#too bad to my single voter

[away-ward]

I love one of your latest asks about will being weak because it's so true!!! Anon, im with you on this! Weak men and MMCs are truly a fucking disease!!!

Ok i feel like this other topic has been discussed here but maybe not, i dont remember, but its about how will always reminds emmy and himself that emmy didnt fit in with his friends, as if theres something wrong with her for not fitting into a label and box that they have for everyone else (as if these characters themselves did not spend their whole fucking books and lives fighting against people labelling them and putting them in a box, but hey everyone in DN are fucking hypocrites, we knew this already), while at the same time will himself had never made much effort to fit into emmy's life or get to know her lifestyle, to be her friend or get to know her deeper outside of what he wanted. It still doesnt make sense because i believe if will wa smore respectful and kind towards his approach with emmy, we couldve gotten a friends to best friends to lovers arc!!!! Maybe we can even get some betrayal and separation to justify will's anger, like think about it. The missed opportunity!!!

I also think there's something wrong and weird with the way will went about this "emmy not fitting in" because from the way ke kept on saying it made me believe that the horsemen were some wonderful group of people to fit in with or something, but in reality, it's just a group of super privileged MMCs and FMCs with ugly ass characters, personalities, lifestyles, with varying degree of misogyny. My first thought was, "now why the fuck would you shame a women for not fitting in with a bunch of nasty people, with nasty moral, and nasty personalities, as if EMMY was the weird guy, and not the other way around". Like theres something wrong with the way the whole crew went about it. And thats why i also believe that alex's attack of emmy in the train wasnt just out of worry for aydin's safety and jealousy for whatever bullshit manipulation of aydin made she think about aydin x emmy, but also because alex probably had at a certain point put emmy on a different pedestal than other women she met in life, be it because of will or because of the way he saw other men treat emmy as compared to alex. So when alex found out that blackchurch emmy wasnt so different than her lifestyle, i think alex trying to fight emmy in the train and later on demanding for her underwear back from emmy was not just out of petty fight, but it was to prove to everyone the things alex said to em in blackchurch "i knew you could do this too". Implying that emmy was just like the crew in thunder bay, even if emmy might never admit it out loud. Alex probably had misinterpreted emmy as being judging towards her life to just because everyone else does, and emmy never said much of anything. We dont even know how much alex knew about her. Now, on the other side though, we knew from emmy's pov that emmy never had a problem with what she wanted or even the horsemen or alex, the only problem is she thought she couldnt have them, but how was the rest supposed to know this right? And so this might also be one of the cause of misunderstanding between alex and emmy. To show that emmy was not so above everyone else, that she wa sjust "like us", and mistaking that emmy looked down on them for this particular lifestyle like aydin did to alex. Because aydin had shamed alex in many ways for her lifestyle, out of his own resentment and shortcoming, so i feel like this could also be where alex was coming from. HOWEVER, I hate alex even more for this though because alex couldve just asked emmy where she came from (theyre "friends"!!!), but alex made assumptions about emmy, humiliate her in front of everyone, and tried to put emmy down just to look good in front of the rest, and that all happened because of internalised misogyny. Literally, there wa sno excuse for this because we never saw emmy did the same, nit even with her female bullies at school. One of your alex's anon asks in the past was right, alex shouldve had this same energy (or even worse) with aydin and call him out and beat him up instead for treating her like a dirtbag, but why hurt emmy? No explanation here, it's internalised misogyny, lmao! I hate this repeated misogynistic plotline from pd so much! Why cant they let these women be pillars for each other and build amazing healthy female relationship instead of always cretaing female rivalries? Idk, the more that i think about alex's character, the ickier she gets, and i hate it because pd framed her to her to be this "pure good morally right person viking", and im like, where? And on the same note, wasnt emmy the same? But why was she framed differently?You all are right, even alex was guilty by association, just by being around the horsemen nd their wives + crew. Unfortunately, alex, just like the rest, was a delusional bitch, no wonder she said something about emmy's presence as being grounding. Someone needs to pop their thunder bay bubble asap!

That leads to my next point. DN series turned me off for a different reason: all these grown adult men and women always be doing the most vile things to others (almost always undeservingly) and they wont own up to it. Interesting how their moral judgment is very relative, because as long as they're not micah's terrorist father or gabriel or evans or trevor level of nasty, they're consider and label THEMSELVES as good? Delusional privileged people behaviour! Cowards! They be saying things like "own it, before it owns you" but then go out if their way to try to justify their bad deeds as if we readers are stupid or something. They look like cowards to me honestly, because pd couldve used this to make it about morally grey or black villains who dgaf about anyone and living their life to the fullest, doing ACTUAL crimes, not just petty ones and own them (even rowan in The Fine Print was more a piece of shit than Michael when it comes to business ethics, and he's in a romcom bro, so embarrassing!), but pd made their characters to be the worst of the cowards and losers. I think one of your damon hate asks even mentioned about their unsatisfaction towards damon's character where he was unskilled and incompetent, even in his own crime, because everything he did, he was never active, always had someone's help to make it happen, but readers ate it up, acting as if he was this super competent guy doing everything or smth like that. Which i agree 100%, because not even damon who got special treatment by pd was someone amazing due of his own lacking that went unnoticed just because he was "seen" as hot to some. Just like that anon, maybe im just like them where i hate incompetent and unskilled men, and i would never love to read stories about these kind of MMCs or date irl men like them, so maybe thats why i noticed this even more than the rest. Being conventionally attractive and having that as your main attributes doesnt do it for me especially for a long term/ lasting relationship and admiration, they have to have somethimg going on in theirpersonal and professional lives for them to be interesting to me, and i noticed, this was what dark romance genre was always lacking.

I believe that dark romance is a hard subgenre to write, because not only it is already hard to write non-dark romance, now you have another layer of darker elements that you gotta add to make your stories work. I've never read one DarkRom book that i truly love because of this. My favourites were always non-darkrom because darkrom always felt lackluster and incomplete, i always felt like they lack substance, so as much as i might like their themes explored, writing style. or characters, or plot, or settings, i can never give them a full 5 stars, because theyre not enough for me. Let me know if you notice this too, or if you find your expectations for darkrom having a lot /not much difference than non-darkrom. Idk if others feel like this too, but these were what took my enjoyment from this series. The DN series was shallow and cheap for these reasons among many others, especially the "there was not much concrete substance" part, because even the substance was not grounding enough to me. I just need more i guess, idk. In fact, i wish it was more unhinged, because if theres one thing about pd that i like, its their writing style. They can really write great spooky or suspense-building stories, i gotta give them that. Not many non-horror or thriller authors ive read so far that could write spooky scenes or danger-consuming scenes like pd, and i was disspointed that they did not capitalise more on this. Ngl, if pd wrote thrille ror horror one day, i might even pre-order it, because one of the best thrillerxsuspense opening from a non-thriller books was Credence by them. The first few chapters were kinda eery in a reality-grounding way when you read books by famous horror thriller writers, the same goes with hideaway. Ngl, nightfall's opening was more goofy to me than it was scary, im so sorry pd 😭🤣

Anon, im with you on this! Weak men and MMCs are truly a fucking disease!!!

You guys are so funny. I feel like a middle man for your conversations. Like I’m playing telephone or something. I think I’m gonna have to go back and start labeling the Anon messages with numbers or something so you can reference each other.

Let me know if this is okay with all of you or if you have a problem.

I’m going to let you know before we get into it, that I’m in a mood as I’m typing this. I’m not sure what’s caused it, but I’m feeling a bit more sarcastic than usual and feeling less like editing myself. So this is going to be a long one and I hope you read the sarcasm for what it is. Remember, bold is not for emphasis but for ease of skimming and reading.

will always reminds emmy and himself that emmy didnt fit in with his friends

I would be surprised if there was a topic we haven’t touched on by this point. I have thought about this so I also can’t remember if I’ve talked about or just ranted to myself. Either way, I don’t think it’s the first time the issue has been raised. I know that I have discussed how Will’s privileged blinded him, and how his attitude about his privilege probably didn’t seem all that bad to him because of his peers. They were all in the same boat.

I mean yacht.

And I think I’ve mentioned that even without the abuse, Emmy still would have had a hard time fitting because of her lack of privilege. So I don’t think for either of them being aware of this reality is a bad thing. What irritated me the most about this situation was Will pursuing Emory so heavily, only to remind her that she’s replaceable anytime she didn’t do what he wanted. My reaction in that situation would have been “then replaceable me.” Similar to Em’s. It was such backwards thinking. Like he could somehow trick her into wanting him by reminding her that he was desirable to others. Reverse psychology at its worst, truly.

But I think that’s probably what I liked about Will more than the others. He actually had realistic path to grow?

I don’t know. Sometime when people talk about characters, it seems like they want the characters to have already reached their full potential and all their mistakes be because of external issues. And I'm not accusing you of that, but it's a trend I've seen. This always sticks out to me because I love when characters mess up and change, as long as that growth makes sense. Whether it's for the better or worse, it should make some sort of sense. People aren’t always great. Sometimes people suck. Just genuinely suck. And then, as they have life experiences, they can grow into a better person.

For me, Will takes this course. He sucked, because he wasn’t even aware of how badly he was messing up. Sure, his intentions with Emmy were sincere, but even if he did become aware of the abuse while they were in school, I have no doubt that his immaturity would have messed it up even more. Either way, he could have then had experiences that formed him into the person we see towards the end. Someone who can admit their mistakes, and forfeit what they want if it would make the people they care for happier. We never got to see a fully developed Will, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the direction he was going in.

And this opposes his friends. Michael and Kai didn’t undergo such a changed. They sort of stayed the same throughout their story. They just got what they wanted in the end and it made them happier. Yay. Damon did undergo a significant change, but as it’s been pointed out, the way it happened and how quickly was sort of unbelievable. Will has the most believable story line in terms of development. He still sucked. But sucked slightly less at the end, and I could easily see how he got to that point.

But that’s just me. I get where you’re coming from.

if will wa smore respectful and kind towards his approach with emmy, we couldve gotten a friends to best friends to lovers arc!!!! Maybe we can even get some betrayal and separation to justify will's anger, like think about it. The missed opportunity!!!

True, but like I said, I feel that Will thought he was being respectful and kind, because he was blind to the reality of how Emmy would interpret his attentions. He’d never experienced that level of rejection before, and because he didn’t know about the abuse, he couldn’t see a reason for it. Wasn’t he being nice by doing her homework? Wasn’t he being nice by listening to her when she complained that they were ruining her pool time? Wasn’t he being nice by giving her a ride home? Sure, she put up a fight, but she secretly liked it because he saw her reaction in the science lab. He’s giving her a way to act on those thoughts without forcing her to embarrass herself by admitting she wants it.

Isn’t. He. So. NICE???

And as the reader, we’re like no. You’re literally ruining her life! AND disrespecting her, because she told you no.

Friends-to-lovers isn’t my usual go-to. But I also don’t like second-chance romance, which all of DN basically is sooo…. Plus, I did read a whole book just to delude myself into getting a friends-to-lovers willemmy, so safe to stay I might have really enjoyed that. It would have been a nice break from the usual with this series.

it made me believe that the horsemen were some wonderful group of people to fit in with or something

I mean. It seems to me that most wealthy, privileged people think everyone wants to be like them. And, if we’re talking about their time in high school, then that way of thinking is probably even more prevalent. These are people who don’t really experience life outside of their wealth, so it’s normal to them. And if you don’t have what’s normal, wouldn’t you want it? Aren’t these life’s necessities? And they wouldn’t see each other as bad people, so for Emmy to point out their flaws and go “you guys are horrible people”, doesn’t make sense to them. Because

They’re good people. They’re not out there ruining other people’s lives. They’re just having fun. They’re not like Anderson or their parents or Martin, after all. Those are the really bad people. Why couldn’t Emmy tell the difference?

Obviously, it’s because she’s a judgmental hag who never wanted to see them clearly to begin with because it would ruin her superiority complex.

That’s seems to be his reasoning, at least.

because alex probably had at a certain point put emmy on a different pedestal than other women she met in life, be it because of will or because of the way he saw other men treat emmy as compared to alex.

Oh, Alex...

I can see Alex having some sort of complex about Emmy, but more than anything I felt she was curious when she approached Em at the cove, wanting to confirm what she thought she knew. Alex confused me when she put the thought into Emmy’s head that she could be competition.

I mean, I get that Emmy still wanted Will, but more than that, she wanted Will to be happy (because she’s a good person!). So even if Will found happiness with Alex, Emmy wouldn’t see her as competition because she’d basically already taken herself out of the running. But are we supposed to see Emmy being jealous of Alex because Alex is who he wants now? And Alex pushes this idea for what? To play with Em? To get her reaction? To encourage her that she still had a foot in the race to Will’s heart? To try and be her friend? It never made sense to me.

I don’t think I’ll truly ever be sure of Alex’s motive for attacking Em, and that’s because Alex takes ownership of her actions. She made choices, she wasn’t a ""victim"". Okay. If you’re not a victim of circumstance, like Em, and you both achieved your goals doing what you thought was best for yourselves, then what are you jealous over, Alex?

Unless… the taking ownership of her decisions is all pretense and posturing? Convincing herself that she’s just as good as Em, except that Em made decisions she was proud of; she worked to get her degree, she actually sacrificed what she wanted to save herself and her grandmother, she’s still strong without anyone holding her up. You can’t convince me Alex doesn’t see Emmy standing alone, defiant against the Horsemen and Aydin, and wonder if she could do the same? I don’t know. I mean, the characters in this series aren’t consistent and I’ve said that Alex was meant to be perfect always, so it’s hard to really figure out what was going on.

If one thing is for sure, I think Alex has succeed in being one of the most controversial characters in the series, and it’s not even about her career as a sex worker. Does that count as progress???

So when alex found out that blackchurch emmy wasnt so different than her lifestyle,

I’m not sure what you meant with this thought. To me, they have different lifestyles, so if you could clarify what you mean?

We dont even know how much alex knew about her.

That’s true, I guess. We know she could easily recognize Emmy on sight, and that she knew from Will that Emmy was “sassy” or something, indicating that Will probably talked about her. I HC that he talked about her more than once. I don’t see him getting into all that in one go. She probably knows about the gazebo and why he went to prison. But how much of their relationship, specifics about Em? No idea. But what’s irritating is that Alex believes in her ability to read people so much, she thinks she’s got Emmy all figured out, when it’s very clear that she doesn’t.

And so this might also be one of the cause of misunderstanding between alex and emmy. To show that emmy was not so above everyone else, that she wa sjust "like us", and mistaking that emmy looked down on them for this particular lifestyle like aydin did to alex.

You’re saying that Alex’s attack was to prove to Emmy that she wasn’t better than them, that they weren’t better than her, but they were all cut from the same cloth? Or that Alex believed that Emmy thought she was better than them because she didn’t frequently go around breaking the laws and giving into all her impulses? And Alex wanted to prove to her like “see, you have the same impulses. You can act on them here, with us, and it’ll all be okay. We’ll catch you.”

I can understand that. If that was the case, it was a weird way to go about it. Very confrontational. But I doubt Emmy was in any state to trust any of them, so maybe backing her into a corner for her to push herself out of was the only way to get there. I think the first one is what you meant; that Alex thought Emmy thought she was better and wanted to bring her to their level because she was feeling judged, but I think the second one is closer to what PD thought they were doing. Because Alex is all knowing and always right. She knows what everyone needs.

alex even more for this though because alex couldve just asked emmy where she came from (theyre "friends"!!!), but alex made assumptions

But Alex asking questions would mean that Alex isn’t all knowing and isn’t always right and doesn’t knows what everyone needs before they know they need it. How can Alex be perfect if Alex has to ask questions?????

Why cant they let these women be pillars for each other and build amazing healthy female relationship instead of always cretaing female rivalries?

That would have been nice to see. I usually don’t get mad at Alex for not attacking Aydin. If Alex was running scared from her feelings towards Aydin, not ready to sort them out, and she was overly concerned for Will, then Emmy becomes an easy target because she knows she can’t ruin her relationship with Emmy.

Note: I don’t understand how they have that close a bond after one night of drinking together. I’m just saying what the narrative told us. And as the narrative as reminded us multiple times, Alex is… apparently some sort of addictive substance that people experience once and can’t get enough of??? I have no other reasoning for the other character’s reactions to her.

Either way, it would have been nice if Alex used her powers for good to build up the friendships in the group instead of trying to get laid literally all the time.

To be clear, I do feel this is an error in storytelling. I can’t blame it all on Alex when PD is one who created her and forced those decisions on her, for reasons that I don’t understand. It feels like PD really did prioritize empowering women through freedom of sexual expression, but at the cost of writing actual friendships on the page? It was choice, and not one I can appreciate fully. Especially when I love seeing friendships play out so much. But I’m sure it’s found it audience somewhere and for that, good for them.

all these grown adult men and women always be doing the most vile things to others (almost always undeservingly) and they wont own up to it.

I’m laughing because I don’t know if it was the past storyline or because of their maturity levels, but I always forgot these characters were in their mid-twenties. Like, I don’t care what the timeline says, these characters are between 17-21 in every book and being told Will was 26 in NF was like a slap in the face. I was disgusted with him.

pd couldve used this to make it about morally grey or black villains who dgaf about anyone and living their life to the fullest, doing ACTUAL crimes, not just petty ones and own them

Yeah. Every time they were gearing up for a “big” thing, I kept expecting something… you know… big to happen. But it was all mundane, teenage antics (see point above).

I believe that dark romance is a hard subgenre to write, because not only it is already hard to write non-dark romance, now you have another layer of darker elements that you gotta add to make your stories work. I've never read one DarkRom book that i truly love because of this.

This is a good point. I don’t usually read a ton of dark romance. DN was a weird phase for me. If I do, I like the “dark” characters to be intelligent at least, not just mean. Even then, I know I’m getting into some nonsense, ridiculous plot so I usual turn off my critical thinking skills. Because of that, I never remember the books I’ve read that are considered “dark romance”. If you bring one up, I can remember if I’ve opened it or not, but characters names and events have been erased.

And your comments before that are probably why Dark Rom is meant for adults who already know that seeking out these types of people in real life is a horrible idea? Still, I know some readers who aren’t ready for this material for various reasons, be it age or past experiences they haven’t dealt with or something else, will get ahold of books like this and think that the abuse and drama that happens in these “love stories” are what true romances are made out of. Frustrating, but also none of my business. Just be happy that you know yourself well enough that these tactics wouldn’t work on you.

However, I don’t think I’ve ever attempted a dark romance. I’ve attempted to write stuff that has a darker edge than my usual, but never that dark. I’m not a thriller or horror writer, so… But I think the goal would be to bring in an equal balance of each genre, and then push them to the foreground at different parts of the story to blend them together. I’m not sure how I would do it, and I probably won’t ever try, really.

The DN series was shallow and cheap for these reasons among many others, especially the "there was not much concrete substance" part, because even the substance was not grounding enough to me.

Interestingly enough, DN to me is like a carnival as opposed to a theme park. A theme park is a whole thing. A day excursion. A planned event.

At a carnival, the rides are short, they’re not really scary, you’re never really worried, yet they’re still fun. Maybe even a little boring to some. But one ride is never enough. And it’s not the only the rides, it’s the whole environment. It’s the candy and games, and the lights and sounds, it’s the people. One night to escape from the usual. It’s what you make it. It pops up for a time and then leaves, because it was never meant to stick around. It still provided a good time.

I’ve said before this series was never meant to be torn apart and analyzed to this degree. And I know there are a hundred other series that have the exact same tropes and similar plotlines? So are we so mad that this series was so bad compared to them, or are we mad that this series could have been better? Why are we still here talking about it when so many others have faded as soon as we closed the cover?

As you said, there are some things PD does very well in their writing. So maybe we are just upset that DN had so much promise and failed to deliver?

[ji-lixie]

ppl on tumblr dot com are so fucking dumb i swear

[tittyblade]

Oh ya I’ve heard Türkiye is having some elections today, how’s that going? :D

it’s on sunday!!! ive spent the entirety of this morning crying over election coverage LOL. this is the single most important event of my life. yk how every politician says the next election is the most important one so everyone should go out n vote? thats the situation here but quite literally.

on one hand you have islamic extremists (erdoğan. one of the “parties” that support him is literally formed from an extremist cult. the only reason they haven’t all been put on trial is bc erdoğan supports them and he’s only got the extremists’ support left. and also bc years back he declared a nationwide state of emergency and quickly passed multiple laws in succession where. he’s no longer the prime minister but “the sole leader” of turkey. yeah)

and on the opposition there’s a coalition of 6 parties, literally all the major left parties with some nationalists, with their joint candidate kılıçdaroğlu. CHP (the main opposition party) has been center left lately, but its the actual fuckin party that first turned turkey into a republic from a sultanate. its huge. compared to US politics the average left wing party is actually pretty fuckin left here LOL. and they havent won the govt since 1950s (last peaceful n prospering decades of turkey) AND. THEY ACTUALLY STAND A CHANCE. all the polls point towards kılıçdaroğlu winning the elections

and you have no idea how bad it’s been here for the last few years. god. there’s so many shit thats wrong in the country because of the current government. civillians getting arrested for tweets criticizing erdogan, not being able to afford anything, being unable to pay your rent, erdogan (WITH HIS SINGULAR DECISION) withdrawing from the istanbul convention, the femicides being the highest it has ever been since the entire history of the turkey, murdered religious minorities and murdered journalists, tens of thousands of people left alone to die after the earthquakes back in february. its pretty fucking scary living here unless you’re a cishet sunni muslim man.

everyone i know that can afford it has been fleeing the country. sometimes it feels like thats the only option you have unless you want to get killed as a 20 something year old trying to make ends meet. i’m only 20 yo myself and the past 8 years has brought me and everyone under 30 to such a place where the only thing we feel about the future is hopelessness. i feel like ive aged 10 years in the last year alone and i bet anyone thats lived under a similar govt can relate. my countrys politics alone has been robbing me of my youth and my will to live.

AND. DESPITE ALL OF THAT. i have hope for the very first time. i have hope for a better future now bc of the opposition candidate and i have faith in him to deliver his promises. everything thats happened since january he’s been dealing with with grace, and him + mayors from his party actually do shit.

so yeah. the entire course of turkey is gonna change this sunday. if we were to lose this would be the last democratic elections held (the last elections held, period) before erdoğan fully converted the country into an autocracy, and when kılıçdaroğlu wins its gonna become a socialist state, as socialist as it’s ever been since the 1950s. pretty fuckin big stakes

[qqueenofhades]

i registered to vote for the first time ( i feel old) now that im an adult but my state has closed primary elections which i was wondering if you have an opinion about. my initial thought was that its bad because i had to register democrat (rather than my states green party which represents my beliefs more) just so i could vote between democrat candidates, which feels like being pressured into supporting the weird pseudo two party system we have. but then i looked it up and apparently a reason for this is so that people from opposing parties wont purposefully mess up the votes just so that their preferred candidates have an easier time winning, and i think that makes sense too. but is that actually the reason theyve closed it or is it just to force us dem/republican?? cause it feels strange

Okay, look. I respect the fact that you're a young person, and I appreciate that you have not only registered to vote, but plan to vote in the primaries, so I don't want to lecture you too much. That said: I am taking you out for coffee, I am sitting you down, I am looking into your eyes, and I am urgently telling you the following:

The Green Party is a scam. It is a scam. It has existed for decades in American politics as an empty shell corporation weaponizing the good intentions of young people like yourself, because all it theoretically stands for "it's good to save the planet maybe." Which is not something that any non-insane person seriously disagrees with, but there is no world in which that cause is actually furthered by registering/voting Green (you mentioned that you did vote for Democrats, which -- good, but listen to me here, youngun, okay?) It ran Jill Stein in 2016 to siphon more votes from HRC, and this election it plans to run Cornel West, a pro-Russian tankie who positively equated Bernie and Trump, as another spoiler candidate. It does not stand for "protecting the planet" or America in any real way. It has never elected a single senator or congressman, let alone a president. It stands for empty performance/grievance political theater by those people who feel too morally superior to vote for/affiliate with Democrats, often because the internet has told them that it's not Cool or Hip or Progressive enough.

If your main priority is climate/the environment, you're doing the right thing by registering as a Democrat and voting for Democrats. (Also: the adjectival form is Democratic. It is the Democratic party and Democratic candidates, otherwise you sound like the Fox News host who wrote a book literally entitled "The Democrat Party Hates America.") They are the only major party who has in fact passed major climate legislation and have made environmental justice a central tenet of their platform. As opposed to the Republicans, whose Project 2025, along with the rest of its nightmare fascist prescriptions, openly pledges to completely wreck existing climate protections and forbid any new ones, just because we weren't all dying fast enough under their death-cult rule already. That's the main logical fallacy I don't get among both the Online Leftists and the American electorate in general: "the Democrats aren't doing quite enough as I'd like, so I'll enable the active wrecking ball insane lunatics to get in power and ruin even the progress we HAVE managed to make!" Like. How does that even make sense?

On a federal level, the Greens have contributed nothing whatsoever of tangible value to American or international climate policy/legislation, environmental justice, or anything else, because as noted, they don't have any elected candidates and mostly focus on drawing voters away from Democrats. There might be plenty of good candidates on the local or city level, which -- great! Vote away for Greens if they're available, or the only other option is a Republican! But on the federal/primary level, please understand: once again, they are a scam. There is no point in affiliating yourself with them. You're welcome to register Green and vote Democratic, if that makes you feel better or if you prefer having another label next to your name, but once again, I'm telling you in my position as a salty Tumblr elder that they have done nothing but harm to the causes they claim to care about, because "environment" is such a nebulous priority and has demonstrably been hijacked to stop the American government entity, i.e. the Democrats, that is actually working to improve on it.

As for your question: nobody is "forcing" or "pressuring" you to vote in primaries. By your own admission, you made a conscious choice to register as a Democrat in order to vote for Democratic candidates. If you were just a regular registered voter of whatever party affiliation, you would vote in the general election for whatever candidate the primary process produced. But if you are sufficiently vested and committed to that process that you would like to have a say in who is running under that party label, it is not unreasonable that you would register as a member of that party. Nobody has twisted your arm behind your back and made you do so; you are taking a considerable level of initiative on your own. Likewise, open primaries can be both a good and bad thing. This falls under the "the political system we have is flawed, but we can't magically pretend it doesn't exist and act according to our own fantasyland versions of reality" thing that I keep saying over and over. So yes, if you want a role in shaping the Democratic candidates who emerge from a Democratic primary process, you will usually register as a Democrat, and nobody has forced you to do that. It's that simple.

Likewise as a general programming note: I'm trying to cut back on politics a bit right now, because I don't have the spoons/bandwidth/mental health to deal with it. I apologize. So if you've sent me a politics-related ask recently and haven't received a response, I'm not deliberately or maliciously ignoring you; I just am not able to handle it as much as usual and will have to put it on pause. However, I feel as if this is important enough to be worth saying, so, yeah.

[tommykinard6]

Ya know what. Imma rant.

So I did a poll yesterday on whether or not Eddie and Hen should’ve interfered in the episode. I personally was for no mostly because snatching the phone is a major no no for me, but I could see nuance. I knew that opinions were extremely divided, I expected it.

What I didn’t expect were so many of the “yes they should” crowd to start insulting other voters in the reblogs.

How dare you insult the friendships of other tumblr users, saying they obviously don’t have real friends. How dare you say it’s an age thing, that the “no” crowd is “just too young”. The amount of people that felt they had the right to laugh at anyone’s opinion and turn it into a personal assault? Y’all need to check yourselves.

If you have to insult other voters to prove your point, you’re the one that needs to grow up.

Saying that grabbing the phone or interfering is about “true friendship” is bullshit; it’s about boundaries. Just because YOU are fine with your friends doing it doesn’t mean others are.

My friends can certainly weigh in on my decisions. I’ll actively seek out their advice. They have the right to try and discourage me from bad decisions unless I put in a boundary. However, none of us would snatch the other’s phone. For every single one of us, we know that’s a bad move. It’s comforting, knowing that my friends aren’t pulling shit like that.

Then again, I’m the oldest of the group and am not infantilized, so I suppose there’s a difference between me and Buck.

I truly don’t give a shit on how people vote in the poll or your relationships with your own friends. Phone snatching may not be a trigger for you; it is for me and a lot of other people. You may need your friends to step in and take those measures to interfere for your own good; others don’t. I just can’t believe the audacity some of you had in going out and insulting other fans’ opinions and experiences.

I’m not calling out anyone in particular and I don’t want anyone to do so. I don’t want this to start a fight. But if any of the people that think this is/was ok see this, I really need you guys to reevaluate how you interact with others.

[febuwhump]

Honestly making it a ‘vote as many times as you want’ approach took away the joy for me. I wanted to see actual voting not spamming whatever a few people with time to kill wanted. Feels like it’s expanding beyond people who would actually participate. It’s making me want to do this event less. I don’t want to feel like I have to spend hours spamming the options I like in order to give them a shot. Voting once would have made more sense. Or parring the list down and running tumblr polls to cull the list. This just feels immature.

i totally get how you feel and your feelings are totally deserved! this is how i see it:

the poll has always been vote as many times as you want. i've never installed a limit, and historically people have voted more than once. that is how we had the actual, original voter fraud last year, where one vote per person was implied until one user started spam-voting waterboarding in order to get it in. this was funny. it is no surprise that everyone wants to try it this year.

every year we try new things and do different stuff. i don't think the prompt list that comes out of this will be any worse off for people campaigning and trying to get their prompt in; i don't think the community will be either. the members of the community who are invested and deeply involved are the ones spamming for their favourites; the people who aren't are not necessarily not going to do the event. they were always going to see the prompt list and decide based on that - and the prompt list will still be good because the top 100 prompts are all good and i will curate the winners.

the actual voting is never revealed, so at no point historically either was it evident how people voted other than for the top 30. that is done for a reason: i reserve the right to look at the winners and go, no that's got too many repetitive prompts and a few are going to get switched out. this year, people are calling this deserved tyranny. because it's funny.

and your other options aren't bad at all; they just require more work from me, the person with the full time job and multiple hobbies and the likelihood to get burned out on this event too early by doing too much who is the only admin. a single poll and then answering questions is the most viable option for me - if you want to see an event run that way, then you're more than welcome to pick a month and go for it!

i get that it feels immature, but i think that you might be mislabelling people's sincere enjoyment. i don't think there's any harm in people who really want something voting for the prompts they want more than once; just like i don't think there's anything stopping anyone at all from finding out that their prompt isn't on the final list and then writing it anyway

finally, and this might sound harsh but i say it with all the love in the world: you don't have to take part. if you aren't enjoying the way its being run this year, then you don't have to! or you can blacklist the propaganda tag and febuwhump in its entirety until january 1st when the prompt list comes out and then see if its something you want to take part in! not everyone wants to do every part of the event and that's fine!

i'm sorry that you're not having as much fun this year, but i honestly think this method has engaged the community far more than the only-vote-once route did previously, and my goal is to try lots of different things to get the biggest and best turnout. if, in the end, we get less works than we did last year, or less people actually taking part, then i'll reevaulate

and also. what's so wrong with being immature anyway?

[whoiwanttoday]

Hey guys, here is some Emily Ratajkowski who always gets posted when she has spent a few weeks almost getting posted. She just breaks through eventually because I see enough pictures of her that I enjoy that I can't deny her anymore. None of that matters today though, I just needed a person to post and we'll move on to the part where I beg you to vote. And I beg you to vote for Kamala Harris because it really matters a lot. I will try not to be mean here but if you are sitting out for ideological purity you're an asshole and a child. No wait, that was mean. I meant to say there is nothing a leftist likes better than losing when faced with compromise. No… hold on, that was mean, too. What I meant to say is that I do understand being upset by certain issues. The situation in Gaza fucking sucks. But you have been strung along by bad faith actors and forcing agents if you think not voting for Kamala Harris will help any single person in Gaza. It won't. If Trump had his way they'd bulldoze it and build condos there. I understand not wanting to feel like you are rubber stamping something but when the other side wants to do even worse to the issue you care about it makes no sense to abstain. If you are a likely Harris voter and you sit out then you are not actually abstaining, you are voting for Trump. Because that's how a two party system works. You have endorsed him. But here is the thing, people talk about single issue voters as if it were a bad word and there is a reason for that, no matter how important your issue is there are always other important issues and you are ignoring them. This election matters for lots of reasons and even if you don't believe it's a threat to the continued existence of our democracy it is 100% a threat to the rights of all the women you know, all the queer people you know, anyone who might not fit in easily to a preapproved group. They put children in cages last time guys, if you have even an ounce of power to help stop that yo must. Lots of people sat out in 2016 because they had issues with both candidates. I got that but again it was apples to oranges. I hope everyone sees that now, that no matter how much you might have disliked Hilary Clinton that Donald Trump was so much worse. So please, go vote. It isn't even too late to register in a lot of states. My state allows you to submit a provisional ballot and a registration on the day of the election together. Do this, your country needs you and whatever you may think the way this country goes greatly impacts the rest of the world. The biggest thing you can do today to help the world is to vote. Anyway, Emily Ratajkowski looks good in gowns and stuff. Today I want to fuck Emily Ratajkowski.

[forsetti]

On Political Responsibilities: Put Up Or Shut The Fuck Up

As easily predictable as “The sun will set in the West,” a whole lot of Democrats are ONCE AGAIN falling for Republican propaganda and scurrying around like frightened little bunnies. This time it is about “Biden’s age.”

They should realize this is nothing more than a Republican ploy to sow discord among Dems and tamp down voter enthusiasm. This means either they are not very bright and their political hot takes should be completely ignored or they do realize but play along and parrot right-wing talking points either for attention or money, which really means they should be completely ignored.

Is President Biden old? Yes. Does it matter? As long as he has been and continues to do a good job pushing progressive policies it shouldn’t. When my maternal grandfather passed away at 91, he was still physically active, mentally sound, and able to do intricate, complex tasks. Because Pres. Biden had one bad debate (which is, no pun intended, debatable,) that doesn’t/shouldn’t mean a damn thing unless you are a frightened little bunny.

The right has been pushing, “Biden is too old,” since the 2020 election. They’ve also been pushing, “Biden is the head of a complex, international crime family who uses the Deep State and Dept. of Justice to do his bidding.” If you don’t see the logical problems between these two views, you are part of the problem and really shouldn’t be throwing out your political opinions like they are pearls of wisdom from on high.

Of course, it hasn’t only been the right pushing the “Biden is too old,” claim. The Far Left, especially the white far left, have been doing the same because they are still upset about Biden, with the help of black voters, kicking Bernie Sanders’ ass in the South Carolina primary and going on to curb stomp him on Super Tuesday. It doesn’t matter that Sanders is a year older than Pres. Biden to the far left. All that matters is doing damage to the person who beat their candidate of choice.* (*see also Hillary Clinton and the 2016 election.)

The media loves the “Biden is too old,” nonsense because it allows them to attack the president while hiding behind, “many people from both parties say….” However, the real reason they love it and push it nonstop is because it generates views/clicks which sells ads which generates profits. Any political race, especially one with national implications that is one-sided doesn’t get eyeballs on screens. If Pres. Biden was leading by 10 points, which in any sane country he would be, the race is all but over and no one is going to tune into media outlets for their “analysis” of the race. Any for-profit enterprise that relies on viewers HAS TO HAVE a horse race. The owners of these companies know this. The programmers know this. The hosts know this. The guests know this. It seems the only people who don’t know this are the frightened little bunnies on the left who flee to their holes any time someone in the media says something they don’t like or fear might be true.

All you have to do is look at the number of media outlets and talking heads who have pushed the idea that Biden needs to step aside because he “looked bad on television one time,” but not a single one of them has demanded the same of Trump for any of the legitimate bullshit he’s done. Just his role on Jan 6th should make him a toxic candidate, let alone his being found guilty of sexual assault, 34 felony convictions of fraud, and taking, lying about, and refusing to return highly classified documents after leaving the White House. Any one of these actions should be a reason to question and demand he step down as a candidate. Yet, NOT ONCE, has this happened in the media. That’s because they NEED Trump for horse races because it brings in money.

Just look at the post-debate analysis from the media who were intently focused on Biden’s speech patterns, how he looked, and how he sounded (all optics,) while completely ignoring what he said and the massive totality of Trump’s lies (all factual things.)

All of this “Optics Police” analysis has given rise to the whole “Biden needs to step aside,” idiot hot take.

When someone in the media says something like, “Pres. Biden needs to step aside,” a whole lot of Dems clutch their pearls with both hands and run to their fainting couch as fast as they can while screaming, “Pres. Biden needs to step aside!” because they are frightened little bunnies who have a compulsive need to parrot anything negative about their party and candidates, regardless of the source.

They are so afraid of losing elections that they do everything in their power to make sure elections are lost.

Let’s talk about the idea of Pres. Biden stepping aside. It is a remarkably stupid idea from remarkably stupid people. There is a reason the right has been pushing “Biden is too old,” “Biden is a criminal,” and “Biden cheated to win in 2016.” It is the very same reason Trump asked Zelensky to just lie about Biden being under investigation in Ukraine in 2016. Biden is the NUMBER ONE THREAT to Trump getting reelected. If the right believes Pres. Biden is the biggest threat to Trump, why in the fuck would replacing him on the ticket be the smart move? It wouldn’t.

I’ve read all the reasons for why Biden should step aside. They are all devoid of any logic, a basic understanding of U.S. elections, or American political history.

The latest reason for him to step aside is by comparing him to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and using her death and subsequent appointment of a right-wing hack, Amy Coney Barrett, to the Supreme Court. The same people on the left demanding Pres. Biden step aside are the same ones who blamed RBG for allowing Trump to appoint another conservative justice to SCOTUS.

It wasn’t RBG’s responsibility to prevent Trump from appointing a conservative justice. That responsibility was on Democratic voters in 2016 and they failed to live up to it. Don’t blame RBG for Amy Coney Barrett. Blame everyone on the left who decided to sit out the 2016 election or who voted third-party. They are the reason Trump was in a position to appoint three Supreme Court justices. While RBG was working hard to protect progressive ideals and rights, the people bitching about her not retiring were not doing a damn thing to help her.

It’s not like the far left wasn’t warned about the potential damage a Trump presidency would have, especially with regard to SCOTUS. They were, vehemently. Their response to being warned about what could/would happen to the Supreme Court if Trump won was, “Go fuck yourself. How dare you use the threat of years of progressive policies and rights being taken away to get my vote.”

These were the same people who now are screaming about how horrible the Supreme Court is hurting years of progressive policies and rights being taken away and blaming anybody and everybody other than themselves. They are the ones blaming Pres. Biden for not protecting Roe (something he has/had no way of doing.) They are the ones blaming RBG for not retiring (something that would not have made a difference because, even if she was replaced with another liberal justice, the Court would still be 5-4 in favor of conservatives and there was a good chance her replacement would not have been given a hearing and her seat left open ala Merrick Garland.)

The reason we have a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court is too many people on the left thought it was a good idea to not vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. That’s it. Full...fucking...stop.

Many of the same people on the left who didn’t take the makeup of the Supreme Court seriously in 2016 are the very same people now demanding Pres. Biden step aside. Sorry, we are in this mess largely because of the horrible ideas and actions of these people. Why on earth should they be taken seriously now? They shouldn’t.

There is no “magic bullet,” to prevent Trump from being reelected. There isn’t some magical candidate out there, waiting in the wings for Pres. Biden to step aside so they can swoop in and save the day. There is Pres. Biden and VP Harris. That is it. It doesn’t matter if that is who you want. It doesn’t matter if you are upset about this or that policy or action. It doesn’t matter if Pres. Biden is 81, 61, or 91. What matters is winning the 2024 presidential election. That’s it. If/when that happens, then you can bitch and whine about not getting your dragon-unicorn hybrid in the exact color you want.

Do your fucking civic duty and vote for the candidate who will do the most good, the least harm to the people and policies you love. In the upcoming election, that choice will be, whether you like it or not, and you don’t fucking have to like it, is between Pres. Biden and Donald Trump. Either put up and do the right thing or shut the fuck up, now and forever about the state of politics in America.

A couple of days ago, Charlie Pierce from “Esquire,” tweeted this gem from Tbogg (one of my favorite old-timey bloggers.) It perfectly sums up exactly how a lot of people on the left view voting and my response to them.

"Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild... ...the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. Afterward, they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar. You don’t live there. Grow the fuck up.” -TBogg

[mama-qwerty]

Okay, I'm gonna get political here.

I've been seeing some alarming posts going around, in which people seem to think that Biden is somehow as bad as, or worse than, Trump. And a lot of the reasoning seems to come down to how he's dealing with Israel. He's not doing enough to stop Israel and is actively supporting them. Which, he has to, because the US is Israel's ally.

Is it ideal? Is it great? NO. It absolutely sucks, and we really should not be involved, and be doing more to stop them.

But that seems to be the single issue most people mention when talking about not voting for him. And my question to them is, do you seriously think Trump will handle it any better??

And let's put Palestine aside right now. I know it's terrible, I know it's my privilege to look away for a moment, but I implore you, I fucking BEG you to remember that the US president affects laws and policies here, which affects each and every American who lives here.

This post lists, in a convenient little checkbox format, what each candidate is for and against. As you can see, Trump will support Israel, too. Moreso than Biden. But he will also remove rights and destroy protections for countless other groups.

Both candidates are absolutely NOT THE SAME. Biden, while not perfect, has done a lot of good for the country, it's just not reported because negative things get more views than positive. He had A LOT of cleanup to do after Trump finally dragged his ass out of the White House. And he's done what he could.

I get that Biden isn't ideal. He's not who I would want, either. But he's the Democratic candidate, and we absolutely cannot afford to "send Washington a lesson" by abstaining or voting third party. We are a two party system, and with Trump on the ballot, we cannot, CAN FUCKING NOT afford to split our forces.

Every Republican will be out in droves, casting their vote for Trump. One vote for a third party candidate, is a vote for Trump. If you do not vote for Biden, you are essentially handing Trump the victory.

This country will not survive another Trump presidency.

I sincerely believe that. The damage he did the first time around was bad enough, when he didn't know what he was doing. But now? Now he's had 4 years to scheme and plot and work behind the scenes with his cronies so that when/if he gets back into office, he can go all in on gutting the government, stacking the Supreme Court, enacting whatever laws he likes, and simply declaring himself dictator and never leaving office again.

And the Republicans will help him.

Every one of those spineless bootlickers will be trailing behind him, nodding like a fucking bobblehead, agreeing with whatever asinine idea tumbles out of his third grade brain.

"For the good of the country," they'll cry, as they gut support for the poor.

"For the helpless little babies," they'll weep, eliminating health care services for women and removing any help for families.

"Make America Great Again," they'll chant as they send the military to drag children away from parents and lock them in cages because they dared come to the US--a country that was founded on the backs of immigrants--for a better life.

Republicans only care about keeping themselves rich and in power. They don't care about the poor. They don't care about women or minorities or LGBTQ+ rights. They don't care about YOU. They only care about themselves. They've proven it time and time again, yet they always try to convince their base that it's really the Democrats and radical Left who are the bad guys. Because they constantly want to *checks notes* make sure people are safe, healthy, and cared for.

And that's not the America the Republicans want.

I am begging all US voters to look past Palestine, for just a moment, and realize that choosing the wrong man in November will have very, very, VERY long lasting repercussions for this country. We can't afford to "send a message". We can't afford to simply not vote. We can't afford to throw out the old "they're all the same" line.

THEY'RE NOT.

Please, please, please. Think about the people who will be hurt under another Trump administration. Think of those who will lose their support, lose their aid, lose their protections. Think of those who can't protect themselves.

The only message we need to send to Washington this November is NOT TRUMP. NEVER TRUMP.

[bakafox]

"Vote Blue No Matter Who" is triage, not a panacea.

Granted I only am on this one hellsite, but I have yet to see anyone who's saying "Vote Blue" claim that that's all we need to do to fix things or even to staunch the bleeding that the US is doing.

I seem to see people claiming that people are saying that is the only answer, and not a needed part of the jigsaw puzzle that is living in this godawful timeline.

I am just a middle-aged person who is tired all the time, and triply, doubly, tired of what looks like absolutely pointless infighting on the left, from 'just left of center' to much farther that way.

The GOP holds all the power it holds and wins elections because the die hard republicans don't quibble all that much over candidates, and are happy to be single issue voters.

And on the left, people are big mad about whether or not 'harm reduction' is an actual thing that needs to be an important part of any movement, and making bad faith readings and arguments right and left.

I may have made a bad faith reading myself tonight, over what looked on my reading like the umpteenhundredth post about how only privileged and self-centered people can think 'vote blue no matter who' will get anywhere, and making it sound yet again like that's being said as some kind of magical coda that is all that's needed to fix things, when I have never seen anyone claim it is.

I see posts noting that voting is like doing the dishes or laundry, I do not see posts saying it's the only action that matters and all action stops there.

There may be posts like that out there, but I'm maybe naive enough to think it's a great minority and also probably also psyops to a degree.

Unfortunately I do see posts that seem to say that trying to triage the US and that saying "Vote Blue No Matter Who" is a stance of traitorous elites and imperialists who care only about their own skins and that it's mostly ignorant white people using the phrase.

....Despite knowing I follow a number of nonwhite people, some of whom I would call legitimate activists, (unlike myself,) who are saying it's what's needed to try and buy us a little breathing room.

It is breathing room. It's putting the oxygen mask on first before helping the kid in the next seat. It isn't a permanent answer, but in today's time and place, with how the two-party system is rigged, it is the immediate bandage. It's the pressure on the wound.

But the pressure will have to be kept up, yes. People will have to call their representatives and write their representatives and vote in every election they can vote in for even the most incremental change if there isn't a valid miracle option, and right now there is no valid miracle option. People will have to donate time, donate energy, donate funds to causes while also voting.

Someday I hope we have better candidates and a ranked choice voting system with nobody disenfranchised from voting, but the only way to get there is to vote, because bloody revolution is not a tenable option. The left is not organized enough and there's too many people with too many axes to grind against imperfect allies for there to be the right focus on the actual enemy.

There's too much historical record of revolutionaries turning on their own and becoming another bad status quo that needs to be dealt with again somehow, for it to be trusted over incremental change as long as incremental change can be made before taking some bigger leap.

There has to be a running start. Not a jump from a dead stop.

There's also just the sheer technology and arms gap as well as distance gap between what any cells of leftist 'freedom fighters' in the US versus a fully Republican controlled military. The tactics would be hell even if somehow everyone could be provided immediately with weapons and training and that the idea of having to live in a world where everyone has to be willing to use weapons and take lives is kinda hellish in and of itself.

What countries are we going to get aid from? What governments are promising the US left help if Trump wins?

Vote Blue No Matter Who rhymes, it's catchy, maybe that also leads to people distrusting it. I don't know. But it is one step to take, and an important one until there is enough of a shift, and both sides are not the same. They just aren't.

[joesalw]

Not her coming out with an album with a long ass title. She wants to be Lana so bad. SZA was robbed for AOTY, Kelly Clarkson was robbed for best pop VOCAL album (I mean, c'mon now).

Scammys are constantly snubbing Black creators in the major categories. Only 3 black women have won AOTY in the 66 years of the Grammys existence. Two of those albums were cover albums of mainly white acts ( Unforgettable...with Love by Natalie Cole and The Bodyguard Soundtrack by Whitney Houston). The last BW that won AOTY was Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" which won 25 YEARS AGO.Even Mariah Carey hadn't won this category. What baffles me the most is the fact that the most awarded artist in the Grammys history hadn't won a single one AOTY and only has 1 (ONE!) award from the big 4 (Record of the year, Song of the Year, Album of the year and best new artist). She'd won it for Single Ladies. Out of all the hit songs she has, that was the only one that got awarded (imo one of her worst songs).

Renaissance got snubbed last year. And this year we see a tendency of streaming artists (Ariana's newest song comes to mind first) following the Renaissance's sound and house music's becoming trendy again. The Grammy voters even said 'We didn't vote for Beyonce on AOTY because she's won too many already'. Too many my ass. This woman's won only one Grammy outside of the genre category. And the genre categories they put black and brown people in are truly outrageous. No matter what they do, no matter how many new sounds and sub genres they invent, they will always be boxed into R&B and Urban categories. I mean, her country song from 'Lemonade' album 'Daddy Lessons' got snubbed in the country category and got rejected a nomination for being 'not country enough'. Bitch, please. From the first five seconds it's obvious to even non-country listener that it in fact, is a country song. And people that vote for this stuff are supposedly professional musicians and music experts. These same people box The Weeknd's music into R&B categories when he's clearly making pop music.

Jay-Z's speech was just a cherry on top for me. After Swift in her acceptance speech said that " I want to say 'thank you' to the members of the recording academy for voting this way but I know that the way that the recording academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans" while smugly polishing the Grammy, this man went on stage to get his lifetime achievement thingy and completely obliterated the same institution that Swift was ass kissing just a few minutes prior. He went on and said: " We want y'all to get it right. At least get it close to right. And obviously it's subjective because it's music and it's opinion based. [About his wife] She has more Grammys than everyone and never won AOTY so even by your own metrics that doesn't work. Think about that: the most Grammys, never won AOTY. That doesn't work. Some of you are going to go home tonight and feel like you've been robbed. Some of you may get robbed, some of you don't belong in the category. *everyone gags* No, no. When I get nervous... I tell the truth. But outside of that, we got to keep showing up. And forget the Grammys for a second, just in life, you gotta keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve, until they call you chairman, until they call you a genius, until they call you the greatest of all time". To me that sounds like "POC have to work twice as hard to get half as far". Not a big Jay fan but the speech was great. I'm sure he got his ass whooped on the way home for saying that.

Then the Grammys have proven him right by celebrating white mediocrity by giving Midnights AOTY. The outrageous thing is, only three Black women have won AOTY, she now has four. And many talented black people don't have a single one. The bodies of work that transcend genres, cultures and languages. The bodies of work that have much better musical components and lyrical content. The bodies of work that can stand the test of times and sound fresh and new even 10 years after their release. Artists that aren't afraid to step out of their comfort zone, experiment with genres (Whatever Swift calls 'experiments' don't go outside of the pop genre (Country-pop (Red), synth-pop (1989, Lover), electropop (rep, Lover), acoustic pop and alt-pop (Folkmore)). Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, TLC, Missy Elliott, Usher, Kanye (his artistic side), Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, and many more black music creators deserve their flowers. They are the ones that are inventing new shit and setting trends in various genres of music, they are the ones that put the most effort into their presentation and live performances. I'm sick and tired of the major showbiz institutions overlooking black, brown, asian, indigenous excellence. These people deserve to be rewarded for their hard work in the same capacity these institutions reward white (anglo) people. I'm sick of people celebrating white mediocrity and overlooking art of different cultures, ethnicities, races.

Now she's gonna be insufferable for at least another year. I've been listening and enjoying her music for the past 5-6 years (not a fan but a casual listener) for the lyrical content of her songs but she's not a poet in any way. Lana's been a staple for me in that regard. And the fact that she dragged her on stage to have that "Adele to Beyonce" moment just gave me the ick. I wouldn't be surprised if Swifties are taking Jay-Z's speech as a sub for TS's wins (haven't gone on twitter yet). I mean, if the shoe fits. Also wouldn't be surprised if she herself took it as a jab to her ego. She's also clearly drunk and possibly on some ❄️ (just my opinion). The only deserved AOTY she has is the Folklore one. And don't get me started on her EMMY win. The fact that a visual masterpieces like Lemonade and Homecoming lost to Carpool Karaoke is absolutely absurd to me. Also the fact that her visual album for her "Lion King" project wasn't even nominated when every single one of those in the category were comedy specials is especially infuriating (If anyone's interested, some of the music videos are up on Youtube). And Swift comes along and swoops up hers in a bullshit category with no actual nominees? Nah, things don't work like that. Or at least, they shouldn't.

Anyway, SZA and Lana were robbed. Victoria Monet's won Best New Artist, Miley got her first win, Phoebe Bridgers went home with the most wins of the night and everyone only talks about Taylor Swift. I'm patiently waiting for the tower to fall. She desperately needs a reality check. This drunkard didn't even acknowledge Celine Dion who handed her the award. I mean, she didn't even look at her. But proceeded to have a cringe and unnecessary handshake with Jack Antonoff. You're in a professional setting, behave like an adult and save those handshakes for the afterparty or do it behind the stage after giving a speech. She proceeded to drag Lana on stage to the point where she was trying not to fall. At this point I'm convinced that swifties have brainwashed her into the thinking that the nicest thing she can do for someone is grace them with her presence. Ana Clara's family serves as a great example.

Her hair was a miss, she looked like she was wearing a wedding gown and the black gloves didn't help. Her make up made her look old. Her accessories were excessive and tacky and it looked like she was also wearing hip pads, shoes were giving late 00s-early 10s. Overall, fire the whole styling team. You're a global superstar that's a billionaire and you look cheap as fuck.

TL;DR : She shouldn't have won. Lana and SZA were robbed. She once again made the night about herself and her narcissism peaked in the moments where she'd accepted her awards. Black creators are criminally overlooked. She ass kissed the grammy voters and Jay-Z shamed them just a few minutes later and was right. She needs to get rid of her stylist, hair stylist and make up artist. Another drunk award show. Beyonce should have at least one AOTY. Sick and tired of people celebrating white mediocrity in show business.

Sorry for the long ass paragraph, just felt like it was a safe space to vent 💜

you guys can vent all you want. I'm here for it🤏

[wrongcaitlyn]

do you have any jegulus fic recs??

YES ABSOLUTELY

it's been a bit since i've read jegulus fics bc the solangelo hyperfixation has been so strong but i still have plenty bookmarked!! i'm just going to share my favs of my favs, but i have even more (21 total) bookmarked on my ao3 :)

(also, just gonna put this right here, that i 100% would rec crimson rivers, best friend's brother, and just lovers by bizarrestars, and art heist baby! by otrtbs but i feel like everyone in the jegulus fandom has already read those bc they're pretty much classics, so just know!! i love those fics!! but i'm gonna try and rec some other possibly less known fics here :))

ALSO ALSO - all of these authors have incredible other fics and i highly recommend you check out their entire dashboard!!! for literally every single author on this list. i'm subscribed to all of themjkdf

You Signed Up For This by Solmussa

James and Regulus have a summer fling that they promised their friends they wouldn’t have. Remus and Sirius discover their mutual hatred is just pent-up sexual tension. Dorcas and Marlene are always winning, even when they’re not. It’s a cruel summer for all. first of all i'm extremely attached to this fic bc it introduced me to maisie peters, which led to one of the best concert experiences of my life!! but other than that, this is just so beautifully written, so detailed, and an all-around incredible fic. everything by this author is incredible too!! it's got the perfect balance of angst vs fluff and just summer vibes, which is prob the perfect thing to read right now - anyway, DEF read if you haven't already!!

Mastermind by pieceofchocolate

Regulus Black is the mastermind behind the Liberal party. Unfortunately, he’s never been very good at the more outgoing parts of politics – on a more fortunate note, he has his brother to act as a front figure. Sirius Black has always been the sweetheart of British politics, charming the voters with his wit and charisma. That was until James Potter came around, becoming party leader of his own party, the Leftists. Sirius would probably hate him, if they weren't such good friends. Regulus does not share this problem. Remus Lupin literally just needed a job, and got thrown into the mess of secrets, games and an upcoming parliamentary crisis. With an election around the corner, things are bound to go awry. MCD WARNING but so worth it. like genuinely. it's a painful fic but there's also a good dose of fluff and i enjoyed every single second of reading despite it being politics and.. well, i'm from america so you can probably guess that it was very strange to actually be attached to these characters while they were politicians😭 this one's also so well written and - there are fics where you can just tell that the person cares so deeply about the topic they're writing about, and this is one of them!!! i love finding fanfics where authors are just incredibly passionate about the subject/au OH and it has a taylor swift title. so like. yk it's already gonna be good. (this is also actually one of my favorite songs ever so i was soo excited to read)

blue and yellow skies by alarainai

Quidditch Rivals turned Quidditch Lovers. That's what the world sees them as, at least. Too bad Regulus hates James Potter's guts, and James? Well, it doesn't matter what he feels about their definitely fake, definitely emotionless relationship. c'mon. there had to be one fame au on this list. and i KNOW that this one's sports, but it's so so so fucking good - and i'm gonna be honest, i've read so many of the band au's (there are quite a lot in this fandom, even i've written one) but for some reason i didn't have any of them bookmarked - which tbf, i'm very selective with what i bookmark lmfao but!!! this one is just SO good the plot, the social media aspect, the background wolfstar, just 10/10 fic!!

these violent delights (have violent ends) by damagecontrol

titanic au prepare for pain. MCD warning. but like, the pain is written so well, and it's so heartbreaking, and i literally remember staring at the ceiling after reading this (finishing at like 2 in the morning) and just not being able to think of anything but that ending, and like, you KNOW that you're going to be in pain bc it's a titanic au, but like, GOD it's so good. i genuinely don't even have the words i'm still depressed bc of it (but in a good way)

The Mystery of the Pears by sonwar

In the cave, Regulus doesn’t beg for it to stop. He begs not be left behind, alone. Perhaps this is why, when Kreacher gives one last look over his shoulder and sees terrible, pale hands reaching for his master, he appears in a flash at Regulus’ side, clutches him by the elbow, and Apparates them both out of the cave, directly disobeying his master’s last order. canonverse fic!! and such a lovely au. the romance between them is just so natural, and yet there's still the war going on - but really, it's just so well written, despite all the angst of the war, imo it's just such a feel-good fic. love this one so much.

Only the Brave by Solmussa

A fic about two idiots falling in love (x2 because there's wolfstar, too) during a war, and the sacrifices they'll have to make to survive it. andddd this one's the big one. this one's the one i choose to accept as canon. like. GUYS. THIS ONE'S SO FUCKING GOOD if you haven't already and you're a jegulus fan, you just HAVE to read it like genuinely. the plot is so well-thought out, all of the interludes give these other characters their own stories too, and the angst!!! but also the badassery!!! i can't even explain it but if you want a canonverse war au where jegulus survives and they all win, then, like, this is the one. it's so perfect. prob my fav jegulus fic of all time.

and those r my recs!! hope that you enjoy them, and i have several others in my bookmarks!! i've also written some if you haven't checked those out, but!! happy reading :) thank you for the ask!

[uboat53]

In light of the election, a word to those who voted for Trump.

I'll admit, I've run out of sympathy. It's been eight years of him being overwhelmingly in the public limelight and he was president for four of those. You all know who he is now and you still voted for him.

And I get it, you'll claim that you voted for him for "the economy" and that you don't support all of the ways in which he's a terrible human being, but I have a hard time believing that considering that the average Trump voter doesn't actually even know what Trump's economic policy will be. Look, America had a decent economy under Trump the first time, not because of anything he did, but because he inherited a decent economy from Obama and spent all his time doing petty things like the Muslim ban rather than screwing up the economy. Don't believe me? Find any graph you like of the US economy and show me where his policies changed anything dramatically from the pre-Trump trend (at least, before he completely screwed up the pandemic).

And, look, if he'd just been promising vague, back to normal-type things, I might believe you that it was the economy, but he hasn't. Since the start of his campaign he's been promising to implement massive tariffs on all imports; something he can do, by the way, without Congressional approval. Tariff, by the way, is another word for tax; he's going to add a 10% (and more!) tax to every single thing that the US imports, and we import a lot. Inflation, by the way, has been back down to reasonable levels for months, this is the type of thing that would cause it to spike back up again.

So, yeah, I don't believe you that you voted for him because you were very concerned about the economy; if you were very concerned about the economy you would know all of that already. No, you didn't vote for him "in spite of" the racism and the lawbreaking and the bigotry, you voted for him because of it. The economy was just a fig leaf.

And if that strikes you the wrong way, if you think I'm wrong about that, if you think I'm judging you in bad faith, sit for a minute with that feeling. Ask yourself, why did you vote for a racist? Why did you vote for a criminal? Because you did. Whatever reason you tell yourself you did it for, you still did it. And millions of people around the country and around the world are going to suffer for it.

And, if the economy, as just about every economist predicts, crashes under the weight of Trump's tariffs and other terrible economic polices, I'll admit that my reaction to your shock will probably not be what you'd like either. As I said, I'm out of sympathy after eight years. You voted for a criminal and a bigot in exchange for a "good economy" and the most likely result is that you will still not get it.

I hope that all of the women who will die because they're unable to access abortion care find peace and that their families will too. I hope that all of the immigrants who are deported and the communities they're ripped from are able to heal. I hope that all the gay and trans people who will be attacked and denied support by their own government find what help they need. I hope that all of the Jews and ethnic minorities who are murdered all over the country by white supremacists emboldened by Trump are able to find peace as well. I hope that all of these people are able to survive the economic shockwaves that are coming.

As for you, I'll admit, as unsympathetic as I am generally, I still have my humanity and that leaves me with at least a small bit of hope for you. I hope that you one day discover the humanity to, even if your assumptions about the economy were somehow correct, risk a little bit of what you have to prevent the suffering of others. I hope that you aren't one of the many people devastated by the economic policies you've voted for. I hope that you eventually realize what you've done. I hope that you'll take responsibility for what you've unleashed and work to combat the bigotry and crime that is coming. Ultimately, though, I hope, when you do realize everything that's happened and everything is said and done, that you can forgive yourself.

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Do you honestly, genuinely, and truly believe that anything regarding the genocide in Palestine will get better regardless of who's elected into office in November? I'm not trying to sound bitchy or rude, I'm genuinely wondering. There is not a single politician on the ticket that I trust to help. What is your plan?

Nope. No one on the ballot currently will result in a positive change for Palestine. That much is true and I accept that. I do not however accept that this means I must vote for a genocidal humanoid. I’m not casting anything but a throwaway vote for the presidential ballot this election, unless Biden is actually replaced with someone competent but he’s digging his heels in too hard for it to be likely. I’m going to vote blue on the other seats on this ticket so when trump inevitably wins he won’t get to do as much as he wants. It’s more important to have a blue Congress and senate this year because, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if it’s actually trump v. Biden, trump is going to win this election and it’s not even going to be close. Even with trump lying and choosing the WORST possible vp that even his supporters largely despise, trump is going to landslide Biden because Biden has done nothing but lie, break promises, commit genocide, and now he can’t even form coherent thoughts or debate with the easiest to debate clown on the planet. Democrat voters see how Biden responds to genocide and they see how he endorses police force being used to brutalize protestors. Biden said nary a bad thing about the zionists throwing fireworks into encampments trying to hurt peaceful protestors, but he had plenty to say about the encampments. Voters see that, and he’s a fool to pull that in an election year. Very few democrat voters actually trust him enough to vote at all. Voter turnout is going to be at an all time low.

Trump is winning this election and I’ve made my peace with that. I’ve known how this was going to go for months now and Biden is just making it worse for himself. He’s evil, he’s incompetent, he’s arrogant, he’s a moron. Oh? That’s starting to sound familiar, isn’t it? Hard to tell which of them I was even describing and that’s the problem.

All I can say at this point is the next person with a sniper needs better aim and some body armor. And they may want to aim at someone other than trump to start off.

[spurgie-cousin]

I guess I don't know what to say besides, I'm sorry. I read the responses to my ask, and I don't know where some people get the assumptions they make about me. It feels like everyone is assuming I'm exactly the same as the Trump voters they know. I don't know how to convince you guys that I'm not. Maybe I should just leave.

i'm too mad and tired to spend 10 paragraphs educating you tbh. people are screaming from the rooftops why voting for Trump is harmful, regardless of your reason, on every single corner of the internet so if you really care to know, maybe take some time to educate yourself. that's your responsibility as a voter and not one of the people you harm with your choices.

"maybe I should just leave" if that's meant to make me feel bad or beg you to stay, sorry i'm not gonna. i live in the heart of Trump country, i'm so fucking tired. if you feel guilt about your choice, maybe sit with that and ask yourself why.

[cometconmain]

Read all the way to the bottom. Be forewarned that it's probably exactly as bad as you're expecting, possibly more.

Unsurprisingly, climate action, foreign aid, immigrant and refugee rights, as well as literally any human rights which fall under diversity and equity efforts have now been officially reversed, some all the way back to the Civil Rights era.

Congratulations all you single issue voters. You sure showed those pesky Democrats. Hopefully you'll recognise that you helped this happen and learn from it.

Don't give up. Don't kill yourselves. Do not comply in advance. Fight with everything you have. Vote properly at all levels of government and local elections to get people in with even a scrap of chance of fighting for you next time that chance rolls around. And outside of those times, work with your communities to fight these people every step of the way. Work to educate people who fall for Republican lies because they don't know any better. Work to educate yourselves. Find people who can have conversations with bigots and bring them over to our side. You don't have to show them compassion while they kick you in the face if you can't, but for gods sake make the decision to step away and ask people who can take it or don't get hit with it to step in and have those undeserved but necessary compassionate conversations.

I probably didn't (by the standards of those my rhetoric was hurting) deserve to be talked to kindly when people who deradicalised me throughout my life pulled me aside to teach me. But here I am now, changed and better and trying to continue improving. It's possible. You just have to be strategic about it and find people who can do that for you (if you'll get kicked in the face too much/outright be in danger trying to talk to people who have been radicalised to the point of wanting your rights stripped away.)

We have to stop taking a one-size-fits-all-and-if-you're-not-educated-and-perfect-fuck-you approach. It's giving the bigots more power and more bodies. Bring them over to us or they'll keep backing the fascists all the way to the point where they die next but by the time they realise it'll be too late for everyone.

Please. If you count yourself as an activist I am BEGGING you to value your emotions and your pain without letting them sabotage more delicate operations toward surgically removing bigotry. Writing everyone off (for anything short of actually killing people; if they've moved to killing people as individuals obviously stay the fuck away from them; they're too dangerous) is getting us nowhere except radicalising people (and us) further.

I'm not asking you to be absolute pacifists or to turn the other cheek or to forgive people who have consistently caused you harm. I'm asking you to recognise reality is fucked and unfair and people are complicated and the only way to reach them is to send people in they won't attack, let those people do the work, and then don't undermine it in a quest to make others suffer. It's not fair. They shouldn't get off Scott free for what they did.

But you need to think longterm and about everyone as a whole who are losing their rights because activists were so busy being enraged at all the injustice that they forgot to actually fight it.

I'm sorry, but unless you're ready to sacrifice massive swathes of the population in a likely doomed violent revolution against one of the most powerful militaries in the world, the only way you can affect change is by chipping away at your system from the inside. By actually addressing what causes bigotry. No, it's not 'evil.' It's ignorance. It really is. And yes it's fucked up and unfair that you should have to do all the work they demand you do while they do nothing, but it's the only way to teach them.

If people can reach the poster child of the KKK, you can reach your shitty neighbour who thinks we shouldn't kill the gays but imprisoning them for acting on those foul urges is for the good of society. Or the other neighbour who thinks gays are fine but trans people are mentally ill and should be institutionalised and 'corrected' for their own good. Or the dog groomer who has a disabled son and is totally down with disabled rights and thinks trans people are mostly ok but thinks climate change is a hoax and trans people shouldn't compete in the Olympics and segregating the races would be fairer actually because black people 'have a scientific advantage.'

You can reach those people or at least put effort into finding someone who can without being kicked in the face if you understandably don't want to expose yourself to those 'opinions.' And that's how we undermine fascism and make a better world. It's not about letting them do whatever they want while handling them with kid gloves. It's about wading through the muck and wearing them down with reality and compassion until they learn enough to start seeing others as human and then keep building on top of that until they grow up and develop the decency their lack of education and constant exposure to bigoted views has prevented them developing.

This isn't giving in. It's strategy. It's acknowledging they're fucked up and then actually deconstructing what made them that way and rebuilding them into a better person who does care that their 'opinions' may not actually be opinions but bigotry wrapped in excuses. That requires education, not cancel culture as we've turned it into. A scalpel, not a sledgehammer. No one like that has ever learned from being yelled at. They learn from receiving compassion they probably don't deserve but do require in order to learn. It sucks and it's unfair but it's reality.

We have to bring as many people with us as possible at our class level to fight those at the top who are watching and laughing as we kill each other. That's the only way we're ever going to beat this.