#looking at you usa

[mokeonn]

"But if college was free, then people would abuse that and get useless degrees" hell yeah I would! If I could go to college without debt I would make it my job to get a degree in every little thing that interested me. I'd get a doctorate in film studies. I'd have a bachelor's degree for every science I like. I'd try to learn at least 5 languages with varying results. I would learn something "useful" like coding and then follow it up with a ""useless"" degree like art history. I'd be the world record speed run holder for getting every degree possible.

But I can't afford college without going into massive debt, so instead I spent the last 5 years trying to figure out what I am passionate enough about to consider going into debt over, because unfortunately being passionate about everything is extremely expensive to pursue.

[kamreadsandrecs]

By Melissa Chan

The Philippines, a nation of more than 110 million people, 7,000 islands and 100 ethnic groups, fails to receive commensurate global attention relative to its significance. When it does make the headlines, it is often because of an unfortunate natural disaster – countless people swept away in a flood or buried under lava.

Two new books serve to remedy our ignorance: Philip Bowring’s The Making of the Modern Philippines and How to Stand Up to a Dictator by the 2021 Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa. Both authors are journalists who have spent decades in Asia. Bowring’s book takes a more traditional approach, scholarly and dispassionate, while Ressa’s is almost a manifesto – both an account of her lived experience as a Filipina American and an appeal to readers to join her in the fight against authoritarianism across the world.

Bowring starts from the very beginning – including plate tectonics and the region’s earliest inhabitants – and takes us up to the past eighteen months. European colonization began nearly half a millennium ago, following the arrival of the Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi in 1565. Manila became the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571 and the administration of territories fell to a chaotic mixture of clergy and soldiers, who often ruled by patronage. Poor governance racked the region from its earliest years. Bowring shows how decisions made by European traders and missionaries several centuries ago continue to manifest themselves in today’s contemporary fissures and patronage networks.

There is no question that Bowring knows his material, which makes it unfortunate that, while useful, his book would have benefited from an additional beta reader and more fastidious copy editor. Chapters sometimes read like extended Wikipedia entries or, when the author rattles off the country’s industrial output over several pages, a chamber of commerce report. Missing full stops at the end of sentences and accidental duplicate lines give it an unfinished feel.

An actual editor might also have opted to intervene when Bowring declares that “racism … was not among [Douglas MacArthur’s] many faults”. This arrives on the back of a description of MacArthur’s affair with a Filipina teenager, conducted when the general was in his fifties. In 2023 we surely recognize the uneven power dynamics of a colonial-era relationship and the cavalier orientalism with which MacArthur ultimately abandoned the girl he nicknamed “Dimples”.

Despite its failures, The Making of the Modern Philippinesis a solid primer to an archipelago that Bowring aptly describes as “a political identity with a singular name for nearly 500 years, much longer than many of its neighbours”. And it is with that appreciation for the country that we can turn to Ressa’s story. Ressa is a co-founder of Rappler, a news site that, among other things, doggedly investigated the presidency of the populist strongman Rodrigo Duterte (2016–22), including the putative anti-drugs campaign that permitted the extrajudicial murders of more than 5,000 citizens. It did not take the government long to strike back with trumped-up charges, accusing Ressa and Rappler of everything from tax evasion to cyber-libel. The author now potentially faces years in prison because of the cumulative charges, although some were dropped earlier this month. Among the outstanding ones, she is currently appealing one guilty conviction, taking it all the way to the country’s supreme court. That decision is due at any time – she may well be a political prisoner by the time you’re reading this.

Ressa was born in Manila in 1963, and she traces her childhood in the Philippines and her jarring move to the United States, aged ten, recounting her confusion and struggle as an immigrant. Though she flourished academically, getting into Princeton, her sense of outsider status permeates these pages – not least because it is partly what drives her. “I set myself a twofold challenge: how to understand the world and my place in it, and how to build my confidence while controlling my ego.”

A desire to understand the world soon pulled Ressa back to the Philippines, following her graduation. The country’s People Power revolution of 1986 had recently toppled the kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos, who had siphoned off billions of dollars from taxpayer coffers. Ressa recounts those heady days when so many young Filipinos like her pitched in to reimagine a better society and a new democratic path.

She became a reporter, working at a local broadcaster before joining CNN, then in its upstart days and dubbed by industry insiders “Chicken Noodle News” on account of its low budget. It was the world’s first twenty-four-hour news channel and it would revolutionize the way we consume journalism, providing viewers with front-row seats for events such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Southeast Asia Ressa covered the Philippines’ transition to democracy and travelled beyond Manila to report on President Suharto’s Indonesia and Mahathir Mohamad’s Malaysia, as both countries rose up against strongman rule. At that stage Ressa was a rare female Asian face on American television, and she paved the way for many others to follow in her footsteps.

She confesses that, during those early years, that same feeling of self-doubt would creep in. It was also the period when she came to terms with her sexuality – Ressa is gay. “I made the choice to learn.” She adds: “It was more than that – I learned to trust: to drop my shields and be vulnerable. I have rarely been disappointed when I do”. Her book is peppered with such philosophical reflections from a life well-pursued. In many ways, How to Stand Up to a Dictator ought to be titled “How to Be A Good Person”. The best tools for fighting regimes, the author argues, are honesty and integrity. “You live your way into it because the sum of all your choices brings you to that point.”

The last time the Nobel committee had awarded the peace prize to a working journalist was in 1935, to Carl von Ossietzky, who died in custody in Nazi Germany. Ressa believes we are in “a similar historical moment” today. In the Philippines Duterte’s leadership has given way to the remarkable return of a Marcos: President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. won in a landslide last year. His success has depended on revisionist history – a scrubbing of his family’s past in a well-financed online information campaign geared towards Gen Z voters who never witnessed People Power. Ressa connects the rise of Duterte and Bongbong to those of strongmen elsewhere, from Donald Trump to Jair Bolsonaro. All came to power by inciting mistrust and division, and spreading falsehoods – and largely by doing so online.

Ressa spends time laying out withering evidence against social networks for their contribution to the decline of democracy in the Philippines and beyond. The latter half of her book focuses on technology as an agent of global chaos, a pivot away from her tone of memoir, though she takes care to show how the early decades of her life helped to prepare her for her current crusade. Once she covered global terrorist networks, tracking al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia. This, she argues, now has its corollary in the political radicalization to be found online. She charts the rise of Duterte via online influence campaigns and shows how, repeatedly, what happens in the Philippines serves as a harbinger for the rest of us. With some of the world’s most addicted internet users and with 97 per cent of those online using Facebook, lies spread quickly. Her newsroom team is in a state of perpetual whack-a-mole, chasing after and combating misinformation. “By the time the lie is debunked, those who believe it often refuse to change their views”, she says. “I believe that Facebook represents one of the gravest threats to democracies around the world, and I am amazed that we have allowed our freedoms to be taken away by technology companies’ greed for growth and revenues.”

Her book paints an overwhelmingly discouraging picture, but it is also a call to action. Ever the optimist, she observes that with destruction comes opportunity. “Now we have to decide what we want to create.” How to Stand Up to a Dictator urges readers to join the fight against global illiberalism. Maria Ressa makes clear that it will take not just brave individuals, but a mass movement: “scale, impact, deterrence”. The forces of progressivism have prevailed in the past and can prevail again.

[moonysideofthesun]

we played football today in PE bc the handle of the door of the sport stuff cupboard broke and it was so much fun, i scored 2 goals put of the 3 the team i was in scored and we won the game ! i also had two asthma attacks and i think i'm having one again but it's ok because i played almost the entire game and WE WON !!

[ishomieokay]

I'm just gonna say it. To the rest of the world, the hatred Republicans have for women in the USA is starting to give off Taliban vibes.

[sun-5h1ne]

And he’s going to prison!

lol Cellbit is the president when he comes back. He’s gonna love that. He lost Forever and all he got was a job he didn’t want.

[sirmanmister]

Hey guys!! I’m pretty sure the majority of you are from mainland America so you don’t have the opportunity to see the northern lights, like, ever. Tonight you can!! Possibly. There’s a pretty severe geomagnetic storm going on and it’ll be hitting pretty darn south and a whole crap ton of people that have never seen northern lights, might be able to see them!!

I highly encourage everyone in the red/yellow lines to try to take a look tonight! I grew up with northern lights literally in my backyard and they’re just such a pleasant sight to see. According to the weather network it’ll go down as far as Alabama!

[plush0fairy]

Wisconsin-ae-Miku

Have to give credit to @thedragonitus for that Culver's cup!

[solradguy]

Bullshit words from Guilty Gear only the sick and deranged know the definitions of:

Garm

Fora

Walkpod

Minimerta

Zeal

Vald

Vyde

Vitae

Charge <-not what you think it is

[walrus150915]

I feel like a lot of people in the fandom tend to forget this, so I'm just here to give a kind, thoughtful reminder :]

Ambrosius Goldenloin in the movie is an East Asian man (Korean-coded), his skin is tan, his eyes are monolid and his nose is big

He's voiced by Eugene Lee Yang - a Korean-American actor who also has Chinese and Japanese heritage. Eugene Lee Yang looks like this:

During the production, when Ambrosius was decided to be East Asian, artists looked up queer East Asian-American men, and based Ambrosius off of them. Ambrosius is literally drawn to look like Eugene Lee Yang

Please draw him as such, thank you

[marvey-sideblog]

they're dating 😌

[pygian-weapon]

DO NOT COMPARE CAESAR TO ELON MUSK HE DOESN'T DESERVE THAT we can come with a Bastille day tumblr celebration or smth, but Caesar was killed by a bunch of old rich men lmao (and his adopted son, et tu brute - cit. Jared Padalecki). this isn't exactly a win for the working people.

Yeah yeah he did war crimes and got too drunk on power, but at least he didn't have an hentai addiction is what I mean

[dontforgetukraine]

Colby Badhwar: "Aid to Ukraine" is really an investment in American manufacturing. $51.2 billion has gone into the US defense industrial base to date. Once all funds are obligated, it will be over $60 billion. Top recipient states: 1. Arkansas - $4.25 billion 2. Alabama - $3.31 billion 3. Pennsylvania - $2.83 billion 4. Arizona - $2.72 billion 5. Texas - $2.04 billion 6. West Virginia - $1.98 billion 7. California - $1.96 billion 8. Florida - $1.59 billion 9. Missouri - $968 million 10. New York - $943 million Note that not all contracts and investments are reflected on the map, so it won't match the total obligations. Only prime contractors and select key subcontractors are mapped. The defense industrial supply chain stretches into all 50 states, and many states are underrepresented due to the nature of the weapon systems provided to Ukraine (e.g. no aircraft =very little for South Carolina & Washington). If your state isn't highlighted that doesn't mean that there are no funds from the Ukraine Supplementals flowing into your state.

[ummick]

📷 @.keviii.n / instagram

[gillianthecat]

USA Protests for Palestine This Weekend

List from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

https://uscpr.org/oct-2023-protests/

Thursday, November 2

ST PAUL, MN | Thursday, November 2nd at 12PM at St. Kate’s O’Shaughnessy Auditorium

PORTLAND, OR | Thursday, November 2nd at 3PM at 911 NE 11th Avenue

BOSTON, MA | Thursday, November 2nd at 4PM at Brewer Fountain, Boston Commons

YPSILANTI, MI | Thursday, November 2nd at 4PM at Eastern Michigan University Student Center

CLEVELAND, OH | Thursday, November 2nd at 6:30PM at Beit Hanina Cultural Center

Friday, November 3

ST PAUL, MN | Friday, November 3rd at 4PM at Snelling & Summit Ave

BROOKLYN, NY | Friday, November 3rd at 4:30PM at Brooklyn District 10 Office 340A 9th Street

MENLO PARK, CA | Friday, November 3rd at 5PM at Meta HQ 1 Hacker Way

Saturday, November 4

NATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON | Washington DC, November 4th, 2 PM. Freedom Plaza. Cosponsored by USCPR and other organizations.

OLYMPIA, WA | Saturday, November 4th at 12PM at City Hall

CINCINNATI, OH | Saturday, November 4th at 12PM at Ziegler Park

RICHLAND, WA | Saturday, November 4th at 12PM at John Dam Plaza

ORONO, ME | Saturday, November 4th at 12PM at UMaine Folger Library

NASHVILLE, TN | Saturday, November 4th at 1PM at Centennial Park

SAN FRANCISCO, CA | Saturday, November 4th at 1PM at Civic Center

SACRAMENTO, CA | Saturday, November 4th at 1PM at Arden Fair Mall

BURLINGTON, VT | Saturday, November 4th at 1PM at Battery Park

PROVO, UT | Saturday, November 4th at 1PM at 550 N University Ave

JUNEAU, AK | Saturday, November 4th at 2PM at Marine Park

LAKEWOOD, OH | Saturday, November 4th at 2PM at City Center Park

SEATTLE, WA | Saturday, November 4th at 3PM at 400 Pine St

TUSCON, AZ | Saturday, November 4th at 3PM at Catalina Park

Sunday, November 5

DENVER, CO | Sunday, November 5th at 12PM at 200 E Colfax Ave

DALLAS, TX | Sunday, November 5th at 2PM at 3333 Turtle Creek Blvd

ROCKVILLE, MD | Sunday, November 5th at 2PM at 101 Monroe St

SAN CARLOS, CA | Sunday, November 5th at 6:15PM at Hiller Aviation Museum

poster art by Shreya Shah from a publicly available collection of free art for Palestine

[delicate-sketch]

I refuse to believe rr made a character called Will that is from Texas uses flip flops (thats a Havaiana excuse me) cargo shorts has tan skin that everyone looked and said you know what he def knows how to shoot and didn’t gave him brazilian roots

[yu-huuuu]

"Your body, my choice"

"Your microdick, my knife🥰🔪"