#Do you think fascism will stop existing in the US?

[bendgineer]

I think one of the reasons the Harris / Walz ticket has so much momentum is because the campaign is genuinely trying to put out this vibe of fun. Like that's all the "brat" thing is, the coconut jokes, just being kind of silly and fun.

And I think it's working, because let's be real, we are all exhausted. It's been all about preserving democracy, defeating fascism, the past eight years. The message has been "vote for us because the country is literally on the line". The vibes are not good when we are stuck back at that fight, and not even discussing trying to make progress on things like housing, healthcare, education, etc. And the fight to just stop fascism? All still true. Project 2025 is real and is extremely scary. We can't let that man back into office.

But the vibe was "vote for us otherwise we're all fucked :(" and now has shifted to "get in, we're making popcorn and then bullying fascists." Like a lot of the issues conservatives bring up, the Harris / Walz is just not engaging them in good faith, as they shouldn't. Republicans bring up abortion, and some of the Dems are just like, "you want 14 year old to give birth? Weirdo" and just leave it at that. Like YES, that's what you should do. Because it SHOULDNT be a debate. And it's working. This is how you defeat the identity politics thing Republicans have been trying to push for a while. Just mocking them for the stupidity of it all. "Like seriously? You think a book can make someone gay??? Hahaha." None of the Republicans are reacting well. They can't stand it. Vance even complained about bullying!!! Like do you KNOW who picked you as vp??? It's actually laughable, because they have no room to stand on when it comes to bullying.

And a huge part of the mocking and dismissing of Republicans is that the message is clear - we are done debating all this stupid stuff. We've won the last two elections' popular vote - most Americans do NOT want christo-facism. It's time to move on. And that's what gives me hope, and the feeling of hope I think a lot of people have picked up on. It's time to address all the issues we've all wished we've been addressing the past decade. It's important we move onto that, and that's the message I'm getting from this campaign (We're not going back). I think it will resonate with a lot of people, because plainly, we're all just sick of this same old news cycle and fake rage bait over things like "should women have rights?", "Should gay people be allowed to exist?" The general populace have answered YES to both these multiple times, and it is time to move on. Maybe I'm being naive, but I am genuinely excited at the idea of putting to bed these debates (it's exhausting trying to fend someone's very existence ) and moving on to actual economic and social policies that could fix a lot of deterioration over the last 2 decades.

[anexperimentallife]

Project 2025 would ban anything the far right considers pornography. The far right considers anything queer-positive to be pornography, and they WILL encode that into law if given just a TINY bit more power.

Have queer fanfic (or trad published literature) or pics of your transition, or of two men kissing, saved to your hard drive? If the GOP get their way, you'd be guilty of possession of pornography. Did you share any of it? You'd be guilty of distribution of pornography. Have a sweet coming of age story with a queer protagonist? That'd be child pornography.

Even now, states are trying to make it a crime to be openly queer in public (by, among other things, classifying dressing as the "wrong gender" anyplace kids might see as a sex crime against children). Oh, and Florida tried (and thankfully failed) to impose the death penalty for the above.

This is just one example of the horrors awaiting us if the project comes to fruition.

And the far right is already screaming that any adult who mentions around kids that queer people exist is "grooming" children. Wear your Pride shirt past a playground? You're now a child groomer. Think they won't put that into law if allowed? You're naive.

The GOP currently controls the Supreme Court (which is how they overturned Roe v. Wade) and has a majority in one branch of congress. Imagine what will happen nationwide with the GOP controlling every branch of government, including supermajoroties in both houses of Congress.

Oh, and top GOP officials have also announced their desire to NUKE Gaza, so don't come at me with, "but I can't vote blue because Biden..." Or tell me how you think Gaza would somehow be better off with Trump and the GOP.

In France, the left and center joined together--even though they disagree vehemently on many issues (get two leftists together and they'll have three positions on any issue)--to stop the far right from totally taking over, because the one thing they ALL agree on is that fascists dictatorships are BAD.

Much the same with the UK finally kicking out their own neo-fascist party, the Torries, to install 400 Labour MPs. Not everyone loves Labour's policies, but virtually everyone with a brain cell recognizes that the Torries are fascists, and that FASCISM BAD.

"Every election, they tell us this is the most important election if our lives!" Yeah, because each election over the past several decades has been more important than the one before, until we are now at a tipping point between remaining a fucked up oligarchy with SOME resemblance to freedom, and an outright neo-fascist military dictatorship.

Trump has literally stated publicly his intent to criminalize dissent, use US armed forces against protesters (Kent State, but multiply it by thousands), purge all agencies and stuff them with those personally loyal to him, and use the DOJ to go after anyone he perceives as a threat to his political power, among other things.

And remember the things he did in office, like pulling the teeth of federal workplace protections for queer folks (which Biden reatored).

I don't care if you don't like Biden or Harris. Neither do I. But the alternative is Trump, and anyone telling you not to vote in 2024, or to vote third party, is rooting for Trump, and for Project 2025. Anyone telling you not to vote does not give one single solitary flying fuck about vulnerable populations in the US or anywhere else in the world.

"You're just being an alarmist!" Right. Like I was being alarmist when I predicted the failed Jan 6 coup attempt. Like I was being alarmist when I said the GOP would try to use control over SCOTUS to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Fucking vote.

[wilwheaton]

Hey man, I could use a few talking points to help convince a friend that Musk is horrible. I'm reading 'Think Again' by Adam Grant (good read btws) and he says to help convince people to come to your viewpoint that it can be good to have 2 or 3 strong points instead of 10 mixed points. The counter argument I get from people about Musk being good is that he did spacex and tesla, and without him we'd be decades behind. Maybe, but I don't have good ammo. Please help as I get too angry tobe critical

Well, listen, the fascism, the transphobia, the chaos, and the unwavering support for autocrats all over the planet really ought to be enough to outweigh anything else, if you ask me. It sounds like you know some people who got excited about the companies he threw money at, and they are having a tough time updating their feelings due to current events. Or maybe they share his values and don't want to admit that.

But I'll try to offer some simple facts.

He did not do engineering with Tesla or SpaceX or even PayPal. He is a fraud. He walked into these existing businesses, where people had done actual work and engineering, threw some of his Apartheid money at them, and took credit for their work. He claims, over and over again, to be a founder of these companies, and that's just straight up a lie that is easily disproved.

He literally did nothing except throw money at people and take credit for their work. Look at every Tesla up to the (chokes back laughter) Cybertruck. Those Teslas look like cars, because they were designed by engineers. Look at the Cybertruck. When you stop laughing at what a joke it is, know this: that's what happens when Elon Musk is in charge. It's like a ten year-old with some crayons drew it on a menu at Denny's.

All of the things his weird fans claim he made possible, are things that would have happened, and were in the process of happening, without him. He literally did nothing to advance the technologies or engineering. In fact, SpaceX whistleblowers have told reporters how they had to keep Musk occupied with bullshit, so they could do the real work without him fucking it up all the time with his incompetence.

But even if he were telling the truth, even if the myth were fact, it would not outweigh the damage, the pain, the chaos, and the suffering he has inflicted on millions and millions of people, all over the world with his lies, his spread of misinformation, and his incitement of angry incels.

Also, don't forget, when Ukraine was trying to defend itself, he turned off Starlink access when they could have decisively ended Russia's aggression. A lot of people have suffered and died as a direct consequence of that action, which he took to support his buddy and fellow autocrat, Vladimir Putin.

That's more information than I think your friends will be willing to hear. Studies indicate that people who are heavily invested in the myth of a person will fight hard to hold onto the myth, and reject truth and facts, because it's so jarring to them. Musk has built a cult of personality, and maybe your friends are stuck to it.

I'd gently encourage your friends to consider one key fact: he has lied about his entire origin story, he has lied about his contributions to Tesla and SpaceX. He lies about everything, except when he posts on Twitter like a 12 year-old edgelord, because that's who he is, emotionally.

Finally, and this is for you, specifically: if your friends insist on supporting a fascist, a racist, a misogynist, or a bigot, because they think rockets are cool, maybe it's time to look for new friends.

I hope this helps.

And fuck Elon Musk.

[traegorn]

Girl you can rant and rave all day but we all know for a fact you can't vote your way out of this mess so your "genuinely, what else can we do?" sounds like pure cucked defeatism. This downward spiral of American fascism has proven stable, so no, voting isn't going to stop it. The democrats will never be pushed left - as proven by blatant history. I know this is your cue to list a bunch of social services or civil rights concessions a la #bidenwins but the drip violence of homophobia and abortion restrictions under republicans does not come close to the bipartisan armed tyranny that murders people in broad daylight.

Voting isn't going to solve any of this, and no voting isn't going to "clear the way" or make it easier to resist. Democrats have proven over and over and over again they will use the full force of violence to stop anything that truly threatens them and the ONLY WAY to stop American fascism is to threaten them, to threaten the very foundations of the system itself.

You exert all this effort, have all this pained frustration, over the weakest political action you can take. You are not challenging fascism or tyranny or helping any of the people harmed under bipartisan violence. You ignore these people and focus on "harm reduction" for the few who do benefit from the pitiful social safety nets democrats eke out only to be undermined in the next four or eight years as republicans INEVITABLY take back power. Such is the case of a two party system, as history proves. You're staving off the inevitable by exerting all this energy into electoralism, and the people you "save" by electing democrats are inevitably hurt anyways when republicans INEVITABLY take back power - because that's what the system guarantees.

You exist in a cycle of abuse with the American government, a punishment-reward system under the 2 parties that keeps you afraid of punishment and too desperate for reward that you ignore how the hand that feeds you is also putting kids in cages and blowing up babies overseas. You, and everyone who thinks like you, will never be the ones to save anybody.

Idk I was pissed and now got all sad again after writing this. Just so you know my being sad at the state of your ideology isn't a representation of my passivity that people like you like to construe - I am painfully politically active. But it's just...sick. You're stuck in an abusive cult and now I just feel bad for you

I'm usually a lot nicer when I reply to folks, but you brought a certain energy that deserves a different response. I want to be clear to any passersby who I'd normally be polite to in this kind of conversation: This energy is reserved only for chucklefucks who bring this kind of shit to me. Please do not take this as a reflection as to how I'd treat people willing to engage honestly and civilly with me. This anon came to me unprovoked, so they're getting a rather unique response.

So here we go.

Oi, shit head. This was the stupidest thing I've read all day.

Democrats 100% have moved left in the last 40 years. Are we still recovering from when they got dragged right by Reagan in the 80s? Yes. But we've made headway getting things back on track. You claim a lot of stuff here, but don't cite a single example. Likely because you just repeat what someone else told you on TikTok that one time. You couldn't find your way through actual theory if it smacked you in the face with its dick. But you don't want me to actually justify it.

Because your own words told me you'd dismiss any evidence I provided:

I know this is your cue to list a bunch of social services or civil rights concessions a la #bidenwins but the drip violence of homophobia and abortion restrictions under republicans does not come close to the bipartisan armed tyranny that murders people in broad daylight.

Bitch, this shit is a sliding scale. Trump authorized more drone strikes than Obama did in eight years. Are they bad? Yes. But if you're telling me you want more murders, Trump's your guy. Guess what, living in America means dealing with the fact that you've been complicit in genocide this whole time. Look at the land you stand on -- it is soaked in blood. Look at the smart phone you're reading this on, it literally came out of a genocide.

You bathe in blood every day, fucking figure it out.

We do our best to minimize harm. And if you'd ACTUALLY read or watched anything I've said, your two half dead braincells would have noticed the part where I constantly say "voting is not the end of your activism." It's the fucking start.

Either Harris or Trump will be the next President. Trump will be worse. If you aren't doing everything you can to stop him, you're not a leftist, you're a grandstanding piece of shit who doesn't care about anything other than the smell of your own farts.

You want to fuck up the two parties? Great. Put in the fucking work -- because the Presidential election ain't it, shithead. Build a real movement from the ground up. Build community, build a party system, run local candidates. When's the last time your ass went to a city council meeting or a school board meeting? Do you even know when they're held where you live?

But let's face it, you couldn't coalition build if you tried because you're so far up your own ass you kiss your small intestine goodnight.

Daddy Revolution ain't coming, shithead. There's work to do, so get your head out of your ass and do it.

You want Trump to win? Netanyahu would kiss you on the lips for it. Fuck off.

[thyfleshc0nsumed]

hey crazy question, since you said there is no evil what would you call hitler evil? trump? mussolini? genghis khan? jeffrey dahmer? jeffrey epstein? KKK members? IDF? and if they're evil then i guess you're telling me child rapists are the only ones that shouldn't be called evil? why is that?

I'm gonna ignore your bad faith misreading of my ideas and your attempt to insinuate I am a child abuser and answer your first question for other ppls sake, cuz I think it is a reasonable thing ppl might be grappling with.

In a word, no.

In a few more words, I think the question fails to properly interrogate what I mean when I refer to evil. 'Evil' is a component of a moral framework, and I feel that moral frameworks are by and large shallow and not very useful in furthering for understandings of the world around us, or very conducive to creating material change, from an individual scale to a societal scale.

The central idea I put forward in that post is that it is not some grand moral badness that enables violence and abuse, but rather systems of power. All of your examples speak to this. You mention the wealthy, political leaders, a state backed by a global superpower, and a group that was comprised of people with systemic power over their victims.

Viewing them merely as "evil" is frankly uncurious and in some ways, cyclical and thought terminating. It begs the question: "they're bad because they're bad because they're bad."

We have NO disagreement in the fact that what those people do or did have produced violence and harm, many on a scale which is difficult to fully comprehend the magnitude of. It is equally difficult to understand even how one could act with such cruelty towards fellow human beings. But just because it is difficult to understand does not mean it is impossible. They didn't do those things because they were born with some kind of evil gene or soul.

They, like you and I, were created by the context of the world around them. If Adolf Hitler died as a child, would Germany have been rid of its antisemitism or have lost its imperial ambitions? Would war have been averted? Certainly not. There were specific, relatively measurable conditions which allowed fascism to flower. If not him, someone else would have helmed that movement.

If Adolf Hitler were born in another place and time, he would not be Adolf Hitler in any meaningful sense. A person is more or less a sum of their environment. People cannot exist outside the context that they do in fact exist in.

And so to then declare someone as 'evil' amounts to saying just about nothing. It's zero sum. If people do harm simply because they are evil, then what can be done? Create a list of them and then systematically exterminate them?

Many people have twisted my words and claimed that what I am saying is that we should expose our bellies and allow bigots to gut us, or that I equivocate violence against oppressors and violence against the oppressed. This is categorically untrue. When violence is brought against you, violent response can be prudent.

But what happens after the relations of power have been altered? When the abuser or oppressor no longer has the power to harm you? Is there reason to harm them besides to punish or sate a desire for revenge? If they no longer have the means to do 'evil,' then what purpose does violence against them serve besides for the sake of our own bloodlust?

You will not see me shed a tear for Israeli settlers killed by opposition forces, or for abusers killed by a victim defending themself because those relations of power are still in place. Settlers can leave, soldiers can dodge the draft, and abusers can stop abusing.

But if they settle, kill, and abuse because they are 'evil,' then what choice did they have to begin with? And what can be done to stop colonialism, state violence, and abuse in the future? Are evil people just going to stop being born?

The framework of evil adds nothing, gives no solutions, and hinders progress by giving us amnesty for not looking at our own relationship to power structures. But a materialist, analytical framework provides us tools to deconstruct those structures and hopefully move beyond them.

[quasi-normalcy]

I know that this is the "Turning social problems into matters of individual virtue" website, but here's one change that you can make to yourself as an individual that I honestly think will have beneficial collective effects:

Stop Thinking You're Better Than Other People.

Do I mean that you should go through life thinking that you're the lowliest and most wretched scum who's ever lived? No. I mean that there exists no meaningful criterion by which one human being can be said to be absolutely 'better' than another. And even if there was, you don't know enough about other people's circumstances and interior thoughts to meaningfully judge them in these absolute terms. So don't even try! It's a futile endeavour.

"But what about fascists? Surely I'm better than them!"

Okay, so let me preface this by saying that fascists are dangerous, they're misguided, their acts and intentions are evil, and they need to be stopped, including through physical violence. But you're not better than them. I know that this is a difficult pill to swallow; I myself used to pat myself used to pat myself on the back because, well, at least I wouldn't have been a Nazi. But you know what? If the circumstances were right, I could have been. We all could have been, just as we all could have joined a cult at some point.

Looking at myself, for example: there was never any serious possibility that I could have been swept up into the alt-right movement. Why? Because I'm transgender, and I was raised to be a socialist. How easy it is to *not* become a fascist when you're one of their scapegoats! How much harder it would be to avoid if you're one of the people they flatter and groom, if you're raised by people who are sympathetic to fascist ideals, if you grow up in a community where such ideals are common! The fact that fascist movements can seemingly emerge amongst every nation and people--including those who have historically been victims of fascism--confirms this. What if I had lived a hundred years later, at a time when transgenderism was a complete non-issue, and they'd moved on to some new scapegoat? What if they had approached me on my absolute worst day and told me that all of my problems were caused by moochers and parasites, and that I could fight back and claim my birth right by joining them? Can I really say that I wouldn't? Can anyone?

But even beyond that, what is a fascist but the ultimate example of someone who needs to feel superior to others? What is scapegoating but the act of selecting an entire group of people and declaring them to be inferior to you? And if you just refuse to believe these things; if you refuse to accept the premise that some people are better than others, and call it out whenever it comes up; then you're cutting these movements off at knees! The ideological force of fascism comes from imagining humanity as a strict hierarchy, with the master race on top and the degenerates on the bottom. Simply refuse to believe in such a hierarchy! Refuse to even entertain it!

"But then how can I feel self-esteem? How can I feel that I matter and have value?"

You have value just by existing as a person! But if that's not enough for you, then try this: instead of trying to increase your sense of self-worth by finding people to feel superior to, increase it by being of value to others. Help them! Make their lives better! Contribute to society! Not even in a way that you can (necessarily) put a dollar value on, but in any way you can! Create art! Plant a pollinator garden! Tell a joke! Make someone happy! If nothing else, you can at least give someone love, and I guarantee you that that will be of value to them. The universe is so vast and we're all so small that any value we can ever have will only ever be to each other. And surely it beats spending your life trying to be king of the microbes.

[corporationsarepeople]

On what to do now

(Shared by Ben Lowe on Bluesky)

A dear friend of mine asked me:

"Ben ... serious question: What the fuck do we do? We ordinary citizens without access to any real levers of power."

I wrote him a lengthy reply which he said he found helpful, so I thought I'd share it.

"Hey friend, it's indeed a dark time. This is fascism which relies on people being frozen with fear, and thinking they are powerless, and thinking they are alone.

One thing I’ve been trying to remind people is there is very little you can do, but that does not mean there is nothing you can do.

The Talmud says that when a wedding procession and a funeral procession come to an intersection at the same time, the funeral must yield to the wedding.

Because above all, we who are alive should celebrate life and being alive, and that we are still here in the world.

So the very first thing you can do is make sure people around you aren’t overwhelmed, that they can breathe, that they have sources of strength, that you find and recognize and allow moments of joy.

The second part is to refuse to be powerless. Look around your community. See the people and institutions that fascism threatens, and take steps to protect them. On a day to day basis, one of the most important ways of defending against what is coming are also some of the most mundane.

Yes, go to rallies and yes make calls and be visible and take actions of direct resistance. That all matters.

But between those moments, if public transit and libraries go unfunded, coordinate to give people rides and volunteer or loan your books. Tutor or pick up trash or perform public music.

Weave the world you refuse to allow to be taken away from you.

And prepare yourself now to help people who will be singled out by malice or neglect. Think about what you can do for them. And meditate on what you will commit to and how much danger you are willing to put yourself in. Will you hide people in your home? Will you stand in front of police?

Will you still speak up if we’re told we’re not allowed to?

These are impossible questions, of course. But we should all ask yourselves in earnest, now, what the person we hope each of us is would do in those situations, and make commitments before those moments come.

Finally, do not allow those around you to believe any of us is alone. Community saves lives. Connection brings hope.

As someone who has spent many years singing with others, I've seen the combination of tone in harmony is only part of the beauty; so much of it is the feeling of shared creation, of being a part of a whole that, once joined, cannot be meaningfully separated into its constituent parts.

Help those who begin to despair understand they are not alone, that you love them and that their existence matters. And do everything you can to prevent the growth of hatred and dehumanization in those around you.

It is so easy to give in to hate, to stop trying to understand the other. Even as resistance may mean bearing witness to true darkness, we cannot stop seeing the humanity in those around us.

This will be hard, but we aren't going to build a better world after this until we're able to do so.

And there will be better things after this. It is on us to lay that groundwork, even now.

And while it's completely unclear today what that will take, the one certainty is that it will require not just hope but faith in humanity to bring that world about.

Faith in other people is an act of defiance, and they can't make you stop if you refuse to.

Sending you love and hope and stubbornness from Brooklyn."

(And I'm sending that to all of you, too.)

Benjamin Lowe

benjaminlowe.bsky.social

[leikeliscomet]

Accidently came across some 100+ note post getting mad at people for saying 'discourses' like ace discourse aren't helpful with the rise in anti queer fascism bc it's 'insensitive persecution fantasies' from white tumblr people. I'm not gonna screenshot or reply directly bc my news years resolution is to try to stop responding to clapped takes and I'm kinda flopping seeing as I'm writing this looool plus anyone whose takes on asexuality begin and end with 'those tumblr queers' and 'ugh WHITE people!!1' has nothing of value to me as a Blackity Black ace lesbian but still it's an interesting (and illogical) mentality I wanna address. The 'are asexuals oppressed?' 'discourse' is kinda useless to me because oppression isn't solely defined by legal terms (medical, social and religious for example), oppressive actions still continue even if certain acts are banned legally (like rape), some oppressions existed before we even had a concept of modern law (like antiblackness and colourism) plus with the faulty logic no white queer person in the west should be using any queer oppression frameworks bc by definition they have their legal rights whilst queer people in the global south don't. But my main point is we shouldn't be waiting around for physical violence to happen towards asexual people to conceptualise an asexual discrimination. In fact we shouldn't wait for any group of marginalised people to experience physical violence to conceptualise their discrimination. It reminded me of the Black Queer Lives Matters posts from 2020 that included Black aces and aros and people were like 'Why do THEY need to be in there they're not being killed!11' Like apart from the fact saying 'I'm asexual' or 'I'm aromantic' isn't gonna stop a cop killing you or stop and searching you, I like to hold the radical opinion that being able to live is the bare minimum of any marginalised group. It shouldn't take Black people dying for you to think our lives matter regardless of our sexualities. It shouldn't take mass murder or rape of asexuals to think being rude about people's sexualities is not good because I hold the second radical opinion that people shouldn't get made fun of for their sexuality and leftists should care about people. Shocking I know. Plus from the way this site was moving about asexual people simply mourning Bianca Devins (not even claiming her asexuality played a role in the murder mind you just literally mourning her) and from the way asexual victims/survivors are treated for speaking on their rapes and assaults I highly doubt anti-asexual people are gonna magically become pro-ace allies. Like anyone who genuinely thinks the law prevents oppression with a few lines and that social, medical and sexual stigma plays 0 role 'cus it's not illegal' isn't worth talking to about this.

And btw Trump doesn't need to 'start rounding up all the asexuals for not believing in love or something' because compulsory sexuality has always been supported and perpetrated by conservatives. Far-right channels like GB News from major TERFs like Kellie Jay Keen, Julie Bindel and Jo Bartosch to self-proclaimed fascist Matt Walsh have made it clear they don't fuck with asexuality (pun untintentional) They aren't gonna start shooting aces on the street or whatever but they're absolutely gonna justify medical stigma against deviant sexualities and perpetrate sexual violence for the sake of compulsory heterosexual sex for reproduction and that's bad. Call it wild but I think we can recognise multiple forms of violence being bad and I think we should do something about the fascism *before* the killing people stage idk. Maybe that's what those annoying ace tumblr queers were getting at.

[a-very-tired-jew]

I’ve posted about this person before, but as a refresher; I have a former friend that I’m keeping on social media to watch their spiral and how far they will go to justify their anti-Israel hatred. This person is an artist and has very anti-Western positions which are staples of this community, and is a self confessed AnCo Tankie and anti-Zionist Jew.

Today, October 1st, they repeatedly posted about the missile attack by Iran on Israel, and each post got more and more unhinged.

The first one I saw was full on denial that Iran was launching missiles at Israel. This was then coupled with them saying all footage of the attack was from the Ukraine and the “Zionists” were failing at their propaganda. Never mind that in the background you could see architecture and environment that clearly placed it in Israel or the Hebrew being spoken.

Their second post several hours later then blamed Israel for Iran’s attack. As if Iran hasn’t been using proxies to attack Israel in the past or this year.

Their third post then went off from the second and said that this attack is actually the US and the UK’s fault for overthrowing the Iranian government in 1953. Now this has some validity as this coup did set the stage for the 1979 rebellion as it undermined the democratic processes and shift in sociopolitical beliefs that had been developing. So of course people rebelled years later. However, Leftists allied with theocratic fascists and naively didn’t believe that they would follow through on the things they said they would do once in power. This same line of thinking it what underscore the current batch of Leftists supporting terrorist groups that would kill them for any one of the beliefs or positions they hold. But yeah, according to this person it’s only the West’s fault that Khomeini is in power.

They then continued with this and likened Zionism to Khomeinism and I had to actually stop and process what I was reading.

An ideology that at its most basic is a Jewish land back movement is equivalent to a religious and political ideology that is essentially theocratic fascism… I earnestly cannot wrap my head around the mental gymnastics it takes to get to that equivalency beyond being so removed from Jewish spaces, community, and culture that you can no longer tell what is what. And considering they can’t tell Hebrew from Ukrainian… well I think that’s the case.

And their last post that I saw then pushed the conspiracy that FEMA is under budgeted because the US government is sending aid to Israel. Anyone pushing this does not understand how our government works and how aid and funds are allotted. Considering this same person does not believe any state should exist and they’re a Bohemian AnCo Tankie anti-Zionist then their grasp of political systems, regulations, and processes is, at best, severely limited.

I’m still processing this tbh. I never thought I’d see a Jewish anti-Zionist justify Iran’s actions… but here we are. I think this goes beyond Bundism into straight up self loathing, which I am reticent in all aspects to label anyone a self-loathing Jew, but this is the worst I’ve seen.

[amrass]

Fandom rant

I don't do one of these too often! But I needed to let off some steam. Things get a bit dark in here, so be warned, though it ends positively? I think? Lol, if you want to see someone work through anger through messy and abstract writing, this can be an example.

Sometimes I get so disillusioned by fandom I wonder why I'm sharing my stories as a hobby. I enjoy writing, but staying in fandom ...

It's the way the insecurity of our time has leaked into people, making it into a competitive space rather than a community, with people screaming over each other with moral posturing, while please like me, please praise me, please look at me hum in the background for anyone with sharpened ears. It's so grating. It exists in me as well, and I want it the fuck out, because it's so destructive for creativity and kindness. There's this distinct feeling of worthlessness that sucks everyone else in it like some sort of demonic soul drain. Lol

I think it's time for me not to stop writing fanfiction, but to stop sharing it, little by little. Make sure it isn't sudden like a knife coming down, but a deliberate and slow withdrawal from fandom. Really slow. I'll finish up a few projects, warn readers - not vengefully but honestly, say kindly farewell and thank readers for the interest, then leave. It's also to make it easier for myself because I'm going to miss the positive experiences a lot. I've met some cool people, with who I hope contact remains. I've gotten so much nice feedback on my fics, I'm incredibly lucky, but even in some comments (the ones that praise my work by putting other fans down) our dark times exist.

This isn't a reaction to any individual problem or person, it's just frustration that the one place I thought freaks could come and gather at (fandom), is so full of the shit from outside, even people who think they're doing good are so full of it. Insecurity (which is just the same as false confidence, which there's also a lot of) is so rampant right now, and seeing as it's a root of so much evil, it's extra tiring seeing this kind of evil in supposed allies.

At least it does put a finger on the points where the left has failed, allowing for the rise of the fascism. One can't escape the language of our time, unless one seeks out material from other times, which few will ever do. Not because of stupidity, but because they don't have time. Plus, with the added threat by AI, which I don't think anyone's going to stop using anytime soon, I feel even more disillusioned. Even if I know my writing skills are decent, artistic skills are likely to grow truly worthless, because the recipients will not have the attention span nor the interest in seeking out challenges. The flattening of culture happens here, too. There's no escape from it.

It's weird doing these kinds of rants, because usually there is an emotional outburst, and then one goes back to doing exactly what one was doing before lol. I am ranting, but I am also trying to cement my decision: to leave, slowly, without anger or bitterness. This is me letting out some of the anger and the bitterness, I suppose.

Some of it is existential, too: due to both personal matters and the rising tensions/prices/hate in the world, I don't think I'll live that long. Again, this is not a threat at all, but just ... ah, it's too personal, I'm sorry, but please don't worry: an early death is just something I have to take into consideration more so than some. It underlines how I need to ask myself if sharing fanfics takes more than it gives. I think I'd rather be actively creating with friends.

I'm reading over this now and realizing that this is honestly a pretty alright metaphor for climate change lol!!! Like, I thought I found a space "away from it all", some sort of oasis, but even in the middle of the desert climate change will prevail. It was silly of me to think of fandom as a space untouched by the outside world, but when I was 12-16 and hung out discussing Teen Titans & Hetalia fanfics and fanart with online friends, it truly felt like that because my home life was so ... different, to say the least. I guess I was chasing that feeling, no doubt warped by nostalgia, and am sad I can't find it again.

Hm. Maybe I should delete this, maybe not. Thanks for reading.

I might need to get out of here little by little. I guess people leave all the time without big fancy blocks of texts like mine, but ah, if some of it resonates, it can be worth it. 🖤

[mellowdisko]

Obsessed with your legion worldbuilding. Chefs kiss. This might be the first of many questions. Do you think there any underground countercultural movements?

Obviously they couldn't be too prominent because the Legion as they exist in New Vegas requires a lot of stability - Literally the strongest argument you are given in game for why they should rule is because they bring the most order and stability of the four factions - but surely, particularly in Flagstaff, there's at least one group of rebellious youths, maybe just enough to count on one hand, that are sharing contraband and blaspheming the name of of their God(s), right?

Like I don't think there'd be something in the scale of, say, the Railroad in Fallout 4, but maybe closer to the Tunnel Snakes (also thinking about this in terms of Queerness in the Legion. Obviously a lot would be unsaid or more likely repressed but queer people don't stop existing because a fascist is in power. We've always been here and we aren't stopping)

i'm glad you're enjoying the legionposting ! AND HOLY SHIT, you can't believe how much I appreciate this ask !!! honestly, I have not thought about any countercultural movements within the legion but you're giving me ideas. it's a very very interesting premise, i would absolutely be delighted to hear your takes on it if you have any :D

i should probably think about this more but heres the things I have in mind rn:

i can say that it's reasonable enough to assume some sort of opposition to the legion would exist. arizona is a huge place with a big population. the small group of counterculturists would be the youth: the soldiers, the workers, those who have grown up under the state’s fascism and are tired of it. they latch onto half-remembered radical philosophies of the old world, smuggled histories of past movements and bastardized versions of dead ideologies. they lack a coherent plan but have righteous anger and a strong desire for change.

and like you said the heart of the underground would be flagstaff, as the capital city is the centre of trade making people much more likely to interact with those coming from west.

the "punks" i have in mind are bigger than an amateur gang, hiding in shadows yet also prone to reckless acts of defiance because most youth-driven movements are. they meet in abandoned ruins of the outer city or at the back rooms of workshops. the underground existing outside flagstaff is mostly in the military, those radical members sneaking out from their posts and holding meetings at night in caverns or storage rooms.

the underground's communication relies on classical means: passwords and coded language. maybe they twist latin phrases from state propaganda into slogans of their own. they use smuggled books from the west and word-of-mouth to spread their ideas. overall, their tactics are naive and unorganised—a small group scribbling anti-state graffiti, distributing handwritten pamphlets, and giving out secret speeches.

they are cool but are they successful?

absolutely not.

the majority of the population is too broken by militarism, too scared or too devout to the state religion. most see stability more preferable to change. some might even betray the movement, leading to crackdowns.

and, the state infiltrates the underground; the frumentarii—they pose as sympathizers, intellectuals wanting to join the movement, passionate young men ready to fight for change *cough vulpes inculta cough* they feed false information, create paranoia, driving the people into desperation. the frumentarii don't just crush the rebels—they take on their mask, live with them eat and sleep in the same barracks, fight alongside the movement for months. and then they manipulate, crack the cause from the inside.

the members who are caught face brutal interrogation, some break under torture and name names, then eventually all get crucified. their bodies are left as warnings at towns square or at the entrance of military camps.

the ones that are still free grow too paranoid, executing their own in fear of spies. as crackdowns increase, the underground fractures. false accusations by the frumentarii fly. people kill each other. the movement tears itself apart.

but maybe, maybe some part of it survives.

[pedrocomicreviews]

Fantastic Four #29

"... God, it's only been a week."

It's my favorite book every month trying to do a kind of awkward allegory, but it wouldn't be comics without some of those!

One World Under Doom tie-ins continue and this time we got the Fantastic Four reacting to living in one world under, well, you're not gonna believe this. Instead of showing us the whole team's reaction to the status quo, we focus this month on Ben and Sue Storm, with special guest She-Hulk trying to navigate exactly what the fuck is going on.

And it's pretty much written while looking out the window. It's very easy to label this as a "Trump-era" or even more generalized "New rise of fascism" work considering the context and the words people are using-- there's a few pages dedicated to a lawyer telling her friends laws are only real when we enforce them, and how if no one stops Doom, it doesn't really matter if he's doing anything against the book. There's also some appeals to how 100% law abidance isn't really the right way either, all of which is a little funny to say to superhero vigilantes who break the law all the time, but that's not really the meat of the book-- that would be the contextualization of vampires (now able to live under the sun) as a persecuted people being used as scapegoats for the sake of political galvanization.

And North writes a great book about it... but I do feel like it runs into the problem where this is a Marvel comic, and vampire have been villain hordes for nearly as long as the company has existed. In fact, they just did try to take over the world, and nearly succeeded. It's a problem of canon that you do not need to worry about to understand the book, but as a sequel to a massive event that just wrapped up and has a big Marvel Rivals synergy season going right now, it feels a bit off with the tone Moon Knight, Avengers and other books that dealt with it had As well as most every book featuring Dracula ever since the 70s.

It's not like it's not an obvious allegory for what's happening right now with immigrants, trans people, anyone who's not white, you name it-- that's all well and good and the message is received loud and clear, but the mechanics are kind of awkward. Every vampire objectively has a problem that stops them from engaging with society on the same level as anyone else, that Reed solves, that had to be solved. Even within Marvel's other awkward allegory groups, it's not every mutant that's going to attack your kid if they get too hungry. You don't see Moon Knight mowing through hordes of Inhumans with nary a thought. There's no established hero who hunts people on the Clan Destine and no one bats an eye. Even benevolent vampires understand and agree that most vampires are video game mooks there for cannon fodder.

Even more than that, the idea that there is any truth to Doom's persecution of vampires, that they are in fact dangerous undead rabid monsters unless given medication, kinda makes the social commentary work a little less than it ought to. Yes, you should not persecute people because they have the potential to harm you-- everyone does, but the context of the book kind of makes it clear that had Sue Storm not been in that random street coming back from brunch with her friends, the vampire problem would still be a problem. That, yes, random tragedy can always stop when random kindness is applied to the equation, but... there's a certain air that this was way too easy, way too fast and way too clean.

Doom did not trick the world into thinking vampires were dangerous; there are several books dedicated to how dangerous vampires are published in the last 6 months. It's a verifiable fact within the Marvel Universe. All Reed proved is that he could have always done something about it, but never had a personal reason to. It seems like it took him less than a day to essentially solve for vampirism, which again, just... I don't know, it could have been handled better.

The book is well-written throughout and obviously the message is loud and clear, but ultimately this feels like another One World Under Doom issue where we're using Doom's new status as a way to tell stories that don't quite get to the heart of the matter, or that feel a little too convoluted to really say what they want to say. But hey, again, that's comics-- as a massive X-Men fan I can confirm this is just how it goes sometimes.

[cupcraft]

I really hate the "we're being censored" propaganda from TERFs and stuff. Like "um because of Woke we can't say pregnant women anymore! These poor women can't be pregnant and a woman".

If i call everyone who is pregnant women...that's not accurate. There are women who are pregnant. There are nonwomen who are pregnant, nonbinary transmen,etc. There are intersex people who are pregnant who may not see themselves as a woman or female in any way. So when we refer to a group of people...it makes sense to be very general...right? Pregnant people...But when we see a woman who is pregnant, it then does make sense to call her a pregnant woman. because she is a woman who is pregnant.

And the fearmongering is that if we allow inclusive language. If we do things that literally make sense, that is to say talk about a diverse groups of things generally and specific things specifically, there is the propaganda that the evil trans people want to erase women. They are the ones who will end womanhood and hurt womanhood. If we cling to this, we will be safe. Because surely it is the fascist patriarchy that respects women and will do so if we let them forgo inclusive language. The reality is, linguistically people use inclusive language all the time. Singular they is commonly used (I found someone's wallet, i should return it to THEM). But when we call attention to the need for it, the respect of it all, it's easy to propagandize it as censorship for things that are reality. Womanhood is erased, womanhood is harmed, by the patriarchy. The patriarchy wants to exist, fascism wants to exist, so they blame inclusivity instead of themselves. Why would they blame themselves, because then women would be radicalized to overthrow the system instead of behave within it.

Because the reality is again people understand the linguistics and use this language naturally, because it makes sense. People also have never been stopped to use the word pregnant women when we are in fact describing pregnant women. But there is very real censorship into identity that isn't being a cis white straight breadwinning, landowning, business owning, voting, man. That includes cis women. The real erasure is erasing our diversity, and this isn't just true with Trump's regime but true with the US as a country historically. Very real violence and laws and policing and imperialism and fascism have been done to erase those that operate as oppressed by the white patriarchy. No real violence is done by describing a diverse group of people generally, and specific people specifically. And if you are a woman who feels as though the word "pregnant people" describing a group erases you, I urge you think who would benefit from you thinking that and if in the end this really benefits you.

Rant over.

[yellowocaballero]

smth from the ncau? whichever one you're most interested in talking about

I want to finish the no chip thing so fucking bad. The fics are so fucking good and I need people to see them. It is definitely going to happen, I just needed a break from it. I think I need a break from writing right now in general. Kinda want a break from a lot of things. Anyway!

A lot of the stories are focused around why good people do bad things. What makes somebody a bad person, and what can make them change. How atrocities happen, why fascism takes root, how it spreads. The methods in which we justify cruelty to ourselves.

Here's a scene from the Rex story that talks about it. There's a lot going on subtextually, but hopefully that subtext is clear. Some of it won't be clear until you read Neyo's story.

Sorry for making all of your faves terrible people. It's, uh, complicated.

Original sin under the cut. It was kind of hard rereading Rex in this scene - he's so painfully naive.

“Lord Vader and I are best friends!”

Ponds scoffed, biting the bottlecap off and spitting it across the room. It hit Bly on the head, which had taken a lot of practice. “Natborns and clones can’t be friends. You sound delusional.”

“But clones can succeed at their missions,” Rex said gleefully. He opened another beer bottle - with his hand, like a normal person - and passed it to Cody without looking. Cody tossed aside his empty beer bottle and began drinking the new one. “And baby, I am killing this one. He told me that he trusts me more than anybody, you know that? Me, Lord Vader’s trusted confidante! Am I good at my job or what?”

“Or what,” Ponds muttered. 

Rex wasn’t entirely certain whose fault the clone bar was, but he wanted to shake their hand all the same. Almost no natborns even knew that it existed. The bar itself was boarded up like a nun’s underwear, and it was sealed tighter than an airlock. No natborns in, no natborns out. No clones in without leaving uproariously drunk. The bartenders were droids who had been programmed to secrecy, serving a permanently open bar. One of the droids could even cook, barely. 

Literally nobody knew the logistics of the thing or who had created it. It was one of the galaxy’s infinite little mysteries. Fox had once off-handedly mentioned that he knew. Then he hadn’t answered any follow-up questions. Then he fell asleep. Sometimes Rex really hated Fox, but only in the way you hated an existential crisis.

The bar area itself was robust, but it was uncouth for officers to get drunk in front of the masses. That was why there were a series of back rooms, similar to the little rooms for that karaoke thing the Mandalorians enjoyed so much. Rex and his honorary batchmates commandeered one and drank themselves into oblivion whenever possible. It was difficult to rope Cody and Fox into joining them, but Rex had blackmail on Cody and Wolffe usually just picked Fox up and dumped him into a speeder. Cody had been uncharacteristically eager to join them today, but Rex knew why. 

“Hey, I think we’re all killing it.” Wolffe kicked his heels up on the table cluttered with five different varieties and twenty different brands of alcohol. “I can’t believe I thought that fooling these morons might be difficult. Prime always made them out to be these telepathic and psychic demons who’ll always be trying to catch us out. But it’s like stealing a bolt from a protocol droid! Couldn’t be easier!”

“Speak for yourself.” Ponds was drinking almost as fast as Cody today - alright, not even almost, but he was trying. He looked haggard - alright, not nearly as haggard as Cody, but he was getting there. “Windu keeps treating me like I’m some puzzle he needs solving. He won’t stop asking questions about stupid shit. Like, how we were made, or why the Kamino don’t legally exist. Who cares!”

“He’s asking too many personal questions, right?” Wolffe said sympathetically. “Mine keeps on asking about my favorite fruit. Couldn’t believe I’d never eaten a fruit before.”

Ponds grunted, thumbing open a bottle. “We have not had a personal conversation so far and I hope we never have them. He’ll never discover that I have a personality. None of his damn business.”

“How are you going to kill him?” Rex asked, interested. “I’ve seen Windu in action. He’s just insane. I didn’t know humans could do what he does. No offense, but are you actually up to do that?”

“Of course I am,” Ponds snapped. But something about his tone made Rex think that he’d been asking himself the same questions. “I have plans in place. It’s thousands of us against one of him. I don’t care how many backflips he can do, one man can’t defeat a battalion of the Emperor’s elite.”

Fox, who had been sitting in the corner staring blankly at the wall, finally blinked. “Emperor’s going to take care of him personally.”

“Thank fuck.”

Wolffe snorted, taking a long swig of his whiskey. “Glad Ponds’ll have help. The Wolfpack won’t need it. You’ll never believe how trusting Koon is, it’s insane. He’s always out there, like, you know -” Wolffe waved an absent hand, summarizing the entirety of Plo Koon in a vague gesture. “Helping and being nice and giving advice and telling us how much we matter. How special we are or how much he cares about us. He’s practically asking for that knife in the back. Boy, it’s gonna feel great when the last thing he sees is me.”

“Why?” Rex asked blankly. 

“Because,” Wolffe said promptly. Then he stopped. Then he took a sip of his beer. Then he coughed. “Because he’s a damn dirty Jedi and I’m honored to kill every single one, alright? It’s not complicated. Fuck you.”

“Literally what did I even do -”

Bly, sitting on the floor with a beer cradled in his lap like a gap-toothed toddler, popped one of the nutty gelatin sweets in his mouth. “Are we talking about our Jedi? That’s cool. Guess what I’ve been doing with my Jedi?”

“We know,” everybody chorused. Even Fox.

Seriously. He had blown up the groupchat. At length. Nonstop. It was fucking horrendous. If Rex never had to hear another word about Aayla Secura again it would be too soon. Ponds was already begging Fox to move up the time table and let him take Secura out now. Save them all from Bly’s incessant fawning.

Rex pointed at Bly, letting the beer slosh in his bottle. “You’re gross. I still can’t believe you’re into that stuff. There’s too many fluids.”

“The fluids are awesome,” Bly boasted. He popped another sweet in his mouth, masticating it with a shit-eating grin on his face. “You guys have got to try this shit out. It’s insane. Better than spice. When you finish you feel like a total god. And she says I’m great at it. Apparently clone stamina is awesome.”

“Shut up shut up shut up,” Ponds said. 

“Why are you even doing it?” Rex asked, fascinated. He opened up another beer bottle and passed it to Cody, who dropped his empty one on the floor. “You are gonna get in such massive trouble when somebody who gives a shit finds out.”

“Uh, fun? There’s literally nothing funner than sex. It’s totally worth it. And it’s advantageous, right?” Bly kicked back against the wall, crossing his hands behind his head and grinning. “I’ll wake up in bed next to her. I’ll get the order. I’ll snap her neck in a second. Like Wolffe said, it’s like stealing a bolt from a protocol droid. So when you think about it, it’s all for the mission. I’m like a super spy.”

Cody glared at Bly, bleary eyed. “So why’s she fucking you then?”

“She’s totally in love with me,” Bly boasted. “She’s head over heels. Like I said: super spy!”

He glanced at Fox, who was still counting ceiling tiles. He quickly looked down at the plate of sweets, popping another one in his mouth. 

“It’s called strategy, Ponds.” Wolffe grabbed a bottle of whiskey, unscrewing it with one thumb. “Stay frosty with Windu all you want. But us forward-thinking guys know that you gotta get close to get access to ‘em. With me and Plo - Koon, Plo Koon, his trust is the greatest weapon I got. So even if it looks like I’m getting close - it’s all a ruse, right?”

Wolffe glanced at Fox. Fox was still avidly counting ceiling tiles. 

“Right,” Bly said quickly. He looked at Fox from the corner of his eye, before looking away. “It’s part of a clone’s job to get close. So we can stab them in the back. Better.”

“Can’t relate.” Rex smugly passed Cody another beer. “Vader and I are actually tight. His trust’s my mission, and I’d never betray somebody as powerful and important as Lord Vader. Cody’s in the same boat.” Rex grinned, elbowing Cody. Who, despite all odds, was not drunk yet. “Eh? You’re really killing your mission for Lord Vader too, aren’t you?”

Cody was too dead inside to acknowledge his existence. Boy, that eyebrow twitch had sure gotten permanent. 

Bly perked up, shooting big bantha eyes at Cody. “Mission? Are you having sex with Qui-Gon Jinn too, Cody?”

“I would rather fucking kill myself -”

Cody’s upcoming rant about how much he detested Qui-Gon fucking Jinn - and, to be fair, the guy was the most insufferable Jedi of all time - the door to the private room thumped open. 

Two clones walked directly inside. The occupants of the room froze. The invaders halted. 

Bacara surveyed the room, judging them all against his gimlet eye. He jerked a thumb at the door. “Out.”

“Why the fuck do we have to get out?” Wolffe screeched. “You’re the one who walked in here!”

Bacara and Neyo glanced at each other. They had one of their absolutely fucking inscrutable microexpression conversations. Then Bacara turned back towards them, sipping his beer. “The other rooms are occupied and we want this one. Git.”

Ponds and Wolffe immediately flipped them off. Rex would have, but he was a bit too scared of both of them to do that. Cody shot them his best unimpressed look, but that was his equivalent of flipping you off. Fox was seemingly asleep.

But Bly just perked up, holding out a beer to Neyo. “Hey, ori’vode, it’s been a while! We invited you to Jango’s remembrance day event, but you missed it!”

“We didn’t want to come,” Neyo said, straight faced. 

“Well, you’re welcome to join us now! We got plenty of booze, and it’s been forever since we’ve all been in the same room!” Bly stopped short. “Wait, why are we all in the same room?”

“Because there’s that giant-ass conference we’re having about the deployment of the new batch of clones,” Cody said flatly. “All of the officers and top generals not currently stationed on a planet were recalled to Coruscant so we can distribute the new forces.” Everybody stared at him. “Do none of you read a fucking briefing?”

“Only if you write them,” Wolffe said.

“As if you read Fox’s briefings.”

“He gets Stone to write those.”

Bacara sneered down at them, undoubtedly intending to press the ‘everybody get out just because I walked in’ matter. He totally would. Worst part was, they all had so much leftover terror of Bacara that they probably would evacuate. They would just go find a different private room and kick out the officers in there, who were undoubtedly lower ranked than them. Then those officers would find another room and etc. Eventually the lowest ranked officers would be SOL. This was the function of clone society. 

But Neyo just squinted at everybody, and then at the large plate of whimsically ordered sweets on the table. He walked over, grabbed a fistful of their food, dropped himself on the couch, and started eating it. It was immediately understood by everybody that Neyo would leave once he had eaten all of their sweets. Bacara, who was unbelievably indulgent of every single whim Neyo ever had in his entire life, sighed and sat down on the arm of the couch next to him. He held out a hand. Ponds hurriedly put a glass of whiskey in it. 

“You kids blow your missions yet?” Bacara asked. Everybody made faces. “You all got stupid important Jedis and jobs, right? Typical. I can’t believe you runts control most of the GAR.”

Wow, Rex did not miss how incredibly condescending Bacara was. He really thought he was as good as an Alpha, just because he had been trained personally by Alpha-17 and was probably the most insane badass in the entire army. Alpha-17 beat him out on kill factor but Bacara always won on bloodlust. 

Bacara and Neyo were the only survivors of Batch 1. The Alphas had been prototypes, but Batch 1 had been pilot tests: a much smaller group than the standard model Batch 2s. Batch 2s were still being manufactured, but apparently they were working on the next physiological model for the Batch 3s. Smaller decanting groups of five-to-six clones were still called batchmates, and they tended to be closer than the rest. Cody’s batch had apparently been decanted from entirely different batchmate groups, all among the very first decanted out of Batch 2, but they had been slotted into the command track so young that they just called each other batchmates. 

Most of the Batch 1s had been on Geonosis or the very early fights. Which had all been catastrophic losses. Nobody had known what they were doing. Apparently a ton hadn’t even survived Kamino. Rex once heard off-handedly that the Batch 2s had been made to be much more mentally resilient than the Batch 1s. Which tracked. They had probably all been too unstable to live. 

“I’m the right hand man of Lord Vader,” Rex said quickly. “The Emperor -”

“Shut it, don’t care.” Bacara relaxed in his seat, kicking his heels up on the low table and scattering empty beer bottles. “This entire army’s an embarrassment. What are we, fifteen months since Geonosis? Not even halfway in? And the discipline of the men’s gone to shit. Can you believe I heard some shinies talking to each other about their Jedi was cool?”

“Ugh,” Ponds said, picking at his thumbnail. “Shinies, am I right?”

“We’ve had three deserters in the last three months.” Bacara was working himself up into a rant, anger steadily growing. Fox blinked. “Three! There should be zero deserters! We weren’t built to abandon our posts. Some of the men are out there getting cold feet. Because their Jedi are nice.”

“Maybe they’re just surprised.” Cody strained to take another beer from Rex’s regretful forbidding grasp. He was doing it for Cody’s own good. “A Jedi’s the first nice natborn most of us have ever met.”

“Nice is weakness,” Bacara said. Everybody around him fervently nodded. “Kindness, compassion, charity - they’re words of the weak meant to justify being weak. They celebrate weakness. A real Mandalorian would want to strangle the nice on sight. Not feel sorry for them.”

“Lord Vader’s tough, a real strong leader,” Rex eagerly jumped in. “The Empire’s going to be as tough and fair as him one day, right?”

Bacara pointed sternly at him. “He’ll only be as strong as his clone commander. Don’t embarrass us by showing weak manda.” Rex nodded, fighting the urge to salute. “This room’s a bit more competent than the rest of the foot soldiers out there. You all know better than to buy into their nicey-nice crap, right?”

“Oh yeah,” Wolffe said immediately, “I’m gonna use Koon’s weakness against him.”

“I better get an award when I kill Windu,” Ponds added, a little loudly. “He’s the worst out of all of them. I’m just pissed I’m not allowed to kill him yet.”

“Secura’s never gonna see me coming,” Bly swore. “It’s all for the sake of the Empire, right?”

“That’s right. It’s for the sake of a government that will let us do what we want.” Bacara tipped his beer into his mouth, snickering. “I’ve been fantasizing about it lately. How great it’s going to feel when I wrap my hands around Ki Adi Mundi’s neck and squeeze. He’s just so annoying and pretentious and nice. Vermin, all of them. It’s gonna feel good to clean this galaxy up a bit and take out the trash.” 

Neyo popped another piece of candy into his mouth, bored. “The officers need to be good examples for the men. Our weakness is the Empire’s weakness. You should all be monitoring your men to make sure that they aren’t acting seditious.”

“It’s about discipline,” Bacara complained. “Jango never would have let any of this happen. Jango was more passionate about exterminating Jedi than anybody. After the work he put into us, the slightest ounce of mercy would shame him.”

Everybody nodded. Everybody wanted to nod the most. Nobody wanted to be seen nodding the least. Nobody had a very strong idea of what would happen to the person in the room who cared the least about taking out the trash, but they were all certain that they didn’t want to be the guy. 

The only ones who stayed silent were Fox and Cody. Bacara’s eyes skipped over Fox - what were you going to do, ask Fox if he was being loyal? Literally Fox? - and landed on Cody. He took another long drink from the glass, pointing it at him. “What about you, Kote? Weren’t you given an assignment to be a caretaker for the young lord?”

Wolffe pounced on the topic change. “Yeah, Codes, how’s the babysitting going?”

Cody pointed at the five beer bottles on the ground. Cody, obviously, wanted to fucking kill himself.

Bly made a sympathetic face. “It can’t be that bad, can it? Quinlan’s spunky, but he’s always trying hard to impress me. It’s - annoying.”

“It’s a very prestigious job,” Rex informed the room. “The young lord is going to be one of the most pivotal players in the Empire. He’s only thirteen now, but the Emperor’s already thinking of him as a potential future apprentice. The Emperor decided that Cody would be the best influence on him.” Rex elbowed Cody, grinning. “And he needs the good influence, right?”

Bacara raised an eyebrow, downing the whiskey like water. “I’m not surprised that Kote was asked to do it. You always acted like every snot-nosed brat in Kamino was your job. You were adopting pathetic life forms all over the place.” He pointed at Rex. “Like that one.”

“You are unnecessarily mean -”

“Cody always said that somebody had to look out for ‘em.” Bly tried to nab a sweet from the plate. Neyo slapped his hand away. Bly sulkily retreated. “‘Cause nobody but a clone would ever look out for a clone, right? Cody always used to say that.” Bacara gave Cody an unimpressed but amused look. “Oh, right, ori’vod said that first.”

“Guess the Emperor figured that they had the best babysitter in the GAR right there,” Wolffe joked. Hopefully. Rex couldn’t decide if clones were wasted as babysitters or if they would make the best babysitters ever. Both, maybe? “Can’t be that hard a job, though. Monk babies are probably perfectly behaved all the time. Right?” Cody popped open another beer, dead-eyed. “...right?”

Slowly, excruciatingly, Cody said, “He is the worst child I have met in my life.”

Rex patted his back sympathetically. “He’s not that bad. He’s pretty fun, actually.”

“You say that,” Cody gritted out through clenched teeth, “because you are not in charge of keeping him alive.”

“Yeah, his death wish is what makes him fun.”

Shockingly, Neyo stopped his ruthless plundering of their food long enough to chime in. “What’s a thirteen year old doing with a death wish?”

“Yeah,” Wolffe said, “thought Neyo-ori’vod had cornered the market on thirteen year olds with death wishes.” Bacara threw a bottle at his head, and he only narrowly dodged. “Hey, watch -”

“Being in charge of the young lord’s safekeeping is a great honor.” Cody said the words with such incredible emphasis, as if he was trying to carve them into his own body. “He will be an incredible asset to the Empire and it is my duty to prepare him as a future Sith apprentice. I would…never complain…about my sacred duty to the Empire.”

“Ow,” Bly said. “That bad?”

“Much worse,” Rex confirmed. 

Bly’s sympathy was the last straw. Cody groaned into his hands, and Rex could almost hear the release valve popping. “He has decided that it is his life’s goal to discover every single secret a clone could conceivably keep. He has stopped at nothing to achieve this. He is in the vents. He is in the supply closets. He is underneath the beds. He is in the fucking trash compactor.”

“Like the trash?” Ponds asked blankly. 

“He has decided it’s his job as padawan to impress his teachers into actually teaching him.” The entire room had been trained by Jango Fett, so they all nodded as if this was obvious. “His ridiculously negligent teachers, who think it is funny to let a thirteen year old boy vanguard every attack, throw him at the largest enemies on the field, lead every attack squadron, fly a starfighter -”

“Vader says it’s very normal for children to fly starfighters,” Rex said, affronted. 

“The most reckless battalion in the GAR has found the single most eager to please child in the Jedi Temple. He will do anything for their approval. So he is out-performing Anakin Skywalker on reckless stunts.” Cody gave Rex a glare as dark as night. “And somebody is encouraging every single one.”

“I’m the fun one,” Rex informed the room. “Part of the mission.”

“Anakin Skywalker can do all of the reckless stunts he wants,” Cody snarled, and almost the entire room quailed. “He is the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. This mildly talented thirteen year old is as fragile as flimsi and is attempting stunts twice as dangerous. And Skywalker is encouraging and cheering him on every single time.”

“And the vent thing,” Bly added helpfully. 

“And the vent thing.” Cody popped open another beer, potentially in self-defense. “I want to tie him to a chair. I want to lock him in a room. I have an army to run, the most annoying Jedi in the galaxy to manage, Darth Vader calling me ‘no fun’ every other day, and Rex to worry about. I do not have the time or the energy to stop a child desperate for attention from flinging himself down an elevator shaft.”

Neyo abruptly stood up. The motion was sudden and strange, although it shouldn’t have been. The treats tray was cleared, and there was nothing left in the room that interested him. “My fists itch. Let’s go find a fight, Back.”

“Oh, hell yeah, been a minute since I got some energy out. Planetside’s boring.” Bacara stood up, carelessly dropping the glass on the ground and letting it shatter. The dregs of booze dripped from the sharp corners and stained the tile. “Go ahead, I’ll catch up in a second.”

“We can’t pay you two for bounty hunting,” Fox said, raising a thousand questions. Neyo adopted a considering look. “I don’t care what you do, just don’t make it my problem.”

“We clean up our own messes,” Neyo said. 

He nodded at Bacara and left. Every eye in the room swiveled on Bacara, who casually sipped his beer and waited ten precise seconds. Then fifteen. 

Finally, he stood up too. He walked towards the door, but he stopped in front of Cody first. Cody looked up at him, a little leery, as Bacara sat down on the table in front of him. Rex evacuated the vicinity, leaving Cody to his fate. It had been nice knowing him while he lasted. 

“You’re a little asshole, you know that?”

Cody made a face. “I’m sorry, are we six -”

“No, you listen to me. Pay real good fucking attention.” Bacara constantly sounded like he wanted to kill you. He didn’t sound like he wanted to kill Cody any more than usual. But something in his tone made Cody sit up anyway, and made the rest of the room hold their breaths. “Your duty is to take care of that kid, and you are half-assing it.” 

Rex puffed himself up, leaning forward. “Hey, nobody out there’s more dedicated than Cody -”

Bacara put a hand on his head, shoving him away. “Did the Emperor tell you to keep the kid alive, Kote? Or did he tell you to be his caretaker?”

Insanely, Fox yawned and weighed in, betraying them all. “Caretaker.”

“Taking care of a child is more than keeping them alive. It’s more than mopping up after somebody else’s messes. It is protecting that child. If you don’t protect that child, then the galaxy is going to eat him alive and rip him to shreds.”

“I am doing the best I can,” Cody protested, a little weakly. “He’s the one who keeps on throwing himself in danger just because he wants attention.”

 “You’re sitting here whining and bitching and complaining because a kid who is not being protected is in danger. And whose fault is that, huh?” Bacara leaned in, and Cody finally quieted. “He’s not getting approval or attention, whose fault is that? Do you really think it’s normal for a kid not to care if he lives or dies? You need to step up. The fact that you’re whining about this at all is a failure.”

“Why am I the one who has to manage his entire life?” Cody snapped, heedless of Bacara’s dangerous look. “Why am I the one who has to change and not the natborns? Shouldn’t they be looking after their own damn kid?”

“That’s exactly what you don’t want,” Bacara said shortly. “You can’t wait for the natborns to get involved. Fuck, stop ‘em from getting involved. You know why? Because natborns are evil, nasty, selfish, lazy, and weak. Do you know what they do to kids who aren’t protected, who nobody cares about? ‘Cause Neyo and I do.”

The awkward reality of Neyo settled over the room like a charge of electricity. Nobody looked at each other. Cody looked a little shaken. It was the first time Rex had seen him shaken in a very long time. 

“Jedi are vermin. You think the natborns we grew up with are bad? Those are the good guys. And after everything those cunts did to us, what they did to fucking - because they could get away with it. You think the Jedi wouldn’t do the same to a kid who nobody gives a shit about?”

“I’m just a clone,” Cody said, well and thoroughly rattled by Bacara’s words. Or maybe just the look in Bacara’s eyes. He could get wild sometimes. “I can give as much of a shit as I want, the rest of the galaxy isn’t going to care. My power is extremely limited. What am I supposed to do to protect him?”

“Stop making excuses and start taking some damn action.” Bacara stood up from the table, sneering down at Cody. Cody stiffened, clearly fighting the urge to lean back. “Fight dirty if you have to. Get underhanded. It’ll be you against the filthy vermin, so do whatever it takes. Got it?” 

Cody nodded fervently, eyes wide. “Got it.” 

“Good. When you see Neyo again, don’t disappoint him.”

With that parting remark - betraying the reason why he had said anything at all - Bacara left the room, slamming the door behind him. Rex and his batchmates were left sitting in silence, stewing in the cold shock of Bacara and Neyo’s vicious reality. Cody looked a little traumatized.

Most of the time, Rex considered a day three weeks after that point as where it began: the day Cody gathered the 501st and 212th and, frazzled beyond belief, told them that they would be educating the young lord in Mandalorian values and culture for the mission. Nobody had understood, but Cody’s increasingly specific instructions had been too much fun to complain about. 

But sometimes Rex thought that this was where it had started: the back of a bar, sagging with drunk men and alcohol, brought still and awkward by an unwelcome reminder of the weighty reality nobody liked talking about. The horrified look on Cody’s face as Bacara broke a terrifying image over his head. 

Maybe it was just all Bacara’s fault. 

But what kind of dick would say that?

[lacewise]

The same time the Brits caused the chaos that happened in 1948, the rest of the Middle East saw as an opportunity to expel their Jewish populations to Israel (to oversimplify, think about the reservations in Canada and the US—that’s how they envisioned Israel and how they expelled Jewish people while seizing all their belongings. A huge part of the reason many Middle Eastern countries are mad is Israel thrived anyway.)

Poland got rid of their Jewish population by literally committing the Holocaust

When you say, “Israel shouldn’t exist” or “Jewish people need to go back to Poland” what I hear is “we can have world peace if all Jewish people die” which is straight out of the “Protocols of Elders of Zion” (think “Birth of a Nation”) and “Mein Kampf”—this is also where ideas about Jewish people or a theoretical state of Israel wanting to “take over” the Middle East come from (they don’t, and you guys are ignoring actual Middle Eastern colonial empires engaged in society-wide human trafficking to scapegoat Jewish people. It’s weird, and I’m sure the victims find your callous disregard creepy, because they’ve actively said so—they would not feel safe in a room alone with you. Consider why that is.)

I have no idea if you guys realize you sound exactly like Adolf Hitler (who was inspired by “Protocols of Elders of Zion”) or Donald Trump (who kept “Mein Kampf” on his bedside table for years)

I’m frankly scared to ask

You cannot discuss Nakba without also discussing expulsions of Jewish people from both Europe and the Middle East—it’s disingenuous and I will not only assume you also support the Trail of Tears, I will tell other people you support the Trail of Tears

Think long and hard about if that’s something you want to be associated with, because I promise you, if other people look it up, they will see the similarities—they’re glaring—and they’ll also probably start asking questions like “why are you downplaying the Holocaust? Isn’t that Holocaust denialism?” (The answer is yes, by the way)

Depending on what else you say, I may also assume you support the enslavement of Black people by the tribes

Argue with your mirror, not with me

Regardless of what you know, some of the most prominent voices on antisemitic Tumblr and TikTok have almost certainly read “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and have been promoting hateful and baseless conspiracy theories found there, and either you haven’t noticed or you agree.

One of the main organizers is implicitly pro-other genocides and constantly spreads barely concealed hatred and bad paraphrases of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as threats directed at specific Jewish people and organizations. I have no idea how you all missed that, but I’ve always found people filled with gleeful hatred are easily distracted from both the particulars and the main facts

And you know what they say about Nazis—if one Nazi is welcome to a seat at your table, it’s a table of Nazis

The Nazism is not misguided. The calls for the death of every living Jewish person are not accidental. The flags calling for genocide did not appear out of overzealousness. It’s the point. Nazism, theocracy, fascism, and eugenics do not value mercy, and they will not give any to you, no matter how much you beg them. If you don’t quickly find your way out, you’ll find yourself dragged down, the rest of your actions discarded as tainted, and your names inscribed in the history books next to the rest of them. Decide if you want to be the shame of your families and cultures for decades to come.

May the memories of all those lost be a blessing, and may we find a way to stop repeating the mistakes of the past.

—signed a non-Jewish woman who knows how to read. You should really try it sometime.

Find a way to deradicalize yourselves.

P.S. In my offline research, I’ve found that in almost every subject, the popular information going around online is not just misinformed, but counterfactual. Especially on social media, it is the exact opposite of what every respected expert and researcher says. It’s often exact opposite of what primary sources say. If you’re getting a lot of your information from the internet, then the first thing you need to do is find offline sources. I didn’t have the information literacy to recognize how terrible the situation actually is before I started, and chances are, you don’t either. I would also recommend talking to people who spend time offline and getting some hobbies.

[brazenautomaton]

I should come up with a name for this because I think it's the unifying thread I see between communism, and fascism, and censorship / anti-shippers, and homophobia, and a bunch of other shit. some theory that seeks to unify all that really should have an elegant name, shouldn't it? but it doesn't

rambly

I've said that it's impossible to deplatform fascism or communism because their ideas are so fucking childishly simple they can be independently re-derived by anyone who is upset at the world. "I'm upset. This is the fault of someone, who hates me and did it on purpose. Oh, I hate that guy so much. He does all the bad things, and if I kill him, there will be no more bad things." and that's why nobody's able to give a coherent definition of fascism, because you can't peg "emotional immaturity and righteous ignorance" to any specific teaching, you can't keep the concept of being emotionally immature and blaming others secret.

but despite the basis of these ideologies being so simple they don't need language, communism and fascism didn't exist until after the industrial revolution. what i think happened is, there's a personality trait people have that can expand immensely, that wasn't able to expand until the railroad and telegraph shrunk the world.

and that thing I wish I had a good name for is "the belief or assumption that a person's immediate environment includes everything they're aware of."

I think it's a thing people noticed but haven't identified as the causative factor, they just use it as an insult. but people want to be in control of their environment. they want things they don't like to not be there. the ability to control and affect our immediate environment is the basic definition of agency. if it's your house, it's your rules. that's reasonable!

but with the antis, and the homophobes, and the commies, and the fascists, they clearly behave as though their "house" encompasses everything that they are aware of.

the easiest example is the early 2000s homophobia where the refrain was "do what you want in private but don't get in my face about it," used to justify fucking with people who were in nobody's face. back then we all said "that's an agentically laid lie to justify their real opinion!" and guess what with an uncoordinated group of people it's never an agentically concocted lie. they did act only to get the gays out of their faces, but their "faces" encompassed everything they know about. gay dudes are gross, gross things make them upset, the only way to not be upset is to know there's no gay dudes being gross everywhere! and this mindset is something that only happened with the telegraph because before that, the area of your awareness wasn't that big! (the exception is probably Muslims in the Holy Land)

communism and fascism are both the assumption that everything you're aware of is right in your face, it's simple, it can and should be given to you to just Do Right. you can't have this idea that you have figured out everything wrong with the world until the area of your perception is big enough that you can think you're seeing the world. once your zone of perception is wide enough you instantly believe that all of it is directly your business, everything that upsets you is happening right in your face and you have to use your personal agency to control your environment by making the upsetting things go away.

this is why antis act the way they do. it's not an agentically crafted lie to get power. their behavior is compulsive like all political behavior is compulsive. the idea that someone is Doing A Bigotry somewhere makes them very upset, and it's right in their faces, and they want to make the upsetting thing go away, and the only way to do that is to take control of anywhere the upsetting thing might happen and make it not happen. the only way they know how to do this invariably destroys everything they touch but they cannot stop themselves, they have to take control of every environment so they won't be upset by the thought of people doing bad things. the communists have to take control of all economic activity so they won't be upset by the thought of someone getting rich. the fascists have to take control of every life so they won't be upset by the thought of someone not bowing to their supremacy. this mindset cannot conclude something is none of your business, because if you're aware of it, it's your business.