#buddy i was a leftist this WHOLE TIME

[communistkenobi]

what are some of your favorite nonfiction podcasts?

the big one I recommend is just king things - two marxist academics go through the books of Stephen King in publication order. extremely funny and insightful podcast, very accessible (like this is not a theory podcast or anything, it’s very laid back and casual), and I really appreciate their approach to literary criticism.

game studies study buddies is by the same hosts as just king things but this is a theory podcast. Each episode they go over and discuss a book from the field of game studies (ie the academic study of games). I very much recommend you listen to this if you want to like passively absorb critical/leftist theory. The hosts are academics, one of which teaches about games regularly as a professor, so it kind of feels like someone is teaching you about a text. I find it fairly accessible, I learn a lot about games, and as I said they very frequently structure their discussions with left wing theory. I find them very insightful!

blowback is very good, it’s about the imperial history of the United States. a history/journalist type podcast. this can get extremely heavy and difficult to listen to given the subject matter so I would not binge this (I usually listen to it when I’m doing a physical activity) but it’s a really good source of historical information and has helped me develop my political understanding of modern western imperial history. each season covers a different event: S1 is the invasion of Iraq, S2 is the Cuban Revolution, S3 is the Korean War, S4 is the invasion of Afghanistan

ALAB (all lawyers are bad) is good with some caveats. It’s a podcast by a bunch of lawyers who spend a lot of time on twitter discussing how horrible lawyers are, usually either focusing on specific high-profile lawyers (Kavanaugh, Dershowitz), specific american legal regimes (anti-BDS legislation, sanction law, etc), or specific trends in the legal system that causes structural problems (eg lifetime judgeship appointments with no mandatory retirement age). They also sometimes do random funny lawsuits or cover legal responses to events like Jan 6th. A mixed bag in terms of focus but mostly it’s hating on American law and the legal system. This is a critical recommendation because it’s a bunch of lawyers dudes riffing and some of their analysis can be stupid/bad, they say stupid shit that comes off as “anti identity politics” at times, etc. I’m pulling from memory because it’s been a while since I listened to them so I’m sorry if this is overly vague/general. The best way to describe it is chapo-adjacent if that means anything to you lol

and finally the podcast knowledge fight. this is a podcast dedicated to covering and debunking Alex Jones. in all honesty I don’t find this podcast super valuable in terms of analysis, like they are only really focused on debunking the claims Jones makes and explaining why they’re factually wrong. Which like that’s a good thing to do, I’m not saying its bad, but I don’t really need to be convinced Jones is lying about everything lol so I don’t personally find it super useful/insightful. If you have to interact with Alex Jones fans regularly (like family members) then maybe that will be more valuable for you! Totally depends. however the reason I bring them up is because I DO recommend the series of episodes they have titled formulaic objections - in this series they go through all the deposition material from the sandy hook lawsuit against Alex Jones (the one that cost him a billion dollars in damages and court sanctions lol). They play clips of the depositions throughout these episodes, which are so fucking insane to listen to. Like listening to a bunch of employees of an insane fringe right wing media organisation being questioned by lawyers for hours on end is so entertaining lmao. This lawsuit is about the sandy hook school shooting so a warning about the subject matter, it can get dark at times, but on the whole it’s extremely fucking funny to listen to. And the hosts provide a lot of context for what’s going on in the lawsuit, talk about it, and also they debunk the shit Jones lies about in court that you may not know about, so I find that part of it really good.

[honey-crypt]

Hello! This is not a writing ask actually Its a question. Can you feed us with info about your Oc Benny?

I made the same ask to @fuerrziah and I wanted to ask you as well (I am coming for the Elliott squad >:) )

Here are the questions ^^ You don’t have to answer all of them you can just pick and answer ^^

eeeee i love this ask!!! tysm for asking this, i def need it to help develop benny more :3 i’m gonna try to answer as many questions as possible

5) exactly thirty three minutes. benny did so as a fun challenge for themselves and ended up having to get up because his legs and pelvis started to ache

6) benny laughs pretty easily! he uses humor as a coping mechanism and you can’t be sad if you’re laughing! at least, that’s what they think

8) it’s very hard to earn benny’s trust. they grew up getting harassed and bullied for being half-solennian (see here for context) so they learned to be on guard with new people. benny doesn’t actually trust many people; sure, he can buddy buddy with many people but trusting them is a whole other story. it’s very easy for benny to lose trust in people, especially if they find out he’s half-solennian and react negatively to it

9) the laws are flexible. benny has a degree in sociology and knows that laws are social constructs set up by the ruling class (leftist benny moment). he believes that you can’t apply a “one size fits all” mentality to the law, there has to be flexibility and there is flexibility, such as leniency for homicide in cases of self defense. he’s also not afraid to steal some shit from joja mart as a means to “stick it to the man” (morris has yet to catch them)

11) benny was told to stop being so reckless as a child. they weren’t diagnosed with bertolotti’s syndrome at the time but the doctors did confirm that they had early onset complications from an unknown spinal disorder, such as scoliosis and instability in their discs. this meant that they had to be mindful of how they moved their body or else they could risk a spasm or a flare up of pain. nonetheless, benny was still a rambunctious child who often winded up in the emergency room because of their adrenaline seeking behaviors. his parents were very exasperated by their actions and struggled to find ways to keep them safe while letting them engage in typical kid things

12) benny swears like a sailor and to the point where he can make willy (a former sailor) blush with his language. the first time benny ever swore was in middle school where he was confronted by a bully and he was so done with the abuse that he told them to “suck my fucking dick, you asshole!”

15) benny's defining strengths are their ability to adapt to most situations, their passion, and their kindness

16) benny's defining flaws are their recklessness, their stubbornness, and their tendency to isolate from others

17) benny loves odd numbers, specifically odd multiples of 3 (9, 15, 21, and so on); they usually do tasks like brushing their teeth in odd multiples of 3 (brush teeth -> mouthwash -> floss)

18) benny's a major stoner, he primarily uses it for pain relief but has been known to do it socially and provides his homies with weed; they're not much of a drinker, they think alcohol tastes like fire

19) HAHAHAHA THE LOVE QUESTION!!! benny's very turned off by the prospect of romantic love, given that they're cursed with the knowledge that they will die from broken heart syndrome. nonetheless, they 10000% believe in queerplatonic and platonic love

once again thanks for sending me this ask!!!

[charyou-tree]

The far-right wants American politics to feel like having an abusive parent.

If you have an abusive Father lets say, you come to learn that you can't reason with him. You don't defy him or he hurts you, and trying to explain your point of view never works, so eventually you give up trying. Your only goal is to manage interactions with him so you don't get hurt.

So instead, when you need something, you go to your Mother instead, because you might actually have a chance of influencing her behavior. So, if she's not able to get you something, say, because Father controls the bank accounts, you might get angry with Mother instead because she chose not to listen to you this time! Father never listens, so you don't even consider that a failure, that's just "normal". That's just how Father is. Mother is usually nice, she just decided to be mean!

This is why republican controlled legislatures don't pass anything except tax cuts for themselves. The whole plan is to prove the idea of "Government Never Helps" by example. Why? To make the party who promised to use the government to help people look bad, so that the people who voted for that party blame them for betraying their voters, instead of blaming the wannabe oligarchs stonewalling progress for the last 40 years. The republican party follows the same playbook every time:

Cut taxes and dump money into your buddy's company

Companies get rich(er) and hire people to expand, unemployment temporarily goes down

Lack of government revenue makes budgets tight, and times seem good so we "have to" cut social services (because raising taxes makes you look like the bad guy, and the democrats already are a minority party)

Massive corporate power results in billions of dollars being taken from working people, resulting in increasing poverty, homelessness, social problems in general, made worse by the lack of social services

"Democrats never deliver on their promises, voting doesn't work, both sides are evil, there's no point in trying to change things"

Young people and leftists stay home, republican majority is elected

goto 1.

The democratic party has held a veto-proof majority exactly once in the last 40 years, for about 8 months during the Obama administration. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_divisions_of_United_States_Congresses) That was the last-best-chance we had at getting anything useful done, every other time has had one or more republican majorities blocking progress.

It pisses me off so much to see the short-sighted leftists on the internet talking about how "voting doesn't work" and waxing poetic about how we need a revolution that they know damn well isn't coming. You know why voting doesn't seem to work? Because you smug idiots decided you were too good for it and won't do it!

If any of you think that adding yourselves to the "Did Not Vote" category will somehow cause American political leadership to stop flirting with fascism please block me right now. I am disgusted with how many people who bitch and moan about how awful our government is can't be bothered to do the BARE FUCKING MINIMUM about it.

We have a government made of conservative old people because conservatives and old people ALWAYS VOTE.

If y'all don't even vote, you're not fighting a revolution. Grow up.

[clovenhoofedjester]

so i find the whole "i hope barney is straight and marries a woman" thing really funny because i. Literally. gave him a girlfriend coincidentally just as those posts were popping up

this is my version of lauren. barneys (mostly steady) goth girlfriend. yap session and a no filter version of the art under the cut look at her face details boy

lauren is a bi nb woman. modern day she wouldve identified as a bi lesbian

barney is a bi trans man who uses the term transsexual but he feels very connected to womanhood/sapphic experiences becaauuusseee

he and lauren started dating in early highschool before barney transitioned. they became official after his egg cracked but they were already smooching a lot before that. in his eyes he wasnt always a man and their experimentation was still sapphic to him up until he realized Oh God oh fuck I'm a guy

she helped him pick out his name

she is the only person allowed to call him by feminine terms/pet names because hes stealth. he finds it hot

[lauren w/ barney sitting in her lap] so where do you wanna go for dinner babygirl

[barneys head going completely blank] wgat

she takes him to raves all the time (hence the drawing) and he lowkey hated it at first because he would listen to like exclusively country, 70s classics and oldies but he tolerated it for his woman and now he kind of loves goth music and edm. she still doesnt like when he plays his tom jones cd over. and over. and over. but itsok. she loives him

she was pursuing a bachelor of science in computer science and a minor degree in electrical engineering when barney got the job at black mesa

the most hilarious thing about them and their relationship is that barney keeps fucking fumbling her. theyve broken up multiple times (half of those breakups were from highschool, but still) and all of barneys security guard buddies beat him up over it constantly

"jesus christ i miss her" "werent you the one to break it off this time, cal"

theyre mostly healthy asides from that though. a lot of it was understandable arguments and needing breaks because they are like This Close 🤞

i think barney started crushing on gordon while he wasnt dating lauren because the glasses/stem girly qualities made some wires cross in his brain

she said she was cool w him seeing other people during their break and was open to the idea of polyamory (based lauren she does read leftist theory) but he was still like. Oh my god im3cheating on her with a rattailed nerd im going to hell

the note about him getting her flowers was going to be a gift for her when he decided he was ready to go back to her ☹

but do not fret she survived the initial invasion and everything

[rimaurimau]

the whole 1975 thing pisses me off. people cant seem to comprehend that this isnt some black and white situation where its just homophobia because its so much more than that. i couldnt care less if he jacked off on stage, the problem is that he did this in a country thats incredibly queerphobic and because of that is incredibly strict on what bands can play here and what they can and cant do/say. We malaysians don't get alot od international bands as is, so bands like this and the strokes coming here of all places in our shit hole country is huge. but him saying and doing all that did this:

- cancelled the entire event because our government caught wind of it and shut it down after the first night when it was supposed to go on for 3

- probably made the rules and restrictions for bands to play here even tighter

- made other bands hesitant to play here

- maybe even tightened up the laws on queer people here in general, even more worse than they already are

- possibly put a lot of queer malaysians in general in danger because if the pigs suddenly decided to investigate the event further and question the organisers or people who attended and those people happened to be queer and they found out? theyre going straight to jail because that's how queer people are treated here by our government

yeah there are a good chunk of people here angry purely because of homophobia, that fact isnt something that can be denied or glossed over. but the most important thing here is the queer people that are gonna be put in danger. we're already consistently used as a political scape goat. but now we've finally started to take baby steps in the right direction of progress after finally electing the first pm in our history thats leftist (when in reality he's centrist at best) and now with how matty healy behaved and what he said, our governments fear of queer people have been confirmed and we might be in even more hot water. they've already discussed about making being queer a mental illness and this might give them the push to confirm everything.

what he did did nothing but do bad. we didnt need some white guy to tell us how oppressed we are, how queer people are ridiculed discriminated and abused, trust me buddy, we've lived here all our lives, we know, we dont need any white saviour telling us this.

people will scoff at countries like Malaysia because of how queerphobic it is and simply throw any empathy and kindness out the window, but people seem to forget that this queerphobia exists for a reason. the queerphobia here exists because WE exist, because WE QUEER MALAYSIANS EXIST. it doesn't just exist just because, they're hateful of us because we are here, they're hell bent on getting rid of us because we are here.

I've seen some people say "then just don't get international bands" why? why dont we get to have the opportunity to see the bands we like? why dont we get to have fun? what makes so inherintly lesser that we dont get to indulge in stuff like this like people from other countries do? we already are barred from being openly queer, is it so much to ask that we just want to have a good time by seeing bands we love? do we not deserve that just because people think our government and the shit heads here represent our entire country, acting like theres absolutely no queer communities here constantly fighting for our right to exist? is that why people think so lowly of us?

queer malaysians are now in danger and our progress have been set back 50 steps thanks to matty healys "activism". I understand that he did it in good faith, but it just came off as entitled, privileged and selfish, especially with how he handled it after the fact.

if you're here to argue or insult me on this post, dont bother, im blocking you. im not wasting my time.

[lakehare]

I’m sorry but I think the idea of racism, transphobia, and bigotry and such not ‘belonging’ in pagan communities is such horse shit. I know that sounds off, but hear me out - because you may feel that way and hold those values, you may denounce fascists, but like… I know first hand my experience with progressive and leftist pagan and spiritual spaces have been anything but devoid of bigotry and microaggression, if not outright aggression, and I am not the only one. Spiritual and religious spaces in 2023 will claim to be progressive and leftist in one breath and with the same one say you are too sensitive.

They sleep in the middle - they follow political trend. I have rarely met a pagan or spiritual person who truly knows themself or their politics enough to not enact some sort of bigoted violence against me or my kin, whether out of ignorance or malice, and then be unwilling to learn better and insist upon your guilt because you dared point it out - no matter the manner you did it in. Firm or gentle - you are being aggressive. And I know I am not the only one with this experience. So saying “fascism / bigotry has no place” is great and all, but a bit of an empty statement, and I only wish to see MORE come from it. Perhaps a denounciation of the falsity of all of this, of the liberalism, an encouragement of self reflection and how you treat others. It’s why I gave up on a large scale, and fight the big fights quietly - I can change no one who doesn’t want to, and I don’t need to, nor is it my job nor my business. I don’t actually want or need people looking at me for guidance, as some authority figure. I don’t need people looking at me as the new herder for their political slogan to parrot without actually making meaningful change within themselves, the slogan this time being “fascism/bigotry has no space in pagan spaces”.

I don’t need centrist/liberal, puritanical, democrat neo-spiritualists parading and masquerading as the most progressive leftists on the market to help me boot fascism out when they are unwilling to stop sleeping in the same bed as them or attempt to change their own ways, or do anything helpful towards the communities they’re in or even towards their IRL communities.

(Disclaimer inb4 bad faith - sure, some pagans and neospiritualists get this and do try. But they are not who I’m talking about here).

Calling out fascists changes nothing about how people act. Changes nothing about transmisogynistic, racist, sexist microaggressions (which is what actually reminded me of my position on this topic - given that it’s NOT the first time I’ve said this before, that just saying uwu there’s no place for bigotry in MY paganism) if you want a good example of what I’m speaking of, the best connection I can give you, this post by my mutual can inform you of performativity in regards to community acts against transmisogyny while snubbing trans women (and doing nothing of value for them) & maybe give a little insight into what I mean.

It does not stop people from lugging their own religious and spiritual baggage into the space and spewing it around to all who will hear, and those are really the things that I think should be focused on, not public smack downs in order to laugh and giggle with your buddies about such a serious thing. Clowning privately is one thing, I think clowning to thousands in order to get praise for your wit and cunning is quite another.

You can only change your actions and show others how to act by how you act in these spaces - and of course, I do not know others nearly as well as I know myself. But I, as a younger person, did the whole righteous crusade against bigoted people, in order to feel like I was doing something significant. And YES. Fascism needs to be pushed out of pagan spaces! I agree, allowing them to get a foothold in any country in any manner but especially a wide scale is NOT acceptable.

But the way it seems virtue signaling to me, the way it seems to push yourself into a space of authority, and rankles me, as someone who realized the exact issues with what I was doing. It is quite an ego boost when people listen to what you have to say and get to defend your moral and ethical stances, yes? And I was on an even smaller scale than some of these (now) BNPs.

I’m not saying people have to do their good deeds quietly, that’s Christian bullshit. But the manner of which I see a lot of (now) Big Name Pagans do this ruffles my feathers in an unnerving way. I can’t quite articulate exactly the way this is unnerving and unnecessary and how there are other ways and middle grounds (at the moment - I took an anxiety pill last night and I’m surprised at my coherency here) that don’t involve the grand standing, but if the lines are read between in good faith I have hope that my point comes across clear.

[ornithia]

lmao i got blocked for this

i, a living, breathing, real-life existing aroace individual, a literal example of the very category you specifically attempted to white-knight, asked a genuine question regarding the puritanical "white-washing" of the general identity to which i and several of my peers belong to - but i suppose confronting your own bigotry was just too much to handle, eh?

let's go over your "values":

so you're not a "radical inclusionist" (w/e that means) ... but by your own logic, excluding certain marginalised groups (such as the select "undesirable" and "dirty" asexuals that do not fit the pure stereotype mold) precisely means you're also not a real leftist, but a "Republican in training" (this is literally YOUR own definition in YOUR own words)

so ... people like you, then? also awfully convenient that all of this info that constitutes blocking was hidden below a read-more, btw. (also, you commented on someone ELSE's post. i'd say that's fair game - maybe DON'T comment publicly at all if you truly don't want to engage with anyone, especially not if you're requiring them to read a whole TOS essay of your "voids" and "warranties")

this one was a little further down ... buddy. MOST people who ship alastor are asexuals themselves, safely exploring their identities and analysing their experiences through a fictional proxy. i can ASSURE you the majority of us are not aphobic, we're simply diverse, as human beings are wont to be. trying to fit us all into a neat little box and weeding out those who do not fit your standards or rhetoric, on the other hand - now THAT'S aphobic as all shit

going over the DNI list now and:

lmao WHAT. please research the history of humanity and the arts, i GUARANTEE you that most people who've written/created analogs of terrible things (since the very dawn of human creativity) have not PERSONALLY engaged in horrific deviancy so much as commentated on it, in order to make a point about its horrors and use it to tell a greater message. (also "predators in the making" is literally a dog whistle used in right-wing circles, specifically the ones that embrace terf-rhetoric, are homophobic, anti-feminist, and pro-censorship with the intended goal of resetting society to the "nuclear family" aka institute a social order in which the queers don't exist, women exist purely to spread their legs and pop out babies for their masters Men, children are DANGEROUSLY isolated and taught to be ignorant of the world that exists beyond their neighborhood so that when they eventually grow up they end up xenophobic Adults unable to cope with the notions of Different and New and far less able to creatively relate, empathise, or put themselves in others' shoes, for better or worse.

also, THIS is why ACTUAL critical thinking matters, and not just lazy broad strokes of some supposed "general morality", like holy shit you'd think you'd realise this given you consider yourself a "💜Beginner Satantic-Pagan Witch" and all the maligned things that THAT would imply based on a surface-level understanding of satan/lucifer's origins without actual research into the religion, like - based on the name alone, most people would assume you have a sadistic and LAUGHABLY disproportionate desire to see humans suffer due to a petty and envious "sibling rivalry" over the fact that god doted on humans just a little "too much" for lucifer's personal liking (per the canonical texts of the abrahamic religions)

OBVIOUSLY that's not the case, as there's ALWAYS more to the picture; you criticals should try applying this philosophy more often, you all seem so miserable all the time it's hard to imagine how this COULDN'T help

as for the rest of the list ... honestly, it isn't terrible. MOST of it is reasonable. pity, as we could've potentially been friends - had you just chosen to NOT speak on behalf of ALL asexuals with 0 consideration for our varied and complex nuance and spooked yourself into blocking me over a reality check

[ladyknightskye]

Okay, look. Look.

I just saw that "who is morally worst poll" that John Winchester won, and I - (rant beneath the cut)

Look. John Winchester is not a good parent. But the problem of John Winchester is not that he is on the Evil spectrum of the alignment chart y'all. Does he become the target of fans' own parental issues and traumas? Yes. Is he objectively a neglectful parent? Yes.

Is he ACTUALLY more morally reprehensible than Crowley? No.

I would argue that John Winchester's problem is not that he has too few morals but that he has too many. John Winchester is the bad kind of Lawful Good. He's the kind of Lawful Good that has a code (not necessarily one that jives with the laws of the land) but that code is not something he's going to give up for anyone including his children.

"But Skye, his whole deal was vengeance!"

And? That doesn't negate the fact that he took it upon himself to become a hunter of anything supernatural and not just Ole Yeller Eyes!

"But Skye, the dude lied, cheated, and stole all the time!"

Yes, in service to his ultimate goal of wiping anything supernatural off the face of the planet. And let's be real my lil leftist buddies - a lot of the people he was hurting with those crimes you would cheer about in any other context. Large banks, cops - those are not people most of us are fans of.

"Skye, that was a joke poll on Tumblr dot Hell."

Yes, and I made the mistake of looking in the comments. There are people out here on this very webbed site that think that "morals = being an actual good person" and don't seem to know what morals actually are.

Morals are a set of standards and beliefs that people have that tell them what they may and may not do in society.

Everyone has different morals, y'all.

Crowley is the definition of Neutral Evil. He will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, and yeah, maybe that shifts a bit as the story goes on, but for the vast majority of it, my dude doesn't give two shits what is right or wrong, just what is good for him at that given moment.

John, on the other hand, has morals. They're fucked up and not in line with the rest of society but he has them. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean they aren't there.

"Skye, you're just a John Winchester apologist."

No, I'm a person that really dislikes how the larger part of this fandom choses which characters can have nuance and which ones can't, usually based on which character they project on the most, and also refuse to engage with how their personal biases might color how they perceive these characters. I am well a-fucking-ware that I project a LOT of things on Dean because I see an awful lot of my own life's story in his, and this is not a bad thing, but I also know that this can color how I view other characters like Sam.

I am not a fan of Sam, and I'm aware that my dislike has little to do with the character himself and more to do with how I transpose my own feelings and memories on Dean. I am fully cognizant of this, and that's why I make caveats whenever I examine Sam as a character. Because I have biases! We all have biases! And that's okay!

I just want people to be aware of this and acknowledge it!!!

[im-tempted]

more disco elysium text dump under cut (very long I love this game so much help guys)

He's such a fucking dweeb I'm in love with this speed freak 40 year old cringe fail man

@youmustfixyourheartt sorry for @'ing you but this one made me think of you the world should be better it's fucked up it's not but it is easier with music god is it easier

I just love this whole latter thing it's... it's my everything I love it so much it's so them "you just climbed it, like a regular person" KING. SHIT. kim I am in love with you

assigned psychic by middle-aged buddy cop

HEY GUY wow ok ok wow ok cool cool cool cool calm down for any seconds ok hey squad fam what if ok we'll be THINKING about THAT

how many times can I just say 'I am in love with kim kitsuragi' before it get's repetitive

GAY RIGHTS!

this is the whole plot of the game in one line I will be thinking about this forever I am crafting my whole world view around this I am filling a page on my notebook with this line I am passing the fuck out

I have no idea where to put this I don't think I'll ever be the same after this game

mecore

I can't explain how much I love these little voices chatting they are so silly my boys <3

the only line ever so real best takedown of leftist discourse this century

kim meets baby gay speed freaks he is so cute about it

...ya... mhm

GAY RIGHTS!

he's... kim <3 awww look at him he really DOES care

I don't think I can have a normal reaction to anything shivers has ever said I will lie awake thinking about it do you think the busses that used to run lines that where shut down due to disuse miss the roads? do you think the land remembers us the way our bodies remember the land? do you think my city loves me as much as I love it? do you think I'll ever be able to love it enough?

[catsnuggler]

One big problem we leftists have, which we often talk about yet struggle with, anyway, as more people struggling with this continue to join us, is social conservatism. Many of us think everything has to be pure and fit the Only Way, God's Way the Ideologically Pure Way, and anything outside of that is something we are uncomfortable with, must be demonized, and must be crushed, repressed, banned, Das ist VERBOTEN, the whole nine yards.

Another problem many of us have is common to "left"-liberals, centrists, and conservatives alike - a punitive nature. This is something I have struggled with, still do. Someone does something so heinous, and you want them locked up. If we want a world free of prisons, that means a world free of prisons, even ones that would be ran by us. No prisons, no prison slavery, no minimum sentences, no life sentences, no death sentences (though, frankly, I wouldn't mind if Kissinger got one), not even the allegedly cushy prisons in Scandinavia where the prison was once accidentally unlocked, and the prisoners just used the opportunity to bake brownies and stuff. Not even that. No prisons.

Then, there's "left"-liberalism. I've known anarchists who support state-ran gun control. Anarchists who know full well that the state is our enemy, that the cops and the military lean right, that many of them are Nazis. That the liberals in government know this, and don't really give a damn, and, when pressured, just make the cops wear bodycams that they then promptly turn off. That there's no way in Hell these guys would disarm their buddies along with us, they would just disarm us - and even if they disarmed their buddies, they'd give them right back later on, when they feel like making a gambit.

Another problem we have is the liberal fetishization of "progress", as if every new idea is good. Eugenics was new, and marketed as progress. The atomic bomb was a major leap in scientific discovery, and the usage of it was justified with how it would allegedly save lives; really, the US just wanted to scare the pants off of Stalin, who had finally broken his pact with the Japanese and invaded Manchuria, crushing the Kwantung Army, Japan's largest army, in a matter of days. These were new ideas, marks of "progress", and all they did was cause suffering.

I'm not saying we need to become reactionaries and idealize the past. I'm saying we shouldn't fetishize time, past or present. The nuclear family is another recent phenomenon, which has eroded and even wiped out community. Extended family used to be much more in contact with each other, and communities existed much more often, people could depend on each other more. On the other hand, white communities used to entertain themselves by lynching Black people, and families used to kill disabled children so as not to "burden" their communities. Clearly, the past isn't perfect, and some abhorrent practices are best left abandoned. Just saying, an idea isn't bad because it's old, good because it's new, or vice versa. It's good if it uplifts people, doesn't put down anyone, and increases freedom of humanity and our relatives.

Let's not forget, after all, that socialism, communism, and anarchism largely came about as a result of European observation of communitarian and egalitarian so-called "primitive" and "savage" peoples, such as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. They idealized their societies, all while saying they practiced "primitive" socialism, and so Europeans must simultaneously struggle to achieve socialism while inevitably these "less developed nations" eventually caught up to speed. Sounds gross, and it is. It's theoretically and morally wrong. Not that Haudenosaunee society was (or is! They still exist!) perfect, but European societies also weren't so perfect and enlightened as we pretended to be.

The merit of an idea is in its medicine, not its age, nor its youth.

[never-forget-viva-la-pluto]

We can throw grenades at the people crushing machine. We can band together and try to get away from it. We can run face first at it and jam it till it breaks. We can jam it with our clothes. We can fuck up the factory. Giving up doesn't help anyone.

We can cause revolution. Maybe you can't because you're a liberal but at least us leftists can.

In reference to this post: https://www.tumblr.com/never-forget-viva-la-pluto/733556484079796224/some-idiot-on-these-posts-lesser-of-two-evils-is

So listen up,

You can't blow up the machine without hurting the common folk you are meant to be fighting for.

The suggestions you made all result in numerous people dying.

1)Throw grenades at the united states capitalism system.

Okay, let's do it. Throw a grenade. Can you get access to grenades? Do you think your little group of friends with a bunch of grenades would be able to get your little grenades anywhere close to a millionaire lawmaker in congress or the white house or corrupt police stations or billionaire villas etc? You wouldn't even get close enough to make a difference. You and all your little buddies just get charged with attempted murder and you go to jail for life, having helped 0 people in the end, fixed nothing.

How do I know? Because if it were that easy, we would have done it by now. YOU would have done it by now.

2)Band together and try to get away from it.

Who gets to leave? Not all of us can leave. I currently can't walk because I have a painful disability, but I'm lucky, my pain will only last a few more days and I can go then, so as long as I'm there when the...train arrives? What? What's the plan for that? Who will drive that train to get you there? They will have to work the whole time you are evacuating everyone who can leave. Where are we going that is free from capitalism,huh? Fucking space!?! Can you get there? I can't.

And how should we band together and leave? Will you give all your money to that needy family so they can start over somewhere else? What of you then? Will you stay in this human right hell hole with no money at all for that family to be free. But they have friends and relatives they don't want to leave. Will you pay for them too? Oh wait! YOU CANT, because you too are living in this hell.

You can't leave or you WOULD HAVE ALREADY!

3) Run head first into the people eating machine and jam it.

Our system is a people crushing machine. It is so good at crushing people, it would take a VERY large number of people dying to get the USA to bail on capitalism and fix this shit(especially bc a large number of people dying is beneficial for the economy and thus rich assholes making laws that kill people are able to better fill their pockets).

There is no parent in this country that works 60 hrs a week so their child doesn't starve that would NOT take this deal for a chance to save their child's life.

Some have, because life insurance scams are usually a desperate act and a very real thing, but you only have to wait a few years. https://www.valuepenguin.com/life-insurance-suicide#covered

What you are suggesting we do to fix the problem is being attempted as we speak, but the machine just gets better at tricking people that jumping into the machine is a good idea.

4) We can jam it with our clothes/earthly possessions.

I mean...we can but "I can only afford food and shelter this month and Christmas is coming up and my son has a disability that makes it so he can't eat most foods so I wanted to get him something other than rice and kimchi, potatoes and lettuce. Like a gluten free roll. They are so much more expensive. Reg bread is 2 dollars, gluten free bread is 7 dollars and is smaller."- My mother circa 2018

If we thought that sacrificing our possessions to the almighty machine would keep us from dying, we WOULD HAVE DONE IT ALREADY! There are people who have sold everything they own to afford medication as simple as insulin! But once you have done that you are homeless and they have to sleep closer to the people crushing machine than anyone else!

5)We can blow up the factory.

Okay, I don't know what you thought the factory was in terms of the metaphor I used, but the factory is the United States, ya know the place where I assume we both reside.

Should we blow it up? The whole thing? Like, both of us? And everyone we know who lives in this country? Their pets too? All the plants and animals that live in this factory don't matter? Peoples kids are in this factory right?

This one is one that people have tried a few times and people don't generally suggest this one bc they are usually killed, or charged with domestic terrorism, and those people are the ones that stormed the capital and tried to kill Gretchen Whitmar. Ya know?... white supremacists.

You say giving up doesn't help anyone, and you are right.

I've not given up, I'm voting so Gretchen Whitmar's work doesn't get undone the second she leaves. I am buying from local business and boycotting poor ethics as much as I can(again, not a ton of food options for me and I can only afford so much). I am at as many protests that I can be(again, I can't walk right now bc disability). I vote for whomever I think won't actively try to kill me and others like me so I will be alive to help others and send that money to the people who need it more than I do. I help out in my community, I cuss out the racist animal control guy, and I don't tell the cops shit when they come to my door asking about my neighbors.

I haven't given up, but if you think risking countless lives by blowing up the states and starting over is the answer, then you certainly have.

There isn't going to be a damned revolution, because if it made things better we would have done it already!!!

We have a two party system, and that system isn't going to end any time soon, so do what you can to HELP EACH OTHER!

It helps save people's lives to vote blue. It helps to save people's lives to look away when you see someone stealing food. It helps to click those buttons and understand that it's never going to be as simple as a waiting until the perfect candidate. Biden sucks, but the alternative is worse. We have this discussion every election, if the topic wasn't the Gaza it would be something else. In 2020 it was victims of police brutality during BLM protests. Using victims of a genocide or white supremacy as your reason to burn everything down or blow everything up is wrong.

If we had another option, I assure you, the desperate people of the United States would have done it already. The COMPASSIONATE people of the United states would have done it already. It is a fact that someone is going to win that election, and if you don't vote, it will be a republican and they want the machine to be faster at killing people. For now we play the extremely, perhaps perpetual, long game and we protest its wrongdoings.

And we don't give up.

[sing-you-fools]

okay I hate to be That Person™️ taking something as lovely as Good Omens and making it about American politics but hear me out. (and please note I mean this as an analogy and I'm in no way trying to say this is what it's all ~supposed to represent~ or whatever)

heaven is the liberals, hell is the conservatives.

Crowley is a leftist who registered republican at some point, either accidentally or, more likely, to piss off his dad. he goes along with it in the sense that he votes for the least awful person in the primary in the name of minimizing harm, but other than that stays out of mainstream politics.

and he has spent millennia trying to radicalize his best friend and his best friend just keeps saying shit like, oh well yes on paper communism looks nice but the dems are really quite lovely! but crowley sees them sitting on their hands as the right repeals roe and raises a skeptical eyebrow.

finally after s1, they're free of the whole bloody system. and he's finally convinced Aziraphale to come around to his point of view. he thinks.

he doesn't say no to Beelzebub because he and Aziraphale have a life together and he doesn't want to lose it. (that is true, but not his reason.) he says no to Beelzebub because nothing in all of creation could make him rejoin this game. he knows exactly how awful it is.

and then Meta fucking Tron shows up and says, Aziraphale, buddy, I pulled some strings and you're the senate majority leader now!

and Aziraphale tells Crowley, come with me! let's fix the democratic party! they're the good guys!

but they're not. they're really, really not, and Crowley knows this. so when Aziraphale says yes to Heaven, he's not just leaving Crowley.

he's telling Crowley, I learned nothing from you, from all our time together, from all the nonsense with Armageddon, none of it mattered, I'm off to join Metatron's campaign trail!

and THAT'S fucking heartbreaking.

[baronetcoins]

buddy you KNOW i want those speeches thoughts

*deep sigh* fine. let's do this.

My qualifications here are thus: I did three years of competitive speech and debate, and did pretty well for myself (two time state qualifier, two time national qualifier, one time state champion). I also spent a year as team co-captain, and a year helping a teacher at my school teach the speech and communications class. Also, i'm an extremely judgemental bitch. With that in mind,

Hakeem Jeffries

Jeffries started out his speech by thanking the Democratic caucus, and by calling them out for being unified. Which makes sense, that's a good contrast to draw and it comes across as more dignified for not mentioning the Republicans or their negative example by name and instead just going on the positives.

He then moved on to praising Pelosi for her leadership, calling her the greatest speaker of all time, and setting up what I'd call the main rhetorical theme of Jeffries' speech: alliteration. Jeffries loves alliteration. I can't tell you if that's a common factor of all of his speeches, because I haven't watched any outside of this one, but boy. Does he like his alliteration.

"Throughout her time in congress she's been a legendary legislator, a fabulous facilitator, and a non-nonsense negotiator. [...] A defender of democracy. A voice for the voiceless, and a powerful champion for the children, the climate, charm city, California, the caucus, the congress, the country, and the constitution."

There's a bible Quote detour after the Pelosi section, which I'm not personally a fan of because it seems like it's a detour that's unnecessary. However, what he uses it to transition to is great and something more democrats should do: talk about their goddamn accomplishments. It includes a line that I think any other speaker would have made sound incredibly cheesy, but I think Jeffries pulls off:

"The D in Democrat stands for 'deliver'."

(which of course got boos from the Republican side. lots of heckling. whatever, children.)

The next section does a lot of laying out an agenda going forwards, I think it's inoffensive and fine, and there's another big chunk of alliteration. You think I'm kidding about this speech? go watch it for yourself.

I liked the language about diversity, mostly, though did notice that trans people were glaringly missing from his whole thing about the kind of people who make up America. Whatever.

Rhetorically, I like framing the Democratic party as the party of the American dream. For as much as like. leftists will criticize that idea, I think it's probably still persuasive to a lot of people and I'm always going to argue for effectiveness of outcome over ideological purity. I also like pointing at the house Republicans and their bullshit and saying "we're reasonable! ball's in your court" (paraphrasing).

And then, the main event. The grand listing of Democratic values, an alphabetical list of alliteration. You can watch it here, set to music. I kinda liked how pointed it got! I'm a big fan of people who don't pull punches when they're dealing with bullshit, and I don't think this did that. Also, I respect that he got all the way to the end of the alphabet that's a hard feat to pull off. Do you know how hard it is to find political contrasts to make where both parts start with X or Z? I don't think I could have done that!

Overall, I liked it. I don't know if it was great, but it's certainly unique enough to be memorable for a bit, at least among the kind of people who watch 15 minute speeches at like 10 in the evening on a friday (me).

Also, you could see how hard he struggled to find nice things to say as he introduced Kevin lmao

Kevin McCarthy

Starting off strong with an ineffectual little gavel hit like a kid with a new toy, and then an incredibly stupid little joke.

"That was easy, huh?" -Kevin McCarthy, 2023, after 15 ballots.

Followed by a dig at the opposition, for no reason

"Hakeem, I've gotta warn ya. 2 years ago, I got 100% of the vote from my conference."

He then thanked the Clerk, which I actually think is a very good thing to do. I'll give him that. That lady deserves all the kudos she's been getting: normally, nobody knows who she is and then all of a sudden the eyes of the nation are on her. Then he makes an appeal to "my father once told me" which. eugh. I don't like these.

"My father once told me, it's not how you start. It's how you finish."

He then talks about being the son of a firefighter (we get it! we know! I don't know what he thinks this proves!) and then being able to achieve high office in the most uninspiring possible way, as well as shouting out Jeffries' life story too as if we did not just hear it in much more engaging detail like 15 minutes ago.

pictured: a man who is wondering if he has to clap.

Kevin then promises Jeffries that he'll keep debates civil, which. LMAO. Jeffries mouths something in response which might be "no" or "bet". I don't know I don't read lips. (also side note: LOVING the free CSPAN camera angles throughout all of this. Free the cameras. I want to watch reaction shots always.)

He hits the highlights. Bladyada the economy, respect law enforcement, dreams come true in america, etc. He wants to cut spending, lower prices, stop the rise of the national debt (if you're playing the Republican speech drinking game, here's where you take a drink), slash regulations (another drink), do more american energy, the works.

The interesting bit comes after, where he talks about some specifics of his plan for governance. He promises the first bill when they come back is to repeal the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents. He wants to tackle the southern border (take a drink) and stop "woke indoctrination in our schools" (another drink, or maybe throw one at your tv. either way). He's really repetitive in his speech: if i hear "wasteful washington spending" one more time I am going to Lose It. There's some dumb line he seems very proud of here. Oo look at you doing assonance how clever:

"From now on, if a Washington bureaucrat wants to spend it, they will come before us to defend it."

He promises a bipartisan select committee on China, because of course the Republican party has to be hyper focused on China. There are also, apparently, going to be committees on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the origins of COVID (really? really?? it is the year of our lord 2023 and we're still doing lab leak bullshit?), and the "weaponization of the FBI" (read: raiding Mar-a-lago). These feel like presumably some of the compromises made with the freedom caucus to buy their vote.

IDK I'm focusing on policy so much because his speaking style is so bland. every attempt at flourish falls flat. he is like the lukewarm oatmeal of speaking styles. It just feels clumsy.

He focuses a lot on his little section about opening up the house (physically). Including a dumb little metaphor about the debates being open too. Actually he just talks about debate good a lot which, I say as a former debate kid: lmao.

The thanks to his family does have huge oscar acceptance speech vibes, but it is also probably the best part of this speech. Comes across as cute and genuine. He then follows it with a very dumb quote from a Song, losing the moment entirely. Kevin, fire your speechwriter. He then goes back to his father being a firefighter! We KNOW.

Again, if I have to give him some kudos (reluctantly) it's for his bits about the families of the lawmakers supporting them. I think it's humanizing, a thing he needs desperately.

There's then a whole thing about Lincoln, and the statuary hall because that's where Lincoln served, and oh boy does it sounds like he jerks off to fantasies of Lincoln. Like, listen to this. I'm just going to excerpt it all. (emphasis mine)

"My most favorite spot in this building is not in this Chamber. It's in the chamber they met before, in the statuary hall. It's my favorite place to take people on a tour. You see, it's where Abraham Lincoln served. Just a one term congressman, sat in the back. I like to go to that spot, and I like to stand where he stood. I like to do it at night, when people aren't around. I like to look over, and look at the clock, because that's the same clock and same view that Abraham Lincoln saw. I've watched Lincoln serve in the greatest challenge to our constitution, the Civil War. I watched him take peoples who were rivals. I watched in a time that he did not know if the nation could sustain itself, but he dreamt of a future, and built a railroad across the nation. I want us to all take a moment one time that you are here. I want you to stand there. I want you to look. And I want you to think, if America could do it then, we could do it now one more time."

He promises an open door opportunity, which. Lmao, we'll see. And then he goes on a LONG ramble about the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware that doesn't appear to have a point. If I was coaching this speech, I'd tell him to make the point more explicit or cut this section entirely. It's so weird. It sounds like a freshman paper. He also makes a GREAT mouth typo here:

"If we let everybody in the boat. If we row in the same cadence together. There is no obstacle this body can overcome for this nation."

pictured: Matt Gaetz, on his phone throughout the painting section.

I will also give Kevin one other thing: he's pretty self-deprecating in this speech, and I think that's the only correct tone to take after this embarrassment of a process. Congrats on reading the room, Kevin. Now if you could read the room and make your goddamn speech shorter, that'd be great.

Overall, C-. Terribly boring. It feels very... clumsy? Is probably the best way to put it? and It's so long. It did not need to be this long. I'm looking at the clock and I've spent almost an hour and a half writing this post. Jesus Christ. Good night, and God bless America.

[knowlesian]

I posted 5,713 times in 2022

That's 5,402 more posts than 2021!

745 posts created (13%)

4,968 posts reblogged (87%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@knowlesian

@chuplayswithfire

@spinecorset

@pearwaldorf

@the-stray-liger

I tagged 2,046 of my posts in 2022

#our flag means death - 217 posts

#my ofmd meta - 112 posts

#ofmd spoilers - 99 posts

#the silly/genius intersectional muppet extravaganza - 39 posts

#yellowjackets - 24 posts

#blackbonnet - 16 posts

#the good place - 13 posts

#izzy hands - 11 posts

#oluwande boodhari - 8 posts

#abbott elementary - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#my whole life i’ve always been vaguely confused when i’m like ‘the behavior was shitty’ and people go what you have to understand about the

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

call me crazy but i just think a megacorp buying up and owning all the media and then slowly smashing it together until it’s one giant franchise without end is Bad, Actually

5,010 notes - Posted July 10, 2022

#4

stede bonnet is the elle woods of piracy i will die on this hill

8,428 notes - Posted May 11, 2022

#3

honestly i am lowkey obsessed with how terrible we didn’t start the fire is at being a song while also being among the the catchiest songs ever 

this is a song that includes a man screaming CHILDREN OF THALIDOMIDE and then the next lyric is buddy holly, ben hur / space monkey, mafia

it is just one man, listing historical events more or less in order with no context or end and then layering in a chorus so catchy you will BEG YOUR BRAIN to stop thinking about it

i just appreciate that level of aimless, technically skilled chaos for some reason

eta i know why he wrote it oh god please stop telling me, just because billy joel lived through these events doesn’t make them not historical events and i like the song you don’t have to defend it to me, billy joel even agrees, CHILL

31,215 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

#2

not to be an old cranky leftist but going forward i think those of us who live in the us need to remember a protest is not a group powerwalk to register polite disapproval with those in power

a protest is an implied threat. a protest says there are a lot of us, and we do not like what you’re doing. we are giving you a chance to course correct before we take things to the next level.

if there’s no shared commitment to the potential of moving to that next level: a protest is useless and essentially just public performance art.

43,490 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

“why do i believe this” and “who benefits from me believing it” are the first steps to decolonization and we should all be doing this more

63,081 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[galarian-weezing-on-prep]

so many dudes base their self-worth around their utilitarian function and will not examine that

speaking as a blue collar bitch who was raised rural and still mostly pals around with farmers and tradesmen, that’s like our whole sense of identity. what is harry for? harry is for plowing the fields and fixing the tractors. he bonds with his buddies over a beer chatting about whether john deere is still the best going. he does his function, and if he performs it well, he earns community. if he doesn’t, he understands that other men won’t appreciate him, women won’t desire him, and his kids won’t love him

the average man is not urban, not well educated, and is never going to therapy. he lives an insular and fairly simple life. this is a hard pill for people who are terminally academic to swallow

you wanna fix these guys? encourage them to join clubs that also serve a community purpose. get them to enquire with the freemasons (I say with legitimate seriousness), get them to go back to church or whatever the faith institution of their background is (needing leftists to put aside fears that doing so will make them drift further right— focus on triage here), encourage them to volunteer with meals on wheels, join their local legion, or a service organization like the lions club or the optimists, like there are several many options here

men are raised to feel like we’re worthless until someone needs us, and that’s just how it is. you can spend time trying to fix society and overthrow oppressive structures of systemic injustice, but in the meantime the majority of men are not paying attention to that and they wouldn’t feel smart enough to engage with it even if they did. again i’m talking about like the average man here, not well-educated higher-class metropolitan men. they’re a whole other problem, and there are already hour long youtube essays on how to fix them lol

the “male loneliness epidemic” is funny as a concept until it has real impact on the rise of fascism, and i’m afraid that boys will just keep being born lol. rage against men is warranted and should be expressed, and i am not suggesting anyone needs to be nice to dudes in order to get us acting right. what i’m saying is that most men are never going to have time to critically examine why they think and behave as they do— they just need to feel needed. funnel them into a social club which aids their community

[entomologybugsme]

I just ate a sandwich and wanted to apologize for being a hater. Admittedly, I was feeling aggressive.

I’ve been around a lot of fake ass commies recently, and I’m not sure if they’re picking up on what I mean by “how’s your neighbor feel about all this” and they proudly admit they don’t know their neighbor’s name. I seriously don’t care if you don’t read theory, or know only about leftist policies thru memes… like whatever. It’s fine. But can you not parade about like some kinda woke bimbo when you’re not?

Also, why is it always the tankies? I understand most leftist bs is essentially an academic discussion you have with your buddies at 3am when you’ve been up for too long. Very few of us put our ideals into praxis… But the audacity to proudly tell me all about putting your whole pussy into the rights of certain ppl, while you’re doing drugs harvested thru child labor is just tone deaf. It makes me wanna do something drastic.

Idk. Y’all can talk shit on anarchists all day long, but at least a lot of them are out there wreaking havoc and dedicating time to community projects 🤷‍♀️