#this is me coping with what's happening in the U.S

[buggybugkilo]

wdym its been over a year since ive drawn the silly..

anyway

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jay Kuo for The Big Picture:

It’s been nearly 50 days since the soul-crushing election, and many of us are still in a bit of shock and experiencing continued denial. The headlines have been disturbing, to say the least, as they preview what the next four years could be like here in the U.S. and around the world. We are in dire need of some coping mechanisms. With 2024 drawing to an end, I figured it might be useful to compile some strategies and tips, gleaned from experts and from my conversations with many readers, on ways to survive these next four years, both individually and collectively as a democracy. These are in no particular order, and some of them may or may not resonate with you. I hope you nevertheless find them helpful and even practical.

Avoid the lure of nihilism

You feel it sometimes in your gut, and you see it in others’ comments: a sense of doom and despair. “There is nothing we can do.” “They will get away with everything.” “Nothing we can say will ever get through to the other side.” “Face it, it’s the end of our democracy.” Let me first say that anyone who hasn’t indulged in even a bit of this thinking hasn’t been paying attention. Things are bad, and in fact quite bad. So it’s perfectly natural and human to entertain these thoughts. But we can’t remain stuck in such thinking. So I want to offer some perspective from a great man who has seen and overcome many great challenges in his life. I worked for years with the actor and activist George Takei, who spent his childhood in Japanese American internment camps during World War II. He and 125,000 others in his community experienced what a fascist America really looked like: families rounded up and forced from their homes at gunpoint, forced to live for weeks in horse stables then for years behind barbed wire fences, with no charge and no trial, all for the “crime” of looking like the enemy. It would have been understandable for George to become embittered and to turn his back on this country. Instead he dedicated his life to a cause, working to deliver reparations for his community and to teach the history of the internment so that we would never repeat that terrible chapter of our history. He taught me a word in Japanese that I still think about a lot to this day: gaman. It means to face challenges with dignity and fortitude. Things have been bad before, and for many racial minorities, far worse than now. But they didn’t give up. They persevered, even in the face of the terrible dysfunction and injustice of our system. When I feel like throwing up my hands, I remember George Takei, and people like the late John Lewis, and I draw strength from their example. They did not let despair paralyze them or cause them to surrender.

Be a voice of hope, not fear

One of the ways fascism succeeds is through fear. And one way fear spreads is through public repetition and normalization. Some of our corporate and media leaders are already setting terrible examples by “obeying in advance” and capitulating to Trump’s threats. We shouldn’t be like them. But beyond that, it’s important to consider what impact our own attitudes have on others.

[...]

Support independent journalism

Many of our major papers, from the Washington Post to the LA Times, have billionaire owners who have recently demonstrated that they would rather please, or at least not ruffle the feathers of, the incoming administration than hold themselves up to basic standards of journalistic integrity. A small but collectively significant thing we as consumers can do is to vote with our eyeballs and our dollars. There are many independent sources of news with terrific reporting still happening. ProPublica was the one to break the stories on the corruption of Justice Clarence Thomas and the purchase of his support by wealthy benefactors, and I support them with an annual subscription. Another great outfit is Popular.info, which regularly exposes corporate malfeasance among other important topics. I have a favorite set of Substack journalists and analysts I support including  Heather Cox Richardson for news with a historical perspective,  Joyce Vance for legal news and analysis, Robert Hubbell for a daily news summary, and Talking Points Memo for political analysis. While these sources admittedly lean left, I also regularly read and support more centrist reporting from The Bulwark.

[...]

Defend institutions

There’s been a lot of attention paid to historian Timothy Snyder’s first rule in fighting fascism, which is not to obey in advance. But there’s not enough attention on his second rule.

[In his book On Tyranny, Snyder writes,

Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about—a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union—and take its side.]

The great thing about this rule is that all of us can do something meaningful to help. Speak up for our court system and the rule of law, even when (or perhaps especially after) they fall short of expectations. The goal is to improve them as institutions, not to cast them aside. Support your local newspaper with a subscription. Rally at your state capital in support of laws protecting abortion rights. Support striking workers by avoiding companies that are anti-union. These acts seem small, but collectively they matter a great deal, and our institutions cannot succeed without support from the public.

Jay Kuo wrote in The Big Picture on the guide to surviving the next four years under the autocratic Trump Regime.

[lol-jackles]

I was pursuing your “Destiel” tag (thank you for posting it for that anon, btw, and bringing it back to my attention), and came across this statement from you:

“As a result, douchy Jensen + going off script = other actors trying to cope. My favorite was 2016 because that was when my girlfriend leaned close to the screen and said, "Jared, blink twice if you're being held against your will". Since then Jared had figured out how to handle these ~unscripted~ moments, but Misha hasn't.”

What was the moment in particular at 2016 JIB that made your girlfriend say that? Or what was Jensen going at that one? Wasn’t Gen at that one, too?

Also, what would you say Jared’s strategy has been in dealing with Jensen (when drunk) on stage at JIB? And why does Jensen seem “meaner” to Jared at JIB than at CE or AHBL cons? Which is closer to thier actual dynamic, do you think?

And I just have to add, it was pretty amusing seeing Misha momentarily (sadly not longer) regret his life choices at, was it 2019 JIB, where he pointed out the Destiel shirt and Jensen yelled about “where is it real?” Do you think Jensen was actually annoyed in this panel? I say yes, but my brother says no.

Jensen seems to keep it together more at JIBs post pandemic, but I was at JIB 13, and he gave off a huge air of just being over the whole thing by his solo Sunday panel. And he and Rich were essentially running out the clock by being loud idiots (my ears still hurt from being near a speaker).

They all claim to love JIB, but they also all seem pretty over it come Sunday.

Sorry that got long. Would love to see your response to any parts.

This was the first time I briefly talked about the infamous Jib con. Back in 2016 I used to think their co/dependent friendship was doomed at the 10-year mark because when one isn’t adjusting to the changing time, then the idolatries friendship can’t last more than 10 years at best.  I listed a few examples (X) from a feminist blog about women ending their female friendships, a woman ending her friendship with a male friend (X) Oliver Broudy’s story of ending his 10-year friendship with a college friend (X).  These friendships ended because one of them was stuck and making more and more demands on the unstuck friend.  We know happened after season 10 wrapped up (X) (X).

Anyways, what got my girlfriend's attention was Jared looking like a tug of war rope between Gen and Jensen and the boys. Regular corporate SPN cons in the U.S are already a male-dominated atmosphere bordering on frat boy shenanigans. At least there are corporate handlers and security to help keep the actors in line, plus alcohol are banned for actors. Jib cons are fan-run with no handlers and alcohol are allowed, and usually there are no actresses because the cost of the extra Jensen/Misha and Jared/Misha panels means some actors are going to get cut out and it’s usually the actresses. Without female colleagues around, the men really rile each other up at Jib cons, it’s part of their bonding and one-upmanship rituals. I think why Gen rarely participated in SPN cons is because she didn't want to be around all that dude energy. But 2016 was different because I think she blamed herself for leaving the 2015 British con early and is still traumatize that she nearly lost Jared few days later, so Gen agreed to let Jared drag bring her to Jib con. Men don’t like wives/girlfriends homing in on their bro times and Jensen was noticeable irritated that Jared’s wife was there and during the closing ceremony Jensen used air quotations marks while talking about Gen’s marriage to Jared who had his arms wrapped around her. He looked peeved at Jensen and then then laughed it off because what else could he do on stage?

(Side note: it’s not easy for men to find male friends and keeping them.  I hated the movie I love you, man because it was too familiar, and Paterson made me uneasy because Adam Driver's character has no male friends and he's more than okay with that because he has a wife.)

Jensen seems "meaner" not just to Jared but to every actor there, especially Misha. At these fan-run conventions, there are no "scripts" (guidelines actually) to follow. Most actors were still going by the guidelines from corporate-run conventions when they're on stage, but not Jensen because it's part of his upmanship as a way to both bond and dominate others. It's a Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman type situation. Maybe Jensen learned this trick from Ryan who used to be his roommate. Misha is not a natural improviser, his guest appearance on Whose Line Is it Anyways shows that, so he's the least apt at handling Jensen's off script moments. Half the time Jensen wasn't actually drunk but acts like it to avoid the inevitable asinine Destiel-loaded questions from the hellers in the audience.

Jared's strategy was about the same at pre-2016 JIB cons and CE cons because he's pretty apt at smoothing things over between Jensen and the fans. At the infamous 2013 New Jersey con a self-claiming bisexual girl tried to ask Jensen a loaded Destiel question and he snapped at her with, “don’t ruin it for everybody” and Jared immediately calmed Jensen down and salvaged the rest of the experience for sane fans.

Stuff like this is closer to their real life dynamic as the Giver and the Taker. If you read the "codependency tag", Jared the Giver cleans up the messes the Taker make. Givers think they're helping but they're actually enabling and don't improve things. Jensen's reputation took a slight hit, and it took a few years for the New Jersey con to be memory-holed. Apparently Jensen didn't learn from this and 3 years later mocked a girl wearing a "Destiel is real" shirt at the 2019 JIB. Misha told Jensen to not “fight with fans” and Jared was gesturing to a fan in the front row as if saying don’t look at me look at him. That may answer your question, Jared stopped trying to calm Jensen down and instead focus on heading off fans who gets too snippy at Jensen, like at a DC con few years back where a girl was trying to look cool but came off sounding hostile towards Jensen, so Jared left the stage and hugged the stuffings out of the girl, deflating her hostile-sounding voice.

I don't think I've seen Jensen's solo panel at JIB13, but he's usually looks like he's watching the clock during his Jared-less panels so that's nothing new. It's been the case for many years and a common complaint by fans, it's why CE stopped having solo J panels early on because Jensen needs a scene partner. It goes back to why Jensen works better as a scene-stealing supporting actor instead of a leading man. How Jensen made Dean Winchester have memorable moments was by putting his focus on the other person.  By using this method, Jensen can stop worrying about how he’s going to say his lines and speak intuitively, this helps make Dean appear truthful to the audience.  It may be why Jensen doesn’t read scripts ahead of time.   Jensen doesn’t go into a scene looking to do a scene, instead he goes in looking to be open and give over to how the other person (in this case, Jared playing Sam) makes him feel.  This method worked great for Jensen when his character has Sam to focus on, and Jensen has Jared to react to.  It’s why Dean’s dying moments with Sam in the barn works so well in the series’ finale.

.

You probably heard of the saying, “acting is reacting”.

A demon’s acting philosophy in The Good Place: “Demons have to learn that Acting Is Reacting.  And Reacting Is Pre-acting. But Pre-acting? Well, that’s just being.”  

While “acting is reacting” gets mocked in the acting community because it’s a trap alot of actors fall into by adjusting their truthful inner life to their assumptions about the text.  Good acting is adjusting the text to your authentic emotion which is the result of the other person.  This where Jensen’s good acting comes from and it’s become his comfort zone and made him a multimillionaire by his mid 30s.  He’s in what my acting coach calls “the truthful contact”, it’s where actors are taught the first stage of authentic acting.  The next stage is “crafting”.  When you’re working solo without a screen partner, your skill at crafting becomes vital.  Crafting means anywhere from ability to endow meaning to objects so they have emotional meaning is important, or effectively get across justifications and point of views.  

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

As I witnessed the despair and incomprehension of liberals worldwide after Donald Trump’s victory in November’s U.S. presidential election, I had a sinking feeling that I had been through this before. The moment took me back to 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism and the lifting of the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since the end of World War II. The difference was that the world that collapsed in 1989 was theirs, the Communists’. Now it is ours, the liberals’.

In 1989, I was living within a Warsaw Pact nation, in my final year of studying philosophy at Bulgaria’s Sofia University, when the world turned upside down. The whole experience felt like an extended course in French existentialism. To see the sudden end of something that we had been told would last forever was bewildering—liberating and alarming in equal measure. My fellow students and I were overwhelmed by the new sense of freedom, but we were also acutely conscious of the fragility of all things political. That radical rupture turned out to be a defining experience for my generation.

But the rupture was even broader—on a greater global scale—than many of us realized at the time. The year 1989 was indeed an annus mirabilis, but one very different from the way Western liberals have framed it for the past three decades. The resilience that the Chinese Communist Party demonstrated in suppressing the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square turned out to be more consequential than the fall of the Berlin Wall. For Russians, the most important aspect of 1989 was not the end of Communism, but the end of the Soviet empire, with the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan. It was thus the year that Osama bin Laden proclaimed the jihadists’ victory over the godless U.S.S.R. And 1989 was also when nationalism began to reclaim its political primacy in the former Yugoslavia.

The return of Trump to power in the United States may prove another such instance in a period of enormous political rupture. If liberals are to respond effectively to the challenge of a new Trump administration, they will need to reflect critically on what happened in 1989, and discard the story they’ve always told themselves about it. The means of overcoming despair is to be found in better comprehension.

From a liberal point of view, comparing the anti-Soviet revolutions of 1989 with the illiberal revolutions today might seem scandalous. In Francis Fukuyama’s famous phrase, 1989 was “the end of history,” whereas Trump’s victory, many liberals assert, may portend the end of democracy. The year the Berlin Wall fell was viewed as the triumph of the West; now the decline of the West dominates the conversation. The collapse of Communism was marked by a vision for a democratic, capitalist future; that future is now riddled with uncertainty. The mood in 1989 was internationalist and optimistic; today, it has soured into nationalism, at times even nihilism.

But to insist on those differences between then and now is to miss the point about their similarities. Living through such moments in history teaches one many things, but the most important is the sheer speed of change: People can totally alter their views and political identity overnight; what only yesterday was considered unthinkable seems self-evident today. The shift is so profound that people soon find their old assumptions and choices unfathomable.

Translated to this moment: How, just six months ago, could any sane person have believed that an aging and unpopular Joe Biden could be reelected?

Trump captured the public imagination not because he had a better plan for how to win the war in Ukraine or manage globalization, but because he understood that the world of yesterday could be no more. The United States’ postwar political identity has vanished into the abyss of the ballot box. This Trump administration may succeed or fail on its own terms, but the old world will not return. Even most liberals do not want it back. Few Americans today are comfortable with the notion of American exceptionalism.

In the aftermath of Trump’s victory, some political commentators grimly looked back to the 1930s, when fascism stalked the world. The problem is that the 1930s are beyond living memory, whereas the 1990s are still vivid to many of us. What I learned from that decade is that a radical political rupture gives the winners a blank check. Understanding why people voted for Trump will be little help in apprehending what he will do in office.

Political ruptures are achieved by previously unimaginable coalitions, united more by their intensity than a common program. Politicians who belong to these coalitions typically have a chameleonlike ability to suit themselves to the moment—none more so, in our time, than Trump. American liberals who are gobsmacked that people can treat a billionaire playboy as the leader of an anti-establishment movement might recall that Boris Yeltsin, the hero of Russia’s 1990s anti-Communist revolution, had been one of the leaders of the Communist Party just a few short years earlier.

Like the end of the Soviet era, Trump’s reelection victory will have global dimensions. It marks the passing of the United States as a liberal empire. America remains the world’s preeminent power, yes, and will remain an empire of sorts, but it won’t be a liberal one. As Biden’s spotty record of mobilizing support to defend the “liberal international order” in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated, the very idea of such an order was for many critics always a Western fiction. It existed as long as the U.S. had the power and political will to impose it.

This is not what Trump will do. In foreign policy, Trump is neither a realist nor an isolationist; he is a revisionist. Trump is convinced that the U.S. is the biggest loser in the world it has made. Over the past three decades, in his view, America has become a hostage, rather than a hegemon, of the liberal international order. In the postwar world, the U.S. successfully integrated its defeated adversaries Germany and Japan into democratic governance, international trade, and economic prosperity. This did not apply to China: In Trump’s view, Beijing has been the real winner of the post-1989 changes.

Trump’s second coming will clearly be different from the first. In 2016, Trump’s encounter with American power was like a blind date. He didn’t know exactly what he wanted, and American power didn’t know exactly who he was. Not this time. America may remain a democracy, but it will become a more feral one. Under new management, its institutions will likely depart from the safety of consensual politics and go wild. In times of rapid change, political leaders seek not to administer the state, but to defeat it. They see the state and the “deep state” as synonymous. Illiberal leaders select their cabinet members in the same way that emperors used to choose the governors of rebellious provinces: What matters most is the appointee’s loyalty and capacity to resist being suborned or co-opted by others.

In Trump’s first administration, chaos reigned; his second administration will reign by wielding chaos as a weapon. This White House will overwhelm its opponents by “flooding the zone” with executive orders and proclamations. He will leave many adversaries guessing about why he is making the decisions he does, and disorient others with their rapidity and quantity.

In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by promising normalcy. Normalcy will no longer help the Democrats. In the most recent example of an antipopulist victory, Donald Tusk triumphed in Poland’s 2023 parliamentary elections and returned to be prime minister, not because he promised business as usual but because his party, Civic Platform, was able to forge a compelling new political identity. Tusk’s party adopted more progressive positions on such controversial issues as abortion rights and workers’ protections, but it also wrapped itself in the flag and embraced patriotism. Tusk offered Poles a new grand narrative, not simply a different electoral strategy. Civic Platform’s success still depended on forming a coalition with other parties, a potentially fragile basis for governing, but it offers a template, at least, for how the liberal center can reinvent itself and check the advance of illiberal populism.

The risk for the United States is high: The next few years could easily see American politics descend into cruel, petty vengefulness, or worse. But for liberals to respond to this moment by acting as defenders of a disappearing status quo would be unwise. To do so would entail merely reacting to whatever Trump does. The mindset of resistance may be the best way to understand tyranny, but it is not the best way to handle a moment of radical political rupture, in which tyranny is possible but not inevitable.

Back in 1989, the political scientist Ken Jowitt, the author of a great study of Communist upheaval in that period, New World Disorder, observed that a rupture of this type forces political leaders to devise a new vocabulary. At such moments, formerly magic words do not work anymore. The slogan “Democracy is under threat” did not benefit the Democrats during the election, because many voters simply did not see Trump himself as that threat.

As the writer George Orwell observed, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” The challenge of apprehending the new, even when the fact of its arrival is undeniable, means that it may come as a shock to liberal sensibilities how few tears will be shed for the passing of the old order. Contrary to what seemed the correct response in 2016, the task of Trump opponents today is not to resist the political change that he has unleashed but to embrace it—and use this moment to fashion a new coalition for a better society.

[rebootgrimm]

I’m making a sequel to Horse in the Hospital by John Mulaney because what the fuck. This is how I cope.

Topics it’s going on about

Trump (horse) going back into office

Elon (elephant? rat? unsure) doing the Nazi salute

Trump not putting his hand on the Bible when being sworn in

Trump taking U.S out of the World Health Organization

if anyone has any suggestions about what happened for me to add to the metaphor hmu

[goldenavenger02]

The U.S Election and Anxiety + Tips For Voting

Hello everyone! I've decided that this year, during the election cycle since I live with my conservative family still, instead of getting into useless arguments with them and doomscrolling the whole time, I'm going to practice some mindfulness instead and this is where you come in!

I am writing down every single healthy coping mechanisms/distractions I can, that way I can stay vigilant and informed but I also don't spend four days watching a slow ticking map again, and putting them on folded pieces of paper and into a small bowl. That way anytime I get too stressed or I get into a fight with my family, I can pull one out and at the very least, distract myself for a little bit.

If you know of any healthy coping mechanisms that you use, it doesn't even have to be something you only do every 2 to 4 years, it can just be something you do when that feeling of panic starts to build in your chest, comment below, message me, submit them or reblog with it in the tags.

What I currently have right now is rewatching/rereading comfort media, exercising, cleaning, deep breathing/visualization, hanging out with my pets, crafting and playing mobile/PC games.

I am also willing to make my list public for anyone who needs it if they also suffer from debiliting election anxiety.

At the end of this, I just want all of you to remember a few things. Election anxiety, especially after 2016, is incredibly common and you shouldn't feel ashamed for having it when this political climate has turned into one of hate.

If you are a United States Citizen/registered/old enough to vote, vote. If you are in the line before 6 p.m on November 5th, 2024, they legally cannot turn you away. Bring food and water, there are states where it is illegal for someone to bring you food and water in line. Remember not to wear anything that can be seen as political when you go to vote (not even your Captain America shirt that is in your dresser). And voter intimidation and voter interference is illegal. If someone is standing outside of your polling place, harassing you or others about who they're voting for, let your poll workers know. If you hear someone talking to their buddy about doing something like, I don't know, lighting a ballot box on fire (this has already happened in Washington and Oregon), report it to your non-emergency police line. If it ends up being nothing, you won't be in trouble and if it ends up being something, YOU HELPED PROTECT DEMOCRACY.

Even if you are in a blue state, even if you're in a red state, even if you are in a swing state, even if you hate Kamala Harris and her opponent, even if you don't want to vote down the ballot (which you totally should because it can slowly turn your state blue), even if you are scared of the outcome, vote like your rights as a POC, as a woman, as a member of the LGBT+ community, as someone who isn't a white, straight man will be taken away from you. Because that is the sick reality of the US right now. This election isn't Harris v opponent (remember, names have power), this election is freedom v fascism, no matter what your MAGA relatives say.

And finally, when we fight, we win. Let's beat Kamala Harris' opponent in such a landside that he can't go crying to his lackies AKA the supreme court and beg them to overturn this in his favor with any evidence of "voter fraud" AKA him not getting his way.

And if you're like me, anxious about what will happen to your rights in the upcoming week, we should stay informed. But there is a difference between staying informed and doomscrolling. Yes, there is a LOT at stake in this election, there is no sugarcoating that.

But when you feel yourself start to panic, or your relative starts yelling at you for something they believe your party is doing even though it's not real AND even if it was, you aren't the one doing it, or you feel yourself leaning to unhealthy coping mechanisms, reach into the bowl.

I'll make a list of coping mechanisms to reblog under this and edit it as more come in. The fandom tags under this are so the post gets more reach which is NEEDED and most of these main characters would be voting blue if they were real.

[misfitwashere]

Friends,

Many of you are still in shock about what happened a week ago today. Some of you don’t even want to read a newspaper or hear the news. 

I get it. 

A few of you are coping with the catastrophe by minimizing or denying it. Several friends assure me that a second Trump term won’t be much different from the first and that the checks and balances in our system will continue to constrain him. 

This is wishful and dangerous thinking. 

Trump and his Republican lapdogs will almost certainly win the House, which means that starting January 20, they will take full control of the federal government — both chambers of Congress as well as the presidency. 

The Republicans soon to be in control of Congress are more MAGA, less principled, and more intimidated by Trump than the Republicans who had control when Trump took office in 2017. There are no Liz Cheneys in the House, no Mitt Romneys in the Senate. Republican senators seeking to become the majority leader are already competing to please Trump, promising immediate confirmation of his appointments. 

The Republican Party as a whole has now been effectively purged of people willing to stand up to Trump. 

Trump already has effective control of the Supreme Court, a majority of whom have ruled that he (or any president) is presumptively immune from criminal liability for whatever he chooses to do.

This time, moreover, there won’t be people in the administration to stop him. Trump learned from his first term about the importance of surrounding himself with lackeys who will do whatever he wishes. 

His early picks (Susie Wiles as chief of staff, Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff, Thomas Homan as border czar, Lee Zeldin as EPA administrator, Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the U.N., and Michael Walz as national security advisor) have only one thing in common and it’s not their expertise. It’s their unblinking loyalty to Trump. 

Don’t get me started about Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who has turned his X platform into a swamp of Trump lies and propaganda, and now seems joined at the hip to Trump — appearing wherever Trump is. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a nut job. 

And unlike Trump’s first term, the president-elect is now backed by a network of dangerous extremists — including those who have been imprisoned for their part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, whom Trump has suggested he’ll pardon. They will feel emboldened to carry out what they understand to be Trump’s wishes. 

Finally, also unlike before his first term, Trump has explicitly told us what he plans to do and already has people working on getting it done starting January 20: mass deportations, prosecution of his political enemies, the use of the military against U.S. citizens, the purging of the civil service across the government and substitution of Trump loyalists, and a promise to play politics with disasters. 

Project 2025, which was written by more than 140 people who served under Trump the first time around, including several of his former Cabinet secretaries, explicitly calls for “abortion surveillance” and the stripping from Americans of reproductive freedom (page 455). 

It also calls for jailing teachers and librarians over banned books (page 5), gutting of overtime pay rules (pages 587 and 592), and prioritizing “married men and women” over other types of families (page 489). 

To enforce these attacks on our rights, Project 2025 would use the Justice Department to prosecute district attorneys Trump disagrees with, invoke the Insurrection Act to shut down protests, and mobilize red-state national guard units against blue states that resist his authoritarian agenda.

In sum, my friends, we are facing a catastrophe far worse than what occurred in Trump’s first term of office. The meager guardrails that existed then will be gone.

We must not avert our eyes from this calamity, or minimize it, or throw up our hands in despair or retreat. 

We must prepare to fight it. 

But how? Let me ask you: If this were Germany in 1933, what actions would you take? How different will this be from Germany in 1933?

I put this question to some of you last Wednesday during my weekly Office Hours. Forty percent said your most important goal will be to protect those in harm’s way, and 34 percent said it will be to organize and mobilize politically. Of the remainder, 9 percent said it will be to resist with civil disobedience. (Others had additional or different ideas.)

Obviously, none of these alternatives is exclusive. We must consider all, and many others. 

Protecting the vulnerable and preserving our rights and liberties will require a great deal of hard work by people who believe in our Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law. The work includes: 

Monitoring Trump and his government — despite the disinformation, propaganda, and lies we’ll be receiving — and disseminating the truth.

Maintaining a watch over the people and institutions we value.

Being ready to sound the alarm in our communities and networks when those people and institutions are under assault. 

Organizing and mobilizing nonviolent resistance to such assaults. 

Using civil disobedience wherever possible. 

Litigating through state and federal courts where possible.

Speaking out against malicious lies like those that spread during the election by Elon Musk on his propaganda machine X and against vicious lies amplified on other MAGA mouthpieces. 

Using our economic muscle to boycott corporations that support Trump, Musk, and other centers of MAGA power. 

And much more. 

It will be up to us — the American people who still cherish democracy — to protect and preserve our system of self-government.

As difficult as it is to fully accept what we are up against, the first step is to acknowledge it. 

[justinelark]

Someone that I follow for their art and activism sent a link to this article, to hearten us for what is to come with the new U.S. President. But reading it, all I can think about is the Pittsburgh Penguins!

Here are coping statements that we can use as the season continues with our occasional flashes of utter brilliance and our more common offensive struggles, defensive lapses, and blown leads.

I can’t change the things that have happened in the past.

I am able to accept the present moment exactly as it is.

I can get through difficult emotions even if it is hard.

I will get through this no matter what.

I will survive and this feeling will fade even though this feels painful right now.

It’s possible for me to accept what happened and still end up happy.

To everyone who wears that skating penguin crest, I love you and radically accept you!

[orange-foxes]

Long Distance

🔶 High or Low Tide by Stjosten (5k)

Andrew is off at college and Neil is back in Columbia finishing his senior year of high school. It’s fine. Nothing bad is going to happen in the short time apart. Neil is an idiot but he has survived alone for a long time before he met Andrew. It is going to be fine. Atleast, that’s what he keeps telling himself and for some reason it feels like lying.

🔶 You go your way, I'll go your way too by emmerrr (20k)

Neil tries to leave it as long as possible to make his first phone-call to Andrew. He figures the longer he can go without hearing Andrew’s voice, the easier it will be in the long run. He doesn’t quite make it forty-eight hours. (Five times Neil calls Andrew after Andrew has graduated, plus one time Andrew calls Neil)

🔶 holding out for what you want by PoolToast22 (7k)

Or, the one where it's Neil's fifth year alone and he doesn't know how to handle it.

🔶 Touch me, love me, leave me by BakaDoll (43k)

No one ever told Neil there was a second Minyard who was a soldier for the U.S. Army, and suddenly he was stuck with him in his dorm during Thanksgiving holidays. But sometimes first expressions can be wrong, and what Neil expected to be the worst week of his year might turn out completely different than anticipated.

🔶 Home for Christmas by abraxos_is_toothless (3k)

Long Distance Relationships are hard, but they made it work. Until it wasn’t working and then the holidays came around.

🔶 A Thousand Miles Seems Pretty Far by gluupor (3k)

Long distance relationships are hard. Or, everybody sucks at communication sometimes.

🔶 Five Hours Away by mostly_maudlin (series)

Andrew's in Nashville. Neil's in Palmetto. They're both well-practiced in surviving alone. 

🔶 Where's My Love (just come home) by kanekicure (8k)

Neil hasn't been in the same room as Andrew for almost two months and he feels like he has a gaping wound on his side in his absence. Then, to make matters worse, Andrew stops responding to his calls and Neil is starting to feel like he's going slightly crazy.

🔶 people problems by loveroulettes (22k)

When Neil meets the perfect guy Andrew realizes that six and a half years later, he still doesn’t know how to ask the important questions.

🔶 Think With Your Head by HalfpintPeach (10k)

Andrew wakes up from a wet dream missing Neil. That's it, that's the fic.

🔶 Stay With Me by Lostintheuniverseslies (97k)

Neil had let Andrew say goodbye to every important person left in Palmetto while he stood on the sidelines and cheered Andrew on. There was only one goodbye left and it would be the most painful one. It seemed as though it was finally hitting Neil too. They only had twenty-seven days together and then Neil would return to Palmetto alone for the first time since Millport. They spent the first year after everything healing. Now they have to learn how to navigate being away from each other while Andrew is off playing in the pros and Neil is still at Palmetto finishing his fifth year. Things aren't easy. They never seem to be for them but they're fighters. And they always come out on top.

🔶 Coping on Unemployment by a_million_stars (7k)

"And it's hard to give yourself over to something/Give yourself over" A character study of postgrad Andrew Minyard, his relationship to Neil Josten, and saying I love you. Very soft and a little sad.

[sumeruin]

I can tell you live in the U.S because only an american child would lack this much common sense.

And no you aren't in the clear. You are allowed to write yes. You can write in private and no one will ever know, but this is a public platform. Posting explicit content to the internet as a minor is against the law. Not to fucking mention the legal liability you put others at risk for interacting with you.

You arent creating a safe space to cope. Youve only gone and put a target on your back as a potential child to groom. Aswell as given many quick access to other such blogs. Youve created a space that hids child groomers the best out of all of them. Any one of the people who interact with you could be a child groomer masquerading as a "safe adult", or even another minor.

The safest way for a child to be on the internet is to be invisible. But all you kids do in your quest to have a voice or say in matters you are too young to have a say in, in your need to be on a moral high horse and enact your online rebel vigilante justice, Is make it easier for minors to be found and targeted.

Let me rephrase.

You are a child. It is not your job nor responsibility to create a "safe space" for such a sensitive and dangerous topic for your age. It is not your job nor responsibility to fight back against stigma over teens having sexual desires or using fiction to cope with trauma. It is not your job nor responsibility to carry the burden of reassuring others that they are normal or okay.

All you are doing right now is putting yourself and others in danger. You and every other minor on here openly claiming to be a minor. It is "safe spaces" like this that get targeted. Especially on an anonymous heavy site like tumblr.

You do not understand or care about the consequences of your actions because you do not believe any except that which you choose to imagine exist. You think its not that deep but it is and ive seen it happen far too many times before.

You aren't being smart, or brave.

You're being stupid and selfish plain and simple.

baby i have no clue what you’re talking about

[hockeyspiral23]

About Me

Hi. I’m T.

Cancer, early-80s baby. From the western mountains of the U.S., born and raised, though I have moved a state over (still in mountains). East coast for college. Love to travel and have traveled quite a few places, including all over my own country. I prefer to do it in my baby, Fiona, a 16yo car with 360k+ miles on her.

Have always loved to read and write and draw, but stopped most post-college. Got back seriously into reading thanks to 2020 and Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series has gotten me back into writing and I am forever grateful.

I love hockey - and play it - and am an Ironman triathlete. I love to cook and to bake. I like shiny rocks and dragons and dinosaurs and stuffed animals and not acting my age … and thankfully married a guy who enjoys acting similarly.

My music tastes are polyjamorous - I will legit listen to pretty much anything and everything, but I do tend mostly to the rock side of things.

Speaking of music (and fanfiction) ... I have an Empyrean playlist!

FOR FAN FICTION

I’ve spent decades reading it, mostly in the Pride and Prejudice world (with bits and pieces of Persuasion and Labyrinth (and really old original smut pieces on ancient geocities sites of some chick and her friends with wrestlers and minor league hockey players …)), but have only recently published, and only with the Empyrean:

RSC Lesson - Coping Mechanisms (536 words, completed)

First post; my take on why PTSD doesn’t exist at Basgiath.

I’ll Always Keep You in Mind (4375 words, completed)

In which our characters are in rock bands. I entirely blame @siobhanbooks on this one. 😜 Also in which I apparently invent Bodociam as a ship. 🤷‍♀️

Window of Opportunity (229 words, completed)

Blame @yanny-77 ‘s The Underpants Heist for inspiring this one. (originally posted here on tumblr)

victory is all you need (105,844 words, completed)

Modern college hockey AU and my baby of which I am so dang proud PLEASE LOVE IT TOOOOOO.

Violet Sorrengail grew up as the lone figure skater in her family, but right before she starts at Basgiath U, her mom (the dean of students) insists that she has to join the hockey team. So not only does she have to navigate two large life transitions, she’s also told to avoid one Xaden Riorson and his crew … thanks to some sketchy shit that went down with his parents and the now-closed University of Aretia. Or so she was told (since her mom helped things go down). But things are never exactly what they seem …

Xaden Riorson, PI tumblr-posted plot bunny that I WILL NOT BE FINISHING. Probably. Think 1930s detective stories and film noir. But this came to me while running and I had to word vomit it out.

The Backup Plan (15,041 words, completed)

Pseudo-soulmates story. Violet, daughter of the king’s head of security, is dragged to a betrothal party for the prince of Tyrrendor. She and her best friend are expected to get married eventually … but he and the king’s son are in love already. That Tyrrish prince? His name is Xaden and he negotiated two hours to find a better option. And a lot can happen in a handful of hours … (also I contribute my second ship to the fandom: Dain x Halden)

In the character waiting room Tiny microfiction tumblr-only post in honor of @siobhanbooks’s birthday. Bodhi gets another fucking assignment … but this one he likes just fine.

agony brings no reward (19,884 words out of ...?)

Bonus behind-the-scenes content for viayn from various POVs.

The Backup Backup Plan (1151 words, completed)

It was suggested that Catriona Cordella and Alic Tauri might make a good match and the adult(ier) adults in their lives agreed ... but not all backup plans work out ...

karma is a cat (purring in my lap 'cause it loves me) (1337 words, completed)

... I ... don't know. In which the dragons are humans and the humans are cats. Blame my brain.

In the Cordyn Aerie (581 words, completed)

Kiralair often wondered if her flier uncle's gryphon missed flying and adventure.

the truth in our scars (101,359 words out of ...?)

Soulmates/soulmarks AU where Xaden and Violet are a rare pair of soul-scarred mates … and what that might mean and how things might change …

unrequited (455 words, completed)

Liam watched Violet Sorrengail fall in love with Xaden Riorson. Not him.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Op-Ed by Jeff Goodell published in the New York Times:

On a recent Thursday evening, a freakish windstorm called a derecho (Spanish for “straight ahead”) hit Houston, a city of more than two million people that also happens to be the epicenter of the fossil fuel industry in America.

In a matter of minutes, winds of up to 100 miles per hour blew out windows on office buildings, uprooted trees and toppled electric poles and transmission towers. Nearly a million households lost power. Which meant that not only was there no light, but there was no air-conditioning. The damage from the storm was so extensive that, five days later, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were still marooned in the heat and darkness.

Luckily, the day the derecho blew in, the temperature in Houston, a city infamous for its swampy summers, was in the low to mid-80s. Hot, to be sure, but for most healthy people, not life-threatening. Of the at least eight deaths reported as a result of the storm, none were from heat exposure.

But if this storm had arrived several days later, perhaps over the Memorial Day weekend, when the temperature in Houston hit 96 degrees, with a heat index as high as 115, it might have been a very different story. “The Hurricane Katrina of extreme heat,” is how Mikhail Chester, director of the Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University, once put it to me, echoing the memory of the catastrophic 2005 hurricane that struck Louisiana, devastated New Orleans and killed more than 1,300 people.

What if, instead, the electricity goes out for several days during a blistering summer heat wave in a city that depends on air-conditioning in those months?

Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter  Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.

In Dr. Chester’s scenario, a compounding crisis of extreme heat and a power failure in a major city like Houston could lead to a series of cascading failures, exposing vulnerabilities in the region’s infrastructure that are difficult to foresee and could result in thousands, or even tens of thousands, of deaths from heat exposure in a matter of days. The risk to people in cities would be higher because all the concrete and asphalt amplifies the heat, pushing temperatures as much as 15 degrees to 20 degrees in the midafternoon above surrounding vegetated areas.

The derecho that hit Houston was a warning of just how quickly risks are multiplying in our rapidly warming world. As if to prove this point, some 10 days after the Houston blackout, another windstorm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in and around Dallas.

One of the most dangerous illusions of the climate crisis is that the technology of modern life makes us invincible. Humans are smart. We have tools. Yeah, it will cost money. But we can adapt to whatever comes our way. As for the coral reefs that bleach in the hot oceans and the howler monkeys that fell dead out of trees during a recent heat wave in Mexico, well, that’s sad but life goes on.

Last year, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, Arizona State University and the University of Michigan published a study looking at the consequences of a major blackout during an extreme heat wave in three cities: Phoenix, Detroit and Atlanta. In the study, the cause of the blackout was unspecified.

“It doesn’t really matter if the blackout is the result of a cyberattack or a hurricane,” Brian Stone, the director of the Urban Climate Lab at Georgia Tech and the lead author on the study, told me. “For the purposes of our research, the effect is the same.” Whatever the cause, the study noted that the number of major blackouts in U.S. more than doubled between 2015-16 and 2020-21.

Dr. Stone and his colleagues focused on those three American cities because they have different demographics, climates and dependence on air-conditioning. In Detroit, 53 percent of buildings have central air-conditioning; in Atlanta, 94 percent; in Phoenix, 99 percent. The researchers modeled the health consequences for residents in a two-day, citywide blackout during a heat wave, with electricity gradually restored over the next three days.

The results were shocking: in Phoenix, about 800,000 people — roughly half the population — would need emergency medical treatment for heat stroke and other illnesses. The flood of people seeking care would overwhelm the city’s hospitals. More than 13,000 people would die.

Under the same scenario in Atlanta, researchers found there would be 12,540 visits to emergency rooms. Six people would die. In Detroit, which has a higher percentage of older residents and a higher poverty rate than those other cities, 221 people would die.

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

Soldier headcannons

Soldier Headcanons!

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I'm going to sob. I had to look up how to spell both words right. How am I supposed to be a writer if I can't write. Anyways, mutual appreciation comment time! Thank you for being mutual and correcting my spelling 😭

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I don't write enough for him, so I'm worried but excited to try!

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I stand by the fact that this man is the typical American dad, but... he's also such a fucking crazy?

Like one day, he'll be grilling steak in an apron that says "Gold bless America" on the tits, six pack half gone, (it's 10 am) telling you the story of how he went out and killed it with his bare hands only about seven minutes ago. Then, the next day, you'll see him eating half a bag of potting soil and rocks for breakfast. Like???? And he's still in good health, so I guess whatever he's doing is working?

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Nearly shit himself when he found the bombpop vodka. Nearly killed himself, mixing it with the bombpop Mt. Dew.

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I don't see enough content with Soldier and Pyro, which is sad because, like, they're both sweet and would totally be friends.

Let's be honest, Soldier would sit and tell Pyro every piece of American history he knows, and Pyro would sit and listen. Dare I say Pyro might even enjoy listening about the history of America.

But I do think that Pyro and Soldiers friendship is different from Engie and Pyros' friendship. Pyro and Soldier are like brothers. Engie and Pyro are like father and child.

I think Engie keeps Soldier in line, too. I think them as a group would be really cute.

(Also, I think him and Scout have a father and son bond. Please it would be so sweet.)

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Speaking of history! He has one of those tables where you can reenact a war with like plastic tanks and mini figures. (I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.) He's memorized every war, every move, every anything. Tell him a specific date, and he can set it up to match what happened that day perfectly.

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While this man does act goofy and al aot playfully criminally insane. I do think he has very real issues. He is super on edge most of the time. He can't deal with sudden loud noise without a warning. He's protective over anyone and everyone. (He would take a bullet for any of his teammates).

I don't know if I'd say he has PTSD but something happened to him, and the whole loud, proud American man! Is a persona, a way to cope and find a distraction from the bad times.

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You'd think for a man who's so pro America he'd be unaware of the world around him, but you'd be wrong. This man loves other countries too, it's just happens to be the U.S., which is his everything.

He knows about the culture and life in other countries because he learned about them after he met Medic, Heavy, Spy, and Demo. He wanted to get to know them and understand their country because he just assumed everyone was as proud of their home as he was, so he wanted to be able to talk about it with them in the same way he talks about America.

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I think he reads Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters books. I can't really explain why? I just get the vibe that he likes them.

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Fourth of July is obviously his favorite holiday. But considering half the base isn't American and the other half isn't too keen on celebrating, he always thinks he's going to have to celebrate alone. But NOPE. You bet your ass the Mercs celebrate with him.

He loves his teammates, and they love him.

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Love marine biology! A huge fan of sharks and whales. Cried when he found out about whale sharks.

"ITS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL! THE BEST OF EVERYHTING!"

His favorite sharks are hammer heads, and his favorite whale is a beluga whale.

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I don't care if he has a set home state in canon. THIS MAN IS FLORIDA CODED!

He's wrestled an alligator and fucking won!

One time, the team took a vacation to Florida. I imagine this happening with him and Scout. Like vividly.

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Okay so that was really fun! I hope you liked this because I was super worried halfway through that they weren't going to be good 😭

I think he's actually a really neat character, I'm glad I got to write for him!

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[cosmos-daughter]

Leon Kennedy character analysis: the agent's endless struggle with guilt and dysfunctional romance with the spy in red, Ada Wong.

I saw quite a few people complaining about Leon supposedly flirting with someone in Death Island film (not sure who or if he even does, the film is not out yet as I'm writing this) and accusing him of being out of character because of that, so I had to stop and write this. Seeing people acting as if Leon being flirty with women was something new or unexpected kind of shocked me, since that's been a character trait of his since 2004, then I got the context and apparently, the reason why they are upset over this is actually because Ada.

Apparently, some people expected Leon's flirty behaviour with other women to be gone on the events that are set after Resident Evil 6, because since his feelings for Ada were finally adressed in that game, many assumed they were probably in a relationship in a recent timeline, which explains why this is being treated like a case of infidelity.

Seeing that made me realize that some people, especially fans that are new to the franchise and joined the fandom after the remakes, don't quite understand what Leon and Ada actually have going on or what they mean to each other. It is much, much more complicated and deep than it actually seems, and I want to talk about it in detail here while also providing some canon information to prove the points I make.

Content warning: mentions of alcoholism, depression, suicidal ideation and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Leon and Ada’s dynamic is tragically funny. Talk about an dysfunctional, unstable relationship. It is definitely not the healthiest. What they have going on is messy and complicated, sure, but that's what makes it entertaining for us, viewers, and what makes Aeon a appealing ship that many love, even if watching them can also be quite frustrating at times. They are the true meaning of star-crossed lovers — two people who love each other but aren’t able to be together, a love that’s doomed from the start — and that's why their relationship has always been presented and described as complicated.

Following their escape, their paths would cross from time to time, Leon as a U.S. government operative and Ada as a spy. Ada makes no qualms about using Leon when it suits her needs, but Leon is loath to bring himself to be done with her. They don't consider each other enemies, but it's hard to tell how they feel for each other. Complicated is the word that aptly summarizes their relationship.

[File from Resident Evil 6 "Leon and Ada"]

That makes two things clear: Leon has feelings for Ada, and he’s a hopeless romantic. He knows when she’s using him, he’s a smart man, but he can’t and doesn’t want to let go of her. Anyone can see that. Each time they interact you can practically sense Leon’s hesitancy through the screen, always seemingly conflicted, wary, as if going through a dilemma of “which one is more important: love or duty?", because even if she’s the woman he loves, that doesn’t change the fact that she’s shady and has worked for the opposite side before — for the people that produce bioweapons — and Leon's determination to keep fighting despite of how exhausted he is comes precisely from his hatred of people who make use of bioweapons and his desire to end this for good. Loving her or not, as long as he's not sure of what her true intentions are, he can't fully trust her. Putting the lives of innocent people at risk is something that Leon will never do by choice, after all, he lives and fights for that, to protect. He'd do anything to stop something like Raccoon from ever happening again. It's the only thing he has left. The only part of his old self that didn't die after the outbreak in 1998 is his urge to protect. Serve and protect. The self sacrificing hero.

Krauser: What is it that you fight for, comrade? Leon: My past, I suppose. [Optional dialogue from original RE4]

In RE6, he protects Ada from Chris and Helena when they try to kill her, but he’s not sure himself if she’s innocent or not. His uncertainty becomes even clearer during the final scene before they part ways again, when he asks her: “What are you? Why are you helping us?”. He's unsure of her goals, whose side she’s on, why she does what she does or what he means to her, but even confused and likely curious, he doesn’t go after her for answers when Helena tells him to. He chooses duty, like a good soldier would.

Damnation takes place months before RE6, and the film very directly implies that Leon and Ada got intimate at some point — probably a couple of times — but their behavior towards one another in RE6 is enough evidence that their involvement never developed into a serious relationship, it never went past a couple of intimate nights.

(Another proof that they weren't in a relationship during RE6 is the fact he shamelessly flirts with Helena at the beginning of the game and he would never do that if he was in a relationship, since loyalty is a big thing of his character too).

What I make up of their relationship from the content Capcom gives us and what they’ve been hinting since 1998 is that they’re less than lovers, but definitely more than friends. I believe they have that kind of relationship that sometimes, Ada shows up at Leon’s doorsteps at night after a long time of not seeing each other and they both missed each other terribly and are also undeniably attracted to one another, so maybe they do sleep together and share a tender, vulnerable moment (that they never really speak of later) and when Leon wakes up in the morning, her side of the bed is coldly empty. I imagine they have physical but not emotional intimacy, and even if they both know how they feel about that deep down, it doesn't matter — neither of them have the luxury of doing feelings. They don’t belong to each other and are free to do as they please, but none plan on moving on from one another. It’s two screwed up humans afraid of commitment loving in the best way they can: messily.

It's also important to mention I believe there's a reason why Leon accepts to be in a relationship like this even if he knows it's not good for him and yearns for more (even if he doesn't admit it, he's a big softie: emotional, romantic, loves people and company, of course he wants more than that). I'd say the reason it’s not only because he loves Ada — even if that's the biggest part of it — but also because he doesn't think himself worthy of having a loving, stable relationship. Leon is an alcoholic who suffers from depression, traumatized, barely has any free time to rest and also works in the most dangerous job in the world that could get him killed anytime. Basically, this man is not very boyfriend material and he's aware of it.

He'd most likely spent the entire time thinking the other person deserves better, deserves someone present in their life and who can give them the love and attention they deserve. With Ada, he’s able to fulfill his emotional and physical needs without having the responsibility of having an actual relationship and without hurting anyone's feelings, because Ada doesn’t expect more from him too. They both know they can't go there. A romantic relationship is probably something he no longer knows how to deal with, ever since his life has changed so drastically. Hell, he can barely take care of himself. So he's fine with the little that Ada gives him, he has to be, and he'll accept whichever parts of her she'll allows him to have. He knows that she’ll never be his, so he has to be fine with having her only for a night. It's no news for anyone that Leon Scott Kennedy is the master of self-sabotage, no one is more cruel to him than himself. Everything in his life is a mess, his love life would hardly be any different.

Now, my favorite part to talk about and the main point of this whole analysis: Leon's insecurity regarding being unworthy of love and peace originates from his survivor's guilt trauma. I will always talk about how cruel and visceral Leon’s case of survivor's guilt is, because it's part the character's essence, you can't have Leon without it. That thing is tied to him. It's a stain on his soul. It will always be with him, even if he manages to heal one day. Since Raccoon City, he lives with an immeasurable amount of guilt regarding every single person that he "failed" to save and protect, knowing they're gone while he’s still alive is too much for him and that results in a worrisome self-destructive behaviour where he thinks he doesn’t deserve to be happy or a normal life, a break from the horrors. He needs to live the rest of his life miserably, fighting incessantly against bioweapons until his last breath, because this is the very least he can do to make amends with everyone he "failed" to protect, and he holds into that failure like it's a hand. A workaholic fueled by guilt and grief.

(EDIT: Leon's voice actor, Matthew Mercer, pretty much confirmed this by saying that Leon holds himself accountable for every death that happens on his watch even if it's out of his control in a interview for the Death Island movie. I know he's the voice actor and not the writer, but since he understands his character perfectly, I find that worthy of mentioning).

Resident Evil: Damnation only further proves his crystal clear guilt issues. The scene where Leon stops Alexander from shooting himself, he says the following:

“The option of taking our own lives no longer belongs to us. Once we start using these, [the gun] we owe it to the people who died alongside us, we have to continue living.”

This whole interaction, Leon stopping a man from killing himself and his words hits differently when you remember that in the original RE2, he actually considered following the same path, and the only reason he didn’t was to protect Sherry and make sure she was safe (this part doesn’t make a lot of sense in the remake since Leon doesn’t meet her until the last cutscene, but we’re referring to the original events here). The reason why he accepted to work for the government in the first place was to ensure they would keep Sherry safe and allow her to live a normal life without being subjected to experiments (a promise they didn't keep, as we see in RE6), even if we all know he didn't have a choice and they offered him out of politeness. He still did all of that for a girl he barely knew. Self sacrifice is a vice of his just as much as alcohol.

"To tell you the truth, I even thought about ending it — several times, actually — with just a quick bullet to the head. But I didn't give up. Sherry needed me. She was a 10-year-old girl thrown into a hellish environment with monsters after her, so I had to pull myself together for her sake. She was our reason for not giving up — especially for Claire.”

[Leon and the Raccoon City Incident]

Leon feels forced to continue this exhausting loop of constantly sacrificing his own mental health and safety in this miserable and dangerous line of work because he believes that he owes that to his fallen comrades and every victim of bioterrorism. Consequently, he also gives up on his chances of having a normal relationship and life, of having a family in the future. He’s seen drinking a lot in Damnation, including during the day, alone in his room. I think that’s pretty self explanatory.

Then we have RE Vendetta — the peak of Leon's depression — where he's seen drowning in alcohol even more during a mental breakdown after losing his whole team being the only survivor yet again. More people dead at his commands, following his lead, more people dead because he can't be the super-hero he wishes so badly he was, all that while he still breathes and gets to see another day. Leon doesn't have a lot of stability in his life and he loses people important to him all the time, yet he never gets desensitized to it.

He questions if living is really worth it in the film:

“I keep fighting... and fighting and fighting, and instead of seeing an end to this shit, it just keep getting worse. Is this what my life is supposed to be? Fighting the living dead and bastards that make them? What's the point of it all?”

The accumulated years of misery finally led Leon to his limit. He is beyond exhausted, he knows it’s not fair to him, he shouldn’t have to live like this, he’s desperate for a little bit of normalcy, yet he still goes back to fight. He can't run away from duty, and he sure as hell can’t turn a blind eye to bioterrorism no matter how tired he is. Vendetta is set one year after RE6, so it’s clear that his thing with Ada hasn’t evolved since then, and it seems that it's been a while since they last saw each other, and maybe that also adds on the reasons why Leon snapped, since she's the closest to a constant in his life, the only thing he can always count to come back to him, even if he doesn't knows when.

It’s not hard to believe a man like that would avoid a serious relationship at any costs. But doing that is not easy for him, Leon is very emotional and so incredibly lonely and touch-starved, he wants the love, even if he doesn’t think he deserves it. While I have no canon evidence about this, I can see him being the type who gets one-night stands once in a while, just when he’s feeling too alone and in need for a distraction and relief, I think that he feels a little needed and loved when he’s touching and being touched by the other person, even if it’s only for the night. But he refuses to emotionally connect with the person, not only because his heart belongs to another, but because he doesn't want to risk someone falling for him; Leon is very emotionally intelligent and responsible, he thinks of people's feelings, considers them, and takes it very seriously.

I see Leon’s womanizer behaviour as a coping mechanism for his loneliness and his own way to lighten the mood and make those women not panic during the situation of absolute chaos and danger they're usually in with him. It's also simply because he enjoys women, obviously, I'm not denying that, but his flirting never bothered me because of how respectful he is — he never takes it too far or makes them uncomfortable by being inappropriate. There's a reason why all the women he flirts with, especially those like Hunnigan and Helena — who have serious personalities & don't seem the type to enjoy that kind of men — end up adoring him and seeing him as a dear friend. We can also tell he's not playing with them and trying to make them fall for him by the way he only flirts straight up shamelessly with the strong-type of women who he knows won't fall for him, and with the soft type (like Ashley or Manuela) who might actually have a crush on him, he's more careful and mostly friendly — ocasionally teasing and a little light flirting too, but that's just his way of being playful. Leon is a charismatic, charming man by nature, what can he do about it?

So, considering all this, it's pretty much clear why a relationship is out of the question for him, no person in their right mind would want to subject themselves to be in a relationship in which your partner is completely secretive about their work life, or having to live with the anxiety of going to sleep at night not knowing if they're still alive when they leaves for their missions; people want a relationship for security, stability, reassurance, comfort and peace, not to be tormented. With Ada, Leon doesn’t need to worry about any of that. She isn’t going to ask him questions nor is she going to stay up at night worrying if he’s going to come back home, because they don’t have that kind of relationship. And it's not that Leon would hate having that kind of relationship, especially with her, it's the opposite, he secretly craves it. I think there's nothing he'd love more than laying with the person he loves on his arms at the end of a long day, seeing their face lit by the rays of sun in the morning, doing the typical clingy couple things, the casual affection; but he has a job to do and he knows he can't have both.

I don’t agree with the usage of the word ‘toxic’ to define his relationship with Ada, because that makes her seem like a horrible person when it’s not the case; none of them is forcing the other into this relationship, they both just fall in with it because they know that this is the closest to a romantic relationship that people like them can afford to have. And also because this relationship isn't entirely bad for them — we don't know much about Ada, unfortunately, but we know enough about Leon to have a guess that what he has with her is enough to provide him at least a little bit of comfort, and God knows he needs it.

Even if we don't have enough content of her like her feelings, traumas and motivations to write a fully detailed essay, we know that even if she doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve like Leon does, Ada loves him too. And yes — she uses him to reach her goals during her missions, plays little games with him, but I believe the latter is part of a façade (I'll get into this later), and she never did anything to hurt him or put him in danger. She’s a focused, calculative woman who will play dirty to get what she wants, yet she often goes out of her way to help Leon every time he’s in trouble instead of considering it a nuisance. Coming from someone like her, that means a lot. She’s the one who throws him the rocket launcher in RE2 during the fight against the Tyrant, she’s the one who stops Krauser from killing him in RE4 (original, in the remake it is Luis' doing), she goes against Wesker’s orders to keep him safe, and helps him many times in RE6 and Damnation too. Ada is always watching him from the shadows and would never let anyone harm him. The way she trusts Leon becomes evident with how she always lowers her guard around him in a way you never see her doing with anyone else — like that choking scene from the original RE4 (it was cut from the remake), no other person would be able to catch her off guard like that. She's at ease around him.

Something else I noticed is how Ada only acts cool when in front of him. In the original RE4 you can see how she puts that unbothered, cool and mysterious woman show on when face-to-face with him, but as soon as he isn't watching her, the façade drops and she looks at him as if he's the most precious person in the world, she has the biggest heart eyes for him, even if she doesn't let him see it. I believe the only time she showed it to him is when he saves her from Saddler and asks her if she's okay, to which she replies with a weak "I've been better", and gives him the softest smile ever. There is so much tenderness in that look she gave him. Also, the way she talks about him: in the original Separate Ways she compliments his skills, intelligence, and refers to him as "practically a genius"; it's obvious she admires and respects him immensely.

My point with this is that the reason why she does that, the reason why Ada doesn’t give too much to Leon, is because she knows it’s just going to make things more difficult for both of them. After all, leaving would be much harder after hearing a “I love you”, after making promises or plans. They both know how they feel too, so there is no need for words. As I said before, their love isn’t exactly the healthiest, it's probably something that hurts them both, but as long as they can see each other again, they can endure the pain that comes with the separation.

Like Leon said himself, she's a part of him that he can't let go, but no matter how much they cherish each other, the end never changes; Leon and Ada are always meant to go to their separate ways.

[greyaugustuspoetry]

You are loved. What to do in a crisis and resources on how to get help with mental illness.

If you can, please reblog this so people can be aware of how they can get help.

Hello world! I just thought I’d provide some resources for all the mentally ill out there in this existence. These all worked for me and hopefully they can work for you. If you think you may be suffering from mental illness go to section two and three. If you are currently in crisis, which means you think about or have planned your suicide, go to section one and read through the rest of this post. You are not alone, 792 million people live with mental illness. 264 million live with depression, and 284 million live with anxiety. If you are reading this, it’s a sign to start getting help. If you are struggling, these resources can help you. Just give it a try, it’s worth it. Just remember. You are loved. You are wanted. You are cared for. You are noticed. You deserve to live.

IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS:

Call a suicide hotline!!!!

Hotlines can be helpful at calming you down in a time of high emotion or stress, these people are literally trained to distract you. I’ve called them a few times in my life and it does work I promise. Just try it out.

The U.S number is 988

If you don’t live in the U.S, follow this link to find your countries hotline. Hotlines. Find it on the site and give it a call. Here are some additional hotlines and resource specific help.

Directory of international mental health helplines

A second list of global hotlines

Crisis hotlines for teens and youth

LGBT crisis support

Substance abuse crisis support

Postpartum support

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233

National child abuse hotline

Literally just a list of hotlines for everything

Either while you are on the phone with a hotline or after, send your location to a friend or family member so that someone can come get you or check on you. If that is not an option you can ask the hotline to send someone to come get you. DO NOT. I REPEAT. DO NOT. Stay by yourself in a time of need or crisis. The longer you are alone the more dangerous the situation can become. You are not a burden if you ask someone you love for help, that is what they are there for. Most likely you will be collected by emergency services and they will go from there.

IF YOU HAVE ALREADY TAKEN AN ACTION TO KILL YOURSELF DO THE FOLLOWING:

Call 911 if you are in the U.S

If you are not in the U.S call your countries emergency number. Here is a list of countries numbers:

List of emergency telephone numbers

If you are at home with family members go to your family and let them know what happened. Even if they are asleep, wake someone up if you have to. Do this AFTER you have contacted emergency services .

If you are on a college campus, contact your RA or your campus crisis line AFTER you have contact emergency services.

If you are by yourself, WAIT FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES TO ARRIVE. Do not move from your location.

In crisis and after you need to make a safety plan. Safety plans reduce risk of future harm by planning out actions that you can do yourself to reduce emotional stress. Here’s how:

Safety Plan

After crisis assistance:

After crisis assistance can include therapy and psychiatry. I will provide thinks for find both of these things. If you are not currently in crisis but you are experiencing symptoms of mental illness, please make an appointment with one of these assistances. Below there are additional resources for mental health that can also be used as a first step.

Therapists

International therapy directory

Psychiatrists

American Psychiatric Association

How to find a psychiatrist and other therapists

U.S Government resources

National hotline for resources

General mental health resources

GLOBAL mental health resources

Coping strategies:

Coping strategies are how you individually can cope and process emotions, thoughts, and feelings. They can be hobbies or things like journaling or writing or just something as simple as going on a walk. I will give links to lists of coping strategies that might help you.

Coping with anxiety

Self-harm coping strategies

Coping skills for depression

How to cope with suicidal thoughts

35 coping skills to try

Self- help techniques for mental illness

100 coping strategies for all things

[contentment-of-cats]

F*ck anons

Hate, Harassment, and Threats: Coping and Handling

It happens and it's happened since the rise of LJ. I remember getting my first hatepost and how much it upset me, but I was never a target in the way that many were. LJ was truly the wild and wooly west - Dodge City or Deadwood, when people thought it would be a utopia. We had greyfaces, anons, sock puppets, and meat puppets. For people transitioning from controlled environments like e-Groups, Listserv, and forums it was not the mod-free utopia that they might have wished for. Real fandom scandals and legitimate harm to fans have been built on anons, sockpuppets, and greyfaces.

Terminology

Anon: Anonymous account either from outside the service or from an established account that has been anonymized.

Greyface: LJ term for an account with no identifiers, created explicitly to harass.

Sock Puppet: Account created by one person with the intent of being perceived as a separate individual.

Meat Puppet: Also used to be called a fanpoodle. A person whose actions are directed by another. Also called a muppet for having the controller's hand shoved so far up their ass that it can work their mouth.

Defining Hateposting/Cyberstalking/Harassment/Threats

First, there is a federal law -18 U.S. Code § 2261A Stalking - that defines stalking and harassment. Full text is here, with excerpt below:

(2) (Whoever) with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person, uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or electronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that— (A)places that person in reasonable fear of the death of or serious bodily injury to a person, a pet, a service animal, an emotional support animal, or a horse described in clause (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv) of paragraph (1)(A); or (B)causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of paragraph (1)(A),

Laws can vary from state to state. 48 states have some laws on the books, with 44 having criminal penalties. You'll need to contact local law enforcement or look them up on your state legislature's website.

All forms of online harassment can be grouped under the label of cyberbullying. How do you know what is or isn't cyberbullying? There is a comprehensive list. Even some things that you didn't think might be bullying are, in fact, bullying. Unfortunately, the FBI seems to focus on financial crimes and scams, and have changed their reporting pages to reflect that. In all cases using the internet to convey threats as defined under 18 U.S. Code § 2261A need to be documented and reported to the FBI.

Documenting: Keep the Reciepts

Documenting online abuse is key to stopping online abuse. To be Tumblr specific, screenshots of DMs, replies to your posts, posts harassing you, reblogs of your posts with abuse in the comments and tagjacking or abusive hashtags, screenshots of anons/sockpuppets and harassing asks need to be kept. You need your receipts.

Fuck Anons

Anons are not worth your mental health or the pleasure and community you derive from fandom.

"But some of my followers are shy!"

They can create an account that they can use just for doing asks. Exposing you to abuse and bullying should not be the price of someone being shy. I have also turned on anons when someone has asked me to via DM, in a post comment, or via an anon comment on my Ao3 so that they could send me an ask without unmasking themselves. This protects me and protects them.

Tumblr recently started requiring a valid email address to send an anon without being signed in. This could be seen a couple of different ways - Tumblr wants some sort tabs on people using their site anonymously, or that they want people sending anons to create an account. There is nothing to stop an anon from creating a burner email account in order to harass, so that only goes so far.

Block anons. I am serious. Just go into your account settings and do it. You can even turn off asks entirely.

Per Tumblr: "Anonymous asks are not associated with a specific account, and blocking those will block the IP address of the sender."

So, if you block an anon and someone suddenly disappears from your followers, or you get a follower asking why they can't see or interact with your blog, then you have your answer as to where your anon bullying might well be coming from.

However, isn't it easier to just turn off anons?

Yes. It is. My anons are kept off 99.9 percent of the time and I sleep just fine.

Other Tips and Tricks

You can control who reblogs your posts. The default is that anyone on Tumblr can reblog. You can also block anyone from reblogging. The new feature offers middle ground by allowing you to add users allowed to reblog by mentioning them. I don't know if this extends to other parties reblogging from the people you allowed to reblog, however. Click on the little gear to access the dropdown.

From the Settings Menu

In addition to the default, you have two other options under the dropdown.

Tumblrs you follow and that have been mutuals with you for a week can reply

Only Tumblrs you follow can reply.

Keep the people you follow private by toggling this off.

Toggle off to stop DMs from people you don't follow.

Hide your Tumblr from people without a Tumblr, or from people who are signed out. Remove your blog from Tumblr search results or from search engine crawlers.

Finally, you can block DMs on a case by case basis, too.

Finally, it can be hard to start over, but when the bullying is too much and too persistent, you can back up your blog or take it private and start a new Tumblr with people you trust.

Other Resources

Online Harassment Field Guide - a really comprehensive source