#and mostly just like how FUCKED the system is and no politician who gets in power wants to do what needs to be done tbh

[tshifty]

yk I actually think viewing our current political reality as stages of grief is somewhat helpful in analyzing different groups' reactions to our democratic backsliding.

we have--

denial: your average middle-of-the-road democrat, and your average middle-of-the-road republican; for different reasons, but denial nonetheless. they genuinely refuse to see what our country has become, and in many ways what it has always been. head in the sand type energy.

anger: this is your typical revolutionary who doesn't often know what that actually entails. we've got both leftists and far-right people here, again for very different reasons but same stage. screams from the rooftops about revolution but thinks they would be spared. struggling to find good anywhere in the world. being consumed by the evil all around us.

bargaining: this is someone who still thinks the system can work, if we merely find the *right people*. doesn't think we're as fucked as we are. "it's bad but it isn't that bad" rhetoric. hopeful but in an unrealistic way, more of a nostalgic way. tired.

depression: this is someone who has been in this fight for a while and has become generally overcome with the grief. they've seen "revolutionaries" rise and fall. they're not sure where to go forward. they may avoid politics, not out of ignorance but out of depression. lots of nostalgia here too.

acceptance: sees our current reality for what it is. likely is still angry, sad, might sometimes bargain, but generally can admit what is true even when it's terrifying. even if that means admitting they have no clue what to do. or if it's learning a new reality. some might be working towards a solution. some may be just trying to survive.

idk this isn't perfect. but... it makes sense to me tbh. it makes moderates make more sense to me. bc they're just truly in denial, which as we all know is the first stage of grief. and there is a lot more coming down the pipeline.

[aethersea]

still thinking about the trump voter I talked to the other day who was like "well the democrats have had four years to fix things," as proof that clearly they weren't doing that so they weren't worth voting for. and I just. do you think the democrats are our friends? do you think they're a bunch of saints? they're politicians! where did your cynicism go, man, the whole system is corrupt and dishonest and we've always known this. the difference is in degree. the difference is in what they do BESIDES and DESPITE the corruption.

god I just. idk I think this next complaint is old as dirt but people have GOT to stop thinking about politicians as friendly folks who are on your side. miss me with that. you can get that on a local level sometimes, but on a state or federal level, you will have a few radical outliers if you're lucky. a politician is not a buddy. a politician is a person who has power over your life, and a politician is a person doing a job, and it does not and has never fucking mattered if they're someone you could hang out and shoot the shit with! that is not part of their job! that is not the part of your life they have power over! they are not your friends!

the democrats have not fixed the country bc a) there are too many forces working against that, b) fixing a country is a convoluted goddamn problem and it'd take decades, not years, and c) they don't necessarily care all that much! they're just people doing a job! they care mostly about keeping their jobs!

look, there are probably a lot of politicians who do care deeply about helping people. there are also lots of politicians who don't give a fuck, but do a great job pretending they care deeply about helping people because they know that's how they'll get votes. I fundamentally do not care which one of these two people is in power so long as they pass and enforce laws that help people. yeah it'd be nice to have the first person, but so long as shit gets done we'll call it a win.

because there's a third, way more common type of politician, who not only doesn't give a fuck, but knows how to get ahead without actually following through on a single campaign promise. that politician is saying all the right things, just like the other two, but they don't pass a single helpful law and instead will pass a bunch of, like, food safety deregulations in exchange for cash from large companies that don't want to worry about health inspectors.

you know what keeps us safe from that? it's when 'doing some useful things for society sometimes' is a good way for a politician to keep their job. otherwise we will end up with no politicians who do useful things for society, out of sheer natural selection.

I'm just venting at this point but god. since when do we believe politicians are good people. obama was a godsend for this country and this world, he achieved so much good, and also he never so much as shut down guantanamo bay. the bar is in hell. the bar is in hell, and every single politician running for office will tell you otherwise, and we have got to stop listening to that and look at what they do. and keep demanding they do better, instead of replacing them with people who will do worse just because at least it's a brand new grifter.

[vintageseawitch]

to those leftists who are "uncommitted" or will vote third party: what exactly is your alternative? you know goddamn well your "protest" vote isn't gonna change shit & may help trump win. you scoff & claim that "OBVIOUSLY i don't want trump to win 🙄" but you're working harder to make sure Harris loses than he does.

i can't get over how y'all know "so much" about far left theory... but you know jack shit about how the American government works. you already act like the president is a monarch. i NEVER hear y'all talk about how important local & state voting is because most of you spew the bullshit that is "my vote doesn't matter."

the extremist Republicans have been playing a long fucking game. a few genocides will happen on our own soil if they gain all the power they want - that of immigrants, specifically brown people, & LGBTQIA. they will destroy them & anyone who wants to help them. this has been a long game because they can count on their voters actually participating in every election & mostly old people are the ones doing the voting.

we all complain about old people being selfish, how "they had theirs & will work to make sure younger generations don't." young people however are NOTORIOUS for not showing up at the polls. where the fuck are you leftists complaining about all the horrible bad things? y'all almost act like shocked Pikachu faces when piece of shit politicians get power then do horrible things. WHY AREN'T YOU ADVOCATING FOR LOCAL POLITICIANS.

if anything, Republicans live more in the real world than leftists who want their precious, magical, instantly-fix-everything revolution. Republicans have been patiently playing a long game & it's been WORKING. leftists get mad that changes they want don't happen instantly so they just give up on the system altogether. y'all want politicians to check ALL of your goddamn boxes or they get no help from you.

your protest vote in this election is selfish. you're not being smart about this. for fuck's sake, you're not marrying Harris, you're thinking of the long game. we need to work hard to make sure trump loses. the likes of jill stein, who is also a traitor, will not save us. she will hand us over to Russia on a platter. you want the US to collapse? you are so fucking foolish that you not only remain ignorant of how our government works but also geopolitics & all the delicate nuance. YES, the United States is fucked up, but world leaders are more nervous about a trump second term than not. HE FREED THE FUCKING TALIBAN.

you think things will be the same as ever? you're as bad as MAGA. you want us all to fail & all it will cost is LGBTQIA folks, immigrants (including those who have been here for decades), any woman who needs some kind of abortion care to save her life, children as more get gunned down, the elderly & disabled & anyone else who qualifies for social security & Medicare, veterans, indigenous folks, the environment since they don't believe in climate change WHICH AFFECTS THE ENTIRE DAMN PLANET, etc. but at least you're conscience will be clear.

please be smarter than Republicans & think this through. in another election in 1995 in Isreal a protest vote occurred & as a result netanyahu won by LESS THAN A WHOLE PERCENT. they were protesting AGAINST him. your "principles" could aid in harming us all. "they should have chosen a better candidate" our system led us to either choosing Harris or trump. for now it sucks but one of them will govern us. if you're so unsure then you might as well look forward to trump winning. he's not long for this world so jd fucking vance will be president instead. he's much younger & more evil, horrible, & psychotic. THINK ABOUT THE LONG GAME. vote locally & at state level, not just during thr general election. y'all don't sound smart to me; you sound prideful & short-sighted.

[cherryblossomshadow]

https://youtu.be/7oFu2pNnRIc

Where did you think Top Cop Harris come from

Hey, I'm not the most knowledgeable on this subject, but yes, I have heard that Kamala called herself Top Cop while she was District Attorney.

The only two posts on my blog that address this have imo pretty nuanced takes on this, which boil down to:

Kamala is not perfect, but we can't wait for a perfect candidate to magically appear

Therefore, you can absolutely criticize her for things she did, things she contributed to, things that happened on her watch

But you should criticize her for what really happened. People may not know that she wasn't a uniformed officer who physically arrested people. She got into law to protect women and children from abuse

Yes, she was upholding a corrupt and racist system. But criticize her for that. Not for lies

We can talk about the nuances of what she WAS, but we first have to correct the mistaken impression of what she WASNT

.

Additionally, I think it should be allowed to feel hope for a candidate that isn't as bad as you thought. It's allowed to correct some misinformation around you

I'm not looking at this election like she's some savior who will fix the world just bc she's not really a cop. I'm hoping that ppl won't write her off based on inaccurate information, only accurate information. Bc the only other alternative is That Guy

.

Again, I'm not an expert on this. But the takes that I elevate aren't only the ones that I like or agree with; they're the takes that I think make a good point or are worth chewing on.

Some greatest hits from this post:

Be careful what you read, always be critical of how facts are presented to you, and don't be afraid to admit when you're wrong.

There's no such thing as a good cop, but there do exist naive cops with good intentions who think they can change the system from within

The real nuance is that the position of "top cop" or whatever can't be left empty. When you're filling out the ballot and get to sheriffs and prosecutors, every candidate is an acab. There are no right choices simply by what the nature of the job is. But there are candidates who will attempt that incremental change, and ones who can make things much worse.

She gets my vote at least, she's definitely better than trump or biden, but I'm still hesitant to give my absolute full support.

And from this post:

It didn’t hit me until recently that people genuinely think Kamala Harris was a police officer because of all the people who call her a cop online.

We can discuss how related that is to police work and how tied she is to the carceral system etc etc (but for fairness would have to include her record of pushing for lowering incarceration rates through programs helping former prisoners + her office refusing to jail folks for low level weed offense). But she was never a police officer. 

I think it’s important to note she learned and grew over time, as well.

What drives me crazy about the prosecutor/district attorney = cop common line of leftist thinking is that. People always talk about when a progressive DA is appointed, and how important that is, because the DA literally can just decide not to prosecute certain offenses.

I’d also like to add that if you look at her record in a timeline she has gotten progressively more liberal!

#some ppl will call it pandering but uhhhh we literally want our politicians to listen to our concerns and change their policies based on it

We vote for the weakest adversary. The weakest adversary is always the politician who mostly agrees with you but got where they are by compromising with an unjust system. Elect that person and mush their face in the compromises they’ve made and we can undo the fucked up laws and practices !!!! Or you can let someone who can never be convinced because they hold opposite views on criminalization, incarceration, police brutality and immunity, etc. If you don’t understand or care that voting works this way, where’s your pipe bombs and guerilla fighter cells? Cause that or complacency with fascist takeover is all you’re eating 

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

#youre not gonna budge trump #but if youre not happy with kamala #nudge her left! #dont let perfect be the enemy of good #or progress #we're still on the wrong side of the line #but how are we going to get to the right side without taking a single step?

[lacependragon]

I'm still waiting for the part where My Hero Academia goes:

"Actually this society isn't sustainable. One for All is leaving us forever and we continue to push adults and children to the brink. Just because All for One is gone doesn't mean big villains won't appear again. We need to work together to rebuild into something more sustainable that doesn't glorify brutalizing yourself and burning out as fast as possible to save a few more lives."

Because right now I'm sitting here going.

Okay cool you beat the villains. You know, the group that was mostly made up of people rejected by society through no fault of their own, abused, beaten, groomed, and trained to be perfect little monsters by someone else or by All for One.

Great, you stopped Tomura, the most victimized of them all.

Cool, you killed All for One, the guy who started it all.

What are you going to do what all these victims of the system? What are you going to do to ensure this never happens again? What are you going to say to point out that this pain glorifying burn out hero society you've built isn't fucking sustainable.

And I have to hope that's why My Hero Academia is going on so much longer than the war ending, according to the mangaka. I have to hope that's what he's building to, instead of another bad guy or "Somehow Palpatine has returned".

Because if you spend years, literal years, exploring why villains exist, and showing all the pain these kids go through as a result of adult heroes not being prepared or burning themselves out and breaking, and showing the flaws of this society and then don't change that society at all? Never acknowledge what caused this plot to begin with?

Then what's the fucking point of this entire story?

If you're not going to say "Hey the system that let All for One steal Tomura should change". If you're not going to say "The system that let these kids walk the streets in pain and fear while no one cared except to say 'a hero is coming' should change". If you're not going to say "This system which I have shown extensively does not work should change".

Then what' was the fucking point of even writing the damn thing?

Like. Endeavor knows he needs to change. But what about the society that created him? His father? That made quirk marriages viable and legal? What about the society that broke Rei so badly? That helped create Touya?

If this damn society ends as it began. If the only difference is motherfucking Izuku at the top and half the top heroes dead or retired because they broke themselves to try and save the world. If breaking yourself is still the only way to do it, and children still suffer, and people are still apathetic, and the only fucking change is that All Might is gone and so is All for One and ~magically~ that makes everything better--

Then it means nothing worth listening to. And the last decade has led up to nothing.

No amount of power of friendship or overcoming the odds means jack shit when society ends as it began and society was so much of the problem to begin with.

The opening of the motherfucking show is "Not all men are born equal" and Izuku goes on to explain how it's all because of fucking society.

So if the series, manga, show, WHATEVER, doesn't SAY ANYTHING about that society doesn't TRY TO CHANGE IT after everything if we END with the SAME LAWS as we began-

Then this was pointless authoritarian bullcrap.

I mean yeah it says a lot of other things. But nothing I can't get better elsewhere.

This is a problem I have with a lot of superhero media. Particularly the MCU. Which is why it's so wild to me I'm having the same problem with a fucking anime. Half a world apart and drinking the same kool-aid.

Please let me be wrong. Please let Hori just fucking write about society and Izuku changing things. Make him a little politician. An activist. A voice for the people. Just do something that tells me that you know this society needs to change. Give me something that tells me the characters want this society to change.

Otherwise I really feel like the climax of the war kinda. Destroyed a lot of the earlier messaging in the series.

[beardedmrbean]

Hey, about the black Americans taught to hate our country.

Yes we and in many other parts are treated like shit…but so was everyone else. I mean…I don’t know their exact backgrounds…but people do know a lot of Japanese creators in the entertainment industry of Japan are mostly the descendants of the “peasants” not the feudal lords?

Just asking…I mean people know the sengoku period was about Japanese CIVIL WARS?

Hell what I heard another modern imperial Japan ancestry. Their ancestors ghosts probably go “you got to be fucking kidding me” when they learn they have the same descendants

Sorry funny

But yeah we could use Bass Revees, Tuskegee Airmen, the Harlem fighters, as inspiration for black characters

“We weren’t taught that in school!” You honestly think career politicians like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden who heavily influence the education while they push for the tough on crime bill and ensure that black Americans are 75% born out of wedlock

Would teach the fact that many black people successful lives despite systemic oppression?

Not to mention the white liberals with their savior complex would fight tooth and nail and said we were nothing until the civil rights movement

And the feminists are damn sure not to mention the fact their ogs founders were racist af and made damn sure that black men didn’t get proper voting rights until the 60’s

Also learning what the government did to my community made me more anti socialist as hell

Also we bounce back that fast from the Civil hence our “modern” American empire? Actually I heard Teddy Roosevelt say the Lincoln coffin tour when he was 6

But thanks, I wanted to used a American military outfit era that wasn’t colonial but not ww2-now

Also my Chimera republic (you know I just keep the us part until I figure out what to do with pseudo latam) is a combination of different American eras in a steampunk setting. As east coast have very colonial look with the rising art deco

While Midwest part especially the in universe Chicago is very art deco and rampant “advance “ as I watched a video on the queen of nyc glided age and I realize how different my midwestern ass is to East coast

Of course the west coast have a lot of it Spanish influence. Actually your Californian (the good ones) can you help me out with that?

And yes I’m trying to figure what to do with First Nations as my chimera republic is a fantasy America were we drop the social Darwinism is shit and DIDNT do. The residential school horror show

Of course I’m just a 23 year old man with a HS degree. But I’m pointing out we got our own culture to take inspiration and not trying to force ourselves into Asian or European cultures like what modern black activists do.

Yes we and in many other parts are treated like shit…but so was everyone else. I mean…I don’t know their exact backgrounds…but people do know a lot of Japanese creators in the entertainment industry of Japan are mostly the descendants of the “peasants” not the feudal lords?

People take offense at 'your experiences are not unique' it's wild and not limited to age, race, hair colour, nationality, disability, and so on.

Me being dyslexic there's stuff I'll relate to more than most people, but I know better than to say it's purely a dyslexic thing.

Just asking…I mean people know the sengoku period was about Japanese CIVIL WARS? Hell what I heard another modern imperial Japan ancestry. Their ancestors ghosts probably go “you got to be fucking kidding me” when they learn they have the same descendants

They kept their slaves (peasants) after this one, not sure how many wars globally were fought in order to free slaves, only wars I can think of that were fought with the abolition of slavery in mind were waged by western nations. US, UK, and France specifically.

You want civil wars in Asia check out China

“We weren’t taught that in school!” You honestly think career politicians like Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden who heavily influence the education while they push for the tough on crime bill and ensure that black Americans are 75% born out of wedlock ect

Some of it there really just isn't time, they have to hit the big stuff and if anything catches your eye hope people have the ability to study it themselves, much more complicated before the internet at large.

Suffragettes were massive racists fighting for white women's right to vote, but that was society at the time.

Margret sanger founding planned parenthood as a way to reduce the black population was just evil, difference between the two is one was denying rights one was attempting to deny life.

Also learning what the government did to my community made me more anti socialist as hell

That's fairly common for people that study history.

The Chimera thing, ya there's all kinds of different influences all over the place when it comes to they way things are laid out and constructed and I'd be happy to help with the Spanish influence stuff San Diego has managed that better than Los Angeles, honestly CA covers so much different kinds of terrain and has different histories you can find most anything here, so long as you don't expect to be able to afford it.

And yes I’m trying to figure what to do with First Nations as my chimera republic is a fantasy America were we drop the social Darwinism is shit and DIDNT do. The residential school horror show

First Nations, this ain't canada. lol

I'm sure you'll come up with something

Of course I’m just a 23 year old man with a HS degree. But I’m pointing out we got our own culture to take inspiration and not trying to force ourselves into Asian or European cultures like what modern black activists do.

Amen to that

[kamorth]

Just as an intro, yes this post reads VERY white. Unfortunately a lot of recent history is only accessible through white lenses and as I myself am about as white as it is possible to be, I don't have another viewpoint that I can write from with any kind of authority. My lack of experience does not negate anyone else's experiences or views.

In the 80s, being punk was how you showed disdain for conformity. NO, I DON'T Want to be Like You THE WOLRD IS SHITTY AND I AM ANGRY. They were the trash that you warned your kids to stay away from because they were dangerous and violent.

Grunge quickly followed suit with Yeah the world is shitty why do what the boring conformist bougies tell you when you can just do your own thing over here instead. They were the trash you hoped your kids got sick of but the worst parents ever suspected of them was maybe a bit of weed and some clumsy make outs, not that big a deal.

In the late 90s (my teens) it was goths. We are so sick of you and your church and shoving it down my throat with pushing for prayer in schools and Christian Pop Rock all over the billboard top 40. That kid is a witch now and You JUST Don't Get It. Depression is my baseline and the idea of being like you is the cause. We were the trash that were just indulging in a phase and would grow out of it, so we could be humored but mostly ignored (unless your parents were hard core Bible bashers, in which case you would get sent to something akin to conversion therapy - since you were also probably Queer it often was just outright conversion therapy).

Then the emos showed up and people started getting annoyed, partly because suddenly there were goths that you COULDN'T ignore for two reasons, they were LOUD about being sad and THERE WERE SO MANY OF THEM. Since they couldn't be ignored out of existence, the Western world decided to collectively bully them instead. They were the trash that was Just So Damn Cringe!

And now poverty is skyrocketing. Homelessness is a plague that has struck so many people who have committed no crime outside of bad luck. Actual fascists are in positions of power. Planned obsolescence and decades of lobbying by the oil industry in favour of petrol and plastics is destroying everything beautiful about this planet.

And Punk is back. Be ANGRY at your politicians who don't listen. Let your anger be heard so that they know you will not accept these ideas. Grunge is back. It doesn't have to be new, it just has to be functional. Work together to make a community you WANT to live in. Goth is back. Mourn for the world we were promised but never saw. Learn about belief systems that are different to the one you were raised in, ESPECIALLY if doing so pisses off your parents. Emo is back. Fuck haters. Cringe is dead. Being comfortable in your own skin means being allowed to do what YOU want, not having to exist for the benefit of someone else.

Before us it was hippies and beatniks and flappers and dadaists and before them there were the coffee shop philosophers and the point is there have ALWAYS been people who want the world to see its own flaws and fix them. I know other cultures had the same sorts of groups, like the Japanese Subekan gangs (who created the original lolita fashion trend as a way to take femininity back from being sexualized) and Islamic Sufism (an Islamic sect who practice things forbidden by stricter groups, such as singing and dancing) but I'm an armchair scholar, not an expert.

When society is broken, our numbers surge.

We are surging.

Society needs us.

[cherrycola27]

hi for president bradshaw and wise-woman ♥ and ✿

Family Headcanon- Bradley lost his family early in life, but he has shared some of his best memories of his mom and the few that he has of his dad with Wise-woman. He mostly talks about them when it is just the two of them alone.

At first, he only shared what he thought was important for her to know, but as their friendship and relationship grew, he began to share more intimate details of his childhood.

He also loves to tell her about his Dagger Squad family and the shenanigans they got up to. It was also a big deal when she was introduced to Maverick, who immediately knew that she was the one for Bradley.

Wise-woman's parents are both politicians on Capital Hill, her mother is a senator, and her father is a congressman. She grew up in the world of politics and sometimes felt like she was second to her parents careers.

She, like Bradley, is an only child, but she didn't have the support system he had growing up.

She felt (and still feels like) she constantly has to prove herself to her family. While they have tried to be good parents, she found that the best way to win their favor was to pursue politics, and that's what she did.

Most girls did dance or scouts. She did Model UN and debate to try and keep their attention (which is why she cries every time she hears "mirror ball")

Once she started doing these activities, her parents finally took more of an interest in her, and she thought for sure she'd won their favor when she became Chief of Staff, but they seemed to be more proud of the fact that they can say the president is their son in law.

All in all, Jaycee has been her best friend since childhood and has been the constant in her life.

Sex Headcanon- For this one, I think I'm going to do some of their kinks

Bradley- Pleasure dom for sure, brat tamer/dumbification (see Chapter 9 for details), and rank kink. A BIG ASS rank kink, and Wise-woman knows. Like she knows if she calls hom "sir," or "Mr. President," it's over. It doesn't matter what they are doing, his hiking up her skirt and bending her over or tossing her over his shoulder and taking her to bed. Also, I feel like President Bradshaw is a tits (and titty tattoo) man and will ask Wise-woman if he can titty fuck her just to cum on them and her tattoo.

p.s. he has a breeding kink we haven't gotten to see yet hehe😈

Wise-woman- BIG BRAT ENERGY (again, see Chapter 6 or 9 for details) as well as a bit of an exhibitionism kink. She also loves being more submissive in the bedroom. She is down for him to choke her, spank her, and pull her hair. She works hard to keep control over so much in her life. It's nice that she can let go and be the one getting taken care of.

However, she does, on occasion, take over and pleasure dom our dear president.

Pretty soon, you're going to find out that in addition to her exhibitionism kink, she has a corruption kink, meaning she knows that there are unconventional places in the White House for them to get freaky in, and she plans to fuck Bradley in every single one of them. And he is going to be willing to do it, like we saw how easy he folded for her in Chapter 9, just know, when they do christen the Oval Office, it's her idea.

Send me a Symbol and a character for a headcanon

tagging some of the President Bradshaw cabinet: @roosterscock @thedroneranger @gretagerwigsmuse @desert-fern @teacupsandtopgun @emorychase @lovinglyeternal @lovingbradshawafterdark @wkndwlff

[mollieblue]

Hey #labour, you should hire me to talk at you about how to actually fix Britain:

Terfs are the enemy, Trans folx are the people.

Small businesses need support on the ground level in order to foster amazing communities.

Invest in education to the point teachers are as paid well as their private peers or dare I say as well as an MP. I would say that if an MP describes their role as being vital, integral and essential to running the country, who receives a handsome tax paid salary with expenses paid with the public purse, why is it that other public sector roles are paid relatively below minimum wage? This applies to all public sector workers; civil servants, NHS staff, and teachers of all stripes. They are just as vital, integral, and essential to running the country, if not more so, than the openly profiteering geezers in Westminster.

Why is it that the rule makers are more important than those ensuring that the rules work? Those holding up society and holding it together are so sorely underpaid in this country that they are giving their lives to you at pittance so you can be okay. The NHS is a wonderful thing, and it breaks my heart that we don't fully fund it. The same goes for education, social services, community organisations, and libraries. These currently literally keep people existing at the bare minimum, but when fully funded and staffed, they transform lives for the better.

Equal pay for Equal work 》 Equal pay for Equal Importance. Ignore the 'we can't pay them the hundreds of thousands that MPs get' elephant in the room. I want you instead to imagine a world in which all public sector workers are paid the exact same amount regardless of hierarchy or public aspect they interact with. I'm no expert, but I reckon £86,584, the basic annual salary for a UK MP in 2023, would be an absolute god send to a junior doctor on roughly £38k. My partner practically works at minimum wage for 50 hours when you account for the marking, the planning, the organisation of your entire schedule to an impromptu meeting with angry parents and worrying about ofsted. It has worn them down, mostly because we can't have a social life, spending money on the theatre, in shops, on things that make us happy and human. We can't save, and we can't afford nice things. That fucking sucks. It wears a person out and throws them out of the system that's holding up the world.

Everyone I know is feeling like the above, regardless if they're private or public, freelance or salaried. One solution to help is basic universal income. Give everyone over 16 £500 & everyone over 18 £1000 each month for a year and see how awesome it would be in a year's time. I already know how much good that would do to me and everyone I know.

So pay everyone £12,000 a year and then pay all public sector workers the base salary of £86,000 rising in step with inflation. If the private sector can, in theory, pay whatever wages it wants, having a guarantee that your basics are paid will eliminate sooooo much stress. Rich folx can donate theirs, college kids can do interesting work at college because £500 buys a lot of art supplies and travel to museums, exhibitions, and events. Youth would have means to explore the nation before university or set up in an apprenticeship. Our elderly can use it to afford end of life care provisions or enrich their retirement or hell, just keep the lights on. Working folx would undoubtedly benefit the most and would probably like their jobs much more if they know things are covered.

To foot the bill, impose a commons tax on all privately owned land that fairly compensates the commons, ie, the UK public, back.

Make the North part of your game plan, rather than a foot note.

On a serious note; nationalise the railway system and expand the network. It is hell going east to west here, up to 3 hours to go 50 miles west and just 3 to get to London from Selby in North Yorkshire. How is this acceptable?

Invest in working class politicians to bring the reality of Britain back into government. Without our views or experiences on the table, why are we surprised when the Tories fuck us over again? If you want true, enthusiastic support from the British people, do not talk at us as if we're irresponsible children and actually engage with the very liberal and progressive discussions we have daily. Especially people under 40 - the older generation that pulled us out of the EU will be gone soon - you need to court and actually help out.

[travelerwanted]

Because I was asked to do this...

I'm going to preface this right now that I am no politician, nor am I any expert. Hell, I didn't even start college. A friend in the UK asked me to write this and gave me the questions so that I am going to attempt to the best of my knowledge answer. Again this is all @eastoniablog's fault though hey if it opens a conversation I'm all for it as long as said conversation stays respectful.

Now let's see what I have to work with.... Again I am no expert, just a normal over stressed, over worked, GenXer trying to make sense of things. Politics is WAY out of my field of expertise.

What's going on? (Had to have her clarify that this was about politics because oh man... loaded question alone here)

Oh where to start with this one... I guess I'll start with the fact that we are one fucked up country. I mean we have two main political parties, there are others, but sadly they don't get much say in anything because how our political system is set up, those with more funding usually get put on the ballot and those who can't get the funding, are usually ignored because "no one cares".

Not everyone really fits into either party and not everyone who is of legal voting age votes. but back to the question. Two parties, the Democrats and Republicans. Guess the easy way to define them would be the Democrats are the party that isn't controlled by the church.

(And I'm going to state here I'm not against Christians, I know several awesome ones, but I am against how at least with American Churches, it's convert or die (Or you go to hell, though I would rather spend an eternity there than in Heaven if it's all filled with the kind of ilk that forgets that their savior preached "Love Thy Neighbor" and traveled the known world with mostly a group of men, whores, and other outcasts). I'm Pagan, I've dabbled in church a few times, and ya know what, not a single one that I have been a member of practice what the book teaches. I may be a bit more biased because on top of being Pagan I'm an opinionated Ace woman who has known friends and family who are also Alphabet Mafia unalive themselves because of the propaganda American churches shove down our throats on a daily basis. Now with that said.. )

The other party are the Republicans, which Donald Trump is a member and has royally fucked over, because of him they proudly are showing their racism, and hatred of women (I mean really with that election and the last one ANY male that voted for him that has a daughter should be investigated in my opinion, because anyone who idolizes a man that idolizes Hitler and wants to sleep with his own daughter... Needs to have their head fucking checked!) , as well as the fact that they think people are stupid. Those who don't follow that sack of garbage, are so far into the Sunday Book Club Cult that they believe anything that a homophobe preacher tells them to believe without ya know actually reading the book themselves. This is the party that is trying to make abortion illegal because "Life begins at conception" while pretty sure the book claims that live begins when the infant takes their first breath, but again what do I know? (I've read the Bible a few times, not an expert on it, but it's not that hard to read it for yourself) This is also the party that the leader of Texas's government belongs to, and he loves life so much that when the power grid failed in his state in a winter storm, he went on vacation (In the middle of Covid lockdown mind you) and let people die from the cold.

why is this happening?

I think I covered the basics... I may have missed some points. But really everything going on now is basically because the Republicans are butt hurt that their 'god' Trump (really you listen to some of them talk and praise the ass... and some of them being women like WTF, he's stated on air that he would sleep with his daughter, and oh gods I'm not even going to go with where he wants to grab those of us who were born women.

Though to be honest, the problem didn't start with him, it probably started back in the 80's with Regan, and well the GOP (Grand old Party aka Republicans) Just kept at it once they had a taste of power. After all they're the ones that started the trickle down economics that the US is stuck with since Regan, and yeah... it doesn't work. But they refuse to give up power. And now the Republicans know if they lose control they're party is doomed (it kinda is already because of the shitstorm Trump is and was)

3) why is the cycle of voting even just continuing

They keep running the vote because the Republicans don't want to give up control, so they keep going for a recount until either the democrats give in or they get what they want.

4) I've seen comparisons to Evergiven please explain

I actually had to give this one a quick glance and I think it's because America happens to be a bigger player on the world stage, and everyone's at a standstill until we figure out what way our government is going to act.

The Ever Given was a container ship that basically froze up world trade while it was stuck in the Suez Canal for over a month. Again I'm not sure if this is why but it's the only reason I can think of. Again I am not big on the political stuff, or even really current events. The news here in the US just keeps pissing me off with all the babies getting killed by bullets because a collection of cells have more rights than a grade schooler in a school, where they're supposed to be safe. Hell the man who terrorizes those kids with a gun have more rights than those kids and their mothers right now.

5) why are all you guys glue to your seats with popcorn and laughing?

The laughter isn't joyous. It's strained laughter, the kind that you do when you have pretty much lost all hope because let's face it you know you're screwed and it's laugh or cry.

And the popcorn... It's cheap. WE spend BILLIONS on the military and they can't track all that money, and using only a fraction of that money would end homelessness and hunger in this country. Hell we have the biggest military, are the only country that happens to have bases in other countries, and we can't take care of our own citizens, which for many parts of the country, the military prey on, making it seem like that's the only way that they'll ever make a survivable income. And then the US Government treats them like shit when they are medically discharged because of trauma and injuries that were caused by doing their job in the service of their country. We have homeless Vets, Young and old, with mental trauma that they can't afford to care for, or is the cause of the crippling debt that put them on the streets...

6) what's this about beating a record?

Not so sure about this one. Again I don't pay too much attention to what's going on. I know I should but for my mental health I feel it's safer to just get little glimpses now and then, and try to keep my head down because I happen to be living in a town that is very anti me.

And lucky number 7: why is this vote so important anyway?

This one, well, the vote on who the speaker of the house is going to be will tell us how well the Senate is going to be working with the President. If the Republicans control it, they're going to make sure nothing gets done out of spite just because Biden happens to be a Democrat. And they love making it look like the president is an incompetent fool (while their own Presidents in the past have had the inability to actually speak clearly, Bush couldn't string a sentence together to sound like he was smart to save his life... and Trump is the village idiot's toenail).

I hope that answers some questions, now I'm going to go back to things that I know more about.

[plantdad-dante]

Book #174 - The Wall by John Lanchester

(page after page, I was praying that Kavanagh would just fucking drown already. but alas. 'twas not to be.)

I have read this fucker twice now. I guess I could have just thrown it out without rereading it for this fool's sideshow I call a blog, but I decided that hey. Maybe I had misunderstood something last time. Maybe I had just approached it with the wrong expectations before, and this time, it would click for me and this book would turn out to be a hidden masterpiece.

And yeah, no, that did not happen. I hate it. I hate this book so much.

The world building sucks ass, both when it's there and the fact that it's mostly not. The main character sucks, and deserves death, violently. Every other character is one-dimensional at best, the love interest has a name, and some physical features, and that's it (halfway through Kavanagh realizes he loves her and I literally wrote down "but why?? who is she, tell me"), and the truly harrowing dystopian future does not reach a resolution, or a point, or even a narrative climax. Instead, it somehow utterly fails to do even the thematic minimum of having its main character and narrator realize that the Wall is an unconscinable and fascist institution in which he was, willingly or not, complicit.

But no, Kavanagh never reckons with the immorality of his country's (and therefore, by extension, his own) actions. He consistently thinks of himself, his personal relationships, his politics and his decisions in terms of his military service and seems incapable of empathy, critical thinking, or ever changing his mind. His feelings are largely stated and then forgotten about, as he does what he is ordered to, what he is expected to do, or what the plot thinks is the most rational and effective action to take in any given moment. He never truly reflects on anything, meaning in a way that matters, that brings about a change of heart. No, Kavanagh, above all, is an empty, self-absorbed vessel that is not here for any sort of personal arc; only to be inhabited by plot and the strange, petty, unchanging apathy with which he narrates and regards the dystopia he lives in.

Kavanagh portrays his entire world and identity through his service as a military conscript, even after his government literally exiles him. He seems to regard the politicians' nationalist propaganda with disinterest and resentment - not because of its content, mind you, but because none of the members of the "elite" did time on the Wall, and therefore all they say is, to him, illegitimate by default. His and his friends' suffering on the Wall is greater than anyone else's, and so the "elite" as well as his entire parent generation get dismissed and diagnosed with being useless because they are so wrapped up in their "guilt" over "letting the world break" - whatever that means.

The world-building never explains what the Change actually did, beyond the vague notions of "rising sea levels" and "global collapse", which is less than nothing to go on. Everyone in the country is ID-chipped, which gets never elaborated on, nor is it explained how anyone unchipped gets found and taken into state custody within a matter of days, apparently. The country runs on nuclear energy, though it is unclear who thought this was a smart idea, were a literally walled-off country wants to put the trash, or how they get the uranium necessary for it, and how that solves other scarce-ressource-dependant problems, like heating. Commercial flight has been limited to the elite because of fuel shortage, yet the army can still do daily recon flights out over the sea to spy out and sink refugee boats, which sounds like the exact opposite of cost-effective, but whatever. There is a state-"owned" slavery system that is never given thematic weight enough to be anything but vile, exploitative set-decoration, and the one (1) humanizing moment that it leads to feels out of place and never even connects to anything else in the book.

Every character is willing and ready to kill to a degree that is frankly ridiculous for a conscript army put under such harsh working conditions with only six weeks of base training (newsflash: the average civilian considers killing to be wrong and would a) need to be pushed to quite pressing and immediate extremes to do it, and b) would still be traumatized by it afterwards). Kav and crew never even think about it, no one is ever affected by it, and even the deaths of friends and comrades are shrugged off and quickly forgotten. No one, not even Kav's closest friend Hughes, gets mourned.

After the Captain gives his very very good reasons for why he betrayed them (namely "I wanted a future for my people, you entitled assheads"), Hifa asks him if he isn't going to apologize, which apparently the entire group expected him to do (???), and I had to write down in my notes "girl, you boomroasted eight of his people without batting an eye". Which she did, not thirty pages earlier. Kav killed about five "Others" over the course of his service on the Wall, and he also never, not once, even registers that he ended five human lives. He also never, to the very end, lets go of calling everyone outside the Wall "Other" - just includes himself and his mates in it, post-exile. Our protagonists, fellow humans.

And I haven't even mentioned the racist bulllshit of that visit to Hifa's mum, the stupid generations war that fundamentally misunderstands why and how young people today have bones to pick with their elders, the fact that more than half the inhabitants of the raft community are mentioned so sparingly that their presence (when Kav herds them into cover during the pirate attack) comes as a confusing suprise, and that he consistently misuses literary terms and techniques. I know that last one is a petty nit-pick, but that is not what a metaphor, prose, a haiku, or a fucking story is. Stop trying to sound poetic when you all you are doing is ascribing a non-physical thing a physical presence and then patting yourself on the shoulder for being oh so profound.

Jesus fucking Christ, fuck this book.

[ultravariety]

i decided to pay for linkedin premium since i thought it would help my chances of getting a job but it's really not helping. i keep seeing different posts from people, not just on linkedin but pretty much every social platform talking about how hard it is to find a job. and the amount of times i've gone out for food and the person before me is asking if they are hiring.

i'm still watching the bear season 3 but napkins... i cried. tina's struggle was so real and i was sobbing. and the coldness you encounter during the entire experience. it's so rare to feel like you are getting anywhere.

i've generally just been depressed about the world.

america and it's government for one. it's hard to watch. i think it's even harder to watch the vote blue no matter who crowd. i used to be a staunch believer in being an active participant in voting but ever since i saw that comment that was like "they encourage you to go through their systems for change so that you are stopped in the system" (not exactly but you get the gist) made me rethink it. why bother voting for the change we need when no one is bringing it to the table? it's hard to watch someone BEG for "vote blue!! vote BLUE!!" when active genocide and disenfranchisement has been happening under blue. like.. on god... are you dumb? blue or red you are FUCKED.

i love taking the opportunity to criticize the american government so it's hard to listen to people reinforce the system. voting isn't even equal!!!!! should've been your first clue that it's all fucked up!!!

maybe controversial, but we should start killing people. i wish death upon my premier. may his dumbass choke and fall down several flights of stairs.

i'm so serious tho. it's liberal brain rot to think we can hold hands and peacefully reach a "proper solution" to any issue. we need to start throwing bricks

OMG and the supreme court!!! kill them fuckers too!! everyone is so old and lame, i'm convinced if a firework blew up next to them they would go into cardiac arrest. honestly that goes for all of them, presidential candidates, government employees. all old asses need to GO. yes i am being ageist on this one. no i do not care, get them to do a cognitive function test before they get to work.

i hate it in canada too. and it's so fucked bc the problems just keep compounding and no politician is for the people. pretty much every politician is either a landlord or related to a developer so the housing crisis will never get fixed. and every monopoly insists of making life unbearable here. why was my phone bill $63? because they can. groceries? so expensive. and public transit is dogshit. and they are taking away culture centres too.

i expressed wanting to move away. my shortlist is spain, portugal, the netherlands or brazil

brazil seems to be controversial anytime i talk about it but it feels like people don't think south americans are people sometimes. "so much crime, corruption, it's dangerous, you can't trust".... i have to wait 3 years for 750m of road to be repaired. cops are always just lounging at construction sites. there are way too many charities and foundations set up by billionaires for tax write offs. assaults on transit are so much more frequent. healthcare is getting less and less funding people need to pay for services. kids are stupid as hell because education is also underfunded. mass immigration is burdening social services because we don't have enough resources to accommodate these people AND immigrants who are mostly international students are being targeted by universities and colleges so they can charge ridiculous tuition and leave them with no support. so as if it's really any better here.

and yet, when i talk about wanting to leave, everyone has an opinion. "oh it's not really that great there, it's over hyped" "it's still expensive to live there" "you won't have anyone" pls. i barely have anyone HERE.

i don't feel supported on decisions i want to make for myself. they are selfish wants so yeah i get it, but i don't care. i want it for me!!!! i am miserable!!! my mental health is in the gutter and the more time i'm subjected to living at home, the worse it gets. i'm drowning and people keep high fiving me instead of throwing a life support.

and more than anything, the lack of support makes me doubt my ability to do anything. maybe i'm not capable of finding a better job? maybe i'm not even deserving of better? is this just my burden to bare? will i never escape?

it makes me wish i was dead instead. rather be dead than live through all this. not even a glimmer of hope. there is not light at the end of the tunnel. i rather be dead than have to live all these years just for the pay off to come when i'm 50 or something. that's 20 more years of pain? no thanks.

all this to say, i know im not alone on this. many people are in my scenario. they are probably handling it better than i am. i'm not good at this - i'm not patient, and clearly not optimistic. i feel like i'm reaching the end of my rope.

[theweirderofthetwo]

📓 tell me about Temeraire fanfiction!

Ok so first i’m very [flailing hands, excited noises] about getting an ask! Second, I’m so so Sorry for being slow to answer. And third i also realized I have l less fic thought out than it feels like, its mostly little loose details and questions rattling around…

I have recently been thinking about something that would be Very outsider pov: a series of conversations that is basically different distant acquaintances discussing/reacting to news about laurence. Just some scenes with different people at different times during the story (or alternatively, different people reacting to the same thing?). Thoughts so far:

- the crew of the Reliant - some seaman later serving on a different ship and telling others about how he was there at temeraire’s hatching and confidently sharing his “expertise” about dragons. Or just something like:

”How come you are so unafraid(?) of dragons, mr ——?”

”I was on the reliant, sir, when temeraire hatched. And himself was polite as any could want and even saved —— when he went over in a storm. He never woulda et none of us sir.” (Spose theres some sense to it, captain laurence had everybody mind their manners. Us and the officers too. Made sure the little gentlemen understood the ship and didnt abuse us for no good reason)

[excuse my attempt at writing some unspecified accent, english is not my first language]

- some of the correspondence that laurence is pretty good at remembering when things are only a little bit crazy. Like - Hello dear friend, it is good to hear from you again - I Assure you I am not Offended by this recent Unfortunate pause in our correspondence, but it really has been a Long while since I last had Word from you. My family is well, as is [some mutual friend] who I was happy to catch last month at a Dinner. Now I must Ask, what Pray Tell is this I Hear about you having been Made a Prince?? ….something something

- some of the abolitionist politicians talking to each other like “so have you heard the classified part of what went down in brazil?” I feel they would be interestingly conflicted about it since it is a win towards stopping slavery, but they probably had a different vision for how they thought that should happen and they also probably didnt want portugal weakened at that time so… Also: “That’s our friend’s chaos son doing things again. Should we send him congratulation or condolences? Or perhaps just never mention it?” “Never mentioning it would likely be best I think.”

———

Something i have managed more specific thoughts about is actually animatics. I barely know anything about making any kind of video, but i have two ideas that will not let me go to such a degree that i have detailed notes for one of them and a full storyboard for the other. Actually the reason i started making Temeraire fanart beyond little margin doodles is because i needed to figure out the characters for these animatics.

The song i have a storyboard for is The trial of Lancelot by Heather Dale. Not every line fits perfectly, but a lot of it goes very well with Laurence's own trial.

The other one would be mostly pre canon Laurence set to How far i'll go from Moana. (It works ok)

I realize that while i love pretty much every character in the series Laurence is the one im most focused on. I think its partly because empathy is something i have to do very much On Purpose which means i generally get most attached to main characters whose feelings are more explained in the story. But also partly because I’m fascinated both by the specific way 19th century brits are fucked up and by the struggle of figuring out your own set of morals when the system you belived in fails you.

[gayahithwen]

I notice that you immediately moved the goal post after I showed you that your "fact check" was factually incorrect. If you're not willing to ever admit fault, you will continue down a path of sunk cost fallacies that will only drive you towards more hatred and violent extremism.

Calling for recounts in close races is actually perfectly fine and normal. I personally don't know anyone who had a problem with Trump calling for a recount on the states he lost by a small margin. Were we worried about what the outcome would be? Sure. But it was his right, and recounts were done. And Biden still won.

Like, I don't understand how I can explain to you that people who genuinely care about democracy actually want things to be done democratically?

Harris/Walz is a vastly different ticket than Trump/Vance. If you can't see that, then... I don't know how to fix that.

Yes, Harris is not as pro-Palestine as we wish she could be, and peaceful protestors being arrested for "blocking traffic" is ridiculous.

But Harris is at least fighting for a cessation of violence. Trump, on the other hand, has said he'd deport pro-Palestinian protestors, and that he wants Israel to "finish the problem" with Gaza.

Those are some significant differences on the one issue you seem to care about.

Those of us who care about policies beyond Israel are also quite excited at the thought of having politicians in charge who are willing to do things like create programs that allows first time offenders to go to school instead of prison, or ones that make sure school children get free meals (both of those programs are real examples that Harris and Walz have actually done).

The Democrat party is actually acknowledging the wealth inequality in the country and have shown themselves willing to try some common sense approaches like increasing corporate tax rates and allowing the IRS the resources to investigate rich people's tax fraud.

You know, while the GOP thinks 13 year old girls should be forced to give birth to their rapist uncle's child, and that billionaires need yet another tax cut.

Also, wtf are you talking about "entitled" to people's votes? That's not what this post is about at all. This post is a democratic reminder of how fucked up the electoral college is, and reminding people that if just six hundred people in Florida had voted for Gore instead of Nader, the early 2000s would most likely have been significantly different.

Would a Gore presidency have been perfect? No, I don't believe so. But there's a decent chance a more intelligent president would have been able to prevent 9/11. And even if he hadn't, he would probably not have full-on defied the UN Security Council to start an illegal war. The United Nations used to actually have some sway back in the day.

This post is about pointing out the futility of voting third party as long as the US remains a first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all, bipartisan system.

And it's pleading (not demanding, like you seem to think) with people like you, up on your high horse and ignoring mostly everything I'm saying, to make the choice and vote for harm reduction in lieu of your "ideologically pure" candidate who will never get enough votes to get into office.

With Kamala/Walz going up DAILY, I've seen more people talking about voting third party/Jill Stein (EW) and I believe the above screencaps from @three--rings can explain WHY Third Party votes NEVER work NOR is this the election to screw around in.

Everyone....like she says above.....PLEASE LEARN FROM HISTORY!!!

(Because if Trump gets in, he's NEVER LEAVING).

[msbarrows]

Watched a bit of the coverage of the ongoing circus-that-is-the-US-House-of-Representatives today. Had to stop watching it at the point where a new round of nominations was starting up, because I dislike listening to speeches by even my own politicians at the best of times and that was just... fuck off. Go get fired directly into the sun, you hypocritical asshats.

Anyway. Had me thinking about how GD thankful I am to live in a country with a (relatively) sane system of democracy.

We don’t have the insanity of a two-party system or an electoral college or related nonsense. Anyone can form a party, though you don’t start seeing official taxpayer-paid support for it until it’s won a minimum number of seats. (And oh, the delightful schadenfreude of watching the old federal conservatives tank so hard they lost official party status).

We don’t have horseshit like gerrymandering, because we started fixing that noise back in the 60s, and today it’s all done by purposefully non-partisan independent commissions who mostly aim to make nice neat rectilinear shapes rather than Escher’s carefully curated salamanders.

The right to vote is enshrined in our constitution, and afaik at this point in time we don’t exclude anyone who is old enough to vote (except the Chief Electoral Officer and the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer themselves). Not by race, not by gender, not by present or past criminal status, not by age (apart from old enough to vote), not even by physical location (as of 2019). You can live abroad for years at a time and still be a Canadian eligible to vote in Canadian elections (though figuring out what riding you’re eligible to vote in might take a little more work than normal, if you haven’t maintained a Canadian address).

And registering for the vote is stupidly easy here. Elections Canada maintains the roles, and there’s none of that constant door-to-door data-gathering going on. You pay taxes? There’s a check box to share your name and address with Elections Canada. Do a change of address via Canada Posts’ address service? Part of the service is that they inform Elections Canada. Plus there’s a web site, phone numbers, local offices... And if all else fails, you can register at the polls on election day itself, just bring all the right ID along. And “all the right ID�� includes a lengthy list of possibilities. Obviously any government issued ID counts (from any level of government), but also things like a student ID card. Library card. Label on a prescription container. Utility bill. Bank statement. Letter of confirmation from a student/old age/long term care residence, a shelter, or even a damned soup kitchen. Failing all else, haul along someone else who does have ID, fill in a form declaring your name and address in writing, and have the person with ID vouch that you are who you say you are.

In a real democracy, the goal is to encourage as many people as possible to get out and vote, not to put roadblocks in their way.

Though I do kind of wish we’d adopt Australia’s “don’t vote, get fined” system. And I say that as someone who can’t always be bothered to take the time to walk to the polls and vote, because I know given a choice between walking over or paying a $50 fine on my next taxes, I’d probably walk over. (I also wish we’d adopt their get a sausage while you’re at it thing).

[d0ntw0rrybehappy]

This NYT article blurb is… flawed lol. Why do objects only belong to “humankind” when they’re located in the United States? Its argument against museum repatriation is that the US mostly, and Britain/France also, should be the world centers of art-viewing, even if part of the reason they got there is just by stealing a bunch of art.

Then there’s the idea of the “surge,” museums being “randomly depleted.” Like the museums are being irrational, succumbing to the “woke” spell, from which we will awaken, 10 years from now, and say, “What were we thinking? Those fine artifacts, gifts to humankind, lost to the savages!” Are those asking for artifacts back succumbing to the woke spell too? Is the call for for museum repatriation, to some degree, just political grandstanding? Like, idk, the origin countries trying to gain cultural capital, or to weaken the mythos of the US somehow? Is it politicians trying to drum up votes by igniting nationalist fervor?

Well, first of all, the vast majority of artifacts in question were stolen, and the rest, the argument goes, were the spoils of coercion or incomplete consent (trickery, political occupation, authorization by someone without the authority — this happened a lot in Native American land purchases, they would get some random Native American guy to sign the papers). So the “depletion” isn’t random — stolen items are being removed — except insofar as the repatriation is not internationally systemic and American collections now having holes, apparently, that they didn’t have before. Is “coercion” a slippery slope? If it is, a slope to what? Second, what’s wrong with other countries wanting more cultural capital, perhaps at some expense to America’s? Who is arguing against this, besides Americans?

Who really benefits from the centralization of art objects besides the people with the means and will to visit America? The average person might benefit more from those cultural riches in their own countries. For scholars and (and for the worldwide benefit of scholarship), maybe centralization makes sense. But I wonder if there might be workarounds for this. And repatriation may even enrich scholarship in the origin country.

And then there’s the whole question of how long a country is responsible for its past crimes… well… a lot of artifacts were stolen only in the 60s. Elderly Nazi generals are still being arrested, not that this is equivalent at all, but there is some precedent. Another difference being there has been no worldwide trial to determine justice for stolen art. Maybe there should be. That would fix the problem of “random” depletion, for one — it would create a system of guidelines for identifying and repatriating art.

And then in this blurb to promote the other ways, unrelated to the museum repatriation issue, that museums are being more progressive, is very silly. That doesn’t solve the matter at hand and is biased reporting??? (Because it looks like they’re trying to say “we don’t need all this repatriation business — look at all the nice things museums ARE doing for nonwhite cultures!”) Idk if it’s purposeful but if it is, omg NYT shame on you.

What I’m more worried about (imo, I’m not that educated on this lol) is the level of risk to the artifact if it were returned to its country. E.g. ISIS destroyed tons of priceless, ancient artifacts in Iraq. In countries constantly under attack (not that sculptures are even the most important matter here, people dying is), then yeah, maybe keep the objects in countries that are more stable. But the NYT is talking about Italy, Greece, Cambodia, Egypt, and Nigeria… idk if that applies here. Maybe in Cambodia or Egypt? I don’t know, there would have to be some kind of evaluation (and it wouldn’t be black and white, it would be some percentage of risk). And maybe some new international laws on not letting insurgents fuck up art pieces. Or where the art is sent if there’s a clear and present threat of conflict. Again though, extremely sad to be talking about this when we can’t or won’t protect /people/.

THEN you get into this whole argument I heard from my two expat Indian professors in a college class which is like… the western ideal of eternal preservation for art/religious objects is not necessarily shared throughout the world. E.g. in India, ancient temples are still regularly attended for worship, and it’s not impossible to find ancient goods for sale. Ironic for the US to have a strong opinion about preservation when any non-indigenous cultural artifact has been here for 300 years at most (I do wonder about all those open-air petroglyphs just totally open for hikers to mess with though). Let’s say it’s a situation where an origin country/people wants a stolen object back, they turn down an offer to be fairly compensated for it, and a replica of the stolen object (even produced by the traditional culture and craft!) can’t be made - eg if the object is ancient and there is something to be gleaned from that. In that case I think there might be merit to preservation over return. Because then it comes down to a difference in cultural beliefs: preservation vs reuse, gradual evolution, or religious disposal. And if scholars believe there is serious merit to preserving the object for study, then I have a much more ambivalent opinion about repatriation. Idk. My guess is that’s a concern only for a minority of repatriation cases.

Conclusion: some objects should be repatriated. Some should not. Repatriation should be determined by whether the object was legitimately acquired, the risk to the object of returning it to its origin country, and the original object’s importance to current and potential scholarship, if it is to be reused or destroyed. Maybe this could be determined by a neutral third party. A SHOCKING conclusion. I don’t expect anyone to get through all this lol but would love to know what you guys think?