#prison population

[realgoogleclassroom]

I'm going to give you two facts today, class because they came up in a conversation I had earlier:

1. The United States of America, despite being about 4% of the world population, has about 20% of the world's prison population

2. By the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution: Slavery is fully legal, as long as it is a punishment for a crime.

Let's discuss this with the class, shall we?

[usauthoritarianism]

Okay

This’nsan example.

[loudlylovingreview]

Cecilia Zavala: Pardon Me | Ending the Stigma That Harms Generations

When we reduce people to their convictions, we fail to see their humanity, their potential, and the harm this judgment causes not just to them but to their families. A handcuffed prisoner languishes in a prison cell. (Photo: Doug Berry/Getty Images) ~ U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent clemency grants to 1,500 Americans sparked renewed discussions about second chances. Yet for millions of…

[thecapitolradar]

From the article:

We actually agree with Sen. Blackburn here. That *doesn't* mean we're turning down the pressure on Pres. Biden to deport EVERY prisoner who came to this country illegally.

Our sources say that's upwards of HALF A MILLION people. That half million includes the members of transnational gangs. You know, the ones that Donald Trump SWORE to deport, the ones he was so obsessed with that he made a campaign promise to deport them?

Promises made, promises used as toilet paper.

So, yes, use Sen. Blackburn's smaller numbers to get that border legislation passed, by all means. But don't forget the MASSIVE population of hardened criminals who flitted into this country illegally, and stayed because Donald Trump let them.

And don't let Joe Biden forget them, either.

[blasphemousclaw]

Thoughts on the Curseblades?

the Curseblades are interesting because they’re related to a concept that seems very unique to hornsent culture… tutelary deities:

“Curseblades appear to dance when they spin their shimmering circular blades. These ascetics, who failed to become tutelary deities, were a scourge for those who attempted to invade the hornsent homeland.” (Curseblade Meera)

“Attire of the tower's ascetics, embodying their commitment to an austere existence of strict self-control. In order to ascend from their mortal flesh into tutelary deities of the land, they heighten their spirituality through severe ascetic training.” (Ascetic’s Loincloth)

“Weapon of the masked Curseblades. Circular backhand blade with wave-like cutting edges, sharpened into points that incite blood loss. Long ago, this was employed by the ascetics who strove to become tutelary deities as a ritualistic object in their self-flagellating dances.” (Curseblade’s Cirque)

The Curseblades are essentially a religious sect who live as ascetics in order to ascend as tutelary deities, which are in fact the hornsent corpses holding the Revered Spirit Ash that you find all across the lands of the tower:

“Spirit ash of those who came before, infused with potent spirituality. Acquired from the corpses of hornsent and other objects that ritually decorate townships and villages across the realm of shadow. Consume these at sites of grace to bolster your Revered Spirit Ash Blessing. The Revered Spirit Ash Blessing bolsters both summoned spirits' and spectral steed's abilities to deal and negate damage but has no influence outside the realm of shadow. The withered corpses were called tutelary deities, and Revered Spirit Ash was said to quietly accumulate in the palms of their hands.” (Revered Spirit Ash)

The word “tutelary” means “serving as a protector, guardian, or patron,” so the purpose of these tutelary deities were probably something like spiritual guardians or guides for the townships and villages they’re placed in… we use the Revered Spirit Ash to improve our spirit summons and spirit steed, implying that collecting the ash makes us more hashtag blessed, so I think it’s a fair assumption that the purpose of tutelary deities was to guard and guide others spiritually, help deepen spiritual connection, etc.

The most interesting thing about tutelary deities though is that they were mortal beings who ascended their mortal flesh to become “deities!” The Curseblades were people with incredible abilities due to their severe ascetic training, but presumably started out as regular hornsent, and yet it seems like a sort of godhood was within their reach! A similar sort of thing is described with Divine Bird Warrior Ornis:

“Ashen remains in which spirits yet dwell. Use to summon the spirit of Ornis the divine bird warrior. Spirit of the divine bird warrior from whom the horned warriors claim descent. Clad in golden armor, and granted wings and feathers by divine invocation. Ornis succeeded in taming the divine bird and made its wings his own as he soared through the sky. When he finally fell to earth, he lived on as the guardian deity of the temple quarter.”

Ornis, a mortal warrior, “tamed the divine bird” and lived on as a “guardian deity.” This is pretty unprecedented from what we’re familiar with in the base game: in the current order of the Lands Between, only ONE person — who must be an empyrean chosen by the Two Fingers — is able to ascend to godhood. Divinity is not something just any mortal can ascend to, even with all the spiritual training in the world! It doesn’t seem like the hornsent even had an equivalent to Marika, a “one true god.” To the hornsent, the Divine seems like it was something less centralized, with mortals regularly communing with and invoking divinity, and ascending as minor deities. This kind of makes sense with the concept of the Crucible as a “current” of spiraling energy, a primordial force from which life originated, something all-encompassing rather than centralized. This video by Zullie the Witch even implies that ALL hornsent were once called “empyreans,” and are referred to as such in the game files! I wonder if Enir Ilim’s Divine Gate is what allows the hornsent as a whole to access this divine power and invoke divinity, and no one person was supposed to seize that power for themselves?

This isn’t to say that the hornsent elite didn’t try to control who gets to access divinity, though… it seems like the spiritual elite strictly controlled what kinds of spirituality were “allowed.” Of course, in hornsent society, only those with horns are the ones considered touched by the divine to begin with. But even amongst those with horns, the Curseblades themselves were shunned and imprisoned:

“These ascetics, who failed to become tutelary deities, were a scourge for those who attempted to invade the hornsent homeland. Long ago, before the land was overshadowed by invasion, this scourge was shunned, and the curseblades were imprisoned.” (Curseblade Meera)

I’m not sure if they were imprisoned specifically because they as a group failed to become tutelary deities, or if the Curseblade cult as a whole was seen as a dangerous or distasteful way of ascending to tutelary deities. We do know of another cult that the elite imprisoned out of fear, though:

“A stone mask twisted into an expression of rapturous grief. Use while disrobed to transform into a lamenter. The change cannot be undone except by death. Using this mask while already transformed causes the head to swell in size. This transformation tallies with the state of a denizen of paradise, but the people of the tower denied and hid it from the world. In their foolishness, they viewed true bliss with deep fear.” (Lamenter’s Mask)

The Lamenter’s path to enlightenment being achieved through grief is kind of similar to the Curseblades’ ritualistic “self-flagellating dances,” pain being a way of accessing spirituality. There’s definitely a pattern of the hornsent elite suppressing forms of spirituality that don’t fit the status quo, so I think this might be a reason for the Curseblades’ imprisonment rather than them just being imprisoned for being cringe and failing to become deities

[discordiansamba]

boiling rock au zuko learning so many important lessons about the fire nation and it's actual role in the hundred year war and the truth behind the air nomad genocide and the imprisonment of the southern waterbenders. how to see past the lifetime of propaganda he's grown up with. the truth about the cultures he's been lied to all his life about. how bad the war is even for his own people. your father is a cruel and abusive asshole.

but also.

learning how to pick locks. if you want to knock someone out, this is the best place to strike. here's how you forge a document. it's totally good and cool to steal from the rich and murder is also okay. here's how you make a shiv. he's surrounded by criminals and political prisoners and prisoners of war and he's learning so much from them.

are all of these lessons good ones? no

is he absorbing it all anyways? absolutely.

[samdeancrimespree]

when that guy points at sam through the prison fence and goes “you’re mine, baby,” and sam just looks fucking perplexed and nods. and dean says (in his sleaziest voice) “don’t worry, sammy. promise i won’t trade ya for smokes.” we get it dean he’s Your property. Jesus Christ. a little surprising they weren’t all trying to call dibs on you too but it’s nice to know that your first response to hearing someone hit on your brother is that he’s already taken.

dean being. Entertained by the fact that sams roommate keeps “staring at him” is also just… unhinged

and then he immediately gets in a fight because some guy said One harsh word to sam. after SAM bumped into him. fucking freak

[casually-eat-my-soul]

I lied, put your clothes back on. I’m going to explain how I think the wands in Harry Potter are tools that help the government control the population.

[favvnsongs]

op deleted the post so im just gonna, like i think its actually important to talk about why we're likely gonna see more of this kind of reporting

first off. ✨alleged✨

so. obviously. something something rich kid privilege. very fancy food blogger picture. "european dishes" and the insinuation that he alone is getting a special menu. but this is like, the weekly meal plan for the general population. it's linked within the article lmfao.

as for WHY this is being reported as a top story (in people, mind you, so ... kinda sorta a gossip rag to begin with but i digress), thats a pretty easy thing to answer as well - we just gotta take a peek into the comment section

its all pretty cut and dry. its all for the same reason that theyve cut the audio from the "this is an injustice and an insult to the intelligence of the american people" clip, and now almost entirely report on it as an unhinged outburst.

[boringkate]

Somehow still continually trippy to remember that the United States isn't just a fascist country in a "truly none of us are free under capitalism" type of way (just like us fr) or a "the horrors inflicted upon the world by western imperialism are unending" type of way (just like us fr), but ALSO in a "their incarceration rate is higher than North Korea's" type of way (I knew it was bad, but wtf lol).

[stopmyhearts]

sometimes you will just randomly stumble upon a doctor who story that is so so haunting

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

ok also. i think a thing people don’t get is that “make students read whole books” was a radical intervention in US reading pedagogy that also came from the same people who started the anti phonics crusade. and then in theory we all settled on balanced literacy which is the best of both worlds but in practice, well, all kinds of things bc US education is so numerically large and decentralized it’s shockingly difficult to meaningfully generalize about. lol. anyway so like as i keep saaayiiiing there is no mythical past where We Taught Reading Good and if you have ever looked at Wack Ass Stuff being promoted as the teaching of reading and thought “thank god my teachers did it right”: they almost certainly didn’t, you’re probably just in the lucky half or so of the population that didn’t need that much instruction.

[usauthoritarianism]

Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in New York

[dreadfutures]

I do have my issues about the Corridor YouTubers but this is a really good discussion about the current wildfires in SoCal, the destruction, and the geography of the area and how it contributes to our fires.

In some you can see the hurricane speed winds. You can see that the brush does get trimmed back but the whole state is so dry that it will still burn with 100mph wind friction and heat. It's not any political *fault, this is the worst wind storm and worst fire conditions ever. It's a natural disaster.

One thing that's not the most apparent is how hard it can be to get out of neighborhoods in the foothills where the roads are really tight and switchbacky. Another thing that's blink and you'll miss it is the mention of embers getting caught on the winds. You can be ok and far from an evacuation danger zone one minute and then the sparks get blown 100mph into your neighborhood and your house goes up; or one side of your house could be on fire and you are in such an apocalyptic situation that you might as well take a video :-/ I hate it when people are saying those people are dumb or it's their fault if things get destroyed when you don't know the conditions they might be (not) able to drive in or (not) evacuate from their neighborhood or how it feels to lose absolutely everything.

Anyway the ad revenue on this video will be donated.

[bright-eyes-strawberry-lies]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is super weird that no kid showed up to CHB with like their dog or their lizard or whatever pet they've got.

[waitineedaname]

I love that shang qinghua does not count as a normal person