#I’m not going to support a group that is literally using another marginalized group for their own profit and gain

[pricklypear1997]

This is one of the most sexist and pointless disgusting comments I’ve ever had to respond to on YouTube… sweeties, THIS is why I am a radical feminist.

And my response. Like this shit literally makes me so angry. This person is arguing in a comment thread that argues for trans women in intimate female spaces such as locker rooms, bathrooms, etc oh, and trans women writing fiction about lesbian relationships… yuck.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I have a bunch of thoughts related to your recent post on lefty antisemitism, but I don't want to dump a big long thing in your inbox - let me know if you want me to send it, other than that just know you're not alone trying to wade through the messiness of it all.

I know leftist antisemitism is alive and well, I know Jewish perspectives/experiences/identities are not valued, and I know there’s a load of misinformation out there when it comes to the conflict (though honestly, I don’t trust info from any side because everything is propaganda at this point). But I listened to a podcast episode (Joyous Justice - a Jewish racial justice podcast hosted by a Black & Cherokee Jew) that was a bit of a gentle kick in the pants.

To summarize some of the key thoughts: There is antisemitism in lefty spaces because there is antisemitism EVERYWHERE - and racism, sexism, transphobia, classism, ableism, and the like. Leftists are not immune to these things. And so when someone like me says “well I’m not going to engage with some progressive cause because I’m bothered by the antisemitism” it’s like, anyone else of another marginalized identity could have the same excuse for not participating because they will inevitably run into someone who is being shitty about their identity. It’s good that we have ways to process these harmful experiences, and we should try to hold people accountable, but it’s not a good idea for our self-defensiveness to stop us completely from engaging.

I’m not solidly feeling any of this right now, but I am trying to sit with it in the discomfort.

Hi there,

Look, I definitely see where you're coming from and where this podcaster was coming from at least in theory, but I don't agree.

Leftists absolutely have all the same problems any other group has, and obviously we all have to work on our biases and movements all the time to try and root these things out.

This is different and goes beyond that though, because the brand of anti-Zionism that is mainstream amongst American goyische leftist movements and individuals is deeply antisemitic as a part of the cause. Anti-Zionism as an intra-Jewish discussion need not be [internalized] antisemitism, and there are plenty of ways that one can critique specific actions of the Israeli government that are proportionate, fair, and necessary (yes, even as an outsider.)

However, calls for the literal dissolution of the entire country without a thought or care for the safety and well-being of the affected Jews or the Jewish people as a whole, combined with a deep suspicion (and frequently outright hostility) towards Jews who bring up antisemitism (especially as it pertains to rhetoric around Israel) and then adding your regular run-of-the-mill antisemitism on top, are common and accepted in leftist spaces. In short: antisemitism isn't just one unfortunate pimple amongst many other expected blemishes on the face of modern leftism - it's actually frequently taken up as one of the causes of leftism. This form of antisemitism is seen as social justice, and so arguing against it is seen not for what it is (begging for people to add even a little nuance and critically examine a belief system that leads them to call for the genocide of half the Jewish population worldwide) but rather as arguing for whatever terrible thing they want to paint Israel as this week, whether or not it's true and whether or not such a label could just as easily be applied to groups and nations that they will give a pass to.

Meanwhile, most of the goyim arguing in support* of Israel are frequently right-wing conservatives whose other views on human rights and moral progress I find rather repugnant and who frequently utilize standard conservative talking points about Israel's more strident critics to attack them on other levels. For example, I cringe basically any time I see any right-wing critique of, say, the very real antisemitism of Cori Bush or Rashida Tlaib, because I just know it's gonna be racist as hell.

(The * is because I don't honestly classify a lot of this as support for the Jews, so much as a handy vehicle for their anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and unfair painting of all Palestinians and/or Palestinian rights movements as terrorism. I would also be remiss if I didn't say that the same is frequently true of certain batches of leftists whose anti-Zionism is more of a handy vehicle for antisemitism than genuine, thoughtful, and helpful advocacy for Palestinians.)

But there are some conservative voices that do have genuine support for Jews and are pro-Israel in a way that is more nuanced and doesn't just use it as a tactic. And when I see that, and especially when I hold it up next to leftist comrades who would never in a million years advocate for policies that would wipe out half the world population of another minority group but will happily repeat those talking points against Jews as if it were a social justice cause, it makes me question the validity of everything else they're saying.

And so I re-run that calculus on every social issue I'm passionate about, to see if maybe I'm on the wrong side of it, and every time I conclude I'm still very much not. So then I go back to the drawing board and reconsider Jewish history, identity, and peoplehood, and the conclusions I've come to about Zionism from those things, only to return to the same position I was in before. I've heard the arguments. I've actively sought out and considered the other side on this issue, hoping to understand something new, and each new source I read solidifies my opinion.

So then I'm stuck with concluding that my best option is to seek out like-minded Jews and when outside allies or work is needed, just kinda go into it accepting that a significant portion of the people I'm necessarily aligning myself with for other important causes would likely leave me and mine for dead under the right circumstances, and view that as good and right and just.

And while I don't let that change my voting behavior or advocacy at a practical level, it also doesn't change the fact that it fucking hurts and that I'm morally right to be angry about it.

[teaveetamer]

Another part of the problem is that Tumblr social justice ideology has a massive "loophole" in it:

In theory, it's considered wrong to commit aggression against others. But the loophole is, you're allowed to be as nasty and mean as you want (and do things like threaten to kill people in Discord servers) if you can first Cast the Other Party as an Aggressor.

So, for example, you're normally not allowed to express racist hatred against the Japanese. But you ARE allowed to do so if you can first paint them as a nation of pedophiles because you dislike Japanese art styles. So not only can you be a racist bigot, but you can disguise it as "anti-oppression".

Or for another example, you're normally not allowed to hate bisexuals. But you ARE allowed to do so if you can first paint them as "secretly straight, and thus secretly bigoted towards gays and lesbians". So, you can be as nasty to bisexual people as you want if you can cast them as aggressors to gay people first.

And a final example, you're normally not allowed to support imperialism, colonialism, and warmongering. But you ARE allowed to be a warmonger if you can first paint people who object to war as "misogynists afraid of female power". So not only can you be a warmonger, but you can phrase it as "anti-sexism".

So, that's the "loophole" in Tumblr social justice: you're technically not allowed to be a bigot or oppressor, but you can justify similar behavior if you can somehow cast the other party as an aggressor first.

I’m picking up what you’re putting down Anon, but I’d like to offer a counter in the form of a duo of videos

Noah Samsen’s “Solving the Debate Bro Problem”

And Noah Samsen’s follow up “The Vaush Effect”

Collectively it’s about an hour and a half to watch both, but I recommend you do. Watch the debate bro problem video first, as it contains context for the Vaush Effect video.

But the TL;DR of both is that leftist/lefty “debate bro” types prioritize “winning” over honest exchange of knowledge or achieving greater understanding of the other side. Whatever is true and right and just is simply the viewpoint of whoever “wins” a debate about it. And you “win” by looking bigger, tougher, stronger, and more confident than your opponent (and if all else fails, by brutally attempting to silence your opponent. If they’re silent then they aren’t fighting back, and if they aren’t fighting back then you’ve “won”).

It’s a system that rewards ignorance and lacks self-awareness. If you were to question yourself ever at any point or change your views then that would be the same as conceding the win to the other side. The best way to avoid “losing” is to never learn, never listen, and never grow.

This often leads to the (primarily cishet white) debate bros saying and doing shit that is extremely fucked up, because again the priority is on winning. They would say women deserve rights and then in the same breath engage in blatant misogyny if they thought it would win them an argument.

The video also points out that this is a very bad thing. It is essentially just grafting the Alt-Right’s strongman tactics onto a new ideology, and it ultimately leads to many marginalized people being silenced or brutalized. Not to mention how it rewards/reinforces racist, queerphobic, misogynistic, etc. attitudes and a general lack of critical thinking or self-reflection in leftist spaces.

I watched these videos and I swear so many things clicked into place with regard to how certain Edelgard stans have been acting for… basically the entire duration of the fandom.

I mean look at what’s going on now. We’re quite literally being stalked and harassed by a (afaik cishet white) guy who prioritizes “kicking the asses” of people who disagree with him over all else. He has no self-awareness as to how his actions are hurting the group of (primarily marginalized) people he is aggressively attacking, no interest in actually listening to us beyond what he can take out of context to posture for his buddies and win “”debates””, and no concept of boundaries or acceptable behavior. He didn’t oppose Diaphin making “jokes” about genocide on my posts out of concern for me as a human being, or because it’s wrong. He opposed it because he thought I (or I suppose Nilsh, since everything bad that has ever happened always comes back to Nilsh) could use it to make him look bad and therefore lose.

Because this is a game to him. Our lives and our feelings are the equivalent of NPCs for him to mow down on the path to proving he’s the biggest, strongest, most rightest debater on the internet. And when we don’t have an interest in playing along he melts down and tries to force us back into the game so he has a target to take pot shots at.

And if you’re acting like that? You can say all the leftist shit you want, but you’ll never be an ally. Allies don’t stab you in your pain points for the sake of their petty pride.

[fierceautie]

Kanye's Antisemitism Didn't Start With that Tweet

Kanye West has been antisemitic for a long time. It did not come to light, to me anyway because I am not up to date with celebrity news, until this tweet made the news. I dug deeper after seeing this and saw it has been going on for a while. I knew who he was but I did not normally pay attention to his antics. Kanye West made an extremely antisemitic tweet that said,"I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going dealth con on JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone who opposes your agenda." At least West was locked out of his Instagram and Twitter accounts due to this goyish meshugaas (non Jewish nonsense). He tweeted one antisemetic tweet after another. The post that this was referencing was also antisemitic. It was a text exchange between West and Diddy that was posted on Instagram. West told him,"Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influene me. I told you this was war." In response to his accounts being suspended, he tweeted,"Who do you think invented cancel culture?" He is refencing Mark Zuckerburg being Jewish and that Jews invented "cancel culture." He forgot one thing, Twitter and Facebook are not owned by the same people. West's Antisemitism Isn't Just Recent In a 2013 radio interview with New York City's Hip Hop and R &B station Power 105.1 FM, West attempted to explain President Barrack Obama's inablilty to gain momentum on his policy priorities in Washington, DC with the statement that,"Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people." Abraham H. Foxman, the director of the Anti Defamation League said,"If the comments are true as reported, this is classic anti-semitism. There it goes again, the age old connard that Jews are all powerful and control the levers of power in government. As a celebrity with a wide following, Kanye West should know better. We hope that he will take responsibiloty for his words, understand why they are so offensive, and apologize to those he has offended." West's full quote was, "Man, let me tell you about George Bush and oil money and Obama and no money. People want to say Obama can't make these moves or that he's not executing. that's because he ain't got those connctions. Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black People don't have the same connection as oil people." Unaired Tucker Carlson Interview He made several antisemitic comments and talked about "fake children" invading his home until unaired portions of his Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson were leaked. He perpetuated several antisemitic conspiracy theories in this interview. "Planned Parenthood was made by Margeret Sanger, a know eugenics, with the KKK to control the Jew population," He told Carlson. "When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are. This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn6PTWBXmpU&feature=emb_title Sanger who was the founder of Planned Parenthood was a known supporter of eugenics. Planned Parenthood denounced Sanger for her belief in eugenics. West's claim about the "Jew population" references the antisemitic Radical Hebrew Israelites. This hate group claims that Jews are "imposters or thieves" and have stolen the identity and birthright of the "true Israelites." Who are the Radical Hebrew Israelities? The Radical Hebrew Israelities use similarities between Jews and other marginalized groups as a foundation for antisemitic beliefs. THey appropriate Jewish heritage to claim exclusive identity as the true chosen people of G-d and decry Jews as imposters and thieves. They seek dominance and not equity and strict adherence to biblical literalism to legitimize their ideology. They spread their beliefs through street preaching, often harassing people, provoking and shaming any non-Israelite and those of their own community that doesn't follow their beliefs. This can be queer people of color within their communities. The Radical Hebrew Israelites have a definite abhorrence of relationships between "Israelites" and white people as they relate them to the devil. This furthers the marginalization but it also parallels the toxic power structures that are common in the far right. References Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories The conspiracy theory is that Jewish people control financial institutions when discussing winter holidays that were celebrated at his children's school. "My kids are going to a school that teaches Black kids complicated Kwanzaa," West said. "I prefer my kids knew Hannukah than Kwanzaa. At least it would come with some financial engineering." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soG7t2OU8ms Uses a Strange Metaphore about Jews West used a strange metaphore when talking about Black people judging one another,"This about judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something. I mean, that's probably a bad example and people are going to get mad at that shit. I probably want to edit that out." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqwOb-cPyLE After These Antisemitic Comments, West Was Invited to Holocaust Museum Kanye West was invited to the Holocasut Museum in Los Angeles to learn about the dangers of hateful and antisemitic rhetoric. They did this because they wanted to educate him on how dangerous his words are. This is a very Jewish thing to do. Education will cure ignorance in some situations. In a statement from the Holocaust Museum in LA,"Words matter and words have consequences Ye. We urge you to come visit us at Holocaust Museum LA to understand just how words can incite horrific violence and genocides. "The Holocaust started with only words that sadly begat stereotypes, racial and religious tropes and blaming others and led to the murder of six million Jews. "At Holocaust Museum LA it is our mission to commemorate those who were murdered, educate on the Holocaust and all genocides including the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian People (of which your children would be included), and inspire a more dignified and humane world. "Your words reach millions and you can choose to incite or you can choose to inspire. We are located at 100 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036 and welcome you any time." I hope he takes them up on their offer but I am doubtful. Sources: https://www.insidenova.com/lifestyles/entertainment/kanye-west-invited-to-holocaust-museum-after-antisemitic-posts/article_c78268bb-ed90-5edc-b273-220dd408396f.html https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/kanye-west-says-black-people-dont-have-connections-like-jews-fueling-classic https://www.xxlmag.com/kanye-west-war-diddy-texts/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad77y/kanye-west-tucker-carlson-leaked-footage-antisemitism-fake-children https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/radical-hebrew-israelites https://www.npr.org/2022/10/09/1127732183/kanye-west-instagram-twitter https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3683507-in-unaired-portions-of-tucker-carlson-interview-ye-made-antisemitic-remarks-spoke-of-fake-children-infiltrating-his-home/ Read the full article

[spacecat-studio]

Can we stop having the same reductive argument about women reading MM it’s fucking 2024 and there is a fifty percent chance that my government is going to get flushed into a fascist toilet of censorship and explicit oppression of minorities. People reading and writing what they want is not the problem.

You want to talk about the problems in the MM romance community? Great, let’s talk about how it’s just chock full of queerphobia. Let’s talk about how entitled fans stewing in a soup of internalized misogyny, or just outright misogyny, harass authors who step outside the MM genre to write queer MF, or sapphic or trans or nonbinary stories. Let’s talk about women and afab enbies who won’t touch stories about queer women with a ten foot pole. Let’s talk about the authors who profit from queer narratives under one pen name and cater to homophobic fans under another. Let’s talk about how a huge majority of MM authors are women or afab enbies but who can’t even imagine worlds where there are female and nonbinary characters in the background, much less as a part of the actual narrative. Let’s talk about acephobia and how even the ace authors can’t seem to imagine a world where ace characters exist except as side stories. Let’s talk about how deeply conservative many romance narratives are, about how they perpetrate a singular view of what love, romance, and sex should be. Let’s talk about how many readers treat MM as a kind of escapist tourist destination while ignoring the real life issues queer people face. Let’s talk about the authors who put ‘New York times best selling author’ in the bio for their gay romance pen name but won’t tell you that author name because they want to have their cake and eat it too.

Let’s talk about the defense ‘it’s just entertainment’ because it never is just entertainment. We are still dealing with the cultural fallout that the Hays code perpetuated about queer characters, in which the queer characters had to be portrayed as evil predators or tragic figures who die at the end. Trans women have been the butt of gross jokes in movies for decades. (Lindsey Ellis has a great breakdown of this on YouTube.) Big studios won’t make queer stories because they can’t market them to china. Amazon’s algorithmic doom spiral buries narratives that don’t conform to the narrow standard of comforting regressive escapism. The faceless corporate machine allows authors from marginalized groups to be silenced by bullies. Let’s talk about how it rewards the privileged authors who have the time and financial considerations to put out mediocre trash every other month. Let’s talk about how we sold our future out to the Amazon machine for the immediate profits of the now, and how that’s made the system unsustainable and hostile to our interests. Let’s talk about how authors will band together against legitimate criticism of their bad behavior to use that system to silence those critics. Authors who literally made their names writing MM narratives yet still espouse conservative ideals that get real queer men oppressed. Authors who file the serial numbers off their fan fiction and publish it as original work without bothering to flesh out the narrative or characters, for profit. The system that allows scammers to do this to fan works so easily and with little to no accountability. All in the name of entertainment.

Let’s talk about the real problems, because I’m fucking tired of the bullshit and the hypocrisy. I’m tired of having a checklist to vet authors so I don’t end up supporting yet another one who turns out to be an exploitive piece of shit. And I’m tired of seeing this argument use to justify misogyny and the persistent misgendering of nonbinary folks.

[marvelsmostwanted]

Hey American voters! 🇺🇸

Guess what?!!

🚨 It’s time to start worrying about the 2022 and 2024 elections. 🚨

(Yeah. We really gotta do this. It's... not looking great.)

Long story short:

Republicans have been working hard since the 2020 election to enact voter suppression laws, overturn election results, and set themselves up to steal the 2024 presidential election if necessary.

You’ve probably heard about the Georgia voter suppression law. But did you know that “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorist Republicans are running to be election officials like Secretary of State in several swing states, setting themselves up to overturn future elections? They are dismantling democracy before our eyes.

So what’s the worst case scenario?

...Well, let’s start with the realistic scenario.

Republicans are likely to take back the House in 2022. They are possibly capable of doing it through gerrymandering alone. Is it possible for Democrats to keep the House? Yes, but it will take a huge effort.

Republicans could also win back the Senate since it's currently 50-50 and Democrats only have a narrow majority because we won the presidency.

Even if Republicans only win back the House, the Biden administration would legislatively accomplish very little from 2022-2024. Republicans would have the power to impeach Biden for no reason and cause another constitutional crisis, enable gerrymandering and voter suppression laws, and block any Democratic priorities from becoming law (gun control, climate change, and healthcare are just a few things that would be off the table entirely).

Then comes 2024.

Donald Trump is the most likely Republican candidate to run and win in 2024. In a recent poll (May 2021), 66% of Republicans indicated that they would vote for Trump again.

Yes, Trump can run even if he’s indicted on criminal charges. He can run even if he’s in prison!

Remember, although Biden won by 7 million votes, it was really a difference of about 44,000 votes in three swing states that prevented Trump from winning the Electoral College and becoming president again. That is a frighteningly small margin.

Even if the candidate isn’t Trump, this is still going to be a close election. 85% of Republicans say they would vote for a Trump-aligned candidate (same poll as above).

If Republicans win back or maintain control of Congress in 2024, this could set up an even more dangerous scenario:

The House has the power to choose the president if Congress does not award 270 electoral votes to either candidate.

How could that happen? Well, those "Stop the Steal" Republican election officials in swing states could refuse to certify the election, claiming fraud, and a close election could end up with neither candidate getting enough electoral votes. House Republicans could literally choose the next president without any input from voters and effectively end American democracy as we know it.

Because you know that Republicans will never let go of that power once they have it.

This is not far-fetched.

This is a realistic, highly likely scenario that will happen if we don’t do something to prevent it. Journalists and election experts are trying to sound the alarm, and we should listen:

New York Times - How Republicans Could Steal the 2024 Election

Washington Post - American democracy is in even worse shape than you think

Pod Save America - Stop the 2024 Steal (Discussion at 29:00)

LA Times - Trump’s allies are prepping to steal 2024 election

The only way to prevent this from becoming reality is to fight like hell against it. And I know we just did that in 2018 and 2020. But this fight isn't over until we restore and protect our democracy.

This isn’t about how much you like Biden & Harris, or even if you’re a Democrat in general. It’s about saving democracy in America.

What can we do about it?

Unfortunately, it’s going to be an uphill battle. But if we all engage in this fight, then we can make a difference.

TLDR, we need to raise awareness about the threat to democracy, encourage Democrats to end the filibuster and pass H.R.1 immediately, and organize, organize, organize to get voters back out there in 2022 and 2024.

Specific ways to help & additional resources below the cut.

How to help:

National Level:

*High priority: Call your Democratic Senator(s) right now and tell them to pass H.R.1, the For the People Act, with urgency.

*High priority: Call your Democratic Senator(s) right now and tell them that you are strongly in favor of ending the filibuster (Especially if your Senator is Manchin or Sinema.)

Call your Democratic Senator(s) and tell them to vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Call your Republican Senator(s) and tell them you are in favor of all of the above, especially if you live in a swing state.

State Level:

*High priority: Find out who is running for state legislature and other positions that have control over elections, such as Secretary of State. Donate or volunteer for their campaigns. Spread the word amongst your family and friends and make sure they know who to vote for and the date of the election.

If no one is running against the Republican, consider running! I’m not joking. Or if you know someone who is qualified and/or interested in running, encourage them to do so.

Local Level:

*High priority: Same as on the state level: Find out who is running and support the person who is supporting democracy. Local election officials can have a huge impact, especially in swing states and counties. Spread the word about this candidate, the election date, registering to vote, where to vote, etc.

Again, if no one is running, consider running! Incumbents often stay in power because they are unchallenged. And a local position is a great way to get involved in politics and help your community.

Additional ways to help:

Make sure you are registered to vote.

Check in with 3 friends/family members and help them register to vote if they are not already.

Send reminders to friends/family to vote on Election Day - not just in November, but for special elections, local elections, etc.

Volunteer with a group specifically working to help progressives win elections: SwingLeft, EMILY’s List, etc.

Donate to the candidates you support early and often! One of the reasons Democratic House candidates struggled in 2020 was that a lot of money came in at the last minute. Donating early and/or on a monthly basis ensures that they have the funds to run a long, successful campaign.

More Info & Resources:

Read: Washington Post - American democracy is in even worse shape than you think

Excerpt/TLDR: "The radicalization of the Republican Party has outpaced what even most critical observers imagined,” Georgetown University historian Thomas Zimmer told me. “We need to grapple with what that should mean for our expectations going forward and start thinking about real worst-case scenarios." - Perry Bacon Jr.

Read: New York Times - How Republicans Could Steal the 2024 Election

“It occurred to me,” [Erica Newland, counsel for Protect Democracy] told her colleagues then, “as I dug into the rules and watched what happened, that if the current Republican Party controls both Houses of Congress on Jan. 6, 2025, there’s no way if a Democrat is legitimately elected they will get certified as the president-elect.”

Listen: Pod Save America - Stop the 2024 Steal (29:00-36:27 covers the bulk of it, and they go on for about another 10 minutes after that)

Excerpt: "If you just watch what's happening... it is a very clear indication of a minority party that knows it has no path to majority status rigging elections at every level to set the stage for minority rule in this country. (...) People are not alarmed enough about [this]. The great asymmetry in American politics is that Republicans view power as an end in itself, and Democrats view power as a means to an end. Republicans are using the power they have to put in place laws that allow them to hold onto political power. (...) We need to raise the alarm. There are disturbing signs of complacency in our party." - Dan Pfeiffer

Register or check voter registration: Vote.org

Support H.R.1: VoteSaveAmerica.com/ForThePeople

[on-fic-writing-spree]

Possibly harmful things y’all need to be careful of when writing sanders sides characters (that isn’t to say you can’t write them, but be careful with how you do)

Trans Janus - making the “liar” trans? Not a great idea if he’s the only character you ever write as trans.

Soft Virgil - not all soft Virgil is bad, but you do have to be mindful of how you write it, don’t make Virgil like a baby or a child (unless they’re literally a child in the writing you’re doing)

Aromantic Remus - there’s plenty of lovely aro Remus content, I’m personally an arospec Remus kinnie so it does pop up in my writing, but again, it’s about how you write it. Please be careful that you’re not stepping into the category of “Remus can’t love at all” esp since he’s intrusive thoughts and that can easily demonize the subject

Autistic Logan - god there’s so many fucking stereotypes you have to avoid to do autistic Logan, and it’s great to have autistic Logan for projection, but y’all gotta be careful, avoid “autistic people are all extremely smart” “autistic people can’t experience emotion” just check yourself with the stereotypes - there’s def a lot of reasons lo could be autistic, just be careful with how you write it

Aromantic Logan / Asexual Logan - just don’t make Logan aro/ace because “Logan doesn’t have emotions emotionless robot” once again, don’t add to the stereotype that aromantic people don’t experience love at all or make him completely emotionless

Logan with OCD - as someone who is fairly certain they have OCD, this one sometimes bothers me, because this idea of “OCD is just people who are neat” HAS TO GO. please be careful about that.

Generally marginalized groups should not always be your antagonists. Not everyone sees Janus as an antagonist, of course, but. Just be careful of it.

Oh yeah also don’t tag your drawings as BLM even if they’re in support of the cause and don’t tag your Remus content as intrusive thoughts (you can use intrusive thot if you want). It clogs up the tags for other people.

Usually you can break these all being stereotypes by adding another character that is in that group too. For example, making not only Remus aromantic, but making Roman aromantic too.

But please be mindful. Write the characters you want, continue to project (esp if it’s a coping mechanism!!!), but just be careful of the ideas that you’re putting out there!!

Feel free to add on. Obviously my white ass doesn’t know everything.

[hobidreams]

may 1869.

just this once, you let yourself be a little braver.

pairing: joseon king!yoongi x reader genre: smut, angst, fluff? words: 1.4k contains: someone new, something new.

moonlit throne index. this is drabble 20. start from the beginning?

A balmy wind drifts through the open window of your bedchamber, making ripples upon the freshly made spread. You stand in sunlight before the mirror, tracing the faint remnant of the bruise on your collarbone, left by the king’s hungry mouth too many nights before, and wish absently that the mark will stay for at least a few hours more.

As the days grow longer, his visits have become far less frequent, though the minutes he spends indulging in your heat seem to extend ever so slightly in turn. The explanation that leaves your heart intact is that he is occupied by overseeing the administration and results of the national civil exam, the gwageo that took place a few days ago and will bring a new group of eager scholars into the palace. You try very hard not to think about the possibility of his finding his way to another woman’s bed, even though he is well within his rights to. Even though it is expected of a king to have handfuls of consorts in his court. He has, thankfully, spared you of such truths, like he continues to spare you of any details about his life. Theoretically, that makes it easier to not get so attached. Theoretically.

With an exhale, you re-adjust the collar of your blouse to hide the mark and put on your hat before stepping out into the sun, holding a book that you intend to return to the king’s library.

As you walk towards the building, you soon realize there’s a man you’ve never seen before in green scholar’s robes in front of the shuttered doors, pacing back and forth as the dark samo on his head bobs from the effort. What’s he doing? While people may pass by here, they rarely linger.

When the man spots you, his gaze seems to brighten. “Excuse me, uinyeo-nim!”

You come to a stop before him, taking in the wane of his eyes that are like friendly crescents. “Good morning. How may I help you, Scholar…?”

“Park.” He smiles. “I’m one of the newly admitted scholars.”

“Scholar Park. Congratulations on passing the exam.” You return his smile with a small one of your own though you remain on your guard, no matter how kind he seems. Most of the current scholars treat you with disdain (though they at least attempt to veil it on the king’s account, you are certain), as you are a woman and thus beneath them, no matter if the texts you’ve read could rival theirs. This Park must be brilliant though, if he passed the rigorous exam at such a young age.

“Thank you. I’m excited to begin my work! But…” He bites his lip. “The head scholar asked me to obtain a copy of Bang Si-Hyuk’s latest text, and the royal library said that only the king has a copy…” His expressive face falls and you, with a twinge of endearment, think he might be an awful liar if he ever tried. “Would you happen to know how I might borrow from the private library? Should I request an audience with the king? Are there official forms to follow? I really don’t wish to misstep.”

You stare at him quietly, contemplating whether or not you should reveal that you have such access.

He nervously seems to take your lack of answer as confusion. “Yes, I am aware that I should have asked my fellow scholars but they are all so much older than me and I’m afraid that they will take me less seriously than they already do if I cannot complete such a simple task on my own... But no one else has walked by here and I do not want to go back empty-handed and…” He trails off, giving you a look of absolute desperation that warms your heart, despite your reservations.

“Scholar Park. I can retrieve the book for you, if you promise to return it within a few days.” The king wouldn’t notice that it’s missing anyhow, not with how busy he’s been. That, and you get the feeling that the older scholars have been playing a bit of an initiation joke on this poor boy.

“Really? You will? Thank you, uinyeo-nim!” He breaks into a huge grin. “Oh, but uinyeo-nim, how do you have access to the king’s libra…”

You can practically see the moment it clicks in his mind that you are that physician, the one who’s name is irrevocably tangled up with the king’s.

It seems palace gossip is not exempt even from those who have only entered the grounds the day before. You can literally feel the turmoil going on within him as he tries to figure out how to address you, whether or not he should give you the respect of the king’s consort even though you are technically not one in the slightest. Just a lowborn, a hole, even a witch doctor that has bewitched jeonha, as those less polite than this boy have put it when they thought you were out of earshot.

“Hm?” You prompt like a masochist, wanting to see what he says. Wanting to see if it’ll hurt you some more, or if you’ve finally gone blissfully numb.

“N-Nothing, uinyeo-nim.”

You were right. He’s an awful liar.

But you get the book for him anyway, and see him off with promises to meet you back here two days later for the return. Your reality is none of his fault, after all.

That night, the king drops by with little decorum. Opens the door to your chambers and strips off his robes, like he always does. Though this time as he kneads your bare chest in his calloused fingers, pinching the peaked nipples so hard you whimper, you are filled with a need for some scrap of certainty. You want to wipe that coolness from his eyes for even one second, to stoke some intimate fire from him that says he still remembers how you used to be together. How it used to be easier than this. Closer, even though now you know how thick his cock feels as he robs you of air.

“You—ah—you’ve been busy, jeonha?” It’s been getting marginally easier to talk to him like this in the moonlight, his hands making a mess of you. “It’s been quite some time since you’ve come.”

“What, are you that needy for a fuck?” He smirks, but it’s a look more dark and dangerous than playful as he reaches down and finds you soaked. You think you feel the ghost of that word lingering around his question, but it is a small blessing that has not said it aloud since that night in April.

Your face flushes hot. “I-I was just wondering…” You shouldn’t mention it. You really should hold your tongue, but you’re sick of being trapped in your own mind, going in circles with your own insecurity. Just this once. Just this once you want to let yourself ask— “I thought… That perhaps you had taken another conso—oh!” You’re cut off by an abrupt inhale as he sinks two nimble fingers into your cunt. One smooth stroke takes him so deep, only for him to pull out to use the translucent wetness he’s gathered as lubricant along his shaft.

“You think I have time for other women?” He snaps. His stare is intense, but you can’t see a single lie in their depths. “Never have.”

Then he takes you so roughly, you think the bed might break from all the rattling. You have to blink away white spots in your vision when you come and he doesn’t say much more to you for the rest of the night, but you’re smiling almost deliriously all the way through with your nails scratching faint red down his back, the bracelet he gave you dragging over his skin from its home on your wrist. Never, your mind echoes, again and again.

Against all the odds. Against anything you would have expected. Even if he keeps you at arm’s length to the thoughts in his heart, it’s still the chance three-step skip of a grey stone across a rippling pond.

You’re the only one.

a/n: wow. drabble 20. it’s taken us half a year to get here & it honestly feels like a dream that i’ve made it this far. yet there is still so much on the line. so much further to travel together. thank you, if you’ve been here since the beginning. thank you, if you’re just picking up the series 💜 please do come let me know your thoughts on the series as we slide into the present time, with all the tension of the past lingering too closely by. i truly couldn’t have gotten here without all your support ♡

[reidgraygubler]

growing in a garden (spencer reid)

Title: Growing in a Garden

Requested: yes, was a request someone sent to @imagining-in-the-margins, but she offered it to me

Pairing: dad!spencer reid/non-binary!child!reader

Category: mostly fluff

Content Warning: talks about the lgbt community, figuring out gender identity/pronouns/labels, brief mentions of parental death, afab!child!reader, I honestly do not know what else needs to be tagged if anything needs to be tagged. Like always if something needs to be tagged let me know!

Word Count: 1,826

Summary: Spencer’s 12-year-old is confused about their gender identity and goes to their dad for help and advice. Later his child has some exciting news.

A/N: okay so pom offered this one to me. It’s got two of my favorite things. Dad!spencer, and a non-binary character. It was quite literally an offer i couldn’t refuse. I also added in an idea I had come up with the same day she sent me the request. Also, like my last enby!reader fic (linked here!) reader is afab and will use they/them pronouns, since that’s me. thank you all so much for the support! i really do appreciate it. check out my masterlist!

{***}{***}{***}

“Hey Dad.” Spencer’s child looked up at him and watched as he carefully closed and lowered his book. At that moment, his child had his undivided attention.

“Yeah, Peanut?” Spencer looked down at the preteen. His child looked away from Spencer and down at their lap. They couldn’t help but pull at the loose threads on their jeans. “What’s wrong, Peanut?” Spencer asked as he sensed there was an issue. 

“I…” his child paused and looked up at him for a brief moment before dropping their gaze. Spencer turned to face them more, preparing for a more serious conversation.

“Do we need to be in Safe Space?” Spencer asked as he rested a hand on his child’s knee. Safe Space was what the father and child called when they needed to have a serious or difficult conversation. Spencer decided it was a need between him and his child after his partner had passed. And he’s happy it exists. The number of times it’s helped his child was amazing. They both dreaded having serious conversations, and would rather have fun or light-hearted conversations. However, Spencer knew those serious conversations came with being a parent. 

But this conversation was different. His child almost never approaches him with a serious topic. Usually it was Spencer going to the pre-teen with a worry or chore. The times his child went to him was typically about school, whether it’d be a bully or a question about a subject. Spencer had a feeling this wasn’t about school. Which made him wonder if it was about something more serious. His mind was reeling with thoughts and worries of what his child would want to talk about. 

“You know you can talk to me about anything… This is a judgment-free zone,” Spencer whispered as he looked at the child. His child looked up at him and nodded. Spencer noted the mild fear hidden in his child’s eyes. Their eyes quickly dropped to look at their knee where their father’s hand was resting. “You have nothing to be afraid about. And I won’t be mad at you,” Spencer reassured. 

“Sometimes… Sometimes I don’t feel like… I should be a girl,” they whispered as they looked at the coffee table in front of them.

Spencer furrowed his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side. An unnerving silence fell over the pair as Spencer began thinking of what to say. He’d never thought about this being a situation. He’d read all the parenting books he could, but they never mentioned this topic. Spencer worried he’d say the wrong thing and make his offspring upset. 

He’d never be mad at his child. They’d never do anything wrong in his eyes. The pre-teen shouldn’t be scared about this or their dad being mad at them. To be fair, his child had never felt this way before. They were confused and needed help figuring it out. So, they went to the one person they knew who knows everything. But this time was different, because Spencer didn’t exactly know what to say.

“Well,” he started and paused for a thought. Although none of the parenting books mentioned a scenario like this, he had read plenty of LGBTQ+ books. He knew enough about that to help his child. “What do you feel like? Do you feel like a boy?” Spencer quietly asked. His child looked up at him and furrowed their eyebrows before shaking their head. 

“No… No, I don’t feel like a boy… Or like a girl… I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it,” the child whispered as they rambled for a moment. Spencer could feel the tension his child was feeling, and the stress that was growing. The longer he stayed quiet, the more his child got scared. Spencer knew he’d have to be quick and say something. “Does that make me a bad person?” their voice was quiet and soft. They were worried they were wrong

“No, no!” Spencer exclaimed as he shook his head. His child jumped and looked over at him. He didn’t  intend to scare them, but it’s what happened. “That doesn’t make you a bad person at all, Peanut! There’s nothing wrong with not knowing how to identify yourself,” Spencer started as he moved to kneel on the ground.

His child looked at him as he knelt beside them. Spencer grabbed both their hands and looked up at them. The smile that grew on his lips sacred the child, but also equally calmed them down. The child looked down at their hands, calming down as they looked at the way Spencer held their hands. It made them feel safe.

“Gender is a social construct…” Spencer started with a smile. The pre-teen looked up at their dad with furrowed eyebrows.

“What does that mean?” 

“It’s fake. Made up. It doesn’t matter what you are. A boy, a girl… A robot even! It doesn’t matter,” Spencer replied as he looked at the child. His child looked back up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “Yes, you can identify as a robot… If you wanted.” That made the pair laugh, the intensity breaking for a moment. 

“I can?” 

“If that’s what you want.”

“What… What would the other kids in my class think?” they asked with worry in their voice and on their face. Spencer’s eyebrows furrowed together as he looked at them.

“As long as you’re unapologetically you… you don’t have to care about what anyone says or thinks,” Spencer whispered back, “You got that?”

“Yeah, yeah… Got that,” they softly whispered. Spencer’s eyebrow raised as he looked up at his child.

“What is it?”

“What… What would you call me? Like, I dunno… if I’m not a girl, and I’m not a boy… What would I be?” The child’s voice was quiet and so soft.  Spencer was grateful he was so close to them because he probably wouldn’t have heard them otherwise. Spencer dropped his head to his shoulder as he looked at the child. 

“Well, if you don’t want to be a girl, or a boy… We could try they/them pronouns if you want.” Spencer looked at the pre-teen as he spoke. “How does that sound?” 

“Yeah… Yeah, I like that,” the child whispered and nodded.

“And if you really want to label it, we could try non-binary. And that means you don’t follow the normal gender binary. Do you know what gender binary means?” Spencer asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“No," The pre-teen replied with a shake of the head. 

“So, the gender binary is what being a boy or a girl is called, because binary means ‘having two parts’. Therefore, non-binary is just a term people use to describe genders that don’t fall into one of those categories. Like, identifying as a robot, you wouldn’t fall into either of those categories.” Spencer tried to explain but it was hard for him to explain in a way for a child to understand. “Does that make any sense?” His child looked back at him and nodded.

“Yeah, yeah. It makes sense. Thanks, Dad,” they whispered as they looked back down at their lap. Spencer smiled before patting their knee.

“Of course. If you have any other questions, just let me know and we can figure it out together. Okay?” Spencer asked as he stood. 

“Okay,” they replied back with a nod. Spencer looked at his child as he sat back down beside them on the couch. 

And with that, the usual silence fell over the pair. Spencer went back to reading his book, while his child stayed sitting on the couch. Spencer didn’t question it. He just assumed they needed a break after their conversation and school. They were probably over-loaded and needed a small break. 

That was until they asked another question.

“Hey dad,”

“Yes, Peanut?”

“Can I tell you something?” 

“Of course you can, Peanut.” Spencer looked down at his off-spring with a raised brow and small smile on his lips. The child looked up at him with a smirk.

“I think I'm non-binary,” they whispered as they looked at their dad. Spencer smiled before wrapping his arms around his child’s shoulders. The child smiled before melting into Spencer’s body. 

“I’m happy for you, Peanut. And I’m proud that you were able to figure it out,” Spencer whispered as he embraced his child harder. The child sighed deeply and nodded. 

“Thank you, Dad.” “Of course. I love you, you know that?” 

“Yeah, I know,” the child whispered and nodded. “I love you too.” {***}{***}{***}

“Drinks anyone?” Luke asked as everyone stepped off the elevator. The team simultaneously let out a sigh of relief at the offer. The case they had just finished was a rough one, and drinks seemed like a good way to unwind, for some. For other’s, they’d rather be at home with their spouses and families.

“I’m in for drinks,” Emily was the first to speak as she lifted a hand. Jennifer followed up, joining Emily and Luke.

“Krystall made dinner and I’d much rather see her than have drinks with you suckers,” Rossi spoke as he gestured towards the team. Everyone looked at him with a raised brow as he parted from the group. 

“Wait,” Spencer looked down at his watch when he realized what time it was. Thirty minutes till 3:00pm. If he left now, he’d be able to pick his child up from school. It’d been a rough week for him, so picking them up would make him feel better, and it’d be a nice surprise for his child. “I want to pick my robot up from school.” He looked back at the team as he started walking towards his desk.

“Robot?” Jennifer raised an eyebrow as she looked at her friend, “Spence, do you mean your daughter?” 

“Yeah, like real, flesh and blood, human child?” Matt asked with confusion on his face. 

“No, I mean… Yes, I have a real, flesh and blood, human child. But, no, I don’t have a daughter. I have a robot,” Spencer explained as he gathered his things into his bag.

“Do you maybe want to further explain?” Tara asked. Spencer sighed deeply as he looked at his friends. Everyone surrounded his desk, waiting for a response.

“My child said they identify as a robot. And they use they/them pronouns. I’m not sure what else you want me to say. I gotta go pick them up from school. I’m sure they’ll be excited to see me.” Spencer let out a deep sigh as he threw his bag strap over his shoulder. “See you guys tomorrow.” He smiled before taking off. 

Spencer didn’t bother waiting for the onslaught of questions everyone had. They weren’t exactly his questions to answer, they were his child’s. So he just left, not wanting to keep his child waiting. They’d have to plan dinner with the team so his child could tell them their news.

taglist: @mggsprettygirl​ @muffin-cup​ @thebluetint​ @itsmyblogandillreblogifiwantto @misshale21 @spenciegoob​

if you want to be a part of a taglst or have any comments about this one shot, let me know here

[goldheartedsky]

I told myself I wasn’t going to make a post like this—that I wasn’t going to stoop to the level of making call-out posts—but I really can’t stay silent after what has happened in the last day or so.

The TOG fandom has a serious issue with excusing antisemitism and allowing people who have painfully hurt marginalized groups to continue to ignore, dismiss, and refuse to acknowledge their limits of intersectionality in regards to social justice. I have seen it myself, been on the receiving end of it, and have talked to other Jews in this fandom about what’s been going on and it needs to start being addressed.

Now, I’m not going to name names or tag people (mainly because I have been blocked by almost all of them for this very issue) but if you message me I will gladly tell you the users involved in this. Also, if you have doubts of any of this’s validity and would like screenshots, feel free to reach out to me here or via Discord and I will share them.

A lot of this started when a member of the All&More server had brought up the scientific and medical “discoveries” during the torture and medical experimentation that took place during the Third Reich and how a lot of the origin of it isn’t taught. LR made a comment saying that “we are three-dimensional creatures who are stuck moving forward in time and can’t go back” and added that not using the research won’t make past horrors not happen. When the original user added that there has been a movement in medicine for removing Nazi scientists names off discoveries and that progress was slow moving, she deflected the conversation onto herself, saying “Not using research won’t make my family not harmed by the Japanese” and then immediately pivoted into admitting that, from what she understood, there weren’t any particularly valid scientific discoveries made by them. She then said, in regards to said Nazi atrocities, “Take it, learn about it, put it in context, and then own it and transform it.”

A Jewish member of A&M voiced their discomfort about possibly taking medicine that was a direct result of the murder of their grandparents and other relatives, to which LR said, “Still stuck in the 3rd dimension, still moving forward in time.” I brought up the fact that medicine was built on antisemitism and racism and that starting over would be better than a lot of the procedures we have now. There is a longstanding issue in medicine of disregarding black pain and so much of what we have now is created by eugenicists—including Nazi scientists. There is still a lot of Jewish trauma due to medical experimentation and that is oftentimes dismissed.

LR then made a flippant comment about “Does this count as Godwin’s Law?”—which is about how all internet discussions lead to someone being compared to Nazis/Hitler. When called out on the inappropriateness of the comment, she did not respond and was backed up by one of the mods of the server. There was no apology made nor an acknowledgment about the casual antisemitism of the comments she made and the dismissal of Jewish trauma/pain.

Now, fast forward a couple months when I was contacted by a third party who had not been in the server at the time but had joined and heard about what LR had said there. H said they were friends with LR and had concerns about antisemitism and would like my perspective. I explained what had happened and offered screenshots if they would like them, which they did. They thanked me and apologized that it got to a point that I felt unsafe in the server and had to leave, which I appreciated.

A couple weeks later they reached out to me again and offered to broker a conversation between LR and myself because the situation wasn’t sitting well with them. I was skeptical (because I had been blocked at that point) and didn’t have a lot of hope that this conversation would actually take place but I felt a responsibility to try and be the bigger person and deal with what had been said head on, so I agreed to sit down and have a discussion with her as long as there was a third party in the chat as well—given our history.

After a couple weeks of back and forth with H and hearing that LR had said that she would “think about it”, she finally agreed. I was asked for a time and date and I gave my availability and was told she would be asked for the same. A couple days later, I was suddenly told LR would only be comfortable with this conversation if H acted as a “literal go-between” with us copy-pasting our responses in their DMs so we can “sit with the message and everyone can get to them when they can” rather than it being a session with an actual back and forth and was asked if I was okay with that. I honestly said no, because this was supposed to be a situation where she and I sat down and discussed what she said in the server, not a back and forth message relay where the conversation got dragged out for days or weeks or however long it was going to take. I said if she was serious about meeting me halfway on this, she needed to be able to sit down and actually talk.

H copy-pasted my response to LR and came back that she had backed out of the conversation, which part of me had expected from the beginning—even though all I wanted from this sit down was for her to understand how hurtful the antisemitic comments were and an apology.

These comments that were made in the server are not a secret. It’s pretty well known what was said and again, these were all on record, not privately made in some DM. She has still not owned up to the comments she said, nor has she ever apologized for them. She has ignored message after message about them and blocked more people than I can count. Many of the people defending her when the discourse begins have also been messaged about the comments she’s said and also either block people or ignore the messages completely and refuse to acknowledge them.

Now, this being said, in the most recent conversation about fandom racism, someone brought up the post that was made reducing users on ao3 to faceless, nameless numbers without saying who they were, what they had done, and how they were specifically contributing to the problem of racism in this fandom. They made the comparison of other situations like HR looking at pay stats to see how to fire and included “Nazis, capitalists, and colonizers.”

This is not an invalid argument. There have been other Jews in the fandom who specifically voiced feeling uncomfortable for the exact same reason. However, another person, LT, decided to specifically make a post calling the OP out and drag them for having the audacity to liken it to the Shoah (which, mind you, this person is not Jewish nor did they decide to capitalize Shoah or the Holocaust as they should have). She received a reply saying, “you’re offended by antisemitism? Here’s LR’s (someone LT has agreed with multiple times over racism in fandom) track record of antisemitic comments” which outlined everything I delved into previously.

LT said that they were “unaware of this incident until a couple days ago” but agreed that it was an upsetting display of casual dismissal of Jewish pain and hoped that LR had apologized. She was then called out for being aware of it and still continuing to reblog LR’s posts even after knowing about the comments and was linked to my post clarifying that LR had not apologized and refused a discussion about it, to which LT said that she had gotten “quite a different version outlined in the post linked and corroborated by a third party” and “felt uncomfortable” making a value judgement, insinuating that I was not being truthful about my side of the story.

I messaged LT off-anon and said that I was not lying nor over-exaggerating about what had happened in the server or about the following discussion about trying to broker a conversation with LR, and was immediately blocked by her. I am also not the only Jew who has sent her messages about this topic, only to have their messages ignored.

Now, am I surprised that I was immediately blocked after voicing my issues with what LT had said in that post? No.

She has a history of making antisemitic comments, most of which happened during the brunt of the Israel/Palestine discussion happening, which included statements such as “You cannot be considered indigenous if you hold a position of power”, that, despite having been displaced for 2,000 years, the Jewish diaspora was “integrated” into their respective communities (a wholly untrue statement), as well as linked to and promoted a website with extremely antisemitic articles including one about “Spartan Jews” and how Israeli Jews are violent to “send messages to their deprived self-esteem” that they won’t be victims again. Half of the comments on the site’s front page included such hits as “Death to all Jews” and “Wow, I had no idea this was happening—I guess it is true that Jews control the world and the mass media.” This website was repeated in multiple posts as “unbiased” and “a good resource” for other people to truly know what was going on.

Jewish dissent on the content of some posts and that website went unacknowledged and dismissed.

Being that LT is a relatively big user in the TOG fandom, her posts got circulated frequently. Seeing things like that touted as unbiased was extremely triggering for me and multiple Jews in this fandom that I’ve spoken to.

Now, the reason I made this post in particular was because I have seen a lot of echoing of the sentiment: “no matter how much you disagree with their sentiment, aligning yourself with racists is...well aligning yourself with racists.”

This statement NEEDS to become intersectional. If we are criticizing the work of people because of who they hold company with, why does that end at racism? If we are going to have a discussion about racism in this fandom, why are we letting it come from people who have openly said antisemitic things, people who have stood by them and supported them in silence, and people who have silenced Jewish voices speaking up about this issue.

These are not separate issues. This is a really good post regarding the white washing of Jews in social justice discussion and it comes full circle into the medical experimentation discussion. Jews were not seen as white during the Holocaust. The Nazis were trying to cleanse the Aryan race because they did not view Jews as white. They experimented on them because they did not view them as white and, thus, disposable.

Every Jewish diasporic community is still vulnerable. Even though the US has half the world’s Jews, over 50% of the religiously based hate crimes are consistently anti-Jewish even though Jews make up 2% of the population. Chinese Jews are still holding their holiday celebrations in secret due to government crackdowns. The attempted genocide of Beta Israel was less than 50 years ago. Across the Middle East and North Africa, Jewish communities are barely hanging on after centuries of attempted destruction. These are not just Jewish issues but racial issues as well because when people make the sweeping generalization of “Jew” and they only mean white-passing Ashkenazi Jews, it erases so much of our community.

I absolutely agree that this fandom needs to have a discussion about race and portrayal in fic and what we can do better moving forward—and I want to see that done—but we also need to acknowledge what so many people starting this discussion have said and the marginalized groups they have hurt along the way. I see these posts come across my dashboard and know exactly who they're coming from and what they think of people like me. If we are going to say, “No matter how much you disagree with their sentiment, aligning yourself with racists is aligning yourself with racists,” then we NEED to be saying, “If you are aligning yourself with antisemites, you’re aligning yourself with antisemites.”

We all need to move forward. But that means moving forward together. Jews included.

[supercantaloupe]

okay yeah actually, i’ll bite. i’ve got some of my own thoughts about the unsleeping city and cultural representation and i’m gonna make a post about them now, i guess. i’ll put it under a cut though because this post is gonna be long.

i wanna start by saying i love dimension 20 and i really really enjoy the unsleeping city. i look forward to watching new episodes every week, and getting hooked on d20 as a whole last summer really helped pull me out of a pandemic depression, and i’m grateful to have this cool show to be excited about and interested in and to have met so many cool people to talk about it with.

that being said, however, i think there is a risk run in representing any group of people/their culture when you have the kind of setting that tuc has. by which i mean, tuc is set in a real world with real people and real human cultures in it. unlike fantasy high or a crown of candy where everything is made up (even if rooted in real-world cultures), tuc is explicitly rooted in reality, and all of its diversity -- both the ups and downs that go with it. and especially set in new york of all places, one of the most densely, diversely populated cities on earth. the cast is 7 people; it’s great that those 7 people come from a variety of backgrounds and identities and all bring their own unique perspectives to the table, and it’s great that those people and the entire crew are generally conscious of themselves and desire to tell stories/represent perspectives ethically. but you simply cannot authentically represent every culture or every perspective in the world (or even just in a city) when your cast is 7 people. it’s an impossible task. this is inherent to the setting, and acknowledged by the cast, and by brennan especially, who has been on record saying how one of the exciting aspects of doing a campaign set in nyc is its diversity, the fact that no two new yorkers have the same perspective of new york. i think that’s a good thing -- but it does have its challenges too, clearly.

i’m not going to go into detail on the question of whether or not tuc’s presentation of asian and asian american culture is appropriative/offensive or not. first of all, i don’t feel like it’s 100% fair to judge the show completely yet, since it’s a prerecorded season and currently airing midseason, so i don’t yet know how things wrap up. secondly, i’m not asian or asian american. i can have my own opinions on that content in the show, but i think it’s worth more to hear actual asian and asian american voices on this specific aspect of the show. having an asian american cast member doesn’t automatically absolve the show of any criticisms with regard to asian american cultural representation/appropriation, whether those criticisms are made by dozens of viewers or only a handful of them. regardless, i don’t think it’s my place as someone who is not asian to speak with any authority on that issue, and i know for a fact that there are asian american viewers sharing their own opinions. their thoughts in this instance hold more water than mine, i think.

what i will comment on in more depth, though, is a personal frustration with tuc. i’m jewish; i’ve never really been shy about that fact on my page here. i’m not from new york, but i visit a few times a year (or i did before covid anyway, lol), and i have some family from nyc. nyc, to me, is a jewish city. and for good reason, since it’s home to one of the largest jewish populations of the country, and even the world, and aspects of jewish culture (including culinary, like bagels and pastrami, and linguistic, like the common use of yiddish words and phrases in english colloquial speech) are prevalent and celebrated among jews and goyim alike. when i think of nyc, i think of a jewish city; that’s not everybody’s new york, but that’s my new york, and thats plenty of other people’s new york too. so i do find myself slightly disappointed or frustrated in tuc for its, in my opinion, rather stark lack of jewish representation.

now, i’m not saying that one of the PCs should have been jewish, full stop. i love to headcanon iga as jewish even though canon does not support that interpretation, and i’m fine with that. she’s not my character. it’s possible that simply no one thought of playing a jewish character, i dunno. but also, and i can’t be sure about this, i’m willing to bet that none of the players really wanted to play a jewish character because they didn’t want to play a character of a marginalized culture they dont belong to in the interest of avoiding stereotyping or offensive representation/cultural appropriation. (i don’t know if any of the cast members are jewish, but i’m assuming not.) and the concern there is certainly appreciated; there’s not a ton of mainstream jewish rep out there, and often what we get is either “unlikeable overly conservative hassidic jew” or “jokes about their bar mitzvah/one-off joke about hanukkah and then their jewishness is never mentioned ever again,” which sucks. it would be really cool to see some more good casual jewish rep in a well-rounded, three-dimensional character in the main cast of a show! even if there are a couple of stumbles along the way -- nobody is perfect and no two jews have the same level of knowledge, dedication, and adherence to their culture.

but at the same time, i look at characters like iga and i really do long for a jewish character to be there. siobhan isn’t polish, yet she’s playing a characters whose identity as a polish immigrant to new york is very central to her story and arc. and part of me wonders why we can’t have the same for a jewish character. if not a PC, then why not an NPC? again, i’m jewish, and i am not native, but in my opinion i think the inclusion of jj is wonderful -- i think there are even fewer native main characters in mainstream media than there are jewish ones, and it’s great to see a native character who is both in touch with their culture as well as not being defined solely by their native-ness. to what extent does it count as ‘appropriative’ because brennan is a white dude? i dunno, but i’m like 99% sure they talked to sensitivity consultants to make sure the representation was as ethical as they could get it, and anyway, i can’t personally see and glaring missteps so far. but again, i’m not native, and if there are native viewers with their own opinions on jj, i’d be really interested in hearing them.

but getting back to the relative lack of jewish representation. it just...disappoints me that jewishness in new york is hardly ever even really mentioned? again, i know we’re only just over halfway through season 2, but also, we had a whole first season too. and it’s definitely not all bad. for example: willy! gd, i love willy so much. him being a golem of williamsburg makes me really really happy -- a jewish mythological creature animated from clay/mud (in this case bricks) to protect a jewish community (like that of williamsburg, a center for many of nyc’s jews) from threat. golem have so often been taken out of their original context and turned into evil monsters in fantasy settings, especially including dnd. (even within other seasons of d20! crush in fh being referred to as a “pavement golem” always rubbed me the wrong way, and i had hoped they’d learned better after tuc but in acoc they refer to another monster as a “corn golem” which just disappointed me all over again.) so the fact that tuc gets golems right makes my jewish heart very happy.

and yet...he doesn’t show up that much? sure, in s1, he’s very helpful when he does, but in s2 so far he shows up once and really does not say or do much of anything. he speaks with a lot more yiddish-influenced language than other characters, but if you didn’t know those words were specifically yiddish/jewish, you might not be able to otherwise clock the fact that willy is jewish. and while willy is a jewish mythological creature who is jewish in canon, he isn’t human. there are no other direct references to judaism, jewish characters, or jewish culture in the unsleeping city beyond him.

there are, in fact, two other canon jewish characters in tuc. but...here’s where i feel the most frustration, i think. the two canon jewish humans in tuc are stephen sondheim and robert moses. both of whom are real actual people, so it’s not like we can just pick and choose what their cultural backgrounds are. as much as i love stephen sondheim, i think there are inherent issues with including real world people as characters in a fictional setting, especially if they are from living/recent memory (sondheim is literally still alive), but anyway, sondheim and moses are both actual jewish people. from watching tuc alone you probably would not be able to guess that sondheim is jewish -- nothing from his character except name suggests it, and i wouldn’t even fault you for not thinking ‘sondheim’ is a jewish-sounding surname (and i dislike the idea/attitude/belief that you can tell who is or isn’t jewish by the sound of their name). and yeah, i’m not going to sit here and be like “brennan should have made sondheim more visibly jewish in canon!” because, like, he’s a real human being and it’s fucking weird to portray him in a way that isn’t as close to how he publicly presents himself, which is not in fact very identifiably jewish? i don’t know, this is what i mean by it’s inherently weird and arguably problematic to portray real living people as characters in a fictional setting, but i digress. sondheim’s jewish, even if you wouldn’t know it; not exactly a representation win.

and then there’s bob moses. you might be able to guess that he’s jewish from canon, actually. there’s the name, of course. but more insidious to me are the specifics of his villainy. greedy and powerhungry, a moneyman, a lich whose power is stored in a phylactery...it does kind of all add up to a Yikes from me. (in the stock market fight there’s a one-off line asking if he has green skin; it’s never really directly acknowledged or answered, but it made me really uncomfortable to hear at first and it’s stuck with me since viewing for the first time.) the issue for me here is that the most obviously jewish human character is the season’s bbeg, and his villainy is rooted in very antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.

i know this isn’t all brennan’s fault -- robert moses was a real ass person and he was in fact jewish, a powerhungry and greedy moneyman, a big giant racist asshole, etc. i’m not saying that jewish characters can’t be evil, and i’m not saying brennan should have tried to be like “this is my NPC robert christian he’s just like bob moses but instead he’s a goy so it’s okay” because...that would be fuckin weird bro. and bob moses was a real person who was jewish and really did do some heinous shit with his municipal power. i’m not necessarily saying brennan should have picked/created a different character to be the villain. i’m not even saying that he shouldn’t have made bob moses a lich (although, again, it doesn’t 100% sit right with me). but my point here is that bob moses is one of a grand total of three canon jewish characters in tuc, of which only two humans, of whom he is the one you’d most easily guess would be jewish and is the most influenced by antisemitic stereotypes/tropes. had there been more jewish representation in the show at all, even just some neutral jewish NPCs, this would not be as much of a problem as it is to me. but halfway through season 2, so far, this is literally all we get. and that bums me out.

listen, i really like tuc. i love d20. but the fact that it is set in a real world place with real world people does inherently raise challenges when it comes to ethical cultural representation. especially when the medium of the show is a game whose creatures, lore, and mechanics have been historically rooted in some questionable racial/cultural views. and dnd is making progress to correct some of those misguided views of older sourcebooks by updating them to more equitably reflect real world racial/cultural sensitivities; that’s a good thing! but these seasons, of course, were recorded before that. the game itself has some questionable cultural stuff baked into it, and that is (almost necessarily) going to be brought to the table in a campaign set in a real-world place filled with real-world people of diverse real-world cultures. the cast can have sensitivity consultants and empathy and the best intentions in the world, and they’ll still fuck up from time to time, that’s okay. your mileage may vary on whether or not it’s still worth sticking around with the show (or the fandom) through that. for me, it does not yet outweigh all the things i like about the show, and i’m gonna continue watching it. but it’s still very worth acknowledging that the cast is 7 people who cannot possibly hope to authentically or gracefully represent every culture in nyc. it’s an unfortunate limitation of the medium. yet it’s also still worthwhile to acknowledge and discuss the cultural representation as it is in the show -- both the goods and the bads, the ethically solid and the questionably appropriative -- and even to hold the creators accountable. (decently, though. i’m definitely not advocating anybody cyberbully brennan on twitter or whatever.) the show and its representation is far from perfect, but i also don’t think it ever could be. still, though, it could always be better, and there’s a worthwhile discussion to be had in the wheres, hows, and whys of that.

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe: End of an Era: Outline & Review

I wrote this review in October but never got around to posting it here

Steven Universe: End of an Era is far more than an art book–it’s also a collection of behind-the-scenes material, stories about the experience of working on the show, planning documents and associated background info, and both older versions of developed concepts AND concepts that never made it into the show. It's a huge fusion of all those elements, and it's definitely an experience!

Some low-quality images are included with my review just to give you an idea of what’s there--it’s not a good substitute for getting your own copy, but here’s a tour!

Like the previous concept art book, Art and Origins, I'll be giving you a description of the structure and overview, while also collecting notable information for fans. Obviously just about everything is "notable" once again, but I'll aim for unique insight or perspective on the main source material, keeping the screaming about everything new to a minimum so you can also enjoy something for yourself if you pick it up. My low-quality photos should prevent people from feeling like I'm reproducing the book in any capacity. Please grab one while you can and have your own experience!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

OVERVIEW

The book is titled "End of an Era" for a couple reasons--obviously because it is released after the show has wrapped, but also because Gem history recently ended its "Era 2" and began Era 3--an age of prosperity and peace. The author--the person in charge of adapting all of this information into this slick, readable package--is Chris McDonnell, whose work was previously applied on the Art and Origins book.

The foreword is by N.K. Jemisin, a well-known science fiction author who's a huge fan of the show (and wrote a really excellent series that also has a weird geological connection, by the way).

And the cover, like its predecessor, is shiny and decorated with a beach scene featuring minimalistic characters--this time it's the Gems at night in front of the Temple, and on the back cover is a big pink leg ship in a cross-legged pose.

The interior covers are decorated with tons of amazing sketches of Steven and Connie on the front, and a bunch of Gem sketches on the back. Every interior page that most would leave blank is highlighted with some kind of sketch art or character exercise--it's so much to look at, so much to absorb.

The book is dedicated "For Eddie."

Its organization is different from the previous book in that it shares applicable work in chunks associated with groups of episodes rather than pertaining to different aspects of building the show.

FOREWORD

N.K. Jemisin gives us such a great introduction to the book--apparently understanding very well that the audience of this book is full of animation enthusiasts and adult fans more than it is full of kids, and explaining that bewildering journey some adults had from blowing this show off as a silly kid thing to falling in love with it hard and fast.

The important thing, Jemisin says, is being able to trust a storyteller with your heart. And it was clear to her that Rebecca Sugar knew what she was talking about and was saying important things about identity and the radical power that comes with accepting it and demanding respect.

Important also is how we handle heroes and who gets to be one in fantasy. That's part of the reason Steven Universe speaks to so many--because we see ourselves here, and know stories can be about us. Acknowledging the power we all have to MAKE THINGS BETTER with what we fight for is so important--especially if we're going to speaking to the next generation about it.

Highlighting Rose Quartz as a "born leader" who failed and Steven as a relatable scamp who did what she couldn't, Jemisin asserts that we can save the world.

1. END OF AN ERA

We start with an appeal to the audience to think about identity and the formative parts of our childhood--and how different it is if who you are and who you become is restricted, mocked, erased, or Not Allowed. Most people, if not ALL people, can relate to this, but for those of us with a special relationship with Steven Universe because of queer identity, this hits hard.

But it doesn't have to be anything grand to be something we respect--this show's authenticity comes largely from how personal everything is, drawn from real-life experiences and incidental truths from each artist's perspective, leaning hard on childhood and formative experiences.

Rebecca Sugar offers some interview bits to discuss writing philosophy and why "writing female characters" was difficult for a nonbinary person who'd been socialized as a girl and a woman. Rebecca has spoken before about how frustrating it is that marketing for cartoons was SO gendered when she was growing up (and to some extent still is).

The Gems in the story are all "she/her," but on their planet they're defined by their work, not by emotion or relationships (unlike women in our society), so having them be socialized opposite to how she was and be able to claim those emotions through choice and NOT as just an expectation "as women" was revolutionary. Rebecca wants her show to tell all marginalized people that they don't deserve to be in the margins.

Weighing in on other aspects of the show were Ian Jones-Quartey, Joe Johnston, and Miki Brewster. Ian describes feeling like at first doing SU was a thrill ride that meant they'd finally get to do all the cool stuff, but it quickly became a responsibility that he took very seriously--the need to tell a good story now that he'd been given a megaphone.

Promotional art, planning documents, character sketches, and concept art from the lighthearted to the stone serious is included, along with some very cool (sort of famous) timeline charts that track major characters' developments. It's emphasized by Rebecca that the developmental materials ARE NOT CANON (and especially are not MORE canon) compared the final show.

There are concept sketches alongside final art for Aquamarine and Topaz in "Wanted" (with Topaz labeled "Imperial Topaz"), the Zircons in "The Trial," Blue and Yellow Diamond, and the Off Colors (including Pink Lars).

And there's also a spread of "the two sides of Steven's life: Gem Magic and Rock N Roll" featuring Sadie Killer and the Suspects (referred to as "Buck's band")--as well as a cool "Crew Cameos" key and some concepts for short-haired Connie.

And then there's some more "finished" art with stills alongside concepts, including some background art, revision, and really cool "fairytale" art from some of the shadowplay storytelling bits. We get "Lars of the Stars," "Jungle Moon," and "Can't Go Back."

2. THE BEGINNING OF THE END: A SINGLE PALE ROSE

In discussing the huge reveals and Gem mysteries in the show, the pacing is examined, and emphasis is put on the intended "slow burn." One of the most difficult things in the show was to strategize so that every piece that was needed to support another piece in the future was placed properly to seed what it was supposed to.

Some of the ideas they developed were more of a group effort and were fit together collaboratively (like Amethyst's being younger than the other Gems and Jasper being from Earth), while others were intended from the beginning based on Rebecca's vision (the fundamental idea of Pink Diamond's true identity, for instance, as well as Obsidian's design and sword and our Pearl not being Pink's first).

The writing process gets a great deep dive here, including fun tidbits like how the orb in the moon base was inserted by Joe Johnston and they literally had no idea what it was for when they wrote the episode. They repurposed it when they figured out what they needed.

Rebecca credits her detailed timelines for helping keep the order straight, and discusses how other artists are sometimes flabbergasted that a storyboard-driven show can have this much detail and continuity and yet not get wrecked by the free non-scripted boarding process. But Rebecca and the Crew valued that approach and loved the way fresh eyes would handle an idea, making it come back alive, entertaining, vivid.

Several Crew members weigh in on the writing process. Lauren Hecht refers to making lots of incorrect guesses despite being on the inside. Joe Johnston recalled getting briefed on his first day and getting so excited to start working on this massive project.

Miki Brewster remembered being told Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond and being shocked--and also confused about why Ruby and Sapphire would need to be married if they're already basically married. Drew Green talks about being brought in late and getting to watch unaired episodes and a rough of the movie while eating cereal.

Ian Jones-Quartey complains about Pink Diamond's real jester-like form being leaked to the internet through a Hot Topic shirt. Rebecca piggybacks on that and says it was upsetting that the wedding was leaked because of toy fair keychains featuring Ruby and Sapphire in wedding attire. They'd always be worried about leaks, and sometimes Rebecca struggled not to talk about the reality of Pink Diamond before the reveal because she knew it would make so much more sense once the truth was out. And everything associated with Rose makes more sense once you know she's Pink--especially what happened with Bismuth, considering what we know about how Pink Diamond has a habit of treating anyone who no longer serves her interests.

When it comes to visual cues, Rebecca also talks about intentional designs to create a feeling of unity between concepts, like the flower shapes on Pink Diamond's palanquin lining up with the poofs of Steven's hair and the star imagery of the series. Steven Sugar and Mary Nash discuss how the Human Zoo incorporated this imagery, trying to look like Homeworld with a Pink Diamond touch.

Steven Sugar, as a game nerd, liked to throw in video game references from old and modern stuff to feel like he's inserting what he's enjoying and who he is from moment to moment, while Mary Nash, who related to Sadie as a basement-dwelling young person with cult interests, liked to include stuff from MST3K and cult movies. Pearl's hand gestures get a spotlight too--her reflex to cover her mouth when Pink Diamond was being discussed was analyzed here.

A "Top Secret Visual Timeline" from 2016 is included which tells us some Diamond history. It has an earlier version of Pink Pearl's fate and does not include Spinel since the movie hadn't been greenlit. The timeline includes the birth of the Diamonds, the emergence and major story beats for each major character, and some philosophy of the driving force behind each.

We're told that Pink Diamond straightened up, behavior-wise, after she lost her first Pearl, and that Yellow and Blue wanted to give her a planet but White only agreed to it to prove she would fail at managing a colony. Pearl, meanwhile, is so confused to have a Diamond who keeps asking her what she thinks when she doesn't believe she should have opinions.

And when Pink moonlighted as Rose to start conflict, she found herself leading an army to fight Pink's troops--then Yellow's, and eventually Blue's too. Lapis is said to be waiting for the conflict to end on Earth so she can terraform, but she gets trapped instead.

Pearl's love story with Rose is described as "an endless honeymoon" where she's free to love her, while Rose's is more like "I'm now the head of the family and I'm going to give everyone what they never had, so everyone is super special!"

Jasper is described as "adopted" into Yellow's army as the only successful Beta Quartz. And White Diamond knew that Pink Diamond was not dead--she thought she was just running away from home like a brat and would eventually be back.

3. THE HEART OF THE CRYSTAL GEMS

Now we discuss Rose Quartz--the original Pink Diamond. How she was selfish and selfless, never enough and always too much, and how Greg was her first partner who "challenged her" to be an equal. Rebecca describes Rose as being delighted by the idea that both she and Greg reinvented themselves, but when that leads her to want to share her past, Greg isn't interested--he only wants to know who she is now, and doesn't consider the old her to be her.

Rebecca likes Carl Jung's concept of "enantiodromia," which is the idea that extremes lead to their extreme opposite. This is demonstrated in all of the Diamonds. This narrative is interspersed with drawings of Greg and Rose being cute.

But another "heart" of the Crystal Gems is its relationships--particularly, Garnet, the fairy tale romance embodied. More psychological theories are discussed with regard to differentiation in a relationship making the relationship stronger, and how they made sure that happened for Garnet during the appropriate arc. Rebecca has struggled with the idea that she, like Ruby, went straight from a "family" group to a living-with-others situation and never lived by herself. But she also learned that you can in fact develop as a person in the context of a relationship--you don't have to be alone to do it. Ruby learned that too, and chose on her own terms to be with Sapphire.

The wedding made so much sense to Rebecca and the crew that they couldn't imagine a wholesome couple like Ruby and Sapphire not having a wedding episode. They wanted it for years: The wedding concepts always included the tuxedo for Sapphire and the wedding dress for Ruby.

But pushback (often blamed on the conservative standards of the international market) led to negotiations trying to keep Ruby and Sapphire's relationship from being explicit. Rebecca and the Crew were very tired of this double standard, and they were especially irritated by attempts to claim a wedding wouldn't be well received by a core demographic or wouldn't make sense for Steven's character. But other shows had done weddings and Steven had been established to love weddings already.

Rebecca kept adding more elements to the wedding episode to answer all the concerns, but she didn't want to back down from explicit marriage between these characters. They deserved it. And the audience deserved to see this as wholesome, like any other cartoon wedding. Eventually they got their way and were allowed to have the wedding. But the ordered episodes were also coming to a close without promise of more, so Rebecca had to request more episodes to be able to wrap up the storyline!

And of course, there is Steven, the true heart of the team. A very interesting aside discusses Garnet's leadership and how the network pushed the Crewniverse to acknowledge Steven as the leader. This was successfully resisted throughout as well--because Garnet is the leader (unless she's incapacitated, of course). It's fantastic that this concept was preserved because too often a young male chosen one is elevated above people with more experience and knowledge because of that chosen one tradition, so it's really nice to have a show acknowledge that team leadership is more appropriate for an adult.

4. ERA 3

Beginning with a discussion of the Diamonds, this chapter deconstructs the dysfunctional "family" of the Diamonds (who are said to be based on tropes about evil stepmothers and stepsisters), with the thread of dysfunction originating with White Diamond.

Yellow is physical, Blue is emotional, White is judgmental, and Pink is impulsive. Some philosophy on why Pink is naturally manipulative and why she clashes so much with White is offered.

White believes her identity is to be imposed on all because she is the pinnacle of what should be--and therefore, she has the right to make decisions and statements about and on behalf of everyone. But her secret is that she can't do what the others do--act or feel or want. In trying to be everyone, she is no one.

And this becomes very important when she confronts Steven about his identity and turns out to be wrong. The triumph of Steven being totally, fully himself is a beautiful, simple revelation that's described as far more satisfying than the theories about Pink living inside him or Rose returning from his Gem.

Also discussed is Gem architecture. A lot went into this idea, and Steven Sugar weighs in to say he had to think of what it would mean for a world to have buildings but serve no human needs. That's why it's mostly focused on transport and storage. Even the broken planet is meant to indicate a place stripped for its resources, and everything serves a function that is meant to avoid looking like the human equivalents.

And there's another layer, too: a difference between Era 1 and Era 2. Era 2 became more functional to hide Era 1's broken bits, and older Homeworld buildings still have some "ornate and ancient" feel to them. And the fact that props, tools, and even walls and doors could be living was taken from a concept Rebecca thought was horrible from old Busby Berkeley movies, where people were inanimate objects and it was portrayed as lovely. Tom Herpich helped conceptualize these living objects.

Steven dealing with "princess tropes" is discussed here too. The Pebbles (worked on with Pendleton Ward) were sort of his Cinderella's mice, and all the locked-in-a-tower, having supportive tiny friends help you, getting princess clothes made, attending a ball, having to mind your manners stuff was intentionally related to fairy tales.

The point of doing that (besides fun) was to easily invoke the feeling that Steven was being made to be someone he's not, and that he was being treated like THIS is who he really is when it isn't. White Diamond as the "evil stepmother" is discussed with regard to her detailed features and massive scale. They generally didn't put fingernails and eyelashes on characters (especially not to indicate that they were women or girls!), but they decided White would get all of these feminine markers for tradition's sake.

Rebecca also invokes several other references that were included and describes the princess tropes as "chipping away at his integrity" setting him up for the final challenge with White.

There is again tons of concept art: Homeworld architecture, Pebbles, Diamond diagrams, background Jades and Lemon Jade Fusion, Comby, Diamond extraction chambers, and White Diamond.

5. CHANGE YOUR MIND

Now we finally begin to discuss Steven's identity. The "Perfect Steven," discussed in several interviews before this book's release, was an idea back in 2013; the "ultimate Steven," beefed up and shonen-looking, was far from perfect because OUR Steven is perfect, while this alpha hero Steven idea (used in Steven Universe Future) didn't belong being idolized in such a show.

They thought about having Steven fall apart into organic half and Gem half early in the show (during "Giant Woman" after a successful fusion and unfusion, even!), but they didn't try the concept until the last episode. They didn't want the "Pink" Steven to be portrayed as "better" even though he would be more powerful, so they decided he isn't whole without his organic self and he's just as much of a shell as the organic half. They absolutely did not want any ending that required Rose to be inside him or waiting to come back. But the debates were fierce--what DOES it mean to have Rose's Gem?

Ian Jones-Quartey brings in an anecdote about his own family to emphasize some of the immigrant themes that inspired aspects of the show. He had a brother who reinvented himself elsewhere away from family without resolving issues, and all the ramifications of that were explored in the show through Rose Quartz. (He is careful to say he doesn't think his immigrant experience is like being from another planet!) But he did say you can hurt your old family even if they were toxic or didn't know the real you, and you can hurt your new family by hiding your past. The Pizza family of course was also a more direct reference to Ian's Ghanaian family.

In talking about the new Fusions from this episode, Sunstone is largely described by Miki, who also got to board the Sunstone section. Sunstone was described as a cool 1990s character and the evolution just continued into making them a fourth-wall-breaking PSA dispenser. Obsidian is also discussed, with their sword being an early concept. Steven Sugar said they totally knew it would be forged in action. Obsidian being similar to the Temple design is of course another very early detail.

The story of how James Baxter got involved with one of the final scenes (Organic Steven and Pink Steven fusing in front of White Diamond) was shared. His family was fans of the show and Rebecca Sugar took the time to drive to a birthday party for his daughter and give her a drawing. He then owed her a favor, and this was it.

Concept art is again included, this time with sample boards, promo images, a Diamond fight concept, costume design changes for the Gems, new Fusions, the so-called "Mega Diamond" ship conglomerate, some scenes from the White Diamond confrontation, Pink Steven, multiple pages of James Baxter animation, corrupted Gems and their healed selves, and photos from the "Change Your Mind" premiere and some awards. The show has won one design-related Emmy, a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD award.

6. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE

The book doesn't cover the movie because it got its own book, but dives right into Future. Ian Jones-Quartey emphasizes that the movie and Future are separate and different from the original show, which ENDED. After all, after that, Steven has a neck!

Some new names are invoked now: new writers Kate Tsang, Jack Pendarvis, and Taneka Stotts. They were excited to have Steven make HIS OWN mistakes instead of trying to clean up someone else's! Now, instead of doing the usual shonen anime thing and having the final battle be a big physical rumble, Steven has to make peace with himself and take an active role in coping with what all the fighting has done to him and what effect it's had on who he is (and who he wants to be). There is no sudden "I love myself!" answer, either. It's always a process.

Drew Green and Maya Petersen, who came on board as storyboarders officially in Future, also weighed in on writing for a "mature" show, how to deal with Steven being a "moral compass" while being sort of unreliable, and what they learned as Crew that they didn't know as fans. Drew didn't know Garnet never asks questions. Jack didn't realize the show never deviated from Steven's point of view. Taneka was nervous but excited to collaborate. Kate was worried about how established the show was and what to do as a new writer to contribute appropriately.

Maya was on the old Crew but not as a storyboarder, so felt like some of the "old" ideas ended up not being appropriate for the "new" Future in an embarrassing way--and dreaded the idea of dealing with Steven's emotional problems when they were similar to stuff she'd been through. She also was personally behind the idea of Steven wanting to dump his problems by becoming Stevonnie, and got to work with Etienne Guignard on inventing the Pearl creation backstory with Volleyball.

There's some discussion of "depression hobbies," stress, and the show's pacing. And they say Etienne was entertaining at pitches. There's even some discussion of how Greg is taken off a bit of a pedestal because his terrible restrictive life in the suburbs sounded wholesome to Steven and Greg presented it negatively.

And then there is some information about how the Crew felt behind the scenes due to fan reactions and negative press. Ian discusses feeling offended when the Black characters are described as bad examples, as if their cartoonized but realistic-in-context features are automatically caricatures.

Rebecca Sugar felt beaten down by some of these narratives and began to access mental health services, inspiring some of the content of "Mindful Education." A long reflection from Rebecca discusses people's infighting about her show and what she had a responsibility to show or not show in the story. She learned a lot about bullying from Cartoon Network's anti-bullying program and learned that bullies thrive on whatever attention you give them--unless it is made clear to them by a peer group that no one is impressed by their cruel actions. Also, not all negative feedback is bullying. Constructive criticism is different. Self-awareness can help you avoid internalizing what bullies might do or say to you.

Segueing from the discussion of how people are affected by and connect with the show, we then discuss how they chose as a team what should be covered as the show came to a close. They didn't have time to do quite a few stories they wanted time for, like a Rhodonite story, a Lars side story, and Diamond "prehistory" and religion; all of it was put aside for the main arc with Steven.

They thought people would find those stories about Homeworld and Off Color history very interesting, but so much of the show had been about Steven's Gem adventures, so keeping him mostly on Earth seemed appropriate. The acknowledgment of his battle damage, of his trauma, was necessary and real, and helpful in an important way to the core audience.

Oh, and there was some stuff about a cheeseburger tree. Don't ask.

In discussing the "reverse escapism" of the original show (Gem aliens are intrigued by everyday human culture, and realism is necessary), Rebecca says her views have changed on escapism and gets why some people want a soothing feel-better show. She acknowledged also that her own escapist dreams-come-true fulfilled in the show didn't feel like escapism because they were givens to the majority of mainstream culture, but were never guaranteed to marginalized people.

Rebecca ties in her several-times-told story about "Love Like You" and how the middle bit was when she didn't feel she was worth looking up to, and the realizations she had to tie the beginning to the end. Feeling like someone will like you less if they know you more is terrible. So sometimes a show like this can be helpful in telling people that they belong when their fantasies are things like "I want to be loved" and "I want to know I exist."

In Future, Steven has to connect to who he is and love that person--and understand that person enough to finally feel that even if he's not fixing their problems or saving their world right this second, Steven deserves his family's love and support, and they WANT to give it to him.

There's a huge amount of supplemental material in this section so there's no way I could name it all. The charts for Future's timeline are pretty straightforward, though a few episodes like "A Very Special Episode," "Why So Blue," "In Dreams," and "Bismuth Casual" aren't specifically represented and a couple are in a different order ("Prickly Pair" was conceived as happening after "Fragments" and "Homeworld Bound").

Steven feeling like a monster, having intrusive thoughts, having not forgiven the Diamonds, and getting help/moving on--it's all there.

We have keys, color scripts, and boards for the new opening and some various backgrounds and storyboard art from episodes. Model sheets for Shep, Nice Lapis and Mean Lapis, Jasper, Steven Tag Gems, Pink Steven Powers, Monster Steven. New house concepts, Era 3 Homeworld concept art for the Diamond environments, and background art for the Reef.

New Connie and Greg designs. Concepts for Mega Pearl, the Rose Quartzes, Bluebird, and Morganite (who didn't get used). And there are some photos from recording and the conference room. There are even some extras from "Crossover Nexus," the crossover with OK K.O.!--including an unused cut scene that included Ruby and Sapphire fighting. The rest of the book is a bunch of adorable Crewniverse art--extras, blog drawings, promos, and gifts to each other.

NOTABLE

1.

The first timeline chart in the book features a cool sketch of the original Off Colors, which at the time this planning document was drafted included unused Off Colors Flint and Chert.

We knew of their existence already because of an episode of the podcast, but these two unexpectedly appeared as incidental characters in the Steven Universe Future episode "Homeworld Bound," identified only in the credits. Sad to think that instead of banding with the Off Colors, these two were probably shattered for their crime (being Quartzes who don't want to fight) and that's why we see them being repaired in this episode. Later, there's some brainstorming for types of Off Colors and "a Ruby that wants to wear limb enhancers" is mentioned as well.

2. 

It looks like there was also originally more juice to the story of tracking down the events of the war culminating in Pink Diamond's assassination.

One of the timelines talks about Steven thinking it makes sense that Pearl can't talk about her involvement because she might have been a double agent, explaining why Rose Quartz always knew what Pink Diamond was doing. It seems like that bit was supposed to be included in Garnet's version of the story she believed in "Your Mother and Mine." Seems like they originally conceived Garnet's story to inspire the Off Colors to become pirates and freedom fighters, though in the show's canon this storytelling happened after Lars had already reinvented himself the way he did.

Sadie was also supposed to be sending letters to Lars via Steven, which is funny since the "Letters to Lars" episode is just a montage Steven letter. And of course it's specified that Steven was supposed to get Pink Diamond flashbacks by going to the Palace on Homeworld.

3. 

The second chart in the book makes references to Sadie's reinvention of herself as a parallel to Lars, Greg, and Pink Diamond all doing the same thing, and how positive it is to embrace such a thing--a version of yourself that YOU create.

I love that Yellow Diamond's arm ship arm-wrestling the Cluster was always part of the plan.

There's some more explicit direction to have Connie help Steven understand the Diamonds as "strict parents," and a lot more emphasis on everyone realizing Rose had been inspired by THEM rather than them all following her.

White Diamond is presented here as if she thinks of Pink Diamond as a "daughter" (whom she now understands she has "lost"). There are notes on how the Diamonds have a responsibility to their children and should attend to it before just continuing to make more.

4.

One of the concept art images for the Off Colors features Rhodonite crouching by Padparadscha saying "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." It's very interesting because she DOES seem to protect Padparadscha in the show, but doesn't seem confident about it in her final version, even though it does seem like she'd be "programmed" to guard aristocratic Gems because of her Ruby and Pearl makeup. Cool.

5.

A "Crew Cameos" spread was included, which is of great interest to some of us who loved seeing the Crew insert themselves into the show. Not every SU Crew person who's been represented in a crowd was there, but this crowd included Amish Kumar, Kat Morris, Amanda Winterstein, Angie Wang, Lamar Abrams, Emily Walus, Mary Nash, Joe Johnston, Christy Cohen, Danny Cragg, Hilary Florido, Danny Hynes, Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Elle Michalka.

6.

The official national flower of South Korea, Hibiscus syriacus, is the name of Pink Diamond's flower.

7.

One of Steven Sugar's comments about the silhouette difference between humans and Gems points out that humans have ears. This seems to be pretty good confirmation that they are not supposed to have ears, despite that sometimes we'll see ears drawn on them in some frames.

8.

Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is characterized in this book as "self-hating" in a really interesting way, saying that because she believed she was not capable of compassion, she practically worshiped those who demonstrated that ability and thought they were so much better than her--which is described as "intoxicating" and resulted in others being drawn to her. How interesting is that!

9.

Timelines reveal that early plans for Pink Diamond's first Pearl originally had her getting destroyed by Pink during  a game, and then her destruction was rewritten as a punishment from the Diamonds after Pink Pearl defended Pink Diamond to the other Diamonds. They went back to the idea of her getting hurt by Pink for the final version, though the cracked face and control by White Diamond was not on the agenda until they started writing "Change Your Mind."

10.

The approximate ages of the major characters, based on emergence, are revealed on these timelines. It begins with a cracked-planet-looking graphic depicting four tiny Diamonds emerging at 20,000 years ago. Some suspicious "blacked out" redacting surrounds a long timeline tail that goes back before that, which may mean there are secrets they still don't want to reveal. But the dates go like this:

20,000 years ago: The Diamonds emerge.

11,000 years ago: Pearl is custom-made for Pink Diamond.

8,000 years ago: Sapphire emerges (on Homeworld).

6,000 years ago: Ruby emerges (on a colony).

5,750 years ago: Garnet is formed.

5,600 years ago: Lapis is poofed and put in the mirror.

5,200 years ago: Jasper emerges (on Earth).

5,050 years ago: The Cluster is planted.

5,000 years ago: Amethyst emerges (on Earth).

4,500 years ago: The Crystal Gems found Amethyst.

3,000 years ago: Peridot emerges (on Homeworld).

40 years ago: Pearl found Lapis's mirror at the Galaxy Warp.

And of course we know 14 years ago Steven is born!

11.

Originally the Diamonds were based on a quartet of themes: Love, Fear, Pride, and Sorrow. It got too complicated to keep and it was abandoned, with Pink's identification of "love" being described as "particularly outdated."

12.

Notes on a sketch say that Pearl was inspired to become bold and unashamed because Pink's questions drove her to have opinions, and it's said that Rose "fell in love" with her boldness.

13.

Rebecca tells the story of driving off a ridge and getting stuck in the desert, comparing this to Ruby's tumble during her Wild West adventure and using it as inspiration. She's told this story before but here it is in print. She also included the story about using the flowers from a friend's wedding to put in Ruby's hair.

14.

Rebecca describes having to "fight" notes she was given when it had to do with Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. One she describes as NOT fighting was for a signing card depicting Ruby and Sapphire dancing. It was called "too romantic" and she decided not to worry about it since it wasn't the actual show content.

She was also scolded over her book The Answer because the powers that be expected her to downplay that relationship. She always argued that queer youth deserved these things.

15.

Tom Herpich describes being inspired to name Blue Diamond's comb "Comby" because he was watching the news about Comey getting fired from the FBI. It's also a mineral-related term and I always assumed that reference was intentional, but maybe it's not and this is the only intended significance to Comby's name?

16.

Rainbow Quartz 2.0's design is not discussed, though the other two new Fusions from "Change Your Mind" (Sunstone and Obsidian) were. RQ2 has some sketches included, but no accompanying narrative in the text.

17.

A sheet of corrupted Gems and their healed selves is offered, though it doesn't appear to be final. The obelisk in "Serious Steven" is labeled Albite. The unnamed Worm Monster, Desert Glass, and Watermelon Tourmaline are included. An unnamed birdlike Gem represents the Big Bird monster from "Giant Woman." The crab monster from "Arcade Mania" is labeled Blue Chalcedony. The Tongue Monster is drawn uncorrupted but not named. The Flower Monster from "Back to the Kindergarten" is labeled Grossular Diopside or Titanite. The invisible monster from "Island Adventure" is labeled Moonstone. The Lighthouse Gem is labeled White Topaz. A form for Larimar that was used in "Change Your Mind" but changed in Future is there. The Slinker is listed as Chrysocolla. And the Crab Monster is listed as Aventurine.

On the next page, this is changed to Bixbite (as it was in Steven Universe Future), and we then also have Lace Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Crazy Lace Agate (Fusion), Ocean Jasper, the Mother Centipeetle Nephrite (Facet 413 Cabochon 12) and three other Nephrites, Angel Aura Quartz, a hooded Jasper, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Watermelon Tourmaline (labeled as Fusion of Gem * Onion--huh?), Snowflake Obsidian, "Little" Larimar, and Orange Spodumene (who was the Worm).

18.

The Rhodonite side story would have been about the love story of a Ruby and a Pearl working for Morganite. Images of Morganite and her servants, unfused, are in the book. We do not get this additional information, but Rebecca said in a panel shortly before the book's release that Rhodonite's story would have been about finding out that she had been Rejuvenated 17 times because her components kept falling in love and needing to be reset.

19.

Referring to the Diamonds on one of the charts, Steven's perspective is "I can't believe I helped these" and then there's a censor bar. Welp.

20.

Some included art by Hilary Florido features Kevin with a souped-up Koala Princess car and another where Kevin is staring at himself in the mirror in front of an altar to himself.

21.

Rebecca's sweater collection is included in the Crew art.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[with-my-murder-flute]

Hi everybody, thanks for the asks letting me know I made the top of @yusuftiddies’ list of Homophobes in TOG Fandom, you can stop sending them now.

So.

I can make mistakes and fuck up and own that. I am serious about listening to marginalized people. But... in this case, while @yusufstiddies generally describes factual events that happened and factual posts that exist, I have to say that I can’t actually apologize for the things I’m called out for because I don’t think they’re homophobic. The things he criticizes me for are things that come from a lot of personal experience as a queer bisexual cis woman, as well as a lot of reflection, research, and study. I believe in them really strongly and stand by them.

I’m really sorry if this makes TOG fandom too hostile, because it is not my intention to make this place so unpleasant that anyone feels driven out. I understand if my stance means people no longer want to follow me/read my stuff/participate in projects I’m involved with (though I’d rather hand off the Research Hub to someone else than see it go down with me). I’m posting this so people can know where they stand before they decide whether to keep interacting with my blog, or “deplatform” me as @yusufstiddies recommends.

I would recommend, for anyone who doesn’t want to see my posts, using Tumblr’s new post content filtering feature. If you type a username (like star-anise or with-my-murder-flute) into it, Tumblr will hide all posts featuring that specific string of characters, and therefore any post or reblog of mine.

To address the accusations against me:

I am an anti-anti: Yes. I’ve reblogged posts of mine about this before. I care passionately about preventing child abuse, but I think there are better ways to prevent child abuse in fandom (like concrete harassment policies so predatory behaviour can be reported and stopped early, and education about digital consent and healthy relationships) than attacking people who write “bad ships,” not least because the first people it hurts are abuse survivors trying to work through their trauma, and because the research says you cannot actually tell who’s a sexual predator based on what they write about.  Fiction affects reality, but not on a 1:1 basis. My mainblog, @star-anise, has a really extensive archive of my writing on the subject.

I said cishet men aren’t more privileged than gay men: Kinda. What I actually did was question whether Every Single Cishet Man benefits from more privilege than Every Single Gay Man. If a man is cishet but gets beaten up because people perceive him as gay, he’s not exactly feeling the warm toasty glow of heterosexual privilege in that moment. Oppression is complicated and there are times when someone’s lack of privilege on one axis is way less important than someone else’s lack of privilege on another axis.

The post above also includes me reblogging someone else’s addition about how straight men can be included in the queer movement: I’m queer. @yusufstiddies has made it very clear that he isn’t comfortable with the word “queer” and doesn’t like it. Therefore I think it’s understandable that he might not understand that the queer community sees ourselves as a coalition of people dedicated to dismantling the structures of sex and gender that oppress us, not a demographic of people whose gender identities or sexual orientations can be neatly mapped. However, I would say that doesn’t make queer theory inherently homophobic.

There are also some related points @yusufstiddies didn’t level at me specifically, but I would like to address:

The constant focus on the unsafeness of cishet people:

I’m not cishet. I’m a bisexual woman who’s dated women. Sixth-light is a queer woman married to a woman. This is not an issue of non-LGBTQ+ people blundering their way into something they don’t experience the daily consequences of. This is an issue of people from WITHIN the LGBTQ+ community who sincerely disagree with @yusufstiddies about the pressures we experience and how best to deal with them. I think that even if @yusufstiddies were to filter his fiction input to only LGBT-written work about LGBT experiences, or even only trans-written work about trans people, he would still find a lot of things he finds upsetting or transphobic, because sexual and gender identities are really diverse and not everything will suit one person.

The contention that saying “’Queer is a slur’ is TERF propaganda” is transmisogyny because it dilutes the definition of “TERF”:

People who point out the phrase is TERF propaganda are not calling every person who says it a TERF, and we are not trying to argue that telling a queer person that queer is a slur is inherently equal to the kind of damage a TERF does when she attacks a trans woman out of transphobia. Queer people being able to use the word “queer” does not have the same importance as trans women being able to live, work, and survive in public. Rather, we are literally saying, “This is a thing TERFs say when they take a break from attacking trans women and try to recruit new members to their group, so it’s in our best interests to not give it too wide a currency.”

Some people have experienced the word “queer” used as a hateful word hurled against them and don’t want to hear it ever again. I get that. It happens. Where I grew up, “gay” was a synonym for “shitty” and it took me a lot of years out of high school before the word “gay” wouldn’t shoot my blood pressure through the roof.  I actually do understand that and think that’s valid (and again, support using post content filtering for that word).

One of the things I do at @star-anise is argue with young people who are headed into full-on transmisogynistic TERF territory, and work at reeling them back and deradicalizing them. I use a tag called “weedwhacking” so my followers can filter out the sometimes lengthy back-and-forths we get going.

Something I’ve learned, interacting with so many TERFs and proto-TERFs, is that one way they frequently get recruited into harassing trans people was through discourse around the word “queer”. For one, it encouraged them to want to distance themselves from any perception of LGBT people as “weird” or “not normal”, which led to seeing trans people as “weird” and “not normal” and therefore not good members of the “gay pride” community. For two, repeating “queer is a slur” predictably causes a lot of queer people to react in a defensive manner, so by teaching young or new people to say it, TERFs can set them up to feel alienated from the larger LGBTQ+ community and more open to TERF propaganda.

The next issue isn’t mentioned in the original callout post, but I think it’s key to this entire issue:

@yusufstiddies has made several posts about what cishet people should and shouldn’t write. For example, cishets shouldn’t write Nicky experiencing internalized homophobia.  Another is a detailed post of things cishets shouldn’t write about trans people, including which sexual positions only trans people are allowed to write. I would imagine that part of his frustration with fandom has been the lack of traction those posts have gotten. I know I very deliberately didn’t reblog them.

That isn’t because I don’t agree that the things he complains about are rarely handled well by cishet authors. I agree that there’s a lot of bad fic out there that contributes to negative stereotypes against LGBTQ+ people and is basically a microaggression to read.

I have two very deeply-seated reasons for my position:

LGBTQ+ identities are different from many other political identities because most people are not born identifiably LGBTQ+. It’s something we have to figure out about ourselves. And one really important way that we do that is using the safety of fiction to explore what an experience would be like, sometimes years before we ever admit that we fit the identity we’ve written about. So banning cishet authors from writing something is really likely to harm closeted and questioning LGBTQ+ people. It will lengthen the amount of time questioning people take before finding the identity that really fits them, and force closeted people to be even more closeted. 

There’s a lot of undeniably shitty stuff in fandom. However, I fundamentally believe that trying to target the people creating it and forcing them to stop doesn’t work very well, and has the serious byproduct of killing the creativity and enthusiasm of the rest of fandom and resulting in less of the actual thing you like being produced. I think that it is infinitely more productive to focus on improving the ratio of good stuff in fandom than trying to snuff out every bad thing.

Like I said: I understand if this means former followers, mutuals, or friends no longer want to interact with me. I’ll be saddened, but I’ve obviously chosen this path and can deal with the consequences. 

I wish this could have worked out differently.

[fierceautie]

Kanye's Antisemitism Didn't Start With that Tweet

Kanye West has been antisemitic for a long time. It did not come to light, to me anyway because I am not up to date with celebrity news, until this tweet made the news. I dug deeper after seeing this and saw it has been going on for a while. I knew who he was but I did not normally pay attention to his antics. Kanye West made an extremely antisemitic tweet that said,"I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I', going dealth con on JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone who opposes your agenda." At least West was locked out of his Instagram and Twitter accounts due to this goyish meshugaas (non Jewish nonsense). He tweeted one antisemetic tweet after another. The post that this was referencing was also antisemitic. It was a text exchange between West and Diddy that was posted on Instagram. West told him,"Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influene me. I told you this was war." In response to his accounts being suspended, he tweeted,"Who do you think invented cancel culture?" He is refencing Mark Zuckerburg being Jewish and that Jews invented "cancel culture." He forgot one thing, Twitter and Facebook are not owned by the same people. West's Antisemitism Isn't Just Recent In a 2013 radio interview with New York City's Hip Hop and R &B station Power 105.1 FM, West attempted to explain President Barrack Obama's inablilty to gain momentum on his policy priorities in Washington, DC with the statement that,"Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people." Abraham H. Foxman, the director of the Anti Defamation League said,"If the comments are true as reported, this is classic anti-semitism. There it goes again, the age old connard that Jews are all powerful and control the levers of power in government. As a celebrity with a wide following, Kanye West should know better. We hope that he will take responsibiloty for his words, understand why they are so offensive, and apologize to those he has offended." West's full quote was, "Man, let me tell you about George Bush and oil money and Obama and no money. People want to say Obama can't make these moves or that he's not executing. that's because he ain't got those connctions. Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black People don't have the same connection as oil people." Unaired Tucker Carlson Interview He made several antisemitic comments and talked about "fake children" invading his home until unaired portions of his Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson were leaked. He perpetuated several antisemitic conspiracy theories in this interview. "Planned Parenthood was made by Margeret Sanger, a know eugenics, with the KKK to control the Jew population," He told Carlson. "When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are. This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn6PTWBXmpU&feature=emb_title Sanger who was the founder of Planned Parenthood was a known supporter of eugenics. Planned Parenthood denounced Sanger for her belief in eugenics. West's claim about the "Jew population" references the antisemitic Radical Hebrew Israelites. This hate group claims that Jews are "imposters or thieves" and have stolen the identity and birthright of the "true Israelites." Who are the Radical Hebrew Israelities? The Radical Hebrew Israelities use similarities between Jews and other marginalized groups as a foundation for antisemitic beliefs. THey appropriate Jewish heritage to claim exclusive identity as the true chosen people of G-d and decry Jews as imposters and thieves. They seek dominance and not equity and strict adherence to biblical literalism to legitimize their ideology. They spread their beliefs through street preaching, often harassing people, provoking and shaming any non-Israelite and those of their own community that doesn't follow their beliefs. This can be queer people of color within their communities. The Radical Hebrew Israelites have a definite abhorrence of relationships between "Israelites" and white people as they relate them to the devil. This furthers the marginalization but it also parallels the toxic power structures that are common in the far right. References Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories The conspiracy theory is that Jewish people control financial institutions when discussing winter holidays that were celebrated at his children's school. "My kids are going to a school that teaches Black kids complicated Kwanzaa," West said. "I prefer my kids knew Hannukah than Kwanzaa. At least it would come with some financial engineering." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soG7t2OU8ms Uses a Strange Metaphore about Jews West used a strange metaphore when talking about Black people judging one another,"This about judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something. I mean, that's probably a bad example and people are going to get mad at that shit. I probably want to edit that out." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqwOb-cPyLE After These Antisemitic Comments, West Was Invited to Holocaust Museum Kanye West was invited to the Holocasut Museum in Los Angeles to learn about the dangers of hateful and antisemitic rhetoric. They did this because they wanted to educate him on how dangerous his words are. This is a very Jewish thing to do. Education will cure ignorance in some situations. In a statement from the Holocaust Museum in LA,"Words matter and words have consequences Ye. We urge you to come visit us at Holocaust Museum LA to understand just how words can incite horrific violence and genocides. "The Holocaust started with only words that sadly begat stereotypes, racial and religious tropes and blaming others and led to the murder of six million Jews. "At Holocaust Museum LA it is our mission to commemorate those who were murdered, educate on the Holocaust and all genocides including the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian People (of which your children would be included), and inspire a more dignified and humane world. "Your words reach millions and you can choose to incite or you can choose to inspire. We are located at 100 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036 and welcome you any time." I hope he takes them up on their offer but I am doubtful. Sources: https://www.insidenova.com/lifestyles/entertainment/kanye-west-invited-to-holocaust-museum-after-antisemitic-posts/article_c78268bb-ed90-5edc-b273-220dd408396f.html https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/kanye-west-says-black-people-dont-have-connections-like-jews-fueling-classic https://www.xxlmag.com/kanye-west-war-diddy-texts/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad77y/kanye-west-tucker-carlson-leaked-footage-antisemitism-fake-children https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/radical-hebrew-israelites https://www.npr.org/2022/10/09/1127732183/kanye-west-instagram-twitter https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3683507-in-unaired-portions-of-tucker-carlson-interview-ye-made-antisemitic-remarks-spoke-of-fake-children-infiltrating-his-home/ Read the full article

[socialjusticeinamerica]

I post somewhat regularly about current trans issues and these articles get the lowest number of likes and reblogs of anything I put up. It’s almost like nobody cares. Things will never improve for anyone if we only concern ourselves with our own micro-causes. We’re waging a war for the soul of this country and we need to focus on the big picture. These attacks are increasing because of the sudden wave of trans-phobic hate inspired by Republikkkan state legislatures introducing a tidal wave of anti-trans bills.

If we don’t resist all the Republikkkan attacks we will be fractured and will be under the boot of another fascist Trump. One that is more zealous and competent. BLM is the tip of the iceberg. We must end the hatred of all marginalized people. We must stand up for people of color, all lgbt, undocumented and documented immigrants, religious minorities, atheist and agnostic minorities, the elderly, the poor, the disabled and chronically ill, the traumatized veterans, victims and families of gun violence, the disenfranchised, victims of police brutality, victims of minimum wage and wage theft, the homeless, those suffering from gender inequality, and so many more that aren’t listed.

You can nitpick this, ignore it, or continue to focus on just your cause. I’m hoping more people see the big picture and stand together to support all marginalized people and all social justice causes. Privilege isn’t always literal. For example just because many cops are racists and disproportionately shoot African-Americans doesn’t mean they don’t shoot white folk as well. They do and in shockingly large numbers, it’s a matter of percentages and perceptions. I support BLM 100% and you should as well, but remember, if the cops/racists/Republikkkans/corporations can get away with targeting one group today you can expect them to go after another next until you have a domino effect where nobody is safe, which many are already starting to realize.

It’s impossible to please or even placate all the tumblr communities, seems like someone is always disgruntled, offended, or disenchanted for whatever reason. Odds are if you’re reading this you have a sense of how the billionaire/corporate class is using the Republikkkans against nearly everything most of us stand for. They are a numerical minority and rely on a poorly educated, and mostly bigoted base, located mainly in the south but spreading into the southwest and lower Midwest. We’re only human and it’s natural for us to have some disagreements and dislikes but we’re mainly progressives and decent people. We must RESIST as a block and lookout for everyone. There is strength in unity. Billionaires have unlimited dark money and they fund hundreds of foundations which spread their message of corruption, hatred, and discrimination. They have purchased an entire political party and now have three cable propaganda outlets (Fox, OAN, & Newsmax). They own most of the talk radio stations in the country and buy huge blocks of time on most of the others. This is their gateway drug for radicalization of right-wingers. Thousands of internet sites bolster their message and hundreds of print and publishing outlets further their agenda. They spend billions per year to oppress us and have thousands of employees spreading propaganda and radicalizing recruits 24/7/365. Meanwhile the Dems have a handful of progressive politicians begging for grass roots donations.

BOTH parties are not the same. The Republikkkans are a well oiled machine with unlimited resources, tens of thousands of worker bees, and cutting edge technology. They have hundreds of lawyers and academics working in far right think tanks to write state and federal legislation for their minions to pass to disenfranchise and oppress us. The Dems are the proverbial blind men feeling the elephant. They are completely lacking a national structure and cohesive agenda. As a whole they are working for us but are years behind in structure and funding.

We are the numerical majority! We must resist at every level and every opportunity and we must do it together. We must protect the small number of trans, force an end to the police violence that plagues the African-American community, and show the same zeal for ending the epidemic of gun violence that could take anyone of us at anytime. If we can bring the same mass participation enthusiasm we have for some causes to all causes we can prevail and have the modern progressive nation we deserve. I’m not trying to be preachy, self-righteous, or a common know-it-all. We have the numbers and the momentum. Let’s use it. Ousting Trump was only the beginning. The Republikkkan empire is striking back hard and historically the party that loses the White House tends to take the Congress in the mid-terms. Do you want to lose our power to Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and all their heinous minions?

[valkyriesquad]

How do you deal with the constant conflict of Pagan-Heathen groups? I feel so utterly demoralised by how unrelentingly chaotic literally every Pagan group I’ve ever been a part of is. Current politics + long-needed reckonings with Heathenism's own complicity in far right abuse have amplified discourse tenfold. I support discourse. Discourse is necessary to world-wide justice and self-improvement, especially for Euro Pagans. But it also seems to lead to members dropping like flies and those who remain are often bitterly cynical of “new” people. How do you cope? How may I cope?

This ask has white supremacist dog whistles in it, but should be answered anyway. I am going to assume that the greyface asking is unaware of them and does not mean anything by them, or that character limits had a role to play.

Me, personally?

I don't join groups. I don't have the time, energy, or patience to deal with the bullshit, for the most part.

That said, there are a number of very informal groups of people whose general philosophy is "you do you over there and I do me over here and we'll get along just fine" whose members are in a constant state of flux, but end up with a main core group who just kind of sit back and watch what happens. On the rare occasion one of us will step up to another and say "this person you've brought in, or this group of people (within the group) really needs to be put in check" and it will happen, but that's rare.

It also may surprise you to find out that I support the cynical approach to new people. I approach each possible new member of my wee group of friends with extreme caution, and would encourage other people to do the same. It's difficult to figure out whether a person is interested in a particular religion because of their family background, political leanings, a calling from the deities involved, or a combination of these things. Or maybe just curiosity from hearing some of the terms from said religion in daily life. But if you don't know whether they are there to engage in white supremacy and push those tactics further, it's best to be cautious.

That said, as a newcomer, please be patient. If you're serious about wanting to take part in a religion, and want to be a part of the groups involved, it will take time. Especially when there is historical precedent for existing members to be cautious. You will have to prove over and over and over again that there is no malicious intent, that you will not knowingly harm any of the marginalized people involved, and your willingness to improve yourself to avoid harming those people before you will be accepted. It is disheartening, but is necessary for the safety of the group as a whole.

As far as "the discourse"... Well, that's a touchy one. It is necessary. Absolutely. But it's more than just "discourse" (at least in the derogatory way most people take the word).

It's also about accepting responsibility for the horrible things that are associated with these religions. It's about admitting that there is an association, and why, and where it came from - then using your own personal actions to try to change that image.

It really doesn't help much to argue. Arguing face to face with the people who continue to use these actions to their advantage and to push their own political agenda does not work. Many of them are trained in tactics designed to make the people who argue with them look like idiots, which only strengthens the walls of their little echo chambers. There are ways to get around this, by continuing to put out facts and refusing to engage in actual confrontation, but it's not something everyone can do. But honestly? It's been my personal experience that actually doing the work to be a kind an accepting person and putting in the effort to protect and help other people has gone much further than any type of argument.

So... How do I cope with it? By working in the background. Doing research. Sending emails. Being a voice for people who are either afraid to speak for themselves, or who are ignored because they're not "Euro" enough. I cope by accepting people for who they are - or cutting them out of my life as completely as possible, if they are causing harm.

How can you cope? I'm not sure. I don't know you, or who you are, or what you do, or how you operate. But I can encourage you to keep trying. Find your own small group, or practice by yourself. Find comfort in being the person you want to see in your religion, and the rest of everybody else can go hang if they don't like it. You'll figure out what you need eventually. It may just take time.