#also maybe...read up on what apartheid is

[dayisfading]

proof for the asshole in my ask who is either hatefollowing me or trawling this post for people to call slurs:

russia (under the roc) was banned from the 2024 olympics for their actions toward ukraine

The thing is, I’m from South Africa, and as anyone born here after 1994 will tell you, the history of apartheid is drilled into us every year in school. No matter what other history we do, we always get back to apartheid.

One of the things we study is how and why apartheid came to an end; among the biggest reasons was international pressure. A point we usually touch on is how apartheid-era South African athletes could not compete in international sporting events like the Olympics. I once met a woman who was a world class athlete during the latter years of apartheid. She could not compete in the Olympics as a South African, and had to leave the country and join up with another country to take part.

And that is why I couldn’t understand, watching the Olympics opening ceremony last night, that Israel was allowed to be there.

If the world was better at dealing with apartheid states thirty years ago than it is now, I think we have a problem.

[urmomsstuntdouble]

not to be political but I've seen a lot of people saying that those who call Israel an apartheid don't know what they're talking about and um. As someone who has studied South African apartheid as well as grown up in a Jewish community. This claim has more merit than you think

[wilwheaton]

Hey man, I could use a few talking points to help convince a friend that Musk is horrible. I'm reading 'Think Again' by Adam Grant (good read btws) and he says to help convince people to come to your viewpoint that it can be good to have 2 or 3 strong points instead of 10 mixed points. The counter argument I get from people about Musk being good is that he did spacex and tesla, and without him we'd be decades behind. Maybe, but I don't have good ammo. Please help as I get too angry tobe critical

Well, listen, the fascism, the transphobia, the chaos, and the unwavering support for autocrats all over the planet really ought to be enough to outweigh anything else, if you ask me. It sounds like you know some people who got excited about the companies he threw money at, and they are having a tough time updating their feelings due to current events. Or maybe they share his values and don't want to admit that.

But I'll try to offer some simple facts.

He did not do engineering with Tesla or SpaceX or even PayPal. He is a fraud. He walked into these existing businesses, where people had done actual work and engineering, threw some of his Apartheid money at them, and took credit for their work. He claims, over and over again, to be a founder of these companies, and that's just straight up a lie that is easily disproved.

He literally did nothing except throw money at people and take credit for their work. Look at every Tesla up to the (chokes back laughter) Cybertruck. Those Teslas look like cars, because they were designed by engineers. Look at the Cybertruck. When you stop laughing at what a joke it is, know this: that's what happens when Elon Musk is in charge. It's like a ten year-old with some crayons drew it on a menu at Denny's.

All of the things his weird fans claim he made possible, are things that would have happened, and were in the process of happening, without him. He literally did nothing to advance the technologies or engineering. In fact, SpaceX whistleblowers have told reporters how they had to keep Musk occupied with bullshit, so they could do the real work without him fucking it up all the time with his incompetence.

But even if he were telling the truth, even if the myth were fact, it would not outweigh the damage, the pain, the chaos, and the suffering he has inflicted on millions and millions of people, all over the world with his lies, his spread of misinformation, and his incitement of angry incels.

Also, don't forget, when Ukraine was trying to defend itself, he turned off Starlink access when they could have decisively ended Russia's aggression. A lot of people have suffered and died as a direct consequence of that action, which he took to support his buddy and fellow autocrat, Vladimir Putin.

That's more information than I think your friends will be willing to hear. Studies indicate that people who are heavily invested in the myth of a person will fight hard to hold onto the myth, and reject truth and facts, because it's so jarring to them. Musk has built a cult of personality, and maybe your friends are stuck to it.

I'd gently encourage your friends to consider one key fact: he has lied about his entire origin story, he has lied about his contributions to Tesla and SpaceX. He lies about everything, except when he posts on Twitter like a 12 year-old edgelord, because that's who he is, emotionally.

Finally, and this is for you, specifically: if your friends insist on supporting a fascist, a racist, a misogynist, or a bigot, because they think rockets are cool, maybe it's time to look for new friends.

I hope this helps.

And fuck Elon Musk.

[reblogandlikes]

Self insert Fandom

I've come to realise that most of the toxicity within the acotar fandom is often rooted in a ridiculous amount of self insert. They see a character as them, therefore their actions are absolved. They see another character in their abuser, or worse, 'as' their abusers and so they can never be impartial towards them, thinking the worst because in real life they've dealt with a lot.

I get it. Art can sometimes mimic reality, but they are indeed forgetting that this is a whole fantasy fiction book about human women turned fae getting dicked down with a hint of war and political intrigue. These characters are not, in fact, you or your abusers. Making the series so personal to themselves can then lead to a lack of introspection of the work as a whole made to be enjoyed and critiqued to the readers' preference, whether shallow or in depth.

But because this fandom in particular seem to make these books so personal than reading it as a piece of fiction, they're inflicting real world scenarios onto fictional characters and if their characters face any backlash or reasonable questioning, they take it as a personal attack which for some reason leads to insults and wild assumptions of very REAL people.

"No, no one is saying you should forgive your abuser mum, boyfriend, sister, because this literally isn't about you. I dont know you or your situation. Im talking about *insert character*."

"No, I don't think reactive abuse is OK, though I also don't believe lying about SA is OK either, let alone condoning SA."

"What do you mean it's abusive to lock someone up and then make an excuse to say it's not abuse to lock someone else up?"

The mental gymnastics is truly outstanding. If they're so called morally grey, let them be just that.

Speaking for myself, it's easy to find some commonality in a characters personality. It's written by a whole human who has a personality too, after all. But I do not attach myself to these characters as if they are my family members or those dear to me. They are, in fact, not real, and I will talk about them in the context of a fantasy text, generally.

Now the moment you take their actions out of a fantasy text, every character, and I mean, every character, needs to be dealt with the same scrutiny. Your faves will be called out and dragged. You cannot call real people names, but then think highly of yourself when your faves have done worse. What does that then make you? A racist? A misogynist? An AS denier? An abuse apologist? Someone who endorses apartheid? Someone who's OK with controlling the female body? A war criminal?

You see how absurd that all is?

Honestly, it's not that deep. But again, it's not bad to see yourself in character. Just realise that when people have some reservations about them, they are not calling YOU out. They are strictly talking about that character and that character alone. But maybe if you find so much offence, perhaps you should think about why that is. Look deep and figure out why it troubles you so much. Perhaps they're holding up a mirror, and you simply can not bear to look into it, seeming that that character represents you so much.

I think this is the only fandom I've been involved in where simply daring to disagree with the main MC and side characters can lead to online prosecution and just so much hostility. I've seen some truly nasty comments, and it's boggling. I can imagine how off-putting it may seem to newer readers.

I long for the days when people can talk about the characters and narrative alone without feeling the need to make disclosures about what they support in real life because it's truly unnecessary. I thought reading fiction was meant to be a form of escapism, not defending my moral standpoint.

If I said I enjoyed Katherine Pierce, Klaus Mikaelson and Kai Parker from TVD, what then? They're despicable, but fucking enjoyable. Don't get me started on Game of Thrones characters.

Alright, I'm done now 😅

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Hello! Hoping you're an appropriate person to ask, this seems similar enough to asks that you've answered that I don't feel completely off-mark in sending it.

I've been trying to figure out exactly who gets what rights in Israel (specifically re: potential apartheid, nationality as separate from citizenship, and how non-Jewish Israelis are treated in general) and I'm really struggling to find articles that actually reference primary sources. Everything I read tends to end up sounding like either "Israel has no problems whatsoever and everyone is equal in every way" or "Israel is evil and non-Jews have no rights whatsoever". And it feels safe to say that neither of those are true.

Do you have any suggestion for places to start in trying to understand this? I'm happy to dig through dense text, I just really want something that references specific laws/studies rather than making assertions that I can't verify.

This is 100% a completely appropriate question to ask here. I'm going to advise that you start with the more modern portions of my I/P Reading list.

It's more than ten years old now, and at some point I want to do some updating and maybe ~re-assess the taxonomic assumptions~ but yeah I think it'll help you grasp the lay of the land and the realities on the ground fairly well. And yes, peanut gallery, some of the scholars on the list are problematic. It comes with the territory.

But also:

"Everything I read tends to end up sounding like either 'Israel has no problems whatsoever and everyone is equal in every way' or 'Israel is evil and non-Jews have no rights whatsoever.' And it feels safe to say that neither of those are true."

This is 100% accurate.

I/P is a post-colonial, post-modern conflict, and it is younger than many humans still alive on this earth. Speaking from a historical standpoint, it is still a newborn baby; its immense complexity, its internally and externally contradictory truths--these are all inherently tied up in the very nature of the situation. Or in other words: it's a difficult topic which makes intense demands on even the most educated, and the most critical of thinkers.

Some of my followers will respond with additional readings and suggestions. While I have a lot of Very Smart Amazing Humans here, I can't vouch for or verify the quality of these sources.

[gothhabiba]

Hi Miss Najia! You're quite knowledgeable about Palestine and about workers as a class and solidarity so I'm hoping you can help me here. I work in a floral wholesale warehouse that imports a lot of their product, and we used to get a shipment from Israel but it's been stopped since October. I was hoping we wouldn't buy from an Israeli grower ever again, but I just found out it's starting again this week. I don't know what to do that would be effective getting the company to stop buying from this grower, do you have advice? (we aren't unionized obviously 🙃)

I'm really not an expert on labor actions, I'm disabled and don't per se have a "job."

As a start, I would suggest reading up on other situations where workers have refused to handle goods because they came from apartheid states (e.g. the Dunnes Store strikes). You'll need to think about what's similar and what's different about your situation and apply some creativity. Talk to the people you work with and sound out their willingness to A. form a union (check relevant legal protections in your country or state) and B. refuse to handle Israeli goods. Also look into legal defense for unions and for pro-Palestine protestors in your area--these are good numbers to have in your back pocket.

You might also be able to do something from outside the workplace. If you have a local pro-Palestine organisation or BDS branch, they may be able to provide strategy or support. Same with branches of Marxist &c. organisations that have pro-Palestine stances. Getting people to put up flyers, stickers &c. advising customers that the store sells Israeli goods, perhaps alongside other grocery stores and the like in the area, is something you could do without your boss necessarily knowing it was you / you and your coworkers.

Maybe some of my followers will have other tips or leads.

[johannestevans]

That native news post saying all jews are white and are siding with our opressors is Antisemitic and as a Jewish fan of your work I'm heartbroken that you would blindly attack Jews in what you acknowledge to be a time of rising antisemitism. I'm begging you to do research into what Antisemitism is and look for perspectives from actual jews of color who get to be both thrown under the bus by gentiles of color for being jewish and thrown under the bus by white Jews who suffer the most when you reblog and condone shit lile that. I want to believe you're capable of being a better person who isn't Antisemitic and hateful.

That post doesn't say all Jews are white, in fact, and I would advise you read it again.

"The rise in antisemitism isn't rising alone, it rises with hate for Queer, Muslims, Arabs, indigenous and Black people, immigrants, leftists, the disabled, and women."

Antisemitism is inherently linked to all other forms of bigotry under imperial white supremacist movements, because the goal is to flatten outside forms of culture underneath that yoke, and engage others to copy and further that violence. Rafael is saying that these forms of bigotry are linked in themselves to and are fed by antisemitism - all forms of bigotry like this feed into one another.

"Yet it's my fellow Jews and women using it to say we should leave our allies to join oppressors.

Why? White supremacy."

Rafael Shimunov is also Jewish - and? Same?

The movement of white Jews to join in apartheid and colonial projects, such as in the violent creation of the state of Israel in Palestine and also in other acts of white supremacy throughout the world, such as in the US or the UK - specifically in taking part in aspects of white imperial society that allow us greater acceptability or whatever is like. Evil.

Israel has long engaged in a very careful and stringent selection of which Jewish people to permit under the Law of Return. Reform Jews, patrilineal Jews, Jews of the wrong colour or culture, etc. One could note particularly that Palestinians are denied a passport as a matter of course, that once they leave the confines of the occupied borders, they cannot return. Is this right? Even were we to accept this cruelty and ugliness of apartheid - what of Palestinian Jews? Is their Jewishness meaningless, because they are also Palestinian?

If your desire is to be an oppressor, to cling onto whiteness more than other precepts of your belief (such as in justice and equality) then, yes. It would appear so.

The movements of oppressed peoples to attempt assimilating into those colonial powers out of trauma and fear, out of a desire to be safe, is an understandable instinct - and an instinct that is misplaced.

It is not just not antisemitic to criticise these acts of evil and dismantle the systems that allow for them, to stand up for those who are most violently hurt and oppressed by them - it is our duty.

You have misread the post - perhaps you did so unintentionally and struggle with your reading comprehension, in which case I'd advise you to read through the post and mine a few more times, slowly. It can be frightening to be challenged on things we have previously considered to be true and ideologies that ultimately do not serve us, and I appreciate that. Give yourself time to digest and consider, and remember that you can always change and dismantle beliefs of yours that do not line up as they should with your moral and ethical standpoints.

Listen to this song, maybe, and consider the final verses.

I think it's potentially likely you thought that this message would somehow make me panic at potential criticism and back down from my long-standing moral views on the evils of our unjust society, regardless of who enforces them, as if I'm some sort of coward. You can see why I'm obviously more likely to believe the former.

[heich0e]

hewwo liv i think you mentioned you read nonfiction so i was wondering if you had any recs? i'm trying to widen my repertoire a bit more and start reading more nonfiction (as much as i love fiction i think my brain has started regressing a little), but the only nonfic ive ever dipped into are my econ textbooks haha

also i hope you're having a good day !!!!!

HI GUY!! i think one of the best parts abt non-fiction is how nondescript that classification is, and consequently how enormous and diverse your options are within it. i think it's easy for people to generalize non-fiction as being boring retellings of fact or history, because most people's first introductions to non-fiction reading are academic. but in reality there are so many different types of nonfiction, and so many different styles of presenting it in writing. (for the sake of simplicity i'm gonna just limit this convo to narrative nonfiction, but if u wanna read something expository like a text book or instruction manual power to ya.)

my recommendation would be to start with something like a biography or memoir. to me, reading a really good biography doesn't feel very different from reading a novel. you're still following someone's story, they're just a real person and not a character. from where i'm sitting right now i can see trevor noah's biography 'born a crime' on my bookshelf, and i remember really loving that one the first time i read it. having been a fan of his comedy, his narrative voice felt authentic and familiar throughout the book. setting aside his demonstrated talent for storytelling, it's also just a very interesting look into life in south africa under apartheid, along with its lasting impact, and as a mixed race child, noah's personal perspective is extremely compelling.

(keep in mind, i read that book as someone who was already a fan of trevor noah's so i immediately had a personal connection/interest to the story. if you have any comedians/musicians/actors/artists you really enjoy, maybe see if they've done any writing—that could help find something you connect with! i also recently read david mitchell's 'unruly' and i really enjoyed that one too—but i find him funny, and like learning about the history of monarchies. 'crying in h mart' by michelle zauner is also great.)

true crime is another popular non-fiction genre that i find people have an easier time getting into. i'm not a huge true-crime reader myself, but i've read a few interesting ones! i tend to go for ones that are more local to me, so i won't necessarily give any recs for this one.

i also had a weird phase where i was reading a lot of books about boats and shipwrecks. not sure what that was about. i read walter lord's 'a night to remember' when i was like 10 and i think that really is what it can all be traced back to. 'the wager' by david grann was fantastic (he also wrote killers of the flower moon which was very good, and not about a boat) but i recognize this is a very niche area of interest that u probably do not care about.

i also really like essay collections!! they tend to sort of cross or blur a lot of lines when it comes to genres, because while some would consider 'essay collection' a genre in and of itself, the essays themselves usually as collected around a particular topic or theme. another added benefit of essay collections are u can kind of leisurely pick away at them, or jump around in the book, since you usually aren't beholden to reading them cover to cover and following a single narrative thread. less pressure!!

a couple other recommendations, though at this point i'm sure you've given up on me (fair):

'the patriarchs' by angela saini

'i want to die but i want to eat tteokbokki' baek sahee

'persepolis' by marjane satrapi

ok i'll shut up now!! i don't even think this was helpful!! my advice to you would be to think about something you're already passionate about/interested in, and find a book about it!! or think about something you'd like to know more about or be better educated/informed on. it's out there i promise <3

[kendrixtermina]

Zionists SHUT THE FUCK UP

I'm not gonna be coddling Zionists no more because regardless of whatever was 100 years ago, right now theyre a privileged upper class better off than most americans.

The problem is that you still think the reason Palestinians are angry is because they somehow got some irrational hatred against you, not because of the brutalizing of their families & their homes.

You're not so special that everyone has it fucking out for you, you're not that special, you're not the fucking center of the world

Your stupid silly religion may tell you that you're oh so special, but you're not. Not any more than the Christians & Hindus & Conquistadores who did atrocities in the name of their oh so special religion.

My ancestors in europe had to learn the hard way that they're not the navel of the earth; You will learn it too with the crumbling of your backward evil state that's the last filthy bastion of apartheid & segregation enshrined in law.

I've HAD it with ppl whining about what happened to their grandma. There was hardly anyone in europe who wasn't oprphaned after WWII. My czech great-grandfather survived only by jumping out of a Nazi death train.

If you are still so fucked up because of your grandma, imagine how the Palestinians are suffering when for them, the terror NEVER ONCE STOPPED since their grandma's generation. They're still in it,

I've spent the last few weeks reading & watching documentaries and i can say confidently that the zionist apartheid state and zionist army are the most evil, most filthy thing on this world right now except for maybe north korea (which terrorizes its citizens far worse, but also doesn't affect much outside its borders) and unquestioningly a force for evil. It's making everything worse.

The rest of the western block is super rotten too, but Israel is making IT worse with its influence.

Don't get me wrong: This is not the fault of all its people, especially those who never voted for the current government.

But that's precisely the thing: There's no country that never did atrocities; It's when you pretend that it's perfect that you get a problem. It's when you make your country your whole identity to the point that you can't hear its leadership & institutions criticized that we get a problem.

[therealvinelle]

What's your opinion on the fandom's obsession with Smeyers mormonism? I'd just recently discovered your metas(and they're so interesting btw they brilliantly expand upon the almost kinda psychological horror esque feel of the characters and story). But then I go into your replies and tags expecting everyone to marvel at your genius exploration of what's eluded to in the canon text or just the likelihood or natural outcomes of certain scenarios and decisions that have/may have not happened in the context of the overall story. Instead it's most of the time just a bunch of people going, "Aha. Confirmed it! That's so because Meyers a Mormon" or "See, that insert literally anything happened because of the Mormom themes, characterizations and ...idolization??? of insert literally any character/aspect of the lore. "

It would be a lie to say it isn't irritating even speaking as an atheist because it literally stifles any actual exploration of nuance within the books. Any theory, character analysis, or legitimate in/out of universe explanation in regard to canon can be boiled down to such an archaic supposition. And it's not just your blog. I see it everywhere here on tumblr when discussing anything twilight. Even people indifferent to twilight and twilight antis alike are of such strong conviction that they erase any character's belief or motivation or really anything Meyer has said in regards to that matter

Seeing as I'm running a doylism purist blog I obviously agree with you. The author's religious belief are a non-issue to me when I read Meyer's works, or anyone else's for that matter.

I say that, but there are exceptions - there's something strikingly Calvinist permeating the world of Harry Potter in that people are born good or bad and the juxtaposition between Tom Riddle and Harry Potter seems to boil down to Tom being a bad person who will make bad choices while Harry is a good person who will make good choices, and this extends to the rest of the cast and the Hogwarts houses as well. However, these are children's books with Good Guys and Bad Guys and I won't pretend to understand what's happening in JKR's brain, and so you won't see me saying that Harry Potter is Calvinist: merely that there are parallels that can be drawn.

Similarly, taking a step outside the YA genre I find that Victor Hugo's own political and religious personal journeys are reflected in Jean Valjean and Marius Pontmercy, but while it adds to the reading experience it doesn't make me see the characters any differently. They stand on their own.

I bring up these examples for a reason - sometimes, no matter how Doylist you want to be, you read a book and you can tell that, "oh this is an allegory for apartheid", or "I can tell the author is writing about personal experiences with trauma" or the plain old "you know, this feels like the author was projecting a lot" (frequently found on Ao3).

Twilight, for me, is not one such work. My thoughts on Mormonism and Twilight are summed up here, but one point I feel I should make is that although Twilight never read as Mormon to me, I also straight up know very little about Mormonism, so who knows, maybe I would be picking things up if I was more into it. As it is, however, the analyses of Mormonism in Meyer I've seen have been consistently reductive and superficial, where things like "Carlisle is a young blond leader -> Joseph Smith, the Cullens are a perfect family -> they're mormons, nobody in this YA series drinks alcohol -> they're mormons" are presented as compelling evidence, so I've yet to be convinced of it.

To actually answer your question though, I would just block "Mormonism", "LDS", and "Joseph Smith" on tumblr saviour and smile blissfully at my Mormon free dash. In fact I would do that anyway, regardless of what the Twilight fandom is posting.

[bowiesnippleantennae]

A couple years ago, maybe 3, I don’t remember the exact year, when Israel attacked Gaza and it made national news, that specifically lead up to Oct 7, it was Memorial Day and I was visiting my mom with my sister and my BIL who is Muslim.

My mom’s fiance brought it up and a huge fight erupted. My sister had been learning about the conflict and was very much on the side of Israel is a western imperialistic entity that needs to be stopped. I didn’t know anything about it because my whole life I was told “it was complicated” and I had no reason to look into it more. I just knew a government shouldn’t be killing civilians en masse.

The fight turned into my mom’s fiance standing over my sister and screaming in her face, making her cry. My mom hardly did anything besides some yelling, none of which was anything near “don’t speak to my children like that.” She would just sometimes say he needed to calm down, which he ignored, and then complained about how Fox News was always on and “look what I have to live with, Victoria.” While I sat there in shock.

I kept asking if we could leave because I didn’t drive myself there. And I still wish I had because I would have walked out of the house and not looked back if I had.

This fight went on for hours. I really wish I was exaggerating. They’d calm down every time I’d ask to leave and then he (mom’s fiance) would start up his belligerent screaming. I realized that day that I was going to have to not visit again for a while lol.

Afterwards, I talked with my therapist about it. Which I was already a little nervous about because she is Jewish and has mentioned Birthright and how much fun she had and how much fun her kids had on their trips to Israel. I brought it up anyway, trying to avoid my own opinion on the situation.

My therapist was not only friends with my on Facebook (which I have since learned is Not Okay) but she was also friends with my sister and mom. I figured this would make working through my issues easier because she knows my family and could see for herself how they talk about me and to me.

She ended up saying that my sister’s posts about Israel were upsetting to her. And that the country is really beautiful and there isn’t an apartheid and that she has many Muslim patients and met many Muslims while she was in Africa and no one judged her. Which had nothing. To do with anything.

I left not really feeling better. The only breakthrough I got during that session was that the fight was similar to all the fights I witnessed when I was a kid and that my mom was picking a drunk man over her children. Again.

I also left that session knowing I could never go to my therapist about this specific rift in my family again because she was not going to give me unbiased advice.

Oct 7 happens and I started seeing the massacres, and I start seeing videos of children dead, hanging from apartment buildings that have been blown up by the IDF, masses of people running for their lives, whole neighborhoods being demolished at the same time. The list goes on. So then I start reading about the actual conflict, when did it start, why did it start, who started it. And I start realizing it’s not complicated at all.

My sister and my mom start fighting on Facebook now. My mom’s no husband posts the scariest, most violent Facebook statuses I’ve ever seen. My mom tries to get my sympathy, I try to explain to her that Angela is Muslim, why don’t you care? Why are you even taking a side? Why are you fighting with her? I start explaining to my sister that this is what I’ve always dealt with. How mom is speaking to her is how she’s always spoken to me.

My birthday happens, I’m trying to have a good day, even though many of my birthdays have been bad. I wake up to a voicemail from my mom, saying she KNOWS today must be hard for me (I still don’t know where she got that idea from.) and that she’s praying for me. Something she’s never said to me before. We’re Buddhist, we say “we’re chanting for you” so now I’m like “wtf is going on?” Decide I’m not dealing with that because I wanted to try to have a good day. She texts me around noon telling me I obviously don’t want to speak to her and she’s turning off my phone. So I had to spend the next few days saving my number, finding a new plan, and getting set up with my roommate so I’m not spending more money on a plan than I need to.

I haven’t said much more to her since and I won’t unless she gets help. I can’t be the emotional punching bag for her anymore.

Since then, she has tried to get my dad involved to no avail. He’s on my side, thankfully. And because of him, I found out that my therapist has sent texts I sent to her saying I didn’t want her services anymore to my mom. WHO knows why! And my mom sent them to my dad, who showed me and was like “I don’t know why she sent these to me.”

On Mother’s Day, my uncle texted ONLY ME, asking to text my mom happy Mother’s Day because her heart’s broken. I promise you, that one text will not fix anything. She’d think I was open to communicating and then just get more upset when I never reply again. I asked my sister if he asked her to text mom and she said no.

My family is extremely normal and well adjusted.

Anyway, I haven’t been in a good mood all weekend because of this situation. It keeps replaying over and over again in my head.

[coveredinbees]

I've been seeing some people on Twitter calling Matt Bomer a zionist, and I have thoughts. I've included a cut here, so people don't have to read my mad political rantings if they don't want to. I know people are going to get mad at me, but, well... I can't help that.

Before I start, let me just get a few points straight:

Above all else, I support Palestine. They have been subject to gross apartheid for many fucking years, and what is happening right now is not a conflict between one state and another - it is the starvation and genocide of civilian people. The state of Israel must be condemned for their actions.

I also acknowledge that we need to be careful about the language we use when discussing Israel and Palestine. Because there are antisemetic people out there who will try and piggy back on pro-Palestinian arguments, ('fellow travelers', if you will); and honestly, fuck racists. It is possible, (even necessary), to openly condemn the actions of a government, without allowing racist narratives to bleed into the conversation. But we need to check ourselves.

Yes, I agree, Hamas are a terrorist organisation and they are fucking awful.

The big question is, "Is Matt Bomer a zionist? " And the unfortunate answer is, I don't know. If it turns out he is, then y'all stand aside, and I will yeet him off the cliff myself, but so far, all I've seen him accused of is posting the Israeli flag in his Instagram stories, (undated), and I suspect he might be one of the many celebrities out there who posted their support for one side, without doing any surface-level digging beyond what he saw in the media. Maybe he isn't a zionist, you guys. It's entirely possible - nay, likely - that he is just a dumb bitch, like the rest of us.

But we do live in a cancel culture society, and we do not tend to give a lot of leeway for people to be ill-informed or make mistakes on social media. Don't get me wrong - some people should be cancelled. But what I want to encourage here is critical thinking. Don't just cancel people because of a random tweet you saw. Ask yourself, "Is this person bad, or are they misinformed?" I mean, maybe it will turn out he does support the State of Israel in their actions, in which case - fuck him. But then, maybe it will turn out that he's human and he made a mistake. The dude did just win an award for his human rights work, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, until someone can give me categorical proof that Matt Bomer supports genocide.

Weigh things objectively. Decide for yourself. I am not here to tell you what to think. But personally, I want more information before I start boycotting him, or harassing him on social media, as I see some people are already doing.

If you feel that passionately about Palestine, good. You should be passionate, what is happening is horrendous. But turning that passion into vitriol for dumb celebrities is not very practical. Donate to Amnesty International, join one of the many 'Pro-Palestine' marches happening globally, or write to your MP. It all seems so small, but every little thing we do helps.

And thank you for reading. I'm always up for discourse, if anyone wants to have a conversation about this.

[quibliography]

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 🎣

Synopsis:  This novel is a memoir about the life of Trevor Noah growing up in a post-apartheid South Africa. He was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother during a time when it was forbidden for these two people to so much as interact with each other. But even with the end of apartheid, Trevor Noah still had to learn how to live in a fractured world, navigating the differences between being white, being black, being colored, being many of these things, and being none of them.

My Quibs: I already adore Trevor Noah, as a comedian and a storyteller. Seriously, even a short clip of an episode of his run as host of the Daily Show or his podcast What Now, it's so clear how well spoken he is. So obviously, a whole book of it? Sign me up! But I would also recommend listening to it (even maybe reading along as you listen) because 1) the presentation of his words makes the story so much more impactful but 2) I couldn't even imagine how to pronounce the various African languages and names he uses. I think I've learned how to pronounce Xhosa by now though🤞. So just to preface, I came into this memoir with a hint of what to expect and an undying love for the author.

I really believe everyone should read this book. There are so many points that initially is about apartheid and South African history/culture, but actually has a larger message about race relations and how we connect to each other as humans. He tells a story about how his school playground was divided in groups by white/black/colored/other. And how even among the black kids, because Africa of course has its own diversity, there was division by spoken language. And it's not an uncommon experience, considering how America can do that as well. I mean, just as a stupid example, the Mean Girls cafeteria scene when the "cliques" are explained to her. In reality we also divide social lines by what we see and what we hear. It's a universal experience. But his message was how to cross those lines. Trevor Noah is good with languages and uses communication as a means to connect across these divides. He quotes Nelson Mandela saying "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

But because Trevor Noah is also a comedian, he balances out the seriousness with outrageous stories of the hijinks he got up to. From having to covertly poop in front of his blind grandmother to his "Long, Awkward, Occasionally Tragic, and Frequently Humiliating Education in Affairs of the Heart" (in three parts). Everything he writes is so endearing and feels so relatable despite it being an entirely different life experience than I know. And I've heard many people say now that it's a gateway to wanting to learn more about that part of the world. Americans, at least, have so little education about international history and Trevor Noah provides a great sample of a world that we should be more aware of.

Should you read it? Yes. No conditionals. Just yes. Can't read? Listen to it. Actually, if you can read, listen to it too.

Similar reads? I don't read many memoirs so it's hard to compare. Any one that I have read is distinct in their voice and personality. But if you already like watching him on the Daily Show or on his podcast What Now, I guarantee you'll like this book.

(Spoiler Alert!) He's alluded to his mother being shot in the head when he talks to the audience or his guest on the Daily Show, off air. So I was aware this was not only an event in his life, but obviously a very significant one. So the entire time I was waiting for the full story. To those who didn't know what was coming, apparently it was such an intense ending. (Someone literally had to pause it while they were driving because they wanted to devote their whole attention to this last chapter.) For me whom it was a long time coming, it was still pretty gripping. And dammit, it made me want to keep reading. I need a sequel, Trevor!! Please! Or can his mother write a book about what it was like raising Trevor? I'll take that too, thank you!

What did you think of Born A Crime?

[zevfern]

Alex Rider season 1 review! Spoilers below:

What a ride, pun intended. It's not perfect, and it's far from accurate, but it's still pretty fun and entertaining.

First off, let's get the complaining out of the way:

Quite a bit of the casting isn't accurate to the books. Blunt doesn't look like Jeremy Clarkson, Mrs. Jones and Eva Stellenbosch are much too pretty, Dr. Greif was cast to look more like Herod Sayle (especially odd since he's supposed to be from Apartheid period South Africa) and Yassen Gregorovitch looks like Noel Gallagher if he had been a successful boxer and not a rockstar.

No SAS training for Alex like in Stormbreaker means that Wolf isn't much more than just an interrogator who shows up later to shoot people. Really disappointed, as Alex gaining Wolf's respect and Wolf reappearing in Point Blanc are highlights of both books and could have been included in the series (maybe budget constraints prevented this?)

WHERE ARE THE GADGETS? All they give Alex is the Walkman MP3 player and it doesn't even work for sending out the distress signal like it does in the book. No exploding earring or CD player buzzsaw :(

The secondary storylines with Tom and MI-6 investigating Scorpio are somewhat hamfisted, and if not for the final episode would not have a good payoff.

Alright, now for the good stuff, and there's a lot:

Alex and Tom's friendship is great, and Tom finding out about Alex's spy recruitment and visiting him at the Friend mansion is great! It helps to humanize Alex, who at times came off as a mix between James Bond and (name redacted) in the books, and Tom gets to be a supporting hero in the story, as he is crucial in the final fight between Alex and Alex's clone since he manages to tell them apart.

Point Blanc (as in the school) is exactly like I imagined when I first read the book, hats off to the producers and scenery department. The uniforms and such are also really cool, and helped with some subtle storytelling (the Kyra clone reveal!)

Speaking of Kyra, despite being an original character who's not in the book I still liked her. She somewhat supplants James Spritz as Alex's main friend in Point Blanc (he's still there, he's just focused on less), and I did like that the writers restrained themselves from using her as a love interest for Alex. I wonder whether she'll show back up later or not.

Yassen, despite not looking all that tough or imposing, still managed to keep the intense intimidating aura he has in the books. Will be looking forwards to seeing him again next season.

As mentioned earlier, if not for the Tom/MI-6 side storylines the final confrontation between Alex and his clone would be much as it was in the book, a swerve that came out of nowhere but was still very exiting. Giving it real stakes for Alex really improved it! A shame the clone got killed, but maybe that's a good thing since Scorpia Rising won't get adapted (as it was the original ending for the book series before Horowitz decided to write more for some reason and the writing suffers for it)

Overall, I'm still really happy I finally watched this, the show runners did a great job with their adaptation. I'm pretty sure the next season will do something similar to season one where elements of another book bleed into the one actually being adapted, but this is still much better than butcherings like the Stormbeaker movie.

[steampunkforever]

I feel I've often been quoted as saying that propaganda films should at least be well done. Usually I level this at military propaganda or films directed by people who think they're Micheal Tomasky and Adam McKay's long lost child. Which is to say, people justifying the countless foreign and domestic human rights abuses of the GWOT and also Ivy Leaguers with heads too far up their own diplomas to understand how American social issues might cause people to (*scandalized gasp*) vote Republican.

Of course most of my critiques are aimed at bad political soapboxing and movies where cops/soldiers violate constitutional rights/commit war crimes. Simply put, there are more bad propaganda films than good ones. Preaching is best left in the pulpit, and is worst when shoehorned into the narrative rather than into the subtext. Because of this, we rarely see a well done propaganda film, but if we're looking for one, Steven Spielberg's 2005 film "Munich" is a pristine example.

Quick sidebar: Spielberg is Jewish, despite the viral post referencing his ownership of MLK's speeches calling him white, and his political leanings reflect Zionist attitudes. In the conversation of Jewish history within media and entertainment, the conclusions often go ugly places regarding who controls the establishment and pushes narratives. To that point, one should be careful when discussing media narratives about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

As far as those media narratives go, Munich is much more nuanced than I expected. This is a film about the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics, in which Palestinian terrorist group Black September massacred 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team and were subsequently hunted down and executed by secret Israeli hit squads for their participation in the massacre. No need to get too sympathetic for the guys who tossed grenades into helicopters full of handcuffed hostages.

For a film about murdering terrorists, Munich is surprisingly good at giving the other side a chance to state its motivations. I'm sure that if you're pro-Palestinian it's not a satisfying representation of the Palestinian viewpoint, but for outright propaganda I'd say this was still a pretty solid dialogue between ideologies. Paired with the narrative's acknowledgement that much of this Israeli savagery was neither morally correct nor wholly warranted, and I will say I was impressed with how subtly Spielberg managed what could have just been "the IDF does John Wayne's Green Beret."

Subtlety only goes so far in propaganda, I will admit. At the tail end of the film, we witness two key conversations that spell out the movie's final conclusion. The first, between the protagonist and his mother, concludes with the assertion that for Jews to find a place they can be safe, they must forcibly take and hold it. The second conversation, held between the protagonist and his Mossad handler in what is the final scene of the film, assures us that the violence was simply a nasty inevitability. This is the takeaway of the film: It's worth it, and they had it coming.

Maybe those specific guys did deserve it. I would also assassinate terrorists killing my countrymen, even if they really were "doing an anti-imperialism." Except propaganda requires context, and Munich entered production in the middle of the Second Intifada, the conflict that set conditions for the current Israeli apartheid state as we know it. This is the context Munich speaks to.

"It was worth it." "They deserved it." The final shot of the film, a pan up from the final conversation, pulls out wide and holds on a view of the World Trade Center's twin towers. The connections Spielberg makes here are clear. Either way you read it, it's an ugly piece of propaganda. It's also incredibly well done.

[devitalise]

the end up the month always sneaks up on me, i saw your message and was like "oh she's early I have plentyyy of time!" yet here we are two days into April already AHHHH how were your March reads? & i forget, are you doing a no-buy thing or minimal buying for books? how's that been going 🤨

no literally in my head it's still march the last week has been a complete blur especially with the clocks going forward only just got my bearings. but this is now a nice lil springtime treat so let's get into my

march book wrap up

milk fed by melissa broder

i had a real voraciousness when i read this, i just couldn't get enough. not necessarily the writing, but of rachel. i love her. girls with complicated relationships with their mothers. a very unapologetic read i think, i had to do a bit of googling but i love that Broder didn't shy away from presenting the ideas and themes she set out to do in their fullest forms. kind of let down by the ending at the time of reading, but i can respect what it serves the book on reflection.

music: milk fed playlist review: booksburgersandbackpacks

fight night by miriam toews

kind of laughed as i remembered i read this. went on holiday this month, so picking this as my travelling read felt a bit risky i didn't know if i'd have the time to give this the attention it deserved, or if it'd even grab me. but it did. i loved this book so, so much. crying on a 9pm flight as i'm over the English channel unlocked. shiv i just want to hug you. i'm going to try get the physical version of this, i want the physicality of it so bad. equal parts love letter and biographical in nature, made it onto my top 2023 shelf and idk if i even have the words to do this justice!

music: think this was just my liked songs? podcast: shakespeare & company

things i don't want to know by deborah levy

claxon sounds alarm rings horns blare. i read nonfiction. i've heard real high praise of levy as an author. i don't know if there was any rhyme or reason for picking up part one in her living autobiography series, but i'm realy glad i did. how do you judge a memoir? sorry, your life was boring! in levy's case it wasn't. i appreciate how vulnerable it is to unpick your memories and make sense of them almost 40 years later, to revisit apartheid South Africa and digest what that makes you as a woman now in your 60s. refreshingly candid, some real interesting threads on womanhood, displacement, motherhood and agency in this. will be picking up the next in the series.

music: just some indie pop i think (scared to update spotify i've seen there's no more genre filters in liked songs? what's that about!) no review here did some independent thinking scarily

ok i did finish a book yesterday that i want to count but it hasn't been long enough for my thoughts to settle but i'm going to link everything now before i lose it.

let it come down by paul bowles (technicality)

music: let it come down (not period appropiate but perfect for that kind of restless energy) articles: the international zone: expat writers in tangier, what was the international zone, franco-moroccan war

and that was my march reading! still at a slow and steady pace. i am trying to do a no book buy moment! other than me buying 3 books in march, i've been going pretty strong. might break it though because i've picked out two more books set in tangier also by some of bowle's contemporaries and i really want to explore a setting like that as a wider more Themed block of reading if that makes sense. so i'll be buying naked lunch by william s. burruoughs and in tangier by mohamed chouckri in the next couple of days (in tangier is a memoir)

also amazon sent me a notification like maybe its time for a new kindle! my current one isn't even 2 years old and works perfectly fine i won't be giving in