#florida man being fascist

[seileach67]

Florida election police question voters who signed an abortion petition

[probablyasocialecologist]

The far right aren’t the only ones showing up armed. Across the country, marginalized individuals are forming groups like the John Brown Gun Club and Socialist Rifle Association that claim to be devoted to the idea of community defense. Their rationale is informed by the massacres at Colorado’s Club Q and Florida’s Pulse nightclub, and tempered by a long cultural distrust of the police, who they say have repeatedly failed to protect them from — and in some cases even perpetuated — right-wing hate. 

Many sources interviewed for this story — particularly those who conceal their identities at protests — asked to use pseudonyms, in fear of being targeted or doxxed by the far right. Others were happy to share their names, judging that their public presence — or concealed-carry permits — shield them from harm. All of them, however, agree on one thing: The other side has guns and is willing to use them. The only answer is to be prepared to shoot back. 

[...]

“My community, the South Asian community, has been dealing with this shit for 30 years,” Azad says. “Every year, some dude throws a Molotov into a temple, or spray-paints swastikas on our houses.” 

Gato chimes in. “I don’t want to own guns and do this,” he says. “But I also don’t want someone coming after my wife because she’s a person of color.” 

But in Texas, Azad and Gato say, guns are a necessity — the right wing has them, the law allows them, and being armed is the only way to stay safe. 

“This is the Wild fuckin’ West, man,” Azad says. “We kinda do what we gotta do.”

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: I may have activated my own trap card

Spoilers for a movie that's two months old and also out on home release.

So, Miles, Gwen, Pavitr (Spider-India), and Hobie (Spider-Punk) all seem to have modern left-wing politics, though Gwen's got edited out. Hobie's introduction specifically says he hates "fascists", which carries over from the original comics.

By the time Hobie came around, I assumed he was just another poser, cooler than the hero rival character, expressing generic leftie politics, and his punk ethos wasn't sincere.

Which is exactly what the writers wanted me to think.

Not only is Hobie perfectly sincere about being anti-authoritarian, but he's been helping Miles since before they even met. He's been blatantly stealing junk from the Spider Society to build his own universe-jumping watch, and disguising it as petty vandalism.

He even tries to talk Miles out of trying to join the Spider-Society before the reveal that Miles himself is an anomaly, and the SS (geddit?) tries to detain Miles.

When Hobie says he's against authoritarianism, he really means it.

Speaking of the left-wing politics, Miles has a "#BLM" pin on his bag. It's very visible while he sits next to his dad.

Who's a cop.

(TANGENT: A few years ago, someone drew a stupid, very bad comic where Spider-Man (Peter Parker) was a) black, b) hated cops, and c) assaulted and subdued riot cops when they asked him for help.

That the comic didn't even show the riot cops were wrong. We were just supposed to assume they deserve to be left to the mercy of an angry mob.

Also, in this comic, Uncle Ben was killed by a cop, not a random thug who Spidey could've stopped but chose not to. Which makes me wonder how that would shake out.

It's kind of weird for someone to look at a character who's about personal responsibility to an unhealthy degree, and use him to express their collectivist anti-cop terrorism fantasies. That, or they didn't think through their fantasies.)

During Spider-India's opening, Miles says "I love Chai Tea!" And Pavitr goes on a rant about how "Chai" means "tea". Later on, The Spot says he's been on a "journey of self-discovery", and Pavitr basically says he's racist.

Which is a tad ironic, because Spot is literally white. And also because Pavitr is the one making the racist assumptions.

And I personally go to a church - in England - that has a lot of non-white non-British people. Mostly Africans. And me, of course. I wonder if any Asians ever went on a journey of self discovery to South London.

And I don't just mean as a cab driver.

"Wait, SYABM, didn't you move to the UK for self-discovery?"

W-well, yes, partially.

Aside: I made the mistake of watching a Youtube video with the Chai Tea joke, and then I looked at the comments.

One guy said "tfw when Twitter users write a movie". An idiot (with much more upvotes) said "bro out here wanting blatant racism in movies".

...When the whole point of the joke is that the racism is not blatant.

It's only "blatant" if you're insufferably Twitterized. There are loads of redundant phrasings in English, like "ATM machine", and words often shift when they're adopted from other languages.

Also, "I dislike this joke" is not the same as "I want racism in this movie", when the "racism" in the movie is only there so it could be mocked.

One of the issues with putting real world movements in worlds that are drastically different - it's one of the main selling points of the franchise - is that it may seem odd that those movements exist in very similar form to the IRL version.

For example, Miles supports BLM in both his video game, and this. Which makes me think "did Trayvon Martin get shot in Florida? How about Mike Brown? Wouldn't the existence of supervillains throw things into a new perspective?"

Did I mention the giant George Floyd-style "REST IN POWER" mural to Miles' dead uncle? I cringed at that in the Wakanda Forever trailer, and I rolled my eyes at it here.

Floyd wasn't a saintly martyr, he was an unlucky violent thug.

Also, Aaron was a supervillain killed by another bad guy who nearly destroyed the city, not a cop.

Also, this is at a party to celebrate how Miles' dad is about to be promoted. Assuming Floyd died and the 2020 protests/riots also happened in Miles' universe, then it seems a tad tasteless to have a mural inspired by an anti-cop movement overlooking it, even if the party is not full of cops.

Spider-India lives in "Mumbattan".

The people who settled the Manhattan area were originally Indian. But the other type of Indian. The Indians we're not supposed to call Indians anymore.

The name "Manhattan" is even Native American.

The first permanent settlement was Dutch. Then the English got it. I guess the English could've shipped Indians to the other side of the world and eventually ceded the area to them, or maybe in this world India was a world-conquering superpower and Mumbattan is the result of...importing Native Americans?

Which would make Pavitr's complaint that "the British stole all of our stuff and put it in their museums" seem a tad hypocritical.

Of course, since I wrote all that, someone reminded me that Pavitr explicitly says the joint is in India.

"SYABM," you say, "you're overthinking this."

Yes, I am. Because the filmmakers didn't think it through. If you want to use ha-ha-funny to make a serious point, you invite examination of that point.

Miles (as Spidey) now works with his dad, though he disguises his voice. At one point, Miles tells his father that men bottle up mental health issues.

This is true (and ironic, considering Miles is hiding who he is from Jeff), but it's not the first time I've seen some progressive work try to address men's issues in an very awkward way. At least here, it's played for comedy.

Also, seems a tad hypocritical coming from a guy who wears a "#BLM" pin in the presence of his cop father.

Also, if you work the timeline, that would mean Miles was about 7 or 6 when BLM started. Which means he's gone most of his life knowing nothing else.

There was a controversy over a "protect trans kids" trans flag in Gwen's room, which was apparently edited out.

IMO, it seems a tad strange for a girl who feels estranged from everyone in her world to join a social movement, but what do I know? Maybe it was there before then.

Some people came to the extremely logical conclusion that Gwen herself is trans. Even though she's distinctly physically feminine and possibly too young for puberty blockers depending on Earth 65′s laws.

Like the "oh great, it's Liv" shippers, people are reaching really hard to see what they want to see.

Some people have said that Gwen's issues with her dad and herself seem awfully similar to the issues LGBTQIA2S+ kids go through.

Gee, it's not like, y'know, feeling estranged from one's family is a common theme in fiction about teenagers and superhero, and the whole "superpowers = minority" thing has been done to death for most of the past century.

Perhaps most notably - and clumsily - in X-Men.

I'm not saying this wasn't the intended subtext. I'm saying if it was, it would just be really, really cliche.

There's this recurring theme of people telling miles "how [his] story is supposed to go".

When he's at a meeting with his parents and his guidance counselor, the lady says his story of being a black-Latino son of an immigrant would sound great in the college application letters. His mom is a tad miffed, given that they're a) solidly middle class, and b) as a Puerto Rican, she considers herself American.

Miguel (Spider-Man 2099) doesn't want Miles in the multiversal council of Spiders, because Miles was bitten by the radioactive spider from a different universe. Which is why his local Spider-Man died, and the spider's home dimension has no Spider-Man.

Also, Miguel is fixated on "canon events". The idea that there are certain things, especially tragedies, that have to happen to Spiders, or their entire universe falls apart.

And he knows this, because he tried to take over for a version of him that got shot dead by a thug. Tried to raise his daughter.

And he watched as the universe collapsed in front of him.

So he's projecting his own guilt onto Miles, a tad.

According to TVtropes and other sources, this was actually about the people who didn't accept Miles as a replacement Spidey, possibly out of racism.

Yeah, that's real hard-hitting topical meta-commentary about a character who debuted 12 years ago. 8 years when the first movie came out.

I'd also like to point out that despite stereotypes of comic book fans, certain minority successors to banner superheros have been fairly well-received. Like Jaime Reyes, or Cassandra Cain.

(Note: I wrote that before the Blue Beetle movie came out. And flopped.)

And, of course, loads of people like Miles specifically because he's a minority Spidey, which is also racist, just from the other direction. In fact, a lot of his fans seem to forget the "Latino" part of "Afro-Latino". From what little I've seen of Miles early comics, they did actually put strong emphasis on his race.

I also suspect the filmmakers may be misinterpreting the usual successor knee-jerk reactions

as racism. If you're using an established brand name for your new hero, you're creating some expectations.

Also, you know the most popular meme about regular Spidey that I see? That Marvel's writers just keep making him suffer and don't want him to actually develop. Which would kinda make Marvel closer to Team Miguel than Team Miles.

Miles also gripes that Miguel is letting "some algorithm" tell him what to do. While I agree with the sentiment, I'd like to point out that, again, Miles supports BLM.

A movement popularized by an algorithm.

A movement made up of narratives and assumptions.

A movement which has never proven a single incident was because of racism.

During the big chase scene, we see a Spider girl in a wheelchair, aka Sun-Spider. She's from the comics. Same initiative that gave us "Web-Weaver".

Who is, of course, an extremely effete gay fashion designer Spidey. I kinda like his outfit, though the Spider-eyes with eyelashes is a little too far.

And Sun-Spider seems exactly like a character a stereotypical 90s executive and focus group would come up with. Down to the backward baseball cap.

(Turns out she's Dayn Broder's actual Spider-Sona.)

Also, while I was looking up that one black and white Spider who said "nowhere to run" (Metro-Spider, played by record producer Metro Boomin [/sic]), I found out that Aunt May's full name is "Maybelle", not just "May". TIL.

There's a bit of a double standard with this version of Spider-Woman, who's black and pregnant. -People in the movie - including Peter B - regularly point out how Peter B endangering his infant daughter Mayday by taking her along with him. But for some reason, nobody says a word about Jessica, who's an active-duty stunt-biking superhero.

Even regular motorbiking can be dangerous for pregnant women.

In fact, the movie portrays this as heroic and impressive. When Gwen sees  Jess is preggos, she asks if Jess can adopt her.

Not to mention the whole "afro and hoop earrings" thing, which seem like a bad idea for a type of hero who often gets into melee combat, even with Spider-Sense.

Yes, I'm aware that female heroes, including the Spider-Ladies, often have exposed hair. It's a genre convention. Incidentally, it was nice to see Batwoman wore a detachable decoy wig in the comics. Some bad guy tries to grab it in a fight? It comes right off.

Also, Jess doesn't have much actual character.

Being pregnant is not a character trait. In fact, her only real traits are basically "cool but stern sassy mentor", to contrast with Peter B. -Incidentally, someone on TVtropes pointed out the double standard. And when I saw the page again, a page-camper had deleted it, with no explanation.

Guess they couldn't stand someone pointing out the flaws of their waifu.

(One) Spider-UK in this movie is Muslim. I know she's Muslim because she wears a Spider-themed headdress. Note that regular Marvel 616 has a muslim lady Spider-UK, but her name is Zarina Zahari and she doesn't wear a hijabi.

(Also, she could be mistaken for Ms. Marvel.)

ms marvel.jpg

You might be thinking "wait, isn't a headdress impractical in a melee fight? Doesn't it give your enemy something to grab?" Yes, it is.

But so are Jess's earrings, afro, and being pregnant, so clearly there's a lot of artistic license going on.

Maybe it's partially tearaway, like Batman's cape.

I gotta wonder about the religious rules of wearing a head covering over a mask that *already* covers your entire head. Did she go see her imam and go "Okay, I have a really weird question..."

Come to think, Spidey is usually slim, but a lot of lady Spideys in this movie seemed to have wide hips. Including muscular ladies. Kris Anka's concept art goes really hard on wide hips. I don't know why. Stronger, faster character reads during the big chase?

I guess Spiders could be expected to have strong legs.

BOTTOM LINE:

I liked the movie overall, though the progressive bits made me roll my eyes a little. I...want to see the third one, with reservations.

[cleoselene]

Happy new year, tumblr friends. 2024 was a piece of shit, wasn't it? Just a festering pile. Kendrick Lamar ruining Drake, that was like, the only good thing I could think of that happened this year??? "Not Like Us" totally should win the Song of the Year Grammy. It won't, but it should, because that was a fucking commercial moment. It'll probably be something braindead like "Espresso" (no offense to Sabrina Carpenter fans but her music is not my thing x100). But man that was THEE song.

Music wise I was obsessed with Beyoncé most of the year and welp... that news about her husband being an alleged child rapist kind of took the wind out of those sails. Like, I fully believe Bey was groomed by Jay at a very young age and she's like Celine Dion in that the grooming was VERY effective and she will love that man forever and ever until death. It's depressing as hell. Lemonade is a masterpiece, but it was marketing. She was never going to leave that awful man. My mom is trying to tell me to keep loving her music, and I gotta admit, Beyoncé Bowl was phenomenal as like... everything she does is phenomenal. But the joy has been somewhat sucked out of it for me.

Rediscovered Vienna Teng and Phoebe Bridgers after the election, been more tuned out of the news than I have been in like, decades. I passively consume information, but I try to avoid it. Y'all, for me to avoid politics is bizarre. I remember my first election I followed, 1988, when I was 9, and I was SO for Dukakis. My family is politics/news junkies. But if 2016 fracture my spirit for this stuff, 2024 shattered it. Women will always be second class citizens in this country. It breaks me on a level that makes me question my identity -- why did I go to school for seven years getting a BA in Econ/Sociology and an MA in Sociology? Because I care about how the world works but no one else fucking seems to notice except fellow academic politics people like me, and they sure as hell aren't on the news (except Rachel Maddow, and she's just... kind of lost her plot for me too).

My soulmate dog died a week after the election exactly, and ever since the hits have just kept coming. My mom was so hesitant when I decided to adopt a young puppy, but I need her. I need her intense energy and many needs to distract myself from how shitty I think the world is.

I feel like a failure at even being a decent citizen because these MAGA monsters have just drained me. Another four years of this??? What the fuck, America. I went out to run two brief errands today and saw: -a pickup truck with "We The People" in the constitutional font on the back of the truck bed, but the window was covered in a massive Confederate battle flag. hey duder, you are giving your truck cognitive dissonance -a fucking cybertruck -a jeep crudely painted with the front as the American flag and hand-painted the words on one window: "GOD TRUMP LAW" and the other side said "STAND UP FOR SCIENCE" and I was awed at the even greater cognitive dissonance going on there. The font for these painted words I'd name "Scary Free Candy Van Sans" -a truck with a decal of Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes peeing on the words JOE BIDEN. There have been idk thousands and thousands of Calvin & Hobbes comics and Calvin has never ever peed on anything. Also the guy who designed the Punisher logo hates you fascist fucks too -a pickup truck with a decal of the silhouette of a women on her knees from above, and two hands wrapped around each of her braided pigtails as if using them for purchase, and the "drawing" fades out at the hip, but it's clear what's going on. I am saying "woman" because I hope that's what it was supposed to represent, the hair being in braided pigtails? Sus. But right next to that decal was one of praying hands holding a rosary and the word "Jesus" in some reverent font.

and that's a drive around Fort Myers, in Robert E. Lee County, Florida. I hate it here so fucking much.

anyway, here's hoping 2025 is at least gentler. The last two months of 2024 have had me feeling like I'm hanging on by a thread. I think it's my yearly winter MS flare too. Not a full on relapse, but every winter I just start to feel like garbage. And no, it's not S.A.D., I don't get that because Florida and I take vitamin D supplements anyway. it's just the time of year when everything starts to feel more and more inflamed

I'm enjoying World of Warcraft a lot still, but super bummed I can't seem to find an RP guild. Boo-urns

[lost-carcosa]

In every Judge Joe Dredd story I’ve ever read, there is at least one almost comically obvious moment when the author makes clear that the protagonist is a jackbooted fascist and not someone to admire. This may come across to the average reader as heavy-handed, but when the richest man in the world misreads the character as heroic, you can see why such heavy-handedness is sometimes necessary.

Shortly before former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida withdrew his nomination for attorney general, Elon Musk posted on X that Gaetz was the “Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison.” Generally speaking, one’s model for justice should not be a fascist invented in part to illustrate the distinction between elite impunity and the brutality that ordinary people face. (Were Dredd’s zero tolerance for lawbreaking evenly applied to obscenely wealthy scofflaws like Musk himself, it would surely be less appealing to him.)

Musk’s media illiteracy is not particularly shocking—it seems to be part of a broader trend tied to the rise of Donald Trump. Genre stories that are meant to highlight the dangers of fascism, cruelty, or selfishness instead end up being misinterpreted or even condemned by those who find fascism appealing or see cruelty and selfishness as aspirational virtues.

The messaging in Dredd stories verges on didactic, but it also assumes at least a tacit objection to fascism in the reader. One of the series’ co-creators, Pat Mills, has said that his model for Dredd and the other judges was the monks at his parochial school, who subjected children to physical or sexual abuse. The stories are set in a dystopian future where several “megacities,” surrounded by a radioactive wasteland, are ruled by draconian judges. Initially established by the character of Eustace Fargo in response to rampant street crime, this judge system empowers its agents to convict and sentence those they deem criminals, and simply kill many of the people they encounter.

As mentioned, the implications of these stories are not exactly subtle. In one 2019 story arc, The Small House, Dredd confronts Judge Smiley, the Justice Department’s chief of black ops, over Smiley’s use of invisible assassins to murder democracy activists in Mega-City One. Dredd’s main objection to Smiley’s operations, it seems, is that Smiley’s assassinations are not following proper protocol. Dredd has no moral objection to killing democracy activists, but it has to be done by the book. Smiley calmly explains to Dredd, “We’re fascists. We rule. It’s the only way we can survive in this irradiated, dead world.”

Dredd is a true believer in the judge system, and as such lacks the corruption of his contemporaries. This renders him ethically superior only to the other fascists, however; he is an unthinking armed goon who would never allow the system to be changed just because the majority would prefer it. He acts fanatically in service to the unjust system he upholds, not to any larger ideals of honor or integrity. In the 2006 storyline Origins, a cryogenically frozen Fargo is briefly thawed and begs Dredd to undo the judge system. “It was never meant to be forever,” Fargo pleads, just before dying. “We’re the monster, we got greedy—wanted everything—so we killed the dream, Joe, we killed America!” Dredd, being Dredd, ignores Fargo’s pleas and, when asked later about Fargo’s last words, says Fargo wanted him to “keep the faith,” forever burying Fargo’s wish to end the judge system in favor of democratic rule.

As Trump reshapes the nation in his image, some of his supporters seem inclined to turn cautionary tales on their head, empathizing with villains or antiheroes to such a degree that they miss the point of these stories entirely, even when the writers make the message as clear as possible. We might call this problem Tony Soprano Syndrome, after the patron saint of flawed antihero protagonists. One undecided voter told a New York Times focus group earlier this year that Trump is “the antihero, the Soprano, the ‘Breaking Bad,’ the guy who does bad things, who is a bad guy but does them on behalf of the people he represents.”

Almost every single thing here is wrong, but it’s wrong in a way that illustrates the illiteracy that I am talking about. The Sopranos is by any measure one of the greatest television series of all time, focusing on the daily travails of a mob boss who tries to balance his mental health with keeping his marriage together and raising his children. But Tony is a murderer whose greed and ambition harm the people he claims to love. He is not a moral exemplar, nor is he intended to be; his selfishness helps no one else and is destructive to all around him. The same is true of Walter White, the protagonist of Breaking Bad, who at one point in the show literally looks at the camera and says of his crimes, “I did it for me.”

Again, the creators could not be more clear that these characters are horrible people whom others should not seek to emulate. There is a difference between thinking Darth Vader is an awesome character in the fictional context of Star Wars and, you know, wanting to be like Darth Vader, a psychotic child-killer. Quite similarly, Trump could not be more clear that he is out for himself, seeking the power of the presidency to enrich himself and his allies, protect himself from legal jeopardy, and bask in the cultlike adulation of his followers. But fans of Tony or Walter, living vicariously through the power and cruelty of the object of their admiration, invert the moral implications of those characters’ stories such that selfishness and malice are justified or laudable. In the same way, Trump supporters treat the real-life Trump, who seeks power for his own gain, as a fictionalized Trump whose vices are in service to a selfless cause.

Tony and Walter are also aspirational figures for a certain type of man experiencing a certain type of midlife crisis because, despite their body aging and their looks fading, they can still shape the world around them with a seemingly infinite capacity to endure or inflict violence. They want to tell themselves they’re protecting something—home and hearth perhaps—but actually want to validate themselves with a justification for hurting someone else, even if they have to invent one.

This is one reason the actor Anna Gunn, who portrayed Walter’s wife, Skylar, drew an intense backlash—she was the embodiment of the nitpicky wife whose jealousy held her husband back from greatness (as a murdering meth kingpin).

Walter represents the emotional state of a particular type of viewer—someone who wants to enjoy his ability to make himself feel good through violence and suffering, and doesn’t want his good time spoiled by a mouthy woman reminding him that the things he is doing are actually bad. This type of reactionary masculinity is itself emblematic of the Trump era, as if conservatives listened to feminist critiques of “toxic masculinity” and decided to shear all virtue from their conception of traditional manhood and retain only those parts that involve dominance and exploitation of others.

Examples abound. Last year, another heavy-handed comic-book adaptation, the television series The Boys—about a covert-ops group that targets the irresponsible corporate-produced “supers” who kill more people than they actually save—made its criticism of fascism so overt that many of its fascist-sympathetic fans began to get upset. These fans complained that the show had gotten “woke” once the plot began to more plainly illustrate the political points it had been making all along, to the dismay of those fans who were living vicariously through the antagonists’ acts of cruelty.

Similarly, the creators of the murderous Marvel Comics’ vigilante the Punisher have repeatedly clarified, to no avail, that, despite possessing some virtues, the character of Frank Castle is not a good guy. In addition to being a murderer, he is occasionally portrayed as a fascist. During the Civil War storyline, Castle is told off by his idol, Captain America, who describes Castle as  “psychotic,” fulfilling a “twisted notion of justice.” The Punisher creator Gerry Conway has called the embrace of Punisher iconography by real-life armed agents of the state “disturbing,” because “the Punisher represents a failure of the Justice system. He’s supposed to indict the collapse of social moral authority and the reality [that] some people can’t depend on institutions like the police or the military to act in a just and capable way.”

The collapse of trust in institutions is one of the stories of the past decade or so. But so is this moral degeneracy, motivated by the need to ideologically justify the place of a corrupt authoritarian strongman in the most powerful government in the world. What looks like declining media literacy may be something much worse—an affirmation of the underlying values in dystopian literature that inevitably lead to the dystopia itself.

[gwopijon]

Donald Trump has won the president four years after he sat for months on Covid being deadly and after he incited an insurection.

He's an abjudicated rapist. He stole classified documents. He's a traitor. He is personally corrupt but it meant nothing to voters.

He hid the fact that Covid was deadly for months. We had empty shells and long lines at food banks but it meant nothing to voters.

He had zero ground game. He’s a felon. He incited an insurrection less than four years ago. But he was running against a woman again, and if there’s one thing Americans hate, it’s women.

In 2016, I still had some sense of hope that whatever happened during a Trump presidency, we could find a way to survive and recover. I don’t have that hope this time. Not after everything that’s happened, not after the past nine years of this utter sh-tshow. This is the American electorate looking at this orange clown and saying “that’s my guy.” This man spewed the most despicable, hate filled rhetoric and someone who is clearly declining physically and mentally. They heard “mass deportations” and they said “anything to bring down housing costs.” They heard every single warning about Trump’s authoritarian fascism and they said “sounds amazing.” They heard the promise of authoritarianism and they said “sign me up.”

What’s especially crazy is that Trump doesn’t even want to be president again. He was just running to avoid prison. This senile, hateful, disgusting 78-year-old man was exhausted and phoning it in for most of the campaign. He kept disappearing for weeks at a time to golf and sundown in peace. When he went to vote in Florida yesterday, he sounded almost resigned to losing. Even he underestimated the stupidity of Americans. Even he can’t believe that people fell for it again.

Kamala Harris was a great Democratic Presidential Candidate. She still lost.

In 2016, in the hours after Hillary Clinton lost, I was partly in a fugue state, half-numb and half-enraged. Accusations flew across the political spectrum – what if Hillary had done more in the Rust Belt, what if she did this or that differently, why did she run given the “Clinton Fatigue,” why did James Comey f–k her over in the final weeks. There’s really none of that eight years later. We couldn’t have asked for a better candidate than Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was disciplined, joyful, wonkish, fun and cool. She energized the base and she had widespread cross-party appeal. The only things “wrong” with Kamala Harris were: she’s a woman, she’s a Black woman, and she isn’t Donald Trump.

This isn’t even because of one particular demographic – white women, men of all races, Latino voters, suburbanites, they all swung wildly against Kamala Harris.

I hope Kamala knows that she did the best she could with the hand she was dealt. The numbers don’t reflect a failure on her part, in my opinion. The numbers reflect a failure of the American electorate. Good news for the American electorate: Donald Trump promised that this would be the last votes you would ever have to cast, that he will “fix” everything so no one has to vote anymore. Congrats on making it count.

I’m terrified as a woman. As a biracial woman. As someone with complex healthcare needs. As a gay woman. As the friend of many LGBTQ+ people. And I’m genuinely scared for the many Republicans who had the courage to speak out against Trump, particularly Liz Cheney, Fascists do not deal lightly with perceived disloyalty.

Bibi and Putin are celebrating today. Gaza will be nuked into oblivion and Ukraine will be handed to Russia just like Taiwan will be handed to China. YOU did that!

I am struggling with my faith with feeling anger and hatred towards those ingrates who came and found the table set from the blood, sweat, tears, whipping, lynching and jailing of my ancestors and threatened us with a Trump/Vance/Heritage Foundation/ Project 2025 has Harris not tap danced on Gaza knowing full well, she was doing her job as VP she could not supersede the sitting President of this country. Some of ya'll knew she was personally against arming Israel and has always been for a 2 state solution. For those voters: FUCK YOU!

FUCK you if you voted 3rd Party.

FUCK you if you didn't vote at all while you could and should have.

In order it went white men, white Latino men, and white women who overwhelmingly voted for Trump. We should stop with “economic uncertainty” again as a cover.

Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas will fucking retire and this motherfucker will nominate who Leonard Leo orders him to nominate and the fucking Supreme Court will unleash on our asses for the next 40 years. Roe vs Wade and the overturning of Affirmative Action will be nothing to what is next to come...

We black people have no fucking allies. Folks been piggybacking off black blood, sweat and tears for too fucking long. We're tired. We're fucking done. DON'T fucking expect us anymore

What hurts most is, this is apparently who we are as a country. Racist. Misogynistic. It doesn’t happen twice unless that’s just who the fuck we are. The rest of us will continue to fight against it, but it just got a lot harder. I think MVP and others will still help guide us but DON'T fucking expect black women to fight our battles and YOURS. FUCK that. We're done. We're gonna fight our battles nowadays .

I will not protest anything Trump wishes to do. DON'T expect us black women to play Mammy and clean shit after you anymore. We're done playing Captain Save a Hoe for you ingrates. I think he should have full reign to do whatever he plans and America should get it good and hard. It's what they asked for.

This country is not the Eutopia some of you are foolishly hoping for. IF you think a unqualified backbench like AOC or corrupt Nina Turner (the OPPO dossier on her is out there) or Katie Porter or Warren would have fared better or will ever become president; think again. It will NEVER happen. NEVER gonna fucking happen!

We black women as of last night have done what Pontius Pilate did and to wash our hands with America:

[omgcatboi]

Here's one last political post because I have over 3k followers and I really think this is an extremely important message to spread around so PLEASE REBLOG but

Y'all... Do realize we can start petitions to fire the people in the supreme courts and all these legislators that are banning abortion and trans rights as well as erasing black and native history.... Right?

I see y'all talking about it .... But y'all don't actually do anything about it. Why not go directly for their jobs? Take they jobs!

I've been emailing legislators regularly telling them they're shit heads for passing these bills but they don't want to listen to one single fat trans man so why don't we start a petition to remove them?

A petition to reverse abortion bans in Florida recently got ONE MILLION SIGNATURES. THATS... UNHEARD OF.

and guess what? The bill is being challenged by legislatiors in FL.

I promise I won't make anymore political posts, I just... Think it's important we all know that we can take these mfs jobs.

It's good to talk about it but just talking about it doesn't do anything to stop these fascist bills. Tumblr queers work your magic with me, maybe we can get the Trever project on board?

[renthony]

i dont even really like it here (im just not a hot-weather girl) but like what do ppl even think 'cutting off' florida would even do to help. like we live here its not like we're the ones responsible for our governor being shit. fash is gonna fash help us stop them instead of using us as a punchline. some people..

Florida's been a punchline for so long now that I think people forget that real, living, breathing people actually live here. All people know about Florida is Florida Man, Disney, and extremely dead jokes from the Bush era about hanging chads (which I genuinely saw someone make the other day, which is just fucking baffling).

I wish I could show people the Florida that I know, full of incredible people and the most beautiful ecosystems I have ever seen. Florida has been absolutely ravaged by its history of colonization and an increasingly fascist state government, but god damn it, it's not "too far gone" to be nurtured and stewarded and loved.

Right now there are organizations fighting for the Everglades and all Florida's wetlands, there are cleanup efforts to help reduce effects of red tide, there are legal battles against sugar corporations and land developers, there are mutual aid networks spanning the entire goddamn state. There are people fighting for the land and for each other. Just in my own city I can name multiple groups dedicated to feeding people, getting clothes and toiletries in the hands of those who need it, fighting for immigration protections, uplifting the marginalized, and waging quiet unglorious war against the system that's currently brutalizing everything.

And god help us, we do it all while getting called "crazy crackheads" and "idiot swamp hicks" by everyone else in the entire fucking world.

[gaykarstaagforever]

Jair Bolsonaro, a man who thought this official picture of him is cool and not stupid

is now being charged with actively plotting the January 6th-style coup in 2022 he hoped would allow him to retain Brazil's presidency after he lost the election.

When it happened, he was in Donald Trump's adopted state of Florida, pretending to get medical care. While being in close contact with the Trump family the whole time. And Don Jr. called the guys who attempted the coup "freedom fighters."

The coup only failed because the military leaders who were supposed to join it to keep a fascist dickhead in power had a last-minute change of heart.

Bolsonaro stayed in Florida for 3 months, avoiding arrest, until he decided to go home, no doubt because he probably was working on some other scheme to finish the job.

He should copy the Trump playbook again and see if he can get a slight majority of racist idiots to say fuck it and reelect him.

...Oh wait. Brazil's Supreme Court banned him from running again after he tried to kill them.

Unlike our Supreme Court, which said Trump is a god-king who can kill whoever he wants and can never be put in jail.

It's gotta feel real bad, knowing Donald Trump is better at destroying democracy than you.

[lazy-to-an-l]

The current times are a reflection of the 1920's in more ways than one

the false confidence the U.S Government has in their ability to control their public is astounding. They support Ukraine, a country invaded with the goals on annexing it by a hostile military campaign with no care for Geneva Conventions. But try to paint Israel as the true victim in this scenario, when they are not. They are a hostile military force committing genocide for the purpose of annexing more land.

Could the U.S. absolutely annihilate every single one of their citizens? Yes, they could. They have the military weapons necessary to do so and have no qualms letting their people die.

The timing of Covid-19, Ukraine, the BLM movements, the resurgence of The Hunger Games which is based upon a future U.S., and the U.S. trying to back Israel has only further painted every representative within this country with a target. It is truly shocking they do not see the lack of control they have over Gen-z, a generation they freely let die in school shootings, and who were shown grotesque violence yearly for 9/11 remembrance. Who grew up polarized by a war in the East, that was truly for oil, and who's teachers taught us that the U.S. put the people in charge who later attacked our doorstep.

All eyes on Rafah, keep watching, we cannot forget who has condoned it. The people funding this genocide will die before we do, and it is our job to make sure their history and their wrong doings are never forgotten. The victors can write history, but those who outlive them will always have the last word.

I do not know who we can vote for this election, there is genocide supporters and there are fascists in the voting poll. There is no good option, and no 3rd party will win right now unfortunately they are not doing enough to get publicity in order to do so. I wish they were, but they aren't, not to win a presidential election. Either we elect someone complacent in genocide who will try to protect minorities rights and the environment, a fascist who has banned books for being about minorities who tried to write into law that he could still be in charge of Florida even as a president, or a man who quite literally was kicked out of New York's business sphere and is facing federal court for crimes he truly committed. There IS no morally good option, only varying shades of "who has done the least morally awful and dangerous thing" and who could actually win.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Well, this SHOULD prove to Disney that there is just no pleasing these people. It's a forever losing battle, so they should just quit it.

Incoming fascist-in-chief is completely unaware of not only Ike Perlmutter's former role within The Walt Disney Company as the former CEO/Chairman of Marvel Entertainment, and likely doesn't care, but just anything in general about how the company is currently operating... Neither does the rest of his cult.

Disney has spent many of the past 8 or so years trying to appease MAGA, whether it's their current bullshit (dequeering INSIDE OUT 2 and WIN OR LOSE, neutering HOPPERS), or their initial donating to Florida's horrid Don't Say Gay tyranny, or all the other suck-up things they've done. MAGA doesn't notice, MAGA doesn't care. They only start paying attention when a nonbinary character appears for a split second in the far background of a cartoon. All of a sudden they're wide awake! Woke, I mean!

So, Disney... Iger... The board... Quit it. This is who you're trying to appease, and it's clearly not working lol.

Also, a little bit about Mr. Perlmutter. While he was still top dog at Marvel, he didn't allow much creative freedom at Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige initially had to answer to him and a sort-of think tank of other executives, and as a result made many of the movies into these nightmare productions, such as AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. And others, where the directors walked away - see THOR: THE DARK WORLD and ANT-MAN. Feige eventually had the studio answer exclusively to Disney heads a little after CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR was completed.

Perlmutter held up the development/production of BLACK PANTHER, CAPTAIN MARVEL, and BLACK WIDOW, as he was *sure* that audiences wouldn't go see black and women-led superhero movies... How wrong he was, right? Not like BLACK PANTHER and CAPTAIN MARVEL weren't successful movies or anything, right? Right?

Lemme check and see, oh-

And not like BLACK PANTHER also spawned a hit sequel and there's a third movie on the way.

Sure, some weirdo will bring up BLACK WIDOW (released a little after COVID vaccines started slowly getting out, as a theaters/Disney+ PVOD same-day release) and THE MARVELS, but that's besides the point. People *flocked* to BLACK PANTHER, CAPTAIN MARVEL, and WAKANDA FOREVER. BLACK PANTHER 3 will probably make a boatload of money, too. All three of those movies are pretty political to some degree, too. All movies that, despite being PG-13 action-fests, had a lot of kid audiences too.

After Marvel Studios stopped answering to Perlmutter, it's not like anything changed. From 2017-2019, it was a streak of uninterrupted massive hit movies... Including BLACK PANTHER and CAPTAIN MARVEL. The highest-grossing THOR movie of all, THOR: RAGNAROK, was released during this period and was about how Asgard had a long sordid colonialist history. Like, c'mon. Things have only been wobbly post-ENDGAME and post-COVID outbreak, but that has less to do with who is headlining these movies and their messages, and it has more to do with other things. Any halfway-smart person could tell ya that!

Anyways, moral of the story: These freaks are not gonna notice when you bow to them, when you remove trans characters from cartoons, when you dial back environmental messages, when you sideline different groups of people... They'll only notice when you do something benign that offends them.

Funny how they say that about anyone on the left, eh? These weirdos are the ones who sound like they're the "easily offended" ones, even when they get everything that they want! Because it'll never be enough.

So Disney... Ignore them, will ya? Make THAT your New Year's resolution. Happy New Year everybody.

[commiepinkofag]

How the anti-gender movement is bringing us closer to authoritarianism

Judith Butler / March 16, 2024

In the United States, gender has been considered a relatively ordinary term. We are asked to check a box on a form, and most of us do so without giving it too much thought. But some of us don’t like checking the box and think there should be either many more boxes or perhaps none at all. The myriad, continuing debates about gender show that no one approach to defining or understanding it reigns. It’s no longer a mundane box to be checked on official forms.

The anti-gender ideology movement, however, treats the range of sometimes conflicting ideas about gender as a monolith, frightening in its power and reach.

The fear of “gender” allows existing powers — states, churches, political movements — to frighten people to come back into their ranks, to accept censorship and to externalize their fear and hatred onto vulnerable communities. Those powers not only appeal to existing fears that many working people have about the future of their work or the sanctity of their family life but also incite those fears, insisting, as it were, that people conveniently identify gender as the true cause of their feelings of anxiety and trepidation about the world.

The project of restoring the world to a phantasmatic time before gender promises a return to a patriarchal dream order that only a strong state can restore. The shoring up of state powers, including the courts, implicates the anti-gender movement in a broader authoritarian, even fascist project. We see the rolling back of progressive legislation and the targeting of sexual and gender minorities as dangers to society, as exemplifying the most destructive force in the world, in order to strip them of their fundamental rights, protections and freedoms.

Consider the allegation that “gender” — whatever it is — puts children at risk through programs such as reading books with queer characters cast as examples of indoctrination or seduction. The fear of children being harmed, the fear that the family, or one’s own family, will be destroyed, that “man” will be dismantled, including the men and man that some of us are, that a new totalitarianism is descending upon us, are all fears that are felt quite deeply by those who have committed themselves to the eradication of “gender” — the word, the concept, the academic field and the various social movements it has come to signify.

The resulting authoritarian restrictions on freedom abound, whether through establishing LGBTQ+-free zones in Poland or strangling progressive educational curricula in Florida that address gender freedom and sexuality in sex education. But no matter how intently authoritarian forces attempt to restrict freedoms, the fact that the categories of women and men shift historically and contextually is undeniable. New gender formations are part of history and reality. Gender is, in reality, minimally the rubric under which we consider changes in the way that men, women and other such categories have been understood.

As an educator, I am inclined to say to these people, “Let’s read some key texts in gender studies together and see what gender does and does not mean and whether the caricature holds up.” Reading is a precondition of democratic life, keeping debate and disagreement grounded and productive.

Sadly, such a strategy rarely works.

A woman in Switzerland once came up to me after a talk I gave and said, “I pray for you.” I asked why. She explained that the Scripture says that God created man and woman and that I, through my books, had denied the Scripture. She added that male and female are natural and that nature was God’s creation. I pointed out that nature admits of complexity and that the Bible itself is open to some differing interpretations, and she scoffed. I then asked if she had read my work, and she replied, “No! I would never read such a book!” I realized that reading a book on gender would be, for her, trafficking with the devil. Her view resonates with the demand to take books on gender out of the classroom and the fear that those who read such books are contaminated by them or subject to an ideological inculcation, even though those who seek to restrict these books have typically never read them.

To refuse gender is, sadly, to refuse to encounter the complexity that one finds in contemporary life across the world. The anti-gender movement opposes thought itself as a danger to society — fertile soil for the horrid collaboration of fascist passions with authoritarian regimes.

We need to take a stand against the anti-gender movement in the name of breathing and living free from the fear of violence.

Transnational coalitions should gather and mobilize everyone the anti-gender ideology movement has targeted. The internecine fights within the field must become dynamic and productive conversations and confrontations, however difficult, within an expansive movement dedicated to equality and justice. Coalitions are never easy, but where conflicts cannot be resolved, movements can still move ahead together with an eye focused on the common sources of oppression.

Whether or not people are assigned a gender at birth or assume one in time, they can really love being the gender that they are and reject any effort to disturb that pleasure. They seek to strut and celebrate, express themselves and communicate the reality of who they are. No one should take away that joy, as long as those people do not insist that their joy is the only possible one. Importantly, however, many endure suffering, ambivalence and disorientation within existing categories, especially the one to which they were assigned at birth. They can be genderqueer or trans, or something else, and they are seeking to live life as the body that makes sense to them and lets life be livable, if not joyous. Whatever else gender means, it surely names for some a felt sense of the body, in its surfaces and depths, a lived sense of being a body in the world in this way.

As much as someone might want to clutch a single idea of what it is to be a woman or a man, the historical reality defeats that project and makes matters worse by insisting on genders that have all along exceeded the binary alternatives. How we live that complexity, and how we let others live, thus becomes of paramount importance.

There is still much to be understood about gender as a structural problem in society, as an identity, as a field of study, as an enigmatic and highly invested term that circulates in ways that inspire some and terrify others. We have to keep thinking about what we mean by it and what others mean when they find themselves up in arms about the term.

Judith Butler is a professor of comparative literature at UC Berkeley. This essay was adapted from their forthcoming book “Who’s Afraid of Gender?”

[sekhithefops]

The World is Run by Jerry Smiths

So, its a popular idea that there's a shadowy cabal of rulers running the world. The Illuminati, the Deep State, the Lizard People, what have you.

Personally, I have my own theory on this one.

They're not shadowy or secret.

They really don't run the world in any sense but running it into the ground.

They're all basically Jerry Smith from Rick & Morty.

Now hear me out.

In Rick & Morty, Jerry Smith is Morty's father. He is an insecure little tit who is forever trying and failing to prove his worth, because he doesn't realize he has no worth to prove. He's pretty pathetic.

He almost gets murdered by Meeseeks when he tries (and fails) to improve his golf game, the short-lived helper creatures realizing that they can be free of their existence if they get rid of him and (technically) fulfill his request by doing so ("we can't take two strokes off his game, but we can take all strokes off it!")

He gets used by the ruler of Pluto to try to get people to ignore the fact that their planet is being destroyed by their own abuses of it and goes along with it because his ego is getting stroked the entire way, to the point of humiliating his son on stage.

And he's such a man-child that he winds up in a literal daycare for Jerrys that an alternate version of Rick established to take care of them while a universe's Rick and Morty were off having adventures.

Every time I see Jerry, I'm reminded of... honestly a lot of political figures in the United States (probably other countries too, but I try to avoid political news that doesn't directly affect me as it would only stress me out horribly.)

Lately America has been on one of it's regular Moral Panics that will, more often than not, blow up in the GOP's face in the end. We've had the Satanic Panic, the Porn Rock hearings of the 80s, and the like... now we're on to Transpeople. Politicians are trying to mandate how gender works because... I dunno, they're afraid of getting cooties or something (or more likely the usual 'we're trying to incite a culture war to avoid the class war that will likely happen one day.')

One of the worst offenders of this is Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida. A little toad of a man who is so insecure that he wears stealth high heels in order to make himself appear taller than he is as he attacks anything and everything he considers "woke" in revenge for... well, whatever. Probably losing the 2024 nomination to a pile of Cheetos in an ill-fitting suit.

Moving away from the political sphere we can find Jerries in the leadership of the business world as well. A prime example is one of the reasons I reactivated my Tumblr account in the first place. Everyone's favorite little shit, Elon "Elongated Muskrat" Musk.

Elon is 100% what Jerry would be if he had a lot of money. He got laughed at on Twitter, so he bought it and bans everyone who looks at him funny. He buys up companies and claims he's a genius scientist for inventions he had no hand in designing (and that come out far worse for his involvement post-takeover.)

A closer to home example would be Tumblr's own Photomatt, who I didn't even know existed until recently and having found out about them I wish I could return to that happy place of ignorance.

Because a transperson was... honestly as far as I can tell existing to them for more than a few minutes they banned their account, then did so again when they made a burner account, then once more with feeling, then possibly a few more times (I lost count.)

Of course he's now getting dunked on from all sides and has only his millions of dollars and the ability to threaten siccing the FBI on offenders while screaming incoherently like a toddler who was told they can't have a cookie.

Again, Jerry Smith, but with money.

So yeah. Got a bit rambly there, but thats how I see the world really. Its not a bunch of tyrannical fascists, its a bunch of insecure little men who can't handle even the tiniest bits of criticism without having a panic attack.

Where's Rick when you need him?

[lesbiangummybearmafia]

Ok so 1953 was 70 years ago... 2053 is only 29 years away. This is my point the conservatives and Republicans in this country want to drag us all back 70 years ago if they had their way. I chose 1953 out of thin air, but pretty much any year of 50s. Because white men controlled everything back then. It's the 21st century for fuck sake, we're closer to 2053 now, are we all going to sit idly by allow them to this? Y'all realize we could easily vote all those old white bastards out of congress if enough got up off our butts and actually went out and voted, no matter what it takes. The only reason they stay in Congress and everywhere else is because more old conservatives and Republicans get out and vote. And I get those fuckers make impossible in alot of places to vote if we aren't one of them. But we gotta be fuck you, we're stronger, smarter, better, younger, more determined to have a better future. So we're not going to let their bullshit trickery and straight up cheating stop us from voting we'll get it done. Even just to piss those motherfuckers off. Vote for people of color, lgbtqia+ candidates, trans candidates, vote for not Republicans or Democratic candidates (if they get enough votes they'll win), vote for candidates that are younger then 50!! Just fucking vote, because even if think it does nothing, if dislike/hate conservatives/republican/fascist politicians voting against them will piss them the fuck off, prove them wrong about all of us, make them look stupid (which is always fun) and hopefully save our democracy. Because those motherfuckers are chipping away at it, it now huge fucking pieces their taking off not little pebbles. Just look at all laws they've passed at the state level to restrict our civil liberties, control free speech by banning books, passing laws to control women's reproductive rights, first the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade now having state after state passing insane laws banning abortions. In every case is a clear indication how much conservatives man don't care about women or our lives. Then the onslaught of laws targeting the trans community, limiting their access to health care they need and unleashing a wave of transphobic all over ourcountry. Also laws targeting the lgbtqia+ community, banning drag shows, that in theit history never hurt anyone. There a celebration.

We the people, remember there are way more of us then any political party, any amount of politicians, no matter how much powerful they think they are. We our number them! We are louder, we are angry, we are feed up, we are tried of the lies, we are tried of all the bullshit, we done being told what America should be like. Because that definition doesn't work anymore, we're gonna give America a new definition for right now! For the 21st century, for 2023 because we're not going the fuck backwards no fucking more. The only direction is forward, into the future, we want to know what America can be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now. That is not some conservative, Republican, fascist, authoritarian old white man wet dream!!! Nope, not happening not on our watch assholes!

We will not go gentle into that good night! We will rage, rage against the dying of the light!! In other words will not allow our democracy to be killed by traitors to our country that even now spit fascist ideals in Congress, in Governor offices, state legislators, mayors officials, city councils, school districts. Just look at horrors that been unleashed on Florida because of Ron DeSantis who is without doubt a fascist and an authoritarian!

That why the next elections are so important. Why it's so important to register to vote at

And go out vote or to make it easier if your state allows voting by mail, that what I do. I'm in Arizona, they send me a ballot in mail, I fill it out. I can either mail it or drop it off. It's great!! To see if your state has voting by mail go to.

Some other voting resources:

https://rockthevote.org

https://vote411.org

(Helps if your homeless and want to vote)

(Helps people with disabilities to vote)

[clarktooncrossing]

Blue Beetle vs Moana

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW!

IT'S ME, CLARK, BACK WITH ANOTHER DOSE OF WEIRDNESS!

Man, March is gone. Good riddance! The first three months of this year have sucked! The weather sucked, my health has sucked, it's been a non-stop suck fest! Yet here April is, already off to a kick@$$ start! Little Caesars brought the Pretzel Pizza back, Disney clap backed hard against Florida, and DC released a trailer for a superhero movie I've been dying to see! Ladies, gentlemen, and weirdos, may I present to you the Blue Beetle!

The Positives:

+ That perfect photo-realistic translation of the costume! Not since Raimi's Spider-Man or the original Iron Man have I seen a supersuit this sexy!

+ Apparently the actor chosen to play Jaime is a fan favorite. I haven't seen Cobra Kai, so I have no prior exposure to Xolo Maridueña, but he seems to be having a blast!

+ Emphasis is placed on Jaime's family life, making it very clear from the start they're as essential to the story here as they were in the comics.

+ Dang, that initial suit-up is something out of a horror story! Nice!

+ So many references to the prior Blue Beetles, Ted Kord and Dan Garrett, including The Bug! Heck yeah!

+ More representation for non-white superheroes is always a win!

+ DC is releasing all of his original adventures from the Pre-Flashpoint universe! FINALLY!

The Negatives:

+ Suffers from 'generic trailer' disorder, meaning I don't know a ton about the plot or Jaime's antagonists. Then again, I actually haven't read a ton of his books. Yet. Here's hoping Trailer #2 is more interesting.

+ George Lopez's stupid joke about Batman being a fascist. First of all, how dare you waste the comic genius of Lopez! Second, unless Frank Miller wrote this, Batman is not a fascist!

All that said, I am super excited for this movie! Let it be known that were it not for Across the Spider-Verse, Blue Beetle would be my most anticipated film of 2023! Good lord, I am so hyped for this! This trailer had me riding high this morning. Only for Disney and Dwayne Johnson to have me crashing down to Earth.

Much to my shock, this is not a late April Fool's Day prank on behalf of the Mouse House and Ex-Black Adam. This is actually happening. Disney is remaking an animated movie that's not even a decade old. Now I'm not a huge fan of Moana, but even I think this feels desperate on Disney and The Rock's part. In terms of Disney, it feels like they finally realized they're running out of classic cartoons to 'reimagine', forcing them to result in current critical darlings. Sure, they could bring retell stories like The Black Cauldron or Atlantis, but they didn't make money the first time! Why take creative risks when you can make stupidly safe ones? Mark my words, Frozen is next. As for The Rock, this feels kinduv' insulting following the praises he sang towards animation at this year's Oscars. I guess his alliances changed following Shazam: The Prequel securing the final death nail on the DCEU's coffin. Maui needs moola. No matter which way ya' look at it, it looks pretty freak'n stupid. Thankfully I'm not alone on that though. Currently the like to dislike ratio leans heavily on the later and there are plenty of comments wondering why this is happening. What about you weirdos?

Are you excited for a live-action Moana or do you think it should stay in the realm of animation? Furthermore, are you eager for Blue Beetle's first big screen adventure? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Until then-

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[caligula9997]

"Sorry your family got bombed, but I need you to vote for the man who is directly responsible, or *real* people are going to suffer too."

perfectly encapsulates the liberal mindset in a sentence.

if the dems wanted to win, they would put up a viable candidate, instead of running the most unpopular president in US history for a second time.

remember back in 2016 when the democrats ran hillary despite her being massively unpopular and kicked bernie out of the democratic party? the 2024 democratic primary in florida has already been shutdown in favor of another biden campaign.

if you want to be angry at someone for trump's victory, look to the fascists in blue.

Fundamentally, if the democrats lose the presidency in 2024, it will not be because of "voter apathy" or "the idealistic left" or Cornell West or whatever third party candidate the liberals end up blaming. It will be because the democrats have failed to meet the lowest standards of many Americans.

You can talk about strategic voting until you're blue in the face, but fundamentally, people need reasons to vote for a candidate. There are people in this country watching as their family members get slaughtered by American arms, sent to Israel by Joe Biden. The people watching their families get murdered in Palestine have no reason to support Joe Biden. How can you ask them to?

"Sorry your family got bombed, but I need you to vote for the man who is directly responsible, or *real* people are going to suffer too."

It was at this point While I was drafting this post that I heard he just started bombing Yemen. It's like he's doing everything in his power to sink his own fucking campaign, are you shitting me? This isn't a matter of "stupid commies not being realistic enough", he's not just working for the status quo; just about every action he has taken since October 7th has been an escalation of conflict in the Middle East and made it worse for everyone living there. This is exactly what I'm talking about.

You can scold people for voting wrong as much as you want, but fundamentally the way that democrats can win elections is by pursuing good policy. If the only argument you can come up with in favor of Joe Biden is that he won't do 1 or 2 of the terrible things that Trump wants to do, then that will simply not appeal to the people who are most intensely affected by Biden's failures (not to mention people who have moral objections to genocide, even when it doesn't affect them). You can scream and cry all you want, people are not going to just overlook his role in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza just because he is the Less Bad Genocider.

If a republican wins the presidency in November, you can blame the hundreds of thousands of voters/nonvoters who should've agreed with you and put aside every moral concern they ever had about the Biden administration... or you can blame the one fucking guy whose massive foreign policy failures are going to tank his re-election campaign.