#like what happened to democracy to human rights

[globalnewscollective]

U.S Added to a Global Human Rights Watchlist

Why You Should Be Worried About America’s Declining Human Rights Ranking

When you think of human rights abuses, you might picture authoritarian regimes, not the United States. But according to a new report from CIVICUS (source), the U.S. is now officially categorized as a "narrowed" democracy—a status shared with countries where free speech, protests, and civil liberties are increasingly under attack. The U.S. joins the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Chile, Slovakia, and 37 other countries with "narrowed" civic freedoms. That’s the kind of company America is now keeping.

What Does This Mean for You?

Your Right to Protest Is Under Threat – Laws restricting peaceful demonstrations have been ramping up, making it easier for authorities to criminalize protests they don’t like.

Censorship and Press Freedom Are in Decline – Journalists covering protests or political corruption are facing more harassment, and state-level laws are making it harder to report the truth.

Targeting of Activists and Marginalized Groups – The crackdown on civil rights groups, LGBTQ+ organizations, and racial justice movements is accelerating.

Legal Attacks on Voting Rights – Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and efforts to limit ballot access are all symptoms of a democracy that’s backsliding fast.

What’s at Stake?

If the U.S. keeps trending in this direction, basic freedoms—like the ability to voice your opinion, challenge authority, or even vote—could become privileges instead of rights. Young people, activists, and minority communities will be the first to feel the impact, but make no mistake: this affects everyone who believes in a fair and free society.

The Bigger Picture

This is not just about one bad policy or one election cycle—it’s about a systematic shift toward authoritarianism. Through executive orders, Trump has sought to consolidate power in the executive branch, making it easier for him and his allies to monitor and control departments and agencies to ensure they are only carrying out Trump’s agenda. The more people accept restrictions on speech, protests, and voting, the easier it becomes for those in power to tighten their grip. This is how democracies die: not with a single dramatic event, but through a slow erosion of rights, one law at a time.

What Can You Do?

Stay Informed – Know what’s happening at the state and federal levels.

Speak Up – The more people push back, the harder it is for leaders to silence dissent.

Vote Like Democracy Depends on It – Because, frankly, it does.

The U.S. has long claimed to be a beacon of democracy. But that light is fading—and unless we fight for our rights, it could go out completely.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

EFF’s lawsuit against DOGE will go forward

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on May 15 at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE. More tour dates here.

In my 23 years at EFF, I've been privileged to get a front-row seat for some of the most important legal battles over tech and human rights in history. There've been tremendous victories and heartbreaking losses, but win or lose, I am forever reminded that I'm privileged to work with some of the smartest, most committed, savviest cyberlawyers in the world.

These days, it's more of a second-row seat – I work remotely, mostly on my own projects, and I rely on our Deeplinks blog as much as our internal message-boards to keep up with our cases. Yesterday, I happened on this fantastic explainer breaking down our most recent court victory, in our case against DOGE on behalf of federal workers whose privacy rights have been violated during DOGE's raid on the Office of Personnel Management's databases:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/04/our-privacy-act-lawsuit-against-doge-and-opm-why-judge-let-it-move-forward

The post is by Adam Schwartz, EFF's Privacy Litigation Director. I've been campaigning on privacy for my entire adult life, but I still learn something – something big and important – every time I talk about the subject with Adam. His breakdown on EFF's latest court victory is no exception.

EFF was the first firm to bring a suit directly against DOGE, representing two federal workers' unions: the AFGE and the AALJ, and our co-counsel are from Lex Lumina LLP, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and The Chandra Law Firm. At the heart of our case are the millions of personnel records that DOGE agents were given access to by OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell.

The OPM is like the US government's HR department. It holds files on every federal employee and retiree, filled with sensitive, private data about that worker's finances, health, and personal life. The OPM also holds background check data on federal workers, including the deep background checks that federal workers must undergo to attain security clearances. Many of us – including me – first became familiar with the OPM in 2015, after its records were breached by hackers believed to be working for the Chinese military:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach

That breach was catastrophic. Chinese spies stole the sensitive data of tens of millions of Americans. The DOGE breach implicates even more Americans' private data, though, and while DOGE isn't a foreign intelligence agency, that cuts both ways. It's a good bet that a Chinese spy agency will not leak the records it stole, but with DOGE, it's another matter entirely. I wouldn't be surprised to find the OPM data sitting on a darknet server in a month or a year.

In his breakdown, Adam explains the ruling and what was at stake. We brought the case on behalf of all those federal workers under the 1974 Privacy Act, which was passed in the wake of Watergate and the revelations about COINTELPRO, scandals that rocked the nation's faith in federal institutions. The Privacy Act was supposed to restore trust in government, and to guard against future Nixonian enemies lists:

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/LH_privacy_act-1974/LH_privacy_act-1974.pdf

The Privacy Act's preamble asserts that the US government's creation of databases on Americans – including federal workers – "greatly magnified the harm to individual privacy." This is the basis for the Act's tight regulation on how government agencies use and handle databases containing dossiers on the lives of everyday Americans.

The US government tried to get the case tossed out by challenging our clients' "standing" to sue. Only people who have been harmed by someone else has the right ("standing") to sue over it. Does having your data leaked to DOGE constitute a real injury? Two recent Supreme Court cases say it does: Spokeo vs Robins and Transunion vs Ramirez both establish that "intangible" injuries (like a privacy breach) can be the basis for standing.

The court agreed that our clients had standing because the harms we alleged – DOGE's privacy breaches – are "concrete harms analogous to intrusion upon seclusion" ("intrusion upon seclusion" is one of the canonical privacy violations, set out in the Restatement of Torts, the American Law Institute's comprehensive guide to common law).

But the court went further, noting that DOGE's operation is accused of being "rushed and insecure," rejecting DOGE's argument that it only accessed OPM's "system" but not the data stored in that system. The court also said that it wouldn't matter if DOGE access the system, but not the data – that merely gaining access to the data violated our clients' privacy. Here, the judge is part of an emerging consensus, joining with four other federal judges who've ruled that when DOGE gains access to a system containing private data, that alone constitutes a privacy violation, even if DOGE doesn't look at or process the records in the system.

So in ruling for our clients, the judge found that the mere fact that DOGE could access their records was an injury that gave us standing to proceed – and also found that there were other injuries that would separately give us standing, including the possibility that DOGE's breach could expose our clients to "hacking, identity theft, and other activities that are substantially harmful."

The US government repeatedly argued that we weren't accusing them of disclosing our clients' records, every time they did this, the judge pointed to our actual filings, which plainly assert that DOGE agents were "viewing, possessing and using" our clients' records, and that this constitutes "disclosure" under the law, and according to OPM's own procedures.

The judge found that we were entitled to seek relief under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which proscribes the conduct of federal agencies – and that our relief could be both "declaratory" (meaning a court could rule that DOGE was breaking the law) and "injunctive" (meaning the court could order DOGE to knock it off).

Normally, a plaintiff can't ask for a judgment under the APA until an agency has taken a "final" action. The court found that because DOGE's actions were accused of being "illegal, rushed, and dangerous," and that this meant that we could seek relief under the APA. Further, that we could invoke the APA here because the remedies set out in the Privacy Act itself wouldn't be sufficient to help our clients in the face of DOGE's mass data-plundering.

Finally, the court ruled that our claims will allow us to pursue APA cases because OPM and DOGE were behaving in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner, and exceeding its legal authority.

All of this is still preliminary – we're not at the point yet where we're actually arguing the case. But standing is a huge deal. Ironically, it's when governments violate our rights on a mass scale that standing is hardest to prove. Our Jewel case, over NSA spying, foundered because the US government argued that we couldn't prove our clients had been swept up by NSA surveillance because the details of that surveillance were officially still secret, even though Snowden had disclosed their working a decade earlier, and our client Mark Klein (RIP) had come forward with documents on illegal mass NSA spying in 2006!:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/effs-flagship-jewel-v-nsa-dragnet-spying-case-rejected-supreme-court

So this is a big deal. It means we're going to get to go to court and argue the actual merits of the case. Things are pretty terrible right now, but this is a bright light. It makes me proud to have spent most of my adult life working with EFF. If you want to get involved with EFF, check and see if there's an Electronic Frontier Alliance affinity group in your town:

https://efa.eff.org/allies

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/09/cases-and-controversy/#brocolli-haired-brownshirts

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecomms.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

EFF (modified) https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/opm-eye-3b.jpg

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

[beauty-funny-trippy]

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker Condemns Trump’s LGBTQ Erasure & Rising Authoritarianism in Blistering Speech (State of the State Address, 2025): "The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame. "I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now — a president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac and suggests, without facts or findings, that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks — arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” "The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here. They point to a group of people who don’t look like you, and tell you to blame them for your problems. "I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities — once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends — after that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face — what comes next? "All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history, then for God’s sake in this moment, we better be strong enough to learn from it. "If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: it took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. "All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control. "Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most."

[skull-pun]

What are all these people gonna do when Trump kicks the bucket? Like, dude's almost 80, he's probably gonna die before facing any consequences, but as for the rest of them? Well, many will still be alive and will be dealing with the fallout along with the rest of the world.

Like, they're gonna have to explain to future generations why they decided to dismantle democracy and take away the human rights of millions of people both abroad and at home.

I can see the excuses now:

"Well we were just doing what we were told."

"We didn't know know any better."

"I was scared that if I said no then something bad would happen to me."

Something like this? And do you know who they sound like?

[misfitwashere]

TIMOTHY SNYDER

FEB 5

Imagine if it had gone like this. 

Ten Tesla cybertrucks, painted in camouflage colors with a giant X on each roof, drive noisily through Washington DC. Tires screech. Out jump a couple of dozen young men, dressed in red and black Devil’s Champion armored costumes. After giving Nazi salutes, they grab guns and run to one government departmental after another, calling out slogans like “all power to Supreme Leader Skibidi Hitler.”

Historically, that is what coups looked like. The center of power was a physical place. Occupying it, and driving out the people who held office, was to claim control. So if a cohort of armed men with odd symbols had stormed government buildings, Americans would have recognized that as a coup attempt. 

And that sort of coup attempt would have failed. 

Now imagine that, instead, the scene goes like this.

A couple dozen young men go from government office to government office, dressed in civilian clothes and armed only with zip drives. Using technical jargon and vague references to orders from on high, they gain access to the basic computer systems of the federal government. Having done so, they proceed to grant their Supreme Leader access to information and the power to start and stop all government payments.

That coup is, in fact, happening. And if we do not recognize it for what it is, it could succeed.

In the third decade of the twenty first century, power is more digital than physical. The buildings and the human beings are there to protect the workings of the computers, and thus the workings of the government as a whole, in our case an (in principle) democratic government which is organized and bounded by a notion of individual rights.

The ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights. 

In gaining data about us all, Musk has trampled on any notion of privacy and dignity, as well as on the explicit and implicit agreements made with our government when we pay our taxes or our student loans. And the possession of that data enables blackmail and further crimes.

In gaining the ability to stop payments by the Department of the Treasury, Musk would also make democracy meaningless. We vote for representatives in Congress, who pass laws that determine how our tax money is spent. If Musk has the power to halt this process at the level of payment, he can make laws meaningless. Which means, in turn, that Congress is meaningless, and our votes are meaningless, as is our citizenship.

Resistance to the coup is the defense of the human against the digital and the democratic against the oligarchic. If Musk controls these digital systems, Republican elected officials will be just as helpless as Democratic ones. The institutions that they voted to create can also be “deleted,” as Musk puts it. 

President Trump, for that matter, will also perform at Musk’s pleasure. There is not much he can do without the use of the federal government’s computers. No one will explain this to Trump or to his supporters, of course. 

A coup is underway, against Americans as possessors of human rights and dignities, and against Americans as citizens of a democratic republic. Each hour this goes unrecognized makes the success of the coup more likely.

[revacholianpizzaagenda]

97 Poets of Revachol pics!

HERE THEY ARE, courtesy of the event's official photographer, Zuzana Šubrtová. The Elysium-based LARP took place in two runs in Terezín, Czech Republic, in the latter half of September. These are from the second run!

I can't possibly describe what it was like to inhabit the rundown tenement of La Cage with more than a hundred other players, bringing to life a whole slice of society: immigrants, barflies, petanque players, sewer people, Union gang members, Wild Pines mercs, disco people, sewer people, looters, street artists, an inevitable mass of fascists, anarchists, communards (or so I'm told), communards (proper), communards (it's complicated), councilmembers, hustlers, taxidermy enthusiasts, the also-inevitable mass of pale-fried strugglers, journalists, Moralintern creeps, RCM chucklefucks, and so on and so forth. The old military hospital burst to life with small human moments and grand revelations happening in every corner at all time, as the gears of history moved toward our inevitable trial run of Le Retour.

We really had it all. Politics, drugs, creeping mold, more drugs, unseen voices steering us toward our best and worst natures, a metaphysical rave, entroponetic anomalies, precognition (scripted), precognition (just kind of happened?? Several times over?), suzerainist coffin deliveries, sweatshop politics, old reckonings, radiant sacrifices (accidental-ish), three-way divorces (one-upping one HDB), strikes and strike-breakers, political dance-offs and political orgies, and did I mention the drugs, under the greatness of history and the pale.

Thanks to the organizers for the colossal effort they pulled off like it was nbd, and to all my fellow dwellers of La Cage.

A few favourites:

First off, this was basically the entirety of my game:

...with a central heartrending tension between that abandon, that 'something beautiful is going to happen', and my character's earthly loves, the family she loved so much. It was really really fascinating and emotionally moving to get to play out that central conundrum in full (and go die on the barricades for an independent Revachol following the push of History) (and also of Franconegro pulling my strings like a marionette in a chilling scene) (but mostly History)

Case in point: me in the back, the Unseen voice/spirit/skill "Doomsayer" to the left, dear husband Tai in the middle. Sorry Tai!

Moralintern mission

Sweatshop workers strike

Both sides of the barricades, right as the game ended (this is not a spoiler, it said up front on the website that that's where the story would end): independentists (feat. His Fuckery Franconegro with the black wings in the background, but also the Unseen of if it sucks hit da bricks, the street martyr and idk who else) and globalists (Dolores Dei, Doomsayer et al)

speaking of those two - here's them in full rave regalia. I love that two of the collective skills of this place are flat-out "Dolores Dei" and "Franconegro", it's so fitting. Can't have current society without them, so here they are, as a molecular part of it.

RCM peeps predictably being serious, professional individuals

Designer drug guy talking to Corrosion who's kind of the local version of Electrochemistry. I'm sure this was a completely hinged conversation that reached sensible conclusions

Wild Pines mercs +1

Disco downtime. The set design for The Bearded Vulture club and The Second Club was out of this world. I hope my own pics can convey some of it.

sweatshop power dynamics (there were accidents, Union leverage, strikes, corruption... you'd think there would be barely time for anything else to go on AND YET)

possibly my fave pic of the whole thing (go Doomsayer!!!). we had specific graffitable areas on the wall and made VERY good use of them. Well, everyone else. My character wasn't much of a graffiti artist, her greatest contribution was turning "Revachol for revacholians" into "Revachol for mold"...

LARP^2

fascist campaigning at the Democracy Picnic

Petanque club...

...actually playing petanque? I never saw them ingame, I was starting to wonder if it wasn't a front for something else

Pictured - no scheming, plotting or quadruple-crossing here as you can clearly see by "Kras Knezhinisky"'s super normal demeanour and unassuming name, which I can totally believe was on his legit birth certificate)

I mention Kras because here's the theatrical taxidermy show with him in the middle narrating the adventures of his antifascist ferret Kommissar Kunixet. Nice pic, I take the shot. Five seconds later, superstar Frittte clerk Jamie Delaney joins in, and what can I do, NOT have Jamie in a shot? Absolutely not, so I take the same exact shot with Jamie in it as well.

And by sheer twist of technology (and of course the pale, and of course vile censorship in defiance of the Romangorod convention)... Kras Knezhinsky of all people gets kommissar-no-kommissar'd. "Kras, the pale is erasing you from our memories, from images," I warn him, showing him the two pictures. One hour later, he gets taken behind the waste disposal facility and shot.

Hm.

(LARP's haunted. These things KEPT HAPPENING. In the first run, that version of my character went "YOU MURDERER" at the specific merc who'd turn out to be connected with her background, a couple of hours before getting that reveal in-game. What's Elysium without some good old-fashioned precognition after all!)

Poor Flowerseller (red dress here) was kind of my Empathy - many valiant attemps were made, however. Uphill struggle.

HARDCORE anodic club leader Konrad Nilsen doing something not so hardcore here, idk what was going on exactly but then again I never even noticed we had a morgue and I had a plot right next room, so what do I know. I know that the end is near. That much for sure. And that the resolution of history's contradictions goes through the pale. But corpses? Nah.

||||||| 😎

[a-student-out-of-time]

An Important Reminder In Trying Times

Hey everyone, Mod Bubbles here.

I know that I've said over and over that I don't like talking about politics on here, but I really feel the need to say this:

This Is Not The End.

I understand things probably seem really bleak right now. A lot of people are going to be hurt by this, and the sheer amount of fearmongering and worst case scenarios are inescapable. But the country and the world are not going to change overnight. To be honest, it may not change very much at all in the next four years. I'm not a political scientist, so I can't tell you that for sure. There's a lot to be concerned about.

What I can tell you, as a student of history, is this: not only have we survived this once, we have survived this every time.

Think about it this way: every single tyrant, every single right-wing representative, every single emperor and colonial power, every corporate scumbag and power-hungry lunatic. No matter how many of them have ever come to power, held onto power, and tried to make themselves seem invincible, not a single one has ever held back humanity's progress and not a single one has proven to be invincible.

There were countries throughout history, especially in the 20th century, that fell under brutal dictatorships and saw countless lives lost. Did the people just give up and accept it? Fuck no they didn't. They fought back. Many of them lived to see democracy restored to their lands in their lifetimes, or fought to see it restored in their children's.

From Europe to Latin America, while many countries still have their issues, they endured and their people have survived. Their governments were not invincible, just as none ever have been.

Regardless of the outcome of this election, the world will go on. People will not just roll over and accept whatever horrible things happen, the fight will continue and we will do everything in our power to carry on as we always have. We'll carry on to achieve bigger and better things.

Let me also be clear: if you feel the need to cry, please cry. If you're afraid, don't pretend you're not. If you're angry, allow yourself to feel that anger. But if you're seriously contemplating giving up or hurting yourself, please don't.

You may hear all this news and ask yourself, "Bubbles, what's the point? What can I do about all this?" I've felt that way too, I have for a long time. I understand completely. It's scary and overwhelming, but I'll tell you exactly what you can do to fight against that: you can be kind.

Do you want to know where the most tangible change in the world begins? It's never at the top. It begins with people like us on a communal level, where we reach out to help others. Whether that means we help our neighbors, our friends, or any strangers we can.

Going out of your way to start fights, looking for someone to blame based on the flimsiest justifications, and just being cruel because you're angry, those aren't how you change anything. Those just add to the problem.

Here's just some ideas on what you can do instead:

Get away from the news, stop doomscrolling, mute doomers, and turn the TV and news apps off. This will get you out of a negative feedback loop that'll make you feel worse and more powerless, which is what they're designed to do in order to maximize traffic.

Remember to eat, sleep, brush your teeth, take a shower, take your meds, and do everything else you need to do to stay healthy.

If you or someone else really feel like leaving the country for your own safety is best, you can still work do so. But please don't convince yourself that if you can't, it's over.

Give back to people as much as you can. Show the people in your life who support you that you care, and that all that they do for you matters.

Donate to good causes you believe in.

Stand up to bullshit whenever you see it.

Do not give up on your dreams and ambitions. One bad leader does not mean your future automatically ends. Stop worrying about any potential apocalypse in the future, because you can do that even on the best days, and instead work toward a future that you CAN achieve.

There's this pervasive and very inaccurate idea that it's only the president who gets to enforce policies on the country. This ignores governors, the House of Representatives, Congress, mayors, and the countless other leaders involved. And it ignores you.

You do not have to spend the next 3 years and 364 days doing nothing but feeling miserable. In fact, that's the last thing you should do. Fear and despair are the weapons they wield, and they only have as much power as you allow them to have over you.

If your view of politics is that you just have to vote for the "right one" and then everything will be utopian, or that if people vote for the wrong one" then we're headed for a terrible dystopian nightmare, I have to tell you that that is incredibly reductionist and also very dumb. I can also tell you from personal experience that it's not them who make the real changes where it's needed.

A friend sent me a video that really opened my eyes on this situation: Adam Conover, the guy behind Adam Ruins Everything, said he's not worried about all this. Why? Because he and some friends were able, through their own power, to make real positive changes in their community. They were able to bring homelessness down in their district by over 38% through their own efforts.

And he's right that, as a silver lining to all this, it made more Americans than ever take a stand against all the horrible shit they were seeing and get involved with solutions.

Speaking from my own experiences as well, when Hurricane Helene devastated my area, it wasn't the politicians who came and repaired roads and power lines, it wasn't them who brought in food and supplies to everyone, and it wasn't them who worked tirelessly to save people still in need. It was everyone in our local communities.

The people at the top have never really cared about anything more than your money and your vote, but the people around you care more than you may believe they would. Hell, even strangers on the internet care more than you'd believe.

Now, even if you've made it this far, you may be wondering "What about when he starts outlawing and banning things?" To that, I say look at Prohibition and see how well that went. Politicians have only ever operated under the idea that banning something will make it go away, and it always does the exact opposite. And if you're still worried, you can get involved with organizations that fight to support these things being available and regulated.

But by now, you may also be wondering "What if I can't get involved? What if I'm too young or I don't have the money, or my parents won't let me?"

Then just be kind.

Stop looking for enemies to blame. Don't martyr yourself for some nebulous cause or the idea that your suffering increasing means the rest of the suffering in the world will go down. Don't torture yourself by telling yourself that you didn't do enough.

Show compassion, show support, show love and genuine care toward people who need it, including yourself.

"But there's so many shitty people in this country and the world, why should I-" Stop thinking that way. This isn't about them, this is about you and how you can make a difference. There will probably always be shitheads and power-hungry morons, but that does not negate the fact that you can choose to be different. You can choose to be kind.

Kindness is a sword that you have to learn how to wield. Wield it responsibly and use it to help others. No matter how small or insignificant it may be, YOU DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

I say all this as a 29-year-old who spent most of his life feeling scared and miserable about so many current events, convincing myself I'm useless and selfish because I was worried about so much and I hated myself for all of it. And I've decide I'm not going to do that anymore.

During the last right-wing era, I managed to help build a whole community out of my love for Danganronpa. I created friendships, relationships, and there are people alive right now because I chose to do so. Because I chose to use that community for kindness. I want to keep building from there by going into streaming and reaching out to more people.

I won't lie to you and say that I'm not scared, because I am. But I'm also not going to let fear change who I am. I want us all to be better to ourselves and others, because that is how you defeat hate. It starts with you.

And if you're still concerned, let me share with you a quote from The Great Dictator, a movie made in 1940, when World War II wasn't even at its height yet:

To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish…

Please take care of yourselves out there, everyone. We'll get through this, just as we always have.

[devildomwriter]

Obey Me as Disenchantment Quotes #1

Lucifer & Satan: *Laughing maniacally*

Simeon: “While I question their evil motives, it is nice to see them happy.”

Barbatos: “Now announcing the triumphant return of our heroes from their quest that we all privately thought would fail.”

Mammon & Leviathan: “…”

Lucifer: “How do we even know it worked.”

Solomon: “Oh but it must have worked. Now to test it, we need a volunteer to kill you.”

Belphegor: “Dibs.”

Barbatos: “How can you keep messing up a recipe with two ingredients?”

Solomon: “If you ever run into trouble give them this note.”

MC: “Kill me?”

Solomon: “Thirteen gave it to me, now I give it to you.”

Leviathan: “I’ve been meaning to…but the thing is, I…so you see…well, I’m glad we had this talk. How bout you talk now?”

MC: “But you haven’t said anything yet.”

Belphegor: “Well I was waiting to tell you until after I was dead so I wouldn’t have to tell you.”

Mammon: “Now just keep holding on, okay. Just keep holding on.”

MC: “It’s okay, it’s okay Mammon, I always wanted to go out while I’m still young and hot.”

Leviathan: “I didn’t want to tell you because I’m terrified of female emotions.”

Satan: “No, no, no, I was mostly raised by Lucifer. And a bunch of friendly drunks down at the pub. They taught me the fine art of stabbing.”

Barbatos: “It’s just too painful seeing the truth all the time.”

Solomon: “Ah, that’s why humans tend to avoid it.”

Belphegor: “The profession left without me.”

Diavolo: “Oh, that’s too bad.”

Belphegor: “I blame myself, cause I didn’t even notice.”

Solomon & Barbatos: *fighting*

Asmodeus: “Guys, guys come on. I’m much more embarrassed than I am aroused.”

Asmodeus: “MC, you poor baby. What a horrific day you’ve had. Let’s have too much wine and forget about it all.”

Beelzebub: “How’d you become a weird talking cat.”

Satan: “You keep shoving waffles in your mouth while I think of an answer.”

Thirteen: “I’ll use my skills as a hunter and Raphael will use his diplomacy to stab them with a broom handle.”

Solomon: “I used to spend many nights up here. Watching the sky, the moon, the neighbors.”

Lucifer: “This is your home. You’re free to explore.”

MC: “Wow, what’s behind that door?”

Lucifer: “None of your business nosy.”

Mammon: “Maybe you were overcome by chimney fumes. It happens quite frequently in a place like this with no chimnies.”

Satan: “What family curse? You mean insanity?”

Leviathan: “No, don’t be crazy. But yes I mean insanity.”

Asmodeus: “You guys are heavy. Do I really need both of you?”

Solomon & Satan: “Yes!”

Asmodeus: “Damn, I hate democracy.”

Mammon: “I knew you could count on me!”

Simeon: “What’s this called again?”

Mammon: “A a massage. It’s like a light well intentioned beating.”

Diavolo: “You’re clearly upset.”

Lucifer: “I’m not upset!”

Diavolo: “You said that like you were upset!”

MC: “Come on Belphegor be reasonable!”

Belphegor: “Never!”

Satan: “We’re gonna have to wing this in a dangerously half assed manner.”

Mammon: “That’s the Morningstar way.”

Asmodeus: “There’s plenty of fish in the sea, Sol.”

Solomon: “Like hell am I marrying another fish woman.”

Lucifer: “Disappointment’s a form of caring.”

Diavolo: “Tell me, where are you from.”

Solomon: “A country setting, it’s kind of like a farm but more stabbing.”

Simeon: “This whole thing feels like a weird dream.”

Mammon: “Or scurvy. When does scurvy kick in?”

Lucifer: “Believe it or not I know what it feels like to be burned alive by a mob of idiots.”

Beelzebub: “Oh, sweet butter, you’re the only thing right with the world.”

Solomon: “Morning, Belphegor! Care to try my new cure all? It wards off the deadly plague.”

Belphegor: “I’m actually hoping for death. Thanks though.”

Mammon: “For the first time in my life I feel completely calm and—“

Mammon: *Gets attacked by hawk*

Satan: “I’ve loved you since the moment you killed my brother.”

Mammon: “You don’t scare me! I was born scared.”

[accountability-movement]

You Are Not a Person to Them. You Are Cattle.

The coup is not coming. It is happening now. We are living through it. But to the people with the power—JD Vance, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and the rest of their billionaire handlers—you are not a citizen. You are livestock.

Your purpose in their system is simple: to serve, to work, to obey, and to die when you are no longer useful.

This is not democracy. It is not “reform.” It is not a debate. It is a system for control, and it is already being implemented.

The Slaughter Process

Remove Your Ability to Resist.

Stack the courts. Gut elections. Rewrite laws. Fire political opponents. You cannot fight back through the system, because the system no longer belongs to you.

Sort the Population.

Are you profitable? You will be allowed to work, but under increasing restrictions.

Are you a liability? You will be pushed out, made unemployable, or imprisoned.

Are you a threat? You will be eliminated.

Redefine Humanity.

People like JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr have already shown support for a book titled "Unhumans", which categorizes people on the right as “Humans” and those on the left as “Unhumans.”

If you are trans, disabled, queer, an immigrant, the wrong race, or politically noncompliant—you are Unhuman. And Unhumans do not have rights.

The Cleanup Begins.

Internment camps are being expanded. Facilities in Guantánamo Bay are already under construction. The next phase includes “wellness camps” for anyone who does not align with the new system.

Policies and erasures of trans and intersex people are on the table, and align with Nazi Eugenics. Project 2025 explicitly outlines the state’s power to control who lives and who dies.

Discussions about “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza are happening. Officials in the administration are openly considering policies that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

This is fascism with better branding. Yarvin calls it the Dark Enlightenment. Vance calls it necessary reform. But history recognizes this for what it is. The Nazis did not start with gas chambers. They started by convincing the public that some people weren’t people at all.

You are not meant to see this happening. You are meant to stay comfortable and pacified while the gates close around you. But if you are reading this, then you still have time to wake up.

This is not a drill. This is not a warning. This is the process. You are inside it. And you need to decide right now whether you are going to let it happen.

[belit0]

Hello:

I like your writing about the Uchiha clan and Indra, you made me a big fan of your blog. Can you write about Izuna or Madara's son (pick the one you like more) who tries to woo Tobirama Senju's daughter, who looks like a copy of him, but in female? If she inherited the mokuton, the Senju elders dismiss the idea of giving their second mokuton user to the Uchiha clan, since they can't covet it.

I love making these idiots fight.

The Senju council chamber is meant for serious discussions.

Meant to be.

Right now, it sounds more like a bar fight waiting to happen.

Uchiha Izuna sits proudly, arms crossed, his son beside him looking both confident and slightly terrified.

Across from them, Senju Tobirama, the ever-stoic, tight-lipped pillar of disdain, radiates an aura of murder. His daughter, a near-perfect female replica of him—down to the red eyes and the terrifying lack of visible emotion—sits at his side, utterly unimpressed.

Between them, Madara and Hashirama.

Chaos and catastrophe in human form.

-So,- Hashirama grins, clapping his hands together, -marriage! What a wonderful thing! A union between the two clans—

-No.- Tobirama interrupts, voice flat. -Absolutely not.-

Izuna scoffs, leaning back in his seat. -You didn’t even hear us out.-

-I don’t need to. My daughter is not leaving the Senju.

-She’s not leaving, she’s just—

-She possesses the Mokuton,- one of the Senju elders pipes up, voice grave. -She is invaluable to our lineage.-

Izuna leans forward, a smirk tugging at his lips. -Oh? So now we're gatekeeping Mokuton? That’s amusing—I don’t recall any of us complaining when your clan eagerly mixed its bloodline with ours to get their hands on the Sharingan.-

Madara, ever composed, interjects smoothly. -We did complain, actually.-

-Aniki shut up.- Izuna hisses.

Tobirama bristles. -We were not after the Sharingan.-

-Oh, right... It was because of Hashirama's pure and innocent desire of unity, which you so eloquently decided to support, indeed.- Madara interjects, grinning like he’s enjoying himself far too much. -No, wait—I forgot. You never agree with his decisions. So explain why-

Hashirama gasps dramatically. -Madara! That’s not true! Tobi agrees with me!-

Madara raises a brow. -Oh? So how’s that ‘village democracy’ working out for you, Hashirama?-

Hashirama deflates. -...That’s different.-

Izuna snorts. -Point is, if the Mokuton can survive in the Uchiha, wouldn’t it be beneficial for both clans? Imagine—

-I don’t need to imagine,- Tobirama cuts in, sharp as a blade. -I can see it. And I don’t like it.-

His daughter finally speaks. -Father, you make it sound like I’m a rare artifact to be hoarded.-

Tobirama exhales through his nose. -That’s because you are.-

Hashirama hums. -That does sound like how you treat your jutsu scrolls, Tobi.-

Tobirama shoots him a look. -Shut up.-

Meanwhile, Izuna’s son, the young Uchiha suitor, finally finds his voice. -I—I don’t want to marry her for the Mokuton.-

Tobirama’s gaze snaps to him. -Oh? Then why?-

The room goes dead silent. Izuna’s son hesitates. His throat bobs. -Because…- He takes a deep breath. -Because I like her.-

Tobirama’s daughter stares at him, unblinking. -That’s unfortunate.-

Izuna chokes on a laugh.

Hashirama looks personally wounded.

Madara actually slaps the table in amusement.

Tobirama smirks, proudly.

Izuna leans over to his son, whispering, -You’re lucky. If she were an Uchiha, she would’ve just killed you outright.-

-This conversation is over.- Tobirama declares.

Hashirama, ever hopeful, turns to his niece. -But you don’t mind the idea, right? I mean, an Uchiha-Senju union would—

-I don’t care, uncle.- she says, voice eerily level. -Marriage is a political tool. If you tell me to do it, I’ll do it.-

Hashirama looks horrified. -That’s… That’s not how love works.-

Madara pats his shoulder. -Hashirama, your family is broken.-

Tobirama scowls. -Our family is practical.-

Izuna grins. -Alright, so if it’s practical, let’s do it.-

-I should have killed you and prevented your reproduction when I had the chance,- Tobirama deadpans.

Hashirama sighs, shaking his head. -So much for inter-clan conformity.-

Madara smirks. -Oh, this is conformity. Nothing brings us together like wanting to strangle each other.-

As the Uchiha and Senju descend into yet another argument, Izuna’s son slumps in his seat, sighing.

His would-be fiancée remains completely unbothered.

-Maybe we should just elope,- he mutters.

His father claps him on the back. -That’s the Uchiha spirit.-

Hashirama perks up. -Oh! I love elopements! They’re so romantic! I can officiate in private! I have a speech prepared—

Tobirama glares. -You will not officiate nothing.-

Madara folds his arms, smirking. -I say we let the boy try. Let’s see if he can survive wooing a Senju woman. If he succeeds, he earns her.-

Tobirama’s daughter blinks slowly. -Earn me?-

Izuna elbows Madara. -Not the best phrasing, brother.-

Madara shrugs. -You know what I mean.-

Tobirama exhales sharply. -I hate all of you.-

Hashirama beams. -That’s the spirit, Tobi! You’re really embracing the Uchiha-Senju dynamic!-

Tobirama rubs his temples.

Izuna’s son gulps.

His would-be fiancée remains, as always, unshaken.

The meeting continues in chaos.

The fate of the union remains undecided.

But one thing is certain:

This is not the last time the Uchiha and Senju will fight over marriage negotiation

[sgiandubh]

Really?

And then, this came in, first thing in the morning:

Unhinged people like you are exactly the reason why I never encouraged politics on my page.

Yes, my side more than probably lost. Yes, I still stand for my own principles and values - I will always do, unwaveringly, because this is also who I am. Those principles and values have everything to do with my own past and my own corner of the world. I have seen women suffer and die at home, under a brutal natalist dictatorship that took away their right to decide for themselves. I am also very sensitive to my country's geographical proximity to a war theatre - all things you probably have no idea about.

That being said, human beings have always been more important to me than politics. To the victor the spoils? Absolutely: this is the beauty, the spirit and the purpose of democracy and of the rule of law. I, however, never selected my own friends based on what they vote. All are welcome in my heart and all crossed my path for a reason. To bring joy. To teach. To heal. To show me it is possible to extend trust across what divides us. Or just to feel good, together.

And I have to tell you I consider myself tremendously rich because of this instinctive, non negotiable choice. What about you, Immature Anon?

If this is how you saw fit to react today, then I pity you. You acted like a twelve-year old bore. In doing so, you showed me you couldn't care less about tolerance. All you cared about was to hit a nerve and make me look bad. Your problem, not mine.

And no, what happened tonight in the US has not a damn thing to do with SC, or this fandom's fault lines. If you think it does, then you are, pardon my French, a cretin.

[mankillercalledbunny]

I didn't spend half of this semester studying Holocaust memory and breaking down Nazi propaganda to pull my punches now.

This was my addition to the template urging my MP to protect trans rights

We have seen what the erosion of trans rights has done in the United States, and the way it has been used as a stepping stone to the destruction of civil rights across the board. I do not want to see the same thing happen here. UK trans people deserve the same legal rights, protections, and privacies afforded to all other members of society. In targeting a small and vulnerable population to use as a scapegoat, the Conservative party, and those in Labour who would support their actions here, are taking worryingly similar steps to those of early 1930s Germany. This may sound extreme, but one of the first targets of the Nazi regime was the Institute of Sexology, which provided some of the earliest recorded medical care and resources for the individuals we would now call transgender. It decried my community as a societal ill, fostered violence against us, and denied us all rights to privacy, as this amendment would. They used trans rights and freedoms as a stepping stone to the further destruction of civil rights for other vulnerable minorities across the board. And they did it through legal precedent attacks like this one. If you allow trans rights to fail here, it will be the first domino in the erosion of civil rights and legal protections for a vulnerable demographic, but it will not end here. Prevent the domino from falling in the first place. I beg you not to let us be the stepping stone that destroys British civil rights and democracy, the way that we have been in America now, and in Germany nearly 100 years ago. I beg you to protect my vulnerable community, who are your constituents, your neighbours, and your fellow human beings.

Contact your MPs. Don't let them do this to us.

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON — It took decades for defenders of the Confederacy to rewrite the history of the Civil War to recast Southern rebels’ treasonous attack against the United States as an act of honor and courage.

It took Donald Trump a mere fraction of that time to accomplish the same feat for his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt.

In a mere four years, that day’s effort to end or, at the very least, suspend American democracy with a deadly assault on the Capitol, incited by Trump himself, has for a large swath of the country instead become a peaceful protest whose participants have been persecuted by Trump’s political opponents.

“What they have in common is that in both cases a story is propagated that a portion of the population wants to hear because it absolves them, or those in their in-group, of a transgression of not just the law, but of commonly held moral principles,” said Gabriel Reich, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who has studied how the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction is taught in schools.

“Liberal democracies really struggle with bad-faith actors who manipulate existing rules and norms to their own benefit,” he added.

Tom Joscelyn, a counterterrorism expert who served on the staff of the House Jan. 6 committee and was a co-author of its report, said he still finds it hard to believe that people could watch what happened that day unfold on television and then still accept Trump’s version of it. Unlike children growing up in the South in the 1940s and 1950s, for whom the Civil War was generations in the past, Trump’s followers and allies are rejecting readily available evidence of contemporary violence.

“All you need is the images and the videos from that day, his own words, and what you saw with your own eyes, and it was clear that he had crossed some bright lines,” he said. “All of that should have been disqualifying, and it wasn’t.”

Trump’s transition team did not respond to HuffPost queries. Even since his win in November, Trump has continued to lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from him and has described those who have been prosecuted for their actions on Jan. 6 as political prisoners.

“These people have been treated really, really badly,” he told Time magazine last month. “They’ve suffered greatly, and in many cases they should not have suffered.”

Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Republican political consultant in Florida, said he remembers as a child reading a plaque honoring dead Confederate soldiers in his town square. “That’s the way we grew up. That’s what we knew,” he said.

That Trump was able to revise his own history so quickly is a noteworthy achievement, he added.

“It is a tribute to Trump and his posse’s ability to convince half the country,” Stipanovich said. “And it is a telling indictment of the intelligence of that half of the country.”

From Protecting Slavery To The Honorable ‘Lost Cause’

When America elected the leader of a party dedicated to abolishing slavery as president, 11 Southern states decided to secede and started a war against those that remained. That these rebel states would lose was likely inevitable, given the Union’s industrial might and population advantage, and 700,000 deaths later, they did.

Yet within a few short years, an effort to reinvent that loss and the motivations behind it began. Confederate sympathizers and segregationists in academia, the media and politics cast men like Robert E. Lee — officers in the U.S. Army who had taken up arms against the United States — as tragic American heroes. And the reason behind the war, the preservation of human slavery, was replaced with a principled defense of “states’ rights” — even though slavery was plainly cited in the states’ own articles of secession.

“They made sure that teachers, including university-level historians, taught that story as historical truth, while simultaneously suppressing other points of view from the media,” VCU’s Reich said.

It took decades of repetition, replete with the construction of statues and memorials to the leaders of the failed insurrection, but this “Lost Cause” myth eventually became an accepted narrative, primarily in the South but to a lesser extent all over the country. So much so that some U.S. military bases in the first half of the 20th century were named for Confederate officers.

Trump’s propaganda campaign to redefine Jan. 6, in contrast, has taken place at lightning speed.

On Jan. 6 itself and in the days immediately afterward, the early consensus was that Trump had incited the attack on the Capitol and that he was wrong to do so. Republican congressional leaders blamed him in floor speeches. Trump himself on Jan. 7 read prepared remarks warning members of his mob: “To those who broke the law, you will pay.”

Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, expressed the conventional wisdom at the time that Trump was finished. “I think he’s lost any sort of political viability he was going to have,” she told Politico on Jan. 12.

Four years later, Trump is about to return to the same White House he left in disgrace. His new administration will be stocked with those willing to repeat and spread his continuing lies about the 2020 election. And he has promised not only to pardon those prosecuted for taking part in the Jan. 6 attack but to prosecute those who tried to hold him and his followers to account.

The Triumph Of The Repeated Lie

That Trump was able to return to power, despite everything, was perhaps foreseeable because he never lost the loyalty of the Republican primary voting base.

Indeed, the day after his coup attempt had failed, the overwhelming majority of the 163 members of the Republican National Committee gave him a sustained ovation when he called into their winter meeting in Amelia Island, Florida.

Three weeks later, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, at the time the country’s highest-ranking elected Republican, visited Trump at his South Florida country club, effectively signaling that Trump remained the party’s leader. Two weeks after that, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, while lambasting Trump for his behavior leading up to and on Jan. 6, nonetheless voted not to convict Trump for inciting the insurrection following his House impeachment for that offense. A conviction would have been followed by a vote to ban him from federal office for life.

By April, the RNC was again holding fundraising events at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, putting donors’ money into his personal bank account. Officials acknowledged privately that Trump remained their biggest fundraising draw and that they had to go along with the fiction that the 2020 election had been stolen because their voters believed it to be true — even though the only reason for that belief was Trump’s lies.

And by the end of 2021, following the release of conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson’s “documentary” claiming that the Jan. 6 insurrection was actually a “false flag” operation by the FBI, Trump began calling those under prosecution for taking part in his coup attempt — even the hundreds convicted for having assaulted police officers — “hostages” and “political prisoners.”

Republican candidates for offices large and small in increasing numbers made pilgrimages to Palm Beach to win his endorsement. Journalists similarly made the trek — not to ask about his unprecedented attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power, but about his candidacy to regain the presidency in 2024.

The new “Lost Cause” myth for Jan. 6 was complete.

“It’s disheartening,” Joscelyn said.

Stipanovich, who broke from the Republican Party when it embraced Trump in 2016, said that a more apt — and troubling — comparison to Trump’s rewriting of Jan. 6 may be the way Adolf Hitler and the Nazis remade their 1923 Beer Hall Putsch into a valiant act of patriotism, rather than an attempted coup that sent Hitler and others to prison.

“When it failed, the heroes of the failure became the hope of the future,” he said.

Whatever the appropriate historical analogy, the fact that Trump was able to assault democracy as he did and still come back to power is worrisome, said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist. Sabato also grew up in that state, where the Civil War was taught as the “War of Northern Aggression.”

“The Lost Cause was a ‘big lie,’ but I’m not so sure Trump’s ‘big lie’ will ever be a lost cause,” he warned. “This is not cynicism. It’s the reality we face.”

[zingay]

Do not conflate Jewish people with Israel and do not conflate Palestinians with Hamas. Criticising the Israeli government + military and Hamas is completely fair, but you must criticise both for their actions. Don't pin everything that's happening on Hamas alone like I'm seeing people do because everything Hamas does is immediately linked to the Israeli government.

Israel's cruelty created Hamas, and Netanyahu funded and uplifted them to power to get rid of other "more acceptable" Palestinian groups like the PLO to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. This serves the purpose of turning the world against Palestine and to separate Gaza and the West Bank. They then forced Gaza into an open-air prison, and no election has been held since 2006 to allow the Palestinian people of Gaza to choose their representatives.

X (paid article) X

Palestinian people have attempted peaceful negotiations and protests in the past, the most notable being the 2018 protest, The Great March of Return. Protests that took place on Fridays to fight for the right to return to their stolen homes and to end the illegal blockade of Gaza (which remains to this day). Israel responded with violence, using snipers to kill and injure protestors. Many women and children were killed or disabled as a result.

X X

Many Jewish people in and out of the state of Israel are antizionist and do not support the occupation of Palestine. This has been the cause of many raids by the Israeli police. Jewish people around the world have spoken up and protested against the Israeli government, calling zionism itself antisemitism.

X X X (highly recommend going through this account)

No matter what the Israeli government cosplays as, it will never be a democracy or a safe place for Jewish people if people are not allowed to protest or criticise the government. Netanyahu's approval continues to drop after months of protest against the proposal to reduce the power of the Supreme Court, giving more power to the government. This has been destroying the illusion of Israel as a democratic state.

X

X

This part is purely based on my snd others' suspicions as it is based on much more recent events and information, but also past actions of the Israeli government. But considering the warning that Israel has received from Egypt days before the October 7th attacks (X), and the sudden change in location of the Universo Paralello Festival 2 days before the event (X), you might question if this was on purpose to both distract from the Israeli's protests and police raids against them and get rid of the Palestinians.

Standing with Palestine is standing against zionism and genocide. Standing with Israel is standing with violence and antisemetism.

We will get nowhere if we continue allowing people to believe all Palestinians are terrorists and that all Jewish people are zionists. We can deal with groups like Hamas later. We can deal with violent zionists later. As we've seen, none of this can be done humanely before Palestine is freed.

[timetravellingkitty]

hello ive been lurking around your blog these past few days and have found your posts.....intresting. I have a few questions for you I hope you answer. 1. Are you indian indian? Like born and a bred indian( race and nationality both)

I saw you mentioned you are Punjabi I come from a Punjabi background as well though I've grown up mainly in the south

2. I agree with some of your takes on kashmir like the heavy presence of military in kashmir only encourages alienation and radical thinking among people. But some of your takes seem.... stupid for a lack of a better word. I Mean if you are a tax paying adult living in a 3rd world country surrounded by neighbouring countries much worse than your who would happily like to subjugate you and your fellow citizens and take away even the most basic rights we have. You should be able to see plain as day that giving kashmir would be political suicide for india. We can argue about the semantics of how the place should be governed appropriately all day but you should also be able to see that pakistan will not give up claim to any part of kashmir ever. Especially because it's a mainly Muslim dominated state. In an ideal world kasmiris are free to govern themselves but we don't live in an ideal world . We live in a fycked up system where some things are harsh but necessary that's the way of life. To make it clear I'm not condoning any human rights abuses faced by the both the hindus and Muslims of the region my point is solely regarding your India's "forceful" occupation of kashmir. ( which is a whole other can of worms regarding their Hindu king and Muslim population in 1947) the point is when the partitioning happened this land came to us by hook or by crook . I will the first to admit that the Indian government both under congress and bjp has largely failed to govern the state properly and adress the concerns of the people.

3. Onto my point of you saying people fetishize kashmir I can see your point somewhat. But to say that tourism in the state is not good is just.....no that's just dumb. Kashmir lacks proper infrastructure and revenues to boost it's economy and sustain itself on its own. Tourism is the livelihood of many original indigenous kashmir people whose lives you seem to care alot about. So yeah I think tourism in the state is a great initiative by the government one of the few good things bjp has done tbh.

This helps people earn money and keep a roof over their heads whats wrong with that? Seeing kashmir as Hindu homeland is weird and very hindutva which I don't support but kashmiris should be tolerant of other people living there. Migration within states ks very common in india I don't see the problem with people coming there for vacation or purchasing property there. The only thing they are right to be concerned about is how it can uproot their language and culture.

4. India as country has many problems and we are largely governed by a fascist central government that's slowly taking our fundamental rights and freedome away. But (it's a huge but so I can see if you won't take this leap with me) we are still on paper a democracy with equal rights for all. That's better than most countries in the middle east (for now atleast) we have done a better job administrating kashmir than pakistan. I think that's true because let's be honest there is no way I'm ever trusting a word out the mouth of failed terrorist state. That curtails the rights of women in the name of religion

5. In an ideal world I am pasificst bit right now after the pointless death of civilians in kashmir there terrorist have achieved what they wanted most to break the last semblance of tolerance between hindus and Muslims over the past few days I've openly seen may friends be very Islamophobic which is saddening. But to say that the military operation carried out by Indian is wrong is a dumb ass take if someone slaps you you won't turn your other cheek and ask hin to slap you again? And this idea that indian pins the blame on pakistan is pure nonsense ( edit: there was a huge misstep and failure of the indian intelligence to not be able to identify this attack prior and stop it yes I agree with that) but pakistan is a nation that is internationally know for harboring know terrorist and giving them shelter. They've been known to interfere with Indian politics and cause disruptions in our country you really think it's that out of reach that they've been involved in this attack? Ofcourse pakistan denies any wrong doing any criminal does that in court as well. I don't justify the civilian death on any side of the border but they've killed our civilians too I don't see you posting about that. Or see you expressing sympathy with the victims in the latest attack on our side the border.

5. If you've seen the news you know they've tried attacking our citizens yesterday so you clearly have to know pakistan is a security threat to india and it's citizen and the terrorist state needs to be punished. No one claims to have a moral high ground in this it's a fucking war no one is right. But india is justified to defend itself and it's sovereign territory against militants and terrorist attacks.

Tbh all of this is why I questions if you've truly lived in india and are of tax paying age because if you live here you've got your head in the sand . Or you're a western alt left wing person who has no idea what the ground reality is over here.

Sincerely an Indian centrist

I like being on the internet as a true urban naxal anti-national because I will always get lodus like you calling me a westernised cunt detached from reality. you preach all this blather to me when you don't even realise india is ruining kashmir's infrastructure? that the occupation forces kashmiris to sustain on tourism? you want me to dignify your softcore islamophobia with a response? why should anyone give a disclaimer that they don't agree with islamic theocracies or like pakistan everytime they criticise india? sorry you don't see every single thing I've said on this stupid blog when I know that pakistan killing civilians on the other side of the LOC is terrible. since you're so hellbent on making assumptions about me, why don't I make one on you? you sound like a privileged savarna cunt with the way you're doing all this apologia for a fuckass liberal democracy like india and no amount of posturing about how pakistan is a gajillion times worse will hide the fact that the indian state has always been shitty and is only getting worse

and you want me to take this seriously when you're so proudly sincerely a centrist? keda teer maarya hai tu jamm ke ess duniya de vich? for your so-called nuance? like seriously I love being reminded that the people of my ethnic group are some of the dumbest bitches you'll ever find in the world, you wanna ignore the fact that civilians on both sides of the border dividing punjab will be caught in the crossfire because of the circlejerk contest india started by airstriking civilian areas?

I recommend not shitting all over my inbox again

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

Tulsi Gabbard’s history with Russia is even more concerning than you think

“What happened in Syria is what allowed the Russians to feel that they could do the very same in Ukraine,” he said.

“And what she is doing with Ukraine shows that it goes beyond her maybe misunderstanding one conflict. She is, hook, line and sinker, a Russian puppet.”

In the summer of 2015, three Syrian girls who had narrowly survived an airstrike some weeks earlier stood before Tulsi Gabbard with horrific burns all over their bodies.

Gabbard, then a US congresswoman on a visit to the Syria-Turkey border as part of her duties for the foreign affairs committee, had a question for them.

“How do you know it was Bashar al-Assad or Russia that bombed you, and not Isis?’” she asked, according to Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian activist who was translating her conversation with the girls.

It was a revealing insight into Gabbard’s conspiratorial views of the conflict, and it shocked Moustafa to silence. He knew, as even the young children did, that Isis did not have jets to launch airstrikes. It was such an absurd question that he chose not to translate it because he didn’t want to upset the girls, the eldest of whom was 12.

“From that point on, I’m sorry to say I was inaccurate in my translations of anything she said,” Moustafa told The Independent. “It was more like: How do I get these girls away from this devil?”

Even before Gabbard left the Democratic Party, ingratiated herself with Donald Trump and secured his nomination to become director of National Intelligence, she was known as a prolific peddler of Russian propaganda.

In almost every foreign conflict in which Russia had a hand, Gabbard backed Moscow and railed against the US. Her past promotion of Kremlin propaganda has provoked significant opposition on both sides of the aisle to her nomination.

Her journey from anti-war Democrat to Moscow-friendly Maga warrior began in Syria. The devastating conflict was sparked by pro-democracy uprisings in 2011, which were brutally crushed by the Assad regime. It descended into a complex web of factions that drew extremist Islamists from around the world and global powers into the fray.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, documented the deaths of 503,064 people by March 2023. It said at least 162,390 civilians had died in that same time, with the Syrian government and its allies responsible for 139,609 of those deaths.

But Gabbard, a veteran of the Iraq War, viewed it all as a “regime-change war” fueled by the West and aimed at removing the dictator from power. She saw Assad – and Russia, when it entered the conflict – as legitimate defenders of the state against an extremist uprising.

In 2015, when Russia entered the Syrian war on the side of the dictator Assad, Gabbard expressed support for the move, even as the civilian toll from Moscow’s devastating airstrikes grew into the thousands.

“Al-Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 and must be defeated. Obama won’t bomb them in Syria. Putin did. #neverforget911,” she wrote on Twitter.

It was precisely because of her support for Assad and Russia’s war that Moustafa was keen for her to attend the congressional delegation to southern Turkey to meet the victims of the conflict.

“From experience, everyone that we bring over to the border, and they see the victims, they always come back with a realistic view of what’s happening and who is behind the mass displacement and killing and atrocities and so on, and so that was the objective,” he said. “What was shocking was her lack of empathy. She’ll sacrifice the facts, even when it came to little girls in front of her telling her they got bombed by a plane – it didn’t matter.”

Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who testified twice on Syria to the House Foreign Affairs Committee when Gabbard was a member, spent years debunking her various conspiracy theories about the war.

“Her consistent denial of the Syrian regime’s crimes is so wildly fringe that her potential appointment as DNI is genuinely alarming,” he told The Independent.

Lister said her views “appear to be driven by a strange fusion of America First isolationism and a belief in the value of autocratic and secular leaders in confronting extremism.”

They included a suggestion that Syrian rebels staged a false-flag chemical weapons attack against their supporters to provoke Western intervention against Assad — something the US intelligence agencies she will soon lead had concluded was false. She declined to call Assad a war criminal when pressed, despite masses of evidence, and used a video of Syrian government bombings to criticize US involvement in the war.

“Her descriptions of the crisis in Syria read like they were composed in Assad’s personal office, or in Tehran or Moscow – not Washington,” Lister added.

Gabbard was not swayed by meeting the victims of Assad’s airstrikes in 2015. In fact, two years later, she went to Damascus to meet the Syrian president in person and came away even more convinced of her opinions.

The congresswoman said her visit to meet Assad – the first by a sitting US lawmaker since the conflict began – was aimed at bringing an end to the war.

“I felt it’s important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we could achieve peace,” she told CNN at the time.

Fire rises following a Syrian government airstrike in Aleppo in 2016 (AP)

Gabbard was forced to defend her embrace of Assad and other dictators during her 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. During the Democratic primary debate, she clashed with Kamala Harris, who accused her of being “an apologist for an individual – Assad – who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches.”

“She has embraced and been an apologist for him in a way that she refuses to call him a war criminal. I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously and so I’m prepared to move on,” added Harris, who would subsequently drop out of the race and later be selected as Joe Biden’s running mate.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Gabbard again defended Russian aggression.

“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/Nato had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” she posted on Twitter in 2022.

Gabbard appeared to fall for various conspiracy theories about the conflict that were promoted by Russia, as she had done in Syria. One of those conspiracy theories was a Russian claim about the existence of dozens of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine that were supposedly producing deadly pathogens.

She later walked back on those remarks, suggesting that there might have been some “miscommunication and misunderstanding.”

Gabbard’s frequent echoing of Kremlin talking points has earned her praise in Russian state media. Indeed, an article published on 15 November in the Russian-state controlled outlet RIA Novosti went so far as to call Gabbard a “superwoman.”

The possibility that Trump would tap someone with Gabbard’s history to be America’s top intelligence official shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who followed the president-elect’s first four years in the White House.

During his 2018 summit with President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the then-president was asked if he believed the US intelligence community’s assessment, which stated that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election on his behalf.

That assessment was based on analysis of what was determined to have been state-sponsored campaigns of fake social media posts and ersatz news sites to spread false stories about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, as well as cyberattacks targeting the Democratic National Committee and prominent operatives associated with the Clinton campaign.

But Trump, who’d just spent several hours in a closed-door meeting with Putin, stunned the assembled press and the entire world by declaring that he trusted the Russian leader’s word over that of his own advisers.

​​"President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be," he replied.

Trump would go on to repeatedly clash with his own intelligence appointees during the remainder of his term. He sacked his first DNI, former Indiana senator Dan Coats, after Coats repeatedly declined to back away from the government’s assessment of what Russia had done during the 2016 presidential race.

Larry Pfeiffer, the director of George Mason University’s Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, said Gabbard’s apparent susceptibility to foreign disinformation and her affinity for strongmen will give pause to American allies with whom the US routinely shares intelligence on common threats.

Intelligence services, he explained, are notoriously territorial and tight-lipped on sources and methods – particularly when it comes to so-called human intelligence, or Humint, which refers to information collected by and from spies and sources within hostile governments.

Pfeiffer said foreign allies are likely already concerned about how a second Trump administration will handle intelligence, given the president-elect’s record. He also predicted that Gabbard’s confirmation as DNI would cause even more problems among skittish partners.

“I think they wouldn’t feel like they’ve got an American confidant that they can deal with on a mature level,” he said. “I can guarantee you that the foreign intelligence services of Europe, including the Brits, are all having little side conversations right now about … what is this going to mean, and how are we going to operate, and what are we going to do now.”

Gabbard has taken the side of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad as well as the Russian president (AP)

The former US intelligence veteran also said Gabbard’s record of spreading foreign talking points calls into question whether she will be able to carry out the DNI’s important responsibility of briefing the president on threats to the nation.

He told The Independent: “Somebody like Tulsi Gabbard, you look at her long history of statements that seem to come out of the Kremlin’s notebook, her propensity to be influenced by their viewpoint – [it] raises questions as to whether she has the ability to present the intel community’s perspective as it is, or is she going to be one who’s going to want to discount it, influence it, color and change it, or ignore it and just present her own view?

“I think it also raises questions of judgement. You know, here’s an individual who seems very prone to misinformation, prone to conspiracy theory. That should worry anybody who’s worried about America’s national security,” he added.

Trump’s selection of the former Hawaii congresswoman could be a problem for the senators tasked with confirming her, on several different levels. For one, the position is unique among cabinet agencies in that there are strict requirements for who can serve in the director’s role.

The text of the 2004 law which established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington and the intelligence community’s failures leading up to the US invasion of Iraq, specifically states that any person who serves in the DNI job “shall have extensive national security expertise.”

The first person to serve as DNI, John Negroponte, was a widely respected foreign service veteran who had served as US ambassador to Iraq, Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines, as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, and as a deputy national security adviser during the Reagan administration. The next three people to hold the office were flag-rank military officers with significant intelligence experience.

Pfeiffer, a US intelligence veteran of three decades’ standing who once ran the White House Situation Room and served as chief of staff to then-CIA director General Michael Hayden, told The Independent that Gabbard’s experience in the House and her military service, while admirable, do not match the standards envisioned by the authors of the 2004 law which established the office.

“That’s national security experience … but she was a freaking military cop … operating at a largely tactical level, not that strategic, long-term national security perspective that one would expect,” he said.

Gabbard may have left the Syrian conflict behind, but Moustafa still works with its victims every day. And he believes the connection between her views on Syria and Ukraine is clear.

“What happened in Syria is what allowed the Russians to feel that they could do the very same in Ukraine,” he said.

“And what she is doing with Ukraine shows that it goes beyond her maybe misunderstanding one conflict. She is, hook, line and sinker, a Russian puppet.”