#and laws against child exploitation

[furiousgoldfish]

abusive parents: in the 'real' world--

me: ah yes, because your house where you force children into submission is an imaginary land, devoid of reality, a fantasy place where nobody has experienced an actual real-life event, and you yourself have transported this place out of reality only for me to be able to experience this imaginary world where you are the god and decide whats real and what isn't, as well as what past events can be revisioned to your liking. Which one of us isn't living in the real world again.

[they-call-me-hippie]

I hate those baseless "Big Brand is covering up their bad business practices by doing a PR stunt!!" posts because 1. you're wrong and 2. you're wrong

[antianakin]

"The Jedi repress their emotions!"

Actually, that's Anakin!

"The Jedi have unhealthy relationships with people!"

Actually, that's Anakin!

"The Jedi are too embroiled in politics to truly be able to help people!"

Anakin is literally in the pocket of the Chancellor and continuously insists that they have to abide by the law while multiple other Jedi, particularly Council members, generally try to avoid that whenever possible in order to better help people on the mission.

"The Jedi aren't involved in politics enough to truly be able to help people!"

Despite living in the Chancellor's pocket, Anakin literally has no idea how the political system works as evidenced by his criticism of it in AOTC and TCW "Heroes on Both Sides." By contrast, we see that Ahsoka has clearly gotten an education in politics and has been taught that it's important to be involved in politics in order to try to keep corruption from happening, an education good enough that she's literally capable of teaching other kids her own age about it. It's also the Jedi who we see actively recognizing that Palpatine is corrupt and choosing the do something about it, unlike Anakin who just keeps making excuses for Palpatine.

"The Jedi didn't fight enough for the clones!"

The Jedi are the ONLY ones we EVER see fighting for the clones in ANY WAY. We see Jedi criticize EACH OTHER for negative treatment of the clones, we see Jedi fight back against the Kaminoans to save the clones, and we see Jedi literally dying to protect the clones. Yoda himself makes the argument to trust the clones after they discover that the clones are probably a Sith trap for the Jedi. There is NO ONE ELSE who ever fights for the clones at all, but the Jedi are seen to do so MULTIPLE TIMES. And I will note that aside from fighting on the battlefield with them, none of these examples include Anakin, who is frequently seen to EXPLOIT his own men, particularly Rex, for his own selfish agendas.

"The Jedi steal babies!"

This has been debunked over and over again by people with more resources than me, but guess who actually DOES steal children? If you guessed Anakin, YOU'D BE RIGHT! And according to the multiple people who gave me examples last time I asked (thank you to all of you who did so), he specifically steals a baby FROM A FORMER JEDI. He also literally helps torture captured Jedi children into becoming Jedi hunters and keeps the body of a Jedi child as a trophy.

[bookofbonbon]

strut: in the snow - coriolanus snow.

Characters: Coriolanus Snow x Reader.

Summary: Secrets are discovered, deals bartered and announcements made.

Word Count: 800+

A/N: Curious if this will make people regret their choice on the poll lol.

Your employee file proves to be almost entirely useless to Coriolanus; though the file was thick, the majority of it had been redacted, large chunks of information scrubbed out in thick, black, blocks. He learned part of it was because of Capitol laws that had come into place to prevent the exploitation of child labour; not that that had done anything to protect you. 

The other part being your participation in highly classified projects that required the highest levels of security clearance to gain access too, information that wouldn’t be lying around in a  regular old employee file in the back of the Archives. 

Your file was a mess quite frankly and clearly no one had bothered to do a thorough check of it, only adding in new pieces of information as required.

Almost entirely useless but, still he’d learn three things of high value about  you:

You had been in the Capitol for as long as Sejanus and the Plinth family however, judging from the photograph attached to your file, even longer - something told Coriolanus the photograph had been an oversight and should not have been in your file.

You’d been officially employed by the War Department at 15, primarily working in the Capitol’s Experimental Weapons Division under Dr. Volumnia Gaul - doing what? He was unsure. 

Four years later, you’d transfer out of the Experimental Weapons Division - almost immediately after Sejanus’s death - remaining in The War Department but now, in the private sector of Munitions and under the tutelage of your uncle; coming out of the shadows and making yourself known to Capitol society - Coriolanus just couldn’t figure out why; there had to be more to it than just him. 

Despite the limited and missing pieces of information however, Coriolanus was able to put one important truth together: Strabo Plinth was once notoriously known for his refusal to supply The Capitol with munitions in The First Rebellion. His stance however, had taken an unexpected and dramatic turn as he began to supply The Capitol with military weapons in droves. None knew what caused the sudden change of heart in stubborn Strabo Plinth but many assumed it was the first-class ticket it bought the Plinth family to Capitol Citizenship - given his new discoveries, Coriolanus knew that this was not the case, it had something to do with you.

It's what brings him to the door of Strabo Plinth’s office in the early hours of the morning. Strutting past the older man, the threat you posed to Coriolanus and his claim to the Plinth Munitions Empire; that loomed largely over him was about to grow smaller as he prepared to leverage his newly discovered secrets (and ambiguous claims) about you to his advantage and bring you to heel. 

-

Your footsteps are hard and heavy, striking loudly against the marbled floors and echoing throughout the empty university hallway. Most students had gone home for the day and the sun was long gone from the sky - not that you noticed, eyes focused only on the ballistics report in your hands; you had been waiting for it in anxious anticipation all day and finally it confirmed what you already knew to be true.

So, focused however, you don’t notice the figure creeping in the shadows until she makes herself known-

“Trapped in the Snow, she is- trapped in the Snow and she doesn’t even know, she is trapped in the Snow and she doesn’t even know there is nowhere she can…”

Go, you think, but don’t say it aloud. 

“Volumnia,” you close the file, not appreciating what sounded to be a veiled threat. “I hope you’re not still upset about me killing the upgrades to your laboratory. I’m sure you can understand why it had to be done.” 

She laughs her usually maniacal laugh, quietly, her hands pressed together as if she knows something you don’t. 

It unsettles you in ways it had never done before. 

- and she doesn’t even know - 

You straighten your back, all senses on high alert - something was wrong, something was very wrong. 

“Come to kill me like you did my cousin,” you eye her wearily, waiting for her to pull one of her mutts out from one of the many pockets of her clinical looking dress. 

She laughs again, louder this time. 

“You insult me, Miss Plinth, you know very well that I prefer to take my enemies out in a spectacle,” she tuts at you. 

“So then why are you here? You never just show up somewhere, there’s always a reason.”

“There is always a reason,” she repeats with a smile and speaking in rhyme. “Why I only came to congratulate you on the new season… he only just told me a few moments ago, so glad I am, to be one of the first to know - given the role I have played in your life, it seemed only right I congratulate the soon to be wife .”

“Who? What are you…” you trail off, blood draining from your face. “What are you talking about?’

She smiles wide, all her teeth showing. 

“Your engagement of course, to Coriolanus-

- and she doesn’t even know she is trapped in the - 

Snow.”

-

All fics are my own work - I have not posted my work anywhere else.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/places mentioned above.

Do not copy. Do not translate. Do not repost.

bookofbonbon 2023. All rights reserved.

[hadesoftheladies]

the fucking GALL of racist radfems to claim that men of colour are more misogynistic and violent than white men because of culture is incredible! "immigrant men of colour are more likely to assault white women because of sharia law" like please show me the stats?! and tell me why this is 100% a cultural thing and not a class thing while you're at it. no one is telling you to trust any man, but the idea that men of colour are just culturally more barbaric is not only untrue but deeply offensive. the idea that child marriage is purely a brown people thing is so laughable i can't fathom it. it is borderline gaslighting women of colour by saying that white men are socialized to somehow be more humane because of "european culture."

after all, most sex tourists/serial rapists are white men and most serial killings are committed by white men. which better demographic to get away with sexual violence against lesser humans like the coloureds? :) we all know that the richer men are the more they use that freedom to exploit and victimize. what do you think your little storm troopers the government sent to our backyards are doing? keeping peace? :) not raping innocent women and children here while they train for a war your emperors will invent? :) are white men just more evolved or are white women just better protected by their financial status? fucking morons.

but more egregious than anything is the complete lack of accountability when it comes to white culture. y'all LOVE to talk about how european/western culture is all about ethics and scientific discovery and progress and IT'S A FUCKING JOKE. white supremacy is white culture. imperialism is white culture. pornography is white culture. incest is white culture. colonialism is white culture. consumerism is white culture. who do you think enforced patriarchy on egalitarian, matrilineal and matrifocal indigenous people groups? like wHitE cULtuRe is one of the most violent things to happen to this planet and the human race. white culture is holy wars and grand conquests. white culture is brute force and large-scale violence for the sake of the elite.

white so called radical feminists LOVE to argue like men so often, throwing the "but where would the rest of you be without our accomplishments?" FUCK YOU. The answer is not so fucking traumatized and probably more populous! the sun wouldn't be this hot. our wildlife wouldn't be so diminished (your white men love hunting our wildlife for sport and prestige). our people wouldn't be so poor and sick. and yes, even our men wouldn't be so violent if white men weren't spreading pornography propaganda in every media outlet. "where would you be without the suffragettes?" (tell me how that's different from "women wouldn't have rights if we hadn't allowed it") we wouldn't have needed the suffragettes if your fucking grandfathers hadn't landed on our shores with guns and bibles. what, you think we just sat in the sun and diddled ourselves for centuries? you think we didn't have philosophy, medicine, language or science before you? you think we were just stagnating in a marsh, waiting for some guy called John to tell us how to make clothes and teach us hygiene? are white cultures the only ones capable of progressing? you think the only way humans would have been able to make smartphones is if a white person did it?

culture my FUCKING ASS.

[soundbulb]

I'm not saying this because I actually have beef with anyone who wrote posts like this, but I just saw a true detective post that was talking about how poetic it was that rust cohle covers for marty when he kills ledoux because cohle was thrust into deep undercover narcotics for killing someone, and how he jumps to protect marty because he was left alone with self loathing and the severity of undercover gang work during this period, and he won't let that happen to marty. and this to me is a pretty good example of how fandoms woobify their favorite man at the expense of the actual themes of the story.

both rust and marty murder people and get away with it. we can obviously say that their victims deserved it for committing crimes against children, but that's pretty irrelevant given you're not allowed to legally kill someone out of retribution. if a regular person finds the kids and shoots ledoux, they go to prison. but rust and marty are police, not regular people. if you wanna know the line that's actually connected to rust's story of emptying a clip into a man, and marty killing ledoux, it's "of course I'm dangerous. I'm police. I can do terrible things with impunity." and more on that later.

but the undercover position wasn't penance, it was law enforcement trying to both cover for rust and exploit his act of violence. rust is, quite literally, still doing his job only now doing it with even less constraint. when he displays a capacity for unrestrained violence, they promote him to a position where this violence is a boon. when he's ready to cover for marty regardless of reason, this is not to me an emotional catharsis, but the reality that cops view themselves and each other as above the laws the selectively enforce, even to the detriment and death of others, and have the institution that purports justice cover for them because they're homoousian as that institution. even rust, who everyone hates. in the same way the mayor and the superchurch pastor can get away with killing marie fontenot and hurting all the other people rust interviews; they are the institution that protects them.

this is why it's important in the end that they don't get to catch anyone powerful or notable within that institution, with a literal fringe inbred strain of the childress family as the only one that ever sees any consequence. it's also why it's thematically important that rust and marty aren't cops when they do it and they specifically have to work against the police.

theriot leaves his religious position, and reveals in his 2002 interview that while in the seminary he found pictures of child abuse, and this is what cumulates in his departure from the tent revival. an implied whistle blower who came forward, or would come forward, about the abuse in the christian schools dies in a car "accident" in his 2002 interview with tuttle. the institutions weed out or hunt down those who won't cover for their exploitation of authority. on multiple levels, the story is showing you who is allowed to be protected by these institutions and who isn't. who is "chum in the water" and who isn't. in 1995 rust and marty are protected, but when rust realizes he's part of the system that's killing dora lang and marie fontenot and countless other women -- what he calls the sprawl -- his refusal to cover for it revokes his protections.

I really don't think it's supposed to be character catharsis when we watch them contrive this heroic epic tale of facing down certain death, and then we cut to them, off duty, cornering a naked man out of the shower and shooting him on a whim when he's already cuffed and kneeling. obviously no ones hurting for ledoux, or the offscreen man rust shot, but this isn't the tale of fate helping them thwart evil they told. they bolster the mythos of police as the barrier between darkness and the rest of the world, while the anticlimax of their very banal abuse of power plays out. if you want the actual parallel to marty and rust's ledoux story, it isn't one where rust is the person he needed or anything like that, it's when marty breaks into lisa's home and assaults her and her date. it's when rust is alone in a motel room with the blonde woman buying his quaaluudes, and the scene has him loom heavily on his half of the frame as we cut between him bathed in shadow and green light, and her covered with bruises. alone in this room he could hurt or kill her, she even says she thinks he's dangerous. then as we watch him get closer, standing over her and looking down on her dispassionately, we know the only reason nothing will happen to her is his lack of interest. he's still imposing as the camera shifts under him, and the scene ends with him looking down at us and her, saying "of course I'm dangerous. I'm police. I can do terrible things with impunity." it's marty huffing his own paint, thinking he's a big strong hero, a "real man", and beating the shit out of the men he caught his daughter with, then going out to his car and vomiting from fear.

I get that rust cohle is memed on, like very babygirl-ified. but this to me begins to favor him as a personal figure of comfort rather than a character in a story that's interested in the way institutional power interacts with and exploits the unknowable and unpredictable powers of our world. I do like thinking about the emotional lives of these characters, even relating to them -- I don't shit on that instinct at all because it's the natural response to characters, especially such intense and tragic characters. but I do notice a lot of posts in these tags have a "poor rust" sentiment to them. talking about how he's used and never treated with tenderness; how he's ready to show up for marty in a way "no one showed up for him" when the reality is we are very intentionally not shown rust's past before the dora lang case, the case that is the infrastructure of our narrative, and the only detail we are given -- that he was allowed to keep his job after committing a shockingly violent murder -- says that he was sufficiently looked out for by the institutional power he would later try and fail to indict, and he in fact repeated this cover up for someone else, perpetuating over and over the cycle of violent men doing anything and never paying for it, while everyone else pays for everything just by existing.

[tamamita]

is there a defense/rebuttal against the whole "china uses child labour" claims, because thats like my only sticking point against china, since otherwise i find them to be quite based

What? As far as I know, they have strict laws against child labour in China. I recall the government having a national policy in preventing child labouring through various programs. I'm sure it's still practiced in some way, but it's mostly as a result of the private enterprises in China where mismanagement and exploitation is common. This is where I believe the government can do better by taking greater measures against private industries.

With that said, aren't they passing laws in various states of the US in an effort to legalize child labouring?

[eretzyisrael]

by Benjamin Weinthal

The previously non-reported IDF photographs of Palestinian children in combat gear reviewed by Fox News Digital show children under the age of 15. According to the U.N.'s website for Children and Armed Conflict, "Recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited under international humanitarian law – treaty and custom – and is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court."

The IDF said that "Hamas sends children for the purposes of delivering messages and ammunition. Also, children are sent to the battlefields after an attack in order to assess the damage and report it to the terrorists who are hiding in shelters."

Israel's army previously disclosed the investigation of a Hamas company commander in the "Zeytoun" battalion, who said children are used as part of the organization's fighting doctrine to deliver ammunition "with the understanding that the IDF will not harm them."

Hamas has a long history of engaging in alleged child abuse of Palestinian children to advance their terrorist agenda. The IDF's website contains a section titled "Status of Children in Gaza" that shows photographs of children immersed in the glorification of terrorism.

Fox News Digital asked Juliette S. Touma, director of communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), what the U.N. agency is doing to stop Hamas' exploitation of children. She declined to answer but said "we don't have any information on what you are sharing" with respect to photographs and reports asserting that Hamas trains children to embrace terrorism and loathe Israel.

[radfemverity]

Tucker Carlson's interview with misogynist, human trafficker and rapist Andrew Tate has been endorsed by Elon Musk, the man who brought Tate among many other reactionary and far-right commentators back to Twitter when he purchased the platform.

There is nothing spontaneous about Musk doing this, and if you're surprised then you're a fool. This has never been about upholding free speech - hence why you've never seen any of these men promote interesting left-wing thinkers.

The ‘SJW’/‘woke’/progressive Left, as unbearably annoying as so many of them are, just keep getting proven right.

They said Nick Fuentes and Kanye were Holocaust-denying anti-semites.

They said Jordan Peterson supported rapists, and didn't believe women should have legal equality.

They said Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh would use the gender critical movement to blame gay people and women for any and all degeneracies.

They said Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk's recent ‘free speech’ moves were about repositioning themselves so that they could more effectively elevate the voices of overt extremists.

Again and again, their accusations are ageing like fine wine. The reactionary right’s mask is well and fully off.

Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Joe Rogan, Konstantin Kissin, Paul Joseph Watson, Ian Miles Cheong, Andy Ngo, Michael Malice, Elijah Schaffer, Zuby, Milo Yionnopoulous, Tommy Robinson, Nick Fuentes, Kanye West, Donald Trump… obviously some of these men could dislike each other, I can't imagine Shapiro and Fuentes at the same house party.

But their ideal societies don't look too different. None of these mens’ do. Because any racial, religious or ethnic prejudices they have against each other will come second to their common-ground.

The organised reaction against this brand of progressivism that has rapidly come to monopolise every sector of public life in the last 10 years, is well and truly underway. Musk, Carlson and Tate have given us the sign. And while I pretty heavily dislike the current ‘woke’ progressive ideology (and have a lot of questions about its top-down cultural spread), I'm scared of these guys way more. And if you're anything but a straight man who doesn’t care about any demographic besides straight men, you should be too.

The reason I say ‘straight men’ and not ‘straight white men’ is because, come on, the reactionary right is more racially diverse than most left-wing groups at this point. 😂😂 White nationalists the world over have bent the knee to a mixed-race man who admitted moving to an Eastern European country because of their more lax laws on sexual assault, and in turn, the ease he would have in exploiting the local women in the country’s already active sex-trafficking trade.

White nationalists (whose role in the reactionary right cannot be discarded any more, after Trump and Kanye had a personal dinner with Nick Fuentes) feel more of an affiliation with a non-white, human trafficking violent rapist, despite evidence of his crimes having been public for a while now, than they do with his WHITE victims.

Jordan Peterson, whose daughter has revolved her entire public image around him, who works with and for him, and whose lingerie photographs were retweeted by him, made a dogwhistle in May about women having their right to vote retracted.

Examples of men devaluing the contributions and rights of the women in their families, communities and wider societies are withstanding the test of time, over and over again, because no matter where in the world they are, and no matter what tensions the different religions, cultures, ethnicities and races of men have with each other, there are traits that unite them all. Misogyny is the most obvious one.

The men of these diverse, far-reaching societies, in many ways feel far more of a kinship to each other, than they do to any woman, girl, gay person, disabled person, mother, child, or any other demographic.

The pendulum always swings back, and now that we know these men have got the owner of the world's biggest social media platform on their side, that is a major sign it could be coming soon. Be on guard and look after each other gyns ❤️

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

The Plight of Indian Widows

A woman's dignity is not her own possession. Her life is at the mercy of men around her. She is a commodity to be owned and sold first by her father then her husband. Her entire existence is tied to her servitude to those around her. After giving so much to the world, there is little life left inside of her. Yet, the world still demands her forfeit of this little life after the death of her husband. In India, a woman was expected to burn herself alive in the holy pyre of her husband's body as a show of loyalty in a practice called Sati that was outlawed in 1929(yet it is still rampant today in many rural parts of India).

With her husband no more, she must have no reason to live.Widowhood is the harbringer of acute discrimination for women in South Asia. Widows are ostracized by society and shunned by their family to live a destitute life in "Vidhwa Ashrams". Even the shadow of a widow was believed to inflict depredation and brought. They are called witches and man-eaters. They are forbidden from wearing anything but white clothes and are expected to practice strict abstinence. Widows in Afghanistan are called besarparast, meaning "household without a head". It is customary for a woman to shave off her head to appear undesirable. Her sexuality is confined, her needs and wants must die alongside her husband. Widow remarriage-although legal- is deeply stigmatized as a grave sin.

Widows are not considered to be a part of society. They can neither celebrate festivals nor travel without a religious purpose. In some extreme cases, they are made to drink the bathwater of their husbands’ dead bodies and have unprotected sex to "cleanse themselves of the sin of causing their husbands" death. Young widows also fall prey to the leering eyes of men. Child brides especially are prone to fall victim to manipulation by people around them. Men consider that since marriage has taken away her "innocence", she can now be sexually exploited.

Barring a few states, married women cannot inherit their husband's property. This lack of financial stability is the root cause of their exploitation. Most husbands leave their wives penniless. What little savings he might have had are spent on funeral rites. Relatives do not want to support her financially, considering her children and herself as excess baggage. Her parents also close the doors on her face for it is often said - "only a woman's dead body should come out of her husband's house."

This new found vulnerability makes her an easy prey for prostitution. A primary form of survival for widows is to sell their body through pimps. However, in most ashrams, they are forced to perform sexual favours by the heads of the ashram to gain money. The heads use their political power to silence the widows from raising their voice against this rape. With nowhere else to go, this cycle continues. The widows who get pregnant from this rape are "mauled by quacks for a painfully searing abortion and If that’s not done, then they would have an extra mouth to feed and an extra pair of hands to beg."

As of today, India is the abode of 42 million widows-a social class that is woefully exploited. Widows are often forced to dedicate the remaining parts of their lives to their religion. They must have no desires or wants except singing the God's praise. Widowhood for most women marks the death of their happines and social life. Although with changing times the attitude towards widows is turning positive, it is the bitter truth that the condition of widows from orthodox regions live a terrible life.

Laws protecting women are scarce- let alone widows. In India, widows are considered to be the class 1 heirs of ancestral properties. However, most of them are uneducated and unaware of the laws surrounding them. They are easily manipulated by relatives to give up their rights to the property. As for self acquired property, most men do not mention the name of their wives in their wills. After 2005, women alive on december, 2005 have a right over their father's ancestral property alongside their brothers. One must not forget that women inheriting property is still not socially acceptable in India and women who recieve property are few and far between.

To uplift widows, one must make them aware of the rights around them. Government and local NGOs should work together to organize awareness campaigns on the rights of widows. Women without capital left behind by their husbands should get a monthly stipend. "Vidhwa Ashrams" should be heavily regulated. More so, the social stigma shrouding widows must be removed. Treatment of women belonging to marginalized communities are a reflection of how dire the situation of women's rights are in India. Opening women owned women only shelters is the prime solution for the upliftment of women.

[robertreich]

Why Child Labor in America is Skyrocketing

Corporations are bringing back child labor in America.

And some Republicans want to make it easier for them to get away with it.

Since 2015, child labor violations have risen nearly 300%. And those are just the violations government investigators have managed to uncover and document.

The Department of Labor says it's currently investigating over 600 cases of illegal child labor in America. Major American companies like General Mills, Walmart, and Ford have all been implicated.

Why on Earth is this happening? The answer is frighteningly simple: greed.

Employers have been having difficulty finding the workers they need at the wages they are willing to pay. Rather than reduce their profits by paying adult workers more, employers are exploiting children.

The sad fact of the matter is that many of the children who are being exploited are considered to be “them” rather than “us” because they’re disproportionately poor and immigrant. So the moral shame of subjecting “our” children to inhumane working conditions when they ought to be in school is quietly avoided.

And since some of these children (or their parents) are undocumented, they dare not speak out or risk detention and deportation. They need the money. This makes them easily exploitable.

It’s a perfect storm that’s resulting in vulnerable children taking on some of the most brutal jobs.

Folks, we’ve seen this before.

Reformers fought to establish the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 for a reason — to curb the grotesque child labor seen during America’s first Gilded Age.

The U.S. banned most child labor.

But now, pro-business trade groups and their Republican lackeys are trying to reverse nearly a century of progress, and they're using the so-called "labor shortage" as their excuse.

Arkansas will no longer require 14 and 15 year olds to get a work permit before taking a job — a process that verified their age and required permission from a parent or guardian.

A bill in Ohio would let children work later on school nights.

Minnesota Republicans are pushing to let 16 year-olds work in construction.

And 14-year-olds in Iowa may soon be allowed to take certain jobs in meatpacking plants and operate dangerous machinery.

It’s all a coordinated campaign to erode national standards, making it even easier for companies to profit off children.

Across America, we’re witnessing a resurgence of cruel capitalism in which business lobbyists and lawmakers justify their actions by arguing that they are not exploiting the weak and vulnerable, but rather providing jobs for those who need them and would otherwise go hungry or homeless.

Conveniently, these same business lobbyists and lawmakers are often among the first to claim we “can’t afford” stronger safety nets that would provide these children with safe housing and adequate nutrition.

So what can stop this madness?

First: Fund the Department of Labor so it can crack down on child labor violations. When I was Secretary of Labor, the department was chronically underfunded and understaffed. It still is, because lawmakers and their corporate backers want it that way.  

Second: Increase fines on companies that break child labor laws. Current fines are too low, and are treated as costs of doing business by hugely profitable companies that violate the law.

Third: Hold major corporations accountable. Many big corporations contract with smaller companies that employ children, which allows the big corporations to play dumb and often avoid liability. It’s time to demand that large corporations take responsibility for their supply chains.

Fourth: Reform immigration laws so undocumented children aren’t exploited.

And lastly: Organize. Fight against state laws that are attempting to bring back child labor.

Are corporate profits really more important than the safety of children?

[iww-gnv]

After Illinois passed the country’s first law protecting child influencers last week, a feeling of optimism swept over Sarah Adams. For years, she and other advocates against child exploitation have warned about the dangers of sharing children’s lives on social media for profit. The law would ensure financial compensation for minors, defined as children under 16 years old, who are featured in vlogs, or video blogs. While Adams is not based in the U.S., she and other activists who spoke with NBC News said they are excited by the news. They believe the legislation marks a precedent that could encourage similar action in states across the country. “There is a lot of excitement that these conversations are not only being had, but that legislation is being enacted to protect the income that these kids are generating,” said Adams, a 38-year-old mother of two from Vancouver who calls out child exploitation online with her platform of more than 270,000 TikTok followers. “Because we need to be realistic: It’s the children that are generating the income for these families.” Ethical concerns around “sharenting” have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as family vloggers and parenting influencers continue to build massive followings online. Advocates have called out the harms of invading children's privacy and compromising their digital safety for clout or monetary gain, especially without informed consent.

[Read the rest]

[fatehbaz]

As early as 1700, Samuel Sewall, the renowned Boston judge and diarist, connected “the two most dominant moral questions of that moment: the rapid rise of the slave trade and the support of global piracy” in many American colonies [...]. In the course of the eighteenth century, [...] [there was a] semantic shift in the [literary] trope of piracy in the Atlantic context, turning its [...] connotations from exploration and adventure to slavery and exploitation. [...] [A] large share of Atlantic seafaring took place in the service of the circum-Atlantic slave trade, serving European empire-building in the Americas. [...] Ships have been cast as important sites of struggle and as symbols of escape in [...] Black Atlantic consciousness, from Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative (1789) and Richard Hildreth’s The Slave: or Memoir of Archy Moore (1836 [...]) to nineteenth century Atlantic abolitionist literature such as Frederick Douglass’s My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) or Martin Delany’s Blake (1859-1862). [...] Black and white abolitionists across the Atlantic world were imagining a different social order revolving around issues of resistance, liberty, (human) property, and (il)legality [...].

---

Using black pirates as figures of resistance [...], Maxwell Philip’s novel Emmanuel Appadocca (1854) emphasizes the nexus of insatiable material desire and its conditions of production: slavery. [...] [T]he consumption of commodities produced by slave labor itself was delegitimized [...]. Philip, a Trinidadian [and "illegitimate" "colored" child] [...], published Emmanuel Appadocca as a protest against slavery in the United States [following the Fugitive Slave laws of 1850.]. [...] [The novel places] at its center [...] a heroic non-white pirate and intellectual [...] [whose] pirate ship [...] [is] significantly named The Black Schooner [...]. One of the central discourses in [the book] is that of legitimacy, of rights and lawfulness, of both slavery and piracy [...]. About midway into the book, Appadocca gives a [...] speech in which he argues that colonialism itself is a piratical system:

If I am guilty of piracy, you, too [are] [...] guilty of the very same crime. ... [T]he whole of the civilized world turns, exists, and grows enormous on the licensed system of robbing and thieving, which you seem to criminate so much ... The people which a convenient position ... first consolidated, developed, and enriched, ... sends forth its numerous and powerful ships to scour the seas, the penetrate into unknown regions, where discovering new and rich countries, they, in the name of civilization, first open an intercourse with the peaceful and contented inhabitants, next contrive to provoke a quarrel, which always terminates in a war that leaves them the conquerors and possessors of the land. ... [T]he straggling [...] portions of a certain race [...] are chosen. The coasts of the country on which nature has placed them, are immediately lined with ships of acquisitive voyagers, who kidnap and tear them away [...].

In this [...], slavery appears as a direct consequence of the colonial venture encompassing the entire “civilized world,” and “powerful ships” - the narrator refers to the slavers here - are this world’s empire builders. [...] Piracy, for Philip, signifies a just rebellion, a private, legitimate [resistance] against colonial exploiters and economic inequality - he repeatedly invokes their solidarity as misfortunate outcasts [...].

---

All text above by: Alexandra Ganser. “Cultural Constructions of Piracy During the Crisis Over Slavery.” A chapter from Crisis and Legitimacy in the Atlantic American Narratives of Piracy: 1678-1865. Published 2020. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[fangirltothefullest]

Little reminder for anyone thats of voting age in the USA- election propaganda is already starting and the fear tactics will start flying.

So let's remind everyone what's been happening from Republicans recently because they try to insist they are saints and victims every election.

Republicans took away abortion laws and the human bodily right to choose whether or not you keep your baby. Whatever you believe for yourself, whether you, yourself, thinks its wrong, taking that right away from other people is cruel because it forces rape victims to have their babies, forces children to suffer, forces women to have no choice in the say of their own bodies and that just isn't right.

Republicans insisted that student debt could not be forgiven at 50k or 20k so Biden caved and settled on 10k which Republicans said would be acceptable. Republicans then decided everywhere to challenge the ruling and people are still struggling in various places to get their promised forgiveness in a lot of places.

Republicans are pushing to get rid of, and have gotten rid of, many child labour laws because instead of making businesses pay decent wages which would bring more workers they decided to bring in children which is cruel and they can easily exploit. Note! These laws were put in place to stop the exploitation of children! If a child cannot sign a legally binding contract without their parent as a witness, why the hell should they work a job like an adult?!

Republicans are choosing to ignore school shootings over and over and over again CONSISTANTLY in favour of allowing MORE guns and trying to force teachers to be armed as if that insane concept is normal. Democrats are pushing for gun reform, and Washington state has passed a ton of laws recently to regulate guns. Republicans refuse to do that and would rather our children die over and over and over again and send "thoughts and prayers" instead of doing anything about it. This has been a consistent thing since Columbine.

Republicans say Democrats are doing bad things and want to take away your rights but consistently the Republicans have been hindering progress at every turn, fighting against progressive legislation and blocking it whenever Biden and the other democrats suggest anything. This also happened during Obama's time in office.

This is not a recent thing- deregulation happened because Republicans wanted businesses to be able to do whatever they wanted. Tricklw down evonomy is fucking bullahit ans hasnt trickled down to anyone.

That republican-backed deregulation is why employers don't have to pay you right and why they treat you like a replaceable cog in the machine and why they hate unions so much.

Democratic states do have a record of preserving your rights and fighting to grow them. Take a look around right now and tell meqhich states are safer for lgbtqia+, which states are safer for people who aren't white rich white men. Take a look at which news programs are consistently using fear-filled language and fearmongering tactics and promoting fear of the other and tell mwwhich companies, which people, which white wealthy men are in control of them.

Do not let yourself be fooled. Yes democrats are also not saints. They do a lot of bullshit too. They promise to do a lot and then sort of piddle and poke and half assembly do things. But a little half-assed progress is better than regression. Small progress ia better than no progress is better than reversing progress.

They've already tested the waters and we saw how much terrible bullshit they could do, how much progress they could reverse, under Trump. You do NOT want that again. You do NOT want someone just as unhinged but only able to disguise it better.

Please stay informed, do your research and do not vote for the party that has time and time again consistently shown they want everyone to suffer but themselves.

And remember- If they were not afraid of your vote, they would not be working SO hard to suppress it.

[intheholler]

Hi, I was looking something up and thought you might like to know, if you didn't already- at one point in the mid-20th century there were so many Appalachians migrating to cities for work that Cincinnati saw fit to make it illegal to discriminate against people of Appalachian origin (and even had to maintain a document of counties in the Eastern US which counted as "Appalachian origin" lol). I suppose people's dialect was causing them to be discriminated against so harshly that something had to be done about it. As someone bred in Appalachia who lived in Cincinnati for a few years as a child and has family there still, in find it interesting.

holy shit! i had no idea!

Sec. 914-1-A1. - Appalachian Regional Origin. "Appalachian regional origin" shall mean birth or ancestral origin from that area of the eastern United States consisting of the counties listed in an Appalachian Regional Origin Document which shall be maintained on file with the Clerk of Council. (Ordained by Ord. No. 490-1992, eff. April 7, 1995)

i find this incredibly interesting, and also kinda validating. like, just the way we talk is such a barrier in people taking us seriously, and once, it was so blatantly apparent that an actual law was enacted to stop it? whoa.

i was reading a little more about it and found this really interesting article about appalachian dialect/discrimination from the appalachian journal of law!

Perhaps most noteworthy, their culture honors the oral tradition.[6] They find pride in their speech. In fact, the very way Appalachians speak is directly tied to their heritage and sense of identity.[7] Accent serves as an identifier for other Appalachians, i.e., the insider group, and outsider groups, i.e., non-Appalachians.[8] Despite their cultural distinction, Appalachians are a forgotten, invisible minority, in part, because it is their accents, rather than their physical appearance, in which they differ from mainstream Americans.[9]  However, language is “a powerful automatic signaling device second only to race to identify targets for possible privilege or discrimination.”[10] Like other minority groups, Appalachians have had their identity stolen and manipulated by outsiders.[11]  The Appalachian accent, known by some as “mountain speak,” has been interpreted as signaling undesirable and distorted traits. Appalachians are routinely stereotyped as “ignorant, lazy, uneducated, and incestuous . . . .”[12] Appalachian linguistic differences have led to economically harmful discrimination.[13] In fact, “Appalachians are statistically one of the most exploited and marginalized [sic] groups in America.”[14] However, courts have refused to protect them from hate-fueled and egregious discrimination.

a snippet of the intro. its so validating, all of this official conversation on it?

thanks so much for bringing the notion to my attention omg <3

[mariacallous]

The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday announced charges against a 35-year-old Chinese national, Yunhe Wang, accused of operating a massive botnet allegedly linked to billions of dollars in fraud, child exploitation, and bomb threats, among other crimes.

Wang, identified by numerous pseudonyms—Tom Long and Jack Wan, among others—was arrested on May 24 and is accused of distributing malware through various pop-up VPN services, such as “ProxyGate” and “MaskVPN,” and by embedding viruses in internet files distributed via peer-to-peer networks known as torrents.

The malware is said to have compromised computers located in nearly every country in the world, turning them into proxies through which criminals were able to hide their identities while committing countless crimes. According to prosecutors in the US, this included the theft of billions of dollars slated for Covid-19 pandemic relief—funds allegedly stolen by foreign actors posing as unemployed US citizens.

According to an indictment, the infected computers allegedly provided Wang’s customers with a persistent backdoor, allowing them to disguise themselves as any one of the victims of Wang’s malware. This illicit proxy service, known as “911 S5,” launched as early as 2014, the US government says.

“The 911 S5 Botnet infected computers in nearly 200 countries and facilitated a whole host of computer-enabled crimes, including financial frauds, identity theft, and child exploitation,” says FBI director Christopher Wray, who described the illicit service as “likely the world’s largest botnet ever.”

The US Treasury Department has also sanctioned Wang and two other individuals allegedly tied to 911 S5.

Wang is said to have amassed access to nearly 614,000 IP addresses in the US and more than 18 million others worldwide—collectively forming the botnet. 911 S5’s customers were able to filter the IPs geographically to choose where they’d like to appear to be located, down to a specific US zip code, the DOJ claims.

The indictment states that of the 150 dedicated servers used to manage the botnet, as many as 76 were leased by US-based service providers, including the one hosting 911 S5’s client interface, which allowed criminals overseas to purchase goods using stolen credit cards, in many cases for the alleged purpose of circumventing US export laws.

More than half a million fraudulent claims lodged with pandemic relief programs in the United States are allegedly tied to 911 S5. According to the indictment, nearly $6 billion in losses have been linked to IP addresses captured by 911 S5. Many of the IP addresses have been reportedly tied to more insidious crimes, including bomb threats and the trafficking of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM.

“Proxy services like 911 S5 are pervasive threats that shield criminals behind the compromised IP addresses of residential computers worldwide,” says Damien Diggs, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, where the charges against Wang were brought by a grand jury earlier this month.

Adds Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division: “These criminals used the hijacked computers to conceal their identities and commit a host of crimes, from fraud to cyberstalking.”

At the time of writing, it is unclear whether these virtual impersonations resulted in any criminal investigations or charges against US-based victims whose IP addresses were hijacked as part of the 911 S5 botnet. WIRED is awaiting a response from the Department of Justice regarding this concern.

According to the Justice Department, law enforcement agencies in Singapore, Thailand, and Germany collaborated with US authorities to effect Wang’s arrest.

Wang faces charges of conspiracy, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to money laundering, with a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison. The US is also seeking to seize a mountain of luxury cars and goods allegedly owned by Wang, including a 2022 Ferrari Spider valued at roughly half a million dollars as well as a Patek Philippe watch worth potentially several times that amount.