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beifong-brainrot · 3 months ago

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I have a question what do you like of final of the Legend of Korra and What do you not like it ? ( S4)

Ah, B4. My favourite season and the season I hate the most at the same time. I have such mixed feelings about it and I think most of it stems from the utilisation of Nazi and Soviet imagery and inspirations in the Earth Empire.

Because it disrupts any sympathy, I could have towards the good Kuvira had done for the Earth Kingdom because of the IRL historical context behind those same pros in the regimes Kuvira was based on.

Technological advancements and modernisation? Made possible by essentially slave labour of the people of the country, particularly the prisoners of gulags, who were in huge part political prisoners (known as biełoruczki, if I remember correctly). I use the term 'political' very loosely because because many of the 'crimes' were just... really stupid. For example having rented a French book from a library.

Kuvira's attack on Republic City is also heavily recontextualised due to this context. Because, in a void, a woman of a county that has been heavily affected by a war trying to regain a former colonised region of her country that hadn't been returned after the end of the war is not a terribly immoral thing. You could even describe it as justified.

But with the context of Kuvira's inspirations it takes on a darker meaning as one of the Soviet and Nazi excuses for invading Poland in 1939. In the words of Timothy Snyder, historian and author:

Hitler saw Poland as the ‘unreal creation’ of the Treaty of Versailles, Molotov as its ‘ugly offspring.

Furthermore, even post-Soviet Russia has a similar pattern of dismissing the legitimacy countries that fall victim to their campaigns. For example, Putin justifying the current genocide and war crimes in Ukraine by claiming Ukraine to be historically Russian lands and that Ukrainians and Russians are 'one Nation'. I have spoken at length on Kuvira's parallels to Putin and length, I believe.

Connecting Kuvira's claim on Repubmic City to these ideologies is counterproductive to any sympathy I could have to her goals. Because, in a void, decolonisation. With the influences assigned to her, it's rather giving 'imperial nostalgia'.

And I know that you could easily make the argument that we should look at the Earth Empire as it's own thing, that it isn't defined by its historical infulences. But I do believe it does. Kuvira's inspirations are glaring, obvious and hard to ignore. Especially the Nazi ones.

Kuvira's Soviet inspirations, which in my opinion, are a far bigger part of the show, are, however, more insidious. Mainly because a Western Audience isn't primed to see the danger and sordid history in the ideologies she presents here.

Because a lot of younger First World citizens seem to have this weird hard on for Soviet Russia, ignoring that it was just as horrific as the 3rd Reich.

Now, I actually really liked Kuvira as an antagonist in the first half of the season. I'd even classify her as my favourite main villain (my fave antagoinst in general being Aiwei's gayass).

I really enjoyed the mix of Nazi and Soviet inspirations behind her character, because while these ideologies may seem different at first, they aren't actually that dissimilar, even being referred to as 'Totalitarian Twins'.

Which is why I mildly push back against people claiming that Kuvira represented simply fascism. I believe Kuvira could've been an almost perfect 'human' commentary on totalitarianism.

I belive that Kuvira is an amalgamation of multiple totalitarian dictators, not just Stalin and Hitler, combining their common traits and behaviours.

We are very quickly shown how charismatic Kuvira is and how she is skilled at social engineering by, for example manipulating Bolin and Korra, as well as strategically putting on displays of power and strength to intimidate opponents and endear allies.

Showmanship is a huge part of a lot of totalitarian dictatorships, particularly as many of them rely on cult of personality, which certainly rings true for the Earth Empire.

We're also quickly shown how fond Kuvira is of ultimatums and total control. This 'all or nothing' mentality is a common theme in totalitarian countries. You're either with the ruling part 100%, or you're an enemy of the state. See my above description of political prisoners in gułags. Kuvira's weaponisation of the context of historical necessity is also a trademark of Soviet regime.

Kuvira's characteristation as manipulative, intimidating and calculating behind her more charismatic and virtuous veneer is a perfect mirror into how irl totalitarian regimes often hide behind friendly faces and utilise sound ideologies to obscure their true insidious intents.

And then the show ruins this excellent villain with a poorly executed sympathy scene and later a shitty redemption arc.

That's not to say I'm fully opposed to Kuvira having a sob backstory and being marginally sympathetic. But I would rather this be used to show off how totalitarianism is inherently a self destructive system. Leaning into Kuvira being an insecure, compensating control freak rather than presenting her as a misguided heroine who lost her way would be a much better use of her character imo.

I liked seeing her cry like a little bitch tho that was cathartic and also sexy.

But you know who actually deserved the sympathy and empathy we were encouraged to give Kuvira? The Beifong family, especially the Zaofu crew! And if you follow me you've probably heard me ramble about this already but they really were the only real ones that season.

They were the literal only ones actively warning everyone about Kuvira and seeing through her bullshit. And it's no surprise, since they know Kuvira. Sure, their grudge against her probably influenced their opinions, but the comics show that there were symptoms of the person Kuvira would eventually become even as a child, like in her anger issues and her destroying Opal's dollhouse as punishment for Opal setting a very rational boundary.

I truly think the Beifong family deserved more screentime and we desrved to hear more out of all of them. As for example, Huan could easily illustrate the irl censorship and control totalitarian governments. Like, there's a reason Polish writer and painter Stanisław Witkiewicz overdosed and slit his wrists after hearing about the Soviets. One of his books also practically predicted the totalitarian control of Nazis and Soviets on Polish art and self expression. But the talk of Huan's wasted potential can wait for another time.

I also liked Wei calling Kuvira out after she was describing herself as a peaceful negotiator by going: You call bringing an army to threaten our city peaceful? After which the conversation was immediately redirected because really Kuvira couldn't maintain her flimsy moral ambiguity if the was answered.

This was his only line in the season and he ATE.

I frankly didn't care much for Toph's inclusion in the season? It felt rather contrived and existing purely for the viewers to get excited and recreate the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at screen meme. This is the same feeling I had about Zuko in B3. Katara is the only cool Gaang octogenarian to me.

I didn't really have an opinion on Lin thsi season. She's.... there? I thought it was sweet that she went to rescue Suyin and that she seemed to have fixed her relationship with her to some extent. But honestly after 4 books her combative nature was overstaying its welcome. Being mean to traumatised teenagers as a middle aged cop is only funny the first few times.

I guess I enjoyed the relationship drama between Toph and Lin and it was nice to see them begin to reconcile. Though, once again it feels repetitive, like a mommy issues reskin of Lin and Suyin's conflict in B3.

Speaking of estranged Beifongs, I particularly liked Baatar Jr's storyline and think he would've made for a much better antag to sympathise with than Kuvira. I like the implications of his inferiority complex and his redeeming moments of trying to stop the spirit canon when Opal was in range of getting hit and the implication that he loved Kuvira much more than he did for the Earth Empire. It's not much, and he's certainly not a good person, but he had more grounds for a redemption than Kuvira.

And I loved Opal's storyline of opposing Kuvira so staunchly and being positioned as Kuvira's primary detractor. I love seeing how Opal had evolved between B3 and B4. How she's visibly more confident and sure in herself and willing to stand up for not only herself but those in need. Her hair growing messy after B3 is also so important to me and wonderful visual storytelling.

I do, however, have a few gripes with the treatment of her character, particularly the minimisation of her concern around Kuvira. Like the rest of the Beifongs, Opal is presented as irrational in her hostility towards Kuvira, which isn't the case at all. She is berated by established characters like Jinora and Korra for her stance, especially after the attempt on Kuvira's life. Actually, I think that: well Su and the twins were the aggressors in this situation, after Kuvira actively threatened military action on your peaceful city could constitute for gaslighting.

Even after Kuvira is proven multiple times to be dangerous and a threat, Opal's despaur over having her family captured and home conquered is treated as inconsequential grumpiness and is pushed aside in order to make room for the plot. Hell, Opal even tags along with Korra and Jinora to help investigate the Spirit Wilds.

(Opal is a better woman than me if someone pulled that shit on me I'd like. Not talk to them for at least a month.)

...And the second half of the season where she gets booted back into the love interest zone is fucking painful. The moment Bolin arrives in Republic City, Opal's very valid frustration and anger is reduced to a lovers' spat and focus is redirected to Bolin "winning her back". And after all is well in obligatory comphet world, I don't think Opal even speaks. It's like after she forgave Bolin and their relationship returned to status quo, she immediately just became an NPC.

Despite my hatred for how Bolin impacts Opal's storyline, I actually adored Bolin's being part of Kuvira's army, and how that was handled.

I liked seeing the continuation of Bolin being easily manipulated by those he looks up to due to his childhood. I liked the portrayal of Bolin's good intentions being used by Kuvira, since it once again parallels the irl inspirations behind Earth Empire .A huge chunk of the Soviets' detractors were actually disillusioned communists, who had joined and given their support, only to be betrayed by the system that they hoped would bring about a positive change.

Sadly, after Bolin deserted from Kuvira, this excellent set up isn't followed up on properly. Instead of any teaching moment or character development, we get Bolin moping for an episode, a few apologies and essentially a fetch quest. And after that, Bolin's honour is restored and he essentially goes back to how he was before B4. Which is dissapointing as hell.

I really enjoyed Korra's recovery arc, it wa svery moving but not to the point of making me too uncomfortable. However, I don't like the notion that she had to suffer to learn compassion and 'become a better person', which is the implication. Because that's an extremely harmful idea and just false. Seeing Korra be constantly beaten down and hurt in the name of "learning compassion" or some bullshit is honestly unsettling.

I also think that Korra's personal arc was ill placed and messed with the main storyline. I think that showcasing Korra's new "compassionate" worldview on Kuvira is the main reason behind the downfall of Kuvira as a character for me. Trying to justify Kuvira's abhorrent actions in service of Korra's personal development is... a bit problematic to say the least

I actually despised Republic City being in the focus of this season. Like, so much is probably going on in the Earth Kingdom but we have to be stuck outside of the Iron Curtain. And meanwhile we have to sit through contrived plots in New York City but make it Oriental. It kinda reeks of USA self-centeredness. And it makes our main characters seem kinda like assholes because they're people with infuence and yet they're just chilling while people die in Concentration Camps so um.

I think the reason I hate B4 is because it's I also love it so much. I love it for the groundwork it set and for what it could've been. It could've been brilliant, but it ended up convoluting its messages and playing into harmful tropes, probably unintentionally.

The worst part of B4 is how good it started off. The begining was excellent and the second half drove it into the ground for me.

....and of course the best thing to come out of B4 was ✨️the weilin face pat✨️. Absolutely iconic scene, best ship in the show, hands down. Though I love that every single Krew Member was given a queer love interest.

Slay. A gaggle of wild bisexuals.

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satirickitty · 6 months ago

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Beautiful 😍

If you're not from England here's some context.

Blue is Conservative aka Tory (historic party name change, so we still use both terms interchangeably)

The recent leader was Rishi Sunak.

The Conservative MP in charge of my area (that has just been booted out!) is Phillip Davies.

He's been here for 20 years. He is well known for for filibustering parliamentary bills & killing off legislation he doesn't like.

Over the years, he's stated that the disabled should have the option of working for less than the minimum wage.

He is a campaigner for the "men's rights" movement and is known for campaigns against political correctness and feminism.

He played a lead role in securing the first International Men's Day debate in Parliament in 2015, which now takes place annually.

He has objected to everything from gay marriage to banning smoking in cars with children, & sending books to prisoners.

He asked is it offensive to black up or not, particularly if you are impersonating a black person? Why is it offensive I never understood that.

He described the introduction of the select committee for women and equalities as the most depressing thing to ever happen.

Also he bet £8000 on himself losing this election, that's how seriously he takes his job.

He has just been put forward for knighthood by Rishi Sunak.

While the Labour Party might not be perfect, at least Anna Dixon (the mp taking over my area) isn't a white male supremacist.

#fuck you Tory cunts!#my local Tory is out whoop whoop!#uk elections #ding dong the Tories are dead

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prolekult · 1 year ago

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Yesterday marked the death of Sylvia Pankhurst - one of the finest revolutionary communists to have ever graced Britain's shores. We have rarely seen such fighters on this earth.

Sylvia was the most tortured suffragette, targetted for her insistence on including working class women within the demands of women's suffrage (much to the disdain of her mother and sister). She did not balk against repeated forced feeding, hunger striking and sleep striking.

She was one of a handful of communists in Britain who opposed the first world war. Her criticism of the war was ceaseless. Practically isolated, she organised relief for working class people in London with cost-price restaurants, free child care for mothers, and more.

She broke with the Labour Party over this, and never returned despite the enormous pressure put upon her by the British labour movement and, later, the Third Internationale. Her arguments with Lenin remain a key debate in communist and British politics.

Pankhurst stood resolutely with the Bolshevik revolution at its outbreak, and was pivotal in organising the "Hands Off Russia" campaign in Britain - which culminated in dock workers across the country refusing to load any munitions to ships.

Pankhurst was an outspoken opponent of racism. Her newspaper - then the Worker's Dreadnought - was the first newspaper in Britain to hire black journalists. When articles written by the Jamaican journalist, Claude McKay, were viewed as seditious, she went to jail for him.

Her support for Irish independence never wavered. She supported Larkin, the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and United Builders' Labourers Union during the Dublin lock-outs. She stood by the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising.

She was one of the first in Britain to recognise the dangers of fascism, her warnings and agitation beginning as early as 1920. Through this struggle, she became deeply involved in Ethiopian national liberation, where she spent the last years of her life.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of the contributions Sylvia made in her life. She did all of this at great cost to herself, enduring her mother and sister denouncing her in the press repeatedly, endless slander, rejection by the mainstream communist movement and worse.

Sylvia also belongs to the great pantheon of disabled revolutionaries, being diagnosed with endometriosis whilst in prison. This, along with the damage done to her organs by forced feeding, left her with often crippling stomach problems.

"I am going to fight capitalism even if it kills me. It is wrong that people like you should be comfortable and well fed while all around you people are starving." She fought until she died, but capitalism didn't kill her. At aged 78, Sylvia passed on.

She was given a state funeral in Ethiopia, and remains the only foreigner buried in the front of Holy Trinity Cathedral. An Ethiopian migrant, cited anonymously in Rachel Holmes' biography of Pankhurst, summed up what she meant to him thus:

"After God, Sylvia Pankhurst".

To learn more about Sylvia, we highly recommend Rachel Holmes' biography, "Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel".

#sylvia pankhurst #communism #politics #marxism #philosophy #communist #anti imperialism #history #leftism #world history #working class #feminism #womens rights #smash the patriarchy #suffragette #suffragists #women's suffrage

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cherienymphe · 2 months ago

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i hear you, but at the same time dems and reps are 2 sides of the same coin. kamala’s entire campaign was pandering to right wingers. her main concern was getting their votes which in the end bit her in the ass because she lost the progressive side. sending bill clinton of all people to a heavy arab/muslim state to basically say to their faces their lives don’t matter. cutting someone off mentioning the genocide with “i’m speaking” and it was very rude at that. trust me, i was one of the ones who thought kamala would bring change, but after seeing how biden admin. handled things i started to rethink that.

biden was able to win the popular vote because he catered to the progressive side as well, but in turn didn’t really do anything but make things worse when he became president.

in 2016, hillary won the popular vote but since the electoral college exists, the presidency went to trump. hillary also catered to the progressive side. non voters don’t believe that all should suffer, they believe that everyone has a right to anatomy and to participate in a system that goes against that isn’t right. america has been a country that fascism has run rampant since its inception. and they’ve been telling us that since the start. the electoral college exists on the very basis of racism. all the non voters i know have heavily contributed to the community and have done so since they were able to. many of them creating crowdfunds, especially for palestinians, haitians, conglonese people, sudanese, tigrayans, etc. they are not just doing nothing. being apart of that has taught me a lot and there’s much more i can do after voting or not voting at all.

someone who supports genocide, wants to crack down on immigration, making it much worse, planning on giving cops more of a right to terrorise people, supports reproductive rights? they tell us a lies every 4 years and it’s the same damage as before if not worse. she has also verbatim said that and i quote, “if forced to release, prisons would lose an important labor pool”, as if prison labour is something to continue when it’s slavery. praised herself about putting a struggling mother of 3 kids who also suffers from Sickle Cell in prison. she was homeless and needed help, but instead decided to do that.

the entire system isn’t perfect, i completely agree, but it’s a system that shouldn’t exist at all. both candidates are horrible and by the looks of it hold the same views on a lot of things. im just trying to get you to see that both sides are terrible, and placing the blame on people who voted 3rd party/non voters isn’t doing anything. the real problem is how our government works and the people who voted trump to continue that carnage.

...but I know both sides are terrible. I just think one is worse. Sorry but I do think what I will go through under Trump will be worse than what I would've went through under Kamala. I do not think they're equally terrible and I'm not blaming 3rd party and non voters. I'm expressing my dislike of them 😭 Trump won the popular vote. We have a serious right wing problem in this country point blank, but I'm capable of expressing my dislike of more than one group

#asks

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ukrfeminism · 1 year ago

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3 minute read

A woman jailed for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy during lockdown will be released from prison after the Court of Appeal reduced her sentence.

Carla Foster, 45, was handed a 28-month extended sentence after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.

Foster had lied that she was just seven weeks pregnant, to obtain the drug Mifepristone over the phone from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service.

She took the drug in May 2020, and delivered her stillborn daughter Lily later the same day.

Sentencing her last month, Mr Justice Pepperall said Foster would serve half her term in custody and the remainder on licence after release.

But at the Court of Appeal in London on Tuesday, three judges reduced her prison sentence.

Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert, said Foster’s sentence would be reduced to 14 months and that it should be suspended.

“This is a very sad case,” Dame Victoria said.

“It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment, and where no useful purpose is served by detaining Ms Foster in custody.”

The Court of Appeal decision was welcomed by women’s right campaigners, who described the law used to prosecute Foster as “cruel” and “antiquated”.

Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: “We...are delighted with the decision to release Carla Foster from prison.

“Now is the time to reform abortion law so that no more women are unjustly criminalised for taking desperate actions at a desperate time in their lives.

“Two women accused of illegally ending their own pregnancies are currently awaiting trial.

“We urge Parliament to take action and decriminalise abortion as a matter of urgency so that no more women have to endure the threat of prosecution and imprisonment.”

A spokesperson for campaign group Level Up added: “This case must bring renewed calls to fight the criminalisation of abortion - and of women and mothers more broadly.”

Labour MP Stella Creasy also called for reform, writing on Twitter: “The relief that this woman can go home to be with her children is tempered by the knowledge there are more cases to come where women in England being prosecuted and investigated for having abortions under this archaic legislation. That’s why we need decrim now.”

During her trial last month, Stoke crown court heard how Foster had been forced to move back in with her estranged partner at the start of the first Covid lockdown, while secretly pregnant with another man’s child.

Foster had conducted internet searches on inducing a miscarriage in February 2020, and her online research for “how to lose a baby at six months” proved she knew she was beyond the legal abortion limit.

Abortions are only legal before 24 weeks, and are carried out in clinics after 10 weeks of pregnancy. They can be carried out after 24 weeks in very limited circumstances, such as if the mother’s life is in danger or there are problems with the baby’s development. Under the Abortion Act 1967, abortions must be approved by two doctors in order to be legal.

Mifepristone was posted to Foster after she told lies over the phone about the stage of pregnancy she was in. She took it on May 11, 2020, and received emergency treatment later on when her daughter was stillborn.

Foster was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty.

She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution.

The sentencing judge concluded Foster had “deliberately lied” to get hold of the drug. But he also said: “This offence was committed against the backdrop of the first and most intense phase of lockdown at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Forced to stay at home, you moved back in with your long-term but estranged partner while carrying another man’s child.

“You were, I accept, in emotional turmoil as you sought to hide the pregnancy.”

He added: “I accept that you feel very deep and genuine remorse for your actions. You are wracked by guilt and have suffered depression.

“I also accept that you had a very deep emotional attachment to your unborn child and that you are plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to seeing your dead child’s face.

“I also take into account the fact that you are a good mother to three children who would suffer from your imprisonment.”

Following her sentencing, women’s human rights programme director at Amnesty International UK Chiara Capraro described the decision to prosecute over a law from 1861 as “shocking and quite frankly terrifying”.

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spl1tknot · 2 years ago

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Hashima Island, Japan

Ghost Town 03

Population: 5,259 (1959) - 0 (2016)

Country: Japan

Years active: 1887-1974

Why Was It Abandoned?

Hashima Island was known for its undersea coal mines during the industrialisation of Japan in 1887.

In 1974, the mines were closed due to the depletion of coal and the use of petroleum in place of coal, which led to many coal mines shutting down across the country. The residents of the island left soon after, and Hashima Island remained abandoned for the following three decades.

In the 2000s, Hashima Island attracted tourists and gained interest because of its untouched historic ruins. This led to Hashima Island being open to tourists on April 22, 2009 and being protected/restored.

Island Life

Originally on Takashima island, an island that was not far from Hashima, the Fukahori family owned the property as feudal lords and took advantage of the profitable opportunities that coal on the island brought. Coal mining was the basis of the local economy and residents were only seen as workers on the island. Due to the increasing demand of coal in the Western continents such as the UK and US for their steam ships in the 1850′s, Thomas B. Glover brought British equipment to the island coal reserves around Nagasaki, which advanced technology and mining practices in 1869 and introduced a new age of coal mining. Because of the success and increase in foreign currency, Fukahori decided to expand on neighboring islands, which is how Hashima Island became a coal mining island.

Around 15.7 million tons of coal were mined and excavated between 1891 and 1974. Coal was used by many Japanese people to heat their homes. They called this “goheita” after the legend about a man who stumbled upon the use of coal by accident.

In 1916, Japan’s first large reinforced concrete building was built to home the workers of the mines. The material used to build the structures pedaled Japan into a new era of architecture. They used concrete as protection against typhoons.

Over the next 55 years, Hashima Island began to grow. Apartment blocks, schools, a hospital, town hall, community centre, clubhouse, cinema, communal bath, swimming pool, rooftop gardens, shops, and a pachinko parlour were built for the miners and their families who lived on the island.

The economy on Hashima Island can be best described as socialist. Housing, electricity, and water were all free for the workers as long as they contributed to public work and territory clean up. The residents of Hashima Island had to depend on the outer world for food, clothes, and other articles of commerce. Fresh water was also delivered to the island until 1957 when tubes connected Hashima Island with water reservoirs on the mainland. This was inconvenient for islanders because of the potential threat of storms preventing sailing to Hashima Island for more than a day.

Until 1963, Hashima Island was just mountains and rock. That was until the “green campaign”, where Hashima residents brought soil from the mainland to the island to create roof gardens where they could grow vegetables and flowers. This also temporarily brought more “life and energy” to the island to lessen its gloomy appearance.

During the 1930’s until the end of World War II, conscripted Koreans and Chinese prisoners of war were forced to work under brutal treatment at the Mitsubishi facility as forced labourers under Japanese wartime mobilization policies. Many labourers died on the island from underground accidents, exhaustion, and malnutrition.

Today Hashima Island attracts many locals from Japan to tour on the island. Hashima Island also eventually became a World Heritage center, but on the condition that the government acknowledges the history of Hashima’s forced labor of Koreans. This was agreed upon, but due to the understatements made about Hashima Island’s forced labor from the Japanese government and addressing it as “work” instead of “forced labor” and disregarding the islands history has made a lot of Koreans and Japanese citizens feel as though the government cares more about the country’s reputation rather than the events and impact it’s had on workers. This is also supported by the fact that the history of Hashima Island’s forced labor is not taught in Japanese schools, which leaves many Japanese citizens unaware of the island’s history and cruelty to conscripted Koreans and war prisoners.

Victims of forced labor have described their experiences on Hashima Island as “a living hell”. Victims mention of how they were forced to work 12 hours a day in the mines while suffering from hunger.

The Nagaski Peace Museum, established in 1995, was created by Japanese citizens to publicize the truth about Japan’s history and demand compensation and apology to the foreign victims of Japan during World War II.

Pop Culture / Media Representation

Hashima, Japan documentary (2002)

History Channel’s Life After People (2009)

James Bond Film, Skyfall (2012)

live action Japanese films for Attack on Titan (2015)

Thai horror film Hashima Project (2013)

South Korean World War II film “Battleship Island” (2017)

Sources

Wikipedia

Why All The Islanders Left Hashima

The Truth About Hashima

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jewish-sideblog · 6 months ago

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Frankly, I should have put image descriptions and explanations in the original post, but I didn't want to make it too long. Here we go--

First image: Heretics being publicly tortured during the Spanish Inquisition. Approximately 300,000 Jews, accounting for a quarter of the Jewish population in Spain at the time, were forcibly converted, ethnically cleansed, exiled, brutally tortured or killed. Contrary to their modern comical appearance, Jews do actually tend to expect the Spanish Inquisition. This sort of mass violence against our communities keeps happening, in every generation.

Second Image: The KKK marches in Washington, 1926. This is meant to represent the KKK in general, but having them parade in front of the USA Capitol building was just too apt. Known primarily for their persecution and lynching of Black Americans, the Klan's 20th Century resurgence was actually kick-started by the brutal lynching of Jewish American Leo Frank, following false accusations that he murdered a 13-year-old girl. By 1925, the Klan had 4 million members, more than the total population of Jews in the United States. Jews also faced institutional segregation and persecution in the US during this time, being barred from Whtie banks, colleges, sports teams, neighbourhoods, and social clubs.

Third Image: A photo taken during the Farhud, a massive mob violence against Jews in Iraq during Shavuot 1941. This particular pogrom was spurred on when pro-Nazi Iraqi soldiers overthrew the government and attempted to ally themselves with the Axis powers. Local radio began spewing frequent antisemitic propaganda, accusing Jews of being British loyalists, and the homes and businesses of Jews were marked with red paint. The increase in antisemitic propaganda led to the murder of as many as 200 Jews, with 900 Jewish homes and businesses being destroyed.

Third Image, Kind Of. I used an image of the Farhud in this post because it represented a pronounced uptick in antisemitism based on considering Jews to be "germs" or "colonial loyalists", but I also intended this image to represent the beginning of massive Jewish persecution and pogroms in the Arab World. During the 20th Century, upwards of a million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Muslim-majority nations, from Morocco to Iran. If I added a photo or a description for every one of those incidents, this post would go on much longer than I would even care to read.

Fourth Image: The Nazis. If you've made it this far, you know why they're here. This post is long enough as is.

Fifth Image: Prisoners are led by a gunman into the gulags. The gulags were meant to house any form of "undesirable" in the Soviet Union, but Jews were especially targeted by Stalinist policies. The government painted all Jews as "rootless cosmopolitans", or stateless capitalists who were more loyal to monetary gain or to Zionism than to the communist state. This campaign led nearly all Soviet Jews to be purged from academia, education, and the arts. They were blacklisted and starved, sent to a barren farm in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, or put in a gulag to endure forced labour under hazardous conditions.

Sixth Image: While the Soviets were attempting to get rid of all their (((capitalists))), the Americans were trying to get rid of all their (((communists))). Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee began blacklisting and imprisoning suspected communist sympathizers. 90% of teachers and actors blacklisted during the Red Scare were Jews, and these policies led to the USA's first-ever federal execution of likely-innocent Jews Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Surprising nobody, several congressmen in the HUAAC were former members of the KKK.

Seventh Image: The Chinese Cultural Revolution. Mao Zedong's PRC at some times mandated, and at other times conveniently ignored, the brutal slaughter of millions of Chinese educators, artists, and scientists, to ensure that whoever remained would be staunchly loyal to the Communist Party government. There were precious few Jews left in China at this point, and most of them were atheists, anti-Zionists, and publicly committed to the PRC cause. That didn't stop them from being imprisoned for decades and sent to forced labour camps. Their crimes? Merely having Jewish ancestry.

Eighth Image: Protests during the 1968 Polish Political Crisis. Political instability in Poland caused an uptick in student protests, which the Polish government blamed on the Jews, saying we had "masterminded" and "orchestrated" instability in the country. About 13,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors and their children were subsequently ethnically cleansed from Poland under the guise of anti-Zionism (see rootless cosmopolitans, above). You can see the Polish cognates for Zionism and Israel on the bottom of their posters. Beginning with mass anti-Zionist protests, the crises evolved into mob violence, blacklists, and political prosecutions. Jews across Poland were forced to publicly denounce Israel and Zionism, and in many cases, doing so didn't prevent them from being targeted by discrimination.

Ninth Image: Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA, 2017. Like the Nazis, this is one that most people will instantly recognize and know about.

Tenth Image: Modern anti-Zionist protests. I picked one choice antisemitic poster that has stuck with me, but there are many, many more examples I could have chosen. Today, we see the echoes of the violence we faced before. Like Leo Frank, we are accused of killing children, of blood libel, despite many of us having no hand in those deaths. Like in the Farhud, red paint is used to mark Jewish homes and businesses. Like in Poland, we are accused of masterminding and orchestrating plots to create political instability and benefit ourselves: "The Superbowl is a cover to distract us from Gaza! Spotify Wrapped is a cover to distract us from Gaza!" Like in communist nations, we are all decried as more loyal to Zionism than we are to our diaspora nations and communities. Jews in the public eye are forced to publicly stand against Israel and Zionism to avoid blacklists and boycotts, and yet many of them are still boycotted and blacklisted simply for being Jewish. Violence against Jewish communities is constantly justified under the guise of anti-Zionism.

They used to say the "bad people" were heretics, non-whites, colonist sympathizers, capitalists, communists, or rootless cosmopolitans. All of those words eventually meant "Jews", and all of that violence eventually targeted Jews. Now they say the "bad people" are Zionists, and they've been saying that for a while. If you look at who suffers when we get rid of the "evil Zionists", you will see hundreds of thousands of Jewish corpses.

I dunno guys. I'm just starting to notice that whenever a society starts thinking like this, the Jews get fucked over. Maybe it's not, you know, a good idea or whatever. Maybe it's, like, eugenics. But I just have a degree in sociology and political violence, what do I know?

#jumblr #actually worked very hard on these descriptions so if you could reblog this version too that'd be great thanks

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ilikeapples01 · 5 months ago

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The Strahalym Massacre (all hail empress pink au) (art by kishinpain)

BEYOND TOP SECRET Military Watchdog Report, [date] Location: Strahalym Campaign, Strahalym Landing

Combatants involved: Jasper ████-███ (commanding officer), Jasper T606-039, Poudretteite JQPD-001, Amethyst 5-8XM

Witnesses: [DATA EXPUNGED FOR PERSONAL SAFETY]

During the very short Strahalym Campaign, appropriately dubbed the ‘Strahalym Massacre’ by sensationalist media outlets, actually detecting excessive force by Homeworld standards became exceptionally difficult, as the combined arms of the invasion force created such lopsided casualties it was largely impossible to tell if the behaviour of the troops fell within acceptable bounds. For instance, gunning down retreating soldiers, reprehensible as it may be morally, is perfectly legal as they are still active combatants who are duty bound to return later and attempt to kill our own forces in return.

That said, multiple eyewitnesses who have not been named to protect their lives have come forward as whistleblowers against the listed gems. This report is extremely sensitive as it indicts one of Empress Pink’s own daughters in war crimes, and is thus not to be taken lightly.

Witnesses describe Jasper T606-039 “T606”, Poudretteite JQPD-001 “Poud” and Amethyst 5-8XM “Shorty” executing disarmed bound and kneeling captives with their sidearms for no discernable reason. When confronted witnesses were met with variations of “fuck off”, “mind your business”, and other such expletive dismissals. Commanding officer Jasper ████-███ was not present, although her loud vocalisations of “scream you animals!” and so on were documented.

The charges this watchdog report brings forward are as follows: ● Execution of unarmed prisoners of war without due cause - punishable by up to one-thousand (1000) years indentured servitude, of either hard labour or forced prostitution varieties, and dishonourable discharge (“T606”, “Poud”, “Shorty”) ● Execution of unarmed prisoners of war for sport - punishable by firing squad (“T606”, “Poud”, “Shorty”) ● Dereliction of duties to subordinates i.e. abandoning one’s posting - punishable by demotion up to and including dishonourable discharge; in the case of a commanding officer also punishable by forcing the offender in question to carry out any sentences passed down to their subordinates. (Jasper ████-███)

Further evidence is available to all parties with Beyond Top Secret clearance and compiled within Document [REDACTED]. Unauthorised access will result in termination. ALWAYS VIGILANT.

one (1) unread message

Director, I know this report isn’t going to go anywhere. I know it’s going to be disappeared by the Bureau the moment they realise Poud’s involved. I know that I’m wasting my breath sending this to anyone expecting this to be resolved through official channels in any way other than those animals being let free to trample and murder again, as many times as they please simply because one of them can say ‘my father’.

So I’m sending it to you.

She listens to you. The Empress, I mean, somehow you’ve got sway over her, some dark charisma so overpowering I don’t even notice it, or something else entirely. That doesn’t matter though, what matters is someone that high up knows this happened, and that they CARE.

Who knows, maybe you’ll tell me to let it go too, feed me something about ‘national security’ or ‘optics’ and hope that’s enough, but I don’t think that’s you, and we both know it wouldn’t stop me. Either way, this report’s in your hands now, so what happens now is up to you. As for me, let them come if they must. Maybe this time they’ll succeed. They got close before, that human’s crafty. But they’ll never intimidate me, and they’ll never get me to cower, and they’ll never sway me from my cause.

LET JUSTICE BE DONE NO MATTER WHAT

Marshal of the Client Worlds Loyal Servant Good Friend Undyne

https://www.reddit.com/r/AllHailEmpressPinkAU/

https://twitter.com/kishinpain/status/1709568445598007461?t=t7BkJxO3hBQTaagpa9IheA&s=19

Poudretteite designed by toodlenoodle

T606 belongs to PersonMchuman

#steven universe au #steven universe oc #steven universe fanart #AllHailEmpressPinkAU #su jasper

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d2kvirus · 5 months ago

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Dickheads of the Month: July 2024

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of July 2024 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Nothing terrifying about the Supreme Court of the USA coming to the decision that Richard Nixon was right all along and that, if Donald Trump a President does something, it is not as illegal - but if one of the lower orders did the same thing is still illegal, because different laws apply to them compared to their God King

Nobody told Marine Le Pen at any point in the past four years that perhaps getting a new script would be a good idea, since her blubbering about "vote rigging" after losing the French election was about as elegant as her performers yelling "Le fix!" in the most blatant Trump pantomime possible

Unifying force for good Keir Starmer thought he'd been midwifed into Downing Street a day early when he randomly said he would work with Marine le Pen to stop small boats, because nothing says "Labour leader" quite like casually saying they'd work with the far-right to maintain a Tory policy, especially given Le Pen didn't win

...though it seems that Yvette Cooper didn't quite get the memo about Le pen not winning, or notice the word "change" being plastered all over the election manifesto, as she couldn't start planning mass deportations fast enough, which is a definite change from the mass deportation-obsessed Theresa May, Priti Patel or Suella Braverman who were Home Secretary before her...

...and the next day Keir Starmer said he was "proud" to have his bid to be Prime Minister endorsed by The Sun. This would be the same Sun which Starmer said he would never give an interview to when on the trail to be Labour leader, before giving numerous interviews to and also writing columns for. But don't you dare suggest that Keir Starmer has a truth-telling problem

Nobody seemed to tell Wes Streeting that the oft-repeated buzzword for Keir Starmer's Labour Party is "Change" given he'd been in the job a week and decided to stick with Victoria Adkins' ban on puberty blockers for trans kids (and only trans kids) which even the widely-discredited Cass Review said not to do, so we can all guess what those meetings with JK Rowling prior to the election were telling him he had to do

Nobody told Keir Starmer's Labour Party that they were supposed to move leftwards once they were in government to prevent their biggest cheerleaders looking like gullible marks, hence they did things like scrap Levinson II to get favours from Rupert Murdoch, then they voted to keep the two-child benefit cap and withdrew the whip from Zarah Sultana, Apsana Begum, Ian Byrne, Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell, Richard Bugon and Imran Hussein for voting against it, which doesn't look at all authoritarian...

...which was then followed by Rachel Reeves making another decision she didn't want to make, apparently forgetting that as Chancellor she has the option to not actually make it, when cutting Winter Fuel Allowance from the elderly

Totally normal for the Knesset to debate whether or not rape should be illegal in Israel after Israeli soldiers gangraped a Palestinian prisoner to the point of him needing to be hospitalised and saw the IDF detain the ten troops - which only saw mass demonstrations by Zionism-pilled gangs defending the IDF's right to gangrape prisoners

Utterly pathetic for Jonathan Ashworth to tweet a few days after losing his seat to Shockat Adam's that he condemn one of his campaigners after they were arrested on suspicion of counter-terrorism offences which definitely did not look like prejudicing an ongoing investigation to score a few points - and this is after Ashworth failed upwards into a cushy position in Labour Together almost as soon as he'd cleared his constituency office desk

It took a week for Reform PLC to degenerate into self-interest and infighting when Richard Tice decided that he wanted to be deputy leader of the "party" which meant that Ben Habib should sod off - and when Habib publicly responded to that he was immediately booted out of the "party", reducing their MPs by 20%

A rare sighting of Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol Central a couple of days before the election served as a timely reminder why she has been hidden in a cupboard for the past four years, as she spent the entire hustings either shouting at members of the audience for daring question her (when she was lying through her teeth) or repeatedly claiming the Greens lied on their manifesto when, a.) They hadn't, and b.) Would you like to tell us about Starmer's leadership pledges?

Questions have been raised about Reform Ltd fielding candidates during the General Election who only exist on paper, questions further raised by their candidate Mark Matlock having an AI generated photo on his Twitter profile and never being seen in Clapham & Brixton Hill for increasingly spurious reasons, and it says a lot that when Richard Tice was asked this question on Peston he failed to provide proof that these candidates were real people and instead started ranting and threatening legal action

...and when "Mark Matlock" posted a video online proving they were a really real person that only posed further questions, starting with how he catfished the voting public given he was at least 10lbs and certainly balder than his AI generated picture, and that's before how he seemed to be hale and hearty for somebody who was in hospital with pneumonia (though the staff had all gone home before he got there, apparently...) four days prior

Totally normal for billionaire manchild Elon Musk to respond to pushback against the SAVE Act by branding those who oppose it "TRAITORS" (his emphasis, not mine) who should be executed - which would be a significant percentage of the US population

...equally normal was billionaire manchild Elon Musk ranting about how advertising executives needed to be imprisoned due him (and only him...) seeing "evidence" of a "racket" that stopped them advertising on the platform once racism, homophobia, transphobia and fucking Holocaust denial started to become rampant, which just so happened to have the fucking moron who owns the platform tell those advertisers to "Go fuck yourself" rather than admit he made a bad decision, was too dumb to back away from it when he had the chance, so decided to make countless bad decisions afterwards that killed the platform

...and could billionaire manchild Elon Musk explain why tens of thousands of tweets about registered sex offender Donald Trump raping kids with and without Jeffrey Epstein seem to disappear off his platform every day?

...and because billionaire manchild Elon Musk cannot stand other people getting attention instead of him, his response to registered sex offender Donald trump getting a grazed ear was to immediately tweet about how two people have tried to kill in in the past eight months, yes they did honest

...soon followed by billionaire manchild Elon Musk forgetting all his hot air about being "apolitical" by announcing he would donate $45m a month to the presidential campaign of fellow child sex offender Donald Trump, all because he hates his trans daughter that much - which looked like money well spent within days when registered sex offender Donald Trump announced the electric car mandate would be torn up - and within a week Musk did a u-turn on that

...and for his next trick billionaire manchild Elon Musk responded to Kamala Harris being the Democrat candidate for the upcoming Presidential election by being an antisemitic twunt when he suggested the Alexander Soros was behind the whole thing

...but because billionaire manchild Elon Musk has an opening his mouth problem, next up he was talking about how his son was "killed" by the spaghetti carbonara mind virus - which was certainly news to his very much alive trans daughter

...before it emerged billionaire manchild Elon Musk has a whitelist that allows the likes of End Wokeness and Andrew Tate to use any slur they wish to use without fear of having Twitter's admin bots nuke their tweet from orbit. But you know what did get nuked from orbit? The account which exposed this, because FREEXE PEACH

...and then billionaire manchild Elon Musk spent waaaaay too long pissing his pants about the Plympics opening ceremony, showing a starling lack of knowledge about history, art, or art history. Or maybe he just got frightened at the reminder of the French beheading the idle rich en masse...

...soon followed by billionaire manchild Elon Musk banning the White Dudes 4 Harris account after it raised $4m for Kamala Harris' campaign in a matter of days, which is definitely a fine example of protecting Freeze Peach

Every now and then Candace Owens likes to remind the world what an absolute fucking moron she is, and this time she decided to do so by suggesting that it was American and the Allied nations who committed ethnic cleansing in WWII, and certainly not the Nazis

It slipped the mind of Channel 3 News that they were an Indian Twitter feed pretending to be an American news channel when they started pumping out patently Islamophobic misinformation about the the very British Southport stabbing which, of course, was seized upon by brainless gammon who thought they were a real news channel because it confirmed their prejudices

...and surprise surprise, this led to the gammonati descending upon Southport looking to smash up the local mosque because they were really concerned about what happened to the three girls who were killed in the attack and definitely not looking to get destructive due to having fuck all to do on their summer holidays - apart from getting beaned in the nards with a house brick, that is

Non-political party Reform PLC were caught using photos of dead pensioners stolen from news sites and passing them off as people pledging to vote for them. I'm going to guess that, as the Electoral Commission won't do a damn thing about this before the Rapture, either the photo agency who had their photos stolen or the relatives of the people whose photos were used might be having a few things to say about that...

Perhaps if Kemi Badenoch wanted to clamp down on things said in Tory party meetings being leaked to the press, she could start with not leaking to the press the comments made in a meeting where she slagged off Rishi Sunak while also telling Tory MPs not to leak things to the press

Plastic surgery disaster Kimberly Guilfoyle somehow managed to look even more stupid than the RNC attendees with Maxipads handing off their ears in solidarity with registered sex offender Donald Trump when she said that Allied stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight Communism. No, Kim, they were storming the beaches of Normandy to combat fascism

Once again Luke Akehurst tried to appeal to the hearts and minds of Durham North by posing for a photo four miles away from the Durham miner's Gala suggesting he was invited - that would be the Durham Miner's Gala which quite specifically did not invite him

Totally normal behaviour from Stuart Roden in standing in front of a pro-Palestine rally and yelling at them to attack him in public, which definitely isn't attention-seeking nor an example of a bizarre victim complex. The fact that he donated £500,000 to Keir Starmer's Labour Party mere days before this stunt begs more questions...

Congratulations to Johnny Mercer for being the sorest loser on Election Night, with his sour grapes on full display when he stormed off the stage - which somehow wasn't even the least dignified display by a Mercer that week, given that Felicity Mercer spent the day before the election haranguing ex-servicemen who were peacefully protesting by asking to speak to the manager of the police

...though after Jonathan Ashworth and Thangam Debbonaire spent weeks kvetching to anyone who would give them a microphone about how unfair it was that they lost their MP's salaries due to the other candidates "cheating" (which is a euphemism for giving voters a reason to actually vote for them) Mercer is at best the bronze medallist for Election Night's sorest loser

Do you think registered sex offender Donald Trump called the family of the person killed when he was having his ear pierced, or the families of those injured? Of course he didn't: instead he wore a microscopic pillow on his ear that he made sure to wear at the rally in his honour the next day which he fell asleep during, before he started fondling and kissing a fireman's uniform which wasn't that of Corey Comperatore while his cultists also started wearing Maxipads on their ear and think that didn't make them look completely mental

Attention-seeker par excellence Jess Phillips bemoaned the toxicity in modern politics after she clung onto her seat by just 700 votes. This would be the same Jess Phillips who said she would gladly stab Jeremy Corbyn in the front, claims she told Diane Abbott to "fuck off" (which Abbott denies ever happening) and laughed when the results to the 2019 election came in, none of which can be described as toxic behaviour

According to JD Vance the UK is the first Islamist country with nuclear weapons. Starting to think that Trump supporters tried to lynch Mike Pence on January 6th because he wasn't enough of a headcase, while Vance is so keen to be one

...though the silence from Keir Starmer and David Lammy after these comments is certainly a concern

...and because JD Vance was on a roll, his response to Kamala Harris becoming the Democrat candidate was to call her a "childless cat lady", because that approach worked wonders for Andrea Leadsom in the 2016 Tory leadership race

On the subject of toxicity in politics, I see Kemi Badenoch and fascist pitbull Suella Braverman have decided the best way to put themselves forward for the vacant Tory leadership job is to publicly tear into each other on a daily basis

Militant TERF JK Rowling is now turning her baffling rage towards lesbians, while casually throwing the word "cure" around during her increasingly unhinged rants, which once again lends credence to the belief her choice of nom de plume is not a coincidence

...and then militant TERF JK Rowling demonstrated that she doesn't know what a woman is when ranting about Imane Khelif in the Olympic women's boxing on the assumption that, as she was noticeably taller than her opponent (who she pummeled in short order) and had short hair, she was obviously trans - except that Khelif is not and has never been trans, so at this point Rowling's derangement has her shouting at short-haired women

I hope that Mark Kern doesn't need to take his computer to be repaired anytime soon, because when he's trying to defend Dr Diddleskids by spouting some insane nonsense about a Twitch employee posing as minor to sext with Noncer Disrespect that paints a worrying picture about Kern's hard drives

...similarly we had Sneako saying there were double standards as nobody is as willing to forgive Dr Diddleskids for his past like Sketch was. Just a reminder: Sketch did gay porn once, while Noncer Noncernonce was caught sexting with minors, which are totally the same thing and definitely doesn't make Sneako sound like a fucking idiot whose hard drives need checking

...and because Mark Kern is that dumb, he was duped by people telling him that they were Japanese* and their also Japanese** kids were given homework by their Japanese*** schools about how Assassin's Creed Shadows is factually inaccurate and gleefully retweeted this...unaware that he was being played like a gullible mark that is so desperate for people to agree with him that he retweets people clearly taking the piss out of his latest idiotic crusade

Bitch move by Jack Black in splitting up Tenacious D all because Kyle Gass made a joke about Trump getting his ear pierced (a joke which Black laughed at when Gass made it) because he was scared of losing his money as a voice actor

...similarly we had Adidas cower like a bunch of bitches when the loudest, angriest zionists howled in protest at an ad campaign featuring Bella Hadid which mainly consisted of weaponising the 1972 Olympic massacre, so of course Adidas caved instead of do nothing and simply sitting back to wait for the Israeli Olympic team to get booed all games long

It might have been a good idea for Joey Mannarino to log out of his Twitter account before logging into the one where he cosplays a black woman who will never vote for Kamala Harris, because people were able to spot the lie pretty damn fast...

Waffling gargoyle Nigel Farage couldn't ditch the constituents of Clacton fast enough after Trump had his ear pierced and flew over to the US to show support to his "friend" - and was ghosted the entire time he was there, culminating in his getting arsey when asked by a British journalist if he'd even spoken to Trump since he got there

Apparently the reason why Charlotte Dujardin was whipping her horse to hamburger was "an error of judgment" and not, say, reason to investigate further if she has a habit of making similar errors of judgment. Suffice to say the fawning piece on the BBC a day before the story broke aged well...

Noted failure Paula Radcliffe wrung her hands to ask if being guilty of raping a twelve year old should stand in the way of the Olympic dreams of Steven van de Velde and somehow didn't expect that to blow up in her face - especially after she habitually calls for trans competitors to be dragged out of the Olympics kicking and screaming if necessary

...and, of course, we had Sharron Davies bleating TERFily about how she didn't lose at the 1980 Olympics because Petra Schneider was trans...a claim which is somewhat undermined by the fact that Petra Schneider is not and never has been trans

Freelance snuff photographer Logan Paul decided he'd had enough of scamming people for money, so instead launched a defamation suit in Coffeezilla's direction for their repeatedly outlining all the ways that Logan Paul's pyramid scheme/NFT game was an obvious scam where only Logan Paul benefitted from it while the saps who played the game were out of pocket which even a naked molerat could see is a blatant SLAPP suit, apparently forgetting how badly his threatening legal action against Coffeezilla for the exact same thing panned out the last time

Perhaps if Katy Perry wanted to record a wannabe feminist anthem to serve as her comeback single she could have considered maybe not having it produced by noted rapist Dr Luke

Total professionalism from Judy Murray in her response to Emma Raducanu sending Andy Murray into earlier-than-expected retirement when she pulled out of their mixed doubles match at Wimbledon due to prioritising her singles matches when she suspected an injury by bitching about her on her socials - and not the first time Judy Murray has publicly slagged Raducanu off, either

Rapey nonce Andrew Tate is so desperate to appear edgy that he keeps tweeting a phrase that Idubbbz fans called themselves a decade ago because he thinks that makes him big, hard and clever and not, say, somebody who Romanian authorities are preparing to throw into a dank, urine-soaked hellhole for a considerable amount of time not for being edgy, but for being a rapey nonce

Bonehead messiah Tommy Robinson flew over from Tenerife on his Irish passport to show the "100,000" people he managed to cram into half of the 19,000-capacity Trafalgar Square his documentary which he was told would see him imprisoned if he screened it. Hmm, would you like to guess what happened? That's right: he legged it back to Tenerife to avoid his court appearance

So about how registered sex offender Donald Trump is all over the Epstein Files, which MAGA louts had been demanding be released for years yet are strangely silent about once they are out there. So here's a question for the SCOTUS: did your God King beating it like a piñata while coercing two twelve year old girls into a lesbian sex show count as "an official act"...?

#dickheads of the month

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clove-pinks · 3 years ago

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'La M. de la Corsets': c. 1832 lithograph showing a dressmaker or tailoress and client. The undergarments depicted include sleeve-plumpers.

1830s Thursday: Big sleeves, and even bigger dreams for women’s rights.

The growing vulnerability of working women in industrial society provoked a forceful response. In 1825 hundreds of them went out on strike against New York City clothing houses. In 1831 these same women organized themselves into a mass-membership United Tailoresses’ Society. At a time when journeymen were still devoting their political efforts to a defense of artisanal prerogatives in the master’s shop, these “tailoresses” (the appellation itself testified to an advanced degree of industrial consciousness, excluding as it did the more traditional dressmaking of the “sempstress”) already understood that in a capitalist economy no aspect of the work relationship remained non-negotiable. [...]

No one can help us but ourselves, Sarah Monroe, a leader of the United Tailoresses’ Society, declared. Tailoresses should consequently organize a trade union with a constitution, a plan of action, and a strike fund. Only then could we “come before the public in defense of our rights.” The Wollstonecraftian rhetoric was conscious. Lavinia Wright, the society’s secretary, argued that the tailoresses’ low wages and hard-pressed circumstances were a direct result of the way power was organized throughout society to ensure women’s subordination in all social relations.

— Michael Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy: A History of Men's Dress in the American Republic, 1760-1860

I was disappointed in my search for pictures of Sarah Munroe, Lavinia Wright, or really anything to do with the United Tailoresses’ Society. One online article outright stated, “We know very little about this speaker, Sarah Monroe, other than that she was a garment worker and president of the newly formed United Tailoress Society -- the first women-only union in the United States.”

I am in awe of this working-class woman, Sarah Monroe, who is quoted by Michael Zakim as saying in 1831:

It needs no small share of courage for us, who have been used to impositions and oppression from our youth up to the present day, to come before the public in defense of our rights; but, my friends, if it is unfashionable for the men to bear oppression in silence, why should it not also become unfashionable with the women?

'The Tailor's Shop': 1838 lithograph by Carl Kunz and Johann Geiger

#1830s #fashion history #labor history #labour history #us history #sarah monroe #Eighteen-Thirties Thursday #united tailoresses' society #michael zakim #women's history #also i have been sleeping on michael zakim's book it's really good #there were many strikes by female garment workers in the time period #amazingly forward-thinking they were trying to get sick pay and retirement benefits #they also campaigned against prison labour #tailors #dress history #inequality #industrial relations #19th century

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workingclasshistory · 2 years ago

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On this day, 18 July 1912, four suffragettes – Mary Leigh, Gladys Evans, Lizzie Baker and Mabel Capper – attempted to set fire to the Theatre Royal in Dublin during a packed lunchtime meeting due to be addressed by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. They left a canister of gunpowder close to the stage and hurled petrol and lit matches into the projection booth, which contained highly combustible film reels. The previous day, Mary Leigh had hurled a hatchet (around which a text reading “This symbol of the extinction of the Liberal Party for evermore” was wrapped) into the carriage containing Asquith, which narrowly missed him and instead cut the Irish Nationalist MP John Redmond on the ear. Redmond's focus on the campaign for Home Rule had led to his refusal to insert a clause giving women the vote, assuring his status as a target. All four were remanded in prison during the trial and on August 7, Mary Leigh and Gladys Evans were sentenced to 5 years penal servitude, Jennie Baines (under the nom de guerre Lizzie Baker) was given seven months hard labour, and the charges against Mabel Capper were dropped. * Did you know that we also have an account on open source social media platform Mastodon? There we post all of our anniversaries each day, so give us a follow: https://mastodon.social/@workingclasshistory https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2037249906460149/?type=3

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fannish-karmiya · 3 years ago

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Who Knew the Truth About the Wen Remnants?

(finally cross-posting from Ao3)

In the story of Modao Zushi, we see a group of people being rounded up and placed in a restricted settlement, then shuffled to a prison labour camp, and eventually be massacred and thrown in a mass grave. The treatment of the Wen remnants by the sects and their eventual fate bear similarities to real ethnic cleansing/genocide attempts, and I find the way that fandom tries to mitigate and even ignore it deeply disturbing.

I think that part of it is because people like these characters. They don’t want to take a long hard look at them and admit that they were either complicit or active participants in such an atrocity. How could people who are supposed to be righteous, like Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue and Lan Qiren, do such a monstrous thing?

People want to believe that they didn’t know. That the Jins were engaging in a massive smear campaign against Wei Wuxian and that the sects were deceived into thinking that the people in the Burial Mounds settlement were an army. But I don’t think the text backs that up, and am going to be going over it very closely to try to build a clear picture of what was known about the Wen remnants by the cultivation world, and who was involved in their massacre.

From the Ghetto to the Prison Camp

I’m going to say, I think Mo Xiang Tong Xiu knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote all of this. The remnants of the Wen clan, after the war, are described as being cordoned off into a small settlement in Qishan, with all the remaining territory being divvied up between the sects. After that, the remaining Wens (the ones who didn't participate in the war) who had initially been allowed to live there started being arrested on trumped up charges and sent to the prison camp at Qiongqi Path.

In general, this is the sort of pattern which real world ethnic cleansing or genocide attempts tend to follow. People are first confined to a ghetto, then start being arrested on spurious charges (see Wen Ning's arrest) and sent to prison labour camps, subjected to harsh treatment there with many dying 'accidentally', and eventually people may be massacred and their bodies thrown in a mass grave.

The Genocide Convention defines 'deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part' as an important hallmark of genocide. This was certainly the end result of the cultivation world's hate against the Wens. The Genocide Convention also defines genocide itself as 'intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group'. The sects in Modao Zushi are certainly religious sects, and as they all have their own unique cultures, I think we could argue that they bear at least some similarities to ethnic groups as well.

To me, the fact that the initial desire for retribution turned into a hateful fervour in which the cultivation world wanted to see the entire Wen clan exterminated, down to the conscientious objectors like Wen Qing and the infants like A-Yuan, drives this much closer to an ethnic cleansing or genocide attempt than simply a case of treating war prisoners inhumanely. And, as we will see soon when Wei Wuxian confronts everyone in Koi Tower, the cultivation world does not care that many of the people in prison now are innocent of war crimes.

Most of the descriptions of something similar happening are from chapter 72, where Wei Wuxian shows up at the banquet in Koi Tower to ask after Wen Ning.

Wei WuXian, “You definitely remember him. Last month, when you were night-hunting in the area of Ganquan, you chased an eight-winged bat king to the gathering place, or the detention camp, of the Wen Sect’s remnants and brought a group of the Wen Sect’s disciples. The one in the lead was him.”

After the Sunshot Campaign, the QishanWen Sect was destroyed. The territory that it was expanding was shared among the other sects. The Ganquan area was appointed to the LanlingJin Sect. As for the remnants of the Wen Sect, they were herded into a small corner of Qishan, not even a thousandth the territory it onced owned. They were crammed into the place and struggled to live.

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

As said, the wording of ‘detention camp’ and ‘crammed into the place and struggled to live’ is very reminiscent of a ghetto.

Wei Wuxian describes Jin Zixun’s ill-treatment of the Wen cultivators who were allowed to live ‘free’ after the war:

Wei WuXian, “Fine. I don’t mind explaining it in greater detail. You couldn’t catch the bat king and happened to run into a few of the Wen Sect’s disciples who were there to investigate the same thing. And so, you threatened them to carry spirit-attraction flags to be your bait. They didn’t dare do it. One person stepped out and tried to reason with you. That’s the Wen Ning I’m talking about. After some delay, the bat king got away. You beat up the Wen cultivators, took them away by force, and the group disappeared. Do I need to say any more details? They still haven’t returned yet. Apart from you, I don’t know who in the world I could possibly ask.”

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s worth noting too that this behaviour is very reminiscent of Wen Chao’s, and yet no one in the room observing this is concerned at all. In general, Wei Wuxian describes a very concerning situation and no one cares; such is the negative sentiment against the Wens at this point.

Wei WuXian, “Did I say something wrong? Forcing living people to be bait and beating them up whenever they refused to obey—is this any different from what the QishanWen Sect does?”

Another guest cultivator stood up, “Of course it’s different. The Wen-dogs did all kinds of evil. To arrive at such an end is only karma for them. We only avenged a tooth for a tooth, letting them taste the fruit that they themselves had sown. What’s wrong with this?”

Wei WuXian, “Take revenge on the ones who bite you. Wen Ning’s branch doesn’t have much blood on their hands. Don’t tell me that you find them guilty by association?”

[...]

The person shook his head, the words ‘this man refuses to reason with me’ written all over his face. Someone else sneered, “Back then, when the Wen Sect slaughtered our people, it was thousands of times crueler than this! They didn’t treat us with justice and morality, so why should we treat them with such?”

Wei WuXian grinned, “Oh. The Wen-dogs did all kinds of evil, so anyone whose surname is Wen can be killed? That’s not it, is it? Many of the clans who defected from the Wen Sect are quite well-off right now, aren’t they? In this hall, isn’t there a few sect leaders from clans that used to be under the Wen Sect’s wing?”

As the sect leaders saw that he recognized them, their expressions changed at once. Wei WuXian continued, “Since anyone whose surname is Wen can be used an outlet of anger as one pleases, no matter if they’re innocent or not, does it mean that it’s fine even if I kill all of them right now?”

(Chaper 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s worth noting that the ‘clans who defected’ are not Wens themselves, as some fans have suggested. Many smaller sects are subordinate to the great sects in their regions, such as the Laoling Qin who are loyal to the Lanling Jin. Wei Wuxian is just pointing out the hypocrisy of them being allowed to live free while the remaining Wens are so mistreated.

An interesting exchange happens after Wei Wuxian leaves:

Lan WangJi spoke coldly, “Was he wrong?”

Jin GuangYao paused almost unnoticeably. He immediately laughed, “Haha. Yes, he’s right. But it’s because he’s right that he can’t say it in front of them, correct?”

Lan XiChen seemed as if he was deep in thought, “Young Master Wei’s heart really has changed.”

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

I just find the fact that Jin Guangyao actually admits that Wei Wuxian was in the right here to be very, very interesting. He’s a terrible person who continually chooses to do evil, but every now and then he has these odd moments. I’d also point out that Lan Xichen seems entirely unswayed by the accusations of abuse which Wei Wuxian has made against the Jins.

From there, Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing head to Qiongqi Path, where the original reliefs carved by the Qishan Wen are being replaced.

Such a large-scale undertaking would need many laborers for sure. And, as for these laborers, of course there were no better candidates than the Wen Sect’s prisoners of war, who had become homeless dogs after the Sunshot Campaign.

[...]

Before the valley was a row of shacks built temporarily for the prisoners of war to spend their nights. Leading Wen Qing, Wei WuXian saw an old, bent-over figure from afar. Cloaked in rain, the figure walked slowly, carrying a large flag. When it walked nearer, it became clear that the person carrying the flag was a wobbly old woman. She carried on her back a young toddler who paid attention to nothing but nibbling his fingers, fixed into position by a few cloth rags.

[...]

A large sun, crest of the QishanWen Sect, was painted over the flag. However, it a blood-red cross was plastered on top of it. The flag itself was torn to bits as well. From when the Sunshot Campaign ended until now, countless people were labeled ‘leftover Wen-dogs’. Countless methods were used to torture them too, even called the euphemism ‘self reflection’. Wei WuXian knew it was likely because she was too old and couldn’t be a laborer like the others that the leader here came up with such a way to torment her. She had to carry the Wen Sect’s tattered flag and walk around in self humiliation.

[...]

Torches were set up on both sides of the valley. The flames flickered now and then within the faint strings of rain, but their blaze nonetheless illuminated the hundreds of heavy silhouettes on the path.

The prisoners were all ghastly pale, their steps dragging. They weren’t allowed to use spiritual powers or any other instruments, not only by the LanlingJin Sect’s precautions against them, but also because it had to be punishing. Over a dozen inspectors, bearing black umbrellas, rode on horseback through the rain as they scolded.

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian notices that the inspectors are carrying branding tools:

The young man bore handsome features, but his eyes were rather cold. He couldn’t help but shiver under the gaze. Soon, he realized that the young man wasn’t staring at him, but instead the iron brand that he brandished.

The iron brand within the inspector’s hand was the same kind as what the QishanWen Sect’s servants used. It was only that the shape of the brand at the top was changed from the sun crest to the peony crest.

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

At this point they begin to question the inspectors.

The people looked at one another. After some dawdling, an inspector who looked quite honest spoke up, his tone friendly, “All of the prisoners here are the Wen Sect’s cultivators. New ones are sent here every day.”

[...]

The inspector was round and chubby. He gave an obsequiously apologetic grin, “Maiden, don’t worry. Actually, it happens a lot that other sects come to us for cultivators. Maybe somebody else took him during the past few days? When we do roll calls, we’d sometimes find that someone ran away as well…”

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

May I just note how ominous it is that sects ‘come to [them] for cultivators’ regularly? What happens to those cultivators? We’ll never know.

When Wei Wuxian asks where the dead cultivators are, the guards claim:

The inspectors quickly replied, “That’s not the way to talk. Although it’s all Wen cultivator’s here, we’ve never dared do anything fatal.”

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

Naturally, he doesn’t believe this and uses Chenqing to raise the corpses:

Yelps of surprise suddenly came from the far side of the crowd. Scrambling, the people soon emptied out an area of the circle with which they surrounded him. In the area stood slantingly around a dozen tattered figures, tall and short, men and women. Some of them gave off the stench of rotting flesh. The one who stood at the front was Wen Ning, whose eyes were still open.

His face was as pale as wax and his pupils were dilated. The blood at the corner of his lips had already dried into a dark brown. Although his chest didn’t rise and fall at all, it was obvious to see that half of his ribcage had collapsed. Nobody who saw such a scene would think that he was still alive, but Wen Qing still didn’t give up, grabbing for his pulse with trembling hands.

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

This gives us an idea of just how brutally the prisoners are being killed. The inspectors, meanwhile, try to cover it up but clearly don’t consider what they’ve done wrong at all:

“Young Master Wei, you mustn’t say such a thing. We wouldn’t dare kill a single person here. He’s the one who wasn’t careful while working, fell off the valley walls and died.”

Wei WuXian, “Nobody would dare kill a single person? Is that true?”

The inspectors swore in unison, “Absolutely!”

“Not a single one!”

Wei WuXian smiled, “Oh. I understand.”

Immediately after, he continued calmly, “It’s because they’re Wen-dogs, and Wen-dogs aren’t people. So even if you killed them, it doesn’t count as having killed people. That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”

This was exactly what the lead inspector was thinking when he said it. With his thoughts read, his complexion paled. Wei WuXian added, “Or did you really think I wouldn’t know how someone died?”

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

Before Wei Wuxian takes them all from the camp, we get a little more insight into how people were treated there:

The prisoner’s voice quivered slightly as he pointed in a certain direction, “There’s… There’s a house on that side of the valley. They use it to… lock people inside and beat them up. Anyone who dies would be dragged outside and buried. Some of the people you’re looking for might be over there…”

Wei WuXian, “Thank you.”

He followed the direction that the person pointed and indeed saw a shed that seemed like it was only temporarily built. Holding Wen Qing in one hand, he kicked the door open. In a corner of the room sat around a dozen people, all of them bruised and bleeding.

(Chapter 72, Exiled Rebels translation)

I know I quoted a lot here, but I think it’s worth establishing in clear terms just how terrible Qiongqi Path was and how much it resembles a concentration camp.

The Reaction of the Sects

Immediately after Wei Wuxian takes the Wens from the prison camp to the Burial Mounds, the sects meet at Koi Tower to discuss it. Those who weren’t there are called in. The discussion that happens here gives us some very good clues as to how much the sect leaders either knew (or chose not to know) about the Wen remnants and how they were being abused.

Just about everyone was here at this meeting:

On that night, an extreme crisis flooded the cultivational world.

At midnight, in the Golden Pavilion on Koi Tower sat over fifty sect leaders from sects of all sizes. Jin GuangShan sat in the foremost seat. Jin ZiXuan was away, while Jin ZiXun didn’t have enough experience, so Jin GuangYao was the only one who stood beside him. In the front row sat sect leaders and famed cultivators like Nie MingJue, Jiang Cheng, Lan XiChen, and Lan WangJi. All of their expressions were solemn. The next row sat sect leaders of lesser importance.

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jin Guangyao starts us off:

“… Four inspectors were harmed. Around fifty of the remaining Wen Sect members escaped. After Wei WuXian led them into Burial Mound, he summoned hundreds of fierce corpses to patrol the base of the mountain. Our people still can’t get any further.”

[...]

What Jin GuangShan wanted, however, wasn’t his apology or his compensation, “Sect Leader Jiang, at first, for your sake, the LanlingJin Sect didn’t intend on saying anything. However, some of these inspectors weren’t from the Jin Sect. There were a few from other sects as well. This makes it…”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s worth noting, very loudly, that there were inspectors from multiple sects at the prison camp. This wasn’t something which the Jins were doing in secret; everyone was involved.

Jin Guangyao’s wording, ‘our people still can’t get any further’ also implies that Wei Wuxian and the Wens were pursued immediately. He would probably have had to take them to the Burial Mounds no matter what (where else would a necromancer with 50 civilians to protect go but corpse mountain?), but in particular he had no choice because it was closest and he needed a large force to repel their pursuers before they caught up to them.

Jiang Cheng, for the last time ever in his life, speaks up for Wei Wuxian:

“...Everyone, I’m afraid you don’t know that the Wen cultivator whom Wei WuXian wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Of course, that doesn’t last long:

Nie MingJue, “You owe them gratitude? Isn’t the QishanWen Sect the ones who caused the YunmengJiang Sect’s annihilation?”

Within these few years, Jiang Cheng insisted on working late into the night every day. That day, just as he decided to rest early, he had to rush to Koi Tower overnight because of the thundering news. He’d been suppressing some anger under his fatigue since the beginning. With his natural competitiveness, he was already quite agitated since he had to apologize to other people. When he heard Nie MingJue mention the incident of his sect again, hatred sprouted within him.

The hatred was directed at not only everyone who was seated in this room, but also Wei WuXian.

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Nie Mingjue clearly has no idea what it’s like to live under a tyrannical dictator:

Lan XiChen responded a moment later, “I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”

Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”

Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”

Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”

Lan XiChen knew that because of what happened to his father, Nie MingJue abhorred Wen-dogs more than anything, especially with how intolerable he was toward evil. Lan XiChen didn’t say anything else.

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Lan Xichen may well be one of the least prejudiced in his attitudes here, and he still drops the topic like a hot potato because he doesn’t care enough to risk upsetting Nie Mingjue or making a fuss. Quite frankly, the subtext here is that he just doesn’t care enough to pursue it.

It’s very clear in this chapter just how bad the sentiment against the Wens is: they’re all guilty by the very crime of their name, as far as the rest of society is concerned:

One of the sect leaders spoke up, “What Sect Leader Nie said is quite right. Besides, Wen Qing is one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. You’re telling me she never participated? Well I don’t buy it. Is there any Wen-dog without a single drop of blood on their hands? Maybe it’s just that we haven’t found out about it yet!”

As soon as the Wen Sect’s past cruelties were mentioned, the crowd boiled over, surging and chattering.

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Everyone happily disparages Wei Wuxian for a while before Mianmian steps in:

Suddenly, a careful voice interjected, “It’s not killing indiscriminately, is it?”

“...Let’s consider this as it stands. I really don’t think it’s right to say that he killed indiscriminately. After all, there is a reason. If the inspectors really abused the prisoners and killed Wen Ning, it wouldn’t be called killing indiscriminately anymore, but rather revenge…”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

The men here all happily disparage her and dismiss the notion that there was any abuse going on at the prison camp:

Another one of them mocked, “We still don’t know whether or not the inspectors really did those things. It’s not like anybody saw it with their own eyes.”

“That’s right. All of the inspectors who lived said that they definitely didn’t abuse the prisoners. Wen Ning died because he himself accidentally fell from a cliff. They even went so far as to take back his corpse and bury him, yet they received such revenge. How disappointing!”

[...]

The woman said, “The other inspectors are scared that they’d be responsible for abusing the prisoners and killing people. Of course they’d insist that he fell off on his own…”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

At this point they all disparage Mianmian, insisting that she’s a feeble-minded woman swayed by her supposed attraction to Wei Wuxian; I think these men would have gotten along very well with the Victorians. Only after Mianmian defects and Lan Wangji leaves to speak to her does Lan Xichen say anything:

After Lan XiChen understood what happened a few moments ago, hearing how the direction of their discussion worsened, he spoke up, “Everyone, she is gone already. Let us settle down.”

Now that ZeWu-Jun had spoken, of course the people had to give him some face. In Golden Pavilion, one after another, they began to denounce Wei WuXian and the Wen-dogs again. They all spoke with passionate hatred, letting their indiscriminate, irrefutable loathing dance in the air.

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Nie Mingjue compliments her, but only in private with Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao, never speaking up for her publicly either:

Nie MingJue, “The woman has much more backbone than the mob of her sect.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

The matter is settled, at least for now, when Jiang Cheng visits Wei Wuxian at the Burial Mounds. Jiang Cheng very clearly sees the people there and declares them:

Jiang Cheng mocked, “Those sect leaders thought you gathered some leftover forces and crowned yourself king of the hill. So it’s only the old, the weak, the women, and the children.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

He also sees A-Yuan, who is probably 2 at this point, and is completely unswayed:

As he was about to speak again, he felt something heavy on his leg. He looked down. He didn’t know when, but a child about one or two years old crept over and hugged his leg. Raising his chubby chin, he looked up at him with his dark, round eyes.

He was quite a fine, lovable child. Unfortunately, Jiang Cheng had no love in him at all. He turned to Wei WuXian, “Where did the kid come from? Get him away from me.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

After attacking Wen Ning’s sleeping fierce corpse, he demands that Wei Wuxian return the Wen remnants to the Jins:

Wei WuXian, “You said it already. I wouldn’t be in the right even if I am. What else could I do except for jailing myself here?”

Jiang Cheng, “What else? Of course there’s something.”

With Sandu, he pointed at Wen Ning who lay on the ground, “The only way of making up for things is for us to end things before they get the chance to!”

Wei WuXian, “End what?”

Jiang Cheng, “You burn this corpse right now and return to them all these leftovers of the Wen Sect. That’s the only way to make the subject die!” As he spoke, he raised his sword again, preparing to attack.

However, Wei WuXian clenched his wrist, “Are you joking?! If we return Wen Qing and the others to them, they’d meet nothing but a dead end!”

Jiang Cheng, “I doubt you’ll even return all of them. Why do you care what kind of end they meet? A dead end it is, then—what does it have to do with you?!”

[...]

Wei WuXian, “I don’t need anyone to speak for me.”

Jiang Cheng exploded, “Just what are you being so stubborn about? If you can’t do it then move over—I’ll do it!”

Wei WuXian gripped him even tighter, his fingers as tight as iron, “Jiang WanYin!”

[...]

Wei WuXian, “There’s no need to protect me. Just let go.”

Jiang Cheng’s face twisted.

Wei WuXian, “Just let go. Tell the world that I defected. From now on, no matter what Wei WuXian does, it’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect.”

Jiang Cheng, “… All for the Wen Sect…? Wei WuXian, do you have a savior complex? Is it that you’ll die if you don’t stand up for someone and stir up some trouble?”

Wei WuXian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects the YunmengJiang Sect in the future.”

Or else, he really couldn’t make any guarantees on what he’d do in the future.

“…” Jiang Cheng murmured, “My mom said that you do nothing but bring our sect trouble. It’s true indeed.” He laughed coldly, talking to himself, “‘To attempt the impossible’? Fine. You understand the YunmengJiang Sect’s motto. Better than I do. Better than all of us do.”

He sheathed Sandu. The sword returned to its sheath with a clang. Jiang Cheng’s tone was indifferent, “Then let’s arrange for a duel.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Without Wei Wuxian ever knowing, Jiang Cheng goes a step further, declaring that he betrayed Yunmeng Jiang and declared himself an enemy to the cultivation world:

After the fight, Jiang Cheng told the outside that Wei WuXian defected from the sect and was an enemy to the entire cultivation world. The YunmengJiang Sect had already cast him out. From then on, no ties remained between them—a clear line was drawn. Henceforth, no matter what he did, they’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect!

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is also confirmed by Jin Guangyao over 13 years later. He refers to Wei Wuxian ‘betraying the sect’ while speaking to Lan Xichen:

Jin GuangYao, “Brother, during the fight with Sect Leader Jiang, when Wei WuXian betrayed the YunmengJiang Sect, how badly wounded was he? Didn’t he still return to command the corpses? Would anything in this world prove to be difficult to the YiLing Patriarch?”

(Chapter 65, Exiled Rebels translation)

In the radio drama, we actually get to hear Jiang Cheng’s public announcement. Since the radio drama was made in very close consultation with Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, I think that it’s not unreasonable to use these extra tidbits of dialogue as supplementary material. Here is what he says:

“Wei Wuxian has betrayed the sect, and publicly regards all cultivation sects as enemy! Yunmeng Jiang Sect hereby expels him, breaking all ties with him and drawing a clear line between us. Henceforth, no matter what this person does, it will have nothing to do with Yunmeng Jiang Sect!”

(Modao Zushi Radio Drama, Season 3 Episode 5, Suibian Subs)

This not only removes Wei Wuxian from the sect but from cultivation society as a whole, publicly discrediting and isolating him.

Public Perception of The Burial Mounds Settlement

Fandom has this idea that the whole cultivation world was convinced that Wei Wuxian was building an army in the Burial Mounds, but it’s not really supported by the text. The Burial Mounds settlement period was probably somewhere around two years. If people seriously thought that he was building an army, I highly doubt he would have been left alone to do so for that long.

In fact, it seems that most people believed Wei Wuxian was founding his own sect. Oddly enough, Jin Guangshan was actually the first to suggest it:

Using the atmosphere, Jin GuangShan turned to Jiang Cheng, “He’s been plotting for a while to go to Burial Mound, hasn’t he? After all, with his skills, it wouldn’t be too hard to set up a sect of his own. And so, he used this as a chance to leave the Jiang Sect, intending to do whatever he pleases in the bright skies outside.

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

He intended it to hit Jiang Cheng’s buttons and stoke his inferiority complex; Jiang Cheng knew that he only took back Lotus Pier thanks to Wei Wuxian’s cultivation, and that many disciples joined during and after the war precisely because of his presence in the sect. But clearly the allegation stuck:

Everyone was in shock: there would be no peace anymore! Wei WuXian would definitely make these fierce corpses on a large scale, in desire of founding his own sect to compete with the cultivational world! And the many young blood of today’s age would definitely be attracted by his evil, opportunist path as well, and go to him one after another. The righteous path of cultivation would have grim future—dark times ahead!

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

Here, people are more concerned with him founding a sect which can compete with the great sects and teach unorthodox cultivation; not that he’s planning on invading the other sects a la Wen Ruohan.

But nobody believed this. After he found himself in the limelight during a few night-hunts, there really were quite a few people who came for him, hoping that they could be accepted by the ‘patriarch’ and become one of his disciples. The mountains that used to be so deserted suddenly became crowded. None of the fierce corpses Wei WuXian set up on patrol down the mountain would attack on their own. At most, they’d send the person flying and roar their throats out. Nobody got hurt, and so more and more people gathered down Burial Mound.

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is telling, because it shows that these people, at least, really did know that Wei Wuxian wasn’t a threat. They even cottoned on to the fact that his corpses wouldn’t actually hurt anyone, just chase them away.

Even at Nightless City, someone suggests again that he had founded his own sect:

One of the cultivators who stood in the front rows of one of the arrays commented bitterly, “Wei Ying, you disappoint me so much. There used to be a time when I admired you and said that at least you were someone who founded your own sect. Now that I think about it, it’s almost repulsive. From this moment on, I’ll forever stand on the opposite side of you!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is what people thought Wei Wuxian was doing in the Burial Mounds, not forming an army. The closest to anything like an army being suggested comes up when Jiang Cheng visits Wei Wuxian at the Burial Mounds a few days after the prison breakout.

Jiang Cheng mocked, “Those sect leaders thought you gathered some leftover forces and crowned yourself king of the hill. So it’s only the old, the weak, the women, and the children.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

Even that is a little more vague than ‘people absolutely thought he was building an army of Wen cultivators’. When does anyone in canon seriously suggest that WWX was building an army during this period? They know he’s a threat because he’s a necromancer living on a mountain of corpses, but they don’t think he’s an active threat. Until the ambush at Qiongqi Path happens and the Jins are able to use that to turn the mobs against him, people are fairly willing to leave him alone.

It’s also worth noting that rumours of Wei Wuxian building an army are not mentioned in the prologue, which is all about giving us the public perception of Wei Wuxian which the novel will then slowly reveal to us to be false. This is the closest they come:

The head of the Jiang clan raised him as her own child, yet he defected them and became the enemy of the cultivation world, bringing shame upon the Jiang clan...

(Prologue, Exiled Rebels translation)

And that’s still not saying he’s building an army.

People hated Wei Wuxian because he practised heretical cultivation, protected the ‘Wen-dogs’ who they all hated, and because they viewed him as an uppity servant who had no business being as powerful as a great sect. Propaganda about an army wasn’t necessary in order to convince them to go massacre him and the people under his protection.

The First Siege of the Burial Mounds

In fact, the major justifications the sects give for the siege are the deaths at the ambush at Qiongqi Path and the deaths at Nightless City.

He lifted the bottom of his robe, revealing a prosthetic leg made of wood, “This leg of mine was destroyed by you, that night in the Nightless City. I’m showing this to you for you to understand that, among the people in the siege right now, there’s also the force of me, Yi WeiChun. With the works of karma, it’s never too late for revenge!”

[...]

“In the fight at Qiongqi Path, my son was strangled to death by your dog Wen Ning!”

[...]

Every face boiled with heated blood, every word spoken guiltlessly, every person heroic, passionate, filled with indignation and pride.

Everyone believed with no doubt that what they were doing was a feat of chivalry, a deed of honor.

It would go down history and receive millions of praise. It was a crusade of the ‘righteous’ against the ‘wrong’!

(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)

This was during the Second Siege, and sets the stage for the flashback to the past where we learn the truth. Let’s go back to Nightless City and see what they were saying then.

“Things were even worse for the GusuLan Sect! Over half of the thirty-or-so people were from their sect. They were clearly only there to help calm things down.”

“Good thing the Ghost General was finally burned. Or else, just thinking about how such a thing was roaming around outside, flipping out now and then, would be enough for me to have nightmares.”

Someone spat, “That’s the end all Wen-dogs should meet!”

(Chapter 77, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is a gathering of people Wei Wuxian stumbles across after visiting Lanling, where had gone hoping to retrieve Wen Ning and Wen Qing’s ashes from Koi Tower.

The longer Wei WuXian listened, the colder his expression grew.

He should’ve understood long ago. No matter what he did, not a single good word would come out of these people’s mouths. When he won, others feared; when he lost, others rejoiced.

He was cultivating the crooked path either way, so what exactly did the years of persistence mean? What exactly were they for?

[...]

One of the group gloated, as though he had made a great contribution to this, “Yeah, terrific! It’ll be fine if only he obediently huddles inside of that damn mountain from now on. If he dares show his face outside again? Ha, as soon as he’s out, I’ll…”

(Chapter 77, Exiled Rebels translation)

At Nightless City, Jin Guangshan says:

“Tonight, the ones whose ashes had been scattered were the two leaders of the Wen Sect’s remnants. And tomorrow! It will be the rest of the Wen-dogs and—the YiLing Patriarch, Wei Ying!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

Then Wei Wuxian shows up:

Wei WuXian, “Haven’t I always been arrogant? Sect Leader Jin, how does it feel, having slapped yourself in the face? Who was the one that said he’d let the matter go if the Wen siblings went to Koi Tower and gave themselves up? And who was the one that just said he’d scatter my ashes and the ashes of the rest of the Wen Sect’s remnants tomorrow?”

[...]

Wei WuXian, “Then let me ask you, Sect Leader Jin, at Qiongqi Path, who was the one being ambushed? And who was the one to kill? Who was the main schemer? And who was the one being schemed against? In the end, just who was the one that came to provoke me first?”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

The matter of Qiongqi Path is brought up again:

Hidden among such a large crowd, the disciples inside of the arrays all felt rather safe. Bravening up, they shouted, “Even if Jin ZiXun was the one who schemed to ambush you first, you shouldn’t have been so heartless and kill so many lives!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels Translation)

Wei Wuxian points out that he was attacked first and was defending himself, but no one cares.

Sect Leader Yao raised his voice, “Fight back? Those over a hundred people and the thirty on Koi Tower were all innocent. If you were fighting back, why did you have to involve them?”

Wei WuXian, “The fifty cultivators on Burial Mound are also innocent, so why do you have to involve them?”

Someone else spat, “Just what great kindness has the Wen-dogs given you? To have you be on those scum’s side like this.”

“In my opinion, there isn’t any great kindness at all. It’s just that he thinks he’s a hero fighting against the entire world. He thinks he’s doing an act of justice, that he himself is quite an impressive person, risking everyone’s condemnation!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is so telling. Not only does he insist that the Wens he protects are innocent, some asshole straight-up says that Wei Wuxian ‘thinks he’s doing an act of justice’. This implies that they know the Wens are indeed innocent and just don’t care. We really can’t underestimate the level of hate against the Wens which exists in cultivation society after the war.

Chapter 79 returns to the present timeline, and sums it up thusly:

The bloodbath of Nightless City, legendarily, was a bloody battle in which the YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian, slaughtered over three thousand people during the night of the pledge conference on his own.

Some said that it was five thousand as well. No matter three or five, one thing was for sure—in that night, the ruins of Nightless City became a gory hell in Wei WuXian’s hands.

And the murderer, even under everyone’s attacks, managed to return to Burial Mound unscathed. Nobody knew how exactly he did it.

Due to this battle, the cultivation world was quite badly wounded. And since this was the case, after nearly three months of conserving energy and scheming plans, the Four Great Sects were finally able to successfully pull off a siege on the demon’s den, Burial Mound, returning the word ‘massacre’ to the Wen Sect’s remnants and the maddened YiLing Patriarch.

Wei WuXian looked at the cultivators before the Demon-Slaughtering Cave. Their expressions were the absolute same as those of the cultivators from the night of the pledge conference, pouring their wine on the ground as they took the pledge to scatter the ashes of the Wen Sect’s remnants and him. Some were the survivors of that night, others were the descendents of those cultivators, but even more were ‘persons of justice’ who held the same beliefs as them.

(Chapter 79, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s worth noting that Jiang Cheng is credited with planning and leading the siege:

“The YiLing Patriarch has died? Who could have killed him?”

“Who other than his shidi, Jiang Cheng, putting an end to his own relative for the greater good. Jiang Cheng led the Four Clans of YunmengJiang, LanlingJin, GusuLan, and QingheNie to destroy his “den”—LuanZang Hill.”

[...]

“That’s merely hearsay. Although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei WuXian the final blow. Because he cultivates the Demon Path, Wei WuXian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.”

[...]

“But, if not for Jiang Cheng making a plan that aimed at Wei WuXian’s weaknesses, the siege might not have succeeded.

(Chapter 1, Exiled Rebels translation)

During the Second Siege, we get some information about who was at the First Siege:

Back then, during the first siege of Burial Mound, Jin GuangShan led the LanlingJin Sect, while Jiang Cheng led the YunmengJiang Sect; Lan QiRen led the GusuLan Sect, while Nie MingJue led the QingheNie Sect. The former two were the main forces, the latter two could’ve gone without.

(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)

May I just note that the fact that Gusu Lan and Qinghe Nie didn’t lend as many forces in no way absolves them of responsibility?

The cultivation world wanted to kill Wei Wuxian. They also wanted to massacre the remnants of the Wen clan. If Wei Wuxian had died at Nightless City, they would have gone to the Burial Mounds and killed them anyway, I guarantee you. At best, they might have all been put back in a concentration camp and consigned to a slow death instead, but the mob mentality at play shouldn’t be underestimated.

Covering Up the Evidence

I’ve seen people arguing that as the Jiang and Jin sects made up the main forces in charge of the First Siege, the other sects may not have been aware of who the Wen remnants were. I’ve even seen it be suggested that the Jins disposed of their bodies to cover up their crime...what, before the other sects all came up the mountain where they’d apparently been dilly-dallying and not actually taking part?

This is not supported by the text. For one thing, it would be ridiculously difficult to fool the sects into thinking that they were facing an army of cultivators; the Burial Mounds settlement is very clearly a peasant farming village.

Even 13 years later, it’s unmistakable:

The three continued upward. They came along a few run down shacks standing alongside the mountain path.

The houses varied in size. The structure was simple, even crude. Just one glance, it was obvious that they had been built rashly. Some were so burned that only bare frames were left, while some slumped entirely to one side. Even the most complete ones were half-destroyed.

[...]

Ever since they had gone up the mountain, Wen Ning’s footsteps had been especially heavy. Right now, standing before one of the houses, again, he couldn’t walk any longer.

This was one of the houses that he had built himself. Before he left, the house had still been fine. Although it was crude, it was a place to seek shelter from the weather, nonetheless holding the people he was familiar with; the people he treasured.

In the saying ‘the things remain but the people don’t’, at least ‘the things’ still remained. With such a scene in front of him, there wasn’t even anything to remind him of the people whom he missed.

(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)

13 years ago when it was still an active village, it is impossible to approach the settlement and not realise.

A few round stumps were beside the mountain path, a large one, like a table, and a few smaller ones, like chairs. A red-clothed woman sat with Wei WuXian on two of the stumps. A man who seemed to be honest and simple was turning over the soil of the field nearby.

Wei WuXian was shaking his leg, “How about potatoes?”

The woman’s tone was resolute, “Radishes. Radishes are easy to grow. They don’t die as often. Potatoes are hard to look after.”

[...]

Soon later, a group of men appeared beside the path, busying themselves before a rack made of wood. They were probably all cultivators of the Wen Sect. Yet, having taken off their robes of sun and flames and put on clothes made of coarse cloth with hammers and saws in their hands, timber and straws on their shoulders, they climbed up and down, worked inside and out; they were not at all different from ordinary farmers and hunters.

[...]

Jiang Cheng asked, “What are they doing?”

Wei WuXian, “Can’t you tell? Building houses.”

Jiang Cheng, “Building houses? Then what were the ones we saw turning over the dirt when we came up here doing? Don’t tell me you’re really going to start farming.”

Wei WuXian, “Didn’t you hear everything? We are farming.”

(Chapter 73, Exiled Rebels translation)

I think it’s pretty clear to anyone with eyes that this was a farming village, don’t you? And yet, during the Second Siege, no one is surprised to see the corpses of the Wen remnants except for the juniors. Take a look at chapter 82, when their blood corpses all come out of the Blood Pool:

... “Didn’t they say that all of the corpses on Burial Mound had been incinerated?!”

Sect Leader OuYang answered, protecting his son, “Some weren’t!”

Lan JingYi, “Which ones were not?!”

Sect Leader OuYang, “Those… Those…”

He couldn’t say it out loud. After those Wen Sect’s remnants on Burial Mound back then were killed by the people partaking in the siege, the fifty corpses were all thrown into the blood pool!

(Chapter 82, Exiled Rebels translation)

This is freaking Ouyang-zongzhu. I think we can all agree that he’s a bit useless and probably wasn’t part of the main force. But he knew about it!

Here’s a sad description of Wen-popo:

The corpse was abnormally small and bent-over. It seemed that somebody had smashed a hole into its skull. Its white hair was sparse, sticking tattered to its forehead after being soaked by the bloody water. Along with its rotting flesh, it was extremely repulsive. Anyone who saw it felt uncomfortable. After it crawled up, limping, it slowly walked toward Lan SiZhui. All of the juniors trembled with fear, immediately gathering over here.

[...]

One after another, the blood corpses began to gather at where Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi were.

The tall and the short, the men and the women, the old and the young—all of them were demons drenched in blood. But on these figures, Wei WuXian saw a few familiar shadows.

Wen Ning murmured, “Uncle Four… Granny…”

He said their names one by one, his voice wavering as he went. Wen Ning, “Have you been waiting here ever since??”

(Chapter 82, Exiled Rebels translation)

And a reminder that the whole crowd was there to see:

Fang MengChen paused in surprise. Wei WuXian, “Then what do you want? Nothing but my miserable death to soothe your own hatred?” He pointed at Yi WeiChun, who lay passed out among the crowd, “He’s missing a leg, while I was cut into pieces; you lost your parents, while my family had long since been gone. I’m a dog who was chased out of its home. I’ve never even seen the ashes of my parents.”

Wei WuXian, “Or do you hate the Wen Sect’s remnants? The Wen Sect remnants that you speak of already died once, thirteen years ago. And right now, just then, for my sake, for your sake, they died once again. This time, they’ve all become ashes.” He continued, “Let me ask you—just what else do you want me to do?”

(Chapter 82, Exiled Rebels translation)

Even the Headshaker was there in the cave to see:

After he went out, a voice asked, “No more corpses will come, right? We’re really safe this time, right?!”

(Chapter 82, Exiled Rebels translation)

No one there acts surprised to see the corpses, except for the juniors, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Wen Ning. No, not even Lan Qiren. Even the people who might, possibly (if we’re being very generous), have been lower down the mountain and not actively killed any of the Wens still saw their bodies afterwards and threw them into the Blood Pool. Throwing them into such a mass grave was the final act of hatred against the ‘Wen-dogs’ who they had been so determined to slaughter.

In Conclusion

The fact of atrocities like this is that they require a huge number of people in power to be fully aware of it and either look aside or actively participate. The cultivation sects are not innocent. Not a single one. Everyone knew.

Honestly, one of the tragedies of Modao Zushi is that there is no justice. No one feels guilt for their part in slaughtering the Wen remnants, and Wei Wuxian is only ever exonerated in the public eye because Jin Guangyao took his place as public enemy number one.

The happy ending is only personal. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are reunited and happily married. Lan Sizhui (Wen Yuan) and Wen Ning are reunited and are able to create a memorial for their dead family. But there is no justice. Just the survivors finally being free to live their lives in peace.

Sources

Modao Zushi Exiled Rebels Translation (as I wrote this in mid 2021, it was the only complete English translation available to me)

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml

#mdzs #modao zushi #wen remnants #fandom essay #mdzs meta #meta

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