#who was treating me like an idiot

[themildestofwriters]

Me: "Homelander is an actor."

Some bozo: "Ugh??? Are you stupid??? Homelander's a fictional character played by Antony Starr!!! Is this a joke???"

Me, staring at Homelander's page on The Boys fandom wiki:

Me: "No. I mean, Homelander is canonically an actor. He's very good at acting. Do you think he was portraying his most genuine self when he lied his ass off about the plane crash? No! He was acting.

"There is Antony Starr, the real life actor who plays Homelander, the fictional character who plays The Homelander, the fictional character's fictional all-American heroic persona which he (Homelander) displays not just on camera but when out in public.'

"His annual birthday save is not Homelander, himself, going out to rescue someone. It is Homelander playing the part of The Homelander going out to save someone as a publicity stunt."

[pat-lechem]

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas

מִי שֶׁהוֹלֵךְ לִישֹׁן עִם כְּלָבִים צָפוּי לְהִתְעוֹרֵר עִם פַּרְעוֹשִׁים

[windpuppy]

Reading posts about young Stanley just makes me realize wow there are people out there who either *are* the favorite child or never had to deal with being the bad(tm) sibling and it shows ngl

[eyes-of-nine]

I know it's completely not the point but like wtf was the plan for the xianle throne after xie lian's first ascension??? for a bunch of ppl so sure their crown prince was going to ascend and become a god they didn't really worry about a lack of a second crown prince (you know just in case) yeah sure they didn't last long enough to really have to properly think about it but like who were they going to put on the throne????? FUCKING QI RONG????? bc that would go great??!? HUHH????drought, famine, war and plague aside that kingdom was doomed from the moment xl ascended 💀💀

[spyres]

i don't really like confessions blogs because i feel like they just fuel the fire for fandom discourse but ngl i agree with pretty much everything that's been posted on the is*t one so far so i'm okay with it for now lol 👍

[syn0vial]

idk why, but this little throwaway line from beviin makes me crazy. it's so effortlessly compassionate in the face of boba's self-loathing and resigned certainty that beviin will hate him for what he's done. and like, beviin's gentle reassurance that he isn't going to "find out" anything; he'll just wait for if/when boba wants to share what happened.

beviin's genuinely such a mensch. i want to give him a hug.

[largishcat]

one reason i was never that impressed with the vikings as a child is because i learned that they thought women who died in childbirth didn’t get to go to valhalla. like what the real ass fuck are you talking about, of course women who die in childbirth go to valhalla. what is wrong with you

[fromtheseventhhell]

Saying that non-conforming female characters don't face as much misogyny as their "feminine" counterparts is so funny cause literally the misogyny in their treatment is more overt because they aren't staying "in their place" like men think they should. The disdain for women + misogynistic societal ideals are so much more blatant in male characters interacting with these women. Countless times they are, in essence, told they need to sit down, shut up, and know their place but somehow that translates into them having "masculine privilege". I can only assume that people with this take haven't actually read the books and only get their information from second-hand sources.

[threewaysdivided]

Gaza is NOT an excuse to sit out this election

I don't usually post about politics on this blog (if anything I try to avoid it since I know it can be a distressing topic) but, to be honest, the upcoming U.S. presidential election has me concerned.

This is going to be one of, if not THE most globally consequential election of our time, and I have been deeply perturbed to see people spreading sentiment that sitting this vote out (or even voting for Trump) is justified by the Democratic Party's handling of the genocide in Gaza.

I was going to write a post about why I think that's really dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric, but then U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders came out and said the same things far better so I'm going to share his video, and some key quotes:

"SOME of you are saying: "How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?" And that is a very fair question. And let me give you my best answer. AND that is that, even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right-wing friends are worse. In the Senate, in Congress, the Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza. [Current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible. TRUMP has said Netanyahu is "doing a good job." And has said Biden is holding him back. [Trump] has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. [...] AFTER Kamala wins, we will together do everything we can to change U.S. policy towards Netanyahu: An immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people. AND let me be clear: We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with [Kamala Harris] than with [Donald Trump], who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, right-wing extremist ally. [...] AS important as Gaza is [...] it is not the only issue at stake in this election. IF Trump wins, women in this country will suffer an enormous setback and lose the ability to control their own bodies. [...] IF Trump wins, to be honest with you, the struggle against climate change is over. [...] Trump believes [climate change] is a hoax. And if the United States, the largest economy in the world, stops transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, every other country, China, Europe, all over the world, they will do exactly the same thing. And God only knows the kind of planet we will leave to our kids and future generations."

And now I am going to editorialise a few more points:

Firstly, I want to emphasise that the upcoming election is about damage control and harm reduction, not about political allegiance or moral purity. The point of casting your vote is not to signal support for a candidate, but to cancel out a vote for the more damaging candidate by voting for their opposition in the two party system. Let me be clear on that: under the U.S.'s current first-past-the-post voting arrangement, voting for a minor third party or independent is functionally useless during an election of this magnitude. It is a symbolic gesture that's functionally and morally equivalent to sitting out.

Story time: I come from a country which uses a preferential ranked-choice system and where voting is compulsory for all eligible citizens (a system which lowers campaign costs, incentivizes governments to make voting more accessible country-wide and limits attempts at voter suppression not that right-wing parties haven't tried). Despite us actually having a few substantial progressive third parties, there have been several times where I've sucked it up and voted for the major centrist party specifically to keep the major conservative right-wing party from gaining or maintaining power. We call this vote-them-out and keep-them-out politics - it's pretty much the default approach here, and it should be yours too because the idea of a "perfect party" is a fallacy. When human rights are on the line, pick the least-worst major option. The aim is to cancel out a vote for the other guy. Even with this, we recently lost our state to the major conservative-right party (running on a platform of youth-criminalization and abortion-bans) by a mere 8 percent margin - just in case you want evidence of how much impact a small number of votes can make, and how dangerous it can be to get complacent.

Secondly, for those Americans who still believe that not voting will keep you from being complicit in the Genocide in Gaza. Let me speak to you as a White Australian: you are already complicit in and benefiting from a genocide. Multiple, in fact. You and I both live, learn, work and profit on land that was forcibly seized through the murder and dispossession of First Nations peoples, similar to how Palestinians are being murdered and dispossessed of their land right now. When you enjoy chocolate and vanilla, you are benefiting from spices that were brought to the Global West via the colonization of Latin America, and that were historically (and in chocolate's case still is) cultivated by enslaved people. The phone/tablet/computer you are reading this post on is likely made using conflict minerals. I'm sorry, but you don't get to wring your hands over Gaza at a distance and pretend that sitting this vote out absolves you of genocide, while ignoring the ones your (and my) ancestors committed to bring you that luxury. You just don't. And again, as Senator Sanders said, Trump wants to bulldoze Gaza and turn it into Netanyahu's beachfront property development. You don't get to pretend that standing aside and knowingly letting someone else vote for him to do that is the more moral option.

Thirdly I want to point to that last part that I highlighted in Senator Sander's speech. I am not a USAmerican, but this election scares me because of America's global impact. If you are an American voter reading this, you need to understand that your country is too globally influential for you to neglect your civic responsibilities. I was working as a member of my country's national public service under a right-wing government during the Trump era and things got bad. A woman was raped inside Parliament House, video emerged of male staffers masturbating on female colleagues' desks and our then-Prime Minister quipped that it was a "triumph of democracy" that the women who marched in protest weren't "met with bullets". There was the same sort of culture-war mismanagement and misinformation about COVID-19, there were Neo-Nazis, and there was a failure to properly condemn or correct either of those things. Progress towards sustainability and clean energy slowed, and our Prime Minister secretly tried to seize personal control over five separate government departments. Sure, some of that would have happened with or without a Trump administration after all, we didn't need a Republican U.S. President to produce an onion-eating misogynist who hates homosexuals despite his own sister being one but the rest of the world looks to the U.S. to set the tone on what is acceptable in government. When the largest country votes in (or sits aside and lets other people vote in) someone as egocentric, openly prejudiced, corrupt, anti-science, greed-motivated, war-hungry, and dictatorially-minded as Donald Trump, it signals to other leaders that that is the acceptable standard. Even when it's absolutely not. When you choose to sit out (or cast a meaningless symbolic vote) rather than effectively use your civic power as a U.S. citizen, the outcome affects millions of global citizens who never had the option of giving their input.

Finally, I want you to listen to this podcast by Dr Robin DiAngelo and think about what the choice to waste your vote signals to the people around you. To the members of your community who are women, BIPOC, LGBT+, disabled, have migrant parents or who live countries that are effected by American policy (which is all of them, by the way. Y'all are big). We are not asking much from you. Queue for a slightly-annoying amount of time, get your identity confirmed at a sign-in table and then cast a ballot. Tick a box that indicates you'd rather let a qualified centre-left attorney and former senator have a chance of improving things, instead of a dictator-lionizing convicted felon who openly wants dismantle voting systems so that he'll never lose again. That's it. Get yourself to a polling booth and tick a box. We are not asking you to make an effort. We are not asking you to volunteer. We are not asking you run petitions, or call representatives or donate money or do meal deliveries or any kind of community work. Just tick a box. Vote. Anonymously. No one even needs to know what box you ticked.

If that is too much to ask of you, then what right do you have to call yourself any kind of ally? Think about the enormous privilege you are displaying by deciding that you can neglect this, and the fragility you are showing by deciding that a simple anonymous vote is too morally taxing. What reason would we have to ever believe you'd help us compromise on future solutions when you've shown you'd rather throw away possibly the last meaningful vote you may ever get on a Nirvana Fallacy? Why would we ever believe that we could rely on you to help or defend us when you couldn't even work up the courage and stamina to tick a box?

If that's too much for you, then fine. You're a coward, but fine. Just don't pretend to be anything else. And certainly don't hide behind the actual, ongoing suffering of real people as justification for your civic negligence. Do not use Gaza as an excuse to sit out this November 5th.

This website provides information on how to check your registration, register if you haven't, and find a polling booth. So does this one.

Do your duty. Get yourself ready. Go vote.

Then buy yourself some ethical chocolate to wash the bad taste out of your mouth.

[dootznbootz]

(Ian Johnston, Book 10)

[blujayonthewing]

being perceived as stupid by people who are as smart or smarter than me sucks because it genuinely sucks to feel stupid, but being perceived as stupid by people who are, at least in some ways, dumber than me makes me insane

[roughentumble]

geralt who always subbed to people who treated him like shit as a form of self harm who then gets brought out of his shell to dom for jaskier

[synqiri]

guess who's gna hv to go to the hospital tmr and probably hv the infected wound surgically removed

[aingeal98]

The inevitable cost of posting opinions on the Internet where you will say something as a casual semi joke and some random weirdo who clearly has a bunch of issues about this concept completely unrelated to your post will start fuming and insulting you for being a horrible person and it's like... My dude I just complimented this character for their memory skills nowhere did I imply that's all that makes them good or that intelligence is the only thing that matters why are you assuming- nevermind we're on the Internet of course you're fighting a version of me that exists in your head based on your own half baked idiotic assumptions.

[ridl]

So like with ganqing

Who fell first and who fell harder?

Hmm, not sure if i have a truly definite answer. It could go either ways - Keqing realizes her feelings first because she's analytical, she quickly notices all the changes in herself in regards to Ganyu. And Ganyu is more of the quiet type, who also doesn't think abt doing things for herself. Being like 3000+ could also mean she's fine with living alone, she doesn't necessarily need romance. Maybe even neither of them need it. But eventually she realizes that maybe she can take a chance at some new happiness, at sharing a life with someone. So once it hits her how much she cares about Keqing, it kinda just hits very strongly all at once. It becomes a strong want that she's finally willing to follow, despite her withdrawn nature. - Ganyu realizes her feelings first because her experiences with Keqing taught her to be bolder, to live more for herself and pursue her own wants and happiness. On the other hand, Keqing is focused on her dream of building the new era of Liyue, she's straightforward but cares about boundaries, so maybe she's not aware just yet of what she's actually feeling for Ganyu, who's fully supporting Keqing in that goal. And once she realizes those feelings, it hits her all at once like "oh. i'm in love with her. of course!", and she basically immediately wants to act upon it, because that's just how she is.

[om0000]

yall have no idea how hard i can cornplate abt this