#making speech free

[political-us]

[callmeizukunotdeku]

I was a kid with a Hunger Games hyperfixation and, from time to time, I'll get reminded of the books. With Trump's inauguration and the TikTok ban and unban, I can't stop thinking about a political tactic called panem et circenses, or bread and circuses.

In Mockingjay, Collins writes "'It’s a saying from thousands of years ago, written in a language called Latin about a place called Rome,' he explains. 'Panem et Circenses translates into "Bread and Circuses." The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power.'"

In Collins' world, the Hunger Games was the entertainment. In ours, it's social media. Twitter, Meta, TikTok, are all controlled by political powers. Musk, Zuckerberg. TikTok is owned by Yiming and Rubo, but with the ban and unban, the content it shows in America is filtered to fit Trump's political agenda.

It's entertainment at the cost of information.

[sotomato06]

when going to the official government website, Whitehouse.gov, the full constitution in its entirety cannot be accessed. There is a summary of the contents of the constitution and the bill of rights. This is what it says the second amendment is...

That is not the second amendment. For reference, this is the real second amendment taken straight from the document itself

The narrative is being shaped by trump now. Don't trust it. I had to dive into the transcripts from the constitutional convention itself before I found the true second amendment on a government website and it was in the national archives. The version of the constitution trump has everywhere is paraphrased and inaccurate to the original document. Stay informed

[melodead]

you know from experience that hungry students will go through many, many lengths to sate that hunger—and that’s why you’ve decided to hike a mountain on a school night.

you take a cutting of berries and slide them into the glass jar. hopefully, these aren’t poisonous. they’ll need to be checked by professor crewel first, obviously, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. grim might survive eating poison. you, on the other hand? not so much. a specialist would need to vet them first.

“i wouldn’t recommend eating those, if that’s what you’re planning.”

or a very knowledgeable student.

you turn your head. jade leech smiles politely at you from the long shadow of a tree, his usual suspicious demeanor offset by a knitted yellow cap and several layers of hiking gear. his lantern casts a soft glow across his face. you wonder why he has it out at all. the sun has only just begun to set, after all.

you must be staring too much, because jade steps out of the shadow and crouches down next to you, setting the lamp on the ground. “it’s good to have one in case of any delays. the mountains can be rather perilous, as you must be aware by now,” he explains. “one reckless act, and nature’s bounty can prove fatal,”—he taps your jar—“such as these.”

you blink at him slowly. his yellow eye almost glows in the dying light of day, but they are not predatory. not today.

“right. thank you for the notice.” you screw the lid back on, put it into your basket, and push yourself from the ground. he begins to do the same. “i’ll be leaving now. i don’t want to inconvenience you any further.” yes, he did just get here. no, you will not be acknowledging that.

“not at all. on the contrary, it is lovely to see you, prefect, especially on such a pleasant day. ah, but that reminds me,”—oh, sevens. please don’t say what i think you’re going to say—“seeing as we’re both here, perhaps you wouldn’t mind a bit of a hike to the peak? the sunset is beautiful this time of year.”

you swear. internally, of course, but the idea is the same.

you really hoped to avoid octavinelle after azul’s incident. it was one thing to be riddle or leona; they hadn’t targeted you personally. moreover, riddle has relaxed on some of his rules, and leona doesn’t bother you any more than he talks to you (which is very rarely). you got over it.

octavinelle, though, had contracted your friends into forced labor (it was mostly their own fault), stolen your house (you willingly agreed to hand it over), and sabotaged you in getting it back (in a deal you knew was sketchy). it was, it was—!

oh, who are you kidding? you feel hurt. that’s the long and short of it. it is juvenile and illogical and out of character for you and you hate it, but there is no time to unpack that, and the consequences for purposeful ignorance are little to none. jade leech couldn’t possibly have cared anyways.

“-efect? prefect?” he taps you gently. “are you alright?”

but you must have forgotten how entertaining the students find you.

you step back, hands gripping the strap of your bag. “i don’t think that’s a good idea. if i went with you, the sun would be gone by the time we got there. we’ll be better off going our separate ways.”

“i beg to differ.” his eyes glance at your bag. several jars clink emptily. “you’re foraging, yes? there happens to be a berry hedge on the trail down. i could lead you there, if you so wish.”

“that’s okay. it’ll be dark.”

“then i could accompany you on the way down,” he offers, “if the dark is what worries you.”

“i’ve faced worse—and i really should be getting back to ramshackle soon. grim will be hungry.” not to mention the three other teenage boys who might be ransacking the place.

“even so, you can never be too careful.” 

you cut the pleasantries. “and what would you get out of it?”

“pardon?”

“what are you getting in return?” your eyes bore into his. “i don’t have anything to give you, but frankly, i’m not interested in any kind of exchange if that’s what you have in mind. you won’t get anything from me.”

jade leech blinks at you twice in rapid succession, eyebrows raised, before his features school themselves into something neutral. concealed, even. you’re almost comforted by the sight of normal jade.

key word: almost.

“is that what you think of me?”

“how else am i supposed to think?” your eyebrows furrow. “i could never tell with you before, but i knew you weren’t malicious at the very least. i don’t have a clue where we stand now.” excuses. truths. you hold your basket closer. “does it matter, anyways? i don’t have any business with you.”

the sun is lower on the horizon now. the lamplight flickers.

jade leech sighs—sighs!—so inaudible you might’ve thought it was the wind. his eyes fall shut for a moment. when they open again, his left one shines gold. “you’re still nursing injuries, are you not? as vice housewarden of octavinelle, it would be remiss of me to ignore someone personally hurt by the actions of our dorm. i’ll ensure your safety against anything on the way down.” his gaze meets yours. “an eye for an eye, yes?”

you scrunch your face. “i don’t want your eye. i don’t want anyone’s eyes.”

jade blinks at you—(wow, that makes it, what, three times now?)—before unexpectedly giving into chuckles. it’s breathy, and true, and a whole host of other adjectives you wouldn’t normally assign him. that must be the floyd in him, you think as you stand there awkwardly. you wonder if you should just leave.

jade gets a hold of himself soon enough though, and he ushers you down the mountain under the guise of benevolence and whatever else he tries to sell to you on the way. you ignore it the best you can.

what you don’t see is the lingering grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, the entire trip down.

[onlytiktoks]

[lucky-fy]

made it gayer

[krumpkin]

JFK Quotes - this is one I totally agree with 😊

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

we're back with my semi-coherent thoughts about arcane, this time it's about act 2:

the fuck you mean vander and silco were friends with vi and jinx's mom????

on a similar note: why is young silco so FI- ahem lemme chill

cait distracting herself from vi and her feelings by sleeping with MADDIE was NOT on my arcane act 2 bingo card

TO ME, isha's autistic (also i feel like i was the only person that thought it was pronounced i-sha...not ee-sha...)

^on the topic of isha, WHY IS SHE DEAD??? WHY DO THEY HATE ME?? SHE'S LITERALLY MY DAUGHTER

healed salo was giving so much more gender than normal and he got killed for it- gay on gay crime i swear

the amount of times jinx made me legit cackle was way too much

i actually screamed when warwick went "powder?" so do with that what you will

vi looked SO GOOD omg

i thought kino's voice sounded familiar so i just looked it up and IT'S HORDAK !!! gasp ! hey king !! long time no see !!

before mel did her glowy-glowy shit i went "bro mel can't die, she's a bad bitch" so...do with that what you will, part 2

warwick also went "don't touch my daughter" and i screamed yet again and that's on lowkey having daddy issues (i'm joking but i'm not)

jayce, you better explain yourself THE MOMENT act 3 starts cause what the fuck is your problem???

emilie agreste walked so singed's daughter could run (i mean she's not but you get the joke)

i'm also kinda loving sevika's hair...

[thefearofcod]

What your western classics tattoo means:

-Inferno: cringe. you think about hell a lot but don’t believe in god. You like the boiling river of shit. You say you think Paolo and Francesca are romantic but you don’t understand courtly love.

-Purgatorio: pretty good. You probably payed attention to the reading. You should take up endurance hiking with a bag of rocks

-Paradiso: excellent. You’re annoying about the existence of the sublime in music. You were really into string theory in middle school. If I give you a drink you’ll start talking about Hildegard

-Lysistrata: you had a lesbian separatist phase. You're really into your community garden, or you want to be. Every thirteen months, one of your posts goes viral

-Iliad: your meat is huge

-Odyssey: your wife is smarter than you. You're a killer tabletop DM. You would fuck a witch if pressed

-Don Quixote: based. unless it's the picasso illustrations, then you're basic.

-Pascal: if it's math, you're gay. if it's philosophy, you're a stoner

-Aeneid: you also have a tattoo of the Capitoline Wolf. You love the origin story part of superhero movies

-Middlemarch: you don't exist. nobody has a middlemarch tattoo

-Jane Austen's works: you're the person people text "can i be mean." You're good at parties but you hate them. You're think you're funnier online than in person

-just the word "logos" in Greek: you didn't do the reading

-Sappho: you are a trans lesbian

-Proust: you post a lot of "slut in theory" memes. you get anxious going to the seven-eleven

-Euclid: you taught yourself to draw a perfect circle. You think about geological formations a lot. You've memorized that Edna St. Vincent Millay poem

-Herodotus: you're a worldbuilding geek. You wanted to talk about the necrophilia passage more in class. You will buy any novel with a map at the front

[political-us]

[sophieinwonderland]

The fake outrage over the 8647 thing also once again highlights the complete lack of moral integrity of rank and file MAGAts.

Ghost was having a discussion with his mom earlier where he was telling her how Trump sent the Secret Service after Comey for posting the 8647 picture. His mom, trying to figure this out, said "I know 86 is throwing someone out, but what's the 47?" To which Ghost explained that Trump is currently the 47th President.

The thing is, she went straight to that. She was very familiar with the term for throwing people out. Which is consistent with the Webster's Dictionary entry and with the bulk of entries on Urban Dictionary going back 20 years. Then she was shocked when Ghost explained that Trump claimed it was an assassination threat.

86 seems to be pretty consistently understood by everyone to be about removal.

Everyone except MAGAts.

And I just... refuse to believe that they are living in such a radically different alternate universe that they have a completely different understanding of this term. But if they know the actual meaning... that means they're lying.

The ones who know the meaning of the word and are going along with it, repeating the Regime's talking points, are overtly lying. They're maliciously trying to gaslight you into not trusting what you know to be true. But the ones who have heard of this and aren't commenting on it, choosing silence, are lying by omission. They're aware that their side is pushing lies, and they are okay sitting back and letting it happen. Either because they don't care as long as they can hurt the other side, or because they're pathetic cowards afraid of what their MAGAt peers would think of them if they dared speak out against the cult.

Both the loud MAGAt echoing the lies and silent MAGAt allowing them to spread are still aiding in the disinformation.

If MAGA supporters truly value free thinking and going against the mainstream as they occasionally pretend to, it should be no small matter for those who know what 86 means from their own life experiences to speak up against the lies other MAGAts are spreading when they claim it's an assassination threat.

To not speak up against the disinformation makes you complicit. If not from malice, then from cowardice.

And I don't know which I have less respect for.

8647!

[chirpsythismorning]

El being *12 hours earlier* than the Cali timeline when she arrives at Nina. Will saying ‘it’s been 9 hrs’ in the scene following his monologue in the van.

We know that at some point their timelines merged when they arrived to save her…

But we don’t know when exactly those alignments took place when they were still apart… which just makes you wonder…

[wispforever]

halloween was scary this year

[onlytiktoks]

[eugenedebs1920]

It’s truly sad that such a large chunk of this country votes against their own interests in order to… Own the libs? Spite diversity? Be openly racist? Project cruelty? Hurt minorities? Live in a false reality? I honestly don’t understand it…

Let’s see… In this train wreck of trump 2.0 what has been achieved?

The economy shrank for the first time in 3 years, 2 quarters in a row. Inflation has risen. Americas credit rating has been downgraded. Prices have gone up. Agencies like the CFPB have been rendered obsolete, agencies whose sole purpose was to protect consumers. Oil/gas prices have increased drastically. The price of a new vehicle has increased 20%. Farmers have lost BILLIONS, and will have to be bailed out by the American taxpayer AGAIN because of trump.

The Constitution has been defiled. Universities being told what they can and cannot teach. Protesters met with military force. Rights of due process stripped. War powers seized by the executive. The hatch act (to quote recent propaganda) obliterated. The press denied access, falsely discredited, and intimidated through lawsuits. Illegal impoundment of congressional appropriated funds. Heads of congressionally created agencies, including inspectors generals terminated. Transforming the DOJ into the executives personal law firm.

Tens of thousands of veterans have lost their jobs. The military has been politicized. A weekend news anchor has been appointed to lead the DOD. Marines have been deployed on U.S. soil to combat their own citizens.

Military parades for a feckless leader, costing over $40 million dollars here been thrown. $300 million operations have failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Millions thrown off healthcare so billionaires can get more tax breaks (although Republicans made it so these won’t go into effect until AFTER the 2026 midterms). Billions upon billions spent to round up hard working people, the backbone of the agricultural, hospitality, construction, and low level, low paying positions, who pay into a system where they will never receive the benefits for their contributions. Round ups seeing less than 10% having any criminal record, people being disappeared without their families being notified, with no hearing, sent to death camps in places like El Salvador, Sudan, and Syria, not their countries of origin, all for the crime of working jobs Americans won’t.

So tell me. How does this make us stronger? How does this show our strength? How does this make us great?

[bittersweetresilience]

so do you think he succeeded?