#Kristina opposition

[absent-o-minded]

This is the only way I can articulate how I feel rn:

[hehehereliesmysanity]

Seems familiar?

This sculpture group called Sacrifice by Leonardo Bistolfi (1911) and the picture above is a part of it. Here is what I have found about the art.

"The “Sacrifice” group, however, is made up of four allegorical figures: a slave, about to be freed from the chains that still hold him back, supports a dying brother in arms – the man of the Risorgimento, captured in his extreme, heroic act of sacrifice – as he receives a final kiss from the Genius of Freedom, a woman wearing a Phrygian cap, sitting on a Roman altar. The Family, represented by another female figure, helps hold the dying hero."

Phrygian cap: It is used in the coat of arms of certain republics or of republican state institutions in the place where otherwise a crown would be used (in the heraldry of monarchies). It thus came to be identified as a symbol of republican government.

"The work is carried by the brother of a hero who died in the events of the unification of Italy. It describes how he was sent off with the last kiss by his wife on the Roman altar."

"The Sacrifice is a soldier who, despite being close to death, continues to aspire to liberty. "

And we have this.

We have four figures, Simon, Wille, Erik and Kristina.

Wille is finally sending off his dead brother. I think it is in more than one sense. One: he is saying goodbye to his brother, who was a hero to him and maybe Simon is the one who opened his eyes with his comment. People aren’t perfect, and that includes siblings too.

That's the sacrifice Wille makes. Letting go of his perfect brother and with that, there comes my second point, he is saying goodbye to the monarchy as well because that was the only thread Wille was hanging on, trying to be the Crown Prince, to honor Erik. Monarchy keeps them chained and makes them slaves and it is not acceptable to live like that.

I believe the promo pic might be a shoutout to this sculpture. However, the positions in the sculpture and the photo is quite the opposite. On the left, we have the female figure and on the right, we have the brother. But with Wilmon, it is is vice versa. Maybe I am reaching here but that may be about breaking the traditions as well. So a different angle and breaking the norm is what we go with.

In one of the sources, it says the art depicts "the final kiss between The Genius of Liberty and a young soldier who is about to die." but i am not concerned about it. I think the Crown Prince Wille will be gone and we will have free Wille at the end.

It all screams abdication to me.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Sphinxmumps Linkdump

On THURSDAY (June 20) I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. On FRIDAY (June 21) I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On SATURDAY (June 22) I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

Welcome to my 20th Linkdump, in which I declare link bankruptcy and discharge my link-debts by telling you about all the open tabs I didn't get a chance to cover in this week's newsletters. Here's the previous 19 installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Starting off this week with a gorgeous book that is also one of my favorite books: Beehive's special slipcased edition of Dante's Inferno, as translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with new illustrations by UK linocut artist Sophy Hollington:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehivebooks/the-inferno

I've loved Inferno since middle-school, when I read the John Ciardi translation, principally because I'd just read Niven and Pournelle's weird (and politically odious) (but cracking) sf novel of the same name:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Niven_and_Pournelle_novel)

But also because Ciardi wrote "About Crows," one of my all-time favorite bits of doggerel, a poem that pierced my soul when I was 12 and continues to do so now that I'm 52, for completely opposite reasons (now there's a poem with staying power!):

https://spirituallythinking.blogspot.com/2011/10/about-crows-by-john-ciardi.html

Beehive has a well-deserved rep for making absolutely beautiful new editions of great public domain books, each with new illustrations and intros, all in matching livery to make a bookshelf look classy af. I have several of them and I've just ordered my copy of Inferno. How could I not? So looking forward to this, along with its intro by Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky and essay by Dante scholar Kristina Olson.

The Beehive editions show us how a rich public domain can be the soil from which new and inspiring creative works sprout. Any honest assessment of a creator's work must include the fact that creativity is a collective act, both inspired by and inspiring to other creators, past, present and future.

One of the distressing aspects of the debate over the exploitative grift of AI is that it's provoked a wave of copyright maximalism among otherwise thoughtful artists, despite the fact that a new copyright that lets you control model training will do nothing to prevent your boss from forcing you to sign over that right in your contracts, training an AI on your work, and then using the model as a pretext to erode your wages or fire your ass:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

Same goes for some privacy advocates, whose imaginations were cramped by the fact that the only regulation we enforce on the internet is copyright, causing them to forget that privacy rights can exist separate from the nonsensical prospect of "owning" facts about your life:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/

We should address AI's labor questions with labor rights, and we should address AI's privacy questions with privacy rights. You can tell that these are the approaches that would actually work for the public because our bosses hate these approaches and instead insist that the answer is just giving us more virtual property that we can sell to them, because they know they'll have a buyer's market that will let them scoop up all these rights at bargain prices and use the resulting hoards to torment, immiserate and pauperize us.

Take Clearview AI, a facial recognition tool created by eugenicists and white nationalists in order to help giant corporations and militarized, unaccountable cops hunt us by our faces:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/20/steal-your-face/#hoan-ton-that

Clearview scraped billions of images of our faces and shoveled them into their model. This led to a class action suit in Illinois, which boasts America's best biometric privacy law, under which Clearview owes tens of billions of dollars in statutory damages. Now, Clearview has offered a settlement that illustrates neatly the problem with making privacy into property that you can sell instead of a right that can't be violated: they're going to offer Illinoisians a small share of the company's stock:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/14/clearview_ai_reaches_creative_settlement/

To call this perverse is to go a grave injustice to good, hardworking perverts. The sums involved will be infinitesimal, and the only way to make those sums really count is for everyone in Illinois to root for Clearview to commit more grotesque privacy invasions of the rest of us to make its creepy, terrible product more valuable.

Worse still: by crafting a bespoke, one-off, forgiveness-oriented regulation specifically for Clearview, we ensure that it will continue, but that it will also never be disciplined by competitors. That is, rather than banning this kind of facial recognition tech, we grant them a monopoly over it, allowing them to charge all the traffic will bear.

We're in an extraordinary moment for both labor and privacy rights. Two of Biden's most powerful agency heads, Lina Khan and Rohit Chopra have made unprecedented use of their powers to create new national privacy regulations:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

In so doing, they're bypassing Congressional deadlock. Congress has not passed a new consumer privacy law since 1988, when they banned video-store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history to newspaper reporters:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

Congress hasn't given us a single law protecting American consumers from the digital era's all-out assault on our privacy. But between the agencies, state legislatures, and a growing coalition of groups demanding action on privacy, a new federal privacy law seems all but assured:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

When that happens, we're going to have to decide what to do about products created through mass-scale privacy violations, like Clearview AI – but also all of OpenAI's products, Google's AI, Facebook's AI, Microsoft's AI, and so on. Do we offer them a deal like the one Clearview's angling for in Illinois, fining them an affordable sum and grandfathering in the products they built by violating our rights?

Doing so would give these companies a permanent advantage, and the ongoing use of their products would continue to violate billions of peoples' privacy, billions of times per day. It would ensure that there was no market for privacy-preserving competitors thus enshrining privacy invasion as a permanent aspect of our technology and lives.

There's an alternative: "model disgorgement." "Disgorgement" is the legal term for forcing someone to cough up something they've stolen (for example, forcing an embezzler to give back the money). "Model disgorgement" can be a legal requirement to destroy models created illegally:

https://iapp.org/news/a/explaining-model-disgorgement

It's grounded in the idea that there's no known way to unscramble the AI eggs: once you train a model on data that shouldn't be in it, you can't untrain the model to get the private data out of it again. Model disgorgement doesn't insist that offending models be destroyed, but it shifts the burden of figuring out how to unscramble the AI omelet to the AI companies. If they can't figure out how to get the ill-gotten data out of the model, then they have to start over.

This framework aligns everyone's incentives. Unlike the Clearview approach – move fast, break things, attain an unassailable, permanent monopoly thanks to a grandfather exception – model disgorgement makes AI companies act with extreme care, because getting it wrong means going back to square one.

This is the kind of hard-nosed, public-interest-oriented rulemaking we're seeing from Biden's best anti-corporate enforcers. After decades kid-glove treatment that allowed companies like Microsoft, Equifax, Wells Fargo and Exxon commit ghastly crimes and then crime again another day, Biden's corporate cops are no longer treating the survival of massive, structurally important corporate criminals as a necessity.

It's been so long since anyone in the US government treated the corporate death penalty as a serious proposition that it can be hard to believe it's even happening, but boy is it happening. The DOJ Antitrust Division is seeking to break up Google, the largest tech company in the history of the world, and they are tipped to win:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

And that's one of the major suits against Google that Big G is losing. Another suit, jointly brought by the feds and dozens of state AGs, is just about to start, despite Google's failed attempt to get the suit dismissed:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-loses-bid-end-us-antitrust-case-over-digital-advertising-2024-06-14/

I'm a huge fan of the Biden antitrust enforcers, but that doesn't make me a huge fan of Biden. Even before Biden's disgraceful collaboration in genocide, I had plenty of reasons – old and new – to distrust him and deplore his politics. I'm not the only leftist who's struggling with the dilemma posed by the worst part of Biden's record in light of the coming election.

You've doubtless read the arguments (or rather, "arguments," since they all generate a lot more heat than light and I doubt whether any of them will convince anyone). But this week, Anand Giridharadas republished his 2020 interview with Noam Chomsky about Biden and electoral politics, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind:

https://the.ink/p/free-noam-chomsky-life-voting-biden-the-left

Chomsky contrasts the left position on politics with the liberal position. For leftists, Chomsky says, "real politics" are a matter of "constant activism." It's not a "laser-like focus on the quadrennial extravaganza" of national elections, after which you "go home and let your superiors take over."

For leftists, politics means working all the time, "and every once in a while there's an event called an election." This should command "10 or 15 minutes" of your attention before you get back to the real work.

This makes the voting decision more obvious and less fraught for Chomsky. There's "never been a greater difference" between the candidates, so leftists should go take 15 minutes, "push the lever, and go back to work."

Chomsky attributed the good parts of Biden's 2020 platform to being "hammered on by activists coming out of the Sanders movement and other." That's the real work, that hammering. That's "real politics."

For Chomsky, voting for Biden isn't support for Biden. It's "support for the activists who have been at work constantly, creating the background within the party in which the shifts took place, and who have followed Sanders in actually entering the campaign and influencing it. Support for them. Support for real politics."

Chomsky tells us that the self-described "masters of the universe" understand that something has changed: "the peasants are coming with their pitchforks." They have all kinds of euphemisms for this ("reputational risks") but the core here is a winner-take-all battle for the future of the planet and the species. That's why the even the "sensible" ultra-rich threw in for Trump in 2016 and 2020, and why they're backing him even harder in 2024:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckvvlv3lewxo

Chomsky tells us not to bother trying to figure out Biden's personality. Instead, we should focus on "how things get done." Biden won't do what's necessary to end genocide and preserve our habitable planet out of conviction, but he may do so out of necessity. Indeed, it doesn't matter how he feels about anything – what matters is what we can make him do.

Chomksy himself is in his 90s and his health is reportedly in terminal decline, so this is probably the only word we'll get from him on this issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/chomsky/comments/1aj56hj/updates_on_noams_health_from_his_longtime_mit/

The link between concentrated wealth, concentrated power, and the existential risks to our species and civilization is obvious – to me, at least. Any time a tiny minority holds unaccountable power, they will end up using it to harm everyone except themselves. I'm not the first one to take note of this – it used to be a commonplace in American politics.

Back in 1936, FDR gave a speech at the DNC, accepting their nomination for president. Unlike FDR's election night speech ("I welcome their hatred"), this speech has been largely forgotten, but it's a banger:

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/acceptance-speech-at-the-democratic-national-convention-1936/

In that speech, Roosevelt brought a new term into our political parlance: "economic royalists." He described the American plutocracy as the spiritual descendants of the hereditary nobility that Americans had overthrown in 1776. The English aristocracy "governed without the consent of the governed" and “put the average man’s property and the average man’s life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power":

Roosevelt said that these new royalists conquered the nation's economy and then set out to seize its politics, backing candidates that would create "a new despotism wrapped in the robes of legal sanction…an industrial dictatorship."

As David Dayen writes in The American Prospect, this has strong parallels to today's world, where "Silicon Valley, Big Oil, and Wall Street come together to back a transactional presidential candidate who promises them specific favors, after reducing their corporate taxes by 40 percent the last time he was president":

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-06-14-speech-fdr-would-give/

Roosevelt, of course, went on to win by a landslide, wiping out the Republicans despite the endless financial support of the ruling class.

The thing is, FDR's policies didn't originate with him. He came from the uppermost of the American upper crust, after all, and famously refused to define the "New Deal" even as he campaigned on it. The "New Deal" became whatever activists in the Democratic Party's left could force him to do, and while it was bold and transformative, it wasn't nearly enough.

The compromise FDR brokered within the Democratic Party froze out Black Americans to a terrible degree. Writing for the Institute for Local Self Reliance, Ron Knox and Susan Holmberg reveal the long shadow cast by that unforgivable compromise:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/045dcde7333243df9b7f4ed8147979cd

They describe how redlining – the formalization of anti-Black racism in New Deal housing policy – led to the ruin of Toledo's once-thriving Dorr Street neighborhood, a "Black Wall Street" where a Black middle class lived and thrived. New Deal policies starved the neighborhood of funds, then ripped it in two with a freeway, sacrificing it and the people who lived in it.

But the story of Dorr Street isn't over. As Knox and Holmberg write, the people of Dorr Street never gave up on their community, and today, there's an awful lot of Chomsky's "constant activism" that is painstakingly bringing the community back, inch by aching inch. The community is locked in a guerrilla war against the same forces that the Biden antitrust enforcers are fighting on the open field of battle. The work that activists do to drag Democratic Party policies to the left is critical to making reparations for the sins of the New Deal – and for realizing its promise for everybody.

In my lifetime, there's never been a Democratic Party that represented my values. The first Democratic President of my life, Carter, kicked off Reaganomics by beginning the dismantling of America's antitrust enforcement, in the mistaken belief that acting like a Republican would get Democrats to vote for him again. He failed and delivered Reagan, whose Reaganomics were the official policy of every Democrat since, from Clinton ("end welfare as we know it") to Obama ("foam the runways for the banks").

In other words, I don't give a damn about Biden, but I am entirely consumed with what we can force his administration to do, and there are lots of areas where I like our chances.

For example: getting Biden's IRS to go after the super-rich, ending the impunity for elite tax evasion that Spencer Woodman pitilessly dissects in this week's superb investigation for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:

https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/06/how-the-irs-went-soft-on-billionaires-and-corporate-tax-cheats/

Ending elite tax cheating will make them poorer, and that will make them weaker, because their power comes from money alone (they don't wield power because their want to make us all better off!).

Or getting Biden's enforcers to continue their fight against the monopolists who've spiked the prices of our groceries even as they transformed shopping into a panopticon, so that their business is increasingly about selling our data to other giant corporations, with selling food to us as an afterthought:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-12-war-in-the-aisles/

For forty years, since the Carter administration, we've been told that our only power comes from our role as "consumers." That's a word that always conjures up one of my favorite William Gibson quotes, from 2003's Idoru:

Something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections.

The normie, corporate wing of the Democratic Party sees us that way. They decry any action against concentrated corporate power as "anti-consumer" and insist that using the law to fight against corporate power is a waste of our time:

https://www.thesling.org/sorry-matt-yglesias-hipster-antitrust-does-not-mean-the-abandonment-of-consumers-but-it-does-mean-new-ways-to-protect-workers-2/

But after giving it some careful thought, I'm with Chomsky on this, not Yglesias. The election is something we have to pay some attention to as activists, but only "10 or 15 minutes." Yeah, "push the lever," but then "go back to work." I don't care what Biden wants to do. I care what we can make him do.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/15/disarrangement/#credo-in-un-dio-crudel

Image: Jim's Photo World (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimsphotoworld/5360343644/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[enjoythesilentworld]

Simon's Month - Labor Day

day 22!! @youngroyals-events

Simon plans to take down RK Solutions from the inside. He also just so happens to be sleeping with the CEO's son.

read below or on ao3 (M, 2k) (cw: minor implied sexual content)

Simon found it kind of fun, at first. The sneaking around, the pretending to arrive separately each morning, lingering and waiting for each other at the end of the day. He didn’t really think the company he worked for needed to be privy to his relationships anyway, romantic or otherwise. He was there to do his job — a job at which he was rather good at — and nothing more. The fact that he was sleeping with the CEO’s son who was also technically his superior made things just a little more complicated.

This was the opposite of the problem he thought he’d have when he’d finally landed this job in corporate. After working for years on the floor in the retail stores that RK Solutions owned all across the continent, and seeing the unfair wages, subpar working conditions, and general shitty benefits, Simon had been ready to finally make a change. From the inside. On his first day, he’d marked Wilhelm as his number one enemy.

Except, that fell apart pretty quickly, because Simon learned that Wilhelm was actually rather kind, and nothing like his mother, who was harsh and high-nosed, just like the rest of the board of directors.

He tried to stay away from Wilhelm, he really did. Simon wanted to focus on his job, on gaining people’s trust so that he could start sharing ideas on how to improve working conditions, and eventually work his way up to making pitches to the board, to Kristina herself. But, Wilhelm kept finding Simon at lunch, or in the elevator, and quickly Wilhelm became Wille and shared lunch time in the building’s cafeteria became dinner dates in tiny restaurants outside of town.

About three months into his time at RK Solutions, Simon went to Wille’s office under the guise of asking a question about some paperwork, but then, suddenly, the door was shut and the blinds were closed and Simon was horizontal on Wille’s desk, the man’s tongue down his throat.

It escalated from there, catching each other in empty offices and stairwells and elevators. Quick hands and hot mouths, loosened ties and mussed hair. It was hot as fuck, the sneaking around, and it helped to take the edge off after a long day in front of a computer.

They didn’t really talk about what this was. That was fine, because they were mainly hooking up and having the occasional meal together. But, then, they weren’t just doing that. Then, Simon was staying at Wille’s and Wille at Simon’s and things got a little more real. They started talking, really talking, and Simon learned Wille is more than just not an asshole, but he is funny and caring and sweet.

He is also, however, a coward.

Once they started talking for real, Simon told Wille all about the real conditions at their corporation’s stores. About the measly benefits, the wage gouging, the sheer number of employees at or below the poverty line. He ranted about how much money Wille’s family made every year, and about all the plans Simon had drafted up to fix things, and how no one would listen to him. Wille listened and nodded along but at the end of the day, he refused to use the power he had. He wouldn’t stand up to Kristina, he wouldn’t stand up to the board. He’d keep playing the part of the little puppet and complaining about it all the while.

“I wish I could help, Simon,” or “It’s just not that easy,” or “That’s not how things work here.”

It put a bit of a strain on their relationship, so Simon pulled back. He would do this part without Wille. He didn’t need his help. They could maintain their ‘relationship’ that was just sex but also maybe more, and Simon could pretend it didn’t kill him that he was falling for Wille, knowing he’d never be able to be the man Simon needed him to be.

Nine months into Simon’s time at RK Solutions and four months into this more-than-just-fuck-buddies situation, on a random Thursday night, Simon is lying on Wille’s chest, in Wille’s bed.

Simon stayed here last night, too, and they’d come back from the office together, Simon lingering at his desk longer than necessary because Wille had a meeting, then taking the service elevator to sneak out to meet the man at his car.

Wille’s telling Simon something about a nature documentary he thinks they should watch when his phone rings.

“Hello?”

Simon hears a muffled woman’s voice on the other side, then Wille shoots up to sitting and Simon’s tumbling backward. “You’re what? But, it’s—”

Simon settles back into the pillows, watching Wille’s face slowly draw together in distress as Kristina rambles on. A moment later, Wille is jumping out of bed and pulling on his boxers with one hand. Simon sits up, too, concerned something has happened, until he nearly gets hit in the face by Wille chucking him his clothes in a balled up pile.

“What the fuck?”

Wille whips his head over and mouths, “Sorry,” then mimes zipping his lips. Simon can’t imagine Kristina would be able to hear him, and he doesn’t really appreciate being silently told to shut the fuck up. He pulls his boxers back on right as Wille hands up the phone.

“Sorry,” Wille says again, out loud this time, already flying around the room, picking other things up. A used condom wrapper, a lone tie. “You have to go.”

“What?”

“My mother is coming here, like, now. Something about a presentation tomorrow.” Wille doesn’t even glance at Simon. “You know you can’t be here.”

Simon stands from the bed and stares at Wille, confused, but slides on his wrinkled button-up, anyway. “It’s 9pm. You couldn’t tell her to wait?”

Wille scoffs, moving to the mirror to start fixing his hair, hair which not twenty minutes ago, Simon had his fingers knitted in. “Kristina doesn’t really take ‘No’ for an answer. You know that.”

The tone is condescending in a way that is unfamiliar coming from Wille. It makes Simon’s stomach churn.

“Right,” Simon clips, finishing getting dressed. He doesn’t even bother lacing up his shoes, just heads straight for the front door.

Wille doesn’t even say goodbye. The door slams shut behind him, and Simon has decided he is done pretending.

He manages to avoid Wille the next day, and then the whole week, but Wille corners him that next Friday.

“Hey,” Wille says, looking totally confused and innocent. “What’s up? You’ve been dodging me.”

“I’ve been busy,” Simon states blandly, already looking over Wille’s shoulder for an escape route. He really can’t do this right now.

“Did I do something?”

Simon holds back the urge to roll his eyes. “No.”

“Okay,” he says slowly, clearly not understanding. That is in itself is yet another splinter to the heart. “Do you want to come to mine this weekend? Or I could come to yours, if that’s easier.”

The air must have gone thin in this hallway, because Simon can barely get out, “I don’t think we should do this anymore.”

There’s a long pause, and Simon tries not to meet Wille’s eye, but he can’t help it. He sees his own heartbreak reflected there, but also confusion, which makes the anger flare in Simon’s chest, and it makes it a little easier.

“What?”

“I think we should stop seeing each other.” Simon slides to the left to escape. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you around.”

They don’t talk for a month. Simon barely sees Wille at the office, only occasionally through a conference room window or across the room at the cafeteria. He should’ve known that Wille wouldn’t fight for him, considering how he handled everything else in his life.

It doesn’t matter. The thing between them is over, and it never could’ve worked because Wille is under Kristina’s thumb and Simon is currently organizing a secret company-wide march for Labor Day. In two weeks, Simon will march with the all the retail workers from local stores, protesting their unfair treatment and money

Simon is working late on the project one evening, when he hears someone clear their throat. Standing in the doorway to his office, is Wille.

“What are you doing here?” Simon asks sharply, quickly shuffling papers together.

“I just wanted to—” He looks timid, and sad, and that sparks a bit of something cruel in Simon’s chest, because, yeah, Simon is sad, too. He wishes things could’ve worked between them, too. “How are you? You’ve been working late a lot.”

“Oh, you’re keeping tabs on me now?”

Wille takes a step back. “No, I just— I’m sorry.”

Simon sighs and collects the rest of his papers, holding them to his chest. “Look, I really don’t have time for this, I have to go.”

“Simon, wait, please. I don’t understand what happened. Please just tell me what I did wrong.” His voice is desperate, and it pulls at the parts of Simon’s heart that still feel things for him. Then, Wille lowers his voice to whisper, “I miss you,” and it nearly rips his heart out of his chest.

“Wille,” he grits out, trying to hold onto every sliver of self-respect, “I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

“But, why? I thought you— I thought you liked me.”

“I do— I did. I did.” Simon closes his eyes for a moment and tips his head up to the ceiling, trying to maintain control. He meets Wille’s eyes again. “But, I just couldn't be your secret anymore. I couldn’t live with myself coming here every day, fighting for the rights of these workers — your workers — begging you to do something about it, and then turning around and sleeping with you. It just— It couldn’t work any longer. You don’t want to use your position for good, fine. That’s on you. But I worked my ass off to get this job so I could do something with it.”

His chest is heaving by the end of it, and he’s exhausted and pissed and heartbroken. Wille says nothing, and Simon is not surprised, so he pushes past him in a hurry.

Things are moving too fast, though, because Simon’s tripping over his own feet and going tumbling to the ground, papers flying. He scrambles to get them, biting back his tears of frustration and embarrassment at the whole thing. Wille kneels down beside him, helping to collect the papers, and then he’s not, because he’s frozen, reading the text on one of the pages.

Simon freezes, too, watching him, suddenly terrified.

“You’re…” Wille starts slowly. “You’re organizing a—”

“Please don’t tell anyone,” Simon bursts out, resisting the urge to snatch the paper from Wille’s hands. He quiets his voice again. “Please, Wille. This is really important to me.”

Wille looks at him for a long moment, eyes still sad. Then, he hands the stack of papers back.

“I didn’t see anything.”

Simon finds it hard to even be excited about the rally now. As much as he hates to admit it, he trusts Wille, and he doesn’t think he’ll tell. But, the heartache remains.

He throws himself into his work instead. The only time to work on the organizing is during non-work hours, so he arrives early and stays late. No one seems to notice. Days pass, there’s no word from Wille, and Simon wonders if he’ll ever get over him.

Första Maj lands on a Monday. Simon arrives early to the park to help get things ready, to start painting signs and handing out flyers and stickers to paste up as they march through the city. Too distracted by the day, he barely thinks about Wille, except that his family’s company is pasted on every sign, so that makes it a little hard to forget.

Ten minutes before they’re meant to head out, Simon’s putting the last touches on a sign, when someone says his name. He turns.

Wille smiles tentatively at him. “Do you have an extra sign?”

[the-words-we-sung]

Season 3 ending

So... It's been almost a week since the last episode, almost a week trying to wrap my head around the end of the show, trying to manage my feelings about it all.

It's hard to end up feeling the complete opposite of nearly everyone on my dash but I've come to terms with the fact that I didn't love the ending. I didn't love this last episode. (I shouldn't feel ashamed or weird for saying so but you guys loved it so much that I feel a bit like an outsider right now 😓)

I haven't been a fan of the show for as long as most of you, but it means so much to me. These characters carved a place in my heart and in my head, and they've made me happy for months now. They helped me get through some stuff, made me discover some amazing artists, meet even more amazing people through this fandom. And I loved the story. Even in its darkest, saddest parts, I loved it. I was invested.

I love Wilhelm and Simon, together and separately. They mean so much to me. And I loved season 1 and 2. It made me happy, and sad, and frustrated, and exalted. But overall, I trusted the show and I was not disappointed.

Season 3 was a lot. I liked the first 5 episodes. I can't say that I loved everything about them: I was not expecting things to get so hard for Simon, with no reprieve in sight. I was not worried about Wilmon being endgame (I know it was a big stress for the fandom but honestly I never doubted that they were endgame), but I was wondering how the show would go about tying all the knots it made (I should even say all the knots it added during this last season).

(Under a read more because it's a bit long and I don't want to bother those who don't wanna read more of my frustrated thoughts ^^')

And unfortunately the last episode was a huge let down for me. Yes, it's partly because nothing I was hoping for actually happened, but mostly, it's because the choices they made did not feel very satisfying to me: ⁕ Simon was barely there. We went from him being bullied online/offline non stop for 5 episodes to almost nothing. It makes 0 sense to me. ⁕ Kristina suddenly feeling better: she was having break down upon break down for an entire season, could barely look at her son or even just talk normally and all of a sudden she's back, smiling and agreeing to everything Wilhelm says? I'm sorry but I don't buy it? Where did this Kristina hid during the entire show? ⁕ Wilhelm deciding to not be king, talking for 3min to his parents about it, them agreeing and him running into the sunset with Simon. I'm sorry, what?? I love that they end up together of course, but it makes very little sense to me? It won't change any of the issues they had this season? They're still gonna be famous? And bullied online/offline? (Probably even more so now?). I'm not obviously saying that Wilhelm staying in line to become king was the only or the best solution, but I wanted more from this storyline. I wanted to believe it. And right now, what we got? It feels a bit cheap (and I feel bad for saying that because the ending was cute and romantic and all, but it felt too disconnected from the rest of the show for me ><)

And apart from these few points, the big issue I had with this episode was: The Angst. So that might be a me-problem, but it was too much for my poor little heart (I haven't rewatched the episode yet, and I'm not sure I'll be able to anytime soon ><). I spent like 40min of the episode with a huge knot in the stomach because the heartbreak between Simon and Wilhelm was too much to handle for me. I can see how it was beautifully made, that having lots of throwbacks to the previous seasons, the Wille song, all of that was great cinematography. But it was just too much for me. I got in the season spoiler-free but for this episode? During the lake scene I had to take a break and check online if they were actually endgame because it was starting to actually give me a stomachache. So yeah, this part might be me being too sensitive but I did not like that they made me see them fight for each other for 2 seasons and 5 episodes, but then just giving up for 40min before finally running back to each other during the last 10min. It was just too much sadness for me ><

So yeah, maybe my expectations were too high? But I feel sad, and kinda cheated. Too many things are left wide opened. Too many things make zero sense to me. And of course I'm happy we got our Wilmon endgame, but I'm less happy about how it happened.

It's a bit hard being on Tumblr right now and seeing everyone who thought it was the perfect episode >< And I don't want to "yuck anyone's yum" (as the saying goes), but I still wanna be able to share my thoughts! I probably won't write super angry/unhappy/complaining posts about the season/the finale, but I still wanna be able to chat about it. I did see some posts on my dash from people not being entirely satisfied with this ending so it's a bit comforting. And I hope we can share some nice headcanons, or just discussions about different plot points.

But yeah, I guess that's why I haven't really been active this week! Trying to get over the double heartbreak of the end of the show + being disappointed with the ending! I'm gonna come back though! I miss hanging out here, I just need to strengthen my heart a little bit more :p Gonna get back to writing about my thoughts episode by episode for this season (I can't promise I can rewatch the last one though 😖 It might take me a bit of time to get there). And I want to continue my song analysis of the show!! I'm not even done with season 2 yet, I have some work to do there ^^

So see you back here very soon 😘

[novamilano1]

The pink, red rose or the grumpy crown frog ? Love or duty ? Of new beginnings and of choices ! Go Wille !!!

So we have all seen the cute Snow Globe frog, so much drama around it. But have you seen its counterpart, the rose Snow Globe in Simon's house ? Let's partly unpack these metaphors, it's fascinating ! I'm in awe of the writers of this cute addictive show. So the grumpy frog represents duty, the lineage of the royal functions (given to Eric by his grandpa and then given to Wille by Eric). Courtesy of TVM (TV microscopic, go check the blog on substack, it's amazing, phenomenal) who reminds in one of the articles (about "negative space" ? ) that the frog can only turn into a prince if he's kissed. The frog can only be "awakened", transformed, be given his real shape by love. Plus, the frog is an aquatic animal (go check the water metaphor in YR on TVM's blog) but he is also terrestrian as an amphibian. There is a poster of a frog in Wille's room (courtesy of Molly who saw it and of the "kingdom", a group of YR fans with whom, I discuss YR and TVM's analysis). So the choice stands between, romantic love, the rose Snow Globe on Simon's table, at home, in his living-room, and heavy duty. But the show is quite positive about the outcome (it offers hope at least). The bubble of the grumpy crown frog with all its fake splendor (the glitter) will have to be brutally opened. It has to fall from its height. And under whose touch the frog could access the world of the rose, of romantic love ? Under Simon's touch (cf. the way he touches the frog before the love scene of Ep. 5, S2). The rose in Simon's Snow Globe is shown at two very symbolic moments. First in ep. 4 s. 1 just after the scene when Wille becomes the crown prince. Simon watches the televised memorial the day of Eric's burial. And the second time is just after the palace scene when Wille is asked to deny his participation in the video. He has to act according to Kristina's view of his duty. But the alternative comes in the next scene, holy love, the rose near these lit candles on the table of Simon's house. And apart from this obvious parallel between the two opposite globes, the show has a very subtle way to tell us that there is a choice to be made. The broken bubble of the grumpy crown frog that Simon touches with his finger is set on two books. If you zoom, you can read the title of one of the books (janusstenen) = the janus' stone. So Janus is the bifrons god. He has two faces and symbolises new beginnings, the choice between the past and the future, doors, gates. So Wilhelm, you know what to do !! (dixit google). It's janus who gave the month that begins the year "january". What better moment to have a look at this ? What's your take on this ?

PS, let's note that the rose symbolises many things but another interesting symbolism (apart from romantic love) which is cohesive to the show is that the rose also refers to socialism. And Simon is the "socialist" who sneers on the one who receives the most on welfare ! Socialism vs royalty ?

[springjjjj]

Gif by @purplewilmon

This scene was such a beauty. One situation, two different reactions.

There's a song with a lyrics: "If it were me, I would hug me too" and Wille's action reminded me of that.

Simon tried to run away after Sara's betrayal but Wille chased him and pulled him to an aggressive hug as if, if it was him who had been betrayed by his own family like August and Kristina, he would've desperately needed that hug too. And maybe Wille thought Simon might've needed it too, to let him know that he's never alone.

It hurts to think that after he caught August, and Kristina knowing it all along, he didn't had anyone to hold him when he was breaking down, he was all alone.

But Simon was the opposite of Wille. Instead of talking it out & needing comfort from someone else, Simon tends to isolate himself when he is suffering. Trust issues? He always need time to be alone probably because of how independent he grew up.

And I appreciate how patient Wille was right after the situation. When Simon pushed him away, he didn't chase Simon. He just also left a message for Simon as if it's a reminder that he'll be there for him.

[heartbreakprincewille]

I find it very interesting that both Wille and Simon are younger children in their respective families and they depict the two sides of the same coin of a "parent-younger child" dynamic.

In Wilhelm's case, Kristina and Wilhelm have a very rocky and nuanced relationship. An older sibling, especially who's a "golden child" and is the parent's beloved, sets this road-map for the younger sibling to follow, to walk upon, and the parents usually leave the younger sibling to deal with that road-map alone- after all, "we have done it all the first time with the older child, right? And the younger child has seen it all, right? Then they must know what to do!" Missed school events, constant examples of Erik in a conversation- it's all there in little interactions between them.

But the thing is, the younger sibling is going through life for the first time, just like the older child, and they too need assistance in everything. But if the younger child is left alone to fend for themselves most of the time, they will be lost, so lost. And alone. Wilhelm felt alone even with both of his parents because they were never there for him like they did with Erik. You have to ask for their attention, to guide you just like they guided the older child, and it results in "little rebellions"- going to a public school instead of Hillerska, constant outbursts of anger because nobody is listening. And the thing is, you know your parents love you- they are not like the "fairy-tale bad parent who tortures their own kid", they just love your sibling more- and there's nothing wrong in that, they're also human, and everyone loves their first child to death, right? And they love you! They still support you! But, sometimes, it's just not enough.

But in Simon's case, it's the opposite- when the younger child is the "golden child", it brings a different kind of loneliness. Your sibling loves you, and you love them too, but you are also the target of every frustration they will emancipate of being a "project" for their parents to work on- Sara with her neurodivergency and how she dislikes Simon having to look after her all the time. And you can't help it, because how can you stop being "you"?

The parent loves you, but they also assume that you've got your shit together all the time. You have to make a roadmap for yourself, and you feel lost making it, and even more lost navigating the wobbly sketches all by yourself. You suppress your emotions, because any display of trouble will be worrisome for your parent, like Simon suppressing his problems about Marcus and extra tutoring fees from Linda. And you just don't know what to do because you're still inexperienced in life and asking for help is not an option.

And maybe that's why they provide each other comfort all the time, because even though they are not aware of each other's issues on the surface, they recognise this loneliness in the other person, and they see their own loneliness inside them, and feel like no one should feel like I did.

[king-wille]

I love how this season both Simon and Wilhelm lean more towards who they're "supposed" to be and what is expected from them and I think that is clearly shown in two instances. For Wilhelm it's more obvious and it is the moment he tells Simon that being part of the royal family is a privilege and not a punishment, something that Kristina had told him in the previous season. Although I don't think that this means 100% that Wille is becoming Kristina, I do think it represents a part of his dilemma this season and how he's leaning towards his role as prince more than ever.

On the other hand, we have Simon who's always been someone with a very clear moral stand and is not afraid to voice it. However, this season we see that slowly disappear and he's become more compliant to what people want of him. I think this is reflected in the moment when he too repeats his mother's words: "love shouldn't be this hard". I think the mere act of repeating word for word things that have been said to them by their mothers shows the polar opposites of their worlds and it's one more hint of the contrast of their personal and moral conflicts this season

[delicatelystrangepolice]

Um, the consensus in the fandom that Ludvig is portrayed the way he is because he's a reflection of what Simon would become in the royal family...

I was thinking the exact opposite. I always thought that Ludvig was supposed to represent Kristina's compliance to be married into a strategic/logical relationship. Without romantic notions, without passion, just a political move. To headcanon that this guy had any personality before and living with the Queen made him bland is… imaginative.

I always thought that Simon would be exactly the opposite in the Royal Family. That Wille would choose love but that hard earned love would be the reason to challenge and go against compliance.

I’m sticking to my own headcanons for now.

[caramelpenguin]

Kristina: Wilhelm and Simon, please move to opposite sides of the room. Wille: Why? Kristina: You don't whisper as quietly as you think you do.

[zee-has-commitment-issues]

Do you have any s3 predictions? Some plot twist?

Good question. I did an unhinged list for season two and I was somehow right about half of it lmao, so let's see what I can get right with a normal list lol:

wilmon angst. Honestly, we all know this is going to happen. It's not going to be easy. They aren't going to be able to be lovey-dovey boyfriends the whole season. I predict them breaking it off at least once. But ending up together.

Kristina redemption arc. I can see her going both ways, fully supportive or fully in opposition, but I think with her choices now taken away, she'll end up being more of a mom.

The return of Micke. We kind of already know this is happening.

Stedrika content. We're either going to get confirmed Stedrika or unrequited Stedrika, but I don't think they're going to leave it up in the air.

Sara and Simon issues. I see Sara trying to help and simply making things worse on accident. Which is going to cause more problems with the two of them. Maybe Simon forgives her by the end? Or at least starts working towards it.

August and his consequences. Something is going to happen to August. Does he go to jail? Get disowned? Die? Who knows? But surely something is going to happen to August.

This one I'm not entirely sure about, but some kind of Felice love side-plot. Not even a full story, just a mention of her figuring herself out or talking to someone or something. She's been fighting love for two seasons, surely there's got to be some kind of outcome for her.

Nils content. Him talking to Wilhelm more about his sexuality, maybe. Or perhaps he even comes out now that Wilhelm is out. All in all, I don't see him just disappearing into the background after the bomb drop of character development he had in season 2.

Now the unhinged stuff (things that are entirely a joke, but would be entertaining to watch):

Simon punches August.

Wilhelm punches August.

Alexander punches August.

Everyone punches August.

August takes Rousseau and moves to a farm to work through his issues. He rebrands himself as Farmer August.

Sara goes off the deep end even more and commits grand theft auto, and arson for a second time.

Nilcent confirmed.

Walty confirmed.

Queer Madison confirmed.

Everyone turns gay and Hillerska rebrands as a school for the queer.

Ludvig says something intelligent.

Sara and August get back together.

Marcus becomes the unlikely hero somehow.

Rosh and Ayub become Hillerska students because Simon says so.

I hope this has, at the very least, given you a chuckle.

[beardedmrbean]

Traditionally incoming Argentinian presidents give an inauguration speech inside of Congress to other politicians. Javier Milei, a former “tantric sex instructor” turned libertarian economist, symbolically gave his speech with his back to the Congress facing towards the people. 

“For more than 100 years, politicians have insisted on defending a model that only produces poverty, stagnation, and misery,” President Milei said. “A model that assumes that citizens exist to serve politics, not that politics exists to serve citizens.” He also promised an “end a long and sad history of decadence and decline” and promote a new era based on peace, prosperity, and freedom.

Since his headline-making election victory last month, media portrayal of Milei has ranged from dismissive to condescending, often depicting him as an eccentric “far-right populist.” Yet, since taking office, Milei has shelved many of his campaign’s more contentious proposals and begun implementing a radical but, by international standards, orthodox reform plan to revitalize Argentina’s faltering economy.

Milei inherited a challenging situation. Argentina’s economy has shrunk by 12 per cent over the last decade, annual inflation reached an extraordinary 160 per cent in November, while the poverty rate increased to 40 per cent in the first half of 2023.

Argentina has a fascinating economic history that led up to this point. In the 19th century post-independence Argentina adopted a liberal constitution that helped deliver an impressive economic expansion.

By the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries, driven by agricultural exports. Real wages were comparable to Britain and only slightly below the United States. Millions fled destitution in southern Europe for a new life in Argentina. Buenos Aires has been labelled the “Paris of South America” because of spectacular neoclassical architecture built during this era.

This turned to disaster over the subsequent decades because of collectivist rule – from military dictatorships to avidly socialist leaders. Argentina nationalised industries, subsidised domestic production, limited external trade, and introduced an unaffordable welfare state. This has become known as the Peronism, named after 20th century president Juan Domingo Perón, a leftist populist leader who supressed opposition and controlled the press.

This agenda accelerated in recent decades under self-identifying Peronist leaders, turning Argentina into one of the world’s most closed and heavily regulated countries. The latest Human Freedom Index places Argentina at 163rd in the world for openness to trade and 143rd for regulatory burden. This has culminated in an economy on the precipice of economic disaster.

Not wasting any time, Milei has proposed a mega package of over 350 economic reforms to open the economy and remove regulatory barriers. This includes privatising inefficient state assets, eliminating rent controls and restrictive retail regulations, liberalising labour laws, lifting export prohibitions, and allowing contracts in foreign currencies.

There has been a notable absence of some of most radical ideas – such as legalising organ sales or banning abortion. He has also put on hold plans to dollarise the economy and abolish the central bank. Instead, at least by international standards, the agenda contains several orthodox economic reforms.

Many of the measures – such as cutting spending to get the deficit (currently at 15 per cent of GDP) under control, opening the country up to international trade, and liberalising the airline industry through ‘open skies’ policy – would be required to join the European Union. The government is eliminating capital and currency controls and allowing the peso to devalue – measures that the IMF’s managing director Kristina Georgieva said these are important to stabilise the economy.

There are undoubtedly significant challenges ahead and some darker elements to agenda.

Milei has been, uncharacteristically for a politician, honest that “in the short term the situation will get worse”. The removal of price controls, for example, will increase inflation until demand and supply can stabilise to end shortages. But, he says, “then we will see the fruits of our efforts, having created the foundations of a solid and sustainable growth over time.”

The government is facing significant opposition, with the union movement organising mass protests and threatening a general strike. The government has responded by proposing questionable new anti-protest laws, that include lengthy jail sentences for road-blocking and requirements to seek permission for gatherings of more than three people in a public place. Milei, who could struggle to get much of his agenda through Argentina’s Congress, is asking for sweeping emergency presidential powers until the end of 2025. This raises serious questions about democratic accountability.

Nevertheless, there are some positive early signs. Since Milei’s election Argentina’s flagship stock index has risen by almost one-third and the peso’s value has not collapsed. Argentina could soon benefit from a major new shale pipeline pumping one million barrels of crude a day (helped along by reforms that allow exports of oil and sales at market prices) and the mining of the second largest proven lithium reserves in the world.

Argentina has long served as a solemn reminder that prosperity is neither inevitable nor unassailable. Misguided policies can transform mere challenges into a profound crisis. Milei is offering a glimmer of hope: redemption may just be possible. Let’s also hope that Britain’s leaders can similarly take the path of reform, ideally before things get as bad as Argentina.

Matthew Lesh is the Director of Public Policy and Communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs

[mariacallous]

Leaked documents from a source close to the Putin administration reveal that Russian propagandists have a new target in their sights: government critics and opposition supporters. In an attempt to win over this skeptical audience, they’ve been repurposing out-of-context clips from a popular YouTuber’s old interviews, adding their own messages in the descriptions. They’ve also tried coming up with news stories they think might attract the attention of independent Russian media outlets (like Meduza). Here’s what they’re doing.

Dialog, an “autonomous nonprofit organization” (ANO) created on Vladimir Putin’s orders to spread disinformation, is using targeted advertising and repurposed material from “foreign agents” to try to promote a pro-Kremlin narrative to those who oppose the current Russian government, according to leaked documents shared with Meduza.

As part of the initiative, Dialog repurposed content from Russian YouTuber Yuri Dud (declared a “foreign agent” in Russia) and added captions encouraging people to go to the polls, according to a document from 2023 titled “Election Campaign on the Internet.” Specifically, the organization utilized excerpts from an interview Dud conducted with the Communist Party’s 2018 presidential candidate Pavel Grudinin before that year’s elections. Dialog shared the clips with phrases such as “If they come to the elections, falsifications will be impossible,” and “Dud recommends,” and then used targeted advertising to promote these clips “solely” to social media users critical of the government.

The document, written by Andrey Tsepelev, the deputy general director of Dialog Regions, aims to implement a “relevant system for managing internet operations in election headquarters.” However, the specifics of how this system works aren’t detailed, and Tsepelev didn’t respond to Meduza's inquiries.

This “relevant system” will be implemented with assistance from the Association of Internet Technologists, which is also headed by Tsepelev. Other co-founders include propagandist Kristina Potupchik, who owns a network of pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, and Stanislav Apetyan, a board member of the Civil Society Development Foundation (led by former Kremlin official Konstantin Kostin). Artyom Tkachenko, the director of the regional affairs department at Dialog Regions, and Vladimir Tabak, the head of Dialog, are also among the founders.

It was Tabak’s idea to try to engage with Russians critical of the current government, according to two of his acquaintances. A Dialog employee confirmed to Meduza that there have long been internal “discussions about content and narratives that could work for a liberal audience.”

“A couple of years ago, [Tabak] was already saying that he’d gone around the regions to help locals with elections, and he complained that they were all stupid, complete dipshits, knew nothing, didn’t work with analytics, posted strange things, and didn’t know what to do with social media,” explained one acquaintance. “All of that needed to change. So, he’s changing it. Tabak’s logic is basically: you [the authorities] managed to seal off the country, hundreds of thousands of people left, but that doesn’t mean their opinion doesn’t matter.”

So far, the plan has had very little success. Besides distributing repurposed clips from Yuri Dud, Dialog employees also credit themselves with creating “special projects” that have been covered by independent media. For instance, in a presentation about Russia’s recent presidential campaign, there’s a slide on press coverage of the fact that Vladimir Putin’s latest address to Russia’s Federal Assembly was shown in Russian movie theaters free of charge.

“The news spread across Telegram channels (2,491 publications), social networks (3,000 publications), TV (four TV segments), Russian-language media (2,067 publications) and foreign media (55 publications),” states Dialog’s presentation. According to the organization, the total number of views exceeded 31.8 million.

The presentation lists media outlets that reported on the theater broadcast, including Ostorozhno, Novosti (a project by Ksenia Sobchak), Meduza, and Dozhd (TV Rain). Despite Dozhd and Meduza being declared “undesirable” organizations in Russia, Dialog used their logos in the slides — which theoretically violates current legislation and could be considered the dissemination of prohibited materials.

A source in the Telegram industry told Meduza that Dialog highlights the interest of independent media in such news to demonstrate the effectiveness of its projects to the authorities. “It’s not hard to distribute and plant news in their own network of Telegram channels,” the source explained. “It’s much cooler if it’s not just a paid [propagandist] writing about you but a TV channel like Dozhd. They sell it as evidence that Dialog is so effective that it can even get the interest of ‘enemy’ media.”

The source added that Dialog employees are also trying to capitalize on the fact that independent media were forced to leave the country due to censorship, which may make it harder for them to assess the significance of certain news:

Liberal media that have left the country are out of touch with reality, since they’re not in Russia. Therefore, [according to Dialog propagandists], they amplify news that barely interests anyone here [in Russia]. Plus, even though the Justice Ministry has declared Meduza and Dozhd ‘undesirable,’ those working on elections understand that these are popular media outlets with a suitable audience that needs to be engaged and tapped into.

However, Dialog’s presentation doesn’t mention this, nor does it provide examples of other news events that independent media might have written about. It only includes mentions of short publications about Putin’s address being shown in theaters. How exactly this helps Dialog influence and “engage” the “opposition audience” remains unclear.

Nevertheless, propagandists believe that “it holds more weight when your enemies write about you,” explained one of Tabak’s acquaintances. “The media outlets that have left — Meduza, for example — have a huge Telegram audience, 1.2 million followers, and you need to work with that audience too,” he said.

When asked about the mention of independent media in the presentation, Tabak told Meduza: “It's not only you who can write about us; we thought we'd return the favor.” He refused to comment further.

[purplesimmer455]

Meanwhile in Brindleton Bay, Rory Oaklow spends time with her family. In the 11 years* she spent with her neglectful bio parents in her childhood, her hometown of Brindleton Bay had seemed like a crappy place, and now its the opposite in her adult years with the life she’s built. Still, Rory’s been going to therapy to work through things from her childhood, and tries to be a good mom to her and Mia’s kids, and a good wife to Mia.

Rory now kisses Mia’s cheek, pulling her close. “You look so gorgeous, Mia.” She says, and Mia blushes. “Thanks baby you too.” She says, squeezing Rory’s waist. After that, Rory checks in with her kids. She’s so proud of all of them, and can’t believe it started with her adopting Morgan as her own son when she and Mia got engaged, and then she and Mia had their daughter Kristina, and their youngest son Owen. Now Morgan’s 18 and attending Britechester from home, Kristina is in the fourth grade and getting better everyday with her werewolf skills, and Owen is two years old and learning fast.

[theodoraflowerday]

young royals s3e5 episode reaction:

well I really hope the cliffhanger isn't horrifying bc this week is gonna be really fucking long

let's fuckin do this

"tired" and it's just him contending w the fact that erik might have been violently homophobic

i can excuse [rolls down a 6ft long papyrus] but I draw the line at being racist - august, probably

"family" LMFAO sure dumbass

seriously those girls are acting like sara and felice broke up (and I get it, friendship breakups are horrifying but damn)

"are you on something?" MY LITERAL FIRST QUESTION SKFISJFKSJFKDJF

I feel like micke is gonna die. idk.

his own letter? why?

oh. hello ludwig. i forgot what your voice sounded like.

"it's hard for her to show weakness" yeah well so it is for all of us. be a mother. show up for your son.

naaaaaaaaaaa volvete serio ludwig

wdym he was perfect. are you serious. do no adults in this show have the slightest bit of common sense?? you're talking to erik's spare my man. erik's little brother who now has to take on everything erik had to do. be the most fuckin for real rn

of fucking COURSE

"it'll be nice to celebrate you. and to meet simon too" ok that was sweet.

yeah wille being in the choir was starting to feel too weird skfjdkfjd

okay? calm your tits my man? simon hasn't said anything?

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON????? HE'S LITERALLY DEFENDING ERIK?????????

oooooookay kristina jr.

ohhhh it was sara's locker. ok.

oh micke is dead isn't he

FELICE DOING WILLE'S NAILS AAAAAA

HE'S PAINTING THEM PURPLE SOULMATISM

also is this the writers acknowledging the nonbinary wille headcanons bc.......

I can't believe wille likes doing his nails. that's so fuckin nonbinary of him.

god I wish micke had been dead. that is SO much worse.

pls don't get into a car crash sara

linda honey no. it doesn't fit him perfectly it's goddamn huge on him.

love shouldn't be this hard I agree linda

oh fuck me

oh her little face sara no

oh sara is breaking my goddamn heart

WILLE'S PURPLE NAILS

wilhelm, why do you have nail polish remover in your room

MI WILLE I'M GONNA FUCKING BLOW MY BRAINS OUT

omg malin was willing to be bribed. back to fanon malin we go (after the shit show that was season 2)

WHY IS HE WEARING THE PYJAMA PANTS AGAIN SIMON

okay this is killing me inside. this is too much.

BECAUSE THERE'S A RISK OF POISONING SJFKDJFKJFDKFJDKFKFKFKDLRK

simon's FACE im

SHE CURTSIED @ SIMON

I know he must have felt disgusting sjfkdjfk

after pretty much 3 years of a polar opposite fanon interpretation I cannot *believe* I'm witnessing kristina and ludwig being genuinely happy about meeting simon. this is so insane

august are you staring at sara's boobs

oh a rolex

OH IS IT BECAUSE OF ERIK

IT IS BECAUSE OF ERIK OG FUCKKKKK

I missed sara and felice I'm ngl. I love my tiny baby girls

oh kristina is about to throw up isn't she lmfao

ludwig is being weirdly nice. this is so strange.

ludwig and simon chatting away while kristina is about to choke and die

hold on. IS kristina gonna die?

even during wille's birthday they can't stop yapping about erik. my god do royals genuinely only care about their firstborn? god

NOT DILF HUNTER SJROSUFOSIDOD

class bad boy slfjdlgj I think they had to have done that on purpose. I mean vincent didn't wanna give him the satisfaction of giving him another award. I can assure you.

august is such a *sad* character oh my god

I WISH I HAD DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY WITH YOU NAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW

oh of course she kissed him.

WHAT A SNITCH WTF

im

"please don't leave me alone with your parents like that again" honestly wille they could've eaten him alive

my god wilhelm you're being SO NASTY

OH HE'S GOING OFFF

oh ldkgldjgldjfldjffl

I can ASSURE YOU during my s2 liveblogging at one point I basically wrote "[points at ludwig] AND YOU" bc i was so fucking done with his bullshit skrjdlrkdlrkld

to hear wille going AND *YOU* is fucking sending me help

IT ISN'T EASY TO BE BOTH YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR BOSS OH FUCK OFF KRISTINA

I NOTICED BECAUSE YOU'RE SO USELESS AT BOTH HOLY FUCKING SWEET JESUS CHRIST

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

me rn:

my god this is the most cathartic shit I've seen in my life

OH AND SIMON IS WATCHING THE WHOLE THING

god

I knew the cliffhanger was gonna be that

but I didn't expect them to cry like that nor did I expect ME to cry like that

bro I'm sobbing I can't wait another week