to the already existing multiverse. And as for how the multiverse got here? Well there is no beginning, middle or end.

As humans here we’ve always been taught to find an answer for every single thing, but sometimes there aren’t answers to every single question! The entire idea of an infinite collection of worlds existing and the fact that we can simply blink and experience them might be insane to someone. But so might the idea of us simply creating entire universes by thinking. I firmly believe in the multiverse theory and think the consciousness theory is another way for people to try and understand the world, but I just sometimes think of all the shifters that have shifted from different realities and worlds to this one.

I feel like it reinforces this idea that this reality is the main reality, this is the “norm” reality that is the “highest ranking” in the multiverse.

This was in no way hating on the consciousness theory, but I guess just trying to try and be insightful about it and perhaps critique it? At the end of the day people will believe what they want, but the concept of infinite realities full of infinite people who all experience very different lives to us at this very moment, entire reality concepts, in some realities things that are normal here like walking could be seen as absurd and everyone in that reality might never walk and just have bird wings and can fly.

I truly find that a much more enriching and beautiful concept than the idea that we simply just create a world and go to it. That a world doesn’t exist if we don’t want it to?? Many people often quote Neville, but then again, Neville also would probably have very different terminology than us, and a lot of his studying of manifestation also did come from analyzation of biblical texts, so it makes sense that of course he wouldn’t exactly know of a multiverse, but Neville DID shift. Even if he didn’t call it shifting, he DID shift.

But also.. what if Neville’s personal beliefs also shaped what he experienced in the 3D. He believed that we were all Gods because he was a Christian himself and looking at the biblical texts and the idea that we could manifest infinite things does sound Godlike, that we are parts of God experiencing human life on earth. But it was only centered on what he knew growing up in this reality concept. If he knew about the multiverse(in the way we do in modern day) and heard testimonies from people who grew up in let’s say the Narnia reality concept I’m sure it would be different.

Neville was brilliant! He really was! But just like us, he didn’t know everything! And that’s okay! The more we learn from others as we dive deeper into shifting and manifesting the way information we get! And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about all of this! I also think the reason why it may be easier for some to accept and prefer the consciousness theory is the idea of infinity. Infinite realities. That feels terrifying. Intimidating. The thought that we have infinite selves, that our family members have infinite selves. Someone in another reality could have experienced a version of us from this reality and we may not even know and that idea of terrifying to some people.

The consciousness theory is the way that some people regain and take control back. The idea that no reality other than this one exists until we create them is much leads intimating and terrifying than the idea that infinite realities exist. The consciousness theory is a way to find comfort in the face of such a fear inducing idea. And I believe it comes with us being humans and believing we are the centre of everything. Centre of our lives, our countries, or planet, our UNIVERSE. We believe that no other life forms exist outside of us.. even though the universe is infinite and we cannot prove so. Why? Because humans do believe that we are at the centre of everything it is unfathomable to us that we are not.

There are still so many limiting societal beliefs and conditionings that we have to unlearn(not because it holds our manifestations back) but because it can hold us back in development as people in the shifting and manifesting community.

This wasn’t an attack on any beliefs I was just stating my personal opinion! Sorry for rambling on and on but I just wanted to talk about this with you and know what you have to write about this.

Sorry this was super long! Thank you for reading all the way and bearing with me on this!

i had to scroll through seventy asks for this because i saw this, and then my brain did that thing where it just deleted the memory of its existence like some kind of cosmic joke, and AGH. but i’m here now. fully present. brain engaged.

i love this take. it’s sooooooo well thought out, and definitely some of the most logical stuff on this app.

i see what you mean about the consciousness vs. multiverse debate, and i think the reason so many shifters are leaning toward the consciousness model is because it feels controllable. if we’re the ones creating these realities, then we have total power over them. which is sexy. very divine creator core. but then there’s the multiverse theory, which is, no, the realities already exist, you’re just stepping into them, which is also sexy but in a different way. more intrepid explorer discovering the infinite. (& something i personally believe in)

your reality concept theory makes a lot of sense to me,,, because it acknowledges that while we shift, there are rules in place within each rc. you don’t suddenly have magic here because this rc wasn’t built with that as a default setting. that clicks. and also aligns with how people describe reality checks in lucid dreams. some things just don’t function because they weren’t coded in properly !!!!!

your critique of the consciousness model is valid. !!!!! i love that you pointed out how people tend to view this reality as some baseline norm when it’s just another rc, why do we assume that? because we’re here? sounds like main-character syndrome to me. there are people out there in different rcs, living their little reality-concept lives, probably not even thinking about us. the horror!!!!!!!!

AND. the neville part had me spiralling because you’re sosososososososoo right. if he had modern multiverse knowledge, i fully believe his teachings would be different. he was interpreting based on what he knew, and we’re all doing the same. and that is what makes this conversation so fun. we are literally just layers of awareness trying to understand the infinite.

anyway, i’m obsessed with this. keep talking to me about this. you're making my brain do somersaults in the best way possible.

[mythica-ithaca]

the fact that I see some of y'all posting more about how important it is to vote for Biden than you ever have about Palestine just shows that you fucking "vote blue no matter who" people genuinely don't give a fuck about anyone but yourselves.

you only choose to speak up when YOUR hypothetical rights are threatened. you love to fear monger about how much hypothetically worse it would be under trump than acknowledge the actual atrocities that Biden is committing and condoning every single day. how exactly is he the "lesser" of two evils for?

do any of you actually look at the images coming out of gaza, or are you too fucking ~triggered~ to fully acknowledge other peoples suffering rather than your own. have you seen the video that came out recently of the little boy whose brain is exposed, about to be laid next to his dead family members, only to twitch and seize in his fathers arms as he screams and runs in horror to find a doctor, because his son is alive. his brain is literally falling out of his skull but he is still alive. that is one brief example of the most horrific shit you've ever seen in your life coming out daily for almost a year. how on this earth can you watch that and possibly claim that Biden is in any way shape or form "less" evil.

instead of demanding that the dnc force a different candidate, you're trying to guilt trip people who have actually seen the mutilated bodies of children on their timelines every single day and watched the press briefings of bidens administration denying genocide and defending Israel at the expense of literally everything else for the last 8 months, into voting for a man who supports it 100% and has not and will not be convinced otherwise.

this is where allowing them to push widely unpopular and centrist candidates has gotten us. it didn't work with Hillary in 2016. it BARELY worked in 2020. and hate to break it to you, but its probably not going to work again. so congrats. your "vote blue no matter who" rhetoric has got them thinking that they can push the most right leaning liberals on us and think that we'll vote for them just because they're in a blue tie instead of a red one.

if you care about democracy like you say you do, then the Democrats should be fucking TERRIFIED that you won't vote for them if they don't deliver. not constantly reassured that they can commit literal fucking genocide and still get your votes if they dangle abortion rights over your heads. you realize they see those posts too right? the ones that say "Yes! protest vote in the primary but make sure to actually vote for the guy in the general!!" like. you are literally telling them how performative your activism is.

if every election at this point is the one where democracy is on the line then we are already fucked. if they don't get it through their heads now that we will not support this shit, then every election to come will be between a fascist and a fascist who cares slightly less about whether gay people get married or not. but that's all you care about right? as long as your domestic policy is in your favor then the rest of the world can suffer at your tax dollars.

this isn't about morality voting. this is about recognizing that there is not actually a "lesser" of two evils in this situation, just because you think that the causes that you personally care about will be less affected one way or the other. because what if it was abortion rights? what catholic Joe Biden was firmly against abortion and was threatening to ban it completely and throw anyone getting or giving one in prison for murder. what if it was videos of lgbt people being slaughtered coming out every single day for a year. genuinely fucking ask yourself if you'd still be saying "vote blue no matter who" and that he's the "lesser" of two evils.

vote for whoever the fuck you want. and I do genuinely urge you to vote for the most progressive candidate you can for the house and senate and your local elections. but for the love of god, stop trying to convince people that there is, in any sense of the word, a "Lesser" evil in this situation. stop trying to absolve yourselves of the fact that you are CHOOSING evil. it's genuinely sick.

[thewritetofreespeech]

Hell yeah! Delico's Nursery is getting the love it deserves!

Could I request Dino falling for a female reader who's nicknamed the "Queen of Poison" thanks to her vast knowledge on posions and toxins?

Another day. Another murder.

The frequency in which murders kept happening in the city was overwhelming now. The choices in targets getting bolder and more obvious with each passing day. This time hitting another member of the noble class.

“There is much less blood than with the last murders. Perhaps this isn’t our evil?”

“No. Look at the flourish in which the bodies are displayed.” Dali countered Dino’s theory. “This is the same people, just their methods are evolving.”

“They used a coagulant.” [Y/N] announced as she examined the body, then stood to her full height again. “So they didn’t want this to be a bloody mess like the others. Something special about this one?”

“Hmmm….perhaps their blood was too valuable to spill. Or not worth it.”

Dali and the group continued to theorize, but it was clear that there were no other leads here, so they turned to continue their conversation elsewhere and let the police handle the cleanup.

As they all began to leave, there was a flutter of noise behind them, along with a startled sound from [Y/N]. When they turned around they saw one of the assailants holding her from behind in a vice grip. Teeth barred at her neck. “Stay back!”

“[Y/N]-chan!” Henrique called out. Echoing Dino’s sentiments of terror.

He hadn’t been paying attention. He hadn’t been protecting her. He thought someone capable and strong as [Y/N] would be fine if left alone, but it seemed he had let his guard down too far and she was literally a breathes touch away from becoming a thrall.

Was this how Dali felt when his wife was transformed before him? When the woman he loved became a bound slave to another before his eyes?

“Whatever you think this is going to accomplish, I assure you, that won’t be the case.” [Y/N] reasoned with the man over her shoulder. “I don’t know anything about TRUMP and I’m not valuable enough to bargain for.”

“Ha! I don’t think so. You may not know anything about TRUMP, but you’re sure valuable enough to get me out of here.” He snickered while looking at Dino and the others. “Your friends are too scared to even move with you as my shield.”

“Give Lady [Y/N] back and you can go free.” Gerhard instructed. “You have my word as head of the Fra family that we won’t pursue if you release her.”

“Your word don’t mean shit!” His grip tightened and [Y/N] grimaced. An expression Dino mimicked out of anger. “My only guarantee is this one. And I’m not letting her go until I’m free of here.”

“Would that be before the gate or after? I just want to know how far I have to walk back after this situation has ended.”

“Heh! You got a smart mouth on you. I like that.” The men all tense as his fangs poised at [Y/N]’s neck again. “Maybe I’ll keep you around longer after that.”

“Please don’t.” [Y/N] urged him. Though no panic or pleading in her voice just remarkably calm, Almost bored with this pantomime of danger. “I can assure you on this as well, it will not end the way you think. We’ll both just end up in pain and with sore heads.”

“Pain hn? Well, what’s life without a little pain.”

Dino felt his blood run cold as he saw the man bite [Y/N]’s neck. Intent on turning her into a thrall. Unbeckoned he called out, “[Y/N]!” before his cries were drowned out by the screams of the other man.

He screamed and cried as he violently pushed [Y/N] away to claw at his face with both hands. An odd sizzling sound filling the room along with his cries as the flesh around his mouth dissolved away. The skin bubbling and popping before he fell to his knees and eventually on the ground. His smooth, bleached skull where that vicious smile used to be.

“Does anyone have a towel?”

The men all come out of their stupor from witnessing such a horrific scene, and Gerhard gallantly offered his neckerchief substitute. “What the hells was that?”

“A combination of strychnine, arsenic, and a few other special ingredients I have swimming around in my blood. Most of it is a topical defense cream a created for such emergencies.” [Y/N] lifted the neckerchief to see if she was still bleeding and seemed pleased to find it had stopped. “I did warn him that we were both just going to end up with sore heads.”

“His face melted off!” Henrique reminded her.

“Yes, that was an unexpected reaction. Perhaps humanoid saliva compounds cause a more explosive reaction than original testing. I’ll have to do some more research.”

The Queen of Poisons. A name that seemed to strike fear an those that heard it, but none knew of the true power of the doctor turned bioweapons expert for Vlad. Dino honestly didn’t know her power, until this moment. “Are you truly alright? You don’t feel….”

“Enthralled?” She finished for him. “No. My thoughts feel quite my own. Typically, when the host dies, the link with the thrall is severed. He didn’t have time to give me any commands, so I guess we’ll never know. Although I suppose the theory is moot since he won’t be giving any orders, at all, ever.” The toe of her shoe poked at the whitened skull, which nodded in agreement of her hypothesis.

She could keep her theories. Dino was just glad that she was ok. “We should still get you to a doctor. Get you checked out.”

“I am a doctor.” [Y/N] insisted with a pout. But, she eventually saw reason and followed. Muttering about how doctors made the worst patients.

As the group filed out of the crime scene, leaving it to the police to section and clean up, Dino hung back to call out to Dali. “Dali,” the other man stopped and looked back towards him, “if I ever said anything unkind or cold to you after Frida’s death. I—“No need to apologize.”

Dali just offered Dino a smile, like he always did. “You don’t know what it’s like until you have lived it. You couldn’t possibly have known.” He placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Let’s just be grateful that your story ended better than mine. Come, let’s get out of here.”

Dino nodded silently in agreement and followed after the rest to leave. He felt his heart still hammering in his chest, thinking on the what ifs. Dino wasn’t usually one to speculate but it seemed his mind was unwilling to let it go. What if his story had ended up like Dali’s without her ever knowing how he felt? If the roles had been reversed and he was unable to tell her while under another’s spell?

He would have to rectify this immediately, or at least very soon. Dino wasn’t usually one to speculate and he also wasn’t on to leave to chance. He would have to tell her. Perhaps tonight.

[menlove]

hey can you please explain it to us? like how are we supposed to just understand? why would a large ethnic minority vote for an open racist who hates them? this is not intuitive

wasn't trying to imply you're just supposed to understand- sorry, it's just always a lil bit of a uh bitter inducing moment when this topic comes up bc it makes it really obvious that a lot of people just don't engage w the latine community

but basically, most latines are conservative christian. usually catholic (my family isn't catholic, though my grandmother was raised that way). a solid majority of them are one issue voters, usually on the issue of abortion because many catholics & conservative christians are one issue abortion voters.

there's also the immigration issue. a lot of these conservative latines do in fact care about better immigration reform, but a lot of them also have this attitude of "I did it legally, so why can't you?" so they don't even see themselves as a PART of the group being targeted. and if they do and they take issue with it, they tend to go "okay, but the republicans agree with me on everything else and I can't in good moral conscience vote for the other party who disagrees with everything I stand for as a moral christian"

and while many latines have voted blue over immigration in the past, harris leaned pretty heavily right on the immigration issue so it's like. to them. are you choosing the guy who agrees with you on everything but immigration, or the woman who disagrees with you on everything Including immigration?

and then you also have to get into the race of it all because race is beyond complicated in this case. non-black latines sit in a weird in between space with whiteness. to the right, we're white when we're Good. to the left, we're white when it's a Problem. whiteness is conditional. and this is the case for many demographics, but it's especially relevant here. when people sit on that edge of whiteness, they WILL throw each other and other minorities under the bus to earn the protection of whiteness. so you know. behave, vote red, show yourselves to be moral, legal citizens, and MAYBE you'll be granted the protection of being considered white in america. and we aren't. but that doesn't stop people from trying. even taking my dad as an example, I grew up with him talking about how much he hated white people. today, he's out here calling himself a proud white man who voted for trump. it's conditional. and people know whiteness is a protection. naturally, this leads to a lot of antiblackness in the community as well as just racism in general.

it just boils down to latines by and large being conservative christian/catholic and voting based on that rather than viewing themselves a minority race. and being way way more split on the immigration issue than people might imagine, because I've absolutely heard it parroted time and time again that "I got here legally, so can they"

[thesaltyace]

Link to original video in replies.

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

stitched creator: keep Palestinians' names out of your mouth when you're trying to defend your decision for voting for Kamala--

bigzaiire: I'm starting to see a lot of these videos coming out and I feel like someone really really has to speak on it, so I'm going to. And I'm gonna tell this with all my due respect -- Palestine is not the only country that's dealing with genocide right now.

I am from Congo in case you cannot tell, I'm from Congo, okay? We are also dealing with genocide in Congo. In fact, the genocide in Congo has been going for way longer than the genocide in Palestine. The genocide in Congo has made 8 millions of victims. 8 millions.

And you might wonder, why am I making this video? Well, I am making this video because I'm going to support Vice President Kamala. 100% I'm going to. And I'm going to tell you why I'm going to support Vice President Kamala.

Listen to me. This is one of the Congolese genocide enabler. His name is Dan Getler. This guy is an Israeli billionaire who owns mines in Congo. This guy was sanctioned in 2017 by President Barack Obama for corrupt and illegal mining.

Listen very carefully. He was sanctioned by Obama. Obama is a Democrat. Okay?

This dude got reinstated. Someone gave him his money back. Someone gave him his money back. Do you know who did that?

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump gave him [Israeli billionaire Dan Getler] his money back. It was one of the very last thing he did as a president was to give this guy his money back.

And do you know who sanctioned this guy again?

President Biden.

President Biden sanctioned him again. So currently, this person [Israeli billionaire Dan Getler] does not have his money. All the money, all the illegal money he made in Congo -- he does not have it right now. Because of President Biden.

So one thing I know for sure, one thing I know for sure: Vice President Kamala, she's not going to let this guy get his money back. And another thing that I know for sure is that if Trump gets back in office, Trump is going to reinstate this guy. Trump is going to give him his money back.

How do you think Israel is getting all the money? Because of this guy. He's one of the people who are giving money is Israel. So if you want to stop this guy -- hmm? -- from getting his money back and potentially giving that money to Israel, make sure that Trump does not make it.

Now let's be real for a second. Because I feel like a lot of people don't take this part in consideration. Listen.

A lot of people have lost their jobs for supporting Palestine.

A lot of content creators got their account banned for supporting Palestine.

A lot of people got hurt physically for protesting for Palestine.

A lot of people have ruined their relations with their families and friends simply because they were on the side of Palestine.

So if you're going to tell all these people who have sacrificed so much for your cause that they are wrong for choosing a candidate who's going to preserve their rights in their own country, then I'm sorry to tell you this, but you are being both ungrateful and disingenuous.

[END TRANSCRIPT]