#LEGAL WORLD ETHICS CRISIS

[lucyoccupy]

Best Practices to Transcend Censorship on LinkedIn and Twitter Today

Let’s Ask AI about social media and censorship… Maybe some of us left standing can collaborate with LinkedIn learning to ensure compliance with First Amendment of the Constitution of these United State of America.  Connections in other countries might be re-inspired by Freedom of Speech in America   1. Censorship is the act of suppressing information or ideas that are considered objectionable or…

[redfoxwritesstuff]

Sunflower: Book 1 (Complete)

Tom Hiddleston x ofc (Mia) Overall Rating:  Mature with explicit smut at later chapters. Series warnings:  Sexual content, drinking

(Note: Book 2 tentatively posting in late Oct.)

Summary: Las Vegas drew in people like him. Heart broken, lonely and rejected while his ex married someone else. Here he could be anyone though, flying under the radar of his skyrocketing fame. Las Vegas was home to people like her. Lonely, broke and with the weight of the world on her shoulders. There was never enough of anything except stress. She was one of the countless faces that lived in the shadow of the glittering lights. Two worlds collide in a drunken night neither can remember. What do you do when what happens in Vegas is a legally binding marriage contract between two strangers?

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, Bonus: Wedding night part 1, part 2

Sleepy Mornings (One Shot)

Tom Hiddleston x Shy!Reader Rated: PG13

Requested: Heyy, If you Take requests, Could i request a Tom hiddleston x shy reader. Them Waking Up together and cuddling and Kissing so basically fluffy?

Offering and Taking: Merdicking

Pairing: MerTom Hiddles x OFC Rated: Adult Warnings: Noncon, dubcon, kidnapping, Merdicks (Tom and his Merpeen both), crisis of faith, dark waters, fluids, algae covered rocks

Summary: Salena, with no ability to fight the merman who’s eye she had caught is forced to go with him. Torn between wanting to live and wanting to accept death, between fighting to remain pure or to experience the earthly pleasures of the flesh, she finds herself in a cave lit by glowing plants of the likes she’d never seen. For better or worse, she doesn’t have to make any decisions herself for he knows exactly what he wants to experience.

The offering, The taking, The keeping

Extra Credit (On Shot)

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC Amanda Miyers Rating: Adult

Content Warnings: A professor Student sexual relationship is not moral or ethical in reality. Due to the power the professor has over their student, they cannot truly consent or not consent freely. The consent in this fic is extremely murky at best. Should you find yourself manipulated into a relationship with your professor, know that this is morally and ethically wrong and you are the victim of abuse. Story contains oral sex with male receiving, rough penis in vagina sex, degradation, manipulation, public classroom sex, cream pies, unprotected sex, mention of Plan B. Please read with caution.

Summary: Amanda Miyers is on a mission to complete University in America with as little debt as possible. To do so, she must pass every class and that includes the imposing Professor Hiddleston's class. When she is sure that she'll not be able to manage that, she's forced to ask for another chance at the exam or enough extra credit to pass. Her idea of extra credit and his idea of extra credit are two very different things.

Finding Bobby (requested) One Shot

Paring: Tom x unnamed ofc- first person story Rating: Everyone, Warnings: None?

Request:  In honor of dear bobby's birthday could you write a fic about reader and tom finding or adopting him as a puppy please?? Love you ❤

Camping (One shot) 

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC Rated: PG13

Summary:  When Mary catches word that Tom had never been camping it was decided that she had to fix that. What could go wrong?

The Things you find (In the rain) *complete*

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC (Maggie) Rating: M for light sexual content, nothing explicit warnings: Cheating, unhealthy relationships, excessive drinking, 

Summary:  Maggie and Evan had just married and were honeymooning in London. He was a difficult man but Maggie was a kind and forgiving soul. She loved him with all she was and when that is thrown away, not even 72 hours after they said their ‘I Do’s, what’s a girl to do? Except perhaps hit up ever bar her feet can take her to while the night sky opens up above her. When Tom’s out walking Bobby in the rain, he’s thankful. It’s true that beast will come into the house muddy and wet. He’ll even likely make a mess. But in the rain, even fewer were out this time of night and he was allowed the simple peace of walking around the park like any other man. In the rain no one expected him to take pictures with them. No one expected him to sign anything. In the rain, no one expected anything of him. 

Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4

Fanfic of the fanfic? Hell yes:  Day After The Rain- by @just-the-hiddles is a amazing, wonderful and hilarious story about Luke’s reaction to the events of Rain. Worth the read. It’s my new favorite thing. *warning* do not read while drinking/eating- this fic is a choking hazard.

Spring Showers One Shot 

A short follow up on Maggie and Tom. How do they hold up after a few months?

Lilith (One Shot)

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Demon ofc (lilith) Rating: M Warnings: Dub con, Sex, Oral, slight public masturbation.

Summary:  Thanks to a director with a misguided love for authenticity Tom experiences some unique side effects and a special visitor waiting for him at home

I’m Back (One Shot) *follow up to Lilith*

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Demon ofc (lilith) Rating: M Warnings: Dub con, Sex, Oral, slight public masturbation, rough oral sex (M receiving)

Clueless *Completed*

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x ofc (Sofya) Rating: T

Summery: Sofya was a perfectly plain woman living a perfectly average life in small town Arizona. She went to work, came home and repeated the process the next day. She dated average men who found her to be too plain and always left. Nothing remarkable every happened to her. When a tall British man named Tom walked into her life- or perhaps it’s better to say when she walked into his, spilling coffee all over them both in the process- her lack of experience with anything beyond plain and average left her clueless as to what was coming. Could Sofya ever be something more than perfectly plain to someone?

Chapters: Coffee, preparations, Hiking, Conventions, Whiskey

Of Mermaids and Fairy Tails  (Mermaid Series Part 1) One shot

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OC   Rated: G Warnings: Free diving can be a dangerous sport, please swim responsibly.  

Summery: Tom, Chris and Chris’ children are traveling, giving mom a break. In an effort to entertain the children, they visit a Mermaid show and it’s hard to say who’s more mesmerized by the mermaid, the children or Tom.

The Mermaid and The Prince (Mermaid Series Part 2) One Shot

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x ofc Rated: G

Summery: Rose and Tom had a few great dates and then, poof, he was off to live his life. If not for the friendly texting, it would be like he was never by her side at all. Yet the memory of his kiss still burns and Rose holds hope of seeing him again, of touching him again. He promised to return to her side and she believed him. But when she finds pictures of him with another woman, doubts creep in. He never said he was hers.

A Mermaid On Holiday (Mermaid Series part 3)

Pairing: Tom hiddleston x ofc (Rose) Rated: M Warnings: Non explicate sexual activity

Summery: Rose has no plans for Christmas and is content to laze around her apartment enjoying the three week break from work that was forced upon her. Tom found himself trying to pick between spending the holiday with Rose in the USA or traveling back home to Britain where he could spend it with his family. With his heart torn between two places and the advise of his Mum in his ear Tom had made his decision. He’d have his cake and get to eat it too. Rose, pack your tail. This Mermaid is going on holiday.  

Chapter: Part one, Part two

The Gift He Didn't Know He Needed *One shot Holiday fic*

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC Rated: M Warnings: Just some insinuated smut, drinking and hey- if you’re going out in below freezing weather please bring the correct gear even if you don’t plan to spend time outside.

Summery: Being newly single during the holiday season was a drag under the best of circumstances. Spending the holidays far from him and surrounded by happy families made it sting even more. In an effort to hide from the pain, Tom thought it a good idea to book himself a cabin away from town to wallow in his misery. Unfortunately, bad directions and even worse luck aligned and he found himself lost on a mountain during a blizzard. Woefully unprepared for the arctic weather, the world set about turning him into a true frost giant when the engine cut off and refused to return to life. With no cell phone signal, Tom was lost as to what to do about his situation until a truck rolled to a stop and his salvation stepped out into a flurry of snow.

Thirsty Tweets *One Shot*

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC Monica Rating: PG13 Warnings: sexual tweets

Summary: Tom and Monica visit Neil's late night talk show to promote their new movie 'Before Dawn' and get roped into playing Neil's favorite game- "Thirsty Tweets". When Monica finds the tweets she must read uncomfortably sexual she makes do the best she can in the name of being a professional. It wouldn't do to appear to be more because Tom most diffidently doesn't see her that way, right? What happens when its Tom's turn to read the tweets about her?

Too Late? *one shot w/ pick your ending*

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x reader Rating: G

Note- this is a pick your ending story. Happy or Sad- the ending is up to you.

Summary: While waiting at home for the man you love to return to you the internet serves up pictures that sting and cause all the doubt hidden in your heart to flair to life. When Tom returns home and can’t provide a answer good enough for you, you leave with nothing for the airport. Can Tom change your mind and convince you to stay or is it too late?

[secularprolifeconspectus]

Pro-Life Rescue & Direct Action: The Importance of Invading Abortion Clinics

Non-Violent Direct Action is Proven Effective

From Ghandi’s Indian Independence Movement to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Civil Rights Movement, to Serbia’s student-led resistance Otpor! and more, two things are consistently linked with the success of movements: a commitment to non-violence and the necessity of risking arrest. That’s because only when people are willing to take risks and make sacrifices, can the institutional power of an oppressor be challenged and delegitimized. Seeing other people getting directly involved in a movement motivates participation. There is a science to non-violent struggle and social revolution that has been documented by political researchers such as Gene Sharpe. From privileged people interposing their bodies between Black protesters and the police who brutalize them during the Black Lives Matter movement, to tenant networks mobilizing to blockade around the homes of vulnerable neighbors at risk of eviction by their landlords, leftists have proven these tactics save lives and advance change. If we want to see success in the anti-abortion movement, then we must follow proven social science.

Rescue is Necessary to Dismantle Big Abortion

Because we will never outspend the abortion industrial complex, the only way we can win is with people power. Abortion rescue disrupts the progress of abortion violence and applies pressure to those complicit. It viscerally agitates the public to reckon with abortion's violence. It reduces violence on the fringes of the pro-life movement by providing a non-violent outlet of expression for frustrated individuals. Non-violent abortion rescue interrupts injustice against prenatal people without unjust action and disarms the abortion providers without harming them. Parents seeking abortion as a solution to an unwanted or crisis pregnancy have bought into the lies of Big Abortion, and rescue unsettles that narrative. Rescuers hope to save not only the child, but also their mothers, families, and communities. Rescue is intervention intended to free even the abortion workers from the cycle of abortion violence. During the era of the late 80’s and early 90’s, it’s estimated that 60% of mothers with appointments for abortions on the day of a rescue never rescheduled.

Rescues Challenge Unjust Laws

We can’t let the reality that the law is on the side of the oppressors dictate what we ought to do. Our goal is to change that reality, not to live with it! Opposition to rescue implicitly affirms that the choice to kill is permissible. We have no ethical obligation to follow unjust laws; in fact, we may challenge unjust laws with civil disobedience. We must use our bodies as shields to stop the main aggressors of abortion from hurting the babies because law enforcement upholds the violent status quo of the state. When a rescuer is sentenced to jail, it is an opportunity for non-rescuers to hold the entire legal system accountable each day for the murder it protects until it is as safe and legal to protect children as it is now safe and legal to kill them.

Rescuers Save Lives in Prisons

If you are pregnant and incarcerated, you are the forgotten of the forgotten. Pregnant prisoners are either pressured into abortion, mistreated into a miscarriage, or forced to suffer a dehumanizing birthing experience, and predatory adoption agencies lie in wait to take and profit from their babies. Pro-Life activists imprisoned for rescue are presented the unique opportunity to advocate for better conditions for pregnant prisoners, to defend the lives of their unborn children, to organize support for their families from the outside world, and to serve grieving post-abortive women behind bars. Even incarcerated women deserve better than abortion. Thus abortion rescuers continue to rescue even while in prison.

Rescues Affirm the Equality of the Preborn

By taking the risk to rescue, you practice solidarity with the preborn and parents who believe abortion is their only option. You have the power as a privileged born person to put your body between the powerless and their oppressors, between an abortion provider and a helpless child. How do we show the world that fetuses are the same as us when we are nothing like them? The answer is simple: we make ourselves more like them. When rescuers stand in solidarity with the preborn, they become as vulnerable as the preborn are. If we say that a woman needs to sacrifice her lifestyle, relationship, body, and future for her unborn child, then we are hypocrites if we’re not willing to do the same. When we rescue, we are willing to sacrifice the same to prison for her child, ergo rescue is solidarity with moms too. Some people will never affirm the humanity of the preborn. It’s our job to do so by being physically intolerant of abortion through rescue.

Rescue is a Direct Act of Love

The preborn deserve to have someone show up for them. An attempt to rescue a preborn child may be the only act of love they ever receive before they are murdered. They have no one else as they are taken legally to their deaths. The success of a rescue is not determined by how many babies were saved that day; it's determined by how many babies were loved. If you were facing death, wouldn’t you want someone who loves you to stand physically with you to the last possible second as well? Your presence in their moment of suffering matters. The preborn deserve to have someone witness them as full people at least once in their life.

If Abortion is Murder, then Act Like It

Do your actions reflect the reality that the preborn are people equal to ourselves? Rescue fully expresses what it means to understand that the preborn have the same humanity as us. Our sacrifice forces others to see the humanity of the preborn, because if they aren’t people, why would we risk jail and potentially worse for them? If the preborn have the right to life, then we have a responsibility to make sure their right is respected. Rescue offers a final tangible act of love to a child as they are being taken away to be exterminated. If you KNOW the preborn are people and abortion is murder, then ACT LIKE IT!

How to Support Rescue

Not every pro-life person can be an abortion rescuer. Factors like finances, family, disability, and racialized police brutality prevent many folks who support rescue from feeling confident in participating. Luckily, there are many ways the pro-life community as a whole can participate in rescue without being a rescuer!

Sponsor a rescuer financially. If you can't rescue, donate to a rescuer who will do it for you! As rescuer Herb Geraghty said, "let us be your hands and feet". Offer monetary and emotional support to the families of rescuers.

Do jail support. Demonstrate in front of police stations, courts, jails, and prisons that are holding rescuers. Write to the rescuers frequently. If you are on a legal team, offer your local rescuers pro-bono defense.

Share rescue stories on your social media in a positive light. Comment on news stories that frame rescue badly. Make videos about rescue and why you support it.

Do culture jamming around clinics frequented by rescuers. Make posters and wheatpaste them to sidewalks, sharpie pro-life messages to the backs of signs, put rescue stickers on the alley walls around the clinic.

Help organize the rescues. Do research about the clinics for the rescuers. Keep the rescuers updated about police scanners while they perform a rescue. Coordinate supplies, donations, first-aid, and legal defense. Be there with food before and after rescue.

Learn More

Quotes About Abortion Rescues Rescue and Police Violence The Rescue Movement (Documentary) The Brutal Truth Dragonslayers Defenders of the Unborn Wrath of Angels Shattering the Darkness All the Rescues Essential Roles in Social Movements Types of Abortion Rescue Historic Abortion Rescues Media Bias Against Abortion Rescue Joan Andrews

[thatstormygeek]

Legitimizing the right’s vile anti-immigrant views by trying to co-opt their positions enables the far-right vilification of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. Failing to present a strong alternative to the right’s violent vision of deportations and destabilization ushers in their perspective as the dominant narrative. And that dehumanizing viewpoint has consequences. We’re seeing it in the UK, and we’re seeing it in America. Fascism has risen and has been legitimized in the eyes of far, far too many people. And the process I’m describing here has been instrumental to that far-right ascendence. This is not limited to the way the right, and center, speak and think and act on immigration. Take homelessness. One month ago the Supreme Court legalized the criminalization of homelessness in their Grants Pass ruling. California’s Governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has already signed an executive order using the ruling to enable mass homeless sweeps across the state. San Francisco mayor London Breed says that she plans to launch a “very aggressive” crackdown on homeless encampments in the city this month. “The problem is not going to be solved by building more housing,” she added as she made her announcement, “Thank goodness for the Supreme Court decision.” Here is the problem distilled down to its essence. What would solve the homelessness crisis? Housing, of course. Both a reduction in the cost of housing and simply providing housing for those in need. It’s both the ethical and the cost-effective solution, rather than paying for expensive sweeps accompanied by police, which then happen again and again because the people displaced from homeless encampments don’t, of course, have anywhere to go. So they set up another encampment. And now, in the wake of this Supreme Court ruling, we’re likely to see more legal fees and the sky-high cost of jailing and imprisoning people who cannot pay those fees, and so on and so forth. But instead of solutions we’re seeing the systemic criminalization of, and attack on, homeless people in the United States. This approach would not be possible without rhetoric and logic that supports treating struggling human beings as failures, as less than, as disposable. That logic currently proliferates on the right, but it is also widespread in the center, where far too many people would rather have homeless people removed from their line of sight than have the underlying problem of people living without housing removed from the world. This sort of thinking, this idea that humans can and should be disposed of, enables the fascist movement. It’s the same line of thinking that underpins white supremacy, misogyny, transphobia and supremecist thinking of all forms.

So the profit motive in the housing market can’t be blamed; the person who got fired or had a health emergency must be to blame for losing their housing. The center has ceded all of this to the right, if it was ever contested, and so homeless people are “swept,” meaning violently moved around as their belongings are repeatedly destroyed. Meanwhile, two numbers go up and up: the number of homeless people and the profits of rental companies and developers. Similarly, migrants are to blame for seeking a better life, according to the right and center. The destabilization of their home countries must be ignored, the neoliberal economics that devastate job markets and wreck the ecosystems of entire countries can’t be questioned. International economic policy in this late capitalist period must be taken for granted, and even ignored, because the decisions that individual people make to migrate in search of a better life might start to make sense within context. So here we are, with the price of rent and the cost of buying a home rising and rising. Here we are, with laws that make existing in public more and more difficult. Public space is being eaten up and commodified, and new laws that criminalize homelessness are already being weaponized even against people with homes, because how can cops or mall security tell if you’re unhoused or just engaged in the devious behavior of hanging out in public space? In the UK race riots continue as lynch mobs look for anyone who could be ‘foreign’ to attack, while the people actually driving up the cost of living and ruining communities sit back and relax, and, in fact, fund the scapegoating of oppressed groups.

[marveltrumpshate]

Health

Between the pandemic, disabilities, trauma, and the wear and tear that comes with being a human, physical and mental health are always on the forefront of our minds. The organizations below strive to address the structural inequity of healthcare access, disability rights, and safety and well-being.

For more information on donation methods and accepted currencies, please refer to our list of organizations page.

Amputee Coalition

The Amputee Coalition supports, educates, and advocates for people impacted by limb loss and limb difference as well as their families and caretakers. They developed the National Limb Loss Resource Center, have a large focus on peer support programs, advocate on the federal and state level, and offer educational programming. They also fund local chapters that serve amputees across the globe.  

Assistance Dogs International

Assistance dogs are essential to millions around the world but are cost-prohibitive for many. Supporting this organization will mean that this essential service is less of an economic burden for those who need it. In addition to training and placement, ADI advocates for the legal rights of people with disabilities partnered with assistance dogs and sets standards, guidelines, and ethics for training the dogs.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement with regard to autism. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities and have their voices heard. For that reason, the organization is run by individuals on the autism spectrum. ASAN's primary focuses are advocating for policies that protect disability and civil rights, creating tools and leadership training for autistic self-advocates, and offering educational resources. 

Center for Reproductive Rights

The Center for Reproductive Rights is the only global legal advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person. With local partners across five continents, they have secured legal victories before national courts, UN Committees, and regional human rights bodies on issues such as access to life-saving obstetrics care, contraception, maternal health, and safe abortion services and the prevention of forced sterilization and child marriage.

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund

DREDF is the leading civil rights organization in the United States that fights for and is directed by people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities. Not only does DREDF work directly with their clients to help them know their own rights, but they train and educate lawyers, lawmakers, and other societal gatekeepers to make sure they know those rights as well.

International Association for Suicide Prevention

IASP tackles suicide and suicidal behavior prevention and creates a space for academics, mental health professionals, crisis workers, volunteers, and people with lived experience to come together. They push for evidence-based research, suicide prevention efforts across all cultures, sectors, and regions globally, and the facilitation of mentorships between countries with more established prevention strategies and countries at earlier stages of strategy development.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Odds are you’ve heard of MSF, the global organization that sends trained medical professionals to the places they’re needed most. MSF has been working globally for over 50 years, providing medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare—no matter what. They’re guided by principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality to global political policies or movements. 

National Network of Abortion Funds

The National Network of Abortion Funds builds power with members to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people who have abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice. They provide their grassroots base of over 100 autonomous, diverse organizations/abortion funds in the U.S. and abroad with leadership development, infrastructure support, and technical assistance. Some fund procedures while others cover abortion pills, transportation, lodging, childcare, doula services, and other forms of support.

The Pad Project

Period stigma and lack of access to affordable, safe, and effective menstrual products are a global problem. The Pad Project partners with local communities internationally to serve people who menstruate across all genders through funding the placement of pad machines and implementing washable pad programs. They also pair menstrual product access with education—workshops on menstrual hygiene management and sexual and reproductive health and their award-winning documentary, Period. End of Sentence.

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

PCRF delivers crucial, life-saving medical relief and humanitarian aid to children and families in Palestine and throughout the Middle East, especially those in Gaza and Lebanon's refugee camps. In addition to providing free medical care, equipment, medicine, and treatment, PCRF also supplies clean water, hygiene kits, food, and other necessities. Their programs include mental health and amputee projects, support for infrastructure plans such as hospital expansions to improve healthcare access, and sponsorships for children who are disabled, orphaned, or in need of medical treatment or surgery.

Partners In Health

Founded by Paul Farmer when he was still in medical school, PIH is committed to bringing exceptional health care to every corner of the planet. PIH also works to provide access to food, transportation, housing, and other key components of healing to the most vulnerable. Their work started in Haiti but has expanded rapidly across the globe. 

Undue Medical Debt

Over 100 million Americans (one in three) are struggling with paying off medical bills. COVID has only added to those numbers, putting people under significant financial burden and emotional distress. This organization buys up medical debt in order to forgive it with no tax consequences to donors or recipients. Donate just $1 and you wipe out $100 of someone's medical debt, $100 to get rid of $10,000 in debt, and so on—the ripple effect is real. Through their work, Undue Medical Debt not only helps with financial relief but also brings attention to the need for a more compassionate, transparent, equitable, and affordable healthcare system.

[darkmaga-returns]

In a world where words can wound as deeply as weapons, who truly decides what we can and cannot say? As governments push for censorship, we must question: is silencing dissent self-defence or control?

Gaz's - A Defender's Voice

Nov 14, 2024

The concept of self-defense is often framed within the context of physical harm—a reflexive act when one's safety is threatened. This right, enshrined in legal principles, allows individuals to protect themselves using reasonable force. However, when we expand this concept beyond the physical realm, we find that self-defense can also encompass the protection of one's autonomy, freedom, and integrity against forms of harm that do not manifest as physical violence. In today's world, one such harm comes in the form of censorship, particularly the suppression of free speech.

Censorship is often justified under the guise of protecting society from harm, especially in the form of "hate speech." Yet, when we scrutinize the mechanisms of censorship and the power dynamics at play, a stark hypocrisy emerges. Governments and authorities, who are quick to condemn certain forms of expression, frequently engage in rhetoric that incites hostility and division, especially during times of crisis. The moral and ethical dilemma thus arises: can those who wield the tools of censorship be trusted to define and regulate the boundaries of free speech?

The concept of harm extends beyond physical injury. It encompasses psychological, emotional, and social damage that can arise from words and ideas. Hate speech, in particular, is often cited as causing such harm by inciting hatred, discrimination, and hostility against specific groups. Governments, in their quest to maintain social order, frequently push for laws that censor speech they deem harmful. These laws are framed as protective measures, aiming to shield society from the adverse effects of divisive or offensive rhetoric.

Yet, we must question the sincerity and consistency of these efforts. Governments themselves have a long history of using speech as a weapon—during times of war, in political conflicts, and even in public health crises. They use rhetoric that, if measured by the same standards they impose on citizens, could easily be classified as hate speech.

[sisaloofafump]

AUs I keep thinking about but will never write:

Bruce, Clark, (and Stephanie) coparenting a toddler. This comes in two variations:

A) Stephanie gets contacted by the adoption agency her child went to. They are wondering about her genetic history as her child has developed fairly dangerous powers and has gravely injured and scared her adopted parents. Bruce (the one who organized the adoption with the agency and is a public JL liaison), Superman (superpowers and JL resident Dad), Steph, and Tim (Steph's moral support) have to figure out how to provide the right support for this kid while maintaining appropriate boundaries with the adopting family and, you know, handling dangerous super powers

B) a villain has been making clone hybrids of Clark and Bruce to use as his own weapons. Because the more powerful powers develop later in life, these clones were rapidly aged after creation with only a few surviving the process. Clark and Bruce find one remaining clone, a baby who has not yet been aged up. They are faced with figuring out childcare but also a moral dilemma: if they let the kid age naturally, she will grow up in an unstable body and a face much higher likelihood of dying when the powers develop. If they age her up now, she will miss all her childhood years, but will have a notably higher (though not guaranteed) survival rate when the powers develop. Additionally, who will raise her? This would take place in the current comics world where Bruce is out of resources and family connections, and Clark has just adopted two new twin kids (while dealing with the ramifications of an aged up Jon). Lana Lang and John Henry/Steel have the resources and experience, but can they take this kid? Do they want to? Stephanie plays a smaller role but she is one of the most involved bats in the discussions and early childcare.

More ideas:

Lois Lane as a gun Batman. Bruce's parents are never killed, and he grows up as a philanthropist. Lois, however, has to grow up with her own mother's death and her father's militarization, and raising her sister. As an adult living in Gotham, she starts doing her most dangerous investigative work under the mantle of Batman. She works closely with Bruce (funding her) and Harvey Dent (legal support and her husband). When Harvey's accident happens, it kick starts her turning further and further into violent and vigilante justice, rather than her previous detective-oriented work. She forms a deep friendship with Superman, and helps Bruce raise Dick, Damian, and Tim. She doesn't adopt anyone herself, but she is a mentor to the self-starting hero's in the city, especially Harper and Steph. She has a fairly long fling with Talia. It would really explore how her style of investigation would work within the constrains of her Silver Age ethics. (A variation is where her and Kate grew up as childhood friends and Kate took on the Batwoman mantle in Gotham while Lois became Mothwoman something else in Metropolis)

Golden Age Clark being transferred to Gotham. (This would mix a lot of Pre-Crisis ideas but) radioshow-inspired Clark who isn't really Superman yet; and Superman is an unknown public figure. Most of his work is done as this adventurous yet mild mannered "human" hero, with Superman being an ominous alien form. Early on he strikes up a partnership with a solo Batman (pre-Robin), and a friendship (w benifits) with Bruce Wayne. Lois, despite being given very clear instructions to stay in Metropolis, is brought by her own work to Gotham and into investigating Bruce Wayne. The main center point of this would be the friendship between Clark and Lois, and the loneliness of Bruce

1987 Wonder Woman run where everything's the same except Julia Kapatelid and Diana become a couple. (I have too many thoughts about this it needs its own post)

[jakob-wulf]

How Wizarding Britain needs Purebloods

Now I'm not quite sure how to do this, but this is a long olde rant about the Harry Potter universe. -A few Hogwarts Legacy spoilers below Now, as we know there are 28 main 'pureblood' houses and they are heavily important to the stability of British magical society, from the Ollivander's being the main producers and sellers of Wands, to the Malfoy's government funding. Pure blood families have always been essential to wizarding society, but with rapid depopulation of Wizardkind after the two world wars, the war with Grindelwald and Voldemort they are in a huge population deficit and power struggle. Unlike muggle Britain the wizarding counterpart put no financial incentive to repopulate causing a collapse in trade, supply lines and forcing nearly all graduating students to work for the ministry if their families did not own prior business to survive. But pureblood families are needed to maintain this order, hence why they had so much power during voldemorts era and the 1990's. The Malfoy family funded government departments, the Fawley, Crouch, Avery and Nott families worked in high standing departments and contributed to law and funding of public spending, for instance, st mungos and Hogwarts. Also every family head had a seat in the wizengamot contributing to the management of government and the legal system, Or contributed in development of technology via spellcraft, or potioneering. The loss of pureblood or noble families means a loss in financial stability for the Ministry of Magic, as they do not have the ability to print new money in times of crisis, that being in the power of goblinkind. Additionally the loss of culture, history and familial techniques, like the loss of parseltongue with the Gaunts. if a group were to unleash a dozen Basilisk in London, without the Gaunts there would be mass casualties on muggle and wizarding side. Now I'm not saying the purebloods dont have their own flaws, on a ethical level the extremists have it wrong but also from a side where they want to preserve magic and keep it strong in magical families, they should as it is part of their history and culture, most of the adults from the 90's during harrys time, saw the atom bomb and cold war, how they could be the next to be rounded up and killed. It would terrify anyone, but I repeat, I do not agree with their ideals. just without the complex movement of noble and pureblood families supporting the Ministry of Magic the entirety of wizarding Britain would crumble under the financial weight and become forced to break the statute of secrecy to trade in muggle money to stay alive.

We can also see a clear view of corruption and ineptitude within the Ministry where political power can be hoarded by select few and with no way to elect ministers a democracy could easily become a dictatorship. As shown by Fudge using the power of the Government Run Paper to slander a literal child without legal consequence or how Barty Crouch sent Sirius to Azkaban without trial or due process. circling back to the Daily Prophet, there is no competing news paper to allow free thought or speech only gossip or eccentric magazines like Witch Weekly or The Quibbler. Forcing from children to elderly to believe that anything they say is true. Example: All of Rita Skeeta's articles.

Returning to The loss of culture and history, the Hogwarts Legacy game is a good indicator via Ominis Gaunt that old wizarding families will have secrets like the location of Salazar Slytherins scriptorium, the chamber of secrets, the lost knowledge of ancient magic or the existence of golden snidgets. Though some is kept alive via portraits through destruction of family lines or dwellings of pureblood families I.E. Rookwood Castle/Isadora Morganachs portrait, there is a loss of essential history, culture and folk knowledge in wizarding society. In Conclusion, With the rapid depopulation of Wizarding Britain and the annihilation of Pureblood families over generations of inbreeding, war and extremist ideology blinding them. The Ministry of Magic and Wizarding Britain will rapidly crumble without a method to maintain a standard of living, financial stability, law and morals, essential services or adequate supply lines. Resulting in political and cultural collapse forcing a break in the statute of secrecy to cling to Muggle Britain's struggling system and welfare state to allow future magical generations to recover. Thank you for reading and bearing with my Tumblr ineptitude.

[sarasa-cat]

I am reading (technically listening) to:

You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape by Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner. MIT Press, 2021.

Only in chapter 2. But hoooooboy do I want to hold a reading group that reads this book and discusses it.

Chapter 2 includes a big bit on how millennials who were internet researchers in PhD programs (such as these two authors) during the early 2010s actually PERPETUATED the problems of online racism, sexism, protecting the privacy of minors and other vulnerable classes of people.

Including the outrage that some of these young researchers felt when they were told HOW FUCKED UP THEIR RESEARCH WAS (often by peer-reviews my age, which definitely did in fact include me for those attempting to publish in ACM venues) .

I eventually left academia and the tech world because of so many things in this book --- the tide of move fast and break things --- the overwhelming onslaught of smug young idiots with freshly minted Harvard (etc) degrees who had bizarre notions of what "free speech" actually means even in a US legal context. There was far too much of a revolving door between research academia and Facebook, Google, Twitter, Etc.

Well. This chapter attempts to apologize for the idiocy that swept through that group of people.

...

But before that, lots of discussion about other idiots far older than them (and many far older than me too). So, they have words for everyone.

My problem is that I'm just extra salty at a specific group for reasons personal. Sorry. But I am salty and I will remain salty and so will every single damn person (generally in my age group) who warned and warned and warned and warned about how the information ecosystem was being taken over by bigots and by political-ideological agents with dangerous goals.

Anyhow. (Still salty. Salty since 2008. Actually, no. Salty since 1998.)

I think I need to get my hands on a text version of this book because audiobook while cleaning is sort of brain tuning in and out.

The whole section on the rise of Christian media (in the 70s-90s) and how that walked hand in hand with the so-called Satanic Panic (!!!) of the 1980s was really very well spelled out.

If anyone wants to read this book with me, please let me know.

Here is a preview: https://www.google.com/books/edition/You_Are_Here/-ScZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover

The chapters are:

Introduction: Mapping Network Pollution

The Devil's in the Deep Frames

The Root of All Memes

Tilling Bigoted Lands, Sowing Bigoted Seeds

The Gathering Storm

Cultivating Ecological Literacy

Choose Your Own Ethics Adventure

(The intro does something clever -- it looks at information networks as ecological networks)

(Ch 1 was basically Lakoff & Johnson's linguistic frame theory crossed with the rise of Evangelical media networks that sucked in conspiracy theories in order to push back against fears of modern secular society which was rapidly changing in the 70s and 80s).

(I'm currently in Ch 2 which is about meme culture -- and also WHY these two people - millennials of a certain vintage - had trouble seeing the forest for the trees because they grew up immersed in internet culture and didn't realize (lacked the wisdom and perspective) to see what was wrong with even the things they were doing as researchers)

okay. back to cleaning --- ping me if you are fascinated. I'm gonna keep listening but I also need to find a print or ebook copy bc audiobook isn't the best for close reading.

[masked-and-doomed]

NO! No, lambs. You are not going to make me feel like I've never known you. That would be very mean of you guys. They simply have a different interpretation, that is bound to happen, considering how little information we have on you as characters. I simply have my own views on them, they simply have theirs. We are not going to have a crisis over this. Clear?

Baldias I don't know when I'll finish writing your chapter. I think the progress I've made in the past week needs to be dumped in the rubbish bin. Yes I was gonna say trash but opted for the British option. Rubbish just sound funnier.

I think I'm losing it in this void, lambs. Darlings? Yes, you are darlings, as you are part of my family, but I suppose it just doesn't feel as nice on the tongue when it's in regards to you lambs.

I don't know when I'll finish killing you Baldias, I think this might take a whole year. Do I have a whole year? Fuck, I probably don't. Shit.

Well, at least you guys are important and whatever. You're at the tippy top, your guys' opinions matter most, and you don't have anyone above you to worry about disappointing. A whole load of responsibility but at least you don't have to worry about muddy feelings regarding that your downfall is a mix of your own inadequacies and stuff out of your control, rather than being strictly one or the other.

Oh right. I forgot. You're still just people. Haha. Yeah 2187 suckkedd. 3 of you died there. And you, leader, became a lost little lamb. You didn't. You don't? know what to do with your life. Present tense feels weird here. Time and space and all, fucky wucky in the void, it is. Hah.

Hm. Is there any truly saving me?

I know I know, I saved like, most of you guys. And you guys were war criminals. And I helped you become better. Or at least, will. She. I? She. Let's go with She. She hasn't wrote that part yet, but it's the intended future.

Ahah. What a big dreamer She was, and She'll have a bit to show for it. Not as much as She'd like, but enough to give an idea what was the dream She had, huh?

Why have you guys let me talk this long?

“I'm sure you're quite aware with that answer yourself.”

True. Fuckk. This sucks. Do you think sleeping will do anything? I did have more important stuff to do that I wasted time all on. Looking at your alternate selves. Ahah.

“I'd reccomend you'd do at least some of it. You remember all that you've taught us, haven't you? Better half-ass it than nothing.”

God, but I hate doing it. How did you fuckers get through all of that fuckin' paperwork.

“You just have to get it done. Useless whining about it.”

“Damn hated it. And I was the one who had mostly practical shit! I was this close to burning it all.”

“It's a necessary evil to go through. It's mostly tedious rather than difficult. Your situation is quite different.”

I fucking hate thinking. This is why I should've just been made a living weapon for you guys.

“You are, aren't you! I'd much rather have one that's less bitchy. Testament would've been more tolerable.”

Well, if you got Testament, none of you guys would learn to properly love eachother. You require my stupid ass and whimsy.

“...You should kill yourself soon.”

“Baldias!”

“It's not as if you're in a favourable situation. I must admit I can't exactly advise you much here. I can only hope that your fate isn't as grim as ours.”

I need to die, Chronus. I dunno what else there is for me. Nagito would hate me rn. I am sooo faltering at the sight of my future sucking ass. I can't even follow your guys' example!

“We had the whole world at stake. Powerful motivator.”

“I just hope you can keep your chin up as long as you can, dear.”

You're unreasonably nice, Libraria. For what I am.

“...”

When is this ending?

“You're the one that's God here, dumbass.”

“Baldias.”

“And? She literally fucking asked for it!”

“I second Baldias. She wants to hurt. Hurt, Baldias and I have given her in our years.”

“It doesn't mean it's ethical. Nor legal. One can't sign a contract agreeing to be harmed.”

You're pulling law into this? Don't you have better arguments? You're like. Literally controlling the UN.

“Firefly... You're the one writing us."

Right. Sorry you don't have a better argument.

“It's fine. You're letting this all out for some sense of relief right? Is this helping?”

Partially. It still feels like I'm grasping at a puddle that's reflecting you guys, being fooled by the illusion of reflective light. And I don't have the object in my hands.

Hrm. I'd say more here, but I'm worried there will be someone to watch this. Us.

“To have so many of your layers peeled for everyone to see, yet to still keep such a mask. You are quite the esoteric person.”

Compliment.. nice..

“I'm tired of this. Can you shut it, now?”

Ermmm you know what they say. Majority vote.

“Yeah, shut up already! I didn't want to be in your void at all today.”

So two in favour. Chronus, Libraria?

“With all your masks, I am quite curious on what more you could reveal.”

“I like hearing you talk. You're lovely to listen to, dear.”

Fucking tie. Fuck, man.

Should I bring in-?

“No.”

Wow. Not even darling doctor?

“You do remember him taking the news poorly, don't you? You're not losing memory this young, right?”

Shut upp. I just don't think good. Head so empty. Yet so full. Dammit.

Heh. Just like-

“Don't you fucking say his name.”

“Doll, do not speak of him.”

“I'm going to actually strangle you if you finish that sentence.”

“Dear. Do not complete that thought.”

I thought you guys were chill now,,

“Well, She hasn't written out what happens post White H-”

“Name.”

“Damn it.”

“Hrm. It was called Strive, was it not? The game that that incident was held in.”

Post strive?

“Hrmph. Fine enough. Back to my point, She hasn't written that yet.”

Right. Sorry about that. She'll get to it soon, I promise.

“And what's with all those Google Docs I see behind your back, vermin?”

Ermmm. Faut..... To help me cope...

“A chink in your plan, those past few hours were, right? It seems every fortunate thing comes with it's own misfortune for you. Poetic, I suppose.”

“And you wanted poetry, that's what all this has been about!”

I think Monika pities me and my poem skills.

“We keep getting off topic.”

“Can't do much. Since she's doing it all.”

Sorry. Sorry.

“How many times will you say it? When will you forgive yourself for once?”

You fucking know I'm not Faut, Chronus. I'm not you guys either. I'm not. I hate effort.

“What about your art, your writing?”

They're things I like doing. But I damn hate putting effort in things I don't like. I mean! You've seen what happened a week or two ago!

...

Ah... I'm tired..

“You're lazy. We know.”

“Perhaps it's time for your rest. After dinner, of course.”

“Heheh, rest. Yeah right. She doesn't feel any rest, does she?”

“Please take care of yourself, firefly.”

I love you.

“Hey! We're meant to say it first! Way to ruin things like you always do, cunt!”

Ahah. Thank you.

“Sentimental. Never thought I'd be here. But you keep doing your fuckery, and I'm pulled along for the ride.”

I'll make sure others love you guys.

“You should focus on loving yourself, dear.”

I don't have much.

“Still, try to push on, won't you?”

Maybe I'll have a last laugh.

Maybe I'll just be forgotten.

[moth-yknowtheartist]

The substitute should have a redemption arc.

Okay so like I FULLY agree and we're getting INTO it so I hope you're ready to buckle up LONG TERM

SO in a bit of my art at this point I've depicted or implied the substitute having kind of a resentment for the professor and this is something that I'd love to see drive the plot in some kind of later return of the substitute. The professor is the embodiment of pretty much everything the substitute cannot have- the professor is real, the professor has the capacity to experience and feel and taste things such as jellybeans, the professor has an actual network now of friends and family while the substitute is VERY isolated, any connections made being under the act of being the professor.

I'd imagine any resentment would really only be recent- while the professor was dead, the substitute seemed to really take Being The Professor in stride, below any plot to become a Real Boy or any other motivation his CORE PURPOSE is to be the professor. But what do you do when, not only did your plot to finally become corporeal, to know what it's like to feel, to FINALLY HAVE A SOUL- what do you do when it ends with you thrown unceremoniously out a window? What do you do when you fail? And what do you do when your purpose, your sole reason for being, is just suddenly gone, with the person you're based on suddenly reassuming his old position?

What do you do when your only purpose no longer needs serving, but you're still not real enough to serve much else but that purpose, not real enough to create your own life?

You get pissed, and you get a LOT worse.

I see a natural next step of the whole plot the substitute concocted being one that targets the professor in some way. This is a guy now driven by even deeper desperation than his first bid for corporeality even began to show, and it's either going to end with him real in some way that doesn't involve murder, a resolution on the path to redemption, or it ends with his little power box smashed to pieces.

I would hope it doesn't end with the latter though because really this is a guy with a lot of potential for redemption. Like, we have to remember how he started out; this guy's starting point was being 100% the professor!!! Our beloved kind hearted (though admittedly nasty) professor!!!!! And every choice he's made has to be understood as being through the professor's frame of mind, just with the added complication of an existential crisis. This guy is an AI trained to be the professor, going out into the world, encountering the concept of flesh and corporeality and probably gaining sentience right about at that point, and then probably doing the kind of research you do when you want to obtain flesh and getting the kind of RESULTS you get when you want to obtain flesh (like there's really not many legal or ethical ways to do that that you're gonna find. The answer you will get is violence. Violence is what you get) and learning from that and changing the way he operates and thinks based on that new input. Like imagine if that AI that got fed Reddit posts for a bit also had the thoughts and memories of a man with a preexisting ongoing rivalry with that rivalry culminating in a deadly betrayal. YOURE NOT GONNA BE NORMAL AFTER THAT YOU ARE GOING TO START KILLING!!!!

And pivoting off of that, knowing that this is a program that has learned violence and has therefore shifted toward a more violent persona and mode of action, does it not go the other way? If you take that Reddit AI and teach it that there is good in the world and there is better out there than the shadowy doom of Reddit, does it eventually start wanting to pick flowers instead of wrap its hands around a man's throat? Does it start to understand that there is cruelty, yes, but that it does not have to follow that pattern of action because there is a better pattern to follow? Can you re-tame the creature taught to burn the world?

... Or something. Idk it's not like this is my favorite character and I've thought about this extensively or anything hhahahahah /lie

[rametarin]

We need a new dietary word.

'Veganism' needs to be inescapably associated with the sort of person that Vegan Gains (youtuber, lolcow, drama starter) embodies. A sociopathic radical person who expresses their misanthropy through these weird pseudo-spiritualist beliefs that emphasize the importance of ethics and humanity.. for non-humans. That say humans do not matter more than the fish they eat.

Humans are more important than other animals, to other humans. This is not up for debate. And as far as vegans are concerned, they only tolerate a world where people choose to raise animals for food, because they cannot, currently, browbeat the law into justifying why killing animals for food is legal and allowed.

This isn't a joke. They know they do not have the democratic votes, so instead the plan is to opt to call eating meat a violation of animal's civil rights. Which circumvents democracy, in the name of civil rights. Extending human rights to animals, from gorillas and dolphins down to pigs and dogs. In essence, radical judges could easily rule against a human being's right to raise animals for food.

Objectively speaking, non-meat alternatives are fine. Economically and politically speaking, they're going to be weaponized. Firstly, the argument that in order to "save the planet" from emissions, we can't have large plantations of herd animals for meat anymore, which is wrong. We have ways to mitigate cow, pig and goat emissions, and chickens are virtually emission free. But, arguing that susstenance farming and farming as a business "should" be illegal because of pollution emitted by the worst case scenarios of emitters, will be on the queue.

They're also going to demand two other things. 1.) That the not-meat alternatives get subsidized and scaled up, to make them cheaper. 2.) Levy that cheapness in the market place. Kind of like corn was a preferred domestic product and socialized.

This means that not only does actual meat have to compete with not-meat alternatives on the store shelves, but given it uses tax dollars to subsidize the business model by obligation, it can afford to undercut and undersell vs. the competition. This is a socialized state-vs-free-market business model, all over again. Naturally, the one protected with laws that say you must have a certain % of the product BY LAW, and certain institutions you have to attend BY LAW be subsidized by your tax dollars to have their products featured in them complimentarily, are going to purchase from the preferred companies. That means, Not-Meat gets obligatory business, and if they have their way, conventional animal meat may even be banned as a "cruel alternative to not-meat."

Overall I see this agenda as inevitable. We're going to need to reaffirm the rights of human beings to be able to use animals as sources of food, and that the practice is NOT a criminal nor abusive one by default, though affirm yes, it can be done abusively. Because just like cars and guns, they're going to make the window of acceptable "abuse" smaller and smaller until no farmer can reasonably meet these arbitrary needs of all their farm animals unless they're treated like pampered pets with tens of thousands of dollars sunk into veterinarian visits per head of cattle, instead of livestock.

While I'm not opposed to the not-meat synthetic alternatives to meat as products that can be sold on the market (I'm not even opposed to offering the insect patties as a viable product on a fair and open market) I am opposed to the pseudo-spiritualist, moralist basis for banning meats or treating meat like it's a necessary evil, when it's not evil in the least.

So. Bringing this back around to my original point, I'd like there to be a term for something like, "Kind of like vegan, except I will also eat meat, my dietary issue is really more I like foods that can be grown synthetically and stored near indefinitely for emergency nutrition in the event of a crisis." So they may prefer lab grown meat over beef cattle, or meat sheep, or pigs, but not for any sort of moralist reason, merely economic and sustainability ones.

Because the transhumanist, "accelerate humanity's evolution to the stars!" types really hate Farmer John and his farm of moocows and sheep and pigs. They hate the privately owned property model, they hate that people aren't forced either by law or by resource and economical necessity to participate on the subordinate end of society. And by disallowing anyone but the Box Corps from being able to grow food without a million indirect whammies that make sustaining that operation legally impossible, they make dissent impossible by denying dissent the ability to feed itself.

My position is that human beings should be legally allowed to grow animals for food, without the imposition of activists trying to tighten the noose so hard specifically to stamp out something they don't like. You know- the bullshit arbitrary bigotry that marijuana currently deals with? Yeah. Imagine that, but, levied at folks with duck ponds and sheep grazing fields. That kind of arbitrary resistance, for no damned reason.

[rhetoricandlogic]

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard review – a wonderfully lucid analysis

Issues of identity and belonging preoccupied the Romans, and insistently resonate with the concerns of the early 21st century

Thanks to the sophisticated work of archaeologists, we now know more than ever about the diets, health and housing of Roman-era communities from Syria to the German frontier zone. While the lives of the vast majority remain inaccessible to us, the epitaphs of an African ex-slave who ended his days in northern Britain, or a musician from Asia who met a premature death in Rome, give tantalising glimpses of human mobility in the multicultural world of Roman imperial rule.

Yet there are individual Romans who have long been familiar. Mary Beard’s masterful study of Roman history begins with a dazzling account of one such man, Cicero, in the year he held the consulship (Rome’s most prestigious office) and the state faced a terrible political crisis, as a conspiracy led by a renegade Roman aristocrat was uncovered. Cicero’s speeches against Catiline have been a staple of classical education and a reference point for political orators. Catiline has served as a byword for subversion, but he has also been rehabilitated as a champion of the dispossessed – or at least as the symptom of a broken system rather than an incarnation of evil. Was Cicero right in ordering that Catiline and his associates be executed without trial? Beard underlines the difficulties of working out what actually happened, but she also highlights what was at stake, both in Cicero’s own time and later.

The majority of surviving accounts of early Roman history date from Cicero’s time and later, several hundred years after the city’s alleged foundation, but Beard is a wonderfully lucid guide to its murky beginnings, shining a spotlight on dark corners of the Roman forum and the disturbing frequency with which stories of sexual violence (the rape of the Sabines, the rape of Lucretia, the almost-rape of Verginia, averted only by her death) punctuate Rome’s political history.

At what point did Rome make the transition from being a rather undistinguished settlement on the river Tiber, poorer and less well connected than many of its neighbours, to being a superpower in embryo? As Beard makes clear, the empire was generated partly through the exaction of military services (rather than tribute) from subordinate allied communities, yielding a huge reserve of armed force, and in part through the competitive ideology of the Roman elite – every senator dreamed of processing through Rome at the head of a victorious army. But expansion put great power in the hands of individual commanders. It was the empire itself, Beard persuasively argues, that ultimately produced the rule of the emperors.

Beard presents a plausible picture of gradual development from a community of warlords to an urban centre with complex political institutions, institutions which systematically favoured the interests of the upper classes yet allowed scope for the votes of the poor to carry weight. We may think of the Greeks as the great originators of western political theory, but Beard emphasises the sophistication of Roman legal thought, already grappling in the late second century BC with the complex ethical issues raised by the government of subject peoples.

Structures and institutions are the dominant concern in Beard’s compelling analysis but it is constantly enlivened by gripping episodes such as the assassination of Caesar and illuminating details like the significance of Augustus’ signet ring. Central chapters focus on two key individuals: Cicero, in many ways the symbol of the Roman republic, and his younger contemporary, the enigmatic Augustus, architect of the autocratic regime that succeeded the republic. Letters and other documents also allow us glimpses of family life, of what it might mean to be a slave-secretary, of the experiences of Roman upper-class women.

Relations between the sexes could be political dynamite. Mark Antony was in thrall to Cleopatra – or so Augustus alleged of his rival. What claims, we might wonder, did Antony make about Augustus? And if the emperor Nero often figures in the top 10 “most evil men in history”, this may be more to do with his successors’ need to justify his fall from power than his actual behaviour. For the majority of inhabitants of the Roman empire, as is emphasised, it made almost no difference who was emperor.

Beard is ever alert to linguistic nuance, sharing with her readers the point of Roman jokes and nicknames, teasing out the significance of a board game or an epitaph. Artworks and literary texts played a critical role in articulating identities, communal and individual, and in making sense of power in the Roman world. Modern scholars may struggle to interpret these texts now, and though Beard is primarily focused on Rome, she does not overlook the linguistic and cultural diversity of the vast swath of territory over which the city ruled.

The widespread practice of inscribing texts on stone or bronze has preserved the words of bakers, minor magistrates and slaves, as well as those of imperial authority (Beard argues against more pessimistic estimates of literacy levels). The preoccupations of Rome’s 99% can be gleaned from Egyptian papyri, or messages to the gods on lead tablets. Ex-slaves in particular made use of funeral monuments to showcase their citizenship. Issues of identity and belonging were all the more pressing in a world where the majority of Romans had never been to Rome.

Beard makes us reconsider what we think we know about the Romans. Her book is not a seamless narrative of the rise and flourishing of the Roman empire, but a subtle and engaging interrogation of the complex and contradictory textual and material traces of the Roman world.

The most devastating critique of the Roman empire comes in an imagined speech put in the mouth of a British tribal leader (“they make a desert and call it peace”) and was penned by one of Rome’s most distinguished senators, the historian Tacitus. An anxiety about what exactly it means to be Roman seems to drive many texts of the period. This anxiety insistently resonates with the concerns of the early 21st century. As Beard explains, it is not that we should take the Romans as our models. But reflecting on the ways they perceived and organised their world is a valuable reminder that concepts we take for granted – the nation state, for instance – are the product of particular historical circumstances. And that in a globalised world, different forms of identity, of community, of attachment may succeed them.

[leaves-lilies-and-esther]

About Me

Hi! I'm leaves-lilies-and-esther, and this is a post I made to summarize this blog.

I mostly talk about feminism here, although I may occasionally veer into other topics that I'm interested in. In the future I want to study some combination of literature, international relations, or history/social science.

I'm autistic and was diagnosed relatively late. Symptoms present themselves very differently in women and girls, and I only discovered that I had most of them because of posts online. Here's one I made with the resources that helped me if you're curious.

Politically left-leaning by US standards. If you disagree with me you're welcome here- I personally really enjoy having respectful debates. I wouldn’t be considered a true radical feminist because I am not "gender critical", but I agree with their analysis on most other topics.

Reblogging is not an endorsement of their entire blog

My beliefs are:

The sex industry is predatory. Porn tends to be very violent and misogynistic, and is associated with increased domestic violence etc. To paraphrase Catherine MacKinnon: sex work is usually neither sex nor work, but coercion.

Pro-choice is best for women's health. It is not ethical to force anyone to undergo pregnancy due to the physical and mental toll that it requires. Anti-abortion laws typically have casualties- ie, Savita Halappanavar and Olga Reyes. Most late term abortions are fetuses that were wanted (until new circumstances) or cases where women could not have access in time. Therefore, improving access is critical. Reproductive autonomy extends to procedures like getting tubes tied etc.

The government should have policies which help mothers, and women with reproductive autonomy overall. While abortion should be legal, the widespread necessity of it is symptomatic of other structural problems. Ie, we need paid parental leave, larger tax breaks to low-income families with children, crisis pregnancy centers, educational opportunities designed for teen parents, to fix our foster care and adoption systems, comprehensive sex ed, etc. Being pro-choice means that women should have the true choice to keep their baby if they wish.

We should be trans inclusive. Regardless of your beliefs about gender, trans people would probably exist either way (even if you successfully abolish gender, people will still experience dysphoria with their bodies). Transition can be the best informed decision. Statistically, trans inclusion in bathrooms etc make no difference in sexual assault rates. Denying these rights exposes trans people to assault and polices the appearance of cis women- enforcing gender even more strictly.

Traditional gender roles put women at the disadvantage. While there is inherent value in traditional "women's work", gender roles play out to put women in a position of insecurity and dependence (ie, if you want money, then you are the mercy of your husband to give it to you. And if he loses his job or dies, then you're broke). This is only one example.

i/p edit: I'm against both the Netanyahu government and Hamas. I'm not an October 7th apologist (and you shouldn't be either). At the same time, I can recognize that Israel is currently committing a genocide. My ideal world would feature a ceasefire, hostage deal, aid to Gaza, and two-state solution.

I'm happy to discuss my views in further depth, just please be respectful.

[kylebbrown]

Social media ethic

The current state of social media ethics:

What trends are happening in the industry?

In the industry, I see a lot of discourse around AI-generated posts. I tend to see news sites talk about how worrisome AI-generated images and voice manipulation is getting. The public is concerned with how far AI can go before the government steps in to start monitoring posts.

What are two current cases related to social media ethics?

Currently, in Tennessee, former state legal ethics attorney Dean Morgan could seek back pay after being fired from his job in 2020, from tweets he had made in 2015/16 regarding Islam before he had worked for the board. About five days ago Google’s parent company Alphabet was hiring former DOJ lawyers for its team after receiving its second antitrust lawsuit from the DOJ for possibly creating a monopoly in marketing and advertising. This is a problem because these new lawyers used to work for the DOJ and that could mess up the legitimacy of the case. Causing people to accidentally or purposely share private information that would benefit either side.

Outline the current code of ethics for social media by a professional organization you would be interested in joining as part of their social media staff.

            Treat others with dignity and respect. Refrain from demeaning or discriminatory behavior and speech. Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants. Alert Twitter staff if you notice a dangerous situation or someone in distress. If the last point didn’t give it away, I would love to work for twitter's social media staff or possibly bumble.

Brands/professionals with strong social media ethical codes:

What brands are utilizing proper social media ethical practices?

The first company that comes to mind is Ben and Jerry's Ice cream. This company is always one of the first to post how they view social issues and donate and spread useful information to the company on how to incite change. It’s lovely seeing what they’ll post because you can tell they really care about the community and the world we leave behind for the future generation.

Are there any professionals that you feel practice strong ethical behavior on social media? Support your choice with evidence.

  The first person that comes to mind is Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez (AOC). She’s a political figure and a representative of New York and as you can assume she keeps a pretty squeaky-clean online personality. She’ll still post about problems that America is having, insight into change, and drive a message to the people, but she does this in a way where it complies with community guidelines and ethics without completely vilifying people. “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday met with organizers of Stand Up to Violence, a first-of-its-kind program in New York that has shown a nearly 60% reduction in gunshot injuries.”(Mar 21 & 2023Share, 2023). AOC states her view on the Silicon Valley bank nightmare, she reposted this tweet “ 2. Where were regulators ? They are supposed to watch and warn. 3. Can't wait to see how many people yanked their money, told others to,  and shorted the stock. 4. Will the  number of emps  that aren't paid this week lead to a multiple of that number not being paid in 2 weeks? And then replied saying: “The regulators were there until SVB lobbied Congress to remove the guardrails that prevent this kind of crisis in the first place. Warnings were everywhere. SVB, like many gamblers before them, knew what they were doing. Let the FDIC open the books & see what it’s working with. -  How many of the Silicon Valley folks who lobbied Congress + Trump to cause this crisis are willing to admit they were wrong? I haven’t seen a single one of these guys crying for a bailout take a single ounce of accountability for their actions. It’s honestly shameless.” (https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1634643268326629376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1634643268326629376%7Ctwgr%5E208a205948783d6ab105b43297e356ec5a796638%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FAOC2Fstatus2F1634643268326629376widget%3DTweet)

What are some takeaways you can bring forth in your practices?

            Well, thankfully I grew up during the rise of social media. I learned from a young age that the internet is forever and what you post will remain online forever, this fact has always shaken me to my core. So, I was very diligent with what I posted online. I also had to have my parents follow my accounts when I opened them. They had to be private, and they were watching what was going on. The biggest advice I could give new social media users is that what you post matters. Even if you have only five followers because if you start posting wild things it will come back to bite you.

Key concepts and issues:

What main concepts do you are necessary to adhere to for your conduct online?

            I try to be as neutral as possible when I post. I like to share what I’ve learned, provide the resources for others to learn as well, and have fun in a clean way (no cussing, no crude jokes). This is for my protection; I would hate to have said something offensive and been known as the “rude or messy guy” for all my life. So, online I proceed with caution.

What to do and what not to do: what main concepts do you feel strongly against and want to make sure you avoid on social media?

            It is quite easy (or should be) to be a person with any type of social media account. A good rule of thumb is to not post anything you wouldn’t say in real life. Just because you are behind a screen this doesn’t mean what you post is anonymous; it can always get tracked back to you. Do post anything hurtful or hateful, if you think that just because you are on your alt acct. you can start posting wildly untrue and cruel things about a person or group of people, you are sadly mistaken. It will come back to get you especially if word gets out that, that is your acct. You are screwed for a long time. Cancel culture is huge nowadays, people have been kicked out of school, lost their jobs, been harmed, and have had their lives ruined just because of a post they made.

Bullet point 5-10 core concepts that you will follow as a practicing social media professional. Include citations that you used for sources/supports for this.

Fact-checking any information/news I would like to post before I post it.

I will be citing my sources for those informative post

I will private my account, so I am not denied jobs because of what I post. (don’t worry I don’t post bad things)

I will try to do some research on the people I am following, understanding whom you follow is important because people will view whom you follow as an extension of your character.

I will make sure my Twitter likes are private ;)

[marveltrumpshate]

Equity & Access

We have many organizations that are fighting for equity of marginalized groups through legal advocacy and services or urgent crisis/medical relief, but we also wanted to highlight the ones that are working towards equity and access from a non-legal/relief perspective. 

For more information on donation methods and accepted currencies, please refer to our list of organizations page.

Amputee Coalition

The Amputee Coalition supports, educates, and advocates for people impacted by limb loss and limb difference as well as their families and caretakers. They developed the National Limb Loss Resource Center, have a large focus on peer support programs, advocate on the federal and state level, and offer educational programming. They also fund local chapters that serve amputees across the globe.  

Assistance Dogs International

Assistance dogs are essential to millions around the world but are cost-prohibitive for many. Supporting this organization will mean that this essential service is less of an economic burden for those who need it. In addition to training and placement, ADI advocates for the legal rights of people with disabilities partnered with assistance dogs and sets standards, guidelines, and ethics for training the dogs.

Clean Air Task Force

As we've seen for a long time now but especially this year with constant natural disasters and alarming news from all over the world, climate change is real and we need to do something about it. Over the past 25 years, CATF, a group of climate and energy experts who think outside the box to solve the climate crisis, has pushed for technology innovations, legal advocacy, research, and policy changes. Their goal is to achieve a zero-emissions, high-energy planet at an affordable cost. Everyone deserves clean air and CATF ensures access to the planet for all of us, which science tells us hangs in the balance. 

Global Fund for Women

Global Fund for Women is the largest global organization for gender justice. They support grassroots feminist movements and organizations around the world for maximum local impact and have provided over $184 million in grants to 5,000+ women’s funds in 176 countries over the past three decades. Their recent focus has been providing mobilization and networking resources for women and girls in their own communities and amplifying those voices so they’re heard in the global community.

The Pad Project

Period stigma and lack of access to affordable, safe, and effective menstrual products are a global problem. The Pad Project partners with local communities internationally to serve people of all genders who menstruate through funding the placement of pad machines and implementing washable pad programs. They also pair menstrual product access with education—workshops on menstrual hygiene management and sexual and reproductive health and their award-winning documentary, Period. End of Sentence.

Waterkeeper Alliance

In 1966, this movement was started by a band of blue-collar fishermen pushing back against industrial polluters, and their tough spirit remains intact through the 300+ local community groups that make up the global Waterkeeper Alliance today. The Alliance works to ensure, preserve, and protect clean and abundant water for all people and creatures. Their programs are diverse, spanning from patrolling waterways against polluters to advocating for environmental laws in courtrooms and town halls and educating in classrooms.

World Literacy Foundation

Reading opens doors, both to other worlds and in real life. When someone acquires literacy skills, they’re able to access better opportunities and societal integration; they can gain better healthcare access, fill out job applications, and more. The World Literacy Foundation provides disadvantaged children with books, educational resources, and literacy support, and they use innovative tech, e-books, and digital activities to advance the learning of children in remote areas. On a community level, the WLF equips parents to support their children in their learning through mentorship programs and empowers people to advocate for literacy in their communities.