#anyway i'm tired and rambling and being candid again i should probably sleep

[amorremanet]

Seeing AUs where Albus and Gellert adopt Tom Riddle and everything ends up happily for everybody really shouldn’t surprise me anymore (not that it’s a common trope — not entirely uncommon either, but it’s probably not one of the most popular ones either — but it’s one that has been around for a while and is done often enough) And yet, every time I see one, I get confused, then have to pause and remember that most people’s ideas of fun probably do not include the AU where okay, yes, sure, Gellert isn’t into supremacy and probably genocide, so he and Albus actually work out, but lbr, they’re still both into that, “lmao, we know what’s best for people better than they do, it’s for The Greater Good” thing, and I mean, it’s a pretty happy life for them, their son, and Ariana and Hepzibah (oh yeah, Tom also has two mommies, because I said so, that’s why) ………buuuuuuut then that son becomes Minister for Magic and takes some cues from Margaret Thatcher and the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance of Sanford, Gloucestershire (from Hot Fuzz), and that’s pretty not good for basically everybody but him and his parents (including his adopted brother Hagrid, who Tom would most likely be happy to screw over if he could do it without making Dad-bledore upset, so he just doesn’t go out of his way to help Hagrid instead of actively screwing him over) (Tom is also really not doing shit anything to protect the Death Eaters, who still exist but are a lot heavier on the cultish tones that JKR gave them in canon and their marching orders are less about purity anything or genocide, and more about Minister Tom’s Will Be Done — which is still horrific and still involves all kinds of torture, murder, corruption, and evil magic, just not genocide. ………They prefer brainwashing, in most cases.) —And I have to remember that most people are probably not also thinking about things like how Harry has parents who are alive and love him but James and Lily also got divorced (they’re on good terms, but they weren’t working out as a married couple), and there is now a seemingly decent mental health care system in magical Britain but you should probably not trust it because Minister Tom is going to twist it in a bid to destroy your civil liberties, and the Pureblood society contingent has been shaken up by a few huge Incidents™ lately (including the heirs to two Sacred 28 families [and one halfblood son from the disowned Blood Traitor branch of a different Sacred 28 family] very publicly coming out as gay; none of them was Sirius, whose reasons for not doing the thing basically boil down to, “It would make life twenty times harder for Regulus, and fifty times harder for Remus,” but Kingsley was the one in the brackets), and and and and aaaaaand……… Mostly because, y’know. Most other people have lives and didn’t overly world-build an AU like that instead of focusing exclusively on the main family unit, and didn’t lose track of things because their meds were out of whack at the time and they had too many ideas about ALL THE THINGS but couldn’t turn them into a real, concrete anything. Also, they have their own headcanons about a lot of the minor characters who got drawn into my take on things (I assume), so even if they didn’t have lives and stuff, they would’ve come up with something way different that, presumably, would not involve (among other things) an incredibly drunk canonical Order member (but the Order doesn’t exist in this AU) ugly-crying at his ex-boy, a former Death Eater who is only marginally less drunk (but probably more of a mess overall because mixing alcohol with certain psychiatric potions is Not A Good), and hoping that said ex-boy is very happy with Kingsley Shacklebolt who’s probably better at everything, isn’t he, he’s so fucking great, who wouldn’t want to marry him —and then getting a ring from his ex-boy’s left hand thrown at his face, while getting ugly-cried at back about how there is nothing romantic between his ex-boy and Kingsley Shacklebolt because they’re friends but both of them are in love with someone else, and if you don’t believe it, look at that ring, but then give it right back because it’s bad enough that ex-boy couldn’t save the love of his life from himself and in so doing repay that man for saving his life by getting him out of the Minister’s freaky death-worshipping cult, at least let him keep the ring you gave him, you bastard, he already had to punch out Gilderoy Lockhart to get it back once tonight, he is not losing it again (……But, in my defense, I would like to reiterate that Harry James Potter has parents who are both alive and love him and have never abused him, and hey, Neville Longbottom has also been raised by loving and supportive parents, rather than an emotionally abusive grandmother and a physically abusive great-uncle, and Minister Tom ends up getting foiled in a ridiculously convoluted mass-brainwashing scheme by two drunk Aurors, one drunk Hitwizard, one drunk Healer, one drunk Obliviator, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, who doesn’t know how to switch off, and by my standards, that is an amazingly happy ending)

[somethingmissingthiswaycomes]

(This post is about US politics.)

Hey, so, I know voting is stressful, and being bombarded by "vote blue no matter who!" and "voting is useless!" or "do your research!" is extra stressful and unhelpful. It may be tempting to sit aside and hope that your right-wing uncle's vote doesn't do any damage, focusing on direct action yourself and ignoring elections.

But voting is important. Not because the system works, but because, while it doesn't, it is what we're living in. We have to engage with it while working to dismantle it. (Or supporting work to dismantle it, as the case may be.) The most vulnerable among us are at risk.

So, anyway, I found this website.

Just put in your street, town/city, and state, and it'll show you samples of upcoming ballots. I live in Illinois and have this page pulled up:

This got away from me (probably bc I got decent sleep for the first time in weeks and my brain isn't shutting down as fast as usual). What I wanted to say was basically just "Oh hey, look at this. A place to start." So, there it is. Rambling about it under the cut.

I've been skimming everyone on there. Not thoroughly researching because that's hard and I'm tired and yeah it's just so stressful to think about but

BUT I've read through at least a couple positions from everyone (because everyone has a page with some info on them, and if the info is incomplete a quick google is giving me at least the major info on their positions), including the republicans. I don't ever intend to vote republican, but I want to see what's at stake.

I'm noticing the republicans seem to consistently have an inflammatory tone about their pages. And, more importantly, they all call for something I would like to not happen. Mostly on immigration issues, cops, and "parental rights" (you know, that dogwhistle for anti-queer action, especially in schools).

The democrats have some lukewarm positions, and I don't expect the more inviting stuff to get pushed as hard as I'd like, but they do mostly promise moderately good things, even improvements.

The red candidates talk specifically about how terrible the blue are, and preventing progress. The blue candidates talk about maybe making things better? I know who I'm voting for, unfortunately. (Unfortunately because we should have better options.)

And I might have kind of a downer tone about this, but that's because I don't want to come off as ... uh... a democrat. I'm an anarchist, ideologically speaking. I'd rather not be here, but we have to engage in society.

In short: Oh my god have you seen what is happening in the US right now please PLEASE help prevent the greater evil here from taking away my rights and the rights of those more vulnerable than I am.

Here's the link again: