#welp can't have everything

[brsb4hls]

Thoughts on Sylvie's possible ending and why I don't think it makes sense narrativly to have her end up on her branch by herself.

Mainly because it would be redundant. (The fact that it would be a sad ending of sorts wouldn't stop anyone, shows love to pull that shit for 'emotional impact' or whatever).

But: We've seen her on the timeline, alone, pondering her choices with blues-y background music twice already!

The first time after she left the tva after helping to fight Dox, and the second time after she left the bar.

And both times it was about the same dilemma.

Sylvie's life on her branch is not bad per se. She lives uneventfully, which is what she craved after a life of hiding in apocalypses.

She's sustaining herself, she makes her own choices and she builts connections (to Jack, the barkeeper, the record shop owner).

From the outside that looks like a good life.

But Sylvie is unhappy.

Because someone is missing.

And that someone doesn't fit into her life at the moment and vice versa.

Sylvie's dilemma is that she still has a fundamentally different way of seeing things, then Loki.

Loki's sense of responsibility is tied to control and tactics, Sylvie's is about helping people when it's needed, but without interfering otherwise.

And she is still caught between her beliefs and missing Loki.

Sylvie is all about freedom of choice and freedom in general. (The tva took people's choice away in the first place, so she sees that part differently then Loki, who thinks they should be able to chose between their time line lives and the tva).

And she cannot arrange herself with supporting the tva as an oppressive institution just to be with Loki.

Sylvie hoped for Loki to 'chose' her over the system, after he suggested building a life with her in the void ('why don't we figure it out together?') and he didn't. Not at that time.

She is hurt by that decision and emotionally closes herself off, but let's herself be dragged back when people are in danger.

And she challenges Loki's choice, but he doesn't react the way she wants.

'Do you care about anything but the tva?'

Loki has the same conflict. He wants to stay with the people he already formed connections with and take responsibility for potential threats (that's not erased by him admitting that he does not want to be alone).

But he also wants Sylvie there.

He seeks her out, he asks her to stay, he asks her to help.

And in the pie conversation scene he shows his frustration over her decision.

The scene does not lead to a full resolution. So when Sylvie confronts him at the bar, he does not include her in his confession of not wanting to be alone, because he most likely considers it pointless. That's when Sylvie gets up and leaves, because she is too hurt to deal with it.

Sylvie and Loki are constantly circling each other, without truely approaching the other one.

If the show does not resolve that issue and just puts Sylvie on the time line again, with a bitter sweet ending where she's 'free but at what cost?' it would be redundant and undatisfying.

We saw that already and it sucks for her.

So she needs something else.

If she decides to overcome her hurt, dares to be vulnerable and works with Loki in the end, her believes have to be taken into account.

It cannot end with full control over other people's lives for her.

That interview, that points out that everything Loki says matters and that everything Sylvie says matters? That's a clear hint that her pov is just as critical to the solution as Loki's.

My initial thoughts at the beginning of season two where about Loki becoming the omnipotent ruler of the time lines and Sylvie being on her branch.

But that would be onesided.

They are both gods. They are both powerful.

There needs to be a compromise of some sorts for a satisfying ending.

At least that's what I want and hope for. Every other outcome is possibly, but it wouldn't sit right with me.

The only other 'solution' that would fit the narrative, but that I would hate personally, would be to restore Sylvie's branch, prevent her from getting taken in by the tva and have her live a normal life on Asgard.

While erasing the Sylvie we knew.

While that still wouldn't fully work, since she could still exist as a variant given the time line logic of the tva, I could see them pulling it off, because it would be fair to 'little Sylvie' so could be considered 'happy', while still being 'sad' because of erasing 'our' Sylvie.

Didn't Martin talk about 'bitter sweet'?

We'll see.

[dandyshucks]

i was considering maybe buying proper fabric this time around to make the Insp.ekta plush but Michaels doesn't sell minky so i guess that's not happening 😭😭😭

[sherlock-is-ace]

.

[enchantrum]

unrelated to anything but I can't stand the art style of One Piece and I don't understand how anyone can look at it without being vaguely grossed out. everything and everyone looks so ugly and it weirdly messes with my synesthesia in a way where I feel like the whole cast just smells of dirty old feet gdsfj;oigdhsfj;oigrsfdj;io

[the-way-astray]

on the bright side, this probably means shannon won't be able to pull a cliffhanger on us.

[c2-eh]

it's been a long time since i felt this sick

[magnoliamyrrh]

ive had these sort of things since i was a little kid. my mother tends to have them too, and others. i wish i knew how to actually hone it in or do something cool or useful with it. instead i just get these flashes of moments which end up coming around

[ficsforeren]

popping in to say hello but also to say,,, people need to be patient jxjxjsjx. you’ll finish your fics whenever you can. I feel like that nuance is lost a lot on here😭🫶🏼

hiiii ezra how are you?? I'm so sorry for the late reply, I've been trying to get away from tumblr to focus on my life for a bit. and also thank you so muchhhhh for the message 😭🫶🏼❤️

It's okay tho I feel happy when I see that there are people out there who are still excited about my fics. I just wish I have the time and the energy to write them all 😭

[witches-unruly-heart]

What's the point of getting ebooks if I can't get one dumb file to my dumb e-reader

[potatoesandsunshine]

surana will really say “alistair is my brother. i will save redcliffe for him. i will return to the circle so we can save connor for him. he is fundamentally a better person than me. he should be the hero but i can’t let him do that because he will die.” and mean every word and then recruit loghain anyway because she hates him too much to let him die either and then arrange a marriage nobody is actually happy with and a postgame world where the queen of ferelden has to sit between them at several excruciating state dinners

[witheredgardenparty]

I will never forgive a single one of you

[raiynesummers]

this is strange, i think i'm healing

[nightingale-prompts]

Nightwing gets a sidekick introducing: "Batboy"

Continuation of this post: "Danny has Bat wings"

|Next|

Dick tries to tell himself that he's better then Bruce. He's not going around taking young orphaned boys with unique abilities willy-nilly. No, he very careful. Besides this is first- well second sidekick.

He's doing a public service anyways. You can't have a kid with giant bat wings just falling from buildings. If Nightwing hadn't stepped in to stop those goons trying to catch the kid and sell him then who knows what would have happened. What if they tried to cut off his wings and turn the boy into a bloody trophy for the Bats?

There are many villains in Bludhaven who'd take the boy out or take him in. Dick already had a sinking feeling that Heartless would try his hand at killing the kid after all he targets the weak and helpless like a coward.

It was easy enough to convince the boy to be his friend. Dick did have natural charm and charisma after all. All it took was a meal from batburger and a fruit cup to get the kid to open up.

Danny (apparently his family gave him a normal name) didn't live with his family anymore due to ideological differences. That difference was that they thought he shouldn't exist anymore and wanted to turn him into an experiment. Poor kid didn't even get to finish his freshman year of school before he had to leave. He was a small town vigilante for a few months before the incident.

Dick saw an opportunity but was subtle about it. He invited the kid to live with him until he got his education. Its also totally ethical because the kid was a vigilante already.

Everything kind of went by quickly. Dick had done everything possible to hide Danny until he could come up with a plan of how to tell everyone.

True Dick didn't "need" a sidekick but come on, look at him! He's a boy with bat wings! Dick could put a little cowl on him and dress him up like Batman. I mean he's not a dog but it would be funny. The irony there, the bird-themed hero now had a bat-themed sidekick. That is the universe's way of sending a message.

After training Danny Dick learned that the kid had an endless supply of energy and ADHD that rivaled his own at that age. The kid also couldn't fly, it was actually closer to gliding which was still useful but he kind of looked like a flying squirrel when he jumped off ledges.

The term issue with taking Danny in was that Dick was still a Wayne and while he could hide the kid while he was swinging through Bludhaven, Dick Grayson could not.

Danny could hide his wings like they weren't even there whenever he wanted to look human. Which was a start, next he needed a new identity. One that wouldn't tip anyone off.

Dick needed to pull some strings without alerting Barbara or Tim. A new name was forged: "Daniel Nightingale" (Dick patted himself on the back for that one).

With that Dick was ready to let Danny out in the field. For the most part, Danny was as reliable as any Robin if not a bit crazy. Danny was way too charming for his own good but also completely feral. The public adored the domino-masked kid in his green and black costume. Danny didn't wear a cape because of his wings so he used them as a cloak.

When citizens saw them in public they'd offer the kid fruit cups and candies just to get close enough to see his wings. The people of Bludhaven were also excited to have their own version of Robin since Gotham had so many. Also, the kid was so marketable. Look at the way his wings flapped when he was excited.

Danny's or more specifically "Batboy's" presence would not go unnoticed.

Well, this can't end well.

Welp. Dick should have expected this. He couldn't even be upset. He doesn't regret anything that he's done.

Danny was still in bed, actually it was a hammock which was more comfortable for a bat. Dick wondered if he could sleep upside down. The kid was comfortable here and probably better off here than in Gotham. Once the adoption goes public however things will get complicated. Danny may end up Bludhaven's sweetheart or outcast. He'll probably end up fine...probably.

[astonmartinii]

passion for fashion | max verstappen social media au

pairing: max verstappen x fem it girl!reader

she's everything and he's just ken (in a red bull shirt)

MASTERLIST | TIPS | MY SMALL BUSINESS

vogue

liked by yourusername, maxverstappen1 and 490,233 others

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vogue: it's the start of the f1 season, you know what that means... y/n y/ln fashion season is in session

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user1: @yourusername make sure you're windows are bolted shut tongiht... you're on my rob list

user2: and mine PLEASE SPARE ME SOME OF YOUR CLOTHES

user3: her and lewis hamilton are the only real ones in that paddock

user4: the way they're still besties despite what went down in 2021 >>>

lewishamilton: me and y/n 🤝 making the paddock our runway

yourusername: someone has to make it interesting around here

lewishamilton: see @maxverstappen1 even y/n is bored of you winning everything...

maxverstappen1: womp womp

lewishamilton: womp womp ???? have some decorum

maxverstappen1: jokes on you i don't know what that means

user5: i wish i looked that good candidly

user6: at what point do we stage an intervention for max's wardrobe

user7: babe if the girlfriend effect still hasn't hit then it's terminal

user8: especially when your girlfriend is Y/N Y/LN

maxverstappen1: i'd do anything for her <3

yourusername: even wear something other than red bull merch?

maxverstappen1: let's not get too far ahead of ourselves

user9: i love them your honour

yourusername

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yourusername: max verstappen wins, water is wet

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user11: water is wet and i will be drowning myself in it tonight

user12: me after hearing the dutch national anthem one too many times

landonorris: tell him he has too many already and he should let his best friend have a go

yourusername: he said that's not possible because i don't know how to drive an f1 car

landonorris: nuh uh you can't be his best friend and his girlfriend that's not fair

maxverstappen1: welp, idk what to tell you buddy

landonorris: i feel BETRAYED

yourusername: i'm sorry i'm just that loveable lando... i see how it is

landonorris: HOW HAVE I BECOME THE VILLAIN?

user13: max terrorises them on the grid and in the paddock they maximise their joint slay to terrorise everyone in a two mile radius

user14: they slay so much i can't even be angry at it

danielricciardo: so that's why i was kicked out of the elevator

yourusername: you weren't kicked out it was your floor?

danielricciardo: why did i not make the post? I THOUGHT I MEANT MORE TO YOU

maxverstappen1: just because we both had teenage crushes on you doesn't make you special. you'd have to fight seb and jenson for real special treatment

yourusername: throw fernando and kimi in there as well.

danielricciardo: i was confident in my fighting chances, but i'll leave nando and kimi to it

maxverstappen1: pussy

danielricciardo: EXCUSE ME

yourusername: idk how we got here but don't talk to my boyf that way daniel 😔

danielricciardo: i'm blocking both of you

user15: i am so baffled

user16: IT couple for real

maxverstappen1

liked by danielricciardo, yourusername and 1,034,448 others

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maxverstappen1: clocked in for my shift as the trophy husband to the prettiest girl in the world

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user17: max verstappen why is there a whisper meme in your photo dump

user18: his ass acting like he wasn't at one of the most prestigious galas in the world

charles_leclerc: YOU got an invite and that's the best you could do

maxverstappen1: you better take that back right now y/n dressed me tonight and i look SEXY and COOL

yourusername: charles :( he looks very handsome

charles_leclerc: my bad y/n i wasn't aware that was your pick

yourusername: SAY HE'S HANDSOME CHARLES

charles_leclerc: ??? no

yourusername: wow. you really aren't a girls girl charles. i am disappointed

maxverstappen1: does our history mean nothing charles? i have no issue recreating the inchident at the next race

charles_leclerc: FINE. you look very handsome max

yourusername: more passion please

charles_leclerc: you look very handsome max!

yourusername: more! give the lestappen girlies some crumbs to feed on

charles_leclerc: YOU LOOK VERY HANDSOME

maxverstappen1: thank you 😊

user19: ignoring what ever the fuck that was ... MAX IN A SUIT WHAT THE FUCK MAX IN A SUIT

user20: y/n y/ln the woman you are

user21: so how can we implement this willingness to wear a suit into his paddock fashion

lewishamilton: you might have to waterboard him

charles_leclerc: i volunteer as tribute !

yourusername: 🤨

maxverstappen1: 🤨

f1paddockfashion

liked by user24, user25 and 11,029 others

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f1paddockfashion: max verstappen in non-red bull attire? MAX VERSTAPPEN IN NON-RED BULL ATTIRE? also y/n slaying as per.

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user24: this is - i don't know how to feel

user25: maybe the real max verstappen in non red-bull attire was the friends we made along the way

user26: i am CELEBRATING but ladies do remember it's still alpha tauri 😭😭😭

user27: please let us have this while we can

user28: it's not plastered with sponsors so we'll take it

user29: idk about you guys but i think this means y/n should be knighted for her services

user30: i actually think prying the red bull merch out of max's hands might be the hardest thing in the world

user31: call me crazy but those jeans look kinda baggy 😳

user32: omg they definitely are

user33: death to the skinny jeans? fuck it first child named after y/n

user34: can we maybe get y/n in charge of max's merch cause the shit he sells should be considered criminal

user35: for real we need babe in the board room asap

user36: fuck it get her in the red bull board room as well

user37: go all the way and get her with the f1 execs

yourusername

liked by landonorris, danielricciardo and 1,506,339 others

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yourusername: i love him even if all he wears is red bull

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user39: so ... who made the inchident shirt?

charles_leclerc: and how do i get one?

maxverstappen1: i got it made and considering you DON'T think i'm handsome you can go fuck yourself :)

charles_leclerc: GASP. that is my face you have to make me one

maxverstappen1: boooooo no i don't

charles_leclerc: can i copyright my face? i'm sending you a cease and desist

maxverstappen1: fine. but you will never look as hot as y/n in it

charles_leclerc: so you can call me ugly? @yourusername ???

yourusername: it was a compliment to me so soz

user40: the way she's fashion's IT girl and she still loves him even though his whole wardrobe should be burned

user41: real love

maxverstappen1: i love you. i wear my red bull merch to give you the runway

yourusername: sureeeee ... i love you too xx

maxverstappen1: let me live 😭😭😭

yourusername: the girls are dragging your name babe i need them to know HOW SEXY YOU ARE

maxverstappen1: i don't care how sexy they find me, as long as you love me that's all i need

yourusername: you're SO FUCKING CUTE I LOVE YOU

maxverstappen1: I LOVE YOU TOO

user42: can they chill? some people on here are lonely

maxverstappen1

liked by danielricciardo, yourusername and 1,033,461 others

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maxverstappen1: my closet looks like this, so her's can look like this :)

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user43: max verstappen i misunderstood you. i was unfamiliar with your game.

user44: he's the standard now i fear

user45: a man who wears the same three outfits so you can have the whole walk-in for your collection >>

yourusername: thank you babe. you are god's strongest soldier

maxverstappen1: i AM. that room is scary. there's too much that i don't understand. so many shoes, so many straps i can't navigate it

yourusername: that's okay baby. there's your red bull draw and that's all you need

maxverstappen1: no the people don't understand. i went in there once and i swear i ended up in narnia

yourusername: you passed out with the AC on the highest level and jimmy and sassy sat on you. you were not in narnia

maxverstappen1: oh. well...

user46: this is the closet y/n deserves the rest of that house is defo a mojo dojo casa house

user47: fighting all the trophies, helmets and framed race suits with her narnia closet

lilymunhe: may i request a trip to the narnia closet x

yourusername: omg yes! come over next time you and alex are in monaco - the boys can entertain themselves

alexalbon: what if i want a closet tour as well?

maxverstappen1: don't do it alex you'll never find your way back out

alexalbon: (i was going to strategically leave a pair of albon athletics shoes in there)

yourusername: alex i already own a pair i bought them release day!

alexalbon: OMG ... one instagram pic so my sales can go platinum?

maxverstappen1: don't try and pimp my gf out

alexalbon: ???

yourusername: max 😭 and sure alex!

fin.

note: thank you for reading soz for the long waits between posts a girl has been BUSY but i hope you've all enjoyed! happy galentines day or palentines day to all that celebrate and thanks for 4.7k!! xx

[jambalaya-enthusiast]

Could you do the crew with a surprisingly aggressive reader? Like if an altercation they tried to de-escalate resulted in them getting hit and reader kinda snaps and punches the dog shit outta the person? On some “don’t you ever touch my man/girl”

HOT STUFF— CREW MEMBERS X HOTHEADED! AGGRESIVE! READER.

warnings: none i think.

synopsis: someone makes not so nice comments and you lose ur crap. crew reactions follow.

CAPTAIN, CURLY

He is literally golden retriever ™

Curly is not an aggressive man by any means, he prefers the pacifist way out in any situation, maintaining peace and harmony.

And you were the complete opposite, always ready to pick a fight if anyone looked at you the wrong way.

Curly always tired to explain how being so hotheaded wasn't gonna be good for your health, you just never listened.

something happened at the pony express meeting room and a co-worker remarked something to curly in a tone you weren't quite fond of.

And the next thing anyone knew, you were beating the living crap out of the fella. Everyone just watched on in shock as nobody dared to stop you.

Curly came in and immediately grabbed you in his grasp, not letting you go. He was surprised as to how difficult it was to restraint you.

"y/n you really ought to stop putting yourself in such situations, not everyone has to agree with everything i say. i can't always pull you out of fires, you know that right?".

He knows that you're not the one to learn, so makes sure to keep an eye out on you more.

Thinks it's kinda endearing that you care that much about him.

He asks to join him in the gym for weightlifting. :D

CO-PILOT,JIMMY

Even though jimmy isn't the most pleasant person to be around, he too isn't too fond of altercations and confrontations.

He prefers to always safe side his way out of everything, just making sure his peace isn't compromised.

That is until you came along, always ready to hand a person their ass for saying something wrong at the wrong time.

He wouldn't admit it, but it was quite amusing to him seeing you always ready to fight someone head-on.

He was just annoyed at the consequences which followed after.

Like at the local bar where you guys were out drinking, some girl tried to approach jimmy in the wrong way and welp.

Suddenly her makeup was off and was instead replaced with a black and eye and several bruises. The police had to be called and it was a whole ass thing.

Although jimmy scolded you for being so ill-tempered, he was smiling beneath all that, that you would go to such lengths for him.

Just stop getting your ass pulled into such idiotic situations, aight? It's annoying having to visit the station all the time.

kinda proud.

NURSE, ANYA

Anya is in the medical field, empathy and level headedness is one of her strong pursuits.

She is a pacifist, like curly she prefers to deal with things in a peaceful manner.

Plus, she personally does not like arguments or fights, at all. She herself is quite timid in nature.

After knowing you, she always reminded you to keep your cool and maybe read self help books to help you control your anger.

You guys were out on a date at the park,and a fuckass decided to catcall anya, right in front of you.

Next thing everyone in the park was witnessing was the guy laying face down with some of his teeth knocked out.

While anya was glad, that you looked out for her to such an extent, she did still believe such levels of anger weren't healthy for the body and mind.

So she signed you up for anger management classes.

" y/n I'm doing this for your own sake, who knows when something drastic might happen, please do this? For me?".

Also started making you attend the meditation classes she goes to.

MECHANIC, SWANSEA

Swansea is literally too old to deal with people by beating them up.

He's just way too tired to deal with stuff like this.

Prefers to just leaving things as is, and being "whatever helps you sleep at night". If anyone pisses him off.

Prefers peace and quiet.

So you were, infact a pain in the ass for him.

He was always yelling at you to keep it together or atleast try to get a grip on yourself whenever you feel like losing your shit.

During a maintenance meeting some young lad decided to tell Swansea 'let us handle this one yeah, old man?' and his tone definitely indicated that he didn't mean it with a friendly intent.

Swansea was just gonna let it go, i mean he was infact getting old, he couldn't help it.

But what he didn't expect was you jumping out of your seat and grabbing this dude by his collar and throwing him out of the room like a freaking ragdoll.

Shocked™ what the actual fuck? Why would you beat up a guy, for his sake?

"kid i don't know what was going on in that head of yours beating that guy up like that, but okay."

will die before admitting it, but he was touched seeing you so upset that someone was being unkind to him.

Doesn't scold you.

INTERN, DAISUKE

Daisuke is young and dandy, he is new the buisness and stuff and just wants to be friends with everyone without being on anybody's bad side.

He didn't like confrontations, and was frankly afraid of arguments with anyone for that matter.

So seeing you so fearless and ready to hand a guy his teeth over trivial things was like a breath of fresh air for him.

He liked it whenever you got into fights, he would cheer you on, and was always ready to haul your ass away to avoid any consequences.

This one time you guys were fixing something in the vents in one of the smaller freighter of pony express, and Daisuke accidentally ended up unscrewing one of the vents, which caused some wires to malfunction.

And one of the co workers, decided to be extra harsh on Daisuke for some reason, yelling all sorts of things to him.

But when that guy said 'this is why pony express shouldn't hire mama's boys'. You just simply lost it.

You ended up beating the guy to a pulp and he was put on bed rest for atleast 8 months ,which resulted in a trip to the HR

but Daisuke? He was more glad and giddy than anything or anyone.

"hey..I know that you kinda got into trouble for what happened back there, but i just wanna say, that was cool as fuck. I've never had someone care about what I felt like that much. Thank you, so much."

You both are inseparable after that.

[qqueenofhades]

been seeing some responses to the many many lawsuits and other actions taken against trumpet and munkfruit that fall along the lines of "this isn't enough, it's already too late, you can't fight fascism with the law, we're all gonna die." i understand the fear, truly, but i'm curious as to your thoughts on it, as to me it seems like this sort of behavior/posting doesn't do much beyond embolden the narrative that everyone actually likes these bastards and they're too powerful to be stopped.

Welp. This is the kind of question that requires me to write a long and complex sociopolitical/critical/historical/Discourse-esque analysis that will take a while and which I am trying to do only selectively, but I'm at home on Saturday morning, I don't have anything else to do right now, and it does present me an opportunity to address some things I've been thinking about. So. We'll give it a shot.

The first thing that has struck me is that in a few short weeks, we're getting a sharp empirical disproving of two common online-leftist fallacies: one, the old "both parties are exactly the same" chestnut, and two, "the only resistance that matters is Violent Glorious Revolution" (which somehow and conveniently never happens). We had months and months of "Biden is just as bad as Trump!!!" being spread as gospel truth in online-leftist circles, and then when Harris took over, it switched just as seamlessly into "Harris is just as bad as [or even worse than] Trump!" Now, as I have said before, there were plenty of legitimate criticisms to make of Biden, particularly the Gaza policy (upon which Harris notably differed). But it's quite telling that the keyboard warriors who spent all of last year howling for The Righteous Punishment of Biden-Harris (regardless that the obvious ancillary consequence was letting Trump come to power) have either disappeared completely when it comes to dealing with the results of that rhetoric, or have switched to "everything is doomed so I guess we shouldn't bother anyway." Like. Trump is now proposing to fully ethnically cleanse Gaza and either blithely hand it over to Israel or build Jared Kushner Beachfront Resort Disneyworld, and what do we hear in protest? For the most part, crickets. These are not serious people. Their opposition is not morally consistent, and it only depends on how they can make themselves look good. I thought that Trump was somehow supposed to be magically better than Biden particularly on the Gaza issue, and that was why it was worth letting him get elected? Or something? Something!?!

I'm curious as to whether those people still legitimately think that Harris would have spent her first few weeks in office dismantling USAID, signing weekly anti-trans executive orders, unleashing ICE across the country and terrorizing immigrant communities, putting the Project 2025 guy in charge of the Office of Management and Budget, letting Elon Musk run rampant with Treasury data, nominating the likes of RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to Cabinet posts, trying to freeze all federal funding, stripping DEI initiatives, dismantle the Department of Education -- etc. etc. The thing is, as ghoulish as it is, none of this is a surprise, because it is literally what Trump and his people spent the entire presidential campaign loudly, openly, and repeatedly promising to do. However awful they were and are, they were not remotely secret about their intentions. That information was out in the open every time they opened their mouths. But too many people didn't pay attention, rationalized it away, decided that "he won't actually do that" (despite the fact that he launched a literal violent coup attempt on the Capitol the last time he was in office), or just made up their minds that Trump Will Reduce Grocery Prices and refused to listen to any information that countered that view. What do we get now? Trump laughing off the grocery-prices issue and insisting that it's "not a priority" and Musk managing to claim that the real problem is government spending, not corporate greed. Again, this was completely predictable, because y'all got willingly suckered. It was not hard to see it coming.

That said: if the Glorious Online Leftist Revolution is still coming, and by some lights we might now legitimately need it, where the fuck is it? Are they still out there banging the drum against Trump and his "let's ethnically cleanse Gaza" policy and anything else that they insisted, they swore up and down, was functionally equivalent or possibly even marginally better than Biden-Harris getting another term? No. They're either dead silent, offering weak excuses, or completely giving into "we're doomed there's no point fighting back through weak shitlib institutions that are obviously terrible and will fail" blubbering that makes no fucking sense. One, because they move the goalposts so constantly that there's not even any attempt to reckon with the last effects of their damaging bullshit, and two? As I said, where's the fucking Revolution magically coming to save us and install a perfect leftist utopia (which is never how revolutions have ever worked) and sweep away Government Tyranny? Is that only for when a Democrat is in office and you can have confidence that the government is not going to come after you in the middle of the night for talking about it? Now that there's an actual fascist in power, it's somehow too hard to resist at all, even in small, institutional, and everyday ways that are often far more effective at practically confounding the bad stuff instead of empty and useless online echo chambers, so guess we should all just give up??!

Fuck. That.

This is also why we have to talk about the catastrophic lack of information literacy and critical thinking skills in young leftist spaces. A good example is the recent migration of TikTok users to the Chinese app RedNote. It was sweet for a little while as there was cultural exchange and friendship and memes. But then, predictably, it dove hard into "ah, once again The Evil US Government Has Lied To Us and there are no problems at all in China!" I have seen posts float by on my dash that unironically claim this is the case and China is truly great and Americans should want to move there and clearly all that business about authoritarian control and mass repression was just a ruse by, again, The Evil US Government. If you are so utterly devoid of basic information literacy and research abilities that your standard of proof for "is the Chinese government repressively authoritarian and totalitarian" is "a random Chinese person on an app in a country where the Internet is viciously controlled and voicing the slightest criticism can make you disappear told me that it isn't," then for Christ's fucking sake, you need help. For one, it wasn't just the US government saying this. It was, y'know, Chinese dissidents, the entire nation of Taiwan, historians, academics, researchers, the Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang, etc etc. If your only standard for believing or supporting anything is "the opposite of what the US government thinks," then you are perfect targets for authoritarianism. Hey, a person living under an authoritarian regime who will punish them if they speak out against it told me everything was fine! Clearly there's nothing to worry about and we should want it here in America!

Come on. Come on.

This is also the case because uneducated young leftists like to unironically label themselves "communists" or "Marxist-Leninists" as if it's cool and hip and has never been involved in anything problematic in all of history, so anything that calls itself that must be supported. Shoutout to the idiot in my notes recently who reblogged a several-year-old post just to shout at me about how historical communists NEVER worked with or collaborated with fascists, because something something The Communists Were The Pure Shining Good Guys! (Uh, nobody tell them about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.) Clearly, the Chinese Communist Party is good and beneficial, end of story, no more criticism or caution needed! Obviously, yes, official American policy toward China has often been driven by basic Sinophobia, and the determination that nobody can change American hegemony or unipolarity or its ability to call the shots how it pleases. But if that is the literally only criteria you're using, then yeah. If you're so unaware that "the Chinese people are ordinary human beings" and "the Chinese government is repressive and authoritarian" are statements that can and in fact do coexist, then apparently you've missed the situation you're in right now, where "the American people are ordinary human beings" and "the American government is repressive and authoritarian" is also the case. Because online leftism is essentially devoid of a consistent moral principle and will just blithely switch up to support Bad Things as long as they're being done by governments with the correct ideological label, here we are.

Anyway. This is getting long, but the main takeaway is that the "all resistance against Trump is doomed and I guess we just gotta die :(" line is now, somehow, often coming from the same people who were constantly yelling that the only hope was a Glorious Revolution against Biden-Harris, and it is somehow even stupider. So you'll trumpet about Gloriously Overthrowing The Government all the day long as long as a Democrat is in office, but the instant a Republican gets in there instead and starts acting like an actual fascist, welp, time to just shut up and accept our doom and not even bother to struggle? Please tell me how any of that makes sense. Especially when actively confounding the Trump/Musk Axis of Evil is already working. There is also the fact that the establishment-media types are supporting this narrative for reasons of their own; witness the fact that the entire US corporate media is owned by oligarchs who hastened to bend the knee and pledge fealty to Trump 2.0. They obviously also have a reason for inculcating hopelessness in you, and that the only recourse is to shut up, accept it, and let them continue to rob you blind. Because American democracy will never matter as much as money, power, and control for the Billionaire Bros.

The point is: this is a bad-faith narrative on all sides. Whether it's coming from the online leftists in their latest head-spinningly hypocritical volte-face, the oligarch-owned corporate media that wants to feed you constant Bad News to keep you clicking and worried and distracted and unable to resist, the Trumpist power that wants people to quit making this pesky stink about all their authoritarian fascist adventures, or anyone else. There is nobody who has your best interests at heart if they are telling you that everything is doomed and the only thing to do is lie down and take it. There is no logical reason you should listen to them. Go forth and keep resisting, in whatever way presents itself. Those cumulative small actions are far more effective than any Splendid Revolution that never, ever materializes, while the people who preach it just sit back and whine about how things are so bad now so clearly they couldn't. Shut up.

It is always important. It always matters. It will make a difference.

Courage, etc.