#fuck traditional conservative bullshit

[subtlesolitude-tailoredtaste]

This is where I need to be *in thee key of David Byrne, Talking Heads “This is the Place…”

💉💉💉🧿🧿🧿⛩️⛩️⛩️📿📿📿🪬🪬🪬🛐🛐🛐🚦🚦🚦

[punkpandapatrixk]

🏖Original Prototype ☆ Timeless Tarot Guidance

Elements/Signs in this reading are calibrated to all aenergetic placements. Feel free to read as many Elements/Signs as you feel called to at this point in your spiritual evolution♡

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☆[Your Own Standards of Beauty PAC]☆

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As a complement to the previous PAC, it’s crazy we’ve got The Last Judgement at the bottom of the deck. That’s a double XX LOL Yeah, continuing the spirit of rebellion against little bitch behaviour, we’ve got so much Wands and Pentacles aenergy on this collective reading. It’s literally saying:

Be confident in being yourself, in all the amazingly weird, scandalous, hard-to-define way that you already are AND grab the money bags! Work on feeling secure in your body, comfortable in your skin, beautiful in your hair and makeup, and continue to work on your soulful passion projects which are the only things that truly matter~♥︎

As a complement to the previous PAC, for a lot of Asian kids, wherever they may have been born on the Planet, it may be quite harder to realise just how much you’re stopping yourself from SHINING in your authentic Light just because you want to appeal, appease, and please your little bitch elders/society. It’s hard for a lot of people already depending on what kind of custom they’re most familiar with, or if they grew up with abusive narcs and all that, but I’ve gathered that it’s generally just that much harder for Asian kids.

Why? Because the society or elders made Asian kids little bitches of an apologist and enabler! STOP THAT! What the fresh fuckity fuck does being ‘conservative’ mean when that jargon is mostly thrown around to justify racism, fascism, perversion(!!), misogyny, child abuse, and, what else? Dishonourable ‘traditions’ of all kinds—can’t cover all of those expectations in a single intro but…if being ‘Asian’ equals ‘an unwillingness to outgrow own bullshit’ then that white lady was right:

‘Not to be racist or anything but Asian people SUCK! Hahahhihihuhuheho…’

In the West, Asian losers get waaay too comfortable hiding behind ‘victims of racism because we’re minority’ narrative—even though in Asia we all know Asians are some of the MOST racist fucks on the face of Earth and they victimise their own people in the name of CULTURE—and they indulge in some such fake-noble-ass attitude whilst completely and utterly letting other (usually younger) Asian fucks get away with perpetuating cycles of abusive behaviours, customs, mindsets, and just…ways of doing things and being.

These types of people, don’t strike me as bothered enough to acknowledge what being divinely…Human…is all about. No wonder they trespass human rights all the time in all these small but pervasive ways. Pathetic, isn’t it? ♪~why the fuck you lyin’, why you always lyin’, mmm, o mai gut~♪

All I’m saying is, ultimately, Asian or no Asian (you don’t want me to start on the Punjabs OML), you as an individual get to choose how you want to grow and develop yourself, so as to become a vibrational match to your very own honest desires that are in alignment with your Highest Intended Good. You were born with a purpose, no? Your Soul knows that and it’s whispering your Soul’s Blueprint to you. Don’t ever, EVER, let your nationality, religion, custom and race, or any other insignificant configurations attached to your birth situations LIMIT your Soul Expression that is often more kind, more merciful, more empowered, more free and creative, and most important, more brave—because God only knows how much Humanity needs all of those qualities amplified in the world right now.

If this intro has found you, chances are, YOU. ARE. THE PROTOTYPE. of a new way of being, you freaking Superstar~☆ One day, all of Mankind are gonna be just like you. Namaste. Whoever you are, I honour your being here and being a whacko🍮

HACK: This 76 Year Old Has Better Beauty Hacks Than You Do by PS

deck-bottom: XX(!??!) The Last Judgement Rx, Red Physician (Galen of Pergamon), Priestess of Shine

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Original Prototype for 🐞Fire Signs – Silver Magus (Merlin)

3 of Swords, 9 of Cups, XV The Devil

You know the ‘problem’ a lot of people find with Fire Signs? Your fire. Duh? In a world of cowards who mould themselves into whatever society demands of them—for survival—how dare you be pretty, ballsy, smart and confident, and you’re not even an ass-kisser? That’s hard to stomach for most of these sheeples. Babe, it doesn’t even register in their slow-ass brains.

So then, they work really hard at convincing themselves that you’re a sneaky loser who’s plotting against them. Some others think that you think you’re better than them for not paying them too much attention. Well, you know what? You are better than them. Clearly you are better than those whose hearts are so rotten they fabricate shit like that about you.

In spite of outer appearances, you really do have a good heart, and topped with every other thing that’s already good for you, all of the good things going for you, ma gurl, you’re a fucking anomaly. Kinda reminds me of Hedy LaMarr! An anomaly by all means. How dare she be incredibly talented, beautiful, smart, ambitious, and, SPIRITUALLY INTELLIGENT! She was a Scorpio Sun, Leo Moon and Sag Mercury. Hear this:

‘I know why most people never get rich. They put the money ahead of the job. If you just think of the job, the money will automatically follow. This never fails.’ – Hedy LaMarr, pioneer of the frequency-hopping technology, precursor of WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS systems

If you asked me, it’s pretty obvious that a lot of people are simply jealous of you. And in a world where women are pitted against each other since time immemorial—you know; how they made girls compete with each other to become the hottest commodity to attract the richest guy in the village to take ‘em as a wife—it’s almost a crime that you were never sucked into this stupid game of hurting other women for the attention of men.

For you, and most likely this has been the case since you were a child, this kind of mindset never made a lot of sense, and oh Goddess, you’ve thought it had to go out! Of your system! Of everybody’s system! I think you were always a feminist before knowing such a concept exists. And your focus wasn’t particularly about ‘gender equality’—it wasn’t politics, babe—it was just about fairness and justice in their purest form, for all people.

HOT FIRE. You were born to light candles and burn bridges. So be it. No more playing small. No more playing with those who are small and refuse to grow strong. Go meet your Destiny NOW!🔥

Oracle Guidance for Fire Signs🔻❤️

🐏Aries – Priestess of Innocence

🦁Leo – Priestess of Magick

🎠Sagittarius – Priestess of Healing

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Original Prototype for 🐍Earth Signs – Green Physician (Paracelsus)

Knight of Pentacles Rx, XIX The Sun Rx, 5 of Cups Rx

Take care of your body, nourish it to heal your spirit, and let’s take a break from planning too many things for the near future. The aenergies all around the Planet are shifting massively, what you’re planning for the next 3 years of your Life, for example, could all go down the drain next month, next week, even. You’re being advised to recharge and find joy in the small things that you might’ve postponed to enjoy just because it’s felt like there’s so much to plan and do and achieve.

On this Planet, too many societies glamourise being busy. It’s because the busier you are the more you feel that you’re needed, right? That need for validation is what kills you from the inside if you blindly follow this misguided desire to be useful. The truth is, and only if you allow it to be your truth as well, is that it’s enough that you exist on this plane. You can love and be helpful in ways that don’t sacrifice your values or physical health? Don’t be a sell-out just because you want praises. Yuuh, bitch?

You might’ve forgotten that you came into this world to have fun. To bask in sunshine’s glory and play with nature. To eat good food and spend good times with loved ones. I’ve seen that people with strong Earth influences are usually those that are easiest victims of capitalism’s hustle culture pffft… They got you wired weird, babe. Gotta step back a little and look around, see where you’ve put your foot now.

I’m hearing that you Earth Signs are essentially meant to be a buster of old traditions and customs that no longer work. People change and values change, why wouldn’t cultures change? After all, didn’t people make culture? How come then cultures are perceived as more important than the individual? None of that makes sense. So much of what’s called culture in this world was made with garbage intent and has become pure manure at this point in Humanity’s evolution.

It’s perfectly OK to update rules and customs, don’t you think? People who refuse to grow and move with the times are TOXIC. Don’t be their prop, Earth Signs! Your mission is to launch missiles towards the Old Stinkin’ Tower of toxic traditions and to rebuild upon its rubble a new establishment that’s guided by Love. Yes, Love and Respect, instead of the ill-intent to suppress and control. Take what still works from the Old World but infuse whatever you do with Light. Let the wisdom of old guide you so that you don’t make the same mistake twice, or thrice.

I’m also hearing that you’re meant to champion some kind of effort that balances/integrates tradition and automation. ‘Going back to nature’ or ‘going back to old ways of doing things by hand’ are a major theme of your Lightwork. We’ve been dealing with too much automation in recent decades that people’s cognitive functions have declined rapidly! Automation helps with simplifying things but if that comes at the cost of people’s brain capacity, this isn’t progress then, it’s a regression of Humankind at the aggression of robots.

Doing things with hands may seem like such hard work, but in the long run, it keeps people’s brains functioning well into old age. Check out this video for inspo! I just feel that you’re meant to champion something like this <3

How The Oldest Chocolate House In New York City Survived A Century by Business Insider

Oracle Guidance for Earth Signs🔻💚

🐂Taurus – Priestess of Patience

🧘🏻‍♀️Virgo – Priestess of Purity

🐐Capricorn – Priestess of Illumination

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Original Prototype for ⛲Air Signs – Green Alchemist (Nicolas Flamel)

6 of Wands Rx, 8 of Wands, 6 of Pentacles

Being the intellectual Air Sign that you are, you’ve long realised that most of the world’s information is false. It’s taken a lot of strength to maintain your sanity, and it’s gonna require even more for you to share what you know with the world—or whoever would listen. So much of world’s history is misleading, if not blatant lies; so much of who we’ve been told as heroes and knaves has been quite the opposite, depending on angle, I guess.

You’ve been in the know that discovering the truthest truths of the Truth is gonna require some sifting through so much misinformation, disinformation, and confusion. It’s not a walk in the park but know that you’re not alone on this legacy project of yours. You may often just forget that your Spirit Guides and Cosmic Ancestors are with you. Yeah, you may forget because you’re highly intellectual and can focus too much on hard facts LOL

The fact is, look, you have direct aetheric communication with your Team. I sense many of you who are tuned into this collective reading are, in spite of your Airy-ness, quite spiritual. A lot of you have strong 12th House placements or Neptunian aenergy, as well as 8th House/Scorpio and 9th House/Sagittarius influences. This actually makes your communication with the aether that much clearer. In order to strengthen your communication, it’s important to nourish your brain with the right kind of nutrition.

You can also take advantage of subliminal and/or reiki tracks that help improve brain functions, strengthen psychic communication, as well as those for brain regeneration and relaxation—just to balance things out, you know. Breathing meditation may also benefit you a lot in this scenario. Many of you tuning into this reading are meant to have a role in communications, journalism, detective/investigative work, and maybe even politics. You have that kind of a charm, honestly😉

You could also be some kind of a whistleblower. Basically, you’re meant to communicate the Truth to the world. What Truth are we talking about? Look to your Mercury and any kind of placement you may have in the 3rd/9th House, especially if your Chiron is here, and that should give you a hint, combined with other elements such as Midheaven and North Node. All y’all are meant to discover different kinds of Truth regarding the nature of our society, or Reality huehue

Look also to what your 11th House of networking entails and see how that connects to your Uranus/Aquarius placements. Essentially, if you have a strong Libra placement especially, the key takeaway here is that you want to connect with likeminded rebels with whom you are going to be covering each other’s asses. What you’re meant to do in the world could be dangerous, so it’s important to have a strong network or support system that will keep you all safe~!

Oracle Guidance for Air Signs🔻💙

👯Gemini – Priestess of Strength

⚖️Libra – Priestess of Ritual

🏺Aquarius – Priestess of Energy

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Original Prototype for 🐝Water Signs – Gold Alchemist (Roger Bacon)

2 of Wands, Ace of Pentacles Rx, 7 of Pentacles Rx

It’s interesting that all your cards are indicating unbridled passion, but Water Signs do indeed feel a lot anyway; if you’re not gonna channel all those emotions into something creative, then what’s the point? Gotta be artistic while life is being sadistic to ya XD Your passion, your emotions, are needing a platform to be heard, listened to, watched, admired. Paint, maybe? Write a poetry? Make an artistic indie-vibe photographs or movies?

There can be a lot of trial and error, but as you do so, you exercise your demons. You get to exercise with your demons. Why not? This world could learn a lot from you who’s willing to breathe and let yourself honour your emotions. When we were born, so many of us were convinced that too much feeling was bad. The whole time, not having emotions is what’s actually psychopathic *shiver*

There’s a song I like whose title is like, ‘To not have weakness is to not have Humanity’ or something like that. To not feel, to not shed a tear, to never have a moment of breaking down, is to not have Humanity. And too many people are comfortable with that, that’s why their lives are never totally comfortable in spite of all the riches they’ve gained in the world. There’s still too much drama and bad karma because…

‘We soon tire of living only for ourselves.’ – Mishima Yukio

Psychopaths are those who live only for themselves and they use other people for short-term gratifications, right? There’s way too many people living on the spectrum of psychopathy, and it’s your mission to show these losers how to navigate around crippling sorrow and still turn up alright, decent as a Human. People are weird to give so much empathy to psychos just because ‘they didn’t grow up being loved enough that’s why they turned up the way they did’. Pffft…

Fuck that. Those assholes made a choice to grow up mean, bitter and just generally evil. How many people in the world have suffered the greatest pain and betrayal and still turned up kind and empathetic? It’s a matter of choice, bitch <3 You who have tuned into this reading are someone who’s felt for everyone and got your heart broken every other way, and still you turned up full of Light—in all the unique ways you’re still able to care for the world, even if from a safe distance.

You’re an Advanced Soul who was given so little guidance as you walk the path of your Destiny on Earth. That’s strength. Strength of character especially, knowing how much you’ve broken your heart through your own trials and errors when it comes to navigating human relationships. Don’t punish yourself for a failed connection/communication you still feel guilty for. The guilt itself is already a sign that you’re a good person at your core. Do you think evil fucks feel any remorse for manipulating your feelings or any other person's for that matter?

Oracle Guidance for Water Signs🔻💛

🦀Cancer – Priestess of Beauty

🦂Scorpio – Priestess of Fertility

🎏Pisces – Priestess of Intellect

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☆[Your Own Standards of Beauty PAC]☆

[imustbenuts]

im free from yakuza kiwami 2. fuck the writing in this one. this was a complete mess of pulling from the most popular generic east asian drama tropes at the time of 2006 and having it be handled by a super inexperienced writer at the helm.

i went from having no expectations, got somewhat surprised, only to end up downing alcohol and laughing hysterically before the credits rolled. so that should set the mood for how i feel about this one. thought vomit under the cut, a lot of info dump about culture incoming

yakuza kiwami 2 is pure heterosexual east asian romance bullshit.

im gonna just. describe as best as i can what i know and remember from the general media coming out from the 90s to the 2010s in around this part of the world before i just start explaining why i think this story is a mess.

so. 2 parts i swear is responsible for this rubbish.

1) East Asian Beauty Standard

the general consensus for a beautiful feminine woman AT THE TIME in this sphere is the following

be willowy thin (fat = lazy and ugly)

have black hair that ISNT short (dyed = too much individuality, too much WESTERN INDIVIDUALISM, gasp how dare!)

fair skinned (bc dark = she works in the fields and is from a lower class)

young. if you heard of the term "Christmas Cake" in japan context, yeah. (ie women over age of 25 are undesirable)

be educated and refined, bc that indicates class and femininity (failing this means shes vulgar and gasp like a barbarian)

be submissive to her male peers in the sense that her authority cannot override his at least in public (for the sake of his face)

dresses feminine and not like a man (trousers and jeans are man-ish. traditional clothing, skirts and dresses are preferred. the further back the stronger this sentiment is.)

incidentally, theres a lot of classism tied to this EABS due to sinocentric culture influences. it has to do with the chinese court system and how korea and japan copied it and a lot of the culture wholesale but. anyway. thats like over 1000 years of history in there thats not really worth detouring to rn.

and also, the worth of a man is sometimes (not always) upheld by how classy and feminine this wife of his is. as of 2024 though, this line of thought is still around in the more conservative pockets. also, the education might not matter as much these days as how deep her and her parents' pockets and wealth are.

moving on.

2) media tropes

so. off the top of my head.

if you wanted a popular romance drama in this time period, the popular offerings no matter where you looked tended to offer the same flavors of tropes.

the woman always has dark hair, is fair skinned, thin and younger than her male love interest. ive never seen this broken or subverted in my time absorbing via osmosis the dramas playing on local tv growing up in the early 2000s.

everything else about her can be subverted though. sometimes she can wear fancy pants or have short hair to indicate her strong individualism. BUT, her personality no matter how strong it begins, no matter how her intro begins will 99% of the time encounter an effect where catching feelings turns her into a meek loyal woman to her love interest.

bc she cant override his authority in this culture context.

at worst, she becomes highly irrational and even hysterical in the dramas when bad things happen. this includes things like love triangle, or a fallout of family business, drama, plot or whatever. she would cry and sometimes even die.

see: sawamura yumi. sayama kaoru.

meanwhile, the male love interest can be anything. ive seen middle aged guys to young good looking upcoming actors playing the lead, with looks varying from haggardly okay to young and handsome. it. really depends on the genre.

depending on what specific country it came from, the drama would have the male either grow, become manlier (by learning honor ig), become stupid in the name of love, but he rarely if ever actually dies. the woman effectively becomes yoshi for mario to lauch off on when they're crossing a chasm

the romance is forced. a lot of the BIG LOVE SPARK ie kissing happens in tense moments bc it builds drama, but in reality comes too fucking close to sexual assault (some of the old jackie chan movies does this iirc for slapstick even)

see: sayama getting kissed right after handling her biological father's ashes less than 24 hours ago and admitting to kiryu that shes scared. this scene right fucking here.

bc in general, the scriptwriters for popular dramas tended to be guys themselves and tended to write more human dudes. and the women in the stories are reflective of the ideal societal expectation at the time: being a Refined Housewife.

so her character development is often headed in the direction of marriage and being a stay at home mom.

if it sounds a little like tradwife bullshit, it is.

Refined Housewife

(i have massive negative thoughts about this which i KNOW for a fact is a thing bc a lot of these societal culture femininity was impressed on me as a kid in a world where it was already getting increasingly impossible to have 1 spouse be a SAHP. and also i hated the whole thing about giving face to the patriarch of the house when i personally saw so much ego dick measuring from my uncles. anyway understand that this is both a bias an a lived experience, so proceed with that in mind)

there is a problem with the Refined Housewife expectation: education.

in general, education has been a good metric to judge how classy or smart one is in asia's largely on-the-surface meritocracy based culture. people will look at each other's school first and then judge them from there, and pretty hard too.

so everyone regardless of gender will be expected to study super hard. and bc having good test scores and going to good schools looks good for the family's face, parents will often pile on tuition to the child to get them a leg up in life.

bc also no good degree from good school means no future.

but then... the woman is expected to be a housewife. 🙃 meaning... the education, her accomplishments, are kinda... tossed away in this context. put a pin in this.

it wont matter how much she studied or accomplished, bc the expectation is that the woman would marry and obey her husband, and give him face/honor that way. the kids will come eventually bc having kids = being filial to ones parents in this context.

also uh. no, having adopted kids is not thought of as being filial. continuing the bloodline is.

and if you've been paying attention, then yes, ive been skirting around the backbone of sayama kaoru's writing foundations this entire time.

Her story has been butchered so clumsily i cant even...

lets just. ugh.

she fits the EABS standard, her tropes are trying to subvert the expectations of a womanly woman in this context, she has IMPRESSIVE education and career achievements. she works in a male dominated field, and is keenly aware of sexism. she is strong, stronger than her male peers, at least we are told.

by 2006s standards, its still considered a fresh take with those alone in japan. sexism there is its own flavor of crap. (if you noticed ive not spoken about LGBTQ+ stuff at all, its bc how ridiculously BINARY the expectation is at that point in time. it still is today but less so)

however, the writing has this sense of trying to copy the popular tropes at the time while not fully understanding and dissecting them, and ends up butchering sayama's character before the romance even properly began.

i mean, for fucks sake even, sayama and kiryu has a whopping 14 year age gap. when im told these are supposed to be believable people living in japan, this is too big for me to just go 'oh ok!'. and remember the Christmas Cake thing? shes 25. (FUCKING--!!!! !!)

the problem here that i see is the writer trying to apply all of those while trying to play the tropes straight. trying to imitate. trying to make a statement but then finding out theres nothing within yourself to stand by what you want to say and backtracking.

we are told:

sayama is strong yet she goes down with 1 slap by random thugs and needing kiryu to come in and body them. because romance ig.

we are told shes a yakuza hunter but she doesnt scare a single one beyond her introductory scene.

she goes from defiant and bossing kiryu around to getting her actions overridden by kiryu and ryuji, both men, towards the end

her subtext is that shes not feminine and therefore conventionally undesirable, but then kiryu tells her shes actually feminine and therefore desired, as if its all that matters.

she becomes so stricken by grief and freaked out that she runs off solo to deal with ryuji in the most out of left pocket planning ive ever fucking seen.

and then yells as she takes out her police baton to take down the big yakuza dude, drawing attention and turning herself into a hostage.

i know the writing will fumble but i didnt expect it to fumble this bad.

for all the good the surface chemistry kiryu and sayama has, its being undermined by a fundamental failure to understand tropes and then using said tropes as a crutch so much that everything here has become a bloody mess.

this failure of over-relying on tropes without understanding them extends to yumi too. sawamura yumi was young and beautiful, and became the Refined Housewife to the Not-Male-MC and ends up regretting it, and gets killed for it.

her defining trait is that she is beautiful in subtext. thats. thats what the tattoo is. in a world where the tattoo makeths the person, thats what she is and all that she is.

dear lord.

ive read up a bit more on sayama and you know what. good that she chooses her career over kiryu. the romance would have caused both of their characters to explode with the trajectory this was heading in. ffs sayama could have had her own game. she has so MUCH potential.

and also GOOD that the writer is forced to think of kiryu in the position of the Stay At Home Parent for haruka and the orphanage down the line!!! subverting the fucking traditional BS expectation! yes!!!!!

all i got was sayama and kiryu making out before the bomb went off in front of my alcohol and salad while they're like 'eh, haruka will forgive us for dying :')'

and i ran out of alcohol.

sexism? maybe. incompetence? definitely.

hhgrhgrhrghrghrgrhgr wow this got long. ugh. guhhhhhh.

[radicalitch]

catholic evangelicals as i call them are so weird…like they tout the standard bullshit redpill christian shit, which includes devaluing education and that’s BIZARRE to me! being raised catholic and going to catholic school education was sooo highly valued even for girls so it’s weird that all these ‘catholic’ men want fundie tradwives…like yeah, i was taught that i WOULD be a wife and mother, but after i scored a college degree and a good job (which you can say is still fucked up that is girls were expected to do everything, but we were expected to go to college and get educated just the same as the boys). so seeing ‘Catholics’ get all weird about college and homeschooling and focus completely on abortion and marriage is just weird? those things were part of my religious education but not with anywhere near the same fervor and not in the fundie way, and it wasn’t like I was in school THAT long ago? even the girls i knew from really traditional/conservative Catholic families were expected to attend a good college and were often pushed to become doctors/nurses/lawyers/teachers.

goddamn jerry falwell and co really succeeded in bringing together a broad Christian voting bloc and it’s SCARY

[tirsynni]

I think it's funny, in a horrifying way, how so many people have the tendency of circling around from extreme leftism to extreme right. Like, it's less of a spectrum and more of a circle.

Terf nonsense is similar to this. They argued so fiercely for female empowerment and if you listen to their arguments, it's conservative bullshit in pretty language.

A lot of this so-called left bullshit is actually just extreme right ideology painted in leftist language. It's part of why I hate how intent matters less than language use in many left/liberal circles. They ignore meaning and tell you that you are a bigot and a monster and whatever based specifically on your language choice. Psyops pick up on this. Right-wing extremists take it to their pulpits. So much of the current transphobia is using leftist language to defend not only transphobia but racism.

A major component of the Extreme Right movement is using the emphasis on individualism to attack many minority communities. In the end, it's about billionaires protecting their billionaire communities by convincing poorer communities to attack each other by promoting individualism. It's highly effective. "Fuck people who require food stamps or disability. Oh, you need it? Well, your situation is different. You wouldn't be on it if you didn't need to be. You're an individual. Those people are lazy and just don't want to work." Dismiss how these programs assist communities by focusing on individualism.

We are actively seeing these things in left circles. The language is different but the intent is the same. The breakdown in social etiquette. The defense in not cooperating with and building communities. The right to attack and harm others. The current language is couched in mental health language or "fuck the boomers" language.

"I don't see why we have to follow their rules! That's stupid. It's a new generation and I'm not going to follow tradition for the sake of it. Okay, now what do I do in this situation which used to have an answer found in common social etiquette?"

"I can't assist with this community activity! I have social anxiety. If you try to force me to do it, you're the bad person!"

"I have this type of neurological disorder, so it's not my fault if I yell insults at the person! They just need to be accepting and realizing that some people have disorders which make them be assholes."

This isn't to say that these issues don't exist. Social anxiety is a thing! Neurological disorders which impair certain social skills and create impulsivity issues are a thing! The problem becomes when the emphasis is on the individual rights over recognizing individual responsibilities and recognizing that the individual is still a part of the community.

We go from "I, as an individual, paid off my student loans, so no one should have student loan forgiveness" and how that attitude harms our community to "I refuse to help and support my communities in any way because I have a neurological disorder, and due to my rights as an individual, people need to adjust for me 100% with me not needing to provide anything in return." In leftist circles, we are taught to hate the former and promote the latter, dissolving individual responsibility to the community.

Communities need to recognize individual needs. Yes. Absolutely. Survival of the fittest for humankind means those who work well within our communities survive. That is what it means for humans, not how well an individual can live alone. There's a quote about how civilization first formed when humans within a community helped an individual survive who otherwise would not have survived without their care and support. In turn, individuals need to recognize that they are parts of a community, and they need to do what they can to support that community, too. That differs from person to person, day by day. That means voting. That means recognizing the need for social etiquette. That means if your disorder causes you to lose your temper and lash out that you own up to it, apologize for it, and work on getting a handle on it. Maybe you succeed, maybe you don't. The point is recognizing your role in the community and how to assist how you can.

Those in power have learned that turning communities against each other is effective. Look how the feminism movement has been divided! Look how the LGBT+ community has been divided! How many elections have been lost to people like Trump because people decided that the main Democratic nominee wasn't pure enough and voted for a third party? It works.

Sometimes, being a part of a community is going "I know I have social anxiety, but I'm at least going to smile and greet this stranger before bolting away." Sometimes it's working to manage your mental health instead of shrugging and saying that everyone will just have to put up with it. It's voting even when you don't particularly like the candidate but you know that the other guy is WORSE. There are many components to it, and it's figuring out what works and what doesn't.

Being involved in a community involves work, and you can't expect other people in a community to support you when you have the means to support them back and refuse to do so.

[fangirleaconmigo]

I am feeling all kinds of stuff tonight. So I'm taking a break from my regularly scheduled fandom programming and bringing you this, my post ,as a feminist, about trans rights. I feel like with all the shit going on right now, it's good to let people know where you stand, damn the consequences.

Alright.

Those of you who follow me know that I lost a dear friend to suicide a few weeks ago. She was a caring, kind human being, and a butch lesbian woman.

I was just sitting here tonight going through all of the facebook posts she ever tagged me in, just crying again and missing her. And I came across one very very long post she made a few years ago that I had completely forgotten about.

One day in 2017 she poured out her heart about being kicked out of a women's restroom at the Y again. She was very tall and athletic and had short hair, and this was not the first time it had happened to her.

Her post is lengthy and the heartbreak she felt being rejected from womanhood for her 'unfeminine' appearance is so visceral and so painful. She had experienced an intense amount of violent gender based and homophobic abuse in her life. She felt a deep, deep connection with her womanhood and with other women.

If you've read my other posts about her, you know that she liked to call her woman friends "warrior women" and have "yaya sisterhood" bonfire parties at her house. She always built us up. She gave a shit about other women, so sincerely.

So to see her pain again about this, about the way that she was constantly being 'defined out of' woman hood and treated as a predator made me enraged all over again.

I don't get involved in arguments online if I can at all help it (you all have noticed that I'm sure, I'm here to have a good time). But please let me share something personal here for a moment. If you follow me and were ever curious about where I stand, (being a feminist online during these horrible times) here it is.

Transphobia. Hurts. All. Women. Transphobia. Is. Not. Feminism. Transphobia is hate.

Mari is not the only butch friend I have who has been treated like a predator, kicked out of bathrooms, and been treated as an outsider to woman hood for visibly 'failing' a visual femininity test. It is such a stab to the gut to be rejected by your own people.

Yes, she was a cis woman. But she was still rejected by those who define women down to 'femininity' and 'clocking' as a woman, and being small and dainty and shit. She suffered from that. We all fucking suffer from that. I have another butch queer friend who this happens to. She gets kicked out of bathrooms. It's never happened when I'm there, which is probably better for everyone, because I get so enraged on her behalf just hearing about it. I'm a deeply nonviolent person but in person, I don't know what I'd do.

So let us be clear. All of the anti-trans bullshit going on, all the transphobia going absolutely bonkers online right now, makes literally all of this even worse and more hostile for women. All women.

For as long as we require women to 'clock' as uber feminine, for as long as we police women's genitalia when they walk into a restroom, for as long as we make queer women feel like predators for not conforming to social pressures of femininity, WE WILL BE ABUSING OURSELVES. WE WILL BE POISONING OURSELVES TO FIT IN WITH THE CONSERVATIVE, TRADITIONAL, HOMOPHOBIC MAINSTREAM WHO FUCKING HATES US.

Let me say that again, so this is clear. THEY FUCKING HATE US.

I don't give a shit what they say about feminism. "Oh, we are here to protect you from trans women"

Shut the ENTIRE fuck up. Just stop. I've lived on this earth as a woman for 46 goddamned years. You cannot pee on my leg and tell me it's goddamned raining.

Every time I've been politically disenfranchised, oppressed, underestimated, exploited, IT HAS BEEN BY THE RIGHT WING POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT. IT HAS BEEN BY MISOGYNISTIC CISHET MEN AND THEIR HELPMATES, USUALLY CISHET UPPER CLASS WHITE CHRISTIAN WOMEN.

The thing that oppresses women are the systems and cultures of misogyny. Are you telling me trans women built those? lmaooooooooooooo get the entire fuck out.

They always say...oh, trans women can't be women because of the 'female experience'. So let this experienced female tell you that I fucking see you. I see you lying through your teeth about suddenly giving a shit about us.

I see you.

Young cis women, budding feminists. Do not let these people tell you that it's feminist to reject trans women. Do not let them say it's feminist to lament trans men and the 'loss' that purportedly represents to womanhood. Fuck that. It isn't feminism. It regressive. It's bigotry.

Do you not see how, every fucking time they talk about trans women they bring up rape?

Why? Ask yourself why?

Are trans women more likely to rape? No. Statistically, factually, they are most likely to be raped.

Is there some fuckn loophole somewhere that says trans women can legally rape people? And we gotta do something about that?

NO! In fact, in the US, it's functionally legal to assault and even kill trans women. These dudes are always fucking getting away with it, they just have to claim they were 'surprised' or some shit.

So then why do they always bring up rape?

Because they are trying to create an association between trans women and predatory behavior. To vilify them. As a Mexican American woman let me tell you that this is EXACTLY like when Trump brought up Mexican people EVERY FUCKN TIME he immediately brought up rape and drugs.

It's creating a connection in the minds of your audience. It is a process of hate. It is a process of dehumanization. And what does it directly precede? An oppressive action. They do it when they want to persecute a group of people and they don't want anyone to stop them.

It's hate and it should chill you to your core. They are out there killing these women! They are abusing and killing trans women, and trying to make you hate them so they can accrue even more clout and power. If you claim to be a decent human being, I'm gonna need you to give a fuck about that.

Then they act like they do it out of feminism.

They say...oh, we support women being 'unfeminine'. Trans men, for example, should just be butches and not trans their genders...

Oh fuck you. I was there. I was called every name in the book for not being feminine enough. It was right wingers who told me I should have been born a man. That I needed to change. To conform.

And now these same people are saying...oh we're on your side. We think we should get rid of gender stereotypes, not have all this trans-ness going.

Fuck you, you don't care about gender stereotypes.

Kids, never, ever, ever, ever trust someone who allies with alt right, far right, homophobic conservatives. They don't care about you. They aren't feminist.

Every election period I am reminded of who my sisters are. My cishet so called sisters who vote right wing with their husbands and ally with their whiteness and their class are not my fucking sisters. (I'm American, but I know this isn't unique to us)

If you support autonomy for women, and I mean ALL women, then you are my sister (or brother, or sibling, I claim you, I fuck with you is what I'm saying). If you lift up other women, the way my friend Mari did, then I claim you.

But if you claim to believe in improving the lives of all women, then that simply must include trans women.

Your so called feminism simply cannot include mocking women for looking masculine. It simply cannot include defining women by their genitalia. It simply cannot include policing women's genitalia or child rearing capacity.

They say...oh define women. Give us a definition then. You lose because you can't define women.

Fuck you.

I don't need to define women. I just need to love women, to be in solidarity with women. And I do. I support us. I volunteer for Planned Parenthood. I give money to pro-choice women who run for office. (again, women who support women) My home stays open to women leaving abusive relationships. I've housed at least five women over the past five years. I don't talk about it online because that's not why I do it. I do it because we need to stick together. So that's what I do. I march. I care. I give a shit.

And I appreciate anyone who stands with us of any gender you've got. Men? Awesome, stand right here. You've got a new gender? Fucking awesome. Stand right here. Hold this sign.

And as for trans women?

They are trying to legislate trans women's rights to medical procedures, to access to their own bodies.

I know what that's like.

They want to humiliate trans women for not meeting this high standard of 'feminine'

Shit, I know that what that's like too.

They want to define trans women by their internal organs and demean them for not functioning as a womb?

Me too, sister.

The thing is, I believe in trans women. In all trans people. Do you seriously fucking think that seven billion unruly human goddamn beings can (or should) neatly fit into ONE OF TWO FUCKING BOXES AND STAY THERE OBEDIENTLY NO MATTER WHAT THEIR OWN COMFORT AND HAPPINESS DICTATES? That's the most implausible, deranged thing I've ever heard.

Gender and social roles exist to serve humans. NOT the other way around.

I will always believe this. Human well-being first. Human dignity first. Social roles if they help, if they fit, if people like them. If not, chuck em.

So, yeah. I know this is a fandom blog. But I'm sitting here reading my friend's pain posthumously and I'm so angry. I'm just so angry.

How do I wrap this up? I don't know. I don't know everything. I'm not an expert or a scientist. I'm an Old and I have to google half the words I see online that people use when they talk about their gender or sexual orientation. (I've learned a lot these past few years on here!) So I'm not the expert. I don't understand it all. (who does??? LITerally NO ONE). I've made mistakes, I'll keep making mistakes. Unproblematic? I don't know her. No one does. Our asses are all problematic.

I just know that I give a shit about people, that I care about my fellow women, and that is literally all you have to do. And anyone who harasses, abuses, or just makes their lives miserable in general is on my shit list.

So yeah. Trans rights, folks. And feminists? If your feminism includes genitalia checks, it's not feminism it's fucking bigotry.

Thanks for reading x

[warsofasoiaf]

Musk is definitely a complete fucking moron but isnt it entirely possible he just .....wants Russia to win? To own the libs or some bullshit?

I get the idea, but no. I think if he wanted Russia to win, he never would have allowed Starlink to be used in the country.

Certainly, I do know that plenty of the MAGA opposition to Ukraine comes from a "own the libs" place. This isn't to say that there aren't people who adamantly support Putin due to his policies, head nods to "traditional values" and the secret desire to lock up who they see as the dissident and the deviant, but I think that most of the American far-right comes from a knee-jerk contrarian place. The majority of liberal Americans (and mainstream conservatives) are ardently pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia. Giving them a defeat is important to reduce their power and increase the power of their own faction.

I don't see that with Musk - it doesn't focus on himself enough. Russia isn't the hero of this story, the "principled voices for peace" are. I think Musk's mindset is far more about himself as a true titan of the world and a testament to his "brilliant" mind first and foremost.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[sorryiwasasleep]

Because i hate myself (actually cause I saw a bumper sticker today that made me scream in pure rage) (and also cause like… because i need to be armed to the teeth with knowledge and facts because conservative right-wing family members love to parrot bullshit propaganda when not just being outright bigots🙄) I decided to take a read through the entire Wikipedia page concerning Trump’s 2024 run (and then I looked at his actual campaign website cause I hate myself more and wanted to see some of his actual rhetoric that was mentioned but not quoted) and it’s just like…

He fucking wants to appoint himself as god-king (wants to expand power of the executive (diminishing the separation of powers), turn govt civil employees status to ‘at will’ for firing, and to impose congressional term limits while also abolishing his own) and “root out” the “vermin” in this country (literal rhetoric he has used) and with this Court it probably won’t just go unchecked, but like I’m afraid it could be affirmatively endorsed using principles of originalism and ‘history and tradition’ (whose fucking version of history???? Huh???? Because it certainly wasn’t fucking mine when you overturned Roe in Dobbs) but in the fast and loose way that they like to, where sometimes they want to be textualist and sometimes they don’t.

Assuming he tries, I do think expansion of the executive might not get support from some of the conservative justices under principles of federalism which is— wrong math, right answer. But they 100% would justify his white Christian supremacist alloamatocisheteronormative patriarchal policies under originalism and ‘history and tradition’. As if letting the past guide the future isn’t a fucking BATSHIT thing to do. We learn the past to do BETTER in the future, not to fucking EMULATE it and use their standards to STAGNANT the lives of real people. EVEN THE FUCKING DRAFTERS OF THE GODDAMN CONSTITUTION KNEW THAT IN FUCKING 1787 SO WHY THE FUCK ARE WE STILL DOING THIS SHIT! But I digress from my originalism rant because this is a Presidential Campaign rant.

Like Trump literally said he wants to (and WILL BE) a dictator.

“He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’. I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”

“Baker today in the New York Times said that I want to be a dictator. I didn’t say that. I said I want to be a dictator for one day.”

*insert regina george* so you agree? You want to be a dictator? Pretty sure being one for “one day” is called establishing the dictatorship and suuure Jan im sure that it’ll stay limited in scope to the borders and drilling (as if that would fucking make it okay???) 🙄

And then the option on the ‘opposing’ side is Joe Biden, who, chief among his many faults, is aiding and supporting a genocide. The fact that he has no competition in primaries (literally only one other person is even trying) and will end up being the Democratic candidate has me so incensed and the fact that Joseph Biden is fucking painted as the ‘radical left’ by opposition is both objectively hilarious and just horrifying and dangerously (and probably intentionally) misleading so as to continue the shift of whatever “middle” exists to actually be further and further right wing.

There is not really a larger point here and I’m super not looking for discourse but if anyone is gonna try anyway— don’t bother me without a source.

Anyway I’m just fucking tired and fuck the electoral college and the fact that one of these two ancient men winning seems inevitable

[kick-a-long]

spoilers for cockoo and why it is one of the best movies of the last 15 years.

disclaimer: im cis and the main actress hunter is trans, also tw sexual violence definitely/kinda??

this movie is sooo fucking good technically, writing wise, good looking, emotional, ethically complex and both personally and socially meaningful. not a misstep to be found. if you can handle spooky scary movies i definitely recommend it.

I'm not going into great detail, but the thing i like about it the most is that it is a total marriage of feminist anxiety and queer (especially trans) anxiety.

my favorite thing that I haven't seen anyone talk about is that while hunter is a trans woman, the character she plays is (in my mind) kept ambiguously queer. she might be a trans woman, trans man, non-binary, or a cis lesbian. all we know is that she is some form of queer, attracted to woman and is treated like a woman who has failed at womanhood. the setting is the 80s which is brilliant because it side steps all the formal conversations around pronouns and respecting identity, it implies there are no hormone therapies to get or operations or any way that gretchen can earn womanhood or manhood with her outer appearance/gender performance. what's left is the single implication that in some way Gretchen has failed at womanhood. it makes it clear that Gretchen might be any letter of the alphabet but regardless of which one she IS being pushed out of her own home for being the wrong type of woman, not even just for being lgbt. she's in survival mode, in a foreign country, totally isolated and continually attacked for/from finding anyone like her, dealing with grief/the loss of her emotional family, not there by choice, not there because she did anything wrong, and not afraid of being proactive to fix that situation.

the cockoo is the perfect monster for her. It's the type of femininity that looms over her as well as all woman (even her hyper feminine step mom.) it non-consentually impregnates the right type of woman, in a non-sexual procedure. It's heterosexual and performing femininity well, and controls who has children with whom like a male institution but it is a biologically female animal. it implants it's eggs, not sperm, it dresses and looks like a traditional (even antiquated) version of a woman. it's the grandma 1950s pre-feminist femininity that haunts us. so it acts as both a symbol of patriarchy like it's acting in lock step with conservative heterosexual men's values and as the specter of conservative femininity that could be terf or could just be conservative femininity generally. it even covers it's hair (in a non religious way) and wears demure cloths, solely focused on other woman's reproduction, while being ungodly powerful yet controlled by patronizing men. even it's monster power is to repeat time, literally stop people progressing by force, a literal power that conservatives want to go back in time and freeze us all there. It's so fucking smart!!

the resolution is EVEN MORE SMART!

the film points out how fucking weird all this shit is, and then makes an actual active choice to say, "fuck it, solidarity against all this violent and nonsensical philosophical bullshit!" it takes the deeply humanistic option of "i'm a freak that didn't ask to be born this way, you're a freak that didn't ask to be born this way, all these systems and gender roles are fucking you as much as me lets band together and figure out what the fuck we can do to change all this!" they only escape by using each other as shields. the girl born of hyperconservativity who doesn't want to live that life, protects gretchen against conservative patriarchy/violence while gretchen's atypical but humanistic femininity protects alma's typical girlhood femininity against ultra leftist/violent deconstruction of femininity. and then they run off with a hot lesbian who has a car. perfect!

the movie is so wonderful because it is the first film that i've seen which communicates not just the pragmatism of focusing on all woman's (any kind of woman: straight and any type of LGBTQIA+) shared interests so we can all work together to build each other up, protect each other, get each other to some place safe, but also how much more sane that is. put the violence on the horrible ideas and not vengeance against the people who uphold them, because while the ideas seem impossible to defeat, part of defeating them is facing them without becoming overwhelmed and just not listening! because they are fucking weird and self defeating, again brilliant!

there's a million more things to say but you have to see it. it's as close to perfect as any movie I've seen. i love it.

please please see it. even if you don't want to think it's a fucking fun popcorn movie and an incredibly thrilling ride.

[countessravengrey]

I'm going to propose we retire the use of "wholesome" and "pure" and start using "cute" "sweet" or some other words to comment on those adorable moments with kittens, puppies, or anything else you might be using "wholesome" and "pure" for.

Aside from the fact that reading stuff like "this is so pure/wholesome" makes me feel like I'm mainlining saccharin, these two words actually trigger the fuck out of me, and have really nasty connotations.

The word 'pure' has an ugly history. The concept of purity has been used for centuries to oppress people's sexuality, particularly women, who have been expected to carry out the majority of traditions of chastity. This has been particularly prevalent in Christianity, where women are not only expected to be chaste but to also take full responsibility for the consequences of sex, including having children they didn't want, even when raped. And aside from its ties to Christian Nationalism, it was (and still is) used to oppress BIPOC using the 'one drop rule'.

And if you're thinking the word itself is benign, just look at these meanings:

not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material

free of any contamination

wholesome and untainted by immorality, especially that of a sexual nature

'Wholesome', on the other hand, hearkens back to the 80s & 90s Reagan/Bush era when Republicans (and yes, some Democrats) used "wholesome" with the phrase "family values" to galvanize the Conservative Right, which led directly to the extremism of the Republican party today. These words were used as an excuse to enact policies such as the War on Drugs, the Defense of Marriage Act and the Marriage Initiative (which states that marriage and family was between one man and one woman, both heterosexual), extreme censorship (the Parental Advisory is more than just a label), and so much more. It was used to vilify single mothers, and directly contributed to the stigma surrounding the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s, which in turn delayed research that could have saved millions of lives.

"But it just means cute and sweet and good!"

Not true. The word's very meaning is steeped in purity culture. While one could almost excuse its main meaning, "conducive to or suggestive of good health and physical well-being" (ffs just say it's nutritious), it's the secondary meaning that condemns the entire word as self-righteous bullshit: "conducive to or promoting moral well-being." Synonyms like 'virtuous' 'chaste' and 'right-minded' don't help its case, either.

Oh, and nowhere does either of these words have synonyms meaning 'cute' or 'sweet'.

There is nothing kind or friendly about these words. There is nothing loving or joyful about them.

Just something to think about the next time you tag a video of cuddly kittens.

[bonyassfish]

Why are you jumblr assholes so fucking obsessed with atheists? My guess is you found a group of people more despised than you and decided to join in on the atheist bashing. And you can hate on with impunity because no one else cares about us. And you have this build in defense where if anyone calls you on your bullshit you can just cry “antisemitism” and shut down the discussion. Because no matter what you’re always the victims. And then you wonder why we hate you!

the funniest thing about this to me personally is that I'm actually an atheist jew lmao

now im in a good mood so I'm going to try and take this question a little seriously even though you just seem angry and whiny and bitter and intent on bothering jewish people minding our business

in the real world, the biggest threat to jewish safety and security right now is, (at least in the us, canada, europe, australia, and aotearoa) is white supremacy and christo-fascism. but tumblr is not quite the real world

if you did a demographic study of tumblr, you would find that the majority of users (but not all of course) are probably left-leaning, from either the us or europe, white, and were either raised in christian home or grew up in a culturally christian place. this is obviously not all tumblr users, but it probably describes most Tumblr users. and if you did a survey of all tumblr users who were either raised christian and/or raised in a culturally christian place, you would probably find that most (though not all) do not currently practice christianity, and many might also say they suffered some religious trauma.

within this group (people raised christian/culturally christian who are now atheists), there is a lot of variety on how people see religion as a whole and interact with religious people. there is one particular subset of this group who I will generously refer to as the "somewhat ignorant but loud spoken atheists". it's the person who says that all religion is equally bad. it's the person who has unlearned the harm christianity has done to themselves, but not to other communities. it's the person who parrots the same islamaphobia and antisemitism as the church leaders they critique. it's bill maher. it's the person who sees religious and ethnic minorities being proud of their heritage and serious about their traditions and thinks it's the same as christians trying to rewrite laws in the us.

so when we talk about antisemitism on tumblr, because of tumblr demographics, those types of people will be the ones who espouse the most antisemitism here. it's similar to why tumblr users may be more combative with terfs than other transphobes, simply because you're much more likely to find a terf here than a conservative

I can't speak for all jews (we are a notoriously disagreeable people lol), but we really have no problems with atheism or atheists in general. hell, there are many jews (such as myself) who are atheists. we don't think everyone on earth needs to follow the same religious framework, so someone being an atheist is no problem. the issue is that you espouse antisemitism and refuse to apologize for it

[rametarin]

Another avenue where socialists and fascists/Nazis parallel.

It is said, often by socialists and others that are curiously hyper protesty about Nazis and other forms of fascist, that fascists and "social conservatives" (their word for extending the umbrella to call anything conservative, no matter how milquetoast, adjacent to Nazis. See how it bleeds and creeps like diabetic blood from vessels) live in an imaginary, glorious past.

It's not a completely wrong summation. The attitudes among many genocidal monsters that believe X-Land would be better if not for all those Y-landers infesting it. It's a completely wrong belief by the genocidal monsters, but it's not exactly entirely correct as a criticism. They paint it with a broad brush so anything that fits adjacent to an extreme, is "on the road to" that extreme. However, they are not wrong when they say people blatantly and brazenly complaining about "Muh glorious past, these fuckers messed up my shit, we need to get back to the romantic glorious past and return to glory" are potentially playing by a bad playbook. Because it's often the on-paper beliefs justifying bullshit.

The direction these ones take is often nativist and dislike of the status quo, or the direction things are headed. And that's why they want to wipe the slate clean from the latest changes and redo things under "more orthodox/conventional" circumstances. By the wrong people with the wrong beliefs, this can result in ethnic cleansing and even delusional fundamentalist orthodoxy. It's true of modernist fascist types as well as religious extremists. Wanting to march to the beat of a traditionalist drum or moralist values institution.

However, socialists have their own failing in this.

A socialist doesn't tend to imagine a glorious past where everything worked right "until those new fangled ideas fucked everything up/sabotaged it on purpose." They believe the current day is fucked up, because their ideal view of how things SHOULD ideally work isn't being employed. Their imagined glorious time has yet to come, and will only come if they get what they want, they imagine. That how things are is abominable and has always been wrong, and that the way into the future is their idealized way- which, they view as right. Recursive. "Things are bad because my preference isn't the status quo right now."

That ideal future could be anything. Free food and medicine, free housing, no white people, etc. But they'll do any stupid bullshit in the name of trying to acquire that, no matter how detrimental it is in the longterm. In fact, many accelerationists want things to collapse specifically to be there waiting in the void to replace the existing system.

A traditionalist fascist may live in an art museum looking back on whatever they deem to be "their people"- it could be an ethnic group, it could be a culture, it could be a religion. But it's often carrying on an existing tradition or series of traditions or institutions, all wrapped around an identity and belief.

A socialist lives in potentia and tries to realize an ideal future based on what they believe ought to be the future. Their "glory days" have to come into being. And they'll pursue those in any way they can, doing mental gymnasitcs and backflips, just the same as a genocidal maniac working in the name of ideology like the Nazis, in order to make that happen. They will pick out entire groups and de-person them, by redoing entire systems to exclude them from being able to participate by the rules themselves.

Anything that even THREATENS their ideal future, therefore, they imagine isn't just working against their own self-conceited declarations of what is "fair and just," but to their sensibilities is defying the will of god and what's right, in absolute. So much the way a religious fundamentalist sees reality through the lens of their faith and what it holds true, the socialist will often see defiance of their polylogue futurism as simply desiring things to get worse and "spiral into fascism, imperialism, religious extremism and white supremacy." I say specifically white supremacy and not ethnosupremacism, because at this current state in the discourse, they're being very mask-off about it. They specifically only care about the white supremacism not even to spare the feelings of their unscrupulous minority interest parties, but because they singularly see white people as the biggest obstruction and impediment to their desired future.

So if you disagree with their preferred outcome, it just allows them to do mental gymnastics to see you as what they believe are their polar opposites. You must be a patriarchal monster, they reason, "because that's the status quo, didn't you know." You must be a white supremacist, because capitalism and europe and blahblahblah. You must be a male chauvinist, of course, because that is the wicked status quo we're "trying to grow humanity out of." You must be a "cisheteronorm," of course, because otherwise you'd be a good, proper Queer Theorist and trying to do nonsense towards "undoing cisheteronormitivity" Which is just an asinine way of imagining human gender and sexuality, and will eventually unravel by gay, bi, asexual and transgendered people as being an absurd, rigid, social constructionist-in-the-absence-of-biological-reality blob of stupid and extremism that ignores objectivity and truth.

So they share many of the same failures as fascists and traditionalist conservatives do. They're simply conservative in a way for a glorious past that hasn't happened yet, with much the same delusional, nonsensical values of the religious element. They may not be screaming about Jesus and Muhommed and burning bushes and the Rapture, but if you spend even a few hours in "Economist Socialist" spaces, you'll see parallels to the Rapture in Late Stage Capitalism and their mythological portents of doom to how they imagine markets and trade going, just pathologizing some weird doomsday scenario where what they want is INEVITABLE.

Both are inferior to capitalist liberalism with a secular, constitutional, democratic republic and functional, good faith regulations and a legal system centering individual liberty and ownership of private property. Both for the individual person, as well as the entire society itself.

But socialism, fascism and communism, many -isms that reject private property, abhores this, because it means they can't centralize things like trains or access to medicine and FORCE people to behave according to their values, or wind up either harming themselves or the state having carte blanche to ensure harm for non-compliance. That's why they despise individual liberty and private property. They want your obligate participation, and want to own every square space around you, every object and every service that's allowed to exist, forcing you to operate in accordance with their values in totality, or reject them all and wind up imprisoned or dead.

The industrialist wants your money. The moralists demands you think the way they do, walk the way they do and observe the same values they do, or you're wrong, or even a danger to the status quo by virtue of your own refusal to agree. One of these two will eventually turn off. The other is motivated and soothed by their own conscience that bullying you is in fact the morally right move.

So you see, fascists seek glory of ancient days for their sacred mythology and seek validity in the aesthetic and nobility of yesterdays, while a socialist tends to try and visualize themselves with futurist iconography, such as space suits, outer space, extremely scientific pursuits and the unknown. Because you see, they're just such secular and scientific people (/sarcasm)

I want neither one of these hideous set of values or systems based on them in power. That isn't a rejection of medicine, science, equality and fairness, but it is a rejection of one imagined pursuit of those goals.

[themculibrary]

Steve Rogers Coming Out Masterlist

Be Proud (ao3) - neon_air steve/tony G, 8k

Summary: Due to unfortunate reasons, Tony and Steve are forced to stay quiet about their relationship when out in public.

Peter Parker decides to call bullshit.

Birthplace of Steve Rogers (ao3) - elkleggs, plutosrose steve/bucky E, 10k

Summary: When Steve wakes up in 2011, he doesn't expect to find that his childhood home has been turned into a museum. There, he meets Bucky Barnes and learns about his relationship to the past, the future, and himself.

Brooklyn (ao3) - togina steve/bucky T, 8k

Summary: “Captain America, what’s your stance on gay marriage?”

Everyone knows that, by now. Everyone but Bucky.

Buck Rogers in the 21st Century (ao3) - dishrag steve/bucky M, 15k

Summary: Bucky cleared his throat before speaking to Steve. He’d thought of what he would say as the first words as himself, James ‘Bucky’ Barnes to Steve Rogers in well over 70 years. He thought about pulling him aside and telling him that amongst the irrational chaos of the universe, amongst the birth and death of stars, the fall of countries, the rise of regimes , against time itself, that they had lived and died together many lifetimes ago and yet in face of impossibility were pulled together under every possibility, their fates intertwined in the forge of a supernova, and that had to mean something.

Bucky mustered, “You look terrible.”

Close enough.

Cap Comes out (ao3) - orphan_account N/R, 6k

Summary: Steve's journey as coming out as bisexual.

cross this river to the other side (ao3) - defcontwo steve/bucky T, 14k

Summary: In 1943, the Howling Commandos wrote goodbye letters to be given to their loved ones in the event of their deaths.

In 2014, Sharon Carter finds those letters in a tin can in an abandoned HYDRA base.

Fate Will Play Us Out (ao3) - steveandbucky steve/bucky E, 30k

Summary: Bucky has landed himself a job with Stark Industries. He doesn’t know yet that the job is actually being the PR manager for the Avengers.

Bucky has also started dating Steve Rogers. He also doesn’t know yet that Steve is Captain America.

Bucky’s life is about to get a whole lot more exciting.

"Is breá liom i gcónaí duit." (ao3) - marykathryn30 steve/bucky T, 2k

Summary: Between the radio and Steve’s noises, neither of them heard the front door open.

No One Wants Your Opinion (ao3) - thepinupchemist steve/bucky E, 5k

Summary: Wherein Bucky loves to cuddle Steve Rogers, Steve comes out on national television for the sole purpose of spiting conservative politicians, Tony sees things he wishes he hadn't, and Pepper doesn't know why she even bothers.

Not in the History Books (ao3) - Erin_writes_things steve/bucky, peggy/steve T, 5k

Summary: History has pinned Captain America as the poster boy of 'traditional American values'

The Avengers have to come to terms with the fact that Steve Rogers is far from Captain America and the history books aren't always right.

(Follows on from the Queer Avengers series but still makes sense as a stand-alone)

One Day We Won’t Have to Be Scared (ao3) - Paraxdisepink steve/bucky E, 13k

Summary: Written for this prompt: Steve and Bucky are at a gay bar in the 30s, and some guy offers them money to take pictures of them as they fuck. They need the money, they say yes, and pretty much forget about it afterwards. The pictures come out years later.

Out in the Open (ao3) - TheWomanInGreen steve/bucky T, 7k

Summary: Five times Steve came out and the one time someone came out to him. Also includes the Avengers, shenanigans and kissing!

Pennies and dimes for a kiss (ao3) - WeirdV steve/bucky N/R, 13k

Summary: 

“What just happened?” Tony asks, looking at Steve holding the piece of paper. Steve shrugs, frowning as he unfolds it. “It’s a phone number” he says, “I don’t get it.” “He made a move on you? That is brave!” Natasha grins, leaning backwards to try and read the note. [...] “So, what you going to do about that?” Bruce says, pointing at the note, “Going to let him down easy?” “I don’t know” Steve grins, “He was kind of cute?” Tony spits out his drink, staring at Steve – along with the rest of the table who has gone surprisingly quiet. “Your face” Steve snorts, looking at Tony, “Ok. That was funny. Anyways – I’m exhausted, so I’m going to go now. See you guys at debrief tomorrow."

progressively bigger keys (ao3) - layersofsilence steve/bucky G, 9k

Summary: “A very little key will open a very heavy door.” ― Charles Dickens, Hunted Down

Steve and Bucky, it appears, have less need for a key and more use for a battering ram in trying to come out of the closet.

(The one where Steve tries to do one thing (one thing!) without causing a national ruckus, but the press are determined to see Bucky as Steve’s best friend. And nothing more.)

Stucky Discover Gay Rights (ao3) - Alicia_Borealis steve/bucky T, 6k

Summary: “Then, why-” Steve stopped himself and looked at Bucky, who had tears rolling freely down his cheeks. “We’re- we’re not sick?”

“Wait, what?” Tony asked.

“Being a homosexual, it isn’t… wrong?”

-

The story of how Steve Roger's loved and lost Bucky, then how he got him back and then how he realised he was allowed to love him after all.

The Coming Out of Captain America (ao3) - TheIntelligentHufflepuff steve/bucky G, 1k

Summary: Steve accidentally outs himself at a press conference, storms out of said conference for unrelated reasons and is comforted by his boyfriend.

Waiting to Prove You’re Not Alone (ao3) - heartsdesire456 steve/bucky E, 41k

Summary: Months after he woke up on the banks of the Potomac, when a reporter mistakenly assumes Steve would disapprove of homosexuality being as accepted as it is in the modern day, Steve accidentally snaps and unleashes his real opinion on the matter… and with that, a secret he’s hidden for over eighty years.

When that secret comes looking for him in New York, Steve can only hope that he can get a second chance at saving his best friend, even if it means keeping his heart in check.

We have not touched the stars (ao3) - sangha steve/bucky E, 21k

Summary: Steve is still adjusting to life in the 21st century. His life nowadays is mostly lonely. Though he appreciates her good intentions, he always rebuffs Natasha's efforts to set him up on a date; he simply isn't interested in pursuing anything romantic.

At least, until Steve gets drunk on Asgardian liquor and a ridiculously handsome stranger at the bar catches his eye.

[tododeku-or-bust]

Watched a doc on the Twin Flames cult and like... I did not realize that people were this serious about the divine masculine feminine shit. I figured it was a conservative ideology and we all knew that. I thought we saw that it was bullshit meant to enforce gender essentialism. I honestly figured it was like.. hotep ideology in my community and that weird brand of Christian White Woman™ faking "traditional" on tiktok. I didn't realize these people were actually like... Marketing this shit.

This was horrifying. It was like...reverse uno-ing gender essentialism by forcing people to transition according to what the leaders saw as "their true self" so that they could be in specified "masculine and feminine pairs" bc "homo/bisexuality isn't real". and that seems so violating against what exploring gender and being trans actually means (to be fair I am not trans so I am not as informed as I could be, but it ain't seem right).

And as a sidebar this guy leading the shit is the most insufferable, arrogant, immature ass man. "I'm Jesus bc I'm white with long hair and you're being a whiny bitch if you don't do what I say" sir I'll reach through this screen. Fuck you. I hate that they're thinking this abuse is love.

[stag-bi]

Not to be that guy who jumps into the asks of anyone who mentions authcoms lmao but I think it's best to analyze authoritarian communism first and foremost by what elements it consists of, rather than exclusively what people opine about various countries' implementation of it.

Personally speaking, I find the "dictatorship of the proletariat" to be a ghoulish concept that is so vulnerable to subversion and institutionalized abuse that it more often than not results in the type of tyranny most anticommunists (perhaps unfairly, perhaps not) associate with 20th century communist states. I don't consider myself an anticommunist by a long shot, but I also don't trust many western countries to form working class authoritarian bodies because "the working class" is a class made up of individuals with their own cultures, religions, and traditions, not a homogenized slurry of poor people with no interests, biases, or faults outside of that. There are a lot of authcoms that, frankly, fucking terrify me, and will immediately jump to pretty awful takes (such as discourse surrounding the invasion of Ukraine) in order to defend old alligences to formerly communist countries. I would be unable to have solidarity with these people.

Again, sorry to be "that guy" lmfao

no its ok, i appreciate the response :D im always receptive to discussion!

i hadnt thought abt analyzing authcom by its elements, i think thats interesting. id love to read analysis like that, im not sure im smart (= informed) enough to do that stuff on my own hgffgdhgf

the thing abt the dictatorship of the proletariat? yeah that makes so much sense. ive always been weirded out by the anti-"identity politics" bullshit ive seen some leftists spew, where they claim that the only significant identity anyone should have is their class, and all of this intersectional feminism stuff is a distraction from that hgfdhfgfhgfhgj like. Way to be ignorant and dismissive of real racial/gender/etc dynamics that matter immensely in the current system. thats how we get all these old white commies who claim to be for the proletariat and then are incredibly misogynistic towards working class women lmaooo

like i do believe that class privilege trumps everything else for the upper class. we see it over and over again w marginalized ppl turning into fiscally conservative shitbags the moment they get rich, and suddenly the only activism they believe in is the kind that helps them get richer (girlboss shit)

liberals w zero understanding of class politics are always so confused when some non-white/LGBT/etc rich person goes hard for the republicans, and its not at all surprising if you consider the fact that class privilege is the only thing that matters to the bourgeoisie.

also honestly as much as i despite "anti-communism", i fucking haaaate those pro-soviet tankies who simp for russia at any given chance. i guess if i wanna learn less biased info abt the soviet politics, i should look into non-tankie communists talking abt it 🤔 at least then i know its not just some authright misinfo campaign

[yarpharp]

The conservative world will come for all of us. Undeniably. But it helps to kinda understand why... Which the reasoning is deranged and archaic and insanely fucked.

Sexualizing their children? It's bullshit code for "you are broadening their horizons, teaching them about sex education instead of scaring them with abstinence, and not making it easy for me to control my children's dating choices or their personal lives." And the conservatives don't want that, they'd rather be able to marry their kids to their conservative buddies and maintain their cycle of conservative thought than like... Let their kids be themselves. In any way.

And asexualizing their children? That's bullshit code for "in our minds, not following the Prime Directive called Reproduction means our children won't give birth to more conservative-minded children to maintain the conservative party. We need conservative voters, but you refuse to participate entirely by not having kids so HOW DARE YOU."

So it's honestly a fucked double standard. They want control and supposed traditional values, but they also want you to have plenty of wild sex to result in lots of kids that can be made into conservatives. It's the most fucked train of thought.

Keep this shit in mind. That language? It's language of panic and fear because they are terrified of losing control. Don't give into it. Stay vigilant.

So within two days of each other, Fox News writes an article comparing aromanticism and asexuality to pedophilia, and then Matt Walsh releases a video saying asexuality is a mental illness and asexuals are tricking teenagers into having depression.

Not sure what’s going on right now over in Conservative World, but it’s a hell of wild U-turn for them to suddenly switch from “Oh no! The left is sexualizing our children!” to “Oh no! The left is asexualizing our children!”