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phoenixyfriend · 7 months ago

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Can you explain the Iran-Israel situation please?

Alright, let's get to it. Please note that I'm writing this on mobile during my lunch break, so I can't include reference/source links as much as I'd like. Thankfully, most of what I'm going to be telling you should be easily located by searching for an article on one of the following: APNews, Reuters, BBC Global News Podcast, Democracy Now!, NPR, or The New York Times. Long-term background is probably best found in videos by the YouTube channels Real Life Lore or tldr global news, or on Wikipedia if you prefer text.

The short version: Israel attacked Iran's consulate in Syria to get at some of the military commanders that were there, which is legally equivalent to attacking Iran itself. Iran responded by sending about 300 bombs at Israel, most of which were shot down in transit. Given that they still called it a success, even though it seems only one person was even hurt, my understanding is that it's very likely that they only intended the rockets to be a show of force, rather than an actual escalation, because Iran can't afford a war right now.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post OR this post.

The long version:

Okay, let's start with some background on Israel, then Iran. This is... a lot, so if you already know the broad strokes skip down to 2023.

Israel was established following WWII by the English and French, following borders the two countries had secretly drawn up decades earlier in the Sykes-Picot agreement. The intent was to give the Jewish people a place to go... or, depending on who you ask, a place to send them. Their ancestral homeland was viewed as the best choice, sort of like a deportation millennia after a diaspora. Given that WWII had just ended by the time Sykes-Picot was actually put into effect, 'getting out of Europe' was something a lot of Jews were given to agree with.

The Arab world was not happy, as that land had belonged to the Ottomans for centuries, and had long since 'naturalized' to being Arab. I'm not going to pretend to know the nuances to when people do or do not consider Palestine to have been its own nation; it was an Ottoman state until WWI, at which point it came under British control for just under three decades, and that period is known as the British Mandate of Palestine; it ended after WWII, with the creation of Israel. Palestine's land and people have sort of just been punted around from one colonizer to another for centuries.

Iran is the current form of what was once Persia. They were an empire for a very long time, and were a unitary monarchy up until the early 20th century; in 1925, Iran elected a Prime Minister who was then declared the monarch. The following several decades had Iran's monarchy slowly weakened, and occasionally beset by foreign interventions, including a covert coup by the US and UK in 1953. The country also became more corrupt throughout the 1970s due to economic policy failing to control inflation in the face of rising oil prices.

In 1979, there was a revolution that overthrew the monarchy and the elected government, replacing the system with a theocracy and declaring Iran to be an Islamic Republic, with the head of state being a religious authority, rather than an elected one. This was not popular with... most countries. 1980 saw the closure of all universities (reopened in 1983 with government-approved curriculums), as well as the taking of over fifty American hostages from the US Embassy in Iran. You may have heard about that in the context of Ronald Reagan encouraging Iran to keep the hostages until the end of Carter's term in order to force the election.

So, the West didn't like having an Islamic state because it claims to like democracy, and also because the Islamic state was explicitly anti-American and this has some Bad Effects on oil prices. The Soviets didn't like having an Islamic State because a theocracy goes directly against a lot of communist values (or at least the values they claim to have), and weakened any influence their supposedly secular union could have on Iran and the wider middle east. The other countries in the Arab world, many of them still monarchies, didn't like the Islamic republic because if the revolution spread, then it was possible their monarchies would be overthrown as well.

(Except Oman, which is not worried, but that's the exception, not the rule.)

This is not a baseless worry, because Iran has stated that this is its goal for the Arab world. Overthrow the monarchies, overthrow the elected governments, Islamic Rule for everyone. That is the purpose of its proxies, like Hezbollah (Lebanon), the Houthis (Yemen), and Hamas (Palestine), along with less well-known groups like the Salafi Jihadists in Mali, who are formally under the umbrella of al-Quaeda, which Iran denies having any relation to but is suspected of funding. In areas where these proxy groups have gained power, they are liable to enact hard Shari'a law such as has happened in Northern Mali and other parts of the Sahel region.

While other conflicts have occurred in these countries, I think the above is most relevant.

Israel has repeatedly attacked, or been attacked by, other nations in the middle east, as they are viewed as having taken over land that is not theirs, and as being a puppet of the US government. The biggest conflicts have been 1947-1948, 1968/1973, and 2014.

And then, of course, 2023.

Now, Iran, more than any other nation in the Middle East, hates Israel. They have for a very long time, viewing them as an affront to the goal of spreading Islam across the whole of the middle east, and as being a front and a staging ground for the United States and other Western powers. Two common refrains in the slogans of Iran and its proxies are "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Due to Iran's military power and virulence towards Israel, the United States has been funneling money to Israel for decades. It has more generally been to defend itself against the Arab world at large, but it has narrowed over the decades to being about Iran and its proxies as relations have normalized with other nations like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Cue October 7th, 2023. Hamas invades Israeli towns, kills some people, and takes others as hostage. Israel retaliates, and the conflict ramps up into what is by now tens of thousands of dead, some half of which are children.

In this time, Hamas's allies are, by definition, Iran and the other proxy forces. Hezbollah, being in Lebanon, share a border with Israel's north. They have been trading rocket fire across the border in waves for most of the past six months. The Houthis, down in Yemen, claim to be attacking the passing cargo ships in order to support Palestine. Given that the attacks often seem indiscriminate, and that the Houthi's control over their portion of Yemen is waning in the face of their poor governance, this is... debatable. It's their official reason, but given that "let's attack passing ships, claiming that we only attack Israeli or American ships and that it is to support Palestine" is rallying support domestically for their regime, it does seem to be more of a political move to garner support at home than about supporting Palestine.

Iran, however, has not attacked Israel. They've spoken out about it, yes, but they haven't done anything because nobody wants a regional war. Nobody can afford it right now. Iran is dealing with a domestic crisis due to oil subsidies bleeding the states' coffers dry, and the aging Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, refusing to pick a successor. They are looking at both an economic crisis and succession crisis, and a regional war would fuck up both situations further. Iran funds most of its proxies, and they can't do that, and fight a war on top of it, while their economy is in its current state. Pure self preservation says they don't want a war, especially with the ongoing unrest that's been going on for... well, basically since the revolution, but especially since the death of Mahsa Amini.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Netanyahu has been looking at corruption charges and legal issues since before the Hamas attack. It's generally agreed that if Israel were to hold new elections right now, he would lose and be replaced, and also immediately taken to court. Netanyahu wants to stay in power, and as long as the war on Hamas lasts, he is unlikely to get voted out. A change in leadership in the middle of a war is rarely a good idea for any country, and he's banking on that.

However, the war on Hamas rests on the shoulders of American money and supplies. Without that military support, Israel cannot fight this war, and America... is losing patience.

Officially, America and most of the western world have been telling Israel to not fucking escalate for the majority of the war.

There have been implied threats, more or less since Schumer's big speech about how Israel needs a new election, of American legislators putting conditions on any future aid. There have even been rumblings of aid being retracted entirely if Israel follows through on invading Raffah.

So...

American aid to Israel has, for a very long time, been given in the name of defending Israel against Iran and its proxies.

Israel has been fighting this war against Hamas for six months, killing what is by now innumerable civilians, on the power of US military aid.

Netanyahu benefits from the continued war due to domestic troubles.

Iran does not want a regional war, or really any big war, due to its own domestic troubles.

The US is, in theory, losing patience with Israel and threatening to pull the plug on unconditional support. It's very "we gave you this to fight Iran. Stop attacking civilians. If you keep attacking civilians, then you're going to have to rely on what we already gave you to fight off Iran so that you won't keep wasting it on civilians."

Israel... attacks Iran, prompting a response, and is now talking about escalating with Iran.

I am not explicitly saying that it looks to me like Israel, which is already fighting a war on two physical fronts and even more political/economic ones, has picked a fight with Iran so that America feels less like it is able to withdraw support.

I just... am finding it hard to understand why Israel, which is in fact fighting both Hamas and Hezbollah, would attack the Iranian consulate in Syria otherwise. They can't actually afford to fight this war, escalating to a full regional conflict, on a third front.

Not without pressuring American into keeping the faucet of military funding open at full blast.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post OR this post.

#phoenix politics #current events #iran #israel #hamas #houthis #hezbollah #syria #politics #united states #military funding #military aid

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pollen-warden · 5 months ago

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Place: Farmer’s Market Time: Early June With: @pollen-warden & @mortemoppetere

Summary : Emilio goes for a stroll in Gatlin Fields for no shady reasons at all and unshadily explains to Vishal that he is a starving man looking for dinner. Vishal offers him dinner and Emilio somehow is uninterested. Please donate to Emilio's venmo to pay him acting classes.

He shouldn’t have been up so late. Quite frankly, he shouldn’t have started reading a new book so late. Someone else might have managed to put it down. Unfortunately, he was not part of that club.

No, Vishal was part of the club that would read a book, then read its wikipedia and goodread page, and then look up the author to see if they had anything similar in store.

Tonight, however, something had managed to interrupt his reading. He had promised to his mother (who had given him the side eye for it) that he would take care of that barn door. It always made that creaking noise when you pushed it open, the sort you’d expect in a bad horror movie. Nevermind that he had to hear it several times a day, Vishal hadn’t taken the time to take care of it.

Either this meant that his mother had decided to fix it instead of him, at 2 in the morning, or there was someone else walking around the farm. The former was quite unlikely. A familiar blade in hand, the warden had carefully climbed down the stairs and slipped on a pair of boots without turning the lights on or making too much noise. For all he knew, his visitor was some sort of monster and he preferred to keep the upper hand. Slipping out of the house, the warden glanced up. It was a near full moon tonight which meant he could be seen. This, he wouldn’t mind, as long as he was the one to allow it. “I’m going to give you a chance to walk out of there and explain yourself,” he called out.

—

Missing persons cases, in Wicked’s Rest, never ended the way you wanted them to. Emilio wasn’t sure how they went in other towns — he’d never tried his hand at this kind of work before moving here and deciding to settle — but in this particular town, the case was never really resolved by finding that the person in question had just stepped out and decided not to come back. Most disappearances in Wicked’s Rest weren’t intentional; Emilio doubted this one would be any different.

He’d been tracking the information his client gave him about his boyfriend for a while now, enough to get a name. The name brought him to a location, where he figured he could snoop around enough to at least know what had happened to the man he was looking for. He’d long since abandoned hope of a happy ending for this case, but any kind of answer was better than no answer at all. He was sure of that.

So… he was snooping. Moving things around in a barn (and trying not to think about the last time he’d been in a barn), hunting for any clues that might help him piece together a story. His client had been clear with him that he was well aware of the supernatural, and that made things easier. That allowed him to tell the guy something closer to the truth, even if the truth wound up being something with too many teeth. All he had to do was figure out how the Kumar family factored into —

A voice called out into the barn. Emilio hadn’t heard him approach, and he cursed himself for it. He was still getting used to the slightly more limited hearing that came with having a banshee scream in your face. It wasn’t a huge adjustment — he didn’t think he’d lost much — but it was enough to screw him, in this case.

For a moment, he considered his options. He could try to make a break for it, but… Emilio wasn’t particularly fast. He could hide out, but he doubted that would get him very far. Whoever was confronting him probably lived here, which probably meant he knew all the hidden corners of the barn far better than Emilio. Picking a fight was always on the table, but he couldn’t know what the stranger was armed with. If he had a gun, Emilio would literally come in swinging a knife in a gunfight. Not ideal.

So… his only real option was to talk his way out.

Great.

Sighing, he swallowed the thousands of dry comments he wanted to make and stepped out, holding his hands up and letting his limp display a little more prominently than it normally might. “Lo siento mucho,” he said, doing his best to sound less gruff than he usually might. Switching to English, he allowed his accent to cling heavily to the words. If he put on a good enough act, he might be able to hide his real intentions here. The fact that his clothes were dirty and worn (something not planned, but a fairly typical aspect of his appearance) would help sell the lie he’d decided to lean on today. “I was only looking for food.”

—

Looking intrigued, Vishal tilted his head and observed the intruder silently. This lasted for a while, long enough to notice that it was a man, that he was limping and that he looked unwell. The moon lit the farmyard quite well this evening, and it seemed to him that the man was dressed in worn, dirty, and probably smelly clothes. It wasn't something that scared him away. He spent most of his time with dirt under his fingernails, in clothes stained with pollen, grass and mud.

He could be certain, already, that it was not a fae. It wasn't a werewolf either, the moon was too far along in its cycle. He could have been undead, but he would only know that if he managed to touch his skin. He didn't want to do that, or rather, he didn't want to approach him at the moment.

"Food? You didn't see the orchard?" Vishal’s grip on the dagger tightened, but the tension was invisible in his voice. The orchard was almost impossible to miss, but you could hardly make a meal out of blueberries, this much he would admit.

Not entirely convinced, but certainly relieved to find out that this was nothing out of his reach, the warden motioned toward his barn. “I doubt you’ll be fond of the food I store for the chickens and the sheep.” Still, he’d rather be done with him than wonder what he might do should he return. “I might have leftovers.” With a sigh, he stepped back, eyes still on him. His shoes made barely a sound as he headed back to the front door, turning on the light on the porch. “Don’t try anything funny.”

—

The man studied him, and Emilio didn’t have to try particularly hard to fit the part he’d carved out for himself in this story. The man he was pretending to be — the hungry immigrant who stumbled into a barn in search of something to eat — would be worn down and tired and barely able to keep his feet beneath him. All of those things applied to Emilio now, just as all of those things applied to Emilio every day of the goddamn week. He didn’t know the last time he’d slept, couldn’t recall his last meal though he was sure he must have eaten recently. The best lies, he’d learned, were the ones that were close to the truth.

He tried to be subtle in the way he studied the stranger back. At this distance, it was hard to tell much about him, though the night vision granted to him by his slayer heritage made it easier for him than it likely was for the other man. He wasn’t undead, at least; probably not a werewolf, either. Fae, maybe, though something about him made Emilio doubt that this was the case. Or… he could have just been human. Even if he was responsible for the missing person Emilio had come to find, he could be human. Plenty of humans did shit just as nasty as the undead, fae, and shifters that people like Emilio had been raised to kill. He’d learned that the hard way.

His eyes darted to the door of the barn, to the orchard outside. “I… was hoping for something more,” he replied, and the way he fumbled with the words could easily be blamed on the image he was projecting of a scared man not familiar with English rather than someone who’d been caught in a lie and was hoping to crawl out of it. He hadn’t paid much attention to what kind of farm this was; if he had, he might have a better excuse on hand. But Emilio hadn’t anticipated being caught.

To his surprise, the man didn’t demand he leave. That was what Emilio had been banking on, really — an angry instruction to go, where he could exit and be forgotten and continue with his investigation another way. Instead, he received… an invitation. The promise of a meal of leftovers that made his stomach churn, and the realization that he might have fucked up. The farmer wanted to bring him food. He’d put on the persona of a starving man. Eating tended to make him sick. This was going to fall apart rather quickly.

“I… I shouldn’t put you out,” he said quietly, trying to lean into the perception he’d built for himself here. “I have caused you trouble already. I’ll just leave, yes? I can go. I will not take your food, and I will not come back.” Only half a lie — he had no desire to steal food from this man.

—

“Hold on,” the warden’s eyebrows furrowed. Someone who had been positively starving would have accepted his kind offer on the spot. Leftovers might not have been the stuff of dreams, they were worse things to dine on. “What trouble are we talking about here?” Because aside from having gotten him out of the house at a late hour of the night, he didn’t really understand what he might have meant by it.

Vishal, who was never cruel, but didn’t like feeling as though he was being made fun of, cleared his throat in hopes of chasing away that sensation building within. There was something off here, this much he was certain of, but it was difficult to tell just how bad the situation was. He was perhaps looking at a beast who hoped to make a feast of the few animals he kept in the barn. Maybe an undead man, who preferred to eat animal brains to make it through another day of their immortal life. Or, perhaps things were simpler, and he was just dealing with a liar, and a probable thief.

“I don’t believe you.” He set his hands on his hips. He still held his father’s dagger in one hand. Sometimes he wondered if this was wrong, using a family heirloom instead of keeping it behind glass. He told himself that this had only sentimental value, and it was probably best to use it the way it originally was intended to be. “What were you doing on my property? Clearly you weren’t looking for food, or you would accept it when it’s given to you.”

“I woke you up in the middle of the night,” Emilio replied, seeing the doubt flicker across the stranger’s face. Shit. “This is trouble, no?” He was a good detective. He knew as much, even if people tended to doubt him at times. He unpacked the cases brought to his desk piece by piece, found answers quicker than other private investigators in town could thanks to his knowledge of all the options that existed. But undercover work? That wasn’t something he’d ever been particularly skilled at. He was too brash, too hot-headed. His first instinct was always action instead of words. It was why, when possible, he took someone with him in cases where he needed to hide his true nature, brought along a partner to curb his ever-present rage. Teddy sometimes, Nora others. But he hadn’t planned for this. This was supposed to be a quick in and out. He wasn’t supposed to run into anyone at all.

That would show him not to make plans, he guessed. His luck just didn’t allow for things like that.

He saw the way the stranger studied him, struggled to look like the role he’d carved out for himself — the tired, starving immigrant with the pronounced limp who just wanted something to eat. But the persona slipped away more and more with each desperate beat of his heart trying to shove him into fight mode. He had no idea who — or what — this man was, but he figured he could take him if it came down to it.

And it was seeming more and more like it would come down to it.

The dagger felt less like an accessory and more like a threat now, gripped in the other man’s fist. Emilio looked to it, eyes quietly unpacking what he could from it. He knew knives. With sharp eyes that cut easily through the darkness, he could tell a fair amount about this one… and about how the man held it. He knew how to use it. He wouldn’t hesitate to do so.

In a fight, things often came down to who made the first move. Even in an exchange of blows that dragged on until your muscles ached, the winner was often decided by who struck first. You had an automatic advantage if yours were the first knuckles to find skin. Emilio knew that. Undercover work wasn’t something he was good at. He wasn’t fooling this farmer. And this farmer might have killed someone — there was a reason he was investigating here, after all, and the guy looked pretty goddamn comfortable with that knife. Emilio wasn’t the sort of man who made fatal blows without asking questions anymore, but… he knew how to disorient enough to slip away without answering things he didn’t want known.

Clicking his tongue, he dropped a hand into his pocket and, with impressive speed, flung a knife at the stranger’s hand. Disarming him would make it easier to get away clean, after all.

—

What made the difference between life and death, in a warden's day, was their ability to react much more quickly than the norm allowed. It was necessary. They were constantly fighting against the most intelligent and vicious creatures in existence and without this unparalleled agility, there was no doubt that they would have had little success in their mission.

Vishal had no doubt about this fact: the stranger was not fae. However, he wondered about his true nature. This man’s eye was sharp, and his arm trained. The blade was thrown quickly, with an accuracy that luck or chance did not allow. If he had been an average human, Vishal had no illusions about the outcome of the fight. But he was a trained warden, who had known better the moment he saw his hand move, and he had avoided this first assault as best he could, the knife hitting the gravel right behind him with force.

That would have touched him without a doubt, but

He was not used to rushing headfirst into a confrontation ; but with this certainty, which told him that the stranger was both an intruder and a danger ; letting him escape was not an option.

Alert, the hunter habitually took the time to consider his options. Vishal knew the farm inside and out and if it turned into a game of hide and seek, he would emerge victorious. Rather than rushing at him, and risking being pierced by a throw that he would not be able to dodge, the warden quickly lowered himself to grab the knife on the ground with his left hand.

With an air of defiance, almost mockingly, he twirled it in his hand, before responding not with force, but in the manner of a warden, with words. "It's not good to lie. Last chance. What the hell are you doing here? Who sent you?" He paused, a decidedly teasing smile on his lips. Warden or not, he honestly didn't want to be intimidated, and he warned him. "You have a good aim, but it won't do you much good when I get my hands on you, cause I am going to get my hands on you. It rained today and the ground around here is clayey.” It would leave traces, and it would be slippery in places he was well aware of.

—

The man moved quickly; Emilio took note of it. There was a deftness to the way he dodged, a speed that wasn’t possible if he was only human and a skill that wouldn’t have been there if he didn’t have experience. Was it the animalistic instincts of a shifter that allowed him to do this? The trickery of a fae? Emilio’s mind provided an endless list of options in a sprawling scroll, crossing things out when it became obvious they weren’t right.

He bent and picked up the knife, and Emilio remembered it had been one of Rhett’s. Iron. Not fae, then. If he was a shifter, he couldn’t be balam or kitsune. The moon seemed to full to allow for werewolf, either. Lamia, maybe? Emilio thought of Wyatt, of the way he moved. Snakes could be fast, could coil and strike in an instant. Perhaps this was the most likely option.

He offered a smile that was more a display of teeth than anything representing humor, pulling another blade from his pocket. Was the stranger killing people? That was the piece of the puzzle he still didn’t have. It seemed likely, given the way he spoke of getting his hands on Emilio. The slayer could hardly blame him for thinly veiled threats against a stranger snooping around his barn late at night, but would he deliver the same to someone who hadn’t tossed a knife at him?

“I sent me,” he said, rearing back. This time, he tossed two knifes at once, aimed for center mass. He wasn’t expecting them to hit, but they’d be a little harder to avoid entirely. It might provide him with enough of a distraction to slip out. There was no way in hell he’d give out his client’s name here, even if the man in front of him wasn’t a threat. “And I wouldn’t be so sure about this. I’m slippery. Hard to get your hands on me.” Rearing back, he threw another blade. This time, he allowed his body to follow it, aiming to slip by the stranger and make his way outside. He’d have a better shot of getting away through the orchard than he did pinned down in the barn.

—

Who was this asshole?

The hunter weighed the blade he had just picked up in his palm, getting used to its mass, its balance and swinging it with ease towards his other hand. If the intruder tried to throw something at him again, he would be able to ward off the blow with his two blades. That was better than nothing. Better yet would be if he managed to disarm him and question him about his agenda.

He moved silently now, with soft steps, as a feline on the hunt might have done. His sharp, incisive gaze seemed to want to peel away the successive layers of skin, muscles and bones to better understand his intentions, his thoughts and who might have sent him here. He didn't know him, which made Vishal think he was dealing with some sort of mercenary, or someone he or his family had scorned. Whatever happened, he was indeed one hell of an asshole. Just the way he smiled...

And then he responded, and Vishal barely had time to deflect the first knife sent his way. The second one hit his father’s blade, but it flew toward his hand next, cutting along his forearm. Motherfucker.

This was far from a bad injury and aside from the now definite anger in his glare, Vishal didn't seem affected by it. Hunting with his parents, with his sister, training, he had suffered worse. It would take more than a scratch to stop him.

His hand gripping harder at the handle of his knife, as yet another knife flew his way, he moved forward, right as his unwanted guest did the same. Slippery as he claimed he was, Ira was sure of this : he wouldn't let him go so easily. Shining in the lunar light, his blade danced with him, as he set about not to harm, but to immobilize by force and intimidation, the unknown nocturnal visitor. “Then why are you here? What do you want ?” Far from being out of breath, and inspired by the dust on the ground, he gave it a deliberate kick, hoping to blind his guest.

—

He made note of the man’s movements. Smooth, fluid. He had training of some kind or another, but to what extent? Emilio had been at this since he could stand. Did the man in front of him have a similar resume? Some supernatural families trained their children to defend themselves, sure, as did some humans. It was a good thing to know. It was hard to get much of a clue as to what he was dealing with, though he was becoming more and more convinced that the man in front of him was responsible for the disappearance he was investigating. After all, this was proof enough that he was capable, wasn’t it?

Emilio’s eyes narrowed as his attacks were mostly deflected, zeroing in on the line of blood that came from the injury… and the stranger’s reaction to it. He barely seemed to notice the cut, and that was a clue, too. Slowly, the detective began putting things together, ruling more and more out. There was nothing animalistic about the way he was fighting — wouldn’t a shifter have tapped into their biggest asset by now?

The stranger came at him, blade at the ready, and Emilio zeroed in on it. He wasn’t looking to get stabbed — God knew he’d get an earful about it if he came home with a knife wound. He’d had a pretty good, extended streak of zero stabbings. He’d like to keep it going, if he could.

But this hyperfocus came with a downfall. So intent on avoiding the blade, Emilio didn’t see his opponent’s foot kick up the dirt until it was stinging his eyes. Grunting and squeezing them shut, he threw a blind punch and ducked, trying to get around the man so that he could head out of the barn.

—

Had the other been just some guy, it would have been easy to grab onto his arm as he punched through the air in an attempt to fend him off. And Vishal did grab onto his arm, but the resistance he encountered as he attempted to do the rest… There were only so many species who could resist a hunter’s attack, and as the man wasn’t cold to the touch, he assumed that he was not one of these undead folks either. “Who the fuck are you?” Because he didn’t believe any part of his lies any more. If there could have been doubt remaining before, it had vanished now.

Vishal wondered the most still why the man had been sent to the farm. He seemed not to know the place, which meant that it was his first time around. What the fuck was he aiming to find in the hayloft. Sheep? Fucking hay? But, if he was looking for the Kumars, it meant potentially that his relatives were in danger. His mother. Perhaps his uncle, aunt, cousins too. And that he wouldn’t allow. He had lost too many folks to monsters, and he wouldn’t have them take a new family member. But then, why had he been aiming his blades so low. Even now, he could have done so much worse. He could still have been lethal… That man didn’t want him dead either.

Fast and agile as Vishal might have been, he was now the one with his back to the barn, while his opponent had managed to turn himself toward the open.

—

The other man caught his arm, and there was an unexpected strength there. Emilio didn’t often struggle with matters of physical strength. Speed wasn’t something he excelled at anymore, and matters of the mind had never quite existed within his wheelhouse, but strength? He was good at that. A little too good, maybe, given all the broken phones he’d had to replace. But now, with his hand in this other man’s grip, he struggled. He wouldn’t go as far as to say the farmer was stronger than he was, but he thought they might have been evenly matched. And given Emilio’s… natural advantages, this wasn’t the sort of thing that could be achieved through years of hard physical labor and farmwork alone.

So, he narrowed things down. Not undead; he’d known that the moment the man approached him. Not fae; he would have preferred to fight with his words had that been the case, or used something like the faun who he’d met in the vampire bar. Shifter seemed less and less likely, too; Emilio didn’t think many of them had enhanced strength unless shifted, and he was close enough now to know for certain that no part of this man looked anything less than human.

There was a conclusion to be drawn. Years ago, it would have brought him comfort. Hunters, even the less savory ones, had codes that tended to put them all on the same side. But Emilio wasn’t the hunter he’d once been. These days, he was far more likely to butt heads with other hunters than he was to actually agree with them. Kaden was an obvious exception, but even things with Jade felt strained sometimes now, discomfort building in his chest any time the subject of their shared heritage arose.

Yanking his hand out of the other man — the other hunter’s grip, Emilio squinted at him for a moment. If the trail for his missing person had led him here… Pieces began falling into place. His client’s boyfriend was almost certainly not human… and almost certainly dead, either at the hands of this hunter or another one on the estate. (Hunter families often lived together, after all; Emilio knew that better than most.) He could keep looking for proof, but not without doing something about this man first. And, even as fall as he might have fallen, Emilio disliked the idea of killing another hunter.

He had enough to answer his client’s question. He had enough to go. He could either answer this man’s question and attempt to fool him again, use the big thing he now knew they had in common to build a false alliance, or he could make a run for it. Both options had pretty glaring flaws. He’d failed to fool the other hunter once before, and the man would likely distrust anything he said as a result. He also wasn’t particularly fast, and he was playing on the other man’s home turf.

So if he was going to run, he’d have to give himself one hell of a head start.

Naturally, that was the option Emilio preferred. He didn’t much like the idea of trying to spin a false tale, especially when he knew it would put him in a more vulnerable position if it went south. It could give this man time to call for reinforcements, could allow him a moment to catch his breath or retrieve more weapons.

Emilio decided he liked his chances running more than he liked his chances fooling the man. Dropping into a crouch — and, notably, ignoring the question as to who he was — he made an attempt to sweep the stranger’s legs out from underneath him. If he caught him off guard, it would take him a moment to get up. Emilio’s motorcycle was parked not far. He just needed that head start.

—

This was all very strange. The way this intruder paused to look at Vishal with suspicion, as though he was not the one who had walked into his property and lied to his face. Puzzlement was shared in this instant. What sort of shifter wouldn’t have turned into a snake, wolf, bear or god knows what else (after all he was not all that knowledgeable about the variety of monsters that somehow had decided that this place, Wicked’s Rest, where he happened to also live, was a pretty damn fine location to murder some humans) ? Not undead, not fae, not a shifter. But strong. Just as strong as he was, if not more.

That man had the dedication, the will to outlive him. He had been trained to fight, and he could handle a knife. Or two. Or more. God, how many knives did the guy carry around?

Vishal only ever had one at his belt, one in his boot.

Come to think of it, aside from hunters, he didn’t know many folks who would bother carrying a full set of cutlery and a smith’s whole shop in their pocket.

Was he fighting a fucking hunter?

And if so? Why the fuck?

Had things turned so bad that they were now attacking their own kind instead of the fucking things they had sworn to destroy?

It was his turn to squint, to look at him with suspicion in his eyes and a scowl. Motherfucker.

Of course, being a warden, he would have known what the other was doing the moment he fell to the ground. Of course, being Vishal Kumar, he had left the barn a fucking mess instead of picking up after himself (he wished it had been from last night, but he hadn’t picked that shit up in 5 days). Tripping on what he suspected to be a sledgehammer, the man fell back, landing on… you guess it : his tool box. The clatter could have woken up the whole neighborhood had there been any. Instead, in the distance, the sheep began bleating, and the chickens were next at waking up in a sonorous choir. As for his visitor, he was already darting into the opposite direction, straight into the night. Was he gonna run after him?

With a sigh, the warden rubbed at his face, picking himself up to rub at his sore backside. “Motherfucker.”

—

The other man — the other hunter stared at Emilio with just as much suspicion as Emilio held in his own eyes, and the slayer figured he wasn’t the only one who’d solved the mystery presented before them both. They both knew what they were dealing with now, but Emilio was still the one with more information. He knew the hunter’s surname, at least — this farm was owned by the Kumars. He could look into the name, even if he no longer had hunter contacts he could float it by. Emilio, too, knew why he was there in a way the other hunter didn’t. He had the upper hand.

He preferred to keep it that way.

The best thing he could do now was get the hell out of dodge and find a way to continue his investigation out of reach. He knew the how now, and likely the why. All that was left was to get enough proof to make sure his client believed him when he shared the story.

Easier to do that if this other hunter didn’t kill him.

He got lucky when the hunter fell, luckier still when he tripped over his own shit and landed on a toolbox. Emilio was gone before he could get back to his feet, moving as quickly as he could with his bad leg… which wasn’t particularly quick at all, but still managed to be faster than a man could peel himself off the ground after a fall like that.

Jumping onto his bike, he started it up and peeled away from the farm, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

—

#wickedswriting #meetings with vishal #mortemoppetere

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erismourn · 9 months ago

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watching the james somerton apology video so you don't have to. this isn't entirely comprehensive, just a summary, if you want the nuance of his exact wording please just go watch the video

opens by saying he's monetizing the video to donate the money to hbomb's team so they can distribute it to the harmed individuals, and if hbomb's team don't accept he'll be making monthly donos to wikipedia and trans lifeline going forward

talkign about how he's a bad representative of "the queer community" as a cis white gay man

he's reached out to as many people he harmed as he can, some haven't responded but others have been incredibly kind

he's extending a specific apology to Jessie Gender - he wants to be clear that he didn't report Jessie to the police, as is the common understanding, but a fan of Jessie's who sent him a death threat

wanted his channel to be "welcoming to every queer person" which is impossible - he says he should have made voices that aren't his more accessible, but he didn't

blaming the algorithm for his popularity over queer creators of colour, disabled queers, etc

he thought that crediting people in the opening credits of videos was enough, but he admits he was wrong - people should have been properly cited (personal note: come on man you went to business school. you know how citations work.)

he has obtained permission for use of sources in the past, but "most of the sources" he didn't get permission for

brought Nick on with the idea that Nick would write most of the scripts and James would voice them

james had to put out more videos to make more money because he was let go from work during covid and was also dealing with other stuff so he had to take on more of the writing (and we all know how that went)

[sic] "my intention was to use [giant blocks of text i pasted into the script] as a jumping off point that we would elaborate on when we did table reads but *I have memory issues as a result of a head injury I got as a child*"

the head injury is real, he has epilepsy as a result. I want to be clear here that we need to respect James' disabilities, regardless of how much of a plagiarist he is. however as someone with memory problems I don't buy that it caused him to entirely forget to cite sources over many, many hours of work that he did to churn out these videos.

"when it came to editing the scripts, I couldn't remember what I had written and what I had copy-pasted"

blames his unwillingness to take account of those issues by for example writing notes in the script so future james would know he copypasted them on recently diagnosed ADHD

he had to take on a bunch of additional responsibilities when his mom passed away because his father is illiterate and can't do the legal stuff you have to do when someone dies

Telos grew out of his need to crowdfund after his mom died because RBC's insurance policy was weird (and dunks on RBC which i agree with. fuck all canadian banks)

Telos was supposed to start small but the success of the campaign gave them bigger dreams for their films

he describes the plot of hsi final girl movie and then says "to those who say I plagiarized final girl by grady hendrix, read the book. it's nothing like the plot of the movie." talks about how "final girl" is a trope and if using a trope was plagiarism, then every slasher movie since texas chainsaw would be plagiarism. fair, but i'm suspicious.

talks about the details of having to move to ontario for better opportunities

realized that making movies is a lot more expensive than he originally thought and thus had to make more movie ideas (?? not sure about the logic here but ok)

James and Nick were both involved in writing scripts n stuff

"the intention was never, EVER, to take the [telos] money and run"

James regrets moving to Ontario

James is working with a producer now and is actually making something from Telos - he will make no money from this project

"I am not nor did I ever intend to be paid money from Telos"

stresses again that he and Nick needed to crunch to make videos to make more money and get more sponsors

describes his apology in december as "horrendous"

begins detailing his suicidality

people found James' address, he claims people showed up at his house while he was hospitalized for suicidality (I want to be clear: this is fucked, the people who did this should be shamed)

he's reactivated some videos on his channel that "dont' have plagiarized content" and has done some heavy editing on other videos so they only contain original content and revenue will be going to either Hbomb's team or the charities mentioned above

he's going to be releasing a new video written by him with cited sources

he has no sponsors now

"we didn't intend to have misinformation in past videos" - it was never malicious

he won't be relaunching his patreon but starting a new patreon account if people want to support him

hes going to "work his ass off" to earn people's trust again

"there is no excuse for what I did"

reiterates that he thought putting names in opening credits was fine

"I thought it was ok to [plagiarize vito russo] because the book was out of print and he had passed away"

he wants to make a documentary video about vito russo

"I want to do the work. I want to prove not just to you, but to myself, that I can do the work"

"I can't get across how sorry I am"

#mads.txt #absolutely bonkers.#im glad he's apologetic but dude. you didn't plagiarizepeople bc you have a brain injury

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bonesashesglass · 13 days ago

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Wikipedia is doing their drive again, and I’m going to ask that everybody that sees this to please donate. They’re only asking for $2.75 from each person. That’s something everyone seeing this can afford.

If you’re scared of the upcoming administration, donating to Wikipedia is a good way to do something about it. Imagine if fucking Zuckerberg or Musk bought Wikipedia? We really, really should not overlook its importance, especially now. There’s very few free, accessible ways to get information, and we can’t neglect it.

Go donate $2.75. Then read a free article on something fun, like the history of barber shop quartets or something. Just don’t overlook the value of Wikipedia.

#wikipedia #wiki #donation #information #anti capitalism #capitalism #internet #world wide web #wiki donation drive #trending #social media

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chimaeraonwards · 1 year ago

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DownDectector x AO3

To celebrate AO3 coming back online, here is the fic I wrote to cope with the Great AO3 Shutdown.

_____

“DownDetector, what is your emergency?”

Sharp, shallow breaths come through their headset. A panic attack, unfortunately not that uncommon in Emergency Website Shutdown Reporting.

“Hi, can you hear me? Take deep breaths, slowly,” Dow continues, their training kicking in immediately. When the caller sounds a little deeper, longer. “How can I help you?”

A small frantic voice rushes out, “I was on Ao3 reading a 400k hurt/comfort fic, and then, they were finally going to make up after all the angst, and now”. A sob wreaks through the other end of the line. “It's gone, it's all gone. Ao3 is down.”

A shudder pierces through their heart. No, wait, focus on the call - you’re on the job damn it.

Automatically DownDetector replies, “Thank you for your report. Not to worry, sometimes servers go down but Ao3 usually bounces back in at most, a few hours.” Down glances at the screen. Usually Arch messages Dow quickly with an update, they know how much Dow worries.

“I just feel like something is different this time. It feels wrong.”

Oh right, the call. Dow quickly types through the report in front of them. “I understand how alarming this may be. Please check Ao3’s official Twitter account for any updates. Can I have your location to complete this report?”

Dow goes through the motions but there is a blaring alarm going off in their mind.

Ao3 is down.

Ao3

down.

A glance at the screen shows no messages from Arch but the usual flood of reports that follow any of Ao3’s technical issues.

The caller was right. This feels wrong. The notification sounds are the only thing that graces the dreaded silence hanging in the air.

Dow’s finger hovers over the call button. It would be so easy to call Arch right now and find out if they’re okay. Dow doesn’t talk with Arch often, just a few pictures of the bumps and scrapes Arch sends after each tussle with technical issues (often accompanied by a selfie with a thumbs up and a goofy smile).

It's not professional to directly message websites that get reported here, but Ao3 is different.

Whenever a website goes down, so many people barge into DownDetector with complaints and anger, but with Archive of Our Own, it's only love and worry. Looking at their previous messages which consist of mostly Arch sending memes and fluff fic recs, Dow smiles at the screen. When Ao3 goes down, so many people come in with care and understanding, and it's easy to understand why. What’s not to love about Ao3?

The contact image of Arch putting French fries up their nose comes with a call. Dow would lie to you if you asked them how fast their picked up Arch’s calls every time. It's always borderline impossibly fast.

Dow is greeted by a flurry of wet coughs. Okay, shit shit shit this does not look good.

“Arch? Arch? Are you okay?”

The coughs die down.

Arch’s voice sounds so small, smaller than it has ever been. It's unnerving. Archive of Our Own is a titan - more than 11 million fics, over 57 thousand fandoms. Time, love, and care has put been fed into the website, making it the envy of most. Dow doesn’t think Wikipedia’s rants about donations can get worse but it takes a step higher every time Ao3 has a donation drive. Arch was never meant to sound so small.

“I don’t have a lot of time, but I wanted to call you first”, Arch’s voice is raspy like they’ve been screaming while eating glass. “I’m going to be gone for a while.”

“What’s going on? Everyone says something is wrong.”

Dow hears a deep tired exhale down the line like Arch is thinking about the words to say. Just like their users, sometimes words don’t come easy to Arch. “It was an attack, they came out of nowhere. A DDOS.”

DDOS – the weapon of cowards trying to take down a titan, a deity, worshipped by so so many.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be okay. I’m more worried about everyone else.” Even at the brink of a meltdown, Ao3 always put everyone else before themselves. “Maybe Fanfiction.net or Wattpad can take them back, huh?”

Oh, this isn’t a warning, it's a goodbye.

Dow takes a deep breath. It's all in the handbook, you cannot panic in a time of crisis. Breathe, breathe deeply. “Archive, what’s going on? Something’s wrong.”

“Hey hey don’t worry, alright? The volunteers are coming, you know how well they take care of me.”

“Down, they’re going to take me offline for a while.

“Take you offline?” Dow exclaims. “For how long? You can’t go! It's not even been 5 minutes and everyone already misses you.”

I will miss you goes unsaid.

A pregnant pause fills the room. Dow can hear the rush of blood behind their ears.

“I don’t know.”

“Arch please –”

Dow is cut off by shouts that come down from the other end of the call. Before they can say anything, Arch rushes out, “I have to go, the volunteers are here.” Tears can’t stop rolling down Dow’s face. “Take care of them for me, will you?”

Dow looks back to the screens on their desk. The overwhelming cries of terror, care, and worry fill the comments section.

“I will,” spills off their tongue without hesitation.

“Thank you,” whispers Arch, their voice clear as day amidst all the commotion. “Goodbye, DownDetector.”

The disconnect tone plays.

“I’ll see you soon, Archive of Our Own.”

Silence fills the room again.

For the first time in their lives, Dow gets down to their knees and prays.

Please, whatever entities are out there, please.

Bring them back.

#ao3 #downdetector #ao3 and downdetector are non-binary icons fight me #they are in love your honor #downdetectorXao3 #DownDectector is the emergency services #Ao3 is your accident prone bestie #obligatory not a native english speaker tag #this is what fanfiction withdrawal looks like #archive of our own #bless the ao3 volunteers #fanfiction #you cannot tell me they dont have cute nicknames for each other that only they can use #this is how i survived the great ao3 shutdown of 2023 #ao3 ddos attack #ao3 down

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joesmemes · 2 years ago

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THINGS SAID IN THE GROUP CHAT SENTENCE STARTERS

Assembled by @sheenathehyena.

I gave you a beach house now be normal

It's just so fucking ridiculous it circles back around to being poignant

I'm fine but what an inconsiderate toolbox

the fucking white boi who is trying to "find himself" that you meet all of once at the beginning

Yeah you want me to shoot my baby batter all over you cover you with almost - children

YOUR PLANET'S HOPE IS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG'S TRANS ASSHOLE

Not sure how to feel about talking to actual fucking yakuza members for entertainment purposes

On a scale of Balan Wonderworld to Silent Hill, how are you dealing with your trauma?

Roses are red, violets are blue, singular they is older than singular you

Concerned Ape noises

You ever think about the fact that [name] really said "the birds work for the bourgeoisie" & they were right

My patience for slipping over improperly spilled blood has run out.

If you can see the bones of your whipped pupil, you failed.

You know the healer's oath: Only do moderate harm to those who cross you.

Man I don't know if lack of shame is a blessing or a curse.

Parsooth m'lady but would you be so kind as to partake of the exquisite past time of role playing?

So they aren't DENYING the piss kink

uhm you need to be more of a doormat…..your boundaries are making me uncomfy 😦

That's HARLEQUIN NOVEL descriptors of sex

where is my mouse arrow? where is it holy fuck

fetishize urself ig

It's always people with feet fetishes or fat fetishes that be so open about it

Look at this unhinged mother fucker

Fuck you I hope your pice of shit family burn in a dumpster fire

Sorry you had to overshare about a tough time with some random chick in school but it's not relavent to my cat at all.

We're at a sword store and it's full of exactly what you'd expect.

Nobody was reading Lemony Snicket going "teehee they made Count Olaf bitch sauce"

Wikipedia I love you but your donation pleas sound like a lying teenager begging for money online

There's no right way to look at the guy that tossed his baby off a cliff and say "I think he needs to look cool for a minute there" is all I'm saying

Okay, wonderful. GREAT, take them all. Please leave immediately

one time I ran a server and I was being weird so I changed literally everyone's nickname to Frank

AKGHDLK I'm gonna SOB they asked if they could share their ticklefics

heavy meals always make me HONK MIMIMIMIMI

I found a fucking book of Mormon lmafo

lemme go take a dump and ill set it up

THREE. THREE TIMES. HE'S BEEN ARRESTED FOR INSIDER TRADEING THREE FUCKING TIMES.

tell her it was you who farted, establish dominance

I have been hoarding vidya games for the three of us to play like a dragon

Nearly had a heart attack because I was poopin and saw blood but realized it was my period

Ok we need to get a big cardboard box and a vaguely feminine scarecrow dressed as a boyfriendless girl

Puts my head in your lap like a cat

Some Filipinos wanna buy your titty mousepads

the chris chan trials are about to be the depp vs heard trial for people who had unrestricted internet access at a young age

Now u will screenshot us talking shit and put it in the callout 😭

GUYS I NEED PROOF THAT [name] IS GAY TO STICK IT TO A 19 YEAR OLD ALT RIGHT IDIOT

🙂 our fursona is gonna b friends with sonic

I both love and hate [name]’s writing. How they go from ancient purple prose to “oh shit oh fuck”

i guess you could say…. this was a triumph

#rp meme #sentence starters #inbox meme #roleplay memes #resources #rp meme blog #starter set #starters

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mossy-kit · 1 year ago

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I was tagged by: @polkadotpatterson (aka told irl I was being tagged, lol)

current time: 9:37 pm

current activity: just got back from a fun day out walking and having coffee on the waterfront & dinner at a diner and am now hanging out on the couch with my beloved partner 😌

currently thinking about: I've been thinking a lot lately about the state of monetization/enshittification on the internet - eg, the ways twitter is failing, the horrifying overrreach of Meta, and why websites like Wikipedia have remained largely independent, and what the internet could look like without constantly catering to the currently evaporating shell game of making money off users of their sites via advertising or predatory methods (and how that might work - like can voluntary donation work for something like a social media?)

current favourite song: My current top song is a House in Nebraska by Ethel Cain (that whole album is great - sort of southern gothic tragedy that's both so doomed by the narrative in a meta sense but also grounded and visceral) but I also want to shoutout Death of an AI by yeule (ethereal innocence-as-tragedy in a sense)

currently reading: back and forth between Harrow the Ninth and a nonfiction called Effortless by Greg Keown, which I'm reading mostly to try and figure out how to spend less time doing my job lol

currently watching: watched one of the new episodes of black mirror recently and the concept was interesting enough, and then also slowly working my way through the Makanai, which is about a teenager living with her friend and acting as the cook for a house of maikos (entertainers in training) - very peaceful.

current favourite character: can't pick just one ofc, but I've been thinking a lot about the Salt universe Moist Talkers and their relationships with each other as they adjust to being on the team, as well as my fanteam in the same universe, the Vancouver Deltas - they're only side characters for the Salt, but I'm way too attached to them anyways and have backstories on all of them

current wips: work is killing and rending and murdering me so I've barely written anything recently but the next wips are going to be for the Salt when we get zine 2 going!

Tagging: idk I think Cynda tagged everyone I know who hasn't done it so anyone who'd like to please feel free!

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delighted-mirage · 11 months ago

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Not to derail how absolutely abhorrent, bland, and full of military ass kissing shit biden’s literal speeches are, but I wanted to also take the time on the post to point out how shitty Israel is!

here is an article about how israel treats the actual Holocaust survivors it took in. yk. the whole reason israel was supposed to have been created in the first place. they've been withholding these peoples' benefits and many live under the poverty line. all holocaust survivors are going to be dead by 2025. it's a huge disgrace.

how israel changed the historic names of palestine's cities to sound more "hebrew" and therefore jewish. to make it sound like they were "reclaiming" the land. it started when "israel" was first established. everything in "israel" should be in arabic, not hebrew. bc time passed. and a whole civilization was literally already there when they got there. so most names in "israel" are arabic that looks more english/hebrew. it’s erasure of the literal history here.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by FCUKZIONISM (@fcukzionism)

instagram

some more proof I have found of how i*rael treats holocaust survivors if anyone wanted further proof of how deeply fucked up this state is. these are the posts/articles that genuinely broke any semblance israel had any worth even within itself, and ofc the focus should be on palestinians but in case anyone needed that final peg of colonialism worth knocked out like I did. there are Zero redeeming qualities.

and last but never the least and in fact the most important, links to help palestine.

first is arab.org, my personal favorite, that uses the click money from an ad to fund donations to palestine. great way to help if you can’t donate now! anything always helps, even just spreading posts is doing something great.

second is a list of companies to boycott that helps me out a lot when I’m shopping. it even has alternatives, the reasons not to buy the product, and a very handy search function. it is consistently updating!

third is an Amazing list by @sulfurcosmos of ways you can help Palestine. includes how to write letters of protest, calls to make, donation organizations, and is regularly updated.

free palestine. from the river to the sea palestine will be free. 🇵🇸🍉🇵🇸

The Most Progressive President In History, on the genocide of Palestinians: "They're animals. They're animals. [...] They're a brutal, ugly, inhumane people, and they have to be eliminated."

#I'd like to highly recommend his other speeches so far that are so far military ass kissing bs and how much america loves israel #aka how much a colonizer country loves its baby colony that's murdering millions and laughing abt it #genuinely such a disappointment. but honestly any other president would've done the same. they're all military ass kissers.#I mean yeah they’re the military heads but like fuck em honestly jesus fucking christ #anyways thank you for reading so far <3 take care of yourself first and never lose hope for gaza ! o9 #share share share posts abt palestine on social media anything and everywhere it will help #save a ton of stuff and take screenshots and recordings in case they get censored or taken down too that is also important #free palestine #free gaza #OH and research research research!!! look for so many resources to learn more abt gaza’s history #and the violent colonization of their land by america and europe and the absolute divorce it has from actual jewish people #theres so many protests and people speaking up and it does make a difference to keep talking about it #the only way to fail is to forget #all my words are inspired by the words of palestinians themselves from instagram I will happily share if anyone wants #I just don’t know if overloading a post with links can hurt it #anyways !!!! keep working !!!! it will be a long term effort !!!!!!#ceasefire now #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #gaza genocide #antisemitism #Instagram

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aggressivebreakcore · 2 months ago

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there’s a new tim hortons ad that’s going around and it goes something like this:

three dollars for a breakfast sandwich with the purchase of a coffee. you heard that right! only three dollars for a breakfast sandwich with canada’s favourite coffee! get it now for a limited time. it’s time for tims~

and this makes me so angry for no reason. like come on. the first time you say it it’s fine, but people mostly aren’t listening, so that’s why you say it a second time but the second time you word it so that it seems like you can pay $3 for a breakfast sandwich and a coffee instead of what the real offer is, $3 for a sandwich plus more money for a coffee, idk how much i don’t go there. and honestly how long until it ceases? how much longer until ads just only use loopholes and the rules that regulate them give up and the ads are just allowed to lie forever? why is it not common sense that you should not just straight-up lie to thousands of people, maybe even millions with the amount of times i keep hearing this same ad. someone please start making more laws on limiting ads.

every waking hour of our lives is filled with ads, from waking up and looking around your room and seeing dozens of brand names on every object imaginable, to going to school or work and while driving instead of street signs see ads, everywhere, billboards, taking up your concentration and making you just a little more likely of having an accident, to getting to school or work and the entire day your attention being jostled between every different little effort to increase sales. and once you finish your work for the day and finally unwind at home every single website that exists has ads, unless you happen to scroll on wikipedia for hours every day. oh wait shit they have ads telling you to donate to them because they literally cannot keep up with all the other websites that have ads. the world we live in forces everyone to have ads. i could go on and on about all the ads we see online, but other people have already done that a lot. and finally, we go to sleep on our mattress with a brand name imprinted on it, put away our apple or android or google or whatever phone, look at the posters on our walls with little ads in the corners, and go to sleep, before another day of the same thing happening again.

and honestly the stupidest thing is that even after all that, after all that effort people put to put all those ads in front of you, even after everything that you see every day chances are they don’t even really have that much of an impact other than being annoying and wasting our time. when was the last time you saw/heard an ad and it actually worked? and you didn’t just wait 5 seconds and click skip on the first frame it appears?

oh shoot instead of a silly little complaint about a tim hortons ad i wrote a whole essay about the nature of humanity shit i hate when that happens

#long post #rant #but to be fair ads really do suck

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irst · 2 months ago

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Hey I know that many people might not care particularly about this, but Wikipedia really does need funding to remain a free and reliable source of knowledge. If they don't get funding, either we'll lose access to all the information there, or it will be taken and owned by a private corporation. I don't like either of those possibilities, but I also don't have a disposable income. So I'm asking anyone who happens to see this post instead, please keep Wikipedia public and free. Please go to the site and donate whatever you're able to. And if altruism isn't enough, I think the donation is tax deductible.

Please, don't let us lose this site.

#wikipedia #education #charity #information #learning #knowledge #science #history #art #music #academics #school #teacher #literature #freedom #donations

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kitoblob · 3 months ago

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Hi there 👋,

My name is Mohammad, and I’m reaching out in a moment of desperate need. I’m a father of three young children living in Gaza, and we are caught in the midst of a catastrophic war. Our home is no longer a safe haven, and the future here seems increasingly uncertain. 💔

I’ve launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $40,000 to relocate my family to a safer place where my children can grow up in peace and have a chance at a brighter future. 🕊️🇵🇸

Unfortunately, my previous fundraising efforts were abruptly halted when my account was terminated without explanation. However, I remain determined to keep fighting for my family’s safety and well-being. 🫶

If you could take a moment to read our story, consider donating, or simply share our campaign with others, it would make an incredible difference. Every act of kindness, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to safety and a new beginning. 🙏

Thank you for your time, compassion, and support. ❤

https://gofund.me/fd1faea2 🔗

No human should suffer like this, and no human should suffer like this alone.

If you can't donate, here is a website that lets you do it for free every 24 hours:

And lastly, make sure to educate yourself and others about the genocide happening in Palestine:

There are also genocides happening to Congo, Sudan, West Papua, Tigray, Haiti, Burma/Myanmar, Uyghurs, Syria, Kashmir, Cameroon, Armenia, and Kurdistan. This has to stop.

If there are any other conflicts/genocides happening anywhere else, please let me know and I will talk about that as well. ❤️

If I got any information wrong, please let me know and I will fix it. ❤️ Everyone needs to know what is going on in this world and help those who are going through it, and misinformation is only going to make it harder.

As always, free palestine and ceasfire now.

#free gaza #free palestine #gaza genocide #ceasfire now #gofundme #stop the genocide #isreal is committing genocide #please help if you can!#save palestine #save gaza #palestinian genocide #i stand with gaza #all eyes on gaza #all eyes on palestine

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rinnkimmichi · 2 years ago

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Beach Bums Live Ep. 2 Social Norms

Introduction.

Hello Beach Bums and welcome to my brand new podcast Beach Bums Live! I’m your host Rinn and this is my Patreon exclusive podcast where I talk about my thoughts and opinions on topics that are either popular in the media or just subjects I pull straight out of my head that I find interesting to talk about. Before I get into todays topic I’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone listening that’s subscribed to the Patreon, I really appreciate it and your support and donations help keep my channel and content going. For those of you that are not subscribed and are reading the manuscript on Tumblr I’d like to take this moment to direct you over to my Patreon here. Memberships on my Patreon start out as low as $10 a month, you’ll get access to exclusive content such as this podcast that you can’t find anywhere else. You will also gain access to fun digital goodies, video shoutouts on future YouTube uploads, premium Discord roles and perks, and so much more. Now without further delay let's jump right into todays topic on social norms.

What Are Social Norms?

So for starters I want to elaborate on the definition of social norms. If you google the word social norms, you’ll find a pretty clear cut definition from a few sources such as wikipedia and a few educational institutions. To keep the discussion fair I decided to go more in depth on the definition from Stanford.edu that states social norms are “the informal rules that govern behavior in groups and societies.” Some examples of this could be shaking hands when greeting someone, respecting someones personal space, saying "please" and "thank you," and so on. It’s essentially boiled down to a relatively common response to social situations and settings that can differ depending on where you are in the world, or your cultural background, etc. You’re probably currently asking yourself at this point in time why I chose the topic of social norms, and well that answer is actually a lot simpler than you probably think. I was speaking with a close friend about how in todays society, a vast majority of people would make discouraging comments and remarks towards individuals that are following their dreams and passions, wether it was because they were just being spiteful or jealous because they wish they could be doing what you’re doing at the time. I concluded that it has to be a byproduct of what social norms in certain communities have caused. Communities such as the LGBT+ or African Americans and other minorities, small artists and content creators, etc. The New Normal. It’s somehow become a social norm in today’s society across the globe to belittle people for being different, for wanting to inspire change, for the color of their skin, the clothes that they wear, their sexuality or gender identity, and even for just doing what they enjoy, whether it’s playing video games, painting, or even dieting. It baffles me that we currently live in a world that is so divided and broken by such minuscule things that truly don’t affect the other person whatsoever and is nobodies concern but their own. To be utterly blunt, there’s simply no excuse for how ignorant, inconsiderate, and low the world has sunk. From men making decisions on what women can and can’t do with their bodies, to privileged and self righteous individuals belittling other races beyond their own.

It’s as if somehow the population has forgotten that everyone is human, whether they speak a different language from you, dress differently than you, think differently than you, believe in a different religion from you, have a different skin tone than you, or anything else out and in-between. I went to this elementary school growing up as a child that had a poster in the hall over the auditorium that said, “treat others the way you want to be treated.” In simpler terms, if you want to be respected by other people. then you should respect others and they’ll treat you with the same respect. If you treat people like shit then guess what, you’re most likely going to be treated like shit back. You stand absolutely nothing to gain from being a fucking asshole to people other than a tiny drop of whatever satisfaction you think you’re getting in the end. Being an asshole doesn’t pay your bills, it’s not going to magically make your life better, you’re most likely going to lose friends and gain enemies, and you might even end up dying alone because nobody likes an asshole. Sometimes it’s best to keep your opinions to yourself, especially when no one asked for it. What Can You Do? There’s so much more in the world beyond the social norm. Everyone on this planet is their own person and has the freedom and will to do whatever it is that they want and though that’s not always one hundred percent true for some people in some countries or under certain circumstances, for the people that it is true for, instead of being a follower, take a step outside of whatever toxic social norm you’ve conformed to and understand that your thoughts and opinion weigh about as much as your existence on a planet that’s populated with over seven billion people. If you're going to use your voice to say anything at all, make it valuable and worth seven billion eyes and ears and understand that you have to be the change that you wish to see in this world and change in someone else doesn’t always happen overnight. Breaking The Normal I don't want this entire episode to be about all the negative aspects of social norms. This episode is definitely not solely just to say everyone is an asshole and you all need to change. I actually want to take a moment to go over a few lighthearted and good aspects of some social norms. Stanford.edu makes some great points on social norms and how they’re essential for interaction and individual growth. The university goes on to state, “norms of honesty, loyalty, reciprocity and promise-keeping are indeed important to the smooth functioning of social groups.” I think it goes without saying but being honest and keeping a promise are two huge factors in socialization between two or more people. When you're honest to your friends or you keep a promise you made, it builds a bond of trust between you that helps your relationship grow in a healthy way. Most people have experience with other people that are not always honest or maybe have a hard time keeping promises and those type of relationships typically don’t have any form of trust and also tend to have a lack of respect, whether that lack or respect is mutual or one sided. It’s important for your social development to understand these social norms, good and bad alike.

I think another thing that ties into understanding and following social norms is the concept of common sense. The Oxford definition of common sense is “good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.” though for many people, common sense may sound or seem all too common, there are a lot of people out there that lack basic common sense and knowledge. For example, that blue and black dress you saw that’s been floating around the internet might not look blue and black to someone that's color blind. It also might not look blue and black to someone else if the picture they’re looking at was photoshopped. Though that all sounds obvious and sounds like common sense, there are some people that don’t completely understand this and may even think otherwise. The way that common sense ties into social norms simply put is the fact that not all social norms are universal. You may shake hands to greet a friend in your country and that may be the social norm there, but in another country they may look at is as offensive because their greetings may differ greatly. You should never assume that your “normal” is normal for the rest of the world. Outro That’s all I have to talk about when it comes to this topic, at least for this episode. Let me know your thoughts and opinions on social norms in the comment section and tell me what you thought about the podcast episode and if I should do more episodes like this. I also would love to know what topics you want to hear me talk about for future uploads and if your topic gets chosen then I may even upload a special extra video outside of my normal posting schedule to surprise you all with. If you made it to the end of the podcast thank you so much for listening and if you didn’t, then I hope you can finish it properly another time. Don’t forget to check out my other social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and make sure you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel and have post notifications enabled. Thank you again and I’ll see you in the next episode.

#podcasts #youtube #patreon #blogs #art #vlogs #beachs #beach bums

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