#anyway black lives/indigenous lives have not stopped mattering

[wathanism]

Your ideals are going to kill people. The only thing refusing to vote is going to do is ensure that the republicans win and their project 2025 gets enacted. This is not a conspiracy theory. They want a theocracy. They want authoritarianism. They want fascism. You and everyone you convince to not vote is letting that happen.

I don't know who convinced you that its impossible to care about two things at once, but abandoning the vulnerable here in the states because you care so deeply about the vulnerable on the other side of the world doesn't make you more righteous.

Refusing to vote for him is a foolish act that will do nothing to stop what is happening. Even if he finally pulls back all aid for Israel at the eleventh hour, no one will vote for him now, which means the vulnerable right here at home are fucked. Thanks.

i was really close to not answering you at all because i have a hard rule about not talking with selfish cunts who are commited to misunderstanding everything a non-white person says to them. but since you had the good sense to realize that you were being an ass right then, i'm going to assume that you're worth engaging with, and i'm going to hope you'll talk with me in good faith and read everything i have to say rather than blow up at me again. if nothing else, i'm going to use this as an opportunity to say all the things i've been wanting to say since i made that post. that said, i'm real pissed and i'm not gonna be all nice and palatable in my answer.

first of all, no i'm not a US citizen. i live in west asia. y'know, where all the wars are? gaza is five hours away from my hometown of damascus, which is also being bombed with your tax dollars, by the way! in fact, i grew up living under a textbook authoritarian theocracy. so don't sit there and talk to me like i don't know what it's like to be afraid of your own government. we're in this shithole world together, and you and i are a hell of a lot more like each other than the politicians putting our lives on the line.

second of all, i should have been more clear about what i actually would like for US voters to do. contrary to small-minded liberals' assumptions, i'm not republican nor am i anti-voting. i'm saying people should vote third party. i even have a preferred candidate in mind, jasmine sherman. they even have strict and well-defined policies to protect trans rights and provide universal healthcare that includes gender affirming care and reproductive care.

this is usually the point when usamericans talk down to me like it's my first day on earth, so let me be clear. i know about the electoral college. i know about the flaws of the first-past-the-post voting system. i know about ranked-choice voting and why that's a better system in almost every way. i know that until there's drastic changes to the US voting system, there is no chance a third party candidate could even win. i'm not delusional about that. and i'm asking you to protest-vote anyway. which, yes, i realize is a big ask, but consider that this is a big fucking problem that requires pretty drastic actions.

several absolute dumbasses who i refuse to engage with said some very interesting stuff that made me realize why so many people are quick to dismiss the idea of refusing to vote for either major party. some examples:

they describe the push to vote third party as us lashing out at biden. in their eyes, we're not politically aware adults with a righteous passion for justice. no, we're petulant children causing problems for everyone whose rights actually matter. maybe a nicer person than me can give them the benefit of the doubt, but i find it extremely suspect that they truly seem to believe that non-white people are irrational, easily-angered, thoughtless creatures with no understanding of the complexities of the situation. there's a complete refusal to consider that there might be an actual coherent strategy behind the activism of indigenous and black people.

and again, because this is not my first day on earth, i know about the "but trump!!" argument. i honestly am BAFFLED that liberals seem to genuinely believe they're offering anything novel or valuable to the discussion at hand when they parrot talking points that we've been hearing since 2016 with quite literally nothing to show for it.

but i digress. the important thing is: yes, i fucking know. i know trump would have a near identical policy on gaza. he'd also have an identical policy on the police, on covid, on immigration, and on most other issues. you worry about project 2025, and you're right to! but the thing is, and you'll forgive me for quoting imani here but she is the most correct person ever always, "everything in project 2025 relies on biden doing exactly what he's fucking doing right now. the more successful this genocide is, the more likely project 2025 is to happen." because at the end of the day, it doesn't require a republican president. it requires a CONSERVATIVE president. and that's what biden is.

i don't know if you're missing it or if you don't care, but democrats benefit from you being terrified, and that's exactly why they'll never keep you safe. you will always be one election away from being killed by the system because that's what keeps you complicit. democrats won't shoot the gun, but they will ALWAYS make sure it's loaded and that you're trapped in a room with the person who'll shoot you. don't forget that roe v. wade was overturned on biden's watch. trans rights were rolled back on biden's watch. covid deaths skyrocketed and protections were dismantled on biden's watch. he'll find every loophole in the book to funnel weapons to israel's military but he'll never lift a finger to fix the problems ruining your life, because he needs you to be as scared as you are. that's exactly what's keeping you from showing an ounce of compassion or solidarity to palestinians right now. and no, your fucking lip service and crocodile tears don't count as solidarity.

liberals have managed to completely forget the most important lesson about social justice: none of us are free until all of us are free. you've been so busy yelling at arabs to even realize that this moment in time is one of the greatest pushes against the two-party system. do you not get how important that is? right now, when damn near everyone who's even mildly left leaning (and many who are right leaning) is so deeply unsatisfied with both major candidates, is the perfect time to be thinking of ways to break out of this system. to organize, to advocate for your mystical fucking ranked choice voting!

palestinians aren't asking you to lay down your life and throw away your human rights so they can mildly spite joe biden. they're asking you to grow a fucking spine and stand on principle and god damn DO SOMETHING to tear apart the two-party system. make people realize that a third party candidate IS a viable one, so that one day they can be.

you're framing this as a matter of pitting palestinians versus americans, which couldn't be further from the truth. maybe instead of directing your hate towards palestinians and their allies, show some gratitude. palestinians are uncovering the veil of all the atrocities and all the corruption in the world, and they're giving the people of the earth a banner to unite under. there have never been so many people (afaik, at least) pushing against the systems of corruption in america. that kind of thing ripples out. standing with palestine isn't easy, but all of our lives will be better for it, including and especially the lives of minorities living in the US.

there is so, SO much more i can say about palestine, and it will inevitably turn into a very spiritual rant about the uniting force of the holy land. but i'm instead just gonna leave you with this tweet that i think sums up everything about this.

[sombraluna]

saw a prominent israeli user on here say that Hamas wants to create a totalitarian government and that whether or not you support palestine you still shouldn't support hamas and I really wanna talk about that.

I'm jewish. I have Israeli and Palestinian relatives. I have arab and jewish friends from all over the various diasporas and I know black and indigenous people who have spoken from their community's experiences with these things. I'm not speaking out of my ass here.

It. Does. Not. Matter. What. Hamas's. End. Goal. Is.

There is no excuse in any way, shape, or form for the subjugation and oppression the Palestinian people are facing. Yes, Jews have our history in the Levant. Many of us never left. The Palestinians ALSO never left. Many young men are joining Hamas because it's the only militarized organization that will let them at least TRY and fight back. Palestinians are scared people and they have the choice to either lay down and die, or at least try and fight to let their families survive.

I don't really care how you feel about Hamas in the face of a genocide. I don't. Israel could have at any point sinply funded a proper government for Palestine that wasnt left over from the Ottoman/Arab war, but they didnt. Israelis want to get on here and talk about totalitarianism when their government just shot a missile at Israelis who were protesting the war. The only reason Israel hasn't simply solved the problem by funding a Palestinian government and healthcare is because they are ALSO A TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENT.

Yes, Hamas should have never taken Israeli hostages or killed anyone. This is unforgiveable. However, I want you to guess how many Palestinian hostages Israel has taken in the last fifteen years. How many were released on the ceasefire? Not even half. Israel also shot released (two of whom were brown) Israeli hostages because they decided that they were Palestinians.

Israel has milled more innocent Palestinians in the past month than Hamas did with the October 7th attack. This is not about stopping Hamas. This was an excuse to kill Palestine. This does not mean Israeli citizens are at fault, or that Jews have done anything wrong. This also does not mean that Hamas should govern if they win this war. What it does mean is that the Israeli government does not care about anyone but itself and is inherently corrupt. It means that Hamas is not relevant to the conversations surrounding the war efforts anymore, because the citizens of Palestine are the only ones getting targeted. It means that the exile is not over and that if we ever eant to truly return to Israel that amends must ve made with Palestinians.

Anyways, if you're looking to support Palestinian families and queer people trying to escape war, and you'd like proof that your money is Actually doing something, please go to Rain Dove's page on Instagram. They are a queer model and activist who is currently in Gaza helping families escape. They went to Ukraine as well to help refugees, and I've been following them for years. They are living proof that Gazans are not a threat to the queer community as well as proof that there is a genocide happening right now.

[molotoph]

Magic functionally is a shorthand for the intricate systemic structures of white supremacy’s power by reducing them from a massive stranglehold of checks and balances to uphold each other ad infinitum, to a single power source that when removed removes all of their weapons and ability to enforce their own genocidal order, you obstinate shit brained brat.

Let’s check our notes on how well America’s beautiful and totally real democracy is working out for the reduction of genocide against indigenous people at home and abroad, how it’s working out protecting the lives and rights of black people, of trans people, of the poverty class. OH RIGHT IT’S FUCKING NOT, AND IT ULTIMATELY IS WORKING AS IT WAS DESIGNED TO WORK. But whatever, enjoy your corporate sponsored brat summer.

Telling anarchy to constantly look for a “better option” when what you mean is “an option where neither I nor the ruling class whose aesthetics make me endlessly sympathetic to and patient with them never have to lose anything uwu” is just a refusal to engage with a reality that at the end of the day you aren’t willing to allow in. I have my lattes and my duvet but I also have my fucking rage, I have my love for my human siblings the globe over, I have my comrades’ support to lean on when I’m weak. My praxis defines how I seek a better world. You don’t get to keep whiteness.

Nobody gets to keep whiteness. I don’t want it. It is a stain on me that separates me from others who rightfully must shut it out. But sure. I’m not worth arguing with. “Arguing to” you’re not giving me your dnc debate. An argument isn’t a matter of preaching. I don’t think you’re worth arguing with either, you leave the taste of Vaush and blue wave in my mouth. I’m showing your words to other people to show how y’all aren’t interested in any revolution because when we get down to it sweetheart, you don’t find anything wrong enough to leave. And other anarchists can do the work to try to hold baby’s little hand through understanding human rights, but I won’t bother. You being angy isn’t as valuable as time that could be spent with my comrades, with learning history, with trying to save lives by killing Nazis.

“Nazis didn’t use magic uwu” no shit. They used the irl equivalent. If we had magic here you wouldn’t fucking understand anyway. “Distribute the whiteness instead” You poor thing.

Tell me what the difference is in what it does to cities and human bodies between carpet bombing and a horizon darkened by 12 story suits of armor. The difference between a wand blast and a drone strike. Does a sparkle cupcake blast shield your delicate little eyes from the gore of a child shot twice in the head better from the same body they leave dead. Is a body mangled under hundreds of unicorn hooves functionally different than one run over by a tank.

You aesthetics diehards don’t have shit to say. “Buh buh the framing” makes you feel better about your culpability in an imperial core. Sure is a lot of flowery prose layered on top of “I don’t care enough to be willing to change anything.” We’re all trapped in it. I’m American, and I’m culpable for not doing enough to stop this. I’m afraid of getting butchered by fascists and my fear paralysis lets them kill unimpeded by me. I am willing to own my failures here. I am willing to let them hurt me and I am hoping my anger and my love will soon override my fear. What exactly are you holding onto that bends your body into a human shield of the fascist state. Your comfort isn’t as valuable to them as you think it is. Your comfort isn’t an impenetrable wall keeping the revolution out.

[thebisexualwreckoning]

*holds your hands ever so gently* hey, hey, come here sweetheart. I know it hurts. I know things suck right now. I know that so many lives are in danger right now, so many people are being forced to hide, detransition, pack up and look up flights for different countries. I know the world feels a bit shit rn which is a massive understatement and nothing can make this alright. I know this but you cannot let them crush your spirit. I have seen so many queer and trans people on my dashboard in these past few hours crushed by fear, contemplating just ending it all and I want you to know it that I get it. I know that feels safer to just leave all of this behind but your death does not serve any purpose. Your death will make it easier to erase our lives and stories and narratives from this earth. You matter, regardless of what people say.

Now is not the time to worry about doomsday. Now is the time to hit the streets, build community, protest against fascism and imperialism and genocidal intentions. Now is the time to join together and put aside whatever petty differences we might have within our own communities and network and work together and march and let trump and his republican cronies know that we aren’t going to take this lying down. Queer people have been oppressed but we survived regardless. Indigenous peoples have been oppressed but we survived regardless. They cannot erase our existence no matter how hard they try. I believe in humanity, I believe in the power of resistance. I believe that the thin line that was keeping our society from falling apart has been crumbling for a long time and has finally broken tonight. I believe that we have nothing more to lose anymore. I believe that makes us dangerous.

I believe that no matter what, we’re going to survive this but not if we wait to act until the next election. You need to vote in local elections, you need to form better unions, you need to form activist groups right from fucking today.

It’s not going to be easy. We are going to die regardless. Police brutality and military violence is going to be at an all time high. The Palestinian genocide is going to grow worse (though, that would happened under Harris as well). Arab and Muslim hatred is going to continue to grow. People are going to die bleeding out on kitchen counters due to lack of access to safe abortion procedures. Black people, regardless of age, are going to be targeted. Indigenous lands are going to stolen once again. Latine people are going to face unfair mass deportations. Asian people are going to get hate crimed. Access to hrt is going to become exponentially harder to receive. Everything, and I mean everything is going to be an attempt to kill us and our people. We cannot under good conscience let this stop us.

I know you are tired. Take a breath, take another. Rest. Make yourself some tea or a cup of hot chocolate. Find your favourite blanket and snuggle up underneath it. Take this day to recover. Take this day to understand it’s going to be the last peaceful one we have in a long long time. Take this to fall apart so thoroughly that you worry that you won’t be able to pick up the leaves tmrw. And then pick yourself back up anyway.

You need to survive, if only out of spite if you have nothing else to live for. Survival is a form of victory in and of itself.

[asksoldieron]

SO-21: The Problem with Trolley Problems

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but I am working on it and I will add it retroactively. The eyes are letting me draw, just real slow.

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Black Box (250|21) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

And so we come to the point! Well, one of many points, it's a long work. But this is one I'm going to hammer into the ground, because I think if people don't engage with it and understand it, bad things will keep happening. A person can get so used to there only being bad decisions, that they don't even look for good ones anymore.

I don't feel good about the gang doing a war crime, and you shouldn't either. I stacked the deck so you'd forgive them; not everyone is going to read from the very beginning and new readers may not trust me, so I pulled my punch. (You can blame my spouse for advising me to have mercy on you now, so you won't stop reading and run away.) You don't get a lot of humanizing interaction with the innocent tourist they assault, and Erik will, of course, forgive his family once he's able. They lay out their decision process for you, and it really does look like they're making the best decision with the information they have - but it's NOT a good decision. I don't want you to duck that.

And it doesn't matter that it's not. One-by-one, they make their peace with it, each for their own reasons. They even get Maggie to help, because she sees they're going to do it anyway, she can't stop them, and she doesn't want Erik to get hurt even worse. And they do it. It's done and they can't take it back, they can only move on from here.

Then we all find out John did the same thing, and why.

When he saw unknown numbers of innocent lives tied to the track, including children, John elected to throw the lever and run over Erik's family and autonomy. They're not dead, the damage isn't irreparable, but they sure are hurt. Likewise, Erik's family will throw that lever to save Erik's future physical and mental health, at the cost of his and an innocent stranger's ability to consent.

I've been planning this plotline since at least 2017 (My original inclination was to force people to compare the mass kidnappings of immigrant and Indigenous children to the Holocaust, but, uh, my focus has broadened out of necessity. Clearly.) , so I had no idea it would go up while my country of origin is trying to decide between one of two genocidal Presidents, but it has. Much like Maggie, I'm sitting here with the full knowledge that one of two bad things will happen, we will not be able to take it back, and we can only move on from there. And, to add insult to injury, she's got to listen to a person she respects explain why sexual assault is OK in this case, and try to square that up with her opinion of him in general. It's not even like he doesn't care, but it's the only thing he can see to do, so he'll defend it. And she'll let him.

Of course, these weren't the best decisions they could've made, but they would've had to take risks that could've ruined everything to get a better result. Neither John nor Erik's family feel secure enough to do that. They've been hurt enough. So (slight spoiler, but I won't go into it) John missed his chance to pick up Diane to help him, and the NDA rejected calling David back with little consideration.

It may not be obvious, but David was telling lies with purpose. He's trying to protect John and the Rainbows from people who could get them all killed. (Given how mad Milo and Ann get later, this is a valid concern.) If they called him back and he saw they weren't buying that Erik would be fine, he'd explain about the battery and try to take all the blame, even at the cost of burning his bridges with Hyacinth. Then the shopping bag with the info would've arrived and confirmed the nature of the damage. (As well as the decent odds that Erik would recover from it within a week, with better operating instructions to help.) But they didn't even give him a chance. It didn't seem worth doing.

When we have to solve a lot of trolley problems, we get used to the idea that someone is going to get run over and we're just deciding who. It's very difficult to reject the entire premise and find another way. While you're trying to take a third option, the trolley might run over someone you don't want to lose! So you pull the lever and move on to the next awful scenario. You're doing your best!

OK, but we sure are running over an awful lot of people. I do wonder how many more will die before the majority of voters decide the risk of a derailment is preferable to running over whatever's on the tracks. I mean, we're going ahead with the genocide. It's far away and we don't have to look at 'em dying, there is that. If it gets a little closer and both choices involve mowing down (more) immigrants on the southern border, will that do it? I'm really scared that it won't, and I could get confirmation on that during this election too. If we're willing to allow that, what's next? (I'm constantly gripping the edges of my seat and waiting to hear, "Well, both candidates are going to send all the trans kids to conversion therapy, so can we please focus on Roe v. Wade/the Supreme Court/healthcare/student loans/etc...?")

I think, I hope, there's a point where everyone will refuse to engage with "choose who" and refocus on "MAKE IT STOP." But we're not there yet. I don't know what happens when we get there, either. A lot of revolutions just rearrange the hierarchy and change the nature of who gets tied to the tracks. I don't want that, and I don't want this. Maybe, if my work survives, someone in the future will be in a position to make some better decisions, and stop the goddamn trollies forever.

So I keep writing and hoping like hell.

Future readers, if you're wondering how we knew it was wrong and did it anyway, I've tried to express that in capsule form with its own context. I hope you can understand, if not forgive, and go on from wherever you are too.

[Back to Site?]

[ae-neon]

Excuse this rant but

I know many women probably think this but truly the men in my country are the worst of the worst

Why is a South African man in the comment section of a Native American woman feigning ignorance on the whole Israel Palestinian situation, asking for an explanation

Only to turn around and play devil's advocate when someone tried to explain

Ofc I lost in and jumped in because WTF, how as a South African, and a black South African nogal, are you going to defend an apartheid state????

We know first hand that it's not a two sided fight when one state fights for the right to exist and the other depends on the dehumanisation and oppression of the other

Bro didn't even know what he was saying "the Arabs and the Jews who lived there-" THE JEWS WHO LIVED THERE ARE ARAB YOU DUMB CUNT

And it doesn't matter if some part of the original Zionist movement was a defensive ideology born out of the Holocaust because all together the reality was a European colonial project dependent on genocide and ethnic cleansing

Why is it so hard to grasp that Israel is the one who has made the two state solution impossible by design and rejected it even when Palestinians were willing to take it??

Which they shouldn't have to anyway. A free Palestine doesn't mean genocide for the Jews?? Decolonise your mind before you speak. Stop acting like indigenous people are as violent as colonisers.

White SAns used the same fear mongering to drum up sympathy and concern surrounding the end of Apartheid here and NOTHING HAPPENED

Also if you want the European Jews to have a country so bad tell them to turn to the EU and demand half of Germany??? Why do they have to live in the ME??? Especially when so many of them are secular and the holy sites mean nothing to them??

Anyways

Free Palestine

[brick-van-dyke]

Was gonna just say it in the tags, but nah I'm saying it here because I'm tired for the Palestinians and indigenous people I know screaming that both sides kill them. That is not fucking privilege, a Palestinian person saying over and over and over again that "we are dying under Biden" is not them telling you to not vote and you yelling back "don't be privileged" is the sheer definition OF privilege and white guilt.

Sorry but no. Not a single soul is saying "Trump is better". No one is saying that. No one is saying Trump isn't as bad. What we ARE saying is that people ARE CURRENTLY dying under Biden, Haris has allowed this and every other Democrat has continually been racist, genocidal pigs for over 76+ years. Having a pig of a man as a cop chief doesn't suddenly mean ACAP no longer applies. It means "this is exactly why the system is broken" and we shouldn't let any of these pigs speak for us and continue with their bullshit. Vote, sure, but if that's all you think you can do to stop this then please? Respectfully? Shut up.

It wasn't a white democrat or even a black democrat who "gave" an indigenous person the right to vote. Yes. Voting is important. It's a human right that MUST be upheld.

But that doesn't erase the capability and the necessity of holding these people accountable for the deaths that ARE on their hands as we speak. Biden isn't just "the lesser evil", he is a man who has directly caused the death of black and brown children. He isn't just a moderate who at least isn't going to introduce the horrors of Project 2025, he is a man who advocates for policies that CURRENTLY force black and brown Americans to LIVE that project 2025 while everyone else doesn't have to.

That is why it is privileged to be able to say "it's worse if Trump gets in". Yeah, it will be. But you can only say that because you haven't been living the constant "worse case" your entire life anyway regardless. We, as white people, can be scared of a "what if". We don't have to be afraid of a "right now". That's why it isn't even a question of "the lesser evil" because it actually doesn't matter if it's true or not, if you're not privileged enough to avoid it, you're already gonna be dead before Trump gets in.

That's why I'm so fucking tired of hearing you all whine. Yeah, project 2025 is terrifying and blatantly genocidal to many many different people. People will die because of that. Yeah, we should avoid it.

But not at "all costs" meaning "even he black and brown people already dying and suffering from what I'm scared to die and suffer from". Because it's now. It's not a "what if" for them. That is why, sure, vote. But you'd BETTER be doing more than that or YOU are the privileged idealistic brat here for expecting the black, brown and indigenous fight to be one THEY have to deal with and not you until it affects you personally. "But it'll be worse" yeah, but it's not better either way and the current is death, torture and rape. That's not a standard I want any of you to have for your siblings who are suffering as we speak. That is a standard you ought to refuse to have for any human being. Get it together and actually start organising, moving and doing something besides expecting someone else to save you. Get up and act, don't just vote; do more.

"You're so privileged for caring about genocide" is not a take actually.

[scentedchildnacho]

The little black lady with the little black Maltese wanted to know if she should go into Lutheran meal so I told her those really negative terrorists that won't leave the front of the library wanted to go in there so there is a bomb rush of way too many men.....if you go you have to be very very careful because those people are very domestically abusive and Mr is here to be with them instead of their assumption of service no matter behaviour

Their terrorists and terrorists are only successful at territory if you ask me Navajo it was a white church and it murdered religious fathers and they won't control burn it down though there is white death all over it....

If you can find any way to flee do so....it's a city and it murders young people

I am an indigenous person and these Lutheran architectures are south American not African so I'm for giving it back to native authorities to do what they feel like with its a scary abusive hitlerite place to me where I have to figure out enzymes because the gov nuked and won't give food

I told them that if their hope was to be assured of a male only homeless union the harassment was very very effective and they should know we will all have to flee or die and you will have to be heroin but fuckers

Their neo Nazi punks and aids caused many disparate populations to leave and then men had their Nazi parties on everybody's stuff and died of their own cannibalistic brutality

Well something hates them way more then I do.....all they have to be promised is free stuff and they take part in modern white religious ritual when they know their needs are a lot more extensive then how rigorous it's focus is....he finds them dumb and unwanted and treats them like fools and with contempt

One of the Mr is a woke white so creepy nasty smelly reeky negative cocaine's are obsessed with forcing his superiority to hang out with them and help them....their really dependent addicts with transexual problems and if you as female get captivity symptoms like clinging to boyfriends even if the relationship isn't too inspiring or awesome those are bisexuals and they are what truly embarrasses themselves with stalkerish obsessions with Jew like males

Well they claim by behaviour their the only males with domestic issues that have to pass through here so

Their bisexuals with transexual problems they cut themselves and need Mr....so it's just okay I could choose woman and I don't really really need Mr....flee they want to territorialize their creepy gay party here so flee in any way you can

I have Them and i don't need phallic totems to talk to about it I have Them and They are who can truly get me what I need so great I accomplished that resistence and now it's get the fuck out of here

Anyway I explained to the black lady about I....this is select match for men and those males have a hyper skinny reek to them and now I smell so make that decision about ever being stalked by Canadians the scary white Canadians are here to spread terrorist disease and when something as large as Canada keeps harassing smaller territories to be nothing but tourist stops then

I their reeky disgusting males their reeky disgusting males and now I smell because males cannot ever figure out how to cope and let feminine genders be free of them

Don't go to the compass station the older women were made to leave and creepy young blue eyed caucasian females are in there and it's those Canadians that attract male felonies their told whites are depleted not rich Europeans and kept stalking me to die of very intense physical impact disciplines their creepy rich Europeans so let them get what they deserve for financialism i walked away from it and i wont take any more terror for what their lives did creepy hitlerite blonds want to be compass so

Their creepy caucasoids in there and after that much landscape damage herta will want to back stab you

Well I have to finish the resistance and make California do what it was suppose to for me several years ago and admit me to a hospital for street fatigue but their always poor incapables die for poor incapables die of riots for bitches desk job?

Dont go around young people their young caucasoids and they get bioengineered a I parts inserted ritualistically into their bodies they aren't organic beings anymore and have a brutal whoop ya ugly life so flee if ya can

African detectives you can try to find a boss to blame but young people got into ritualistic gang killing and the expression of all of it is animistic not humane

Their neo Nazis....and you can try to blame a boss but all of it will tell you it believes in survival of the fittest

[argus-news]

Community members in Seattle hold rally, demand justice for Jaahnavi Kandula

Kandula, 23, was struck by a police vehicle driven by Officer Kevin Dave when she was crossing a street on January 23.

SEATTLE: Demanding justice for Indian student Jaahnavi Kandula and the resignation of two Seattle police officers, more than 200 people from different communities held a rally at an intersection where she was struck and killed by a speeding police patrol car.

Kandula, 23, was struck by a police vehicle driven by Officer Kevin Dave when she was crossing a street on January 23.

He was driving 74 mph (more than 119 kmh) on the way to a report of a drug overdose call.

In bodycam footage released on Monday by the Seattle Police Department, Officer Daniel Auderer laughed about the deadly crash and dismissed any implication Dave might be at fault or that a criminal investigation was necessary.

More than 200 people on Thursday took to the Seattle intersection where Kandula was fatally struck by an officer's cruiser in January, the Seattle Times newspaper reported.

They called for accountability for the officer who killed her and for a police union leader's comments about the crash, which some described as "disgusting" and "abhorrent."

Participants at the rally in South Lake Union called for the resignation of Auderer and the officer who struck Kandula, Dave.

Speakers at the rally criticised the police system, saying it is built on white supremacy, and the criminalising and undervaluing of the lives of Black and Indigenous people and other people of colour, the report added.

Signs read "Jail killer cops," "Justice for Jaahnavi," and "End police terror."

People living in nearby apartments came to join the crowd.

Seattle resident Rafael McPeek said he hoped to send a message that police officers can't get away with killing someone while speeding through city streets or making comments questioning the value of someone's life.

"It's absolutely disgusting," said McPeek, a member of the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, which organised the rally.

Another rallygoer, Kyla Carrillo, expressed anger at the number of months that have elapsed without accountability for Kandula's death.

Carillo said she remembered attending a protest in January after Kandula was killed, adding that she and others gathered won't stop until Kandula receives justice and can then rest in peace.

"I don't understand how many times the Seattle Police Department can show us they don't care about people's lives," she said.

Auderer, the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, reportedly on a phone call with Union President Mike Solan, appears to talk about what might happen if the victim's family sued the department.

"Yeah, just write a check. USD 11,000. She was 26 anyway. She had limited value," Auderer said during the call.

In response, Governor Jay Inslee said on Thursday, "It's hard to think of more hurtful things to say to magnify the scope of an already terrible tragedy than what is said in that video."

"I was heartbroken. I was disgusted," said Joel Merkel, a co-chair with the Seattle Community Police Commission.

Kandula was set to graduate this coming December with a master's degree in information systems from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University.

Her family said she was working toward supporting her mother in India.

India has taken up Kandula's case with the US government as well as with local officials in Washington state.

"Recent reports including in media of the handling of Ms Jaahnavi Kandula's death in a road accident in Seattle in January are deeply troubling," the Consulate General of India in San Francisco tweeted on Wednesday.

"We have taken up the matter strongly with local authorities in Seattle & Washington State as well as senior officials in Washington DC for a thorough investigation & action against those involved in this tragic case," the mission said.

The Consulate and the Embassy will continue to closely follow up on this matter with all concerned authorities, it added.

[florannosaurus-rex]

introduction or something of the sort (this is poorly made this bitch doesn’t say shit about me) 🤓

im florence but feel free to call me flo or richie! im 14, and i use he/him and xe/xem pronounies because fuck gender

i kin;

benrey,, god why

ibuki

miku. don’t.

peggy. guess which one and you’ll get a grilled cheese in your dms or sumn

i like;

hlvrai, kakegurui, vocaloid, fnaf, musicals but i will not be specifying which ones, and other stuff. i don’t,, know much about myself so just get to know me n you’ll see

i listen to/do;

i play the trumpet, it sucks ! it actually doesn’t but. it sucks !

i

lemon demon, puzzle, the garden, kero kero bonito, MSI, hnny, tops, badbadnotgood, and others that idk rn

um sumsusnusenjmhnnsjsssjjsj tell me something dumb and chances are i’ll laugh el oh el :, ) i also have discord if you wanna be friends there or join my cool server (we’re acoustic)

i’m always tired so if i take naps all of the time, i uh,,,

[angelsaxis]

Idk if its just me but I feel that the backlash against OFMD was not enough. Like everyone here is so LOUD about LGBTQ issues and other issues plaguing people but they legitimately dont boost voices or concerns when it xomes to black people. Specifically.

Im brown and I dont live in the US, but Ive heard and read enough to know that white people and many poc too, just dont give racism the attention it deserves.

And I wanted to ask if you think Im right in feeling angry or am i over reacting because I just dont feel okay with how easily the shows creators' reasoning was just accepted by the majority of blogs on here, where he explained how they were rewriting stories and changing the narratives or whatever. There were many ways to go about making shows and choosing two slavers to do it was absolutely the worst possible take.

No you're 100% right anon, what nonBlack PoC and white gays like to do is pretend that anything that gets Black people upset is "worth it". They're fine if their über queer gay rep is in the form of rehabilitated white supremacists because they have no empathy for Black people and no understanding of just how bad slavery was. Kidnapped Africans were raped, abused, killed for fun, and even eaten by white people because white supremacy was (and is) just that violent and destructive. Environments were permanently changed, genetic maps were permanently changed, there's millions of descendants of indigenous Africans in diaspora now across North America, the Caribbean, and South America (as well as other places) because of slavery. Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard contributed to that.

But if there's one thing white queer people and nonBlack PoC (whether queer or not) have shown themselves to be, it's incredibly callous, self centered, and dismissive of what Black people say about antiBlackness. NonBlack gays would have dumped this show in a heartbeat if there was any homophobia, transphobia, or acephobia. If Stede Bonnet or Blackbeard were notoriously homophobic and turned into an uwu tenderqueer couple, they'd be up in arms and trying to get the show cancelled. When Black people say to stop making white supremacists relatable, we get patronizing and irrelevant remarks about how All Pirates Are Evil, as if theft and human trafficking are the same thing. We get false platitudes about how they're ~thinking critically~, as if they don't end up just watching and talking about and supporting the show anyways.

You know, the Chicago tribune published a review for OFMD and the racism it's predicted on, and there were nonBlack gays who's heads were so far up fandoms ass that they easily convinced themselves that this review didn't come to exist because of a genuine desire by the author to talk about the racism inherent in this show, but because it was Big Cishet Media lashing out against one of the only positive representations of healthy gays. No matter what, nonBlack gay people will make themselves the victim before even remotely respecting Black people's perspectives. I can't even begin to tell you how many of these people claim to support Black Lives Matter while also gaslighting the shit out of Black people, making us seem like we're uneducated idiots for expecting a comedy to teach us about pirates, making us seem like we're being unfair and even homophobic for wanting this show to not be a racist pile of trash, and pretending like Taika Waititi doesn't already have a history of antiBlackness going back years now that keeps popping up in his projects.

These people are 100% okay with their happy healthy gay media being about white supremacists. I have zero sympathy or patience for people who gush about that show.

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[lightrises]

"Only in allowing her to pass..." — Hornet, The Radiance, and the means by which Hallownest turned its victims against each other

A quick note: I read Hollow Knight as an anti-colonialist text. As such I'll be touching on topics related to colonialism as it's depicted in the world of the game, and said analysis will reflect both a sympathetic take on The Radiance and a critique of The Pale King that won't pull its punches. If this sounds up your alley, hello and thank you for the read! Let us be sad about these bugs together.

———

So!! A while back I realized something about pre-canon that felt rather... "curious" is one way to put it, I think. To wit: for all the effort and scheming and determination The Pale King poured into trying to get rid of The Radiance, neither of his plans involved directly killing her.

Was that his long game? Well, sure, that seems clear enough. His tack changed from luring the moths away from their god and creator to a more literal form of incarceration once the infection became a factor, but at its core the end goal never really changed—The Pale King very sincerely wished to destroy Radiance via obsolescence. The Seer lends us foreshadowing to confirm as much:

[Image descriptions: Two screenshots from Hollow Knight, showing the Seer and Ghost in the Seer's alcove at the Resting Grounds. Across both screenshots, the Seer tells Ghost the following: "None of us can live forever, and so we ask those who survive to remember us. Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters." End description.]

(Which, by the way and given the context, talk about an extremely unsubtle allusion to cultural genocide huh!!! Whew.)

In any case, we're left with a whole bunch of machinations which build up to... well, two very roundabout attempts at committing deicide. That's kind of weird, all things considered! Why not just do the deed in one fell swoop and get it over with?

This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe the king was devoid of the means to instantly kill another higher being. Maybe his personal sense of scruples stopped him short of signing off on MURDER murder (although, y'know, the aforementioned genocide + eternal imprisonment = still cool and copasectic apparently!). Maybe the long drawn-out cruelty was the point. Maybe the idea of playing fuckign 4D chess with the circumstances was too delicious for him to pass up—that man did love to tinker and stick his claws where they sure as hell didn't belong—or maybe it was a little bit of All The Things. Who knows!!

But interrogating The Pale King's methodology on this count isn't what I'm here for, at least not really. The main reason I raise this question at all is that in her own way, Hornet did too.

"I'd urge you to take that harder path... "

See, going by The Pale King's actions and what The White Lady explicitly says, they both foresaw two outcomes wrt the infection: it can be allowed to spread, or it can be contained. At Teacher's Archives, Quirrel acknowledges the fact that Ghost is expected to do... something about this, but he doesn't elaborate on what HE thinks that's supposed to be apart from the obvious "Gotta bust into Black Egg Temple first". Hornet is the one person who presents to us—to Ghost—what's framed as a third option: confront and destroy the infection at its source.

And she doesn't bring it up like it's just another tactic for Ghost to consider, prim and indifferent to what they would do. She nudges them towards it, actively, up to the point where she throws herself into the fray against Hollow at a juncture that's uniquely dangerous to her and her alone just to make that option feasible.

Even when she's couching it in disclaimers that this is still Ghost's decision to make (and let's be fair, she's extremely not wrong about that lol), no one can pretend Hornet is unbiased. It's obvious in that buttoned-down Hornet kind of way that she is way the hell done with the increasingly tenuous stalemate that's kept Hallownest's desiccated corpse from collapsing in on itself. Personally it's hard for me not to read some Toriel Undertale-esque "My father was too entrenched in his own foolishness to pursue any course of action that would have DEFINITIVELY ended this" shade into her stance here, regardless of whether that's strictly true in canon.

And that bit—Hornet's hopes for an end to Hallownest's stasis, moreover her grim calculation of what needs to be done to get there—that's the bit I find super interesting but likewise tragic and depressing as shit, on multiple levels. In no small part because a) canon itself gestures towards Hornet feeling conflicted about the very plan she's pushing, and moreover b) she has at least two (2) damn good reasons to feel that way.

So, what do I mean by that? Let's look here first:

[Image description: A screenshot from Hollow Knight, of Hornet and Ghost inside the Temple of the Black Egg, standing in front of the unsealed egg itself. Hornet has been struck by the Dream Nail and her dialogue is displayed as follows: "... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?" End description.]

As the curtain is about to drop on things one way or another, Hornet thinks,

... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?

Now, looking at that last bit it's easy to go "Oh no, Hornet's worried that Ghost won't survive killing The Radiance!" And I do think that's part of it: Hornet is, categorically, not her father. By endgame it's clear she's not content to view her Void-borne siblings as tools to be used then disposed of. She's also well aware that as a healthy autonomous Vessel amongst the countless dead, Ghost is the only person left alive who has a fighting chance against The Radiance. Knowing someone is the only qualified candidate for the job doesn't make encouraging them to embrace a probable death sentence any less of a bitter pill to swallow, though. And odds are on that this sentiment extends to Hollow too, who IS going to die no matter what happens here. To put it bluntly, it's more than reasonable to conclude that Hornet hates the absolute fuck out of this.

But I don't think that's all there is to it either. Remember what I said earlier about The Pale King's bids for genocide? Well, it's not like the man deigned to limit his efforts to just the moth tribe.

"We do not choose our mothers... "

On top of everything else—an infected Hallownest being all she's ever known, the fact that she only exists because of the infection, the list goes on—Hornet has spent her life wedged into a position that's been uncomfortable and terminally unglamorous at best: she is both a daughter of her father's kingdom and of Deepnest.

Deepnest, which like the moths and many others was here long before the wyrm and his lady wife swanned onto the scene and the God Become Bug laid claim to everything the Light touched plus a considerable amount of change. THAT Deepnest, which has fought claw and thread to retain its sovereignty against same-said settler king, and for which Herrah not only surrendered her life but also agreed to bed her worst enemy, all in hopes of securing a viable future for her people (put a pin in that last part by the way, I'll come back to it soon).

Two Worlds, One Family (Ft. An Indigenous Woman Trying Her Damndest To Work With What She's Got Versus An Imperialist Who Only Signed Up For This Because He Needed The Political Favor THAT Badly, So It's The Height Of Dysfunctional Actually). Fun times!!!!

The baggage this entails for Hornet is gnarly enough without implications made by The White Lady and the pre-canon timeline of events and even Team Cherry's dev notes that the king may well have looked at baby Hornet, gone "YOINK", then ensured she spent the lion's share of her childhood reared within the pearly auspices of his Pale Court*. That would be rather advantageous for Him Specifically after all, the potential to mold a born foe into a future ally and even have her trained in combat under the same tutelage as her doomed sibling. And far be it from him to stop a grown Hornet—his own flesh and blood too!—from making Deepnest her forever home if she so pleased. He totally wouldn't be reneging on his "fair bargain made" by doing this one simple thing until Hornet came of age, not t e c h nic c a l l y.

If that is indeed the case, there's a non-zero chance Hornet's formative years were a hot mess of cultural alienation and being a good deal more privy than most to just how much of a bastard her father could be. There's an equally non-zero chance that at some point she stood or sat within earshot as The Pale King finally, finally dropped all pretense and euphemism to name the Light for precisely what (for who) it was.

See, in conjunction with the question that started this whole dang train of thought I've been asking this one too: Does Hornet know? When she speaks of confronting "the heart of [the] infection" does she know she's talking about not just a literal person but someone very specific? The Radiance, who god though she may be shares skin in the game alongside Hornet as a native woman screwed over by the same settler king, likewise deprived of her kin and saddled with a life gone horrendously pear-shaped?

I'll assume for the sake of exploring the possibility and because I think it's a likely one anyway that yes, Hornet does know. She knows, and despite everything can't help empathizing. She might even look at Radiance and see bits and pieces both reflected and slightly inversed in her own mother: Radiance was forced to the sidelines while her people—her children, the brood she was meant to lead and care for—died out under The Pale King's rule, and it's no stretch to assume she's at least as upset about that as she has been about everything else; Herrah too took drastic measures for her people's sake, trying to head off annihilation by relegating herself to the sidelines in an act that was as much calculated risk as an attempt to find wiggle room and leverage in the face of a nasty proposition.

A calculated risk that, if things continue as they are, might well amount to nothing as the rest of Deepnest gets eaten alive by the infection. It survived The Pale King's advances for so so long, only to fall here. Herrah's sacrifice would be for naught; the other tribes—themselves the king's victims—would keep succumbing to the infection too.

And this is where things fall apart.

"... or the circumstance into which we are born."

Let's be clear: I think Hornet is wise enough to know what's what here, that all the carnage and suffering falls on her father's head for starting this slow-motion trainwreck in the first place. Hallownest wasn't always Hallownest. This domain was Radiance's home first, along with many others. It was the worm-turned-king who rolled up on the scene unsolicited and decided this was a ""'problem""" that had to be """solved""".

But the fact of the matter is that he's gone and The Radiance is here, raging, seemingly inconsolable. Above and beyond being Deepnest's rightful heir, Hornet isn't in a position to countenance more splash damage even if the grief and fury fueling it makes perfect sense. She can understand without ever bringing herself to love Radiance, and she can bend her knee to practicality even if she hates the everloving shit out of it because the fact that it "has" to end this way isn't fair.

This lends itself to one last awful conclusion: that Hornet has probably considered and (rightly or wrongly) discarded the possibility that Radiance can be saved, at least not without dragging more collateral along for the ride. If even her mother and every other enemy to the king seemed to dismiss talking Radiance down as an option way back when... well. Why should Hornet hope for any better after things have escalated so far?

Again, it's practical. A practical net good is what Hornet strives for. And again, it fucking sucks.

For extra tragedy points, this makes Hornet's extended crypticness around Ghost followed by her last minute casting about for a reason to tell them "Wait, don't; not just yet" that she never voices even more of a gut punch. She can't bring herself to burden Ghost with the context that haunts her so, least of all when it might weaken their resolve to go through with what (she thinks) needs doing.

It's the "same song, different verse" which led to the mantis tribe and Deepnest being pitted against each other: Hallownest rigged the game so that two women who could have been powerful allies—who have a mutual vested interest in driving out settler rule—wound up poised as enemies instead. And how awful is that? The king for all his being extremely fucking dead still gets the last laugh, because outside of a miracle the game never manifests Hornet can salvage what her mother started and look forward to a future where Deepnest pulls itself back from the brink if and only if The Radiance dies.

Resolution comes at the price of a completed genocide. Add two more dead siblings to the unconscionable pile thereof, while we're at it. That's what it boils down to whether or not Hornet can bear to articulate it as such, and there's no grace or even a properly bittersweet ending to wring from this clusterfuck. And that is rough.

———

* This has been better explained elsewhere, but a quick rundown: The White Lady tells Ghost that Hornet and Herrah "were permitted little time together." On its surface this can be taken to mean that Hornet was still very young when Herrah was shipped off to Eternal Dreamland—except this doesn't jive with the fact that we meet Hornet as an adult. If the stasis kicked in once the Dreamers went to their rest, which in turn halted the aging process for every living bug in Hallownest, AND before all this Hornet experienced little by the way of quality time with her birth mother... I think you can see where I'm going with this.

To top it off we've got Team Cherry weighing in ominously from their dev notes on Herrah: "As part of the agreement for her alliance and her role as a dreamer, King gave her a child (Hornet). Was she allowed to keep this child or was she taken away?" This isn't confirmation by itself of course, but given additional canon details (see above): Can I get a "yikes" in the chat fellas.

[evilsanlang]

Wait sorry I saw ur tags on a post where u said abortion is illegal and wildly unpopular in ur country and I was curious as to where u live? If the question makes u uncomfortable u don't have to answer u have a right to privacy. I just think research into issues like these in other countries is valuable even when I don't live there.

it's no big deal, I have it on my about anyway - I'm born and raised brazilian. in brazil abortion is a crime except for a few exceptions: in the case of rape, if the mother is at risk of death and if the fetus has anencephaly. which is all well and good in theory but in practice, in 2020 there was a case where a 10-year-old got pregnant after being raped by her uncle, and while seeking for an abortion, had her story leaked to the press by evangelical cunt Damares Alves, who at the time was the minister of women, family and human rights (lmao) and publicly lamented the authorization of the abortion. christian fundamentalists went as far as to gather outside the clinic where the girl was taken to pray against the abortion (the person behind the camera is repeating "you're praying for a ten year old to give birth" and the police is clearly trying to stop them.) in 2021, a 15-year-old, also pregnant as a result of rape, had her right to abortion denied by a judge after her case was exposed on social media, and the public ministry had to intervene.

the parliament has always been rife with fundamentalists, and the evangelical church has an absurd amount of power in our politics. having a female president in the past didn't mean shit either, as Dilma Rousseff refused to even entertain the idea of a plebiscite on the matter because it's "too polarizing". which isn't surprising coming from a white woman, as the majority of deaths resulting of clandestine abortions happen among black and indigenous women.

according to this report, only 31% of brazilians favor the total legalization of abortion. however, the report itself states that the samples from brazil were collected from the more affluent (ie those with access to better education), so expect these numbers to be lower among the general population.

while countries like mexico and argentina go on to decriminalize abortion, the largest country in latin america slogs miles behind. being a feminist here is an uphill battle

[earthly--truth]

What I believe in

These are my beliefs as someone who aligns with democratic socialism and progressivism. Feel free to critique it, challenge it, even just a few sections, whatever, but this is what I believe will make the world a better place, because people (and animals) deserve to live the best possible lives they can live with the only chance at life they got. This is going to be super general and long, and not get into nearly everything, but I hope it sheds a positive light on leftism.

Strong unions so that workers (the majority of people in society) have the ability have better footing to negotiate better wages, work hours, vacation days, benefits, etc. I also believe that in instances where it’s pragmatically viable that there should be a push for more worker co-op’s, in which every employee has a stake in the company they work at, and the ability to give their input (all companies should strive for more democracy). Both of these contribute to healthier, happier, and, and better payed people.

Raising the minimum wage in the U.S to $15 an hour. The current wage of  $7.25 is way too low. It’s just not a livable wage. There’s a reason why McDonald’s and Walmart are called corporate welfare queens, and it’s because they’re employees require welfare to survive, despite being the biggest corporations on the planet with multi-billionaire CEO’s. The richest in society should also pay more in taxes.

Stop investing so much in the American military, cut it by a third if you can. (Firstly this frees up a lot of money for other things) Get the military out of the middle east, and create other more peaceful avenues to ensure it doesn’t crumble like every single time the military pulls out and doesn’t try to actually fix the mess they created. The people in the middle east deserve to be able to rebuild and they’ll need help to do that (just not the type of help where america installs their own leaders).

Healthcare should be universal, paid for by taxes. Every developed nation is capable of doing it. Many developing countries are doing it. Americans pay more in taxes for healthcare than so many other countries, yet a trip to the hospital still can put you in debt for the rest of your life. That is inhumane, and people shouldn’t have to choose between crippling debt and their health.

There’s also an argument to be made for free/way cheaper university, since countries like Canada or America force people to get a degree if they want to live a decent life, yet in order to do that you have to pay $15,000 a year for university. A system like that either forces people to skip out on uni, or again go into major debt. If Europe can figure it out, I think the U.S and Canada can figure it out too.

Black Lives Matter. To be more specific, I want police/criminal justice/prison reform. I want police de-militarized and to stop acting so abusive towards to civilians and real justice for the police that do, I want an end on the war on drugs (this helps drug addicts get help and delivers a blow to gangs and the cartel). I want an end to mass incarceration and laws that make it easier to throw people in jail for years for basically nothing. I want an end to for profit prisons. I want an end to the policy of retribution rather than rehabilitation for inmates (countries who rehabilitate are way more successful at non-returning inmates). I want an end to treating prisoners like slaves so corporations can get cheap labour. I also want the government to actually start caring about the poorest communities, many of which are predominantly black and latino (in cities anyways). (Also the indigenous in Canada). Better infrastructure, better public works programs. These all contribute to the proliferation of these communities and helps lessen the potential for criminality by making their lives better.

The dismantling of gender norms and roles, and de-stigmatization of LGBTQ+ people. I want people to be whoever they want to be. For far too long we have expected men and women to act a certain way. Women have come a long way, but there are still remnants of the old way of looking at things. We still have a lot of social stigma about how women should look, and that they are not worth even paying attention to if they aren’t conventionally attractive. We still have social stigma about sexuality and sex work. We hyper sexualize women in the media, yet shame women as sluts if they have a lot of sex. We shame women who choose abortion as murderers, yet don’t offer any support for the mother once the child has arrived. On top of that, the positions of power are still predominantly very old men. I also believe in helping men. Men are lonelier, men are increasingly staying sexless (not by choice), men are getting more suicidal. I want to address this two ways. One, by tackling toxic masculinity (not masculinity itself, just the bad parts). TM is telling men to man up and not to cry, TM is telling men not to act feminine or gay. TM is telling men to bottle up their emotions and resolve their problems through violence. The second way to address this is through my beliefs about workers. Men are the most suicidal in countries where there is a heavy work culture, like Japan and South Korea. Where they can’t have lives, and live to make money for the company they work at. That isn’t good.

When it comes to LGBTQ+ people, we need more positive representation in the media. We need people to see gay, trans, and non-binary people as normal people. When it comes to trans people specifically, we need to end the constant wars against them. Whether you’re talking about bathrooms, or sports, or children/teens receiving trans affirming healthcare. Let trans people be the gender that they say there are in the places they want to be, and allow them to receive the healthcare they need which is just the overwhelming medical consensus. This, combined with more supportive parents. all goes a long way to reducing the suicide rate amonst trans people.

The proliferation of the developing world. I want developing countries to be more autonomous, and to stop being under the boot of western corporations. I want an end to sweatshop labour or borderline sweatshop labour. I want the west to stop treating these actual people like their robots for pennies to produce our ungodly amounts of junk, and to actually pay these people decent wages. I want the world bank to stop giving money in an exploitative way to poor nations so that they cave to western business interests. These are people, human beings, and they deserve to develop and live good lives just like us. I also want them to fight for democracy in their countries.

Environmentalism. To go off the last section, 100 Corporations are contributing 71% of greenhouse gases. That needs to change. Corporations are participating ungodly amounts of devastations to eco-systems and the atmosphere. Ecosystems destroyed, and the exacerbation of the climate crises. I want a green and blue earth, and that can start by a) changing to green energy as much as humanly possible; solar, wind, and even nuclear (and whatever we come up with in the future) are far better than the fossil fuels we use now, which we’ll run out of anyways. And second we need to hold corporations accountable for destroying the planet. If we don’t do this, we risk the climate crises getting really bad. Oceans rising which will flood coastlines, creating millions of refugees, more periods of extreme dry (no water/bush fires) and extreme cold (look at what happened to texas). Something needs to be done about it.

Finally, veganism, for many reasons. One, the switch to veganism will be a big contributor to saving the planet. Whether you’re talking about the devastation we do to places like the Amazon Rain forest and other ecosystems to clear the way for animal farming, or whether you’re talking about reducing emissions. Most emissions and waste from agriculture are from the production phase of animal farming. So much food, water, and energy is wasted by giving it to billions of animals that we purposefully breed into existence, then slaughter, rinse and repeat, every single year, when we could just grow food and give water to people and skip out the middle man (think about how many people are hungry and without water in the world).

Philosophically, it is also wrong to kill a living creature that desires to live, that is able to connect with other living things and it surrounding, to form bonds. A cow, pig, chicken, lamb, sheep, are no different than a dog, cat, or rabbit, and they should not be killed, exploited, and tortured (confinement, abusive conditions in industrial farms) for pleasure. I know it’s pleasure for most people, because vegans are living proof that you can live happy and healthy lives without animal products. Vegans are statistically healthier than non-vegans, and we can get all the nutrients we need, even on an inexpensive diet. There are exceptions of course. A very small portion of people literally cannot eat plants and can only eat meat, and the developing world doesn’t have the same access to vegan products as the developed world does. Those people are valid, but many many people can make the switch and they should, especially in the developed world

All I see from this is making the world better. Hopefully you can too.

[amphxtrite]

In relation to the #StopAsianHate tag, it seems fitting to add this contribution since China has been doing a lot of horribly questionable things(to put it mildly), and this has led to a rise in anti-asian rhetoric, with extras on the anti-chinese rhetoric.

It has affected overseas Chinese-descendants and the Chinese diaspora around the world badly, since they had no hand in what China did, nor do they share the same sentiments of China, yet they still get harassed and targeted. Even to the point of cop agents admit to accusing a Canadian professor of Chinese descent of being a spy, Hongkongnese coworkers mistreating overseas Chinese not from China, and a British-born Asian man getting deported without question.

So in lieu of letting this storm rage over even more, the better option appears to be to address everyone's concerns and assumptions about people of Chinese descent who are citizens since birth in other countries and have never set foot in china before.

The main point is: NOT ALL CHINESE AROUND THE WORLD ARE WUMAO COMMUNISTS, NOT ALL CHINESE DESCENDANTS SHARE THE SAME SENTIMENTS AS CHINA OR DOING THINGS FOR CHINA. Got it?

Now, to move on to the other part of attacks on Chinese culture and shaming people just for being Chinese.

1.It is okay to be Chinese-born; there is nothing wrong that you happen to be a Chinese person. You deserve dignity, pursuit of happiness, liberty and respect, just like any other race of person, black, white, Jew, etc out there. You are a person too and don't let anyone treat you otherwise.

2.Chinese people are not "spawn of the bad" or "corrupted subhuman" or "tainted genome"; they are not inherently rotten just by being of Chinese descrnt. There is no proof of that, when you pick apart gene sequences from a Chinese descendant in the clinic, it's still very similar to any other person's dna. Just like every nationality, there's kind people and there's assholes. And just like most other countries, who also had monarchy inbreeding, illness, and radiation(did you know of the Radium Girls in the 1920s, or the very unsafe nuclear testing in the 50s to 90s? They even used to put Radium in wristwatches for citizens to glow in the dark so casually.), the Chinese are no different. Just like to bring up the good parts of others' history rather than focus on the bad so much like china.

3.Chinese history, philosophy and culture does not have all bad parts. Please read and analyze everything, good and bad parts, if you want to make a proper judgement. It is very shocking to hear everyone at this point, so comfortable with joking: "let's nuke the Chinese" or "hope we bomb china badly if there's a war" or "the British and Japanese were good to wipe out the Chinese first" so casually! It is not a fair sentiment nor anti-racist one. If it's wrong to say: "the native Americans should have gotten rid of the arriving pilgrims because they were gonna genocide them anyways so might as well" or "black people should be allowed to hurt white people now for all they've done" then statements of that nature against Chinese is also wrong.

And just like other nations who came before and around the same time, these other nations also had bad parts of their culture. No one seems to highlight how colonizers used to practice Safari Game Hunting in Africa for centuries which killed a lot of animals leaving endangered species, no one talks about the quack and irrational remedies doctors in medieval Ages used to do, how they used to mix arsenic in paint on toys in Victorian era, European wars against indigenous peoples, as much as they keep on bringing up Chinese history's weak points and irrationally using it as a weapon to hold against Chinese people irrelevant to the cause of their past generations for years. It is unfair to whitewash your history while scorning the Chinese people's past.

Some Chinese clothing is nice. Some Chinese food is delicious. Some Chinese architecture can be very beautiful. Some Chinese inventions are useful. Those are the good points of Chinese culture. Not everything is tainted.

4.Not all Chinese are ugly. Or yellow skinned. Or receded jawed. Some have hooded eyes, some have high cheekbones, bigger mouths, wonky noses naturally too. Please look at every Chinese person without plastic surgery and analyze the whole populations faces, before you pass a half-assed judgement of how "ugly" they are in general! Seriously, if not how can you make a proper judgement?

5.As for other Asians who are non-Chinese, please stop trying to compare your cultures against theirs, treat it like a contest and say which one is the 'better Asian' to the people of the Occident(white). It is not cool nor necessary. Just do your thing go brighten your own little corner and you'll be great. Not every wumao is stealing your culture all the time sometimes cultures and trads just overlap or happen to be similar or shared through separation and migration reasons. Yes, you are a different non-chinese Asian and unique, there's no need to make noise or insult Chinese people just to prove your point too.

6.Overseas Chinese had ancestors who suffered too hence their migration and diaspora. Read about the Nanking Massacre, their Opium Addiction, 731 labs, Mao's rule, and other conditions. A lot didn't migrate for fun and games.

This is not dedicated to defending China's misdeeds or the Wumao, this is dedicated to the OVERSEAS people of Chinese descent, the Southeast Asian Chinese, the Chinese diaspora in the west, and anyone who didn't ask to be born with Chinese genes or ancestry but got it anyway: it's not your fault. Don't let yourself be shamed for being born this way, even when it's 'cool' to make fun of Chinese, and find a little pride in yourself. Take care and look out for yourself. There may be 1.4 billion mainland Chinese(even with the birth control policies), but there are many more overseas Chinese who need to be understood as "overseas people of Chinese descent" and respected as such.

For those who are non-chinese reading this, please think carefully anytime you want to post something, is it attacking only the current leaders in china or also targeting Chinese people or overseas Chinese-descent peoples too, before you become the very bigot you hate against a group of people or do a hate crime you might regret. Take a moment, and calm down.

Whoever needs to see this, glad you seen it, even if you need it translated. If you can tag it that would be helpful as well.

this right here 👏👏👏

i hope everyone remembers that it’s not all chinese people who are supporting the unjust things the government is doing. China in general is a very patriotic country and so when given the choice to believe something bad is happening or believing what they have been taught their entire lives (china is great and the best country in the world) they are going side with the statement that has been drilled into their heads since they were children. Chinese people aren’t ignorant they really just don’t know, every news outlet and media platform they use backs up the point that China is the best and they know if they step one toe out of line China is very powerful.

This is the government and the people of power’s doing and it doesn’t matter what the people think. The people either don’t know or don’t understand and it’s fry oho we many people repeatedly blame China as a whole for just a small part of it’s country’s doing.

What’s going on there is absolutely a violation of basic human rights and terrible but please take a moment to remember half the people don’t even know what is happening outside or inside their country because of how controlling everything is there.

Next, because everything there is decided by the government chinese immigrants have NO control over what happens there heck the people in china barely do. So the hate crimes in the west make no. fucking. sense. You’re not going to reach china by attacking u.a or canadian citizens you’re just adding to unnecessary violence. Elderly people, adults and children of north american citizenship are assaulted, harassed and bullied for somethings they cannot control and it’s terrifying how normalized the hate has become.

To all the chinese people seeing this stay strong, there’s no reason to be ashamed of where you or your family is from or how you look.

This anon put it best 🤍🤍