#and refuse to employ people OF THE COMMUNITY

[themoonsbeloved]

The interview panel were all white women, and as soon as they asked to see my work they started gushing about it and telling me how they've tried it on themselves before and I was internally like. Okay you're those types of white women. And then they called me to tell me that I wasn't successful for what I applied for, but they want me to do henna for upcoming events I knew straight away these were the types of white women who will find some way some how to get a henna tattoo for themselves lmfaooo.

[fairuzfan]

The thing with news sources and deciding what's trustworthy and what's not is that when you see criticism of Aljazeera (which to be clear is not a great news source about anything other than Palestine) is that they completely neglect to mention that each regional section of Al-Jazeera has different people in charge of it, different contributors, different sources.

By all means, analyze your sources and understand what information you're getting but to say outright that ALL of what AlJazeera reports EVER is wrong is inherently meant to discredit Palestinian journalists in a way that no other journalist who is not Palestinian and NOT directly experiencing the war in Gaza has been discredited. Surprisingly (not really but), a lot of Palestinians in Gaza are employed by AlJazeera because it's difficult for them to find employment elsewhere.

And again, I do not love AlJazeera. I think they do plenty of faulty journalism and reporting and I actively avoid them for most news sources. But RIGHT NOW with everything going on in Gaza, they're probably one of the most trustworthy ones because of their first hand accounts and willingness to publish Palestinian voices, which many, MANY news stations refuse to do. I especially encourage the Arabic version of AlJazeera!

Like Haartz has like... 4 Palestinians on their editorial team max, and they have EVEN LESS people on the ground in Gaza whereas we have dozens of reporters from Gaza on Al-Jazeera, many of which have died. The way to fact check your news is you find how many times they link factual evidence (like videos of experiences, primary accounts, primary quotes) and compare it with circumstance of publishing.

Here are some ways to fact check and questions to ask, even when looking at Al Jazeera:

Is this a first hand account? If not, does it name a person who experienced this first hand?

If they cite/name a person who experienced it first hand, are they a trustworthy person? What are their ties to the situation? Why would they report this, have they reported situations like this in the past?

What would the person reporting gain from reporting this? A Palestinian with an Instagram post about their life in Gaza has much less to gain than an Israeli soldier publishing their experience in Gaza, for example.

In the first hand account, are there actions or evidence that is corroborated? IE: There was a video of an Israeli soldier abducting a blonde Palestinian, and there was a Human Rights Org that reported child abductions from evidence gather by an on the ground reporter. There is less of a chance that this is false, therefore.

If you don't see other news sources reporting this (ie, you don't see CNN/NYT/BBC/Fox/any other western-led media outlet) then ask: Why would they not report it? Does that mean it's false? Maybe not. Many Euro-american sources spend MONTHS before they talk about an issue (think: Washington post article "questioning" the evidence of Hamas in Al-Shifaa hospital more than a month after the raid happened)

Defining "Trustworthy":

What is their history on reporting events? Are they someone who is well known in whatever community they represent?

Think: Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a world renowned doctor. When he reports something with his name attached, he is putting his entire reputation on the line. Therefore, it is more likely he is telling the truth.

Are they someone who has any real, structural power over the situation? Maha Hussaini, for example, cannot change her circumstances because a ceasefire relies on other people separate from her, a journalist. Therefore, she has less of a reason to lie about things happening to her.

For the news source: what are their ties to the situation? CNN, for example, has stated they have their content reviewed by the IDF. Wael Al-Dahdouh, before he was evacuated, was providing first hand accounts of situation, meaning its difficult for him to fake anything or misrepresent.

What else has this person/news source reported? What are their political leanings — not just left/right, but what are their general stances on a variety of issues?

How many people who are part of the community impacted are part of reporting on this (IE: How many Palestinian POVs are shared, how many Israeli POVs are shared, what are the POVs of the people shared in general?).

Can someone I personally trust vouch for this person? If not, can I ask someone I trust to look over this person/agency and tell me their opinion?

There's for sure more I'm forgetting but these are some ways I personally check my facts and information as a quick rundown. And I see this issue of not knowing how to fact check happen ALL OVER the place, on both sides. So I really, highly encourage everyone to engage with sources more honestly!

You'll make mistakes, everyone does! I do as well! But try to be vigilant about these things so we can ensure that we're spreading accurate information and try to correct information when possible! There's no 100% unbiased source so I encourage you to compare/contrast information and your understandings of the world to fully comprehend the situation!

Please use these questions when checking ANY news source, even Al-Jazeera!

[yourtongzhihazel]

Hi, i was wondering what you were referring to here: "The state department will slip in some bullshit on the Uyghur genocide". What do you mean by bullshit?

There is no Uyghur genocide. It is entirely fabricated by the us within the last 4 years. The myth originates from a far-right christian fundamentalist adrian zenz working with the victims of communism foundation. Most of the claims come from the Uyghur World Congress, which is a group entirely associated with the us state department. The "East Turkestan Islamic Movement", the group most people point to as the Uyghur independence movement was listed by the us as a terrorist group before 2019 after which they began ramping up their Uyghur genocide narrative.

China has invited many international organizations to inspect and verify their claims and many have agreed that no genocide is occurring. Even the us state department themselves had to admit defeat and say no evidence of genocide can be found (this is obvious because they are working backwards from the manufactured narrative of genocide and looking for "evidence" that supports that). China is one current target of us imperialism. Xinjiang sits at a crossroads of Beijing's Belt and Road initiative. A disruption to a global development/trade plan here would serve us interests very well.

If you've seen my posts on terrorism/terrorists, you know that I don't see designations of 'terrorist groups' for much. My point there is the political posturing for propaganda. Terrorism arises from dire material conditions from which radicalization can occur, and indeed, terrorism in Xinjiang had been a serious, deadly issue. The PRC response was to build vocational schools and deradicalization centers whose aims are to eliminate the material foundations that lead to terrorism. Individually, this heavy handed approach is not ideal, yes, but astute readers will note that this pales in comparison to western styles of counter-terrorism: bombs and genocide. It's not even the first time vocational schools/deradicalization centers have been used either; Malaysia also employs them.

I am reminding you, dear reader, that the vast majority of sources on this subject come from western NGOs, media, and government sources, who are currently engaged in the erasure of several real genocides in the world, such as Palestine. If you compare the international response to Palestine versus with Xinjiang, you will see that the hallmarks of a genocide is not present. There is no mass refugee crisis in the countries surrounding Xinjiang; there are no verifiable recordings of any sort of genocidal action in Xinjiang; and there is not a stifling of journalistic transparency that we see in Palestine (i.e. the murder of journalists and censorship by western media), but, rather a silencing or refusal to participate from the west itself (one example).

I am glad many are sensitive to accusations of genocide; it is the duty of all people to stop them when they occur. However, because of our sensitivity, those who seek to enact imperialism across the world will take advantage of that instinct to manufacture consent for imperialist attacks on targeted countries. We have to stop and critically analyze any and all claims of genocide that come from the governments and media of the largest exporters and perpetrators of genocide: the west.

[gremlingottoosilly]

Gremlin!!!! You can't just drop Mafia!König and leave us there. I'm obsessed, ahhhhhhh!!!!!!

Konig doesn't even talk about it as being in a gang or a part of a mafia family!! For him, it's just the extension of his work in the military - he allows veterans and his fellow retired soldiers to find a new place in life. He supports the community in a way - his refusal to deal with the trafficking and prostitution industry actually makes Vienna a way safer place for refugees...unless he employs you at his under-the-table gun production. Still better than brothels for German payers though. He is just...he can't get his hand off you. Such a good and hard worker, you're the assistant for a job that doesn't exist - he doesn't even keep track of all the faux candy shops and veteran support center he has, the business is losing thousands per month because he doesn't really care about it as long as he can launder money from guns through it. You're such a good worker, he just knows that if he were to employ you as an enforcer for his "trading and protection" services, he'd make triple the money. He can't, of course. Poor thing, so innocent, it would kill you to know what he is doing. But the colonel fucking hates the way you look at him. Not as a lover or a husband - you're too innocent to know about his advances. You look at him with pity, that rotting feelings that he knows you have for him - a retired colonel from special forces, a mercenary with enormous PTSD and struggles with anxiety and anger issues...not a partner material, not for a good girl like you. You see him as a charity project, help for this funny retired spec ops guy who helps you with the job and talks about his military experience. You accept his invitations to the restaurants because he is lonely! How could you not bring him a nice company? It's better than escorts and some shady people who he hands out with...you just want to help him adjust to civilian life, that's all. And you can't really refuse his gifts, he doesn't have a partner or children, so he has too much money to know what to do with it...and if you're a bit drunk, he is a bit drunk, you're both consenting and lonely adults... Konig won't hesitate to make you his wife - even if he'd have to hide his real job from you till the end of times. It's all worth it when he can see your sleepy face on a pillow next to him every morning.

[matan4il]

IDK where the following image is from originally, I know I've seen it before Oct 7, so it's not recent, but there's no link to the source of the figures, so while I trust the percentages are right, IDK which date the image is referring to when it says "now."

It IS an important image, because THIS is what genocide and ethnic cleansing looks like, even decades later. However, I wanted to add a few comments regarding the green on the map. Because the green countries make the image look more optimistic than the state of Jews in Europe today is. Just please note that this post is not meant to vilify any country. No nation is a monolith, and in every country in the world, there were people who helped to save Jews, and people who persecuted Jews. This post is about general effects, not demonizing entire nations.

Sweden: Denmark and Norway's Jewish communities were partly destroyed in the Holocaust, but for those who survived, it was thanks to being smuggled to Sweden by the undergrounds in those two countries. The "green" in Sweden is therefore still a direct result of the genocide and ethnic cleansing employed against Jews in Denmark and Norway.

Denmark: Maybe the only truly bright spot on the map, as the increase in the Jewish population is solely thanks to the Danish underground having made a mark by saving most of their Jewish community during the Holocaust.

Switzerland: Despite the Swiss government closing its borders to Jews under a policy known as "the ship is full" (in fact, it was the Swiss who asked the Nazis in 1938 to stamp the passports of Jews with a "J" to make Jews officially identifiable), despite the theft of Jewish money from the bank accounts of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and despite the Swiss government unofficially aiding the Nazis (for example, by allowing Wermacht tanks to pass through the country), Switzerland was never occupied by the Nazis, and therefore Jews who managed to make it there illegally were saved (sometimes with the help of unique Swiss individuals, like Paul Grueninger, a border police commander who saved Jews by allowing them in against orders and falsifying their registration. He was caught and put on trial and punished by his own government for his actions, but also honored by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations). So again, the increase in the Swiss Jewish population is a result of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Jews, and this rise in the Swiss Jewish demographic happened despite the Swiss government's attempts to prevent it.

France: Most of the increase there is a result of France pulling out of Morocco and Algeria. Local Jews, who saw local Arabs accusing the Jews for French colonialism, and experienced a rise in anti-Jewish Arab violence in these countries even before the French retreated, feared for their safety and lives, and chose to leave for France as well. Since at least the kidnapping and murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006, there has been a constant surge of antisemitism in France, and a following decrease in the size of its Jewish population. The increase in Jewish demographic that the above image shows is therefore a combination of anti-Jewish violence and ethnic cleansing in northern Africa, and the fact that so many Jews fled that persecution, that even the murder of roughly 22% of France's Jews in the Holocaust coupled with a current decrease, leaves the country appearing "green" in that map in comparison with 1938. France is currently one of the leading countries in Europe in terms of antisemitic incidents.

Spain: This country had already begun its ethnic cleansing of Jews in 1492. The great expulsion of Jews refusing to convert to Christianity was followed by the Spanish Inquisition, which hunted down any converts from Judaism suspected of secretly still practicing the Jewish faith. This campaign included inhumane torture and murders. In 1938, the Jewish population in Spain was still so low (4,000 people, who made up 0.02% of the Spanish population), that any increase in the numbers, no matter how small, would appear substantial in terms of percents. During WWII, Spain was ruled by the tyrant Franco, who officially remained neutral, but did consider becoming aligned with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after the fall of Spain. He was also an antisemite. He did nothing to protect Spanish Jews, prohibited Jewish religious services, and even initiated his own marking of Jews in their passports. Despite that, he allowed fleeing French Jews to pass through Spain (meaning as long as they were headed elsewhere), but some ended up staying there, a fact he would use after the war to cultivate a myth that Spain protected Jews from the Nazis, which he believed would help him with the victorious Allies. This accounts for a part of the increase in the Spanish Jewish population. Another part is a 2015 law allowing Jews descendant from the families expelled from Spain in 1492 to re-claim a Spanish citizenship. The process cost a lot of money, there was a deadline for how long applications could be submitted, and only a small number of the Jews who should have been, were actually recognized thanks to it. Still, this also contributed to the "green" that you can see for Spain in the image. In conclusion, this is another increase that's mostly caused by the ethnic cleansing and persecution of Jews. Spain is one of the current leading countries in Europe in terms of antisemitic incidents.

[wifegideonnav]

for all its reputation as being super dark and depressing, harrow the ninth actually employs a type of wish fulfillment that is, in my opinion, dangerous unless you’re aware that that’s what it is.

because at its core, htn is about the vindication of grief - it’s about losing somebody and then suffering in such perfect agony that you get her back. in the universe of the book, harrow is correct to refuse to let gideon go, she’s correct to destroy herself over gideons death. she sacrifices literally everything she’s ever been or cared about, she debases herself completely, and in return, she gets gideon back.

and this type of thinking, if you bring it into the real world, is not healthy. a lot of pop culture tends to enforce this idea - that if you just hold on well enough, you’ll get what you want; or, put another way, that if you let go, you never cared in the first place. but i think it’s important to be extra cognizant of this concept’s place in htn, precisely because people find it to be such a “real” depiction of grief and loss. as readers, especially as i know many in the fandom are also mentally ill, also grieving their own tragedies, we need to keep in mind that necromancy is still just a fiction, and that there is no reward for suffering. in real life, the prize you get for suffering is more suffering.

i know it may seem silly to post this like, “reminder that magic isn’t real guys!1” but the idea of being rewarded for suffering is so entrenched in our culture, and it’s especially insidious when you have a mental illness in your ear whispering that you deserve to suffer anyway, and clearly this is all your fault, and if they stay gone it means you didn’t do everything you could, and -

i’m making this post to say: please take care of yourselves. go to therapy, or support groups, or find other ways your community can help you. strive for healing. don’t let them be a dead body you drag behind you. and never fall into the trap of believing that the more you suffer, the more deserving you are

[stardustizuku]

PART 4: Royalty Kinda Sucks

So, here’s the situation: When we are first introduced to the concept of Nobility, as seen through the Nobility’s eyes, it becomes apparent that there’s a reason behind every nonsensical tradition there is. 

You must always smile and conceal your emotions because else, you’ll be in danger, making yourself the enemy of someone you cannot refuse. Civilians must be devoted to their Lord/nobles because they’re the ones with Mana, and without Mana, the farmers suffer. There’s no food, there’s no agriculture. 

And at the beginning of the series, Rozemyne accepts this as the truth.

She sees how the amount of Mana offered correlates to the very livelihood of the commoners. Just like her, we as an audience, believe this story 100%. There’s an order to things, Nobility is inherently superior, some people just wield more power than others. 

Despite this, however, Rozemyne never fully buys into this idea. 

Ferdinand and the rest of the nobles say “There’s no need for commoners, they live entirely by the kindness or lack of it from the nobles”

While, on the surface, Rozemyne agrees to it (or more like, cannot find a way to counterargument), each every action since proves that she very much disagrees. 

She keeps listening to commoners, keeps trying to employ the orphans, educating the kids, and forming connection with the merchants. Her instance on staying on the temple is very much a way for her to cling to her commoner origins and refusing to let go of them. And, whenever someone tries to take advantage of them, she tries her hardest to stop it by any means possible.

My favourite argument she makes, is when she explains, in Part 4 to Hartmut that: 

“If we view this as nobles thinking up trendy goods and commoners making them, then nobles are the thinking mind while commoners are their hands and feet, no? Overloading commoners with unreasonable demands is no better than crippling one’s own arms and legs”. 

On the surface this is an argument that appeals to nobles, seeing commoners as nothing more than another tool that must be properly utilized. However, Rozemyne is inadvertently sneaking in one of her own core views: Nobles and commoners and equals. 

Rather than seeing commoners as an entirely detached object, she introduces the idea of commoners and nobility existing in an ecosystem. And here comes the first bit of proper commentary: 

Hierarchies are fundamentally flawed, and what we need in a society are communities. 

Rozemyne, being a chronically ill person, depends on others to do her work. To survive, we need communities and support networks. Some of the most brilliant minds and powerful players of the game do not thrive in a society that rigidly adheres to power structures such as nobility. Those so quick to toss away and dispose of whoever doesn't "fit in". Best example is Ferdiand - who was stiffled by Veronica.

This is juxtaposed with Ferdinand Hirschurl and Christine, all geniuses in their own right, extremely capable and talented. Neither of which was able to survive Ehrenfest. Even nobles of other duchies state that a single talented individual is incapable of turning the tides of their duchy. 

It’s only when Rozemyne comes into the picture, forcing people around her to function as a community, as a system, that any real change is made. She’s remarkable, perhaps more than for her intellect, in her ability to raise people. Her ability to form systems and networks of highly skilled attendants what allows her to be perceived as a saint. 

This is a direct contrast to her days as Urano, where she only ever submersed herself in books. I don’t doubt that Urano was as much of a genius as Rozemyne is - but her inability to connect and create a community to help her out was what caused her to be isolated. Only ever to see books and nothing more.

As Myne, she was forced to confront how vital to her survival family and community mean. As Rozemyne, she was forced to build her own, due to how nobility absolutely destroys said community in favour of a hierarchy. 

And all of this, is a microcosm of Royalty. 

The same attitude the nobles have to commoners is a direct 1:1 to how royals treat other nobles. They see nobles as little more than objects to be ordered around, and just like noble destroy communities and networks, royalty destroys them. Just on a much larger scale. 

Rather than seeing other duchies as, you know, arms and legs to make Yurgenschmidt more powerful, capable or rich, they see them as pawns to move around to protect/save Royals themselves. As if they are Yugernschmidt.

Whenever they say “for the good of Yurgenschmidt” it’s always synonymous with the “good of Royalty”.

The duchies only exist to serve Royals, and not the other way around. They’re more than happy to cut off Ehrenfest and let it struggle, even though it’s slowly becoming the new hot spot for technological inventions in all the country. They’re essentially crippling their own body, to save themselves. And sure, in other contexts maybe it could work. Rather amputate an arm rather than lose the head. But that’s not what they’re doing. They see their “arms” as disposable. Why bother to save one, when you have another that can work as well? (Which is dumb)

This is a direct criticsm of politicians, or position in powers, that see for themselves, rather than for the greater good of a country or the collective. People who would exploit the most vulnerable in a community to keep the status quo, all while claiming it's "for the greater good".

Sisgwald in particular is a great example of what Wilfred could have become if Rozemyne had no stepped in. He very much sees his wives as nothing but ways of attaining more power. He refuses to even think of other people reaching the throne and sees nothing past his own ego.

That’s why he is so taken aback by Rozemyne. Here comes a girl, with so much more experience at negotiating than him, calling him out directly over the many faults that royals are committing. As she points out, they went into a meeting expecting to extort her so completely blind they couldn’t see why Ehrenfest would be unwilling to enter negotiating. 

Ferdinand explained in Part 3 how, whoever has more information in a conversation between nobles has the upper hand. This ought to be the way everyone approaches anything, but Royals very much can’t comprehend this in regards to a lesser/middle duchy. To them, all duchies are the same (much like all commoners are the same to nobles) and do not require the information. This is, to put it bluntly, idiotic to the point of impressive. 

The best example? The very same meeting they had.

Rozemyne was able to get what she needed. Sure, the Royals also got what they wanted. But that’s it. They were able to obtain the bare minimum. While Ehrenfest was able to walk away with extensive concessions and much more room to make preparations. All while bruising the ego of Royalty.

And because they lack this ability to see nobles as a network, they also have the same problems nobles have. Their petty family drama gets dragged onto the surface for all the country to see. They're giving away information that's critical for negotiations without even noticing.

Hell, they almost exploded a war because Anastasius couldn’t tell Eglantine he liked her. Instead of raising each other up, like Rozemyne does, they drag each other own. Their lack of communication causes Rozemyne to be thrust into the middle of their family feud, trying her damnest to solve their problems, while they worry abt their own selfish desires. 

But perhaps the most crucial network that they’ve lost is: Information. 

Due to the fact that Ascendance of a Bookworm is a light novel about books - it’s inevitable that we would stumble at some point with the importance of achieving information preservation. Urano herself, as a librarian, is acutely aware of how easily information is lost. Rozemyne on her hand, has had to see the direct impact this has. 

The reason why the Grutrissheit is lost, is not just the war. It’s the lack of any real information preservation. And this is artificially created by the Royals themselves. 

The Grutrissheit was passed by from heir to heir, but this also meant that very few people were capable of accessing the information. When war struck, those few people were killed, and the texts that remained were written in ancient languages. A language which all but few could read (Let’s put a pin on that*).

And now, we find out that Royals of the past (possibly) implemented a barrier so that no one BUT royalty could access the Grutrissheit. This makes it so that the best Zent candidate they have right now, cannot even touch it. 

In an attempt to shield themselves from others, potentially, stealing what they think their “rightful” position is - they’ve blocked access to information. And now that they’re been killed NO ONE HAS ACCESS TO IT. 

This is something that Rozemyne, as a librarian at heart, is desperately trying to avoid. Through her transcriptions and the rapid spread of the printing industry, she REFUSES to gatekeep information. She wants it to be accessible to anyone who wants, as long as she can get something of equal value (aka, other stories/books), and that's only to emphasize the VALUE books inherently have. 

This is all to say, that the politics of AoB are quite simple if looked through these perspectives, and framing Royalty as the flawed institution it is. 

It’s about how hierarchies of power are bad. The few, who have not proven their worth, have the power to deny information to a large population and deny themselves any responsibility for their actions. 

Ascedance of a Bookworm initially presents you with the idea of Nobility as something rational, just to later point out all the ways it which it’s failing. The only reason why many things are working or improving in Ehrenfest is because of Sylvester and his ability to properly integrate Rozemyne’s ideas. 

Ascedance of a Bookworm also states that this is not a fix that can be solved in a single action, in fact it cannot be fixed in single generation. Something that Rozemyne critiques of Sisgwals is his insistence that all problems ought to be solved quickly so they cannot cause harm in the future (again, amputating an arm to save the head). 

But this is proving to be a flawed response. This idea of cutting all crippled arms is what gives way the purges, and the mana crisis they’re having. 

Rozemyne, perhaps as a chronically ill child herself, does her best to avoid this. She recognizes that just because someone isn’t “up to standard”, doesn’t mean they cannot be rehabilitated and integrated back into society. She does this believing human life to be valuable regardless of what can it offer - but because of the world they live in she has hidden this behind the “so they can give back to society”. 

It’s way more productive to save someone than to kill them. This creates a bunch of problems, yes. But it’s worth it. Being a leader it’s not an easy job. 

It’s something even Ferdinand comments on. To be a Zent, you have to give up everything you love for your country. And that means EVERYTHING. Something that, if I’m being 100% honest, I don’t think Sisgwald understands. The mere idea of him waiting to be Zent simply because that’s what he’s been told all his life is tantamount to laughable. 

At this point, the best option is undoubtedly Eglantine. If he fails to understand this and clings to a throne he’s no longer the best suited for - it’s nothing but useless pride wrapped in a cocoon of delusion. 

There’s so much that needs to be learned and work to be put in. Rozemyne does not accept the role, not because she’s humble, but because she understands this. Leading takes hard work, it takes time, it takes effort. She does not want it, and why should she? She has been offered none of the privileges of royalty, yet she’s expected to perform their labour and duties.

Those who benefit from Royalty are basically dumping all their work on her lap. Well, granted, not all the work. But definitely a good chunk of theirs. For example, transcribing ancient languages to find their stupid bible, instead of asking the temple. 

(*PIN: And mind you, people can absolutely still learn ancient languages. But another huge fault of the royalty, as it is right now, is that there’s no one willing to put in the time and effort to preserve or revive their own goddamn culture).

Yeah, sure, maybe Rozemyne has a duty to rule, as she’s the most capable…But. She shouldn’t. Royalty, who’s been trained their whole lives to rule, or support rulers - should be more than well-equipped to solve their own problems. Hell, they have attracted top talen- No. They’ve stolen top talent from other duchies, they have all the resources they could want, and they have the ultimate say on absolutely everything. Tell me why they want to poach another talented person from their duchy? 

It’s not Rozemyne’s responsibility to solve the problems of royalty. In other words, it’s not our duty to solve politicians’ problems. It’s not our duty to solve the problem of first-world countries, it’s not our duty to solve other people’s problems. 

Ugh, I’m getting heated. 

This is all, mind you, after Rozemyne was told in her early years she wouldn’t be able to achieve anything because she’s just a commoner. Which, again, bullshit. She’s the prime example that there’s nothing that prevents a commoner from being on the level of an archduke, or hell, becoming a Zent, other than a social one. Truly, Yurgenschmidt’s nobility as made-up as our own. 

The introduction, or rather, the direct criticism of royalty in part 5, is the house of card toppling in all the themes touched barely in previous parts.

The issues with meritocracy, the absurd power inbalances, the outdated view of older generations that refuse to give way to a better future for the youth, as well as a hierarchy based on an entirely made-up concept. 

It quickly proved to be absolutely a political story. But I find it so impressive that it’s not something you would notice, or at least be explicitly made aware, until Part 5. 

Part 1 - 4 made sure to lay the ground of how this world works, then in Part 5 it decided to break the illusion that it is, in fact, working. 

PREV <;< MASTERLIST >> NEXT

[gatheringbones]

[“But if French assessments of the character of ‘savages’ tended to be decidedly mixed, the indigenous assessment of French character was distinctly less so. Father Pierre Biard, for example, was a former theology professor assigned in 1608 to evangelize the Algonkian-speaking Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, who had lived for some time next to a French fort.

Biard did not think much of the Mi’kmaq, but reported that the feeling was mutual: ‘They consider themselves better than the French: “For,” they say, “you are always fighting and quarrelling among yourselves; we live peaceably. You are envious and are all the time slandering each other; you are thieves and deceivers; you are covetous, and are neither generous nor kind; as for us, if we have a morsel of bread we share it with our neighbour.” They are saying these and like things continually.’

What seemed to irritate Biard the most was that the Mi’kmaq would constantly assert that they were, as a result, ‘richer’ than the French. The French had more material possessions, the Mi’kmaq conceded; but they had other, greater assets: ease, comfort and time. Twenty years later Brother Gabriel Sagard, a Recollect Friar, wrote similar things of the Wendat nation.

Sagard was at first highly critical of Wendat life, which he described as inherently sinful (he was obsessed with the idea that Wendat women were all intent on seducing him), but by the end of his sojourn he had come to the conclusion their social arrangements were in many ways superior to those at home in France. In the following passages he was clearly echoing Wendat opinion: ‘They have no lawsuits and take little pains to acquire the goods of this life, for which we Christians torment ourselves so much, and for our excessive and insatiable greed in acquiring them we are justly and with reason reproved by their quiet life and tranquil dispositions.’

Much like Biard’s Mi’kmaq, the Wendat were particularly offended by the French lack of generosity to one another: ‘They reciprocate hospitality and give such assistance to one another that the necessities of all are provided for without there being any indigent beggar in their towns and villages; and they considered it a very bad thing when they heard it said that there were in France a great many of these needy beggars, and thought that this was for lack of charity in us, and blamed us for it severely.’

Wendat cast a similarly jaundiced eye at French habits of conversation. Sagard was surprised and impressed by his hosts’ eloquence and powers of reasoned argument, skills honed by near-daily public discussions of communal affairs; his hosts, in contrast, when they did get to see a group of Frenchmen gathered together, often remarked on the way they seemed to be constantly scrambling over each other and cutting each other off in conversation, employing weak arguments, and overall (or so the subtext seemed to be) not showing themselves to be particularly bright. People who tried to grab the stage, denying others the means to present their arguments, were acting in much the same way as those who grabbed the material means of subsistence and refused to share it; it is hard to avoid the impression that Americans saw the French as existing in a kind of Hobbesian state of ‘war of all against all’.”]

david graeber and david wengrow, the dawn of everything: a new history of humanity, 2021

[witheredoffherwitch]

The vitriol spewed at Alicent reveals the warped view of modern feminism in these online circles. People criticize her for reinforcing traditional gender roles, while they praise Rhaenyra as this "feminist revolutionary" who defied the status quo.

Some online communities that claim to espouse progressive values seem almost oblivious to the fact that any freedom or independence received by female characters is rooted in a fragile foundation. These shallow analyses perpetuate ignorance, completely disregarding the social structures and complex power dynamics employed within these fictional universes.

When King Viserys passed away, Rhaenyra's supposed 'independence' vanished with his death - a reminder of the fragility of a woman's power within the rigidly patriarchal society. Although her father had bucked tradition by making her heir, she still functioned within the confines of the same feudal system, refusing to grant inheritance rights to Rosby women and Lady Stokeworth. Her authority was never truly absolute; it could be overturned at any moment by those more entrenched in power. In this way, Rhaenyra's 'agency' was, ironically, dependent upon the king.

Alicent and Rhaenyra were both prisoners of an archaic system, their freedom bound by the shackles of patriarchy. But while Alicent had power as long as she followed the status quo, Rhaenyra felt the full brunt of her restriction once her father - the king - passed away!!

[crippleprophet]

hey, would you be able to give a brief description/explanation of cyborg theory in disability? I tried looking it up but didn’t find anything

absolutely! been struggling a bit with cognition so i’m just gonna paste the relevant section from my essay on disability & technology from about a year ago + the full citations of pieces i reference. hope this helps - feel free to send me a follow up ask if there’s anything else you’re looking for or with your thoughts, & folks are welcome to dm me for the full essay if you want!

One key concept employed by disability studies scholars to explore the relationship between humans and technology is that of the cyborg. Originally developed by Donna Harraway in the 1980s, the cyborg is a figure which “[blurs] the boundaries between human and animal, machine and organism, physical and non-physical” (Kafer, 2013, p.103) and in doing so allows for nuanced discussions of technology beyond the common dual responses of uncritical praise and unlimited fear. Though Harraway’s initial theorization positioned “disability as the site of spectacular technological fixing” (Kafer, 2013, p.112), feminist disability studies scholars have expanded the concept to more fully reflect disabled people’s experiences.

At their best, cyborg subjectivities prompt us to recognize—rather than dismiss—“the inequitable ways in which many people come to disability” (Hamraie and Fritsch, 2019, pp.19-20). War, poverty, pollution, and other consequences of colonisation and exploitation are major causes of impairment among marginalised communities (Meekosha, 2011; Erevelles, 2011), making concepts such as disability culture and pride difficult or undesirable for many people. Not only are the bodies of workers in the Global South disabled by the production of “assistive technology,” as discussed previously, the bodies of marginalised people, especially poor women of colour, are disabled by medical testing (Hans, 2006). While Erevelles questions the value of cyborg subjectivities in the face of these harrowing realities (2011), Kafer argues that their power lies in this very tension (2013). The cyborg, she writes, “refuses easy celebrations of human/technology connections” (Kafer, 2013, p.118) and rather encourages us to confront our complicity in the structures of oppression we seek to resist.

Erevelles, N. 2011. Disability and difference in global contexts: enabling a transformative body politic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hamraie, A. and Fritsch, K. 2019. Crip technoscience manifesto. Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience. 5(1), pp.1-34.

Hans, A. 2006. Gender, technology and disability in the South. Development. 49(4), pp.123-127.

Kafer, A. 2013. Feminist, queer, crip. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Meekosha, H. 2011. Decolonising disability: thinking and acting globally. Disability & Society. 26(6), pp.667-682.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre

Columbia University professor Shai Davidai, a Jewish Israeli, defended his right to condemn Hamas’ atrocities on Thursday after learning that an anonymous group of graduate students has accused him of anti-Palestinian racism and demanded a professional association of which he is a member publicly censure him.

Anti-Zionist TikTok influencer Jessica Burbank first reported the accusations the graduate students lodged in a letter to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), an organization founded in 1974 to promote the social psychology field and its usefulness to society. Comprising over 7,500 student and faculty members, it provides invaluable funding and networking opportunities.

Accusing Davidai of “targeting individuals — especially Palestinians and students of color,” the students’ letter describes his efforts to hold pro-Hamas student groups accountable for harassing Jewish students and defending terror as “decolonization” as “blatant dereliction of duty with respect to his responsibilities and ethical standards as a professor and faculty member of SPSP.” The students additionally accused him of promoting “doxxing” and “misrepresenting” the views of pro-Hamas groups, all of whom have defended Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7 while calling for a ceasefire, a strategy they have employed to portray themselves as a pro-peace movement.

On Thursday, Professor Davidai told The Algemeiner that the man depicted in the letter is not someone his community, students, and peers would recognize, and he accepts that enduring assaults on his character is a consequence of defending the Jewish people wherever they are, be it Israel or New York City.

“Look, I’m speaking up against evil, and against the support of evil,” he said. “I’m willing to take the reputational hits because people that won’t like me for saying what I’m saying — I don’t need them to like me. This isn’t about the performative virtue signaling that is en vogue right now. This is about having a moral compass and standing up for what’s right.”

Davidai went on to express concern that his colleagues in the field have not defended him, a silence which suggests that incriminating pro-Israel activists with baseless accusations will not be denounced or resisted even by moderates holding nuanced views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel’s war against Hamas.

“If I have to pay the price, I’ll pay the price. Thousands and thousands of Jews and non-Jews contact me to say that calling out pro-Hamas support on US college campuses is the right thing to do,” he continued. “And the irony is that I won’t be silenced. They might take away my reputation. They might take away my job and my career. But I’m not the kind of person who will be quiet now that there’s a personal cost for telling the truth. They’re just proving my point.”

Davidai first achieved national notoriety after delivering a thunderous speech before a crowd of students and others gathered on campus in which he called the school’s president a “coward” for refusing to condemn Hamas apologists and anti-Zionist demonstrations on campus.

“I’m talking to you as a dad, and I want you to know we cannot protect your children from pro-terror student organizations, because the president of Columbia University will not speak out,” Davidai said to the students, whom he asked to film and send the remarks to their parents. “Citizens of the US are right now kidnapped in Gaza, and yet the president of the university is allowing — is giving — her support to pro-terror student organizations.”

In many ways, becoming a public figure has been a detriment, Davidai said. His email is flooded daily with notes from antisemites accusing him of being an “Elder of Zion” and a “genocidal baby killer.”

His colleagues, furious that his exposing antisemitism and left-wing radicalism at Columbia University has caused important donors to pull their support from the school, have never commented on the hate mail even though they are always copied as recipients of it, he alleged.

[kumquatwriter]

Hi! I, like many others, just came from the strangeaeons video. I first stumbled across your blog a few hours ago, and thought "hey! Strange did a video about this a few months ago I haven't seen yet, may as well give it a watch".

Oddly, the video made me realize that an ex-friend of mine is oddly similar to Andy. Aside from the financial manipulation (I'm 19, they're 20, we both live with our parents), they employed many absurdly similar tactics (trying to convince me they could communicate with spirits, forcing me into spiritual practices they pulled from the internet (but lied about saying it was cultural) and convincing me I believed in them, pulling me into a mostly-fake nonprofit, refusing to be wrong about Literally Anything and encouraging me to cut off people who criticized them-- also, heavily trying to convince me to move in with them and start some communal living situation which would have been Very Bad!). I've been mostly avoiding them for months as my friends, who also used to run in their circle, made me realize a lot of things Did Not Add Up. But hearing your story has made me realize that it could have turned into a *very dangerous* situation. I'm glad to be mostly no-contact with them now that I've heard your story, because I didn't realize how fucked up it was until now. They definitely have cult-leadery traits and a victim complex, which is a dangerous combo in a group of severely mentally ill + outcasted teens!

Sorry if this sounds trauma dump-y. I mostly wanted to thank you, because my situation was similar to yours, but on a MUCH smaller scale. I don't want to think about how much closer it could have gotten. Thank you for putting your story out there. It's made me realize a lot, and I'm definitely starting to piece together some of that period of my life because of you. You rock! I hope you're doing fantastic, and I'm super proud of you for getting out.

Wow! It never ceases to amaze me that other people are like Andy. I mean I know he isn't THAT unique, but still. I'm so glad you were able to get out and away! Thank you for sharing your story - it means a lot when I hear I've made a difference for someone. Be wise and wary and well ❤️

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

GRRM and the Medieval Setting (Part One - Daenerys)

ASOIAF, like most high fantasy, takes place in a medieval-esque world. There's medieval aesthetic, technology, and sensibilities. These sensibilities in ASOIAF include misogyny, racism/xenophobia, classism, and the allowance of slavery. These things are objectively bad, however, the fandom is obsessed with trying to justify them. Their argument is that these things aren't actually bad in ASOIAF because that's just how things were in the Medieval period and they're cultural norms. This is far from what GRRM is trying to communicate.

GRRM uses most of his pov characters to criticize the medieval sensibilities and ideas. I'm not going to go into every character, but I will do a few of the main ones in a series. This post is going to focus on Daenerys.

Daenerys' primary arc at this point in the books is her campaign against slavery and ruling Meereen. Obviously, the main issue GRRM condemns in her chapters is the existence of slavery. From Dany's first chapter, we are introduced to the Essosi slave trade from the perspective of someone being sold.

Throughout AGOT, the horrors of slavery are introduced. Pentos keeps their slaves thinly disguised at servants despite their agreement with Braavos, Dany is raped routinely by Drogo, the Dosh Khaleen and Khalasars use enslaved eunuchs as servants and healers, Khalasars raid villages and enslave their people, Drogo's Khalasar rape the Lhazareen women, and Eroeh is gang raped and murdered by Khal Jhaqo and his bloodriders. While ACOK doesn't make a point of showing the horror of slavery, in ASOS and ADWD Dany devotes herself to ending the slave trade in Slaver's Bay, foregoing her original goal of the IT.

GRRM fills Dany's chapters with horrific descriptions of the effects of the Essosi slave trade. He portrays the slavers as cruel and "cartoonishly evil". Despite the criticisms of certain fans who routinely defend Essosi slavers, these portrayals are on purpose.

GRRM does have issues with writing characters of color (many of the Dothraki) as stereotypes who don't have much do differentiate them from each other. However, this doesn't actually apply to the antagonists of Dany's story. Kraznys mo Nakloz, Hizdahr zo Loraq, Galazza Galare, Grazdan mo Eraz, and the other slavers are meant to show just how abominable slavery as an institution is. Their cruelty and inhumanity is a conscious choice to reflect the real world people who did the monstrous things that inspired GRRM's version of slavery.

Moving on from slavery, Dany's arc also addresses the misogyny inherit to the Medieval era. Dany is mocked, underestimated, undermined, and devalued because of her gender. She suffers marital rape and a traumatic miscarriage. Each of these things are portrayed as the injustices they are.

Dany is demeaned by her adversaries not just because of her gender but also because she's a non-conforming woman. The slavers spread rumors of her being a monstrous demon who's driven by her lust for sex and power. She's condemned for being a woman who refused to remain in the position society assigned to her.

GRRM shows the common misogynistic beliefs and methods of Medieval men used to suppress women of the time. He also shows that it's his antagonists who employ the smear tactics and refuse to alter their worldviews because of Dany's gender.

GRRM took the femininity that Dany is demeaned for and turned it into symbols of her strength. She's the Mother of Dragons, Mhysa, the Dragon Queen, Khaleesi, Aegon the Conqueror with Teats.

GRRM touches on racism and xenophobia in Dany's chapters. The Dothraki and other Essosi people are viewed and savages and less important by the Westerosi lords. The Lhazareen are demeaned by the Dothraki and Ghiscari. The Qartheen view themselves as superior to everyone around them.

GRRM gives a unique perspective to Dany concerning regional and cultural divides. Dany is a refugee and an exile who has never known a true home. She's travelled throughout many cities of Essos, come into contact with many different cultures, and has learned to appreciate them.

The Ghiscari culture is the one Dany has the most complicated relationship with, but that's purely because of slavery and her constant struggles with the slavers class. She appreciates the Ghiscari people, and embraces their culture, just as she does with every culture she lives in.

GRRM uses Dany and her openness to show how every society has its flaws and its goodness. Just like his characters, the cultures he's created are flawed and very human. Ultimately, GRRM likes the thought of unity between nations, this is reflected in his writing of Dany's chapters.

Finally, GRRM addresses the classism which is intrinsically tied to feudalism. This is already sort of addressed through the slavery section, but he does also go into the class divide outside of this. First off, through Dany's early life, he examines how, without wealth and familial ties, she and children like her are left defenseless and in poverty.

He shows how it's the lower classes and impoverished people who are most often enslaved. The Meerenese nobles are able to afford feasts while the lower classes starve during the siege of Meereen. The Free Cities are ruled by the wealthy slave masters.

Dany, as I've said many times, was raised in poverty, this informs the way she treats her people. GRRM makes a point to show how everyone, from Dany's Dothraki handmaids to the Ghiscari nobles are allowed to speak in Dany's council meetings. She sits for hours to listen to the cases brought before her by all her subjects, the lowborn, the freedmen, and the nobles. She listens to them and takes their opinions and best interests into consideration.

This is something GRRM has gone out of his way to show in his books. His books are full of lords and kings ignoring the smallfolk and using them as disposable pawns. Dany and a few other characters are specifically written to view the common people as significant. This is meant to be significant.

Dany's story is not meant to be read just as someone conquering for power or a spoiled girl who doesn't care about the economies she disrupting. GOT sent the message that Dany is wrong for going against the status quo and many in the fandom seem to just accept this. Just because GRRM wrote a story set in a world with medieval values doesn't mean we should accept the norm of that world as right. He chose to write characters who are outsiders to criticize the world that ostracized them.

Dany's story is about equality, social change, and freedom. The slavers aren't in the right just because their cultures normalize slavery. The men aren't more worthy than Dany and other women just because Westeros and Essos are misogynistic. It's not ok to be racist or xenophobic towards other cultures just because most cities/regions in Planetos have a superiority complex. Classism isn't acceptable just because the nobility think they're superior because of blood or money.

[misscammiedawn]

Back to the Future, Brainwashing and Mr. Robot

Our little journey into rewatching Mr. Robot with our girlfriend continues and we ended Season 2 last night and got to the point of Angela's interview with Whiterose.

See, Season 2 Episode 11 asks a question that the show has asked a number of times "How do you hack a human being?" but this time applies it to Angela and Darlene. Elliot's two most trusted humans. His sister and his love interest.

Is it possible for the FBI and Whiterose respectively to get them to betray Elliot?

Well, Elliot said it himself in season 1

"People always make the best exploits. I've never found it hard to hack most people. If you listen to them, watch them, their vulnerabilities are like a neon sign screwed into their heads."

Darlene even monologued about hers in the previous episode. All she needs is to feel special and you can exploit her.

But Whiterose does not exploit people like Elliot does. She owns them.

Let's talk about how she brainwashed Angela.

Before I begin I want to just mention that I am a hypnokink blog but there is a world of difference between consensual hypnosis play (I write a lot on the topic) and literal brainwashing.

My post/analysis is through a lens of muted horror because I know the tactics being employed and I want to break down the scene from the perspective of someone who reads the theory. I do not in any way shape or form endorse the methods being played out on screen.

I do know members of my community who would very much enjoy recreating elements of this scene in their play but it would be in a risk aware and negotiated manner. Full love and respect to y'all, I am not yucking on your yum. The difference is fantasy vs reality and consent vs coercion.

I know I shouldn't need to write that but I'm a hypnokink blog and this may reach fandom spaces and I want to make it clear that this sequence depicts psychological torture and it is not the same thing as my hobby.

---

At the start of the episode Angela is in the back of a van being driven by two Dark Army agents.

The plot of the show is instigated by a leak at a nuclear facility that claimed the life of Elliot's father and Angela's mother. Much of the narrative is the pair of them on their relentless individual crusades to destroy the company that allowed this to happen, covered it up and took no accountability for the disaster. In fact E(vil) Corp knew the radiation levels were unsafe and hid that fact, allowing Mr. Alderson and Mrs. Moss to perish.

What's worse is Angela has evidence that the levels are still unsafe to this day and the company knows about it. She is about to whistleblow and that attracts the attention of the big bad of the series, Whiterose.

We do not yet know the connections but we do know that Whiterose refers to the facility as "my plant". It is clearly important to her. Enough that threats to the plant are motive to kill.

But they didn't kill Angela for her attempt at whistleblowing. They recruit her. A good idea, all things considered, as she is Elliot's exploit.

It is night time when Angela is taken and daytime when she arrives at her destination. During the ride she is kept in the back of the van while the two riders stare on ahead. Angela pleads with them, screams, tries every trick she can to get their attention and they refuse to acknowledge her.

All the while a song plays on the radio.

In universe we know that Back to the Future is Angela's favorite movie. It's come up a lot and much as Darlene's need to feel special was directly referenced in the prior episode, Angela's love of BttF was mentioned when she refers to a tender moment in season 1 when she wanted to get high and watch Back to the Future 2 with Elliot.

The show takes place in 2015 by the way. That becomes plot relevant later but at this moment it's just a lovely coincidence.

When Angela has run through her options her captors pump the volume on Marvin Berry & The Starlights.

Later in the episode we cut to Angela waking from a sleep. It is daylight now and there is still music playing on the radio...

I was watching the show with my girlfriend, @soveryverytired and she is as big a BttF fan as Angela and she recognized this instantly. These musical stings are diegetic and so they are for Angela but let's not forget that we the audience are a character in this show. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence.

Angela is released from the van and guided into a house which seems to have been tailor made to mess with her. The brainwashing began the moment she was picked up but this is when the audience gets to share in some of Angela's emotional state.

The hallway she is guided down is full of family photos with the faces inked out.

Itself a reference to the artwork of John Baldessari.

In the portraits Angela sees she is given the idea of family and the image of a family home. A place which exists in memory for Angela as she may have been raised in Jersey but she's a New York girl now who lives in modern chic apartments.

The portraits have their features removed as a stand-in for an idea. Family. Comfort. Safety. Home. Just ideas right now of course, but it also evokes alienation. There is nothing for her to latch onto. Her captors refuse to look at her.

(Incidentally I am uncertain of why they picked the people who caught Angela. Neither of them look like Dark Army agents and they do not radiate nostalgia or identity in any meaningful form. They are disparate and just appear to be people who caught Angela. I cannot place anything on them)

Angela has been isolated and kept for an elongated period of time in transit. She does not even have the comfort of human faces to latch onto.

Which makes her entrance into the brainwashing room all the more startling.

Blue, Green and Red in stark contrast with White and Black. The room is barren of features spare for the objects that are intentionally placed there for her. A Commodore 64 computer, a red phone, a copy of the book Lolita.

There's also a copy "Hang in there" poster. Angela likes motivational posters and listens to confidence tapes a lot.

As I mentioned in my previous Mr. Robot analysis, Esmail really enjoys giving us parts of the code to go back and try and look at things again with context. In that analysis I spoke of how Whiterose detected Dom's sexuality from a single sentence. Here we have a more direct decryption.

Eliott comes into a room much like this later in the show and instantly identifies the pieces placed out for him and what their significance are. These are objects from Angela's childhood home. Whether directly the same ones or replicas created from Whiterose digging on Angela's life is unknown. But there's always the implication...

Between every phase of Angela's ordeal she is given a well of time to stew in her situation and remove all distractions. She tries the door and discovers it is locked. She is given time to understand and accept her circumstance. She stops struggling in the van and lets the BttF soundtrack lull her to sleep. She stops trying to escape the room and sits in the chair.

Every step of the process thus far has been to isolate her and allow time to guide her into compliance. Whiterose likes using time as a weapon after all... it's her obsession.

Then the interview begins and we are introduced to Angela's interviewer.

A young caucasian girl in a suit with blonde hair in a high pony tail. A child version of Angela.

We don't know this yet but in Season 3 there will be a flashback of a 9 year old Angela watching Back to the Future while her mother is dying. Both the interviewer (credited as "Girl") and 9-year old Angela are played by the same actress, Mabel Tyler.

The implication goes beyond her just being dressed to look like Angela did at that age. Whiterose found someone who looks exactly like she did.

Angela's stint of social isolation has finally been given reprieve with the dignity of a human face, even if it is her own (but that's impossible, right?) and she, bewildered and confused, asks for answers. "Who are you?"

The response is "There's water coming out of that fish tank. We don't have much time. Let's begin."

No urgency. No emotion. Just matter of fact.

Time, which was once drawn to unbearable stretches of isolation has now been flipped on its head and suddenly Angela is not allowed time to process anything. She is instantly asked a number of questions.

"Have you ever cried during sex?" - "Have you ever fantasized about killing your father?" - "Are you a giraffe or a seagull?"

Any attempt Angela makes to talk with the child results in the question being asked again. (The sequence makes direct references to text adventure games also, showing that Angela has no control in this situation, the prompts will continue repeating until she gives the desired answer)

After a number of failed attempts the phone will ring and the girl will get instructions to force the test to proceed. The first time she displays heavy bruising on her back and tells Angela she will be beaten if she does not complete the test.

The fish will die if she does not answer fast. The girl will be punished if she does not finish the test.

Empathy is being used against her. A time limit and the girl constantly forcing her to engage with the question prevent her processing.

So now should be a time to mention the real world mind control techniques on display here. They're brought up in movies a lot. For a simple and harmless version of it you need to look at the Baseline Test from Bladerunner 2049 and for a disturbing but all too realistic version of it you need to look at The Master.

Massive warning on the scene from The Master as it contains exceptionally dark content.

There are a number of factors at play and I feel even with as much as I've read there are others in my community who could break this down better than me.

The obvious ones are empathy and stress being put at play. Angela is being forced to capitulate via sheer aggressive coercion. If she does not obey the child will be punished, if she does not beat the time limit then a fish will perish. The captors would be punishing the girl and killing the fish but they have framed it in a way that she is volunteering responsibility. A simple and insidious manipulation that is all too common. How often are we informed that our not showing up to work will make things harder for our coworkers? The world is rife with people forcing us to take on empathetic responsibility for those around us despite the fact that the pain inflicted upon them is only our fault in that we allow others to force us to be at fault. Life is full of little trolley problems like that. After all... can Angela really ignore the fact that this child copy of herself will be hurt if she does not comply?

Then you have the more psychological ones. Fractionation is a term we in the hypnosis community use a lot. Within hypnosis it means to go in and out of hypnotic state often enough to maximize the impact of the altered state. Long story short, bringing someone down into a hypnotic state and then up again and then down again and then up and then down enough causes someone to become more susceptible, altered and heady.

It's fun!

Emotional Fractionation is a NLP technique that is so colonized by pick-up artists that I literally couldn't find a definition of it from a google search which wasn't buried in misogynistic dogma. The concept is simple. Put someone into several extreme emotional states of varying tempo to "prime" them. A person is more susceptible and emotionally malleable when they have been through a series of these quick short bursts.

"Have you ever cried during sex?" and "Have you fantasized about murdering your father?" are both examples of invasive questions that conjure extreme emotions of shame and disgust paired with topics of sexuality and violence which are typically taboo topics, especially when coming from a child's mouth. They are things that people would not casually answer. There is guard to them. The test is forcing Angela to answer questions which no person would give an unguarded answer to and doing so in a pressurized window where she cannot fully process the questions or continue to deny answering them.

The Master clip does something a lot more grounded with its blink test. Every time Joaquin Phoenix's character blinks the test starts again. He is forced to answer the same questions over and over. With that test his emotionally guarded replies are single word answers and denials. As the test deprives him and emotionally wears him down he begins giving honest answers. It's... not enjoyable to watch.

The interesting thing about Angela's questions is the Giraffe/Seagull question is how baffling it is.

Two emotionally volatile questions in a row and then a non-sequitur about animals. Emotional whiplash. But it serves a purpose. Flatten the landscape. Remove expectation. Interrupt an emerging. Allow answers to become automatic.

In hypnosis this kind of pattern plays with call and response to train a hypnotee to fall into a pattern of reactions that we guide. There's even a method of interrupting the pattern and creating a breakdown in critical thinking that allows us to communicate directly with the subconscious mind. That's not really at play here but I can't notice a pattern interrupt in emotional fractionation tactics without typing "transderivational search", it's a compulsion in me.

Anyway...

We cut away and next time we return the fish only has a third of the tank left.

"Are you red or purple?" and Angela, sat down and exhausted, simply answers "Purple"

As before exposure and time has caused her to just accept what is happening to her. She's going along with the process now and not trying to reason with her predicament. It's easier just to answer.

But as every other time Angela has become comfortable in her ordeal, a curveball appears.

"Is the key in the room?"

Every question until now, including during the implied time that the fish tank has been emptying, was a personality question. Personal and invasive or banal and trivial. Either way this provides another case of emotional whiplash. Angela is baffled and becomes frustrated. Her emotional resilience has been whittled into non-existence at this point, she cannot help but yell in frustration.

The phone goes again and this time Girl hands Angela the phone. A digitized voice says:

"You are standing in a dark room and can't see anything. There is a torch and a match. What do you do?"

The idea of a text based adventure is already on mind but now Angela is being trained to think how her captors want her to think. She obeys as she has been primed to do and says she lights the torch. No resistance. No confusion. No attempting to get the voice on the phone to identify themselves or answer to her predicament. She is given a prompt from a text based adventure and she follows the prompt.

Every other exploit in the show used the computer analogy as a metaphor for human behavior. Now we are seeing a human being programmed to run on simple prompts.

The voice continues this text based adventure until she reaches a door. She tries to open it but the door will not open. Much as the start of the test the voice keeps repeating prompts. Not deviating. Angela, frustrated begins yelling that she doesn't fucking know but the voice keeps saying "the knob doesn't turn, how do you open it?" until she breaks down and says that she uses a key. She opens the door with a fucking key.

The girl repeats her question.

"Is the key in the room?"

Angela looks at the copy of Lolita on the desk. The artwork depicting a closed fist.

She understands now and in an emotionally distant voice speaks, referencing a quote from the book "Yes. The key was in my fist. My fist was in my pocket."

The Lolita connection actually spans the entire show and this Reddit post does a better job explaining than I could.

The fact that both this show and the book are pastiches (one of modern cinema and the other of literary genres) is relevant though. Don't forget. The Back to the Future references are in universe and targeted specifically at Angela.

The interview concludes and Angela is left to wait a further 4 hours in the room. The fish dies. She's emotionally exhausted. She's no closer to understanding what is happening or what will happen to her. Then the big bad of the entire show, Whiterose, enters the scene.

Whiterose herself allots 28 minutes to their conversation. Which if you know her is remarkably generous.

The conversation is dense.

It starts with Whiterose following the format of the previous interview by noting the lack of time and saying they need to begin before playing some quick and easy mindgames. Insisting her time is more important than Angela's and simply shrugs off her request to leave with "No you wouldn't", she's already invested this much time (against her will or otherwise) and she's going to stick around for the rest.

Angela sits.

Whiterose then berates her lack of agency in attempting to do anything with the door. That she had simply remained in the room without attempting to change or alter her situation.

Angela says that the door was locked. That it was impossible for her to leave.

But Whiterose is training her how to think. She was presented a locked door in her interview and she manifested the key.

Angela, now faced with an actual human being who will converse with her, instantly attempts to claim some leverage in the conversation by accusing Whiterose of murdering the fish (she is not shaken) and hurting the girl.

Whiterose tells her it was make-up and that the child was not hurt at all. That her empathy was part of the test.

This is a subtle one but I want to highlight it. Whiterose killed the fish. The fish is dead. But she ignores that criticism and focuses on the child and tells Angela that it was make-up and the child was not hurt.

It's a brilliant bit of emotional manipulation because Angela has come at her with two immoral and disgusting acts and Whiterose ignored one and excused the other. The deflection throws Angela off her guard because her assumption was that Whiterose was torturing a child and now that's not true. That revelation (which is unconfirmed, mind you, we only have Whiterose's word) erases the accusation. Suddenly Angela is made to abandon her accusation despite the fact that this woman did force that child to conduct the psychological torture, that she kidnapped Angela from the subway and that the fish is dead and Angela can still see it.

Whiterose then gives a mild exposition dump about Angela's prevalence in the plot and the fact that her plot armor has kept her safe when by all estimations she should have been killed the very moment her actions threatened Whiterose's investment in the Washington Township Plant.

She then gives yet another emotional sideswipe to Angela by saying that she is important to Phillip Price (the head of E(vil) Corp) and Elliot Alderson. This serves to make her feel Whiterose knows everything about her because this unknown individual has intimate details about her childhood, her current life and her attachment to Elliot and the crime he committed on 5/9.

Plus after making Angela seem so important for the fact she keeps turning up in Whiterose's plans, she instantly puts her position as an attachment to Price and Alderson. Preventing Angela from even feeling as more than an accessory while giving her a taste of being important.

She then goes on to explain Angela's mother and Elliot's father died for her schemes and that both Angela and Elliot owe their current lives to that fact. After riling her up by insulting her mother's death and claiming personal responsibility for it she says she has no intention of killing Angela but she cannot be allowed to continue jeopardizing her plans.

Angela is broken by this point. Tears burning her eyes she finally says she will give Whiterose what she wants. Destroy the evidence. She submits.

But that's not what Whiterose wants. Elliot and F Society use fear and coercion to control people. Whiterose does not want Angela's fear.

She then asks if Angela has ever believed in something so hard that she could manifest it into being through sheer will.

Much like the key from the test.

Angela admits she used to but she is admitting that reality does not allow for such optimism. Whiterose asks her what "real" even is.

...and that's the sequence.

Next time we see her she is being driven by a Dark Army car to her lawyer's house to drop the case. It's night time and presumably she went straight from Whiterose's. She's been in captivity for over 24 hours at this point.

and she not only complies with Whiterose's request, she does so with zeal and a mildly disconcerting affect.

She's 100% a believer now.

...but of what?

Can you guess?

What do you think Whiterose convinced her of? Made her a believer of?

I think you know. She spent the entire episode priming Angela for it. We saw it. We were there.

Does that mean we were primed too?

So even if Angela's brainwashing is complete. We still have the audience to think of, we're a character in the show, we sit atop the forth wall, not behind it. Don't you want to be included in the brainwashing too?

The episode continues on without Angela, progressing the A-plot with Elliot and Mr. Robot. We also get Sam Esmail teaching the audience how to decode the cypher in the novel that covers Elliot's time in prison.

As the episode comes to an end and Elliot and Tyrell are reunited we get we hear this music in the background. This time it's not diegetic. It's the show's soundtrack.

Three times is a pattern.

As the credits roll and we get a tease of Silvestri's original score for the film. That is present in the track, you can hear it in the above YouTube clip. But the song itself, Earth Angel, is diegetic in the film and yet the final few moments of the song are part of the film's soundtrack. An outright confirmation for anyone watching that we are hearing Back to the Future right now.

See... Angela heard those songs in the van but only we heard the third, final and most crucial one.

Mr. Robot is a grounded show. Up until now everything has been remarkably realistic with all of the hacking based on real techniques and even the psychology of Elliot's delusions and his DID are associated with reality (sidenote: though like most media they happily pair schizophrenia and DID as a single condition which they are not. A successful DID diagnosis typically excludes the possibility of schizophrenia. To point Elliot should not be able to see or literally hear Mr. Robot. Those with DID are aware the voices originate within their head and any visualization of the alters is typically within and requires practiced/guided visualization in a therapeutic setting to accomplish)...

Yet...

The idea that Whiterose's plan involves time travel has entered your mind hasn't it?

Like a little seed. A virus that you can't quite delete from your mental operating system.

Every bit of evidence in this show tells you it's based in reality and time travel isn't real.

...but this episode has put the idea in your head... and it doesn't really go away, does it?

Esmail's script never says it. Whiterose alludes to parallel universes and creating the world that was always meant to be. But she never calls it time travel.

But there's the implication...

Either way. Angela believes it's possible now. She'd betray Elliot and let thousands of people die for her belief. One Whiterose worked very hard to give to her.

[phoenixyfriend]

Those Economics/Architecture Videos I've Been Bingeing

But eating less bandwidth than the previous version of this post.

This post has 100 links, because that's how many tumblr lets me add before it refuses to save the post anymore. (Legacy editor allows up to 250, but then I would have the colors.)

A lot of these are about NYC, because that's my personal main focus, but there are a few others. Also, I have absolutely no training in this field and only started watching these a few days ago but Ya Girl Is Bingeing and Really Loves Edutainment. All the descriptions are my own, btw. I'm not looking to gain clicks or references, I want you guys to know what you're getting into.

I was not involved in creating any of these videos, but it did take me over a week to watch them all and decide which ones to include, how to organize, and how to describe the contents.

I cannot speak to a lot of the deeper issues touched on, and do not agree with all the political or economic points brought up in these videos (as this is a wide range of people and topics), but they are by and large a good look at much of an industry that most people, myself included, don't know enough about, considering how crucial it is to our lives.

I'm open to channel/video recs but there are a few I ran into that seem well-done but have an audio quality I can't work with, so that's... unfortunate.

Stewart Hicks - Chicago-based, professor of architecture at the University of Illinois

Why Skyscrapers Are Losing Their Tops - Stewart Hicks - The general history of architectural styles for skyscrapers from the 1930s to the near future.

Why Do Architects Insist on Using Flat Roofs? - Stewart Hicks - Compares and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of flat vs gabled roofs.

How Buildings Changed After the Eiffel Tower - Stewart Hicks - Thirteen minutes of history on structural engineering in bridges and skyscrapers.

The Bewildering Architecture of Indoor Cities - Stewart Hicks - Goes into the planned and unplanned variants of this phenomenon, which ranges from giant buildings intended to act as an entire community, to the unplanned network of underground tunnels or overstreet enclosed walkways that let people cross blocks upon blocks of a city without having to step outside.

How This Tower Barely Touches the Ground - Stewart Hicks - Addresses the engineering behind 150 N. Riverside in Chicago, and the zoning laws that caused its rather unique Y-shaped base in the first place, along with the requirements causing things like custom giant I-beams and necessitating a barge to host the crane since they had nowhere to anchor one on the ground.

How Chicago is Being Unbuilt: Back to Nature - Stewart Hicks - Explores the ways in which Chicago is undoing prior urbanization, and implementing some new eco-friendly infrastructure and various projects.

Why We Should Live in Our Office Buildings - Stewart Hicks - More and more office buildings are standing empty. With movements towards more mixed zoning and the return to walkable city models, some of those office buildings are getting retrofitted to be livable spaces and mixed-use locations.

How Architects Design for Less Lonely Living - Stewart Hicks - In a lot of places, like the US, the way we interact or avoid other people is impacted heavily by the organization of the buildings we live in.

House Sizes Are Getting Absurd - Stewart Hicks - Just a fun romp comparing the range of sizes (from the bare minimum of capsule hotels to the absurd mass of some modern estates) for various dwellings. Lots of very deliberate visualization.

Shopping Malls are Getting Desperate - Stewart Hicks - Discusses the decline of shopping malls, and the 'tricks' they employ to try to keep people happy and coming by.

The Architecture of Curb Appeal - Stewart Hicks - There's a lot that goes into making a house look good in a way that gets it sold. A lot of people hate it.

The Controversy Over Accessory Dwelling Units - Stewart Hicks - In many places, it's illegal to build a smaller livable space in your backyard. You know, places you put an adult child who wants their own space, or your mother-in-law, or just rent out to college students for the next ten months. But, at least in a few places, it's not going to be illegal much longer.

Toilets Need to Change - Stewart Hicks - Plumbing is such an important part of our daily lives, and it's still evolving!

The Hidden Meaning and Logistics of Fountains - Stewart Hicks - This one is just fun. 😊

The Genius of 2x4 Framing - Stewart Hicks - So apparently the US is a bit odd in how much of our architectural/construction industry uses light wood framing as a standard.

The B1M - Hosted by Fred Mills (British), more generally about construction, rather than just architecture

Why America Is Tearing Down Its Highways - The B1M - Explores the history of the interstate highway system, and how much of it was used for redlining and general segregation, along with the challenges faced by the plans to tear those highways down.

The $1.2 Trillion Plan to Rebuild America - The B1M - NGL I'm like. Ludicrously excited about this one. There's a lot going on! I hope it works out!

Why a Billionaire Tried to Stop This Bridge - The B1M - There's a new bridge being built between Detroit, MI and Windsor, ON. This bridge is going to help with the ongoing trade between the US and Canada; these two cities are already a major hub for one of the largest trading partnerships in the world (the largest where one side is not the European Union), so building another bridge is a reasonable undertaking. However, the new bridge will be just a few miles down from an existing bridge that is currently owned by a billionaire who makes a killing over his control of a major portion of this bottleneck of the trade route. (Also, more engineering challenges!)

The Statue of Liberty: Building an Icon - The B1M - Someone actually asked me about this recently and anyway you should all go learn about how the Statue of Liberty happened, she's a gem.

Why New York’s Billionaires’ Row Is Half Empty - The B1M- The usage of NYC luxury housing as a semi-liquid asset used as investment by the megarich, along with the rights acquisitions that led to their building in the first place, the gentrification they contribute to, and the tax write-offs they get for it.

Why Our Cities Are So Expensive - The B1M - How infrastructure investment by governments can and does frequently lead to gentrification. Focuses on London's Battersea Power Station revitalization plan.

Why New York's Skyscrapers Keep Changing Shape - The B1M - This is actually an exploration of more than just New York, covering much of the same topics as the above 'history of skyscraper design' video, with a great focus on the Chrysler building.

Why No One Wants This New York Skyscraper - The B1M - Investigates the ways in which the development of Two World Trade Center has been delayed over the past decade and change, along with a handful of other projects in the area.

The Wild Story of New York’s Abandoned Skyscraper - The B1M - There's a half-finished skyscraper on the western shore of Manhattan, and due to the errors in laying the foundation, there's an 8cm tilt in it. The parties involved in construction are duking it out in court about who's at fault, and until they're done, that thing is just... sitting there.

New York's Latest $3BN Skyscraper Explained - The B1M - Another stupidly tall skyscraper for midtown. You know. Because we need another one.

The $7BN Plan to Save New York's Most Hated Train Station - The B1M - Explores the history, current state, and planned upgrades to Penn Station of NYC.

New York's Most Hated Highway is Falling Apart - The B1M - The issues hitting the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and the difficulties in repairing it.

The Secret Subway That Could Save New York - The B1M - Hey do you want to hear about how we might finally be getting that Queens-Brooklyn line that doesn't need to pass through Manhattan first?

The Tunnel That's Failing New York City - The B1M - The tunnel that handles a massive amount of the human traffic between NJ and NYC is starting to break down due to age. This one included a line that actually gave me feelings: "Look, it's a 110-year-old system, you know, it's done its job. Like, we really can't ask any more of it." It did its best! For a long time! Thank you!

The US Government Wants to Destroy These Towers - The B1M - The federal government just wants to demolish some Historic Skyscrapers in Chicago, no biggie.

The Secret $4BN Tunnel Network Under Chicago - The B1M - Since the 1970s, Chicago has been building an absolutely massive set of tunnels hundreds of feet under the surface to handle regular flooding from storms and the climate crisis.

The Fight to Fix the Tilting Millennium Tower - The B1M - There's this skyscraper in San Francisco that's leaning a few centimeters to the side, which doesn't sound like a lot, until you learn that just a few more will mean the plumbing and elevators stop working.

The £100BN Railway Dividing a Nation - The B1M - Goes over the political, economic, and environmental arguments and concerns behind the highspeed rail intended to connect London to the North of England.

Inside London's £19BN New Railway (and its Nightmare Station) - The B1M - Genuinely fascinated at the number of Train Problems that England seems to be having.

Why Europe Doesn't Build Skyscrapers - The B1M - Explains the historical and modern reasons that limit the addition of supertall buildings across most of Europe.

The Insane Scale of Europe's New Mega-Tunnel - The B1M - Explores the engineering and environmental challenges of the Fehmarntunnel, a passage from Germany to Denmark of terrifying size.

Why Europe is Building a 57KM Tunnel Through a Mountain - The B1M - No, a different one. This one is between Italy and France.

We Went Inside the Largest Nuclear Fusion Reactor - The B1M - It's in France, there are over 35 countries involved, and it's just a Lot.

Inside The Lab That Tests Elevator Free-Falls - The B1M - There's this active mine in Finland where they test elevators for safety and it's pretty cool.

Finland Might Have Solved Nuclear Power’s Biggest Problem - The B1M - Finland has a new way of storing nuclear waste.

Nord Stream 2: The $11BN Megaproject That's Dividing - The B1M - It's an oil pipeline and it is causing problems for Everyone.

Why Russia is Building an Arctic Silk Road - The B1M - Russia is taking advantage of the melting ice caps to set up a new trade route through the arctic so shipping can go up through the north instead of down around South Asia and through the Suez Canal.

The $10BN Railway in the Jungle - The B1M - Mexico is building a new, very long high-speed rail line, and it's incredibly controversial.

Hong Kong's $11BN Underwater Railway Explained - The B1M - Hong Kong is putting in a new underwater tunnel (as part of a larger network expansion) for its subway system, and it's. Difficult.

China's Skyscraper Boom is Officially Over - The B1M - Just learned that China is outlawing most skyscrapers. There are a few cases where you can still maybe make one happen, if you can convince the government it's needed, but in most cases... nah. They're cutting you off.

The Unstoppable Growth of China's High-Speed Rail Network - The B1M - [insert gif screaming about trains here]

The Insane Engineering of Tokyo's First Supertall Skyscraper - The B1M - While the focus is ostensibly Main Tower, the video covers a lot of ground regarding earthquakes and the necessary engineering to resist the incredibly frequent occurrence. (Warning: Came out shortly after the Feb. 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake, and contains references to the event, urging people contribute what they could to help. The video was already almost finished when the Turkey-Syria earthquake happened, and rather than delay it for fear of it being in bad taste, they decided to use it to encourage people to help the victims.)

Japan’s $64BN Gamble on Levitating Bullet Trains Explained - The B1M - Let's talk about maglev, pros and cons.

Is This Asia's Next Financial Capital? - The B1M - Malaysia is building a lot, and it might herald a new financial superpower for the continent and the world.

Why India Doesn’t Build Skyscrapers - The B1M - The short answer is 'zoning laws that didn't achieve what the legislators hoped,' but it's changing.

The $4BN Railway Reshaping Delhi - The B1M - What it says on the tin.

The World's Most Extreme Construction Site - The B1M - Antarctica!!!

Egypt Built a Supertall Skyscraper in the Desert - The B1M - Egypt is straight up building an entire city in the middle of nowhere, primarily as a new seat of government, because Cairo is overcrowded... and a frequent site of protests.

Top 10 Projects Completing in 2023 - The B1M - Some impressive, expensive, and possibly unnecessary projects that are happening.

Tomorrow's Build is a second channel under The B1M, also hosted by Fred Mills. It's more focused on hypothetical, future projects than ongoing ones.

Barcelona’s Car-Free Superblocks Explained - Tomorrow's Build - Barcelona is planning to block off entire parts of the city from most car usage, excepting local delivery, mass transit, and emergency services.

The Hidden Crisis With Renewable Energy - Tomorrow's Build - Storage of energy from renewable sources that are not consistently available (e.g. solar is only available when the sun is out) is difficult, so here are a few options.

This Nuclear Plant is Built in 3 Months - Tomorrow's Build - Mail-order nuclear power is going to be a thing.

Greece is Turning its Olympic Ruins into a Casino - Tomorrow's Build - [good for them dot gif]

This Could Stop Construction Everywhere - Tomorrow's Build - So it turns out we're running out of sand. Which is important, because we need sand for concrete, and the easiest stuff to get (desert sand), doesn't work for that, which is why Dubai has to import sand for construction. So uh. Kind of a crisis. Sand pirates are a whole thing.

Architectural Digest - channel for the architectural magazine that dates back to 1920

Architect Breaks Down 5 of the Most Common New York Apartments - Architectural Digest - Just what it says on the tin! An architect explains brownstones, classics, railroad apartments, and loft/studio apartments. Lots of history, specifically that of the late 19th century tenement buildings and the art community and subsequent gentrification of SoHo.

Architect Breaks Down 6 Luxury Apartments from Billions, Gossip Girl & More - Architectural Digest - On the other end of NYC housing, we got the Rich People Places.

Architect Breaks Down Secret Details Of The Chrysler Building - Architectural Digest - An exploration of the external details of the Chrysler, with commentary on the historical context of art deco and related art movements.

Architect Breaks Down 3 Demolished New York Landmarks - Architectural Digest - Goes over the original Penn Station, Madison Square Garden,and the New York Herald building.

Architect Breaks Down The Evolving Skyscrapers Of New - Architectural Digest - I'm... not going to pretend I'm less than obsessed with NYC videos. Sorry! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Covers setback/wedding cake tiered, glass curtain wall, plaza towers, expressed structures, and the (hated) supertall.

Architect Breaks Down NYC Subway Stations (Oldest & Newest) - Architectural Digest - And we continue on NYC infrastructure history because I am insatiable.

Architect Explores New York City's Greenwich Village | Walking Tour - Architectural Digest - What a beautiful and inconvenient neighborhood, full of so many dead bodies.

Top Luxury - Despite the name, is about construction in general, including critique of megearich projects, so don't go in expecting it to be About The Luxury

World's Most Useless Megaprojects - Top Luxury - Did you know there are entire cities lying around empty? I already knew that, but there are just. So many giant projects that never got finished, ate up a lot of money, and are just kind of sitting around now.

5 Skyscrapers that Never Existed - Top Luxury - Some of these never got past the concept stage, and some ran out of funding, and at least one got turned into a fish farm by locals after it was abandoned.

Biggest Megaprojects in the World - Top Luxury - Exactly what it says on the tin! Guys, there are so many giant projects happening, and so many of them are controversial As Heck.

Why these Megacities are Still Empty - Top Luxury - Not entirely empty, but yeah, there are some megacities designed for one purpose or another that are more Ghost Town than Bustling Metropolis. Other than Naypyidaw, though, most of them are expected to gain larger populations soon, particularly Nusantara (which is being built specifically due to the sinking of Jakarta).

The Most Terrifying Bridges in the World - Top Luxury - Like half of these are in a specific region of China that just has. So many mountains.

Most Expensive Construction Mistakes in the World (Part 3) - Top Luxury - Have you ever fucked up so incredibly that it cost six billion USD to fix?

Not Just Bikes - Canadian living in Europe; city planning with focus on N. American car-centric zoning

Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston) - Not Just Bikes - Do you want more ammo to show people when they try to argue with you about walkable cities?

America Always Gets This Wrong (when building transit) - Not Just Bikes - How zoning and city planning needs to adjust in order for mass transit to actually work for people.

Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto) - Not Just Bikes - So there actually are good suburbs in the US and Canada, we just can't build them anymore because zoning laws make it impossible.

Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) - Not Just Bikes - So there's this really popular and horrible form of street/road in the US and Canada that is bad at its job.

Would You Fall for It? - Not Just Bikes - 1950s pro-highway propaganda (which is referenced in many other videos from this channel), and the ways in which it was misleading and effective.

These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us - Not Just Bikes - This video actually did numbers on tumblr a few months ago. You know those stupidly big SUVs and Pick-ups? Yeah! They suck!

Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud - Not Just Bikes - With a few small changes, you too could live in a city that doesn't make you want to wear noise-cancelling headphones every moment of the day.

IT'S HISTORY - Various historic places... mostly NYC

Why can't you visit the Statue of Liberty's Torch? - IT'S HISTORY - Has some confusing image choices (photos from the early 20th century while talking about events from the 18th), but delivers on a fun history of the Statue of Liberty (and includes some facts that the other Lady Liberty video didn't get around to).

What's Left of New York's Lost Reservoir? - IT'S HISTORY - Apparently it turned into Bryant Park.

When Chicago built the Tallest Building in the World | The story of Sears Tower - IT'S HISTORY - Just what it says on the tin.. Big building, big history!

The Secret Tunnels Beneath New York - IT'S HISTORY - NYC has lost so many tunnels? Lost track of, forgotten, rediscovered... it's ridiculous. Half of these are for TRAINS. Those are HUGE. Led to me making this post (which contains a meme or two, but also a very important trigger warning).

Other

The lost neighborhood under New York's Central Park - Vox - Explains the history of Seneca Village: a primarily-black community of newly wealthy, often first-generation-freed peoples that was destroyed to make way for Central Park.

The Rise and Fall of American Malls - Bloomberg Originals - Covers the factors that led to malls becoming so common, and the many things that are contributing to the move away from them.

Megastructures: Building the Burj Al Arab | Dubai Engineering - Reel Truth Science Documentaries - This is fifty minutes of engineering and architecture, and really well done/presented. Mostly steers clear of the larger political controversy in favor of focusing on the math, though it can't entirely avoid the political and economic conflicts due to direct influence on the design by a the Crown Prince.

Why Venice is Europe’s Worst Placed City - Real Life Lore - We all know Venice is sinking, but this explains why and how (it's not just global climate change).

Why Wyoming is VASTLY Emptier Than Colorado - Real Life Lore - More of a general history lesson than architecture, but still fun.

Why Engineers Can't Control Rivers - Practical Engineering - I've had a few classes touch on this topic, but it was mostly back in high school. This video has some really good visualization on the main elements, and addresses that there are some places working on actual fixes!

Why Construction Projects Always Go Over Budget - Practical Engineering - Goes over the process by which costs are estimated, the limitations of those processes, and the risks that inevitably force the budget higher.

Czechia's Incredible 1960s Supervillain-Lair Hotel (And Why Its Architect Got Banned By The Regime) - The Tim Traveller - There's this really cool hotel that recently got refurbished.

Why Egypt Is Building a New Capital City - neo - Another video on the new city in Egypt, but with more in-depth exploration of the specific planning choices (where certain buildings are, especially).

The Forgotten Story of Modulex: LEGO's Lost Cousin - Peter Dibble - LEGO had a brand called Modulex that was used for architecture and city planning for a few decades. These days they mostly do signage.

Why Airplanes Are Still Worth Millions After They Stop Flying - CNBC - The various ways planes are broken down, sold for parts, and otherwise recycled.

[writergeekrhw]

So it seems the showrunners of house of dragon and andor are gonna be on set and do "non writing" duties which seems insane to me, because wdym ???? Writing doesn't end with scripts there are rewrites till the last minute and every single other duty includes writing of some kind, plus the WGA tweeted that under their regulations it's all prohibited so wtf, this is actual scabing like it took them 5 seconds to scab already and these are two of the biggest shows rn meanwhile the showrunners of hacks are refusing to be on set and production has had to shut down. There need to be consequences for what they're doing otherwise wtf is it all for???

Every showrunner has to decide what they're willing to do and how they interpret the guild rules about non-writing services. Showrunners are also responsible for keeping their crews employed, so it's a position with divided loyalties. There are certainly ways showrunners and high-ranking writers can be extremely useful on set without writing, though it's a very fuzzy line.

I very much admire those showrunners who step away completely, and I'm glad my showrunner chose to have us all step aside and not render producing services for the scripts the crew had in hand before the deadline.

The WGA, I'm sure, is communicating with showrunners about what they should do and will review the actions of people they think might've crossed that line at some point, and there are various disciplinary actions they can take.

But it's a very tricky and sensitive issue.