#makes me a commie then so be it

[moki-dokie]

Congrats on proving you've drank the koolaid and have done like 0 basic research on any of this, both of you! truly impressive work there.

You can, in fact, talk about both things on there. There are Uygurhs on xhs, plenty of them have said less than appealing things about their government, there are videos all over the place that don't even sugarcoat the restrictions they face like??? the fuck are you actually on about lmao

what you CAN'T do on THIS SPECIFIC PLATFORM is get overly political, because this is not the app for that. there are other apps where people can and do discuss these issues in depth without the risk of being banned. Just like posting specific content on youtube will get you banned or demonetized or hidden. Same shit.

I'm like, convinced at this point every single person repeating this rhetoric and pulling this fiction that we somehow don't know the atrocities of the ccp out of their ass are fucking psyops or bot farms or some shit.

like. one of the MAIN driving points of anti-china propaganda is highlighting every single awful and shitty thing their government does. we're annoyingly aware of it. nooooobody is suddenly like 'uwu ccp so perfect and good and totally innocent'. no. what we ARE waking up to is that even though their government is vile in its own ways that is really not all too dissimilar from ours, they still take care of the people better. we're finding out that holy shit, you mean you can have a fucked up broken system but the overwhelming majority can live a pretty content if maybe mediocre life???? and you would not believe the amount of chinese folk that are having a similar experience of whiplash now that they have first-hand accounts of the shitshow that america is - suddenly grateful that even though they might have it hard in their own way, at least it isn't as bad as we have it.

Both of our governments have gone to some extreme measures to try and make us hate our fellow man. both sides are realizing this in a stark and radicalizing way. We aren't running into the arms of another propaganda machine on xhs, we're all, collectively, taking turns smashing the shit out of all of the machines.

but like, here's the big kicker for those of you who still seem to believe they're in some north korea style hell: most of them want and like this form of government. while they can't blatantly and outright say they don't like the ccp, there is enough disgruntled rumbling and hints and carefully worded cheeky comments that you can pretty clearly see they don't particularly like who is running the government. there's been lots of discussions happening, asking how they got to where they are and achieved a lot of this peace and cleaned up so many of the issues that plagued them. and they all have been saying that this system is the one that works. it's the one they want. it's the one they like. they went through a LOT of different systems of governments in a very short span of time compared to most other developed nations. this is what works for them. people keep forgetting that the concept and structure of a government can be fantastic (american democracy/chinese socialist republic) and well received but the people running it can be awful (the republican party/the ccp). so while we're getting angry and depressed over how fucking heinously awful our government is to us, they're more of the notion of wanting to figure out a way to bring down the great firewall.

and it seems that we have a lot more work to be done to stop equating a whole entire people to the select handful of shitbags that make their government.

i'm like actually legitimately loving that the result of the tiktok ban is decimating decades of propaganda against china in record time. everyone is flocking to the actual chinese-owned version of tiktok called rednote where they are being welcomed so warmly with the silliest jokes like "i'm your assigned chinese spy! i've been waiting for you! welcome!" alskdjgsld. folks are already making attempts to learn some mandarin to better interact with the chinese users. everyone realizing what our own government collects on us is twice as harmful as anything ccp could do with it. everyone waking up to the fact that every fucking facet of the american internet is designed to harvest and sell personal data off of you so what the fuck does it actually matter anyway if one more entity does it. us government managed to speedrun undoing their own fucking brainwashing it's so goddamn funny.

[slutdge]

Not to get deep here or anything but i really think i dont want to have a relationship with my sister anymore and ive been reflecting on that a lot. like sure she didnt abuse me or really do anything to directly traumatize me, but she voted against me having human rights because im queer, as well as voting for a party that wants to harm first nations people despite both of us being first nations i just.... i dont think i can forgive her for that. weve had laughs and good times together but i find myself unable to forgive her for her politics. i wouldn't tolerate bigotry from anyone else, i shouldnt tolerate it from someone just cause theyre family.

[weepylucifer]

glorious 25th makes me think again about that one idea i once had for a discworld spinoff set in the future that would deal with the natural conclusion to the industrial revolution arc: communism comes to discworld

[whimsycore]

I literally got called a kiss ass ( I work greeting guests) and got indirectly told I don’t do anything at my job by the oldest hag here but don’t worry she offered me her seat after slamming the door so I wouldn’t come in the staff eating lounge.

I started here 3 days ago. They all talk about being democrats but you meet one black woman and immediately treat her like shit.

[teenagefeeling]

why were timmy and tommy selling me an electric chair yesterday

[blackgumball]

ooh i cant tell if my boss is antsy about the election, if she hates us for being bad at our jobs, or if i am tactless (probably combination of the first and last ones) but i just got told off this morningggggg

[cigarette-room]

cooked beyond comprehension

[wereology]

communists i need you to analyze those theme parks where you could have your child pretend to be chik fil a worker. there’s something going on there

[jenovacomplete]

"i don't have the money to pay voice actors for my meme video that i plan to use in my animation portfolio so i used ai instead but i promise i'm a good person who respects my fellow workers and artists please don't be mad at me i know i violated their image for the sake of my funny meme but i'm just doing it because i'm desperate i promise see here's my patreon if you just donate i won't have to do it anymore so you know i'm a good person" what are you, a fucking scab? get out of here, lmaoooo

[selamat-linting]

y/n reader fantasies are a little embarrassing. i admit it. but, my fantasy of becoming tony montana's personal enemy that he always beats up by hand but never kill despite us being opposites in ideology and career is different i swear!!!

[jacquelinemerritt]

Queer Media Review: Her Story (2016)

Originally posted September 1st, 2016

Honest, earnest, and representative, even to a fault.

This review is the first in a weekly series of pieces on queer and trans media. See them all here!

The importance of Her Story as a piece of queer representative media cannot be understated. In a time where the majority of films about trans women are cast and crewed by cisgender men and women, that Her Story was co-written and co-produced by Jen Richards and Laura Zak, a trans woman and cis queer woman, respectively, makes it unique, and lends the entire production a sense of honesty and earnestness that defines the series. Unfortunately, that earnestness is what leads to the biggest flaws of the series, near the end, though they are far from great enough to bring down the overall quality of this Emmy Nominated series.

Her Story begins by setting up its primary framing device: Allie (Laura Zak) is a journalist writing for a queer magazine called “Gay LA,” and she decides that she wants to write a story on the dating lives of trans women with Violet (Jen Richards) as her primary interview subject. They interview over coffee, and Violet establishes the “rules” (in the screenwriting sense) about trans women that will hold throughout the series (and reflect their existence in the actual world). It’s all done very playfully, however, and the scene serves to set up a burgeoning relationship between these two women, with Allie coyly flirting with Violet the entire time.

These two women clearly have romantic chemistry with one another, but it’s established around the same time that Violet is already in a committed relationship with Mark (Josh Wingate), with the primary conflict being both that Mark doesn’t want Violet seeing this woman and Violet being unsure of her own sexuality, having exclusively dated men since transitioning to life as woman.

While this relationship is the main focus of the series, a number of subplots are set up in the background as well. Paige (Angelica Ross), a civil rights attorney and Violet’s friend, is attempting to navigate a new relationship with James (Christian Ochoa) a (presumed) cis man who is unaware that Paige is trans, while Lisa (Caroline Whitney Smith) is attempting to discourage her friend Allie from dating Violet, arguing that it is impossible to be a lesbian and date someone who is a “former man,” misgendering Violet and using transphobic language against her. These two subplots coalesce wonderfully in a way I won’t spoil. Both of these subplots are given satisfactory endings which leave both Allie and Lisa with the opportunity for significant character growth if this series continues.

While the side stories are resolved well, the main story of Violet and Allie’s relationship is concluded rather clumsily, with Violet giving a speech on her character’s entire history in the fifth episode which feels like an attempt to make Violet representative of as many trans women as possible, rather than to build complexity into her character.

What’s more, Allie being present with Violet to receive the revelation is spurred on by a poorly designed coincidence that would seem to serve to alienate Violet further from one of her few friends, the lesbian punk rock artist Bad Penny (Elizabeth Frances). This is glossed over in favor of giving Allie an opportunity to learn Violet’s darkest secrets early on. It’s a weak bit of storytelling that both lessens the impact of Violet’s eventual coupling with Allie and sidelines the reality of Violet’s experiences in favor of pushing her into the story’s resolution (the latter of which I find particularly frustrating).

Nevertheless, these flaws aren’t enough to lessen the value of Her Story. Even with a weak resolution to the main story, the development of Allie and Violet’s relationship is honest, and watching Paige attempt to navigate the complex issue of whether or not to disclose that she’s trans to her love interest is incredibly compelling. That issue in particular is one that has been absent in almost all trans media created so far, despite being a very regular part of the trans experience dating. Seeing that conflict depicted on screen is both affirming and empowering, as is the complexity of Violet’s confusion over her own sexuality.

I would highly recommend Her Story as an honest depiction of navigating romance as a trans woman. It’s well-constructed, well-shot, and well-acted, and its flaws come nowhere near outweighing its strengths.

Rating: 4/5

Her Story can be viewed on the series’ official site, HerStoryShow.com.

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[spursthatjinglejanglejingle]

I don't care about star wars anymore except for when i do. Who give a shit.

[saucetail]

KITTENSGAME WHY ARE THESE MY ONLY OPYIONS

[birdmenmanga]

they were doing some real takayama shit to viktor in those recent episodes

[surpriserose]

I love my mom and being annoying as fuck is not a crime and she is open to me talking about communism so shes doing better than i thought she would but oh my god. I cannot deal with how annoying she is right now

[llycaons]

also unlike the other names, 'Mirnatius' doesn't sound even vaguely eastern european to me. like, what is that, greek? it would make sense since his mother maybe isn't from the same area as the other characters, but it's not a name that's remarked upon as unusual, which strikes ME as odd