#when someone does something polite

[feralgoblingf]

I don’t care what they say they can pry the “white person wave” out of my cold dead hands

[tanadrin]

What response would you recommend to people attacking shipping? For that matter, what response would you recommend to Hamas doing that thing they did last October, which everyone has decided didn't happen and wouldn't matter if it did? I don't think the current response is good, but the alternative being offered is literally "roll over and die."

We are so far past a reasonable response to what Hamas did in October that “well what would you have done?” feels like a question that’s in extraordinarily bad faith, whether or not you mean it that way. A policy genuinely aimed at preventing massacres like the one in October starts with not illegally occupying territory, stalling a peace process indefinitely, and persistently dehumanizing and abusing a large civilian population—by the time we’re asking “how do you respond to a group like Hamas attacking civilians” we are already in the realm of abject policy failures, because a group like Hamas only exists because of Israeli policies. An honest response would be something like “fundamentally reassess our approach to Palestine.”

But if Israel has the kind of politics, and Netanyahu was the kind of leader, capable of doing that, it’s hard to imagine things getting this bad in the first place. This is one reason it’s important to put pressure on governments like the UK and US to criticize Israel’s actions, because the push for restraint is not going to come from within Israeli politics.

[hussyknee]

If anyone has a problem with saying "rest in power" to the white man that self-immolated himself and yelled "Free Palestine" till he burned to death then I want you to block me right the fuck now. You are so morally bankrupt and brainwashed by western neoliberal identity politics that you aren't worth spitting on. There's nobody resting in more power than that kid.

[divorcedfiddleford]

it is friday my dudes (little hearts added by @tazmiilly)

[asteria7fics]

Now that I’ve sat with the election results for a little while, I’m gonna ramble about my thoughts and feelings. Please feel free to disregard this post if you are using Tumblr as an escape right now, I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled shenanigans tomorrow.

So I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that most of you goobers are not happy with the results. I’m also not particularly pleased, and frankly if you are happy then this post is not for you.

When Trump was elected for the first time in 2016 I was in my last semester of college. It was my first presidential election that I got to vote in. I had really, truly believed that there was no way my country would elect that man. Then I stayed up all night watching the results come in. I sat in my childhood bedroom, sick to my stomach, as reality sank in. They really were gonna elect that man.

It really, truly felt like the end of the world.

I drove to class the next day, and instead of having our lesson we sat and talked through our fears. It didn’t change the outcome of the election, and it certainly didn’t change what came from it in the following four years, but in the moment it helped. A lot.

In the following weeks I talked about it even more. I argued with family members on Facebook, and then discussed the impending fractures those arguments caused with other family members. I comforted my LGBTQA+ friends who feared for their right to peacefully exist as they were. I listened to my BIPOC friends whose fears were often otherwise falling on deaf ears in our community.

And now we’re here again. Eight years later, we’re being asked to look down the barrel of the same gun.

When he was elected in 2016 I was shocked. This year, I am not surprised at all. It’s a sad reality, but the U.S. is and has been going through some serious growing pains for decades. Before many of us even set foot in a voting booth.

It doesn’t feel like the end of the world this time, but that doesn’t mean things are always going to feel okay.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to be freaked out and concerned for the place you call home. It’s okay to have anxiety about what the next four years is going to look like for us, and especially those of us that do not fit into a very specific, very narrow box of existence.

The best thing you can do is share those fears. Lean on the communities that do accept you. Find the people that understand your concerns or are willing to hear them if they don’t. Protect your peace and stay safe, but open yourself to the people that you can trust. It might not change anything about the outcome of this election, but I promise you that it helps. A lot.

I am an inherently cynical person, so I understand the inclination to give up. To say fuck it, fuck this country that wants so badly to burn itself from the inside out. Fuck giving a shit ever again, when giving a shit has led to disappointment anyway. But I’m telling you right now, that’s exactly what they want. They want the opposition to give up. They want those of us that do not fit into that box to contort ourselves to fit, or to disappear entirely.

Merely existing in the face of oppression is rebellion. Rebellion is powerful. YOU are powerful, and you have every right to live a peaceful, joyful life. Never fucking forget that.

I’m posting the link for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline again tonight because I want you all to know how serious I am about this. There is ALWAYS a light at the end of the tunnel. Talk to people you trust. Hold onto hope, it’s the greatest power humanity has.

It’s going to be okay.

[rxttenfish]

while aaravi remains firmly within "yeah miranda has a difficult personality and isn't very easy to get along with + has many rough edges which are slowly being worked on but still going to be an issue" after having been very much so within the camp that miranda is a Vexing Bitch upon first contact/getting to know her, she DOES go from "miranda is unpredictable and dangerous as a merfolk and large macropredator and her emotions are inscrutable and random" to "merfolk aren't very hard to understand or predict and it's very easy to stay on the safe side if you keep basic rules in mind and don't freak out the second something unexpected happens"

[crystalpallette]

ally found someone who looked like her and then they kissed. hashtag yuri wins or... something

[onnahu]

Maybe it's only me, but the word 'serenely' does not make me feel seren.

Like, when I see a sentence 'he smiled serenely' i can picture it - a peaceful smile, clear face and all, but also I FEEL HOW THAT MAN IS LOSING HIS SHIT UNDER THERE. Someone doing something serenely? For me it gives the context of absolute panic barely conseled.

[silusvesuius]

my nelvas and moraak thought crumblets

[thesummerstorms]

*Arsinoë de Riva has been succinctly explaining that the Crows took her from the Circle/Templars with perhaps a bit more admiration/respect than is called for given that there was an exchange of coin involved for her life and then she was immediately bartered between houses in exchange for a gambling debt*

Davrin (disapproving): So the Crows whisk you away and... what. Immediately start teaching the kidnapped ten year old to stab people?

Arsinoë, unruffled: Twelve year old. I was a late starter. But, no, actually, my mother taught me to stab people first. Didn't have much practice, but the intent was there. Helped with the late start.

Davrin: Wait...

Arsinoë: Apostates, remember? And she'd been one a lot longer than me, obviously. She always told me growing up that a Templar would never hesitate to Smite you, but most of the time they weren't going to expect a mage to go for a knife.

Lucanis: Amateurs.

Arsinoë, with perhaps just a touch of side eye: And good thing, too. I'm just as glad they didn't have your expertise.

Davrin: And your mother told you this theory when you were...?

Arsinoë: Dunno. Templars took me at eight, and I'd definitely been practicing before then, but I don't really remember details by now. Ma was always a pragmatist though.

Harding, who has been silently sitting in the corner with a cup of tea listening to this conversation unspool (silently, to herself): What the fuck.

[here-there-were-dragons]

i have to wonder what super hardcore militant vegans think should be done about obligate carnivore animals, because in all my painfully-rapidly-approaching-30-years i've literally never actually seen anyone give a clear consistent much less halfway feasible answer on that

[unproduciblesmackdown]

among the boundless billions zaniness like laugh track as it definitely has that moment of expressing "rolling my eyes as The Left makes a kerfuffle of Acting like they have a stance as a veneer over the true belief that [xyz] is cool & chill actually" like what, approximate 0.000% chance wendy isn't, as usual, given the Objective Stance of "yeah yeah ohh we are cancelling involved parties talking about how we Don't watch this But. we all love this damn epic movie & already have it memorized so shut the fuck up, kids today" like. don't wanna really delve into how much billions thinks taylor or anyone is "really" trans / nonbinary like not too much benefit of the doubt in this material including what does provide info abt that specifically

& the general like [head in hands. what do you think any of this could possibly be about (you're the one that made your show at all about Power)] of "yes, it's bad/wrong to be someone that someone has done something to / victim of something" like that to be anti misogyny All Women Must Be Epic Winners b/c there's something to be proved: that they don't Deserve to be victims (of misogyny), not taken as a Given. while when we see some epic winner men stepping on other men (who need not all be guaranteed Winners so as to say misogyny is wrong), that's often Good, well beyond any assumption that various forms of basic disrespect / violation / patterns of emergent/entrenched power difference as Bad (for being things done to people, not for there being people they're being done to), & generally billions has to take an extra step when ppl get shitted on & tell us the Specific Cases when it was undeserved actually & someone was being mean to a specific person who didn't deserve that. & the specific cases when hey guess it wasn't that bad(tm) or when hey It's Okay that you're someone something was done to, in this case. & tell us what we were supposed to know all along like when someone who something was being done to (wrong Of Them, whether b/c they inherently deserve it no matter what, &/or b/c they failed to be someone who could make it Impossible to do anything to them, which, how do you do that besides being The Authority / Superior yourself, exactly? nonrhetorically? what if the in group vs out group / fascism / authoritarianism protected Me?) was actually being treated Too Well b/c ah well the abuse meant you were getting any attention, maybe it meant you were claimed as any superior's property, maybe it meant you weren't Already disposed of, as all Losers were in the end, You're Welcome.

obviously referring to winston where it's spelled out all the abuse towards him was deserved, & More than he deserved in the case of rian having more access & taking advantage of that, all for billions' enjoying its own sendoff there of, again, maximizing violation & violence short of [real violence is physical & leaves bruises / draws blood / Literally kills] which would be distasteful in general But doesn't it make wags look like the winner & winston the loser is that the former's completely unrelated completely impersonal ego blow gets way amplified taken out on winston, the most vulnerable recurring character when spyros as [first & ultimate Everyone Hates Him role] is more entrenched in there & billions still magnanimously pities tuk, as it does winston too, just not quite as much. again that like completely surface level realized power fantasy of forcing the mirror up to the Inferior so they're like nooo my inferiorityyyy & in doing so like, the projection in that lmao, we get it re: the valuing of & need(tm) for such Power Tripping & Reaffirming My Superiority & My Ego Restored; Everyone Claps like good god. & then for all ben & tuk are the slightly softer Two Too Nice Boys duo to the rian & winston quant duo, also like too nice i guess but not as much, ben is in charge of tuk but Any instance of rian being in charge of winston outstrips them in that "yay interpersonal abuse" dynamic, like then in the end billions may be like "yeah it's possible to be mean to them unlike how being mean to winston is actually Nice b/c he deserves everything he gets, we only vicariously enjoy it vs Feeling Bad for tuk & ben sometimes (still magnanimously & it's Not That Bad / just goofin)" like ben & tuk still Fail by not being people it's impossible to do anything to. & not Exceptions who anyone is really being Too Mean to. like if they were women, in which case, no problem surely with a "positive" kind of victim blaming where there is something Inherent that Will be victimized so hey how about to cancel that out there's this special Paternal Protection you Need always, Or Else? :) but instead they are men who are asian & is ben gay & w/tuk & winston nobody mentions glasses or fatness but billions doesn't really do much or very in depth textual mentioning of Anything, even w/nonzero mention that there may be gender & race in this world. a gay man, once. no disability. we just Know who are the inferiors who deserve it when they're treated inferiorly, or if they don't, they start deserving it when they fail to stop/avoid it, but if you start mentioning the factors behind who we all totally agree is inferior like whoa nobody was Saying any of that? being the real agent of oppression on the basis of the factors only You spelled out, much? nonbinary? i never say anything about the Gender Binary when i'm subscribing to it, sounds like You've created & enforced it. obfuscation & deflection onto [so Just Normal nobody has to label, explain, or argue it] couldn't serve a purpose & protect the existing power differences as they are. maybe You're the problem? perhaps you brought it upon yourself & now you're causing too much trouble standing up for yourself while everyone else's criticism is laser focused on you as the prior & continuing negative actions done to you are taken as a given / unquestioned / covertly protected to overtly encouraged?

anyway so wild if the Completely Normal(tm) Victim Blaming is uncritically recreated & oft embraced for "if you're watching this & don't wish you were axe / find him appealing" [billions as a sequence of vicarious power trips] purposes in this series....but a bit wild considering like this is your multiseason show that wasn't just purporting to be those power trips for [enough demographic & apparently specific personal tastes overlap w/creators] & was at all purporting to question the matters of power at play in the material, or yknow, at least to not be completely superficial material while said material is textually & thematically all about power difference being leveraged, how, the consequences, & so on. thus i will have to intermittently talk about it forever like this like lord unbelievable. & the funny little & sometimes less funny less little characters it has trapped in there so that those of us who were never meant to be in the audience can be cursed with this knowledge. like i have some feedback. "imagine not victim blaming" & "imagine adjusting your perspective can go beyond superficial layers added to politely defer to some other ppl while they're present but really like cmon do they deserve that. am i not just saying what we're allll thinking"

[filthforfriends]

I know that we mustn't judge people by the meme pages they follow but couldn't help feel a little weird about damiano following a meme page making misogynistic and fatphobic jokes some of them even homophobic... I usually dont go through anyone's following list but i was trying to find the page of a Japanese artist that Damiano used to share posts onto his story from, a few years ago. I stumbled upon this meme page instead.

No, no. In this house we absolutely judge people by the meme pages they follow. Especially on their public, professionally curated, extremely popular insta.

Anon, I was fully ready to go spelunking for you. I scrolled to the very bottom to see what garbage he liked at age 16 which was totally unnecessary. Because he just recently followed ravidememe! Who posts some stuff like this:

But a whole lot of mainstream misogynistic, toxic, and woefully unoriginal shit like this:

And occasionally something truly abhorrent like a Napalm joke.

Apologies for the google translate. The page is Italian so I’m sure I’m missing a lot of problematic cultural references too. But this one I got:

“Milanese women” = women from Milan. Damiano’s ex of 6 years is from Milan and moved to Rome to be with him.

P.S. I will only respond to claims that this is solely the translations fault if you can give me a thorough explanation for each instance.

[c0rpseductor]

you know im about ready to write an educational post for dragon age fans explaining the difference between keyword search and tagging and also how rude it is to get snotty with strangers who are just idly talking about their own personal opinions bc it is consistently This Fandom where total strangers see posts of mine that are clearly just me talking to myself and decide to get on my case

[lemonduckisnowawake]

Me, today: I will not get angry about people slandering Jesus. I will not lose my temper seeing yet another post throwing His character in the garbage as some politically woke or politically conservative people pleaser. I will not stab my hand with a fork when I see people poking fun at his friendships as homoerotic - *sees a post like that and slowly steps out of the internet*

No seriously. I am shaking the screen and BEGGING people to remember that even though Western Christian traditionalism has deep, *deep* wrongs, There Are Literal People Dying And Being Tortured Because Of Their Faith In Christ In The Modern World. And the way I see people making light of faith and outright mocking it or "dumbing it down" to appeal to their own moral worldview is sometimes kind of painful

[lizzerswillpoststuffmethinks]

I'm so eepy RAAAAHHH