#Hitler would have been proud

[merthwyn]

"Slippery slope is far-right wing propaganda" they said.

I'll suggest something else. Since eugenics are good I'm sure technology and science can easily reach a point where we will be able to tell whether an unborn would become a leftist or gay and if the positive answer is more probable we kill it, right?

reddit is entering like an inverted renaissance of bad posting. this is one of the best/worst posts ive seen in a long time

[ashwantsafreepalestine]

Please watch this section from the Two Nice Jewish Boys podcast.

"If you gave me a button, just to erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow, I would press it in a second. Most Israelis would. I would press it right now...all the Palestinians would be gone."

If you still don’t know what Zionism is, even after all the horrific images, listen to this honest conversation between two Zionists & you will understand the deeply racist and fundamentally violent nature of this morally reprehensible ideology and the threat it poses to the world. Hitler would be proud.

Palestinians have been enduring these savages for 76 whole years.

[robertreich]

How Trump is Following Hitler's Playbook

You’ve heard Trump’s promise:

TRUMP: I’m going to be a dictator for one day.

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

In a previous video, I laid out the defining traits of fascism and how MAGA Republicans embody them. But how could Trump — or someone like him — actually turn America into a fascist state? Here’s how in five steps.

Step 1: Use threats of violence to gain power

Hitler and Mussolini relied on their vigilante militias to intimidate voters and local officials. We watched Trump try to do the same in 2020.

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.

Republican election officials testified to the threats they faced when they refused Trump’s demands to falsify the election results.

RAFFENSPERGER: My email, my cell phone was doxxed.

RUSTY BOWERS: They have had video panel trucks with videos of me proclaiming me to be a pedophile.

GABRIEL STERLING: A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason.

If the next election is close, threats to voters and election officials could be enough to sabotage it.

Step 2: Consolidate power

After taking office, a would-be fascist must turn every arm of government into a tool of the party. One of Hitler’s first steps was to take over the civil service, purging it of non-Nazis.

In October of 2020, Trump issued his own executive order that would have enabled him to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists. He never got to act on it, but he’s now promising to apply it to the entire civil service.

That’s become the centerpiece of something called Project 2025, a presidential agenda assembled by MAGA Republicans, that would, as the AP put it, “dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.”

Step 3: Establish a police state

Hitler used the imaginary threat of “the poison of foreign races” to justify taking control of the military and police, placing both under his top general, and granting law-enforcement powers to his civilian militias.

Now Trump is using the same language to claim he needs similar powers to deal with immigrants.

Trump plans to deploy troops within the U.S. to conduct immigration raids and round up what he estimates to be 18 million people who would be placed in mass-detention camps while their fate is decided.

And even though crime is actually down across the nation, Trump is citing an imaginary crime wave to justify sending troops into blue cities and states against the will of governors and mayors.

Trump insiders say he plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to have the military crush civilian protests. We saw a glimpse of that in 2020, when Trump deployed the National Guard against peaceful protesters outside the White House.

And with promises to pardon January 6 criminals and stop prosecutions of right-wing domestic terrorists, Trump would empower groups like the Proud Boys to act as MAGA enforcers.

Step 4: Jail the opposition

In classic dictatorial fashion, Trump is now openly threatening to prosecute his opponents.

TRUMP: if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business.

And he’s looking to remake the Justice Department into a tool for his personal vendettas.

TRUMP: As we completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, we will also launch sweeping civil rights investigations into Marxist local district attorneys.

In the model of Hitler and Mussolini, Trump describes his opponents as subhuman.

TRUMP: …the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country…

Step 5: Undermine the free press

As Hitler well understood, a fascist needs to control the flow of information. Trump has been attacking the press for years.

And he’s threatening to punish news outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

He has helped to reduce trust in the media to such a historic low that his supporters now view him as their most trusted source of information.

Within a democracy, we may often have leaders we don’t like. But we have the power to change them — at the ballot box and through public pressure. Once fascism takes hold, those freedoms are gone and can’t easily be won back.

We must recognize the threat of fascism when it appears, and do everything in our power to stop it.

[stealth-liberal]

Whew, I have a lot to say, and I know for a FACT that not a single non Jewish person on here will give a shit... but I have to vent.

Antisemitism in America is so bad that I honestly don't know if it's safe to send my daughter off to college in 2 years. She doesn't know either. Both of us have discussed her staying home and doing as much of her university education online, so as to keep her safe. She has sensory issues and an anxiety disorder... and already she has been rejected all over the place in her high school campus since 10/7.

The Women's Empowerment Club? The club leader has made it so that no female Jewish student feels safe there, and all of them quit. The little leftist neo nazi in charge of it probably cheered as they left and patted herself on the back for her "praxis". Maybe she can start goose stepping and yelling "Heil Hitler!" while she's at it. But she's not unique. Feminist organizations the world over deny mass rape of Jewish women. Why? Because it's Me Too Unless You're a Jew. They want us all raped and in the grave. Period.

The Pride Club? Forget it. All queer Jewish kids are persona non grata there. Apparently it's cool if Jewish queers are the subject of violence... and I can't say more or I'll start wanting to kill people. I am bisexual, my husband is bisexual, our daughter is lesbian. I have been part of this community since I was 12 as an ally and since I was 15 as a bisexual (took me some time to figure out what I was). My daughter came out in 4th grade for G-d's sake. We've been there, fighting the fight and now... queer organizations all over the world are abandoning us. They honestly hope we will all die, the more violently the better.

I was a proud intersectional feminist and a proud queer woman my whole life. Or at least ever since I could make decisions about that sort of stuff and what I believed. And I have been abandoned, my daughter has been abandoned, for blood sport. Her friends are pulling away from her and we all know why... because she committed the unpardonable sin of being Jewish.

Funny part? The Muslim Student Union has done nothing to her or the other Jewish kids on campus. Ponder that thought leftists if you will.

My son is in 8th grade and for the entirety of his 6th and 7th school years he was relentlessly bullied for being Jewish. We live in a red town and it was right wing antisemitism. It was so bad that I had to remove him for his safety from the school for a while. Now? It's left wing as well, he's catching it from both sides and I don't know how to protect him.

No one cares. Frankly, if my 13 year old son committed suicide to get away from it all... they would throw a party. Another dirty Jew/Zionist down... am I right? None of you give a fuck.

I marched, I protested, I voted, I phone banked. I lived my beliefs in action, and the left betrayed me. They fantasize about me and my children being raped and murdered. The more graphically it could happen, the better for them. Frankly, I think they get off to the videos Hamas released in the privacy of their rooms at night.

There's nowhere to run. Israel isn't an option. I know everyone thinks Jews are dripping in wealth... but I frankly do not have enough money to move my family to the other side of the planet. My husband is in IATSE, the stage hand local. There are no jobs waiting for him there. There are no jobs waiting for me there. I have no family there. Neither does he.

Actually, my husband isn't Jewish. I am, our children are, but he is not. He supports us in our Jewishness 100%, but he is not a Jew and he never wanted to convert. Which is fine with me... but how the hell does that work in a country where there is no civil marriage?

I'm not Orthodox, I don't want to be Orthodox. I want full egalitarianism, so I go to Reform, Renewal, or Conservative synagogues, depending on what is closer to wherever I live. Israel is a VERY Orthodox country, and the options are Orthodox or completely secular. This is a criticism I've been laying at Israel's feet for DECADES.

And Jew Haters better not use this as a way to say how awful Israel is. Not when the countries surrounding Israel are either dictatorships or absolute power, divine right monarchies who kill dissenters constantly.

So... there's really nowhere for my family to go. So I guess I'll stay where I am being a liberal Jew and waiting for the sick marriage of MAGA and Leftists to come to my door and kill me and my family.

None of you care. All of you would cheer. I'll never trust any of you again for the rest of my life. Till the day I die... I'll never trust any of you in any part of my life (online or offline) again.

1 in 5 members of Gen Z think the Holocaust didn't happen. 2/3rds of Gen Z think stories of the Holocaust are exaggerated and that Jews were somewhat complicit in what happened to us. Blame the victim...amirite? The rates amongst Millennials are not as horrific... but they're still bad. You all are going to commit a 2nd Holocaust and pat yourself on the backs. And when history remembers you all as the Nazis part 2... you will babble in your nursing homes that you were "Just trying to save the world from the Zionist/Jewish scourge."

When that happens, I hope you die in a puddle of your own shit.

[icarusredwings]

I have problems incorporating Ellie because the comics/movie timeline does not link up, and I've had a hell of a time fixing the Xmen movie/Logan Timeline (because it has to make sense in my story damn it) I'd have to retcon wade banging Carmelita Camacho when he was broken up with Vanessa, and how do you do that tastefully?

So what is your opinion on how to do this?

Does it work in cannon?

Thoughts in general?

Okay so- Canonly to the movieverse, It's said that Ellie (Eleanor camacho) will not be in this universe, this is probably because Ryan doesn't like the idea of dipping on his daughter seeing in many comic universes, while he does take in Ellie he quickly realizes how crap of a parent he is, always on the run, always in danger, and he dosn't want her in danger (most times) so he leaves her with an adoptive family. He visits often, gives her a phone and tells her to call him any day or night for anything at all and he'll awnser, he plays with her often but has to leave half way through almost every time, her adoptive parents sometimes dislike Wade (for obvious reasons) but they let him come with them trick or treating and to her birthday party.

In the comics Ellie also is a big fan of Spiderman and peter meets Ellie a few times, saying he wasnt aware Wade even had kids, in which he responds that he wasnt either until a couple years ago. This is said as a joke since Ellie is only about 6 when this is said, but its true, Ellie was already born by the time he knew anything about her existence.

He even told her mother that she couldn't possibly be his because she's too beautiful. All in all, you can see him struggling so hard to balance his mental health, his work, his daughter, and just trying to live enough FOR her. She becomes his anchor, but really... really.. struggles to meet the standard of a "good father." To us, we can see how hard he's trying, but Ellie, her father, lies, doesn't come when he says he will, and all an all? Gave her away. It's a gorgeous story, really, depending on which one you read. Older Ellie eventually takes on the legacy of Deadpool in one universe and tells people loud and proud that she's Ellie Wilson and that she IS deadpool (similar to how Laura IS Wolverine).

Alright. Canon done and done.

Now. As the Board of Headcanons thoughts and opinions.

Yes- Ellie would be conceived during the time Vanessa and him are broken up, so somewhere between movie 2 and 3. I *Think* that it's implied that Wade went back to make Vanessa alive again, shooting himself in wolverine orgins, trying to kill baby hitler but failing, etc and then its implied (I think) that Cable goes back home after that seeing as in the 3rd movie the TVA says that he abused his powers with it and Wade mentions that he dosn't have it anymore. That he "smashed it" or something but Wade is a known liar. He probably returned it to Cable (or idk maybe he really did wreck it. Dropped it off the freeway or something- but then they probably could just fix it again idk) so he could go home to his daughter.

Im not entirely sure on the deadpool movieverse timeline, but I wanna say it's a good 6 years in between movies / how long he's been broken up with Vanessa? So yes, they totally could have had Ellie in the plot since Carmelita was a hookup. One that kind of was a bit Eeehhh if you ask me anyway since she only does it because she thinks she's about to die and wants to have sex again before that. He takes off his mask, and she runs off, probably leaving Wade feeling way worse then before hand.

Now I haven't read this specific comic, but she claims that she couldn't find deadpool for the entire pregnancy (accurate) and wanted to give Ellie up for adoption or she wanted child support (?) So Wade took her instead.

You could very easily label her as a sympathy/ rebound hook up from Vanessa but again, movie would be more complicated if he came back to vanessa with a whole kid so thats why they decided to keep her out (and child acting laws/pay probably)

There would infact have to be a whole argument of "Wade where the fuck did you get a kid!?" "Uhhhh shes mine" "no take her back where you found her thats someones daughter you nutcase!" "No no- I mean... shes literally mine.."

Which would do well inna fic where Vanessa and Wade stay broken up, because If my ex boyfriend had a whole kid with someone else I doubt it would be easy to get back together- but if you want it to where Vanessa is still together-ish with Wade then you will have to do something where Vanessa becomes kind of like a step mom.

With how young Ellie is- you could probably write it to where she fully believes V is her mom in the first place. The timeline makes sense that way, I think. You would just have to work out the whole "My boyfriend is having a massive mental identity crisis and is extremely depressed to the point he's neglecting his daughter"

And THAT would be the issue. Does Wade neglect Ellie sometimes? Yes. Is it for her own good? Yes. Would he EVER do anything to personally hurt Ellie? You're out of your god damn mind if you think yes. He does not want to be like his father so he would never hit her. Shout at her? Sure. Regret it? Instantly.

I also can't see Vanessa leaving Wade in such a dark place with Ellie and Al either. She definitely wouldn't leave a child in a home where she wouldn't he cared for- So you would have to have V take Ellie which would lead to Wade being MORE depressed, and maybe thats why he's trying to get his life together so badly? To get his daughter back?

Because normal dads have normal jobs right? Hence the car salesman gig. Maybe hes saving up to move to somewhere so Els and him can have a cleaner, safer, bigger apartment because Obviously sharing a bed with Al makes Vanessa look at him with somewhat suprise and pity. V would want him to get a place where Els can sleep safely and have her own space. Even if its their own apartment and wade gives Els the room and he sleeps on the couch, as long as shes his priority.

V taking Ellie from him would be a major eye opener for him to get his shit together.

(He also would probably call her all the time to talk to ellie and demand that Ellie dosn't meet Vs boyfriends or hook ups because HE'S her dad, not them, he'd kill a bitch if Ellie called them dad)

After the movie, when Logan and Laura are there, Wade can look at her and ask if he can have Ellie back now, and she tells him "Lets start with weekends." Because she can tell just how much he's actually gotten it together but hes not quite ready to have her full time again.

As time goes on with Logan, They would eventually have to move but yes, in about 6 months time he would get Ellie back and have his little family that consistents of a mommy, 2 daddys, a dog, 3 daughters, and a grandma.

[thenameswinter99]

I generally avoid to talk about politics in my blog, but I woke up choosing violence and I won’t keep myself any longer.

Message to the Americans from an European:

FUCK YOU ALL.

How could you ever, EVER think of voting a racist, homophobic, misogynist, megalomaniac and all the negative adjectives of the world man? I had little hope in Kamala, I had the feeling she would not win… BUT HOW COULD YOU, HOLY SHIT?

Do you think your “saviour”, the same who said that he should have trusted men around like Hitler with their generals? The same man who allowed one his constituents to call Kamala a “whore” and simulated a oral practice with his microphone IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE (who have less brain than him, let’s be honest), the same who organized the assault of Capitol Hill because he could not accept defeat, the same man who had another scum called Elon Musk corrupting the people by donating millions for voting for Trump (a practice ILLEGAL, I L L E G A L), would really MaKe AmErIcAh gReAt AgAiN?

We will talk about this when you’ll cry about multiple civil war starting in your country, because this is what will happen. And I will not be impressed when I’ll read the news in the newspaper.

Don’t cry when you’ll lose your house due to the climate change, because your beloved new President doesn’t believe in climate change and will do everything to turn your back and keep polluting the world, affecting us as well (the Spain floods should be a living example)

Europeans (the intelligent ones, as there are the no brained ones who are celebrating Trump’s victory) are looking at you with extremely side eye because you ruined us. You LITERALLY ruined us, already fragile from two wars that are far from seeing the end. Don’t think that he will be the Messiah that will stop all the wars: it won’t happen. Don’t think the economical and commercial relationships will improve under him: it won’t happen.

For all the women voting for Trump: I hope you look in your mirror in the morning and be ashamed of yourself, because there were women behind you who FOUGHT AND DIED for your fucking rights, and you put your vote on a man that will erase your rights in a heartbeat. Don’t cry when you’ll be treated as a baby machine, because you’ll have to shut up when it will be too late to complain.

For all the Americans who voted for Kamala and tried to break the cycle and giving America a better future: I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I know she wasn’t your best candidate, that she has lots of flaws, but the damage would have been less instead of the orange tycoon. We’re living in a simulation of the 1920’s, where violence and ignorance are reigning without being punished. These four years, barring unforeseen events or coups, will pass. And a better future will come.

Thank you for ruining our world, America. Hope you’re proud of yourself. 💜

P.S. Before you attack me after reading my useless wall of text: I’m from Italy, governed by a party of fascist people, with the first Prime Minister being a woman who hates women; who are annulling the women and the LGBTQ+ rights; with the worst press and television censorship; with the population clamouring for higher salaries and lower taxes, but they do nothing; with the highest tax burden but NOTHING is done to lower them; with a Ministry of Transport investigated for kidnapping for ILLEGALLY holding a boat of migrants. I know what will be your destiny, so don’t worry. 💜

[edenfenixblogs]

Hello, as a non-Jewish person I have read Night because of your posts. I am not very good at articulating my thoughts, and if anything I say brings up questions for you I will try and answer them. The beginning where there is a sense of hope, is so awful because it just constantly gets worse and worse. The worsening of the regulations while the people of his village tell themselves that it is not too bad, but it is terrible, right from the first limitation, and even before it, all the events that led to it.“German laborers were going to work. They would stop and look at us with no surprise” (100), “And the spectators observed those emancipated creatures ready to kill for a piece of bread”(101). This dehumanization, I wonder how did the German citizens live with it? This sentiment continues on to this day, and yet it is dismissed so easily. “I was sixteen” His relationship with his religion is hurt so much, this general feeling of hopelessness that other people around him also feel, “Just like Rabbi Eliahu’s son, I had not passed the test”. He feels such guilt, he tries so hard to help his father, even as he is starving himself.

While I read this book, sometimes I thought that whatever is happening in this book was not that bad. Sometimes they would get a thicker soup and that would make him happy. How awful is that? For this to be normal for him. For this to not be unusual to me. In the stories of the Holocaust that I have learned, these things are not unfamiliar, the starvation, the apathy of other civilians, the death marches. His story has been categorized in my mind as another set of terrible things that were done to a Jewish person during the Holocaust. His story, every single atrocity that was done to him, I can not imagine properly, yet I only feel an undefinable upset over what happened to him. I think there is something wrong with that? I have very recently discovered that I am, in fact, antisemitic, from your posts and someone else that also realized their antisemitism (which you pointed out), and am trying to outgrow it. I am concerned that my reaction to this book is greatly affected by antisemitism. I can’t tell, am I telling myself that his suffering was ok? Am I? In the book, there are often mentions of Jewish culture that I do not know of. For example, “Shavuot” and the New Year being in summertime. I understand that these are google-able questions, but I was wondering if you have resources for a general introduction into Jewish culture and history? I hope by learning more I can dismantle my antisemitism. If you know a better way to do so, I would appreciate if you could let me know! Thank you for the recommendation to read Night, I will read All But My Life next. I am sorry if my concern over my antisemitism reads as shallow, I do not know how else to express it.

Friend, I am SO PROUD OF YOU and SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU!!!!!

I have said repeatedly that all journeys begin somewhere. More people are antisemitic than are not antisemitic, because that’s how systemic oppression works. You have been taught to hate me.

I thank you for seeing our shared humanity and working to unlearn the harmful things you know.

1. How did the Germans live with the dehumanization? The same way people are living with the dehumanization of Jews now. German antisemitism was deeply tied to antisemitic concepts and tropes that long predated Hitler. These tropes and conspiracy theories had been floating around Europe for a very long time. Furthermore, they have never gone away. All the old tropes and conspiracy theories are resurfacing in the internet age, because the Holocaust only temporarily shamed antisemites, but not enough significant cultural shifts occurred to stop it from rising again.

2. “…sometimes I thought that whatever was happening was not that bad…” I think I see what you are saying. I don’t know your age or where you are from, so I’m not sure if you’ve ever dealt with these kinds of feelings before, let alone how to articulate them — or how to do so in English. But you seem to be horrified by what is happening but you also seem to feel guilt that you find moments of relief in the horrible times as well. I don’t think that makes you a bad person. I just think that makes you a person. The human mind is not built to comprehend trauma on the scale seen during The Holocaust. It instinctively tries to find moments of reprieve that prove things aren’t that bad. And, to be fair, Judaism applauds this. It is a very Jewish idea that we should always look for moments of joy even when our hearts are steeped in misery. Because life is joy. And it is sometimes impossible to wrap our minds around how joyless life can be, and often was for Jews during this time. But your instinct to recognize the impulse to say “well, this day/moment/experience wasn’t so bad” and correct yourself to say, “actually this is a horrific terrible thing that just wasn’t as bad as that other horrific terrible thing that just happened” instead is a good instinct. One of the reasons the Holocaust occurred was because both Jews and non-Jews gave in to this instinct to minimize suffering. Jews minimized our own suffering and clung to hope until it was too late too late to fight back successfully. From the moment we were told to register on lists and wear stars and get on trains, we all should have fought. We should have fought louder and more to condemn Hitler while he was on the rise and to shame those who would vote for him. But ultimately, we were still outnumbered terribly and nothing we did could have stopped the horrors that followed if non-Jews didn’t support us. Non-Jews, of course, bare the true guilt and responsibility for the Holocaust. They refused to question their own hatred. They turned a blind eye to the rising antisemitism. They abandoned their friends in need. They complied with hostile forces who threatened them in order to betray the Jews around them.

Your job as a non-Jew is to never repeat those mistakes. Never let an instance of antisemitism go unremarked on. Ever. And learn what antisemitism looks like. Refuse to ever let it exist or ignored in your presence.

Everyone likes to pretend they would do this, but very few ever do. The reality is that some people hate Jews so much, they will stop being your friend for defending us. And to be a good person, you have to be willing to let those people leave your life if they are unwilling to let go of their hate and learn to do better. The reality is that, at some point, you may very well be asked to choose to reject a friend for the sake of the safety of Jews you have never and will never meet. The good news is that this is not the case the majority of the time!

Most people want to consider themselves good people. And most people want the approval of their peer groups.

Your job is to steer the attitude of your peer group away from antisemitic thinking and toward peace and deconstruction of hateful systemic antisemitism—rather than allowing your peer group to steer you toward the comforting familiarity of Jew-hatred.

3. “…I have recently discovered that I am antisemitic…” I forgive you. As I said, most people are. I draw a distinction between someone who is antisemitic and someone who is an antisemite. You have harmful and negative opinions about Jews because of the systemic bigotry you have been surrounded by your whole life. But this hatred has not become your identity. You recognize this hatred as a part of you that must be discarded. Antisemitism is something you have, not something you are. And you are doing the right things to make sure you stop being antisemitic. This, to me, means you are not an antisemite. If you give up and stop caring about Jews and unlearning these harmful thought patterns, that would make you an antisemite. Because that would mean you are comfortable folding the antisemitism you possess into your identity and sense of self. It seems to me you do not wish to do this. And that means you’re growing and changing for the better. And that is beautiful.

4. “I am concerned that my reaction to this book is affected by antisemitism.” Yeah it probably is. But so is most people’s reaction to this book. That’s the point. Your being willing to confront that is what is important. It is about looking at the places where you lose empathy for Jews, asking yourself why, and then fixing the reason you find.

5. “Am I telling myself his suffering was ok?” I think you’re doing the opposite. I think you’re re-sensitizing yourself to something you were de-sensitized to. That is difficult and admirable.

6. Regarding Jewish culture:

6.a. “Shavuot” is a Jewish holiday. It is the anniversary of the day G-d gave the Torah to the Israelites. In general, a good way to familiarize yourself with stuff like this is to look for resources about Jewish holidays and what they mean. Hebcal offers short summaries of each Jewish holiday that you can import into your phone calendar and learn about as they happen. Wikipedia has a page about Jewish holidays that you can explore. So does the Jewish Virtual Library.

6.b. Jewish culture is vast and impossible to summarize simply. I would recommend starting with the Wikipedia Page on Jewish Culture and exploring whatever seems interesting to you. You’ll never learn it all and that’s ok! I’ve never met a Jew who knows it all either! We have so many subcultures all over the world shaped by unique experiences in diaspora. The most important thing to take away is that no matter how far apart we are or how differently we practice, we are all one people whose goal is to love our fellow humans and do our best to make the world a better place. This is called Tikkun Olam, which means repairing the world. This in itself is a huge concept. But it all relates to making the world better for one another.

I think you are doing a beautiful and amazing thing. And you, by choosing to remove hate from your mind and your actions, are actively making the world a better place. You are repairing some of the damage done by systemic antisemitism.

You are doing Tikkun Olam. And that, in every possible situation, is the best thing you can ever do. Thank you, @JellyMarbles

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Armin Wegner 

Armenian refugees photographed by Armin Wegner, 1915

Armin Wegner was a German soldier stationed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I who was  witness to the Armenian Genocide. Disobeying orders, he gathered extensive documentation and took hundreds of photographs of atrocities committed against Armenians. Later, Armin became a fearless peace activist who was imprisoned for standing up to Hitler.

Armin was born in 1886 to an aristocratic Prussian family in the Rhineland area of Germany. He was educated at schools in Poland and Switzerland, and was a gifted poet, publishing his first volume of poetry, “I Have Never Been Older than as a Sixteen-year-old” as a teenager. He attended law school, but had the soul of an artist and spent the next couple of years (in his own words) as a “farmer, dock-worker, student of drama (with Max Reinhardt), private tutor, editor, public speaker, lover and idler, filled with a deep desire for unraveling the mystery of things.”

When World War I broke out in 1914, Armin joined the German army, serving as a medic in Poland. He received the Iron Cross for rendering care under fire. Armin rose to rank of second lieutenant in the German Sanitary Corps and was sent to the Middle East as part of a detachment to assist the Ottoman Army.

Stationed along the Baghdad Railway in Syria and modern-day Iraq, Armin was shocked to witness thousands of emaciated Armenian refugees forced onto death marches by the Ottomans. The horrifying reality of what was happening was being hidden, and Armin was ordered to keep quiet about what he saw as Germany did not want to alienate the Ottoman Empire, an important ally. Disobeying what he felt was a deeply unjust order, Armin went to great effort to collect proof about the systematic massacre of Armenians – the first modern genocide. Armin was willing to risk his life to document what was happening, and his extensive photographic record remains the most important evidence of the atrocities that occurred.

The Ottomans eventually found out what Armin was doing, and he was arrested by the Germans and sent back to Germany. Some of his photographs were destroyed, but he was able to smuggle out many negatives hidden in his belt.

After the war, Armin became a successful journalist and prominent anti-war activist. In 1919 he published an “Open Letter to President Woodrow Wilson” urging the peace conference to create an independent Armenian state.

He wrote extensively about the Armenian Genocide and testified in court at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, an Armenian who killed Talat Pasha, the Ottoman leader who orchestrated the atrocity. Armin’s testimony was so powerful that the court could not convict Tehirian for the assassination, even though there were many eyewitnesses. He was found not guilty for reason of temporary insanity.

Armin was a respected writer and cultural figure who co-created the German Expressionist movement in the mid-1920’s. After visiting the Soviet Union, including the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia with his wife, author Lola Landau, Armin wrote a book about his trip, which became a bestseller. It was a chilling account of the political violence endemic to Soviet Communist rule. At a time when many in the West were romanticizing the Bolsheviks, Armin was one of the few who could see where the situation was headed: totalitarian Stalinism.

Meanwhile in Germany, Hitler and the Nazi power gained power and in 1933 they urged a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses. As someone who witnessed the Armenian Genocide and had many Jewish friends, Armin could not remain silent. He wrote an open letter to Adolf Hitler identifying himself as a proud Prussian who could trace his roots in Germany back to the time of the Crusades. In clear language he told Hitler that his persecution of Germany’s Jews would destroy the country. “There is no Fatherland without justice!” he said. Armin was the only writer to speak out publicly against Hitler. Swiftly, he was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and imprisoned in harsh conditions for a year. In 1934 Armin was released, and immediately fled to Rome, where he changed his name and lived in hiding. His wife divorced him, leading Armin to later say, “Germany took everything from me… even my wife.” He never returned to his beloved homeland. For being the only cultural figure in Germany to speak out for the Jews, Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem honored Armin Wegner as Righteous Among the Nations in 1967.

Armin died alone in Rome in 1978, at age 92. Per his request, his gravestone contains a quote from Pope Gregory VII as he lay on his deathbed in 1085: “I loved justice and hated injustice/Therefore I die in exile.”

For bravely documenting the Armenian Genocide, and standing up to Hitler at great personal sacrifice, we honor Armin Wegner as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[sharenadraculea]

So, I‘m thinking about Azula, Mai and Ty Lee (but mostly Azula) and how they are treated by both canon and the fandom as one does and remembered a scene I once saw in a ww2-documentary as one does. So if you would allow me to go on a tangent:

One of the last surviving recordings of Hitler is him handing out medals to child soldiers in Berlin. And it‘s these tiny children -Hitler has to bend down to be on eye level with some of them-, maybe twelve or fourteen year old, in uniforms that are too big, in a ruined city, pretending that they are adults and trying to be proud about getting these medals. A child that was twleve or fourteen in 1945 would have literally no memories from before the Nazis took over. They would have had no real chance to get away from the brainwashing. They spent the last five years living through a global war and their country was clearly loosing when they got those medals. The red army were nearly at Berlin or allready there -I can‘t remember when the recording was done exactly- and there weren‘t enough adults to throw at the enemy, so little kids were forced to fight a fight they could not win.

And in my opinion this is much more how especially Azula should have been portrayed: a brainwashed child with no knowledge of how the world was before the fire nation was before they started commiting genocides, forced to fight in a global war by a horrible dictator and told that this is good and that she is good for doing the fighting. Not a complete monster that was born evil and should just be killed.

She is a fucking child for heavens sake!

[oldgayjew]

The father of the Manipulative Goebbels Media ...

... and the mother of American Eugenics ...

Hitler would have been proud of both of these self-important Advocates ...

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Sorry for coming off as antagonistic in the tags of the post on Abraham. By all means, please explain your views on hell. I've read your blog for the past month or so, and I've seen a lot of your reblogs about Christian Universalism, the ideas that hell isn't eternal, everyone is eventually reunited with God, etc.

I know reblogs don't necessarily equal agreement, but I am curious to hear what you have to say

Hii

Thank you for the apology. I needed that. And I am also very sorry if i came off as antagonistic at all; like I said, i hadn't eaten and it was 2 pm T-T, and also pride is something I am struggling with so I get offended too easily sometimes.

As for my recent reblogs, I got a new mutual who is a universalist, or at the very least in favor of purgatorial universalism. I reblogged them to meditate/contemplate on them. I myself, am not universalist tho. I am philosophically in the Methodist/Wesleyan so free will is pretty important to me, which both universalism and Calvinism tend to restrict too much imo.

Now, first thing i really want to get clear is that I do not know what happens when you die and what happens at the parousia. I know that that Christians will not die because they are in Christ, that all - righteous and unrighteous - will be resurrected, that there will be a separation of the two, and that heaven and earth will be one. These things Scripture is clear on and no one can contest. Everything else is speculation tho. I know some will disagree with me, but I really do not think scripture is as clear on this as many believe. I want to be really clear that I (and I believe, most if not all) just do not know because Scripture is just not as clear as we would like it to be. And this is because, despite the claim of some philosophers of religion, Christianity (and the Ancient Israelite religion) does not exist to answer questions of "What happens when I die?" It exists to tell of how heaven is coming on earth. And I have to just accept that because I cannot make scripture into something it's not. So I try to do research, look into historical traditions, and attempt (with varying degrees of success) to stay humble before God and loving before neighbor

First, a Lewis quote: "There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than [hell], if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord's own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason. If a game is played, it must be possible to lose it." I start with this because I believe it is very important that no Christian should desire hell for anyone and that we believe in it because it is a sad necessity of reality, not because it is a desirous one. As Paul says in 1 Timothy, we know that God desires that all humanity be saved thru the mediator of Jesus the Anointed One. I say often that to be a Christian is to desire the salvation of even Hitler. Not merely salvation from some subterranean fiery torture chamber, but salvation from Sin.

So, the story of the bible is how God created heaven and earth and they were overlapping (the Garden of Eden), and it was his will to rule his good world together with his images but then heaven and earth got ripped apart because humans are foolish and proud and rebellious. So now, we are outside of God’s presence and as far as I am concerned, if one is not in God, they are already in hell. Or rather, hell is inside of them. I look around and I see infanticide and oppression and genocide and rape and murder and violence and racism and misogyny etc etc etc. I mean just look at Genesis 3-11, it's insanity. And I just have to ask, "What is that if not hell?" And since all of it is rooted in the human heart (which is deceitful and wicked and utterly diseased), hell is in the human heart. St Jacob says a tongue that lies and gossips and curses is lit on fire by Gehenna (which was a physical place southwest of Jerusalem). Not by nature or essence but enslaved to the power of Sin and Death.

On the note of death, I believe in conditional immortality. The human in Genesis 2 is made from dust and they have the opportunity to achieve immortality but it's lost. So they are from dust to dust, without any immortality of the soul. As are all human beings "bitten by the snake", enslaved to Sin and Death. That is, until Jesus could liberate us from slavery to sin and death by his sinless but cursed slave death. He went into death and opened up the way out into eternal life starting now and lasting forever. As such, we believers, as being mystically united to Christ, are alive in him and thus do not die. Rather, when we die we go to heaven and are alive in him (this is why Anglicans, Catholics, and Orthodoxes see no problem asking saints to pray for them. They are not dead).

So the triumphant body of Christ awaits in the intermediate space while awaiting the full reconciliation. So this waiting and praising and praying takes place in heaven. Waiting and praising and praying takes place on earth, until the return of Jesus the Christ in all of his glory, the resurrection of the cosmos, and the full union of heaven and earth. And so the people of God who have chosen life will reign and rule in the power and love of God once more.

But then there is the problem of those who choose death. All powers and authorities have been made subjected to Christ the Victor and King and now everyone is faced with a choice: be healed by the Great Physician and join him in his New Creation, or choose a sin and death in the Valley of Wailing. Why would anyone choose the Valley of Wailing? I made an entire post about it (more poetic than theological) but basically we do it everyday. I have heard it said that "man would escape hell if he could" but this is simply untrue. Of course, we do not wish to live in hell, and if we could escape by our own way we would. But our efforts simply create more hell. Nothing is more terrifying to humanity than that Jesus is God, because if Jesus is God then there is objective good and bad and I have to stand on his wisdom. And if Hesus is God then we killed him when he revealed himself to us. We would rather be "abandoned by God" as Sartre said, though in truth we have abandoned God and thus chosen hell. I chose the hell when I was proud and easily offended and spiteful towards you yesterday, for example. And so, if at the Second Coming, when I see Justice incarnated as the person of Jesus bearing the authority to declare good from evil, I can choose to bow in submission, or I can choose to be forced to bow in subjugation. And many will not choose to boy. "Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven" they will say. They will prefer their idols and their deceptions to true joy and reality.

And God will let them.

Hell, then, is God's monument to human dignity and choice. If someone refuses to be healed by the Great Physician, God will honor that choice. But what God will not do is allow hell to ruining his good world. "I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.” - C.S. Lewis. And also "those who fly from the eternal light of God, which contains in itself all good things, are themselves the cause to themselves of their inhabiting eternal darkness, destitute of all good things, having become to themselves the cause of [their consignment to] an abode of that nature.” - St Irenaeus. It is God's mercy to contain (sub)human evil and not let it eternally ravage his good world, nor his good image bearing humans who live in that world.

And so they can choose, and God will honor their choice, between the Great New Garden City (New Jerusalem, in the Revelation) that is heaven and earth married together again or you can "live" in the Valley of Wailing, which is outside the city and thus sort of outside creation, which is weird. What does that mean, to be outside the city? How are you outside creation? How are they alive if there is no natural immortality and life is dependent on God? What is it like in the valley? Well I mean, I don't know. It's fire. And darkness. And ice. Death. Destruction. Non-order. Non-being. This is where I lean more annihilationist. But, conditional immortality is distinct from annihilationism. While annihilationism places emphasis on the active destruction of a person, conditional immortality places emphasis on a person's dependence upon God for life; the extinction of the person is thus a passive consequence of separation from God. But I do not hold firmly to the concept of cessation of existence. I think it makes sense, but the only thing I hold fast to is 1) that I do not know and 2) that God's desire will be done.

And without Christ's sacrifice, his defeat of death and sin, the gift of the Spirit of God to urge us to pursue holiness, we would still be slaves to sin and death, corrupted by it, unable to follow God's wise instruction. And as such evangelism is still vitally important (which is a concern I have seen from some) because without the renewing of the mind, as Paul says, there will be no allegiance to Christ.

That said, I do believe there will be nonbelievers who choose life/God. And there will also be some believers who will choose death/sin. Why? Quite simply honestly. There are Christians that won't talk to people who vote differently from them. At the wedding feast of the Lamb there will be Nazis and Jews, Democrats and Republicans, Zionists and Palestinians (the feeling many people feel reading this is the same feeling many Ancient Israelites would've felt reading the last chapter of Zechariah where Jew and non-Jew go up Mount Zion to celebrate Sukkot). Some Christians, like the first century Jewish brethren of Jesus our Lord, will find the love and power of Christ abhorrent, and they will reject him. That all said, i am a hopeful universalist. It is not my hope that anyone would choose death. I want all people - even Hitler - to choose Life. Again: to be a Christian is to desire the salvation of even Hitler. In fact I would say that the end goal is reaching such a state of union with God that you would be willing to die for the salvation of the wicked, but I understand that’s in the deep end and not everyone would agree with that lol.

So... yeah. I don't know how clear this is. I sort of got away from soteriology and into full on eschatology, but as you can tell the two can't really be separated for me, you know? If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

May you have perfect peace, and may the favor of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, God of Compassion and Favor be with you. Amen.

[cetaitlaverite]

Why All This Music?

Masters of the Air - Rosie Rosenthal x OC

link to the masterlist is here <3

10. Lost Puppies

Freddie had been in training for Operation Corona, as she found it was called, for a week, and she felt she’d finally found her place in the war. She’d liked being a wireless operator, had been proud of the small bits of comfort she was able to afford the pilots before they went out on a mission by being the last voice they heard before setting off, but it had never felt overly interesting to her. Important, she knew - the British government wouldn’t have been spending so much time, money, and resources making it happen otherwise - but she’d always secretly felt like she could do more if given the opportunity.

And now she had been. Her promotion to flight officer quickly became a promotion to squadron officer as it became clear she was a better fit for the job than anyone could have guessed. She’d spent so many years by now listening into German radios she picked up that she’d inadvertently retained their ordering patterns and found, even with the lack of use, she was able to slip into her German seamlessly. There was also the matter of her being the only trainee who had ever actually spoken to a German pilot. Her experience and expertise became invaluable. Suddenly she found herself a leader.

The other wireless operators in the operation had little to no experience working with radios. As such, Freddie helped them. A great majority were Jews who had fled mainland Europe once it had become clear Hitler would stop at nothing until he’d gotten rid of them - Endlösung der Judenfrage, they told Freddie he was calling it. The final solution to the Jewish question. None of them knew all too well what this solution was but they’d had a couple of letters from family since coming over to England which had hinted at horror. Those letters had now stopped coming.

It was grand to get to speak to these people. Gut wrenching to learn of what they’d had to endure to get to Britain, even more so to understand their fears about what was happening to their families, but it was important to Freddie to know. And it was wonderful to get to speak German. Proper German. She only ever got to speak German when she went home - it wasn’t, of course, a skill one liked to advertise - but now she was surrounded by native German speakers who asked about her Viennese accent and gave her updates on the last they’d heard about the city.

Freddie was amongst the first wave of trainees to head out into duty. She was reassigned back to Thorpe Abbotts, as she’d been assured she would be. It was a condition of her signing on; she’d told her recruiter in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t be offering her services if she wasn’t allowed to stay where she was. So, once her week of training was up, she was put back on a train, accompanied by a compartment full of green, freshly trained, native-German-speaking wireless operators, only recently promoted out of civilian life, who hung onto her every word about what to expect of life at an airfield and how to keep calm even when you were talking to the enemy.

She was also returning with a third promotion. She was now proudly displaying the insignia which identified her as a wing officer. The w/op girls were going to lose it when they found out. Now she outranked Jones.

When she stepped out of the jeep which had come to pick her up from the train station - her own personal escort! A perk of her new rank, the driver had told her - she breathed in the air of Thorpe Abbotts and marvelled that at some point over the two years she’d been there it had become home.

The girls would all have been working in the tower at this time of day, Freddie knew, so she headed to her new hut to set up her bunk. She had first pick of the beds and chose the one in the far corner, the most amount of privacy she was likely to get as well as furthest from the rushes of cold air which would fill the room when someone came back from the officers’ club late and, notably, furthest from the bathroom and all of its accompanying smells. She made up her bed with the fresh sheets folded at the bottom, unloaded the bag she’d travelled to training with, then went between her old hut and her new one transferring her belongings.

Someone new had already filled her old bed, she found with a start. Someone else’s belongings were in the footlocker at the end of the bed. But her old footlocker she found right beside Millie’s, sticking out into the walkway which Freddie was sure a few of the girls had complained about. And the pictures Freddie had stuck to the wall above her bed had been moved to the wall above Millie’s. Freddie had no idea why, but the thought of Millie sleeping beneath photos of Daniel and her dogs and her parents made tears fill her eyes.

Carefully, Freddie unstuck the photographs and transferred them, along with her old footlocker, to her new bunk. She stuck them carefully to the wall above her bed and frowned as she wondered who Meatball would live with. He’d always slept on her bed but maybe he was better off with Millie and the other wireless operators he already knew instead of trying to acclimatise to all of the new faces Freddie would be accompanied by.

All of a sudden it was difficult to be so excited about her new post. She was doing something useful, she knew, something that would save bombers’ lives. Something that might go on to save Rosie’s life. It was silly to be upset by things such as where Meatball would sleep and the fact that she would no longer fall asleep beside her best friend. She would be doing a lot of good. She had to hold onto that.

The Operation Corona wireless operators had to have dinner earlier than everyone else because their first briefing had been set for the normal dinner hour. Freddie was more than just a little bit upset about this; she’d been missing her friends for a week and as soon as she was back in their sphere she was being kept away from them. Indeed, the base may as well have been empty for how few people she’d seen around. But dinner passed quickly, all of the new w/ops too nervous about their first briefing to want to talk much, and then the briefing came and went. Their first real mission briefing would be tomorrow, they were told, and their first assignment the day after that. They were less than two days away from directly sabotaging the enemy and nerves were running high.

Freddie did her best to reassure them all and managed to cajole them into going to the officers’ club that night. With no bombing mission set for tomorrow there was bound to be a party.

Freddie herself couldn’t help but feel jittery as she got ready. She had new insignia to show off and a new glow of responsibility. She wanted to look pretty, look distinguished in a way befitting her new rank. Really, she was anxious to see Rosie again.

No one was more jittery than the girls in Freddie’s new bunk, who were so anxious to meet the airmen on base they spent the better part of an hour just on their hair.

By the time Freddie and the others made it out the door she was all but worn out, too tired from deciding on countless hairstyles and helping to set curls and the like to feel much nervousness anymore.

She led her new charges to the officers’ club, smiling to herself at the sound of excited chatter which followed her. Almost the instant she stepped into the club she was met with a shriek.

“Fred!” Millie cried, running at her. “You’re back!”

A wide smile split Freddie’s face. “Mils!”

They tackled each other in a hug, holding on tight and swaying from side to side. A week was longer than they’d been separated since they’d met two years ago. The longest they’d ever gone was three days when one of them would go on leave.

A loud, insistent barking fought for dominance with the gramophone’s music as Meatball came bounding over to them. “Hi, buddy!” Freddie cheered, crouching down to hug him as Millie let her go. 

Meatball kept on barking as she hugged him, then covered her in kisses when she pulled back to hold him at arm’s length. “Oh, my sweet boy,” Freddie cooed, understanding suddenly that his excitement at seeing her again was likely because he’d expected not to. He’d already lost one companion and he’d expected to lose another when she’d gone away for training all of a sudden.

She pressed kisses to his head and his cheeks, taking his paws as he offered them to her and giggling as he started to run circles around her, still barking as loud as he could in his excitement.

“Come here, my darling boy,” Freddie cooed, catching him in the midst of yet another circle and wrapping him in another hug. “I’m not leaving you, I promise,” she spoke into the fur on his neck. “Okay?”

“Looks like he missed you just as bad as we did,” Jem said as she came over.

Freddie laughed, rising to stand and hugging her, too. “Missed you, Jemmy.”

“Missed you too, Fred.”

“Come on,” Millie cut in from behind her. “Come see everyone else.”

Freddie acquiesced, linking her arms with Millie’s and Jem’s.

And this, Freddie thought as the three of them made their way over to the bar with Meatball weaving excitedly around their feet, was home. She hadn’t realised how badly she’d missed it while she’d been away until she got it again. 

“Who are your lost puppies?” Jem asked as they came upon the bar.

Freddie stifled a smile as she glanced back and saw her charge of newly trained wireless ops trailing dutifully behind her. 

“These are my wireless ops,” Freddie said, unhooking her arms to gesture to them proudly.

“Your wireless ops?” Millie echoed with a smile. “Bit presumptuous of you, Fred.”

“Well,” Freddie replied, grinning, “it’s actually not presumptuous of me at all. Last time you saw me I was being promoted to measly flight officer status. I’ve been promoted twice since then.”

“Shut up!” Amy cut in from across the bar. “You’re a squadron officer?”

“I’m a wing officer,” Freddie corrected her, giggling at the absurdity of it. “You should all be calling me ‘ma’am’ and saluting me on sight.”

Freddie accepted the congratulations from all of her former colleagues, laughing as they took it in turns pressing kisses to her cheeks. “I bet I’m all covered in red lipstick now!” she objected when Paddy wouldn’t stop.

Paddy only laughed. “It’ll wash off!”

Congratulations received, Freddie turned to introduce her new wireless operators and smiled as she watched her old friends and her new ones greet each other. In turn, she was introduced to the girl who had taken her place, a twenty-one year old named Cecelia who had been transferred from her boyfriend’s base because she’d gotten in trouble for flirting with him over the radio. Freddie giggled when she heard the story and decided immediately that she liked her.

She was immersed in conversation with Cecelia and Amy, Meatball sitting on the toes of her shoes, about how the girls were trying to hook Amy up with one of the rear gunners of one of the replacement crews when a light hand came to rest on the small of her back. 

Turning, Freddie grinned at the proffered glass of lemonade and the smirking face above it.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” she joked. She accepted the lemonade from him and placed it on the bar in favour of getting up on her tiptoes and wrapping her arms around his neck, giggling as he wrapped his own around her waist.

“Hi, Fred,” Rosie said, his smile audible in his voice.

“Rosie,” Freddie replied, grinning, “I missed you.”

“You did?”

“Of course!” 

He held her just a little bit tighter. “I missed you too.”

Freddie smiled as she pulled out of their hug and picked her lemonade back up, taking a sip. “Thank you for my lemonade.” Rosie smiled and brushed her thanks away. “I hear you went to the flak house - how was it?”

Millie had updated her hurriedly on everything which had transpired on base since she’d been away, informing her that Rosie and his crew had been forced, much against Rosie’s will, to go on rest and recuperation at Coombe House, not-so-affectionately nicknamed ‘the flak house’ for how crews tended to be sent there when their commanding officers feared they were getting ‘flak happy’. In other words, Coombe House was intended to give the crews a place where they could talk to a therapist about how they were handling everything without everyone else having to know about it, while maybe also playing a few games of tennis here and there while they were at it.

Rosie scowled at the mention of his visit to the flak house, opting to take a big gulp of beer before even attempting to answer.

Freddie laughed as she watched him consider his words. “Everything you hoped it would be and more, I see,” she observed.

Rosie cracked a smile at this. “It was fine,” he said diplomatically. “I got something for you.”

Freddie visibly brightened. “You did?”

Rosie’s smile widened at whatever he saw on her face. “Yeah,” he confirmed. “I didn’t think you’d be back tonight, or else I would’ve brought it with me.”

“So sorry not to give you advance warning,” Freddie teased him. “I was let go from training early because I’m just so very good at it, see.”

Rosie grinned. “I’m sure you are. And ‘it’ would be..?”

Freddie laughed, sipping on her lemonade to keep him waiting, purely to entertain herself with the way he watched her do it. “Oh, you know,” she finally answered, fiddling with the straw in her drink, “this and that.”

Rosie groaned. “Fred…”

Freddie giggled. “Give me my gift and then I’ll tell you.”

“Your gift is back in my bunk.”

“Oh, well.” Freddie smiled innocently.

“Wing Officer Leroy!”

Freddie turned, smiling as she came face to face with one of her new recruits. 

“Ma’am -”

“You can just call me Freddie when we’re not working,” Freddie cut her off, smiling, “remember?”

“Right,” the girl, Anneliese, replied, then promptly forgot this information as she continued, “ma’am, are we allowed to fraternise with the Americans?”

Beside her, Rosie snorted.

Freddie fought to hold onto her laugh. “Well,” she began, “not officially, but people do.”

“If I get caught fraternising will you bail me out, ma’am?”

This time, both Freddie and Rosie actually did laugh. “Anneliese, what kind of fraternising are you expecting to get caught doing?” Freddie asked, her jaw just slightly agape at the insinuation.

Anneliese shot a quick glance at Rosie, conscious he was listening in, and then started to speak in German, “One of the Americans - a bomb-aimer, he says - is very handsome. But he lives in a bunk with all of his crew, and I live in a bunk with all of you. Where do you suggest we go as an alternative?”

Freddie laughed, rolled her eyes, and rested a hand on Anneliese’s arm. “I suggest you wait for a weekend pass.”

Anneliese perked up. “Will you give me a weekend pass?”

“You haven’t even been here for a day yet!”

Anneliese sighed with all the air of a teenager being grounded by their mother, even though she was only a year younger than Freddie. “Fine.”

“If you get caught fraternising it’ll be out of my hands,” Freddie warned her, not entirely convinced she was about to take her advice.

“Yes, ma’am,” Anneliese answered, saluted - all of these new recruits loved to salute, Freddie had found, just because they were excited to be working for the military - and then turned on her heel to walk away, presumably off to find her American bomb-aimer.

Rosie waited a moment before speaking. Freddie sighed and started sipping on her lemonade as she awaited whatever comment he was about to make.

“Enjoying your new promotion?” he finally asked.

“You mean am I enjoying wrangling a bunch of civilians into military duty, forcing them to keep their mouths shut about what we’re doing, and also trying to keep them from running off every five seconds?” Freddie sighed, shut her eyes, and sipped her lemonade again. “Why, yes, Rosie, I’d say I am.”

“Looks like you’re good at it,” Rosie observed. “They’re clearly all fond of you.”

Freddie smiled at this, glancing over at a group of them still huddled together by the wall, joined by some of the boys in their outfit now, too. “They’re good people,” Freddie told him. “Most of them are Jewish and had to flee the mainland when war broke out. They’re happy to finally get to do something. They’re going to do a lot of good.”

“Do you like your new post?” Rosie wondered.

Freddie smiled softly to herself and turned back to him. Of course he’d noticed she felt conflicted about it all. “I’m happy to be getting to do something bigger, something more directly important. But it’s lonely, leading them. I haven’t even been back a day and I miss my old bunk and I miss hanging around with the girls and I know I’ll miss talking to all of you over the radio before you go out on raids.”

“We’re all still around,” Rosie reminded her softly.

Freddie nodded, even though her smile had gone sad. “I know. I just worry you won’t be close enough.”

[yourwakingnightmares]

Roy Mustang is an amazing character, and a great example of what humans are capable of doing to survive.

So to start with, the big question is... Is Roy a good person? Can Roy be redeemed for what he did in Ishval? How can we look at what he did, and still think he’s a good man?

The answer is three-fold.

First, we have to understand the setting. Luckily for us, very, very few of us live in a military state, or even a police state. Unluckily for Roy, he does. The military runs Amestris. There’s very little Roy can actively do to avoid his fate, without getting everyone he loves killed... and for what? What difference will his dying a heroic death make? He’ll still be dead. His loved ones will still be dead. And someone else will come in, and the Ishvalans will still be dead.

Which ties into the second part: Roy has people he cares about. In a military state, anyone can be executed. Roy, being in Ishval, would be all too aware of how easy it is to declare someone an enemy of the state, and execute them. His aunt and his ‘sisters’ would be killed, and very few people would even bat an eye.

And lastly... Roy was raised in Amestris. One of the ways that dictatorships and police states work is by indoctrination. For Roy, up until that point? Amestris would’ve been absolutely in the right. He’s heard about the evil terrible people who want to destroy Amestris. He’s heard about the terrible things people will do to his people if left unchecked.

One of my grandmother’s best friends was a German immigrant we’ll call Sonja. Unfortunately, she’s been dead for nearly a decade now, but when I was in high school, she told me a story.

Her father was a proud German soldier. When the war started, he proudly served his country. But within a few years, whenever he would come home on leave, he would turn the picture of Hitler -kept on the mantle -around, so he didn’t have to look at it. And she told me she remembered being ashamed of her father; how could he do such a thing? It wasn’t until she was an adult, and the family had moved to America, that her father explained it to her.

He saw the concentration camps. He knew what was happening. And he knew what was happening to the Jews would happen to his family if he spoke out. He knew what would happen to his wife, three daughters, and two sons if he dared object to what was happening. The only thing he could do was turn around a picture, so he didn’t have to stare at the face of the man who controlled his fate.

Even knowing that he just doing what he had to do to keep his family safe, Sonja said her father lived with the guilt of that the rest of his life. That he was constantly donating money to synagogues, sending money to Jewish families in their neighborhood. When he was 49 years old, Sonja’s father committed suicide, unable to live with what he had done any longer.

Roy isn’t a ‘bad’ guy; he’s a guy doing whatever it takes to survive, and try and keep his family safe. It doesn’t make him a hero, to be sure. It doesn’t make him a good guy. It makes him a human being, put in a terrible position, doing the best he can to struggle through.

[ijustkindalikebooks]

Review: A History Of Britain In Ten Enemies by Terry Deary.

Ah, Britain. So special. The greatest nation on earth, some say. And we did it all on our own. Didn’t we? Well, as it happens Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. But then, as Horrible Histories author Terry Deary argues, nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make. The surprisingly sadistic Boudica would be forgotten if it weren't for the Ninth Legion, Elizabeth I a minor royal without the Spanish Armada, and Churchill an opposition windbag without the Nazis. Britain loves its heroes so much we have been known to pickle them in brandy to keep them fresh. And after all, every nation sometimes needs a bit of unifying Blitz spirit (although in an ideal world, we wouldn’t have accidentally let Corporal Hitler go in the first place). The British have a proud history of choosing their enemies, from the Romans to the Germans. You might even say those enemies made Britain what it is today...

As someone who has read so many Terry Deary books, I have a list on my goodreads specifically for them, I knew that, when I saw this book that I would need to give it a read. Deary's humour has always endeared me throughout his books and this book though certainly maturer than it's Horrible Histories counterparts brings that but with a greater depth but still as interesting as the books I read growing up.

Told to us via Britain's various enemies throughout the world be that Italy or Scandinavia, this book travels through time and space about how Britain was invaded but also the invaders and does it with a sense of humour and what I've always found to be quite objectively - I've never really found his books to glorify in Britain's acts during its peak colonialism and this book is no different (and his footnotes are perfect examples of this throughout this book, see the chapter on Spain).

Rigorous but also funny, I'd love to see more books in this series about other countries and see the author go deeper much like here he has on different topics. Where HH can sort of skim the surface, this book really allows for more depth and a greater richness to the subject matter.

(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc for honest review)

[haggishlyhagging]

[Note: This excerpt reminded me of Joan Smith’s book Home Grown. She discussed the overwhelming propensity of terrorists, in their youth, to commit violence against women and girls. It appears Mussolini was no exception.]

In the end, Mussolini could not be tempered. He was at once too weak and too proud. Belligerence was too deeply ingrained in his character. At ten, Benito Mussolini had been expelled from school for thuggishly stabbing a classmate. By twenty, he had stabbed a girlfriend. By thirty, he was the founder of the Italian Fascist party, which rose to power by the simple stratagem of systematically murdering thousands of political opponents so there was no one left to oppose him. By forty, Benito Mussolini had wrested power from the king of Italy through the force of a cult of personality, an act that inspired a younger and admiring Adolf Hitler to attempt a similar Beer Hall Putsch in Germany. Within a year or two, by 1925, he cast aside any pretense and ruled as a fascist dictator, riding a wave of populist support, buoyed by invective and a swaggering, cocksure rhetoric of nationalism and nostalgia that exhilarated his followers and terrified his critics.

Machismo was at the heart of Mussolini's claim to power. In the world that Mussolini had created, "real men" did not back down from a fight and "real Italians," men who were heirs to the Roman empire that had conquered the world, conceded to no one. This created a political dilemma that was clear to him: "The Italians having heard my warlike propaganda for eighteen years . . . cannot understand how I can become a herald of peace, now that Europe is in flames . . . except the military unpreparedness of the country [for which] I am made responsible." Mussolini did not want war. But he would not lose face either.

-Tilar J. Mazzeo, Sisters in Resistance

[executethyself35]

Misc. Tag Game!!

Thank you to all who tagged me!!

Favorite place in the world you’ve visited?: I have not been outside this godforsaken country, but i've been to Oklahoma multiple times and it was fun!

Something you’re proud of yourself for?: Making it to AREA for marching band!! It's a really big deal for us band kids

Favorite books?:

A Coal Miners Bride- Susan Campbell

The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds- Rodman Philbricks

The Devil All The Time- Donald Ray Pollock

Generation Kill- Evan Wright

Something that makes your heart happy when you think about it?: My gf, and the weird shit my brain comes up with

Favorite thing about your culture?: I'm a southern whiteboy, but i guess cowboys

When did you join the HBO War fandom? What was the first show you watched?: Last year before the summer, i watched BoB first and fell in love

Have you read any of Easy Company’s books? If so, which ones were your favorite?: Nope! But i'm trying to convince my mother to take me to Half-Price Books so i can go look for them!

Favorite HBO War character and your favorite moment with them?: Skip Muck my boy!! and favorite scenes gotta be "Well Don, let me see, I was at home in Tonawanda and then hitler started this, so now i'm here"

Do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?: I do not make content for other fandoms, i barely make content for this one

Favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?: RICHARD SPEIGHT JR. and ik this is gonna be a basic answer but i love his role as Gabriel in Supernatural, but also him in BoB!!

Favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?: It has become my most popular post on here "This stuffs orange, spaghetti ain't supposed to be orange, *Perco voice* this ain't spaghetti this is army noodles with ketchup"

Random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?: I don't know how to express my emotions for shit, and when i was 8 i bit through my own lip!

If you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader (say yes so I can be your beta reader 🤭)?: The answer is yes bc i need constant validation

Three things that make you smile?: My gf, thunderstorms, being precieved as a boy

Any nicknames you like?: Most people just call me Lex or Lexi, but i mostly just prefer to go by Alexi

List some people you love to see around on tumblr: there's alot, srry if i forget anyone, @turtle-toe, @b00ks1ut, @malarkgirlypop, @blueberry-ovaries, @1waveshortofashipwreck, @dontirrigateme, @liptonwashere, @panzershrike-pretz, @ronsparky, @love--persevering, @vanellq77, @montied, @ithinkabouttzu, @footprintsinthesxnd, @xxluckystrike and so many more

What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?: Die, i'd completely say fuck it and kms bc the worlds done why not

Favorite movie?: I have a terrible time picking, but i'll say The Lost Boys

Do you like horror movies?: Yes, i mostly critisize the victims cause their dumbasses

Tags: @montied @liptonwashere @kafka-ohdear @dontirrigateme and all the people i listed above!!