#had to include some propaganda its not one of my posts without some

[numberonetacostan]

homeless taco head cannons break my heart

….

so uh.

have any?

Hello there!!!!^^ Welcome, and thank you for sending in your request!!! :] YOU BET I HAVE HEADCANONS FOR HOMELESS TACO!!! I THINK I'VE SAID SOME IN VARIOUS ANSWERS/POSTS BEFORE BUT I'LL TRY PUTTING ONES I DON'T THINK I'VE POSTED BEFORE!!! YAY HOMELESS HEADCANONS REQUEST!!!!! I love getting hc requests of any sort!!!^^

-Justin confirmed from one of my stream questions that Taco had stolen food from the hotel while she was homeless!!! I definitely think she avoided doing this at all costs, but during winters when she couldn't forage much if any food from the woods, she'd sneak into the hotel at night after like, a week of not eating to grab as much as she can and gtfo!!! Normally she could probably get in and out safely, but again, she hasn't eaten in a week. I think she would get caught by Pepper, who I had mentioned in my one-hc-for-everyone post to be the resident chef in the hotel!!! It's winter so it gets dark early, and Taco has no sense for what time it is other than the sun, so she accidentally goes in too early and Pepper walks in on her raiding the cabinets. Pepper is understandably surprised, but Taco tries to deescalate!! With her current state though, it comes off more like begging Pepper not to rat her out, and I honestly don't think she would. We have a very homeless, starving, freezing, and bedraggled Taco, and Pepper just can't bring herself to do it. She just turns to whatever food she's making and warns Taco that OJ or Paper might be in the check on the meal any moment. Taco leaves and Pepper never says a word. Sorry about the Tacopep friendship propaganda but i want them to be friends.

-I think Taco would spend a lot of time in the Gemory Cave!! It's basically the only "inside" she can access for when it's snowing, raining, etc., yeah? Staying in the forest during a thunderstorm would be more danger than it's worth for her, and with all the tunnels she'd be able to stay hidden pretty well. I'd say she has a few hidey holes in there, small enough that only she and a handful of contestants would even be able to get inside, where she keeps her most important possessions. At least, what she can't hold in her shell, yeah?

-Mephone did not program Taco with the proper knowledge or skills to survive in the wild. She had to figure everything out through trial and error, including what food is and isn't safe to eat. She had a lot of miserable evenings in those early days, throwing up what little she had managed to scrounge together for a meal, hallucinations, headaches, etc., etc.

--Due to these skills though, she's kinda the MVP of the group post-canon. She's the only one who has a lot of these skills and can work successfully with only the resources they can get from the land. She keeps them from going through the same trial and error phase that she had to, especially important now that they can't recover anymore.

-I think she put the sign in front of the Perilous Forest there herself while she was living in the woods, to keep the others from coming in and finding her. What's so perilous about it? Her.

-Rather than sleeping on the ground, I see her sleeping in trees. She's a Taco, she could reasonably nudge herself into a position in which she won't fall, and at least try to fall asleep. It would be a bit risky if case she fell, but it's definitely better than the risk of getting caught unawares. I don't see her sleeping nearly enough when she's homeless, though, and post-canon when she's in the mansion she sleeps for like 27 hours straight and feels better than she has in years.

-I mentioned in another recent post Taco being afraid of snow because of past instances of severe hypothermia!!! And, yeah, if it snows, or even just gets cold enough, she's fucked. The best she has is the cave, and even then, it wouldn't help much. And she's malnourished, which makes her even more prone to it!!! She does not get proper treatment ever!!!!! I'd say she's had some very, very close calls with frostbite, maybe a rough case of pneumonia or two, more hallucinations because they're great for angst, irregular heartbeat (if they have hearts), etc., etc.

Hopefully these seven are enough!!! If you do want more, feel free to let me know!!! Headcanons are so much fun, I'm always happy to answer requests like these!!!^^

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

The UN's Official Mission report on Hamas' Sexual Violence in Israel was published

Please take your time to read this. Israeli \ Jewish victims deserve the same protection as any other women.

The brief version can be read here.

----

***I am not going to include any graphic detailing.

The pattern of Sexual Violence used by Hamas is very clear:

It was one of their key goals and tactics on October 7th.

You cannot say "Female Hostages are treated well. you're lying by saying they're raped" anymore!

Notice how they also said **Children**

Civilians were in fact burned inside their homes

This is also clearly a pattern used by Hamas, as this is just one of many examples they detail. -Hamas has also burned soldiers alive in their dorms and offices. That is also further detailed in the report.

This is not fake or propaganda

I can't believe I have to write this but this report is an official report (finally) made by the UN's Sexual Violence Office, as part of their yearly report.

They had a 2-week delegation that toured the actual Kibbutzim (turned crime scenes), interviewed eyewitnesses, spoke to families of victims, etc...

___

I do have to say I was mistaken in my earlier post, besides their conclusion, they have also written their recommendations:

...." V. Conclusions

Overall, based on the totality of information gathered from multiple and independent sources at the different locations, there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred at several locations across the Gaza periphery, including in the form of rape and gang rape, during the 7 October 2023 attacks. Credible circumstantial information, which may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, was also gathered. 22

With regards to the hostages, the mission team found clear and convincing information that some hostages taken to Gaza have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.

The mission team was unable to establish the prevalence of sexual violence and concludes that the overall magnitude, scope, and specific attribution of these violations would require a fully-fledged investigation. A comprehensive investigation would enable the information base to be expanded in locations which the mission team was not able to visit and to build the required trust with survivors/victims of conflict-related sexual violence who may be reluctant to come forward at this point.

Regarding the occupied Palestinian Territory, while its scope did not extend to verification, the mission team received information from institutional and civil society sources as well as through direct interviews, about some forms of sexual violence against Palestinian men and women in detention settings, during house raids and at checkpoints. Though the mission team did not visit Gaza, the Office of the SRSG-SVC will continue to monitor the situation for any relevant allegations of CRSV in the context of the ongoing hostilities. The relevant UN entities present in the occupied Palestinian Territory will provide UN-verified information for reporting to the Security Council on allegations of CRSV, which will be complemented by the information obtained by the mission team.

VI. Recommendations

The mission team makes the following recommendations: a) Continue to encourage the Government of Israeli to grant, without further delay, access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, to carry-out fully-fledged investigations into all alleged violations that would deepen the preliminary findings contained in the present report. b) Urge Hamas and other armed groups to immediately and unconditionally release all individuals held in captivity and to ensure their protection including from sexual violence, in line with international law. c) Call on all relevant and competent bodies, national and international, to bring all perpetrators, regardless of rank or affiliation, to justice based on individual, superior and command responsibility, in accordance with due process of law and fair trial standards. d) Encourage the Government of Israel to consider signing a Framework of Cooperation with the Office of the SRSG-SVC to strengthen capacity on justice and accountability for CRSV crimes as well as security sector engagement, training, and oversight to prevent and address CRSV. 23 e) Strengthen the capacity of the United Nations to monitor and report on incidents, patterns and trends of CRSV in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory through the establishment of the Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Arrangements on CRSV (MARA), convened by dedicated technical specialists, namely Women’s Protection Advisors (WPAs), deployed to the region to ensure prevention, protection and coordinated multi-sectoral assistance to survivors/victims. f) Encourage relevant actors to uphold information integrity and ethical, trauma-informed representations of conflict-related sexual violence, including by respecting and safeguarding the dignity and identity of survivors/victims and witnesses of sexual violence, as sensationalizing headlines, media pressure and scrutiny, exposure of identity, political instrumentalization and pressure, and/or fear of reprisal can result in the suppression, silencing and discrediting of survivors/victims and witnesses, further compound trauma and increase the risk of social stigmatization. g) Urge all parties to the conflict to adopt a humanitarian ceasefire, and to ensure that expertise on addressing conflict-related sexual violence informs the design and implementation of all ceasefire and political agreements and that the voices of women and affected communities are heard in all conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes....."

Israelis have been repeatedly saying all of this for months now, while you deny it. I've personally had people tell me it's all "fake propaganda". You should all be ashamed.

I am infuriated at the fact that for 5 months, our evidence and word isn't enough for Anti-Zionists. Here is some undeniable proof for you.

Believe Jewish Women.

[astarless-fights]

For those on tumblr not in the know, Mark Zuckerberg lobbied the United States Congress to ban Tiktok from the United States after proving difficulty to overcome the loss of users to Tiktok. Through gifts and stocks, the House Energy and Commerce Committee successfully banned Tiktok. It needs to be very clear to those who have not been able to pay attention: The Committee interviewed Tiktok's CEO with questions that did not relate to Tiktok but instead to META. This precedent is very alarming. What is fine for one, is not the other- even if the other isn't participating.

Some key points:

Tiktok stores (stored, depending on what day you see this) all United States data on US soil in Texas and gives backdoor entry to the NSA. - This is important for the United States to check for the bad people on all platforms.

Listed members on the committee asked questions of activities Tiktok does not participate in but all of META does. Giving us immediate confirmation our government is fine with domestic platforms selling our data without consent.

An incredibly concerning detail showed its face while this was going down. All META platforms have access to every device's data using the same WIFI you connect to and they use that data.

META has given me the urge to puke for several years but last year was a moment of true question of how I move forward in a world that already seemingly has my data, even if I did not consent to the passing around of it.

When META decided to include AI in their system after investors seemed to require everyone to do so, the question of safety crossed my mind. META had announced the platforms were using everything you produce and have produced (posts, videos, photos) to not just train their own AI system, but they were also sending your information to a 3rd party as well. This included a setting toggle for consent that was default ON.

When the masses found out and toggled it off, META redesigned the Settings page to make it harder for you to find the consent option. They also made it so it wasn't just a "toggle" but now you had to write to them.

When the masses found out again (because we don't want this) how to get there, they redesigned the settings page again, hid the consent deeper, and required you to write to them with proof they even used your information... So that you can consent or not to consent to use their information.

I have been on this app since 2008 and relied heavily on this website when I was 14 while trying to escape the all seeing eyes I was friends with on Facebook. During this, tumblr became an amazing news resource for bills about to pass that endangered every bit of what the internet is known for: free speech and free of choice.

Back then, this site was all I had. I worshipped Tumblr for giving me emotional outlets and outside opinions during a very rough and miserable transition as a teen. So when Tumblr shared Bills trying to regulate our internet that would prevent reaching sites like Tumblr, I campaigned to my 150 student school and the two 1000 student public schools near me to reach out to our representatives, especially those 18 year olds waiting for a new horizon. With this, our representative and our governor in South Carolina, reached out to us at the time, letting us know they didn't realize how loved these spaces were and that they needed protecting. Communicating knowledge is powerful.

Having sites like Tumblr and Reddit circulate incoming bills like this was required to know about it. No one on Facebook saw any of that coming and they definitely won’t find out now with Zuckerberg making sure of it.

I have always seen the importance of internet regulation but for whatever reason (propaganda pushing) the People who work for us (reps, congress, the house, the committees) always wanted to pass bills that prevented people from talking and accessing new information.

The Tiktok ban passed by our government is not a good sign for anyone who uses the internet. The total amount of Americans who use this app to create community, careers, businesses, market their art, is at 102.3 million. That's a shit ton of businesses and communities that just end on the 19th of January.

And you might think, well why wouldn't they backup to another platform and I am sure many will, but Tiktok has such a unique algorithm that actually pushes businesses into the limelight and because of that, there is a massive community there that uplifts businesses that are falling behind. Currently, there is no other algorithm on US soil that compares to just how much it uplifts accounts that don't do well starting out. We lost so many creators after Vine because no other app could translate the humor and creativity. It's going to be a bigger loss after Tiktok goes because of that same issue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If they are willing to ban a site that is very minimally connected to China, an incredibly huge resource for Americans for everything and anything and all for an increase in paycheck, what else will they be banning in the future when money is waved in their faces by one entity? They already went for one where the American people are heavily reliant on and one that is supposed to be protected under free speech and free of choice. If META wants something dead, give it a year, and it will die.

The Internet and social platforms have always been protected by free speech and freedom of choice. But these aspects have also been on the chopping block since the wild wild west of internet. I fear, this will not stop with just Tiktok.

[lovingdabeessss]

Weiss Being the problem teammate for SO LONG is crazy like I’m not even just talking about being anti faunas and stuff

She lived somewhere that’s like THE worst place like this is every oppressor and awful take and we’re right about everything and then was living with the worst of that and told it was the best

Despite how good her heart is no amount of good heart or intelligence makes people immune to propaganda or brainwashing like there’s definitely a LOT of bad views she really had to work to find out were actually really bad and wrong and there’s probably some she still has that she just hasn’t noticed or thought about because for the majority of her life it was so normal

Not to make another “Weiss is the best written character” post on my Yang blog but like?? My god

And I say this about a lot of characters but having an older sister would fix her AND IT DID it’s just that winter couldn’t fully be that, I mean she did her part but she just traded one brainwashing for another in the military

(you can’t tell me Yang isn’t the kinda older sister figure that could go “no you can’t say that” and you shut up)

But even without specifically big sister dynamic just the fact that she was accepted into Rwby as family (I’ll make another post about that these are out of order my b💖) is huge in helping her

Like she was abused in her family but she was still its crowning jewel in the family’s crown she was the heir she was its greatest success and the treatment she received was part of that responsibility and honor so it was ok

However in Rwby she was part of the family but she was the black sheep of the family

Blake was an ex terrorist and SHE, Weiss Schnee, was the Black sheep

And YET she was still clearly loved and cared for they still wanted her safe and included they just wanted her to be a decent person and let her become one

Weiss is a lonely character in big house and a big family she was lonely as hell and now she’s in a small dorm with three people who immediately didn’t like her and she’s never been more secure she’s never had such companionship

And she craves to be more accepted and more included and also just to be better and so she becomes better

I just lover her a lot and the little Rwby family

Anyway everyone wish me luck on my English midterm!!!

She’s so funny

[friedclownshrimp]

Hiii gamers! As i promised yesterday, today i am here to finally do the doomsday idol cult infodump....i would like to first thank my oomfies @orangelovesyoumore and @sotogalmo for wanting to hear abt it, giggling :3

I was gonna post it directly into the post i made, but i wanted to put some tags into it since i wrote a lot and wants this to get some traction, so here we go <3

1. What the HELL is the idol doomsday cult?

The actual name for it is "Golden Flight", and it is a fictional cult that i am making right now, with my friend @chioniphilia actually making one of the people who participate in it. This cult is part of the Alien Stage universe, it started first as just the backstory of one of my ocs, but i thought it had a lot of potential, so i thought about turning it into its own thing, away from the main plot of Alien Stage (since i can't make it a completely original thing as it is really tied to the unvierse of ALSNT)

The cult is commanded by an alien that no one knows the name of, but whom is called "Father" by everyone who is a part of it, they don't make a lot of public appearances, but all the humans who are brought into the cult know about them, with them being mostly this "divine" figure that is always looming around and knowing everything they are doing. The main idea of the cult is that the universe is quickly shrinking, and that one day, there will no longer be enough space for everyone, and when this happens, aliens will first start killing their pet humans and then kill each other, however, there is a planet that will stay there until the end, and the people who live there will all live and one day live in harmony - with this including both the aliens and the humans. (i know the aliens in the alsnt universe have their own name but i forgot what it is so im just saying alien)

This harmony presented in this small group of survivors is said to be due to them all sharing "the same soul", with them all having this dream of living in a world full of peace and with no suffering in it, being seen as "divine beings" who, even if they die, will "take flight to the paradise" as they are pure.

Of course, most of these things are hidden from most people, with this community being seen as a "training place" for humans to become idols - a little like a competitor to ANAKT Garden, which i'll explain further down <3

2. Ok, if it is a cult that is all about "everyone living in harmony", why did you only say that humans partake in it?

For the people in the cult, the explanation given to the humans who are taken care of by "Father" is that they are trying to get as many humans as possible there as a way to "pay for the aliens mistakes", saying that they will help as many humans as possible survive this apocalypse since they know true pain and thus will know how to not make the same mistakes the aliens made related to how the other species are treated.

But in reality? They get humans into the cult because not only it makes no one be suspicious of them (since humans are just seen as pets, with no one really caring about their suffering or whatnot) but also because for them, it is a lot easier to convince these humans to come willingly to the cult - the situation that most of them find themselves is dire and without a lot of hope to it, so thus, "Father" knows that the promises of a new universe where they have a participation in and can leave peacefully is enough to make most of them come, or even the promise of revenge agaisnt those who wronged them.

In the end, they do have aliens in it as well, however, the human to alien ratio in the cult is very afar from one another in my head.

3. Where the part of "idol" comes from?

OK SO NOW THIS IS THE PART I LIKE THE MOST TO TALK ABOUT AND WHAT MADE ME START THIS WHOLE THING!!!

The part of "Idol" comes from the main form the cult has of putting out propaganda for it without it being obvious what they are doing: through songs, and this is done by an idol group sponsored by a corporation in the ALSNT universe called "Eden Dreams" (which is actually a shell corporation comanded by the cult), and this is where the name of the cult actually comes from, as the group is called "Golden Flight"

The group consists of 12 members in it, with each one of them having one color representing them (the colors being red, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, brown, black, white and grey) which are the only colors they can use - this is not only in their clothes, but also in their hair, eyes, makeup and so on, with most of them going through surgeries to be of the colors assigned to them. The surgeries they can go through are also to be more "marketable" to the aliens. All of the members of the group are winners of past seasons of Alien Stage.

The members of the group change over time, as every time one of the members end up dying or "disappearing", a group of people is chosen by "Father" to be trained to take the spot, which them being given placements - then, this group of people is given an intense training just like the former member did, and, when they are done, the "best one" in the group is chosen to be put in Alien Stage as their "final test" while the others stay, if this person wins, they go through the surgeries in their appearance and become the new member, if not, the next in line is sent to the next one and so it goes until one wins. The reason as to why members of the cult want to become members of this group so badly is due to the propaganda "Father" spreads, saying that all those 12 people who are in the idol group are the "purest" ones there, and they will be the ones who will take care of all the survivors when the day of the apocalypase comes. (although most members in this idol group range from the age of 15-25)

This idol group is EXTREMELY popular in the ALSNT universe, not only because of all the money the cult puts behind them, but also because the members of it are actually good at what they do, and the fact they are winners of Alien Stage make them get even more attention. Their songs normally have themes related to peace, friendship and harmony to them, spreading the ideas of the cult of "everyone having the same soul", which makes them be popular not only to aliens, but also to be seen as inspirations to other humans.

The 12 members of the cult are also the only ones who know of "Father"s true identity, as they are called their "children", and thus can interact directly with them, and the members of it call each other "brothers" and "sisters".

The training they go through is not only related to learning how to compose, sing and dance, but they are also trained to not fear death nor to have empathy towards their "enemies" (the people they go agaisnt in Alien Stage and other people who might not want to join the cult) as these people are only doing that out of "being agaisnt the universe's peace", and thus they shall be punished by dying and being sent to the limbo, to forever know they didn't take the opportunity to be in a better place. The members of the group are extremely controlled, however, they also partake in controlling the cult - since they have direct contact to "Father", they are the ones who always tell them when something happens in the cult and if one of the members is "misbehaving", which makes them be punished properly.

I don't have all members of it planned, having only made the orange one and with my friend making the red one...........So if anyone wants to make one idol for it hit me up!! ^-^

4 - How does the cult get new members in it?

1 - One of the ways they find new members (and which is also easier) is to go to the slums and other places where humans live in precary situations. When they go to these areas, the members (who are always groups of humans) take care of the people living there, giving them food, medicine and other things that they normally have trouble finding, and, after some days, when they are leaving, they ask these people to come alongside them, promising all these things and more if they go, and, as these humans do not have owners, no one really notices that they have went there.

2 - Fan meetings. One of the things the idol group does is make fan meetings, with them normally doing some for only human pets as well, in these meetings, the members analyze which pet humans seem to not have stable homes or be victims of bad owners. When this happens, they find a way to discover where this human lives, and they take them forcefully to the "paradise" without their owner knowing where they went, this or they manipulate and help this human in "getting rid" of their owner, helping them "find somewhere to hide" afterwards.

3 - The Eden Dreams program. It is a "program" made by the shell corporation mentioned before. Basically, as all members of Golden Flight are winners of Alien Stage, the cult will offer this program where they will train pet humans to become "winners" as well. If an alien pays for it, the human is taken into the cult for training (all the things an idol needs to know + the brainwashing), where they will go through it for years without any contact with their owner (as they say this will "distract them") and, when the cult deems the human as "worthy", they are sent to ALSNT - if this human dies, their owner is returned 60% of the money they invested in the program, but if the human wins, they are sent back to their owner, with the cult receiving 30% of any money the owner gets from the human's success. Also sometimes they do the same as the second way and make the human "disappear" to get them back into the cult but ykyk.

I didn't knew how to break my other thoughts from the actual infodump so im using this image..........I have some things here and there made for the cult as well but idk how to organize them here, so i'm here just to say: if you guys are interested in this idea and wanna know more about it, please send questions in my inbox or in my dms, PLEASE I LOVE TALKING ABT THIS I GEN WANT TO MAKE AN ASKBLOG FOR THE IDOL GROUP AUEUEEUEUEUE

Also again if anyone wants to make an oc for the cult feel free to do so to..................Again thank you all for reading this love yall so much <3

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Allura

Lots of people (myself included tbh) ship klance (Keith and Lance). In s8 the creators made Allura/Lance canon (but then they killed her off and left the ending ambiguous it was weird). Anyway the fandom treats her like she's the most terrible bitchy woman ever but all she wants to do is end the war and avenge her destroyed home planet. Yeah she wasn't always the nicest or always the best, but you could argue some other characters in the show aren't either and they aren't treated near as bad as allura. people really just hate her bc Lance liked her. I don't think allura/lance are good together, but I still liked her as a character and thought she was interesting and had a lot of growth during the show. she DEF is not evil like some people portray her as in fic or talk about her in captions on posts. I've seen people say that they HATE her and that she's the worst and I'm like ??? let her live (well sort of ig she is dead now). lots of fic writers use her as the villain which is so interesting to me bc the show literally has villains like use them. anyway allura so perfectly fits the bracket description she deserves better.

I hate to acknowledge my time in this fandom but I hate the way the fandom treated her more. Allura was treated like shit no matter what side of the Great Ship War you were on because she was always a threat to the biggest ships (klance and sheith). At best she got put into Background Lesbian or Consolation Prize Shallura (Space Mom-zoned) (She was not a motherly figure btw. She was just Black). At worst she was violently demonized for being ~racist~ (kinda not cool with the alien race that blew up her planet for a few episodes), complete with misogynistic language hurled at her (she got called a bitch sooo much). Allura was a good and cool character and the show did her dirty but the fandom was somehow worse.

i apologise for speaking the dark magicks, but amidst the voltron fandoms many, many transgressions, there were a particular subset of people who just hated this girl. the infamous klance wars of the 2010s kept this perfectly fine childrens cartoon character in the sights of shippers everywhere, and she (and her voice actress im sure) were subjected to years of petty squabble blown up to global perportions. ive seen hate, ive seen rants, ive seen fanfics that made her homophobic. girls been through the ringer, and even though voltron was never the show its fandom wanted it to be, i believe allura deserved better

Mary Morstan

a controversial one i know, but it’s tumblr. how could i not? anyway shoutout to the writers for CANONICALLY killing her off for the non-canon ship. she was so cool honestly poor girl

Oh god where do I start? Constantly being turned abusive? Killed off (in canon!)? Constantly being removed from fic? I cannot stand the way she's treated, but it's 100% impossible to find Johnlock fic without the "umsympathetic Mary Morstan" angle. It's infuriating!

The fandom insulted Mary at every conceivable turn, refused to acknowledge her narrative importance or impact on the other characters, called for her death repeatedly, and even SENT DEATH THREATS TO HER ACTRESS because she had the AUDACITY to be a morally gray female character who was married to John (they did not care about the moral grayness of the male characters, but she was irredeemable, apparently-presumably because she was a "threat" to the main fandom ship). And though she was definitely sacrificed on a SPECIFIC mlm ship altar, she was still tangentially victimized by OTHER mlm ships too! For example, this fandom was willing to make up a character WHO LITERALLY DID NOT ACTUALLY EXIST to ship with different male character (who was morally...way worse than she ever was), as well as create swathes of content about two men who had maybe one canon interaction in the whole show, before even thinking about the possibility of making content for this character or even just talking about her in a way that wasn't overtly misogynistic and degrading. When Mary died in-story (in what, in my opinion, was an unnecessary, bullshit way), her death was, to this fanbase, not actually about her and was just seen as "proof" that the two male leads would now get together (they didn't). And this STILL continues to this day. People reduce her to "selfish bitch," completely ignoring any of her complexity by claiming that she's incapable of caring about anyone (despite helping to save lives on more than one occasion, as well as dying in an act of sacrifice) and insisting that any of her positive qualities MUST be completely fabricated. I've seen a lot of female characters get mistreated by fandom for a mlm ship's sake, but I don't think I've EVER encountered an example as bad as this one.

[allisonreader]

VCCS (Vector Climate Control System)

Here is my completed @inklings-challenge story for this year. It's not really what I had in mind for this story, but it works. I have included the first part in this, though I have posted that first part previously. So for those of you who have read that bit before; once you see this; 🌨️🌧️⛈️🌪️❄️💨, then you know that we're starting into the new section.

It was a cold blustery type of day like they hadn’t had in a while. It was a forbidding omen of the changing seasons as old ripped propaganda poster flapped with each gust of wind. The faded words speaking of the Vector Climate Control System still legible.

It always surprised him just how many posters and old billboards remained, proclaiming the wonders of how the VCCS was going to change the world for the better.

He pulled up his coat collar to try and block some of the wind as he made his way home from work. He’d have to remember a heavier coat with a hood in the coming days.

The wind was going to make his face as red as his hair with the way it was whipping through the buildings around him. The wind was gusting hard enough to rip down an old flyer and try to blind him with it. He huffed as he read it.

*A Revolutionary New World Is Coming! The Vector Climate Control System will eliminate the question of "what will the weather be like today?"

Once the V.C.C.S. is employed extreme weather will be curbed. No more droughts! No more hurricanes! No more tornadoes! No more blizzards!

Extreme weather will be controlled and moved where it is most needed and is safely out of the way.*

There was more that he could have read, but he didn’t need to. He scrunched up the flyer to dispose of it at home, putting it in his pocket until then.

He knew all about VCCS as they had learned all about it school. They had been taught all about the seven circuits of nine towers. How each system worked both in its own little loop as well as within the entire system.

But also how it failed.

There were both political reasons as well as technical factors. As the system did not work as intended or expected. Making a bigger mess than if it had never been set in place.

The towers still remained as they were too large to demolish with any ease. Finally he made it to the warmth of his home.

"Hey there Delilah, I’m home!" he called out upon entering.

"I hear you!" Delilah called back, coming out from the kitchen a couple minutes later. Which had given him a chance to remove his coat and take the flyer from his pocket, ready to recycle.

"Oh! Jake! You’re as red as your hair!" Delilah exclaimed, putting both of her hands on his; as expected, red cheeks. "What do you have there?" she asked when she felt the wad of paper in his hands as he hugged her.

"It’s nothing important. Just one of those old VCCS flyers that tried attacking me in the wind," he said.

"Well that was rather mean of it, after everything else that happened with that."

"Hmm, at least now there will be one less flyer littering up the place about it."

"There’s that I guess," said Delilah. "Let’s get you warmed up properly."

🌤️🌩️🌨️🌧️☀️⛈️🌪️❄️💨

Over the next few days the weather grew more intense, more wild and unpredictable, until the weather casters were starting to speculate that there was a malfunction of one of the towers a part of the VCCS.

Complaints about the suspected malfunction grew day by day as the weather continued to get increasingly worse and more wild. Wind was practically nonstop and rain, sleet, and snow cycled through without a rhyme or a reason. Other than harsh winds, you never knew what you were going to get.

The weather casters were speculating/observing that from what weather conditions and patterns there were that it appeared to only be the one tower in the system acting up and it was the one closest to us. Which was still many kilometres away from where we were.

Messages were sent to those who managed the towers to see what was happening with the tower and what was going to be done about it. No response was ever received from anyone who anyone tried to contact. No one wanted to deal with the malfunctioning tower that was supposed to be shut down.

The weather grew worse until he was unable to walk to work anymore. Not that Delilah wanted either of them to go out in this wild and unpredictable weather.

That didn’t end up mattering. 🌨️🌧️⛈️🌪️❄️💨

As the weather continued to get worse, he knew something had to be done about it. If the officials in charge of the tower weren’t going to do anything about it, he would.

He had been praying about it as the weather grew more out of control. He knew that Delilah wouldn’t like it, but he was going to go out in the stormy weather and make his way to that tower and try and turn it off himself, before the surrounding areas were destroyed by the wind, rain and snow.

It wasn’t going to be an easy conversation to have with his wife, but he couldn’t leave without her knowing what he was going to try and do. The journey alone was going to be dangerous as he went northwards to where the tower was. Let alone what challenges and difficulties the tower itself might bring.

Thankfully the tower he needed to go to was on land, not all of them were. Some were build on platforms in the oceans in certain locations. This one was built in the arctic tundra in Nunavut, near the Bathurst Inlet . So far from his home in the prairies.

At least it was on the mainland and not one of the islands.

There were probably people who were closer who could deal with the problem, but the question was would they.

It was possible that no one wanted to even try. He was at least willing to.

He was procrastinating… he needed to go and discuss what his plan was going to be with Delilah. She needed to know.

He took a deep breath and said a little prayer before going to speak with his wife.

🌤️🌩️🌨️🌧️☀️⛈️🌪️❄️💨

The conversation went well. Delilah had been thinking about the same things as him and also praying about it. It was going to be difficult, but they were going to make the trek north, to middle of nowhere Nunavut to try and turn the tower back off.

They were going to have to pack as much as they could for this trip. Food, water, warm dry clothing, his tools, probably some of Delilah's tools too. Just in case they needed something finer than what he had in his kit.

At least he had a vehicle that he had been working on that would be able to handle this weather decently. All weather tires, with a spare set specifically for off roading.

The wind was going to be more dangerous than what the road or lack of road, conditions might be. As long as they weren’t blown away they’d be okay.

Their travel was going to take them so much longer than it would in good conditions. The average drive between home in Moose Jaw to Saskatoon was two hours, they’d be lucky if they could do it in five today. It would be better to be safe than sorry, especially as no one would likely be able to find them for a long time if anything went wrong.

It took them a couple hours until they had everything properly secured in his Jeep. They were truly going to be living on prayers for the next few days.

They stocked up on fuel before leaving Moose Jaw. Chamberlain would be their first town and check point for how they were doing for travel; next would be Davidson, Hanley, and then once they made Dundurn, Saskatoon wouldn’t be far and they’d stop for the night.

Hopefully there would be a hotel that had room for them.

After that they’d start out again and it would mostly be towns from then on.

Once they actually got on the road the first part of the journey wasn’t too bad, other than constantly fighting the wind. Which wanted to blow them all over the road.

At Chamberlain they stopped and switched drivers. Mostly to give his arms a bit of a break, as it took them twice as long to get there as normal.

They stopped in what was the Twisted Sisters ice cream shop parking lot to do so. Twisted Sisters long since closed considering it was only open over the summer anyway, and this was the beginning of October.

Once they made it to Davidson, stopping in the rest area of the giant kettle and tea cup, he switched back to driving and would continue the rest of the way to Saskatoon.

The wind continued to buffet them and sleet came down harder from the wind. He was exhausted by the time he finally made it into the largest city in Saskatchewan. They drove through town, over Circle Drive Bridge on the South Saskatchewan River, until they hit the Travelodge Hotel, overlooking the Idylwyld and Circle Drive intersection, an intersection that they’d be using to start heading further north yet.

They did manage to be able to stay at the Travelodge. Under different circumstances they probably would have made use of the pool and waterslides. There wasn’t the time or energy for that though.

They planned their next bit of trip. They knew what they were doing until they hit La Loche, where the road would end and the real wilds would begin. Getting from there to the Bathurst Inlet, where the tower was, was going to be difficult, especially if they couldn’t fly. Hopefully there would be some options once they got to La Loche.

Until then, they still had a few days of driving to go. Maybe they could come up with something on the way.

After leaving Saskatoon they drove past Martinsville to Blaine Lake, turning past the town in the direction of Least until they finally made to Shellbrook for a break. Another two hour drive that was twice as long as it should have been.

They made sure that they stocked up on fuel again. There was going to be less and less places to be able to get fuel as they went north.

They drove through Canwood and Debden, deciding to sleep on the side of the road, praying that they’d survive their sleep and that the wind wouldn’t blow them away. There were times they were short with each other. Being cooped up in the Jeep was uncomfortable and tiring.

Road trips; even the best ones could be trying at times, one like this, was all the harder yet. There was no relief from the howling weather, bathroom breaks were uncomfortable and inconvenient at best. But at least their food was doing alright at the moment and they weren’t at the risk of freezing to death currently. Though they might eventually get to that point. They’d take their blessings as they got them.

After Debden came Green Lake, then Buffalo Narrows, then Bear Creek, before finally after many days of traveling, arriving in La Loche. They still didn’t have any idea of how they were going to get further north so that they could get to the tower near Bathurst Inlet in Nunavut.

They used that as an excuse to get out of the Jeep for a bit and walk around, to see if anyone might be able to help them. Praying that they would be able to find some way to get to where they needed to go.

At some point they ended up in a small local restaurant to refuel their personal hunger and not the Jeep's. They were discussing what they needed to do when a couple overheard them and had their solution. The two of them and their one friend could help them make it to the Inlet.

Between the three of them, they had planes and could help them get to the tower. It was going to be risky to fly, but there was no other way to get that far north.

Upon discussing the plans to make their way further north, it turn out that they each ended up having a skill set that built upon each other’s. They might actually be able to do something about this tower's problems.

It took them about a day to get everything set up for the next bit of travel. Thankfully, up here, it seemed slightly less crazy for the weather, though the wind was still strong.

Their companions were a lady named Jane; pregnant with her first child, her husband Brad and their family friend Brenda.

All three knew how to fly and would be rotating turns and could step up if anything happened to the one flying. They would have to make at least a couple of stops to refuel the plane. Maybe in or near Uranium City, possibly in or near Reliance NWT and then their stop near the Bathurst Inlet.

It also gave them plenty of time to get to know their fellow travelling companions. Delilah and he learned that Jane and Brad had been married for a few years longer than they had been and that they and Brenda had lived in Northern Saskatchewan for most of their lives. Barring some travel and some schooling that they all had.

They all quickly learned that they were all Christian and had been praying about what they could or needed to do. His and Delilah's arrival had been their catalyst to actually get moving. His tools were some of the ones that they had been worried about not having, so clearly the Lord was working through all of them.

The plane ride was by far the most treacherous part of the journey so far. There were many prayers for safety uttered together as their little plane was buffeted by turbulence nearly continuously.

Jane was holding up well, even though she was carrying a little passenger of her own.

They did have to make a couple of stops to refuel the plane with few issues thankfully.

It was immediately obvious when they came upon the tower. They hit some of the harshest winds and turbulence, and then they punched through and it was dead calm, like the eye of a storm. It would have been peaceful if they didn’t know what it was like beyond the calm.

Thankfully there was a landing strip for the plane, though with the little plane being a float plane they could have risked the inlet.

The tower was a massive and hideous creation. Like some kind of terrifying mix of the CN tower and either the big metal power poles or the Eiffel Tower, creating a large metal cage around the lower third of the tower.

Whoever designed such a monstrosity should be jailed, if they weren’t already. It wasn’t going to be easy to get into the tower, even if there were doors on ground level.

They all took turns trying to pick the locks, but nothing worked. There had to be something blocking the doors from the inside or a heavier lock like a bar across the door.

That left trying a door on a higher level. Where they would have to try and climb up to. He and Delilah decided that it would have to be them. Hopefully her fine tools would be able to help them pick a lock and get into the tower.

From there they could hopefully navigate the building and let the others in at one of the lower doors.

It was going to be a long climb up, but thankfully there were ladders that could be used and they didn’t have to try and just monkey up the metal beams. The climb was still a test of their strength and endurance, even though it wasn’t as hard as it could be with the weather being so calm and nearly warm around the tower.

It must have only been around the freezing point for temperature. It still meant cold hands and cheeks, but keeping warm feeling from the exertion of the climb.

Delilah was climbing above him and they both found themselves praying about their climb. Not forgetting a prayer of thanks once they made it not only to a door, but that Delilah was able to successfully pick it with her tools and get them in to a more solid and less narrow space to walk.

Surprisingly, everything was still lit. Maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising, considering the weather, but he wasn’t sure how the tower was being powered. It would be something that they’d have to look into.

Even better was the fact that there was a map of the tower that they could follow to the ground floor to let in their companions. Going down the stairs was much quicker than their climb on the outside of the tower, though they definitely didn’t trust the elevators in the tower.

As they expected the lower level floors had their doors barred in a way that they could only be opened from inside with several different types of bar locks. The two bar tabs like you’d see in some bathroom stalls up and down at the top and bottom of the doors, only these ones were at least an inch in diameter, if not two or three. Along with a literal bar across the door that had to be raised.

Once all five (six if you counted the unborn as well) were in, they could start figuring out how to turn this town off.

After a bit of searching, they figured out that that they would have to first turn off the climate control part of the tower and then destroy the power source so that the malfunction couldn’t happen again.

One of the things that they had to do, was cut the power to the series of Tesla coils that helped with the energy to move the weather. Once that was done the power to the computer system guiding the weather could be cut, before finally removing the rest of the power source to the building, which would leave it all dark.

Thankfully, each of them had the skills to help with the shutdown of the system. The absolute last thing would be to physically destroy/cut the tower's power. Which meant cutting a lot of wires that Jane was forbidden from doing, just to be on the safe side for her and her baby.

It took them a few hours to do so but once it was done, the relief was immense. It didn’t take long for them to start seeing the results.

The calm that had been around the tower started to dissipate. They hung around for an extra day or two just to make sure that their rather physical solution was going to hold, before they started the trek back to their homes.

The plane ride was much smoother going home. As was their drive, with not having to constantly fight the wind or sleet.

Surprisingly the weather didn’t seem to hang on to the patterns that the tower had created. Perhaps it was because it was only the one tower that had been active and not all 63 of them, like before.

The one thing it did prove to them was that there needed to be a more permanent solution than how the towers had been left. It wouldn’t do for this to keep happening if other towers acted up. And it could be much worse than what the prairies and surrounding areas got.

[000marie198]

I think I figured out why post series Atla comics are so... Off

There are some things in the comics which are great! But most of the stories felt wrong somehow, the characters too. And they made me angry at so many points, they were exhausting to read with some arcs.

I couldn't understand why such a great show had followups which just, didn't make sense.

I think I understand now though. I watched Atla for the first time a couple of months ago I think, with my brother. I loved it. I learned through fics that the comics aren't worth the read and most of the fans don't like several aspects of them. Still curious I read them anyway, not saying I regret it because I loved a small few things in them but also hated some other things.

Anyways, the other day I talked with my brother about how Atla show handles topics and themes that most media tends to be extremely cautious with and often keeps away. Topics like genocide, colonialism, abuse, war, death etc. Entertainment industry doesn't tend to touch such topics, especially the first two and when it does, it is choke full of propaganda.

Atla show... Didn't have that propaganda. It showed the depth and realities of a world at war while keeping it from becoming too disturbing but it did manage to convey the messages. (Though yes there was one, and only one, part of the show that pissed me off, I guess some propaganda was sneaked in anyway and from what I've seen in several fics, it worked on a lot of people too, the Si Wong Desert arc, so much anti-arab racism is there, I despise the desert episode with a passion). But almost every other thing didn't include the type of propaganda that tends to be present in most media that tries to handle serious themes. It showed the consequences of war, the darkness hidden in those you agree with and goodness present in a people you hate, still not negating the wrongs of wrongdoers and affirming that doing something horrible on purpose to innocents is wrong even if you suffered too. Zuko's redemption was very careful with that. Whenever he did something wrong, he suffered consequences for it, hefty ones. He wasn't exempt from it and his redemption arc encompassed the entire series from the very first episode and didn't just happen in one season. But that aside, what I'm trying to say is, the series managed really well with serious themes and intense issues without having it affected by propaganda or encouraging the one sided, self centered agendas of those behind the creation.

And then, the show is completed. A follow up is made in the form of comics.

And suddenly, half the themes and stuff learned and seen throughout the series has been skewed, there is politics, 80 percent of the characters are weirdly ooc, as if what they're doing or saying is coming from a different person altogether who is forcing it to not be discovered, like imposters, the stories are strange and don't even get me started on the pro-colonialism propaganda.

Atla show was a story full of inspiration from the lives of actual people, addressing actual issues and displaying beautiful growth in its characters and revealing intense problems which are shoved under the rug. Trust me when I say that a lot and seriously a LOT of media has propaganda in it, I catch it easier because the propaganda is often encouraging agendas of where the media originates and I don't live there. Atla show, however, was unlike those other media, it stayed clear of agendas when showing such serious themes.

But the point still stands that there could've been some things in it, as is in most media. I believe that since there wasn't, it was forced upon the fans through the followup.

Suddenly, they tried to feed fans their agendas which wasn't done in the show. Suddenly, you gotta hide that these problems have been real for some people in the world, suddenly you hide the culprit or make it so these things don't change minds. Suddenly, you need to keep it under wraps that a great show made under your nose showed the exact same evils you have done. So now you're trying to very carefully steer the massive audience to an opinion that colonialism isn't evil, that holding on to a lost culture is frustrating, put it away leave it, that getting your land invaded and stripped of it's sources through business and veils of advancement is a good thing (hello?! East India Company inspired post series Northern Water Tribe, hello turning those against the idea into a villain). And for changing all these major major issues and themes that were sewn deep within the series' story and how it affected and built the characters, you now have to carefully create everything around it. You have to try to make your character of choice do things that are against the original messages of the show and then make an entire story around it and change the behaviors of everyone else so doing that thing doesn't make your selected characters look bad.

And now, everything is a mess because nobody is acting like themselves and everyone has forgotten half the things that occurred in the show.

I'm not saying that all the things in comics were pro agenda and propaganda, many things weren't but most were. Those which weren't written with a basis on all the changed messages they wanted to send were actually pretty great. But otherwise, you get the idea.

TLDR: ATLA comics feel off and makes so many characters OOC because they tried to convey a completely different and often opposite message to the show's themes and stories, they tried to uplift the agendas and propaganda that are usually present in most other media handling such serious issues but which Atla show hadn't done because it stayed true to the story and its characters. Comics tried to build the characters around those updated 'themes' and messages, and it made them all wrong and made most of the beloved characters badly OOC.

[ashmedai-hamelech]

asmodeus lore

im jewish, so i dont get much out of the christian mythology the show mostly uses, but theres plenty of overlap. asmodeus is one of my favorites, because with a little stretching, jewish scripture paints a delightful picture of him.

the Talmud is the second most important chunk of scripture after the bible. its so much fucking bigger than the bible, with just shy of 2 million words, & so there's a lot of fun stuff to sift through.

including, stuff about asmodeus:

אָמַר רַב יוֹסֵף, אָמַר לִי יוֹסֵף שֵׁידָא: אַשְׁמְדַאי מַלְכָּא דְשֵׁידֵי — מְמוּנֶּה הוּא אַכּוּלְּהוּ זוּגֵי, וּמַלְכָּא לָא אִיקְּרִי מַזִּיק. אִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי לַהּ לְהַאי גִּיסָא: אַדְּרַבָּה, מַלְכָּא [רַתְחָנָא הוּא], מַאי דְּבָעֵי עָבֵיד, שֶׁהַמֶּלֶךְ פּוֹרֵץ גָּדֵר לַעֲשׂוֹת לוֹ דֶּרֶךְ וְאֵין מוֹחִין בְּיָדוֹ.

Rav Joseph said: Yosef Sheyda said to me: Ashmedai (Asmodeus), the king of the demons, is appointed over all who perform actions in pairs, and a king is not called a harmful spirit. A king would not cause harm. Consequently, there is no reason to fear the harm of demons for having performed an action in pairs. Some say this statement in this manner: On the contrary, he is an angry king who does what he wants, as the law is that a king may breach the fence of an individual in order to form a path for himself, and none may protest his action. Similarly, the king of demons has full license to harm people who perform actions in pairs."

the "performing actions in pairs" thing is part of a now forgotten superstition, where even numbers were considered unlucky. the rest of the passage discusses the dangers of having an even number of rounds while out drinking, fearing the wrath of demons taking advantage of the jinx on the drunkards' way home.

right off the bat, we have what can be very easily interpreted as asmodeus spreading propaganda about himself to the ancient rabbis. Yosef Sheyda is himself a fascinating recurring character, a supposed demon-rabbi who occasionally contributes bad takes.

im imagining this was the ancient version of a celebrity making a fake fan account to post supportive things. but also, asmodeus being secretly soft adds a nuance. why doesn't he brag about his strength or power? when he says "a king would not cause harm", is that supposed to be a false sense of security? or is it a reassurance, that there truly is no need fear performing actions in pairs?

but the question becomes why. when he usually seems to be hiding his softness, only revealing it to fizz after their trust grows strong enough, why the fuck did he want the sages of the Sanhedrin to know?

this is where i start hcing him jewish. see, going back to the Talmud, theres another great story he appears in.

Its too long to paste in here, but the jist is that King Solomon had a problem. His father David & he had just finish uniting the Kingdom of Israel, & G-d declared that now was the time to build the first temple in Jerusalem.

the problem is, G-ds instructions on building the temple were strict as shit. it require absolute ritual purity, no part of the construction or the finished temple could have any association with evil or violence. this meant they couldn't use any bladed tools to cut the stone. Solomon needed another way.

he'd been told of "the shamir", a nebulously-described thingamajig that gets around the problem by unclear means. originally it was likely a type of abrasive compound (sandpaper without the paper) that allowed soft tools to cut through hard materials like stone. however, it starts to gain supernatural connotations, & "substance that can cut through anything" becomes "creature who can eat through everything". thus this wonderful illustration from 1707

but where is it? in the end, he has to summon & torture a pair of demons to figure out that its in the possession of asmodeus, who lives in a cave nearby:

אֲמַר לְהוּ: הֵיכָא אִיתֵיהּ? אָמְרִי לֵיהּ: אִיתֵיהּ בְּטוּרָא פְּלָן. כַּרְיָא לֵיהּ בֵּירָא, וּמַלְיָא לֵיהּ מַיָּא, וּמִיכַּסְּיָא בְּטִינָּרָא, וַחֲתִימָה בְּגוּשְׁפַּנְקֵיהּ; וְכֹל יוֹמָא סָלֵיק לִרְקִיעָא וְגָמַר מְתִיבְתָּא דִרְקִיעָא, וְנָחֵית לְאַרְעָא וְגָמַר מְתִיבְתָּא דְאַרְעָא; וְאָתֵי סָיֵיר לֵיהּ לְגוּשְׁפַּנְקֵיהּ וּמְגַלֵּי לֵיהּ וְשָׁתֵי, וּמְכַסֵּי לֵיהּ וְחָתֵים לֵיהּ וְאָזֵיל.

"Solomon said to them: Where is Ashmedai? They said to him: He is on such-and-such a mountain. He has dug a pit for himself there, and filled it with water, and covered it with a rock, and sealed it with his seal. And every day he ascends to Heaven and studies in the heavenly study hall and he descends to the earth and studies in the earthly study hall. And he comes and checks his seal to ensure that nobody has entered his pit, and then he uncovers it and drinks from the water in the pit. And then he covers it and seals it again and goes."

not lore compliant as is, but again, paints a picture of a pretty solitary demon who isn't actually that mean. maybe not even that evil by jewish standards: the "study halls" here are biblical study halls, implying that asmodeus is more devout a jew than me by this standard.

as the story continues, asmodeus gets kidnapped by solomon. on the way back to Jerusalem, this happens:

כִּי נָקֵיט לֵיהּ וְאָתֵי, מְטָא דִּיקְלָא – חַף בֵּיהּ, שַׁדְיֵיהּ; מְטָא לְבֵיתָא – שַׁדְיֵיהּ; מְטָא גַּבֵּי כּוּבָּא דְּהָהִיא אַרְמַלְתָּא, נְפַקָא

"When Benayahu took Ashmedai and came to Jerusalem he reached a palm tree and Ashmedai rubbed against it and knocked it down. He reached a house and knocked it down. He reached a small shack [kuva] belonging to a certain widow. This widow emerged,

אִיחַנַּנָא לֵיהּ. כְּפָא לְקוֹמְתֵיהּ מִינֵּיהּ, אִיתְּבַר בֵּיהּ גַּרְמָא. אֲמַר, הַיְינוּ דִּכְתִיב: ״וְלָשׁוֹן רַכָּ�� תִּשְׁבׇּר גָּרֶם״.

and she begged him not to knock down the house. He bent his body away from her, to the other side, and broke one of his bones. He said: This is as it is written: “Soft speech can break a bone” (Proverbs 25:15).

eventually, solomon extorts the shamir out of asmodeus & keeps the demon hostage until the temple is finished. at which point, asmodeus tricks solomon into letting him out of the magic restraints that had been binding him to solomon's service. he flings the king a thousand miles away, and impersonates solomon on the throne until he can walk all the way back. during which time he got up to a great diversity of hedonistic activities on solomon's money.

but solomon comes back eventually, asmodeus just kinda runs away, & everything goes back to normal.

(full story: https://www.sefaria.org/Gittin.68a.5?ven=english|William_Davidson_Edition_-_English&lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en)

what the story doesn't talk much about is what exactly asmodeus was doing all that time. the rest of the government, including solomon's wives, only notice something is amiss after the real solomon shows up. according to the text he wasn't up to anything actually that out of character for solomon, let alone causing lasting harm to the kingdom. why'd he do it, i wonder? to get revenge on solomon, that muc his obvious, but the extended charade? did he want to wreak havoc, breech fences & form paths, or would a king not cause harm?

minimal point to this lol

[hotvintagepoll]

Welcome to the HOT AND VINTAGE MOVIE STARS bracket! we are currently voting on the HOTTEST and VINTAGEST male movie stars from 1910-1970. (we will do the ladies next.) Submissions for hot vintage men are now closed, but we are accepting propaganda for those already in the bracket.

Round 3 of the Hot & Vintage Men Tournament will be posted Saturday, January 20th, with some spillover to Sunday, and will last a week. All the round 3 polls can be found and voted on under the tag #round 3. All polls—including previous rounds, the now-finished shadow bracket of hot men who didn’t pass round 1, plus fun mini polls—can be found in the #hotvintagepoll tag. Every poll in the Hot & Vintage Men Tournament is tagged with the hot man in it if you need to search for a hot man in particular.

Between rounds—so any point up to the night of Thursday the 18th—any propaganda for a round 3 contestant sent to my asks may be added to the poll descriptions. I accept video links, photos, and text propaganda, but not gifs at this stage (I can’t copy them into the posts without problems). Once rounds start, any propaganda sent in is posted as its own separate post, searchable under the hot man's tag.

FAQs:

"Where is [my favorite hot man]?" It depends. Have you checked all the polls in the tag? Have you done a tag search for him? If you still haven't found him, either nobody submitted him or he did not fit the criteria of being a movie man from 1910-1970.

"Can I still submit hot men?" No, the submission window has closed. Please do not send in men you wish had made it into the bracket. I can't do anything with those asks and they just make me sad.

"I have hot women to submit!" Amazing! I've posted the submission form for that bracket. Asks submitting ladies don't count—you need to wait until the submission form. DO NOT tag me in hot lady propaganda yet! Do not send any to my asks! Anything that's not put in the submission form doesn't count at this stage.

"I have additional propaganda for the hot men!" Great! Send me an ask or reblog the poll and add your propaganda to it. I don't boost all the propaganda I see or receive, but I try to boost the best of the best.

If you're submitting propaganda for your hot man, I don't accept propaganda that's from beyond the end of this tournament's era (ie don't send me pics of them in the 70s onwards). I also don't accept them performing in TV shows unless it's clearly a cameo where they're playing themselves.

I don't post or boost negative propaganda about any hot man. If you really hate that a certain hot man is winning, send me positive propaganda for their hot opponent. If you think a hot man shouldn't even be included in the bracket because of scummy things they did in their lifetime, please read my take on it here.

If I see repetitive, trolling, and/or bigoted remarks in the comments, I may block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a hot man's flaws or misdemeanors, that's fine, but if I see consistent bad-faith trolling, you will be blocked.

"My FAQ isn't on here :(" send me an ask! I love hearing from you guys—just please check these basics first.

"WHERE ARE THE HOT MEN. I want to see all the hot men competing in one place!!" You can find all the round 1 matchups here (thank you @markwatnae!), and everyone who made it to round 3 below the cut. Thank you for being here! Enjoy the tournament.

Round 3 Hot Vintage Men:

Marlon Brando

Anthony Perkins

James Dean

Omar Sharif

James Shigeta

Sidney Poitier

Jeremy Brett

Cary Grant

Buster Keaton

Gregory Peck

Paul Robeson

Sessue Hayakawa

Michael Redgrave

Vincent Price

Gary Cooper

Conrad Veidt

Ronald Colman

Rock Hudson

Basil Rathbone

Laurence Olivier

Toshiro Mifune

Christopher Plummer

Harry Belafonte

Johnny Weismuller

James Stewart

Gene Kelly

Peter Falk

Clark Gable

Fernando Lamas

Errol Flynn

Tyrone Power

Humphrey Bogart

[neodymiumcuilz]

Extreme Physical/Mental abuse at detainment camps in China - targetting the Muslim population.

Hello everyone, with this post I would like to bring some awareness to the terrible injustice suffered by Uyghur Muslim people kept in detainment camps in Xinjiang. What's going on is horrific yet the world is pretty much silent, and it's important to speak up about this.

I will be linking various websites - I heavily encourage you to CHECK THESE WEBSITES OUT YOURSELF. Please see the websites I link, and find out more information. Please, by no means am I alone a credible source. I am just sharing what I found from my research - I highly recommend you check out the findings from Uyghur people and journalists who actually share their stories and do the work.

If you want anything added/removed from this post, or find anything I say to be incorrect or offensive in any way shape or form, please message me, my messages are open and I'm open to any criticism or advice in getting this post out there.

Here is a post I made on other means China has took to eradicate and suppress Uyghur culture.

Former Uyghur detainees describe crowded cells, waterboarding, torture during interrogations, food deprivation, being forcibly drugged and shocked. Along with immense brainwashing.

Kayrat Samarkand says he faced seemingly endless brainwashing and humiliation, he said in an interview, and was forced to study communist propaganda for hours every day and chant slogans giving thanks and wishing a long life to President Xi Jinping. "Those who disobeyed the rules, refused to be on duty, engaged in fights or were placed in handcuffs and ankle cuffs for up to 12 hours," He said. Further disobedience would result waterboarding or long periods strapped in agony, in a metal contraption known as a "tiger chair," Samarkand said, a punishment he said her suffered. Website here.

There are also reports of widespread rape and sexual humiliation committed against Uyghur/Kazakh detainees. According to Washington Post reporting; In December 2017, Gulzira Mogdyn, a 38 year old ethnic Kazakh and Chinese citizen, was detained in Xinjiang after a visit to Kazakhstan because WhatsApp was found on her phone. She was placed under house arrest and examined by doctors at a nearby clinic, who discovered she was 10 weeks pregnant. Officials told her she was not allowed to have what would be her fourth child. The following month, Mogdyn said, doctors "cut my fetus out" without using anesthesia. She still suffers from complications.

A Kazakh woman with close relations in China was forced to undergo two abortions, in 2016 and 2017, while living in Xinjiang, her lawyer said. Aiman Umarova, a Kazakh human rights advocate and State Department honoree, said her client was seeking refuge in a Kazakh city, and does not wish to be identified for fear or retribution. Umarova sees the women's stories as forming a pattern. "Sexually violating women, including stopping them from reproducing, has become a weapon for China against its Muslim population." She said.

Many (Uyghur women) interviewed said they were subjected to sexual humiliation, incidents that included being filmed in the shower and having their intimate parts rubbed with Chile paste.

Here is a video showcasing the experience of 3 men who were formerly detained.

Mihrigul Tursun describes her experience of being tortured in an electric chair. "As if my daily life in the camp was not horrific enough, I was taken to a special room with an electric chair, known as the tiger chair. It was an interrogation room that had one light and one chair. There were belts and whips hanging on the wall. I was placed in a high chair that clicked to lock my arms and legs in place and tightened when they press a button. The authorities put a helmet like thing on my head. Each time I was electrocuted my whole body would shake violently and I could feel the pain in my veins."

She also recalls being given two drugs; one that caused a loss of consciousness and reduced cognition, and another that caused mixed side effects for different women, including loss of menstruation, extreme bleeding and even death. "They forced us to take some unknown pills and drink some kind of white liquid. The pill caused us to lose consciousness and reduced our cognition level. The white liquid stopped women's periods, though it caused extreme bleeding in some women and even caused death." Tursun witnessed nine deaths in her cell of 68 people during three months of incarceration.

"One victim was a 62 year old woman called Gulnisa. Her hands would tremble, she has red rashes all over her body, and she could not eat anything. She was really sick but the doctors in the camp determined she was fine, because if they said the inmates were sick, they would be perceived as sympathetic or supportive of the patients. One night, Gulnisa was humiliated for not having memorised her lines in Chinese and she was crying when she went to sleep. She did not snore that night and her body was very cold when we tried to wake her up the next morning. She has died in her sleep."

Tursun also states "There was another 23 - year old woman named Patemhan. Her mum has died and her husband, father and brother were all taken to the camps. Her crime was attending a wedding in 2014 that was held according to Islamic traditions, where people did not dance, sing or drink alcohol at the wedding. She said all of the 400 people who attended that wedding were arrested and taken into camps. When she was was arrested she left her two kids in the backyard. She had been in the camp for one year and three months and she agonised over the wheat abouts of her kids. She had been bleeding for over a month and was denied any medical treatment. One night while she was standing by other women, she suddenly dropped to the floor and stopped breathing. Several people with masks came, and dragged her with her feet and dragged her away."

Arresting people attending a wedding may violate Article 35 of China's constitution. "Citizens of the people's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of associations, of procession and of demonstration."

These abuses also appear to violate Article 2 of the Genocide Convention by "Causing serious bodily or mental harm." to targeted Uyghur victims. The abuses also violate Article 5 of the ICERD.

Conditions at camps are opaque because of the intense continued monitoring of Uyghur's communication and movement - but there are widespread credible reports of extreme physical and mental abuse that meer the definition of torture under international human rights law, including the CAT, which mandates that even in exceptional circumstances, states must take measures to prevent "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is inflicted on a person for purposed of obtaining a confession, intimidation, or coercion, discrimination or punishment."

The UDHR is also relevant here, Article 5 states "No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." And Article 9 states "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." China's Constitution states - Chapter 2 - Article 37 - "Freedom of the Person of citizens of the People's Republic of China is invioble. No citizen should be arrested except with the approval or by decision of a people's court and arrests must be made by a public security organ. Unlawful detention or restriction of citizen's freedom of ther person or by other means is prohibited, and unlawful search of the person of citizens is prohibited."

Tracking the detention camps.

Here is a video of a Chinese citizen obtaining rare footage of these camps.

China regects the allegations that it has locked up large numbers of Muslims in re-education camps. The facilities, it says, are vocational training centres that emphasise "rehabilitation and redemption" and are part of it's efforts to combat terrorism and religious extremism.

While China says the Uyghur camps are vocational training centres, they are heavily guarded. Researchers have resorted to using satellite imagery to view and track the expansion of these facilities.

Reuters (made the website I'm going off of) worked with Earthrise media, a non-profit group that analyses satellite imagery, to plot the construction and expansion of 39 of these camps, which were initially identified using publicly available documents such as construction tenders. The building by building review of these facilities revealed that the foot print of the built up area almost tripled in size in the past 17 months between April 2017 and August 2018. Collectively, the built up parts in these 39 facilities now cover an area of 140 soccer fields.

Reuters visited the locations of seven of the facilities identified as detention camps from construction documents and satellite photos. All had imposing parameter walls, guard watchtower and armed guards at the entrances. Signs at two of the facilities identified them as vocational training centres when reporters approached the compounds, police pulled them over and told them to leave. An example of a heavily guarded camp is Turpan Gaocheng District Vocational skills Education Training Centre is walled off and has a guard watchtower. Construction notices published on local government websites have provided clues about the locations and features of many of the camps, including refrences to guardhouse surveillance systems that leave "no blind spots" automatic weapons and their safe storage.

Having identified 80 detention facilities using construction notices, Reuters focused its analysis on 39 that were clearly identifiable from satellite imagery. They visited the locations of seven of the facilities identified as detention camps from constitution documents and satellite photos. All had imposing parameter walls, guard watchtower and armed guards at the entrances. Signs at two of the facilities identified them as vocational training centres. When reporters approached the compounds, police pulled them over and told them to leave.

The full scale of the camp network is likely vast. Many smaller buildings like schools, hospitals and police stations were repurposed to hold Muslims, according to residents in Xinjiang and construction and procurement documents. Two of the smaller camps visited by Reuters were previously a factory and a school. Adrian Zenz, an anthropologist has tracked the expansion of the camps, estimates there could be as many as 1,200 - at lease one for every country and township in Xinjiang. There is limited information on the costs of construction, but tenders for one facility outside the city if Kashgar list a contaminated budget of $45.6 million. The vast majority of facilities have been built since 2017. And recently the Chinese government has stopped publishing tender notes and has been deleting old ones from the Internet.

Out of the 39 camps, there was a total of 539 buildings covering 379,000 square meteres. This then doubled to 1,129, covering an areas of 1 million square meteres (roughly 140 soccer fields). And the expansion continues, a further 67 buildings, covering an area of 210,000 square meteres are now under construction, according to the satellites.

They interviewed 8 former detainees, they described being shackled to chairs for days and deprived of sleep. They described living in prison like conditions - every move, including visits to the bathroom, were heavily monitored by cameras and microphones, they said. One said her cell was so crowded that inmates took turns to sit and rest while others stood.

From early morning to night, detainees were subjected to mind numbing political indoctrination. This included reciting Chinese laws and Communist Party policies, as well as singing the national anthem - those who failed to memorise were denied food. Detainees were forced to renounce their religion, engage in self criticism sessions and report on fellow inmates, relatives and neighbours. "I started becoming obsessed with suicide. I had thought for a long time about how to do it. I made sure the wall next to me was hard enough and ran and rammed my head into it." -Kairat Samarkan.

Despite evidence of brutal torture and detainment for no reason, the Xinjiang governor Shohrat Zakir states; "Through vocational training, most trainees have been able to reflect on their mistakes and see clearly the essence and harm of terrorism and religious extremism." He says, "They have also been able to better tell right from wrong and resist the infiltration of extremist thought." A Chinese official, Li Xiaojun at the the UN Human Rights Counci in Geneva said the West could learn alot from his country's program of vocational training.

A UN human rights panel said Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were "being treated as enemies of the state based on nothing but their ethno-religious identity."

Forced labour

This BBC website has a video on the transfer scheme, showcasing a young girl called Buzaynap being coerced into going to work.

The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur people to factories across the country. Under conditions that's strongly suggest forced labour. An Australian Strategic Policy Institute report estimate that more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred from 2017-2019 some directly from detention camps. The estimated figure is conservative and is likely to be far higher. In factories Uyghurs typically live in segregated dormitories. Undergo Mandarin and ideological training outside of work hours, and are subject to constant surveillance, and are forbidden from participating in religious observances. Numerous sources, including government documents, show that's transferred workers are assigned minders and have limited freedom of movement.

The ILO lists 11 indicators of forced labour (you can find the pdf HERE) Relevant indicators in the case of Uyghurs may include:

-Being subjected to intimidation and threats such as threat of arbitrary detention, and being monitored by security personnel and digital surveillance tools.

-Being placed in a position of dependency and vulnerability, such as by threats to family members back in Xinjiang.

-Having freedom of movement being restricted, such as by fenced in factories and high tech surveillance.

-Isolation, such as living in segregated dormitories and being transported in dedicated trains.

-Abusive working conditions, such as political indoctrination, police guard posts in factories, "Millitary - style" management, and a ban on religious practises.

-Excessive hours, such as after work Mandarin language classes and political indoctrination sessions that's are part of job assignments.

For example...

In January 2020, around 600 ethnic minority workers from Xinjiang were employed at Qingdao Taekwang Shows Co.Ltd. Taekwang's primary customer is the American multinational company Nike. The Xinjiang workers are mostly Uyghur women from Hotan/Kashgar. The The factory, the Uyghur labourers make Nike shoes during the day. In the evening, they attend night school where they study Mandarin, sing the Chinese national anthem and receive "vocational training" and "patriotic education".

BOYCOTT

In all, ASPI's research has identified 82 foreign/Chinese companies potentially directly or indirectly benefitting from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang through abusive labour transfer programs; including Ambercrombie & Finch, Acer, Adidas, Alstom, Amazon, Apple, ASUS, BAIC Motor, Bestway, BMW, Bombardier, Bosch, Changan Automobile, Cisco, CRRC, Dell, Electrolux, Fila, Founder Group, GAC Group automobiles - Gap, Geely Auto, General Motors, Google, Goertek, H&M, Haier, Hart Schaffner Marx, Hisense, Hitachi, HP, HTC, Huawei, iFlyTek, Jack & Jones, Jaguar, Japan Display Inc., L.L.Bean, Lacoste, Land Rover, Lenovo, LG, Li-Ning, Marks & Spencer, Mayor, Meizu, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Mitsumi, Nike, Nintendo, Nokia, Oculus, Oppo, Panasonic, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, SAIC Motor, Samsung, SGMW, Sharp, Siemens, Sketchers, Sony, TDK, Tommy, Hilfiger, Toshiba, Tsinghua, Tongfang, Uniqlo, Victoria's Secret, Vivo, Volkswagen, Xiaomi, Zara, Zegna, ZTE.

Now I understand completely that it might not be possible to boycott all of these companies, as they seem to be everywhere/a large influence, and your financial situation may affect your ability to boycott - but PLEASE boycott what you can, and keep this in mind <3

Why should we care? / what should we do?

The violence and repression against Uyghur Muslim people is appalling, and the fact that nobody talks about it is crazy to me, there are very little posts on social media in general. They seem to be ignored. The fact that we are allowing an entire ethnic group to be oppressed is insane to me. I would just ask you to do four things-

Listen to Uyghur voices - Mihrigul Tursun wrote a testimony on her experience in detainment, (referenced/linked in my post) and wrote a book. Both of which are easily accessible online. FOLLOW @/uyghuryouth and @/shahnura.ksm on tiktok. If you yourself are Uyghur or know of a voice thats you would like for me to include - tell me.

Do more/your own research - alot of my information comes from reports and websites - I am just passing what I learned. Please look into these yourself. IF YOU FIND ANY MISINFORMATION OR ANYTHING UNCONFIRMED IN MY POST - LET ME KNOW.

Boycott certain companies profiting from Uyghur labour

USE YOUR PLATFORM TO SPEAK UP. This doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should. We need to give Uyghurs the same energy as we do with other injustices in the world. We should be putting pressure on companies/governments/human rights groups to condemn this and stop supporting this. Please - if you have any platform - follower count dosent matter - speak up, call this out. Uyghur people are being silenced and we should be talking about it.

[poetrywise]

Life, sort of

I can't access Twitter lately, so I thought mb I should try to be more active here. Yes, I know I said it before, but my VPN hasn't been working for weeks and I kind of miss people. I miss life, in general. For the past nearly 2 years, life has been hell in my country: mass arrests, toxic propaganda, army drafts, idiotic laws, silencing the media and public opinion, to say nothing of the horror we have been inflicting on another country. I don't know about most people but I do feel ashamed and depressed, even though I am, have always been, and always will be staunchly anti-war. Seriously, how have people not learnt to solve their disagreements in a less insane way over the course of our history?

Today, yet another "great" news: LGBT is now considered an extremist organization. They've done all they could to torment queer people short of criminalizing queerness itself. They keep promoting so-called "traditional" values, debating whether women should be allowed access to higher education (I kid you not, this is us in the 21st century) and abortion, all the while wasting 40% of the budget on war; in the meantime, all their beloved "traditional" families live in poverty and find their social support cut. You can get 7, 15, 30 years in prison for changing price tags in a supermarket to anti-war statements, staging an anti-war play, digging into government corruption. Children are being force-fed "patriotic" claptrap at school. Bloggers get fined, arrested or forced to leave the country because they fear for their safety. Life here is a cruel joke.

I know that I personally have little reason to complain, since I haven't been arrested (yet), nor have any of my loved ones. But it doesn't mean I don't get panic attacks (I had them before, I've been seeing a therapist for 6 years, and this situation IS derailing my progress) or fear for the future. My personal future feels ruined too: I can't travel, I can't see my BFF who lives abroad, I can't get paid for my stories even if I do manage to publish them (I write in English and have had 4 stories published in America, but we can neither send, nor accept payment from abroad lately). All this feels so small compared to what other people go through, in both our countries, but it's big to ME. I can't look into the future with any kind of hope because I don't want to live in the country that makes its people and another nation suffer. (Don't get me started on actual things our politicians say, like: Well, if smb drops a nuke on us, it'll be fine, as long as it's not on the capital. [FYI, I live in the capital, but it doesn't mean turning the rest of the country into a nuclear wasteland is fine by me. WUT EVEN!])

Everyone hates my country. We deserve it. I hate my own inability to change that but I'm neither brave, nor smart enough to do anything. When it all started, I tried writing letters to politicians, but this ain't America, nb listens to the people here. The only reply I got was smth like: Well, the West is threatening us, we must defend ourselves, so STFU. Idk what bizarre illusionland these ppl live in. Last time I checked WE were threatening everybody. Including ourselves.

What's the point of this TL;DR? Idk. To speak out in some way, I guess. Like I said, my VPN isn't working, and I can't access Twitter, which is my usual platform for whining XD I'll try to post smth more positive some time. Among other platforms that don't work without VPN are: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Goodreads, AO3, various torrent sites, BBC sites, many kinds of Western media, and probably a hell of a load more I don't know about. I admire the reporters who are still publishing the truth. It's impossible to hide it from the people these days, but unfortunately, most people just watch TV, which spouts disgusting lies and propaganda.

Nostalgia is a fashionable thing lately, and here's my two cents: I loved the late 90s - early 2000s. Yes, we had problems then too. Like financial crises and local wars. But we had freedom of speech, independent news, we at least tried to respect human rights, we could travel, we had cultural exchanges, foreign tourists, and nb hated us more than any other country. I wasn't ashamed to admit where I was from. I never felt I'd be stuck in a totalitarian state because surely, surely we'd learned! We'd been through it and it wouldn't repeat again. But I guess "all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again" is a very true saying. I'm so tired. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I do feel very alone whenever I read the news. I'm lucky in the sense that my family at least shares my opinion, but on a grand scale? I don't know if any meaningful change can be achieved when we can't even form proper opposition: a few parties/organizations both here and abroad are usually at each other's throats instead of working together. So yeah, I'm tired, disappointed, depressed, and idk what else to say.

Wow, hope I don't get arrested for this XD

[umazane-muesli]

Jukebox January: Day 19

(Queuing for the next morning again, sorry it's very late)

Today: songs starting with S:

Oh my God there are so many songs starting with S. SO MANY. Why are there so many. What the fuck. My notes app is a bloodbath right now I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Artists make more songs starting with X instead challenge

Anyway I've tried my best to wrangle them but this is going to be an incoherent mess at best. Let's go:

Sata vuotta - BEHM

I don't know why it took me so long to start listening to BEHM, but her latest album has been a constant in my December and January. This song is my favourite on it, I love the violin melody, and I think she has a beautiful voice :)

Senida - Senidah ft. Žene

Continuing my Slovenian music propaganda with Senidah this time.

Sédè - N3

I have to shout this one out because Jan played the guitar on it ^^

Stand by - Extremoduro

I love this song so much. I first heard about it (and this band) when I went on a language exchange in Spain when I was in high school. My exchange partner listened to this song, and even though we haven't kept in touch, it still makes me think of her sometimes. It's been one of my absolute favourites for 10+ years now.

Si te vas - Extremoduro

I normally try not to put too many songs by the same artist in the same post, but i swear to god all the best Extremoduro songs start with S. What's the deal with that.

Salir - Extremoduro

Teenage me listening to this song: hehehe swear words in spanish >:)

Adult me listening to this song: hehehe swear words in spanish >:)

San Francisco - Maxime Le Forestier

San Francisco - Scott McKenzie

Grouping these 2 together because they're sort of about the same thing really, San Francisco during the flower power movement. But I like the vibe of both. Thank you Kuesli for including the other San Francisco I was thinking of, because I somehow had THREE. Madness.

Short Film - Ethan Gruska

This is my favourite song from a very soft, calm album. I love the sort of muted sound from the piano and the slightly mysterious atmosphere.

Le Sud - Nino Ferrer

This song is like. Weirdly depressing at the end and also a bit dated let's be honest, but I think it still has its charm, I learned it in choir as a child and I'm a bit attached to it.

Stay - ČIUTŌ TUTŌ - Monika Linkyte

I have to admit this was not among my favourites on first impression, but I really warmed up to it and it is definitely one of the songs that stayed with me the longest after eurovision, I still very happily listen to it.

Somma Time Man - Salt-N-Pepa

This song is so fun and sounds SO 90's. It's a bit silly and puts me in a good mood.

Something in the Air - Pegasus

I discovered this band as a small festival in Switzerland around the time this album came out, and it was so fun to hear from a band for the first time as they're playing live. I haven't done that much (haven't been to many festivals) but yeah, Pegasus kind of stuck with me since.

Some Things Have to Be Said - Florent Dorin

Yeah I know this song is 9 minutes long and the french accent (and probably questionable English) is uuh discernible, to say the least (though miles better than his earlier songs) but listen, I love this guy so much and this song is such a journey, his music has gotten so much richer as time went on and this is the best example I think.

Sorry - dodie

Speaking of people who's music has gotten much richer with time, this is one of my favourite songs from dodie, I love the strings and the harmonies. At the end it blends into the next song (called When) and I will neveeer not lose my mind when artists do that.

Show me the way - Styx

Still loving you - Scorpions

Yes I have a power ballads playlist and yes I will use it against you >:)

Salut les amoureux - Joe Dassin

I love how perfectly bittersweet this song is, it's about a couple who breaks up on good terms, without any drama, they just go their separate ways. Just a little bit sad but not in a way a typical break up song is.

Satama - KUUMAA

The latest single from Kuumaa, exactly the kind of song they do best, I love it.

Somewhere out there - Donald Glover and Danny Pudi

Yeah this was in my playlist so i'm including it lol, even though it's not a "proper" song. Community is one of my comfort shows and this is from one of the best moments in it :)

Spirit in the Sky - KEiiNO

I'm going to admit a dirty little secret: even though I do like Eurovision, I haven't watched it religiously every year. And so I didn't even know this was a eurovision song until very recently; I only had it in my library because someone on a discord server had made (very good, might I add) playlists for completely unrelated little blorbos. Anyway, very funny that I'm coming back to this song now.

For S I also want to include 2 non-songs:

Starmania: it's a French and Canadian (Québec) musical from the 80s (well, '79 technically, but it feels extremely 80s). It's such an odd thing, it has the camp and flamboyance of the 80s, but a surprisingly dark dystopian plot. It's weirdly dated and not dated at the same time. The original cast had several singers who were or would become big stars in France (and french speaking countries)(including a eurovision winner lol). There's a robot waitress, and a gang, and a guy who's totally not David Bowie. It's pretty weird. The plot is kind of impossible to explain, but you can go listen to the songs, they're really good :)

There's a new version on tour now I think, and honestly I would love to go see it, because I've only ever heard the songs. (Seems pretty expensive though lol)

Single Handed Sailor - Dire Straits

The second thing I want to include is the album Strangeland by Keane. It came out around when I went on a school trip to Spain and I listened to it a lot during the long bus rides. I just have very fond memories associated with it.

And now frankly way too many bonus songs:

The Story - Brandi Carlile

Sinnerman - Nina Simone

Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac

Sad Song - Oasis

Sutra - Lollobrigida

Si Tú Me Quieres - Alex Cuba, Gian Marco

Stille Før Du Kom - Oh Land

Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground and Nico

Someday - City of the Sun

Surrender - Birdy

Statues - Amy Macdonald

Sunset Lover - Petit Biscuit

Samara - Blanco White

Sve Još Miriše Na Nju - Parni Valjak

Sweet Woman - Cris Williamson

Saturn - Sleeping At Last

Sausalito - Lydia Luce

Shut Up and Dance - WALK THE MOON

Strah me je - Jet Black Diamonds

Stranger - Bec Sandridge

Would you believe me if I said I did actually try to cut as many songs as possible? Anyway, if you've read until the end, thank you (what a mess) 💛

[psychotrenny]

Hi! May I share your thread on TikTok? The one on how Israel isn't egalitarian in its "safe haven" for Jewish folk. It was so well written and informed. I wanted to make a similar video about how it indirectly Stokes antisemitism, but it'd would be better to highlight Jewish voices as I'm a black muslim

Feel free to if you want but to be absolutely clear that I myself am not Jewish. I just made that post to share some oft he things I've learned in response recent tide of zionist propaganda that's been all over the western media.

If your interested in a Jewish perspective then many Jewish tumblr users have made a lot of very good posts and additions that covers a lot of similar matters. Just of the top of my head there's lesbianchemicalplant (with posts like this, this and this ) and determinate-negation (i.e. this one and this one ) There's many others of course but between tumblr's awful search function and my own inconsistent tagging habits its hard to keep track of what I've read and no doubt there's many that I just haven't seen

Several of the articles I linked are also written by Jewish people or centered on a Jewish Perspective. This theme is likely most prominent in this article, which is focuses on an interview with the scholar Benjamin Balthaser about Jewish Leftist anti-Zionism in the 20s and 30s

Also looking back on that thread and its responses I've realised a number of errors, or at least points where I employed poorly chosen language. I've conflated the Shepardic and Ashkenazis Old Yishuv in ways that I don't think are helpful; as the term is one coined by Zionist settlers to describe the various Jewish people already present in Palestine at the start of the settlement process and thus includes a number of different groups with differing histories and relationships to the land. I also used the term "indigenous" to describe them. This was in an attempt to outline how Jewish presence in Palestine isn't synonymous with Zionism (i.e. the creation of an ethno-state supposedly for all Jewish peoples everywhere) but it also had the effect of implying that they are exempt from participation n the Zionist colonial project which thy are very much not. My point was that there have been Jewish people in Palestine far before the era of Zionist colonialism but in the political sense referring to them as "indigenous", especially in implied reference to the contemporary political situation, was a poor use of the word . Additionally, while my readings on the early development of modern vernacular Hebrew reminded me very much of self-indigenization in terms of how it often evoked an ancestral connection to the ancient Kingdom of Israel (thinking of quotes from Eleizer Ben-Yehuda like "The Hebrew language can live only if we revive the nation and return it to the fatherland" ) it has been pointed out that this was very likely not the primary intention considering that Zionism originated at the very height of European settler-colonialism when such downplaying rhetoric wasn't really necessary. The (frequently forced) use of Hebrew as the spoken language likely had had far more to do with creating a new common culture and stripping Jewish migrants of their own so they could be more easily integrated into the state. While it seems to me that appeals to an ancestral land connection still featured far more in even early Zionism that in any other strain of European Settler-Colonialism (which indeed often made the "newness" of the conquered land a rhetorical point of pride, disregarding indigenous claims to the land without insisting that the settlers had any more rights than was granted with their force and diligence), I suppose that the term "self-indigenisation" may not be the most appropriate in this context and would be best restricted to the more modern faux-progressive forms of Zionist apologia. I'm sure there are many other mistakes I've made in that post or things I've overlooked, but these currently appear to me to be the most important once. Overall I'm honoured that you'd consider my writing worthy of such attention but would urge caution and insist that you seek out other sources in addition to it. Thank you for your time and good luck with the video

[ske-fmp-2025]

Cultural & Ethical Considerations.

This is a small post just to mention what I have looked out for.

Ethical

Stereotyping

This is something that I have wanted to make a post about for a while and discuss is what ethical considerations I needed to watch out for when designing mainly my models. The first thing I looked out for was how my units models came across to the player, while also trying to watch out for any stereotypes that I might make by accident. This also included any symbols for the military, political, or cultural symbols that could be apart of propaganda.

Violence

Now looking more into tower defence games, something that I have already spoken about was violence and how its portrayed to the player. When making the game I had to insure that it wasn't to graphic when it came to the towers killing the units. I mean the enemy models aren't complete yet and probably won't ever be but I would have to make sure that there isn't blood or anything on the enemy's and if anything it would have to be blue or green.

I mainly have to look out for all of these just so then people don't get the wrong idea about my game and what it is about. I could also really offend some people if I don't do this either.

Cultural

Cultural Appropriation

For this project, something that I didn't really need to look into was setting and environment design when it came to decorating it around real life places and are inspired around them. This incudes places like Japan, China, Egypt and literally any old civilisation. I would have to consider how everything effects seems without going to any stereotypes.

Setting and Environment Design

One big one that I had to watch out for when I was working on this project was to avoid cultural appropriation so being respectful when borrowing elements from a culture (that's if I use any), and try represent and show how I am getting the information. This is so that I can avoid being rude to other cultures and people apart of that culture.

[wheresmytowel]

[...]“I know Vivian Silver who is right now presumed a hostage in Gaza. She’s someone I worked with. If I post about her, I will get messages from some of my Muslim or Arab friends who are angry and saying, ‘Aren’t you seeing what’s happening in Gaza?’” he said.

“Or if I post about somebody who was killed in Gaza, I get crazy angry messages like, ‘No, right now you need to only worry about what Hamas did to Israel, and how could you talk about this? This supports Hamas.’ Literally. It’s just so hardcore.”

Abu Sarah, who grew up in the West Bank, travelled his own path from throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and seeing his brother die from internal injuries the family said were the result of torture while detained without trial in an Israeli prison.

“When I was in high school and there were suicide bombings, there were kids that would say, ‘I’m also for resistance, even armed resistance, but suicide bombing isn’t armed resistance, it’s killing kids, it’s killing women, and we shouldn’t be doing that.’ And then others would say, ‘No, we have the right to do whatever we can,’” he said.

“Growing up, I had this way of thinking. If I sympathise at all with anything Israeli, with anything Jewish, then I’m accepting this whole occupation. It took me a long time to come to understand I can be sympathetic, I can understand the pain, I can speak against our own violence and at the same time speak out against the occupation and speak out against Israeli violence. Those are not mutually exclusive.”

Abu Sarah said he has no problem condemning the Hamas attack but understands why others hesitate.

“I do accept that what Hamas did was horrific. I have personally no issue with saying it, but I know why people do,” he said.

Abu Sarah said some Palestinians struggled to believe that Hamas would have committed such terrible crimes against Israeli civilians, even though the group has a history of suicide bombings and killings of non-combatants.

“The other part is if I admit that Hamas did this, then am I justifying what Israel is doing in Gaza? If I say, it was horrible, it is absolutely unacceptable, then am I saying Israel’s response is okay?” he said.

Some Palestinian Americans say they are subject to a double standard in being asked to condemn Hamas before being permitted to talk about the bombing of Gaza. They say Jewish Americans are not expected to jump through the same hoops in condemning occupation before being heard about the deaths of Israelis.

Discussion is not helped by a barrage of misinformation and propaganda. Abu Sarah said he spends a lot of time pushing back against false claims including a video on social media that supposedly showed one member of Hamas telling another to rape a woman during the 7 October attack.

“I’m listening in Arabic and that’s not what he said. I’m not denying that we might have seen similar things happening but that’s not what he says. So I sent my friend a message saying that this is just not true. Their response was, ‘Well, I’m sure something like this happened so it doesn’t matter if it’s true,’” he said.

“So there is this feeling that I have to defend my people or the side I think is right even if it’s a lie. It’s a kind of tribalism.” [...]