#bringing up the same damn shit saying the same damn racist things

[salmoncakepls]

all these people are going to hell saying that claudia and louis lied about the domestic violence i really can not be on this app no more

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Review of Dragon Age the Veilguard

First off, right off the bat, I’m putting out there I am foremost a story person. Give me a good story and I’m happy. Then it’s graphics, gameplay (by which I mean do I think it is very replayable), then combat.

So positives first for me:

Story: I love the story. It’s a little cliche and a bit silly but it’s so much fun. Besides it’s not like Dragon Age has ever not been a bit cliche. Secret bastard son of the king saving his homeland. Frosty witch with a secret sensitive side. Assassin who wants out. These were in the FIRST game. I very much enjoyed it and the lore we were given. I actually went ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ out loud multiple times and had a blast through the whole thing. I actually dropped my controller in shock during the final battles because of several moments.

I’ve seen complaints about the writing being ‘MCU’ but honestly I just recently replayed the first three, and this is the same to me. It’s actually better to me then Inquisition which I found so boring. No really, Inquisition was the weakest to me character and writing wise. It felt so flat but Veilguard brings back the spark that Origins and DA2 had. This sort of ‘we need to get people together and save the world despite the odds’ spark.

Characters: I love every single one of them and am already starting more playthroughs so I can ROMANCE THEM ALL. Some may not be your cup of tea but honestly a lot of the hate I notice tends to be the weird feminist ‘you have to be serious’ tone, the ‘I don’t like anything cheery’ type, transphobes or racists. The actual critical takes I find tend to veer on the usual bullshit of the writers in general. (Such as Taash apparently having to choose between two cultures and how their gender is handled. Which fair. I love their gender storyline but it isn’t the greatest story)

The characters are very dynamic and fun to get to know. I didn’t care about Harding in Inquisition but I love her here. It’s just so much fun.

Character Creator: This is honestly the best one I’ve seen yet. I know everyone loved BG3 and how they do it but Veilguard BLOWS it out of the water. Just so many options and things to do.

Plus as a side note you can choose to be nonbinary or trans and it has an affect. It is so cool. I loved my Rook talking about their gender.

Combat: Oh man this is weird for me but I love this combat. Let’s be real- tactical stuff in the past games were clunky and off. A lot of Origin purists say DAO was the best but who ACTUALLY used half the stuff? Like traps? Maybe a fair few but the majority didn’t. The whole series so far had been button mashing for me. Here? Nope! It’s a lot more complex for me and makes me actually think. I love it.

Puzzles: One person I saw said they were to simple. My response is that the early ones were but they sure ain’t later on. Took me forty minutes to figure out one. It’s awesome.

Gameplay: FUN! Just everything about it is so nice and I love it. It’s not annoying to do, it’s simple once you get used to it and honestly I like how the missions are set up. I do think it is very replayable as a whole.

The Ending: I FUCKING LOVE THE ENDING IT IS SO DAMN COOL. I dropped my controller during it, I gasped, I cheered (totally guessed one plot twist but DAMN did not expect the very end) and HOLY SHIT it was SO GOOD.

Now the negatives.

Story: There’s a lot of sanitization of the Crows. The Crows are canonly assassins who buy a lot of their recruits and brutally train them to become Crows. It is not nice unless maybe your family are Crows and you’re treated nicely. Even then, Lucanis canonly was beaten by his grandmother during training and other things.

Also, I did not like how my Rook Laidir suddenly talked about being a galley slave. It was confusing as that was never brought up before. If they’d included it in the description it would have been better. So I’m headcanoning something different for Andy Laidir. I think this is just an over sight, but it is off putting for me that it’s suddenly said once then vanishes.

There's also a few things with how story progression goes. It feels a bit to fast in some moments, and to slow in others. I think that they had to many ideas, but I'll talk about that in the factions section.

Characters: While I love their story line I think Taash could have done better if there was less ‘choose between being Rivaini or Qunari’. Like having a disconnect from your culture is understandable but I felt it was to… ‘you must conform or reject’. That’s not how it goes.

As well the discussion of gender was fairly Western specific which isn’t true across all cultures. It would have been interesting to explore it more and with Taash also wondering about the Qunari version of gender as why they don’t feel right.

I’m also semi kinda upset with how Davrin kept getting the same ‘intro’ scene to his quests a bit. Just him carving something. It was recycled to me and compared to the others… kinda felt off.

Also, while I love him, Lucanis' romance isn't my favourite. It's very slow burn and while nice, I felt that it was to much of a slow burn in the end, where it's just them kissing and a few words of love. I haven't been spoiled about the others too much, but he feels very lacklustre. But it might just be me there. I will defend it saying it isn't bad, but for me? Not my cup of tea.

I'm also disapointed with Isabela's cameo. While YES WE SEE HER, I do romance her with Hawke often and I can't believe any of my Hawkes who did (and lived) are't with her causing chaos. Plus for fuck sakes she gets some generic outfit but Morrigan gets a super special one? Really?

Combat: While I love it, I think they made the dragons to OP. It’s really hard to get close and fight them. Of course I am not a combat person so it may just be I’m bad at it. I do think some of the 'being shoved backward' moments could have been done better as well.

Gameplay: Okay so… I think the choice to have Varric narrate things wasn’t ‘bad’ but they really went to spoiler filled in some. Like dude, don’t SAY that?!? I don’t get to eagerly wait in suspense now, I know what’s going on. That’s not fun. Boo!

Also the animations for opening chests was annoying.

Factions: I feel this is another kinda let down. I truly believe the only four that mattered were Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragons, Crows and Grey Wardens. Plus I felt again a lot of this is sanitized. The Crows are not a good organization. Sure they basically are the Antivan military but they’re assassins who buy their recruits half the time. Lords of Fortune are pirates and treasure hunters. They're not 'good' people.

This really ties into my thoughts on progression: we could have done away with the Lords and the Mourn Watch to focus only on the four factions and it would have been amazing. Probably would have had better pacing for the plot to. While it was so cool to see these places, in the end it would haven't taken away from the main plot by just not having them be around.

However- despite my negatives, and despite my issues?

This game is a solid 8.7/10. It was truly 9.5/10 for most of the game, but by the end, I did find that I was a bit dissatisfied with some things. However, the game is genuinely amazing. It's a call back to the original 'rag-tag bunch of losers go and save the day' and has elements of Mass Effect 2 I adore.

Solid game, if you loved Origins, DA2 and even some elements of Inquisition, go for it. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it sure as hell is mine.

[takeachillpillshawty]

No, some people do shit on Vil. I like to think there's a spectrum when it comes to Vil haters and Vil lovers.

Vil haters will demonize Vil and call him racist because he 'hates' Epel's accent, when that's not even true! He hates how crude and inappropriate he talks to others, you forget that Rook speaks French in some of his dialogues? Vil doesn't even bat an eye making the whole Vil is racist thing completely ridiculous and meaningless.

'Vil is abuse towards Epel!' Epel literally tried to pick a fight first and y'all are mad he actually got hurt? What did you want Vil to do? Stand there and take it? You all make jokes about Riddle getting his shit rocked by Ace because he was a little shit, but mad at Vil for doing the same to Epel? Vil doesn't go out of his way to abuse Epel, the fuck?! And I'm not saying that Epel is a terrible person nor a saint, we can have characters who are both flawed and still like them.

I see Vil as the type of mom you think is an asshole but when you get older you realize she was trying he best to raise you when you were a difficult child. I do agree that Vil has flaws that he needs to work on, the thing some people can't comprehend is that Vil will admit that he's wrong. Vil isn't self centered or some snobby rich dude, he strives to be a better person for himself and others that includes admitting he's wrong and bettering himself. He wants everyone in his dorm to be a better version of themselves and in one of his birthday cards it stated that while in his club he learned more about what goes on behind the scenes of movies because of his club member's help.

Vil, who is an actor appreciated the help of his fellow club mates for teaching him more about what goes on behind his profession. And I can't fully go in more dept because I'm an English twst user, and unfortunately some of the dialogue is either wrongfully translated or censored because Disney can't handle the queer themes of his character despite most of their Disney villains being QUEER CODED due to the Haze code back in the day. I'm seeing that people love to bring up the 'him trying to kill Neige' situation with his overblot, and I have to admit... Mans was genuinely tweaking, not gonna lie.... But you have to understand that Vil literally spent his life perfecting his acting skills despite his villainous roles he's given. He still held his head high despite it all, only for Neige to step in and steal that role of the hero. How would it feel to spend years at something that gave you an identity, the only thing that you're good at only to be out shined by a person who never felt the struggle of requiring that talent. I'm not saying Vil had every right to do what he did, but damn I understand why he did it.

Now onto Vil lovers, like I said it a spectrum. We have the Vil lovers who like myself can see his flaws and can agree that Vil has some issues but can see that he's a good person despite it all....then we have the Vil fans who hate and demonize Neige.

I can't understand why we can't have both, you also know you can like both characters without putting down or demonizing one over the other. I think that Neige is another version of Kalim honestly and I think he's a really sweet guy, but come on... You guys are just making stuff up to excuse Vil almost killing him which again I say, we can admit Vil was fucked for that but blaming something on Neige that he didn't even know happened is crazy. It's not Neige's fault that Vil hates him but the circumstances in their lives that put them to where they are now. Neige didn't ask to be famous, hell he didn't asked to be an actor he needed the money to have a better living situation for himself and his friends.

This has now become a Vil rant and I don't care, I love this man so much.

[un-bean-lievable]

Bringing this to Tumblr cuz I keep seeing people talk about it on Twitter but I'm not making a fucking thread right now.

Anyways, personally I just think it's a little weird how suddenly a bunch of the non English/poc qsmp members are under scrutiny for doing horrible things, to the point of people literally calling for their removal from the server, yet I have not seen a single person give any legit sources to prove these claims. Plus the accusations are never specific it's always "I think they maybe did [insert vague action] thing that's really bad" or "I've heard they did something horrible and they need to loose their platform.

Literally anytime I've seen someone ask what happened the replies have been VERBATIM, "several members have been found to be racist/homophobic/antisemitic/transphobic in the past." Like y'all can't even decide what you're even accusing them of might as well just chuck in every horrible label you know! I'm surprised misogyny isn't in there? Oh wait! That's right! These same people people are also calling for the only women on the server to be removed for things that are literally fucking harmless such as, attending the wedding of a person some people don't like, or, explaining their home country has flaws. So I guess accusing OTHER people of being sexist would be hypocritical of them.

Like no damn wonder Quackity hasn't addressed anything you guys cant even decide what needs to be addressed in the first place, just that everyone that's from a different culture than you (and sometimes even people from the same culture the way I've seen people talk about Bad and Jaiden is actually sickening) is somehow a horrific individual who is terribly bigoted. I've been watching this server almost every day for hours on end since it launched and I haven't seen anything from anyone that can't be quickly summed up to be a cultural difference or small misunderstanding that people are blowing out of the water. Like, if someone legit did something bad then it deff needs to be addressed, but that's if that thing happened less than a year ago, (especially not if it's from when they were A CHILD. Like people are trying to cancel Roier for shit he said when he was 13! 13! I'm the same age as him and I can promise that if you took shit I said from literally the same timeframe it wouldn't be pretty either!) If they haven't already apologized for it and moved on with their lives, or if it is something that is legitimately hurting people and not just something you find personally distasteful.

The qsmp is really fucking cool and it's clear that the creators involved have a lot of respect for each other so it's so disappointing that some of the fans don't have the same amount of respect. It's incredibly shameful and it makes me feel horrible just to be associated with some of these people. The whole point of this server is to break barriers and to make friends across cultures where there wouldn't have been an opportunity beforehand, and so many people are instead trying to sabotage that.

Especially from the English speaking community. We have the privilege of being an incredibly diverse and culturally complicated community (which isn't to say other communities aren't I think that ours just is especially here is the USA), and while the exposure of more cultures leads to more misunderstandings and unfortunately more straight up bigotry, we still have more exposure to diverse groups then other people do. If anyone should be understanding and welcoming it should be us! But some of you people are out here acting like fools. Once again, if someone legit did something bad, they do need to be held accountable for their actions. But way to many of you confuse being held accountable with having their entire lives upended. You also confuse "did a bad thing they need to take responsibility for." With, "they did this thing out of a lack of understanding and have since apologized, learned better, and moved on, but I'm still gonna bring it up again and hurt everyone involved because I think that making a mistake is grounds for being publicly ridiculed!" If there was something bad going on, and if people had legit proof that it IS INFACT happening because said person is a bigot and not just misguided, then I'll be behind it 100%, but after watching this dance over and over again I can't help but feel that instead of people actually being concerned that horrible people are in places of power, they're instead making up horrible accusations about normal people that are just trying to do their jobs. It really feels like there isn't an effort to actually understand where other people are coming from and instead to judge them and make them conform to your definition of socially appropriate, it's not fucking cool.

Us English speakers as a community should be holding ourselves to a higher standard because this type of behavior doesn't just make one person look bad, it paints a bad name for all of us. And please for the love of God dont immediately believe every fucking rumour you hear, and especially don't believe it if you can't find any evidence, and ESPECIALLY don't go and harass the person the rumors about! Like, I don't even know if some of the examples I used here are legit cuz I haven't seen sources/ cant find any for them, but even if they did have sources they would be total bullshit accusations anyways! Think for once instead of jumping on some hate train with all the other brainless idiots out there holy fuck.

[jimblejamblewritings]

I am not a Snape defender

I'm sorry but I really don't understand the "Snape defense, james & sirius are the worst" in relation to each other...

Snape wasn't a randomly innocent victim of Potter and Black's bullying. Being in with the future Death Eater squad isn't exactly innocent. Also, it's stated that James and Severus were always at each other's throats. That's not the marauders were big bullies and Snape was an innocent victim.

Side note: people saying that James was a dick to everyone. That's fanon. We only know he hates Snape. And he hates Snape specifically because he's into Dark Arts.

And we are seeing all of this through Snape's vision. Our own opinions and memories of ourselves can be skewed. Severus only joining the baby Death Eaters after he calls Lily a mudblood and she pushes him away isn't believable. He was friends with the baby Death Eaters at school before they became Death Eaters... I'm sorry but I don't believe in our real world that a person can be friends with racists but because they have one minority friend I should assume they aren't racist. So I can't believe that in this world either.

Need I start with he had no problems using what is effectively a slur in their world. Or is the whole mudblood thing just a one time outburst at Lily? Ain't no damn way a slur just rolls of the tongue in frustration unless it's something someone says on a daily basis.

He goes to apologize and she's like well you call every other muggleborn that so why not me...

(side note: lily wtf? why would you be friends with him when you know that? I'm not staying friends with someone that would regularly call black people the n word. anyway...)

That means he's been using that slur against muggleborns and harassing them. So he doesn't just become a bully after the marauders tormented him in school. He's been one.

Snape and his friends also try to do something apparently evil to Mary MacDonald. That's someone who wasn't James or close to him like the Marauders. She didn't do anything and they tried to/ wanted to hurt her anyway. That's a bully.

Like I'm sorry but this man was a Death Eater and only turned to the good side to beg for Lily's life because he was obsessed with her. He didn't give a shit if Voldemort killed James or Harry who was like a six month old. He only wanted Lily to live and when Voldemort didn't spare her that's when he went to the good side.

And when people bring up "James sexually harassed Snape by using Levicorpus that exposed his underwear" ... my guy, Snape invented that spell. So are we to assume he never used it? Cause I don't. So you better bring that energy for Snape as well if this is the road we're going down. And he doesn't take off Severus' underwear.

The text mentions that after taking off his trousers you can see grey underpants. When it says pants, it still means trousers not the common use of pants the way most British people say it. Most because certain parts of the UK don't, fun fact. And again, Snape came up with the spell. It's oh so convenient that we only see James use the spell against him but not Snape using it against other people to what we can assume is the same extent as James.

Also the whole werewolf thing... I'm sorry but if you suspect someone is a werewolf and confront their friends about it, the people you don't like and who don't like you, why the hell would you go on the night of the full moon. Sirius telling him how to get past the Willow honestly doesn't change much. Lily tells Snape she already knows his theory after he points out that Lupin disappears every month at the full moon. The dude knew or stongly suspected that Remus was a werewolf. And still decided to see if his theory was correct, putting himself in the line of fire of a full grown werewolf.

Like I'm not necessarily absolving Sirius because he should have known that the boy who hates them would be arrogant enough to still go after them even if he thinks Remus is a werewolf. But still, that means Snape was arrogant or stupid enough to do that despite his suspicions before confronting Sirius, which he did on the night of the full moon so at this point Snape knows he has all the facts. But even if we only blame Sirius...

Snape still calls people mudbloods, bullies children that aren't Harry (not that that's okay) at his grown ass age, and didn't think Voldemort was wrong until he killed the obsession of his life. Like that enough I'm good on him.

And everyone else has a skewed story but Snape? No. That's not how that would work. We also only see a few incidents and nothing about what happens in between or even what leads up to them. It's just as skewed as anyone else's memories we see in the book. Like remember when Tom Riddle's diary only showed Harry certain moments to make it look like it was Aragog and Hagrid knew.

And to anyone that recognizes Snape being friends with the baby Death Eaters but saying that we don't know if he was a bully.... It's giving, "I can excuse racism but animal cruelty is where I draw the line."

Some other things I've seen, I'll discuss in little bullet points:

An 11 year old James saying who wants to be in Slytherin or Hufflepuff and Snape overhearing isn't James being a bully. It's an 11 year old not wanting to be seen as lame cause everyone calls those houses lame (or evil in Slytherins case).

Saying that James and Sirius are rich doesn't suddenly make them bullies. There's not a power imbalance that they use against him. They don't make fun of him being poor. They hex him with spells he came up with. I don't think they would only bully Snape for being poor, nobody else, and then ignore the Death Eater part. They were hating him for the Dark Arts, not cause he had no money. We don't know about Remus or Peter's financial status but considering they are never mentioned as rich then at best they're probably middle class to poor. I don't think they'd be around for that type of bullying.

Y'all siding with the wizard racist, obsessive man who is a dick to kids at 30, I can't be convinced about Snape. Sorry. I also don't get the Snape deserves a redemption arc storyline but not Draco. However that's a different story. Like JK writing him bullying children and then saying but it's not that big a deal is skewed. She also had Harry name his kid after Dumbledore and the entire fandom agrees that the man doesn't deserve it.

[luesmainblog]

i'm not gonna reply directly to the post because i don't wanna get into a bunch of shit, but i was surprised to see a mutual i respect reblog it, so i'll say this much. the reason people in bdsm didn't like 50 shades of grey was not as simple as "this is harmful". they didn't like it because it was an innaccurate portrayal of bdsm - or, more accurately, a portrayal of how bsdm can be used as an excuse to abuse - that was CLAIMING to be ACCURATE, GOOD BSDM. the problem wasn't the content itself, the problem was that anytime a criticism was brought up, you were accused of not being able to handle the spice, and the author was CONSTANTLY insisting that what her character did was totally fine and he definitely wasn't Like That. yes, we SHOULD have bare minimum standards of kink, but that doesn't mean "fictional depictions of abuse as kink are automatically harmful". it's about the context and attitude you're entering with, just like any other media. what matters is the conversation around it, not the content itself. Let's all remember that Lolita's biggest problem was readers viewing it as a romance, when the author was certain any sane reader would know how awful the situation was. and i've said it before but it bears repeating until this becomes common sense again: equating fictional abuse, even romanticized, to real abuse causes more harm than its existance does. equating lolicon to actual fucking child molestation is a massive disservice to CSA victims. equating anime twincest to the actual real life abuse of incest lessens the impact the word has for real situations. and i REALLY shouldn't have to say this, but telling a black person that they can't partake in raceplay is SIGNIFICANTLY more racist than anything they're gonna be agreeing to.

and whenever someone tries to give praise to weird and problematic kinks, or talks about how fictional darkness can't hurt you any further than you can hurt yourself with it, or anything remotely related, somebody always comes in with "um okay i agree unless its pedo shit", and we KNOW you mean the fictional stuff. you ALWAYS mean the fictional stuff. and i'm sorry, but no. if nobody was harmed unconsentually in the making of this god damn fanfic then you can just walk away. any argument you try to make for why it's actually Too Harmful To Be Allowed is going to use the same logic that christian moms use to say that pokemon is DEFINITELY going to make your child a satanist. yes, some people can use fiction to cause or perpetuate harm. authors can convince their fans that some fucked up shit is okay, abusers can use ANYTHING to build trust and convince their victims that what they're doing is fine, and people with little self-control can use things that trigger them to emotionally self-harm. all of this is true, and deserves to be talked about and considered. but if you can handle the idea that the majority of people playing violent video games every day are not actually violent people and will react negatively to real world violence, and can enjoy the mayhem they cause in-game while also being aware of how bad it is in real life, and SOME people being inspired to violence does not mean we should ban those games entirely, you can apply the same to kink. even the shit you find abhorrent. to be very frank, we shouldn't HAVE to bring up the therapeutic benefits to victims of real crimes for you to be consistent in your beliefs on censorship. edit: also pointed out to me and extremely important: "pedo shit" is EXACTLY how queer stuff is painted by conservative censors. it is one of the oldest arguments they have. so YES, the best way to immunize ourselves from allowing gays to be censored because too many people find them gross and immoral, is to get used to there being fictional csa depictions even if you find them gross and immoral. your disgust and fear that somebody MIGHT be hurt by it or MIGHT be taking it the wrong way is not, and has never been, a good reason to remove it. again: if no actual people have been harmed in its creation, then it should be allowed. we're obviously not defending actual CSEM here, that is irrefutable harm. we're defending the stupid fetishized anime shit that helps the people who went through that process and move forward.

[viohra]

are these people for real? I'm sorry, but this is getting ridiculous

https://joshpeck.tumblr.com/post/735811016748875776

Yeah it’s amazing the amount of brain rot that’s happening. I don’t know what’s causing it either; is it blatant antisemitism? the need for the browner person to always be seen as the victim through the western liberal’s lens? a need to be seen as not racist/islamophobic? I don’t know.

The wild thing is that all these people are ignoring some pretty glaring details

No other Arab nation is helping because no one hates Palestinians more than other Arabs. They are seen as trouble-makers, terrorists, and bad for the economy. Literally they are seen as an eyesore that are more trouble than they are worth— the only reason Arab nations “support” the Palestinians is literally because they don’t want to take Palestinians into their own country as refugees and because antisemitism is so fucking rampant in the Arab world that it trumps the original aversion towards helping Palestinians. It’s a quite sad situation but it’s not without its reasons; every single neighbouring nation that took in Palestinian refugees had a national crisis, including civil wars that almost led to each respective nation almost collapsing, and each of those nations now have permanent refugee slums for Palestinians. People are outraged that “Israel” is keeping the border closed between Egypt and Gaza but Israel isn’t doing shit, the Egyptians don’t fucking want the Palestinians in their country AT ALL.

Related to the above, Israel (was) the most accepting Middle Eastern nation of the Palestinians since they offer(ed) Israeli citizenship in exchange for the renouncing of the Palestine state and recognition that Israel is a Jewish state. On one hand it’s shit for Israel to do that but at the same time that’s just Israel, a Middle Eastern country, acting like— get this— a Middle Eastern country. So it’s not surprising.

The people who destabilise the Middle East are Islamic fanatics and corrupt politicians. No other cause— Iraq can claim the US fucked them up for sure, but even then that is becoming an excuse for them to not get their shit together. I mean Lebanon is a wholeass failed state from sheer political incompetence. The only reason the gulf nations are still afloat is their addiction to western investors.

Most the people in Palestine fundamentally on a social, political, and religious level think of western liberals the exact same way trump supporters do. “Gays for Palestine” is a fucking joke.

Israel has the strictest Rules of Engagement (ROEs) of any nation in the MENA region and the West. Seriously. They fucking redesigned how to do air strikes so they have the least collateral damage possible. They warn people via text messages and roof knocking. Even in the midst of this war they are STILL DOING THAT. We wouldn’t do that. The US/UK/any european nation would fucking level the buildings civilians be damned.

Hamas live-streamed their crimes against humanity. I don’t understand how minutes after they posted the videos, a bunch of western liberals decided “yes! This is my time to shine and cry for palestines support!” Like lol go fucking die.

Technological differences between two sides will never dictate how lenient the more advanced side has to be in war. War is fucking war. It’s not an episode of Dr Who, it’s fucking hell and if someone slings a rock at you and you have an assault rifle, you gun them down. It really is that simple, as unfortunate as that is to hear.

A lot of the Israelis that the media is showcasing in stories they are bringing up from the past (eg settlers being cunts from a story in 2018 that For Some Reason is being brought back up) are Ultra Conservative Orthodox Jews that have never and will never represent Israelis as a whole— that’s like saying Westboro Baptist Church represents all Americans as a whole.

I also hate how there will be some people that read this and think “oh you hate Palestinians/Muslims” and that’s not what I’m saying. I just think one side is a little bit more justified unleashing the wrath of god upon the other.

[lovejustforaday]

Gay Pride Anthems (According to Me) - Pull Up to the Bumper

Pull Up to the Bumper - Grace Jones

Genres: Synth Funk, Dance Pop

My next choice pick for a gay pride anthem rides the fine line between "implicit" and "explicit" in tackling a rather delicate act that happens between two consenting adults. It's also kinda about cars too, which is fine I guess (if you're into that sort of thing).

Yes, today we're gonna ram it right into someone's tailgate, and hone in on Grace Jones' 1981 dance hit "Pull Up to the Bumper".

THE ARTIST

Miss Grace Jones is, definitively, one of the most important queer icons of the 20th century. She is also perhaps one of the least likely, coming from her background as a pastor's daughter from Jamaica, one of the most violently homophobic countries to this day.

The Jones family moved to NY state when Grace was a child. Her earliest adulthood ventures were into the 60s bohemian hippy lifestyle, complete with experiments using LSD which she herself described as "experiments in living".

Soon after, she found herself as an upcoming star in the very queer world of NYC disco during the late 70s. During this time and after, she was a frequent patron and performer of gay clubs and bars, earning her stripes early on as an honorary member of the community. Mind you, Grace herself has always refused to label her sexuality.

Along with 1980's Warm Leatherette, Grace's 1981 Nightclubbing record, along with its surrounding fashion photo shoots and music videos, helped to reinvent the artist from a typical 70s disco diva into the one-of-a-kind, bold and sophisticated, genre-bending multimedia pop artist legend that she became in the 80s.

For all that has been (rightfully) said about what Lady Gaga did for bringing transgressive, queer, and avant-garde fashion to the public eye, Grace Jones herself had already been doing the same several decades earlier. Yes, in an age of new romantics and glam rockers wearing their mother's makeup, Grace Jones still managed to tower above all others as the one true queen of androgyny.

Her 80s image also very explicitly celebrated blackness in the most literal sense, appearing in outfits, makeup, and photo shoots that heavily accentuated and even occasionally exaggerated the lustrous dark tones of her skin. Pronounced, avant-garde, and striking images that interrogate race and gender were kinda her bread and butter in the 80s.

That said, I do have to mention that at least some part of how her signature image was delivered was inseparably informed by her collaborator and then-lover Jean-Paul Goude, a French photographer and (with emphasis) white man whose legacy I might very generously describe as....complicated (ie: pretty damn racist). 😬

Unfortunately, some of the work Goude produced with Grace as his muse, however pure his intentions (which I highly doubt), pretty unambiguously falls heavily under the umbrellas of fetishism, other-ing, dehumanization, and even minstrelsy. Perhaps worst of all is the 1985 music video for "Ladies and Gentleman : Miss Grace Jones" which features, and implicitly celebrates the aesthetics, of footage from mid 20th century minstrel shows and their deeply racist stereotypes.

Does it make it at all any better that the queen Miss Jones herself clearly saw merit in his "art" to continue working with him for so long? Could it really be an attempt at satire or subversion that simply doesn't land today like it did back then? Look, I don't know; I don't know how Grace herself understood his "art", and I'm white, so I'm quite out of my depth on this issue.

But I can definitely say that some of the photo shoots and especially the aforementioned music video make me fucking wince, and Goude himself has said a lot of very weird, plainly racist shit over the years, and his work clearly mimics the disdainful white gaze of minstrelsy which is frankly not fucking cool however "ironic" or "satirical" it is.

That said, Grace herself is a very powerful woman who has always been a master of controlling her narrative, known to make frivolous male interviewers back down with their tails between their legs. She doesn't need me to defend her, and it's as clear as day that her 1980s curated artistic image was still very much of her own will and design, as the striking avant-garde taste-maker that she was and continues to be to this day.

But the most notable example of her image is the ICONIQUE cover art of Nightclubbing. Grace's skin appears a metallic indigo, with the straight slants of the shoulder pads of her suit, and the sharpness of her cheekbones and iconic flat-top fade creating an all around highly geometric and strikingly surreal figure. She appears nude under her jacket, flashing the inner sides of her breasts, while sporting a cigarette with a piercing, stoic glare, gleefully playing with signifiers of gender, vulnerability, and power. It's simply one of the most effective cover arts I've ever seen; a perfect, minimal execution of a strong concept, and an image that'll no doubt burn itself into your memory permanently. It's 100% Grace Jones.

But enough already about Grace's image; what is there to say about one of the best songs on her Nightclubbing record?

THE SONG AND WHY IT SLAPS

"Pull Up to the Bumper" is one of two singles off Nightclubbing, both of which are easily the strongest tracks on the record.

Incidentally, the other single "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" is an even bigger highlight in my opinion, but we're focusing on songs that are the GAYEST, and that most definitely describes "Pull Up to the Bumper".

The song itself is a classy, metropolitan synth funk number with a groovy, wobbly bass, brittle early 80s synths, and a reggae-inspired percussion section. True to its metaphor, it also samples car horns and highway noises. Much like the cover art of the record, its a brilliant execution of concept. I feel like I'm putting the pedal to the metal in some seriously luxurious six inch stilettos.

It's also a complete and total earworm. Those choruses? Easy enough to learn on the first listen, and so rhythmically satisfying. That little pre-post-chorus synth line jingle that goes "DO do do do doooooooOOOOOOET"? Immaculate, and I wanna hear it at least a dozen times more on every listen.

Grace sounds seductive and powerful as all hell on this track. I mean, she always does, but she REALLY does here. She possesses this really stoic contralto that makes it all the more sensual when she is inviting to the listener, like a mighty queen granting permission to be seen and bask in the glow of her goddessly stature.

A lot of funk songs like this tend to be described as having a "fat" or "meaty" bassline, but to my ears this one sounds incredibly thin, velvety, even wispy at times. There's a decent amount of negative space between notes and beats that gives the whole experience a kind of light and skippy feeling, and then there's that hollow-sounding style of early 80s mastering and production that can be heard in a lot of new wave and post-punk at the time. All of this of course adds to my enjoyment of the track - it's really got a one-of-a-kind, breezy vibe, but at the same time very tight and controlled.

And it's also just, so incredibly horny in that very refined and subtle kind of way. Truly, music for getting nasty after discarding your haute-couture on the carpeted lounge floor.

WHY IT'S GAY

It's about butt stuff. No really; the "bumper" in question is an ass, and every other lyric is just an extension of this metaphor: "Drive it in between", "Let me lubricate it", "Now that fits nice". Need I say more?

Then again, butt stuff itself can be totally straight too, so the men chanting along certainly helps to up the gay factor. Hold up - the last song had men chanting the chorus as well. Is this a thing? Does men chanting the chorus in unison automatically make a song more homoerotic? It's even in that one really gay song by that one gay guy that you possibly just maybe might've heard from last year. Huh. What to do with this information?

Of course, Grace Jones herself is also one of the most beloved pop divas of her time, and she was an early avant-garde and androgynous fashionista trailblazer who opened so many doors for challenging femmes and gender-bending fashion to make it into the spotlight. Even when not singing about necessarily "queer" topics, her image and her energy make it so that everything she touches has a sprinkle of queer residue that won't rub off (as it shouldn't!)

Honestly, the fact that a song that this blatantly celebrated "buggery" was a US charts dance hit in 1981, coinciding with the beginning of a resurgence of anti-LGBTQ hate and paranoia in the wake of the then-newly announced AIDS crisis, is kind of a miracle unto itself. I guess the car metaphors got it past the filters.

Of course, dance genres have always been more predominantly queer spaces than in other genres, as queer folks have often sought refuge upon the dancefloor. Perhaps its not so surprising that an artist like Grace made it to the top of the dance charts during a time when the community so desperately needed to be seen.

All in all, what we got here folks is a rather precious artifact of queer history in the 1980s, a time when gay anthems were needed more than ever. During an age of misinformation, scare tactics, and persecution, Grace Jones was a beacon of hope, a proud, powerful, and prominent image of an androgynous iconoclast who very much took part in and celebrated the queer community.

Now if you'll excuse me, this song has reminded me that my gay ass DOESN'T have a driver's license, and I have a bus to go catch. Toodles!

[theliterarywolf]

People are trashing Vivzie Pop *again* on social media

I think it started on Twitter where people decided it's the new trendy thing to declare she's always been bad at character design because some people think Lucifer looks too similar to Angel and Alastor and therefore she's "pandering to the internet's love of white tall sexy men"

which??? is confusing because Lucifer is a demon so he never had a human race

Also, I'm just usually suspicious because I think some people love any excuse to bash Viv. It's one thing to bring up legit issues or just not vibe with her shows, but there's such a wave of hatred for her I can't help but think some of it is fueled by jealousy/crab bucket mentality.

I'm not trying to put her on a pedestal but like DAMN people need to stop using her as a punching bag for whatever drama they want to stir up. She's not some faceless corporation that's doing a drop of LGBT content that can be edited out easily. People can dislike the tone of the show, but I think it's pretty fucking clear these DEMON characters in HELL that act like JERKS sometimes are not evil *because* of their sexuality but because they are DEMONS IN HELL.

Anonymous asked:

How much would bet that the same people who complain about Vivsies' designs being skinny and white would instantly complain again if she started drawing bulky and black characters and call her racist? I'm not even a fan of her work but the Hate Boner people constantly have for her is exhausting! You can't win with those people!

Anon 1. Really, though: holy shit, there are SO MANY pieces of media with shit design that I don't like. You know what I do? Either ignore them or I make one shitpost and move on. The fact that people keep popping up to whinge about Hellaverse content really make me wonder 'do you guys just... not have any other media to focus on so you focus on one you don't like?' Because if your whole thing is 'I don't like how the demons look'...

Then Oh my OshKoshBegosh, there are SO MANY PIECES OF MEDIA! THAT CENTER AROUND HELL AND DEMONS! You have the pick of the litter! Go!

Anon 2. Oh, they would. They definitely would. Not only due to the fact that most of the people popping up to shit on Viv (I'm not talking about legitimate criticism; hell, I'm actually not that fond of that one animated short she made with all the anthro animals because it was kind of fucking boring) are just hating it because it's popular and successful...

But as someone who was told not to submit an original short story to an anthology because my depiction of Lucifer being a large, suave, seductive black man 'could be interpreted as fetishizing and/or likening black men to demons', these kinds of people will always have shit to say.

[butwhatifidothis]

can i just say, i find it very funny how a good majority of GW defenders’ counter arguments essentially boil down to “GW makes perfect sense actually you’re all just too DUMB to understand!!1!” hdhdhsjjf fe3h fans in general have such a superiority complex, it’s genuinely hilarious watching them ardently defend the world’s most mediocre dogshit writing💀

That's such a huge part of what makes them so infuriating lmao, they act like they're so smart just cuz they're willing to overlook blatant contradictions.

"Yeah, sure, the game exclusively wrote Shahid to be a murderous racist towards Claude and wrote exactly 0 positive connections between the two of them, but Claude killing Shahid in self-defense would totally make him completely willing to kill completely innocent people! How can GW detractors just not see that!!"

"Yeah, sure, Claude himself says that Edelgard 'might be hoping she can vanquish the Alliance and the Kingdom in one go and rebuild Fodlan from the ground up' and that Edelgard wants to 'bring the fight to the rest of Fodlan,' but it TOTALLY MAKES SENSE that him reading Edelgard's manifesto OFF-SCREEN and only mentioning this AFTER SHE LIED TO HIS FACE would make him 180 and make him believe that getting rid of the Church would make Edelgard stop her war! It just makes so much sense!!"

"Yeah, sure, in 3H Claude says that Edelgard's violence both ruins his ambitions and is something the people can't stand behind, but Claude was sus of the Church and Edelgard wanted to COMPLETELY DESTROY IT, which are totally the same thing and which totally explains why Claude just becomes Edelgard 2.0 in Hopes! YOU just never understood Claude's character and only wanted him to follow Dimitri around (unlike us, who totally don't just want him to follow Edelgard around)!!"

"Yeah, sure, Claude's ENTIRE GOALS revolve around bettering foreign relations, but it makes sense for him to worsen Faerghus/Fodlan's foreign relations with Sreng because the Church was doing that already! What's so hard to understand!!"

"Yeah, sure, the devs said they wrote Claude around the idea of him being more ambitious while simultaneously giving him no ambitions for after the war and 180'ing on what he wanted to do during the war, but isn't what he's doing so much more ~interesting~ and ~dark~? Hopes!Claude haters just wanted Claude to be a goody two shoes!"

It's all just incredibly condescending and pretentious as all hell. Because it can't POSSIBLY be the case that Claude - in a noncanonical spin-off game, with a different director from 3H's in charge of it - was just written badly and OOC. It can't POSSIBLY be the case that even when disconnected from his base 3H character, Hopes!Claude is chock-full of contradictions in his characterization between his Part 1 and Part 2 iterations. And it DEFINITELY can't POSSIBLY be meaningful in any way that damn near ALL of the people that insist that Hopes!Claude is either completely congruent with 3H!Claude or is what 3H!Claude SHOULD have been... all either prefer Edelgard or ship Edel///claude (the ship which can be overwhelmingly condensed down to "Claude doing whatever it is Edelgard wants without having any character of his own" and oh, would you look at what he does in Hopes, oh gee must be a coincidence that they all lap that shit up).

Nope, Claude fans who prefer Claude as their fave lord? Secretly never liked him! It's totally US who have a fanon version of Claude we like over the canon version, and definitely not the ones who like him doing shit and saying shit and believing shit that runs diametrically opposed to literally everything he stands for in 3H ("the Kingdom threw us to the wolves first 300 years ago" yeah THAT isn't fanon Claude, nope). Claude fans who don't wholeheartedly accept that Hopes!Claude is either who Claude was all along or is otherwise 100% in-line with his 3H counterpart never liked him at all.

And don't even bring up people who like Claude but prefer Dimitri lmao.

It's just this weird habit of fandom I'm seeing nowadays, where if you don't accept the writing as perfect and if you point out blatant inconsistencies then OBVIOUSLY you either were never a fan or you just "don't understand man." It can't ever be the writers at fault for writing something bad anymore, it's always the fans who are lacking something to be able to "appreciate" what's given to them. Just look at how any and everyone who criticizes Edelgard is automatically deemed a hater of her. There's a mutual of mine who literally buys merch of Edelgard, buys zines of Edelgard, and will readily have Edelgard in their Top 5 favorite 3H characters, and even they get accused of hating her just because they have the gall to... point out that Edelgard has very noticeable flaws, both as a character and in her writing.

That's basically what I'm seeing happen with Hopes!Claude. You criticize him? You're making discourse, you aren't a fan of him, you're a hypocrite in some way, you never understood him. His fans - much like Edelgard's, oh wow would you look at that hmm must be a complete coincidence again - make it so fuckin' hard to like him, even if you do genuinely like Hopes!Claude. If you like him as the bad guy he very clearly is because he is making very clearly villainous actions? Nope, you're not liking him the right way. If you like him in concept but feel his execution was lacking? Nope, you're not liking him the right way. Just like with Edelgard, you have to like Hopes!Claude in a very specific way or you will be called a hater of some kind. And that attitude just isn't conducive to a welcoming fandom environment

[scringleydingleydoo]

i'm just saying if I was apart of the Harry Potter verse, shit would be different. I would ask the important questions.

"if the guys so dangerous why hasn't anyone tried shooting him yet?"

"hey, dont shit on the USA, people who lost the war aren't allowed to speak. I'm allowed to shit on it cause i'm from the United States bitch."

"I'm just saying, ive never seen someone get up after being shot in the head."

"Y'all ever wonder how big his wand is? Like i know hes evil and wants to kill us all, but do you think hes evil, wants to kill us all, and a virgin?"

"Cedric Diggory? More like Cedric-get-that-dick-in-ME-"

"Wait, our professor is a fucking WEREWOLF?! LIKE FROM TWILIGHT?!"

"No Ron, muggle pictures dont fucking move.....Wait if wizard pictures move does that mean-FRED GEORGE, PLEASE TELL ME THAT WIZARDS HAVE THEIR OWN VERSION OF PLAYBOY-"

"In my defense, the little bitch was being a racist prick and where i come from we beat up people who talk shit."

"Lockhart? more like LockSHART am i right?"

"That Luna girl is so weird and off putting, do we know if she's single?"

"For the last time Ron, no, Americans don't use bald eagles, we use owls same as you guys."

"That's Virginmort? Where's his nose?"

"So, do you think his nose was all he lost when he got revived or do you think that he lost....other things as well."

"I wonder if Voldemort ever gets diarrhea? Don't look at me like that, it's a serious question!"

"Hey, Ginny, is your friend Luna single? I wanna ask her to the Yule Ball thing!"

"Luna you are the weirdest girl I have ever met, it's amazing, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"

"Dude Hermione looks good as hell, whoa. Ron's a fucking idiot."

"Luna, I wanted to ask if- ("Yes, I would like to date you Juni.") well alright then, glad we got that out of the way."

"Wait, so you guys were just gonna skip a year of school and go off on some grand ass adventure across the country and you DIDNT INVITE ME?!"

(The poly juice potion scene in the 7th book.) "Ewww, this guy has wadded up tissues in his pockets, what the hell!"

"Holybshit this is just like that movie flushed away, I cant believe i'm about to flush myself down a toilet-"

"Y'all have issues, not saying I don't, but i'm better than y'all."

"I had my parents send me a glock. Just in case."

"EVER HEARD THE PHRASE 'NEVER BRING A WAND TO A GUN FIGHT' BITCHS?! EAT MY FUCKING AMERICAN MADE LEAD-"

(7th book when The Golden Trio goes back to Hogwarts): "Omg Luna! You look even more off putting than you did the last time I saw you! Its amazing!"

"Yknow, if we had shot this Virginmort guy like I suggested, Harry wouldn't be dead right n-HOLY SHIT HE'S ALIVE?!"

"YEAH MRS.WEASLY YOU TELL THAT BITCH WHO BOSS!"

(after the battle): "Damn how y'all gonna get the funding to fix this shit?"

anyways tell me if y'all want more of this tomfoolery

[northwest-cryptid]

I would like to ask you all something today, what is a "white person" and I'm being genuine here. I don't mean for you to answer in such a way as to say "they're racist" or "they're bad people" that is what we're taught yes I understand that; but it's not an actual answer to the question of race.

Is someone from the UK "White"? If so, would you also say someone who's Irish is "White"? If so, would the same be said for a Russian or a Norwegian? Are the Swedish "White"?

You might be inclined to say yes to all of the above, right? They all have pale skin and therefore they are "white" correct? Alright that's a naïve but albeit fair answer. So then let us shift our focus away from Europe and towards America.

This is Justina Bruns, she's a Lakota woman who was widely considered "white passing" though I wouldn't refer to her as such considering she literally has a whole article about why that'd be rude back in 2019 given her displeasure with such labels.

I bring this up because I want you to think about the fact that if she wasn't wearing Native jewelry you might mistake her for a "white person" and given the way we look at people, who could blame you; right? However this begs the question then, if she's "white" what is she? She has to be something, that's how humans work. You get the body features you have from your ancestry we understand that; so what is she? If you don't know she's Native and you believe her to be white, this fictitious boogeyman constructed as a scapegoat; what is her background?

Well she has dark hair, and dark eyes; which rules out most places if we don't account for the diversity of individuals which in this case, because people don't; we aren't. That means she likely isn't Scandinavian since they're known for having light hair and eyes, with straighter eyebrows. We can go ahead and rule out Russian, since again they are known for light hair, blue eyes, and rounded noses. Well that also rules out German because wait a second they're also commonly known for blue eyes and blonde hair... okay so this rules out most of Europe actually, let's check British! Well British CAN have light or dark hair, and light or dark eyes so that tracks so far, though that can be said of literally every living person so that doesn't really get us anywhere! Damn why are genetics so hard to pin down it's almost like there's a lot of diversity in modern times and trying to pull data from older records show that a lot of people from predominantly "white" locations don't have all these features obviously someone from a certain place would have ALL of the features associated commonly with their people, or at least most of them; right?! You can see she has pale skin though so what gives?! Oh wait, I know; she must be Italian! Yes that's it! Italians are known for dark hair, dark eyes; and... prominent cheek bones? Strong jawlines? Oh hey it's probably make up! That's it she's wearing make up to soften her facial features! That must be it, ha we've done it we've cracked the code using 100% absolutely irrefutable science! Wait hold on they're also known to have wavy or curly hair and we have no way of knowing if she styled her hair or if this is natural; wait maybe she dyed her hair! We can't possibly know! Fuck it's almost like trying to pinpoint someone's genetics based solely on things they can change and alter about themselves with things like make up and hair styling is a fruitless effort used by people who still think everyone from a specific place must look a specific way! Dammit now we just look like assholes, so what is it?! Wait I've got it, let's just generalize, we know she's pale skinned so let's just say "Whi- alright enough of that sarcastic shit, have you got what I'm saying here yet? Is it clear or am I using too many examples?

Well let me clear things up for those who are still lost.

What I'm trying to say with all of this is that genetics aren't an exact science like we (for some reason) believe they are, they're a kind of weird science like oingo boingo warned us about. Jokes aside, you can't just judge a skin tone to figure out what someone is. It's not that simple, and trying to simplify it down to that sort of system only hurts the very minorities you think you're protecting and fighting for. There are a ton of Natives who have lighter skin, some have darker skin, some have slanted eyes, some have blue or green eyes, and even blonde hair, others like myself might have dark hair but it's curly to the point people have called it a "fro" some of us have longer sharper facial features while some of us have shorter rounder ones, this is literally because there's no such thing in our day and age as a "pure blood" person from anywhere. That's literally not how genetics work and I wish people would stop trying to police people based on their blood.

For example, much of the Lakota people I know have French blood; this is due to the fact that there were French who peacefully integrated into our tribes and adopted our cultural practices. They even aided us in protecting our land from the US government. This doesn't account at all for how many Irish Mexicans I know who come from Mexican families who aided the Irish who fled to Mexico and became members of households there. In fact there's Natives with Asian, French, African, and European blood running through their veins; from you know back in the day when trade was a common thing and sometimes our people would even venture off with the individuals we did trade with. It's fairly well known among Lakota people that early on our people traveled off in the Four Directions before coming back and sharing what knowledge we had learned from our travels, and if you don't think we met people and intermingled you're a fool.

It's sad to me to see that such a culture has come up around Blood Quantum, it's a big thing both in and out of Native tribes. On one hand you have actual Blood Quantum which is a scam used by the US government to essentially steal what little land we have left in a few generations. However racism can come from within the tribe as well. My father was considered a "breed" since his blood was not purely Native Lakota (which is stupid since there's no such thing as pure Native blood to begin with,) he was told he had a dead soul, that he would never understand our ways or teachings. That however turned out to not be true; and I myself am living proof that he was able to pass those teachings and that culture on to someone with an even deader soul. We were essentially forced off the reservation because my great grandfather married for the sake of love; into an Italian household rather than staying a "pure blooded Native" despite the fact our people had been mingling with other races for decades. These days I get all sorts of people who see me on the street and tell me I must be white, my hair is too curly, my skin is too pale, I am no Native. Thankfully I am smart enough to have been raised in a family where I was taught that Lakota is not merely what's in your blood, it's more than that. Yes I have curly hair, yes I have pale skin; yes I practice my Lakota culture and language daily, and no you cannot take that from me even if the US Government doesn't legally consider me a Native.

People around the world continue to push this idea that "the white man is to blame" and I always get upset when I hear that, because it's a myth I used to believe as well. The White Man is a lie, he's a made up boogeyman; created by those who are actually the problem. The military marching onto Native land to continue development of the pipeline, those who would rape and kill our people daily (yes; DAILY), the government and companies responsible for our death. They don't want you to focus your attention on them, they do not want you to know their names or what they sell, they don't want you to understand who is really at fault for the racism that actually hurts our people.

You know why? Because they're scared of you, they are scared of us. Of what might happen when we as a people, as a whole; as a collective that want to see the world a better place, wake up and finally realize just how small they really are. They call us minorities because they want to condition us to believe we are the few, we are the weak, we are the victims and we always will be. They rely on us pointing our aggression and attention not towards the Government who pass bills to build toxic pipelines on our land, not towards the companies that are still around to this day that used to literally kill people and pin it on Natives so colonies wouldn't do trade with them (yes this actually happened), they want us to direct all our attention to The White Man.

There is no White Man.

There is no such thing as "White"

You are not white, you are Italian, you are French, you are Norwegian, you are British, you are Welsh, you are Russian, you are German, you are Irish, you are Scottish, you are Swedish, you are generations of people from all over the world for thousands of years who have come together whether peaceful or otherwise, you have history, you should be proud of the people who fought for the good in the world, and learn from the people who tried to stop it; if you have that hatred in your lineage be the one to put an end to it, if you have that rebellion in your blood be the one to foster it once more and actually fight the good fight. Do not let ANYONE generalize who you are or what you are.

Be proud of your history and background, there is no such thing as White. Wake up from that illusion and understand that if we keep pointing a finger at this made up White Man we will never know the true names and faces of the enemy.

The people who support the military marching on Native land? They have names, they have faces; do not let them cower behind the mask of being "The White Man"

because we will never defeat the White Man anymore than we can kill the boogeyman hiding under your bed when you were a kid. Make it clear the only people who believe that there is such a thing as a White Man are those who seek to empower the concept of "white supremacy" for their own gain. They have forsaken their right to their ancestry when they took up the mantle of "white man" for all the privilege that comes with it.

If none of this makes sense to you allow me to propose this dilemma for a moment.

Mihoyo, the company that created the hit game Genshin Impact; went on record back when the game launched saying that their main antagonist of the game were directly modeled after Native American people.

They've stated that the hilichurl are literally based on Native individuals, from their designs to their "silly dances" so I ask you this; are the Chinese developers behind Genshin Impact "White"?

Clearly not right? Sure they might have pale skin but they're Asian, they're Chinese... so they certainly couldn't be "White" right?

However they clearly have racism in their soul for Native people, they look at us as a dead race that they happily include in their game as a comical enemy known for being stupid, and they have no qualms saying such.

I want you to think back to when there was a boycott (yes there WAS a boycott it lasted 10 minutes and became something of a joke) for Genshin; I want you to imagine what it felt like to be a Native who heard the news that this game, this wildly popular game was under a boycott because of racism towards Native people. Only to then see NO MORE THAN 30 MINUTES LATER, the very people saying they were going to boycott; posting their gacha pulls, gleefully bragging about their husbandos and waifus they'd obtained by giving money to the very people they just admitted housed racism against Native American people.

Do you know what would happen, if everyone and I mean everyone; stopped playing Mihoyo's games? Well they'd go under, they'd suffer for their racism; they'd see the consequences of their racist views first hand. However I know, as well as you; that it won't ever happen. Because it's easier to tell yourself that you're a small, insignificant amount of money in their wallet; that the damage is already done, and that if you stopped giving them money, if you stopped playing a game you probably love, with characters you probably have formed some kind of attachment to; well it wouldn't make a real difference would it? It's such a popular game anyways.

It's a lot easier than admitting you support racists after all, but hey what do I know I'm just a "dumb silly Native" right?

Now hey listen, if you're getting super defensive over Mihoyo right now I need you to take a step back and remember my original question here; are the developers white? The answer is undeniably no, they're not. They're Chinese, we all know that.

What I mean to say with this is that every single person on this planet has the ability to be a racist, or to help fight racism. Your skin tone doesn't matter, your blood doesn't matter, not when it comes to whether or not you want to stand with us or against us.

There is no White Man, stop blaming the boogeyman for the problems caused by real people; start making people take accountability for their racist actions and be a force for real change in the world if you actually care about these things.

[wench-and-jezebel]

Dark Angel Reaction: Cold Comfort

Jezebel (@typicalopposite) reacts [with occasional asides by Wench (@scripted-downfall)]

Omg it starts without her nasally monologue

Oh shit dead chick

OH SHIT NOT DEAD CHICK

How’d she thaw that quick

Oh she’s a sibling

[Normal cleaning again]  He’s still disinfecting from that cough  [He and Dean would get along, given their germaphobic ways]

His hero would be GW [Normal’s real name, btw, is Reagan Ronald] ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️  [You know how we know this?  Because he tells Alec to call him "Reagan" on his first meeting]  ☠️☠️☠️  [*sends screenshot of the script showing that conversation from “Two”*]  Normal you flirty dog

Who a poppa what  [Sivapathasundaram, I think.  According to the script online.]

That Lintlicker [Yup]  That’s Lintlicker

If he shrugs his damn shoulders. One more time.

["Bring Manticore to stage 3"  Ruh-roh]  Huh [Also, he calls him Deck alksdjf;laksdjf] I bet he does

I’m gonna not like her next season just cause of the hair! I like this hair

[Lydecker goes to capture one X-5, manages to completely miss the other one walking very pointedly towards her; buddy, you're just incompetent, okay?]  ☠️☠️☠️  [Legit.  Dude was right there]

Ma’am.  You don’t.  Touch.  Ya brother.  Like that.

Run over his toes Logan  [Doooo ittttttt]

"She got careless.  She got caught.  End of story."  Damn, Zach, you really never left Manticore for all you left Manticore, huh?  [Bitch then why did you go to her and tell her about this?  The Fuck?]

"This girl is gonna do what she’s gonna do, no matter what you or anyone else says. Now you’ve got two choices: back off or pitch in."  Poor Logan has learned this the hard way

You know what dumb blonde dude?  I don’t like you no more.  And is it solely because Logan is Tony… Maybe  [ngl, Logan's not bad this season.  Currently.]

Dude, Logan showing off

[Damn, but Zach is pissing me off]  I know

You know what?  Lintlicker is a horrible person, but he’s not racist. Gotta give him that.  [This is true!]

Okay, but this encounter between Max and Logan is pretty damn good, just saying.  Indeed, I'm coming to the conclusion that the s1!Max/Logan relationship actually... isn't that toxic.  Like, yeah, it’s got its issues, but it’s mainly not deeply problematic — just that she doesn’t want to admit that she’s growing close to him/developing a weakness, so she pushes him away; he’s refusing to admit his own feelings, so he pushes her away; and yet they both do care about the other, so it comes out in bickering and (should they have other relationships) light jealousy — in the way that “toxic” implies.  s2 is different, but s1?  Frankly, even the selfishness of her only going to him for help isn’t that problematic; they’re both, in essence, doing the same thing.  He offered his services as payment for her services, and they’re both trying to keep things professional despite their emotions not complying.  Like I said, s2 is different, but you’ll see that later.

These girls winking at him

OC!!! I love “the Afro puffs”

A smile!  I love it  [Half-smile]  Ya bastaaad  [You haven't seen him fully smile]  Yeah that won’t be for a while

☠️☠️  “Yummy”  I wouldn’t have trusted it  [AGREED]

"I'm an alcoholic; my name is Don" alkdsfja;lkdsjf  [Lintlickeraholic]

Oh god, my dude, shut up.  The music tho.  Is like he’s gonna turn into a monster and kill them all

"As you were" Buddy is damn military askldj  ☠️☠️☠️☠️  [:(((]

[Poor Normal]  I KNEW HE SHOULDNT HAVE TRUSTED THEM

"As a small boy" aksldjflkajsf buddy!

“A HUMAN BRAIN”  [asdkfjlkj that's a lie, just to be clear]  I know

Herballl

This poor poor confused man

Buddy where are you putting the gun

These.  THESE PUNCHES.

His faces.  I’m dying.  Ded.  I’ve died.

[Okay, look, he's horrible, but.  It does bear mentioning that he knows their names still.  Just saying.]

This.  This bitch.  Just broke. His own finger. He is crazy af.  [Yup!  No excuses for him, but at least he holds himself to similar standards to those he holds his "kids", I guess?]  Meh, true.

– – –

Midpoint reaction: Ok so this one actually has my interest.  Zach… Well, buddy can go eat a di— he has annoyed me thoroughly, and Logan was very well composed to be dealing with such bullshittery.  So was the trainer — [Bling] — ‘cause, had buddy came at me with that attitude, I would have pressed on his wound and left.  

Lintlicker is *sigh*  well, he’s a bastard. Like, before I was just making fun of his name. But he was like just a typical bad guy looking for something he lost. He missed it everytime cause dudes kinda clueless. But yeah.  He is just a straight DICK in this one

And lastly WTF WERE THOSE PUNCHES

– – – 

☠️☠️☠️☠️ Omg  😂😂😂😂  [This is going wel- WHOA, DAMN, HERBAL!!!]  Herballl

Oh mah gawd im ded

This poor man  [This poor dude; all he tried to do was buy a messenger service!!!]

[Zach continues to annoy me.  I forgot he was this bad.]

Plot twist: Max comes back and they’re together.  [KSAJD;LFKJA;LDSKFJA;LKSFDJ]  Zogan  [Lach.  Because they LACH clothing]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️  [But also, please, god, no. That was a joke, nothing else!!!]

Oh Zach, shut up.  [Max and Logan are already bad enough about their relationship without you helping, buddy.]

Ma’am didn’t think this through too much

[Okay, it does bear mentioning; again, Lydecker is horrible.  But he does, perversely, care about his kids.  You'll see more later]  About like Brenner?  

– – –

Here we pause to have another “short” conversation:

Wench: Maybe, but more like... Like John.  Wants them skilled and capable and all; cares about them and will make the big sacrifices if necessary; has his priorities wayyyy the fuck wrong.  So, they keep bringing up the fact that Eva got shot.  And it's true, she did.  But --- and this is kinda a spoiler, but I've already spoiled it for you in past conversation, so... *shrugs* --- Lydecker has a supervisor at Manticore called Renfro.  And Renfro, later, kills one of Lydecker's "kids."  And it hurts/infuriates/bothers/whatever Lydecker so much that he actively turns his back on Manticore and helps Max/Zach/Logan/et al. start taking the place down.  (Assuming I'm remembering this correctly, but I think I am.)  He helps them break in, blow up the genetic stores that let them clone new soldiers, etc.  He's still around for part of season 2, ish, and he takes out more Manticore personnel (and, eventually, mysteriously disappears… I always figured he died for his betrayal, but I never read the books and don’t fully remember the show, so I don’t know if that’s confirmed/refuted).

Jezebel: Well shit! Respect… ish

Wench: Basically, he's like if you took Azazel and John and smushed them together.  His actions are largely inexcusable, but he does --- again, perversely and unhealthily --- care about them.  He wants them successful and doesn't much care about how he has to train them to get them there, but he still remembers their names, still cares about them, still wants them to be alive.  He pushes them to their limits, but, mostly, not beyond.  (e.g. yeah, that drowning scene was longer than was, per se, comfortable, but he also made sure no one died)  That doesn't rectify his behavior --- you know that I have very little fondness for either Azazel or John --- but it's something to consider.

Jezebel: Yeah I get it! I kinda hate it when they do that with characters, but like it at the same time. Hate, because if the guys bad. I want to not like him…. Not be able to justify him. But I like it cause I’m all about character development and a turn around story

Wench: He's definitely got the whole "Azazel's Chosen Kids" thing going, but it's not a competition; he's just got the weird, unhealthy care and willingness to do whatever it takes thing.  And he's very much like John in the abusive-as-fuck-but-also-distantly-cares thing.  Like, I don't like John --- he's horrible to all of his kids; his priorities are wayyy out of whack, and there are very few things that can be said to excuse his actions --- but I still accept that he cared about them.  It's one of those things that are hard to get; people can care, to some degree, about someone and still be unhealthy for them, you know?  And I think that he, at root, did care.  But a) he cared about revenge more and b) he felt that "keeping them safe" was equated with "caring" and "their only real, basic needs", and that screwed them up irreparably because his version of "being a good father" was not being a good father.  I think (hope) that was coherent… I’m still a bit drained from today, tbh, and I’m not sure I’m expressing myself well.

Jezebel: Oooof I feel ya.  And no, I fully get it

Jezebel, two seconds later: Wait, there are books?  And did I know that?

Wench: Yeah!  But apparently they're bad, treat Alec poorly, and don't do much with the story.  iirc. Idk, I haven’t read them for myself.  And no, I don't think you knew.

“Short” conversation of 20-plus minutes ends

– – – 

[Oof, this is already going well]  ☠️☠️☠️

[Also.  "Holy crap on Tuesday's toast" aksdjf]  Looool

Oh shit.  SHIT.

[Also, going back a few seconds… "You've got one of my kids"  See what I mean?]

☠️☠️☠️☠️ My dude

he said yes.  HE SAID YES!

NORMAL, you poor thing.  [I know right?!]

Omg.  I’m ded.  [No, Sketchy is]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️  [Oh, wait, he's been revived  :)]

Oh shit, Brynn.  You good, buddy?  [OH SHIT I FORGOT THIS STORYLINE]

I don’t think you’re good

She's not good

Zach YOU good?  [Probably not]

[Max has no faith aksdfj  I don't remember if Lydecker is actually above-board in his betrayal or not, tbh, but I don't trust it, so.]

[Not Max annoying me again]  They knew they had to get someone hot for this role… ‘cause she’s so annoying.  Balance.   [alksjdflkasdjf ACCURATE]

[This dude gives me Samuel-Campbell-vibes, but he's not.]  Yeah I see it

“What I’ve got-”  (Is a specific set of skills)

Well hot damn  [“Deck” was ready]  Lintninja  [Oh no, not another nickname!  :)]

["Hung"?  "HUNG"?  HANGEDDDDDD, my dude.  HANGED]  ☠️☠️☠️ hung sounds better 👀🤷🏻‍♀️  [Bitch, no it doesn’t; it sounds grammatically incorrect.]  ☠️☠️☠️☠️

Once again: Lydecker with the perverse care for Brynn.  Is it in her best interests?  Hell, naw.  Is it genuine?  Yeah.

Aight, the tear got me… the face after lost it

These.  Well they don’t feel like normal sibling kisses.  Y’all too much.  [I knew you were gonna say something]

Ugly cry?  Ahhh wahhhh?  She old.  And y’all are just blowing all that wind in her face.

Poor Normal

☠️☠️☠️

[Okay, um.  Just saying.  Logan's shirt is nice.]  It is.

We ugly cried at each other for a little while. Then he took off

["So it couldn't be dusted for prints"  MA'AM HE ALREADY HAS YOUR PRINTS???? HE HAS YOUR GENETIC CODE, AND YOUR PRINTS FROM WHEN YOU WERE KIDS???  PRINTS DON'T REALLY CHANGE???]

– – –

Wench: askfdj that was such an abrupt end

Jezebel: ☠️☠️☠️☠️ bruh I was thinking the same damn thing.  Like… Wot

Wench: Anyway… endpoint reaction?

Jezebel: Lintlicker remains Lintlicker a little longer. BUT he gets some respect for the things he did in this one.

Wench: aka, still atrocious but not as bad as he could be? :)

Jezebel: Precisely.  And Zach…. Needs to learn to just suck it up. Cause *sigh* no. Just no.  Max was… Max. But not full on Max in this one. If that makes sense ☠️ she was bitchy but not in a god awful way.  Maybe because the ones she was bitchy to I don’t like, and she wasn’t to Logan.  Also how tf was she holding her self up to look like she was hanging… with her buttcheeks on the bar!?! Cause maams hands were down

Wench: kjzlksdjf;lakdjf;lkasjdf;lksajdflkajsdf;lkajsdf  I HAVE NO CLUE

Jezebel: Like. Could you imagine…. Being Brynn. Laying there dying and seeing that from the other side

Wench: How dare you put that image in my head???

Jezebel: Anyway.  Yeah!  I also LOVED.  LOVE LOVE LOVEDDDDDD.  The Jam Pony scenes

Wench: YESSSS  Herbal, OC, and Sketchy are amazing.  

Jezebel: They were very! Poor hippopotamus man, though

Wench: Poor Normal.  

Jezebel: Poor Normal’s toilet

Wench: Also, I can't remember Herbal being in s2, and it makes me sad.

Jezebel: Oh noooo

Wench: If he's there, he's got a way smaller role, but I don't think he is at all

Jezebel: But un-alas I really enjoyed this one!

Wench: Problem child; that's not a word.  (For those unfamiliar with my vernacular, “problem child” is not age-specific.  It’s a vibe thing.  My nine-year-older-than-me sister is as much a problem child as a five-year-old might be.)

Aight, that’s a wrap!  See y’all for next episode!

[cowboylikedean]

You don't understand it because you are not a poc person that was targeted by his disgusting behaviour. She is in a romantic relationship with him. Despite knowing the things he said/did. Her values should be questioned if she is willing to date a man who made multiple racist/misogynistic comments after saying things like "there is nothing worse than white supremacy". She talked about our community yet she is giving a platform (yes she is doing that by letting him perform on the stage every night) to a known racist who harmed the community. And there are a lot of POC people like me who was hurt by the fact that she would do this. Her tour was supposed to be a safe space for us but having a racist there is far from that. If these are the things he would say out loud imagine the things he would say in private. After saying she cares about poc fans not giving him a platform is the bare minimum she can do. And before you bring up his friendship with phoebe, idc about her. I was fan of Taylor not her.And before you ask where this energy was when they were friends, I believed that in entertainment industry you have to be on good terms with everyone even if they are shit people. But getting romantically linked with someone who goes against everything she said she stands for is certainly a choice and makes you question how much of her activism was real and how much of it was performative. Fans have every right to be upset

"But getting romantically linked with someone who goes against everything she said she stands for is certainly a choice and makes you question how much of her activism was real and how much of it was performative."

No. like...

Obviously you have a right to be hurt! obviously you have a right to hate him, and hate that she's dating him and hate that he's there. but like..... dating someone (and btw, Tree has made it very clear, they're just sleeping together) does not mean that you sign off on all their values and everything they say and do.

My beautiful partner whom I love dearly dated a brony. a real life honest to god brony. and she didn't absorb his values! and she long term dated him too.

people are complicated so its not as simple as "if you associate with this person, you agree with everything they've done and obviously didn't mean anything you said before."

taylor can hate everything matty does on stage and still like having sex with him. and the hell of it is, there is not a damn thing any of us can do about that.

And also, this is not without context. as I've said many times, Matty has said that this outrageous controversial shit is a performance. I know plenty of men like that. they're racist and sexist and disgusting because they think that harm isn't real if it's a "joke." often, they don't... mean the harm they say... they just like the power they get from others being upset. and that's objectively bad. but it's not the same as actually believing the shit.

and then there's taylor. taylor just got out of a 6.5 year relationship, broke an engagement, and just bought a house with this man. matty has spent the last 9 years talking about how he should have been nicer to her every chance he gets. so her sleeping with him... makes sense.

i hate it. i hate him. i wish he was not around. he actually fills me with so much gross dread and i HATE seeing them together. my heart drops when i see a picture of them and the shape of his name makes me want to vomit.

but i get it. he talked for years about how he did it wrong and should have done it right and he doesn't actually mean the harm, he just doesn't understand he is still harmful and is a man who has a thing for power, as white men do... and taylor is not in her right mind right now.

i hate it. i hate him. this is objectively a mistake, something i wish she was not doing. but i can't just... not think about this with empathy and also, i'm not going to hold her accountable for his actions.

[alienducky]

I DEMAND THAT YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BLORBOS (if you want)

So I had to double check what Blorbo means, and apparently it means your favourite character? In which case may I present a good % of the FE3H cast? ;P

I just... I love most of the students in different ways for different things?

Claude is just... Claude. He has so many layers to him, being both incredibly simple (in terms of what he ultimately wants) and also stupidly complex (in how he goes about getting those things)? He wants to make connections, make friends, bring everyone together, but has been burned too many times while growing up to ever really trust anyone. He's always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for that knife to land in his back. His closest friend is Hilda who openly shits on Almyra because she's a casual racist, and that has to kill him on some level, wondering what she'd say about him if she knew, and yet she's still his best friend who he openly mourns when she goes down fighting for him? Who he can't stand the thought of losing in Hopes? He has to be in charge, of everything. Has to know all the details, make all the plans. And then makes plans for in case the first ones fail. He never stops thinking, calculating, digging up all the information available, because knowledge is power. Not just for blackmail, but because understanding your opponent means you can predict them.

Claude's just great, and I could pick him apart for hours.

Also? He has a wyvern. So, ya know. I'm very simple and predictable, ok?

I also love Leonie. She's solid, very open and honest. Kinda stubborn, but open to learning and can admit when she's wrong. Puts Lorenz in his place which is always a bonus. I want her to be my friend!

Same with Raphael and Caspar to some degree. Caspar is a little less willing to the whole learning thing, but with enough rope to tie him to the chair so he can't run away I think he'd eventually listen? Raph sees the good in everyone and everything, always willing to help, and stands up for his beliefs. They're muscle heads, but fundamentally kind people who deserve way more love than they get

Marianne is a peach who straight up talks to animals! Hilda is a riot when she pulls her head out her racist ass who has way more depth than she lets on, with the whole loyalty till death thing, and her creative side with the jewellery. I want to tease Lysithea like Claude does and feed her cake and sweets while we discuss magic. Ignatz is doing his best and the flashes of backbone he shows in early supports are amazing

Annette and Ashe are wonderful and deserve all the best things in life. Two little cinnamon rolls trying to make the best of their monuments of childhood trauma

Sylvain is.... Um. Ok, he's kinda an ass sometimes, and if he were real I'd probably hate him, but the snippets of who he could have been without all that Miklan and crest trauma? That version of him I love. The one who goes all out for his friends, who is a self sacrificing moron who hurts himself over and over because he somehow thinks it'll make things better? The one who cares so, so deeply when he lets himself, despite trying to push everyone away and keep them at arm's reach so they can't hurt him first. The version of him who is loyal to a fault, through thick and thin, and who is forever torn and on some level broken in non Blue Lion routes.

That Sylvain I love. The one behind the smiling playboy mask he shows the world.

Petra is a Bean. A Very Good Bean. She deserves all the love and kindness and all the help she wants tracking down the bastards who dragged her from her home and then made fun of her being dumped in a completely alien society. She is so damn strong, both physically (srsly she's been a crit machine in every playthrough it's insane) and mentally, I don't have the words

Thea is great in every way. She's kind and compassionate and is lethal with her snark. I want her to adopt me as her little sister and teach me her ways

Bernie needs a hug. And also all the help she wants disposing of her father because I know she's creative herself but I have some ideas if she wants them? Despite how much she wants to hide, and complains about being made to go out, she does go out to help her friends when they need her

Cyril is amazing. I love him to bits. Absolutely no fucks left to give for Hilda's bullshit. Slowly learning how to have friends. Learning to rely on people other than Rhea. He's wonderful and adorable and he'd hate me for it but I want to ruffle his hair and help him with his chores and make sure he's not getting blisters and feed him tasty Almyran food coz I bet he misses it, even if he won't admit it.

Shamir is everything I wanted to be growing up. No nonsense, take no shit, super smart, stealthy, and an archer??? She's great. I need that Marge Simpson meme

Seteth is fantastic, because once you get past that straight faced rules lawyer, he has a wicked sense of humour and a playful side and is such a dad. He's kind and caring, and he honestly does care, even if he shows it oddly

Byleth is whatever I want them to be. Blank slate, who nevertheless loves the people they pick in each route. Fierce and loyal and loving and struggling to express barely understood emotions... And putting up with Sothis being a gremlin

And then omg, Shez. Shez Shez Shez. The embodiment of no thoughts head empty. No filter, at all. Jumps off fucking cliffs for funsies. Multiple times!!!!! I just. I love Shez, ok? I am in desperate need of Shez merch, and Etsy is failing me. All I can find is the occasional sticker and I am a very sad Duckie about it

Ahem

Non FE3H is a little difficult... Mostly because 3H is my current obsession, but I guess...

Arlo and Oaks, from My Time at Portia are great? Arlo eats spaghetti, kicks down doors, and gets sweaty in the summer. Oaks is the Best Bear Boy Bean in the world. Shame the Devs dropped the ball on developing him, or giving him a decent backstory (I have so, so many questions about how he was raised)

Also, probably don't count, but the Cotton Llamas and Panbats. They are my Blorbos too. I need to finish making my third Panbat... As soon as I work out where I stashed it <__<;;;

Dys from I Was A Teenage Exocolonist is great! Little rebel baby. Also Sym, who is... Not really someone you can sum up easily? Cal is also great! I need to get back to playing this game, so I can romance him. Or not, because I want him to be happy with Tammy... Nngh

I think that's everyone I'd consider a Blorbo...? I mean, I love a bunch of other characters from different things, but none I've got out of my way to buy merch for like I have Claude (and the other students to some extent. Looking at my sticker covered table).

Sorry that got so long >__<;;;

[jukashi]

You will NOT teach the Democrats a lesson if they lose, at least not the one you want them to learn. They will see the Republicans win and go 'damn, those guys won - we'd better be more like them if we want to win'. That's how the center of politics gets moved over time. They will especially not learn the lesson you want from you just not voting! Millions of people don't vote in every election, for lots of reasons, the largest one being apathy. They'll just assume more people are apathetic now, because have you seen politics? Of course people are more apathetic. A lot of people who are anti-voting are just apathetic and dressing it up to sound better to themselves. If you really refuse to vote for moral reasons then at least go in and spoil your ballot to say 'i was a vote you could have won'. That kind of thing gets recorded. Don't just give them the silent treatment and expect them to read your mind! Yes I know it seems to you like everyone knows what the problem is and it's obvious why you're upset, but not everyone is in the online spaces that talk about it like you are. Your position of knowledge and your main concerns aren't normal! Yes, they should be, I know! The rest of your nation's voters don't! You've got to recognize that!

It especially annoys me, as a non-american, to see usamericans talking about how they can't bring themselves to vote against Trump because it means voting for Biden. These are generally people who LOVE talking about how terrible America is, that it's a colonial empire that's ruined other countries across the globe - and somehow they think they were ever going to get an unequivocally good president? That they could possibly have a president of the most militaristic nation in the world that would not have automatically supported their main military ally in the most disputed region of the world, no matter what they did? If you elect the leftmost president for the next six elections, or elect a left president and house and senate for the next two or three cycles, maybe that'll happen. I know it's a long time and that sucks, but it's not going to happen any other way!

In the meantime, the rest of us have to put up with the USA's bullshit. Maybe you don't remember the difference in the world pre- and post- Trump the first time, but I do. Every far-right racist asshole who'd been keeping their heads down because they knew the rest of us didn't put up with their shit suddenly got the idea that they were actually part of a silent majority, because the nation that dominates world economics and culture had elected one of them leader, so they got louder and more aggressive again, all over the world. At the same time, every idiot businessman con artist who thinks they're a genius got the idea they could go into politics, because if Trump could do it, why not them? The rise of the right and of incompetent greedy leaders across the world was massively magnified by Trump getting elected in 2016, and you want to increase the chance he gets elected again?? If we want that asshole genie back in the bottle, you need to wreck him! It's not enough that he loses, you need to humiliate him, and send the message to everyone like him that the same will happen to them. We don't get to vote in your elections, we need you to do it! We need you to convince your friends and family to do it! And you don't want to because you don't want to feel responsible for the terrible things that were going to happen anyway? And somehow you won't feel responsible for worse things happening that you could have avoided? The responsibility ship sailed the moment you had a vote in the first place!

And yeah, don't talk about 'revolution'. Even before the completely correct points about how revolution will hurt people who don't deserve it - If you can't be bothered to do the work or to get your hands dirty at the level of casting a vote, how do you think you're ever going to manage anything that's even more active, and even less removed from the consequences? And violent revolution? Don't even joke. The purifying power of violence is a myth made first for colonial propaganda, and you are not immune. Violence can solve more problems than it causes sometimes, but you have to be lucky and you have to be good at it, there will always be problems, and it's always the suffering of the innocent that's guaranteed and the punishment of the guilty that's a maybe, never the other way around.

i kind of wish the anti voting people wouldn’t dance around the idea of what happens after the election. Like okay, the democrats lose, you taught them a lesson (and fwiw, I do think its a legitimate message to send- the people are not happy with the actions and status quo of the DNC). Now What. Trump, the multiply indicted crime president who incited a violent mob upon the capitol, is now President. He has all the qualities you hate about Biden, AND more, except he and his administration have even less reason to be sensitive to the wishes of their democratic constituents. He is a puppet for the far right and white supremacists and christian nationalists. I really shouldn’t even have to go over this- we LIVED it already. Genuinely asking, is this what you want? Because frankly I do not think 4 more years of Trump is worth it over Biden. Your hands are not clean, this is the future you want to choose. I just don’t understand why.