#War On Planned Parenthood

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kylie Cheung at Jezebel:

As we approach a new year, we’re still trapped in an inescapable time loop: Conservatives remain trying to defund Planned Parenthood!  On Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced it will take up a case centered around whether South Carolina can withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood—even for the range of non-abortion services it provides. Recall that laws already (stupidly) prohibit federal funding from covering abortion services. Still, that isn’t and has never been enough for anti-abortion activists.

The case is called Kerr v. Planned Parenthood and stems from a 2018 executive order from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R). He told the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to deem abortion facilities “unqualified” to provide family planning services under Medicaid. Then, Planned Parenthood and one of its patients, Julie Edwards, sued the state, arguing that cutting off its funding violated a part of the Medicaid Act that allows beneficiaries to choose their provider. The justices will specifically weigh whether the plaintiff, Edwards, has standing to sue the state under an 1871 law that allows residents to challenge illegal acts by South Carolina officials. The state argues that Edwards doesn’t have standing because Medicaid is a federal program, not governed by the 1871 law in question. South Carolina is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Christian nationalist law firm behind multiple anti-abortion lawsuits currently being fought in courts across the county.

Kerr has been looping around the legal system since 2018 and already made it to the Supreme Court twice. The justices rejected it in 2020 and then, last year, sent it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which ruled unanimously in favor of Planned Parenthood and Edwards. South Carolina then appealed that decision to SCOTUS.

SCOTUS to weigh in on potentially harming birth control access in Kerr v. Planned Parenthood. The MAGA majority on the court would love to “defund” Planned Parenthood.

[odinsblog]

God, I hate Republicans.

If you are at all able to, please stock up and take any & all necessary precautions to protect your own bodily autonomy or that of loved ones, before the John Roberts Court rubber stamps another Christofascist anti-abortion law into effect.

Terfs DNI

[kramlabs]

:

[awesomecooperlove]

🥷🏻🥷🏻🥷🏻

[anarchywoofwoof]

let's recap what we've learned about the United States in the last few days.

things that are terrorism:

allegedly shooting a healthcare CEO whose company generated more pure profit (not revenue, profit) in a year than the GDP of 94 countries, exclusively by denying coverage to people who pay for it

a 42-year-old mother of 2 using the wrong combination of 7 words during a heated conversation with a call center employee at a health insurance company who was in the process of denying her health coverage.

things that are not terrorism:

mass shooting in a Black church to incite a race war

going to a BLM protest specifically to kill protestors

a neo-nazi running over a crowd of people, killing a woman

targeting and killing 23 latinos in an el paso, texas walmart

killing 12 people in a theatre, shooting 58 others, rigging your apartment with explosives

a QAnon groyper killing 7 and shooting ~50 at a 4th of July parade

killing 3 people and shooting several others at a Planned Parenthood in defense of the unborn

stalking someone relentlessly and then killing them and their child despite months of the victim making police reports

any one of the 1,200 murders committed by US police yearly, the vast majority being minorities

tightening your border while ~100 immigrants (including children) drown every year in the Rio Grande

United Healthcare killing an unnknowable number of elderly people by using faulty AI to deny medically necessary coverage

Aetna killing a woman by refusing to cover her cancer care

Blue Cross killing a 6-year-old by denying her appendicitis surgery

Cigna killing a 17-year-old child by denying her liver transplant

the pharmaceutical industry killing half a million people with opioids in the name of producing revenues in 2023 that rivaled the GDPs of countries like Spain, Mexico, and Australia.

the United States killing 45,000 people a year because they can't access health coverage

make sure you keep this guide handy the next time you find yourself interacting with your insurance company or any other millionaire, billionaire, or an individual who is part of a protected class such as a CEO or president of a corporation.

[sporkfan14]

an interesting development in this election cycle is that i am now getting ads in which right-wing dudebro podcasters/influencers with bad haircuts unenthusiastically reverse their stance on voting and say that actually it does matter and you should do it and can register at the link below

like, buddy, put some joie de vivre into it. i can tell that you're new at this because you suck. the libs are owning you man, they're genuinely and earnestly out there getting people signed up while you're treating this like an ad read for Raid: Shadow Legends.

it's really funny to see them caught up in the conundrum of being obviously paid to encourage people to genuinely engage in civics while also not being so enthusiastic that they lose the attention and respect of their audience whose primary sense of identity is rooted in ironic detatchment from society.

[cynicalclassicist]

There are so many bad things that they'll do and they have to be stopped.

I couldn’t despise them more.

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

hell is hitting refresh on your city's "public transit" app for 20 minutes straight while your ETA creeps later and later past your scheduled appointment's start time

[tonyrossmcmahon]

Abortion - how it became a culture war issue

From the 1960s to the 1990s, abortion became a culture war issue that is huge divisive to the present day as TV historian Tony McMahon reports

The 1967 Abortion Act in the United Kingdom allowed women to legally terminate a pregnancy on the National Health Service. It remained prohibited in Northern Ireland until 2019. This legislation was one of a raft of liberal-minded laws in that decade legalising homosexuality, for example, and abolishing capital punishment. But over the next quarter of a century, the opponents never gave up trying…

[immaculatasknight]

The face of hegemony

[dosesofcommonsense]

If the Corporate Media Machine lies about everything (and they do), then everything they tell America about this guy is a lie.

Putin exposed Nazis in Ukraine. He attacked US Biolabs hidden under empty hospitals and apartments. He wasn’t the aggressor but was provoked by the CIA in Ukraine.

Ukraine is a proxy war created by the Deep State intelligence groups and a money laundering front for Congress. Ukraine has Hillary Clinton’s server data, info on Hunter Biden and the hidden Biden money, has a giant stem cell research environment for aborted fetal tissues from Planned Parenthood and Putin exposed all that.

Who doesn’t like him? The Deep State/NWO/Globalist cabal, UN (deep state), WHO (deep state), Mossad (deep state), CIA/FBI (deep state). He sounds like a Russian Trump. No wonder the deep state’s propaganda team hates him.

[kramlabs]

"If population growth didn't slow down, food shortages could be created in a hurry."

In 1969, ex-Planned Parenthood Medical Director Richard Day Prophesied How the Globalist Agendas Would Unfold

:

Via Sage :

[somereaderinblue]

Warrior!Penelope God Games

After writing Odysseus's Challenge, I was still on a creative high & decided to do this too. NOTE: The swaps between gods were taken from @too-much-flynnolium’s art.

[ARES]

Mother, God Queen, rarely do I ask for favours

Now, I'm kneeling on your floor

With hopes to save a friendship

With one who's a prisoner far from home

Penelope

[HERA]

Divine intervention, so that is your wish?

To untie apprehensions that were placed on that Greek?

You are braving such dangers for a girl full of shame

But if she's worth the risk of going under

Why not make it a game?

Convince each of them that she ought to be released

And I'll release her

[ARES]

Who's them?

[HERA]

Artemis! Hestia!

Dionysus! Athena!

Demeter! Or me

What do you say?

[ARTEMIS]

Sure.

[HESTIA]

Very well.

[DIONYSUS]

Hic!

[ATHENA]

Alright.

[DEMETER]

Interesting.

[ARES]

Bring it.

[ARTEMIS]

You all know I'm a fan of nature and all

So with so many sirens gone

I think Penny's in the wrong

[ARES]

They had planned to do their worst

All she did was reimburse them

Now they'll tread with caution first

To live another day and sing even more verse!

[ARTEMIS]

Good point, release her.

[HESTIA]

Trust is not wasted, it’s forged

Why should I give her my support?

She turned her back on her cohort

[ARES]

Did you forget they failed to listen?

She was betrayed and now imprisoned

But if you make the right decision

She can still have a future with those who miss her!

[HESTIA]

Fine, release her.

[DIONYSUS]

Your little high and mighty Penelope

Claims to love another, but keeps him chained to a broken heart

[ARES]

She was busy fighting

[DIONYSUS]

More like busy spiting the cyclops

Let her feel the pain that the others feel and rot

[ARES]

Wait!

You must reconsider this!

[ATHENA]

Really now, Ares, no new tricks?

[ARES]

Athena!

[ATHENA]

What kind of so-called fighter holds back her power

Just lets her friends get devoured?

She couldn’t fight Scylla, but didn’t even try to outwit her

Hides with naught but a sword to get the job done

Tries to handle things upfront

Dim-witted and weak like her son

[ARES]

Hold your tongue now, her son's my friend!

And tell that drunkard that all kinds of hurts can mend

You want more mind games? Then set her free

To get back to her homestead, she'll make everyone’s brains bleed!

[ATHENA & DIONYSUS]

Then release her.

[DEMETER]

So many talents, so many tales

Give me one good reason why yours should prevail

[ARES]

She's got the hands of a weaver!

[DEMETER]

Dig deeper

[ARES]

She's pretty skilled with words!

[DEMETER]

You can do better than that!

[ARES]

She's very sassy…?

[DEMETER]

Eh

[ARES]

Never once does she give up on her child.

[DEMETER]

Release her.

[ARES]

I’ve played your game and won! Release her.

[HERA]

You dare to defy me? To give me more shame?

No one beats me, no one wins my game!

Marriage, bring her through the wringer

Show her I'm the judgement call

The one who makes the final call!

.

.

.

.

[ATHENA]

Is he dead?

.

.

.

Penelope had told Ares that for mothers, childbirth in itself was a difficult battle and the parenthood that came after a race with no finish line in sight. Personally, Ares would’ve likened it to war. If family had truly been something as linear as a race then surely Hermes would be on their father’s throne by now.

She placed her spawn in his arms. Said spawn miraculously didn’t squirm or squall against his battle-hardened muscles and cold gauntlets. 

“His name is Telemachus.” Far from battle. The irony wasn’t lost on anyone. Then again, considering how eerily squishy the infant was, perhaps the name was fitting.

Ares blinked as tiny fingers gripped his, the pudgy digits unable to full wrap around it. Yet, the grip was strong. No, it was simply alive. He’s bathed in blood so often that he’s forgotten even the tiniest of hearts can still beat.

“Telemachus.”  Penelope and Odysseus smiled. Smiled at him, smiled because of him. They were happy. He was happy.

.

.

.

[ARES]

Let her go…..please

Let her go……

[readychilledwine]

Cake and Confessions

Summary - A first birthday party for your and Cassian's daughter is a recipe for a mess and emotions

Warnings - Parenthood, babies, Cassian using the words "I love you," baby playing with food (I was told this may bother people), mentions of injury and war (nothing too graphic)

A/n - This is the drabble to end the year mark of my life changing and sweet Sophia turning one. Edited to add before post- Sophia hardly ate the cake she got to smash. She was more concerned about playing with it.

✨️Cassian Masterlist✨️Master Masterlist✨️

Cassian was a good dad. Arguably, you had told Feyre once, the best dad out of the 3 illyrian males. But you had not been ready for his anxiousness approaching Ashanti's birthday.

You two had the cake, the presents, the fluffy red dress. You had everything he'd asked you to get to enjoy his vision. Said vision was more like a battle plan. A battle strategy against the day meant to be full of joy and celebration.

You two had finally reached the finish line, though. Her guests were all here, dinner had been served, presents opened. Now, it was time for what Cassian was the most nervous for:

The giant mess Ashanti was about to make of her chocolate cake.

You gave him one last look, a last chance to back out, but the General nodded, giving you permission to continue his plan.

That beautiful red dress, glittering with its big bow in the back, was about to be ruined. You carefully slid the small cake in front of the half illyrian female the sat next to her. Cassian was watching, sitting in front of the crowd in case Ashanti crawled away, overwhelmed by Feyre and Mor squealing and bouncing.

She studied the cake. Elain had made it. Chocolate with a chocolate frosting. Simple, sweet, everything Cassian wanted her to have for her special birthday. “Come on, dove,” he encouraged her and banged his fists on the floor to show her what to do. “You love playing with food. Mommy won't say no this time.”

You scooped a small bit of frosting on your finger and held it to her waiting mouth, “Yummy huh? Oh gees!” Your arm barely moved in time, a tiny fist pounding down on the cake, a tiny hand slamming next to it.

Ashanti began to rip at the cake, shoving the sweet new food into her mouth as their family cheered on, the males the loudest. It took no time at all for Cassian to move over to her other side, taking some of the frosting from her cheek. She'd stood then, offering her daddy bits of cake and frosting balled into her tiny fist.

Your husband had no shame, taking it and smiling at your daughter before also feeding her a piece. “Keep going, Ash, it's all yours,” he helped her sit back down, his grin wide as she immediately began to play with her cake, giggling and pulling it to her open and waiting mouth.

Rhys closed his eyes, watching that pretty dress get ruined, “We should have stripped her down to her nappy.”

Cassian only rolled his eyes before holding a frosting covered finger to his daughter, “I paid for it. Just like I paid for your mate to paint this moment,” he motioned to where a giddy Feyre was peeking out from her canvas, capturing this memory for Cassian. “If I want her to cake smash in her dress, she cake smashed in her-ow!”

He glanced down at his little dove, his sweet daughter who had bit down on his finger before looking at you. Your hand was over your mouth, laughter barely muffled as you smiled at Cassian. “Laugh it up, sweetness, she's going to get you next.”

“You're the only one who still lets her fully put your fingers in her mouth,” you laughed. At least you did. As Ashanti went to lift her hands, her little fists opened, flinging you and Cassian with sticky cake as she giggled and brought them back down.

When she was finally done, there wasn't an ounce of her tanned skin left untouched, your own face was covered from her attempting to walk to you and touching you, and Cassian, Cassian was willingly a mess. Your family had gone in to enjoy the cake for them, leaving just you three sitting in the room. Cassian had Ashanti in her arms, hugging her extra tight and ruining his clothing.

“Perfect first birthday,” you asked gently.

“Even better than I imagined,” his voice was tight.

“Do you want a second just you two,” you offered, knowing the daughter you two shared had saved Cassian in a way he'd never be able to explain to you. He nodded, and you kissed his head, “I'll go get warm towels.”

Once you were out of the room, his emotions hit him, Ashanti was more than happy to cuddle as she released a choked sob.

3 years ago, Azriel had held him as he bled out from battle.

2 years ago, Koschei had roamed free, and you were kidnapped, taken from him.

And 1 year ago, he had listened to this cry. This cry gave light a pathway in darkness. A cry that echoed through the House of Wind. A cry of a baby screaming for air, its first breath.

And then those words. Those 3 precious words, had turned the General's life around, “It’s a girl!”

He pulled back to kiss Ashanti's sticky forward, then to look into her hazel eyes, “I love you.” It was simple, but those words were rare for him. He preferred to show his love. Grand gifts, expensive parties, the stained dress his 1 year old was glowing in. Those words rarely left his mouth, even with you. “I love you,” he said again softer as he leaned his forehead against her smaller one. “And I'm here. Forever.” He held a large hand out for you to rejoin them instead of hiding in the dark doorway.

“Forever is a long time,” you joked as you peeled off the messy dress.

Cassian smiled at Ashanti, “Yet, it will never be enough time for me. Not when every waking moment deserves to be spent with you two.” He watched your lips tremble as you began cleaning your daughter. “I love you.”

“Three times tonight?”

“Smartass,” he murmured.

“I love you too,” you said seriously. “Now let's get this beautiful bubbly birthday girl clean!”

“And to bed,” Cassian added as Ash rubbed her eyes. “I think we've had enough excitement for today.”

“Me too,” you kissed the top of her head. “Me too.”

General Taglist:

@hnyclover @glitterypirateduck @slytherinindisguise @mischiefmanagers @bloodicka @starsinyourseyes @the-sweet-psycho @mariahoedt @rinalouu @sarawritestories @starryhiraeth @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @cumuluscranium @loneliestluvr @eternallyelvish @azrielsmate3 @daughterofthemoons-stuff @meritxellao @aria-chikage @hungryforbatboys @lilah-asteria @fandomrejects @sleepybesson @tayswhp @itsswritten @milswrites @littlest-w01f

Ps- I'm going to be working on my taglists this week. Please let me know if you'd like to be added!

[boreal-sea]

Who is Tim Walz?

Kamala Harris has apparently picked Tim Walz as her running mate. He seems good, based on his record. He's also responsible for the widely spreading "Republicans are weird" meme I've seen quite a lot of.

He has a good record. Just like I did for Kamala Harris in a post that has become quite popular, I will do a simple review of things I like from Tim Walz' political history. Again, as with Harris, this is just from his Wikipedia page. Let's go!

House of Representatives

Opposed increasing troop numbers in Iraq

Co-sponsored a bill to raise Minnesota's minimum wage

Voted for stem cell research

Voted to allow Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices

Voted against the act to Prohibit Federally Funded Abortion Services

Voted to advance the ACA

Has received a 100% rating from many progressive organizations like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU

Was a member of several caucuses, including the LGBT Equality Caucus

Governor of Minnesota

Signed into law police reforms after the murder of George Floyd

Had Minnesota join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, meaning that all of the state's electors will vote for whichever candidate wins the popular vote nation-wide.

Under his governance, Minnesota passed laws for requiring paid leave, banning non-compete agreements, cannabis legalization, abortion rights, universal free school meals,

Political stances

Pro cannabis

Against bailout bills that loan taxpayer money to large banks and auto manufacturers

Was a former teacher for many years, and is very pro-education and supporting public schools. He is against merit pay for teachers (this is a good thing), and supports lowering tuition costs

Used to be pro-gun, but after Parkland he changed his mind, and as Governor he signed a bill mandating universal background checks

Pro-LGBT - has voted for LGBT rights many times, including as Governor, where he signed bills banning conversion therapy and protecting gender-affirming care

Supports veterans rights and support

Supports abortion rights and women's rights

I am going to copy-paste the entire section for his views on the Israel-Hamas war, because I don't want people claiming I am taking anything out of context. Overall, he has views that echo my own in many ways:

Walz condemned Hamas's October 7 attacks in Israel and ordered flags to be lowered to half mast in the following days. After the 2024 Minnesota Democratic presidential primary, in which 19% of voters cast "uncommitted" ballots, Walz took a sympathetic view toward those doing so to protest President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza, calling them "civically engaged". Of the protests against U.S. funding of the war in Gaza, Walz said: "This issue is a humanitarian crisis. They have every right to be heard... These folks are asking for a change in course, they're asking for more pressure to be put on… You can hold competing things: that Israel has the right to defend itself, and the atrocities of October 7 are unacceptable, but Palestinian civilians being caught in this… has got to end." Walz also said he supports a ceasefire in Gaza.[100]

[wifelinkmtg]

This was intended to be an essay about chivalry—its history, its uses, its various incarnations—medieval violence, the Romantic reinterpretation, the ideal of chivalry in the American South and its attendant lynch mobs. I would have talked about the chivalric triad: Knight, Innocent, Enemy—the way the Innocent serves as a fulcrum for the Knight to enact violence against the Enemy—the iterations of this triad in any number of places in our society, from the so-called sheepdog mentality trained into our police to the legion of revenge-fantasy Taken clones. I would have talked about the way Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling incorporates chivalry with the sacrifice of Isaac, the theology of self-justified suffering that comes from that. I would have talked at some length about various portrayals of lesbian chivalry in media—Revolutionary Girl Utena, the Locked Tomb books, Signalis—how they use it, what they say about it, and whether at the end there is anything worth salvaging from this intrinsically violent way of relating to the world, to others, to oneself, to God.

I think a version of that essay might still be worth writing someday, but right now, there's something I need to talk about much more urgently. Right now, there's something I suspect you might desperately need to hear. Today I'm going to talk about Godzilla.

GODZILLA SAVED MY LIFE: A Polemic

Godzilla Minus One (2024) takes place in Japan in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Its protagonist, Koichi, is a failed kamikaze pilot who in the opening scenes is repeatedly excoriated for his cowardice and dereliction of duty. When he returns home to a bombed and desolate Tokyo, his bereaved neighbor tells him, if people like you had done their duty, this would not have happened. The film spends the rest of its runtime doggedly refuting this idea. It says, out loud, that the relentless calculus of sacrifice that turns men into things to be spent has no place in this world, that it is needless and cruel. It is not subtle about this point. It is not trying to be.

I saw this movie in its black and white version in theaters in February, on the last day of its run. Its version of Godzilla inspires in me both terror and near-religious awe. It looms over the film, an echo both of the devastation of the war and of Koichi's guilt and shame, its presence inviting—demanding—the final consummation of the mission he abandoned.

I wept in that theater. I gripped my friend's hand and I sobbed. This is unlike me (unless I'm watching Gunbuster), and it took four days for me to work out why this Godzilla movie had affected me so profoundly.

arkansas kamikaze

and she looked, and behold! a beast rose from the sea, and against the beast he breathed glory in a Zero dive. his beatified smile shone from the wreck of the Little Rock Planned Parenthood clinic. and a great wind blew out of heaven, and she woke

and made breakfast, and watched her son wholly absorbed in Bonhoeffer, found her lipstick worn down to the nub for practice stigmata, and saw for a moment the dove descending, the tongue of fire over his head.

The thing about being raised in a right-wing fundamentalist family is that you are from birth being prepared to be a weapon, or a martyr, and there is really no difference between those two things. If my mother had had her way, I would have gone to a tiny far-right college and studied law for the sole and explicit purpose of getting Roe v. Wade overturned. She would, I believe, have settled for me bombing an abortion clinic. Certainly it would have been easier for her to reconcile with that than with what I became instead.

The other thing about being raised in a right-wing fundamentalist family is, some things stick. And it's very hard to notice, as your beliefs and values and identity undergo radical changes, that there is still a whisper in you that believes in the power of the glorious death, of the ultimate virtue of strapping explosives to your chest and walking into the halls of the Enemy. And when you feel helpless, when you watch systems and institutions that ought to prevent atrocities instead encourage them, that whisper grows louder and louder and louder.

Watching Koichi fly his last mission, watching him an instant before impact eject, and live—watching everyone live through the final confrontation because they had all rejected the calculus of sacrifice—allowed me to see also for the very first time this parasitic idea that had grown coiled inside me since infancy, allowed me to see where it had come from, its whole monstrous lineage, and then it allowed me to take hold of it and pull it out.

Twenty days later, Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, in protest of the still-ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. He was, like me, raised in a right-wing fundamentalist environment. He was, like one of my siblings, a member of the US Armed Forces radicalized by his experiences and his own conscience. People called him a hero and martyr—on this very site, in responses to the excellent Crimethinc piece circulating at the time, I saw people saying they felt like they should follow suit (even though the article in question explicitly and repeatedly warned against it!) As if the loss of a person of conscience and conviction could be anything other than a tragedy, as if anyone in power choosing to support the genocide could regard the death of one of their own soldiers as anything other than what soldiers are for, as if the moral response to a genocide could ever be to add another corpse to the mountain—and still I saw people lionizing him, praising his courage and his sacrifice, all but telling people to follow in his footsteps.

No. Aaron Bushnell was a suicide. He lived his whole life within organizations that taught him that he could purchase more with his death than he could ever accomplish with his life, and while we may praise his conscience, we can only mourn his loss and the grievous error that led him to it.

This is the thing about learning to see this parasite: you begin to see it everywhere. Our history for millennia is awash with human sacrifice: Abraham and Isaac, Jephthah and his nameless daughter, Agamemnon and Iphigenia, the crucifixion of Jesus—and later, litanies, row upon row of dead saints, stories of glorious last stands. The courageous martyred dead: blood and corpses, only and always, to Moloch.

In light of the recent US election, perhaps many of my American readers are feeling shock or horror or despair. I understand, and without blame, with love and gentleness, I tell you that this is because you have not correctly understood the scope of the problem. You imagine a discontinuity between the liberal version of American capitalism and imperialism and the fascist version of the same. No such discontinuity exists. Things will no doubt be different for us here in the US than they would otherwise be, and probably worse, but there is no distinction to be made between the genocide of yesterday and the genocide of tomorrow. The enemy is the same. The work is the same.

Above all else, this is to warn you: when you do this work, when you look for a place you can put your shoulder to the wheel, there will be people who want to spend their lives—or yours—like coin to purchase some great change immediately. Perhaps they mean well, and helplessness and desperation drives them to act without regard for the consequences. Perhaps they do not mean well. Do not follow these people. Perhaps they merely expect you to go to prison, and have no plan for how to support you after that. This is barely different. It is far better for you to languish in useless liberal nonprofits which will accomplish nothing of value than to attempt radical direct action with people with correct politics and no forethought, and end up dead or imprisoned—but these are not the only two options. Aaron Bushnell cannot ever again do anything for anyone. You can.

This is as much as I know for certain. I love you. Don't die.

-------

End Notes

It would not be unreasonable to ask me, in light of what I've said here about martyrdom, what I think of it in other cultural contexts, especially since a similar word is often used to refer to e.g. Palestinian people murdered by Israeli soldiers. The answer is nothing at all. Such people get to use whatever words they want to salvage whatever meaning and comfort they can.

Godzilla Minus One, as effective a movie as it is, was not solely responsible for the scales falling from my eyes. It was an important part of the process, but I doubt it would have sufficed on its own were I not in community with people I trust and talk to about such things. "Godzilla and also my trusted friends saved my life" is, alas, a worse title.

There will be a part two to this. Part one seemed more urgent.