#Party Loyalty

[alohapromisesforever]

First Principles: Be Americans. Let There Be No Sectionalism...You Are All Dependent On One Another and Should Be One In Union

“Be Americans. Let there be no sectionalism, no North, South, East or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one in union. In one word, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves.” – George Washington, Washington’s Farewell Address, published in the Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (September 19, 1796) — In General Washington’s Farewell Address (first published…

[heybiji]

[pocketgalaxies]

We want to destroy my mother. (insp by @dadrielle)

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Honestly I understand why Megatron is obsessed with Optimus Prime. Megatron is doing his darndest to run an evil army, but because it's an evil army everyone is constantly betraying him. He tells them infighting is destroying them, heck, he's even tried to be empathetic, and they turn right around and attack either each other or (more frequently) him. Is it any wonder he's almost happy to see Optimus on the battlefield?? At least with him, Megatron knows what to expect--bro will be there to fight him every time. Simple! Consistent! An opponent who's actually in front of him instead of behind his back! What a relief...

In short Optimus is basically Megatron's comfort item and I don't blame him for that

[entnoot]

If these idiots don’t kiss soon I’m gonna go insane (OCs)

[txttletale]

what does it mean when people say stuff like individual morality or action is incompatible with class analysis or class struggle?

alright so like one of the key ideas about class analysis is the idea that classes (as a whole) have economic interests that affect all their members but don't extrapolate out to an individual analysis.

for example, let's say that you can't find a job, and somebody offers to pay you below the table for below minimum wage. it's in your individual interest to do this--it beats having no job! but as a member of the working class, once this practice becomes normalized, suddenly the standards of pay for everyone are lower because people know that they can just pay less than minimum wage under the table. competition between workers for jobs drives wages down for everyone, leaving them all in a worse situation overall even if each individual choice to scab, to accept lower pay, to resist unionization, etc, leaves the person who makes it better off. cf. karl marx on what happens when wages and working conditions deteriorate:

The labourer seeks to maintain the total of his wages for a given time by performing more labour, either by working a great number of hours, or by accomplishing more in the same number of hours. Thus, urged on by want, he himself multiplies the disastrous effects of division of labour. The result is: the more he works, the less wages he receives. And for this simple reason: the more he works, the more he competes against his fellow workmen, the more he compels them to compete against him, and to offer themselves on the same wretched conditions as he does; so that, in the last analysis, he competes against himself as a member of the working class.

— Karl Marx, Wage Labour & Capital

similarly, any individual member of the working class is completely dispensable and replaceable by capital. if one person refuses to work unless they're paid a higher wage, they'll be fired and replaced with somebody who doesn't. the individual worker has no economic leverage whatsoever. but the working class has incredible economic leverage! and so does the intermediate stage between the working class and the individual--organized segments of the working class (e.g. trade unions) have economic leverage. if one person strikes, the capitalist can fire them. if 40,000 people strike, your industry is going to shut down.

so the reason why class analysis is compatible with individual action is that your incentives measurably change when you start organizing--it's in the interests of the individual to compete, but in the interests of the class to cooperate. and obviously you cannot just expect everyone to spontaneously coordinate! you, the individual, are disposable to capital! if you, personally, refuse to take the under-the-table offer, either on moral grounds or because you recognize your class interest, your neighbour's going to take it--unless you and her get together and agree that neither of you will take it. that's the only way that the guy making the offer is going to have to give in and offer the job for a living wage.

and this is what organization is--trade unions (although they have severe limitations!), communist parties, and other worker's organizations allow the working class to pursue their collective interest--which can only be pursued by collective action, because engaging in the strategies of collective action as an individual, without the cooperation of your peers, is high risk for no reward.

[ooooo-mcyt]

Thinking about Grian being forced to fight his partner at the end of season one. Him being devastated, almost unable to do it, even though Scar betrayed him first. "I'm sorry". Him jumping off the cliff himself when it was done. "I don't feel good."

Grian being attacked repeatedly by his closest allies once they turned red in Last Life. Being cornered and nearly trap killed by Mumbo and Tim. Turning on them because they were turning on him first. The way he was so distraught to lose them. "My friend!"

Him killing Bigb inadvertently in Double Life. It wasn't on purpose per say. He wasn't thinking about it, he just wanted to get a kill, he needed to leave his mark on the season, because he was red, and that's what red names do. The way he didn't realize what he'd done until after the fact. "I am such a traitor."

And then finally Limited Life. Grian turning on Scar in the middle of a fight, literally stabbing him in the back in the heat of the finale, and not regretting it. "You gotta go."

[mourn-and-watch]

i wish me3 had loyalty missions it would be so sooo good. assisting some shadow broker agents with liara. joining kaidan/ashley on one of their first spectre assignments to reassure them. helping garrus to evacuate his family from palaven. sticking around with tali on rannoch to make sure quarians and the geth are doing fine. handing a serious job to james and guiding him through it as a part of his n7 training. going on a task with edi to help her adjust to working with other people as a person and not as a vi. visiting javik's squad's resting place with him. doing little favors for your friends in the middle of a war because life itself hasn't ended yet and you want to make it a little easier for them while you have some time left

[dinosaurwithablog]

Hamilton Burger was the best prosecuting attorney that ever faced Perry Mason. You'll notice that he's not in season 3 of the show. Apparently, William Talman, who portrayed Hamilton Burger, allegedly smoked marijuana at a party that he attended. The party had been raided by the police. Although, William entered a non guilty plea to misdemeanor charges, he was fired by CBS because they said that he had violated his morals clause. The fans were enraged as was the cast. The cast said that they might not return to the show unless CBS rehired William Talman. As we know, CBS did rehire him, and all was as it should be, once again, on Perry Mason. That's spectacular loyalty to a good friend. I love the cast for standing by him during this ordeal. I have great respect for what they did. 😁😍

[faaarawayyy]

but strictly speaking, i’m still on track

[abel, he/she]

[embraceweird]

You're telling me the other rat grinders were not at the Frostyfaire Folk Festival supporting Ruben?

Some adventuring party

[luv-again]

honestly ?? amy in cryptic castle is so funny to me bc she's pretty much her cheery self the whole time but also has the undertone of, 'gee fucking whizz i am sick of this shit'

like ??? the way she talks abt the black arms and eggman's robots and eggman himself when he appears in the egg breaker boss ? hilarious

she is so done

[jurassic-cunt]

i think one reason joplittle is compelling despite little onscreen interaction is that they're both loyal to crozier til the end. sort of sons to him in a way, because out of all the men silna and crozier pass, the only ones we see him touch are jopson and little. plus there is their contrasts. the cool unflappable steward pouring tea and the nervous scared first lieutenant giving orders. and little's smile when he finds out it's jopson getting promoted is so adorable

[problemswithbooks]

So, watched live action One Piece and now I'm watching/reading the OG stuff. No where close to done but my brain decided to fixate on Arlong so I can't help but talk about him a bit.

Something that I find kind of interesting about Arlong is that if you read his backstory then go back to the main Arc he was in you actually realize he's way more mellow then he was in the past. Now, he's still awful but given what we're shown of him in Jinbe's flashbacks I think it kind of shows that he did, in a weird way (and not in the way Fisher Tiger would have wanted) changed due to Fisher Tiger's words on not killing humans.

In the past Arlong was constantly advocating for killing humans and terrorizing them so they'd learn their place. He never warms up to Koala despite the rest of the crew--including his own friends coming to like her. Everyone is sad to see her go even Kurobi who is later one of the worst in Arlong's crew.

After Fisher Tiger's Death it's clear Arlong was going to kill everyone in Koala's village (and no doubt would have killed Koala). He was stopped and put in Impel Down--a notoriously hellish prison (run by humans). It's not clear how long he was there, but probably at least a few months, which is a long time in a place like that.

After his pardon he leaves Jinbe and the Grand Line. Presumably he started taking over villages pretty soon after.

Now, what I find interesting is that this is by far the most justified Arlong is in his hate of humans, yet it's also the nicest we ever see him being to them. Before Fisher Tiger's death and reveal of being a slave, or his time in Impel Down Arlong hated humans because of things that although affected him were not things he himself suffered.

Arlong was never a slave, and at least Hachi, Chew and Kurobi were also never slaves. They were all orphans and this might have been the fault of human pirates who attacked Fish-Men Island, but we don't know that for sure, and it's never brought up as a grievance of theirs. They know Fish-men and mermaids are taken as slaves and they surely get racist treatment from the visiting humans, but they don't have first hand experience with human cruelty--like slavery or murder.

Not until Fisher Tiger is killed for helping a human girl go home after being a slave do they experience real loss due to humans. From there, Arlong is captured and imprisoned in Impel Down where he was surely treated terrible by humans during his time there (given they treat everyone bad there). Yet, despite saying he's the anger of the fish-men he does not actually kill nearly as many humans as you'd think, given how he acts in the past.

In fact in a lot of ways he seems to try not to kill humans if he can get away with other methods of control instead.

This is when he takes over Nami's village. This is not long after Fisher Tiger's death which Arlong wanted to kill an entire village for. Yet, now, despite a huge uprising happening, with nearly the entire village of humans trying to attack them, he's not going for the kill.

This is him probably less then a year before the panel above. He's furious and saying he embodies the rage of all Fish-Men. Yet he arrives to the village and tells his crew not to kill anyone despite their open hostility.

Yes, he wants money because he (supposedly) wants to take over the East Blue(world?) but he's already got his money and killing a few villagers should be no big deal--he plans on taking over more anyway.

In the end though, he does only kill Bell-mere due to her lack of money. She makes a good example, of course, but he was more then willing to let her live, despite her shoving a gun in his mouth before she used the money for Nami and her sister.

This is a huge change in a short amount of time.

This is another time he and his crew don't kill for zero reason. They have been attacked all day by members of Luffy's crew. Zoro absolutely beat the shit out of his guys earlier that day. He was furious when Usopp dared to fire on him (to the point of flipping a damn house) but now they just leave two strangers (so not cash cows) alive? Usopp--was worth Arlong's anger, but suddenly two other random humans doing the same thing aren't worth killing?

This is how he responds to Zoro being what I would assume is racist given what Arlong says. He does not know who this guy is--Zoro was found tied to a boat and just brought to him and his first words are racist. Yet, Arlong lets it 'slide once'. Again this is the guy who hit a child for no reason except she was human way before he lost Fisher Tiger or went to the human torture prison. Yet now he's putting up with a stranger calling him racist names?

Going back to Usopp, this is how furious Arlong was when he was attacked:

He's so furious that for a moment he's willing to destroy one of his money making villages, right after losing one not to long ago, just to kill one human guy who didn't actually hurt him, nor are they a rebelling villager.

Yet this is how he acts once Usopp gets caught.

This is after he comes back to Arlong Park to find most of his crew beaten to a pulp by Zoro. He flipped a house he was so pissed off at Usopp, ready to destroy an entire village that he gets good money from (and which he needs to keep Nami around) but suddenly after his crew is hurt he's not in the mood for killing Usopp ASAP?!

Also, he was only in Nami's village because he saw Genzo had a weapon. He thought the village was going to rebel like the last one and he wanted to nip it in the bud and kill Genzo before it got to far. That was the only reason he was there and yet, after Usopp makes him absolutely furious he and Kurobi leave Genzo alive.

Flashback Arlong, who was barely held back by Fisher Tiger would never have left any of these humans alive. They were in his eyes disrespectful, not fearing him like he wants, and most did not give him money--the only benefit he sees to keeping humans around. Yet, he lets all of them live--maybe he has plans to kill them later, but again, past Arlong would kill them ASAP.

I know that the most likely reason for this is because Oda didn't have everything with Arlong and Jinbe's past in his brain at this point (there's ten years or more between these parts in the story). Not only that he can't have important people like Usopp and Zoro being killed off. He also seemed less willing to kill characters off in the start of the manga, which is why Genzo and Zoro's friends lived (killing Genzo would also have been way to mean to Nami).

But from an in character perspective you could see this as Arlong being affected by Fisher Tiger's words of not killing humans. No, he can't fully follow that rule, let alone Fisher Tiger's orders to not treat humans badly. Arlong has hated humans for far to long, and he was barely managing to restrain himself for Fisher Tiger despite respecting/caring for the man with his whole heart.

He can't not kill humans or treat them like crap--but he can come up with excuses that limit how many he kills. A 'well, if they pay me, they can live', or a 'they're to weak to kill so I won't', or 'I'll give this guy a warning for insulting me before I kill him'.

He lets his crew drag him away from Nami's village because he doesn't really want to destroy it (for monetary gain not kindness obviously). Kurobi doesn't kill Genzo because he wasn't told to so he lets him off, despite that being the only reason they came in the first place (despite defiantly knowing killing him wouldn't get him in trouble and is Arlong's intention). That gives Arlong time to calm down and by the time Usopp is caught he's more willing to take the time to ask him what he's doing there and then let Nami deal with him.

Part of it might also be Arlong knowing Jinbe will come kick his ass as soon as he finds out he's been killing/terrifying humans. He can bribe the Marines, but only to a point. If he was slaughtering every human that looked at him wrong or said something racist he'd be to much of a threat for higher-up the Marines to ignore. Eventually they'd tell Jinbe to deal with him and Jinbe would. Arlong would know that and given he was beaten easily by Jinbe he also knows he'd lose immediately (and either be killed or sent back to Impel Down).

Either way, he's showing some restraint even though he doesn't have someone like Fisher Tiger, or Jinbe directly telling him to. For whatever reason Arlong is way more willing to keep humans alive if he can come up with an excuse for it. Which I find kind of fascinating and adds some depth to his character that I don't think was necessarily intentional, but is the strength of the writing that Oda was able to add something years down the line that somehow didn't conflict with what's already established.

[politedemon]

idk i just think that if the labour party refuse to condemn genocide, protect the right to protest, commit to climate pledges, or support the fucking labour movement then i think people are completely justified in not voting for them

[unrely]

the contradiction of vin being such a protective, devoted man with his favorite type of people being the ones who are clever, self-sufficient, independent, don't need the help but . . . perhaps could allow him to do his thing anyway