#large states are gonna state!

[tanadrin]

re-listening to season 10 of revolutions, since i never finished it the first time around, and the retrospective on the emergence of socialism in the 19th century is probably the most interesting part so far. it seems to me that 19th century "liberalism" (which was scarcely worth the name) is really a very different beast than 21st century liberalism, which has in its more left-liberal strains incorporated a ton of criticisms of 19th century socialists, and is in many ways actually a pretty good synthesis of both political heuristics. certainly not perfect, and certainly still wedded to capitalism.

but a lot of early socialists were, even if they were social scientists, first and foremost utopians. it was easier to dream what might lie in the possibility-space of useful ways of organizing an egalitarian society when very little of that space had been explored, and the burst of 19th century utopia-building was part of an attempt to explore that space and put many unabashedly utopian ideas into practice. but many of the most ambitious ideas like proudhon's anarchism just weren't super workable in the end, either in the conditions that then prevailed or in the conditions that have prevailed since. liberal democracy--especially as it was refined into something actually worthy of the name--proved both durable and flexible enough to be quite egalitarian in some respects (e.g., it supports universal adult suffrage just fine! and consolidated democracies are pretty robust and quite stable, compared to competing systems). it feels similar to the high-flying hopes of early science fiction becoming tempered as we learned more about what the possibility space of future technology would really look like across the 20th century, you know?

and so i think it's natural that a lot of that early revolutionary energy went into doing politics in a liberal-democratic framework; it turns out to be a very useful framework for liberatory social projects (much more useful than either the halfhearted liberal constitutionalisms of the mid 19th century or the reactionary monarchies they usually contrasted against). but it also seems to me that a ton of the discourse in the rump left that has resulted is stuck in a very early 19th century way of thinking.

and maybe some of this is ideological distillation, with those sufficiently convinced by the virtues of the modern liberal-democratic system naturally falling out of coalition with those who aren't, so the remainder is a concentrated nucleus most likely to see fundamental continuity between the proto-liberalism of the 1800s and the more fully realized liberalism of later eras like the 2000s. plus people who are simply never going to be on board with, say, any system that is capitalist in its arrangement, no matter how prosperous or free it manages to be otherwise. but also i wonder how much of this is because for like 70 years you had a major militaristic, hegemonic state, the USSR, which was really very like the militaristic, hegemonic system it was opposed to in important ways, but which for reasons of its legitimating ideology needed to portray what differences did exist in the starkest possible terms. and the solution to that was to portray liberal democracy as of the 20th century as being functionally indistinguishable from the liberal constitutionalism of the 19th, while making themselves out to be the sole inheritors of the more egalitarian thinkers from the left. despite the fact that the USSR was pretty conservative in a lot of ways, and was basically authoritarian in a way that i don't think any of those original utopian socialists would have endorsed.

so maybe you have to keep 19th century political categories static and unchanging in order to make the dichotomy that supports your state still have meaning. even if, once you have established yourself as the ruling class of a large, powerful state, you act in ways that are actually pretty darn similar to the ruling class of other large, powerful states. and of course trying to maintain those categories even as the world continues to evolve, including the faction you have opposed yourself to (and the third leg of what is really a trichotomy, the actual, unabashed reactionaries, also continues to evolve) leads to further tensions and absurdities, which is why the most ardent defenders of the USSR like the tankies tie themselves into knots of campism and conspiracism and even frequently back directly into bog-standard reactionary ideology, because the framework they are trying to use to understand the world hasn't been updated since the 1840s, and was already having to be heavily distorted by the 1920s to make it work.

[luna-loveboop]

I want. Four to get appreciation. Because

Four gave a ton of unnoticed help when Twilight was injured

The fight with Wild was difficult, and I know we're all concerned about his negative view of the shadow crystal

But Four did something that no one else really thought of to help- He took care of Twi's stuff

From the beginning he told Twilight to not worry about them

So Four took care of pretty much everything but the others (that Sky and Wars handled)

He took care of Epona

Which is so very important- he took care of Twilight's horse. After her arrival at the stable Four followed up on her

And for Epona, a horse so attached to her human, having some company can help so much for reassurance

He took care of Twilight's stuff

He got Twi's shield- his bags and equipment, and organized it into one place

And he was worried. He obviously found the shadow crystal while handling Twi's stuff, but his negative reactions to it were out of concern.

Also- because of his placement in this scene

I'm fairly convinced Four was ready to start cooking before Wild showed up (since he's beside the counter with food supplies). At the very least he had the basket of fruit out for everyone -but he was literally standing with food behind him- he thought of everything

And he did housekeeping!

Wars payed for the inn, so Four took care of the inn

Realistically these boys were probably not too concerned with tidyness. Four got all of Twi's things on one table, and took care of the room they stayed in

Organizing tables and Twi's things, having food supplies ready, and opening the curtains- overall he was the one tidying up the inn

Four helped in a huge way! He took care of Twi's horse (Epona is so important), his equipment and shield and bag, as well as the other rooms in the inn

Four filled in all the little tasks that others didn't think of. He helped in ways that were needed, but not obvious

There's a lot of problems with the shadow crystal and with Wild, and I don't know what's gonna happen in the future

But don't forget this- don't forget that Four was one who stepped up in an almost unnoticeable way

Don't forget that when everyone was barely holding it together, Four visited Twilight's horse and took care of his things

No matter what develops in the future- this amount of care shown is important ya know?

.

Art and comic from Jojo @linkeduniverse au :)))

[bijoumikhawal]

Saying "one of the major parties in a country trying to genocide trans people is the "most pro trans" major party in the world" as a statement of fact should inspire fear and terror, not be a call the be thankful to that fucking party. Anyway Biden is partially responsible for the current T drug class

[mokeonn]

I gotta say, really glad that the main criticisms for my "artists have more options" post has been that it is very USA centric and doesn't work for people in low populated areas without an art community. This has led to people giving more perspectives and options, which is always appreciated, and also because it's a completely correct criticism. Like yeah it is in fact made from the perspective of a USAmerican who lives in a highly populated state with a thriving art community especially in rural areas, you got me there, can't argue with that, gimme some fresh perspectives I love to hear that. Thank you for not making my notifications hell, and thank you for giving me more perspectives im going to give you a little kissy on the forehead

[dullahandyke]

Rewatching total drama island feministly is like. Woww we have not progressed as far as we would like to say we have

[squirrelstone]

Blue state liberals shut the fuck up about what marginalized red state folks go through challenge.

[vladdyissues]

[edsheerankinnie]

Being a swiftie rn is so hard like. Maybe you are Wretched. Maybe you are Fearsome. Maybe you are Wrong.

@taylorswift SPEAK NOW🍉🇵🇸

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

Ended getting writer's block and didn't write anything :(

Anyways, on a scale of one to ten who'd you think would win in a fight? (ex: shadow Mark vs host, monster dave vs the willow tree or something, etc)

grenade launcher anon

I'm. not sure, I could do like. Matchups between all the characters but that would take forever, so I'll just say. who's the strongest au variant of all these characters instead if thats alright with you.

Gabriel: Canon Gabriel is probably more powerful? but i'm gonna say. HSH Gabriel. though i'm not going to specify why just yet.

Six: Honestly not sure.

Preacher: Gardener is probably the most powerful. mainly due to height.

N: Not sure either.

Mark: Shadow Mark is winning a fight between all the Marks. Alt Mark is close behind but Shadow Mark has. a flesh eating "locust" swarm so-

Cesar: Lab Cesar or Thing Cesar

Altsar: Not very many options surprisingly so i'm going with Host

Adam: MP Adam or Were Adam. Maybe Thing Adam too i'm not sure

Jonah: Alt Jonah. purely for mental attacks considering most Jonahs aren't physical attackers.

Evelin: MP Evelin

Sarah: Lake Sarah

Dave: Monster Dave for sure

Thatcher: Probably. Monster au?

Ruth: I have. no idea. most Ruths are dead and/or spirits so

[bunnyboy-juice]

me (not joking, very stressed): i think im going to have a mental breakdown if something else goes wrong here.

everyone irl: hahahhahaa ur so funny(:

[thesummerstorms]

Me: just trying to sit and chill and stressing a lot but over how much stuff is on my calendar

Mom and Aunt: start blowing up my phone about an impromptu family gathering I really don't want to go to and am not prepared for

Aunt: "I feel like we never do anything because I'm not spontaneous enough, so I'm trying to change that."

Me, to myself: oh FUCK no. I need at least four days notice to mentally prepare for full family gatherings.

[yrlocalghost]

forcing myself to continue my steel soul run lest i get too into undertale à la 2016 again

[unproduciblesmackdown]

and i draw parallels solely on the cinematographic basis of “when my man is no more than a millimeter away from perturbation at all times but you give the Whole Right Half Of The Screen 3/4 Closeup of Harrowing Recontextualizations” like that’s right. we’re living it up

[publicuniversalenemy]

i have obtained a SIGNIFICANT and POTENTIALLY CARCINOGENIC BIOHAZARD and im BEYOND EXCITED ABOUT THIS

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

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[lzrdprsn]

the post about "if Americans knew walkable cities were possible they'd xyz" is kind of obnoxious because it completely ignores the reality that Americans do know walkable cities are possible, that walkable cities/cities with solid public transit do exist, and that referring to American cities in general is a little bit of a misnomer because when you talk about cities in America you're talking about a scale that is so big and climate/geography that is so varied that even comparing American cities to each other isn't entirely fair let alone a comparison to somewhere like Dublin with a 46sqmi area