#Contrarian Trading

[sgrji]

Mastering Intraday Stock Trading: Strategies, Tips, and Risks

Intraday stock trading, also known as day trading, is a high-stakes endeavor where traders buy and sell stocks within the same trading day. It’s a thrilling pursuit that requires skill, discipline, and a deep understanding of the market. In this article, we’ll explore the world of intraday stock trading, covering strategies, tips, and the inherent risks involved.### Understanding Intraday…

[itailevitanblog-blog]

DAX technical analysis & trade idea (contrarian long!)

[bitterkarella]

Identifying furries by their fursonas

Fox- this is the default fursona for the default furry, namely a twink with a blown out fucked to death asshole

Vixen- Girl fox referred to as a vixen is an egg, girl fox just referred to as a fox is an out trans woman

Kistune - the same as above but weeb flavor

he-wolf - a greasy guy who weighs 12 pounds soaking wet and wears a fedora. republican.

she-wolf - the butchest bull dyke you ever saw

coyote - manic depressive. always on something. the drug connection at any furry party

Cat- always a woman

black cat - could be any gender but always goth

kitten/kitty - a trans sex worker, has an only fans they really want you to know about.

bobcat - older dude. wants people to think he's ex-military

Jaguar - an older black guy. will probably have the word "black" in his fursona's name

lion - just a huge asshole

tiger - another asshole. old. wants you to believe he's ex military or ex-police, probably a member of the dorsai irregulars. major grill dad vibes

jackal - a huge asshole and a slut. white gay racist, probably transphobic

cougar - either a trans woman or a terf. there's no in between

Horse - white woman who identifies as 2 Spirit or a guy who wants to be stomped on

Pony - gay nazi

unicorn - either the absolute gayest dude you can be or a 9 year old girl. sometimes a late in life transition

Tanuki - latino

badger - either a huge lesbian or an old avuncular straight guy. possible sex pest

Raccoon - nature's greatest mistake. too normie to be furry, too furry to be normie. dilf.

bat - either a goth or a real annoying shit (some overlap). invader zim fanboy. doesn't drink alcohol but claims to act crazy on "sugar highs." definitely has dabbled in webcomics

cow - a woman. maternal. mom friend or mommy dom. milf. possibly trans femme

steer - a big strong fat rough trade gay guy

sheep - mom vibes

pretty much any farm animal - mom vibes

domestic pig - wild card. might be a wet and messy fetish thing tho or a trash eating thing. loves to be stinky. loves to talk about being stinky.

wild pig - trans masc

skunk - either a fat beardy guy who has a tumblr blog about animation squash & stretch or a stoner gal. very straight. the straightest. a kinsey 0. has strong feelings about what the fandom used to be like before there were all these kids in it.

rat - is a huge asshole as a front, probably likes talking cigars

lemur - autistic

sloth - 420 blaze it. will never finish any commissions

chakat - an older cishet man who thinks the fandom is too political & refers to "anime" as "japanimation"

sergel - nazi

citra - the biggest dipshit you've ever met

procyon - furry equivalent of the thomas jefferson miku binder pic. you should not be talking to this person, this is a literal child

weasel - a girl with cluster b personality disorders

ferret - a person who has at least one pet ferret, but probably many

mole - this person thinks they're in a beatrix potter story

guinea pig/chinchilla/jerboa/gerbil/any kind of fat rodent you can keep as a pet - the sweetest person you will ever meet

armadillo/pangolin/anteater/aardvark - smug, contrarian. "i just wanna be different"

mouse - vore fetishist, prey. sub.

hyena - vore fetishist, pred. probably trans masc

otter - a dommy twink, possible enby

bear - gay

panda - absolutely a white person pretending to be asian. probably running a gofund me scam with a suspicious story about how they're a professional nintendo gamer who injured their hand or something

bullfrog - a huge fat hairy straight guy

any other frog - inflation or rubber fetishist

axolotl/newt/salamander - genderfluid enby

rabbit - trad wife trans woman

squirrel - autistic and gay

deer - gay

gazelle - zootopia megafan

monkey - punk DIY artist type, definitely loves weed

ape - absolutely baffling. nothing this person does or says makes any sense. you will be left wondering whether you're speaking to a child, a person with severe mental issues, or someone who doesn't have english as a first language

elephant - mom friend

hippo - a fat fetishist or a transformation fetishist

rhino - an older cishet dude who wants to project a curmudgeonly yet approachable aura

kangaroo - definitely not an australian person. extremely focused kinkster, usually feet or inflation. more STDs than should be possible to carry

koala - an asian woman

virginia opossum - anarchist/communist punk trans man who makes zines and/or comics

australian possum - just here to have fun. wants everyone else to be having fun too. wacky funster. (sugar gliders and flying squirrels fall under this category)

any other marsupial - poser

monotremes - extreme poser, don't even bother

doberman- gay dude who tops from the bottom or a cop (there is some overlap)

german shepherd - a nazi or a cop (there is substantial overlap). definitely a furry raider. he will wear his cop uniform to con and after con will post videos pretending that someone was rude to him

afghan - arch femme

basset hound - racist

puppy - sub, probably an egg. extremely draining. cries a lot

all other dogs - just dudes being bros (gender neutral)

dragon - the furries of furries. like to talk about eating "sammiches" and "chocklit." probably an adult baby lifestyler. they will send DMs that just say "hi." they like to RP and when they contact you about a potential commission they are actually just trying to trick you into RP

griffin - the same as above but also a brony

snake - sissy hypno fetishist

turtle - an old man, probably southern. an ironic grandpa.

other scalies - furry in denial. either a child or an old person from CYD. the world's last something awful goons

any fursona with latino vibes - white

any fursona with asian vibes - latino

any fursona with native american vibes - eastern european

avian - girl who's not like other girls. hippie. vegan.

raven/crow - agender voidgoth

chicken - mom vibes

dinosaur - the absolute biggest nerd. probably has an actual degree in paleontology. definitely dresses like miss frizzle.

any invertebrate - not a real furry, their girlfriend just made them get a furaffinity account before they could get ass. either that or they've never even heard of furry, they just came up with the idea of anthropomorphics from first principles. a biology teacher or weirdo (there is some overlap)

amoeba - this is a troll

[favvn]

At the risk of being a contrarian (because I have browsed the tag, I've seen the complaints), The Deadly Years isn't entirely out of character for Jim Kirk. It's just that we get to see him at his worst again.

Back in season 1, the Conscience of the King shows that he will pull rank on both Spock and McCoy--the two people on the entire ship that Kirk allows himself to be closest to--to keep them out of his life and to shut down their concerns for his well-being. Kirk is not sick or inhibited by anything in this episode (other than haunted by his past). His decision to use the Enterprise to transport the acting troupe doesn't delay a mission or risk lives outside of the Enterprise, although it does inadvertently endanger one member of his crew (Lt. Riley). In other words, he acts selfishly in this episode and lashes out towards those who want to help, much like he does in The Deadly Years.

Earlier in the season, The Galileo Seven shows that Kirk will reassert his authority as captain to put off completing a mission to deliver emergency medical supplies to Makus III and aid a colony overrun by a plague because he has "standing orders" to investigate quasars. This mission is ordered by Galactic High Commissioner Ferris, which the Enterprise is transporting to oversee the supply transfer. Ferris himself later states that he outranks Kirk and can cite regulation to support his taking command of the ship to complete the mission once Kirk makes it clear he intends to take 2 full days to locate and retrieve the Galileo's crew rather than use those days to get to Makus III. This situation is interesting in that it shows how Kirk can respond negatively to those holding authority over him, especially when those same people question his decisions. Ferris is technically correct when he argues that the Galileo did not need to be launched to begin with, given how Kirk would rather trade the life of a colony for the lives of seven crew members.

I realize TOS is inconsistent about background details with how Starfleet operates owing to its standalone story structure, and this instance of "standing orders" is yet another case of that structure hindering the world building. While Kirk doesn't follow the Prime Directive even at the best of times (best of times being the absence of a cult. I'll grant him that exception), he will ignore a high galactic commissioner to follow "standing orders" all of a sudden because, at his core, Kirk doesn't want to follow orders. He's the captain. He's supposed to be the one in charge. If he's a perfectionist (his guilt at losing crew members during missions to the point of Spock having to console him, although this also comes from his survivor's guilt from Tarsus IV), it wouldn't surprise me a bit if he has control issues alongside it. In other words, for all the good Kirk tries to do and strives to do, he is still just as capable of acting selfishly and in his own best interests, and he has done so since the start of the series.

More to the point of The Deadly Years, aging is not always painless or graceful. We get to see Kirk starting to forget recent events and commands (forgetting recent events and conversations is one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease) to the point that he is an active risk to the safety of the crew. Of course, he will be in denial about it, to the point of anger and deflection. It's a painful thing to reckon with, to live in a body that doesn't work like you know it should, and to have others place judgments onto you for it because they're in perfect health. Not everyone can accept that with grace. This doesn't make Kirk out-of-character. It makes him human.

[salty-an-disco]

some more magical girls au stuff

and also some lore stuff:

– ‘The Echo’ is an immortal entity originated from the first ever echo to be created in that construct that trapped two gods. And now, eons later, this echo is obsessed with keeping a balance between the reincarnating pieces of these gods, and is always seeking out Quiet’s pieces reincarnations so that they always have the power to slay the pieces of the Princess that keep coming back. In this AU, this manifested as him basically making the voices magical girls

– the Echo is attached to a mirror; its shards used to make several hand mirrors he can be on at once and is how he communicates with the voices. Has mild shapeshifting abilities as an inky shadow that usually takes the form of a crow

– the Princesses create dimension bubbles around them ala Madoka Magica that change their surroundings to match their respective themes; they can only be dispersed by either killing the princess or helping them find closure in their stories (Echo conveniently doesn’t tell anyone about the latter option). They’ll always come back when they’re killed tho (often worse), and the cycle can keep going.

– Hero is in community college, studying law (it’s not his passion at all, but his family really wants him to be a lawyer and he can’t disappoint them!!), and often does gigs as a delivery boy for several businesses or other odd jobs. One of the newest magical girls alongside Contrarian – name in this AU is Hiro Capricórnio, and his transformed name is Starling; he has a stars and knight theme, and is able to summon a long, silver, feather that he uses as both a sword and a shield

– my Contra design kinda looks like a vocaloid so I decided he’s an actual superstar in his normal life who goes by the name ‘Contra Jester’ — their shows are always a fun spectacle that mixes in jokes and comedic gags in their musical performance (kinda like an inverse Bo Burnham, but with more lighthearted themes) – his AU name is Carter Thomfoolery (actual birth name) and their transformed name is Lyrical; has a music and clown theme and can summon a lyre that he uses to do all sorts of effects on the people affected

– Oppy is Carter’s agent and a senior magical girl. Doesn’t technically has any credentials to be managing a super star and was caught money laundering before, but hey! as long as he doesn’t try to meddle in their shows, Carter won’t sue them :) — was very concerned when they found out Carter was made a magical girl considering how unpredictable and uncontrollable they already are – AU name is Oscar Wilde and transformed name is Jack of Trades; has a showman/magician theme and can use the cards up his sleeves and his echoing voice to convince others to do what he wants

– Paranoid is a workaholic trying to get into medic school while juggling two part-time jobs and her responsibilities as a magical girl. Is very distrustful of the Echo in her mirror that gives her orders, but is EVEN MORE distrustful of the princesses; one of which is a recurring Nightmare she has only barely managed to defeat a few times. Tries to help/keep an eye on Lyrical and Starling, since she knows how it is to just start this off without much (helpful) guidance – AU name is Pamela Noid, and her transformed name is Little Shrike; has a plague doctor/engineer theme, the suitcase she carries can be opened to all sorts of contraptions that creates toxins and acid-filled bombs or guns, can also produce healing medicine (the pinnacle of “I’m a healer, but–”)

[strixcattus]

I mentioned wanting to post about my other STP AUs and then never actually followed up with that beyond some general notes on my D&D-esque AU, so here's a more specific rundown of the Voices:

Hero: A run-of-the-mill fighter from a small farming village on the west coast of the continent. Allegedly he was prophesied to do... something (still unclear on what, but the word "slay" was definitely involved), but he's not sure if he believes in that sort of thing. Somehow he ends up taking on quests with Cold and Stubborn far too often for comfort. Increasingly convinced he's the only normal person here.

Cold: A cold-blooded assassin and general blade-for-hire who only takes on jobs he finds interesting. In another time, he was less picky about whom he was assigned to kill, but he's grown discerning with time. He's only killed one noble in recent years before deciding to focus on more difficult targets... but she doesn't seem keen on leaving him alone. Most of his past is a mystery to everyone but Hero, though most people don't exactly feel like asking about it.

Stubborn: A textbook barbarian who decided never to die one day and hasn't changed his mind since. Tends to take on quests alongside Cold since their desires for an interesting fight line up... though Cold may or may not always appreciate the help. He met some sort of half-demon a few years back who had the same kind of loose relationship with death, and ever since they meet up every few months to kill each other. For some reason, most people think this is weird.

Contrarian: One of three recent bard-college graduates in the party. His specialty is theater and improvisation, particularly of a satirical sort. It hasn't even been a year since graduation and he's already banned from one of the northern kingdoms due to The Play. He's also banned from explaining what exactly was so offensive about The Play, and this one might be magically enforced, so best not to risk it. Of the bards, he's the most magically talented, though he mainly uses his talents for pranks.

Smitten: The second of three recent graduates. His specialties are the lute (which he's actually quite good at), romantic poetry (eh...), and singing/songwriting (no.). The most anyone can really get him to open up about his past is that he's from an island kingdom to the east and didn't grow up with any other beastfolk. "Smitten" isn't actually his real name, but not even Contrarian and Opportunist know what it really is.

Opportunist: The third of the recent graduates. He's a bit of a jack-of-all trades and fairly average at magic. It's mostly his fault that the three of them didn't manage to meet up again until they'd been tasked with killing a bunch of Princesses, because less than a month after graduation he got on the wrong side of a witch, was cursed into the form of a frog, and, being too proud to seek help, had to figure out how to either break the curse or turn back to his normal form on his own.

Hunted: I haven't fully figured out what's going on with him. He's a ranger who's been tracking a mysterious beast throughout the western forest—he's pretty sure there's some bounty put forth by one of the kingdoms within the forest, but his quest is mostly personal. He recently acquired an animal companion (a raven) to help him hunt down the beast, but only learned after the fact that the "animal companion" was A: sapient, and B: unable to fly.

Broken: He's been flightless since before he showed up at the first familiar-shop, and the constant cycle of being adopted by some aspiring wizard or ranger, then being cast out once they realized they'd been misled didn't do him any favors. It doesn't seem to be the result of an injury, though—he seems to know the real cause, but he isn't talking. At least the ranger who adopted him this time seems to be more understanding than the others.

Cheated: A solo adventurer who tends not to stick with a single party for very long. He's a warlock, allegedly, and he'll tell the story to anyone to asks of why you should stay far, far away from suspicious-sounding maidens in the woods, but no one has actually seen him use any spells. He frequents the tavern where Skeptic works—it's a more permanent fixture in his life than any party he's worked with.

Skeptic: He's not an adventurer himself—he runs an adventurers' tavern in the western woods, and has become acquainted with most of the others through his business. It's an underappreciated job, and it's a lot of work to ensure shady characters can't mess up the system, but adventurers tip pretty well. You just have to make sure the "No change" sign is visible, so they can't demand that you find some way to split the gold pieces that are the only currency they carry. Skeptic tends to stay distant from customers, though, with his only close confidant being the wizard outside town.

Paranoid: He had a reputation as a shut-in even before he started refusing to set foot outside his tower a few weeks back. But even more so, he has a reputation as being the best healing wizard in his part of the western woods—mainly by virtue of being the only healing wizard in his part of the woods, but he is very skilled. And driven. He was the first Voice to properly slay a Princess, even before the others formed their party.

The only problem is, whatever he killed in his tower basement doesn't seem to have been content to stay dead.

[morlock-holmes]

I guess I need to read Veblen now, having some disconnected thoughts about conspicuous consumption.

The term, as widely used in pop culture, brings to mind the purchase of expensive things to demonstrate wealth.

And, of course, as advertising became more advanced in the 20th century brands realized that you could signal all kinds of things through consumption, they could associate themselves with a "lifestyle" that is more particularly defined than just "rich", such as "rugged outdoorsman".

Feel like nowadays there is a certain kind of conspicuous consumption that is primarily about expressing grievance, or even more specifically "You can't tell me what to do".

By purchasing a product you can signal that someone else, who you don't like, has been unable to stop you from purchasing it.

Primarily thinking of GameStop stock here, which kind of went from "Rational Contrarian investment gamble" to "Frightening cult" in a way that seems very new for, you know, a publicly traded stock.

[mistswalker]

Meet The Purple Menace

So, this character of mine has been part of a lot of memes and comics and art over the years but I don't think I've ever properly introduced him. So here goes! (Art above by @tricksterpale and @king-there0f ❤❤)

Meet Daimine! (Pronounced DAY-minn) My ridiculous, chaotic, hedonistic, Soundless mesmer.

He's a deeply talented illusionist whose specialty lies in stealth, clones, and deception. He prefers blinking from place to place rather than walking, getting a special delight out of startling people when he appears.

He tends to mentally "collect" features he considers beautiful or interesting about a person to work into a future disguise. He likes to make a game of mimicry, quickly learning the ins and outs of a given lifestyle and performing them back until his interest shifts. He even has a personal "sona" appearance fashioned after each of the other races stocked for blending in, and will hold those appearances for sometimes weeks on end if it suits him.

He's not very good at understanding complex emotions, especially those of other people, and so instead will explore them through the concept of storytelling or performance. Day to day, however, he dons a perpetually jovial facade, preferring to just dip out when a situation becomes less fun, or at minimum, entertaining, than he thought he signed up for.

Though his motivations may seem rather straightforward, woe to anyone who tries to use this knowledge to control him. The only thing more powerful than his desire for a good time is his loathing for authority or control. He can and will be a contrarian little shit the second he thinks someone is trying to manipulate him without his enthusiastic consent.

Prior to the start of Hope's Legacy, he had spent the last year in the Fields of Ruin, trading back and forth between moonlighting his humansona as a separatist, and his charrsona as a renegade to sow chaos on both sides of the war in Ebonhawke for his own enjoyment. Previous occupations include: Assassin, bounty hunter, bandit, and adopted skritt.

[whining-ylthin]

"Thousand Sons are unfortunately written in a very one-note way, they're either Comically Evil Wizards for the brave Imperial boys to beat up and/or something-something Rubric, and half their content is actually Space Wolves novels with varying amount of TSons bits stuck in.

Anyway, I'm off to obsess over my Thousand Sons OC who is comprised of 75% concentrated Rubric angst and 25% contrarian Space Wolf shagging. Moral compass? Traded that shit for a meal and a roof over the head 9,5 thousand years ago. Compassion? Surgically removed. Victory rate? Uh, does 'surviving despite the odds' count as a victory?"

[lemonhemlock]

“Viserys made rhaenyra his heir and his word is law” “the team black kids were accepted by viserys and laenor so their legitimate” “the team black kids are half targaryen so that’s all that matters”

I will throw you off of a damn roof

None these people understand that we’re watching a show set in the medieval era where the laws and rules were different compared to now but they still try to use modern logic to explain it. We learned this in history goddamn it

Not only are the laws, rules, customs and beliefs different, but the entire political structure is fashioned so as to uphold them! Going against them or trying to change them is notoriously difficult!

Kings only started to consolidate more power slowly as feudalism gave way to centralized bureaucracies due to a variety of socio-economical factors that are very obviously lacking in the world of ASOIAF: the development of urban centres, of the merchant class / townspeople capitalists, expansion of trade, momentous events that lead to a decline in population (like plagues or disastrous wars) -> causing a reduction in the number of peasants, meaning that the peasants who did survive were precious human resources that were not so easily replaceable and demanded more rights for themselves, crusades that impoverished a lot of nobles etc etc - all of these which eroded the power of the feudal lord and allowed kings to absorb that power for themselves.

What these people don't understand is that noble lords held a tremendous amount of power over their own lands and, in an era where travel was difficult, the "king's will" was what they made of it. Sure, the king could THEORETICALLY go to war if a vassal was being too contrarian, but he'd have to convince his other vassals to join him and provide him with an army and wars were expensive. So it was much more advantageous to negotiate with these people and compromise rather than impose oneself via violence, although that did also happen, of course.

Another important catalyst for monarchs gaining more power at the expense of nobles is the introduction of gunpowder and CANONS. Previously, castles were incredibly effective at keeping the enemy out since they were nigh impenetrable. You could only take a castle either by sacrificing a ridiculous amount of fighters, rendering it not worth it, OR by starving it out, which could take MONTHS, was expensive AF and was also not worth it. Now, with canons, if you disobeyed the king, it became a lot easier to get fucked.

Aegon V has this very problem when the nobles opposed his smallfolk policies. So what does he decide to do?? He tries to come up with his own canons, which in-universe, means bringing dragons back. And we all know how that ended.

The difference, of course, is canons are not weapons of mass destruction, whereas dragons most definitely are. So the nobles are kind of in the right here to oppose a monarch that can unleash such a devastating level of death and destruction with no checks and balances imposed on their power.

Viserys can yap all he likes how Rhaenyra is his "rightful" heir, the nobles will only say yeah right and crown Aegon after he dies. "The King's word is law" - how is it law if you do not exercise the monopoly on violence? How is it law if you cannot enforce it? The only way you could make it law in these circumstances is if you convince enough people to abide by it somehow via negotiation and debate. The "law" you're talking about remains a laughable suggestion otherwise.

[mommyashtoreth]

not aboit cro&azi but: opinion on the shallowness and frankly odd pacing of nina and maggies relationship? like one day theyre having stilted conversation, the next maggie is crying over how in love she is.

Hmm. Strokes my wizard's beard. Good question. Good Omens fans have caught on to how much I love the sound of my own voice but not on to the other facet of my deeply annoying yet hilarious and charming personality, which is that I love being contrarian. So, in that fashion, I must disagree with this assessment. As we discovered last night it's been a while since I've watched goomer (I may rewatch it soon, I may not, who knows) but I still think it's abundantly clear that Maggie has a huge crush on Nina from afar, and uh. this is gonna sound crazy but when you have huge unrequited crushes on people it can make you nervous and awkward when you talk to them. Idk I come from an Az-and-Crowley school of relationships myself, where you hang out with someone for eight kajillion years as Totally Platonic Girl Best Friends until one day you just fucking snap you NEED to fuck them so badly, but lots of people experience relationships the way Maggie does, it's a suuuuper common romance trope, and that doesn't make it bad writing! I think we're just so used to seeing this kind of trope be applied to straight relationships and the "platonic gal pals for eight kajillion years until one day you just fucking snap" thing be applied to gay relationships that people aren't ready for this "awkward stuttering and blushing because he looked at me! He let me borrow his pencil!" sort of trope being applied to a wlw relationship. I don't really think their relationship is oddly paced at all, it feels "awkward" because it IS awkward. Nina is someone who, like, barely knows Maggie exists, was in a presumably-monogamous relationship up until very recently, and got a bunch of water dumped on her and then had a trade meeting turned into a Regency ball because these two freaks who are her and Maggie's narrative foils can't just talk to each other normal. And she reacts normally to that I think! I don't think their relationship is badly written (it's probably paced better than, like, Newt and Anathema's, for instance, but I understand the difference in tone between s1 and s2 making those feel like two different cases), it's just yknow, under weird circumstances. Idk I just think it's funny how many goomenheads are completely convinced that Crowley is somehow in total unrequited gay love with Aziraphale (who literally wants him back so badly it makes me sick), and yet I'm here talking about how Maggie is kind of in semi-unrequited gay love with Nina and that's Fine. It's a good character thing. They parallel Az and Crowley in a lot of ways (a romantic obsessed with something near-obsolete who Doesn't Drink and a fast-living cynic who deals with bad shit by instantly initiating Wine Drunk With No Man To Feel Up Wednesday; they're even cast to kind of Look similar which I think is funny), but the structure and context of their relationship is not the same and thus cannot be compared. It's not a Writing Flaw or a Plot Hole or anything to me, it's just the simple difference between "crush before friends" and "friends before crush"

[tylercircuit]

“Truss wants this book to be a sort of alt-right manifesto, but typically falls short of the mark. It reads more like a memoir of her time in government since 2010; a Member of Parliament failing upwards in a party with an apparent death wish. She promises that this book is not a traditional political memoir, not simply a chance to justify every decision she made while in Westminster – but chapter after chapter, she does exactly that. She tells us the story of her career from beginning to end. Between the major crises of this Conservative era, Truss found herself time and again in political roles which she did not fully understand, attempting to implement ideas the self-evident ramifications of which she would not accept. This is an incompetent book about incompetence; a book about a lack of self-awareness which inherently lacks self-awareness.

“Across a meandering and ultimately pointless narrative, Truss describes times when her cunning socially conservative plans to fix Britain’s flaws were thwarted by progressives in ‘the establishment’. These anecdotes are occasionally underscored by the things she feels she did achieve in her ministerial tenures, including the badger cull, “the gassing of 5000 ducks,” and guaranteed trade access in Japan for British blue cheese exporters.”

https://tylercircuit.com/2024/08/10/truss-memoir/

[qqueenofhades]

there definitely is the lack sympathy and solidarity between the oppressed groups of people around the world.

ethnic russians have been colonizing the central asia, the western asia, the caucasus, the eastern europe and oppressing the natives of these lands for CENTURIES!

russia has established the hegemony of the ethnic russians and hierarchy where the people of the caucasus and central asia are not considered as white thus are discriminated against. even other slavs like ukrainians and poles (who are indeed seen as white in the russian power sphere) are percieved as lesser disposables.

if the westerner leftists understood that the social constructs and power dynamics around the world are constantly changing, have changed throughout history and are different depending on the region and depending on which country/people are the global powerhouses in said region, the discourse would be much easier and more productive.

i'm west asian myself who used to be naively optimistic about the us anti-imperialist leftists, but ever since the war in ukraine, my delusions have shattered beyond repair... the us americans live in their own bubble and want to see the world through that usa-centric bubble's lenses. you see someone try to educate them about the situation and realities of other place and people and said usa americans will accuse those people of horrible stuff bc usa americans hate it when their simplistic worldview ideologically rooted in puritanism is being challenged.

a good example is how the middle easterners are either talked about as "white" or "poc" depending on whether or not the us americans want to sympathize with them and admit that the middle easterners are the victims of oppression/imperialism.

i can't blame the people of africa, latin americans and other people who suffered bc of europe and the us for falling for russian propaganda, but seeing ourselves as the only katniss everdeens of the world won't solve anything.

I mean... yeah. As I've written about a lot, the perspectives of so-called "anti-imperialist" American leftists, both in regard to the Russia-Ukraine war and overall, are generally absolutely fucking dismal. Both because they lack any sense of historicity, nuance, or attempt to deal with complex issues, and also because they are, as you note here, still myopically fixated on the US as the center of the world, the only agent of actual change, and the cause of everything bad ever. They are good at weaponizing the language of social justice and accusing everyone and everything of racism, but they rarely seem to have a sense of what that actually means outside the American context, and frankly for that matter, inside it.

A lot of "anti-imperialist" leftists are only opposed to American empire, which they think is the only empire to ever exist (as if European colonialism and empire didn't create America; as if the Roman Empire didn't create Europe, etc. etc.) Because the Republican right opposed the Soviets during the Cold War, plenty of modern leftists have now decided that that means the USSR/Putinist Russia is actually good after all!!! It's a meme ideology with absolutely no substance or internal coherence, because it's completely based on shallow and distorted mirror-images that they adopted solely out of contrarianism. They borrow the language and symbols of Marxism-Leninism in their fantasy online lives, they decide that this makes them Communist Visionaries, and they trade purposefully-misinterpreted jargon in their Twitter echo chambers without ever attempting to consider either what it really means or how these extremely fraught symbols were interpreted and used in the real world. They want to proclaim that Communism Good!!!, so they do that, and any and all nuance or actual example to the contrary is just Neoliberal Corporate Bootlicking. Or something like that.

What's funny, of course, is that the "anti-imperialist" leftists are still relying completely on a sense of Western exceptionalism and intellectual imperialism, wherein their own interpretations are always to be preferred over anything that the Savages might be saying; the Misguided Natives just need the Wise Western Man to correct them and show them why Tankie Communism is Good! Which, of course, is the exact vernacular of European Christian white-supremacist colonialism from the 16th to 19th centuries, and seriously calls into question any remotely accurate claim to being "anti-imperialist." Like, do you know what those words even MEAN? Or like, ANY words?

As I have said in earlier posts: yes, it's understandable, if disappointing, that people from Africa/India/Latin America, all of which HAVE suffered extensively from actual Western imperialism, have proven susceptible to Russian propaganda about how the current conflict is all the Evil West's Fault. But it's even more disappointing that presumably educated and "enlightened" Western leftists who trumpet their anti-imperialism have become such cheerleaders for a genocidal fascist imperial regime, simply because they think that anything America opposes is morally and/or structurally good. Which is just so facile and stupid on so many levels, not to mention ignores the reality of the Ukrainian war and its root causes on pretty much every front, but for them, that's basically par for the course.

[visxionaries]

who: @gael-hightower where: the bustling great hall of the red keep, in which the court of thorns and roses is in attendance of one of the later wedding festivities of king jaehaerys targaryen; in which a hightower page arrives, taking the lord gael hightower from the room. another enters, offering cedric a letter - the news from oldtown.

the words etched upon the parchment were immediately in a hand he recognised was not the hand of his master of coin; a cerulean gaze sweeping briefly over the parchment before noting the correspondence from the hightower was from another, another that was not the ruling lord. the sounds of the celebrations continued, a celebratory flute that seemed to fill the room with a sense of mirth, a flurry of colours upon the dance floor with each spin that was taken.

and if one looked closely within the coloured spins, they would have seen the hightower page speaking with the thirdborn son of the hightower, before both ventured towards one of the quieter exits of the hall.

on the other end, one would have saw the way in which cedric tyrell remained comfortably within his chair, a hand resting upon his jaw as it always done when he was deep in thought: and he read. and he continued to read. cedric tyrell felt no sense of loss to hear the ruling lord of oldtown had been murdered within his own tower; there was no sense of harrowing numbness that seemed to creep from the depths of his gut and engulf each vein in his body, until the blood itself ran deathly cold.

where else would garland hightower have died, if not in the tower that burned green; in the tower the man chose to make his prison, rather than his seat of power. a cunt, whose core memory to cedric tyrell would be dying the edgy contrarian. screaming about chamberpots.

and yet, despite literally being so high above the entirety of the realm, garland hightower had ended on his knees: as bad as the one was. a failure, in more ways than one: and he thought not of the morality of the man in question, but in regards to his essence of duty. his practicality. what it meant to have such immense influence over not just the rolling fields of the reach, but each corner of the realm if the cards were dealt with well. garland hightower did not know how to truly play cards.

keeping alicent hightower alive, in his attic of all places: as though he had made it his life's mission to continue the shame she had brought upon her own house. if he were alone, he would have found his expression changing to one of disbelief: and yet, the strings remained loose. he read the words. he read them again. the lady herself was being held by the guards of the hightower, who now needed an heir. omer florent and lucrezia redwyne had the heir. the heir's braavosi mother was no longer a subject in his realm.

cedric had never needed braavos. he had never need the trade of the braavosi. and as he moved to rip the paper over the sound of laughter and singing casually, he turned towards the queen, muttering something about them needing to return home soon. before their could be any further questions asked, the king had taken to his feet, climbing down from the steps to make his way through the marble floor towards the master of arts. house hightower had definitely mastered the art of pointless cunning. of dealing the wrong hand. of not knowing how to play cards. the doors opened, and lord gael hightower found himself approached by the king.

"with me." cedric spoke, his tone detached; it was clear to see gael had just received the news of the death of his brother. his mother too. cedric tyrell found his patience had run out with the hightowers some weeks prior, when three brothers seemed unable to do the task allocated to them. now, he found himself distrusting them. what position was more dangerous? the beacon had burned green too long, and if he needed to snuff it out and scald himself in the process, let it be done.

the men left the hall entirely, and he knew not to try to talk within the halls of the keep. they walked in deathly silence back towards the private audience quarters of the king of thorns and roses, and by the time the door closed behind them, cedric found himself looking upon the hightower with a pair of deadset orbs. "it would be in your benefit, lord hightower, to persuade me you did not know."

[transmorphobots]

Dread Captain Splendor, (She/her) Knight from the Circle of Light and all around menace. Nobody knows what he deal or problem is other than she's possibly in love with Dreadshadow herself (oof)

She tends to be moody and contrarian but sometimes, very rarely, there's a little spark of something knightly still. She works as the quartermaster and is in charge of all the weapons they collect. She also builds her own with the supplies they trade or find. Her ship is actually her own as well, its called The Righteous Hand on the Sword of Evil.

[lobstermatriarch]

Writer interview game!

Tagged by @eraserspiral, thank you for thinking of me!!

When did you start writing? oh it was young. i remember trading some truly godawful poetry with my friends at recess. buuuut i have never been particularly consistent in keeping up with it.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write? Plenty of them! Mystery and satire are two standouts that i adore but don’t really write well.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often? In terms of pulling inspiration, Tamsyn Muir takes up too much space in my brain (I made Gale read a heavily altered version of Harrow the Ninth out loud in a semi-recent chapter of Come Down whoops :/). outside of her I've probably intentionally taken the most influence from David Mitchell and Nnedi Okorafor

(definitely not been compared to any of them though. )

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space? ohohohoh this implies that i have a dedicated writing space and don’t just bust out my laptop when the mood strikes

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse? if i'm working on a long project i force it sometimes, sit there and write nonsense until something seems usable and then build off that. if i was rich i’d travel more since i always seem to get the best inspiration on trains or at airports

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you? Survival and loneliness vs connection tend to pop up pretty often. Definitely not surprising, but a little frustrating. anytime i finally think i've written something new, i'll go back, read it again, and say "shit this is about That again isn't it."

What is your reason for writing? I am plagued by demons that haunt me until i exorcise them via word vomit

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating? honestly any feedback is motivating, but i do love hearing that someone’s had a strong emotional response to what i’ve written.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers? Hopefully as an enjoyable little freak writing enjoyable little freak things (enjoyable is a relative word here i know)

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer? in general, i want to believe i’m decent at keeping a consistent perspective/point of view. specific to fanfic i like to believe that i’m pretty good at staying within the ��he would, in fact, fucking say that” boundary.

How do you feel about your own writing? i am trying to hate it less

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both? it's a mix. i can be a little contrarian so sometimes i'm more influenced by what's popular via trying to avoid it. that said i'm not out to torture anyone reading either so i do try to consider certain writing choices carefully

some very very optional tags: @antimonyantigone @anosrepasi @sweetmalice26 and any other writing followers who would like to try, please do and tag me so I can seeeee