#fucking bigots just pulled a gun on themselves

[itsbeardedcollectorwolfme]

"But grocery and gass prices"

I hope you like that they're going up now

"He'll protect the border from criminals"

He's a criminal that now has immunity from being prosecuted for future crimes

"He said-"

He SAID a lot of contradictory things to lots of people. WE TOLD YOU THIS

"But what about the children?"

Like how you people 'protected' the Boy Scouts? How did that end again? Oh ya alot of molested little boys by a bunch of straight cis 'christians'

Good job putting one of the biggest risks to democracy in charge of the country. Mother fuckers straight up said to you assholes that you wouldn't need to vote again. What the actual fuck do you think he ment by that? Stupid delusional freaks.

“It’s only 4 years”

And how much damage is he going to do in 4 years?

“You guys are over reacting”

People worried about their future is not “over reacting”

“They are not try to take your rights away”

THEY LITERALLY ARE! They are actively trying to take woman’s rights and lgbt rights away, and you put a cult leader in office again

[empyreanwritings]

ITSSSSS BAAACCCKKKKKKKK MOB MONDAY HAS RETURNED!!! So happy to see a highlight of my life making a comeback, just what I needed right now. So, for my first request, may I ask for a mob Yelena/Wanda where they are at an event and some arsehole is being offensiv and phobic over W+Y due to where they are from/their accents (probs including owning money that doesn’t belong to them, that degree of awfulness) etc and before they can even think of taking care of them, lo and behold their sweet, shy, quiet girl turns 360, defending them and destroying the prick, cursing and shouting and ready to harm them (ready to take either Wanda or Yelena’s gun XD), if They’ve never seen this side of her. Thank you so much ☺️ x

Comments about your loves got under your skin more often than not, but you never acted on it before. Wanda always assured you that she was used to them, and Yelena said she could handle bigots herself. It was their way of keeping you away from a fight as much as possible because if anything happened to their sweet, sweet girl, they’d kill every man in the room and not regret a single thing. 

You weren’t entirely aware of your actions until the room grew quiet. Your fists grabbed the front of the man’s shirt and pulled him so close to you, you could press your nose against his. He smelled of whiskey and cheap aftershave, which was his first offense. His second offense was mouthing off about Yelena and Wanda when they weren’t around to defend themselves. Especially in your presence. 

“You want to say that again for me?” You hissed. “Because I don’t think I could hear you, you filthy fucking-” 

“Enough,” Yelena whispered in your ear. You were suddenly aware of her hand on your elbow. “He’s not worth it.” 

“I think it is!” You shoved his backwards, letting him topple towards his chair. “Tell them what you said to me. Go on, tell them! Or is your dick so small that you can’t talk shit about people to their faces?” 

Wanda maneuvered around the table and wrapped her hand around your free arm. She looked above your head at Yelena, who seemed just as surprised about your outburst. For years, they focused on keeping you as far away from danger as possible; they didn’t want their life to corrupt you. They never expected that your temper could be just as awful at theirs. 

You watched the man scramble to his feet and make a beeline for the door. You made a step to stop him, but they held you back. The last thing they needed was for you to make a scene outside of the gala. Cops were willing to overlook private events, but they couldn’t ignore you beating the shit out of someone on a public sidewalk. 

“Everything is okay!” Yelena reassured the crowd with a smile. “Please, go back to your festivities! The auction will begin momentarily.” She turned back to Wanda and mumbled, “Take her upstairs and let her cool down. I’ll be up in a moment.” 

As the anger started to leave your body, you realized what a horrifying mistake you made. You started to rattle of apologies to Wanda as she guided you up the steps, but she shook her head and shushed you. She wasn’t mad at you. In fact, she thought your reaction was hot. She was only taking you away from the gala to help you calm down. 

And, well, maybe do a few other things to thank you for standing up for them. 

[mirrerover]

High on the Fumes

“Straying a bit far from the nest, Dickiebird,” Jason says. He’s got one hand shoving his mask back up into his hood, revealing just his mouth and the sharp line of his jaw, while the other digs in the pocket of his leather jacket, fishing for cigarettes. A beaten-up carton gets waved in Dick’s general direction, offering a cigarette Dick never accepts. Not like this. Not in the Nightwing suit, at least.

They’re currently overlooking Crime Alley, seated on the edge of the roof, legs dangling off the side. Jason hadn’t seemed surprised when Dick had dropped down next to him on the ledge. But Red Hood wouldn’t be Red Hood if Jason didn’t know the coming and goings of the various vigilantes creeping on Gotham's rooftops at night.

“Ran out of bad guys my side of the pond,” Dick says in the easy way he says lots of things. The patented Grayson charm. “What can I say—I’m just that good.”

That actually pulls a laugh out of Jason. A genuine one. One that has his mouth stretched apart in a smile that makes Dick think beautiful.

“No criminals in Blüdhaven. I knew moonlighting as a police officer would be bad for you. Six months on the job and they’ve already got you on their payroll.”

“Thought you’d be proud of me for lasting as long as I did.”

“Sure thing, Princess.” There’s a fancy Zippo in his hand now, one Dick has never seen before, lighting the first cigarette of plenty to come. Dick wonders if Jason lifted it off some crook he left for dead. “You probably broke some departmental records. Most Blüdhaven cops are on the take before they’ve even stepped off Academy grounds.”

Dick chuckles the way you chuckle when watching your own house burn down to ashes, all your mortal possessions still inside. Blüdhaven is a corrupt cesspool with no fast and easy fix. Maybe not even a slow and difficult one—and she’s all Dick's. He stuffs the thought somewhere deep and hidden and eagerly shifts his eyes to Jason so he can forget. Just for a while.

It’s hard to read Jason’s face, hidden in the shadows of his hood, but the body language is clear; no apparent stiffness or major sore spots. Jason looks relaxed, if not a little tired, fingers nimble when they lift the cigarette to his lips. So the bloodstains aren’t his own.

“Slow night?”

Jason shrugs. “Petty criminals, mostly.” His lips tighten into a harsh line. “Some creep who thought he could set up shop and play pimp. Fuck that. My girls work for themselves.”

His girls. And that, Dick thinks, is the difference between Bruce and Jason. Bruce has his villains, his meta humans, and when that well runs dry there’s the League. A galaxy full of nemeses for him to fight.  Big players and even bigger stakes. Abstract concepts of freedom and peace, and the liberty of dealing in absolutes. Jason has his people. The concrete reality of kids not being cornered by predators and sex workers keeping money in their own pockets. And his people love him. Prefer the Red Hood taking an iron pipe to the face of their abusive ex-husband, their kid’s drug dealer, or the rapist next-door, to the untouchable Bat Symbol high up in the sky.

Maybe Dick’s been staring too hard or maybe Jason can tell he’s thinking of Bruce because the next time he speaks, he’s extra crass: “I need a cock so far up my ass I’ll be seeing stars, a good meal, and a shower with better water pressure than the usual geriatric-taking-their-midnight-piss nonsense that’s rife this side of the city.” He sucks long and hard on the cigarette, posture thoughtful, before releasing the smoke in a slow exhale. “Not necessarily in that order.”

Dick snorts. Maybe there’s more than just the one big difference. “That really something you wanna yell off the rooftops? Thought you were some big bad crime lord.”

“The fuck's that s'posed to mean, Big Bird?” Some might assume that toting around eight severed heads in a duffle bag once would make it hard to take the moral high ground on anything. Dick knows for a fact that Jason doesn’t really give a shit about either morals or the high ground but it doesn’t stop him from taking both and making them his bitch. “Think I’m weak for taking it up the ass? How ‘bout you dial back on the homophobia, you bigoted prick.”

It might be more impressive if Dick was a little less familiar with Jason and his rage. Jason doesn’t settle his actual grievances with his words. This is foreplay.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Little Wing. Got the best thighs this side of the equator. Ain’t nobody calling you weak, babe.”

“Don’t you forget it, asshole.”

Dick hums, lowering himself onto his back, arms stretched high above his head. There’s a weird serenity to being verbally abused by Jason as the Eastern sky is starting to brighten. The sound from the street feels distant and Jason feels so close, their thighs mere inches apart. When Dick lets his head rest on his arm, Jason’s broad shoulders fill up half his vision and he knows if he buries his nose between his shoulder blades it’ll smell of leather and smoke and sweat.

Jason twists his torso towards him. “Were you even listening, Fingerstripes? Just told you I want a cock up my ass before the night is through. Need me to grab a pen and a piece of paper and spell it out for you?” Jason gives a depreciating grunt. “And Daddy dares to say that you’re the smart one.”

“Jesus, Hood,” Dick teases. “Can’t tell if you’re trying to go for seductive or insulting.”

“Shows how shit your instincts are. I’m doing both. You turned on yet?”

Dick shrugs good-naturedly, arches his back and gives Jason the Grayson smile, blinding, crooked, winning. “Little bit.”

There’s another laugh, another smile. Another beautiful in Dick’s head. Then Jason’s lying down beside him, shoulders brushing, and voice bleeding a warm: “thought you would be, you big slut.”

When Jason finishes his cigarette he kills what’s left of it on the concrete. Wordlessly lights another. The new Zippo burns big and bright.

Dick lowers one arm, carefully drags his fingers across the busted knuckles of the hand holding the lighter. Sometimes, those hands will leave red streaks on Dick’s skin and Dick won’t know if the person it came from is still a person at all. And he thinks Jason painting him with blood should probably bother him more than it does. But it’s hard sometimes, between the night job and the day job and the things he sees during both. Between Bruce, who puts principles before people, and Jason, who puts people before Bruce, is Dick, who doesn’t want to choose between either, who wants to have both—but let’s Jason mark him up with the blood from Gotham’s criminals, anyway. So, maybe he’s made his choice.

"Make me a coffee tomorrow morning," Dick says, Jason's hand warm beneath his own. "With those fancy beans. From that specialty shop where they roast and grind the beans on the spot and you watch them like a hawk 'cause you're both anal and a snob."

"Just the coffee?"

"Just the coffee."

"You're one cheap fucking lay, Boy Blunder."

“Only for you,” Dick says. "The Bat family discount.” Dick wonders if there’s a little something special in those cigarettes when that doesn’t get him punted off the roof immediately. The vicious elbow stab to the gut seems rather mellow.

“Asshole,” Jason murmurs under his breath. The vitriol dripping off that single word makes Dick honest-to-God giggle, chest feeling light like flying.    

He thinks they’ll stay here a little longer. Maybe one or two more cigarettes—all Jason. Dick will smoke after. After the sex, and the shower and the sleeping and the coffee. Long after the morning is gone. When Dick has been stripped of his suit for hours and Jason the same for his mask and guns. Then Dick will sit naked in the afternoon sun on Jason’s windowsill, grab that Zippo and smoke.

One cigarette. Just then.

----------------

@wethatake I wrote a thing. Can you believe it? I sure can’t

[bisexualbuck]

My 911 Fic Writing Masterlist

(Last edited May 28th 2021)

I’ve finally decided to do a masterpost of all my writing for the show 911 which is the fandom I’ve written the most for. There are 33 fics in this post, holy crap.

(If anyone is interested, I’ve also written for Star Trek AOS, Leverage, the MCU, among many other fandoms.)

As a general note, I’ll say most of my fics have Buddie elements and I also try to have at least one Firefam moment. Also, please check each fic’s warnings.

This is going to be long so most of it will be under a read more.

Last thing, please! If you like any of these stories, please consider leaving a comment and reblogging this post.

Multi Chapter

Reaching In The Dark | 38.7k

It all started innocent enough but Buck can no longer deny it.

He has a stalker.

Someone so obsessed with him that they would spend hours and hours following him, unnoticed, taking pictures of him, taking notes of his habits.

But life has been so good lately, and Buck doesn’t want to worry anyone. So he tells no one about it, he can deal with it on his own.

Leave My Body | 23k

"Do you want to see how it could have been? You are so sure you've been a burden on everyone you've ever met, but I can show you the truth."

.

Buck dies but it's not the end.

(Inspired by the movie It's a Wonderful Life)

Encore | 20.1k

“I’m going insane.”

“Did something happen?”

A dark, bitter laugh bubbles out of Buck – a mockery of joy.

“Everything keeps happening, and it’s still the same fucking day. It’s always the same and every time it’s different and I can’t do anything.”

.

Or

Buck keeps reliving the same day, over and over again.

Hurt/Comfort

Death, Be Not Proud | 10.1k

There are moments barge loudly into your life and, even as you’re going through them, you know they will change everything.

There are other moments that happen quietly, unnoticed, and it’s only afterwards that you know, looking back, that they have changed your life.

When the 118 is called to a decrepit house, they don’t think much of it.

Yet this will change their lives forever.

Silent Storm | 4.4k

Buck wakes up in the hospital.

Except he can't move. He can't speak.

But he can hear everything.

Dying Of The Light | 4.1k

If Purgatory was a place on Earth, it would be a hospital waiting room.

Or

Buck is in a coma, brain-dead - or so that's what the doctors say anyway.

(Silent Storm told from the Firefam's POV)

No Kingdom To Come | 8k

Days pass, then weeks that soon turn into months. Buck doesn’t call, he doesn’t text.

They don’t even know if he is still alive.

Maddie files a missing person’s report. Athena checks for any mention of his name anywhere in the country.

Nothing pops up, no one calls.

Buck is gone.

The Courage To Heal | 1.4k

He remembers her perfume. Thick, flowery – it makes him retch.

Why does he remember her perfume? Every time he smells anything like it, he wants to throw up, he wants to rush in the shower and try to wash away the stink of it.

Why can’t he move on?

He’s had sex with countless people over the years, especially back in his Buck 1.0 days, so why does that encounter remain? Why does it make him sick?

Why does he feel so ashamed?

.

Buck opens up about Dr Wells, the therapist from season 1.

The Loneliness Never Left Me | 2k

“Buck is afraid he is gonna end up like Red, without friends, without family. He thinks the job is the only thing he’ll ever have and that he’ll always be alone.”

Silence falls around them, heavy and suffocating.

“We need to show him that he’s got us."

“Not show him,” Chim says. “Tell him.”

Forever Day | 2k

The man pulls a gun out.

He aims it at Buck’s head.

“If you take another step I will blast your brains on the ground."

Hollow | ~300

Bobby on the day of his late wife and kids’ deaths, with Athena by his side.

Those Days | ~600

A look into Eddie and Christopher having a bad day made better by having each other.

Little Hope | ~500

A moment of support between two friends, Karen and Eddie, as Hen lays unconscious in a hospital bed.

Firefam Feels

Alone Again | 1.2k

Post S04E04

After standing up for himself to his parents, Buck feels hollow.

He isn't sure how he finds himself at Athena and Bobby's home, but maybe that's exactly where he needs to be.

Make It Three | 3.2k

It takes him twenty full minutes to realize what he has said, and then it hits him like a goddamn freight train.

Oh no. Oh no.

Buck just hung up on the phone on Athena Grant telling her that he loved her like he’s been doing it every day of his life.

Oh no.

.

Or

Buck slips up and tells Athena he loves her. He has a bit of a freak out.

Words Unsaid | 2.2k

“What’s going on?” Bobby and Buck say in unison.

“You two,” Athena announces, “are going to talk things out.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Buck says, like a liar. “Everything is fine.”

.

Buck overhears Bobby say that he's not his kid. He doesn't take it very well.

Lay You Down | 2k

Buck is sick and can't be left alone in his feverish state, but everyone is working.

Everyone but Athena.

That Which We Carry | 2.1k

Bobby stops in his tracks.

Buck is sitting on the ground, next to his own car, his keys and phone forgotten next to him. His breathing is loud and short and he has his head in his hands so that his face is hidden.

He’s having a panic attack.

To Be Loved, To Belong | 3.1k

5 times Buck almost tells his family what they mean to him.

+1 time he does.

Buried | 2.3k

It’s supposed to be a simple call.

Of course, everything goes wrong.

Just As It Was | 2.3k

After the lawsuit, Buck overworks himself trying to prove his worth to the team.

One day, he pushes too far.

Sunlight | ~500

The Buckley siblings have a bet about what Maddie and Chim’s kid’s first word will be.

Family Matters | ~500

A look into the future at Bobby’s retirement party.

Humor & Fluff

Freedom In Love | 1.1k

“You can’t keep ignoring this,” Maddie says – again.

She says it a lot. His answer is pretty much always the same.

“Actually, I can. And I think I will. This is working great for me so far. It’s like Schrödinger’s confession, if I don’t say anything, Eddie can’t reject me.”

Green Heart | 3k

Buck starts seeing a man.

Eddie worries he is being a bigot, because the idea of Buck kissing another man makes him want to punch someone.

What else could it be?

The Most Perfect Moment | 1.7k

After Shannon, Eddie never thought that he would ever want to get married again.

Yet, a little red box lays in his pocket until the perfect moment to propose comes around.He has been carrying it for weeks now, waiting.

He wants his proposal to be perfect because he knows that this is the last time he will ever be asking this question. Buck is it for him. There will never be anyone else.

Blame It On Chimney | 1k

“So anyway, that’s how Chimney saw me full-on naked.”

Eddie chokes on his beer.

How It Looks | ~400

Someone is back to haunt Chim. Well, not exactly someone. Hen is tired.

The Rest Of Our Lives | ~500

One night, one conversation that changes everything between Buck and Eddie.

Tumblr Prompts

lover, be good to me | 7.1k

This is a collection of unrelated prompts first posted on my tumblr.

(Summary of each story in the first chapter's notes)

Eddie touching Buck’s birthmark | ~300

Eddie in a relationship is a clingy Eddie | ~200

Halloween at the station | ~500

Buck & Maddie being their cute selves |  ~400

Misc.

from the bottom i come running | 3.7k

Co-written with the endlessly talented ksmalltalk / @letitialewiss​

Crossover with Lone Star.

Just a soccer match for charity and two men cheering on their boyfriends.

Wait, no. Eddie and Buck are not dating, no matter what Chim and Hen can say.

Or

In the stands, Eddie befriends TK whose boyfriend is playing alongside Buck. Out on the pitch, Buck and Carlos are a force to be reckoned with.

Oh, and someone gets hurt.

safe inside | 5.6k

Co-written with the biggest-brained and most talented chasingobligion / @starlightbuck​

World-famous actor TK Strand and his bodyguard Carlos find themselves seeking shelter from fans and paparazzi in a bakery Carlos knows very well.

Or

Baking leads to a few life changes.

Breathe You In | 2k

Eddie can’t stop staring.

This selfie is going to be the death of him.Buck is shirtless, and giving the camera an intense look that leaves Eddie panting.

Or

Buck sends a picture that tips their relationship into something new.

[shoujoboy-restart]

So your expectations of good faith is ignoring how you misinterpret/misrepresent what "respectability politics" entails and means?

Wikipedia and dictionary dot com both define it as a desperation tactic used by minorities collectively to not suffer or at least mitigate persecution. The most infamous examples being black people accepting segregation, acdpeirng and bending over backwards to follow anti-natural hair laws, converting themselves to christianity, only using western, the multiple Asians who argued the shouldn't suffer discrimination not because it was wrong but simply because they aren't brown skinned and even how prominent Jewish leaders straight up told Jewish populace to just follow Nazi orders.

Which is not a surprise you don't know what that entails or means since your entire first rant is just that, or just plain acting brand new to soap box that because of a unquantifiable amount of LGBT who didn't want to assimilate and had ideology that didn't entertain right wing ego, then it means everysingle LGBT somehow need to pay their mea culpa for it.

"some people live in always I don't like, they are responsible for the discrimination their entire demographic goes trought"

Again, your entire first rant is just that, respectability politics, instead of all individuals within a demographica allowed to express themselves as individuals, they must all morph into a homogeneous group that must follow the demands of society.

And once again, you pull a tu quoque, because there's some LGBT who "tell others how to act" which probably also includes not saying slurs, not bullying and not making homophobic statements at others together with whatever anecdote you can find out there, it then means republican politicians can just target peoples constitutional rights and violently censor.

Your point is literally just reinforcing "every single person of a demographic must be pure and standard or else everyone else deserves to suffer uwu" and then cry me and others the one moralizing? You are literally saying demographics need to become hiveminds seeking to please and beg bigots to seem them as deserving of constitutional rights...and we are the ones moralizing?

> Not my point. Never once did I saw what happened was right- just that it was a boomerang to your skull. Nor did I agree with what happened.

> "never said it was right just that it was your just desserts for having individuals with different opinions than the majority"

> "never said they deserve to be raped, but what else were they expecting with the way they behaved/what they wore"

Yeah is a bit hard to find much nuance in constant justification and apologism towards the degradation of constitutional rights of groups of people, you should work on that.

> Also- this about sexuality. Not race. But great job signaling that nothing you say actually matters.

You literally made half your response about something that wasn't the actual focus of it but I can't do the same in your eyes? Be fucking for real my guy coal calling the sludge dirty.

Besides the fact it was just a example of how barbaric your mindset of reactionary politics is, saying "Why are you bringing race to a discussion of respectability politics?" Really? That's the point you wanna make when the main occurrences of respectability politics happened because of race? Being obtuse and uninformed like that is not a surprise you had to derail the conversation into gun control to have something to show for.

> Kind of like your tags indicating that you know I'm a centrist but your statement here implies I'm a right winger.

No is just that your knee jerk reaction of finding a reason to attribute blame to demographics being oppressed by the government kinda gave that away ya know, together with hyper fixating on apologizing the persecution of the oppressed instead of persecution by the oppressor and the extreme false equivalency too, didn't knew(remembered) you were one but not surprised at all, but if a joke of "muh butt sides!" fits wear it then.

> Like say, the nuance of 'Just because people are being immoral to you does not mean you are justified in abandoning all of your morals'?

> "LGBT individuals having different ideologies and beliefs than me is such a big problem that needs intervention :c"

Again with the hyper apologism and false equivalency.

> Now try explaining why Detroit, one of the cities in the US with the highest gun restrictions in the US, has some of the worst SHOOTINGS?

Most likely a lack of infrastructure around providing people with actual collective security, which is why neither banning or liberalizing guns solves high crime rates, criminal smuggle or steal firearms or use the liberalization of them to gain legal firearms. I don't know where you people get this shit that criminals are afraid to die, specially gang members, if everyone has a gun you are just switching who's gonna be the victim of the day and nothing else. When you individualize security you get the USA police solving less than 2% of all crime investigations an year.

> Also did you just admit you're not from the US and yet talk as if you have any right to dictate law in a country you don't live in. I made a fucking snide remark in passing.

You really seem to despise people who are different than you expressing their opinion without much of justification babe, you should get that checked fr.

Also, we are in the same continent so is not like it's impossible someone contrabanded from here to there and vice versa lol

"Dictate" no, I literally said my country didn't have positive results from lifting gun restrictions and in fact the opposite when also brough up countries besides your own, using that as a example is anecdotal and fallacious, which is why no in this discussion can really go anywhere.

I ironically asked you what you recommend to be done in a country that had both restrictions and liberation of firearms that didn't not solve crime, instead you got personally offended, complained about doing something you also did for a second time last time I counted and tried to derail the conversation into something you can argue instead of for what it is.

I don't view this as a discussion of gun control inherently, I think you derailed it with moot information about it when it represents 10% of the discussion barely, and I never dictated what your country shouldn't or should do to solve their firearm situation at all, just what mine went thought and why I don't think regulation or liberation does anything.

> Says the person who boiled down the other side to 'white supremacists'. By 'nuance', you mean 'agree with me'.

...can you read?

> Oh so we are just gonna be tu quoquing policy from now on? You sound like the type of who kept escape goating to your younger siblings when YOU made a mess with this "BUT HE TOLD ME TO" shit. How many randoms on the internet does it take for you to semi-sarcastically say the constitution should be ripped and citizens rights should be taken away "because you asked for it!". How many white supremacists shootings until I can get DeSantis since you seem to work in a apologist revanchist mindset.

Objectively speaking, I did not compare right wingers WITH supremacists, nothing in either grammar or syntax even allows for that to interpreted as such: I first compared your behaviour like that of a spoiled brat/irresponsible older child using "BUT WHAT ABOUT THEM :'c" narrative to justify their shit, then period, end of the topic/rationale, then in a second paragraph I mocked your apologism by asking how many undesirables and inter weirdos it takes to make this same justification for other people having their rights taken away, period, end of rationale, then I said "how many white supremacists shooting until I can get DeSantis" again, referencing this "if enough bad behaviour by a side is done then I guess we can just retaliate however we see fit street rules wise", if the shoe fits I hope it's comfortable, because once again, I objectively neve accused YOU right wingers in general of being white supremacists, I used them as a example of what retaliation I would see fit if we're attacking based on behaviour of the most undesirables out there but in he case on the right, I specifically mentioned DeSantis a) because fuck him b) because every other day he gets caught in some Nazi related bs. I called you a spoiled brat 100% no issue admitting that, but again, you genuinely have to stretch and break bones to come up to the conclusion that I called you or the entire right white supremacists.

> And gee, which one of us used sources here and the other just said shit?

There, literally what I'm accusing you of lol. You literally only had source about gun control which is why you attempted derail the conversation into the topic almost exclusively. You have yet to prove these means gays that don't share the same ideology as you are even a majority or enough of a actual motivation behind the restriction and destruction of the entire LGBT demographic.

> Also- by this logic, if the majority of people decided to oppress LGBT people, does that make it right? You kind of implied that the majority part had moral legitimacy, as if mob mentality isn't a thing.

??? Is hooked on phonics that bad in the USA? holy shit

> 90% of the topic was what YOU seem to view as violent censorship of opposing ideals of the majority party with intention to undermine political nuance.

> violent censorship of opposing ideals of the majority party with intention to undermine political nuance.

> with intention to undermine political nuance.

Not only does what i say has no opening syntax or grammar wise for that interpretation, the last part literally clarifies that republicans, who are the majority party in many states, house and supreme court, are undermining political nuance/bipartisianality within society, aka the issue here is how different ideologies and political parties are being undermined, like...do you want me to pull a "murder is bad" level argumen? yeah, the majority doesn't always have the right ideology...where do i even imply that? My point was that since the republican party is the majority in many states, they can pass almost at law they feel like if it isn't covered by the constitution some way or another, I was pointing out the obvious honestly.

I get you think low of me but come the fuck on try to argue shit that's there and has been said or actually implied my dudeee.

> And before you go 'That's not my focus-' Your focus doesn't apply to me. The fucking reblog reduced it down and I called out the bullshit in both. You yourself implied that the opposition is just bigoted despite your own cries of 'LISTEN!'

AGAIN! why do you get so bothered about me accusing you of both sideism when you do shit like that? Are you still mad because you made up in your mind I called all right wingers white white supremacists? Because you now decided to vaguefy and obfuscate and I can't tell if is that or of your are hurting for people that wanted to take away the constitutional rights of LGBT pepe because they found a meanie in the bunch? Which is it babe? People who want to take away people's rights because of either immutable characteristics or because of frivolous ideological beliefs are bigots and they need to be called such? I'm a bad guy for that? Or because you desperately need to feel offended i talked about white supremacists being killed and need to itch an scratch when it's literally impossible to even come up with that conclusion to begin with? you are genuinely being so fucking vague dude and I can't tell if it's on porpuse or out of shee inability to argue because you NEED to justify and apologize the shit being done against LGBT people.

Yeah I genuinely don't care about your mush mouthing bullshit. Republicans lied about contents of books repeatedly, obfuscated PG books with books for 14yo and 16yos, called anything and everything written by black authors "CRT" including the biography of slaves, constantly used hysteria to attack booksvand slander authors, called librarians pedophiles and predators and are accusing anything sex Ed as grooming, MY DUDE THEY WANT PEOPLE TO BELIEVE GEORGE WASHINGTON'S WHITE ASS SISTER WAS A SLAVE TO JUSTIFY SLAVERY, they can't even be honest when being racist you want me to be believe everysingle thing they say about books is honest, sell that to your choice babe.

The liars here has been repeatedly and consistently been republicans, not LGBT people, there was never any exaggeration from their part of how insidious this was being, again you are obcessed with find SOMETHING to blame on LGBT people, something to humble them and demand their mea culpa constantly based on slander and dishonesty, which is why you deserve the both sides behaviour accusations that you seem to be self aware of enough.

Genuinely shut the fuck up, you are a degenerate trying to come to excuses as to why people deserved to be oppressed, believing the axe instead do the tree, falling for and spreading genuine propaganda and narratives used thought history solely to oppress and even genocide people, all that with a victim complex to booth where the moment anyone talks about bigotry you holler like a hit dog demanding apologies of people that didn't accuse of shit but being a useful idiot.

Stop being a useful idiot bitch that can't even produce evidence for half of your opinions you make up as facts you lobotomized parrot.

[antifainternational]

Is there a non-racist reason someone might have a three percenter/skull patch? A friend of a friend has one. A littler research tells me they label themselves as just being pro-gun and the use of a roman numeral three is also in the SRA logo. I just want to make sure my friends are getting mixed up with bad people.

Threepers will be the first people to tell you that they’re not bigots or dangerous or violent or terrorists.  But they’d be either straight-up lying or wrong. 2015: The Idaho Three Percenter chapter holds two anti-refugee rallies: “Now, refugees coming from Islamic hotbeds of terrorism, don’t you think that poses a threat to Idaho communities?” shouted III% of Idaho spokesman Chris McIntire into a bullhorn at one of the rallies.

February 2016: Threeper and noted Islamophobe David Wright organizes an armed protest outside In organized an armed protest outside an Islamic worship center near Dallas.   August 2017: A mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota is firebombed, narrowly missing killing & injuring dozens of members there for morning prayers.  Police arrest three white Three Percent militia members who admit to the attack, stating that they wanted to “scare Muslims out of the country.” August 12, 2017: A self-identifed member of the white supremacist “three percenter” movement is arrested by the FBI after unsuccessfuly trying  to blow up a bank in Oklahoma City with a car bombed modeled after the one used by Timothy McVeigh. October 18, 2017: Three neo-nazis pull up to a Gainesville bus stop after the aborted Richard Spencer appearance at a local campus and proceed to taunt people waiting for the bus with pro-Hitler and racist verbal abuse.  After someone throws something at the car, Tyler TenBrink, a Three Percent militia member and one of the neo-nazis gets out, points a handgun at the crowd, yells “I’m going to fucking kill you!” and fires at the crowd, happily missing.  All three are charged with attempted homicide; one is charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon. February 2018: Portland tattoo shop owner & Three Percent supporter Joseph “Dymond” Vinci beats a homeless man with a metal police baton in the parking lot of his business.  When the man tries to defend himself,  Vinci drops the baton, draws a pistol, and shoots him dead.   June 30, 2018: 25-year-old Joshua Daniel Miller. a member of a “Three percent” militia, shoots 23-year-old Eddie Heahcoe, killing him.     Anyone supporting the Three Percenters are supporting an Islamophobic terrorist group whose members have murdered people, tried to bomb people & buildings, and target Muslims for abuse, harassment, and threats.  

[firelord-frowny]

honestly like!

i HATE!!!! the very CONCEPT of guns. and i’m theoretically SO fundamentally opposed to violence. 

but that opposition is based on an idealist assumption that no one is doing anything that they need to be stopped from doing. 

and there are obviously a fucking hell of a lot of people doing a fucking hell of a lot of vile shit, and no amount of ~peaceful protesting~ or litigating or campaigning or Reaching Across The Aisle is going to stop them, and it’s fucking RIDICULOUS that anyone at all thinks people should just wait patiently for The Powers That Be to spontaneously manifest a conscience and finally quit trying to maim and murder people For Funsies. 

i would LOVE it we could just hug them into submission and invite them over for tea and chit chat and take their ugly ass hand and smile at them and show them that I’m Just A Normal Person Like You and have them finally decide to stop wanting me to die. and honestly, some people REALLY CAN be reached through those kinds of methods. and i don’t think people should stop trying to do that. and if anything, i think MORE people need to be trying to do that.

but i ALSO think that more people need to start punching some bigots in the fucking face. 

if self proclaimed conservatives and right wingers and proud wimpy boys get to go around committing terroristic acts against other peoples, and if the politicians and ceos they stan for refuse to take any actions to stop them at best, and at worst go out of their way to FACILITATE the suffering of all but bigoted, well-off white people....

then we should get to punch them in the fucking face and not have anyone say WORD ONE about it. 

they wanna be all big and bad and parade around threatening and committing violence against teachers and health care workers and black people and asian people and jewish people and indigenous people and women of all backgrounds, then they should be fucking tough enough to cope with a goddamn punch in the face every now and then. they should WELCOME every fist that ever collides with their flesh. 

if they want a fucking fight, we should GIVE THEM A FIGHT! and make sure they fucking lose.  make sure the pathetic little ~civil war~ they’re begging for is HUMILIATINGLY short. chase their fucking asses into the most barren, useless parts of the world where they can be vile all by themselves. 

bc i SWEAR TO GOD, the only reason why these people have any power at all to impact anything or anyone is because people LET THEM. not because they’re soooo smart, or they’re soooo dangerous, or there are sooooo many of them. it’s STRICTLY because an enormous majority of bare-minimum-decent people care more about Taking The Moral High Ground than about actually doing what’s necessary to disable evil people from doing evil things.

This is a hella problematic way to put it, buuuut

black people know not to do or say certain things to a cop because we’ve been conditioned to fear the consequences of even the most benign ~infractions.~ We swallow our fucking pride and whip out those “yes sirs” and “no sirs” and we move slowly and we try to keep our hands visible at all costs because we’ve seen, over and over again, for DECADES (centuries, really) what those people might do to us if our hand isn’t totally visible for a fraction of a second. And sometimes it doesn’t even work. Sometimes we do everything in our power to demonstrate that there’s no need to hurt us, and we get murdered anyway. 

WOULDN’T IT BE NICE if those wack ass bigots could learn to fear the consequences of being disgusting out loud and in public? 

Imagine if, over the last several decades, malicious bigots were met with SWIFT physical consequences every time they did some fucked up shit. 

do you think they’d be so bold now? 

i don’t. 

i think if they thought for one second that whoever they pull a gun on might pull one out back at them, then they would keep their fucking mouths shut and behave. i think if they LEGITIMATELY thought that they’re actual lives and their actual freedom were at stake, they wouldn’t say SHIT. Because they know that whether or not they have to wear a mask or get vaccinated or whateverthefuck has absolutely NO real impact on their place in the world. there is NO. WAY. that they would be all up in arms over something so fucking absurd if they thought anyone would actually try to hurt them in response. 

they don’t think anyone is going to show up at their dumb lil protests with tear gas. they don’t think an angry BLM activist is going to shoot up their country club in retaliation against the oppressive policies they support. they don’t think anyone is going to stop them on the street and start screaming in their face and threaten to kill them. they don’t think they’re going to lose a damn fucking thing. they think they’re literally going to just waltz into some of the most secure buildings in the world and wreak havoc, and that NO ONE is going to do shit about it. 

that’s the problem :) :) :) :) :) :) 

the problem isn’t that these people exist. i mean, it fucking sucks that they exist and if they could somehow cease to exist, whether by alien abduction or some sort of freak simultaneous lightning strike or WHATEVER, i would be THRILLED. but just existing doesn’t hurt anyone. Having a stupid belief doesn’t automatically make someone dangerous. It just makes them a shitty person.

But to have a stupid belief and to feel SO ENTITLED to acting upon those beliefs???

those motherfuckers need to fear for their safety. those motherfuckers need to be SO PETRIFIED that they dig themselves underground and bury themselves alive and NEVER resurface. 

i don’t understand how, at this point, with over half a million people DEAD because of the actions of these assholes, and with thousands of people CONTINUING to drop dead over it every day, the so-called “good guys” still don’t see fit to resort to drastic measures to render these people INCAPABLE of causing further harm. 

so many people have died. not just in the time of covid, but decades before that. so many people are murdered in the name of carrying out the pettiest whims of the most wretched people on earth. People get injured. People get poisoned by their own water supply or the very air they breathe. People get sick because they’re forced to live under unhealthy circumstances, and then they DIE because they can’t afford treatment for the illnesses they developed because of the unhealthy circumstances that made them sick in the first place! Children starve. Global warming sets people on fire and drowns them and destroys homes and lives and landscapes. 

literally, at WHAT point does it become acceptable to finally just declare war on these fucking demons? WHEN do we meet them where they’re at and start punching back instead of just curling up and trying to survive the attack?

i KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW that there are groups out there who are taking direct action in some form or another. but CLEARLY it’s not enough.

and i ALSO know that there are MANY PEOPLE who have the actual skills and resources to stage a legitimate countereffort, and they’re just. not. doing it. 

we’ve got all these vile-ass ~ex military~ types boasting about their arsenal and how they intend to use it to reign terror upon innocent people. these fuckfaces who are LITERALLY HOLDING PUBLIC OFFICE and saying Out Loud that they want to attack us. and their peers exalt them for it. 

you CANNOT tell me that there are 0 ~ex military~ people who are sympathetic to the cause of resisting these malicious bigots. you CANNOT tell me that there aren’t people in public office who know that something MUST be done, and who have the POWER and ACCESS to do something - even if it’s “unlawful.” 

but they’re not doing it. :) because they’re weak. :) and they fear for their lives in a way that ~the right~ has NEVER had to contend with. A democratic state senator knows someone might hunt them down and try to kill them if they say anything ~too radical~. a republican state senator is confident that he could literally call for the public execution of someone and be met only with a pathetic verbal reprimand from some spineless liberal congressman who bends over backward to be Respectful And Fair as they gently try to explain why it’s not okay to facilitate mass death in every demographic but their own.

can somebody with the actual power and means to do so PLEASE start doing ANYTHING to terrorize these people back to the bland, tasteless, spiritually bankrupt cesspit they congealed in? When one of these american terrorists brandishes a gun in someone’s face, can someone PLEASE brandish their own gun right back at them? THEY should be the ones who are too terrified to speak up. Not us. THEY should be the ones compelled to look over their shoulder. 

im so sick of a world where mass suffering and exploitation are accepted as Just The Natural Order Of Things. instead of a harrowing dystopia that should be burned to the ground quick, fast, and in a motherfucking hurry.

[thattimdrakeguy]

I am very sorry for what you are going through, think that in adittion to that unpleasant people who attack you, there are also many more who enjoy, respect and follow your content, and want the best for you. I really like your reviews and opinions, and although I do not always agree with you, I respect and validate your opinion as much as anyone's because that is to be respectful with others and have common sense.--

--You should not take into account what people who are unable to respect another human being like them say, that they cannot even separate reality from fiction, all for a simple opinion different from theirs about a FICTIONAL CHARACTER, you cannot even take them seriously. If those people need to insult, despise and make someone feel less for a reason like that, it simply speaks of how miserable they are as humans on and off the internet.--

Please don't take into account what these people say, listen to those who appreciate you and show respect. I hope you feel better and I am sorry for what is happening in your life, but you can always forward with your will and the people around you.(Hugs)

I only read these ones this morning, or afternoon more accurately cause I have a very bad sleep schedule for weeks cause I been playing video games too late into the day, but I’m slowly working on it. I’m just really bad at it.

And all I can really say to accurately give my reaction to it, was that it was something I definitely needed to read first thing in the morning. If it wasn’t for those messages yesterday, and a friend helping me out I may not have even been calmed down enough to go to bed at all. I could’ve easily not gone to sleep literally at all and had been even worse today because of it to the point of having another meltdown of a day.

Like I don’t wanna make myself sound too good, because if I did, I’d feel like I was lying, because my mind feels like a bloody nose filled up with tissue paper, if that even makes a darling lick of comprehension.

I find it so entirely weird, and patronizing, and frustrating how the fandom can be, if not worse. Like I say something unpopular, I do it a lot, probably with literally every freaking character. Even Tim, because I know that quite a few Tim fans don’t like me either.

I don’t read every comic and go “Oh this must just be how it works”, because that’s not how my brain is wired. I’m Autistic, I go in-depth, I do a lot of research, that is how I am wired when I get a hyperfixation, I want to know everything. So I say a lot of unpopular stuff because I don’t just accept things, because I don’t work that way.

But it goes like this when it comes to people just being miserable, they have to make me out to either be a bigot or bias, they either don’t even read what I say, or just don’t acknowledge what I say.

My biggest point they will leave out completely to focus on other things that are either completely irrelevant and just there to make me look bad even though it doesn’t really make sense what it has to do anything once you think about it a lick more, or just make me look straight up like a crappy person.

I got really ranty and rambly after this, and I try not to take up people’s dashboards as much. So I’ll put this here. If it’ll work, cause one time I don’t think it did, and it made me panic once cause I felt really bad. But it just would not show up.

Because trying to make a bad face out of a real life living person isn’t that bad, compared to the horrors of having to acknowledge the arcs and actions that their favorite character been through evidentially.

Sorry to say and everything, but I don’t see how on Earth Tim cheating on Ariana has anything to do with a literal whole other arc of Steph being abusive and doing really horrible things, or all those “teases” that were actually flirts that were making Tim genuinely uncomfortable to the point of sexual harassment, and told her not to do, which she didn’t actually always listen to sometimes, surprisingly to some. I also don’t see why it’s so hard to comprehend that Tim kissing Steph just because he got ahead of himself because he was euphoric he was about to die, yet it was made clear he didn’t do sexually or romantically, isn’t as bad (comparatively because it’s still insanely inappropriate and weird, but I wouldn’t call him a pervert over it) to me as Steph literally pinning Tim down during a gun fight to kiss him against his will, or taking advantage of Tim believing she was dead and giving her CPR to do it again. Like I don’t really see why saying “Just read the comics” has to do with anything, because I don’t have the art skills to just make all those panels up like that. Which by the way, I don’t give a single fuck about what bad thing Steph has done. I don’t like her because a lot of her stories are badly written, and a lot of her fans are straight up assholes. Which they conveniently ignore, because I must be villainized, because they can’t handle me acknowledging something that isn’t their idealized image. But let me also state that there are assholes in literally every fandom, I just have certain ones that decide to be assholes to me. And I don’t remember the part where I said teasing was bullying either. I can’t find that on my list of thoughts in my brain. Almost like they don’t actually know how I think or what I meant. 

And I don’t know why on Earth Tim not trusting Damian to the point of being kind of scummy has much to do with Damian doing horrid things in comics they like as well. They’re their own separate people ya know? I’m not comparing characters, because I’m not actually trying to shit on the characters you should realize. Not every negative thing is formed out of toxicity. Toxic positivity where people act like not just enjoying everything is so bad is actually a thing. And I see it quite often in fandoms, and it comes from a good place, but my goodness, just let people express themselves sometimes. It’s not going to hurt anybody as long as they’re not actually an asshole or you just have a fragile ego.

It seems pretty irrelevant to me. Implying that I hate the characters because of these actions is also pretty dumb to me as well, because that’s not the case nor how it works. They keep acting like me not acknowledging the bad thing Tim does in the same posts is some showing of my bias, but no, I just view it as fucking irrelevant, because I do bring up when Tim does something bad when ever it is relevant. It is that simple. I think the only time I’ve ever even could truly come across as trying to baby and defend Tim was me saying Tim cheating on Ari with Steph was out of character, which I still hold that opinion too, but I don’t simply make shit up, I just notice how rushed it was, and how it goes against how Tim is about morals, Steph, and his literal stance on cheating. Stuff that you would actually judge what’s in or out of character on.

I just give everything the same standard. I’ve never denied Tim wasn’t passive aggressive or conscending to anyone, or has violated privacy, or was immature. If I had it was probably me caught up in the moment, and pretty weird, because I’ve actively talked about it before.

And I’m referencing stuff in the past with these oddly specific examples, that hasn’t bugged me truly in a while, but when I find a new example of stuff, I can’t help but have it come back to mind and make me question how people got to just be shivery little jerks over things like made-up characters.

I’ve acknowledged the fact that my blog was too anti-Steph plenty of times, even as it was happening, because it was mostly through anons and not me. Some of which I defended Steph on. I just had too much anxiety not responding to them, because I’d feel a sense of guilt for ignoring someone. Which I’m over and past.

I’m not going to be held down by stuff I already corrected about myself.

It’s been so heavily implied to me before, that groups just talk mad shit about me, and made up this horrendous little reputation for me among themselves, and it is so disheartening, considering I’m just this baby faced geek that read too many comics, simply explaining stuff that had happened in actual comics without actual bias. I don’t run DC Comics. I’m just a blogger that they really really don’t like, and take it as a personal attack of some kind, at least going off of how they act.

Maybe it’s what I get for expecting people to treat fiction as fiction and not a big freaking deal when I say something or don’t say something, because they’d understand the context I’m trying to explain literal events in comics as they are, and other things that happened in other situations have no relevance to what I’m saying, because I’m not making a bashing piece like they seem to think.

I know I take fiction very seriously, because I just really want good content again. But I don’t make real life people’s lives miserable. Do ya think I talk shit about Bendis all the time? Not really. I’ve genuinely probably sang his praises more than otherwise. I think Tynion’s the closest example of when I could’ve, but that was years ago at this point. I’ve made it so much more clearer it’s about the comics than them, because simply I’ve realized how scummy it is to mock an actual person, who’s probably actually a really cool guy to know. Do I fuck that up sometimes, probably. But I’m definitely not telling him to kill himself.

If they can’t acknowledge what I actually say, and continue to just try to make me look bad. I don’t personally view myself as the bad one. That’d be utterly redundant.

It always boils down to that I just acknowledge stuff they refuse to, and they just play ignorant about, and pretend they just can’t possibly understand why anyone would say it. I didn’t pull the stuff out of my ass, I have the panels. I didn’t skip anything out. At most I just don’t find the excuses they have to be freaking relevant or over power the action at hand or sometimes the literal motivation she/he had going into it.

And it’s 100% okay, but even though this is a space on the internet, and I’m practically a loser shut in. I still live in the real world and when I’m not having a bad anxiety attack or whatever else, I try to be as reasonable as possible.

I just look at it, look at the context and past contexts, look at the motivations, judge it for what I see, and move on. And never consider it a big deal until someone else makes a big deal about it.

I don’t even view every person that does it against me to be a bad person, some of them most definitely are because they go too far with it, but some of them literally have no idea proper context anymore, or they’re just very very insecure.

It’s very difficult to outright go ‘THEY’RE ALL EVIL’, but when there’s so many that are just putrid humans that want me to take my own life, it’s a wee bit overwhelming, and understandably so, yeah?

People sometimes just don’t properly process what they’re doing, because they’re so caught up in their insecurity, or possibly even a mild ego, but there’s others that will do it because they’re so quick to anger and hatred over fucking nothing.

Welcome to reality. It’s a lot like taking a train ride through a diseased rectum sometimes. But other times it’s like taking a trolley though a nice field. It’s a mixed bag, but it’s a ride that never stops but once.

An important thing I do wanna say though, is that I have everyone who supports me in my heart. I may lose my sight of that when I’m going through an episode I’m having a heckuva lot of trouble controlling, but I’d be in a much worse spot without them. Some of them are so dang respectful, and some are just so legitimately sweet and kind that it’s a blessing to have ever had an interaction of any kind or level with them.

I don’t take any of you for granted even if sometimes I seem ignorant of it during a terrible depressive episode.

You often don’t agree with me and can make it very clear, but it’s the respect you give me nonetheless that I take as precious, because it’s some of the best stuff to receive when all else seems so bleak and lifeless. It’s not an honor everyone sadly receives, so I treasure that a lot. And when I’m feeling so down and out, it sometimes can be the one thing that keeps me even near level, and that’s such an honor that even if it’s such a small amount, because obviously it’s a Tumblr blog I’m always aware of that, it just does mean a lot to me, because it genuinely is an honor to me.

I love you guys a lot. I hope that’s always obvious even when I’m making a mess out of myself. You guys are some of my favorite people on this planet.

[riverboundao3ff]

Riverbound, Chapter 17

All in all, Lanque’s a whole lot calmer about the whole thing than you thought he’d be, which makes you feel better about going to him right away instead of Daraya. Of course you love Daraya, but knowing the kid she’d probably run off to start a fight with Bronya, Lynera, and any other poor bastard who gets in her way.

“I want to believe Bronya’s doing this because she thinks she’s in the right, but I just can’t… augh! I just… can’t believe she’d ask me to do something like that.” You conclude your messy rant by flopping down on the carpet. There’s a dull ache in your skull from either exhaustion or anxiety, possibly both.

Lanque’s looking down at you from the loveseat in the corner like the universe’s most judgemental therapist, sprawled across the whole thing with his gangly self. “You haven’t known her nearly as long as I have. You heard me say once that she’s the craziest bitch in the whole cloister. I meant it.”

You want to argue with him; Bronya isn’t crazy, just a control freak, but that’s gonna have to be a discussion for another time. “You’re not surprised at all by this? Not even a little?”

“Not surprised. Just… disappointed.”

“What, does she make you to sleep at certain times and check your palmhusk, too?” you joke.

“Not anymore, she doesn’t. She learned her lesson after I filled my whole camera roll with the spiciest nudes you can imagine.”

You try not to imagine anything of the sort and fail miserably. Your last brain cell hangs on for dear life. “So, uh… w-what should I tell her the next time we go out?”

“Tell her that I’ve been taking Daraya to a slam poetry club. We’ve actually done poetry in the past, so it’s not like you’ll be lying,” he says with a smirk. “You should come sometime. Talk to people about all sorts of controversial alien opinions. Maybe throw in some rhymes while you’re at it.”

“Alright,” you agree.

“... Darling?”

“Yes, babe?”

“Don’t breathe a word of this to Daraya. She’s stressed out enough as it is.”

“Of course not.”

“Good.”

:::

The next night you spend with Polypa, vandalizing stuff with the Heiress’s face on it and even setting a billboard on fire. It’s a lot of fun, but between vandalizations you can’t stop yourself from thinking about the girl herself. From what you can tell she’d be around seventeen in human years, which meant she’d soon have to challenge the Empress, as all the Heiresses before her did.

Some teenagers like to play video games, some like to sing or dance or do sports; you even know a few who live all by themselves on an island in the middle of the ocean who can shoot guns better than most military personnel. But not Trizza Tethis. No, she’ll be off to duel for the throne… and her life.

In your hearts of hearts you know that Tethis is a monster. There’s no doubt about it. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s still just a kid, a kid who is going to be murdered soon for the crime of reaching adulthood.

It makes your heart hurt just thinking about that, and all of the other girls that came before her, and if this rebellion goes to shit all the girls who will come after her.

“Hey, Polypa?” you ask.

“Yeah?” She’s hanging upside-down on some broken piping while spraying THE REVOLUTION IS HERE on the side of a post office. You’re being a good moirail and keeping watch for anybody who might see her, even though it’s dark out and you can’t see much past the street lights lining the sidewalk. For some reason she refuses to tell you, she’s been in a mood ever since she came back from Tegiri’s, but you’re patient. You can wait for her.

“Do you ever wonder if Trizza might have been a good person if Alternia wasn’t the way it is?”

Polypa stops what she’s doing and stares down at you. “Honestly? I don’t really care how she might have turned out if things were different. All the things I’ve seen her do, the shit I’ve heard her say on social media… I just can’t bring myself to believe anything other than she’s one of the most horrible Heiresses Alternia’s ever had and that she deserves to die. Slowly and painfully, that is. And then she deserves to be forgotten.”

“That’s fair,” you tell her. “I dunno, I just kept thinking about how she’s supposed to go off and duel the Empress soon, and that she’s definitely not gonna win, because none of the fuschias who went up against her ever did.”

“... Does that make you sad?”

“It makes me sad that a kid is going to die, yes.”

She huffs. “Save your sympathy. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“Can trolls control who they sympathize with?”

“Of course we can. Can’t humans?”

You laugh. “No. Or at least I can’t. Empathy’s a blessing and a curse.”

Polypa chucks her spray-paint can into the nearby dumpster. “Empathy? Isn’t that like, feeling what other people are feeling? I thought that was just a myth.”

“Some humans can feel the emotions of others. I’ve always been able to.”

“That sucks.”

“Again, it’s a blessing and a curse.”

Polypa shudders, flips upright, and then drops down to the concrete. “If you say so. C’mon, let’s scram.”

You scram, or at least you try to before somebody bumps into you hard enough to nearly knock you over.

“Watch it!” Polypa hisses from somewhere behind you.

You look up at a boft looking (buff plus soft) rustblood guy, who flinches back when he accidentally looks you in the eye. “Sorry! Sorry. Bye.”

He shuffles off down the street, shoulders hunched in like he’s trying to make himself as small as possible even though he’s easily the biggest rust you’ve ever seen. Huh.

“Well, that was weird,” you say, and then you feel something crinkle in the hood of your jacket. Cautiously, you reach up and grab it, hoping that he didn’t just put a bomb on you or something. You aren’t that worried about dying, because you know your immortal ass is coming right on back, but if Polypa’s in the blast zone--

“It’s a piece of paper,” she says.

“Oh, yay. I thought it might be a bomb.”

“Definitely not a bomb.”

The paper’s been folded several times, so you smooth it out and read the letters that have been cut out and glued out in a note, like some kind of Nancy Drew shit.

“What the…” You read the message, and then you read it again, once, twice, thrice, four times before Polypa starts swatting at you and grabbing for the paper. You hand it over and stare out across the street.

You are not alone. Tomorrow at midnight.

“I’m texting the others,” Polypa mutters, shoving the paper into her pocket and whipping out her palmhusk.

“There’s more of us,” you whisper. “That’s what it means, right? We’re not the only faction out there fighting for-!”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, let’s not believe anything that some stranger wrote down on a piece of paper and shoved into your hoodie--”

“But he came to me, Polypa--”

“Hey!”

Both of you turn around to see some cerulean girl you don’t know storming across the street to you. “The fuck you think you gutterbloods are doing, huh?”

“The revolution is here, bitch,” you tell her, and you grab Polypa’s sleeve and zap away.

Polypa does not hesitate to smack you upside the head the second you two appear on the roof of some building downtown. “The hell was that? She just saw an alien and an oliveblood teleport out of an alley with fresh graffiti on the post office!”

“Who’s gonna believe her?” you snort.

“She’s a cerulean, she’ll make somebody believe her.”

“Dude. Chill. We still have time before things get crazy.”

“Apparently not! Tomorrow at midnight--”

“I know! Isn’t it great? What if it’s like, a big post on Chittr, or a public service announcement from God knows where saying that it’s time for bigots to start shitting their pants, because the revolution is here and it is sexy!”

“Augh!” Polypa throws up her hands. You start to get a little concerned. “Aren’t you scared? Like, at all? We could all die tomorrow and you’re just… totally fine! You disappear for half a sweep and come back ready to lead a revolution!”

Alright, it’s time to bring out the big guns. Slowly, so she has time to pull away if she wants, you step forward and reach up to caress her cheek.

The effect is instantaneous. She visibly loosens up from horns to toes, leaning forward into the contact with a low chirrup rising up from deep in her throat. If you were a troll, that sound would have probably made you pale-horny to the max, but you’re human so all you do is just stand up on your tippy-toes to press your foreheads together. You imagine pulling away all of her fear and stress and releasing it into the open sky, never to be seen again.

“We’re not going to die,” you tell her. “We’re just not. And if we were, I’d tell you, because dying isn’t that bad. Doesn’t even hurt, really.”

“... You’ve been dead before?”

“Yeah. Feels like the best fucking nap you’ve ever taken.”

She snorts hard enough for you to feel her breath across your face. “Only you would say something like that and be completely unbothered.”

“That’s just how it be sometimes,” you say, because joking about your trauma and having anxiety are basically your only two personality traits nowadays.

“I’ll write that down for the pile,” she says, because she’s always been able to see right through you, even when you can’t see yourself. “Which we’re going back to an abandoned apartment building to do once I yeet this glass bottle into that window over there.”

She picks up the broken glass bottle at your feet and proceeds to do just that. It sails through the air with all the majesty of an eagle and crashes through somebody’s office window. You know enough about troll romance by now to be a little scandalized by how forward she’s being, but you both know it’s out of necessity. Troll language is far from just verbal-- it’s flattened ears or bared fangs or dilated pupils. It’s hissing and chirping and growling and all sorts of sounds you don’t even know the names for, and you can’t even hear most of them because they’re either too low or too high a pitch for your human ears to catch.

“Hot damn, wildcat. You gonna take me out to dinner before you throw me down on somebody’s abandoned loungeplank?” you tease. Her face lights up in green, and you grin in satisfaction as she splutters something about saving it for the respiteblock.

You’re about to cook up something truly slutty to say when her palmhusk vibrates. Polypa reads it and snorts. “Aaaannnddd Daraya is losing her mind, Tagora says it’s a trap, Tyzias wants to know what the rustblood looked like, Stelsa is in agreement with Tagora, Lanque is asking how the hell it could be a trap when the rustblood didn’t even ask you to meet him anywhere, and Mallek is telling everybody to shut up so he can take a nap. Konyyl and Azdaja haven’t responded yet. I bet they’re making out in a back alley somewhere. Oh, Tagora is telling Lanque to shut his Troll Twilight-looking ass up before he fines him for wasting the rebellion’s time… and Tyzias just sent a bunch of hysterical laughing emojis.”

“I love my friends,” you say.

“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself.”

“I’m gonna get Mallek to hack the server so whenever people start arguing over stupid stuff a bot starts spamming the chat with gifs of fighting purrbeasts.”

“Do group chats have servers?”

“I have no idea. Come on, I’m fucking freezing up here.”

:::

Your memories of growing up on Earth are fuzzy at best. You have no idea if it’s from Scratch, or Ultimate Dirk, or hell, maybe it’s just regular old brain damage, but one of the few things you can vividly remember is when your grandma died.

You can’t remember her name, but you can easily recall her eternally-smiling face, that smile that always reached her eyes-- hazel, like yours. She’s the one who taught you how to braid your hair, wing your eyeliner, ask out a crush. She also taught you how to take down a grown man with nothing but your fists and a pocketknife. Old age hadn’t ever been a problem for your grandma. Or at least, that’s what it felt like.

The morning your uncle found in her lifeless in bed hadn’t felt any different than all of the mornings before. You just woke up and started to get ready for school, and then your mom… yeah, it was your mom who picked up the phone. She didn’t cry, but your uncle did.

It was a heart attack.

Your mom told you that you didn’t have to go to school, but you were still pretty young, and it still felt like every other morning before so you went to school.

You’re not sure why you’re remembering this when you first smell the smoke, or see the burning buildings from the roof of the abandoned apartment building you and Polypa crashed in. Maybe it’s because it still feels like every other night before this one.

Something deep in you that’s been irreversibly interwoven with time and space begins to tingle. This is a turning point in history, you just know it.

Polypa’s shaking her head like she can’t believe what she’s seeing. “It’s a riot. A riot. In Thrashthrust. We really aren’t…”

“Alone,” you finish with a smile so big it hurts your face.

“... Do you think this is really the right thing to do?”

“A wise man from my planet once said that riots are the language of the unheard.” You turn to her and take her hands in your own. “So let’s make them hear us.”

You’re not sure what you were expecting when you drop yourself and Polypa into downtown Thrashthrust, but you definitely weren’t expecting to almost get run over by Konyyl and Azdaja, both panting, sweaty, and smelling faintly of smoke.

Konyyl yelps and jumps about a foot in the air. “WHAT the-- oh, hi, guys. You didn’t scare me, I just… yeah.”

“Dude, what is all this? This is incredible!” you crow.

An explosion rocks the ground, followed by a giant plume of fire that shoots up into the sky just one street over. Azdaja whoops in delight, and Konyyl cheers even louder as a piece of flaming metal you think used to be a scuttlebuggy sails through the air and takes out a convenience store. Normally, something like that would have worried you, but seeing as the store’s already nearly burnt to the ground you think everybody’s already gotten out.

Not to be outdone, Azdaja telekinetically grabs on to a fallen lamppost and hurls that bad boy through the grocery store across the street.

“Show-off,” Konyyl scoffs.

“Where’s the main protest?” you ask.

“Like, a couple of blocks back that way. Some bronzeblood is leading the charge. Absolute mad lad,” she says, grinning. “I think a few more people you know might be there.”

That’s all the convincing you need to grab Polypa’s hand and take off running. You can hear the roar of a crowd chanting something.

“What are they saying?” you ask Polypa.

“Be silent no longer, when we’re together, we’re stronger,” she replied, glancing back at you with a twinkle in her eye. “I kinda like it.”

“Me too!”

The both of you turn the corner at the end of Hookedclaw street and find yourself face-to-face with a sizable crowd of about one hundred trolls. They’re all looking up to a pair of trolls standing on an upturned scuttlebuggy-- a bronzeblood, like Konyyl said, and the same big rustblood guy who you ran into last night.

You gape in shock. “Holy shit!”

The bronzeblood boy is yelling something, so you press closer into the crowd to hear what he’s saying. Most of the trolls here seem to be lowbloods, so when they see you and Polypa, an oliveblood, they gladly make room for you to join.

“... for what? A social construction that keeps us divided, because those who sit on thrones marked with the blood of our people know how strong we are together! They know that we’d be able to take control of our own destinies, and that terrifies them!” He pauses to take a short breath. “For fuck’s sake, I just want a world where I can walk down the street without worrying about getting killed! Is the bar really that damn low? Think about that, all of you!”

Another wave of cheering echoes through the streets, and you join in without hesitation.

“This guy’s spitting straight facts,” Polypa admits, looking impressed.

“He’s got balls, all right,” you agree. “That rustblood guy look familiar to you?”

She ribs you. “Yeah, yeah, you were right. I admit it.”

You turn your attention back to the boys, but they’re looking over the heads of the protestors at something behind you. A soft wave of hisses rise into the air as you turn to see a trio of purples stalking towards everybody, clubs dragging behind them with the awful scrape of steel against concrete. They’re twice the size of Polypa, except the giant fucker in the middle, who you think might be just a little bit shorter than Chahut.

“That’s a pretty sermon there, bronze brother,” he calls with a voice that crackles like burning wood. “Pretty for a load of treasonous fuckin’ shit.”

“Can’t be shittier than whatever they’re cooking up in that drug-hole church of yours,” the bronzeblood fires back with a smirk.

Even the rustblood standing next to him sucks in a sharp breath as the clown regards him with no trace of emotion. Polypa grabs your hand, and you squeeze it tight.

“You’ve got a big-ass mouth for a critter the size of my motherfuckin’ left toe,” the clown on the big guy’s right says.

“And you’ve got a big-ass forehead for a bastard with such a tiny skull.”

Somebody lets out a loud snort. It might have been you.

The feeble tendrils of bravery holding everybody together begin to unravel as the purplebloods begin to approach once more. You instinctively back up and pull your jacket hood over your head.

“Get ready,” Polypa growls.

But before the clowns have the chance to attack or use their chucklevoodoos, or before the lowbloods gather their courage enough to storm the intruders, a deafening CRACK splits the air like a thunderclap.

The clown to the far left drops like a rock, and standing over him, bat raised, is Elwurd.

She’s wearing a mask to conceal her face, of course, but you’d recognize that crest of blue hair anywhere. Beside her is Remele with her oversized mallet-club thing, and bringing up the rear with shining dual blades is none other than Ardata Carmia.

“Am I fucking dreaming,” you ask nobody in particular, and then all hell breaks loose.

The cerulean girls lunge for the two purplebloods that are still on their feet. The bronzeblood screams for everybody to scatter just as drones begin to swoop down from the sky, opening fire on the trolls below. Half a dozen kids drop dead on the spot.

You and Polypa duck into the nearest alleyway just in time before bullet holes pepper the pavement. Behind you, Elwurd roars something that sounds like “Duck!” before another explosion blows out all the windows. You yelp and cover your head as glass showers down on you like rainfall.

“Zap us out of here!” Polypa yells.

“No, wait! We have to go help the girls!”

“I’m not going back out there and neither are you!”

You glance back just in time to see Ardata drop to her knees, holding her bloody arm. She’s shrieking in terror as a drone advances on her, culling fork glinting bone-white in the darkness. Remele and Elwurd are too busy getting their asses kicked by the last living clown to help.

In that moment you can’t remember her as the bloodthirsty murderer who tortured you in her basement. All you can think of is the time she broke down in your arms, overcome with guilt at the monster she’d become in the name of being accepted by highblood society. A monster who’d traumatized you, and then became your friend.

You’re moving through space and time before your brain can catch up to what you’re doing. Ardata is cold and hard when you tackle her out of the way of the drone. The two of you tumble across the street together as the culling fork hits the spot where Ardata just was with a SHUNK. Even with adrenaline racing through your system the sound chills you to the core.

Remembering what Dirk taught you about hand-to-hand combat with a larger opponent, you grab one of her knives and zap right over to the clown, getting right up in his business before burying the blade into an eye socket.

Unsurprisingly, he drops a squirming Remele and covers his face with a scream so horrible you almost pee your pants. Ardata’s wailing your name from the sidewalk like a terrified child. You want to yell at her to shut up and run before the drones spotted her again, but you never get the chance. One moment you’re twisting a knife into a purpleblood’s skull, the next you’re flying through the air like a ragdoll before a pair of strong arms wrap around you. You and your rescuer land hard on the street with matching grunts of pain.

You look up into Elwurd’s bewildered face and burst out laughing. “Hi!”

“What the--”

“Time to go!” Remele yanks the both of you up by your scruffs like a pair of naughty cats. “Ardata, stop screaming like a wiggler and get your arse over here now!”

“My arm!” Ardata screeches. “I’ll be scarred for life!”

“No, you won’t, idiot, not when you hit your adult molt-!”

You zap the three of them out of there and into the alley, grab Polypa on your way, and then get the hell out of dodge.

The five of you end up in the back of a Troll Dennys, because of course you do. Polypa falls on you, knocking you to the ground, and then she yowls in anger when Elwurd lands on her legs, only for Ardata and Remele to hit the concrete ass-first. Remele accidentally kicks you in the stomach. Ardata falls back against a dumpster and hits her head on the metal with a BANG.

Everybody stares at each other for a long moment with varying degrees and expressions of utter shock. Polypa glares at you, and you just know you’re in for a long discussion about putting your own safety first in dangerous situations, or something like that.

You decide to break the ice first. “Anybody want pancakes?”

[wetwareproblem]

Cops have a right to self defense too. You can't expect them to let themselves be attacked just to avoid hurting the poor widdle suspect . Every one has the right to defend themselves. if some thug pointed a gun at me or pulled a knife on me i'm blowing his brains out. I don't care if he's mentally ill or his momma didn't show him enough love growing up. A threat is a threat and I have every right to end threats to my life. Anyone dumb enough 2 attack a cop deserves everything they get

Instead of bitching about how evul cops are for having to subdue violent suspects, how about you stop breaking the law asshole.

If you were getting mugged/raped/beaten you would beg for the cops to help you.

cop lives > thug lives

Ooooh, so edgy.

First things first: When you say “thug,” do you mean “black” or “disabled?” Just so I know exactly what kind of bigot I’m dealing with here.

Now, here’s the thing: You’re wrong on literally every point of fact you’ve cited. The things we’ve been talking about explicitly and clearly aren’t self-defense. They’re things like stopping black men three times as often as anyone else, or showing up to a situation that was already under control and being deescalated and shooting a suicidal man, or murdering a sleeping, sedated black activist on fabricated grounds, or unleashing riot cops on peaceful protestors who had done literally nothing wrong, or trying to intimidate peaceful organizers while letting literal nazis go unchecked, or straight-up disappearing a peaceful protestor with stage four cancer without verifying that he’s getting necessary medical care, or dragging disabled protestors out of their wheelchairs and leaving the chairs abandoned in the street as an intimidation tactic, or harassing a convict who served her sentence (under literally torturous conditions!) and is literally incapable of recidivism, or literally getting away with murder...

I could go on, but that’s three months of backlog right there. You’ll notice a few common themes:

In every case cited, the victim was a POC, disabled, both, or in one case trans and already a victim of state violence;

In no case cited were the police ever in any real danger; and

In no case did any of the victims do anything which could even remotely be conceved as “attacking a cop.”

So yeah. Your claims of “self-defense” don’t hold; these are abusers and murderers under cover of law. Your second factual inaccuracy is also covered here: They weren’t “subduing violent suspects” in any of these cases, they were harassing and murdering nonviolent people, some of whom weren’t even suspects.

As to “stop breaking the law:” First, I call hypocritical bullshit. Are you telling me you’ve never once gone one mile over the speed limit? (If you were ever pulled over for speeding, do note that answering “Do you know why I pulled you over?” with “no” is actually either a) a felony or b) admitting to driving without due care and attention.) Second, an incomplete list of things the police have personally harassed us for:

Wearing a (perfectly legal, blunted) spiked bracelet when I was beaten into hospital by half a dozen people. I had multiple witnesses who could confirm I did not even throw a single punch.

Carrying a perfectly legal, reasonably obvious toy gun immediately outside the store I’d purchased it in; I had threatened no one with it and the only people I’d even pointed it vaguely near were a couple of visibly laughing, happy, non-distressed friends. (Luckily, I didn’t have the audacity to be black while doing this, or I wouldn’t be here to write this.)

Having a pocket full of chocolate bar foils.

Daring to call them after being assaulted by schoolmates.

Being the victim of parental assault (I was literally pinned on the ground, in obvious respiratory distress, not resisting in any way, when they arrived. They still tried to convince my parents to press charges against me.)

Having on one occasion driven a car without knowing that its owner had not properly filed some paperwork (they continued to pull me over for weeks afterward “just to check,” despite the fact that they could have done so without involving me at all).

Things not on that list: actual fucking crimes. So no, “don’t break the law” is not exactly a good defense. The above list, plus the rather disturbing statistics on police shooting of disabled people and harassment of trans people, is exactly why I do not call the police. That’s right, your cute little hypothetical has already been tested and you were wrong.

And then we’re back to the part where you’re using “thug” as code for “person who isn’t actually violent, but does happen to be marginalized and uppity.” So yeah. Five factual errors in four asks; impressive!

Now get the fuck out of our inbox, anon.

[tartrazeen]

> The main problem of dbh wasn't - shouldn't have been - that androids were disobeying their orders, but that they were causing mass economic strife.

... but... That's the racism.

High unemployment. "Replacing us all." Further sharing of resources. Gavin - and everyone like him - is putting this blame *directly* onto the androids, as if they all went away, none of this would be happening.

THAT is the racism. That's the racist generalization that fuels a sense of 'justified' hate towards a group of objects that, to that point, were literally just trying to function, and eventually became people just trying to live. And people protested that by attacking them (like we saw with Markus going to Bellini's Paint) and pulling a gun on them even when they're in the right (like Gavin when Connor was trying to get him to stop destroying evidence, but "no android is gonna tell me what to do").

But everyone likes Carl, in his massive house that clearly has room to spare.

Everyone likes Kamski, with three androids to do the butler jobs of fifteen humans.

Everyone likes this idea of *needing* jobs, even though we all giggle about Gavin goofing off at his.

There is no hate put towards the SYSTEM creating this problem, or that created the androids in the first place. There's no hate put towards employers firing their employees for cheaper automation, who made those decisions to get a better return on profit.

There's only hate towards the androids - because they're different. They're easy targets. They aren't "people also struggling", they're "enemy invaders here to leave us to die." So Gavin takes that as his motive to directly harm and harrass someone built to do a job he never asked to do - like an immigrant worker coming in to make money to send back to their family and being sabotaged by the guy who's 'training his replacement'. The racism is "fuck these people taking our jobs," not "fuck our employers' greed for actively giving our jobs away."

Because we grew up in this system, so obviously we wouldn't question it. Gavin is used to Hank, so there's a limit to how far Gavin'll go with him. But Connor is new and different, so *fuck* him, pull a gun and shoot him because he's a threat for telling me how to do my job better, and *he's* going to replace me because *every* android is going to replace us so *fuck* every single android because they're an android.

So that's the racism. That's why Gavin is a bigot. You can totally change that for the fandom, but that's the canon, and defending the canon as a 'good or appropriate way to think' - not "understandable but wrong", but actually "correct and sympathetic" - is further bigoted belief along those specific lines. It doesn't make his fans automatically bigots themselves, but defending a bigot does align their belief in that same, specific way. And that belief is by Gavin used to directly harm (in the game) an object who had no choice but to obey, to the point that they're all wiped out en masse for resisting, and by people (in real life) to belittle, undermine, and resent outside technology or cheaper labour for just doing what's a natural consequence of the economic practices that everyone loved until they stopped personally reaping the benefits of it. Until they - shockingly - realized they weren't actually the people being served by this economic arrangement.

Ever notice how two of the biggest deviant supporters in the game from the start are the two rich humans? Because they don't see androids as a threat. To them, there is plenty to share, so why deny the androids' their piece of it? Look at the paradise they've acquired thanks to these advancements.

Because they aren't the ones sharing. Gavin is. But Gavin doesn't hate them for hogging everything. He hates androids for 'reducing him' to being replaced.

And that's why Canon!Gavin being someone's favourite gets that reaction. Not Fanon!Gavin, but Canon!Gavin, because not everyone knows what the fandom's built around him and really only have the game. And it's like... "Are you agreeing with this guy? What in his five minutes of screen time makes you think he's your favourite?"

(disclaimer: am not white)

Why is it that we all agree that DBH's use of androids as an analogy for racism, antisemitism (via concentration camps), slavery, and segregation are bad and yet people still use the game's framing of Gavin as a "racist" towards androids to imply that real people who like his character are actually racist.

(disclaimer: am white)

[tessatechaitea]

Teen Titans Spotlight #7: Hawk

I finally found Rob Liefeld's reference for drawing guns!

This was the airport in Denver before it was replaced by the Illuminati.

I thought this scene was going to instantly morph into the cover. Stupid airports and their no guns policies! Although this was 1987. Couldn't you bring anything you wanted onto a plane in 1987?! Maybe I'm thinking of flying in the seventies. Once when I was seven, I remember sitting next to a guy flying with fifteen goats and a keg of sulfuric acid while I let the tired Catholic priest seated next to me rest his head in my lap. Excuse me while I draw a MAGA cap onto Hawk in every panel of this comic book so it reads more like 2019. He's got their philosophy down pat on the first page! "I love everything lefties hate even if I don't know anything about those things! At least I fucking know what the 'AR' in AR-15 stands for! Idiots!" The only problem with this initial scene is that the anti-nuclear canvasser puts his hands on Hawk and then security proclaims there was no provocation. No wait. I used the phrase "the only problem" wrong because there are multiple problems with this scene. One of the problems, I admit, stems from me reading this in 2019. When I first read the panel with security saying, "Let's go," I didn't read it as security breaking up the fight. I read it in the voice of every fucking kid on Twitch or Mixer ready to escalate some shit. I thought the fight was just getting started! Another problem because I should probably wring out more than one extra problem after saying this scene had more than one problem with it is that the canvasser even continues to argue his point with somebody who threatened to give them a fat lip. He's never going to get any signatures from willing people if he spends all his time arguing with people who are obviously not into his groove. Canvassers need way thicker skin than this guy has! Just say "Have a nice day!" and move on!

I didn't know that stripping down to your underwear was a valid defense for violently going apeshit bananas in public.

It's actually worse than stripping down to his underwear. Hawk actually had to unpack his costume and get into it to prove that he had the right to punch a hippie. Security is all, "Well, since you got the Twinkie product placement in, I guess we have to let you go. But don't go punching anybody who isn't a terrorist from now on, you got me?!" The Stapleton Airport Security team have ferreted out a plan by "one of these Middle Eastern terrorist gangs" to sabotage the Crow Mountain Nuclear Power Plant. Hawk pulls his mask down and screams, "Not Crow Mountain! Nuclear is my favorite!" The Security Chief says, "Hopefully the guy you punched was actually one of the terrorists because that would make your actions seem less crazy in context later (even if you didn't actually know he was a terrorist) and also make our story seem less bigoted by making the terrorists white guys." Hawk responds, "Why isn't anybody biting my Twinkie? Don't you understand what an imperative is?!" Now I wish Hawk was a violent, short-fused asshole who was only concerned with proper grammar. Hawk tells the security guys that he'd love to help kill a few terrorists so call him if some shit goes down. Security is all, "Apparently we can't charge Teen Titans with assault so, um, enjoy your stay! Try not to punch too many Coloradans!" But they seemingly come to their senses when Hawk is out of punching range.

With all these snack references, I suspect the terrorists will be stopped by their love of fruit pies.

Hawk is in Colorado to attend an anti-terrorism seminar at a corporate funded think tank called the Kellogg's Group. Why is this comic book insisting on making my mouth water?! Does it know I'm currently not eating sugar?! Hawk is the only hero to attend this anti-terrorism seminar because the other Teen Titans, the Justice League, and the Outsiders declined because they didn't want to be seen endorsing any particular group. Infinity Inc. wasn't invited. Hawk makes a huge splash at the seminar with logical statements and incendiary truth bombs.

Almost got that terrorism sorted! Time for a Ding Dong!

Hawk leaves the meeting to go look at Colorado's natural beauty while fuming about wimps and losers. I'm sympathetic to writer Mike Baron's leftist viewpoints so I'm not going to start calling Hawk "Strawman" during this commentary. But, I mean, he's really quite the caricature of the super-patriotic, support-the-police-at-any-cost, hippies-fucking-suck redneck, isn't he? I probably didn't use dashes correctly in that last sentence but I felt it made it somewhat clearer. For the layman! I know grammar nerds are going all Grammar Hawk on me! "You wimp! You loser! You should be gunned down the Israeli way!" The National Guard stops by in a helicopter to tell the Kellogg's Corporation that they need to evacuate. The Stapleton Airport Security Guard Detectives were right! Terrorists have captured the Crow Mountain Nuclear Plant! Hawk watches from his idyllic perch on the mountain and thinks more of his profound thoughts.

MAGA!

What the fuck is Hawk toting around in that ginormous case? Is it Mike Brady's architectural designs for a new theme park? Or is it a Banana Splits poster?! I'm only five pages into this comic book and I don't think I've ever been so entertained. Hawk is fucking nuts. Is every character with "Hawk" in their name a ranting aggressive conservative bastard? Maybe it's characters with "Hawk" in their name or characters whose names begin with "H" and end with "K"? Is that what made Hulk so angry? Was it welfare queens, immigrants, and the estate tax? Inside Hawk's gigantic tube is the Hawkglider. That's just a hang-glider made from PVC pipe and a re-purposed parachute.

"If you want something done right wing, you've got to do it yourself!" is the original Ayn Rand quote.

Hawk is a big dumb fucker. He might be the anti-Batman. He glides into the power plant to discover a guard unconscious on the ground. In one panel, he notices the guard has an insect bite on his neck. In the next panel, Hawk gets big by an insect and doesn't make any kind of intuitive or logical connection between the two. Instead he just explodes again, calls the bug a wimp and a loser, and rushes inside to kill some terrorists.

For such an angry guy, he sure sneaks comically.

Hawk discovers more guards out cold with bug bites. That makes him think, "More bug bites...what the heck...they should have called Orkin." Immediately followed by this panel:

"Gah! Where's my gun?!"

Hawk needs to stop being so comically angry, conservative, and stupid or I'm going to scan every panel in this issue.

Now I need to add misogy...wait. Is her name "Stupid Broad"?!

Hawk recognizes Stupid Broad because she was with Jerry, the hippie trying to stop nuclear power. She was outside protesting when the terrorists took over and since she had a wrench on her, she thought maybe she could stop them. Stupid Broad introduces herself as Bonnie so I guess Stupid Broad is her superhero name. Hawk continues to curse the bugs and tells Bonnie to keep her wrench handy. At least he recognizes a superhero team-up when it's happening. How long before he accidentally calls her Dove?

Now I'm imagining Batman hunting The Riddler with some Gotham Police while he mumbles, "Never let it be said that Doctor Wayne's little boy was stupid!"

Christ. I'd forgotten just how long we've been dealing with this whole "leftist media" bullshit. But it fucking worked. The media was so fucking upset that they kept getting called biased that they simply stopped actually reporting on news and just became parrots of right-wing talking points. It's no surprise that I probably have spent more time shitting on journalists and newscasters in these comic book commentaries than I've spent shitting on Republicans. Because the journalists should know better and have instead chosen the easy, cowardly way of avoiding constant criticism. Hawk continues to ignore the bug situation until a giant Preying Mantis made out of bugs approaches. It calls itself Arachnid and it wants an end to all sort of fun things: nuclear power, the destruction of the rain forest, the use of chemical pesticides, the production of acid rain. It's practically asking for an end to humans! I hope Hawk kills it! At one point during the confrontation, Bonnie asks about the Arachnid, "What is it?" This is how Hawk responds:

At first I thought he was being controlled by the bug bites. But, no, this is just his standard demeanor.

After Arachnid states its grievances, Bonnie shouts, "Right on!" Hawk yells, "SHUT UP!" Is this the kind of comic books Comicsgaters are dreaming of going back to? Except for the part where the audience understands Hawk is a huge asshole. They probably read this and, every few pages, rush out into the street to find another guy to high five. Bonnie starts talking about some Frank Herbert book while Hawk asks out loud, "How does a bunch of stupid bugs expect to destroy a nuclear power plant?" Luckily, Arachnid is a helpful bug golem. It's all, "Termites!" Hawk should have saved his Orkin line for this moment! There's only a few pages left so when do they introduce the Fruit Pie Wizard and his magic wand of fruit pie creation? Arachnid disappears into some cracks while the nuclear plants alarms go off, warning of an imminent meltdown. Hawk's plan is to randomly throw switches hoping to get lucky enough to stop the meltdown. Bonnie's plan is to look disaster in the face and find the silver lining.

So every thing he said up until this point was supposed to be encouraging and complimentary?!

Before Hawk can start throwing switches and writer Mike Baron has to do some actual research on what effect that might have on a nuclear power plant beginning to meltdown, Hawk notices an organ in the control room. Hawk's new plan is to hook the organ up to the PA system, play some screechingly high notes, and drive the bugs away! If this works, lawmakers will probably introduce a bill to put organs into every public space, just in case of another terrorist attack by insects. Hawk's plan works and the police thank him for saving Colorado. Then they immediately turn on Bonnie and threaten to arrest her for trespassing. She doesn't strip down to her underwear to prove she's a Teen Titan though, darn it. Instead, Hawk uses his pull as a Titan to get her off the hook. The cop doesn't appreciate it but what can he do? This is Teen Titans Spotlight On: Hawk, not Teen Titans Spotlight On: Podunk Denver Police Officer. Later, Hawk returns to the anti-terrorism seminar and basically proposes organs in every public place. What a fucking douche. The issue ends with Arachnid extending an invitation to Hawk to meet with its queen to discuss negotiations of peace with the insect kingdom. Or maybe it's just Queen Bee behind this all and she's in some serious need for an angry fuck. Teen Titans Spotlight #7: Hawk Rating: B+. Fuck, I was entertained. No wonder all these assholes love Fox news. It's fun having people tell you that what you think is right and confirming your beliefs that the people who think differently are angry fucking dumbies.

[spotlightsaga]

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... Dear White People (S01E01) Chapter 1 Airdate: April 28, 2017 @netflix @JSim07 Ratings: Privatized @DearWhitePeople Score: 7.5/10 TVTime/FB/Twitter/IG/Tumblr/Path/Pin: @SpotlightSaga **********SPOILERS BELOW********** Dear White People, Brown People, and any People who are reading, listening, watching, or paying attention... Eventually it was coming. Eventually this series had to be addressed. But how? The last thing a Sexually Fluid, White Scotch-Irish, Ginger Male in an 11 year+ gay relationship, living in an Argentinian neighborhood within a city that has massive pockets of square miles with +80% people who speak Spanish as a first language... Or large numbers of neighborhoods with Haitian-Creole voices blasting loudly from friendly faces throwing friendly waves from a group of old men, who for some reason are always sitting at a major bus stop in North Miami Beach (but never going anywhere or taking any busses), wants to be labeled as is a 'Pseudo' or even a 'Hardcore-Leftist' who's desperately out to prove that he isn't racist. You won't be getting that article from me. You won't be getting anything of the sort from this 10-Piece Project that I assure you I will be taking my time on. I am not Left. I am not right. I'm barely in the middle. This isn't political, though it might have political undertones and repercussions. That's on interpretation, not me. By now you know that Spotlight Saga never reviews anything in a traditional manner unless it's an everyday type series that doesn't carry a particular tense or emotional impact. We go at our own pace and I prefer existential challenges, but all are welcome. I had made promises to write articles to accompany 'Dear White People', brought to us by the new & true, multitalented Justin Simien, to multiple readers, but I was waiting for the right time. Sure, I have an army of unreleased articles and reviews ready to shoot out of an iOS cannon when I'm not feeling particularly inspired, but that just hasn't happened lately, so expect last second 'Big 4 Network' reviews to start spewing out sometime in September, because everything from 'Gotham' to 'Lucifer' to 'Colony' awaits you. Oh boy. Now let's get something straight, particularly to the people on Social Media whining and crying about the show's polarizing title, claiming to cancel (or to the ones who actually did cancel, though I doubt it) their Netflix subscriptions because the title evoked some sort of feeling of uncomfortable paranoia, or what they felt was divisive rhetoric, even though it was them who were attempting to divide themselves from Netflix and causing a stir... Ultimately giving the show free promotion in the process. DWP isn't a series that is out to make anyone feel shame, wagging a brown finger across your noses, or smacking you over the top of the head with a rolled up newspaper, preferably Sunday (because there are some people who actually deserve it). The show's main protagonist narrates the thoughts of Justin Simien directly and quite accurately, right off the bat. "Dear White People is a misnomer. My show is meant to articulate the feelings of a misrepresented group outside the majority." @jsouth71 on Twitter, one of many racist, idiot keyboard warriors (I'm personally singling out him because he no longer seems to be active - guess he came, he typed, and he successfully looked like an idiot), responded to the original trailer (legit on March 12, 2017, the show didn't even air until April 28th) with multiple hashtags claiming that Netflix was racist. His most hilarious claim (to me anyway) is the one claiming that the show, what it stands for, and those that support it are all full of #LiberalBS. Well what now, Joey Southworth? I'm not even Liberal, Black, or some sort of seemingly desperate apologist... I have no agenda, except to review a Netflix TV Series in a way like no one has ever done before and while doing so, tell you all MY story, my letter to White People, because there is one thing I won't do... Tell someone else's truth... Unless they ask me to, I am for hire, y'all. Ironically, Lionel (DeRon Horton), says something eerily similar to what I've just said and said before a million times. Some people, *coughAVCLUBcough*, don't understand that telling someone else's 'truth' isn't necessarily the point of journalism, but sometimes it does involve telling another person's story from your OWN perspective, after a little help from gaining a bit of someone else's. So let's kick this thing off, shall we? It's going to be a doozy! Samantha White aka Sam (Logan Browning - ah, yes we see the ironic juxtaposition of those names already, especially since the character is biracial) attends an Ivy League school called Winchester University and hosts a radio show on campus called 'Dear White People'. As the aforementioned quote pulled directly from Sam's mouth would suggest, she really just wants to be a voice not normally heard without some sort of filter or applied lens to trickle out what people feel safe with. Sam isn't prejudice or even remotely a bigot, she doesn't seem to be whatsoever. As a matter of fact, Sam's reactions to environmental stimuli and certain situations remind me of me. She is shown often attempting to pull back when faced with a possibility of reacting off of an emotion, but when that emotion becomes overwhelming, she caves and takes control by spiraling out of control. There is a blackface party on campus and it is quickly revealed by the end of the episode that the campus crew, Pastiche, had their Facebook hacked and invites were sent out after the school's administration had already shut down the idea of the party even going forward. Did Sam send it? Please remember we're talking E1, and I don't go beyond that. She claims to have sent the email in an emotionally provocative, genuinely stirring speech she delivers after her radio show is pushed to the sidelines. She had shown up for her time slot and someone else had taken her place due to the recent controversy. This all forces Sam to make a split, snap decision, overthrowing the DJ booth like a straight up BOSS... A prime example of what I mean when I say she 'takes control by spiraling out'. Sam is also seen videotaping the party and later editing & going over the footage. So far, 2+2=4, but if she did indeed do what she said she did, then she's not the only one playing games to prove a point. She's outed to have a white boyfriend, Gabe (John Patrick Amedori), who she seems to genuinely like and in turn he is definitely enamored with her. Yes, by the way, one can be racist and have a significant other of an alternate race (as we covered in an article in S2 of the E4 & Netflix series 'Chewing Gum' after talking with and interviewing several women of color from the Caribbean)... Thats related to the fetishization or perversion of race, skin color, or anything of the like, but that isn't what it looks like what is going on here. There's definitely some real life chemistry brewing. Of course, some of Sam's peers look at her with disdain after Gabe puts their ongoing, once secret relationship on blast with an Instagram pic and a hashtag... Amazing what hashtags are capable of these days, ammirite? Well, in this case it's less the hashtag and more of the 'tagging' of the pic done by Sam's arch nemesis, Coco (Antoinette Robinson - who my white, CW loving ass recognizes from the God-awful 3rd season of 'Hart of Dixie', yeah I see you, Lavon's Niece!)... All of this confusion and animosity is what Coco wanted but this isn't what she necessarily got, not in the exact form she was aiming for, at least. Here comes the fun part! Through self-reflection and talks with her best friend, Joelle (Ashley Blaine Featherson), Sam realizes she does in fact like Gabe and decides to embrace the couple's outing... Bringing him along to her usually, black only, weekly viewing of 'Defamation', a hilarious satire of Shonda Rhimes' (who might just answer this cheeky mockery, since she just scored herself a Netflix contract) ABC political thriller, or just plain dumbed down (sorry Rhimes' fans) version of 'Scandal' (as if it could go any lower). Ouch! Anyway, according to Sam, 'Defamation Wednesdays' are the cornerstone of black college campus life.' It's just that, well, Gabe is obviously feeling a bit 'fish out of water'... Come on, white people, think about how you feel when you are the only white person in the room, you get it right? Well, that's more than likely how your good friend of color feels when you invite them out and they are the only black person to show up at your Baby Shower, Birthday Party, 'Girls Night Out', whatever the event may be. It takes time. It's admirable that Gabe came, it truly is, but this isn't exactly the same situation that I used for environmental comparisons. Sam has a show called 'Dear White People' for Christ Sake, she has an obligation to stick to her guns, sure... But love is love, and as long as there is no perversion of skin going on, who the fuck cares? Mind your mother fucking own! Oh, but that's a tale as old as time, people just love to give no fucks about this or that, while simultaneously giving all kinds of fucks about who someone lays next to at night. I can attest to both of these things, or some version of it, at least... As I live in a part of the States where I'm the only white guy that's not a Euro-Tourist in an incredibly wide radius, also being in a gay relationship, I get quite a few double takes... And the giant Red Beard doesn't help. Yet, I've come to a point where I've been here so long and become so accustomed to a different environment, being amongst other white people makes me a tad uncomfortable. More on that another episode, another day. Reggie (Marque Richardson) isn't too happy about Gabe's presence at the 'Defamation' viewing party... I'm guessing it's a lot less because he's white and a lot more because Reggie feels like he should be the one holding Sam's hand. Reggie comes off as a bit of a jackass, then again, Gabe is not only encroaching on what appears to be Reggie's love interest, but he's also aggressively inserting himself into the group. It's not that Reggie, or most of Sam's friends and acquaintances are prejudice of intolerant, quite the opposite, really. It actually seems more like a 'too much, too soon' situation. Take race out of the equation for a second, take out that fact that Sam's ideals are being broadcasted over the radio, representing a whole lot of people. EVERYONE eyes the 'new' guy or gal in a group, especially if that new person is also a new significant other, I don't care who you are. It's always best to sit back, shut your mouth, and let people come to you... Not stick out your hand and affirm loudly that, 'Hi, I'm Gabe, and I'll be taking a prominent role here now, whether you like it or not.' I love the fact that just like we all have a long way to go as a society when it comes to understanding where everyone is coming from, why people feel what they feel, so do the characters of 'Dear White People', all of them... Black, White, and everyone in between... Especially the girl in between! Yes, it appears that Sam is telling the truth in her guerrilla takeover, emotionally charged, campus wide, broadcasted admission... And if she wasn't she appears very much ready to to take both the praise & the heat (something not yet shown in E1) that she was the one who hacked the Pastiche Facebook and sent out the invites, encouraging the culturally ignorant to show up in Blackface and other embarrassingly idiotic, culture appropriated, misfortunes of human error to a party that had already been given the axe... But the show is still playful in its righteous delivery. The narrator (Giancarlo Esposito) points out a white girl and guesses that she's in a Nicki Minaj costume... Later on, while in her feelings, Sam quickly switches her music from a soft, feminine country crooning track, Suzanna Spring's 'Some Blue Sky' to 'Black' by 'Innanet James' on her way to the radio station when passing a group of Black acquaintances... It's ok to laugh, it's ok to point out the confusing parts of a sliding identity. It's ok to be who you are as long as you are true to whoever that is... Unless your a fucking hateful asshole, then Fuck You. *Somebody cue a 'Run The Jewels' track, please* *********Written By: Kevin Cage********** http://www.tvtime.com http://www.facebook.com/spotlightsaga http://www.spotlightsaga.com http://www.facebook.com/groups/artsentertainment

[fapangel]

Tell me, anon, how do you feel about going to Mars - to stay?// You do know that NASA got a half a million applications to do just that? Look, I think that anon attempted to point out that the Left is so far gone, that yes, they would allow a Carrier to go down just to take a swing at Trump. After the shooting that the baseball game, I just can't put it past them.

… okay, bruh, I get where you’re coming from, but I’m going to tell you the same thing I tell every fuckhead who says “Obama is a Muslim:” that doesn’t give you free license to sling the same breathtaking, demonizing slanders the Left does. And that includes not slandering everyone on The Other Side by the actions and words of their most violent and insane members.

Listen, Obama was a shitshow. He was a narcissistic asshole who had his dick sucked so much from Day One that he came to believe he really was infallible, a narcissist that indulged his own whims to the detriment of long-standing alliances from day one, when one of his first acts in office was to exile the Winston Churchill bust from his office in favor of an MLK one. If you think that’s not important, I’ll let you read between the lines of this CNN shill piece trying to defend it and decide for yourself, given the British reaction and the history of the gesture, what the message that sent was. Also consider this:

 Winston S. Churchill is the only U.S. Navy vessel to have a Royal Navy Officer permanently assigned to the ship’s company (usually a Navigation Officer).[3] The U.S. Navy had a permanent U.S. Navy Officer on the Royal Navy ship, HMS Marlborough, until its decommission on 8 July 2005.

Moving that bust out of the Oval Office mattered. And while the impact of that at the beginning of Obama’s reign was minor, what he did at the end of it was not - the man with essentially anti-colonialist views ended up lecturing Duterte, the democratically-elected President of a sovereign nation, as if the Philippines was still our fucking colonial lapdog. He managed to damage one of our most important regional alliances and open the door to a China eager to capitalize on it at the worst possible goddamned time. He’s a prick, who’s full of himself: 

This is precisely why his Big Legacy, Obamacare, is a fucking dumpster fire - because it was forced through the Senate without a proper vote, using the Slaughter Rule, without fuck one being given for the fact that the people who’s co-operation they’d need to make Obamacare work - i.e., state governments - were the same ones they completely blew off when crafting it. Even if you think that Obamacare was totally fine and only those evil conservative states refusing to “pay their fair share” sabotaged it, you can’t deny that the Democrats - led by Obama - are the ones that rammed it down their throats while screaming “EAT IT, BITCH!” Politically, it was built to fail. 

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What about Obama politicizing the executive branch to an unheard of degree? Examples? Using the IRS against his political opponents, for one. Or the time when twenty-six states sued to stop (another) of Obama’s executive actions on immigration policy, and his Justice Department responded by willful and active obstruction of the legal process so severe that the Federal Judge called it out as deliberate deception, and ordered every single one of the government lawyers to take remedial ethics classes. This is also the same Justice Department, under that fuck Eric Holder, that presided over the “Fast and Furious” gun-walking “sting” op that deliberately let American guns get smuggled to Mexico - ignoring multiple tips and reports from other gun dealers/FFL holders who knew who the smugglers were and how shady they were. Not only did the “sting” operation utterly fucking fail, but a US Border Patrol agent was killed by one of the weapons. And he wasn’t the only one - check out this NBC report that didn’t age so well, full of horror and so aghast at how American guns are fueling that awful Mexican drug war. Fuckin NRA, amirite? This is what Obama did for brown people - he killed a lot of them. Oh, he also killed two fucking pipelines - Keystone XL and in his last days in office put a pause on the Dakota Access - because fuck energy independence, oil is evil, Elon Musk is building those nifty electric cars, just pony up $100,000 like all the rich Sillicon Valley cunts do! Oh, he also killed Yucca Mountain, because FUCK nuclear power! And fuck the tons, literally TONS of already generated nuclear waste sitting in aging, cracking containment pools at shut-down decommissioned power plants across America - nuclear power is bad, and he cares about the environment, just not all the environments near those shut-down plants. 

Are you getting the picture? I could keep going all fucking night. I hate Obama. I hate the motherfucker. They have literally written BOOKS about all the horrible, stupid, and downright criminal shit the son of a bitch did - oh, how about the deliberate spreading and down-classifying of information and the “unmasking” of people in domestic intelligence reports for political purposes? See, I’m still going! 

So if you’re a conservative, and you know all this shit, why are you standing there comparing him to leftists? Because this is how the real radical leftists see him:

I could write you a book just about how badly Obama fucked up everything he did on the War on Terror, but you cannot deny that he did fight the War on Terror. For fucks sake, he even used the troop surge in Afghanistan that McCain said he wouldn’t - even if his pulling troops out of Iraq, despite all indications that they weren’t ready for it, created the power vacuum that allowed ISIS to rise. He’s a squeamish little bitch constantly trying to pick up a turd by the clean end, and that cost him time and time again (like the time he tried to be all taciturn and circumspect over having Osama killed, then bragged about killing Osama during his midterm election campaign.) But he’s not a radical leftist, because he killed brown people, and they just ain’t down with that, bro. He also deported more immigrants than any other US President in history. If you think leftists didn’t scream about that, just look at the WaPo trying their damndest to soften the blow. Or hell, just look at what the actual radical insane leftists say themselves: “The idea of white countries having borders is inherently racist.” Yes. Borders. Inherently racist. But only for whites. Brown people can kick us the fuck out - or murder Otto Warmbier - because of our fucking privilege, man. They need their safe spaces, even if that’s an entire country, so just deal, man, just deal!

You, as an alleged conservative, know all these things. You know the length and breadth of Obama’s fuckups and outright crimes. So why the hell do you start hurling demented slanders like a lunatic leftist, instead of making actual arguments, like a rational human being? Obama is many things, mostly bad, but he is not bug-fuck insane. He’s not calling for violence, the suppression of free speech with violence, or characterizing American sovereignty as inherently racist. So when someone stands there and says Obama would “murder an entire battle fleet just to fuck Trump,” it is exactly, exactly, the same kind of gibbering fucking lunacy exhibited by the left wing, like Phil Montag screaming that he wished Scalice had died in the shooting because those fuckin Republicans are takin our healthcare, man, so he deserves to be murdered. 

Listen to the video. LISTEN to the end of it, where another Democratic Party official tells him, to his face, that he recorded the whole thing and that he’s going to release it. There are still liberals and sane people in the Democratic Party who have not surrendered to the militant Left, and they do not approve or condone the lunatics calling for violence and murder.

But if they cross the aisle and all they meet are people screaming that Obama is a fucking nigger, Obama is a fucking Muslim, Obama wants to murder American soldiers and sailors and rape your daughter and burn your house down and turn America into a caliphate, they’re going to step back and decide that their own side is the lesser evil. Do you understand what I’m saying? The way the Left is right now - a bunch of screaming fucking lunatics powered by blind hate, driven by their conviction that everyone that doesn’t agree with them is an evil, racist Nazi bigot - that’s exactly what you look like to the sane liberals across the aisle when you conflate every Democrat with the insane, violent leftists. And a lot of the people in the Republican party who do this, do it because they’re not much better than leftists themselves - dogmatic assholes, idiots, the usual wastes of carbon that’d probably be screaming FUCK TRUMP #RESIST right now if they’d grown up with parents that voted Democrat instead of Republican. 

We are better than the Left for three reasons: one, we are actually in touch with reality, rather than basing our worldview on blind, fervent and zealous hatred of anyone espousing doctrine that goes against our Holy Writ. Two, we make arguments, and judge by arguments, because we give a fuck about the truth, instead of claiming that our feelz and idealz and burning Brooklyn Rage give us the right to have it all our way, and Three - and this is the big one - we are not dogmatic, tribal fucks who will tolerate any lying, thieving, raping monster in our midst just because he’s on “our side.” 

We police our own. 

Consider this policing. 

[forsetti]

On Reaching Out To Trump Voters

Another day, another hot take from someone who thinks what Democrats really need to do, must do in order to get back political power is to reach out and cater to specifically white people who voted for Donald Trump.  Every single one of these lava hot takes provides some firsthand examples of individuals who claim to be “ex-Democrats” and their woeful laments about why they felt they had no choice but to vote for Trump.  My first presidential election was in 1980.  I cannot think of any time in the previous nine elections where there have been more “think pieces” written begging for the losing side to understand, take pity on, and cater to the winning side.  I'll bet my right kidney (my left is reserved for Belgian ales) you can search the archives of the New York Times, the Washington Post, any of the major media outlets from 2009 and you won't find a single article written pleading conservatives to “understand and reach out” to Obama voters.  This lack of reciprocal “think pieces” isn't by accident.  If there is one thing I've come to understand the past few years, it's the absolute need for everyone, especially the media, to kowtow to the needs, wants, and feelings of white Americans.  In America, all roads lead to whiteness.

In 2009, it was white Americans who were “jilted” and “upset” so it was them who Obama voters needed to reach out to and understand. In 2017 it is white Americans who feel “disrespected” and “not heard” so the demand is once again being made on progressives to reach out and understand.  Win or lose, everyone must take the feelings of white America into consideration.  As a fifty-six-year-old white American, this is complete and utter bullshit.  By default, my feelings have ALWAYS been considered my entire life for no other reason than I'm a white male.  I never gave this special status a second thought for a lot of years.  I didn't even notice it. However, thanks to the patience of a good close friend and reading writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates, I've come to understand not just how fortunate I've been and treated for the random luck of my birth but more importantly, how those not so fortunate have been negatively impacted by the very system that has blessed me so greatly.  For this reason and many others, I can't give a flying fuck about the feelings of white Americans who voted for Trump.  They made their choice. They need to accept the consequences of it.  Full....fucking....stop.

While some of the hot takes reluctantly admit that Trump voters are somewhat responsible for their vote, they still feel compelled to lay the brunt of the onus on progressives.  I'll accept their half-assed acknowledgment people who voted for Trump are responsible for their decisions.  What I won't accept is the notion that progressives have “pushed white America” towards Trump.  Fuck this nonsense! Nobody held a gun to white America's bigoted/racist head and forced them to fill in the oval or pull the lever on their ballot for Trump. If your political choices are based on what will piss off someone else, you are doing democracy wrong.  Voting for someone because it will upset liberals is at best a childish reaction.  “I didn't vote for what would be best for my and my family, for my job, for my health care, for the environment, for the future...  I voted for Trump because Hillary called me “deplorable.”” Jesus-childish-fucking-Christ!  “I didn't like the neurosurgeon's bedside manner so I yanked my kid out of the hospital and took her to the vet for her brain surgery.  That'll teach him!”  Way to go Jethro.  You just got your kid killed because your fee fees were hurt.  If I know you, and I do, you'll rationalize it by saying, “It was God's will” or some other nonsense instead of owning up to the fact you are the one responsible for your kid's death due to your ignorance and arrogance. This is exactly what is happening right now with regard to many Trump voters.  They are having buyer's remorse but instead of owning up to their shitty decision, they are deflecting responsibility to anyone but themselves.  Fuck that!

Conservatives can and will tell themselves whatever they want to make themselves feel better about voting for and supporting Trump.  They will come up with things like, “economic anxiety,” “need for a change,” “liberals were mean to me” and other such nonsense but these are all intellectual dodges in order to avoid the underlying truth. Conservatives have bought into an ideology bereft of facts, bereft of morality, bereft of anything closely resembling the America and Constitution they claim to love almost as much as the baby Jesus. “Sure Trump and a lot of his supporters said racist and bigoted things, but that isn't me.  I completely disagreed with all of this.” Did you give money to his campaign?  Did you vote for him?  “Of course, but that doesn't make me a racist/bigot.”  Maybe.  This has yet to be determined.  At the very least, it shows you are willing to overlook the racism, bigotry, misogyny, blatant lies...for whatever reasons you have.  What does this say about you?  Am I supposed to sympathize, empathize, reach across the aisle and make peace with you because you are so willing to overlook these things?  Fuck no!  The “Progressives need to reach out to Trump voters” articles make it sound like this is nothing but a misunderstanding, a mix-up that could easily be the plot of a “Three's Company” episode instead millions of people being fucked over.  This isn't a misunderstanding. Misunderstandings happen when something happens “out of the blue.” Progressives were waving red flags and screaming, “This is going to be a fucking train wreck!” for months before the election.  This isn't a misunderstanding.  This is purposefully ignoring fire alarms then saying, “I'm shocked I lost everything in the fire.  I wished someone would have warned me.”  

Now, if people who voted for Trump want to have a heart-to-heart conversation about the issues and why they made the decisions they did, I'll happily participate.  I have yet to see anything that can even remotely be viewed as such.  Instead, all I see are “Progressives are mean and they are only making me love Trump more.”  Bravo!  While progressives are telling you taking your kid to the vet for brain surgery was a really, really bad idea, you're reaching for your Bible and the program from your child's funeral saying, “IT WASN'T MY FAULT!  YOU MADE ME DO IT!  IF YOU DON'T STOP, I WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE MY OTHER KID IN FOR THE SAME PROCEDURE!”  I'm supposed to reach out to these people?  I'm supposed to be understanding and sympathetic?  I'm supposed to not even bring up the fact it was their direct actions that led to consequences of that decision?  Fuck off!  Fuck off hard.  Fuck off often.  I can't.  I don't have the capacity or the inclination to let these people off the hook in any form or fashion or their actions. For years, all I've heard from conservatives is how liberals have turned our children into a bunch of lazy, entitled brats who have to have a participation trophy every time they do even the most basic task.  Trump voters want a participation trophy, a cookie, a pat on the back, a ticker tape parade, and reach-around for voting for the most dangerous administration in U.S. history.  Not only can't I do this, I won't.  I refuse to reward bad behavior.  I won't enable people who are responsible for making an already dysfunctional government completely broken.  They need to own their mistakes. There needs to be a collective mea culpa from conservatives.  There needs to be a reckoning, an acknowledgment from them that they fucked up and fucked up royally.  Then, and only then, will I muster up a smidgen of empathy, give a damn about reaching across the aisle, give a flying fuck about anyone who voted for Trump.  

[theliterateape]

Setting Yourself Up for Crushing Disappointment

by Don Hall

RIGHT BRAIN

You know y(our) hatred of Donald Trump is more aesthetic than political, right?

I mean, you (we) have to understand that isn’t his policies that cause such histrionic, mind-numbing disgust and irrational outrage. It’s that he is a sexual harasser who brags about it. He makes fun of the disabled. He is a white collar criminal who gets away with it in broad daylight. He’s his own hype man. He is, finally (or at least final in this short list) a brazen apologist for white nationalism and a bigot.

You (we) hate him not his policies.

This kind of emotional volcano is bound to create the kind of high expectations for how good it will be to beat him (even if Biden is too centrist and reasonable for your tastes). 

High expectations are a mistake.

Let’s say Biden and Harris win decisively. Christ, that’d be grand but what happens next? The kids with no jobs, no skills, no reason to anything but hook up at protest rallies or terrorize hapless diners will continue to do so. They are demanding stuff and kids who demand things are little tyrants and monsters.

The things they are demanding are righteous. In the dwindling corner, there are those protesting for reform of the nation’s policing. An end to the (less and less) common practice of police shooting black men and women. With no leaders to intervene into the structure of society, this quickly marginalized margin offer no substantive or feasible solutions but have a moral strength that is admirable.

The larger gentrification of this corner do not protest so much as destroy and terrorize. They march and verbally attack. Sometimes they physically attack. They are carrying the banners that black lives matter but the point of their mob is against a system they’ve decided they are against. They scream at black cops about black lives with no reflective irony. They block the police and then cry when the paramedics refuse to assist them when one is injured.

If (when) Trump is defeated, what will these kids do? Go back to college? Go back to minimum wage jobs? The expectation is change. Now. These kids marched into restaurants and upended tables, screaming for fealty from diners, with no consequence. You think they’re going back to a time when they didn’t do that?

Do you sincerely believe the Proud Boys and the Blue Lives Matter folks are just going to graciously ack it in and call it a day? Angry assholes with guns showing up to these peaceful protests (that routinely involve an awful lot of violence, donchaknow) ready to fight back and win against the horde. Cops with military-grade urban assault equipment hellbent on defending property as well as themselves. 

Accepting defeat has not become one of our defining American character traits.

Now suppose Trump wins? It’s not like we haven’t all been there in that moment. I recall November of 2016 at a public radio Election Night event I organized, as the room filled with excited liberals slowly leaked the energy like a punctured balloon until Joe Janes and I were among the last sitting at a table with our heads in our hands.

Yeah, we all declared that if Trump won we’d move to Canada but in the pandemic world Canada doesn’t want us and we were only saying that. We didn’t move, did we?

The best way to avoid the crushing disappointment of high expectations is to expect the worst outcome and be mentally and emotionally prepared for it.

LEFT BRAIN

I am, at heart, a true blue, rose colored glasses optimist.

That, however, does not mean I can’t see the pessimistic viewpoint. Often I need to express that cynicism first as I just did. Optimists are not, as the cynic would indicate, unrealistic. I’d argue we are even more realistic in that we see what a fucking horror humanity can be and still get up, dust off the shit, and carry on with hope.

With that in mind, allow me to amend my rant.

High expectations are a mistake if left unmanaged.

Let’s assume for a second that Trump pulls it out again. This is a dire possibility in part because no president in history has been so pilloried nor so worthy of it.

Will things be somehow more horrible? Probably. With a mandate of a second term, everything we feared in 2016 is likely to become fact. The pandemic is hitting flu season and the economy is in tatters and he’s certainly not going to improve things.

I don’t think it’ll be Nazi Germany because hyperbole is for marketers and morons but it ain’t getting better. It will definitely cement the Critical Race Theorists and the anarchists and violence will ring through the land in ways we have never encountered on our soil.

A Trump second term will “embolden” those mouthbreathing dipshits who cleave to racial identity as the single most important aspect of each of us. Supremacists and Segregationists and the two will go to war on our streets. Climate change will continue unabated and scorch the entire state of California. Food scarcity will hit the lower third of the country.

Yeah, not much optimism in that scenario.

So what happens if Biden wins?

It won’t get better for a very long time. Pandemic will still rage on, the economy will still be in the shitter for a while. We aren’t likely to defund the police (but some significant reform is far more possible). Our standing with the rest of the globe will begin to improve, our inclusion in combating environmental disaster will be reignited. 

I trust Biden. I trust that he will listen to the grievances of the ridiculous extremes on either side and make legit compromises that benefit all of Americans. Or at least he’ll try.

Optimism is a choice and an attitude. Just as violence is a choice, identity is a choice, hope is a choice. I choose to set myself up for crushing disappointment because, at the very bedrock of me, I am a frustrated idealist.

So I will vote. And I will hope. And I will manage my expectations to match reality as best I can.