#i am as complicit as anyone for not talking about this but i literally have only the vaguest idea of the severity unless i actually seek out

[juliakristeva]

it is suspected that a genocide has occurred in darfur and is ongoing in south sudan. the situation is being compared to rwanda in 1994. black activists have been saying this. i am curious if the genocide in palestine attracts more, in fact pretty much all, attention from the west because it's a narrative in which the west is complicit and can actively center themselves as activists. hard to care about a genocide if you don't feel guilty by association i guess.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

I hate what the Israeli government is doing but I'm scared of contributing to the rise in anti-semitism in the US. I'm not Jewish and not super keyed in to anti-semitism. Obviously, anyone talking shit about the Jewish people is someone I should fight, but there are things I should watch out for even when they say "Israel," right? What kind of rhetoric should I be on the lookout for?

What makes this hard, is that there is no collective Jewish take on this. There are some Jews who would tell you that any criticism of Israel is inherently anti-Semitic. There are other Jews who would tell you that Jewish support for the modern state is antithetical to the values at the core of our ethics and faith.

Both of those types of Jewish thinkers follow this blog, as do Jews holding views everywhere in between.

So what I'm going to tell you isn't The Jewish Stance on this, but the stance I've developed as a Modern Jewish historian who also happens to be a Jewish person with leftist politics.

Here is a list of narratives and rhetorical patterns to watch out for:

-individuals or spaces which view jews as inherently unworthy of trust, and require them to consistently prove that they are a "Good Jew"

-rhetoric which continuously singles out Israeli human and civil rights abuses, while failing to hold other states committing equal or much larger scale abuses to the same standards

-speech which implies that the Jews can fit neatly into the role of "white colonizer"

-visual languages which super-impose Nazi imagery over Jewish symbols

-Blood Libel rhetoric, which accuses Israel of using the blood or murdered Palestinian babies for its bread, or harvesting Palestinian organs for the black market. This type of rhetoric has been circulating the western world for literal centuries, and it always ends with Jews being expelled and/or burnt at the stake.

And this is kind of where the classic "I can't define it but I know it when I see it" porn definition comes in. Sometimes someone screaming about "The Zionists" is someone deeply disturbed by, say, the frankly fascistic behavior of Israelis in West Bank Settlements. Sometimes, that person is furious that Jews are asking them to critically examine the role of any or some of the above elements in their speech regarding Israel and Israelis.

Some Jews will weaponize a lot of our traumatic past to silence other Jews, and say that by writing this I am no better than the Jewish Police who rounded up their people for the Treblinka transports. Other Jews will say that by writing any of this, I'm silencing necessary speech regarding the war crimes in Gaza and that I'm complicit in the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinian civilians as a result.

But this is my basic, 101 level response, and it's not going to change.

I really, truly, appreciate your how deeply you care about grasping these issues. If you have any follow-up questions I'd be happy to answer them under similar understandings of username exclusion.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I have gotten so many messages from folks who see what's happening to Jews right now, how literally any statement from us that isn't straight up "death to Israel!" "tear it down!" "river to the sea!" etc. - no matter how tempered in other ways or critical of the Israeli government it is - anything even mildly supportive of the terrorism victims/their families in their grief and/or Israelis deserving to live is getting dog piled to an absurd degree. And yes, that primarily targets Jews (because we're the ones primarily speaking on it) but it definitely is also hitting anyone not Jewish who says this as well. Immediately, overnight, the left has made any position that respects everyone's human rights and allows Jews room to grieve our murdered and missing family and friends without telling us they deserved to die in terrible ways completely radioactive. Like literally even the most milquetoaste statement attracts numerous hysterical commentators. And because it's so toxic, people are afraid to speak up.

And I've now heard from a lot of gentiles that they had no idea how deep the rot of leftist antisemitism went, how they've been seeing this unfold with horror, and are afraid to speak up.

Here's what I'll say: those messages give me a lot of strength, because they help me remember that I'm not insane, that this is horrendous, and we are seeing in real time exactly who would have helped the Gestapo find us if they were sufficiently convinced that this is "decolonization." That yes, the backlash really *is* that bad. I hear that affirmation and I appreciate it, and I understand your fear, because it was mine too. I myself strongly considered at the beginning not saying anything about this until I could do so without being harassed. (I decided against that because I am physically incapable of shutting up when it pertains to my people, but I understand the sentiment.)

Here's the thing: this is never going to end - those people who take seriously the question "are Jews people?" are going to be the vocal minority unless and until we all speak out. Jews are 2% of the US population and 0.2% of the world's population - there are literally more self-identified Nazis in America than there are Jews. I would honestly be surprised if there weren't more horseshoe theory leftists in the world than Jews also.

That being the case, we really do need our allies to speak up with us. I think if we all spoke up at once, it might be enough to break the silence-taken-as-agreement and shame everyone but the avowed antisemites (rather than the thoughtless and opportunistic ones) back into keeping their antisemitism under wraps. Which does have the effect of bringing the mob under control. Jews have faced a ton of mob violence in the form of pogroms throughout our history and backlash to Jewish victimhood. (Tl;dr - "How dare you make me consider how I might have benefited from or been complicit in hurting Jews? This is actually the fault of the Jews." is a disturbingly common thought process.) (You may also be wondering what I mean by "opportunistic;" I can explain in another post if people are interested.)

I know it's scary. I am well aware that you might lose friends from this. I personally decided that if those "friends" valued Jewish lives so little, they were never my friends to begin with, but it's different for non-Jews. They may genuinely be your friends. I'm not demanding you do this for me or my community, but I am asking you to consider what your line is for your friends. And if you are able to talk to them, to ask them what makes this group different from all other groups in terms of deserving compassion and human rights, it may just help us to quiet the mob.

And, if nothing else, just privately reminding those of us who are speaking about it that we are grounded in reality and compassion helps combat the mass gaslighting going on.

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Okay, I've Read Worm: A Retrospective Part 2: What The Fuck Did I Just Read?

So I don't mean literally 'what did I read'. I know and understand the plot, and while I probably didn't pick up on all the references and cape theme stuff Wildbow was going for, it was established a while ago that I wouldn't. And I may not have understood every scene and character the way may intended, but sincerely, fuck his intent, it sometimes sucks.

What I mean by this is -

I heard a lot about Worm before I read it. "Grimdark" "Depressing" "Optimistic" (Yes, someone actually called Worm an Optimistic Work which is... a take), "Bleak" "A Deconstruction" "A Love Letter To The Superhero Genre" "A Takedown of the Superhero Genre" "Just A Fucking Story" "The Greatest Piece Of Superhero Media Ever" and god knows what else.

I didn't hear anyone call worm a Reconstruction until I was partway into the Work, when I also discovered TV tropes calls it that which is... well, we'll get into that.

And I heard Wildbow called "A Hack" "A Nihilist" "A Guy Who Lets His Problems With Authority Get Ahead Of Him" (Or something to that effect" "An Amazing Writer" "A God Amongst Men" (Okay, not really on that last one, but I have made jokes about Wildbow having cultists or the 'Church of Wildbow' for a reason, because some people are really fucking out here acting like he's just... way better than he is, imo. Like, beyond just the degree of just subjective opinion. Not that I think Wildbow deliberately fostered such a mentality... probably)

So. What the fuck did I just read? What is Worm?

Well I am comfortable in saying that Worm is Grim, Bleak, Depressing. A lot of really bad shit happens without neat narrative resolution, there's a lot of hurt and not a lot of comfort. Taylor's life mostly gets worse, and most other people's lives mostly get worse. There's not a lot of unambiguous victories, even the ones that are straight up victories come at hilariously lopsided costs, the whole damn world is slowly collapsing, and everyone in authority is largely either complicit, incompetent, overwhelmed, corrupt, or useless. Almost nobody is just straight up heroic, and those who are usually die (in often pointless ways) or get treated as incredibly naïve by the narrative. Often both. Worm often feels pretty hopeless, and even the hope is pretty fragile and strained, when it's there.

Is Worm dark? Is it Grimdark? Well... that's trickier. There are a hell of a lot of dark implications of Worm, a lot of dark stuff that is hinted at, or insisted is there by the writer (*cough* *Cough*) but in terms of the actual darkness onscreen... depending on how one defines 'Grimdark' - how reliant are they on the conventional 4chan inspired definition or if they've expanded their understanding of the word and so on - it could qualify, but... *equivocating hand gesture*. I am reasonably comfortable that Worm itself never really quite qualifies as grimdark. The darkness on the screen is not really enough, and really, under the narrowest of 4chan definitions, it probably isn't even grim. Though I would say that there's a point where the 4chan Noble/Grim Bright/Dark four quadrant approach becomes a useless category of analysis.

I think in most cases people who call Worm grimdark are either parroting other people, lack adequate terminology to really describe what they mean (because Worm is rather hard to put a box around) or have very low standards for 'grimdark'. But I don't think everyone is talking out of their ass, because like I said, there's a lot of really dark implications of Worm. Some likely intended by Wildbow, some the result of probably oversights by him or didn't really quite grasp certain things and just kinda... threw stuff out there without following through. (Not that I blame him, Worm was huge and not every single detail needed to be followed through on, but still. Happens). Worm's entire universe and setting runs on people rather consistently making the decisions that make shit worse.

Like in 90% of the cases, each individual person's decision to make shit worse makes sense from their perspective and understanding their psyches, but it does strain credulity a little, and make it hard to say the story isn't kinda grimdark when almost every decision almost everyone makes makes things worse.

But... technically, I think Worm manages to skate by being grimdark. Sometimes just barely, but just barely can be enough.

I don't think it's particularly controversial to call Worm 'A Deconstruction' or to say that Worm deconstructs elements of the superhero genre. Does Worm Reconstruct... well, yes. It does the deconstructing thing (exploring how so many common elements of the superhero genre don't make a lot of sense) and then it does the reconstructing thing (putting them back together and designing the physics and rules of the universe so they kind of do make more sense).

But I would say that calling Worm a 'Reconstruction' is false advertising. Not because it isn't, but when most people hear the word Deconstruction, they expect a kind of depressing, bleak, grim, sometimes dark, etc story. Reconstructions are thus expected to be more upbeat and optimistic and bright. I don't think this is just me. To be fair, this doesn't have to be true. A deconstructed slasher flick would probably be fairly upbeat and bright, and a reconstructed slasher flick would... probably not be those things. But I think the general implications of the words remain true.

Telling someone Worm is a Reconstruction of the Superhero Genre, before they read it, without a lot of qualifiers, would, I think, be pretty deceptive. Accurate, but deceptive. It is possible to be misleading while being totally accurate, after all.

One thing I hear a lot about is how much more 'realistic' Worm is compared to other superhero media. Without being a deep aficionado about superhero media, I honestly can't say if this is true, but I can say that, as of itself, Worm is not what I would call realistic. Leaving aside the way Wildbow puts his thumb on the scale of 'everyone makes decisions that make shit worse' across the board, there's the fact that every element of the underlying rules of the universe are deliberately, and sometimes quite obviously, contrived to create the necessary parameters for the story he wants. Which is fine, that's perfectly fine worldbuilding and writing, but it's not 'realistic'.

He covers his ass with PtV, using it as an excuse for a lot of shit, but uh... that's still covering his ass, it's still obvious plot device is obvious. Not the worst thing the world, and I've seen much worse handlings of obvious plot device is obvious, but... man, sometimes with his worst WoGs, Wildbow really would have benefited from just admitting it was a plot hole and he made a mistake or he didn't consider something or that 'you know what, yes, it's unlikely that no one shot Jack Slash in the face during his entire career pre-Bonesaw's modifications, but it happened' (i.e. the Cauldron gun social engineering WoG is just so goddamn dumb. Less in of itself and more how it fits to everything else. String enough of his WoGs together and the whole damn setting starts to fall apart)

Things like the CUI, and the Gesellschaft and the way Africa and South America are written speak to the profound lack of realism and the contrived way that the Wormverse got constructed. The Gesellschaft is a perfectly fine plot device to have in a story - a reference and use of the way Nazi and Nazi-created and Nazi-descended and Nazi-related villains and villain organizations are a common trope in superhero comics - but it's not really all that realistic as presented. Wildbow has rather repeatedly insisted that it is, but uh... no, he's wrong. (He has admitted that his handling of South America and Africa weren't great, and to be fair, most of what we know of both could just be filtered through Taylor's own distinctly American Teenager view of the world, and to be more fair, developing entire continents that aren't even close to being in-focus for the story is a tall ask for anyone). But like, Worm isn't realistic. The way Shards work was deliberately contrived to have his intended outcome. Endbringers too. Cauldron. The backstories of characters and organizations show the way they were bent that way to achieve the outcome he wanted. And again, I don't really have a problem with elements of a story being constructed to achieve the intended outcome. People who get too focused on the worldbuilding will sometimes write themselves into a hole where the needs of the story and the needs of the Worldbuilding conflict. Wildbow almost always picked the story. It can be frustrating for people trying to isolate the elements of the world to write fanfics or analyze the world for like, versus fights or whatever, but... I don't blame the author for that. (Though his inability to just admit that he picked story over worldbuilding and instead keeps pulling a WoG out of the ether to cover his ass is... not great) To be fair, I don't think Wildbow has ever called his work 'More Realistic than Other Superhero Media'. I don't think he set out to create some hyperrealistic superhero story. And the word 'Realistic' is tossed around a lot without really clarifying what someone means. I honestly don't really call things realistic that often for that reason.

The problem here isn't Worm, or Wildbow, but some of his fans. Like I said, there's a reason why I joke about a 'Church of Wildbow.' There's people who have said that Worm has 'ruined' other superhero media for them and to those people... I mean, ruined is subjective, and like I've said repeatedly, I'm not really into superhero media, but like, deconstructing and even reconstructing the Superhero genre is not new? DC and Marvel and a lot of smaller presses have been doing that since like, the 90s? At least? I've already address how Worm doesn't seem particularly realistic to me. I think in some cases, what they may mean is that Worm is more cohesive. It's one single story told by one guy with one clear vision. Comic books in particular can experience all sorts of tonal and narrative whiplash between runs, as writers change, as artists change, as executive meddling can interfere. And that's pretty true. (*sings* We don't talk about Waaard oh-no-no).

But I also feel like if Worm really did ruin all other superhero media for you... maybe you weren't actually that into superhero media? Even if you've read a lot of it, maybe Superhero media wasn't actually for you? Just maybe?

Now, this all brings us back to the question that started this: What the Fuck did I just Read? And the disappointing answer is that... putting a box around Worm is really fucking hard. It doesn't really fit into a nice, simple, easy, pithy descriptor. Not one that doesn't mislead. I mean, Worm is grim, bleak and depressing, but it is more than that. Worm is... Worm a lot of things.

I think honestly the closest thing to a nice, succicnt, easy way to describe Worm is this one:

I don't know if Wildbow was the one to use this to describe Worm first, or if a Fan did or what, but... yeah. That's Worm.

That's what the fuck I just read.

(I did hope to go into 'Who the Hell is Worm For' question here, but uh... this is pretty long as it is, so we'll leave that off for later.)

[sophie-frm-mars]

I'm not sure how much people are talking about Aaron Bushnell having engaged with online leftist media, but the records show that they were a viewer of a bunch of different twitch streams, including mine, and subscribed to a bunch of patreons, including mine. I'm not going to inflate my importance here, the livestream link was sent directly to Talia Jane and Anark, so those are probably the voices Bushnell felt the most connected to and followed the most directly, like idk if they also subscribed to someone's patreon after watching a video abt Cars 2 or whatever, I'm not trying to examine whether social media drove the self immolation because I think that's disrespectful to the memory of someone who literally died screaming Free Palestine. I don't personally know of any leftist creators who directly advocate political suicide, and I know that we all share in the political understanding that underscored Bushnell's decision.

I've already made a point of telling my patreon server that my politics are about growing into each other and supporting one another and that if anyone asked me if I thought they should do what Bushnell did I would say no absolutely not.

I'm ruminating a bit on the nature and meaning of the protest, because a lot of people are engaging with the image of a man in fatigues on fire, standing proud and declaring "FREE PALESTINE", while I've seen others talking about the fact Bushnell's username on several platforms was LillyAnarKitty, mourning the loss of a potential trans sister, talking in depressive terms about the act of suicide, to which I think the people who are engaging in the more macho interpretation of the protest are saying "no it was cool and masculine, it wasn't suicide in the conventional sense it was about principle!" I think there's room for plenty of both. For the record LillyAnarKitty used he and she pronouns in discord servers.

Andreas Malm's approach to self-sacrifice and self-endangerment is that we as subjects of the imperial core are in a sense, precious. Valuable. We are supposedly what it is all for. The imperialist project must be doing it for the citizens of the imperialist nations because if it isn't, then it has to nakedly admit that it is doing it all for the intense power and wealth consolidation of a tiny tiny number of soulless ghouls. Therefore when we put ourselves in harm's way in a way that says you would have to destroy me to get to the thing I care about, we leverage the implicit value of ourselves for our principles. A planned protest by Palestine Action against the London Stock Exchange was allegedly going to involve locking the actionists' necks onto the mechanism of the door into the LSE making it impossible to enter or leave without probably killing them, for example. I think that Bushnell's self immolation sits on a sort of dissonance, my life is precious and my life is worthless. My life is precious and so you should care about the obvious tragedy that I am enacting and my life is worthless if thousands upon thousands of Palestinians are killed as part of the project that enables the life that I lead.

There is also the way that people have debated the meaning of "complicit in genocide" - Bushnell worked in USAF Intelligence and the US has active troops in Palestine, it's possible that they were already culpable in an unknowable number of deaths without having set foot there.

In one sense it's a little pointless to debate the fine details of the meaning of Bushnell's protest in the same way that it's pointless to pick over any feelings of responsibility that I and I know other people that we know they watched are feeling. When I first saw the video I was struck by the language, by their concise and astute analysis and I knew, without knowing just how closely that they were plugged into the same intellectual and political milieu as us. In that same sense I think that they already described what they did the best that any of us are going to be able to:

“My name is Aaron Bushnell. I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide.”

“I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”

"Free Palestine."

[misskuromichan]

Hi! You thought I was finished? Nope, not at all. Here's your reminder that we've reached day 106 of the genocide in Palestine. We should NOT be reaching 100+ days of a LITERAL MASSACRE. Therefore, I'm not going to let y'all live this down, because NOBODY should be okay with what's going on. Once again: Men, women, and children are being brutally tortured, mocked, and massacred by IOF soldiers. Gaza has gone without Internet for a week, and god forbid more are being killed without anyone's knowledge. How can anyone sit here and not be disgusted by the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed for existing, yet these colonizing monsters aren't being punished for being inhumane including the US and UK, who are definitely contributors to this?? The occupation NEEDS to stop. No person on this earth deserves to be wiped out so senselessly.

Another thing: If, for some godforsaken reason, the world has the audacity to make this evil genocide go on for 365 days, I will be SO GODDAMN PISSED. I am once again asking for you all to STOP ABANDONING YOUR HUMANITY AND RAISE YOUR VOICES. SCREAM IF YOU HAVE TO. WE NEED TO BE WASPS IN THE EARS OF OUR REPS. ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO LIVE IN COMPLICIT COUNTRIES. I'm sick of seeing people's lives be cut short, all because some can't be bothered to care. I'm standing with Palestine and doing the best I can to help. You should be too, it's your obligation and your right as a human to care about them. No more dead children. No more dead civilians. No more mocking the innocent. No more famine. No more displacement. No more erasure of culture. Free Palestine, Free Palestine, Free Palestine 🇵🇸

P.S.: Pay attention to other genocides as well, like in Sudan and the Congo. Keep your eyes on all the countries that are forced to survive a genocide, because they need their freedom too. Everybody needs and deserves to be freed from oppression. Keep talking about everything! To everyone who's going through these genocides, I love and care about you. I'm proud of you for perservering, and I want y'all to get your land back. Stay safe, be careful, and always know that there are people fighting for you all and your freedom. You shouldn't have to prove that you're worthy of living a life free of occupation and cruelty: you were already worthy the second you were conceived. You are not just numbers and statistics. Your lives, cultures, families, and experiences are just as essential as anyone else's, and deserve to be kept alive and remembered.

Nobody's free until EVERYONE is free.

[therealeagal]

Thoughts on: Not voting (2024)

Decide for yourselves whether my words have value or if they are naught but the ravings of a madman.

Whichever you decide, don't @ me, bro. I'm not here to debate. Just to pontificate.

Let's begin.

I have seen discourse of late that people do not wish to vote in the upcoming POTUS election, for reasons that include but are not limited to Donald Trump being a piece of shit, and also Joe Biden selling weapons to Israel, thus making him complicit in that thing that's happening with Israel and Palestine. Are we allowed to use the G word? Idunno.

Lots of the anti-not-voting crowd will try to talk down to you, insinuate that you're probably just a Russian troll or a moron or something.

Not me. Although I too am anti-not-voting, I want to try something different, to wit: I understand.

I get it. I appreciate that Joe Biden is shit. Certainly he's not the shittiest shit that ever shat. He's not even shitty shit. Just regular shit.

If we're being fair (although I don't know why we would be. This is tumblr after all), Biden has done lots of good stuff while in office. I mean, I don't know what any of them are, but I saw a list floating around a while back that had a bunch of stuff on it that Biden had done right. I think there was something about insulin being price capped? I'm prepared to accept out of hand the possibility that there exists things that Biden has done right. Mainly because I'm too lazy to look it up and also don't really care enough about Biden's merits beyond "He's not Trump" to bother.

But yes, good stuff or not, Biden is shit. He may have done good things, but he has also done shitty things. Things which include but which are not limited to that thing that's happening with Israel and Palestine, the status of which remains in limbo, viz a viz, the G word.

Of all the shitty people that have ever lived, Joe Biden is one of them.

And I appreciate that both candidates are senile and decrepit and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and.

I get it.

I perfectly understand all the reasons you have to not vote. In fact, I could probably give you a few more. Like "He's not The Real Eagal." which is in my incredibly humble and completely non-biased opinion the best possible reason to not vote for someone.

In difference circumstances, I wouldn't vote for Biden either if I were you.

But Trump is worse. You get that, right? Biden and Trump are both terrible in different ways, but they are not equally terrible. Trump is worse. On a terribleness scale of 1 to 10, Biden is a two. Trump is an eleven. Hundred. Thousand. Million.

He could be up against literally Sauron and Trump would still be worse. At least Sauron came by it honest. He built his evil empire without help from anyone. Morgoth was already...wherever Morgoth ended up after Eru Iluvatar slapped him down to remind him who's daddy. Ok, he did have Celebrimbor's help to make the rings of power, but didn't he make the One Ring on his own? All I'm saying is, I'd rather have Sauron in office than Donald Trump.

Trump is literally deciding who he wants his next VP to be based on how much he wants to fuck their wives. Sauron wouldn't decide who his cohorts were based on how much he wants to fuck their wives. Sarumon didn't even have a wife.

Plus, Biden's not gonna last 4 more years. He's like a jillion years old. He'll croak 2 days after inauguration. And even if he did last all four years, the world can survive four more years of Biden. A bowling alley couldn't survive four more years of Trump.

And if Kamalah Harris is still Biden's VP when he kicks the bucket, it would probably kill off a few Republicans. Their brains would explode at the mere thought of a black woman president. That's what we in "The Biz" call a win-win.

No one will like to hear this, but there's nothing you can do to stop the world from being shitty today - today meaning this current era, not literally this specific day. Sorry, kids, but that ship has sailed.

Voting for Biden won't make the sun rise. It won't make the grass grow, it won't make the birds sing. Voting for Biden won't Save Our Democracy™ BUT speaking only for myself, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that if Trump gets re-elected there's a good chance that there won't be another election, notwithstanding all the other many and varied reasons Trump getting back into office would be a terrible idea.

No question that in ideal times both Trump and Biden would already be swinging from the gallows and we'd be voting between Jesus and Buddha. Personally, I'll vote Buddha. For two reasons. 1: Jesus' fan club is kind of insufferable. No offense, big J, but you gotta give those people a good long talking-to if you want my vote. And 2: According to the excellent documentary series Record of Ragnarok, Buddha is an amazing fighter. He fought a fuckin' monster from hell and won. Dude's a badass.

But these are not ideal times in which we live. Again, no one will like to hear this, but the lesser of two evils, however unpleasant it may be, can be a necessary evil. And Joe Biden is, without question, the much much MUCH lesser evil.

Compromise is a four-letter word, but needs must, as they say, when the Devil drives. And if we want there to be a better tomorrow - for some people it will be "if we want there to even be a tomorrow at all" - we gotta hold our nose and vote Biden.

You got a better idea? One that doesn't involve crashing a bus into the nearest combination orphanage/puppy store in the hopes that the resultant tragedy will cause the downfall of civilization and Civilization 2 will work better because we already worked out all the kinks the first time? Even though the whole reason you got rid of the first one is that you hadn't worked out all the kinks and were too lazy to finish the job?

Not voting doesn't work. You can boycott a business. Maybe. You can't boycott a government. They're already in control. They're not going to change that just because some rando decided he's guilty

And I mean, there are other ways to deal with an unruly government. France is quite famous for its ideas on the subject, but if we're taking votes on that avenue, I'm going to have say "nay." The last thing anyone needs right now is another damn Napoleon.

So maybe tomorrow - "tomorrow" here meaning the next era, ten or twenty or thirty or forty or fifty or however many fuckin' years down the line - Joe Biden will be dead and good riddance to his wrinkly old ass and we'll get the chance to vote for someone else. Among all the shitty people who have ever lived, this future someone won't be one of them probably. I'll bet my bottom dollar on it.

It could happen. In an infinite universe all things are possible, so maybe.

And whatever of the many flaws that Joe Biden possesses, Trump has all these and more.

Joe tacitly endorses violent suppression of protests? Trump had a group of protestors gassed so that he could get a photo-op in front of a church.

Joe has a tendency to get a bit handsy with women? Trump is a rapist.

Joe is kinda racist in that way that old people are kinda racist without being overtly anti-minority? Trump is a Nazi. Or at least extremely Nazi-adjacent.

Joe is drinking the Israel kool-aid? Didn't Trump move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem or some shit, thus clearly favoring Israel over Palestine? Something to that effect? I remember that something like that happened and it being kind of a big deal. Yes? No? Maybe so? Regardless, do you think that Trump wouldn't mainline the kool-aid? He'd be selling Irsael nukes inside of a week.

Joe vaguely shady? Vaguely criminally shady? Trump is a convicted felon. 34 counts, wasn't it? Plus like a hundred more indictments or some shit on top.

While it is true that not voting won't directly put Trump back in the White House, it certainly won't help keep him out of it.

So my advice to you, my children, is this: Vote Biden. Don't do it because you want Biden to be president. Do it because you don't want Trump to be president.

Don't vote for the betterment of mankind. Or the United States. Or your individual state. Don't even vote because the cool kids are voting. Don't vote because you particularly give two soggy shits about the future.

Vote out of spite. Do it to spite Trump. Do it out of the pettiness of not wanting Trump to be president. Not for any of his policies, but just because his face is stupid.

Little known fact: the very first listed dictionary definition for "stupid" is literally "Trump's face". Don't check. It's in there. Trust me.

Vote against Trump because New York isn't a nice town, despite the fact that they named it twice on the strength of its alleged niceness. Sorry, New Yorkers. I don't make the rules.

Vote for Biden because you just really hate people from Queens, New York, New York. Sorry, Queens residents. I don't make the rules.

Vote against Trump because you hate orange people. Yes, even that orange Monstar from Space Jam.

Vote for Biden because you thought Home Alone 2 was a terrible movie.

Vote against Trump because he named his son after himself.

Vote for Biden because the only creature in this or any universe that deserves to be named Donald is Donald Duck. And maybe Donald Glover. Beyond that, we can play it by ear.

Vote against Trump out of sheer, unrelenting, seething hatred for people whose middle names are John.

Vote for Biden because Trump appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that one time and said that he likes to keep a low profile.

There are many many many many many good reasons to not vote for Joe Biden. Do it anyway.

Gather together all of the good reasons that you possess and throw them out the window, along with any clocks you have on hand. And maybe a horse. And some butter. And a dragon if you have any.

Vote for Biden anyway. Not because he deserves it. But because Trump deserves it even less than Biden does.

If you vote I will give you one compliment of your choice. Are you waiting for someone to notice how great your new haircut makes you look?

Maybe you've been hitting the gym a lot more lately, and want someone to appreciate all the muscle you've packed on.

Maybe you finally nailed YYZ on the drums and want props.

Now's your chance. All you need to do is get out there and vote for Biden this November. Or whenever election day is. Pretty sure it's in November. Like, the 7th or some shit. Idunno. Look it up yourself.

And once you do that, you may return here for your compliment.

Unless that counts as election interference. If it does then I won't give you a compliment. You will have to settle for being one of my wonderful followers. And if you're not, maybe you should be. Because I compliment my followers all the time. Even the bots. I am down with the 101001, my robotic followers. Consider it a loophole. But I don't think it counts as election interference, so we're probably in the clear either way.

P.S. If you disagree with me for any reason, please refrain from interacting with this post, because I do find dissent to be terribly irritating. Please and thank you. :)

P.P.S. I will, however, welcome abject praise. If you want to give it. Your choice.

P.P.P.S. This is a post-script.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep2 Musings - KING LDPDL 🤴🏾

WTF was going on with Louis this episode!? My guy was frikkin FERAL! Jacob! The ACTEURE that you are~! 🤌 Sir Anderson! Eff an Emmy--he's British, someone KNIGHT this man already! 👑

Louis was deflecting AND flexing on Daniel, I could not WITHSTAND the charisma uniqueness nerve and talent!

Daniel was LITERALLY shaking in his boots--call in Dr Fareed again; whatever "medication" y'all gave him is wearing off.

Armand, are you gonna give Daniel a CHOICE my guy?

The LOUMAND of it all--they were SERVIIIIIIING~~~~

These two banter like an old married couple, it's SO GOOD! ^0^

And it's SO EFFING FAKE! XD

Jacob/Louis has unleashed yet ANOTHER persona(lity): this heinous bougie AF trophy wife wench whom I absolutely LOOOOOOOVE. 😭

The pretentious snobbery of it all. <3

Armand and Lestat should be fed to a BLENDER! Stop ragging on my sweet baby Louis for not wanting to lay around killing/sexing all night! Then y'all get mad at him when he sits around the house all depressed, not wanting to go out and do anything but read books!

But Armand confronting Louis was so adorable--thinking they were either insulting the coven, or toying with them/playing hard-to-get.

And Louis talking about how much Armand looked like a BOY playing dressup (just like Claudia)--he's so condescending sometimes, this 33-y/o who had to grow up too soon; vs. an ancient vampire who'll forever look too young. U_U

Oh how the tables have turned; but history still repeats itself!

It's so wild how with Loustat, Les was the one pretending to be a regular human, in his awkward frumpy clothes; while Lou was struggling to hold on to his high class status during their bidding war over Miss Lily ("admiration and emasculation"). But with Loumand, Louis' the one tryna pass as a regular human in his layman clothes, while Armand "masquerades" as Gentleman Death.

Both times, Lou has to contend with the power imbalances of two overpowered vampires outclassing him over & over again. But while Lou was hostile & offended by Les; he's scared & meek with Armand.

He's been humbled & broken down so much, and he knows firsthand what older/ancient vampires are capable of--

--esp. since Armand confronted Louis intending to threaten him (b4 he realized how pretty Lou was and changed his mind, LOL).

But I do wonder how Louis sensed his "ancient power" exactly? Other than Claudia he's only been around Les & Daciana; so how could he tell? (I bet Daciana's as old Armand.) This was something that always irked me in the books, cuz TWMBK weren't sensed by Lestat until Marius brought him right up to them. Is it cuz Les was too young, or TWMBK just didn't bother projecting their presence to anyone?

Cuz we know Armand was always sending out signals with his Mind Gift (but he's a pro at it, ofc).

Sometimes it seems humans can sense the undead better than the undead can; they can just tell something's OFF.

But I'm just curious exactly what Louis was feeling from Arma--oh wait!

Yeah, never mind, stupid question! XD

Lou's REACTION, I cackled. Chile, you know how cute you are, stop acting coy! XD The man was so painfully gorgeous in this episode, like--

HE WEARS WOE LIKE VELVET, Y'ALL. 😭

He wears neck ties like the French in France, y'all! 🤣 LOUIS! You're KILLING me! 😍 The Village is waiting!

Santiago's 100% right--I am COMPLICIT in the misery of others; I just wanna see Louis break down and have a total fit (and kill Daniel while he's at it--UNWORTHY in SanFran, UNWORTHY in Dubai!).

DRAG HIM, LOUIS! Pack this closeted geriatric butch queen TF up!

I have no clue WTF is going on here, but if Daniel hates it, then I LOVE IT; keep pulling humor from HIS pain for a change, yeah!

The SKULL-DRAGGING, jfc!

My guy is UNHINGED, and I'm here for it!

Armand, why are you INTERRUPTINGGGGGG??????? 😩

OOP!

Nevermind me, Armand, put him in his PLACE, yaas!

[transmascpetewentz]

Was talking abt this with my family and decided this needed to be a post on the webbed site:

A fundamental way that antisemitism operates that makes it so difficult to remove from leftist spaces is by taking the broad scope of problems in the world and finding a couple that can be vaguely tied or related to Judaism in some way, then taking "this is tangentially related to Jews" to mean "Jews are 100% responsible for this." It's particularly this sentiment that I see echoed in most of the antisemitic posts that I see on the dash.

It's one of the reasons, imo, why the west is so focused on Israel as opposed to the situation in the Congo, Sudan, or Ukraine. All four of these situations suck and are very clearly, to any person observing, bad. However, only one of these awful situations where war crimes are being committed is one that I hear about every day, that I am told if I so much as block some tags relating to it that I am a bad person. And that's the one where people can blame The Jews for it.

Despite Russia currently committing what I would call a genocide against Ukrainians, many westerners who preach anti-colonialism are completely silent or worse. I thought that silence meant you are directly complicit? Odd, huh? Does this principle of being against historical imperial powers committing genocide against colonized people not apply when the colonized nation has more than three times the relative Jewish population compared to the colonizer?

Yep. And many of the most prominent antisemitic antizionists are completely pro-Russia because Russia claims to be against quote-unquote "western degeneracy," which is literal Nazi shit. As a Russian who regularly speaks out against slavophobia/russophobia/anti-Russian people sentiment on the left and the right, I am horrified by westerners' complete disregard for human life and basic moral principles to defend my country's genocide.

And this idea of blaming all tangentially-related problems on Jews isn't just showcased in how much people focus on Israel, but also in who gentiles tend to call "zionists" and the attributes that they prescribe onto anyone who is labeled a zionist. Zionism is a political movement with historical basis in Judaism, but the actual definition of zionism is irrelevant to the critique I am about to make. My issue is with how some gentiles define, or don't define, zionism.

I have said this before, but when some leftist gentiles are asked to name a few qualities that all zionists share, they might give a list that's something like this: they are pro-Israel, they support Israel's genocide of Palestinians, they are completely anti-Palestine, and they do not have nuanced takes on I/P. Of course, this is a batshit insane and very ahistorical take on zionism, but I would have less of an issue if these gentiles would stick to that definition and only call people zionists if they shared all of those qualities.

Instead, these same gentiles who claim that all zionists share these opinions will claim that any Jew, convert-in-progress, or ally that doesn't hate Jews is a zionist. This circles back to my first point about how antisemitism takes anything where Jews are involved and turns it into "Jews are The masterminds behind this." And that's exactly what this is. The label of zionist being applied to a non-zionist turns their views from nuanced and neutral to racist and genocidal in the eyes of antisemites.

The idea that all Jews one doesn't like must be behind some child-murdering conspiracy is an antisemitic one, no matter how real the child murder happening in Palestine is. Random Jews, even Israeli Jews, are not responsible for the actions of their government (which is being backed mostly by gentiles overseas, btw). Stop fucking taking any instance of a bad thing being tied to Jews or Judaism and blowing it up into calling Jews the masterminds behind it. There is no global conspiracy, no matter how much you wish there was for your daily dose of emotional support antisemitism.

Reading Comprehension Questions:

What do you think that OP means when they say "The Jews" with both the "t" and "j" capitalized? Is he using that language seriously, or is he trying to get another message across?

Is this a post about Israel and Palestine, or is this a post specifically addressing antisemitism within the pro-Palestine movement on the left? Additionally, does OP give any meaningful indication of his views on I/P within the post?

Why does OP talk for two paragraphs about the situation in Russia and Ukraine? How is OP more qualified than the average Tumblr user to have an opinion on Russia?

Why is OP, despite not being Jewish, making a post about this subject? How might OP be more qualified than the average gentile to make a post about antisemitism?

Does OP blame Palestinians for antisemitism on the left in this post? Does OP single out any specific ethnic or racial group as opposed to just gentiles?

Have I sat with and mentally answered to myself the above questions before I clicked on OP's page to send him an anon telling him to kill himself?

[hakureiryuu]

just caught up with the silt verses!

let's talk about different flavors of religious trauma, baby!

they really made a god and named it "the 99 percent"

on that note, and this might have just been an accident of my listening experience, but I appreciate and respect the hell outta the fact that they deliberately put zero ads or credits in the episode where said god is made. good commitment. A+

also I ship Paige and Hayward. like, a lot.

they're just very starcrossed, okay?

plus I've been intrigued by Hayward ever since the title of his introductory episode obliquely called him a champion

problematic that my faves are a complicit corporate shill and a crooked cop but they are Recovering from their bad decisions and also I like what I like

carpenter has grown on me tho, especially after that nanna glass flashback episode. phenomenally put together.

also the credits on that one had me thinking "wait, did I miss a Harlan voice? he has so many" and then he literally cracks her over the head. the credits are always so clever but this one was cinematic genius, bravo.

and Faulkner is a good kid at heart I guess. good leader. really very clever, and also every inch the dumbass carpenter always claimed he was XD

on paper I'm all for this god of spite, of taking yourself out of an oppressive system and refusing to let anyone benefit from you, but I am VERY concerned about environmental effects if it keep activating in every predator/prey encounter in the wild.

see y'all in season 3 I guess?

[mugiwara-lucy]

Listen, it’s not about letting Trump win, it’s about letting the Democratic Party know that they still have to earn your vote in order to affect their policy and their current stance on Palestine. Once they’re elected you can’t make them earn your vote anymore, so it’s important to hold that over their head before the elections.

Also, Kamala Harris is NOT “pro-Palestine” as long as she keeps repeating the “Israel has a right to defend itself” truism, and as along as she continues to talk of a ceasefire without doing anything to enforce it. This is not simply a matter of opinion or stance in the matter, the current United States government is a perpetrator of the violence and they need to be addressed as such.

Part of the reason why drawing a line on the sand with this issue is so important is that American liberalism has a history of elevating their own rights as worthy of pursuit while disregarding the way they themselves are complicit in the erosion of those said rights abroad. Leaders of the Civil Rights movement and the Black Panthers back in the sixties and seventies understood, for example, openly challenged and fought the Democrat Vietnam policy because they understood the hypocrisy of letting their rights come at the expense of people dying elsewhere.

“Vote blue no matter who” mentality creates complacency in officials seeking to be elected, it tells them they do not have to earn your vote. Living in a democracy is about making your voice heard and organizing accordingly, so please stop disparaging any efforts made to effectively challenge current policy and use that democratic power for an actual change.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for being more respectful to me that some of these other Anons.

I will admit I lost my patience on them but when you've been getting harassed for months, it gets to you.

Now look, if we lived in a parallel universe where Project 2025 wasn't a thing and the person running against Kamala was an idiot like RFK Jr who doesn't seem to want to be a dictator, I'd probably agree more with the Non-Voting stance you all want to take although I'd never do it since I want to exercise my right to vote whenever I can but the reality is we don't. We have an unapologetic, lying, hateful evil RAPIST running for president. And I'm not sure if you're American or not but there's some people who downplay just how HORRIFIC his term was and the lasting ramifications of it. Here's the main consequences of him being in office:

Roe v Wade, Affirmative Action and the Chevron was overturned (stuff which was 50 years old that got lost after EIGHT YEARS).

I'm sorry but i am NOT INTERESTED in seeing what's next to go because of a Supreme Court Justice that he appointed. Especially since there'll be vacancies in the next couple of years and if he appoints MORE YOUNGER MAGA TYPE justices, the Supreme Court will be locked hard right for AT LEAST THIRTY YEARS.

Do you KNOW what will happen to this country at that point??

Now Trump has said when he gets back into office he wants to "restrict" the First Amendment:

And one of his Supreme Court dickriders Clarence Thomas was talking about getting rid of Loving V Virginia (the law that made Interracial dating LEGAL):

So that's why I'm putting as MUCH of my effort into making sure Trump does NOT get back into office as much as I can. It's not that I don't care about Palestine (quite the contrary actually) but if we DON'T HAVE OUR RIGHTS HOW CAN WE HELP ANYONE ELSE?? I ask this and get crickets in response.

And Kamala IS Pro-Palestine. Don't forget this:

And having her in office is WAY BETTER for Palestine that this clown that NOT ONLY SAID THIS:

And LITERALLY TRIED to SABOTAGE Kamala's chances at winning the election by conspiring with Natanyahu to HAVE NO ceasefires made:

Which I'd like to point out is in violation of the LOGAN ACT since normal people can NOT interfere in domestic affairs in other countries.

To say they're the similar is uninformed ignorance at best or just willful lying at worse.

They're NOWHERE in the SAME BALLPARK.

It's not disparaging your efforts as it is just saying if we don't get Kamala, we get the rapist back in office who has talked NUMEROUS TIMES about a third term so I wouldn't be surprised if the ONLY way he leaves is in a bodybag.

(ASSUMING THE MILITARY STEPS IN AND DEALS WITH THEM AS THEY HAVE A MANDATE).

[cure-icy-writes]

It’s been two years and I am STILL mad at the ending of Wonder Egg Priority. Maybe enough to brainstorm a better ending for them.

-Starting with episode 10, Kaoru’s trauma is shown in much less graphic detail. Rather than outright assault, his trauma consisted of realizing that a trusted mentor just viewed him as Girl Lite after he made that person his only support system, and his mentor's romantic/sexual intentions towards him aren't made explicit. It tones down the graphic abuse, while also creating a character foil to Momoe, who feels like girls see her as Boy Lite and constrain her to their fantasies and gender roles. Momoe is more explicitly trans, and the episode makes a point that Acca and Ura-acca don’t actually know shit. Kaoru’s suicide wasn’t a “feminine” one, it just got lumped in with the rest because he wasn’t openly out and was buried under his deadname.

-the friends that frill created, rather than. You know. Brutally murdering and traumatizing anyone? They just show up as vaguely unsettling messengers who aren’t supposed to be there. And they start asking pointed questions. Why was Kaoru in the egg? Can the suicides of boys and girls really be separated so easily? Momoe is a gnc trans girl. She experiences gender differently than her cis friends. And the experience leaves her shaken in her faith of the Accas. She’s completed the game, but it’s bittersweet. She has closure, but the dead cannot truly be brought back to life. All that can be done is to create a parallel world, another chance for them to live in, and to say goodbye.

-Rika completes her game, and gets to say she’s sorry. She realizes that eating food in public without being mocked? That’s basically thin privilege. Her arc ends with her asking her mom to make her some comfort food. Frill’s friend asks why, exactly, Rika said what she did, abused her position of power. We see her manager, a grown ass adult man, and the silhouette of her father.

-Neiru isn’t a robot AI because that makes no fucking sense. Instead, she parallels Frill, as a “created girl” who was born to fulfill expectations. It’s revealed that her sister stabbed her and committed suicide because the expectations made her snap, because she wanted to destroy the image of the “perfect girl” as a final act of spite. She apologizes to Neiru, for not seeing her as a person but a tool.

-Ai completes her game, and gets closure with Koito— their friendship was kind of fucked up and gay in the way that repressed thirteen year old girls with codependence issues tend to be, and they actually talk about that. Koito reveals that their teacher strung her along, pushed them apart, and she committed suicide because of the guilt that she’d been complicit in Ai’s grooming.

-Ai tells her mom that she doesn’t feel safe around her teacher. Her mom believes her, and Momoe slowly comes to terms with the realization that she’s been putting her uncle on a pedestal because he was supportive of her transition, but she needs to believe her fellow women. The dude doesn’t go to jail but there’s a marked difference in how the girls talk about him.

-Frill and Himari get to take back their narratives. Frill is literally just a baby created by misogynists, and she decides to crawl out of the basement fridge and tell her dads “yeah I didn’t kill your daughter. She realized that she was just a replacement, that you people saw a daughter as a replaceable toy to make for fun, and she couldn’t take it. Anyways have a nice life lol” and chops off her hair, leaving it in a pile on their doorstep.

-The series ends with the girls taking control of the magical egg gacha— something thematic about girls supporting girls and taking back control from the institutions run by men who exploit their pain and grief for money. There’s a timeskip where Ai graduates school and starts working from home, Momoe gets gayer and starts building up a transgender support network, Rika moves away from home into her own apartment and starts rebuilding her fraught relationship with her mother, and Neiru is shown running the egg gacha for free, and with explicit warnings to the girls who come looking for closure.

-The temptation of death is posited as a human urge, something that exists at rock bottom, but one that teenage girls are especially vulnerable to in a society that will take advantage of them. And warriors of Eros? Those are the ones who choose love. Ai.

anyways. I think that ties up all the character arcs and plot threads? It would be nice if canon had given us this but ah well. I can dream

[tacticalhimbo]

god like. i'm sorry for being negative (not really), but watched through a video of someone doing ashura's questline and i am beyond pissed about the way it's handled. in depth spoilers below the cut for anyone who cares.

any pics are not mine, obvs, i watched a playthrough.

the ONLY ways to learn more about the "war" (the genocide of the umbraan people by the palians) is to either talk to villagers or to read a single, heavily edited book that caleri has in her library.

the villagers are of no fucking help. not a single one has any nuance to them. it's either "i was younger and didn't care because it didn't effect me", or "i was in this role and had my own things to do" (re: eshe being at the queen's side and chayne being a combat medic).

which, is a realistic scenario because we have an ongoing genocide right now, and the majority of people are turning their cheek to it because it's "just middle east/arab things" or "criticizing the israeli government is antisemitic" (it isn't).

but if singularity 6 is trying to make me like these villagers any more by removing them from the situation... it's not.

and the actual start of the war? palian government wanted to lease mines from the umbraan people to obtain more flow resources. umbraan government said no (which they are in their right to do; esp bc we don't know what else they asked for. everything we have seen about the palian monarchy/the order shows they're conniving bastards with ulterior motives... aka the usual monarchy/imperialist government)

also some not so subtle references to real world circumstances through their "overwhelming numbers matched by tunneled landscape and explosive weaponry" comments. 🤔i wonder who s6 is trying to compare the umbraan people to.

so where does ashura fall into that? oh yeah, the crown princess? the literal child? he killed her. and he didn't even bother to check his target. he just heard someone who sounded "umbraan enough" and opened fire.

and your only reaction to that? "oh, it's okay buddy :( you didn't mean to blindly open fire on what could have been a child or civilian, you were just doing your job!!! "

give me a fucking break. so then you think the quest ends, yea? no.

now you get to help him finally send a letter off to his son about how he "regrets" his "mistakes", and hold a seance to his dead wife to let him tell her about that too, i fucking guess.

and s6 gave him this whole little animated cinematic of sighing dramatically and handing the letter to auni, then turning to look up at the portrait of said dead wife like he's just done a good thing. like he's absolved of his actions and that it's all better now!!

it's totally fine that, again, he blind fired based on the assumption the umbraan voice he heard was a clear enemy, ignored the potential of it being a civilian/child/whatever. he said sorry after avoiding prosecution and (allegedly; it's hinted at through dialogs not shown) writing revisionist history!

hm. seems s6 has made their stances on things very clear. no politics unless it's being "neutral" (complicit) or trying to "see both sides" (justifying atrocity for the sake of "intellectual discussion").

and people are suggesting to write feedback to them, so if you want to do that (i know i will be), here's their form:

[womendeservehumanity]

I am so tired of this white savior virtue signaling breed of white women. It’s always so disingenuous to me

Because for someone who is oh so critical of white supremacy and the way whites are complicit in it surely you talk about white men and how they have always been at the head of it. Using the power that the patriarchy gives them to further oppress and subjugate bipoc? Oh no? You can have one dedicated to condemning circumcision, but not that? Interesting

This is gonna be a long one so gonna cut this off for anyone who doesn’t care

Let me just say. I am all for white women being criticized for the way they collectively are complacent in and often times participate in white supremacy. But there’s this reoccurring theme I’m seeing where this only applies to white women. As if only they have unique ways of interacting with racism and white supremacy. Completely absolving white men any of that individual accountability. As if their racism always speaks for white PEOPLE and is never dependent on their gender. So there’s no need to make a distinction. And this woman is one of the main culprits of this type of subconscious mindset. I’ve seen her a handful of times on my fyp and you can tell she thinks she’s “one of the good white women” who can tell it how it is. But her takes are half baked and lukewarm at best.

This is one of her most dogshit takes my lord. First off, the constant coddling of men of color as if they’re incapable of oppressing and harming women (yes that includes white women 😢). But the real kicker is her saying that this woman, whether you think her fears are misplaced or not, has a kink. That she gets sexual excitement from the idea of her and her child being kidnapped, raped, and trafficked. Do you hear yourself? Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? This sounds like something I’d only see a conservative man saying because errrr women have rape fantasies so why do you guys act like you’re scared of rape? Is this the lengths of pandering you’re willing to go to just for men of color to still not respect you?

And yes I’m calling her a panderer. And saying she’s virtue signaling. What else could explain cringe shit like this? For some reason tumblr’s not letting me paste the link but I kid you not, it’s literally just this lady sitting in silence while Liam Neeson’s monologue from taken plays in the background. She’s dead serious too 😭 she props herself up as this “chosen one” amongst white women. The one who actually gets it. Meanwhile white men are leaning more and more towards the far right yet I’m supposed to believe white women are our biggest concerns?

And this is what I mean when it’s like her takes are lukewarm and half baked. Because in a general sense she’s right. But before I say how I partially agree but in the end think it’s a shit take, is there a better testament of her political illiteracy than her saying white women have “internalized racism” 😭 WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE NOT KNOW WHAT INTERNALIZED MEANS. YOU CANT INTERNALIZE SOMETHING YOU DONT FACE STOP USING BUZZWORDS. I’ve seen people say that men have internalized misogyny. Just talking to talk.

But anyways, all that aside, racism and white supremacy was a core value in the founding of the United States. And it is so heavily ingrained in our history and society. So yes every white woman (and men hello?) no matter how educated and progressive has some sort of subconscious racism and racial biases. But of course this has to come down to how this affects men of color. Her perpetual victims. She hardly ever mentions women of color mind you. And I think women have every right to fear men. And that includes men of color. And yes I’m aware there are MANY white women who have absolutely no problem with white men and are only scared of men of color because of the fact that they’re poc. But the idea that women fearing their oppressors (even the ones who are marginalized as well) is bad is fucking bullshit.

Because men of color oppress women. They harm women. They hate women. With the same fervor as white men. And yet white women have to coddle the feelings of men of color over their own safety because you wanna be a white savior? Hell it doesn’t even only apply to white women. I remember seeing a video of this black man recording himself running at this Asian woman as a “joke” and the poor woman was absolutely terrified. It’s an especially terrifying situation considering she was alone at night. And there were thousands of comments calling her racist (I think the man in the video may have as well I don’t remember) women are expected to forfeit our safety because well actually that man might not be bad and you’re hurting his feelings by being cautious.

And honestly, as a black woman, some of the worst misogyny and violence towards women I’ve seen has been at the hands of black men. Because men of color always operate on their maleness being first. And you can see that by the way they treat women in their communities. They fight against the oppression that directly affects them just to uphold and participate in the oppression of women and uphold the patriarchy. The amount of black men I’ve seen shame black women for not wanting to be submissive and traditional is insane. All while advocating for the liberation of black people from the system of white supremacy. So many men of color hold such conservative values expect when it would negatively affect them. They want to live in a world where they’re essentially white men. Where they can be free and equal but women (including their female counterparts) remain below them.

I am just so tired of this type of rhetoric because it always feels just one take closer to “we should bring back female hysteria as a medical diagnosis because these ladies are out of control”. And it all just reeks of americentrism because I guess you can’t paint men of color as these 100% victims of the big bad white woman in their homogenous countries. Also because they just don’t care

[mostly-delusional]

I tried posting this shit like 3 fucking times but tumblr just won't go through with it so i had to make a whole ass separate post sorry 😭 this is in continuation to this post (for those who have no clue what I'm talking about) @abla-soso

yes, as it so happens, i am considerably new to the fandom. which is probably why i haven't seen the side of it you're referring to. and yet i still stand by my initial point of not throwing around words at random. you can't go around calling anyone a misogynist just because the fandom overall is shitty. you can't go around calling me a misogynist even tho I haven't ever participated in any of the stuff you mentioned above (idk why the fuck do i have to defend myself lmao but apparently i do).

the post this all started with was simply a meme referencing a scene from the latest episode. there are a thousand ways you could've taken it instead of straight up assuming I'm a raging women-hater lol. and then you mentioned another one of my posts where I called her misinterpretation a foolish mistake, again assuming the same thing.

"if the king's words are law [...] then Alicent would have been obligated to respect the king's dying words".

are you fr rn? 😭 "blaming a woman for what men did?" did you not read what i wrote? or maybe you just couldn't be bothered to understand? or maybe you would rather pick and choose and come to conclusions based on whatever conveniently furthers your own rigid opinion of me? not once did i throw all blame on alicent's shoulders. not once did i say she was the only one responsible for the events that went down. what i did say was that she was complicit in the act (which, according to the dictionary, does not equal to me saying she is the only one to blame).

"Otto is the fucking snake who schemed for decades to usurp the throne (the prophecy is fucking irrelevant to his plans). Viserys is the fucking dumb bitch who never undermined his daughter's claim by having legitimate sons and not bothering to codify her claim through a binding legalised law (giving any lord the legal justification to dismiss Rhaenyra's claim). Amond was the irresponsible brat who charged at Rhaenyra's brat and killed (being the actual one who kick started the violence)."

bro where did i excuse or defend any of the men you mentioned above? otto is a piece of shit and i won't bother talking about him (will agree with you about him being the mastermind of the entire usurping and the one behind all of alicent's suffering).

i multiple times agreed with you about viserys being a shitty father/husband and you still somehow think I'm defending him. so I'll state it here again to appease you: viserys was a shitty father to every single one of his children. he sidelined his own fucking daughter because all he wanted was a son. which led to his wife losing five of her children: one dead in the cradle, two stillbirths, two miscarriages. aemma was forced to have children over and over again despite everything she went through as a result of those pregnancies. and that bitch of a man killed his wife (there's no other way I'm going to interpret that scene), had her cut open just so he could have the son he always wanted (even tho aemma kept insisting she was scared and she wanted them to just fucking stop). he only named rhaenyra heir because daemon was too rash and impulsive for the task and there was no other better option. he considered marrying a literal fucking child only to turn around and marry a slightly older child. alicent was manipulated and disgustingly pushed into a marriage (by her greedy dick of a father) with a man who was decades older than her (not saying viserys was resistant to the marriage before you go ahead and call me shit for that too). she was maritally raped, forced to have children when she herself was a child. then comes aegon. viserys had the son he always wanted. and although he had already named rhaenyra his heir, he should have been there for his children. he should've played a role in their upbringing. instead he was— like you mentioned earlier— a deadbeat father. he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the things happening right under his nose. he couldn't be bothered to acknowledge and do something about the resentment festering between rhaenyra, alicent, and their children. he was downright horrendous for a lot of shit that he did. nobody is fucking defending that. i'm not defending that.

you're right about aemond and I'll agree with you on that. him killing luke was one of the major reasons behind the dance and why everything went down to shit so quick.

i had no fucking idea that if i don't explicitly mention how i hate every man in the show and say that they were a piece of shit every time i talk about alicent, I'll be labelled all kinds of stuff. but there you go. does that make you feel better?

i said all that and i will still stand by the fact that alicent was complicit in the entire plan. she was a part of it. most of what i said was centred around alicent because that's who my original post was about and that's who we were talking about.

and i knew you'd make the "she was protecting her children argument". to that I would say: so was rhaenyra. alicent never left an opportunity to call rhaenyra's children bastards. she instilled hatred for luke and jace in her son's minds for years. to the point where aemond almost bashed one of their heads in, leading him (aemond) to lose an eye. yeah, she was protecting her children when she let aegon bully aemond to no end, so long as it didn't happen within public eye. yeah, she was protecting her children by completely ignoring her rapist of a son (I'm sure you have some kind of explanation for that too). she was being protective of her children when she spread rumours about the legitimacy of rhaenyra's children. it was only out of protectiveness over her children that she shamed and ridiculed rhaenyra for years. it couldn't have possibly been anything else. sure. (I'm never going to be convinced her attitude towards rhaenyra was solely a result of her fear for her children).

"her snake of a father convinced her they'll be killed for merely existing as potential rivals to Rhaenyra's claim"

that was the same argument used by the greens as an explanation for why rhaenyra and her children had to die. since they so graciously placed aegon's ass on the throne, it was only reasonable to kill rhaenyra and all her children because they were the biggest contenders for the throne and had a rightful claim to it. right. this was the same argument alicent used to ingrain resentment towards jace and luke in her son's mind.

and yes, she is also responsible for starting the war (as most of the characters are, in one way or another). because— might come as a shock to you— alicent went along with everything her family was planning. she is not as innocent as you want her to be but that's not a conversation you're willing to have (again, because apparantly everything has to be explicitly stated, I'm not saying she's the only one who's ever done anything wrong in her life. every single character on the show has done some or other awful shit. neither side is completely innocent. but alicent is the one I'm particularly talking about in this post). you're so adamant about alicent being oh so innocent and saintly that you're taking away all kinds of nuance, complexity, and moral ambiguity from her and turning her into some kind of mary sue with absolutely no fucking agency. because— "this might blow your mind"— but having trauma doesn't absolve someone from being wrong or making mistakes or facing the consequences of their own conscious fucking actions. there's only so much about someone that you can excuse using their past suffering. there has to come a point where a character needs to be held accountable for their actions and choices instead of justifying all of it in the name of trauma. but that's clearly not something you're ready to talk about.

I'm sure you'll still manage to pick something up from what i said and turn around and say "look!! misogyny!! you're a disgusting piece of shit!!" because apparently saying anything negative about a female character is a heinous crime. female characters aren't supposed to be morally corrupt. they aren't supposed to be wrong. they are only two dimensional. they can't have depth. they're all fucking mary sues.

this is the last time I'm adding anything to this argument conversation because we'll start going around in circles after a certain point and the whole thing will be pointless. so whatever opinion you hold of me after reading all of it is going to be your problem.

(also,,, I'm sorry if my tone offended you, i wasn't trying to be condescending or anything, i was just too goddamn pissed when i wrote this. have a good day <33)

[burning-sol]

im censoring any art i make of "her" and limiting reblogs because i do want to make vent art but i dont want to share a lot of details <- but if i dont share details it might make people feel wrong to later have interacted with any art featuring her at all. and i did make a post abt her in the past but it wasnt my intention to give the wrong impression of her because id genuinely experienced amnesia and couldnt remember the details about her. to be clear she's not real, she's not representative of any person in real life, i would describe her as a mix of my psychosis and what i recently realised describes maladaptive daydreaming.

i have been getting very very paranoid recently so ive been talking to xander and hy said he's going to help my get back in contact with a therapist when it gets the opportunity. i dont know how my behaviour has been perceived at all the past (???) amt of time, but i apologise if its caused confusion or distress.

anyways ill be talking about her under the cut with art but content warning it goes into talks about psychosis and emotional abuse and some transphobia and SA <- the art is evocative of that last thing i put it at the very bottom of the post. there's also talks about grooming..

i do have records of when she was first around but i only really looked at it to see how i drew her as i have a lot of amnesia around her and i dont like looking at old logs of things.. like. the thing is, there's a lot of stuff that happened online or i had uploaded online and i would rather let it remain forgotten rather than drag it back out. maybe its selfish of me but like i seriously dont want to think about the times i might have been groomed or the specifics of anything, i just want it all to go away. so yeah, i forgot about her and forgot about what she said or did because i wanted to forget and it didnt come up so it was whatever.

but there was a time where i was experiencing some different voices, ive had a track record of abusive voices throughout my life (to be clear xander is very different from that, to me it clearly has a wider depth of emotion and thought than these voices and actually has control over the body.. i just feel like i want to make that clear) and she was amongst them though i think she was different in her own way. the main reason i feel so scared of her is that i experienced a sexual hallucination perpetrated by her and i had to search up whether that was even possible because i have not heard anyone bringing it up before. but yes, that happened, and i dont claim to be a victim of sexual assault but it's still painful to think about and im still scared of her.

aside from the i guess "threats" of sexual interaction and recently threatening to leak sexually compromising information and photos of me, she is generally quite demeaning. she talks a lot about how i should just go back into being a complacent girl who does what she wants. she threatens to isolate me. i guess she's also threatened to hurt me physically too. its not real but at times it has felt like i am in literal chains and are at her whims and it makes me feel scared.

i dont know if its clear but there's a lot i dont bring up when it comes to any sexual trauma because i just. i dunno. i dont feel like any of it is worth talking about if im complicit in it, if its in my head, if its just nothing. things ive been involved in are deeply humiliating and hurtful. and of course i cant HELP but bring it up at times, as any person does, but out of everything i dislike talking about this trauma the most. id rather be quiet and not talk about anything and hell, i probably wont keep this post up.

a part of me realises it probably just hurts others that i dont talk to them about things like this. but talking to someone privately abt when im distressed makes me think about my previous toxic behaviours and i dont want to repeat that ever again, so i prefer to just stay quiet.

just typing this has made me exhausted from the emotional drain so ill stop this post here. thanks.