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gwenllian-in-the-abbey · 6 months

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There's this weird thing going on Reddit right now where people are claiming that legally, Rhaenyra children are not bastards. And I was wondering if you agree or disagree. I think that people are just making up their own canon lore at this point.

Hi anon,

I think what gets kind of muddled in this discussion is what "legally" means in the context. Generally speaking, children born within wedlock are considered legitimate until proven otherwise. Now in the medieval world, it's not like you were issued a birth certificate that you could whip out and say see, it says right here who the father is! There were no DNA tests, it was all a matter of word, and by and large a woman's virtue was her word, and it was what kept her and her children protected within the framework of medieval marriage. But the reason why bastardy matters in this context is also important. It's not like Rhaenyra is trying to collect child support here, nor is she a common merchant's wife whose husband has decided just to roll with it. She's the heir to the throne and the parentage of her children is a matter of inheritance and dynastic succession, so it's not a situation where a legal loophole is particularly helpful as a gotcha. There is not at this point in history a comprehensive codified law that clearly defines what these terms mean and defines the rights and obligations of parents and children legitimate and illegitimate, mostly you have combinations of precedent, tradition, oath, and a healthy dose of might makes right.

(I saw another reply to this question in which the responded basically goes, "free yourself from the shackles of this construct! Marriage isn't real it's an oppressive institution and the idea of bastardy is made up, so let it go," and while it's true that marriage, legitimacy, etc. are all social constructs and not absolute states of being, they started off as having a functional purpose within a certain social framework. And this is a basic problem a lot of people have with George's world, it's not that we have to have the views of a 12th century French peasant, or that everything has to be historically accurate, but George chose the medieval world as a setting for a reason, and it's not just an aesthetic one. Characters in even a quasi-historical setting have to act within the constraints of that setting. We have to understand that people don't know what they don't know. The medieval world doesn't have any framework for the introduction of feminist ideals. Westeros hasn't even had a Christine de Pizan yet. You couldn't walk up to a medieval peasant woman and say "marriage is a tool of patriarchal oppression and bastardy is a social construct," they'd look at you like you had two heads. And so we have to acknowledge that you can't simply start dismantling existing social structures if the framework doesn't exist to replace them with something better that offers more protections for a broader group of people, and at this point it definitely doesn't. Making an exception for one very privileged woman does not mean progress for all women, instead it often means destabilization of the flawed system that does exist, and even more violence against those less powerful in order to enforce the exceptional status).

So from a medieval point of view, marriage was pretty much a non-negotiable for a woman. And women weren't simply getting married because they were pressured into it by their families or because their fathers were opportunistic assholes, they got married because unmarried women had no legal status or standing. In most places they could not sign contracts or own land. A woman could join the church or get married (or become a prostitute, but it's not like sex workers had freedoms or protections either). Divorce wasn't a thing, and annulment was hard to get and usually available only as a tool for men to set aside their wives. So, for all intents and purposes, once you were married, that was generally it, you were stuck for life (the upside is that widows did get a lot more freedom, so marrying an older guy and waiting it out was not a bad option sometimes, all things considered). But what marriage did provide was assurance that you and your children would be protected and provided for. Marriage was a practical agreement, involving dowries, inheritances, and alliances sealed in blood. And this is one of the reasons why bastards could not inherit. Inheritance for once's children was one of the few perks of a marriage for a woman (this is, incidentally, why Alicent is so pressed about her children being effectively disinherited. There is NO reason for her, as an eligible maiden of good standing, to marry a man who will not provide for her sons, king or not). And of course, a man's bastards are obvious and are disqualified from inheriting (setting aside legitimization because it is not nearly the easy out that people think it is). You can't really pass them off as legitimate because your wife clearly knows which children she gave birth to, whereas a man might be told he is the father of a child when that child's father is in fact someone else.

In a dynastic marriage, all of this becomes even more important. Marriages were made as alliances and to strengthen the ties between kingdoms or houses. A child seals the marriage agreement by binding two bloodlines and creating kinship bonds that will last beyond the current generation. Those kinship bonds can ensure peace between kingdoms at war, trade agreements, and military aid. Passing a bastard off as trueborn breaks that agreement; it violates the very principle by which the agreement was made. And in this context, it doesn't actually matter if the father claims the children as his, because in a dynastic marriage inheritance is not just a personal matter, it's a matter of the state. The truth matters to a great many people, more than just the immediate family. A lie doesn't become the truth simply because the liar isn't caught, and there's no statute of limitations or court ruling that will ever put the matter to rest for good. Passing off a bastard as trueborn destabilizes the succession and breaks the dynastic bonds that the marriage was meant to establish. When the bastard heir in question attempts to take the throne, it won't be a smooth transition.

So what does it mean that Laenor and Corlys agree to pass Rhaenyra's children off as trueborn? It means that their bastardy cannot be proven at the moment insofar as the legal father, Rhaenyra's husband, is playing along and covering for Rhaenyra, and Viserys is backing them up by giving this his "legal" stamp of approval. But again, our view that it's no one else's business but Laenor and Rhaenyra's and that Viserys "legalized" their status is very modern. Jaehaeyrs and Alysanne were not considered married in the eyes of the Westerosi until they'd had a bedding ceremony, that is, the consummation of their marriage was witnessed. Royal marriages and the children that come from them are a public matter because the succession affects everyone in the realm. Laenor, Corlys, and Viserys can protect those children in the short term, but Laenor and Corlys and Viserys won't live forever, and they could withdraw their support for those children and renounce them as bastards at any time. Harwin could admit to fathering them, Rhaenyra and Harwin could get caught in the act, or someone else close to them might confess. Sure right now the black faction are all one big happy family, but 20 years down the line when bastard Jace takes the throne over trueborn Aegon III? There are multiple people in the family who could confess to knowledge of the bastardy, including Aegon III himself. The bastardy is too obvious and there are too many legitimate heirs of both house Targaryen and house Velaryon getting pushed aside in favor of bastard born children for it to be an issue that simply disappears because Rhaenyra and Laenor say so.

So "legal bastardy" is a pretty meaningless concept when it comes to royal succession because it's not a matter that's going to be settled by some neutral third party in a court of law. What matters in the long run is not whether or not Laenor claimed the kids, what matters is whether or not the situation is questionable enough that people with the power to challenge it might challenge it. And we see even within the actual narrative of the Dance that this is indeed the case. There is already a situation brewing with the other branches of the Velaryon family who are rightfully pretty pissed to see their ancestral seat pass to someone with no blood ties to the family (and as an aside, people will say Vaemond was self-serving, and of course he was, but that doesn't make him wrong, and maybe Baela or Rhaena should have inherited instead, but neither they nor their father were pressing their claims because they were backing up the bastard claimants, so was Vaemond supposed to do that for them?). And yes the king and Rhaenyra can cry treason and they can kill Vaemond and cut out tongues, but using force to silence people for telling the objective truth is by definition tyranny, and that's exactly the sort of situation that would get the nobility nervous. Because if Rhaenyra has to silence people already and she's not even queen yet, what will Jace have to do when he takes the throne? That's the real problem, not the "legal" status of Jace and his brothers, but the practical ramifications of hiding the truth.

#asks #the strong boys #hotd discourse #bastardy #team green #anti team black

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texasthoughtsaboutnothing · 8 months

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EDIT: I have received several new pieces of information that I'm distributing throughout the doc that further reinforces my stance on this, and is valuable to know. Also, I have sections where I'm more clear on my stance after thinking on it for a while and following more discussions on this. I hope I don't disappoint anyone with my thoughts.

If any part of what I've written here resonated with you, I shamelessly ask that you spread it in your preferred manner, and if you feel there's parts that need work please let me know.

Still gonna regret writing this, I'm sure.

[Warning: Long. Like, really.]

Because of all the shit happening with Arknights, PM is under fire once again as it ties into the larger narrative surrounding Korea and its full on gender war (a real thing that's apparently happening).

For those who don't know, way back in July Limbus Company got the event for 4.5 that included swimsuit versions of Ishmael and Sinclair. The fact that Ishmael was in a full bodysuit while Sinclair was shirtless with a collar led the Korean equivalent of 4chan to accuse PM's lead illustrator of being a feminist, which I guess is a bad thing if you're drowning in Korean culture war bullshit.

Turns out the lead illustrator was a man so they pivoted to the CG artist Vellmori and invented a whole host of bullshit links between her and an extremist group to try and get her fired.

And in accordance with their wishes PM fired her. Except they didn't. Probably?

Most everything known from this point onwards is, bluntly, tainted. It's a lot of machine translated Korean posts or, one way or the other, hasty conclusions from people with agendas (including me, no one is immune to propaganda).

Did Vellmori reach out to a newspaper to whistleblow on PM's flagrant disregard for worker's rights? That was the story at first but follow-ups implied it might be a complete fabrication or an overstatement of her grievances (EDIT, I have received information that while there was a phonecall to Vellmori from PM, it was to set up a meeting to properly hash out next steps and any claims she was fired over the phone are incorrect, and the newspaper that reported as such quietly retracted that statement).

Did a labor union jump the gun on spreading this story to gain political capital without reaching out to PM for their side of the story? Maybe if PM's version of events is true, but that's assuming a lot of malice of an institution doing it's best (EDIT, I have received information that the people directly responsible for handling the PM issue acted independently and were later found in violation of several union laws, including allegations involving CP that I do not want to and will not get into).

PM's story is that once the harassment flared up and involved physical visits to the development office, Vellmori wanted to quit. (EDIT, I have received information that the wording of the various statements can be interpreted as Vellmori leaving of her own volition but also under encouragement; if you see claims that she was forced to resign this is what that claim references.) There was a rumor about her getting 2 years of severance pay, but I don't know if that was ever corroborated and is likely false, but she would have gotten something in accordance with Korean Law which they were found in compliance of.

Everything after announcing her termination of contract (not translating the initial announcement, framing it as a company policy issue, keeping quiet on it for months, constant vague threats of lawsuits) was supposedly a bad attempt at trying to quell the harassment by making it go away. Instead, it exploded, and now if you're a fan you'll have to deal with this coming up forever. I know there's fans who follow me that'll resent me for making this post as they just want to move on (or think I'm wrong or misrepresenting some details).

I resent making this for what its worth, and am trying my best to be accurate, but for me this is part of moving on, acknowledging the bad and the factors that mitigate it. And yes, I think there are several mitigating factors.

Why did Cassie Wei, lead singer of Project Mili who is both Korean and a woman, speak out in KJH's defense?

Why hasn't, to my knowledge, Vellmori said anything since and by and large just disappeared if she was so poorly mistreated?

Why have, again to my knowledge, none of the Voice Actors and Actresses spoken out against PM in solidarity?

Why do PM continue to have partnerships with progressive companies like Arc System Works?

Why did the labor union retract their statements against PM and apologize following an actual investigation?

EDIT: New info. Why did the labor union censure the people responsible for handling the PM issue, who later quit the group seemingly in disgrace?

Why did PM not bring their own lawyers to the meeting with Vellmori while she was allegedly encouraged to bring hers?

None of these questions completely absolve PM of wrongdoing, if you were set on condemning them it's not hard to interpret each in a very uncharitable way. For example, most of this is easily answered by the fact we live under Capitalism and we inevitably all have to swallow our morals and ideals to make rent. I could retort that maybe PM did the same by capitulating in any degree to harassment (which they have done historically as what happened with Ruina's ending) and not specifically endorsing any ideology or political belief (which is wild considering the actual content of their stories). But I think that ends with a circular argument that boils down to whether you believe in PM or not.

To be clear, even if you want to interpret all the Vellmori stuff as charitably as possible, PM undeniably fucked up and has labor issues in its history. The artist for the manga Leviathan, Monggeu, came out during the whole thing to speak on her treatment as a contractor; how she was given an impossible workload and the company denied her requests for delays, delays caused in part by suicidal depression caused by the workload. Though KJH personally apologized to her, she was let go over the phone and spoke out only after she felt the company now had a pattern of abusive work policies. The author of Wonderlab also deleted her stuff in solidarity.

That's all bad. Really bad. I stopped playing Limbus because I felt extreme disappointment with the company and managerial tendencies of KJH. Credit to a reddit user I won't name for pointing this out, but this information is far more concrete than anything involving Vellmori as Monggeu broke her silence independently months after things happened on her personal Twitter. However, there isn't nearly as much focus on this or calls for Justice for Monggeu.

This opinion is mine and mine alone, but her situation, which I must stress was awful and shameful on PM's and KJH's part, doesn't tie into a culture war like "Vellmori being fired for feminist tweets" does. It is a clear cut example of bad labor and managerial practices that lead to harm towards an employee, but its an everyday tragedy, not a martyrdom. And so I wonder how much the treatment of labor is actually part of this discussion, the more actionable issue than changing all of Korean society. I wonder if PM's supposed kowtowing to incels is highlighted above all other context because it casts PM as an enemy in a culture war.

I say the above because I've seen online culture war stuff happen before, and it scares me beyond just whether a company I like gets redeemed in the eyes of others. I have seen lives destroyed in the name of a just cause for nothing, including good progressive causes like feminism. If the only thing that would satisfy or lead to forgiveness is a revolutionary purge, do you actually want to build anything?

I digress, and I hope I didn't turn you off too much with my thoughts and fears there. It's important though, because there was ultimately an apology from PM.

In it, among other things, they laid out their flawed logic on how they wanted to handle the situation, addressed their treatment of both current employees and past contractors, and promised to improve and protect employees better. Since then, things seem to have changed at least from an outsiders' perspective. The game moved away from a strict list of deadlines and towards a more open-ended dev pipeline. The game is less buggy than it used to be after updates. They changed policies on content to make it easier to produce by limiting VA without any blowback from their VA's so we can assume proper talks were had. Translations don't have as many errors as they used to while the quality has been maintained even after losing a major translator (which is its own tale of baffling choices by the company in its own right). And they've kept all this up for Season 3 so far without any announcements of delays and, in fact, far more content than usual. All of this, to me, points to better management.

Maybe I'm naive to think so but I want to believe that the evidence points to the crimes of PM not coming from a place of malice and antifeminism but incompetence. I need to stress KJH didn't kill or rape anybody, nor was he verbally or physically abusive. He was a really shitty boss, and I understand how much it sucks to have a shitty boss, believe me. But a shitty boss can become not shitty, and my hope is that happened already, and that a company that produces good art that's worthwhile will thrive as a result.

I say all this because I actually care about this company and art it produces. If I didn't, last July wouldn't have hurt so much. If I'm cringe for it, so be it, but I believe constructive change should be recognized and rewarded, and it's for those reasons I came back after following the game for the rest of its second season.

To be clear, you don't owe a company your time or your money even if they improve their culture and policies, and if you felt that what PM or KJH has done is unforgivable you are well within your rights not to engage with it ever again or even tell others about your grievances, as much as I might disagree. But if you want them to suffer, to lose business, maybe even to go under despite how many other women work for and with them... I don't know. Please don't just think of these people as enemy units in the war against feminism? Ask yourself that if Vellmori broke her silence tomorrow and asserted she left of her own volition and condemned groups like the PMUA, would you believe her or immediately assume she's under duress?

This is not a cut and dry, black and white moral issue where a great evil needs vanquishing, it's a messy as hell moral and labor issue involving multiple people wrapped up in larger cultural and social issues no one initially involved intended. There are real people involved who stand to get hurt, not to mention who's been hurt already. Justice can involve other things than a firing squad. Please at least acknowledge that much. inb4 "No and kindly die"

EDIT, regarding the lawsuits. If you didn't know, PM is currently suing the labor union and a separate organization once called the PMUA (Project Moon Users Association) now called the KGA (Korean Gamer Association). I have seen unconfirmed reports that the former has ties to the disgraced Korean Ratings Board exposed by Blue Archive Fans for crypto bullshit. In addition, I have seen criticisms of how the PMUA used donations and their effectiveness in actual addressing PM and its labor issues, including demonstrations on days workers and management weren't even present and being the ones responsible for leaking documents that Vellmori allegedly wanted to be kept private. All of that supports PM's allegations that these organizations were in fact targeting them as part of political ploys and they never cared about any of the victims or ideals they touted as representing. For all the above, PM is suing for defamation, which is well within their rights by my reckoning. Regardless of my thoughts, this is where we are now.

Last and by no means least, feminism is good. Wanna be clear on that, I believe in equal pay, reproductive rights, that grip strength is a stupid metric to measure human rights by, that men are not owed sex and love by women regardless of circumstance, the whole shebang.

Also, what's happening in South Korea is scary and serious and bigger than just a terminally online culture war shitfest, more like an active bomb about to explode. I support the women who live there and their fight for equality, I just don't think PM fundamentally has anything to do with it and constantly trying to drag it into the line of fire feels like faux activism. I think the scope of the gender war is very far beyond the limits of gacha game discussion, or for that matter the actions of a single company of, like, 50 people.

(I swear to god if Vellmori makes a post tomorrow accusing KJH of SA or something after I wrote all this I will throw myself into the ocean.)

This will actually be the last time I talk about this unless something changes, I want to believe I was respectful the whole time and don't mean to belittle anyone for their beliefs or choices (unless you're an incel, please be better, also take a shower).

#project moon #limbus company #mysogyny #obviously this is a lot #sorry #was a draft i was gonna delete but this arknights thing popped off and I saw 2 posts linking Limbus even though it's tangential #guess I just want a better counternarrative to “PM is the evil antifeminist bad labor company” than “nuh uh”#because bad shit happened #i just also believe its gotten better and that many of the accusations are vindictive more than disappointed #anti-PM sentiment feels fueled by non fans getting news from other non fans sometimes

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tbhimnoteasyonmyself · 7 months

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Who is White?

If it is not I, your friendly neighbourhood non-binary deranged literature major, once again to tell you about stuff that the voices™︎ have prompted me.

This time, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the odd one out: Mr. White, a.k.a the fandom's babyboy.

(me as Fluke in this GIF, walking in ready to dissect this bitch)

So, what do we factually know about this man?

From what we're directly told in the show:

He's Tee's boyfriend, at least, since 12th grade, meaning they have been together for about 3 years, maybe 4 (depending on when exactly we are in terms of time in the present and when exactly during 12th grade they started dating).

He's younger than the rest of them, according to Por and Top in episode 1.

He studied at a different school from the main gang AND from Phee (yes, despite the embroidery having a similar colour, the writings where the institution's name should be are nothing alike, thus, not from the same place)

He cares a lot about his appearance (he does skincare when Por is literally dying downstairs and he sees a rash on his body while under the effect of New's absynthe - idk if it's absynthe or not but my friends and I have been calling it that since we saw them drink the green drinks so it's absynthe for me and there's that).

He's generally a very respectful person (he always speaks formally and nicely to everyone, even when people are hostile to him, like Tee or Fluke).

His fear doesn't seem to paralyze him in high-pressure situations (he strikes people with a tripod twice to save himself and others when he thinks they're in danger).

Another source could be the Yearbook, which, now, we have to be a bit more skeptical about because, as seen in New's case, it's not 100% accurate. One can argue that it is accurate because the yearbook would have Tan's info, since that's who he's living as and no one knows any better than that, including the institutions and, sure, yeah, fair. But while we don't know that White is hiding anything from us as well, we can't be sure of it. So, take the following with a grain of salt:

(translated with Google Translate)

His legal name is Watcharin Siriphan

He was born on the 25th of February 2005 (which confirms what Por and Top say)

His blood type is A (which according to the Blood Type Personality Theory means he is shy, stubborn, a perfectionist, polite and hard-working, apparently. tbh this thing is super shifty, no source seems to agree on the meaning of each type and, of course, it's a pseudoscience and all, so... yeah. take it as you will)

He's studying Software Engineering

He likes cakes

He dislikes cockroaches

He plays games and programs in his free time

So... We don't know much. He's the most generic person ever. Like... I too, and half the world's population, like cake, dislike cockroaches and like to play games. It's not exactly very special. Which is exactly why he is so intriguing. After all, we had 5 whole episodes so far, which were just the backstory of the people we see together in the mansion in the present. We've seen their personalities, their qualities and flaws, what they did and what they didn't do. We've been given a reason as to why they're here. Not just in the more direct sense of "they agreed to come here for Jin's goodbye party" but of why exactly they needed to be put all together in these conditions for this story. All except White. White is just... Barely an afterthought. We're shown when he comes into this story for the group (when he becomes Tee's boyfriend), but we're not given a reason so far as to why the narrative wants him there.

Because, sure, IRL people sometimes end up in random places and things can be pretty meaningless but this is a work of fiction. One that, evidently, has been greatly focused on details (Non's framed apple picture and Phee eating an apple alone, for example, or the correlation between the group and the colour blue). So why would it just throw us a character that is, seemingly, irrelevant to the story?

And to this, there are 2 possibilities my friends: either White is a narrative tool to get to the audience or White is not who we think he is. So let's explore it, shall we?

White = Narrative Tool

Let's start by assuming, possibly the most likely outcome, that White is exactly just a guy who ended up there due to his connection to Tee. Why would this narrative need that character?

Glad you asked. Because he's the only person who's 100% innocent. If he's just some guy who, as we've seen, keeps being respectful and nice and trying to always do the right thing, then he's got nothing to do with the others who, in different degrees are all guilty of something. He's the odd one out.

Because, yes, this is not a show of villains (at least, not in which concerns the main characters). They're all morally grey. But they have some drop of black that makes them grey.

Por is arrogant and a liar and selfish.

Tee is aggressive and manipulative and a control freak.

Top is an overall asshole and a coward.

These 3 actively bully Non. Por steals his work. Tee and Top blame him for shit he didn't do which puts in the situation where he owns Por and they spy on him. Tee manipulates him into mafia money laundry and threatens him.

Fluke is selfish and refuses to take action even when he knows it's the right thing to do.

Jin's doesn't have the capability to realize that the peaceful passive way with which he normally carries himself with won't solve the issue. Plus he's overly emotional. And a bit selfish too.

They didn't help Non when it was their moral obligation to do so. And Jin records him being abused by their teacher and possibly posts it online (though that's still up for debate).

Phee is too stubborn and also overly emotional and even overly empathic.

New is obsessive and vengeful.

Phee never really helps Non because all the ways he offers Non help are the wrong ones. He almost tries to control him. And he fails. And then he tells him awful things and breaks up with him in a terribly vulnerable moment for Non. And even when he regrets it and tries to bring justice to him, he fucks Jin because he wanted to and tries to cover it up as if it was part of the plan. Sure, they were broken up, technically, but Phee himself seems to have had "take-backies" over that breaking up. So, in his mind, at least, it's fair to say he cheats on him, which is very hypocritical after how he reacts to Non being abused. And New... He tries to help sincerely because he feels guilty but he only makes things worse. Nothing is solved and their father curses them both before committing public suicide at their mom's funeral.

Non (which may be even more relevant if he's still alive) is overly independent and uncommunicative.

He doesn't tell Jin he has a boyfriend when it's clear Jin's trying to make a move on him, event though Non's not interested. He hides very important things from Phee. He commits fraud (understandably, but yeah). And yeah, he's justified in his rage and attack but... Does he ever think of how his actions affect other such as Jin, for example, who, in his eyes, is innocent? Not really.

"Oh but White won't die!", I hear you say. "The innocent people never die in slashers!! Only the people who did the killer wrong do!" And that's exactly where I have to disagree.

So, amidst a sea of grey characters, White is, funnily enough: white. He's just good. He's done nothing wrong. And the narrative needs him because, when the others die, we'll feel (to different degrees, sure, but still, we will) that there's a reason. Even if we like the characters, those deaths will make sense. But what happens when an innocent man dies? What happens when you kill the man who wasn't even supposed to be there (he joined the trip at the last minute)?

As @syrena-del-mar says in this post: "DFF is more than just a 90s slasher film imitation". It "sits at a novel intersection of genre: horror slasher on the one hand and BL on the other hand" as @brifrischu puts it here and, for that, it bends expectations and rules and subverts what are natural tropes and events of the slasher archetype. White dying is the sort of thing this narrative, and our inventive genius Sammon, would do. Because... Do you really think they're giving us grey characters instead of black ones because we're supposed not to question this revenge? Because we're supposed to be happy about this? No. Of course not. That would be dumb. If we're meant to 100% side with the killer, then why give us likeable characters as the targets? Because, and this is as much speculation as it is reading the room, we're not.

This story, I don't know how it will end, but regardless I'm pretty confident it's supposed to tell us something important about cycles of violence: that they're neverending until someone chooses peace instead. That aggression and bloodshed and revenge... They won't bring time back, they won't undo the mistakes we make, they won't restore that which is lost, they won't make the grief go away... That they won't make us feel better. More even: that they will only hurt more people, create more injustice and prompt more revenge. And, thus, perpetuate the cycle.

So what's White's role? Being the final drop into our collective cup of realization (and perhaps the characters' as well) that this revenge mission is pointless and won't solve anything. White's role is to die.

"Oh, but uncle Dang was also innocent! Is his death not enough??", I hear you ask. And well... Maybe, maybe not. I think, honestly, his death is too impersonal for us to feel too deeply about it. Like, sure, yes, it is the death of an innocent, but it's a distant innocent. It doesn't make our blood boil because we don't know shit about that man. But, for all we don't know of White's past, we've seen him cry, we've seen him scared, we've seen him fight for his life, we've seen him be a good boyfriend and a good friend. He might just be some dude but we like him. He's the fandom's babyboy, as I said. It is more impactful and it tells the story better.

But this is just a hypothesis. And it might not convince you. And that's fair. So, because I'm a persistent obnoxious fucker with a little too much free time, I'm bringing you a second theory. For this one, though... You might need a little tinfoil hat... Be prepared.

White ≠ Who He Says He Is

So, if you think just having a character be hollow and pure good in a show of very fleshed-out and grey characters is weird, even if he might be narratively relevant, then we can only assume there's something important to White's character we don't know about yet. (I'm adding this in retrospective because I forgot but this idea came to me partially from @yellingaboutkp and their great analysis of horns in the show that you can find here)

But what could that be? We've seemingly seen all the flashbacks we needed from everyone, White doesn't seem very relevant to anyone's storyline but Tee's but... We'd assume if there was something directly connected to Tee's actions and White that we needed to see, we would've. Admittedly, the next episode seems to be on its way to tell us what Tee knows about what happened to Non and Keng while they were captured by the mafia and he could be there but I think, honestly, that it goes deeper than that. And here's why: because there's a person who's even more of an odd one out then White: whoever Perth's character is.

Now, he would've been completely unsuspicious if it wasn't for one thing: Perth's presence in the promotion of this series. He's just... Always there, somehow? Like, his character has only really appeared last episode massaging Tee's uncle but he's constantly talking about this series. Plus, his name is very well credited. AND, the absolute cherry on top, his character appears in THIS poster:

Now, yeah, I understand Marketing and Publicity (it's part of my Master's, you don't have to explain it to me). So, I know this could very well just be a strategy to sell the series. After all, Perth did get a lot of attention after The Hidden Character, I know, I know. It's also a way to put his name out there for other future roles, kinda like a soft launch. Plus, this is the show that killed Us's character first when he was one of the most popular actors in the cast. HOWEVER, I'd argue that, considering the previously mentioned attention to detail, they would not have given one of their rising stars a role in this series if it wasn't important. Like... No other background character without lines (so far) was given an important actor to play it. So pardon me, but I don't buy it. Perth's character's gotta matter somehow. And, back to what I was saying, I think the next episode will be exactly where.

See, I made a poll here on the hellsite asking what y'all think happened to Non. It's this one. And it shows that, overwhelmingly, we all think Non is alive BECAUSE he was helped by the man himself:

"Okay, Dante, but, even if that's true, where does White fit in all this?" Glad. You. Asked.

Now, if we're assuming Perth's character's the one that's gonna help Non (and possibly Keng or maybe not, idk and it really doesn't matter for now), we've gotta assume he's a possible suspect for the murderer. And even more so under this optic that Non is alive. Who more than a person whose whole reality seemed to be the mafia and who might've escaped it would be okay with murdering people? Right? Or, on the contrary, that he took a liking to Non and is trying to prevent him from further digging himself a hole in life and is trying to save him from himself.

You see, I didn't watch The Hidden Character (and those who did apparently recommend it stays that way). I didn't know any of these people before except those who were in Kinnporsche. And you know what that led me to? Curiously enough, dear reader: confusing Fuaiz with Perth. So, yeah, you know where this is going... White and Perth's character might be related. Brothers, probably.

"All because you think they look alike?" Well, if you ignore the way I just explained how it would tie some very loose ends... Yeah, kinda. BUT, in my defence, it makes a lot of genetic sense.

See, no other characters in the show really look this much alike. Believe me, I tested it.

For this purpose, I tried many different sites but the one that seemed to give me the most reliable results was FaceShape. Most characters got no more than 10%, some even got 0% (e.g. New and Perth's Character). And you wanna know how much White and Perth's character got? Nearly 50%.

For comparison reasons, New and Non who are CANONICALLY brothers, got about 30%.

BUT, if this is not convincing enough, my sister and I (who share EXACTLY the same 2 parents) got lower than them.

(pls ignore the picture, I was trynna make it as accurate as possible so I took a front pic with a neutral expression. also, my sister is censored for privacy reasons)

Now... Will I claim this is irrefutable proof? No. Not at all, but think about it: if White and Perth are related that might maybe explain how Tee and White met. It might also explain that really weird scene in the pre-release trailer (albeit all scenes in that are rather odd) where White-

Yes, thank you, Obi-Wan. And Anakin Tee is looking up at him, as if White has more power than Tee does. Because then, it could probably mean that White knows something and is probably there to do something. What exactly? Idk, man. He could be there to ensure the group remains clueless/confused or that they remain where they need to be for things to work... Or he could be there to try and prevent stuff from happening much to the likeness of what I stated for Perth's character's case.

"Oh, but if he knows something, wouldn't he know what happened to Non? Why would he be curious to watch the recording??"

Well, not necessarily. We know Non is not communicative and that he doesn't typically share his problems with anyone (the exception being Keng, obviously, but then again, the exception confirms the rule). And sure, Keng might be more talkative but idk if he would say something if Non asked him not to. I have a feeling he probably wouldn't (since he has that weird thing JJ mentioned about how he "loves Non" and, therefore, even if he's an abuser, he doesn't perceive himself that way and wouldn't do something he actively thinks would hurt Non). So, while Perth's character would know what happened to Non while he was being held by Tee's uncle and even some things about why he is there, he probably wouldn't know the rest.

But then why would he date Tee? Well, this is a narrative so... Foils are something that can happen. Having White and his relationship with Tee be a parallel to that of Phee and Jin is not weird and, in fact, has happened in the very first episode when both couples arrive at the room where the singles are, in pairs. Therefore, it wouldn't be weird to think of White as someone who maybe also fell in love with the guy that was supposed to be a means to an end or, alternatively, and perhaps more interestingly, have White NOT be in love with him and actually succeed, unlike Phee. Thus, drawing the comparison that, while Tee and White are in a relationship, White didn't fall in love and, inversely, while Phee and Jin aren't in a relationship, Phee did fall in love.

And this would mean that all we've seen of White's fear might, in fact, be an act to throw suspicion off of him. Or even more justified because he knows exactly what's lurking in the woods... After all, why would he suddenly join Jin's goodbye party if he's not a friend of Jin's? What reason better than to tag along your boyfriend's getaway with his friends if not to protect him from the terrible consequences of his actions?

But I get it. It's an extremely convoluted theory and, in all honesty, maybe makes the show more dull and boring if it's true because... Why would they repeat this "secret brother" twist? Or the dating with second intentions trope? It could be a narrative parallel, yes, but I can also definitely see how people could point that out as uncreative or lazy writing.

Either way: these thoughts were circling around my head and, before the next episode confirms or destroys them, I wanted to get them out into the world for y'all to, maybe, hopefully, join in on the hype for it, as it's less than 24h 'till it airs. Hope in that I was successful, at the very least.

Anyway... As usual feel free to (politely) argue with me, tell me I'm wrong, tell me I missed this and that, add to it, etc... Because if there's one thing I currently love more than DFF itself, it's definitely the fandom and I want us to make the most of it!!

I'll see y'all tomorrow when we're freaking out about episode 10!!!

All the love! 💜💜💜

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determinate-negation · 8 months

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i hope this isn't weird to ask, but i have no idea how to research this otherwise - is there some sort of intra-community beef about jvp (jewish voices for peace)? i was talking to someone from nyc, who was saying that the palestine protests near them are antisemitic and they can't support it, because the protests lean on jvp too much and don't have any other jewish groups involved?

i don't really know what to say about this - my area has different jewish groups that i'm familiar with and have worked with (from a non-jewish general volunteering perspective), so i have no idea what the reputation of jvp is. all i've seen is them getting mass arrested at protests every week or so, which seems quite brave of them. on a brief google, the only stuff i could find was the adl and israeli sources saying they were bad for being anti-zionist, which is not anything conclusive.

whoever youre talking to is not being accurate and it doesnt sound like theyve actually been to any protests here. other jewish groups are rarely involved because they dont support palestine. thats the reason. if theyre trying to imply to you that jvp is being tokenized, theyre probably not being honest with themselves about the shit that mainstream jewish institutions are saying and realize theres a very obvious reason jvp is there and not other jewish groups, whatever that means. jvp is definitely also the biggest left wing jewish organization in nyc and has a presence. also, groups like if not now, which in my opinion is like more of a deprogramming social space for ex liberal zionists than a political organization, still have been organizing with jvp. so tbh i dont think their claim has any real basis. theres really nothing antisemitic about the protests in nyc. some protests have also been organized without jvp because i think some people from within our lifetime have an issue with jvp leadership for their proximity to liberal zionists, so whoever youre talking to sounds completely out of the loop and like they are making assumptions tbh. this is an actual criticism i have of jvp, but tokenizing themselves is not one of them

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justalittlesolarpunk · 2 months

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Hey, so, if you didn’t know, there are legit racist pogroms happening in the UK, primarily targeting Muslim and South Asian communities especially refugees and immigrants. So for those of you who, like me, have the misfortune to live on rainy fascist island, and might want to help, here’s my list of advice. If any of this is unhelpful, POC please feel free to correct me as I want to be as accurate and useful as possible.

Disclaimer: this is written from my perspective as a white person with full citizenship. Asylum seekers and communities of colour don’t need my advice, and know best what they need and how to practice their own care and mutual aid. This is for people not directly targeted by the riots who want to show solidarity. So,

1) listen to those most impacted and be led by their needs and wants.

2) if there’s disorder going on in your local area, mobilise with other anti-fascists to outnumber and counterprotest the rioters so they can’t attack individuals or institutions trying to help migrants or local minority communities

3) similarly, volunteer on local cleanup and donations if places like Mosques, libraries, advice bureaus or refugee housing is targeted where you live

4) join a local mutual aid network to build cohesion and solidarity in your community and be able to respond rapidly to evolving emergency situations

5) donate money to charities or organisations that work to protect and care for immigrants, refugees, religious minorities and people of colour in the UK

6) learn street first aid, including how to help someone after an acid attack

7) write to your MP, mayor and councillors and ask them to stand up vocally against racism and to take action to stamp out fascism in your community. Arrange a meeting to discuss your concerns if possible

8) donate blood in anticipation of further violence

9) don’t be a bystander if you see individual hate incidents, there have been repeated cases of lone POC being cornered by racist mobs. Be ready to step in or seek help but don’t make stupid decisions that will just put the person (or you!) in further danger

10) make an effort to educate yourself more on other cultures and spend time with neighbours who come from a different background than you

11) learn about systemic racism and the legacy of fascism and colonialism that has made the UK the kind of place where this happens

12) this is also about your own safety, but put together a go bag and have an evacuation plan for you and your family/friends/neighbours in case of local violence

13) organise a solidarity rally in your town

14) argue with your racist relatives, have difficult conversations, hold them to account and make it crystal clear that these attitudes and behaviours are absolutely unacceptable

15) send complaints in to media outlets when they refer inaccurately to ‘protests’, ‘anti-immigration rallies’, ‘pro-British groups’ and ‘legitimate concerns’, when discussing fascist pogroms, or when they imply communities of colour organising in self-defence is equally dangerous and violent

16) check in with your friends who are more likely to be targeted and offer to help in any way that’s useful, but understand they might just want time and space to process and for you to leave them alone

17) donate money to the effort to rebuild Spellow library

18) carry a spare scarf or jumper to offer to any hijabis who might have their hijab torn off

That’s everything I can think of. Let me know if you can think of anything else or if any of these suggestions aren’t useful. Stay safe out there folks, solidarity with POC and as ever, fuck the fash.

#solarpunk #hopepunk #social justice #community #mutual aid #anti fascist #UK

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mariacallous · 3 days

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Last weekend, former President Donald Trump posted another anti-immigrant screed to Truth Social. It would have been unremarkable ― at least, graded on the Trumpian curve of extreme xenophobia ― except for one word.

“[We will] return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration),” he wrote. “I will save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America.”

Many people might have glossed over his use of “remigration.” White nationalists did not.

“#Remigration has had a massive conceptual career,” Martin Sellner — leader of the Austrian chapter of Generation Identity, a pan-European white supremacist network — tweeted in his native German. “Born in France, popularized in German-speaking countries and now the term of the hour from Sweden to the USA!”

It was a succinct and accurate history from Sellner, a 35-year-old who typically trafficks in vicious lies and conspiracy theories, particularly about Black and brown people. He has been at the vanguard of pushing “remigration” — a euphemism for ethnically cleansing non-white people from Western countries — into the popular political lexicon in Europe.

Now Sellner was seeing his favorite little word all grown up, moving overseas in service of the 45th president of the United States, who has promised to implement the largest mass deportation of immigrants in U.S. history if elected back to the White House in six weeks’ time.

Trump’s use of “remigration” is the latest instance of the GOP’s intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric in the run-up to November’s election, underscoring the degree to which one of America’s two major political parties is sourcing many of its talking points and policy ideas directly from neo-fascists.

“Trump’s rhetoric about ‘remigration’ has its origins in the international far-right,” Jakob Guhl, a senior manager of policy and research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explained to HuffPost in an email. “The term remigration was popularized by groups adhering to Identitarianism, a pan-European ethno-nationalist movement, as their policy to reverse the so-called ‘great replacement.’”

“The great replacement theory is a conspiracy theory which claims that ‘native’ Europeans are being deliberately replaced through non-European migration while suppressing European birth-rates,” he continued. “This theory has inspired numerous terrorist attacks, including the Christchurch massacre, where 51 people were killed, as well as attacks in Poway, El Paso, Halle, Buffalo, and Bratislava.”

Pat Buchanan, the onetime presidential hopeful and former aide to President Richard Nixon, used the term “remigration” to whitewash his own call for ethnic cleansing as early as 2006, in his racist tract “State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.” But the term’s journey into the Trump campaign’s vernacular more likely got its start in November 2014, when 500 far-right activists gathered in Paris.

The inaugural Assises de la Remigration, or Annual Meeting on Remigration, was organized by Generation Identity. Its featured speaker was Renaud Camus, the travel writer-turned-philosopher who coined the term “great replacement” in his 2012 book by the same name. Camus’ book built off the work of another French author, Jean Raspail, who wrote “The Camp of the Saints,” an extraordinarily racist French novel that depicts a flotilla of feces-eating brown people invading Europe.

“The Great Replacement is the most serious crisis that France has witnessed in 15 centuries,” Camus told the crowd, eliding many bloody episodes in the country’s history, including a pair of world wars that killed nearly 2 million French people. For Camus, “remigration” was the best solution to the imagined crisis of the “great replacement,” the two terms essentially joined at the hip.

Camus and his fellow subscribers to identitarianism “have always been quite clear that the objective of ‘remigration’ is to create greater ‘ethnocultural’ homogeneity,” Ruhl told HuffPost. “For them, culture and ethnicity are inseparable, and they view (white) European identity as being fundamentally threatened by the presence of migrants ― necessitating drastic, far-reaching responses.”

According to a study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the term “remigration” was “used over 540,000 times between April 2012 and April 2019” on Twitter, particularly from accounts in France and Germany. Usage of the term skyrocketed after the Annual Meeting on Remigration in Paris. Camus himself was one of the main promoters of the word online.

As “remigration” became an increasingly discussed term, militant far-right groups adapted it as their own. In 2017, police in France arrested 10 far-right activists over a suspected plot to kill politicians and migrants and to attack mosques. Officers found a shotgun and two revolvers in the home of the group’s ringleader, who’d sought to create a militia, according to a post on Facebook, to kill “arabs, blacks dealers, migrants, [and] jihadist scum.” Per French investigators, the group, known as OAS, was formed to “spark remigration.”

The term made an appearance in Canada, too, where a far-right fight club called Falange — named for the fascist group that served under the Spanish general Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War — put signs with the word “Remigration” across Quebec City.

And that same year in the U.S., the group Identity Evropa — modeled after Generation Identity in Europe — burst into the public consciousness for its participation in the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Identity Evropa’s proposed policies included “remigration,” and when its members marched in Charlottesville, they invoked the “great replacement” concept, chanting “You will not replace us.”

Back in Europe, in March 2019, Sellner started a channel on the chat app Telegram called the “European Compact for Remigration,” the beginning of a campaign, he announced, to influence far-right parties across Europe to support “de-Islamisation” and “remigration.”

That same month, a white supremacist in Christchurch, New Zealand, livestreamed himself walking into two mosques and opening fire, killing 51 Muslim worshipers. He’d posted a genocidal screed online before the shooting. Its title was “The Great Replacement.” Nevertheless, one week after the shooting, Sellner’s Generation Identity group in Austria staged a protest against the “great replacement,” again calling for “de-Islamisation” and “remigration.”

A couple of months later, it emerged that the shooter in New Zealand had communicated with Sellner only a year prior, donating over $2,300 to Sellner’s white supremacist group. “Thank you that really gives me energy and motivation,” Sellner wrote to the shooter in an email.

“If you ever come to Vienna,” Sellner added, “we need to go for a café or a beer.”

Despite these revelations, Sellner’s efforts to get far-right political parties to support remigration started to see results in the following years. In 2019, Alternative for Deutschland — which recently became the first far-right party since the Nazis to win a state election in Germany — inserted “remigration” into its list of official policy proposals.

Four years later, an investigation from Correctiv found that AfD members held a secret meeting with neo-Nazis and wealthy businesspeople to discuss the “remigration” of asylum seekers, immigrants with legal status, and “unassimilated citizens” to a “model state” in North Africa. The plan — which bore an unnerving resemblance to the Nazis’ initial idea to mass-deport Jews to Madagascar, before they settled on a wholesale extermination campaign — was Sellner’s brainchild.

That same year, as noted recently by Mother Jones, a jury of linguists in Germany selected “remigration” as the “non-word” of the year. “The seemingly harmless term remigration is used by the ethnic nationalists of the AfD and the Identitarian Movement to conceal their true intentions: the deportation of all people with supposedly the wrong skin color or origin, even if they are German citizens,” one guest juror wrote.

Mother Jones also noted that earlier this year, “an AfD candidate in Stuttgart campaigned with the slogan ‘Rapid remigration creates living space,’ a nod to the concept of Lebensraum used by the Nazis to justify the genocidal expansion into Eastern Europe.”

And finally, this year in Austria, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), founded after World War II by former Nazis, and which recently enjoyed success in national elections, called for the creation of a “remigration commissioner” in the country.

Still, very few, if any, U.S. politicians have uttered the word “remigration” in recent years. Trump’s use of the term stateside has coincided with his renewed embrace of dehumanizing language when talking about immigrants.

The former president’s promotion of a false story about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Ohio was classic fascist fare, depicting an entire category of people as savages. And earlier this year, the GOP nominee said immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the nation. Historians quickly noted that Trump’s language echoed the words of Adolf Hitler. “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” Hitler wrote in “Mein Kampf.”

But who in Trump’s orbit might have introduced him to the term “remigration”? The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. One possible culprit, though, might be Stephen Miller, who served in the Trump White House as an adviser and speechwriter. Miller’s ties to white supremacists are legion, and while working as an editor at Breitbart in 2015, according to leaked emails obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, he suggested the website publish articles about “The Camp of the Saints,”the racist French novel that inspired Renaud Camus.

Miller, like Sellner, was thrilled with Trump’s use of “remigration” last weekend.

“THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION!” he tweeted.

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accurategraoup · 6 months

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#greaternoida #bAch #best college #delhi ncr #Accurate Group of Institutions

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engineering-colleges-aimt · 2 years

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We are thrilled to announce that Laxmi Bhardwaj Student of B Tech Batch 2019 - 23 has been selected by Syscom Softtech

#Accurate group of institutions Recent Placement #Accurate group of institutions #Syscom Softtech Recent Placement #Accurate recent placement

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lordzannis · 14 days

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Here are 30 ways you can support Palestinians:

Educate yourself about the history and current situation in Palestine by reading books, articles, and reports from reputable sources.

Share accurate information about Palestine on social media to raise awareness.

Attend or organize local protests, rallies, and demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians.

Contact your elected representatives to advocate for Palestinian rights and an end to the occupation.

Donate to reputable humanitarian organizations providing aid to Palestinians, such as Medical Aid for Palestinians or UNRWA.

Support Palestinian businesses and artisans by purchasing their products.

Boycott companies that profit from or support the Israeli occupation.

Join or support local Palestine solidarity groups in your community.

Write letters to the editor or op-eds for local newspapers about Palestinian issues.

Host educational events or film screenings about Palestine in your community.

Volunteer with organizations that support Palestinian rights and humanitarian efforts.

Learn and teach others about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Support Palestinian cultural events and art exhibitions in your area.

Engage in respectful dialogue with others to challenge misconceptions about Palestine.

Sign petitions supporting Palestinian rights and opposing Israeli policies.

Participate in letter-writing campaigns to political leaders and institutions.

Support legal efforts to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations.

Donate to organizations providing mental health support to Palestinians affected by trauma.

Amplify Palestinian voices by sharing their stories and perspectives.

Support Palestinian journalists and media outlets reporting on the ground.

Advocate for academic freedom and support Palestinian scholars and students.

Join delegations or fact-finding missions to Palestine to witness the situation firsthand.

Support organizations working to protect Palestinian children's rights.

Advocate for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Support efforts to document and preserve Palestinian heritage and culture.

Participate in interfaith initiatives promoting peace and justice in Palestine.

Support organizations providing legal aid to Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Advocate for an end to arms sales to Israel from your country.

Support organizations working to protect Palestinian farmers and their land.

Educate others about the environmental impact of the occupation on Palestinian communities.

Remember to always verify the credibility and effectiveness of organizations before supporting them, and ensure that your actions align with ethical and legal standards.

Citations: [1] https://www.pcrf.net/information-you-should-know/how-to-help-palestine.html [2] https://ca.cair.com/sfba/palestine-resource-guide/ [3] https://afsc.org/news/6-ways-you-can-support-palestinians-gaza [4] https://trippin.world/feature/how-to-support-palestine-information-on-marches-cultural-resources-and-more [5] https://www.reddit.com/r/EffectiveAltruism/comments/17nbhqf/what_can_realistically_be_done_from_abroad_to/ [6] https://afsc.org/programs/us-palestine-activism-program [7] https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/children-gaza-need-lifesaving-support [8] https://karmawallet.io/blog/2024/03/3-top-sustainable-shoe-brands/

Supporting Palestinian businesses and artisans by purchasing their products is an excellent way to directly contribute to the Palestinian economy and help preserve traditional crafts. Here are some ways you can do this:

Purchase Handmade Crafts

Many Palestinian artisans create beautiful handmade products that showcase traditional skills and cultural heritage:

Embroidered items like cushion covers, bags, and clothing

Olive wood carvings and decorative objects

Handmade ceramics and pottery

Traditional keffiyeh scarves

Jewelry featuring Palestinian designs

Purchasing these items helps support artisans and their families while preserving cultural traditions[1][3].

Buy Palestinian Food Products

Look for authentic Palestinian food products like:

Olive oil from Palestinian groves

Za'atar spice blends

Dates and other dried fruits

Traditional sweets and pastries

Many of these products are available through fair trade organizations or specialty stores[6].

Support Women's Cooperatives

Many Palestinian women's cooperatives produce handicrafts and other goods. Purchasing from these groups helps empower women economically:

Women in Hebron fair trade collective

Beit Doqo Development Society

Ma'an lil Hayyat in Bethlehem[3][4]

Shop from Online Marketplaces

Several online marketplaces specialize in Palestinian products:

Handmade Palestine

Sunbula

Shop Palestine

These sites connect artisans directly with international customers[2][6][7].

Purchase Art and Books

Support Palestinian culture by buying:

Art prints and original works by Palestinian artists

Books by Palestinian authors and about Palestinian history/culture

This helps preserve and promote Palestinian artistic and literary traditions[3].

By making conscious choices to purchase Palestinian products, you can directly support artisans, small businesses, and the broader Palestinian economy while acquiring unique, handcrafted items. This economic support helps Palestinians maintain their livelihoods and cultural heritage despite challenging circumstances[4].

Citations: [1] https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/help_us_keep_empowering_our_palestinian_partner_artisans [2] https://www.sunbula.org/en/category/51/Get-Involved [3] https://handmadepalestine.com/pages/meet-the-artisans [4] https://mondoweiss.net/2021/11/support-palestinian-artisans/ [5] https://www.lovewelcomes.org/blogs/news/handmade-in-palestine-shop-and-support-now [6] https://handmadepalestine.com [7] https://www.shoppalestine.org [8] https://trippin.world/feature/how-to-support-palestine-information-on-marches-cultural-resources-and-more

Yes, there are several online platforms specifically dedicated to selling Palestinian handmade goods and supporting Palestinian artisans:

Handmade Palestine: This marketplace works with over 30 women's cooperatives and artisans throughout Palestine, offering a wide range of products including jewelry, home decor, and textiles[1].

Shop Palestine: This store offers diverse products from food items to handicrafts, all made by Palestinian artisans. Proceeds support humanitarian efforts in the region[1].

Taita Leila: A social enterprise specializing in modern clothing inspired by traditional Palestinian embroidery (tatreez). Their products are handmade by women in the West Bank[2].

El Bustan: Headquartered in London, this platform works with artisans, women's co-operatives, and entrepreneurs in Palestine to bring their creations to an international audience[2].

Darzah: This fair trade-certified brand works with 26 female artisans in the West Bank, focusing on tatreez embroidery for products like shoes, bags, and home goods[2].

Hilweh Market: An artisanal boutique featuring items from Palestine and the Arab world, including purses, plates, bowls, and clothing[2].

Fyrouzi: Based in the UAE, this online store focuses on the centuries-old Palestinian ceramic industry, offering handmade pottery and ceramics[2].

These platforms not only provide a marketplace for Palestinian artisans to sell their goods internationally but also often support broader social and economic initiatives in Palestine. Many emphasize fair trade practices and the preservation of traditional Palestinian crafts and cultural heritage[1][2][3].

Citations: [1] https://www.pumpitupmagazine.com/discover-the-top-online-stores-for-authentic-palestinian-crafts/ [2] https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/2024/04/07/palestinian-brands-to-support-gaza/ [3] https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/help_us_keep_empowering_our_palestinian_partner_artisans [4] https://mondoweiss.net/2021/11/support-palestinian-artisans/ [5] https://sittisoap.com/blogs/news/10-palestinian-owned-brands-to-support-today-and-every-day [6] https://handmadepalestine.com/pages/meet-the-artisans [7] https://www.sunbula.org/en/category/51/Get-Involved [8] https://www.lovewelcomes.org/blogs/news/handmade-in-palestine-shop-and-support-now

Based on the search results, Hadeel supports community infrastructure in Palestine in several key ways:

Fair Trade Practices: Hadeel is a non-profit Fairtrade shop that provides a sustainable source of income for Palestinian craftspeople and artisans in various regions, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Galilee, and Palestinian communities in Lebanon and Israel[1].

Supporting Grassroots Enterprises: Many of Hadeel's suppliers are grassroots social enterprises that help women bring their products to market[1].

Preserving Cultural Heritage: By selling traditional Palestinian crafts like olive wood carvings, embroidered textiles, and other handmade goods, Hadeel helps preserve Palestinian cultural heritage and traditional skills[1][2].

Economic Support: Purchasing from Hadeel aids in sustaining community infrastructures in Palestine by providing income to artisans and their families[2].

Promoting Palestinian Products: Hadeel carries a range of Palestinian products including olive oil, dates, condiments, and olive oil products like Nablus olive oil soap, helping to support Palestinian farmers and producers[1].

International Awareness: As a shop based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hadeel helps raise awareness about Palestinian crafts and culture internationally[1].

Sustainable Development: By supporting artisans and farmers, Hadeel contributes to sustainable economic development in Palestinian communities[2].

While not directly involved in building physical infrastructure, Hadeel's work supports the economic and cultural infrastructure of Palestinian communities by providing market access for artisans and preserving traditional crafts. This economic support can indirectly contribute to the overall development and sustainability of Palestinian communities.

Citations: [1] https://www.hadeel.org/our-story/ [2] https://www.pumpitupmagazine.com/discover-the-top-online-stores-for-authentic-palestinian-crafts/ [3] https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/help_us_keep_empowering_our_palestinian_partner_artisans [4] https://women2watch.net/hadeel-jaradat/ [5] https://palestine.unfpa.org/en/news/once-previously-rejected-her-community-hadeel-embraces-new-hadeel [6] https://www.globalwaters.org/HowWeWork/Activities/palestinian-community-infrastructure-development-program [7] https://www.pcrf.net/information-you-should-know/how-to-help-palestine.html [8] https://mondoweiss.net/2021/11/support-palestinian-artisans/

#free palestine #palestine #free gaza #gaza #strike for palestine #support palestine #Palestinian products

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uboat53 · 20 days

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You know, we got so lost in the trenches of the day-to-day that we often forget to step back and look at the longer trail of everything that the Republican Party has given up in the name of Trump. I've got some time to think about it, so let's look back, shall we? Time for a LONG RANT (TM).

INTRODUCTION

Think back to 2012, the last time someone other than Trump was the Republican nominee for president. What did the Republican Party claim to stand for then? Well, they were pro-military not just verbally, but also in terms of strictly adhering to the military's code of honor. They were pro-law enforcement, taking the side of the police and other law enforcement groups in just about every single case. They were in favor of reforming the welfare state, the majority of which is Medicare and Social Security. They were in favor of traditional family values, particularly those regarding public behavior.

All of these things were eminently represented in Mitt Romney, the presidential nominee of that year, who, for whatever other faults he may have had, truly lived the life that represented the beliefs that the Republican Party claimed to represent at that time. All of these have been entirely given up so that the party can slavishly support Donald Trump. Let's go through them.

FAMILY VALUES

The first thing that had to go was traditional family values. Trump is a serial adulterer who has been married to three different women and cheated on all of them. Even more than that, he constantly fantasizes in interviews about any woman who catches his attention, including his own daughter, and uses abhorrent sexist language to describe any woman he doesn't like. In order to support him in the first place, Republicans had to jettison their own professed insistence that they would never support a candidate with poor personal character which was reflected in his family life.

After the scandals of Bill Clinton in the late 90s, Republicans were fond of saying how they could never support a man who treated women or the institution of marriage as he did, yet now they have thrown themselves behind a man who has been found to have raped a woman while married to another woman. I think it's fairly clear which one is worse, and yet they continue to stand behind him without feeling the need to justify their behavior, almost as if they never truly cared about those values in the first place.

THE WELFARE STATE

Republicans have been running on "reforming the welfare state" or even just outright repealing Medicare and Social Security for pretty much as long as anyone around today has been alive. George Bush Jr. tried to change Social Security to an individual account in 2005 and Paul Ryan tried to do something similar in the early 2010s, just to cite two recent examples. The arguments they have are fairly simple: that these programs take away personal responsibility and that they're both on track to run out of funds sometime in the next decade.

Republicans today still agree with both of those arguments, but they've stopped trying to do anything at all with Social Security and Medicare. You see, Trump has (accurately) determined that trying to cut these two programs or even tinker with the benefit formulae is incredibly unpopular, and so, even though they still think these two programs are terrible and would like to change them completely, Republicans have just stopped talking about it, at least in public.

In private, or what they think is private, Republicans are more than happy to talk about how much they want to change these programs. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, for example, proposes replacing standard Medicare with Medicare Advantage, effectively privatizing it even for the half of enrollees who prefer the public program and even Trump himself has mused about cutting Social Security in a CNBC interview this year, though he quickly walked it back.

In other words, the Republican position on the biggest pillars of welfare state is the same as it always was, they want to cut it, but they're willing to lie about that in public now.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Republicans have been the party of law enforcement, particularly backing more brutal and invasive law enforcement tactics and opposing rights of those arrested and accused, for decades now, but that standing has cracked significantly since Trump began to run for office. First it was opposition to Mueller's investigation, undertaken by law enforcement professionals under the auspices of the Department of Justice, then it was the assault on the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 where Trump supporters assaulted the Capitol Police, and now it's opposition to the multiple investigations of Trump at both the national and state levels which have put them into conflict with law enforcement agencies at all levels of government.

It's gotten far enough that multiple Republican lawmakers have even called to "defund the FBI", the nation's premier law enforcement agency, in order to try to protect Trump from criminal investigation and prosecution. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of the Capitol assault continue to be celebrated by the Republican Party even after dozens (hundreds?) of convictions for violence against police officers; actions which they have repeatedly and specifically condemned in no uncertain terms in the context of other protests.

In other words, while Republicans may still occasionally chant "back the blue" or "blue lives matter" and still back more brutal and invasive police tactics, it's clear that their support for law enforcement is only skin deep and will drop the instant that law enforcement decides to enforce the law on anyone they support.

THE MILITARY

The final thing that Trump forced Republicans to abandon was their support for the military. In particular, he forced them to abandon their reverence for those who have sacrificed. He did this just as he accepted the nomination for president in 2016, attacking Gold Star father Khizr Khan whose son was killed in Iraq. Any other Republican in history would have done the honorable thing, noting that Mr. Khan is entitled to express his views and stating simply and firmly that he won't argue politics with a Gold Star parent, but Trump has no honor.

In the years since, he has repeatedly disparaged the military's reverence for sacrifice. He waged a long campaign against Sen. John McCain in which he repeatedly talked down McCain's military record despite, whatever else you may think of McCain, he displayed extraordinary courage, resilience, and leadership while captured by the enemy. Trump has also been quoted several times disparaging the military dead and wounded and, though he has disputed these quotes, he's also known to lie a lot (five provable lies per day during his four year presidency according to fact checkers) while the known sources who reported this, such as General John Kelly, are not.

Even just recently, Trump invaded Arlington National Cemetery and his campaign staff assaulted one of the grounds staff in order to film a campaign stunt in which he took pictures, smiling and giving a thumbs-up, over the graves of fallen soldiers. This is behavior for which Republicans would castigate Democrats, yet the behavior of their own three time nominee and party leader shows how shallow their commitment really is.

THE TRUE DEPRAVITY

Of course, the true depravity of Donald Trump is not just in what he and his staunchest supporters do, but in what he forces all of those around him to do. You see, most people of poor character know they have poor character. Those who can't afford to have poor character try to cover this up or even improve their character, but Trump was born into money and could afford to just pay his way past his poor behavior; but he still knows how poor his character is and how bad it makes him look.

Trump's solution to this is to debase everyone else around him. For those who oppose him, he unleashes a torrent of vitriol, seeking not to win by making himself better, but to win by making everyone else look as bad as he is. For those few of good character who support or are willing to work for him, he will force them to debase themselves and ruin their character. Incidents like Sean Spicer being forced to lie about Trump's crowd size at his inauguration or Gen. H.R. McMaster being forced to read a script denying that Trump had revealed classified information to top Russian officials (he had) are not aberrations, they are part and parcel of Trump's behavior in which people of good character must be brought low in order to avoid putting his own character in sharp relief.

This same thing has been done with the Republican Party writ large as anyone who stays loyal to the party under his control, even if they claim not to support him personally, is forced to repeatedly justify that loyalty under the onslaught of outrages and insults.

CONCLUSION

I'll be honest, I don't expect this to change the minds of Trump's supporters or his opposition, most of those who oppose him already know about his depravity and most of those who support him at this late stage have already invested too much of their own identity into him, but I hope that those few who remain undecided will read it.

If you are a supporter of Trump, even a reluctant one, I hope you know how far you have fallen in the estimation of those of us who are not and, if you do not understand the reasons given above, know that we probably respect you even less. If you are an opponent of Trump and his MAGA movement, I hope that the above gives you some clarity in your own thinking. If you are unsure about whether to support him or not, I hope that this gives you a better understanding of the arguments against supporting him.

As usual, if there's anything you think I missed or that was incorrect, please let me know and be sure to cite sources and examples as necessary. I hope this is helpful to someone.

#politics #us politics #donald trump #trump #republicans #long rant (tm)#2024 elections #election 2025

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thequiver · 2 months

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Who is....James Proudstar | Warpath? - A Reading Guide

James "Jimmy" Proudstar, is an X-Men affiliated character from Marvel Comics first introduced in 1984. Jimmy is a member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, and was born in Camp Verde, Arizona. Jimmy grew up idolizing his older brother, John, who would die while on a mission with the X-Men, prompting Jimmy's own path into the world of mutant infighting. Jimmy's story includes topics around the mistreatment of indigenous people (including the medical experimentation that they've suffered), as well as dealing heavily with themes of grief and healing. However, given the nature of American comic books and the lack of diversity among writers, the comics do not always do a good job addressing themes and plots specifically related to Jimmy being Apache.

Many earlier comics do not accurately depict Jimmy's skin-tone or culture, so while in the graphic above I have adjusted some coloring, please be advised that in an unfortunately large number of the following issues...he will look white.

Reading list is under the cut!

From Hellions to X-Force

Jimmy's first appearances are with the Hellions, a villainous group of mutants under the direction of Emma Frost. Jimmy joined their ranks following the death of his brother, John, when he was determined to get revenge on the X-Men- he soon found that he didn't fit in with the Hellions and returned home. Cable approached him about joining the New Mutants but he declined until he discovered that the Hellfire Club (of which Emma was part) had murdered his entire tribe. Now fueled by a desire for revenge against Emma Frost, Jimmy agreed to join the New Mutants right before they turned into X-Force.

New Mutants (1983)#16-17 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #193 Firestar (1986) #2-3 New Mutants (1983) #39, 43, 53-54, 56, 62, 99-100, Annual 7A New Warriors (1992) #Annual 1A Uncanny X-Men (1981) #Annual 15A X-Factor (1986) # Annual 6A X-Force (1991) #1-3 Spider-Man (1990) #16 X-Force (1991) #4-5, Annual 1C Warheads (1992) #4-5 X-Force (1991) #6-7A, 9A-15 X-Cutioner's Song X-Men (1991) #17 New Warriors (1990) #31 X-Force (1991) #19, 21-26, Annual 2, 27-33 New Warriors (1990) #46 X-Force (1991) #34-38 Blaze (1994) #4-5 X-Force (1991) #39-41, 43 Cable (1993) #21 X-Force (1991) #44-53, 55-58 X-Force and Cable '96 (1996) #1A X-Force (1991) #59-61, 63-64 X-Force and Cable '97 (1997) #1 X-Force (1991) #65-66, -1, 68-71 Deadpool (1997) #12 X-Force (1991) #72-93, Annual 1999, 94-98 Cable (1993) #73-75 X-Force (1991) #99-117

X-Corporation

After the dissolution of X-Force, Jimmy would join the international mutant taskforce, X-Corporation.... it didn't last very long....

New X-Men (2001) #133 X-Force (2004) #2-3

X-Men

Jimmy keeps his powers after M-Day and returns to the Xavier Institute where he ends up "joining the X-Men". (It's complicated).

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #475-476, 478-479, 481-482, 484-491

X-Force: Take 2 (Now with Wolverine)

A new X-Force was formed, led by Wolverine (Logan) to do the more....extreme tasks the normal X-Men won't.

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #493 X-Factor (2006) #26 New X-Men (2004) #45 X-Men (1991) #206 X-Factor (2006) #27 (mostly here as set up for the next issue) New X-Men (2004) #46 X-Men (1991) #207 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #498-499 X-Force (2008) #1-6 X-Force: Ain't No Dog (2008) #1B Cable (2008) #6-7, 9-10 X-Force (2008) #7-11 X-Men: Legacy (2008) # Annual 1A, 230A X-Force (2008) #12-13 X-Force/Cable: Messiah War (2009) #1 Cable (2008) #13 X-Force (2008) #14 Cable (2008) #14 X-Force (2008) #15 Cable (2008) #15 X-Force (2008) #16-18, 20

Necrosha, etc.

After the events of Messiah War, Jimmy became embroiled in Necrosha (reanimated mutants were being controlled by Selene and the T-O virus). After fixing that scenario, Jimmy quit X-Force, stayed in Utopia after the schism, and would join the X-Men in a war against the Avengers. (This era technically includes Age of X, but Jimmy doesn't really...do much there so I didn't include those appearances).

X-Necrosha (2009) #1A,C X-Force (2008) #21, Annual 1A, 22A-25 Nation X (2010) #4C X-Men: Schism (2011) #5 (Jimmy's only in like 3 panels but they're important) X-Men: Legacy (2008) #260 X-Men (2010) #20-29

Weapon X

After all...that. Jimmy was captured by the restarted Weapon X Program, after being rescued the team Jimmy was on started by renaming themselves "Weapon X" as a way to reclaim the program that had hurt them. During this time, Jimmy started dating Domino...which was certainly a choice on the writer's part....

Weapon X (2017) #2, 4 Weapons of Mutant Destruction: Alpha (2017) #1 Totally Awesome Hulk (2016) #20 Weapon X (2017) #5 Totally Awesome Hulk (2016) #21 Weapon X (2017) #6 Totally Awesome Hulk (2016) #22 Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey (2017) #1-5 Weapon X (2017) #7-21 Astonishing X-Men (2017) #13A-17 Extermination (2018) #3-5 X-Force (2018) #1A-5, 7-10

Krakoa and Fall of X

Like many mutants, Jimmy moved to the mutant nation of Krakoa. While on Krakoa he joined the New Mutants, and would have a chance to reconnect with his beloved brother, John.

New Mutants (2019) #14-15, 18-24 Giant Size X-Men: Thunderbird (2022) #1 New Mutants (2019) #29 New Mutants: Lethal Legion (2023) #1 X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (2021) #121-123, 138-142

#james proudstar #jimmy proudstar #warpath #x-men #x-force #reading guide #reading list #comic reading guide #comics reading list #comics reading guide #comic reading list

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wraith-caller · 3 months

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This is the cloth garb:

It is worn by two player model characters and no enemies. Those characters are Devin(D, Beholder of Death), and the dead person we find by Darian(D, Hunter of the Dead). You can get the set from a chest in Murkwater Cave, and off a corpse in Leyndell.

The current item description is sparse, just mentioning it's a commonly worn item made of rough cloth. There is a hood that completes the set, which is a thorn-wrapped mantle, seen on the dead body by Darian. The item description explains that the hood is put on those who have committed lesser crimes.

HOWEVER...

In the 1.0 text, this set has a very different description:

Clothing made of coarse material. Garb of spurned Tarnished who were forced into slavery in the Lands Between. The Tarnished have been wandering into the Lands Between from beyond the Sea of Fog in dribs and drabs since times of old. Most are killed on arrival, but the few, unlucky survivors are taken as slaves.

Intriguing. Let's draw some Pepe Silvia style strings between a few things, for fun and good times.

So first is this idea of Tarnished being made into slaves, which appears to have been done away. After all, the Tarnished we meet are all kinda doing their own thing, free to pledge allegiance to whoever, and some, like Gideon, hold such an esteemed position of authority so as to have a squad of goons at their disposal for casually massacring villages. The other piece of this description is still accurate enough - Tarnished are targeted by multiple factions, and treated like crap basically everywhere they go.

So let's hold on to the idea that Tarnished were enslaved. Devin's attire would mark him as one, which isn't all that surprising given he and his brother were pariahs among pariahs. We know the Golden Order was the only institution not to revile them, based on the Inseparable sword description. The JP text for that same sword gives a more interesting flavor to that text, saying:

The Undivided Twins served the Golden Rule for no other reason than because they were not branded as cursed.

This is interesting because it omits any references to taking solace in the Order. The "for no other reason" bit is also noteable. It carries an implication that the lack of persecution is the primary force driving them to serve the Order. It makes sense. If you were hated by everyone else, you'd go with the one group who took you no matter what else they're up to, and you'd fight tooth and nail for them to last. Otherwise, what's standing between you and being completely shunned and ostracized again?

If we're to continue on with the 1.0 text for the cloth garb and its references to Tarnished made slaves, Devin wearing that set gives a new context to the phrasing of "the undivided twins served the Golden Order." Could the twins have originally been intended to be slaves of the Order? Devin's location in combination with his potential status as a slave is noteworthy because, aside from the Misbegotten of Castle Morne, there is one other named group of slaves, and they have a heavy presence in Nokron. The Fallen Hawk Soldiers were a band of slaves who were ordered to search the Eternal Cities. They became lost there, condemned to remain below the earth after burning the bones of their fellows and discovering the ghost flame.

These guys aren't just in the same city as Devin. They are right by him, in the Siofra Aqueduct itself, just where Devin sleeps. There is also a golden centipede in Siofra River, beside a corpse which gives us the Inverted Hawk Heater Shield, used by Fallen Hawk Soldiers. While I don't intend to suggest that Devin is a part of the Fallen Hawks, I do find these tiny, potential connections interesting as shedding some light on potential routes a character's story could have gone.

#d beholder of death #d hunter of the dead #devin elden ring #darian elden ring #elden ring #the golden order #elden ring meta #wraith meta

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