#to be absolutely clear i do not support the nazis but i do believe in an accurate telling of their history

[sorrel-scribbles]

I don't watch Bailey Sarian often (no disrespect, I just have other youtubers I prefer for true crime), but today I watched the latest ep. of Dark History, and there were a couple small things I noticed that were off in terms of historical accuracy in regard to the Nazi party.

1)

No, not really. The Abwehr was a military intelligence organization, meaning an agency who's goals in conducting intelligence work on foreign soil is to provide information about troop movements, military targets, etc. The CIA is a foreign intelligence organization, meaning an organization that gathers information mainly for the purpose of aiding foreign policy and preventing or mitigating conflict (though if you're talking the CIA specifically, they have also functioned as military intelligence). My point here is that the Abwehr and the CIA are not a 1:1 of each other and should not be treated as such.

2)

While you could argue my greivence about the Abwehr is splitting hairs, this one is just wrong. I understand untangling the web of Himmler-controlled agencies can be confusing, but that's still not what the SS did. The Allgemeine-SS were a paramilitary organization and also functioned as a "peacekeeping" force in occupied territories, guards for certain high ranking officals, and staff for some concentration camps. The Waffen-SS was an eltie Nazi fighting force and also staffed some concentration camps. (all that it still somewhat of an oversimplification because the Nazis did the bureaucratic shuffle a lot, but it's closer to the truth) Neither of those really functioned as a police force. The Allgemeine-SS could and did preform police duties sometimes, but it wasn't their primary job. They had the actual police, the Gestapo, and to some extent the SD, for that.

(The organizations under Himmler have a way weirder, more complicated history than this, and if you want to know more feel free to send an ask)

[adhdburnout]

Ok I’m sorry to my like- 5 followers for posting about politics again, but I keep seeing a lot of comments everywhere about there being “problems on both sides” (cough chappell roan cough). Which is fair. Absolutely, of course there are problems on both sides. The Democrats are far from perfect.

But if you are continuously arguing that there are problems on both sides, what is your plan? To not vote? Vote for a third party candidate? If so, you are actively, willingly helping to elect a man who is a rapist, misogynist, white supremacist, and felon. I’m sure I missed something there, but you get the point. You are rolling out the red carpet for the guy who has repeatedly expressed his desire to be a dictator. To deport all immigrants, legal or not. To persecute LGBTQ+ people. To take away a woman’s basic bodily autonomy. To strip away voting rights.

It is perfectly reasonable to say there are problems with both parties. But for the love of all that is holy do not pretend they are the fucking same. It is not the intelligent take you think it is. Because you may not like Harris or the Democratic Party, but if Trump is elected, there will be a far, far worse outcome. If you are not a rich cis straight white Christian male, the GOP does not give a shit about you. In fact, they probably are actively trying to make life worse for you. In case you haven’t noticed, the GOP is full of literal Nazis.

So if you aren’t voting, what the actual fuck are you thinking? Honestly. I get that you may not like the Dems position on the war in Gaza. You want to support people’s right to exist. But if that is what you truly believe in, then there is a VERY clear choice here. Please, please make the right one.

[wilcze-kudly]

Currently reading "A World Apart" (memoir about his time in the Soviet łagrs by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński) is making me consider an AU where Kuvira actually does suceed in sending Bolin to that re-education camp lol

It would be a hella dark storyline ofc, but interesting both from the perspective of looking at the Earth Empire and at Bolin as a character.

Like Kuvira supporters say that the main reason she was placed in power was to clear out the shocking amount of bandits in the Earth Kingdom. But we never really learn what she did with them. Like yeah she made some of them join her (absolutely wild that we don't talk about that either like girl wtf) but I'm sure there were bandits who didn't? So I assume those got sent to the camps.

I imagine they'd probably play a role similar to the irl urkas, criminals who would often be sent to the łagrs multiple times and were the "ruling caste" between the prisoners, being more used and prone to violence and immoral acts than political prisoners (note here that "political" is used loosely because you really could get sent there for anything.).

Presumably the civilians of the lower rings who raided Ba Sing Se also got sent there, or at least their leaders did. And others who disagreed, expressed any opposition to Kuvira's regime. Of course, Water tribe and Fire nation people would be there too, though they might be sent to camps more forcused on extermination than labour, since ethnic clensing is more into the Nazi part of Kuvira's inspirations.

It would be interesting, but very dark to see how these people are treated by Kuvira because going "oh Kuvira has camps where she puts those who disagree with her and also people of different nationality" and them barely mentioning it again is... well it certainly is a choice.

And the concept of Bolin being put in an environment like that would be a very interesting, if not absolutely horrific storyline.

It was actually surprising common for Soviet loyalists to get placed in the camps, after a minor fuckup or if they're getting blamed for something for example so it wouldn't be out of the question for Bolin a high ranking Earth empire officer to be placed in the camps with literal criminals and victims of the system.

It would be especially interesting because Bolin is semi used to similar environments, like starvation and being surrounded by dangerous people, but he previously had Mako to at least somewhat shield him. But this time Bolin has to go at it alone. And I think that would be fascinating, because Bolin usually does have someone he can trust and follow. But in this AU he would lack that safety net and have to make his own choices about how he handles this difficult situation.

Bolin is also a very kind person, and I think it would hard for him to see the injustice around him. I think this could be a very good "standing up for what he believes in" storyline that tlok tried to have in B4, which it kinda fell flat.

Also of course Bolin would be dealing with the guilt from helping Kuvira build an empire that facilitates this. And also the betrayal from Kuvira manipulating him for so long.

There's so much to work with here, even though it would a very difficult plotline to implement in a show marketed to kids (cowards)

Ah, Things to consider for that tlok rewerite I keep talking about but will probably never actually do

And yeah if you're interested in learning about the łagry I really do recommend "A world Apart" it's beautifully written and very heartwrenching. And it was pretty controversial when it was published due to the outrageous number of Soviet sympathisers at the time, so it's worth to see. I will warn that the book is incredibly heavy though. Like incredibly.

[aguineapigcouldntdothis]

ok idk if im gonna explain this well but im gonna try my best. just as a disclaimer I really dont agree with any extremists at all. however the behavior of hardcore pro-palestine ppl (the ones who support hamas and believe israel shouldn't exist) and the behavior of hardcore pro-israel people (the ones who believe that palestine shouldnt exist and support bibi) is so fucking different?? to be clear both of them hold harmful beliefs but that's not what im talking about here. im referring specifically to the way they act.

ive seen and been told some absolutely fucking horrible things by pro-palestine "activists". i see extremely detailed death threats, nazi ideologies, rape threats, etc. from many ultra pro-palestine people every single day. it's not even uncommon behavior or just a fringe group. a huge portion of these "activists" do and say some horrific things.

but i have rarely ever seen that behavior from hardcore pro-israel people. sure ive seen them say some assholish things, such as delegitimizing the existence of palestine, but it rarely ever gets to the point of actual threats. sometimes it does and ive seen that happen before but its uncommon. most insults i see from them are insults towards people's actions, not them as humans. and a lot of that is still pretty tame.

i genuinely dont agree with or like hardcore pro palestine or pro israel people. i dont think they give 2 shits about peace or actually stopping the fighting. however the behavioral differences between the two groups is so so clear at least to me.

(btw i believe in freeing palestine and the existence of israel)

[bonefall]

Oooh, can you talk about the meta reason you rewrote the blizzard holly relationship and blackstar's backstory?

HOKAY

But I'm gonna preface this one; I hate Blackfoot's Reckoning. I think it's one of the most "solid" written books in the series and I still fucking hate it. I talk about authoritarianism on this blog a lot, and I think BFR was the one time that the series actually tried to textually address what they'd put on the page.

So TW for fascism, including discussion of an incredibly unfortunate quote from the book that is either an accidental or purposeful invocation of the Nuremberg Defense.

Blackfoot's Reckoning is a book that's supposed to delve into Blackfoot's backstory, what made him the cat he was during TPB. Throughout the book they're questioning, "what made him act the way he did?" And trying to drive home that Blackfoot needs to learn from his mistakes so that he doesn't repeat them

But, at the same time, they cling to their slimy Good and Evil dichotomy. So the book decides that Blackstar wasn't an Evil cat, no, he was just a Good Mislead Boy Who Loved His Clan. He's constantly lied to, mislead, people are murdered and he's duped into believing whoever gets framed, suppressing critical thought about his actions. They're trying to both write a "reckoning," but also make his motivations more sympathetic.

So in between questions of, "Is Blackstar really a Bad Boy?" and happy rewards for Blackstar when he goes through a memory, they've decided to shove in replays of Blackstar's most gruesome moments but this time he frowns :( and feels Guilty when he does them. In the eyes of the writers, if you feel sad doing hate crimes, that means there's a goodness inside of you actually.

And just like Clear Sky, all Blackstar "needed" was divine intervention. You can simply retcon in a "reckoning," even if it was never in the main series for the 10+ years the character was alive and active.

But it's not enough that Blackstar himself was getting a stupid retcondemption. No, see, they have to remind you that he was following evil people. The dichotomy inherently crunches away the nuance-- Good and Evil are inherent qualities. Tigerstar and Brokenstar are Evil People. Blackstar asks, "If I was following Evil People, what does that make me?"

The narrative concludes, "A Good Person, but mislead."

And because they can't have nuance with their Good and Evil dichotomy (or couldn't at the time), they failed to address the authoritarianism spectacularly. Think I'm reaching?

They literally wrote the Nuremberg Defense into their book. I'm not doing hyperbole, Blackstar word-for-word thinks the Nuremberg Defense, "I Was Just Following Orders," but then they bury it in a barrage of scenes showing he's Actually A Nice Guy who is Sad to do Bad Things. Either they attempted and failed to do something more meaningful with this book, OR they are so fucking stupid they accidentally included the famous Nazi officer legal defense for a character who DOES A HATE CRIME for a racist dictator.

What was IN TPB was a Blackstar who supported a massacre and expulsion against another group, was complicit in the use of child soldiers, and rehearsed a public execution for a mixed-race character. Like it or not, this is a really heavy subject... and what they decided to do was downplay every one of his actions, because he was good deep down.

And I just find that disgusting. This was ABSOLUTELY the wrong conclusion. They can't show Blackstar ACTUALLY being bigoted. They can't delve into REAL hate, or the idea that maybe he LIKED the power he had over people. Those are Evil People Things. He has to "know," deep down, that what he's doing is wrong.

He cannot have a real change, in spite of the title of the shitty book being Blackfoot's "RECKONING," because he is not bad to begin with.

So, Hollyflower and Blizzardwing.

To recap for everyone who didn't read BFR; Hollyflower is raising her three kits alone because Blizzardwing cheated on Featherstorm with her. Black only learns that he is an accident because he stayed up late one night and overheard an argument. By day, he gets bullied by Clawpaw specifically that he might be mixed-Clan and has to seethe over the truth he knows.

it's dumb. I'm sorry. This is dumb and boring, which is even worse

The war criminal was bullied as a child and that's why he did bad things :( He was good all along he was just sad :( shut up shut up shut up

The "bad environment" he was raised into was... having a single mom and being suspected of maybe being half-clan, but then learning that he isn't half-clan, and being indignant that he can't just share the information he knows about because it would make things complicated or something idk

None of this particularly contributes to his mindset as an adult because he does not HAVE a unique mindset as an adult.

He was just nebulously Sad and followed whatever strongman leader came along, constantly being tricked and bamboozled by outright lies.

"Omg WindClan killed Raggedstar >:0 ??? Oughhhhh that butters my biscuits... was it wrong that Brokenstar sent my baby nephew to battle? No, nevermind that thought that makes me uncomfortable :("

He never has any particular bigotries that were exploited, he was just tricked and mislead the entire time, while also being sad, because God Forbid Blackstar ever have been an 'evil cat'

He gets THANKED by his dead parents for keeping the secret??????????????????? girl ok.....

as usual the bully itself never really gets addressed

It was cheap and easy to just make Blackfoot's backstory the same shitty 'bullying' they write for most villains. This bullying is how he ends up bonding with Brokenkit, a villainous 5-year-old who says, "other cats don't matter" because he's eeeeeevil.

They're supposed to have a commonality connection, Blackstar who is Good Deep Down and Brokenstar who is Evil Deep Down, and that is supposed to serve as the reason why Blackstar willingly blinds himself to the incredibly obviously evil things that his superiors do.

His flaw isn't that he had bad intentions, it's that he didn't think.

FUCK that. FUCK this book. FUCK the Erins for trying to say that there are fundamentally good and bad people. That with the death of Tigerstar, of Brokenstar, of whoever, the society gets to return to 'peace' because now there's no Evil Tyrant to lead everyone astray.

The Erin's depictions of hard childhoods are sauceless. Dry, unbuttered, burnt bread. You want to see a BAD home environment? I'll SHOW you a bad home environment, not just a single teenager being rude. You wanna see the sorts of conditions that prime young people to joining radical causes for a sense of belonging? I'll GIVE you those conditions. Let's TALK about what bounces around in the head of people who aid and abet tyrants.

It's not this dumb ass sadboy shit I'll tell you that much

[hylianengineer]

For some reason I have abruptly returned to being insane about Cabaret. It's a musical about the rise of fascism and the tragedy that is pretending everything is fine until it's too late. It's also a heartwrenching doomed romance. It's unusually direct and neutral-to-positive about its depiction of sex work given how mainstream it is. It's about vice and desperation and fear and horrible, horrible coping mechanisms. It gets the audience invested in not one but two doomed romances AND a doomed friendship that are all about to be torn apart by the impending rise of Nazism. By the end of the play the majority of characters have had their lives torn apart by this one encroaching evil and we have to watch it happen. We have to watch them make all the bad decisions in which they might have been able to save themselves, but they didn't, because they were human and fallible. Because they didn't want to see what was happening around them, or take a risk, or they just couldn't quite bring themselves to believe that getting a happy ending was an option. We can see all the ways it might have gone differently.

I can't get over how incredible our university production of it was. I may be biased but I love it more than the Broadway version. For one thing, we had a nonbinary actor playing the Emcee, which meant that their romance with a Jewish woman came across as both Jewish and queer and like the biggest possible fuck you to the Nazis. But also, they were just such a good actor. The sad-and-terrified-but-forcing-themself-to-be-okay vibes in the final scene were so visceral and haunting. "Where are your troubles now? Forgotten? I told you so. We have no troubles here. Here, life is beautiful. The women are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful." They sounded so broken in this scene. The juxtaposition between the words and the way they said them was like being punched in the gut. I wish I could tell them this but I do not even slightly know this person.

The depiction of the Nazis is also amazing because it shows them as people. Not in a "oh we should sympathize with them" way, but in a "oh fuck they could be ANYONE and you'd never know it" way. As Fräulein Schneider says, they are her friends and neighbors. She expects her friends and neighbors to support her when she decides to marry Herr Schultz, a Jewish man, but as it turns out, some of them are Nazis and make it very clear that if she doesn't break off the engagement, they'll turn on her.

We LIKE the Nazi character, right up until he takes off his coat and shows off the Swastika armband. We had no idea he was harboring such nastiness in his heart - he seemed nice! He was charming. He was kind. He was Clifford's and our introduction to Berlin, and he made a damn good first impression. He was very pleasant to Herr Schultz right up until the he realized he was a Jew, and it was chilling to watch that scene unfold. I remember sitting backstage every night and waiting to hear everyone go dead silent at the reveal. Chilling.

The other thing Caberet does so well is the "why should we care about politics? what does that have to do with us?" angle. Sally says it outright - she'd rather know nothing about what's happening, and even when confronted with it, she doesn't care. She doesn't understand why Cliff won't help Ernst anymore after finding out exactly what those smuggled goods were for - as far as she's concerned, they need the money and the politics are irrelevant. The politics being Nazism, of course. She has absolutely no malice towards the people the Nazis are hurting - she's just incredibly, horribly naive. Doesn't it just make your blood run cold?

It's extra creepy to watch this play in the political environment of the last year or so - the way things have been getting progressively more and more scary for queer people. There were definitely a few times when I read some particularly awful news coming out of Florida and felt very much like Cliff grappling with the horrible realization that he needed to get out of Berlin yesterday. And trying to explain that sheer terror to my straight relatives did feel reminiscent of Clint's failed attempts to make Sally see reason. But it didn't affect her directly, so she didn't care. She had her own life and her own priorities and why should she care about things that don't affect her? I hope things here and now never get that bad, but the exact reason it's so disturbing is that people in early-1930s Berlin never guessed it would get that bad either.

And this is a story based on true events. It's fictionalized, but it isn't made up. Cliff is more or less an author insert for the very real person who wrote the book the musical is based on: Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. And by the way, Christopher Isherwood was gay.

Tl;dr Go see Cabaret and have your heart broken in like fifteen different ways. But read the trigger warnings first.

[togglesbloggle]

I think my killer app for saving the world would be an algorithm that trawls social media sites and newspaper comment sections. For any given defined class of argumentation, it would classify and quantify (in absolute numbers or as a fraction) (anonymized) posts by type- including retweets and reblogs, correctly classifying either support for a proposition or a mockery/dissent-type reblog.

We keep having this problem, right? Where we can't distinguish in our little monkey brains between "<X> argument exists", "<X> argument has backing from a politically significant fraction or faction of the population," and "<X> has a clear path to implementation that would present risk of grave harm." The flat structure and large base of social media sites means that there will always be at least some arguments for <X> available for us to find, and when you throw in our inability to distinguish between existence-of-argument and salience-of-argument, it works everybody in to a really dangerous position of fear and factionalism. It would be so nice to say, e.g., "yes, proponents of walkable cities are often somewhat blind to disability concerns, but people actively hostile to disability accommodations represent only 2.7% of the total, compared to 78.5% who will readily incorporate disability accommodations if the topic is broached." In other words, to really have a sense of what the conversation as a whole looks like (even if it was buggy and subject to the occasional serious error), instead of one dominated almost entirely by my own cognitive biases and local network effects, and thereby gain the ability to simply dismiss certain types of argument as coming from an inconsequential fraction of the population.

I think probably the example where I most badly wanted something like this was in 2016-2017, when there were huge concerns of an upswing in white nationalism in general and Nazism in particular. And I just... don't know whether that was real at all? Reports and concerns about this resurgence were everywhere, but there was no quantification of this whatsoever, nor any real attempt to do so. And it would have been so comforting to say that "eh, the amount of Nazis in the world seems to be stable, we're just hypersensitive to existing skinhead rallies because of the white house situation," or, "here's roughly the amount of support that white nationalism has now gained, here's how it compares to long-term trendlines and total population." Numbers are always soothing to me, because they're inherently tractable.

We talk a lot about fact-checking, but a parallel thing I'd love would be salience-checking. If Fox news or whoever does a special interest story about The Democrats What Support Euthanizing Christians, the best response would be to dismiss the argument on grounds that some trusted calculation shows that the view simply isn't characteristic of the Enemy Faction, no matter how rhetorically convenient it would be for things to be otherwise. Channel that "nobody would seriously believe <X>" instinct in to a more correct and useful "<X> is below the lizardman constant, or only a factor of 2-3 above it."

[mr-president]

I have a question (To be perfectly clear this is not an ask trying to strum up controversy, but just my own curiosity of your views, and I love your analysis and how you say things. But if you have nothing to say on this matter feel free to delete this ask)

There’s some controversy in the funger fandom about the writing of the Bremen army, also in Pav. Some people think it’s too sympathetic or the choices that Miro made are in poor taste. Do you have any opinions on this?

CW: fascism, Nazism, antisemitism, and what have you. also, sorry if i get things wrong, again, it’s been a while.

Yes, I do think that portraying a historical, fascist, genocidal regime in Nazi Germany as the Bremen army was in poor taste. It’s one thing to just have a fantastical, fictional totalitarian government and another to use an actual historical allegory as stand in for history. The Bremen army is an allegory for Nazi Germany, there is absolutely no denying that, and Mr. Haverinen made that conscious, authorial choice to make that connection.

However, and this is my personal opinion, I don’t think he properly understood, articulated, or represented the impact that Nazi Germany had on Europe, the world, and especially for Jewish people. And this is a problem, because Nazi Germany still has lingering influences on society and culture today, and Mr. Haverinen’s choice to not only write Nazi Germany in the story but portray it in such a way is…in poor taste.

I understand why Mr. Haverinen likely used Nazi Germany as an allegorical tool—the same reason why he uses religious allegory throughout the story. Because we are all familiar with WW2 and Nazism, we have a general idea and basic understanding of this fictional totalitarian, colonialist regime. And that is perfectly fine and is a valid shorthand storytelling device.

Additionally, the Bremen Empire is still depicted as Not A Good Thing. Like, that’s very clear within the narrative—Mr. Haverinen is not a Nazi and clearly does not support that ideology. However, I do believe that he could have done better in understanding/depicting a sensitive historical subject beyond showing how they are bad. If that makes sense.

My problems with the Bremen Empire are that it:

fails to articulate a coherent ideology as to why their influence is so vast,

gives them a somewhat “good” motive that kind of validates their existence

does not empathize with or represent the minority group (Jewish people) who were most affected by this historical tragedy.

For 1), though there are references to the Bremen army’s horrific atrocities, it’s kind of hand-wavey as to why they’re really doing it, seemingly only because Le’garde’s general bloodlust and assholeness. I’ll discuss that more in the second point, but I just want to state that Nazi Germany had a legitimate, compelling, and actual ideology behind it that perpetuated the attitude of nonchalance and “justice” that came with the atrocities they committed.

It is not merely power, it was fascism. Fascism cleans up your neighborhood, gives you jobs and school and work, gives you what made you great, and gets rid of what put you down. Fascism creates a problem and posits that the solution is to exclude the…undesirables and raise yourself up to your truest potential.

And here, Bremen fails. Somewhat.

Point 2). Their motive. The ultimate goal of Le’garde’s bullshit is for him to usher in new era of humanity, where he becomes Logic, ascends to new-Old Godhood, and helps humanity overcome the rule of the Old Gods and truly live for themselves rather than their whims.

Ultimately, it’s uncertain if this will be a positive thing, but in Ending A it’s kind of a good thing, especially with Reina becoming Logic instead of Le’garde. Of course, much like Funger 1, it begs the question of “was this suffering all worth it,” but like many people have criticized with Reina’s usage at all, that question doesn’t hit as hard as Funger 1.

And Funger 1 didn’t even need a wholeass Nazi allegory to ask that question. Was the suffering of every innocent civilian worth it to get Logic? To usher in this new era of humanity?

The question seems more on the side of “Yeah” because unlike Funger 1, Logic’s existence is depicted as a good thing for humanity. Thus, Bremen is sort of a “good thing,” that at least it was towards something positive and for the betterment of people everywhere.

Which is…a really awful thing to say when, again, this was an actual fascist regime who discriminated against, subjugated, and had a system that enforced the oppression of numerous minority groups.

Point 3). Not really interacting with the minority groups subjugated. Termina’s cast is pretty much entirely made up of minorities, and many of them do have or would have tangible interactions that conflict with the Bremen army.

Levi and Pav are perhaps the best examples of characters who were genuinely traumatized by the Bremen army, and their actions and characterization are substantial for recognizing the psychological impact colonization has on people.

However…no character or even allegorical minority group is a stand in for Jewish people, who are one of the most affected groups of Nazism.

Ok, there didn’t need to be a Jewish character who actually went through the atrocities of Nazism in graphic, Funger-grade detail. That could be very triggering, and it could also spell problems of getting the story censored. And also, misrepresentation is a genuine thing to fear when depicting something like that.

But to scrub most if not all references of Antisemitism? Isn’t that kinda fucked? I think it’s fucked. Let me know if I’m wrong.

Anyways, I need you (audience) to understand something.

It is imperative to understand that this is Fear & Hunger. These are games which depict suffering, mass, unavoidable, tragic, yet wholly unnecessary suffering. You the player suffer and understand suffering. And then Mr. Haverinen has an allegory for a fascist regime which caused so much mass, tragic, colonialist, yet entirely unnecessary suffering and chose not to depict who were those sufferers.

It’s my own opinion, but if you make Nazi germany you can empathize with the people who suffered from it if your central theses revolve around suffering.

Additionally, I understand that this story is supposed to be a fantastical retelling of history, but girl, like. You could keep the historical allegory and the historical context and just have it be vaguely referenced. But you interact with the Bremen army in the game. Le’garde acts as a stand in for fucking Adolf Hitler.

Like, you could keep the historical allegory and the historical context and just have it be vaguely referenced. But to interact with that history in such a direct manner, on the side of the oppressor? Without much depiction of the oppressed?

In my opinion, Mr. Haverinen doesn’t really have an excuse for depicting what is essentially Nazi Germany in such a strange way. He didn’t need to make an allegory to Nazi Germany. He didn’t need the game to interact directly with Nazis and their leader. He didn’t need to even depict Nazism to begin with, or have it be such a dominant force in the narrative.

For that reason, it is fucking worthy to critique his authorial choices about a major historical tragedy in a game about tragedy.

Of course, you can say “it’s fictional, people shouldn’t be stupid and believe Nazi Germany was actually like this; there are penis gods, don’t be stupid,” but guess what?? People will be stupid. Fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and though I doubt actual Nazis will come about from Funger, I think Mr. Haverinen isn’t absolved of criticism for portraying Nazi Germany in such a way. It still perpetuates harmful narratives about authoritarianism, minimizes the impact of fascism, and what have you.

We unfortunately exist in a society where people could take away that authoritarianism is maybe cool because you get the internet out of it and maybe sovereigns are trying to help society.

We exist in a society where the portrayal of suffering as perhaps a necessary evil for societal gain is the standard. And for a series that seems to want to say something meaningful in portraying suffering, shouldn’t it aim to critique oppression by sympathizing with the oppressed?

Plus, fuck you if you just tell people not to be stupid and to shut up. That has always been a tactic used by privileged individuals to…talk around the issue. But I’m getting off topic—a rant about alt-right or moralist tactics to end or control a conversation is for another day.

Basically, hey. I care enough about this series to write this critique. I care enough about it that I drew it every day in June, and here I am still thinking about it.

Your art can and will be criticized. This is the right of your audience, and you should listen to their critiques. You should be afraid of potential backlash but people will love your work still despite its grievances. And you should try and do better.

And you should talk about problems in representation. That’s like, how things get better. Be a bitch. Don’t let those with the privilege to ignore continued systemic oppression control the narrative and silence you.

On the subject of Pav, I think he’s…fine? He’s basically Russian, and I think the problems with his characters have more to do with the Bremen Empire being poorly written than his character conceptually. Because I think conceptually, he’s fine—illustrates the cycle of abuse, the trauma of war, whatever, whatever.

tldr; oh yeah, it was not a good representation and we should criticize it.

[icebearinacornfield]

Rating Alex Rider Villians on a scale of 1-10 on how supportive they'd be of me telling them I'm Agender:

[Just so we are clear, the concept for this came from a TikTok-er who does a good amount of Alex Rider content/analysis!)

Harod Sayle: 5/10 He's too focused on his own revenge plot against British school children to care and he wouldn't entirely understand it, but I get the vibe that he'd ask some follow-up questions about what I meant and then just be like "ok cool IG". He'd misgender me a lot, but it wouldn't be from a place of malice, it would just be because he forgot. He'd be quick to fix his mistake though. All in all, Harod Sayle's just too spiteful to have the energy to expend on being transphobic/enby-phobic/agender-phobic (I never know the right term to use, please send help!), so he simply wouldn't be. If I were British, however, he would be the most transphobic person on Earth to me!

Nadia Vole: 10/10 She'd ask for pronouns upon introduction and always make sure that she's using the right ones! If nothing else, Nadia Vole is a professional, and professionals use people's correct pronouns, names, and honorifics. I also get the vibe that she'd not put up with anyone's bullshit if they're intentionally going around not respecting other people's identities. She also just gives the energy that she's queer (especially in the graphic novel), but then again it might just be me projecting.

Mr. Grin: 5/10 Bro's literally just doing his job and couldn't give less of a fuck. He'd respect my pronouns and stuff, but it'd be out of total indifference to me. Just like, he doesn't have the energy to waste, so it wouldn't matter to him whatsoever.

Dr. Grief: -10/10 He's a racist/nazi/white supremacist/fascist jackass (probably a stronger word would be better suited for this, but I don't feel like putting it in), so going off of what we know already, I can make a very educated guess as to what his stance on me not fucking with gender would be...

Eva Stellenbosch: -10/10 Same with Dr. Grief. She'd also just straight-up hate crime me for fun, so there's that too.

Alexei Sarov: 8/10 He'd be a little confused/not know entirely what being agender meant, or even what it is for that matter, but after it was explained to him, he'd make an effort. He'd read up on the subject, he'd ask questions, he might mess up on pronouns and such pretty regularly, but there'd be an effort on his part and that's what matters!

Conrad: 1/10 He's a chaos gremlin of pure hatred and murder. He is alive solely out of bitterness and spite. He'd purposely misgender me/be actively transphobic just to feel something. Anything. Conrad just wants to watch the world burn and he's got the gasoline.

Damian Cray: 20/10 There was no heterosexual explanation for that man to begin with! I also can't see him being super big on gender in the first place. He'd be out there actively fighting transphobia and showing his support for all of the LGBTQIA+ community! He'd validate me and he'd be aggressively supportive as well!

Nikolai Drevin: 0/10 Y'all saw how he was to his son Paul Drevin. Paul has been head-cannoned/heavily implied to be gay and we all saw how THAT turned out... I just feel like Nikolai Drevin would not hesitate to force me to go to conversion therapy. That's it. Maybe he'd pretend to be supportive at first to lull me into a false sense of security so he could kidnap me for conversion therapy, but it'd be a complete and total act. Believe me, this man IS ABSOLUTELY NOT an ally!!! That being said, he wouldn't outright kill me/other type of hate crime me. Not that conversion therapy is ok or anything, but the bar is so low on this list at points and I'm forced to give credit where credit is due. He'd kill me because I beat him at something which is something he does with everyone else so it's an equal opportunity thing.

Desmond McCain: 3/10 He'd try and do an exorcism of me. not necessarily because of the whole agender thing (not that that would hurt his decision though), but just because of me as a person. I don't care if he's not that kind of religious, but that wouldn't matter to him. He'd become that type of religious. Desmond McCain would also try to talk me out of being agender (not that that's someone that can do) by telling me that "God didn't intend for you to reject your natural calling as a woman." which isn't something that I think that God would agree with because I just don't... Either way, he'd say that I was a sinful person and going to super-hell when I eventually and he'd mean it too even if he's just faking being a Christian.

Dominic Royce: 4/10 He'd be on the quiet side, but don't let that fool you! He'd actively be doing everything in his power to pass anti-trans laws even though legislating is not part of his job! He'd refuse to acknowledge my saying anything about being agender and say condescending shit like 'You're too young to know that!" or "It's just a phase!" and would be calling me "young lady" or "Ms./Miss" a lot which would just be super uncomfortable.

Owen Andrews: 2/10 Bro totally leaves Reddit comments about how being trans/non-binary/agender isn't real/is a mental illness or some bullshit like that in his free time for fun and probably believes it as well. That being said, however, I don't see him being super transphobic out loud to my face. He'd definitely misgender me every time and place he got, but I could probably beat him in a fight and he knows this.

Darcus Drake: 6/10 He'd use the right pronouns, he'd be respectful enough, but mostly he wouldn't be too bothered with any of it.

Dr. Raymond Feng: 5/10 He'd be skeptical about it, but he'd hear me out and just accept it. I get the sense that he'd be thinking 'oh is this internalized misogyny or childhood trauma or something?', but I stand by my statement saying that he'd ultimately be accepting and validating to me more or less. Not a strong ally, not a transphobe, just a man who presumably has a doctorate in psycology with no quams about imprisoning and interrogating a thoroghly traumatized child. And I for one think that's beautiful. (Not actually, I just wanted to put that last part down there.)

Dwain Garfield: 1/10 He's a Trump supporter. 'nuff said. Source? Trust me bro.

Vladimir Sharkovsky: -5/10 He'd hate crime me or, more accurately, have somebody else hate crime me for him.

Harry Bulman: 2/10 Bulman would've been out there writing transphobic AF articles LONG before meeting me. Harry Bulman would be writing articles about how being trans/non-binary/agender was the latest 'fad/trend', go out of his way to make fun of the trans experience, and spread misinformation about how "gender/women are under attack!". Now, I don't think that he'd actually believe what he's writing (except for the whole thing about it being a 'trend' or mental illness or whatever), he's just in it for the money/the clout. Not that this makes it any better, if anything that makes it worse. In any case, he'd laugh in my face when I say I use they/them pronouns and then tweet about it or whatever and call me a 'crazy, blue-haired liberal' or whatever despite me not having blue hair. In short, metaphorically (never literally) fuck Harry Bulman!

Colonel Aubrey Sykes: 1/10 He'd just call me a 'snowflake' and say that he identifies "as an attack helicopter" because like many transphobes, he hasn't evolved much since 2016-2017. Also, since I'm not a veteran or active service member of the military and an American, I just get the vibe that he'd already have had absolutely zero respect for me in the first place even if I was cis. Also, he just gives extremely misogynistic vibes too, so whether or not I was cis wouldn't change much.

[Probably going to do a separate list for SCORPIA members and the Nightshade board. The same goes for MI6/CIA/ASIS characters. It'll be fun maybe!]

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

With all due respect, I grew up among right-wing people, and none of them have ever held hatred for Judaism, Jews, or Israel. (In fact a lot of them like Israel and ranted that our last three presidents screwed it over) I’ve never even encountered a modern-day nazi in southern USA where they supposedly thrive. Who exactly do you mean when you say right-wingers are antisemitic?

Hi!

You're referring to this post.

Obviously, the outright showcase of antisemitism is more of a far-right / alt-right kind of behavior. The Unite The Right Rally from 2017 is a great and not a particularly subtle example in this regard with all the "Jews will not replace us" chants... Even in the January 6th insurrection, a rebellion meant to reinstall Trump who is supposedly a great ally to Israel, there were people in the crowd literally wearing shirts that say "Camp Auschwitz" on them alongside the usual Nazi memorabilia and iconography.

It's also important to remember that the majority of conspiracy theories, that are much more prevalent within right wing circles, are also mostly at their core antisemitic. Everything dealing with "cabals", "elites" and "lizard people" are usually just euphemisms for Jews. Also, everything about George Soros and dozens other dog-whistles. And sometimes they just blame the Rothschilds for causing wild fires in the US with a space laser...

[By the way, there's an Israeli anthropologist of religion named Adam Klin Oron, who investigated the conspiracy community in Israel, both Jewish and non-Jewish. it is not very big but it does exist. I mean, the paradox of Jewish people believing in antisemitic conspiracy theories is absolutely fascinating, especially the methods they have to adopt to settle this cognitive dissonance. I think he has some papers and maybe lectures in English out there, if your curious about the subject]

But it is important to note that the usage of "elites" in particular as well as of other dog-whistles and antisemitic tropes (like the dual-loyalty) are common even among less extreme sections of the right. In 2018 Kevin McCarthy twitted: "We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election!”. It's comments like this, refusal to condemn antisemitism from within the party and only when it comes from the left (the same tactic of the left themselves), and other constantly present actions that make it clear that Jews are not in much a priority for the Republican party and more not exactly welcomed.

Now, there's also the whole thing about Evangelicals. They might just be some of the biggest allies of Israel, but they also want all Jews to move there in order to set Armageddon in motion. Seriously. This is an actual thing they believe in and is the only real reason any of them ever does anything for and about Israel and Jews.

Similarly, many other right supporters of Israel have an alternative reason for their support, both in the US and outside of it, especially in Europe which have been at the forefront of massive immigrant and refugee waves from Arab nations in the past decade. This support isn't actually for Israel or Jews - it's just plain hatred for Arabs and Muslims. They sort of view Israel as a double-gift: 1) it concentrates all Jews together, away from them, and 2) Israel is always fighting Arabs, and they hate Arabs, so that's good (a philosophy Netanyahu supports whole hardheartedly, preferring to swallow the antisemitic frog for the support and legitimization of his actions). So while technically many right wing will actively support Israel, the reason is often ironically antisemitic and Islamophobic.

To be clear - this is not about individuals. It never is. It can't be. It's impossible for hundreds of thousands and millions of people to think and act exactly the same. Of course there are many people, both on the left and the right, who are not antisemitic and many people who truly wish to protect Jewish people and Israel's right to exist. But this isn't about individuals, it's about prevalent beliefs and behaviors in movements. And these are unfortunately quite common, in both political parties.

[starry-nights-17]

Why am I so concerned about American politics? Well apart from the fact that Trump supports Putin and will stop supporting Ukraine in their fight against his occupation...and the fact that he has already shown his intention to roll back on abortion rights and rights for the gay and trans community...and wants to implement an entire ban on Muslim people entering the States....

But the other reason is that the majority of funding into the anti choice movement here in Ireland comes from America. Americans even come here several times a year to protest on our own streets about women's rights. Here! In Ireland! Not only is this a fact; that American dollars are working very hard in their aim to roll back on our rights but I've seen it with my own eyes; while engaged in protests and counter protests.

While my heart goes out to those decent and human citizens in America; who are not duped and easily manipulated by propaganda, I fear for the rest of the world too. Because the one thing about Trump, he shows you exactly who he is and tells you exactly what he's about.

Thats why I'm in utter despair and horror that so many people can proudly and openly support such a dangerous man. And these fools are so blinded by their own hate that they dont see they have just fucked themselves, have voted against themselves.

Soldiers who claim to be concerned about the "safety" of their country have just voted for a man who mocked dead soldiers, refusing to visit a cemetery because it contained "suckers" and "losers". Dead soldiers.

People of colour just voted for a man who constantly conflates their communities with crime and threats. Who has been personally involved in discriminatory cases in past businesses, including refusal to pay workers (of colour) and purposely refusing to rent to them also.

Women. What can you even say. Voting for a convicted rapist, who has sexualised his own daughters when they were just children. Who called his opponent a whore and "jokes" about shooting women in the street.

He is a tax dodger. A draft dodger. Refuses to uphold the law or respect the constitution. He has a "concept of a plan". Says inflation isn't a priority. Yet you voted because you trust him to run your country and protect your economy? A man who has claimed bankruptcy multiple times and is a proven criminal, a corrupt and immoral man who has absolutely nothing in common with the ordinary person.

This just proves the power of controlling the media and keeping people isolated and fearful. In recent weeks my own social media pages have been flooded with fake right wing and extreme pages, aimed (on the surface) at promoting "patriotism" when clearly they are a means to divide and conquer. Its not even a new tactic. Its what many dictators and fascists have done in the past. Only now we have technology at our fingertips.

In fact it was a Nazi, Joseph Goebbells, who is associated with the idea that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth. And now, it is clear, that people choose to blindly believe what they want to believe, so long as it aligns with their existing ideals. Trumps campaign could say and do whatever they liked because he said those magic, key words here and there, the ones that trigger a certain type of person, his key voter.

The entire spectacle is just a symptom and not only confined to America. Populist and far right politicians are on the rise everywhere. Because people are becoming cynical and purposely ignorant and frankly, lazy. Because it takes very little effort to check sources or educate yourself. But instead of using technology in a helpful and productive way, many are choosing to live in echo chambers and spread harmful lies and rhetoric. And it's also lazy when you choose to lay blame for complex social and economic problems at the foot of the most vulnerable groups. Minorities. The oppressed. Its easy.

It's easier to blindly believe what the familiar face on the podium is telling you; than face reality. It's much easier to grab onto the scapegoat that is hand fed to you, than take time to find the truth, through education and self reflection and hard work.

Humans are progressing backwards. Reverting into children who want to be told and led and directed and controlled. Because its easier. Because it feels safer. But it's not real. And unfortunately, these people will undoubtedly find out. As will the rest of the world.

The rest of us; humanity, decent, compassionate people....well we have to sit here and watch the trauma unfold, again. Women dying. Minorities being further oppressed and hated openly, without fear of consequences. Because despite the best efforts of good people in trying to combat this new age weapon; the exploitation of media, there are just too many people unwilling to open their minds. Or their eyes. Instead, they prefer to remain blind and dumb and docile. No matter the cost to everyone else. So long as they are surrounded by what they conceive as "safety". Which in reality; is just people who look like you or sound like you or agree with you.

It's not about our feelings for Trump or not accepting democracy or people's "opinions". People are genuinely upset and others utterly depressed because the man represents everything that's wrong with the world. He doesn't even hide it. He brags about it. His corruption. His contempt for anyone who isn't a part of his inner circle; which includes his own supporters. He is the epitome of a privileged old white man, who thinks he can do and say whatever he wants. And for the most part he is right. Because he's just proved that you can be a convicted criminal, a rapist and a cheat and a liar, but people will love you for it. Because at the end of the day, they wish they could be like that. Untouchable.

People can't become untouchable alone. But there's nothing rebellious or admirable about it. About placing yourself outside of the law, about disregarding the law of the land you supposedly claim to love and respect. Trump isn't some sort of hero because he has no filter and refuses to leave quietly. He's a capitalist and a fascist, an admirer of dictatorship. His ideologies are so far removed from anything to do with freedom or the constitution or democracy.

I just hope that when he is done destroying that nation (and hopefully not the rest of the world too). That people will have some sort of awakening, will realise how they have been played by one of the greatest con men who ever lived. But something tells me that this cult like obsession, this co-dependent abusive relationship, runs so deep that most will never see it, how they have been manipulated into their own destruction and demise.

A sad day. A truly fucking dark day.

[thedreadvampy]

I have never felt like I more should be at the Palestine rally. It's the national one today, the situation is increasingly dire, and I already feel bad about not being able to participate in the BAE blockade last Thursday cause I'm still on probation at work. I really really really really needed to go to Glasgow today. Unfortunately I'm so tired and everything hurts and I can't really stand or walk well at the moment (and these rallies are profoundly inaccessible from that front, it's always like 3 hours of standing followed by an hour of walking).

but like. I hate not going it feels so pathetic to skip when shit just keeps getting worse in Gaza and Israel keeps getting more gleefully unaccountable.

I haven't gone today - I would have needed to leave like an hour ago and I am a long way off even being able to get out of bed with how Pain my hips and feet are - but I need to figure out how to square the days I can't go to these protests (esp since as I say I'm still beating myself up about Thursday) with the fact that even in weeks that I do go it feels pathetic and like not even a drop in the ocean against the enormity of this. like I feel like I need to be doing more and I do think that going to a protest once a week is the absolute flat minimum I could be doing but idk how to do more with the resource I have right now, and so it feels shit to not even be doing that.

Idk I hope it's well attended I hope the solidarity is felt I hope that next time there's a more direct action additional to the weekly rallies I'll be able to help. I hope the miracle comes and Palestinians stop being murdered I hope Israel is held to some international account I hope that all the millions who are grieving loved ones and the millions who are living through this will have room to heal and mourn in peace someday soon I hope that Gaza and all of Palestine can be rebuilt to a place of joy I hope that change comes swiftly and that these are the death throes of the Israeli state and that the Palestinians (and Yemenis, and Jordanians, and Lebanese, and Syrians, but mostly the Palestinians who have lost their land and their homes and their loved ones and their freedom for generations) who have spent generations holding their pain in the face of a constant onslaught and who are facing unimaginable loss, will, after 75+ years, be free to live. I hope that babies born in this genocide will grow up into a free Palestine and age into being the last survivors of an unimaginable past, telling their great grandchildren about a horror that seems unimaginable in a Palestine where nobody is in the habit of ducking bombs.

I hope that in 20 years the general conversation will treat Israeli occupation and genocide with the revulsion we treat apartheid South Africa or Nazi Germany and that people will have the luxury of forgetting that they ever stood in favour of this scale of murderous injustice, because looking at this in the cold light of history surely not even the fucking freaks who still stand with Israel will be able to pretend this was ever anything other than genocide. We will wonder, like we do with the Holocaust or apartheid or segregation, who could ever have cheered this on. It will seem unimaginable, once it's over, that it could have felt so normal to watch it happen for the better part of a century and side with those carrying out the genocide.

I do believe that Palestine will be free but I hope with all my heart that it comes sooner than seems possible because every day of this is horror and it shouldn't be borne and it's being allowed to happen by those in power. who also aren't accountable.

direct action, boycott and divestment will help bring accountability. the way we can help stop this

but public protest and democratic outcry won't turn the tide - Israel doesn't care who condemns it as long as people in power support it, and in the UK for one, those in power have made it very clear they don't believe they're accountable to the people.

mass movements and voter complaints haven't compelled the government or Labour leadership to move on policing powers, on trans murders, on austerity, on the imprisonment and killing of immigrants, on any of the home policy that produces wildly unpopular reactionary violence. they don't fucking care what we think and there's no way to push through by public protest or by voting because public opinion doesn't have any fucking power over them.

but that doesn't make it useless. solidarity matters. it matters that hundreds of millions around the world continue to witness and condemn. it matters to refuse to look away or allow your consent to be pretended. It helps push corporations to fear for their bottom line, which helps give permission to those in government with reservations to raise their voices. It helps people who haven't thought about it to look and find out how fucked this is and not take the Israeli narrative and the mainstream press narrative as a given. BDS and direct action are effective when there's vocal numbers behind it and this is part of that.

(and stuff is shifting, it's just so slow, it's too slow when so many people are dying. national governments are beginning to hold Zionism to task and to refuse to work with Israel. The UK and US and Germany are always going to be the slowest to be dragged into moral condemnation because these are the states which had the most invested in the creation of Israel in the first place, and frankly bc idk about Germany but both the US and UK are pretty deep down the road of unaccountable totalitarian reactionary pseudo democracy innit. change is coming and it's coming because globally we're not letting up)

but yeah like solidarity and public protest is vital, but it's slow going, and sustainability matters, and I know I shouldn't beat myself up for missing one of the weekly demos in order to recoup (and to hopefully be in a position to take on more of a role in future non-standard actions). It feels horrendous to be doing nothing but as long as I keep showing up in future and I keep boycotting and talking about stuff and I keep looking for opportunities to get involved, my absence at a demo doesn't make or break anything. as long as I know that I have a responsibility to keep coming back. Something is more than nothing. while I hope and pray that this will end soon, even if there's a ceasefire there's still years of fight ahead to a free Palestine. a week missing a protest is a blip, as long as it doesn't mean I abdicate my responsibility to keep moving going forward and to keep fighting for a free Palestine.

[wirewitchviolet]

Wait, people are jumping to the Twitter clone from Jack Dorsey? The guy responsible for Twitter’s nazi problem?

All of the sudden today I’m seeing a bunch of people talking about signing up for BlueSky, the twitter clone from Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of original recipe twitter... specifically the former CEO who’s BFFs with a truckload of card-carrying neo-nazis and personally blocked the company from enforcing its terms of service against any of them.

Like I know there’s this whole phenomenon where like every time in my lifetime there’s been a new Republican president and he starts doing horrific stuff, a bunch of people start building up this weird fantasy where the last Republican president’s regime of horrors gets memory holed and people start building up these weird fantasies where they were actually totally fine and couldn’t we have that back. Is this one of those situations? Please tell me it’s not one of those situations and you all just missed that this is his new social media thing, or that he was in fact The Guy Coddling All The Nazis.

Here is an article from 2018 about Jack Dorsey personally stepping in to make sure Alex Jones, the guy who’s made a whole career out of absolutely terrorizing the parents of a classroom full of kindergarteners who were gunned down by a mass shooter, AND famous card carrying neo-nazi Richard Spencer could remain on the site, against the protests of not only the general population but the concerns of the rest of the staff.

Here’s another.

And another.

Here’s the one I took a screenshot of at the top of this, from 2019.

Here’s the interview that one’s citing, where he complains about how every time he posted anything on the site, people suggested he ban nazis.

As a quick point of clarification- For I believe the entirety of the time Jack Dorsey here was CEO of Twitter, including when that interview went up, the American Nazi Party not only had an official Twitter account they refused to take down, it had verified status. Along with a hell of a lot of individuals who were equally formal about these things.

And to be really clear, it’s not even just that big name neo-nazis held onto their accounts and verified status until he stepped down as CEO. He was mutuals with these people. Being unable to log into the site since, you know, the whole bit where a bunch of fascists mass-reported my account and got it auto-flagged for suspension just from the sheer volume, I can’t easily pull his profile up, check his follows, and screenshot for you, but you might be able to yourself, or find one of several threads on there from me where I have pointed this out in the past. Lot of personal ties to the 8chan crowd in particular.

Little more anecdotally, back when I was doing the whole anti-terrorism organization thing, and we reached a point where Twitter made a big PR statement about consulting with us to deal with, you know, the big terrorism and mass murder problem they were having at the time (I think this was... 2015? 2016 maybe? Shortly after he was made CEO again) we compiled a document for them of something like a dozen accounts which clearly and unambiguously not only personally breached every point in Twitter’s TOS you could name, but were demonstrably such central ring-leaders of terrorism and harassment that half of all support tickets Twitter was getting at the time could be traced back to them. After the third time we forwarded this along and they “lost the files” we arranged a face to face meeting with a printed copy. I wasn’t personally present, but I’m told the reaction after a quick rifle through was “we like all these guys though” and promptly cutting their relationship with our org. I kept tabs on the next couple they pulled the same PR song and dance with, they had the same experience.

Oh and here’s a news article about Jack Dorsey personally refusing to take action against Donald Trump when he was inciting death threats against politicians.

Here’s one about that whole weird situation where a particularly neo-nazi was leading a major hate campaign against an actress and was punished by taking away his little verified status badge rather than just banning him, which seems particularly relevant to people looking to move somewhere over related concerns.

And another from when that finally got upgraded to a ban, with a lot of other general context, and a reminder that Dorsey is mutuals with Mike Cernovich.

In case that’s another name people have memory holed, here’s me (and others) explaining Cernovich’s connections with a child pornography/trafficking website.

I could keep going with this. To be perfectly honest, I don’t actually see why anyone desires a repalcement for Twitter. If you want to talk to friends, there’s a dozen things for that, if you want to share and promote stuff, you can just set up a blog, like this one you’re reading, or a personal website, or a patreon (by the way, end of the month, short on my rent, great time to throw me a few bucks, just saying). If you really insist on sticking with something that keeps that general shape though, there’s like a dozen clone sites these days, and I’m sure they all have their own problems and flaws, but I don’t know, maybe pick one that ISN’T run by a guy whose personal contact list is chock full of neo-nazis, rape manual authors, and honest to goodness pedophiles. I realize this also eliminates Gab and that thing Graham Linehan set up, but there’s still Mastodon, Cohost, uh, Hive? I’m not on any of these but they’re not run by Jack freaking Dorsey so they have to be steps up.

Anyway, please share this around, and really in particular shove it in the face of anyone you see giving out links to their BlueSky profile or whatever, thanks.

[bilbobagginsomebabez]

@paindragon re: free speech & these tags on this post because god do I know how to talk--

I'm going to use Naziism as an evocative example of obvious hate speech throughout and because the ACLU's dedicated attention towards protecting nazis has built a significant portion of american case law surrounding free speech as a whole. the nazis also built their eugenics laws based on US eugenics laws and movements and while Germany literally outlawed it, the united states had to develop critical race theory to suggest that we start removing the eugenics shit from our social and legal systems and fox news told americans that it existed to teach their children to "hate america," which they did absolutely believe and agree with which launched the current book banning spree. (weird how free speech laws aren't protecting any of those books, huh. what are they for again?)

it's possible for a government to neither outlaw nor protect something. it can be left to informal or nonlegal systems. you do not actually have to give nazis or the cultural fascist equivalent legal protections for societies to work. societies do not need to go out of their way to keep fascists legally safe from social or financial retaliation to keep functioning or to be healthy. this is just one obvious option between protecting nazis and making any speech actively illegal. there's a whole world of options between those two points.

part of the reason we TELL OURSELVES we do is because our society is extremely fascist and we don't want to address it. or have never been not-fascist-enough to address it. american and american-centric political scientists struggle to define fascism as a political phenomenon and practice not because it's that confusing but because any clear definition obviously indicts settler-colonialism, slavery, and segregation. which have to be different in some way because the US is incredibly powerful and has some of the most brutally violent history in the world with all three that it has never remotely addressed and does not want to.

the idea that by legally protecting nazis because they're the most bad, everyone else is automatically included and protected under that umbrella is just. not real. it's not real in practice--see jewish people arrested for 'antisemitism' while participating in unfree-speech protests against US support of the palestinian genocide & aforementioned cop city RICO charges, which use unfree-speech of the term mutualism to indict participants of unfree-speech protests against our government. protecting actual literal anti-semites did not protect use of "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". and it's not real in theory for the same reason that tolerance is not a paradox but a peace treaty. "I won't punch you if you don't punch me." =/= "everybody does whatever they want and we just kind of have to accept it, punches included."

tolerance feels like a paradox to a fascist in a fascist society, for whom it is real that equal rights are a threat to 'their way of life'. allowing advocacy against racism in a racist society feels like a threat to them personally because their way of life is racist and challenging racism does actually threaten it. a slave-owner actually for real believes their rights are being taken when the enslaved are freed. segregation was fundamentally fascist, and despite that obvious and clear evaluation, I doubt Joe Biden or most other americans consider him/self in any way fascist despite strongly advocating for segregation for like the first 10 years of his career. christians (everyone from the Mormons to the Catholics) consider it an insult against their entire religion and a violation of their religious rights to demand that they cease exploitative conversion practices internationally and evaluate the ethics of "missions" which offer aid to the vulnerable and displaced in exchange for attending religious services.

when bigotry and white supremacy are the widespread norm, it feels like protecting bigots the same as radicals is creating equal protections for "violent" words. but is it? it should not be surprising to anyone when i say white supremacist christofascism is alive and well in the United States and remains its dominant political ideology. is protecting nazi-ism, homophobia, xenohobia, bigotry actually creating equal protections for the residents of a country or is it emboldening and protecting the most violent members of its most powerful class?

the idea that actively creating legal protections for bigotry somehow protects the marginalized from civil infringement because both things use similar verbiage sometimes is a weird fairytale/bedtime story that americans tell themselves in order to cater to their worst instincts and avoid addressing a deep and disgusting reality about our supposedly freedom and equality loving culture. it lets white americans rest easy by saying the most violent white supremacists aren't something to be fought anymore, they're actually legally necessary to protect the marginalized from... white supremacy.

does that actually make any sense? or maybe is this all some bullshit mental gymnastics to avoid admitting that identifying and counteracting social violence of this nature would indict most powerful people as well as most systems of power in this country. acknowledging the reality of fascism would immediately require acknowledging how pervasive it is in our society and how deeply it's sunk into the walls. so instead we protect its worst excesses and pretend that somehow does anything other than perpetuate it

the idea that protecting the violent speech of the nazis protects the marginalized or government critics or political radicals or leftism is also more about settler colonialist self-projection than any real or common similarities. the idea that landback means indigenous americans will kick everyone out or that Black people will massacre white people during the "great replacement" is projection because WE DID THAT. we literally got here and just started killing everyone and taking their shit. so we iMAGINE that eventually they're gonna want to 'get even' and it will look something like our worst violences (nazi-ism). but it doesn't, does it? it turns out the leftists who are challenging systems of white supremacy don't sound like white supremacists and aren't protected by case law built around protecting white supremacists. "mutualism" isn't protected free speech, but "kill all jews" is. "social solidarity" isn't protected free speech, but (real trump quote) "No, they're not humans, they're not humans, they're animals" is."

it also propagates the myth that all violence is the same because america has solved for equality and the impartial government just needs to mediate. there's no difference between nazis and militant civil rights leaders because we got rid of all of ours and cleaned it up, so they're baaasically as marginalized 'as an ideology' as Black, Indigenous, queer people with radically leftist politics fighting for equality. like i think people forget that most americans literally believe racism was solved during the civil rights movement, a confidence which was temporarily shaken during BLM and the George Floyd protests but has settled back in nicely after biden promised more money to cops but only for increased diversity trainings (and also because everybody started shoplifting for no reason?!?!? so we really need them to reinforce Law and Order right).

[spider-sideblog]

Hi, person who you said had “a bit of common sense” here again. Your logic is flawed, regardless of whether you believe it or not. I am sorry that you are receiving antisemitic hate, that is morally repugnant and I disavow any antisemite who shares my views on Israel. However, anti-Zionism and anti-Israeli beliefs do not automatically equate to antisemitism.

I have nothing but respect for Judaism, back in college I took several courses on it as part of my minor, and I am proud to say that I have Jewish friends who have wished for me to be inscribed in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah. I am also fervently anti-Israel, as I am against the ethnostates in general and apartheid in specific. Nothing in my anti-Israeli views is influenced by the religion of the country, and frankly I find it insulting that my desire for a singular, secular Palestinian state where Jews and Muslims can live together harmoniously causes me to be lumped in with antisemites.

Hey what's up!

So, you and I don't actually have differing views, at least not that much. It would absolutely be the dream to have Palestine be one state and for everyone to live in harmony huh?

But Jews got kicked out of Judea

They got kicked out of Spain (or forcibly converted)

They were kicked out of Russia

They were kicked out of Germany and Poland and France

They've historically been blamed for almost any travesty in a country where they resided

They are, without a doubt, unwanted

What would prevent them being kicked out of Palestine and massacred again at the slightest hint of trouble that can be blamed on them?

I don't typically support ethnostates, however, if you were kicked out of or killed in every country you resided in, you would also want to return to your homeland and make a small place for yourself to live in peacefully. You may even welcome like minded people to your home just because you know how hard it is.

I do not support the actions of the Israeli government, and I have lit a candle every day for all civilians affected by the Israel-Hamas war. I cannot condone just about anything that's been done to Palestinians, even from during the formation of Israel. It is a travesty that they were moved and given no support. It is a travesty that they continually are displaced because Israel wants them gone. I can't believe I have to say this but no, I do not support or defend the clear genocide happening. I assumed that would be obvious. I genuinely wish there was an option for both groups to exist peacefully near their homelands and their Holy Land. It's not guaranteed to stay peaceful, though

We don't actually have differing views on anything. I just take into account that, realistically, what I want isn't going to work. Antisemitism is on a steep rise again and the political climate in the states is very evocative of pre war Nazi Germany. Hamas is actively trying to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible- making it a war on Jews, not a war on Israel.

The issue is very nuanced, and I'm sorry so many people with your similar views are using this war to justify anti semitism. People with my similar views are using it to justify Islamophobia and genocide. Neither of us are being lumped well right now. I hope that if you have bullying in your inbox, it's not affecting your mental state. You actually seem very cool, and I'd be likely to follow you, anon

[infiniteglitterfall]

Well, no. They're just giving the definition.

Post-1948, Zionism also often means you believe that Israel has the same right to exist as other countries. It's not really a movement, generally, because there's not a need for that anymore.

Orgs that still call themselves "The Zionist Whatever-it-is" just exist to do things like giving people grants if they get into a gap year program in Israel.

"Zionism" is a Jewish term. It comes from Jewish culture, where it refers to Jews deserving self-determination.

Non-Jews generally use "Zionist" as a kind of umbrella term for Very Bad Things That Jews And/Or Israel Did Or Are Doing. But they don't usually specify what things those are.

It ranges from global "Zionist conspiracies" to things like... this morning, someone on Instagram told me Jews paired up with Britain in the 1940s to kill all the Palestinians they could. Sometimes, it just means that the Israeli government is doing and/or has done something bad, and "Zionist" is used to accuse people of supporting it.

Wishing death on every Zionist is bad because people who call themselves Zionists are not saying they support murder or racism or genocide.

People are appropriating a word that belongs to a marginalized group, and redefining it in a way that encourages others 1. to be suspicious of that group; 2. to demand that people in it clarify whether they're "the good ones" or "the bad ones" (and adopt the new definition in order to do so); and 3. to threaten and attack people who are using their own community's terms and definitions.

The tags are absolutely full of this.

Not sure what this one means but the vibes ain't right:

There's also a fair amount of confusion in the tags about what Hamas is trying to achieve, and about the ad using the phrase "The Final Solution."

Setting aside whether Israel is committing genocide now, has committed genocide for 70 years, whether it's "just" committing war crimes, et cetera: Hamas has its own goals and its own actions.

Hamas has been framing everything as if what Israel does now will justify whatever Hamas did on Oct 7.

Palestinians have been pretty angry about that, and have been openly protesting Hamas for starting the war in the first place. (I can't even express how happy I am that they've been able to protest for multiple days in a row without people getting arrested omfg!!!!!)

IOW, even if Israel is 100% garbage to Palestinians, Hamas is also 100% garbage to Jews and like... a good 70% garbage to Palestninans, at least. Both things can be true at once, unfortunately.

Hamas bills itself as the Palestinian Resistance, but it's not. It actively oppresses Palestinians: it kicked the government out of Gaza by force in 2008, and runs the Gaza Strip as a dictatorship. It throws people in prison if they speak out or protest against it, and only allows the protests that it stages and controls. (Hence why I'm so fucking excited about the protests in Khan Younis.)

It's pretty widely hated in Palestine.

Hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, a nice-sounding org that was literally funded, trained, and armed by Nazis, including its founders Assam al-Banna and Amin al-Husseini.

Hamas's founding documents are very clear that it wants to destroy Israel by force and take the land, and that it wants to do this because Jews are the enemy.

What it did on Oct 7 was a huge step towards reaching its goal. In one day, Hamas murdered people across 22 villages and a music festival. The problem is not (just) that it killed a whole lot of people that it explicitly wants to eliminate entirely. The problem is the level of brutality.

Hamas systemically mutilated people's genitals, across genders and ages, both alive and dead. It intentionally, systematically committed mass rape, and systematically desecrated people's bodies before, during, and after killing them.

A Muslim doctor from Jordan described seeing "a decapitated young girl, her child skull tethered to her trunk by only a sliver of decaying skin. Her facial expression, surrounding milk teeth, haunts me still. Across the boundaries of death, her Edward Munch-like scream still echoes.

"I inspected bodies that had been repeatedly stabbed, shot, and crushed. I examined mutilated bodies, restrained with cables, electrical cords, and zipties, still in place post-mortem, and those that had been decapitated and incinerated at temperatures approaching 3,000 degrees Celsius.’"

Hamas leaders have publicly said they will come back and do it "again and again and again," until Israel is destroyed.

That's why the nonprofit that bought that ad is calling it "The Final Solution."

Because it's a Nazi group, that is openly trying to eliminate a country where 49% of the Jews in the world live, using tactics that resemble those of the Nazis.

You don't have to support anything Israel does in response.

But right now, being Jewish is pretty fucking terrifying.

Being Jewish right now means that every day, I see people calling openly for my death, claiming they only want me to die if I'm "a Zionist."

It means being a sexual abuse survivor, and seeing my progressive community actively spread rape denial about Oct 7.

It means seeing people openly celebrating the atrocities that Hamas committed. It means seeing people repeat Hamas talking points without knowing it, or actively repeating them on purpose.

It means knowing that a significant number of people would be celebrating if Hamas attacked again. That I would be surrounded by people saying it was good; those people deserved this because they were Zionists.

It means knowing that it would not be all that difficult to get support for a campaign to take out Israel through war or other violence. Because it's "a Zionist country."

The fact that it could mean taking out half the world's Jews wouldn't be relevant; people would say things like, "oh well then they shouldn't live in Israel." The fact that it could mean taking out millions of Israeli Arabs wouldn't be relevant, because people think that Israel is a 100% Jewish ethnostate.

It. Is. Terrifying.

And I would really, really like people to walk some of their language back.

I hope every single member of tumblr @staff suffocates under the shame they will feel someday for mining a genocide for advertiser dollars, I hope every tumblr user who's ever given this site money rots from the realisation they gave money to a site that profits from supporting a genocide, and I hope every Zionist everywhere fucking dies.