#Just Harry exploits children

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

These First Nation images are infuriating. MeGain still hasn't learned how to hold a child, and they strategically organized this non-Invictus PR engagement to capture photographs with TW exploiting other people's children in a desperate effort to make her seem "maternal."

Fortunately it always FAILS, but it doesn't change the fact that both Sparry & his wife are tragedy vultures. Other people's pain is their gain.

[thereasons28]

Oh she’s an “influencer.” Well that explains why she was ok with her kid’s face being published in The Daily Mail.

Yeah let’s exploit some more kids for PR. That’s real love. 🙄

This truly might be my last straw. It was a fun 7 months while it lasted but this has gotten so incredibly pathetic and unethical.

All so this man can be Laddy McStraight Dad to the GP. My empathy is running thin.

So I had chosen to try to not engage with the stunt content. If it crossed my social media feeds...fine, that's whatever. But I am no longer going to seek it out.

This...this I made an exception for. Because I find this so fucking egregious.

You mean to tell me that a man who made a point to say he didn't want his kid's face out there anymore is "dating" a woman who pretty much used her friend's daughter for ancillary PR?? For a piece in the Daily Mail?? AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN BLUR OUT THE KID'S FACE?? AND THIS KID'S MOM PRESUMABLY LET HER DO IT??

I barely even post my own niece on my social media (and if I do I ask my sister's permission first.) This woman let photos of her daughter be published in The Daily Mail for a fluff piece on her friend??? WHAT.

This woman is a piece of work...as is everyone in her orbit. Louis included.

[lovesim09]

Free Labour?

As you know, Cale has a lot of people, so he also has a lot of expenses. Even though he calls himself trash and often talks about using people, does he really exploit them and give nothing in return?

The only people he uses in my opinion are Rasheel and Pendrick. However, in Rasheel's case, he listens to orders from the Dragon Lord, and he afraid of the two oldest dragons. When it comes to Pendrick, as an elf he is not interested in material gains. His ability can heal and can be used on people with a dark attribute. It is very easy to convince him to cooperate, just tell him that he is doing a good deed, or say that a dragon would like him to help the Cale group. I remember at Castle Leona, Eruhaben wouldn't come empty handed and who did he take with him? Yes Pendrick. He even took him to another world with him. The wind elementals don't get anything from him either, but these adorable creatures are so happy that he hears them and talks to them 🥹. They also have a lot of fun when it comes to destroying everything, robbing people, etc.

So is Cale really taking advantage of his people?

▪︎Children, I'm not just talking about kittens and Raon. I'm also thinking about wolf children. First, Cale didn't want to take them to dangerous places. When it comes to wolf children, they appear during fights when he's sure they won't be hurt too badly. Cats and Raon are always close to him or hidden. They never fight directly. Lock is the oldest but he doesn't even take him often because he's still a kid. And he always tries to make sure that nothing will happen to him. Even during the war he told him to stay close to him and protect Raon nothing more. He's the one who got them a new home, he probably gives all the children pocket money, with the wolf children he may not do it directly, but they definitely get money too. I am also sure that the Henituse family helps financially with them. In addition, he never forget about gifts. Accept that you are a father.

▪︎Choi Han, homeless and poor. Cale gave him money, arranged for a new sword, new clothes. A new house, a place to train. He also arranged better graves for the dead residents of Harris village. It also gave him a reason to distract himself from this traumatic event. Choi Han did as Cale asked in gratitude, but he actually got more than Cale in their transaction. Even when Cale sent him to Lock's village, he gave him potions, and they're not that cheap. Don't fool yourself, Cale.

▪︎Rosalyn. He became her sponsor. She has her own lab in his house, he gave her mana stones. Do I need to remind you how many billions, was that? Traveling with him gave her more than one opportunity to grow and develop, and more often than not, she did. In the future there will be a free city where she can build tower, he also has a project for a tower. I understand that having a future Mage Tower Master as a friend is beneficial, but you still spent too much. He scams himself again.

▪︎Molan family. In this case, his family did a lot for them. They got jobs, Beacrox learned how to cook. They had a place to hide. Later, Cale gave them a chance for revenge. He literally blew up the island for Ron. They got their home back and Cale also helped regain his foothold in the underworld. And he was supposedly trying to get rid of them so that they would travel with Choi Han 🙄.

▪︎ Sun twins. He saved their lives, hid them, gave them shelter and a home. He cleared their names, gave them a Church to control. Saint Jack is the Pope, the head of the Church, even if he is not officially named that at this point. He gave them divine artifact. He helped them in the rebellion so that their homeland would not have a civil war and would not be taken over by other countries. Okay, they helped him weaken the empire, thanks to the rebellion. So in the future, the title of empire may be taken away from them. They still got more benefits as if Hannah was still alive thanks to you and Mary.

▪︎Tiger tribe. He gave them Harris village, with the consent of Deruth. The clothes they are often described in. The dojo uniform was bought by him. He gave them an opportunity for revenge. You gave them a home where they can run wild (poor monsters in the Forest of Darkness), you got gifts from them but it's nothing compared to the benefits they got.

▪︎ Crown prince Alberu. Cale gave him precious dead mana from the dragon, thanks to him Taylor is on his side,Duchess also went over to his side. Support of the Henituse family, the richest family in the Roan kingdom. Cale helped him develop Roan militarily, he gave him mages. The alliance between the kingdoms was formed with his help, after all, he was the one who had a connection to every single person there. Not to mention emotional support. Ok he can give him a headache, extra paperwork, but he still has benefits. Thanks to him Alberu can become the first Emperor of Roan Empire. He doesn't even realize that he has become an Emperor maker.

▪︎Mary and dark elves. Mary got a bunch of bones from his backyard, he gave her dragon bones. She has a new home, he gave her the opportunity to travel. Dark elves and Mary have been accepted by the world, the Church can't even touch them. Helping him in the fight they got dead mana, became stronger. He also gave them the opportunity to go wild during the war. I haven't forgotten how they behaved in the empire and Molden Kingdom. In addition, he tried to reduce the pain Mary felt. No wonder the dark elves like him so much and always help him.

▪︎Eruhaben. Even if he didn't want at first, Cale helped him extend his life. Cale supports him financially after ARM robbed him, all alchemical ingredients are bought by Cale, gave him lots of mana stones. Eruhaben adopted himself into his family. He helps them because he does not want young people to suffer and be hurt.

▪︎ Whale tribe. They appeared so often that they are now part of the family. Paseton was saved by him. He helped them destroy the swamp from which the mermaids were getting their poison. He destroyed the mermaid base along with the island. He gave them the opportunity to take revenge on ARM for helping the mermaids. Even Archie can show his true character around Cale. At first it balanced out how much help Cale got and how much they got from him. However, as the story progressed, those as part of his family were happy to help

▪︎Mila and Dodori. In their case, it's hard to say. Dodori is obsessed with the heroes and would like to write a book about Cale and others. Cale has also become his teacher. Mila is a supportive mother. Later they too were adopted themself into his family. Cale has an affinity to dragons, probably through dominating aura.

▪︎Elves. They were his people for a while, they even called him Commander . He helped the World tree, in return they were supposed to help him. They tried to help Bud find his people, but it was a trap.

▪︎Clopeh. I know, he had no choice. But Cale spared his life, allowed him to create a new legend with the wyverns. Then Choi Han and him helped him obtain the technique to use dead mana, which made him stronger. He also gave him a sword to be his guardian.

▪︎Dragon half blood. Even though he was his enemy, Cale gave them the choice to live or die. Then, he made him wash dishes, his people put his soul in the bones of a dragon. It really sounds awful, but the most important thing for Half Blood was that he had a choice. Even as an enemy he was given a choice, something he had never had in 900 years. In addition, he was able to experience a normal life during the time he worked for him. Even in the second part he saved his life and gave him a name. Something he had wanted for 900 years 🥲.

So yes, all this time the people he helped got more benefits than him. But he will still argue and call himself trash.

[cinnamonest]

I assume this is because I criticized Kamala Harris in my last post.

I want to address this because it's important to me and frustrations currently consuming my life, and I'm very emotionally unwell right now. I want to share my experiences and make a point I feel is important at this time.

Once again, this is very unfitting of the smut fanfiction blog and will be deleted later, even though I'm sure this is a huge follower-losing post, but whatever.

Forgive me for rambling so much, but I encourage you and people who think like this to read in entirety.

I realize things are tense right now in the US.

Part of the reason for my inactivity the past while (besides multiple hospitalizations) is that I'm glued to my screen every night now because I'm very scared. I've been spending all my time researching, watching videos from economists, etc.

(Preemptively, sources for everything I'm about to say: the FEMA Privacy Act Statement itself, the official CPB database, Helene People Finder, United States Council of Foreign Relations, Samaritan's Purse, NYC.gov, Starlink, Politico, ABC, CNBC, georgia.gov, nc.gov, tn.gov, my own life)

The US is an extremely high-tension, polarized political climate, largely due to the bipartisan system.

However, no one should be immune from criticism.

All politicians should be criticized when they do harm. I am allowed to criticize her, and I will.

Criticizing one candidate is not the same thing as endorsing/supporting their opposition.

3,000+ Appalachians are missing. The current death toll makes this the deadliest single event in the US since 1862. A higher death toll than Hurricane Katrina, a higher death toll than the events of 9/11/2001, a higher death toll than any mass shooting.

However, it is largely going completely ignored, and mainstream news media has barely acknowledged it, in part due to elections, but largely because the people who live in Appalachia are poor, rural people. And the harsh reality is that poor people's lives are not treated with the same value as people of higher classes.

FEMA continues to do nothing, and the feds are now threatening to take children away from homeless parents... yet they blocked donations of trailers and campers from nearby areas that would help those people to, you know, not be homeless. A kind group of Amish have come down from Pennsylvania to build shelters, and FEMA may tear them down too since they don't have "permits."

Harris had the opportunity to do something, and has the authority to order FEMA agents to act differently, but she chose to exploit the situation for publicity, then leave and otherwise ignore them. She then went on to pay Beyonce $10,000,000 to speak for 5 minutes.

That deserves to be criticized.

Her campaign continues to claim a good economy and job market, when inflation and cost of living has peaked, and just this month, their policies actually have officially led to one of the worst employment outcomes the United States has seen since the Great Depression, disproportionately affecting low-income workers.

That deserves to be criticized.

She has a bad track record during her time in the judicial system for the way her actions harshly affected underprivileged people, especially Jamal Trulove, who was terribly wronged.

That deserves to be criticized.

Furthermore, the reason FEMA/the government does not have money for Appalachia is for a few reasons, all of which were ordered, facilitated or allowed by the current administration:

1) we've sent over $100 BILLION to the IDF so they can keep blowing up hospitals and kindergartens,

2) we sent $175 BILLION to Zelensky so he can keep sending young men into violent deaths even if its against their will,

3) we just sent $100+ million to Lebanon even after the hurricane crisis, meaning the federal government explicitly chose to prioritize foreign aid over its own people,

4) money was taken directly from FEMA reserves for crises like ours, and used as part of a whopping $150,000,000,000 spent on mass migration — including free flights, a $20 million welcome center with a free-use "game room" with dozens of Xboxes plus free food/lodging, and in NY, an average of $1400 prepaid debit card per individual each month.

Meanwhile, Appalachians get a one-time $750 per family, and if you have insurance to cover anything, it's a LOAN you have to pay back (many "fact-checkers" are claiming this is false when its literally in the FEMA eligibility statement). Many of the independent line workers FEMA hired for repairs are reporting they have not been paid AT ALL since starting.

In other words, the money that was specifically reserved for saving lives in times of crisis was spent on video games and free money handouts.

That, holy hell, deserves to be criticized.

Secondly, I want to address the message itself.

I realize that a lot of the american tumblr userbase is 1) people young enough that they're still partially financially dependent on parents and/or 2) are, like most of the US statistically, earning middle-class incomes, and live in fairly population-dense environments.

Most people outside the US, on the other hand, are getting their perceptions of life, politics, etc in the US from the posts/narratives of people within the aforementioned groups, popular culture, and their own local media, so their perspective is often quite limited, to no fault of their own. I'm sure my perspective of life in other countries is also very limited.

Most of you live in places other than where I live, and live very different lives from mine. As humans, we are naturally prone to subconsciously assuming the lives of others are not too different from our own, and do not naturally stop to consider how various factors might affect people's lives and decisions.

We are social beings, prone to adopting the beliefs of others who have the same experiences and thereby the same limited perspectives as us, especially in ideologically homogenous environments.

However, I have just as much of a voice as anyone else.

My hope is that I can use my words and experience to foster empathy for one another between different people in a very polarized climate at a very tense time.

I'm originally from a fairly rural community of about 8,000 people, largely low-income, low-education, evangelical blue-collar workers and farmers, in the Bible Belt.

It is well-known that this demographic overwhelmingly voted for Trump. I don't deny that. I visit home a lot, I see the yard signs everywhere, flags hanging from pickup trucks and farm fenceposts, lots of red hats.

There is a reason for that.

The administration of the past four years has utterly destroyed many rural, low-income communities.

It caused a huge spike in job layoffs, leading to homelessness, drug abuse, hunger and poverty for many already low-income people, and for select communities, violent crime.

I'm fortunate enough to have had parents better off than most of the community, but I'm self-sufficient now, and I am in the bottom 20% of incomes in the US, even with a degree. I could write endless paragraphs on how hard it is to get by, but to summarize for the sake of shortening — it's very, very rough.

Everything has become drastically more expensive, very rapidly over the course of a few years. Groceries are 3x their 2021 prices. I had to get a guarantor for a one-bedroom apartment.

Many rural families resort to drastic measures to get by. Small farmers are being financially strangled out of their way of life.

The actions of the Biden-Harris administration is the reason a huge portion of my extended family was laid off and now face total destitution, as there are simply no jobs left available.

The Biden-Harris border and crime policies are responsible for the brutal rape of a significant number of women and girls in this geographic region. Statistically, these rapes have quadrupled compared to the previous administration.

A woman was raped and stabbed to death about a mile from where I live.

Our nearby neighbor, a cow farmer back home, was attacked on his own property.

I have personally faced multiple instances of sexual harassment and aggression, some of which were very frightening. I know other girls nearby experienced the same or worse.

Alcoholism and hard drugs due to the spike in unemployment and poverty has ruined many lives, and help is often hard to access in rural regions.

A woman my mom was acquainted with ended her own life in 2023 because her children were taken from her due to her drug addiction and poverty. People I played with on the church playground as kids are now unemployed heroin addicts.

I've watched my mom driven to tears after realizing how drastically her income tax increased, and how little she has left after them despite working around the clock.

All of these can be traced back to the policies and actions of the current administration, and the current Harris-Walz platform's proposals will drastically increase it all — largely voted for by people who live in economic situations and locations as such that they are fairly unaffected by these consequences, so they may not understand how it affects these people.

I could write endless paragraphs of all the people I know who have been at best negatively affected, at worst utterly ruined, by the current administration.

Since I have the unique background of understanding these people whilst having more liberal values as an individual, with a broad range of people I interact with now, I have tried to have discussions on this over the last year or so, in real life and virtually. I believed that raising awareness would make people on the left-leaning side empathize with them, and inspire dialogue to work to implement ways to account for the concerns and needs of the rural poor, and incorporate that into their existing proposals.

I was incorrect. I've been very polite and respectful in how I address others in these discussions. In the vast majority of interactions, I was not given the same in return.

A few were receptive, which I appreciate, but in most of my experiences, the same group that is known for encouraging empathy, apparently doesn't apply that philosophy to people they dislike — no matter how I presented it, they immediately rushed to demonize, censor, humiliate, shame and gaslight me, and expressed callous apathy at best, if not active contempt, for my people.

They say "that doesn't happen," and I think they genuinely believe that due to limited perspective — but the reality is that they're simply in a position of privilege as such that it isn't happening to them.

Similarly, what you have to understand is that from the perspective of many rural people in red areas, their experience is that more privileged people inflicted this suffering on them by voting for it, then silence and shame them for speaking out about it.

Likewise, they also have a limited perspective — for them, the issue I see is that they adamantly believe the "other side" is already well-aware of the effects their choices have on others. I don't think this is true, I think many on the other end are unaware of these issues.

This dual lack of understanding creates mutual resentment and bitterness, which fuels tension.

I will say that trying to explain how girls in my community were assaulted or my own harassment, only to have it spammed with replies along the lines of "don't care" or "deserved" or calling me a liar, seeing posts mocking or wishing harm on people like my family accumulate tens of thousands of likes, having people I care about referred to as "trailer trash," passive-aggressive statements implying I'm too unattractive for a man to harass — this, along with other distasteful actions I've seen, has pushed me away from the left as a community, and I don't think that's unreasonable.

Similarly, labeling people you know nothing about as bad people, without making any effort to understand their circumstances or what they actually believe and why, will drive people away and make them resentful.

My community is multiracial, women are highly valued in southern culture for various reasons, and they themselves are marginalized and underprivileged. They're kind people who have been good to me.

I haven't really met any people who are hateful, nor is hate the reason for their votes — they're all voting as they do because they are scared, exhausted, grieving and desperate. A lot of people in the area never voted before, but are now registering to vote in droves because they feel their backs are against the wall, so to speak.

Moreover, Orange Man himself redirected $14 million dollars to Appalachia, continues to raise awareness for them in speeches, and Musk, who is associated with him, has a team working to help Appalachians. He's also the only noteworthy figure that has acknowledged certain issues affecting them.

They realize that the situation in Appalachia could just as easily be them in the future, that they'd be given the same treatment.

This has resulted in a lot of rural poor people feeling that he cares more for their lives, compared to Biden/Harris who more or less neglected them. Which, considering that, is a fairly reasonable conclusion on their end.

Finally, it is true that blue voters tend to be in favor of abolishing or ruining crucial aspects of our way of life that, I say this politely, they do not fully understand, while the people here want to preserve their way of life.

So, while I have more liberal values that differ from most people back home, I don't believe they are bad people. They are reacting very reasonably to the circumstances they're in.

All I ask of others is to consider, no matter where you are or what beliefs you align with, and no matter what happens tomorrow, that the "other side" to your own may not be the evil people you have been led to believe they are, but are humans whose lives are simply different from yours, and they are acting in accordance to their experiences, circumstances, and fears.

The growing trend of demonizing political opposition with no attempt at empathy, only creates more pain in the world. I hope this has helped to foster better understanding, and that people can be kind to one another.

That is all I wanted to say.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Don’t you kinda feel bad for Meghan? I just want her to admit she’s not perfect, that she may have treated staff badly, and then quietly go away for a while to get much needed therapy, and then idk she could go on selling stuff and influencing on insta or doing whatever she wants? I really really don’t like her but I’m worried everyone is doing too much in trying to take her down. If only she would give up the pretense that she’s this saintly woman maybe people would stop going so hard on her. Sometimes I wonder if there really is a smear campaign headed by the palace. I kinda feel bad seeing everyone from Vanity Fair to Camilla Tominey to Neil Sean to that Lady C woman to even deuxmoi coming after her. I really don’t like her and I just want her to stop being pretentious, but I don’t really want her life to be ruined, maybe tbh just because I know her stans wouldn’t shut up about their victimhood narrative. At the end of the day, she is a biracial woman who joined the royal family and that couldn’t have been easy, but geez why can’t this woman just take accountability? She treated staff badly because of her own insecurities. All of this would be solved if this woman would just get therapy. I don’t know. I just don’t know how this will end. It all seems bleak.

I do feel a little bad for her, but this is Meghan's own doing. She's so consumed by having fame, power, and wealth that her ambition is nakedly transparent for all to see. She's essentially an influencer version of the coworker who collects certificates but doesn't actually have the skills or know what they're doing (you know the kind - "Jane Smith, Ph.D., PMP, MSLIS, Security+, DBA, Esquire"). She talks a good game with PR, but when push comes to shove, she isn't doing what she says she is and you don't have to look hard to see that.

Criticism from the likes of Lady C, Vanity Fair, and keyboard warriors are not going to ruin Meghan's life. At the end of the day, she's not going to be hungry, destitute, and homeless because of criticism. She will housed because she's the mother of Harry's children and she has friends. She will have money because she's the wife (or ex-wife, should that ever become the case) of King Charles's son and she has proximity to the British Royal Family.

What Meghan may not have is respect and likability. But that isn't going to ruin her life. It's going to make achieving her goals of independent fame, wealth, and power extraordinarily difficult. It will make her hustle for the rest of her life chasing the exhaust from Kate's motorcade.

She definitely hasn't had it easy by any means. It's clear she really had some struggles and for that, she absolutely deserves sympathy. But when she exploits sympathy and empathy to get attention, make money, gain power? That's what people criticize, and rightly so, IMO.

This is going to end in irrelevance and obscurity -- for both of them. Harry isn't the Anne, Andrew, or Edward of his generation. He's actually Charles Spencer; on the outside looking in, invited only to the events about Diana. And Meghan isn't Wallis or Fergie; she's Daisy Buchanan.

[girlactionfigure]

Bill Maher: “Let's talk a little about the international scene. The long awaited second front in the Israeli war seems to have started this week, not just the pagers, but they're bombing all over Lebanon, yesterday and today. Here's what Kamala Harris said this week, about what we should do when the war is over. No reoccupation of Gaza, no changing of the territorial lines of Gaza, and an ability to have security in the region for all concerned in a way that we create stability. I feel like if that's what you have to say, don't say anything. Just shut up. I mean, everybody who talks about Israel these days is just so full of it. I mean, or just not you know? I don't want children to die. Duh. Who does? None of us want children to die. None of us want this war to go on, but it's not addressing what the problem is. The problem is that one side wants a two-state solution or at least always did. It's a little more right-wing now. I'm talking about Israel, but that still has been their position. One side never did and still doesn't. One side uses terrorism to get their goals. One side retaliates against terrorism. One side is accused of genocide but doesn't do it. The other side actually would love to do it. People keep saying Israel has the right to defend itself. And then whenever Israel does, they object to it. Well, yeah. I mean, this is one of the astonishing things about the response to the pager bombings. I understand how people are upset about the sight of Gaza being bombed. They're being bombed because Hamxs hides beneath and behind its own population to cynically exploit their deaths. But then the Israelis turn around with the most astonishingly well-targeted attack in history, like, literally going off in the hands of any Hezbollah member who has one of these pagers. And you have people like congresswoman AOC, lambasting Israel, the head of the UN lambasting Israel. So they say Israel's entitled to self-defense, but there's no conceivable self-defense that they're actually prepared to defend for the Israelis. I'm glad the Israelis are taking matters into their own hands. They just took care of a terrorist who had the death of 300 Americans on their hands going back to 1983. He had a $7,000,000 State Department bounty on his head. If I were Anthony Blinken, I would pay the Israelis $7,000,000 and say thank you for avenging the death of our Marines.” Via @billmaher

[theundercoversquid]

A trip to 12 Grimmauld Place

Pairing: Remus Lupin x Reader

Request: I saw the trip to diagon alley fic I love the idea of Remus and reader adopting Harry and not telling anyone and also them having their own biological children I was wondering if you could make more like this maybe where their kids are older

Maybe even include some uncle Sirius when he escapes from Azkaban and they visit him at grimmauld place

Warnings: Pregnancy

A/N: Part of the Domestic Bliss universe but can be read alone!

A/N2: How much do you guys want me to mess with canon? I feel that growing up in a loving home (but specifically with Remus) means that Harry would probably be a different person and make different decisions.

Masterlist

Domestic Bliss universe

"Hurry up, boys." You called up the stairs. "Or your father and I will leave with ought you."

A series of thuds and crashes met your words. But you just fondly rolled your eyes as you got back to packing your bag, ready to go.

"First." A voice shouted before you felt a hand land on your shoulder.

"Oh, come on!" Another voice shouted. "That's not fair."

"You snooze, you lose." The voice closest to you called out.

"Hello, my dear." You laughed. Pressing a kiss to the top of Harry's head.

Then, only a moment later, you heard the sound of thundering feet as your other son, Teddy came charging down the stairs. Hurtling towards you.

Crashing into you, Teddy wrapped his arms around you.

"Hello, my love." you greeted. Pressing a kiss to his forehead, too.

"Are you two muppets ready to leave now?" You questioned them as you picked up your bag.

"Yeah." Harry grinned. Tugging at your arm as, he pulled you into the living room where Remus was waiting. 

Sat in his favourite armchair with a newspaper open on his lap.

When he heard the three of you enter the room, he folded the newspaper. Standing up, he deposited it back on his seat as he walked towards you and the boys.

"Shall we, my lady." Remus teased. Bowing to you in an overexaggerated way.

Laughing, you swatted at his arm as you led your boys out of the house. Make sure to lock the door behind you.

When you got out into the garden you grabbed a hold of Teddy as Remus took Harry.

"Everyone ready?" You called out.

When all your boys replied with sounds of agreement, you and Remus both disappeared with a pop.

Reappearing in a narrow alleyway just down from Grimuld place. 

Momenterly fussing over your boys, you made sure that no one had been spliced before you all walked out of the alleyway.

Harry and Teddy leapt ahead, teasing each other as they ran ahead. Rasing up to number 12. With his longer legs, Teddy ended up making it first. His hand reached for the knocker as he stuck his tongue out at Harry.

The door flew open not even a moment later as Sirues towering frame took over the doorway.

"Well, if it isn't the lupins," Sirius beamed as he took in the sight of your little family. "Come in, come in." He waved as she stepped to the side, allowing you all to come.

The moment the door was safely shut behind the five of you, and you were out of the foyer, Harry and Teddy threw themselves at Sirus.

Who only laughed. Wrapping them up in a great big hug.

"How are my favourite troublemakers?" Sirues questioned them.

Causing them to chatter on to him about there exploits as he momentarily comes over to you and Remus.

"And how are the pair of you?" Sirues questions quickly as he pulls you into a hug. Pressing a kiss to both your cheeks.

"We are good." Remus assured him. As he got pulled into his own hug by Sirues.

"How are you?" You asked Sirues softly.

"Oh I'm good." Sirues waved off your concern. "Same old, same old."

You only fondly smiled at him as Harry and Teddy came up to Sirues. Each grabbing him by an arm as together they pulled him off so they could carry on chatting his ear off about something.

You couldn't quite make out what they were saying, and quite frankly, you weren't sure if you wanted to.

Also, watching the scene from behind you, Remus snorted.

"if we left now, how long do you think it would take for them to notice?" He asked you teasingly.

"Don't say that." You laughed. Gently hitting him in the chest.

Laughing, Remus grabbed the offending hand and brought it to his lips. Dropping a delicate kiss to your knuckles you and Remus finally followed after the chaos that was your children and a certain Sirues black.

You followed the three of them into the living room, where Sirues was sitting in the middle of the sofa. One of your boys on either side as Harry, seemed to be narrating an exciting tale. His hands waving as Teddy and Sires just watched on. Occasionly nodding.

Smiling at the scene, you and Remus sat in the nearby Love seat. Your bodies pressed together as you fondly watched the scene in front of you.

You didn't know what you would do with ought your boys. They really were your whole world.

[armed-with-a-waffle-iron]

"Who'd think... Little voices... Could sound so loud": Helena Bertinelli the Teacher.

This is my reading of a short, little-known Huntress story: Rapscallions from Batman Chronicles #19. She isn't at war with the Mafia or fighting Vandal Savage, but who's to say she's not up against something just as difficult? Helena has to deal with lost kids repeating the same old mistakes as others before; meet Helena Bertinelli the teacher.

I've added all 10 pages of the story.

"I'm listening for... a smoker's cough or the cracking of men's joints as they spring from the shadows to fight. Not for this."

The title of this grim crime story is "Rapscallions", teasing that loss of innocence theme; playfully, allusively referring to the story's unfortunate but still felonious kids. The title doesn't let you forget that they're just kids, even if they grew up too quickly.

Harris and Battle give the "Rapscallions" quite an introduction; the kids aren't alright and they will not be ignored. Helena is on the trail of an organised drug trade so neither she nor we, the reader, suspected a bunch of kids and we "never heard them coming". I have a bone to pick with the art but it is deliberate and important how humbling a defeat The Huntress suffers to a couple of kids. Our formidable urban avenger is taken by surprise and wakes up hanging by her ankles, restrained and quite literally left speechless by the Rapscallions. No world-threatening supervillain has ever got to Helena like these kids did.

Harris reminds us that society (and I'd add the state) often fails to treat children as people. Society underestimates and even neglect kids; allowing them to slip through the cracks and that becomes our undoing, as it was Helena's here. "Who'd think little voices could sound so loud" is such a powerful line to paste over the image of the subdued Huntress looking up at her pint-sized captors. We forget about kids until their problems consume us too. Harris gives these children agency; their stories matter too. "No man's an island" and that doesn't just apply to "grown-ups".

"They thought they had it all figured out."

Right after the kids have shown us what they're capable of, we are reminded how they're still just lost kids; directionless, desperate, and scared. Helena, who herself is an orphan mixed up in the world of organised crime, quickly catches onto who the kids are. They're street kids with nowhere to go who thought they could pull a fast one and came up short.

You can see the uncertainty and fear in their faces but to me it's best illustrated by Tommy, the apparent ringleader, angrily interrogating the visibly gagged Helena. He knows she couldn't say anything even if she wanted to; he doesn't actually want her answers to his questions. If you think about it, the kids had no real need to gag Helena, they're clearly past keeping quiet yet make this choice. The gag the kids put on Helena represents their mistrust of adults. The kids assume Helena's probably another one of the nasty adults that exploit and prey on them.

Another important device is Helena's crossbow, it represents force and so authority through coercion, and Harris uses it like the conch in Lord of the Flies. Helena begins the story with the crossbow but when she's captured, Tommy picks it up. Ringleader or not, he's still just a scared kid who loses his head and makes a break for it, leaving the crossbow and a power vacuum. Helena knows this and you can see it in her face in the very next panel, where she's got her eyes fixed on the out-of-reach crossbow.

"Lucky me. Lucky us." That last panel has Helena drawn as a silhouette; at this point still a passive observer of the broken lives of these doomed kids. Luckily, pedagogy requires a bit of listening.

"I shouldn't get involved… But I'm a Teacher… It's what I do."

If Helena's crossbow represents force, Helena's voice represents persuasion, pedagogy, and authority through trust; she's a teacher. The reason Helena spends half the story gagged is that even the best of teachers require their students to be willing to listen. Kris declares herself to be such a student by putting a name to herself and freeing Helena from her gag, extending her trust. Kris needs a solution and turns to Helena for it.

Meanwhile, Billy picks up the crossbow to reestablish control, antagonising Helena. He again asserts only the Rapscallions have anything to offer themselves, but desolation begins to set in. “Isn’t it past your bedtime?” is the first thing Helena says to remind the Rapscallions (and us) that they are still just lost kids.

When our protagonist utters her first words, she makes her active choice. Those keen survival instincts tell her to escape and walk away but her heart breaks for these kids and she just must get involved. It's also revealed that Helena was cutting her binds loose this whole time. She doesn't need to save these kids, she's choosing to.

There's this great line from, don't laugh, The Godfather novels where Michael insists: "It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it’s personal as hell." And I think there's a lot of truth in that. She was once a orphan who was just as lost as these kids. Witnessing the loss of their innocence before her eyes, she's driven to help them. Whether she got a crossbow in hand or a stick of chalk, it's personal to Helena. Getting involved is "what [she] does".

"I try to talk sense-- the kind Miss Bertinelli talks every day she teaches school." "I'll help you, if you trust me."

Billy holds the crossbow but Helena finally has her voice back. There are those great panels depicting the struggle for power between these two symbols; coercion vs persuasion. Being the teacher she is, Helena is able to get through to the kids. “Does your brother always answer for you?” is a brilliant line because Helena is ultimately encouraging the kids to think a little critically. She establishes authority through their trust, symbolised by Billy dropping the crossbow, now willing to listen. The kids then confess, however implicit, to Helena about their own crime; the Rapscallions had murdered their abusive "employer" Karros. You reap what you sow. And unfortunately, the Rapscallions would learn this the hard way.

"Outside. Footsteps. The big kind, this time."

It all happens a little too late however, just as Helena is able to escape her restrains. Our teacher is yet again the avenger.

"Everything's going to be all right, Sweetie." But I don't believe that. And neither did she.

Helena scares off the assailants, taking one out, but Billy is fatally caught in the crosshairs. While Helena secures the perimeter, Kris takes off, scared and alone. There's a lot to take in. It's so painful that Helena admits her "everything is going to be all right" is an empty promise, but it's important she still chooses to say it. It's her duty, as a protector and a teacher. You could add that Helena knows a thing or two about the importance of faith.

The burns on Helena's cape and her final "I shouldn't have gotten involved" speak to how much of a toll vigilantism and teaching have on her. She has to watch kids make the same mistakes as people before, even the same mistakes she made, knowing that so much of the time there is nothing she can do about it. That's her burden as The Huntress and as Miss Bertinelli. You can't save everyone but this story shows how willing Helena is to try. "It's what I do," she told us. And despite that final line, the unreliable narrator she is, you just know she'll wake up tomorrow and keep on trying.

For Helena, for Miss Bertinelli and The Huntress, "it’s all personal, every bit of business".

[katherinakaina]

The problem with house elves in Harry Potter.

Typical argument goes as follows: it is bad and irresponsible for an author to create enslaved people who love their enslavement and love their masters because of all the real world parallels to real slavery. Similar arguments were actually made about American slavery and every other slavery before or since. In our world such rhetoric is always propaganda. But in Harry Potter it’s portrayed as genuine.

For a children’s book especially, it’s not a good look. As a children’s book, Harry Potter contains too many dark and difficult topics and without satisfying lessons or conclusions it’s tempting to say – don’t introduce slavery into your story. Don’t create willing slaves, for starters.

But the problem is in the lessons or conclusions part, not the introducing part. And even willing slaves can be explored in interesting ways and really done justice when in hands of a competent writer with good politics.

How so? Well, don’t create such creatures just because. Make them into a coherent metaphor for something. There are several possible options, starting from less fitting:

1. House elves are dogs. Or children.

You can frame dogs as voluntary slaves if you don’t know much about dogs. Unlike house elves, they are perfectly independent creatures that do not have an inborn desire to obey humans. They need to be trained and even then they can be very stubborn and do not appreciate or even tolerate abuse like house elves do. Dogs are more like children. You have the position of authority over them but that makes you responsible and it is your job to make them happy and occupied.

But if you are really committed, you can frame childhood as slavery too. Being a child or a pet is a vulnerable position to be in. Your labor is sometimes exploited and you don’t control your life much. You know how it is.

So, there are creatures who love their sometimes actually slavery-like situations because they love their "caretakers" and you cannot solve this problem by just separating the two groups. It would be doing everyone a disservice.

But in Harry Potter, Hermione decides to free elves purely on philosophical ground and in her zeal doesn’t consider the reality of their special psychology. Who would even make such a silly mistake?

2. House elves are house wives. And Hermione is a lesbian separatist.

This angle really comes into focus when we meet Winky in the fourth book. She is a female elf and a loyal supporter of her master Barty Crouch Snr. You can very easily read her as this conservative fearful simple-minded wife that just wants to keep peace and make her husband happy above all else*. The only thing that is above the “husband” is her “son", her perfect boy who can do no wrong – Barty Crouch Jnr, a death eater and the main villain for most of the book.

In the beginning of the book, Winky gets "divorced" against her will, by her “husband”, for a public transgression that made him look bad. It’s this situation that shocks Hermione to the core and makes her believe that all elves should be free. But then Winky ends up in the Hogwarts kitchens (where elves live among themselves like in a convent) and we see that she’s devastated, blames herself, becomes an addict and never fully recovers. Hermione never gets strong evidence in the opposite direction and eventually abandons her activism.

This does sound like a cautionary tale a conservative would write about marriage. How feminism is women’s main enemy and how we all are deeply unhappy without the authority of a husband. Again, actual arguments that people make about modern society TODAY.

Obviously, that’s not how the real world works. But even here separatism is a bad solution. Yes, there is a rare house elf that can handle freedom**. There are women (not quite so rare) who don’t want to engage in relations with men. But it would really be doing everyone a disservice to force apartheid between men and women. Most wives love their husbands. Even when they are abusive. Most women can stop loving a particular man, but not men in general. There’s no escape from the biological prison of heterosexuality.

Anyway, those are all bad metaphors that require a lot of stretching. House elves don't look like creatures that evolved to cooperate with humans like domesticated animals or humans themselves. They are too subservient. Such a thing wouldn't happen naturally. They seem to be created (or altered) artificially to accept humans unconditionally***.

3. House elves as perfectly aligned Artificial Intelligence.

House elves have stronger magic than wizards, they think differently from them but still are perfectly loyal and obedient to those they consider their masters.

This is the best metaphor, in my opinion. After all, science is similar to magic. They are both really powerful. And both can be used for better or worse. You don’t have to write sci-fi to talk about any futuristic concept. Those are just aesthetics, really****. And that’s a pretty cool question to ask – if people could create a house elf… would they? Not a far fetched idea at all.

So, when written well a house elf can be a perfectly good narrative device. Introduce them into your story as a metaphor for domestic servitude or AI, an enslaved god in a box. You can even mix those metaphors. Make your house elf a stand-in for a waifu simulator. Make them Joi from Blade Runner 2049. Make it real dark.

Tone it down for a YA audience, of course, but still, why not? There are real life implications here. You can even start with the SPEW plot as well. Show that brute force lesbian separatism or rewriting the code of a perfectly happy and aligned AI is stupid and, in the latter case especially, really dangerous. Don’t separate families on the basis of some abstract philosophical grievance you made up. Don’t kidnap people’s pets. Sure!

What’s next, though? What do you do with a subservient creature you cannot just free?

In the real world we have laws surrounding all of these issues, protecting all spouses, children and pets from abuse. And when sentient waifus become a thing we will have to intervene as well.

How come this point never crosses Hermione’s mind? How come she gives up on SPEW and never finds a third alternative?

A better written Hermione would say: “Okay, Hagrid, I concede that house elves should not be taken from their homes. Fine. But are we really also fine with families like Malfoy’s treating their elves like dirt? Elves do become distressed when it happens, we can all clearly see that. Harry was right to free Dobby, we all agree on that. But do we agree that it was Harry’s responsibility to do that? No authority had taken Dobby away from his masters even though Dobby actively wanted to be taken. No authority had permanently taken the right to own house elves from Malfoys. They can just buy a new one and abuse them as well! I know you don’t have child protective services either, so we should probably start with that but can we at least agree that it's a goal for the future? There’s a pile of clothes for elves who want freedom in the kitchens now. That’s a good thing, right?”

But such a conversation can never happen in Harry Potter, about any issue*****. Because that would imply a systemic change. It would imply that the Ministry of Magic, portrayed as useless and incompetent most of the time, has to do something. And we can’t have that.

Instead we have a toothless morality that we should just all be better as individuals. We should help victims when some injustice really stares us in the face. And we should treat our own elves better. Be nice to your wife. Be kind to your children. Don’t hit your dog. Don’t inflict pain on your waifu simulator. What happens behind the closed doors of your neighbors is really none of your business. Family is the cornerstone of society and the government should not meddle in its affairs.

This is what makes Harry Potter's house elves irredeemable. Not their existence but all the lessons we expected to not learn from them. A competent writer with good politics wouldn’t stop the conversation on “well, they enjoy slavery so we must not intervene”. In a bad situation there’s always a less ridiculous alternative to doing nothing.

_____________________

* There are no sexual relations between wizards and elves anywhere in the books as far as I know. I’m only talking about the social dynamic of traditional marriage, nothing more. (Although in real world sexual abuse does happen in all of the situations discussed here)

** The only one we see is Dobby but even he was not free from his affection for wizards. He just switched from serving his family to serving the main character, not de jure but de facto. He risks his life and suffers abuse for Harry and in the end he dies saving Harry’s life.

*** As far as I know it was never confirmed how elves came to be in Harry Potter. Which is bizarre considering this author's love for writing extra worldbuilding. That suggests to me that she was uncomfortable with the topic herself and didn’t really want to make it into a coherent metaphor. Else she could have given them any origin story she deemed fit.

****I do mean that fully. A spell that reads minds and computer chips in brains can and should serve the same narrative purpose. You can go full Black Mirror in your fantasy novel. That one episode where people’s eyes film everything they see – literally a pensieve.

*****They ponder once that they sort children into houses a bit early and even though it would be a comparatively easy fix they still do nothing. They never do anything!

[confused-rat]

I so badly want to go apeshit over Lily's takes about The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but I don't want to flood your asks with a long ass post.

I will say this, Lily claiming that the reason The Lord of the Rings films needed to be divided into three films was due to the amount of fluff and filler in them is so hilariously incorrect.

No Lily! There are three films because The Lord of the Rings was divided into and published as three books, and they still managed to include the "fluff and filler" in the extended editions. Plus, as shown by Ralph Bakashi's The Lord of the Rings, YOU CAN'T SHOVE THREE BOOKS INTO ONE MOVIE AND EXPECT IT NOT TO BE A RUSHED MESS!

I genuinely wonder if she read or watched Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, or any other popular book turned film series, and if she had the same criticism.

Apologies if this is long, I said I wouldn't make a long post to mess up your asks, but alas.

No worries anon, I’ve had similar crash-outs with similarly bonkers Lily’s takes. Rant away!

Lily just loves to assume shit with half the facts and proclaim it as a universal truth. She conveniently ignores the fact the Hobbit was written for children. Of course, it can be enjoyed by adults too, but it was marketed as a children’s novel. It’s not about a quest to save the world, while also detailing the slow death of everything that isn’t mankind and the political landscape and history of all the kingdoms in-between. It’s just fifteen silly guys going to see if a dragon is dead or not. It skims over months of travel, barely characterizes any of the dwarves, it left a lot of blanks essentially — blanks the movies fully exploited as well as just.. making shit up. (Tauriel, I love you girl, but why??)

Again, Tolkien’s writing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I only ever made it halfway through the Two Towers myself before I gave up, but I’m not gonna turn around and say the writing is bad because of my own differing tastes.

[euphoric-dramione]

manacled

tw: spoilers for manacled

this one will be long, so brace yourselves

I first read Manacled in 2020, and it must've been the third Dramione fanfic I ever read, so I was truly very impressed with how well written it was. It remained the best and my favorite fanfic up until I started rereading it recently, and I'm writing this rant because I just finished rereading Manacled for a third time and I have some thoughts.

Firstly, it's important to state that back in 2020 I was still a high-school student, I loved reading books, especially classic literature, but I had little understanding of why some pieces of literature become classics and others don't. I just liked reading, and just like many other people, I thought that fanfiction was bad because all I've ever known at that point was Wattpad. Manacled changed my opinion. It was the best thing I had ever read, but I was only nineteen.

Now I am twenty-three, I have a degree in English literature, and although it might mean nothing to some people, it proves to me that I can read and understand texts as well as view them critically - my degree gave me tools to approach things I read and see using critical thinking skills. I don't want to critique Manacled because I think that all fanfiction is a wonderful gift that writers give readers for free, asking nothing in return, and that is such a lovely concept, so please keep that in mind when you read and review fanfiction. My critique stems more from what Manacled tells about the way we read classic literature, books in general, and how we deal when we face dubious morality. There is a thin line between books and literature - sometimes that line doesn't even exist. All literature is books, but not all books are literature. Just like all books are texts, but not all texts are books. What is Manacled then?

I'm choosing to speak about Manacled because I think it does a very interesting thing. It is an intertext of two books - Harry Potter and The Handmaid's Tale. Both of them are books, only one of them is literature, however in Manacled they are treated the same.

The Handmaid's Tale is a gruesome novel about a dystopian world where fertile women are slaves to men, their ability to bare children used as a weapon to exploit them. As the author herself, Margaret Atwood, stated, everything depicted in this novel had in some place or some time actually happened to women.

Rape in The Handmaid's Tale is a way for men to demonstrate how much power they have over women, and how they use that power to humiliate and control every aspect of women's lives, especially their reproductive health. Manacled picks up the very carcass of the story of The Handmaid's Tale and inserts it into a dark AU Harry Potter universe where the second wizarding war with Voldemort still continues some years later. Whereas The Handmaid's Tale is a thought-provoking feminist masterpiece about women's struggles and the never-ending violence perpetuated within walls of patriarchy, Manacled focuses solely on one woman and one man. The woman being Hermione Granger who is forced to bear Draco Malfoy's child in order to get her memories back, so Voldemort could rule forever. Later on, we figure out that Hermione and Draco were actually in love, but war set them apart, and it's him Hermione tried to protect by erasing her own memory. Here lies the distinction. Not only does Manacled say nothing about feminism and how women's bodies become war battlefields for, most often, men. Not speaking up on something in the intertext is absolutely nothing wrong. But Manacled does something else, something that I now see so clearly upon rereading, and something which I can neither forgive nor forget. It romanticizes rape. You might say I'm being too callous saying that it romanticizes rape when it is simply depicting in, and I will explain why I chose the word romanticizes.

Although Manacled doesn't allow us to attribute good or bad traits to characters, it is still very clear that Hermione is the heroine in this story and Draco - the hero with antihero characteristics. How do we deal with the fact that our hero hurt our heroine? We look for excuses. Draco Malfoy rapes Hermione, and we're looking for excuses as to why he did it. Some excuses are these: he did it because he loved her, because if he hadn't raped her, Voldemort would've found out that they were hiding something, and then would've killed them both; he did it, but it hurt him even more than it hurt her (it is true that both the victim and the perpetrator might be equally traumatized by an event one caused and another had to suffer through, but it never excuses the perpetrator); and finally - he did it because he had no other choice. Side tangent, but if my loved one ever has to choose between murdering me or raping me, I hope they kill me. Murder me a million times before you rape me once, that will be a greater mercy. And I believe had Draco actually loved Hermione as much as he claimed, he would've murdered her before he laid a finger on her. Let's also have in mind that he rapes her not once, not twice, but over THIRTY times.

While The Handmaid's Tale tirelessly shows that rape is the worst thing that one person can do to another, Manacled, with all its horrifying depiction, claims the complete opposite. Draco Malfoy rapes Hermione Granger, and although he doesn't take pleasure in it, he still does it. We find excuses for it because he is a hero of the story in our eyes, the same way that we find excuses for our favorite famous men when we find out they committed atrocious acts especially against women. When we read Manacled, we are encouraged to believe that rape is sometimes unavoidable, which is the greatest lie of all, it is blasphemous. Because it's Draco Malfoy committing the rape, it seems that sometimes a person has no other choice but to rape another which is a complete antithesis to what Margaret Atwood, and many other modern feminist thinkers claim. Of course, we don't need feminst thinkers to tell us rape is bad, but we might need to think a little deeper to understand that it is never something one has to do.

Rape is always avoidable, never necessary. It is perhaps the only crime that is committed not for some particular reason, but solely because one person wants to hurt another. Murder, theft, these are the crimes that a criminal might commit because they're poor, because they're are being blackmailed, because it's self-defense, etc. However, rape is such a horrifying crime specifically because you can always choose not to do it, and specifically because it is so hard to recover from - rape victims suffer more extreme and longer-lasting cases of PTSD than victims of any other crime because rape is so horrible and death might be considered dignified compared to rape, not better, but more merciful than rape. Draco Malfoy might be a lot of things in Manacled, but one of them is a rapist, and there is simply no going on around it. If you can forgive him, I hope it's because of all the other fanfics you've read where he was good and kind, and not because here he had no other choice but to rape, because that is simply not true. He had a choice, many choices, to be exact. The choice is always there. The most important thing is what we choose.

This is in no way an attack on Manacled, it is not a review nor is it hatespeech - I thoroughly enjoyed this fanfic back when I read it the first time, and I do think it is incredibly well-written, and I am not comparing it to any other published works because that would be unfair. I believe the things I've talked about have more to do with what regular people who are not writers write and how regular readers who do not read classics all the time accept and discuss that work later on. Anyone could've written something romanticizing rape, and many people do it all the time, some even get published and make money off it, but not all people can write as well as the author of Manacled, and even less would be ready to give us their work to read for free. I purposely do not mention the pseudonym of the author because I am also not attacking them personally, simply pointing out what I've noticed. Thank you for reading all the way to the end.

[mariacallous]

There were many takeaways from the first debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. As a number of expected policy issues dominated the conversation, Harris effectively filled in the blanks for voters on her strategies to fix the economy, restore reproductive rights, and address immigration and border security concerns. Many in the media have commented on her strong performance, but the crowning moment of the night was Taylor Swift’s immediate political endorsement of Kamala Harris. The American pop superstar has not only surpassed other artists in music awards and public reach, but has become one of the most influential figures to young people and others who are equally inspired by her talent and grit.

Many have been waiting for the endorsements of well-known and influential artists like Swift and Beyoncé. My colleague, Darrell West, forecasted that the blessings of these artists could shift the campaign in Harris’ favor. In recent months, Beyoncé has quietly supported the vice president by allowing her music to be played at campaign rallies. And immediately following the debate, Taylor Swift not only endorsed Harris for president, but also signed her lengthy post as “Childless Cat Lady” to mimic Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance’s widely ridiculed reference to women without children.

But within her endorsement, Swift also sent a loud message to Trump, those in Big Tech, and others who willingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to extract, clone, and mimic content and the likenesses of celebrities like her. She shared her own fears about AI after being a recent target of the Trump campaign and vowed to be more vocal in efforts to thwart misinformation—an issue that has continued to fester in the absence of congressional action.

Taylor Swift has been a target of deceptive AI

Swift has not been immune from deceptive AI-generated content. Earlier this year, she was the subject of explicit AI-generated images that were circulated across social media platforms, mainly X (formerly known as Twitter). Those posts received more than 47 million views in less than 24 hours, and that was before the account was suspended and the images were saved to be shared via other channels online. Issues of fake pornography and revenge porn on social media sites have served to embarrass female artists and business leaders. In the case of Swift’s sexually exploitative content, the hashtag #TaylorSwiftAI trended and led to a rush on her behalf for legal removal, which by then was too late, given the propensity of consumers to download objectionable content and share false information with their own networks.

At the heart of the controversy may have been a group of online users who started operating on Telegram, which is now facing legal scrutiny for allegedly facilitating illegal online activities. But what comes through in Swift’s denouncement of AI is that she has had enough of its harmful consequences, especially the disturbing deepfakes which reveal a troubling side of the internet where anyone can create and disseminate nude, pornographic, and photorealistic images or other content of celebrities with commercially available AI software. Some would argue that increased access to commercial technology is good for the public as we seek to make online tools more readily available to everyday people. In my new book, “Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass,” I suggest that the shift from analog to digital services not only enabled disruption, but also enabled other uses of technology—some of which were unforeseen. But just because individuals have access to these potentially harmful tools, people like Swift are not necessarily endorsing bad behaviors.

It was the more recent use of her likeness and image that the Trump campaign shared which sent her over the edge. Various AI-generated images of her and her fans, known as “Swifties,” falsely showed them endorsing Trump for president. Many of these photos, which showed young women in T-shirts displaying a Trump endorsement, started on Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, and quickly ended up on other platforms. But this type of inappropriate behavior was neither alarming nor unexpected by Trump allies and influencers. These AI-generated images are part of a long list of other AI-powered election disinformation, including a post which depicted Harris on the beach with now-deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. In the interest of not sharing more false information, I won’t be providing a link to this content.

In her social media post, Swift also made it clear that the deceptive and illegal use of her name and image by the Trump campaign was daunting. She shared on her post that “[i]t really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation.” She followed this emotion by writing: “[t]he simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” which should prompt urgent actions to tackle this issue.

What Congress and the global public should take away from Taylor Swift

For years, Congress has debated over the most appropriate legislative measures to quell mis- and disinformation. In 2019, Congress introduced the first version of the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act, which was designed to establish criminal penalties for individuals thought to be producing deepfakes and other illegal content without related disclosure or digital watermarking to determine the provenance of content and urged the removal of such content by violators. In 2022, Congress introduced the Educating against Misinformation and Disinformation Act, which proposed a commission to support information and media literacy resources. That same year, the first version of the Algorithmic Accountability Act was introduced, and re-introduced in 2023, to address the impacts of AI systems to bring more transparency to automated systems, as well as improved auditing.

In addition to several other bipartisan bills to address deceptive AI-generated content, in summer 2024, a bill called the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED ACT) came out of the U.S. Senate to protect a range of creators. The proposed bill would combat harmful deepfakes, for which election manipulation could be considered a use case, and implement federal transparency guidance for making, authenticating, and detecting AI-generated content. The bill is specifically targeted to protect journalists, actors, and artists from AI-driven theft of their creative content.

But given that the presidential election is only two months away, the provision of legal protections is not in the immediate future. Instead, it is highly likely that there will be more, and not less, misinformation created and leveraged to wage character attacks and accelerate voter manipulation. In fact, the web of online misinformation is so strong that Trump’s false reference during the debate to the eating habits of Haitian immigrants in a small Ohio town went viral the minute he shared the conspiracy theory.

In their new book, “Lies that Kill: A Citizen’s Guide to Disinformation,” co-authors Elaine Kamarck and Darrell West propose that everyday people need to better understand these falsehoods to effectively navigate the truth, and the only way that can be done is by educating citizens on what to look for and how to protect themselves. Taylor Swift may have started that process by stirring reactions even among legislators to do something about this growing problem. If her call to action is not enough, her fans will definitely be chiming in next.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Timing of Jane Pauley interview and Richard Eden comments by u/Winter-South-7448

Timing of Jane Pauley interview and Richard Eden comments Wow! The timing of Richard Eden's massive attack on the dumb prince just now, and almost at the same moment the announcement of the Harkles shock interview with Jane Pauley, the first big TV interview since their Oprah Lie-Fest.I'm really interested in these two things happening at almost exactly the same time; a really severe attack on the idiot prince by Richard Eden for Harry using Her Majesty QEII to get what he wants, and the announcement of Jane Pauley interview.I think its fair to say all we sinners are much more sophisticated and educated now about how the media works, and the timing of annoucements, and general attempts to manage, manipulate and spin stores.This latest piece by Richard Eden is the most out-there he has been in critisizing the idiot prince. He obviously feels he has licence to do so now, because while normally critical of the wicked duo, he is usually quite restrained and understated, gently suggesting possible opinions people might have about them.Sounds to me like someone in the RF has given Richard Eden the go-ahead to take off the gloves. The idiot prince trying to use Her Majesty QEII for his own ends, exploting her good name and legacy to get what he wants, when she is not in a position to defend herself, may just have been the final straw for The King. Claiming that HMQEII is supporting the idiot prince, looking down on him from heaven and approving his conduct which has been publicly and relentlessly critical of The King, and telling Harry to "see it through to the end" is tastless, vile and exploitative behaviour by the idiot prince.And Eden has taken his criticism to a new intensity, acknowledging the grief Harry caused the dying Monarch, by just coming right out and saying "Shame on Harry for now trying to use the memory of a grandmother he did so much to hurt in her final years.".The unexpected announcement that the Harkles are talking to Jane Pauley smells to me of the wicked duo trying to get ahead of negative news. Forget all the nonsense about their so-called anti-bullying campaign. They are doing the interview because they want to get a message out.Could it be that they have been told by the RF of changes to their status, of the loss of some of their prestige or titles, or some other final action by The King, and they are trying to get ahead of the story, by making the announcement themselves as though it has been their decision? As in, we have decided to relinquish our titles, or we have decided to break all contact with the royal family, or Harry and the two doll-children are relinquishing their place in the line of succession?Harry made those comments about HMQEII one week ago (last Thursday), and there may have been immediate consequences behnd the scenes for the wicked-duo, which saw them making a quick decision to arrange the Jane Pauley interview to try to spin any forthcoming negative annoucement about them by the PalaceJust seems to me that Richard Edens story is laying some useful PR groundwork, finally calling out in no uncertain terms Harry's shocking behaviour, and helping to justify action by the RF to punish or finally cut-off the Harkles.The idiot Prince has exploited, used and abused William's good name, that of Catherine, Camilla, and The King. Maybe going after The King's late mother HMQEII was too much for Charles, and he has finally had enough.Am I wrong? Is this just wishful thinking? post link: https://ift.tt/m2uIvcB author: Winter-South-7448 submitted: August 01, 2024 at 04:34PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[slitheringghost]

interesting, i wonder if you can connect Sirius's undercurrent of CSA with Remus's (as is invoked by Greyback specifically biting children) with him baiting Snape to see werewolf Remus? if we take the werewolf to be a metaphor for CSA it could align with how CSA survivors sometimes grow up not understanding proper boundaries. and so Sirius, as much as he loathes his family, sees a prank at this level of violence to be normal (though the whole wizarding world is fairly lax on violence anyway) + James being the one to save Snape as he's the one who grew up with a normal and happy childhood

(re: this post) Ooh that's an interesting connection! It depends on your view of the Prank; I don't think Sirius ever meant for Snape to go to the Shack - I agree with this meta. Idk if that works because that would mean... idk Sirius inflicted CSA on Snape? ... but where would Remus fall in this metaphor... hmm idk. I get what you mean by lack of boundaries though, it's interesting to think about how that would manifest in other ways!

And the lack of boundaries works with like, Walburga, as I have seen portrayals where she was sexually abused and then became the sexual abuser.

So, related, I actually think Snape is the one comes off as a CSA survivor vs Remus. There are three categories of characters that relate to CSA (or sexual assault in general) to me:

1.0 Metaphorical sexual abuse: Voldemort (with many characters but probably most notably Harry, Ginny, and Lily), Umbridge, lycanthropy as metaphor for CSA (or, sort of; it only works as a metaphor regarding Greyback specifically)

2.0 Actual implied sexual abuse: Merope's future incestuous marriage, Ariana's assault, Greyback also falls here because I don’t think all of his victims are implied as literal assault victims - like Remus - but he definitely is also meant to be real sexual abuser (i.e. Bellatrix offering Hermione to Greyback), Snape’s assault by James, and likewise maybe Lily (I don't personally see James that way, but I actually do think JKR meant to imply James as an abusive husband who forced himself on Lily)

3.0 Characters I personally headcanon that just give me the #vibes of CSA survivor: the Black brothers, the Black sisters, Snape, and I’m coming around to the idea of Barty Jr. as one

Oh Slughorn is also obviously a creep but that doesn’t seem to be intentional on JKR’s part.

I wrote this post about how Lucius is implied to be an abuser to Snape. Lucius being compared to Voldemort for Snape definitely gives major abuser vibes, but it doesn't entirely make sense to me that it would be in the form of physical abuse or like verbal abuse where he screams at him. There would definitely be manipulation and exploitation, emotionally and financially, but additonally sexual abuse makes sense to me as well.

The Walburga and Lucius comparison also seems extremely apt. It really fits how Sirius and Snape are written narrative mirrors.

Snape kind of falls in the middle of 2 and 3, because JKR likely made an intentional reference to fagging but I still don't think it's really firmly implied in the way it is with Merope and Ariana, because Lucius is clearly framed as having redeemable qualities to some extent re: his love of his family (but then you could say the same about James... so idk).

And oh there is also Snape as a sexual harasser of children that obviously wasn’t intended by JKR but certainly came off that way…

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Well if they do a documentary Williams needs to be involved! It’s not fair if her siblings and harry are all in it

W has more class than collaborating with his brother on a Netflix documentary about his mother. If he is planning to collaborate with a documentary, it will be a free show via BBC or ITV, maybe with small glimpses of his children and wife (of how they keep her memory alive or something)

Maybe I am wrong but I bet William will commemorate his mother with Homewards tho. I know the project will be ‘ready’ until 2028 and his mother’s passing will be commemorated in 2027, but I have the feeling that somehow in 2027 he will released significant results or else in ‘memory’ of Di’s and her work for homelessness. That would be more a William thing than making money with Netflix.

I know this is a controversial take and will make some people upset, but they should really stop celebrating every major deathiversary for Diana. We don’t need new documentaries. After 30 years, there are no new stories to tell and everyone’s just regurgitating the same stories. This is what I mean by it’s exploitative - there’s no purpose to these documentaries except to make more money off tragedy because there are no new stories to tell or new information to share.

William has the right idea, IMO, which is to do something through causes important to Diana and remember her for her service.

And honestly, the fact that Harry would even co-sign a Diana docuseries after he complained a great deal in Spare about how the public who grieved Diana’s death knew her…pot meet kettle.

Again, a reminder that the Express’s story is only just rumors. Nothing has been confirmed.

[mightdeletelater]

when fame turns fatal: the tragic cycle of celebrity exploitation

this blog post was originally posted on my substack

How do you capture the unknowable life of someone else? Someone only seen through interviews, music videos, and invasive paparazzi snapshots? Maybe starting by laying out the simplest biographical details? Liam Payne was born in 1993 in Wolverhampton. He first auditioned for The X Factor at 14. Joined the boy band One Direction at 16. Had a son named Bear at 23. Released his only solo album at 25. And passed away at 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

Another approach could be to focus on the photos, the ones from both the beginning and the end. In 2010, when One Direction was formed, judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, and Nicole Scherzinger hovered over a polaroid of a 16-year-old Payne, arranging it with pictures of three future bandmates – Niall Horan, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson – as if they were playing with dolls. "That looks good." "That looks great." "It looks unbelievable." When Payne passed away in 2024, TMZ published zoomed-in, cropped photos of his lifeless body. His arm, and section of his side, both with his distinct tattoos. The article had no warning of the contents. 

Denial of dignity in death is a tragic culmination of a toxic kind of fame, one especially endured by pop stars and teen idols. Payne was simply just another one who was dehumanized throughout his life – by the music industry that propelled him to stardom, by the tabloids, by social media, and even by his own fans. Being idolized can be as depersonalizing as being vilified. He became a pin-up poster, and eventually a literal doll (fans could collect all five members of the boyband). 

The cycle of objectification persisted even after One Direction disbanded in 2015. Payne's solo career and erratic interview behaviour became a source of online mockery. Once endearingly called the "dad" of One Direction for being more serious, ambitious, and occasionally a bit awkward, these traits grew exaggerated over time. His ‘cringe moments’ became viral content on social media. Despite being open about his struggles with mental health and substance abuse, he received little empathy. He was open about by long periods of boredom that came after the highs of performing to sold out arenas which led him to an alcohol and drug addiction and suicidal thoughts. Speaking on the Diary Of The CEO Podcast in 2021, Payne said: “I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where's rock bottom for me? And you would never have seen it. I'm very good at hiding it. I don't even know if I have hit it yet. I can either make that choice now and pick my last moment as my rock bottom or I can make a whole new low.” While the exact circumstances of Payne's fall from the balcony remain unclear, emergency services were called to the hotel for “a guest who has had too much drugs and alcohol.”

Before his death, Payne was accused by his ex-fiance Maya Henry of physical and emotional abuse, including chasing her with an axe and forcing her to get a self-induced abortion. Last week, Henry had issued a cease and desist against Payne, accusing him of repeatedly contacting her. She also alleged that the singer continuously contacted her friends and family, including her mother. 

The fantasy that One Direction embodied for a generation was always deeply co-dependent – a symbiotic relationship between the fevered daydreams of millions of teenage girls and the dream come true for five young boys. But what once seemed like a fantasy looks more like a nightmare. There is something undeniably troubling about adults marketing 16-year-old boys to children for maximum profit, despite the clear risks to their well-being and mental health. Why do we only recognize this when tragedy strikes? How can we justify doing this to such young people – isolating them from their families, their normal lives, and their sense of self – only to mock them as they struggle through adulthood? How many more lives must the pop industry claim before something finally changes? It all just feels irredeemable. What is someone supposed to do with all that fame and then all that vilification? What does it say about us when there is a market for identifying tattoos from a corpse?

And there will never be closure. Henry will not get justice. Payne will have never beaten his battle with addiction. While the tributes pour in for Payne, it is clear how most of the decisions he made – and that were made for him – never were in his best interest. But that never mattered because the industry chews and spits out young people but will continue to thrive and produce entertainment. Unregulated fame has horrific ramifications, for the person in the spotlight and all the people in their lives standing just outside of it.