#Flag vs. Map

[blackstarlineage]

Roots and Routes: The Sharp Divide Between Afrocentrism and Pan-Africanism Through a Garveyite Lens

Introduction:

Too often in today’s discourse, Pan-Africanism and Afrocentrism are used interchangeably. But from a Garveyite perspective—rooted in organization, political power, race-first philosophy, and global Black unity—this conflation is both incorrect and dangerous. While both frameworks attempt to restore dignity to African people, their core philosophies, strategies, and end goals differ profoundly. One is a worldview rooted in aesthetic restoration and cultural reclamation; the other is a revolutionary project of global liberation, nation-building, and self-determination. Let’s draw the line.

1. Definitions: Surface vs Structure

Afrocentrism is primarily an intellectual and cultural movement. It seeks to reframe history, philosophy, and identity from an African-centered perspective. It reclaims ancient African contributions to civilization (Kemet, Nubia, etc.), reinterprets historical narratives, and critiques Eurocentric frameworks in education, religion, and science. Its goal is to mentally decolonize.

Pan-Africanism, especially in its Garveyite form, is a political movement—built on race pride, economic independence, self-reliance, and the unification of all African people under one flag. It calls for African control of African affairs, be it on the continent or in the diaspora. It doesn’t just want to rewrite history—it wants to make history.

Garveyism, the most militant and organized strand of Pan-Africanism, understands this difference and demands more than mental liberation. It demands power—political, economic, and military.

2. Cultural Reconnection vs Political Realignment

Afrocentrism often revolves around symbolic reclamation—names, clothes, spiritual systems, and a sense of identity. It’s about replacing European heroes with African ones, reclaiming ancestral memory, and taking pride in Blackness.

But Pan-Africanism asks: What systems do we control? Who governs our lands? Who owns the resources? It sees cultural pride as a tool, not an endpoint. Garveyites assert: What good is reclaiming a name or deity if we still live under foreign rule, economic dependency, and systemic subjugation?

Afrocentrism may critique oppression. Pan-Africanism strategizes to end it.

3. Individual Liberation vs Collective Nationhood

Afrocentrism often emphasizes personal or group enlightenment—an internal transformation through African-centered knowledge and spirituality. While powerful, this path often lacks organized mass movement or material outcomes.

Garveyite Pan-Africanism is inherently collectivist. It calls for global Black unity—not just in spirit but in institution. Garvey’s UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) built shipping lines, schools, factories, newspapers, and provisional governments. The aim wasn’t just consciousness—but sovereignty.

Afrocentrism may change minds. Pan-Africanism changes conditions.

4. Diaspora Focus vs Global Black Nation

Most Afrocentric discourse is diaspora-centric, particularly African American in tone. Its critiques and solutions are often local, focused on Western systems of education, religion, and media.

Pan-Africanism—Garveyite Pan-Africanism especially—is transnational. It refuses to center the West. It sees Black people in America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe as one people with one destiny. Its map is global. Its aim is a worldwide African federation.

Garvey said: “Africa for the Africans, at home and abroad.” Afrocentrism too often forgets the abroad is not just where we are, but where we must unite to return, rebuild, and reign.

5. Militancy and Mass Movement

Garveyism believes Black liberation is a war. It’s not poetic or symbolic—it’s real. It demands discipline, order, strategy, and mass mobilization. The UNIA was a blueprint: uniforms, oaths, ranks, black cross nurses, and political offices. That wasn’t cosplay—it was preparation for sovereignty.

Afrocentrism is rarely militant. It is more academic, introspective, and expressive. There is no Afrocentric equivalent to the UNIA or the Black Star Line. No global organizational machinery. No chain of command. No flag to fight under.

Garveyites know that without structure, you cannot build power.

6. Pitfalls of Afrocentrism: The Garveyite Warning

Myth-making without organizing: Afrocentrism sometimes indulges in unverified or romanticized histories (e.g., everyone being Moors, Israelites, or Pharaohs), which can become distractions.

Individualism over institution: It often produces lectures, not organizations.

Confusion over unity: It can fracture along spiritual lines—Kemetic, Yoruba, Moorish, etc.—while Pan-Africanism aims to unify across these differences for political goals.

Silence on Africa today: Many Afrocentrists romanticize ancient Africa but have little to say about modern Africa’s struggles or Pan-African state-building efforts.

Garveyism stands firm: If it does not build power for African people worldwide—it’s not enough.

Conclusion: The African Race Needs Builders, Not Just Dreamers

Afrocentrism is not the enemy of Pan-Africanism—but it is not the substitute. Culture without sovereignty is performance. Identity without power is vulnerability. Garveyism demands we go beyond aesthetic reconnection and move toward global Black reconstruction.

As Garvey once thundered: “The Black man must build for himself. If others are to live by conquering, then he too must learn to conquer for his survival.”

Let us not be content dressing in Kente while begging for crumbs. Let us organize, unify, and take what is ours.

[tf2heritageposts]

So, there’s been a big buzz about Team Fortress 2 after the prodigal son of Comic 7 came to us, and ya wanna know what the buzz is about, hm? this post will be a guide to the basics of getting into tf2, and becoming more familiar with the fandom, from a dude who's been in it for bout fourish years

INTRO

Well, to start things off, TF2 is a game created by Valve in 2007, aka the creators of the video game marketplace Steam and the extremely popular video games Half-life and Portal. There are also some theories that they all exist in the same universe, but this only is canon to HL and Portal some people will say it also contains tf2 but ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The video game is free on Steam, that is with a massive asterisk as it does contain in-game purchases with real money,for  which you have to purchase a pass at 2 dollars to be able to talk in game or use voice commands. Valve says this is to protect against bots but the bot problem has been over for months and it still hasn’t been solved so what are ya gonna do? For much cheaper, you can go into the mann co store in game and purchase a vitasaw for .22 cents and viola you can talk now!

Something to note is that you do not need to play the game to engage with the fandom. I’ve been running a semi-popular TF2 gimmick blog for almost three years now and I’ve noted that maybe 20-30% of the fandom has never touched the game or even has steam. All of the fancy lore is purely supplemental material found outside of the game through comics, and you could easily just watch videos containing all of the voice lines if you truly wanted to know what the men you were drawing and writing sounded like. 

THE ACTUAL GAME

Regardless, TF2 itself is a first-person shooter with game modes such as payload, king of the hill/control points, and capture the flag if you’re feeling spicy. If you’ve played overwatch, this is that but it won’t trigger epilepsy by playing it. There's also alterate gamemodes such as payload race where both teams are trying to get a payload to the other side, medieval mode where basically any guns are banned and you are slapping people with swords and fish, as well as pass time which nobody plays but has an extremely obscure and complicated achievement attached to it.

There are also community servers where there are extensively more options for playing, such as casual+ servers where the goal is creating a “better” version of the casual servers. This usually means no crits, changes to bullet spread, aka stuff most non comp players Within these community servers, there's many different gamemodes you can play, such as 10x servers where the damage weapons do gets increased 10x 100x 10000000000x etc etc. There are also “fun” servers where the server owner has put about 100 different plugins and you are just having fun non-serious times. It’s fun. 

There are way more community game modes out there for you to enjoy; such as vs Saxton Hale/freak fortress, dodgeball, prop hunt, and plenty more. Explore that community tab to your heart's desire :]

Also! TF2 has a game known as Mann vs Machine(usually called MVM) where you and six other people all kill thousands of robots who are trying to get a bomb to the other side of the map throughout multiple rounds. It’s good fucking fun man. If you want the chance for loot/an extremely rare form of a weapon if you play a map enough, it’s 72 cents per ticket…….but if you don’t care and just want mindless fun, go boot camp and play for free. Boot camp also has way more maps, and often has charity drives hosted by the community where you can earn a neat little badge.

The game also has an extensive player player-driven economy, but unless anyone asks for a post with the basics since I know more about the economy than I’d like, I’ll just say you don’t need to worry about it. lollichop stocks

THE VIDEOS

Now, for the part, most people know about TF2, aka the Meet the Team series of videos. These are a series of 1-3 minute videos on the Valve YouTube channel that introduce the mercs through a consistently inconsistent format. A few of the videos are formatted like an actual interview with the mercs, while others are formatted more like mini TV shows. They’re all wonderfully entertaining and the source of multiple extremely popular memes, meaning even if you don’t know it you’ve been exposed to the videos before. Most famously, it’s the source of the “professionals have standards” image as well as “he could be any one of us”.  It’ll take you around 15 minutes to binge all of the videos. Even if you aren’t interested in getting TF2, I’d heavily recommend watching the videos due to how funny they are, plus genuinely good-looking 3d animation. The link is right here

There’s also Expiration Date, aka the pilot of the canned TF2 adult swim show. It’s also up on the valve’s channel and is around 15 minutes. It is probably one of the best things Valve has made for TF2, as well as being probably one of the most quoted shit on this godforsaken internet. It’s where the “dear god, there’s more” meme is from. Watch it. Right now. it's only like 15 minutes, what else are you doing with your time?

THE COMICS

This is where all that juicy lore is. Over the last 17 years, the valve has released free comics to go along with the major updates of TF2, as well as a main series of comics called “mann co no More”. The last comic in this series, which only took about 7 years to come out, aka the length of time someone could have a child and then have that child be in elementary school, was released a few weeks ago as of writing out. 

Something to note is that while the update comics are all mostly goofy and do contain some *very important lore*, they’re not serialized and can be from anywhere within the TF2 timeline. Meanwhile, Mann Co No More is a serialized comic and is trying to be a consistent story. It’s an extremely goofy story with about 40% serious and genuinely interesting plot and 60% whatever the fuck soldier is doing at any given moment

It’s all very good fun. Fair warning though if you try to become a TF2 loremaster you will go insane. I sure as hell did. 

And now that you have all of the official stuff out of the way, it’s time for

TF2 YOUTUBERS

For your beginner in the fandom, there are three main YouTubers I would personally recommend 

Lazypurple, my personal favorite TF2 YouTuber, is most famous for his series of videos “How it FEELS to play __” where he goes over what it's like to play any given class. Except medic. He’s still working on that one. Give him time. https://www.youtube.com/@LazyPurple

Another I’d recommend is Soundsmith, most well known for his guide series on playing the soldier subclass(aka alternate game style) of troldier. And also his cosmetic stereotypes series but he doesn’t like that one these days. He also has a series of videos called “A mann’s guide to the __” where he goes over a more obscure or not very used weapon in TF2. Don’t let the title fool you, it is in no way an actual guide. As a quick warning, Soundsmith sometimes uses the R slur in his older videos. He no longer uses it but just as a warning. https://www.youtube.com/@SoundSmithTF2/videos

Finally, there’s Uncle Dane, most famous for his guides on playing Engineer in the most optimal way possible. If you want to main Engie or even have a passing thought about playing him ever, watch him. https://www.youtube.com/@UncleDane

For some other picks on favorite tf2tubers of mine:

jontohil2: https://youtube.com/c/Jontohil2 most famous for his spy psychology series and guides on playing spy

solar light: https://youtube.com/@SolarLight?feature=sharea most famous for his guides on playing the subclass demoknight and also being the best demoknight player par noneelmaxo https://youtube.com/c/elmaxoTF2 most famous for trying to manipulate the steam marketplace that one time and for his playing 100 hours series. He’s retired nowadays but his videos are still good.

and now

TF2 FAN CONTENT

Sfms: 

Source Filmmaker, AKA SFM, is a free animation software developed by Valve originally developed for use in the Meet the Team series of videos that is available for public use. The main draw to the software is the ability to make (easier) 3D animation using premade models that are either built into the software or added in through the steam workshop. Due to TF2 and various other valve properties being built into the software, TF2 is often used as placeholder models for SFM videos. But a good chunk of the SFM community are TF2 fans using it to make fancontent(the most famous ones I will get into later)

Some personal favorite SFM makers mine are:

The winglet https://youtube.com/c/tf2thewinglet most famous for winning every saxxy ever

kostamoinen https://youtube.com/@Kostamoinen?feature=sharea most famous for nothing in particular but just generally being a very good sfm maker

https://www.youtube.com/@SilentManJoe/videos most famous for animating for lythero and not being someone you should watch if you’re under 18 generally

And for some underrated picks:

Misan - https://www.youtube.com/@Misantropico

Hotpockette- https://www.youtube.com/@hotpockette/videos 

Colonel fantzipanzen- https://www.youtube.com/@ColonelFanzipantzen/videos

GMOD:

Garry’s Mod,, AKA Gmod, is a sandbox game made as a mod of half life 2. It’s not meant to be an animation software, but dude to some extensions you can download off the workshop, it can be used as a stop motion software with the ragdolls in the game. This is how people animated before SFM was a thing by the way.

GMOD is most famous for being the source of the most batshit tf2 shit you’ll ever see that also doubles as humorus body horror. TF2’s early fandom humor was based off of gmod. And before you ask, skibidi toilet is an SFM series, not gmod despite the similar humor. 

The most famous GMOD maker is stblackst, who makes some of the highest quality shit you can make in GMOD. However, he often uses the r slur and some of his videos contain some extremely uncomfortable jokes, but unfortunately that’s how it is sometimes. 

Another famous and classic gmod creator is thatgraycartoonpony, most famous for his video “Pyro Paints” that showed everyone that you CAN make pyro funny and expressive. Some of the best. 

Finally in our most famous gmod creator trinity, there’s eltorro64rus, most famous for his absolutely insane gmod videos even for gmod. He’s a classic https://youtube.com/c/Eltorro64Rus

For my personal favorite picks:

Dasmashidx- https://www.youtube.com/@DamashiDX

Crazyscoutfin- https://www.youtube.com/@CrazyScoutFIN

Alxium- https://www.youtube.com/@Alxium

Gooserious- https://www.youtube.com/@GooSerious

FAN GAMES:

Something that’s not talked about a lot for some reason!

The two main fan games I’ll discuss here are both by germanpeter on gamejolt

Overtime- https://gamejolt.com/games/overtime/255028

This one of germanpeter’s two crossover tf2 games. Here it’s a crossover of TF2 and Undertale. A legitemtnly fun experience and a good undertale fangame. Fair warning, the sprites are vaguely terrifying.

Midnight Mercenaries- https://gamejolt.com/games/midnightmercenaries/375928

Another crossover game, this one being a crossover of TF2 and Hotline Miami. One of the most fun fan games ive ever played period. Fair warning, if you know what hotline miami is like tone wise, it’s carried over here. Ending may be a bit too angsty and depressing for some people.  

Capture the Intelligence- https://gamejolt.com/games/gmod-capture-the-intelligence/850383

This one is not made by germanpeter! It’s a short horror game with heavy early 2010s gmod inspiration and is pretty goofy. I haven’t personally played it due to time, but I’ve  heard it’s good.

and now

FANDOM ESSENTIALS

Emesis Blue (and Spy’s disguise)

Emesis blue is a horror film created by the studio Fortress films that came out in 2023. It is one of the most popular sfms in the TF2 fandom ever, and is a full length movie. Seriously, it’s two hours long. I don’t wanna spoil it but I promise it’s good.

However, it’s technically a sequel to another Fortress Film SFM called spy’s disguise. This one is only 20 minutes, and much more humorous than Emesis blue. It is full of body horror though whoops! I would recommend watching it beforehand though. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MiJWNkmWfs - spy’s disguise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ODG8bFme0&t=4s - Emesis blue

Pootis Engage 

A sfm two part series by the wonderful ceno0 that completely changed the SFM landscape. It is so fucking well animated I can’t stress this enough. It is also extremely horny so I’d only watch if you’re of age. 

Pootis engage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl6lee2wyPQ&list=PLvgjnNWlcA0x_WMVzuZquKYwTFVbiBekn&index=1&t=144s&pp=iAQBPootis engage// extreme - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGJBUauU-CE&list=PLvgjnNWlcA0x_WMVzuZquKYwTFVbiBekn&index=2&t=134s&pp=iAQB

The Heavy is Dead

Aka that video we as a fandom are annoying about. A video by the wonderful gmod creator Delak, who doesn’t really do TF2 nowadays, you need to watch it. Not optional sorry

Freak Fortress:

Have you been wondering what the hell is up with those weird edgy looking versions of Tf2 characters? And why some of them consider communion to be literally eating Jesus’s flesh? 

Well, Freak Fortress is a  community of people who make videos using GMOD with community created characters called “Freaks”. You know how SPC is a community/fandom of people who make SPCS and then everyone uses SPCS in their own stories and whatnot? It’s like that. The freaks are usually mercs with specific cosmetics or alterations to their models that act as their own chracters rather than being the mercs.

The most famous ones being

Painis Cupcake - https://tf2freakshow.fandom.com/wiki/Painis_Cupcake

Christian Brutal Sniper- https://tf2freakshow.fandom.com/wiki/Christian_Brutal_Sniper

And Christian Pure Spy- https://tf2freakshow.fandom.com/wiki/Christian_Pure_Spy 

You may notice I linked wiki pages and not videos or playlists. This is due to a few reasons

CPS’s videos are all taken down and you have to watch them through archived channels now, which are pretty hard to find with youtube’s shitty search engine

So many people make different videos with just these three characters, it’s better just to look at the video section of the wiki pages and go through there

If you wanted to get into Freak Fortress, I’d reccomend finding a freak you like on the wiki and then binging all of the videos linked on their page. 

My two personal favorites: 

Soldine -  https://tf2freakshow.fandom.com/wiki/Soldine

Polish Soldier- https://tf2freakshow.fandom.com/wiki/Polish_Soldier

Lil Pootis:

A cute little kind of extremely dark at some points 2d animated series of tf2 videos by the wonderful Quazies. The series is going to be completed for good soon, but as of right now there are nine videos 

and that should be about it. if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. or if you want any gmod reccomendations. i fucking love gmod woo

[bride-of-hemlock]

People who apply irl morality to judge whether a character's outcome in BG3 is their "good or bad" end (separate from "evil or good", fyi) really confuse me.

Basically saying "evil=bad, good=good" but...

They will too use Speak with Animals and then at camp eat meat/meat dishes. By real life logic, the spell confirms animals to be equally sentient (if less "civilized" cuz yk, animals) as humans - meaning only veganism is a moral way (by irl standards.)

Or how they don't realize "good Gods" doesn't mean "ethical" by irl rules - lots of good Gods in DnD would haplily smite down UA if given the chance, simply because he is a vampire.

Morality, as it exists in the real world, does not map at all into a fictional world where:

Magic, Gods, many afterlives, immortality, curses, spells that detect literall Goodness and Evilness, speaking to plants and animals (and then eating them after hearing their dreams), etc., etc. exist.

Now this is not to say "evil" actions are "good", it's just that it functions different, matters - less, in the world. I see people say "sending 7000 spawn to the Hells is like killing 7000 people irl! You have to be evil irl to defend such game choice!" (after they likely slaughtered bloodlines and children of goblins and absolute's people who also had dreams and could be really sweet inside, but it's ok, because they're ugly and "evil") and my eyes roll so hard they fall out and I have to pick them back up.

I guess my main point is that in a DnD world - or frankly, any world of fiction and fantasy - what is evil can also be good... It is quite funny - because cultists are deserving of a happy life just as the many sacrificed spawn, but Tav kills without remorse... And it's fine! Because they stand between Tav and their selfish goal, surviving vs surviving. A hero-bias, if you will: "the story says I'm the main character, so anything I do is Moral and Pure, because I'm a Moral and Pure person" (a belief of many "heroes" who kill "monsters" like Astarion, too.)

But then same players see (some of) sacrificed spawns as "cute little meow meows" (even tho they are clearly described in-text as they are in lore, mostly evil - which makes the selection we see in Cazador palace before seeing him highly suspicious, raising question of "what did he want to achieve? Play into Tav/Astarion's feelings to prevent them from stealing or stopping *his* Ascension?"), so ofc it's "wrong" to Ascend for selfish reasons (power, safety to heal on own's terms, because of "choice" not "lack of other choice, if I am bad I will be killed"), such Tavs will say. But that is clearly a double standard...

I think really, only way you can come to such conclusion if you pay little attention to text (and I played since EA, seen every possible route of romance/friend and origin of the other Player Characters/Origins, and play DnD for years now - evil alligned usually ♡) and only rely on epitext (fanon takes, tiktoks without contexts, fragments while discrading anything to contrary, first impression of emotion without deeper look) as main lense.

The assertion that a game route called "romance" with "romance" flags being seen as "canon tragedy, headcanon happy" is just projection (because I guess genre is irrelevant in literacy) and it's actually backwards imo (hot take I guess). And asserting it can't be happy because it's evil (and evil=unhappy) is, well - very american, I guess. I remember learning of Hays Code in university classes and the literal rules of "evil can't be happy" "evil can't be rewarded" "we must push moral lesson in romance because children/women r dumb" is 1:1 anti-AA talking points. "He must be evil because he did something "bad" therefore he must lose soul and can't love, abuse apologies," uh huh, you can just dislike something without making it about moral signaling and therapy-tok talk. It's literally fictional - Oh the horrors, lock us in fiction jail... Just because progressive and big words are used doesn't mean it's better if you repeat same thoughts of puritan censoring. Something about thought crimes is brought to mind too... Anyway, don't want to tangent.

~~~

Evil deserves happy endings, and AA gets one.~ ♡

And Tav is happy with him if *they* love *him*, like he does.~♡

He deserves to feel the sun on his smiling face - to shine like the brightest star; not to dim quietly, like one whose light will soon extinguish.

xoxo ꨄ︎

[vitorroquesgf]

with the surprise being expressed towards the violence of serbian fans before their match vs engalnd i would like to remind everyone that serbia is responsible for multiple genocides in the balkans. croatia, bosnia and kosova all have horrific stories to tell about serbia.

this might not seem serious until you find out that only in kosova over 20000 people (including children) were raped, most if not all people from kosova had to leave their country to be ruined, tens of thousands of people were tragically killed, thousands are still missing, hundreds of cities, homes, mosques were destroyed, etc.

the reason why this ties into the serbian fans at euro 2024 is because of the banners they put up: kosova map with a serbian flag over it. to this day, serbs continue to claim kosova as theirs, despite the absolute horror they caused. in fact, they continue to be proud of it.

for anyone who doesn’t know, kosova historically has been a part of albania, having over a 95% ethnically albanian population, speaking the same language, having the same culture etc. the reason why kosova was left out of albania was because of the circumstances in 1912, when albania claimed its independence. the balkan wars were ongoing and if albania hadn’t claimed its independence then, more land would be stolen, so they ultimately decided it would be better to be independent with that amount of land rather than lose more.

[exeggcute]

interesting links roundup #5

reading

A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies. Did She Do It?

A Tick Is Making Farmers Allergic to Their Own Animals

The Big Red Word vs. the Little Green Man

Bringing Up Babies

The Degradation Drug

Does Matt Mullenweg Want a Fork or Not?

The Flying Car Is Finally Here. It’s Slightly Illegal.

How to Talk to People When You Live Alone

I got dysentery so you don’t have to

The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat

Kurt Vonnegut’s lost board game finally published

The Pain of Travelling While Palestinian

Personal Best

Rage bait is all the rage on Threads

The Secretive Dynasty That Controls the Boar’s Head Brand

The shady origins of the climate haven myth

Social Media Tells You Who You Are. What if It's Totally Wrong?

We’re not going to run out of new anatomy anytime soon

Who Pays for the Arts?

Works by Pissarro, Renoir, and Avercamp Vanished. Here’s How an Amateur Art Sleuth Cracked the Case

Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of children’s literature

tools/reference

An Illustrated Guide to Maritime Signal Flags

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel: A tediously accurate map of the solar system

Plotto by William Wallace Cook (1928) [for context, read this]

Snapseed: Android, iOS

These Apps Help People With Disabilities Travel More Easily

other

Euthanasia machine, Australia, 1995-1996

how-i-experience-web-today.com

Reply All #158: The Case of the Missing Hit [I first listened to this years ago but just listened to it again... still soooo good]

Subterranea Britannica

[girlactionfigure]

Ya know, just in case the pro Israel group has any doubt for a split second that they’re on the right side of history, you don’t have to look too far.

A good place to start is the internet.

Sentences you’ll see in the feed of a pro Israel activist:

“Bring our women and children home.” “We want peace.” “Every innocent death is a tragedy.” “Rape is never ok.”

Sentences you’ll see in the feed of a pro-Palestinian activist:

“Hitler was right.” “Wipe Israel off the map.” “Gas the Jews.” “The Jews have big noses.” “Jews are Nazis.”

If the internet wasn’t enough to convince you, then go to a protest of both sides. 

A pro Palestinian protest:

Violence. Yelling. Calling for genocide. Tons of masks. Flags of terrorist organizations. Harassing innocent bystanders. 

A pro Israel protest:

Singing. Hugging. Crying. Calling for the return of innocent hostages. Calling for a terrorist org to surrender so the war can end. Flags of the only democracy in the Middle East. 

You really don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see it. 

Those who support Israel support freedom, human rights, and peace. They support a people that was persecuted for thousands of years. 

Those who support Hamas support terror, rape, and pedophilia by calling it resistance. They support the beheading of babies, the denial of the holocaust and the kidnapping of holocaust survivors. 

This isn’t a nuanced decision. 

This is good vs evil. This is radical fundamentalist jihadis against the free world. 

If you can’t see the distinction clearly, if you still think the two sides in this war are equal, if you compare October 7th to the retaliation of the IDF, if you can’t differentiate between one side that does everything to minimize civilian death and the other that does everything to maximize civilian death, I don’t know how to say this nicely so I’m just gonna say it. 

You are an immoral human being who has lost all sense of right and wrong. 

I am deeply sorry for you that this is your existence, and that you have sided with the side Hitler would have sided with. 

That should tell you all you need to know. 

Choose morality, choose Israel. 

Historically, it’s just the smart thing to do.

hilzfuld

[bitch-potatoes]

Jegumas day 5 snowball fight @noblehouseofgay

Word count: 1170

Slight NFSW, nothing too explicit

The snow in the garden had gotten thick over the last week, practically untouched much to James’ delight as he pre prepared snowballs. He'd spent the most part of his afternoon off setting up for the most epic snowball fight he'd ever organised since leaving school. He'd used magic to help him create a battlefield with even deeper snow, complete with igloo bases and even trenches; now all their was to do was create ammo for everyone he'd invited. 

Regulus was home first, coming out into the garden before he'd even changed from his work robes, he whistled lowley and the snowscape ahead of him. Taking his time to take in and mentally map out everything, James did suppose he and Regulus would have a slight advantage over the others knowing the landscape so well but as long as the other didn't figure that out he couldn't bring himself to care much. 

For old times sake James had requested they play gryffindor vs slytherin, he'd had to pull strings and invite a couple extras to even the teams out but the two teams were perfect: the lions being James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Marlene, Mary, and Lily which is a very strong team then the snakes were Regulus, Barty, Evan, Evan's younger brother Felix, Dorcas, Pandora (as an honorary slytherin), and Andromeda who was only a few years older than them. 

The rules were explained in brief, essentially there was to be no magic to help with aim or targeting people and no friendly fire. The game was a simple mix of a classic snowball fight and capture the flag, if you got hit by a ball you'd be ‘stunned’ for 20 seconds (James had repeated to Barty several times that no real stunning was to occur) and the other team could capture and keep prisoners if they caught you while stunned.

The groups split off into the snow battlefield and the game began. 

James was on defense at first, sitting with Remus in the HQ igloo with the small red flag planted into the snow. There was an eerie quiet around them that made it almost feel like a real battle - Regulus had said that he was taking this very seriously and his dignity was on the line. A few minutes passed in peace, James filled it with mellow conversation. Felix slid into the entrance of the igloo, snowballs in hand and pelting Remus - James threw one back leaving him ‘stunned’ and James took the opportunity to place him in the makeshift ice prison. Flag still safe despite the pout on Felix’s face, Evan followed shortly after demanding the return of his brother. 

“Only if we do a hostage swap” Remus said dryly, James gave him a side eye that could've melted the snow around them. Evan groaned and called outside the igloo, leading to a very pissed off Regulus delivering a pleased looking Sirius back to Lion HQ. 

The game went on until after the sun had dipped below the sky, the garden lit up faintly by the moonlight reflecting off the snow - there was a lull in the fight, everyone except James and Regulus exhausted and probably cold; not to mention most of them had been captured by the opposing team. 

James left Sirius with the flag, armed with as many snowballs as he could carry, he slipped over no man's land - sneaking through trenches and tunnels until he had reached the other teams HQ - dug into the snow like a burrow in their trenches. Regulus was guarding the flag and Barty was taunting their prisoners, James skipped past their prison wing the best he could and slipped into the room with the flag. 

He was hit square in the face by a snowball. 

“Hello Jamie… I've been expecting you” Regulus said in a dramatic sinister voice, tapping the tips of his fingers together like some sort of Bond villain. James, ever the good actor, kept his stunned position while Regulus shoved a snowball down the back of his shirt with a smirk on his lips. 

“I'm going to win, you know that right soleil?” Regulus drawled, James was counting seconds. 

“Nah, I've won every snowball fight I've ever played in” James said confidently, he just needed to keep Regulus distracted for another 10 seconds. 

“You've never played me” Regulus said simply, tossing a snowball idly between gloved hands. Taunting. “Eyes are up here James” Regulus laughed, throwing the snowball pathetically at James’ feet. James met his gaze, his eyes a deep green in the low light and shadows flickering over his face beautifully. 

James couldn't have helped himself if he wanted to. 

Not that he did want to. 

It took a split second, James had pinned Regulus against the wall of snow behind him and connected their lips - Regulus had met him halfway, apparently equally as eager. To James it was no longer cold, all he knew was Regulus. Regulus against his body, Regulus’ hands on his waist. Regulus, Regulus, Regulus. 

James split himself away from the kiss, using one hand to tilt Regulus’ jaw to the side to plant lazy kisses down his neck, occasionally scraping his teeth against the skin there or pausing for a second to leave a hickey. Regulus rolled his hips forward slightly, James slid his knee between his thighs lavishing in the whine it drew out of Regulus. James pressed his knee up again, loving the dazed look on Regulus’ face. Glassy eyes and rosy cheeks. 

The hands on James’ waist travelled down, resting on his hips for a few fleeting moments before moving to the button on his trousers. “Fuck… James” he panted out the words almost desperately “I want to bang in your stupid igloo, what have you done to me?” Regulus muttered, shaky hands slipping the button undone and tugging clumsily at the zip. 

“YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITICAL BASTARD REGULUS BLACK” Dorcas was shouting from the doorway to the small dug out base. 

Why couldn't things ever go James’ way? 

Regulus rolled his eyes, pushing James away and launching Into some argument about how it was all James’ fault while Dorcas yelled about some pep talk he gave. 

Maybe one thing could go James’ way. 

James, as subtly as he could managed, plucked up the unguarded flag and slipped away. Making a break for it as soon as the coast was clear, planting the flag on Lion territory he could help but shout “AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS HOW YOU WIN!” 

Everyone was emerging from their places now, the snakes looking disappointed and James’ fellow Lions looking elated. Jumping and celebrating like when they used to win quidditch. 

It was Remus who came up to James, pulling him into a close hug, and whispered in his ear “and why the fuck is your fly undone?” 

James shrugged and winked, so while the others swarmed back indoors to warm up and have a drink James and Regulus went upstairs. No one would even notice they were gone. 

Except maybe Remus. 

[our-flag-means-love]

welcome to elliot flagmeanslove's

STEDE BONNET OUTFITS TOURNAMENT

do you have Opinions about stede bonnet's outfits and need to make your voice heard? well you're in luck! there's now a bracket for that!

round one (left half) starts around midday EDT on saturday, july 27th, and each round will last a week.

please consider reblogging to spread the word!

idk if this has been done before but i don't care i'm doing it anyway <3

additional info, guidelines, and image description under the cut!

i'll be tagging all the polls with "ofmd" and "stede bonnet", but if you're not interested and don't want them clogging up the tags, you can block "stede outfits tournament".

voter fraud all you want, i'm not a cop.

there will be no variations of the same outfit (e.g. nightgown with cap compared to nightgown with eye mask) with ONE exception that felt important, which was the full godfrey thornrose outfit and the outfit in the "you wear fine things well" scene, aka godfrey minus the jacket and wig.

there are a few variants with the battle jacket and depression robe, and i didn't want to narrow it down to just the ones with the nightgown or just the ones with a shirt and breeches, especially because those overlap with other entries too, so the battle jacket and depression robe are both just In General.

there were also a few minor outfits i just plain had to cut in order to reach a power of two. sorry to the outfit from when stede left home and both of his childhood flashbacks, maybe next time.

these were seeded partly randomly but mostly by my own judgment, because ime random seeds always feel even less fair. i first sorted them based mostly on aesthetic appeal and general fandom opinions—but also importance of scene(s) to a lesser extent—into groups of four (all the #1 seeds, all the #2 seeds, and so on), then randomized which would be in each quadrant, then played around with them a bit to make them pretty from there (roughly even distribution of s1 vs s2, not all episode 4 flashbacks are in the same quadrant, etc). if you have a problem with this, no one's forcing you to participate.

[ID: A tournament style bracket. It has "Stede Bonnet's Outfits Tournament" written at the top. The background is a half-opacity photo of the bow of The Revenge. The bracket is made up of a series of rectangular white bubbles, connected in pairs. On the left half of the bracket, the first column has sixteen bubbles, the second has eight, the third has four, the fourth has two, and the fifth has one. This arrangement is mirrored on the right half. In the center of the image is one larger bubble with "Winner!" written under it.

Only the thirty-two total bubbles in the outermost columns contain words. From top to bottom on the left are: turquoise suit (1.1); nightgown (1.6-1.8); blankets only (wink emoticon) (2.7); wedding suit (1.4); steve irwin (1.7); dream (2.1); depression robe (1.7-1.8); run me through (1.6); goldfish (2.3); peach suit (1.6); brown suit (1.8); theatre kid (1.6); slut era (2.6-2.8); act of grace (1.9); ed's leathers (1.4); and naval academy (1.9). From top to bottom on the right are: cursed suit (2.5); meeting mary (1.4); back home suit (1.10); battle jacket (1.1-1.6); godfrey thornrose (1.5); anniversary (1.4); cut-open shirt (1.2); red flag (2.2-2.3); YWFTW (1.5); long may he roam (1.10-2.5); blue suit (1.5); fab pants (1.4); ran aground (1.2); treasure map (1.7); white suit (1.3); and british uniform (2.8). All of the inner bubbles are blank. /End ID.]

[pinazee]

First season wrap up:

Okay, to start, i should mention my general opinion on first seasons for shows, especially cable shows, is not to read too much of it as canon. The writers, producers, actors- everyone- are all trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, so i give them latitude, particularly when it conflicts with later seasons. That being said, i do enjoy jumping through the hoops to make it all fit haha

So heres a few leftover notes i had as i revisited the eps to rank them:

I bet part of Lassie was craving the father figure in Henry, since we find out later his own father passed away when he was quite young. I wonder if thats part of the reason why he became a cop, as they are portrayed as the protectors and in the 80’s they were mainly men (i don’t really remember if he states his reason later, i suspect he did and im just not remembering). So when Henry didn’t meet up to the expectation he had in his mind, i bet it hurt a little more as it reminded him of what he lost :/

I think the other reason Shawn plays dumb so much, besides hiding his genius so ppl believe hes psychic, or for laughs, is because its how he gets people talking. Like in Shawn vs. the red phantom, he purposely guessed the wrong room number so the boys would correct him. My apologies if someones pointed this out before, i haven’t combed through the internet for everyone’s theories 😬 i only now noticed. I’m not the quickest at picking these things up lol

If i had to guess, Shawn didn’t want to be a cop for halloween, he probably wanted to be something star wars related to go with Gus’s Lando. So i wonder at what age Shawn stopped trying to please his dad. But also, why didn’t his mother ever stand up for him?? I’ll come back to her later -_-

I somehow missed it the first time, but shawn clearly asked Gus to come to the dinner and Gus even points out that it was a big deal for henry to reach out. Soo, yeah, shawn obviously didn’t wanna be alone with his dad, and even henry seemed nervous about it as hes pretty drunk.

Shawn has a right to be afraid of pointy things, his dad hid his easter eggs under glass when he was 6! Not to mention he later gets stabbed 3 times! (Also its just a legitimate fear???)

So far the list of Shawns knowledge (things i wouldn’t expect an average person to know) includes (beyond the obvious observational skills, deductive reasoning, reading people (poker), and all things police (marksmanship, police codes, etc.)):

Incredible spatial and physical reasoning skills (knowing how much money could fit in the duffle bag, knowing to rotate the water pitcher to catch the reflection from the tv)

Kurt Vonnegut (well, I didn’t know who he was at least)

How to spell aggiornamento (and probably all words because of his photographic memory)

Handwriting expert

Casually spoke and understood german

Has every road he’s driven mapped in his brain, and likely all of Santa Barbara

Familiar with paint (enough to know to mix latex enamel for no messy drips)

Animal tracks (i went back and forth on this but ultimately decided he must have known what to look for)

And heres a list of Gus’s niche interests:

Forensics

Spelling bee

Safe cracking

Historic rifles

Comic books

Astronomy (even though he was going to the planetarium for the girl)

Law

Local tennis

Online poker

Lastly, Ive decided instead of ranking them, im putting them in tiers. I feel like too many of them are hitting at the same level and I can’t differentiate:

Sweetest, Juiciest Golden Pineapple Tier

Scary Sherry, Biancas toast (ohmygod i just got the biancas toast 🤦🏽‍♀️)

Blue Psych Logo Tier

Weekend warriors

Forget me not

From the earth to starbucks

Poker? I hardly know her! (Sorry @pineapple-psychic!)

Pepto Bismo Pink Tier

Spelling bee

Pilot

She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me oops hes dead

Who ya gonna call?

Shawn vs the red phantom

Oops Canadian Flag Tier

Cloudy with a chance of murder

9 lives

Game set muuurder

Speak now or forever hold your piece

Woman seeking dead husband, smokers okay, no pets

[aspd-culture]

ASPD culture is feeling such a pleasant symptoms relief with exceptions, but also thinking… How did they make me care? They manipulated me or something, they're a threat.

^^ Yup, this is one thing I've mentioned in here a few times. Exceptions do not mean they always alleviate symptoms. In some ways, our Exceptions make us the most prosocial we ever feel, which is why they're called that. But they also get the worst reaction out of a select few of our symptoms (and those will vary from person to person as to which symptoms are better and worse), often including our distrustful world view.

I've been here so *so* many times with my Exceptions. And being in abusive relationships can make it worse. There are ways to add some logic and objectivity into that to see how you really feel about them and those often have overlap with the advice people give to evaluate for abuse.

Map every day if it was a good or bad day and keep a calendar for a month to count good vs bad, things you feel are manipulative run by another Exception to see if they see it as manipulative, or think of how you'd feel if those things were said/done to someone you value or care about getting hurt, etc. But nothing will fully get rid of that unsafe feeling, because it's inherent to us, so the biggest thing is to remind yourself that pwASPD are *very good* at protecting ourselves and reading people. Likely, they wouldn't be an Exception if they were terrible people - or at least you'd have willfully and knowingly ignored/looked past red flags.

Plain text below the cut:

^^ Yup, this is one thing I've mentioned in here a few times. Exceptions do not mean they always alleviate symptoms. In some ways, our Exceptions make us the most prosocial we ever feel, which is why they're called that. But they also get the worst reaction out of a select few of our symptoms (and those will vary from person to person as to which symptoms are better and worse), often including our distrustful world view.

I've been here so *so* many times with my Exceptions. And being in abusive relationships can make it worse. There are ways to add some logic and objectivity into that to see how you really feel about them and those often have overlap with the advice people give to evaluate for abuse.

Map every day if it was a good or bad day and keep a calendar for a month to count good vs bad, things you feel are manipulative run by another Exception to see if they see it as manipulative, or think of how you'd feel if those things were said/done to someone you value or care about getting hurt, etc. But nothing will fully get rid of that unsafe feeling, because it's inherent to us, so the biggest thing is to remind yourself that pwASPD are *very good* at protecting ourselves and reading people. Likely, they wouldn't be an Exception if they were terrible people - or at least you'd have willfully and knowingly ignored/looked past red flags.

[eretzyisrael]

by Seth Mandel

Ossoff’s speech was in November, and it was an agonizingly grotesque spectacle. It was delivered amidst a shocking rise in anti-Semitism, displaying Ossoff’s penchant for rumormongering at a time of genuine danger for American Jews.

Esther Panitch, a Democrat who is Georgia’s only Jewish state legislator, has insisted on holding her party’s feet to the fire on anti-Semitism. What she told the Times about the Kemp-vs.-Ossoff question sums up the awakening of American Jewish resolve and self-respect since Oct. 7, 2023: “Kemp has done things that I am fighting against every day. But it is a different level of betrayal that Ossoff has committed.”

In her memoirs, Golda Meir recounts how, with the war looming in 1948, the sheer amount of arms and ammunition needed by Israel’s defenders required the kind of immediate financial support that could only be provided by American Jews. “The Egyptian government can vote a budget to aid our antagonists,” Meir told a gathering of prospective Jewish donors in Chicago. “The Syrian government can do the same. We have no governments. But we have millions of Jews in the Diaspora, and exactly as I have faith in our youngsters in Palestine so I have faith in the Jews of the United States.”

Her faith was rewarded; the Jews of America came through. They did so after Meir made a statement that has echoed especially loudly ever since Hamas pierced Israel’s sense of security and ignited in the world an overt campaign to wipe the Jewish state off the map.

“You cannot decide whether we should fight or not. We will. The Jewish community in Palestine will raise no white flag for the mufti,” Meir said, referring to the leader of Palestinian Arab nationalism, Amin al-Husseini, who served as a Nazi official in Berlin during the war. “That decision is taken. Nobody can change it. You can only decide one thing: whether we shall be victorious in this fight or whether the mufti will be victorious.”

The Jewish state did not ask for its current fight with Hamas, but its brave soldiers will raise no white flag. And the Jews of Georgia won’t ask them to. Nor will they ask the young American Jews on college campuses to raise a white flag to their own pursuers. The attempt to banish American Jews from public life is ongoing and in some ways intensifying. The American Jewish community must be awake to the threat, even if Jon Ossoff isn’t.

[chbnews]

Weekly News 05/25/2025- 05/31/2025

Join the CHB News Discord!

Camp Announcements:

Camp has seen a great influx of new campers this week! Here's a quick recap of the claiming: Zahra Al-Sharif (Melpomene), Callie Rojas (Nemesis), Basil Grant (Demeter), Jonah Kameh (Aeolus), Reese Reed (Athena), Maya and Jaylen Stokes (Dionysus), and finally Ivy Lang (Apollo.)

Cabin Safety Drills are being hosted on Tuesday! Make sure you're prepared for a mock-up of a camp monster invasion! (It sounds scary but it's actually kinda fun)

The camp game this week is a four-way game of Capture the Flag. Please remember your teams are pre-assigned based on the number of your cabin. (1, 3, 4, 5, etc.) For instance, Zeus is Yellow, Poseidon is Blue, Demeter is Green, and Ares is red. This means the Athena cabin starts the pattern again, at Yellow, Apollo is Blue, etc. More information in your guidebook. (BLUE TEAM BABYYYY WE'RE GONNA WIN) (Heck yeah we are! Luck's on our side!) (By NOT cheating by using tyche luck magic stuff)

Weapon inspections will be held at the Forges by the Hephaestus kids every evening before dinnertime! This is your chance to get your weapons fixed, upgraded, or checked on! (they fixed my spear up and made it ACTUALLY symmetrical. It was driving me insane!) (It had it's own kind of... charm?) (That "charm" was appalling and horrific)

Chiron welcomes all new demigods to camp, and will be hosting camp tours every day this week from 10am to 1pm.

Camper Updates:

Jace Lim from the Hermes Cabin returned from his quest with two broken ribs and a suspiciously large and heavy backpack (that we physically can't get open?)

This isn't really news but someone from the Demeter cabin enchanted all the strawberries so they bark at you when you walk past them and it's hysterical (It's funny because its not even like a dog barking, it's like a person saying "bark")

Felix and Marty from the Hebe Cabin are working together with the Athena Cabin to create an enchanted map wall of camp, in the main room of the Big House! (they say it will be able to zoom in and show locations! which is neat, but you know what else can do that? Ipads, tablets, computers, phones, yadda yadda- all of which WE CANT USE) (You're literally writing this on a tablet, Damien. Stop being soooo dramatic)

Luca Perillo from the Poseidon Cabin has found an injured hippocampus calf, and has been working on fixing it up. (It's adorable!) (You just like it because it's gold colored)

Game Winnings:

The Hephaestus Axe-Throwing contest was won by... The Hephaestus Cabin! (dare i say it was rigged?) (Not everything you lose is rigged, you know. Some people actually have skills.) (ouch...)

The satyrs held a garden competition, and it seems like the Hecate Cabin won, over the Demeter cabin! (that's a shocker... usually those plant lovers tend to be more pretentious with their gardening...) (Damien, that's rude.)

The Aphrodite Cabin managed to create a commotion that won them the camp game last week! They somehow managed to convince their enemy team to join up with them! (Some call it charisma, I call it charmspeak) (Imagine me rolling my eyes at this.)

Upcoming Events:

"So, You've Been Prophecy'd?" hosted by the Apollo and Hecate Cabins, Sunday afternoon in the Amphitheater

"Combat for Dummies: Disarming" hosted by the Ares Cabin, Sunday evening in the Arena.

Communicating with Plants for Non-Demeter Kids" hosted by the Demeter Cabin, Monday morning in the Woods.

"Charm vs. Charmspeak" hosted by the Aphrodite Cabin, Monday Evening in the Cabin Green.

"Ancient Monsters, Modern Weaknesses" hosted by the Athena Cabin, Tuesday afternoon in the Big House.

"Pegasus Bonding and Riding" hosted by the Poseidon Cabin, Tuesday afternoon at the Stables.

"DIY Workshop: Pauldrons" hosted by the Hephaestus Cabin, Wednesday Morning at the Forges

"Illusions and Identity: A Workshop for the Body" hosted by the Aphrodite Cabin, Wednesday afternoon in the Aphrodite Cabin.

"Astrology: Ancient vs. Modern" hosted by the Hecate Cabin, Wednesday night at the Canoe Lake

"A Peek into Satyr and Mythical Life" hosted by the Camp Satyrs, Thursday morning at the Beach.

"Dream Meanings and Lucid Dreams" hosted by the Hypnos Cabin, Thursday afternoon at the Cabin Green.

"Faux-Lympus: Theseus and the Minotaur" hosted by the Apollo and Dionysus Cabins, Thursday Night at the Amphitheater.

"What is a Demigod 'War Crime?'" hosted by the Athena and Nike Cabins, Friday morning in the Big House

"Faux-Lympus: Daedalus and Icarus" hosted by the Apollo and Dionysus Cabins, Friday night at the Amphitheater.

Camp Gossip:

There's a camper that is selling contraband. (Outside foods and drinks, technology not approved by Chiron, etc.) No one has come forth, and it's still ongoing. (I bought a new phone) (Please keep stocking the snickers bars...)

A group of campers protesting Mr. D and calling for his retirement have been stopped and sent back to their cabins by Chiron. (ouch, embarassinggggg)

A Nike and Hebe Cabin member were seen smooching by the Canoe Lake (One of the Naiads told me this when I was painting my cabin's canoe for the summer canoe race)

Whoever keeps blasting Americano by Lady Gaga at 3:15am EXACT is going to stub their toes. All of them. (Ouch...) (SQUIDWARD STYLE) (OUCH???!)

Weekly Question:

Ok, now that we know what your perfume/fragrance would smell like, what would you name it?

Last Week’s Question: What would be your signature scent if you were turned into perfume or soap?

Camper Answers:

"Dr Pepper" - Anon Apollo Camper

"I think it'd be vanilla or lavender" - Anon Ares Camper

"Sour cherry, orange, and basil" - Valentine, Aphrodite Cabin.

Special thanks to Damien White and Chiara Benvenuti

[city-flag-tournament]

✯ Round 5 ✯ Match 3 ✯

The current flag of Gallup, New Mexico, United States

Propaganda:

None

vs.

The current flag of Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian Federation

Propaganda:

Flag goes hard, refers to city’s use as a soviet town containing secret facilities that didn’t appear on maps. Weapon’s grade plutonium and nuclear power was created there

Tournament Policies:

✯ Choose the flag that's more meaningful to you!

✯ Be respectful of place names and cultural symbols in your commentary!

✯ If you want to submit propaganda, you may do so at the submission form linked in the pinned post. It will only be included if it is submitted before the next post with that flag is drafted and will be included in all subsequent posts the flag is featured in.

[kumishona]

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood: a critically kind review from a femme acespec physicist <3

> scroll to the next section for my review on the physics academia content in this book!

First, a quick romance novel review!

spoiler: it wasn’t my favorite but I gave it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75 because being a writer has made me a generally more appreciative reader + I am so starved of woman in physics rep.

the good

It just felt good to read about a woman physicist, who are still incredibly underrepresented in fiction, especially as protagonists. (I’ll go off about that in a minute.)

The romance is so swoony with shoujo manga vibes, I haven’t read straight M/F adult romance novels in a while and I just loved the flutteriness of it.

A couple of chapters were so soft with excellent pillowtalk. There was something about the ambience of the snow, the hypnotic sadness of failure, the prescence of a comforting person.

I enjoyed identifying the relatable parts about physics academia. Hazelwood clearly did a lot of research, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It definitely kept me reading!

the bad

The academia issues are so over-simplified it’s almost juvenile. For an adult novel, even one marketed as a romcom, I expect more nuance, more explanations, more explicit lingering in tight positions.

And then the romance tries to be complex (and has a lot of potential!) but not a lot of conflict really happens.

A fictional physics fued between theorists and experimentalists is a really fun (and actually not far off) concept, but I would have expected some things to be the other way around. (More on that later!)

Okay this is personal but the main couple both have terrible taste in movies. Twilight vs white male rage movies??? There is no lesser evil here

Elsie’s hardships aren’t put in a very serious light. Her diabetes and lack of access to health insurance is used as a plot device to engineer romantic momentum between the characters and/or comic relief.

Just overall, the book tried so hard to remain “light” that I think it fails to garner depth. Because adult lives really aren’t that light all the time, and a book can bring relaxation and joy whilst including real worldly negative experiences.

There were aroace and sapphic side characters, but I wanted so bad for Elsie to be demisexual. It's set up so perfectly only for it to be averted—As a demisexual person myself, Elsie’s feelings about attraction felt acutely familiar to me, and every other reader I've spoken to has agreed that the book took a dissapointing and unexpected turn. I understand Hazelwood may not feel equipped to write queer protagonists but if I were her editor, I would have flagged that and recommended she make it canon. It would have added so much more context and dimension to Elsie, and would’ve put hetero demisexuals on the map. </3

Following up on the above: The smut tries so hard to be meaningful but it ... really is icky, stereotypical, unrealistic allocishetero stuff. Think: the shy inexperienced girl vs the man who knows exactly how to advise her. The characters try to subvert the trope by calling it out, but it feels performative because all is forgotten in the next second. The PiV sex is weirdly conventionally idealistic considering the pairing’s size difference. I’m picky about smut but also forgiving when I do like the dynamic. I just didn’t here.

Following up once again: I was ready to ignore all the repetitive comments about how sexy Jack’s height and muscles were, because sure, I guess Elsie has a type. But the sex scenes solidified the redundancy of it all. I've read this same dynamic in countless smutty heteronormative M/F paperbacks. And I have also been made aware by every Hazelwood reader that all her books focus on this kind of physical build pairing. I just want more diversity, you know?

IDK, I just wanted more physics in here than complaining about teaching, glossed over toxic mentors, and using some quirky physics term in every other sentence. (More on that below!)

I just wanted ... more? It’s not an extremely short novel, but both the plot and the character development fell flat. The ups and downs were too fast and easy, and the placement felt off. I finished the book and wondered, “That’s it? That’s all that happened?” It just wasn’t fulfilling. The side characters aren't expanded upon, and don’t get enough pagetime. My other romance reads this year were Bellefleur's The Fiancee Farce and Mcquiston’s One Last Stop. In both of those novels, the drama was fleshed out with so much care and detail. In comparison, Love, Theoretically may mention similar social difficulties in passing, but failed to really, really show us.

Overall ... the novel was fun for being about physicists but I really don’t see myself picking up another Hazelwood book, especially considering this isn’t even a debut novel. The conventional white steminist vibe and the particular allocishetero M/F dynamic just isn’t my thing.

But perhaps a reader wanting more of a novel and its characters is a good problem to have. Never say never, I guess! I look forward to keeping tabs on what Hazelwood publishes in the future!

Now, onto the physics!

First, most physicists, as good scientists, understand that theory and experimentation are fundamentally linked. It’s true that we each are often biased towards our own methods of research, but it is quite a stretch to imagine full professors so blatantly feud against others solely because of theory vs experimentation. Regardless, I was happy to suspend my disbelief for the sake of the plot that was framed in a genre-specific, lighthearted, humorous way.

Secondly, both theory and experimentation have sources of funding that are motivated in different ways, and Hazelwood's decision to have the theorists struggle with funding cuts due to declining interest in pop culture/the general public is actually quite credible. Experimentation garners a lot more interest from the application and engineering end of society, parts that are easily fueled by capitalism.

However, I think experimentalists in general are far less likely to be mean to theorists than the reverse scenario. Dr Fatima Abdurrahman has a great video essay about that called on her YouTube channel called “Quantum Physics, Feminism, and Objective Reality: What Physicists Don’t Want You to Know About Quantum Mechanics.” Dr Fatima outlines how old white men in physics have maintained this image of unwavering scientific objectivity in the name of rigor, despite studying a field that fundamentally is barely fathomable for humans. In simpler terms: Men, even in theory, pretend to be better, smarter, and more valid as physicists despite being in an infamously iffy field. And I would have liked to see that represented. It was just really hard for me to buy narcissistic grad students mansplaining Elsie about her field, and Elsie’s righteous feminine rage, when the field in question is … physics theory? It just didn’t make sense to me, when all of my personal experiences point to the opposite.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and having a woman theorist in a physics field that’s less popsci-oriented is actually … really cool. And having her love interest be a man in experimentation … sort of subverts gender roles and conventional media expectations.

Let me explain. The reality is that when women are represented in STEM, media prefers to put them in biology, like a nurse to a doctor, a people-oriented nurturer, a mere sidekick to the real “objective” scientist—often a mathematician or an astrophysicist who is always a man. And when women are placed in physics, they are automatically assigned to observational astronomy, which is dismissed as passive and easy. (This is wildly untrue—though styles of research in astronomy has interestingly allowed a somewhat more diverse array of researchers in history. Even today, you’ll see a higher frequency of women and queer people in every astronomy department.)

I think my ideal version of this novel would be retaining Elsie in theory, while also making theorists the overall bad guys in the feud. I would love to have her talk about the unique sexism she faces as a theorist. I would kill for a scene in which Jack gets gobsmacked by how fucking good at math she really is, compared to him (instead of, like, only making fun of it like it’s easy). I would love to read about her getting a tour of his lab, and just more physics content. But maybe I’m the only one saying that, because I’m a physicist. Maybe Hazelwood simplified it all to keep the book appealing to the general masses.

Still, it all read more like a girlpower!!! chant rather than a real commitment to represent a woman in STEM. I savored every moment Elsie or George would go off about physics. I loved Elsie’s conversations with Olive, a different STEM academic. (Monica was more complicated and actually quite interesting, and I wish we could have seen more of her. Heck, I wish we had actually been given any tangible info about Jack’s mom, even.) But I genuinely felt these instances were rare. Elsie referred to being a physicist a lot (and frankly, her mind is more physics-y than any IRL physicist considering the sheer number of physics-inspired figures of speech she uses … but I excused that as silly comic relief, a quirk in Hazelwood’s writing style). But she didn’t tangibly do physics on page. It was disappointing, considering women characters in STEM is what Hazelwood is known for.

And there are physicists who love teaching—even physicists who solely want to teach. Physicists who do pedagogy research. I know the book was mainly trying to criticise the adjunctification and dismissal of physics higher education, and it’s actually quite accurate in representing that most physicists in academia would prefer not to teach. But the excecution also ends up erasing physicists who aren’t in academia just for research. And I say this especially because the validity of teaching physicists as physicists is dismissed in real life. It’s used as justification to further force all physics academics to try to juggle between both research and teaching, whether they want to or not.

Which leads us to bad mentors. I’ve had a bunch of those. As Olive pointed out in an excellent quote, “Academia is so hierarchical, you know? There are all these people who have power over you, who are supposed to guide you and help you become the best possible scientist, but . . . sometimes they don’t know what’s best. Sometimes they don’t care. Sometimes they have their own agenda. […] Sometimes they’re total shitbuckets who deserve to step on a pitchfork and die.” And the thing is, the novel really doesn’t show us any of that (perhaps other than in Monica). We don’t fully get to know what happened to Jack’s mom, or Olive. We are not shown what Dr L’s agenda really was. Their final confrontation was so quick, when in reality shitty mentors are often sticky and entwined with your work, hard to cut off and scarier to talk back to even after you’ve finally realized they’re toxic.

Which isn’t to say the novel is just inadequate about everything. It’s correct in how goofy physics faculty are, and how white man-dominated the field is, how students try to mansplain women profs, how theorists madly work on their computers (as an experimentalist, I could never understand), how publishing is finicky (to put it kindly), and how tenured faculty fail to understand the reality of the job market in academia today. There are certain parts (like the quote above!) where I felt incredibly seen as part of a minoritized identity group in STEM academia. It’s rare to have a book written from this PoV, and as a first I think this novel will always be special for me!

If you’re interested in reading about more fictional women physicists, I would highly recommend skimming through this list I made on GoodReads (and feel free to add more!).

And if you’d like to support memoirs and science communication books by IRL women physicists, then look to further than this other list I’ve also made. (We’re actually currently seeing a boom in these which is inanely exciting to me, so again, contributions are always welcome!)

[flagwars]

r/Vexillology Contest Flag Wars: Round 2, Bracket 6

[yourfavealbumisgender]

Welcome to Your Fave Album Is Gender

Requests are currently closed! For info on the progress of a request check here! Rules and info below the cut.

What are the rules?

Send requests through the ask box.

All genders and sexualities are allowed as long as there’s a flag I can use to overlay the album cover.

However, I will not accept requests for cis/straight albums (“____ by ____ is cisgender”) (This includes polyamorous by itself. I am happy to do polyamorous with a queer identity included.)

If an artist is uses a specific label and your request negates that label (ie lesbian artist -> bisexual request or transfem artist -> transmasc request) I will not be posting your request.

No more than two requests at a time please!

No more than two flags on an album please! (Not that I don't support using multiple labels, it's just hard for me to edit more than two flags!)

YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT SEXUALITY/GENDER YOU WANT THE ALBUM TO BE OTHERWISE I CAN'T DO YOUR REQUEST!!!!

Please let me know if there's a specific flag you'd like me to use in your request (gay mlm flag vs rainbow, transfem/masc vs transgender, etc) Otherwise I'll use my best judgement to pick whichever fits best. (I use the Gilbert Baker flag as a default for the rainbow/gay flag, please let me know if you'd like a different version of the rainbow flag or the homosexual/mlm flag) (I will NOT use the original bigender flag with the white stripe in the middle on this blog. The creator is a transphobic abusive groomer.)

All albums or singles from any genre and language are allowed as long as they have official album art.

However, I have the right to not accept any request for whatever reason. The blacklist is below. If you send requests for the artists or albums on my blacklist, your request will be deleted.

Requests take awhile to upload depending on how many I have. I only post 2 per day. Please be patient.

Yes, you can use any of my edits as icons but please do not repost them without credit.

What artists will I not make edits for?

Alice Cooper All Time Low Andy Black Anti-Flag As I Lay Dying Avenged Sevenfold Azealia Banks Black Veil Brides Brand New Call Me Karizma Cardi B Cherie Currie Chris Brown Cobra Starship Dance Gavin Dance Destroy Boys Diddy Disturbed Doja Cat Drake Falling In Reverse Harry Styles Hanson Hazbin Hotel/ Helluva Boss/ Vivziepop Heisei Project Jack Off Jill John Hinckley Kanye West Kublai Khan TX Lana Del Rey Lostprophets Lovejoy Machine Gun Kelly Marilyn Manson Mayhem Melanie Martinez Midtown Mindless Self Indulgence Miracle Musical (Joe Hawley) Morningwood Noa Kirel New Found Glory Palaye Royale Pusu/Zips R Kelly Slaughter to Prevail SWMRS The Used TUYU Twenty One Pilots TX2 Wilbur Soot XXXTentacion Yung Miami

What albums will I not make edits for?

Anything by any of the artist above Dying is Your Latest Fashion - Escape The Fate album Escape The Fate - Escape The Fate EP There's No Sympathy for the Dead - Escape The Fate EP Joe's Garage - Frank Zappa album Girls/Girls/Boys - Panic! At The Disco single Death Of A Bachelor - Panic! At The Disco album Pray For The Wicked - Panic! At The Disco album Viva Las Vengeance - Panic! At The Disco album Live in Japan - The Runaways live album Queens of Noise - The Runaways album The Runaways - The Runaways album No Phun Intended - Tyler Joseph release

Note: These lists may be added to at any time.

Who is allowed to interact?

Anyone can interact as long as you are not one of the following:

TERF/SWERF/Radfem/Truscum/Transmed/“Gender critical”/Exclusionist

LGBTQA+ phobic/Racist/Nazi/Anti-Vax/Republican/All/Blue Lives Matter/Pro-Life/Misogynist/Zionist

Rape Apologist/MAP/NOMAP/Pedo

Who are you?

My name is Hades, my pronouns are they/them, I’m 25, and I'm gendervoid! My main is @sp1n​ I am a my chemical romance, j-pop, and vocaloid enjoyer!  I hope you enjoy this blog!

credit for dividers goes to theprideful