#I still think if this was like an org or something people would care more to keep this place intact

[fangmich]

why is tumblr too dumb to earn money??

you have so many talented and creative people on this shit site which you could use to not only promote them but also the site itself

I guess everything would be easier if this wasn't a fucking company

[fairuzfan]

Sorry one more thing I wasn't going to talk about but if you had asked me about the binational state/land thing maybe... in 2016, I might have given a somewhat positive answer but I think that since then, Israeli society has become exponentially more racist and anti-Palestinian. Since then we had the Abraham Accords, Sheikh Jarrah, Massafir Yatta, the highest child martyr count in years, and now finally a full blown genocide. Many Palestinians who previously advocated for equality in a single state look at all this, especially in recent months and think "how can I live side by side with these people?"

The vast majority of Israeli society is not against war for the sake of the Palestinians, they're against war for their own safety. They say as much. Hell, look at standing together. The founder guy says "our security is tied in with the Palestinians'". So if it wasn't tied with the Palestinians', you wouldn't care? And I get sometimes you need to introduce people to ideas gently, but their entire organization language emphasizes "shared pain" when there is an oppressor/oppressed dynamic they aren't even hinting at. How can anyone achieve safety if you won't even admit you have power over your Palestinian org members?

Even Brothers in Arms claims to want to "strengthen democracy" but they completely ignore Palestinians have never experienced democracy in "Israel". So what's the point strengthening your own standing when the most disadvantaged still are at rock bottom?? Plus your whole group represents the IOF reservists/members, you have no intention of helping Palestinians when you are the primary oppressors. And this is not an insignificant group in israel!

Not many Israelis are willing to put themselves on the line to protect or even advocate for Palestinians. I mean 7+ months into a genocide and what did israeli society do other than protest *netanyahu*? Hold up flour bags during the flour massacre??? The people serving in the idf are your friends and family and community. Tel Aviv is an hour away from Gaza. Surely you can do *something* physical!! They had people at their Gaza borders starving Palestinians on purpose and people just... watched it happen. Not to mention the IOF, which many Israelis are a part of, participates in the genocide and has been lauded for their "heroism". I look at that and I think "how can I expect you to seriously consider my rights as a person? How do I know you won't miss your old status and reclaim it?"

We've seen Israelis *celebrate* and *ridicule* our martyrs and people. So like where us the good faith in all this? Where can we work with some of these people and think "Yeah I believe they'll respect my inherent dignity as a person"?

Which binationalism relies on this. You need to have good faith between communities for this to actually happen. But when one community won't even acknowledge it's status as an oppressor at the height of oppression? Then what?

Israel as a country has never faced any retribution for its actions for 75 years. No one is holding them accountable. The country teaches propaganda in its schools about the Nakba. There is not serious consideration for Palestinian rights in Israeli society. Why would they suddenly decide to participate in a project that puts Palestinians as equal to Israelis when they learned all their lives that Palestinians are ruthless, unreasonable people who can't be reasoned with, and Israelis are logical, poor victims who are actually the ones who need protection from the Palestinians!

It just is mind boggling because I see people constantly complain about the way they hear things from Palestinians these days like "all Israelis need to leave". And they go on to say "why would you be so hateful/why would you say that" and don't think for a minute they're experiencing a televised genocide of their people (which they could have ended up in their shoes! People forget that Gaza has multiple refugee camps! Any one of us could have lived there!) And conversely are looking to Israeli society for them to do anything and they see nothing. At least think for a moment why they would say these things given the context of the situation. There's a genocide going on! And you're worried about what the people who are experiencing their people's genocide are saying because you're worried for the society conducting said genocide?? Let's deal with the matter at hand first!!!!!!

[transmutationisms]

is it unfair for me to hold anger at individuals, or criticize individuals, if covid minimization is not the result of individualized choices but mass messaging and systems at work? im not really sure what to say to leftists who ive spoonfed information who have still decided to “move on” from it, including in their activism. on one hand i understand how they got here, on the other it feels like theyre enacting violence, in the same vein as like misgendering or supporting “blue lives matter” but with the added bonus of them maybe also harming someone directly by refusal to do infection control. i really need to shift my perspective away from a heavily trauma-informed one and start living in the real world where i cant expect anyone to advocate for me, and have to find more systems-based ways to advocate for myself, and releasing some of that anger might need to be a part of moving on from that pov, but a lot of that trauma *is* individualized and resulted from the way people have responded to me, which varies from lukewarm apathy to actively telling me my life isnt worth anything to them. at the same time, it’s impossible for me to feel like i’m not the one in the wrong, when it’s very few people left who care about any of this. sorry for dumping this on *you*, im aware you’re some guy online, but the only ppl i see who still talk about covid are ppl in the same situation as me and are too close to it to assess, or think about it purely on an individual level

i don't think there's anything wrong, bad, or unfair about feeling this type of anger or betrayal. i just also think that this is one of those situations where a (completely understandable) emotional reaction does not form the basis of an effective political platform. both of these things can be true at once; your ethical considerations when navigating interpersonal relationships are not the same as the ethical considerations for someone who wants to style themselves a public health communicator. in an epidemiological sense, a person who reluctantly masks because orgs and public spaces have mask mandates is accomplishing the same thing, materially, as a person who happily masks because they care about their disabled comrades. in that sense there's no need for a public health strategy to focus on 'changing minds' and doing so often just makes people dig in their heels more. but, on a personal level, of course it matters to you whether someone actually cares for you and protects you voluntarily! figuring out how to interact with people in your own life is just not the same as figuring out the most effective mass communication and public policy strategies; what irritates me about many of the twitter-sphere covid communicators is the elision between these two things. having said that, if i can just soapbox for a second:

i try to give these people the benefit of the doubt; i do think many of them mean well and think they are doing what's right. however, the strategy that many of them have coalesced around seems to go something like this: assume that others are not covid-cautious because they are insufficiently frightened; assume this is a failure of individual intelligence-slash-awareness; using the same datasets as the applicable public health agency, interpret all data with any number of assumptions, predictions, and modelling heuristics built in; generate very terrifying infographic, post it, and wring hands when doing so doesn't change anyone's behaviour or state policy.

even in the best of cases i simply think this is ineffective; i would say public attitudes about the seriousness of covid are much more a result of state and public health inaction, ambivalence, and denialism than they are a cause. additionally, interpreting data and making predictions based on them is woolly, and a lack of transparency about their methodology, plus the overconfident desire to present themselves as authorities on the internet, means that this strategy can and does end up producing its own distortions. see, for example, recent 'med twitter' claims that "covid is airborne aids", an attempt to scare people into taking it more seriously that relies on poor and overconfident interpretations of current immunological knowledge; that ends up distorting what we do actually know about covid and the immune system (which is already fucking scary! no lies needed!); and which, as far as i can tell, actually started picking up steam in early 2020 as a right-wing conspiracy theory centred around the claims of dr (not an md) leonard g. horowitz, who argues that covid is a laboratory-engineered virus and uses it in his efforts to sell "resonating silver hydrosol" supplements to you (and your pets!) as "an effective alternative to risky vaccinations and deadly antibiotics".

getting into bed with these people is patently dangerous for obvious reasons. i really do not blame people who are trying to find reliable covid information, and are rightfully wary of state and official sources that have been downplaying this virus for its entire existence, for getting sucked in by twitter doctors when those people are often the only ones who seem to be both posting statistics and taking the virus seriously. however, what i have observed leads me to believe that, firstly, many of these people are motivated by a desire for renown and fame as much as by altruism (welcome to social media). secondly, virtually all of them are fundamentally very liberal in their politics, and this shows in the way they interpret the current state of affairs as a result of individual actions and psychological failures, rather than capitalist policy. this is absurd and leads to absolutely pointless (if not often counterproductive) narrativisation of political action as some kind of magical field where everybody just needs to change their minds and believe in the correct things really hard and then things will change: it's the liberal democratic fantasy that aggregated attitudes create policy out of thin air, no organisation or class analysis or principled communism necessary.

thirdly, a multitude of factors (incl. the paywalling and gatekeeping of knowledge) means that, although state and official interpretations of their datasets are often misleading or outright dishonest because they want to minimise risk, too often the self-styled 'covid communicators' online are not a solution to this and are prone to their own fallacious assumptions, conspiratorial thinking (see again: understanding politics as the product of many individuals believing something really hard, with no analysis of structural factors), poor data analysis, issues with comprehensive data collection in the first place (same as state sources. because they are usually using the same datasets), and a particular rhetorical emphasis on "listening to the science" that often manifests practically as a failure to actually engage with scientific methodology or to questionor improve it where it is lacking, incomplete, or bias-reproducing.

so. these are my issues with the state of covid communication; to me the question of how to navigate interpersonal relationships with people who don't value your life enough to protect it is just very different and the emotional engagement there is also quite different.

[horizon-verizon]

https://x.com/cliffsidesiren/status/1814784899867681160

It’s just a rumor but if Rhaenyra cheat on Daemon, can we finally agree that removing Nettles was simply racially motivated ? She wasn’t cut to save Daemyra, she was cut because the writers hate Black people and think Black characters are interchangeable.

Well, I always believed that removing Nettles was more bc they were racially lazy--thus, yes racist. Let Rhaenyra and Mysaria fuck or kiss, it's not like they didn't think of having Daemon flirt with men right in front of his Black wife who he still ignores in the show. Or that any f these characters truly reflect their orig counterparts, they're all inventions or distortions of their org selves for the sake of a marketing shtick. 🤷🏽‍♂️ Plus, show!Daemon choked her out, so.

If they don't smash, they don't smash, if they do it won't make the overall story mean its original meaning but it will provide show watchers more to love in lieu of all the nonsense. So why not? Me, I don't feel one way or the other about this possibility, I would have enjoyed Laena and Rhaenyra more and I'd be too bitter about that to enjoy any sapphic ship Rhaenyra could be in here. Apologies if this bums people out, but I don't care for any romances apart from Jace and Baela as they are a "fresh" couple who thus far are being played and written pretty well and have had no weird set up or history of disengenuous mudslinging affecting said ship and I feel that the knowledge that this one could last even if Jace survived buoys my spirits. Whereas Mysaria and Rhaenyra, can't really trust that it'd be depicted well or last very long...not do I think it's make sense for Mysaria to stay, build something wRhaenyra, when she was hankering to leave at all costs. Not with the characterization they created for Mysaria...tbh I am not sure why she still is there, with this nonretaliatory motivation. (I prefer longevity). So I rather not invest.

No I don't think bk!Rhaenyra allowed Daemon to sleep w/Mysaria nor that he did whatever with Nettles.

[abibeur]

So. I played Side Order (or rather I finished Side Order, aside from a few completion marks that doesn't offer any spoiler stuff!).

I've been seeing stuff on Tumblr, on Discord servers, on YouTube comments by people who were… Not entirely happy with it. Or rather disappointed. "They could have done more…", "This character was underused…", "I preferred the Octo Expansion…", "Let's re-write it for something better…". And let me tell you, I was (and still am) infuriated when reading these. Not because those comments and posts and messages were unfair, unjust and idiotic or anything (well maybe the re-writing thing was uncalled for), but because I actually loved that DLC. I think that's pretty normal to be angry with seeing a thing you love being shit on, even if I get what all of you meant. But I still wanted to share my own thoughts (because why not, I like saying what I think).

First and foremost, let me just say that I have a pretty different relation with Splatoon than most people. I was in since the release of the first game. I didn't play it due to a lack of Wii U, but I watched a lot of videos. And I liked it! I even had Splatoon OCs, I could be considered a fandom veteran at this point! But after some years, I put it at the back of my head as something I loved. When the Switch came out, I didn't have the money for it and no one would buy me one, so I continued to be a PC gamer. And when I saw the news of a Splatoon 2, I dismissed it like it was something silly, "what can you say more about Splatoon!?" I knew there was some new idols, some stuff about a DLC, Callie being kidnapped, but that's all. I dismissed all of this, and as a result I don't have much of an attachment for it. But in 2021, when I saw the news about a third game, I was ecstatic again. And in 2022, when I finally could afford it, I bought a Switch. Not just any Switch, the Splatoon themed one, and I pre-ordered the game. And when it came out, I spent less than a day to finish the story mode, and it was one of the best day of my life, I played Splatoon for 16 entire hours. Splatoon 3 is now my most played game on the Switch, more than 300 hours (that can seem not that much for some of you, but I'm a casual gamer, I don't play every day, so that's still a lot!). I even bought Splatoon 2 and the Octo Expansion after that. Splatoon 2 story mode was incredible, because that's the game I never got to play but more mastered. Octo Expansion was incredible, because it was… incredible. But I still liked Splatoon 3 story mode better. Is it because I've played it before? Because I hadn't the one year of unskippable Off the Hook news to make me like them before the DLC (to be fair I didn't know much of Deep Cut too!)? Because it clicked more on me? Honestly I don't care. It's not important, because it's still my preferences. But let met tell you, when the news of Splatoon 3 DLC dropped, I was roaring. Every crumbs of news and trailers widened my life expectancy. I was finally sharing the hype that you felt for Octo Expansion. And…

Two days ago, I played it. And I loved it. Why? Why did I love it where so many people seem disappointed? This will not be an analysis, I'm not good at those, just… Here's how I see things. Also there will be huge spoilers so if you haven't censored the tags for whatever reason, I will hide it beneath a read more because I'm nice.

First, the gameplay. When I heard it was going to be a roguelite, I was intrigued, because it seemed interesting. I was wondering how it was going to play out, more like The Binding of Isaac, or like Hades… Okay I only played those two. And it was like Hades. But I think the best thing to come out of this gameplay is… Well, the fact is every mission from all other story modes (including octo expansion) are pretty much the same in that they have an intended way to be beaten. Sure, for OE and S3 you have a choice of weapons, and there's probably unorthodox ways to finish them (including speedruns), but it's still organised around a specific way to deal with the levels. You go at one point and there you're done. And that's why I will never re-play the story modes I already finished. I know the ropes, so… Why? But here… The gameplay itself doesn't change much. It's an amalgamation of most Splatoon gameplay since now, Salmon Run, Ranked Match, Octo Expansion levels… But the way you APPROACH this gameplay is different and that's why every thing changes. Because you are now free to choose. You don't want a stage? Choose another one, the cost of a good chip and membux not being that punishing, you want a specific type of chip? Go for it! There is so much fun combos to do, I have fun at every run! They told us it was going to be replayable. And they haven't failed to give. Because when I want to replay a game, then I know it's good. Aside of multiplayer games and games made to be replayable (TBOI, Dishonored…), some of favourite games are Half-Life 2 (my favourite game in general), Hollow Knight and Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story. Once you've finished exploring it all, well there is nothing else. But I still want to experience it again. And again. I have tens and even hundreds of hours on each of them. So yeah. If a game makes me want to replay it, I like it! And also… The final fight. The "phase 2" of the final fight. It was probably the most satisfying gameplay in all of Splatoon. Every path you took? Every path you didn't take? It was there. And you could experience it all together and finally finish your first run, empowered by it, in-game and outside. This was so good. I really wish we will get updates like more stages, bosses or even chips, because wow.

Secondly, the atmosphere. This point will be much shorter, but holy shit this game was incredible to be immersed into. The cold and sanitised atmosphere of the Spire? Amazing. Obvious Portal and liminal spaces vibes, but hey. And the music… Really the music makes a lot of it. The final fight music is absolutely incredible, one more time, and the credits theme is probably my favourite credits theme of every Splatoon game and DLC (that VIOLIN, that heckin' VIOLIN). I wouldn't be able to say which one of Octo Expansion and Side Order's atmospheres was my favourite. I guess I'm less sensitive to childhood memories and such but hey. Both DLC's atmospheres were incredible good.

Finally… The sore point of everything I guess, the story. I guess we expected more. Even myself, I expected something darker, deeper, more mysterious and esoteric… Have I been disappointed. No. I understand that some people were, but I am not. And frankly, I feel like I don't have to be. Like what do we really wished for? More octoling lore? Marina's past uncovered? Mature themes and dark atmosphere? I am just describing Octo Expansion. We didn't need Octo Expansion 2.0. Every theme that I've seen wished for? Octo Expansion tackled them, greatly even. So did we really need to do the same thing again? I feel like Splatoon 3 was the great conclusion of the other games' story modes, where all marine life finally united against the common enemy: mammals, the past of Earth's life coming back for its great revival. And it was a spectacular conclusion. And Side Order was Octo Expansion's conclusion. But it wasn't that bombastic, it was more of a calm conclusion, an epilogue of some sort. Marina wasn't in great danger or anything (well she was but less than we expected), we didn't need to expand the damsel in distress role for confirming Marina and Pearl's relation (which was pretty much hinted on greatly without it lmao), we already knew that. We didn't need some dramatic story about Marina's departure's effect on the one she was close to, like some people predicted for Acht. I think some fan comics explored this way better and Nintendo telling their own version would have been disappointing either for it or for the fan comics' versions! We didn't need more insights on Eight, because once again Octo Expansion ALREADY did this. Eight seems happy with their new name and identity, so why should we uncover more? They already won a lot with Octo Expansion and their sacrifices would have been dull if there were reveals on "who they really are".

Nah. Side Order, how I see it, is a story about fixing the damage made in the Octo Expansion. It's a story about recovery. About finally confirming your place in the world and accepting that everything will not be like you think it will. Acht is not there to expose Marina's errors, Acht is there to show how this recovery can work. She symbolises every octoling Marina left when she quit the army and ESPECIALLY every octoling she swore to help. And she's also there because it would have been less interesting to see an octoling we've never seen before, especially since she is an octoling we knew got Kamabo Co.'d! Every palette is someone we already know, an anchor to the world of Splatoon, and for Eight, an anchor to their memories, as the locker was their palette. As they know more and more people, they know more and more where their place in the world is. And the end of your first run? The start of the final boss phase 2? Yeah the music is Pearl, Marina and Acht's. But it is Eight's pulse that got everything back together. Their heart beating made the world beating again. They found freedom, now they found their place in the world. They're finally complete. Like you complete your palette with every chips at once. Octo Expansion final fight was their last fight for freedom. But I think this was their last fight for identity.

But outside of that, I think Order/Smollusk is more than that. More and more we advance through completing the palettes, we learn that Smollusk is the result of Marina's wish for order in her life (and her fellow octolings') and especially the other octolings developers dreams. And I think that's really important, because after that, we learn that why Smollusk still fights us is because it's… alone. And Acht seemingly understands that. You know why this is? Why it doesn't understand Marina's intentions by "betraying" it? Because Marina, as opposed to the other developers and Acht, found someone. She found her partner for life, the love of her life you could say, she found someone else that could offer her something great. And I think the other developers didn't find that companionship, so they had other goals with the Memverse, and Acht, left behind by Marina, felt this loneliness too, taking refuge in music, so that's why she understood what Smollusk felt. I think Splatoon story is a lot about isolation, solitude and loneliness. The (Inkadian) octolings were chased from the surface, living in the underground, isolated and forced into military life. When they risked survival, they stole the great zapfish and we sent then back into the dark. So they retaliated by stealing it again and also kidnapping Callie, separating Marie from the person she holds dearest (while Callie thought she could offer them company and finally uniting back the two people). Octo Expansion was also about isolation from the surface, for everyone involved and Tartar… Well the mammal (and adjacent) survivors don't really have it well, huh? Judd was made immortal, a great lonely situation for one of the last mammals, even if the professor give him Lil Judd for that (isolating the latter from self expression, oops!), Tartar wanted finally someone who could understand the knowledge he was bearing, and in his final instants was longing to return to the professor and for Grizz… We saw what happened in the logs! But this is not where it ends. The first final Splatfest was literally choosing between the Squid Sister, separating one from the other. And when the Splatocalypse happened, we thought it would be the same, that both option were going to be negative. A endless world of anomy where nothing makes sense against a cold and dystopic dictatorship. But we saw Chaos rather meant a world of differences where anyone can be what they want to be and still be reunited with people. So now we see what Order meant: reuniting people by putting them on equal terms. And at the end, that's what you and Smollusk agreed on! He'd be a difficult final boss and you'd be a formidable opponent for him! Splatfests weren't meant to be divisive or anything, it's just a fun way to see what do people choose in their life. So to face loneliness and meet new and fun people, what will you choose? Chaos or Order?

I guess I understand if it wasn't the story you wanted to see. But I liked it either way, as I also struggle with loneliness and finding my place in the world. And as I also like roguelites!

[read-marx-and-lenin]

I hope you don't mind my asking, you seem well-read and reasonable so I thought you might be able to help here - I'm a British communist trying to find a good organisation to join, there's tons of communist parties here but every time I search for opinions on one I either find out they're transphobic or see a bunch of people dismiss them as Trotskyist timewasters. Forgive me if the question seems a bit naïve, but how much do you think that sectarianism really matters these days?

I don't presently claim to be any specific form of communist, I've just read some Marx and some Lenin and agree with what they say, and when trying to familiarise myself with the various inter-factional conflicts I'm just not really seeing how relevant it is here - yes, some American Trots in the 50s ended up reactionary, and some MLs are concerningly eager to downplay the harm their favourite leaders caused, and everyone argues over the current state of China, but...how much does any of this really matter to building a revolutionary movement in 21st century Britain? Isn't it better to just find an active group and get to work building class consciousness than to dismiss each other for having the wrong opinions on shit that happened 70 years ago?

I can't recommend any British orgs as I don't live in the UK, but in general, if you find an organization that is actively doing work in your community that you agree with and want to support, then you should consider joining them even if they don't 100% align with your beliefs. Joining an organization is not a permanent life-altering decision, and you can leave if it turns out it's not for you.

I don't think you're conflating transphobia and sectarianism here, but I feel like I need to state that bigotry in general is not petty sectarianism, it's just bigotry. Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise reactionary orgs are not worth your time, even if you like the other things they say or do. We've all seen what happens when supposedly leftist organizations pander to social conservatives.

I don't think an organization has to take a stance on Soviet foreign policy or the events of the Russian Revolution in order to be a good organization. I think an organization can talk shit about Stalin or Mao and still be worthwhile to participate in, even if I think they're parroting Western propaganda. As long as they have are class-conscious, in favor of revolution and are doing good work in the community, then they're already better than the liberals and reformists. Even working with reformists can be a good first step when you're dealing with a lack of decent left-wing organization. I wouldn't work directly with liberal orgs, though, they're dead ends.

No organization will ever match your own personal politics and opinions. Organizations are made up of people who will naturally have a variety of different beliefs and opinions. It is a matter of organizational discipline to be able to handle these disputes and turn them into something productive. Low discipline is what creates splits and factionalism.

An organization that is hyper-focused on one specific and dogmatic ideological line that cares more about ideological purity than about actually doing real work is just as bad as a big tent party that prioritizes raw numbers above a coherent message and platform. Some sectarianism is necessary to ensure an organization even has a point to its existence. If you can't reliably and honestly say "we are not liberals", for instance, then what actually distinguishes you from liberals beyond the color of your rhetoric? Too much sectarianism, and you end up excluding folks who would otherwise be willing to support your cause over petty nonsense.

If an organization isn't dismissing you for ideological reasons and you see that they're doing good work, then I would say give them a shot. If they're not doing good work or they won't accept the help of someone who isn't already in line with their specific ideology, then why should you want to join them?

A counter-productive org is worse than no org, but no org is worse than a less-than-perfect org. Honest mistakes and shortcomings can be corrected over time. So long as the organization is demonstrably dedicated to dismantling capitalism and liberating the working class, then I don't see why you shouldn't consider working with them.

[glittertimes]

There’s something about the “set boundaries and stop people pleasing” side of the internet that is bothering me and I couldn’t fully place it until now.

Like when I was at college I took on way more responsibility than I should have and I didn’t set the boundaries I needed to and I ended up totally burning out and destroying my nervous system.

But then I remember how so many of the things I was taking responsibility for, not only were not my responsibility, they were the responsibility of people in power and the university that wasn’t taking care of me or my friends.

Like I was getting Covid tested weekly, and masking everywhere and avoiding bigger gatherings when possible, and then I was stealing food from the dining hall whenever I could to make sure my friends were eating bc food insecurity was a huge problem in my college town.

Several of my friends threatened suicide or had attempts and I had to talk them down and try to get them help.

And then I was a part of a social justice org where they claimed to respect ppl’s boundaries but then overworked people, and made them feel shitty for taking breaks, or not showing up or even making silly mistakes.

My favorite professor in the program was from Korea and she didn’t fully get American culture and I loved her bc she was so critical of American culture and I looked up to her as another woman of color in the extremely white world of academia.

And she listed lgbt as a gender on a survey once and I thought it was so funny but my white queer classmates made a huge deal out of it and held a whole meeting about the proper terms to use for lgbt people.

And there was just no grace for anyone and it was so cliquey, if you didn’t become best friends with the leaders you were just kind of excluded and you could tell they were talking shit about you. So I never blamed my fave professor for ending her contract early and quitting bc these people were awful to deal with and they still acted like she was the problem in the end.

Like we know a lot of problems setting boundaries / people pleasing come from trauma but it’s also coming from this systemic neglect where we’re never sure if we’re going to get our needs met that causes this chronic insecurity. So we’re always in fight or flight mode we don’t want to rock the boat bc we’ll get kicked out, and capitalism teaches us we’re all replaceable and we have to prove our worth and earn the right to get our basic needs met.

And that’s exactly why I hate academic environments so much because they weaponize all of these ideas against you, make you feel worthless for not measuring up, kick you out and blame you for not keeping up.

I think we’d all be a lot more normal if we were able to get our needs met more often, and yes we should care for ourselves and meet our own needs as best we can. But that will never fully solve the systemic neglect that is fundamental to capitalism because it keeps us working for the upper class, and keeps us from questioning it too much - because that would mean losing everything that we need to live.

[miggylol]

you mentioned textbanking to reach out to potential leftist voters in the tags on one of your posts - what org was that through? it sounds like something concrete and useful to do

It absolutely was! It felt really satisfying, especially when we'd go back to the campaign Slack channel and learn that we'd hit all the outreach goals for that day and more numbers would be released tomorrow.

Who to work with

I went through my main state Democratic party (so, California Dems) for a few reasons. One: they were keeping an eye on all candidates and issues, so I felt like my efforts were probably being directed toward the area of greatest need/risk. (Why you might not do this route: you really care about certain specific candidates/issues, and don't want to show up to volunteer one day and see that voters are being contacted about other things.)

Two: voters can be contacted by multiple groups, which obviously annoys them after a while. (This was in fact the thing that I did dislike about this process.) People get taken off the contact roster with a STOP response, but as political parties and PACs are forbidden by law from coordinating with each other, being removed from one group's roster doesn't mean they'll be removed from another group's. I liked going with the main party because they've been doing this the longest and have already contacted the most people, so I thought they'd probably have a contact list that was already the most edited. (Why you might not do this route: you don't care as much about this problem as me, and you care more about connecting all people who are aligned with you on [issue] instead of contacting the general left-leaning population.)

Three: this state party approach put me in touch only with California voters, and sometimes they do want to ask a few questions about greater details, or even what you personally care the most about. I felt qualified to talk about pretty much anything/anyone on our state ballot, so that was a good match. (Why you might not do this route: you don't want to be limited to contacting people in your own area, and you instead want to contact voters anywhere about [issue].)

So, broadly put: you can work with your own state party or with some PAC that focuses on specific issues (environment, schooling, foreign policy, etc.), depending on what sounds more appealing based on what I described above. There is of course the option of working with some other state's party, as well. For example, someone might think "well, I'm in IL and that's safe blue, so can I spend my energy elsewhere?" That's what I faced in California, and I decided to help our with our own swing districts and initiatives. But someone else near me might have decided to textbank for the swing states of AZ and NV, instead. That person in Illinois might decide to volunteer for, say, Wisconsin. (Which is probably the best-run state Dem party in the country, by the way!)

You also might do this if you're in a blood red state. It might feel like you're doing more good to volunteer for Georgia or Arizona (slowly turning blue) than to volunteer for your own state of Wyoming (the reddest state in the country). That can be a good investment of your time! On the other hand, it's still valuable to contact the locals. Even if they vote for Republicans, people can vote differently on specific local issues. For example, in Wyoming, there's momentum for huge developments in wind power that some entrenched oil/gas companies are pushing back against. If someone really cares about the environment, they could decide it's better to volunteer in WY than GA.

What does textbanking do, exactly?

You might be wondering if you'll be expected to argue with people, answer complicated questions, or what. No! There are texting portals that have a lot of pre-programmed answers to basic questions, like "What is [candidate's] stance on abortion?" If you contact someone who's argumentative or tells you to fuck off, you just click the "should be removed from list" button and disengage. If you contact someone who has questions you're not prepared to answer, you hop back into the Slack channel and ask an organizer to take over the conversation.

So, what are you doing, then? You are identifying voters who are likely to vote blue but are lower-motivation.

This is an incredibly important step to do in the lead-up to election days. If someone votes left and tells you that they've already taken advantage of early voting, you thank them and click the "has already voted" button. Then, the database removes them from further contact for this cycle, because their vote is banked and no more resources need to be spent on them. On the other hand, if there's someone who (for example) cares about abortion access but hasn't had time to vote yet, or doesn't know if they're registered, etc., they can be aided with information on how to vote/register. They can be offered transportation on Election Day, if they don't have a car. Textbanking helps to target the party's resources the most effectively, and get the most low-likelihood voters over the finish line.

In other words, textbanking is all about reaching tons of people and seeing where to aim more in-depth resources. Textbanking is largely not about converting uncertain moderates into blue voters. That's phonebanking and door-to-door visits, because talking with people is more convincing. But you can identify who might benefit from that kind of follow-up via textbanking.

How to get started

If you're thinking "sure, the state party approach sounds like it'd work for me," that's very easy to get started. Just google "[state] democrats texting" and you'll see a variety of options to get started. Or, you can go to the homepage of the state party, and there will be volunteer options listed there.

Alternately, you can go to the Democratic Party events page and see all volunteer events across the country, of every type. So there's not just textbanking, but other things that may uniquely appeal to you, like helping mobility-limited voters. (You can filter by type of event & location.)

If you want to work with a specific charity or PAC on a specific issue, then you'll need to track down their volunteer options. For example, I went to the Sierra Club and found this volunteer page, which has a bunch of options, but not a bunch of direct outreach. On the other hand, they do seem to have a texting team, but it's only visible if you log in, probably? Unfortunately, charities/PACs aren't as standardized and visible as the Democrats' volunteer options. However, once you become familiar with your organization of choice, then you're over the hurdle.

I find volunteering via textbanking to be satisfying, and also a way to burn off nervous stress during political seasons. Not only is it a distraction from the world, but it's also a distraction that achieves something.

What if I care about something, but I can't find textbanking for it?

At this time, you may be thinking "okay, I'll do textbanking for a ceasefire!" I thought the same thing, and started looking for options, assuming there would be some organization that was encouraging people to contact their rep/senators. And... I didn't find one. I did find multiple charities that made it easier to send emails and letters to politicians via online forms, which is certainly good! But I didn't find any charity that was directing people to those resources via texting the broad voter population.

In cases like this, you may choose to do your own unofficial "textbanking" by making posts about those resources, and drawing upon your own networks like they're the database you're contacting. That's certainly better than nothing, and it's a way to take action. If I see an option for this, I will definitely share this. I am obviously a fan of engagement via textbanking. Obviously.

I hope all that helps!

[lunarsilkscreen]

The Domain-Name problem

China gets a lot of hate for sectioning off the rest of the internet from their people. But that's probably one of the things they got right .

When the internet hit a global scale, China reasonably thought "we should have our local stuff more readibly accessible to our local people" after-all, what use is driving directions to an individually owned diner in Vermont to somebody in Xinagsheng?

China created their own internet, which to the internet is just a very large intranet.

The reason for this is because the base internet design really only benefited the U.S., and didn't take into account fiberoptic wires under the ocean to communicate with other countries.

We can see it in effect today with IP4 vs IP6. Where the use still uses the IP4 standard and the rest of the world is forced onto IP6. (Internet address Protocol)

Domain Names (www.address.com) only turn an IP-Address into something human readable. And again we see the same paradigms; U.S. first, and then a country designator at the end (co.jp, co.de...

The (www) part is the sub-domain, or part of the same network as the domain, just a different machine (usually, not always).

Now, the .com, .net, org was originally supposed to mean (commercial), (network), and (organization). But as we've seen: didn't mean much to actual usage... Now they're just random extensions we don't care what they mean anymore.

And there's a problem; parsing out a domain name could be as complex as

Sub.sub2.domain.co.jp vs sub.domain.com vs domain.org: which part indicates what is local on the server? And which part indicates what the infrastructure(internet routers) should use to direct traffic? There isn't a set standard here.

What this means to me is that we should rethink how we split up the internet. In order to allow users to visit hosts from other countries*and* allow foreigners to see (but not necessarily interact with) local social media.

And how can we tell which websites are operating effectively doing operations for multiple countries? Like Amazon. Country tax laws can't tell.

I get the feeling Elon Musk would be very sad about the development after his very large purchase.

For the interest of National Security and World-Wide-Economic prosperity.

There are even large amounts of data used in search engines and AI to infer local area around the user, that could be clarified via a change in systems.

Think about our area codes for phone numbers and zip codes for mail. We don't have them online. I think we need them.

If not simply to increase the speed of the internet.

[inkydreamzart]

why do you make art?  is what you make honest and true to your beliefs and values?  does your art center, or distract?  These are a few questions I’m thinking on after attending an artist teach-in for Pal3stin3 yesterday.  

I’ve been sitting with current events and processing a lot lately.  We are out here watching whole human beings being mass bombed and murdered every day, because the powers that be are fine with sacrificing entire family lines and destroying history and cultures for oil and land.  It’s soul-crushing.  The islamaphobia, orientalism, and casual anti-asian hate I’m seeing people in my life share on social media, is also soul-crushing.  as william faulkner once said, and as all my professors have always said, the past is never really past.  

when i see all this, i feel consumed by horror, and disgust, and anger. when i see our government continue to murder Indigenous people like it always has, it’s still jarring witnessing what has always happened, happen again.  Hearing my partner’s refugee family stories, and watching more people become refugees, is terrible.  I don’t understand why Pal3stinians need to do so much to prove their worth and humanity to others, and am equally freaked out how videos of their struggles are not enough for some to care.  But watching the homies continue to make art, share stories, share information, and build community through protests + teach ins, reminds me that people have always been fighting oppression, and always will– the past of our resistance continues to the now. I make what I make because it’s useless to just sit with my feelings and the facts, and take them nowhere.  I would also rather die than make dishonest work.  I hope that if I keep writing and posting about this, that you dear friends, will consider how much power your individual and group actions can have towards creating a world we can all live in.  Your feelings right now are important– they’re motivation to do something.  It’s a privilege that we’re able to sit with them.  If you’re unsure of what to do and are feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry–  I’ve got a list of things you can do right here.  

1) you can learn more!  If you don’t feel well informed enough to be sure that your actions match your intentions, you can check out @palestinianfeministcollective, or @bayareapym to sign up for a teach-in session with organizers and academics. You can also check out the readings & educational resources they have linked in their bios.  Ethnic studies and Feminist studies scholars from around the world have a lot of great stuff to say on these pages.

2) you can attend protests, and share info on protests!  @JVPLA is the LA branch of Jewish Voice for Peace, a great org that has been leading huge c3as3fir3 protests all around the world.  @bayareapym is also another great page to check out for protest information and political education.  If you are located near a school or university, you can also check out its branch of SJP (for example, @ucsbSJP), or students for justice in pal3stin3.  JVP, SJP, and PYM all have local branches all over the place, so see if your town or city has a branch you can get together with!  USCPR is also a great org that’s working to end US military support to 1sra3l.  Our elected officials are ignoring us when we ask politely for them to stop murdering, so going out and protesting will help make sure they hear us and actually represent our values and beliefs.  

3) if you don’t have money or time, there is also the power of boycotting!  Never underestimate the power of a “no”.  Check out the next slide to see how boycotts work to help defund the war machine, and save lives. Art credit for slide 2 goes to Mona Challabi.  Withholding your time and money from corporations that are willing to sacrifice people’s lives for resources will teach them through boycotts, that people are not down for mass murder for the sake of material wealth.  I definitely don’t want my tax or spending money going towards killing random people. if I can help it, I will make sure my money goes somewhere it will do good.

4) email or call your elected officials to tell them directly that the people want an immediate c3as3fir3!  Check out @woketeachers for info on what numbers to call, and some scripts if you need help figuring out how to voice your demands.  You can even use those phone scripts as a template for emailing your elected officials– I like to use it as a little outline before expanding it into a longer message.

Anyways, there are four powerful ways to take action instead of stewing directionless in feelings.  Please do something– your voice matters.

(photo credit from @/eye.on.palestine of a father saying goodbye to his child who was murdered by the occupation)

[centi-pedve]

hiiiiiiiiiiii!! Did Joseph choose the design of his wings? i guess they were linked to genes and mutation so maybe he couldnt choose...

regardless, do Joseph's parents like . babyproof the claws on his wings? Those bad boys are POINTY and not really suitable for 10 year-olds methinks ... i dont want my boyo to get hurtie sniffles

yess he did! the way their society has developed it, aesthetic changes can be performed like how we do normal surgery, just much more advanced, or genetically, but that typically has certain limitations (easier to change certain aspects of already existing traits than create entirely new ones). joseph's aesthetic alterations were surgical, so his body was manually remade where necessary to enable the construction of wings that also function (aka he can move them and they're an extension of his body with nerves and shit rather than just something taped on.) we imagine he'd probably need some sort of additional help when it comes to growth though because his body can't do that by itself. aka expensive both initially and for upkeep oughh 🤕 meanwhile five has an aesthetic alteration in his hair that's more genetic, so he wasn't born with hair like that or had anyone in his family which would allow hair like that, but since his actual genes have been altered his hair now naturally grows white/black and it can be passed on to any kids he might have. if joseph did gain wings through more natural means so that any genetic traits he had prior would determine color, he could also choose to have those traits altered so that his wings would look different.

he specifically chose his wings to appear the way they do because of the connection to a highly respected group revolving around justice that considers themselves modern day knights, whose members all take care to resemble green dragons. it's both formal and informal i.e. there's an actual organization of proper members who are fully connected to each other, and people who aren't a part of the actual org but subscribe to their beliefs and align with them both in appearance and behavior. other aesthetic changes come with certain associations by result of people being people, so while it's entirely possible and fine to just want the green dragon vibe while not caring for the org, people will still assume you're associated. stuff like that would probably manifest in a lot of different ways, like people assuming you're a fan of a celebrity because you have a similar added trait that a celebrity has, or thinking you're annoying because you have pink hair and everyone who gets pink hair is annoying duhh, etc etc. but in this case it's an association joseph wants, even though some people might see it as a bad thing.

and they do not 😇 he'd probably go crazy if they tried babyproofing it and would just remove it. tbh he'd probably accidentally hurt other people more than he would hurt himself... kind of just one of those things he has to be aware of so he probably knows how to watch where his claws are atp.

[dawnfelagund]

Thank you so much for such a detailed and well reasoned reply! That makes me feel a lot more educated on the subject. Out of curiosity, since ao3’s popularity and ubiquity seems to have bred its insularity and lack of accountability, what do you think they would have to do, promise, or change to become more credible again, or to excise this issue? (While preserving their mission, as AO3 is not a moderated site like SWG). Because I do like their mission statement, and some of their operations seem transparent, but as you said, the zero commentary and progress (outside coding) for three years is ridiculous. And if this is outside the realm of something you can or want to answer, that’s okay! No sweat.

It's really hard to say, to be honest! I'm not very familiar* with how the OTW runs (aside from knowing that it is a registered nonprofit in the U.S. and therefore follows the law where that is concerned), and really, I think the question of what needs to be done to regain credibility is really up to individual users/fans to decide. Like the AI thing? Kind of eye-rolly as indicative of dysfunction because of the lack of communication within the upper echelons of the organization and the inability to quickly get about even a basic reassurance that AI scrapers were blocked. Probably not something I'm going to leave over, though. But End OTW Racism? Especially if I was a fan impacted by racist harassment who felt the site had been made off-limits to me as a result?? Every day of silence would make it hard for them to win back my trust, I'd imagine. I wasn't even involved in the protest but find myself pissed, as we approach a week with no response after the protest ended, by the complete lack of response.

* Though it seems that not many people are familiar with how the OTW runs. I recently read this post, which does go into organization-level changes (and Chestnut is in a much better place to speak on this topic than me), which also has a number of comments from OTW volunteers along the lines of, "Well, I was a volunteer for x years but I'm not 100% sure how this is handled in the org." Which is interesting to me that even long-term volunteers--some of whom were quite high in the hierarchy!--lacked that big picture understanding.

The [lack of] communication piece seems quite big to me. In my experience, that torpedoes an organization quite quickly. In my work running the SWG but also as a teacher-leader (someone who takes on leadership roles in my school and district while remaining in the classroom), I have found that better communication always makes things better. Even just saying, "Hey, I know this is a thing. I'm working on it," makes a difference. My experience is that people tend to be pretty understanding. It's the radio silence that is hard to handle. People feel unseen and unheard. Like right now ... there was just a massive antiracist protest against the OTW and still there is nothing on their news page about their promises three years ago, much less a response to that movement. How can that be?? It's hard not to hear in that, "We don't care." It's hard not to see the lack of response as the response.

I wonder too to what extent this dysfunction is going to be endemic in an organization of this size that is run almost entirely by volunteers. Over the weekend, in writing this post about the SWG archive, I realized that we recently reached 5,000 fanworks. Then while checking the OTW news page to see if there were any updates on antiracist actions going forward, I saw that AO3 recently hit 11 million fanworks. 11 MILLION. I know what goes into an archive of 5,000 fanworks and cannot imagine scaling up more than 2,000 times that on volunteer power alone. I also know that the most difficult and time-consuming work the SWG mods do is moderating our Discord server (which is, again, relatively small and friendly!), and while I don't agree with the argument that "AO3 is no longer an archive but a social site and should be moderated accordingly" (i.e., throw out their ideals around serving as a universal archive), I do wonder if we, as fans, need to accept that a site of that size will not be able to do an adequate job of even the limited moderation they do and socialize/interact elsewhere. Which again takes us back to a "small internet" with sites and groups that function as communities and can be moderated by members of those communities. If people want that, let's do it! Let's build those places again. But as I said in my last post, that task isn't on the OTW/AO3, it is on us.

[mejomonster]

I really love how intense Fei Du is as a character in Silent Reading. Just, so many choices were made that like if you had a spectrum from "safe fluff romcom danmei lead" which was say very nice sweet CEO who's a little bit of a flirt but good natured, all the way to "danmei lead in The Complex Depths" that had like evil emperor killed millions has his lover in his basement tied up and bloody (and there's farther past that spectrum I'm sure, it's just I haven't read much past that Yet).

Then Fei Du would be a lot closer to the 2nd side of the spectrum than the first. What with the harm count he has, the enjoyment of suffering, the internal fear he'll hurt his loved ones like dad did, even aside from all that the Rich fuerdai in Silent Reading specifically are just ALL really fucked up (perhaps excluding Zhang Donglan, all the others were part of families helping the murder assassin prostitution human trafficking gambling power abuse organization and often actively participating and/or doing their own personal horrific shit). Fei Du is the lead in a psychological thriller with a killer or almost-killer as one of the leads (think Beyond Evil, Flower of Evil, Strangers from Hell). Priest made interesting and very specific choices with him. I personally like the kind of genre his type of characters often are found in, so I really loved those choices Priest made to make him.

(Luo Wenzhou is also... an intense character choice but I would say probably less risky. There's other Captain cop/detectives who think of themselves cockily as superheroes and neglect themselves to help others and have a strong sense of justice while also abusing their authority by manhandling and threatening others. His particularly specific choices in how he was made as a character shine in comparison to Tao Ran in particular. That Luo Wenzhou is extremely loving, caretaking, he has in that specific regard some traits more commonly found with heroines of caretaking romances. He's fiercely unconditionally loving like a parent, he shows his care for others by caretaking, and instead of that being at odds with his other traits it's integrated into this extremely caretaking loving emotionally mature brute of the man who's forceful but in an often understanding way, who's a dominant boss but the way a mom who nitpick and orders when giving you all your meals and yelling at you to eat enough out of concern is. He's a man who thought he was like a superhero, and had that false assumption CRUSHED prior to the events of the start of novel. Fei Dus case crushed Luo Wenzhous belief he was a superhero, made him realize he was painfully human and could fail and WOULD fail. Which ties into the whole shadow org and them being comprised of many people who the police failed to help, who suffered and blame the police who were supposed to do something anything.

Luo Wenzhou is older and that's relevant in non physical ways: its relevant in his emotional maturity, in having failed over and over and having had to learn to cope with the reality of life always being this way, of still trying illogically To be a superhero and confronting his own failure to be able to be daily but his stubbornness winning every day to try again, in learning how he dates and how he doesn't and deciding not to, in how he loves and his own blind spots but being unready to face them even though he Knows they're there. The big thing though, again, is he just cares and loves very unconditionally. Which is common enough for a selfless young heroine who believes in love and dotes on family, but a bit less common in a flawed proud police captain. Made more specifically uncommon because he pours the lions share of that unconditional love for fei du. And as much as fei du lives in this version of the world where he sees himself as a Big monster and most people as a variety of other fucked up monsters or prey who don't realize something bigger plans to eat them... to Luo Wenzhou this boy Has To Be held onto. In his world too, his world where by sheer force of will Luo Wenzhou tries to save people. Tries to make a world where you don't have to tell people to be scared of something bigger hurting them, they don't have to be in danger at all. Luo Wenzhous capacity for unconditional love is common enough in a selfless pure hero/heroine type. But to focus that unconditional love onto a character like Fei Du is much less common and to be fair not rational. But it's who he is. It's a choice made when making him. But yeah Luo Wenzhou is a more normal "mystery solving danmei" lead choice character, if he wasn't unconditionally loving the type of character he is while being the opposite of naive about it).

Anyway. All this to say. After this novel, I'm going to read Priest's Lie Huo Jiao Chou Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire. And I hope that the character choices are as interesting to me. I'm sure they'll be interesting I just... I really like the genre Fei Du's kind of character is normally in, the way those characters allow for 1. The exploration of trauma and characters who have been through so much already they Do things maybe not most people would do as it's too extreme, but which make sense for them. 2. Allow to explore the heavier side of what happens when people break. There's stories about innocent people breaking, but then theres a thriller about already broken people who Expect a fucked up world, who try to do something Anyway and then things get even More fucked up and they find a way to survive through it and sometimes even heal. (Shows that play with this a bit include: Beyond Evil, The Glory, The Guest, Flower of Evil, Strangers from Hell, Bulgasal, Killing Eve). I just particularly like the character arcs often found in those stories and hope I run into more in other priest novels. Now... I doubt I'm going to run into another almost-killer who self harms to try and condition himself Not to kill... but can ci pin and Sha po Lang have the potential for fucked up political kills and war (maybe a Nier Automata type of character arc), liehuo I'm hopeful for because an old immortal wakes up in modern era (I think) and that opens the possibility of all kinds of clashes with the modern way the world works and maybe a very different distraught world he came from (I'm imagining possibly a very Ye Zun or Shen Wei from the Guardian show type fucked up situation but with more War on screen so to speak). Anyway... I'll find out lol

[omgpoindexter]

Hey!! saw some people talking to you about this and i thought id add my piece as someone who got diagnosed with adhd in college. I completely relate to your experiences with trying not to procrastinate things but doing it anyway and then feeling crippling guilt bc of it. i got away with it through high school but as soon as i hit college and nearly failed a class bc i only did half the content i knew something had to change. I’m diagnosed w adhd inattentive type, on meds, and in therapy now and while it’s not perfect i have hope and seen signs of improvement and the hope is rlly what matters i think.

i know you’re not american so i cant directly help you information-wise, but i went through both university resource and a private online psychiatry org so if you have anything like that available then it will probably help. another thing that helped me was having a friend sit with me while i wrote emails/made phone calls.

i guess all this goes to say that i absolutely feel your pain and there are ways to make it better for yourself. maybe an adhd diagnosis isn’t what you get, but if you think there’s anything that can help you deserve to get it and not just suffer in silence. i believe in you and i hope you find answers

hiii!! <3 i do relate to that, and it is really hard! i think these instances have been far enough apart for me so far that i have been able to forget how it made me feel at the time, or, like - in my head if i feel like this for a few weeks every year or so then it’s okay. if i were to go back into academia now and have regular deadlines i would certainly see a difference.

the thing i was procrastinating that i just finished, the one i posted about; i was avoiding it for so long and it became so last minute that i felt sick with guilt every time i went to sleep at night. i’ve finished it now and it’s done, but that feeling doesn’t go away instantly, i still feel like that every time i do something like read or play a game. or SLEEP!!!

i also have this feeling of, like - i am relatively smart, i always worked hard and i was always SO well behaved (i fucking loved rules as a kid, like my mum told me i should care a little bit less about rules) and that’s not the kind of thing i always associated with adhd. that also adds to the thought that maybe somebody wouldn’t take me seriously if i went and asked for help, because i don’t look like somebody that could have adhd. that’s total bullshit i know, like absolute nonsense, but those feelings are still deep down somewhere.

i’m so glad you’re seeing a difference with the help you recieved, that’s amazing! hearing these stories does give me more confidence & challenges that idea that if i went for help i wouldn’t get turned away, so thank you very much for reaching out and taking the time to write me a message! it’s so lovely of you <3

[shoujoboy-restart]

But is that your opinion or a fact? I guess the whole thing surrounding BLM and PragerU has me very confused since everyone else says some things about them and that they are not actually a university and then there's the fact that it's founder Dennis Prager said something that he thinks nothing wrong with indoctrinating children. Is that being taken out of context because every school's kind of does the same thing about schools teaching students to hate white people while being gay supposedly or is there some disagreement I'm not understanding?

it kind of feels like it's going to lead into that whoever I'm listening to are idiots and don't know what they are saying even though I can't just simply call everybody who thinks BLM and the civil Rights movements are somehow terrorist groups. It's like saying voting for DeSantis or Trump is better than Biden and everybody else is just fear-mongering about them even though I haven't been hearing good things about the Republican candidates and if we say something about Biden in the whole issue surrounding his son, honestly I'm starting to feel like the Hunter Biden stuff is too overhyped and I don't really think Joe Biden is involved in whatever dealing his son is involved as I'm not hearing anything major coming out of it and the Republicans are seemingly more focused on that then the sexual allegations against Biden or his whole deal with the classified documents which hasn't been brought up at often by either side. It's all Hunter this Hunter that and his father is involved in some crooked scheme needs to be impreached.

Let's go by parts.

My opinion is that Prager U uses of real and valid criticism of the organization calling itself BLM to attack people who are fighting against police brutality and racism, it is a fact the org BLM is a profit seeking with many of their CEOs having millions in their banks while not helping, the same way it's a fact that 94% of protest associatied or connected to BLM peaceful and the other 6% are still unfound on whether the violence and chaos was actually caused by protesters since there been multiple cases of confirmed infiltration by far-righters and cops.

I mean if the dude says "indoctrination bad" but then straight up says "actually indoctrination based" because it's for what he believes then ain't really much context that can save that lol most of the crying about "indoctrination" complaints are parents of highschoolers mad they can't obcessively control everything their child do and having a panic attack over the idea their kid won't be a carbon copy of them, I'm sure leftist parents do that as well but conservative ones actually demand their entire state to uphold that.

As a whole the Hunter Biden situation is just...pointless? Oh no, the son of a politician is a druggie and pays for prostitutes...and? Arrest the asshole or not for all I care, they are trying to claim that somehow this would have swayed peoples voting, It is republicans trying really hard to scrape the bottom of the barrel for reason to impeach Biden or attack his image, when as your self pointed out there enough to do just that, but again, since Trump also has allegations and shit.

Also I'm pretty sure the reason why Biden isn't being prosecuted and investigated for documents is because he actually did everything he should have done and the documents were literally a handful of documents in a safe, but on that I could be wrong, while Trumpie literally had boxes on top of fucking boxes in every corner of his damn home for some reason, together with multiple of the documents being classified, which as president at the time he could have just declassified them so it wouldn't be as much of a issue.

But if you want my advice as someone who used to be a anti-sjw? I didn't even stop being one at first because of how factually wrong the whole ideology was, is because almost every figure head I followed was becoming actual neo-Nazis, turning out to transphobic and homophobic while using gay and trans people as shields, constantly getting caught bold face lying(Blaire white) or just grifting as "apolitical" while having nothing but praises to the most extreme right wing lobotomites out here. Steven Crowder was having a 50 million contract and a extra 1 million whenever needed to just attack trans people 24/7, a lot of right wing content is unironically just corporate backed propaganda to regress society, the entire fox news teams was exposed for admitting they thought Trump and his supporters were loonies and that "election fraud" narrative is just bullshit they started talking because another right wing channel was syphoning their viewers whenever they said something like "Trump isn't a god and he made mistakes" in their lawsuit brought by Dominion.

I'm not saying you need to become luxury communism that believes in a 100 genders, but genuinely, the grift within the right is real, at least when leftists say some crazy shit, you have 90% they actually believe in what they are saying, while a right winger is probably just saying the shit to gain a chance of being employed by the likes of Prager.

If you want a really good channel to teach you some rhetoric and how to catch people saying shit without foundation I really recommend Mia's Rhetoric, she's not a bleeding heart leftist or anything, she's very progressive obviously but because of her knowledge in rhetoric she's really good at deconstructing arguments from fallacies to how people signage affects them, linking this video in specific to topical obviously.

[remmammie]

hello! can i please request vexen to an s/o struggling with self-esteem? i love him so much, but i feel like he would hate me realistically cuz i’m dumb lmao

Oh, my friend, I have so many thoughts about Vexen. He's by far one of my favourite Org XIII members that people never really seem to pay attention to and, if they do, I don't...think they really get him. Very happy to get the chance to write for him! I hope you enjoy and find some semblance of comfort - you've made my day just by asking so you're brilliant to me!!!

Vexen with an S/O struggling with low self-esteem HCs

Despite the powers he has, I don't think Vexen is as cold as people believe him to be. He's a stickler for rules and married to his work, sure, but he's nothing if not a dedicated protector with the intelligence to see past the surface level.

If your low self-esteem centres focally around your smarts, I really don't think it would deter Vexen. While he does enjoy having intellectual conversations, he's more likely to recognise that you're trying your best to learn. Vexen isn't irked that you can't recall specific subject material because, in the end, if you have no interest the subject or just struggle to memorise things, there's not much to be done. He's more appreciative of the fact that you're trying to learn. Vexen is the kind of man to respect hard work and a true passion for something - he's a scientist, he thrives off of determination.

You might bring it up to him, this whole conundrum with your self-esteem. He might not show it, but Vexen's pretty flattered that you're putting in the effort to try and learn more about something he likes and about his profession. Maybe he catches you revising or reading a book, practicing memorising in the mirror or asking someone like Zexion for help.

Though he's regularly quite irritable, he doesn't have such a short fuse with his s/o. So, if either you ask or he offers, Vexen might help you try and get facts to stick. He's done some research into memory so he might have some techniques to help you remember and revise. After all, he looked after Ienzo/Zexion when he was still learning the sciences - he's practically a qualified teacher if you neglect the, uh, ice powers.

Moving away from the topic of learning, though, and concerning his s/o's low self-esteem in a more general sense, I think Vexen is the type to understand where it originates. He's done plenty of research into the darkness of self-doubt in hearts and has just as much life experience - Vexen understands. With all this knowledge, it's completely wrong to say that he thinks it's ridiculous that you can feel less of yourself sometimes.

I can believe Vexen has gone through some periods of self-doubt too, honestly. He's definitely a perfectionist, maybe some of his first experiments completely failed and it got him down. He'd have the advice of trying and trying again at whatever skill you're struggling with. It's got him this far, he's making replicas! Any advice coming from Vexen is worth treasuring.

As for any self-esteem concerns coming from more emotional places, Vexen is a volatile man but not necessarily a massively compassionate one. He dealt with Ienzo when he was growing up and, to a lesser extent with the whole lack of emotions shtick, Zexion, so he's kind of used to seeing that sort of anxiety.

He's a smart man, a man of science. He turns to refuting your self-doubts with hard evidence. Your doubting his trust for you? He's literally helping you deal with your emotions right now. Your insecure about your body? Everyone is created differently but is unique and worth treasuring in their own right - he loves analysing humanity's individual differences - you're very valuable to him. Afraid others don't like you? He can list all the people that care and love for you, and insists that loving oneself is the key to mental peace.

I think Vexen would make for a lovely s/o, partner, father figure or otherwise. :D