#alive in america

[guerrilla-operator]

Steely Dan // Reelin' in the Years (live)

Are you reelin' in the years? Stowin' away the time? Are you gatherin' up the tears? Have you had enough of mine?

[wearenotjustnumbers2]

These two kids are Hamza (the oldest) and Qusai (the youngest).

Their mother shares this video and bids them goodbye. They were both killed by Israeli bombardment 5 days ago. She says:

[Two days before Hamza and Qusai were killed, hamza asked me: "mom, when we die, where will I go?" And I told him: "you will be a bird in heaven, my love." He said: "and Qusai?" "Just like you inshallah."

And indeed, two days later, he left and took his brother with him. It's like he was preparing me for saying goodbye to both of them. Heaven is more beautiful than any place on this Earth, habibi. We will meet and be reunited one day, me, your dad and you two].

Our kids don't deserve to die already thinking about what will happen to them, they don't deserve to die already terrified, anticipating their death because the world failed them and decided their lives mean nothing. We are not numbers. Remember their names and their stories.

[yellowocaballero]

There's a genre of post that I see pretty frequently, which can overall be summed up as, "Modern fandom has a culture problem where fanfic authors are treated as content producers instead of community members and their fanfic is treated as a commodity to be consumed instead of a high-effort labor of love that deserves attention and compliments given directly to the author". I agree with 3/4ths of that. I find the part I disagree with very interesting, the same way I find a lot of writeblr interesting, because it's a perspective that I had to work very hard to actually understand.

Because the posts have such a warped view of what writing is and why we post our writing! They say that fanfic fights against the commodified internet we live in, but all they're doing is changing the currency of payment in this attention economy. Another way you can summarize about 70% of these posts is, "My payment for writing and posting my fanfiction is compliments, and if you do not give me those compliments you are not paying. If you give those compliments behind my back, or talk about them privately without giving them to me as well, then you are stealing from me." I don't want to put it like that, but a lot of these posts use words like 'deprive', as if the reader who enjoys the fic without commenting is withholding something from them that they deserve. They use the word engagement, and they do talk about how part of that engagement is just the joy of talking about AUs and ships with other people, but when people say that comments are their motivation to keep writing, what they mean is that validation is their motivation to keep writing. Which is compliments.

I understand that, because I understand that fanfic writers are not immune to the attention economy. But I don't understand how almost every one of these posts talk about how this lack of attention makes them stop writing - that this act of theft is killing their desire to write. I could understand this if they meant 'desire to POST fic' (I don't post fic I think zero people would read.), but they talk about how lack of payment stops them from writing at all.

IMHO, that is what creates a commodity from fic. People want to treat fic as art, but an artist makes art for themself. Art is made because we want to hold parts of skills and ourselves in our hands. If you won't make art if you get no payment, then you have devalued the art completely.

We think of AO3 as this unique site that's born entirely from passion and is filled with fics written for love of the game. But guilt-tripping posts that shame people for not commenting on a fic they enjoy, and that describe how there's no point in writing fic if it's not getting attention, are directly contributing towards the culture of treating fic like a commodity.

I also really want a fandom culture where the relationship between artist and reader is reciprocal, where it feels like a community, and where I get to talk about my fanfic with people. My favorite part of posting fanfic is rambling about it on my blog, because I can talk about my art all day and I love it when people stop and listen. But I love that because I love my own art. If you love your own art, then it'll always have value.

Also Google your username, just trust me, that's how you find The Secret Discussions. Someone made a TikTok fansong of me once. WHAT?

[lostwhump]

@whumptober | Day #31: "I'm alive, I'm just not well" Captain America: Civil War (2016)

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Bob Iger saying all this while also being on basically billionaires vacation really should say something, holy shit.

[bamsara]

hot take but i think if someone's parent(s) have died the government should support the remaining child/adult children with financial stuff to the age 26 (the age it is for other adult children to remain on their parent's healthcare plans, car insurance, ect) because I should not have been paying bills or losing healthcare at 17

[solarwreathe]

christmas with no limits

really, this art was all an excuse to show you this image. i miss when old movie promo photos were awkward as shit.

[tabrisangel]

hey guys… oh.. heh.. where did I go..? Well.. heh.. heh … hehtalia…

[nando161mando]

White House geopolitics advisor calls for burning UN peacekeepers alive.

[imaginal-ai]

"Star-Spangled" (0002)

(More of The Superhero Style Series)

0001

[aestariiwilderness]

But yes – sure, “Free Palestine!” supporters are worried for the Palestinian children. This man was so concerned “for the children”, in fact, that he directly copied Hamas’ efforts and…shot children to demonstrate his concern for children. Likewise – again imitating Hamas and so many other so-called Pro-Palestinians – he held individual children responsible for the imaginary crimes of a Christian elementary school/imaginary crimes of a nation, and attempted to kill them for it. And planned to do so again. Oh, and it’s not even done! To cap it all off, he planned to use his own "child" as a weapon to kill more children, in his concern “for the children”. Just like Hamas and the Palestinians themselves, who regularly send their own children as suicide bombers to Israel to kill Jews; who systematically brainwash their children into thinking their lives are only worth however many Jews they can kill. 

There is no sense here; there is no moral high ground, there is no freedom or justice or actual concern for anyone. There is only unreasoning, bigoted hate and a manic love of death. 

The children he shot -- 5 and 6 years old, respectively -- are alive, thank God.

[batfambrainrotbeloved]

hi hope you're not dead <3

Im alive just activley dying <33 (im sick as fuck rn- and not in a compliment way in a "im stryggling to write cohesive sentences way)

[moonyardz]

with chris evans coming back for doomsday, that means that in the great big year of 2026 there will be someone who looks like steve rogers on the same screen as bucky barnes. as a stucky stan (derogatory) i think it's time to accept we will never know peace.

(also god the possibilities bc he'll likely be evil/ at least not an ally which means that all bucky's recent progress of dealing with steve's leaving is gonna be in shambles. i will also be in shambles.)

[purplemoth]

And yet, there is still hope.

[curlytemple]

patty wearing simon’s jacket after he goes to prison 🫱🏼‍🫲🏻 randy wearing benson’s jacket after he [redacted]

[stucky-headcanon-bot]

💔