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yanderestarangel · 1 year

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𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐊𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐌𝐊1 | ☆ 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐈𝐓 𝐁𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐋 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌? ☆

⸺ TW: daddykink,sizekink, sub!reader, blowjob, v!sex, gunkink, bdsm, exhibitionism, voyeurism, afab anatomy, sex without a condom, porn plot, anal sex, use of vibrator, use of plugs, sex toys, no pronouns used other than " you."

ღ ୭·࣭࣪̇˖ Comments and reblogs are welcome <3 Do you want to make me a request? read my pinned post.

⸺ 𝐁𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐍

You two have a channel in PH with a considerable audience, you two are also dating, which means he won't allow you to have any collaborations with other porn channels.

You record POV videos! with you being the main attraction.

— Blowjob videos, with your mouth wrapped around his dick, Bi Han loves recording your face.

Bi Han is a HARD!DOM the few times you make videos with you on top of him, he likes being on top of you more but the few times you ride his dick, Bi Han makes a point of focusing the camera on your impaled pussy without a condom on his dick, even if it's dirty with cum, you'll keep riding it, he won't mind getting the best angle the first few times, for Bi Han you two can fuck several times until you get the perfect video - the perfect excuse for him to fill you up of sperm. -

The POV videos are always with you underneath him, always with Bi Han making you a submissive mess full of cum, smearing your belly, breasts, pussy and face, he wants to capture every moan, sigh and tremor of your body, so does he is bigger than you, which awakens a wilder and more primitive desire in him to make you even more submissive - he easily carries you around - and this also applies to porn videos, with Bi Han using his strength to lift you up and fuck you, showing your little pussy full and tight due to the jets of cum he threw inside you. You may be a shaking mess but he won't stop until he's satisfied. His voice is also successful - even though he has never shown his face, he doesn't worry about covering it either, leaking out sometimes, but he doesn't give a fuck - as it has a deep timbre, the grand master's moans excite anyone who sees it your spicy videos, especially because of the names he calls you and the things he says in the video.

"-Beg for it"

"-Kitty, look at me. Do you know that you're the best boy/girl?"

"-You look so pretty on your knees worshiping me, where you're supposed to be"

"-You like that, don't you? Of course you do."

"-Say my name little hoe."

"-Very good. Lower now, yes suck it little slut."

"-Not so hard now are you little one? Crying already like the dumb little baby you are."

"-God, you're beautiful like this ‐ on you knees covered in drool and dripping wet."

⸺ 𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐒 𝐕𝐑𝐁𝐀𝐃𝐀

It all started with a fetish for the two of you to record the sex you were having, mainly because Tomas was/is very busy as a Lin Kuei ninja. But then you decided to just post it and it went viral in less than 24 hours, which made Tomas almost cry with embarrassment - he turned red as a tomato - but you soon saw the monetary retention, deciding to continue sharing your intimate moment with world.

⸺ Vrbada doesn't take your PH channel very seriously, he likes to fuck you and you make money by having fun together, so he's happy with that.

He won't show up or allow you to show your face, he asks you to edit the video first, blurring any sign of your face - even studying which angle looks best so as not to show anything of you, other than your beautiful body. - Tomas is not selective like Bi Han, he likes to give you pleasure, especially doing oral, his tongue in your pussy, he loves that more than anything in life, if he could he would live between your thighs, that is, you Record his mouth sucking you and ministering to your clitoris, while he moaned and placed chaste kisses on your soft folds, quietly asking if you were okay, it would be slow, beautiful and calm sex.

Vrbada records the two of you mostly fucking in the dim light of the room, you riding on top of his dick, his hands exploring your bodysuit, your breasts bouncing as he pushed lightly, holding the camera with his other hand as he saw how much fun you were having on top of him.

Your audience is also considerable, as you two rarely post, but whenever you do it's a success, especially the riding on Tomas' aching cock that you do.

"-Please more..."

"-But I want to cum hmm... Fuck, I love your p-pussy my sweetheart."

"-Such a tight, eager pussy."

"-Take it all. Take every inch of my cock, please just take it all, like a good little slut."

"-Fucking hell, I'm going to cum I'm going to cum, please cum with me."

"-I'm going to make you cum so hard. I want you to feel every inch of me."

"-I... I can't take it anymore... I'm going to cum."

⸺ 𝐒𝐘𝐙𝐎𝐓𝐇

Syzoth has always had hidden desires, repressed for years and one of them was to fuck you and post it for everyone to see, so the idea came from him, for some reason he loves to have control in that sense, he records you, every inch of your body totally exposed to he is the camera roll - he also has unusual fetishes - It all started one night, he explained to you how he wanted to record you and post it he wanted to show everyone how much he could give you pleasure and how much he loved you, how much he could adore your body.

⸺ So it all started there, soon you opened an onlyfans and a channel on PH with Syzoth fucking your pussy, he liked to tie you up with red ropes or blindfold you in the videos leaving you at his mercy. He would also use toys, vibrators, dildos, nipple squeezers, even body oil on you, - even gun play sometimes - but his favorite was recording a video with you completely at his mercy, with your hands tied behind your back, your ass and pussy totally vulnerable, you were a quivering mess as he recorded you doggy style, overstimulated with your clit pulsing in need of his dick. He will fuck you from every possible angle, even recording small underground vlogs, where you talk a little with the public live and then fuck somewhere -

Speaking of lives, he loves doing them too, he likes to capture your reactions, always being affectionate with you, giving you kisses and massaging your body, he praises you while focusing the camera on his cock filling your pussy, the ripples of each rhythm of your skin as he slammed his hips against yours, he had to hold back from cumming beyond the stimulation of the chat, everyone praised his beautiful S/O for being such a receptive slut, making Syzoth smile and lean in even more, his balls His heavy weight hit your clitoris hard, a wet sound being echoed by the live he recorded, leaving the camera in a strategic point to capture everything, while he enjoyed your pussy and your moans, he wasn't going to untie you until he filled your uterus with cum .

"-You're doing so well.

"-I'm getting close. Let me hear you scream my name.”

"-Be my good boy/girl... Ride my cock and let me fill it up to you."

"-You're mine... My obedient little slut. I'm going to make you beg for my sperm."

"-You're doing well, they love you, you know? You're so beautiful (Y/N)."

⸺ 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐆𝐄

Johnny has always loved the spotlight, regardless of what it was, so the idea of fucking you and showing everyone was tempting, but obviously, he will talk to you first, he will understand your limits and how far you want and can go.

⸺He opens a small studio in his mansion, just for the two of you, the best camera, the best lighting and most importantly, the best star... You.

Cage will love fucking you in every possible angle, he smiles roguishly at the camera seeing you surrender to his touch, talking about how well your pussy takes his dick and how beautiful you are. He's so desperate for you that he can't even maintain his dominant character, he just wants to fuck you and make you cum like the hungry animal he is - in other words, he'll be the same needy mess he is in private, unrecorded sex yours -

He wants you to appear as much as he does, especially in OF, with you moaning his name like a mantra, while he thrusts into your pussy with all his might or fucking you standing up, showing the camera your bouncy and soft breasts, holding your waist and telling him how good you are doing for him. Johnny will use everything in the videos, from characters he has played on the silver screen, to sex toys - his favorite is vibrators or anal plugs, using the vibrator on your clit while jamming his dick inside and moving the plug around. heart in your ass slowly, increasing the pleasure. He will record as many times as you can handle, but always giving you breaks to drink water or cuddle you, telling you how well you're doing and how beautiful you look - even if you're a shaky mess from the orgasms he caused -

- He also uses his nose... Maybe you feel it... -

He also loves reverse cowgirl, recording you desperate for his cock in the reflection of the large mirror in Cage's room, while he showed you two's faces of pleasure in the video, while he threw his head back, letting you take control of the riding his dick, while he demands to be called "Daddy" or "Daddy Johnny" slapping you hard on the ass.

"-Fuck, boy/girl... You're so provocative riding me like that, desperate for my cock."

"-Such a tight little pussy you have, my dear... Fuck I swear I'm going to destroy you with my dick."

"-You have no idea what you do to me (Y/N), I'm going to cum and fill you up, like the greedy little slut you are."

"-Harder, put that pussy to milk Daddy's cock, yes, just like that, damn it, I love you so much."

©YANDERESTARANGEL 2023

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decolonize-the-everything · 9 months

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i was thinking about your whiteness post, and i wanna add how the idea of whiteness has lead to an almost bastardized and commercialized version of christianity

i don't celebrate christmas as a muslim because it's not my religious holiday to celebrate, but the amount of times people have said "you should still celebrate it! christmas is not religious holiday anymore!" is wild. like, that's your saviour? wdym christmas isn't a religious holiday???

it's not like this with other christian dominions, so i find it insane that the countries that scream about jesus all the time also treats his 'birthday' (there's so much debate on his date of birth) is just another holiday. the same thing for easter and i don't hear a word about lent either.

this probably isn't a new thought, but given that it's been another season of peoples pity because i don't celebrate christmas, its been on my mind.

anywho, i hope you're having a wonderful day!! <333

I 100% agree

I think much like a government, Christianity in the West has been co-opted by white supremacists.

I have a whole theory and special interest about it so let me soap box for a second.

Doing research even on the Bible the last few months and the KJV print is where that becomes obvious to me. Some of the wording changed to make obedience and subservience to the king a virtue. It linked holiness to serving someone other than God or yourself.

And that's not to say it didn't have issues before that or that the KJV is the sole cause (it is one of the most popular versions tho). But rather an observable point in history where we can see the Bible being wielded as a tool to make the masses more easily controlled.

It stopped being about God and spirituality a long time ago.

Further, the guy who translated it for King James is now considered the patriarch of puritanism. And that was caused when the King repudiated papal authority and transformed the Church of Rome into a state Church of England.

Yeah. They literally colonized the church.

See also:

The main difference between the Catholic Church and the Church of England is that Anglicans do not recognize the pope as the head of the Christian faith. Instead, the head of the Church of England is the British monarch.

The puritans who showed up on Turtle Island? Those were the same extremist puritans who didn't want to share church with Catholics that the king didn't want to deal with either. They thought the church being inclusive to Catholics was a religious affront and they wanted more reforms about it.

But then

Under Charles I, Calvinist teachings were undermined and bishops became less tolerant of Puritan views and more willing to enforce the use of controversial ceremonies. New controls were placed on Puritan preaching, and some ministers were suspended or removed from their livings. Increasingly, many Puritans concluded that they had no choice but to emigrate

Every time I hear "Starbucks cups are a christians tradition" I'm reminded of puritans screeching about how being inclusive of Catholics was a personal attack on their rights.

And when I see some megachurch doing this

Or when I hear about how Christianity feels more like a cult people want you to join and less like a peace driven religion about Jesus

Or when people have experiences like yours.

...it feels so obvious that focus of Western Christianity is actually about normalizing political ideas and they lure you into that by going "look how fun our parades are" and "aren't chocolate eggs fun?"

Jesus is a Trojan horse.

It's how you end up with so many "religious" people who'd willingly die for their country but shoot their neighbor. Conversely, it's how you end up with so many non-religious people saying it's not religious at all and bring people together actually.

Because its just parades.

Right?

#asked #answered #cultural Christianity #whiteness #colonization #i love asks like these #tysm for sending it

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thepeacepigeon · 5 months

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“Woman, life, freedom.” How the women of Iran protest the hijab

(Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

In September 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested by morality police in Tehran, Iran, for refusing to wear a hijab. Hijabs have been mandatory in Iran for women since the revolution in 1979, when the Imperial State of Iran was replaced with the Islamic Republic. Only a month after the victory of the revolution, Iran's new head of state, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared: “Sin is not allowed in Islamic Cabinet ministries. Women should not appear naked in the ministries. Women are allowed only with a hijab. There is no obstacle to them working but only if they wear the hijab as prescribed by Islamic law.”

(Aristotle Saris/AP Photo)

The following day, over 15,000 Iranian women celebrated International Women’s Day, gathering in front of the prime minister’s office in Tehran in protest against the mandatory hijab. As of 1983, Parliament has since passed the Islamic Penal Code, which establishes a punishment of “up to 74 lashes for women appearing without Islamic hijab in public.” In 1996, the law was revised and replaced with “physical punishment with incarceration and fines.”

In the case of Mahsa Amini, her suspicious death in police custody sparked massive outrage across the country, prompting widespread and large-scale protests. Videos were posted and spread online of Iranian women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs, which served as a powerful way to both protest the morality police responsible for Amini’s death and reject the policy of compulsory hijab. Iranians— both men and women, peacefully protested in the streets of Tehran, and in big and small towns across the country, chanting, “Woman, life, freedom.”

(Safin Hamed/AFP/GI)

While many of these protests have been shut down or lost traction and attention outside of Iran, political activism in the name of women's equality and freedom continues to thrive in different forms. Widely recognized imprisoned female activists continue to leak statements and voice recordings online, describing and criticizing their living conditions in prison and encouraging other activists to keep working. Discussions and online meetings continue to be held in private online forums such as Twitter, Telegram, and WhatsApp. The women of Iran continue to engage in quiet civil disobedience regardless of the risks or consequences.

In 2017, five years before Mahsa Amini's death, a young woman named Vida Movahed climbed and stood on top of a utility box on one of Tehran's busiest streets. She stood, bareheaded—calmly waving her white scarf on a long stick. Her peaceful yet powerful display of defiance went viral, and photos soon circulated of other Iranian women taking off their headscarves in public. These acts of resistance contrast the violent treatment women like Mahsa Amini face at the hands of the Iranian government and police. They serve as an important example and reminder of the power the people can hold.

Kenyon, Peter. “Public Protests Are over but More Iranian Women Are Refusing to Wear the Hijab.” NPR, NPR, 20 June 2023, www.npr.org/2023/06/20/1183152677/public-protests-are-over-but-more-iranian-women-are-refusing-to-wear-the-hijab.

Bazoobandi, Sara, et al. “Hijab in Iran: From Religious to Political Symbol.” Carnegie Endowment, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 13 Oct. 2022, carnegieendowment.org/sada/88152.

Alfoneh, Ali, et al. “The End of Mandatory Hijab in Iran?” Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, 28 Feb. 2024, agsiw.org/the-end-of-mandatory-hijab-in-iran/.

Tajali, Mona. “Women’s Activism in Iran Continues, despite Street Protests Dying down in Face of State Repression.” The Conversation, 16 Nov. 2023, theconversation.com/womens-activism-in-iran-continues-despite-street-protests-dying-down-in-face-of-state-repression-213514.

Radio, CBC. “Peace Movement: The Impact of Grassroots Activism, Policy, and Culture.” Gray Group International, Gray Group International LLC, 5 Oct. 2022, www.graygroupintl.com/blog/peace-movement.

#thepeacepigeon #hijab #nonviolence #mahsa amini #peace activism #protest #human rights #womens rights #iran revolution

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mariacallous · 23 days

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I’ve been thinking about a famously orange-skinned former presenter of trashy TV programmes, who lives on a luxurious coastal estate. He has a history of racist and Islamophobic remarks, of blaming asylum seekers for bringing disease into the country and ranting about the “supercilious metropolitan elite”. He swept into a rightwing political party and refashioned it in his image, presenting himself as the antidote to politics-as-usual, whipping up culture wars and using the platform to boost his planet-sized ego.

I am, of course, describing the British former politician Robert Kilroy-Silk.

After he was sacked from his presenting job by the BBC for a crudely racist rant in the Sunday Express in 2004, he joined Ukip (the forerunner of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK), energising it and captivating the media with his culture war polemics against the EU, immigrants and “the political establishment”. His unnatural hue inspired the viral video Mr Tangerine Man. But when Ukip could no longer contain his ego, he broke away and started his own political party in 2005, Veritas (widely dubbed Vanitas), which quickly crashed and burned. Thank goodness there are no such characters on the world stage today!

I could just as well have been thinking of Silvio Berlusconi, the satsuma-tinged TV presenter and culture warrior, who, like a certain other politician, went to extreme lengths to hide his baldness. He became the demagogic, rightwing Italian prime minister, seeking (successfully) to return to power after being ejected from office, despite a long series of sexual and financial scandals and criminal charges. Like Donald Trump’s, his loyal supporters somehow managed to overlook his moral repulsiveness, childish attention-seeking and love-in with Vladimir Putin, and saw him as the saviour who would make Italy great again.

Of course, there are differences between these people, but every time one of these characters emerges, we are nonplussed by them. We react as if we’re dealing with something new, and appear to have little idea how to respond. But there are patterns to the emergence of extreme-right demagogues: patterns that repeat themselves with remarkable fidelity. By learning and understanding them, we can better defend ourselves.

I’ve spent part of my summer reading Arno Mayer, the great historian who died in 2023. His book Dynamics of Counterrevolution in Europe, 1870-1956, published in 1971, could have been written about any of the rightwing populists we face today: Trump, Farage, Viktor Orbán, Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi, the leaders of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany, the National Rally in France, the Brothers of Italy and – lately – Jair Bolsonaro and Boris Johnson.

Mayer’s descriptions of the demagogues of his period are uncannily familiar. These leaders created the impression “that they seek fundamental changes in government, society, and community”. But in reality, because they relied on the patronage of “incumbent elites” to gain power (think, today, of media moguls like Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and Paul Marshall, and various billionaire funders), they sought no major changes “in class structure and property relations”. In fact, they ensured these were shored up. “They need to revile incumbent elites and institutions without foreclosing cooperation with them.” So their project “is far more militant in rhetoric, style and conduct than in political, social and economic substance”.

For this reason, Mayer explains how rightwing populists expose and overstate the cracks in a crisis-torn society, but fail to “account for them in any coherent and systematic way”. They direct popular anger away from genuine elites and towards fictional conspiracies and minorities. They variously blame these minorities (whether it be Jews, Muslims, asylum seekers, immigrants, Black and Brown people) for the sense of inadequacy and powerlessness felt by their supporters; helping “humiliated individuals to salvage their self-esteem by attributing their predicament to a plot” and giving them immediate targets on which to vent their frustrations and hatreds.

The fake firebrands often, Mayer remarks,also issued “rampant broadsides against science” (think of the climate science denial to which almost all today’s rightwing demagogues subscribe), and against innovation, modernism and cosmopolitanism. They combined “the glorification of traditional attitudes and behaviour patterns with the charge that these are being corrupted, subverted, and defiled by conspiratorial agents and influences”. Hello JD Vance and Ron DeSantis.

The demagogues of Mayer’s period adopted a purposely “ambiguous position”, when people who might have been inspired by their claims committed acts of violence – both inflaming the attacks and distancing themselves from them. This might trigger memories of Donald Trump during the January 6 assault on the Capitol, Modi during anti-Muslim pogroms and the video Farage made after the Southport murders, which is seen by many people as bearing some responsibility for last month’s racist riots.

But there is one major difference. In Mayer’s era, the development of what he called “crisis strata” of disillusioned, angry men to whom the demagogues appealed was a result of devastating war or state collapse.The rabble-rousers were able to appeal both to angry working-class men and to anxious elites by invoking the spectre of leftwing revolution. None of these conditions pertain today in countries like our own. So how does the current batch of populists succeed? I think they are responding to a crisis caused by a different force: 45 years of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism simultaneously promises the world and snatches it away. It tells us that if you work hard enough, you too can be an alpha. But it also creates the conditions which ensure that, no matter how hard you work, you are likely to remain subordinate and exploited. It has enabled the formation of a new rentier class, that owns the essential assets and ruthlessly exploits younger and poorer people. Young men step into a world of promises – to find all the golden doors are locked, and someone else has the key.

It is in the vast gap between the promises of neoliberalism and their fulfilment that frustration, humiliation and a desire for vengeance grow: the same emotions that followed military defeat or state collapse in Mayer’s time. These impulses are then exploited by conflict entrepreneurs. Today, some of these entrepreneurs stand for office; others, using opportunities that weren’t available in previous eras, monetise the anger, making a fortune through their social media outlets.

Understanding the tradition these demagogues follow, which long predates the rise of fascism in the 20th century, should help us to develop a more effective response to them. We begin to see this in Kamala Harris’s intelligent campaign, which, in contrast to Joe Biden’s, is starting to land heavy blows on Trump and Vance,drawing attention to their creepy intrusions on people’s private lives and their attacks on fundamental freedoms. If we want to anticipate and stop rightwing authoritarian rule, we should seek to comprehend its eerie consistencies.

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jamethinks · 2 months

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Bored so heres a list of iconic thing Melinda has done (not this is a list for my fanfic so that I don’t forget lmao)

Marrying a man notorious for being ugly and anti social and creepy and proceeding to actually love him

Before she got married she did a photo shoot for a sewing pattern book and her eye makeup went viral and everyone wanted her long eyelashes

Her blue wedding was famous and reported on for the 30th anniversary of VOGUE Ostania where she graced the cover

Her wedding hairstyle was so popular it became a trend (yes it’s that deranged hairstyle Yor does but a bit bulkier)

For her 20th birthday, Donovan got her a blue hillside mansion that is like an architectural landmark that’s literally so iconic it’s under a preservation act

A movie was actually filmed there and it was one of the high grossing movies in Europe

Popularized the mini skirt in Ostania all the way back in the 50s

The first ever private jet to be owned by an Ostania was a gift she got for her 25th birthday. It was baby blue of course. Donovan got it for her because she loved to travel but found the usual methods to be a hassle. In 15 years he has bought her 3 private jets

After being harassed by the press for not having kids she told a reporter to “stay out of her vagina” and got cancelled for like 20 minutes

She was in an American movie shortly but it was successful

She owns a classic 1950 Cadillac that was custom made to blue. She got it for her 21st birthday after she got her license

Between 1954 to 1963 she was in a variety of ads for War and military recruitment. This coincided with the war between the east and west following the supposed assassination of the Prime minister and deputy prime minister of Ostania even roping poor Demetrius into it

There is series of fighter jets known as the MLD30 series when is obviously named after her. They dropped bombs that would release a blue smoke that would choke people give them terrible rashes

The tv show Berlint in Love is based on her with the original female lead being named Linda. It was based on the rumors that she was cheating on Donovan with a young attractive man who worked for the Desmonds (a young Jeeves who she was seen photographed with a lot)

Melinda love reptiles and has a bunch of exotic ones in her house most notably her massive 20+ year old 200 pound sulcata Tortoise and a yellow boa that she ended up giving away when Demetrius was born because she worried it would kill him. She also kept a Greek tortoise in Donovan’s office (the prime minister one where he had to meet with other government officials)

A video touring her house was filmed and to be released on tv after coloured tv was introduced in the US in 1954, it aired overseas and in Ostania (in black and white) but the official coloured version was re-aired in 1968 when coloured tv became available as one of the first official broadcasts which only reignited interest in her

That’s all that I’ve got baby

#spy x family #sxf #melinda desmond #her life was so good before Damian was born #literally a social icon

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gothicprep · 7 months

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so glad that AI video is here! sort of. kind of. you ever want to see a screensaver that looks like it was designed for windows 2000, where fish are flying through the air across village streets? sora can do that with one easy prompt! you ever wanna see a woman lying in bed, roll over, and watch her arm turn into the comforter? sora can do that too! it's amazing! do you ever want to see a POV of an ant's tunnel that looks like something worse than what you'd see on bbc's planet earth? sora can do that too!

i'm sure we've all seen these videos and many more at this point. the ai evangelists swear that this is a game-changing revolution in its ability to turn simple prompts into movie quality video. assuming that movie quality means a late-stage mcu movie, or madame web, or a direct to video dreamworks knockoff from the early 2000s. really? none of those things. it's not as good as any of those things. and yeah, yeah, i know, "it's going to improve", "this is the worst it's ever gonna look", "it's gonna get more realistic". but there are some who will tell you that this is the beginning of a brave new world. a whole new era! we've got a whole movement that's going to unlock creativity that's been untapped, trapped within people who have no actual talent but, um, some ideas i guess. there's a deep reservoir of those people who society has been wasting for all these years.

let's be real here. more likely, the AI is probably going to be used to much more boring ends than new great works of art when it's not being used for more nefarious ends. on the more boring side of things, you'll have people on the internet say "what if you had batman fight the straw hat pirates from one piece? that's something an ai could do!" fanfic kind of stuff. "what if goku fought superman? who would win? i'll bet ai can show us that!" another thing it can bring to life? sex tapes that you didn't make, but you're going to be starring in! get ready for the future where someone gets mad at you online, and five seconds later, you're in a bondage orgy! have fun at the bondage orgy! that's what ai promises :)

but that's not the worst of it, believe it or not. the real problem with ai is that it's going to give bad actors the ability to create international crises by ginning up phony videos. want to spark a riot in the urban center of a country you don't like? fake a video of a cop killing a kid. it'll go viral and the gas stations will be burning before the city can prove it didn't happen.

wife & i were watching the second season of tokyo vice last night while we were waiting for true detective: night country to come on, and in the premiere episode, there's a video of a sex worker being beaten to death while a gov't minister looks on. when presented with the video, he pulls the shaggy defense and just says "it wasn't me". the denial doesn't wash because the technology at the time couldn't have faked it, but in short order, we're going to be in a future where we won't be able to prove it was or wasn't him. "oh, it was ai". welp. no one will know.

the ability to circulate low-quality, unverified information has real downsides. and if anything, the decades during which i've grown up with the internet prompts me towards a lot more wariness of ai than unbridled enthusiasm. if the best case scenario for ai is what the internet did to the information environment already, we're all fucked. the speed with which things can spread and proliferate is frankly terrifying. the prompts people are using now are dumb, and the programming is not very good, but the ai evangelists are right when they say it's going to get better. and as it gets better, it's going to be more tempting to use it in ways which absolutely are negative for society. i'm sure there are cgi artists working at major studios who will be able to use these things in good ways, but i sit here and i hear people talk about "oh, the great wave of creativity is going to be unleashed by ai!" and i'm just like. what kind of future are you living in, where the technology always works out the way you want, and everyone is happy, and there are flying cars in the sky and rainbows?

#oppenheimer ending but he doesn't understand the ramifications of the nuke so he's just smiling

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beardedmrbean · 1 month

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Continuing with the crackdown against the deposed Sheikh Hasina regime, the interim government of Bangladesh on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) sent former Education and Foreign Affairs Minister Dipu Moni for four days remand. This is part of the widespread reconfiguring of the police department in a bid to instil confidence into the law enforcement departments.

Ms. Moni who became the first female Foreign Minister of Bangladesh in 2009 is being investigated for alleged involvement in a case of murder in Mohammadpur neighbourhood of Dhaka. She was arrested from the diplomatic zone of Dhaka on Monday (August 19, 2024).

For several years, Ms. Moni was the face of Bangladesh’s diplomacy and global interactions and was known to be close to Sheikh Hasina.

The administration led by Nobel laureate Prof. Mohammed Yunus also responded to growing public demand and announced that the families of those killed or injured in the anti-quota protests that led to the removal of the Awami League government on August 5, 2024 will receive financial support.

“The government has decided to set up a foundation to take care of the wounded and the families of the deceased and wounded who participated in the student-led revolution in July-August 2024,” Chief Adviser Prof. Yunus said on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) announcing the relief measure for those affected by the violence by law enforcement agencies under the Hasina-led government.

Two weeks after being sworn-in, the caretaker set up consisting of “advisers” has been grabbing headlines for the widespread action that it is pursuing for cornering the notable figures that were part of the Hasina government.

The law and order situation in the capital and nearby areas continue to remain uncertain because of the evident absence of police forces in the crowded areas. A large number of police officials are yet to report to work after they played a visible role in the violent crackdown against the protesters. This week, 73 police officers have been promoted with additional responsibilities. On Tuesday (August 20, 2024), 25 Deputy Commissioners, the chief administrative officers of the districts, were transferred. The administrative and police-related changes are expected to remain on track for the coming days.

The interim administration is under visible public pressure to take action against the Hasina-led administration’s top officials who are mostly in hiding. According to available information, at least 41 former Ministers and Deputy Ministers of the Awami League government are being investigated at the moment while the administration here has declared that Hasina and several of her top members of her law and order team would face charges of crimes against humanity.

Three cases lodged in the capital’s Jatrabari area on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) have levelled murder charges against Ms. Hasina, her sister Rehana, son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and daughter Sayma Wazed. Jatrabari and Uttara neighbourhoods of Dhaka witnessed some of the most intense protests by the students and civil society which was met with police action. Demand for action is high against the former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan who has been seen in viral social media videos inspecting video recordings of police action against the protesters.

The capital of Bangladesh is yet to fully recover from the strife that reached its peak when Ms. Hasina had to flee to India on August 5, 2024. The metro rail network, parts of which faced the brunt of the protesters as it emerged as a symbol of Hasina government, is yet to resume. Similarly portions of the elevated highway, that had made traffic within Dhaka easier is yet to be fully operational as cautionary measures remain in place.

In the meanwhile, the U.K.-based acting chairman of the opposition BNP has called upon his supporters and the media to describe Ms. Hasina as an absconder from justice. In a video message issued from London, Tarique Rahman called upon the people to avoid the “trap laid by the defeated dark forces” and said, “Do not hurt the weak, do not break the law. Let us build a new Bangladesh that will be based on non-discrimination and avoid the cycle of revenge and vengeance.”

#nunyas news #this is wild

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thoughtlessarse · 1 month

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The videos are shocking: buildings burning, horrifying violence and women weeping as they plead for help. They are - the people sharing them say - proof of a “Hindu genocide” happening in Bangladesh in the wake of the sudden fall of the country’s long-time leader, Sheikh Hasina. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson – a British far-right activist who has been criticised for making inflammatory posts during the UK riots – has got involved, sharing videos along with dark warnings. But we found that many of the videos and claims shared online are false. False claim of Hindu temple attack Bangladesh has been in the headlines for weeks: student-led protests which left more than 400 dead culminated with the government falling and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fleeing to India on 5 August. Celebrations escalated into violent unrest, with rioters targeting members of her ruling Awami League party which is made up of both Hindu and Muslim members. And while reports on the ground have found violence and looting impacted Hindu people and properties, far-right influencers in neighbouring India shared false videos and information that gave a misleading view of the events. They claimed to show communal violence against Hindus purportedly carried out by “Islamist radicals” with a violent agenda. One viral post claimed to show a temple set on fire by “Islamists in Bangladesh”. However, BBC Verify has determined that this building, identified as the Navagraha Temple in Chittagong, was undamaged by the incident which actually occurred at a nearby Awami League party office.

#bangladesh #civil unrest #foreign far-right #india #uk #false videos #misinformation #islamophobia

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qnewsau · 2 months

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Adele reckons Raygun was the 'best thing at the Olympics'

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/adele-reckons-raygun-was-the-best-thing-at-the-olympics/

Adele reckons Raygun was the 'best thing at the Olympics'

Adele has stopped a concert in Munich to discuss Australian breakdancer Raygun with her audience, telling the crowd the Aussie’s viral performance was her “favourite” Paris Olympic moment.

Rachael Gunn went global over the weekend after she got a score of zero for her routine in the first ever women’s breaking competition in Paris.

Videos and ruthless memes of Raygun, who’s also a Macquarie University lecturer, spread around the world and racked up millions of views all weekend.

During her third Munich concert over the weekend, Adele asked the crowd if they’d seen Raygun’s routine, telling them it’d made her “so, so happy”.

“I’m not saying anything, but think it’s the best thing that’s happened in the Olympics for the entire time,” she said.

“Did anyone see the breakdancing lady?

“I didn’t even know breakdancing was an Olympic sport these days. I think that’s f___ing fantastic, I really, really do.

“Aaron, my percussionist, is p***ing himself laughing just thinking about it.

Adele went on, “I can’t work out if it was a joke. But either way, it has made me very, very happy. Me and my friends have been s___tting ourselves laughing for nearly 24 hours.

“I just wanted to know if you have seen it. If you haven’t seen it, please leave the show and Google it.

“It is so f***ing funny and it’s my favourite thing that’s happened in the Olympics this whole time.”

@samyahafsaoui Going to Adele is seeing a really good comedy show with incredible live music #adeleinmunich #raygun #olympics ♬ original sound – Samya Hafsaoui

‘Raygun had a crack, good on her’

As well as Adele and Australian sports leaders, even the Prime Minister rushed to Raygun’s defence as the online commentary took off.

“Good on her and a big shout-out to her,” PM Anthony Albanese said.

“The Olympics is about people participating in sport. Raygun had a crack, good on her. She’s had a go representing our country and that’s a good thing.”

Toddlers when you say it’s nap time pic.twitter.com/jiwcIFtnUb

— LilHumansBigImpact (@BigImpactHumans) August 9, 2024

my dog on the lawn 30 seconds after i’ve finished bathing him pic.twitter.com/A5aqxIbV3H

— David Mack (@davidmackau) August 9, 2024

The head judge of the breaking competition, Martin Gilian, a.k.a MGbility, at the Paris Olympics also said the breaking and hip hop community “stands behind her”.

“She was just trying to bring something new, something original and something that represents her country. We stand with her,” he said.

“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region.

“This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.

“We have five criteria in the comparative judging system. Her competitors were just better but it doesn’t mean she did really badly. She did her best.”

Breaking will not be returning to the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

#Olympics #pop music

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ljsd · 1 year

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10 TV shows to get to know me better!

1. Doctor Who

I used to be a massive fan of this show - and do still like it, I just haven’t watched it much recently. I once made a video which went semi-viral of all the times the title of the episode was said in the episode. My favourite Doctor used to be Jon Pertwee - it probably still is. I need to watch more of the Classic stuff again, and I need to catch up on some of Capaldi and Whittaker’s eras!

2. Community

Probably my favourite comedy, especially seasons 1-3. It's just extraordinary. I love the characters and the concept episodes are always really interesting while not being pretentious. I love it. Watch it. You'll love it too.

3. The Office (US)

I'll be honest, I tried watching the original UK Office years ago and never quite 'got' it. I should also admit that I've not seen all of the US Office - I stopped watching a few episodes after Michael left and skipped ahead to the finale - I will watch the rest at some point, promise! Definitely a big 'comfort show' for me.

4. Peep Show

OK, if you're not into British comedy, this is a weird one. Especially the first couple of seasons. But it's so worth it. You'll grow to love (& pity) Mark and Jez, as you see just how comically tragic their lives can get. It peaks in season 4 for me, but it's all great. And this one links to the next one, which is...

5. Succession

I put off watching this one for ages, because I was so attached to Peep Show, and this was created by one of Peep Show's co-creators. It felt almost wrong, for some reason. Anyway, I gave in and binged the whole thing immediately after the final episode came out, because I knew that at some point I'd come across spoilers, so I may as well watch it. Obviously, it's really really good. You should watch it if you haven't already. Very intense and emotional, and occasionally a bit bonkers.

6. Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul

Yeah, I'm including these as one. I think if you watch 1 of them, you pretty much have to watch the other. Again, no spoilers. It's one heck. of a ride, though. (Also, El Camino, the sequel movie.)

7. Red Dwarf

A British sitcom set in space. It's wonderful. Well, most of it. Particularly the first 5 seasons. But it's all at least pretty good, I think.

8. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister

A British political sitcom which changes its name halfway through, because - well, because the minister becomes Prime Minister. The word which comes to mind is 'quaint', in the best possible way. It's like Dad's Army meets The Thick Of It (2 other shows which I don't have space for here but I also love!)

9. Bojack Horseman

This will make you cry with laughter and cry with sadness. It's a beautiful show about celebrity culture and mental health, through the eyes of a troubled and flawed celebrity horse. It's bizarre. And brilliant.

10. The Boys

Left this one till last because while there are some others above which are not exactly family friendly, this one really isn't. It's not for everyone. If you're particularly squeamish, maybe give it a miss. But if you're up for the gore and adult content, this show is insanely brilliant. Very much looking forward to season 4 and the upcoming spin-off.

#tv shows #television #introducing myself #doctor who #community #the office #peep show #succession #breaking bad #better call saul #red dwarf #yes minister #bojack horseman #the boys

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mediamonarchy · 1 month

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https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240820_MorningMonarchy.mp3 Download MP3 Social insecurity, boulder dash and shitpost prison + this day in history w/Ray Roseberry and our song of the day by Tunnelmental on your #MorningMonarchy for August 20, 2024. Notes/Links: Protests erupt, Chicago businesses board up as the DNC kicks off Day 1 festivities; Democratic lawmakers will gather in Chicago, Illinois, this week for the 2024 DNC. Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to formally accept her party’s nomination on Thursday. https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/democratic-national-convention-2024-dnc-august-19-2024 HarrisWalz.com Domain Drama Ducks Question of Cybersquatting Law https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/harriswalz-com-domain-drama-ducks-question-of-cybersquatting-law The Ledger: How Layoffs Are Showing Up in Music Companies’ Earnings Reports https://archive.is/6agGm Bad bosses are pushing Gen Zers and millennials to the brink https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/bad-bosses-pushing-gen-zers-184655830.html Biggest shakeup to buying and selling a home in a century starts today https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/property-and-mortgages/article-13735925/Biggest-shakeup-buying-selling-home-century-starts-today.html The death knell for broker fees! Homeowners to see BIG drop in selling costs after Realtors agree to eliminate notorious commission scheme and pay $418 million damages in landmark legal settlement https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/housing-market/article-13201833/realtors-settle-eliminate-commission.html ✂️ Big rate-cut fall? https://sherwood.news/snacks/newsletters/big-rate-cut-fall/ Video: “Most People Have NO IDEA How Bad This Really Is” – Whitney Webb’s 2025 Final WARNING (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVrWLNN-wpE Sheena Easton – “(She’s In Love) With Her Radio” (Vinyl //Audio) https://www.discogs.com/release/1799996-Sheena-Easton-Best-Kept-Secret // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1LjFr7kOoI Here’s how to find out if your Social Security number was included in last week’s massive data breach https://fortune.com/2024/08/19/social-security-number-hack-were-you-included/ Google named their GPU Adreno…and we all know what they named their browser 😐 https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Adreno Classic NES Game Is Making a Comeback After 40 Years https://gamerant.com/classic-nes-game-boulderdash-remake-40-years/ Video: Boulder Dash for NES Game Review (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3_QfShxCNk Waterworld – “Map” (Inst. // Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kf_esaJUpA Man who called for asylum hotels to burn down jailed — as it happened; Defendants sentenced as prime minister pledges no let up in efforts to prevent more disorder https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/uk-riots-live-friday-latest-news-pfjb78g0v Man who encouraged torching hotels for asylum seekers in Britain gets 3 years in prison https://apnews.com/article/british-far-right-riots-sentencing-asylum-e3248eb20ea8c2c0e719e7617bc565b9 Video: Man jailed for stirring hatred on social media (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWB2W_ADasc Alexander O’Neal – “Fake” (Vinyl // Audio) https://www.discogs.com/release/427059-Alexander-ONeal-Fake // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_O’Neal // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_(Alexander_O%27Neal_song) // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN1RYACiXNs #MorningMonarchy: August 20, 2018 – Actor Jim Carrey’s Art Goes Viral: “Our Missile, Our Crime” In Yemen https://mediamonarchy.com/20180820morningmonarchy/ #PumpUpThaVolume: August 20, 2018 ♬ The Holy Gasp & Death Valley Girls https://mediamonarchy.com/20180820pumpupthavolume/ #ThisDayInHistory/#MorningMonarchy: August 20, 2021 – The suspect, Ray Roseberry, has been live streaming the bomb threat at the Library of Congress on Facebook. He is demanding to talk to Joe Biden on the phone. (Audio) https://mediamonarchy.com/20210820morningmonarchy/ // https://vxtwitter.com/mediamonarchy/status/1428423030955380738 // https://twitter.com/...

#alternative news #cyber space war #media monarchy #Morning Monarchy #mp3 #podcast #Songs Of The Day #This Day In History #tunnelmental

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aita-blorbos · 1 year

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AITA for accidentally getting a woman killed?

Me (38M) and my friends (41M, 28M, 30M) run a detective agency which opened up a new branch in Yokohama. We were called to a local high school to deal with a bullying problem. It all went well until a viral video of a man being killed sparked a huge case that had ties to several public officials, going so far as the country's Minister of Health and the National Police Agency. The problem is the guy doing the killing (53M) had an alibi for committing harrassment in a different place so there was no way to prove he killed the man AND committed another crime at the same time.

While I was investigating at the high school where the bullying problem happened, I found out that one of the teachers (30F) may have been sitting on some information regarding the alleged killer. No matter how much I talked to her and stressed how important it was she co-operated with me, she refused to help me. Not even when I paid a house visit to her on a whim.

Unfortunately, I didn't realise I was being followed when I made the visit. A member of the National Police Force (34M) went in after me and Facetimed me from the teacher's phone. He was holding her hostage and insisted that she would be "sleeping soundly" by the time he left.

I did everything I could to get there and save her but I was too late. I found her on the floor with a single wound made by what I later found out to be an ice pick, sat next to the information that I knew she was sitting on - a yearbook from her old school, featuring alumna all connected to the first killer (53M).

But I can't help wonder, AITA since that teacher ended up dying because of me?

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

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kwiyoshi · 1 year

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彡✎ Unpacking Politics, One Meme at a Time

(Do memes (as it is popular in Malaysian politics) provide a useful way of understanding politics?)

Politics: the only arena where you'll find more plot twists, backstabbing, and unexpected surprises than a season finale of your favorite TV show.

We get it – politics can sometimes feel like a maze of jargon and complex issues. However, with the rise of meme culture and its integration into politics, could memes be used to further understand politics and its complexity? (probably).

Behind the Laughs

Before answering the main question, let me hit y'all with some nerd facts about how memes came about. A meme is a cultural informational unit that spreads by imitation. The term, which comes from the Greek word mimema (meaning "imitated"), was coined by a British biologist named Richard Dawkins in 1976 from his work titled "The Selfish Gene" (Rogers 2023). Memes come in a variety of format that ranges from videos to still images.

From LOL to Legislation

In today's day and age of the Internet, memes can be found on all sorts of social media platforms that we use on a daily basis. Whether it be viral videos or yet another funny cat or dog picture like the doge meme. Nowadays, there seems to be an ongoing trend of memes being used in politics. I'm not particularly sure how it is being used, but most of the memes I see about politics are just to poke fun at a specific person or political party.

Now for the million-dollar (or in this case ringgit) question, how did memes suddenly become a thing in the political world? The earliest instance of memes and politics I could find is from the year 2000 during a presidential debate in the United States about then-candidate George W. Bush where he mispronounced the word "internet" as "internets." Four years later, he made the same mistake during a debate with John Kerry when he said, "I hear here’s rumors on the, uh, internets that we’re going to have a draft". After the whole conundrum, the response from netizens was eventful. Thus, making Bush one of the first few political internet memes (Klein 2019).

It seems that after George W. Bush became a trending meme in politics in the United States, I guess you could say he sort of paved the way for birthing memes in politics as we know it today. As far as I know, there are a lot of memes about our politics here in Malaysia that I've come across and it gets pretty entertaining considering how our politics here are.

Meme-laysia

As someone that currently lives in Malaysia, I would say that there are a handful of memes that circulates throughout social media when it is nearing elections or when someone that is part of a political party (or one of our ministers) screws up yet again. The political scene here is quite eventful, to say the least, but that does not mean we cannot laugh about it.

One of the most popular political memes in Malaysia is during 2021 when our then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin suddenly resigned from his position after only being the Prime Minister for one-and-a-half years. As good of a plot twist as this is, Malaysians took to social media to express their confusion and reaction to this news (Lee 2021).

Here is one of the example:

Upon resigning as Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin will assume the role of interim Prime Minister until a new leader, who commands the majority, is identified (Lee 2021).

Humor and Power

Phew. We're finally getting to the most anticipated part. Do memes provide a useful way of understanding politics? My answer to that is, definitely. Based on research conducted by Kasirye (2019), it is found that political memes do have an effect on providing information about politics.

The study also reveals that political parties employ memes to promote, oppose, and criticize various political issues among the populace. Since the majority of messages are created by political parties and actors to further their objectives, memes are spread through social media to reach the targeted political groups.

Due to memes having a visual nature and their ability to grab people's attention, memes are a good foundation to start understanding politics. Thus, memes are a great method for political engagement that appeals to people's cognitive and extrasensory faculties in order to interact with them and shape their opinions. Humor and sarcasm, on the other hand, are used as persuasive strategies in this awareness-raising technique (Kasirye 2019, p. 51).

Final Thoughts and Prayers

Overall, I do think that memes play a part in politics in terms of understanding what is going on or providing useful information. Memes are funny and people like memes due to the fact that they can be on different social media platforms, whether it be in video or picture format.

References

Kasirye, F 2019, 'THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POLITICAL MEMES AS A FORM OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AMONGST MILLENNIALS IN UGANDA', Journal of Education and Social Sciences, vol. 13, issue 1, pp. 50 - 51, viewed 8 October 2023, <https://www.jesoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/KC13_032.pdf>.

Klein, O 2019, The evolution of political internet memes, Kennedy School Review, viewed 8 October 2023, <https://ksr.hkspublications.org/2019/03/11/the-evolution-of-political-internet-memes/>.

Lee, J 2021, Confused Malaysians make sense of country's political crisis through memes, Mashable, viewed 8 October 2023, <https://sea.mashable.com/culture/17175/confused-malaysians-make-sense-of-countrys-political-crisis-through-memes>.

Rogers, K n.d., meme, Britannica, viewed 7 October 2023, <https://www.britannica.com/topic/meme>.

#mda20009 #week5

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mariacallous · 11 months

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(JTA) — In synagogues, schools and ordinary streets across Europe, Jews are voicing a similar refrain: They live in a different world from the one they knew before Oct. 7.

That’s not only because Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel killed the most Jewish civilians in one day since the Holocaust. Across Europe, the rate of antisemitic incidents has fueled an atmosphere of fear and motivated some to conceal their Jewish identity.

European governments have made it a point to protect their countries’ Jews from antisemitism in recent decades. The fruits of those efforts are seen in the increased security at Jewish institutions across the continent and the continued public statements by Western leaders meant to call out and condemn hatred against Jews.

But there is a new wrinkle to that arc: a clear, tortured confusion in European governments and police departments about how to distinguish between anger against Israel and antisemitism, between the right to assemble at pro-Palestinian rallies and the crime of hate speech. The debate was punctuated on Monday by the firing of British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who made a series of divisive remarks about pro-Palestinian demonstrators last week.

A new era?

Over a month into the bloody aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israeli towns and Israel’s bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip, antisemitism is soaring far from the scene of the conflict.

France has registered over 1,000 antisemitic acts since Oct. 7, exceeding in weeks the number recorded over the past year, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. The Community Security Trust, a group that tracks antisemitism in Britain, has reported 1,205 incidents in that time frame — the highest total in a 35-day period since it began recording offenses in 1984. And in Germany, the federal agency RIAS verified 202 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7-15, up 240% from the same week last year.

The incidents run the gamut: Assaults, threats to Jews and Jewish businesses, damage to Jewish property, hate mail and online abuse.

On Nov. 4, a Jewish woman in Lyon was stabbed in the stomach at her home, while a swastika was found graffitied on her door. French prosecutors have also opened a probe into a viral video that showed a group of youths chanting on the Paris metro: “Fuck the Jews and fuck your mother, long live Palestine, we are Nazis and proud of it.”

Meanwhile, Berlin police are investigating two Molotov cocktails thrown at the Kahal Adass Jisroel synagogue, along with multiple Stars of David marked on apartment buildings. The Oct. 27 cover of the German magazine Der Spiegel, one of the most widely circulated news magazines in Europe, read “Wir Haben Angst” (“We are scared”). One of the four German Jews pictured on the cover is 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Ivar Buterfas-Frankenthal.

Marina Chernivsky is the founder and director of OFEK, a Berlin counseling center that specializes in antisemitic violence and discrimination. The group has struggled to manage a 12-fold increase in requests for psychological counseling since Oct. 7, she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In just three weeks, OFEK received 390 requests; its previous record was 370 in an entire year.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Chernivsky. “It’s just one indicator of the situation now, because it’s a very high barrier to decide to call an institution and tell the story and also ask for support. It’s not easy and many people do not do it.”

London police received reports of 657 antisemitic and 230 Islamophobic incidents between Oct.1 and Nov. 1, a significant jump in both categories. On Nov. 2, staff at London’s Wiener Holocaust Library — the world’s oldest Holocaust library and research center — found graffiti that read “Gaza” across their building’s sign.

In Italy’s capital, four Holocaust memorial plaques were found blackened with a torch and spray paint last week. The bronze blocks, called “pietre d’inciampo” or “stumbling stones” in Rome, are embedded on the sidewalk in front of apartment buildings where Jews were rounded up from the Nazi-occupied city and sent to Auschwitz in 1944. They show the names of the Jews who lived there and the dates when they were born, deported and murdered.

Milan officials are also investigating dozens of antisemitic incidents, including death threats graffitied in a hospital, a bakery and a nightclub. At a recent Milan rally, some protestors chanted, “Open the borders so we can kill the Zionists.”

Spain and Portugal have seen their share of synagogue graffiti, too. In Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the North African coast, a group of protestors gathered in front of a synagogue and burned an Israeli flag.

In the Netherlands, the number of antisemitic incidents reported to a leading Dutch-Jewish watchdog is up 818% from the monthly average of the past three years. This figure only includes interpersonal incidents, such as threats, verbal and physical abuse and direct messages, not general antisemitic statements on social media.

“We see lots of incidents at schools, where Jewish or Israeli kids are being attacked because of what’s going on in Israel and Gaza,” CIDI director Naomi Mestrum told JTA. “One kid was threatened with a knife and hit with a bottle, while the other kids were swearing, ‘kankerjood’ — in Dutch, that means ‘cancer Jew.’”

The Dutch Jewish Weekly changed its delivery packaging from transparent plastic to an anonymous white envelope after Oct. 7, according to editor-in-chief Esther Voet, because subscribers were anxious about their neighbors finding out they were Jewish. Their requests follow a pattern of fear among Jews taking measures to hide their identity in Europe, from removing or camouflaging their mezuzahs to taking off their kippahs in public and avoiding speaking Hebrew on the street. One Syrian Jewish refugee in the Netherlands told JTA he no longer sleeps in his own apartment after his window was defaced with a swastika.

Although antisemitism typically flares in Europe when there is fighting in Israel and the Palestinian territories, tracking groups in France, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands all report that European Jews are living in a new landscape.

“We’ve never seen this before, both this increase in numbers and the threatening types of incidents,” CIDI researcher and policy advisor Hans Wallage told JTA. “I also hear from the Jewish community that they’ve never experienced this before, and they’re very afraid and anxious for the future.”

The free speech debate

In the face of this crescendo, European governments have been conflicted over how to crack down on antisemitism without inhibiting free speech.

In France, Darmanin attempted to impose a blanket ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, declaring them “likely to generate disturbances to public order.” Vincent Brengarth, a lawyer for the Palestine Action Committee, called this order a “serious attack on freedom of expression.” The ban has since been overturned by France’s top administrative court, although local authorities can still block protests on a case-by-case basis.

London’s Metropolitan police have been open about their difficulty in determining which protest chants are lawful and which could incite violence. In a bulletin on Oct. 20, they discussed the popular chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which has various interpretations. Some activists say it means that Palestinians should be free of Israeli occupation, with rights and dignity equal to Israelis. Critics, including Israeli leaders and Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, say the chant calls for a Palestinian entity that has eliminated Jews and Israelis between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

“While we can envisage scenarios where chanting these words could be unlawful, such as outside a synagogue or Jewish school, or directly at a Jewish person or group intended to intimidate, it is likely that its use in a wider protest setting… would not be an offense and would not result in arrests,” said the Metropolitan police.

Meanwhile, the British government is divided. Ahead of a massive pro-Palestinian rally in London on Saturday, Suella Braverman wrote an op-ed calling the protestors “hate marchers” and accusing the police of being overly lenient with them. In a letter to senior police officers last month, the former home secretary argued that waving a Palestinian flag and chanting “From the river to the sea” should both be considered as possible criminal offenses.

Britain’s Labour party, just a few years removed from a longstanding antisemitism scandal, is similarly divided. Party leader Keir Starmer has shown a zero-tolerance policy for anything he sees as approaching hate speech against Jews. Labour parliament member Andy McDonald was suspended, pending an investigation, after the party alleged that he made “deeply offensive” comments at a rally on Oct. 29. He said in the speech: “We will not rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea, can live in peaceful liberty.”

Although Germany’s constitution protects freedom of expression, opinion and assembly, various local authorities have imposed bans on pro-Palestinian protests — including Hamburg, the second-largest city. In some places, resistance to these orders has led to clashes between protestors and riot police. Berlin’s education senator Katharina Guenther-Wuensch has allowed schools to ban the keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, along with the phrase “Free Palestine.”

Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has said he believes that protest bans are “definitely justified” to prevent “anti-Israel, aggressive and antisemitic” actions.

But some vocal opponents of the protest bans are Jews. In an open letter published in the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung and the New York-based magazine N+1, over 100 Jewish artists, writers and scholars in Germany said the suppression of pro-Palestinian rallies did not make them feel safer.

The group noted the surge in violent intimidation against German Jews and expressed fear that “the atmosphere in Germany has become more dangerous — for Jews and Muslims alike — than at any time in the nation’s recent history.” However, they denounced bans on nonviolent protest, saying these restrictions often come with brutality to immigrants and minorities and can escalate instead of preventing violence.

“As Jews, we reject this pretext for racist violence and express full solidarity with our Arab, Muslim, and particularly our Palestinian neighbors,” said the letter. “What frightens us is the prevailing atmosphere of racism and xenophobia in Germany, hand in hand with a constraining and paternalistic philo-Semitism. We reject in particular the conflation of anti-Semitism and any criticism of the state of Israel.”

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usafphantom2 · 1 year

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Argentina decrees the end of Super Étendarts

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 05/18/23 - 18:34 in Military

The Ministry of Defense of Argentina confirmed today that the Dassault Super Étendart attack jets of French origin will no longer fly, one of the few combat jets that Argentina has.

The decision concerns both the original models acquired in 1979 and the second-hand ones purchased from France in 2018.

“We had planned to recover them and were targeted by the French Ministry of Defense, which said they could not be recovered for two reasons. The seats that the English did not give up and for a series of pieces that are no longer manufactured," Taiana specified during the Argentine Armed Day. "These aircraft were in service until 2016, when the French Navy deactivated the system and with it the manufacture of its components."

It was a British diplomatic decision that really ruined the Argentine operation with the Dassault Super Étendard jets. The presence of any British equipment now prohibited in this South American country, the ejection seats ?? and the explosive cartridges ensuring their operation were at the center of many discussions. In fact, it is the English company Martin-Baker that manufactures and markets them. The idea in 2017-2018 of buying five Modernized Super Standards from the French Navy was to make up for this deficiency and end Argentine purchases on the black market.

The Super Étendards have served the Argentine Navy since 1980 and played an important role in the Falklands War. In September 2017, the national government ordered the purchase of five Super Étendard Modernisé 5s (with more advanced aircraft than those already owned), along with 10 engines, spare parts and a simulator, with the intention of bringing this aircraft back to flight. However, the purchase of 12 million euros that arrived in the country in 2019 entered a gloomy panorama due to the deficiencies exposed by the Minister of Defense.

“If a local solution is not found, another option will have to be considered,” Taiana said regarding the possibility of buying a different weapons system.

Meanwhile, the issue of defense aircraft fleets in Argentina remains pending. The Argentine Air Force today is one of the few countries in the region without supersonic capacity.

Argentine Super Étendard jets will now probably be delivered to museums or become scrap.

Tags: ARMADA - Argentine NavyMilitary AviationDassault-Breguet Etendard/Super Etendard

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work around the world of aviation.