#far right propoganda

[hedgewitchgarden]

transcript: Twitter user Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely):

PLEASE STOP framing climate change denial as matter of ignorant yokels disbelieving science. It's a deeply coordinated propaganda campaign bankrolled by right-wing owners of capital, whose interests would be threatened by any legitimate effort to curb emissions. Treat it as such.

[smidge-j]

Idk maybe I've just witnessed people close to me fall into right wing conspiracy rabbitholes, but maybe you shouldn't put all your trust into twitter posts about something as major as election fraud

[violentviolette]

i leave the mental health tags on this site for five minutes and come back to yall genuinely believing in ramcoa with ur whole chests jesus fucking christ

[the-muppet-joker]

could you elaborate on your choices for the 4 horsemen for the ponies? i’m deeply curious about your wisdom and insight

Very well.

Famine = Luna

Both are black horses

When Nightmare Moon takes over, there is no sun. Crops cannot grow under these conditions. Her reign is a reign of famine and no harvest.

Additionally, in the episode Cutie Re-Mark, it is shown that under Nightmare Moon's domain, Timberwolves roam free. While they are not directly tied to famine, they have symbolism regarding Harvest as they are known to howl at the first zap apple and attack those who try to harvest them if they are nearby, hindering people's ability to gather fruit.

War = Cadance

Naturally, a pony red with the blood of those slain in war is generally not marketable to little girls, who are unfamiliar with bloodlust and afraid of violence. They settled for a close second: pink.

She is the princess of love. Are you familiar with the phrase "all is fair in love and war?" Wars are acts of passion and bloodshed. Passion? Blood? Both symbolically related to the Heart. And what is her cutie mark as well as the sacred object that gives power to her kingdom? The Crystal Heart.

The Crystal Kingdom, Cadance's kingdom, is frequently under threat of was throughout the series. Queen Crysalis and the Changelings. Sombra. Again, in the episode Cutie Re-Mark, we see a timeline im which Sombra had won. And what is the state of Equestria? A mirror fucking image of how other countries in real life are affected by war. We literally have soldiers Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash and we see Apple Jack working tirelessly to ship out apple mush to feed soldiers for the war effort. This parallel is so clear and frankly I could go on.

Conquest = Celestia

Yes I know the image says strife. I wanted the pictures to be in a consistant style and they used the word strife but it says conquest in the Bible. Anyways, they are both white horses.

I mean. Do I need to spell it out? Celestia is an imperialist. She spreads her and her nation's influence and ideology as far as she is able. Cadance is installed as the leader of the Crystal Empire under her direction. They have conflict with the changelings, so they promote a leader more sympathetic to their nation. The school of friendship? Teaching other species the way to act and behave? Are non-ponies unfamiliar with friendship? Propoganda. And she is the Princess of the Sun. THE SUN. NEVER. SETS. ON. EQUESTRIA'S. EMPIRE. Sound familiar?

Do not make an enemy of Celestia or you will be punished and then brainwashed into submission. Luna? The moon. Discord? Stone. Sombra? Tirek? The list goes on. Again, I feel this is a clear parallel that needs little explanation.

Death = Twilight Sparkle

Indeed this is the most subtle connection. After all, she is not even close to the right color. She is purple! No relation to death whatsoever........ right? WRONG. In the Catholic faith, the calandar is divided into different seasons with associated colors. Purple is the color of death and mourning; priests will exclusively wear purple robes for mass during Lent to symbolize Christ's suffering and death on the cross.

Twilight has a very important role as she and her friends are the bearers of the elements of harmony, with Twilight in the lead. The power of this clearly escalates throughout the series, as the mane six progress from turning Discord to stone to completely destroying Sombra after he is initially resurrected. We watch them become a force that could take away anyone's life force, Twilight especially. And let's not forget the form the elements later take. The tree of harmony. Reminiscent of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, from which humanity committed its first sin and thus were kicked out of Eden, gaining the ability to die.

Twilight will outlive all of her friends. As an allicorn, she is immortal. We see in the last episode that she is in her prime while all of her friends are elderly. How can one be a Princess of Friendship if she sees all her friends to the ends of their lives like a benevolent Reaper? After so many years of standing at the deathbeds of loved ones, she will feel detatched from others. A Princess of Death.

And yes Flurryheart is the fifth Princess but she is a clear allagory for the Antichrist so I did not include her

[most-unhinged-les-mis-moment]

Round One: A1: Poll Four

Wacky Coffin Heist can be found in the Brick, at: Several chapters of 2.8 (Starts at 2.8.4)

Myriel getting his position by saying something smart to Napoleon can be found in the brick, at: 1.1.1

PROPAGANDA:

Wacky Coffin Heist: (Fun fact! This was BY FAR the most submitted moment!! :D)

Not only does Jean Valjean pull this wacky coffin heist escape, he’s EXCITED to do it. Like his buddy Fauchelevent keeps going “I don’t know sounds dangerous” while Jean Valjean keeps smiling and going “it will be fine! :D it will be wonderful! :D”. It’s one of the few times in the book we see the unbearably sad beast get genuinely happy about something that isn’t Cosette . It’s an unhinged heist but even more unhinged because it brings him this unexpected joy

He comes up with the plan himself, then almost dies because of it. King shit.

( @pontmercysamis (no propoganda, just wanted to be credited for being one of the people who submitted this one :) )

(Submitted by @blatherby ) Most relevant quotes, IMO 2.8.4: You can pick whichever translation you like best for the quotes. Here’s my favorite specific line: Jean Valjean eut un de ces rares sourires qui lui venaient comme une lueur dans un ciel d’hiver. (Hugo) Jean Valjean gave way to one of those rare smiles which lighted up his face like a flash from heaven in the winter. (Hapgood) This Unbearably Sad Beast who basically never smiles (especially not without it being described a sad smile) is now having his smile compared to: - the aurora in a winter sky (Wilbour) - a sunbeam in a wintry sky (Wraxall) - a flash from heaven in the winter (Hapgood) - sunshine breaking through a winter’s sky (Denny) - a sunrise in winter (FMA) - a ray of sunshine in a winter sky (Rose) - a gleam of sunlight in a winter sky (Donougher) … because he’s so ecstatic *over getting buried alive!* Something is Wrong with him (affectionate). Okay, to be fair, he doesn’t *actually* want to be buried alive (… at this point in the book), based on his reaction to the plan going awry later. But he’s having a blast with every aspect of this except for the actual suffocating to death part. His joy over this is so unhinged that—well, here’s Fauchelevent at the end of that chapter: “Agreed, father Fauchelevent. It will all be all right.” “Provided nothing goes wrong,” thought Fauchelevent. “What if it all goes horribly wrong?!” (Rose translation) And here’s Fauchelevent the next day, in the next chapter: Fauchelevent limped along behind the hearse, happy as can be. His two mysteries, his two twin plots, one in league with the nuns, the other with Monsieur Madeleine, one for the convent, the other against, had succeeded together, one after the other. Jean Valjean’s calmness was one of those powerful tranquilizers that are contagious. Fauchelevent was no longer worried about whether they would bring it off. […] Fauchelevent felt completely secure. As the convoy entered the avenue leading to the cemetery, Fauchelevent looked at the hearse, happy, and rubbed his big hands together, muttering to himself: “Not a bad joke!” (Rose) JVJ is so happy and calm over pretending to be dead that he’s literally acting as an anxiety medication. (I propose that we send JVJ on coffin heists and bottle his powerful calmness. Everyone wins!)

the entire coffin heist is so wacky but that bit specifically made me cackle. I dunno I like the juxtaposition

Myriel getting his position by saying something smart to Napoleon:

I don't remember which translation it was that had him say something like "You sir, are looking at a good man, but I am looking at a great man", but Myriel is such a fun character, I love him

[kitkatt0430]

Star Wars Rebels fanfic idea keeps spinning in the back of my head, so I may wind up writing something for that eventually.

The idea?

After the Seige of Lasan turned into a massacre, in canon Kallus basically doubles down on believing in the Empire because he has to or else his self image of himself as a good, honorable man falls apart. But his feelings of guilt over it were what let Zeb get through to him years later and accidentally knock over the dominoes that directly led to Kallus becoming Fulcrum.

So what if he had his crisis of conscience earlier. In the wake of the massacre of Lasan, Kallus starts asking questions and he learns this is far from the first genocide the Empire had perpetrated since it's inception. It was, arguably, founded on genocide - the Jedi, the Clone Troopers, the Kaminoans, the Caamasi, and several others. All within the first year of the Empire's founding. The more he digs, the more he finds, and while he doesn't trust the Rebellion because a.) it's a bunch of disparate groups at the moment and b.) Saw Gerrera's treatment of his platoon at Onderon was incredibly fucked up... he knows he has to do something.

Fast forward to the start of the Rebels canon. There's significantly more sympathy to the Rebellion and there are more rebel cells out there, some that have already been forming alliances between sectors though the tendency towards insular thinking is still hampering the creation of a wider Rebel Alliance. The increased Rebel sympathies, even within the Imperial Navy itself, is in part due to an enigmatic broadcast that hijacks Imperial frequencies and civilian frequencies alike. Calling itself the Genocide Report, it has inundated the Empire with top secret details of the decisions behind countless genocides. Notable exceptions being some of the ones that happened in the first year of the Empire's rise. Presumably because so many details, and thus actual proof, has been lost.

The Imperial propoganda machine works hard to dismiss the Genocide Watch as nothing more than conspiracy theories and lies, but the more it reports... and the more those reports can be verified, the more people believe in the facts it presents. It is a major thorn in the Empire's side.

Many Imperial Agents have tried to track down the person - or persons, most believe there's a rebel cell or network of cells behind the propaganda - behind the Genocide Watch. Including Agent Kallus. But, of course, none have succeeded and eventually all get reassigned elsewhere.

And of course the reason no one has found the network behind the Genocide Watch is because it's actually two people. Alexsandr Kallus and a hacker he recruited. Alex finds the information and creates the broadcast information. Formats it in a way to make it both easy to understand while still presenting the facts, then passes it on to his hacker contact who then disseminates the information on their own schedule.

He's gotten away with it for so long that he's honestly shocked he hasn't been caught yet and he's still trying to get info on the Jedi massacre as his final report before he gets the hell out of the Empire and either finally joins a rebel cell (if any would take an ex-Imperial like him) or get somewhere far, far out of the way in the Outer Rim.

Which is what's going on with him when he's sent out to the Lothal sector and comes into contact with the Ghost's crew... right as Kanan reveals himself as a Jedi and takes Ezra as his padawan. This brings in the Inquisitors and Darth Vader, giving Kallus the excuse he needs to request access to the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant in order to gather information on Kanan Jarrus' past... and thus putting him in position of identifying both Darth Vader's true identity and answering the biggest unknown of the Clone Wars - who was the Sith Lord behind both sides of the conflict?

It'd weave in and out of canon - I really like the idea of Kanan finding out Kallus isn't exactly a loyal officer when Kallus kills an Inquisitor to stop Kanan from being tortured. Whether that would actually work in the actual fic (if it ever gets written)... who knows? But the main thrust of the story would be Kallus finally getting close to the answers to questions he started asking after Lasan, yet at the same time his position is getting increasingly precarious as his sympathies to the Ghost's crew continues to grow to the point he's taking risks for them he knows he shouldn't. Not if he wants to keep suspicion off himself and protect the hacker half of the Genocide Report.

[ikatakoirl]

We need to normalize criticizing our favorite works, pointing out shortcomings in representation while simultaneously celebrating how far that representation has come. I’ll go first.

The Riordanverse (Percy Jackson and its spin-offs) is hands-down one of the best examples of mainstream queer representation for kids. It was probably the biggest formative element of my early queer journey, and I am so grateful for everything Rick Riordan has done for the community. I will continue to support him and his works with all of my heart.

That being said, he has a problem with squeezing his representation into the very last pages of the book, confirmed but not explored. We have three confirmed queer relationships involving demigods:

Nico and Will, confirmed in the last chapter of the series

Piper and Shel, confirmed on the very last page of The Burning Maze.

Magnus and Alex, confirmed in the last chapter of the series (they did kiss a bit earlier)

P.S. I forgot about Lavinia until just before posting, but her entire lesbianism also is introduced and concluded in the span of about a page.

As you can see, it’s extremely consistent. Like I said, these are the only three examples of queer teenage relationships over Riordan’s five series, and they all happen right at the end. We also find that most of the straight pairings (Percy/Annabeth, Frank/Hazel, Jason/Piper, Tyson/Ella, and even things like Hedge/Mellie are confirmed in the middle of the series and given room to grow our at least be referenced back to.

It’s unclear whether this was a conscious or unconscious decision. Perhaps Riordan felt constrained by his publisher. Perhaps he was afraid that he didn’t have the proper background knowledge to accurately write the details of a queer relationship. Both of these are understandable and valid, if a bit disappointing, and I would much rather that he wrote them as he did than not at all.

However…

The good news is that it seems like he’s trying to fix it! He sprinkled in enough of Will and Nico in the first book of the sequel series Trials of Apollo for me to forgive him for their lackluster confirmation in Heroes of Olympus. But then he surprised us all by making Nico and Will two of the five main characters on the Trials of Apollo’s finale (The Tower of Nero), and I can tell you that the fandom ate it up!

But in case that wasn’t enough, soon after the release of The Tower of Nero, Riordan announced The Sun and the Star, now set for release this May! In this book, Nico and Will are the protagonist and deuteragonist, meaning the story will be entirely focused around them! And just to make sure Riordan absolutely knows what he’s doing, he’s decided to co-write it with a gay author Mark Oshiro to make sure they can represent the characters accurately!

And… and the best part… Riordan has done his fair share of novellas and short stories, and ever since the announcement I had assumed that that’s what this was, but no! It’s a full-length book with 480 pages! To compare, that’s strangely enough the exact same page count as The Tower of Nero! I’m so blown away by how much Riordan has gone above and beyond with this book, and I’m insanely excited for it. Sorry this turned into The Sun and the Star propoganda, I didn’t know that the publication date was so close or how long it was until just now.

Anyway, where I’m going with this is that I have extreme respect for a creator who’s willing to listen to feedback from the kinds of people he is writing about and constantly grow from those mistakes! He’s still by far my favorite author of all time. Love you, Uncle Rick!

[irlcats-bracket]

Bracket 5 Semifinals 2

Blackie vs Maccabee

check their descriptions and catpaganda (new for blackie)

BLACKIE

This is Blackie, submitter's little one-eyed wonder. He lost his eye to glaucoma quite a few years ago, but he's doing a lot better now, and still likes to play with his sister, Artemis. His name is Blackie because that's what the shelter named him and submitter's family couldn't agree on a new name for him so it stuck, but submitter themselves call him 'Big Boi' because of just how massive he is. He was once very timid, but with time and love and patience he is now a certified lap cat who will come right up to strangers to demand pets. He has a wonderful squeaky meow and when he purrs it sounds like two cats purring at once. He likes to have people watch him eat and he will guide submitter's mom over to the couch and make her lay down just so he can sleep in her lap. Also, when he lays on his back, he covers his belly with his tail. Pictured is him in his signature polite boi sitting pose

MACCABEE

- weird old man

- known to bite people's elbows when prompted

- frequently sleeps with one (1) limb stretched in a random direction

- the reason submitter can't have pineapples in the house

- knows the word "treat," meaning it cannot be said out loud around him

- they got him for chanukah (hence the name). diversity win! this cat is jewish!

- they paid $150 to buy him a half-page ad in submitter's high school yearbook because he's worth it <3

CATPAGANDA

MACCABEE

has a post made by his human as a separate propaganda piece. it has bribery. the offer as far as i know still stands

also has agitational posters!!

BLACKIE

So glad to see Blackie still in the competition! His response so far has been "aow."

Truth be told, I'm running out of propaganda. If he make it to the next round, I'm gonna try my darnedest to capture his meows on video, which I haven't been able to do before because he sees me coming with the camera and starts purring XD

For now, more assorted Blackie facts!

Very rarely, when he gets the zoomies, he'll laugh. Like "huhuhuheueheHUEHEUE" kinda laugh.

I like to let him sniff human food/whatever I'm holding just to make sure he feels included (still doesn't like anything but pizza crumbs). But he has gagged on pickled ginger, banana, and CBD rub. He always gets really embarrassed when he gags tho

Ever since I got a job, he has been following me to bed and jumping on my chest to get the pets that he now lacks during the day.

If he sees you getting out the cat brush, he''ll lead you over to where he wants to be brushed.

On that note, when I had hurt my leg one time, Blackie saw that I wasn't leaning down to pet him and instead lead me over to the couch to have me sit down to pet him. He kept that up for a couple months once he saw how relieved it made me.

More Blackie propoganda! This time I bring you big boi in motion

link

Assorted Blackie facts:

A brave man when it comes to thunderstorms. But the vacuum? His mortal enemy.

The friendliest cat at the shelter. But the staff forced me to pick him up and hold him to get a picture and he got terrified and peed on me.

We think, based on how he acts, that he may have grown up in a home with dogs. But the mark on his ear is one done by our local neuter and release program, so we don't know if he was a stray, an outside cat, etc. But he's one of the friendliest cats I've ever met.

Will go up to his sister and put his head down to get it licked. But as soon as she goes to lick him and flattens his ears and raises a paw like he's gonna hit her. Sometimes they fight and sometimes they just walk away. We don't think he's trying to trick her because he acts genuinely confused throughout this process.

Sometimes he uses his back paw to scratch the back of his front leg when he's sitting down and it's so cute <3

These are old photos from when I used to hold a camera down and snap a photo when they leaned in to sniff the lens.

Blackie is our older cat and is such a gentleman. He is eager to love, he does the quickest slow blinks I've ever seen from a cat. He has a two-layered purr, it literally sounds like a cat purring as popcorn is being made in the background. He lost his eye to glaucoma when he was younger but he runs around and plays and teases his sister Artemis like a kitten. And his eyebrow whiskers grew down over his missing eye! He's not a big fan of people food but he has a fondness for pizza crumbs (NOT the crust. Just the crumbs off the plate when you're done eating the pizza). He walks like he's gingerly stepping through flowers and he's so gentle that the one time I overstimulated him and he wanted to bite me, he just shoved his closed mouth against my hand. He has a super long tongue and if you scratch the right spot between his shoulder blades he will lick the air. He's my precious boy who started out so scared but he's so brave and social and happy now just typing this out makes me wanna cry and go give him scritchies.

[rise-my-angel]

Hello! Huge fan of your writing. I absolutely adore your dialogue, don't let anyone talk you down about it. I just wanted a place to rant for a minute, as we seem to share a liking for House Stark, if that's okay.

Lately I've seen a lot of people (Usually Targ fans) compare Northern independence to modern conservatism and/or nationalism, rather than an ethnic, cultural and religious minority wanting to rule themselves instead of being ruled over by some king half a continent away from them.

It's like they skipped over at least half of the Greatjon's speech about it. They forget (or purposefully ignore) that the main reason why the Northern lords wanted independence was because a Southern king, who has never even been to the North, wouldn't know anything about the Wolfswood or the barrows of the First Men. It's also the same reason why Robb didn't name his distant cousins from the Vale as his heirs.

It's very easy to see that these people have a right to independance and rebellion when you think about it for literally more than a single minute, especially when the ruling dynasty (I'm mainly talking about the Targaryens here, but also the current state of House Baratheon during the main events of the series.) regularly cannibalizes both itself, and the realm they're supposed to be the "Protectors" of.

It doesn't help that that parody of a show, House of the Dragon, genuinely tries to justify Aegon's Conquest either.

I'm always happy to have someone rant at me about this stuff!

There is a fundemantal misunderstanding about Northern Independance that didn't use to exist and I can pinpoint when that started. Season 7 when Dany spent all season demanding Jon give up his kingdom and bend the knee. Suddenly, Northern Independance didn't matter and he should just give in.

But like you said, it is not a political thing. The North is full of people who are from a different ethnic group, have a more distinct culture and are a minority religion in the country. They are looked down on and their lands are looked down on, their religion is mocked, and they are stereotyped as cold, uncaring wild people with little organization because they are "hard to control".

People, especially targ stans, have bought so heavily into the Targaryean propoganda of how great they are, that they've diluted themselves into thinking that the North is wrong for wanting to be independant. But, they were independant for eight thousand years.

They were ruled by the Starks for 8000 years. They trust in the Starks more then anyone in the kingdom, which is why they looked to Robb at the end of the first book/season 1. They were hopeless after the head of their state was unjustly murdered after they started a war to rescue him, and look to his son who has led them this far to rule them the way his family sucessfully once did for thousnands of years.

People forget that, they didn't just turn to someone to be their King. The North turned to a Stark, to be their King. The only family the North knows they've always been able to look to and trust because the Starks care deeply about their people. Greatjon Umber put it perfectly why they should be indepndant, the south knows nothing about them and in 300 years, has never actually cared to know anything about them.

"It was the dragons we bowed to, and now the dragons are dead."

They bowed to a dangerous force beyond anything they'd ever seen, but they won't do it again. Because while it saved their lives initially, they have been mocked and forgotten in the 300 years theyve been a united realm.

"What do they know of the Wall? or the Wolfswood?"

The south does not respect an integral part of Northern culture. The Wall is something taken seriously by the North. They do not laugh at it or scoff at it. They are always reminded of what their ancestors survived, and they will always guard the Wall no matter how few of them are left to do so. And notably, the family that has always led them, has always guarded the Wall. The Starks take the Wall seriously the way NO southern King theyve seen before has really done so.

They sustained a Kingdom for thousands of years before the Targaryeans and they will for thousands of years AFTER the Targaryeans. The Targaryeans lasted only 300 years and it was strife with rebellions, wars, civil wars and non stop political faliures King after King. They are not fit to rule and if you couldn't keep any relative peace for only 300 years, you might not be as good as you think you are at that job.

And as much as I love House Baratheon, I'm the first to admit they are a dumpster fire of bad choices like Stannis, my dude, my man, my complete fucking balding idiot, you murdered your brother when you dont even have a son what the fuck are you doing? I love Shireen but I guarentee she has no idea how to rule and at least Renly as much of a dolt he was, undertsood how Kings Landing and the small council works. They are a disaster.

The North was independant before, and they will be again. And no amount of coping by targ fans will ever take away the 8000 years they ruled before them, or the fact that in the face of being able to side with one of 3 whole ass Kings, the North beleived in the Starks so much they crowned Robb Stark as King in the North because they beleived in him more then they beleived in a single southerner in the entire realm.

Robb died for the North, and it is an insult that season 7/8 and now House of the Dragon have painted an image that tries to pretend like Robb died for a Kingdom that didnt deserve its independance.

Aegons Conquest was not justfied, it never will be, and neither will the future attempt at a conquest will be justified either, be it Dany or Aegon VI.

[arizonaconservativegal]

I believe I've figured out why you're an object of fascination for the leftwing individuals who stumble across your blog: you pretend to be reasonable and overly rely on the "strawman" argument to deflect from explaining your actual views. (Probably the most authentically online-atheist thing about you.) But underneath all of your "it's just the wheels turning and everything is normal" schtick, you still don't actually address anything. You aren't able to address the overturning of Roe except to make a stupid "secret third option" joke. You handwave the right to privacy and all that comes with it as being open for debate because you are "an insider" who knows what's actually going on. And there's no way this Supreme Court would ever fuck over Americans right to privacy.

Essentially, you're saying "don't believe you lying eyes, believe what I tell you." You're at the point of denialism where you're basically saying that nothing is real. A healthy agnostic position is a very important thing to cultivate and one that does yourself and the world infinite good, but denying what is going on around you is stupid. You're saying, well no true Scotsman/Republican actually hates immigrants, queer people and are racists, that's just what the lying (I'm going to go ahead and say in your mind the word "Jewish" is probably close to here) media is telling you. Where is this big tent? I understand that my neighbors and family members vote Republican, and I think I understand some of the reasons they do so (mostly ignorance and habit), but they don't spend so much time spewing propoganda on a internet backwater that was once known for being progressive. (and porn.)

You handwave Project 2025 because you don't care what it would do if it would take place. You claim to be an atheist, but I imagine you're an "atheist" who still believes this is a "Christian nation" traditionally and should remain that way. Because, even if we do return to the dark ages you'll be fine and able to fly under the radar, and to prosper from the system.

Ultimately, your party serves the interests of corporations and billionaires in a manner that goes far beyond the, admittedly corrupt, Democratic leaders. They at least ape at a conscience. You are some weird, hyper-specialized bootlicking troll who exists to spew vapid non-information. And I'm pretty sure you take Ayn Rand seriously.

This is a fascinating analysis but unfortunately every word of it is wrong

A for effort but F for accuracy

[olliethescribe]

oh boy it’s @tmntaucompetition propoganda! Warren doesn’t know how he got roped into doing another one of these but hey, at least he has Ron with him this time

***

“Oh, god, there’s a lot of ya…”

Warren looked around at the vast sea of turtles that surrounded him. There were hundreds of them and only one him, with his turtles walking ahead of him and freaking out over their many alternate selves. They chatted excitedly, Donnie taking DNA samples of his duplicates when no one was looking. 

Warren’s pirate costume that Leo convinced him was a fashion must for the competition itched. The slider had joked about Warren having two peg legs, much to Warren’s chagrin. Yep, having a normal one. He sighed quietly to himself. At least there weren’t anymore horses to kick him out during round one like that first time. 

Beside the cloaked anchorman stood his husband, Ron, the magician not bothering to cloak among so many mutants. Didn’t help that plenty of the turtles they didn’t know were glaring at him. Like they knew something he didn’t. So Ron kept his gaze to his own kids and fiddled with his bandana for his own pirate costume, his talking parrot sadly unable to make it and left at home with the other birds for the weekend. 

“You think there’s any more like us here?” Ron said, looking around and scanning the crowd in short bursts. It was always lonely at these competitions. He had managed to bond with Donnie last time, even managed to make it past a round, but to be in a room without any other versions of himself felt odd. So many universes and yet there were barely anymore of him. 

And then he saw them. Off in a corner, away from everyone else, sat another version of himself with a Warren to boot. Above them hung a banner that said ‘Mutini’s AU’. Maybe things were turning around after all.

“Warren, look!” 

Ron pointed but Warren wasn’t paying attention. In fact, his husband was looking up at a massive board filled with brackets as far as the eye could see. The newscaster was grimacing as his eyes wandered to where ‘No Crime* Only Brooches’ was placed. 

“Casey’s gonna revoke our ally card.”  

The newscaster swallowed his nerves as he shook off the feeling of impending doom. They’ll be fine! They were always fine! Totally… totally fine… 

He looked around while taking a breath, the familiar reassuring squeeze of Ron’s hand over his calming his nerves. In front of him were his kids, all three of them. Wait, three? Oh god, oh god, oh god!

“Wait, where’s Donnie?!”

“He saw some version of himself with wings and a tutu and went running off. Don’t worry about it, pops, he’ll be back.” Leo fished an Tracking Tag out of his side bag and smiled. “Plus if he can track us everywhere then I can track him.”

He went to track the other tag and heard a beep right beside him. Only to look down and immediately find it. On the floor. With no Donnie attached. 

“Uh oh…” 

Ron and Warren exchanged a weary look. 

“Splinter’s gonna kill us.”

[coldgoldlazarus]

If you don't mind answering, what did you mean about zombie media being a dehumanization simulator?

I'm also not a fan of zombie media but I don't think I've heard that before and I'm genuinely very curious

I made another post a few months back explaining it better, but I can't find it now, so I guess here's the short version. Basically three main reasons it all puts me off. Reason 1 is just the excessive gore, I don't deal well with that, (plus the whole idea of the Identity Death side of it kinda freaks me out too) but I know it's more of a subjective aspect. The other two are the more important things, basically different ways The Vibes Are Off.

Second reason being, a lot of zombie media seems to really feed into the sort of "rugged lone survivors with a gazillion guns and some canned beans" apocalypse fantasy that's disturbingly prevalent in the US among the far right. The "rapture is coming, and we're gonna make it through with a ton of toxic masculinity and a reversion to traditional roles" mindset. I assume there has been at least some stuff out there that's used the premise to deconstruct or parody this attitude, but the vast majority that I'm aware of, and certainly the most popular/successful tends to uncritically uphold it.

And then the third thing is the dehumanization simulator thing I mentioned, which is kinda more an issue with the fundamental setup of a zombie apocalypse in the first place. These things are human shaped, but not actually human anymore, someone like your neighbor or a family member is now an Other and you're not only encouraged to gun them down remorselessly, but required to do so. Also, anyone could be hiding a bite or other sign of infection and turn on you at any moment, so you have to relentlessly keep watch over your survivor group and be prepared to murder anyone at risk of becoming an Other. Like, the recurring message with all this stuff, intentional or not, is tacit or outright encouragement of paranoia and dehumanization, and murdering anything that's too Other for comfort, no matter how human-shaped they are.

(I also remember hearing somewhere that zombie media got a big propoganda push or at least got really big on its own during the Red Scare, which would not surprise me in the slightest.)

[violentviolette]

also want to point out that it is very much *not* a coincidence that we are currently seeing a resurgence of ramcoa ideology right now. far right conservatism has been on the rise for years, nazism and facism are at an all time high in the us right now. we are very much in a second moral panic that is very similar to the one in the 80s that saw the creation of ramcoa. not even a year after fox news was consistently airing the alt right conspiracy that dems were kidnapping babies and drinking their blood, suddenlly ramcoa is all over mental health spaces. this is not a coincidence. it is a calculated escalation

this shit is just the natural progression of the rise in qanon conspiracy thought. its part of the pipeline and just another rung in the ladder that descends directly down into facism. it is, without a doubt, nazi propoganda. please stop falling for it.

[pumpumdemsugah]

You have more in common with X group of men that these elite women is classic misogynist line. A call for solidarity is always treated as poo poo other movements.

Misogyny and feminism is always framed as a bourgeoisie pass time Vs real oppression. This is literally what the far right says. This is a classic anti-feminist line. I've heard Umar Johnson say this EXACT THING! This is standard Black Israelites shit not intersectionality. You lot don't talk to working class men if you think they don't say this exact thing to strangle feminist thought.

It's funny, poverty doesn't exist in the same way for everyone but men and women have enough in common tobe peers but women ...nahhh never, don't even bother reaching out. Stay in your community, other women have nothing to offer you.

Are you people that radioactivity stupid? Is your view of the world that small you don't see it ?

When has it ever been socially acceptable for women of different stripes to come together? How is that propoganda? It's standard Feminism.

Preaching against radical feminism melting some of your brains. Just say you're an anti-feminist at this point. There's no way you people are regularly around straight men to say dumb shit like this.

[scolop98]

VOTE STEGOUROS FOR DINOSAUR MARCH MADNESS 2023

art by Gabriel Ugueto

This is admittedly a really tough choice, but what is March Madness season for if not throwing your entire soul into campaigning against a random animal species for petty reasons? (disclaimer: this is from the guy who slandered Vaderlimulus for almost the entirety of Triassic March Madness before realizing that it never actually beat Atopodentatus in a poll)

I’ll try to keep this short since my previous Berthasaura propoganda post took a lot out of me and I actually respect Spicomellus as a contender /hj

A VOTE FOR STEGOUROS IS A VOTE FOR:

- an entirely new basal clade of ankylosaurs, only described less than two years ago, which survived until the Maastrichtian!

- the macuahuitl, which I believe is the first new type of thyreophoran tail-weaponry discovered in a long time

- asymmetrical, vaguely hourglass shaped teeth. what was it doing with those teeth? something cool, no doubt; I am a sucker for phylogenetic trends in feeding ecology 

- was apparently adapted for cursoriality, including with hoof-shaped claws? I didn’t even know thyreophorans could do that but yes please, all of that. Hello, new hyperfixation rabbithole

- south america! as far as I’m concerned, South American ecology has been Fabulous roughly since the Cretaceous and hasn’t stopped. Stegouros lived alongside unenlagiines! that’s really cool!

- a Little Guy™️. exhibit A, from wikipedia:

what a perfectly sized little guy. so precious and (comparatively) small, and this was a full-grown adult thyreophoran from the non-European Maastrichtian! As far as I know, Stegouros has no right to be that small. If it does, please tell me, as it will only make me love it more

- something known from a mostly-complete skeleton! so we actually have a good idea of what it looks like!

As much as I love Spicomellus for being so extra (osteoderms attached directly to the rib, first known african ankylosaur, earliest known ankylosaur, lived alongside a Stegosaur) it’s only known from a single rib bone. It is, admittedly, a really cool rib bone, but Stegouros also lots of really cool bones! And they all belong to the same skeleton! Spicomellus may come with some really interesting biogeography and ankylosaur evolution facts, but so does Stegouros! And Stegouros objectively has more neat anatomy than Spicomellus does, no matter how you slice it. Does Spicomellus really have anything to offer that Stegouros can’t offer just as well, if not better?

Vote Stegouros for the only remaining Cool Ankylosaur™️ with a remotely complete skeleton. For the only remaining definitely-a-thyreophoran with a remotely complete Skelton, for that matter.

@a-dinosaur-a-day

[nooremahtab]

What's up with Indians and their support for Isr@el?

we all know what is happening in P@lestine and it absolutely boils my blood to see people not only staying silent about a gen0cide, but also literally supporting it! it makes history a lot clearer, and now we all understand that how things like the hol0caust, c0lonisation, sl@very came to be around so easily in the past. we all might have wondered in our history lessons that how could the majority let this happen to the marginalised communities. but now the answers are all in front of us. lack of awareness/education, propoganda, white supremacy, political-economic power, media manipulation all work together to justify heinous things like gen0cide and common people eat it all up like cake.

seeing the west support it is nothing new or surprising, but what has absolutely broken me is seeing indians trying to lick the boots of isr@el. there is always indians under the pro-p@lestine posts laughing, scoffing, mocking or even celebrating the p@lestinian suffering. why? i just wanna know why? half of these uneducated pricks do not even know what's happening there and why it's happening. we have literally been at the recieving end of white colonial supremacy in the past and rn we are supporting it? why?

because the people here have also been fed the same bullshit that the isr@eli settler civilians have been fed. they have made it all about religion and fed so much hate to people that they can't see anything clearly. there are so many similarities i can see between current political and social conditions of india and isr@el that it's scary. the biggest one being zi0nism=hindutva/hindu rashtra. the tactics that they have adopted to bring it about are very similar and I don't think i need to elaborate it much.

in 2021-22 when the communal violence was at it's literal peak in india many people were "smelling a gen0cide" here. the things is, stuff like gen0cide doesn't happen overnight, the people in power slowly and gradually build up to it over the years. i understood that the political condition in india is bad but i didn't know it was this bad. seeing them support a genocide for no reason at all except hate for a certain community makes me lose all hope. I don't wanna say it but I hope people understand what I am trying to insinuate here.

what's ironic is that some right extremists indians (yes the ones supporting isr@el) are literal h!tler apologists. they look up to him to justify their hindu rashtra ideology. on the other hand, isr@eli zi0nists believe that idol worshippers do not have the right to live. the only thing bringing these two together is just pure hate for musl!ms.

I never make such political posts and this whole thing may even seem far fetched but it's been on my mind lately and i need to get it out. tumblr is the safest place where i can talk about it.