#putting wing on top for propaganda

[hysokaz]

hunta hunta

[thebibliosphere]

I both believe "poor people deserve art" and "artists deserve food", but it's hard to reconcile those beliefs. I blame capitalism. And I suppose it mostly matters who you're stealing from?

I don't mean to question you at all, I'm against people pirating your stories. I guess I was just wondering if you had more thoughts regarding the reconciliation the two beliefs I quoted above.

I think the reconciliation is working toward a future where things are better, and authors and artists don't have to beg people not to steal from them because they think every author is Stephen King, who wouldn't notice if you stole the pennies found under his couch when in reality most of us are hunting for spare change down the back of the couch because we are earning below minimum wage.

We need people to embrace the idea that art belongs to the working class, both in terms of consumption but also creation.

If you don't support the working-class creators, you'll only end up with rich fucks with no scope of the world beyond their own narrow view of privilege.

Indie creators are actually working very hard to change the way the industry works, and the publishing industry is shitting itself over it. They don't like the success some of us are having. It's why they keep upping prices while slashing corners on their own production (while never affecting the man at the top) to try and stay competitive within the rat race they've created.

They're not interested in the proliferation of art. They're not interested in making sure their authors can afford to live. They don't want more diversity. They don't want inclusion. They want profit at whatever the cost.

And while indie creators very much need to get paid because we live in a capitalistic society and everything is burning down around us, and a carton of eggs now costs more than what I earn per hour, our creativity is directly at odds with the type of profiteering big publishers want.

The money should go to the writers. Not the CEOs. The money should go to the workers in the print houses. Not the CEOs. No one needs the kind of wealth these people have. It's obscene. We need direct action against these conglomerates. We need unionization. We need a means to fight back so that we can make art and make it accessible.

So, how do we do that? I don't know. I'm just a very tired, disabled creator doing my best to keep my head above water. But I think getting people to realize that art and books are worth saving up for would be a good start.

That putting money in the pockets of creators is just as important as your own enjoyment of their art. Because if there aren't any artists, you've got nothing.

Getting them involved with their local libraries would also be a great start. Educating them on how the industry works is part of that. The number of people telling me they had no idea libraries paid authors is staggering. And that's intentional. It's a by-product of right-wing propaganda to make you think libraries are worthless and just sap taxpayers' money.

They're not.

If they were, the fash wouldn't be trying so hard to take them away.

Basically, we need working-class solidarity and for certain people on the left to rid themselves of the idea that just because something isn't borne of manual labor, it doesn't have worth. We need the artists and the dreamers as much as we need to bricklayers and the craftsmen. Otherwise, what's the fucking point of it all?

[flawseer]

Wings of Earth

"For Wings of Earth, search through the mud, for an egg the color of dragon blood."

This line from the Dragonet Prophecy is very funny to me, specifically because it refers to the color of dragon blood.

At face value, that makes sense. These kinds of eggs are relevant primarily to Mudwing culture, and it follows that they would call them "Blood Eggs", as they are the same color as the blood of their people, i.e. a deep red.

However, later we learn that this prophecy did not come from the impartial mouth of fate, rather it has been carefully engineered by the Nightwing elite circle to further their tribe's interests. With that biased origin in mind, note that they did not make reference to a "Blood Egg", which is the established Mudwing term for it, but rather opted to word it as "an egg the color of dragon blood".

Why do I think this is noteworthy? Well, by divorcing the subject from its Mudwing cultural roots like that, it becomes more of a general statement. It's saying "The egg is the color of dragon blood. Dragon blood is red." This statement is true for six of the seven Pyrrhian tribes. The sole exception are the Icewings- who happen to be ancient enemies of the Nightwing tribe -whose blood runs blue instead.

What this implies is that this prophecy was written in a way that covertly insults Icewings. It's insinuating they are not true dragons, i.e. their blood is not the appropriate color. That is on top of already overtly insulting them by not including an Icewing hatchling in the prophecy. As this prophecy is relevant to all the tribes on the continent, it ensures that every tribe will receive and accept this propaganda piece that insidiously proclaims Icewings as lesser beings, including the Icewings themselves.

Or that was the plan. In practice it went nowhere and its authors wound up shamed and humiliated. Whoops.

It is uncertain whether all this was intentional on Sutherland's part; I am likely putting way too much thought into a phrase that was just meant to sound good in a poem. But whenever I read this line, I picture Morrowseer, sitting alone in an empty cave with his writing scroll in front of him, smiling self-importantly while congratulating himself for sticking it to "those snow lizards in the north". Then he goes home and finds a note from his mate telling him she's gone out for the night and that he should de-frost himself some hot dogs in the sink.

And that picture is very funny to me.

[simply-ivanka]

‘Leader Schumer, what do you say to Americans who feel as though you and other top Democrats misled them about President Biden’s mental acuity?’

Kristen Welker interviews Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Jan. 5:

Welker: I want to play you a little bit of something you said last year. Take a look.

Schumer (clip): I talk to President Biden, you know, regularly, sometimes several times in a week, or usually several times in a week. His mental acuity is great. It’s fine. It’s as good as it’s been over the years. All this right-wing propaganda that his mental acuity has declined is wrong.

Welker: Leader Schumer, what do you say to Americans who feel as though you and other top Democrats misled them about President Biden’s mental acuity?

Schumer: No. Look, we didn’t. And let’s—let’s look—let’s look at President Biden. He’s had an amazing record. The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since the New Deal—since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, putting in 235 judges, a record. And he’s a patriot. He’s a great guy. And when he stepped down, he did it on his own because he thought it was better not only for the Democratic Party, for America. We should all salute him. We should all salute him.

___________________________________________________________

Schumer is the perfect example for term limits. He lies, like Biden, like Obama. He cares nothing for America or the American people.

Time for us Americans to get rid of people like Schumer, like Schiff, like Pelosi, like AOC, these blind party focused bots that will always work against the best interests of America and Americans.

Repost

[hotvintagepoll]

Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, The Gypsy Moths)—no propaganda submitted

Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd (Let's Do Things, Catch as Catch Can)—[a Vanity Fair article was submitted that was paywalled, so I'm putting the text of it under the cut]

This is round 1 of a mini Christmas tournament. Each poll lasts for three days. If you'd like to send additional propaganda supporting your favorite hot couple, you can reblog this post with your propaganda added, send it to my asks, or tag me in it. To vote in all the polls, click here. Happy holidays!

[additional propaganda under the cut]

Pitts and Todd:

Here is the text of the Vanity Fair article that was submitted, written by Donald Liebenson:

Before Lucy and Ethel, Laverne and Shirley, or Mary and Rhoda, there were Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts. Separately, they were journeymen character actors in 1930s Hollywood. Together, they became the first major female comedy team, appearing in shorts that found them bonded as friends and career women struggling to make it on their own—the Depression-era answer to Abbi and Ilana of Broad City.

Over a two-year period, they made 17 shorts rarely seen since their theatrical release—and now collected for Thelma Todd & Zasu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931-33, a two-DVD set. They’re revelatory viewing, progressive, and proto-feminist portrayals of two career girls in the big city, defiantly dependent on each other.

Hal Roach, the legendary producer who teamed up Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, envisioned Todd and Pitts as a female equivalent to his marquee stars. Blonde-bombshell Todd was a beauty queen plucked from Massachusetts by a talent scout and brought to Hollywood in the 1920s, where she primarily played comic relief in other people’s films. Kansas-born Pitts was a prolific character actress, so typecast as a comedienne that few directors took her seriously for dramatic roles (though her finest hours were in Erich von Stroheim’s epic, Greed). The contrast between them was more about character than looks. Todd was brash and confident, and Pitts a more dithery presence; think Olive Oyl.

“They have gumption; they’re unflappable,” explained Molly Haskell, film critic and author of the seminal book From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. “They’re looking out for each other; you could just feel the value of the twosome. . . . They are modern women. Hopefully, they will rise to the top—but in the meantime, they’re just going to wing it and figure things out.”

The duo’s first short, Let’s Do Things, establishes their dynamic. Thelma and Zasu promote sheet-music sales in a department store. Pitts moons over her boyfriend, but a disapproving Thelma prompts her to remember why the two came to New York in the first place. “To advance ourselves, to meet the best people, and to do big things,” Pitts responds. By the end of the short, the boyfriend gets a pie in the face, courtesy of Todd.

“They’re always going to have each other’s back,” Haskell noted. “I don’t think there’s any of the shorts where they fight over a man.”

Todd and Pitts’s gender alone made them somewhat revolutionary in their day. Comedy teams were primarily the province of men: the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy. “Slapstick was what men loved, and women didn’t because the whole core of it was tearing things up,” Haskell said. “It was chaotic and women wanted order. The defense of the domestic was a woman’s role . . . and slapstick violated the sense of order and decency and uprightness. They didn’t find it funny.”

But Todd and Pitts were both game for the physical stuff. In Let’s Do Things, Todd suffers a throw-about throttling from a quack osteopath; in the courtroom comedy Sneak Easily, juror Pitts throws a murder trial into chaos when she swallows a piece of the evidence—an explosive.

But in their best shorts (which, like the rest of their work, were written and directed by men), the mayhem is mostly in the service of a female narrative, observed film historian Jeanine Basinger. “It’s situational comedy,” she said. “If you’re going to make a plot centered around women, what the heck is she going to do just sitting around the house? They have to get out there in some way. . . . When you look at these films, what you see is what [the creators] thought was a good comedy female situation in that era. You have the chaos over Zasu’s hat in the boxing arena in Catch-as Catch-Can, the high-society party in which they are fish out of water in The Pajama Party, and the department-store melee in The Bargain of the Century. . . . The American woman on film is really a pretty active person, unless she is just stooging it in a male genre. Things have to happen to them, and they have to react. These shorts reflect that very clearly.”

More than 80 years on, the Todd-Pitts shorts play surprisingly well. Their appeal, talent, and chemistry elevate even the most dated material. “I like [Todd and Pitts] so much, and enjoy watching them,” said Leonard Maltin, author of the recently published anthology, Hooked on Hollywood: Discoveries from a Lifetime of Film Fandom and the essential 1970 book Movie Comedy Teams.

“I cannot tell a lie: the shorts are not all good. The gag men had a hard time coming up with suitable material that wouldn’t de-feminize them or make them look outlandishly unladylike, but [Todd and Pitts] play well today because [the characters] aren’t so different from two young women trying to make their way in the world in 2018. The struggles they have by and large tend not to be sexist. If they lose a job, they are comically inept, or it’s a blown opportunity.”

Max and Caroline of 2 Broke Girls, which ran for six seasons on CBS earlier this decade, could be the granddaughters of Thelma and Zasu. Beth Behrs, who played fallen privileged high-society woman Caroline, formed a formidable odd-couple relationship with Max (Kat Dennings), a street-smart waitress trying to start her own cupcake business. Their chemistry, Behrs said, was instant, and their real-life friendship informed their on-screen rapport over the show’s six seasons.

Though the actress was previously unfamiliar with Todd and Pitts, she watched a couple of their shorts on YouTube and saw a kinship with those aspirational woman. “It was important [Caroline and Max] were full-fledged women who really were entrepreneurs,” she said. “We never had a love interest for more than a season. It wasn’t about finding a man; it was about loving each other and building the business from nothing, and the two of them going after the American Dream together.”

For Todd and Pitts, the dream ended when Zasu left the team in 1933. Hal Roach replaced her with Patsy Kelly. Todd, who had appeared in some Laurel and Hardy shorts, is perhaps best known today for her two films with the Marx Brothers, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. Her career was tragically cut short in 1935 when at the age of 29 she was found dead in her car. A grand jury ruled her death a suicide, but that did not explain bruises around her throat, a broken nose, and other injuries; her death remains one of Hollywood’s unsolved mysteries.

What do these 80-plus-year-old shorts have to tell us in 2018? “They show us what all old movies show us,” Basinger said. “They show us how it was, and they show us how it is. . . . We can see attitudes, we can see women out in the world doing things, having ideas and speaking out. And they show us how we are today.”

Two Broke Girls ended its run in 2017. Behrs currently stars with Max Greenfield and Cedric the Entertainer in another CBS comedy, The Neighborhood, about a white couple that moves into a predominantly black neighborhood. The first season’s initial episodes have already glimpsed the comic possibilities in her character’s relationship with her next-door neighbor (Cedric’s wife), played by Tichina Arnold. “There is an electricity between us,” Behrs said. “The writers saw it, and are exploring turning us into a Lucy and Ethel.”

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

All the propaganda is under the cut. It's long for both of them:

Alexander I Pavlovich:

a. “Maybe not the most handsome or charismatic man in this tournament, but he has ample chaotic neutral energy that both baffles and fascinates contemporaries. In short, if you're into mysterious men, you won't find a sexier enigma than our imperator.”

b. “Look. Is this or is this not the monsterfucking website.”

c. There are lots of monuments dedicated to him. There's one in Moscow in the Alexander Garden right by the Red Square. While nowhere near as grand as the Alexander Column, I think it's still worth showcasing!

The monument is meant to celebrate his victory in the 1812 Russian invasion. He's holding a sword, proudly standing on top of his enemies' weapon.

The sculptors, however, have never seen the man in their life - all the people involved in the making are still alive and well (i think), so that should tell how new it is. The monument was opened for the public just a decade ago in 2014.

d. quote about this bust from the memoirs of Sophie de Choiseul-Gouffier: “No painter was able to properly capture the features of his face and especially his soft expression. Alexander didn’t like to pose for portraits and they were mostly done with some stealth. In this case sculpture have produced a better likeness. The famed Thorvaldsen made a bust of this sovereign worthy of a hand of such a remarkable artist.”

e. His family nickname might have been ‘our angel’ and the medal commemorating his death bears the inscription “Our angel is in heaven”, but did you know that to this day Alexander looks down on Sankt Petersburg as an actual angel, wings, cross, trampled snake and all? Alas, you cannot see it from the ground, the Alexander Column being so very tall, but the statue of the angel on top certainly seems to take after our sexy thrice-angel Emperor.

f. Apotheosis of Alexander! An eminently universal image, perfectly serviceable for his rise to the throne… of Napoleonic Sexyman Tournament.

It really looks like Peter and Catherine are instructing the Electorate. Gentlevoters, surely you wouldn’t dream of disappointing Sasha’s Grandmother and his scantily clothed giant of a Great-great-grandfather?

g. What is sexier than a man in a dress???

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

a. “mustache”

b. “Tall! Daring! Swashbuckling! A devoted husband and father! Had a personal conflict with Napoleon! Also it was said he could, while holding onto a bar above his head, LIFT A HORSE WITH HIS THIGHS. How is he not on this list ten times already! Vote for General Dumas!”

c. “He was so hot that he inspired The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and many more books that his son, Alexandre Dumas, wrote. He definitely looked the part of a sexyman, as he son recounts in his memoirs: "My father, as already stated, was twenty-four, and as handsome a young fellow as could be found anywhere. His complexion was dark, his eyes of a rich chestnut colour […]. His teeth were white, his lips mobile, his neck well set on his powerful shoulders, and, in spite of his height of five feet nine inches, he had the hands and feet of a woman. These feet were the envy of his mistresses, whose shoes he was very rarely able to put on." He could crush you between his thighs: "His free colonial life had developed his strength and prowess to an extraordinary degree; he was a veritable American horse-lad, a cowboy. His skill with gun or pistol was the envy of St. Georges and Junot. And his muscular strength became a proverb in the army. More than once he amused himself in the riding-school by passing under a beam, and lifting his horse between his legs." He was so badass he could beat 13 men with 4 and take all the enemy prisoner, and defend against hundreds of men on a bridge by himself. He performed these acts of valour numerous times in Italy. He was so formidable that the Austrians named him the "Schwartz Teufel", or the Black Devil, and his feat at the bridge earned him the moniker of "Horatius Cocles of Tyrol". He wasn't afraid to stand up to his morals and protest against unfair treatment. When unjust executions by the guillotine were happening outside his quarters, he closed the blinds of his curtains, earning him the nickname "Mr. Humanity". When in the Vendée, he complained about the wanton indiscipline in his troops. When in Italy, Berthier wrongly reported his actions as one of "observation" in St. Antonio. Dumas wrote to General Bonaparte that if Berthier was in the same position, he would have shit his pants. Dumas abhorred plunder, never exhorted the locals, and ordered the Directory agent who had come to persuade him otherwise be shot if he dared present himself to Dumas again. Integrity and a sense of moral justice is sexy, mark my words. For Dumas' final qualifier as a sexyman, look no further than this Tumblr heritage post (https://www.tumblr.com/petermorwood/133803437020/hortensevanuppity-elodieunderglass), with 300,000 notes and counting. And I quote: "- daddy general dumas was an immense fierce french warrior who was a 6 foot plus, stunningly gorgeous and charismatic Black gentleman - he invaded egypt - the native egyptians said “is this napoleon? this must be napoleon. we for one welcome our majestic new overlord” - then napoleon showed up - napoleon has all the presence of yesterday’s plain Tesco hummus - the native egyptians were like “… no… no, we’ve thought very hard and we’ll have General Dumas actually” - this did not make napoleon happy - in fact it made him jealous - napoleon felt so emasculated that he launched a campaign of revenge against General Dumas, including taking away his pension, that probably inspired a lot of Alexandre’s rather satisfying scenes in which fathers are nobly avenged and the money-grubbing villains are rubbed in the mud" I rest my case. Tl;dr: He was so hot he inspired multiple books, he was a stronk man who could crush you between his thighs or carry you like a sack of potatoes, and he was so badass that he could take on odds of 1 to 3. He had a foul mouth but a heart of gold and his actions were never self-serving. Posts relating to him on Tumblr have had 300,000 notes and counting. He is qualitatively and quantitatively qualified to be a sexyman.”

[eugenedebs1920]

In a speech given after winning his fourth term as prime minister of Hungary, Victor Orban would tell a crowd, “We must state that we do not want to be diverse and do not want to be mixed: we do not want our own colour, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others. We do not want this. We do not want that at all. We do not want to be a diverse country."

Orban reassumed power in 2010 after having lost his bid for reelection in 2002. To date Orban has held the prime minister position fourteen consecutive years, eighteen total. Over this time he has consolidated power to himself, with much suspicion regarding the legitimacy of the Hungarian election system, the European Union going so far as to say Hungary could no longer be considered a full democracy.

After losing his run in 2002 Orban and other conservatives in the Fidesz party would baselessly claim the election was rigged, despite lacking any evidence of it’s existence.

The period from 2002-2010 gave Orban time to formulate a plan if he were to return to power. The 2010 results would allow him the chance to implement them.

His rise to the top was fueled with anti-immigrant sentiment, capped with the tone of unbridled nationalism. Hungary would embrace a Eurosceptic style of government, which Orban would call “illiberal Christian Democracy”.

His claim of democracy is disputed though. Upon recapturing prime minister Orban would put into play a series of measures to covertly undermine the pillars of a democratic state.

In 2013 Orban would amend the constitution giving unchecked power to the head of state to the point where he can dissolve parliament. The changes to the constitution also allowed for an extended state of emergency [crisis] to be declared, pausing elections if needed.

By removing investigators and heads of law enforcement, replacing them with loyalists, his corruption would go unchecked. Today Hungary is considered a kleptocracy or mofia state, with Transparency International declaring it the most corrupt country in the EU.

Over the years, with the help of extreme gerrymandering, Orban has all but tightened his grip over government, with 2/3rds of parliament under his right wing Fidesz party. This would allow for the passing of judiciary reform putting the executive branch in charge of appointing, installing, and funding justices of his choosing.

With judiciary and parliament stacked in his favor there would be no opposition. This gave way to the passing of legislation to create a state of emergency unconditionally. In this it provided Orban the right, by decree, to prosecute and jail people spreading “fake news, including the press.

Through litigation, intimidation, buyouts and pressure campaigns nearly 80% of news media is either controlled by the state, or simply right wing propaganda broadcasting conservative Fidesz talking points.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Peter Magyar, leader of a new opposition party in Hungary would say when speaking of available news content and current events “This parallel reality is like the Truman Show. People believe that it’s reality.”

Peter Kreko, an analyst for Budapest think tank would echo these themes saying, “Orbán has created ‘an almost Orwellian environment’ where the government weaponizes control of a majority of news outlets to limit Hungarians’ decisions.” He would go on to say, “Hungary has become a quite successful informational autocracy, or spin dictatorship,”

Right wing personalities, and autocratic leaders use the victim card as a way to distract and manipulate their followers. They find reasons, and make up stories about how oppressed they are, how the opposition is stifling their speech, or not allowing their religion, or that some group of people are threatening their rights and way of life. This leads to villainizing minority sects of the population.

Orban ran on an anti-immigrant hate platform, trashing the EU for their position on immigration. This came as Hungary’s affiliation with Russia was growing ever closer. Putin and Orban’s relationship goes back to around the 2010’s. Much of the controversial legislation Orban passed reflects legislation pushed through in Putin’s Russia. Orban and Putin meet regularly, in fact prior to the U.S. presidential election they met right before Orban would visit Trump at Mar -a-largo.

Despite the majority of the population being agnostic, Orban would claim Hungary was a “Christian Democracy.” He would vehemently pursue the cause to ��re-Christianize” Hungary. This would lead to the privatization of public schools, urging that youth education be done by the churches. These school curriculums would teach, "national identity, Christian cultural values, patriotism, attachment to homeland and family”, not providing room for other religious beliefs, or accurate depictions of the past.

Much like what the Christian right does in America this would lead to a string of anti-LGBTQ discrimination and persecution, with Orban saying that homosexuality is “Not compatible with Christian values”. In 2020 Orban had government end the legal recognition of transgender people. He would also put up legislation to censor any “LGBTQ positive content” from movies, books, TV, and other media.

Orbán passed laws, amended the constitution and "patiently debilitated, delegitimatized, hollowed out" civic institutions such as courts, universities, and the apparatus necessary for free elections that are now controlled by Orbán loyalists. Domination of the public media by Orbán prevents the public from hearing critics' point of view.

If any of this sounds familiar it should. Orban is hailed as a hero in American conservatism. He has spoken many times at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the pinnacle of conservative gatherings in the U.S., Steve Bannon. Would call Orban, “Trump, before Trump”, Tucker Carlson, and other right wing media personalities would interview Orban, with Tucker exclaiming that he was the only Eastern European leader "on the face of the earth, ... who publicly identifies as a Western-style conservative".

All of Trump 2.0 is following the path in which Orban destroyed the democratic system in Hungary. It’s uncanny. I urge Americans and American leaders to look into Orban’s takeover of Hungary and the precise similarities in Trumps approach currently. This is the white Christian nationalist agenda in action. It happened in Europe on a smaller scale, it’s on the macro level in the United States now.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

The right-wing propaganda machine’s opportunistic and unhinged response to the wildfires sweeping the Los Angeles area provide an instructive but foreboding look at what the next four years could look like.

Firestorms have swept parts of Los Angeles Country and its environs since Tuesday, as a “perfect storm” of dry conditions (spurred in part by human-caused climate change) and winds gusting over 80 miles per hour sparked apocalyptic conflagrations and severely hampered firefighters’ response.  While the fires are not uniquely large, the fact that they are burning in a densely populated area has resulted in staggering costs — at least ten people are reported dead as of Friday morning, tens of thousands have fled their homes, and more than 9,000 structures are damaged or destroyed, with economic loss estimates in the tens of billions of dollars.  Political leaders would ideally respond to such horrific circumstances by putting aside partisan differences and standing together to help the victims rebuild. But something very different is happening this week in right-wing spaces.

President-elect Donald Trump is lying a lot in order to blame his political opponents for the fire. The president-elect's Truth Social feed this week is alternating between memes highlighting his purported plans to take over Canada and Greenland and falsehood-heavy rants about how “the gross incompetence and mismanagement” of President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are responsible for the fire.  Trump’s MAGA media allies are aiding his effort by turning the right-wing information ecosystem into an unrelenting wave of bogus attacks related to the fires. When any major story breaks, the top priority for the hosts on Fox News, Trumpist social media influencers, and the rest of the echo chamber is to identify scapegoats for their audiences to rage against. 

[...]

As SoCal burns, the right finds false scapegoats

Responding to natural disasters is a core function of government, and leaders’ response to such tragedies deserves careful scrutiny. But the evidence Trump and his allies are pointing to in order to claim that California’s fires stem from liberal mismanagement don’t hold up. The main avenue the right has seized upon — blaming California Democrats and environmentalists for supposedly limiting the water supply used to fight the fire — is entirely false. Trump alleged on Truth Social that there was “no water for fire hydrants” to fight the fire because “Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water to flow” from northern to southern California because he wanted to protect populations of the delta smelt, a rare fish.  His right-wing propagandists quickly parroted his argument to their audiences. On OAN, Dan Ball claimed that “You liberal Democrats running that city, county, and the state have blood on your hands tonight,” before reading Trump’s post. On Fox, Jesse Watters claimed of Newsom that “there is no water coming out of the fire hydrant because this man mismanages the water there.” And Larry Kudlow said on his Fox Business show that the governor “cut the water flow that never got to Southern California, in defense of this obscure fish.” But none of this is true. 

It’s not a water shortage that is impeding the firefighting effort — Southern California’s reservoirs are full, and LA County officials say they filled “all available water storage facility tanks” before the fires started. Some water hydrants ran dry in the Palisades because the extraordinary high demand on the area’s tanks (“four times the normal demand of water was seen for 15 hours straight in the area of the fires”) depleted them faster and reduced the water pressure needed to replenish them.  The long-running dispute over protecting the smelt has nothing to do with the firefighting effort — beyond the fact that there wasn’t a water shortage, that dispute hinges on whether water resources should be used instead for farm irrigation in the South and Central Valley.

And the “water restoration declaration” doesn’t exist, according to Newsom’s staff.  The right regularly responds to disasters by fixating on efforts to hire a diverse workforce, and this case has proved no different. On social media, right-wing influencers targeted Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley, the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person to serve in the role, claiming her leadership of the department shows that “DEI is quite literally getting people killed,” “DEI = DIE,” and “DEI has deadly consequences.”  Such attacks moved swiftly up the right-wing food chain. “This is the leadership of the LA Fire Department — I sure hope they know what they’re doing,” Fox star Jesse Watters said on Wednesday while shaking his head. He later claimed that “California is committing suicide before our very eyes. DEI is deadly.” 

[...]

The right uses the same playbook after every disaster

The right treats every disaster as an opportunity to attack the left, with talking points bubbling up from the fever swamps or filtering down from Trump, then spreading swiftly through the ecosystem thanks to the all-encompassing nature of its propaganda machine.  We’ve seen the same pattern repeatedly over the last few years, following deadly natural disasters in North Carolina and Puerto Rico and California, among others. 

The right-wing response to the Los Angeles wildfires is what we’ll be seeing during the next four years: Having Donald Trump and right-wing media in sync blaming Trump’s foes for disaster responses.

[poppybros-jr]

Hi, everyone! Did you think I’d put away my coloured pencils and decided to take a break this round? Nope! I, uh… overslept. ^^; I’m a noddy, it happens! But, back to business! It’s time for another…

SURPRISE PROPAGANDA ATTACK!

I don’t even know Dotty! We’ve never met! But I think they seem cool, so I’m cheering for them anyway! Here’s why!

- Isn’t their wing awesome? I think it’s awesome! It’s all feathery and stuff!

- Hat gang! Hat gang! My hat’s big enough to store stuff in it, but their hat is a beanie and beanies are top tier hats! And black is one of my top three favourite colours, so I think they have great taste!

- Like I said, I don’t know them, but I know they’re friends with a few people I do know. Like my big brother Dolos! If he’s friends with them, that’s enough of a reason for me to vote for them!

- They look like they enjoy getting into mischief. I always support mischief! Let’s go sneak into someone’s room and giftwrap everything they own!

Vote for Dotty!

Dotty belongs to @cauli-flawa

@kirbyoctournament

[beardedmrbean]

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday that they didn't mislead Americans about President Biden's decline or ability to serve despite the president dropping out of the race after being faced with a February 2024 clip of him declaring the debate over Biden's health was "right-wing propaganda." 

NBC News' Kristen Welker confronted the senator with a clip of Schumer talking about Biden on February 13, 2024. Schumer said, "His mental acuity is great. It’s fine. It’s as good as it’s been over the years. All this right-wing propaganda that his mental acuity has declined is wrong." 

After playing the clip, Welker asked Schumer what he would tell Americans who think they were misled by top Democrats. Schumer reportedly told the president he needed to drop out of the race after the debate.

"We didn't. Let's look at President Biden. He’s had an amazing record. The legislation we passed, one of the most significant groups of legislation since Lyndon Johnson’s great society, putting in 235 judges, a record, and he’s a patriot. He’s a great guy, and when he stepped down he did it on his own because he thought it was better, not only for the Democratic Party, for America. We should all salute him. We should all salute him," Schumer said. 

Welker then asked Schumer if he was confident Biden could have served a second term.

"Well I'm not going to speculate. As I said, I think his record is a stellar one, and he’ll go down in history as a really outstanding president," Schumer responded.

The "Meet the Press" panel also discussed the Schumer interview and MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend argued Schumer should have pushed back much harder on Welker. 

"The question on the table is, is the president all the way there? And the answer is unequivocally yes," Sanders insisted. "People can say that you feel as though President Biden might be a little too old to do the job, but he's doing the job, his mental acuity is there. So I think there is a conflation of two things there. It’s his mental capacity and serving another four years as old as he is, but those are two separate things, in my opinion, and these people that have known Joe Biden for their entire lives and I know President Biden, and it's like, can you all defend me a little more?"

Politico's Jonathan Martin argued that it wasn't worth defending Biden, because the president chose himself over the good of the party. 

"He’s not exiting in a way that I think reflects well on his party and Democrats are deeply, deeply unhappy about it, and they should be, frankly," Martin said.

Marc Short, who previously worked for Vice President Mike Pence, said it hurt Democrats to try to tell Americans what they saw with their own eyes during Biden's debate against Trump. 

"But it's not true that the president doesn’t have mental acuity," Sanders shot back before Short said, "of course it is."

"He can at least put a sentence together," Sanders argued, suggesting that President-elect Donald Trump could not put a sentence together.  

Short asked, "are you sure?" Sanders confidently said yes and noted she spoke to Biden recently.

[aesterblaster]

Just saw a really clickbait-y youtube video that called Blue Lock fascist in its thumbnail and I will admit first and foremost that I didn't watch it and yes I've been informed that it isn't implying that Blue Lock is some fascistic propaganda but it still got me thinking so-

here's my rant/breakdown about the ways that Blue Lock is specifically anti-fascist

So first of all, popular animes and mangas having possibly fascist undertones is nothing new. I won't deny that there's a long history of Japan being a colonizer and commiting atrocities that are still brushed off or forgotten about to this day. And this does seep into some works that I personally choose to not engage with for exactly that reason. Miss me with trying to be an apologist for or glorifying real world war crimes- But Blue Lock specifically? I'd be extremely hard pressed to call it fascist.

Fascism is defined as an alt-right, ultra nationalistic political ideology usually characterized by a centralized autocracy, forced suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy and subordination of individual interests for the believed good of the nation or race according to Wikipedia. First let's go through the ways Blue Lock does match up with that.

Ego can be easily viewed as a dictator near the beginning of the manga

Most characters thrive on putting others down for their faults and strictly believe that there is some sort of natural order where people who lack "ego" are at the bottom

There is a sort of central autocracy with the top 6

Near the beginning especially, there is a violent snuffing out of any ideology that dares oppose egocentrism or the idea that you need to be a solid team to win a game

Now let's go through the ways Blue Lock denies and even goes against Fascism.

BLLK's main goal is to make a Japanese soccer team that can win a World Cup. In a more fascist manga, we would see racism ga-fucking-lore. We can see this in animes that have more right wing leaning undertones like Attack on Titan where when race is brought in it's for conflict. There's no possibility of harmony, only winners and losers. Those protected and those put down and punished.

And Blue Lock does have an extreme focus on who wins and who loses. It is not afraid to include racism against Japanese people like with Adam or portray black people in unsettling and kind of racist ways like Dada's original design. But these elements don't automatically spell fascism. Blue Lock is careful to portray characters of color as just that, characters. They don't exist to tell you about their lives of hardship and struggle and they don't exist to justify Ego's obessesion with creating a good Japanese team. As you read BLLK, you'll notice that the artist has taken care to get better at drawing different body types and facial structures. The character design isn't trying to sell some perfect ideal like fascism so famously does, it tells you a peak athlete doesn't have one distinct look. It tells you characters from other countries are just as if not more capable than the Blue Lock boys. Hell, even Sae's hatred of Japanese football is portrayed as less of a betrayal of country and pride and more of a cultural clash. The issue to be solved in Sae's character is the way he looks down on his brother, not how much he despises Japanese football teams' tactics. We know this because Ego himself rails against them too.

A fascist manga would paint Sae as a villain for even learning from and joining teams from other countries, lending them his talent instead of keeping it in his home country. But Blue Lock encourages diversification and collaberation with other nation's teams so heavily that it is literally an entire like 5 part arc right now. Ego isn't ultra nationalistic, he just wants to make a better soccer team for his country and he isn't afraid of praising and adopting from other countries in the process. The biggest win to come out of a Blue Lock team wouldn't be that they're all Japanese but that they all follow his ideology.

Speaking of his ideology, Ego is extremely harsh and controlling, yes, but he also believes in the boys. He lets them do what they believe is best. He pushes them to their limits, not because they disobey him, but because they dissapoint him. A true fascist dictator would rule with fear with no introductions of other ideologies, he would strike at any sign of weakness or opposition. At the beginning, he does do this. But as the manga goes on we see how much wiggle room he's willing to allow. He lets Isagi curse at him and question his leadership, he lets Shidou play even though he's clearly queer and extremely volatile, he doesn't punish any of the boys for injuring each other. In a fascist society, you are expected to fit an ideal or be othered, be perfect and work together with a sense of comradere because that's the only way to prove your claims that you are the best race/nation. There can be no imperfections or cracks in the facade...But Ego lets the boys be messy. He never forces them to change who they are, only forces them to believe that they can do great things all on their own. Even with Kunigami, Wild Card wasn't a correction of his disbelief in some nation or race, but instead a correction of how limited his mindset was. In fact, in a more fascist society, Kunigami's love of playing hero and protecting his teammates would be praised and celebrated. Ego putting individuality and aspiration over the good of the team as a whole is literally a middle finger to fascism.

The villain of the series is literally a greedy Japanese man that wants to commercialize the team and make them less individualized. I don't know how much more anti-fascist you could get-

Also, Blue Lock handles disability very carefully and very well. In more alt-right ideologies than not, something you'll see again and again is this idea that disabled people don't deserve the same rights because they can't contribute to society. Disabled people are a stain to be pushed away and hidden because they contradict the central idea of a "perfect" nation. In a fascist retelling of BLLK, Chigiri would be kicked from the program, not given power and influence. In a fascist retelling of BLLK, Kenyu would be attacked and beaten as soon as it was discovered that he made it into the top-six with failing eyesight. Any physical disadvantage could easily put an athlete at the bottom of the social hierarchy as well, Blue Lock could have very very easily made fun of its disabled characters for even trying. It could get away with mistreating these players and be defended for it so fucking quickly. But instead, it lets you root for them and gives them just as much care and weight as the others. It's trying to tell you that being a good player sometimes means knowing your limits and getting help, not punishing yourself because you have some biological disadvantage. It also takes care to demonstrate that no race is inherently worse at soccer than the other.

And, of course, the elephant in the room, Noa and Kaiser. Okay...if you see German characters and immediately think OMG NAZIS??OMG FASCISM?????OMGGGG HE HAS BLONDE HAIR???AND BLUE EYES?? That's a fucking you problem and you clearly aren't reading the manga. Even Noa Noel being an older man and still being allowed to play and looked up to as the best is an example of how Blue Lock goes against steriotypes about athletes. Kaiser does have blonde hair and blue eyes yes, but he also wears eyeliner and eyeshadow and has a tattoo and dyed hair... None of that would be allowed in an actually fascist Japanese manga unless it was as caricature to make fun of and dominate. But instead, Kaiser is an actual threat who has complex arcs and behaviors. Also, Kaiser isn't fascist himself, he clearly views Isagi as an equal even though they're different nationalities and he doesn't believe in any one authority or greater cause except for himself. Noa is very strict yes, and he does rank and rate the boys, but he specifically doesn't factor race into it. He also, just like Ego, allows other ideas and patterns to emerge even if they mess up his own plans for matches. He doesn't suppress anyone and is actually extremely lax. If you think he or BLLK is "fascist", look at actual real world sports teams and their strict practices or past statements about other nationalities.

Isagi as a protaganist is anti-fascist too!!!! He's a Japanese everyman who has good Japanese parents, no disabilities, an honest personality and believes in a future where Japan wins the World Cup. In a fascist story, he'd be fucking untouchable (ESPECIALLY against characters from other countries) and all of this would be paraded as proof that a Japanese soccer team is clearly superior and all-dominating. But no! He gets beat down, questioned, disrespected and constantly shown up by others. He's not special and he's extremely self-centered. He doesn't water his own beliefs down for the "good of the nation" or whatever the fuck and he grew up idolizing foreign players. Isagi never supresses other people's ideologies, he just makes fun of them if they fuck up. He's never xenophobic, even when other characters have moments that have xenophobic undertoens like Adam or Sae's comments. Isagi Yoichi's character could have a few traits flipped and be a poster boy for some alt-right manga about how superior Japanese people or hell, Ego's pupils are. But he doesn't. He's simply designed and he's rude and he looks down on people, but he also apologizes, humbly accepts when he can improve by questioning his own ideals and is open to talking with everyone he comes across.

Calling Blue Lock a "fascist soccer manga" is not only demonstrating that you have no idea what fascism is, but also disgustingly painting over all the beautiful themes and messages within the manga.

Again I'm aware that that original video wasn't aiming to negate any of these points but I have seen people make claims and jokes before that about Blue Lock's more *beat it into your head* tendencies with ideology. And I've seen jokes specifically about the German team/the way Sae seems to just hate Japanese culture. I just dislike the painting of Blue Lock as a jumping point for discussions about fascism and its effects because of the way it handles themes like cross cultural connection, family pressures, capitalism and disability so carefully.

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 1B, MATCH 16 OUT OF 16!

*Though I am referring to her as Popelka, her original name in Czech, she is also often referred to as Aschenbrödel, her German name. Additionally, Three Wishes for Cinderella is the English title (with an alternate localized title being Three Gifts for Cinderella). The original Czech title, Tři oříšky pro Popelku, and the German title Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel both are translated as Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella. All names and titles have been tagged. Any local Czech or German speakers feel free to correct me for any mistakes! :)

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Danielle:

This is, imo, the single best retelling of Cinderella out there. She has a great character, her relationship with the prince grows organically rather than happening in a single night, and the scene with the bandits is top tier

The story is told as a historical romance instead of anything supernatural happening. Drew Barrymore is a cute Cinderella, Anjelica Houston is an incredible stepmother, and she's also really nasty to one of the stepsisters too, who ends up taking Danielle (Cinderella)'s side. Also Leonardo da Vinci is hanging around painting a portrait of Danielle at one point.

The Drew Barrymore Cinderella is fantastic. It’s got real history mixed with beautiful whimsy! I absolutely love the butterfly wings and how she spoke up for her step mother and sister at the end (and that they were still punished). I feel like I need to go watch it now.

she’s funny and smart and she’s resourceful (also her outfits are historically accurate!)

Popelka:

She has so much personality. She's funny, smart, kind, has a lot of spunk, and she really does things instead of just waiting for miracles to occur. Also, she's a great rider and has a deadly aim with bow and arrow.

She finds three hazelnuts that grant her wishes by giving the clothes to do what she wants. Beautiful dresses. The prince puts a ring on her finger while she’s in her huntsman’s outfit.

I don't know how it's faring in modern day Czechia, but here in Germany, Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel is still THE (non-Disney) Cinderella adaptation and a yearly rewatch for many, despite literally turning fifty this year. It's just so fairytale and also just... good? And she hangs out in the woods and shoots with a crossbow and saves deer and gives the prince riddles and then the music aaa the music!! I guess this isn't just a submission of this version of the character but this version of the story. For those who don't know: This adaptation is based on a Czech author's retelling of the Grimm version of the story, the film was a co-production of Czechoslovakia and East Germany and it slaps so hard it gets played at least 10 times (usually more) on public german television in and around December every single year. This is not an exaggeration, you can look it up, they even make a special, official info graphic with all the air dates every year that people can (and do!) share on social media. In Germany, the main event of Christmas is the 24th, Christmas eve, and on that day they play it at least 4 times (often more) at different times of the day on different public channels (ALL of which any German with a hooked up tv has access to) so anyone who wants to watch it gets a chance to. And Aschenbrödel herself in the movie STILL holds up as a (within reasonable expectations) feminist character, she's skilled, she's smart, she's witty, she and the prince actually talk and they like each other for their personalities, like... yes, there's a couple of flaws with the movie that time has pointed out, but mostly small, background things or things you simply cannot expect a movie from 1973 to get right. It's SO well made and just plain charming, it has truly stood the test of time and I would be devastated if it weren't included. It's also my mum's favourite movie (she's from East Germany and was born in 1969 so she's had regular access to it basically all her conscious life) so we would actually usually watch it multiple times each year and even record it (first on VHS, later again on DVD) so we could rewatch it any time and yet, I literally never got tired of it. It's just good & magical & I love it. Even my brother, who usually didn't care for fairytale movies at all and would much rather play video games in his room, would come down and sit with us to watch this one, THAT'S how good and magical this movie is.

And if all that hasn't convinced you yet but you speak German, here it is on YouTube, go watch it:

[Link]

(I won't provide a Czech link since I can't vouch for any of them as I don't speak czech)

Anyway, dear tournament runner: Have a pic of Aschenbrödel, in my favourite of her magically provided outfits, for the poll:

[Link]

She is the Cinderella of like eastern central Europe and the Story is a little different (she's no. 1 girlboss, beats the prince in a shooting contest and instead of a fairy she has 3 magic hazelnuts/ a magic owl)

[hubristicassholefight]

Preliminary Round: Revue Starlight

Propaganda below cut

Hikaru

Battle girlfriends with Karen Aijo. Competes in sword fights to decide who is the “top star.” Also sings during these sword fights. Commonly uses swords as props in plays.

Karen

There are so many other Revue Starlight characters I could submit because so many of them have swords (one even has two!) but Karen is the main character and has a sword so I think she deserves this personally. Her sword is, depending on your translation, called either Possibility of Puberty (which I find funnier) or Possibility of Youth (which I prefer but it's also so much less silly)

Nana

She has a double Katana and I think out of all the revue starlight girlies she’s the coolest. I’m sure someone smarter can talk about the symbolism of her swords. Regardless of that tho, she’s so strong even if she doesn’t appear as a strong contender, she won a sword fight competition for 60 times in a row resulting her creating a time loop. If that isn’t cool enough she has an entire fight with epic music of her taking on her entire class and winning. Like a full 1vs 8 fight and she won and looked so cool doing it; She’s literally the messiest theatre lesbian I’ve ever seen and it shows in her sword fights. Like no one sane would win a sword competition in an underground stage over and over again every year only to use the “wish” to turn back time and repeat it again and again.

Well, she has two swords. BUT this is important cause in revstar, blade length signifies someone's brilliance as an actress. So this immediately means that Nana is overpowered compared to literally everyone else.(oh and she used the swords/brilliance to trap everyone in a time loop due to her childhood loneliness but I don't know how important this is to this poll)

Maya

maya wields a rapier with a white gem, as coordinated to her image colour, for a pommel, named odette the mavericks. the sword is eponymous to its name and significant as to her major motifs—the rapier is forged with a long, slender blade, as well as a golden grip assembled with the shape of a swan’s wings. whilst there are a number of swordswomen within revue starlight, maya undoubtedly takes position zero when it comes to the effortlessness and swiftness of swordsmanship within the revues—effectively winning against a wide majority of her opponents and cutting them down effortlessly, all whilst putting on the greatest performance. https://youtu.be/SX8-exfskeo https://youtu.be/c3rrQpwKwPI (yes, she loses in this one, but her PERFORMANCE is outstanding). a few notable moments of maya’s swordswomanship throughout the revues are, The LIVE #1, in which, during a revue against saijou claudine, she uses mavericks to stab her in the shoulder and cut down the button of her pelisse jacket, achieving position zero and winning said revue. https://ibb.co/kSWjvFX Starry Diamond, in which, during a revue teamed with daiba nana, she effectively cut down her opponents and decided to further cut down nana as to further achieve position zero on her own—cutting into both of nana’s arms before soon removing the button from her pelisse jacket, as well. https://streamable.com/fx1edd The LIVE #3, in which she is set against three separate opponents, each with varying weapons—longsword, axe, bow and arrow—and continued to best all three of them simultaneously. https://streamable.com/gp430d https://streamable.com/n8tucw https://streamable.com/c7roo1 https://streamable.com/syno6z . . . and, again, everything about THIS revue. https://youtu.be/c3rrQpwKwPI

Claudine

A simple design, the handle a gold. Someone has stated that it looks like a Lego sword if you shrunk it and I think that's funny. Saijo Claudine throws her sword in one episode to help another character get higher and I think that's cool; She's french and is aligned with silver and her rival is always first place but Claudine is also really good and her sword deserves more attention 🤙🤙

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

Let’s be realistic, most people in the Arts will naturally tilt ‘left’ without any of the Marxist propaganda you claim exists (and which cannot be found in any classroom or campus). It’s been the case long before the 1970s.

I actually agree with you to a certain extent, in that people with creative temperaments will seemingly always tend towards things that promise novel ideas and 'progress' of some kind. Kurt Vonnegut used to say artists are the canaries in the coal mine for the human race: looking for new ways forward is a necessary part of what artists bring to the world, although there's nothing in that which is automatically bound to modern Marxist identity politics, and in every state in which those Marxist policies become state law, all true artists rebel and become the counterculture, as they did in the Soviet Union.

Thousands of years before the left/right division was invented, artists dreamed and invented for themselves, just as they will a thousand years from now, as long as they're still human. Politics are temporary.

"...the Marxist propaganda you claim exists (and which cannot be found in any classroom or campus)."

It's unarguably found in every classroom and campus in the western world.

Every university in my country has explicitly Marxist organizations like the Socialist Worker Party openly setting up trestle tables full of their petitions and literature to each year sign up new naive young minds to their cause, and weekly engaging in mass-produced sticker and poster campaigns with their logos printed all over them with no resistance from the powers-that-be, and have done so without a break at least as far back as the 1970s.

Whereas there is zero equivalent for any right-of-center organizations anywhere: no far- or-even-center-right parties are even allowed to leaflet or discuss their ideas on university grounds. The lack of diversity of allowed thought this demonstrates is (literally) impossible to argue against.

On top of that, the left-wing bias has been routinely shown in surveys and studies for years that "Liberal" professors outnumber conservative professors 12-to-1 in modern American universities, and around 90% of political donations from staff are given to the Democrat Party. A hundred years ago this was very much not the case, with political affiliations being much more balanced and reflective of the wider voting population, and the education system largely having, if anything, a reputation for dull, conservative traditionalism. The 1970s seems to be the point that dramatically changed, and the education system was targeted to be infiltrated and taken over by Marxist theory and propaganda, as it has been.

---

You're terribly misinformed in everything you've written me, and I worry about your ability to think any argument you make through, without ever questioning it yourself before speaking.

An approach that might help you is to, instead of "strawmanning" other peoples' positions, try in good faith to attack your own position first and make the best argument you can find against your own beliefs, and see how well they stand up then. If other people easily demonstrate you're wrong, go back to the drawing board, taking what they've shown you, and make stronger arguments against your own positions until you feel you've got a clearer handle on how the things you say will sound to anyone not already sharing your views. There are reasonable arguments for all the positions you've put forward, but you've not made any of them.

[hotvintagepoll]

This is a three-way poll. Only one scrungle may continue onto the next round of the scrungly little guys contest.

Louis de Funès (Hibernatus, La Grande Vadrouille)—He is THE French scrungly icon, everyone knows him and either loves him for his scrungliness or fucking hates it and there's no in between. He is The Scrungly. He is Little. He is amazing. His facial expressions, his little noises, his everything - he's freaking hilarious. Also he's not afraid to crossdress in his movies and he looks fucking AMAZING in drag just saying Old men fuckers, this is your call 💪

Thomas Mitchell (It's a Wonderful Life, Stagecoach, Only Angels Have Wings)—One of those job'bing character actors who turn up in a lot of movies in bit parts. He is a very good actor, with a lot of pathos—you probably know him as the uncle from It's a Wonderful Life, or Jean Arthur's newspaper friend from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. A salt of the earth type who brings gravitas and pathos to every part. He scrungles gorgeously.

Russ Tamblyn (West Side Story, Tom Thumb, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)—when they were making 7 brides for 7 brothers they didn’t even hire him to dance, they were like, this is russ, he’s a redhead, we need redheads, he’s shrimpy and will do. But then. But THEN. Choreographer Michael kidd meets him and is like ‘can you do anything?’ and my boy russ is like well! I can do gymnast stuff i guess :) And he gym stuffs so well he’s like in 80% of all the dancing sequences so you think my boy, russ, my goodness, russ is a DANCER! (he can’t dance. he is just very good at doing FLIPS and GYM STUFFS.) and then he’s so so good at flipping and making it look like dancing they put him in Dance Movie of All Time, west side story. Truly scrungling your way to the top. He’s good in that tom thumb movie too I guess. Go russ go.

This is round 2 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you’re confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Louis de Funès:

He is a small old comedy man, what else can I say? My mom loves him and even was disappointed that such a charismatic man wasn't in the hot contest.

Well... Look at him! He started as a jazz pianist, but he became super famous for his roles of angry little guys, or grumpy little guys, or very, very fractious little guys. A comedy, and in particular physical comedy, legend! And in all of them, he is scowling, contorting himself, seething, spitting words and incoherent with rage, making the funniest faces and noises and... he's like a very, very angry wet cat. Angry Wet Cat is, in fact, the best description I can come up with!!!! He was #ScrungleLifestyle #BornScrungly #Scrungle4Life

[editor's note: I don't speak French so let me know if anything in these clips is offensive. The first two clips are mostly physical comedy and a good introduction to Louis de Funès' humor for non-French-speakers :)]

he is so silly!!!! little old man with crazy energy and facial expressions like you wouldn't believe!! the scrungliest!! he makes the most insane characters seem lovable due to his comedian skill and his scrungly quality :D my favorite actor of all times

Thomas Mitchell:

Russ Tamblyn:

here he is once again fooling us into thinking he is a dancer when really he just has no issue being weird in a dance like fashion

[immoralimmortals]

Assigning the Akatsuki movies that tend to really disturb people, because they are a disturbing bunch.

A word of caution: the films mentioned are very intense, some of which closer to endurance tests than narratives. These pairings are not recommendations to see these movies. If you seek any out, research the content. I am not adding individual content warnings for the films themselves since I'm only pairing them with characters (you are free to inquire for those or for spoilers if you want to know more)

General content warning for the post itself for unsavory mentions of various kinds of violence.

Pain: Come and See

Lauded by some as the only war film that is not accidentally pro-war or pro-military propaganda. It is a story about children, children who are vessels of the narrative to, as the title says, show you the horrors and agony of warfare on the human spirit.

Konan: Martyrs

A French extreme horror film that breaks your heart as you watch women's spirits get broken. It is painfully empathetic and gut punches you over and over. It relies on you caring about the characters for its impact and it succeeds. What is the great worth of having suffered?

(Despite having a very spiritual aspect l, it is too heartfelt of a film to give Hidan, though considered)

Obito: Perfect Blue

Twisty, turny story about identities and lies. Plays with the idea of innocence and self control like how a cat plays with a butterfly with a broken wing. It's a beautiful movie but it's also going to make you really unhappy.

Zetsu: Beyond the Black Rainbow

This is a slow, methodical film about invasiveness and brainwashing. The color pallet is stark, contrasted mostly by bright whites and dark shades, with the occasional blood red thrown in to throw you off. Some of the imagery is very unnatural-seeming and nightmarish. This is the sort of movie you'd like to put on if you want to do the opposite of whatever meditation would be.

Hidan: Mai-chan's Daily Life

If you know this movie/manga at all, my reasoning is what it says on the tin. Girl gets dismembered and killed over and over as an immortal. She kind of likes it? It's a really nasty one that jumps to being so over the top and silly. I haven't seen this one and have no deeper thoughts on it.

...I guess if I really want to keep with the theme of movies I've actually seen, I'd then go with The Devils, which is based on a real life event. It's about the interplay between religion, sexuality, and political freedom, and it gets really, really violent and makes me go

Kakuzu: The Night of the Hunter

This one is actually just legitimately a very good movie that happens to hurt you deep in your soul. Two kids of the Great Depression are confided to by their dad before his execution that he stole several thousand dollars from a bank. A priest he meets in prison tracks down the children, worms his way into the love of not only their widowed mother but of the community, and tries to convince them to give the money to him as God intended.

This is a very influential film from the 1950s that while not often recognized by name, has been cited as inspiration for some of the most notable filmmakers in recent time. It is less traditionally disturbing and more that you are made to walk alongside these children as they enter a money-hungry nightmare.

Deidara: Tetsuo the Iron Man

This film is an art piece. I don't mean that in a way which denotes that it is pleasant but in a way where I appreciate and recognize every choice was very, very purposeful. This is a movie with such industrial, inhuman sound design. It is loud and visceral and made to make you feel like you got in a car accident. It's also deeply homoerotic??? So bonus points! Also has some genuinely incredible visual effects. I am sick to my stomach.

Sasori: Audition

I love this movie. Ohhhh it hurts me. It makes me sick. I'm never watching it again. The premise is a man lies about the purpose of an audition, which is not a movie role but to select a potential wife. It doesn't strike him as possible that an actress might catch onto his script that plays out.

The ending scene. This is why it's for Sasori. Such a sweet smile and soothing voice while dismembering someone with piano wire.

Kisame: Ichi the Killer

I'm setting aside the very, very overt sexual text of this movie to focus on what it's trying to say about the enjoyment of violence. It is a bizarrely lighthearted film about two opposites. As YouTuber NyxFears (May Leitz) has put it:

Guy 1: This is a party, I love killing people! Yay! :D

Guy 2: I'm terrified, I hate that I'm violent! Why are we doing this!

It is an incredibly fun yakuza film that also makes you frown really hard at some bits as it becomes really morally questionable.

Itachi: The Handmaiden

Another genuinely excellent movie where the point of it is to throw your soul into a rock tumbler so you can experience the full spectrum of human emotion! It is not only gorgeously made and pleasing to the eye, but it also relies upon your attachment to the regality and poise a character holds, which I think is a similar feeling I give to Itachi when I think about him. It is a cathartic tale that makes you believe love is real by making you, as the audience, suffer to get there as the characters do.