#to all the russians... i apologize

[bromcommie]

tbh I still think Brock Rumlow was an interesting character and upon further examination way more unsettling a villain than most to me because like. Let’s be real, the second you lay eyes on Robert Redford as Pierce monologuing in his pristine suit and glass office high up in the sky he just screams Evil Politician! at you. You can see it coming a mile away. Meanwhile Rumlow is….Just Some Guy. On the surface, he’s just some side dude. He’s not enhanced, he’s not in some major position of power, he’s just someone who’s really good at what he does and seems dedicated enough to the work and functions well with his team. He respects Steve, might admire him even, but not so much that he gets starry eyed like everybody else. He’s lighthearted but focused, he’s no nonsense, he’s the everyman Steve can relate to way more than spooks like Natasha or Fury.

And okay, maybe what Rumlow does for a living is beat intimidate and kill people, but it’s not like that’s the primary objective, right, because SHIELD are the good guys and this is what Steve does now, too, anyway; except that Steve doesn’t really use any weapons other than the shield, he holds back, he doesn’t carry a gun anymore which is usually fine since he’s dangerous enough without it. But when that leaves him vulnerable, he’s covered: Rumlow’s got his six, and he does it well, and he earns some of his trust. This is familiar to Steve.

And maybe Rumlow’s a little too good, fine, maybe he shoots a guy in the head within the first fifteen minutes of the movie when he doesn’t necessarily have to and then cracks jokes immediately after but that’s alright too, because that guy had Steve at gunpoint and that guy was Bad whereas Rumlow is One of the Good Guys just doing his job, right. Rumlow’s joking around because he’s used to the violence, they’re all used to it, and this is just how it works. They’re just soldiers doing the grunt work and following orders, and this is familiar, too.

Except that they’re not soldiers and this isn’t a war, except that the work is for an intelligence agency whose job it is to hoard and steal information and monitor civilians and orchestrate and sabotage and meddle in internal and external state affairs. Except that the Good Guys, in reality, are extremely grey at best. Except that many of the Good Guys turn out to be Nazis on top of everything else, and it’s not that far of a stretch.

But when it’s all starting to unravel, you’re still thinking well maybe some of these guys didn’t know. Maybe they didn’t do it out of individual belief, and if faced with the right choice, they can be redeemed.

That is until you realize that Rumlow maybe didn’t respect Steve and what he did so much as what Steve could do if only Steve weren’t “weak” in other ways, if Steve had chosen the right side. That it not being personal is less a cop out and more a taunt the same way just following orders has always been, for Rumlow and many many men that came before him and will continue to come after. Until the vault when, by the most charitable of interpretations, Rumlow looks at the Winter Soldier letting himself be smacked around and crying and getting shocked like he’s maybe a little unnerved (if not just downright fascinated) by the whole thing, but not enough that it really changes anything for him, because the end justifies the means and it’s not really his problem, anyway.

Until Sam shows up and Rumlow looks at him like a bird of prey and says This is gonna hurt with a fucking smile on his face, and then you think: shit, man, obviously. How was it not clear from the start.

To me, what makes someone like Rumlow a good villain, even a side one, is not that he’s straight up Insane & Evil™️ or suffering from Tragic Backstory Syndrome or all hopped up on magic superstrength juice or whatever, but precisely the fact that he’s Just Some Guy with a cockroach survival mentality who operates well within the established system and just so happens to be really good at his job - a job that he might’ve even joined thinking it was for a good cause, or because he had something to prove, or simply because it gave him one hell of an excuse to be a bully. Because he either wholeheartedly believes in HYDRA or he just doesn’t give much of a shit either way so long as he gets his due in the end, and both are just as bad.

Because when you strip away all the grand scale superhero theatrics, you’ve seen this before. You’ve seen Rumlows in your school and in your neighborhood and in the military and the cop car patrolling your street. They’re the ones who sometimes say or do somewhat offputting shit but you figure it’s fine because they’re otherwise real nice or charismatic or normal looking, or maybe they work a job that’s framed as helpful or protective or inherently good despite the power dynamics at play, or they share your background and interests and you chat about the weather being crap this time of year.

And every time one of them turns out to be a violent, hateful piece of shit, you’re still somehow surprised then, too, when you really shouldn’t be.

[hugheses]

1-6-19: usa loses to finland in the world juniors gold medal game

[anotherscrappile]

I HAVE MADE A DISCOVERY 🦀

[unknownchaos]

Ready to Comply.

[storywestistrash]

i am actually so tired of the way westerners treat eastern europeans

[feminurge]

sometimes i lurk on the 'for you' part of dumblr and i just saw a non-moot's post saying sorry for all the people waiting for them to reply. guess what number was apparently So Much they had to make a public apology

[taohun]

panda express save me save me panda express

[1ncend1ary]

names.

[ohsalome]

I went down the rabbit hole to check if maybe the original poster was a bot, and no, it's so much worse.

This is not a russian babushka brainwashed by state TV. This is their national elite, the cream of the crop, the intelligentsia that has vast international connections and unlimited access to information.

And yes, his twitter consists of "hail putin"-s and chinese apologism.

[beastblade69]

do people actually research how problematic the band is? all I do is check the country of origin (have to know, I ain't listening to no russians). I don't have energy to research every damn band member like shut tf up. if the fuck-up-ness of the band ain't a known fact (like w burzum, still tho many people just ignore the awfulness of varg just because "uhm I'm not into politics, I just love the music". even some ukrainians (idiots) are like this while knowing damn well he's a nazi pro russian dick. some people are dumb by nature and we can't do a thing about it) or they don't sing about it in their songs I have no way of knowing (forgive me that I'm not gonna waste my time on a dumb research instead of listening to music)

[s0fter-sin]

shepherd saying, “war isn’t about friends, it’s about enemies” when friendship is the main reason the 141 find all the missiles and take down hassan just scratches a lovely itch

laswell is able to find out hassan’s in mexico and working with the cartel bc of her friendship with price and gaz, who are already in amsterdam. they’re able to get the jump on him and find out about him shipping the missiles over the atlantic bc of her friendship with alejandro. price and gaz are able to fly to al mazrah in time to intercept aq bc of price’s friendship with nik and they’re able to get laswell back bc of their friendship with farah. soap makes it through las almas and eventually kills hassan in chicago bc he successfully befriended ghost, who stayed behind at his own risk and kept giving him advice he wasn’t required to give

the real treasure was literally the friendships they made along the way

[betelgeusing]

I was talking to a guy at the party tonight and he told me he was excited to eat the food on offer (labor day potluck, tons of good home cooks showing off, y'all wish you were there) after a serious bout of food poisoning destroyed his gut biome and he was under doctor's orders to eat nothing but chicken and rice for the past 6 months

I asked him what he'd eaten to get food poisoning and he fucking grinned at me and told me it was a tuna salad sandwich from Subway

[sporadeen]

Wanted to make a post dunking on an idiot who seems to think using the word "genocide" for anything other than the holocaust is disgraceful, then took a look at Wikipedia for some fact checking and got too depressed and sad to do it

[sortanonymous]

You know what, time for something more light-hearted and petty for a thousandth post compared to the... ahem... events I've been discussing lately.

Russian Mind is by far OPN's best album (of the several I've heard anyway) and the fact that it's the only main album with the Oneohtrix Point Never name without a Wikipedia page is flat-out criminal!

Even mid-ass Zones Without People recently got a Wikipedia page? Like, come on! We've gotta end this drought! "Physical Memory" and "Time Decanted" need more attention by any means necessary!

[reinemichele]

Ooh bubble wants to put razgrom panels on t-shirts sooo badly

[outer-edges]

i am currently registered for SIX CLASSES next semester but thats because i couldn't choose between a viking class or a russian literature class so we'll see how that goes