#a germany in the 30s thing
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professionallywriterblocked · 2 months ago
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Turns out god is not a man, nor a woman, but an ostrich.
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vampmilf · 3 months ago
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german bureaucracy is proof that true evil does exist
#too much to even type out a rant in the tags so until tumblr invents voicemails youre all safe#but anyways does anyone wanna hang out in oslo on friday since now im gonna hang out there all day with nothing to do bc my#appointment at the embassy is fucking POINTLESS now :))))#so many things about this but also a) how hard do you think it can be to find the birth registry entry of one (1) ☝️ person?#whatever your answer is - triple it#and then put on extra time bc even though youre searching for the BIRTH registry. somehow said person having moved away makes the task#sooooooo much harder bc even tho you have the full birth date + name + hospital and everything. somehow you still search by the current#address of the person???? yeah.#and then it will also take another week to send an email to said person saying hey we found your entry but you didnt pay for shipping so#please pay extra!#which okay fair. ill pay shipping.#next question: how expensive do you think it is to send one (1) ☝️ sheet of paper from germany to norway?#just the one.#the answer is 30€#APPARENTLY#what on EARTH are you using to ship it??? is miss merkel personally delivering it via private jet??? hello????????#anyways. ANYWAYS. 🙂#mamy more things going wrong 🙂 and since i dont have all the required paperwork for the appointment now i might as well not even go like.#really what is the point bc they say on their homepage that if you dont have all the papers then nothing will be done.#so :)#guess i will just. walk around oslo all day and drown my sorrows in falafel 👍🏻
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fitzrove · 9 months ago
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Its ok maybe if you look up the lyrics to was für ein grausames leben and read them in english you will be okj<3
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izzymalec · 2 years ago
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on god, tumblr is the only usable social media at this point, i go on twitter and instagram and all i see is nationalists/right extremists/populism believers, i recently saw a take so bad i immediately reduced the twitter time on my phone
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littlehen · 2 years ago
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gu6chan · 2 months ago
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Your post about The Most American Sandwhich just made me imagine Leonard as an American... Leonard scuttling about at a Walmart parking lot, trying to fit all the food he bought in the trunk (enough to hermit away for the next few weeks begote he has to restock again)
this is a bit late but this has me WAILING........ american leonard, what groceries will he buy........ do you think he would treat him also to The Most American Sandwich
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now introducing: the U.P's youngest resident
also during the process of scribbling in his hoodie i looked at it and almost started crying
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#gu6chan's doodles#leonard drakengard#drag on dragoon#drakengard#this is so FUNNY bc i shit you not my dad used to do a similar thing growing up except on a monthly basis#like i used to HATE going over to live with him bc going from nürnberg; one of the most populated cities in germany to laterally no one#living within walkable distance + my dad only leaving for groceries once a month BY HIMSELF it was literally just woods i HATED it#just miles and miles of trees......... i used to treat it like a goddamn vacation and get dressed up in my best clothes whenever he said i#could come to the grocery store with him but by the time i came out he'd normally leave to go by himself by that time anyways 😭 fun times#luckily not everyone was that isolated as me but i will say if ive learned anything about northern michigan/The U.P every parent is just as#insane fansjcjsmsnd also people WILL just go missing out of the blue???? usually really young kids whose parents are touring or elderly ppl#with alzheimers or so. though they also do get the occasional Normal 20-30 year old every other hunting season 😭😭 last year a 72 year old#guy went out with his dog and only the dog came back and we STILL haven't found the dude. theres no way hes alive now since it was JUST#reaching winter when he disappeared but like. i wonder where he is. its CRAZY up here#anyways the UP is even more insane and I'm glad I don't live over there because holy FUCK.#every visit has been an absolutely surreal experience#that fact and the guy who just up and walked into the woods i mentioned were both vague inspirations for this little detail spread lmaoooo#that and the fact that a LOT of people up here and ESPECIALLY in the UP are either drug dealers or sex offenders who are trying to find#somewhere isolated to get away from the police (re: insane parents) that or some crazy shit in their past theyre trying to run away from#all this to say: leonard is prime candidate for weird little U.P hermit who just suddenly walks into the woods one day and#1. is never seen again#or 2. his decaying corpse is found facedown in a river 4 years later. is it suicide? foul play from whatever he was trying to get away from#in his past that led him to the UP to begin with? no one knows. they all forget about it within 3 weeks#speaking of decaying; this is not to be confused with my unfinished drafts for silent hill leonard whose been decaying there for months...
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doyoulikethissong-poll · 5 months ago
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The Cranberries - Zombie 1994
"Zombie" is a protest song by Irish alternative rockband the Cranberries. It was written by the lead singer, Dolores O'Riordan, about the young victims of a bombing in Warrington, England, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song was released on 19 September 1994 as the lead single from the Cranberries' second studio album, No Need to Argue. While the record label feared releasing a too controversial and politically charged song as a single, "Zombie" reached number 1 on the charts of Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and Iceland, and spent nine consecutive weeks at number 1 on the French SNEP Top 100. It reached number 2 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40, where it stayed for eight weeks. The song did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart as it wasn't released as a single there, but it reached number 1 on the US Billboard Alternative Airplay chart. Listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J voted it number 1 on the 1994 Triple J Hottest 100 chart, and it won the Best Song Award at the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards.
The Troubles were a conflict in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to 1998. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organisation, waged an armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland and unite the region with the Republic of Ireland. Republican and Unionist paramilitaries killed more than 3,500 people, many from thousands of bomb attacks. One of the bombings happened on 30 March 1993, as two IRA improvised explosive devices hidden in litter bins were detonated in a shopping street in Warrington, England. Two people; Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12, were killed in the attack. 56 people were injured. Ball died at the scene of the bombing as a result of his shrapnel-inflicted injuries, and five days later, Parry lost his life in a hospital as a result of head injuries. O'Riordan decided to write a song that reflected upon the event and the children's deaths after visiting the town: "We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing. So I suppose that's why I was saying, 'It's not me' – that even though I'm Irish it wasn't me, I didn't do it. Because being Irish, it was quite hard, especially in the UK when there was so much tension." The song was re-popularised in 2023 after it was played after Ireland games at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. It was picked up by fans of the Irish team, with videos of fans singing the song in chorus accumulating hundreds of thousands of views on social media. This offended other Irishmen, who identified it as an "anti-IRA" anthem, and said that that the lyrics failed to consider their experience during the Troubles.
The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, was filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the heart of the Troubles with real footage, and in Dublin. To record video footage of murals, children and British Army soldiers on patrol, he had a false pretext, with a cover story about making a documentary about the peace-keeping efforts in Ireland. Bayer stated that a shot in the video where an SA80 rifle is pointed directly at the camera is a suspicious British soldier asking him to leave, and that the IRA were keeping a close look at the shoot, given "the British Army come in with fake film crews, getting people on camera.” While "Zombie" received heavy rotation on MTV Europe and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA, the music video was banned by the BBC because of its "violent images", and by the RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster. Instead, both the BBC and the RTÉ opted to broadcast an edited version focusing on footage of the band in a live performance, a version that the Cranberries essentially disowned. Despite their efforts to maintain the original video "out of view from the public", some of the initial footage prevailed, with scenes of children holding guns. In March 2003, on the eve of the outbreak of the Iraq War, the British Government and the Independent Television Commission issued a statement saying ITC's Programme Code would temporarily remove from broadcast songs and music videos featuring "sensitive material", including "Zombie". Numerous media groups complied with the decision to avoid "offending public feeling", along with MTV Europe. Since it violated the ITC guidelines, "Zombie" was placed on a blacklist of songs, targeting its official music video. The censorship was lifted once the war had ended. In April 2020, it became the first song by an Irish group to surpass one billion views on Youtube.
"Zombie" received a total of 91% yes votes!
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theworldgate · 2 years ago
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I have to explain what is going on in the UK, because it is absurd.
So, this is Gary Lineker:
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He's known for a fair few things over here. He was a very good (association) footballer, playing for England in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, winning the Golden Boot in 1986, and managing to never get a single yellow card in his playing career. He played for Leicester City, Everton, Barcelona, and Tottenham, before finishing his career in Japan. But if you aren't in your mid 30s, you probably know actually know him him for a couple of other things. The first is the role of spokesman for another Leicester icon, Walkers Crisps (which are sort of equivalent to Lays, but hit different), as pictured above. Despite being a notably clean player, he used to play a cheeky serial crisp thief. I don't think he's done that for well over a decade, but his ads were on the telly a lot when I was a kid and it's a bit like learning that the hamburglar was an incredibly clean (American) football player or something.
The second thing Gary is widely known for is having presented Match of the Day, the big football program on the BBC, the sort-of state broadcaster, since 1999. He is, incidentally, very well paid for this (though with a consensus that he could get even more if he went to one of the non-free-to-view broadcasters because he is very good at the job). He also has a twitter account. And political opinions. So, the UK government has got itself dead set upon doing heinous stuff that will totally somehow work to prevent people who want to come to the UK making the perilous crossing of the Channel (between England and France). By heinous, I mean "openly advertise that they won't attempt to protect victims of modern slavery" stuff. It's very obviously using a legal hammer to victimise a marginalised group of people in order to win votes. And, uh, I should clarify that by "legal" I mean "using the passage of laws" - the policy is, in addition to all the other ways it's awful, probably incompatible with the Human Rights Act and the UK's international law obligations. Gary, top lad that he is, objected to this. On Tuesday 7th March, he made a quote Tweet of a video of the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, bigging up the policy, he wrote "Good heavens, this is beyond awful.". This got a bunch of backlash from extremely right-wingers, and then he made the tweet that really got him in trouble (with right-wingers): "There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?".
Now, I am not actually subjecting myself to watching a video of Suella Braverman bigging up a cruel policy to say whether the specific comparison of the language to 1930s Germany is accurate. But needless to say, Ms Braverman was amongst the many figures on the right of UK politics objecting to Gary's rhetoric. And here's the part where a fact about the BBC comes in: it is nominally neutral and impartial (and so, of course, is routinely accused of bias from all sides but particularly the right-wing), and has something of a code for its contributors to this effect. Now, that code has previously been applied to Gary Lineker, over a comment about whether governing Conservative Party would hand back donations from figures linked to the Russian regime. But it generally hasn't been applied too strongly to people like Gary, whose roles have nothing to do with politics (such as presenting a "here's what happened on the footie today" show), on the basis that, well, their roles have nothing to do with politics. However, when directly asked about whether the BBC should punish Gary Lineker for his tweets, government figures basically went "well, that's a them problem". But a couple of days passed, and it seemed like Gary's approach of "standing his ground because he did nothing wrong" was working and everything would die down. He was set to get 'a talking to' but not much more than that. The Conservative right, after all their fire and fury earlier, had gotten bored and moved onto something else. And then, on Friday 10th March, the BBC announced that he would be suspended from hosting Match of the Day this weekend. But it could still go ahead, because there are, like, other hosts! Except, well, funnily enough, when you take a beloved figure off air, for making a fairly anodyne tweet, no one wants to be the scab who actually takes up the role of replacing him. Gary's two co-hosts, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, said that they would not appear without him. People who (co-)host Match of the Day on other days followed suit. The net result is that Match of the Day is currently set to air without hosts, BBC commentary, or global feed commentary. And the solidarity shown to Gary Lineker, over what is very flagrantly actual cancel culture and an attack on freedom of speech (the logic implied is that institutional impartiality requires that no one say anything too critical of the government ever), has continued to grow. The BBC has pretty much been unable to run pretty much any live sports content today, and has resorted to raiding the BBC Sounds archive to fill the sports radio channel. And, as of 17:30 on Saturday 11th March, the situation shows no signs of improvement, though some are calling for the Chairman Richard Sharp, who is separately facing corruption allegations, to resign (yes I linked to the BBC itself there, there is nothing, nothing, the BBC loves more than going into great detail about how much the BBC sucks).
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foxesscramble · 1 month ago
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in honor of the holidays here's some foxes and co going home for the holidays (set sometime in the future)
Somewhere in Wisconsin:
Matt Boyd just won his last game before their winter break officially started.
Dan and Matt make their rounds to say goodbye to everyone as the team dispersed to various cities.
They head out and grab a taxi, making a quick stop by their house to grab their luggage.
They’re headed home for the holidays.
Back to where their family was gathering.
Back to South Carolina.
They were unbelievably excited to see everyone.
They had a secret that they were finally telling the foxes when they got them all together.
Dan cradled her growing belly
Somewhere in Colorado:
Renee compiled a list of care advice for her neighbor who is petsitting for her while she’s in South Carolina.
It’s a hefty list and Renee is once again grateful for her kind, elderly neighbor who had volunteered herself immediately after hearing Renee was going to be traveling.
She made her rounds saying goodbye to all her pets before grabbing her suitcase and keys and heading to the door.
She sent a text to Allison to let her know she was about to hit the road.
Text sent she said one last goodbye at the door before locking up behind her.
South Carolina, here we come.
Somewhere in New York:
Allison carefully packed her clothes into her bag.
Had she possibly packed too much for her two-week trip? Probably, but she hasn’t seen anyone in a while, and she likes to look good.
Allison checked her phone for the time before grabbing her suitcases and putting them by the door.
She did one last walk-through to make sure she didn’t forget anything before turning all her lights off and grabbing her luggage.
She closed the door and locked it before making her way out of her apartment. 
She sent a text to Renee to let her know she was leaving and got in her car.
Somewhere in Germany:
“Nicky, Liebling, if you don’t get your ass down here we’re going to miss our flight!” 
Nicky swears as he collects his bags in a hurry, his feet pounding down the stairs of his and Erik’s apartment.
Germany had done Nicky a lot of good but he was undeniably excited to head back to the States.
Back to his family.
“I’m ready! I swear!” 
Erik laughed and herded him out the door.
They made it through the security check with 15 minutes to get to their boarding area.
They laughed as they ran through the airport, their luggage flipping and bumping into the back of their legs.
They were the last people on the plane, but they made it.
Nicky was going home.
Somewhere in California:
Kevin lugs both suitcases into the trunk of his car before he helps Amalia into the back seat and gets her buckled into her car seat.
They were driving all the way to South Carolina because Amalia had recently become deathly afraid of planes.
Settling in for the two-day drive, they'd barely made it 30 minutes into the trip before Amalia determined it had been a long time and it was time for snacks.
With a deep breath and a silent prayer to all things holy, Kevin pulled into a gas station to get snacks and have a bathroom break.
He knew the drive would be rough but 'Grandpa Coach' and 'Gran Abby', as Amalia had taken to calling her grandparents (maybe Kevin should have stopped calling them by name), would be more than willing to take Amalia when they got home.
Amalia spent the rest of the 36 hour drive rotating between excitably talking about seeing her aunts and uncles, singing the entire Frozen soundtrack at the top of her little 4 year old lungs, and sleeping.
Somewhere between Kansas and South Carolina:
"If you touch the stereo one more time, Josten, you're losing your hand."
Hands held over the console.
Hand kisses.
Smoke breaks.
Lots of snack breaks.
Neil gets fruit cups and Andrew gets candy.
Their cats joined them for the trip.
Sir sits in Neil's lap the entire ride but King gets the zoomies every 30 miles.
Andrew has to repeatedly remove him from his feet so he stops getting close to the pedals.
They call Bee halfway through the drive to make sure she’ll be there when they get there. She and Andrew chat while Neil takes a bathroom break.
When Neil comes back Andrew’s frame has relaxed a bit further. 
They were both excited to see everyone but that didn’t take away the anxiety of having that big of a group together again.
But the foxes were family and they couldn’t wait to see their family.
Somewhere in North Carolina:
"Okay, and you packed the girls' blankets?"
Katelyn and Aaron may resemble headless chickens trying to get their 13 month old twins together and ready.
Katelyn has been tasked with the girls' things and Aaron has been tasked with actually getting the girls in the car.
One of the twins is passed out in their car seat and the other is sobbing and throwing a fit.
Aaron is trying to calm her down and Katelyn is driving.
It took about an hour to get her to stop crying and when she did Aaron took a deep breath and fell back in his seat.
He rested his head back and closed his eyes, letting the quiet sounds of the road soothe him.
That calmness lasts for a good minute before Katelyn lets out a loud, FUCK!
"I forgot our suitcase!"
Somewhere in South Carolina:
Abby fluffs the decorative pillow for the hundredth time in the past ten minutes. 
She’s already vacuumed and swept every room in their house. She’s gotten all the spare bedrooms ready and taken out all of the blowup mattresses. Most of the kids were staying with them with the exception of those that had kids.
They hadn’t all been together in so long and it felt imperative that the house looked good for everyone.
Wymack came up behind her and gently took the pillow from her hands before setting it back on the couch.
“The place looks amazing, Abby.” 
Abby turned around and shot him a doubtful look.
Wymack laughed roughly and leaned forward to place a careful kiss to her forehead. 
“They’re just going to be happy to be here. I don’t think they’d care if it looked like a pigsty in here. Everything is okay, and you know why?” 
Abby leaned her weight against Wymack’s chest. “Why?”
Wymack pulled back slightly so he could send her a fond smile.
“Our kids are coming home."
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girlactionfigure · 2 months ago
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Antisemitism, an old saying goes, is the canary in the coal mine. The implication is that, when antisemitism is rising in a society, this is a telltale sign that said society is in decline. In many cases throughout history, this has very much been true. For example, the Nazis rose to power -- and later led their country into a suicidal war -- by mobilizing German society with inflammatory antisemitic rhetoric.
Nevertheless, I’ve always really hated the expression, not because it’s necessarily untrue, but because of the implication that what really makes antisemitism matter is that Jew-hatred eventually poisons everything and everyone else. I think antisemitism matters because Jews are human beings, and that should be enough for us to act decisively against it, not because antisemitism might, in the future, affect other groups of people.
Regardless, I do think that it’s important for people to understand why and how antisemitism eventually might affect them too.
ANTISEMITISM AS A SIGN OF SOCIETAL DECLINE
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? In other words, do societies decline because of antisemitism, or does antisemitism rise because societies are in decline? In my opinion, it’s a little bit of both.
First, it’s important to understand how antisemitism functions. Antisemitism is not only a bigotry, but a worldview that relies on conspiracies, scapegoating, and projection. When things are bad -- for instance, when a society is in disarray -- people need someone to blame. When a child went missing in the Middle Ages, who was at fault? Why, the Jews, of course. When as much as 30 to 60% of the European population died from the Black Death in the 14th century, who was to blame? The Jews. When Weimar Germany suffered from economic hardships, who else could be at fault but the Jews?
I personally noticed this phenomenon in real-time in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests. Instead of holding American police to account for their police brutality, very quickly, antisemites swept in with the “Deadly Exchange” conspiracy theory, which absurdly posits that it’s the Jewish state that is at fault for police brutality in the United States (as though American police brutality didn’t exist before 1948!). In this sense, it’s obvious that antisemitism rises when societies are in strife.
On the other hand, pre-existing antisemitism will poison everything in a society. White supremacists and Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups, for example, often recruit followers with antisemitic rhetoric, but their violence targets more than just Jews. It doesn’t take long for hostile antisemitic environments to become hostile to many other groups of people.
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"FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE..."
Surely you’ve heard the famous Martin Niemöller poem: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
It is, perhaps, the quotation most often associated with the Holocaust and the Nazi persecution of Jews and political dissidents. And while Pastor Niemöller certainly had a point, the question bears repeating: why must others be targeted alongside Jews for antisemitism to matter? Shouldn’t antisemitism matter simply because Jews are human beings deserving of fundamental human rights and dignity?
As it turns out, Niemöller never quite got the memo. In the early 1930s, he not only openly agreed with Nazi ideology, but he voted the Nazis into power. His change of heart came not because he atoned for his antisemitism, but because he disliked how the Nazi Party was meddling with the Lutheran Church, which led to his eventual arrest. Even worse: after the Allied victory, he opposed the de-Nazification of Germany because he thought that it would “do more harm than good.”
In the end, it seems, for Niemöller, antisemitism only mattered when it affected him personally.
"FIRST THE SATURDAY PEOPLE, THEN THE SUNDAY PEOPLE"
The proverb “min sallaf es-sabt lāqā el-ḥadd qiddāmūh” — “after Saturday comes Sunday”— is used in many Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, to describe the treatment of Middle Eastern Jews and Christians. A popular variation is “first the Saturday people [Jews, who observe Shabbat on Saturday], then the Sunday people [Christians, who attend church on Sundays.” The idea is that what has been done to the Jews of the Middle East is now what is being done to Middle Eastern Christians.
The origins of the phrase, with this particular meaning, are contested, but some historians trace it back to the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine and claim that it was coined by the followers of the Nazi collaborator Palestinian leader Haj Amin Al-Husseini. The phrase has also been attributed to the pro-Zionist Maronite Christians in Lebanon in the 1930s and 1940s. After the British authorities passed the 1939 White Paper, which virtually banned all Jewish immigration to and land purchases in Palestine, some Palestinian Arab Christians reportedly worried that they would be marginalized next.
In the 1940s and 1950s, virtually 100% of the Jewish population of the Middle East — which once numbered at around a million — was expelled from their homes in a series of systematic expulsions and massacres.  
Unfortunately, much as the proverb predicts, Middle Eastern Christians have suffered a similar fate. In 1900, Christians made up about 13% of the population of the Middle East. Today, Christians form only 4% of the Middle Eastern population.
Assyrian, Maronite, Coptic, and other Native Middle Eastern Christians have been driven out of their homes by Islamic fundamentalist violence, a recent example being the massacres and executions perpetrated by ISIS.
JIHADIST GROUPS
Like white supremacist groups, Islamist jihadist groups such as ISIS have historically used antisemitic rhetoric as a “gateway drug” for recruitment. For example, Damon Joseph, also known as Abdullah Ali Yusuf, was indicted by a federal court in late 2018 for providing material support to ISIS. After an investigation, it seems that Joseph had been radicalized within a matter of months, following his conversion to Islam. Joseph, however, had espoused antisemitic beliefs for years, and it seems that his pre-existing antisemitic worldview influenced his fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
According to former CIA agent John Kiriakou, after the CIA captured Abu Zubaydah, who at the time was believed to be the number three in Al Qaeda, Abu Zubaydah said that he never hated America and only wanted to kill Jews and attack Israel.  
Similarly, in his 2002 “Letter to the American People,” in which he “explained” the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden justified his terrorist acts on the basis that the United States is allied with Israel and Jews allegedly “control” the American government.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, Jihadist groups have recruited lone wolf attackers in third countries by inciting against Israel.  
Hezbollah, which was formed to fight Israel’s existence, has now taken the lives of Syrians, Lebanese, Iranians, and much more.  
Antisemitism is closely linked to Islamist terrorism, even terrorism that doesn’t specifically target Jews, and it should be considered an international security threat.
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WHITE SUPREMACY
Antisemitism is foundational to white supremacy, but it is not exclusive to white supremacy. White supremacy does not exist without antisemitism, but white supremacists don’t exclusively target Jews, and non-white supremacist ideologies can be antisemitic, too. In other words, all white supremacists are antisemitic, but not all antisemites are white supremacists, and white supremacists are bigoted toward many other groups of people, too.
Antisemitism plays a very specific function within white supremacy. White supremacists rely on antisemitism to (1) scapegoat, and (2) divide and conquer. For example, white supremacists believe that Jews are behind a supposed “white genocide,” aiming to replace white folks with Brown and Black folks. In other words, what starts with Jews doesn’t just end with Jews.
White supremacist groups often recruit online with antisemitic rhetoric, and many violent white supremacists were radicalized by consuming antisemitic content.
In the 1920s, the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan is tied directly to the 1913 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish American. The KKK then went on to terrorize Black Americans.
DOMESTIC TERRORISM, MASS SHOOTINGS
Many domestic terrorists and mass shooters have been radicalized through antisemitic rhetoric, even if their violence eventually targeted other people. Some examples include Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 17 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students and employees in 2018, and the perpetrators of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
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rootsmetals
you shouldn’t wait until antisemitism affects you personally to care, but antisemitism *will* affect you personally eventually, whether you’re Jewish or not.
For a full bibliography of my sources, please head over to my Instagram and  Patreon. 
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perikrone · 1 year ago
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The depth of the global textile supply chain that you get into as you get into increasingly obscure fiber arts is so wild.
You can start with knitting, or crochet, and there are *so* many choices for yarn and materials. Indie dyers with unique colorways, weird fibers from heritage breeds, and patterns for hundreds of lifetimes worth of hobby. You can even dive into spinning! Buy weird fiber from hobbyists and conservationists around the world, and spin things that you can't easily get otherwise.. Just those skills are enough to take a lifetime to hone.
But if you go far enough down the rabbit-hole, you're suddenly googling for how to compare thread weights between crochet thread numbers and weaving numbers, and is flax graded differently than cotton? Oh, I can get 20/2 and 60/2 silk all day long, but suddenly if I need 30/2 silk there are just a handful of results and wow I'll never be able to buy this again, is this a random mill in Turkey just selling cone ends??? And before you know it you have a note file with 10,000 Etsy links and Google translated half functioning corporate websites and you're trying to figure out if it's worth it to just see if you can import from this tiny store in Germany that seems to have a reliable source of *close enough* fiber for what you're going for, and why are you even so into *tablet weaving* of all things, why can't we just be knitting endless socks or something like that???
Love it, wouldn't trade it for the world.
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letters-to-lgbt-kids · 3 months ago
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My dear lgbt+ kids, 
30%. 
If you are from Germany, that’s probably a number you hear a lot right now. 
30% voted for the Afd - a far-right party. An extremist party. A Nazi party, to call it what it is. 
And that’s 30 too many. That’s horrifying. It’d be horrifying anywhere and it feels especially so here - it feels like we are repeating history, a very very dark chapter of history. 
I probably don’t need to tell you why this is horrible news for our community, or really for anyone who has a heart or conscience. You can find the answer to that in history. 
30%. That’s a number where we can no longer shrug and say “there’ll always be a handful of bad people” or “it’s just a few uneducated people who are confused and don’t really know they’re voting for Nazis”. We learned it’s not just a “old conservative men” thing, either. The 16 to 30 year olds voted for them. 
It would be inappropriate to try and minimize the significance - and the damage - behind this number, and I do not want to do that. But I do want to throw another number out there: 70. 
If 30% voted for them, that also means 70% didn’t. And that means there’s hope. 
30 are too many - but the 70 are still more. 
This isn’t meant to mean that we can just ignore it. The opposite, actually: it means there’s still the chance to do something. It means the 70 can still stand up and be louder. 
The worst possible thing to do now would be to bury your head in the sand (figuratively) and let the 30 speak for everyone. Because they don’t. 
With all my love, 
Your Tumblr Dad 
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earlycuntsets · 4 months ago
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mcr shows on youtube pt. 2 (2005 - 2007)
-> pt. 1 (2002 - 2005)
-> pt. 3 (2007 - 2011)
-> pt. 4 (2011 - 2023)
10/16/2005 connecticut expo center hartford ct - pablohoney27
10/19/2005 carpa neumatica del hipodromo de las americas mexico city mexico - emopinktears
10/21/2005 umbc fieldhouse catonsville md - XxXHollowChildXxX
11/04/2005 carlington academy brixton london england - jason is lost in japan
11/07/2005 carlington academy newcastle upon tyne england - tilly b
11/10/2005 ambassador theater dublin ireland - the academy is my beautiful romance
11/19/2005 razzmatazz 2 barcelona spain - xversa
11/29/2005 stade unprix montreal ontario canada - Smashingchemicals
11/30/2005 john labatt centre london on canada - prunejjuicebob
12/02/2005 muchmusic studio toronto ca - ATØMIC JĒY
12/04/2005 97x next big thing coachman park clearwater fl - obsessionbrazil
03/17/2006 emos annex austin tx - mason randall
04/29/2006 give it a name festival - earls court london england - angelsandairwaveshva
04/30/2006 give it name festival manchester evening news arena manchester england - huesoflife & xEyelashWishes
05/12/2006 sun god festival ucsd rimac field la jolla ca - hisuikirei
08/22/2006 hammersmith palais london england - the academy is my beautiful romance & GMarks1984 & batwife & juliehf
08/24/2006 meadowbank stadium edinburgh scotland - monroeville84 & emu1515 & darthjeebus666 & ZiCoChAiN
08/27/2006 reading and leeds festival little johns farm reading england - joe brady & gdmec182
08/31/2006 mtv vmas radio city music hall nyc ny -- jusyanotherkilljoy
09/06/2006 mtv2s $2 bill philadelphia pa - koi no yokan
10/05/2006 avalon los angeles - the academy is my beautiful romance
10/09/2006 the album chart show london england - xthankyou4thevenomx
10/11/2006 roundhouse london england - ATØMIC JĒY
10/12/2006 virgin megastore london england - the academy is my beautiful romance
10/13/2006 paradiso grote zaal amsterdam netherlands - skittyblackfire
10/14/2006 e-werk berlin germany - redoftherose
10/23/2006 vintage vinyl fords nj - vintage vinyl records
10/25/2006 axis boston ma - juliehf
10/28/2006 city park new orleans la - ohbabylevenin
11/09/2006 e-werk cologne germany - darthvaderlives
11/13/2006 university of liverpool liverpool england - xEyelashWishesx
11/21/2006 alcatraz milan italy - mychemicalitalia & gainlover
12/01/2006 96x electric christmas the norva norfolk va - the academy is my beautiful romance
12/03/2006 97x ford amphitheater tampa fl - sillybears
12/07/2006 key arena seattle wa - anja
12/08/2006 twisted christmas arco arena san francisco - christine kay
12/14/2006 cobb arena detriot mi - fobgirl08
12/31/2006 the pontiac garage nyc ny - the academy is my beautiful romance
01/19/2007 mount smart stadium auckland new zealand - the academy is my beautiful romance
01/29/2007 festival hall melbourne australia - the academy is my beautiful romance
02/07/2007 big day out adelaide showgrounds adelaide australia - the adademy is my beautiful romance
02/26/2007 wolstein center cleveland ohio - rival heart & awesomelexa & katie & sohos & sensesfail814
03/13/2007 ipayone center san diego ca - slownotstupid & shortygothops & sara513
03/14/2007 selland arena fresno ca - miserylovedme123 & m sims
03/16/2007 lawlor events center reno nv - hellasexyrocker12
03/27/2007 scottish exhibition and conference center glasgow scotland - 슬롯 아우디
04/02/2007 koko london england - ATØMIC JĒY (2) & dametokillfor
04/04/2007 elysee montmartre paris france - redoftherose
04/10/2007 kb hallen copenhagen denmark - 666noft (DANZIG COVER) - C4R17O
04/21/2007 universal orlando grand bash '07 universal studios orlando fl - aneiger & selbstmordflucht
04/25/2007 - nashville municipal auditorium nashville tn - thelaurelbush &
05/09/2007 centre bell montreal qc canada - the academy is my beautiful romance
05/20/2007 virgin festival thunderbird stadium vancouver bc canada - ATØMIC JĒY & the academy is my beautiful romance
06/01/2007 nürburgring, nürburg, germany - mcr shows
06/08/2007 download festival donington castle donington uk - the academy is my beautiful romance
06/17/2007 wembley stadium london england - the academy is my beautiful romance
06/26/2007 razzmatazz barcelona spain - the academy is my beautiful romance
07/01/2007 pier pressure frihamnspiren gothenburg sweden - the academy is my beautiful romance
07/04/2007 volksfestgelände pieschener allee dresden germany - cassnjason
07/25/2007 projekt revolution white river amphitheatre auburn wa - the academy is my beautiful romance
07/27/2007 sleep train amphitheatre wheatland ca - christine kay
07/29/2007 shoreline amphitheatre mountain view ca - the academy is my beautiful romance
07/30/2007 kevin and beans breakfast capitol records studios la ca - the academy is my beautiful romance
-> pt. 1 (2002 - 2005)
-> pt. 3 (2007 - 2011)
-> pt. 4 (2011 - 2023)
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komsomolka · 4 months ago
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Since the early days of the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks and later communist parties everywhere placed a great emphasis on culture and on the contribution cultural workers could make to the building of socialism. One of the first things the Soviet Army of occupation did at the end of the war, was attempt to resuscitate cultural activity in a war-ravaged and demoralised Germany. The one thing the Russians could never get their head around was how a country with such a high level of culture, a nation that had produced a Bach and a Beethoven, a Goethe and a Schiller could have carried out such barbaric crimes in other countries. The Soviet army had cultural officers attached to each battalion and the war had hardly ended before they began seeking out cultural workers and encouraging them to take up their batons, musical instruments, pens and paintbrushes again. Temporary cinemas were established, orchestras formed, theatres opened and publishing houses set up.
In contrast to West Germany, in the Soviet Zone and later in the GDR, there was also an early emphasis on making films about the Nazi period as a means of educating and informing a nation ignorant of or in denial about what had happened. [...]
The GDR had more theatres per capita than any other country in the world and in no other country were there more orchestras in relation to population size or territory. With 90 professional orchestras, GDR citizens had three times more opportunity of accessing live music, than those in the FRG, 7.5 times more than in the USA and 30 times more than in the UK. It also had one of the world’s highest book publishing figures. This small country with its very limited economic resources, even in the fifties was spending double the amount on cultural activities as the FRG.
Every town of 30,000 or more inhabitants in the GDR had its theatre and cinema as well as other cultural venues. [...] Subsidised tickets to the theatre and concerts were always priced so that everyone could afford to go. Many factories and institutions had regular block-bookings for their workers which were avidly taken up. School pupils from the age of 14 were also encouraged to go to the theatre once a month and schools were able to obtain subsidised tickets. [...]
All towns and even many villages had their own ‘Houses of Culture’, owned by the local communities and open for all to use. These were places that offered performance venues, workshop space and facilities for celebratory gatherings, discos, drama groups etc. There was a lively culture of local music and folk-song groups, as well as classical musical performance.
Stasi State or Socialist Paradise? The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It by Bruni de la Motte & John Green with Seumas Milne (Contributor), 2015.
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vettelsvee · 2 months ago
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GOODBYES ARE BITTERSWEET | Sebastian Vettel ✩₊˚.⋆ PART 5: I'LL NEVER LEAVE... NEVER MIND [PREVIOUS PART] [NEXT PART]
goodbyes are bittersweet masterlist | wattpad f1 masterlist | ao3 | ask anything or let's talk!
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ferrari sebastian vettel x ex gf!female reader
word count: 4437
summary: after not seeing each other in almost five years, seb and y/n finally meet with just one purpose for her: telling seb they have a 4 year old daughter. will y/n be able to tell him?
warnings: mentions of sex. i think nothing else but i literally cried while writing this. i recommend that you listen to loml by taylor swift while reading this hehe
taglist: [ @saltycomicsanimalssalad @hc-dutch @mycenterfold @simplyamberj @spitesfvl-blog @jaydaaasworld @lottalove4evelyn @zoeyjadetice2010 @jehun @ferralari @cosmoscoffeee @mcmuppet @myescapefromthislife @sleutherclaw @youre-on-your-ownkid ]
a/n: i'm finally back! sorry you had to wait this long to get a new chapter but writers block had me going like crazy, as well as my mental health in general. i had something else planned for today BUT be aware of what I'm posting tomorrow since you might like it! christmas is coming soon and i have a surprise ready for you. let me remind you that feedback and reposts are truly appreciated. and also comment me your thoughts and theories on the story pls! missed you so much guys, thank you for everything, love you all <3
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© VETTELSVEE (2024). please, do not steal, copy or translate my works. thanks for reading!
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May 15th Heppenheim, Germany
“Y/N, remember that you need to be careful with what you say to Seb. I know you want to tell him about Emily, but also consider whether today is the right time. Imagine if…”
You stop listening to Hanna the moment her lips utter your daughter’s name. Instead, your mind started creating a thousand different scenarios about what could happen when you saw your ex-boyfriend today. Your gaze remained fixed on the mirror in your room.
You only returned home five days ago, but it felt like an eternity.
You knew perfectly well why, or rather, you knew perfectly well who was to blame for your distorted sense of time: Sebastian Vettel, of course.
The trip to London felt like a fresh start. While the main reason to go was your meeting with Capital Records to discuss what your near future might hold, you considered it as an opportunity to rethink what you wanted to do with your life from now on. 
You had just turned 30, and the only thing you longed for was to start this new decade with a clean slate in every possible way. That, of course, included facing your past mistakes and recognizing your faults, one of which you might be about to commit today.
Hanna acted as some sort of mediator between you and Seb because, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t bring yourself to send him even the simplest of messages. The driver seemed to understand, as he told Hanna not to worry, that he understood, and that all you needed to do was show up without standing him up. 
Despite having agreed to meet at your house, you decided to dress up a little to present yourself in the best way possible. After spending far more time than you’d like to admit choosing what to wear, you settled on a light blue knee-length dress and white Converse sneakers, with a bracelet your daughter made (or better said your mother made, just Emily took credit for).
"Y/N, are you even listening to me?"
The reflection of your best friend in the mirror startled you. You turned towards her, trying to maintain the calm you’ve lacked since returning from London. Exactly five days that have felt like five years.
Like the five years since you last saw Seb.
"Hey, cat got your tongue or what?" insisted the blonde. "Seriously, Y/N, I want you to be speechless, but preferably when you and Seb take the conversation from the couch to the bed and he makes you scream his name again just like he used to do when..."
"Hanna, for God's sake, shut up! Seb and I are only going to talk about..."
"I know, I know, I was just trying to make you laugh. You know I like to..." 
Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
If you were restless before, pacing back and forth in your room, checking that there was no trace of Emily in the house for Seb to find, now you were frozen like a statue.
You looked at Hanna, and she looked back at you. You shrugged, but Hanna just put her exaggeratedly unfriendly faces.
"Hanna, no..."
"It's Seb, Y/N! It's just Seb, for heaven's sake," she interrupted, and you cut her off just as fast.
"It's the Seb I haven't seen in five years!" you stammered, feeling the anxiety taking over. "Seriously, Hanna, this was a very, very bad idea. I don’t even know why I asked you to tell him to come and..."
"Because he's the father of your daughter, and your only goal is to tell him!" she yelled, trying not to raise her voice too much but failing miserably. You hoped to God Vettel didn’t hear that.
"Hanna..."
"Since I know you're not going to open the door, I'll do it myself. Stay here or come down, do whatever you want, but I'll tell Seb to come find you because clearly, you can't handle welcoming your guest," she declared.
Without saying anything else, she strided out of your room. You could only follow her, practically tripping down the stairs, legs trembling like a teenager on her first date. Your pulse was pounding in your temples, while your mind kept screaming at your body to calm down.
As soon as you stepped onto the ground floor, you saw Hanna opening the door. Her cheerful voice broke the silence, asking Seb how he was and, to your surprise, inviting him in.
You inched closer, not quite enough for them to notice you. Then you stopped, inspecting Seb from head to toe, as if you didn't already know every inch of his body by heart. Even though you were used to seeing him on TV and social media daily, it felt like you haven’t seen him in all this time you’ve been out of touch. He was wearing a slightly worn-out white t-shirt and jeans. His hair was perfectly trimmed, though a bit longer on top, and his beard, probably several days old, was what caught your attention the most, looking just the way you liked it.
But what really captivated you was the bouquet of yellow tulips he was holding, just like he used to bring you for dates or whenever it was a special day for either of you back when you were dating.
You swallowed hard, guilt washing over you as you thought, for a fleeting moment, about him handing you a flower bouquet before you told him you were having his baby.
"Hi..."
You thought your whisper was too soft to be heard, but it was quite the opposite.
Both Seb and Hanna turned to look at each other, then focused on you, still standing in the entryway. Your best friend tensed up slightly, but you tried to reassure her with a slight movement of your hands. The expression on your ex-boyfriend’s face seemed to light up at your small intervention, even if it was minimal.
“Well, Seb, I'll leave you with Y/N. I have a few errands to run…” Your friend tried to excuse herself, though both of you knew it wasn’t true. “See you later for a drink guys!
She winked and quickly slipped out, shutting the door behind her before either of you could even say goodbye.
Now, it was just the two of you, alone.
Seb looked at you again, and you couldn’t help it but get lost in the blue of his eyes. The situation felt strange. You used to cherish every moment of being alone together, but now you didn’t even know how to say a simple "hello." 
You once trusted him completely, and now you were unsure whether to offer him a drink or tell him that you have a four-year-old daughter.
“Hi, sunshine,” he said, breaking the silence.
“Hi, Seb.”
He took a step towards you, slowly moving closer. You noticed how his gaze shifted from the flowers to your eyes, as if he was searching for some kind of answer from you. His eyes reflected a mixture of nervousness and tenderness, stirring a whirlwind of emotions inside you. 
He didn’t have to say it, you could see it in his eyes. He was afraid of how you’d react to this gesture, this little detail that used to drive you crazy, but now… you didn’t know how to feel about it.
You, on the other hand, were utterly stunned. 
How, after all this time and how cold you ended things, could he still do this? How could he still remember?
“These... are for you,” he finally said, his voice low and shaky. He handed you the bouquet, his hands trembling.
You met his gaze, and the way he looked at you was filled with fear, insecurity, and maybe, just maybe, a bit of tenderness. He didn’t need to say it out loud because you knew him too well. He was afraid of how you’d react to this gesture.
“Thank you,” you managed to say, taking your time to smell the flowers.
You couldn’t hold it in. Tears began to blur your vision, and a wave of embarrassment washed over you.
He noticed. Even though you didn’t want to, even though you didn’t feel capable of getting close enough to give him a kiss on the cheek or maybe even a hug, Seb did it anyway.
“It's okay, Y/N,” he whispered. “It’s okay...”
But it wasn’t okay… it was far from okay.
Sebastian Vettel was here, once again, standing in front of you, and possibly back in your life. The boy you once considered your best friend, the best friend you fell in love with, the driver you always supported, and most importantly, the father of your child, was back in your life in such an unexpected way that it still felt surreal.
“I don’t know...” you tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come out. “It feels surreal that after everything, after such an empty goodbye, here we are, together again,” you confessed. “It’s weird seeing you in front of me in the flesh and not as pixels on a screen.”
“Y/N…”
“I’ve missed you, Seb. So much.”
You knew your honesty didn’t catch him by surprise, because he felt the same way. That’s what hurt the most.
“I missed you too, Y/N. I really did...” he said after a moment, wrapping his arms around you, and you pressed your face against his chest.
“Seb…”
“Don’t overthink it, really,” he interrupted gently. “I’m not here to talk about the past or blame anyone,” he paused, letting out a breath before continuing. “I just want us to go back to who we were before we were together. But, if I’m being honest, we’ve been in love with each other for so long that I can’t remember a time when you weren’t my everything.”
Your lips trembled. The weight of his words was too much for you to handle, at least today, in a first encounter where you haven’t even spent ten minutes together.
You felt awful. You felt shattered inside knowing that if you were in this situation, it was because of you.
“Well, Y/N, tell me…”
“No, no,” you quickly interrupted, grabbing his arm and guiding him to sit on the couch. Immediately after, you rushed to the kitchen to grab the drinks and snacks you spent all morning preparing. “You tell me first. Even though I’ve seen you on TV, I know you’re very private about your life, you know... You never share anything with the media, and well, you don’t even have social media so… How are you?”
He let out a short laugh as he picked up a bottle of water and a cheese-and-salmon toast.
“Well, to be honest, I’m doing much better than when you left me,” he revealed. It didn’t surprise you. After all, it was what you expected him to say. “You must have had your reasons for breaking up with me, and after all these years, I’m not going to ask why you did it. But I won’t lie to you… you left me shattered, Y/N.”
“Seb, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“I know,” he cut in softly, making a gentle gesture with his hand to calm you down. “Like I said, I’m not looking for an explanation or an apology. I just want you to know how I felt. Mentally… damn, Y/N, you broke me, and I completely lost myself, but at the same time, that’s what gave me the strength to win the championship in 2013,” he looked away from your eyes, shifting his gaze to the wall. Nervously, he started playing with his fingers. “All I could think about was you and that, maybe, there was a chance you were watching...”
“Of course I was, Seb,” you said softly, trying to hold back the tears and keep your composure. “No matter what happened, I never stopped watching or supporting you. I’ve always been, and will always be, your number one fan.”
He nodded, a bittersweet expression crossing his face.
“That year, everything I did was with the thought in mind that you were watching and, somehow, it helped me move forward. But… 2014 was when everything fell apart,” he admitted. “Red Bull wasn’t the same anymore, or at least, I didn’t feel the same way. I wasn’t winning, Daniel was beating me… I felt like I had lost everything, including you and, with time, I started to feel like I had no reason to stay with the team or maybe even in Formula 1. Until Ferrari offered me the contract.”
You remembered it like it was yesterday. Unlike any regular sports fan, you found out through Heike when you were out for a walk with Emily.
“When I was given the chance to sign with Ferrari in 2015... Y/N, really, that’s when I realized it wasn’t the end. That’s what I needed to move forward. I think I mentioned it to you on WhatsApp, but I don’t know if you remember…”
You swallowed hard. Of course, you remembered. He told you just before the news became public, before his mum told you, but you didn’t know how to answer him or if you really should do it. The demons in your head made you think it was a joke, even just an excuse to get closer to you. And you also felt that if he did sign with Ferrari, it would open a door you had closed because you weren’t ready to face the truth.
Just like you were doing now.
“I remember, yes,” you murmured, unable to look him in the eyes.
“When I didn’t get a reply from you I decided not to push it. That’s when I realized you didn’t want anything to do with me. Yet I kept sending you stuff as you might know…”
“That’s not it…” You could barely speak. You were as broken as he was. “I read the message, Seb, but… I burst into tears and didn’t have the strength to reply. I didn’t want to give you false hope when I wasn’t ready to… I didn’t want to hurt you more than I already had,” you confessed. “I knew that if I spoke to you again, I’d hurt you again. And I’d hurt myself too. I couldn’t do that to you, Seb.”
He nodded, looking for some kind of affirmation in your gaze.
“At first, I felt really out of place on the team, you know? And I felt that way for a long time,” he revealed. “It was completely out of my comfort zone, and I felt like I’d never fit in. But little by little, Kimi, Maurizio, and the team made me feel like family. It’s strange to think about it now, but I can’t imagine being with any team other than Ferrari.” You agreed with him, from what you had seen on TV, it was clear he felt that way. “Fighting for the world title with them this year and having a real shot at beating Mercedes… I never thought I’d get to this point.”
You looked at him with a mix of admiration and nostalgia. This was the Seb you knew, the Seb with ambition, who always desired more and more. The Seb who never gave up.
The Seb who didn’t break down, even when he had every reason to.
“I’m so proud of you, Seb. I’ve always been, and I always will be. Don’t forget that.”
“Of course, Y/N,” he looked uncomfortable. Quite a bit, actually. “Well… enough about me. You know I don’t like talking about myself… What about you? What have you been up to all this time? My mom told me a bit, and I’ve seen you a few times, but…”
More than not knowing what to say, you sensed he didn’t want to intrude too much into your life.
You swallowed, trying not to get more nervous than you already were, because now, you supposed, was the moment to tell him about Emily.
“Well, not much has changed, really,” you started, unsure of what to say. “I’ve been in Heppenheim the whole time, except for a couple of trips to Berlin, but nothing unusual,” you tried to smile, but your mind kept circling around the fact that you had to tell him you had a daughter. “I’ve been working at the bar and writing music. To be honest, since we broke up I’ve had a lot more inspiration.”
And since I gave birth to Emily, you thought.
Seb didn’t say anything. You figured he understood. After all, he had thrown himself into his career to cope, while you had poured your emotions into writing songs about the story you shared to cope with grief.
“Now things have changed a bit,” you continued, trying to sound more upbeat to push away the painful memories. “Ever since Red went viral… I swear, I uploaded it without expecting anything, but the reaction…”
“The song is amazing, Y/N. Of course it went viral.”
“I’ve been offered a record deal,” you blurted out. “A few years ago, I met Niall Horan at the bar. You know, the guy who was on that band, One Direction…” Seb nodded, his eyes wide, encouraging you to continue. “He told me he was traveling to find some inspiration for his solo career, and I guess Heppenheim seemed like a good place for him to visit.”
“Wait, wait… a record deal?”
“Apparently, Niall told his label that I was the voice behind Red, and, well… Capital Records offered me a contract,” you explained. “They called me to have a meeting in London, which is why we couldn’t meet up last time…”
His face was calm, unreadable, though his mouth had curved into a big smile. He didn’t seem surprised, and you knew there was a strong chance Hanna had told him everything.
If that was true…
“I hope you accepted, Y/N.”
“Well… actually, I didn’t. I turned it down.”
His smile faded for a moment, and his expression became completely serious.
“You turned it down? Why? Sunshine, this is an opportunity…”
“Yes, I know it’s an amazing opportunity, but I can’t accept it. Not right now.”
You figured this was the moment you should tell him the real reason behind rejecting such a big deal, which included a tour if you sold a certain amount of CDs.
Sebastian kept staring at you, which only made you more nervous. You tried to gather your thoughts, searching for the right way to tell him you had a four-year-old daughter, but you couldn’t find the moment.
You couldn’t just drop it on him now, after all, this was your first real conversation in almost five years.
“Y/N, darling…”
“I can’t take the risk when the only thing I’ve managed is to get one song out of all the ones I sent to the label to go viral,” you half-lied. It was true that you didn’t want to talk about it yet, but you were also insecure about your music. “As much as I’d love to have an album, to fill stadiums and have people singing along to my songs, I can’t take that risk.”
“But, Y/N…”
“I’m not sure all the songs on the album would be successful, Seb.”
“Y/N, you have no idea what you’re going to regret if you let this go....”
“No, Seb, I know exactly what I’m doing, really,” you shook your head, firm in your decision. “This is the best thing for me.” 
And for Emily too, though you didn’t say that out loud.
Seb remained silent for longer than you would have liked, as if trying to process what you’d just told him. Then, he stood up, crouching down to your level, and taking your hands in his, he said:
“Alright. If you think your songs aren’t good enough, sing one of them to me.”
“What?” you asked, confused.
“If you turned down the record deal because you think your songs aren’t good enough for the world to hear, sing one of them to me.”
His tone, though calm, was direct and insistent.
“Seb… I can’t. I’m too embarrassed,” you laughed nervously.
“Come on, Y/N,” he said, gently rubbing your hands with his thumbs, just like he always did when your anxiety was at its worst. “It’s just me. I’m still the same after all these years.”
You sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to let it go until you gave in. It was Seb, and he always got what he wanted from you, even when you didn’t want to. In the end, you gave in, carefully standing up from the couch and heading towards the piano at the back of the room, gesturing for him to follow you.
You carefully slided the bench back, lifting the lid as you sat down. You positioned your hands, starting to play the first few chords to warm up, ensuring your memory flawlessly recalled the piece.
“This is song number 5, like your driver number... It's called loml.”
You continued playing, finally giving way to the song.
Who's gonna stop us from waltzing   Back into rekindled flames?   If we know the steps anyway   We embroidered the memories   Of the time I was away   Stitching, ‘We were just kids, babe.’   I said, ‘I don't mind, it takes time.’   I thought I was better safe than starry-eyed   I felt aglow like this   Never before and never since.
Your voice shook as you began to sing, but you kept going, holding on to what your ex-boyfriend had told you about how he knew it was about him. As you settled into the song, you started feeling more comfortable, just like you did when you used to sing for Seb. Though you couldn’t look at him because you were absorbed in the key, your fingers delicately moving over it, you could feel his eyes on you.
You shit-talked me under the table   Talking rings and talking cradles   I wish I could un-recall   How we almost had it all   Dancing phantoms on the terrace   Are they second-hand embarrassed   That I can't get out of bed?   Cause something counterfeit's dead.
Tears started falling from your eyes as you approached the final part of the song. Memories of your shared history flashed through your mind like a movie. Your vision was completely blurred, and you felt a tightness in your chest that was overwhelming, making it hard to breathe, almost impossible to keep singing. Somehow, though, you fought to hold it together, just as you did the day you said goodbye to the man now sitting beside you.
Oh, what a valiant roar   What a bland goodbye   The coward claimed he was a lion   I'm combing through the braids of lies   ‘I’ll never leave’... ‘Never mind.’   Our field of dreams, engulfed in fire   Your arson matches your somber eyes   And I'll still see it until I die   You're the loss of my life.
Silence filled the room as you played the final notes. With your hands still resting on the keyboard, you looked at Seb. Once again, you didn’t know what to say to him, and you knew he didn't either. He was motionless, running a hand through his hair, probably trying to process what he just heard.
Y/Ni, this song... it’s about us, isn’t it?”
“It might be,” you admited, unable to lie to him, at least not about this.
He sighed. You could tell he was affected; you knew it the moment his tears began to form, just as yours continued to flow.
“You should rethink the contract,” he said firmly. “This song deserves to be heard by more than just me, your parents, and Hanna.”
“I can’t, Seb. I just can’t…”
“Can I sit next to you?”
You looked up and saw him gesturing to the bench. Confused, not sure what to do or say, you shifted a little, making space, and he sat beside you. Seb didn’t hesitate to wrap an arm around you, offering a comfort that felt wonderful but also caused you to crumble a bit more inside. 
You surprised yourself by resting your head on his shoulder.
“Why are you so determined to convince yourself you don’t deserve this opportunity?” His tone was soft, just like the way he stroked your hair. “Do you really think you're not good enough to be a successful singer?”
“It’s not about being good enough, it’s that I’m not,” you whisper,ed your throat tightening. “I’m not a good person, Seb, and it’s only a matter of time before I screw up again and hurt someone, just like I hurt you.”
“Does this… have something to do with the second date in your YouTube channel username?”
You stood your head up, staring at him in confusion while trying not to panic.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your username,” he repeated, moving closer. “I figured out that the numbers represent two dates. I know for sure that one of them is June 15, 2006, the day we started dating, but the other one… I don’t know what January 12, 2014 means for you because we weren’t talking by then, but it must be important. And based on what you just said…”
Your eyes widened in shock. You were paralyzed, not knowing how to react. 
How could he have noticed something so… insignificant? How had he connected the dots and figured out the dates you had in mind when you created that account?
You thought this would be the perfect moment to tell him that the second date marks the birth of your daughter, the daughter you had together; that on that day, while you were in labor, he was at the hospital waiting for some exams results and he was talking to your dad, who couldn’t contain his excitement about his granddaughter’s arrival and had to keep it a secret from him.
But you couldn’t. Not yet. You need to regain his trust first. You and Seb needed to rebuild the kind of relationship you had before you became the love of each other’s lives.
“Seb…” you trailed off, unable to continue. “I swear, on everything that matters to you, I’ll tell you, but right now… I just can’t.”
He looked at you for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. You knew him better than you knew yourself, and you knew he was persistent, that he needed an answer, but you also knew he was respectful and wouldn't push you.
“That’s okay,” he said finally, a bit resigned. “I understand, it’s fine. I’m not asking you to tell me now if you’re not ready, but I want you to know that when you are, I’ll be here to listen.”
You looked at him, grateful, and nodded without saying anything else. 
You both sat at the piano bench for a while, in silence, listening only to the sound of your breathing and the melody of the song replaying in your mind, as intrusive thoughts overwhelmed you.
“If I waited almost 19 years of my life to be your boyfriend, I can wait a little longer, it doesn’t matter the time you need, for you to tell me,” Seb finally spoke, and his words broke you a little more than you already were. “Let’s be friends again, what do you think?” he offered, giving you a small smile. “Let’s take things slowly, like maybe we should have done when we first started dating. You know…”
“Slowly, no problem,” you repeated, smiling back at him.
You felt a weight lift from your shoulders at his words. Maybe you were not at the peak of your relationship, and maybe you’d never got back there, but at least you were working together to turn your story into something new.
“You know what, Y/N? I’ve always felt like our story wasn’t over. I don’t just mean that romantically, but in a broader sense,” he said quickly. “We have a whole lot of history, and now is when we’re going to start writing our second book.”
“I know, Seb. I’ve been thinking the same thing ever since I said goodbye to you,” you confess. “That day, goodbyes were bittersweet, but I knew it wasn’t the end and that I’d see you again.”
Before the year ends. I’m telling Seb Emily is her daughter before December 31st.
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forsoobado137 · 5 months ago
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I really like that the nations are young and not over 30 because I feel like it shows how new civilization is in the grand scheme of things. Like humans have only been around for around 200,000 years, and civilization is even younger. For me, it represents how humans have achieved so much in the short amount of time we've existed.
I feel like it's probably humbling and empowering to see someone like China, who is over 4000 years old, to not even look a day over 30. How has he accomplished so much? How have we accomplished so much?
Also, I think it's funny how nations see age a bit differently. Like America and Germany are babies in comparison to other countries. They're big and strong at a few centuries old, but yet they're still inexperienced in the eyes of the others. It's really interesting that 400 is old to humans, but that pales in comparison to the thousands of years we've been around.
To me, it just makes more sense that they're young.
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