#my dumb opinion

[caffinecommander]

I need to re-read The Prince for uni, and I wanted to hear some thoughts on this:

The Prince (1532) was over-hyped for its supposed tyrannical outlook and semi-applicability to regular modern life.

(For background, the "book", was actually a letter, sent by Machiavelli to the young Prince of Florence, Lorenzo de' Medici. The letter was intended to help Machiavelli get into the prince's good books, to make himself seem very smart and worth having around -also to help him get out of exile lol-. At the end of the day it was a suck up letter, which really goes against the whole idea of Machiavelli being a powerful and tyrannical idealist).

The book was recommended to me a few years back, claiming it was a "guide to power". That sort of claim could interest anyone, regardless of their own, actual, megalomania. I read it, looking for that sort of thing, but found that the historical value was way overlooked. It looks into combat strategies, organisation, and expectations of leaders in Florence in the early 1500's.

It is continuously advertised as a "guide to power", without the important specifications of history and politics.

Beyond this, there are the words "it is better to be feared than loved". Sure, it is a controversial take that could totally be backed up with logic, however even the author doesn't agree with the way the idea is being communicated. He has an entire section about how and why one should avoid being hated. Sure, a leader is better off having control along with fear, than they are to be without any control and the public's approval, but this way of looking at things implies they are mutually exclusive, which is stupid.

The ideas of this book are not being communicated, and instead those who romanticise authoritarian behaviours, in notably small scales, are sharing the book like it is a two step guide to getting power, when it's not. It doesn't even go into the ways of attaining power because that's not how it worked back then. They were born with power, and seeing as how his letter failed, and was likely not even read by the prince, Machiavelli should not be a reference for how to become powerful.

You wouldn't ask a cat how to bark, so why would you ask Machiavelli how to gain power?

The book is still important for historical analysis. He goes into decent depth about how one would take land and maintain power over it and its people. He was reallllyy into expanding their land (probably could have used some galvanised square steel). This is where we can trust him. Sure, he wasn't exactly involved in war or politics to the highest degree, but he had a decent education, especially in humanities and history. He would have been close to the experiences.

Ultimately, the book needs to be advertised as such, and not described as a guide to power.

[afterdeathsweeps]

Randomly found Underverse on the internet with the first intro back in 2018..

Then i got super into the AUs and since then I've been creating for this fandom!

Jakei has always been an inspiration for me (She is actually one of the reasons i want to become an animator!) So, right now is the best time to show her support and love. She's been going through a lot these years, and obviously she got tired..

So, at least personally, if she decides to leave the project or to continue it, ill support her!

Jakei deserves a break from this fandom

[machazer]

My two good # are "bd/sm" ...

daddy and blog. I look at these tags [#] when I am bored and sometimes I like and reblog some ones. Usually it is freaky and dumb entertainment.

Often there are more rubbish and s××× that my eyes and brain look like this.

There are usual no BD DS SM more empty and cheaper p×××× and attention.

I know that Wikipedia is no good sources to find excellent informations but BD/SM there is similar like this unicorn 😪

I know I am bored boomer and total idiot but I am still white poor trash and my eyes are blooding.

Amen.

See you later in hell which is located inside our blank minds.

[linkemaus]

Not to be that person, but if Kamala Harris were a white man with the exact same ideals, positions, and beliefs, it wouldn’t have even been a competition. Realising that the worst thing you can apparently be is a woman, is truly devastating.

[courtmartialme]

woag .. otp

[notfeelingthyaster]

idk but tim's skills both in comics and in fanon are so inconsistent. like wdym he can fight azrael and ra's and lady shiva and he loses fights to... damian? like ok damian is a good fighter, trained by assassins and whatnot but it makes no sense, bc he wouldn't win against shiva

or like tim barely being able to hold out against jason both times he attacks him seriously (battle for the cowl and titan's tower).... but winning against all sort of weird ass shit in young justice?

im not even talking about how his intellect is all over the place, one day he is lying to batman and fooling doomsday and the other he is truly getting trapped/fooled by shitty ass villains like Calendar Man

[aroaceleovaldez]

Nico and Percy's dynamic through the series is eternally funny to me, because it's just. like.

Percy's having a constant mental struggle between his fatal flaw of loyalty with a promise he made to Bianca to protect Nico, versus his Big 3 kid desire to maim other Big 3 kids / Poseidon descendant urge to totally maim Nico specifically. He hates Nico so so much. He thinks Nico's annoying and weird at best, and creepy/sketchy when he's older. The only positive thoughts Percy has towards Nico are "He's Bianca's brother and Bianca was my friend and I owe her/He's Hazel's brother and Hazel is my friend and would kill me if I was mean to him," "He's a powerful asset and useful ally (if questionable)," and "He's kinda pathetic and I feel maybe a little bad about it." Percy has multiple occasions throughout the series where he strongly considers - and on one occasionally actually goes through with - throttling Nico.

Meanwhile, Nico is following around Percy like a lost puppy. He explicitly can never bring himself to even dislike anything about Percy no matter how hard he tries. He has a whole bit in BoO where he's mentally going "UGH he's so stupid BUT IT'S ENDEARING HOW DARE HE." He's totally smitten. He's making deals with his dad for Percy. He's making convoluted plans to help Percy stand a chance against Kronos. During the entirety of BoTL it's like he's playing tsundere - "I'm helping NOT PERCY SPECIFICALLY with this quest! Me helping Percy would be SILLY because I DEFINITELY HATE HIM." Then he proceeds to show up to Percy's birthday party to basically ask him on a weird date and spend the entire next book scrambling around trying to help him or protect him or impress him. And Percy could not give less of a shit.

Just. That dynamic is so funny to me. Percy is the founder of the Nico Protection Club in that he's the one they're all protecting Nico from and meanwhile Nico is throwing himself at Percy to the point where the literal god of gay love calls him out on it.

[nosieposie]

Binge-watching Ace Attorney Let's plays so I can finally get to the part where a disgraced lawyer adopts a kid

[indelicateink]

as an american, sam reid’s total inability to hide his contempt for overly fake-chipper american journalists, especially ones who Have Not Done The Assigned Reading know and care about the show, will never not be hilarious and iconic to me

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

I’ve been highly confused as to why Michael “deeply openly thirsting on Twitter about David Tennant for half a decade” Sheen is half-in half-out the closet but apparently Wales is absurdly homophobic lmao what the fuck how is a country the size of New Jersey that much of a hater bruh we out number the shit out of you

[dukeofthomas]

"They were never really that close pre-death" "Dick was mean to Jason before warming up" etc etc are the worst Dick&Jason takes possible. Why would you even say that about them

[caffinecommander]

Reading The Epic of Gilgamesh

Or rather, reading the introduction to the epic:

I understand that this is an important piece of literature in history, and background knowledge is going to be pivotal to properly understanding the work, but WHY is the Penguin Classics publication of the thing filled half by the introduction???

This is not an exaggeration. The book is quite nearly half filled with the introduction segment.

If it had been a quarter of the book, I would understand, or even if they included an analysis on every other page as often done for Shakespearean plays, but this feels ridiculous.

At a certain point, it should not be considered an "introduction", but rather a history to or something of the sort. An introduction introduces something, this, however, is explaining its context analytically.

Am not feeling very introduced as of now.

[egophiliac]

Hi!

What's your favourite Disney movie? And does your preference for the dorms have any influence on their movies and vice versa? Like I know you love Diasomnia so is Sleeping Beauty high up there for you?

I'm just asking because Snow White is actually my favourite Disney Princess and her movie is my favourite yet Pomefiore is my least favourite dorm (but Lion King and Savanaclaw are both in my top two) and I was wondering if it's similar for you?

yessss someone else whose favorite princess is Snow! ❄️

that said, it's hard to say what my favorite movie is, because I'm one of those annoying people who's like "well it depends" (on different aspects, on my mood, on the phase of the moon, etc). though out of the ones represented in Twst, I think it probably is Sleeping Beauty! I think it's really pretty and just a delightful movie! it hits a nice sweet spot for me of being kind of...gently grounded while still having that floaty-fairytale feeling, if that makes sense also I might have had a huge villaincrush on Maleficent that is being massively projected onto Meleanor, shh

although I actually sort of hated Diasomnia at first (l-look, they didn't have cards at first and all we had to go on were the website descriptions that make everyone sound horrible). so I dunno, maybe the influence helped win me over to them! or maybe just because, like everything else in Twst, they were unexpectedly enjoyable in practice?

(I don't think there are any that had a negative influence either, because I am also one of those annoying people who's like "well I don't have a least favorite, I like everybody!") (sob. it's true though.) (I just, I just love characters so much --)

[taibhsearachd]

So funny to see a 17-year-old afab trans person in my family group chat say "Trump will be better because I'm tired of crying over groceries".

Like. They couldn't vote so it doesn't really matter, but MY DUDE???? 1) You're a child you're not crying over groceries anyway, 2) Trump won't make it better, things got worse because of corporate greed not anything to do with the government, and 3) ...your rights man. Your fundamental human rights. What. Are we. Are we even living on the same planet right now? What the fuck are you TALKING ABOUT?

[dakogutin]

remus being a loser. remus having no energy for anything most of the time. remus looking sad and spacey. remus being sad because there's barely anything not to be sad about. remus being a people pleaser because there's already so many "unlikeable" aspects about him he doesn't want to top it off with a "terrible attitude". remus being a quiet nerd. remus being awkward. remus overcompensating. remus crying easily. remus getting defensive after the simplest confrontation. remus running away as a defense mechanism. remus always apologising. remus being a softie. remus-

[sskk-manifesto]

It's very important for me that you know that in the manga Higuchi doesn't stop before reaching Akutagawa's face and instead downright scrubs the napking on his cheek. The panel of Akutagawa's eyes with his cheek clumsily squished is at the top of my favourite Akutagawa pictures as well as one of the most adorable things ever in general