#And/or people that aren't capital W White

[miraculouslumination]

You know one thing that makes me a little sad about like. Fake (especially viral) supernatural/cryptid/paranormal videos, especially tiktoks and shit (because so many people over there just eat everything up at face value), is that it's like. Some of this stuff is genuinely super creepy but in a fun ghost story "tale told around the fire" type of way.

Like getting to see a video of someone being like "OMG SIRENS REAL??" And the video + audio is actually pretty cool and haunting. Only to then find out either everyone piling on top of the video, or the creator themself, is like. A raging conspiracy theorist. Which means they are EXTREMELY likely to be a bigot of some kind (especially racist and/or antisemitic) too.

It's just like. Man. Can't people make fake but super cool and creepy and unnerving cryptid/paranormal/supernatural videos WITHOUT the underlying bigotry (don't even get me started on the videos, especially tiktoks, of people claiming to catch REAL EVIDENCE!!!!! of bastardized indigenous people's folklore entities. Like shut the fuck up, Andrew, that's just your friend acting weird for the camera).

[pennyserenade]

Hello! Hope you’re doing well!! I’m not sure you’d like followers to respond to/ interact with your posts w your thoughts in the tags but I just wanted to say that I totally agree w your thoughts on Coryo and Sejanus LOL. Im v surprised (tho I guess I shouldn’t be given how old I am at this point + the no. of fandoms I’ve been in) that people can read them so differently from the novel. Coryo is an unreliable narrator and that makes it kind of fun to read because his pov shouldn’t always be taken as the truth. In fact I think it’s fun to read how differently his peers view him/ his r/s w other people vs what he himself perceives. Sejanus is such a nice, sweet boy and it’s kinda sad that other people don’t read him that way just because the book is filtered through coryo’s thoughts haha. He’s kind and dares to stand up for what he believes in… I think the saddest thing abt his story is that he was genuinely trying to help others directly but unfortunately the people he spoke to weren’t the most honest/ dependable (I don’t think the stuff with the rebels would have gone down well) and he also trusted Coryo (I don’t blame him cause Coryo was the only “nice” person in the Capitol) 😭 I suppose that’s also how difficult it is to deal w people sometimes IRL (in extreme situations). Anyway ya just wanted to share my thoughts :x feel free to ignore if this isn’t something you’re ok with!!

hi nonie! i'm absolutely okay with followers interacting with my tags and posts/coming to talk about this stuff with me! as you can probably tell i've got a lot to say about this stuff - i'm just a chronic in the tag poster lol.

because suzanne collins wrote the ballad of songbirds and snakes in a third person point of view, i think that readers have taken to assuming that what they're getting is an unbiased narrator, when in fact we are still very much getting a biased point of view from coriolanus. sure, we are distanced from his thoughts--not exactly seeing things through his eyes as we did with katniss--but that doesn't mean we don't have access to him and that his thoughts aren't distorting what we are seeing. i've thought a lot about the reasons suzanne collins might've chosen to use third person pov when she used a first person pov for the rest of the novels, and i don't think there was one definite reason. some of the brilliance of suzanne collins' writing lies in the fact that you do have derive these meanings for yourself at times. personally, i like to think that she chose to use third person pov because this story, while very much coriolanus-centric, belonged to characters like sejanus plinth and lucy gray, too.

the fact that this book came out during the trump's presidency isn't at all lost on me. i think what suzanne collins was saying was: look how badly this system failed this once privileged white boy. for all intents and purposes this should make him angry, and here are these district kids who have suffered just as he has. he can relate more to them than he can to any of his capital peers. he knows what it is to hunger and suffer and fight for your life every day, to be made to perform. when coriolanus turns his back on sejanus plinth and lucy gray baird, it is so tragic because he was meant to side with them and yet at the end of the day he turned his back on them because he wanted to be with 'his people.' he upheld this system that had so failed him because he thought people like lucy gray and sejanus plinth were primitive and less than because that's the mindless shit he had been fed his entire life. this is exactly what happened during that election. i've seen countless white people, who are every bit as poor and destitute as the immigrants that seek to come to this country for help -- if not more -- turn their back on them and support trump. even the poorest of whites think they are better than the richest of latinos or black people because this what their systems teach them, and it makes them feel good to think that.

i think that's why sejanus was district 2 turned capital. i believe that this was commentary on how, no matter how far poc and/or immigrants come, these white people will always view them as less than and that the system will never be forgiving of them. i do genuinely believe that coriolanus thought that sejanus' parents would save him in the end, and the fact that they couldn't was so shocking because he had, up until that point, seen the ways wealth had benefited plinth. he could not conceptualize a world where wealth wouldn't get a person what they wanted because he did not know what it was to be district. they did not see sejanus plinth, heir to the plinth fortune. they saw a district rat, a nameless, faceless traitor to kill. it is no surprise that coriolanus snow climbed to the top on the back of sejanus plinth tragic ending, because that's simply what happens every day.

i do understand and don't absolutely hate the conversations people have surrounding sejanus' privilege and what he chose to do with it/ what he chose not to do, but i think to consider sejanus an annoying, selfish character is erroneous. he was a boy who knew that this system would never favor him and was trying his best to envision a world where it might, and yes he did make stupid rash decisions, but at the end of the day what killed him was coriolanus snow and snow's desire for power. sejanus plinth was not stupid for trusting coriolanus snow, either; coriolanus snow was evil for betraying the boy's trust for his own self-serving agenda.

it is hard to live in a world like this. even as a white woman with a mexican father, i have have had to experience the kind of things sejanus did with people talking poorly about him and his family behind his back, and openly to his face. i am not accepted by either side and never will be, just as he wasn't. i will say i do experience immense privilege because of the color of my skin, and i won't ever pretend that i don't know that, but that's what i'm talking about: no matter how much i look like them, and act like them, i will always be a mexican's daughter and i am happy about that fact. i am mexican as much as i am white but it doesn't make the fight i have to struggle because of it any more fun.

[eastgaysian]

hii, so. i've been thinking about it as a woc living in the third world myself but um. the critique of succession on like, neglecting race, don't make a lot of sense to me for a number of reasons like okay it's def a laugh whenever someone says "i wanna imagine what a black character would look like on succession" but it's not really an Elephant In The Room wrt to appraisal of the writers' room imo? bec from where i'm coming it's not so much an implicit thing that they've avoided dealing with race and maybe i'm wrong? but like stewy and lawrence were very important characters in s1, and marcia was too atleast till s2. we got shiv getting someone to look into marcia's background and the deleted scene from the s3 finale where they talk about their past. and everything that you talked about kendall after ep8 imo. employing jess and lisa and marrying rava (jewish) and telling sophie he loves her only to walk all over them. connor mentioning how poc and women were not allowed on the upper floors (decision-making rooms) of waystar when he was young. a black woman being one of the people who voted against logan in the coup in s1. other instances come to mind too (roman asking "is he a jew btw", shiv's implied backstory w lisa esp how sanaa lathan talked about it) etc but overall i feel, it's not like a sidelined thing as much as them hyperfocusing on the family as the show has gone on. i think they're conversation on gender gets more screentime since almost half the characters are women, and it's layered in with nuances of class and race but also how sexism just sometiems pervades those institutions as well. maybe i'm completely wrong though, idk :/

i generally agree with what you're saying, and this is what i'm referring to when i say that i do believe race is a concern for the writers. there's a demonstrated awareness of how race and class intersect in several instances throughout the show, there's some amount of thought put into it. but it's clearly not a central concern that gets intentionally, consistently explored and critiqued in the way succession deals with capitalism, familial abuse, misogyny, sexual violence, etc. the recurring characters of color aren't in the main cast, they've all been sidelined or written off for various reasons. while there's plenty to read between the lines about how race affects the way stewy or marcia or jess move in the world, this hasn't been explicitly brought up in the show until s4 (the direct comments about race are all from white main characters usually speaking in a general sense), and in s4 sophie and jess's responses to racist rhetoric have ultimately been in service to kendall's character.

this is kind of an inevitability of how succession is constructed. it's about the roys, an obscenely wealthy, privileged, white family. their space in the world is overwhelmingly occupied by white people who have insular worldviews and do not care at all about the people of color they interact with or the oppression they face. the people of color who work for them aren't real people to them, and the people of color they work with or hang out with or marry are only people to them as long as they don't really think about their race. despite all the jokes i make about What if the roys were wasian, the roys can't be nonwhite, and when the focus of your show is this kind of white family and their viewpoint you have very little space to meaningfully talk about race.

but like, if sidelining characters of color and never being able to meaningfully address race is an inevitability of how succession is constructed, then that doesn't make it above criticism, it just means that the object of criticism is how the show is constructed. (monster of a sentence, sorry, i'm not getting graded on this so i can't be bothered to edit it to be actually coherent.) stealing from caden romanroydinnerparty's response to an ask here:

i think the... strain? limitations? of succession's format and its ability to comment on race are more exposed in s4 due to its increased political focus, which requires acknowledging the racism + antisemitism within fascist rhetoric. given these constraints, there is at times visible effort to talk and think about race, but this is inherently limited and often awkward because from the start, the show wasn't 'designed' to do that. constructing a show that can't talk about race doesn't happen without some degree of racist bias on the part of the creators and, maybe more relevantly, in-built racism in the entertainment industry as a whole. i think succession could be better with how it handles race, but it could also be a whole lot worse. flawed as it is, there is still plenty of interesting stuff to me in the way the show does address race. i don't know that a show like succession - or any mainstream tv show really - could ever be devoid of racism or 'anti-racist.'

[dcwnthercbbithcle]

Hot take/bingo for Philip and Sally? I wish to know the takes. Give them!!!

Shipping Hottake Meme || OPEN AND ACCEPTING

ASDASDASD PIGEON YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR. Mentally? I need you to know I'm doing the disappointed teacher coming back from a sick day pose. Sitting in the turned around chair, fingers steepled, head down. I have OPINIONS.

Sally/Philip, we meet again... I can understand the ship, not to say I ship it, but from an outside stance, I can get it. Sally and Philip fill a lot of the same archetypes in Dead By Daylight in a way that's complimentary.

Sally is often associated with angel imagery or death, all black or white, flowing sort of dresses and Phil is the opposite, he has a deathly look, covered in black and soot, coming with a sound and disappearing again. They're both 'banshee's at least in the sense the Devs intended for them to fill the niche. They both have stories that follow long periods of exploitation and, ultimately, good people who are made accessories to crime until killing seemed like the only escape or means for redemption. They're both TRAGEDIES, I get it.

BUT THIS IS WHERE IS LOSES ME. They are united in the tragedy of their stories, but like, what else is there? Seriously, the Devs clearly ship it, but what is the substance? I don't think Sally/Phil is a ship that's doomed out of the gate. You just have to work for it and the devs aren't willing to do that, and a lot of the time, the fandom it seems doesn't do that either. Not just for Phil, who I've found often is subject to fandom racial caricaturing in the worst sort of way, but Sally too.

Sally, often, from my experience in ships with Phil is treated almost like a pet and given very little humanity or even development and it's not fair to her, her character or her personality. I won't go on a grand standing rant, but like, it's upsetting. It's really upsetting. Sally is a very important character to me, her grief and her rage ARE important and she deserves the respect of being given humanity more than the tiny dancer to Phil.

IT'S LIKE, THE POTENTIAL FOR INTEREST *IS* THERE, it could be GREAT! I would kill to see someone approach Sally and Philip in a way that touches on the night and day perspectives that shape each of them.

Phil is a character that doesn't see the world or humanity as this inherent evil, the evil however comes in the fact that no matter what he does, tragedy drags him back into the circle and cycle of war and suffering. Phil isn't ready to write the world off as 'evil', he needs to attach it to people, he needs to embody it. Sally meanwhile, she really has come to view civilization, at least to the parts that she's experienced (Sally is first to admit she hasn't seen the full world, only her part of the world) as evil. She doesn't see the people themselves as evil exactly, but it's the hivemind, it's the culture, its the way things are structured. To torture her patients, to leave women like her in the position of being exploited, to leave people unable to climb higher. Sally sees it, and she hates it. She thinks humans are capable of good, she sees innocence and love in the eyes of people, but, put too many people together, the love and innocence fades, it stops being individualistic, it becomes 'the greater good' and just !!!!! she hates it, she's not against organization, she's against capitalism, she's against the dissolution of the individual for a uniform, soulless idea of an ideal existence and an ideal humanity.

LIKE COMING TO A HEAD, TO MEET EACH OTHER, FOR THEM TO BE ABLE TO DISAGREE AND COME TO AN UNDERSTANDING OR HATRED OR W/E. THATS WHAT I WANT!!!! THE DEPTH!!!

But people aren't ready to give Sally and Phil that depth, the devs certainly aren't even ready to give Sally the respect of a respectful treatment of her story, let alone any identity beyond the small petite lady for big tall phil to swing around. And for that, Sally and Phil, I don't see it, it's not a notp, but you'll have to work hard for it and to redeem it from the treatment I've seen it get, both in the fandom, official material and like, in my heart!

[symptoms-syndrome]

Ok I'm at least going to write a little. And maybe post this tomorrow (Sunday) It can be hard bc some parts don't have names but like. They just won't be mentioned I guess. There's also ofc some esp vulnerable parts that aren't listed. Basically what I'm saying is don't take this as a full rundown or whatever.

Some parts. * Means they're around often but that's always subject to change

*Tomas (he/him) responsible. Weirdly I notice he doesn't use contractions often IDK why, but that's one of the ways I can tell if he's written a journal entry or something. Mostly keeps to himself, but not like. Shy or anything. Likes to get things done. Easily frustrated and overwhelmed but astoundingly patient at the same time. I think he likes to think he has the most control over himself, he's definitely got a lot of control over his composure. May or may not have parts of his own.

**Seba (who gives a shit. But I mostly use he/they.) Less responsible in the typical ways but responsible in the ways that keep us safe. Can be kinda aggressive sometimes. Least afraid of being an asshole. I can tell when he's written a journal entry or post bc he uses a lot of abbreviations and shortens words a lot (you -> u, etc) and just generally talks more crudely. Very cool. Gets along well w other parts. He's around a lot.

Hess (she) older lady. Most responsible, very well mannered and stuff. Very kind and friendly. Kinda motherly. Cleans up a lot and/or encourages us to clean up. She's usually not around front alone as far as I can tell. It happens sometimes but not super often. She used to be around more but sort of went MIA not sure why. She's a good advice giver and calm down-er though. Very comforting.

*Mimi (she) resident Girl with a capital G. Bubbly and cute and fun. Loves to feel pretty and tell other people they're pretty and that sort of thing. Has a hard time sitting still. Super super sweet both internally and externally. She's probably the clearest most obvious part because she likes to make her presence known. Also notably white, and sometimes forgets that we're not.

Aslan (he) kid, fun, cute. V curious about things. Most typical kid type part.

Anne (she) kid, not as fun or cute. Very well mannered/strong etiquette.

*Jesse (she...?) Hard to talk about. Can be harsh. Values freedom and fun but irresponsible and reckless.

Jay (he) don't know a ton. He feels like some sort of organizer or note-taker. Knows a lot. Doesn't share a lot. Has shown up for all our inner world things w therapist but AFAIK doesn't really front often if at all...?

Runaway (I've been using she) very stuck in the past. Teenager. Kinda broody. Depressed but also angry I think. Edgy. Has a very strong taste for aesthetic.

Sorta wish I could tell you about the "host' part but I don't think we have any part that feels strongly abt that role. I also am trying to figure out w some parts like. The whole "is this a different part or does it just feel different bc it's a funky blend."

[queerauntie]

November Reads

November was a blast, I quit my toxic job and these books really helped me from falling into depression again. Before that job I had been unemployed since July and it was dark y'all. While we aren't fully out of that hole (summer, summer hurry up!) reading has been such a transformative way to heal from the misery I'd been feeling these past few years. Without further ado, November's novels:

Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey (Founder of The Nap Ministry)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Black Girls Must Be Magic by Jayne Allen

Love Radio was a delight. The characters were so cute and well thought out, and their personalities were fun to see interact together, making them a perfect match! While it's a red flag to me when someone is so persistently pesuing someone, I am willing to call it a Doppler/Dahmer (a himym reference ifkyk) situation and lean in. I'm glad I did because Prince ended up being worth the leap of faith. Talk about someone who genuinely wants to show up for YOU, in any capacity they can. So many people (read men) feel like if they have feelings for a girl, the only way they can have a successful relationship is if it's a romantic and sexual one. FAKE concepts like "the friend zone" are their way of telling us they can't love us in any other capacity, because it's not about us, it's about the claiming of us. Prince loves Danielle and he isn't caught up with those ideas and he sees Danielle for who she is, an amazing young woman who's on her journey and deserving of love. Danielle goes through a gutting experience that she deals with throughout the story, and as she's not initially open to romance, Prince doesn't see that as rejection or a "chase" or "tease". He truly hears her and is happy to meet her where she needs and shows up the way a true friend would, which Dani definitely needs at this point. I loved this story, and even though I saw it at Target, it breaks through the Target Tear, I definitely Loved this book!

Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey is a book I've been highly anticipating! I've been following @TheNapMinistry on twitter for months now, her message is simple. Rest is not something we have to earn, we rest because it is our right. Her work centralizes Black People who've had their rest robbed for centuries, reminding them that rest and dreaming are key to liberation. This message extends to non-Black people as an introduction on how to start breaking down our cultural brainwashing and recognize how our complacency upholds capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. When we prioritize resting over the never-ending machine that is American capitalism, we become a wrench instead of a cog. This book, right next to How We Show Up, go right on my required reading for friends and community. This book will also be read again, every time I need a reminder!

The next book on my list was the first major book I read this year, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. While almost all of the books before this were around 6-9 hours, Addie LaRue comes in at 17 hours! It was very intimidating, and I initially was reading the book wrong, I was looking for the rising action to begin and was zooming through the first half thinking it was merely world-building. I was wrong, it was all a part of the journey that Addie herself was on, figuring things out as she went and learning so many important lessons along the way. Once I understood that I needed to be a part of the story with Addie, not a ghost viewing from above, the story took hold of me fiercely and I was completely hypnotized by this world. It was a thrill ride to the end, trying to figure out where it could possibly end, and what solutions could we possibly come to. Another read again to simply be in that world again, and of course, to prep for the hinted-at sequel!

Odd One Out was a book that was recommended by my bestie, this is the book where I started to go "maybe I just don't like male characters..." because there was absolutely nothing Coop could do that I didn't take issue with! The author really had me in the first half because I was ready to fight him for not getting over his crush on a LESBIAN! But bestie told me to give good faith, and I held out hope. Spoiler alert it does not end in a polyamorous ending, I'll rip that bandaid right off for ya cause no one did for me. But the ending was satisfying and I guess if it's vaguely personal, I can't be mad someone got a happy ending!

Black Cake was a haunting and beautiful journey. I've talked about it more here, so please go read that, or better yet, just read Black Cake. It's definitely in my top 10 of the year, it was pulling on the heartstrings, keeping me on the edge, and immensely satisfied by the end. It was a novel I could trust, whether it was a happy or sad ending, you could feel the care and love the writer put into this novel, and it was beautiful to experience this story and I hope it continues to gain lots of attention, it deserves all the flowers!

A Darker Shade of Magic! Wow what an amazing story! This is my best friend's favorite book by their favorite author, so it was LONG overdue that I read this book! By God it was fan-fucking-tastic! It was another Schwab immersive world I couldn't get enough of. I was thrilled that there was an entire trilogy to enjoy, and even more, so that a second trilogy is in the works. I will be talking more about V.E. Schwab as an artist because she is just phenomenal and I am looking forward to reading more of her works this upcoming year!

Black Girls Must Be Magic was somehow better than it's predecessor, how many sequels can say that? But it absolutely felt like catching up with an old friend and I was beyond thrilled for her in this chapter of her life. Healing from the loss of her grandma, Tabi continues to face work struggles and personal problems. But she's been working on rebuilding her support system so she has her besties to confide in and work through those things with, instead of doing it on her own. I am so proud of the growth she's made in this journey, and I can't wait for the third book to come out. I have a few more thoughts about this series here, so enjoy!

I did it, I got through november! Stay tuned, December shall be posted within the next 2 hours!

Yearly Book Count: 23/??

[genderisareligion]

~10 years ago, I was trans. Back then we knew we had a mental illness. We felt our bodies didn’t match our minds. We hoped changing our bodies would give us as much peace as possible, but we knew we couldn’t actually become the sex we wanted. I wished gay men and straight women would want me bc I wished I had a male body, but I knew I didn’t, and wouldn’t have imagined holding it against them. We all felt that way. Now instead of dysphorics, our movement has become overrun w/ antiscience rapists

I've been looking into this long enough to see this shift happen with my own two. It is disappointing that the transsexual/"transmed" community got demonized. Even while I hate gender and think it's a harmful placebo that benefits way less people than it harms, I still have sympathy for some people who believe in it the same way I feel about religious women as I used to be one. I've been struggling with anorexia most of my life and that has come with bouts of dysmorphia which I understand is distinct from dysphoria but similar enough that I know it's not always something that can just be "unbelieved in." It feels very real even if it's not and since the solution is impossible it can take a long time to heal from.

Before 2020 I considered myself a transmed ally and was especially reading/sharing content from FTMs because the only trans person I knew IRL was a transmed FTM (although he didn't call himself that and didn't even know what a TERF was when I asked lol fucking bless I love normies). Then the white supremacist shit happened (pinned post, some other shit a few weeks after that) as well as January 6th 2021 and I became officially disillusioned with all of gender. I still support him from over here because he's normal about his shit and is actually one of these people whose dysphoria and life quality did improve from going stealth but I'm also a staunch believer in "If there were no gender there'd be no dysphoria." (I'm not saying the fact that butch lesbians sometimes have easier lives as passing men is like fucking right or anything, just pointing out the objective fact I witnessed + he told me, that people left him alone more often and he was happier for that at least).

Does wanting gender abolished mean I think physical intervention is always unnecessary? For HRT and even some* reduction surgeries, not necessarily, I think it can depend on the severity (*SRS below the belt is pretty inhumane as it stands now but ethics in the plastic surgery world aren't what they are in the non elective world). I think it should be an absolute last resort and that a lot of people with dysphoria could go without and get some extensive form of therapy instead if our society wasn't so violently capitalistic via medicine, wasn't putting suffering people through an automated surgical assembly line to avoid doing the real work of trauma recovery. Trauma these people received from just like being born into violent capitalism and its sexism which of course the capitalists don't want to acknowledge so they tell you it's about your "gender identity"

Unfortunate trans is becoming synonymous with anti science and rape apologism because there used to be more to it than that

[hesitationss]

the experiences between someone with adhd/autism who prescribe to neurodivergency and ppl w psychosis or personality disorders who are technically also neurodivergent by definition is like as vast as the ocean including with how we are perceived by those who do not know much (and i am hesitant to say "neurotypical" because of what "that" even represents under white cishetero patriarchy and capitalism) as well as those within the "community" there's a reason why when talking to any disabled person they are most often talking about being mad/disabled... as crips and crazies we understand the language we need to use for ourselves... i'm still thinking about QQ's post where they were talking about cases in which someone was receiving psych treatment was diagnosed w BPD and because ppl think it means "bad girl who lies" disorder she was wrongfully taken out of treatment for her ED describing wanting help as dependency or lying. this was sparked, of course, by the not so recent sentiment that many people LIE about their mental illness or are attention seekers. like yeah bitch if people are serially lying or self harming for attention that is literally mental illness dumb fuck. I've literally dealt w terrible people who pissed in my roommates drawer and physically threatened me before who was clearly delusional... like she was evidently mentally ill. mental illness literally is the crazy version of yourself why are people so malicious about that shit learn to set boundaries. if your friend w adhd/autism or whatever is behaving in malicious ways they don't suddenly have a personality disorder. stop pathologizing every negative trait to a PD or psychosis. there's no such thing as "narcissistic abuse" this isn't me gaslighting either... abuse is not a mental illness symptom... i know thought crimes aren't real but try understanding these situations where we have some agency in your mind idk...

it's actually fucking crazy how there are mental disorders where professionals decided sometimes they should have care and sometimes they should not. like the difference between schizophrenic treatment (reject this part of you) and OSDD/DID treatment where you are encouraged to accept your alters and come out of treatment being able to have them all as distinguished people in your symptoms and some insurance man gets to decide which one is allowed to be covered ??? it also begs me to wonder how those in ED treatment due to things like autism and adhd are recovering where if they misbehave they're "difficult" or "irrational" since they would now be in the "mad" category w the rest of us... we live in a very sick system and are so beholden to the psychiatry and the insurance man...

[troglobite]

lasdjfklsdj

stupid fucking rant probably short bc i'm tired and really impatient rn

okay see here's the fucking thing

i have MCAS and EDS and i'm allergic to everything in the known fucking universe

and here i am using these sustainable all-natural hair products that, again, REALLY WORK. THEY WORK REALLY WELL!!!!!

and they were slowly killing me

bumps all down my back from when i rinse it out which FUCK ME definitely means i'm allergic to the fucking conditioner fucking GODDAMNIT

and fevers for fucking 2 weeks

~all natural, sustainable, vegan, clean ingredients~

cool, great

they were actively killing me

meanwhile fucking "chemical-filled" shampoos w not a single "natural" ingredient among them? all good. been good for 15 fucking years.

like this is my problem.

i've been seeing shit (from anti-diet and body lib/fat activist ppl i follow) on instagram abt all this "ultra-processed" food bullshit, abt how they're apparently killing us

WHAT ARE MY OTHER OPTIONS, DUDE!?

you want me to go vegan?!

EVERY ALTERNATIVE IS SOMETHING I'M ALLERGIC TO OR THAT WOULD OTHERWISE DESTROY MY BODY. BELIEVE ME. I'VE TRIED.

you literally don't wanna know what happens when i eat leafy greens too often! AND I STILL EAT THEM! BC MY BODY WANTS A FRUIT OR VEGGIE OR SOMETHING! and even when i give it to my body, it goes "holy fucking shit what the FUCK am i supposed to do with this???"

IDFK MAN YOU FUCKING ASKED TO HAVE IT!!!!!

you want me to go vegetarian? SEE ABOVE!!!!

all of that shit abt finding alternative protein sources--I. AM. FUCKING. ALLERGIC. TO. ALL OF THEM.

i would DIE on a vegan or vegetarian diet!

you want me to go without ANY ultraprocessed food????

OKAY. WHAT'S LEFT? WHAT DO I EAT?

GIVEN I JUST TOLD YOU I'M ALLERGIC TO FUCKING EVERYTHING WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO EAT?!

ultra-processed foods aren't killing us.

the unnecessary and knowingly dangerous specific and useless additives that we still haven't outlawed in the US are what's killing us

actually, it's fucking capitalism and white cishetero supremacy that's killing us, but who am i to say, right? it's definitely people eating fucking french fries.

shut the fuck up die and rot in hell i hate all of you

i swear to FUCKING GOD

if you, after reading this, sincerely tell someone any advice that would personally make me want to kill you on sight, i hope you fucking walk on legos and have something in your eye for the rest of your fucking life. and that's me going easy on you. FUCK YOU.

i'm just so angry.

and what really hurts is in the back of my head i can just hear eugenicist motherfuckers being like

"well if you're allergic to all this stuff and you can't safely survive off of that, maybe you should just die. that's what would've happened without all this stuff."

yeah.

it is.

i would've died in any other era bc of how much my body Cannot Tolerate simply being alive, sometimes.

but people with "better health" than me made all of these "chemicals" and other things to make food shelf stable. to make it have more nutrients. to make it processed and easier to digest. to make it safer in general.

and so i can live.

but now you're telling me i'm not allowed to.

plain and simple that shit is eugenics.

and as i grapple with becoming more and more disabled during a global pandemic that ppl are ignoring bc they're too stupid and shitty to give a single fuck about other people or the well being of LITERALLY ANYONE

i have no patience for it.

it's maddening.

i have TRIED eating more veggies and fruits.

unprocessed, they HURT me. in so many ways.

you want me to eat them?

fine. give me heavy duty antihistamines and several digestive enzyme supplements. i might be able to get something out of eating those foods, then.

oh but you think supplements are evil and bad inherently?

okay then i can't eat any of them without being laid up in bed for 10 hours from horrible nausea, burping, and cramps.

does that sound like HEALTH to you?

i'm so tired.

i had a fucking PA trainee once tell me that frozen veggies aren't as good as fresh

frozen veggies: have a higher chance of being digested by my body and won't go bad so that they can sit there for weeks while i grapple w my daily changing health and well-being

fresh veggies: trigger all of my illness and contamination OCD while being harder for me to cook and digest thus making me feel sick for hours or days at a time and will go bad within a few days so i have a tiny window within which to Feel Normal Enough to try eating them

i'm just fucking TIRED of people telling me what to do with my body

and this all started just because these hair products that i was REALLY EXCITED ABOUT!!! THAT WORK REALLY WELL!!! THAT MADE ME FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF!!!!

i can't use them because i'm fucking allergic.

i can't even have NICE things to feel GOOD about myself. nothing as "simple" as fucking conditioner. i can't have it. i'm not allowed.

and you think i can just change my diet on a fucking whim and make it easy?

THIS SHIT WASN'T EVEN GOING INSIDE MY BODY AND IT GAVE ME TWO WEEKS OF ACTUAL FUCKING FEVERS

my skin has been on and off super sensitive to touch and extremely irritated

there are bumps all up and down my back

i've been getting tiny blood blisters--nothing that irritates/breaks the skin, they're so small anyone else would miss them

i've been woozy and irritable

my pelvis has been hurting in really weird ways

my digestion has been on the fucking fritz--after going back to normal after a long bout of Bullshit that threw me out of whack bc of intense stress and anxiety.

that's what happens when i get fevers.

and that is from shit that wasn't even inside my fucking body.

you think that FOOD is EASIER for me to change and experiment with?

it's just infuriating and i'm tired.

ultra-processed foods exist for a million fucking reasons

our ultra-processed foods are not killing us (but also please for the love of god outlaw the same shit the EU has in the USA i'm so fucking done of finding food dye that is known to hurt us in food that it doesn't need to be in)

capitalism et al. are killing us

but also?

fresh/unprocessed foods are killing me

oh no you want me to eat unprocessed foods?

does dairy count as unprocessed? that seems like A Process to make cheese and yogurt.

how about meat? lunch meat or steaks or chicken. does that work for you? or are you gonna fucking get on your goddamn high horse and morally shame me for literally being unable to survive without eating this stuff?

this is a strawman i'm creating, an amalgamation of REAL shit that i've seen all over the place or encountered/been told personally, to my face.

i'm just tired.

there's no pleasing anybody

and then on top of that

i can't even please myself or be comfortable or happy

and i'm putting off all this medical shit that i have to do because it's TERRIFYING and STRESSFUL and we have OTHER STUFF GOING ON that i'd rather be fucking doing!!!!

but also bc--if i really do have an autoimmune disorder (almost guaranteed), then what. like the only treatment for it is suppressing my immune system as far as i know.

so now, someone w illness and contamination based OCD that makes ALL medical stuff TERRIFYING, has to go through life extremely fucking vulnerable to illness and this is all happening DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC WHERE NOBODY IS BEING FUCKING RESPONSIBLE WITH MASKING?!

i don't want to do this.

i'm angry i'm tired i want to die, honestly. sometimes i just want to give up.

bc even if things aren't bad now, i can see how they'll just get so much worse.

i spiral bc my life is so fucking vacant and empty.

i had new hair products! i felt GOOD about myself and my hair! it was looking amazing! and it was HOLDING SHAPE!!! IT NEVER HAS, BEFORE!!!!

and now i don't get to have that.

stupid beck. you thought you could enjoy life? you thought you could have something simple and nice in your life to feel good about yourself? fuck you.

so why don't i try new things? bc they always end up hurting me or sucking or being taken away by capitalism (discontinued products) or something else.

shit just doesn't work out.

why don't i go and try and date or make friends?

bc why fucking bother.

what is the FUCKING point.

finding ANYONE on the same page as me who i also actually just like as a person who wouldn't hate me on sight? basically impossible.

i'm tired i'm tired i'm tired i'm fucking tired

and then i try and do nice things for my 'friends' in the dnd game i'm running and i make stuff i'm excited abt and i'm just getting. really not very clear at all feedback.

and i'm just.

tired.

i'm tired. what's the fucking point of anything?

[krsonmar]

Another point on this: if a race is a close call, it's so much easier to contest or delegitimize the results. The voter rights/suppression and "elections integrity" bills that have been passed or proposed in the past 20 years all pretty much come back to the 2000 POTUS election. That mess, where the Supreme Court had to get involved, happened because the results were close enough that a couple hundred votes were going to decide who got Florida's electoral votes and they had to do re-counts. If the margin of difference in votes had been greater, it never would have been an issue. If Al Gore had gotten, say, 54 percent of the vote to George W Bush's 46, that would have been indisputable. But Gore was considered boring and personality-less, and swing voters or those on only the slight left of the center weren't "excited" or "inspired" by him...so they stayed home. Which means American politics has unfortunately never been boring or even seemed "low-stakes" since. Boring and uneventful should be the goal, not hanging on for the next four years until we get another chance, if we get one.

Boring and uneventful mean stable, and that means a better ability to push the progress we want to make forward instead of having to desperately defend what we already have from being taken and putting out fires on too many fronts at once. Boring and uneventful means we're not spread thin, we have less activist burnout, more donations per cause because there are fewer battles to be fought, less "compassion fatigue" because the world's not on fire, and extremists aren't emboldened to see what else they can try next.

Close races mean disputed results. Close races mean SCOTUS gets involved. Close races mean people try to attack Congress so the election results can't be certified because people are used to questioning the legitimacy of elections now. Close races mean "we'll get you next election!!😡" every election, "noble lost causes" that dog the political landscape for decades, and more voter disenfranchisement bills and "citizen poll-watchers" with guns at polling places. Close races mean elected leaders can have the legitimacy of their position in office constantly challenged and they have to put energy toward that instead of getting anything done. Close races mean we win the White House but not Congress, so practically speaking, we'll be deadlocked for at least two years and nothing can get done anyway.

Showing up means wider margins. Wider margins hedge our bets and net us political capital for after the election. Wider margins show that yeah, this is the people's mandate and we have the numbers to make x thing happen.

I am not a registered Democrat. I don't love any of the candidates in this race, and if the ones I vote for get elected, I will be making sure, with my calls and e-mails over the next four years, that they keep to what they say right now that they'll do, and if they do something I don't like, they will hear about it then too, because voting is not the only step in the political process. But if they don't get elected, the Trump administration delighted in doing things because they were cruel, because we begged them not to, and that's what I mean by fearing losing my political voice. The Democrats suck but they're more likely to listen. Getting more of them into Congress and state governor and legislature offices makes our work not only infinitely easier but possible in the first place.

It's strategy, y'all. We're playing for the mid-range future here so we don't have to survive minute-to-minute. If we stabilize our position, we can then be in a place to get momentum behind a progressive agenda for the long-run. Set up the pieces into the positions you need them in early in the chess game, and you can sweep the endgame. Play turn-by-turn and you lose.

[olderthannetfic]

Viet anon here, that makes sense! I just think the way some (mostly American) fans seem to approach shows with this sort of grim determination to make sure there’s enough different kinds of people in it is strange and a little disturbing. It’s like you said, it’s like there’s no enjoyment for some people, just an obligation like your job. If you don’t like things don’t force yourself into it, even if it’s “good for you/diverse.” Sorry if this isn’t very clear, I’m very tired. But I completely understand what you’re saying.

--

Yeah. I don't like that energy either. It unintentionally implies that nonwhite characters aren't interesting enough for anyone to like them better than white characters without it being about guilt and duty, which is nonsense.

The real issue underlying a lot of US-flavor discourse is that media treats minorities poorly. Not nonwhite people. Minorities. China is garbage at portraying their ethnic minorities. So is Japan. I presume most countries are. Thai media is about pale, rich ethnic Thais in the capital much of the time, not some highland Akha person or whatever. IDEK who the ethnic minorities in Vietnam are, but I'm sure similar things happen.

In the US, "minority" and "nonwhite" line up more, so that distinction gets elided, and then people are annoyingly shocked at Americans liking Asian media and/or think it's only about colorism and the love of light skin or that white Americans somehow read Asian characters as white.

The reason it's important to understand that this is about minority status is that if US people want to fix our own media, we need to be aware of precisely what it's doing, which goes a lot deeper than just not casting enough people of category X or Y. For example, we often cast quite light-skinned, and even when we have a dark skinned actor, we don't always light them appropriately. It's important to get enough light on the face because those big, pretty 'single perfect tear' woobie shots are how we connect with characters and especially how we see them as vulnerable, delicate, sensitive, etc. We need to see subtle emotions on a character's face.

Most training on how to light presupposes a very light-skinned subject. The racism goes all the way down to basic tutorials and education. It's also quite possible to write and cast a character who sounds fine on paper, but then we stick the actor behind other actors in the scene, we fail to shoot a closeup for them, and we fail to cut to any closeup that does exist at key emotional moments. It's like they almost don't exist in the final product. These filmmaking elements can ruin the audience's interest even when the script is fine.

There are certainly cases where the character was portrayed fine, even in the subtler parts of the filmmaking, and fandom just failed to care, but far more often, the real problems are starting from canon, and fandom is just responding to the unspoken cues. I see way too many hot takes that base an analysis of a character from a writing perspective: They were cool on paper, so why don't you find them cool? But that's not where 99% of impressions come from in film.

We over-emphasize words because they're easier for most of us to analyze because 1. they're inherently verbal and 2. way more of us have been educated about them. The lack of cheap/free and accessible educational resources about the other parts of film is shameful. (And one of my pet rant topics, obviously.)

This is why white US fans who won't look twice at an Asian-American character fall in love with cdramas. It's not about them not finding Asians interesting or hot: it's about how the actual artistic craft that went into the media differed.

It can also be about which types of roles are given to whom. I like the supportive best friend character much more than the hot mess they're supporting. In US media, this means I often like nonwhite characters. But if I preferred the hot mess, as a lot of fandom and humanity in general does, I'd be going for white characters every time, even in casts that are quite diverse. Not so in cdramas where everyone is Asian including all of the character types from pillar of moral rectitude to badtouch villain to doomed little brother to beautiful disaster. (It's no accident I like Wen Ning and also Rico from Miami Vice. It's no accident most people prefer WWX and Sonny.)

Understanding what's going on on a craft level is so important if one wants to analyze how audiences are reacting and why.

[purplehoodiesimon]

YR + my synesthesia cause I'm bored in class right now

Couple notes about my synesthesia—I have very strong grapheme-color and mild sound-color. I also sometimes experience sound-texture sensations. The first letter of a word usually determines the overall color of it, especially if it's a capital letter. People can also influence their names a little, like for example Sam from Spn and Sam from Stargate have the same name but they look slightly different to me because they're different characters. So sometimes I get random colors that aren't in their name because of their personality. Also sadly I won't be color coding this post because none of the Tumblr colors are the right shades.

Simon - Simon is a nice bright yellow with a dark purple undertone. By each letter: S is yellow, I is white, M is purple, O is blue, and N is orange. The second most dominant colors in Simon are white and purple. His voice is also yellow (I love it when names and voices match) and I can't entirely explain how but his singing almost has a sticky quality to it. It's not bad, just interesting.

Wilhelm - Wilhelm is a sort of pale dusty pine green trailing into tan. It's a really nice color. By each letter, W is green, I is white, L is red, H is tan, E is red, L is red, and M is purple. The second most dominant colors in his name are tan and white. His voice is also fairly yellow (Swedish is just a yellow sounding language lol) but it's much paler with some pale orange and pink highlights. Interesting note about Edvin—when he speaks English in interviews, it feels almost blocky.

Felice - Felice is an interesting name, it's sort of dark grayish-blue with these bright purple and reddish-pink highlights. By each letter: F is gray-blue, E is red, L is red, I is white, C is orange, E is red. There's no second most dominant colors for her name because the gray-blue, purple, and red-pink are all spread evenly. Her voice is sort of a golden shade and there's something else in it that I can't really describe.

Sara - Sara is a yellow name, although I would describe the character herself as yellow and pink. By each letter: S is yellow, A is purple, R is green, and A is purple. The second most dominant color would be purple. Her voice is almost stacticky and a duller sort of yellow.

August - August is a pale purple color with some green mixed in and there's some white mixed in. By each letter: A is purple, U is yellow, G is yellow, U is yellow, S is yellow, T is blue. The second most dominant colors are green and yellow. His voice is more greenish white than yellow.

Madison - Madison is a very purple name, with bits of brownish orange. By each letter: M is purple, A is purple, D is brownish, I is white, S is yellow, O is blue, N is orange. The second most dominant colors are brown and orange. Her voice is a very purple-pink color, with some dark blue and she just kinda has neon vibes in general.

Erik - Erik is a red name with bright light at the end. By each letter: E is red, R is green, I is white, K is yellow. The second most dominant color is light (sorta white but not exactly, I can't explain it). He didn't really speak enough for me to have a good grasp of his voice colors, but they seem to like more towards orange in the yellow spectrum.

Those are the main characters but if anyone's curious about other characters (Malin, Linda, Rosh, Ayub, etc) I can do a second post with them!

[whatbigotspost]

Other quick or easy anti-capitalist and anti-cop quick steps to toss into the mix off the top of my head:

Don't buy that silly thing you kinda want but don't need. Whatever it is, just...don't buy it. And keep not buying it.

Join your local mutual aid network and help a neighbor out.

Join your local Buy Nothing Project page and participate in a currency free economy of generosity and reuse.

Of course, support strikers and organizers. Listen to labor leaders about what each striking workforce wants from you. NEVER CROSS PICKET LINES, NEVER SCAB.

Implement a full scale "I don't talk to cops" policy and just. fully. stop. talking. to. any. of. them. ever. in your daily life. Seriously.

Identify if you "fix things" by a) spending money or b) by being creative. For me, it's been too often spending $ that I don't even have. So if you're like me, that means you gotta try to get more creative...

Reuse and repurpose: figure out a way to "solve problems" with the stuff in your house or your friends' houses already. Like, need new storage containers? Repurpose old boxes and craft them to being cuter. Need new reads or clothes? Set up a book or clothes swap w/ friends or other community. Need a gadget to trim a tree? Borrow from a neighbor.

Tell someone who would benefit why criminal defense attorney's aren't slimy by default and in fact, many are actually doing the Lord's work.

Reserve judgement about others and work on distinguishing between "this is a modern convenience that is critical for me to access" vs. "this is a modern convenience which represents me putting $ into the economy that I cannot justify." For example, someone is buying pre cut fruit because they lack the physical ability to wash and process raw foods is REAL DIFFERENT than someone who always pays a premium for Whole Foods delivered groceries because that makes them feel fancy. Buying and drinking exclusively bottled water because "it just tastes better" is way different than buying bottled water because you live in a community w/o access to potable water by tap.

Stop seeing all cops as your helpers (this is usually only a default to my fellow white people.) Lost in public and need directions? At an event and need help? Seek out your fellow average person in the crowd to ask for assistance, not the cops uniformed at the periphery.

Tell someone who would benefit to watch I am a Virgo or another piece of media that may compel them to think differently.

Decant in your kitchen and generally de-logoify your home.

Don't let someone talk shit about other's bodies around you. When they do, draw that straight line for them between beauty culture and late state capitalism.

Do something that brings you immense pleasure but has NO associated costs, at all.

If applicable, disavow yourself from thinking of "second hand" items as "trashy" or whatever other classist nonsense.

We know you want to burn down capitalism.

But for today, just don’t answer your boss’s call off the clock.

[khaleesiofalicante]

Can I ask you a question knowing that your answer isn't a Bastion Of Absolute Truth because everyone is different? This doesn't come from anywhere, but I'm just kinda curious?

So, I know how sometimes white people or people that aren't from a culture in question dress/take part (sometimes appropriately, sometimes not) in xyz and that's seen as cultural appropriation/bad/etc.

But would it really be cultural appropriation if the white person had been raised in the country --alongside its culture-- and then moved to, say, the US but still wanted to keep in touch with the culture they grew up in. Am I crazy or they would still be entitled to saying that xyz's culture is their culture, in spite of them lacking the 'appropriate appearance', because they were raised in the country? Especially in the off chance that they've been adopted by people from that culture in particular (off chance because poc countries tend to be rather homogeneous, and the white people there have a quite wealthy family --I think?).

Idk if I'm making sense, but if you met a white person who'd been raised in Sri Lanka (correct me if I'm wrong, but that's where you're from?) and knew Tamil and felt a strong connection to the culture --would you consider them Tamil/Sri Lankan? Because I often find that physical appearance doesn't play much of a role to determining culture; in a way. I'm from a country that's technically white (in spite of what the American newspapers may say lol), but I've found Chinese people that have lived here for as long as me and are more patriotic and into the culture than me --in my eyes, they are from my country and my culture belongs to them as much as to myself even if their lives are somewhat influenced by them being Chinese.

Thoughts?

(btw, idk if you remember me but I'm the economy-analogy anon; sorry for dumping my difficult questions into you)

Hi!

I love difficult questions, so thanks.

As you mentioned in the very beginning, please remember this is simply MY view. I cannot speak for the overall concept of cultural appropriation or for all cultures.

Because culture is an extremely personal and subjective thing. So what constitutes as appropriation for one culture is not the same for others. It depends on so many factors - including their history with colonialism etc.

So, I will stick to my own culture.

I wouldn't say cultural appropriation is a big thing in Sri Lanka. Our people actually love it when foreigners (mostly white people) dress in our clothes and do local things - a side effect of colonisation if you ask me.

They don't find it offensive. A foreigner who has no idea of our culture can come here and dress up in our clothes and take ownership of it and people wouldn't make a big deal of it. Just that's how things are here.

Note: One of our crucial industries is tourism. So, it's actually encouraged for foreigners to blend in with the local culture and have fun (thanks capitalism!)

However - religious appropriation is frowned upon. Foreigners need to be more mindful of our religious customs than our cultural ones.

For example, it's okay for a white woman to wear our traditional sinahla reddhai hattai (it's pretty!!) but you cannot wear clothes with buddha's face on it and call yourself a buddhist cause that's offensive.

So, that's that.

In addition -

Like you were saying, not everyone looks the same. Here is the thing about Sri Lanka, we are a diverse country. Not all Tamil people look the same. Not all muslims look the same.

We have an ethnicity called 'Burghers'. The burgher community basically consistent of people who descended from Portuguese, Dutch and English people who lived in SL during the colonisation period. So, they look like foreigners (some speak like that too due to class differences) - but they are Sri Lankans. They are local citizens. It is not cultural appropriation when they embrace our culture. our locals do not consider it that way. But to someone from another country, it might look that way.

I think the key here (in general) is to keep oneself informed about the culture they are in. It's not about googling do's and don'ts before you travel to a country like SL. It's about learning about their history and understanding why some things are frowned upon and why it's important to that culture.

Adherence to local cultural practices by foreigners should come from a place of respect, empathy and understanding - not from a place of obligation or fear.

I hope this useful in some way! Thanks for the interesting ask.

[salvidida]

No surprise here, but the internal logics and themes of The Batman runs off of full-tilt pro-capital, pro-state, pro-cop logic, and reeks of white anxiety to boot.

On the latter we have the rather flimsy reveal as to what dark past the Wayne's carried, and no mention of the Gotham's despite being included. The Waynes and the Gothams are the founding families of the city, rich white settler-colonists who magically only did something as nefarious as have an intra-familial murder-suicide, and one family member as a result being sent to an insane asylum, with the murder of a reporter who tried to reveal these details to the public during election season for which Bruce's dad was in the running for. And like. Yeah, that's crooked don't get me wrong, but notice how none of that reflects on Bruce and his parents' ethics as rich white statespeople in the USA. Notice the glaring lack of white supremacy (anti-black and anti-Indigenous, (slavery and genocide) among other forms of racism that are foundational to being a wealthy and powerful enough family to start a fucking settlement all their own) mentioned. As if the landed gentry of America were not prolific slave owners living on stolen land. "There is no system of oppression here, it's only bad apples!" The attempts at reflecting reality, the issues that have gained more attention over the last few years, especially after the anti-cop riots of 2020 caused by decades upon decades of extrajudicial murders of black people by cops, which lasted for almost half the year, only to warp it into "The founding whites are not that bad! They mean well! In fact, no racism here!" AND "Not all cops" damn near states verbatim too! And the camera capturing a range of diversity amongst the fucking pigs both in the police station and when Batman is dragging Falcone out of the Iceberg. Make your police force as diverse in race and gender as you want, they are still protectors of state, capital, and white hegemony. Liberal bullshit.

Yet they give Selena pap lines about "taking down trust fund CEOs" and mentioning white privilege, meanwhile the dude she's talking to is a bourgeois white man who serves to absolve both groups (the wealthy power classes and whiteness as a whole) by showing how they can use their power for good, with the mayor elect Bella Real a useful narrative puppet as a black woman who espouses at the end of the film that people need to rely on politicians and institutions to save them from the city's decimation. (Reformism, electoralism, neither of which can undo white supremacy in a colonised, capitalist empire.)

Plus the fretting narration outro by Batman himself about "Oh no there's going to be looting after the fallout of the Riddler's attack, oh also the power vacuum left by the murdered cops, mafiosos, and politicians :3" as if these are equivocal (the 'violence' of the poor and working classes being somehow on par or worse than the true violence of the power classes because property and capital are sacrosanct). Which stems from progandistic concern over the 'criminal element's (this is inherently loaded, as the state and it's operators decide on what is criminal in order to maintain its control over land, resources, and people) pairs nicely with the early scenes of masked guys attacking a bank, as if they aren't wholly in the right for desecrating one of the core institutions that funds and maintains the exploitation of the people.

Lastly, the way a small, anonymous group of insurrectionists are painted as the True Final Big Evil in the film, spurred on by the corruption and injustice baked into the system that they seek to destroy, is peak propaganda. Somehow the insurrectionists killed more people than the cops, mobs, capitalists, and politicians killed combined! Wow! How convenient! And those awful insurrectionists have the audacity to work together as a community and not remain atomized, disenfranchised cogs to be ground down by the machine of Gotham (coughtheUSA)! But don't worry, a lone vigilante ('good cop without a leash' of sorts) will team up with the municipal and federal pigs to clean the mess up and save the lives of those who remain! Whoopee! Collectivism, anti-cop sentiments, and insurrection bad, as the movie 'subtly' pontificates.

Don't get me started on the useful idiots parroting how the Riddler and his supporters are "violent incel Redditors" and how having the audience jump to that association alongside insurrectionary, anti-state actions makes for useful citizen cops. The very same mental gymnastics required to look at the aforementioned anti-white supremacy riots as "spurred on by fascists, the alt right, and cops" while handwringing about electoralism shifting one violent head of state for another as if that is the """real""" solution to the rotten core of America.

There's so much more I could ramble on about, but it has to be said: yeah, no shit a Hollywood superhero movie is going to be copaganda. It echoes the distaste liberals and conservatives alike had towards the participants of various organizing efforts, riots, and insurrections against racialized imprisonment and murders, cops, interment camps, and pipelines and tells those Concerned Good Citizens that "Yes, you're right, these are the criminal elements we should all be against! Trust the system! Vote! Do nothing to threaten the machinations of the murder machines chugging away behind the thin curtain or else you're just as bad as the machine and its owners!" The same nonsense logic as the trite "If Batman kills the Joker he would be as bad as him".