#citizen responsibility

[wasabi-gumdrop]

Kabru has a secret admirer in the castle!

[communistkenobi]

The deeply moralist tone that a lot of discussions about media representation take on here are primarily neoliberal before they are anything else. Like the shouting matches people get into about “purity culture” “pro/anti” etc nonsense (even if I think it’s true that some people have a deeply christian worldview about what art ought to say and represent about the world) are downstream of the basic neoliberal assumption that we can and must educate the public by being consumers in a market. “Bad representation” is often framed as a writer’s/developer’s/director’s/etc’s failure to properly educate their audience, or to educate them the wrong way with bad information about the world (which will compel their audience to act, behave, internalise or otherwise believe these bad representations about some social issue). Likewise, to “consume” or give money to a piece of media with Bad Representation is to legitimate and make stronger these bad representations in the world, an act which will cause more people to believe or internalise bad things about themselves or other people. And at the heart of both of those claims is, again, the assumption that mass public education should be undertaken by artists in a private market, who are responsible for creating moral fables and political allegories that they will instil in their audiences by selling it to them. These conversations often become pure nonsense if you don’t accept that the moral and political education of the world should be directed by like, studio executives or tv actors or authors on twitter. There is no horizon of possibility being imagined beyond purchasing, as an individual consumer in a market, your way into good beliefs about the world, instilled in you by Media Product 

[geniemillies]

i will never be convinced on rhysand the better high lord when tamlin opened his court to refugees during amarantha's reign, began celebrating festivities that didn't belong to spring just so they'd feel at home, played for them too with his silly fiddle omg, refused to send his people beyond the wall until he was desperate, felt them die because their bond as subject and high lord was just too great (sarah's words not mine), even buried a lesser fae in his court after he was brutalized by amarantha, dug the ground with his haaaands, said lesser fae wasn't even his subject but he offered him peace and company during his death anyway. then there's mister change takes time over here, has his people living in harsh conditions in camps, under a mountain where they cannot leave because they're more weapons than people. so if you were born anywhere in his court that's not velaris sucks to suck i guess.

don't even get me started on his family being in charge while he was gone for 50 yrs because their circus troupe didn't do squat either. cassian is a privileged boy who has lost all emotional connection to his own people. idk what azriel does besides do a job he doesn't even want to do and mope around i guess. morrigan hates her people, morrigan 'i'm the exception, everybody evil except for me and i will make no effort to change anything bc im too pretty for that'. amren. amren wtf even is she doing in the night court. not even from the lands and she's already named second in command, that's all i have to know about the high lord. what is she commanding? *in damian's voice* she doesn't even go here!!!

tamlin did more for spring and people from other courts in those fifty years than the ic will ever consider doing for the night court. morrigan couldn't lift a pinkie, if you mention doing anything for hewn city she'd start whining throwing up waa waa waa, grown ass woman. cassian kisses the dirt rhysand steps on, if he says bark he out here 🐕. amren is just there for shits and giggles. azriel.

so if anyone sat on their asses it's rhysand and his ragtag group of powerful people who don't do shit with it. illyrians still suffer in the camps, hewn city still trapped in a mountain where abuse is the norm. and they aaaalll stiiill haaaate youuur aaaasss 💥💥💥💥💥

[rotzaprachim]

that “you survived four years of trump” video that’s going around like idk what to tell you but many people did not. many people did not do this

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

As of December 2023, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has received 59 allegations that Donald Trump or his committees violated the Federal Election Campaign Act. In 29 of those cases, nonpartisan staff in the FEC’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) recommended the FEC investigate Trump. Yet not once has a Republican FEC commissioner voted to approve any such investigation or enforcement of the law against Trump.

Democratic Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub pointed this out in her December 5, 2023 statement of reasons after the FEC once again failed to garner the votes to enforce the law against Trump after he allegedly violated the law by illegally soliciting or directing money to a pro-Trump super PAC that spent millions on ads opposing Joe Biden in 2020.

Because at least four of the six FEC Commissioners need to approve any FEC investigation, and because only three of those seats can be filled by Democrats, Republicans hold a veto over the agency’s enforcement and have repeatedly used it to shoot down any recommended enforcement of campaign finance law against Trump—and thus successfully shielded him from accountability over and over. Instead of fostering bipartisanship, the split FEC has often become gridlocked and, in cases involving Trump, its ability to pursue action is constrained by the members of one party.

The FEC’s enabling statute, the Federal Election Campaign Act, specifically subjects the Commission’s non-enforcement to review to prevent it from blocking meritorious enforcement. In June 2018, however, two Republican-appointed judges of the D.C. Circuit—including now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh—largely gutted that rule, giving commissioners the authority to block enforcement of the law without judicial review if the commissioners claimed that they did so as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion or under Heckler v. Chaney.

So, in 21 of the 29 cases where the FEC received recommendations to enforce the law against Trump, Republican commissioners justified non-enforcement by invoking prudential or discretionary factors in attempts to circumvent review.

When dismissing the recommendations to investigate Trump—and to kill further inquiries into his actions—the Republican commissioners have at times claimed that the FEC should not take any action because “proceeding further would not be an appropriate use of Commission resources” or that the resources would be “best spent elsewhere.” Trump has even falsely declared that the FEC “dropped” one of its investigations into him “because they found no evidence of problems.” As Commissioner Weintraub wrote in a statement of reasons in November 2023, “the data is clear: At the FEC, Mr. Trump is in a category by himself.”

Unless courts restore their check on partisan vetoes on enforcement, the commissioners will continue to fail to enforce federal campaign finance law against the powerful figures they are trying to protect.

[musical-chick-13]

This is the only thing I'm going to say about the election until it's over:

Anyone who did not vote for Harris or who attempted to dissuade people from voting for Harris, you are indirectly responsible for whatever shit Donald Trump does if he gets elected. That blood is primarily on his hands, yes. But it is also on yours. I hope you can live with that because I sure as hell wouldn't be able to.

[dykedvonte]

I think acting like Jimmy’s struggles on Earth were like legal or related to being a criminal are so odd. Not in a bad way but just odd.

Like don’t get me wrong, I personally believe he’s had a run in with the law but I feel like it’d be minor, not even something that would get him a record. It could’ve, but it was dropped, not worth the time to pursue someone that down on their luck, probably not a dime to his name.

He’s a bad guy don’t get me wrong but it’s seems like his issues were with not being well-adjusted? In the whole sense, he’s snarky and unnecessary rude. He’s quick to anger and says things to pit people against each other. He likely doesn’t have many friends and we know he’s not financially well. I think tacking on bad traits diminishes the fact of what he did. Trying to fit him to that obviously evil arch type is a little bland to what he actually is. He’s normal enough to be a minor blip on the radar and that’s how he gets away with what he does.

Jimmy is ultimately scared of being in trouble. He gets into it but panics. He hates being confronted and he just doesn’t do things were he knows or perceives a bad outcome will happen to him.

[dunmeshistash]

Semi-related to Thistle talk but it's interesting to compare him with Yaad's generation, because they too are stuck in a perpetual adolescence while still having to carry out adult responsibilities. Given Yaad's entire arc and the apparent ease at which the citizens have worked for centuries on end, one very optimistic take might interpret this as them developing more maturity than Thistle… But then it's pointed out that they're doing all of this because routine is the only thing keeping them sane anymore, and even then they still struggle to find meaning and joy in things other people take for granted, like food. So to other people what looks like maturity is actually repression or apathy for the sake of survival.

And while their situation is definitely not the same as Thistle being taken away from his culture and raised entirely by tallmen, the Golden Country citizens are also disconnected from where they came from and what they "should" be - the previous generations that had a frame of reference for the outside world and a normal lifespan are now gone. That's how we end up with scenes like Chilchuck being unnerved by the brewer that looks like a teen but casually mentions running their own business for 600+ years. They and Thistle all have that dissonance of looking young but having taken on too many duties, much too early, for much too long.

I hadn't thought much about how young the golden kingdom people are I just assumed they were adults but they DO look younger than what we would consider adults.

I theorized on another post that they might all be 16 (but I also say I think they're older there, now I'm not so sure) because that's the age of maturity for Tallmen.

Age of maturity usually means that's when you're considered an "adult" socially (as in now you have adult responsibilities and is expected to carry your own) that's why I think Thistle hasn't reached that yet, its what would thematically fit him the most as a kid with adult responsibilities (wouldn't make sense if he was already the age that's expected to take on these responsibilities)

The golden kingdom citizens don't really feel like they have a stunted growth like thistle to me.... I don't know how to explain how I feel but... it's like they have stunted experiences instead? They don't know what really is like to be alive, they are just going about their lives in a clockwork manner trying not to think about it and missing out on how it feels to live (exemplified by how they don't eat).

What made me feel like that the most is that when Yaad is in Delgal's body it doesn't feel like a teen trapped in an old man's body, it feels like an old man with finally a body that matches? To me the golden kingdom citizens feel more like someone forever trapped in a body much younger than their minds?

That's just my interpretation tho! I like your interpretation too, it's making me think about it more, so I might end up changing my mind. Some of them really do act like kids/teens like the girls asking Marcille to do a fashion show for them, that was very cute, they probably haven't gotten to play in a while.

[incorrectinfinity]

I saw someone say that the Gun Goddess would be akin to this America's 9/11 and I simultaneously do and do not agree with this take.

It isn't 9/11 because it is so much worse.

When the bullet was shot it was not just shot directly to Japan, it was shout through the US.

This means that possible hundreds of thousands to millions of people could've died. It is so much worse than 9/11, it's an international tragedy unlike anything else.

Also I just wanna mention this here but...

This panel.

I presume that this is the, uh, "shell" from the bullet fired from the God Goddess' shot. It's a trigger finger.

Is this her ammunition? How much does one bullet aquate to in fingers? HOW FUCKED IS POCHITA????

[pjharvey-moved]

like in addition to ushering it an absolute nightmare world for lgbt people, especially trans people, and anyone who can get pregnant, especially black women, and like countless other things a vote for biden is a vote against the worst possible outcome for the climate imaginable. you can't be a single issue voter. we don't live in a single issue society.

[enobariasdistrict2]

one of the many things to love about katniss is that she's not spiteful, or revenge minded, no matter how many reasons society and her circumstances give her to be, and always has empathy for others.

and this extends to people she doesn't have much emotional connection to. for as much as she regarded the careers as the capitol's well trained lapdogs, she killed cato out of mercy rather than revenge. she acknowledged that cato and clove could have survived if her and peeta hadn't, that someone like marvel who murdered her ally (a twelve year old, the most innocent and vulnerable person in the arena and who katniss saw as a sister) might have had a life to go back to, a home with family members waiting for his return. she felt guilty during her interactions with gloss and cashmere because she killed children from their district that they might have mentored. katniss explicitly said she did not like enobaria as a person, but didn't want to exclude her from the protection deal with coin.

katniss also has a kind view of people that, as cinna himself said, she should have despised. the capitol citizens are vapid and privileged and watch children like her die for their entertainment every year. yet katniss still forges a relationship with cinna and is able to be vulnerable and share her private stories and treasured memories with him acting as the capitol audience. and while she sees her prep team as ignorant and childish pets, she does have affection for them and objected to them being tortured in district thirteen. even though effie literally comes to her district representing the most evil aspect of the capitol and every year sends two children from her home to die, katniss still sees her redeeming characteristics, bonds with effie, and makes an effort to spare her from the rebels.

no matter who the person is or what they might have done to her/her loved ones, katniss recognizes humanity in everyone and attempts to limit the suffering of others when possible, regardless of her personal opinion about them.

[verygoodestboy]

this isn’t a fully formed thought at the moment but if you say you “hate all americans and american things, EXCEPT minorities” you’re tokenizing us (minorities). we’re still americans, we still do all the things you hate like having regional cultures that differ across states, and eating burgers, and not knowing everything that’s going on in the rest of the world.

the international miku trend is fun and silly and a way for people to show off things they like about the place that they’re from! its a cute celebration of the full diversity of the world! it’s political only in the ways that all things are political because we live in a global society, but by and large, these drawings aren’t political action.

you refusing to enjoy or engage with white american mikus from florida or san diego, and actively calling their existence a drain on the art trend exclusively BECAUSE they’re american, while saying you “love Black miku only🥰” isn’t making you a Good Person. and you certainly aren’t winning any Black people brownie points.

i guess what i’m saying is stop using non white and minority americans to justify the hatred for the american government you keep deflecting onto white americans. not because white americans have “never done anything wrong uwu” but because they’re people like you are and people are not wholly good or wholly bad and discounting an entire group of people out of hand as BadTM is, at the very least, extremely unproductive

[captorations]

my girlfriend is playing runescape which unlocked a bunch of buried memories from when i played it like two decades ago. most strongly i remembered being confused by the "goblin mail" because i couldn't wear it so it must be the other kind of mail. but i also couldn't find anywhere to deliver it. this was highly distressing at the time

[king-of-the-birds]

Paul and Ringo • by Mary McCartney [2023]

[wonderfull-star]

Everyone talks about Sans making mom jokes but no one talks about Alphys…

In this case, she loves mom(and dad) jokes even more than Sans does.

Sans-jokes about mom

Alphys-jokes about dad(but even more sus)

[stargirlfeyre]

Feyre is not wholly responsible for the downfall of the Spring Court. All she did was set up situations where Tamlin had to choose to do the right thing and be a good leader (example: the whole guard situation) but he didn’t. She never directly did anything that damaged the court. The downfall of the SC was due to Tamlin allowing himself to be manipulated and pressured by Ianthe. It was also due to him thinking he could outsmart Hybern which led him to invite them into his home. They were in the woods poisoning his fiancé and bestfriend while he was thinking he was doing such a good job as double agent.

It all boils down to him being a failure for a ruler with a weak mindset.