#and that was back in the livejournal days

[maxdibert]

Feelings around Snape now are so, so different to how they were in 2007 when the final book was released (though there was a fair amount of infuriating sexual assault apologia on LiveJournal back then too). I do think that the predominant factor in the baffling online discourse around Snape over the last decade is the American cultural disconnect with Britain. Anglophone countries, but totally different societies. Current American dominance wins out on the internet platforms used for fandom. The unwillingness to consider the nuances in a ostracised boy who flirts with a fascist cult while looking for purpose definitely seems rooted in America’s extraordinarily polarised political environment. The ‘incel’ label incorrectly applied to Snape is based entirely on American archetypes of the male school shooter who couldn’t get a girlfriend.

I saw infinite dismayed reactions to the rumoured casting along the lines of ‘but if they cast Snape as a black man I’ll have to sympathise with him!’ which basically sums the disconnect up. The industrial history of 1970s Britain isn’t on mainstream fandom’s radar, everything is seen through the prism of America’s particular flavour of identity politics.

I completely agree, and in fact, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s not at all a coincidence that the most fervent Snape haters I encounter online—or at least those who fail to understand how class dynamics work—are primarily from the States. And I say from the States because this doesn’t seem to be the case with people from Latin America, whose societies were colonized under a strong framework of social classes and strata due to the influence of Spanish imperialism at the time, in addition to being victims of multiple dictatorships, authoritarian regimes, and narco-governments. This gives people in Latin America a broader social perspective.

The States' people ones (because United States is not America, America is a whole continent and as a spanish person with a lot of Latin American friends i find quite disrespectful to call United States people Americans as if they where the only americans in the world lol) operate under a neoliberal worldview that is very different from this and also very different from Europe’s perspective on class struggle. Europe experienced fascism, and it’s Europeans who understand how fascism rose to power—not as something driven purely by economic elites suddenly deciding to start killing people, but as deeply populist political movements widely accepted by the social majority and even by much of the working class. These movements used propaganda to push rhetoric that fed into people’s needs and promised to address their economic and social problems.

This provides an objective perspective on how voting for Hitler or joining the Hitler Youth didn’t automatically make someone an inhuman monster. It was something that regular people, everyday individuals, did—people who didn’t necessarily have a vile or ruthless intent toward anyone but believed in a particular discourse and rhetoric. Understanding this is crucial for grasping how a character like Snape could end up joining the Death Eaters. But if you’re, I don’t know, living in a small town in Wisconsin and all you know is that it’s trendy to call any Trump supporter a Nazi and that everything is “Nazi” without having the slightest idea of what a Nazi really is, then you end up buying into a ridiculously simplistic narrative without any critical thinking or thorough analysis of the social and economic contexts that drive a society toward far-right ideologies.

I’m sorry, but they’re living in parallel realities. At the end of the day, the Harry Potter series, no matter how politically clueless Rowling is or how much her worldview is utterly bourgeois and biased, is still British. Britain is in Europe, and fascism was experienced in Britain just as it was in the rest of Europe. Similarly, Britain remains a parliamentary monarchy with a class system that isn’t based solely on economics and where a person’s value isn’t measured solely by their wealth but also by their lineage. It’s an aristocratic society, and aristocracy will always rank above the bourgeoisie. These people truly don’t understand this, nor do they make the slightest effort to try. And if they don’t do their homework, honestly, their opinions are worthless garbage.

[disaster-kitchen]

It's new year's eve! Traditionally, this means ginger snaps. (it's not really a tradition, it's just the thing I do when we have people over and it's closing in on 1am and I want them out of my house. surprise! I wandered out of the living room to make cookies, stuff that in your face and gtfo. but slightly nicer than that.)

Since we're not hosting anything or going anywhere this year, and since December has been such an epic shitshow, I'm skipping the cookies and making Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Gingerbread Cake.

...you know, I kind of understand the recipe-blog urge to pontificate before the recipe. maybe I just like to hear myself talk. Anyway, this is a slightly modified version of Nigella's recipe. It's a gooey, spicy, chocolatey, decadent thing, and it's possibly my favorite cake recipe, ever.

1 1/2 sticks (12 tbs) butter

1 c. + 2 T dark brown sugar

2 T granulated sugar

3/4 c. golden syrup (sub half corn syrup and half honey- or all honey- if you don't have a tin of golden syrup lying around, dont sweat it)

3/4 c. molasses

1/4 tsp ground cloves (I'm still using allspice, fuck cloves, all my homies hate cloves, unless they're being poked into oranges)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

2 T warm water

2 eggs

1 c. milk

2 c. flour

1/3 c. cocoa

1/4 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Line a glass 10x13 pan with parchment paper. (You want glass because of the honey; if using golden syrup, use whatever pan your heart desires.)

In a large saucepan, melt the butter with the sugars, syrup, molasses, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. make your life easier by using a lightly oiled liquid measuring cup for the molasses and other syrups. or don't! enjoy being sticky.

Dissolve baking soda in water.

Take saucepan off heat, and whisk in eggs, milk and soda/water

Reserve ~1 tbs flour.

Sift remaining flour, cocoa, and salt into wet mixture and stir to combine

Toss the chocolate chips in the reserved flour, then fold in chocolate chips.

Bake about 45 min until risen and firm. The middle should still be a little damp under the set top, and will sink a little. . (I went an extra 10 minutes because I used a 9x13 pan, it went until the middle was set but not risen.) Cool in the pan.

Make glaze or frosting, if you want. Nigella has a ginger beer and chocolate glaze; I've also made this with a cardamom cream cheese icing, which is faaaabulous. (take a standard cream cheese icing- block of cream cheese, few tbs butter, powdered sugar until you like the consistency- and add 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2-1tsp ground cardamom.)

I like the way Nigella describes this- makes 12 fat slabs. This is technically a 1 bowl recipe, even if I magically always manage to dirty every bowl and utensil in the house; the flour sifting is entirely optional, but it will help reduce lumps in the batter.

The first time I made this was in 2010, when I ran out of molasses, had no corn syrup, and had to scrounge for as much honey as I could find in the cupboards. My early #disaster-kitchen days were full of me starting recipes without checking to see if I had all the ingredients. (There are several funny stories about that, actually, one of which led to me getting married. Remind me to make that honey cake recipe again.)

But, more importantly, the last time I made this was some time in 2011 or 2012, so I had no idea what recipe I'd used for it. But I did post about it on livejournal when I made it. Buuuut my LJ is friends locked, so I had to log back in. Which, of course, meant I had to reset my password. And that was one of the last posts I'd made! But the recipe I linked to went to a dead site. But! The Wayback Machine saved me! So here we are.

It smells so fucking good, you guys. The molasses, the spices, the chocolate- so. fucking. good.

[summonerluna]

I don't know how to exist in a new fandom. I am so freaking awkward and anxious and have spent so long in ffviii where I have close, *deep* friendships, and at least recognize a lot of other active fan's usernames, and feel (with a few exceptions) accepted here.

And now I have this new fandom and want to flail and scream at how much I love some of the fic and art generated and finally understand from the *other* side of things why people say they feel a little unhinged if they do that.

[secondbeatsongs]

when you're into the Big Ship™ in a Big Fandom™, you have the luxury of having an OTP - a real One True Pairing, where you can read about just them for ages, and you will never run out of fics, and everything is perfect and beautiful and nothing hurts

but when you go to a smaller fandom, you'd better pray to whatever god you worship that someone else in this room ships the same thing that you do, and that if they do, they're writing more than late-night crackfic, because you're on thin fucking ice!

and how small is your small fandom? is it less than 100 fics? maybe even...less than 20 fics?

welp, then it's time to make peace with that god and either open up a text document or learn how to ship everything, because it's swim or drown babey! and your ship is sinking fast

anyway all of this is to say that after hanging out in small fandoms and shipping less-common pairings for a while, going back into a Big Huge Fandom™ is wild because suddenly it's like...wait, why didn't I ship these people again? I don't remember. why was I only sticking to one ship in this fandom?? boring of me, honestly. these guys should make out.

[abrandnewshadow]

2008 livejournal discussion about f.t.willz

both posted by anon in 2008. and where tf did they get that idea

I liked this persons case below

and some relevant comments here

[piratespencilart]

These two have been one of my favourite sorta niche One Piece ships for years and I'm so glad the live action did them justice. :)

[littlebreadrolls]

bertie wooster: fanart comparison, 2013 vs 2024

I was sketching bertie wooster today, and I suddenly remembered that my teenage self had drawn bertie wooster too

and that my teenage self had even submitted that drawing to a LIVEJOURNAL COMMUNITY called indeedsir (back in the days when livejournal communities still existed).

so i dug through my old computer files to find the old fanart and

yeah. 10 years. wow. it went by just like that.

the sages were right. the years really do start coming and they don't stop coming.

[dharmafox]

This is the thing I'm talking about if anyone hasn't seen it.

This would be for the Mononoke series from 2007, NOT the Ghibli movie.

[lith-myathar]

.

[nimoy]

i was an acdc freak for most of the beginning of my life and was like majorly obsessive (they were literally like. my world revolved around then basically) over them/they were like, my main special interest probably from ages 9-15 and i hardly listen to them anymore but these last few days theres been an omen lurking. i read brian johnsons new(ish) book during a time of great weakness and remembered that unfortunately this dick and balls butt rock band that none of my friends like bc theyve all evolved their tastes past middle school are like, actually my boo boo bears.

[zombeesknees]

i was confused as to why my dash was suddenly full of LOST -- specifically the "Pilot", which, truth be told, really IS a helluva pilot, regardless of what came after -- and then I realized yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the premiere.

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

I’m sorry but that boomer woman commenting on Georgia Tennant’s Staged post with powerful thirst is living rent free in my head

The entire British press: Wow look how cute Michael Sheen and David Tennant’s friendship is!! Wow, they’re such close friends, look at their bromance, they have such ✨ chemistry (no homo,) they’re totes obsessed with each other in an super heterosexual platonic way!!1! ^_^

Irene: Lol they fuckin can I watch

[overlyspecificmcrmemes]

ao3 being down hasn’t bothered me too much because i have unholyverse pdf downloaded onto my phone so ill be good for at least 48 hours but once im finished rereading it again for the millionth time i may have to resort to livejournal bandom

[ghoulangerlee]

posting that rite here rite now fic gained me some new followers, so like hi! im lee, im in my 30s, i like to write silly little fics. i do write stuff abt the ghouls but i really enjoy tossing copia into the pile and seeing what happens with that.

other than that i play video games, dm a three+ year long d&d game, and teach myself italian in my free time

i think that's it, but i love new friends and i love writing things for people so if you wanna drop in my ask or dms and chat im for that! my pinned post has links to where you can find all my fics too :) but if you peruse the my writing tag on my blog its all there as well!

[thecolorsfucked]

trying to build distress tolerance and one of the coping skills mentioned is an old proana trick to retrain ur brain about hunger

[rubber-garage]

We’re like pioneers or something