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arthropodboy · 1 month ago

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Joe Molloy Runs for Seattle Mayor From Tent City 3

Tumblr, I think you'll be all over this.

Today I found out about Joe Molloy (age 36)

They are running for Seattle Mayor with their main goal being to end homelessness in Seattle. They're running their campaign from a tent.

Here is an article from The Guardian written about Molloy:

"Joe Molloy says he never planned to enter politics. But after moving to Seattle and losing his job during the pandemic, a year ago he found himself evicted and living in a tent encampment.

After losing his home, he learned the hard-scrabble skills of what was required to live on the streets from other homeless people, the location of free food banks, and which organisations offered showers and toilets. At the encampment, he’d speak to other residents and hear stories very similar to his.

He became convinced there had to be a better, long-term solution than the dozens of tents pitched alongside his own. It was from this tent that Molloy launched his unlikely bid for Seattle’s highest office, seeking to unseat the incumbent mayor by tackling the crisis “head-on” and pushing a progressive agenda including everything from a living wage and access to healthcare.

Working out of a shared office space in the city-sanctioned encampment, known at Tent City 3, Molloy is running his campaign via social media and “word of mouth”. He still sleeps in a cot, braving the elements in the famously rainy city where temperatures often fell below 20F this winter.

“People just toughed it out,” he says of life on the street. “It’s hard. It’s not an easy experience.” Despite never having held public office, Molloy says these struggles make him the best qualified candidate to lead in a city where some 16,000 people are unhoused and the housing crisis is arguably the largest issue.

Molloy, 36, does not think much of current mayor, Bruce Harrell, 66, who took office in January 2022, and especially the way he has approached things. According to a recent survey known as a point-in-time count, Seattle has America’s fourth largest homeless population after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, with the number of unhoused people up 23% from 2022.

And so Molloy decided to challenge Harrell and place his first-hand experiences front and center. “Sweeps [of homeless people] have been increasing since he’s been in office. Deaths of unsheltered people have increased,” Molloy tells the Guardian in a bookstore located in the university district.

Molloy, who speaks with both precision and passion, is dressed for the weather, with a beanie, a thick sweater and a Parka jacket.

“It’s a humanitarian crisis at this point. The situation is heartbreaking, but it’s also embarrassing.” Tackling misconceptions Malloy’s path to politics was unconventional: he was born in Dearborn and studied in Michigan, where he received a bachelor’s degree in public administration, and then worked in real estate in Wisconsin.

He moved to Seattle five years ago and admits he has no experience of running large organisations. Is it right to force someone into rehab? The man whose life inspired a landmark law Read more What makes him unique, he believes, is the ability to make himself a public face of homelessness, something that for many still carries a stigma.

“There are many misconceptions about homelessness,” explains Molloy. “A friend told me [homelessness] is a cardinal fear of so many people, but ‘You’re willing to talk about this openly and not be ashamed and instead use it as a reason to drive change.’”

Molloy says his campaign supports the Seattle Solidarity Budget, a set of progressive policies backed by various grassroots organisations and based on seven main topics, including access to healthcare, affordable housing and a living wage.

Its mission statement says: “We demand the City of Seattle provide the residents of our city with basic guarantees that provide a base standard of living and quality of life for all people in Seattle. The city has prioritised punishment as a means to attempt to mitigate social issues.”

In terms of addressing homelessness, he says a number of things already in place are doing useful work, but there is often a breakdown in communication both between different agencies, and the people they’re intended to help. He says studies show the most effective way to truly reduce homelessness is a process that helps a person not only find a place to live, but continues to support them after that initial step has been taken.

He says there is also an inherent flaw with the current system. A housing provider, which receives funding from local state and federal sources, for instance, constantly needs a flow of low-income people or those who have been evicted. “There is a perpetuation of the problem. So we need to focus on transitioning and diverting,” he says.

In terms of his lack of experience, he says he is not so arrogant to think he knows everything that is required to run a city of 750,000 people. But he believes there is already a lot of expertise to tap into. “There’s a very capable central staff in our city, a very capable network of representatives, of experts to our boards and commissions,” he says.

“The most valuable quality anyone representing our city needs is open-mindedness and a willingness to work together.” He adds: “It also requires a deep understanding of our most critical issues. That’s what I bring that nobody else does.” Harrell’s office rejected Molloy’s assertions, claiming the mayor had worked with “urgency and compassion to help address immediate needs and root causes”.

It said he had swiftly formed a dedicated unit that pulled together the work of a dozen departments. Over the past three years the city had created 5,161 units of affordable housing and provided thousands of offers for shelter and supportive services, his office said. The mayor had also taken on the challenge of drug deaths with new investments in detox beds, an overdose response team, and emergency responders with buprenorphine to treat both opioid overdoses and withdrawal symptoms.

Seattle was the first city in the country with emergency responders to provide the overdose services, the mayor’s office said. While overdose deaths in Kings county have spiked in recent years, fueled by the fentanyl crisis, hitting a high of 1,339 fatalities in 2023, the mayor’s office points out that overdoses in Seattle fell by 25% in 2024. “While much work is still needed to address this ongoing crisis, these data points help illustrate tangible progress,” his office said in a statement.

‘Homelessness is a policy choice’ Dr Sara Rankin, of Seattle University and a national expert on legal and policy issues about homelessness, says there was no genuine doubt about the primary driver of homelessness. “It is the housing market – rising housing costs and the lack of affordable housing,” she says, adding that while the city has made some investments in permanent supportive housing, it could do more and still places too much focus on “temporary responses such as emergency shelters”.

“Ultimately, homelessness is a policy choice. We already know many of the evidence-based choices that reduce it and many of the counterproductive choices that fuel it,” she says.

Figures obtained by the alternative news organisation Real Change suggest sweeps of unhoused people and encampments tripled in 2023. Meanwhile, in 2022 – the year Harrell took office – 309 unhoused people died in King county, according to the county medical examiner’s office, a record number that represented a 65% increase from the year before.

More than half were the result of fentanyl-related overdoses. The mayoral election is due to take place in November, with a primary in August. Among those also running are transport activist Katie Wilson, business owner Rachael Savage, military veteran Thaddeus Whelan and artist Ry Armstrong.

In a crowded field, Molloy hopes his unique backstory will help him break through. “I need to talk about this stuff,” he says. “I need to fight to bring these issues front and center.”

[source]

Here is their website

Here is their tiktok

Here is their Instagram

Here is their Ballotpedia

If you live in Seattle, consider voting for Joe Molloy come this August, then November.

#Seattle #Politics #Activism #Pnw #queer #lgbtq #homelessness #trans #poverty #support #Gay #Lesbian #socialism #Social justice

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aroaceloverofgarlicbread · 5 months ago

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Can we get at least 50% on just one option? Don’t say the scores in reblogs and stuff, I want to see if people can predict what other tumblr users have picked.

#polls #random polls #poll game #poll

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thegazettejournalmirror · 1 year ago

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GREENDALE'S 1st TUMBLR ISSUE OF THE GAZETTE JOURNAL MIRROR!!

March 11 . 24. - a Quality publication of Greendale Community College

This issue's hot topics:

GLOW Party: Raging success, or total Dean-saster?

Elixirs, Potions and Me - Leonard Rodriguez rumoured to be in a cult for immortality.

An all-new update on the Winger-Perry wedding!

INCLUDES an exclusive interview of @prayingshirleybennett on getting the star couple engaged!

GLOW Party: Raging success, or total Dean-saster?

This past week saw the biggest, showiest party this year has seen so far - one anonymous attendee even suggested it was ‘reminiscent of those ragers people go to in the movies, you know, where they all get drunk and play beer pong.’ The party was nicknamed ‘GLOW Party’ in honour of the glowing cat owned by Troy Barnes and who is suggested to have been at the centre of the party’s inception. While it’s undeniable that this party was no disappointment in the wow factor, many will agree that the night became sour only a few drinks in.

The party invites were reported to have been sent out via a Tumblr post of student ‘Rayla Leone’ and by widespread messaging, word of mouth and Greendale’s official announcement Tumblr page, run by the Dean.

By the time day school was out only a few short hours later, the entire body was buzzing with the news, with the exception of the majority of the staff who remained uninvited and are still said to be ‘pretty darn pissed’ about the affair.

A member of staff who asked to remain anonymous commented; ‘It’s just rude. That study group and all their little friends just pick and choose who they like. Always running the school! Even the pets were invited. Huh. And what if I wanted to see a glowing cat?”

When asked to elaborate on the grievance with said study group, the member of staff refused to comment further and terminated the interview.

According to varied sources, there were few discrepancies when the evening’s ‘rager’ began in the apartment of student ‘Rayla Leone’. In fact, our sources went as far as commenting how seriously fun’ it turned out to be and how they had ‘needed the night off from mid-terms.’

The sources claimed there were drinking games, uno, spin the bottle, snooker, foosball and even a heated game of twister before the event turned bleak.

We know that there was originally a small amount of cheap alcohol on scene, but some basic information such as the strengths and quantities remain unknown. However, Tumblr posts claim that student ‘Britta Perry’, belonging to the aforementioned study group, was known to have brought in a good amount of ‘blue raspberry svedka’ which has been blamed for the extreme hangovers and blackouts party-goers experienced the next day.

There is also a strong likelihood that the party was mass-roofied, not unlike Greendale’s own Halloween party late last year, the events of which are still unknown despite intensive investigation and the shared experience of bite mark scars.

Many rumours are known to have arisen of a personal nature to many students and staff and yet the largest event of the night in question is a recent development in the ‘Evil Timeline Debacle.’ Troy Barnes’ glowing cat, named ‘Lightbulb’, the centre of the party, was reported missing the following morning. Not many had yet shaken off their hangovers and as such no action was taken until the later hours of the day.

The evil timeline members are said to have infiltrated the party and stolen Barnes’ ‘alien’ cat in exchange for a ransom of $1,000 and invitations to the upcoming Barnes-Nadir wedding. This wedding is allegedly platonic though evidence of this is still unclear.

The evil members were also suggested to have roofied the party in order to get away with their act.

Jeff Winger, student of law and close friend of Troy Barnes, was called upon to pay the ransom. Following his agreement the cat was returned safely to Barnes that afternoon.

In respect to the likely trauma induced by the sudden event, the Gazette Journal Mirror did not question Barnes on his experience.

Images were posted of the event but other than mere speculation no further rumour or scandal can be confirmed or denied at this current time.

Elixirs, Potions and Me - Leonard Rodriguez rumored to be in a cult for immortality.

Leonard Rodriguez (né Briggs, he changed his last name to garner the Hispanic vote during his campaign for Student Body President) has reportedly been endeavouring to attain immortality.

The evidence is finite, and his methods are unclear, yet it nevertheless remains apparent that there is certainly something occurring behind the scenes.

On his ask-blog, @leonardlikesthissite, Rodriguez often posts his Saturday events under the tag ‘Saturdays with Leonard.’

On a typical weekend, this includes activities such as swimming, clubbing, or jigsaws, (we particularly enjoyed this pizza review.) Once, he even posted about the political debate with his opponent and fellow student, ‘Magnitude.’

On this particular weekend however, Rodriguez alarmed many of his fellows and friends by posting ‘This Saturday Leonard is doing a ritual that may or may not lead to immortality!’ under his usual tag. When asked by another student ‘how’, Rodriguez denied details.

He did however hint that Greendale’s AC repair school had something to do with the ‘ritual.’

Here at the Gazette Journal Mirror, we cordially wish Leonard the best of luck with his ambitions. May our school's longest-attending student, in his own words, ‘Live, laugh love,’ for his new eternity.

An all-new update on the Winger-Perry wedding!

According to the official Greendale announcements page, run by Dean Pelton, the Winger-Perry wedding will take place in Greendale itself. This has been a source of great excitement for many of their friends and indeed those at the school, too.

Dean Pelton instructed that a repost of this statement would secure an invitation to the wedding.

There have been a few comments here and there about the current attendees and who is in the wedding party. This remains limited so we must stress that no invitations can be guaranteed in the reposting of the wedding announcement.

Further conversation about the upcoming nuptial of Winger-Perry has been unreported.

Exclusive interview with Shirley Bennett!

Interviewer: Hello there!

Bennett: Helloooo! So nice to be doing this todayy! And so exciting that the paper is making it to the interweb blogs, hehe!

Interviewer: Nice to have you. I agree, it is exciting. We’re all buzzing to go for the first release! Now, let’s talk weddings. Can you confirm that it was indeed you who incited the engagement in the first place?

Bennett: Oh yes! Of course I can, it was simply my duty to my Lord above and my friends, too. I didn’t want them to get sent to the burning place way down below all because they didn’t say a few little vows! Vows before God that is.

Interviewer: I see. And what does this union mean to you in terms of friendship?

Bennett: Well, from the start of being at Greendale I always used to say to Jeffery that two white people as cute and single as them should be together. I’m not saying I…stirrredd the pot…but I’ll say that maybe if I hadn’t said some things to Jeffery about Britta they might not even be together!

Interviewer: Would you share those details with us?

Bennett: OOooooh noooo! Heehe! It’s too personal, I can’t do that, it would be unholy. And unfriendly!

Interview: Well then, that wraps things up. Thanks for coming to our interview, Shirley!

Bennett: Thank you, and thank you, Lord and savior above!

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nesiacha · 18 days ago

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Links to Documents on the Le Bon vs. Guffroy Conflict

Joseph Le Bon ( 1765-1795)

The clash between Robespierre and certain Thermidorians—especially figures like Fouché and Tallien—and the subsequent creation of a "black legend" around Robespierre after his execution, casting him as a scapegoat, is well known among those who have taken even a slight interest in the French Revolution. Many attempt to distinguish myth from historical reality in this context.

And yet, the confrontation between Joseph Le Bon and Guffroy, along with the similar black legend that developed around Le Bon after his execution, remains relatively unknown, despite being just as fascinating. As proof of this neglect, I must admit that although I had watched many documentaries on the French Revolution since I was 16, I only came to understand the historical importance of both Le Bon and Guffroy at the age of 23. (Perhaps this merely reflects my own lack of knowledge, especially since some younger and less specialized people were already aware of them.) In fact, I only learned about Le Bon thanks to his brother-in-law, Darthé, a well-known Babouvist who followed Babeuf to the scaffold. Even now my knowledge of Le Bon ( and Guffroy) remains fragile.

Guffroy was initially close to Jean-Paul Marat, and between January and March 1794, he denounced Le Bon for being too moderate. Later, after Thermidor, Guffroy became one of the key figures in the reactionary movement, accusing Le Bon of excessive violence. According to Jean-Marc Schiappa, Guffroy portrayed Le Bon as a "violent reactionary"—suggesting a reversal of his previous stance. This raises the question: was Le Bon the victim of a black legend orchestrated by people like Guffroy, just as Robespierre was targeted by figures like Tallien? Perhaps Guffroy also sought to obscure his own past behavior. Furthermore, the chronology of the accusations against Le Bon reveals a striking inconsistency, which only adds to the suspicion.

That said, Guffroy does deserve credit for one thing: despite the Committee of Public Safety repeatedly renewing its public support for Le Bon, Guffroy never stopped denouncing him. To me, that displays a certain boldness and courage—even if I doubt that his motivations were rooted in humanitarian concern for the people of Arras. After all, during Thermidor, he would go on to associate with individuals arguably worse than Le Bon, such as Fréron.

It is worth noting that when Babeuf sought to rehabilitate Robespierre’s legacy, he also did so for Joseph Le Bon—a fact often overlooked. And while many historians rightly criticize the brutal behavior and opportunism of men like Fouché, Barras, Fréron, Tallien, and Carrier (even if, to my knowledge, Carrier did not personally enrich himself), they typically refrain from placing Le Bon in the same category. There are numerous biographies written to combat the slander surrounding Robespierre—it’s about time Joseph Le Bon received the same treatment.

However, being the target of a black legend does not automatically make one innocent or morally spotless. The same applies to Robespierre, Ronsin, Fouquier Tinville and many others. Some of the accusations against Le Bon are likely exaggerated or false, but others—particularly certain acts that remain unacceptable even in times of war—should not be dismissed (especially what happened in Arras without wanting to fall into caricature).

I originally hesitated to directly copy and translate the articles but even while crediting the authors by telling the truth that they write these texts and including proper citations, due to concerns over copyright, especially since the pieces are fairly recent. So I won't do it to avoid problems because even if I credit them by explaining that they are the authors of the articles, they could be rightly annoyed that I did not even ask permission to publish their articles on Tumblr (and since I have no way of contacting them, I would not do it) .

Nevertheless, I’m disappointed that the two articles by “Les Amis de Robespierre” focus primarily on Le Bon’s romantic relationship with his wife when she is is mentioned , rather than her political life. Even after her husband’s death, Elisabeth Le Bon continued to discuss political matters in Arras prison with future Babouvists like Charles Germain. In one letter, she writes: “Here, all the friends are in continuous meeting with Babeuf.” Her determination to keep her family name and remain politically engaged, even in prison, shows real strength of character—especially considering that other revolutionary women, even some known for their resilience, were forced to retreat from the public eye. I can’t help but wonder if she played a role in Babeuf’s reevaluation of both Robespierre and Le Bon ( even it is clearly that she wasn't the only reason, there were many reasons why Babeuf decided to become a Robespierrist and admirer of Le Bon again) .

Here are the two articles from the "Amis de Robespierre" website. Although they are in French, it’s still worth trying to translate them:

A more comprehensive, balanced, and annotated article by Bruno Decriem (June 2017): https://www.amis-robespierre.org/?Les-missions-revolutionnaires-de-Joseph-Lebon-dans-le-Pas-de-Calais-en-1793-94

A somewhat more partisan piece in favor of Le Bon by Catherine Dhérent, but still interesting. It includes excerpts of letters, a physical description of Le Bon, and information about his youth. However, some claims (like Guffroy allegedly denouncing a debtor) are not properly sourced: https://www.amis-robespierre.org/?Catherine-Dherent-en-conference-Guislain-Francois-Joseph-Le-Bon

There is also a third article by Lenôtre about Elisabeth Le Bon. It's quite debatable (to put it mildly), since it sometimes falls into the realm of myth-making (plus in the absence of certain evidence, one should not automatically believe everything this article says). Still, it’s an intriguing read—particularly the claim that the Le Bon couple temporarily stayed at Guffroy’s house on June 29, 1793: https://rodama1789.blogspot.com/2017/11/mimie-wife-of-joseph-le-bon.html

P.S. I’ve always wondered whether the reason why the political conflict between Guffroy and Le Bon isn’t as well known as the Robespierre vs. Tallien/Fouché clash is simply because Le Bon, while prominent, never sat on the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre’s position gave him far more visibility. Similarly, despite Guffroy’s political skills, he never achieved the high profile that Tallien did on 9 Thermidor (even if Tallien’s fall from grace was quick and widely mocked), and Fouché later became Minister of Police. Guffroy, by contrast, remained a member of the Committee of General Security even if he will be dismissed later, though some sources suggest he later worked under the Ministry of Justice during the Consulate.

That’s unfortunate, because the more I learn about Le Bon and Guffroy, the more I find them just as compelling as the other major figures of the Revolution.

One final point: while much attention has been given to the political role of the Le Bon couple, I would also be very curious to learn more about Guffroy’s own wife . He held progressive views on women’s rights (though this didn’t stop him from slandering Elisabeth Le Bas, writing disturbing things about Lucile Desmoulins and Marie-Françoise Hébert, or violently dismissing his collaborator Marie-Anne Babeuf—threatening to denounce her husband, according to Gracchus Babeuf).

This letter from Guffroy, written as a member of the Committee of General Security and addressed to his colleagues about Charlotte Robespierre (who had good political relations with Guffroy and was against Le Bon), caught my attention. It suggests his wife may have also been politically active:

“They [Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre] drove her [Charlotte] from their home because she didn’t share their views, because she visited my wife and spoke with citizens who were true friends of justice and truth. She even risked prosecution when Le Bon took her to Arras, and if not for Florent Guyot, who brought her back to Paris, she would have been imprisoned—because Le Bon’s associates had denounced her in their infernal club, which they called the Popular Society.”

This is a rich and unexplored avenue for further study into the Guffroy couple.

#frev #french revolution #history #france #1790s #le bon #elisabeth le bon #guffroy #gracchus babeuf #maximilien robespierre #charlotte robespierre #freron

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cliperry · 1 month ago

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: ONE DIRECTION – THEY CALL IT PUPPY LOVE As millions of teenager girls prepare themselves for tonight’s US and world premiere of One Direction: This Is Us, we investigate the fear and the fandom of the world’s most devoted Directioners in this cover story from the archives.

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Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne, together known as One Direction, are currently among the most adored individuals on the planet. Despite their astonishing global success (and many millions in the bank), they’re keen to hold on to their own normality. But the same can’t be said for their wildly imaginative, obsessive and transgressive fanbase. Or can it? Wonderland investigates…

“Zayn tastes like beer and chips and Liam drops the bag, effectively spilling the garbage he’d thrown in earlier, to cup Zayn’s jaw. He doesn’t know if it’s because he needs Zayn to be closer, or if he just needs something to hold onto. From the way Liam’s body is reacting, he thinks it might be both. For two blissful heartbeats, they kiss, and nothing – nothing – Liam has ever experienced can compare to this.”

Girls, boys, tabloid journalists, don’t get too excited. The above is not what happened when Wonderland met One Direction – you know, the biggest boy band on the planet right now. It’s the work of a 17-year-old American girl who goes under the handle of “Mindless Dreamer” on Onedirectionfanfiction.com. At the time of writing, this site hosts around 30,000 stories (over 200,000,000 words in total) featuring Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne, the ex-X Factor pop idols who have become the show’s most astonishing success story. Mindless Dreamer is a finalist in four out of fifteen categories in the site’s inaugural best-of awards (best Louis, best Liam, best slash, best alternate universe), the winners of which should have been announced by the time you read this. She has about four long fanfics on the go, one of which, Drunk Texting (a story about Tomlinson accidentally texting a stranger’s phone whose number is similar to Styles’), is over 50,000 words long – and counting. Another, set in a different reality from our own, is about what happens when Malik, working with Tomlinson as an assistant to – wait for it – the grim reaper, is asked to collect the soul of Liam Payne on Earth. Seriously. In her bio she says: “I used to be a normal person. Then I started liking One Direction.”

A lot of “normal” people like One Direction. Yet, they do an awful lot of abnormal things. Recent press coverage of the boys, who according to a biography of Simon Cowell released this year, are now worth more than £100 million collectively, has been peppered with tales of how the band’s fans take to Twitter to issue death threats to their girlfriends, how they make up scurrilous rumours and rail bitterly at fans of other acts, viciously hounding any that would detract from their idols. As the boys’ fame continues to skyrocket (largely because, this February, they did the impossible and broke America, becoming the first UK act ever to debut at no. 1 in the Billboard album charts) the niche activities of their fans are making news of their own. At the beginning of October, the world was turned on to the burgeoning One Direction fan fiction community when 16-year- old Emily Baker had bagged herself a book deal by posting One Direction fanfic Loving the Band on web-publishing site movellas.com. But even this story only really scratched the surface of a fascinating, international online community that has its own laws, its own logic. Of course, illogical, mass-obsession about a bunch of cute guys who sing romantic songs is hardly new. But the buzz around One Direction marks something of a turning point in the history of pop culture. Suddenly, thanks to Twitter, Tumblr and all the internet’s other self-aggrandising personal broadcasting platforms, the obsessive imaginings of millions of lustful teenagers are being played out in a very public forum. Anyone is welcome to stare into the eyes of the madness.

harry1d

Given that they are surrounded by such a level of hysteria, it’s a little surprising that, in person, the members of One Direction are so very normal. It’s actually quite disarming – each is so much like any regular teenage boy that our interview feels a little bit like hanging out in a sixth form common room. Malik and Horan flick through a copy of Teen Now, sniggering at a cheesy poster of rival boy band The Wanted. “I like to kiss this sort of thing,” says Tomlinson, sarcastically, “I think they look sick in it, don’t you?” Malik joins in, pointing: “Yeah he looks proper good there.” In-jokes fly around the room, causing Payne to chuckle between sentences as he answers questions. Horan fiddles with his phone a lot, and sings little snatches of Chris Brown songs. Styles is attentive but seems a little bit tired.

Actually, they all seem exhausted, like puppies post-kibble. “They’ve been long days these past three weeks,” says Payne, adding that they rarely finish doing interviews, photoshoots or recording sessions before 9pm. Of course, they try to actually live their lives too: “If you finish late, by the time you go home you can’t fall asleep, not ‘til one or two in the morning,” says Horan. (His nocturnal routine became apparent this September when he and Justin Bieber had a late night noodle sesh after the VMAs). Payne, who shortly after our interview, was reported to be going on dates with Leona Lewis, reckons he gets about five hours shut-eye a night. So does Styles, the ladies’ man of the group (but you can’t help suspecting that it’s rather less than that). Asked what they would do if they had any time off right now, they all reply, “sleep”.

Clearly a little weary of doing interviews, One Direction often get distracted and veer off-topic – one quasi-fruitful digression reveals their favourite club move is “the cardigan dance” – best executed, when “hammered,” by grabbing the lapels of your cardigan and pulling them about in time to the music. Sometimes it takes them a while to get to the point because they’re busy ribbing each other. Tomlinson farts about halfway through the session – all laugh.

niall1d

This is not the kind of behaviour that’s particularly conducive to a good interview. But then again, it’s all part of the unashamed, run-of- the-mill adolescent schtick that has made them great. It’s got a market value – and the boys know it. When asked to what they attribute their massive success, Payne hits the nail on the head: “I think for us, the main thing is that we’ve just kind of been ourselves, that’s what people like. I think a lot of people get into [our] situation and you hear they’ve changed, but we‘ve just stayed ourselves.” Tomlinson agrees – he stresses that it’s important to them that they don’t dance, or all dress in matching outfits. “In the past, with previous boy bands, I think they felt like they had to meet a stereotype,” he says. “We’re just ourselves: stupid, immature and quirky.” (Meanwhile, as if to prove his point, Malik and Horan playfight on the other side of the room).

One Direction’s untrammelled boy-next- door-ish-ness is obviously one reason they’ve got so massive, why the obsessive fans find it so easy to identify with and fantasise about them. But another force in their favour has been Twitter. “I think [it’s] definitely helped us in terms of getting abroad – spread the word between people and their friends in foreign countries,” says Styles. Of course, it’s also changed the game for One Direction in another way, allowing the band’s followers (between six and seven million each) to have – or rather, perceive themselves as having – exclusive, instant and personal access to the boys. “Back when we were lads there were certain celebrities that we’d wanna get in touch with,” says Payne, reasonably. (True to public perception, he’s the most mature and Dad-like of the group.) “That’s why Twitter’s so useful,” he continues. “It’s nice that fans can get 135 close to us and ask us questions and stuff.” As a reward for the attention and loyalty, the boys often tweet back at their followers. How, when there are so many? “I just do it really randomly,” says Payne. “I dip my finger in and just kind of pick one.”

Unfortunately, One Direction’s Twitter following has not always been as “nice” as they might like: this summer, it began to seem like the fruits of the global obsession with the band were finally beginning to get to them. In August, Malik temporarily deleted his Twitter account, so enraged was he at comments (concerning his relationship with girlfriend, Perrie Edwards) posted by trolls on the social networking site. A month later, Louis Tomlinson lost his cool when his mother was abused by out-of-control fans on Twitter. “Can I ask why this is ok?” he tweeted, “To think someone would speak to my Mum like that sickens me. Grow the fuck up!” Shortly afterwards, Payne split up with his girlfriend, who, apparently, had been troubled by the negative comments she was receiving on social media as a result of being in the relationship.

Does it bother them – the fact that what seemed like the perfect marketing tool for One Direction has actually backfired a little bit? Surprisingly, only a little. “Twitter sometimes becomes a place for people to give opinions on stuff which, sometimes, you don’t really need,” says Payne. Tomlinson chips in: “Sometimes you want to say ‘Have you quite finished?’” At the same time, he maintains, no amount of backchat will make him be too self-conscious about what he puts out there via social media. “You have to be completely yourself,” he says, reinforcing the band’s WYSIWYG stance. “If the papers are going to write something about it, at least you’re being who you are,” he says. The boys show a similar stubbornness when I suggest, perhaps, if they were a little less public about their girlfriends (boybands like Take That, for example, were always encouraged by management to be perennially single in public), then maybe their partners would not have to endure so much attention. “That’s shit,” says Louis. “That means you don’t lead a life that’s real. You wouldn’t be able to go out anywhere publicly with your girlfriend.”

louis1d

When One Direction do go out in public, they, naturally, get mobbed. They’re obviously very bored of talking about crazy things their fans have done (a couple of days after our interview, theyinfactgetinabitofbotheronaNew Zealand radio show by including this in a list of 12 topics they would rather not be asked about), but they feed me a couple of good stories. There’s the legion of bare breasts that assailed their car on a recent trip Sweden. There’s fans who took Tomlinson’s hat, others who nearly pulled Payne’s hands off, another lot who, when he lost a shoe, bought it back off the tramp who picked it up, and gave it back to him. Alongside the fans, there’s the paparazzi, but they don’t seem to mind that. “We kind of get on with them,” says Styles. “If you just be nice to them, they’re really nice to you,” says Horan.

I ask them if they read the mind-boggling stuff written about them online. Malik says he tries not to. Tomlinson gets a bit agitated again: “Some people just literally make up stuff that’s not true. When do you just sit there and think ‘You know what, I’m going to make up a really horrible rumour.’” Payne is drily understated about the fan fiction and the blogs: “Some of those are quite naughty. Quite graphic.” He’s not lying. Among the innumerable One Direction blogs out there, most of which are hosted on accessible microblogging site Tumblr, many simply collect animated GIFs of the boys looking especially cute, but a sizeable amount are also about catching them out in what looks like rampant homoerotic flirting.

The idea of them all getting it on with each other has almost universal traction among fans, with a slew of blogs devoted exclusively to coverage of hypothetical One Direction pairings (not to mention many, many “slash” or boy-on-boy erotic stories). “Larry Stylinson”, the descriptor for the imaginary relationship between Tomlinson and Styles (which Tomlinson has vigorously denied in the press, claiming that such talk has damaged his relationship both with his girlfriend, Eleanor Calder and Styles himself) is the most popular topic. However, every permutation – whether it’s Lilo, Zarry, Larry, Niam, Ziall, Nouis, Narry, Zouis or Ziam – has its own niche following.

A lot of the blogs are aggressively sexy: the description on DedicatedToZiam.tumblr. com reads “Basically just two teenage girls releasing their One Direction sexual frustration and impatiently waiting for the Ziam sex tape.” Another Tumblr, Shower of Cunts (a reference to a derogatory remark Horan made to some fans in July at Dublin Airport), opens with: “I just want to fuck the shit out of Harry Styles and Niall Horan… :)) That’s pretty much what this blog is about.” On the same site, a section collects images of the band that have been overlaid with animated images of stick figures performing sex acts on the boys (each one is labelled with an arrow and the caption “ME”).

liam1d

Other blogs can just seem plain odd to outsiders, in particular, those that focus on romantic, literary creations. On these, bloggers write short “ships” (in which they pair a fan with a member of the band, detailing why they get on and what their favourite song is), or “imagines” (more extended colour pieces envisaging fantasy situations), and their readers send in requests to be featured in specific scenarios. Some requests are straightforward, such as “my first date with Niall”. Others are bizarre – on theWonderfulWorldofUs.tumblr. com there’s a short story about Horan helping his (imaginary) wife through a traumatic miscarriage.

What motivates this strange behaviour? I manage to get in touch with a couple of the girls who run these sites, and of course, like the boys, they seem pretty normal too. Harsharan Malinao, the Virginia- based 18-year-old who operates “Shower of Cunts” is blasé about her purple prose. I ask her what she’d think if One Direction actually had a look at her blog. “Oh man, haha, I’d be a bit embarrassed,” she writes. “I try not to put anything too weird on there. It doesn’t really matter though because it’s all just for fun haha.” Does she think it’s OK to objectify these boys? “I don’t try to objectify them,” she replies. “And if someone ever did accuse me of aggressively objectifying them I wouldn’t really know what to say besides ‘I’m Sorry.’”

Seventeen-year-old Canadian Blogging duo KandM, who take requests for ships and imagines on “The Wonderful World of Us”, are more philosophical. Why do they think people ask them to write these stories? “Because they want to feel included in the boys’ lives in some way. Through requesting things like ships and imagines, it brings you a little closer to the boys because you are a character in the same story as them.” I have to bring up the story about the miscarriage – it’s pretty gruesome. Isn’t this supposed to be about wish fulfilment? “I guess the whole reason why we chose to write that one was because people need to know that life is not all perfect and it doesn’t always go the way we want it to go,” they say, speaking as one via email.

Every fan I write to is united on one front, that One Direction’s unique appeal is their approachability. “There’s a feeling when you watch the boys that makes them feel like your friends,” says Alice Crosbie, an Australian fan. “They’re relatable and they don’t act like they’re untouchable.” Malinao agrees: “I really like how they seem so genuine and they’re just weird and funny.” I ask the boys if they, in turn, feel close to their fans. “Definitely, yeah,” says Styles. “There’s fans that have been coming to see us since the first week on X Factor that we still know now. It’s nice seeing them on a first-name basis and having a chat with them.” In their experience, what do the fans want from them? “A [Twitter] follow,” says Styles. “I think they just want to be noticed,” adds Tomlinson. Payne remarks “I think there’s a bit of competition between all the fans as well…”

It’s easy to get absorbed in the weird and wonderful world of One Direction’s obsessive fanbase and forget that what they’re famous for, ostensibly, is music. Their new album, Take Me Home, is out early November, and, judging from the success of lead single “Live While We’re Young,” is going to be huge. They recorded the record in “three weeks” (according to Styles, “a month” according to Payne), and say the intense experience made sure the album is all killer, no filler. “There were tracks that we thought ‘oh it might be ok, it might be really bad,’” says Styles. “But because we didn’t have time we could just focus on the songs that worked. Now, looking at the album as a line-up, we’re really happy with every song.”

After the album is released they’re going on tour for most of 2013. This pretty much derails the question “Where do you want to be in a year’s time,” so I try for 10. “I don’t know,” says Styles. “If someone had asked us two years ago, I don’t think we’d have imagined we’d be doing this now.” Does the adulation vary from country to country? “To be honest it’s surprising how similar the fans are in different places,” says Styles. “You’d expect there to be a bit more of a change. [They’re] really supportive, everywhere and they’ve been amazing everywhere we’ve been.”

zayn1d

Having sifted through the blogs, the fiction, the “bullshit” trolling, the counter-bullshit (there’s a Tumblr group called “Directioners Against Bullshit,” which Malinao is a member of), it’s not exactly clear how much the fans care about the reality of the boys, what they’re actually like. Instead, images of these gleeful, shiny-eyed individuals have become a platform for a global, unadulterated fantasy that, as it gets more and more extreme, gets more and more fascinating. Given that the boys swear all they want to do is present themselves as honestly as possible, is there a sense that some fans have missed the point? “I think there’s a lot of things that the fans don’t know about us,” says Payne. “I think our relationship doesn’t really play out as much as people think. People still ask whether we really get on or not, and we genuinely do. A lot of people don’t believe that, they think it’s some fake thing where we have to get on because of the position we’re in.”

Overall, the most surprising thing is how little One Direction are bothered by the extent to which their images and personalities have been manipulated, reappropriated and dissected by their fanbase. But then again, they’re part of a generation for which all this kind of life- as-brand activity is thoroughly normal. In fact, let’s be honest, it wasn’t so long ago that they were X Factor-watching superfans themselves. “If I was a fan and found out that I’d been lied to the whole time… it would be like, ‘how do you believe anything they say?’,” says Payne, justifying the carefree way in which the group live very public private lives. “We’ve always, from the start, wanted to show the fans us, as people,” says Styles. Presumably, there will come a point where they’ll have to be a bit more careful, a bit more afraid. But, then again, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon.

One Direction: This Is Us premieres worldwide Friday, 30 August.

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crownedpatriot11 · 7 months ago

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Hello, I'm a Catholic who recently signed up for Tumblr and I unfortunately feel like I really did not understand what I was getting into with this website. For the last several weeks, I've been subjected to a campaign of internet stalking by a large gang of insidious thugs on this site. And I would brush it off as normal internet trolling, except that they seem to really know a lot about our faith!

The problem started a few weeks ago, when a "Tumblr famous" user known as "r4cs0" messaged me. He claims to be the closest living relative of Pope John Paul I, who died after only 33 days on the throne. When a Pope dies, the death must be verified by striking him three times in the head with a silver hammer. According to r4cs0, a church historian has recently examined the hammer used on John Paul I and learned it was only 87% silver. Per the canon laws of 1919, the hammer must be at least 90% silver to be considered true silver. Because of this and other "irregularities" regarding the death, r4cs0 insists that Pope John Paul I is still LEGALLY alive and still the Pope! And as his closest living heir, this makes r4cs0 the highest living authority in the Catholic Church until the corpse is exhumed and struck with the correct hammer!

Now if this isn't crazy enough, it gets worse. r4cs0 has written a Papal bull called In Tergo Intrantes. Of course it's in Latin so I can't read it, but r4cs0 says that it authorized certain Vatican authorities located in the Tower of Nicholas V to grant special dispensations to bi-sexual women who are seeking to enter into plural marriages, but only if they submit DNA samples to the Vatican Bank which prove they are free of any Asian heritage (this part has something to do with the Vatican agreement with the CCP). And I'm not even going to try to explain it, but after he told me this part of the story he suddenly went off on a tangent about how the Missing 411 series can be explained by extra-dimensional abductors hunting German people. I still can't figure out the connection, but it may have something to do with the Synod on Synodality.

But the point of all this is that "r4cs0," his allegedly bi-sexual girlfriend "tooiconic," and a large host of their followers have been tormenting me non-stop for the last several weeks. They say that when In Tergo Intrantes and Fiducia Supplicans are considered together, it obligates me to officiate a plural marriage they are planning to enter into with another Tumblr user named "takashi0" (who is a BRONY, just to make this whole thing even creepier). If I refuse, they claim they will call my bishop and have my actual marriage annulled by the church! I don't believe they can really do it, but they can certainly keep sending their followers to harass me! One of them called my boss at work today and started asking a bunch of questions about where he was when Catherine Cesnik was killed.

What do I do???

I’m going to kill you dude

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proclaimtheword · 7 months ago

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(Photo credit from another site. I redacted a name often accused against the pope because I don’t like throwing that word around and I don’t believe in using it against other people, no matter how much I disagree with them.)

It has been more than a week since this happened and the pope said this before a congregation on an official trip to Singapore. I’m appalled that catholic tumblr is utterly silent on this, but not surprised. They really only get up to defend their church against protestants, and then even happily side with unbelievers. I hate fighting with other Christians, of all people, and many times avoid it and just move on. But THIS. Come on. COME ON. I thought we at least agreed Jesus is the only way to salvation! How could you not say something? At least don’t be blind to false teaching!

A catholic, of course, tried to defend it, who actually said the pope is not infallible—but I corrected him on that one (I grew up catholic you’re not fooling me, and yes I have been catechized enough)—then came back to say it only applies ex cathedra: meaning, only when he is ‘in office’ with “full authority.”

I said my pastor then has more integrity. He’s not perfect, but at least he says the same thing whether he is on the pulpit or not. He preaches the same gospel whether at church or in a grocery store. And I never have to make up new doctrine to make him or his job infallible, or exalt him more than necessary to a level higher than a church leader or teacher (I am looking at the saint and blessed pope).

Jesus says, I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life. No comes to the Father except through Me.

How clear can that be? I’ve said this before, No wonder Muslims love Catholics (I constantly refer to Islam on this blog because I live in Middle East; this is also where I converted, and I had never known what it was actually like to be Christian until I lived here). If the world had a favorite type of Christian, it might be the Catholics. And if the world had a least favorite type of Christian, I am sure it’s evangelicals. I mean, even other Christians hate us.

Today I went to church. Have I mentioned we don’t actually have a proper church building? We rent a small villa in a far-side residential area with over 50 people at a service (Praise the Lord! Even in a cramped area and with a tight budget, God still fills our house). We don’t have a name or sign plastered outside identifying as a church. We’re scared because it’s not actually legal to run an evangelical church in this country. But there are Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox churches at least one of each in my city. As I’ve said before, evangelism is illegal, but they will openly convert you to Islam. (I don’t blame them, it’s their country, we’re just here as immigrants and treated accordingly. We don’t try to change laws or culture, and we try our best to live according to the rules. As long as we keep to ourselves and treat it nothing more than a closed gathering, we’ll be fine).

Trust me, I missed being Catholic - because I was just happy and carefree. I didn’t know much of the world or the Word. Ignorance is bliss. But my life changed as soon as I became Christian - when I professed that faith, took it seriously, and preached the gospel boldly. Now I understand the Bible even more intimately - anytime it speaks of persecution, insult, and suffering, I can relate to it. When Jesus says ‘love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you,’ it has more weight.

I don’t know where I am going with this post other than it’s a rant and a writing of personal experience. My journey as a Christian is both a blessing and a curse - in the same way the apostles have written about it. But narrow is the way that leads to life. I know persecution is part of Christian life, and I shall rejoice in it.

Repent! I say this to myself more times in a day than I address it to others. I am a sinner. Always will be. But by the grace of God and blood of Jesus on the cross I shall be justified.

Jesus is the Way. There is no other way.

#christian #catholic #evangelical #christianity

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