#france sucks that's the moral

[goldenpot8o]

[cacowhistle]

was just talking to my mom about what just happened and yk what fuck it ill say it here too:

stop focusing on making sure you're NOT doing the WRONG thing.

focus on doing the right thing

not every choice you make can be 100% morally correct. thats just a part of the world we live in. if youre an american citizen and youre able to vote, you need to vote blue. biden sucks. hes a terrible person. but the other option, the only other one with the potential to win? he will make everything so much worse.

take inspiration from france and the uk. make the rough choice so you can fight for a better tomorrow. because if you dont, we wont even be able to fight anymore.

[txttletale]

opinion on the game tyranny, if you've played it

i fucking love tyranny! it's got some of the best writing i've ever seen, the characters are all genuinely really well-written and complex and interesting, the world feels viscerally real and they let your character feel like a real part of it too. it's such a rare and good choice to set a fantasy world in an ersatz bronze age rather than ersatz 14th-century france and it gives it a really unique aesthetic and feel. it understands that a moral dilemma has to lack a straightforward 'good' or 'bad' option to actually be impactful. you have to actually think about your character's morality (or lack thereof) and how they/you want to approach the situations presented to you.

it's a real shame that the game is like -- literally actually unfinished, like they didn't finish making the game before it was released, and it really shows in act 3 where the game just kind of abruptly stops. also despite the spell crafting systems having potential the game's combat sucks like every single crpg with real-time-pause combat sucks and at higher difficulties every enemy is an exhausting damage sponge. i also wish that lore wasn't the end-all-and-be-all for 90% of the dialogue checks. so like all in all if it was finished properly and the combat was cleaned up a bit it'd be a top 10 game of all time for me. as it is it still cracks the top 25 on the strength of its writing, quest design, and world. kyros is the only interesting take on the 'evil overlord' i've ever encountered.

[kendrixtermina]

The grimy, racist core of the "but Hamas" thing is not that Hamas is like secretly all perfect rainbow sparkles wonderful, but that Palestinians are expected to have a perfect flawless government before their desire for self-determination & right to resist are taken seriously

Somehow past violence disqualifies Palestinian authorities (at least those that won't be stooges) but it is NEVER treated as invalidating Israel's credibility though they did all the same violence and more ten times over, and also, they STARTED it.

Palestinians are held to an impossible standard.

Or its not even that, because the west bank government became Vichy France level stooges & that didn't lead to a Palestinian state, it was used to prevent that. It's a rigged, no win game.

Hamas (which is only one leading faction in a larger coalition of Palestinian resistance fighters that includes socialists as well) doesn't need to be perfect for Palestinians to have a right to self-determination & to resist occupation.

After all its not like western governments are perfect... far from it... and the Israeli government & military are a heart of darkness and a wretched hive of sin, theres no other way to put what I've learned from all the books, documentaries & tentimonies I've been looking at over the last few weeks as well as the real time events unfolding. There is no evil they wont stoop to.

It's the same basic flaw that creates problematic legal grey zones in USA reservations - can't give the "savages" juristiction over "our" citizens so you can just go in there & do a crime. Or the original sin of the UN, which is the veto power.

The rich countries need to finally stop acting like they are by default the adults at the table even if they're acting like toddlers.

All the world is for Palestine! All the world. This includes most ppl under 40 in the West, just that our shitty old man politicians don't represent us. But overwhelmingly most UN states voted to censure Israel time & time again & the USA keeps protecting them. All the world is against this! They're not all stupid. The USA is not more enlightened. They're just another self-serving superpower just like China & Russia. Yes those regimes suck - but the USA sucks! And ppl in India & Africa do admire China for making cheap tech products accessible to less rich countries. The USA (& by extension most the leadership of the western block) is letting Israel do every conceivable evil right now, there IS no moral high ground.

Time we had real equality. Time we expunged the last vestiges of colonialism. In the UN, in western countries, and in occupied Palestine, where it is the strongest.

[francisinthehouse]

hello tumblr i have just finished reading The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White and i need to scream my thoughts about it into the void

spoiler warning for the entirety of this book, i want to tell you to read it blind but i should ALSO tell you to read the content warnings because yeah, this book is dark and it pulls no punches in depicting horrible shit (this is not a criticism. i love it, but not everyone will and i understand that)

OK RIGHT OFF THE BAT i love Silas as a character so much, as an autistic person i think this is the most seen/understood i have ever felt reading about another autistic person in fiction.

i love you Daphne I was so ready to hate her when she was introduced and then the second she came out to Silas she stole my heart, i'm not trans but that scene almost made me cry.

i would kill for the groundskeeper i hope he knows that, never said a word but he might be one of my favorite characters in the book. wherever he is i hope he's doing well.

i desperately want to know more about the Braxton's girls. what were their lives like before the book, did they have families, did they miss them, did they try to fight back against the horrors they faced there only to become numb to them. what about the girls who managed to leave, what happened to them, what is happening to them.

i love Mary and Frances, but i'm never going to recover from the emotional damage they did to me. i KNEW there was something between them when Mary was introduced but then the scene in the basement happened and i sobbed uncontrollably. i will NEVER get over Frances haunting Mary's ring and Mary calling Frances her wife in the epilogue.

what the HELL happened to Charlotte. we know she's in Braxton's for being a feminist, what kind of hell did they put her through for her to become the way she is in the book?

Harriet Johnston. holy fucking shit, Harriet Johnston. everything about her scene fucking broke me. i can't even ask what she did to deserve that because nothing she could have done would warrant that.

the bathroom scene. anyone who has read the book knows what i'm talking about. Isabella i am so sorry. the fact that Silas was able to save her, that she WOULD HAVE SURVIVED had Headmaster not caught her. the tragedy that she died so close to the climax, that she was so close to surviving and escaping but that the climax also would have never happened if she did survive. she was dead no matter what, and she deserved so much better.

Mrs Forrester is such an interesting character to me. she's just as much a victim of the system as she is a perpetrator of it, and in a weird way i love the fact that she isn't redeemed by the end. also how poetic and tragic is it that the first student of Braxton's dies with it?

George sucks, he can fuck off and die for all i care. over and over he was given the choice to do the right thing and every time decided not to because it would have made HIS life harder. Elsie deserves a better husband, Silas deserves a better brother. he's not even the worst character morally, but i can't even say that i hate his guts because he has no guts for me to hate at all.

i am fully prepared to ramble more about this book when i can form coherent thoughts, i am trying but my brain is still spinning at light speeds and the words are not coming out right. i am so normal about this book

[makethatelevenrings]

I mean this with ZERO disrespect, I'm simply trying to educate myself on this matter because it impacts us all.

All I can find about the Israel-Palestine conflicts is the fighting. What I want to know is why.

Whats the backstory? Why are they fighting? Why is everyone persecuting one another and who in the government is responsible?

I heard Hamas bombed Gaza and has taken hostages. What brought on this violence? Do all the Palestinians agree with this?

(More personal opinion questions, you don't need to answer these)

Do you agree with Hamas? Do you think that violence was a last resort to free Palestine? Do you think it's justified?

One thing I do hate is people saying "I hate *this group of people*, they are bad." They can't all be bad. So I don't like the titles of Anti-Israel/Anti-Palestine because you're assuming everyone there is on the same side.

In conclusion, people are stupid. The government is messed up. Citizens and families want to live so why won't the government let them?

I’m genuinely grateful that you’re asking because educating ourselves is one of the greatest tools we have. I’ll break it up into sections.

1. What’s the backstory?

In 1918, the Ottoman Empire conceded land they controlled to Britain (this is still an ongoing problem regarding many, many things because the Ottoman Empire controlled many nations that weren’t theirs to control if you catch my drift. Look up the Elgin marbles for a fun wormhole of WTF Britain). The Arab Revolt was backed by France and Britain with the promise that if the Arab fighters could force the Ottomans out of the area of the Levant, they would be granted independence (McMahon-Hussein Correspondence) but, plot twist, France and the UK instead split the region (Sykes-Picot Agreement). The Balfour Declaration of 1917 expressed Britain’s support of the creation of Israel. After they gained control of the region, they established Israel and systematically began to take the land of Palestinians.

Note: Zionism began as a belief in the mid-18th century. Many, MANY Jewish people do not subscribe, encourage, or promote the idea of a Jewish state. I do not view Israel = Jewish because it is antisemitic to imply that the Jewish diaspora all exist under the state of Israel. Especially when many Jewish people disagree with Israel.

Note note: Zionism was created as a response to the numerous pogroms and other antisemitic hate crimes affecting Jewish people. the Holocaust was fucking awful. No ifs ands or buts. Genocide doesn’t justify genocide, however.

Continuing on. So, clearly, the Palestinians are pissed. They were promised independence and instead now have their land taken by a global superpower who has historically fucked over hundreds of countries (another wormhole for you: India under British rule, Ireland and literally all of its history with England, the transatlantic slave trade under Britain, Africa under British rule, Australia and the treatment of Aboriginals under British rule, America and the British, it goes on). Palestinians revolted from 1936-1939 because, again, their home and promise of independence was being stolen. They lost against the British army but then 1939 was a bit of an important year for everyone and they world was sucked into another world war.

With WWII saw the birth of the United Nations, an organization that might sound important but has the moral backbone with the equivalence of a chocolate eclair. The UN said “hey, why don’t we split Palestine and Israel into two different states so maybe they’ll stop fighting” (United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine) and, as a result, the 1948 Palestine-Israel war began. Hundreds died. 700k+ people were forced from Palestine and spread across the world in what is called the Nakba. Israeli colonizers quite literally moved into homes that had been occupied by Palestinians only days before. In 1918, the Jewish population of the region was 8.1%. In 1948, when Israel was recognized as a nation by the UN, the Jewish population of the region was 82.1%.

2. There’s plenty of infographics and videos explaining the next few decades but I’m already writing an essay basically so the gist is: Palestinians keep losing their homes and Israel keeps taking them. Israel forces the Palestinians into smaller and smaller parcels of land until the control virtually everything but a small strip of land (Gaza) and the West Bank. That brings us to 2006.

Hamas was elected in 2006 over rivaling Fatah, gaining majority amount of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council under the promise that they would help end the corruption many Palestinians were frustrated with. Instead they took military control over Gaza and established an autocratic state over millions of people who were already suffering under barbaric policies and practices from Israel. Politicians.

This is where things get a little…messy morally. Do I agree with Hamas? Fuck no. I couldn’t care less about Hamas because they don’t care about Palestinians. Do all Palestinians agree with Hamas? Firstly, you will rarely find a group of people where all agree with some. Secondly, I don’t think they appreciate being bombed by Israel while Hamas leaders chill somewhere else. The people of Palestine are the victims of Hamas and Israel.

Did some Palestinians celebrate Hamas’ actions? Yes. Do I think violence is a last resort? Yes and no. Do I think it’s justified? Yes and no.

Lemme expand on those last two points. I want to be an international human rights attorney someday. The loss of innocent life is always a fucking tragedy that I hope to help prevent or to bring justice for them. I understand violence. I understand why people are so angry. I understand the rage and grief Palestinians feel. 75 years of having their rights stripped away, their homes quite literally occupied, their land and culture chipped away piece by piece, and their children bombed and shot at.

“But how on earth can you think violence is justified if people get hurt!” The American Revolution was an act of violence that got numerous people killed yet you will rarely find someone who won’t justify it. Ukraine defending themselves against Russia wanting their land with no regard to how many Ukrainians they kill is considered justified.

People just seem to focus on the “violence is bad” aspect of things once POC are involved. Yeah, I said it. Americans tired of taxation, of British rule, and of not having their independence causes property damage, argues with soldiers in the streets, and starts a war is okay but when Palestinians do it, it’s a problem? When Black Americans ask to stop being brutalized by the police, it’s a problem? When Black South Africans ask to end an apartheid state, it’s a problem? When Central Americans ask for western nations to stop causing coups that destabilizes their nations, it’s a problem? I could go on.

Yeah, violence is bad. Violence is also the way that a lot of countries are where they are today. Violence is sometimes the only reason why things changed. Violence is enacted on the oppressed everyday yet people only seem to really care once the oppressed fight back.

3. I’m anti-Israel because I don’t agree with the government and the state of Israel. I don’t agree with their 75 years of violent oppression of Palestinians. I don’t agree with their current or past actions. I’m anti-Hamas. I think they’re a vacuous organization that is more focused on getting what they want than considering the consequences of innocent Palestinians.

I’m also really fucking furious at Joe Biden’s insistence that we send aid to Israel. We have given Israel $260 BILLION since 1948. BILLION. And yet we have people dying because they can’t afford healthcare. Students leaving school because they can’t afford tuition. We have 8 year olds in debt because they can’t afford school lunches. The unhoused population is growing rapidly due to the housing crisis. I can sense the unemployment rate creeping higher. I know many people who have lost their jobs this past month alone. We’re days away from another government shutdown and they can’t vote on a speaker.

American politicians would rather send Israel billions more to bomb innocent people than to feed their own citizens. That, in my opinion, is a sort of violence that can never be justified.

[baberoe-archive]

i hope this navigator crosby guy never gets better at his job i hope the moral of the story is that you can suck at your job forever and nothing happens except for maybe landing in france which is frankly punishment enough

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #24

24. DENMARK Saba - "Sand" 30th place

Decade Ranking: 87/153 [Above Fyr og Flamme, below Luke Black]

SAND! SAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!

You know the drill. We've arrived at the stage of "mostly enjoyable", and there's no better opener to that than "Sand". It's so delightfully average. Nothing but the recognisable sound of a "Scandinavian Eurovision song", something we all know and like to hear.

And its comes with a multipurpose hook too. Allow me to demonstrate:

FRANCE!!! FRAAAAAAAAAANCE!!!!

SCREAMING AT A MICROPHONE STAAAAAND

FRANCE!!! FRAAAAAAAAANCE!!!

I GUESS THAT ALL THE JURIES VOTE FOR FRANCE 😶

Of course "Sand" sounds like it comes out of a can (SPAM!!! SPAAAM!! BARELY MEAT THAT COMES OUT OF A CAN!), because it was one of those scandiblandi pop nothings that were bounced around internal selections for several years. (I hope you like those because I'm expecting 2025 to be infested with them) Remember how "Colours" was peddled first to Michela and then to Destiny to no avail, so that frumpy bat Bernarda was forced to sing it herself in the following Dora? ("NOW ALL I SEE IS COLOURS, YOU TOOK ME FROM BLACK AND WHITE" :is blind: ).

Likewise, the songwriters of "Sand" first tried to sell it to Emma Muscat when she tried to pivot away from "Out of Sight" before she chose "I am what I am" (MAN!!! MAAAAAN!!! I WILL TAKE ONE CUZ THAT'S HOW I AM!). Yep, an Emma Muscat hand-me-down, that's the level of Denmark at Eurovision right now. HOORAY for everyone who is not a Dane!!

So in that sense, it was the perfect match for DMGP, which was the usual depressing affair. So bad people were gravitating towards Basim cheerfully singing about a man dying from cirrhosis, an entry that demonstrated a near Israeli level of unselfawareness and moral corruption. But he lost (ANTS!!! AAAAAANTS! HIS HOPE HAS BEEN CRUSHED LIKE SOME ANTS! :victory dance: ) to Saba, and all was perfectly average in the world.

At Eurovision, I always assumed Saba would be in contention for a spot in the finale simply because of how catchy the hook and melody were. Unfortunately, Servephobia is a Scandinavian illness and both Melanie Webhe and Saba are patients.

Not that Saba didn't attempt to serve.... but um... judge for yourself:

work those armpit fetishists, girl! IMBUE them with the power of irate sexfaces! Like idk, it's "serving" in the same sense of "the headcanon slaying" you and I would do in our bedroom acting out these songs like the useless homos- Zorra stans that we all are. It looks great in your imagination but in reality, :eek: . Kind of how this year's Belgian entrant thought he nailed the performance each time yet never rose above a level of:

Also the staging, um... Look I know the song is called "Sand" and that she sings it's slipping through her hands, but everyone knows it's a metaphor? "Oh we've broken up? I guess that sucks :shrug:" Like the zoomer thing where life sucks I guess but it's not a big deal cuz we'll all die (eventually.)

So why make it so... (g)lit(t)eral?

Literally shooting cgi sand from her armpit in the last shot <3 told you this was aimed at fetishits <3 (PITS!!! PIIIITS!!! the hottest gay thing that ain't bara tids!).

What really killed Saba's chances at Eurovision was the staging. Sure the faces and subpar vocals were already... not helping. (they were entertaining me though, I'll give her that). Still. Denmark have proven once again that they have no ability whatsoever to discriminate good ideas from bad ones. They added so much shit to the NF's performance that made it look worse ♥ and fixed NONE of the issues ♥ The song's uptempo, and restricting Saba's movement to a space smaller than most countries' postal stamps may not have been the most prudent choice here (maybe i should add small platforms to the list of Massive Staging Faux Pas alongside sunglasses, unnecessary headset mics, selfie backdrops and turntables?)

Oh and one of those faux pas was ofc also present like why is this a shot?

YOU CAN SO CLEARLY SEE it isn't her. 😂 😍

Before rehearsals I was on the fence whether Denmark could qualify or not but as soon as I saw the tiktok that showed the backdrop clone and the effects I knew she was gonna be out. Oh well. Time to hop on the MALTA QUALIFIES train I gues.

All in all, "Sand" pretty much what you would expect from Denmark. An average, not unpleasant (and memeable) song that was somehow the only acceptable option in an horrible NF. They tried VERY hard to elevate into goodness, and completely failed. ♥ I love "Sand"'s journey ironically and kind unironically enjoy it for its incompetence, which makes it a good opener for this year's Green tier.

Btw: with Georgia, ☘Ireland☘ and ❤Latvia❤ all reaching the finals this year (EGGS! EEEEEEEGGS!!! DONS'S CLUTCH QUAL IS BETTER THAAAAN SEX!), Denmark now have the longest NQ streak out of all the active ESC countries. Cannae wait to see what creative new way they'll figure out to accedentally get level with Montenegro's as well. ♥

THE RANKING

[centrally-unplanned]

Dude saying american waitstaff make more than Europe because we're richer is just.... fucking laughable. Have you ever worked food service?? Good Luck even making rent half the time asshole. What the fuck is that person talking about $150,000 a summer in tips. That's total bullshit. It's completely fucking laughable that the United States gross domestic product being higher than europes is fucking trickling down to its waitstaff. Maybe in some cases in especially highbrow restuarants sure. But dude go work a popular and reasonably priced restaurant in a major city you don't make jack fucking dick. I don't even remember following your blog but if your views on economics involve having no actually experience with the fields in question than it's pretty obvious they aren't worth much

France Average Waiter Salary: 22k USD

US Average Waiter Salary: 29k USD

Stay malding I guess.

But I will be nice and explain why you went so wrong. For one, no one was talking about life quality - European waitstaff make way less, but they have a more robust welfare state and like better urban design, etc, if you ask me I would rather be waitstaff in Europe than in America. It just wasn't the topic.

Secondly, and more importantly, your *absolute* experience in the US tells you *nothing* about the *comparative* experience to Europe! Someone who worked in the US has no inherent clue what waiters in Italy, France, Germany experience; waitstaff are underpaid and overworked the world over! Just because it sucks in Peoria doesn't mean its magically better in Prague. Never ever ever reason from half the dataset, it simply does not work.

And also never ever reason from morality about questions of empirics - comparative pay rates can not be understood as "jack fucking dick", that isn't a number, that is a claim about what someone should be paid. You don't know anything about my thoughts on what working conditions *should* be, it never came up. Numeric literacy is a valuable skill, I suggest you practice it.

[ef-1]

Honestly I can't believe that F1 would race in places like the Middle East and Baku. Thank God we have the USA where women have 100% freedom over their bodies, Minorities have rights and none of them fear for their life. Italy where the LGBTQIA+ community have rights and the Catholic church has no saying in politics. China, France (they will bring them back) and Belgium where the Muslim community lives and can practice peacefully.

And I'm so glad that they never raced in a problematic country like say Russia.

We all know that the most important aspect of Formula 1 is it morality and we can all rest assured that it will never change no matter how much money a country offers the FIA

Jokes aside as a Muslim women I know that the middle East is not a safe place for women and most minorities but to claim that Christianity and white countries are better is straight up delusional. Every single fucking country in this world sucks so that anon needs to get off their high horse

so true! we all know west good, east bad ofc!

honestly thanks. it's so funny everyone gets their panties in a twist about human rights only when f1 lands outside the west. Sure call out human rights abuses and raise awareness but keep the same energy.

like where the fuck do these people get off trying to find a moral highground to berate others as though mercedes isn't sponsored by a company that's been charged with actual fucking war crimes in Sudan and like red bulls billionaire co-founder wasn't personally funding fascists in europe and like ferrari didn't posture for the Italian military after they killed Indian fisherman. This sport, built on money, can only ever be morally bankrupt if you stare too closely

[fyodior]

Hi my favorite low-ironed sluts. It's me 🪱 again! did you miss me? probably not. Hotel? trivago. I personally love Fyodor. I wanna hold his cold pretty hands 💕( i also want him to choke me while he fucks me until nothing but his name is in my head). He's so cute! Anyways what time is it? time for more headcanons because what else is better to do on a Wednesday night? (be sucking fyodors dick) idk but I think this is a good use of my time. But wait! there's a catch I'm adding dazai headcanons ( i want to be stuffed with his children)

Fyodor has not one, not two but three gold rings that say "ASS" and ''TITS'' there those really flashy ones yk?

Fyodor as a kid used to think squirrels were ducks???

Fyodor has irreparable trauma

Fyodor once drank half of a bottle of Henesey and proceeded to burp the abc's backward while half-naked on the corner of wall street with two NYC hotdogs in hand.

Fyodor can not draw for shit. Not even Bob ross can say what he draws is a happy mistake. and most psychologists suggests he seeks professional help.

Fyodor wears crocs unironically. he has seven pairs

Fyodor may or may not have broken a priceless piece of pottery in the Louver...he is banned from France.

Fyodor actually fought a Koyal in Australia and got chlamydia.

Fyodor has pants that have "THICC" bedazzled across his ass.

Fyodor one time wrote a 800k fanfic about the mascots of Jack in The Box and Mc Donalds, it was a slow burn, enemies to lovers, jock x weird kid and it currently has 2k likes. it's still ongoing but since he's been so busy he hasn't been able to update it as consistently. Also whenever he does update his author note is always crazy. it will say "Hey guys sorry for not updating in a while! currently in a maximum security prison and I'm communicating via secret code. I also got sentenced to 100 years to life. ANNNND my ''cellmate'' is the one that stole my kidney that one time and sold me a Honda civic. I'll try to be more frequent with update love you all! smut in this chapter <3"

Fyodor actual ghost produced adele's 25 album and now has a grammy

Fyodor is the type of guy to somehow convince you to take E or acid for a "ReLiGiOus ExPeRieNcE" nothing about it is religious except for when he passes out from anemia.

Fyodor thinks clam chowder is the reason life is still worth living, and honestly, I don't blame him

Fyodor owns three Starbucks.

Dazai may or may not read Fyodor's fanfic. he is currently waiting for more updates, so now he has to figure out how to make sure the ADA doesn't literally implode and keep up with this fic.

Dazai got so drunk one time he threw up on Fukuzawa and called him mommy.

Dazai was originally uncircumcised until he went to Kentucky and now he is! yeah...he now also has one middle toe??

Dazai sold atushi on the black market and then stole him from the kidnapper because he didn't have enough money to pay for his Netflix subscription.

Dazai can't spell gorgeous, he's a genius but just can't spell the word correctly

Dazai has a mug that says "Best ex-mafia boss now turned crime-fighting yet somehow still morally grey nihilistic detective!"

Dazai has also been banned from France but only because the Prime minister of Belgium (dazai's ex discord daddy) talked to the prime minister of France about the break up.

Dazai Stole the Declaration of Independence and spilled Sake on it and then returned it.

Dazai accidentally made a bomb while he was in a meeting.

Dazai one time after finishing said out loud "post nut clarity is so crazy. Like man I just remembered how I got away with three counts of manslaughter in 2010" he giggled and fist-bumped his hook up then used up the rest of their moisturizer.

Dazai like Fyodor decided to watch Everything, Everywhere, all at once thinking it wouldn't be as sad as everyone said it was. After the movie was over he stared blankly at the screen for a good three hours until someone literally had to escort him out

Dazai once drank an entire bottle of soy sauce because he was drunk. don't worry he didn't puke but he is now banned from Scottland.

Dazai stole a badger from Italy and now has a badger named pasta that is currently running a rodent gang that is freeing rodents all over the city from traps. They currently have 300 members and are expanding. Poe's Raccoon is a part of the gang, and he is their intel guy. Dazai also has to buy 100 lbs of food for this animal gang. Dazai is their mascot for some reason, and he's also their like mother? iidk

Alright well, that's all for now, as always take your time replying!

Sincerely your one and only badger gang leader in Dazi's small-ass apartment.

-🪱

i’ve been goin through it recently but this literally had me cackling thank u so much 💀💀💀💀

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Thoughts on the new leaks/season 2?

As I've said before, I honestly like the idea of Melissa joining for S2. It could just be flashbacks, but even if it's not, the symbolism from S5 tells us they always planned for Carol to be part of Daryl finding Beth. So, it's a good sign in my book. Here are some of my fellow theorists' thoughts about it as well:

@wdway

Well what do you know Melissa is in France. They don't look like they're in the on their honeymoon to me though. I am not worried about this, she was supposed to be in the spinoff anyway. This only thing I absolutely do hate about this is that that gloating the Carylers are gonna put us through until, yet again, nothing romantic happens between Daryl and Carol.

Apparently the Carylers believe this is the wedding ring that Daryl gave to his beloved wife Carol. His wife, his forever love. Of course unless this photo was flipped she's wearing it on the wrong finger and hand.

@galadrieljones

It’s also possible she got married to Ezekiel! I don’t believe she’d marry Daryl that would be like marrying your brother.

Also hmmm this is interesting tho. How does she end up there?

Also why is her hair short…?

Flashbacks?

Do you know where these came from? Like I wonder if this is them in costume?

Tempted to try and find Carol in that outfit in an old episode to see if it’s possible she’s filming flashback scenes.

If I were a Caryler I’d be worried about the fact her hair is short again. We know the story of why she cut her hair. Growing it out again was like a point of pride and moving on. Why would she cut it again?

Unless okay it’s just MMB’s hair

And she wears a wig?

Anyway I am probably wrong she probably wears a wig. But yeah actually this intrigues me and like idc about Carylers.

@wdway

Remember in the last scenes of, Rest in Peace, after the year time jump Carol had cut her hair.

@galadrieljones

Omg I forgot lol

@wdway

With all the crew around them I'm sure that this is their costumes. And I think it is present time Europe.

@wdway

I guess that life raft drifted back across the ocean for Carol to hitch a ride.

@galadrieljones

Seriously tho did she follow him? Track him? I’m actually extremely interested in how Carol got there because unlike Daryl, Carol is a major troublemaker and has less moral convictions when it comes to getting what she wants

@wdway

In one of the shots above we see Daryl holding a map. Why does he need a map? He's found his true love (sarcasm). I just think it's part of all the pattern of maps we're seeing.

@galadrieljones:

If she got some sort of distress signal from Daryl while out on a fishing boat at Oceanside or something like yeah she’d shoot people and hijack a ship and sail all the way to France and continue to shoot ppl till she found him (and then she’d shoot more ppl and Daryl would have to be like CAROL STOP)

I’m imagining Daryl on the mission of a lifetime and then somehow getting word home to Carol: “I need your help. Meet me.” She would go in two seconds

@wdway

The very best scenario would be that is Beth sent her!!

@galadrieljones

(To help him find Beth ofc in a “reprise,” or another “rendition” if you will, of Consumed to the coda)

Either way would be fine with me.

@wdway

I definitely think her joining him will be a replay of Consume and we know what happened at the end of that. BETH.

@galadrieljones

Daryl gets sucked into France, Carol gets lost on a side quest re: “Diverged.” She finds Beth.

Honestly I actually love Carol because she’s such an active character like she can’t help herself, she’s always getting into some sort of mess

She guarantees excitement lol

(Just, unfortunately for the Carylers, not the sexy kind.)

@wdway

And Daryl's job is to try his best to rain her in. And Ezekiel is the only one that looks at her and believes that she represents light.

@galadrieljones

Is it a coincidence these shots of Carol leak the day after the mid season finale of Fear? Is there any doubt these leaks are all on purpose?

@wdway:

Very, very good point.

Hopefully there will be some clarifications on a lot of these things we've talked about today at this year's comic-con.

As if tptb are very aware of what the chatter is in the fandoms.

@galadrieljones

Yes and as if they have pretty decent control over what we see and when.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Really fascinating stuff, Gals. I’ve loved reading all your thoughts. I’m actually kind of excited that Melissa is there. As you said, it means that there will be a replay of Consumed, and I’ve always thought that would happen before Beth appears. I assumed they would have to change what they set up for all those years ago, but it looks like it just got a bit delayed.

@wdway

There are so many articles wanting us to believe that it's Troy, it just makes absolutely no sense that they didn't just show his face if within hours it is published in multiple articles that it was him. I don't believe it was either Emily or the actor that plays Troy. I think it was someone that would give us that very questionable debate. That blonde hair did not come from the Troy actor. Even if he now has very long hair and bleached it, his hair is naturally curly, that was not curly man's hair.

My take is that if the character Troy is coming back it's a definite a nod to someone coming back that everyone presumed to be dead because of the obvious hammer bashing wound that was shown. If he doesn't actually appear it's still the same thing, someone can come back from what appears to be have been an un-survivable wound.

How they dressed the mysterious person in neutral unisex clothing says that it could be anyone but you will never convince me that the slight show of blonde hair was not a message to TD, to remain hopeful, that Gimple has not forgotten us. And as Tarah pointed out it appeared the night before the Carol and Daryl photos dropped. Way too many come coincidences to be a coincidence here.

I just finished watching a cute, quirky movie on Netflix. Something was said that struck a cord with me and I even Googled it to make sure it was true and then I went to my husband's closet and checked it out. I had known this but it was something that most people don't really pay attention to. In the movie the guy mentioned that the girl was wearing a man's shirt. The girl asked, how do you know that. The guys replied that men's shirts (coat, sweater...) has buttons on the right side, women's have buttons on the left side.

The buttons on the person's coat are on the left. It might not seem to be an important thing, but we know that is the type of thing that tbtb would use as a hint. By the way, that's a little white button on Beth's necklace was always on the right side of the heart which would be Daryl side. She also wore the color white=Beth shoelace on her right shoe at Grady. I always interpret that as her belonging to Daryl=right, just as Daryl wore the black leg wrap on the left=Beth side, he belongs to her. I just thought I would drop in and share the thought.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love it!

@galadrieljones

Ooh interesting, Ann. I remember I used this knowledge once to prove something in the fandom for the last of us. To me the mystery isn’t solved. You are so right that if they just planned on straight up telling us it was Troy like 12 hours after the episode aired then why didn’t they just show his face in the coda. The secrecy, the blond hair, I’m not saying it’s Beth but it’s a question that they clearly want us to ask.

@wdway

And with what I had mentioned above about the buttons, I know that's not a huge deal-breaker by any means, but why even have a garment with buttons? You see what I mean, I think everything that we were able to see in that scene was purposeful. Nothing was just thrown in half hazardly, each object was placed and shown for a reason. That's why I'd love to figure out what some of those other objects were that we haven't identified, yet.

@galadrieljones

AMC hasn’t confirmed yet. Hmm.

Obviously she’s on the show but I wonder why amc is dragging their feet.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I can’t help but wonder if there’s some spite going on there bc the Carylers were so nasty about it. So AMC is just not going to confirm anything. After all, they said she needed a break and would be back, and the Carylers called them liars. Clearly they were telling the truth. Can’t say I blame them for turning up their noses as the online haters.

@wdway

They might be wanting to save the official announcement until comic-con, Which is less than a month away. Then again they might want to promote the first season instead of trying to promote s2 before the show ever airs. Supposedly Carol's in the last episode of s1 and will be in at least some if not most of season 2. Supposedly there working on e3 of s2 so that's assuming that they'll still be only 6 episodes to a season.

The other thing is how long do they want to wait for the real nastiness of the carylers to set in, because they have demanded, yes, I use the word demand that the character Carol have equal billing to Daryl. I typically would have no problem whatsoever if in fact they are equal leads in the series, but the minute a bunch of very nasty people demand something my back goes up.

Bottom line, I really think it's about just wanting to make a big announcement at Comic-Con. Probably bringing Melissa out so her carylers can feel good that they have bullied a network and brought her back. I know I'm being ugly, but these people really are nasty. They really want the credit for her being in s2 instead of seeing it for what it was, that she wasn't ready to commit to s1. And truly none of us will know what happened unless we're told by Melissa or tptb and I don't see that happening.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Good points about Comicon. I can't believe we're almost to July already!

@wdway

I mentioned last week how tptb are promoting the characters Origin Stories, especially Maggie and Negan's since their spin-off has begun, so after I got through watching the episode I was just checking some things out and I could not remember if I had watched Carol's Origin Story or not, so I put it on and went quickly through it.

Things I was consciously aware of was how she always referred to Daryl as her friend or even her dear friend and sometimes the fact that he's always there for her. But she never implied that there was more than deep loving friendship between them. I smiled when it came to the storyline of Carol and Ezekiel. The writer made sure that we know that there was more than just friendship between them.

It was so sweet that they showed the scene where he's wanting to propose to her, she knew that, he had written a speech but she did not want it to be showy in front of everyone else. She happily took his ring and told him that he could read his speech to her later in private. I love the fact that they included hope in describing Carol and Ezekiel's relationship, because hope isn't necessarily something she finds in Daryl, because Daryl himself struggle so with it.

They're emphasizing that hope was something that Ezekiel gave her. In s11 Ezekiel tells Carol that she is, light. Seriously, that is a description that no one else, I think in the series, would ever attach to Carol. They might say, badass, driven, caring for others, willing to sacrifice, but not light or hope.

As I'm writing this it just occurs to me that the Dwight and Sherry storyline is a replay of Carol and Ezekiel, after Henry's death. It's was too much for Carol and she needed to separate herself from the memories of their happiness and the life they had made together with Henry and she leaves Ezekiel.

And here Dwight is doing the same thing with Sherry. Which I believe might leave hope that they will not reunite again somewhere down the line. My take away from Carol's Origin Story, is all the things we've talked about for years reinforced, that Carol and Daryl love each other as friends and will forever be bound together by their friendship. There are no worries of that relationship changing going into the spinoff, it's just not even a possibility.

Another thing that I had forgotten about the Origin Stories is that after the actor/ character goes through the series highlighting their storylines then we are offered their favorite or considered best episodes. Here's Carol's episodes.

The episode, Pretty Much Dead Already, does highlight Daryl and Carol and the Cherokee Rose, but the main point to that episode being chosen imo as one of Melissa/Carol's best is the barn scene, with Sophia emerging from it as a walker.

Here is Norman/Daryl's episodes.

We can all smile at the fact that Still is presented as one of the best of Daryl/Norman's episodes. You will have absolutely no argument on that fact from me, haha. Now some people (carylers) might say that the characters were limited on how many episodes could be included in the choice of best episodes. They would be wrong. In JDM's/Negan's best episodes he has five.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Loved your thoughts here! Agree with everything you said.

[lord-leclerc]

OMG this became so long, I'm sorry 🤣

I feel like this year is tricky and will continue to be so because so much is going on internally.

Starting with a TP change, it is huge and I think people overlook that if Fred goes in too hard by trashing Ferrari to the media and throwing too many out at once, the higher ups might play games to muffle him and protect the Ferrariname. Personally that's what it seemed like from his comments on Spain- he's treading carefully now because he went in deep already, now he's moving more carefully. However, he's also made it clear that he's going for a championship asap with Charles. Nonetheless, Fred is not Ferrari- he can make an impression, but not the whole impact- there is a lot if work that needs to be done and politics to be sorted through before they can get there. The good thing is that Charles reallyyyy appreciates Fred as a TP, so he might stick around for a bit longer in this case.

The problems with the car are varied, but one big thing is that the data they have is not matched to the performance. So we cannot loudly scream incompetence because there is clearly something severly wrong that will take time to solve, so performance is going to hindered by that until atleast the data can start to correlate.

As for Charles, he's feeling it, but I think it will be okay and we cannot overly pity him. He realistically (unfortunately) has the best seat he can have for the next two seasons atleast. RB would only take him to get rid of the competition by making him second driver, and Merc is full unless Lewis wants to fuck around for fun and retire. Idk about others, but I would rather watch him pull miracles from a rebuilding Ferrari team than always be second to Max in the same equipment but restrained bc it's Max's team and he has seniority. That being said, it would be smart for him to renew his contract in 1-2 year increments so he can jump ship if need be lol.

Moral of this ridiculously long ass post(sorry again!), it's painful now, but there is potential. Yes - Ferrari have a shit car and are restructuring, but those can be settled slowly in through the year. Yes- Ferrari have changed TP multiple times, but this time, it's Fred who is experienced AND has a close relationship with Charles, you cannot say that existed with other TPs. There is potential that Charles and Fred can be a strong force in Ferrari. It sucks to watch Charles suffer, but he'll bounce back because he's likd that. This is the same man who still believed in the wdc last year after France, he's not going to give up easy.

oooh, don't be sorry at all! im loving these discussions.

exactly. that's the thing. fred only became the tp this year and any kind of change would come gradually. you can't just expect the car or the team or the management to magically start working wonders suddenly. whatever change happens, it will be slow and steady and we will notice it little by little as the season continues. fred and charles are obviously well acquainted and i think fred would know what kind of talent charles possesses, having seen him in his rookie year with alfa romeo. so if he wants to go for the wdc with charles, then surely it must mean something. and charles has stated that he trusts fred and hes willing to do it for them.

as for the car, it is not only lacking pace but also the tyre management is not very good. and you're right, the data is not matching with the performance because maybe the things they require exceeds the budget cap. we all know ferrari is the most successful team logistically speaking and they would have the best sorts of database but the main problem is the budget cap. it is one of the greatest teams in f1 so it surely has the largest amount of funds of all the teams but because of the budget cap, atp its mostly making the best out of the limited resources and that's what ferrari is lacking- efficiency. the budget cap having introduced in 2021, well, we all know how that season went. so i think they're not still used to not spending however much they like to get their resources and tools. now they just dont know how to get all the best equipments in limited money. other teams however already had less budget as compared to ferrari before the cost cap, so it wasn't really a problem for them.

see that's what im saying, ferrari, as much pain as it causes, is better than him going to alpine or alfa romeo. and he wouldn't go to rb imo, atleast not as long as max is there. and yes, that's what im saying, watching him or get achievements in that car, or him evolving with ferrari(like last season until ferrari happened) is certainly quite very more thrilling than watching him win in any other team so yes, he should stay for a season or two, see how it evolves but beyond that(when the team is not performing) is just stupidness. honestly i would say the same for lando, 1-2 seasons maximum because he's got good talent tbh. getting p3 in spain in that tractor of a car was quite an achievment tbh. imagine him going to rbr, perhaps he could go even faster than max.

yes, i totally agree with you. seeing him here is painful, but watching him go to some underdog and suffering there would be even more painful. fred believes in charles and vice versa. this was not the case with binotto-he held charles accountable every chance he got and charles never got the support he deserved. change comes gradually and eventually maybe they'll figure it out(though it is not any less painful)but tbh, im glad he is where he is rn, where he could also get some good support system.

what i also like about fred is though he wants to win with charles, he does not ask carlos to sacrifice anything unlike last year because that's just plain rude. it'd be a different story if charles was p2 or leading maybe but they are both practically at the same place in the wdc. so yea, this is what i like about him as a tp too that the other driver doesn't feel hes sacrificing too much.

anyway, im sorry too abt this long ass reply😭but im loving these little(not so little) discussions

[folkdances]

i really like how we’ve gotten into a new era of france dick-sucking where people talk like the reason france has strong worker’s rights is a quality to be attributed to the country itself and not just a persistent movement of demonstration; and likewise the implication that any country that does not have similar rights surely hasn’t gotten them due to some moral failure. i really like how we’ve completely forgotten to highlight in the process the historically consistent stream of right-wing rhetoric constantly coming out of its borders and how we’re talking about it like it pulled itself up by the bootstraps instead of building its name on a foundation of cruelty and colonialism that can be clearly traced back to in every aspect of the french social, cultural, and political scenes. this is an ongoing issue we are turning a blind eye to. but you know. this is very progressive because if only we follow in the french example, we, too, can have 6 vacation weeks

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."b

#20yrago Bruce Sterling hits his stride on his blog https://web.archive.org/web/20040505163610/https://wiredblogs.tripod.com/sterling/index.blog?entry_id=154868

#20yrsago Hayes Micro: the moral is, take the money and run https://web.archive.org/web/20031205001612/https://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/1103/23hayes.html

#20yrsago Fan builds 11,000 sqft Haunted Mansion replica https://web.archive.org/web/20031203011208/https://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/1103/26haunted.html

#15yrsago Neil Gaiman explains why he opposes laws banning speech he disagrees with https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html

#15yrsago Why Candyland doesn’t suck https://web.archive.org/web/20081205063135/http://playthisthing.com/candy-land

#15yrsago Vietnam’s amazing phone-unlockers https://www.cnet.com/culture/unlocking-iphone-3gs-the-vietnamese-way/

#15yrsago UK to punish “publishing police info” with 10 years in jail https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/413023.html

#10yrsago Porno copyright trolls Prenda Law fined $261K https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/unhappy-thanksgiving-for-prenda-law-ordered-to-pay-261k-to-defendants/

#10yrsago Presenting political argument on Twitter, and the “prestige economy” https://www.mic.com/articles/48829/why-you-should-never-have-taken-that-prestigious-internship

#10yrsago Apps come bundled with secret Bitcoin mining programs, paper over the practice with EULAs https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2013/11/potentially-unwanted-miners-toolbar-peddlers-use-your-system-to-make-btc

#10yrsago Study shows removing DRM increased music sales https://torrentfreak.com/what-piracy-removing-drm-boosts-music-sales-by-10-percent-131130/

#10yrsago JP Morgan’s “Twitter takeover” seeks questions from Twitter, gets flooded with critiques of banksterism #AskJPM https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/30/shock-poll-reveals-gulf-britain-eu-france-germany-poland-hostile

#10yrsago UK Home Secretary Theresa May secretly charters private jet to (unsuccessfully) deport dying man to Nigeria https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/30/theresa-may-hunger-striker-ifa-muaza-asylum-uk

#5yrsago To save Brexit deal, Prime Minister Theresa May dropped an assault rifle ban https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2018/11/something-crazy-happened-parliament-last-night-and-no-one-talking-about-it

#5yrsago David Byrne’s “Eclectic Music for the Holidays” playlist http://davidbyrne.com/radio/david-byrne-presents-eclectic-for-the-holidays

#5yrsago Incredibly detailed technical guide to camgirling is a mix of advanced retail psychology and advice on performing emotional labor https://knowingless.com/2018/11/19/maximizing-your-slut-impact-an-overly-analytical-guide-to-camgirling/

#5yrsago AI scientist who quit Google over Chinese censorship plans details the hypocrisy that sent him packing https://theintercept.com/2018/12/01/google-china-censorship-human-rights/

#5yrsago St Louis cops indicted for beating up a “protester” who turned out to be an undercover cop https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/30/its-still-blast-beating-people-st-louis-police-indicted-assault-undercover-officer-posing-protester/

#1yrago All the books I reviewed in 2022 https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/01/bookishness/#2022-in-review

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

[wormsin]

I Need to be the Most Fashionable Bitch at the Airport

8/20/23

I'm at the airport heading to Grandpa's memorial. I'm wearing a black a-shirt that says "ALL THINGS ARE DELICATELY CONNECTED" (jenny holzer truism; gift), oversized black short-sleeve button up with unidentified painting of The Last Judgment (my one aliexpress purchase of weird button ups), grey sweatshirt under black motorcycle jacket (allsaints, mom utterly spoiling me), black cargo pants, sneakers, 3M aura mask.

this combination is extremely comfortable and also lets me be the most fashionable person at the airport, an extremely low bar. as a transmasc its my god-given right to wear oversized shirts. it helps the fit issue of having more hip than mens shirts account for, and can widen the shoulder. i feel most comfortable in clothes that drape my back and hips, that dont come in at the waist, so i often wear these button ups open. its one of two silhouettes that dont make me insanely dysmorphic.

oversized transmasc fashion is sometimes ridiculed but personally im a fan, even as someone who believes right fit is important. 'right ' is just relative. trans/queer people are often manipulating our proportions to pass or signal, and thats because fit and silhouette in fashion is gendered.

off the bat, wearing oversized or proportion-fucking clothing is a lot easier when youre straight sized because there's more clothes for you period and you can find things a size up. also fatness is gendered in a complex way so Your Millage May Vary. anyway—

right now men's and women's silhouettes are very similar. its all slim and about moralizing and accentuating the ''"natural body"". and by accentuate I mean make women look skinnier with a fatter ass and men look skinnier with more muscles. it sucks ass. I could go off on a long rant about the politics of athleisure. there are more variations in shape in streetwear etc. but mens office and formal wear is all very slim right now (derogatory).

this is very different from 1600s france or 1950s america, where the male and female form in fashion were quite different. please dont make the mistake of thinking this uniformity/unisexing is a linear, progressive trend. there are rather cycles of feminizing menswear and masculinizing womenswear based on previous generations (1890s, 1920s, 1960s-now kind of).

so right now, if we want to 'pass' or genderfuck or navigate being gendered correctly, we rely on fine-haired signals. (it's easier to queer code and be read as 'some flavor of gay' ime.) and a lot of that is based on the shape of our bodies. wearing a men's jacket isn't going to shift my gender signals much since women wear menswear inspired womenswear and, to a lesser extent, menswear—but wearing a mens jacket a size up so my shoulders seem wider will shift the needle more. and even if it doesn't, I like how it looks.

there's not actually a formula for this because passing and gendering are highly specified to location, culture, race, age, fatness, how aware of trans people someone is, if there are other queers around you, etc.

more interesting than dialogue about passing are the weirdo trans/queer fashions happening right now which, like all interesting fashion these days, actually have bold shapes. transmasc, butch, and stud fashion often make use of oversized and baggy clothes, especially with the 90s / cargo / wide pant resurgence. and there's lots going on with weirdo niche fashion like clowncore. people were dragging Elliot Page's fashion (Balenciaga 2022, 2021 met gala) but its deliberate.

I feel pretty gay and trans at the airport, especially when I hit the middle of the country. but I did once see a man flagging black at an airport with a tattoo that said "ITS A LIFESTYLE"—so there's room for improvement.