#rainbow rioter

[aether-link]

They have Zuko use his rainbow fire bending in the comic smoke and shadow. Yet never ever in animation. Crimes more crimes added to my list. 😤

[hexhomos]

Hey man, I follow you on bluesky, but I’m too shy to interact openly 😔 Could you maybe share more about the state of the fandom before season 2? I was watching Arcane as it was coming out in 2021, but I never interacted with the fandom back then so a lot of things that you say come as a surprise… Even I knew that a lot of people disliked Jayce tho which was crazy to me because he was my favorite after Jinx and Silco and I always found him to very compellingly written. But I never thought that he was hated to such an extent! Was Jayvik really a crackship with a small fanbase as some people say? I knew it was much smaller than Caitvi which I thought was totally fair and understandable, but I’m pretty sure that I saw a decent amount of fan art on my Twitter TL back then…

Its very inaccurate to call jayvik a crackship during season 1 LOLLLL s1act1 had such a JV boom it was partially marketed by word of mouth as possible canon yaoi. And I say "marketed" with intent, netflix official pages and riot official pages made posts/memes with these two, including some sexual innuendo. Keep in mind, vikjayce was an old ship: from 2012 onwards there's already faint niches in the community and even fanfics.

I have some of those social media posts here.

The marketing yaoi memes became a problem after act2 came out and a lot of the audience felt rightfully betrayed/led on by corporate; i think on the netflix side they got confused on who the canon gay pair was but old time players were well acquainted with riot's HORRID handling of mlm couples - the disappointment wrt jayvik in season 1 was palpable and impossible to ignore, partially because their stories WERE well liked ingame as their lore selves, and in act1 as a potential couple.

for a little while back there "riot HATES gay men" became a whole memetic chorus repeated ad nauseam, and this did affect the decisionmaking process. In the following months they got lil nas X to collab on their yearly esports theme and collab on the new gay champion release (a man permanently separated from his ex partner because he was terrible in the relationship. no comment) and we also got the pride month reconfirmation that tfgraves are gay for eachother, though once again not in a relationship and not allowed to even confess, they were just posing in general proximity under the rainbow flag; an obvious step down from the pitch where they had Old Romantic History. Not even a kiss. You can sense the pattern on how riot approaches gay men here, and /why/ a lot of people on the fence have rallied behind jayvik after season 2. It would finally subvert the trend.

I would say post season 1 it was obviously caitvi city, with some other niches, biggest ones being timebomb and jayvik. Caitvi were Mega viral, successfully tricked general audiences into calling the game "league of lesbians" for a while back there, ascribing progressivity to the company where it was pinkmoneying at best. People's general hatred of jayce made it so he was underutilized, misread and mischaracterized at large, INCLUDING in caitvi or general fanworks. He was a republican trumpian dumbjock stocks guy, insert your least liked man here. It was not uncommon to click on a jayvik fic/fanart and see some sort of sentiment related to "oh jayce sucks but someone needs to kiss viktor", and this was mild ribbings when compared to people who DIDN'T ship it. On these other waters it was common to see "Viktor deserves much better!!!!!!" plastered on all the walls. hence the massive y/n stats on viktors page.

still, people who stuck by jayvik were generally doubly invested on it, and they even got a couple of zines made! Secret santa projects were also up and running for some years. There was fanmerch though not as much as we are seeing now, and also a recapture of league vikjayce content in much, much smaller numbers. Even back then and in the years before season 2 some rioters would already share and interact with these fanworks; people insisting that jayvik is "new" or was uncommon before are extremely wrong. In AO3 stats alone they were in the top 3 league ships of all time after season 1, and they are firmly #2 as of now, rapidly growing. The fanbase is cosmically larger now but the seed was always there.

[on-a-lucky-tide]

Also while I'm on a train of blatant self-projection and my blood boils on the theme of patriotism, I proclaim Nikolai allergic to birch blooms.

They spoon-fed me all that берёзки as a symbol of Russia curated patriotism bullshit from the youngest age and I am so sure that my pure unadulterated hatred towards the tree on account of me being horribly allergic to it played a part of me growing up as un-patriotic as one can be

(This is obviously a joke and I do have my patriotic moments, although much tamer than Nik. But blooming birch is still my sworn enemy. Bitch, you're a plant, procreate sexlessly, why you gotta make my life so miserable every spring, your flowers look like whipped worms anyway)

Sorry for ranting in your ask, you just evoked Feelings in me as you do

Haha, anti-patriotic sentiment through virtue of an allergy is such a mood. Being force-fed propaganda is always the best way to make a young person hate their country, and it's proven ineffective. I'm so sorry about the tree torture. 😞

My example is the union flag. I have an absolute hate-love relationship with it, because it's flown over genocides, oppressed peoples, atrocities. British history is a mire of sins. The world could have been so different without the fingerprints of British imperialism all over it. I'm lucky in that we have never been required to swear a pledge of allegiance, or raise the flag at any point at school, but I was forced into the cadets to try and sort me out, where it was flag-shagging from dawn 'til dusk (and racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc).

But... I took a union flag with me alongside my rainbow flag to an anti-fash protest and actually tore into some middle-aged woman when she told me to put my union flag away because someone might think I'm far right. Uh, no, this flag of my people, and if the far right want it, they can come take it out of my hands themselves. You're essentially condemning an entire country by surrendering their international representation to fascists. The rioters from Cable Street would be disgusted.

But ... I dunno. The St. George's Cross (England flag) is a lost cause. If I see some cunt with that tattooed on them or in their hand, I know they drink Stella, beat their wives and think shouting slurs at minorities is the height of humour.

Anyway. A ramble for a ramble, m'love. ❤️ I am always here for learning about other people's cultures and lives. The world is so Americanised online sometimes, it's like the other few billion people don't exist...

[thehigherthetide]

lgbtq+ league of legends characters before pride month ends

aphelios has only ever been depicted in an mlm relationship (with sett)

blitzcrank is referred to using they/them pronouns. occasionally it/its. in one instance, he/him in the bees skinline

caitlyn smooches women

cho’gath doesn’t exist or something but is referred to using it/its

diana smooches leona (league of legends instagram promised me that leona and diana live happily ever after)

ekko is probably bi. he’s had a crush on jinx. in pulsefire, he and ezreal were romantically involved in some way. i believe a rioter said that they want to keep sexualities consistent across universes (ie across skinlines) though i’m not sure how recently this statement was made

evelynn changes her form (and gender) to best seduce her victims (whose genders do not matter)

ezreal is probably bi. several voice lines imply he has a crush on lux. see pulsefire ekko

fiddlesticks is referred to as it/they and is a corrupt magical girl in star guardians

fiora is implied to not be attracted to men even though she likes master yi in immortal journey

graves = gay

irelia probably smooches women and should be smooching me

kayn was once described to have a fluid preference in partners

k’sante gay

lee sin maybe had a romantic relationship with udyr but i don’t really care for either of them tbh

leona - see diana

lux makes rainbows and is forced to hide her true self. she might not be gay but some might find her story relatable in that way

miss fortune has suggestive interactions with vi in legends of runeterra

nami has a gf and a bf and they all hold hands and love each other and they both support her and riot games retconned nami and the marai being from targon even though i wrote a ten page fanfic of her journey to ionia to search for diana

neeko is a lesbian

nidalee reciprocates neeko’s feelings for her i think

nocturne is referred to using he/it pronouns. idc what anyone says i love u nocturne

rell is bi

samira once had a non-binary lover

seraphine might smooch girls

sett is bisexual

taliyah is trans

taric was made to be a gay stereotype though i’m not sure where he stands now. also is it troll to play q max taric bc porofessor recommends e max but i only play him in aram

twisted fate is pan and does gay crimes with graves

udyr - see lee sin

varus has two gay men inside him so ya

vel’koz was also confirmed to be non-binary in the instagram post i previously mentioned. this is not reflected in their bio. tbh all void creatures are kinda meant to be genderless but idk

vi smooches caitlyn

[gatoself]

If I'm gonna pledge allegiance to anything it's going to be the rainbow flag

Gilbert Baker picked the rainbow for many reasons, because of the diversity of color and because it has such a varied mythology around the world.

Before 1978, the gay liberation symbol was the pink triangle, referencing the mandatory symbols different queer people in concentration camps wore. There were different colors and some were up or down, but for gay liberation it was universally the pink triangle, a small way of saying "never again"

When bible-thumpers say it's based on Noah's ark I have two points

°Noah's ark story is almost entirely plagiarized from the epic of Gilgamesh, where a character named Utnapishtim builds an ark during a great flood. It was written in cuneiform thousands of years before the Bible.

°Baker made the flag with the great flood story in mind as a symbol for hope that humans will never again commit atrocities towards each other, and the fact that the diversity and joy was like the many colors of the rainbow

From this article below:

"The crowd was as much a part of the show as the band. Everyone was there: North Beach beatniks and barrio zoots, the bored bikers in black leather, teenagers in the back row kissing. There were long-haired, lithe girls in belly-dance get-ups, pink-haired punks safety-pinned together, hippie suburbanites, movie stars so beautiful they left you dumbstruck, muscle gayboys with perfect mustaches, butch dykes in blue jeans, and fairies of all genders in thrift-store dresses. We rode the mirrored ball on glittering LSD and love power. Dance fused us, magical and cleansing. We were all in a swirl of color and light. It was like a rainbow.

A rainbow. That’s the moment when I knew exactly what kind of flag I would make.

A Rainbow Flag was a conscious choice, natural and necessary. The rainbow came from earliest recorded history as a symbol of hope. In the Book of Genesis, it appeared as proof of a covenant between God and all living creatures. It was also found in Chinese, Egyptian and Native American history. A Rainbow Flag would be our modern alternative to the pink triangle. Now the rioters who claimed their freedom at the Stonewall Bar in 1969 would have their own symbol of liberation.”

[mariacallous]

On July 8, approximately 5,000 far-right protesters stormed Tbilisi Pride Fest, an LGBTQ+ festival in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The far-right movement Alt-Info and several other organizations initiated the protest, which started with several hundred protesters, including members of the Georgian Orthodox Church. As the protesters marched toward the festival, the crowd grew in size to approximately 5,000 people. When the crowd reached the festival grounds, they broke through the cordon created by Georgia’s Internal Affairs Ministry.

The protestors destroyed the festival’s stage and stands, and burned LGBTQ+ flags, as well as a flag of Ukraine. Afterwards, the protestors marched toward the Georgian Parliament Building where they continued to protest against the right of the LGBTQ+ community to host public events. According to Georgia’s Internal Affairs Ministry, no one was injured.

The festival organizers accused Georgia’s Internal Affairs Ministry of working with Alt-Info, and the government of inciting violence. They released a statement that read:

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Deputy Minister thereof, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, have been giving us protection guarantees for weeks preceding the festival and even on the festival day. Instead, the police allowed Alt-Info members to trespass into private and enclosed festival territory, to attack peaceful citizens, and to inflict irreparable emotional trauma on them.

This was an organized attack by the Georgian government and the Putinist violent group on democracy, human rights and innocent people who wanted to enjoy the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.

Several video clips taken at the festival appear to confirm that the police didn’t resist the rioters as they entered the site of the festival.

In 2021, LGBTQ+ activists from Tbilisi Pride were forced to cancel a march following violent attacks by counter protesters in the Georgian capital. In addition to physically assaulting journalists who had gathered ahead of the march, the anti-Pride protesters broke into the Tbilisi Pride office and set fire to a rainbow flag. One cameraman died after he was attacked, while 50 others were injured.

[aliitvodeson]

“The crowd was as much a part of the show as the band. Everyone was there: North Beach beatniks and barrio zoots, the bored bikers in black leather, teenagers in the back row kissing. There were long-haired, lithe girls in belly-dance get-ups, pink-haired punks safety-pinned together, hippie suburbanites, movie stars so beautiful they left you dumbstruck, muscle gayboys with perfect mustaches, butch dykes in blue jeans, and fairies of all genders in thrift-store dresses. We rode the mirrored ball on glittering LSD and love power. Dance fused us, magical and cleansing. We were all in a swirl of color and light. It was like a rainbow.

A rainbow. That’s the moment when I knew exactly what kind of flag I would make.

A Rainbow Flag was a conscious choice, natural and necessary. The rainbow came from earliest recorded history as a symbol of hope. In the Book of Genesis, it appeared as proof of a covenant between God and all living creatures. It was also found in Chinese, Egyptian and Native American history. A Rainbow Flag would be our modern alternative to the pink triangle. Now the rioters who claimed their freedom at the Stonewall Bar in 1969 would have their own symbol of liberation.”

Source - https://gilbertbaker.com/rainbow-flag-origin-story/

”Baker had left his native Kansas for San Francisco, where he finally felt free to live as an openly gay man. A graphic designer and vexillographer (flagmaker) by trade, he toiled to replace the pink triangle, used by the Nazis, as a symbol of the LGBTQ community (Baker was not Jewish). On June 25, 1978, the first rainbow flag flew in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza in time for the city’s Gay Freedom Day Parade.”

source - https://jweekly.com/2023/06/22/local-israeli-sculptor-seeks-home-for-piece-honoring-gay-betsy-ross/

The Original Rainbow Pride Flag (1978) by Gilbert Baker.

[thebigcj]

Homestuck Beta Trolls X Mistborn AU

Spoilers for Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. This is what powers I think the beta trolls would have if they were born on Scadrial

Aradia Megido - Gold or Electrum Misting

Allomancy: ‘Augur’ (Gold: see own Past), ‘Oracle’ (Electrum: see own Future)

Hemalurgy: Cadmium (Placement Unknown: Gold or Electrum Allomancy

It is unknown what her original misting ability was, but the spike from Equius gave her the other one

Tavros Nitram - Cadmium Ferring

Feruchemy: Gasper (Cadmium: Breath), “Bloodmaker” (Gold: Health)

Hemalurgy: Gold (Between Ribs: Gold Feruchemy)

Cadmium compounder; Vriska makes fun of him for having a ‘useless ability’, but doesn’t see the potential that storing breath has. Equius provides him with healing powers to fix his legs through hemalurgy.

Sollux Captor - Born powerless

Allomancy: “Coinshot” (Steel: Push metal) “Lurcher” (Iron: Pull metal)

Hemalurgy: Steel X2 (Left and Right Orbit: Iron and Steel Allomancy)

These spikes were not given by Equius, but instead were applied in a “freak acciident” involving a “jaiilbroken beehiive”.

Karkat Vantas - Copper/Duralumin Twinborn (mutant)

Allomancy: Smoker (Copper: Hide Allomancy)

Feruchemy: Connector (Duralumin: Connection)

I’m not exactly sure why being a natural twin-born is bad in Scadrialternian society, but it is and Karkat’s gotta hide it. Also the castes follow a natural Misting-Ferring-Powerless-Misting-Ferring-Powerless pattern, and Karkat’s caste breaks that so it was completely eradicated through eugenics so im pretty sure he’s the only one.

Nepeta Leijon - Steel Ferring

Feruchemy: Steelrunner (Steel: Physical Speed)

Nothing special, just run-of-the-steel-mill feruchemy.

Kanaya Maryam - Chromium Misting

Allomancy: Leecher (Chromium: wipe allomantic reserves of target)

Her caste is supposed to be powerless, like Equius', but much like how she's a rainbow drinker in canon, she is somehow a misting in this AU. Snapped after Eridan shot her half to death with his “poison wwand strike” (toxic chromium bullets). He did not know that these bullets were Allomantically viable, and neither knew that she would be able to burn chromium. She uses this to sap Gamzee of his massive Zinc reserves, causing him to be distracted long enough for her to kill Eridan.

Terezi Pyrope - Tin misting - Tin Savant

Allomancy: Scout (Tin: Increases senses)

Terezi and Gamzee are the only Savants on the team, which forms the basis of their bond and later kismesitude on whatever this au’s equivalent of the meteor is. She snapped during a feud with Vriska, which left her blind, but she has been flaring tin for so many sweeps that she can basically assemble visual data through her other senses.

Vriska Serket - Cadmium Ferring

Feruchemy: Spinner (Cadmium: Fortune)

Hemalurgy: Left Eye (Cadmium: Destiny)

Forced Equius to use Hemalurgy on her to heal her during a feud with Terezi, but she was tapping Fortune so hard that Equius managed to select the wrong spike and gave her Destiny instead of some healing ability, which is apparently good luck according to the spiritual realm? It’s destiny to be relevant forever I guess so she can’t really die until the plot demands it. She also has Kelsier’s weird metal vision allowing her to peep into the spiritual realm just a little bit. She ended up having her arm fully amputated due to her spirit not being able to accept another spike. Equius in this au isn’t exactly a roboticist, so she won’t get a replacement arm until wayy later down the line.

Equius Zahhak - born powerless

Allomancy: Thug (Pewter: Strength)

Hemalurgy: Between ribs (Steel: Allomantic pewter)

Equius is a Hemalurgist, who was born without allomancy or feruchemy (much like the rest of his caste). He gave himself pewter to make future hemalurgy easier for him (pushing spikes into/through people is physically intensive). He has also given powers to Aradia, Tavros, and Vriska so far.

Gamzee Makara - Zinc Rioter - Zinc Savant

Allomancy: Rioter (Zinc: Riot)

As a Zinc savant, he is so used to being able to fuck with people’s emotions on a whim that he has no idea how to handle empathy without it. He has a very carefree attitude because if someone is saying/doing something he doesn’t like, he can just Allomantic them away. This also means that everyone around him naturally swell with anger and frustration, which leads to the events of the meteor. Rioters and soothers can also gain control of hemalurgic constructs, so I imagine he could take over any hemalurgy users in the party at a whim.

Eridan Ampora - Electrum “Ferring” (Full Feruchemist)

Feruchemy: Pinnacle (Electrum: Determination)

Eridan, like others in his caste, is a full feruchemist, but unlike his other caste members, he only believes that he has one ability.

Feferi Peixes - Mistborn

Allomancy: Mistborn

Feferi, like all others in her caste, is a Mistborn. The Condese is too, actually.

EDIT: Various bits of phrasing and removed the mature label (I have no idea why I wasn't able to before)

EDIT 2: Added links to longer posts on the characters

[teeto-peteto]

Saw this on reddit about Lux in game versus lore and I for once have to agree with reddit: All your friends and family thinks that mages are a danger and need to be banned/imprisoned, not knowing that yourself is a mage since born The only person that helped you to control your powers is a criminal, who used you in his escape plan causing destruction, likely killing people in the process and setting a revolution that may hurt your relatives Naaah it's fine because rainbows

sometimes we have no other choice but to agree with reddit... Its a gruesome fate but sometimes they are on the right.

It amazes me. It amazes me how fucked up Lux is when it comes to the playable character. Its such a void. Where did all the spice go? Where did all the trauma she hasnt been able to overcome go? Does she really just talk about rainbows and sparkles and to be yourself? How can this happen?

I always said that i faithfully believe that Riot employees in different departments are mad at each other so they try and boicot their works and then we get the final product. Writers did good and then the in-game writers said 'yeah whatever' and made her talk about rainbows just to piss them off. Its impossible, but when you think it that way at least the struggle of trying to understand why Riot does things so poorly seems funnier in your head.

Do rioters still make Reddit threads about champion releases? It's been a long time i havent been on reddit and i havent used it that much, last time i hopped on it was to screenshot a lot of replies in Pyke's release thread cause it was a gold mine.

[englishchinesetranslations]

Hello, Endeavour here. I first remember hearing the phrase “woke capital” being used on the internet by the dissident right in late 2018. The great (once banned, now unbanned) Twitter account under that handle was created in May of 2018. I don’t know if it was this user who coined the phrase, but it has become one of the most potent weapons in the dissident right’s memetic arsenal.

The “woke” as they have become known, present themselves as the defenders of the oppressed and downtrodden racial and sexual victim groups of society against the alleged, straight, white, and male power structure, championing causes like racial egalitarianism, feminism, and LGBT rights. This façade of victimhood and rebellion quickly fades away when exposed to the fact that billions upon billions of dollars are put into pushing these causes by the likes of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs each year and that the entire international media is dedicated to upholding the narratives they are founded upon.

Endeavour’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Type your email…Subscribe

When viewed in this light, “wokeism” appears, not as a righteous crusade for social justice, but as top-down, social engineering being forced upon Western society by the elite class, which is exactly what it is. There is no better indication of this reality than the now annual tradition of corporations replacing their logos with LGBT rainbow themed versions on social media in the month of June each year.

I first considered making a video on the phenomenon of woke capital in June 2019 to coincide with that year’s over-the-top and ridiculous offerings corporations devote to LGBT Pride Month, but I never got around to it for some reason. I finally decided the time was right when this phenomenon of woke capital reached its zenith (at least so far) in the summer of 2020, after the death of the drug addict and convicted felon, now elevated to progressive sainthood, George Floyd.

I published what is to date my most popular video by far titled ‘The Base and Superstructure of Woke Capitalism’ on July 9th, 2020 after a month of the BLM riots raging across the United States, spilling over into the rest of the Western world. The most shocking thing about those few months in 2020 was not the widespread lawlessness, but the degree to which all institutions in the Western world not only enabled but encouraged it.

The United States experienced the most flagrant violations of rule of law ever seen in a Western country during the summer of Floyd. Rioters destroyed property and assaulted ordinary citizens while law enforcement either stood by doing nothing or in some cases, arrested victims for defending themselves. It was the truest and most extreme form of anarcho-tyranny I’ve ever seen.

What’s more is that every single major corporation responded to this calamity by donating millions or in some cases billions of dollars towards BLM and the so-called cause of “anti-racism”. This is the context in which I made what would become my most viewed video. In it, I tried to explain, why is it that corporations so relentlessly support woke politics. The conclusion that I came to in that video was that they wanted to create a soulless, deracinated, global consumer class whose entire being would be devoted to consumption. The assumption I was operating under was that the goal of corporations is to make money. Therefore, they must be pushing wokeism as a means of increasing their potential to make money.

Looking back three years later, I no longer think this is the case. Instead, I think there’s something else behind the phenomenon of woke capital which is even darker. To give even more context for why I though this at the time, but no longer do, I need to address the even bigger international news story which preceded the summer of Floyd and long outlasted it; COVID. By that point, the COVID era had begun a few months prior, but we really didn’t get a full understanding of the true implications of COVID until a year later during the unprecedented madness surrounding the vaccine.

I’m not going to rehash the whole two years of COVID. For the purposes of this essay, I will say that COVID and the other rabbit holes which it led me down brought me to the conclusion that profit is not the main driving force behind woke capital as I theorized in my video on the subject in 2020.

First of all, the one thing which COVID showed us was that the elites don’t actually care about the economy at all. They were all too enthusiastic to devastate the economy even after it was clear to all that the COVID restrictions were doing far more harm than good. Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that for many, there was a huge financial incentive for advancing the COVID tyranny, namely among the pharmaceutical companies and corporations which thrive off the further atomization of society such as big tech, online shopping, etc.

However, COVID was in effect a wealth transfer as it made the vast majority of people a lot poorer and resulted in the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It didn’t grow the economy, but rather it transferred huge sums of money from the bottom and the middle to the top. Most people have a lot of less an ability to spend on consumer products than they did back in 2019. So, furthering consumerism was not the goal of everything that was done from 2020 to 2022. What really was achieved during that period is in line with what I now consider to be the real driving force behind woke capital.

Moving on from COVID, the past three years have made me a lot more conscious of the climate change and sustainable development agenda. The phrases “The Great Reset” and “Build Back Better” were first heard in 2020 during COVID. They fell out of use a year or two later when they were no longer useful to the regime’s messaging, but what they were essentially referring to is Agenda 2030 or the UN Sustainable Development Goals for which wokeism is baked into the cake along with the environmental policies.Another force I only became conscious of in the past few years which is intertwined with all this is the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance rating system or ESG. This is essentially a social credit system which rates corporations to determine which are worthy of investment or not. The social criteria for ESG are essentially how woke a corporation is. The more woke they are, the higher their rating. The environmental criteria are mostly related to the climate agenda and how devoted they are to achieving the lauded goal of net-zero carbon emissions.

ESG has existed since 2006, but it became a lot more prominent when BlackRock announced in 2020 that ESG would be taken into consideration for all of their future investments. There is a large overlap between ESG and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and an effort is being made to bring the two fully inline. So, there is a clear link between the driving forces behind the climate agenda and the woke agenda. And this is reflected by the establishment stooges who promote both of these. Take Justin Trudeau for example. As often as he is sure to denounce Canada’s history of racism, sexism, and homophobia, he is just as sure to proclaim his government’s devotion to fighting climate change.

I’ve been acutely aware of anti-white policies such as mass immigration, affirmative action, etc. for almost a decade now, but I largely ignored the environmental policies being advocated by the same individuals and institutions, seeing them as a lot less relevant to the very real threats the aforementioned policies posed. It’s only within the last two or three years that I’ve started to consider the latter of equal importance and the two as inseparable.

As I now see the two agendas as inextricably linked, I’ve come to the conclusion that profit and consumerism are most certainly not the motivation behind woke capital. If there is one thing the climate agenda is definitely not designed to do, it is to facilitate consumerism. On the contrary, it appears that the purpose is to put an end to the consumer society neoliberal capitalism has created. The policies being proposed will kneecap massive industries such as the agricultural industry, the tourism industry, the automotive industry, and more.

And then there’s the ludicrous and dystopian prospect of the introduction of a carbon credit score (which I made a recent video about). Such a system would severely limit the average person’s ability to consume and reduce their incentive to produce given that it could also act as a kind of UBI. This would all be a radical departure from the neoliberal capitalism of the past few decades. So, where does wokeism fit into all of this if the two are so deeply connected? And if profit isn’t the goal, then what really is?

It is now my opinion that the phenomenon of woke capital and its symbiotic relationship with the sustainable development agenda are primarily motivated by control. Ultimately, wokeism is creating a more dysfunctional society. It is facilitating the importation of a class of people accustomed to a lower standard of living into Western countries via mass immigration, deracinating and atomizing the population through multiculturalism, destroying the family unit through feminism and the LGBT agenda, and reducing competency via affirmative action.

In short, it is creating a new people who won’t be able to do anything about the drastic fall in quality of life in the West or the tyrannical system of control the elites have in mind. The easiest person to control is someone with no agency of their own. Someone who is sick, incompetent, lazy, and without an ounce of will. Not only would such a person not resist the system, they would defend it to the end as it is their sole source of both status and sustenance. That is the kind of person being created by woke capital.

If nothing else, the last three years have taught me that elites are not primarily motivated by money, but by power. By definition, someone in the elite is wealthy. They already can afford any material goods they would ever want. When you become that wealthy, what becomes a lot more valuable to you is not further profit but expanding your own power and influence. And that does a lot to explain the phenomenon of wokeism throughout every elite Western institution.

I do not subscribe to the theory of “Go woke, go broke.” Every Fortune 500 company has gone woke at this point and none of them have gone broke as a result. However, going woke certainly doesn’t make these companies more profitable. They do lose money as a result (though never enough to go broke), but they gain power by furthering the broader degradation of a healthy society which they are more than happy to spend the extra money on.

This is perfectly exemplified by ESG. This year, there has been a backlash against ESG in the corporate world for the simple fact that ESG is not profitable. One reason for this is that it rewards companies for hiring people based on their identity (not being White, straight, or male) rather than their actual merit. Another is that it forces companies to reduce their net carbon output which means spending extra money on buying carbon credits from smaller companies.

While it is presented a guide to ethical investing, the real function of ESG is that it funnels investment to a small number of large corporations who have the excess capital to spend on being ESG sufficient and denies funding to smaller firms who simply cannot afford to be so wasteful. This doesn’t necessarily make larger corporation more profitable, but a lot more powerful by crushing opposition.

Now, in my original video and so far in this essay, I’ve framed woke capital as a purely Machiavellian force for attaining more power. I’ve thus far failed to address another major driving force behind Woke Capital. That is genuine belief among the elite in the causes which they profess to support. While I don’t think this is the case for every billionaire out there, there are a sizeable number who genuinely believe that wokeism is making the world a better place. The cause for them is not simply about power, but also about achieving some kind of ideological ends. And they are in many cases willing to put their deeply held principles above both profitability and practicality.

A prominent example of this is ethnic identity among elites of Jewish ancestry. The role which Jews have played in the movements which would later come to be known as “woke” throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century has been well documented on the dissident right. Jewish support for mass non-white immigration into Western countries, multiculturalism, feminism, the LGBT movement, etc. has often been motivated by a desire to dismantle White rule of Western countries which they see as in conflict with Jewish interests.

Among White gentile elites, support for woke causes is often motivated by a universalist, egalitarian worldview. For them, Wokeism is a moral crusade against the ultimate evils of racism, sexism, and homophobia. I suppose you could add climate change to that list as well. While this worldview was primarily developed by Jewish intellectuals during the 20th century with their own ethnic interests in mind, it has been hegemonic throughout cultural and intellectual life in the West for decades now.

The entire current ruling class of elites in the West has been raised and educated in it. As a result, many White elites have internalized this worldview (minus the Jewish particularism) and genuinely believe it is a noble cause. Lastly, there is the newer, but rising phenomenon of non-White elites in the West, primarily from South and South-East Asia. Much like with Jews, woke politics often serve their own ethnic interests too, though in a much more upfront and less deceptive manner.

Whether deeply held principles or a Machiavellian pursuit of power is the main driving force behind woke capital is up for debate. Personally, I think the two feed off each other. One can start from a point of sincerely held beliefs and justify their actions through ruthless Machiavellianism or they can start off as a power-hungry opportunist who eventually begins to believe their own lies. But either way, I do not think that their goal is the furtherance of the consumer society which we’ve become accustomed to over the past several decades.

Instead, the current trends suggest that their goal is to replace it with something else. I’d even dispute the title of my original video which I called “woke capitalism”. Now, the word “capitalism” has lost all meaning over the past century. It’s gotten to the point where self-proclaimed anarchists are the foot soldiers of BlackRock while claiming to be fighting capitalism. However, if we take it to mean neoliberal consumerism, wokeism is certainly not designed to maintain that.

As we can see in East Asia, neoliberal consumerism can still exist within a homogenous society without importing the third world or demonizing the dominant ethnic group. While nihilism and materialism are prerequisites, the full-scale cultural of wokeism iconoclasm isn’t. When you zoom out and look at the broader narratives behind wokeism in combination with the climate agenda on a global scale, it appears that the goal is to impoverish the West in order to bring down to the level of the rest of the world.

Present-Day San Francisco

The cash cow of neoliberal capitalism might end, but those at the top are already so wealthy that they aren’t motivated by further profit, but by the potential for absolute and permanent control on a global scale. If what they are planning actually works, that is. But that’s a topic for another day.

[houseofpurplestars]

"A Rainbow Flag would be our modern alternative to the pink triangle. Now the rioters who claimed their freedom at the Stonewall Bar in 1969 would have their own symbol of liberation.”

[Image Description: A fabric flag with eight stripes: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, violet.]

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[gay-impressionist]

For the last day of Pride month 🏳️‍🌈, I thought I'd share with you this wonderful poem from @spondeesoliloquy that has stayed with me ever since I first read it. So much that I printed it and framed it in my kitchen. Please take the time to read it and let it sink into your heart and mind.

Seventeen things you have to learn for yourself

as a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual

or otherwise Queer youth

by the time you are seventeen.

One is that the first Pride was a riot

I don’t mean that it was full of laughter, or that it was some grand party

where everyone spiraled up to dance among the stars

because the only glittering that night

was broken glass on cobblestones.

The first Pride was a riot

on the backstreets of New York

and they never tell us

that night

we won.

The only protest

in a decade full of turmoil

where the cops had to hide out in the bar they raided

and run from shouting rioters

who fought to reclaim the only patch of ground they had ever claimed as theirs

the first Pride was a riot,

and two, around the same time it took place

it was a debated topic in the gay community

whether or not they should say

that they weren’t mentally ill

which, three, homosexuality was removed

from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental illnesses

in 1974

congratulations

all it took was a vote to declare that, whoops, we were never mentally ill

except, four, there are still teenagers being tortured today

in what some dare blaspheme as “therapy”

used to destroy their self-identity

in the hopes of making them normal.

except, four, the queer community still carries overwhelmingly high rates for poverty and homelessness and depression.

Did you know that, five,

over half the children forced into conversion therapy

commit suicide?

And six, that lesbians

were regarded as “hangers-on”

of the movement

by much of the gay community

before the AIDS crisis?

Because it turns out, seven can wear a rainbow on your shirt

and still be a bigot.

There are people who stick rainbows in their ears

or wear them on their fingers

or slap them across their cheeks in badges of defiance

and will still hate you for the color of your skin

or the size of your thighs

or your gender

or the way you like to kiss two or more genders

or none of the above.

Don’t ask me why this happens

it just does

I think it might be that we’ve all been taught to hate ourselves

for so damn long

that we don’t understand what to do

in a space with no hate.

Or maybe it’s that the space seems too small, because

eight, there are people who will tell you that you are not enough

that you do not reach the magical benchmark of “gay enough” to pass through the gate even

especially

when you are some flavor of the rainbow other than straight-out gay.

eight, this is bullshit

eight, those people are bullshit.

eight, you are enough.

eight, there is always enough room.

nine, there is no overarching “homosexual agenda”

sorry

we’re all kind of flailing along in here trying to figure out some way to make it work

when most of us have nothing in common

except that society looked at us in different ways and decided we didn’t fit

so we could all go be misfits together

under one big rainbow flag

but just so you know, ten, there are plenty of other flags

there is one for you, I promise

and eleven, misfits may not all need the same things

but we need to stick together, especially in a world where

twelve—refer to point seven—there are lesbians who hate other lesbians

for having the audacity to be born in a body

that everyone looked at and saw “boy”

which brings me to

thirteen, there is so much to understand.

fourteen, you need to understand

because we need to stick together

and to stick together we do not have to be the same but we do have to understand

and it will be hard because

you were probably thrown into this world with no warning because

fifteen, being queer is not genetic and we are not unique among minorities

in that we collect our heritage through broken bits of history and research in a world constantly working to make those misfit bits go away

but we are unique in that when we try to prove our legacy

we can be laughed down

or re-erased

or flat out ignored

but I swear to you

you have a history as old as Alexander the Great

as beautiful as Sappho

as dignified as Abraham Lincoln

and as proud as Eleanor Roosevelt.

But even with that behind us

sixteen,

they have always watched us die.

because even though the bystander effect is bullshit, sixteen

Kitty Genovese was a lesbian, sixteen

Ronald Reagan is a mass murderer, sixteen

our children, your brothers and sisters and  siblings of all stripes and all colors and sexualities and genders are being murdered

through neglect

and rejection

and hate.

Sixteen, there is an entire generation of gay and bisexual men

missing from history

because the government chose to do nothing

when they were dying by the thousands.

sixteen, we died from the disease and died from going back into the closet and died for staying there and died for coming out,

sixteen, they laughed at us because they believed god was punishing us for daring to love,

sixteen, ashes of your forerunners rest on the lawn of the White House because

SIXTEEN, THEY HAVE ALWAYS WATCHED US DIE.

SEVENTEEN

you are allowed

to be angry.

You do not have to be one of the nice gays

or one of the nice trans people

or sweet or kind or educate the rest of the world in something less than a yell

you are allowed to be so furious it scalds your bones

at the way we are forgotten

and passed over

at the way, as soon as June becomes July

we are expected

to go back to dying in silence

and mourning our dead

and kissing all alone

when no one can be offended

at the sight of us.

You are allowed to be angry

and scream down the stars

to shatter like broken glass at your feet

because you know what?

The first Pride

was a riot.

- October 11 2016

[brooklynmuseum]

Dear Friends, So much has happened in our world, our city, and our beloved Museum over the past year. While 2020 brought tremendous challenges, it was the events of January 6—when we witnessed our nation’s seat of democracy desecrated by a violent mob committed to upholding the lie of white supremacy—that underscored the enormous work ahead. Many searing images of rioters streaming through the historic halls of the Capitol building were captured against the backdrop of large-scale American history paintings depicting scenes of our nation’s founding, some telling glorified stories of our often-violent past. One painting seen in the background was Robert Walter Weir’s Embarkation of the Pilgrims, which portrays pilgrims setting sail from Europe for North America. (A smaller version of this painting is in the Museum’s collection.) In the upper-left corner is a rainbow, a symbol of beauty and hope—the hope for a new life of freedom and opportunity. While Weir’s painting tells the story of the victors and not the oppressed, the official albeit false story, we hold strongly to that idea of hope. It is resoundingly clear that we must reckon with the great divisions that exist in our country, and we must work hard for change and justice. To move forward with hope in this new year, we look for inspiration to our mission to contribute to a more connected and empathetic world. In 2020, we learned much that will help us on our path forward. We learned what it means to come together as a team to support one another. We learned new ways to fulfill our mission by being of service to our neighbors and community. And we learned how to reach out virtually to youth and our public schools to ignite the imagination and spirit. We were again reminded of the importance of art to bring people of diverse backgrounds together for shared learning and conversation, as well as how art can be an essential tool for rewriting dominant narratives. That's why I'm excited for this year’s exhibitions, including Lorraine O'Grady's long overdue retrospective, our vibrant KAWS survey, and particularly our collection offerings, such as the first phase of a reinstallation of our American art galleries that turns traditional historical narratives on their head. Inspired that the Museum’s plaza served as the setting for important marches and rallies that called for greater accountability to social justice, and knowing that we desperately need more shared civic spaces in which to respectfully gather, create, share, and celebrate, we will continue to use our open spaces in the coming year. We are particularly pleased that Nick Cave’s TRUTH BE TOLD public art installation is coming to the Brooklyn Museum this spring. It’s a powerful message at any time, but especially in these times. As we think about what 2021 holds, I’m encouraged by the knowledge that our Museum will speak truths and work for change. And I’m grateful you are there to participate in our journey. As ever,

Anne Pasternak,  Shelby White and Leon Levy Director Brooklyn Museum

Robert Walter Weir (American, 1803–1889). Embarkation of the Pilgrims (detail), 1857. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum; A. Augustus Healy Fund and Healy Purchase Fund B, 75.188. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

[r6shippingdelivery]

Hi kiki, how are you?. Now that clash finally will be back (and hope is for stay), could you do some headcanons of her? Please

Hi nonnie! I’m doing fine, a little tired, but within the usual, thanks for asking. And sure thing, let’s show some love to Clash, she deserves it 💕

- She has a sort of competitive friendship with Montagne, and if pressed, she’ll admit his firm but caring attitude reminds her somewhat of her old mentor. It’s not that she’s trying to replace Tray, nobody will replace him ever, but Clash has to admit she might have a type when it comes to father/big brother figures.

- An impatient person, prefers to be in the middle of the action than waiting in the sidelines. That makes her a surprisingly aggressive defender, but as she says, why should she fear going head on against the baddies when she has a protective shield and knows how to use it to devastating effect?

- Unfortunately, the above point means she gets injured a lot more often than she should in ideal conditions. She’s had two major injuries, and subsequent healing and rehabilitation periods where she wasn’t available for missions nor training. The first time she took the blast of a grenade in order to protect a hostage, and only survived because of her shield. The second time was a stupid accident during a training match and she doesn’t want to talk about it.

- She’s not ashamed of her past as a rioter. That phase of her life shaped who she is today, and she still carries that drive to fight against injustice, she’s just changed to less destructive tactics for the innocent bystanders. Nothing makes her more enraged than hearing that she “switched sides” or betrayed her ideals.

- Used to having to fight tooth and nail for her peers’ respect, at first she was mildy wary that everybody in Rainbow seemed either welcoming or at least neutral/respectful to her. It took her a while to stop expecting the other show drop and open up to people.

- Of the rest of the Brits, she gets along best with Smoke. They sometimes gang up to tease Thatcher, although Clash has never let things get too far or let her temper get the best of her. She might disagree with the old man on everything on a personal level, but she will readily admit he’s a force to be reckoned with on the field and she respects him for it.

- Clash bloody hates going up against Kali in the training matches. She’s proud that her shield can whithstand the punch of Kali’s rifle, but the impact is always jarring and highly unpleasant, and taking more than one will make her shoulder and arm hurt from the strain of the impact. That never happened with any other shots she’s taken, and Clash has vowed to find a way to counter her.

- She works well with Caveira, helping her corner whoever Cav wants to interrogate, and in turn Cav will watch out for anyone trying to flank Clash, since she moves slowly with that shield. They often argue and clash against each other, but at the same time understand their brashness and get along surprisingly well.

[zephyrthejester]

It’s RWBY Volume 7 Episode 4! I’ve waited a whole painful week for this! So LET’S GOOOOOOOO!

Previously, everyone cleared an old Dust mine of Grimm in spectacular, hype-as-fuck fashion. And now, the episode is picking up right where the last left off, with everyone walking out, fawning over the Ace Ops, and seeing the Amity Arena floating over to position over the mine. Atlas isn’t wasting any time, huh?

Also witnessing the arena float by are two people who seemed to be hiding out in the mountains, looking down at the mine through binoculars... Doubtlessly part of the Mantle faction(s) that are choosing to act upon their civil unrest.

Oh. Oh man. This could end up being dramatic. The gang has no problem quelling Grimm threats... But how would they deal with protestors? Saboteurs? Rioters?

For now, though, it’s all sunshine and rainbows, so let’s get watching.

[jace-the-gace]

Portland Police (@portlandpolice) changed their profile to a rainbow stripped badge for pride month. As a queer man and historian, I am enraged. Let me tell you why.

In the early hours of the morning on June 28th, 1969, 4 plainclothes officers, 2 uniform officers, detective Charles Smythe, and deputy inspector Seymour Pine arrived at the Stonewall Inn and announced that they were taking the place (important note: for the time, it was the norm that the police would tip the inn staff off when a raid was forthcoming. No such tip came this time).

Standard procedure was to line up the patrons, check their identification, and have female police officers take customers dressed as women to the bathroom to verify their sex, upon which any people appearing to be physically male and dressed as women would be arrested. This raid did not go as planned. Those who were not arrested were released from the front door, but they did not leave quickly as usual. Instead, they stopped outside and a crowd began to grow and watch. Within minutes, between 100 and 150 people had congregated outside, some after they were released from inside the Stonewall, and some after noticing the police cars and the crowd.

A fight broke out when Stormé DeLarverie was brought from the inn in handcuffs. She had been hit in the head by an officers baton, reportedly for complaining that her handcuffs were too tight. Stormé DeLarverie fought with the cops for ten minutes until she was subdued. As she was being put into the back of the transport truck, she looked at the crowd at shouted "why don't you guys do something?"

This led to what we now call The Stonewall Riots. From June 28th to July 3rd, the rioters fought with police in the streets of Manhattan. And they were truly riots.

In the Queer Community, we call this our First Pride. We know some of the people who were there. Their names are: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Marsha P. Johnson (who threw the first brick), and Sylvia Rivera.

This is why I am ashamed and appalled, not only at the Portland Police, but also at all the young members of the queer community I have seen celebrating this.

In this day and age when we see people fighting for their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (because that is exactly what the protestors are fighting for today), and then we see the police department fighting against them, it is our heritage as Queer people to fight on the side of the oppressed.

Portland Police, you actively suppress our first amendment rights, have declared yourselves law above the constitution. You commit war crimes against the very people you once swore to protect. You have no right to fly the rainbow stripes, our symbol of hope and love.

This is a disgrace.