#historical nihilism

[jovialbasementbouquetblr]

2022: Zhao Shukai Calls for Politics-Free Historical Research

Rural China where most of China’s people still live and  rural governance across the long histories of the many states that have occupied the Central Plains since very early ‘barbarian peoples’ coalesced into. assimilated others into and inherited what is still known only dimly of early civilizations that existed in what is now southwestern China. The civilized ‘us’ vs the ‘barbarians’ outside…

[welcometoteyvat]

as a chinese person yall need to stop blaming the ccp for everything (read: hoyo is capable of making colorist design decisions and not everything is a result of censorship pls)

[finisnihil]

Somebody gives me a good sewing machine and I immediately begin researching to make a historically accurate Luocha themed dress except we don't know enough about him yet so I have to dig through the HI3 wiki for Otto to get enough crumbs for this project

Somebody stop me

[stellerssong]

not getting involved in Thee Conversation but to everyone who cannot see the catharsis and the hope and the simultaneous love and grief in the act of passing the torch in mansand vol 10 the wake....................................like. once again. skill issue. When You Love Danny Then You Will Realize.

[fiction-quotes]

“I pity your kind,” said Dew softly. “Animals grown too intelligent for their own petty needs. I pity your death. It is trivial. Your kind will come and go like the tide. Nothing you do will ever change Earth. It will endure with or without you. You cannot make or create. You can only change what is there, and eventually, it will change back. What a futile life; what a futile death.”

  —  The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle (Catherine Webb)

[knifeslidez]

someone get all queer historical figures away from the tiktok gays

[tyrannuspitch]

looking at the exit poll sighing heavily and putting on my emo playlist

[georgescitadel]

1st year of George's Citadel - a compilation of quotes from George R.R. Martin

House Targaryen

On the construction of Daenerys and the decision to include dragons in ASOIAF

On Daenerys’ thought process in Lhazarene

On Daenerys’ struggle with rule (1)

On future revelations about the house with the red door

On what led to Robert’s rebellion

On the difference between Daenerys and Aegon’s (I) approach to the throne

On Daenerys subverting gender roles

On the information provided about Rhaegar and Lyanna in ASOIAF

On the “White Saviour” complaints over Daenerys’ storyline

On Daenerys’ future return to Westeros

On Daenerys’ struggle with rule (2)

House Stark

On Sansa’s manipulation at the hands of the Small Council

On Arya and Sansa’s desire to save Ned

On what led Sandor to seek out Sansa during the Battle of Blackwater

On his regret over not further developing Sansa and Arya’s relationships with Catelyn

On what character he’d want to be like

On Ned's inadequacy in King's Landing

House Lannister

On Jaime, Tyrion and loss

On Jaime’s decision to kill Bran

On feeling conflicted over the writing of Tyrion in A Dance With Dragons

On Robert being unsuspicious of the paternity of Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen

On the key event that led Roose to align with the Lannisters

On his intention writing the Lannister POV’s

On similarities between Tywin Lannister and Walter White

House Greyjoy

On the character of Reek

Game Of Thrones

On GOT’s decision to kill off Silver

On GOT’s decision to pair Arya and Tywin up

Miscellaneous

On writing outcasts

On nihilism in ASOIAF

On unfairly hated characters

On the title of A Game Of Thrones

On Epic Fantasy

On his favourite characters in ASOIAF

On the greyest characters in ASOIAF

On unlikable protagonists

On the historical figures that inspired the women of ASOIAF

On father issues in ASOIAF

On the religions in ASOIAF

On creating foils

[leohtttbriar]

There is an important line between cynicism and nihilism. Assuming that SCOTUS will authorize the end of birthright citizenship would cross that line. Trump’s reascendency to the White House is a pitch-black moment in this country’s history, but that is no license to indulge in preemptive defeat.

Why should we expect the Supreme Court to uphold birthright citizenship? There are three main reasons: one legal, one practical, and another related to the court’s own power. Start with the legal issue: There are few constitutional provisions with a clearer and more settled meaning than the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This guarantee is rooted in common lawand traces back to the nation’s founding. Congress enshrined it in the Constitution after the Civil War to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott, which had erroneously denied citizenship to Black Americans. During ratification, senators explicitly recognized that the citizenship clause’s broad language would encompass not just freed slaves but also the children of immigrants. They debated and ultimately approved the extension of birthright citizenship to these children, concluding that their parents’ lack of American citizenship should not abridge their own civil rights. The Supreme Court affirmed this understanding of the 14th Amendment in 1898’s Wong Kim Arkand has never retreated from it.

Trump attempts to get around this plain meaning by latching onto the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” His order claims that the children of immigrants are not “subject to” the United States’ jurisdiction, presumably because their parents are citizens of another country. This argument is an indefensible misreading of both the text and the historical record. Once again, senators discussed this issue when drafting the 14th Amendment, and agreed that the “jurisdiction” language simply means “subject to our laws.” And the Supreme Court has clarified that all immigrants, both lawful and undocumented, are fully subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

Why, then, did Congress mention jurisdiction in the 14th Amendment? Because it intended to exclude the offspring of three groups who were not fully “subject” to U.S. law: foreign diplomats, invading soldiers, and Native tribes. Diplomats and soldiers were viewed as agents of a foreign sovereign, while tribes were, at the time, viewed as “quasi foreign nations.” But Congress was adamant that all other people, including immigrants’ offspring, be included in the promise of birthright citizenship.

To uphold Trump’s executive order, then, the Supreme Court would have to jettison 126 years of precedent, abolishing an ancient right at the heart of constitutional liberty. That will give the court serious pause. A large majority of justices almost certainly do not want to destabilize American law in this way, abruptly eradicating a right upon which millions have come to rely. Trump’s order also goes far beyond undocumented immigrants, denying citizenship to the children of “temporary” immigrants who are here lawfully. People with H-1B visas, Temporary Protected Status, DACA, and others who’ve long resided in the U.S. would evidently fall under this category, meaning their offspring would not receive citizenship. If implemented, this policy would be extremely unpopular: Most Americans do not want to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented people, let alone the children of legal immigrants. It would also upend the practical realities of citizenship, creating immense confusion that would invariably wind up in the judiciary’s lap.

not sure how much i agree that “the court” wants to not be seen as trump’s lapdog but i agree that this is one of those issues that roberts, barrett, gorsuch, and kavanaugh would be very likely to not side with him on.

[sun-death]

The very name “Black Sun” as an esoteric concept is not the historic property of the Nazis. In Western alchemy, the “black sun” was the Sol Niger, a symbol of the process of nigredo, the state of spiritual putrefaction or “death” that necessarily precedes renewal and the completion of the Great Work. There have been other “black suns” and similarly dark lights with different symbolic meanings throughout the ancient pre-Christian world. In Egypt, a “black sun” can be seen in some tombs as a devourer of the unrighteous and the enemies of the gods, and this sun was represented by a demon in the form of a black ram dubbed “The Lord of Power”. In Greece and Rome, the god Dionysus or Bacchus was sometimes referred to as the “Night Sun”. The planet Saturn was in some cultures considered to be a “sun of night”, and in Mesopotamia the sun god Utu was believed to travel to the underworld as a “night sun” to judge the dead. Mayans believed that the Sun took the form of the “Night Sun” as it journeyed to the underworld.

Aleph Skoteinos, "Chaos, nihilism, and the way of “No Surrender” (or, In defence of the Chaos Star and the Nihilist-Anarchists)"

[jovialbasementbouquetblr]

2033 Wang Chunhan on Xi Jinping's Rise to Power

Translated below another episode of Yuan Li’s Chinese-language podcast Bumingbai via the Bumingbai Blog. Other translations here of Bumingbai episodes from the transcripts that appear about two weeks after each broadcast. 2023: PRC Freedom of Information Blogger Ruan Xiaohuan Persecuted, translation of Bumingbai #48 Conversations with Yuan Li podcast EP-048 Who is “Programming Musings”?…

[steveyockey]

Summing up Reich’s 1933 book Character Analysis, Timofei Gerber writes that the repressed person begins to build an armor around themselves that prevents any danger from crossing their psychic threshold, but in doing so also prevents any pleasure from getting in and prevents any pleasure from being released:

“The movement is thereby successfully blocked, but with that, all feelings are essentially killed and result in an inner deadness. This feeling of emptiness, of a loss of a contact with the world...is that which causes nihilism, the urge towards self-destruction, the feeling of meaninglessness.”

In this fortress-like psychic condition, anything that could heal you (therapy, sex, connection to your fellow human being) is seen as a threat. Pleasure becomes danger.

We can see this in Nazi Germany’s vilification of the seemingly-hedonistic Weimar era. And we can see it today in politicians blaming of everything negative on society on, say, trans people (what is transitioning if not chasing one’s pleasure despite the dangers). And we can see it in ordinary people’s ever-increasing fear of any and everything that makes being human great, which are things that inherently involve danger: leaving your house, socializing, having friends, letting your kid possibly break their arm by falling off a bike.

This fear of pleasure and humanity and the creation of a psychic armor to “protect” oneself from this fear, is not a tenable situation. Humans need some form of release. And this is how people become sadistic. Gerber writes:

“If the armor gets too thick, it causes itself unpleasure; and if that unpleasure is not to lead to self-destruction (depression), the inner pressure needs nonetheless be released somehow. So as to at least feel something, the individual must force itself to release some energy after all, through the cracks in the shell. But as this energy has to fight itself through a very thick shell, and is also accompanied by anxiety, it does not produce pleasure either. The violence of this ‘piercing through’ expresses itself as destructive urges, as sadism.”

Extrapolate this to a societal level and you see how DoorDash is basically Hitler. Just kidding…kind of…But you can maybe see how the blockage and fear of pleasure is a necessary precursor to outright fascism!

Reich’s work jives with the work of Adorno, who believed (in the summation of historian Peter E. Gordon) that, “the authoritarian personality does not always turn explicitly fascist; its politics may remain dormant, only to emerge under certain social-historical conditions.” And jives with the work of analyst Erich Fromm, who believed that, “the amount of destructiveness to be found in individuals is proportionate to the amount to which expansiveness of life is curtailed.” And jives with the work of Hannah Arendt, who wrote of how, “isolation may be the beginning of terror; it is certainly its most fertile ground.”

The more isolated and fearful we become of each other, of our own freedom, the more susceptible we become to the sadistic processes that provide some form of pressure release. Which is to say: people not only become Nazis out of fear or hatred, but because it is cathartic for repressed people to become fascists.

Though, of course, it is not possible to individually reverse the conditions of our society—the isolation, the fearmongering, the actual increased dangers many of us do face out in the real world (police repression, for example)—we are still responsible partners in this interplay.

That interplay can either be something like a death spiral towards our ultimate destruction—society making us afraid, us becoming more cut-off and thus prone to dehumanization, that making society more isolated, and on and on and on. Or it can be a…life spiral…like a helix of DNA—ourselves and the outside world (which is to say: each other; everyone who is not us) wrapped up together, mutually necessary to build something much greater than each of us are capable of on our own.

We may not feel like we have much power these days. But that is also what the fascists us want us to think. They want us to sense the real dangers of the world, and allow ourselves to become scared of them, to build up impenetrable psychic armors to protect ourselves from them until we become inhuman, and thus are able to invalidate the humanity of any and everyone else.

So, go, do the things that make you scared. Do not fear trauma. Go have sex. And do drugs. And dance. And eat outside your own damn house. I’m gonna go pet a cat. If I don’t, I will, in many, very real ways, die.

[khaire-traveler]

Hey, guys, I've been trying my best to get through the day and stuff, and I really just can't do this right now. I'm struggling pretty hardcore. I'm trying to post things that aren't, like, horribly depressing or something, and I even had plans to post a prayer or two, but I just can't do this. There's a lot happening in my life, outside of the major historical events, and I don't really have much support in-person for a lot of it (partially due to the crazy shit happening). Seeing so many people reaching critical points of depression, anxiety, and nihilism has had an extremely negative impact on me. Everyone is processing this in their own way, and I'm not bashing on that; it's just not good for me to be around. So I'll be heading out for a while. How long, I can't say, but it's clear to me that I need to go away.

Take care, everyone, and please remember to prioritize your mental health, too, whatever that looks like for you. I'm sorry I couldn't do more to be encouraging during this time. Genuinely, please take care. 🧡

[telekinetictrait]

you could say we've been around for a while...

vatores (with a not huge makeover) thru the years :) theres a LOT of cc so be prepared, links and tags under the cut

check my resources page for genetics!

used many times: peebsplays' princess of sims sideburns recolors - peebsplays' baby chops - bloodmooncc's nihil nose chain - saruin's moth tattoo - trillyke's accessory fishnet top - auretta-sims' long gloves recolor - javitrulovesims' midnight evening gloves - peebsplays' lace gloves - homelot's antique gloves - adelarsims gloves - ameyasims' invested pants recolor - kedluu's ankle boots - waxesnostalgic's cuban mary janes - waxesnostalgic's vintage neutrals saddle shoes recolors - plumbobteasociety's foxtrot footwear - chere-indolente's asthete velvet shoes

1790s: the-melancholy-maiden's eleonora and francois hairs / waxesnostalgic's 18th century waistcoat - waxesnostalgic's georgian shoes separated / simulatedstyles' eliza gown - simulatedstyles' fichu and sash

1800s: peebsplays' unrequited hair / nightingalesongx's historical hair - zurkdesign's latest fashion frock conversion - batsfromwesteros' emma coral jewelery

...and because there's so many, the rest are in THIS POST! sorry :(

thank you to (takes a deep breath) @peebsplays @bloodmooncc @saruin @trillyke @auretta-sims @javitrulovesims @homelot @adelarsims @ameyasims @kedluu @waxesnostalgic @plumbobteasociety @chere-indolente @the-melancholy-maiden @simulatedstyles @nightingalesongx @zurkdesign @batsfromwesteros @sunivaa @gilded-ghosts @thesimsblues @historicalsimslife @johnnysimmer @happylifesimsreblogs @moon-simmers @sunlittides @dancemachinetrait @buzzardly28 @linzlu @oydis @kotcatmeow @theroyalthornoliachronicles @simstomaggie @lace-and-honey @dzifasims @wheresbella @vintagesimstress @cyber-frog-cc @elfdor @hezzasims @emmastillsims @cliffirem @vroshii @twentiethcenturysims @daylifesims @glimersims @bustedpixels @simadelics @polygraphish and its not letting me tag everyone else so the rest will also be tagged in that other post i guess!!!! ah!!!!

[yatima]

A propos of nothing in particular I wanna talk about Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake from my other favorite TV show, M*A*S*H. Henry was based on a historical person who seems to have been pretty shitty, and in the sitcom he starts out as a terrible leader and kind of a hateful jerk. Over time, though, he demonstrates competence, shows real growth and, thanks to a terrific performance from a gifted actor, becomes a beloved character.

In the final episode of the third season, Henry gets his much-wanted honorable discharge from the Army and is given a hilariously chaotic send-off from his unit in Korea. Just as we think he's going to be safe for the rest of his life in Bloomington, Illinois, Radar comes into the OR and speaks the words that are engraved on my HEART: "Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake's plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors."

My God. People were SO MAD at the showrunners. Henry worked so hard! He went through so much! He deserved an endless retirement full of fishing! He didn't deserve a random awful sudden death! We loved him and how he interacted with all the other characters and we missed him for the rest of the show!

My God if the rest of that show wasn't immeasurably changed and improved. After Henry died for real, everything had stakes. Profound tone-shift from wacky hijinks to still incredibly funny but character-driven and insightful. Frank and Margaret went from flat caricatures to - well, at least in Margaret's case - one of the best and most complex women on TV at the time. (Team Let Frank Be Trans can still win.) The shallow nihilism that the early seasons shared with the novel and the film was replaced by a hard-earned melancholy that set the comedy in high relief. Henry's death underscored one of the most memorable exchanges in the show, that came two entire seasons later:

Hawkeye: War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

M*A*S*H isn't just a show about war. It didn't just define the modern workplace comedy, it did so by making the point that the modern workplace is where most of us viewers spend our lives trying to reckon with the violent empire in which we are embedded. At its best, M*A*S*H showed us that the resistance lives and endures in pockets of unconditional love and mutual aid.

Henry wasn't being punished for anything, and his death wasn't a statement on the part of the writers that people like him don't deserve to live. The writers loved Henry too. People, unfortunately, die. We are all going to die (cue Sufjan Steven's Fourth of July), some of us old and surrounded by people who love us, and some of us way too young and unfairly and not infrequently as a direct consequence of the aforementioned violent empire. The randomness and cruelty of it is what makes love and resistance so utterly necessary and beautiful.

Rest in peace, you lovable jerk.

[codenamesazanka]

Although HeroAca's ethics are conscientious, we can also see a glimpse of modern dangers. At least as far as the developments to date are concerned, it seems that at the base of the work lies naive nationalism and a lack of imagination toward the situation in which official authority expands in the name of "justice." However, this nationalism seems to have an inclusive character, just like the nationalism of nationhood, which is another hidden basis of "Shounen Jump Values." As a fusion with such nationalism, we may be able to see in HeroAca the aspect of a higher level of community ethics that is relativistic and individualistic, yet aware of responsibility to "others." However, according to Karatani's logic, nationalism, which is a "(insular) community" way of thinking, should be in conflict with "(broad) social" thinking. Perhaps in the case of nationalism as a nationhood founded on universal ideals and principles, it does not actually contradict "social" thinking.

Still, it is important to note that even such nationalism is always in danger of slipping into exclusionary logic when a crisis occurs. Although HeroAca clearly denounce dictators, it does not have the imagination to understand that historically, bureaucrats/civil servants were the means by which rulers carry out their rule, so the current positioning of Heroes is a status that could support movements such as the state control of society that occurred in Japan in the late 1930s (fascism). [HeroAca fails to show enough wariness towards social control by public authorities.]

...

In that sense, if Heroes are imagined as an entity rooted in the network of "Hero Agencies" in the story and its spiritual ethics are depicted as maintaining a healthy tension with the state, then its ethics may be considered to be truly "social."

Nihilism and ethic in Shōnen Manga as romanticism : "Attack on Titan" and "My Hero Academia", Anna Eto, 2018

(translated by me)