philomaela

[philomaela]

Why the fuck did the centrists pick Cuomo?? Literally why did they think that would work? It all seems so stupid now, that I was so scared, but then stupider things have happened.

I was truly so terrified that cuomo was going to be mayor, at least now I feel a modicum of peace that that’s not happening

[philomaela]

I was truly so terrified that cuomo was going to be mayor, at least now I feel a modicum of peace that that’s not happening

[philomaela]

I agree with that Adeyemi post about his character being underanalyzed because people like to ignore Black characters but it was wrong in one way. Adeyemi calling Tremblay Judas was not his cunty moment, his peak cunty moment was saying that "the papacy is a huge burden, especially to an older man." in front of three candidates who are all older than him.

[philomaela]

Maybe if I had read more shitty dystopian literature I would have appreciated The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. Alas...

[philomaela]

It was interesting to find out that Addam and Daeron were a ship, I assumed if any ship was going to catch on for Addam it would have been Benjicot Blackwood, since he kept Addam's bones for a long time after the war.

[philomaela]

I think there's this danger with mediocre or even outright bad media, of becoming so convinced of it's horribleness that you decide that it has no redeeming qualities and then you start interrogating everything about it with a blindly hateful eye. Of course what you like or dislike is subjective, I just mean when you start wildly misinterpreting bits of media because of how much you dislike it... I think you have to understand that you're going to be arguing all your cases on the backfoot because you've lost the ability to argue your point effectively.

[philomaela]

insane thing to say about cinema in general (okay let's erase decades of female filmmakers) but also INSANE THING TO SAY ABOUT THE VIRGIN SUICIDES WHICH IS LITERALLY TOLD THROUGH A MALE PERSPECTIVE?

[philomaela]

When people say that even if Rhaenyra had ascended the throne peacefully, a succession crisis between Jacaerys and Aegon III was inevitable... it's not that I don't think it's possible but I'm super curious about what specifics people are imagining in that crisis.

It can't just be Daemon arranging the assassination of Rhaenyra's three eldest sons like he's accused of with Rhea Royce, Harwin Strong, Laenor Velaryon etc... because then it's not a dance of dragons, it's not a war, it's just a series of targeted assassinations. If people are imagining a legit war over the Iron Throne, then that's a different thing and I feel like that's a lot harder of a conclusion to get to.

I get the obvious point, which is that Jaecaerys's alleged illegitimacy would be a tool that his enemies could use against him... which like, sure, of course... I totally agree with that. But I feel like part of what made the Greens vs the Blacks plausible was that they both were coming into it with fairly equal dragon power (I understand that Vhagar skews things) and then they end up amassing fairly equal armies. So how do we get to that situation with Jacaerys vs Aegon III?

Setting the scene for the basics, if it's a succession crisis, then Rhaenyra is dead, we don't know how long she ruled for (which would also effect the likelihood of a crisis I think).

Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey all have dragons, Baela who in theory is married to Jacaerys, also has a dragon. Let's say that since the dance never happens, neither do the dragonseeds? Although considering the dragonseeds were Jacaerys's idea according to the book, maybe he has the idea for them in this hypothetical war. The point is that Jacaerys's side most likely has 4 dragons.

Aegon III has a dragon, if Daemon is still alive then he has the biggest dragon of the directly involved parties.

Daemon is clearly the biggest threat in terms of dragonfire here... so I have to imagine that we're assuming that Rhaenyra died fairly young? Because no matter how strong and fierce Daemon is, if Rhaenyra rules for like 25 years then I think old man Daemon might have some issues performing in the war. But then you know, Daemon potentially has to fight his daughter... It's a weird situation because, I guess I don't see a scenario where Aegon III has enough dragon power to reasonably challenge Jacaerys without Daemon, but also I don't understand how Daemon vs his own daughter is meant to go. Nor Aegon III vs his big sisters, even if we're assuming animosity between Aegon III and his big brothers.

Are people imagining that Aegon III would politically align himself with whichever greens still remained? Like he'd marry Jaehaera without Jacaerys's permission to get more dragons on his side?

[philomaela]

india: pakistan broke the ceasefire!

pakistan: india broke the ceasefire!

aljazeera: someone broke the ceasefire!

and who's suffering? take a wild guess.

[philomaela]

Okay here are some facts I think everyone needs to know about Modi's relationship with the occupation of Kashmir.

-In June/July of 2019, just a few months after Modi took office for his 2nd term he sent ~10,000 soldiers into Kashmir.

-Shirtly after he suspends telecoms/internet and implements a stringent curfew. He also begins arresting political leaders and HRAs. He begins jailing journalist in the dark (no internet made that easy)

-That August he revokes article 370 and 35a which removed Kashmir's special status (which basically means they took awa their statehood and nullified their constitution) and allowed non-Kashmiris to begin purchasing land in the region.

-Under Modi, Kashmir has become the most militarized zone in the world. Not being hyperbolic here. There are some areas of Kashmir where soldiers outnumber civilians.

Basically Modi has spent the last decade turning Kashmir into an open air prison while laying the groundwork for demographic change. Indian tourism in the area has been on a MASSIVE incline. That's why you're seeing messaging from India calling Kashmir "The Switzerland of India" and why tourists were attacked.

If this all sounds familiar that's because Modi is pulling from Netanyahu's playbook. Down to framing his colonization as a security issue. There's a reason he looks up to him.

Modi is a RSS Hindu nationalist that has been heavily inspired by European fascist movements.

You should know all of these facts as you navigate a lot of disinformation that's gonna come at you.

[philomaela]

Xenophon: Don't you know how to steal, Cheirisophos? You're a Spartan, don't they fucking train you to do that? Cheirisophos: Should I ask you how to embezzle public funds, since you're an Athenian?

[philomaela]

No I take it back, I just found it and reread it and it is bad. I just have more context so I can see what where it was getting its mangled reasoning from instead of being flabbergasted and confused.

Sometimes I think about that whole "all great men of history were descended from virgin mothers" post and I feel bad, because it got a lot wrong but not as much as the vitriol (some of which was mine) would have you believe.

[philomaela]

Sometimes I think about that whole "all great men of history were descended from virgin mothers" post and I feel bad, because it got a lot wrong but not as much as the vitriol (some of which was mine) would have you believe.

[philomaela]

It's wild to me how much historical fiction likes to go like "look Aurangzeb was uniquely evil because he killed his brother and imprisoned his father" and ignores how all the brothers were warring at the time and that pretty much every generation had a Mughal prince rise up in rebellion against his father, the emperor, including Aurangzeb's own father in his youth. Aurangzeb was just the first one to actually be successful. Like come see the fucking violence inherent in the system please!

It's also fascinating that people hyperfocus on Aurangzeb's execution of Dara Shikoh, as like the great sin, when they were enemies from the beginning of the war and Aurangzeb also had his other two brothers executed after allying with them. Like Dara Shikoh was probably his least bad fratricide to be honest.

[philomaela]

I guess the question is whether Harald Fairhair is still going to be alive when we see this show? Because I think any world in which you don't show the murders of Ragnvald Rettilbeine and Bjorn Kaupman and dive into what drives Erik to not just commit fratricide but also what drives Harald Fairhair to approve of these murders... is a world in which fundamentally you've skipped over the most interesting aspects of the story.

Okay so Michael Hirst is doing a show about Erik BloodAxe... at first I thought Hirst had just been reading my tumblr, but now I see that that's definitely not the case. Hirst appears to be following Erik and Gunnhild as adults battling for Norway which is not where I would start the story at all. I would start the story (and I have said this before) with Harald Fairhair dividing his kingdom, but I suppose if you do that you can't pretend there's continuity with Vikings... also you'd have some issues with your protagonist aging and all, but still.

[philomaela]

Okay so Michael Hirst is doing a show about Erik BloodAxe... at first I thought Hirst had just been reading my tumblr, but now I see that that's definitely not the case. Hirst appears to be following Erik and Gunnhild as adults battling for Norway which is not where I would start the story at all. I would start the story (and I have said this before) with Harald Fairhair dividing his kingdom, but I suppose if you do that you can't pretend there's continuity with Vikings... also you'd have some issues with your protagonist aging and all, but still.

[philomaela]

Fundamentally social media is rife with body image issues so that makes sense. I don’t think there’s any food term/slang that can’t be co-opted in some way. Like “what I eat in a day” videos also carry this and so do dieticians “reacting” to food content. Individuals can do good but ultimately all of it can be used badly too.

The self-infantilization thing is interesting; I’ve always found it interesting that the term “girl” carries such weight, in all circumstances it seems. Not saying I disagree with the criticism; just mean I have nuanced feelings towards the term “girl”.

Okay weird question but those posts about like “sick of girl dinner a woman is a person with hunger” I thought that was the point of girl dinner? Like you’ll eat an entire bag of carrots because you’re starving and you want food but you don’t want to cook. Like, I thought girl dinner was a joke about laziness/and or kind of in line with the whole “feral” thing… is that not what it is?