#you have to talk like a centrist with him. hate that

[amatres]

adding on to my thoughts while replaying dragon age 2, it is very wild promising your mage friend that you won't let templars take them is an ongoing flirt option in these games. and also i thought the drowning us both in blood line was from another conversation and was completely blinded sided when anders said that

[qqueenofhades]

I understand how important it is to be able to criticize the President, and am not at all of the belief he should be beyond critique, but the critiquing of Biden makes me so nervous. (That's not to say I agree with every decision he's made - I absolutely do not). But I feel like people see things he's done wrong and decide they won't vote for him because of it. I'm not sure if enough people have the ability to see that he's done things wrong but also is our only hope of staving off literal fascism.

So many people talk about how sick they are of it constantly being a lesser of two evils situation, constantly having to vote for a candidate they hate because the other side is worse (I heard it in 2020, 2022, etc), and I guess I just- I don't really get it? We're here because they didn't do that in 2016. All of this could've been avoided had the result been different then. I just feel like people don't comprehend how different of a place we'd be in if Hillary won and engage in all this cognitive dissonance to make themselves feel better about being part of the reason she didn't.

Like.... this has been a long-running topic of discussion on my blog, not least because it is so inexplicable and maddening. It also shows how terribly shallow most people's understanding of the American political process is, and how toxic the "I can only vote for a candidate if every single personal belief/position of theirs matches mine" belief is, as well as how much damage it has done to American democracy even (and indeed, especially) by people who technically don't identify as right-wing. Yell at Republicans all you like (God knows I do, because they're the worst people on earth) but they vote. Every time. Every election. Every candidate. Whereas the Democratic electorate still holds out for Mister Perfect, and it very definitely is Mister Perfect. The amount of "evil HRC!!!" Republican-poisoned Kool-Aid that so-called progressives drank in 2016, and then afterward when they insisted they could have voted for someone like Elizabeth Warren and then didn't do that in 2020, is... baffing.

Frankly, I don't care if Hillary Clinton's personal positions on XYZ issue were the most Neoliberal Corporate Centrist Shill to Ever Shill (and Online Leftists' intellectual skills being what they are, I seriously doubt that they were using any of those words correctly and/or accurately). American policy is not made by "personal dictate of the ruler," or at least it shouldn't be, because we are not an absolute monarchy. We rely on the operation of a system with input from many people. As such, if Hillary had been elected, we would have 2-3 new liberal justices on SCOTUS and have secured civil and environmental rights for the next generation. Roe would be intact, and all the other terrible rulings that SCOTUS has recently handed down wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't have had January 6th, the attempt to stage a coup, all the tawdry scandals, our national security being at risk because of Trump stealing classified documents and probably selling them to Russia and/or Saudi Arabia, etc etc. If you think that's in any way an equivalent amount of evil to what would have happened if Hillary was elected, or if she was "still evil!!!," then I honestly don't know what to tell you. She could fucking murder puppies in her spare time if she had preserved SCOTUS for us, WHICH SHE WOULD HAVE, BECAUSE SHE WARNED US EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN.

(Hoo. Sorry. Still steamed. 2016 war flashbacks, again.)

In short, Hillary would have been a solid continuity Democrat and she would have signed whatever legislation a Democratic House and Senate passed, not to mention been hugely inspiring as the first female president. But because it's so important to the Online Leftists' moral sense of themselves that BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME!!!, they can't possibly acknowledge that ever being a factor, and/or admit that they have any culpability in not voting for her in 2016. It's like when you read the British press about any of the UK's equally numerous problems, and they BEND OVER BACKWARD to avoid mentioning that Brexit might be a factor. They just can't mention it, because then that means they might have made the wrong choice in pulling for it as hard as they did, and blah blah Sovereignty.

Basically, if HRC had been elected president, everything would be so much less terrible and terrifying all the time, we would be talking about her successor in 2024 as someone else who could be the "first," we could explore handing the reins over to Kamala as a Black/Asian woman, we could promote Buttigieg as the first gay president, etc etc. But because 2016 was so catastrophically fucked up, we are in damage control mode for the immediate future and every election is just as pivotal. And yet, because people think that the only thing that matters is a presidential candidate's personal views, we're stuck having the same old arguments and desperately begging people over and over to please vote against fascism, since that somehow isn't self-evident enough on its own. Yikes on Bikes.

[saltydkdan]

Least favorite thing about America?

I could probably make a joke here, but I think the “sports-ification” of political ideologies and parties is one of the worst parts about this hellhole.

This is gonna get real opinionated real fast, so if you don’t like that uhhhhhhhhh-

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Go read a book or something.

Voting for someone like Trump or DeSantis is treated with the same collective nuance as rooting for a sports team, or a boxer before a big fight. I’ve found that so many people who vote for them don’t even know what they’re rooting for half of the time, and if they even have a semblance, they don’t get the full extent of it; nor do they have the room to care.

It’s more about the charisma, and the arbitrary blaming of some minority group that hasn’t done anything wrong than it is actual progress. And if you think this sort of pattern only applies to the Right, you’d be wrong. This goes for the “Left” too.

To be clear; I’m very much NOT a Centrist, but I feel like politicians on BOTH sides are treated by some people like celebrities first and politicians later and it infuriates me SO much.

I identify as extremely liberal (at least I think that general label fits me), and I still think stuff like YouTube or Twitter clips of people like Biden doing something perceived as funny, or “completely P’WNING a reporter” completely distracts from the very serious reality that he exists in. (Not saying I necessarily LIKE Biden either. Just using him as an example, even if he isn’t the MOST liberal/left in practice by a long shot)

As much as I like someone like Bernie Sanders, this EXACT thing happens to him too, and I hate it. It turns people in potentially powerful positions into two dimensional caricatures. At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, the fact that social media so often boils down such serious and subtle positions in the government is SO dangerous and distracting from the much more important details.

Of course, America isn’t the only place to do this, but from where I’m sitting it’s very much the worst. I don’t know the first place to go in solving an issue like this, or if it ever CAN be solved, but this is just something I’ve been frustrated with. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[bonefall]

Thoughts about Goldenflower? Specifically her alignment in terms of Tigerstar being a massive Thistle law supporter, and Goldie being left to raise their kits alone after he’s ousted from ThunderClan and caused thw death of their elder son (intentionally or not). Girl has been through sooo much I’m kinda glad she wasn’t around to see what her surviving son became.

Golfy BABY, Goldenflower is getting a sizeable kiss on the head.

She is the daughter of Speckletail, future bulldozer attacker. She is every bit as intense as this implies.

Goldenflower is the same size as her littermate Lionheart. She just braids her mane, making her look smaller. They are both fucking massive

The most personal and painful part of Tigerclaw's betrayal was the fact he KILLED HER BROTHER.

She is really close with Frostfur after Lion's death, because she's super overwhelmed with two litters so close together AND being head of the kitchen patrol.

Swiftpaw and Brightpaw were practically siblings with how close they were. It really wasn't a surprise that they ended up in trouble together.

Golden was planning to not even speak Tigerclaw's name to Bramblekit and Tawnykit. Her opinion on Tiger was an IMMEDIATE, FURIOUS 180.

Generally Goldenflower isn't a "soft" person. She's a lot like her mom, Lionheart was the more gregarious and diplomatic of the two.

Snowkit was also a very serious cat like them. This family is generally pretty focused and pious.

They also had a middle sibling who tragically died in the Plague-- Mistleclaw. That was before Fireheart joined ThunderClan.

I really love how in canon, Goldenflower is firm and pushes back on how unfair Fireheart is towards her kits. So that's where I'm building from and generally disregarding fanon's take on her as a gentle mom. Society has progressed past the need for gentle moms. Goldenflower is currently telling you to sit up straight and take all those dishes on your desk to the sink.

She's waiting.

You will not keep her waiting. Go.

Good. She's proud of you.

Back on that 189 though-- that was for almost everything. Frostfur, Dustpelt, Longtail, a LOT of cats have a much slower reckoning with the ingrained beliefs that they'd accepted from Tigerclaw.

But Goldenflower was motivated by some pretty hard spite. She wanted NOTHING left of him. She was finding things to hate about him, and ended up "leading the charge" on ThunderClan's reckoning here.

Not neccesarily because of deeper principles, but because she was willing to wrecking ball her way through any leftover associations with him.

Before this point though, she DID support Thistle Law, juuust over the edge past Hard Traditionalism. She would speak very critically of Queen’s Rights, openly call for war, protested against bringing back WindClan, etc.

after Tigerclaw's betrayal, she's still more of a centrist Traditionalist, but will listen to a convincing argument, and slides towards Fire alone over the years.

I actually want to write Fireheart and Goldenflower developing a strong friendship in this moment, too.

She doesn't advise like Whitestorm does, but she's good at shutting up bickering cats when Fireheart is a fresh deputy. I always wished he had some more allies in that moment.

Also generally a very reliable senior warrior. Will absolutely be one of Firestar's choices for his first deputy, though he ultimately picks Whitestorm.

After TPB, she has another big role as the new mentor of Squirrelpaw. Unfortunately, she has had to flunk the little fireball on her warrior assessment TWICE.

She actually talked to Firestar like, "I'm aware that this looks suspicious but I promise I'm not holding her back to spite you. She threw herself into the river."

"No no, Golfy, I'm aware she's wreckless. I never assumed you were being unfair to-- wait the river? The river with the WATER??"

"Yes. The river with the water."

She is also surviving well into OotS, as an elder. I don't like how tiny the den was for so many arcs! SO, that does mean she is going to get a pretty good look at her son's early leadership and all that entails.

Unfortunately though, she ended up taking his side in the Reveal. In her eyes, Bramblestar was LIED to. The Queen’s Rights are to protect kits-- but that doesn't mean you just get to lie to the mate who's going to raise them.

(This is also definitely colored a bit by personal bias, she would be more charitable if it was anyone else but her son)

So when he decides that the Three aren't his anymore... Goldenflower distances herself too. Lionblaze is especially painful-- she used to think he was in honor of her late brother. But now she finds out that it was all a lie.

From the elder's den, she has various opinions on the changes happening to ThunderClan under Bramblestar, like the crumble of the ShadowClan alliance. I feel like she wants to support her son, even when she thinks his choices are questionable... but at the same time, her pride prevents her from being TOO soft on him.

Just generally being a strong traditionalist in the Elder's Den, but on the softer side as opposed to Mousefur on the hard side.

I'm currently planning to axe her in the Great Battle, because there's no way she doesn't go down swinging... though I am also keeping her in mind for one of the greencough outbreaks, since I'm trying to make those into an actual threat in BB instead of "kill some randos" disease.

In any case though I want her alive into OotS to have opinions about Bramblestar, because I find that too interesting to pass up.

[cogcltrcorn]

there is so much fucking Lore about kendall in the first few eps (coming Purely from everything we know about rava and from his attempts as ceo) that I feel get. dismissed most of the time. or maybe I am an insane man reading tea-leaves like "wow this is actually incredible kendall characterisation"

like. he isn't positioned as being "blue", but. he is, isn't he. his marriage with rava was probably almost entirely based on the promise of "well, let's wait it (logan's bullshit) out for a bit and then when I take over it's gonna be butterflies and rainbows". they adopt a brown child. they are clearly raising iverson with a level of awareness of his asd that signifies a level of involvement in progressive politics (with the important caveat of them both being hyper-priveleged one percenters). kenrava were out there thinking they were brangelina.

and! ken may not fucking say that he hates waystar, but. he fucking does, doesn't he??? he sees the company as old and feeble and near absolete and, well, logan is right to be scared that kendall will fucking sell the company from under him because kendall KIND OF WANTS TO. because if you are a capitalist that sees an old haunted house you fucking demolish it to build a parking lot. like, he talks about waystar being bloated and ancient and unadaptive and well. BRINGING IN STEWY IS NOT ONLY A MATTER OF NEEDING MONEY AND BEING DICKMATIZED. kendall would "force a boardseat on him for the optics" and what Are the optics of bringing a private equity shark onto the board of a company you have described as the fucking TITANIC??? s1 kendall may be fucking delusional about his ability to revitalize waystar (which. Is a sinking ship. from the pure market perspective), but he isn't incompetent. he has a good understanding of the problems the company has, he has a good understanding of the trends of the market, in the same way he sees the issues logan has, both as a father and as a businessman. and he feels like it is his sacred right to inherit the waystar and make it a hyper digital diversified company of the new age (tm), which would be against logan's will, but that's unimportant, because kendall is the second coming of christ and the inheritor of everything good about logan and the sacred flame that gets rid of everything bad about logan. there is this level of insane capitalist myth making going on in his head that makes him believe that making waystar more Progressive will make it more Profitable and vice versa, so they are basically the Same Thing, right? in his mind racism is bad because it's outdated and unappealing to younger demos. if shiv thinks that she can through her enlightened understanding of politics make waystar work for Her Ideals, bringing about a better world of girlbossing and moderate republican nominees, kendall dreams of a perfect centrist company existing in a perfect centrist utopia, where they make a bajillion dollars globally without committing politically or financially to anything other than being Liked. kendall is a neolib, at his core.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

I tried so hard not to be parasocial about it but this letter thing is fucking me up, man. I've written a few overly flattering letters to evil government officials before myself. but how did someone convince all these reasonable-seeming people (strangers that I do not know) to publicly sign this centrist-ass letter? I understand they probably got Taika Waititi and Jack Black with the everyone can share, peace and love on the planet earth wording, but Jordan Peele? what. how did that happen. it makes no sense to me.

Ok I'm gonna front load my position on the Israel-Palestine conflict before I answer this ask so that no one can accuse me of shit I didn't say. If you want to see what I have to say on the letter itself, scroll to the big font. I'm as anti-zionist as they come I don't think that governments should even exist at all, I consider Israel to be an illegitimate state the same way I consider the country I live in (USA) to be an illegitimate state. I think that if we're going to have countries at all, which we shouldn't, that country should be Palestine and individual Jewish people certainly should be welcome to move there for whatever reason they want, including religious, but that the people who already lived there shouldn't be displaced because of it. And if they wanted me to support Israel on the basis of Jewish people needing somewhere to go after the Holocaust, they should have put Israel in Europe in 1945 instead of in the Arabian Peninsula in 1918. I tend to think the hard core zionists who aren't Jewish are trying to deport diaspora Jewish people somewhere based on the way I have heard other goyim speak about Israel. I am sympathetic to Jewish people who believe this has nuance but ultimately I cannot condone the displacement of Palestinians. That position might lose me followers but really I don't care.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way

(This first paragraph is for everyone who's out of the loop and has only seen the Tumblr posts about this issue, Anon does seem to know what I'm about to say) I do also think this whole thing with the letter is being blown out of proportion a little bit? That's not to say it's a good letter, it does contain language which blames Hamas for the conflict which is the western propaganda line so that countries like the United States and Britain don't have to admit that they caused and are funding this whole operation because they hate brown people. However celebrities are rubes who fall for government propaganda all the fucking time. What the letter itself actually calls for is Biden to facilitate the release of Israeli hostages. I consider this letter to be the vaguely Zionist equivalent of that time all those celebrities got on zoom and sang imagine because COVID was happening. I certainly doubt that the man who produced Get Out and Us supports the genocide and I also question whether the man who directed Reservation Dogs does either. Most likely they were asked "will you sign a letter calling for the release of Israeli hostages?" And they said "well releasing hostages sounds nice."

(this paragraph is for anon) Despite the fact that I think "these 70 celebrities condone Palestinian genocide" is incredibly reductive I would encourage you to see these people as human beings, and more specifically idiot millionaires who are out of touch. I believe that Taika Waititi understands the Maori struggle and generally tries to be a nice liberal but ultimately he is a man who grew up in the 80s with a lot of money who has an interest in keeping that money. His gaff transphobia tweets (which I didn't think were that bad considering he made it in 2013 and wasn't even talking about trans women, but they were still transphobic) and his pearl clutching during the BLM riots made this abundantly clear (both of these incidents are Taika Twitter originals that people have sent me trying to get me to hate him and I saw both of them and was like "that's what I thought you'd say old man"), and the fact that he married Rita "blackfish" Ora. I'm way less plugged in to what Jordan Peele is doing because I've never had an anon send me his call out post but I'm going to assume that the same thing is true of him: he understands the struggle of black people in the United States, despite this moment of basedness I probably politically disagree with him on many many counts. As for Jack Black he donates to autism speaks so he's coming for me and the Palestinians. Although that said so does Gaga and I'm still very much a fan of her.

I've basically had to come to terms with the fact that no celeb that I like the work of agrees with me about politics because all of them are rich and I am a communist. That's not going to stop me from liking their work, it's not going to stop me from bothering some of them at cons when I get the chance. Because again they're just guys. And most guys are idiots. I am an idiot about a lot of things. We don't expect Taika Waititi or Jordan Peele to know about every conflict in the world we expect them to make entertaining and perhaps insightful movies. I am not here because I think Taika agrees with me on all things. I am here because I want to watch a rom com about gay men who murder people, one of whom is just like me for real.

Anyway do your research

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

it’s deeply funny to me that radfems are out there calling other people “libfems” when they’re lib as shit on every issue that’s not sexism and some issues that are like. bro the issue is that you are not radical enough y'all are milquetoast libs at best when it comes to any sort of activism that isn’t about cishet able bodied neurotypical white wealthy women. like bro you can't be demonising mental illness and saying mentally ill people should be locked up because they’re dangerous, or argue for the continued dehumanisation and objectification children face that contributes to severe abuse, or mock gay men as disgusting predators and pretend you’re much different from an enlightened centrist who thinks women complain too much you’re more progressive in exactly one aspect. and even in that you fucking suck you invented brand new insults for abuse victims bc women being victimised by men are just stupid handmaids who should have known better than to tempt him i mean should have known better than to trust a man like it’s just what were you wearing rhetoric but condescending instead of outright cruel. like y'all sound like conservative christians talking about how men can’t help it and if you’re raped it’s your fault but in a way that frames men as inherently bad for it without removing the idea that women are stupid temptresses that would have known better bc you’re still framing it as provoking an inherently dangerous creature and not. a person choosing to be shit in ways that are Influenced by culture but not inherent to anyone raised in any environment like abuse is an active choice men make and not the default. if every man chose it then the fault would be with women for trusting a wild animal to not act like a wild animal but this is somehow radical and feminist if we say we hate men too like no you’re not even lib you’re conservative at this point how do you get into a battle with fucking choice feminism and lose at respecting women like you got into a fight with a coughing baby and still lost how do you victim blame more than fucking choice feminism it’d be impressive if it wasn’t so mysogynistic

[nutria--oscura]

The Oak family make me so mentally ill actually

Like, for starters, the generational trauma that cannot and will not be shaken off:

The very obvious first point is The Doodler. 'The Curse of The Doodler' passed down from generation to generation. Even after Lark and Sparrow release it, the curse still haunts them as the apocalypse they have to bear the blame for. Now Dood is walking amongst them, as a teen protected by the teens, and all Lark and Sparrow can do is look him in the eye (not even really). Lark wants to end this generational trauma by killing Dood but Normal wants to do it but helping it (parallel to what we see happen in s2 ep23 when they sit on the Throne).

The next obvious ones are the veganism (has been an Oaks thing since Hildy's grandmother, if not great-grandmother).

and the 'shoes on' household. Something Henry started due to always being barefoot in Oakvale cause of Barry's Rules. Something that is still instilled with Normal and Hero.

All of the Oaks have a dislike towards their kids/parents. Hildy hated Barry cause he abused her for so long and in the final years of her life he abandoned her in Oakvale and left her to die. Barry and Henry fought constantly, Barry creating more Oakvalians cause Henry would never have been good enough for him. Henry and Lark straight up just do not get along, especially after Henry took the Gauntlets of Ogre Power (which in Lark's eyes caused Walter to get injured and almost caused Sparrow to die), ESPECIALLY after Henry pulled to rogue card. Henry and Sparrow don't talk anymore which is something I will get into later on. Lark and Sparrow weren't even Henry's favourite kids, it was his pet bird Beanie. Honestly, I'm kind of scared to see what Henry and Birdie's relationship is like. Then we have Sparrow and Normal. Sparrow is open about being not being proud of Normal and wishing he was more 'normal'. Finally we have Sparrow and Hero. Sparrow probably isn't that proud or happy with Hero either since she just noped out of being the chosen one. (check out this post)

Another kinda obvious one, the (very strong) family resemblance. They all look so alike, so similar, of course they're going to be the least likely to change and break tradition. (post)

SPARROW AND HENRY NO LONGER TALKING - so many implications. Like, is it because of the shit Lark and Sparrow pulled with Hero? Cause he married a centrist (/j)? Was it because Sparrow (potentially) used the memory syringes on Rebecca to keep their marriage in tact(more in a bit)? Some other reason which we will later find out? Is it why Sparrow can no longer turn into a Love Wolf? Or the final straw as to why he can't?

SPARROW, REBECCA AND THE SYRINGES - So. In s2 ep18 when Normal asks Sparrow if Rebecca knew about all the Doodler stuff, Sparrow says "Your mom doesn't know… about what's going on." ... "that's kind of how we… stayed married." Later, we get to know, from Hero, that Rebecca did in fact know what was happening - that she was involved in what happened to Hero when she was younger, "mom and dad, just sort of looked at me as like, the golden child. They weren't like with me, they were like demanding things of me." So potentially, Lark and/or Sparrow used the syringes on Rebecca cause she threatened their marriage over what happen with Hero. (POST)

Speaking of Hero's childhood - Other than what happened very obviously traumatising her, "they showed me a glimpse of the Doodler for a second and I cried for 3 weeks straight," it also very heavily strained her relationship with Normal: "I feel like things have been choppy between us for a while" ... "It felt like I shouldn't befriend you, cause I knew at some point I'd have to like, sacrifice myself heroically and I didn't want to make you lose me in that way, so I felt like 'I should just keep him at arms length.' " It is suck a stark contrast and parallel to the (toxically) codependent relationship Lark and Sparrow have

HENRY - The fact that Henry is the last of the dads that is alive is so depressing and so expected. He has elf blood and is a high level druid, of course he's still alive. He is (most probably - we don't know the situation with Mercedes and Birdie) alone, all of his closest friends are dead, his sons don't talk to him and because of that he probably hasn't seen his grandchildren in ages either. If something happened to Mercedes and Birdie and Henry is truly alone, there are parallels with Hildy's final years (this post and the tags)

[horizon-verizon]

So do you think Jon would get more of the anti-Targ and anti-Valyrian hate that Dany does if he had all the physical features? I'm not sure how much being "connected" to their heritage makes a difference since 1. Jon doesn't have negative feelings toward the Targs and 2. Everyone's rooting for him to CONNECT to his heritage. Is it because he hasn't yet? Or does it come entirely down to misogyny?

If we're talking about the in-world's people's reaction to Jon, he'd probably have to not be brought up in Westeros if he had the Targ-"typical" features bc that would immediately expose him as being a scion--bastard or not--of the Targs. Robert was out for blood.

If we're talking abt readers' reaction to Jon, there's be more xenophobic sentiments, but it'd still be far better than Dany. You'd hear a lot of Jon "redeeming" his father's house and how fitting that a "bastard Targaryen" gets to do that. Gets to excoriate the abnormal parts/Targ parts through that "poetic" rejection.

They want him more to connected a Targ heritage bc they want dragons as they know, even those who try to deny it, that these dragons if not necessary for the Long Night, are "cool" and can be used to create a kingdom for their fav. you know, boring regular-degular, conventional male-centered fantasy storylines like that.

Doesn't matter that Jon doesn't have negative feelings towards the Targs. They do, and that's all that matters, really, in their simplistic morality play storylines where the characters only serve as either self inserts or allegories for Marxist progressiveness or performative activism masking Euro-centrist patriarchal bias.

[fairuzfan]

It’s “vote blue no matter who” but then you get Dems like Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin, and John Fetterman or people like Tricia Cotham and Jeff Van Drew who switched parties and then it’s every excuse in the book as to why Dems can’t get shit done and just “vote harder.”

Dems did know that embracing disenchanted conservatives would push the party further right, and that’s precisely why centrists and the upper middle class liberals were all so excited to join ranks with “never Trump” republicans.

The issue is that voting is great and all in theory. Some of my family is residing in a country where you can't vote so like, having a say in your government?! That's great!

But I don't *really* have a say in my government when all the standard forms of calling and emailing are being flat out ignored. Sure I voted. But now what. Fetterman is a racist asshole that pretended to be "on the side of the oppressed" to get his position. Sinema is.... like that. Manchin is annoying as hell. And what, you're telling me "just wait til next election and they'll be gone"? Like at what point will this endless spiral of "it could be worse" honestly start benefiting anyone.

And people are saying "join unions or organize" as some sort of gotcha... Palestinians have been organizing for 75 years. The whole reason people know so much about Palestine is because we've been organizing for YEARS, have been participating in the system for YEARS. Sure I can unionize. Sure I can organize. But when absolutely no one takes you seriously in your government?? Then what are you supposed to do??

I still am an advocate for voting locally, but I honestly don't see the point in voting higher than that. I remember a comment in the "can't vote out fascism" post was saying "actual physical fascism is worse than passive fascism" and I'm like.... yeah for you maybe? I'm disabled and I've been mostly in my house for the past 3 years because I want to avoid COVID at all costs. Disabled people around the states have as well. People have been dying well before the past couple of months. Are you saying you'd rather have silent deaths than loud ones?

And another comment that really annoyed me and felt severely disconnected from reality was "Trump's Foreign Policy is the same if not worse than Biden..." Worse than funding a genocide...? Like I hate Trump so much and would never vote for him. But I also won't ever vote for Biden.

Also something that "Vote Blue" people don't realize.... Biden's already lost. I'm not saying this to be smug or anything. Many Muslims and SWANA immigrants vote PRIMARILY based on foreign policy. Like that's one of our main concerns. Every single election, we consider which person would be "better" for people overseas — this isn't me projecting, we talk amongst ourselves about it to make a decision. And these people live in major cities and swing states like Michigan in Dearborn and Detroit. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Illinois turns red next election. Many Palestinian refugees after the Nakba and Naksa settled in Chicago and the greater Chicago area. I've heard that people hate Fetterman so much that they're not voting for him next election or wanting anything to do with democrats anymore. Dems have completely neglected the Muslim and SWANA community and that will come back to bite them in the butt.

Like at this point, you should be thinking of what to do when Trump becomes president lol. Actually think about it. Because honestly, you can yell at me all you want and call me stupid or an idiot for not voting/doing a write in — but I'm 10000% sure that Trump is going to win next election. What more are you going to do other than vote?

[hxhhasmysoul]

Despite Megumi thinking he’s being very progressive or less shallow by breaking some rules within jujutsu society and with that one answer he gave to Toudou. I think Megumi is still somewhat traditionalist than he wants to admit.

Maybe traditionalists isn’t the right word… He seems very content on not changing the status quo and he would rather be a cog within the horrible system. Perhaps a centrist is a better word for him.

Does this mean I think Megumi will be transphobic or is going to say slurs? No, of course not. But he would be the type to say he supports any minority communities but does nothing when their rights are being taken away.

That’s what I gathered from him in my opinion.

It’s interesting that you specifically mention transphobia in the context of Megumi, considering how a lot of people head canon him to be transmasc due to his comment about his name. Or gay due to the context of his conversation with Toudou. But for the sake of this answer let's put those discussions aside and work with the assumption that Megumi is cishet. 

I find Megumi rather unpleasant as a person, possibly because I see a lot of my teen self in him. I mean this statement should hint at me being sympathetic towards him but considering how I view myself and how I’ve never forgiven myself for anything, I can’t. 

There are a few things converging when it comes to how Megumi seems to view the world: his age, his circumstances, the abuse he’d suffered since early childhood and good grades at school.

Age kinda brings it all together. The younger you are, the less you’ve experienced and your worldview relies on that. You encounter a lot of ideas for the first time, sometimes without even knowing that the person Talking to you is expressing an ideologically-charged opinion. And people purposefully obscure their meaning with language. When recruiting gender criticals don't lead with “all trans people must be exterminated” which would put off most people they haven't indoctrinated into their hate cult. They say that they “protect the rights of women who are survivors of rape” or “women rights in general”, or “the safety of children”. On the surface it sounds like they are doing something noble. You need to have experienced people being misleading like that to pause here, to try to investigate how gender critical ideology is really supposed to protect anyone, and it quickly becomes clear it harms the very people it pretends to want to protect. 

The detention centre situation shows clearly that Megumi has adopted his political views because they sounded good, likely felt emotionally satisfying. Why should a guy who was a repeated offender be saved, let alone prioritised? He killed a little girl after all. He clearly fits into the rigid binary of good and bad. The moral superiority is alluring and Megumi falls for it. 

But his views don't come from some deep convictions. It's clear he never spared them a deeper enquiry because the moment they are challenged by Yuuji, Megumi goes silent. He has nothing. 

Circumstances and abuse

Megumi was dragged into the world of sorcery at a very young age, likely 6-7, so for most of his life that was what he knew best. In that world he was treated as property. He was literally sold to Gojou who then instilled in Megumi that he has to work as a sorcerer to secure his basic needs. And the needs of his sister. 

He essentially works as a child soldier. He sees people around him die at a very young age. 

It’s all dehumanising and traumatising. 

The way you phrase his cog mentality is as if it was an active choice. I see it more as a result of how he has very little control over his life and no adult who’d care for him or at least take care of him. 

It’s very hard to look from the outside at a system you’ve been indoctrinated into since childhood. It’s hard to reject it. But ever since meeting Yuuji, Megumi has been slowly rethinking it all. 

Good grades

There is a bias in our society that associates smartness with good school results. Megumi’s are excellent. It also associates reading with smartness and Megumi likes to read.

It’s pretty clear that he considers himself an intellectual, he speaks with authority, uses long words and so on. But when you look closely at what he says, he’s repeating what he’d been indoctrinated into. He’d never been challenged on it because everyone in the jujutsu world is buying into the same bullshit he is. They all believe in the cult of strength. Even Gojou buys into the system. He says the system is corrupt and he wants to change it, but only change it in such a way as to put his followers at the top. He never challenges the foundational ideology. 

When it comes to political views, the closest to a centrist is Gojou. He used to be seriously rightwing in his youth, very might makes right, why shouldn’t the strong just kill whoever they want. Later he became a centrist. He turned the might is right into bullshit meritocracy, where the elders are idiots who shouldn’t be in power because they are idiots. But he and his handpicked disciples are smarter and will know how to run things. Throughout the manga we see the miracle that is Gojou’s leadership.

Megumi is very much a product of that. The system likely tells Megumi that he’s smart. And that’s all this boy has to build his self worth on. He has his powerful technique (Gojou explains to him that through suicide Megumi could even win with him - Gojou just loves to give this boy more and more trauma casually like that) and good grades which culture tells him make him smart. He can’t make any decisions about his own life because he’s Gojou’s .. I guess the closest word would be “serf” or “indentured servant” with the compounded factor of him being underaged. He’s also heavily traumatised so his ability to challenge his circumstances is impaired.

It's very hard to see outside your context, especially with trauma on breathing down your neck. Megumi adopts an ideology that makes it easier for him to exist in the context he's in. He escapes into the simple black and white world of right-wing morality.

Right-wing worldview

Politically Megumi is right-wing, not centrist, especially at the beginning of the manga. He sees the world in black and white terms. He believes in the legal system and sees jujutsu sorcerers as part of it. He has a disdain for evildoers be it bullies at his middle school or convicts at the detention centre. 

His right wing attitude is very clear in how he beats up all the bullies as a principle to establish order or how he believes the convicts are not worth saving. Like many rightwingers he treats badness as an identity. Someone is either good or bad, no nuance. Jujutsu sorcerers are good because they are legitimised by the legal system, they uphold the law, even if they are kinda dodgy people when it comes to their motivations like Maki, or try to murder people for political reasons like the students from Kyoto - a typical right wing view point. Bullies are bad so they deserve to be beat up. Convicts are bad so they don’t deserve to be saved. Curses are bad so they deserve to be killed. 

Both Megumi and Yuuji beat up bullies in their middle school days, both were delinquents getting into fights. But the political ideology that is at the basis of their characters really shines through in these situations. 

Because for Megumi “badness” is an identity he beats up bullies proactively. He seeks them out to enforce social norms onto them. In his eyes his preventative violence is justified. It's hard to tell whether Megumi’s violence scared the bullies off and saved people from being victimised. We don't even know whether everyone Megumi beat up was indeed a bully, how did compile a list of targets? A very typical issue with law enforcement. 

Yuuji's values are left-wing, he values human life and dignity above some abstract ideas like the law. His violence is reactive, he protects victims in the moment, doesn't try to enforce his rules on a more systemic level. 

Yuuji sees Junpei as a human. He uses violence to fight Junpei to prevent him from killing his schoolmates, but he also tries to reach out to Junpei. He isn't trying to assign the good or bad label to Junpei or the other students, he knows two wrongs don't make a right.

Megumi's rigid worldview is even present in how he views people close to him. Tsumiki is good because she thinks people should concentrate on positive interactions in life, and she always took care of Megumi. Megumi had no idea Tsumiki did dodgy shit like going to cursed bridges at night, because he replaced the real Tsumiki in his head with an image of Tsumiki. 

Right-wingers have a very rigid and binary view of the world. They will ignore things that contradict their beliefs. Megumi's belief in Tsumiki as a good person caused him to dehumanise her and turn her into an icon he could derive his morality from.

When Tsumiki was cursed, a crack appeared in Megumi's worldview. He was feeling cheated because “goodness” didn't protect Tsumiki. The jujutsu society and the law assign people a “good” or “bad” identity. The bad get jailed or exorcised, but the good? Their reward should be being left in peace, but it's not.

Yuuji really throws Megumi a curveball philosophically. Yuuji formally “becomes” not human to the jujutsu society, a curse that should be exorcised. But he’s a good person, he’s so similar to the morally good icon Megumi idolises. 

Megumi’s ideology fails him again, the cognitive dissonance is too much to handle for him - right wing people really struggle with this one. So he does the typical rightwing manoeuvre: people who are on the right side of the law are good, people who are on the wrong side of the law are bad, but there are also special people, that I like, who are awarded special rules. 

It's very clear how confused Megumi is during the Culling Games arc. How he assigns blame to himself and Yuuji for what happened in Shibuya but on the other hand he still considers Yuuji of killing humans during the games.

Yuuji is so “pure” in his mind that Megumi is taken aback by Yuuji's angry outburst, by him directing his bad mood at Angel and Hana.

But by the Culling Games Megumi's already moved away from the rigid right-wing binaries, he's moving left. He thinks that saving people is what will give him a place in the world. A view that he develops through absorbing Yuuji's worldview.

Centrists are usually people who benefit the most from the status quo, like Gojou in JJK. When it comes to rightwingers it’s more mixed. Some of them also greatly benefit from the status quo so they support it, but there are those who cling to the status quo even though it hurts them and direct their anger about their suffering at those who they consider “other” in some way. Minorities often become that other because they are unknown to some extent, because they are not part of the mainstream. In our reality most places around the world are patriarchal, are governed by patriarchal religions where women are not seen as fully human. Queerness through its complicated relationship with gender roles threatens the status quo of these patriarchal societal orders, thus it becomes a target of right-wing ire. And that’s why liberals/centrists only pay lip service to minority rights including queer rights, because it’s in their best interest that the right-wing poors have a target to direct their discontent and fears at.

But Megumi isn’t driven that much by fear and disgust as most rightwingers. He is a young traumatised boy who has never had any guidance and had to fend for himself, also had to make sense of the world on his own. So what drew him to right-wing attitudes was its simplicity, its binary nature. 

Megumi is not an active transphobe, when he sees Kirara, he stops using male pronouns in reference to her. He respects Kirara. Would he fight for trans rights? It’s not impossible. Yuuji is his new morality icon and Yuuji fights for human dignity. If Megumi saw trans people in the same way he sees Tsumiki and Yuuji (good people who are attacked by an unfair system/reality), he’d fight for them. Especially if Yuuji drew his attention to it, or called out his inaction. Is Megumi aware of the issues trans people face? I don’t know. He is interested in politics and society so it wouldn’t be impossible for him.

I don't know if this is what you were looking for. This fandom is going to make me tepidly like Megumi eventually, I'm very susceptible to character exposure (only Kurapika, Yuuta and Gojou's cases exposure just made me actively dislike the characters). Thank you for the ask.

[yougottabetheguy]

So French politics is a total mess right now.

But we need a tiny bit of backstory to fully understand why.

In 1944, France took back its' territories from invading armies. The 4th Republic was declared when De Gaulle stepped down as commander-in-chief-in-exile.

The 4th Republic tried to be parliamentary, but also incentivised coalitions, which constantly broke down. So there were massive political instabilities which came to a head in the Algerian war of independence in 1958. French soldiers, living in Algeria, threatened to invade the mainland if the head of government didn't give up peace talks with the Algerian rebels. So De Gaulle, the man who brought freedom back to France and fended off American imperialism post-WWII, was called on to solve the crisis.

He decided to form a new semi-presidential republic, that wouldn't be bogged down by giving excessive power to the elected assembly.

The President is directly elected for 5 years, and so is the lower house (Assembly). To be eligible to be president, you must have the support of at least 500 mayors or regional councillors over the entire country. (Yes, that does mean that the French people are asked to vote at least 5 times every 5 years: mayoral, regional, legislative (lower house), presidential, and European). The upper house, the Senate, is voted in indirectly by all representatives (mayors, councillors, Assembly members).

Phew.

But also, the Assembly can overturn the Presidency by a simple majority vote. And the President can, at any time, dissolve the Assembly.

This means, that since the legislative and presidential elections are very close to each other, that the presidential party/coalition has always had a majority in the Assembly, except for a few occasions. (I think Mitterrand didn't have one)

It's a presidential republic because the President has strong executive power, and can pass executive bills without the Assembly's approval: so called Article 49§3. Article 49§3 is meant to break parliamentary deadlock on critical issues, like national budgets, by forcing the Assembly to take action. The Assembly can overturn the President and block the bill by simple majority of registered Assembly members, not just those who turn up to the vote. So it is a political gamble. Mr Macron has used this to bully his party in the past: "Vote for my controversial retirement pension reform or vote me out and lose your seat."

But also, Mr Macron is a scheming, conniving bastard. He used the rise of the far right to his political gain: in 2017, he presented himself as a centrist. He was young, smart, an economist, hot, and had a wife with intrigue (they met when she was his French teacher in high school). And he won out against the far right. His party was founded in 2015, so no-one knew what to do with him.

But then, over the years, we slowly realised that he was financially liberal, socially centrist, and morally bankrupt. He was accused of putting his friends in power and generally being money grubbing. But his international appeal was pretty good.

So then he won again in 2022: hoping that the left wouldn't form a coalition (they did), that he could hold down the centre parties (he couldn't), and the far right wouldn't become larger (it did). But he still managed to get a slim majority. Thus heavy use of 49§3 to align his party.

All in all, the left were/are furious. Twice now, they did the political good deed of voting for the candidate they didn't really like to block the one they hate from getting in. So tensions were high.

Now in 2024, the far right win big in the European Elections. They get a sizeable share of french votes (mostly from low turnout by other parties). Macron decides to dissolve the Assembly 2 (?) days later.

Huh?? Why?? What?? Tf do we do now??

So now we have a legislative election in a month that no one saw coming. Everyone scrambles. The left form a coalition in 2 weeks, their manifesto cobbled together by sleepless nights. The right, once composed of 2-3 parties, has split, the vast majority of the traditional right now have joined the far right. The centre is gutted, save for Macron's party, who's effectively subsumed their voter demographic.

The legislative elections have a 2 round system: everyone votes for who they actually want in round 1 and settles in round 2.

It's chaos.

After round one, the left have a 30% hold on the country, the centre have 20%, and the far right have 35%.

Everyone realises that the far right have a real chance at winning a majority. Le Pen pushes her electorate as hard as she can: she doesn't just want to be the biggest party and get to form the government, she wants a majority and overturn the President.

The left choose to pull out of places that they aren't going to win to avoid diluting the vote. Days before the 2nd round, Macron has said nothing similar. A few days before, his message is simple: "We're not going to do anything. We won't pull out of races we might not win." It's a kick in the teeth for the left.

The end of the second round looks like this:

Purple is the left coalition, yellow is Macron, blue is traditional right, brown is far right.

With 182 seats, the left have the most, and should form the next government. Not by law, but by convention.

Macron has 168 seats, the far right have 143.

The majority is 289 seats. No one is close, but a coalition would work.

Unfortunately, that's a problem: since no government in the past 60 years has had to form a coalition, no one knows how, and aren't amenable to it in the first place.

But the left are ecstatic. They struggled so hard to unite, they defied all odds to challenge Macron, and now they have the institutional (but not legal) right to name a Prime Minister (head of the lower house).

This all happened before the Olympics. So Macron declares that there must be political unity during the Olympics. So everyone agrees and keeps quiet for a while.

Side note, Mr Macron has called himself the "God of Time" in private meetings, since he believes that he can dictate when things happen, putting off decisions and important meeting by leveraging the might of french bureaucracy at them. But that kind of tactic wears thin very quickly.

After the Olympics, and the fiasco that was, politics can start again. The left, after an awful lot of arguing and trial and error, name Lucie Castets as Prime Minister. She's smart, female, and merely socialist (as opposed to communist). The far right immediately oppose her, declaring that they would vote to overturn her as soon as she is sworn in. "Blah blah blah not strong not good too extreme".

So they try again. And again. Until Macron, who is the person who swears in the Prime Minister, invites potential candidates from different parties to his office. So now, somehow, Macron, who didn't win the majority of seats, is choosing the PM. He invites Hollande, Sarkozy, Mélenchon, Duflot, Cazeneuve, Bertrand, Castets to try and find a leader who might not be immediately overturned.

The left insist that any extreme right candidate will be overturned. The far right insist that any candidate with an inkling of leftism will be overturned. Macron's party stays quiet.

So we arrive at today: Michel Barnier is our new PM. He's right wing. He voted against decriminalising gays in the 80s.

His inauguration speech had catchphrases like: "Access to public services, security in daily life, and immigration control". He promises to establish a "German-style" cabinet, made up of ministers from all parties. But we'll see how that goes.

So...yeah...I love how the left got the most seats of all parties and is now completely out of government.

Macron _could_ have formed a left alliance and chosen to uphold french dignity. He _could_ have chosen an ex-centrist PM. He _could_ have chosen compromise, but instead bent the knee to the right because they're more vocal.

Maybe I'll update this as time goes by. Maybe I'll be too depressed to do so.

[didnt-hear-idsb-live-again]

Can I ask how Hilary was unlikeable (aside from being a woman , I guess, RIP)? This is a genuine question, I'm not a US citizen, but pretty much every criticism I heard about her was "The EMAILS" which from my understanding was just incompetence with technology that republicans overinflated in order to hate on her?

so, she had a very famous tweet that I think sums it up, which said: "how does student debt make you feel? tell us in 3 emojis or less" while she simultaneously she was pretty cagey on her stance of whether or not we should absolve all student loan debt. Just an incredibly out of touch overall vibe, while trying incredibly hard to present as "in touch" and failing miserably, because she didn't actually speak to people like she understood their struggles.

Post-Obama, we as a country were liberal enough to be able to dream bigger in terms of where we wanted our country headed. We could talk about things like a livable minimum wage, universal healthcare, etc, and none of these things felt THAT crazy. We even had a primary candidate running on the concept of universal basic income - which still felt pretty crazy, but we were far enough to the left where it could even be brought to the table. Which, at this point, is crazy to think about. Hillary really dug her heels into the sand in terms of not wanting to play with any of that. She called the idea of wanting universal healthcare "pie in the sky", she wasn't vocally pro-gay marriage until about 2010, which was REALLY insanely late for a lot of democrats, so people didn't trust her, she (iirc, it's been a while) didn't believe in a $15 minimum wage. It felt like her vibe was "things are decent enough under Obama. We will be making absolutely no progress," and this was effectively her campaign message, packaged under a feminist / "first woman president" bow, which felt extremely shallow to many. By the end of Obama's presidency, people on both sides of the aisle felt like he was not delivering on a lot of the things he promised and had growing frustrations about that. So Hillary just absolutely refusing to give in a lot of ways, and running as a bit of a centrist in the climate, was REALLY not it for a lot of people. A lot of people, me included, also REALLY did not like her stance on foreign policy: if 2016 was 2024, her stance on Palestine would've been the same, or worse, than Kamala's. She was just very very very pro American military defense, and it was at a time when people - again, on both sides of the aisle - were just 3000000% DONE with our troops being in the Middle East. She may not have spoken to be this pro-military on the campaign trail, but her positions and actions as Obama's Secretary of State really painted that picture.

Corporate involvement in politics was also a HUGE talking point in this election; a lot of people were seemingly just becoming aware of and frustrated with how politicians were bought and sold by corporations. Supposedly not being this way was a massive part of Trump's appeal - and she, conversely to him, had a LOT of corporate donors, and wasn't against the involvement of them in our elections.

This all became infinitely worse in juxtaposition to Bernie Sanders (a Vermont Senator who ran against her in the primaries), who was about a million miles to the left of her on every topic. Him and his policies laid out next to her just really painted the picture of how centrist she was, and it made her look almost Republican by comparison to a lot of young people. A lot of people blame this on Bernie and hold her loss against him for this reason, and, while that element did contribute and IS unfortunate, I don't think it says anything bad about him in a vacuum.

Hope this helps, tried to be relatively unbiased!

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 8 Matsuribayashi pt. 21

Okay, so new rule for me, no declarative statements about how I’ll be doing these chapters. I almost always wind up doing the opposite of what I said I wouldn’t do.

Depression of a Shinto priest, continued

Man, who hasn’t been put in that incredibly awkward situation where you’re forced to defend a friend against a group of people shit talking them? Earlier chapters didn’t really dive in to what sort of character the Furude priest was, but I think these sections do a good job of showing that despite being labeled an opportunist centrist fuck he’s a pretty reasonable guy. Of course the problem with him saying everybody should take a chill pill is he can’t exactly advertise he knows these secret government plans.

One of the things that I find interesting about the connecting fragments is the earlier claim that these are all viewed from Hanyuu’s perspective. It’s interesting to me because despite that claim they are very clearly told from the perspective of one of the other cast members. There’s a lot of internal discussion, and monologue that there’s really no way Hanyuu could possibly know. It’s a little inconsistency, but I don’t mind it.

Mion Sonozaki

Another peek behind my screenshotting curtain here is that with each of these fragments I’m actually cutting out the title cards at the very end of the fragment. Mainly it’s in an effort to cut down on the length of this playthrough, and also because I feel you don’t need your hand held that the section is over. The menu title screens however, I just like them being there. Although thinking about it I could have cut out 104 or so additional screenshots if I didn't include the title cards like the Mion Sonozaki there. But hell, I've already accounted for them in the screenshot budget, so there here to stay.

I love that despite being a horrible shrew of a woman Oryou engages in the seemingly universal trend of old people giving young children candy. I don’t know if people still do that sort of thing these days, but I remember as a child an old neighbor gave kids little candies when he was out and about. Always a lemon candy from what I remember. Maybe people stopped doing that because of how dangerous society is these days, I don’t know. It’s a fairly humanizing moment for the woman who pretends to act like this terrible vile creature publicly.

I didn’t put much thought towards it at the time going from the Depression of a Shinto Priest, to Mion Sonozaki here, but thinking about it this was a rather fitting pair of fragments to go back to back. They both exemplify rather well how the idea of trying to wait and see for the situation to improve very rarely ever works out. Especially for those who are being victimized by an unfair situation they have no control over.

It’s actually kind of remarkable that despite every adult hating the Houjou family for the sake of keeping up appearance that none of that ever trickled down to the children. I’m sure you were a child at some point, and I’m also positive that at some point you probably heard a family talk trash over some other kid’s family situation. Even if it never happened to you, I’m sure you might be vaguely aware of your parents at some point saying they don’t want you hanging out with so and so because their dad’s a sketchy individual. Maybe it’s a cultural thing? But I’m just surprised there isn’t some faint learned prejudice against Satoko and Satoshi. Maybe that’s why she only hangs out with the gaming club?

I don’t quite understand why the series has decided recently that Keiichi is the chosen one, but there it is I guess.

[sentimuse]

Ever After High X Twisted Wonderland.

I was high when I made this please forgive the babble. I needed it to be said.

OKay so arguably the TWSTverse goes the best with the EAHverse. I may rant about Descendants later but lemme get this out first via Headcanon.

Riddle Rosehearts:

Pre OB! Royal Post OB! Rebel

The hedgehogs get along.

He and Lizzie have an odd relationship. They both have mommy issues but they both want to live up to their mothers' standards. Riddle has a hyperfixation for her mom and a deep seeded pride regarding her, that gets strained when he and Lizzie commiserate about shitty moms. Lizzie feels weird cuz he's nice but he idolizes her mom and that's awkward when you both have bad moms you still love in a strained almost begrudging way. They're good friends but don't seem like it due to the awkwardness of it all

He really gets along with Kitty and Maddie. Strangely Maddie is the one that reminds him of Che'Nya (Kitty does too because duh but personality wise). Always talking in riddles and rhymes but still a very good friend.

Gets introduced to Ginger via Trey and has to fight himself internally to not fucking ask for a strawberry tart from her. He's genuinely curious as to what it tastes like but knows that Trey would grill his ass into knowing which one was better and would face Dorm Card Trey Consequences. 

Trey Clover:

Rebel and always has been.

He's great friends with Lizzie due to her being kinda just a tamer Riddle.

Friends with Kitty and Maddie as well.

Has had baking contests with Ginger. (Friendly? maybe.)

Midkey respects Daring for having that pearly white of teeth. He's a little jealous, but Trey has the leg up because Daring is kinda vapid.

Is weirdly close with Mad Hatter cuz Trey is always able to concoct whatever weird flavor he's asked for.

Cater Diamond:

He's a Rebel 4lifer

He and Goldie are fucking ride or die besties. Swapping influencer tips? Yes. I bet they even got matching endorsements.

Him and Maddie are besties but not as much. He likes how bubbly she is.

Cater also really gets along with Briar and they're able to connect a little about insecurities and socializing stress.

Cater would fucking love it here everything is so aesthetic and his Magicam would blow tf up plus he's so girlie pop I don't think the transition would be that hard for him. He fits in really well.

Deuce Spade:

Rebel 

NGL him and Ace also fit into EAH really well they're good people (most of the time) and their flaws are light hearted enough to survive transplanting. Deuce is just a lil ditzy and has some anger issues but really loves his mom and baby chickens??? Just a little guy energy.

He would get along well with Cerise imo. Their vibes are similar to me, that is the best explanation I have.

Probably has a crush on Raven he also relates somewhat to the bad past but wants to be good things.

Ace Trappola:

Rebel

Ace is a shitter. Fucking asshole goofster. But he has a pretty decent head on his shoulders.

Really gets along with Kitty being two shitsers.

Strangely good friends with Lizzie. I mean if you're gonna rule at least be fair yeah?

Epel Felmier:

Rebel

He's absolute BESTIES with Darling. Because they're both feminine and want to break out of what life has assigned them. 

He's also pretty tight with Cedar.

Wants to be friends with Ramona so so so so so fucking bad.

Vil Schoenheit:

I hate to say it but my man is a centrist.

He understands and respects the audacity the royals have to think they can force others into roles they aren't meant for. However that's kinda his whole fucking issue in life. He doesn't mind some of the Royals, Apple is certainly more bearable than Neige and I'm certain that Vil can see right through her.

Sympathizes with Apple honestly. He'd want to like this Evil Queen and has pointed out her good points like being strong at magic and a good manipulator but also she's kinda a bitch so womp womp.

Totally gets along with Raven he's like the midpoint between the two.

Is very annoyed by Goldie.

Hangs out with Cupid and Rook sometimes. 

Good friends with and commiserates with Duchess.

Rook Hunt:

Rebel ofc bb

Bro if so girly pop and hangs out with Cupid. They go on about pretty things and love together. He and Vil encourage her to go after Dexter.

He's aloof enough to fit into the EAH verse.

Does his rounds with the cast susing them out. Has the Leona infatuation with Ramona. 

Isn't fond of Goldie she's too keen to pry into his life.

Idia Shroud:

Is a Doomer Royal with Rebel sentiments.

Bro is maybe too sad for EAH but the books are a lil kwazy soo…

He hangs out with the gamer boys sometimes like Humphrey and Dexter if he has to socialize.

Would rather hang with Ortho but Ortho is hanging out with Cedar.

Fucking hates it here.

Ortho Shroud:

Bro fucking LOVES it here. Absolute Rebel.

He and Cedar are FAST FAST friends for being non human humans.

Loves hanging with Maddie and the girls.

Probably has like a shitpost Snap/Insta with the wackiest fucking pictures of himself, Cedar. Briar, Raven and Maddie. Like drunk college kid shit, tiddlywinks and necromancy.

Is everyone's little brother and he fucking THRIVES being able to be an enabled little shitter. No clue who helped Kitty and Ace with their latest prank. Couldn't be sweet Ortho! He's just a little guy!

Azul Ashengrotto:

Considered a neutral student for business, but is very much a pragmatist about it whatever the fuck that means lmao. He's a Rebel

Is both sad and relieved there aren't more eels.

He and Hopper are besties tho.

Suave cool guys sometimes and fucking trainwrecks otherwise? Kinnies even

Becomes lowkey midkey hydrophobic upon learning Meeshell turns fishy when wet.

Jade and Floyd:

Both Rebels ofc

Floyd and Jade are living it tf up.

Jade is investigating new mushrooms

Floyd is fucking shit up everywhere he goes and teaching them basketball or learning their basketball.

OFC Floyd has the nicknames on DECK

Maddie likes Floyd's silly nicknames and isn't so fond of him being mean sometimes.

She's also like mildly scared of Jade but he's nice to her dad and they talk about mushroom tea and treats so he's okay in her book.

Floyd always be racing Ramona or Cerise or doing some dumb shit with Briar.

Jade does his girlboss info gathering like in the one vignette with Vil where he looks so pathetically malewife.

Cedar is kept very very far from them.

Jamil Viper:

Rebel and honestly most of them are.

Surprisingly hangs out with Justine and Duchess. 

They be dancing N shit y'know.

Surprisingly gets along with Ashlynn.

Hangs out with Duchess when she gets fed up with Leona.

They vent about Kalim and Princess.

Kalim Al-Asim

Rebel but is so bubbly and sympathetic he's almost a centrist.

Kalim is so sweet he'd be like "Yeah Apple I totally get you wanna be queen and stuff but it makes Raven sad. :((("

Man is living it UP per usual.

He's hanging with every single person he can.

Absolute besties with Briar and Melody.

He's such a ball of sunshine.

He'd be so fucking happy here.

Leona Kingscholar:

Rebel ofc and would be a lot more dramatic about it than Raven is/was.

She ripped the page out of the Book of Legends? Bestie Leona would've dusted the whole thing like Azul's contracts. 👀 👀

Okay that's exaggerating he would've done the same thing.. Maybe

Honestly jokes aside he'd be more akin to Idia. A doomer rebel. 

He bothers tf out of Duchess and they're actually good friends.

Her drive to succeed kinda invigorates him.

Honestly bro is the same as ever. He eeps, he eats, he makes Ruggie do shit. 

SIKE!!!

Leona in the EAHverse would come to be like a god-tier version of himself. It would force his character development into being better than Falena imo. Yeah you could look at him and say he's just laze around, but in the middle of not only a class, but a life threatening conflict that is so deeply entwined with his actual life? If you ask me a PostOB! Leona would be all OVER this shit. He would be making full on plans and figuring shit out like well…a king. *laugh track*

Maybe then he'd like leave Ruggie alone or have a heart to heart with Ruggie or some cool emotionally mature shit. 

Ruggie Bucchi:

So audaciously a Rebel.

He hangs a lot with Maddie and Ashlynn.

Rosabella is also very nice to him. They're like sibs imo. She tells him to be nicer he tells her she's short or smthn and gives her backbone a boost.

Ruggie with a more developed Leona and with something solid to stand for would be a force to be reckoned with ngl. Even tho I think Ruggie has the weird trauma impulse that he has to earn his keep or earn others love for him so while I think Leona would be nicer to Ruggie part of that kindness is the unspoken way Leona lets Ruggie "steal" from him or do his laundry or whatever to feel like he has "earned" that money or food when those are just things people should do for you or do their best to provide for you because you exist and you are loved and cared for.

Anyway I just think we'd get a softer and a bit less cynical Ruggie. Not less crafty tho.

Jack Howl:

Rebel obvi.

Absolute besties with the Wolf sisters.

They do wolf things together.

Honestly I don't think much would change for him.

He'd be with the Savannaclaw boys being huge Rebel activists because of course they are. <3

Malleus Draconia:

Conflicted but ultimately a Rebel. Understands that people have things they need to do but they should be afforded the choice if possible.

HUGE HUGE BESTIES with Raven. Goth Girlies Unite!!!

Being around Raven and Maddie alot does WONDERS with him being more social and approachable. Maddie is their "cute item"

Hangs out with Cupid a lot after hearing about an old Gargoyle friend she had and REALLY wants to go to Monster High and meet her.

Fucking hates Faybelle. Thinks it's uncouth to crash parties.

Gets so so sad just looking or thinking about Briar.

They're mega besties tho and he like apologizes several times over even though it wasn't his Thorn Fairy that caused this. Immortality sucks dick.

She tells him to chill and shows him how to work a phone. /hj

They cry into ice cream and go on adventures a lot.

Lilia Vanrouge:

Rebel silly

Bro loves it here. The people are so spookable and he's just a cute little guy y'know!

He dispenses his wisdom and has an official ban from all kitchens so decreed by a combined front of (everyone) but mostly Ginger, Trey, and the Crumbs.

Hangs out mostly gaming but also with Poppy!

Poppy does his hair all the time, mostly via magic for funsies.

Also hangs with Kitty and Courtly.

Silver:

Rebel (He's his father's son)

Fits in so well. Really looks like one of the Charmings.

Hangs out mostly with Darling and Chase.

He has a one sided blood feud with both Hunter and Apple.

He's so princely and he's surrounded by birds and is in nature all the time??

Apple thinks he's coming for her place being so pretty when sleeping and surrounded by forest animals and flowers?? C'mon man wtf??

Hunter thinks he's coming for his girlfriend because Silver was nice to/talked to Ashlynn ONCE.

Bro can't catch a break from Briar either. She's the opp of his sleepiness. 

Sebek Zigvolt:

Sebek would be whatever Malleus is because loyalty. He is in all honesty so truly deeply conflicted.

All he wants to do is be a good knight for Malleus. He has wanted this forever. It's like his destiny. But then again he kinda (maybe? Idk I haven't read chapter 7 anything) got to choose this. But he should be loyal to whatever it is Malleus chooses, but what if in this world the book chose some STRANGER to be Malleus' knight and not him? AND THEN WHAT IF

In short he's very likely a Rebel he's just gotta get their. 

Crisis of Identity part 2 aka (I've conquered my internalized racism at being part human but now I'm not sure who I am personality and morality wise. What a conundrum! The Musical The Series The Musical.)

He hangs out with Darling and Chase as well.

Is also pretty close with Cerise and Raven.

All in all things would go pretty well together not that ANY of what I said explains that, but in long:

EAH is based on the idea of Destiny v.s Free Will and talks about the deep seeded fears and problems that would come from a society that tells you you must be one thing your whole life when you want to be another. Which goes very well with how the Overblots happen. 

Riddle is pressured and abused by his mother to be a perfect star child and that pressure is too much for him and he snaps. 

Leona is always considered second best and less than his brother. 

Azul has a poorly written (imo) overblot but he wants to feel comfortable in his own skin and feels he needs to do so by being in total control of every situation so he can look good and not feel inferior, as he was bullied in his childhood.

Jamil has to downplay himself to make Kalim look better and is made to live a life where he can never be his true self. 

Vil also has a poorly written overblot (imo) but he wants to feel loved and appreciated and to not be the villain he's always casted as. (Literally Raven's ENTIRE thing)

Idia wants to be a hero, and cope with the guilt of feeling like he killed his brother.

Malleus is grappling with mortality and not having a "proper" family. (Briar does the first half of this in the show)

EAH also does bend and change these "destinies"

Darling being Apple's "Prince"

Daring being with Rosabella when he was certain he'd be with Apple.

In the books, Cedar coming to terms with "being human" without having to be made of physical flesh and bone or being actually human. Thus disregarding the need for her story. 

Apple being the more ruthless between her and Raven when she is supposed to be kind and sweet.

Red and Big Bad being together.

In the books again, Brooke interacting with the story. 

So in long with shit for details and no real argument. I think Ever After High and TWST would make a great crossover and maybe I just want more people to do more idk modern(??) things with EAH. But also I'm a sucker for X but a Highschool/College thing.

[codewitch]

I have two thoughts on the election as someone who’s been watching social media outside of tumblr:

1. The whole country seems to have moved right since the pandemic. Young men want women subjugated. Young women don’t want to work, they want to be trad wives. Everyone hated being asked to inconvenience themselves slightly in order to not spread Covid. Everyone, even the left, is mad about inflation. Very few people are talking about feminism, anti-racism, or climate change anymore.

2. I don’t think campaigns matter anymore. Trump ran a dogshit campaign. He zoned out for 40 minutes on stage and no one cared. Online vibes are the campaign, and I think only the far right has realized this. Nothing Trump actually does matters because his voters have been funneled into algorithm holes/websites that paint him as a god king who will bring salvation and crush everyone you don’t like. Kamala was doing best when people inexplicably memed about her being brat. But that faded and no amount of full rallies or door knocking campaigns could make up for most people just spending most of their lives online.

To be real, I don’t know what she could have campaigned on that would have done better. Everyone hates Biden. She can’t campaign on his wins, like the inflation reduction act, because nobody cares about that even if it was a good win. She can’t campaign on student loan forgiveness because Biden tried that multiple times for it to only be blocked by republican appointed judges, and democrats can’t campaign on “we tried so hard but the republicans stopped us” because nobody ever cares about that. She could’ve campaigned more on reproductive rights. I honestly don’t know if campaigning on ending the genocide would’ve helped her. It could’ve fixed the online vibe problem if people believed her, but I genuinely fear that the vast majority of Americans don’t care about the genocide and want America to keep its presence in the Middle East because they’ll kill anybody for cheap gas.

I don’t know how to get this country back on track. I’m certain the democrats will continue to move right in response if left to their own devices. They will continue to be stuck cleaning up whatever economic crash the republicans cause. I think if the left wants to claw back ground, we need to hold a cohesive front. Be the cool guys everyone wants to be a part of. Be the ones who will help you out, because capitalism really is the enemy. Make people feel good to agree with you. Energize each other, because how can we fight them if we’re burnt out fighting each other? And run for political office, so we can start the work of replacing the centrist democrats. If we can start a good groundswell now, there’s a chance we can make an impact by next election, and maybe the democrats won’t veer so right.