#much wwii discussion

[garnetsandroses]

don’t want to be known for making 0 note posts about 3 hour films but oppenheimer was good. if anyone was doubting lol

[age-of-moonknight]

“Systemic Approach (Part Two),” Avengers Unlimited (Vol. 1/2022), Infinity Comic, #64.

Writer: Mat Groom; Penciler and Inker: Caio Majado; Colorist: Pete Pantazis; Letterer: Joe Sabino

[theharddeck]

I did see Oppenheimer (I didn’t know much and my friend wanted to do the Barbieheimer) and it feels like it’s more about how some bad press impacted Oppenheimer rather than the people that died as a result of his actions

Also on a less relevant note Cillan Murphy could not look less Jewish if he tried (I’m saying this as a Jew) and they had moments with an actor who hit every stereotype of a Jew and Cillain saying stuff like they’re nice to our kind and it made me want to say our kind who, anyways sorry for this whole spiel

Thanks for sharing this!! Yeah as someone who isn’t Jewish and hasn’t seen the movie I didn’t feel like I could fully speak on this…but what I know is that Hollywood still has SO much work to do in actually representing minorities well, and it doesn’t surprise me that this is the latest in a line of closer, but still not there yet RE: Jewish representation (marvelous Mrs Maisel is the example that comes to mind, alongside Funny Girl on Broadway—like yes, others are talented…please cast Jewish actors to play Jewish characters).

As far as impact goes, I’m not gonna say that the development of/decision to drop a nuclear warhead lies fully on Oppenheimer, bc it doesn’t—that’s the military industrial complex, that’s this country deciding a show of might is more important than the ramifications (nuclear fallout, shift in global warfare, missile crises for generations to come, and certainly CERTAINLY the senseless loss of life just to prove a point). I imagine the film covers this, but I do think it’s tasteless and lazy of filmmakers in 2023, to distill it as they did.

[batmanschmatman]

Book Rec: Coming Out Under Fire, by Allan Bérubé

Occasionally I see some discourse on Tumblr from folks in the HBO War fandom or different historical/history adjacent fandoms about how there weren’t that many members of the queer community involved in WWII, and I’d really like to point them and everyone else with an interest in queer history to this wonderful book. Originally published in 1990, Coming Out Under Fire gets into all the different ways queer folks DID participate in the war. It’s from an American perspective, so if you’re looking for other Allied experiences, unfortunately there won’t be much here for you, but it’s exceptionally well researched, and crucially a lot of the content comes from interviews with surviving servicemembers. There’s also a documentary based on the book, which came out a few years later and includes video interviews with some of the folks included in the text.

One of Bérubé’s main points in his introduction – and for writing the book in the first place – is the American government, history textbooks, Hollywood, etc. is able to paint the WWII-era military as an almost entirely straight military force because many queer people who participated in the war effort were silenced during their lifetimes, and were unable or unwilling to reveal their true identities. Some of this was from societal pressure – the post war period saw a huge surge in homophobic rhetoric and persecution in the name of fighting Communism, not to mention the ever present heteronormative pressure to get married and have kids – but also because so many queer veterans died during the AIDS epidemic. Bérubé was inspired to preserve the voices of those who were still with us and shed a light on some of the folks we lost. (Note that this was also an intensely personal issue for Bérubé, who lost friends and his partner to AIDS and thus saw first hand how devastating this was to the community in terms of robbing us of our loved ones, friends, elders, and history itself.)

In the book, Bérubé makes the point over and over again that queer people were involved at basically every level in the American military during the war. There’s stories about guys lying when asked “Do you like girls?” during enlistment, lesbians in the Women’s Army Corps being brought to trial for fraternizing, drag shows in POW camps and in reserve, front line combat veterans discussing losing romantic partners to enemy fire or coming out to foxhole buddies, who were supportive allies rather than hateful. One of my favorite stories that’s always stuck out to me is a guy who came home and decided to come out to his elderly mother, who was fully accepting and supportive of her son’s sexuality. I see so many people speaking in absolutes that there’s NO WAY you could come out to your family and be accepted in the past, and while that was certainly true for so many people, it’s also not an absolute truth.

Please note I am NOT giving blanket permission to make assumptions about real-life people’s sexualities or identities, nor am I saying Band of Brothers fics where half the company is dating each other are historically accurate, but it’s really sad to see folks on here (unknowingly, hopefully) perpetuating the myth that there really weren’t that many queer folks in the military during WWII. We were there, we just couldn’t be out the way we might have liked to be. After the war, the Red Scare, societal pressure, and a literal epidemic silenced countless members of the community about their time in the service. There’s no way to know how many people who fought on Guadalcanal or worked at stateside bases or sorted mail in France were queer, but it’s a lot more than you were led to believe.

As a member of the community and a historian (brief resume: MA in Public History, BA in American History, have published stuff and created exhibits for dozens of museums), I just want to remind folks that we have always been here, and our lives weren’t always miserable and tragic when we came out to people or decided to live as authentically as we could get away with. It’s not completely historically inaccurate to write fic or original fiction where your queer characters can come out to their families and not be shunned, or live with their partners and not be immediately murdered. Being queer wasn’t invented at Stonewall.

[in-memoriam-tgwk]

fun fact; after some heavy lore discussion with my lovely mutual @juniper-clan , i have decided to make mottledwhisker a formerly-trained mouser for a great northern passenger train! his first year of life was spent riding the rails back and forth across the u.s., and with WWII having just ended, he more often than not saw soldiers returning home to their families, or wives traveling to meet their spouses upon their arrival. he was unceremoniously dumped in the wilderness of montana after getting ill, which is where he is found unconscious along the railroad by cliffclaw.

there is also a slight retcon to the thunderpath running along the territory border; it will actually be the railroad cutting through the forest, not a paved highway! they still call it a thunderpath, but it is much noisier and much more deadly with the behemoths that travel to and fro along it. only mottledwhisker seems unfazed to them, since he spent his entire kithood riding inside of one.

thank you to my mutual (mentioned above) for the awesome template, and for the help with solidifying the Colony’s historical backdrop! i had lots of fun planning ^^

[fohatic]

(manip by me, original poster by art chantry)

welp there's a (short!) fic now 😏

for the "kink: condoms are fun!" square of my @cap-ironman stony bingo round 2 card, 1.5k, rated E:

Like so many 21st-century notions that most modern folks took for granted, getting Steve Rogers onboard with the idea of condoms for gay sex was yet another concept that required some getting used to. As ever, Tony was more than willing to help him adjust to it -- was particularly eager, in fact, to demonstrate it for him. 

So he took Steve’s hesitant objections in stride. Though he conceded that STDs weren't actually an issue between them, Tony still felt obligated to get Steve up-to-date on one of the primary functions of using protection. He didn’t blame the poor guy for assuming that “VD” was only something that men contracted from women, given how the sex-ed propaganda of Steve’s time pointedly ignored the existence of homosexuals at every turn (yes, Tony had become quite the WWII-era culture buff ever since he and Steve got together). “Rubbers,” ergo, were only used to prevent pregnancy and war effort-undermining cooties from ‘loose women,’ as far as Steve was concerned.

He hadn’t yet learned about the AIDS epidemic. He hadn’t learned anything at all, really, about homosexuality, aside from what little he’d gleaned from his limited exposure to different cultures and social norms during his stint as a soldier. Just getting him to come out of his internalized-homophobic shell even a little bit after Tony had finally figured out that the tension between them stemmed from a sex thing rather than the other kind of dick-versus-asshole thing was a huge challenge all on its own; one which Tony had only persevered through because he was already way too far-gone on the guy by then to consider giving up. 

But now— after way too much dithering and denial and a gradually-dawning acceptance of the earth-shattering truth of the matter— they were finally fucking each other. Enthusiastically, and often. Tony’s patience had won out big time, and his rewards just kept on coming. And coming. And coming.

Turns out, Steve has a refractory period that’s basically non-existent. One of the many benefits of being serum-enhanced. Truly, Tony has no complaints on that score, considering his own notoriously rabid sex drive. Match made in heaven, in all honesty. It would seem that Steve is intent on making up for lost time, and Tony is only too happy to oblige him at every opportunity—

—which is where the condom thing comes in. Tony doesn’t mind that they’re fucking like rabbits now. It’s great! Amazing! Best thing that’s ever happened to him, really! But honestly— it can get kinda messy, given how Steve seems determined to fuck on every conceivable surface he can think of -- and often during moments that might not be entirely convenient, such as in the immediate aftermath of a mission; be that during touchdown at SHIELD headquarters when he and Tony are still suited up, or even on the freshly-vacated Quinjet on a number of occasions... -- occasions which their teammates definitely weren’t as oblivious to as Steve had been quick to assume in his lust-clouded fever (Tony had seen Nat’s knowing look after Steve had asserted his captain’s voice to tell him, “Stark: hang back a moment. There’s something I need to discuss with you in private.”) He was so disastrously conspicuous sometimes, but Tony wasn't bothered by it. He just found it ridiculously charming. 

So Tony’s started carrying condoms around with him at all times now, knowing that Steve’s delightfully unhinged libido could strike at any moment. It's his privilege to always be ready for him. 

The first time Tony fished one of these out of his pocket and pressed it against Steve’s big, warm chest during a heated make-out session in the locker room, Steve frowned down at the little packet with the most adorably confused expression Tony had ever seen on a full-grown human. 

“...A rubber?”

“Uh huh,” Tony had breathed out, eagerly rolling his hips against the massive thigh still shoved between his legs. 

“What for?”

It was actually really funny, just how nonplussed his face looked in that moment. Tony bit back his reaction to laugh, though, knowing how sensitive Steve could be when he thought Tony was laughing at him. 

“For sex,” Tony grinned, deliberately pressing his hard-on against the larger man and feeling a little giddy with how much he wanted exactly that, pronto. “What else?”

“We’re both fellas, though,” Steve needlessly pointed out, getting that deep furrow between his brows as a particularly splotchy flush spread over his face -- Tony knew by now that these together were more of an indication of embarrassment than arousal. Uh oh. 

It was sometimes a bit of a tightrope walk, maintaining a modern homosexual relationship with a man as complicated as Steve Rogers. Tony was still learning how to navigate his changeable moods and specific triggers, but it was a task he was surprised to find himself more than willing to put up with. It was actually kind of thrilling, the way he was always keeping Tony on his toes.

So that first, clumsy attempt in the locker room hadn’t convinced Steve that condoms were a convenient means of mitigating the messier aspects of assfucking, which in retrospect was Tony’s bad: Steve wasn’t wrong when he'd pointed out that the showers were right there.

Then later that week, when Tony tried again by attempting to argue that condoms were actually “fun,” Steve had gotten a bit petulant when he'd mistakenly jumped to the very erroneous conclusion that Tony didn’t actually like getting pumped full of an unholy amount of hot supersoldier jizz on the regular. On the contrary, it was something he often enjoyed with a zeal that bordered on some kind of perversion… Only, there was a time and place for indulging in what basically amounted to a serious cum-inflation kink, which—in his modest opinion—was best enjoyed in the comfort of an actual bedroom. 

Later, ensconced in the privacy of said bedroom, he explained this to Steve. In so much detail. He made sure to be very clear about what he liked and when/where he liked it, ensuring that there would be no doubt as to how sincerely he meant it by encouraging Steve to properly fill him up right there on his oversized bed. Then—just because Steve seemed to really appreciate these sorts of practical demonstrations—Tony made it very clear what occurred afterwards, illustrating this by strutting naked around the bedroom and letting Steve’s jizz drip down between his legs while he continued to elaborate on the pros and cons of letting Steve put him in such a state while out in public. He definitely had Steve’s rapt attention, this time.

Still, he didn’t fully sell his argument until the following weekend, when they’d been out together at that gala all night in their well-tailored formalwear, making eyes at each other in between all the endless schmoozing and sipping from champagne flutes and munching on canapes. 

Steve found a little secluded balcony that wasn’t in use, because of course he did. Say what you will about him being a late bloomer; there was no denying that the guy had quite the aptitude for arranging semi-covert assignations at a moment’s notice. 

He wasn’t wearing his utility belt, though, which meant that he didn’t have his handy dandy lube tube that he’d taken to carrying around these days. So when Tony caught him trying to spit on his fingers after getting a hand down Tony's pants and squeezing Tony’s ass in a signal he’d come to recognize as Steve’s signature “I wanna fuck you right now” move, he intercepted him just in time to demonstrate the magic of 21st-century lubricated condoms.

Getting to bend Tony over the railing like that and have at him at the drop of his $3000 pants with no prep required—then coming profusely into Tony’s grateful ass without spilling a single drop of superspunk on either of their very nice garments—was something of an eye-opening experience for Steve Rogers. 

He could admit, afterwards— as they righted their clothing and kissed like they’d been waiting all night to get their mouths on each other in order to finally breathe properly— that Tony might’ve actually had a point about the “rubbers.” 

“They’re fun, aren’t they?” Tony smirked as he smoothed his hands down the fine weave of Steve’s black dinner jacket, continually enamored with the way that all that broadness narrowed down to such a grabbable little waist. “...Anytime, anywhere.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, looking at Tony with a fondness that couldn’t possibly have just been about the whole condom thing. Sometimes when Steve looked at him like that, it felt like his insides were melting; like Steve could reduce him to literal goo with just a look. Quite the superpower, that one. 

Steve’s eyes did that funny thing where they grew impossibly warmer as he reached to fix Tony’s hair with gentle fingers, telling him, “I think I’m coming around to the idea.”

♡

[desire-mona]

things abt dps i feel like we dont address enough (photos attached will be shit quality, i took screenshots from yt clips LMAO)

heavily ib @pencileraser1's post abt stuff he noticed n such

the fucking KIDS at welton. the CHILDREN. maybe its just me but i always find myself forgetting that welton isnt a highschool + there are in fact a lot more students than the ones we're focusing on. thats what makes welton so like. evil? to me? they start pushing these kids into a box EARLY.

related, i wouldve LOVED to see how(/if?) keating taught these kids, or rly any other class! he has other classes!!! i think!

ok. of course. neil is a smoker, we've touched on that. but charlie is too?? and he's the one who provides the cigs???? obviously the easy explanation is that he does it to be rebellious and stuff but also Is There Something Else. much to think abt. also wondering where he gets his cigs but thats not rly anything i dont think.

this ones just funny but when mr perry tells the boys they can take a seat and todd simply does not. i KNOW he wasnt sitting before and he needs to unpack and stuff but ITS STILL FUNNY.

"take your seats boys"

"🧍"

also my guilty pleasure is the dps but its todd being anxious video bc man usually crack videos arent my jam but unfortunately i find it so funny

also!!! neil calling his dad sir. obviously its something so glaringly obvious that we dont need to have a discussion abt how theres a disconnect between them. like wow rly thanks mona i didnt know. but come on!!! it makes me sad!!! also they shake hands later in this scene and its the most affectionate/ friendly we see these two get. and its a handshake. and i think what makes it worse is that neil is a SUPER physically affectionate person with his friends. if u watch the movie and pay attention to how often he's touching someone else then ur gonna be like man. he rly was jumping at every opportunity huh.

something about the way neil and the boys act around mr perry makes me view him as more of a drill sargent than anything. everyone immediately stands upon him entering the room. they dont sit until given permission. it rly puts the whole military school thing into perspective but NOT ENOUGH TO SATISFY ME. as much as i hate mr perry, i wanna know what his life was like growing up. this man lived thru the great depression AND wwii, theres stories.

cam's stupid fucking face when keatings behind him larping ghosts. i will never stop talking about how sassy this kid is. the dps redheads go criminally unacknowledged in terms of comedy because OH MY GOD. CAM AND MEEKS WERE SO FUCKING FUNNY??? they both pulled the most dastardly judgemental looks and they make me cackle. a bit earlier in this scene meeks goes full 🙄🤨 on sniffles (tissue kid. i call him sniffles) and it is, without exaggeration, my fav part of the movie.

the fact that i totally thought knox was gonna fall off his bike and eat shit in this scene. it would be so out of place since dps isn't exactly full of physical comedy but GOD i still fully anticipated it. either that or him getting attacked by a bird. theres totally symbolism surrounding birds in this movie btw and idk what to make of it. if any of u lovely ppl have a theory then lmk immediately.

keating so accurately calling cam out being like "is this right is this right. am i walking right." BC YESSS. i will eventually make a fully fledged cam post but to briefly touch on it, i find cam to be very confused on what is right, usually in terms of morals. a whole situation of confusing your personal values with the rules, thinking theyre one in the same, and completely abandoning what u actually believe. unfortunately i think neils death rly amplified that nd is what led him to tattle. cuz cam is still willing to break the rules in the beginning of the movie!! he's outwardly judgemental but he still does it!! much to discuss, i promise i will eventually.

keatings face after todd yawps!!! theres not much to say here he is just so proud!!! sweet little moment!!!! keatpostin!!!!!!!!

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

u guys know im an avid knox hater but this made me giggle. rip knox overstreet u wouldve loved twitch streaming.

THE SPECIFICS OF THIS SHOT. i was gonna make a post a while ago being like "idk i find it funny that the main focus of this shot isnt even one of the poets" and then i realised that WAITTTTTTT THATS THE POINT!!!! keating reached kids besides the poets!!! u didnt have to be in the dead poets society to be affected by the way he taught his classes!!! u just had to be his student!!!!! also i love the fact that the kids who stayed seated r ASHAMED. EMBARRASSED.

the ending shot. oihghgghgg. it was SUCH a choice to set it up this way and honestly i adore peter for making it. this shot is SOOOO UNCOMFORTABLE TO LOOK AT and i love it. when i first watched this i was like "uhm ok interesting choice putting todd between this kids legs but I GET IT. one of the biggest things i remember from the film classes i took is that the way u set up shots is sooo important narratively, and one way to rly push the narrative is the space around a character in a shot. for example! if u have a character on screen surrounded by a TON of negative space then it rly emphasises how alone/ isolated they are. on the other end of the spectrum (the todd spectrum), if you surround a character in a shot with other objects or obstructions, like todd and this kids legs, then it rly emphasises how trapped and confined they are. looking at this makes me feel like. claustrophobic almost, like it's genuinely a bit harder to breathe looking at it. TODD IS STILL TRAPPED IN THAT SCHOOL. YES HE STOOD ON THE DESK AND YES HE NOW HAS THE MOTIVATION TO BE MORE CONFIDENT BC OF NEIL BUT HE! IS STILL! TRAPPED THERE!

more on todd since im on a roll here.

i was also gonna add that we dont rly talk about todd personality wise outside of poetry and anxiety but then i realised, what else is there? we dont really see much about him as a person outside of that, and i think thats the point! todd is constantly overshadowed by his brother, we know that, but i dont think we realise HOW MUCH that ties in with his entire character. quite honestly, outside of poetry and anxiety, ALL we have surrounding todd is his brother and his achievements. and of course! that makes sense! his parents want him to be just like his brother, they dont care about who he is as a person. UGH.

the desk set scene rly is the most insight we'll get into todds actual personality and desires imo, and thats what kills me. he wants a car!!!! get this boy a car!!!!!!!!! we rly see him start to open up before neils death and i wouldve LOVED to get to know todd when he's actually in a place to be himself!! but of course we never got that! sobs.

anywho. thats all i have for now. PLEASE share ur thoughts if u have any pls pls pls. encouraging discussion!! i love love love hearing about the specifics nd stuff, theres soooo much to pick apart abt this movie so i wanna hear everyones thoughts.

[lady-phasma]

Auntie, I have a question.

In the books Lestat gives Louis the dark gift towards the end of the 18th century, but in the tv show he turns him in 1910. That leaves a considerable amount of time where Lestat hadn’t met Louis.

I plan to write a (x reader) pre-canon fic about this gap in time before Lestat and Louis meet. Do you know what he might have been doing during this time? (Do you think it might work for a fic?)

Sorry if this is a dumb question! Thank you!!

Hi nonnie! This is not a dumb question at all. In fact, it's so great that I made you a gif set to go with my answer!

This is the series canon about the time between Nicki and Louis. I know we can't trust everything said in the trial, but for this I think it's okay.

I'll answer below the cut.

First, let me say that I am honored and flattered that you came to me about this. If you want to DM me, feel free. If you want to come back as anon you can have 🖋 anon if you want it.

Second, even a 2 year gap is lot of time to work with. We know he would need to feed as soon as he wakes up and he's a non-discriminating slut, so I know he would have some fun even if he's still brokenhearted. I think you could do so much in that time! Whether or not you decide to write smut, you could certainly give him a meaningful interaction with reader. You didn't mention if your idea for your reader was human or vampire, either could work, but my brain immediately went to "Lestat's hungry after his nap so he's probably killing a lot, what if he met a non-coven vampire in the French countryside?"

My nerd brain also had the idea that you could see what ports were most commonly used for passage from France to the US in 1908-1910 and I'm pretty sure the main one is in the south of France (used by the US military in WWI and WWII but I can't think of the name right now). Crap, I had to google it because that was going to bug me. LoL Saint-Nazaire, France. Double check that if you decide to go this direction, but it's about 470 km (292 miles) south of Paris by modern roads. There's a lot territory for him to cover if he used that port.

If that doesn't interest you, please disregard! I just wanted to point out that you have a lot to work with even if it's "only" two years between his sleep and New Orleans.

Lastly, without finding a definitive timeline of Lestat for the series yet, I'm thinking he was turned in the 1760s (or around there). If someone has a better timeline that would be great, but seasons one and two haven't given us exact dates that I can find. Anyway, if future seasons follow his plot pretty closely then you might have some of his time between his turning and when he meets Armand (yes, Nicki is in Paris but we don't have to headcanon monogamy if we don't want to and he is canonically often non-monogamous). Lestat as a horny, awe-struck fledgling might be fascinating!

I can't wait to read what you decide to do! You don't have to come off anon to tag me in it unless you want to. I would love that, but maybe I'll come across it when/if you post it!

I think this is going to be great and feel free to come back and discuss this more if you would like!

[transmutationisms]

Thank you for letting me do this, really~~~

Like you mentioned in another post, this isn't specifically about oppenheimer or any narratives it portrays but the wider discussion that's been resurging around usamerican imperialism, nuclear weapons and the military/militarization in general. And this is so very long so I apologise.

The fact of the matter is, even after all the "lessons" learnt from bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the us wanted to do further testing to see the full extent of the impact of nuclear weapons. These tests were carried out in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, which was already heavily militarized by this point.

As usual when it comes to military interventions and imperialism by core nations, these tests were framed as a necessity "for the greater good", and to "end all wars", even framing its supposed necessity through religious narratives (which, well, christian missionary efforts).

There were 67 tests conducted from 1946 to 1958, and some of the weapons tested like the Bravo bomb dropped on March 1, 1954 over Bikini Atoll were many times more powerful than the ones used in WWII. As expected, these tests completely destroyed  the Marshall Islands, from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land. So much radioactive fallout, so much devastation and literally uninhabitable to any living being.

I want to talk specifically about one of the most atrocious aspects of this whole ordeal which is that while the usamerican authorities evacuated the Marshallese people in Bikini and Enewetak during the 1948-52 testing period (operations sandstone, greenhouse and ivy) to nearby islands, they failed to do so for operation castle series begun in 1954. The relocated populations suffered as well, since there weren't enough resources on the islands they were resettled in to sustain this extra population, and of course, the nuclear fallout would affect them even though no weapons were directly tested in these islands.

The impact of the bravo bomb detonated over Bikini was mainly on the people from Rongerik, Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls, who were not evacuated until after the bomb was detonated at which point they were already exposed to high levels of radiation. In fact, the Rongelapese people were basically used as human test subjects as they were relocated back to Rongelap in 1957 where they remained until 1985 when they had to evacuate themselves.

The us actually declared Rongelap safe and that there were no long term effects from nuclear fallout in order to relocate them. Edward teller himself has gone on interviews to declare how little of an impact the bravo test has had on human lives. Iirc the documents regarding the tests were only declassified in the 70s, so Marshallese people were deliberately kept in the dark about the cause of the illnesses they were experiencing due to nuclear fallout. Here is Lijon Eknilang, a Rongelapese survivor talking about her experiences:

In June 1957, when we did return, we saw changes on our island. Some of our food crops, such as arrowroot, completely disappeared. Makmok, or tapioca plants, stopped bearing fruit. What we did eat gave us blisters on our lips and in our mouths and we suffered terrible stomach problems and nausea. Some of the fish we caught caused the same problems. These were things that had not happened before 1954. Our staple foods had never made us ill. We brought these problems to the attention of the doctors and officials who visited us. They said we were preparing the foods incorrectly, or that we had fish poisoning. We knew that was impossible because we had been preparing and surviving from these foods for centuries without suffering from the problems that appeared after 1954.

It has always been interesting to me that even the people who were not on Rongelap in 1954, but who went there with us in 1957, began to experience the same illnesses we did in later years. Foreign doctors and other officials called those people the “control group,” and we were told the sickness of that group proved our illnesses were common to all Marshallese. We did not believe that, and we learned only recently that the “control group” had come from areas that had also been contaminated by radioactivity from the weapons tests.

The usamerican authorities to this day do not acknowledge how serious and how much of an impact the nuclear weapons have left on the Marshall Islands and its people. There is no acknowledgement of the fact that people outside of the Enewetak, Utrik, Bikini and Rongelap atolls during testing were affected even when they show effects of radiation. There is no acknowledgement of just how much destruction they've brought upon these islands (also keeping in mind that animals were not evacuated). And of course, there is no acknowledgement of the fact that none of this was necessary in the first place (even if it can ever be called necessary). It was basically a large scale human experiment done for the sake of science and the "greater good", with little to no concern about the impact it would leave on the people of Oceania.

Oh, and there's also a huge crater left on Enewetak from the testing that's basically leaking nuclear waste into the soil, still contaminating the flora and fauna in area and beyond. There's so much spending by the us military in the Pacific region, especially now with the whole AUKUS agreement, but nothing has been done to properly contain this waste. Or actually address the violation of Marshallese people's human rights due to nuclear weapons testing. There has never really been any talks of reparations either, and whatever money and resources the us has spent has been woefully inadequate.

While the testing stopped decades ago, this is only a part of the ongoing militarization of Oceania by the US (and associated core and semi-periphery nations). Of course, this is all framed as selfless efforts by the us to prevent wars (which it always seems to be doing), for the greater good of humanity, to take us into further advancement and so on. Lastly, to mention a sliver of the role science has played in all of this: they were celebrating the discovery of new elements after the ivy mike detonation (1952), while people were suffering the impact of ongoing nuclear testing, and iirc, they were actually hoping to discover new elements from these nuclear reactions, so who's to say that these weapons were not made as a part of the race to discover elements, aka scientists' version of a dick measuring contest.

Sources and for more info for anyone interested:

Barbara Rose-Johnston. Nuclear Disaster: The Marshall Islands Experience and Lessons for a Post-Fukushima World [where I got the quote and most of the info from]

April L. Brown. No Promised Land: The Shared Legacy of the Castle Bravo Nuclear Test

Carl Zimmer. Nuclear Tests Marked Life in Earth with a Radioactive Spike [the sheer scope of the radioactive fallout from bravo]

Kit Chapman. Element Hunting in a Nuclear Storm

Edward Teller interview

.

[zadig-fate]

Thoughts on the choice to write Everyone's Waiting in English

So I've seen a lot of criticism (or implied criticism) within the fandom of Bojan's choice to attempt an emotional song like Everyone's Waiting in English and complaints that his lyrics sound clumsy or less emotional/less genuine because he's not as good a songwriter in his non-native language. While I agree there's room for improvement in that respect, I want to examine and also defend this choice from a different perspective.

More below the cut, but tl;dr: even if the output isn't as eloquent, processing difficult feelings and personal struggles can actually be easier in your non-native language because it provides some distance and forces you to rethink how you view them.

When JO first announced they were moving to London and planning to do more songs in English, there was a lot of pushback, and those of you who remember the live discord Q&A (which I think was moved to IG or TikTok because of video troubles?) might remember Bojan getting a bit annoyed about this and stating that ultimately they make music for themselves, not for the public, and that while they appreciate the resonance their music has found with people, it's still first and foremost theirs.

This statement is always on my mind when I think about their choice to experiment with English songs and new sounds. And obviously I can't read Bojan's mind, but I can imagine that writing songs in English, even if they're not perfect, might give him a kind of personal satisfaction and a tool for working through his feelings that writing in his native languages doesn't.

Disclaimer: the following are just my non-scientific observations.

Some of my mutuals might know that I work as a translator, specifically as a literary translator. I recently translated an incredible book written in German by a Czech author. He is quite a famous Czech writer and this was the first book he had ever written in German, his non-native language. It deals with a lot of difficult themes like WWII, the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, etc. When I met with him to discuss the English translation, he told me that he had to write this book in German because he couldn't write it in his native Czech. It would feel too close, too emotional. So he chose to write it in German, where he could examine these feelings from a distance and write a more honest book as a result.

And honestly, I get it. My native language is English. I learned German, my second language, as an adult, so to me it is and will always be non-native. I struggle with depression and anxiety and have been in therapy in both languages. I have personally made a lot more progress doing therapy in my non-native German than in my native English. You just fall into a lot of familiar thought patterns in your native language... it's easier to think less critically about your feelings in your native language because they feel so natural.

There's a kind of distance you get when processing your own thoughts and feelings in a fluent-but-non-native language that forces you to engage more consciously with them. You have to describe them in different words, in a different language altogether, so you have to reflect hard on what you really think and feel and how to best describe that in your other language. It's not possible to have a kneejerk reaction; you're forced to think things through.

It can also be easier to express thoughts in your second language that might feel uncomfortable in your native language because the words themselves are bound up with so much more emotion and context. And it places you a step away from the family and peer pressure in your native language. Bojan has even said in interviews that he feels more free to be himself in Serbian or English while feeling pressure to be a "good boy" in Slovenian.

All in all, if we take JO and particularly Bojan at their word that they're doing songs in English because they want to and not because they feel like they have to, I can see how writing in English might be genuinely therapeutic for Bojan, even if the end results are not as polished as his Slovenian lyrics. They may be more honest, even if they sound less refined and native.

I guess the question is whether he could have written Everybody's Waiting in Slovenian. From a technical standpoint, of course the answer is yes, but from an emotional one...? I'm not sure. Personally I can imagine that his anxieties might be easier to admit to and examine in another language, and not in the language of the country(ies) where he's so famous and has become such an idol. Maybe he feels like English gives him more distance and freedom in an emotional sense, even if his lyrical output isn't as strong. I can't read his mind, I can only say that I would understand.

[spopsalt]

Just gonna drop this one off here. We can all agree Hazbin and Helluva are dropping balls and fumbling bags left and right.

So, I’m gonna recommend a few GOOD series that discuss life, death, and religion.

1. Dead Like Me. It’s an early 2000s show about George Lass, an 18 year old woman who’s life was cut short when she died on her first day of the job. No longer a part of the living, George gets a new job, reaping souls before they die and helping them pass on. It’s admittedly dated, but much better at handling it’s more progressive themes than Vivziepop. The soundtrack and fashion is pleasing aesthetically. And as for writing, there are some things left to be desired, but its still incredibly ambitious with an amazing cast of characters. Lots of nuance. DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE. Also, if you like Hannibal, this was created by the same guy.

2. Good Omens. You’re on Tumblr, you’ve probably heard of it, so I’ll keep it short. It’s essentially The Omen, with a twist to it. Due to a series is mix-em-ups on the day he was born, the AntiChrist was mistakingly raised by a normal, loving family. Having had a rather not-so-complicated friendship since the creation of man, a demon and angel must team up to stop the end of the world as we know it. Taking the well know Omen story, and adding its own humorous twist to it alone makes the story fun. But it’s also fascinating seeing the representations of angels, demons, and horsemen alike. The overall take on religion was fun in and of itself. It was also a book.

3. Hellboy. During WWII, the Nazis opened a portal. A baby came from that portal. That baby was Hellboy (yes, that’s his name.) Hellboy was raised by the US government organization BPRD (The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense). He’s supposed to bring about the end of days, but HB is a brawler with a heart of gold and a hand of rock. And maybe a taste for alcohol. The series hosts a ton of fascinating characters, with all sorts of different backgrounds, lore, and species. There are many cues takes from world mythology, Abrahamic religion, and even H.P. Lovecraft. It’s mainly a comic franchise. The first two movies were great. There’s also a mini comic series called ‘Itty Bitty Hellboy’ that’s cute.

Never watched those before, but I'm sure those did them better than Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss (It's not hard) I might check those out!

[straynoahide]

tolkien meta: the melodic structure of the ainulindale, arda's endgame, and the doom of men

so basically this is about what one can learn and connect to the rest of the legendarium's lore from the ainulindale, and also peer into tolkien's psyche as a side effect i guess. expect excessive theology or more fun imo philosophy of divinity and lengthy tangents about melkor, the nature of evil and theodicy

a small disclaimer - this touches thorny topics in philosophy like the problem of evil, the nature of redemption/salvation, death...

this isn't about my beliefs but presenting and reflecting on tolkien's own within the history of ideas. i acknowledge anyone who reads this also has their own, and can agree or disagree with tolkien. my views may seep in unintentionally but i try to go deeper than that.

pd: I write Eru/One/God indistinctively on purpose. it's for rhetorical emphasis, not so much out of (cultural) christianity.

part I - introduction (in this post) part II - the themes/structure, discussion part III - discussion (cont): themes of arda and life part IV - discussion (cont 2): theme of the children part V - discussion (cont 3): aftermath/second music

Introduction (i rec reading even if you're versed in the lore)

for those who are not so familiar with parts of the legendarium but still interested in a deep dive, the ainulindalë ("song of the ainur") is the creation myth of tolkien's world.

i rec just reading it if you haven't even if it's after reading this. it's quite beautiful and unique and it's brought admiration even from ppl who study that kind of thing professionally about real cultures. i'm not given to flattery but idk just check it out.

so anyway, the ainur, spirits born from the One creator's mind directly, sang under (or despite) His direction and the melody (both harmony and discord) that resulted, is the history of the world.

by the world we have two concepts here, the entire universe (eä) and the planet (arda) 'earth', of which middle-earth is a later-stage continent. the music itself was a creative process that the ainur partook in before knowing the full implication of their singing.

God showed the ainur the vision of what their music had created and when they saw the world they wanted to live it, to dwell on it and experience it.

God granted this but said they had to remain in it until the full music, the full story had played out.

this includes everything that happens in the Silmarillion, the LOTR movies and sequels/prequels, the TROP series, games, etc, and in some stages of Tolkien's opus, our own world (WWI, WWII, etc).

the Discord refers to the rebellious effect of Melkor on the music as much as his part of the music - the dissonance born from his part's coexistence with the rest of the melody that is in harmony, and takes a 'life of its own'.

this is not unimportant, but i'm not going to discuss it at any point. i will point out here that it has been argued -controversially- by some people to be relevant in compatibilizing or explaining otherwise difficult-to-reconcile lore points that deal with "non-Melkorian evil". this is about things like Ungoliant or the nameless things 'whose mention darken the light of day', whose in-world origins are unclear.

on a broader note, this represents two very different intuitions about evil and divinity (Tolkienian v Lovecraftian, we could say). these are difficult to compatibilize and more than Tolkien's psyche, represent ancient tensions within monotheistic religions themselves, i think. so within Tolkien's world, which has an Abrahamic/monotheistic god, you still find traces of Lovecraftian horror.

all that follows is about Tolkienian evil (meta) i.e. Melkorian evil (in-world), that is uncontroversially and explicitly under the governance of the One, although non-Melkorian evil is a fascinating subject.

[itspronouncedtessa]

The "English or continental" debate is problematic and ultimately detrimental to the community.

Every time I see one of these "are you one or the other" posts, polls, tweets (Xcreets?), blogs, vlogs, whatevers, I get so annoyed. Undies fully twisted.

So indulge me and let's get into this.

First things first:

This is not an attack on pickers or throwers specifically. Any knitting style is valid. If the end result is even, non-twisted stitches that you enjoyed putting together, you're doing it right.

That said, I have 3 major gripes with the concept of "English vs continental" knitting:

1. The terminology. The terms "English" and "continental" were coined during WWII, as continental is actually German and the English were (rightly, at the time) uncomfortable doing anything the German way, or admitting that that way could be more efficient.

As we're about 80 years removed from the war, it might be time to accept that neither is objectively better and that German isn't a dirty word. We can, and should, use English and German, or throwing and picking respectively.

2. It's exclusionary to new knitters. The whole picking vs throwing discussion has made it so that new knitters don't know there are other options. If you're new to knitting, you get the impression that these are the only two options and if you can't do either, you can't knit.

Not to mention that the overwhelming majority of patterns and instructional videos are written or made exclusively for English or German methods. Which means if you want or need to use a different style, you need the additional step and skill of translating the pattern to fit your method. This requires a certain level of understanding of the underlying techniques that new knitters don't have. (Which is why I prefer charts, but that's a whole different rant.)

3. It's exclusionary to experienced knitters who don't pick or throw. The term continental for specifically German knitting dismisses all the other non-German European styles.

An incomplete list:

Eastern, or Russian, where you purl clockwise instead of counterclockwise, mounting the stitch backwards and knitting through the back loop on the right side. Creates the same stitch, but can be so much smoother to execute. Also very useful if you're doing rows of YO, ssk, as it eliminates the need to reorient the stitches before knitting them together.

Norwegian, where you purl without the need to bring the yarn fully forward. This is hard to describe in words, so I highly recommend googling for a video on Norwegian purls. It's a game changer for rib or seed stitch.

Portuguese, where you tension the yarn at the front of the work, looping it over your neck or through a pin. My personal preferred main method. Super helpful for those of us who lack finger strength to comfortably tension at the back. Makes purling a breeze.

Irish or lever knitting. Done with straight needles and (mostly) one-handed. Extremely helpful for people with disabilities. Also one of the fastest methods. You should check out videos on this, the speed is magical.

Flicking (not exactly regional), which is right handed but instead of throwing, you move the right needle to grab the yarn. Also difficult to explain, so check out some videos on this, too. Its a very quick method with minimal wrist movement. If you have the finger strength for tensioning it's worth practicing this, as it's so quick.

All of these are valid techniques, most of them are from continental Europe, none of them are included in the question "English or continental?".

And all of the above doesn't even get into the non-western, non-English, non-European styles there must be around the world, that I can't find through Google, because the English speaking world only uses the above mentioned methods.

Also, knitters that use other methods than picking or throwing are wildly underrepresented in the community, giving the knitting scene a culturally very white, western European image. Knitting could be a far more inclusive hobby if we'd embrace all styles.

In short, we need to change the question to "tell me about your technique" and learn from each other. Combining multiple methods (I use 3 or 4 interchangeably, depending on the pattern) can increase efficiency and enjoyment. And if you're struggling in any way, there might be a technique out there that better suits your needs. Asking about English vs continental isn't going to provide that information.

So tell me about your technique, especially if you use or know of any knitting methods that aren't western or European, I would LOVE to hear about that. Let's share and celebrate all the ways we knit.

[elbiotipo]

I had a dream that I was watching the Oppenheimer movie and it was pretty much what you'd expect (I even remember the characters discussing physics and WWII) except there was a redhead with big tits who casually showed them off during the movie.

[king-of-men]

There's a certain class of public intellectual - the two examples I have in mind are Bryan Caplan and Freddie deBoer, who otherwise have very little in common - who is genuinely quite smart and articulate, and able to defend their positions against almost everyone they debate with (including other people smart and articulate enough to be serious public intellectuals), and who therefore come across as being Well Up There in the human tiers. And then, every so often, whether from hubris or just sheer bad luck - they'll go up against someone with Serious Brainpower and they will get absolutely fucking smashed. Bryan Caplan tried to critique Huemer's book and came out of it looking a lot like the coyote after his own steamroller has squashed him flat; FdB had the very bad luck to post about EA a few hours before the sage Alexander did, which perhaps made his post come to Scott's attention in a way it otherwise wouldn't, and a day later there was a SlateStarCodex post that took FdB's position apart entirely, thoroughly, and without visible effort.

It's like watching, say, the Romanians in WWII going up against late-war Russians: These armies are visibly roughly the same thing, they both have tanks and machine guns and a reasonably up-to-date officer corps, it's not like bolt-action rifles against spears and shields. (That would be a normie trying to argue with the likes of Caplan.) And nonetheless one of these armies is about to cease to exist as a serious military organisation.

And nonetheless both bloggers are multiple tiers removed from the average human! I will give Caplan the win against everyone he's ever debated except Huemer and Alexander; and of course most of those people are still people literate enough to actually come to his attention, far beyond any possible effort of a normie Reddit poster; and even Reddit posters (in politics discussions, that is) are (generally) at least capable of reading a few hundred words and posting some moderately grammatical sentences in tangentially-relevant response, putting them easily in the top 50% of humans.

I get kind of used to reading Scott Alexander (quite aside from anything else, he just posts a lot!) and that makes it easy to forget just how much of a mutant superman he really is. And then you watch fairly heavyweight writers like FdB get casually flattened, and you go "Oh, right... born under a red sun."

[fallenhunnyapple]

So... I saw a theory about Niffty and Vox having been married in life since they both died in the 50s and uh, well... I ended up talking to this Vox rper I know and now its kinda gotten out of hand-

The way we've been talking about it has been with Televangelist Vox. Niffty was pressured into being a perfect wife and since Image was Everything it meant that their home had to be Showroom Perfect at all times (which made her kinda insane about cleaning in general but also definitely In Hell). When she made appearances on TV with him, she was supposed to just be nothing more than a quiet prop (hence why she dissociates and goes dead silent when on Camera).

As a half-japanese woman during/after WWII she was probably in the best position she could be in, in a marriage with a rich and influential man who, instead of any actual love, would just use some of the church funds he stole to get her gifts and go on trips together. Which... didn't make up at all for the tremendous pressure she was constantly under. But she would feel Guilty and Selfish for being Unhappy. Especially because when it started out, there Were real feelings there. And sometimes they would still feel it, there would be moments where it was Good, where it felt real. And that would make it Worse when it wasn't. Maybe under other circumstances on a different life it would have worked out. But as it was, she just felt Guilt that she couldn't be happy with what she was given. She would read those housewife novels and fantasize about some bad boy coming to sweep her off her feet and take her away from her oppressive life.

But in the end, the pressure was too much for her and she Snapped one day and just stabbed him A Whole Bunch. She didn't try to defend her actions and admitted to the crime so she was given the death penalty with no bail and she accepted her fate. She just couldn't handle it anymore.

(This has also led to us discussing Hell being that different circumstances and a different life and them trying again but Niffty is the one in control this time.... I will not spam that art of them yet, I'm holding onto that for a while lol-)