#And theirs nothing wrong with that at all

[rafesangelita]

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡ breaking the one rule he was always supposed to follow, rafe found himself sitting in the shadows of the gentlemen’s club where bitchy!pogue!reader worked at. imagine your surprise when you find out the person that paid for a private dance with you is your brother’s best friend.. and business partner.

warnings: dealer!rafe, stripper!reader, brother’s best friend trope, mentions of you and barry arguing, sexual tension, flirty banter, making out, heavy petting

a/n: this is what bitchy!pogue!reader is wearing in this btw.. i watched anora and worked on this right after lol

wc: 1.1k

rafe knew it was wrong the second he got in his truck and drove down to ‘pink sugar’ to see if you were there. he knew it was wrong when he walked in and scanned the room for you, and he knew it was wrong when he took a corner seat furthest from the stage. after overhearing you and barry arguing about what you did for work, rafe couldn’t help himself from seeing what was making you come home with a duffle bag full of cash. his curiosity got the best of him, and when he saw you emerge from behind the curtains, pink lace lingerie hugging the curves of your body, the cutest pair of bunny ears adorning your head, with a little bunny tail on your g-string to match, all the guilt he once felt melted away into nothing.

you were sin with legs. rafe watched you smile at the men in the front, the group of them emptying their wallets when you hadn’t even did anything to make them shower you with cash. then again, rafe felt the urge himself to give you all of his money just because you were so pretty. rafe swallowed thickly when your song started and the lights went low, everyone’s attention zeroing in on you as you lowered yourself to the glossy floor of the stage. he watched you crawl to the center, arching your back as the rhinestones around your eyes sparkled under the club lighting. one of the men reached out, poking the little ball that was your bunny tail, slipping what looked like a hundred dollar bill in the string of your bottoms.

rafe hated the way the men in here were looking at you right now, his fists clenching at his sides as he imagined what kind of thoughts were currently running through their heads. “that’s it, baby!” a drunken holler was shouted, the rest of the club following suit and bursting into a fit of cheers when you managed to spin around the pole in the middle of the stage. rafe watched in awe, deciding he needed to get you to himself, and away from the hungry stares of the crowded club. making his way over to the bouncers that stood outside of a concealed hallway, he handed both of them a few crispy bills. “get the one on stage with me and i’ll double it.” without another word, both of the security guards moved aside, letting rafe through.

you finished the rest of your set, blowing kisses to the men who made it a mission of theirs to spoil you rotten tonight before you made your way to the locker rooms where you refreshed your hair and makeup. “y/n?” nancy, the owner’s right hand woman walked in, “i have a private dance for a younger gentleman in room five.. he requested you specifically.” you smiled at her through the reflection of the mirror. “okay, i’ll be right over.” you nodded, giving yourself one more glance before making your way down the dimly lit hallway. the first private dance of the night always made you a little anxious, but at least you knew you were guaranteed a hundred dollars that you didn’t have to share.

you took a breath, twisting the door knob open before going in, shutting the door closed right after. “i must be special if you chose me..” you placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, walking around him before standing between his legs. looking down, you felt your heart drop to your stomach when he looked up, the face all too familiar to you. “yeah, you are.” you gasped, retreating your hand from him as if he burned you. “what the fuck do you think you’re doing, rafe?!” you nearly lost your footing when you stepped back, suddenly feeling exposed as his eyes trailed down your body. “what? i’m just a paying customer.” he shrugged, tossing back the drink in his hand.

“oh, yeah? tell that to barry. he’ll kill you if he finds out you were here.” you scoffed, your eyes meeting his. rafe stared at you for a moment, motioning for you to get closer to him. you swallowed thickly, the small disco ball in the room illuminating his features. “i’m not gonna do anything to you, i just wanted you away from everyone out there.” he spoke lowly. you took a step, accepting the hand he held out for you before he guided you onto his lap. you wrapped an arm around his shoulders like it was second nature, his large palm running up and down your thigh. “sooo.. you think you’re doing me a favor by pulling me back here so no one else can watch me dance?” your face was just mere inches away from rafe’s.

“i’m losing out on a lot of money, ‘country club..” you whispered, the slow music playing softly in the background. “how much do you want. throw me whatever number you’d like.” you smiled, your fingers slipping underneath the hem of his polo. “two thousand,” you spoke, “with interest.” rafe laughed, nodding his head as he trailed his hand from your thigh to your hip, adjusting the strap of your g-string against your skin. “with interest, huh?” he smirked, eyes falling down to your lips, “..i’d happily give that to you.” you leaned in first, just wanting to feel his lips on yours. rafe stilled for a second, a groan rumbling from his chest when he pulled you closer by your neck, returning your kiss tenfold.

“is barry home?” he was breathless when he pulled away, his hands roaming your body as if he wanted to take you right then and there. at the mention of your brother, reality seemed to grip its claws into you when you realized what you were doing right now. rafe saw the look of confliction pass over your face, his fingers cupping your chin to avert your attention back onto him. ��hey..” he whispered, “i won’t tell if you don’t.” his words echoed in your head, his cologne and his proximity overtaking your senses. as if you two were meeting on the same page, rafe watched as your eyes grew dark, a smile gracing your lips. “i don’t kiss and tell, rafe.” as if a flip switched, you two began ravaging each other once more.

time slowed when you two moaned into each other’s mouths, grappling onto one another as if the two of you would disappear if you let go. “barry’s gone for the night.” you managed to speak between kisses, rafe nodding as he cupped you through your bra. just as he was going to tell you to leave with him, the bouncer outside the door yelled that rafe’s thirty minutes were up. “what the fuck, already?” he glanced down at his watch. you sighed, letting rafe pick you up before he kissed you one more time. “get your shit and let’s go, i’ll be waiting at the front door.” he squeezed the globes of your ass, making you gasp as he walked out. and just like that, rafe never let you step foot in that club again.

[twilightkitkat]

Adding onto this, I feel like the "animal" part of Logan's character is somewhat necessary to explore if you write him. I'm not saying he is an actual animal, of course not, but you can't pretend it isn't an important part of his character.

His major character conflicts can be divided into a few major themes: his memory loss, his loneliness, and his struggle between feeling human and animal. All of these are punctuated by his struggle to fit in with society due to his personality, trauma, and status as a mutant.

However, note that his conflict between feeling human and animal didn't start with him. It started with the way society treated him like he was something to be feared and wary of. This is a major theme of all X-men movies: the inability to fit into societal standards due to something you can't help.

Because Logan genuinely can't help it. I know it comes off as patronizing to some people to see us characterize some of Logan's traits as animalistic, but it's how the movies themselves portray him. He runs on all fours to attack, he slashes with claws, people ask him what kind of animal or monster he is. He's been given "animalistic" traits on purpose, because it's instinctual to him due to his mutation.

Does that make him less human? No. Does that mean he acts differently than other humans? Yes.

The main point of the X-men movies is to show that it's OK to be different. That you don't have to change or hide your personality to fit in, but that you should embrace it and find people who accept you for who you are.

This applies to Logan as well: he finds refuge in the X-mansion because they don't try to stifle him. They don't criticize and judge him for his more "feral" traits the same way he doesn't judge them for theirs. He learns that it's OK to lean into his more "animalistic" behavior and that the way people condemned him before was close-minded and wrong.

Logan identifies with the title of The Wolverine. He chose it himself and wanted to be called by it, the same way he chose to be called by Logan instead of James. This is him accepting the fact that yes, he has more animalistic traits, but no, that doesn't mean he's less human. He can be both.

He starts as a cage fighter who plays up his more "animalistic" side by snarling and growling and playing with his prey. He becomes an X-man and leans into the more "human" side when he develops genuine connections and focuses on keeping them. Eventually, in DPW, he settles on "both." You can see his "animalistic" side: he runs on all fours, he fights Wade on pure instinct, biting and snarling and grinning when blood splatters in his mouth. You can see his "human" side, too: he has an emotionally vulnerable conversation with Laura, confronts his trauma in the Void, and agrees to go to Wade's domestic house party. When given the choice with no outside influences, he lets himself be both.

There's nothing inherently wrong with having traits that resemble an animal. Mutants are meant to push the limits of what is traditionally considered human, and Logan is an example of this. The reason he hated his "animal" traits wasn't because he hated the idea in itself, but because people scorned him for it so he tried to change. Because just like anyone else, he craves to be accepted. And just like other people, he chose to hide part of himself to do this.

But what a lot of people are arguing by exploring his more "animalistic" side is that he shouldn't have to hide. He shouldn't be scorned for any of his traits, even if they are distinctly animal-like. He should be accepted as he is, instead of expected to fall into the "human" mold. He just be seen just as valuable even if he does have these traits, which he himself embraces when given the chance. It's therapeutic to let him have behaviors that don't traditionally fall in line with what is socially acceptable because we write stories where he's loved despite it. It's what we all strive for, someone who doesn't try to change who we are, even the more "undesirable" traits, but who loves us anyway.

Logan isn't an animal in the same way he isn't a "traditional human." He's "Logan," who is a mixture of both. It isn't demeaning or dehumanizing, it's uplifting. He can act however he pleases without having to fit either mold and still be seen and understood. He shouldn't be seen as an animal, but he shouldn't be expected to act fully like any other human when he's been shown not to.

Also, like previously stated, being a minor isn't a cop-out from internet discourse. Anyone should be given respect regardless of their age, and adults deserve the same courtesy. I don't really understand what reiterating that you're a minor twice achieves in a character analysis discussion. I understand wanting to protect your peace, but when you decide to engage online, people are going to respond. In the same way you're free to respond, too. I respect your preferences and opinions, but here's mine.

Getting deep into the x men fandom means seeing ships I don't agree with, so I don't interact, seeing posts that mischaraterizes one of the deepest charaters possible, so I don't interact, Seeing people actively say things that are blatantly wrong, so I don't interact.

Getting a large following is also kind of frustrating (Im not complaining I love you guys!) But I've had to block 2 people already today because they keep leaving rude replies to my comments on OTHER peoples posts or purposly come to my blog to tell me that how I view a charater is wrong. Had someone tell me that the stuff that happens in MY au is dumb because "that would never happen" like yeah bud. The writers at Marvel are too much of cowards for it to happen, hence why i'm here.

So my thing is... if im chosing not to interact with all of this- why is it still on my feed?

I feel like the more I ignore it the more I see and I do not wish to be the type to block someone simply because they make one post about a ship that personally isn't my cup of tea.

Also- I think Im starting to see the different sides of extremes, especially when it comes to one specifc charater.

Logan.

I have seen dozens of lovely stories, lovely rants, lovely head canons about this man-

But something that feels weird (to me at least) is people who are 45+ yelling at people who aren't even 18 that their story/headcanons are trash because they've "been enjoying Logan for 40+ years" as if this gives them any right to tell a 17 year old that they shouldnt write a charater how they see them.

It's also weird to me that there seems to be two sides.

Logan IS an animal and that's perfectly okay.

Or

Logan ISN'T an animal, and everyone who headcanons him as animalistic is fetishizing his mutation and are insulting him.

I get not liking a certain trope, but sir, that person is young enough to be your child. You have to accept that we all grew up with different versions of each charater. I Personally didn't grow up with any and get the luxury of indulging in all sorts of media all at once- therefore getting to see him from multiple sides and pictures.

I completely understand if you grew up with the original series and are upset to see that kids are headcanoning your stone cold angst biker man as wearing bow clips and 'making biscuits' on a pillow while watching gilmore girl with his boyfriend, and wearing pink fluffy hello kitty pants and a tight shirt that says "Milk"

I completely understand if you grew up with the movies and see him as a sexy gruff hot buff man and you love to write lots and lots of steamy x reader about him.

I completely understand if you LIKE logan wearing hello kitty pants and don't agree with the idea of him being a dark edgelord, lone wolf charater.

Do you know what I don't understand? Fighting over a charater when different timelines have been canon since the 80s. The Time Variance Authority (TVA) first appeared in Thor #372 (October 1986) which means ALL of your logans are the correct logan. Just not all the same.

Do I think Wolverine Orgins Logan would wear pink hello kitty pants? Nah.

Do I know that Deadpool and wolverine Logan is a whole different universe then Orgins Logan? Yes.

That's why people tag different logans and different aus. So what is all the fuss about?? What happened to the more the merrier?

Theres so many different versions of comic book logan, too, so don't even go there.

Feel free to ask my personal opinions but as far as I stand I could never be foolish enough to seriously go into someone elses post and genuinely be upset at them for how they perceive a charater. I get second hand embaressment when ever I see ANYONE doing it.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk. I don't care if I lose followers for this. Let the door hit you on the way out. There aint no reason to be harrassing folks.

[yiichan]

𝟎𝟐 - 𝐘𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐉𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐧

pairings. idol!ot13 x m!14thmember!oc. word count. 0.8k. genre. parellel universe au, extra member au, angst.

warnings. major character death, depictions of mental illnesses (depression, self-harming etc.), mention of self-harming, slight OOC.

writers notes. is it too late now to say sorry?

no beta i die like men, but still mentioning @sousydive

network: @mansaenetwork

[open] series taglist.

chapter index | navigation | main page | kofi | ao3

Jeonghan thought he was dreaming. 

In a nightmare. A terrible, soul-sucking nightmare that he just couldn’t get rid of. 

But it’s real. It’s real as he stood lifelessly in the mourning hall, the smiling photo of Gyuhan staring back at him. 

The members were scattered around the hall. Seungcheol was drinking silently with Chan in a corner. Vernon sat next to a puffy-faced Seungkwan, who had a tired Seokmin dozing off on his shoulder with his tear-stained face. Junhui and Minghao flew back from China almost immediately, sitting silently in a corner, while Joshua bowed to the incoming mourners, exchanging small conversation with them as Mingyu accepted the condolence envelopes. 

Then Jeonghan realized. 

Gyuhan only had them. 

In the decade that Gyuhan has been around, Jeonghan knew that the others didn’t really see him as family. To them, Gyuhan was an abnormality, something that was different and strange. They had lived a life without Im Gyuhan, but yet…

Someone nudged him. Wonwoo walked over, sitting next to him. The two grown men sat in silence as the mourners came and went. Idols, producers and entertainers came in and out, and their own families were resting in a corner. 

“Drink some water, hyung.” Wonwoo’s voice was hoarse as he passed a bottle of water to Jeonghan. The older man accepted it, but did not open it to drink. His fingers gripped the bottle tightly, his eyes on the picture in the middle of the hall. 

When the group died in the car crash in their previous life, Jeonghan was resentful. He was resentful when he woke up and thought he went back in time, until he realized that he and the members had transmigrated into a parallel universe. 

Gyuhan is someone unfamiliar.

Jeonghan disliked him. 

The moment Gyuhan entered the melon green room, Jeonghan felt the goosebumps creeping along his arms. He immediately thought of this as a conspiracy, and Gyuhan was someone out to harm the other members and him. 

It took him eight years. Eight whole years to realize that Gyuhan had done nothing wrong. 

This is a parallel universe, after all.

But when Jeonghan realized his mistake and theirs, it was already too late. 

Little attempts were made to make up for everything. The invites to dinner, the small conversation making. Telling off fans who insulted him. Posing for photos during fansigns. The small links of their fingers, skin-to-skin contact in shows and stages. 

But Gyuhan remained distant. He politely declined each of their invites, except the ones where staff members joined. He gave monosyllabic answers to their conversation attempts, shutting it off pretty quickly. He would quickly retract his arms after linking them together with them for a photo, as though he had touched something dirty. 

He had shut himself away from them. 

Just like they had hoped for the first eight years. 

“Woozi-nim just woke up, I’m going over to the ward.” Jeonghan snapped out of his thoughts, his attention turned towards the manager and Seungcheol. “Do you want to come with me?”

Jeonghan hears Seungcheol mumble a hoarse reply, and he turns his attention back to the bottle in his hand. 

Out of the thirteen of them, Soonyoung took the blow the worst. He had stormed out of the dorm when the news dropped, and had been uncontactable ever since. His mother and sister were sitting among their families, whispering among themselves. 

Jeonghan thought about the day when they debuted. Their families had stepped forwards, putting the ring on them like what they expected. But when Jeonghan looked over to Gyuhan, he was a little taken aback when he saw the manager putting the ring on for him instead. 

Back then, he felt nothing. 

But now?

“On some days, hyung,” Wonwoo started slowly, taking off his glasses. He took a small cloth out of his pocket and slowly wiped the dust on the lens away. “I thought our previous life was something that we have dreamt about. The world where there are only thirteen members of SEVENTEEN.”

Jeonghan slowly savored Wonwoo’s words. He looked up at the photo again, of the smiling Gyuhan. He looked happy, yet the smile did not reach his eyes. It was like Gyuhan just smiling for the sake of the photo. 

Jeonghan was drowning in the endless sea of regret. Wonwoo remained silent after that, his glasses perched on his nose. The older male suddenly stood up, heading towards the exit. 

The air felt like concrete. Jeonghan hurried out from the hall towards the corridor, where he swiftly avoided the fans and reporters gathering. 

Escaping towards the fire escape, Jeonghan gasped like a fish out of water, the fiery tears rolling down his cheeks once again. 

How can they do this to an innocent soul? How could he do this to an innocent soul? 

“I'm sorry…” Jeonghan leaned against the wall, covering his face with his quivering fingers. He slowly slipped down, chanting out apologies like a mantra. 

But the person that needed to hear them isn't around, not anymore.

© yiichan, 2024 origin of divider

[lilyflower06]

That moment where you're excited about exploring fanfics for a new fandom, but most of the fics are just Highschool/College AUs

Man...

[blossoms-phan]

many people are afraid to be real lovers. dan and phil are not

[sukugo]

character who is so powerful that their presence itself overgoes all consent, where the other characters exist below their desires and are made to please them, regardless of whether they want to or not.

esp when the character isn't even relatively domineering or authoritative during it. instead they're completely passive. whimpering and twitching and overall being so lost in pleasure that leaves no space for action, much less coercion. they're a passive receiver of pleasure.

except they, as an existence, cannot be passive. they're mingling with godhood, they're bigger than themselves, than their body, their pleasure holy and divine and all-encompassing. their touch a religious experience.

to have them, a compulsion, more than an action born of actual personal desire

[et3rnal-dr3am3r]

me, seeing that my friend is upset: hey are you ok? do you wanna talk about it? i'm always here and willing to help

me, the second they start telling me what's up, having suddenly gotten a huge wave of sadness and Not Great emotions but still wanting to help: oh

[soulofamy]

waittttttttttttttt khaos reigns comes out on the 24th, not the 14th???

[sweetzzzone]

.

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

i love defending pete wentz against the mania haters who call him the music industry's mr krabs bc he sucks in other ways.

[ardentpoop]

tried going into a specific spn tag. immediate regrets

[cottagecori]

crying into my sparkling apple cider because i thought about my parents aging for more than 10 seconds

[timeisacephalopod]

Its real strange when Americans especially (meaning politicians, less citizens but them too sometimes) say socialism doesn't work because how the hell would you even know. Half the shit American politcians describe as socialism isn't socialism, and often they treat those things like the sky will fall if they're implemented (like healthcare. Ignore Canada right above you. Lie about how our system works by telling people you need to wait years to see Drs about life threatening issues when you only get waitlisted for specialists and not for years either, it's generally a few months. Not ideal but not what American politicians say either. Ignore every other country with universal healthcare better than Canada's, which is everyone's, because there's no need to even lie about those after making the country above you look bad for not charging 80K to look at a band-aid, which is somehow an improvement to waitlists like the poor won't just die instead of seeing a dr).

Not to mention the US has invaded so many countries with politics farther left then theirs just to install right wing terrorists and then get mad when some of those terrorists they straight up funded do a 9/11 to them like they have slaughtered thousands to "spread democracy" by overthrowing democratically elected leaders all over the world for being "too socialist" or communist so how do you know socialism doesn't work? If it doesn't it's because America specifically has never allowed it to, like you can't invade every single country that does things mildly different, completely destroy them, and then say "see socialism doesn't work!" like you had nothing to do with the collapse of that system???? It's literally the meme of Eric Andre shooting that guy and being like "how come socialism didn't work!" like they didn't just shoot socialism in the face in cold blood. And also capitalism doesn't need to work at all in any way, efficient or not, for everyone to defend it to the hilt so like ok who cares if socialism works if you don't care that capitalism doesn't and you defend it anyway? Clearly "works" isn't a prerequisite to using that system so that's not even an argument worth bringing up at that point.

[kratomqueen]

imagine if someone said this shit about any other group of human beings lol some people are this website are actually sociopathic. of course parents should stop their kids from doing this but why the fuck are you blaming the kid for their natural curiosity? most people tried doing this as children

[jewishvitya]

A pro-Palestine Jew on tiktok asked those of us who were raised pro-Israel, what got us to change our minds on Palestine. I made a video to answer (with my voice, not my face), and a few people watched it and found some value in it. I'm putting this here too. I communicate through text better than voice.

So I feel repetitive for saying this at this point, but I grew up in the West Bank settlements. I wrote this post to give an example of the extent to which Palestinians are dehumanized there.

Where I live now, I meet Palestinians in day to day life. Israeli Arab citizens living their lives. In the West Bank, it was nothing like that. Over there, I only saw them through the electric fence, and the hostility between us and Palestinians was tangible.

When you're a child being brought into the situation, you don't experience the context, you don't experience the history, you don't know why they're hostile to you. You just feel "these people hate me, they don't want me to exist." And that bubble was my reality. So when I was taught in school that everything we did was in self defense, that our military is special and uniquely ethical because it's the only defensive military in the world - that made sense to me. It slotted neatly into the reality I knew.

One of the first things to burst the bubble for me was when I spoke to an old Israeli man and he was talking about his trauma from battle. I don't remember what he said, but it hit me wrong. It conflicted with the history as I understood it. So I was a bit desperate to make it make sense again, and I said, "But everything we did was in self defense, right?"

He kinda looked at me, couldn't understand at all why I was upset, and he went, "We destroyed whole villages. Of course we did. It was war, that's what you do."

And that casual "of course" stuck with me. I had to look into it more.

I couldn't look at more accurate history, and not at accounts by Palestinians, I was too primed against these sources to trust them. The community I grew up in had an anti-intellectual element to it where scholars weren't trusted about things like this.

So what really solidified this for me, was seeing Palestinian culture.

Because part of the story that Israel tells us to justify everything, is that Palestinians are not a distinct group of people, they're just Arabs. They belong to the nations around us. They insist on being here because they want to deny us a homeland. The Palestinian identity exists to hurt us. This, because the idea of displacing them and taking over their lands doesn't sound like stealing, if this was never theirs and they're only pretending because they want to deprive us.

But then foods, dances, clothing, embroidery, the Palestinian dialect. These things are history. They don't pop into existence just because you hate Jews and they're trying to move here. How gorgeous is the Palestinian thobe? How stunning is tatreez in general? And when I saw specific patterns belonging to different regions of Palestine?

All of these painted for me a rich shared life of a group of people, and countered the narrative that the Palestininian identity was fabricated to hurt us. It taught me that, whatever we call them, whatever they call themselves, they have a history in this land, they have a right to it, they have a connection to it that we can't override with our own.

I started having conversations with leftist friends. Confronting the fact that the borders of the occupied territories are arbitrary and every Israeli city was taken from them. In one of those conversations, I was encouraged to rethink how I imagine peace.

This also goes back to schooling. Because they drilled into us, we're the ones who want peace, they're the ones who keep fighting, they're just so dedicated to death and killing and they won't leave us alone.

In high school, we had a stadium event with a speaker who was telling us about a person who defected from Hamas, converted to Christianity and became a Shin Bet agent. Pretty sure you can read this in the book "Son of Hamas." A lot of my friends read the book, I didn't read it, I only know what I was told in that lecture. I guess they couldn't risk us missing out on the indoctrination if we chose not to read it.

One of the things they told us was how he thought, we've been fighting with them for so long, Israelis must have a culture around the glorification of violence. And he looked for that in music. He looked for songs about war. And for a while he just couldn't find any, but when he did, he translated it more fully, and he found out the song was about an end to wars. And this, according to the story as I was told it, was one of the things that convinced him. If you know know the current trending Israeli "war anthem," you know this flimsy reasoning doesn't work.

Back then, my friend encouraged me to think more critically about how we as Israelis envision peace, as the absence of resistance. And how self-centered it is. They can be suffering under our occupation, but as long as it doesn't reach us, that's called peace. So of course we want it and they don't.

Unless we're willing to work to change the situation entirely, our calls for peace are just "please stop fighting back against the harm we cause you."

In this video, Shlomo Yitzchak shares how he changed his mind. His story is much more interesting than mine, and he's much more eloquent telling it. He mentions how he was taught to fear Palestinians. An automatic thought, "If I go with you, you'll kill me." I was taught this too. I was taught that, if I'm in a taxi, I should be looking at the driver's name. And if that name is Arab, I should watch the road and the route he's taking, to be prepared in case he wants to take me somewhere to kill me. Just a random person trying to work. For years it stayed a habit, I'd automatically look at the driver's name. Even after knowing that I want to align myself with liberation, justice, and equality. It was a process of unlearning.

On October, not long after the current escalation of violence, I had to take a taxi again. A Jewish driver stopped and told me he'll take me, "so an Arab doesn't get you." Israeli Jews are so comfortable saying things like this to each other. My neighbors discussed a Palestinian employee, with one saying "We should tell him not to come anymore, that we want to hire a Jew." The second answered, "No, he'll say it's discrimination," like it would be so ridiculous of him. And the first just shrugged, "So we don't have to tell him why." They didn't go through with it, but they were so casual about this conversation.

In the Torah, we're told to treat those who are foreign to us well, because we know what it's like to be the foreigner. Fighting back against oppression is the natural human thing to do. We know it because we lived it. And as soon as I looked at things from this angle, it wasn't really a choice of what to support.

[alwayssunnyinhawkins]

Nothing's ever going to hit the same as that first ship you went insane about. The original OTP...