#and after that we will discuss about the situation of the native americans in the reservations

[someonewhogotanaccount]

I have an oral exam tomorrow and I’m really scared so please pray for me.

[raelyn-dreams]

Where did you find the full tl for Ibuki? Not doubting you (HappyEle is notorious for mishandling minorities), but I've only been able to find bits and pieces for the new characters

The tl I read for Ibuki wasn't his idol story (I don't think that's been fully tled yet), it was his profile, sorry for the confusion! I should have worded that better 🙏

MireiArchive had this rough tl for his profile, which matches up with the machine tl of "Born in Okinawa, and raised in America" (though you should always take machine tls with several handfuls of salt, I believe this one is accurate, as it matches up with the info provided by other translators).

They also provided a rough overview of his idol story, during which the incidents that are being talked about take place.

We know this part of the rough overview of the story is accurate due to being confirmed by several sources (the jp and eng fandoms are talking about it quite a bit).

These parts specifically are the ones where he claims to experience discrimination due to being Okinawan or American (any foreigners face potential discrimination due to a homogeneous society), though his current nationality is Japanese. The first two kanji after the question mark in the first screenshot is the word for "Okinawa" (I'd screen record this part, but unfortunately my phone's audio quality is abysmal 🙃).

Getting a bit into Okinawa's history, the Ryukyuan people are native to the Ryukyu Islands (part of which make up modern-day Okinawa), and they were annexed by the Empire of Japan during the Meiji Era. As Japan did with other ethnic groups, such as the Ainu, the vast majority of the Ryukyuan people were stripped of their culture and forced to assimilate. During WWII, after America invaded Okinawa, the US occupied them for several decades, and there are still US military bases there that are a topic of strong debate, due to their environmental, cultural, and political impacts. Ibuki's family likely has ties to America due to these past events (many Ryukyuans have immigrated to Hawaii in particular, due to it being a straight shot across the Pacific, something which started in the early 1900s).

After WWII, Ryukyuans supported Japan more strongly due to increased resentment towards Americans, causing a further decline of people who spoke Ryukyuan languages (the vast majority speak standard Japanese, like Ibuki) and other aspects of their culture. Ryukyuans are now mostly split between the Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures. "Okinawan" as a term has become one meant specifically to refer to the Ryukyuans (Wikipedia and other places have great sources for further info on these topics), which Ibuki is.

Therefore, we come to the current discussion around Ibuki's identity and what that means for his writing going forward.

(Tweet from mika_enstars discussing it, a well-known livetweeter and translator)

Overall, I'm hoping Akira has learned his lesson from the Amagis (and Adonis, while we're at it) and that the poor writing choices will be few and far between this time around, discounting this story, though of course I won't exactly be holding my breath. We'll have to wait and see until more stories drop, but yeah, that's the gist of the situation!

[raccoon-eyed-rebel]

Not what you think

Masterlist

A/N: Lately, I've been in a sour mood - apparently - and I got into a nasty habit to continuously hurt my boys. Then, @geralts-yenn sent me this fun little prompt - and it just had to be Mike because I've been putting that boy through it, lately, holy shit. So here! Have some more (even more) Mikey fluff...

Pairing: Mike (Hellraiser) x reader (Specifically German!reader, I guess)

Summary: When Mike comes home, you're looking to pick a fight. Until it turns out he hasn't been sneaking around. Well... Not like that, anyway.

Word count: 656

Warnings: None. A little angst. Some German...

@geralts-yenn @deandoesthingstome @ellethespaceunicorn @peaches1958 @sillyrabbit81 @peyton-warren @summersong69 @mayloma @livisss

You looked at him, tears in your eyes. Your entire vacation together hinged on what was going to come out of Mike’s mouth in response to the question you were terrified to ask. In fact, you had been scared to death to even breach the subject for weeks now, but you knew you had to. If he was the lying, cheating bastard you thought he was, he could forget about coming with you on your trip to visit your family. And he could forget about your fantastic home cooking and your fabulous ass. And about you in general. In fact... He could fuck all the way off and never return.  

“What the fuck is going on with you, Mike? You haven’t been yourself lately. And the sneaking around... Are you cheating on me?” Fuck. Too many words... And did you have to sound so desperate? What happened to 'staying strong' and ‘getting to the bottom of this’ and several other girlboss power phrases your friends had thrown at you when you had discussed the situation.  

“No,” Mike said, his voice lacking any emotion. “How can you even think that?”  

Guilt hit you right in the gut. Hard. How could you? Mike would never do that... Would he? You had your reasons to be suspicious... Exhibit A: he had been very distant lately. Exhibit B: regular, unexplained cash withdrawals. Exhibit C: for weeks now, he had been feeding you bullshit about working late, when you knew for a fact that he hadn’t been working any of the nights he said he had been. What the fuck else were you supposed to think? 

“Alright,” Mike said after listening to you ramble on and on about your proof that he had been up to something shady, “I see how that looks bad, and I didn’t think this all the way through... You obviously weren’t supposed to find out and...” 

“Mike!” you yelled, grabbing a pillow off the couch and lobbing it at his stupid head. “Why the fuck does it matter that I wasn’t supposed to find out? What the fuck are you doing, Mike, if you’re not two-timing me with some skank from god knows where? Which, by the way, I’m still not convinced you aren’t!”  

“Babe,” he said, while trying to wrap you up in a hug. No way you were going to let him, so you took a swing at his arms each time they came closer. Eventually, he caught your hands. “Babe, listen. Babe! Ehh… Es ist nicht was du denkst.” 

You looked at him in disbelief for a few moments. “Come again?” 

“It’s not what you think,” he said hastily, eyes on the floor. Yeah, that’s what you thought he’d said. But… Had he been speaking German? That was impossible. Mike didn’t speak German. “I’ve been taking German classes a few nights a week. I… For when we visit your family this summer. I wanted to surprise you.” 

“Can you say that in German?” you blurted out as you wrapped your arms around his neck, never happier about having been wrong than you were right now.  

“Hm? Dass ich dich überraschen wollte?” He seemed hesitant, clearly not comfortable speaking your native language, but it was the sweetest thing ever. And he wasn’t half bad, either. He had the cutest American accent. (= 'that I wanted to surprise you?')

“Well, it worked,” you laughed before kissing him. “Sorry I ever doubted you.” 

“Nah,” he shrugged, “I can see that it looked real fishy…” 

“All of this because we will be visiting my family? My parents are going to love this!” you said. “You won’t be able to understand my grandmother, either way.”  

“Not just because we’re visiting your family,” he admitted. As he said it, he sounded so guilty that you almost instantly panicked again. The only thing that kept you from spiraling was the tight hug he gave you. “Ich wollte dich eigentlich auch noch fragen, ob du mich heiraten willst.”  (= I actually also wanted to ask you if you want to marry me.')

[anonymous-dentist]

Hi anon, sorry to bring the sbi family fanfic discussion again and for the long post , (your posts ware what made realize why i hated this thing so much)

I don’t know if is the same type of fans but i noticed that some ficwritters that are really foucused on philza and wilbur (and sbi family i think?) Are kinda trying to add cellbit to this situation? Like i read some philza focused fanfic where he interacts with cellbit and the ficwritters act like cellbit is his kid? Its weird idk how to explain very well (this is also the same people that kinda write cellbit as a native english speaker (american and european) and not a brazilian (its something that is too hard to explain right now)

And its kinda stressing me out because cellbit is written in such a weid way and its infesting the spiderbit tag lol and i dont understand what is going on half of the time since idk what the hell sbi even is (brazilian with 0 understanding about english speaking mcty)

Sorry for the long post

Oh yeah no I don’t really get it but like. I also do! Because q!Phil has become one of only a literal handful of people on the island to actually properly trust q!Cellbit and so they’re like. Friends. But obviously you can never just be friends with someone not your age and so. Fandom assigned family dynamic. It’s super weird and lowkey like. Idk it’s just weird lol.

A discussion surely must follow!

First, a brief rundown of SBI:

SBI is Sleepy Boys Inc., a group made of up streamers Philza, Wilbur Soot, Tommyinnit, and Technoblade. (Originally it was just Phil, Wilbur, and Techno, but Tommy wiggled his way in somehow.) They’re Best Friends, but somewhere along the way their fandoms said. Fuck it. Family dynamic… mostly because the ccs lowkey thought it was funny and ran with it. Wilbur alone would rather die than not have Philza Minecraft be his father

This dynamic spread to their characters on the dsmp despite them literally not once ever referring to each other all as family; iirc Techno himself said he at least wasn’t part of the family because that dynamic would be fucked up after all the shit his character did to both c!Wilbur and c!Tommy. But c!Phil was c!Wilbur’s father even though he did fully murder his ass, and Wilbur and Tommy were brothers because they’re Wilbur and Tommy and you’d have to kill them to stop them from being brothers. Tommy was never established to be c!Phil’s son, and Phil never seemed to consider him one

But then the dsmp started dying around summer 2021 and everyone was kinda just left with fanon, and SBI fanon can get weird. I’m talking borderline fetishistic nuclear family stuff, especially when you get into ‘Dark SBI’ content with Phil kidnapping Tommy or whatever and forcibly making them family? It gets weird, take a look through the tag sometime

The thing with a lot of these fics is that like. It’s gotten to a point where it’s a fandomized version of both cc! and c!SBI with some really freaky characterizations and some really diehard fans. I’ve talked about that before, so I won’t do it again.

The weirdest thing I’ve noticed about these fics, though- and this goes back to what we were talking about with Cellbit inexplicably being added to the mix all of a sudden- is that everybody has to be a family.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a SBI fic where the characters have friends. Even Tubbo and Ranboo, usually delegated to a ‘Tommy’s friend!’ role despite them not interacting much like as a group ever are treated either as extensions of Tommy himself or as his found family ‘brothers’ who Phil also inevitably helps take care of rather than as friends, and they act that way. Niki isn’t usually ever written in as Wilbur’s friend, she’s Benchtrio’s sister/mother-figure, or she’s described as Wilbur’s found family sister. Jack Manifold? Lumped in with Niki with Benchtrio as their older brother/father-figure. Quackity? Either Wilbur’s boyfriend, thus a member of the family, or Tommy’s older brother/father-figure.

Even characters who never really interacted with SBI as a “family” on the dsmp get this treatment: you’ll read an SBI fic with c!Purpled in it and he’ll be Tommy’s brother figure. c!Sam is Tommy’s father figure. Schlatt is Tommy’s uncle or Wilbur’s brother. Puffy is an aunt. Sapnap and Dream? Tommy’s brother or father figures. Even Hannah is being written as Tommy’s cool older sister figure these days despite only really interacting with him once on the smp

And you can see this kind of behavior continuing now in the qsmp fandom… if the new ccs/characters in question aren’t “problematic”. Chayanne can’t see Techno as a personal hero, he has to see him as an older brother or an uncle. Tubbo is Phil and Fit’s son and Tommy’s brother. Niki is Tallulah’s mom. Quackity is Wilbur’s boyfriend.

What you’ll actually be hard pressed to see is this kind of dynamic with Phil and other, “problematic” ccs, aka ccs who aren’t like. English ccs.

Because you won’t find q!Forever included in the family dynamics despite him basically being q!Phil’s best friend and closest confidant. It took longer for q!Missa to be added to Phil’s wiki page than it did for Techno to despite them literally being explicit canon husbands, and you’ll be lucky if Missa is even mentioned in a “qsmp” SBI fic. Etoiles? Not even mentioned despite him and Phil more or less actually leaning into the family dynamic with the “brothers” thing. Even Tallulah and Chayanne are left out or mischaracterized in “qsmp” SBI fics, giving Tommy the spotlight.

You won’t find nearly anybody who isn’t an English cc in these fics, and this is NOT accusing anyone of xenophobia. It’s most likely just because the SBI people are used to watching only Phil or only Wilbur and they don’t speak enough of the other languages to really care about the non-English ccs and thus disregard their characters and lore. It’s not just SBI people who do this, it’s plenty of people speaking every language on the server not watching anyone whose languages they don’t speak. Yk?

But that brings us to q!Cellbit, and I’m surprised the SBI guys have latched onto him the way they did considering he’s everything they seem to dislike: his first language isn’t English, he doesn’t talk with Phil a lot, he and Tallulah get along really well, he makes fun of Wilbur being gone. And, honestly? The SBI guys did hate him for a long time because of those things, they constantly undermined his efforts and said Phil would be a better Order leader and said that he should never speak to Tallulah again because he was making her sad and he’s friends with their least favorite person ever, Forever.

But then q!Phil said he trusted Cellbit, and it’s like a switch was flipped. Starting around the Pills Arc when they first teamed up, SBI people were suddenly on board with Cellbit despite being part of the haters literally days before. Why? Well. Phil and Cellbit are friends now, and so now he gets the privilege of being in the fics.

The problem with this is that these people have never watched Cellbit. They’ve seen ten minutes of him total from Phil’s pov, and that’s all they’re going to use to write his character. So of course there will be mischaracterization.

And, of course, they’ll be family. Because, as I said, there’s this weird allergy to the concept of friendship in SBI fics. You’re family or you’re an enemy.

Constant fanon mischaracterization of Phil has basically turned him into a universal father figure even if he doesn’t have that dynamic with the characters he’s like the “father” of. q!Cellbit’s only familial figure outside of his actual canon family is generally seen as q!Bad, who even referred to him as family last night on stream. But, because Phil and Cellbit are friends now and Cellbit is younger than Phil is, they have to have a father-son dynamic, because that’s what Phil’s only character trait is in the SBI fics he’s in. He’s the dad whether it makes sense or not.

If that makes sense.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Aleks Phillips

Published: Jul 7, 2023

An Indigenous tribe descended from the Native American nation that originally controlled the land in Vermont the Ben & Jerry's headquarters is located on would be interested in taking it back, its chief has said, after the company publicly called for "stolen" lands to be returned.

Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of The Coosuk Abenaki Nation—one of four descended from the Abenaki that are recognized in Vermont—told Newsweek it was "always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands," but that the company had yet to approach them.

It comes after the ice cream company was questioned as to when it would give up its Burlington, Vermont, headquarters—which sits on a vast swathe of U.S. territory that was under the auspices of the Abenaki people before colonization.

"The U.S. was founded on stolen Indigenous land," the company said in a statement ahead of Independence Day. "This year, let's commit to returning it."

It added that the "land back" movement was about "ensuring that Indigenous people can again govern the land their communities called home for thousands of years," but focussed much of its statement on the taking of land from the Lakota in South Dakota.

The acknowledgment of historic tribal lands is a contentious subject, pitting the claims of Native Americans, whose ancestors were subject to violent persecution and displacement, against the status quo of a modern nation with entrenched borders.

While some say colonized ancestral lands should be at least partially returned, others say that it is impossible to decide which of the various groups to have claimed land throughout history it should be returned to.

Maps show that the Abenaki—a confederacy of several tribes who united against encroachment from a rival tribal confederacy—controlled an area that stretched from the northern border of Massachusetts in the south to New Brunswick, Canada, in the north, and from the St. Lawrence River in the west to the East Coast.

This would put Ben & Jerry's headquarters, located in a business park in southern Burlington, within the western portion of this historic territory—though it does not sit in any modern-day tribal lands.

"We are always interested in reclaiming the stewardship of our lands throughout our traditional territories and providing opportunities to uplift our communities," Stevens said when asked about whether the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe would want to see the property handed over to Indigenous people.

While the chief said that the tribe "has not been approached in regards to any land back opportunities from Ben & Jerry's," he added: "If and when we are approached, many conversations and discussions will need to take place to determine the best path forward for all involved."

Ben & Jerry's has not yet publicly responded to calls to return the land its headquarters is situated on.

Newsweek contacted the company via email for comment on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Odanak Council of Abenakis, who now reside near Montreal, Canada, told Newsweek that the council would comment on the matter following their weekly meeting on Monday.

Newsweek also approached the Abenaki Nation of Missiquoi and the Elnu Abenaki Tribe—both recognized in Vermont—via email for comment on Thursday. Contact details for the other state-recognized tribe, the Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation, could not immediately be found.

According to historical records, the Abenaki initially traded with European settlers in the 16th century, but their population was afflicted by the spread of Old World diseases. The confederacy allied with French colonizers against English settlers in growing territorial disputes, before many fled to what is now Canada following a series of defeats at the hands of the English.

During the early part of the 20th century, a state-spon.sored eugenics program in Vermont saw some Abenaki sterilized. The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe has described these acts as "ethnocide."

==

Checkmate.

They weren't stolen, they were conquered, as tribes have attacked, killed or driven out, and conquered each other's lands for thousands of years. Not just in North America, but worldwide. "Handing back" just gives it to the next most recent conquerors. Will they be racked by the inherited guilt of their own ancestors conquering the occupants who preceded them? Should they be? If not, why not?

Social media virtue signalling is cheap and easy. But walking the walk and talking the talk are two different things. High-priced CEOs, college presidents and other elites who espouse "antiracist" shibboleths such as "equity" rarely - although not never - act against their own self-interests by saying something like, "I'm a straight, white upper-middle class woman and I'm going to resign so that a disabled, fat, black, trans lesbian can take this position."

P.S. Community Notes are amazing.

[shadeslayer]

lets be clear here. its not about whether jews have an ancestral claim to the land. this isnt indigenous vs settler because jewish people have no history or ties to the region. the reason the state of israel and the ideology of zionism is not (and can never be) about jewish self determination is because the foundation of the zionism is, in the words of theodor herzl (regarded basically as the father/creator of zionism) himself, "a colonial project." as in its about coming to land already inhabited, forcibly removing the inhabitants, and settling there, and this is reinforced by his approach of england for help in this (not palestine! bc there is no interest in peace with palestinians, which is why nothing but the dismantling of israel wholesale will fix this) because "it is something colonial." (source 1, source 2, source 3)

the palestinians are not indigenous to the land of what is right now called israel purely because they have always, unwaveringly forever been there, its because they were living there when zionists came to implement the settler-colonial project of the state of israel. indigenity is not mystical claims to a land and ancestral ties that the settlers do not have and makes them inherently the morally correct owners of the land, its that they were literally the inhabitants of the land that people (settlers) forced them out of in order to live there themselves (to settle). the decolonize palestine project is correct:

If we reject the “we were there first” argument, and not treat it as a legitimizing factor for Israel’s creation, then we can focus on the real history, without any ideological agendas. We could trace how our pasts intersected throughout the centuries. After all, there is indeed Jewish history in Palestine. This history forms a part of the Palestinian past and heritage, just like every other group, kingdom or empire that settled there does. We must stop viewing Palestinian and Jewish histories as competing, mutually exclusive entities, because for most of history they have not been. These positions can be maintained while simultaneously rejecting Zionism and its colonialism. After all, this ideologically driven impulse to imagine our ancestors as some closed, well defined, unchanging homogenous group having exclusive ownership over lands corresponding to modern day borders has nothing to do with the actual history of the area, and everything to do with modern notions of ethnic nationalism and colonialism.

this is something i had trouble understanding for a long while, because i know of the jewish history in palestine, and i was thinking of indigenous as simply "the people who were there first" and settlers as the unconnected people coming into the land - because this is the common understanding pushed when it comes to indigenity and is echoed in much of the phrases im familiar with with native american activism ("we were here first" "land back" "first americans" "the originals" ..) especially in discussions of land and connection to land, where settlers have no history or ties to the land other than their colonial project. zionists may have ancestral history/ties to this land but that doesnt make them the indigenous people in this situation, they are still settlers despite their history with the land.

because its not about "who was here first" its about the violence needed to make settler-colonial projects happen. ethnic cleansing, apartheid, & genocide are natural components of a settler-colonial project. the violence of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide on the palestinian people is what this issue is about, and is what means israel should not and cannot exist. because the foundation of the state of israel and the foundations of zionism are predicated on violence - they depend on the expulsion of the palestinian people

[vague-humanoid]

An Ohio high school student said he's never witnessed racial tension at a lacrosse game until recently.

"While both teams are competing and having fun, this incident kind of crossed the line, made me feel some type of way. I passed the ball to one of my teammates and the dude comes up to me and says some other stuff and then says that — the N-word pretty much," Dominic Shaw, who is a junior at Pickerington High School Central, told WBNS.

"I was in complete shock in the moment."

Shaw said that after he heard someone use the N-word during his team's game against Olentangy Berlin, he told the game's officials but nothing was done.

"I mean, I talked to my [athletic director] after the incident. They said they would reach out to Berlin's [athletic director] and try to handle it. After the game, their coach came up to me and said they handled it, but nothing seemed to really happen," he said.

His father, Karl Shaw, said he will not tolerate any racial discrimination and is proud of how his son handled the situation.

"It upset me, only because he did everything right, he went to the grownups,” he said. "I'm proud of him. I'm extremely proud of the young man that he has grown into because he handled that the right way."

this is a good opportunity to bring up the racist history of lacrosse

While Lacrosse began as a sport played almost exclusively by Native Americans, it now is mostly associated with middle to upper-class white Americans. Furthermore, Lacrosse was not played by many people until the past twenty years when participates have consisted of mostly white Americans.

When we talk about the abundance of racism and inequality in sports, lacrosse is an appropriate place to start. 

The racial slanders shouted by fans at the Sewanee men’s lacrosse game this past Saturday has, and could have, occurred at any sporting event. But the targeted hate towards players on Emmanuel’s team serves as a reminder of the racial inequities, socio-economic barriers, and colonialist history of lacrosse. 

For all of my teammates, fellow players, coaches, and spectators of this beautiful game, there are a few ugly truths we must remember as we digest this weekends’ events and brainstorm ways to move forward. 

Lacrosse is predominately white. 

[eddieydewr]

Once the online activism devolves into whataboutism over literal terrorist acts or downright blatant antisemitism, I get pissed off. I am seeing this from a lot of the younger generation and also feel like many of them are sort of transferring a lot of the very US/western based sociopolitical problems onto this conflict, specifically calling the people of Israel “colonizers” as if the Jews haven’t been native to that land since biblical times and have just as much, if not more, right to be there than anyone, acting as if they are just western “bad whites” (ignoring that in the US especially, the concept of “white” is very very different then how it is seen in other parts of the world) coming in to oppress. They are boiling down a decades long COMPLEX situation where there currently are NO winners and both sides have done lots of wrong, into a lot of buzzwords and performative activism and very black and white thinking and seeing it fall more and more into overt antisemitism is scary. I wish at the very least, no matter what side you fall on politically, that everyone could have come together to denounce wholly that terrorist like tactics that we’ve seen are an affront to humankind and won’t be supported and it’s ok, and necessary, to denounce them. But the fact most of the people yelling the loudest won’t even do that? And actively get mad at those who do? Yea my faith in humanity is almost gone. I’m glad Noah spoke up. He’s still very young, and so he’s not going to say everything perfectly, but he also has deep ties to the land, friends and maybe even family there he’s worried about, and he literally just came back from there so I am sure part of him is shook up from the idea that he missed possibly being a part of this and dying by a few weeks! And then to see the comments on his posts that triggered him to speak up? Yeah let Noah speak because there was nothing wrong with what he said and the ones who think there is have something wrong with them. it’s ming boggling to me rn that most of the support for Jewish individuals who are upset rn is from the American political right, the kinda people with flags in their twitter bios. What an upside down world we are in rn

perfectly said. i don’t like war and i think civilians should be left out if it if countries/states are unable to resolve conflicts diplomatically. maybe that’s incredibly naive of me; i’m aware i have a westernised perspective but i also try to look at things with nuance, and i understand that the I/P conflict is decades long and incredibly complex while also acknowledging that jewish people have been oppressed and persecuted for over 3000 years.

i’m on the left and no one seems to care that the missing posters of israeli babies are being ripped down in london, or protesters chanting “gas the j*ws”. people on twitter will just say i’m not really left wing or i’m falling for israeli propaganda. 🫠

the backlash against noah is nonsensical; online activists are jumping the gun and twisting noah’s words at best, or conflating palestinans with hamas at worst. whoever wrote the post said “we” (via their insta stories) so it sounds like a group of jewish students, including noah, came together to write the post after seeing the antisemitism and the comments about the deceased young woman. noah is the one with clout, so to speak, so he’s obviously the one to post it and get the word out there. they are young students, they’re not geopolitical analysts, and they’re surely upset and shaken; so yes, the post isn’t perfect but it wasn’t wrong. hamas should be condemned, even if people think it’s what israel deserved.

sorry, i’m basically echoing your sentiments so i’ll stop here now. 🙈 thank you for the message, very much appreciated. tumblr is a hellsite but at least we’re able to discuss things without worrying about character limits or getting enough engagement.

[max1461]

Come on, “settler” is just a nice, academic way of saying “vermin” or “cockroaches.” Just because a term was only invented relatively recently and has mostly been cloaked in scholarly obfuscation doesn’t mean it’s any different from the other ways of calling for mass murder.

I got pretty frustrated here, and I'm hesitant about even posting this. I might take it down. But I think it contains true statements amidst the frustration, so I'll leave it up for a bit and see if anon responds. Idk.

It seems like you've sent me this in response to my reblogging this post, is that accurate? I don't want to be uncharitable, but the discussion had died down, and then within minutes of my reblogging that, you sent this anon. Hopefully I'm not attributing motives to you that you don't have, I really don't want to be unfair. It could just be coincidental, so please if I'm not correct let me know.

If I am reading the situation accurately, than I really have little else to say to you at this but... man, that's really immature.

I've responded in depth to your other asks. I've pointed out that American Indians couldn't possibly commit a genocide against white people even if they wanted to. Recently I talked about political sanity checks, and "the anti-colonial movement in the US will lead to genocide of settlers" fails every one of them. I've talk about how almost any policy that addresses the crippling poverty indigenous people face, much less expands indigenous sovereignty in even small ways, is fairly far left of the Overton window in this country. I've talked about how the US and its predecessors maintained actual genocidal policies towards native people for over 400 years, up until well after World War 2, within living memory, and has done essentially nothing to repair the damage done.

Movements like Land Back are guilty, I think, of various rhetorical sins—of eschewing concrete policy discussion for emotionally loaded injunctions against settlers, in a game of academic posturing towards "radicalism". If you are a fantastically unempathetic person completely incapable of charity, and you happen to be a white American, I can understand how this might make you go "oh no, they want to genocide me!" But look. You're a fucking adult. You know that they can't, and that they aren't ever going to be able to, and I don't believe that you're actually worried for your safety. I think that's nonsense. And if you are a fucking adult, I think you can probably suck it up, forgive people who are victims of genocide within living memory and have no political ability to harm you a bit of nasty rhetoric, and ask "what can we do to even try to rectify this situation, to remedy the horrific atrocities that have been done?".

Worst of all is that that post didn't even mention the term "settlers" or "settler colonialism". It simply talked in direct terms about the unprecedented poverty that American Indians face.

Look, I'm ambivalent about chewing you out so harshly here, because I responded to your anon (I think you're the same anon!) some time ago saying that I valued hearing your objections to my ideas, I valued the dissenting voice, and that's still true. But I've addressed this idea, backwards and forwards, and cop-disliker was even able to present me with a case where your safety concerns look more sensible (the decolonization of French Algeria). But surely you can recognize that the situation in the US is completely incomparable to that, materially and demographically. And so at this point you're not really expressing arguments against anything particular I've written, but (if I'm reading this situation correctly, which... look, maybe I'm not and I'm just being the asshole here) vague fearmongering in response to a discussion of the extreme poverty that a certain group is facing.

I don't like to tell people to get a thicker skin. I want to listen to every person's concerns about everything. But if you hear "Native Americans have a life expectancy comparable to people in Togo, one of the poorest countries on earth, while they live in one of the richest" and your first thought is to drum up faux safety concerns about the completely politically impossible event of an extermination of "settlers" in America... man, you need to get a thicker skin. Politics is about more than rhetoric, it's about people's lives. And the people who's lives are actually in danger here is, to put it bluntly, fucking obvious.

[blueiskewl]

Michael Heizer Mysterious 'City' in the Nevada Desert to Open After 50-Years

City," a vast complex of outdoor structures and landmasses the land artist Michael Heizer began constructing in the desert of Nevada in 1970, will finally begin welcoming public visitors next month. The site's opening on September 2, more than 50 years after work at the site began, marks the fulfillment of Heizer's most ambitious and career-defining project.

"City" has been described as quite possibly the largest contemporary artwork on the planet, stretching more than a mile and a half long and half a mile wide, evoking the scale of ancient sites like Native American mounds, Mesoamerican metropolises and Egyptian devotional complexes. It is situated in the remote Basin and Range National Monument in central eastern Nevada, within the ancestral lands of the ​​Nuwu (Southern Paiute) and Newe (Western Shoshoni), around 160 miles north of Las Vegas.

For the first year of public accessibility, only a limited number of visitors will be admitted, with mandatory advanced registration.

Initially funded by Heizer himself, construction of "City" eventually received the support of many influential collectors, institutions and dealers via the formation in 1998 of the Triple Aught Foundation, which will manage and preserve the site for years to come. The foundation -- whose board includes Heizer himself, Los Angeles County Museum of Art director and chief executive Michael Govan, Museum of Modern Art director Glenn D. Lowry, collector and Glenstone co-founder Emily Wei Rales and Gagosian senior director Kara Vander Weg -- has established an endowment for City with almost $30 million in initial funding.

"Over the years I would sometimes compare Michael Heizer's 'City' project to some of the most important ancient monuments and cities," Govan says in a statement. "But now I only compare it to itself. It's an artwork aware of our primal impulses to build and organize space, but it incorporates our modernity, our awareness of and reflection upon the subjectivity of our human experience of time and space as well as the many histories of civilizations we have built."

The path to building "City" has never been a simple one, involving the shaping of enormous mounds of dirt, moving of rocks and construction of enormous concrete structures. That process has at times been further complicated by external factors. In 2014 and 2015, amid fears that Basin and Range might be shrunk, potentially allowing for disruptive development near the "City" site, a coalition of museum leaders and the late Nevada senator Harry Reid fought for the area's protection through a public petition and legislation introduced to Congress. And in 2017, as the Trump administration moved to open previously protected lands to resource extraction, some were concerned that Heizer's project would be among the sites imperiled.

Perhaps in response to such threats, Heizer envisions "City" as a project that will endure well beyond the lifespans of even the most treasured and tough contemporary art.

"My good friend Richard Serra is building out of military-grade steel," he said in a 2016 New Yorker profile about the project, discussing the American sculptor's large-scale site-specific works. "That stuff will all get melted down. Why do I think that? Incans, Olmecs, Aztecs -- their finest works of art were all pillaged, razed, broken apart and their gold was melted down. When they come out here to f**k my 'City' sculpture up, they'll realize it takes more energy to wreck it than it's worth."

[molsons112000]

Now white people are the indigenous people of the united states now. They are with native Americans.

So don't the indigenous people have a right to protect themselves from being over run.

So the only dying race in the world is the white race. This is an absolute fact objective not subjective...

So the point is in america , how small Is the white race supposed to shrink? How much of it needs to go to blacks?And asians and hispanics and arabs. We've already given native americans their segment...

Quora

https://www.quora.com › What-wa...

What was the main mistake Native Americans made that allowed ...

We did actually make a "mistake". Amerindians were fighting each other for territories and resources long before Europeans arrived

And it doesn't change the fact that I still prefer Asian women first. White women's second Hispanic third and blacks last. Now Arab females, I don't know. Because I've never had dating opportunities with Arab females. I've interacted with some but never interacted in a dating sense.... Also I had one opportunity with a Native American girl, but she didn't move forward. So I don't know that was a brief interaction.... And again it's not cause she didn't like me. It's because she was addicted to drugs and alcohol and she chose the drugs and alcohol. I It was not offering her drugs and Alcohol. So I've never tried to entrap any female.

This is another problem birth tourism.... We have to have them sign a waiver. So their child can't claim citizenship.

Georgetown University

https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu › ...

"Anchor Babies", "Birth Tourism", and Most Americans ...

Jan 22, 2018 — This becomes an issue when the child is born to illegal immigrants in the U.S., and it is also the source of misconceptions about

But there is a question in my family of one of the relationships that they perceived the female to get pregnant on purpose to entrap the male into the relationship into marriage. This was a discussion brought up by other females in our family.... This was not brought up by any male.... This was brought up by the females. Females are more aware of what females can do like males. So they know the tricks that they play..... So both my sister and my sister-in-law, Laura believe this might be the situation. What happened?Is my sister expressed it to me?And then I bounced it off my sister-in-law.Because me and laura used to have a very good talking relationship... Now With her after dating my brother for 7 years, she said long enough Either we get married or i'm going to find somebody else. So she didn't in trap my brother. But she knows that females can play this game. And they fought one of my nephews may have been entraped. This is where polygraphs work very well. I'm not saying that even if it was done that they would leave they seem to be happily married.. But does she want that for her sons or daughters. We're a male might break a condom intentionally to get a female pregnant. A male may use terms of love and endearment to entrap the female. This is why I never said those words to have sex. I'm not going to tell you because I'm horny.I love you and all these terms to persuade you to have sex with me. I never did that with jen. I was fine covering and if we were in a move to the next step we would have the conversation but she chose to make the first move. So I was fine with it. Then she chose also when we were going to have intercourse. She also chose without consenting me birth control... So I was fine with it. I offered condoms... Yes, next to my bed, I had a whole drawer of condoms and Jen can verify I opened. I showed her and she said no. She said not with you. So with those other females and I was fine with it... So they weren't trying to interrupt me. I wasn't trying to entrap them.

So for a contract to be enforced each party must agree to enter into the contract without to duress. So you can't hold things over their head like I told Chad.The Muslims were doing in certain countries around the world where they were starving, telling them.If you convert to the muslim faith we will give you food subsidy... I told them as Christians.We have to go in there and help them develop independent food resources so they can make a free choice. This is why the United States state department. Truly, its mandate is to help every country.It existed to reach prosperity to help bring their people out of poverty and to create peace and tranquil the in those countries... And sometimes we have to use our military but that's a last alternative... So yes as a christian nation it is our obligation to make sure we treat every country fairly and we make sure that those countries are not being held hostage by other countries.... Just like people enter into nato, they can leave nato. I mention golden handcuffs and golden parachutes, but people know this going in.You're not deceiving them.They know that you're tying their hands. You're doing it straight forward. They need to agree and if they don't then you don't need to hire them....

So as christians we can't enslave any country.... We can't enslave any people. They must enter into the contract. Legally, that's why we need to explain the contract to them if they can't interpret the contract. That's why we have cognitive test. Yes for any contract you must have a cognitive test and they must understand what they are entering into. This is why I explain things when I do planning as much as they want.I will explain and if I don't have the information I will get the information. But I shouldn't have to worry because they enter into a situation where there, not disclosing can't circumvent. Meaning give it to other people to do get is between me and them. That's the whole peshmo, personal Jesus. And I did you can go ask Chad?I told them that as Christians.We can allow this and we can't do what the Muslims are doing.Hold poverty over their head and force them to convert.... And that's why I said you say evangelize. That's not true. You're supposed to go out and educate. That's what they did before they didn't convert anyone. They just showed them the word and educated them on the word and yes, they freely talked about their existing path, whether it's Hindu or Buddhist or any other. As god taught me I have to learn about all other religions in the world and then make a choice to come to christianity... And it's true he said I have free choice go out there and study everything else and make a choice of where you want to be... So if you see my religious studies i've studied every religion and been with people in all faiths. Yes, like my friend bill. He believes in crystal power. So he believes in this energy.... So I was free to make a choice. Just like I told you about 16 I was free. I knew in 15 and I known since a childhood. We had this relationship, but only when he thought was necessary. Did he reveal things to me? And one thing he revealed to me was to tell you.Who I am whether you believe it or not so when you hurt me you know your instantly going to be condemned... So it won't be a surprise when you die.And god sent you to damn nation meaning jesus judges you and condemn you and god delivers you to eternal damnation. And sometimes he speeds it up and that's why he has angels.He has plans that I don't know about and like he said it'll be revealed upon my death everything. I'm just a humble servant.... So you are free to attack me and as he said he sit back and watch. But he assured me if things don't get made correct in my life that he will punish everybody... So you're all in it together, not only in the u.S eight billion people are in it with you... So the people around me represent the world... And God is judging the world based on the interactions.I have whether it's at the movies on t v the radio or in person... An he is watching how you treat me.... And I told you I was supposed to tell you this.You have free will and if you choose the other path.Now you know there's consequences, and if you choose not to apply Justice correctly and allow people to do things to me.Unrighteously then you go down with them... So you can stand silent but you will be condemned as well....

Yes, a meeting of the minds is a requirement for a contract to be enforceable in some jurisdictions. A meeting of the minds is a contract law phrase that describes when all parties involved in a contract have a common understanding of the contract's terms, conditions, and subject matter. 



Pike & Lustig, LLP

Forming a Contract: What is a Meeting of the Minds?

Feb 1, 2024 — It means that all parties to the proposed agreement must understand and agree to the terms of the contract in the same way. If there is confusion, misunderstanding, or one person is misled about what they are agreeing to, then there is no “meeting of the minds” and, and such, no valid contract.



Law.Cornell.Edu

meeting of the minds | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute

Meeting of the minds refers to mutual assent by all parties to the formation of a contract. For a meeting of the minds to occur, the parties must agree to the same terms, conditions, and subject matter.



Wikipedia

Meeting of the minds - Wikipedia

Meeting of the minds is a phrase in contract law used to describe the intentions of the parties forming the contract. In particular, it refers to the situation where there is a common understanding in the formation of the contract. Formation of a contract is initiated with a proposal or offer. This condition or element is considered a requirement to the formation of a contract in some jurisdictions.

For a meeting of the minds to occur, all parties must: Understand the terms of the agreement, Agree to the same terms, and Accept the terms of the contract. 

If there is confusion, misunderstanding, or one party is misled, then there is no meeting of the minds and the contract is not valid. 

Other elements required for a contract to be legally enforceable include: mutual assent, adequate consideration, capacity, and legality. 

So going back.

To my Discussion with Chad the pastor we can't allow people to use these types of leverage to enslave.

This is why they call back the crusades.Because he started doing what the muslims were doing and putting a sword to their head and saying convert or die.... And so the church ended the crusades. And by the way the crusades were only done to recapture territory that was taken from us. He also reclaimed the territory and was moving into territories that were muslim and he could not do that either... So they called him back because he was starting to do what was done upon christians and he cannot do that , so they called charlemagne back... He was not supposed to take any territory.That was not christian and he was not supposed to threaten their wife's that come to jesus....

This is how we define genocide. People taking what is not theirs and by taking it they destroy those people... And this is what you've done to my life.You created a personal genocide and God said you have to pay me what I'm do or you will be put to waste.You cannot deprive my life of anything that is rightfully mine that is a genocide against me.You are physically torturing me and mentally torturing me... So you're using poverty as a weapon against me... My first breakdown I lost everything. Then what did you do I warned you?I was at the top and 2016 was gonna be a record year.What did you do you did it again and then you added all forms of illness and you stripped away every one of my personal relationships and many more things making it even worse... And this is what they've done unrighteously.Firing me from many places and pushing me back in the mass of poverty again... And this is what you do wrong.You allow these people that are incompetent to keep their jobs.They need to be punished.They need to be terminated.They need the experience the pain of their shitty service .. I fired many people for being shitty at their job... I gave them a chance just like David did and my old boss.Sneaked it, they came in, said.Will help you develop the tools.You need to get to be able to deliver the service.We expect and if you don't do the works you choose to fire yourself. It is the same thing in the Bible.Good works.God gives you a choice.You can either do the good works.And then you can just perish and it doesn't matter.You don't have to come to jesus. So he is fair.You make the choice but the one thing is you can't be evil or you will be punished... So if you're a good person you won't go to hell... But if you do evil you've chosen for yourself and you should be punished accordingly... So when somebody is incompetent at their job you first look. Did the employers give them the tools to be confident? Did the employer set out the standards correctly in their job requiring people who could be competency.... So if they hire people that are incompetent and they don't give em the tools that's entrapment... And you can sue them.... They deceived you on the requirement. As my one client said david it's a change in scope of the agreement. So you perceived it to be one way and it was truly another... This is entrapment... And when you give ride ups with those written warnings or verbal warnings you must give a path to correct directions and you must help them overcome their challenge... If not that's wrongful termination....

Competency is the combination of skills, knowledge, and abilities that allow someone to perform a job well. It also includes personal attributes that contribute to employee performance and organizational success. Competencies are categorized into two types: behavioral and functional or technical. 



Possibleworks

10 Key Job Competencies Everyone Needs to Know About

Sep 17, 2020



hr.unl.edu

Core Competencies | Human Resources | Nebraska

Competency: The combination of observable and measurable knowledge, skills, abilities and personal attributes that contribute to enhanced employee performance and ultimately result in organizational success.



Engagedly

The Complete Guide To Workplace Competencies

What Is A Workplace Competency? A competency is a set of specific skills or abilities required to do a job. It's the ability to complete a task effectively. A person should be able to perform various tasks at a target proficiency level to achieve competence in something. Competencies give employees a clear idea of what is expected of them in terms of their performance. Competencies give them an understanding of what behaviours/skills they should cultivate at the workplace to be valued and rewarded. Workplace competencies are broadly categorized into two types: Behavioural Competency. Functional / Technical Competency.



timechamp.io

What Is Competency? Meaning And Definition - Time champ

Competency refers to having the required skills, knowledge, and capabilities to do a particular job or task well. It is about being competent and effective in what you can do. Competence means that you can be able to handle the tasks and requirements of a job or situation.

Here are some examples of competencies:

Problem-solving

The ability to think critically and creatively about situations, identify issues, analyze problems, and develop solutions

Initiative

The ability to direct energy toward a goal without external motivation, and to initiate actions based on one's own understanding of a situation

Teamwork

The ability to work with others toward a shared goal, actively participate, share responsibility and rewards, and contribute to the team's capability 

Some ways to show competency at work include:

Communicating in a respectful manner

Actively listening and communicating effectively with others

Writing clearly and accurately in different contexts and formats

Listening and asking questions to understand other people's viewpoints

Communicating issues in a timely manner 

Job competencies are the specific skills, both hard and soft, that an individual must possess to perform their job successfully. These encompass the technical skills, behavioral traits, and intellectual capabilities that contribute to exceptional performance in a role.Jul 27, 2023



https://allvoices.co › blog › what-a...

What Are Job Competencies and Why Do They Matter? - AllVoices

But this is the same thing in a relationship...

[pashterlengkap]

Hundreds of diverse “not approved” books found trashed at elementary school

Hundreds of books were recently found in the trash outside a Staten Island elementary school. The books were in boxes labeled “not approved” and were filled with stories featuring LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and people of color. East Flatbush resident Holly Spiegel reported the discovery to Gothamist after a neighbor who worked near the Henry Boehm School told her to take the books for the little free libraries she manages. Related: Alabama advances more extreme version of its Don’t Say Gay law: It’s “almost like bullying” The bill’s sponsor wants to “send a message” that LGBTQ+ issues are not appropriate. Spiegel was shocked to discover sticky notes on the books explaining why they had not been approved. Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Daily * Weekly * Good News * A note on The Derby Daredevils stated it was not approved because it “discusses dad being transgender” and “teenage girls having a crush on another girl in class.” One of the children’s books, Julian is a Mermaid, said “boy questions gender.” On a book entitled We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know, a note declared, “negative slant on white people.” And one about a boy living on the U.S.-Mexico border said, “Our country has no room and it’s not fair.” The city education department is reportedly investigating the situation, as there is no record of any formal book challenges at the school. Records only show that a part-time librarian had asked about the book challenging process. “The books aren’t getting into the hands of kids who would identify with the characters,” Spiegel said, “but they’re also not getting into the hands of kids whose worldview would be broadened by reading about people who aren’t like them.” Parents at the school have also spoken out against banning the books. “I don’t know why the books would be thrown out,” said Alissa Barakakos. “I want my kid to be a part of the school community where everything is open and honest and kids are being educated.” “I don’t believe in banning books at all,” said Angela Hartje, who has a third grader. One advocate – Natasha Capers, the director of the Coalition for Educational Justice – was outraged about a trashed Black Panther book being labeled “Witchcraft? Human skulls.” “You read Shakespeare, and [“Macbeth”] starts out with three witches around a cauldron,” she said. “Hamlet,” she noted, “is legitimately talking to a skull.” The controversy is considered one of the first related to book banning in New York City. Until now, the liberal enclave has largely remained immune to the right-wing attacks on book accessibility across the country. The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, has made it clear she supports LGBTQ+ rights and has continued to stand up for transgender people. James’s office also recently called on Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to rescind his February 22 executive order banning the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Museums from issuing permits to women’s and girls’ sports teams that include transgender athletes.  And in March 2023, amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ protests at all-ages Pride events and drag performances, James hosted a Drag Story Hour at Manhattan’s LGBTQ Center. After anti-LGBTQ+ protesters, including members of the Proud Boys, clashed with supporters outside the event, James’s office released a statement saying that part of the point of the Drag Story Hour was to “condemn hate and combat rampant disinformation.” http://dlvr.it/T4ZW9w

[yourcousinthrockmortonskates]

Ok, I'll say it.

I don't agree with Dr. Kohen. He gives his definition of genocide and then says that Israel is not committing a genocide... by that simplified definition.

I think it's entirely neglectful and irresponsible to not walk through the full definition of a genocide when discussing a topic like this. Because not all massacres are genocides, and not all genocides require there to be massacres. I find stating that Israel is not committing a genocide so matter of factly, as Dr. Kohen did in class, is disrespectful of previous discussions about the situation in Israel and disagreements in the definition of genocide academically. Had I known that's where we were going to start - I would have had my notes ready. But alas. I'm not going to start arguing unprepared with the professor when he holds all the cards. I only had my notes prepared once we started talking about conspiracy theories, and by then I didn't want to derail the conversation. However, I am not the only one to think that the current situation is or will progress into a genocide if Israel does not stop.

To actually look at the full definition of a genocide according to the UN and how it relates to the situation in Gaza, we have to look at the UN's Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. First, I want to look at these notes included at the end of the linked webpage.

The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element. Importantly, the victims of genocide are deliberately targeted - not randomly – because of their real or perceived membership of one of the four groups protected under the Convention (which excludes political groups, for example). This means that the target of destruction must be the group, as such, and not its members as individuals. Genocide can also be committed against only a part of the group, as long as that part is identifiable (including within a geographically limited area) and “substantial.”

I include this particular section of the convention because I think it is part of the reason the actions of Israel are not now being recognized as a genocide. Israel not so secretly wants to eliminate Hamas - and officials like Herzog are willing to let civilians pay for the crimes of Hamas since they have "missiles in their kitchens". However, even if every single civilian in Gaza was a member of or supported Hamas, Hamas is not a recognized group that can be genocided, whether you see them as terrorists, a militant Palestinian party, or freedom fighters.

So then the intent of eradicating Palestinians has to be proven... but Israel isn't stupid. Outside of the wild rightwingers like Ben-Gvir (who has since stated he just wants to kill all terrorists and not all Arabs.... sure), Israeli officials are not going to explicitly and openly state that all Palestinians are unwelcome and should be eliminated from Israel. But it's clear those ideas are not entirely unwelcome - after all, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Gallant have made it this far. The more tolerable and outwardly agreeable officials are going to make it farther. That does not mean, however, that the intent is not there. While I'm sure the UN is not planning to condemn Israel for committing a genocide soon, I also don't see a whole lot of condemnation for the genocide of Uyghurs in China or Native Americans in United States history, at least not to point of calling it what it is - a genocide. The genocidal and dehumanizing rhetoric of some Israeli leaders may just be a loud minority, but how many leaders of a state have to commit to these statements before we condemn the state? Actions also speak louder than words, and far more innocent civilians are dying and will die from continued bombing or a ground invasion than Hamas terrorists. We've talked about it in class - Hamas leaders are not relaxing in the poor conditions of Gaza.

Here's the qualifications as defined by the UN's Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

I'll address this piece by piece

a. Killing members of the group:

I don't think that anyone would disagree that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians since the Nakba, and the military power of Israel greatly outmatches Palestine. These deaths have only drastically escalated since the attack by Hamas. According to Reuters, 3,785 Palestinians in Gaza have died since October 7th.

b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

I don't really want to go into detail on bodily, but bombs are not good for human bodies. Some bombs might be from Hamas, but there's also an awful lot from Israel. These bombs cause harm to people's bodies, directly and indirectly.

The mental harm needs to be discussed more though. There is extremely high numbers of PTSD, anxiety, and other conditions caused by the sheer duress of the living conditions in Israel occupied territories, both Gaza and West Bank. These is affecting children more than one. A survey in 2010 found at least 25% middle school aged Palestinian children to be suicidal. After a series of attacks in 2021, 9/10 Gazan children had conflict-related trauma. I'm sure Israeli children are traumatized after the recent attack, just as any person would be after having to hide, but especially at an age where they can't understand it fully - but for Palestinian children, this trauma has been their entire life, their entire parents lives, and it possibly their grandparents. All these articles are before the most recent siege on Gaza too. The mental health of children in Gaza is going to destroy the lives of so many that manage to survive the physical attacks.

c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

This is seen less in the more well-known cases of genocide - so let me propose one more close to home. I think the conditions of our southern border constitute a genocide of immigrants. Illegal or not, they are people looking for a new home in the United States. Walls and border patrol funnel migrants to a specific area - the Sonoran Desert. This is a dry, deadly trek, and desperate people make the attempt with little preparation. But that's the intention. The design might be a form of deterrence, but it also seeks to condemn anyone foolish enough to try and illegally immigrate to the United States. Thousands have died and been left unidentified in the desert, never to return to their loved ones without a name to the body.

As we've discussed in class, the living conditions of Gaza are horrible. And this is due in part to Hamas's control of the area. However, the role of Israel in contributing to these conditions should not be ignored. It was not Hamas that created the blockades of Gaza, though Israel and Egypt can sure use them as an excuse. And the destruction of residential areas with only a fifteen minute warning by Israeli weapons was not Hamas.

Hussam Nabhan, an eyewitness to the attack, told Amnesty International he had received a call he believed to be from an Israeli intelligence officer at around 6pm, saying residents of the building had 15 minutes to evacuate. Hussam told the caller that there were people with disabilities in the building and they needed more time, but the caller just repeated the warning.  After the strike, 22-year-old Haneen Nabhan was so traumatized she found it hard to talk, saying that her wheelchair had been buried under the rubble of her home so she could no longer move around independently.  Research by Amnesty International found no evidence that the Nabhan building – and other residential buildings destroyed or damaged during the last two days of the offensive – had been used to store weapons or any other military equipment or that rockets had been launched from their direct vicinity.

d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within this group

The living conditions of Gaza is not the kind someone would want to bring children into. It's also hard to give safe births with a understaffed and damaged hospitals or when the hospitals left do not have clean water or electricity.

e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another

An example of this in the North America would be Native American children and residential schools. The history of these institutions in the United States and Canada is horrendous - the anecdotes of what children were forced to go through as well as the erasure of their culture cannot be dismissed in discussions of genocide. There is the proposed distinction between culture and ethnicity, instead making something like the erasure of a culture to be ethnocide rather than genocide. Regardless of the vocabulary chosen, it is a horrible thing to do to any human and violates their freedom and autonomy. Some children in residential schools never returned to their families and they were forced to assimilate. I appreciate this artwork from a man who survived a the Blue Quills Indian Reservation School in Canada - I had the pleasure to see it in person last year; I've included my own image below so it is more clear, but the artist lists all he has lost: his parents, his grandparents, his traditional beliefs, and he left with a broken spirit.

In the case of Palestine, it is not as clear as residential schools. However, these children may be deprived of parents because of high incarceration rates (1/5 Palestinians are arrested and charged under military orders) or because children are detained by the IDF. Being arrested as a child is traumatizing enough, but many children detained experience abuse.

In conclusion... I think it's rash to dismiss the actions of Israel as "not a genocide." Sure, if you look at it with the small lens of the past few weeks, maybe. But with a wider perspective... If anyone was committed to the safety of Palestinians in Israel's government, there would not have to have been a terrorist attack to ignite a response from Israel. There should have already been response, and more than the slow paced progress that had been happening. The current response of bombing supposed Hamas centers is not going to eliminate Hamas. And any kind of dismissal of a ceasefire because then what will happen with the hostages is ridiculous - Israel does not care about the hostages, and they have killed hostages in their bombing. They can say it is a mission to safely save the captives, but again, actions speak louder than words, and bombing areas where captives are being held and not negotiating for their return will not result in a safe return for hostages. These collective punishments will not erase Hamas, and the primary victims of this are Palestinian and Israeli hostages who cannot stop it. Opening the Rafah Crossing for aid is a great step in the right direction, but one step is not going to bring peace.

This does not mean Israel shouldn't exist. States can commit genocides and still exist, I mean check out the US that I critiqued earlier. I agree that having a state that is welcome and safe to Jewish people is important - and Israel seems like the the best route for that at this point. It should not be at the cost of other people's rights to also safely exist in the only place they've ever known.

[thedeviljudges]

i guess it kinda depends, though? 'cause i have a real issue pronouncing Gaon, like it takes a whole ass moment for my brain and mouth to figure it out and even then it comes out really awkward and butchered, and i wouldn't want to spend a whole podcast trying to get through that + butchering a name while trying to have a discussion. like if it was someone from South Korea trying to talk about an American show and needing to use an easier part of an American character's name I'd rather them do that than struggle the whole time and I don't think we'd judge them for it the way we judge Americans for mispronunciations. There's laziness and there's real difficulty is my point I suppose

which I totally agree and I get to an extent; context very much matters here! For me, that is also someone’s /name/, though. that’s who someone is, and I get it’s a character but I hate hate hate when people have to give that up when someone doesn’t even try. It’d be one thing to try and say hey, not gonna continue to get it wrong bc that’s just inconsiderate so I’ll refer to him as Kim from here on out but I don’t think that was the case and so I think it’s really dependent on the situation, and I should’ve made the clearer!! gaon’s name is something I can struggle with too bc I have to remember but when I think about it, me stalling or staying it wrong then correcting myself feels much more respectful (to me) than ignoring even trying at all?? that’s where my post was coming from - not saying you always have to get it right esp when it comes to actual linguistics that can be so subtle that one native language speaker may not pick up on when listening to another language.

so totally get your point and appreciate it!! like I said, I agree with that and my biggest thing is just to try and then make an appropriate decision after to go from there.

[transformers0]

The Milagro Debacle and Her Legacy, or Lack Thereof

(This article is taken from the Spirit Riding Free subreddit, under a post that I submitted under my Reddit alias, BoomerangHorseGuy. Some parts of the article have been lengthened for further description and clarification, when compared to the original article.)

Here, I shall discuss the character of Milagro Navarro-Prescott, from the show Spirit Riding Free, and how the show ultimately disrespected her, her legacy, her people, and her culture.

For the first few seasons of Spirit Riding Free, Milagro was a big presence in Lucky's life and character arc, even if her presence was just a posthumous legacy recounted to Lucky by her father Jim, and later on by Fito and Estrella, her mother’s adoptive parents.

Then, following on from the big arc of Season 4, Milagro gets slowly overtaken by Jim’s second love, Kate Flores, in terms of importance. And not just overtaken, but overlooked in favor of Kate.

And it's done in the most disrespectful way.

Instead of Kate accepting that Milagro and the circus folks (Fito and Estrella) who took in and raised Milagro as a child are part of the Prescott family, she can't accept that and wants to get away from that, unwilling to accept life with the Prescotts feeling that, paraphrasing Kate's words, she cannot replace Milagro.

First digression here. It is outright horrible that Kate wanting to be part of the Prescott family equates to her wanting to supplant Milagro's place in the family.

What's worse is that Jim Prescott, who is usually written as a great father, suddenly becomes severely out of character and doesn't stand up for Milagro's memory. He lets Kate and her selfishness pull him away from Lucky's debut circus performance and her and Spirit's tribute to Milagro.

And there is no onscreen apology from Jim or Kate to Lucky for this. Nor does Kate ever learn to accept Milagro and El Circus Dos Grillos as part of the family. Meanwhile, Lucky is told she is selfish for being angry about this, even though her Dad abandoned her performance, and Kate is pretty much showing that she wants nothing to do with Milagro or El Circus Dos Grillos.

Lucky has every right to be angry here. And she had every right to run away.

Conveniently, the circus never makes an appearance in the show again after Season 5, outside of a visit to Miradero for a second performance in the online YouTube shorts, but guess what? Jim and Kate are nowhere to be seen, nor do they attend Lucky and her friends' second circus performance in Miradero.

Going off the rails here for a bit, but yeah, the show's handling of Mexican and Native American characters was kind of poor. We can talk about Mixtli another time, since the Mexican characters are more relevant here.

The show never allows Lucky to deeply connect with her Mexican heritage. She's pretty much shamed and scolded by Pru and Abigail for choosing the Mexican circus over her family. But guess what? The circus is her family too, and Kate, despite wanting to be part of the family, doesn't want anything to do with the circus. And Kate managed to pull Jim away with her.

In the end, Lucky gives up her passion for joining the circus and following in her mother's footsteps to be stepdaughter to an entitled white lady.

Here are a list of other things which make Kate look bad:

Accusing Lucky of sabotaging other students' projects, and not listening to Lucky's explanation that Maricela's the one doing so. (Lucky and the Competition Conundrum)

Lies to her students about the contents of a field trip, and gives Lucky detention for bringing Spirit along even though Lucky and Spirit help salvage the situation and prevent Kate's reputation as a teacher from going down the drain. (Lucky and the Field Trip Fraud)

Leaves the classroom and her students during school time to go smooching Jim, then has the gall to get angry at her students for leaving their seats when she returns. (Lucky and the Field Trip Fraud)

Unable to stop students from bullying Lucky. (The first novel, and Lucky and the Field Trip Fraud.)

Unable to stop and rein in misbehaving students (Snips) and bullies (Maricela, before maturing) in general.

Maricela somehow has the most "Student of the Month" awards in the early seasons, despite her snobbish rudeness.

Preaches about being inclusive and not leaving others behind — even though she wants to exclude Milagro and El Circus Dos Grillos from her life with the Prescotts. (Lucky and the Jam Jam)

I'm sure that's not all of it, but those are the biggest things that bug me about how Kate is written — and yet she supposedly deserves Jim's love and Lucky's acceptance.

Going back to Milagro, since all the other points of interest I've brought up can be examined in more depth in future posts, outside of her being Lucky's mother, Jim's first wife, and a circus performer, not much else is explored about her.

She only speaks during the flashbacks in the final two episodes of Season 4, and the only parts of her life that are shown onscreen are her running away from her arranged marriage and joining the circus. Her adventures with Jim before she gave birth to Lucky are mentioned from time to time during the early seasons, but stop altogether after Kate joins the family.

We never see how Milagro and Jim met (outside of the first novel), nor do we see Milagro giving birth to Lucky. Nor do we see or know exactly how Milagro died (for all of its wrongs, at least Spirit Untamed confirmed that Milagro died in a circus performance accident) or the immediate aftermath of it.

We don't even get to see Milagro's biological parents.

In contrast, Jim's father makes several appearances throughout the show. We get to see what Jim's mother looks like in a family photo. Kate's pregnancy and Polly's birth is shown (but we couldn't get flashbacks of pregnant Milagro and Lucky's birth for whatever reason).

And when Jim's father dies, we see the immediate aftermath of it — Cora and Lucky breaking down emotionally, and Lucky regretting not reconciling fully with her paternal grandfather.

(James Prescott Senior seems more relevant to the overall plot than Fito — Milagro's adoptive father — for crying out loud!)

Heck, even Julian (one of the Lucky’s cousins on her father’s side of the family) annoying the hell out of Lucky gets way more focus than Lucky's friendship and kinship with Solana, another Mexican friend and also Lucky's adoptive cousin, since Solana and her unnamed parents (the parents are only mentioned in the novel Pru's Diary) are under the care of Fito and Estrella.

And it doesn't end there. Poor Milagro's legacy still gets crapped on even more by the show and the writers.

Lucky is never taught the Spanish language by any of the surviving adults in her family, even though the Prescott family is wealthy enough to hire a tutor.

Lucky never learns how to cook Spanish foods. She tries in one episode, but mostly makes an epic fail out of it and doesn't even get to eat what she does manage to cook in the end.

As mentioned above, Lucky ends up being forced to choose the white, Prescott-Flores side of the family and has to give up pursuing her dreams to be a circus performer with the Mexican side of the family.

I'll repeat again to emphasize the horribleness of the situation: Lucky is forced to choose between her mother's side of the family, and her father's side of the family, and ultimately is shamed and scolded into giving up her mother's side of the family in favour of her father's side.

That is fricking horrible.

And lastly, there's Javier. Lucky's Mexican friend, and eventual boyfriend.

After Javier's appearances in Season 2, he's also pretty much shafted.

After Javier invites Lucky to one of his trick-riding performances, Jim shuts down the idea of Lucky going. And that is Javier's only appearance in Season 3.

He makes one in appearance in Season 5, and the episode he was in was alright — one of the show's best episodes, in fact.

But then comes his final appearance in Season 6. He offers Lucky a spot in the trick-riding performance for the New Year's Celebrations, but Lucky is unable to commit due to juggling so many commitments, which Javier is disappointed by, but ultimately ends up understanding Lucky's position (he's such a good friend and boyfriend, by the way — that is peak soulmate material).

So not only does Lucky fail to learn Mexican cooking in that very same episode, she doesn't have time to engage in the trick-riding passion that she shares with her mother and her boyfriend.

And despite ending the episode with Lucky and Javier's first kiss and the official start of their relationship as girlfriend and boyfriend, that is where Javier makes his last appearance in the show.

Season 6 is where the last of the Mexican characters — with the exception of Lucky, for obvious reasons — leave the show.

(It must be noted that the Mexican characters all have links to Milagro, aside from being Mexican. El Circus Dos Grillos took Milagro in after she ran away from home as a child. Solana is a fan of Milagro's stunts and helped Lucky learn more of her mother's moves. Javier taught Lucky the basics of trick-riding so that she could start following in her mother's footsteps.)

Not only does this whole debacle look suspiciously like racism on the part of the writers, it has a disturbing amount of unhealthy family dynamics and adult-child interactions with unfortunate implications.

(What's worse is that the wrongdoings aren't blatantly and openly bad. Instead, they are insidious and subtle and hard to notice.)

At the heart of this matter, Milagro Navarro-Prescott, and the legacy she left behind to her only child, were all disrespected by the show and the writers.

I love the show, and I still love it despite some of its biggest flaws.

But to sum this post up, this isn't a gushing post of praise.

This is a harsh critique of one of the show's biggest failings.

I hope people can still love the show in spite of these particular failings.

But I won't sugarcoat the fact that these are failings nonetheless. And huge ones at that.

In the end, when all is said and done, the debacle with Milagro, Kate, and the show's treatment of Mexican characters shows that the world still has a long way to go when it comes to writing people of colour with respect.

— — — — — —

Below are links to the Tumblr posts that gave me the energy and devotion to write this critique.

https://www.tumblr.com/transformers0/695817826241560576/i-think-the-show-is-alright-most-of-the-things

https://www.tumblr.com/transformers0/695822447894757376/honestly-i-enjoy-spirit-riding-free-as-a-guilty

— — — — — —

And here is my original, unedited post on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SpiritRidingFree/comments/12kjteb/the_milagro_debacle_and_her_legacy_or_lack_thereof/

[kiyrian]

Cw: trans/homophobia

I work/study at university in the psychology department. What fucks me up is the amount of transphobia and homophobia is in this supposedly scientific community. While in abstract i knew that there were anty-lgbt psychologists bc someone has to write those misleading or outright lying articles it was always just... Somewhere out there. Not here, right? But once I started transition and changed my name the shit show started. Mind you my native language genders every verb so once I start talking my pronounce are known and when someone talks to me or a group of women including me i also know.

So I'm not counting mistakes, stumbles or situation where someone just assumed but changed their tune once I told them. Those things hurt but are manageable. What did fuck me up:

- watching a lecturer nod along with the false data about the amounts of detransitions in US and how this means that my countries lack of transition standards is the right call

- being told by another researcher that everyone is both homophobic and transphobic as a way to explain why she time and time again ignored my pronounce. And she didn't mean any "fear of the unknown" or "a lot of people are" - which we could discuss. No it was "you know deep inside all people ARE"

- hearing how LGBT people are the ones stopping progress in scientific community bc we harm free speech

- let's not get into the amount of weird ideas without any actual proof i heard while studying evolutionary psychology

- LGBT families do not exist. Don't know if you heard but we do not. Additionally trans people especially do not exist. We don't include them in the surveys not bc they aren't the target participants - which would make sense in certain studies. No, I've been told not to include the open question of gender or sexuality bc we only need two options. And we do not learn about other models of family than American dream one from the 60s

- the outdated information about sexuality and gender. Only people who want to transition full way are the real trans people. The difference between sexuality and gender? Who knows

I won't rage more bc it's just going to ruin my day. The thing is i live in Eastern Europe, in Poland. From the tv i hear that I'm not a person, I'm an ideology. I hear that depending on the hour people decide their gender to be "cool". That the suicides of LGBT people are not something we should care about - opinion of the fucking president after he said we do not exist and someone showed him pictures of gay young adults who did exist. Who died because this fucking country wants us to die. To disappear.

And then i go o my place of work, to a fucking university and hear that it's a normal opinion to have

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