#the discourse will be WRETCHED

[captorations]

omniscient reader's viewpoint is apparently getting an anime and this is going to be a trash fire, i can't wait

[thesmpisonfire]

Okay, just a bit of a heads up if anyone will check Twitter today, theres discourse bc people are saying fitpacs slowburn is queerbaiting (and saying the only "respectful" pairings are spiderbit, bagina and frubbo)

[boag]

I remember using the vent app in middle school and at one point I just blocked everybody I encountered so nobody could interact with my vents bc I saw all the drama on there and I was like you people are insane akdjakfjskfkdkfkfkkc

[communistkenobi]

i don’t know if you have seen the TOS movies so i will try to be as vague about this as possible so to not spoil them for you. i think a large portion (or at least a portion) of the issues presented in TOS are because starfleet sucks, to put it in the best words. this is not including the issues and harm it has done on real people, im talking about the in-universe starfleet and how it presents itself and its rules (example: colonization (encouraging its captains to colonize, encouraging its captains to make other planets and civilizations join their “american” federation)). a larger and more prominent explanation is how its, as described in VI, a “homosapiens-only club”. the klingon who says this also goes on to say that the federation is racist. and this is shown after both kirk and spock say they believe that the federation is peaceful. and obviously they think that because that’s what it presents itself as to it’s employees. another example is in TSFS when a higher authority from the federation tells kirk that he doesn’t believe in vulcan rituals, therefore, if kirk does this ritual, he will be fired. i know this is shown in the show as well but the more obvious examples are from the movies; to me it feels like they’re outright saying it in the films

i know this is not how it was intended to be perceived but this is what the show presents it as. i could be missing something or misunderstanding but this is how i see it, and from what i’ve heard, this is talked about in ds9

also starfleet coincidentally decides that the dark skinned aliens are enemies (this is more of a writing choice and the writers (and character designers) are at fault for this but it presents itself as an obvious issue, in universe, in V & VI)

I’ve seen the first four movies! My recall on canon and the intricacies of starfleet etc are not so precise, so I appreciate the context and some of that sounds familiar. I’m assuming you’re responding to my bitching about the politics of tos and how disconnected it is (in my view) with the fandom’s perception of tos as a progressive cultural text. 

I think those examples are good highlights of a lot of the in-universe problems with Starfleet. To go a step further, I think even absent Starfleet’s racist or discriminatory history in-universe, the show itself (at least tos, I haven’t seen the others) operates on a colonial imaginary, by which I mean, its basic narrative premises and assumptions are colonial (and therefore racist) in character.

Like okay, the premise of tos is that the Enterprise, as an ambassador of Starfleet/the Federation, is seeking out new alien life to study. The Prime Directive prohibits the Enterprise crew from interfering with the development of any alien culture or people while they do this, so the research they collect needs to be done in an unobtrusive way. I think this is the first point at which people balk at the charge that tos is colonial - the Enterprise’s mission is premised on non-interference, and I think when people hear ‘colonial’ as a descriptor they (understandably, obviously) assume it is describing active conquest, genocide, and dispossession. Even setting aside all the times where Kirk does directly interfere with the “development” of a people or culture (usually because they’ve “stagnated” culturally, because a culture without conflict cannot evolve or “develop” beyond its current presumed capacity - he is pretty explicitly imposing his own values onto another culture in order to force them to change in a particular way), or the times when the Enterprise is actually looking to extract resources from a given planet or people, I’m not exactly making this claim, or rather, that’s not the only thing I’m describing when calling tos colonial.

Its presentation of scientific discovery and inquiry is anthropological - the “object” of analysis is alien/foreign culture, meaning that when the Enterprise crew comes into contact with a new being or person, this person is always read first and foremost through the level of (the Enterprise’s understanding of) culture. Their behaviour, beliefs, dress, way of speaking, appearance, and so on are always reflective of (and represent a microcosm of) their culture as a whole, and more importantly, that their racial or phenotypic characteristics define the boundaries of their culture, ie, culture is interpreted, navigated, and bound racially. Because of this, Kirk and Co are never really interacting with individuals, they are interacting with components of a (foreign, exotic, fundamentally different) culture. And when they interact with these cultures, they very frequently measure them using a universalized scale of development - they have an evolutionary view of culture, ie, that all cultures go from savage to rational, primitive to advanced, economically marginal to economically dominant (ie, to capitalism). And the metrics they are judging these cultures by are fundamentally Western ones, always emphasising to the audience that the final destination of all cultures (that are worthy of advancing beyond their current limited/“primitive” stages) is a culture identical to the Federation, a culture that can itself engage in this anthropological mission to catalogue all life as fitting within a universal set of practices and racial similarities they call “culture.”

This is a western, colonial understanding of culture - racially and spatially homogenous people comprise the organs of a social totality, ie, a society, which can then be analysed as an “object,” as a “phenomenon,” by the scientists in order to extract information from them to produce and advance state (ie Federation) knowledge. The Enterprise crew are allowed to be individuals, are allowed to be subjects with a capacity for reason, contradiction, emotion, compassion, and even moments of savagery or violence, without those things being assigned to their “race” or “culture” as a whole, but the people they interact with are only components of a whole which are “discovered” by the Enterprise as opportunities to expand and refine the Federation’s body of knowledge.

And on the flip side you have the Klingons, which you brought up - a “race” that is uniformly savage, backward, violent, and dangerous. In the episode Day of the Dove, where Klingons board the Enterprise along with an alien cloud that makes everyone very aggressive and racist (this show is insane lol), the Enterprise crew begins acting violent and racist, but the Klingons don’t change. They aren’t more violent than before (because they already were fundamentally violent and racist), and they don’t become less violent when the cloud eventually leaves (because they are never able to emerge from their violence and savagery as a social condition or external imposition - they simply are that way). Klingons are racially, behaviourally, psychologically, and culturally homogenous, universally violent and immune to reason, and their racial characteristics are both physical manifestations of this universal violence as well as the origin of it. The writers and creators of tos are consciously invoking the orientalist idea of the “Mongolian horde,” representing both the American fear of Soviet global takeover as well as blatantly racist fears about “asiatics” (a word used in the show, particularly in The Omega Glory where a fear of racialised communist takeover is made explicit) dominating the world.

This is colonial thinking! Like, fundamentally, at its core, this is colonial white supremacist thinking. Now this is not the fault of tos as an individual show, this is a problem with western science in general, and I am not expecting a television show to navigate its way outside of this current colonial paradigm of scientific knowledge. I’m also not expecting an average person watching this to pick out all the intricacies of this and link it to the colonial history of Europe or the colonial history of western science. But this base premise of Star Trek is why the show is fundamentally colonial - even if the crew never intervened in any alien conflict, never extracted any material resources from other people, and even if the Federation did not have all these explicitly racist practices that you outlined, this would still be colonial logic and colonial thinking. The show has a fundamentally colonial imagination when it comes to exploration, discovery, and culture.

And so my problem, which is maybe where I need to adjust expectations for tumblr fandom, is when people call this show socialist or durably progressive in any way. This is not because socialist societies can’t be colonial or can’t be racist, obviously they can be those things, but because people are bundling “post-racist, post-bigotry, post-discrimination” in their labelling of tos as “socialist media.” When I hear someone call a piece of media socialist I am also bringing my own assumptions into those things, ie, I am expecting this claim to be actually reflective of the politics within the show to some degree. There can of course be debates about the exact nature and quality of those socialistic politics (see conversations about the politics of Disco Elysium, a contemporary canonical example of actual “socialist art”), but I’m at least expecting there to by a whiff of them in there! And I don’t think tos stands up to basic scrutiny in this regard. I genuinely do not even buy that it’s progressive, for reasons I’ve outlined above. Again that’s a genre problem, I think all sci-fi has to contend with this, but tos is certainly not a progressive exception to the political norms of sci-fi as a genre. 

And THIS IS OBVIOUSLY not me saying you can’t like tos or that you’re racist for doing so, I deeply enjoy the show on its own terms, and its politics (good and bad) are part of that enjoyment. I’m also someone who is in university & complicit in all of these colonial scientific assumptions and practices, I’m not positioning myself as morally superior in this discussion. But when people package their enjoyment of the show with their analysis of it as socialist, as progressive, I think that is pretty fucking stupid and leads to a lot of handwaving of its fundamentally racist narrative premises. Hence my bitching 

[solstheimtxt]

Theres pisscourse on tiktok bc a bunch of uppity white mommy bloggers took her comment abt her friends (which she specified), being miserable abt childcare and how lonely it can be, and took it as if she said she hates moms/kids and theres so much of it on my fucking fyp omgggg

Like, if you understand that being a parent is hard, potentially lonely, not for everyone, you are a genius compared to these mommy bloggers i s2g being reticent to having kids and talking abt the downsides of having kids (ESPECIALLLY in a red state and especially under 25), isnt fucking misogny omgggggg

[gamblegun]

Considering deleting this blog again lol

[mekatrio]

I HATE ACE ATTORNEY THREEEEEE

[cavewretch]

just woke up from a dream that was a dolly parton jukebox musical starring brittany broski and sabrina carpenter

[thesmpisonfire]

I love opening twitter and seeing rampant xenophobia against brazilians, from ALL corners of the rest of qsmptwt. Rlly. What a blast /sarc

[rmelster]

seeing the current situation of the DANA in my country and wanting to commit assassination

[mincedpeaches]

In the year 2021 where anti/pro shipper discourse is a thing I genuinely wonder how some people feel about having used to ship Dave/Rose or other incest ships with some kind of caveats where it wasn’t just typical siblings growing up together. Would they renounce themselves now? Blame it on having been young or not knowing any better? 

Like not to be problematíc but still understand the appeal of Dave/Rose ya know. I’m not smart enough nor dumb enough to REALLY get deep into the discourse and I’m not a psychologist but you know like. Stepmom & stepsibling shit, that’s a thing. And in the end I don’t think the complete puritan mindset of fandom is really doing much good about it ya know.

[toraoistired]

Reblogging bc this is such a well formulated response, honest and straightforward, no "gotcha" moments or fallacies. and bc the explanations of:

a.) the differences between religion and ideology

b.) logical fallacies in arguments

and bc of the perfect book recommendations & quotes

I was excited to find your Sanji fic, but I saw that your blog is not a safe place for Jews. More than 80% of Jews identify as Zionists. That’s 12 million people. A Jew is telling you that by putting ‘Zionist not welcome’ in your bio is the same as telling 12 out of 15 million Jews they aren’t to allowed to enjoy your writing. It is your art and your blog. That is your right. I just wanted to make you aware of the weight of what your words truly mean: You are actively discriminating against Jews—not just ‘people who support Israel’. My hope is that this message is received in good faith and not as an attack. I hope to enjoy the Sanji fic fully without violating either of our boundaries. If I find myself block then I have my answer. Thank you

oh BROTHER. this blog is purely for entertainment and creativity and i seriously don't feel like addressing this nor will i be engaging with it after this. for my rant, see below! sorry to everyone whose dashboard this comes across. as you can see from the egregious length of my response, this struck a nerve.

i appreciate the tone of your message and it seems like you genuinely meant it with patience and kindness. my response is not meant with either. my blog is a safe space for jewish people. however, as far as zionism is concerned, i unequivocally cannot tolerate this ideology. furthermore, i see your equation of judaism with zionism as one that is dangerous, lazy, and singularizing; you should take great caution in aiding the “devolution of Judaism from a set of religious beliefs into a national political ideology” (from judith butler’s “Is Judaism Zionism?”). i see nothing appealing about a national political ideology of settler colonialism, alt-right nationalism, and apartheid.

let's just establish some terra firma from which to work with here—israel is a state, judaism is a religion, and zionism is an ideology. the ideology of zionism is the ideology of israel as a state (since its inception and certainly now, with the likud at the helm). by conflating zionism with judaism, you're singularizing millions and millions of people into one set of beliefs. you're doing a disservice to your religion, and this homogenizing is dangerous and toxic. there are many jewish people who agree with me and who recognize the Zionist ideology for what it is; for two key examples see the organization jewish voice for peace as well as many hasidic people who have spoken against the netanyahu administration (yes, even in Israel).

also, rhetoric 101 - your statistic, '80% of jews', is an argument from authority, a specific type of logical fallacy. whatever you’re referencing (you haven’t named a source) is, apparently, just out there in the ether. what you mean is that 80% of jews that were surveyed in whatever study you're referencing are zionists. but this statistic is flawed—there is no a way to survey 100% of jews worldwide and such a study has not happened. so no, it is not 12 out of 15 million people who are pro zionism. i have no doubt the poll you’re referencing was conducted on less than one million people based in, gee, probably north america and israel. and that's not to speak on who provided the funding.

again, i assert that any nation that aspires to be an ethno-state, and any nation that instantiates and perpetuates apartheid, is a genocidal state. read the writings of theodor herzl and ben gurion and you will be surprised at how openly and proudly they propound that zionism is a settler colonial project.

in the words of aimé césaire: “What am I driving at? At this idea: that no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization— and therefore force— is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased...” (discourse on colonialism). Israel is a morally diseased nation—diseased with a nationalistic, fascist, settler-colonist ideology (sound familiar? i’m looking at you, america!). not only this, but the citizenship parameters from which Israel was founded are pervasively antidemocratic and are bar for bar with south africa’s apartheid policies (Israel has pass laws too, crazy coincidence!). who else to better represent this ideology than Netanyahu and Donald Trump? are they buddy-buddy enough for your liking? perhaps the allies of your ideology should raise some eyebrows on your end.

i've fought for the palestinian cause for years. i lived in the middle east and i speak arabic. i have a degree in intl relations with a geographic focus on MENA and nuclear warfare. i'm not the one to lecture about this. i am, at an academic and professional level, an active researcher of the third reich and totalitarianism. i know the work of hannah arendt like the back of my hand (a jew who was, at the same time, a Zionist and not a Zionist, outcast from her communities for her dissent). 😫 please take your half-baked criticisms of my political stances elsewhere. go read the wretched of the earth by frantz fanon or orientalism by edward said.

as for the sanji fic - i truly don't care whether you read it or not. i can't physically stop you from doing so. if you have a problem just walk away from the computer. if you come back to my inbox, i will block you because i've had enough painfully predictable disagreements with zionists in my life.

now let me direct you to my favorite poems by Refaat Alareer, a palestinian poet and writer who the IDF murdered in December of 2023 (in an airstrike, an indiscriminate act of killing civilians, an internationally recognized war crime):

:أيضا كلمات من محمود درويش

وأقولُ لِنَفْسي: سِيَطْلَعُ من عَتْمتي قمر

on that note, i'm never addressing this again and this account will be purely fanfic from here on out.

من النهر إلى البحر، فلسطين ستكون حرة

[trigger-discipline]

Myd - Together We Stand

[visenyaism]

Aegon Unworthy Administration Dashboard Simulator

⚔️ whiteswordtowerrr

the gold cloaks found my aegmon rpf guys it might be a while before my next update

💫 maidens-grace Follow

RIP OP this is why RPF is not only problematic (sinful against the Maiden AND the Smith) but will also literally deservedly get your skull put on a spike

⚔️ whiteswordtowerrr

I lived bitch. king aegon made me read it out loud to his brother because he thought it was funny but then he let me go. new chapter dropping in 20 minutes

#the dragonknight got all purple and furious but he did just have to stand there and take it. Just like in this next chapt- #the king did hook up with my sister afterwards though. what can you do

🍒lanadelreyene Follow

listennnnn im not saying he’s perfect im just saying liberating women from religious oppression and literal imprisonment in the maidenvault and letting his girl cousin do the economy and elevating women of all social standings to positions of prominence isnt NOTHING.

🫀tree-hearted

“king aegon is a feminist” “criston cole had hoes” you people will say anything on this website.

🛡️knighttime Follow

just saw that Daemon Waters kid like the king’s four year old bastard do a perfect standing backflip in the training yard. Kind of compelling. Kind of kingly. I don’t know…

#can prince daeron do a flip?????

🐉 rhaenyra-did-nothing-wrong Follow

It’s SO disgusting how the king would hire a H*ghtower hand only 50 years after that wretched family MURDERED HIS GRANDMOTHER AFTER USURPING HER THRONE. #UNWORTHYGATE

🪙 laenycashmoney150

Me and that nasty old man. To be honest

🌈 crystalcrowned Follow

I block everyone who is horny on main about the king on principle because fornication is a sin but op is talking about ALYN OAKENFIST?????? Girl.

🙌 fleabottomtop

Sneaking in through the secret tunnels in the red keep to smuggle queen naerys a vibrator and a blunt this shit is getting out of hand

💐 summersepta Follow

she would not like that. try again.

🙌 fleabottomtop

sneaking in through the secret tunnels in the the red keep to smuggle queen naerys a prayer book and a cigarette

🦇whentch

🐲 rogue-princess Follow

if i speak....🙈🤐

🐦‍⬛ raventreeballer-deactivated89169

FYI @ brackennation literally seduced the king to use her influence to ban pro-Blackwood posts on here. block and report this treacherous whore ASAP

🐎 brackennation-deactivated47170

I know it’s you missy. KYS jealous cunt

🎻bardalicious Follow

king aegon’s collection of teenage mistresses posting through it on the dash again

🔥 fireandwaters Follow

Sooooo sick of seeing delusional reachers reclaiming dragons**d as if that’s not a literal crownlands-specific slur used against the Valyrian-Westerosi community in King’s Landing and Dragonstone. I don’t care how many ae’s your grandma has in her name you are a HIGHTOWER you are a TARLY you are a REDWYNE you are seven forgive me for even saying this a BEESBURY. Categorically NOT a seed. It’s basically valyrian racefaking at this point

⛓️‍ gaymanpalehair Follow

Say it louder for the Great Bastards in the back!!!!!! theyre literally noble

🔥fireandwaters Follow

No I can say it?? I’m from KL I’m in the community why would it matter if I’m acknowledged

🌼 ever-sweet Follow

Seven hells my great-grandsire literally rode caraxes and I can’t acknowledge my own heritage? Dragonseed literally applies to ANY👏ONE👏of👏TAR👏GARYEN👏DES👏CENT.

🪵 kingswoody

At the rate the king is going everyone in the realm will be able to reclaim dragonseed in 20 years come on now

🐦‍⬛raventreeballer Follow

are we not going to acknowledge the toxic power imbalance of the king having had TWO Bracken mistresses and ONE Blackwood mistress????

🐚besterling Follow

THAT’S the toxic power imbalance you want to talk about??? That one??? Nothing else???

🔮hightowered Follow

okay I thought the valyrian racefaking discourse on here was dumb as shit but tell me WHY i just saw my bastard cousin serena change her name to “serenei” on all her socials and then start telling people she was from lys and can’t speak common.

#Good thing we’re dragonseeds otherwise this would be insane

🐟rainbowtrout Follow

non-riverlanders in 20 years when the Bracken-Blackwood beef becomes everybody’s problem because it’s a Targaryen civil war

🍎 fossoshethey

Quick where's that one meme about the valyrian god of prophecy playing dodgelance with random tumblr users

🎭mummersfarce Follow okay I’ll bite. did king aegon the unworthy fourth of his name do something problematic.

✨ fleabottombottom Follow

well as a dragonseed of dance-era descent i gotta say i am not appreciating how hard it is to buy purple shampoo in flea bottom recently what with the rate at which blonde bitches are being created in this kingdom fucking skyrocketing

🎭mummersfarce Follow

fucked up. blocking him now ✊

[thesmpisonfire]

It got to the point i saw people canceling subs on Maxo because of that. Saying Maxo was hurting the QSMP ideals. And I say, dislike Pierre all you want, the guy acted like an asshole during the elections, but ALMOST NONE of the things he did with Maxo in rp were wrong (The fanart he showed had Cellbit and due to the +18 subcontext it goes against his boundaries). Their characters are literally two guys that used each other and now feelings developed and one of them got pregnant as an accident

The sex isn't something wrong, the pregnancy isn't something wrong, the in-character motives aren't outrageous

Don't fucking punish Maxo for your puritan views and because you hate the guy he did rp with

Btw guys don’t go on twitter they’re trying to Puritan the qsmp again, it’s REALLY bad

[thedansemacabres]

On Helpol tumblr there has been some discourse on the worship of Ares and it is completely justified for a personal practice why someone would not honour him. However, though, I would enjoy to bring up points from history on a reconstruction angle on why to worship Ares. I appreciate the critical examination into who and what we worship—we should be more critical of stately portrayals of the divine and understand ancient politics less we reconstruct something wretched. These points are sourced from Cults and sanctuaries of Ares and Enyalios: A survey of the literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence by Matthew Paul Gonzales.

It is deeply historically attested, for anyone thinking that it was not. The anti-Ares classical sentiment can be traced back to WWII for reasons that do not need explaining. The emphasis on his pathetic myths also partially stem from this.

Ares was and is deeply concerned with justice and Dike is described as his lead. He is shown as the blood vengeance in particular, which still does have modern importance—many of us endorse the guillotine. This could inspire modern worshippers to take to action for causes to support good, justice, and love in their communities. Love and war, mayhaps?

He is also connected to peace and restraining violence alongside war-like desires. This is depicted in the homeric hymnal.

Ares is also close to defending land, especially that of floral and agricultural bounty: he is often positioned with fertility goddesses, such as Aphrodite, Despoina, and Cybele.

He is a vengeful protector, when people are wronged or land is stolen and waged against. Athens used this for defending their land—chaining Ares to the land meanings bringing in his power to serve you and your land’s interests. I do not endorse the usage of this to support oppressive regimes, but it could be adapted in a more liberation focused fashion.

Through Ares, some facets of prosperity is given, and I do not take it as a coincidence he is paired with Athena, who directs while Ares rushes.

Worship is also used to avoid conditions; Apollon to keep the plague away, Ares to keep war and strife away, such as his homeric hymn entails.

Courage is also stated to be a condition he gifts.

Lastly, I find it of vast importance to establish modern ideas of gods that are honest to the historical record and finds fluidity in them. Gods can change and they can be discussed with. Perhaps this is my Roman pagan influences, but we can influence and argue with the gods on points we believe in—for justice and ultimate good, as Zeus does mandate divine justice. We can show Ares, more than he already knows and has, the importance of supporting the revolutionary, and we can invoke his power in fighting for the sovereignty of nature. I am also personally fond of the feminist interpretations of him, and while not likely accurate to history, we should be adapting and developing with the gods in the modern period. Ares as a symbol of violently defending women against patriarchy is ripe for expression and movement, though not without due issues.

We should be striving towards ultimate good and Ares’ power in the modern era, with a modern lens, can continue to give weight to this pursuit. If he can encourage us and take a stand against the machismo ideas of “spartan” ideals that dudebros often have, we can make beneficial cultural changes. The gods do not just belong to history, they are history, and Historia is here to inspire and defeat us at every turn. 

I will say my dea Bellona is more of the historical revolution divinity that people want. She has a lot more of the epigraphic record to support this, but nonetheless, there are many reasons to honour Ares outside of war. Especially in his connections to nature and fertility, which strikes my heart happily as a sustainable agriculturalist. If it is Ares that can motivate more Hellenic pagans to embrace liberation and revolutionary ideas, that is something to preserve.

And regardless, if I can worship Ker without expecting much benefit, we can easily worship a god that is not literal murder.