#the alt right party is absolutely winning

[bugsbenefit]

first estimated results from the election today are coming in and i'm gonna be so fr right now it's so fucking overrrrr. this is so grim jesus fucking christ

[cangrellesteponme]

well thank god i got to draw today. i don't think i'll have the will to do literally anything at all for ages because wtf is going on in this wretched country.

[percypaints]

Trump survived. Here's what will happen.

Every media, news outlet will be showing this photo. Not of a convicted felon who was impeached, who summoned violent terrorists to the white house, who sexually assaulted many women, but of a survivor, a hero.

And Trump will win 2024. The Alt Right and his MAGA supporters will see this and be more motivated than ever to vote Trump. Centrists will see this and think "the left is so much more extreme than the right" and vote Trump. Fuck, even liberals, after seeing Bidens disastrous debate performance might vote trump. In their eyes, he's a survivor now, he's strong now, he's worthy now. If you don't believe me, wait and see the top comments of news articles, the Reddit posts, the twitter quote tweets.

It isn't if Trump wins, it's when Trump wins, Ukraine is Fucked. Palestine is extra Fucked. And of course, America is absolutely Fucked.

I don't like Biden, but Americans have to remember: you live in a two-party system.

It is Biden or Trump.

And I'd much much rather an old husk of a man that has done so much good for trans rights, social policies, and human rights in general, than Trump. Yes, Biden has sent aids to Israel. Do you think Trump won't do the same? Do you think Trump won't do worse?

"Vote for a third party, they're both awful" you might say. Come on, be realistic. This is about holding the line against fascism. It is going to be way WAY easier to change the system when you're up against milk toast Joe than an actual dictator. So,

For the love of god, vote Biden in Novermber.

[the-paris-of-people]

but yk that marginalised communities are Also gonna be harmed by a harris government? ofc trump will be worse but acting as if it’s only privileged oppressive ppl who are willing to risk it for change & a 3rd party bc at least with kamala we’ll all be safe(r) is silly and privileged in itself. for many ppl four more years of either party is going to be hell. and we need to start pushing for change Now.

Okay, so what is this "change" that I've been hearing about for the last several years? How do we organize a revolution against the largest military superpower in the world? How do we dismantle our infrastructure and build everything from scratch? WHAT do we build from scratch across this giant country? How do we get other people on board? How do we reconcile this vision of a utopia with people from other cultures and backgrounds with a completely different framework to achieve a common goal? How do we protect the disabled, elderly, chronically ill LGBTQ+ populations who rely on federal government assistance? How do we protect children and their lives, education and development during this time period? How do we protect marginalized people in red states where they will be the first to be killed?

I'm frustrated because "pushing for change" is so fucking vague and fails to account for the actual repercussions and havoc that unleashing a revolution will lead to. "Pushing for change" when the left is so incredibly disorganized and unprepared and fighting simply about the most basic tool at our arsenal to push the system slightly to our advantage (voting) when the alt-right is incredibly well-organized, prepared, and violent. Everyone wants to be the flag planter and the face of the revolution, but the reality is because the left is ill-prepared and disorganized, we're going to fucking die before we realize the revolution is even taking place. I said it before and I'll say it again, you do not have the right to unleash death and violence among people who do not consent to it. You do not have the right to unleash death and violence among people who do not consent to it. It's not wrong for people to value their current lives and want to protect their home.

Also, I'm genuinely confused as to how voting 3rd party is going to help. How have some of the 3rd party candidates ever helped the people in the U.S.? What political experience do they have? What resources do they have at their disposal? How will they use those resources effectively to protect vulnerable populations in the United States and alter pro-expansionist US foreign policy and diplomatic ties? How is diverting money and resources to frankly more imperfect politicians working within the political system within the United States going to help? How is voting for a party that is not going to win a useful practice of one of the only tools we have left for democracy? I'm genuinely not as educated about third parties but I have not seen a single concrete reason to why I should support them, other than that Democrats and Republicans are both evil and people want to remain morally pure. Mostly I have been seeing/talking to marginalized populations from blue states who are protected by state laws, but you're the first person who is implied to perhaps live in a red/swing state and be a marginalized person.

I don't know your situation, and I can't pretend to, and I'm sorry life in American has been terrible for you. Capitalism is terrible for many people and preys on vulnerable populations to support the ultra-wealthy. I absolutely hate it and I think everyone deserves human dignity, right, and basic needs. However, I'm genuinely confused as to when I said "everyone will be safe under Kamala Harris" I looked at my posts and I never said, nor do I believe it. I simply was advocating for harm reduction and expressing a sliver of hope and optimism, because the reality is, considering the ENTIRE AMERICAN POPULATION, we will be safer with Kamala Harris since she needs to young vote and is mutable than with Donald Trump and it's incredibly dangerous and harmful and frankly misinformation to say otherwise. Usurping millions of civil servants, fully stripping women of their reproductive rights and from receiving life changing healthcare (INCLUDING WHEN THEY HAVE A MISCARRIAGE OR HAVE A COMPLICATION WITH THEIR PREGNANCY), mass deportation of undocumented citizens, slashing funding for climate change, and promoting capital punishment is designed to disproportionately affect and eradicate marginalized populations across the entire nation on a scale that has never been seen before. There's hell but a hell in which we have one last semblance of democracy and leverage our power as young voters to push the Democratic party to the left while we try to work together, and organize something better, and then there's hell where we're all dead and cannot even vote anymore. And then there's the third party option, which frankly IS NOT VIABLE BECAUSE THERE ARE TWO MONTHS TO THE ELECTION AND WE HAVE TWO QUALIFIED, EXPERIENCED CANDIDATES WITH A COLOSSAL AMOUNT OF MONEY, POWER, AND NAME RECOGNITION.

Finally, IT'S NOT SILLY AND PRIVILEGED TO VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE THAT HAS THE MOST VIABLE CHANCE OF WINNING IF IT HAS THE BEST CHANGE OF PROTECTING YOUR RIGHTS AND LIVELIHOOD OF VULNERABLE POPULATIONS IN THE STATES.

What bothers me most is that fracturing people into leftists who want to vote third party/don't vote vs. liberals who vote Democrat is used by the alt-right to divide people with the same ideology. Please understand that this way of thinking is a strategic move on the Republicans who, contrary to leftist belief, are far worse than the Democrats. I implore you to reconsider, read Project 2025 and consider the scope of it, but I understand your vote is yours alone.

I genuinely would love to work with people and research local initiatives we can advocate for/reach out to our representatives and actually take steps towards changing the infrastructure we need for the so-called revolution so in the near-distant future we actually have a fucking shot of winning. We all appear to agree on the same issues, so I would like to take action to actually move something forward rather than relying on a third party or revolution to save us.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I sent my mother articles about murders unprompted to manhandle her into feeling basic sympathy?

TW mentions of transphobia.

What it says on the tin. My (20NB) mom (55F) is transphobic, the type that just thinks trans people are “ruining their bodies” and shouldn’t “expose kids to their agenda” and has routinely told me it goes against her religious beliefs. She’s going down the alt right pipeline and it’s been scary to watch, but she’s not so far that she would advocate for any human beings to be targets of violence.

She’s a conservative transphobe in ideology, but in the past she’s also provided a home for closeted trans women I’m friends with who have discriminatory parents, done their makeup, and made them feel accepted when no parental figures in their lives would. While she is not exactly supportive of my transition, she does respect my bodily autonomy and has made efforts to gender me correctly and call me her son. She’s made efforts to educate herself in some ways, but the issue is she’s being bombarded with a constant flow of transphobic misinformation and horrifically biased journalism because of algorithms and echo chambers, as well as the people she surrounds herself with. She’s vented to me before that she hates how her friends speak about my transition, and how refreshing it’s been to make new friends who are supportive of me. I don’t know how I feel about this.

All this is to say she has absolutely awful beliefs, but she treats my trans loved ones well and has openly defended us when it comes down to it, and I honestly don’t believe she’s beyond redemption or growth as a person if i get to her before my mother is gone. It’s like seeing snippets of the supportive mother that could have been and used to be, but the second we talk politics it shatters. All this is just background.

One thing that endlessly pisses me off is that she’s vocalized doubt that anyone actually faces violence or homelessness for being trans, certainly because literally none of the news media she consumes reports on it. I think it could genuinely change the way she views things at least to some degree if every day I sent her an article about an anti-trans hatecrime to force her to wake up to reality. Even if it doesn’t change her opinions, honestly, it’d absolutely upset her and tbh as someone advocating for policies that get people killed, it’s kind of warranted to make her see what she’s advocating for, and more importantly, the America her political party is moving towards. Either she wakes up or she feels like shit about the bleak reality I have to face daily. I see this as a win-win scenario.

Where I might be the asshole is that I’m going to be bombarding her (someone who is very sensitive and cries easily) with horribly triggering content daily, and also it does make me feel a bit icky to think that I might be using real peoples’ suffering and deaths to try to change her opinion or make her feel guilty.

What are these acronyms?

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep6: Remember

I love B'Elanna episodes, and this is one of her best. There's so much good material for B'Elanna here, and Roxann Dawson gives a fantastically nuanced and hearfelt performance, playing both her and the character of Korenna in this one.

This is probably one of the best episodes of the whole series in terms of directly, confrontationally taking on a relevant social issue, in the way that the original series did in the 60s. The absolutely terrifying thing about it is how much more revelant it's gotten since it first aired, and it just shows how important Star Trek is in terms of saying things that no other show would talk about, or would even be allowed to talk about, in today's political climate.

It starts off nice and normal, with some aliens, the Enarans, visiting Voyager and helping them make some improvements in engineering. B'Elanna is working with two of the scientists, who have been there for a few days, and who she has a good rapport with. We get a little scene with B'Elanna being Harry's wingman with the younger scientist, who likes him (B'Elanna and Harry are such cute bffs!!! I love it!!!) and then B'Elanna goes back to her quarters, where she goes to sleep and has a very racy dream, and has to be woken up from it the next morning because she missed the start of her duty shift. She then tells her other bff Chakotay all about her racy dream, and he's all like 'get it girl, I won't telll anybody you were late for work because of your sex dream, I got you fam.' (Because on Star Trek, people just tell their friends about their sex dreams, or the sexy candle ghosts they inherit, whatever. Nobody has any boundaries on a starship, I guess! lol)

But she keeps having the dreams, and in them she seems to be experiencing someone else's life. Eventually the dreams break through when she's awake, and when she collapses in the corridor, they realize their telepathic alien visitors must be behind it somehow, but they deny intentionally doing anything.

Meanwhile, the dreams go from being fun and romantic to more and more serious. Korenna, the woman whose life B'Elanna is experiencing, is torn between her lover, who comes from a culture outside her society's mainstream, and her father, who's part of the ruling class that oppresses her lovers people. We learn the love affair is clandestine because his people are subject to curfews, and ID checkpoints, and forced deportations. Korenna starts out sweet and innocent and sympathetic to his people, but as he tells her more of what's really going on, she doesn't want to believe that her father could be involved in something so terrible. Her father uses every manipulation tactic to justify his actions, and preys on his daughter's fears to win her over to his side. It's an absolutely devastating scene. Watching her descent into radicalization is horrifying and tragic, and all too familar a sight in our real world of alt-right conspiracy theories- chillingly, the things her father says are the same right-wing talking points we see today on the news.

B'Elanna eventually learns the memories belong to Jora Mirell, the older scientist she was working with, who regretted what she'd done, and wanted someone who would care and understand to know what her society had tried so hard to scrub from their history. When she dies, B'Elanna interupts the farewell party for the Enarans, and confronts their leader for the cover up of the genocide his people perpetrated. He denies and makes excuses, the other Enarans don't want to believe it, and the Voyager crew looks uncomfortable, and suggests that she shouldn't say it in the middle of the party. But B'Elanna's not anywhere in the vicinity of fucking around, and she says it all right there, where everyone can hear it.

Later, Captain Janeway tells B'Elanna she believes her, but that Voyager can't interfere with another society, and they must let the Enarans go, and leave them to do what they will, even if it means burying the knowledge again. B'Elanna is still distraught and outraged that no one will acknowledge what happened, and that no justice will be done. But Janeway tells her to go talk to the younger scientist she worked with before she leaves. B'Elanna does, and appeals to her to open her mind and think about what she told them. The Enaran woman agrees to telepathically link with B'Elanna so she can experience Jora Mirell's memories and see what happened for herself. The last shot is of her in the first memory, in Korenna's place, just like B'Elanna was. We're left with the hope that now that someone on their planet had the courage to look the truth in the eye, maybe their society can acknowlege it, and change for the better.

This whole story just hits so hard in light of current events. Are there Israeli parents, right now, telling their children the same things the father in this episode told his daughter, to justify their govenment's genocide against the Palestinians? Somewhere, on some news network, right now, I guarantee there's a right-wing pundit making the same speech the father makes in the town square in this episode, telling his followers how immigrants, or trans people, are dangerous, and undermining our society, and must be controlled or exterminated, for our safety. It's happened so many times in the US, and around the world, and then they say it was for the best, or that it didn't happen at all, so that when they do it again, they can claim that they would never, that it could never happen, don't be ridiculous, we're not evil, what we're doing is right, and for your own good. It makes me want to scream with rage, and I teared up watching B'Elanna march into that party full of complacent people, and speak truth to power, and force them to confront their own complicity in the evil system they benefit from. B'Elanna was and is such an important character to me, because here was a female character who was allowed to express her rage, and the audience was allowed, and even encouraged (some of the time at least), to sympathize with her. I hate when they try to write off her anger as being 'just Klingon things lol' because that is absolutely not what it is, at all. It's the anger of someone who's been marginalized, who's seen injustice, and won't fucking stand for it anymore, anywhere. Who knows everyone deserves better, and will fucking fight for it, whenever, wherever. I love that this episode lets us see that, and that in this story, her outrage is what drives the first steps for these people to start down the path to healing and change. The Enarans are telepathic, so Korenna choosing B'Elanna to relive her experiences wasn't just because she was there. She must have felt that B'Elanna was the person who would feel it the most deeply and fight hardest for what was right.

This episode makes me sad and angry, but it's supposed to. In a country where people are trying to ban teaching our history in our schools, an episode like this is more important than ever. Maybe in some state where schools aren't allowed to teach children about slavery, or the holocaust, or the genocide of Native Americans, or any queer history, maybe some kid will see this Star Trek episode, because their conservative parents think it's just a show about spaceships. And maybe this story will stick with them when their parents try to tell them that it's okay to hate one group of people or another. Maybe they'll hear their parents echoing a villain's words, and they'll start to consider that maybe their parents are wrong. And maybe they'll start to think critically enough to resist the poison of bigotry and break free one day. All it takes is one person to start questioning, and that's how things start to change.

I'm sure there's someone out there who doesn't like this episode, who could find plot holes, or something to criticize, but not me. That's not what's important to me here. This story is what Star Trek is about, at it's core. It's anti-fascist, anti-racist, it's about challenging and dismantling systems of oppression. Since 1966, it's been there to say something hopeful for all us who believe humanity can do better, and I'm profoundly grateful to have it.

Tl;dr: A hard-hitting episode that explores how easily even good people can become indoctrinated to bigoted, xenophobic ideas, and which shows us how even one person standing up and looking it in the eye can make a difference. Absolutely top notch, essential Star Trek viewing.

[itsbeeble]

Tangy (Sour pt 3)

Summary: After another party, the rumor has spread of you and Mingi’s... breakup. What happens when certain people want to make amends? What happens when some want more than that?

Genre: Angst, fluff

WC: 2.4k

Pairings: song mingi x afab!reader, jung wooyoung x afab!reader

Warnings: Mingi is incredibly toxic, minor slutshaming but really minor, swearing, Wooyoung stops bad shit from happening, mentions of alcohol, hurt w/ comfort this time!

Note: I’m really glad you guys are liking this series! Originally it was supposed to be one part, but I was feeling just a bit silly and now there’s gonna be one or two more after this. I hope you guys enjoy!!

ALL PARTS: pt 1: Sour | pt 2: Bittersweet | pt 3: Tangy | true ending | alt ending

~~~~

It’s Friday night, and the air is cooler than any of you had expected. Quite unfortunate for the should’ve-been-backyard party at Sigma Zeta Tau. You find yourself huddled in the corner of the large living room, a cup of something clutched tightly in your hand and hugged to your chest. You can’t help the discomfort you feel, alone in a crowded room with none of your friends in sight. It feels like there’s nowhere for you to run off to, feels like there’s no room to breathe even though there’s no one near you at the moment. 

The air becomes stuffy as soon as you hear a high-pitched laugh from somewhere across the room. You know it’s Wooyoung, likely already drunk. You can see them by the table lined with drinks, talking and laughing as if nothing ever happened. Maybe Wooyoung lied to you. Maybe they didn’t miss you as much as he said they did. Maybe you should leave.

The hand holding your drink tightens, and your knuckles become white. There’s no way Ryujin didn’t know they’d be here. There’s no way they didn’t know you were here.

Had you looked closer, had you been closer, you would’ve seen the exhaustion in their eyes, weighing on their bones. You would’ve seen that Wooyoung had forced the laugh when Vernon made a joke about how you arrived without them for once, thus informing them that you were somewhere in the building. You would’ve seen Mingi scanning the room to find you, failing as you’d managed to hide yourself from the blinding lights the thirteen frat boys had set up hours earlier. 

Whispers are beginning to spread like wildfire. 

They came separately?

Do you think something happened?

I heard he was only using her to win a bet.

Seriously? That’s so cruel…poor girl.

You tuck your head to your chest, ignoring the stares and comments, and take a small sip of the tangy drink in your hand. 

“You’re here?” Your eyes flick up and you find Wooyoung right in front of you, hand clutching a similar cup to your own. Dread begins to build in the pit of your stomach now that he’s right in front of you. 

“Wooyoung,” you nod curtly and he takes a deep breath in. 

“He hasn’t found you yet,” he shuffles a bit in his spot and tries to look anywhere but at you. 

“And how did you find me?” Wooyoung smiles awkwardly.

“You’ve always had a habit of hiding in dark corners.” You nod, and he becomes silent. The music is pounding in your ears, creating a dull ache and a ringing that won’t dissipate. “Can we…” His voice is barely audible, and you look at him. His eyes waver, and under the purple glow, you can see a bit of a shine in them. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Wooyoung,” you shake your head and he squeezes his eyes shut. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t.” He says sharply. Your body jerks, and he’s quick to continue speaking. “Don’t apologize. You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for and you know that.” 

“Woo…” He smiles at you, a bitter smile that has guilt settling into the pit of your stomach. He turns to walk away from you, and your body moves to grab his wrist before he can go too far. “Tuesday.”

A hopeful glint in his eye and you run your tongue over your lips. 

“We’ll talk on Tuesday. The cafe by my dorm after our classes.” 

Don’t make me regret this.

~

“What are you playing at, Wooyoung?” Seonghwa has the younger boy cornered in the party. Wooyoung simply shrugs and sips at the tangy drink he’d been served. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Talking to Y/N, not telling us you’ve been going to her dorm?” Seonghwa’s glare is scathing, and Wooyoung bites the inside of his cheek. “You know what Mingi’s planning to do. Don’t ruin this for him.” 

A pit of rage is forming in Wooyoung’s stomach, and it’s about to boil over. Don’t ruin this for him? Mingi was the one at fault, not him. Why should he step back from trying to get his friend’s trust back? Why should he not try to fix something that shouldn’t have been broken in the first place?

“Don’t pull this bullshit with me, Seonghwa.” He spits out. “All I’m doing is fixing what Mingi fucked up. If he had just told her—”

“Don’t forget that you’re the one who thought of the bet.” Seonghwa hisses. “Did you tell her that? That it was your idea in the first place?”

“Well…no, but I’m—”

“Wooyoung, just leave it be.” The older boy runs a hand down his face. “Mingi wants to fix it on his own terms. At his own pace.”

“And I’m fixing my shit on my terms!” Wooyoung exclaims. “He isn’t the only one she needs to forgive!” 

Seonghwa blinks, and then his eyes narrow. Wooyoung swallows, nerves beginning to take over him.

“Why are you doing this, Wooyoung? Why are you trying to screw things up again?” 

Truth be told, the younger boy doesn’t know. He doesn’t know why he’s so desperate to have you back in his life, whether or not you’re with Mingi. There’s just been this…ache in his chest, like something is missing ever since he told you the truth (even if he’d been drunk at the time). He doesn’t know if he’s doing it more for Mingi’s sake or for his own.

“I’m not trying to screw things up,” Wooyoung sighs. “I just want her back in our lives. If she’s not with Mingi, fine. That’s good enough for me. If she is, that’s even better. I just…” 

When he trails off, there’s a look of sympathy in Seonghwa’s eyes. There’s no more anger, no more scrutinizing glare or judgement. 

“We miss her too, Woo.” Seonghwa puts a hand on Wooyoung’s shoulder and pulls him into a half hug. “Just…if you think this is the right thing to do, then do it. And if you can get Jongho in on this, that’d be awesome because he’s making our room absolutely reek of sweat.”

“It isn’t like you’ve been cleaning anyway.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

~

Tuesday morning, and you decide it’s finally time to show your face to your shared classes. You know that by now the word has spread that you and Mingi aren’t together anymore. There are rumors as to why. He cheated, you cheated, rumors of the bet, you two got sick of each other, so on and so forth. No solid truth, although you know there will be those that want to pry. 

You have three classes today. The first is the one you share with Jongho. The next you share with just Mingi. After that you have one shared with Ryujin, Yuna, and Yeji, as well Seonghwa, Hongjoong, and Yeosang.

Your first class is at 8AM. You dread it, simply put. You dread everything about the class from the time to the people to the professor. As expected, the whispers and the stares begin the moment you step foot in the lecture hall. You feel the heat rushing to your face, and then feel it draining as you try to figure out where in the room you should sit. The room is mostly empty, as there’s twenty minutes until your class starts, but you can’t help but try and figure out which place will create the least staring. 

And then you see Jongho. He sits at the back of the hall, staring around the room with a scowl prominent on his face. Whether it’s because of you, or because of the way people are looking at you, or something unrelated, you aren’t exactly sure. What you are sure of, is that you’re grateful for the wave he sends for you to go up to him. 

She’s still gonna sit with Mingi’s friends?

I wonder if Mingi was the problem.

Maybe the bet was a lie?

Maybe she’s just a slut, going after each of his friends and that’s why he broke up with her.

Jongho’s lip curls up into a sneer and the whispers stop. The eyes turn away from you, chairs swivelling to face forward once more. You place your bag down on a chair, and take a seat next to the younger boy. Neither of you say anything and neither of you look at each other for a long while. 

“I’m sorry,” he mutters to you, eyes foreward and watching your professor drone on. “If it’s any consolation to you.” 

You don’t respond, but your pencil stops moving, tapping on the lined paper in front of you while you think.

“I’m not asking you to forgive me,” he continues. “Or any of us. I just want you to know that I am sorry.” 

Your pencil begins to move again, this time on one of the sticky notes you have beside you.

It’s okay.

~

You’re terrified of your next class. Terrified to see Mingi again, to see his face and how he reacts to you being there. Will he be happy to see you? Will he hate you now, after shutting the door in his face and hiding from him at the party? Your hands are shaking, and you can’t make them stop. 

The whispers start, and you dart to the back of the lecture hall again. Mingi watches you as you try to hide yourself from everyone, and you do your best to avoid him. There’s a small look of hope on his face, a glimmer in his eye that falls as soon as you sit down and duck your head out of his view.

The fiery haired boy twirls the pen in his hand, his heart wrenching when you wouldn’t even look in his direction. He thought, or he hoped, that you’d at least look at him or smile or something after your interaction the past week. Maybe give him a little bit of mercy, show him that you at least still cared about him, but you didn’t. 

His jaw clenches and he looks away from you. 

After class.

He’ll talk to you then, whether you want to or not.

~

“Y/N!” Your gut wrenches, and you rush to put your stuff in your bag and get out of the room before Mingi can catch you. “Y/N, hey!” You’re moving faster, trying to get to the door, but he catches you by the wrist and spins you to face him. You keep your head down, avoiding his gaze even when he ducks his body and tries to get you to look at him. 

“Please let me go.” Your voice is small, a weak request that causes Mingi to inhale sharply. 

“Not until you talk to me.” He insists, his grip on your wrist tightening. A dull throb begins under his fingers and you feel tears welling up in your eyes. 

“I don’t want to talk to you, Song Mingi.”

“You’re using my full name now?” You look up, frowning. His eyebrows are furrowed together, his lips pursed together. “I thought we were past that by now.” 

A joke. A sick joke. That’s what this has to be, right? There’s no way he thinks you’ll be willing to talk to him or be friendly with him after what he did. 

“You thought wrong, then.” Your voice shakes more than you’d like it to, but you keep talking and forcing your tears back. “You should rethink everything you know about me, Song Mingi, if you think I’d still want to be friendly with you, that I’d still want to be seen talking with you after what you did.” His grip tightens, and you flinch. 

“Y/N, I know you still care about us. About me. So please, let’s just talk about it? We can talk and we can put it behind us, and we can continue where we left off!” 

Your wrist is aching, throbbing. He’s holding on so tight that it hurts, and he isn’t letting go. 

You’re scared.

“Mingi, let her go.” Your ex-lover’s hand is ripped off of you, and Wooyoung is standing between the two of you. He’s angry, angrier than you’ve ever seen him, and his hand is shaking from a much different emotion than yours had. He’s forcing himself to not hit the man before you. 

“What are you doing here, Woo?” Mingi’s teeth are grinding together, and he pulls his hand free from the smaller boy’s grasp.

“Well, see,” Wooyoung steps closer to you and blocks you from Mingi’s view. “I was just passing by, heading to our class, y’know? And I heard a little bit of an argument so, being nosy, I thought I’d see what was going on. Imagine my surprise when I see you cornering your ex against her will and forcing her to talk to you and hurting her while doing so.” 

“Woo, stay out of it. Please?” You tug on his shirt and he glances at you over his shoulder. 

“No. Even if we all didn’t have history, I would still step in because that’s not fuckin okay, Mingi.”

Mingi’s jaw ticks, and you duck your head down. 

“So you’ve forgiven him, but not me?”

“She hasn’t forgiven anyone, Mingi.” Wooyoung snaps. “After what we did to her? You really expect her to forgive us after a fucking week? You’re out of your goddamn mind.” A deep breath, his hands tightening at his sides. You can’t help the awestruck look you give him. 

Before everything happened, the two of you hadn’t been the closest of everyone in the group. Of course, you were friends and you always cared about each other and things were never tense if you were alone together, but there had always been something that made him keep his distance. You know now why that is. And you know that, even if he wasn’t your best friend, he’s one of few that would actively try to fix a problem he caused. 

“I’m here,” he tries to keep his voice steady. “Because I care about something other than getting my dick wet. I care about my friend. I care about fixing something that was entirely my fault to begin with. And if you can’t get your head out of your ass for two seconds to see that she wasn’t just someone for you to fuck whenever you want, then maybe she shouldn’t give you the second chance you’re so desperate for.”

~

“You didn’t have to say that.”

“Yes I did.” 

Wooyoung is already looking at you when you lift your eyes from your notes. There’s a smile on his face. Not overly bright and overly joyous. He isn’t forcing himself to be happy. He’s genuine, he’s happy to be near you and with you. You smile back, looking back at your notebook. You know that the others are looking at you. You know that Ryujin is watching the interaction from the row behind you, waiting for Wooyoung to make one wrong move. 

“He was hurting you, Y/N. It’s like I said, even if we didn’t know each other I’d still step in. What he did to you isn’t okay, and he’s lucky I didn’t clock him.”

“I’m pretty sure he’d kick your ass if you tried.” Behind you, you hear a snort and Wooyoung scoffs. 

“He would not. I’m stronger than I look.”

“Oh, I’m sure you are, Woo.” 

“Whose side are you even on?”

“Mine. The victim. You know, the one you guys placed a bet on.” Wooyoung goes quiet, sinking in his seat. You bite your lip, beating yourself up for bringing it up again. You’d meant it jokingly, but you know now that it’s a bit too soon for those jokes. 

“I am sorry, Y/N.”

“I know, Woo.” He looks at you again and you’re leaning back in your chair, looking ahead to the professor. “And I forgive you.”

“So soon?” 

“You’re putting effort in,” you shrug. “And even if I don’t fully trust you yet, I know that you at least care and that’s good enough for me. You and Jongho are the only one’s who actively reached out to me, showed that you at least kind of cared.”

“Not even Yunho?”

“Haven’t seen him yet. Haven’t seen any of the other guys, really.”

“San says he wants to go to lunch with you soon. He wanted to text you, but you still have our numbers blocked.” You purse your lips and hum quietly. “He’s willing to wait, though. Until you’re ready.”

“We can go today. After this class, because I know he’s free after 2:15.”

“I’ll let him know now.”

~

“He groveled?” Ryujin falls forward, chest heaving from laughter when you tell her the events of the afternoon with San and Wooyoung. “You have to be kidding!”

“I fucking wish!” You exclaim. “It was so embarrassing, Ryujin! He literally got on his knees and started kissing my shoes!”

That was the truth. As soon as the three of you had sat down at the diner downtown San had gotten onto his hands and knees and started begging you for forgiveness, kissing your shoes and genuinely crying as he did so. Wooyoung had nearly wet himself when he saw that, and you wanted to sink into the ground when people turned to stare at the three of you.

“Oh my god, that’s hilarious.” Ryujin leans herself back onto her hands, still on the floor of your dorm room. “I’m assuming you forgave him?”

“What else was I supposed to do when he did…that?”

“Fair point.” 

“What about the others?” You shrug and purse your lips.

“I…I don’t know, to be honest. I haven’t heard from them. Haven’t spoken to them. I know that Woo is avoiding Mingi, so that’s gonna cause some tension.”

“Is that what you want?”

“For them to take sides?”

“For Woo to choose you over his best friend.”

“Not necessarily. It’s weird, honestly. He…he never would have done this a week ago.” Ryujin runs her tongue over her lips and hums. “What?”

“Nothing. Just…Maybe he cares about you more than he was letting on.” You scoff and shake your head. 

“You think Wooyoung has a crush on me or something?” 

“I mean…”

“Ryujin, that’s crazy.”

“Think about it though!” She jumps to her feet, pacing around the tiny room you share. You frown and lean back in the chair by your desk. “This would be the perfect opportunity for him to actually get close to you! To show you that he’s the one you should be with! But, like, not in a creepy way. In a genuine way.”

~

“You have a WHAT on Y/N?” San’s jaw practically drops to the floor when he hears what his roommate says. Wooyoung has his head in his hands, legs drawn up onto the bed. 

“Can you shut up? What if the others hear you?” Wooyoung groans. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just…in fucking shock I guess.” San pinches his nose and sighs. “When did you figure this out?”

“A few months ago…”

“Oh fucking christ, Woo.”

“I know.”

“You know this is just gonna make things messy, right?” 

“I know.”

“And if Mingi finds out—”

“Jesus— San, I know.” The two seniors sit in silence, contemplating what they’ve been saying to each other. 

“So are you gonna tell her or…”

“Oh my god shut the fuck up.”

~

TAGS: @cookiechristie @ryanthesimp4yeo @mixling-blog @woosmaid @avantalem @choichaeyiul @nora-bora-bora @marvelahsobx @vidiviu01 @babiestarrcandy @kpopnightingale

I tried tagging some people but it wasn’t working so if I missed you I’m so sorry!

[enigmatist17]

Whumptober 1 - Race Against The Clock

Search Party

---

It had been nearly a solar-cycle since the most recent Decepticon and Autobot skirmish, and Thundercracker was still missing. Of course Megatron didn't care, the damned mech never did, too busy already immersing himself in the following sure-to-fail scheme.

Predictable as always.

::// SkyUwU -Starscream, where are you going? //::

::// StarSupreme - Where does it look like you idiot? I refuse to let Thundercracker waste away on this accursed planet. //::

::// SkyUwU - Meet you at the usual spot in 20 klicks? I've got a kit left over from last time. //::

::// StarSupreme - ....very well. //::

There were a few ways out of the Nemesis that didn't alert the entire Decepticon force. While Starscream absolutely loathed using the narrow tunnel system that had been built as a potential evacuation route, he met up with Skywarp with no resistance. His trine mate was brimming with anxiousness, zapping back and forth around their meeting point while occasionally checking their comm, perking up when Starscream landed beside him without a sound.

"You'll do better using your energy for the search ahead." To most, it would have sounded cruel, but Skywarp knew his leader well enough, transforming into his alt with a chirping noise. The battlefield was a few hour's flight from the base, the seekers primarily silent along the route save for the occasional chirp or click as they flew in a pattern older than the planet they'd been stuck on, a dance non-aerial bots could never hope to understand. They peeled away from each other once the former battlefield came into view, the area littered with blaster craters and impressions from bots getting thrown around. They had fought in a valley littered with dense foliage and several rivers crisscrossing throughout the area, neither Con surprised that Thundercracker was not in view.

"Start from the South, I shall come from the North." With a nod Skywarp adjusted his heading, Starscream choosing to search from the ground. Patches of energon that had leaked from wounds served as a rough guide for the seekers, Skywarp eventually noting a rather large trail leading away toward a section of the valley that led to a sheer drop toward the nearby ocean.

Thundercracker was lying on the rocky shore, the last of their trine looking the worse for wear.

"Found him!" Skywarp zapped down to his brother's side, glad to see there were no visible signs of energon loss. "TC?"

"Ugh...S...Sky?" His words were slightly slurred, optics flickering on and off as his brother dug out a med kit from subspace. "Did..did we win?"

"Sort of, but that doesn't matter right now." Skywarp began welding the worst of the wounds as Starscream joined them, the trine leader frowning as he knelt beside Thundercracker. "We're gonna get you all fixed up, and then back to base where you can recharge in the good berth."

"Skywarp is right, I suppose I'll have to allow it." Starscream scoffed, servos checking the backside of the injured seeker's helm to ensure they weren't missing a vital injury, pleased to only find it was dented from his fall. "Report solider."

"Stupid...auto-slagger Ironhide..shot my wing." Thundercracker sighed when Starscream snatched a painkiller from the med kit, pressing the small glowing patch onto one of his wings. "Trie..d to comm..."

"We're here now, it'll be alright." Skywarp hummed, welding another large wound closed for the journey home, smiling when Starscream started clicking at his injured trine member in a tone he reserved only for them. Thundercracker ended up dozing off to the comforting sounds, eventually bundled up to be carried back to Nemesis by the duo once Skywarp was satisfied.

Not the worst end to a battle, but as long as they all made their way home eventually, it would do.

[megafreeman]

I support Palestine more than I support the USA but I think that the further reaches of shitty awful USA politics is why you guys still need to vote Biden, like if you had an actual choice it wouldn't be either of those loser parties but US politics unfortunately affects a lot more than white american liberals.

I hate the USA, absolute dogshit country which should be given back to the American Indians but like in the mean time people can bitch all they want about the rock and a hard place but one of them threatens more of the world than Palestine.

Biden is another puppet of the USAmerican war machine and I hope you get a Lula, but in the mean time US citizens don't actually have a choice. At least not at the ballot box. The only good thing about Trump was that it got more people in the streets, you can do that under Biden as well.

Lol I'm not voting for anyone, I'm Eastern European. And I honestly don't even care about the US politics anymore. Just vote in your primaries to make sure progressive actually win something instead of all power going to alt right MAGA idiots and 2008 republicans that are democrats now. As someone who lives overseas, both parties affect me negatively... Why should I care more about domestic policies of US than most of yall care about global politics?

[lorde-spooky]

Okay, partly true and partly false. Punk was always an *economically* leftist subculture from the beginning, but economic leftism and social progressivism weren't always synonyms like they're considered to be today. Of course now it's obvious (to most people) that since our modern capitalist system was built on racist foundations, you cannot be effectively anti capitalist without being anti racist (same goes for the oppression of any marginalized group of people), but at the time this wasn't commonly accepted in leftist circles. The (US) government very deliberately tried to put down economic leftism in black communities which is one of the many things that led to the FBI's assassination of Fred Hampton. Crenshaw's creation of intersectional theory in '89 was really the lynchpin that led to the modern left's acceptance of socially progressive movements to the point where the two are basically synonymous today. (Barry Goldwater arguably accidentally created the link between left leaning economic policy and progressive social policy when he tried and failed to win the presidency by running on a segregationist platform in 1964 as a republican, forever linking his party to white supremacy)

Moving on from that tangent, there was always anti racist or feminist members of the movement, however in the seventies they were absolutely the minority by a wide margin. Punk was an incredibly hostile environment for POCs for the vast majority of it's history and (like most alt subcultures) still tends to put pale and skinny members of the community on a pedestal as the embodiment of the movement and aesthetic, even if it has shifted to be slightly more socially inclusive in the past decade or so.

Just to cover my bases with the rest of punks history with progressive social movements. The Riot Grrrl movement was the first prominent push for feminist representation in punk and that didn't start until the late eighties (or early nineties depending on who you ask). The LGBTQ community only really gained prominence in punk circles in the past twenty years (although it's been bubbling under the surface ever since the start of the Riot Grrrl movement). And of course there's certain poser groups who love to say that the real punks are conservatives, completely misunderstanding the meaning of counter culture.

Punk is, however, counter cultural. It's been anti capitalist from the beginning, and even though some of the progenitors of the movement were profoundly off the mark, it's obvious now that to be punk, you have to be anti capitalist. To be punk, you have to be anti racist. To be punk, you have to be feminist. To be punk, you have to support LGBTQ rights, and the rights of any human being. To be punk you have to look at the bigoted systems and machines that our society is founded on and want to tear them down. Punk is more than an aesthetic, it's a social and political movement.

Wearing a leather jacket and mohawk doesn't make you punk. I could dress like a victorian aristocrat but I will always be more punk than any fascist right wing stooge no matter how many spikey belts or patches and pins he wears. Simply because of my beliefs. Johnny Ramone was a poser and if he wasn't already dead I would say that to his face.

(PS: @slutdge I'm sorry for screenshotting and reposting, but i couldn't reblog and as you can tell I had a lot to say about the topic. I agree with your sentiments and i think your heart is in the right place but I'm a pretentious asshole who loves historical context)

[transingthoseformers]

Do you have any AUs you really like kicking around that you haven't talked about as much?

Yessss actually! I popped in a read more, if you don't mind

There's my Dynamo and rescuebots au, which I've written a bit about (and ended up freaking out halfway through the last ficlet of it😅)

I play a lot with my tfa Mockingbird oc and how they'd be created and introduced to the autobots

I had this old au was was based on the cyberformed earth concept but it was naturally based around a random character who wasn't autobot or Decepticon adjacent and almost in a sorta "okay fuck, the apocalypse happened, now i have to map the terrain and learn new things" way

I frequently find myself going back to the plotline of the tfp autobots capturing a semi-rogue Decepticon who just... stays there and both parties get attached. Sometimes said con was friends with orion and tronus before the war, sometimes not. I have found similar plotlines that are same but earthspark.

I've played around with a bayverse x tfp continuity before as i think they would compliment each other nicely worldbuilding wise

I've probably posted about it before but the idea of Megatron having a friend/amica/whatever in the backround who absolutely gave the shovel talk to Orion and is frothing at the intake to bestow said shovel consequences to Oppy for breaking Megatron's spark

Tfp but Whirl comes to earth plotline, and Bulkhead actually gets super protective of Whirl because he fucking knew what that guy went through and is gonna set things right this time

"Oh Fuck Overlord? On Earth? I guess the autobots, Decepticons, and humans have to work together against this menace"

I've posted about it before but the LL coming to the tfp universe

The Transformers: the play au me and Techni went back and forth on!

Posted about this before but a tfa "Decepticons win and most/all autobots are captured" situation where a moderately higher ranking Decepticon finds the situation sorta fucked up and slowly but surely acts as a double agent to betray the Decepticons and get as many autobots as possible onto drumroll here a tfa version of the Lost Light!

The one tfa oc Firefłight being a lazy big bastard with a frenemies-ish situation with Fanzone and pushing Starscream off of tall buildings

Naturally rescue bots plotlines that include them coming to the tfp base oh naturally

I don't talk about it a bunch but during Serotonin Syndrome two: electric boogaloo I went on an absolute streak with the tf: a&p au that was very much based on a single valveplug tfa megs x tfp optimus ficlet I saw

I had this one au i wrote a bit about where the matrix got damaged in a boom boom and Oppy had essentially the opposite of the Orion Arc happen— he was in his old frame but has the same memories and personality (ish). I think i called it Optimus Pax

My Liason from Hell bayverse au, from au dungeons!

The one au I made a loooong time ago around the 4/9/21 thing, which was oc x oc with one having an alt based on draco lizards and the other on striped hyenas— i believe both ended up carrying at the same time, it was Ferrous and Carnage? Yeah.

I talk so little about spinocon aus but they have so many storylines like way so many

O ooo oo o i sorta forgot about it but my "Why Earth? Always Earth?" Au that was an animorphs x Transformers au, i never truly followed up on that

Back when i was watching Supernatural oh i naturally made an au based on that that i never wrote down, I think Miko was sooorta like a wereworf but fox based? Yeah it was Sam and Dean meeting the autobots but we can put Castiel and Crowley in there too

Lottttts of ex-DJD plotlines where said character joins the autobots

Oh i had this one idea based on the humans cloning a Cybertronian from CNA samples but i didn't follow up on it

That one au idea i had where Megatron was gonna have a new kid and a few of his previous ones who have never met ever over the vorns finally meet and it's almost a nostalgia sorta au but has the tone of a will reading, like fuck they not only learned of eavh other recently but they're gonna have a sibling? And these kids are soooo different because megs made them during vastly different parts in his life, it was tfp/mtmte continuity mix

I've ran "Starscream meets the rescue bots" storylines beforr

Just way too many work together plotlines based on the quality of mercy series

The blatant isakai au storylines where each human that becomes a Cybertronian died in their respective universes and woke up in the tfp one in Cybertronian frames!

[human-blob-nessie]

Adding news and context, especially for my non-french followers :

This is great news for the left, BUT.

It's important to note that this election decides who the Assemblé Nationale (main part of the Parliament), and it not based on national proportions. Rather, the country is divided into 577 parts (called circonscriptions, or circo for short). Each circo elects one deputee. That means local popularity is most important here.

Additionally, it's a two turn election that aims for an absolute majority win (50%+ on second turn), but it also allows for more that two candidates on the second turn. Any candidate with more than 12.5% of registered voters qualifies.

Thus, with our current politics that's mostly divided in 3 big movements (left, center, far-right), a lot of circos ended up with 3 candidates qualified. The left and center coordinated to oppose a single candidate in most circos and calling for voters to vote for the remaining candidate even if they weren't from their own side, in hopes to stop the far-right from winning locally.

Which leads us to the result.

1/ The left and center (in this order) managed to win more seats, but the most popular vote, nation-wide, is the far-right. We put them off by coordinating and using the specific way this election works to our advantage. In a direct proportional vote, we would have had the biggest group in the Assemblée be the far-right.

2/Normally, a new Assemblée means a new government, i.e. new minister, starting with the Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister officially resigned, but this has to be accepted by the President. So far, he hasn't. He instead posted a vague open letter in response to the left's call for two things : a left wing prime minister, and a deep reform of our constitution and the way our Assemblée is formed. Everything in the 5th Republic is made with a roughly two-wings situation in mind. Not two-party, but with two ideological sides opposed and one gathering a majority. With our current situation, basically nobody can do anything. The three sides are very opposed to each other, and will consider compromising with another side as a form of treason. Thus, whoever is in charge basically has two thirds of the government firmly against them. This situation has lead to our last few presidents governing increasingly with constitutional tools such as article 49.3 that allows the Prime Minister to force pass a law without the Assemblée voting.

The system is unfit and broken, the left is calling for reform, and the president is playing time, not disbanding his current government and making vague statements about the values of our republic. Even his own side is struggling to understand what he's doing, but whatever it is, he's doing everything to avoid or delay his defeat (out of the three sides, his (the neo-liberal center) is the most defeated in terms of popular vote, and has lost the most seats in the Assemblée despite coming in second).

A government by our left-wing would examine this reform very quickly, in addition to a lot of other very promising stuff they had in their program (which was the most detailed of the three, by a huge margin).

To note, if the center and far right can agree on one thing, it's that they don't want left-wing policies, and both the media and politicians from almost everywhere have been going on a big campaign to try and demonise the left, and most voters do no read the actual programs and propositions, so their opinions are mostly based on what the media says. (A lot of french media outlets are owned by alt-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré, which have gone out of their way to paint everything the left says and wants to do in the worst way possible, especially the call to recognise a state of Palestine, which has been painted as antisemitic and parroted ad nauseam by the alt right during the entire campaign and seems to have done a non-negligeable amount of damage to the public opinion about left-wing parties.)

So basically, we got a nuanced win and the president is trying to stop whatever effect it can have.

There are already calls to protest to try and force him to give up. I personally am pessimistic about the potential outcomes, but willing to participate actively in hopes of changing it.

In France [July 7, 2024], a crowd reacts to election results showing a defeat for the hard-right political party that was expected to win big until the French people voted in greater numbers for leftists and centrists instead. This follows the complete rout suffered by the right-wing Conservative party in Great Britain just three days prior, on July 4th.

🇫🇷

[Via]

[ogradyfilm]

Recently Viewed: Barbie

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie opens with an extended montage depicting an average day in the glamorous life of Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie. She awakens in her pink plastic Dream House, dresses herself in one of her many fabulous outfits, cruises down the street in her pink plastic convertible—greeting Mail Carrier Barbie, Construction Worker Barbie, Astronaut Barbie, and President Barbie along the way—relaxes at the beach (where the surf is eternally gnarly, the “water” permanently frozen in a six-foot wave of molded plastic), and finally returns home to enjoy a night of partying, complete with elaborately choreographed dance routines. In Barbie Land, women can do and be whatever their hearts desire. It is, in other words, a feminist paradise—the exact sort of setting you would expect to be inhabited by the revolutionary doll that taught little girls everywhere that playtime isn’t just preparation for future domestic responsibilities.

That’s what the omniscient narrator (voiced by Dame Helen Mirren, of all people) repeatedly insists, at least; in truth, this “utopia” is as empty, illusory, and insubstantial as Barbie’s morning glass of imaginary orange juice. While Ryan Gosling’s delightfully demented Stereotypical Ken technically introduces the concept of “patriarchy” (albeit a comically juvenile facsimile thereof; his “Kendom” revolves around such shallow masculine signifiers as mini fridges, acoustic guitars, pickup trucks, pickup artistry, and frat boy posturing) to Barbie Land, the infrastructure of inequality was already firmly established. The Kens are essentially second-class citizens: whereas Barbies are allowed to be doctors, award-winning journalists, and heads of state, the subordinate Kens are seemingly forbidden from pursuing careers; they are glorified accessories, their worth defined solely by their relationships with their female counterparts. The Barbies likewise own all property; Stereotypical Barbie outright admits that she has no idea where the Kens actually live.

The Kens are not the only victims of this subjugation, either. Michael Cera’s Allan is frequently ignored and taken for granted—and despite his generally laid-back attitude, this casual disrespect clearly upsets him. And Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie is ostracized due to her failure to conform to her society’s beauty standards—a trait that she explicitly cannot control (her disheveled physical appearance is the result of being loved too dearly—and played with too roughly—by a previous owner).

This surprisingly nuanced meditation on the nature of power dynamics is further reinforced by the characters that our protagonist encounters in the Real World. The Mattel CEO portrayed by Will Ferrell, for example, is not actively malicious; indeed, he genuinely believes in the toys that his company manufactures, regurgitating the corporate mission statement of “inspiring children to dream” with absolute sincerity. His good intentions, however, do not absolve him of his complicity in a system that routinely marginalizes women; as evidenced by the fact that his board of directors is a veritable sausage fest, he still benefits from and perpetuates institutionalized misogyny. And rather than engaging in healthy self-reflection when confronted with incontrovertible proof his “invisible” privilege, he instead becomes uncomfortably defensive, his feeble justifications rapidly deteriorating into incoherent babbling: “I’m the son of a mother and the nephew of a female aunt! Some of my best friends are Jewish!”

Featuring stellar performances, spectacularly beautiful production design, and a gloriously irreverent tone, Barbie is an endearingly cute, fun, charming cinematic experience. To those viewers already converted to the cause that it champions, its central theme may come off as obnoxiously didactic and heavy-handed… but the alt-right’s ineffectually venomous reaction to the film makes it abundantly obvious that even a literal Deus Ex Machina is too subtle for certain audiences.

[hussyknee]

Hussy what's the situation in Sri Lanka right now? Hope you're safe love ❤

Oh I'm quite fine, love, thanks for asking. 😊❤️The chaos seems contained to the capital. The rest of us are encapsulated in this tweet:

(alt text included)

Reply translation: "For real. This is like when the war was in the North. Without fuel there's not even a dog to be seen around here, not even to get a ride to the shops."

As for what the fuck is going on. *Deep breath* This is a very long but simple explainer (I hope) that is as much for my fellow Lankans trying to make sense of everything.

What the fuck is happening in Sri Lanka (as of 4:40pm 14 July 22)

This motherfucker, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was supposed to hand in his resignation yesterday, after protestors stormed his residence, his office, the prime minister's residence. Two and half million people flooded into the capital until even the cops fucking gave up, signalling to him that it was the end of the road. Except the 20th Amendment to the Constitution that Gota and his stooges had forced through gives him so much power that he can neither be impeached nor removed at all without a voluntary resignation.

So he asked for three days to resign (read: shove as much money as he could into a suitcase and flee), during which he and his family did their damndest to leave the country. Except our people absolutely refused to let them, even with the military at his beck and call. Workers of two different airports walked out rather than process his documentation to board a plane. People waiting at the airports obstructed him getting on a flight. Ports wouldn't let his ship leave the harbour. The US rejected his visa application. Man finally got so panicked that he refused to resign unless the Prime Minister secured a way for him to get the fuck out of here.

Now the Prime Minister, Ranil W, used to be the Opposition Leader and the Rajapaksas number one enemy until he bungled his last stint as Prime Minister so badly that nearly his whole party walked out on him and he couldn't even win his own seat at the last elections. He's been something of a joke in Parliament throughout Gota's term, so when Gota unexpectedly handpicked him to be PM to succeed his brother who we forced to resign, it was a huge political upset. But it was a rather brilliant move that splintered the protests and successfully protected him from having to step down.

But just like the entire rest of his 45 year career, Ranil spent the last 7 weeks making a complete pig's ear of things until he's now somehow even more reviled than he used to be. But Gota's resignation would have meant he got to become President of the caretaker government, and being President had been the ambition he's been clinging to his whole career, like a barnacle of calcified spite and greed. So he was more than happy to find Gota a way out.

Finally the Air Force itself had to take Gota to the Maldives (the President over there is also a wildly unpopular turd) even though the Maldivian people launched a massive protest of their own in response. Maldives was only supposed to be a stop gap to his "final destination" (according to his office, and yes memes ensued) and this fuckwit still did not send in his resignation letter.

Meanwhile, massive demonstrations were taking place all over Colombo, demanding that Ranil also resign to make way for the caretaker government. This assclown instead deployed cops and troops to beat back the crowds, firing tear gas from low-flying helicopters. He also declared a State of Emergency (martial law) and a curfew. Problem was, that only the Executive President has the power to do any of that shit, so everyone was like "Mx'cuse you?" And he was like "ah yeah no belay that". Then the Speaker and PM were like "akshully the President called and said Ranil can totes be President while he's um, overseas" and the whole circus of curfews, troops and martial law was back on track.

People responded to that by taking over Ranil's office as well.

(Also the legal fraternity was in a tizzy because Acting President doesn't have the vested powers of Executive President. But Ranil's dreams were finally almost within his grasp at age 73, what was a possible lawsuit to crossing this off his bucket list.)

Ranil continued throwing a wholeass army at the protestors, insisting that he was trying to protect our democracy from Antifa ( he really fucking said that). At any other time in our history, this has resulted in a horrific bloodbath. But this time, we were in the heart of the city's administrative district, the poshest of neighborhoods with embassies lining the streets. And it wasn't just one minority or marginalized group; it was the majority Sinhalese Buddhists, Sinhalese Christians, Tamils Hindus, Tamil Christians, Muslims, Burghers, foreign nationals, lawyers, the entire media establishment, clergy - the whole damn country on his doorstep, and none of them were even hurting the cops (in fact some of them were even helping the cops and STF wash their own tear gas out of their eyes and giving them tea and biscuits once they gave up trying to hold the line). Ranil then called an All-Party Conference (Friday casual version of Parliament, and no we don't know why we have this either) and asked them to select a new PM. The entire lot of them were instead like "actually we want to you to fuck off" leaving him all hurt and confused. He said "okay fine I will do it just as soon as Gota resigns" in much the same way we tell our Mums we will clean our rooms after we finish watching this one cartoon.

But the hours counted down, the stroke of midnight came and went, and no resignation appeared. By the end of the 13th, we were left with two presidents, one speaker, and an Opposition who wandered in like Donald Glover turning up with a pizza box as though none of them even lived here idk.

(An assorted bunch of wannabe revolutionaries, Rajapaksa plants and a splinter group from an ill-advised demonstration by the socialist party had tried to storm the Parliament in the evening for some godforsaken reason. It's not even in session. The road to which is effectively a killbox and also near Army HQ, and predictably resulted in a hundred people injured and one kid dying from tear gas).

We woke up this morning to Two Presidents, One Country: Part 2. Ranil and PM had come up with an extremely sus "gazette" from the President, who was still sending conflicting reports of his whereabouts. He was headed to Singapore. No he's still in Maldives. No he's now headed to Saudi Arabia. What he was not doing was sending in his fucking resignation, leaving his clown monkey to continue wreaking havoc, and leaving us to follow his flight plan like my cat watching his feather toy zoom around his head. As of this afternoon, the Speaker was debating declaring that the President had vacated his duties and moving this shitshow along, except that opens up in-fighting about legitimacy down the line. Even the Chamber of Commerce asked Ranil to step down, which is hilarious because that's the body of the country's richest old business bros and they'd never done anything like that before. The Commanders of the Tri-Forces also asked Ranil to step down, which is less hilarious and more terrifying because the military is not supposed to interfere in affairs of state at all. It's like if your gun had opinions on who should be shooting it. At best it sets a terrible precedent, at worst it might lead to a junta (military coup of the government). Overall, it's easier to get a five year old out of a bouncy castle that's on fire than getting this butt monkey to fuck off.

Meanwhile the middle class and neoliberals are bleating about the People's Struggle being hijacked by the communist party and trying to start a democracy-face-spitting fascist commie rebellion anarchy movement, there is no fuel even for ambulances, people not at the protests are stuck home, distribution of fuel and cooking gas are being held up, the poor are quite literally starving and watching enraged at all the military vehicles and helicopters zooming around, and the only thing that's doing a roaring trade are the conspiracy theories and breaking news alerts of the Lankan Aunties and Uncles over Facebook and Whatsapp. Ranil, who has taken to declaring curfews early and often even though the protestors have so far not given (1) good goddamn, suddenly declared one in the middle of the day, when people were still at office, leaving the streets of the capital and commercial districts absolutely gridlocked. Anyone who has a medical emergency right now is as good as dead.

Here is our last update from the President.

(alt text included)

Wow you guys, imagine being under a lot of pressure.

(updates cont'd in reblog)

[nongenderbentanimeneilarmstrong]

Unfortunately as much as it sucks to vote for Biden due to his support of Israel’s genocide, as someone who is non-white and queer with friends who are non-white and or queer, I can’t really be a single issue voter.

With the way that the US election system works, you have to pick between Biden and Trump. And if Trump wins the election I know that there is the very real prospect of genuine unsafety for people I care about. Additionally, as bad as Biden has been on the Palestine front, Trump has a known long history of Islamophobia so we can expect that to be much worse with him too.

When it comes to choosing to abstain from voting out of protest, I think it’s important to consider that your choice will be understood within the greater and long-standing system of voter suppression in the US. I will state flat out that as any sort of left leaning person the Republican Party does not want you to vote. There is a long history continuing through the 2020 election of the Republican Party enacting legislation to make it difficult for minorities to vote because if no one votes against them, they get elected.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that choosing to abstain from voting rather than voting for harm reduction will do more good. Even if voting won’t make anything better in a single election cycle, it’s a very important step in making sure things don’t get worse.

I really, really wish there was someone in American politics I could vote for and know that they wouldn’t be an absolute horrible fuck on something, but as it stands all I can do is my best to make sure that alt-right white-supremacist facists don’t get elected in November.

I have no great love for Biden or the Democratic Party, but in November please think about your non-white and queer friends when choosing whether or not to vote. Or just vote to spite republicans lmao.

Edit: tone is hard over the internet I just wanted to clarify that I fully support protesting the Biden Administration I just think that abstaining from voting is an extremely ineffective way to go about it.

Biden is trying soooo hard not to win lmao. You Biden supporters should be yelling at him instead of us for his continued ignoring of Palestinians. Maybe if he sees even the core of his base turn on him, he'll start to actually make moves to end the genocide... but you all won't do that because your comfort will always come at the expense of others and you're alright with that.

[moonstalkerwerewolf]

The worst part about Trump winning the election in 2016 is that now every stupid, delusional ass hooligan with a following has been running for power and as long as they parrot key talking points, they’ll get elected.

Neither party in the U.S. is great but I’m pretty sure you either have extra cognitive dissonance syndrome and/or have to be absolutely braindead to vote for some of the candidates in this midterm cycle, like the fucking GOP runner for AZ governor. Why the fuck do people honestly think a Television Pundit who just screeches about every stupid conspiracy theory the alt-right spits out has any merit in running an entire state? Bad enough AZ has some seriously vile Evangelicals who think being a Christian Nationalist is a good thing and think religious freedom is becoming a theocratical apartheid. 

Goddamn bonkers, these midterms are.