#Immigrant vs. non-immigrant differences

[usadvlottery]

Discover the nuances of U.S. visas in 'Unlocking the Secrets of U.S. Visas: Immigrant vs. Non-Immigrant Options.' This guide unveils the distinctions between temporary and permanent stays, providing insights into eligibility criteria and demystifying the intricacies of the U.S. visa landscape.

[anna-no-emma]

You know those Son of Batman, Batman vs, Robin animated movies? Like the ones that introduced Damian to the DC animated movies ecosystem?

Well, they really bothered me when they came out. It felt like everyone was being unfair towards Damian, borderline cruel. And I do understand these are extraordinary circumstances. Literal lives hang in the balance because your dealing with an 11 year old ninja-assassin. But let me lay out what got to me.

Firstly, I hated the way he was trapped in a house by people he did not trust. It's not the same as being grounded. With grounding, normally, the groundee understands the perimeters of the grounding. They know they are in no real danger, they know the grounding will end, and they are allowed to go to school and/or go out with a parent if it's weekend/holiday.

This is not the case for Damian. All he knows is he is not allowed to leave a house that belongs to a semi-stranger. He does not know when it will end, not really. And while he probably doesn't feel threatened by the bats, due to believing he is more dangerous than them, he is surrounded by grown-ups he doesn't really trust. Any person is going to feel uneasy under these circumstances.

And, this is my second point, the grown-ups aren't really explaining anything to him. They are laying the vague parameters of what they want out. But no-one is like checking in with his take on it all or his feelings.

They're also doing the equivalent of when someone tells you to get ready or you will be in trouble, but you don't know if that means showering, or just dressing, and what venue you should be dressing for. And they take you asking them as 'giving them attitude' because of course you know what they mean, it's so obvious, so they get cross instead of breaking the task down for you. Very long, very autistic-specific example but you get what I mean. You can't do something you don't know how to do.

And Damian is difficult and dangerous, don't get me wrong. And you need experience really talking to 'difficult' children who don't like explaining their feelings/thoughts to have any idea how to approach this.

And, yeah, the odds of Damian taking any of it on board are basically non-existent. But it's just unfair to dish out punishments without setting up clear guidelines, that you make sure the child understands, you know? And to assume certain things are obvious.

I guess I'm also looking at it from a culture shock perspective (obviously ninja-assassin mountain land doesn't really fit into the diaspora cannon but stay with me). Like when you come to a new country, you don't know what the norms are. You either learn through humiliation or through someone kind showing you.

And nobody bothered to show Damian. They just said some vague things to him that didn't even slightly fit into his framework of how the world works and then beat him up a whole lot and then just expected him to trust that they were right about everything.

They gave him no grace, not the way they would have given an immigrant or a tourist or a hot, red-headed alien that learns languages through sucking tongue (btw, said alien was defs murdering when she rocked up in the movies. It just wasn't people that she was killing so it was, apparently, all good).

And, yes, again this is a stabby-murder kid so the stakes are different. But for the love of god, explain things to him, properly, before you beat him up.

And Damian doesn't comes from a talking-about-your-feelings-and-tell-your-dad-your-feelng-rejected place. He also comes from a hurt-or-be-hurt place. And a place where criminals do get killed. That is due process. He doesn't necessarily have an understanding of why democratic due process is like that because he literally grew up under a dictator, you know?

And again, I'm not saying that he would have taken any of these things on board even if they had explained it. I'm just saying that they could have communicated better and laid out parameters better. And, yeah, if they had it wouldn't have been such a dramatic movie.

But I just don't like this idea that only Damian is to blame for this situation. Damian is just a kid having a somewhat valid, albeit deadly, crash-out given the circumstances.

[loriache]

World Map Notes: the Elven Northern & Southern Central Continents

These nations are where all the elves in the story except Marcille and Thistle are from. This post collects all the information I could find about these two nations, and included a bit of analysis based on that information.

TL;DR (includes both fact and my speculation):

The Northern Central Continent is a feudal monarchy with a strong class system, as well as strict borders, & could probably be considered an ethnostate. It's deeply hierarchical, and the queen is a traditionalist - so it's probably very structurally biased against non-elves and half-elves.

Elves in the NCC practice cannibalism in some rural areas!

The Southern Central Continent is more diverse, with a large tallman population on its South Coast.

To elves, "Court Magicians" exclusively refer to those serving the elven queen - a prestigious role that seems likely to be only open to nobles.

The SCC may not be a monarchy, though it's not clear what kind of leadership or societal structure it does have.

The NCC will habitually take anyone involved in ancient magic as a criminal to prosecute on their terms, regardless of jurisdiction, but this depends on their political influence and ability to pressure local leaders to agree to extradite the criminal.

Elves VS Dwarves and Gnomes may have been at war around the time of the Golden Kingdom being sealed. This conflict also may be one of the factors pushing the kingdom to be sealed in the first place.

The "Central Region" might be the origin of the "Common Tongue" that our characters speak.

Northern Central Continent

The Adventurer's Bible | p. 132

For this place to have a high quality of life, and also a declining population - especially when it's so close to the Western Continent, which is stated to have poor quality of life - there must be strictly maintained borders and a strong anti-immigration policy. Based on the attitude of the elves, I wouldn't be surprised if it was very difficult to move there unless you are also an elf.

It could probably be considered an ethnostate - and while in these kinds of fantasy worlds, that's pretty common. Take Rivendell, or Moria, in LOTR - they take for granted that these kinds of different fantasy races will live in separate communities.

But that isn't actually realistic, and I think Kui has considered it as more of a politically established status quo rather than an obvious natural result of having magically distinct "races". Which, even in Dunmeshi, I think is a difficult and not-terribly-accurate way to represent politics - racism does not emerge from actual, physical differences between races, after all.

But Dunmeshi's presentation of this idea is interesting, because of the recognition that if there is an "elven nation" which prioritises the interests and rights of elves over other races, that is because there's a deliberate, concerted effort to keep it that way.

But there's a small section of the NCC with a high tallman population - I wonder what kind of community they have, and how they fit into the strict elven hierarchy?

The Adventurer's Bible | pp. 134 & 136

Kabru and Rin, and other kids like them, who are adopted or taken as adopted children(rarely - the way Milsiril treats Kabru is not perfect, but she's deliberately attempting to be better than other elves.... meaning other elves are usually worse)/pets/objects by elven nobles, as well as accomplished or notable individuals who earn the elves' favour/are "invited" to stay (such as they try with Laios at the end of the story) would be an exception.

Other long-lived races could probably (...?) visit, but given the historical conflict between elves, dwarves, and gnomes, I think they'd also be pretty hostile to many of them coming to live on the NCC, even if they see them as more like equals.

Social Structure & Nobility

The Northern Central Continent is an absolute monarchy under a 372 year old queen, Heimeya (IDK what the official romanisation of her name will be).

...With extended "nobility", which are the group that the canaries' guards draw from. We don't get much clarification of what sort of structure their nobility has, what titles there are, and where our characters who are nobles fall into it.

Pattadol (House of Vari), Mithrun (House of Kerensil), and Milsiril (House of Tol) are nobles.

Mithrun's noble house, Kerensil, is apparently a well-known family of investors! I wonder what sorts of businesses they invest in & what the elven economy is like?

Milsiril's house, on the other hand, is a well-known military family. I wonder if Kabru could claim the surname "of the House of Tol". He did go to family gatherings after all. But if he was comfortable doing so and it would be accepted, I would assume he'd have done so when introducing himself to the canaries.

Flamela is a distant relative of the queen, who has additional status due to exhibiting the genetic trait associated with their queens, extremely dark skin.

The queen is a "staunch traditionalist" who wouldn't even acknowledge a half-elf like Marcille. Nice! I really feel bad for Kabru and Rin growing up as tallmen in this sort of culture.

Court Magicians

While generally this is a term for any magic user who serves in a royal court, in the Northern Central Continent it seems to carry a lot of esteem; even just as the daughter of one, Pattadol assumes Marcille has the right to boss her around and to handle highly secret, highly illegal ancient magic secrets.

That makes sense, as in the society of the Northern Central Continent, you'd be directly serving the elven queen. But also, she has enough Court Magicians that Pattadol would not expect to know Marcille's mother's name, but few enough that it would be a big deal and Cithis would know about it if one had a half-elf child.

I don't think it's remotely unlikely based on that to assume that this role is only available to nobles.

A "Court Magician" who doesn't serve the NCC Queen isn't a "real" Court Magician in the eyes of NCC elves. Those short-lived monarchs would be happy just to have an elf around regardless of whether they were actually any good at magic.... according to Cithis.

Magic seems very important to the society of the NCC elves. The queen communicates with her subordinates via familar, and the birds we see surrounding her seem like they are some kind of magic - perhaps not familiars since we see her familiar, but some other kind of scrying?

Also, based on the fact Pattadol assumes a Court Magician would be serving the Queen of the NCC, we can theorise that perhaps whatever structure the SCC has, it isn't a monarchy....? Heimeya is "the queen of the elves", after all - that doesn't sound like there's another elven monarch competing for the title just next door.

Ordinary People

Apparently the NCC is a safe place and life is easy -- but given the strict class system, I kind of expect that varies a lot depending on the family you're born into.

The only elves we meet who are not nobles are the convicted criminal canaries, so it's hard to get a sense of what life is like for them from that. Cithis was apparently a wealthy fortune teller with "an intense jealousy for those born noble or wealthy." So I assume she was not born into comfort.

Apparently "There are also primitive villages deep in the woods and underground, and in some regions cannibalism is still practiced." Which is awesome. Based on her videogame elves art I think Kui's probably making a little nod to Divinity: Original Sin elves, who can absorb memories through eating the flesh of others. Elves in dungeon meshi don't have this trait, but I wonder if there is a magical ritual or some kind of cultural practice with a similar intention.

Cuisine

Marcille's mother didn't think much of the elven cuisine.

Liricmumwarel is fancy candy given out by the elven queen the shape of which conveys blessings.

Elf Cake is a crumbly dry cake that Kabru and Thistle don't think much of. I've heard someone discuss what it's likely to be made of, but I am afraid I don't recall.

Southern Central Continent

The Adventurer's Bible | p. 132

It seems like the Southern Central Continent gets a lot more immigration and has a more diverse population, especially along the south coast (near the Western Continent). That south coast has a high tallman population.

Fleki and Lycion are from the Southern Central Continent. Fleki got into ancient magic for the money, so you can assume there's probably class disparity there too; things are noted by Kui to be more "disorganised" than the NCC. Not a bad thing at all - the NCC is definitely too "organised" in my books. But that does potentially also mean there's less, e.g., bureaucracy, central organisation, less of a social safety net. But then again, in the NCC I doubt that whatever "safety net" there is, is available to everyone.

We can't extrapolate much from Fleki & Lycion's personalities, because they clearly aren't in the most stable societal position, and I get the sense that they're the countercultural type - they probably don't represent the type of person typical to the SCC. Also, our NCC characters are all either nobles or used to navigating high society (Cithis, Kabru to an extent) so they aren't exactly a typical "ordinary NCC person" as a basis for comparison either. However, there's less of a "strict set of social rules" type of feel to the SCC characters, fitting with my suggestion that the SCC may not be a society with a strong feudal element.

Geopolitics & Conflict

The fact that, despite their being from the SCC, Fleki and Lycion are in the Canaries, who work directly under the NCC's Queen, implies that the the NCC feel entitled to process and prosecute people who commit ancient magic-related crimes regardless of any notion of "jurisdiction". This is backed up by the way that they were going to take Marcille - but that is something that the governor of the Island had to give permission for, which Laios is able to withdraw. So I assume that the NCC elves apply pressure on various world leaders to extradite criminals involved in ancient magic.

The SCC would cooperate with this, since they're allies, even if they don't have a great relationship (according to the World Guide).

The NCC are also clearly able to take half-foots without trouble, as we see by Chilchuck saying he's known half-foots who got involved with "black magic" (ancient magic) and were disappeared by the elves. But I doubt gnomes or dwarves are giving people up easily - though that probably doesn't go for dwarves like Senshi and Namari, without strong community ties.

Long before the current times, elves fought dwarves & gnomes. There might have been more than one of these conflicts...? While long ago, this war isn't "ancient" (like the ancients who sealed the demon into dungeons, before their world was mostly destroyed by it).

Thistle, Delgal, and the Golden Kingdom were (I believe) caught up in one of these conflicts, which used Melini as a staging ground - thus why Thistle was pushed to seal the entire kingdom in the dungeon.

To do this, Thistle unseals a dungeon created by the "ancient people". These could be the "ancients" who created the dungeons, before the apocalypse. Or they could be another, still extinct, society.

Regardless, at least one of these conflicts seems to have taken place after the golden kingdom was sealed - so, within the last 1000 years.

Though, this could refer to a different, more localised conflict between the Golden Kingdom and their dwarven neighbours.

The order of events is that the Golden Kingdom was sealed (1000 years ago or so) > Dwarves took over > Elves stole the land from the Dwarves ("long ago" by the Island Lord, a tallman's, standards) > Elves gave the land to a local lord, who was either an ancestor of the Island Lord, or the Island Lord himself. The Island Lord is himself a descendant of the lord who poisoned Delgal's father, as is noted in the World Guide. However, it isn't impossible for there to be large gaps of time between these events, which could put the elf / dwarf wars at a more recent date.

The fact we know that the elves stole the land from the dwarves, and then granted it to a political actor who was relevant during the events of the Golden Kingdom flashbacks we see suggests to me that the events were roughly contemporaneous. If they were, that puts at least one of these conflicts at roughly 1000 years ago.

So, the elf/dwarf & gnome conflict is "long ago" by short-lived standards, but would be considered "modern" by the long-lived races, if you ask me. At least, the equivalent of the World Wars for us - recent history, even if we weren't alive.

I'm guessing the "Elf King" from the below panel in fact was a word that's more gender-neutral in Japanese, since the "Western Elves" definitely have a queen.

Language

When Kabru says the "Central region" I expect he means the region where the NCC and SCC is.

The fact that he observes that the lack of any accent means he's from the Central Region is really interesting. It could mean two things;

either they switched to speaking in the language spoken on those continents, which Kabru would naturally know, having grown up there. It's 100 percent possible, but I think this would be noted in the story.

or, the language that gets called "the common tongue", the one that all our principle characters speak for most of the story, originated from the elves in the Central Continent. Or at least it's the same one that the elves use, and their political influence is great enough that their accent gets to be considered not an accent at all. The fact they were "granting" land in this area to tall-man lords suggests a large enough historical influence in the area that this is quite plausible to me.

Mithrun absolutely does have an accent - nobody speaks without an accent. His accent is just politically and socioculturally normalised to the point of being considered the "default/proper" way to speak - like received pronounciation in English.

The common tongue isn't ubiquitous everywhere - not just Kuro, but Kiki and Kaka are also noted to be studying the common tongue. The Tansus were born on the Eastern Continent, so probably gnome communities there speak their own language - Kiki and Kaka grew up primarily surrounded by gnomes after all.

It's also quite likely that Kabru, specifically, because of where he grew up, would consider Mithrun's way of talking to be the default "not an accent" accent. His adoptive mother surely has the same upper-class NCC accent. I expect that other characters might experience it as more "marked".

This isn't a world where everyone speaks the same language everywhere; the common tongue is called that, but there are many different languages. Kabru and Chilchuck are two characters who are adept with many of them - Kabru speaks the language of the kobold, and probably lots more. Chilchuck works as an interpreter as part of his union stuff - I can tell you from experience that that's a hugely valuable skillset in that context, as many of the people who most need union representation are people who don't speak the dominant language, or at least not fluently.

If you got all the way to the end of this post.... thank you for reading, I love you. Check out my other World Map Notes under that tag on my blog; I've made a few so far and there will almost certainly be more. Next I'm thinking the dwarven nations...? But I could be persuaded if someone had a preference.

Also, anyone got any speculation on what, exactly, is the previous time that Heimeya ate a person/monster/chimera that this panel implies:

We really don't have anything to go on whatsoever, but I think it's a fun tidbit.

[incognitopolls]

*Similar here meaning the people have some of the same or similar general features or traits as you, e.g. a Kenyan person moving to Ghana vs. a Kenyan person moving to Sweden.

"Similar" can be up to your personal interpretation. If you've moved to a country that has a lot of diversity, you could answer based on the race that has majority governmental power, or based on the narrower demographics of the region you moved into (e.g. someone who moved to Louisiana, US might answer differently than someone who moved to Kansas, US).

Anon went through this, and has been told it's a fairly standard thing to experience especially during puberty. They wonder how universal this actually is and if there's any difference based on whether you look like the people in your new country or not.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[disturbingstar]

Leon Scott Kennedy trivia

• Leon was only a rookie in Resident Evil 2

• I’m almost every game it’s a different actor that voices Leon

• Leon was planned to be a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom but was dropped for unknown reasons.

• The name Leon has Greek origins and means Lion. A lion puzzle is featured in Resident Evil 2

• Leon break-up with his girlfriend is pre RE2 is partly the reason he moves to raccoon city

• Leon was one of the first to know something weird was going on in Racoon city due to his interest in the largely publicized murders taking place in and around the Arklay Mountains

• Leon was portrayed by the late Brad Renfro in a 1998 ad for Resident Evil 2 directed by George Romero

• Leon was late to his first day as a cop in Racoon city because he was hungover

•He joined STRATCOM to protect Sherry

• Leon is an Italian American immigrant

• More than 70% of players played Leon first in Resident Evil 2

• Leon's name can be a reference to the character of Jean Reno in the film The Professional. In the feature, Natalie Portman's character is called Mathilda, the same name as the special weapon used by Leon in Resident Evil 4

• Leon has appeared in several non-Resident evil games

[tanadrin]

i don't have any special insights or strong evidence for this, this is 1000% just Political Vibes, but i feel like there's a good chance this phase of political development sees a realignment that cashes out in, on the one hand, what you might call "revisionist ideology" opposed to "status quo ideology." and here by "revisionist" i mean the term in the way bret devereaux uses the term "revisionist powers," i.e., states that seek to challenge the current international diplomatic order, vs. the "coalition of the status quo" (roughly, but not 100%, the West/Global North/NATO+allies).

by modern standards the revisionist faction is made up of both left and right elements; the coinciding forces here isn't horseshoe theory all-non-liberals-are-the-same type stuff, but simply an alignment of what are in some respects ideologies coming out of very different traditions that are brought together by circumstance. part of this circumstance is that both are nostalgic: tankies who miss the USSR, right-wing populists who miss not having so many immigrants around, social conservatives who miss getting to call gay and trans people slurs, etc. There's a strain of strongman authoritarianism, social conservatism, and economic populism that cuts across what used to be historically very different categories, which is why you see leftist commentators who have defined themselves primarily through their opposition to liberalism rather than right-wing reaction arguing themselves into supporting trumpism; why socially-conservative parties who nonetheless claim the mantle of leftism, like BSW, can cannibalize a lot of the leftist vote in countries like Germany (or, in other countries, the former Marxist-Leninist parties just become outright conservatives and nationalists)--and the germ of this kind of shit goes back as far as like the original red-brown third way types from the 20th century, it's not like the angry contary reactionaries on both the left and right just now noticed they had stuff in common!

but one reason i am cautious about this thesis is that i think this is a type overrepresented online; and i am cautious about extrapolating too enthusiastically to the real world. i suspect that at some point somebody like sahra wagenknecht is going to realize she has quite a lot in common with someone like alice weidel. but maybe not! maybe i am too cynical.

and the "status quo" ideology is not, like, Objectively The Good Guys, here. this is the liberal, rule of law faction, but it's also the unabashedly capitalist faction, and in many ways the neoliberal faction, too--one that includes a lot of left-liberals, too, but left liberals who by virtue of finding themselves making common cause with other flavors of liberal are going to find their power diluted. and this is a faction that is happy to embrace social freedoms, albeit within certain frameworks: the "we heart gay prison guards" guys, in other words. insofar as it is the party of the status quo it's also the party that finds it harder to imagine things could be better, to push the envelope in terms of policy or even to provide a strong ideological account of what the world should be working toward. the pure grievance-and-xenophobia politics of revisionist politics don't provide much of a narrative in that department, either, but at least they provide someone to blame, and promise the catharsis of taking your anger out on the hated outgroup.

i think this would be a pretty dismal politics, but i think it would be a stable equilibrium for a while--at least as stable as left vs right proved for much of the 20th century. i think there are also a lot of other ways for the zillions of tiny incentive gradients and interest groups that make up society to align themselves in broad political dichotomies, though. i don't think there's anything inevitable or necessary about this alignment, anymore than there was about left vs right or, before that, court vs country or barons vs emperor or guelphs vs ghibellines or populares vs optimates. so if we do find ourselves there i think that's a trap we can escape--if we care to

[gothcsz]

You can’t just brand everyone who disagrees with you a racist. I am immigrant from a low socioeconomic background, I am black, and often black people in the U.S. miss how important those other parts of my identity are in shaping me beyond just my being black. It is a cheap shot trivializing serious struggles. You are entitled to your opinions about an online space and people might clash with you over your take on how to move on a fandom, but slapping that label of racist on them shuts down the conversation. This hurts folks at identity intersections… you’re muddling shit down to THEY ARE RACIST. THE END. While you’re here arguing online, people in warzones like Gaza or Sudan are dodging bombs, starving, or losing family. Their daily hell, displacement, grief, no clean water, makes these keyboard crusades look fucking pathetic. And overusing “racist” dilutes the term, distracting from their urgent realities and making it harder to call out actual bigotry. Stop weaponizing serious issues. It is correct to call someone out who called you a slur, but if people want to write something the same expression that allows them to do what they’re doing is what is allowing you to do what you’re doing.

You can’t just brand everyone who disagrees with you a racist.

i dont. and also i dont think you guys really understand what racism even is. it's not just a big overt thing, i mean it can be.... just look at who the fuck is in office here in the united states. people can be loud and proud about their racism.

it's the microaggressions. the interactions with non white followers/readers. the media that is consumed and the criticism of it. all of that is under the umbrella of racism. so sure, the people that have been mentioned in these asks aren't full blown bigots that are waving a white supremacy flag and saying they hate the black and brown people—but some are continuing to contribute to whiteness of it all. (the reader insert fics being white coded as fuck. being weird about virginity/innocence. moodbaords only including white cis women. barely any support for bipoc authors unless it's that time of the month where everyone all of the sudden wants to be all inclusive just to say that they are) or worse, they're silent when these conversations are happening.

and we're dealing with this shit at a fandom level, so while the problems might seem small here compared to the atrocities that are happening in the world around us: it's still important for us to treat these problems accordingly?? especially in a place where we have a little more control over it and can be more mindful of people that make up this fandom (a fandom for a brown man mind you.. that shit blows me every time)

I am immigrant from a low socioeconomic background, I am black, and often black people in the U.S. miss how important those other parts of my identity are in shaping me beyond just my being black.

this is a whole other conversation that i'm not certain this fandom has the capacity to handle. black usamericans and black people from other countries can sometimes see issues from different perspectives that are conflicting solely because of how racism looks in america vs the rest of the world.

While you’re here arguing online, people in warzones like Gaza or Sudan are dodging bombs, starving, or losing family. Their daily hell, displacement, grief, no clean water, makes these keyboard crusades look fucking pathetic.

you don't think majority of us recognize this? that we're not actively thinking about all of this in our day to day lives? how most of us have hella anxiety bc of it? bc we can't do shit about it bc we live in times where the government has instilled such fear into people that we feel helpless?? two things can be true and happening at once, that doesn't negate the other. stop trying to play oppression olympics.

Stop weaponizing serious issues.

literally no one here is doing that. except you, maybe, since you felt the need to bring up genocides while we're trying to have a discussion about racism in fandom.

[cazort]

I have seen a post circulating that talks about US politics and basically insinuates that in the upcoming presidential election, Biden is "99% Hitler" and Trump is "100% Hitler" and it makes me so frustrated that people can't see this as the disinformation and anti-vote propaganda that it is.

I'm intensely frustrated with Biden for how he has acted too little, too late on the Palestine issue, and how the U.S. continues to send billions in arms to Israel. And yet I'm going to be voting for him, and the analogy above is hugely dishonest. There is a massive difference between Biden and Trump:

The Biden administration and Democrats have strongly and unambiguously protected abortion rights, whereas Donald Trump appointed three supreme court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade, and Republicans have across-the-board passed draconian abortion restrictions far more conservative than even their base.

Biden and the Democrats are strongly pro-LGBTQ rights including trans rights, at a time when Republicans are threatening trans rights in every state they control, and when even mainstream, "center-left" publications like the NY Times have been publishing transphobic drivel.

The Biden administration continues to expand healthcare access and work to control costs whereas the Trump administration worked to undermine much of the coverage we had.

The Trump administration was hopelessly corrupt and dysfunctional, with turnover in most appointed positions, scandal after scandal. Trump committed crime after crime in plain view, and incited an insurrection when he lost the election and has continued to back conspiracy theories undermining the very foundation of our democracy. Biden has been a relatively straightforward, "what you see is what you get" politician over his whole career, with a sort of level of flaws and corruption that is more typical of politics.

Trump had unprecedented anti-immigrant stances and under him, life became much more difficult for immigrants to the US as well as for non-citizens living here legally. Biden's administration has tried and worked against tough resistance to reverse many of the worst immigration changes made under the Trump administration, including doing things like giving 320,000 Venezuelans temporary protected status as refugees, trying to halt the border wall construction, and increasing legal immigration across-the-board.

Biden's rhetoric has become more critical of Israel over time, Biden has called for regime change and the ousting of Netanyahu, and under Biden the US Ambassador finally stopped voting against a ceasefire resolution and only abstained. Whereas Trump and the Republican's rhetoric has retained entirely critical of Palestinians and not at all critical of Israel, and Republicans have consistently supported draconian restrictions such as bans on BDS and some even introducing legislation banning referring to the region as Palestine. And weeks back, when public sentiment was not as anti-Israel as it is now, several Democrats voted for scrutiny to the Israeli military aid, whereas only one Republican did.

I am highly critical of Biden and I too am appalled that he's still running and that we don't have a better candidate who even ran in the primary. But it's far from truthful to say there is only a 1% difference between Biden and Trump, and even more dishonest and inaccurate to call Biden "99% Hitler", that's crazy talk and it serves only one purpose: to demotivate people and suppress voting.

There is a huge difference between these candidates. They will affect my daily life and your daily life and they will affect the whole world and they will affect Palestine.

Do you want a better candidate? Do you want to vote for an idealistic third-party candidate as a protest vote?

Support ranked choice voting first. Then, if you are in a state like Maine or Alaska that allows ranked choice for the president, vote for your ideal candidates and place Biden however low you want and then omit Trump entirely.

But if you do not have ranked choice in your state, especially if you live in a swing state, vote for Biden. And make sure to also join a movement that advances ranked choice, ideally Total Vote Runoff (TVR) as that is the best system for ranked choice.

[daughterofevil158]

“but i am forced to drag akiretsu's corpse with me like jesus did the crucifix” NO SAME AKIRETSU HAS BEEN MY OBSESSED FOR A WHILE LMAO

But I just realized like.. Lets be honest, Damon doesn’t give off the vibe that he makes a lot of friends, in fact I’m pretty sure it’s implied somewhere that he’s pretty lonely

So that means that Damon, who’s very socially awkward and probably has a lot of trouble socializing normally, is now forced to interact with all of his soulmates. This poor man is probably having the most awkward time ever

Combine that with who are probably the more clingy soulmates, he must be having a GREAT time

pjeg is gonna end with wolfgang getting resurrected easter-jesus-style and dipping damon into a kiss while tozu wipes a tear from his eye and says "this truly was our project: eden's garden" trust me tako told me themself

I imagine that for soulmate aus in general, they get hyped up for kids the way fairy-tale love is for kids irl, with the caveat of there being a literal bond from the soulmark. Like, from a young age people are told that "there are people out there who will truly understand you and you'll understand them" but without mentioning that you have to put the effort into it to get to that level. Something that's technically true but greatly oversimplified, if that makes sense.

And I see Damon in this au trying to makes friends in middle/high school because odds are, with that many soulmates, there are gonna be some who are completely different from him in terms of personality and the like. Part of his attempts failing is because of his naturally blunt demeanor and social unawareness (big maitsu=autism believer here), but it's also because kids would definitely be jealous over the soulmate thing. So much verbal bullying about how Damon's an asshole who doesn't deserve that many soulmates, and "I feel bad for the poor schmucks who have to deal with him." On top of any bullying he might've gotten for being an immigrant and a nerd in the debate club, to put it bluntly.

(Damon doesn't "complain" about it to his parents, teachers, or his writer soulmate tho. He's better than those who mock him and he's gonna prove it one day. But now there's a little snake in his head spewing venomous words that his soulmates will think the same upon meeting hm. In a few years, that snake is gonna bite Wolfgang in the ass hard lol)

So man's got trust issues, goes to EGA, finds out that somehow all of his soulmates are there at once and he has to deal with that instead of it being a situation where a few trickle into his life at a time like he though it would be. (Like, imagine being the only documented case of more than 6 soulmates, and you coincidentally meet all of them at once. His brain is crashing harder than a bethesda game with too many mods) Man definitely bluescreens a little the first few times he's given physical signs of affection because he's never received any from non-relatives before and isn't quite sure how to respond.

It's even worse in the KG variant cuz he's put in a situation where his head's saying no one can be trusted while his heart's pleading that you're supposed to be able to trust your soulmates (one could call this a logos vs pathos argument). Plus he and one of his soulmates were isolated because of another one (tho they didn't know at the time and it wasn't fully intentional) and- and-

And here comes Cassidy kicking his door in that night instead of the next morning with the rest of the publicly known soulmates (Ulysses, Toshiko, Diana) in tow. They're understandably a little disappointed about his words, but if soulmates were perfectly in sync from the start life would be pretty boring (and it's not the first time soulmates thought that the other's interests were boring, let's be real).

(I'm not going back on Diana being an early reveal, but funny thought: Damon goes to sleep that night hoping a potential killer goes after "makeup girl," then the next morning they brush past each other at some point and realize. Cue Damon internally screaming)

[ethan-elliott]

“We’re here we’re queer we’re coming for your kids” “oh NOO why are they calling us predators and taking away our rights? :(((“

The fact you have asked this anonymously so I can’t name, shame and block you speaks volumes and as much as I want to delete this disgusting post from my inbox, I’m putting it out there for any other people like you other there who come across my page or that of any other queer person.

Let me make one thing clear: the “coming for your kids part” (which I have personally never heard) is a JOKE in response to the people who call us predators or say that we’re trying to turn kids to our “agenda.” And the fact you can’t recognise that is part of the problem. Because people like you - and here I’m going to say the words you don’t like: TERFs, homophobes and queerphobes - is that there is an astonishing lack of critical thinking.

I assume this is in response to my post on the recent UK Supreme Court ruling. Which it’s funny you found, considering I tagged that with the trans and “trans rights are human rights” tag so if you spend your time scrolling through the tag of something you disagree with, when you could just block those tags and move on with your day, have you considered there are more worthwhile things to be doing?

Nevertheless, let me make this VERY clear. The vast majority of UK/US/right-wing media is exaggerating transgender issues or highlighting single cases as part of a wider problem while not focusing on the actual swathes of crime committed by cisgender people and the actual issues affecting society right now including poverty and the housing crisis. It is the exact same with immigration. By focusing on the minority “other” populations, people like you will blame those minorities for “the downfall of the country” and completely ignore the point. You are so blinded by hate you don’t see how increased division of us ‘normal’ (non-government) people allows those in power to get away with stripping ALL human rights they so desire. Because that is what is happening. It is not a coincidence that anti-trans groups often very much overlap with anti-abortion groups.

Since you are likely focusing on trans women as “being predators,” I’ll look at the most recent statistics around trans women.

According to the Ministry of Justice in 2019, 76 trans women in prison were sex offenders. 13,234 cisgender men in prison were sex offenders.

Already, the number of cis men sex offenders is about 174 times greater than that of trans women. This isn’t to diminish the experience of those who were assaulted by a trans person (or a queer person) or say that trans people don’t commit crime. But, statistically, a woman is far more likely to be assaulted by a cis man.

Now, if you look at how that data is presented within its study (which I will cite at the bottom of this post), the percentage of trans women in prison who are sex offenders is much higher than that of cis men. However, we first of all have to take into account that there were an estimated total of 129 trans women in prison vs 78,781 cis men. That percentage is ALWAYS going to be higher because of how significant the difference of overall prisoners is. We also have to consider the fact that, as stated in the study, prison counts often do not include or consider those with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).

Not all trans people get a GRC or may have a GRC at the time of offending. However, given the extensive process required to get one (including “proving” you have lived in your preferred gender for 2 years, already having changed your name, AND being diagnosed with gender dysphoria - and considering NHS wait times) it could be stated, for lack of a better description, that no one who is ‘faking’ being trans is going to go through that process. So, excluding those with a GRC from trans prisoner statistics is not only reducing the number of overall prisoners counted, thereby inflating that percentage I discussed, but it also gives the option for cis men to claim being trans to potentially be moved to a women’s prison. And those people are going to also inflate the number of ‘trans’ prisoners and sex offenders. Especially when you consider this is sex offences we’re talking about, certain cis men could and probably do see the system not designed for them and decide to take advantage of it.

Again, this isn’t to say that some people in that statistic are not real trans women. Some of them definitely will be. This also isn’t to say that you must have a GRC to be trans. All I’m saying is that any system is vulnerable to exploitation if there aren’t proper regulations around it or if those regulations can’t be enforced. All I’m saying is that trans women, while some may commit crime, are really not the threat to cis women you’ve been made to believe they are.

The other issue, of course, that you are also missing here is that stripping the rights of trans women under the Equality Act is (1) incredibly dehumanising to women and (2) does absolutely nothing to improve their safety.

To tackle the first issue: by defining “woman” to refer to purely assigned biological sex is stripping all women down to whatever genitalia a doctor recognised when they were born. I won’t even get into how this completely erases intersex people who may be assigned one sex but have variable characteristics, or how it is incredibly reductive when considering other differences in genitalia or chromosomes, but just know that science is proving sex isn’t as binary as has been enforced. Nevertheless, once women become nothing more than their genitalia, I mean, that’s already incredibly dehumanising, but it is also showing that the government can enforce what women are. So, if the government can say women are only their sex characteristics (crucially, the parts needed for childbirth), what’s to stop them enforcing that a woman’s primary role is childbirth and banning abortion? It is happening as we speak in America. What’s to stop them going further? I beg you to read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood because if that doesn’t open your eyes to what will happen if we let it, I don’t know what else will. (And note: I believe there is not one mention of trans people in that book.)

It’s also ignoring the fact that sex is entirely different from the social construct of gender which varies wildly depending on race, nationality, disability, sexuality, and many other factors. Western colonialism may have eradicated the history of gender variance from many cultures in the world and made us think that all women are like how we’ve enforced the concept of womanhood, but that’s entirely wrong.

To cover the second issue: no predatory (cis) man is stopped from going into the woman’s bathroom and assaulting a woman by the fact he “isn’t allowed in that bathroom.” For one thing. The whole “men are dressing up as women to go assault women” is either entirely untrue or drastically exaggerated. And it doesn’t have to be in a bathroom either, it could be anywhere. So excluding trans women from women’s spaces is doing absolutely nothing for the issue. (Also, trans women are often victims of abuse, not the perpetrators.)

The other issue of this new law in regard to women’s safety is that if you’re stating that “woman” is only your biological sex, then that technically, legally, allows fully transitioned trans men to use women’s spaces. Because legally sharing a space with a man is going to make them feel so safe, right? Further, because there is no real way to enforce such rules, cis men could easily declare that they’re actually trans men, and assigned as women, and go into women’s spaces. Even more than that, if we’re out here regulating what we think is the “right” look for women, we’re actually just harming women who don’t fit that look. Literally just this week in the news has been a case of a cis woman who has been fired from her job because someone thought she was trans. And this is far from the only instance of something like that.

So, in every single respect it can, this policy is actually incredibly harmful to all women in the UK, cis or trans. I cannot make it any clearer than that. And for your sake, I really hope you see that and use the platform you have as a (presumably) cis person to fight for our rights until they’re all taken away.

References:

-> On trans women and sex offences

-> On sexual abuse rates against trans women

-> On the exact process needed for a GRC

[pinkacademic]

Studying Language

Sorry I've been rather inactive, I'm slowly trying to get back into the swing of things!

This is something I’m actually qualified to talk about! I speak three languages fluently, albeit in need of a little practise, and I’m learning one more currently, with one on pause due to time constraints. Nevertheless, I feel pretty confident in my information lol. I’m also a qualified TEFL teacher and have worked abroad teaching English!

Full immersion is the best option. The best thing you can do is spend your time in a country that speaks your target language and force yourself to learn, once you have the “Hello,” “Goodbye,” “Where is the bathroom?” all mastered. In Ireland, there are places called Gaeltachtanna where you go for different lengths of time depending on the course and live in a town speaking exclusively Irish, usually staying with an Irish-speaking family, and going to classes for the language and for games and dances. Of course, that’s not an accesible option for everyone, so you could try going to places like your nearest Asian market, Eastern European market etc, and any areas in your city with a lot of immigrants that might speak your target language. If you have friends who speak that language, natively or just to a better level than you, ask to meet them for coffee and chat as much as you can in your language.

Immersion Part Two: Culture. The people who speak your target language natively do so not just becaus that’s the place in which they exist, but because that’s the place that they live- they get their groceries there, they go to school there, and their language developed because of the day-to-day, as well as unique aspects of their culture such as dances, music, and especially food. Learn about the culture of the country or countries that speak your target language. Eg, fold a paper crane or eat sushi if your language of choice is Japanese, watch an telenovela or go to a salsa class if your goal is to learn Spanish.

Watch TV shows in your Target Language. If you can’t access the locations, and even if you can, watching TV or movies is great because it’ll help you understand the cadences of natural speech that you can’t get from a textbook or formal class situation. Start with movies you might be familiar with like Disney movies (I will die on the hill of “Mother knows Best” from Tangled is better in Spanish). You can also combine your subtitles and audio, using subtitles in your own language at first, and challenge yourself to changing the subtitle.

Similar to the above points, use YouTube or Twitch to your advantage too. That’s probably a lot easier if your target language is English, but there are creators that speak in their non-English native language too. My friend watches a Mexican Minecraft YouTuber called Quackity who has a Minecraft server modded to feature a live translator between Spanish and English, which is very cool.

Read books in your Target Language. We don’t love The Chronicles of the Boy Wizard in this house, but the books are available in 85 languages. The Hobbit also has a tonne including Cornish, Thai, and Ukranian, and Twilight has about 37 translations, just to list a few well-known examples. Learn especially about books written originally in your target language.

Consume Media Originally from the Country or Countries that Speak that Language. Read the Witcher, watch Física o Química, join the dubbed vs subbed anime bloodbath. It can be so beneficial to your understanding of a language to see how those who speak it write it themselves, not just for localisation purposes. It can especially be useful for slang and dialects.

Duolingo and other apps. I’m swiftly approaching my 365 day duolingo streak,* and I fully intend to celebrate with pierogis and a green cake. But there are other options out there, and all of them are great for beginners. I can only speak about Duolingo as its the one I use, but I’m having a lot of fun with the layout of it. However, I do need real practice if I’m going to become actually fluent.

That’s it! I hope this has been helpful!

*I've surpassed it since writing this!! I'm at 400+!!

[partisan-by-default]

Every passing hour seems to bring a new poll showing former President Donald Trump ahead of incumbent Joe Biden, or Biden ahead of Trump. And with it, another round of BREAKING NEWS SCOOPING SCOOP alerts about the polls, plus a round of discussion on the news about whether those polls matter. 

For the audience, this constant barrage of non-news not only foments anxiety but disseminates misinformation. At a time when journalism claims to be locked in a vital fight against bad info from bad actors, the industry is reserving its greatest resources for a kind of story designed to  confuse us and tell us less, not more. 

Let’s take a recent CNN poll story, touting its own numbers that pit Trump and Biden against each other: 

Trump’s support in the poll among registered voters holds steady at 49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN’s last national poll on the race in January, while Biden’s stands at 43%, not significantly different from January’s 45%. Looking back, 55% of all Americans now say they see Trump’s presidency as a success, while 44% see it as a failure. In a January 2021 poll taken just before Trump left office and days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, 55% considered his time as president a failure.

Panic-inducing! Maddening! Terrifying! More than half of Americans want to return to office a belligerent bigot who encouraged an armed uprising of fascists attacking the U.S. Capitol to overturn a legal election. More than half of Americans think banning Muslims from immigrating and militarizing the southern border and letting another pandemic rage is a-OK. Half the country is so thoroughly marinated in right-wing propaganda that they’d let an incompetent criminal sex predator run the country and control their children’s futures. 

But it’s irrelevant. Despite its angina-inducing headlines and the reams of reactions and reflections it induced when it was first published, the poll doesn’t matter, in part due to the fact that it was a national head-to-head Biden vs. Trump poll that drew from “a random national sample of 1,212 adults drawn from a probability-based panel, including 967 registered voters.” 

[rikomoriyama01]

kinda inspired by that response u did to someone else's post. but like. it just reminded me of how different Americans see nationality/ethnicity/race to other people, and how it can come through in the things they write.. like especially fanfiction. like how everyone who isn't a white American (and sometimes even those that are) can just become stereotypes. nicky is repeatedly a victim of this, ive read so many fics that just 'exaggerate' the fact that he's Mexican, even though it makes no sense! nicky has lived in America and Germany his whole life, his dad's a racist and his mum barely speaks to him, he'd be almost completely disconnected from Mexican culture realistically, and u can kinda see that in the books. but in fics, they make him like only eat stereotypical Mexican food, speak Spanish, listen to music in Spanish... like it's nuts. they do it to riko too except he becomes the Japanese mafia racial stereotype instead. Jean suddenly being obsessed with all things French, ranting about baguettes, even though canonically he has no good memories of France and seemingly wants nothing to do with the country or culture. it drives me crazy. like. even with neil 😭 he's canonically white and American, lived in America his whole life, but suddenly a British mother means he has a strong British accent and complains about how people make tea.

am I crazy?? its like almost comical levels of stereotyping, you'd think they'd be doing it for a bit, and that post just kinda reminded me of it.

the neil vs Jean British vs French thing is crazy too. I've never heard a British and French person argue over their countries under the age of like 60. but in so many fics, usually raven neil fics, its all they wanna talk about. wtf!!

everybody who could be classed as even slightly not "100% American" suddenly becomes a stereotype. and yknow the thing that rlly gets me? the accents are always exaggerated and always mentioned. nicky has a strong Mexican accent, neil has a strong British accent, and so on... but the "100% American" characters can be from varying parts of America with widely different accents (and cultures), but you'd never know it because the writer never mentions them even having an accent. it's just so blatant and shameless, and they don't even seem to realise they're doing it. they'll have other Americans in the comments being like "I love your British neil 🥰🥺" that is not neil. that is a stereotype.

even the books themselves to a lesser extent do this... like I'm pretty sure Jean having a French accent is mentioned. which isn't bad in and of itself, but a lot of the foxes are from different parts of America but again no accent differences ever mentioned. :/

all of this in every fucking fandom just for the record the og post we talked about was written by non American but it's just .. fandom think that is repeated by people as stupid fucking joke like yes it is very normal for immigrants to move to different country and still care and cultivate their traditions but then you look at how fandom represent it and like ... the rest of the world sees you and thinks you are fucking weird for handling it this way ✌️✌️✌️

[former-leftist-jew]

i’m a little anxious to send this not on anon but i saw one of your posts where a comment mentioned jewish conversion and you seemed to support it. my boyfriend is jewish and i would like to convert to judaism but a lot of the research i’ve done says that you can’t convert, you have to be born into it since it’s an ethno-religion. i know everyone has different beliefs about this but i worry i won’t be accepted

Hello tyblackthornsheadphones, welcome!

"my boyfriend is jewish and i would like to convert to judaism"

Oooh! Mozel tov! I'm always so happy to meet new people who want to join the Jewish community! <3

"a lot of the research i’ve done says that you can’t convert, you have to be born into it since it’s an ethno-religion"

Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear that! D: There's so much misinformation being passed around online. :( Thankfully, I'm happy to report that those sources are incorrect: It IS possible to convert to Judaism. ^_^

Like any group, though, how friendly any given Jew is to potential Jewish converts depends on the individual and/or the group they belong in. Just as there's elitism and gatekeeping in every group of people ever (like high school cliques and video game circles--"you're not a REAL gamer unless X"), unfortunately you'll also find some snobbery, elitism, and gatekeeping in Judaism. :(

Though I think Rabbi Friedman has a very loving and accepting view of Jews by conversion. ^_^

The way I see it, the differing experiences of a "Jew-by-birth vs a Jew-by-conversion" can be comparable to an American citizen who was just born on American soil vs an American immigrant who had to go through a long and rigorous bureaucratic process to become an American citizen--they have to learn everything there is to know about American history, presidents, laws, customs, the legal system; spend a "probational period" living in America to become a naturalized citizen, etc.

(The Jewish religion used to be very conversion friendly, but that came to an end when Christianity and Islam became huge world powers who outlawed the Jewish community "tempting" good Christians or Muslims away from the One True Faith.

Jewish identity also used to be passed down from father to children in ancient times--as you'll see in the Torah--but that was changed by Hillel the Elder during the tyrannical reign of King Herod--yes, THAT King Herod! Hillel did this partly to give the children of Jewish mothers who were abandoned by their non-Jewish fathers a place in Jewish society, and he did this partly as a big old political "fuck you!" to King Herod, whose father was only nominally Jewish and his mother was a foreign gentile woman.)

Chabad is an Orthodox Jewish organization.

And here's a link from a Reform Judaism POV. ^_^

In my experience, Reform Jewish synagogues and organizations tend to be more accepting of and friendly to Jewish converts. (Though it's not universal! Sadly, there are snobs everywhere. D:)

So if I were you, I would just start with checking out some books on Judaism from your local library, attend Friday night or Saturday morning Shabbat services with your boyfriend (that's usually a time when non-Jewish guests attend).

If your local college has a Hillel or Chabad Jewish student organization, I would visit that too! They usually host fun events that are free and open to to all, especially students who're just interested in connecting with other Jewish students, and learning about Jewish identity. ^_^

In the meantime, I'd just take time to study and learn about Jewish history and culture just for fun.

I think Sam Aranow's "Jewish History" Youtube series is a very entertaining way to learn about Jewish history, from ancient to modern.

Unfortunately I have to go to work now, but if you have ANY other questions, please reach out to me! I LOVE sharing knowledge and resources about Judaism, especially to potential converts who show a genuine interest and curiosity.

(Jewish culture can be, in my opinion, not as accepting and welcoming of potential Jewish converts as they should be, and I want to make up the difference. ^_^ )

[atthecenterofeverything]

been thinking about tell me i'm worthless by alison rumfitt a lot lately (this post will contain mild spoilers). i agree with a lot of the criticism regarding its broad treatment of themes - its lack of trust in the reader, its determination to overexplain every motif and not leave space for interpretation, its absence of subtlety. however i do think that this tone actually succeeds in a lot of key moments in a way that (inadvertently or not) parallels the suffocating violence that the author is trying to convey. when its prose is good it's really good, and the endless-running-sentence style is something that is hard to pull off for me. it's the kind of book that lends itself well to being read in one setting: once you have taken for granted some of the premises, and let the narrative lead you by the hand, a lot of its stylistic choices work a lot better.

my main issue with it would be that it's at its best when it's not trying to politically analyze the material workings of fascism. the guattari and eco quotes at the beginning kind of set the tone: this is a book about the superstructural manifestations of fascism, a sort of fascism-spirit said to be haunting (literally) the united kingdom. however in moments where the author tries to get more into detail about, for example, the colonial resource extraction of the british empire, everything kind of falls flat. ultimately the material reasons that lead people to espouse anti-immigration politics or institutional transmisogyny are mostly absent from the book. which could have worked as an intentional omission if they were completely absent. but we get just enough of a glimpse into it that we're then kind of left wondering how fascism works in this altogether parallel universe. the house is said (simplifying here) to be driving people to fascism; the author probably noticed that this leads to some uncomfortable implications, so she takes care in several moments to specify that actually, they still made their choice, and the house was not forcing them. so where did their choice come from, then? how do those political choices, in very practical, altogether non-haunting terms, serve segments of the population, beyond superficial platitudes about the ruling classes attempting to divide the people to better assert their authority?

read more for legibility

ultimately fascism is presented in the book as a specter haunting liberalism, a disease infecting democracy. self-identified left liberal people with a map of the british empire on their wall are said to not really be left-liberal at all. there is no questioning here of what liberalism means, and how it is constructed. fascism in the book stands for the worst system, the most violent. one moment particularly stood out to me regarding this: Ila is said, as a mixed Pakistani and Ashkenazi woman, to be always expected to have a strong opinion on "israel" and Palestine, "because she can be brown or jewish but not both". british colonization in the subcontinent is somehow analogous to fascism in the book; "israeli" colonization in Palestine is not. people make political choices because they belong to x or y identity. and this is why, to me, ultimately, communism as an ideology is pretty much straightforwardly absent from the book. not only because a materialist analysis of fascism and colonization would give a completely separate meaning to the House, but also because it offers ways of resistance against fascism that are very different from the main option offered in the book: police-registered protests. the only act of direct political violence that is depicted is a young far-right man detonating a bomb at a pride parade. it's easy to see then how the author could see "israel" and Palestine as a jewish vs muslim issue, or in any case a complicated one: violence in the book is always blind, always hateful, always rhetorically associated with fascism. it does not exist to serve a material purpose and is not part of a broader political plan with specific ideological investments, whether left- or right-wing.

again all of this would have been a very different issue if the book had been set on a different discursive level. I don't straightforwardly think that the haunted house as a metaphor for fascism is set to fail. I just think it failed to follow through on a lot of implications while also being a little too convinced of its own radicality. I haven't read anything else by her so I'm not sure how much of it is present in the rest of her work. I just know that a review on the back of the book calls it "punk in every sense of the word", which sums it up better than I ever could

[foggieststars]

really intrigued by ur masters program. could u tell us more abt it? what sort of reading did u do, ur thesis etc etc

for sure!! i studied comparative social policy, which is essentially a study of the history of welfare state development - policies which are 'social', i.e. in that they are designed to support people. think things like pensions, welfare benefits, healthcare, poverty-reduction, things like that!

more under the cut :)

the programme i studied had a focus on OECD countries, which are generally divided into 3 types of welfare states: (1) liberal welfare states, which tend to be anglosphere countries, so the uk, ireland, australia and new zealand - some models include the US, and some don't because the US is an outlier in that... it just doesn't have a lot of the welfare benefits that other anglosphere countries have (think free healthcare, guaranteed maternity leave) on a federal level. (2) is social-democratic welfare states, which tend to be more generous and universal (nordic countries), and finally (3) conservative welfare states, countries like germany and france where welfare rights have a history of being linked to class struggle and workers rights, and are more likely to be linked to your occupation.

this isn't an all-encompassing model and there have been many attempts to update it to include asian/african/latin american welfare states (this is an extremely eurocentric model) and add nuance to the conversation, but just a general overview of the types of stuff we discussed!

in terms of things i studied specifically, i focused on gender and poverty as my two options, looking at ways that welfare states can alleviate/worsen poverty and gender inequality. it was really fascinating stuff but ultimately hampered by the fact that oxford is an extremely old fashioned organisation and didn't have much in the way of diversity in reading lists.. so it had to be found by myself lmao

as for my dissertation, i compared the levels of generosity in welfare benefit allocation between the united kingdom and the republic of ireland. the uk introduced restrictive welfare legislation which prevented the majority of non-european immigrants from accessing welfare (known as no recourse to public funds) in 1995, but ireland didn't until 2007, so i wanted to know why that was. ultimately i found it was because of 2 things: 1. differing levels of economic prosperity - ireland's economy was stratospheric before the 2008 crash, and the uk not so much. ireland didn't want to introduce deterrent legislation to prevent immigrants coming to ireland because they needed immigrants to join the labour force. and (2) the rhetoric of public debate in the uk was much more harshly anti-immigrant than in ireland, thanks to thatcherism (lol). ireland wasn't exactly Positive about immigration, but political debate had a lot more to do with the economy and appeals to emotion vs in the uk the rhetoric was much more fiercely us vs them, if that makes sense. it was an interesting project!!