#Anti-Boss Fight Books

[thewingedwolf]

me switching wildly between house of the dragon, game of thrones, and asoiaf fixations (yes they are different!!!) so my followers understand that my stance is anti greens < anti dany < pro rhaenyra & jace < anti lannister < anti targ restoration < pro house stark and a time for wolvessssss bitch <<<<<<<< pro “It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.” peasantry overthrowing the whole system, a stance that is tied to my pro stark stance bc the real threat is the never ending wars of succession that engulf the realm in fire and the literal ice zombie apocalypse north of the wall, stop fighting each other and slaughtering innocent people u fucking dweebs

[bamjio]

❛ 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆 ❜— ✿ .. deadpool headcanonns!

BEING WADE WILSONS' ONE AND ONLY ❛ WIFE. ❜ !

⋆˚✿˖° — CLINGY! it's honestly feels suffocating. Does he know personal space? of course. does he oblige to that rule? he'd rather dig logans burial.

— it doesn't matter, wade believes that if you love someone you won't let them go, literally.

— you'd always wake up to him tightly hugging you down, his arms and legs hovering your figure. don't think of letting go, cause he'll just grip more.

— expect him to go over your workplace and hang out there till the end of your shift, he won't budge even if the manager threatened to call the cops.

— goodness, he's just so obsessed with your scent, skin, hair, face, lips, arms, ❛boobies❜, and everything. he'd rather cut his head off than avoid you for a solid 3 days.

⋆˚✿˖° — CHILDISH! is wade a grown man that kills people or a child that wants your attention 24/7? Well, he's a child that kills and wants your attention.

— him being your husband feels like your with a child that won't grow up, he loves making a huge mess, doing anything to impress you, even fighting Logan for fun to show off who's stronger.

— wherever you both go, he'd always wander off somewhere; bothering someone or touching things that aren't supposed to be touched. and you're always panicking looking for wade, usually takes a few hours until he magically finds you, or you find him.

— loves likes seeing you angry, he claims that it's ❛super hot❜ and ❛cute, looks like a cat❜, so he'd bother you every unexpected time, whenever you'd read a book he likes to steal it and read it out loud, whenever you're on the verge of slumber; he'd either yell or picture your sleepy state.

— you're like a mother always scolding wade, and thankfully he obeys you, like a guilty child. yet his manners still come back like his life, you will never get tired of him though, and he knows it.

⋆˚✿˖° — OVERPROTECTIVE! your friends call it lovesick, but him and his 'audience' call it protecting! yeah, maybe he did kill your co worker because he called you crybaby, but thats besides the point.

— special forces, mutant, anti-hero, killer; yadayada, he's everything not a simple man could protect, call him delusional but unexpected things happen, you could get assassinated while eating breakfast, or worse. It's not being too weird, it's being considerate.

— definitely forced Logan to look after you once, not that he minds; Logan admires you. and that turned out to you finding out and scolding wade, being a big baby he is— he definitely didn't talk to you.

— ❛whos that in my bosses office??❜ suprise! it's wade holding a gun to your superiors head while waving at you, well because your boss threatened to fire you.

— in realities and seriousness, he doesn't wanna loose you. loosing someone pains him so much, yet being annoying is the only way he can cope. he lost so much people and he can't afford to loose you too. and him being wanted and a so called 'villain' in every story, he knows one day theyll figure you out.

⋆˚✿˖° — LOYAL! before the day you guys talked, he vowed that if he finds himself attach to another woman romantically, he'd hang himself. he loves you and even if you didn't, no one could ever replace you.

— despite lotta girls getting attracted to him, his eyes will be locked at you. his ears and eyes will forever be yours to catch.

— won't hesitate to slam a girls face into a metal table if they'd ever flirt with you, even with him showing you off. What's only stopping him is you not wanting him to harm anyone, and he's definitely obedient when it comes to you.

— define bare minimum, cause he definitely isn't just the minimum. his profiles in every social contains either your face, or you and him. not only profile, also his header and posts, tagging you whenever he interacts with his 'fans' putting "with — y/n wilson" "my wife — y/n Wilson" "fbm —y/n wilson" and anything that contains you.

— would you really doubt your crazy husband and his whatever audience? Looks can deceive and he's the frame for it, honesty and loyalty is his integrity, he vowed to you and shown his loyalty, and he would never break it.

⋆˚✿˖° ❛iris — tggd❜ , ❛she will be loved — M5❜.

[robertreich]

Who’s to Blame for Out-Of-Control Corporate Power?    

One man is especially to blame for why corporate power is out of control. And I knew him! He was my professor, then my boss. His name… Robert Bork.

Robert Bork was a notorious conservative who believed the only legitimate purpose of antitrust — that is, anti-monopoly — law is to lower prices for consumers, no matter how big corporations get. His philosophy came to dominate the federal courts and conservative economics.

I met him in 1971, when I took his antitrust class at Yale Law School. He was a large, imposing man, with a red beard and a perpetual scowl. He seemed impatient and bored with me and my classmates, who included Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham, as we challenged him repeatedly on his antitrust views.

We argued with Bork that ever-expanding corporations had too much power. Not only could they undercut rivals with lower prices and suppress wages, but they were using their spoils to influence our politics with campaign contributions. Wasn’t this cause for greater antitrust enforcement?

He had a retort for everything. Undercutting rival businesses with lower prices was a good thing because consumers like lower prices. Suppressing wages didn’t matter because employees are always free to find better jobs. He argued that courts could not possibly measure political power, so why should that matter?

Even in my mid-20s, I knew this was hogwash.

But Bork’s ideology began to spread. A few years after I took his class, he wrote a book called The Antitrust Paradox summarizing his ideas. The book heavily influenced Ronald Reagan and later helped form a basic tenet of Reaganomics — the bogus theory that says government should get out of the way and allow corporations to do as they please, including growing as big and powerful as they want.

Despite our law school sparring, Bork later gave me a job in the Department of Justice when he was solicitor general for Gerald Ford. Even though we didn’t agree on much, I enjoyed his wry sense of humor. I respected his intellect. Hell, I even came to like him.

Once President Reagan appointed Bork as an appeals court judge, his rulings further dismantled antitrust. And while his later Supreme Court nomination failed, his influence over the courts continued to grow.  

Bork’s legacy is the enormous corporate power we see today, whether it’s Ticketmaster and Live Nation consolidating control over live performances, Kroger and Albertsons dominating the grocery market, or Amazon, Google, and Meta taking over the tech world.

It’s not just these high-profile companies either: in most industries, a handful of companies now control more of their markets than they did twenty years ago.

This corporate concentration costs the typical American household an estimated extra $5,000 per year. Companies have been able to jack up prices without losing customers to competitors because there is often no meaningful competition.

And huge corporations also have the power to suppress wages because workers have fewer employers from whom to get better jobs.

And how can we forget the massive flow of money these corporate giants are funneling into politics, rigging our democracy in their favor?

But the tide is beginning to turn under the Biden Administration. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are fighting the monopolization of America in court, and proposing new merger guidelines to protect consumers, workers, and society.

It’s the implementation of the view that I and my law school classmates argued for back in the 1970s — one that sees corporate concentration as a problem that outweighs any theoretical benefits Bork claimed might exist.

Robert Bork would likely regard the Biden administration’s antitrust efforts with the same disdain he had for my arguments in his class all those years ago. But instead of a few outspoken law students, Bork’s philosophy is now being challenged by the full force of the federal government.

The public is waking up to the outsized power corporations wield over our economy and democracy. It’s about time.

[yourplayersaidwhat]

“How about instead of also touching the clearly evil artifact, i just pick him up like a football and book it out of there so no one gets it?”

My tiefling ranger, trying to avoid fighting the boss, about the kenku ranger that picked up the anti-shiny darkness rock and is now entranced. It worked.

[decolonize-the-everything]

Transmisandry isn’t real. They’re getting hate for being Trans not for being men.

Misandry isn‘t real. It hatred for their race, not for being men.

Whatever men of color get, women of color get it twice as much.

Listen to women of color. Don’t silence us.

I do loudly listen and platform and follow and support Black women. I tell people all the time the Combahee River Collective was right when they wrote that if Black women free then everyone would be because their freedom would "necessitate" the destruction of all systems of oppression.

In a way that why I made that post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Women of color get it worse than everyone.

Kimberlé Crenshaw created the term intersectionality after looking at a case where a factory worker had fired all the black women that he had employed. He had white women working for him and he still had black men working for him.

So the judge threw out the case Black women has started because courts did not have the infrastructure to recognize this overlap and said it would be a "Pandora's box" of other people trying to get rights if they did.

Isn't that wild??

And be honest, do you really think feminism listens to women of color? Mikki Kendall said this in her book Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women a Movement Left Behind.

"Feminism that could ignore police brutality killing women of color, that could ignore the study abuse and disenfranchisement and abuse in national and local politics of some women based on race and religion, wasn't about equality or equity for all; it was about benefitting white women at the expense of all others."

"We cannot and will not abandon our sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, or friends, because for us they don't represent an enemy. We have our issues with the patriarchy, but then so do they, as the most powerful faces of it aren't men of color. My husband may not always understand how misogyny impacts me, but he can absolutely grasp what it means when a boss's or a coworker's racism is an impediment. We sit together at that table, even if we don't face the exact same battles in every aspect of life. Women in communities of color must balance fighting external problematic voices with educating those inside our communities who are bad actors, and we expect feminism to do the same work on itself."

Here's something else that helped inform me

Black women have it worse than everyone and while the rest of us absolutely should shut the fuck up and listen, nobody does so I don't see where white women have gotten in their head that they don't have power over Black men or why they can't say anything?

When cis women absolutely hold power over trans men? (Esp trans men of color) since since you threw transmisandry in there.

You see where I'm going with this?

I think it very much an extension of white supremacy, anti-blackness, and anti-intersectionality to say that because you have it worse than someone else that someone else should shut up and not even have the Language to describe their experiences.

Either it applies to everyone and we all shut up for Black women or it doesn't :)

You have to judge people by their character, not their gender, weirdo.

Solidarity is for everyone and all their intersecting identities or it's just a white supremacist patriarchy for women.

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk 💗

[brettdoesdiscourse]

I see this take a lot and I hate it so much because shipping discourse does affect real life. It affects real life when people are harassed over what they ship to the point of killing themselves.

It affects real life when people are doxxed and have their private information leaked, when their peers/teachers/friends/family/coworkers/bosses are suddenly being contacted.

It affects real life when antis report fictional content as CSEM, wasting the resources of organizations that are needed by real children being exploited.

It affects real life when people cannot separate fiction from condonation and then fight to get "problematic" books/shows/movies/etc. banned.

It affects real life when CSA, abuse, rape, etc. survivors are harassed with messages of "you deserved it" and "you're just as bad as your abuser" because of fiction.

It affects real life when antis are enabling and even condoning minors reach out to pro shippers to try and out them as closeted pedophiles.

It affects real life when people walk around believing misinformation because of it.

It affects real life in so many ways that we've seen, even more than I've listed here. Acting like it doesn't is an extremely ignorant viewpoint to take.

[itshype]

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss, Godhood (DC x DP)

What’s the best way to cover up a secret when Danny can’t lie very well? Make an even more elaborate lie – but one that tugs on the heartstrings! My DC x DP Previous Works: Space Lover Danny, Kingmaker Danny, Service Animal Cujo, Danny yoinks Connor, Ghost Bruce HC + Ghost Jason HC

So, Danny's government just made his existence illegal. Which is rude and very othering and mean. In canon, Danny sort of slides around this but hey, this should be a pretty upsetting incident.

So, Vlad immediately switches his attitude (because your girl loves redeemed Vladdie!), and the two work together for weeks to try and minimise any chances of either of them getting caught. Danny is really feeling the whole “Only two of their kind” when his president declared open season on Danny (I don’t care if this isn’t how laws work in America. I’m not American I don’t care for foreign legal accuracy).

And so, weeks later, they’re actually together in ghost form with Extended Team Phantom (Tucker, Sam, Jazz and Valerie) trying to figure out their best way forward because if Vlad openly opposes these laws as Mayor too publicly the GIW might start looking at him way too closely and everything would unravel. They really can’t pretend that revealing the possibility of a human/ghost hybrid wouldn’t put events around whichever of them hadn’t been caught under a brand-new light.

Valerie is there pretending not to be emotionally invested in her boss’ and Danny’s welfare while reading a book and occasionally leaping in with “Devil’s Advocate” comments of how the Fenton parents and GIW might respond to some of their ideas.

Then the Justice League show up. Now there’s a whole law (please see Navigate any storm for my HC about the JLA’s relationship with the anti-ecto acts) they're obligated to step in. Now, I’ve been pretty uniform with who I’m including in these notfics so for a change, here we get Wonder Woman, Barry Allen’s Flash, Supergirl and I think Jason Todd but dressed up as Batman (Bruce got a booboo on his ickle frontal lobe and is out for the count, Flash and Supergirl are here because I loved their dynamic in all crossovers in the DCTV universe PRE-crisis).

Here we have the perfect storm of well read (Diana and Jason) but kind of gullible and not-as-paranoid as Batman (Flash and Supergirl, Jason is definitely suspicious but would defer to an expert like Wonder Woman in the right scenario).

Diana has shown up ready to fight, Hestia’s lasso glowing in her hands, and Team Phantom is sharp – they’re well trained and smart, but they can’t really compete against superhumans like the JLA. Diana demands that they all surrender and relinquish control over their human sycophants before being taken into custody for violation of the anti-ecto acts and performing actions of war on civilians or whatever other legal stuff she knows about.

The two halfas are floating and green so denying any knowledge would be bad. Vlad steps forward to try and babble on to buy Danny time and he scrambles for an escape. He doesn’t see a way out, but what he does see is the book that Valerie was reading. Percy Jackson. He looks back at Wonder Woman. Back at the book. Back at the Daughter of Zeus.

“Cousin! It’s so great you came to visit us at last!”

That at least gets Wonder Woman to pause. She asks what he’s talking about. Then “Batman” says not to let the ghost confuse them. He’s glaring at the vampiric ghost who seems to be trying to protect the smaller one. Vlad has legs, Danny has his little tail form.

Danny lets out the fakest laugh you’ve ever heard. He explains that ‘of course’ they weren’t ghosts. They were superpowered beings. Superpowered beings are protected by metahuman law.

“Batman” points out that they both look a lot like ghosts. Danny’s mind is scrambling for the right names. He finds them.

“Oh, I am actually the son of Melinoe, goddess of ghosts.” Daughter of Persephone, would make him Diana��s first cousin, once removed. Totally fit in with his power set plus she was a really obscure goddess who wasn’t very well known or documented, and therefore he could make up stuff about his ‘mother’ if he so chose.

“And who’s the vampire?” Barry asks, though Jazz, at least can tell that everyone is way less on-guard.

“I am…” There’s a very long pause. “His Father. Deimos. God of Dread. Son of Aphrodite and Ares!” Danny wants to smack him.

Okay, great, Vlad just ‘yes, and’ed Danny from being a demigod to the both of them being full-blown gods in their own right. Sure.

“Yes! I am Phantom…”

Jazz cuts him off to say that his name was Phántasma [φάντασμα] and of course the locals just anglicized it to Phantom from the original Ancient Greek. Danny agrees and goes onto explain how he was a pretty new god – y’know, comparatively – and these were some nice humans who were all considering becoming his priestesses and priest. Sam ducks in to explain how Phantom – sorry, Phantasma, was the god of ghosts finally relinquishing hold on their forms and surrendering to the afterlife. Something chill and small, nothing that would necessitate him getting involved with human affairs and no abilities that would mean any extra attention from the Justice League.

Diana starts to cry, she thought she was all alone in the world and right here was her cousin. All along she had family in the realm of men, family who had been so excited to meet her yet who had not reached out. Unfortunately, Danny made a mistake. Melinoe isn’t Hades and Persephone’s daughter. She’s Zeus and Persephone’s daughter. Diana connects the dots and in a single instant stops crying.

“A baby brother!” She reaches forward to squish Danny’s face.

Jazz takes great offense at that. Danny is her brother (though she can’t admit that). Danny’s at closest, Diana’s half nephew – but since he’s her half nephew on BOTH sides she’s willing to concede him as her full nephew.  Diana argues that since her Dad is Danny’s grandfather and great-grandfather plus great uncle, their ichor is close enough that he’s basically her full brother. Ironic as Deimos would actually be closer to being her half-brother. Vlad is a creepy old vampire though, not an adorable teen superhero.

Tucker makes up a very elaborate story about being too insecure to reach out before now. He requests Phantasm’s blessing to convey this story to Wonder Woman so that Danny doesn’t have to say anything.

Valerie gets out a notebook to try and map out this fictional family tree while googling all the deities’ names she doesn’t already recognise. It makes her thankful it is only fictional. Phantasma’s family tree looks more like a Christmas wreath. “Batman” is also trying to figure out the most appropriate relationship between Phantasma and Diana in his HUD.

This is when everyone has made their biggest mistake, not paying attention to Vlad for more than a minute. This is a problem he is thrilled to remedy. His chest swells and he starts to prattle on about how hard it’s been for him as a single father since his beloved Melinoe died in the God War (Wonder Woman’s cinematic canon prequel). Of course, Supergirl asks how they survived, and they say some very broad things about sheltering in the afterlife where Ares could not reach them, as gods are most powerful in their own domain.

Disregarding the fact that if this all were true, Danny would be about 100 years older than her, Diana acknowledges that a child without a mother must struggle and offers to help Danny whenever necessary. If he wanted to, he could come live with her in DC and meet all her superhero friends to help guide him.

They’re scrambling for a reason as to why Danny would turn down this offer. Vlad speaks first. He explains that since his mother’s death, Danny has overtaken her domain as the god of all ghosts and, while Phantom is very clearly not a ghost, he couldn’t possibly leave all his subjects. Especially since the stupid GIW keep attacking father and son. Vlad says that honestly, the US government should be glad that they haven’t smote them, the GIW and everyone else who would challenge them.

Diana is horrified. Ghosts are revolting scum, and her two new family members are full-blooded gods who shine with otherworldly power and definitely not the glow of ectoplasm.

Whenever any of the other superheroes (who are more clear-headed at this time) try and ask any probing questions either:

Danny insists that a mere mortal wouldn’t understand the scope of his abilities

Tucker yells at them for daring to question “Phantasma’s” great authority

Sam insists that she would hate to be told the answer, that everything her god does is for her to decode. She asks what they think the symbolism of Danny robbing a bank could be.

She offers to get them in touch with the president and he could make them both special advisors to the GIW – the JLA had only been called in due to how much trouble the agency were having and bringing two gods in would be a quick way to get the entire situation ship shape.

The flash gets in touch with Phantasma’s high priestess next week, he reassures everyone that the ‘misunderstanding’ is all cleared up. Danny’s officially the CEO of the guys in white.

Hope everyone enjoyed. Masterpost coming soon.

((Dan as Hades???))

Here's "Phantasma's" family tree - simplified

[queersatanic]

Finding a better Lord of the Rings analogy for US politics

This sort of comparison goes back at least as far as 2016, and to liberals who like to situate themselves as being the ultimate good and voting as the ultimate political action, it makes sense why this is so appealing.

However, J.R.R. Tolkien's political ideology can unironically be described as a sort of "anarcho-monarchism," and that does seem to actually inform the sort of book series he wrote. So, setting aside his fondness for nobility as "an Englishman's weakness," let's look at this as a matter of anarchism, of opposition to bosses and coercive power.

In the Lord of the Rings, the issue is actually not whether, as a binary choice, free people should support giving the One Ring to Sauron or Saruman. The issue is not how to best effect "harm reduction" by supporting Isengard since it's the only thing that can stop the armies of Mordor.

The issue is that no one can be trusted with the power of the One Ring — even Gandalf! — and the ring's agents must be opposed everywhere because, to an Ent, it doesn't really matter who is chopping down your forests, and, to a Hobbit, it doesn't much matter who is scouring your Shire.

Now, that's fiction and it's still an analogy, but that does seem to be the way many people need to approach this sort of thing to understand it. In this analogy, the One Ring is the state and the imperial hegemony of the USA. You cannot defeat fascism by installing someone else in the seat of power who fundamentally wants to do many of the same things fascists do who will continue building up power to destroy others abroad and crush dissent at home. Democrats bomb funerals and sell military weapons to authoritarian states. Democrats build Cop Cities. Democrats generously fund the violence of racist, anti-queer enforcers like NYPD and LAPD/LA County Sheriff's gangs. Democrats love the power structures of the status quo, of capitalism, private property, and the carceral legal system, and they want to buttress them against challenges as much as possible because Democrats love wielding that power and know but don't care that these tools will inevitably fall into the hands of open fascists who will use them even more brutally than they themselves do.

Anarchists always have a "three-way fight," and we want more liberty than choosing our jailers.

To be clear: vote or don't vote. It is not actually that important. However, it is absolutely critical that you as an anarchist do not mistake voting as being meaningful political action or limit your imagination of the possible to that of "rhetorically affirming, functionally hostile liberalism".

[carmsgarms]

just wanna hug you for the jkr post bc my former friends made me feel insane for not validating their continued engagement 💜

Bestie listen youve unzipped me and im about to go off. Harry Potter was my entire life until she literally couldn't shut the fuck up about trans women being perverts and infiltrators. I was a lonely neurodivergent weirdo and Harry Potter brought me solace as a kid. I read each of the books at least 7 or 8 times, that shit is INGRAINED in my brain. One of my best friends of 10+ years is my friend today because the first thing we bonded over was seeing the last HP movie. I used to be deadset on my 2nd tattoo being my pottermore wand with my hogwarts house. I wanted a fucking HP-themed wedding. The first funko pops I bought were Harry Potter ones. My first serious boyfriend told me he wanted to propose to me in front of Hogwarts castle (this was something he said to guilt trip me when i dumped his ass) ((also thank the gods that never happened he was a shithead and so is jkr)). My mom for some godforsaken reason let me help her name my youngest brother when he was born because she couldn't think of a name and my 10yo ass fuckikg picked DANIEL because of Daniel Radcliffe. I was in DEEP.

And you know what? Aside from the books I camped out to buy on release day and the DVDs that are crammed in a box somewhere in a storage unit, I have gotten rid of every single Harry potter thing I owned because I grew the fuck up and found better things to like. Sure I'll watch the DVDs again every few years to feel the nostalgia again because a good chunk of the cast are great people (we fucking stan Dan Radcliffe and David Tennant in this house ) but I'm not giving jkr another cent of my money or an inkling of my time beyond that.

You are so valid and you are allowed to be upset if your friends continue to engage with Harry potter content.

Anyone who days "uwu my nostalgia" ask them if they still sleep with their fucking baby blanket too.

My former boss wouldn't shut the fuck up about the new video game when it came out. At least once a week he'd ask me if I'd played it yet and every single time I would tell him "I'm not engaging with that franchise anymore. JKR uses money to fund anti-trans legislation." And he'd always spout some bullshit about nostalgia or "but it's SO good" or "yeah I just try to separate the art from the artist / oh but the devs who worked hard on the game! / but playing the game doesn't actually support her! (yes the fuck it does if the game does well it boosts her platform)"

And especially now that my wife has come out, I'm extra ready to fight the next grown person who tells me they ~separate the art from the artist~ like fuck off. There are better things to spend your time and energy on. I hope everything JKR makes flops hard. Everything shes done since the last movie has been a disgusting cash-grab and none of it is even good. I'm beyond thrilled that BG3 has had a wild runaway success and a longer-lasting player base than the fucking game she put out. Nothing has ever disappointed me more than JKR being the way that she is.

Oh but the lore and world building? The ability to make your own character in such a fun and magical immersion world?bDnd has better lore than Harry potter ever did and the lore adds up and makes sense. If you look at her shit beyond the surface level she is actually fucking TERRIBLE at world building especially when she tries to do it without being a fucking racist ((does anyone remember when early drafts for the American magic schools that were using Native American imagery and it was all REALLY FUCKING OFFENSIVe and let's also not forget "no-maj" being the least fucking creative thing she ever came up with)

"But my hogwarts house" PLEASE choose a better Personality.

I have more nostalgia for Avatar the Last Airbender these days since i got into that when it first started airing when i was 12 (and look if you're really into the fuckin houses as your Personality you can get that with ATLA! Water tribe forever bitches)

"But the characters!!!" Please. There are better characters ALL AROUND YOU. pick up a fucking comic book. Yknow Superman actually has a similar structure, he's got the nerdy Normal friend and the love interest and it's a goddamn shame none of the movies include his bestie Jimmy because he's just as important as Lois Lane is.

"But all the strong female characters!" It is 2024 please I beg you to find other female role models (I will again point to Avatar the Last Airbender and Literally Any Comic Book Featuring A Woman. Captain Marvel is actually really good. Battlestar Galactica is also chock full of strong female characters and that came out in the early 2000s!)

Bestie i genuinely feel bad for all the fucking white people who can ignore all the bullshit JKR has done and said and all those sad saltine cracker flavor type people whose entire personalities are Watching The Office and Enjoying Harry Potter And Star Wars. Grow up. Move On.

If it's that important to you (and i mean the general you here not you specifically), please do what I did and Marie Kondo that part of your life. You don't need to hold onto the safety blankie you had as a child. You don't have to hold onto the pair of shoes that got you through high school and are out of fashion and falling apart. You give it a sendoff. Say "thanks for getting me through that part of my life but I'm moving on" and you move the fuck on.

I did something really sappy for my 30th birthday - I said goodbye to the franchise. I mourned what could have been. I went to Universal studios ((also bc Simpsons land and fast and furious ride and ET and a bunch of other stuff are there)) but I stopped into Harry potter world to do everything once and say goodbye to that part of my life since it was something I had wanted to do for most of my youth, and my friend who i became friends with because of harry potter was there with me. We drank the fucking pumpkin juice, had breakfast at the three broomsticks, appreciated all the little easter eggs around hp world, rode the hagrid ride, and ate a chocolate frog I wore my trans rights shirt and dressed gay as hell, my friend is trans so he just ~existed blissfully~ . I think every Harry potter fan needs to acknowledge that the franchise was good for them in the 90s, mourn that part of their life, and move on.

Bonus: me being Gay as Fuck in front of the castle. I hope JKR fucking rots and fades into obscurity and people come to realize she's worse than HP Lovecraft.

[pianostarinwonderland]

Well that ending for Playful Land was something !

Seeing the differing reactions of the ending among fans has been pretty interesting for me. Some find it to be the perfect ending, others find it a cop-out and a disappointment.

Personally, Playful Land's ending is the most interesting ending I've seen in a Twst event. I've never experienced a lot of mixed feelings for an ending till now.

On one hand, based on the event tl summaries, it did feel like a cop out to me. Fellow did win against the boys. They were going to die. And it was all ended by a call from his boss. It felt anti-climatic the first time I heard about it. Heck, it reminded me of how I felt with Endless Halloween's ending with how it was all just a prank. Admittedly, a lot of these feelings is because we had one book dedicated to 9 people fighting underworld blot monsters and saving the world, and they came out victorious xD with how Twst boys always manage to win in dire situations, it feels so weird that they were losing here.

On the other hand, I'm not mad about it. In fact, I think the "cop out" works for a few reasons.

There was indeed build up to the call, with Fellow calling his clients and boss in Episode 3 of the event. We saw how shitty the relationship is, we already see that Fellow was only in it for the money. If you researched or watched Pinocchio for this event, you would know that Honest John himself wasn't comfortable with Pleasure Island. But he still took up the job simply because it promises money. And Fellow is the same—he took up the amusement park job because there was money promised. And with his employers and clients being rich people? All the more enticing, especially since he isn't from a privileged background. Fellow has to make ends meet one way or another.

The boys were in a losing situation. Our boys may have witnessed many terrifying things like Overblot and Tartarus and came out victorious, but they're not invincible. The park was funded by influential people who have the magic and resources to make it so nobody escapes no matter what they do. They were also taken down one by one, with the SSR trio being turned to puppets by Fellow ripping their ticket, which was out of their control. And I think it may be worth keeping in mind, they're not Azul, Idia, and Malleus. They don't have the powerful magic or the ingenuity that the Glomas trio hold. They have their own strengths that do make them worthy of being the SSRs of the event (Ace's wit, Ortho's robo abilities, Kalim's kindness). But they were at an inherent disadvantage. (And on that note, it suddenly makes sense as to why the event started with the basketball team losing to RSA's—to establish that NRC isn't as strong as people would think).

It makes the situation all the more horrifying in the way that it's real. Aside from Lilia, the boys are still young people who are susceptible to crimes like human trafficking. A lot of victims don't make it out alive. NRC boys were just fortunate that they were able to talk to Fellow and have that his boss had one hell of a temper. Imagine if that boss was more patient. Imagine if they weren't able to get on Fellow's good side. Hell, the ending was hauntingly vague about the rest of the park goers. What happened to them as they blew up the amusement park? And hell, it gives not only the boys but the audience so much room for thought on the what ifs. What if that call didn't come through in time?

On the topic of being real, I also like that they really highlight Fellow being so done with his boss. It reflects a very real scenario of being tired of a toxic workplace, and you know what, rooting for you, Fellow. Get out of there.

It's so interesting how this ending works. Maybe there could have been a better ending. But as it is, it does work.

[purplemninja]

Little Nightmares hot takes

[Feel free to comment or reblog with hot takes of your own]

Someone on the LN subreddit asked for people's hot takes and I commented a bunch of spicy ones that I have, which I will copy and paste here (though the last one will have something added to it):

1- People who say that Mono is an uwu-softboi or portray him as such are awful and are doing him a disservice. Like, you can not look at his battle against the Thin Man and pretend that he's a pacifist, not to mention the other kills he made in-game. His fight against the Thin Man and moving the tower towards himself is his most badass moment and these rougher edges to him make him a much more interesting character. So by taking that away and acting like he wouldn't hurt a fly really doesn't do Mono's character and arc any favours, it just ruins it, so people have seriously got to stop thinking that he's a 'pwecious widdle angel' when he clearly isn't, especially when it hurts his character and story.

2- I'm pretty sure that people are expecting this one but the fandom needs to lay off Six, and way the fandom makes it so that Six must either be totally good or totally bad and is not allowed to be morally grey (in between) is so irritating. Just like with Mono, taking away Six's rough edges or smooth ones hurt her character and make her way less interesting. Also no surprise that I say this but the way that the anti-Six people treat her is so awful.

3- In addition to what I said about the golden child Mono stans in number 1, the way that the FNAF books treat Henry is very much like how the fandom treats Mono - only his suffering matters, screw everyone else. Or some go even stupider and treat all of the characters in LN except Six sort of in the same way that the FNAF books treat Henry, basically like "Six and her suffering? She should shut up and suck it up" or even going as far to say that she deserves her suffering. While just about all the other characters (Mono most especially) have their suffering dealt with a gentle hand.

4- I'm pretty sure this is ghost-pepper level spicy but it's so dumb that the fandom claims that Roger is nice. Like bruh, he literally has blood stains on his vest, chases kids, you can hear one that he catches whimpering as he takes them away, wraps them up to be taken to the kitchen, and there's a bloody guillotine in vicinity. Just because he doesn't kill Six or RK on-screen means he's nice? What?

5- They should've made a LN2 DLC where you play the game as Six and get to see her perspective of everything that happened, especially that scene. Make them step out of their Mono/Thin Man tunnel vision and focus on Six and her suffering too for a change instead of making Mono's overshadow everything.

6- Six being the Lady would be disappointing AF and lazy that they're recycling Mono's fate. I'd be better off if Six was the next Lady and not the same one encountered in LN1, but I still prefer a different way for her story to go (or maybe make my new depressing interpretation of her ending (where she's not the lady but is still stranded at sea with no innocence or humanity left, making everything she went through all be for nothing in the end) the actual ending for her).

Plus, you're telling me that the remaining staff on the Maw (The Twin Chefs) were like "Oh, this kid that we tried to murder earlier is our boss now" and Six is like "Oh, I'm not going to kill these guys who tried to add me to the menu earlier. Plus I'll hire an exact copy of the Janitor and get a replacement for the one and only mirror I was able to fight the Lady with since it broke and try to board it up in the same room that I found it in. Yeah, it tooootaaaally would prevent another me from being able to get it in the exact same way that I did".

Not only that but they also put a child in charge of dealing with other business-related stuff on the Maw like shipments of coal and vegetables (or maybe someone else did that)? So stupid.

7- Runaway Kid's name is not seven!

8- The ridiculous double standards of self defence. Why are Mono and Runaway Kid allowed to defend themselves from monsters trying to kill them but Six isn't?

Mono - Smashes a bunch of bullies, pulls the trigger on the gun to shoot the Hunter, beats some living hands to death, probably burns the Doctor alive, kills some viewers by electrocuting them to death or luring them off of a ledge, and probably broke every bone in Thin Man's body before Thanos Snapping him.

Fandom - Eh.

RK - Electrocutes the Granny to death and disintegrates the Shadow Kids with his torch.

Fandom - Whatever

Six- Helps Mono shoot the same Hunter that kidnapped her and locked her in his basement (and she didn't take the gun off the hooks, Mono did), kills one bully after being kidnapped, tortured and hung upside down by them for who knows how long (which will eventually kill you), cuts off Roger's arms with a door when she was cornered, eats a rat when there's no other food nearby, eats a Nome instead of a sausage that she knows is made of human flesh, eats the Lady when there's no other food anywhere, and kills some guests who are reaching over to try and eat her on her way out of the Maw.

Fandom - Monster.

Now, I'm not saying that what Six did was good or what the boys did was evil, but people have to stop acting like it's okay for one character to kill to save their own lives but not the other.

9- This stems more from a certain artist that I won't name to avoid people going to harass them, but on top of the self defence standards, people also have to stop with the double standards of bad things happening to a character due to another character's actions. What I mean with this is that while yes, Mono had no way of knowing that Thin Man was behind the door and getting Six kidnapped by him was a mistake, that does not, however, undo the fact that Six still got kidnapped or that her kidnapping is not that big a deal all because it was an accident on Mono's part. Especially when people won't give Six the same leniency when it comes to Mono becoming the Thin Man. Six had no way of knowing that Mono would survive the fall, let alone him being stuck in a room on a chair for decades and turning into the Thin Man, yet that is a big deal despite her not knowing but her kidnapping isn't because it's also an accident?

And lastly,

10- Another ghost-pepper level spicy but AUs where Six pulls Mono up yet all the suffering she has to go through before that is 100% the same as in-game makes her a way, waaaayyyy better person than Mono. This goes double for AUs where Six realises that he's the Thin Man (you know, her kidnapper and tormentor) but decides to pull him up anyway. Like, Mono as Thin Man decides to kidnap and torture an innocent version of Six, cursing her with the hunger and making the child Mono have to torture her to save her, but Six decides to pull him up despite all of the pain he put her through. Even more so when she realises that he is her kidnapper. That makes her a much better person that him. Though it also makes her kind of spineless. I'm not saying that she should drop him, but in-game the player can abuse Six in some ways (running when holding her hand, which makes her stumble, throwing stuff at her, bash her with weapons (even if they don't do anything to her) getting her to fall off of stuff (yes, she respawns or teleports, but still), blinding her with the torch) but not once does Six retaliate until Mono attacks the music box, making her a bit of a doormat TBH. Yet some people in the fandom portray Mono as the doormat instead, it's like the fandom goes out of its way to get Mono and Six as backwards as possible.

Additionally, fan content where Mono doesn't apologise for getting Six kidnapped in the first place, or torturing her during his fight against her monster self makes him a huge jerk. Like, this girl has to suffer because of his actions (unintentional, perhaps. But as I said, that doesn't make the pain Six suffered go away or not matter) and he doesn't even have the decency to at least say sorry for the hurt he caused her? It pleases me whenever there's fan content where he does apologise, because not being sorry for hurting Six makes him a huge jerk.

It's long, but those are my hot takes.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Snowflame

(WARNING! This analysis contains C-C-C-COCAINE!)

Imagine this absurd concept: A supervillain cartel boss whose powers are fueled by him getting high off his own supply. Imagine too that this man wears a ridiculous outfit, and exists to be an anti-drug PSA that fails epically because he makes doing drugs look awesome. Now also imagine that everything about him is played completely straight without a single bit of acknowledgment of how absurd and campy the whole thing is.

That, my friends, is Snowflame.

The New Guardians is a comic series that would have been long forgotten as a crusty relic of the late 80s if not for giving the world the absolute coolest villain ever conceived. Snowflame has amassed a cult following the likes of which would make Jim Jones envious, due to the sheer absurdity of his existence and the pure unadulterated action movie villain charm of his dialogue. He’s perhaps one of the most minor villains out there with only a handful of appearances to his name, but he’s loved more than villains who’ve appeared twenty times as much as him.

I’m here to show you why.

Motivation/Goals: Snowflame is a cartel leader, and so he really wants to peddle drugs. Guess which drug is his forte. Go on, guess. And that’s really all there is to him! I need to reiterate that his threat as a cartel leader is played completely and utterly straight even as he spouts off the hammiest dialogue you’ve ever seen and literally gets a power up by snorting coke. This is the very core of his appeal, in that he is something genuinely terrifying and threatening but presented in a way only a comic book can pull off.

Of course, his true motivation is far, far simpler.

Look at this man. That is the face of a man who exists solely to snort illicit substances up his nose. He lives to be high. That is the extent of his desires, and all else is second to that simple goal. As long as he can ignite and continue to be the instrument of cocaine's will, he is satisfied.

Final Fate: Every single time Snowflame shows up, he dies. In his initial appearance, he apparently blows up, but three decades later, he makes his coke-fueled return to do battle with Catwoman, and despite inhaling enough cocaine to kill an elephant, a feat that should theoretically make him nigh invincible, he fucking dies.

...Or does he? Snowflame returns yet again in Peacemaker Tries Hard! Here he does battle with, you guessed it,

...who puts a poison dart frog in his cocaine and kills him.

Maybe. My theory is that Snowflame is the Kenny of the DC universe, and whenever some bastard kills him his coke-fueled powers just respawn him the next day.

Best Scene: While his fight against Catwoman is unfortunately lackluster as ordained by the writers (Selina is not lasting two seconds against Snowflame and his coke-fueled powers under realistic circumstances), it gave us one of the most gorgeous and badass panels ever made:

Really brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

Best Quote: Yeah, there’s no fucking contest here, it’s this:

Final Thoughts & Score: I think I speak for all of us when I say Snowflame is one of the greatest fucking characters ever conceived.

Everything about him is a towering testament to what makes the medium of comic books great. The best villains tend to be the wildest and most out-there concepts, like a giant alien starfish that mind controls people, or a gay gorilla in love with a brain in a jar, or a giant racist communist egg. And don’t even get me started on the villains the Doom Patrol fights! Snowflame is the epitome of that; he is what would happen if Tony Montana was a DC supervillain by way of Captain Planet. He is absurd, over-the-top, and so goddamn cool.

It’s very obvious they were trying to do an anti-drug PSA here given the time the comic was released, but it absolutely falls flat on its face when the strawman constructed to be defeated so that the lesson might be dispersed is an absolute lunatic who dresses in colorful spandex and spouts off the most epic lines to ever come out of a villain’s mouth. Everything about him is absurd, but unlike something like Egg Fu he’s absurd in a tasteful and cool way rather than a shockingly racist way. Snowflame is just a dude who snorts cocaine to gain superpowers, it’s as simple as that and yet it’s also completely bonkers.

It’s genuinely unsurprising that this guy managed to get such a massive cult following that he spawned a fanmade webcomic and then got to pop up in the comics again over three decades after his supposed death. And it’s said cult following that has allowed him to pop up time and time again, even getting an appearance in the fourth season of Harley Quinn. I’m sure you can guess that I’m part of that massive cult fanbase, and I can only dream of writing a villain as incredible and grandiose as this drug-addled madman. Infinity/10 isn’t a real score, so he’ll have to settle for a 10/10 instead.

...Oh yeah, remember in the Egg Fu review when I said I wasn’t going to review Hemo-Goblin?

Psycho Analysis: Hemo-Goblin

This is gonna be really short, because there is so little to this guy. He is a one-shot, but boy what a fucking shot he is. Hemo-Goblin is a racist vampire created by South African white supremacists to give members of the New Guardians AIDS. You read that right. This is a racist AIDS vampire.

Now, unlike Egg Fu, who was a horrible racist caricature created from topical anti-communist sentiments of the time, Hemo-Goblin was seemingly created with better intentions. But you know what they say about intentions; the road to Hell is paved with good ones. I get wanting to do a commentary on the AIDS crisis, and I don’t think it’s out of the question for a superhero book to handle such a thing, but maybe having an AIDS-powered vampire give HIV to a Jamaican woman and a gay man isn’t the most tasteful and nuanced way to do this.

Oh, and by the end of his only appearance, he dies of AIDS in jail.

I’m not gonna lie, guys: I kinda love this stupid fucking creature. His weird design, the absurdity of his concept, and the awful execution of his premise makes him memorable for all the wrong reasons, but he’s memorable nonetheless. I think if Snowflame didn’t exist and wasn’t the coolest villain ever, more people would talk about the insanity that is Hemo-Goblin, though having a single appearance before dying and never appearing again doesn’t help his case much. Still, he’s just cazy enough to earn himself a 3.5/10, so he’s got that going for him.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Tessa Stuart at Rolling Stone:

KRISTA HARDING’S DAUGHTER was eight weeks old when that police cruiser pulled behind her on the interstate and hit the lights in September 2019. She called her boss at the Little Caesars in Pinson, Alabama, where she’d just been promoted to manager: I’m going to be a little late, but I’m coming in! Don’t panic. Harding’s registration tag was expired. She figured the officer would write her a ticket and she’d be on her way, but when he came back after running her driver’s license, he had handcuffs out. There was a felony warrant out for her arrest, he said: “Chemical endangerment of a child.” Harding used her most patient customer-service tone to ask the officer if he’d please check again. But there was no mistake, the cop confirmed: He was taking her to the Etowah County Detention Center, almost an hour’s drive away. “I’m in the back of the cop car just bawling my eyes out, like, ugly-face-snot-bubbles crying,” Harding remembers. She was worried about being away from her newborn, and she was confused: Chemical endangerment of a child? “I think of somebody cooking meth with a baby on their hip,” she says. 

She’s right to think that: The Alabama law, passed in 2006, was intended to target those who expose children to toxic chemicals, or worse, explosions, while manufacturing methamphetamine in ad-hoc home labs.  Harding says it took at least eight hours to be booked into a cell that night, and it was more than a week before she was finally allowed to see a judge. She was still leaking breast milk, and desperately missing her two daughters. Her family wasn’t allowed to bring her clean underwear, so every day she washed her one pair, saturated with menstrual blood, in the cell sink, then hung them to dry.

Harding says she eventually learned the warrant for her arrest had been issued because of a urine test taken at a doctor’s visit early in her pregnancy. Sitting alone in her cell, she conjured a vague memory of her OB-GYN warning her local authorities had begun to crack down on weed. The comment had struck her as odd at the time: Nine years earlier, when she was pregnant with her first child, the same doctor at the same hospital had told Harding, who’d smoked both pot and cigarettes before she was pregnant, that she’d rather Harding kick the nicotine than the weed. (Studies are unequivocal about the fact that cigarettes contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes, but the research on weed is less conclusive, with some doctors arguing it at least has therapeutic benefits, like helping with morning sickness.)

But in the years between her first child and her second, something had changed in certain parts of Alabama. In Etowah County, in 2013, the sheriff, the district attorney, and the head of the local child-welfare agency held a press conference to announce they intended to aggressively enforce that 2006 law. Instead of going after the manufacturers of meth, though, they planned to target pregnant women who used virtually any substance they deemed harmful to a developing fetus.

“If a baby is born with a controlled-substance dependency, the mother is going to jail,” then-Sheriff Todd Entrekin said at the time. Police weren’t required to establish that a child was born with a chemical dependency, though — or even that a fetus experienced any harm — a drug test, a confession, or just an accusation of substance use during pregnancy was enough to arrest women for a first offense that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. One public defender would later call these “unwinnable cases.” Over the following decade, Etowah County imprisoned hundreds of mothers — some of whom were detained, before trial, for the rest of their pregnancies, inside one of the most brutal and inhumane prisons in the country, denied access to prenatal care and adequate nutrition, they say — in the name of protecting their children from harm. 

[...]

In the past two decades, Alabama has become the undisputed champion of arresting pregnant women for actions that wouldn’t be considered crimes if they weren’t pregnant: 649 arrests between 2006 and 2022, almost as many arrests as documented in all other states combined, according to advocacy group Pregnancy Justice, which collected the statistics. Across the U.S., the vast majority of women arrested on these charges were too poor to afford a lawyer, and a quarter of cases were based on the use of a legal substance, like prescription medication.

Today, Marshall is the attorney general of Alabama, and just a few months ago, the state’s Supreme Court used the same logic — that life begins at conception, therefore an embryo is legally indistinguishable from a living child — in a decision that was responsible for shutting down IVF clinics across the state. The ruling was a triumph for the fetal-personhood movement, a nationwide crusade to endow fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses with constitutional rights. Personhood has been the Holy Grail for the anti-abortion movement since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, but outlawing abortion — at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason — is just the start of what legal recognition of embryos’ rights could mean for anyone who can get pregnant. Experts have long warned that elevating an embryo’s legal status effectively strips the person whose body that embryo occupies of her own rights the moment she becomes pregnant.

Across the country, this theory has led to situations like in Texas, where a hospital kept a brain-dead woman alive for almost two months — against her own advanced directive and the wishes of her family — in deference to a state law that prevents doctors from removing a pregnant person from life support. (The hospital only relented after the woman’s husband sued for “cruel and obscene mutilation of a corpse.”) Or in New Hampshire, where a court allowed a woman who was hit by a car while seven months pregnant to be sued by her future child for negligence because she failed to use “a designated crosswalk.” Or in Washington, D.C., where a terminally ill cancer patient, 26 weeks pregnant, requested palliative care, but was instead subjected to court-ordered cesarean section. Her baby survived for just two hours; she died two days later.

Or in Alabama, where, in 2019, Marshae Jones walked into the Pleasant Grove Police Department with her six-year-old daughter expecting to be interviewed for a police investigation. Months earlier, Jones, four and a half months pregnant at the time, had been shot by her co-worker during a dispute. In the hospital after the shooting, Jones underwent an emergency C-section; her baby, whom she’d named Malaysia, did not survive. Rather than indicting the shooter, though, a grand jury indicted Jones, who they decided “intentionally” caused the death of her “unborn baby” because she allegedly picked a fight “knowing she was five months pregnant.” The charges were ultimately dismissed, but Jones’ lawyer says her record still shows the arrest, and Jones, who lost her job after the incident, struggled to find work after her case attracted national attention.

The threat this ideology poses to American women is not contained to Alabama: Recognition of fetal personhood is an explicit policy goal of the national Republican Party, and it has been since the 1980s. The GOP platform calls for amending the U.S. Constitution to recognize the rights of embryos, and representatives in Congress have introduced legislation that would recognize life begins at conception hundreds of times — as recently as this current session, when the Life at Conception Act attracted the co-sponsorship of 127 sitting Republican members of Congress.

[...]

Taking inspiration from Black Americans’ fight for equal rights, the anti-abortion movement began thinking of its own crusade as a fight for equality. “The argument that the unborn was the ultimate victim of discrimination in America was really resonant with a lot of white Americans, a lot of socially conservative Americans — and it was vague enough that people who disagreed about stuff like feminism, the welfare state, children born outside of marriage, the Civil Rights Movement” could find common ground, Ziegler says.  By the time the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in 1973, the idea that a fetus was entitled to constitutional protections was mainstream enough to be a central piece of Texas’ argument that “Jane Roe” did not have a right to get an abortion.  

The justices rejected that idea. “The word ‘person,’ as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn,” Justice Harry Blackmun wrote. But he gave the movement a cause to rally behind for the next half-century by adding: “If this suggestion of personhood is established, [Roe’s] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.”  Making that happen became the anti-abortion movement’s primary focus from that moment on. One week after Roe was decided, a U.S. congressman first proposed amending the Constitution to guarantee “the right to life to the unborn, the ill, the aged, or the incapacitated.” It was called the Human Life Amendment, and though it failed to make it to a floor vote that session, it would be reproposed more than 300 times in the following decades.  By 1980, the idea had been fully embraced by the Republican Party: Ronald Reagan’s GOP adopted it into the party platform — where it remains to this day — and in 1983, the Republican-majority Congress voted, for the first and only time, on the idea of adding a personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That vote failed. 

After their 1983 defeat, activists turned their attention away from the U.S. Capitol and toward the states, where they sought to insert the idea of fetal personhood into as many state laws as possible: everything from legislation creating tax deductions for fetuses or declaring them people for census-taking purposes, to expanding child-endangerment and -neglect laws.  Activists pursued this agenda everywhere, but they were most successful at advancing it in states that share certain qualities. “You could draw a Venn diagram of American slavery and see that what’s happening today is in common in those states,” says Michele Goodwin, a Georgetown University law professor and author of the book Policing the Womb. “Some would say, ‘Well, OK, how is that relevant?’ Slavery itself was explicitly about denying personal autonomy, denying the humanity of Black people. Now, clearly, these laws affect women of all ethnicities. But the point is: If you’re in a constitutional democracy and you found a way to avoid recognizing the constitutional humanity of a particular group of people, it’s something that’s not lost in the muscle memory of those who legislate and of the courts in that state.”

Rolling Stone has a solid in-depth report on the war on women and reproductive health in Alabama, going into detail the fetal personhood movement.

[leejeongz]

🫧 valentine’s day with evnne 🫧

pairing:boyf!evnne x gn!reader

genre: fluff!

warnings: gift giving, physical affection, mentions of food

a/n: I AM A VALENTINE’S DAY ANTI NORMALLY but this year idk something changed (jeonghyeon) and i suddenly think it can be quite cute. also i’ve decided to start adding jihoo onto these now <3

𓆉 keita

⋆ oh he’s PREPARED he’s had reservations made since feb 15th of last year

⋆ he wants to cut up some fruit for your breakfast but you catch him with a huge knife looking a bit helpless so you take over

⋆ “i made you lunch, though, you can’t take that from me!” and it was delicious!!!

⋆ managing to sweet talk his boss to give him the afternoon off, he took you to a couples pottery class

⋆ honestly it was just an afternoon full of love and laughter rather than actual art but you wouldn’t want it any other way

⋆ and for dinner, keita had found a hidden gem only an hour away from your home, he knew you’d like the menu options and the view (even if it was pitch black outside when you got there)

𓆉 hanbin

⋆ he’s waiting very patiently for his valentine’s day treat from the minute he wakes up and he thinks everything is a hint

⋆ hands your card to you with the most expectant grin, waiting for you to open it like 😁😁😁😁 (he wrote something about him being the best boyfriend in there)

⋆ oh and he LOVESSS his gift, no matter what it is he’s bragging about it to his friends - that’s after the 5 million photos he posted of you on social media

⋆ other than that it’s a pretty normal day

⋆ except the five course, formal meal that he booked for 7pm

⋆ “oh my gosh you look absolutely gorgeous,” he’s basically in tears when he sees you all glammed up

⋆ at that moment, he asks you to turn around and places the most beautiful pendant necklace around your neck before kissing your shoulder and waking you to the car

𓆉 jeonghyeon

⋆ well it was going to be just another day for jeonghyeon since you didn’t mention it for a few weeks leading up to it

⋆ he just got you a card and some flowers to be delivered

⋆ but he took a step back like the day before and thought hmm actually there's way more that he could do than just a card and flowers

⋆ given that everywhere is pretty much already all booked up and he can’t get the day off work just like that, he decides he’s gonna cook for you when he gets home and find a way to make the evening as fun as possible

⋆ he leaves you with a short but no less adorable treasure hunt to find your gift (earrings that you’d been looking at for months!), collecting packs of love heart candy on the way

⋆ dinner is… questionable… barely edible even, but it’s the thought that counts

𓆉 seungeon

⋆ all morning he acts like he forgot that it’s valentine’s day, even if you bring it up he’s like “oh i thought it was next week”

⋆ but after you eat your breakfast (suspicious that there was some of your favourite cereal left over but you thought nothing of it) you notice a red envelope on your pillow

⋆ before he leaves he lets you know to expect a delivery, he’s ordered for you the most beautiful bouquet of your favourite purple/pink flowers with a cute note reading “i love you berry much, my darling, happy valentine’s day <3”

⋆ when he gets home, he cringes at the memory of writing that but soon gets over it when you kiss him to say thank you

⋆ you decide to go to bed early that night, but neither of you are sleeping, too busy giggling about memories

𓆉 yunseo

⋆ oh it’s his day to SHINE (but let’s be real everyday is valentine’s day with yunseo)

⋆ you can absolutely guarantee he’s taking the day off work and he’ll ask if you can do the same too

⋆ you spent your day baking at home together, little cookies in the shape of hearts and brownies with strawberries on top

⋆ it’s no fun without a food fight too, of course you end up covered in flour and chocolate, but he apologises with a very sincere hug and a kiss on the crown of your head

⋆ for dinner, you shared some homemade (from a packet) pasta under candlelight with the brownies and cookies for dessert

⋆ and they made the perfect snack for movie night, cuddled up on the sofa/in bed

𓆉 junghyun

⋆ a slight kiss to your forehead, a handwritten letter left on your bedside table and a platter of pancakes for your breakfast, all done by your boyfriend before he left for work

⋆ not to mention an enormous bouquet already in a vase that took up half of your kitchen

⋆ he returned late afternoon, full of apologies that he couldn’t be home today

⋆ “i got us tickets for the cinema tonight, they only had a horror left so we don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

⋆ but it turned out to be the best purchase of his life because you cling onto him for the whole evening

⋆ and he would never miss an opportunity to call you his cutie!

𓆉 jihoo

⋆ “i don’t really celebrate it, it’s a capitalist marketing scheme”

⋆ and then goes to his members to help put together something elaborate that you won’t expect

⋆ a scrapbook of pictures he’s taken with little anecdotes on the side

⋆ pictures of you, pictures of clouds, the sea, city lights, pictures of silly little stuffed toys he's seen on his travels, anything that reminds him of you

⋆ you get take out for dinner so no arguing about who’s doing the dishes!

⋆ but you end up having to allow some of your friends around because your place is the hub of the friendship group unfortunately 😭

⋆ it’s all good though, you play some minecraft together before heading to bed at 2am

[misfitwashere]

Dr. Timothy Snyder - Thinking about...

Dear Friends, from time to time I will use this space to discuss a new book.  My essay today serves as a foreword to Julia Davis's new book on Russian television propagandists, In Their Own Words, which I heartily recommend to you.

            Russian propaganda is in the shadow of America.  Whereas the America only covers Russia when there is something to cover, and usually not even then, Russian propaganda television starts every night from the premise that whatever has happened that day is America's doing and America's fault.  This does not reflect reality -- or a typical American's experience of reality. 

            It does reflect the problem that Russian propaganda is meant to solve.  Since Vladimir Putin is the boss of bosses in an oligarchical regime where domestic policy is impossible, the propagandists must direct attention to the world beyond Russia in a way that makes Russia's leadership seem righteous.

            Russian propagandists do this in the confidence that no one beyond Russia is watching.  But Julia Davis has been, to the great benefit of us all.  Thanks to her new book, In Their Own Words, we can understand the propagandists' job description, but also the tensions they feel when the outside world causes them problems. 

            Their basic posture is that America is in a constant war with the Russian Federation.  Because Russia cannot fight and cannot win any actual war of that description, the propagandists are most comfortable when America is turned against itself.  They talk almost never about Russian domestic politics, but obsess over every piece of evidence of American domestic weakness.

            Donald Trump is their favorite weapon against America.  Trump is described as a friend and ally, "our Trumpushka" and "Donald Fredovych."  Out of office, he is described as Russia's great hope.  He is "sorely missed"; Russia is "ready to elect you again".  Russia propagandists had no trouble predicting that Trump would try a coup when he lost in 2020, because that is a familiar sort of behavior to them.  They rejoiced when he did , because they thought that this could lead to a civil war in the United States.  Their coverage of Trump's coup attempt was at first highly positive.  When it failed, a very awkward pivot was made to the position that it had all been some sort of provocation by the Democrats.

            One of the things that Russian propagandists expect not to be noticed, but which is brought home in the book, is that they believe that Trump is an idiot.  Of course, it's hard to see, from their perspective, how they can believe anything else (except, perhaps, that he is a traitor, as is also sometimes hinted).  In their public worldview, destroying the United States is the main aim, and here is an American who follows their talking points. 

            The same goes for Tucker Carlson.  He is celebrated on Russian television, of course, and his clips replayed.  But Russian propagandists naturally think anyone beyond Russia who is on their side must not be very bright, and they cannot quite stop themselves from saying so.  It is the one point on which they are completely sincere.

            It is important to note, and Julia Davis gives us all the details, the hypocrisy of the anti-American pose.  A leading Russian propagandist sent his girlfriend to America to give birth so that his child would have Russian citizenship.  Propagandists are clearly personally hurt by sanctions that separate them from their property in the European Union or make it harder for them to travel abroad.  They send their children to study and work in the West, They don't have any real animus towards the West.  This is, I think, one more reason why they can't resist thinking of Americans on their side as idiots.

            When Putin ordered a full-scale war on Ukraine, the propagandists suddenly had a problem.  Before the attack, as we are reminded in this book, there was great confidence among Russian propagandists that Ukraine would fall to Russia in "two days" or even "ten minutes."  But when Russia actually did undertake a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it set off a chain of events that the propagandists found hard to master.

            For one thing, they had been cut out of the loop.  The invasion was meant to be its own propaganda, a "special military operation" that overthrew the Ukrainian government in three days, followed by a victory parade and a warm welcome by the Ukrainian masses.  This did not happen, and was based upon a worldview (Putin's) that was both obviously wrong and impossible to criticize.  Russian propagandists switched immediately to the comfortable idea that the war was really against America, and that America had initiated. Rereading Julia Davis's essays, I was struck by how quickly this happened -- within a few days.

            The Ukrainians themselves had to be dehumanized.  This was a direct consequence of the senselessness of the war.  Russians had to be made to feel that they were somehow superior, and that war had some kind of logic.  Its premise, as Putin had made clear, was that there was not really a Ukrainian state or nation; this was all a conspiracy, and would collapse immediately.  If, as it emerged, more Ukrainians defended themselves than expected, that did not mean that Ukraine was real; it just meant that logic of the special military operation, killing the elites, had to be extended ever further downward into the population. 

            As Julia Davis shows, Russian propagandists use openly genocidal language over and over again, urging the extermination of vermin, worms, demons, zombies, etc.  Putin's grotesque "denazification" framing of the war is genocidal.  If all Ukrainians are defined as Nazis by nature, then it is right to kill them all.  The "Nazi" claim has never had anything to do with political reality (the actual fascists, the ones in Russia, are calling for genocide), and always had everything to do with justifying that murderous project.  After the Hamas attack on Israel, there was split in the Russian media elite between Russia's non-Nazi fascists and the Nazi ones.  This too is chronicled here.   

A house bombed in Chernihiv region, Ukraine (photo TS, September 2022)

            When reading Julia Davis's essays carefully, it becomes clear that America is not just needed as a propaganda target, but as a de facto ally, called in by the propagandists to correct the (unmentionable) mistakes made by their own (supposedly infallible) dictator.  Russia needs Trump because it cannot manage on its own.  Trump allows them to claim that everything is America's fault and that this is confirmed by America's own leadership.  And then everything can go on in Russia as before.

            Russia needs America to bail it out of its war with Ukraine.  When you read Julia Davis's summaries of Russian propaganda day after day, it is abundantly clear that the propagandists themselves (despite all of the bluster) are aware that the war did not go according to plan, and indeed is going very badly.  Again and again they are put in impossible positions: when Ukraine takes territory; when Russia fails to take territory; when more Russians have to be mobilized; when Yevgeny Prigozhin tries and coup.  They cannot criticize Putin, and they know that Putin cannot win unaided: and so they root for his allies abroad.

            This itself is worth emphasizing, at a time when many Europeans and Americans seem to be asking how Ukraine can win.  The answer is simple.  Ukraine can win if Europeans and Americans believe it can, and continue to help.  Ironically, that emerges quite clearly from these pages.  Russia's propagandists know this.  They are relying entirely on their own domain, that of discourse.  The war is not going well for Russia on the actual battlefield.  The Europeans and the Americans are bearing essentially no costs.  But if they can somehow decide that they are weary, Russia can win.

            Russia can't win its own war, is the propagandists' evident conclusion -- but America can win Russia's war for it.  America is of course not all-powerful, as the Russian propagandists claim to believe, but on this point they are right.  As we near the U.S. elections, their discussions of Ukraine, like their discussions of Russia and everything else, focus entirely on what is happening inside the United States.  The regime they serve, and the senseless and genocidal war it began, can be bought some time, if and only if the United States fails to support Ukraine.  And so the heroes of Russia's war, in Russia's own propaganda, become the Americans who support it.

TS 10 June 2024

[transmutationisms]

hi caden, i love your blog. you completely changed my understanding of succession when i first stumbled upon your writing. i wanted to ask what you thought of the use of pete seeger's 'which side are you on?' in season 1. it is one of the only overt gestures towards anticapitalist politics in the show and maybe the only one that comes to mind where the show calls in in other media (because one of the only other times that i can think of is ewan's anticapitalist lawyer) so it feels more 'real' to me, if that makes sense, because 'which side are you on?' has had a real-world role in anticapitalist politics in a way that ewan's lawyer has not lmao. i was wondering what you thought of that choice narratively/stylistically/etc. thank you! hope you're well.

hi! honestly, i read that as one of the most cynical moments in the entire show. the whole premise of the seeger song is that there's an inside and an outside to capitalist class interests: you'll either be a union man or a thug for jh blair. so, choosing a side makes an actual difference: are you defending or opposing capitalist class interests? with kendall and the vote of no confidence, obviously, there is no analogous choice. kendall and logan are both fighting for the same thing, namely control of the company. picking one of them over the other does nothing to alter the underlying power structures the way unions do, or are supposed to. the song pokes fun at kendall for having styled himself a revolutionary in order to make his media conglomerate power grab.

narratively and stylistically, i find this scene intensely satisfying. lines like "come all of you good workers" playing over footage of a billionaire wandering wall street are an extremely effective way to convey both how removed kendall's world is from that of struggling kentuckian miners, and how kendall is trapped by his own outrageous wealth and inability to imagine an escape from the company or his father. it's not an entirely unsympathetic sequence, but it's certainly not a flattering one. the joke here is that kendall wants to engage in the picture-book heroics of taking down the big evil boss, but he has no interest in why that boss exists in the first place. so, unlike striking miners, he's simply trying to maintain the same class structure but with himself at the very top of the hierarchy. even being logan's son and very much a member of the capitalist class isn't enough for kendall; he needs the actual ceo position. that he sees this as a way out of his father's abuse and control, rather than an avenue to his own perpetration of the same things, is indicative of how little he thinks of anyone besides himself and logan as a person with interests and needs.

the contrast between the shiny new glass and bustle of manhattan, versus the old-recording sound of the song, also points to some way in which union politics from the 1930s tend to falter when confronting the labour laws and practices of the 21st century. gig economies, cyberspatial capital, &c don't speak exactly the same language as unions modelled on organising tactics of nearly a century ago; kendall thus looks doubly absurd, trying to fancy himself not just a rebelling worker but one whose strategies simply seem incommensurable with the functioning of a modern media conglomerate (in deleuzian or foucauldian terms, the labour union is an effective strategy when dealing with a disciplinary society with disciplinary workspaces, like a factory; if it is to achieve anything in the control society with its corporations and neoliberalisation, it needs to update its tactics).

politically this is a good example of how the show typically leans more on satire of capitalism than on active or positive engagement with anti-capitalism. i also remember that the first time i watched the show, this was one of the moments where i felt like it was clear how the general trajectory for these characters is going to go. kendall is always going to pursue logan's empire; he's never going to seek a way out, and his actualisation, which is loganification, will always come at the expense of countless unnamed other people. he will never get the victorious moment he dreams of because his narratives for understanding the world are extremely limited and simplistic, and he can only cast himself as a few heroic archetypes that don't exist and that certainly wouldn't be him if they did.

for me this sequence is emblematic of both the show's strengths and what many leftists ultimately find frustrating about it, namely its refusal to engage with anti-capitalism beyond using it to mock the capitalist class. the song ends up telling us a lot about kendall and his relationship with logan, but isn't really trying to link the show up with actual alternatives to the capitalist systems of control that pen kendall in. it's a gesture toward awareness of proletarians (like the shots scattered through the show of domestic workers, event staff, &c) but is ultimately limited by the pov characters' own refusal to think about such people in any sustained capacity. again, i think this works incredibly well and succinctly as a piece of character work for a billionaire; but for people who want the show to engage more directly with labour politics and anti-capitalism, rather than such character study (& i can certainly understand that position), it's also a moment that sums up the fundamental problems of the premise and the writers' overall approach to politics.