#no they're not saying genocide is good PLEASE take a breath and think for a moment

[triaelf9]

Piece of media: Here’s a society that thinks a lot of things, some of which are very bad and you have to deal with ppl IN THAT WORLD who might not think they are bad, just kinda like the real world, and you gotta stand up and decide if you want to challenge this bad thing, or let the world go status quo, even if it’s not the popular option in the place/land/town you’re in

actual people who interact with the media: THE CREATORS OF THIS MEDIA THINK THIS STUFF IS OKAY AND ALSO THE MEDIA IS TELLING ME IT’S GOOD B/C IT’S SHOWING A SOCIETY THAT IS FLAWED WITHOUT BEATING ME OVER THE HEAD WITH THE FLAWED STICK AND ONLY GIVING ME SUBTLE CUES AND ALSO I literally know these things are bad in real life and yet I still don’t know what to think. I AM INCABABLE OF MEDIA LITERACY

[gunbun]

this post is about the cultural concerns regarding ffxiv: dawntrail

Hi doods. Activism has brushed up against fandom YET AGAIN but this time it punches me straight in the heritage and this time I wanna talk about it.

I'm a non-status Qalipu Mik'maq, for the record. An Indigenous American, if thou wilt.

I discuss some pretty heavy shit below the cut. I pray it persists across all devices. Please advise if you want me to tag this as something, or block the tags I have used. I do not need anyone to spread this on my behalf, I do not need anyone's defense. I just have some thoughts and I want to think them.

So it's been less than 24 hours since Dawntrail was announced and we got the Keynote.

We're going to Fantasy The Americas! Before Industrialization!

Many people went "oh hell yeah, that's Brazil, this is gonna be great! We don't usually see this!"

On Twitter especially, many MORE people lost their goddamn minds, citing CBU3's prior wobbles with depicting foreign/indigenous persons.

And of course, the White Community Leaders are out in force performing pre-emptive outrage or even asking people to quit FFXIV in light of this announcement.

I'm here to ask folks not to do that.

What follows is my tweet-thread about it.

"It is perfectly okay to be waiting and seeing how Tural is going to be portrayed in Dawntrail. It's okay to have a concern.

It is NOT okay to come out preemptively swinging and performing outrage.

Because blood quanta are their own touchy subject I usually don't bring this up, but I am the class of indigenous person what represents "what's left".

And I fucking tell you now I don't need the opinions of Concerned White People.

I do not need Concerned White People telling me what colonialism is.

I do not need Concerned White People telling me to be mad.

I do need Concerned White People to realise that the above two actions are microaggressive as fuuuuck.

"but Jai, aren't you White?"

colonialism and genocide comes in many forms. this includes forcing indigenous persons to assimilate or be killed.

also stuff like reinforcing the idea that being indigenous is shameful so that when their descendants find out, they deny it."

Thus ended my tweet thread. There's one more tweet linking to qalipu.ca.

So I want to write more about this on Tumblr.

I really want to make sure that folks take a hard look at what they're concerned about and why.

Like… a lot of White Concern about the use of indigenous motifs in Dawntrail is itself a brand of anti-indigenous racism.

Thinking that the MSQ is going to automatically be about the Scions starting a colonialism in Tural? That's a pretty gross thing to say in the same breath y'all complain about Always Fantasy Europe.

Calling "cultural appropriation" when everyday items are displayed and depicted in the manner in which they were/are used (gulal, curry)? Way to exoticise foreign and indigenous cultures by thinking that everything they make, wear, use, or eat is something of Deep Cultural Significance that Cannot Ever Be Shared With Outsiders. Saris and salwar kameez are just as culturally significant as skirts and slacks. Moccasins are just shoes.

And moreover, getting preemptively Concerned when thus far THERE IS LITERALLY NO NEED TO BE CONCERNED is actually kind of beyond the pale. I haven't seen many indigenous folks and/or folks from South America being anything but pleased that this time The Americas gets a cool pastiche like Europe, Asia, and India have gotten in the past. There's an undercurrent of "oh no, I hope it's not bad stereotypes" which is ABSOLUTELY OKAY. Reblog and retweet what THOSE people are saying. Do not add commentary.

Preemptively saying "you're worried" about your South American/Indigenous friends with zero indication that they're bothered? Come the actual fuck on. We are not a monolithic group that you can "be concerned" for to get a pat on the back later as a Good Person. Do not Perform the I'm A Good Person And The Worst Thing You Could Do is CALL Me A Racist dance.

Don't "get ahead of the discourse". Not every conversation needs your fucking input. Shut your mouth.

What is and isn't an Offensive Portrayal of Indigenous Americans is a lot more nuanced than most people who like to perform outrage make it out to be.

We can and will speak up for ourselves. Share our words and our concerns if you must. Do not go and distill our words and turn us into the monolith you hide behind to perpetuate white saviourism and neocolonialism.

We aren't a monolith of poor uneducated people who don't understand what the europeans did that need to be uwu protected.

[anxious-lorf]

I didn't want to have to talk about this on my Tumblr. Heck, I didn't want to talk about this AT ALL, but... I guess I care too much about people I've never met.

If anyone here would like to defend HAMAS and their brutal attacks against innocent Israeli citizens, I would please ask that you un-follow me.

If anyone here would like to defend the Israeli government, claiming that they can do no wrong and have not systematically abused the Palestinian people for decades, I would ask that you also un-follow me. Neither side of this polarizing conversation is going to like what I have to say next.

HAMAS isn't after the liberation or freedom that you think they are. They're after bloodshed. Senseless, violent bloodshed. They have indiscriminately launched missiles at a nation the size of New Jersey. They have taken civilians captive for the purpose of livestreaming their executions. This is not an exaggeration; these are facts which any reputable news source is able to confirm. And despite that, there are people around the world calling them the heroes and "standing with" them.

That said, the current management of the Israeli government has been nothing but cruel and unjust to the Palestinian people, to the point where many have even called their heavy-handed control a kind of apartheid. (If you don't know what this is, look it up.) By all accounts, they seem like the bad guys. And their government's leaders most certainly are. I can understand perfectly the desire to call HAMAS the good guys for opposing them. Except for one thing: They're not attacking the government. They're attacking its people.

If HAMAS was really interested in making their home a better place for Palestinians to live, they would have targeted government officials, military bases, any of the tools through which the Israeli government keeps them down. But they didn't. They went after the people. They went after concert-goers, minding their own business, trying to enjoy their day and taking no active role in maintaining the apartheid. By now it should be clear that HAMAS's goal was never liberation; it was genocide against the Israeli people. Call it "vengeance", or a "bloody retribution", or whatever fancy word you want to use to distract from the fact that innocent people are being slaughtered by the thousands, but genocide is genocide. Israel and the Jewish people living there have seen countless genocides targeting them across history, from Egypt to Germany. HAMAS is not the first. And they most certainly will not be the last. Because HAMAS knows it cannot win against such an overwhelming foe. And so they lash out blindly.

Or at least, that's my best guess. Truth be told I honestly don't know why they're doing what they're doing. I can't fathom death and destruction on such a scale. I know anger, and that desire for revenge, but that's about it. Killing someone for real, let alone hundreds? And broadcasting it? That's beyond me. I don't think I could ever bring myself to do what they're doing. To quote a former high school friend who got mad at me over defending the rights of immigrants, I "care too much". And that's why it sickens me to see others close their eyes to the bloodshed and call it "liberation". Those are PEOPLE we're talking about here! Living, breathing, flesh-and-blood people with families and hobbies and weird obsessions that they've probably rambled on and on about to their friend who just shake their head and nod while pretending to listen because, while it's boring, they care about that person! And now those friends, I bet some of them wish they could listen to those ramblings one last time, because they know they'll never hear them again. To them, that person was a friend. But to others, they're just a statistic. One out of the 1,200+ deaths that have already happened and are continuing to happen. I said before that I couldn't understand how they could kill so many innocent. In that same sense, I can't understand how someone could so nonchalantly brush those deaths aside.

Look, I get it. I hate the Israeli government too! There's tons of legitimate reasons to hate them. We can all agree that they're a problem, right? (Well actually my dad would probably get really upset if I criticized Israel irl, so many not EVERYONE everyone, but I assume the majority of heavily left-leaning people reading this whom my posts seem to attract can agree.) So then, why and how does it make sense for HAMAS to be attacking its everyday citizens and not its government? It doesn't. It's like kicking a dog because a collapsing bridge totaled your car and stranded you in a dark forest. That dog didn't do anything. They were probably just minding their own business. Heck, they might’ve been a rescue dog who was trying to guide you back to civilization. But because that dog has been kicked, they won't want to help you.

The people of Israel are the same way (and people in general, I think). The vast majority I'd say were just minding their own business. But some were actively trying to help the Palestinian people. After attacks like this, do you really think they're going to be as willing to keep helping as they were before?

I have long been in support of a two-state solution. I had hoped that some day, this tiny little country about the size of New Jersey would know peace. But peace cannot exist with the way things are now. Not with Israel's current leaders, not with HAMAS, and especially not with people continuing to support needless bloodshed.

Sorry if I said some things you didn't want to hear. I'll get back to my regularly scheduled funny haha posts after this. But I just REALLY needed to get this off my chest. Like I said, I care way too much about people I've never met, and people who I'll now never get the chance to meet. I can't turn off my empathy. (Trust me; I've tried.) And... I don't think you should turn off your empathy either.

[brokenhardies]

Decode Tribunal Sneak Peak

TW: Brief mention to Hitler, as well as a mention of genocide

Just something I wanted to do before I forgot! Here we go!

Taglist

@darth-caillic​ @sterling-writes​ @ryutabas​ @reirvival​ @arrthurpendragon​ @foxesandmagic​​ (want to be added or removed? send an ask or a dm!)

"Wait, please!" Amber cried, causing Osiris and the Ennead - about to vanish back into the Overvoid - to take pause.

"What is it, Emissary?" Osiris asked.

"Just, please, let me plead our case without..." Amber paused, "That interloper getting involved. You're the Judge of the Dead, aren't you? You would know how dangerous Ammit is."

She began to walk across the area.

"She preys on the hearts of men - even with the slightest wrong, they're in her grasp." She paused, looking up at the Ennead. "She literally feeds on them, for any minor wrong they could commit. From as drastic as genocide, to as small as cutting in line."

It took a second for Osiris to understand what Amber was saying, as she stood in the middle and waited for a rebuttal. She gestured to them.

"Go on then," She began, "Tell me that isn't what she's doing."

"Ammit is a necessary evil," Nut interrupted, "She's there to keep people in line."


"Ah, so she's your Satan, isn't she?" Amber chuckled, "Wow, I thought polytheism didn't have a Satan."

She paused. "But seriously - does that work? Even with the threat of Hell, people still do awful things. When I first encountered Harrow - after he trailed my flatmate to his place of work and also stalked me - he mentioned people like Hitler and Pol Pot; both who had no qualms about doing what they did."

"There are some unscrupulous people out there," She continued, pacing once more. "How much do you wanna bet that instead of targeting those bad people, Ammit's gonna miss her mark and hit the next Martin Luther King Jr?"

"And people have the capacity to change!" She stopped pacing and looked up at the Ennead. "Tell me, do you not believe that people have that in them? To turn around and change? What good is killing them before they even make the effort?"

The Ennead did not respond. It was if they were thinking it over.

"Do you believe that is Harrow's plan?" Osiris asked, as Amber nodded.

"He told me himself." She stated. "He specifically mentioned waiting to weed a garden after the roses are dead. You banished Ammit because she was choosing to stray from her position of punishing those after they have died -- how is that different from what you are doing with Khonsu?"

"It is incredibly different, Emissary," Horus interrupted, "Khonsu's crimes are vast. He's responsible for several incidents. We have promised to not interfere."

"...Oh my God. You guys are running on Time Lord rules." Amber pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay... How to convince you guys... Think Amber, think..."

She muttered under her breath, as Marc recovered from his brief panic attack. He seemed confused and disorientated, watching as Amber tried valiantly to convince the Ennead to help them find Ammit's tomb. The trail that got dismantled when Harrow chose to intervene. Amber then finally came up with a reason, clearing her throat;

"You are Gods, correct?"

The Ennead nodded, looking at the incredibly intelligent Emissary as if she had three heads.

"Yes, I know, obvious question but--" She raised a finger, "What's the one thing Gods need more than anything? Worship. You said it yourself; humanity had abandoned you. If Ammit wiped out lets say... Half the population? Just a guesstimate. That knocks out fifty percent of your potential audience!"

She smirked. "If you thought humanity had abandoned you before, imagine humanity but half of them were disintegrated for thinking of committing a crime. Horrible world, I know."

She began miming the world's smallest violin between her fingers and wiping a fake tear from her eye. Osiris had finally had enough of Amber's posturing and glared at her.

"You may be the Emissary of the Gods." He began, "But in this council room, you are just a spectator."

Amber shrugged. "You said I was to represent Khonsu. I'm doing my job." She bowed. "You're welcome."

Suddenly realizing that she'd played them all, the Ennead all looked at each other, as Amber folded her arms. She mimed looking at a watch. Marc struggled to his feet behind her, almost ready for Khonsu to possess him again now that Amber had made her argument. However, nothing came. The familiar bird's voice didn't show. Probably because he was just as startled that Harrow brought up Marc's mental illness, making it no longer about him. Finally, Osiris cleared his throat and spoke;

"Fine. Name your price," He began, "What is the information you need?"

"The location of Ammit's tomb." Amber stated, "We... Kinda misplaced the scarab leading to it, so we have no other way of finding it."

"We are unaware of its location," Finally, after standing silently, Hathor spoke. "The location was hidden from us, due to Ammit's many followers."

Amber nodded. "I see."

"But someone had to know something." Marc said, his voice hoarse from all of Khonsu's screaming using his mouth.

"There is one--" Began Isis, causing Amber's head to dart upwards towards her. "A medjay named Senfu. He was tasked with recording the location of the tomb. In case our judgement was false."

"Find his sarcophagus,” Osiris finished, “And the tomb's location will be revealed."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Amber asked.

"His sarcophagus has been stolen and passed around the black market," Osiris continued, "You may wish to start there. Good luck."

"Hang on, if we're doing a deal, I have one more condition to add!" Amber exclaimed. "We find Ammit's tomb and stop her and Harrow. You pardon Khonsu."

Osiris smiled. It appeared he liked the challenge. "So be it."

And with a wave of his hand, Amber and Marc were ejected from the Ennead.

[dig-jules]

what do you want people to do, not vote for her? you get harris or trump. it sucks but that's reality. the american experiment will keep breathing no matter who is steering the ship, and i don't think it's impossible that many people in the global south - who do not have the privilege of american citizenship, and who do not have the privilege of getting to vote in the american election, but will STILL be affected by its outcome - would prefer harris to trump. a trump presidency is not gonna usher in some great revolution and it's not gonna topple the empire, not while rich people have profit at stake. it's gonna make people exhausted and disenfranchised and POWERLESS, incapable of rallying and effecting change. people around the world are counting on american citizens to keep that guy out of office. do you really think kamala harris is gonna be worse for ukraine or palestine than donald trump? it sucks, i know it sucks, but people asking americans to vote for kamala harris aren't being pro-genocide or short-sighted, they're thinking of the long run and the bigger picture. it may not FEEL good to vote harris - it doesn't FEEL good to donate to palestinians when you know your cash is gonna end up in the pockets of the people at the border who are exploiting them - but part of being an adult and a responsible citizen is sucking it up and doing what you have to do even when you don't want to, because other people need you to. i am aware that as an american with the right to sway the election results i have a HUGE amount of privilege over the people that the american empire oppresses - why would anyone throw that power away? if our vote - for kamala harris - didn't matter SO much, republicans and facists wouldn't be trying so hard to convince us not to cast it. please don't be fooled by propaganda, and please don't forget perfect is the enemy of good. by turning people off from harris as a candidate, you're practically doing the republican party's work for them.

When did I say don’t vote for harris? I made an observation that this country is so fascistic that we are forced to gleefully vote for someone who is carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign, and your response was… don’t criticize Harris lest Trump wins. Do you see where the problem is? Do you see where we’ve lost?

Does me pointing out that every American president in the past 3 decades has overseen a mass slaughter really offend you? Or is it just that I’m pointing out we should see that as a problem, and not just another “cost” of “freedom”?

This isn’t a 2024 issue. This is a “we are actively carrying out the evils we were warned of in the history books, and this forsaken nation is now marching towards its bitter end” issue. Project 2025 doesn’t magically go away in 2026. No, what we must reckon with are that half of this country are willing to support those policies, and the other half will decry them while systematically exploiting and slaughtering entire populations abroad- populations who they have taught the governed are worth less than 2 dollars off their groceries.

Do you understand that Kamala has changed her platform to be pro-fracking, that she believes trans people should follow the “rule of law” regarding access to necessary care, that she has platformed herself with the same law and order rhetoric that liberals decried Trump for? Because she knows she can get away with it. Because people so fear Trump that they do not care- will not speak up. Because she is too busy promising to add republicans to her cabinet, parading around Liz Cheney, and drafting her plan to fortify the border wall. Because she takes liberal votes as a given, thus she now panders her policies to those she isn’t sure of. But not the “left”. Never the “left”.

You cannot blame the Palestinian-Americans whose families have been murdered by this woman that they refuse to write her name on a ballot. You can only blame her unwillingness to promise a full arms embargo on Israel and materially support the Palestinian right to self determination. She has not earned their vote. That is how democracy works. And if you believe otherwise, well, take a look around at the system we have been forced into and reread my initial post. That is the problem.

And we are told that criticism is dangerous. We are told to applaud from in front of our TVs as our democratic representatives give Netanyahu his 18th standing ovation- and take it. We are told by Harris herself that the fate of the Palestinian people must be sealed in the name of American grocery prices.

[alines7777]

i'm watching "stop!! hibari-kun!" lately, and i am not regretting it, like, at all.

it's actually pretty funny.

i mean, take "ranma ½", i used to watch that one a lot, but i never really felt that great about watching it, partially because it had narrative elements that were reminiscent of harem manga, and don't tell me otherwise.

but speaking of harem anime, there was a time when i watched that genre while deeply regretting it, specifically because i wanted to feel regret about what i was watching. i usually turned to works published by kadokawa, because they had some pretty notorious examples. you know the ones, the kind that only creepy perverts and misogynists would enjoy.

o boy, here we go.

"girls bravo"? an absolute heap of burning phosphorescent garbage, 'high school boy who gets bullied by girls, even those who crush on him, enters a magical land populated only by ladies, and now everyone wants to marry him, but also the hero has to stop his extradimensional female counterpart from closing the lady world off from the regular world because she believed no man would ever love her,' and yadda yadda yadda. none of it makes ANY sense. it panders to the male protagonist, and to the insecurities of male audiences. i knew all of that at the time, and i know it now.

"steel angel kurumi" was particularly vapid and misogynistic, and i distinctly remember one of the antagonists being a shotacon for the male protag in this one. really, REALLY cringey, and the storyline was hardly even worth speaking of, which is saying a lot considering the fact that it's in the same league as "girls bravo". the only thing about it that drew my attention in the first place was that one instance of gender nonconformity in the first few episodes as i just happened to be watching because it was on tv while i had been visiting venezuela a long time ago.

to my recollection, the only example i can name that wasn't absolute shit was "heaven's lost property", yes it was better, but not by a whole lot. for one thing, it actually seemed to reflect on the fact that half of the female cast didn't have any autonomy, where "steel angel kurumi" didn't. and they also toned the characters' sexuality down, its question i guess boiled down to 'whether humanity could love the instruments of their genocides the way they supposedly might love us and hate themselves for killing us, so long as they're pretty ladies,' but don't get me wrong, it was still every bit as cringey and misogynistic, it just at the very least seemed aware of that fact.

though it wasn't published by kadokawa like the others, like it or not, "ranma ½" does have elements in common with harem anime, particularly the harem part. which is really disappointing, since it's supposed to be about a guy walking a few miles in women's shoes, you know, as a woman, and ultimately deciding he doesn't care whether he's supposed to be, act, or look like a guy or a girl, and that he can just be what he is. it has its funny moments, but the protagonist's relationship to nearly the whole female cast, that makes it feel like the conclusion was the only moment in the manga that had actual value. it honestly could have done without the umteen female suitors breathing down his neck, and it is at times very difficult to ignore. i guess it's one of those things where we think we can sell feminism with sexism? not all that appealing in hindsight. well, the nasty aspects of it don't demand nearly as much attention, which is nice because the other aspects are pleasant and somewhat meaningful.

so what does this have to do with "stop!! hibari-kun!"?

well, after seeing just a few of its episodes, i'm rather pleased to see that it probably won't devolve into a harem of any kind. as a matter of fact, it's presenting itself as an antipode to harem anime and manga. to start with, the male protagonist kousaku does not get nearly as much attention from the ladies, and he even ends up facing rejection. it also has a lot of focus on some good jokes and slapstick humor rather than which direction female attention is pointing and which direction is most worthy of it. it's a great start. it also showcases the validity of a trans lady's affection toward a guy, albeit while having the trans lady in question mistreated for being trans and into a guy. it's the struggle. it's a real shame that the male protag reads that as the affection of a male pervert. he's clearly shown as in the wrong, but still relatable, because the whole cast nevertheless agrees that hibari's happiness matters, against the traditional mindset her father represents

i'm rooting for you, hibari.

this show is so underappreciated.

(it was also published by shueisha)

as for the other animes i mentioned, apart from "ranma ½" i guess, steer clear of those unless you are specifically looking to have a bad time like i was