#Historical biases

[debasishsinha]

Unveiling Biases: Decoding Western Media's Portrayal of India

A growing number of people are worried that various news organisations are covering stories in a biassed or partial way, which is a major problem in today’s ever-changing media environment. This does more than just damage to journalism’s credibility; it also makes it much harder to promote international understanding and collaboration. This article explores the complex depictions of India in…

[amarriageoftrueminds]

If The Howlies were real...

I've been thinking about Steve's time during the war, and wondering if anyone has any headcanons about, eg. where he was stationed, how exactly the Howling Commando mission planning went, etc?

In the comics, Steve isn't assigned to the 107 but to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division (aka the ‘Big Red One’.)

They were part of D-Day landings, on Omaha Beach.

In deleted scenes / clips from the Smithsonian, it’s implied that Steve was also a part of D-Day: 

(That’s General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander.)

(These landing craft 👆 were only used at D-Day. Although it’s possible this is propaganda footage of a rehearsal.)

If the Howlies had the same set up as the 26th, then Steve and the guys would’ve been stationed in Swanage, Dorset:

(Members of ‘A’ Company 26th Infantry Regiment US Army, billeted at Craigside in the High Street opposite Purbeck House Hotel, Swanage, around 1943 – 44.)

That’s 114 miles south west of Camp Griffiss in Bushy Park, Teddington, where General Eisenhower had his SHAEF HQ, starting from January 1944

(before that his HQ was at No.20 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, in London -- aka ‘Little America’ or ‘Eisenhower Platz’ -- a couple of miles northwest of Churchill’s War Rooms, which inspired the underground bunker HQ seen in CATFA.)

Thousands of American troops, including the 26th Infantry, started arriving in Dorset in November 1943 -- which is also when Steve arrived in England after rescuing the 107!

While in Dorset, the US troops were largely engaged in rehearsing for Operation Overlord, aka D-Day. 

One such rehearsal was the disastrous Operation Smash, on the 18th April, 1944, which was a live-ammunition practice for beach landings at Normandy. (Disastrous because six men accidentally drowned when their Valentine semi-submersible tank... sank.)

Operation Smash was staged in Studland Bay (that’s 4.5 miles north of Swanage). Present to observe were: Winston Churchill, King George VI, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, and Acting Admiral Louis Mountbatten. They did so from ‘Fort Henry,’ a 90 foot long bunker (built and named by Canadian engineers in 1943 -- so it would’ve been there by the time Steve n’ Co got there -- and it’s still there today!) overlooking the bay. 

The US troops moved on from Swanage in late April 1944, and departed England entirely (from nearby places like Weymouth, Poole Quay, Portland Harbour, etc.) on 5th June 1944. D-Day was on the 6th.

In the deleted scene from Avengers, Steve is clearly shown crossing  the Ludendorff Bridge:

...But this is impossible!

Because that bridge (at Remagen) was only captured on the 7th of March 1945:

(9th Armored Division in Remagen, Germany, recorded 9th March, 1945).

...and Steve had already crashed the Valkyrie 6 days prior!

(So unless that bridge was captured earlier, possibly because of Steve n’ Co., that footage can’t be right! 

CATFA does have a habit of putting the US Army in places they had no business being yet at that time of the war -- i.e. showing the US Army right up at the North of Italy, when in reality the Nazis still held it. 

(In fact, Mussolini’s Nazi puppet republic, the Republic of Salò, was nicknamed after a lake in Brescia... which is 200-ish miles further south than the US Army are shown in November ‘43.)

So I guess it’s possible that Steve & Co really were in Remagen, Germany, and crossing the Ludendorff Bridge before March ‘45! 

Or (perhaps more likely) we’re supposed to read is as some generic bridge in Western Europe, captured on D-Day.

.

Where exactly the Hydra factories were (and thus most Howlie missions) is not categorically stated. However, what Steve says / taking rough guesses from the map we see in Krausberg...

...it looks like the Howlies would’ve had missions in: Italy, France, (then) Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Greece. 

(The script also mentions Belgium and Russia, which are neither shown on the map nor mentioned. However, there is a shot of them creeping through snowy forests, which looks very much like the Ardennes. That might put them in Belgium as part of the Battle of the Bulge -- which in turn gives us a date that could be the ‘difficult winter’ mentioned in the Smithsonian footage.)

If the Howlies were an active team from say 14th November 1943 -- 1st March 1945 (when Steve went down in the Valkyrie) 

That’s 473 days / or 1 year, 3 months, 15 days / or 15 months, 15 days.

If they had 9 missions total during that time...

6 Hydra factories around Europe

+ 1 winter mission to save over a 1000 men (as mentioned in Smithsonian; could be Battle of the Bulge? 🤔)

+ 1 D-Day mission (possibly including amphibious landings &/or bridge captures)

+ 1 Zola-capture mission, probably somewhere in the Alps. 

+ 1 Valkyrie mission makes 10.

...That would give them 52.5 days (less than two months) to both plan, travel in and out, and execute each mission. That seems like a pretty tight turnaround, especially if each factory was different enough to warrant a new/fresh plan. 

(One difficulty never mentioned because their raids are relegated to a montage: the fact that Hydra factories appear to be staffed by slave labour. Means the Howlies can’t just bust in guns blazing! Or, at least, I don’t think Steve would stand for it. They’d have to free the workers first, and hopefully they’d be workers both physically capable and willing to join in the fight.)

In the film, they are never shown being back in the UK between these missions,  right up until the last Valkyrie mission in 1945, and dialogue seems to suggest there hasn’t been any personal contact between them and the HQ staff in between. (It does seem a bit nuts to be shipping them out and back every time, rather than just keeping them on the continent. Also nuts to be planning their most important Valkyrie mission only the day before. But anyway...) 

In order to take part in D-Day, they had to have been back to England at least once, to receive those highly classified orders and to rehearse (can’t be discussing details of D-Day over radio!) 

Also, they couldn’t have been allowed to go haring off attacking Hydra bases any old where, because it might have been inconvenient for D-Day (ie. if the Nazis increased defenses in certain places just because Captain America had been sighted there recently.)

TPTB could have used the Howlies as a diversion, sending them on dummy missions designed to make the Nazis think D-Day is going to happen somewhere else. I think Greece and Italy would be a great way to convince the Nazis that an invasion will be coming from the south, not the north! They could even have used doubles of the Howlies to throw the Nazis off the scent, as part of the Ghost Army (they did this IRL with Bernard Montgomery!) 

Maybe the SSR would be advised to keep the Howlies’ real missions as far away from Normandy as possible, earlier on, and then the reverse right before D-Day? (ie. damage Hydra’s factories that are nearest to Normandy, close to D-Day, so that they can’t supply weapons and don’t have enough time to rebuild).

Other possibilities: 

If they were not stationed in the UK between missions, and weren’t with the US Army of occupation (because it hadn’t invaded that part yet) Steve & Co. might have been living undercover in Nazi-occupied territory in the run up to missions against local Hydra bases (in, eg. France and Poland. Chance for Frenchy to get his Maquis on!) Very dangerous, very nerve-wracking, very Inglourious Basterds of them. Also potentially very dangerous for the locals, too, since there would surely be reprisals against them after any successful anti-Hydra attack. 

IRL There was a concentration camp called Terezin in Czechoslovakia, near-ish where that one Hydra base is shown. (It’s the one that the Nazis famously filmed a propaganda movie in, after cleaning it up and deporting a bunch of people to Auschwitz to seemingly reduce overcrowded living conditions, to fool the visiting Red Cross.) So Steve and the Howlies might have gone off-mission to go and liberate that; could be that was a source of slave labour for the nearby Hydra factory. (From a character POV, Terezin was known for having a big artistic culture among the inmates, and surely Steve would feel empathy for those used in propaganda, having been made to do that himself.)

Logically speaking, I would’ve expected that last Hydra base to be in Holland or Denmark -- not Greece -- to complete the ring of bases formed around Germany. 🤔 Maybe even more likely to be Denmark, since the Tesseract (which kicked off the whole Hydra supremacy thing) was discovered in Tønsberg, SE Norway.

[spacecravat]

for good omens s3 i hope we get to see crowley with REALLY long hair, waist length or longer. just luxurious long locks pooling around him

[icanmakewords]

“Bring back book Alicent” Book Alicent was a historian’s creation! Meant to villainize a woman who was victimized all her life! Her cruelty were an exaggerated thing to make her appear to be cold and uncaring!

The book is about the distortion of history- messy and flawed as it is. Don’t be upset with an adaptation for not taking it at its exact (biased) word

[yzafre]

Roxas: Had the Halloween town kids throw bombs in his face for multiple missions in a row before finally breaking down and smacking them around a bit.

Ventus: The dwarves were rude and refused to talk to him, immediately resorted to chasing them down and whacking them.

Characterization I see frequently: Ah, yes, Roxas is the one always willing to throw hands and Ventus is a smol sunshine boy.

[bbtakeovers]

production idea: a big brother season but without any fuckass twists that irreparably alter the game

[welcometoteyvat]

as a chinese person yall need to stop blaming the ccp for everything (read: hoyo is capable of making colorist design decisions and not everything is a result of censorship pls)

[fitzrove]

Crown Prince Rudolf biographers be like

brigitte hamann: Rudolf's foreign policy aims were ambitious, if ultimately unfeasible. At the very least, he tried harder even from his difficult personal and political position to make an impact on the political affairs of the empire, unlike his entitled uncaring cruel bitch mother who never loved him enough

frederick morton: The prince's cerulean orbs glistened with barely held-back crystalline tears as he clutched the pistol in his masculine, well-muscled hand, and he caressed the mouth of the gun like he might a lover's on a gloomy winter morning, impatient, all his potent charms singularly focused on his new, dark goal, one that could only find its fulfillment in the indulgement of his secret desires... erhm no I do not want to fuck him [blushes]

empress zita: I think president Bush had Rudolf killed

greg king and penny wilson: Rudolf did 9/11 what a fucking scumbag [source: judith listowel source: dukeprince heinrich von habsburg twitter acount source: this appeared to me once in a dream]

[blood-starved-beast]

Also the thing about Marcille and butch-ness is also rooted in Elf typical xenophobia. Elves in Dungeon Meshi are notably feminine, even the males have more "delicate" features and their clothes would be consider feminine by tallmen or dwarf standards (see: Otta being butch but dressed the way she is). Dungeon Meshi is really clear on all the races having their own biases, and that elves in particular look down upon other races and infantalize them cause they don't live as long as elves do. Falin preferring to and dressing in what would be seen in a traditionally masculine manner by tallman standards would force Marcille not only to confront her own butchphobia, but her own elf raised racial biases.

[myrskytuuli]

The pope's exorcist is such a funny movie. It's like...uuuuuhh you know those hundreds of years of genocide, torture and other crimes against humanity the catholic church did. Asmodeus. Demon Asmodeus actually did all of that. Catholic priests have never done anything wrong. The spanish inquisition? It was Asmodeus. We just found a secret diary of a catholic priest that proves it. Don't ask follow up questions. And then demon Asmodeus is like wait, weren't you complicit in covering up that one girl getting continuously raped by the catholic glergy, look I'm showing a vision of her to you as we speak, and the priest just powers on like: NO CATHOLIC EXORCIST HAS EVER DONE ANYTHING BAD EVER!!

But in a more serious note, I honestly thought the movie was leading to an entire different direction with the way the mystery was set up. Secret inquisition torture chamber being unearthed underneath the church and the omnious warnings about "your sins will follow you" in that book and how Asmodeus wiggles in through your guilt and all that shit really looked like it was going to be "face your history" type of deal, and then it took such a hard turn into NOPE. Actually it was all demonic influence.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I have a big google doc thing where I keep track of media and stuff (putting everything in loosely ranked categories), which is mostly just for my own reference so I know what tv shows I've already seen before, etc. and I never really look back through it, typically just a quick "okay, watched two movie in the past 8 months, need to quickly slap them somewhere in the lists. okay. done. save document. exit". But today I was actually reading through some of the old notes and there are like... MULTIPLE places where my comment is basically "It would have been good if it were about elves" or "I wish there was a fantasy show made in this same style" or "It's well made, but I just keep thinking about how I would like it more if everyone was an elf or was in old 1700s costumes" or etc like...... lol.... Most biased media ranking system on earth blatantly made by someone with an extremely hyperspecific range of narrow interests. It'd be like if a food reviewer only had 5 foods they actually liked, so they'd just go to a pizza place and be like "eh, the pizza was okay, but I just think it would be better if it was cereal instead. :/ ...2 out of 10"

[tianshiisdead]

Japan shaves just about everything. He doesn't think more hair=more manly. He infact has a whole different idea of what is manly compared to western countries or most countries in general. He also likes flowers and floral patterns.

everything?!

[moodr1ng]

just learned about the people posting '19th century paintings' by a supposed "emile corsi", which is actually just ai art misleadingly and purposefully being represented as actual historical pieces, and i do think this is an issue for art history and culture that people are doing this (and that more people are being tricked into reposting these pieces under the belief theyre legitimate historical ones, furthering the lie).

however after looking it up a bit im finding that the only issue people have with this is that misrepresentation of art history. and id like us to also consider that many of these pieces are in the 19th-century orientalist style, in which white european artists fictionalized, fetishized and otherized swana people. and the use of ai art to create new pieces of a historical racist style (which still today colors the way swana people and our history are perceived in the west) should be as big a concern as the issue of fooling people into thinking an artist who didnt exist actually did. probably more!

(preemptive disclaimer that im not "anti-ai" and dont care about having that argument. post is about a racist thing. does not need derailing.)

[consolecadet]

However much of the dominant culture you think you've excised from yourself, there's always more to uncover and tear out, and it is so exhausting

[icarusbetide]

there are times where showrunners drop the ball so astronomically it's hilarious, and i'm not talking about when they actively ruin their own characters or story arcs. i'm talking about when they could have grasped some juicy character/actor and they didn't until it was too late lmao.

i am of course talking about two shows: the gilded age and turn washington's spies. i know the gilded age producers were screaming crying once they realized that tom blyth hit it big in the hunger games movie and they had wasted his appearance on a one episode, throwaway role as the would-be fiance of a protagonist's daughter just a year before. they uploaded the singular scene tom blyth had in the show on their tiktok as soon as TBOSAS came out. they knew what they missed out on lmao.

and turn...oh turn. there are so many things i like about you and so many things you could've done better. and yeah i'm biased but not having alexander hamilton be in the show from the get-go was a mistake. he was one of the rare outsiders who actually knew about the culper ring! if there's any aide de camp or figure you want to add to the relationship with ben tallmadge and washington, it's probably him. i need to find a source for it but apparently tallmadge and hamilton stood guard for andre the night before his execution, and they all talked pretty openly - nathan hale was brought up, and hamilton said that tallmadge never talks about hale because it's painful. i don't know, that's some very interesting, potentially historically accurate material right there. in your grasp! the show focused a lot on the french alliance, well who in the aide de camps spoke a lot with the french? hamilton + laurens + lafayette (to some level tilghman though i think he did translation). it was right there.

and the potential comradeship and also conflicting jealousy/contrast you could've elaborated on between tallmadge and hamilton. because lafayette is in the show, very clearly friendly with washington! how nice would've it been to add hamilton, a person who relates more with the show's tallmadge and sees the flaws in washington; and is yet someone who actively rejects/doesn't want washington's affection the way tallmadge does (but perhaps gets it more).

turn premiered in 2014 and i'm wondering if by then the producers had at least heard about a hamilton musical being made. because by mid 2015 (after season 2 premiered) it was a done game and everyone and their cousin knew about the musical. so they added hamilton to the last few episodes of season 3 and gave him some lines in season 4. i wonder if the producers sat there and remembered the conversation they had back in preproduction of season 1, like. "should we add hamilton?" "nah, he'll make things complicated. nobody cares about him anyways!"

ugh. such a waste.

[meanqueens]

Daemon "love" is just like cersei's

https://www.reddit.com/r/HouseOfTheDragon/s/QfX1MKIgKi

What is your opinion on this post? Do you agree or disagree?

thank you for your ask, anon! this was a really interesting analysis to read! i can get behind OP's perspective on daemon's character, but besides the one statement, i'd like to see them explain just how cersei and daemon's "love" is similar.

but in my opinion, is daemon's "love" like cersei's? i think they come from wildly different circumstances that effect how they interact with the world (i.e. daemon's from the house that currently sits the throne, a dynasty of conquerors, rides a dragon, and was born male; cersei, born female, has no magic and comes from a wealthy and influential house, but could only get closer to the seat of ultimate power via marriage, and even then her sex still limits her). i think any comparisons between their relationships would stop at the superficial, as when we get to the nitty gritty, their worlds are just not the same and that carries over into their characters. i think it's fair to say that based upon what we know about westerosi society and the societal self-deification of the targaryens, daemon was awarded a lot more privilege than cersei, and that's not nothing for who they became as people.