#that's fundamentally flawed

[roxannepolice]

There's a special kind of let down when you read a really interesting insight which suddenly ventures into "in capitalism" territory and you - a citizen of a country still dealing with economic, sociological, political and cultural fallouts of socialism - just sit there torn between pure depression and convincing yourself it's good people believe there's a simple solution to structural problems.

Just. I really, really, really need tumblr leftists to get one thing into their heads: the main value in communism is NOT human rights - it's WORK. I know, I know, your concept of socialism and communism relies on what's essentially a social democrat welfare state - which I'm a strong supporter of. But this weird idea that capitalism is the only, single cancer of an ideology that became dominant purely because bad people all agreed to make it dominant that's against everyone just living happy and doing what they want, and that views some people as more "valuable" than others then YOU'RE JUST PLAIN FUCKING WRONG. Real, historical communism wasn't bragging about the way it looks after the citizens unlike capitalism, only that in communism resources go to people who DESERVE it - I.e. workers, not owners. and of course the communist party members who totally weren't de facto owning the resources and were totally democratically elected and anyway they deserved it by the grace of their fervent faith in the cause.

Like, to give you an idea. A lot USAmericans are basically economically forced to join the army - and that's fucked up. But you know what was happening to all men (what? genderism? in my socialism?) who finished school and didn't immediately get a job or a spot in a uni (depending on their finals results elitism much?) in soviet satellite states? You guessed it - the army. Not because they had nowhere else to go but because the other place to go was prison.

[psrj]

the imperial accountant baru cormorant, and the duchess of vultjag

[aphelea]

imagine the government basically kills your husband and the only therapist they can send you to is the guy who literally put him in that position

[intheconfessiondial]

12 Months of 12 - July

Here You Come Again

[cruelplatonic]

my personal headcanon is the vees were unremarkable nobodies when they were alive. i just love it as a thematic throughline for them. they love to let the public of hell speculate on them being famed and acclaimed since before death, but the the truth is they were a d-list failed influencer that got by on cheap controversey and scamming, a broke junkie who burned every shaky bridge he ever had, and a worn-out broadcast production assistant with more rejected auditions and tossed out script pitches than he could count. nobody missed them when they were gone, nobody cared who they were until they were dead.

[evenmyhivemindisempty]

My controversial opinion about Hob Gadling is that I believe he’s absolutely the sort of guy that “puts things behind him”, and tries to wash his hands clean of the things he feels icky about. This is implied pretty well in the show, with him blithely moving from soldiering and robbery to printing, from slaving to… whatever it was he was doing in the 19th century instead. That being said, this is not at all the same as actively trying to atone, or even making a concerted effort to be a better person, and I really wish fandom could tell the difference!

[starrysharks]

hotel manager

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[balleater]

you know what i am so glad that exu calamity gave us insight into vespin chloras's reasoning and everything because now i can confidently say that the guy who kicked off the point in exandria's history that killed 2/3 of the population and fundamentally changed the way the gods interact with the world had more understandable reasoning than ludinus da'leth does.

[sabotourist]

restoration is still my favorite season...

[short-wooloo]

There are a million and nine reasons why I hate the "anakin has x personality disorder" takes (mostly because people treat it like it's textual fact and not just their fanon interpretations), but by far the thing I hate most about them is like 70-80% of the time the "evidence" for it (no matter the disorder whatever the armchair psychologist pulled out of the hat this week) always seems to be "Anakin gets angry sometimes"

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

I think something people miss the point of in Tolkien’s work is it’s not just “good guys win” — it’s the submission to duty

[da-janela-lateral]

And You and I

[dykedvonte]

Ulysses obsession with the Courier is a special type of sad to me cause the Courier’s part was so important but so unwitting. They had no idea what was in the package they delivered and neither did he. Neither had an idea of what it could’ve done and the Courier was only caring out their job (mind you the Courier could be killed via notes in the express contract if they don’t). To them it was just another regular delivery to the divide and one that they likely thought would help, just like all the ones before.

It’s so tragic for Ulysses to hold so much ire to the Courier when it really was the case of it could’ve been anyone. Anyone could have delivered that package but they did and so he focused the blame on them and it destroys what he is trying to instill in the courier on a fundamental level.

[chamerionwrites]

Intellectually I understand where people are coming from, but personally I do THE biggest double take every time someone boils down conservative Christian ideology (and/or secularized cultural reflections thereof) to a kind of dour puritanism that proclaims happiness is sin/suffering is a moral good/everyone should be miserable all the time. Like I get it! I do. But also, institutionally, I have never met a group of more passionate worshippers and vicious defenders of their own comfort than evangelical Christians. There is a reason the common thread between my various weird triggers more or less boils down to "toxic positivity." There is a REASON my exvangelical tag is #walking away from omelas.

[uncanny-tranny]

The worst lie you can believe and be told is that women are emotional and men are logical, that men's, essentially, men's emotions are logical and neutral while women's are not, and are in fact frivolous and shallow.