#because it is responsible for killing thousands of people per year

[artykyn]

This is such a perfect example of @ferrousferrule's point. Here we have someone who is missing the context of the original poll.

Without context, not only are they influenced to vote a certain way, but they are also influenced to judge everyone voting the other way. They are influenced to think that everyone voting for the other option must surely be weird and out of their mind ("why did your brain even go there?"). They find those people confusing.

It's such a common political tactic to manipulate your followers into thinking your opponents are crazy. And just like @ferrousferrule mentioned, this is fine for a dumb little poll because it's all in good fun. But this is just such a perfect example of how this would work for more important, real-world issues.

fuck it let's try this again

[hermiona52]

I can't stop thinking about the recent cases of horrible abuse of women in France, South Korea, Uganda and India, so this fragment of Pauline Harmange's "I Hate Men", about why misandry is actually a healthy and reasonable response, is always on my mind:

If misandry is a characteristic of someone who hates men, and misogyny that of someone who hates women, it has to be conceded that in reality, the two concepts are not equal, either in terms of the dangers posed to their targets or the means used to express them. Misandry and misogyny cannot be compared, quite simply because the former exists only in reaction to the latter.

You’d literally have to have never looked beyond the end of your nose –or alternatively to be possessed of exceptional bad faith – to deny point blank that the violence women suffer is, in the huge majority of cases, perpetrated by men. This isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s a fact. The reason society is patriarchal is because there are men who use their male privilege to the detriment of the other half of the population. Some of this violence is insidious, background noise in the daily lives of women, so pernicious that we grow up with the impression that it’s the norm in male/female relationships. Other kinds of violence are so shocking that they make the headlines in national newspapers.

In 2017 in France, 90 per cent of the people who received death threats from their partners were women, while 86 per cent of those murdered by their partner or ex-partner were also women. Of the sixteen women who killed their partner, at least eleven, that is, 69 per cent of them, had themselves been victims of domestic violence. In 2019, 149 women were murdered by their partner or their former partner. In 2018, 96 per cent of those who received a prison sentence for domestic violence were men, and 99 per cent of those sentenced for sexual violence were men.

It’s not only women who are the victims of sexual attacks and rape, though it’s hard to find statistics of sexual attacks on men. There’s an enormous taboo when it comes to talking about sexual violence perpetrated against men, who suffer the full force of sexist stereotypes that imply that aman cannot be raped, since supposedly they’re always up for sex. It’s also very difficult for men to talk about sexual trauma. Society expects them to be strong and virile: nothing can be forced on them – and if it is, they aren’t ’real’ men.

A significant number of rapes are committed against minors, both male and female, and here too, the perpetrators are overwhelmingly men. In fact, whatever the sex or age of the victim of sexual harassment or violence– whether male or female, child or adult – it is vital to emphasise that the vast majority of those responsible for such violence are men.

[...] There are plenty of reasons to dislike men, if you think about it. Reasons backed up by facts. Why do men hate women? During the thousands of years that men have benefited from their dominant social position, what did we do – what have we done – to deserve their violence?

Misandry has a target, but it doesn’t have a list of victims whose morbid tally is totted up on almost a daily basis. We don’t injure or kill men, we don’t prevent them from getting a job or following whatever their passion is, or dressing as they wish, or walking down the street after dark, or expressing themselves however they see fit. And when someone does give themselves the right to impose such things on men, that person is always a man, and it still falls within the heteropatriarchal system

We misandrists stay in our lane. We might hate men, but at best we put up with them, frostily, because they’re everywhere and we don’t have any choice (incredible but true: it’s possible to hate someone without having an irrepressible urge to kill them). At worst we stop inviting them into our lives – or at least we make a drastic selection beforehand. Our misandry scares men, because it’s the sign that they’re going to have to start meriting our attention. Having relationships with men isn’t something we owe them,a duty, but, as in every balanced relationship, all the parties involved have to make an effort to treat one another with respect.

As long as there are misogynistic men who don’t give a damn, and a culture that condones and encourages them, there will be women who are so fed up they refuse to bear the brunt of exhausting or toxic relationships.

[eponastory]

I'm sitting here wondering why there are people who don't like Zuko because he is a 'colonizer' and this is bad.

Like that's not the point.

History is full of colonization. Especially ours. Being a colonizer does not make anyone bad per sey, not on an individual level at least. Countries over thousands of years have practiced this expansion of culture and politics, which is why we have new countries and new cultures. I'm not disregarding the fact that some atrocities happened with colonization. They absolutely have, and there have been genocides included in that. It's complicated, but evidently some people have forgotten that colonies have been a thing since the ancient times. Rome was the biggest perpetrator of colonization and genocide, yet the Roman Empire is praised for its advancements.

Now, on to Zuko.

They whole reason anti-Zuko people don't like him is because he is a victim of a dark legacy. He is not at fault for the atrocities that his forefathers chose to engage in. If you really look at Zuko and his character, he doesn't actually kill anyone. Where as Aang has inadvertently killed (when he was the Ocean Spirit) several people. Not completely his fault, but he does share the responsibility of choosing to let the Ocean Spirit use him as a conduit of sorts. Again, it boils down to the power of choice and accountability. Zuko takes accountability for the things he does and actively tries to avoid making the choices his forefathers made. He cares about what happens to people, even though he is going through a dark time. I can remember being an emotional and angry teenager trying to get some sort of praise or love from my father. That is his goal at first, but over time he realizes if he continues on that path, he will be like his father. He doesn't want that. And he doesn't become Ozai or do the things that Sozin or Azulon do. Actually, it's the opposite.

Zuko helps bring peace and this sets him on a path that ultimately changes the world for the better. He can only do that if he is willing to accept the past and let go of the anger, which he does.

So, is he responsible for the actions of the Fire Nation because he is a descendant of Sozin? No. He isn't. As we learn, he is also a descendant of Roku. I also believe that Ursa had a very strong influence on Zuko's character as well.

In short, Zuko is not really a villain. He's definitely an antagonist at the beginning, but over time he becomes something else and that is why he is such a great character.

Anyway, just my thoughts as someone who has a deep love for complex characters.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Daniel Greenfield

The Associated Press recently made headlines by falsely claiming that the Israeli campaign against Hamas “sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history” and was even worse than “the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II”.

The Washington Post argued that “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza�� while The Wall Street Journal contended that it was “generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.”

That’s all the more impressive since even accepting the Hamas casualty figures (tainted and inflated numbers in which there are no terrorists, only civilians, and fighting age men are really children) as the media does, this is still probably one of the least violent conflicts in the region.

In 2016, the Washington Post described the Syrian Civil War, with a possible 250,000 deaths, as “the most destructive conflict in the region”. In 2020, the UN had called the Yemeni Civil War, with 150,000 deaths, “the most destructive conflict since the end of the Cold War”.

And then there’s the current phase of the war in Sudan (which the media is currently uninterested in) in which 15,000 people have been killed over the course of last year, as part of a larger conflict that may have claimed as many as 2 million lives.

The Tigray War in Ethiopia over the last three years (which you may have missed because the media chose not to hysterically cover every single bomb dropped and protesters stayed home knitting instead of blocking traffic) may have cost the lives of between 80,000 to 600,000 people.

(El Pais, Spain’s newspaper, which did report on Ethiopia’s civil war, described it as “the deadliest of the 21st century” and then had to pivot to argue later that Israel was worse in, “25,000 deaths in Gaza: Why the destruction of this war exceeds that of other major conflicts”.)

In reality, every significant war and civil war in the region had a much higher death toll than the Hamas war: including the Iraq-Iran War with an estimated 500,000 to 2 million deaths. And in nearby Africa, the Congo War has been blamed for 6 million deaths since 1996.

How does the media justify arguing that 25,000 is more than 2 million?

There are plenty of statistical gimmicks available to anyone who wants to argue that 2 + 2 is really 5. Media “analyses” that claim that Israel’s campaign against Hamas is the deadliest and most destructive, and might even be worse than WWII, adjust their claims accordingly.

As the author of every dubious research study knows, to get the results you want, you manipulate your parameters. Media analyses selectively compare Israel’s campaign to battles, rather than wars, they narrowly focus on very specific timetables, they try to estimate per capita rather than gross figures. But drawing a circle around a particular area and going per capita works both ways. The Hamas attack of Oct 7 killed 10% of the population of Kibbutz Be’eri making it far worse per capita than anything in Israel’s response to those atrocities.

But statistical fudging is all in where the line is drawn to achieve a particular agenda.

For example, the New York Times declares that, “Gaza Deaths Surpass Any Arab Loss in Wars With Israel in Past 40 Years”. Of course the last major Arab-Israeli war took place 50 years ago.

The 40 year figure is based on the Lebanon War, but the actual numbers for that war vary wildly from the thousands according to Israel, 10,000 according to the CIA, 18,000 according to Lebanon and 30,000 according to Arafat and the PLO.

While the media at the time emphasized the highest estimates, in order to criticize the Israeli campaign against the PLO, they now use lower estimates to attack the Gaza campaign.

[imaginesmai]

Once upon a fairy tale - Ubbe Ragnarson (1)

First part is here! I have almost finished the story, so expect one part per day BECAUSE I NEED TO SHARE IT.

Other parts: Once Upon A Fairy Tale Masterlist

Plot: just like any other summer, you have to leave your country. Just like any other summer, Ubbe has to open his to your annoying presence.

Warnings: none, maybe mentions of sex and nakedness.

-

“I think I might be sick”

“You aren’t”

“Maybe I’ve got the chicken pox. Have you heard about it? At least half of – “

“You haven’t”

“Storms seasons have barely finished. Would it be safe for the last remain of our dynasty to take that risk?”

“It is”

“Father, I don’t think – “

“We have the same argument every year, darling” your father sighed, finally looking up from the mountain of papers on his desk. “You’ve already faked the chicken pox twice, you got food poisoning on purpose last year and the storm season finished two moons ago. So, unless the kingdom is about to crumble in the next hours, we’re leaving”

“It might” you muttered, looking angrily at the hem of your dress. “It might”

You knew it was pointless to argue with him, but each time, you tried. The chicken pox wasn’t actually an original idea, but Ubbe’s, who tried a year before you. And no one had any proof of the princess sneaking into the kitchens in the middle of the night to drink expired milk. You made sure of that.

None of them had worked. For the past sixteen years, princess Y/N Ealhmunding have spent the summer months in the lovely company of Ubbe Ragnarson and his brothers. It didn’t matter in which castle they decided to try – you hadn’t enjoyed a summer since you both were kids

The first year you actually wanted to try and make a new friend, because you rarely played with children your age. But Ubbe decided you making him look like a fool in front of his father was unforgivable, and after dinner he stained your dress with horse poop. Which got your in problems with your father and maid.

After multiple pranks, he went back to his castle and you thought it was over. Only for next year to go on a trip to his castle, in Mercia. You didn’t like Ubbe nor his brothers, and they didn’t like you. That summer, you went back home with a broken wrist and Ubbe had his nose broken for the first time.

It did not get better. If anything, both of you got smarter and more creative.

“Y/N” Ecbert called, dragging his daughter out of your torturous daydream. “Darling, look at me. You cannot fight me forever”

You didn’t look at him, and after a few moments, the sound of a chair scrapping the carpet filled the room. As he came closer, the anger faded away.

As long as you could remember, it had always been your father and you. Your mother died when you were a child, in some type of retaliation from another kingdom. There was a dark past to that land that not many people talked about, but that you knew. Your mother was assassinated and you were saved by accident. A servant who was in the castle managed to run away with a baby while the enemy took the castle and slaughtered everyone they found in their way.

And by the time they killed the queen and realized there was supposed to be a baby with your, princess Y/N was long gone.

Since then, it had been your father and you against the world. He let his daughter train with a wood sword while he practiced, and draw with ink on old papers while he attended to councils. Everyone in the castle knew and adored the young princess, with your bouncy locks and rosy cheeks. And still, they were happy knowing it wouldn’t be like that forever.

“He’s a good man. He’s responsible, caring, and loves his family” he said for what felt like a thousand time. “And you’ve known him since you were a child. He’s no stranger. One day – “

“I’ll have to marry a person I don’t love, not even like, and become what it is expected for me to be. Which is a quiet wife, ready to carry his children and look pretty while doing nothing” you cut him off, feeling more sad than angry. “I don’t want that, father. I don’t like him. We’ve tried getting along and we don’t. So maybe it’s time to move on”

“It’s not that simple, and you know it” Ecbert put a comforting hand on your shoulder and gave you a small smile. “He needs a wife. You need a husband. It could be worse”

“Sure, he could always break my leg after throwing me from the top of a ladder, almost drown me or make me drink coffee with salt. Oh, but he already did that.”

“Children do that, right? Do I have to remind you when you locked him in the barn and he wet himself?”

You thought about that summer and had to stop a smile. After another argument because something you couldn’t remember anymore, Ubbe had broken one of your dolls. One of your favorite dolls. And that night, when he came back from riding with his brothers, you decided to pay him back by locking him in the barn. Only that you forgot it was supposed to be for just a few hours and ended up falling asleep. The next morning, the ostler found him curled in his own pee after crying himself exhausted.

You weren’t proud of that moment, but it wasn’t by far the worst thing either of you had done. Cutting hair, giving rashes or breaking bones were only a small part of the long list of pranks you had performed over the years.

“It was a pretty good one”

“Yeah. For a child, Y/N” he snorted, and you finally met his kind eyes. “I’m getting old, and you – “

“Don’t say it” the princess whined, not liking that conversation.

“I have to” his eyes lost a bit of light and you were highly aware of the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, the whiteness of his hair and beard. “I don’t have any other children. Your mother gave me one and I couldn’t ask for anyone better. I couldn’t protect your like I should have, my darling. So I have to protect you, for when I’m gone. Other kingdoms have already started poking at the borders. Unless I assure the kingdom and your safety soon, they’ll start moving”

It was a reality everyone in the kingdom were well aware of. Great king Ecbert was no longer the man who conquered the kingdom of Wessex and brought the best out of it. Who built farms and houses for everyone and made its name known across kingdoms and countries. Now, he was a man who had a noticeable limp, who took medicine before going to sleep and forgot things every now and then.

And according to laws he couldn’t change, a princess like you couldn’t rule by your own. Not unless you were married to a man powerful enough to rule both his and your kingdom, because you were a woman, and women were supposed to just look pretty and carry children.

“Besides” he added, getting up with a soft creak from his left knee. “You didn’t see him last year. Maybe he has changed”

“For worse, probably”

Last year, Mercia entered in war with Northumbria. When the boats of Wessex appeared in the Ragnarsons’ castle, they found it almost empty. Aslaug had seen all of her sons leave to fight, dressed in shiny armors. Ragnar Lothbrok led an army against the enemies’ forces, and you had been there when he came back. Not as a victorious king, but as a tired man who had seen too many wars.

Even though Mercia won, Ubbe and Sigurd stayed in the border to maintain the peace, and you spent the summer with the servants and Aslaug. While she approved the accord between her husband and Ecbert, she didn’t particularly like her soon to be daughter – or anyone that wasn’t her, for that matter. Which turned that last summer into the most boring of your life.

You hoped that summer would be different.

 -

 Ubbe watched the boats come closer to land, the port coming alive as the first rays of sun touched the horizon. It was soon, but not soon enough for the prince to miss the arrival of the guests. If anyone could call them that anymore, as they came every year. It had been a while since he visited Wessex. As the heir and commander of the great army, he couldn’t leave for the summer no more, so they had to come to him.

Which, if it was his choice, wouldn’t happen.

Ubbe Ragnarson had a wide range of scars on his body, all of them worthily obtained in battle. Only that he was a skilled warrior that rarely let a sword near him, and that the biggest battle he had faced so far was against a girl half his size.

“You should head to the port” Hvitserk said behind him, leaning against a tree. There was a naked woman between his legs, whose name they couldn’t remember. “Mother will be furious if she doesn’t find you there”

“She can think whatever she wants” he snapped. “They know just fine their way into the castle. And I’ll see her. Eventually”

“You should have seen her last year. She has tits”

Scoffing, he decided to ignore his brother. It was easy to enjoy life when the crown didn’t rest on him. When the biggest responsibility he had was not to let anyone know if he had a bastard, or at least don’t acknowledge them in public. In the last two years, Ubbe had gone from spoiled prince to commander, heir and almost king.

With a father that was spiraling away, a mother that couldn’t be farther from him, and an enemy that was ready to attack, he wouldn’t think about Y/N’s tits.

What he had thought about, though, was about you. He had always been opposed to the marriage between the two kingdoms, since the moment the young and bratty princess humiliated him in front of his father. Ubbe knew you shared his feelings, that you didn’t want to marry him and would rather throw yourself from that boat.

But he also knew Y/N were in a dangerous age, where other kingdoms showed interest in your hand and the power it held. He knew that you needed the marriage as much as he needed, a strategic union between two kingdoms before one of them fell.

No matter how many times he repeated that, he couldn’t bring himself to ride back to the port and greet the incomers. Pride was a prize he wouldn’t lose on this battle.

“You should bring her back” Ubbe told his brother, guiding his horse back to the road. “Her family might get worried”

“Worried about what? She’s with a prince. she couldn’t be safer” he chuckled, closing his eyes. “I intend to extend the night a few hours more. As soon as you leave”

“If I’m not wrong, this is my hideout. Yours was close to the cliff”

“What’s yours is mine, Ubbe. What’s yours is mine”

Ubbe spurred his horse and left his brother behind, knowing he wouldn’t like what was about to happen. It was the only place from where someone could see the port without being seen, and he had thought it would be empty. He didn’t think about his brother and his night adventures, which could happen anywhere.

The road back to the castle wasn’t long, and for Ubbe, it would have been shorter. He knew those lands as the back of his hand, was a fast rider and knew a bunch of shortcuts. But instead of taking them, he chose the long way.

Bordering cliffs, he let his horse choose the pace, stopping to drink water and sniff a few flowers. He let the wind blow his braid, until his cheeks were red and his hands cold. Since he could remember, riding horses and getting was has been one of his passions. Even more when he discovered it was one of the few things he could beat you to.

He would never admit it, but racing you through the forest and feeling the adrenaline of almost loosing was one of the very few moments he looked forward for. That, or losing knowing he did his best and wasn’t expected to do more.

Being the heir of Ragnarson wasn’t easy, and if he could, he would choose the life of any of his brothers. He knew Hvitserk envied him for the power and position he held above others, yet that came with a price. A price that, day by day, he was starting to understand.

By the time he reached the castle, the sun was high and the cold was giving space to the heats of the summer. During the first month, there wasn’t a big difference in Mercia, as there was snow in the mountains and ice in the forest. The same slow changes that every year started with the arrival of his future wife and the king of Wessex.

“She’s mad”

Ubbe had heard his brother Sigurd entering the barn, so he wasn’t surprised when he appeared behind him.

“You should have seen her face. It was red and she was doing that thing with her mouth when someone asks her to change her plans” Sigurd explained, staring as Ubbe tied up his horse. “Father wasn’t there either. It was a bit sad, actually. Only mother and me. But they didn’t say anything about it, so I guess they’re used by now”

“Where’s father?” for the last year, Ragnar had disappeared a few times, only to come back a week after thinner and dirtier, with no explanation. “Is he with Yidu?”

“Probably. He was complaining last night. You know how he gets” he shrugged. “You should go and say hi. Not because mother says so, just… it was sad. Like they aren’t welcome anymore”

He wanted to say that it was because they weren’t, but he bit his tongue just in time. Of all the brothers, you had grown closer to Sigurd. It wasn’t a friendship, nor a relationship. Yet whenever you could, you stuck to his side and in the past summers he seemed to tolerate your presence.

For his brother, he could do so. He could even pretend it was for his father, who wasn’t at his best moment. Either way, he left his horse to rest and made the way to his chambers, hoping to change into something decent and have a short bath that made him presentable. Not that it mattered when you had seen him covered in mud and forced him to come out of the lake wearing one of your dresses.

He tried to list reasons why he should actually try to accord the marriage proposal that summer, why he should make an effort to stop seeing the child who would put ants on his shoes and start seeing a woman he could grow fond of with the years. He managed to come up with two before reaching his room and opening the door.

When he looked up, he was met with a very naked body that belonged to his future wife. And he instantly added Hvitserk’s reason to the list.

Want to read more? Check out my side blog @imaginesmaimasterlists, where I keep all the masterlists! Feedback is always appreciated

Taglist: 

@66vikings​​

[ukrfeminism]

Gathered around a wooden table in an unremarkable local council room in east London, ten men are sat side by side. They span a range of ages, ethnicities and social backgrounds; some are in sportswear while some are in smart work gear, like they’ve just left the office. But there’s one thing they all have in common — they have carried out domestic abuse. And they are here to try and change their behaviour. 

“Domestic abuse is a choice,” Mark*, the course leader tells them, as the two-hour session begins. “Not one in the thousands of men I have worked with are possessed by demons or aliens. If you can choose to be bad, you can choose to be good.”

This week’s session of the Spotlight Programme — one of several across the country aimed at stopping people inflicting violence and abuse on their partners — is looking at the repercussions domestic abuse has on children. Eight of the men have, at one time, been under a bail condition which prevented them from contacting their children. 

Mark, who has worked with dozens of male prisoners who have killed their partners and counselled many perpetrators in the wider community, is here to encourage the men to reflect on the consequences of their actions. As he puts it, the abusers’ choice of behaviour has denied their children access to their father.

“When you are abusing your child’s mum, you are abusing your child,” he tells the group, as he hits play on a video. “Does anyone want their sons to grow up and be sitting with me? Does anyone want their daughters to grow up and be abused?”

He then asks the men to say how they would feel if it was their mum experiencing domestic abuse. “I’d be mad, angry, I’d want revenge,” one man says. Another says he would feel upset. The list goes on.

The men who come to these sessions have carried out a range of abuse, from physical violence to psychological abuse, coercive control, financial abuse, and sexual violence, Mark tells The Independent after the session. 

But a common thread is the way they downplay violence and abuse, as well as dodging responsibility and deflecting blame. “When they first join the program, most of them are of the view that, yes, I did do dot dot but it’s because she did X, Y, Z,” he adds.

Examples of the abuse involve men blocking partners from contacting their families, raping partners and strangling them. He also tells the story of a man who regularly denied his partner her medication when she was desperately ill. 

“From how she dresses, who she sees, where she goes, who she talks to, to having to be home at 7pm every night — these are all very controlling behaviours and we come across them every single day,” he said.

The Spotlight Programme was launched in 2020, with referrals coming from the police and children’s services. Some 677 individuals have been referred between the scheme starting and April of this year.

Data supplied by the local council shows 92 per cent who completed the programme saw a decrease in police contact involving domestic abuse. Eight per cent of participants have dropped out of the programme and five per cent have been suspended.

A study, carried out by Durham and London Metropolitan universities back in 2015, found far fewer women reported being physically attacked after their partner went to a programme, with 61 per cent beforehand in comparison to two per cent afterwards.

But Mark also warns that not all men who join the Spotlight Programme are suitable. On some occasions, the more light that is shone on a perpetrator’s behaviour, the more they proactively perpetrate that abuse.

One man was taken off the programme due to frequently laughing at abuse in the group sessions. He also admitted to laughing at the thought of his wife’s face when he was raping her.

Despite this, Mark is adamant his scheme has the ability to change an abuser’s behaviour if they acknowledge there is a problem and they are committed to changing it.

In his view, it is ultimately a man’s belief system which means he thinks he has the right to control and dictate his partner’s life choices. “We help them to understand that: look, you don’t always have to like your partner’s choices’,” he adds. “But there are alternative ways to respond other than abuse and violence.”

But funding issues mean schemes like Spotlight — which is accredited by domestic abuse charity Respect — are at risk of being discontinued. Although they are funded from a variety of places, including local authorities and police and crime commissioners, the programmes have been hit by reduced funding from the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

Jas Athwal, a local councillor in Redbridge, said Spotlight’s government funding came to an end in March this year as he explained they “desperately need” the money to continue. They are currently using local council money to pay for the scheme. “This is one of those things you can’t walk away from because this is going to have a real impact on a child’s life, on a victim’s life, on a family’s life.”

Mark’s course in Redbridge is one of just three accredited courses left in London, while there are 35 such schemes across the UK. But Caroline Bernard, a spokesperson for Respect, told The Independent the removal of funding has lead to a reduction in risk management or feedback and resulted in Respect telling schemes for perpetrators not to take on these cases as it is dangerous to do so.

Ms Bernard warned the slashing of funding has meant “the entire system has broken down” and that there are a “high number” of perpetrators who cannot access the schemes. 

“Ultimately, the lack of access to these programmes is putting the safety of domestic abuse survivors, and their children, at risk,” she said. 

The world’s first perpetrator programme took place in Deluth in Minnesota in the US in 1980, with other programmes modelling themselves on the scheme since then, Ippo Panteloudakis, head of services at Respect, said. The first perpetrator programme was launched in the UK in 1989. 

But perpetrator programmes are not free from controversy and many who work in the domestic abuse sector are sceptical of the schemes.

“We think they have a role to play but we are cautious about them,” Ellie Butt, of domestic abuse charity Refuge, says. “The evidence base is limited. There is evidence for some people they reduce some of the abuse. While we think that has a role, we don’t want to send a message to survivors that they should have to tolerate any abuse or slightly less severe abuse.”

She also warned perpetrators are “adept at manipulating systems and manipulating professionals and continuing abuse” as she noted many abuse multiple victims.

“They are not a solution in and of themselves. We still need a much better criminal justice response than we have and better services for survivors. They are not a silver bullet,” she said. 

For Paul*, a 36-year-old painter and decorator who lives in London, the Spotlight Programme helped change his behaviour towards his partner. He was arrested and investigated for perpetrating coercive control. 

“I’d become very overprotective of her... I had become smothering,” he said. “I was constantly monitoring where she was and wanting to know when she would be home. I would bombard her with text messages and phone calls. It wasn’t verbal abuse, it was more ‘where are you? Have you left me?’”

But Paul, who has three children with his partner, states his “whole attitude to everything has changed” since taking part in the programme in August last year.

“It has changed my life,” he adds. “I don’t jump in feet first - I judge the situation slowly and calmly. She has noticed a change in me. She has a bit more trust in me now. I leave her to live her life in peace now.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The safety of children who have experienced domestic abuse is vital and we are currently reviewing the role of interventions in the private family court. 

“This includes working with experts, including in the domestic abuse sector, to consider what interventions the family court can most effectively provide in these cases.”

*Names have been changed to protect identities

[lualewis]

New profile ans I'm back to my old antics jumping into the pro/anti rabbit hole!

For anyone who can't tell, I am pretty proship. And jumping back into the rabbit hole has given me thoughts to share. To my currently 2 followers, I know you're not surprised and it will happen again!!! Eventually, when adhd allows is. Also @lightningstarborne you should get the other sibling to follow me as well so I can yell at 3 people along with the void.

Gonna be talking about the classic "fiction does/doesn't affect reality" cause it's one of the biggest arguing points with probably the most nuance.

Fiction can affect reality, but it is not in a perfect 1:1 ratio, and it usually happens in ways people don't expect. The Tetris and Jaws effects are both real, shark hunting and a fear of sharks was increased by a movie and after playing too much Tetris can make people start viewing things like pieces to be fit together until they stop for a bit.

Well let's think about those (admittedly I have seen 3 shark/underwater horror movies in 2 days and wsnt to share) starting with Jaws. The movie claims that maneating sharks are rare, especially ones of the size they had. It also pointed out how the shark was a natural part of the ocean even if it was dangerous. But people only picked up on the killer shark part. You know what parts of the movie focused on a lot more? A town focusing on making money during a holiday weekend more than caring about the safety of the people. There are arguments on screen about whether to close the beach for safety or keep it open for tourism. The movie blatantly points out how politics will bowl over things like safety until multiple people are dead. But that is not something brought up often. There are similarities with "The Meg" but those focus more on environmentalism and how a change can be disastrous. Yet people still focus on the big deadly shark aspect.

None of that is a 1:1 effect on reality. Jaws caused more people to be scared of sharks, and more people to hunt and kill them despite how low the death rate to sharks actually is. Less than 10 people die by shark per year, but across 4 Jaws movies 18 people died. Nobody was really effected by the explicit rarity mentioned in the movie, and most people don't even remember the politics mentioned. If that movie had a 1:1 effect, how did so much of the movie get overlooked?

The tetris effect is super interesting because it can happen with something as insignificant as a chessboard. Play too much checkers or chess, practice or think about the game too often? Now you're seeing images of it when you close your eyes, when things line up like the game you think of moving pieces like you would in a match? Those are tetris effects symptoms. It's been seen in people who speed solve Rubik's Cubes. With tetris, you think of fitting boxes together or of seeing them fall into place, or visualize a boarder and see pieces when you close your eyes. Being personal again, if I work security for too long and see thousands of people walking around for hours, I'll still see crowds walking around when my eyes are closed for about 2 days after. This is some kind of fiction effecting reality, but is also something that can happen with pretty much anything. See a meteor one night and think "where's the spaceship" cause you've played too many games and you've been effected in a tetris effect way. But, while these are distracting and maybe a little dangerous because of it, they're all super simple and things you can snap yourself out of with just a "wtf, I'm not playing my game" type thing. There is absolutely an effect on reality, but the extent is immediately thinking a response you would do in the thing you have literally just spent hours (minimum) doing and visualizing game elements and random times.

Violent video games are also brought up a lot. Studies are mostly inconclusive and don't always scale for competitiveness or types of violence. It's known tnag they can have an effect and for some people that is stronger. However, game companies and policies similar to movie ratings attempt to motigate this by giving age ratings. As you age, you decelope more of an awareness of reality being separate from fiction, and age ratings are a response to that. This is a part that I think is overlooked a lot. With violent video game debates, and arguments on how to age restrict some games and movies and TV shows, those age ratings are meant to be a guide for how well someone can understand and handle the content. That to some extent includes how well someone can separate fiction and reality. Using a personal example (again) my twin and I are 12 years older than our younger sisters. When my twin and I were 14, we started watching the It miniseries. My twin one day decided to rewaych it while babysitting the then 2 year old younger siblings. One of them ended up afraid of the curtains in our house because of the opening acene; being 2 she couldn't separate reality while my twin being 14 knew it was all fake.

Thats why we apart to explore darker topics, in media and our own imagination, as we age. We can understand that it is 100% not real, while still thinking about ourselves or someone else in a terrible situation. We can think about how we'd react emotionally, the actions we'd take, how everything would play out, while knowing it's not real. All media does this in some way, but I think written media can be the most intense. There is more detail laid out or explained, we can have context going back decades into the characters lives, and so many writers will change the prosody of their writing just to draw you in more. The emotions you feel, no matter what genre story you are using to feel them, are real, they are fiction effecting reality. It can be standard housewife porn that you are reacting to, or some weird violent thing on ao3, or something gross and intense in disturbing ways, and you will have a very real emotional reaction. But that doesn't mean it's effecting you in a way that will make you recreate it. Housewife porn has been around forever but that doesn't mean women are going around and immediately reenacting those books. Saying that fanfiction is going to cause people to do terrible things ignores the entirety of the history of literature and people having taboo books well before the internet got big.

There is so much nuance. Something making you go "ew" doesn't mean it's immediately the worst thing ever. Especially on the internet where you can (to some extent (fucking corporations)) curate your own experience. If you don't like a blog, stop following them or block them. Don't like a story on ao3; close it and put the tags in your exclusion list.

[muses14]

Little Mushroom (Review)

Type: Chinese Novel (BL) Genre: Sci-fi Author: Yi Shi Si Zhou Rating: ★★★★★ Summary: “Until the day humanity falls.” In the year 2020, Earth’s magnetic poles disappeared and humankind was nearly wiped out by cosmic radiation. Within the span of a hundred years, living creatures began to mutate and devour each other while the remaining humans, numbering in the tens of thousands, struggled bitterly in their man-made bases.

In the Abyss, home to the mutated xenogenics, there lived a sentient little mushroom. Because it had been nourished by the blood and flesh of the deceased human An Ze, not only did it take on a similar-looking human form, but a similar name as well: An Zhe.

An Zhe is determined to go to the human base to search for his spore, which had been harvested by humans. Once there, however, he faces the omnipresent risk of discovery and certain death as he tries to keep his non-human nature hidden from the Judges, whose responsibility is to inspect for and eliminate xenogenics like himself. And of all the Judges, Colonel Lu Feng is the most perceptive and merciless—as soon as he determines that someone is a xenogenic, he will execute that person on the spot.

But An Zhe’s mutation goes undetected by Lu Feng’s eyes, and so a tale of humans and xenogenics unfolds…

Silver Award winner at the 12th Chinese Nebula Awards for Chinese Science Fiction.

Characters:

An Zhe He is a (adorable) little mushroom who gains human form when a human died near where he was growing, and he absorbs his flesh and blood and gains some of his genes and memories. That said person was named An Ze, and thus, he adopted the name An Zhe. He became a special kind of xenogenic. Having lost his spore when humans came and took it, he made it his mission to sneak into a human base and take back what was his. Lu Feng The aloof and silent Arbiter who vowed to serve mankind in all ways. Having to bear the burden of killing xenogenics (people who are infected by creatures and lose their humanity) from entering the base he was residing in, he was the target of ire from people who felt he was killing without remorse. But little do they know this is one of the hardest things someone can shoulder, because I sure as heck thought so! Poor Lu Feng. Though one thing that was a little iffy was the fact he had so much POWER within the base. Like, his words were law, and he was able to kill whenever and whoever without question. This required some suspension of disbelief on my part, but there’s been worst things I’ve read. lol

Relationship: It’s cute, is one way I’d word it? It is subtle, but the way they interact is on a realistic level and An Zhe knows he can’t be with Lu Feng in the same way two humans can. In fact, at first he was afraid if Lu Feng even liked him a little bit. Not hard to think that since Lu Feng is stoic and of few words the majority of the time. He does tease An Zhe but our little mushroom didn’t quite understand, haha.

Minimal romance is fine to me so long as I can still feel like the characters care deeply for one another. The author nailed it in my eyes. The slow burn was very nice~

The epilogues go a little more in depth of their relationship, but I am excluding those and am only focusing on the main stuff, per usual. Supporting Characters: Does An Ze count? He never left my mind really the entire novel despite being present only in the beginning. It was because of him that An Zhe came to exist the way he did. THANK YOU, AN ZE! And I was moved that An Zhe never forgot about him. Bless his little heart. The scene where An Zhe wanted to go back to where it all began (during a certain segment of the story) moved me too, and I teared up a bit. Pauli was cool too. Most were killed off or forgotten about by the author. Oof. The remaining ones didn’t leave any kind of lasting feelings from me. Overall: Excellent read! I was never bored at any moment (and this is unusual for me) and binged it easily whenever I had the time to. I enjoyed how none of the main characters drastically changed or anything by the end. Everything was subtle and it worked for this novel. *chef’s kiss*

[eskat]

It's morbid, but... yeah, American healthcare is bad enough that someone can be murdered in the streets, and the populace cheers, not because they know who it was that was killed and personally had a grudge, but because of how fundamentally they represent the rot that kills thousands per year. Some numbers I can find say ~26,000, some say ~68,000, Others still ~45,000. Regardless, let's just say it's tens of thousands as a safe bet.

Many years ago, one of those people was my father in law, or at the time, someone I would've called one of my best friends. He was a lot older than me for sure, but he was truly a good friend to me. Years ago, he died of a heart attack. He had had one before, and it had financially ruined him. For over a decade later he was hounded by debt collectors, had his bank accounts seized, and was effectively squeezed for every penny they could get out of him.

And then when it started to happen again, and he felt the second heart attack begin, he accepted death rather than go through that again. He picked up the phone, called his best friend, told him what was happening, ignored his friend's begging to get help, and died.

And in that year, he was just one of literal tens of thousands of others who died, because trying to keep him and others like him healthy and alive was deemed to be less important than making a profit for share holders.

I don't necessarily like the idea of us "addressing" this by random acts of violence. Systemic rot isn't something I feel we'll fix by killing a few people at the top of the pile. But I just wanted to give some people who are outside the US a window into how bad it is over here when it comes to healthcare. A lot of people outside the US who I've seen seem shocked and horrified that someone was shot in the streets and the American response has been just to jeer and laugh at the corpse. No sympathy for the family, no fear, no concern, no thought for how due process should be considered. And yeah, I kinda get it! It's pretty unhinged to have an entire nation of people cheering over a brutal killing in the streets. But it's because basically everyone knows someone, or at bare minimum, knows someone who knows someone who either flat out died, is basically a debt-slave to the medical system, or just doesn't treat a treatable medical condition due to its cost, sometimes conditions that are manageable without treatment, and sometimes conditions that will kill or cripple them eventually, just... not yet, so they just choose to live with the idea that death is coming for them soon, but hoping that maybe they'll get lucky to have it take longer than expected.

I personally don't think this killing was really justice. But Brian Thompson's job, no matter how ethically he tried to do it, was built on the idea of finding new and innovative ways to let people suffer and die in service of balancing the budget and maintaining an ever growing profit margin. Maybe he did it with a wicked smile and malice in his heart, maybe he did with blind ignorance to the suffering he generated, maybe he felt bad about it, and tried to minimize the harm that his role caused. But in any case, he was responsible for the death, harm, and torment of many. His death wasn't real justice, but no one here has even hoped that people like him would face justice for the harm they caused. It was however, revenge, and since we hadn't hoped for anything, a lot of people are willing to take our morbid consolation prize, and I can't even blame them.

For profit healthcare is mass murder.

[lavelled]

story of my life.

You’re a family of pedo lineage minus internal logic or heart.

Harry and Meg use Europe in their press to symbolize rope and rape. No vacation home for the divorcing couple. Why combo media for a psychotic pairing whose husband publishes X-rated messages on his X-website? I wish to disrupt every facet of their life.

Born and raised in Los Angeles with a Dad who was a television lighting director, Megin knew me and my old-time story. That’s well established. What are the odds that her National Enquirer family—with their royal perks of magazine interviews, morning chat shows, hosting The Kinsey African American Art and History Collection in Los Angeles where mom, Doria, the mother who gives the media as many nuanced quotes on the fraught nonexistent racist abuse of her daughter as she does about yoga, posed with Tina Knowles, The Diary of Princess Pushy sister book deal, that sister’s defamation lawsuit in Florida, meritless and princely, her brother on Big Brother VIP, an outcast father’s heart attack and papped “Images of Britain” reading pics inside an internet café, then that ticker story retraction—all know Tom and I and are limelight sellouts?

Since 1995, Murdle has displayed such range to inhabit the roles of two different characters named Megan. In 2009, Meg guest-starred on Knight Rider, or KR, the remake of a tv show I never watched because I was a toddler. She played Annie Ortiz, a cagefighter. Keen sense of irony.

Although feminist studies on sex can be strict, role models should quite literally have lots of sex. However, if you embark on a high culture, holier-than-thou royal protocol tour, greeting young devotees alongside the gentleman you knew ruined a girl and inspires thousands of deaths and famed suicides as he pays your baby bills with seedy tech money, you should have the pedigree and resume worth emulating.

She was Wendy in the rebooted 90210 series. The sexual explicitness didn’t make it into the Oprah interview:

https://metro.co.uk/2017/03/13/meghan-markles-raunchiest-role-to-date-sees-her-performing-a-sex-act-in-a-car-from-2008-episode-of-90210-6506457/

This is the monarchy’s Meghan lipgloss that smears story.

On YouTube, there’s a video of mouthiness: "2008 Meghan Markle in a saucy scene in the first episode of 90210."

Henry Charles Mountbatten-Windsor and his purist wife joined together in falsehood for titles, revenue, babies—and for Harry—movie-star vindictiveness and prudish slut Internet slurs aimed at my already stymied life at 51. It’s been eight years. Our worldview is that they’re defrauding, hypocritical representatives who cause suicide. Academy Award winners and Nobel laureates have shunned the spotlight to live in fade-out reclusiveness. 90210 Wendy can do this, too.

The Duke and Duchess of royal family duty need to be taken down a peg socially. Tell her he tweets eloquently about fucking another woman from his full-time tech.

On Twitter, Prince Harry is Brooks Otterlake. Harry parlayed this guy into an Orson film. It can be confusing. Per review (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-other-side-of-the-wind-2018), Netflix distributed the restoration of an old film by Harry the same year as the royal wedding. How does the contract madman who torments kids on the Internet with Nutella death threats, responsible for terrorism, produce a movie in absentia about my rape during a honeymoon?

On Twitter, my childhood triplex wrestler:

Ironic - as a child, I was enthralled by the WWE..... yet today, it is I, who must "wrestle mania"

Young on ice show:

I don't think we're done hearing about the Toronto Maple Leafs. I have a feeling they'll be playing hockey for many years to come!

Royally sexing, though, not his wife:

My experimental novel "Megan, a Stallion" has been moved to my cancelled projects folder because it would be too good and discourage other people from writing.

google.

Their meager wedding of egotism kills kids—Meg Thomas, 13, on Oct 30, 2018, five months after the royal nuptials, committed suicide at home in Leeton Shire, New South Wales, Australia.

Your love life is a lie.

She’s shitty at her job.

DIVORCE.

K

[denimbex1986]

'Can a weapon be inherently evil? A pistol used to shoot a Nazi in France in 1944, brought home by a demobbed GI and later used to kill a bank teller during a robbery in 50s New York is the same device in both instances.

The mechanism functions the same way – the trigger, firing pin and magazine co-operate in oiled unanimity to ignite a cordite charge and propel a bullet of identical mass from the barrel at the same velocity. Regardless of whether the trigger finger belongs to a citizen soldier, defending civilisation by killing a fascist occupier, or a thief, murdering an innocent civilian for a bundle of bank notes, the pistol is coldly adaptable.

Small arms are responsible for around 40 per cent of global violent deaths, excluding suicide according to the Small Arms Survey. Despite the focus on weapons of mass destruction, we should not forget this.

This is not an argument that weapons are neutral – that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, as the inane NRA (National Rifle Association) bumper sticker claims. Obviously, people choose to kill people, but it’s self-evidently easier with a gun than with something less suitable. Gun control introduced after Dunblane has protected this country from the school and other mass shootings that the United States continues to suffer from, and thank goodness for it.

Rather, my question explores whether there’s a moral quality to a weapon. A gun – which can be used to defend the innocent just as easily as to harm them – is a controversial creation, but pales in comparison to the atomic bomb, which Christopher Nolan’s new film, Oppenheimer, invites us to consider this, by following the agonies of its creator.

The Bomb changed the world in a blinding flash. It did so with such shocking force that even now, almost 80 years after its two deployments in anger, the very concept of a weapon so powerful continues to distort our assessment of its moral nature.

In particular, it remains hard for us to acknowledge, and to fully accept, that the most destructive device ever invented – something so elemental that its inventors feared that testing it might accidentally ignite Earth’s atmosphere and destroy the world – has proved to be humanity’s most effective force not for death and war but for peace.

Oppenheimer’s team did an amazing thing in ensuring that the forces of democracy and civilisation won that technological race. They were under little illusion that they were working towards delivering the end of the most dreadful conflict in human history by the most blunt force possible, but they also knew the alternatives were vastly worse.

At best, many thousands more allied soldiers, occupied civilians and slave labourers would have perished in a grinding out of the war by conventional means. At worst, if the Axis powers secured this technology first, a lasting darkness would have settled over the world which we can only begin to imagine.

So they worked, and they succeeded, and history took this path instead. Their moral dilemmas at the concept and then the reality of their work, and at the obliteration of Nagasaki and Hiroshima are well-documented, and will no doubt be explored further in Oppenheimer.

What came after deserves consideration, too. The nuclear bomb became, and continues to be, an amazingly successful deterrent to war. Nato, underpinned as the most successful force for peace in human history because of the dreadful reality of the atomic bomb, has kept its members safe to live their happy and comfortable lives since 1947 and continues to do so today.

This is all too easy to disregard. At the weekend I encountered a stall run by the local branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. How, I asked, could they still bang this drum even while Ukraine – a country which gave up a nuclear arsenal only to be invaded by one of the nuclear-armed countries which agreed to respect its borders in return – is wracked by the very horrors the nuclear deterrent has protected us from?

The response – once they’d recited the usual dogma about poor Russia being provoked to murder Ukrainians by Nato aggression – was outrage. Peace? How could a weapon, a hugely destructive weapon of unparalleled force, possibly bring peace?

I can understand that it’s counterintuitive that a bomb might be a force against war, but it remains true nonetheless, and a truth that it is vitally important that we do not overlook.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and more are just as “guilty” as Ukraine – in the twisted worldview of Kremlin imperialism – of supposed crimes against Russia.

Each condemns the crimes of their former Soviet occupiers, each looks westward for its future to democracy and reason rather than east to violence and paranoia, and each celebrates a culture and an identity which Russia previously sought to suppress. And yet those in Nato have not been subjected to punitive invasion for their defiance, while Ukraine, denied Nato membership even now, has been invaded twice, her cities bombed and occupied, and her children kidnapped and deported to Russia in their thousands.

What is the difference between these nations? Only one: those at peace are sheltered beneath the nuclear umbrella, while their unfortunate neighbour, forced to suffer war, is not.

If we recognise that there are no inherently good or evil weapons – if the gun fired in liberation is no different to the gun fired in greed – then we must also acknowledge that, although a nuclear bomb is the most terrifying weapon in history, the Western allies actively chose to do such good with it. Deplore the bomb, by all means. Lament its possibility, its existence and its toll. But be thankful, too, that it has been used for such a beneficial cause as to protect us all.'

[swldx]

BBC 0423 20 Apr 2023

12095Khz 0357 20 APR 2023 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55233. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z with Al'Seela modulation in the bg, then ID@0359z pips and Newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by David Harper. At least 67 million children partially or fully missed routine vaccines globally between 2019 and 2021 because of lockdowns and health care disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations said Wednesday. "More than a decade of hard-earned gains in routine childhood immunization have been eroded," read a new report from the U.N.'s children's agency, UNICEF, adding that getting back on track "will be challenging." A new attempt at a ceasefire in fierce fighting between Sudanese troops and paramilitary forces in Khartoum failed on Wednesday, leaving people fearful about dwindling food supplies and a breakdown in medical services. At least 78 people have been killed in a crush at a school in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during a distribution of charity for Ramadan, officials say. Hundreds of people crowded into the school to receive donations which amounted to about $9 (£7) per person. two eyewitnesses said Houthi fighters had fired into the air in an attempt at crowd control, apparently striking an electrical wire which resulted in an explosion. This caused panic that led to the crush, they added. Those responsible for the distribution have been detained and an investigation is under way, the interior ministry said. A spokesman for the ministry blamed the crush on the "random distribution" of funds without coordination with local officials. A Russian woman has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempting to kill her lookalike in a bizarre identity-theft plot in New York City. President Joe Biden will discuss Venezuela in wide-ranging talks with Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday, including U.S. willingness to further ease sanctions on the OPEC nation only in return for concrete steps toward free elections there, a senior administration official said. South Korean singer Moonbin, a member of K-pop boy band Astro, has died at the age of 25, his music label Fantagio said on Thursday. A rare solar eclipse has thrilled thousands of people who flocked to a remote Australian town for the best vantage point on Earth to watch it. The total solar eclipse was part of a rare hybrid eclipse, which occurs only a handful of times per century. Some saw a total solar eclipse. Others viewed what is known as an annular solar eclipse - where the Moon is too small to completely block the whole of the Sun - or partial eclipses. @0406z "Newsday" begins. Backyard fence antenna, Etón e1XM. 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2257.

[mullmannern]

Kade Dallas, case 000432

After missing 5 debt payments Kade was forced by the bank and court to sign a combined 10 year contract for a job rediness training program and subsequently a job as Community Work Operative (in training).

Kade walked into the training compound as per the instructions of the balif and the program messages. Not expecting much work at orientation, but to his supprise, his supervisor came out hauling a bin full of uniforms and gear.

Your uniform include a pair of communal boots. (1) Reflective coveralls. (1) Program Reflective jacket for traveling, (2) reflective T-shirts, (1) pair of reflective pants and used work gloves. When you arrive at an assigmed off site work location, you will be assigned a locker where your Uniform of the day will be in the locker.

Now go Change in the locker room, you're already behind schedule. Get suited up in your filthy gear . You will wear them for weeks and months. They are good protection and convey unity and Professionalism. The're well worn and sweaty, still stinks from the previous operative and smells of months of wearing without washing.

Here is your issued program ID, you will need this to access programs and resources.

Kade is Assigned to the 3A5H Highway Maintainace team for the next 3.5 months. During this time, training will begin, each evening Kade is to report to the training hall to complete lesson plans of the day and reflect on the things learned from working in the day.

The 3A5H team is based at the municipal dump and landfill end of the Highway at exit 1. Room and board for operatives are charged at a special rate, taking out 35% of the training stipend before tax. The housing is shared with the garbagemen, waste water (sewer) operatives and a variety of sanitation workers. They live in absolute squalor and spend little time at the housing. Every night everyone gathers at the mess hall to eat company provided chicken and beef tacos. While it causes the runs, it is quite nutritious and gives the men ample protien and energy.

As part of the Highway sanitation team, Kade the apprentice operative is responsible for the cleaniness and appearance of this Highway from North to South.

For many people, spring conjures images of flowers blooming. For Kade on the first day of his Job tho, spring brings to mind a much different picture: trash. That’s because as the snow melts, it leaves behind thousands of pounds of litter discarded along the highway

The reason why this is the dirtiest highway in the system is because it’s near the landfill, people litter anz trash tend to come out of the trucks as they’re on their way to the landfill.

Kade often spends all day bent down and on his knees picking trash.

As the de-facto most junior member of the team, Kade has the esponsibilities as a roadkill collector is a job that is on call 24 hours per day.

When a roadkill is located, the roadkill collector must deal with both the body and with oncoming traffic – a dangerous feat. It’s gruesome and no words can describe the horrid stench of fresh, decaying, or maggot and blood covered carcasses.

Kade is tasked with removing these large stinky objects. Roadkill duty means wearing additional protective clothing. Often he rubber hazmat suit itself is grosser than the decomposing road kill. The're well worn and sweaty, still damp from the previous time it waa worn, and it smells of months of wearing without washing.

Ultimately the bodies are transported to landfills, composting facilities, or in some cases soup kitchens.

Kade could not wait for this assignment to be over, but there is not much he can look forward to- the next location and curriculum is unclear to him, the work area could be anything.

Kade can only hope that the next place wont be as bad...

[shut-up-rabert]

Since you used the hindublr tag for the reach, I hope you are rational about followers of the tag approaching your post.

Anyways, what you are saying is undeniably right. Thinking of Palestinian deaths as oppurtunity is low. Very low. The middle meme is hypocritical in that regard. Just because a death is happening outside of the sphere of shared identity does not mean it means any less. Hypocritical to the T, yes.

And yeah, I find that there is a lack of content regarding caste persecution on my blog itself, I never felt there was a lack of awareness content with respect to caste atrocities on tumblr so I am more on Hindublr side which has fewer representatives. Perhaps I will take those issues up too now on.

But do you see the Irony of yourself? How are you doing any different whatsoever? What's your point in dragging the "All Eyes on Hindus in Pakistan" poster? How is it any less valid than the one about Rafah?

Because thousands being kidnapped, killed, handed over to 40 year Olds as slave wives in their teens per year just because of their religion is any less horrific?

If your cause is "But they did it in spite of the Rafah poster", then that's extremely bull. Just because they took the same slogan, or even if someone made it because they wanted Indians to focus on this does not take away the fact that it's true.

Heck, a Pakistani cricketer can see our cause when he tags "All Eyes on Vaishno Devi" along with the Rafah one, but humare desh ke budhhijivi?

"You cannot be oppressed because you are upper class."

Tell me, do you hear yourself?

Do you think every Hindu who perished in Kashmir was asked his identity before being shot?

Do you think the rioters kept a list of names for verifying surnames of passengers before setting the coaches of Sabarmati express on fire?

Do you think Bangladeshi Hindus were asked their caste before they were violated and killed in Bangladesh over and over again? Up until this very year and counting?

Do you think Castes were seen in Nuh? In Pakistan?

Do you think Anti CAA rioters were looking at house nameplates for castes before setting the people inside ablaze? Hell, do you think Pro CAA rioters were checking whether the Muslim before them was a Syed or a Borah before killing them? If not, how come the persecution accompanied by being a Hindu is restricted to lower castes?

And yes, these things have been happening since before 2014. Does raising voice for them ever since BJP came in power make them any less real or horrifying?

I find this so fittingly ironic that a person denying hindu persecution and mad that someone dared take the topic up is the one is talking about how raising the issue is not because we are actually concerned about it but for "dragging others down".

Even when we are speaking about ourselves and our identity, you guys have to make it about other people.

But, what can I say? This is a person tagging Israel for the bloodbath in Palestine, which is true and justified in its own regard, but does not demonize Hamas which is just as responsible in keeping its people trapped where the attacks can get them so that crying foul becomes easier. Of course victimisation based on identity is a thing for you

All right. I'm snapping.

To everyone who's saying shit like this, read the post below.

ONE DAY. JUST FOR ONCE. THINK BEYOND YOURSELF.

TO ALL THOSE CRYING ABOUT HINDUPHOBIA RIGHT NOW, ABOUT HOW NO ONE SPEAKS UP FOR YOU, THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WERE WHEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WANTED TO HAVE A PATENT ON TURMERIC. THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WERE WHEN SOMETHING LIKE YOGA WAS FETISHIZED COMMERCIALIZED AND SOLD TO FOREIGNERS BY OUR OWN PEOPLE. THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WERE WHEN ISRAEL INSULTED HINDUS BY CALLING YOU "idolaters" and "cow piss drinkers"

Thik hai.

Woh to Chhodo.

Where were you ten years ago?

Did you even talk about this before 2014, or like. Did something happen after that? Like. Are you getting what I'm saying here?

Thik hai.

Woh BHI chhodo.

The hindus who are truly oppressed today are the ones who aren't from a dominant caste. Are you really speaking up for the oppressed castes, working to end casteism in society? Or do you close your eyes to that?

Thik hai.

woh jara side mein rakhte hai.

Ask yourself, do you really care about hindus, or do you just want to drag others down and drag attention away from this issue? Do you really feel that hindus are oppressed, or do you just want attention? Oh you poor baby.

Arre bhai, sawaal jara kathin tha kya?

Thik hai.

Woh bhi chhodo.

DO YOU NOT HAVE AN OUNCE OF HUMANITY IN YOU? IMAGINE IF your loved one died, but you had to film them to make the world even think about you as humans. Imagine that the world is putting on a show to make everyone forget about you. And if someone told you that you had a chance to fight back, wouldn't you?

I'm sure y'all understand, since you are also "victims of a genocide" according to you, right? RIGHT??

Think before you post. "Why am I doing this?

[noaltbruh]

I hope this follows the rules! But is it okay if I request a scenario where Giorno has a nightmare of turning into Diavolo and S/O comforts him when he wakes up?

My first request in so long, what an honor!

You're surely a fan of this scenario, I've seen you requesting it quite a lot of times.

Either way, let's get into it!

Esci dalla mia testa

06/04/2004

Midnight had just struck, it had already been three years.

Three years since Giovanna had become the new Don of Passione, and since the former had been punished for his actions.

But in reality, time had lost meaning to the young boy years ago. Everything he did, it felt so...Mechanic, so frivolous, simply keeping track of the days in order not to forget an important reunion.

He buried himself under thousands of piles of work, which only seemed to grow bigger and bigger with every day that passed. This was supposed to be his dream, his greatest goal, and he had reached it at such a young age.

But then...Why did he feel so empty?

He was supposed to be happy, after all the sacrifices that had been made to arrive so far, he had to be grateful for everything that's been given to him.

But he couldn't be, because those sacrifices were not his own, because innocent lives had been taken away, because he had come.

He truly was no different than the man whom he had condemned to suffer for all eternity. But he had to clinch his teeth, and keep on going with his head high, for the few people that were still by his side. Most importantly, for his partner.

As everyone around him had found a significant other, pressured by his best friend, he had decided to reluctantly indulge in this so called 'romance'.

And when you two finally met, he felt like a tiny fickle of faith had risen inside of his heart again.

You listened to him, to his struggles, to his doubts, to each one of his complaints like the were the only worries in the world. He failed to express how much you meant to him, after those...'Accidents', he had become even more close-up about his feelings.

You were very well aware of his workaholic tendencies, as most nights, you were the one to ask him to put down all the documents and get some rest

And this...Was one of those.

As you rapidly fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from your own day, you felt a soft hand gently caressing your forehead. You were so warm and comforting, like a puppy, the only one able to give him hope in this twisted world.

But sadly, your presence could not magically make all his guilt and insecurities go away, and he had accepted that.

After contemplating your dreaming figure for a minute, he slowly closed his eyes, wishing to escape, just for a short while, from all those crushing responsibilities and expectations.

His consciousness started to slip away, he felt ready to conclude another day. Until, he heard whispering. Weak, confused, peculiar sounds, he could not understand a word of what those voices were trying to tell him, they were too far from the boy.

But they wouldn't stop. Delicate, constant and unbearable like the sound of a drip of water falling into a sink. They were playing with the Don's patience, a sleeping lion that should not disturbed, unless you wanted to be torn to pieces.

His mind immediately connected the situation to a possible Stand attack, nothing out of his normality, per se, but he was not concerned for himself. You were still peacefully resting, clinging to your sheets, it was a quite cold night. He wouldn't have let a single soul cause any harm to his darling, she was his only true happiness, his sunshine.

In the moment he stepped outside of the bedroom, what he was faced with sent a frozen shiver down his spine, as he brought his hand to his chest, to control his heartbeat.

There were four doors, floating in absolute darkness. A weak stream of light, that seemed to be originated from nothingness, illuminated each one of them singularly.

The whispering got louder and louder, faint giggles could occasionally be heard. The young one turned around to look at the entrance of this cursed place, the one he had just walked through.

But there was nothing there.

And so, like a captured prey that had nothing left to lose, he ventured himself into the first door, only to be met with a monochromatic version of Fugo. He was breathing heavily, desperately sobbing and all curled up on himself, on the shore of the same place where the rest of the gang had decided to betray Passione.

Giorno was standing on top of the water, unable to move a single inch of his body.

"Look at what you did"

A deep voice murmured in his ear. One he hadn't heard in a long time, one he wished he could have erased from his memories, that infected his mind and was more deadly than the sobbing boy's stand.

Diavolo.

"Me? Fugo chose not to leave, it was his own fault if-"

"If he was abandoned by everyone he loved? Do you have any idea of how selfish it sounds?"

The boy hesitated for a brief moment, staring at those warm tears falling into the canal.

"It was just...A temporary matter, he rejoined Passione, he's doing better now"

"My, it must have surely been fun to prove your loyalty to someone who caused the death of half of the people you cared about, after refusing to participate in his little suicide mission"

The blond's legs started to tremble, mantainig his composure was starting to look impossible.

"They...They didn't die because of me, they sacrificed themselves for a noble cause, for making Italy a better place, they wished it as much as I did"

The man contained his laughter, then he continued.

"Is that so? Why don't say that in their faces then?"

The image of the lonely boy disappeared, together with everything in the room. Giorno was back to that black space, but the door was now missing.

And the next one...Had nothing better reserved for him.

He found himself in the island of Sardegna, the only sound that could be heard were the small waves that met with the coast.

He knew perfectly why he was here. He took a closer look at the seaside, there were some footsteps printed on it. He felt a knot in his stomach at the thought of where they would have brought him.

Abbacchio's lifeless body was laying on top of a rock, surrounded by dead flowers. His entire torso had been torn apart, and yet... His corpse was smiling. A tiny, melancholic smile on his purple lips.

"Do you still have the courage to repeat what you said?"

Diavolo began, in a mocking tone.

"When he became part of the Organization, he was at his lowest, he had nowhere else to go, every path he took brought him nothing but sorrow and disappointment. The only thing that gave him comfort was following Bucciarati...And so, with that excuse, I transformed him in one of minions"

The thought of calling out Gold Experience hit Giorno's mind, but he knew that there was no point of lying to himself. The albino was gone, his soul had left his body long ago.

"I don't need you to tell me just how disgusting you are"

He said, his voice was filled with a suffocated rage, as he knelt over to look closer at his former companion.

"Abbacchio couldn't have cared less about killing me, he came with you because Bucciarati did, because he so desperately wanted to follow him, he felt like scum at the thought of no longer having him in his life"

The boy with emerald eyes felt an hand touching him on his shoulder, but there was no one there, except for himself.

"You exploited his dependence from the man, and used at your advantage, just as I did"

He stopped for a brief moment, enjoying the desperation in the other's eyes.

"But at least, he didn't die under my guidance

And with that, the second room disappeared as well. The boy contemplated whether to remain in that hellish void or to move forward, the image of what was waiting on the other side hurt way too much, his juvenile soul was starting to crush.

But he couldn't remain there, it would have meant giving up to Diavolo's twisted games, seeing him break down was exactly what he was waiting for.

He turned the doorknob, when he felt something humid staining his clothes: there was fresh blood streaming from his lady bug pins. The trail that it formed on the ground invited him to follow its path. He knew he couldn't decline, none of what he wanted seemed to matter in this place.

A metallic railing stood in front of him, his entire pins bled so much to the point of consuming themselves. An horrific scream coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time echoed through the room, as he directed his gaze to the top of the grey construction.

"What a shame...Oh well, he was the most disposable member of the team anyway"

Narancia's corpse was resting among dozens of spikes, his faded orange bandage slipped from his dark hair, landing right next to Giorno's feet.

"Oh Narancia...So young, so naive, just another victim of this unfair world. That's what you're thinking, isn't that right, Giovanna?"

"This is why people like him should not be involved in this business..."

"Mh? And why is that? Childish minds are the easiest to manipulate"

Ignoring his last statement, the other leaned down to pick up the bandage, but his hand went through it. His body was starting to feel dizzy, like it belonged to somebody else.

"Not answering won't make me go away, the damage has already been done, after all"

"Narancia should have NEVER joined Passione in the first place. He could have gone to school...Have a normal life, but-"

"But he died for your cause before he could. What he said before I activated King Crimson melted my heart a little, how cute...He really trusted you that much to the point of thinking that he would have come out of it alive"

The railing emanated a cracking sound. For a second, he was afraid it would have fallen off, causing him to get impaled as well.

"I took away his chance of living an happy, standard life when he decided to work for me, and you did the same, allowing him to come along with the rest of your team"

The small boy suddenly faded away, together with the rest.

"But at least, he didn't die under my guidance"

At last, there it was: only one room left. Despite how deeply he cared about each one of his former team members, the premonition of what would have come next was more painful than everything he's seen so far altogether.

He sat down, staring at the door from a distance, his eyes emptier than the ones of his old allies. They say that eyes are the window of the soul, and nothing else could have been used to describe his inner turmoil. Nothing but a faded, dull green, testimony of all his battle scars and the survivor guilt that he tried so much to repress.

Perhaps his eternal punishment had arrived: having the chance to confront his inner demons, to move on, to show how fearless he was.

...But never truly grasping the idea of freedom, never facing and accepting what really happened, he was never given the time to. So much had oppressed him all at once, he couldn't keep up with it.

He was a child, a child that had to grow too fast.

But then, someone came out of the door. A bittersweet figment of his imagination, that made his heart stop beating for a second.

The one he hadn't seen in years, the one he had tried to subdue the most, the one that showed him for the first time in his life what love was, stood in front of him. There was no hole in his chest, no sign of blood or wounds, a reassuring smile accompanied his face, as he held out his hand to the grieving kid.

"What are you doing all alone in here? The others are worried for you. Let's not make them wait any longer, shall we?"

Giorno ignored his help, his gaze was stuck on that endless floor. He didn't have the courage to look at the other, his presence alone felt like a sadistic joke.

He didn't look sad, depressed, miserable... He was just...Tired.

He wanted to cry those tears that he had denied in the last three years, he wanted to yell at that illusion to leave him alone, that wasn't the real Bruno, it couldn't be.

But, as he impeded any of this from coming out, something he didn't think he would have felt in a thousand of years struck him.

Bucciarati hugged him.

A tight, comforting hug like one of a mother, that he was waiting for his child to reciprocate. The latter's breathing became heavier and heavier with every moment that passed, as weak laments rapidly turned into audible sobs.

"There's no reason to be sad now, I'm real, you can feel it, can't you?"

"Y-You...You're here...But h-how is it p-possible?"

The brunette chuckled, the sound of his laughter was more comforting than an angel's voice.

"It isn't"

Giovanna's stand penetrated the man's torso, but its arm...It was not Gold Experience's. It had a checkered red and white pattern that extended in its entirety, and it possessed an amount of physical strength which was out of any possible expectations for the creature able to give life.

"Foolish child, I thought you were better than this, I'd lie if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed"

The sound of Bruno's corpse falling to the ground resonated through that empty space, as the last door vanished. A puddle of blood originated from his horrible injury, it was big enough for the boy to see his reflection in.

"You are no better than me under any point of view. We took advantage of his kindness, we used him as a simple pawn for our own gain. The only difference between us, is that I was not manipulating enough to convince him to join my side voluntarily. He was a tool to the both of us, but you were the one who caused his demise"

The mirror that had been created showed two people, but the transparent figure of Diavolo immediately ceased to be visible. The only one left was Giorno, though his reflection seemed to mutate with every second that passed.

His blond curls started to change shape, turning into a fuchsia mess, with dirty green stains on it. His eyes had a killer, maniacal look inside of them, his pupils got smaller in horror. His entire body structure was different. He looked older, more muscular, his clothes, too, were no longer his own.

"Mista loved him, and you killed him"

"Fugo loved him, and you killed him"

"Trish loved him, and you killed him"

"Narancia loved him, and you killed him"

"Abbacchio loved him, and you killed him"

"You loved him, and you killed him"

...

"Giorno? Giorno please, wake up!"

You screamed, your sleep was interrupted by the sound of your boyfriend hyperventilating, as he desperately held you to himself, still trapped in that horrible dream.

You sighed in relief when he abruptly opened his eyes, so swollen and red from all the tears he's shed.

"Another nightmare, uh?"

You asked, gently caressing his back to try and calm him down, he was as vulnerable as a baby that runs to his parents after having a bad dream. Waking up in the middle of the night to comfort him is something you had grown accustomed to, but you had never seen him this shaken up.

He slightly nodded in response, grabbing the top of your pajamas. You put an hand behind his head, making him rest on your chest, and kissed him softly on his forehead.

You could hear him murmuring something, you couldn't tell wherever he was talking to you, or to himself.

"I-I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm s-so sorry..."

He repeated like a broken record, you could barely make out what he was trying to say.

"Tesoro, you've done nothing wrong, there's no one you owe your apologizes to"

The boy raised his head slightly, intertwining your fingers with his, he needed to feel sure that this was not another tremendous trick of his mind.

"See? I'm here, you don't have to be afraid. I know that you feel unworthy of my feelings, but there is no one out there that deserves love more than you do. Nobody is perfect, Giorno, you did everything that was in your power to help them"

"But I...I was the one w-who put them in danger in the first place"

"No, you were not. You all shared the same ideals, you saved them from the oppression they were put in"

As you swept those remaining drops away from his face, you could still feel his entire body shaking like a dried leaf in a windy day of autumn.

"N-None of this would have happened if I didn't come along..."

"Exactly, none of them would have known what it meant to be free. I...Understand that the sacrifices that were made are not easy to forget, but blaming yourself like this...Do you really think that's what they would have wanted?"

Not receiving an answer, you laid down once again, still holding him in your arms. You forced a tiny smile, kissing him delicately on his lips, and whispered in his ear that everything would have been okay.

But, in reality...You felt you were trying to reassure yourself as well. This was not something you could have solely resolved through staying by his side, healing from this would have taken a lot of time, but...At least, you could offer some temporary safety, and it seemed to be enough for the time being.

In fact, after some minutes, everything seemed to cease. The boy fell asleep once again, this time with the knowledge that you were there to protect him.

You sighed, praying for your darling to finally find some peace.

[crane--here]

What are your thoughts on the ending of dying light the following? Which one do you think is canon? And do you believe in the night hunter is kyle crane theory?

OHOHOHO :3

putting under read more for obvious spoilers and my LONG response

i have mixed feelings on the nature of the endings. one completely contradicts crane's morals and personality, as well as destroys his entire character arc up to the ending point - while the other nicely ties said arc to a bittersweet, but satisfying end, narratively wise. so the choice to pick my favorite isn't hard here

i hate hate HATE the nuke ending. it just feels so... wrong when it comes to kyle's character and essentially makes him out to be the biggest hypocrite of all! do you seriously believe that kyle "i hauled my ass around preventing the bombing of harran" crane would willingly NUKE THE CITY after going through so much?? when you take into account his stubbornness and his sacrificial nature, of someone who does everything to keep his friends and found family safe, to throw it all away just from the words of a freak he just met? it's too abrupt. too out of character to end things this way. as "noble" as the option is, it's just NOT what lies within crane's morals. the mother could sacrifice thousands for the sake of billions - the same could never be said for crane

now, the vial ending? GOOD LORD IT MAKES ME GO CRAZYYYY IN A GOOD WAY. the last ditch effort to fight for the "cure".... kyle's delusional belief that it can all be salvaged.... fuck!! the emotions this ending gives! it shows the crane we know and love! a stubborn bastard who's ready to sacrifice himself just for his friends - even when the future is looking grim. because crane is hopeful, always was. he'd hold onto the last strings of hope until the very end because he just doesn't give up. and that hope was his DOWNFALL. the road to hell is paved with good intentions - it's no different here

kyle is shown to be willing to do things he genuinely believes are for the better - and time and time again to be proved wrong. most side quests underline that! but did that ever stop him from extending his trust to others and risking it all? no it did not! he still was willing to go to extreme lengths for the sake of helping people, too quickly in fact, too driven by his emotions to think of the long-term consequences. and i think this post describes it all better than i ever would

dying light is a very bleak and grim story, and like liquidator said: "But sometimes, even the greatest heroes stumble... and don't get up again". as hurtful as the vial ending was to the fanbase, it was the right "end" for crane

it's very clear that the vial ending is the canon one. i think it's kind of funny, for the longest time the community was led to believe that both endings were supposedly canon to "give the player the opportunity to make their own choices", as per official tweets and other sources

but that was INSTANTLY shut down with techland ama video where the devs confirm there IS a canonical ending to dl1 and that by playing dl2 we'll get to find the answer we're looking for. and that we did!

from the very first memento we can find, we learn that even 5 years after the initial outbreak harran STILL had survivors within the walls who were denied aid. this very fact instantly throws the nuke ending out of the window - there is no way for anyone to survive a nuclear bomb. if the initial explosion wouldn't kill them, the fallout would. it still leaves the fate of the tower and crane after turning uncertain, we can only speculate where they ended up in the next years

and moving onto kyle.... hate to say it but i am a "crane is the night hunter truther" <3. i simply think it's more fitting and with the evidence present i think it's the more plausible option

believe it or not there's no concrete evidence that the serum HAS to turn anyone into a sentient volatile, and only a volatile. especially if you know HOW the harran virus works on any host. the reason why jasmine is a volatile of all strains is that prior to turning she was bitten by a regular biter. the vial was administered in its simplest form. who's to say someone like crane, who's been dealing with his infection for months and who faced all the infected strains before, wouldn't turn into a fucked up hybrid of all? i think this reddit comment sums up my thoughts perfectly:

"the subtitles say volatile scream" - dude. i can ASSURE you that techland is the least reliable when it comes to english transcripts specifically 😭 and i say this as a polish person. besides this argument falls apart when the transcripts change between languages as well (to my knowledge the german script says "night hunter schrei" lmao)

"the night hunter isn't canon" - ... yeah, about that

night hunters ARE canon to the dl universe. that is to say - the btz gamemode is most likely not. and it's important to remember the distinction between the two things

oh and also,

... yeah i think the night hunter photos on the crane memorial are the biggest hint so far. either that or techland is fucking with us even more lmao

i actually have a lot to say about the "night hunter crane" theory, and much more evidence and speculation around it. like i do believe night hunters are a special strain of volatiles specifically. i can go into more detail in a separate post if anyone wants to hear it lol