#politics but not really

[adetolasblog]

Gintama and Colonialism

While rereading the Gintama series for the nth time, I realized something so unexpected..... I completely relate to the situation in Edo, specifically with the amanto being basically colonizers, and as a person living in a country that was colonized up until only 64 years ago I decided to share my thoughts.

I wanted to examine the implications of colonialism on everyday people using the joui 4(Gintoki,Takasugi, Katsura and Sakamoto), as well as my country Nigeria as a case study.

I noticed that the actions of these four characters as well as the way they dress portray a view of their acceptance of the "modernity" that amanto colonialism has brought to Edo and discuss it.

I realized that the four members of the joui4 seem to be on a spectrum of acceptance. I'll be taking each character one by one and explain more from one end of the spectrum to another.

Takasugi: He is one the farthest end on the spectrum. An extremist who completely rejects modernity that the amantos bring with them and seeks to destroy it at the expense of everyday people. A terrorist through and through. My mind immediately thought of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram when I saw him and learned of his ideals. They are an extremist group that reject western ideals, especially on education and seek to destroy it, at the expense of the innocent majority. They bombed places and kidnapped people, all to make a point. Takasugis complete rejection of modernity is shown even in the way he dresses;in traditional kimonos and sandals.

Katsura: Katsura is a strange case, because while he disproves of amanto control, he completely benefits from the technology. Using bombs, watching TV dramas, getting a driver's license, piloting a Gundam, being close friends with an amanto and even becoming president Zuramp. He's quite hypocritical in his protests. In my opinion, he's like those old people or so called 'old souls' who hate what the country has become due to colonialism then go home in their cars and watch western movies all day. Clothing wise, unlike Takasugi, he alternates between traditional kimonos and modern clothes like the space captain outfit and the president Zuramp suit.

Gintoki: Our main character finds himself right in the middle of the spectrum with him embracing both tradition and modernity. He respects tradition, while embracing the new technologies. I feel that Gintoki represents the majority of people in the country, who speak both English and their native languages, who eat burgers, fries and pizza when they go out but eat fufu and soup at home, who make ties and western style dresses out of adire and other local fabrics and so on. The way he dresses showcases this perfectly, with his shirt and trousers being distinctly western while his traditional style kimono is on top. He also goes through a bunch of outfits, both western and traditional.

Sakamoto: He is on the complete other end of the spectrum. He is someone who has fully embraces westernization at the unfortunate expense of his traditional values. These are the people that leave the country and JAPA, completely forgetting their home country and culture. These people most likely will not teach their children of their culture. Most people like this usually see all things western as good and African things as bad. He dresses in western clothes and is the only one in the joui4 to use a gun as his main weapon.

The idea for this essay come to me as a shower thought and I needed to share it with others because I cannot be the only one who made the connection. Apart from peoples reaction to colonialism, the ways in which the amanto rule over edo-through the Bafuku is just indirect ruling system which was used mainly in countries like Nigeria( indirect rule is when a colonial government rules a country through it's traditional leaders in order to quickly Garner support from the people).

What do you think? Please feel free to share your own opinions on the matter. I have seen so many similarities in the politics of Gintama and the colonial systems of a lot of African countries.

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[stil-lindigo]

they're burning ballots in the US now btw. in case you wanted to know where things are at.

Edit: to clarify, locations mentioned are Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. This news story does not involve Canada.

Important info: Context: Dropbox location was Fisher's Landing Transit Center near Southeast 162nd Avenue Hundreds of ballots lost, voters should contact the Clark Auditor ASAP Clark Auditor contact info: clark.wa.gov/auditor (Washington voters) can confirm your ballot was received on: vote.wa.gov (Oregon voters) can confirm your ballot was received on: sos.oregon.gov General Ballot tracker: voteamerica.org/ballot-tracker

[lgbtlunaverse]

The world exists in such a baffling state of simultaneous sex-aversion and sex-hegemony. Every social platform on the internet is trying to banish sex workers to the shadow realm but I can't post a tweet without at least two bots replying P U S S Y I N B I O. People are self-censoring sex to seggs and $3× but every other ad you see is still filled with half-naked women. Rightwingers want queer people arrested for so much as existing in the same postal code as a child and are also drumming up a moral panic about how teenage boys aren't getting laid enough. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

[not-so-rosyyy]

THIS DIVAAAAAAAAAA

[booasaur]

Something really amazing happened in France, and I think it'd help us in the US to learn about it. Forgive the long read, but I think this is genuinely great both because of what happened and how.

So as some of you might have seen, in a decision historians will debate for years (mostly to figure out just WTF he was thinking, even though he is alive right now and can be asked), the French president, Emmanuel Macron, currently in power and THREE YEARS before the scheduled election, seeing the far right rise in popularity decided to dissolve the assembly and hold snap elections.

577 seats were up for grabs. Remember that number. Since half of that is 288.5, 289 seats are needed for a majority.

The first round happened last week and boy, was it bad. The far right made HUGE gains. It won or was in first place in so many races. And Macron's party ended up third!

Overall, this is how things ended up after the first round:

Far right bloc: 33%

Left bloc: 28%

Macron's centrist party: 20%

Conservatives: 7%

The way the French system works is that if a candidate gets over 50% of the vote, they win outright, and some of the far right did manage that. But, many races went to a runoff.

Immediate projections after were that the far right bloc might win anywhere from 240 to 310 seats, a catastrophe.

A shameful swing to the far right leading to the first time they'll be in power since the 1940s? Yes, but maybe not??

This is where things get interesting.

Unusually, a lot of these runoffs are 3-way, instead of a simpler 2-way choice. And in pretty much every case, that helps the far right.

So on June 30th, the night of the first round, this is how things went down:

Immediately, the left parties put out the call: anywhere they were third, they withdrew and their voters would go over to whoever was running against the far right candidate. Their goal: form a "republican front" to block the far right. The far right cannot get 289 seats.

Macron's bloc was not so...motivated. Different people put out different instructions: in some places, if they were third, they should drop out, but only to help the center left, not far left, in other places, see how far you are, only then drop out, that kind of thing.

The conservative party simply said they won't drop out and won't give their voters instruction either way in races they're not involved in.

Late night developments:

More people in Macron's party are now beginning to realize the situation and starting to coalesce around whichever candidate can beat the far right one. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Macron's party, says clearly the priority is to block the far right. BUT, some Macron spokespeople on TV say they'll form a coalition only with the center left and conservatives, splitting the left bloc if needed. Some individual Macronists still saying they won't drop out, even if there's no hope of winning.

Lol.

So, now July 1st:

Only half so far. In one race, where the sister of Marine Le Pen (the far right leader and the face of their movement) was leading, the third place Macronist refused to bow out.

Excellent quote from another Macronist:

Perhaps realizing the same thing, that Macronist in the race against the Le Pen sister now drops out.

In some places, third place Macronists are dropping out DESPITE Macron bewilderingly telling them NOT to?

Halfway through the day:

Of the 311 3-way or 4-way runoffs, the number is down to 135 because of these candidates dropping out: 121 Left, 56 Macronists, 1 conservative.

Oh, there was this, in case people had any doubts about how terrible the far right are:

And to show the selflessness of the left:

July 2:

The deadline to decide if they want to stay in a runoff is today.

A dozen new third place Macronists who said they'd stay in have now dropped out. One got a call from both the PM Attal AND Macron to drop out, signalling the dawning understanding of the importance of this moment.

Even some conservative party members are now backing the left candidate who faces the far right.

A Macronist who had 30.55% of the vote in the first round and came in third to the far right's 33.11% and left's 32.73% and who would have been tempted to stay has dropped out.

The deadline to stay in or not has now passed.

Look at these far right shenanigans!

Macron still being a freaking loser:

July 3rd:

In the end, of the 311 3- or 4-way run offs, only 91 left. Some polls come out that have the far right getting between 190 to 220 seats.

July 4th:

New polls say the balance of the voting itself isn't transferring between the left and center and predictions have risen for the far right, now predicted to get between 210 and 250 seats.

July 5th:

New polls again, left voters now predicted to do better transferring vote to the centrists, decreasing the far right projections again.

However, scandalous reporting emerges: while Attal was trying to fend off the far right, Macron was not only NOT taking the far right seriously, he was undermining efforts to defeat them. His team shrugged off the first round results and celebrated a BIRTHDAY as the results were still coming in?

July 6th:

A few runoffs happened yesterday, nothing much unexpected, some left and center wins.

July 7th:

The day of reckoning. At this point, the expectations are that the far right won't come close to that 289 number but could still easily have the most seats.

GUYS.

It's over and the left are in the lead!

A LOT of cases where a leftist or centrist was 2nd in the first round and now won.

Amazing:

SO many lessons to take from this.

First, you have to vote! You have to. You can't do anything without voting. The freaking French, who'll protest for anything, are showing up to vote. If you're trying to achieve any kind of result and it's not going to happen by January 2025, you have to vote now.

But just as importantly, the left and center (and even conservative) parties made very key decisions. They were all lucky that Attal, who Macron chose, saw the big picture, bigger than indeed Macron could. A stupid selfish centrist leader could have still ruined everything if it were up to him.

TL;DR: After a disastrous first round in the national French elections where the far right was on the cusp of taking power, the left and center formed a strong coalition and through the power of voting and unity, overcame the far right AND their selfish centrist president to win.

[destielmemenews]

"School districts currently work with processing companies to offer cashless payment systems for families. But the companies can charge “processing fees” for each transaction. By law, students who are eligible for reduced price meals cannot be charged more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. With processing fees, however, families can end up paying 10 times that amount. Processing companies charge as much as $3.25 or 4% to 5% per transaction, according to a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."

source 1

source 2

source 3

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[haze-of-hyperfixations]

*meanwhile, in the Underworld* Polites: Eurylochus, back so soon? And...there's the rest of your crew. And by the gods, what happened to you? Eurylochus, who is sick of thematically-significant reprises: >:(

[evercelle]

joongdok so far to me. specifically chp 370

[reasonsforhope]

Literally begging anyone who can vote in US elections to vote, and to vote against Trump. Which means voting for Harris, not abstaining or voting third party.

My family actually did move here from an authoritarian country, where voting literally didn't matter, they literally did throw out your vote, and they literally did assassinate citizens who spoke out against them.

We would all very much like to keep living in a country where those things are not the case!

You know, the same things that Trump and his stooges have openly said they want to do. And two of the main propaganda lines for why people in the US shouldn't vote, which is a lie.

Voting matters. The parties are not the same.

And make sure to vote in down-ballot races!!!

And like. The fact that voting matters in the US is a very real reason for hope. It is something you should genuinely appreciate. We can make a difference.

And a lot of people risked their lives or even died to earn that right, and it's a right not everyone has.

[noproveninterests]

Inktobertale Day 13: Bells

he can no longer menace local birds. or Errors.

ink belongs to @/comyet

dream belongs to @/jokublog

error belongs to @/loverofpiggies

blue belongs to Popcornpr1nce/AU Community

[gingersnapwolves]

okay I don't post a lot of political stuff but this is sending me

[gottalovecatss]

[awnrii]

troy saga/underworld saga

[marzipanandminutiae]

hey international followers

just in case you want a taste of precisely HOW fractured the US is we also just elected our first openly trans person to Congress (Sarah McBride, from Delaware) and five states enshrined abortion rights into their state constitutions, with Missouri overturning its previous ban

in the same election that gave us Cheeto Hitler II: Electric Boogaloo