#cohesive being used very liberally

[radioves]

⚔️

another technodragon :]

i always thought it was funny that the dragon fight, such an obscure part of smp earth lore, managed to worm its way into my lizard brain for no good reason other than Funny Dragon

sometimes i wonder if he ever saw my other technodragon pieces. i wonder if he liked them. or maybe he didn’t

idk i’m not a fuckin. psychic

[id : a digital drawing of technodragon. technodragon is a large, sinewy dragon with a long body. he is mainly pink, with a mottled darker pink back and lighter pink underbelly. he has twisted horns that sprout from his brows, fading from dark pink to light grey towards the tips. there is another set of smaller horns between the main set, along with spikes trailing down his back, down to his tail. he has spikes along his jaw, ending in another set of small horns just under the main set. his eyes are red, with black scleras and gold pupils, and he has large dark pink wings with a lighter ventral side. he as a glowing halo around his horns, along with two additional sets of feathered wings, pale white and tipped with gold. his claws and the edges of his horn segments are painted with a similar gold. he is posed to the left, neck twisted around to face something offscreen, mouth curled into a small smile. his body is curved as if in mid-flight, his main wings curled slightly. the first feathered wing is splayed out, while the second is bent similarly to his main wings. his back legs are held up, while one of his front talons is stretched out, fingers splayed, the other one held up with curled fingers. the background is a simple shade of white, a soft, radiant glow illuminating the image from the top right. end id]

[spaghettioverdose]

people are discovering I'm an evil tankie lmao

anyways the second one is particularly dumb. you speak of the concept of ml transfems like they're this wacky sort of weird rare position that no one really has. are you aware how many popular posters on this site are transfem MLs or transfem ML adjacent? moreover, based on what do you know that MLs are the most transphobic people on the left? like not talking about a subreddit or a discord server, or even CPGB. I'm talking about the movement as a whole. and if there is, a trend where marxism-leninism is especially transphobic (hint: there is not) is that due to the ideology itself being inherently transphobic or is it the people living in particular material conditions that lead to them holding out reactionary ideas?

I could bring up a million arguments to refute this like the incredibly progressive new family code in Cuba, or East Germany's progressive LGBT policies, or how people were already lamenting how many rights they were going to lose from the reunification, or the general trend of modern socialist states to make gains when it comes to LGBT rights and protections, but this has been brought up a million times and you are all still stupid.

Tell me anon, who am I, as a transfem, supposed to side with politically? Liberals who have all shown to be willing to throw us under the bus in record speeds if they believe it might get them three more votes? Anarchists who are utterly incapable of forming any kind of cohesive movement, incabable of holding powe for longer than 2 years, and incapable of organising the economy in any that helps anyone? Am I meant to become a trotskyite or a leftcom so I can whinge about stalinism all day and never do anything useful? What ideology should I fucking be anon? I've was a liberal and I was an anarchist and they both were shit. And believe it or not, anon, anarchists aren't as inherently good to transfems as you think either.

But besides even all this, you deeply misunderstand why I'm even an ML. I believe that marxism-leninism provides a scientific lens through which economy and politics can be analysed to produce analysis with actual predictive power. This is a quality that is very much absent from every non-marxist ideology. Every newer liberal economist that suddenly discovers a basic function of capitalist economy and who is then lauded as a genius, has been playing catch-up with Marx and they're still very far behind. Keynes discovered the concept of "in an economy that runs on commodities being bought, when no one has money to buy said commodities, the economy collapses" is something that scientific communists knew for since the later half of the 1800s. Marxism-leninism is the only form of leftwing ideology that has been effective. Marxism-leninism, when applied, has almost universally raised the standards of living, industrialisation, life expectancy and women's rights. I'm not an ML because I think of ideologies as sports teams, cliques, or fun little labels to add to myself.

[determinate-negation]

do you think the student encampments are too celebratory? not radical enough? this is a criticism i saw about them inviting politicians and celebrities, not fighting back enough etc. (compare to student movements in the global south incl palestine) also saw criticism of them handing out plan b for some reason ("harm reduction") which is viewed as disrespectful

first of all, theres going to be a lot of disparity between how different encampments are organizing things so it is hard to talk about it as a cohesive singular thing. groups like students for justice for palestine and jewish voice for peace and other similar orgs differ a lot by campus. its easy to find both very liberal or very radical chapters of sjp at different colleges. as far as i know, columbia sjp didnt invite politicians and celebrities, they just showed up. leadership put a statement out on their instagram about opportunists. columbia sjp in particular is pretty militant and have been doing this for a while, so id hope they know what theyre doing and it seems like they do. my main criticism is that some other organizers seem to be pretty inexperienced and are agreeing to minor concessions that they will never even get. like brown agreed to take down their encampment for a future vote on divestment. im 99.9% sure that vote will not pass. i think this is a lot more important than the emotional affect of the people involved (too celebratory whatever that means) but again, a lot of people might not have ever been involved a divestment campaign before and dont know what tricks administrations like to use. so sure theyre not as radical they need to be. but that comes with experience. i was in sjp and jvp in undergrad when it was just a select group of us focusing on palestine and israeli colonialism, now its being discussed much more broadly and new people are becoming involved in the struggle

i dont really see why giving out plan b is an issue or implies that people are having sex there or something. theyre college students and most encampments ive seen had rules of conduct including no sex lol. people just like to be mad online

also, i dont think most online discoursers really think about these things as part of a larger process of radicalizing people through experience, building consciousness, creating the conditions for something further down the road. student activism is already inherently limited. when i think about how similiar occupations were organized during the george floyd protests, this is already much better. a lot of social revolts dont succeed but give people experience and impact consciousness and what people see as possible. so of course theres plenty to criticize. theres plenty to criticize about the american left in general

[lady-raziel]

Do you also find it annoying how people will trash talk the USA by using statistics for the whole country instead of looking at them by state?

Like, for example, how they’ll claim we have terrible standards for paid maternity leave, but they’ll use the baseline for it and completely ignore the fact that paid maternity leave is different in each state.

Yeah. I think it’s difficult for people from other countries, especially smaller countries who are geographically small and overall more culturally cohesive, to grapple with the idea that America as a whole is a very challenging country to generalize. Like, yes, ok. I work at a government agency that looks at federal level statistics— the work my coworkers are required to do by statute requires them to look only at federal level data and draw conclusions based on that data. With large scale statistical analysis, you CAN say “based on census data of everybody, the AVERAGE demographics are x, y, and z and the AVERAGE income is x, the AVERAGE person pays this much in taxes, etc.” And those sorts of conclusions are valuable in certain senses and in certain situations.

However, making generalizations like that for a country of 333 million people is really only a very narrow view of the whole picture. People have said before that it’s more like America is actually 50 small countries in a trenchcoat, and honestly that’s not far off! It is pretty difficult to say “all Americans are x” when conditions in Alabama and Colorado can be literal opposite ends of the spectrum.

Even the “red state” and “blue state” generalizations can be pretty misleading— take Colorado again, for example. Colorado is widely considered a “blue/liberal state” because of the large high-population density progressive cities on the front range of the Rocky Mountains where most of the residents of the state are. However, this discounts the fact that in the rest of the rural areas of the state, especially the eastern half bordering Kansas, attitudes and policies are much more conservative.

Here’s a map that might be illustrative:

These are Colorado’s 8 congressional districts. Congressional districts are required to have approximately equal levels of population—therefore, you have geographically tiny districts in population centers and geographically large districts in rural areas. So the ENTIRE purple portion of District 3? That has the SAME number of people living in it as the tiny district 1 that contains the capitol of Denver. I’ll add another layer— despite Colorado being a “blue state,” that purple district is represented by Lauren Boebert, a notable MAGA conservative. So really, even in Colorado it’s hard to generalize and say “all Coloradans are x” because no they’re not—you have a variety even in the same state.

If you want to get EVEN more in the weeds, you can have wildly different types of demographics even within Congressional districts.

Here’s the map for Colorado’s 6th congressional district, currently represented by Jason Crow, a Democrat.

This district includes the city of Aurora— known for being a highly diverse area that has a high refugee population. You might also know the city of Aurora for being the site of the 2012 theatre shooting as well as being the home of Elijah McClain, a young African-American man murdered by police officers in 2019. So this Congressional district contains a large POC population and is not homogeneous. But this district is also interesting in that it also encompasses the WEALTHIEST CITY IN THE STATE, the 96% white Cherry Hills Village— which, considering Colorado has highly wealthy mountain resort towns like Aspen and Vail, is saying quite a lot. And this city is mere miles away from Aurora, where economic outcomes tend to be very different. Yet they are in the same Congressional district— so even on a local level its hard to make sweeping generalizations about most things and say “this is the one number or set of numbers that represents everything for everyone.”

Now imagine situations like this in every state and every congressional district across America. There is, of course, a place for large statistics, but such wide generalizations especially with context removed really don’t say much of anything unless you’re a data analyst studying something specific. It is hard to say definitively, especially on national data, that all Americans are a certain thing. This isn’t just an American problem with statistics, of course, not all people in any given country or population are going to be the same. Generalizing statistics can be good at a VERY broad overview that represent things worth conducting more specific crosscutting analysis to form more specific conclusions. However, a lot of people tend to view large stats as ways of stereotyping or confirming biases about groups of people in a way that SEEMS scientific or data based. They remove all context or specific crosstabs that actually paint a more accurate, but often messier, picture.

Big clean numbers are nice. But they rarely tell the full story or allow for nuance.

[lago-morpha]

Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency. Liberalism stems from petty-bourgeois selfishness, it places personal interests first and the interests of the revolution second, and this gives rise to ideological, political and organizational liberalism. People who are liberals look upon the principles of Marxism as abstract dogma. They approve of Marxism, but are not prepared to practice it or to practice it in full; they are not prepared to replace their liberalism by Marxism. These people have their Marxism, but they have their liberalism as well--they talk Marxism but practice liberalism; they apply Marxism to others but liberalism to themselves. They keep both kinds of goods in stock and find a use for each. This is how the minds of certain people work. Liberalism is a manifestation of opportunism and conflicts fundamentally with Marxism. It is negative and objectively has the effect of helping the enemy; that is why the enemy welcomes its preservation in our midst. Such being its nature, there should be no place for it in the ranks of the revolution. We must use Marxism, which is positive in spirit, to overcome liberalism, which is negative. A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions, so as to consolidate the collective life of the Party and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses; he should be more concerned about the Party and the masses than about any private person, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a Communist. All loyal, honest, active and upright Communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us, and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.

Combat Liberalism - Mao Zedong (1937)

[kiefbowl]

Are radical feminism and gender critical ideology two separate things?

probably depends on who you ask lol

radical feminism is a movement born out of 1960s western feminism, some people say it's interchangeable with "second-wave" but I've seen others argue those two phrases aren't interchangeable. Radical feminism is anchored on the idea of addressing "the root" of female oppression, and identifies that as male supremacy. This is why radical feminists (among other feminists!) talk about the "axis of sex" - it understands that there is a hierarchy of male over female, and that this is oppressive and wrong. In my experience, you can find this idea throughout feminism...plus it's worth noting that not every feminist text specifically identities what "ideology" it's "meant" to belong to. A good thing to keep in mind.

When it comes to the phrase "gender critical," I personally don't find this phrase all that useful. I've written a couple posts about this, but I'll never find them so I'll try to quickly outline some thoughts here. In my experience, I see the phrase gender critical pretty much exclusively online. I see it used pretty much one of three ways: 1. interchangeable with "radical feminism" 2. describing radical feminism 3. as a name for an ideology. I honestly don't know where this phrase originates from, so if it really does come from a specific era or text or something like that, I'm happy to be corrected, but I have a suspicion that it originated online in loosely "radfem" spaces and has now been accepted as terminology despite no cohesive definition. "Radical feminism" and "gender critical feminism" both have wikipedia pages, and only gender critical feminism immediately references "TERFS" with a HUGE list of sources I find suspicious, despite its short length. The wikipedia page says "Originating as a fringe movement within radical feminism mainly in the United States" up front with three sources, and those sources are published in 2021, 2022, and 2023, (suspicious). I just don't buy it, I think this a misappropriation of casual feminist parlance that took place online while those feminists navigated talking about trans critical ideas in the aughts and 2010's. In any case, I've never considered myself "gender critical" as something specific. I find myself critical of gender in so far as I consider gender part of the system that enforces the sex hierarchy, and I'm critical of, like, being oppressed for being female lol. I just find it a sort of loop-di-loop sort of phrase, and not particularly clarifying to what gender is. I suppose I see the use at least at first to say "critical of gender ideology" as a way to say "critical of ideas of inherent gender identity", but now that it's understood to mean many incorrect things outside the in-group, I don't see how it continues to be useful when discussing outside the in-group. I also don't find the idea of "gender abolition" particularly helpful in many the same ways: gender only exists because of female subordination. I want female liberation, and with that gender will be eliminated. I also think this idea of "gender critical" and "gender abolition" is why radfem tumblr will go in endless circles about very superficial beauty standards as if they're the crux and not the flavor. If we eliminated make-up, it would be nice but it wouldn't do much to address female liberation, imo. That's just one example.

So, if I were to answer the question, and zoom out as far as I could, I would say no they aren't the same thing, but not for the reasons most people would assume.

[transmutationisms]

could you outline in more detail just how each of the siblings are attracted to fascism? i kind of get it for roman and connor but not quite for shiv & kendall

ok so, for roman and connor the connection is pretty clear because they both openly buy into the sort of hierarchical thinking that matsson and mencken bring to the table. connor has his nofap semen retention masculinity thing, and roman basically agrees with logan's dichotomy of masculine strength vs feminine weakness, but identifies himself as being in the weak category and has a sexual fixation on those he perceives as strong and dominant. also both connor and roman have tossed out some haha antisemitism moments, which goes back to their general buy-in to racial thinking and hierarchies. obviously antisemitic violence is a major strategy, tool, and goal for fascist movements. roman and connor both fixate sexually on masculinity, and although connor identifies with it in a way roman does not, they both use this strong / weak, insider / outsider thinking that makes fascism appealing to them.

with shiv i think you have to keep in mind that liberalism is not in any way opposed to fascism. fascism historically is basically an attempted solution to the internal contradictions of liberal democracies; in particular, liberalism is rhetorically egalitarian but in practice hierarchical, exclusionary, and class-divided, because it is capitalist. fascism basically says "that's fine, actually; the hierarchies are natural and biological, so they don't need to be eliminated." this is why shiv is the one to do business with matsson, who shows off his strong masculine body all episode and has a team of strapping young olympians and fulbright scholars. this type of biological-meritocratic appeal is a specific way of naturalising and justifying the class / race / gender hierarchies that liberal capitalism produces and depends on, meaning it's not discontinuous with shiv's liberal ideology at all. (note that her wealth and whiteness allow her to operate within the gender hierarchy, even as the episode shows us the ways in which she's kept from the very innermost masculine socialisation that her brothers have access to). also, her persistently thinking that poor people are dirty is, like, very classic fascist thinking lol.

kendall doesn't really have a cohesive political ideology, but he sure does think capitalism is Cool, Dude. he wants to be, like, a visionary angel investor (wearing lanvins), and he responds to matsson's stupid techno-futurist bullshit. for him fascism has a similar appeal as it does for shiv, because of the capitalism of it all, except kendall doesn't even have to detour through liberalism because he literally doesn't care. in fact, the thing that turns him off matsson's deal is that he wants to run logan's empire himself—so, he's still buying into the hierarchy and logan's concept of dominance, only he's placing himself at the top of it. kendall's not really crusading for any particular political goal because he like.... doesn't think about people besides himself. but what he wants for himself is to be the patriarch-ceo that logan was, thus replicating logan's fascism (but deluding himself into thinking his underlings just Really Like Him, Actually). his ideological vacuousness, combined with his power drive and desire for (retroactive) logan approval, mean he's drawn to fascism as a mode of capitalist governance / corporate management.

i would add that although logan's fascism comes through most directly in roman and kendall (because they don't have their own ideologies), all four sibs are operating within a capitalist political epistemology that logan('s ghost) defines. also, they all have various loganish interpersonal qualities; for example, shiv and connor share that tendency to want to Exert Their Will and Be Right, hence both of them going into politics lol.

i would also add (i'm paraphrasing césaire) that fascism was not 'new' when it arrived in europe in the early 20th century; it was already the modus operandi of colonial governance around the world. what was new was that white europeans started to experience it as directly curbing THEIR freedom. waystar is obviously a different type of empire than the nation-states of the 20th century; namely, it is a corporate entity. however, i think there's still something to be said here about the fact that waystar operates multinationally and engages in certain forms of economic imperialism and foreign political meddling. i would argue that anyone involved in upper managerial positions in the company is at the very least acceding to logics of authoritarianism and fascism in the far reaches of the empire, and more realistically is also okaying it 'domestically' (note that this reverberates all the way down to the level of the roy family unit, as it is an articulation of logan's empire).

[tanadrin]

TBH, in a lot of cases wrt infighting, I think the near group is afraid because of experience with being pushed away from their original goal due to that sort of pressure to self-moderate, where they end up losing because the Moderates won, and I think that's the case with leftists here too.

Like, both in terms of the historical narratives of leftists who "sold out" in the name of realpolitik being the reason why leftists lost, and the visible rage that (at least in their view) following the "vote for the lesser evil" argument is being used to exploit us by a party that has active contempt for leftists that wants to keep us ineffective and trapped with them, if that makes sense?

I think it comes from a deep feeling of helplessness at being electorally trapped the Dems , and I feel like saying "vote against Trump" isn't going to break through to them until folks come up with a genuinely good response as to how they can break out of said trap.

Gotta be clear about terminology here: in the leftist example, the in-group is whatever actual leftist group we're talking about; the near group are people more proximate to them on the ideological spectrum than the far group, but who are definitely not members of the in-group. They are part of the out-group, and thus get treated as opponents. The far group is also part of the out=group, but frequently gets ignored in favor of contests with the near group. Near group and far group were coined as terms to explain why battles between an in-group and out-group often focus heavily on only one subsection of the out-group, even when that subsection in theory might be allies (if not actual members of the in-group) in contests against the other.

I think this fear of losing out to the moderates is very much the in-group perspective, and I think it's wrong. If we're talking about, say, the labor struggles in the US at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the "moderates win" scenario (which is ultimately what happened with the New Deal) is a way better deal for labor than the "reactionaries win" scenario. Was it full-on communism? Of course not. But full-on communists never constituted an effective political majority in the United States, and full-on communism was never in the cards as a result; the choice then, as now, is often between "a moderate--even pretty good--outcome, if we play our cards right" and "demanding metaphysical purity to the point that we are politically irrelevant."

Plenty of organizations are happy to maintain metaphysical purity, and to succumb to political irrelevance--it's a surprisingly durable mode of operation if your goal is survival of the organization above all else. But nominally political organizations exist to pursue political goals, and I'm not in favor of strategies that amount to functionally abandoning those goals, in order to maintain in-group cohesion.

Example: the Democratic party is the way it is--i.e., like most political parties, but even more so--because it is a sprawling and often uneasy coalition--broadly speaking between liberals, progressives, and leftists, but each of course can itself be broken down further. The thing with these sprawling and uneasy coalitions is that they often leave everybody mad, because nobody gets everything they want. But also, they work. They are tatical creatures that exist for tactical reasons: I don't expect anybody to look at the Democratic Party platform and go "Yes, this is the One True Good Ideology." And I expect some people will look at the platform they produce and go, "this isn't enough of what I want to justify me supporting this coalition."

But if somebody's problem isn't that they disagree about tactical goals or tactical methods--if their problem is that they reject coalition fundamentally as compromising their ideology--then I do not believe they sincerely want to achieve anything. Because whether it's by electoralism or direct action or violent revolution or civil war, every political struggle in history requires some form of coalition-building. And the guys that build the bigger coalition usually win!

[sourcreammachine]

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY MANIFESTO 2024 SUMMARY

cw: extreme transphobia

ok story time. after thatcher happened the labour party elected a left-wing leader to try stop her. four labour MPs left the party in protest and formed the SDP. they formed a non-aggression pact with the Liberal Party, and after a couple years voted in favour of merging to form the Liberal Democrats. one of the four founders disagreed with the merger and founded a new party, calling it the SDP again and acting like it was the rightful successor. after a year or two the continuation party had been destroyed at every little election it had tried to fight, and it voted in favour of disbanding. however, a few activists disagreed with the disbanding and founded a new party, calling it the SDP AGAIN and acting like it was the rightful successor. this second continuation, this third SDP is what survives today

when reading about this party thirty years later, i’d found descriptions that they had become ‘economically left-wing but socially right-wing’ and tbh, i took them at their word. i were told they were communitarians, using traditionalist conservative moral frameworks to promote social democratic economics. that description is very, very wrong

this manifesto is deeply fascistic

i was expecting a couple of yikes moments, especially about trans people, and while there is truly an avalanche of transphobia and trans-hostile policy proposals, the fascistic nature is all over the place, especially on migration, hypernationalism and security. they are beyond Likud on some security matters – if the IRA came back under the SDP we’d be living in a hypermilitarised apartheid state before you can say boyfanny

the reason i’m covering this manifesto is because they’re comfortably the sixth largest party in terms of seats contested at 122, narrowly behind the workers’ party (though they have a suite of endorsed independents). i want you to look at this atrocity. i want you to see the number of votes they get in these 122 seats and despair. this is your country, this is your fascism

💷ECONOMY

abolish housing benefits

audit board of private industry to audit the entire public sector every three years

ban the public sector from buying from foreign manufacturers. at all.

stop benefits after six months. councils required to “hire” (force the labour of) six-monthers for random stuff like street sweeping

expand tax incentives for marriage

raise the minimum wage to 2/3 median wage

raise corporation tax to internationally standard levels, but instead rollout freeports and Special Economic Zones

introduce laws discriminating in favour of parents for redundancies, “protecting them” as a protected category in equality legislation

unilateral expansion of fishing. sorry iceland, it looks like we’ll be having another war

🏥PUBLIC SERVICES

renationalise rail, water and energy

require the showing of an ID card to access the NHS and basically any free public service to prevent its use by illegals. immigrants, when given ‘indefinite leave to remain’, STILL won’t get the right to use any service for ten entire years

massive rollout of elite selective schooling

reduce the number of bachelors’ degree places

force over-65s to do community service to pay for their eventual social care

“teaching will reflect Britain’s important contribution to the world in the context of its time. teachers will avoid advocacy of unorthodox or sectarian agendas”

fully nationalise the BBC to seize state control, requiring it to ‘promote national cohesion’

schools to confiscate all phones during the day and “impound” (their word) any found phone for two weeks

ban the NHS using any language other than english or welsh. whoops looks like they forgot to include BSL

the manifesto includes a whiny “charter” on “academic freedom”

mandatory one mile walk every day in schools

require international students to take a strict english test before being offered a place

“public funding of culture, media and sports organisations will be conditional on those organisations respecting the principles of balance and free speech. institutions that fail to do so, by censoring artefacts, promoting sectarian agendas or deterring people from civil discourse, will have funding withdrawn”

rewrite the PSHE curriculum to prioritise “parenting and household management”

🏠HOUSING

“the fundamental aim of national housing policy shall be to ensure that young people seeking to start a family will be able to find a suitable home in which to do so”

create a public company to create 100k new social houses a year

discriminate in favour of the married and veterans for council and social housing

suspend but later reintroduce right to buy with a one-in-one-out clause

ban buy-to-let

👮FORCE

“restore the offence of sedition and actively use this law to pursue those who incite terrorism overtly or covertly, or who act in flagrant support of the UK’s enemies”

abolish the supreme court and transfer its powers to the house of lords, which due to reform will be more politically partisan

leave the UN refugee convention

abolish the human rights act

abolish the european convention on human rights

leave the council of europe

surge defence spending

surge funding for MI5 and the NCA

surge police funding and pursue an aggressive broken windows policy

double all sentences for violent crime, and for any repeat offence

mandatory minimum of ten years after three serious offences

mandatory hard labour for parolees for two years after release

all non-citizen prisoners to be deported and permabanned after release

any legally resident non-citizen to be deported for “any act considered materially hostile to Britain’s social peace”

“prisons will become safe, orderly institutions - whatever it takes”

asphyxiating migration cap of 50k/a, but “agreements between key strategic partners may result in selective exemptions if clearly in the national interest” (ie, we’ll let in anglophones, but probably not anglophones from africa or asia or the caribbean )

“promote a generation-long cessation of mass migration”

cease all aid for ukraine

🌱CLIMATE ?

“overrwhelming focus on climate ‘catastrophe’ is fostering anxiety and despair in children. from early years to key stage 3, all children will learn about British wildlife. the Natural History GCSE will [teach] the inspiring achievements of Britain’s pioneering naturalists”

abandon net zero

re-legalise fracking and expand oil and gas

pursue energy autarky where the country always has 12 months’ supply of fossil fuels

prohibit the rewilding of farmland

create no new low emissions zones

the fishing industry to oversee existing marine protection areas and any proposal for any new ones

🗳️DEMOCRACY

english parliament for english people

explicitly codify the fact that scotland can’t leave

proportional representation (specifically STV) for the commons

evict the hereditary lords and bishops but keep the appointees, capped at 400 with 15 year terms and appointed by committee

increase the powers of parish councils

🏳️‍⚧️REACTIONARY AGENDA, other than everything else

strip trans people of discrimination protections in both the equality and gender recognition acts to protect “sex-baesd rigths”

catastrophic reduction in NHS funding for trans healthcare, remaining funds to be for “psychological intervention” (state-mandated conversion therapy)

mandatory profiling of all trans people for all public data for all purposes by keeping separate sex and gender categories across the ENTIRE public sector

ban ALL pharmacological care for trans minors

ban trans women using women’s shelters

ban trans participation in sports competition

force trans prisoners to be incarcerated at the prison for the opposite sex

all public sector DEI to be stopped, so goes the policy

introduce a bad internet bill, require id for porn sites, require all tech companies to “promote free speech”

mandatory spyware on all devices: “a digital border application will be created to detect digital content which is malignantly pornographic, supportive of terrorism or otherwise contrary to law. all internet service providers operating in the UK will be required to utilise this scanning software and take steps to block undesirable content.” all smartphones “sold to or used by” an under-16 to have mandatory age restrictions

[oratoful]

did someone say hatoful oc

This is Ulrich Althaus! A 22 year old Hawk Party member who primarily does internal operations regarding programming and technology in general. Me and my friend actually have an entire AU dedicated to expanding on the tensions between the Hawk and Dove party and the internal corruption of the Dove party. I'd adore infodumping about it once we have it more wrapped up and cohesive.

Spoiler stuff regarding general hatoful world-lore and things of the like. I wanna be safe soOOOOOOOOOO

Ulrich became a hawk operative when he was around 13 years of age. Having an interest in tech from a young age, he was placed in advanced courses within his school. Very cool and good, I know. His father was a liaison within Europe and was killed by the Human Liberation Force due to a miscommunication between parties. As a result, Ulrich learns to despise humans. He's visited by a hawk researcher (Raphael, who I will make a post about) who offers him a position within their junior programming division. He claims there are benefits and that Ulrich could do with not hauling himself in his and his mother's home due to his father's death. His mother, begrudgingly, accepts the offer, realizing that not only will the facility offer him higher education for his intelligence, but it will actively watch over him.

Unbeknownst to her, of course, Ulrich becomes ensnared in Hawk activities. He's an overly prideful man who feels the need to avenge his father's name/live up to his family's expectations. Of course, he doesn't realize that in this universe, his father would absolutely loathe what he's done. He would hate the man his son has become. He’s completely tarnishing the efforts faust made toward human and bird peace in an attempt to bring a vengeance his father would’ve never wanted.

Hatoful Ulrich seeks to make it known that he doesn't cut corners and that he wants to get back at humans for their assumed atrocities (he has a biased viewpoint bc those are fun). I imagine he's absolutely made spyware with the sole purpose of information gauging and getting data for the hawk party. He covers his tracks pretty well while also leaving annoying damage for the doves to fix.

As a little fun side thing, I like to imagine the Programming and Technical department he works for is a subsidiary for SecOps. They bleed into each other very often. As a result, this rude little man butts heads with Tohri SO OFTEN before Tohri ends up pursuing other work. (in mine and nick's au he stays in the lab for longer)

Would love to get more into him sometime he's so in depth UGHHH.

for some fun facts with him:

He uses a mobility aid! He's my cane rep

He hates being helped. It makes him feel like he's being looked down on. One of my other researchers often hovers over him due to how often he tries to push his physical limitations. Ulrich has flogged him. Twice.

autistic. He's so crude/judgmental in speech. He also doesn't care to drop formality and say when he doesn't like someone.

He often works from home and doesn't enjoy coming into the lab for work.

Ulrich is genuinely painfully vindictive and efficient though. I feel like if he had the motivation to back something like the hawk party, he'd leave destruction in his wake. I also think that motherfucker would tamper with machinery to make it fail on researchers he doesn't like

He trips people with his tail if they make him angry enough. He's a little PRICK

speaking of little he actually stands smaller than most other peafowl

Him and Tohri have a WEIRD relationship. They're the best of friends one day and they're trying to kill each other the next day. It's impossible to tell what they actually feel about each other.

[captmickey]

Noticing the “Open” sign on your shop, I mosey in to talk.

- Favourite act of Three Adventurers?

- The secrets to bear in mind when mapping out a comic page?

- Creativity is most fun when ________.

- Share a behind the scenes moment from your art/writing. (I blank out if asked questions like this, but maybe one will come to mind while answering another question?)

- If you were a fan creating a favourite quotes page from your works, what would be some of the quotes you’d collect?

-How far can Link’s ears toggle? What is the range of those things?

(Pick and choose any of the above!)

1 - Favourite act of Three Adventurers? Ooooh... hmm, I feel like it'll change as I go further down the line, but so far it's a tie between acts 5 and 7. Five because it forced me to get creative with how to distinguish the boys when they're one person (and I'm sorry, but I love Effie so much and I miss her as well as Giggle). Seven because I really did try to do better with pacing, I got to explore more with Guybrush within 3adv, how all of ya'll reacted towards Mako (and me clapping my hands like a seal with each week), and because I FINALLY got to do the cool action shot I've been dying to do since I started 3adv- which was Graham shooting the ice arrow as he's shot out of the water.

2 - The secrets to bear in mind when mapping out a comic page? DO. NOT. CLUTTER. LESS IS MORE. I have to scream that at myself and then go "Can this panel, if it's not working for the page, be pushed to the next page? Does it add anything? Can it be scrapped? Can a different panel be scrapped or even merged?" and go from there. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I try to make my panels cohesive and not a jumble of too many panels. Also reeeeeeeally helps to have the speech bubbles easy to follow and lead the eye. I read it somewhere once and it kinda lived in my head ever since.

3 - Creativity is most fun when ________. When you do it for yourself. I know it's more appealing and even rewarding when others respond or give feedback (I'd be a liar if I didn't admit of being guilty of wanting it), but it's super important and critical and even liberating when you create things for yourself first. I read somewhere, I think it was Alex Hirsch or Rebecca Sugar (or both and I'm combining the two) how when they made their shows, they did it as a something that they wanted to see and refused to budge for the fans, so I take that to heart when I make things. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, it might even anger or frustrate or have them throw a fit how it's not what they want... but when I'm making things for myself, it becomes way more fun and I don't feel so pressured. I even might surprise myself with what I'm able to pull off and that, as a creator, is so much fun.

4 - Share a behind the scenes moment from your art/writing. I have too many, ha ha. But one in particular was how I recently broke out of a writer's block of sorts of Act 8 of 3adv. Mainly I was on my way to work and honestly it was just.... a very ridiculous Looney Tunes-esqe kind of scenario with Guybrush that made me burst out loud in the car that I had to share with my sister (she is the only one that knows the entire spoiler for all of 3adv and tragically the one I bombard for feedback) and she, bless her so much, slam-dunked with an even dumber idea that made us both laugh super hard and things began to click so perfectly that I got to writing again after um... actively avoiding it. So when the act drops, and you see a joke that seems almost TOO cartoonish.... I apologize in advance.

5 - If you were a fan creating a favourite quotes page from your works, what would be some of the quotes you’d collect? You're really making me go through my works aren't ya? Ha ha, lets see.... off the top of my head that is posted and not, y'know, a WIP. From Act 7: The pirate’s jaw tightened slightly before he gave a smile that dripped with venomous resentment. “I did, actually. In fact, I’d say I thought it rather well considering you were more focused on beating me up both physically AND emotionally! Wow, who’d a thought a simple pirate such as myself could do such a thing!”  From Perspective: Number Two slammed the final nail in the coffin as Number One bursted out laughing, unable to contain himself. Did that boy really bring that in and thought it was a ticket? Who was the trickster that convinced him it was one?! The other guards laughed alongside him, but he simply had to leave the Theater out of fear that he would appear to be more unprofessional than he already was, laughing the whole way out.

From This Can Be Explained: “Okay, so don’t freak out–”

“Guybrush, there’s a dead body on the floor! How can I not freak out?!” Link shouted. From Sea of Adventurers: “Although… you two made it very clear that the seas doesn’t run in your veins.”

“How so?” Graham asked, sounding somewhat insulted, even though it was the truth.

“You two screamed the entire journey from where you initially washed up to this town when you witnessed the kraken and sharks.” The Pirate Lord explained. “You also crashed your ship repeatedly into the deck, anchored in the wrong place and at one point managed to set it on fire.”

There are more quote that I'm blanking out on... but I am curious what ya'lls favorite quotes are.

6 - How far can Link’s ears toggle? What is the range of those things? Pretty expressive! But mostly it goes up and down, not back and forward. I think I showed its range?

But yeah, it's rarely super high up but it does perk up when extremely happy, twitches when he hears noises and droops when annoyed, scared or bummed. But by default his ears is like.... juuuuuuust partially up, always listening. I ah........... realized it became canon when it happened in Breath of the Wild. So of course I made it canon in 3adv.

[thoughtportal]

An altar honoring Aaron’s life, at a vigil his friends held in remembrance of him on February 27.

As Aaron recounted to his comrades in a mutual aid group in San Antonio, he grew up in a very Christian conservative white enclave in Cape Cod. He was 18 years old when Donald Trump was elected; he joined the Air Force in 2019. While in the Air Force, he arrived at anarchist politics through a process of self-education.

In February 2023, Aaron prepared a document aimed at helping this group to become more cohesive. As another participant in the group told us, “Aaron sought to formalize and mature some of our organizing methods, and he felt that having deep and open discussion was a crucial first step for building long-term trust. He created a list of questions as a way for our ragtag group of lefties doing mutual aid to start a conversation with each other.”

In his own answers to these questions, Aaron states:

I am an anarchist, which means I believe in the abolition of all hierarchical power structures, especially capitalism and the state… I view the work we do as fighting back in the class war which the capitalist class wages on the rest of humanity. This also informs the way in which I want to organize, as I believe that any hierarchical power structure is bound to reproduce class dynamics and oppression. Thus, I want to engage in egalitarian forms of organizing that produce horizontal power structures based on mutual aid and solidarity, which are capable of liberating humans… I favor consensus-based decision-making over “democratic” or voting-based governance.

In the same document, Aaron explained why he was committed to doing mutual aid work in solidarity with the unhoused:

I’ve always been bothered by the reality of homelessness, even back when I was growing up in a conservative community. I have come to believe in the importance of solidarity politics and I view the enforcement of homelessness as a major front in the class war which must be challenged for all our sakes. I view helping my houseless neighbors as a moral obligation, a matter of social justice, and a matter of good politics. If I don’t stand with those more marginalized than me today then who will be left to stand with me tomorrow. I view enforced homelessness as a societal failing and a crime against humanity. I believe that no one deserves to be deprived of basic human necessities. I believe that homelessness as an involuntary condition must be abolished.

In the following three accounts, Aaron’s friends share their memories of who he was and how his life touched their lives.

Aaron and friends watching a solar eclipse.

“Aaron Will Live Forever”

Lupe

Aaron will live forever. I know this, because everyone who was loved by Aaron will carry a bit of him in their soul, and everyone who witnessed his sacrifice will carry him in their minds. Aaron cherished life. He knew that in giving up his own, he could give the people of Palestine a chance to keep theirs. Aaron has permanently changed the fabric of your being. You know this because for the rest of your life, you will wrestle with the thought of what you will sacrifice for the liberation of others.

Aaron Bushnell.

“He Was Someone We Really Needed”

T Bear

It seems a lot of people just saw Aaron as someone in the military. Online lefties and liberal media alike were quick to dispose of his words and actions, and choose instead to judge him based on puritanical ideals just as bad as the ones he’s been trying to escape his entire adult life.

I write this knowing it will be read by comrades. I want to say something profound that can make us reflect on why we have such a tendency to be so quick to treat others as disposable, but I don’t think I can. I hope that instead, you will carry the burden of finding an answer to that with me.

After a lifetime of engaging with anarchists, it was this recently radicalized, 25-year-old active-duty airman I spent two years with who showed me my chains—long before his decision to leave this earth. Aaron had this effect on every single person he met. He was incredibly committed to developing relationships based on deep trust and understanding—and would be the first to give you the raised brows for a snarky answer to an important question. He never let a potential harm go unaddressed. He embodied more than anyone I know the anarchist spirit, “that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people.”1

An altar honoring Aaron’s life, at a vigil his friends held in remembrance of him on February 27.

“My Friend Aaron”

E

My friend Aaron was kind, compassionate, and principled, sometimes to the point of being annoying, and he was incredibly reflective and willing to change to meet my needs in our relationship. He was one of my quickest and best friends.

An altar honoring Aaron’s life at the vigil at which Aaron’s friend read this text aloud.

Cult

I want to provide some background context on Aaron’s life. He shared this with me in confidence, but I feel OK sharing it with you all now because he is gone and I want to help contextualize him for you all. The press has also reached out to people from his past so it will be coming out regardless and I think it’s better y’all learn from a comrade.

Being raised in a cult, essentially a small society with different cultural norms than ours, gave Aaron the ability to see and better identify the norms and qualities of our society that are harder for us to see because we have been conditioned within it. He could see the latent fascist logic and cult-like tendencies that we swim through every day. He could see and feel them in ways that I struggle to feel and understand beyond an intellectual level. He was always very cagey about his past and did his best not to lie. You may recall him saying things like “sort of” or “something like that” whenever he was asked questions about being in theatre or band.

Times He Changed and Reflected

We would text and I would accuse him of texting like a straight man (which he was). He would never use reaction emojis or punctuation or expressions of laughter like lol. It was incredibly annoying. And he made such an active effort to do those things after I asked him to, very quickly and consistently.

Aaron with his beloved cat, Sugar.

Principled

Aaron saw hierarchy and injustice and his role in those systems and hated it. He felt a lot of guilt because of the situation he was raised in; guilt was the primary emotion through which he engaged with most things. I feel very sad that he was not able to heal from that fully before this.

He had so much love for his cats. The contradictions of owning someone you love weighed on him heavily. He was constantly thinking of how to best accommodate them and navigate this relationship of domination, complete control of their agency. I saw how it genuinely distressed him.

Aaron refused to say words like crazy, insane, or lame due to their roots in ableism and he got on me for my use of the word lame constantly. He wouldn’t say the word fuck because he saw its roots in misogyny and hetero-patriarchy.

Aaron also didn’t like the word democracy for reasons that are too long to explain; we would argue about it a lot, it was kind of a recurring bit.

Aaron serving food in Ohio as part of the mutual aid organization Serve the People Akron. “Aaron was a valued member of our organization and the community who immediately jumped in to help the unhoused and any project that came up. He was dependable and persistent with the mutual aid work he did in a city that was still new to him. We will be forever grateful for the effort he put in to make Akron a better place.”

Excerpts

I was very vulnerable and open with Aaron and I am proud of that. Vulnerability builds trust and deepens our bonds with each other; it is something that I actively work to cultivate in myself. To that end, I would like to share excerpts from two things I wrote to Aaron.

All of our relationships change us, shape us. When I look at the people, the friends, who I love the most, the people who I have the most secure loving relationships with, I can mark the ways that they have changed me. The mannerisms, habits, forms of speech, or worldviews that I adopted from them. It makes me feel so proud and thankful. There is no doubt that you have already changed me in ways that I will be proud of and thankful for, but I feel that one of the things that hurts most is mourning the loss of the ways that you could change me… I wish I could know you more. There are so many other things I want to know about you and so many other things I want you to know about me. I wish I could get to see firsthand your continuing political development and I wish we could have closer impacts on each other’s development. I wish you could see mine, to change it and make me into a better revolutionary. I want to see you in struggle, to learn how to struggle next to you and to struggle with you. I want you to be here.

I keep imagining you here. Upon reflecting I am imagining you here but not as I know you, I am imagining you here and free. Free of your military indenturement. It brings me so much joy to imagine you free and in struggle, to imagine your joy.

Conclusion

I think it will be hard to grieve this loss without being able to be with his body. To not get to experience the physical and psychological effects of being with his body after he is gone.

I am feeling tiny and crushed by the magnitude and inertia of the systems we are fighting against. I feel tiny and helpless in the face of these systems that have existed for hundreds of years and will likely exist for hundreds more. I normally feel quite the opposite but right now I feel so small. How in this world do we find peace that is not complicity? I hope Aaron found his.

Aaron and his friends.

I want to end with two things, some words from Aaron’s will and a poem that he had been practicing to recite once he was out of the military.

From Aaron’s will:

“I am sorry to my brother and my friends for leaving you like this. Of course, if I was truly sorry, I wouldn’t be doing it. But the machine demands blood. None of this is fair.”

“I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine.”

[alluralater]

I’m 24 and dating for the first time ever. I am female and so is the person I’m seeing. I really like this girl and I feel like this I could feel comfortable enough to have sex. However I’m a virgin and v nervous and tbh pretty embarrassed about it. Do you have any advice for a) telling her it’s my first time and b) and advice for my first time (if it gets to that)?

hi! we're the same age, love that for us <3

personally hate 'females' when women easily works but i will totally give you advice! first point of advice, be honest and tell her that you've never been with anyone before. there is no shame in a lack of sexual experience. exploring sexually is a highly liberating journey. 'virginity' and the ideals behind it is for puritans, so i want you to say fuck that. consider yourself an individual finally indulging in something which is completely natural. you're not late to the party, babe. you arrived at exactly the right time for you <3 being nervous is entirely normal. being physically intimate with anyone is a very vulnerable position to be in no matter how many times a person has had sex. feeling nervous or anxious is par for the course. be open with your partner and let her know you're feeling nervous. if she is the right partner for you (or anyone) she'll talk with you about it and you'll have an open conversation of what crossing that bridge will look like and how you'll both take care of each other through it.

my advice for your first time is to not be too serious. sex should be a fun experience. like yes it is wildly hot and can bring you immense pleasure, but you should be able to have fun too. sex is a cohesion of every one of the five senses. it is also a melding of the physical, mental, and emotional states. good sex comes from three things. communication, comfortability, and safety. testing is an absolute must. conversations about boundaries, limits, and aftercare are necessary. be silly, have fun. don't put too much pressure on yourself or hold sex to any sort of standard aside from those big three things. communicate throughout the process. tell her what you like and don't like. guide her hands. don't be afraid to ask questions. with it being your first time, you will be experiencing the discovery of what feels good and what doesn't. there is no special script for enjoying yourself.

do what feels right and what is within your respective boundaries. pay attention to body language, pay attention to how she moves and how she expresses pleasure when you do something just right. experiment with different rhythms and alternating pace. don't be afraid to laugh if something is funny. don't concentrate too hard on the task that you miss the moments when you could be kissing her. don't keep your hands stationary. don't just touch well known pleasure spots. trail your fingers over her waist, her stomach, the tops of her thighs, the outsides of her arms, etc. find her specific erogenous zones. and fucking enjoy yourself! sex is a liberating experience and it is one of the only types of exploration which can always teach you something new <3

[senlinyu]

hi I’m planning on majoring in Classical English Literature/Classical Liberal Arts (a combined program) while being on the Pre-Med track in university in 3 months. I was very excited when I found out from your past asks that you majored in Classical Liberal Arts too! I was just wondering how you liked the program and (if it’s not too much of an invasion to your privacy) what your current occupation is? Or are you a stay at home mom? Cuz I can see you being a total badass and lecturing people about the deep intricacies of moral philosophy but I can also see you being a total badass of SAHM that has the most niche and cool hobbies (like writing). I really enjoy your works, thank you so much for sharing it with us!

Personally, I never ended up having a job that was specifically relevant having studied Classical Liberal Arts (except maybe now that I'm supposedly supposed to be becoming a writer), although I do stand by the position that a Classical Liberal Arts education is inherently valuable because the idea of it is to teach people how to learn, how to examine a variety of ideas and consider them, how to gather information from original sources and integrate all the different fields into a cohesive understanding of the world. Learning how to entertain the thoughts and ideas of people you disagree with, how to learn on your own, and build a solid basis for your own reasoning is, in my opinion, one of the most valuable skillsets a person can have no matter where they go professionally.

However, there are issues with it, studying the Classical Liberal Arts in my experience, was an entirely western based curriculum, which imho is a mark against some of the very ideals CLA espouse of studying different perspectives and having an integrated understanding of the world when all those perspectives are from white men raised on Greek Philosophy and there's little to no legitimately distinct philosophical lines of thought like say, Confucianism. However, despite that, I appreciate a lot of the CLA foundation because I feel like it equipped me to independently study those things on my own.

[wozniakfromskittles]

Lucas Berlanza and Liberal way of Discussing

The ease with which a right-wing liberal speaks is inversely proportional to the ease with which a revolution occurs. Their statements are often half-truths that, associated and subordinated to the dominant ideology, cause the greatest harm to the proletariat and revolutionaries. Today we will analyze the text of a liberal called Lucas Berlanza and seek to capture in his texts the essence of what this speech is.

To understand this text, I ask the reader to always keep in mind the notions of concealment and demagoguery. These are two of the most striking elements in the author's speech analyzed today. Concealment concerns the reinterpretation of excerpts, misinterpretation of excerpts, or even removal of central ideas for understanding and cohesion; it is a direct attack on the text and even its context. Demagoguery can be defined as "action or speech that simulates virtue with hidden objectives". In the case of this text, constant statements that something is "simple" or "naive" are constant on the part of the author as a way of distorting what was written by Einstein.

First of all Berlanza starts his text giving to the reader a brief explanation of Einstein's importance and works: "(...)certain scientists and pioneers in Physics, Chemistry or Astronomy who, among a myriad of others who remain anonymous, acquire extreme notoriety. It is difficult to imagine, among them, a more iconic image than that of Albert Einstein(...)". Yes, indeed he was very important and even though the author admits that "(...)even if, as happens with this person who writes to you, your knowledge of Physics has the depth of a saucer". Very fair and honest so far, but his stance changes when he mentions that: "(...)Such a genius mind, so “revolutionary” in the logical-formal and scientific sense, celebrated and recognized throughout the world for his contributions to the way we understand the laws of nature that surround us, would have to be, some would say, a personality with common sense and bearer of very credible opinions in any other areas of thought. Do you agree? So, what would the reader say if we said that Einstein was a socialist?". Then we have our first fallacy: Berlanza wasn't explain at whole text how or why Einstein's opinions was "incredible". He just threw "socialist" as implicit cause of it. This attitude of non-commitment to the latent consistency of his own speeches and opinions is repeated ad inifinitum throughout the article.

Indeed the next non-sense of Berlanza was: "(...)If we read the genius's article, we will conclude, even more, that it is a profoundly naive text – perhaps the best word to describe it. So let's see; Einstein began by dedicating a few good paragraphs to justifying why a natural scientist would be able to delve into political issues, although without taking it to the extreme, to be fair to him, a somewhat positivist speech according to which the economy and society obey rigidly to schemes of laws such as those of nature, without any influence from the plurality of human experience; then, he defended the gregarious nature of human beings, their need to be “social”. To talk about the first highlighted sentence we need to bring Einstein's correct quote: "Let us first consider the question from the point of view of scientific knowledge. It might appear that there are no essential methodological differences between astronomy and economics: "(...) scientists in both fields attempt to discover laws of general acceptability for a circumscribed group of phenomena in order to make the interconnection of these phenomena as clearly understandable as possible. But in reality such methodological differences do exist. The discovery of general laws in the field of economics is made difficult by the circumstance that observed economic phenomena are often affected by many factors which are very hard to evaluate separately. In addition, the experience which has accumulated since the beginning of the so-called civilized period of human history has-as is well known-been largely influenced and limited by causes which are by no means exclusively economic in nature(...)". Einstein admit the limitation of scientific method in economics and explain why this happens. Even more so, Berlanza lies since Einstein states: "(...) Science, however, cannot create ends and, even less, instill them in human beings; science, at most, can supply the means by which to attain certain ends. But the ends themselves are conceived by personalities with lofty ethical ideals and-if these ends are not stillborn, but vital and vigorous-are adopted and carried forward by those many human beings who, half unconsciously, determine the slow evolution of society". Did you see how he's lying? In no moment Einstein overestimates scientific advancement to the detriment of subjective experience, on contrary, human subjective experience like ethics and ideals are highlighted as a driver of socio-economic changes and science would be for Einstein only a valuable support in driving changes.

At this point it is clear that the author is lying or who did not understand the text in its complexiface, treating deep concepts like the human as social and individual being just an "naivety". Berlanza explains in his vision, how Einstein understood this conflict mentioned above as the main root of the problems of his times, quoting next the "economic anarchy of capitalist society" as the main mechanism that makes this happen. He hides a lot of partes of the original text and conclude "For him (Einstein), it was necessary for everything to be directed towards the collective, indoctrinating youthful dispositions towards the “social”, and for economic freedoms to be restricted in favor of the sovereign plan". This is a very wise and well thought out opinion that Belanza calls "Any Marxist high school student could say exactly the same things". Any marxist or anarchist student like me. Notice how the author does not insist on refuting the points raised. The entire conversation (for I refuse to call it argument) revolves around implictly or explicitly classifying Einstein's views as unworthy of attention for their "naivety". Our friend then finally conclude "We wrote this article precisely with the purpose of maintaining that things are not so simple."

I hope have been successful in showing in this article two fundamental dimensions of neoliberal rhetoric: The concealment of facts and demagogic rhetoric. Once again any left-wing libertarian needs to be careful and must have arguments and not be fooled. My advice is the same of Einstein's: Study. All revolutions pass first through education and information. When we study some topic or subject we can form an opinion (an well-informed opinion) to never suffer from the same evils that rigth-wing liberals suffer. Follow me for more texts and critics like this in English or even Portuguese.

Why Socialism:

https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A5387/datastream/OBJ/view

Original Article from Liberal Institute:

https://www.institutoliberal.org.br/blog/o-socialismo-de-albert-einstein-por-que-as-coisas-nao-sao-simples/

[baladric]

For the writer ask meme!! 🎀 🪄 💌 (I wanted to ask everything but I showed restraint- if 3 is too many just do one or two ok love yooouuu)

hey i LOVE u :')

fic writer ask meme!

🎀 Give yourself a compliment about your own writing

oh boy hmmM well hey there little guy, you sure can write a sentence that punches people in the face!!!!! and you're very good at naming ocs, and your worldbuilding gets lusher and lovelier every time you sit down with it!!!

🪄 What is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

answered here!

💌 Share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

i say it a lot and i KNOW y'all always tell me to hush but i feel SO BAD that all i ever wanna talk about is pirate au, and yet there's nothing out here for anyone to READ!! STILL!!! nearly a year later!!!!! but it's so in progress, and it only gets better, and i literally cannot wait to tie off the first draft and start the editing pass to make it cohesive from the start—at which point we'll start posting it! like post as we edit kind of a thing!!

so. i mean. UH. HERE'S A FUCKIn PREQUEL PIRATE FICLET IN ITS ENTIRETY a;ldkfjwl;f shhhhh nobody tell celebros i shared her xmas present before we posted the fic (jk she reads my tumblr)

He did not know why he was surprised, but all told, it took a good long while for sailing to become fun. He had theories, of course—six years of running wild with only Freja to impose a schedule had evidently done a number on his habits—and now there were work shifts to keep track of, and problems to solve with only one right answer (���When in doubt, call for Sozu or Arnezha or Iölo or me or literally anyone other than Sinker, I beg of thee, darling.”) There were knots to learn—a startling discovery, as he had thought he knew them all already—and terminologies and what do you mean, there are two ships?

Simply put, it was a lot, and Maia took care not to harbor regrets, but it was occurring to him in drips and drabs that this was maybe a teeny tiny little bit of a mistake. That, perhaps, Shaleän had been right, and he was not necessarily cut out for the sailing life. That maybe Paris had had a point when he hinted that Maia could have been of just as much help (if not more) at home, with Freja.

He was tired and he was sore in places he hadn’t known he owned and he missed his warm little bed in Freja’s warm little cottage and this was all just so strange. Idolatry was a child’s game in which he had seriously overinvested, and now it was like being struck over the head to realize that Shaleän on her gilded pedestal was a criminal—a pirate, the King of pirates.

He’d had an inkling, of course, but it was one thing to fantasize about his rake of an aunt, the glint of her saber raised in the battle cry, and another to stumble across a frightened goblin child in the same cargo hold in which he himself had hidden not two days before, her hair shorn in a servant’s crop and one of her ears notched in a clear sign of past cruelty. It had been another thing entirely to calm her down and bring her to Shaleän, propped on his hip, his collar still damp from her tears, and learn that she was part of a matched set squirreled away in a secret room on the ship, and that her mother was as yet too deep in the megrims that sometimes stole over a person whose situation has taken a sudden, hopeful turn to keep a proper eye on her michen.

Was this smuggling? Soul trafficking?

“No,” Shaleän had said, her frown heavy and fitting far too well on her face; lines Maia had attributed solely to her broad, bright grin suddenly made more sense. Frown lines. Scowl lines, like wheel ruts worn into the hard-packed earth of her. “It is liberation, Maia. We offer what freedom is available in this blighted world to the people who need it most, and my only regret is that I cannot give it to everyone suffering under the weight of man’s cruelty and greed.”

So, he was… adjusting, one could say. In light of the insistence with which he had forced his way into this world—onto Shaleän’s ship, into Shaleän’s so-called business—he found this struggle to be more than a little embarrassing.

It was not fun—it was work. Good work. Work with an undeniably positive influence on the world, regardless of who might label the unlicensed liberation of indentured servants a crime.

Maia brought a smile to the fugitive Min Pallared’s face within an hour of meeting her properly (And Cstheio Cairei, was the hold in which they hid their refugees small) and it was work, but he felt that spark of light as a tectonic shift in the bedrock of his soul. Paris was wrong—he could help here, without a sword. And so he did it again with their next lot of escapees—a family of Telvar, whose anxious tails and too-wide eyes made Maia sick to his stomach in the imagining of the lifetime of cruelty required to so damage them. They reminded him too much of himself, those first few months away from Edonomee, and when he laid in his hammock between shifts and caretaking duties, he could not help but sink into gruesome thoughts of what he himself would have become, had he been left to Setheris’ cruel hands for a lifetime.

It was work, to be sure, but he had never felt so alive as he did in those first months aboard that two-faced ship.

All around him were people, storied and vibrant, and he doubted he would ever tire of cracking them open, that they might tell him of their families, their dreams, lost loves and the folklore that belongs to single blood lines. Sozu Khalamar and his grandmother’s insistence on the ill omens of curdling milk. Sinker Shipsblight and the long string of willful calamities that had earned him his moniker, and the respect of Paris. Iölo Marin and her repeating dream of sprouting wings to fly away from everything she had ever known.

And, of course, there was the music. He had not expected the music.

Sometimes, as they drew to the end of a hard sail, Paris would turn a blind eye to the halving of the usual night shift in favor of a sleepy skeleton crew abovedecks, and everyone else would retreat to the ship’s galley and drain the last kegs of ale dry. It was a raucous thing, everyone thoroughly soused, and then someone would start singing—Sinker, usually, lusty and loud as the south wind.

The repertoire were things Maia had heard before, having spent nearly half his life in sailing communities: rowing songs, shanties, bawdy ballads. He knew the tunes to most of them, if not the lyrics—and the ones he did not know came to him quickly.

Almost six months on, he felt he had nearly gotten the hang of it all. He could scale the mizzenmast in sixty seconds, rarely got tangled up in all the different words for wind, and could wail a bawdy drinking song with the best of them.

They had just finished one such song, and Maia’s cheeks were hot with drink and the youthful embarrassment of singing about breasts with a zealous lot of sailors on a dry spell and a trio of especially fervent marnai. He was fully considering tapping out from the excitement of it all, when someone cried over the merry shouting of the men, “Let’s have Maia lead one!”

The roar that rose at the idea was a thing of beauty. It sped Maia’s pulse, for he doubted that even an ocean’s worth of ale could fake such unmistakeable delight. The clamor rang of something like acceptance, and Maia was helpless to resist the hands that chivvied him to stand atop the swaying table.

Someone pressed a fresh flagon of ale into his hand, and he heard shouts of “Let’s have it, lad!” and “Put thy chest into it, sprout!” as well as a clangor of song requests—and, so dizzied, Maia startled himself as much as everyone else by belting out the opening call of his favorite shanty:

“Ye nations have your princes, you kingdoms have your kings,

But we who set to sail the sea

Bow only to the Wind!”

Laughter and cheers of recognition met the first bit of the tune, and though his voice shook with sudden nerves at the start, by the time he reached the chorus, he had built to a jubilant shout. He raised his flagon as all joined in the singing.

“So follow me, lads,” the crew of the Glorious Dragon wailed as one voice, and Maia stomped the tabletop with all his might.

“‘Fore he storms upon the fray!

Corat’ will whip you down to dust

And blow you straight away!”

The beating of fists and stomping of feet raised the beat of The Ballad of King Corat’, and Maia did not think he had ever smiled as hard as he did then, singing of his legendary aunt, the King of Pirates.

“The baron sees no bloodshed, the emperor no rain,

But the Serpent King who skims the sea

Reigns only over pain!”

The men howled, and a jostling in the crowd caught Maia’s attention—the crew shifting to give Shaleän, Corat’ herself, space as she waded towards the table, her grin a rakish slash of white in the warm dimness of the galley. Maia beamed and reached to haul her up beside him, and they stomped out the chorus together, arms around shoulders.

“So follow me lads!

‘Fore we heel to his domain!

Corat’ will crush us down to dust

And rinse us down the drain!”

“Your krakens and your sirens,” Maia sang, thrilled as Shaleän joined him, her voice rough and far from tuneful.

“Your leviathans and all

Know better than to raise a hand

To Cruelty the Squall!”

She clashed her flagon to his, dousing them both thoroughly in ale, and Maia did not know if he had ever been so happy in his life. It was such a simple feeling, yet so large that it brimmed over all of his shakily sketched borders, rendering him a jubilant creature in Shaleän’s tight grip.

“So follow me, lads!

‘Fore he finds us in a pall!

Corat’ will strike us down to dust

And spell a fell downfall!”

And so they sang and stomped and crowed for the whole sprawl of verses, telling a blazing tale of Shaleän’s conquests—and her pressed to his side all the while, loud and calamitous and alive alive alive. The both of them, so very, wildly alive.

Maia’s voice was shot by the end and his blood ran hot with a palpable sense of belonging unlike anything he had ever felt. Joy, repeating. Life, glorious and wretched and reeking of too many people in too small a space.

Shaleän embraced him then, like she knew what brilliant cacophony was brewing in his chest. Like it was the work of her life to hold him in one piece, whether the shaking be a thing of joy, or of grief.

“I love thee, my heart,” she murmured for him alone. “More than every jewel in thy Lady’s starry sky.”

“Oh,” Maia said—a silly thing, for he had long known the timbre of his aunt’s love. It was only that having this talented, determined crew respond to him with nothing but delight in their collective voices had stripped him raw, and it brought to the surface that little part of him that still curled into a protective ball when he slept. And that part was ever so hungry for all Shaleän and her crew offered.

“I love thee, too,” he replied, squeezing her tight enough that she gave a little Oof of surprise. “More than the whole sea.”

“More than the mermaids?”

“More than every blessed fucking fish in the place.”

Their laughter was lost beneath the clamor of their crew, which was just fine with them.