#political selfishness

[thevitalportal]

Thanks to misguided political allegiances this is a difficult but not unexpected public safety situation.

“We’re a heavy Republican state, let's just say that. They don't believe in climate change, don't believe in environmental justice, believe that DEI is from the pits of hell,” said Paula Swepson, executive director of West Marion Community Forum, a community organization working to overcome racial barriers to development in nearby McDowell County. “So how can we continue to fight and let people know that these things are real – and if you didn't believe it, how do you think this happened?”

[worshiptheglitch]

No one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves, and each other. Any of the issues you care about will be impossible to fight for under a Trump administration. If you’ve got any anxiety or concern about this election, I urge you to channel that into action. There’s no more putting it off or tuning it out. This is it. Don’t wake up on Nov. 6 and wish you had done more. Do it now. You still have time.

[the-bensolos]

It’s so important, so important to see what has happened in a little under a week because of the vile things Tr*mp has said about the immigrant community in Ohio, bomb threats and schools shut down, innocent people afraid of a place they once called home, if he wins in November that’s life for at least the next 4 years and who knows after that because he’ll turn our democracy into a dictatorship and that’s not hyperbole at this point it’s real and it’s terrifying!!!! So please if you live in the US do the right thing, the empathetic thing, the hard thing and vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Talk to people in your life that could help change this election, especially if you live or know people in a swing state. This election is to important to sit out, real lives and people and families are at stake, the soul of America is at stake. The world isn’t going to stop just because we’re angry with righteous rage, we need to channel that into action and that action is voting and then demanding better because the other side is NOT going to stop they are going to keep playing and keep rigging the game so we have to vote and we have to fight. Donate, sign up to volunteer, talk to people who may not know better. Every voice counts every vote matters. Please vote with kindness and care not just for yourself but for others so so so so much is on the line. I’ll get off the soap box now thanks.

[fromtheseventhhell]

It's crazy that people still uphold show!Sansa as a well-written character and pretend that liking her is the pinnacle of feminism when it would be infinitely more impactful to acknowledge her terrible and misogynistic writing. This is the same character who, while written by two men, was thankful for the abuse she suffered because it allowed her to grow. The same character who we had to be told was smart because the writers were too lazy to develop or show her intelligence. The same character who had to rely heavily on the men surrounding her and ended up accomplishing nothing on her own merit ( and no, thinking that she deserved to be Queen doesn't mean that she earned it). She is not well-written, she is not complex, and she is not a feminist character. Which is fine! If you enjoy her then good on you, but please stop pretending that she's something she isn't just because you feel the need to justify liking her character

[thepoisonroom]

'I flirted with the idea that instead of being trans that I was just a cross-dresser (a quirk, I thought, that could be quietly folded into an otherwise average life) and that my dysphoria was sexual in nature, and sexual only. And if my feelings were only sexual, then, I wondered, perhaps I wasn’t actually trans.

I had read about a book called The Man Who Would Be Queen, by a Northwestern University professor who believed that transwomen who were attracted to women were really confused fetishists, they wanted to be women to satisfy an autogynephilia. And though I first read about this book in the context of its debunkment and disparagement, I thought about the electricity of slipping on those tights, zipping up those boots, and a stream of guilt followed. Maybe this professor was right, and maybe I was only a fetishist. Not trans, just a misguided boy.

About a year later, on the Internet, I come across a transwoman who added a unique message to the crowd refuting this professor. Oh, I wish I remember who this woman was, and I wish even more that I could do better than paraphrase her, but I remember her saying something like this: “Well, of course I feel sexy putting on women’s clothing and having a woman’s body. If you feel comfortable in your body for the first time, won’t that probably mean it’ll be the first time you feel comfortable, too, with delighting in your body as a sexual thing?”'

-Casey Plett, Consciousness

[lizajane2]

This will be the only time I speak on politics on THIS blog. I stand with Palestine but I do not stand by people who think my rights aren't important. Mine, as a woman, will be stripped away because of Trump being in office. If I got pregnant right now, I'd die from having a miscarriage because the doctor would refuse to perform surgery.

And I'm embarrassed to even be remotely in the same sentence as "white women failed us." 52% of the vote?! 20% of registered Democrats refused to vote because "A vote for Kamala means you support genocide." No, we were trying to preserve the rights we had rather than vote for a man who is a racist, fascist, homophobic, and a rapist. Let's also mention the fact that he is a felon. That is the man who will be sitting in office and if you think he's going to help Palestine, he's not.

"Oh well, you should've just voted third-party or not at all." No. The US is not built for a third-party system. They never win a certain percentage of the popular vote and they are denied Federal Funding. Not voting is also worse. It helps put Trump in office which is exactly what happened when millions of registered voters didn't exercise their right.

"Well, Kamala has been Vice President for 4 years." Do you know what the VP does? Their role is to break tie votes in the Senate. They also prercide over impeachment trials, presiding over electoral vote counts, successor to the President, and acting President. They are also a governing partner, a representative at events, a congressional liaison, and a national security council member. All those things don't involve foreign policy.

And as a white woman who voted for Kamala, I mean this with my whole fucking chest, i don't wanna hear white women MAGA supporters complaining about how they're not getting the healthcare they need after their daughter, sister, aunt, or life long friend dies of sepsis because the doctor refused to perform surgery and save her life. I feel for the women having to go through that. But you, who voted for that, who WANTED that, well that's your bed and you get to lie in it. Don't look to my white ass asking for help because you can't afford the funeral expenses. Don't come to me looking for sympathy. I'll have sympathy for your daughter, who probably could've lived but you stripped that right away from her because you had to stand on being pro-life. I will not help you.

[vintageseawitch]

this is what i think of when third party voters go around acting morally superior because they don't want to get their hands dirty like the rest of us. they're toddlers having temper tantrums because instead of using the system in a way that could benefit them in the long term like the extremist Republicans have been doing for decades, third party voters refuse to participate in local civics & then claim the entire country is already fascist. they're so cute in their naivety if they think the US can't get any worse.

what the fuck do you think will happen if you try to protest against a government with a military as massive, lethal, & expensive as ours. who do you think will be sacrificed first? oh what's that? crickets? thought so. i'm a white woman but i will absolutely use my voice to point out leftists can be racist as fuck & the anti-blackness in your spaces can be absolutely fucking wild. not everyone leftist is white, but many that are can be pretty problematic.

if you think i'm selfish then fine. if you state that you would gladly exchange my life for a Palestinian like one of you said in a comment to me a few weeks ago then fine. i'm out here fighting to make sure the people who live here in this country don't experience our own Holocaust.

if you have a problem with people wanting to fight this while claiming you're anti-genocide, you're a fucking liar & a hypocrite. you won't know what the fuck to do in a true fascist country. i don't doubt there are pockets of fascism already existing here but you thinking it's already the worst it can be is as infuriating as people who think the government is creating their massive hurricanes using weather machines. you sound just as childish & delusional. you already sound like children because you will never take responsibility for your choices if it ends up helping him win.

jill stein's campaign is a sham. she is deliberately running as a spoiler. she's a wealthy white woman who lives in a mostly white affluent neighborhood. she's going around lecturing black people about white supremacy. she is getting funds from Republicans as well as help from trump's lawyers. Lockheed Martin has given her money. she's involved in shady as fuck index funds for companies that harm the environment. she only started talking about Gaza during this election cycle to hit you in the feelings so she can bank on it. she made a whole stink about needing a recount, raised a bunch of money for that, & then that money disappeared who knows where. do you all hear this? do you care? no, you're just like maga with their orange Jesus. you don't give a FUCK about stein's red flags because she's "different."

if Harris loses & you blame anyone but yourselves, you're cowardly traitors who threw us regular Americans to the wolves because of your precious fucking principles. history has shown time & time again that protest voting typically allows something worse to take control. it's hardly ever beneficial to the people. you're vile. you don't want to make this world a better place by allowing so many near you to suffer & die. if both sides are the same then please tell me you're okay with another trump presidency. or just shut the fuck up.

i look forward to more potentially heartwarming messages saying that my life doesn't mean shit from people who allegedly are against the death penalty & are pro-human rights 🥰

please vote, don't stop talking about Project 2025, etc. i hope enough of us vote in a way that these pathetic third party voters don't gain any kind of traction. at this point i'm just angry at their hypocrisy when they don't even listen to other protestors who live here & are begging them to not vote third party. i refuse to listen to y'all not take responsibility for your part. Project 2025 will hurt us all but apparently you're okay with that or you think it's already here. smooth brain takes all around. anyways good luck & stay safe to anyone who votes blue 💙

[lifewasted]

I'll tell you what, I'm fucking stoked to be back on tumblr. This site is still good. I'm seeing that so many people still have a childlike enthusiasm for music, like I do, and that gives me a way more hopeful feeling. I see more people actively engaging with music posts and also there are light-hearted posts here. I was just doom-scrolling on Twitter for years, it got gradually worse and I didn't know why I was there anymore. It didn't even feel like the best place to keep in touch with my friends anymore since so much of it was just politics stuff and right-wing ads.

It is good to be back.

[welcometothelairofthebitchking]

"I didn't vote/voted third party because Democrats support Genocide uwu" fucking IDIOT do you think Trump doesn't???????? Do you think he will end the war??? No the only thing that piece of shit will do is support Israel even more and bring war to more middle eastern/arab countries while also fucking over a lot of other minorities and lgbtq people. before you run your fucking mouth I AM from one of those middle eastern countries that Trump will fuck over and I am telling you; In your attempt to stay morally pure and 'not be invovled in genocide' you have fucked over a lot of people and this is absolutely your fault for being fucking stupid. You aren't a good person, just ignorant.

[dearloonies]

Do you think that Allen's wish was to die by his own terms

[iwieldthesword]

"Oh wow OP sounds like you weren't Their Good Jew™ enough to avoid experiencing antisemitism in antizionist spaces, I guess you'll change your mind about antizionism now!"

Actually this is so crazy, but my political activism isn't actually based on what will personally benefit me or if I'm rewarded for it, but is in fact a reflection of my moral compass and what I think is right. Way to tell on yourself that your political views and activism are 100% based on other people's approval and what you think will personally benefit you best, though! Couldn't be me.

[bucksangel]

How long is this nonsense going to go on for ? ....the man has been elected.... get over it .....if you don't like who the president is then you can always move out of the country... go to Canada go to Mexico see if you like it better there. I have never in my life seen such sore losers. She didn't lose because she was a woman and she didn't lose because she was black ....she lost because she was inexperienced and she didn't have what it took for the job. Case closed now live with that....Let's just try and unify the country the best we can and live with this decision.

again, i will not be listening to any arguments as to why you like trump because you're too far gone. if you don't like seeing me terrified over my future as a gay person then leave. xx

[ipwarn]

Holy fuck I should delete twitter. Unfortunately, the sole reason I still use it is for Broadway news. And I have yet to find a place that matches it. I set up a Bluesky account and would happily move myself over there but nobody is using it.

Please god can there be a mass migration now? Bluesky looks exactly how Twitter used to look. And it's not run by a pathetic incel like Elon Musk.

[problemnyatic]

some of y'all really treat oppression like the problem is that it's unfair that other people have it better than you, so everyone with something nice you wish you had is an oppressor and an acceptable target for your outrage. someone making 36k a year who saves up for a little treat now and then is not the bourgeois just because you make 16k a year. It's about the bigger picture, not you-personally.

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

if westeros was created to reflect our modern society instead of being loosely based off of western medieval society, then i think people would understand that these political marriages are for alliances, not love, and would agree that the modern lower class sentiments towards marriage are simply not applicable to these arrangements and both bride and groom cannot and should not expect love from their partner.

if our story occurred in a modern westeros very similar to our own modern society, then a lot of the obstacles our characters face would not happen because, simply put, modern society benefits from equality.

as an example, i am quite (100%) certain that the introduction of gender equality and other modern values and advancements to westeros would only be beneficial to rhaegar and elia, which means that this ideology benefits westerosi society on an individual level.

so, in this modern westeros au, if rhaegar and elia still married for a political alliance, and then had two children like they did in asoiaf, they could then peacefully divorce and write out a contract that secures both rhaenys and aegons inheritances. if lyanna and rhaegar met and fell in love while rhaegar and elia were married then the misunderstanding that sparked a war would never have happened. why? because lyanna would have a say in who she marries in this modern au. also, elia would have possibly been seeing others as well. why? because this was a political marriage and love shouldn’t be expected, so why would anyone be concerned about either party finding love outside of their marriage? plus modern westeros would have dna testing so there’s no reason to question the paternity of their children.

also, if elia had a child with someone else (in this hypothetical scenario, perhaps her lover died) and rhaegar decided to claim that child as his own while knowing that he’s not the real father in order to give this child a better life, then this wouldn’t be a problem either. why? because rhaegar’s in the know. (i’m only bringing this up bc of the rhaenyra and laenor situation. guys… laenor is perfectly aware that biologically those kids aren’t his, yet he still claimed them and loved them bc he and rhaenyra had an agreement. i do not understand why real ppl are even concerned about jace, luke, and joffs parentage. in the eyes of the law those boys are legally laenors.)

however, since asoiaf isn’t based off of our modern society and is instead a society riddled with misogyny, xenophobia and other social issues without the progress and advancements that we in the 21st century have benefited from, i will concede one thing to these antis who harp on and on about how selfish rhaenyra and rhaegar were for loving someone who wasn’t their spouse and for having a child(ren) out of wedlock.

because yes, rhaegar and lyanna’s love can be considered an act of selfishness, and rhaenyra loving harwin and having children with him can also be considered selfish.

but guess what? love in general is a very selfish state of being. you are prioritizing your partner and your desires over everything and everyone else in your life.

one of the greatest love stories of all time, romeo and juliet, is a tale of two selfish lovers who seek to be together despite the immense hatred between their families. selfless and dutiful children would never love an enemy. and yet, despite romeo and juliet’s love story ending in tragedy, no one would ever argue that these two lovers were in the wrong for simply trying to be together even though their love caused their families great grief. why? because the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets was stupid. and the story ends with the characters agreeing that this feud went on for long enough and acknowledging the fact that this petty feud between the families was the cause of their misery and the tragedy that befell them.

though the circumstances of all three love stories are different, it’s undeniable that these lovers were selfish for prioritizing their own desires over their duties to their houses.

to end this little spiel, i’d like to mention that the reason i first brought up a modern au was to remind people that the only reason rhaelya and rhaenyra’s relationship with harwin can be so decisively called selfish is because these characters live in westeros. and westeros is a fucked up society rooted in systematic oppression, violence, and abuse and other forms of exploitation in order to further the agenda of the powerful despite the harm it causes. any modern comforts and progressive ideas hinder the control the patriarchs have over their families and put a name to the bigotry expressed against these unconventional relationships. so yes, their love is selfish because being unconventional in such a backwards society is a recipe for disaster, especially since both of these relationships hinge on a woman deciding to take control of her sexual autonomy, which is a big no no in westeros since a woman’s body only belongs to her father and husband. so yes, these love stories are selfish because these characters are prioritizing themselves in a society that benefits from them losing their autonomy and harms them and their loved ones when they try to take back their autonomy.

to finish off, the reason i brought up the tragic love story of romeo and juliet is to remind people that even though rhaegar and lyanna’s love was selfish, other characters still need to be held accountable for their actions that helped to escalate this misunderstanding into a tragedy that consumed all of westeros.

[andromeda3116]

This chapter was hard for me to write. At first, I was too anxious about the upcoming election, and then it actually happened and I was too devastated to consider writing fanfiction. But then I stopped and thought about it, about the role of fiction in helping us -- both writer and reader -- process emotion, about how it teaches us how to get into the head of another person, about how cathartic it can be, how hopeful. And then I received a review where the person mentioned how important this story -- this Katara -- is to them, particularly after the election, how it lifted their spirits to see her being independent and strong and fearless.

All of this led me to restart this chapter and take it in a slightly different direction than I had planned, to delve into a lot of the things I'm feeling and I've heard from others about what they're feeling. I have, here, established a politician-Katara who stands for all that we lost on Tuesday, and who -- if she were real and living in America now -- would never for a second consider giving up. She would stand and fight and never be silenced.

And so I want to say -- if you're afraid right now, if you're hurting, if you're worried about the future, you are not alone. Don't give up hope, and don't lose faith. Not in yourself, and not in other other people. It seems insurmountable, it feels like things are going in an awful direction, and I'm not going to pretend that it's all magically going to be okay. But I am going to promise that you aren't alone. However alone you feel, however silenced, however afraid -- you are not alone.

Let us come together, let us take Katara's words to heart, and never, ever turn our backs on people who need us. We need each other now more than ever. Stand together, hang in there, and hold on. It isn't okay now, but we will make it be okay in the future. Just hold on.

If you ever need someone to talk to, send me a message. I can't promise that I'll have answers, but I will have a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. And never, ever, ever, ever forget, I cannot stress this enough: you are not alone.

I wrote these words eight years ago. I was 25, reeling, heartbroken, overwhelmed. And terrified, of course, I was so, so scared.

Now, eight years later, at 33, facing the same darkness - and yet worse, of course, we all know it's worse - what I remember most clearly about those four years is the bone-crushing exhaustion. It's so draining, and of course that's how they want you to be: drained out and slumped down like a broken toy. It's overwhelming, they bombard you, and you feel like everyday you're trying to swim against the rising tide, and...

Well, the unfortunate fact that we have to face is that the tide is rising. Like Chuck Tingle said, we have to face the fact that there is a rightward cultural shift that we are looking at, and it's... Well, it's heartbreaking, isn't it? And stunning. To realize that this isn't the world we thought it was. These aren't the people we thought we knew. We thought everyone had seen how awful this man was, how dangerous. We begged them to see, to hear us. And... it wasn't enough.

But I wrote other words, too: “None of this is going to go away overnight. You can’t make a hundred years of propaganda vanish in five. We’ll be fighting this for the rest of our lives, that’s how it’s going to be. But the only way to make it ever get better is by standing our ground and fighting it and never giving up.”

This week is for grief. For shock. For horror and screaming despair. Don't suppress or ignore those feelings - they are real and they are powerful and they will shatter the chains you try to contain them with. Let yourself feel them.

And then next week, we get to work. Okay? We spit out the blood in our mouths and we rub the tears off our faces, and we get ready. We've got two months to prepare, and so now we prepare. We can't stop this tide from rising, but we can fortify our homes and build shelters and hunker down for the long haul. And one day, we'll be able to get to higher ground and leave this sea of hatred behind us.

But only if we stand firm now and don't let them swallow us whole. Sometimes you don't measure time by good or bad, but as the last bastard standing. One day, this will be over and what we have built will be standing and they will not.

I spoke with fear eight years ago, with desperate hope and hands outstretched to hug and comfort - now I speak with a scream of rage and grief, and hands outstretched to drag each other out of the dark water. I thought we'd gotten past this. I thought we were beyond this. I thought we'd learned.

But here we are. And here we make our stand. And because we are making our stand here and because we are building our foundations where we stand, this will not be our final one.

Even the longest, darkest night ends with the dawn.

So hold my hand and I'll hold yours. And we'll get through this.