#Just 'cause you think 'the right people' are being oppressed doesn't make oppressing them okay?

[astralazuli]

So there's that D&D class quiz going around, & I took it & was so deeply offended I got Paladin.

& so I have had conversations with both Bestie & Birdfriend about this grave insult & they both were like, "Well... They have a point?" & informed me that my desire to absorb hits meant for others & deep drive to help whenever I actually can & strong convictions make me a bit Paladin-coded.

& I am just so... Idk. It's just interesting to get glimpses of yourself from other people's POVs. To be told that my defining characteristics are protecting & healing others & being incredibly fighty about the things I care about... Especially as someone whose brain specifically fixates on whether I care enough, do enough, give enough... Yeah. It's just kinda wild.

Anyway, I'm now adjusting my self-perception to include the fact that if I were a D&D character, I would be an Oath of the Ancients Paladin & not a wizard & that actually that's okay.

[tirfpikachu]

when someone says that women weren't allowed to do xyz until a certain date mainstream tras might give a side look like hmm :/ this isn't inclusive of trans folks... but otherwise leave it alone.

but if you say that specifically cis/bio women and transmasc ppl weren't allowed to open their own bank account until 1974, suddenly you're making the transfems feel a bit too privileged and it causes a riot bc you're pointing out that amab/male folks used to have an INSANE amount of privilege on the basis of being born "amab" and even if they were super gnc, they still had that privilege from birth. to this day, cis/bio men and transfems do NOT go thru many specific struggles that cis/bio women and transmascs experience. but that's somehow controversial as FUCK to say in most tra spaces. why?

fr why is that? why?? why are transfems so fucking oversensitive to anyone pointing out that they're not oppressed on every single axis of oppression? meanwhile transmascs are bending over backwards being super fucking supportive of transfem rights and having so much nuance about things without much knee-jerk defensiveness at all. could it be that perhaps... hmm... "amab" upbringing does not teach amab/male folks what it's like to face misogyny, so they often do not enter feminist spaces, and now that they enter leftist spaces they don't know that we're all about intersectionality and nuance and acknowledging the ways one might be privileged in some ways and disprivileged in other ways? instead of showing allyship to cis/bio women and transmascs, transfems and their more extreme allies instead sit on their thrones and get offended whenever anyone implies that they might need to be good allies too. why is that?? why are cis/bio women and transmascs enabling that behavior so much?

hmmm it's almost like how afab/female folks are conditioned to excuse inappropriate behavior from amab/male people from a very young age... almost like the stereotypical One Of The Boys (in this case Males) trope, trying to be a Cool Girl (or Cool Trans Boy) to be validated by the ones in charge, the amabs, who are just poor sweet misunderstood cinnamon rolls uwu. i think mainstream tras really idolize transfems. which comes from a sweet place, and might feel good, but also means you're infantilizing them like precious perfect little princesses who can do no wrong. that might be validating for transfems ─ who doesn't like being coddled every now and then? ─ but also means not holding them accountable the way we're supposed to hold EVERYBODY accountable in leftist spaces. or at least that's what we generally pride ourselves in, right? isn't that supposed to be a leftist thing? intersectionality and all that?

and this is why so many cis/bio women and transmascs are joining radblr. this is why even some transfems are saying okay, this is too much now, and actually seek out female/afab voices and hear their povs and apologize for how they're treated by tras. the tables are starting to turn. people are too fed up with this shit. we are getting muzzled for talking about the most basic feminist stuff ever, things that back in the day oldschool trans folks were WAAYYYY more likely to see as common sense and feminism 101. systems of oppression are complex. you can talk about how hard transmisogyny is, and you'll get sympathy from most of us, but you gotta listen to how hard anti-female/afab misogyny is and how we're uniquely persecuted in specific ways you aren't. and you gotta work hard to learn how to be a good ally to us, you gotta research, you gotta learn. so many transfems have no fucking clue how to do that. so many cis/bio women and transmascs are acting like their loud guard dogs too, coddling them, speaking for them, enabling them. it's leading to really bad shit to happen. it's enabling transfems-on-female/afab abuse and bigotry... and you just sweep it all under the rug, say it was just a "terf" roleplaying, it must be a troll, it doesn't matter. it's just one or two victims, why should we even care about them? why make any changes to prevent further victims? that's such a classic male apologist mindset!!! this shit is not okay. we will never accept that bs.

you need to clean up all the misogyny and homophobia in your spaces or the only sane folks will come to radfems and find actual nuanced discussions about oppression, and you'll be left with crazies. if y'all are gonna act like oversensitive toddlers then radblr is gonna be where it's at for real leftist activism. enjoy your little tra circus ig 👋

[random-dragon-exe]

Okay, MAJOR SALT COMING! Also a long post!

So I have the Disney Villains tarot deck but before I go into the salt part of the post, let's go into the positives.

The cards have stunning art and each card is appropriately themed to the villain generally speaking about 98% of the time. (IMO).

Another positive is the roster of villains included. Seeing even a few minor/underrated villains is pretty cool and impressive.

Some examples of these villains include Bowler Hat Guy, Madame Mim, Madame Medusa, and possibly Yzma.

Now onto the salt.

As impressive as the span of villains is, two villains are absent who (IMO) deserved a card.

King Candy

Frollo

First, there are other villains absent, but I'm sticking to these two since I've seen these movies. Now going in order, it is an absolute SHAME (IMO) that King Candy doesn't have a card, but I have an idea of which card suits him best.

The King of Swords. Although this card is given to Scar, and I do love how it looks, I believe that King Candy deserved it.

Plus, Scar appears on like three other cards, so I think it's okay for him to appear three times (sorry Scar, I do love you too).

Anyway, I'm going to go into some detail as to why I believe King Candy/Turbo deserves the card by going into the meaning of it and how it relates to him.

I'll admit, I have a lot of points and can talk about this for days, but I'm going to condense them to 3-ish. I'll do the same for Frollo too in a part 2 post.

Going for a two in one here: The card is about being an authority who uses reason and their intelligence for good. while the reverse of this is being cunning to deceive people.

After Turbo hijacked Sugar Rush, he was very methodical about his approach to make it sound like he's their rightful ruler. He locked up their memories, then he fabricated the lie that she was a danger to their game. Turbo did his best to make sure nothing went unchecked and made sure to make the lie sound convincing to protect them (but mostly him). He's very strategic, and was able to come up with a plan to manipulate Ralph with 16 manipulation tactics in one go. He was even able to feign being concerned to play on Ralph's attachment to Vanellope.

I think the best line that best captures this aspect of the card is "Doing what's right, no matter what." AKA: He recognizes that it may sound harsh, but he makes his lies sound reasonable to protect his subjects and game.

The card also represents enjoying structure when upright. But it's controlling and oppressive in a need for order when reversed.

Turbo needs everything to be to be going his way, as he's a control freak.

Inserting the test animation here, he even says "You are a threat to my game, to the order I have maintained. And if there's one thing I can't abide, it's anything out of order!"

Also, the split-second something isn't in his control, he starts to fumble and break into either rage or nervously laughing. He's capable of coming off as cool and composed, but he's scared of being caught and it can cause him to lash out in anger (another aspect of the card).

Just as mentioned in the previous point, he made sure nothing went unchecked and made an entire world literally revolve around him. He can and WILL happily use all of his resources of excessive force he has like the cops, the Sugar Rush equivalent of S.W.A.T., and the fungeon to detain someone who stands in his way.

As a minor note, there's a line in the tarot guidebook that states the reverse of the card can represent "someone who needs to win at any cost." Which describes Turbo to a T. He not only wants attention but he's also extremely competitive. It's part of his programming, and it ties to his love for racing. To always come out on top and be #1. No matter who or what stands in his way.

That core drive (pun intended) was the cause of his villainy in the first place and earned him his infamous status in the arcade.

Okay, I don't want to sound too salty, but you can imagine my disappointment when King Candy didn't get a card.

Oh well, Its fine, I still love and use this deck.

So I guess we can call this the thrilling conclusion to the 3 part saga of including King Candy in Disney Villain merchandise.

Also as a sidenote: hypothetically if he did get this card, what would the imagery be?

I feel the card has the potential to get creative with the glitch effects. For example make it so that he's glitching between the Turbo appearance and the King Candy appearance. If we want to be a little cheeky, we could have it set in his castle, and out the window, we see a the cybug Ralph initially sent to SR flying outside a castle window. (similar to Hook's card as the crocodile is seen outside)

So basically, my interpretation would be a mix of these images and Captain Hook's card:

But, if anyone else has really cool ideas, I'd love to hear them! If you want, you could also draw it out to illustrate your point (pun intended) Honestly please do, I'd love to see other people's interpretations of this card for him. The possibilities are endless!

Join me in my antics next time when I analyze Frollo and and the card I think he should've gotten.

[trans-androgyne]

“It’s not about demographics but about the current way the trans community functions.”

I’m so tired. We’re just supposed deal with being the community’s punching bag until it gets bored and picks a different target? A community I can supposedly claim as mine? At this point I don’t know if I want to continue interacting with it.

Coming out was supposed to be a joyous thing. It was supposed to make things better. Instead it’s just this garbage. Forget people adjacent to me, if I can’t even count on my fellow trans men to have my back then what’s the fucking point? Might as well go back into closet. It’d be awful but I don’t see how this is any better.

I've been exactly where you are, and I'm so, so sorry. Encountering all this discourse and feeling hated, rejected, and invisible in my own community very very nearly caused me to detransition.

But I thoroughly believe I can promise you it will not be like this forever. And I don't think it will be a matter of getting bored and things going back to the way things were a few years ago. As painful as all this infighting is right now, it is stirring real, necessary conversation about transphobia. People who hold ideas like "manhood isn't an intersection" and "trans men don't experience misogyny" and "oppression only affects the primary targeted demographic" are being challenged. I didn't feel this way a year ago, but now I firmly believe that transandrophobia theory or at least something resembling it will be integrated into mainstream transfeminism, and the gendered oppression of trans men and mascs will be acknowledged. It will mean something to say someone is being transandrophobic, and it won't be okay to talk over and stereotype and make fun of/"punch up at" us.

I love the trans community, and I do it by choice. It doesn't feel like home for me right now the way I expected it to be when I came out. But I will make it a home, for me and for every single trans man and transmasc out there. We deserve recognition, we deserve space, we deserve a voice, we deserve resources, and we are going to get them. It's okay to disengage with the community for now if that's what you need. But I hope folks like myself will help make it somewhere folks like you feel comfortable and celebrated. Because trans manhood and transmasculinity should be celebrated; our identities are just as wonderful and radical as other trans people's. One day, likely sooner than you might think, other folks will recognize that too.

[gauntletqueen]

the italian boxer isn't a cop, isn't 100% white, and was crying because of her dead dad. she's come out in support of the other boxer people are using her as a weapon against to be racist. the way the olympics and the media is treating both boxers is really fucked up, i do not think the italian woman did anything wrong, she's just a useful tool of oppression people are utilizing against her will

Okay you're part right, part wrong. I've done some more looking into it and I'm glad I did cause it's Nuanced~ Not here to prove you wrong, just gonna list it all out clearly so we can all understand the situation better.

I haven't personally seen any racism coming into the controversy so I don't understand why you're bringing that up, or that Angela Carini isn't fully white. The most I can see is a few mentions of Italian politicians using the situation to try and earn some brownie points by standing behind Angela Carini, but even then they're also latching onto the narrative that Imane Khelif had an unfair advantage, due to her being transgender. She isn't, btw. She's a cis woman,another case of transphobes jumping at any opportunity to try to push their bullshit, even when the target isn't trans, and nobody had even accused them of being trans before that point.

While I can't find definitive proof that Angela herself is a cop, she was raised by cops and is a member of the boxing division of one of Italy's police forces. I can't figure out if that means that she is also an actual cop but that's probably where the assumption comes from.

"she was crying because of her dead dad" is true, but oversimplifying it. Specifically, she's said that her brother and late father were boxers before her, and taught her the sport. She wanted to honor them in the olympics, but the tension, stress and expectations got too much for her in the match against Imane, who it seems fought much harder than Angela was used to. This caused her to have an emotional breakdown. That's all extremely reasonable honestly I can't imagine having to handle to pressure of representing your country At The Olympics, especially not when there are also such big personal stakes. Supposedly she was cited as shouting "it's not fair!" as she left the ring. This is what got transphobes like JK Rowling and Musk to co-opt the story into their bigotted narrative that Imane must be transgender, as transphobic women in the past have blamed their losses on the fact that a transgender woman Was Involved.

It's likely that they might also have used Imane's disqualification from participating in the 2023 IBA Women's World Boxing championship. The organization had declared her testosterone levels to be too high, which supposedly "proved they had XY chromosomes". Since then, the International Olympic Committee has removed the IBA as the organizers of boxing at the olympics due to "continuing irregularity issues in the areas of finance, governance, ethics, refereeing, and judging" So. Perhaps they are a bad judge of chromosomes. Because again, Imane is a cis woman.

Anyway. Angela has stated (translation taken from Wikipedia, the original italian article is behind a paywall) "I want to apologize to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke. I don't have anything against Khelif. If I were to meet her again, I would embrace her"

So yeah, she's done nothing wrong, she just cracked under immense pressure, and might be a cop or cop-sympathetic, but that doesn't seem to really have anything to do with the situation. The important thing is that rightwing bigots jumped at the chance to make her a martyr against her will, as you said.

[ben-talks-art]

We need to make "explain but doesn't excuse you" a more popular sentence

I was thinking back to my list of favorite characters, and how I have people like Rameses in it and thought to myself "Why do I like this guy again...?" and then I started to recall why I was so into his story, and honestly ended up liking him even more.

Something that I noticed about the way writers try to handle backstories nowadays, is that they love to use a sad past to make people be on a character's side and then proceed to absolve them of their crimes.

Like, we love redemption arcs, we love character development, we love bad guys turning good... But I feel like we might love it a bit too much, as if we were waiting to forgive a character for all they did before even getting to them realizing the mistakes they made.

People love picking a villain they're into and going "Oh, it's not their fault, it's because they were raised that way, it's because they were abused as kids, it's because they lost someone they loved, it's because society treated them like trash, it's because they never had friends, it's because their girlfriend dumped them on Christmas eve..." and so on.

There is an obsession with "My character did nothing wrong because their past justify their actions!"

And here's something people tend to forget. A past explains one's actions but doesn't justify it.

Being abused by society, being trained by terrible morals, being oppressed and attacked... they all explain why someone would think it's okay to hurt others, but doesn't actually justify them hurting others.

Just because we know why someone's doing all the things they do, doesn't make the stuff they do any less bad.

This is why I love Rameses. They show the human side of him, they show he wasn't just born evil, they show that he could have been a decent person if he just had the right people to raise him.

They could have so easily made him just a cartoon villain who happened to be born evil and take joy in making others suffer under his command, but no, they show how he became this way, how he went from just a regular kid to a tyrant unable to feel sorry for others' pain and suffering, who was so brainwashed by the traditions of his family that he couldn't even process the harm he was bringing to others and why he couldn't even see the slaves as actual people in agony.

And, again, what I like about this story is that they explain how he became this way, but they don't paint him as blameless. The story acknowledges that he has blood in his hands, even if he himself doesn't, and it makes sure that he pays for what he did, even if what he did was the result of a long process of terrible lessons being passed down by generations that he didn't start.

At some point he became an adult, he became free from his father's command, free to make his own choices, and free to listen to the right people, free to look at what his actions were causing...

He had agency for his choices... And he still made the wrong decisions.

I feel like if others tried to tell this story today, they would either have made Rameses more evil from the start so you wouldn't feel bad for the tragedy that befalls him, or they would give him some sort of realization where he thinks about the harm he did and develops a change of heart in the last second.

I keep thinking about how there was a group of people going "Azula did nothing wrong!" when the new live-action Avatar show started and they basically tried to move all the blame from her to her "big bad evil father."

It makes me wonder if they released Prince of Egypt today, if there would be some sort of revisionism where people would try to argue that Moses is the villain for "not saving his brother" or something like that.

To the point I'm beyond curious about how things are going to end up in Arcane, since that series has a very similar story with two siblings that ended up splitting apart and reuniting but realizing that they were completely different in the paths they chose to follow, with one trying to fix the errors from the past and the other embracing them and trying to view them as part of who they are.

Is Arcane gonna go all the way and make Jinx an irredeemable monster that needs to be taken down, or are they gonna try to pull a "deep down, Powder is still there!" stuff?

I really hope they don't. I hope they give her an ending similar to Rameses where he's defeated but doesn't even get the luxury to die, just left alone and powerless while watching his most beloved family member moving on with his life while he's still stuck in the past and suffering the consequences of his actions and realizing that he achieved nothing.

And what I especially like about his ending is that even at this point he still doesn't realize why he's being punished so much, just showing at full power the danger of ignorance and refusing to see what's right in front of you.

It would be a terrible tragedy, but I think it would make for a great message.

[nerdylilpeebee]

the skin whiteners shows that racist beauty standards that favor whiteness or paleness are still horrifically common even amoung POC. There are fucking sweatshops all over the global south all run by western companies and like a shit ton on "convenient" produce (bananas, coffee, sugar) come from modern plantations. also what do you mean by corporate greed =/= capitalism, like thats the driving force behind our current system. Again the hawai'i tourism relates to colonialism, again. Im talking about Nonblack artists piggybacking off of black mediums to get rich. Also the apartheid thing kind of makes me think that the genocide you are talking about (and just seems to be farm attacks) is using scare language. Genocide implies a government hand. I dunno, the alt right seems to have power because of the JAN 6 RIOT, Y'KNOW THE THING THAT HAPPENED 3 YEARS AGO REMEMBER THAT? AND LIKE, THE LEGALIZED SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION? Yes poor white neighborhoods are also overpoliced but thats Whataboutism, you are changing the subject

also TBH, I think that the worldview that proudly proclaims that everything is just fineeeee and that no systemic racism existssss everrrrrrr is significantly and vastly more black and white than one where it does.

Okay, but THAT'S NOT OPPRESSION. Poc adopting "racist beauty standards" is not white people oppressing poc. It's not racist oppression.

Sweatshops are absolutely fucked up and stupid, but they are not racially motivated and do not mean poc elsewhere are oppressed. That is a corporate greed thing, not a racism thing.

Corporate greed is not capitalism. Capitalism as a system is all about free trade. What you are thinking of is corporatism, Hun.

Colonialism. Right. Cuz Hawaii's government favoring tourism for it's economy totally means poc are oppressed by white people, even ones that don't live in Hawaii, a non-white majority state.

"black mediums." What black mediums..name them and then how that's racist. This is a free country, and if those mediums do not have rules banning white users they are not black mediums and do not have a right to cry racism if non-blacks use them, let alone try to blame it on white people if non-blacks "get rich" on them.

Sure, Hun, cuz killing people en mass because of their race isn't genocide if they're white. We get it you're a racist.

And honey, sweetie pie, the Jan 6 RIOT? where there were no casualties on the side of the cops caused by the "rioters" but casualties on the "rioters" side? That's fucking funny given the summer of riots BLM performed with the government not even trying to stop them, black people blatantly supporting the riots, claiming it was their right to burn shit down and it was racist to oppose the riots or even defend yourself from rioters cuz "property doesn't matter over black lives. UwU". You wanna call Jan 6 a riot when they didn't even destroy property, I'm so fucking done. What's even more fucking funny is that there is no legalized sexual discrimination. That is not a thing.

And no, that's not whataboutism, you listed black neighborhoods being overpoliced as a form of oppression black people face. I pointed out white people face it too, meaning it is not racially motivated, ergo cannot be racist oppression, ergo cannot be racism even by your shitty definition. And I never changed the subject. I was literally on fucking subject, you just don't like me proving that what you listed is not racism.

And that's funniest fucking thing you've said so far.

Motherfucker, WHERE DID I SAY SYSTEMIC RACISM DOESN'T EXIST??? You wanna claim I'm changing the subject while you're putting words in my mouth. Systemic racism does exist, but really only the conviction rates you listed was systemic racism, and oh guess fucking what? Even in America white people face systemic racism too (legalized discrimination in hiring processes, for example, being the majority of police violence victims, being able to be murdered with clear racial motivations without it being labeled a racist hate crime, etc), and systemic racism existing does not mean you cannot be racist to white people.

Again, you are just mad that I am not agreeing with you. I never changed the subject, I never said systemic racism doesn't exist, I just don't follow your nonsensical "power plus privilege" view on the matter (which in itself doesn't make sense as the vast majority of white people hold no more power or privilege than any poc, and there are poc with far more power AND privilege than the average white person).

[horizonsstandstill]

I'm also against using "rest in power" or other Black terminology for white people.

For several reasons, such as;

- It's easy to provoke disenfranchised Black people into starting divisive arguments because they want their oppression to be heard, and psyops take advantage of that,

- Terms Black people coined are always taken out of context and this harms their ability to fight against oppression when they are using them,

- The use of more revolutionary and provocative terms will give the agents of imperialism a hard time to shame the people into silence or denounce them as racists,

- Our terminology should include horizons, visions and goals that will encourage our people and make the enemies shake.

Therefore I suggest using terms such as;

- May your sacrifice be a milestone in a society we will build on the ashes of imperialism,

- Rest knowing that the empire will crumble with your spark,

- We will remember your heroic act as a catalyst for the destruction of our oppressors,

- You will never be forgotten unlike the colonial order we will dismantle.

See if the psyops could argue with these. And whenever people use divisive arguments, don't argue. Ask them questions on the issues such as what they think of cops, military industrial complex, prison and slavery system, indigenous rights and who are their favourite Black thinkers. If they can't provide satisfactory answers, don't engage them. They deserve cancelling over speaking about things they don't understand.

Black people in the imperial core can be the victims of the imperialism as well as the perpetrators of it. It depends on how disenfranchised they are and how much they are willing to suck up to the white supremacist order in order to be able to oppress other people. Everyone can serve as an agent of imperialism regardless of race, class, gender, disability or any other axis of oppression. That is not even limited to imperial core. That's why it's up to the oppressed to think about who are benefiting their actions.

It's important that the electronics we use to do our "activism" come at the price of the suffering of Congolese people. Possibly Bolivian people too. Also the sufferings of the workers that are exploited in the Far Eastern countries. We all could suffer from imperialism while using the materials extracted through the imperial order of suffering. That doesn't make any of us less oppressed. It gives us a duty to try to end all kinds of oppression and dismantle the imperialist system altogether.

As a side note, discriminating against people while advocating against other types of discrimination makes a person a disgusting hypocrite.

If your communism ends when you think you can't consume products from underdeveloped countries cheaply, you're a scum.

If your anarchism ends when you think it's not okay for people to gather and build structures out of their own volition for only themselves after the revolution, you're a scum.

If your feminism finds it convenient to stereotype men of other races and caricaturise them as monsters, you are the monster.

If your veganism doesn't recognise the situations of indigenous people and disabled people, sufferings of agriculture workers and environmental degradation that vegan products cause, it means you're not against cruelty to all living beings. You're just a self righteous idiot.

If your anti violence is only for those who resist against the legal order that oppresses themselves, you are amongst the perpetrators of said oppression, deserving of violent resistance against yourself.

If your queer rights activism ends at the people who are acceptable queers in your worldview, you're a bootlicker of the patriarchy. Those boots are coming for you next.

If your disability advocacy is not inclusive of recreational use of substances -legal or illegal-, you're just another selfish person being loud.

These are just examples. They can be multiplied into several cases.

Being against one type of bigotry doesn't excuse other types of bigotry. People can make these mistakes for a lot of reasons, but once it's explained to them if they continue their bigotry, they should be cancelled altogether. We should not engage them at all, and a blocklist is in order. No need to waste our time in good faith because of bad faith actors.

Say, "Okay, bigot/bootlicker/racist so on..." to call them out. Then blocked. If they learn, they have to learn it the hard way.

[bisexual-horror-fan]

Seeing as Scream 7 is going to end up being cancelled because who even wants to watch it anymore, what would you personally have done with the plot and storyline?

Also Happy New Year!!!!!

This ask. Oh my GOD! This ask yes! Okay, okay, let's get into it.

I want some serious stakes, some real blood, hear me out. I want shit to be serious. So.

We start off with someone getting ready. We are unable to tell who they are, like gloved handles lacing books, sheathing a knife, all that, like it is not clear who it is. We then see them leave, we keep on their boots as they walk, some cuts, they make it to wherever they are meant to be. We hear rustling in their backpack, and then you see the robe drop, they are in the Ghostface fit. It pans up slowly, phone is out and they are calling someone.

Who do they call for the opening cold call?

Gale Weathers.

We have the opening scene, the back and forth, all that, they've broken in, they get the drop on Gale, I am talking a dirty, nasty thing, like she is tryna come around the corner and just gets a knife in the side of the throat, blade is dragged through and just full throat slit. She is bleeding and choking everywhere. Ghostface doesn't leave until she is dead. Multiple stab wounds. Stays until she is no longer breathing.

It is an uncomfortable shot, long. Ghostface with the mask a little bloody just staring down at her.

Then, they leave. No big dramatic slash to the title. Not this time.

We get into the main people, Tara, and Sam and Chad and Mindy finding out that Gale is fucking dead. Obvi there is concern about what this means.

I think the four of them have been cautious about getting close to other people, but the small relationships that they have allowed are not targeted like they all expect. It's the opposite. Anyone who is causing the core four issues is ending up dead.

Suspicion is thrown on the core four hard. Kirby is involved, she is of course trying to help, when she gets a bit too close she is hurt but not killed, just seriously maimed, to the point of medically incuded coma lets say. Sidney is mentioned briefly, she is staying farrrr away from all of this mess, everyone is glad about that, because man she still deserves that break.

The cops feel very unhelpful and so it's on the four to try and solve this, but it's hard, long, twisting, shit is confusing and not making sense and they are TIRED. The average Scream movie takes place over a few days, this will be longer. Suspicion is weighing heavily on all of them, the murders are piling up, it isn't totally making sense, it's messy, there seems to be no real reason to who is dying. At first.

It comes out over time that these people who are being killed sucked, did morally shady and awful things.

I want this body count high and us caring about the people in my opinion is not important. I want them amount of gore and the uncertainty to be bringing the scares and the heat, I want it oppressive.

And then. Kirby gets out of her medically induced coma.

And guess what she has to share?

She knows who did it. She is on the phone with like Tara and Kirby reveals the killer is Sam.

Not sure the place of the final set piece, but somewhere outdoors is appealing to me, don't ask me why, (also btw we should just set this in winter, blood on snow man, we need it, we need a winter set Scream to finish this series cuz this would be the finale' in my opinion)

Mindy is there for the reveal monologue cuz she deserves that. Sam goes off about how frustrated she is. It's been years since the last Ghostface event. She talks about how good it felt to kill and having some asshole pop up and terrorize them, she got to kill in self-defence, get some of the urges out, there has been no such opportunity in too long. She tried to ignore it, the pressure is building, she is attempting to be good, but then she gets an email from Gale who reaches out, she is trying to be better and do right by her, telling Sam and giving her a heads-up she is going to be writing a new book about the events of EVERYTHING, a full covering of all the Ghostface murders with her years of perspective after everything and Sam is just done.

She decides she is going to get her fix. She is gonna take out Gale and be done. She does it and oh my fucking God she missed this. She cannot stop herself, it becomes a compulsion. So, whenever the opportunity arises, when someone fucks with her family, with the core four, she takes the opportunity. It escalates further, she is seeking out people who she deems deserve this because that makes it okay, right? She is better than those other murders, those previous Ghostface's. She has been through so much, she's earned the right, she is doing it to protect her family. She has just fully snapped under everything.

They, the core four, assume she is gonna take them out. They know too much, she is going to end them.

She doesn't hurt or go after them because she wants them all to be together always. Tries to convince them that this is what is right, this is what should happen, just keep quiet and she will keep everyone safe. Girl is manic and unhinged.

They can't let that happen.

Three against one. They don't kill her but manage to hurt her bad enough to restrain her. The cops are called, she is hauled off, screaming and crying and heartbroken. The core four is no more, but hey, the triangle is the strongest shape in nature, so maybe they can find a way to be okay. Sam is naturally locked up and ngl at this point we also get some serious confirmation Stu IS alive and is ALSO in prison because Sam gets a letter from him. Sam and Stu are prison pen pals, no, you cannot change my mind.

[bandzboy]

I've been a stay for 6 years, I've seen all the bad and the good things, and skz have been a really important part of my life. With everything that was going on, I decided to take a break from skz until this whole lose my breath era was over. Now I wanted to come back for their new album, but it just doesn't feel the same anymore. It's been months yet nothing has changed, they haven't apologized or addressed any of the concerns, they are still working with zionists. Their lyrics seems so meaningless now, this is from their new song "Head above the clouds, stand tall for the hell of it. Tower over crowds, don't pause 'cause I'm lovin' it. Heavy and I'm proud, backbone never suffering". In the past I would loved this song, but now them saying this while being silent about a genocide and happily working with zionists, just feels wrong. I know that one person leaving won't change anything, but I don't think I can support them anymore. As much as it hurts, it's time to admit that they really don't stand for what they used to.

anon i'm honestly on the same boat as you and tbh your feelings are valid if you decide to unstan it's truly okay bc i get you! truly i've been following everything going on and it's insanely sad that so many stays have been trying their hardest to make them know but all we get is silence. it doesn't help that jype is also trying to silence people too but you know it just sucks because there's no way they haven't seen it at this point there's no way they don't know their fandom is so divided over this ever since the lmb release. i wanna believe they are good people but it just so crazy they keep being tied to zionists or hanging out with them and it feels like a slap in the face every time i am not gonna lie and unfortunately, they aren't the only group that is silent rn and it truly makes me question all the people i stan at the moment and what their intentions are... like i truly sit here and think to myself what the really reality is! i can't be excited about things anymore because of how everything is looking rn. i knew i wasn't gonna tune in for this next skz comeback when the lmb fiasco happened because unfortunately it tainted everything for me and it's sad! i don't know what i'll exactly do either but since i'm so dead set on making things right and to keep pushing it i am sticking around for that because my interest in kpop is kinda slowly going away and it's sad. even tho i want idols to have better working rights and it's something that i will always bring up and, i'm very passionate about you could say, it's hard for me to stay knowing that these people are so comfortable being silent and it hurts to know this was probably the plan all along. the way when people started to bring up celebrities speaking up, people were already not including kpop idols with everyone else like... the group of people that should speak up and i think that was the moment that i realized how wrong everything is like how we expect them to essentially do nothing and not gaf about anything and that's messed up ESPECIALLY coming from groups like skz that have lyrics that are very much about rebellion and fighting back oppressive things and so on and it makes you really think that yeah maybe this whole shit was just a concept to them and they don't bring that into their real life. it just sucks atp i'm just venting i could go on because i have SO MUCH TO SAY i'm just now realizing i've been bottling this all up almost but yeah all of this to say that i truly truly get it and just know you aren't alone when it comes to feeling like this towards groups you stan because it's happening to a lot of people atm

[ohara-n-brown]

I think the people that are asking others to vote for Biden are always missing a big thing.

I get the argument - 'Trump is worse and more of a threat to all of us, so you have to vote for Biden, he's the lesser of two evils!'

Okay, makes sense.

But these posts NEVER EVER bring up the moral dilemma, or how to handle it.

Why 'Blue No Matter Who' WON'T Work Right Now -

You are asking people to directly go against their morals and vote for a man funding genocide -

But then you refuse to give either

1) A way for those people to come to peace with their decision after the fact and

2) A way we're gonna hold Biden accountable AFTER he wins.

You are asking others to vote for a man funding genocide.

Okay, so once they do - and go home and lay in their beds - only to wake up two months later and see Biden sending another 10 billion dollars to Israel-

What moral comfort do you have to give them? For them, knowing that's their money and the man they put into power.

Do you have anything to say to them? Nothing? Because you don't care?

How do you expect them to sleep knowing they've betrayed their morals? Or do you think betraying your morals is something someone can outright choose to do with no mental reprecussions?

And this isn't just some abstract comment. I'm being LITERAL. We all have to go against our morals at least each in our life yes, but you still have to deal with the emotional aftermath.

You all are asking people to set aside their morals without acknowledging that morals, and without justification for it after the fact.

Really, those posts sound like 'Please vote for Biden, we know he's funding a genocide and you don't like that. But PLEASE it's so important. Oh thanks, you voted for him. Wait you feel guilty?.... Not my problem.'

And two - you're providing NO SOLUTION for Biden's behavior.

Biden has been funding a genocide. In the last 130 days he has sent BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to a foreign country for genocide and war.

You want me to vote for him. And then you never ever ever mention how you plan to get him to STOP doing these things.

You're telling me 'Trump is dangerous! He doesn't listen to the people, he dehumanizes the oppressed and wants them dead!'

Okay, true.

But if Biden ends up in office AGAIN how are we gonna stop him from continuing to abuse his power AGAIN?

Or have you just not thought about that? Are you not concerned about the fact you have no ability whatsoever to hold your own canidate accountable?

Do you just not think about that because it makes you feel powerless and uncomfortable?

Biden has proven he too doesn't listen to the people.

And he in fact, DOES dehumanize the oppressed and does indeed want them dead. Just because those people aren't American doesn't mean anything.

Biden wants oppressed people dead.

So now that we know he does and wants those things - and we can't get him to stop NOW - and yet you want me to re-elect him without offering me methods in which he'll change.

Okay, buddy.

If you want to convince people to vote for Biden you're gonna have to

1) Engage with their morals and explain how they can come to peace with voting for a Genocidal Fascist and their tax dollars being directly used to aid that AND

2) How we plan to hold Biden accountable and change his behavior AFTER I've sacrificed my morals to give him more power.

If you can't do that in your post - shut the fuck up.

You're not gonna tell me to vote for a Genocidal asshole only to tell me 'ummm if you feel guilty afterwards that's not my problem just vote for him okay and also after he's elected I have no idea how to get him to do what we want cause he doesn't even listen to us right now but I promise he's better than Trump so just do it okay'

I'll see entire posts asking for people to vote for Biden - and the post will just not mention Palestine.

They'll talk about Trump, trump, trump - but literally no one with ever say 'Listen, I know Biden is the reason thousands of Palestinians are dead, but-'

Because they know that sounds fucking ridiculous and evil so they leave that part out and hope we don't notice that you've conveniently forgot to mention why we're at this crossroads in the first place.

They tell people to vote for Biden, but never mention why people don't want to vote for him.

Because Democratic voters do not support the massacre of Gaza and Biden does not care.

HOW ARE YOU GONNA MAKE HIM CARE? If you can't tell me - don't tell me what the hell to do. Cause you don't even know what you're gonna do.

If you can't acknowledge the conversation, You're ignoring the crimes of your canidate breaking international law, simply saying they didn't happen or don't matter in the general scheme of things - just like a Trump-ette.

You're literally telling me that Biden will save America and the only chance we have at keeping it... Shit we're not even saying America is 'great', like the Trump-ettes.

We know the US is shit and that Biden contributes to that. None of us actually even believe he'll make America better in the slightest.

At the very least Trump supporters stupidly believe he'll bring about positive chance.

Biden supporters acknowledge he probably won't bring positive change for anyone really. And then they still go vote for him.

That's even fucking sadder. It's less evil, but just as fucking sad.

Voting for a canidate you know doesn't care about you, your education, your health, your home, your life, or really whether you're dead or not.

But you still vote for him - because he's blue.

If you want people to vote for Biden but refuse to engage the moral argument OR Biden's silencing and ROBBING (Yes, using executive action to send billions of dollars overseas against the wills of most Americans is fucking robbery) of the American people -

Please just shut the fuck up. You really can't expect me to listen to that.

'Vote for Biden... just cause!! Don't think about it! Don't think about what happens after! Just do it :) Why? Democrats are inherently better, that's why'

You've got to be joking

So yes, make the argument you want. But if you can't back it up, don't blame others cause they didn't vote.

Blame yourself for not thinking through your point for more than twenty seconds. Blame yourself for expecting people to conform blindly.

If you want me to vote for that man but can't tell me how we're gonna free Palestine from that same man's genocidal glee then I'm begging you to shut the hell up.

[sys-confessions]

not really a confession ig, more of a vent. but it weighs on us like a confession might. sorry if it doesn't fit right.

so we recently got posted to systems cringe for our system and omfg. one person flat out referred to it as hysteria. Wow. Yes, hysteria. The "disorder" used to discredit women's struggles and aids into the "crazy woman" stereotype that has historically been used to oppress people and if I remember correctly led to women being lobotomized. (May be wrong, but I'm pretty sure hysteria was used as an excuse to lobotomize women. My memory may be wrong.)

This is because I made silly intro posts that they deem I made up as if...I did it on the spot and, ya know, not collecting info slowly over a couple years as our system becomes more known to me. The fact they assume I made it up because they'd try to make it up really says more about them than me.

Also, small mention of programming we are a tbmc/programmed system. The fact they assume we were saying all alters of ours were programmed when we never made that claim at all. And that us making a positive post about an old special interest meant the alters we had from that (from around our trauma, cause ya know, childhood interests) means those were programmed alters too. 💀 Love the lack of literacy skills here. We are a programmed system, we do not hide that fact as it is our ugly reality and those specific blogs are meant for going over that. We simply mentioned old dormant alters we had from such interests as a child. And if they actually cared to look into our account aside from mocking us (not something they'd ever do), they'd notice that we refer to our programmed parts in an entirely different way from our alters and refuse to name them at all since we cannot ensure safety from our programmer and whatever group did it to us and must be cautious with the info we share.

Just saw the comparisons to hysteria, saying we were in a cult for...posting about being a system (when we barely even interact with anyone cause of a fear of people), and implying us posting our alter intros were self harm is really funny (in a sarcastic/pathetic way) to us. They really did make a LOT OF ASSUMPTIONS about us based on some intros and a post. But that's pretty much required for them to care this much about strangers online and completely defend their own actions.

Also love they bring up saviour complex because someone might care to learn about our system when they have a saviour context towards the hypothetical suffering systems they imagine. Completely ignoring the fact that the systems they post can also be suffering systems. The more we think about it, the more ridiculous and sad pathetic it seems. Like. Oh no. Our silly light hearted posts and intros got posted. What ever will we do now? Anyway.

Again, hope this was okay to send in even if it's more of a vent. Not a lot of outlets for us and we have a history with harassment so we tend to be pretty paranoid when directly referencing something involving us. So yeah. Just had to get it off our chest. Thank you.

This was perfectly fine to send, don't worry at all, anon! The blog may be named after confessions, but it's very flexible. Whatever you want to send, you can.

We hope sending this vent helped you feel better. System cringe is ridiculous. I thought it was a well known fact that you cannot, in fact, judge anybody's mental health and/or disorders over the internet, but apparently it's not...

[drdemonprince]

(Not the original anon, just responding with some thoughts, I hope that’s okay and that my tone comes across as respectful.)

I think it’s disingenuous to pretend that the only difference between Vyvanse and heroin could be a moral one. It’s precisely because I don’t see any difference in the moral value of those two groups of drug users that I want both of those groups to live full lives, not die early deaths due to drug use. In my country heroin is the main hard drug associated with extreme poverty, I don’t think it’s right to equate it to even the most controversial & harmful of prescription psychiatric drugs.

It sounds like you and I have values that are pretty much aligned -- except that your final statement seems to imply that a medication being prescribed somehow imbues it with a quality that makes it inherently less risky or damaging than a non-prescription drug.

Given the number of lives claimed by the opioid epidemic and the number of people who become chemically dependent upon other pharmaceuticals, do you really believe that to be the case? Doctors used to push hard-core barbiturates on bored housewives and to this day they still force psychiatric patients to take incredibly strong anti-psychotics that can cause heart attacks if a single dose is missed. Fetanyl is famously deadly, and it's also a prescription painkiller. Marijuana is approved for medical use in many states in America, but it's highly illegal in the UK. And one of the reasons that heroin is so dangerous to take is because it can only be accessed through a shadow economy where there is no accountability for contaminated doses, and use is so highly illegal and stigmatized that users are forced to quietly overdose in dingy bathrooms rather than controlled access sites.

Do you see the point I'm getting at? You and I might have certain emotions about certain drugs and we might not want people to die or to suffer and that's all well and good -- but that's not an objective reflection of what using a drug has to look like, or what it would look like, in a world where certain drug users weren't oppressed. There are actually a lot of really disturbing side effects and habit-forming qualities associated with many ADHD stimulant treatments, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't have access to them or should be demonized for using them. I simply also believe the same thing about heroin and weed and caffeine and cocaine. This doesn't mean I'm waving my hand around and saying all substances are equally safe -- the reality is that all these substances come with risks, and people use them for a variety of reasons, and that we should accept that reality and work around it rather than trying to make it not be the case.

[kanansdume]

Okay, so I think I'm starting to get my mind around why I don't really vibe with the theory that Luthen is a Jedi.

This show is intentionally choosing to make its characters morally gray. To muddy the waters of things that were previously shown to be pure and good, like the Rebellion. We see it in Cassian, obviously, but we also very much see it in Luthen.

And that's just not a place the Jedi can live. The Jedi do not get to be gray. The Sith do not get to be gray. Luthen's position of actively fighting tyranny and knowing that he has to do the dirty work in order to help more people in the long term just doesn't fit in with the way that we have come to understand either the Jedi OR the Sith. The Jedi won't let themselves actively oppress people and cause extra suffering intentionally, even if it's for a good cause. The Jedi would not have made the choice to sacrifice 50 people in order to keep one spy's identity safe so they could continue to use him. But it doesn't fit the Sith either, because from what we've seen, the Sith either revel in their darkness like Palpatine or actively lie to themselves about how evil they are and the choices available to them like Dooku and Anakin. Luthen's awareness of the dark deeds he's done and his misery over it, his belief that he is CONDEMNED by it, doesn't fit the Sith.

I think one of the reasons this show feels so unique and new is due to its morally gray themes and characters. The entire point of the story right now is that sometimes rebelling means you have to do things you aren't proud of, things that aren't entirely purely good. Sometimes just SURVIVING asks that of you when in a world under the tyranny of something like the Empire.

Cassian kills people, quite often. And does so without a lot of regret or remorse in the show so far. And he's not shown to be wrong for doing so, sometimes we're actually actively rooting for him to do so like during the prison break. He's not necessarily going to be a HERO of the story, he lets that be other people like Kino or Vel and later Jyn, but he is a GOOD PERSON. He isn't marred or condemned by his choices, even though in a lot of other Star Wars stories, he would be. Characters like Ahsoka, Kanan, Ezra, Obi-Wan, all have to live in a particular system due to being Force Sensitive that Cassian just... doesn't have to deal with. Cassian can BE gray in a way that the Jedi and Sith really just can't based on the worldbuilding.

The Jedi do not fit in this show. Which isn't to say that Star Wars has too many Jedi, I would never ever say that, I fucking love the Jedi and would love more stories focused on them (that aren't about people who choose to LEAVE the Jedi or their genocide, please and thanks). But I think that in order for THIS PARTICULAR SHOW to live in the place that it does, where characters can act morally gray, can kill and betray and not be villains because of that, the Jedi just... can't be in it. It fundamentally changes the story you have to tell if there is a Jedi in the mix. The Jedi don't get to be morally gray without completely falling into darkness eventually.

So I don't want Luthen to be a Jedi. I don't think it would necessarily make sense with the Star Wars worldbuilding for him to be able to do the things he does AND be a Jedi.

[teaveetamer]

"Instead of focusing on REAL genocide these edelcrits just want to make us LOOK bad" by pointing out that "they actually did something horrible to us so our genocide of their entire people is okay now" is literally what is happening right now? Is saying that a bad thing now?

Hey remember when these people were unironically saying shit like "well Fodlan used to be all of Adrestia so the other two countries aren't really separate nations so the war isn't about imperialism" which is ALSO rhetoric used irl to oppress irl people? Seems to be a pattern for them. But pointing this out is "making light" of irl tragedies - justifying the rhetoric that CAUSED those irl tragedies to make their fake waifu look better is fine though.

Right like, by talking about this we are talking about real genocide, are these people for fucking real? Let's not leave it merely implied. It's Palestine. They're whining about us not talking enough about Palestine. Somehow they cannot connect the dots that a genocide in Palestine can't happen unless people were willing to believe genocide is okay under certain circumstances. Which is what they're arguing. They're arguing that genocide is okay under certain circumstances, which no amount of retweeting "FREE PALESTINE" while sitting on your ass in your cushy home in your conflict-free country is going to counterbalance to make you look like a good person. You cannot insist that we do not care about real life genocide as much as you do while you literally engage in the kind of rhetoric that leads to real world genocides.

Human beings are hardwired to not want to hurt other human beings. That's why genocidal rhetoric needs to spend so much time dehumanizing people before the ultimate endpoint. You do not just go from zero to genocide; you have to recruit people into believing genocide can be okay sometimes.

(source)

The issue we have with the mods is that they're tangibly engaging in the classification stage of this cycle, and they're at least rhetorically justifying the discrimination, dehumanization, and denial stages.

Classification: "They're not really people, they're evil space lizards. You can tell because of [thing] that they aren't really human"

Discrimination: "they should be stripped of their rights and forced into hiding because they don't deserve to live among real people"

Dehumanization: "Well who cares if you kill them, they're not real people anyway. They're evil space lizards! And anyway, the deserved it."

Denial: "Well how many of them were there anyway? I don't think there were enough for it to 'count' as a genocide. It doesn't count if you didn't kill all of them, it doesn't count if you only killed 3 of the remaining 5. They had it coming anyway, both sides" etc.

Like if you cannot see why that kind of rhetoric being bandied about might be relevant to the real world and real world events right now then I sincerely cannot help you.

[oldguardleatherdog]

let me start by saying, I'm okay to agree to disagree on this, and I respect you greatly as my queer elder. I hesitate to even send this because I don't think this cause is worth dogpiling (and not even the fun way) on anyone against and , like , I will continue to follow and admire you as a mutual who has been through a lot of the hell that I'm going through right now and got to a place I want to someday be. (for context, I am currently housing & food insecure and am trying to live in a queer-accepting city)

Posting will never be praxis, you are my brother in arms no matter what you call trump or cops or whatever. There are some fat liberation blogs that take issue with calling cops "pigs" for a lot of the reasons I bristle at calling Trump a fatass, and like, if someone is actively fighting cops who can and will actively hurt me and my found family, I don't care what names they shout while doing it. So I see where you are coming from and I'm glad you fight for me. I fight for us too, in what little ways I can while I keep me and my found family afloat. I do better work in the community just by existing around people as a living breathing transgender than I could do in a million posts on this website.

I do think that this is a valuable conversation to have, though, even though you are completely right that this is a trivial thing and not at all the bigger, more real issue at hand. I think it's still important, on online platforms such as this, to talk about how we refer to the other people on this planet.

Think about why you didn't call Trump a "retard". You certainly could have, it doesn't *not* apply to some of his behavior. I know people of our generations once used that word a lot, and we don't anymore. Why and when did we change that? I honestly don't remember. For me, my aunt was medically classified as "retarded" and she was the best person I'd ever met, so I decided that word shouldn't mean bad things. The first time I ever hit someone was over them using that word in a derogative way. it wasn't about "mental illness positivity" it was about humanizing the people that word has been used against - people who have been stigmatized and oppressed with that word.

Right now, hopefully, the same thing is happening to the word "obese". Fat people are less likely to be hired, granted loans or secure housing. they can be kicked out of airplanes and fired from their jobs because of their body size. There have been laws proposed to take fat children away from their parents and "treatments" proposed to wire children's jaws shut and starve them to make them thinner. They are often medically mistreated and misdiagnosed. I once went to a doctor with an ear infection and instead of antibiotics, he prescribed me *bariatric surgery.* I have been refused transgender top-surgery because of my BMI, which keeps me at a passively higher risk for self-injury and worse.

I do not care about body positivity. Honestly, between being fat, trans, and poor, I'm at a point where I've given up on ever feeling good about my body again. All I care about is getting jobs and meds and keeping a roof over my family's head and food on our table. Normalizing the idea that fat is a bad thing that anyone can change continues that stigma. When you use Fat as an insult, you are saying fat=bad. Fat is a neutral thing that some bodies can be, like short or tall or lean. The revolution needs to be intersectional, and body size is another axis of oppression that needs to be acknowledged, just like sexuality, gender, race, class, disability, etc.

If you've gotten this far, thank you for hearing me out. I'm sorry that others are just performatively parroting the same things over and over. Civility is bullshit, and if you still want to use body shaming as one of the ways you fight against bigotry, it doesn't really matter to me. Just as long as you acknowledge anti-fat bias as part of that bigotry too.

Thank you for writing and sharing your life experiences with me, and for your solidarity as well. You're striving to make your way as part of a despised minority in a world that's turned unspeakably harsh toward you in an aggressively mean way seemingly overnight, and I admire you for the life you have lived, for your courage and perseverance during this difficult time where resources are scant and your housing and food security is uncertain at best.

(FWIW, after I was bombed out of my Lower Manhattan home on September 11th, my income went from six figures down to nothing overnight, and I was homeless and destitute for years. Twenty years ago, I was where you are now, and I can tell you that what you're enduring today will not last forever, that there is light and hope and blessing in your future, that you're not as alone as you might think, that you must never give up.)

What more can I do to make the point that "fat" has nothing to do with this? As I've said, I grew up obese, and it wasn't until I enlisted in the Army at age 17 that I was able to free myself from my violent and abusive family and unlock the potential of the body that had been hidden under layers of fat and shame all my life. I know that my path is not for everybody, that many others are not so fortunate, and I ceased long ago to think that fat equals bad or lack of character or any other pejorative attitude that society has attached to it for generations. I hope I've made that clear and that you take my word as truth.

I am not saying "let's fat-shame Donald Trump to make him feel bad." I am saying that I'm deeply troubled by the LGBTQ+ community prioritizing hurt feelings over the very real damage that's being done to us right now all over the country by Trump, his minions, his proxies, and his cult of bloodthirsty followers and worshippers. Trump's accomplices in Congress and state legislatures and Moms For Liberty are taking over school boards all over the country, banning books and emptying library shelves and harassing teachers and librarians to the point where they're being run out of town, where the State of Missouri has defunded its entire public library system rather than follow a court order to restore books banned just for featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

DeSantis and Abbott have put in place policies that are unspeakably brutal, that are forcing trans people in Florida to slowly and brutally revert to their pre-transition state, that have given health care providers in Florida the right to deny treatment to you and me and all LGBTQ+ people because we are gay, lesbian, non-binary, trans... but God forbid we should call Trump mean names!

We've seen what happens when we buy into the "when they go low, we go high" fantasy pipe dream. This is not the way the world works, it has never been, and we need to put this loser idea in the trash bin where it belongs once and for all.

We're being attacked and harmed in unspeakable ways that are happening now. This is not theoretical or hypothetical. It's happening to us, to those we love, this minute and every minute of every day. And worse is in the pipeline - they're writing laws that will place us under virtual house arrest, that will regulate where we're allowed to go in our own cities and towns, when we're allowed to be seen in public, when and where we can shop, how we're allowed to dress, even what we're allowed to say and SING, for Christ's sake!

And I'm supposed to be concerned about some minuscule hypothetical percentage of my own people being OFFENDED because I'm somehow being insensitive and violating some trivial picayune social justice warrior philosophy, because there's a possibility of some fragile flower taking it personally, and that I should shut my mouth and let the MAGA nutjobs run roughshod over us? Oh, come let Daddy kiss it! while our brothers and sisters are suffering in real time. Sickening.

Anyone who has a problem with my stance doesn't have to follow me or emulate my proven effective tactics as an activist with 37 years of successfully defending our rights under my belt if they're so dainty and delicate and easily bruised. Everyone else that sees this for the strawman bullshit it is, get ready to hit the streets with bullhorns and whistles once again. We've got work to do.

Your arguments are strong and well-reasoned, and I accept and acknowledge everything you're saying. We can disagree on this, certainly, and still work together to turn back the progress that the MAGAs are making, restore our rights, and protect ourselves and each other. But that will require the snowflake contingent among us to get their collective head out of their collective ass, stop whining, and get with the damn program. Calling me names and telling me I'm being a bad gay activist is a waste of time and energy that should be spent fighting the fascists and the haters who are out to kill us.

And to you, my friend and fellow traveler with a radiantly beautiful soul and spirit, I urge you to hang in there, to keep the faith, to keep caring about life, to work with me to secure our own future and the future of our kind. I send to you my very best wishes, energy, and prayers that you will find your way to a place of health, security, stability, and love for yourself and for this precious community to whom we've both dedicated our lives, who mean the world to us.

Yours In Service, Animal J. Smith