#commentary 85/?

[reading-the-dragon-book]

The idea that Melgren is hoping for a baby from Xaden and Violet is both disgusting and hilarious.

Melgren: I hate them both so much.

Melgren: I wonder if it will be a boy or a girl 😍

[blondebrainpowered]

"PUNK is this thing that happened in the long ago before time when Elvis was scaring the shit out of white people for sounding like a black musician and shaking his pelvis, introducing sex into modern culture. Before Elvis it was the Dada movement. Before that, it was the anarchists in the 19th century, championing freedom and challenging capitalism. Jim Morrison was a punk for taking psychedelia to the dark side. The movies I've made are punk movies. This thing that's happening now, this youthful exuberance called punk rock, it's a return to 1950s juvenile street culture, a rebirth of the brevity and rebellion that was real rock n' roll. Everyone's wearing leather jackets again, like a bunch of greasers. Do punks carry switchblade knives or ride motorbikes too? [laughs] I like that it pushes against taboos again, and challenges rigidness! The outcasts, freaks, and monsters can find punk rock and they're not alone anymore. Me personally, I love watching the punks play live! The energy in the clubs is electric. But at home, I'm listening to opera and movie soundtracks. If punk begins to invade the mainstream, it won't be punk anymore … because it won't challenge anything. The straight world will never accept punk.“

Writer/Director, John Waters, SLASH magazine, Jan. 30th, 1979

[radiant--as-the--sun]

y’all have no idea the number of thg (& tbosas) metas I have saved in my notes app

[heliianth]

every time a youtuber acknowledges the gay subtext in hxh an angel gets its wings

[fibretwo]

˚₊‧⁺⋆♱ Cure Fasting Boredom ⋆⁺‧₊˚

“Oh, I’m fasting, but I’m incredibly bored!!“ — so what I’m hearing is that you have nothing to do except eat? Or you eat when you’re bored..? Well, that needs to be fixed, but fear not, that will come with time. Keep fasting by the way, you’re doing great! So well in fact that I’ve actually compiled a list of things that you can do to keep yourself occupied!!

1. Make a playlist

2. Find some new music

3. Listen to music!

4. Take a shower

5. wash your hair

6. cut your hair?

7. dye your hair, even?

8. paint your nails

9. put on a perfume you barely wear

10. brush your teeth

11. put on some makeup

12. make a pinterest board of makeup looks and try them out!

13. wash your clothes

14. lay outfits on your bed and take photos/write them down

15. make some “for when i’m skinny outfits” and take photos/write them down

16. meditate

17. compile things that trigger you (YouTube Playlists, Pinterest boards, Screenshots of tumblr posts etc!!!)

18. Go for a walk

19. Walk to the supermarket and look at food (maybe i just like doing this)

20. walk to ur local train station and go to the mall OR!! walk to the mall (sorry if you live in buttfuck no where 😓)

21. journal!! prompts vvv

22. write down everything that’s keeping you going

23. write down all the things you want to eat when ur at ur ugw

24. write down your safe foods

25. write down your fear foods

26. write some triggers

27. write some thinspo quotes

28. reflect on yourself

29. get to know yourself

30. look at journalling prompts on pinterest

31. vent

32. brain dump

33. put lipstick on and cover a page in kisses

34. draw thinspo

35. draw an oc

36. try finding your art style if you don’t draw often

37. draw a scene you remember from your childhood

38. do a jigsaw puzzle

39. find a deck of cards and order them

40. study!!!

41. practice an instrument

42. look for jobs if your unemployed

43. go out with friends

44. talk to online friends

45. text ur irl friends

46. play minecraft

47. clean your room

48. de clutter draws & desks

49. make a thinspo board on pinterest

50. Make a pinterest board with all those facebook mom weight loss motivation quotes and things (they have a special place in my heart, okay?)

51. watch media that has characters w/ EDs in them. i recommend To The Bone (ofc), Skins (Cassie), Gossip Girls (Blair), Heathers (Heather Duke), Heartstopper (Charlie Spring)!!

52. find low calorie recipes

53. practice an instrument

54. contour your bones

55. write down rewards for when you reach another gw (eg, perfumes, new scales, new clothes, safe foods)

56. listen to some ED podcasts (i rlly like SciGuys Ep #201 and DRAMA MAMA Ep #32)

57. sometimes i watch swan liyah on YT

58. Make yourself some ice cold water

59. Fill up the ice cube tray (this is personal, i usually do this when i’m bored)

60. Commentary YouTubers 🙏

61. ED short films on YT

62. ED documentaries on YT

63. Quora ED stuff can be triggering too!!

64. Have a bath

65. De-clutter your phone

66. Get out there and reblog a whole bunch of stuff!

67. Duolingo

68. paint

69. haha 69… uh, read a book!

70. Stalk my ED Pinterest Account: https://pin.it/6IDHsH7jh

(it’s very cool i promise)

71. watch ED WIEIAD videos on youtube

72. look for different diets

73. watch cooking videos and save recipes for when your skinny

74. Make a playlist of workouts to try (reminder, you don’t have to work out when ur fasting<3)

75. write a letter to someone

76. practice your handwriting

77. Walk all the way to your local supermarket, get some gum and/or sugar free soda and walk back

78. hold a little fashion show for yourself

79. Listen to those songs you never got around to

80. Get into that artist you’ve never had time to get into

81. watch that show you’ve never started

82. Look into poetry

83. Write a poem

84. make a bookmark

85. draw one of your friends to give to them (no matter how poorly, it’s funnier when it’s bad)

86. Have a dance party, why tf not?

87. put beads on some of your shoelaces

88. Headphones up, eyes closed, laying on your bed blasting your favourite song. Just let yourself be surrounded by the music for a moment. It really helps your mood

89. Mess with spotify equalisers

90. Try some hairstyles out

91. straighten/curl your hair

92. watch a tim burton film

93. Watch a Studio Ghibili film (it helps to have an activity to do at the same time, like literally anything else on the list)

94. look at halloween costumes you can wear next halloween when your skinny

95. heal your inner child and watch a childhood show!!

96. sew something!

97. learn to sew? :)

98. make some jewellery

99. FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS!!

100. research a random topic (band backstories and mythology are my favourite!!!)

101. Look into the biology of a human digestive system (there’s a video of digestion we had to watch in school once that you can find on YT and it’s so gross and triggering)

102. look at mouldy pictures of food

103. watch time lapse videos of food decomposing

104. count loose change

105. burn your favourite candle because if not now the when?

will add more when i think of them! stay safe and do what feels right for you, don’t push yourself just stay disciplined

Take care <3

[nishibons]

𝐇𝐄𝐘, 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐌𝐄 . . .

or piwon pining thoughts/texts

warnings na genre fluff word count eight hundred excluding texts

note hiii everybody!! sorry i disappeared for a bit but ive been busy with uni TT i got an 85 on my recent assignment tho so everybody cheer… anyway ive been obsessed with piwon lately hence this post but fear not i have an enha version coming soon

keeho

confident but humble. he doesn’t have any expectations for your relationship but hopes that you’ll eventually catch on to his borderline obnoxious flirting, and better yet, reciprocate. if you do happen to return his feelings, he doesn’t waste any time in asking you out properly, because why wait? his friends say he laughs too loud around you for you to not know about his feelings, but he swears that they’re just being dramatic… he’s so normal and chill about you, really, that joke about the refrigerator or something was just funny!

taeyang

an absolute menace. you end up assuming that he hates you with how he stares you down whenever you enter his vicinity and with how he exchanges hushed whispers with his friends from across the room, silenced only when he turns his head far away enough to steal glances at you. eventually, once he asks for your number under the guise of it apparently being weird that you were the only two between your mutual friend groups to not have exchanged numbers, he plays into this idea, hoping he can pull off some sort of enemies to lovers trope, because it always works in books, right? in truth, he’s just a little bit apprehensive about the vulnerability that comes with liking someone, and tries to preserve his pride with thinly veiled insults that upon second glance quickly fall apart. can you melt his icy cold heart? (the answer is yes.)

jiung

likes you from the very beginning, but is a strong believer in the idea that lovers should be friends first, so he tries his best to establish a genuine relationship with you before he even begins to think about making any moves. he shows strong initiative even throughout your friendship–whether it’s invitations to meet up for lunch, to see that movie you’ve been eagerly waiting the release of, or even paying for your coffee every single time, he’s quick to assure you and dispels any worries you might have about repaying him with a wave of his hand and a bright smile–your company is enough, he says, and if you end up falling for him (who wouldn’t?) he, of course, eagerly awaits the day he can take you for an actual date, but enjoys every moment he spends with you until then just as much.

intak

by far the most shameless with his affection. he can’t help it–you have him hopelessly whipped from the very beginning and he’s terrible at hiding it anyway, so why not lean into it? the first to jump up from his seat when you mention being thirsty–water or juice? and the first to compliment you regardless of the circumstances of your meeting, even on those days you can’t manage anything but a sweater pulled hastily over your shoulders and a messy updo. it’s impossible not to feel flattered around him, and he’s honestly not even actively trying to flatter you, he’s just being wholly honest. if you ever want to shut him up, just compliment him back–hopefully you have a stretcher on hand!

shota

the cutest ever. you catch him staring at you more than a few times before he eventually works up the nerve to approach you, and initially you’re intimidated–but the moment he opens his mouth you know that he’s harmless, and obscenely adorable to beat. he’s not the greatest at expressing himself with words, so he makes sure to show that he likes you by sending you things that remind him of you–songs from an artist he likes, those little figures you collect he sees in the window of a store on the way to work, a rainbow in the sky after a rainy morning. sometimes he provides some commentary, or a cute emoticon, and other times he says nothing, sending only a simple picture and hoping that you can feel even just some of the many emotions that rush through him at the thought of you and have his heart fluttering in his chest when you eventually reply.

jongseob

the sweetest of angels. he doesn’t crush often, but when he does, he crushes hard, so he doesn’t want to mess it up. though he’s rather reserved on the flirting front, he makes sure to send good morning and good night texts every day, without fail, on top of the seemingly random yet innocuous questions he asks throughout the day–what did you eat for lunch? how was work? any thoughts on this new album that just came out? part of it is in hopes that eventually you’ll fall for him as he did you, but he does also take genuine interest in you as a person and wants to know everything about you there is to know if you’ll just give him the chance. flirt with him at all and you’ll very quickly have him turning into a giggling, indecipherably stammering mess.

[zaprowsdower27]

->person I've never seen before reblogs one of my responses to a tumblr funnyman post

-> I look through their blog to see if they're posting stuff I'd be interested in following since basically every account I follow other than folks I know from other sites was found in a similar way

->First two pages look good, lot of funny posts and intelligent political commentary

->Third page has a post referring to Hamas as 'The Resistance' and claiming that a hostage kissed a Hamas member before being freed and this shows how obviously Hamas treated them wonderfully and anybody claiming Hamas are the bad guys rather than benevolent heroes is a liar, rather than it being a form of sick twisted mockery done at gunpoint if it happened at all

...I hate reminders of why my feed is 85% Jewtuals by volume these days. I honestly wish I could use tumblr for things other than commiseration about antisemitic shit in Israel and the Diaspora, but every time I try to follow more goyim than the five or six plus Big Name Funnymen I have at this point to try to even out my followed account topic ratio I end up getting shit like that

[thegreatgatslin]

INTRODUCING: THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT, PART 2 [PART 1 HERE]

                               ✦ MA MEILLEURE ENNEMIE ✦                                           RIN ITOSHI X READER

Y/N L/N (HSS DEPT, ENGLISH LIT) overall rating: 4.3/5 || 85% would take again || 4.3 level of difficulty

51 student ratings:

COURSE: CLASSIC POETRY COMMENTARY would take again: yes || grade: A "prof l/n is a great prof all around. she marks our essays - like ACTUALLY marks them, unlike some profs i know - and gives the best feedback. she makes lectures interesting, even if we’re learning about the driest classical poetry known to man."

COURSE: MODERN LITERATURE ANALYSIS would take again: yes || grade: A "she buys us snacks when we ace her quizzes i love her to bits"

OLIVER AIKU (HSS DEPT, EUROPEAN HISTORY) overall rating: 4.5/5 || 90% would take again || 4.0 level of difficulty

52 student ratings:

COURSE: THE RISE AND FALL OF AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES would take again: yes || grade: B "how is this man still single??? we have to set him up with prof [REDACTED] from [REDACTED] department someday..."

COURSE: THE LEAGUE OF NATION'S SUCCESSES AND FAILURES would take again: yes || grade: A+ "prof oliver?? aiku??? (we don't know which is his first name still) is one of the best educators i've ever had the privilege of meeting. he truly cares for his students and how they learn, and he secretly extends office hours for us sometimes!"

YOICHI ISAGI (HSS DEPT, PSYCHOLOGY) overall rating: 4.7/5 || 78% would take again || 3.9 level of difficulty

70 student ratings:

COURSE: SOCIAL COGNITION would take again: yes || grade: A- "his case studies are oddly specific sometimes and he gets a little too excited when he asks us for our opinions... but he's fun and relatable! highly recommend taking prof hiori's courses along with prof isagi's since they complement each other's so well"

COURSE: MENTAL HEALTH AND DISTRESS would take again: yes || grade: B "once i caught him in an empty classroom rambling on about puzzle pieces forming?? (he's an oddball but he's MY oddball)."

YO HIORI (HSS DEPT, PSYCHOLOGY) overall rating: 4.6/5 || 70% would take again || 3.8 level of difficulty

59 student ratings:

COURSE: SIGMUND FREUD AND HIS THEORIES would take again: yes || grade: B+ "professor hiori might seem like a innocent guy, but just going off how much he knows about sigmund freud... yeah i firmly believe he's a closeted FREAK. chill guy tho."

COURSE: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS would take again: yes || grade: B "i take prof ness's ethics courses too and prof hiori's classes really help me understand them better"

taglist: @bakery-anon, @shidousveneers, @swelterweather, @ranzess, @saeyari, @blueballslock, @rroxii, @hellothere9597, @inojinieeee, @arwawawa2, @ihsoti, @shironagi, @cyberheartrebel (open, reply to this post to be added)

© thegreatgatslin || ✦ series m.list ✦ || ✦ M.LIST ✦

[nononsensesblog]

And the fact the writers originally planned for Arthur to never find out about Merlin’s magic, gosh I hate them to death 🙂‍↕️

*spoilers for Merlin kinda*

Literally hate that we have the promise of Merlin being recognized one day for his power and his contribution to the royal family throughout the ENTIRE SHOW and yet. The only recognition he ever gets is when Arthur DIES and he knows about Merlin’s magic. And even then!! HE STILL LIVES IN SECRECY UNTIL MODERN DAY. WHYYYYYYY

[thisapplepielife]

Written for the @steddieholidaydrabbles pop-up Graduation challenge.

Along for the Ride

Prompt: Graduation | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | CW: Language | Tags: Post S2, Graduation Day for the Class of '85, Eddie Munson Doesn't Graduate, Wayne Loves Eddie, Unlikely Duo for the Day, Pre-Steddie, Hanging Out

"Looks good on you."

Steve jumps ever so slightly, and turns to locate the disembodied voice that came out of thin air, scaring the ever-loving shit out of him.

It's just Eddie Munson, lurking behind a fucking tree. Of course.

"Munson," Steve says, by way of greeting, but then has to ask, "What looks good?"

Eddie takes a step forward and flicks the mortarboard on Steve's head, "Your cap."

Steve laughs, and takes it off his head, and smooths his hand over his hair, sure it's sticking up all crazy.

"Yeah, right," Steve says, knowing that hat has done no favors for his hair, and clutches it in his hands, worrying his fingers all along the pointed edges. "You didn't walk? I didn't see you in line."

Eddie toes at the dirt, eyes suddenly downcast, "Yeah, well. It came down to the wire, and I didn't quite get it done. Again."

"Sorry, I didn't know."

Eddie has his gown slung over his arm, and his cap in hand. All the makings of a graduate, but no diploma. That really sucks, and Steve knows how close he came himself to not skating through. This could have just as easily been him, so he has no snarky commentary to offer up. Not today.

"They didn't tell you until today?" Steve asks, because if that's the case, it's absolute bullshit. 

"No, yesterday. After graduation practice. But, you know…"

Steve doesn't know, "You came to the ceremony anyway?"

"Hell no," Eddie laughs, "They said I could walk, get a blank folder. No fucking thanks. Just. My uncle. He had to work today. Too many other dads needed off. And I'm just his nephew, so the plant didn't prioritize his request. You know how it goes," Eddie says, and Steve really doesn't know. His dad has been riding his ass hard, but he was damn well in the bleachers, watching him graduate this afternoon, and nobody could have stopped him. Especially not work.

Eddie keeps talking, "Anyway. Uncle Wayne was unduly proud, so I just let him take some pictures of me out here before his shift. Embarrassing, but whatever. Maybe I'll tell him later. Maybe not. I'm over eighteen, it's not like they're gonna call and tattle if I don't show up next fall. I could get my GED. I could say fuck it. Or, god-fucking-forbid, I could try again next year."

Steve nods. He isn't exactly sure why Eddie Munson is telling him all this, not really, because these are the most words they've ever spoken to one another in a row.

"I'm sorry," Steve says.

"So you've said," Eddie says, but he's teasing, even if Steve still thinks he looks sad. And Steve spent a lot of the last year fucking sad, so he has, like, empathy and shit. 

"There's a graduation party at my house later, if you wanna come," Steve offers, suddenly.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Harrington. I'd rather not experience that kind of humiliation again today. It was bad enough having the principal look over here at me in my cap and gown, like I was a fucking idiot. Which I am. But still."

"I get it," Steve says, "but if you change your mind. Come."

"I won't," Eddie says, "don't wait up."

And it strikes Steve as hilarious, and he laughs, like he hasn't laughed in a long time, "Damn, Munson. Break a guy's heart. I was gonna sit by my bedroom window, awaiting your arrival."

Eddie grins, and then there's a glint in his eye, "What time will this party be over, Harrington?"

Steve just shrugs, he isn't sure. His parents will be there, so it's not exactly gonna be a rager.

"Midnight?" Eddie asks.

Steve nods, because surely it'll be over by midnight.

"Then sit by that window, and I'll pull up and get you. For the afterparty."

And Steve doesn't know why he's nodding, but he is, enthusiastically.

At midnight, Steve is standing at his bedroom window, waiting. 

At ten after, he realizes that Munson had just been fucking with him. Of course. Eddie Munson isn't the idiot here, he is. And he starts to pull his shirt over his head, the one he'd changed four times for no discernible reason, when he sees it. The old van, barreling into his driveway. 

Far too fast and wild.

Steve smiles, climbs out of his window, and shimmies down the side of the house, running towards the van like he's really getting away with something. He could have walked out the front door, and his parents definitely wouldn't have given a shit, if they even noticed.

Yeah, he's in trouble about the college thing, and he has to get a shitty job, but they aren't chaining him to the bed or anything.

He pulls the van door open and there's Eddie Munson, in all black, waiting.

"Wasn't sure you'd come," Eddie says.

"I could say the same thing about you," Steve echoes, sliding into the van seat, and slamming the door behind himself, "You're late."

"Sorry, your highness. Where to?" Eddie asks.

"This was your idea!" Steve yells over the roar of the van peeling out of the driveway, and man, Munson is a bad driver. Maybe the worst. 

But the warm night air is whipping through the open windows, and Eddie's hair is blowing all around, and Steve's feeling air ruffling through his own.

It feels freeing. 

He's with Eddie "The Freak" Munson, so that makes no sense whatsoever. But Steve's not gonna question it. He's gonna have some fun, with whatever this night brings.

He doesn't have any friends, not really, not his own age, anyway. Not anymore. 

Eddie shoves a box of tapes onto his lap, "Pick something."

Steve isn't familiar with most of the bands, but he settles on one he likes, and jams it in.

"Harrington, no, that's Wayne's!" Eddie says, punching the eject button hard and fast.

"You decide then," Steve says with a smile, "I'm just along for the ride."

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddieholidaydrabbles and follow along with the fun!

If you want to see more of my entries into this challenge, you can check them out in my Steddie Holiday Drabbles tag, right here!

[mariacallous]

Perhaps you’ve heard: Young people aren’t dating anymore. News media and social media are awash in commentary about the decline in youth romance. It’s visible in the corporate data, with dating-app engagement taking a hit. And it’s visible in the survey data, where the share of 12th graders who say they’ve dated has fallen from about 85 percent in the 1980s to less than 50 percent in the early 2020s, with the decline particularly steep in the past few years.

Naturally, young people’s habits are catnip to news commentators. But although I consider the story of declining youth romance important, I don’t find it particularly mysterious. In my essay on the anti-social century, I reported that young people have retreated from all manner of physical-world relationships, whether because of smartphones, over-parenting, or a combination of factors. Compared with previous generations of teens, they have fewer friends, spend significantly less time with the friends they do have, attend fewer parties, and spend much more time alone. Romantic relationships theoretically imply a certain physicality; so it’s easy to imagine that the collapse of physical-world socializing for young people would involve the decline of romance.

Adults have a way of projecting their anxieties and realities onto their children. In the case of romance, the fixation on young people masks a deeper—and, to me, far more mysterious—phenomenon: What is happening to adult relationships?

American adults are significantly less likely to be married or to live with a partner than they used to be. The national marriage rate is hovering near its all-time low, while the share of women under 65 who aren’t living with a partner has grown steadily since the 1980s. The past decade seems to be the only period since at least the 1970s when women under 35 were more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse.

People’s lives are diverse, and so are their wants and desires and circumstances. It’s hard, and perhaps impossible, to identify a tiny number of factors that explain hundreds of millions of people’s decisions to couple up, split apart, or remain single. But according to Lyman Stone, a researcher at the Institute for Family Studies, the most important reason marriage and coupling are declining in the U.S. is actually quite straightforward: Many young men are falling behind economically.

A marriage or romantic partnership can be many things: friendship, love, sex, someone to gossip with, someone to remind you to take out the trash. But, practically speaking, Stone told me, marriage is also insurance. Women have historically relied on men to act as insurance policies—against the threat of violence, the risk of poverty. To some, this might sound like an old-fashioned, even reactionary, description of marriage, but its logic still applies. “Men’s odds of being in a relationship today are still highly correlated with their income,” Stone said. “Women do not typically invest in long-term relationships with men who have nothing to contribute economically.” In the past few decades, young and especially less educated men’s income has stagnated, even as women have charged into the workforce and seen their college-graduation rates soar. For single non-college-educated men, average inflation-adjusted earnings at age 45 have fallen by nearly 25 percent in the past half century, while for the country as a whole, average real earnings have more than doubled. As a result, “a lot of young men today just don’t look like what women have come to think of as ‘marriage material,’” he said.

In January, the Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch published an analysis of the “relationship recession” that lent strong support to Stone’s theory. Contrary to the idea that declining fertility in the U.S. is mostly about happily childless DINKs (dual-income, no-kid couples), “the drop in relationship formation is steepest among the poorest,” he observed. I asked Burn-Murdoch to share his analysis of Current Population Survey data so that I could take a closer look. What I found is that, in the past 40 years, coupling has declined more than twice as fast among Americans without a college degree, compared with college graduates. This represents a dramatic historic inversion. In 1980, Americans ages 25 to 34 without a bachelor’s degree were more likely than college graduates to get married; today, it’s flipped, and the education gap in coupling is widening every year. Marriage produces wealth by pooling two people’s income, but, conversely, wealth also produces marriage.

Contraception technology might also play a role. Before cheap birth control became widespread in the 1970s, sexual activity was generally yoked to commitment: It was a cultural norm for a man to marry a girl if he’d gotten her pregnant, and single parenthood was uncommon. But as the (married!) economists George Akerlof and Janet Yellen observed in a famous 1996 paper, contraception helped disentangle sex and marriage. Couples could sleep together without any implicit promise to stay together. Ultimately, Akerlof and Yellen posit, the availability of contraception, which gave women the tools to control the number and the timing of their kids, decimated the tradition of shotgun marriages, and therefore contributed to an increase in children born to low-income single parents.

The theory that the relationship recession is driven by young men falling behind seems to hold up in the U.S. But what about around the world? Rates of coupling are declining throughout Europe, as well. In England and Wales, the marriage rate for people under 30 has declined by more than 50 percent since 1990.

And it’s not just Europe. The gender researcher Alice Evans has shown that coupling is down just about everywhere. In Iran, annual marriages plummeted by 40 percent in 10 years. Some Islamic authorities blame Western values and social media for the shift. They might have a point. When women are exposed to more Western media, Evans argues, their life expectations expand. Fitted with TikTok and Instagram and other windows into Western culture, young women around the world can seek the independence of a career over the codependency (or, worse, the outright loss of freedom) that might come with marriage in their own country. Social media, a woman veterinarian in Tehran told the Financial Times, also glamorizes the single life “by showing how unmarried people lead carefree and successful lives … People keep comparing their partners to mostly fake idols on social platforms.”

According to Evans, several trends are driving this global decline in coupling. Smartphones and social media may have narrowed many young people’s lives, pinning them to their couches and bedrooms. But they’ve also opened women’s minds to the possibility of professional and personal development. When men fail to support their dreams, relationships fail to flourish, and the sexes drift apart.

If I had to sum up this big messy story in a sentence, it would be this: Coupling is declining around the world, as women’s expectations rise and lower-income men’s fortunes fall; this combination is subverting the traditional role of straight marriage, in which men are seen as necessary for the economic insurance of their family.

So why does all this matter? Two of the more urgent sociological narratives of this moment are declining fertility and rising unhappiness. The relationship recession makes contact with both. First, marriage and fertility are tightly interconnected. Unsurprisingly, one of the strongest predictors of declining fertility around the world is declining coupling rates, as Burn-Murdoch has written. Second, marriage is strongly associated with happiness. According to General Social Survey data, Americans’ self-described life satisfaction has been decreasing for decades. In a 2023 analysis of the GSS data, the University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman concluded that marriage was more correlated with this measure of happiness than any other variable he considered, including income. (As Stone would rush to point out here, marriage itself is correlated with income.)

The social crisis of our time is not just that Americans are more socially isolated than ever, but also that social isolation is rising alongside romantic isolation, as the economic and cultural trajectories of men and women move in opposite directions. And, perhaps most troubling, the Americans with the least financial wealth also seem to have the least “social wealth,” so to speak. It is the poor, who might especially need the support of friends and partners, who have the fewest close friends and the fewest long-term partners. Money might not buy happiness, but it can buy the things that buy happiness.

[whencyclopedia]

Herodotus on Burial in Egypt

Herodotus' section of his Histories on burial in ancient Egypt (Book II.85-90) is an accurate description of Egyptian mummification, but he purposefully omits the spiritual significance of embalming in keeping with his commitment to refrain from discussing the religious beliefs of other cultures. The spiritual aspect of embalming, however, was central to the practice and is addressed indirectly.

Sarcophagus of Kha (Detail)

Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

This is not to say that Herodotus' account is wrong, only that it may seem incomplete as he clearly explains how embalming was practiced during the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (525-323 BCE), but not the reason for it. Embalming was intimately associated with Egyptian religion, which Herodotus seems to avoid addressing for his own reasons. Herodotus (l. c. 484-425/413 BCE) makes his policy on religious discussions clear, however, earlier in Book II when he deals with the sacred aspect of animals in Egypt:

All the animals in Egypt are regarded as sacred. Some are domesticated, and others are not, but if I were to explain why some animals are allowed to roam free, as sacred creatures, my account would be bound to discuss issues pertaining to the gods, and I am doing my best to avoid relating such things. It is only when I have had no choice that I have touched on them already.

(II.65)

Herodotus actually addresses religious issues frequently throughout his Histories as in the case of Croesus (I.47-91), Cyrus (I.124-126), Persian religious customs (I.131), Themistocles' speech to the Athenians (VIII.109), earlier in his discussion of the Egyptians (II.36-37) and elsewhere. When he claims to be avoiding religious issues, then, what he means is he will discuss practices and events relating to the gods but will not comment on their spiritual significance, though he sometimes slips and does this as well.

It is possible, as some have claimed, that he simply did not understand the religious significance of embalming to the Egyptians, but it is far more likely that he omits commentary for any number of reasons including the personal nature of religious belief and how a discussion of Egyptian beliefs might affect how his audience received the culture. His passage on Egyptian burial is in keeping with his tendency to emphasize positive aspects of a culture he wants his Greek audience to either admire (Egyptians) or understand better (Persians) in the same way he advances a negative narrative concerning those he does not seem to care for (Lydians).

In his section on burial in Egypt, then, he stays close to the actual practice in the interests of informing his readers on funerary rites but omits the deeper meaning as it might have offended the Greeks' own understanding of death, burial, and the afterlife. A reflection on the structure of the chapters in his burial passage, however, suggests he knew the spiritual significance of his topic and did address it, only obliquely.

Book of the Dead (detail)

Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Spiritual Significance of Mummification

The Egyptian understanding of the soul was far more complex than the Greek. The Egyptians understood the soul as being comprised of nine aspects:

Khat was the physical body.

Ka was one's double-form.

Ba was a human-headed bird aspect, which could speed between the earth and the heavens.

Shuyet was the shadow self.

Akh was the immortal, transformed self.

Sahu and Sechem were aspects of the Akh.

Ab was the heart, the source of good and evil.

Ren was one's secret name.

After death, the ka and ba needed to be able to recognize the khat in order to travel from the other realm to the tomb to receive the prayer offerings and sustenance that enabled their continued existence, and comfort, in the afterlife. The deceased needed to be remembered by the living in order for their akh to remain vibrant in the paradise of the Field of Reeds and the deceased needed to be shown proper respect upon their departure from earth for the same reason. Mummification and an elaborate sarcophagus in the image of the deceased were thought to provide for the soul in this.

Egyptian Mummy

Justin Chay (CC BY-NC-SA)

The practice of mummification also served as a cleansing ritual, purifying the body of the sins of life in preparation for the soul's journey to the Hall of Truth to stand in judgment before Osiris, Lord of the Dead, and the Forty-Two Judges. Scholar Jan Assmann explains:

Guilt, accusation, enmity, and so forth are treated as forms of impurity and decay – as, so to say, immaterial but harmful substances – that must be eliminated so as to transpose the deceased into a condition of purity that can withstand decay and dissolution. Vindication was moral mummification. When the embalmer's work on the corpse was done, the priests took over and extended the work of purification and preservation to the entirety of the person. The Egyptian word for 'mummy' also meant 'worthy' and 'aristocrat'. In this last stage of the mummification process, the deceased experiences the Judgment of the Dead and received the aristocratic status of a follower of Osiris in the Netherworld.

(Chapman, 81)

If the body of the deceased was not treated with the proper care, the soul might return to earth to haunt the living, causing all kinds of problems, until that wrong was righted. Scholar Sarah Lynn Chapman notes how the judgment of the soul in the afterlife was believed to begin during the embalming process when the sins of the righteous were removed with the organs that would have been tainted by those sins, thereby making the soul's spiritual heart lighter and prepared for judgment; for the unrighteous, however, the embalming process would have been a torture as they were thought to cling to their sins and so the removal was a painful experience.

Continue reading...

[hood-ex]

I don't read the comics very often but I do watch Young Justice and I have been meaning to ask- Is Dick Grayson's portrayal different in the animated series from the comics?

Because he definitely seems very goofy to me, with some serious streak.

p.s" I am *very* new to this fandom and I hope that I haven't set off anyone with this question in my hyper-fixation quest.

I've actually answered this question a few times I think, but I answered them so long ago I hardly remember what I said. I've also not watched YJ in so long at this point that I'm not sure I can remember enough to comment on super specific things. And me having more comic knowledge now than I did when I first watched the show may also impact how I felt about it then vs. now. I'll try to dredge up some things though.

I feel like most Dick Grayson comic readers enjoy Dick's portrayal in Young Justice. I only watched Seasons 1-2 of YJ and some of S3, so I can't say whether or not Dick's portrayal in the later episodes or seasons are accurate.

In Young Justice, we see different sides to Dick. As Robin, he's more playful and expressive, and as Nightwing, he's more serious. In an old post of mine, I talked about these sides of him from the perspective of his comic counterpart:

I always see Dick as a mixture of serious and playful whether he's solo or working with a team. He's not just one at all times. When there's downtime or a mission that involves some simple beatings, he's more personable and willing to joke. When there's a serious situation where death is more likely, the serious demeanor falls into place. In Outsiders, Dick is serious when he's with the team, but he's playful and personable towards Roy at times. In Teen Titans, Dick is playful when they're giving some villains a beating, but he's very serious when Wally is hurt. In Nightwing, Dick is more chill when he's living his regular civilian life, and sometimes when he's out as Nightwing, his inner commentary is lighter. Like all things, his demeanor depends on the severity of the situation as well as whether the story is focusing on his civilian life or vigilante one.

By the time we got to YJ S2, the situation that was occurring was quite serious, and on top of that, Dick had experienced Jason's death at that point. Between those past losses and all the weight on Dick's shoulders from his responsibilities, it's no wonder that we got the more serious version of him in S2. So yeah, S1 Dick is more playful, which does reflect comic Dick's kind and more personable side. S2 shows Dick in leader mode, which also reflects comic Dick's leader side well.

If you want some examples of comic Dick's leader side, you can look at my old post here:

I think YJ at least does a decent job of showing Dick's duality in that sense. And it was nice in YJ for us to see Dick get that character development where he went from doing things on his own out of habit of working with Batman to learning how to be a more effective leader of a team.

Hm what else. Dick's manipulation/secret keeping in YJ is accurate (aka the whole Artemis and Kaldur situation). It's the "Batman" in him. This is something that's dealt with in the comics. Dick's friends in the comics may call him out for being too much like Batman or pulling some kind of Batman stunt. Oh and Dick wearing sunglasses in S1 to hide his identity... also accurate to his comic counterpart in keeping his identity to himself.

Then maybe one other thing I didn't necessarily like in S2 was that Dick was held back at the base to coordinate things rather than being out in the field. Which like. I guess makes sense for YJ because, if I'm remembering correctly, Dick was leading different squads of heroes. I guess it would make more sense for him to be in one central location where he could keep an eye on all teams at all times. However, in the comics, Dick would normally be out in the field with his team.

[oensible]

found it (re: this post)

[Video description: NBC broadcast from the first period of the 2025 Feb 8 Dallas Stars @ San Jose Sharks game with Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda providing voiceover commentary. Score is Dallas—1 goal, 3 shots, and Sharks—2 goals, 2 shots. Clip begins with 16:20 left in the period, in the Stars' defensive zone as the puck is rimmed around the boards clockwise, moving from left to right across the ice.

HAHN: —is his rookie season in the NHL; Macklin playing in his 45th game....

Will Smith (Sharks F#2) skates up the slot and curves off to the open ice just to the right of the Stars net. Fabian Zetterlund (Sharks F#20) collects the puck near the blue line, then attempts to pass it up to Smith, but Lian Bichsel (Stars D#6), who is head and shoulders taller than Smith, skates in the way to intercept the pass, but Smith lifts Bichsel's stick with his own and Bichsel loses control of it, sliding the puck to open ice behind the net.

HAHN: ...as Will Smith battles Lian Bichsel behind the net.

Smith and Bichsel give chase, Smith cutting off Bichsel to get his stick on the puck first and getting bodily slammed into the boards by Bichsel. Smith spins out from under Bichsel, moving away and getting open again to the right as the puck keeps moving to the left, where Esa Lindell (Stars D#23) beats Andrew Poturalski (Sharks F#22) to it.

HAHN: For Dallas, Bichsel—6-foot-7, 231 pounds.

Bichsel stays behind the net and receives a short pass from Lindell, then starts trying to skate the puck out along the boards from behind the net, but Smith lightly crosschecks him in the hip, knocking him slightly off balance. As Bichsel tries to get the puck back on his stick, Smith hits him from the side into the boards, bouncing off then falling against the boards himself, pinning Bichsel's stick to the boards and forcing him to use his skates to try to get the puck to a teammate instead. Poturalski and two other Stars converge on the board battle, and Bichsel kicks it a few feet along the boards and right to the tape of Poturalski. Poturalski passes it back into the scrum for Smith.

HAHN: ...from Switzerland! What are they feeding them in Switzerland!

REMENDA: (immediately) Chocolate.

Bichsel, who's freed his stick at this point, attempts to intercept but gets his stick down too late, and Smith is able to get it first, attempting to skate it out of the corner and towards the blue line. However, both Bichsel and Mavrik Bourque (Stars F#22) pressure him aggressively, sweeping the puck forward and just out of Smith's reach. Jamie Benn (Stars F#14), who waits just in front of them, flips the puck out of his d-zone and it travels across the ice into the Shark's own d-zone and the players on ice give chase.

HAHN: And cheese! Lotta cheese! (Drew laughs quietly through his nose in response) 6-foot-7!

Video ends on a shot of Timothy Liljegren (Sharks D#37) appearing to hit Bourque as he tries to squeeze between Liljegren and the boards, sending both of them crashing to the ice as Shakir Mukhamadullin (Sharks D#85) skates the puck behind the Sharks net.]

edit t+6hrs: typoes

[kinardsevan]

How confident are you about BuckTommy getting back together? How do you think it might happen?

I don't know that I've put a number on it. And on one hand, it's because I live in this weird limbo where I'm positive they're getting back together because that's just how you tell a story. but I'm also one of those people who struggles to trust the writers not to fumble shit. So... I mean it's definitely more than 50/50. if I had to choose a number, I guess somewhere around 85/90%. because realistically, that number has only strengthened with my resolve over time (aka the hiatus).

now, I don't have a crystal clear idea on when they get back together. in fact, I spent roughly an hour on a video chat last night throwing out all the various scenarios that I think play into how it happens. hear me out:

so I think I was the first (and possibly only) person who commented on the fact that 806 being when they broke up signaled the end of the opening arc of the season. we're now in the midseason, telling that part of the story, and then obviously 807-812 will be the mid-season, and so forth with 813-818 being the final third. You can even arguably flex the middle part back into 811 if TM really wants the finale to be a multi-episode arc, as has been suggested. that all said, I think there are a few things that 805-808 set up for the rest of the middle of this season.

we got a lot of suggestion toward something happening. I'm really kinda sold on a helicopter crash actually happening midseason, mostly because I feel like holding it off for the finale would piss off the people who would be like "Tommy's not a MC". I also think that (unfortunately) not everyone views Tommy in the same blorbo shape we do, so as much as we would enjoy a three episode arc with a helicopter crash, coma, etc.,....it's just not going to shake out that way. Not even if all of this has been done (the break up I mean) as a push for the network to pony up more money to add him to the main cast (that's my own theory, there's absolutely no proof of it).

I know I've listed all of these in previous asks, but just in case this is the first one you're seeing, let's go through the list:

805: "having a crew like this around you when things go wrong" "especially when things go wrong" // "our people are what make our lives worth living

806: "no matter how badly I want it to be, I'm not your last" "they can be the same thing" // (Buck's entire understanding by the end of the Glee scene that yes, he is in fact in love with Tommy, even if he didn't say it)

807: ALL the baking. We have to reference back to 705 when Buck told Eddie "I kinda can't stop thinking about him", which then translatd in 807 to "whenever I think about calling Tommy, I channel it into something positive" (i.e., the baking), and we also know he's constantly baking. Even in 808, he has the entire basket that he shows up to Eddie's house with, which very much suggests, he's trying to move on, but is still very much in love with Tommy. ALSO, the "what if he's hurt and needs my help" 808: I honestly feel like the only real scenes that we got in this entire episode that moved the plot forward at all were the scene (sort-of) with Eddie and Brad (which honestly should've been Bobby/Eddie, but whatever), and the scene with Buck and Eddie. There's also this fascinating conversation that could be had about Buck with the whole "I'm still jonesing for it"/wanting to keep baking. There's so much out of 807 and 808 that really point to Oliver's commentary with the post-806 interview where he talked about Buck swinging like a pendulum, trying to figure out if he should reach out or just let go. But here's the thing: there's no closure on this. Given that we follow the story through Buck's eyes, the show is telling us that Buck has not been able to shut the door on this relationship, which really serves us (the audience) then, with the need for this to be hashed out, for Buck to say his piece, and then let pieces lie where they may.

Now, the naysayers will argue that this could just be a final conversation of goodbye, and they're welcome to feel that way. Except.

"No matter how bad I want it to be" // "We don't have to get engaged or married" -- Even as a general audience member, I think people can understand that these are serious statements. They're both saying that they want a future together, but Tommy's fear (and Buck's steamrolling) have (temporarily) put a stop to that. I think there's also a point in some of the statements that came out of that same post-806 interview, where TM said Tommy was setting Buck "free" to explore his sexuality and learn more about himself.

now, there are a million and a half interpretations to this. some people think that Buck absolutely needs to seek out and understand more about himself (and by extension, Tommy). some (like me) don't feel that this is a show that's ever going to publicly acknowledge Buck having a scene where he says the words "I'm bisexual" out loud. I've also seen a take recently that was half meta/half fic kinda looking at the idea of Buck's questioning in 806 being because he didn't fully understand the engagement of the outside world to their relationship. the only problem with that rhetoric is that we have 705 and 706. we have the coffee date, where he holds Tommy's hand and publicly asks him on date, and then we have him kissing the other man in public. if he's done it once, he's done it a million times after six months, so I don't think you're facing a situation where he's uncomfortable with who he is, especially when he openly outed himself to every person he loves with said boyfriend. (granted, there are complaints about the whole "I noticed you didn't" conversation, at which I feel the need to remind people that, in the grand scheme it may not seem like that conversation makes much sense, but Buck is the vehicle through which the show was using to get to the story about Abby; also there's a difference between asking someone about their sexuality versus asking them if they've ever been with x gender. I also cannot stress the importance in that particular scene of, Buck is and always has been bisexual. Even if he's only recently come to understand that's what it is, he has ONLY EVER KNOWN having the concept of being sexually attracted to both genders, even if he didn't think that dating men was an option before Tommy. [and also, there's such a full-on essay I could write about this issue alone, given his upbringing]. I think in relation to that, you have to be understanding to his "I noticed you didn't", because he probably can't conceptualize a version of people who are only straight or gay, because he's always looked at both the same way.)

THAT ALL SAID:

obviously I've commentated on the fact that we're going to get some kind of injury/accident/etc. Another quote that stays in my mind with the interviews post-806 was the final line in one where Oliver made the statement that "it's 911, there's always trauma coming". (I'm butchering that, but it's the general point). granted, we can take that as we choose/view it through the lens of Maddie's kidnapping... except, someone asked @nqueso-emergency recently about the episodes that had been directed by the directors of 809/10, and looking at that list as I was literally watching several of those episodes really led me to the idea that there's the possibility that we're been fed a swerve with what we know about the coming episodes. we've been told Maddie will be kidnapped, and even shown those scenes. I've personally questioned/theorized whether that will somehow feed into the b/t of it all, and Buck's situationship he's going fall into. obviously because we don't actually have answers, there's a million different ways that could pan out.

when I tell you I have a million and a half theories... I have a million and a half theories.

Like... what if Buck also gets kidnapped and it has to do with the situationship? Or what if it doesn't, but he still gets kidnapped? Or what if Tommy is kidnapped along with Maddie, and it is or isn't related to the situationship, but generally has something to do with Buck and Maddie? I just keep coming back to this thing of the eventual rescue that has to come out of the kidnapping, and the different ways that can play out. One of the things I was thinking most about lately was how I feel like you could see the episode end similarly to 610, where things feel like they've settled and they're going to be okay (Maddie's been found; Tommy and Chimney going after the Buckleys to bring them home, helicopter crash being the final scene of the episode), which would then tee up an entire episode where you can play out the drama of the break up, whatever confessions came through the kidnapping, etc. because that's my other thing: I genuinely feel like whatever disaster is going to befall Tommy that leads to him realizing that these people are also his people, is going to be with Evan. TM has done this before (most notably with Judd, from my own memory of LS). crashing the helicopter with the two of them together and forcing them to survive while having unresolved issues really forces them to lay things out to one another. now. will that necessarily be how the show does it?

who knows.

I've also flirted with the idea of Chimney and Tommy going after Buck and Maddie (because at the end of the day, this is a rehashing of Doug kidnapping Maddie, so we know Buck will go after her), and there not being a helicopter crash, but Tommy getting into trouble for taking government property (again), but this time getting in actual trouble for it. if they wanted to play into the entire "Eddie going to Texas" storyline, they could demote him, ship him back to the 118 (I just keep hearing Chief Alonzo tell him "since you love the 118 so much, you can go back there"), and the following episodes really playing into OS' slow burn of them not being together but also having forced proximity, which obvs would ultimately lead to them getting back together by the end of the season. this also really tees up the option that people like where we get storytelling on Tommy's past through him and Buck just generally being forced to engage more in a way that isn't romantic. and then obvs by the end of the season, Eddie would come back, Tommy would do some heroic shit that would get him back to the 217, and so forth.

the last little idea I've played with most recently, post-810, is the idea that they do the kidnapping, the resolution (without Tommy at all), and we see a massive time jump. Truth be told, I don't think they'll skip over baby Han #2's birth, but I also was kinda like "...but what if they did?" what if we skipped ahead in the timeline a year or two? Eddie going to Texas, Madney having their baby, Bathena's house being finished, Henren having their time with their kids, and Buck having his "discovery stage".... only to circle back around to the fact that over the course of a year (or two, etc), he's still in love with Tommy. Sure, the infatuation is quieter now in his head, not as prominent and the grief doesn't hurt as much... but any time they run into each other on-scene or in public, that pang is still there. the love is still there. you could really parlay that into something akin to when Maddie went back to Chimney in 218 to reconcile, which I think is an option. Maybe even twist it into a version of "you were my first, and I still want you to be my last".

the only other version of this I have personally conceptualized is the idea that the kidnapping happens (once again without any involvement with Tommy), things are working out, Buck is having his situationship... and then the helicopter crash happens. I've definitely flirted with idea leaning towards Buck/Josh because I think the bones are all already there, at which point you then get some level of a scene where there's a group scene, the news of the crash is heard, and you swiftly get this acknowledgment of "welp, that's over". because I am not at all putting it past this show to use a NDE to be what pushes b/t back together. especially because, at the end of the day, these are two people who told each other they want to spend the rest of their lives together (refer back to my barriers comment above). I will not put it past them to have what shakes Tommy's resolve is one of them almost dying and realizing he'd rather be scared and alive than know one of them could be dead and not have had that time together.

anyway....i've word vomited for ages now. this took me like an hour to write. you're welcome.

yall really gotta stop sending me these asks b/c then I just hyperfixate and go all "look at my brainmap!"

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Donald Trump’s Racist NYC Rally Was Vile. It Was Also Political Suicide

FINAL ACT

The Madison Square Garden rally, operatic in its repulsive bigotry, will almost certainly alienate more voters who might have voted for Trump.

David Rothkopf

Updated Oct. 27 2024 10:57PM EDT / Published Oct. 27 2024 10:49PM EDT 

Opinion

To all those Republicans who shed crocodile tears because their feelings were so hurt that people were calling Donald Trump a fascist: stop.

To all the MAGA defenders who said it was over-the-top to compare Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally to that held by the German-American Bund in an earlier incarnation of Madison Square Garden: shush.

To all those who were falling once again for the bought and paid for narrative that Trump somehow had the momentum going into the final week of campaign 2024: nope.

Even Republicans Angry at Trump Rally Joke About Puerto Rico

‘MAGA ON STEROIDS’

Amethyst Martinez, Matt Young

On Sunday at MSG, Donald Trump engineered what will be seen by political analysts and later by historians as the coup de grâce that killed forever his prospects of being president and may well have set him on a post-election course on which he finally may be held accountable for his actions.

The interminable rally concluded by an interminable, disjointed, incoherent and yet clearly vile speech by the former president, might have been touted by Trump’s son Don Jr., one of the former president’s warm-up acts, as the “king of New York returning to reclaim his crown.” But Trump was never the king of New York. (Sorry, Lara, your father-in-law did not “build” New York. Immigrants did. But we’ll get to that in a minute.)

Trump has always been loathed in New York City, especially in his former home borough of Manhattan where the vote against him was and will be dependably over 80 percent. But if he was hated before, rest assured, he will be more despised after tonight.

That was clear early on when Tony Hinchcliffe, a man invited by Trump to give one of the introductory speeches—who in true MAGA fashion alleged without providing a shred of evidence that he was a comedian—offered a KKK buffet of nauseating slurs. He called Puerto Rico “an island of floating garbage.”

“There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico” pic.twitter.com/IXbXqDijyU— Acyn (@Acyn) October 27, 2024

The “joke” was as stupid as it was repulsive because there are almost 600,000 Puerto Ricans in New York City and many more spread across regions of vtial importance in the upcoming election. It also happened to come on a day when Vice President Kamala Harris announced her detailed and thoughtful plan for Puerto Rico, an island Trump wanted to trade to Denmark in exchange for Greenland.

But this loser did not stop there. He offered unfunny commentary about his view that Latinos “love making babies” and a reference to how his Black friends liked carving watermelons.

You might think that a few super-racist comments from one speaker might not warrant comments that compared the Trump rally to the Nazi meeting 85 years ago. But his comments were hardly the worst. And the racism and the hate and incitement to violence and the promise of an increasingly authoritarian state continued from the very beginning of the event to the very end.

One speaker said that Harris was managed by “pimp handlers” and said of Democrats that “we need to slaughter these other people.” Disgraced and destitute former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, as did several others, that Democrats were behind attempts to kill Donald Trump. Another speaker called Harris “the devil” and “the antichrist.”

Former Trump aide Stephen Miller as is his habit went directly for the Nazi playbook saying, “America is for Americans and Americans only.” Tucker Carlson came out to offer more racist slurs about Harris. Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off while declaring he saw no Nazis in the audience (thus proving that steroids abuse can not only shrivel up your junk but that it’s not really good for your eyesight either).

Elon Musk was there acting strangely and promising to slash the size of the government (except presumably the parts that are subsidizing his businesses).

Trump attacked the media, and egged the crowd on to boo journalists in the crowd. He said migrants had taken over Times Square (which Is 9 blocks uptown from where the rally was held). He called the US an occupied country which, while bad, may be better than his reference to it as a garbage can the other day. He called Harris a “low IQ individual.” He offered so many lies that cable networks tuned him out because it was impossible to keep up with fact-checking him. He returned to old themes like the bizarre notion that Harris would reinstate the draft and start World War III.

Most importantly from the perspective of confirming his fascism he reiterated at length his assertion that his opponents were “enemies of the people.” (You know the ones against whom he promised to unleash the US military.) He called them “the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth.”

In other words the entire event despite its marathon length and hodgepodge of z-list speakers, delivered over and over again a very focused message. The Trump campaign is about retribution and revenge. It is about the white supremacist desire to purge America of all their neighbors of different colors and beliefs. It is about Trump’s desire to seek out his enemies and punish them. And over the course of its Wagnerian length (and resonances) it single out group after group that would be deported or punished.

But worse still, unlike the Bund rally, Trump’s was not a fringe affair. It was led by a former president of the United States on behalf of very nearly half of the American people.

Its threats of authoritarianism were supported by efforts during the first Trump presidency to sidestep the rule of law and by crimes including a coup attempt we all saw with our own eyes. Its future plans for concentration camps in the US and for mass deportations and the use of the military against the American people have been carefully developed, and there is a plan to put them in place.

That is why Trump’s Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden was, as it turned out, far more ominous than its predecessor. It should chill Americans to the bone. But, I expect it will do more than that. I believe it will mobilize more voters to take action on Nov. 5 to stop the 21st-century fascism of Trump and MAGA.

Trump may be thinking the rally will help him mobilize thugs to violence when he contests his loss and we should be wary of that. But he has provided on the eve of the election the best case why he must be defeated that has ever been presented. In the end, because what unfolded was so foul and so offensive and threatening to so many of us, I believe that is why we will someday conclude that for all intents and purposes Trump’s final political act occurred on the biggest stage in America’s biggest city, a couple of blocks from Broadway.

David Rothkopf

djrothkopf

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