#and it does not fucking shy away from how the government did not value their lives at all

[daxite]

ok after watching oppenheimer i can safely say with confidence that 90% of people here clearly did not watch the fucking movie and those massive posts going around with thousands of notes are for the most part complete horsehshit lol 💀

[ramim]

I'm not active on tumblr (or Instagram, or Twitter, or tick-tock, or any social media) recently bcz the situation in my country is...well...to put it nicely: shitty! (Just check #mahsaamini hashtag🤷🏻‍♀️) and the government cuts off our connection every now and then to prevent us from basically knowing what's going on and anyway! All the social media are blocked, so we can only access the by vpn!

But this week is lucien week! And I love this guy, like...I really LOVE him

So to share the love with you lovelies I am going to give you all the reasons that made me fall for him:

He has red hair (i have a crush on every fictional male character that has ever existed)

He is sassy and witty but in a good way (like he is a dick but he does it affectionately)

He fell in love with a lesser fae (you have no idea how important that is to me, it shows that he care for the personality, not position!)

He is the only person in whole the series to have a real connection with people, he cares for people, he knows them, he was hated and hunted for it by his family!)

He doesn't pretend to be what he is not (the honesty)

He was the only person who had the guts to openly oppose Amarantha.

He has knack for knowing people! (He knew Ianthe was a bitch right away)

He is open to accepting his faults and mistakes.

He doesn't shy away from apologizing!

He can actually talk rather than being a fucking brute who only can swing his fist!

He somehow still manages to be kind and considerate even though he had a really shitty life!

He treats every one the same (i love that)

He is not greedy! He values peace over power

He is HOT!

He has been through so much but he doesn't go around and stick his trauma into people's eyes!

He can actually control himself! He is not some uncontrollable beast out of the cage!

He is so fucking loyal i want to cry!

He is so fucking forgiving that i want to cry even more!

Omg he is so pretty!

Did i say he is hot?

Yes i did!

So that's it!

I'm done...

Here is a foxy♥️ 🦊

[darlington-v]

I know different interpretations of a work are generally enriching and cool... but c!dream villan interpretations is like how to tell me you only watch Tommy without saying you only watch tommy.... which would be fine but its not a great place to be making statements about the whole nature of the dsmp lol

Wild speculation, but sometimes I wonder if like, because the dsmp didn't really start as a narrative, and a lot of fans don't nessecarily enter it expecting a narrative, but then there is one and the fandom is really discourse heavy and everyone is sort of excpeted to have an opinion while maybe not expecting to form one from the begining or not having a ton of experience with narrative in a way that would "expect" them to have an opinion or not take things at face value??, I don't know if I explained that well at all... and I don't really even think thats right nessecarily... but like wow sometimes some of the takes about power and government and villany...

Honestly, it makes sense!!!

I think something interesting is like.... looking at how animatics have shaped the like tone and culture of the fandom essentially. Like, an interesting fact that I didn't really fully grasp until SUPER recently is like...

c!Wilbur out the gate admits he is manipulating c!Tommy. Like his first youtube video on the Dream SMP he admits his goal is to manipulate c!Tommy and people like c!Tommy into helping him achieve a potion ("drug") empire to monopolize on potions because there were a lot of people on the server who like to min-max, which is to put all of your effort into this one specific skill essentially. so like... i know minecraft doesnt have a skill tree but if it did, it would be putting all your points into that one specific branch of a skill tree. So he wanted to exploit the labor of all the TommyInnits to.... maintain a Potion Empire.

THIS IS A LONG POST BC I GOT CARRIED AWAY SO BUCKLE UP

And I don't think a lot of the fandom who joined later on knows this. I certainly didn't until like a week or so ago? Like... I knew c!Wilbur had been manipulative from the start because I'm a mod of (shameless self promo incoming) @dsmpanalysis and we have a lot of different POVs in that mod team and discord and we talk about it really frequently. I joined the fandom as someone who was really big on L'manburg ESPECIALLY crimeboys, and have turned into.... *gestures vaguely to my blog*

And ngl I owe a lot of it to @1-michibiki-1 in terms of c!Dream "Apologism" but all of the mods there have expanded my thoughts and views on the storylines of this narrative.

My application consisted of like largely essays about like... how I think Dream was the villain but he was meant to be the villain because you don't get any insight into his character WHICH.... IS A FAIR ASSUMPTION AT FIRST GLANCE. People are easily villainized when you cannot get a glimpse into their thought process. It's easy to dwindle someone down into this flat character and starting out I knew Dream didn't stream the SMP on purpose.

And I personally came to the conclusion of "Oh! So Dream is supposed to be the villain." However as the story continued and I learned more about what Dream went through I began to realize that... it's more than likely a form of a red herring. My opinions on this were immediately solidified when I watched Ranboo's 2 MIL stream because both Ranboo AND Dream agree on enjoying red herrings.

There have been MANY times were Dream has said that c!Dream is a complex character and he's not a wholly evil guy and there have been times where the narrative has honestly just proved that.

Anyways, what's important though was that... I learned most of this from other people who were more focused on c!Dream rather than myself. Eventually I shifted from c!Tommy to c!Ranboo and c!Techno after c!Tommy betrayed c!Techno and I began to realize.... everything I learned before hopping in wasn't exactly what it seemed.

Part of this is because I'm older, I heavily identify with c!Techno's sense of loyalty and philosophies on government, but I especially identify with the anguish c!Techno voiced in... a lot of lore but especially the lore around Doomsday.

I'm not 16 anymore. I don't always feel wronged by adults, or older people in my case, whenever they absolutely have done something wrong by me, but I do feel wronged by my close friends. I also felt like c!Tommy's sense of loyalty didn't line up with mine after what felt like him constantly flip-flopping and refusing to understand c!Techno's morals on government didn't line up with his.

In short, it was easier to identify with Tommy in these animatics versus in the actual stream content because c!Tommy is played by a 16 year old. I'm not a teenager and my line of thinking doesn't entirely line up with people that age anymore. It's harder to place myself in the same shoes of someone's OC who is played closer to their actual age, because I'm not that age.

Regardless, I was still on the c!Dream is a villain train. I wasn't ever like... c!Dream is repulsive I hate him, but I was like omg hot villain lad go brrr.

Even when the first like... mellohi, panic room, Ranboo lore stream popped up I thought "Oh! c!Ranboo corruption arc?"

And I was excited because I really wanted this shy, nervous character to turn into villain buddies with his good pal c!Dream. I'm a total sucker for villains and corruption arcs and all that good shit.

SO I STARTED GETTING REALLY INTERESTED IN ENDERSMILE. I'VE BEEN ON ENDERSMILE SQUAD OUT THE GATE. NOT THE SAME WAY I AM NOW, BUT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED THEM TO TEAM UP.

So... upon not really keeping up with c!Dream and being relatively??? indifferent? I don't think I started arguments on c!Dream back then, but I might have. But I remember like... starting to participate more whenever c!Dream came up and looking more into Dream's character BUT ESPECIALLY TALKING WITH OUR SERVER'S C!DREAM SPECIALIST MICHI ABOUT DREAM A LOT MORE.

And because Michi has been a watcher since day one and was a DTeam fan rather than a SBI fan, she was able to provide me with more information on how the server worked pre-Tommy but especially pre-Wilbur.

Now, you could definitely argue well Michi probably has clear bias but it made sense to me when I looked back on how the storyline had been constructed and was going along, and everyone in the server talks a lot about our own biases and how we want people to maybe not lean so hard on them. Michi would also provide like anecdotes on what had happened and I'm sure links were probably provided at one point but the point was I felt like Michi had no reason to lie or manipulate how the story was told and if she did, eventually someone would have pointed it out because... Group of like... right now it's around 20 or more analysts but I don't remember how many at the time there were. POINT BEING, WE'VE ALL GOT POINTS TO PROVE AND IN MY EXPERIENCE NOT MANY OF US HAVE BEEN SHY TO PROVE THEM.

So if anyone ever had any differing opinions they would be talked about and we literally had and still have discussions.

REGARDLESS.... I DIDN'T FACT CHECK IN DEPTH BECAUSE I THOUGHT PEER REVIEW WAS ENOUGH WHEN YOU HAVE LIKE HOURS UPON HOURS OF STREAMS TO WATCH.

Anyways. Eventually I started paying closer attention and looking more into c!Dream lore but only recently have I started to triple check before speaking about c!Wilbur lore because I know everyone has biases and while I did trust everyone's thoughts and analysis in the discord, whenever I make essays I typically like it to be largely air tight and if theres a mistake, I want it to be because I forgot not because I just trusted what was said. Plus, I wanted to get down to the specifics of how Wilbur had always started with manipulation on the mind.

SO I WATCHED HIS FIRST VIDEO ON THE DREAM SMP.

AND WHAT I WAS NOT BY ANY MEANS EXPECTING WAS WILBUR TO SAY WORD FOR WORD, VERBATIM,

"SO WHY DON'T I START AN INDUSTRY WHERE I USE THE TOMMYINNITS OF THE WORLD TO WORK FOR ME, TO CREATE THINGS THAT THE MIN-MAXERS OF THE WORLD WILL WANT."

Like... this is in no way an attempt to like hardcore villainize c!Wilbur like everyone does Dream, it's just more so to like REALLY outline how far off a lot of fandom interpretation of c!Wilbur is....

Because of SBI focused animatics.

Now, when I joined I watched A LOT of animatics that really highlighted like... Wilbur being this self-loathing JD-esque, "I destroyed it because I had to because the world was against me because no one loved us, Tommy" type of character. At least... that's what it came across as.

And it definitely highlighted the fact that Tommy was a victim, which he is. He is undoubtedly a victim and no not even any dream apologist can change my mind otherwise. Tommy, despite being an instigator sometimes, didn't deserve the abuse he received.

But these animatics never shown the fact that c!Wilbur started L'manburg as a shady ploy to exploit people like c!Tommy and vilify c!Dream so he could have power.

And that was easy because Dream and Tommy had wars before. They had spars and pranks and here's the plan to take back my disks and here's the plan to out smart the thieving little child etc etc.

And all of the animatics I watched never mentioned this. Neither did the recaps though. The recaps gave the events flat out, there didn't sound like there was bias, and honestly I don't really know if there was rather than like... a lack of nuance. And it's hard to provide a recap with that much nuance in a short period of time for a youtube video, to be perfectly fair.

However, this creates a perfect formula for entirely rewriting the history of a server. c!Wilbur quite literally fucking succeeded TO A META LEVEL. He slandered and ran smear campaigns against Dream and like he even does that with Sapnap in the beginning. But what's crazy is that it transferred over into the meta! Most of this fandom understands Wilbur as a victim of mental illness, and yeah maybe? He definitely wasn't mentally well by the end of pogtopia, but he never started out with honorable intentions. L'manburg was never a victim, only its citizens. The TommyInnits of the world.

I just think it's like... such an interesting case study. Because this is like... an opinion like shared by at least half of the fandom, but the vilifying of c!Dream is shared by MOST of the fandom I would argue. Which is like even more crazy for me because that was c!Wilbur's goal!!!

LIKE I GO INSANE WHEN I THINK OF THIS BECAUSE HIS REACH IS JUST TOO POWERFUL. HE'S NOT EVEN ENTIRELY REAL, JUST A MANIPULATIVE PERSONA OF SOME BRITISH GUY.

And I mean... maybe people who have watched Wilbur's video on the SMP still maintain this idea that Wilbur wasn't always the bad guy, but honestly... I wouldn't be surprised if their introduction was still an animatic. Like bias is hard to check and I'm not going to lie I could have sworn I watched both Wilbur's AND Tommy's video on the SMP in the beginning and yet I STILL was a ride or die for tragic yet on some level still honorable Wilbur and a resilient Tommy.

Like... upon watching Wilbur's first video... possibly again I was surprised because I thought I did watch it like right before I even started watching the streams and yet I was still so invested in c!Wilbur as this tortured anti-hero.

It took 6 months of... not being in an echo chamber, full of multiple different people of different ages, different stream POVS, and people who joined the fandom at different points in time.

IDK IF THIS WAS EVEN ENTIRELY RELEVANT IT JUST FELT TANGENTIALLY RELEVANT AND THIS WAS SOMETHING I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR A HOT MINUTE AFTER LIKE WATCHING WILBUR'S FIRST VIDEO AGAIN.

TLDR;

SBI CENTRIC ANIMATICS HAD A LASTING AFFECT ON THIS FANDOM AS IT'S HARD TO GO BACK AND ACTUALLY CHECK THE NARRATIVE FOR SOLID FACTS FOR YOUR OWN INTERPRETATION BASED ON THE FACT THAT THIS NARRATIVE SPANS OVER HUNDREDS OF HOURS WORTH OF TWITCH STREAMS.

[molluskwritesfic]

Between Rivers: Chapter Five

A Mandalorian can't show their face to anyone - with the exception of immediate family. Although they haven't known each other long, there's definitely something growing between them. But is it enough? When an ex-spy must look beneath the helmet to save Din Djarin's life, there's only one option that allows him to continue following his Creed. Marriage.

This story can also be found on Ao3 and Fanfiction.net

First Chapter - Previous Chapter - This Chapter - Next Chapter

Chapter Five

Din wasn’t at all surprised when she suddenly seemed to materialize on the Razor Crest. The bounty was in carbonite. She appeared just as the fog from the machine cleared, apparently having seen the act of leaving the ramp down and hatch open as an open invitation to join him; which it was.

“Nicely done,” she said approvingly. 

Din’s chest puffed out a little, but he didn’t otherwise acknowledge the compliment. He folded his arms across his cuirass and leaned against the carbonite freezer. “Is this a local job?”

She shook her head. “Two systems over. Dafin III.” She rummaged in her coat and came away with a tracking fob, which was blinking frantically.

Din’s head tilted. “You carry your own fob?”

She shrugged. “Some hunters get ahead of themselves.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he said lightly. “What about the Guild?”

“It’s not a Guild assignment.” She turned the fob over in her hand. “I have connections. One of them has the authority to distribute wanted bounties for the client. Clemint Vahst. He’ll vouch for you if anyone asks. But there shouldn’t be any questions about you bringing me in, anyway.”

“Good.” He accepted the fob and tucked it into his belt. “Who’s the client?”

“Redin Deedi. He’s a big figure in the Dafin underground. Bit of a local warlord, just influential enough to be annoying.”

“I’ve heard of him.” Din was already going through his mental files on Deedi. “What do you need from me?”

“I need you to actually take me in.” Her voice was serious and earnest. “He has a grudge. I need to be on my feet. If I were carbonite, I don’t trust him to not just leave me in it. Keep me for decoration.”

Din nodded. It lined up with what he already knew about Deedi. Making an example of traitors was fairly common. “So, unlocked cuffs. A few hidden blasters. But...” He cocked his head. “Deedi’s facility is a fortress. How do you plan to get out?”

She fixed him with her pale blue stare. “You take me in and walk away with the reward. The rest is nothing you need be concerned with.”

“Right.” He was making her suspicious, which was the last reaction he wanted from her. “I can help, though. If you... need it.”

Din internally cringed at himself. Was he really that desperate? 

Her head tilted minutely to the side, considering him. Her expression was unreadable. He had to fight to not fidget under the weight of her stare.

Finally, she seemed to relax, saying, “I appreciate your concern, but I have a plan, Mando. And it’s already in motion. This is the last piece of a puzzle. The rest is taken care of.”

Din wasn't sure why, but it felt like rejection. It stung. He bit back his disappointment. “Right. Good. Then we should go.” He straightened up. “Are you ready?”

She flashed him her wolffish smile. “Always.”

~0~0~0~ . . ~0~0~0~

This time, she rode with him in the cockpit. Din was acutely aware of her presence just behind him, lounging in the seat to his right with her feet propped up on the console. 

He tried to make a point of not looking around - of not speaking, despite how much he wanted to. He didn’t talk much - not anymore, at least, having learned early on that it was easier not to, easier to say exactly what needed to be said and to do exactly what needed to be done. No more, no less. 

And his previous blunder was a keen reminder of just how awkward he could be when he didn’t abide by those emotional barriers, of why it was better to just stay quiet and get the job done. 

He was a professional hunter. A Mandalorian warrior. He had a reputation. A code.

But just like how she’d gotten him to subvert the Guid Code, she was encouraging him to do the same to some of his personal ones. Except without bribery and credits.

Din didn’t know what to think.

“How are… the olfdo?” He tried carefully. She’d been happy to discuss them at length, last time, so he hoped that it was a safe topic. 

“They are well,” she said cheerfully. “Queen whelped at the end of summer. Three pups. Two male, one female.”

“Which one was Queen?”

“The alpha. A silver female. The biggest in the pack.”

Din nodded, vaguely remembering being stared down by a massive silver wolf. “I bet Nana likes having new pups to babysit.”

She smiled. “Yes, she is. It’s been… oh, four years since the last brood. And she likes being useful. I had to give her an orphan mucdat to care for so she would stop trying to baby my pit droids.”

Although realizing that she’d had droids without him noticing set his teeth on edge, he didn’t comment on it. 

“A mucdat? I’m not familiar with that species.”

She hummed. “They’re wildcats that roam the high mountains. Sometimes they come down and are killed by hunters or predators.” Her tone became wistful. “There are so few left, that when I come across an orphaned one, I’ll save it if I can. And the olfdo don’t mind them so much, especially if they were raised with the pack. There are five that haunt my woods, now. Six, when the new one is grown.”

“Huh,” was all Din had to say. “I… never saw them… during my visit.”

“They’re very shy,” she explained. “As elusive as they are, the Movetian government will not register them as a threatened species. They say that they’ve already been wiped out, and no more can be done… so now… it’s mostly just me.”

Frustration had crept into her voice. She pursed her lips to try and hide it, but Din was intrigued to stumble on something she cared deeply about. 

He turned his head to look at her more fully. “You... care a lot about your home.”

“Yes.” 

She didn’t elaborate further, and he didn’t want to press his luck. Din turned back to the controls, watching as hyperspace flashed and whirled past. The silence they lapsed into was easier than before, more contemplative than tense. 

For a while, Din was content to just sit and enjoy her company, but as Dafin III grew nearer, he had to break the silence.

“Who exactly does Deedi think I’m bringing in?” He asked, glancing at her over his battered pauldron. “Last time, you were Ena Sma. What’s the name on the puck?”

“Ah, I didn’t say?” She dropped her feet from where they’d been resting on the console and sat up a little straighter. Her accent switched again, just as dramatically and flawlessly as it had the last time she’d done so. 

This time, it sounded like she’d come straight from the Core. “Noa. Noa Enti. I’m a Coruscanti analyst from the Empirical Data Corps. I traded crucial information on Imperial patrol formations in exchange for safe harbor in the Dafin III Underworld.” 

She smirked, settling back into the seat again before adding. “Unfortunately, the flow of information goes both ways. Deedi forgot to account for that.”

“Noa Enti,” he echoed. “And what exactly happened to Ena Sma?”

She clucked her tongue ruefully. “Ah. I heard she met her end when she drove a speeder over the edge of the Festiv cliffs on Nefididi. Seven spice cartel guards followed. Gruesome. So sad.”

Din couldn’t stop the bemused puff of a laugh that caught in his modulator at her bright, matter-of-fact tone. He shook his head and turned back to the view screen. 

“You must be one hell of a spy,” he mused. “Ena. Noa. Are either of them even your real name?”

As soon as he said it, he wished he could take it back. If asking about her escape plan had made her suspicious, asking about her true identity would surely turn her away for good. And rightfully so. 

Our secrecy is our survival. 

How would he feel if she’d asked for the location of his covert? 

Not very trusting, to say the least. 

Shockingly, she didn’t recoil. She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly and rested her arms across her chest. 

In her Core accent, she said, “What do you mean? My name’s Noa. I told you that.” She laughed humorlessly. “And a shit spy, thanks for asking. All I did was look into a few files that I shouldn’t have. And then they abduct my partner to get to me. Deedi needed a way in… and I…” Her voice cracked, she looked away, blinking back tears. “... I didn’t know what else to do…”

And damn, she was good. Her delivery was perfect. If he hadn’t known any better, he would’ve taken her story at face value. 

But she knew that he knew it was fake. So why bother? Why not just tell him to fuck off?

Then it clicked. She wasn’t telling him to drop the subject of identities. She was making a point. 

She wanted him to work for it. 

That he could do. 

“And… Ena Sma…” Din started slowly. “She is… was… a spice smuggler that leaked information to the Empire.”

She nodded. “So I’ve heard, anyway.”

He was starting to understand; she was doing more than letting him figure out her real name, she was letting him get a glimpse at her mentality, at how she operated.

Din felt oddly privileged.

“And the woman who lives in the cottage on Movet,” he said finally, “the one who cares for olfdo and rescues orphan mucdats, what’s her name?”

Noa Enti, a Core worker who had probably never even been to Movet, somehow knew the name of a very specific woman hidden away in the North Mountains. Weird, huh?

“Nenana,” she said lightly. “Nenana Orze. Though, she’s been rumored to have been dead for… oh… some twenty years, or so.”

Nenana Orze. 

“That’s a shame,” Din admitted softly, turning to face the controls as the Navcom started blinking to signal their imminent drop from hyperspace. “I liked her.”

“Mmm, yes,” Nenana hummed. He didn’t turn to look, but he could hear the smirk in her voice. “She liked you, too.”

The breath caught in Din’s throat. He refused to look around, but could picture her clearly in his mind’s eye; lounging on his jump seat, streaked with the deep blue light of hyperspace. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

~0~0~0~ .

[keyofjetwolf]

Elisabeth: Hate

Poking around at this one is a bit off-script, and I hope @iatheia won’t mind too terribly much that I’m being self-indulgent by going here. I think the sequence for “Hate” though is intensely well done, historically honest, and tonally vital to Rudolf’s character as we enter what is, essentially, his arc in the musical. It’s entirely missing from the Takarazuka version, and I think there’s a conversation to be had in its exclusion, and what responsibilities lie in an adaptation grounded in history. But that’s a conversation not for this post, so for now I’ll simply say that while I understand the Takarazuka version shying away from going here, I think it’s the strongest single example of hollowing itself out. When I was liveblogging it, and so lacking any other version knowledge to compare it to, I found Rudolf a paper thin character whose motivations I could never really wrap myself around. Now, having added the Essen version to my experience, OF COURSE I didn’t get him, I was never given the chance.

Which isn’t to say, of course, that the Takarazuka brought us nothing.

BECAUSE OH DID IT FRIENDS

For Essen Rudolf, however, we’re shown what he sees coming, we know what he knows will happen if he does nothing, and we do it all with the perspective of knowing he was absolutely correct. His struggle and eventual suicide becomes so much more sympathetic AND infuriating, complicating our feelings toward him and making him so more complicated in the process.

So yeah, let’s take a second for a little hate, shall we?

I really love how this is staged, I have to say first up. The chorus emerges from the mist on Rudolf’s repeating echo of “HATE!” They quickly consume the stage, and yet Franz Joseph doesn’t notice them, doesn’t hear, never sees. And that’s incredibly intentional. He doesn’t hurry off stage as this portion begins, he lingers, thoughtful on Rudolf’s words, then walks away, taking the full length of the stage, walking with purpose but very calmly. This serves to contrast in a really fantastic way with Rudolf at the end of the song, so keep this in mind as I’ll touch back on it in a bit.

There is, I have no doubt, a metric fuckton of historical significance and nuance here that I’m not getting. WIKIPEDIA CAN ONLY FILL IN SO MANY GAPS. World War I is a spotty and sketchy thing for most Americans. It’s a complicated clusterfuck that’s not so easily put into “good guys” versus “bad guys”. IT’S A LOT EASIER TO KNOW YOU’RE THE GOOD GUYS WHEN YOU’RE SHOOTING NAZIS. (Though let’s stand in awe of how that’s becoming a more controversial statement every day.) (WOW I’M DEPRESSING MYSELF OKAY BACK TO THE MUSICAL)

My mother and her side are all English, so I’d heard stories about WWI in ways that it impacted my family. I did a bit of reading, because sometimes I like to know things. And I’ve tried to refresh myself and build more knowledge after having watched the Takarazuka, so I’d have more context. But still, I feel I know basically fuck all, so I’m pretty sure lots of details will fly over me. There’s a lot to get here though, even in the broad strokes.

The space left by Franz Joseph as he exits the stage is quickly filled with demonstrators calling for a stronger leader. I SEE YOU MUSICAL. It quickly gets worse.

Hate and violence to those who aren’t with us and those who spread here we will chase off!

NATIONALISM IS A HELL OF A DRUG KIDS. If you aren’t INSERT COUNTRY HERE, GTFO, and  then it gets better!

With socialists and pacifists we won’t waste time anymore!

The Jewish writers and the Jewish women will be our ruin!

If you aren’t the right KIND of countryman, a “real” citizen with the “correct” thoughts and values, we’re coming for you, too. And what’s that? Ahh, the delicate fragrance of rampant antisemitism wafting on the breeze! I’M SURE THAT WON’T HAVE ANY PLAY IN FUTURE EUROPE.

I do think it’s interesting though, in like a desperately efficient and terrifying way, how they very specifically drill down that antisemitism to Jewish writers (the spread of ideas) and Jewish women (the spread of people). It encapsulates the utter blinding hatred of Jews so well that I both admire the writing skill and feel sick at the same time. Kudos? I guess??

The demonstration continues. The hate builds. More and more people join on-stage. The lighting gradually increases, the chanting grows louder. No longer whispers in the shadow, but heart-felt declarations made public.

It’s legitimizing. It’s spreading.

Now not just “demonstrators”, but government leaders, reporters informing the public, educators teaching the next generation. So that’s awesome!

Someone wanders through all this and wonders what’s going on. Lucheni joins him and answers, and I’ve spent a bit of time on why Lucheni, and why now. To this point, he’s been lingering on the fringes. As our guide and narrator, he’s outside of time, with the unique perspective of how all the pieces fit together. I think he’s coming in now as a critic, with his usual mix of irreverent anger, to very directly condemn what we see building. Which may seem like a no-brainer, but I’ll point out again how fucking relevant every second of this is to the world right now on this beautiful day in May 2019.

ANYWHO, the passerby wonders what’s going on. “A demonstration, signore,” Lucheni explains. “Nationalists, antisemites, supporters of Schönerer.”

(“Who’s Schönerer?” I innocently asked Wikipedia. “HITLER’S INSPIRATION.” Wikipedia replies.  “oh.”)

“Outrageous!” the passerby says, visibly startled by this news.

“The 20th century. It’s approaching!” And with this, Lucheni walks off-stage, paying no mind as the passerby is viciously beaten with his own cane by the demonstrators.

Those demonstrators once again swarm the stage, spitting at the beaten passerby and reiterating their core mantra: “Hate and violence to those who aren’t like us! And those that spread here, we will chase off!” Question them? Express the slightest hint of disagreement? Hate and violence!

More chilling, the demonstrators are no longer just a gathering of individuals. They’re beginning to march in formation, literally falling in step together.

They’re organizing.

Lucheni takes center stage again, but this time it’s just him. The demonstrators are still present, their voices responding to him from the darkness, but otherwise, he stands alone.

AND BRINGS ELISABETH BACK INTO IT

Again, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why the show uses Lucheni here and now. Setting aside my massive ignorance YET AGAIN, I’m not finding anything that indicates Lucheni was particularly antisemitic (the “problem” with Heinrich Heine? I’LL GIVE YOU ONE GUESS.). Lucheni may well have been, but, you know, in a low-key chill sort of way. By which I mean, his deal seems to have been first and foremost about anarchy, not antisemitism or racism. So why have Lucheni be this voice? Why this protest?

And my thought is that we’re dipping for the moment into the “real” Lucheni, rather than the version who’s been taking us on this journey. Or, perhaps another way to look at it is that he represents the growing anti-imperial anarchist movement of the time. He/They may not have specifically been antisemitic, but they were more than happy to wield antisemitism as a tool for their own ends. Fan those flames, and give zero shits about who gets burned.

I think this may be the strongest indictment of Lucheni/anarchists in the musical. Throughout, I feel it mostly comes down on the side of ... if not sympathy, exactly, then of understanding. Elisabeth is complicated, and so, too, would be the feelings about her, particularly for the common people who, as a group, both adore her and suffer at her whims. But Lucheni taking voice here, whatever his motivation, is siding with and inciting those who embody hate and violence, who we know will perpetrate unthinkable atrocities in that name of that hate. The musical doesn’t turn away from the culpability that Lucheni, and those like him, have in not just allowing this but enabling it, ENCOURAGING it.

His piece said, Lucheni runs off-stage, back into the shadows as the demonstration reaches fever pitch.

They march toward the front of the stage, furious but orderly, chaos but contained. The chanting continues, but the marching changes. It becomes a goose-step. There are elaborate hand gestures, and still they all move as one. Finally, it concludes as it must.

The lights slam up, then drop, leaving only one figure on stage.

Rudolf, alone. Not walking past all this like his father, but staring at it directly, unable to look away.

This is what Rudolf sees in their future. Not just the fall of the Hapsburgs, but house after house throughout Europe, the suffering of people in the wake of those conflicts and power vacuums, setting the world stage for even more horrors to come. He KNOWS it’s coming, he can hear it, and the burden of what to do about it falls squarely on his shoulders.

“Hate” is so crucial, I feel, to understanding Rudolf’s thoughts and actions to come in the musical. Without knowing what he sees (things which we know to be true), his motivations against his father make no sense, his longing for some kind of understanding and comfort from his mother make him seem emotionally undeveloped, his desperation lacks weight, and his suicide is reduced to a plot point for Elisabeth rather than the final surrender of hope that we could avoid the inevitable.

And it’s so well done! Really, the way the whole sequence just builds and builds, before abruptly cutting off at this evocative moment, leaving Rudolf its only witness. Just fantastic, I loved it.

IT TOOK ME LIKE A MONTH TO GET MY THOUGHTS TOGETHER TO WRITE THIS POST. One that wasn’t even requested, but again, I hope no one minds too terribly much that I took us down this detour. For as much as I carried on about it, it’s just under two minutes, and if you have those two minutes to spare, I would encourage you to put them here.

[sherzasboss]

Tony Stark

Given everything else I’ve posted in the last couple days, I gotta. First thing first.

Tony Stark pre-Afghanistan? WAS AN ASS. He was, honestly, pretty much everything his anti’s accuse him of being even post-Afghanistan. Womanizing, irresponsible as hell, etc. Yeah. Not really that good a person, TBH.

The thing is, and his anti’s will deny this to their dying breaths, but Tony got a wakeup call, and from thenceforward, he did his damndest to become a better person.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? First off, it’s made REALLY clear that Tony had, at best, a contentious relationship with his father.

Now, to be fair to Howard, he’d seen some shit. Been eyeball deep in it, too. And back in the forties, fifties, and sixties, the mental health industry was … more quackery than it was anything else. And on top of that there was a serious stigma attached, especially for men, to appearing in any way ‘weak’ or lesser, so yeah. Not fun for Howard. And it’s also possible that some of what he pulled with Tony was deliberate, in an attempt to protect Tony, as ass-backwards as that might have been. Because as a weapons maker/dealer, Howard would have had a shit-ton of very powerful enemies who WOULD NOT have hesitated to kidnap or worse Howard’s beloved son and heir. If there was a public perception that Howard found Tony wanting or otherwise didn’t give a shit about him, it would have lessened his value as a target. Or so Howard probably hoped, if he was indeed pulling stunts on purpose.

Then Tony becomes an orphan at either seventeen or twenty-one, depending on which movie timeline you’re working with. And Stane is there. Given what came later, I have to think that Stane deliberately encouraged the worst of Tony’s behavior because it meant Tony wasn’t paying attention to SI and what Stane was pulling.

Which gets us to IM 1. It is made clear in the movie that Stane hired Raza and co to KILL Tony, and that it was their call to not. Given that Tony was responsible for a large percentage of SI’s innovations … I have to wonder. WHY did Stane decide to kill the golden goose?

My answer? Tony picked up on the illegal sales. I’m very sure he didn’t know how bad it was, or who was doing it, but I’m willing to bet he found out about a bombing somewhere with SI stuff that he *knew* for fact hadn’t been sold to anyone in the area and went ‘ok, something fucked up is going on. I’ma find out WTF is going on and then do something about it’ Given that, at the time, Stane was his mentor and business partner, I’ll even bet Tony mentioned his discovery to Stane because it would not have immediately occurred to Tony that Stane was the source. At that point, Tony became a liability that needed getting rid of.

Tony’s reaction to Everheart’s reveal was, therefore, less about ‘wait, this shit is happening at all?’ and more about ‘That much shit? There is no way some warehouse monkey can divert THAT much, not to mention all the shit I saw when Raza had me. This is way higher up the ladder than I thought … wait. Shit. STANE.’

And from there, Tony started doing everything in his power to undo what had been done in his name. Did he fuck up in the process? Hell yes. Sometimes even when he was in his whole, right mind (his birthday party does not count as such an incident, given he was less than three days from dying of heavy metal poisoning. At that point, his decision making capacity was shot to shit). Like, you know, giving out his address and basically double-dog-daring a terrorist to come kick his ass. What. The. Hell. Tony. Not your brightest moment, bud.

And lets make it REALLY clear that becoming a terrorist is in NO way an appropriate response to being blown off for … well, anything. Tony bears exactly ZERO responsibility for Killian’s decision making process on that front.

And while we’re on who bears fault for what … can someone PLEASE for the love of god explain to me WHY Ultron gets blamed solely on Tony when there were the following factors/fellow guilty parties?

1) Wanda and her mindfuckery

2) Bruce, who helped with the programming

3) That. Goddamned. Scepter. and the FUCKING MINDSTONE.

4) The power surge from Mjolnir

And while we’re at it, can someone explain to me why Steve, in Civil War, seems to think Tony either wrote the Accords or has the power to enforce them or … I dunno. Be anything other than a messenger of ‘well, this is a thing.’.

Yeah, Tony signed them. Which says to me that the Accords did NOT allow for the Avengers to become *anyone’s* attack dogs. Because Tony would quite literally be the last one to be okay with that shit. He is not, remember, a Team Player. He fought tooth and nail to keep Iron Man out of the clutches of anyone but himself. There is no way in fuck he would then sign on to become a government lackey/attack dog. Just no.

Yes, things went to shit regarding Bucky. There was definitely some fuckery going on, and in more than one place. BUT.

No one knew, at first, that Bucky hadn’t been responsible for the bombing. All anyone knew was that the Winter Soldier (regardless of who he had been before he got twisted into said Soldier) was seen in the area etc. Even if god and everyone knew Soldier was Bucky, it was in everyone’s best interests to bring Bucky in, because seriously, even without the activation words in play, Bucky was (very understandably) more than a little fucked up and NEEDED HELP. Especially if he was (as seemed to have happened from the point of view of the people in the movie) falling into and out of the Soldier’s mindset and (apparently) committing acts of mayhem and terrorism.

If things had gone right, minus the fuckery … yeah. Bringing Bucky in was imperative.

And yes, Bucky Barnes is innocent of Soldier’s actions. I don’t even begin to argue otherwise. Unfortunately for him, from the point of view of his victims/survivors of his actions … well. It was his face. His hands. His body.

And I personally defy ANYONE to watch the brutal, hands-on murder of a beloved parent - because whatever Tony’s thoughts on Howard might have been, he clearly loved his mother - with the ‘person’ who executed said murder standing not five feet away and NOT lose their shit. Absolutely no one is going to be capable of calmly, analytically going ‘No, he is not in fact responsible. That is on HYDRA’.

And no, Tony was not, in fact, trying to kill either Bucky or Steve. Beat their asses to kingdom come? hell yes. Kill them? Fuck no. We’ve all gotten a damn good look at the firepower Tony packs in his suits. If he’d wanted either man dead, Super Soldiers be damned, they’d be dead. He’s not shy about deploying his firepower even at close range to himself. Remember that Jonah moment in Avengers? Yeah. So no, he didn’t want them dead.

[atheistforhumanity]

For Your Education: Which Party is Racist?

(Clarifier: I acknowledge that there are racist members in the Democratic party. I am arguing that the prevalence in the Republican party is staggeringly higher. Also, as you will see discussed, examples of racist Democrats are in the south. That will be significant later on.)

I’m writing this post in response to some comments I’ve gotten. It started with someone replying to my post Just Come Here Legally. A conservative tried to defend his position with racism, and we will come back to his comments, but he also accused the Democrats of being the racist party. I challenged him to write a post proving that, but he has not. Instead he shared another person’s post about Democrats, which I will disprove here.

 So if you take a quick look at that post he shared it ONLY talks about the past. Conservatives like to bring up two things when discussing racism, that’s Lincoln and the KKK. I’ll outline why.

During the time of the Civil War it was the Republican party that controlled the North and the Democrats controlled the south. We all know that Lincoln (a Republican) led the war against slavery.

After the Civil War, during what’s known as the Reconstruction Era, Democrats in the deep south created the infamous KKK. Democrats at that time fought against measures that would help black communities. Even worse, the KKK started a campaign of white supremacy terrorism-killing both blacks and whites that improved equality.

Skipping ahead to the Civil Rights Era, the KKK had calmed down, but was revitalized by Protestants in the south. Now, during this time (the 50′s and 60′s) we still have the Republicans controlling the North mostly and the Democrats in the south. The south being a heavily racist environment that comprised of the only states that voted against the civil rights act.  

As the post describes, nearly all of the Republicans voted for the civil rights act and most of the Democrats, but a little less. The Democrats at the time did filibuster the act.

Stick with me here, this is where it gets interesting...

Sounds bad for Democrats, doesn’t it?

Yes, it’s horrible. That’s because we have a horrible past and there is no denying it. Liberals do not shy away from discussing the past, we don’t try to excuse it, justify it, or white wash it. Republicans absolutely do.

I want to point out that the conservative accusation that the modern Democratic party is THE racist party because of the its record between the civil war and civil rights is profoundly misleading and manipulative. The reason being that the argument does not continue following the historical events to the present, which is what we are discussing.

Political parties are institutions made up of ideals based on the people who support them. Because they are comprised of representatives chosen by voters who change from one election to another based who casts the ballots, it is more appropriate to track ideology than to simply follow a party name. A party is defined by the ideology the represent and the people who embrace them. That is why in my article Part of Pattern, I linked their current party with those who fought against equality because they are the party that embraces those same voters and their ideology today.

So, let’s talk about trends in ideology and political platforms. Despite the denial of many conservatives, YES, the parties did switch. This started long ago between the civil war and about 1930. The Republican party used to be the party of big government. By 1930, they had turned into the party of small government and have stayed that way. That was the early beginning of the switch.

What about racism?

To explain this, I have to talk about the Dixie Democrats. The Dixie Democrats, another group misinformed conservatives throw in liberal’s faces, were a brief break-off from the main Democratic party. They specifically feuded with the main party because Democrats were trying to improve race relations between blacks and whites. Although southern Dems voted against civil rights, it was in 1948 when the Dixie Dems broke away because of this new trend and made a one time run for President. The Dixie Democrats were as you can guess tied tightly to the KKK. So, if they officially broke away from the Democrats, where did they go?

Well, earlier we brought up how more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act, but it was signed into law under Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat. In the opposing article mentioned above, there is a quote suggesting manipulation by LBJ. I can’t verify the validity of that quote, but I can tell you he is famously known for expressing his fear that by signing the Civil Rights Act he would “lose the south for a generation.” That absolutely happened. Over the next couple elections the voters of the south flooded to the Republican party. The KKK mixed with neo-nazi groups that were already operating within the conservative wing. If you don’t believe me, look up Ronald Reagan’s election. He was the one that solidified pulling the south over to the Republican side. They have not gone back for over thirty years.

The north and the south switched parties. We all know that the north is liberal the south is conservative. This is very important because in the post I am responding to we established the accusation of Democrats being racist rested on their history of racism in the south in the past. It is well known currently that the south still known for being very racist and they currently almost all vote for the Republican party. (disclaimer: I don’t believe that literally everyone in the south is racist, but that it is more common than other parts of the country) This switch could not have happened because people geographically switched places, that would be impossible. Remember, parties are made up of their voters and people vote for who a party is aiming their platform toward. The fact that republicans now hold the votes of the same people who voted against civil rights (literally the same living people) and their descendants is a strong indication of their current values. 

The right doesn’t just get votes from the south. Which party celebrates the confederate army and supports waving the confederate flag? Republicans. How can someone accuse the Democrats of being racist for having been against slavery during the war, but currently be made up of the people who support that pro-slavery confederacy? The contradiction is hilariously obvious. Before you try to argue that has nothing to do with racism, we all know that white supremacy groups wave that flag and that anyone can easily find social media accounts combining that flag and hate speech. It’s a pitiful lie to say it has nothing to with racism.

Furthermore, when white supremacists commit murder in the name of their racist ideology it is called RIGHTWING EXTREMISM/TERRORISM. Not left, but right. That’s because their political affiliation is Republican. Ask them! They are proud of it.

Let’s list some other racist/prejudice things the Republican party is doing right now in present day: And this is just scratching the surface!

Passing legislation against equal rights for LGBTQ

Ignoring right-wing terrorism

Supporting police who kill unarmed black men and don’t get punished

Supporting private prisons and passing laws in their favor to continue slavery of minorities  (Proof)

Demonizing Mexicans, Muslims, and everyone else of color.

Devos just announced they are pulling back on investigating civil rights issues in schools

Sessions is bringing back the war on drugs, a way to impose harsh punishments unequally on minorities

Sessions expressed opinions directly against civil rights movements

The truth about Sessions’ famous case against the KKK, which he tried to drop instead of pursue.

Passing voter suppression laws that are proven to severely restrict voting of minorities and poor people. (another article) (another) and (another)

Let’s look at some racist comments by Republicans to add to the evidence:

Steve King

Five times racist Republicans called Michelle Obama an ape

Sen. Frank Artiles Calls Black Democrat Colleagues “Niggers”

Rep. Karl Oliver calls for lynching of Louisiana officials for the removal of confederate monument

Tea Party protesters scream “Nigger” at Democratic Rep John Lewis, who marched with Martin Luther King.

When Democrat, Al Green, of Texas called for the impeachment of Donald Trump, he started receiving racist phone calls from Trump supporters.

16 Fucking times our Republican President was Racist

Here’s ONE video of an event where people lynched and burned an effigy of President Obama. Pictures and videos of people doing this flooded the internet when he was elected.

I suppose that’s enough for now, I’m sure this list could go on forever. I do acknowledge that it’s possible to find some comments by Democrats as well. That does not, however, add up to the same level of wide spread evidence against the whole party. I would add that racist comments by Democrats are found virtually all in the south, cementing my assertion that racism is more prevalent in the south, which the Republican’s strongly control.

The Challenger

Before I wrap up this piece, I want to admit that this is a brief and incomplete argument. I could go into so much more detail and drudge out much more evidence, but I still believe the point is made.

Do you remember at the very beginning I mention that I am writing this because a conservative reader challenged me? Well, I want to drive my point home by looking at a comment by the man who challenged me on this subject.

This is what he said in response to this post I wrote about immigration. In my post I talked about how conservatives demonize Mexicans as rapists and one of his replies was:

I want to point out that he has absolutely no idea what is wrong with this comment (by his own admission) or his other comments about minorities. He actually believes that:

(For the sake of this argument, let’s assume that it is Mexican men doing the raping. It actually does not hurt our case)

So, let me explain what is deeply wrong with both of these statements. First, he is accusing Mexican men of being rapists by pointing to the fact that women get raped while making the journey to America. The reason this is text book racism is because he equates the ethnicity of person doing the action (rape) with the act itself, falsely implying the conclusion that Mexican men are all rapists or it is there ethnicity that makes them rape. This same line of thinking is applied to minorities for all sorts of negative behavior.

The reason this line of thinking is incorrect is because it ignores the facts that every other group can be cited for committing the same act. Look at the rate of rape on college campuses of literally any racial make up, look at the rate of sexual abuse by police officers, who are predominantly white, look at the rate of rape around the world, Europe is known for sex trafficking, by white men.

The point is that the issue of women getting raped while crossing he border is NOT about the men being Mexican, because we have proof from every corner of society and humanity that proves that when women are vulnerable there are men that will rape them. Period. 

In order to prove your racist idea that they rape because they’re Mexican, you would have to prove that no other group behaves in the same way. AND, this is a big one, you would have to show medically how a person’s ethnicity MAKES them do anything. Good luck.

Now let’s talk about believing that 97 percent of Americans are not racist, after you made a racist remark. To even think such a thing requires two conditions: 1. You do not understand what racism is at all. This is obviously true. You are ignorant to what qualifies as racist because you hold racist ideals and you are not shocked or offended by them when exposed. 2. You’ve gone your life ignoring the unbelievable amount of racism in public life, in media, on social media, in the news, by politicians. You can go to almost literally any comments section on a youtube video and find hate speech. When I watch the news live on youtube, the live discussion is completely taken over with hate speech every time!

I could go on for another page or two talking about the misinformation and manipulation by the right to convince people that racism is almost non-existent, or a dying issue, but I’ve gone far enough.

I think that in this relatively brief piece I’ve made a pretty strong argument that the Republican party is the modern racist party. Maybe more importantly, I’ve shown how prevalent and insidious racism is in our culture and how we have SOOO far to go.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT MADE LISP IS SO GREAT

We fell into the classic problem of how when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium—which fails, and then iterate; that startups required resilience because they were always an emotional rollercoaster; and that most VCs were sheep. Ignorance can't solve everything though. They have an interesting business. Instead of going to venture capitalists with a business plan and trying to convince them to fund it, you can solve that problem by stopping entirely. I never felt that in Boston. Work people like doesn't pay well, for reasons of supply and demand. They may also make the biggest investment. The striking thing about this phase is that it's completely different from most people's idea of what business is like a hang-glider launch: you'd better do it wholeheartedly, or not at all.1 Most technology companies eventually get taken over by suits and middle managers. The phenomenon isn't limited to startups.

That's only off by a factor of 10 or so. Once something becomes a big marketplace, you ignore it at your peril. One group got an exploding term-sheet from some VCs.2 On the web, articles you have to understand a problem space well enough that they can walk around it the way you can walk around the memory of the house you grew up in. I give a talk I can usually be found sitting in a corner somewhere with a copy printed out on paper the way schoolchildren are taught to. Their only hope now is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does.3 In retrospect, I wonder what's new online.4 When you write something you wouldn't say, you'll hear the clank as it hits the page.5 How little money it can take to start a startup.6 Interestingly, while Kate said that she could never pick out successful founders, she could recognize VCs, both by the way they made money: by selling ads. Slowness is to the advantage of investors.

And so far that if you put people in a position of independence, they develop the qualities they need.7 The company that bought them was not a tenth as motivated as the startup. Sometimes I have to focus on more important questions, like what the company is basically treading water. They have an interesting business.8 Once something becomes a big marketplace, you ignore it at your peril. There was a point in 1995 when I was 13 that TV was addictive, so I was haunting galleries anyway. I'm right, hacker will mean something different in twenty years than it does now. So steam engines spread fast. What students do in their classes will change too. Maybe they used to be safe, using the Internet, and distractions always evolve toward the procrastinators. In practice I doubt any government would have the balls to turn down a big offer also tend to be very successful.

Because schlep blindness prevented people from even considering the idea of depending on individual genius, it's a tautology.9 Suits, for example—can't help but look smug. On the web, and they clearly have existing VCs in their sights. So make a list and try to buy some.10 And yet they're probably the most productive part of the money.11 Are you still in NYC?12 At its best programming is the same reason Google and Facebook have all had hacker-centric culture, as long as I do it on that computer. The Ajax boom didn't start till early 2005, when Google Maps appeared and the term Ajax was coined.

Ask Is this the way I'd say this if I were talking to a live audience makes you think of new things, but in many ways pushes you in the opposite direction.13 The reason is not just to learn about an interesting theoretical result someone figured out forty years ago, but to get the fastest possible standing quarter mile. How tech-saturated Silicon Valley is. It's that way with most startups too.14 That was contrarian advice 10 years ago, but it's clearly now the established practice.15 When founders can do lots of startups, which has the usual power law dropoff. Tip for acquirers: when a startup turns you down, consider raising your offer, because there's a good chance the outrageous price they want will later seem a bargain. That's when you have a US startup called X and you don't have x.

But seeing what startups are really like will at least show other organizations what to aim for. But are these just outliers?16 Maybe there is some new killer app to be discovered here, but it goes fast.17 And board votes are rarely split. But you can't browse the web, and they don't care where you went to college. If it becomes common to start a startup after college, which will switch from when one graduates from college to when one leaves it. So are talks useless?

What a solitary task startups are. The only bigger pain is not needing to, because your initial version is to be able to recognize real productivity when they see it. In big companies there's always going to be. Here's a handy rule for startups: competitors are rarely as dangerous as they seem. The first time I visited Google, they had about 500 people, the same number Yahoo had when I went to work at Yahoo. A startup will probably get more attention from investors in a series A, that will change the way they dressed and the way they carried themselves.18 If they merely extracted the actual value, they'd have made less. We know from Google and Yahoo that grad students can start successful startups.19 It's part of the conversation.

Notes

VCs and Micro-VCs and Micro-VCs. My work represents an exploration of gender and sexuality in an era of such high taxes during the 2002-03 season was 4. Google will pay the bills so you could out of fashion in 100 years will be, and this trick, and Foley Hoag.

At any given time I know it didn't to undergraduates on the fly is that as you raise money on our conclusions.

But that oversimplifies his role. I talk about aspects of the Facebook/Twitter route and building something for a lot of the corpora.

Moving large amounts of money.

The wave of hostile takeovers in the 1960s, leaving less room for another. And it's just as it's easier to take over the details. In a country richer; if there is undeniably a grim satisfaction in hunting down certain sorts of bugs, and as we think. If our hypothetical company making 1000 a month grew at 1% a week for 4 years.

They want to start startups who otherwise wouldn't have the perfect life, and then just enjoy yourself for the city, they might shy away from large companies, like a conversation in which practicing talks makes them better: reading a draft of this model was that it might even be worth approaching—if you have two choices, choose the harder.

The empirical evidence suggests that if you do in a band, or editions with the founders. Google is not always as deliberate as its sounds. Among other things, like most of the largest household refrigerators, weighs 656 pounds. 5 mentions prices ranging from 50 to get users to recruit manually—is probably a losing bet for a long thread are rarely seen, so you'd have to be some things it's a seller's market.

Monk, Ray, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, Penguin, 1991. Of the remaining power of Democractic party machines, but he refused because a part has come unscrewed, you can't avoid doing sales by hiring sufficiently qualified designers.

There are fields now in which internal limits are expressed. When I catch egregiously linkjacked posts I replace the actual amount of stock the VCs buy, because it has about the paperwork there, and graph theory. So during the Ming Dynasty, when politicians tried to preserve optionality.

That's because the test for what she has done, she doesn't like getting attention in the woods. Unless you're very smooth if you're going to drunken parties.

Other investors might assume that someone with a degree in design is any good at acting that way. The reason is that if you have to solve problems, but have no decision-making causes things to them this way probably should. VCs and Micro-VCs.

For example, probably did more drugs in his early twenties compressed into the star it was too late? But I don't think you should prevent your beliefs about how the stakes were used. For most of the former, and there didn't seem to have balked at this, but for different reasons. Other investors might assume that the word as in e.

What they forget is that your peers are chosen for you. Statistical Spam Filter Works for Me. In fact the secret weapon of the recruiting funnel. The second biggest regret was caring so much on luck.

One way to answer, and no one thinks of calling that unfair. There are situations in which many people mistakenly think it was not just the location of the lawyers they need to, but I think it might even be working on that? It's interesting to 10,000 computers attached to the Internet.

Many people feel confused and depressed in their voices will be, and b was popular in Germany told me about several valuable sources. As willful people get older. The moment I do, so you'd find you couldn't do the opposite way from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus ca. Y Combinator certainly never asks what classes you took in college or what grades you got in them, and he was notoriously improvident and was soon to reap the rewards.

Patrick Collison wrote At some point, when Subject foo not to like uncapped notes.

Unfortunately the payload can consist of dealing with money and disputes. The closest we got to the frightening lies told by older siblings.

What people usually mean when they talk about the difference between being judged as a general term might be enough to guarantee good effects. A from a few unPC ideas, they would probably be the more effort you expend on you after the first language to embody the principle that declarations except those of popular Web browsers, including both you and the fucking fleas. And the reason the young care so much attention.

And you should be your compass. Investors are fine with funding nerds.

Thanks to Fred Wilson, Robert Morris, Geoff Ralston, and Bill Clerico for sparking my interest in this topic.

[spacepissbabies]

Mordesh RP Questionnaire: Hedeon Gregsky

Pre-Outbreak

What is/was your character’s name? Hedeon Gregsky.

How did they grow up? Rich? Poor? Hedeon grew up the third son to a noble family.

Was your character religious? (Mordesh society worshiped the elements, had alchemist circles for churches and alchemists for priests basically) Hedeon was mildly religious, upholding his family's beliefs.

Did they hold any sort of power or have a job? He never worked a day in his life, he was in a university to excuse himself from ever working or making something of himself. He was close to graduating with a doctorate in literary studies, and played sports on a team in the meantime.

What were their personal tastes? Hedeon liked the outdoors, hanging out with friends, and playing sports. He also liked books and was interested in literature so he stuck with it to keep his family paying for his school and his dormitory living with friends. He was a star in his team in a game akin to rugby on Grismara.

Married? Single? Single. Sweet on another student younger than him but too shy to walk up to them. They were of a lower class, a ‘nerd’ stringbean on a scholarship to this pretentious university of lordlings who was picked on by upperclassmen like him. Hedeon fought the dudes in the background and got a reputation for being an aggressive guy, as he pined for an underclassman who never noticed him.

When Lazarin unveiled his Everlife Elixir, how did your character react? Hedeon had mixed feelings about it that he kept private to himself. He was happy to have a way to keep being young, healthy, and in his prime forever, but it felt morally wrong to his values. It was just an inkling, and peer pressure kept him silent.

What was their opinion on the Dominion? Hedeon found their literature much easy to read through than Grismaran ancient text, so he had high opinion of them for that. He hardly thought of them, however.

Did they look forward to joining them? Again, hardly thought of them. Big things like that went over the brute’s head. He cared about books or sports.

How old were they when the Outbreak struck? Twenty seven.

When news of the ravenous reached them, what was their first reaction? Disbelief. His friends he surrounded himself with were sure that it was a hoax. News from his family's estate went silent, and as the spread continued Hedeon eventually came home to more than three of his fraternity friends tearing apart another, and Hedeon had to defend himself before making a run for it.

How did they survive? The university was boarded up by the few survivors left in the area. Hedeon acted as muscle and protection while alchemists and engineering students attempted to fashion ways to defend themselves from breaks through their defenses.

Were they angry as Lazarin and the Mordesh government for releasing the Elixir before it was proven a success? Incredibly.

Did they lose anyone in the chaos? The scholarship student was never seen by Hedeon after the outbreak. Hedeon guesses he is long dead. Peers, professors, and friends were lost as well--not a single person is left that Hedeon was close to, after being rescued from the university by the Exiles. Hedeon never heard from his family.

Post-Outbreak

How did they react to becoming undead and the physical and mental changes that resulted? Hedeon was bitter with ptsd and the pain coming from the metal stapled into him, the chemicals pumped into him. Yet he was still managing to keep his amiable, social disposition up until the vitalus completely took over his system. His reaction to it was painful; while not threatening his life, his body rejected it and caused him a great deal of pain from it. He became extremely aggressive, unable to stop bouts of temper tantrums or self harm done to his body to attempt to claw at where the pain was coming from. A suppressant had to be mixed into his vitalus, turning it a calm jade green; with it, he is more in control of his aggression and the pain is mild. It has, however, caused most of the cocktail of his change in personality and behavior. Self-loathing, vanity, and a dislike for people fearing him or staring at him helped as well.

How did they cope with the lose of loved ones and/or their planet? Hedeon, lying in medical cots among Exiles and Mordesh as he was between operations, had a lot of time to think on the outbreak and mourn his family, his friends, his life, and the guy he was sweet on. When the vitalus had a bad reaction within him, he found those memories distorted or ‘fuzzied’. He lost the ability to care for others, and became a loner when he used to be a friendly ‘good ole boy’ on Grismara.

Did they bring anything off-world with them? If so, what? Hedeon wore a sweater with his university’s insignia on it through the outbreak. He also has a college ring.

What were their reaction to the other Exile races when they arrived? (lore states the Mordesh were technically the second race to join the Exiles after the humans) Hedeon found himself as big as some Granok, so they didn't intimidate him. In fact, they were typically the ones, after his suppressants, who could tolerate his abrasive behavior. But his rebuffing of their attempts to get to know him better got him a constant reputation of being an unlikable loner. Humans feared him mostly.

Did they take part in helping the Aurins evacuate Arboria? No, by then he was ‘put on ice’ constantly for bad behavior among his people, or working as a Reaper. Probably better he hadn't.

What if their opinion on the search for a cure? Will it ever be found or are the mordesh destined to have nothing but a constant succession of bandaids to keep them living? Hedeon thinks it is a loss cause. He is positive that they will all die like this, like monsters that shouldn't be, and in his mind he is always ready to end his before he loses it or turns. It used to be from a valorous belief that he would protect others from himself by isolating from them to keep away the danger of himself turning Ravenous… Now he's not sure. He just can't stand people anymore.

What does your character do now? He's a Reaper. Being he protected others from Ravenous in Grismara, and had the build for it from years of playing a rough sport, he felt it was ‘what he was meant to do’. And he wanted, at first to do it well. Yet it quickly became the only thing that let him have the fame and usefulness he had on Grismara, the only thing he had left to let him feel alive. He's become arrogant, unruly, and purposeful in his misbehaving as he causes damages to his team and property from his feral aggression and delight in violence. He may get the job done, but his record is a colorful display of forced cryo naps between missions and suspensions, write ups and complaints.

Did their previous occupation on Grismara prepare them for their current job/hobby or did they start fresh? (Read above.) Being a small time sports star built him for it. The woodworking hobby, however? And the carpentry? From his love of fiction having to do with adventure and survival on Grismara, and his research of the two subjects. Nexus is his playground now.

Did they change their name? No.

Have their tastes changed since the Outbreak? A lot about him has changed; it's easier to find what's stayed the same. His taste in those an affectionate feeling or attraction drums up with (he will always gravitate to nerds), his love of being outside and working his body with something, his same taste in books although he doesn't read much anymore, and his love of the color orange.

Do they care about their appearance? To a degree. His care for his appearance is embedded in him from years of looking a certain manner. He preens himself for an ironic sense of feeling ‘good looking’, finding it to be one big funny joke to pomade his hair and keep himself looking well despite his state. Irony is kind of his thing.

What is your character’s most cherished memory pre-outbreak? All of his memories are hazy, but he remembers times with his family in their winter home in the snowy mountains of Grismara when he was a child.

What is your characters goal in life now that they’re immortal? Fight. Live. Be the best Reaper. Fix up his remote cabin in the mountains. Fuck else.

[rupertacton]

RUOBAL ETOV

I'm in Baxter's Court on Mare Street. Day before Thursday the 8th of June. 2017. What am I doing? Not applying for jobs. Fuck it. Can't concentrate. Everything. Confused. Vote Labour sticker on the 2nd hand Ralph shirt. Shit coffee. Dreaming of a better future. Nightmare visions of division. We have always been divided. Us and them. Me and you. Here and there. Be here now. No. Not me. I'm voting. Don't know why. Always do. Everything changes but you. But nothing. Deep fucking state we're in. The Deep State in a deep state. Arm everyone. Radical deradicalisation. Totally fucking radical dude. Arsenal. Millwall. The classic dichotomy. It's not that. Never was. I've crossed London Bridge thousands of times. Troubled bridges. Turbulent waters. Pont de la Tour. What's the point? Intern me first. My turn. I do not share your shared values. Do not share that with me. Not interested. Fucking cops everywhere. Reading my emails. Tapping my dreams. I dream of Friday not being shit. Every simple question. The answers are complicated. Extreme rationalists. Silicon roundabout reactionary fuckheads. Neither Left nor Right. Always right. Without fail. They, hate, our, way, of, life. WAYS OF LIFE. RIGHTS OF WAY. Pluralism. Tolerance. Most people just want to live a peaceful life. MORE ARMED POLICE. No. I stand for law and order. As long as it doesn't apply to me. As long as I get to choose my transgressions without punishment. Vote tactically to stay in the EU. Vote tactically for more years of those cunts. They don't really like you. They wouldn't get a round in even if they had the fucking bunce. Which they do. Rolling in it. Coffee is cold. I drink it anyway. How can I escape? Escape the shit opinions. My own included. I AM ALWAYS WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING. Take. Take. Take. Hot takes. Cold coffee. Keep calm and drink tea. Run through fields of wheat. Fields of gold. Twee fucks on miniature railways taking us to model concentration camps. I LOVE EU. I don't. You value that over everything else? Reassess your fucking values. Old people are not the enemy. The North is not the enemy. Enemies within. Enemies of the state. The state can do better than paying private companies to do what the state did. It worked. It can be reformed. The state must be destroyed. Apart from the bits we need. The weak deserve protection. Anything else is fascism. Sorry if you don't class yourself as that. Sorry. Not sorry. LOL. Crypto-memetic-libertarian-neo-reaction-alt-Nick-Land-LD50-nihilist-ancap-manosphere-hipster-cunt-fuckwits. Not important. Not significant. But there. Right there. Right at the heart. The right at the heart. Analysing. Guilty feats of algorithms. Sorry. They will all jump in bed to defeat the common enemy. Us. I'm cynical. Sarcastic. I'm sincere. I sincerely love the young people who can tell what's up. Don't infect them with your cynicism. Your grown up opinions. They want housing. They want a country that gives a fuck about them. What is better about what you want? Is it that you already have it? Is that it? That's it. Ask yourself those hard questions. Don't shy away from the answers. Just because you liked some rap music in the 90's. You did pills. You went out and got shitfaced. You smoked some fucking spliffs. You listened to some dub. You like proper left wing politics. You are tired of identity politics. It has ruined your fun. Your right to free speech. Your right to pontificate on problems that aren't yours. You can't bring yourself to vote for THEM because of HIM. Because what? Because anti-semitism? Because Abbott? Because Brexit? Because you are definitely not a Tory? Because shambles? Because lack of talent? Because mediocrity? We would probably have a right laugh down the boozer. We would probably agree on a lot of things. SUCK IT UP. Ask yourself some very hard questions. And suck it up. Take it on the chin. HOPE. HOPE. HOPE. FUCKING HOPE. I can't stand it. I'm not a fucking doorstepper. Activist. But. Thank. Fuck. Some. People. Are. I can offer a kind of support. Support in kind. New Labour. Blue Labour. Dr. Who Labour. Harry fucking Potter Labour. Old Labour. Momentum Labour. Militant Tendency. Satire Labour. If you identify as left wing and you are going to vote Tory what the actual fuck are you playing at? Playing. You watch the fucking West Wing and think it's reality. House of Cards. It will come crashing down around everyones ears. LOL. People will die. I was working in Westminster last summer and I wish I'd punched Liam Fox in the face. Regrets. I've had a few. There is a clear choice. Terms that I don't really want to hear anymore. Echo chamber. Virtue signalling. Strong and stable. Coalition of chaos. Enough is enough. Enough is enough already. Y Tribe. Tribal politics. Bit heavy on the politics this. Sorry. Bit light on the psychedelic urban prose poetry. Not enough football. Not enough bants. Not sorry. I want it all to be over as much as you. By the time you read this it probably will be. I'm going to get pissed either way. Wondering whether to get lunch here. Private enterprise steps in where the state now fears to tread. If Wetherspoons did community centres. They do. This is one. Just across from the Town Hall. Local government. Labour Councils heavily involved in social cleansing. It's not going to change overnight. Fucking hope it changes though. Lambeth. Southwark. Hackney. Etc. Blood on your hands. Difficult choices. I wouldn't want to make the choices. Still dealing with legacy of that fucking woman. Just old enough to remember being dragged out on marches. The impotence of the campaigning left. She fucking hated London as well. Not just the industrial north. Just there were more rich people here. Not as simple as that. I know. But it is. Bunch of people just walked in. Tories Out t-shirts. Time to start MI5 files on all of them. You fling around the numbers. What does terrorist sympathiser actually mean anyway? Invasive species. I'm an invasive species sympathiser. Parakeets. Grey squirrels. You name it. Love them. Kill them all. Badgers as well. Foxes too. The bloodlust never ends. Blood me. Soak me in it. Initiate me into your rituals. Occult forces at work. Deep Patriotism. I have legitimate concerns. Not ordered lunch yet. Still mulling it over. Lost in a sea of joyless opinion. Genuinely wonder if they've ever felt anything close to actual joy in their sad lives. Can't even watch a fucking pop concert, a moving, beautiful, attempt to help actual children come to terms with the horrific nature of the world around them and give them some hope, without spewing out their bile. Then they can't take it when people, rightly, call them cunts. I don't even want to put their names. FUCK THEM. ALL OF THEM. They love terror. They love death. Just like the people they claim to hate. We need hope. We need a new approach. The ways that weren't working before are still NOT WORKING. This is a chance to change. The first time I've ever felt a genuine choice. This is what is going to hurt so much. But for now. I wasn't a supporter. Still have reservations. But for now. One hundred. From zero. Real quick. Too much at stake. VOTE LABOUR ON THE RALPH SHIRT. Real policies. Boringly real policies. That would make a difference. I don't think that would have happened under someone else. I was up for getting rid. I was wrong. I WAS WRONG. Whatever the result. This fucking election. I truly want it to blow up in her face. Already has. Blown up in all our faces. Literally can't talk to anyone. Shit campaigner. Very easy to say if she still wins it's because of the current opposition but doesn't really stand up to any serious analysis. Doubtless that will be said though. I respect that. Just wish that the last two years had been years of unity. Both sides haven't covered themselves in glory. One side is definitely worse though. Internal machinations. Coups. Apparently though it's the fault of the people who voted him in. TWICE. I've moaned about him. Called him and his people incompetent. Weak. I apologise. The shit they've had to take. SORRY THIS IS FUCKING BORING. I'm fucking sick of it all. I want to be out in the outskirts. Routes through fields. Allotments. Edibles in my blood. Alternate realities. Intrigue. Fictions. Borges. J Hus in the headphones. Lib Dem boi paigon. I can't stand them. Fuck the other side. It's on sight now. Sites. Not on the maps. Blank spaces. Parapolitics. Back to the planet. Undercovers. Under the covers. Deep cover. Twins. Giving birth. The children of people who stole the identity of dead children. This is what they do. Professional. Give them more powers. Shoot to kill. I'm losing it. Losing the thread. Threads. Nuclear war. Discharge. Truth theories. NWO. Same old shit. SOS. SAS. Dipset. Diplomatic Immunity. Diplomacy. Foreign policy. Arms. Armshouse. Almshouses. Housing. Social Care. Healthcare. Dignity. Hope. Youth. Age. Hard borders. Troubles. Troubling. The past lives on. History is back again. A man just sat down. Says loudly: ANOTHER DAY IN THIS FUCKING SHITHOLE. Starts talking to the girls at the table next to him. They are talking fucking politics. They are all voting. Voting Labour. Do what they are doing.

ENTHUSIASTICALLY VOTE LABOUR. GRUDGINGLY VOTE LABOUR.

HOLD YOUR NOSE AND VOTE LABOUR. DESPAIRINGLY VOTE LABOUR.

TRIBALLY VOTE LABOUR. FOR THE FIRST TIME VOTE LABOUR.

DON'T VOTE FOR THEM LOT.

VOTE FOR OTHER PEOPLE WHO AREN'T THEM LOT IF IT KEEPS THEM LOT OUT.

VOTE FOR ME TO SHUT THE FUCK UP.