#very post

[hadleysmis]

I think Jean Valjean and his relationship with religion and morality was 'yeesh' for a lack of a better term when I first read the book.

There is so much to say in the level of morality one affords a person or people while at the same time regarding oneself in a different measure; along with the pain of trying to approach souls and thus life and people in a completely holistic way which would never grant full positive effect of one's actions; resulting in inevitable series of negative consequences rippling over each other in waves.

If you allow infinite layers of nuance to character, then you're going to be given infinite layer of failure in your own actions. If you believe in an infinite layer of complexities of which you are not allowed to simplify for a better comprehension... Well, you're gonna end up with psychology that demonises your every move for every move has ripple effects and every ripple effect in an already devastating world will have devastating reactions, no matter what you do and how positive you were.

Yeah, so it turns out if you view the world in a very strictly religious moral way, things are gonna look bad no matter whatever happens. This is of course exacerbated if the society literally profits off from suffering; and surprise, this is the setting for Jean Valjean.

When I was reading the book, of course I knew it to be very religious, specifically Christian, but the amount of guilt that was weighed on the character of Jean Valjean became something that could be so easily avoidable if he wasn't so strict on his moral code. And he never does.

I understand that Victor Hugo criticised Christian rules, laws, and other discussions of course, and this was an intentional part of his character. I've always thought the religious aspect of Jean Valjean was very interesting, but I felt that I was always too negative around the topic.

I do really admire how it showed how positive Christianity can be to society if the believers practised it well (and governments were irreligious), although Jean Valjean is definitely not a guide to being a perfect saint, he is a good rep overall nevertheless.

One of my favourite flaw in a character overall is the inability to weigh souls, and this realisation came to me as soon as I read Jean Valjean's tale. He keeps making mistakes because he's trying to understand the world in complexities and depths only reserved for God's comprehension; and apply them to his own worldview in order to become the best servant of God (a good man) as possible.

I must admit I am quite frightened of Christianity due to my personal relationship with it, and I do have very little interest in Victor Hugo the man himself, so I don't know how much of this was intentional nor do I really want to deeply research it. I'm a terrible reader that way.

Tbf I don't particularly hear that much religious talk from the Insta-side of fandom where I migrated from, so I'm just putting my thoughts out here.

I didn't really think about this conclusion I made of the character and my point of view that the book highlights both the strengths of religion and the very weakness of it if taken to the extremity; but it did pop into my head years later when I converted to Buddhism for a couple of years.

Within those years I was the most miserable I had ever been lmao. I took Buddhism and its philosophies to the extreme strictness and ended up crying every night because I believed I was a terrible human being and that I was greedy, a hoarder, and no better than a murderer. It sounds a bit silly when I say it out loud now, but at that time I truly believed this.

I felt as though me not donating every bit of my money was an indicator that I funded for the oppression set by the government, and I was not worthy of being human.

Before I knew it, I was applying the same psychology that Jean Valjean did when adopting a new religion. The only difference was that I left the religion that was poor on my mental health, meanwhile Jean Valjean stuck to it as a devout man.

I'm sure there can be retrospective parallels to be made from me wandering in circles, arguing with myself in what Buddhism truly means and whether I should become a hermit, with Jean Valjean also roaming in circles arguing whether or not he had a moral duty to save one man while risking an entire town to destitution. (How odd is this comparison though)

I think if anything, as I was reading Les Misérables, I would think that Valjean had to relax on his strict codes, but at the same time I thought it was unlike his character to do so.

I didn't truly understand how hard it was to give way to leniency until I myself chose to become further and further depressed rather than just being lenient in my beliefs.

I don't think Valjean would've ever left Christianity even if he knew what his problem was, and probably even if you shook him and told him that God's intention for human life was not to wallow in depression due to uncontrollable factors in life, he wouldn't believe you... Or perhaps that was indeed God's goal? (I don't know, I've forgotten most of my Bible lessons because low key a lot of my 'teachers' were straight up racists and homophobic so I just kind of tuned their lessons out.)

Anyway, I don't mean to sound rude, and I know religion can be a sensitive topic, and for that I'm gonna limit interactions; but if anybody wondered what this little fourteen year old baby Hadley had once thought as he shut the book after crying from the ending... Yeah, this was one of the thoughts.

Actually though I think I made this conclusion pretty early on in the brick ngl lol hopefully I wasn't biased and got everything entirely wrong

[onryou-onryou]

Colin's ARP2600m processing of Wayne Shorter’s "Nefertiti" (Miles Davis Quintet)

[marvelsmostwanted]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[jellyowllen]

i made this version of that popular cake meme as a love letter to my favourite artists, writers, editors etc who keep making content about my favourite characters/ship

ermm

I LOVE YALL!!!!!!!!

[roboticnebula]

Pros of re-reading your own fic

a good time;

Has exactly the tropes you like and the characterization you want to read;

Gratification: yes you did finish a thing and yes you did do good;

just a very fun time all around.

Cons of re-reading your own fic:

Is that another TYpO

[sop-soap]

Biases being broken down on both sides

[selkiesparrow]

Zoozve, my beloved

[inkskinned]

How come you're all about "feminism" until it's time to protest? We haven't seen you make a single fucking post about the LA riots and it's really disappointing.

Hi friends. This is your reminder not to reply to questions like this. You do not need to self-report your behavior. This is a guilt trip designed to make you violate your own Miranda rights.

Also, they are not riots (Freudian slip, fed?), they're peaceful protests and are a democratic right under the first amendment.

where to find your local protest donate to legal funds my local immigrant support network

be safe out there, i love you.

[starryswirly]

I'm finished with art for the semester soooo here's what I've been workin on! All assets are my own. I used a DSLR camera along with Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint

⚠️Prints and stickers available here!

Feel free to send asks about the unaltered photos/photo locations, cause some of the original signs were pretty interesting tbh

⚠️Prints and stickers available here!

[smilenetwork]

Shadow after he runs over sonic for the 20th time

[diamondnokouzai]

"the pvp on this site is brutal" "this website's hatemail game is insane" you guys werent here from 2013-2016. they shot you if you reblogged from someone who reblogged from someone who liked kill la kill.

in fact i disabled reblogs on this post on november 14 2024 because i FUCKING HATE DREAM DADDY and im sick of seeing it in tags in my notifs.

[technovillain]

i come from the universe where everything is the same except disney heroines get like an ounce of their fathers' obviously dominant genes and their clothes are like 80% more historically accurate. it's beautiful here.

[2] [3]

[tawnysoup]

Finally now that the comic is fully public on comicfury, I get to share it with all of you here, too <3

If you enjoyed, please consider supporting by buying a PDF of the comic on itch.io: https://tawnysoup.itch.io/home-in-the-woods

[velvetcloak]

The Olympics but high fashion by Wisdom Kaye

[luvvsbian]

not a day goes by that i do not think about the sims 3’s disgusting moodlet icons