#being a swiftie taught me well

[crescendof1]

its the 44th week of the year so what I'm hearing is a lewis hamilton win is upon us

[phoenixyfriend]

Why I think it's important to understand the geopolitical anxieties of Israelis

Oftentimes, it feels like even recognizing that those anxieties exist is viewed as siding with Israel in the current conflict.

And I think that it's... weird, to do that. Dismissing the anxieties wholesale makes it harder to resolve the situation. Addressing them directly is possibly the only way to resolve the situation, because America.

Let me explain.

This will have three parts:

Why the propaganda works

How it affects current policy

How we can pressure the (mostly US) government about Israel using what we know about propaganda

Why the propaganda works

A lot of it is just propaganda, yes, but a lot of it is based in history, and a lot is also sort of self-fulfilling at this point. They have had reason to believe that some of their neighbors want all Jews dead or gone for a long time (see: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen), so it's not that it comes from nowhere. When over half the population is either Mizrahi Jews who fled from nearby countries that were happy to have a place to kick their Jewish populations out to, or their descendants, it's not hard to see that 'if someone else is in charge, we'll have to flee again.'

You could tell the French in Algeria to go back to France, but are you going to tell Mizrahi Jews to go back to the ME countries that they left? Sure, some left willingly, but that kind of wholesale eradication doesn't happen unless there's some degree of systemic discrimination or threat of violence. You cannot send Yemeni Jews back to Yemen.

The threat is real. It is not as large as the propaganda claims. It does not in any way justify nearly 30,000 deaths, half of them children. But the threat is not just imagined.

The fact of the matter is this: the propaganda is fueled by actual violence and legitimate fears.

And unless those fears are recognized and accounted for, Israel cannot be talked down.

Being told that a threat does not exist when recent history clearly shows otherwise is not going to convince anyone. I cannot emphasize this enough: even if the far-right government is replaced tomorrow, those fears will persist.

Israel's current government is violently and militarily opposed to restructuring itself in a way that allows for either a secular democratic single state, or a truly free and independent Palestine in a two-state solution. Due to mandatory army service and large scale propaganda, many have been taught since early childhood that the only way for Jews to be safe is for Israel to exist and to be so incredibly overpowered for their size that other nations won't invade them. The fact that both distant history and more recent, across the world, is filled with antisemitic discrimination, feeds this paranoia. A lot of people are out to get them, and have been since well before Israel was established. The destruction of Judea, the Edict of Expulsion, the expulsion of Jews from Spain, pogroms, the Holocaust, the near-total eradication in Yemen, Jordan, and Syria, and so on... this shit keeps happening. Some of it long ago, some if it very recent.

But it does keep happening, and that is why the propaganda works. That is why the fearmongering has teeth. It has happened before, over and over and over again, and it is being loudly threatened again. The propaganda works in Israel, and it also works in Jewish communities, and non-Jewish people who just happen to hear it, based elsewhere in the world. Like America. (This is important.)

Before moving forward, I need to make this clear: There are Jewish Israeli activists, both within Israel and without, that are vocally against Israel's actions against Palestine. Some are organized, and some are individuals. Some stories even go viral: Israeli-born Natalie Portman's been criticizing Netanyahu for years and politicians have called for her citizenship to be stripped for it. Tumblr loves the story of the Swiftie Twitter that went to jail for refusing to join the IDF, and that's very common; plenty of young people get months-long prison sentences, sometimes multiple times. Right-wing mobs go after Jewish Israelis who speak in support of Palestine in any way, and these things get violent.

(In that same article, it also talks about how Israeli Palestinians are suffering much, much worse under the government's crackdown on free speech.)

How it affects current policy

The thing is, there are only really four ways for this to resolve:

Israel wins. They succeed in pushing Palestinians out of Gaza by killing anyone who doesn't comply, and take it over for themselves. (This is bad.)

Israel is cut off from any and all support from abroad, both 'here, you can help yourself with these guns' and 'here, we will fight your enemies for you,' and is very suddenly at risk of invasion, mass murder, and removal from the Palestinian Mandate by those groups they fearmonger about, the ones that include slogans like "death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews." (This is also bad.)

Israel is convinced to stop attacking Gaza, possibly through the threat of no more support, and settles in to figure out a solution with Palestine, whether two-state or secular single state or whatever, and normalizes relations with neighbors enough that they can start cutting back on their military. (This is the best option.)

A foreign power or coalition of powers invades and forces Israel to stop, and oversees a transition from military state to peaceful state while protecting from outside attack, like was done to Japan and Germany following WWII. (This one is... interventionism is bad, but also almost 30k people have died with no end in sight, so it's starting to look like a real possibility.)

We can all agree, I hope, that the first option is not an option. That is Bad.

I also hope we can agree that the second option is not an option. A number of Israelis may be settlers in the traditional sense of the word, but a lot of them are refugees from neighboring countries, survivors of the Holocaust, or descendants of such. "Just go back where you came from" doesn't work when many of them came from places that were also saying 'go back where you came from' because Israel now existed to expel them to. It's also been around for 75 years now, and some three-quarters of the population were born in Israel. Expelling them all, even the ones that were there before the early statehood aliyah? It's... I don't know. I understand in theory why some activists push for it, but I do think it is fundamentally different from any comparative colonization or settlement.

(Note: I do not include Israeli colonies in the Palestinian West Bank. Those do need to be returned to their owners. Give people their houses and land back.)

The third option is the one that most people, I think, would like to see happen. However, the Israeli government is clinging to the propaganda that they will be eradicated as a Jewish people if they do not forcibly take power where they can, and they are spreading it out among Israelis. Dissent by Israeli Jews may not be criminalized, but the society around them sure isn't receptive to it. The recent invasion of Gaza has also inflamed tensions across the region, which means that even countries which were slowly normalizing relations, or at least.

Netanyahu has not been convinced, and by all appearances cannot be convinced. The only thing that may force his hand is the threat of no more military aid, so he suddenly has to start conserving what missiles he does have in order to fend off a possible attack instead of continuing to hammer on Gaza.

Sounds great, right? This is why we are all (I hope) calling our senators or representatives or whatever your country has to tell them to stop supporting Israel monetarily or with military aid. This is why I keep giving suggested topics for Americans to call their senators about, even if I'm just one voice, and there are much louder ones saying the same thing, but better.

And yet, the Senate passed the aid bill. They snuck it into a Veteran Affairs thing as a last-minute amendment, but they passed it, and any failure in the House will have little to do with sympathy for Palestine and a lot to do with domestic border policy.

So... Americans are also pretty convinced of the whole 'if we stop supporting Israel, they will be invaded and killed off by the Iran-backed militias' thing. Many do feel sympathy for Palestinians, hence the 'Israel, you need to knock that shit off' comments, but they also are genuinely of a belief that the Israeli propaganda of 'we will be overrun by antisemitic Muslim extremist militias and exterminated like in the Holocaust' is true.

Like. Either they fear for Israelis due to the antagonistic forces in the region, or they belong to Christofascist ideologies about how supporting Israel is the way to avoid suffering in Armageddon.

You can't get to the latter on ethics or morality or whatever. You can only rely on ulterior motives (the border things) or telling them 'your reelection is in jeopardy, change your mind or you're going to be voted out.'

The former, though... you can. They believe the things that Israel claims and has been claiming since 1948, with regards to threats.

And if you acknowledge why the propaganda works, you can address it.

How we can pressure the government about Israel using what we know about propaganda

If you say that there is no threat to Israel from Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, or so on, you will be dismissed as an idealist who hasn't done any research. If you say that Israelis should be left to their own devices, you will be viewed as cruel, and if you say they should be removed and the land given back to Palestinians, you will be laughed away (silently, but it'll happen). You cannot convince the American government with these tactics.

What can you say?

Israel is making things worse for itself in regards to these exact threats. Pushing on Gaza is making neutral and nearly-normalized countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia less inclined to get in the way of the 'death to Israel' militias. The campaign is creating a whole new generation of extremists who will join the militias out of a desire to prevent more of these deaths by Israeli hands, and that will only increase the threat to Israel.

Destroying Hamas isn't going to do shit if Hezbollah, Iraq, Iran, the Houthis, and so on, invade. Especially if twenty years down the line, all those orphans that Israel just created these past few months start a new Hamas for revenge because, hi, look how many orphans you just created.

Netanyahu is working against the interests of the Israeli people. He is trying to remain in power, and the Gaza war is a distraction from the charges being levied against him.

Netanyahu has a vested interest in seeing that Donald Trump is elected, as they are much closer than the at best strained relationship with Biden. This is very complicated but if your senator or rep is a Democrat, it is relevant.

Israel's continued offensive is leading to the risk of millions of Palestinian refugees entering Egypt and destabilizing them, which, in an already unstable country in an already wobbling region, is going to risk another war across the Middle East. The US still has not pulled out all troops from the last one.

The US cannot afford, monetarily or in terms of foreign relations, to aid in causing a new regional war.

If Israel slows, halts, and withdraws peacefully from Gaza, tensions will settle enough to avoid possible invasion by those hostile forces they're so worried about. The UN can, if necessary, deploy forces to maintain relative stability until peace treaties are worked out. We'd like to avoid option 4 if possible.

The only way I can see to convince the US government to stop supplying weapons to Israel is to push on the fact that continuing to do so will, due to Netanyahu and his party's actions, put Israel in more danger rather than less.

There are other things to say to your senators, and I'll be making a post about that soon (not today, but probably this weekend; stuff like Michigan, UNRWA, international reputation), but in regards to just the geopolitics surrounding the propaganda, this is it. This is why we have to understand it. Because the way we get the United States government to stop giving aid to Israel to defend itself is by telling them 'this is putting them in more danger due to their head of state's aggression.'

This was very long, but I've seen a lot of misinformation and a lot of generalization, and a lot of it is... not great. Well-meant, sometimes, but not great. I felt it necessary to be very clear and very specific. I'm anticipating a lot of comments to the effect of "you forgot about this" and "but that doesn't excuse their actions" and "well, not all activists believe--" and I know.

I know.

But I've had people say "Nobody is advocating for the removal of all Jewish Israelis" to my ask box hours after I was talking about Yemen, a country that enacted a removal of all Jews and largely under the control of a group that has a slogan about doing just that to the Jewish Israelis.

So let me be very clear that I have seen a lot on tumblr recently, a lot of it extremist, and I'm not pulling any of this out of my ass or making up a guy to be mad at. I may not know everything on this topic--I may not even know much at all, given that it covers centuries of conflict due to the Ottomans--but I've been listening to hours upon hours of news from a variety of sources (Al Jazeera, BBC, NPR, and more) every day just to make sure I understand.

Please trust that, even if I get some things wrong, even if I don't cite every detail or generalize just a bit here and there, that I mean well. Please trust that I am making this in good faith and am trusting you to respond to it in kind.

Call your reps. Write them an email. Donate to a Palestinian charity.

It's a slog, but we can make a difference.

[9w1ft]

I wonder if we will get a photo of them in conversation at the wedding. Maybe somewhere right in the background of a slightly blurred photo, and it just looks like cordial conversation - even as part of a group - but indicating Taylor doesn't hate her. Maybe it's too soon, especially after the contract thing.

Also, am I missing something about the loafers? I thought maybe you meant it showed he was in one spot and Taylor in another but I couldn't see her.

i kinda doubt we will get a photo but it’s possible!

i was pointing out the loafers as a fun/silly way of establishing that travis is in this photo, which gives us a sense of where taylor would have been sitting in relation to karlie.

because his outfit matches up with the candids we have of him and taylor. and the loafers are a simple visual thing to match

later then i noticed travis is also in this photo (the full photo you can see on vogue if you’re interested, i’m just zooming in on it here) — which shows he was at the ceremony.

and so with the combo of these two photos we get a greater sense of where taylor would have been sitting in relation to karlie, and the fact that taylor and karlie were both at the ceremony. unless people wanna say that travis was at the ceremony and taylor wasn’t 🤣

anyway for me this isn’t so much about if there are photos of the girls speaking or not, for me this whole thing is about the humor that happens with the slow peeling back of the truth. swifties flat out denying karlie went with made up reasons, then that gets debunked, swifties and gaylors saying well many people are saying they both went but not at the same time, then that gets debunked, and so on. it’s just a cultural thing for a lot of us lifers here. don’t overpromise something when it happens, and then wait quietly and watch things slowly unfold over time. it’s one of my favorite pastimes 😌

i had a family friend who once taught me that the trick to being good at everyday ping pong is just to wait for your opponent to mess up. just volley nice and easy back at them, be simple about it. your opponent will inevitably try something tricky and, when you’re playing everyday pingpong, when someone tries to be flashy they’ll usually mess up. anyways, that’s a life lesson i’ve carried throughout my life 🏓

[blue-thief]

oh the wonders of realizing due dates are actually farther than i expected

@marcsnuffy this is all basically just based off how this guy is made up of twelve billion contradictions esp when we're considering gender expression.

i've gone over this before, but he's the type of guy who would read dazai, dostoevsky, kafka, etc in a male manipulator kind of way. this type of guy also goes in hand with the type of guy who watches fight club, american psycho, etc with zero self awareness (i'm not much of a film nerd so i can't really speak about his taste in films specifically).

his dad probably had a collection of old films he worked on, and kaiser watched them all on some old cd or cassette player in hopes of finding some with his mom. even though his mom showed up in more dramatic films rather than tougher serious ones, these ones hold a special place in his heart. he's not in denial about this, but he never brings it up to anyone. around the time he was a tween, he snuck into a movie theatre to watch one of his mom's films.

i believe it was mentioned that his parents started off in theater, and once kaiser became rich enough, he took time to see live productions at least once a month. his goal is to catch up on shakespeare since he never got a chance to learn about him at school (i had to check r/askeurope to see if shakespeare is taught there ����😭).

as much as it's funny to imagine hamilton fan kaiser, i don't think he'd be drawn to musicals that much. he doesn't mind them, but they aren't usually on his radar. he's considered going to the opera though. for the sake of affirming to himself that he's now financially stable.

he canonically reads psychology textbooks, and i think he has read jordan peterson's books. (SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP BECAUSE I HAVE PROBABLY WALKED ON THE SAME FLOOR AS JORDAN PETERSON ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS GET ME OUT OF HEERREEEEEE) i don't think he'd care or agree with jordan peterson but he definitely has read him, maybe even bought some of his works shudders he also read the dictator's handbook + the art of war and has used this in ways that are disastrous for everyone involved

beyond the dazai, dostoevsky, kafka, etc vibe, i don't think there's much fiction he'd be drawn to. at some point, he decided to check out f. scott key fitzgerald, saw jay gatsby, and went "he's just like me fr" (again, zero self awareness)

as for music, i think he would listen to three days grace in particular (i have listened to exactly ONE three days grace song and that is "i am machine" and all i could think was "he would listen to this /neg" then added it to my own liked songs playlist). he might have stumbled across panic! at the disco and he probably vibed pretty well with a fever you can't sweat out. he would not care for any other panic! at the disco album. he also wouldn't care for ryden so he wouldn't read throam. but i need this guy to somehow read throam because throam!ryan ross is literally him.

he probably heard primadonna girl by marina but didn't care at first. it wasn't until he accidentally stumbled across oh no that he was like "i need to listen to the rest of this". he only ended up caring for the family jewels and electra heart, and electra heart is more feminine than most things he would allow himself to listen to, but this is just his way of going "whoa look i'm a feminist i like women i'm listening to a woman and sings about woman stuff". relates to the persona of electra heart once again because AGAIN. THIS GUY HAS ZERO SELF AWARENESS 😭😭 HE NEVER REALIZES THE ART HE CONNECTS TO IS TELLING HIM THAT HE SHOULD NOT BE THE WAY THAT HE IS 😭😭😭

but yeah. electra heart is his limit to willingly admitting to feminine art but this guy is subconsciously drawn to taylor swift but more like in the sense that he's fascinated with her presence in the cultural zeitgeist. which is a strange form of being a swiftie, but his relationship with famous women is strange considering his relationship with his mother. if his mother got big enough that she worked with americans on american projects, there's a chance that she would talk about/be publicly acquainted with a lot of young famous women for the sake of white feminism yk. he consumes their art just through cultural osmosis but his understanding of their personal drama and stuff is weirdly detailed

also these are all totally definitely absolutely not examples of me projecting 😁😁 because i AM self aware and i am better than michael kaiser in every way possible 😁😁😁

[likeadevils]

I trust your opinion. If you were making bets about what TS11's themes, concepts and sound would be like.. What would you like& prefer? and what would you think Taylor would do?

thank you for trusting my opinion but i am god awful at predicting what taylor is going to do next. that being said:

i think something taylor learned with all too well, anti-hero, and cruel summer is to… trust her instincts, i guess? not that she hasn’t in the past, but she’s mentioned that those songs were her favorites of their respective albums, and she didn’t expect that the general public would enjoy them as much— at least, not to the degree that they have been. but they’ve all been #1s, and more impressively to me, they’ve all broken through into wider pop culture in a way that’s super hard to do nowadays. like can you tell me what’s #1 right now because i can’t. but anyways i think she’ll be following what she wants to hear a little bit more, and trusting that her and the general public’s taste is pretty aligned at the moment. so like, to boil it down into a bingo card prediction, the lead single is going to be taylor’s favorite song on the album

also, bingo square, the color will be white. no evidence just vibes

i think another thing taylor recently learned is trusting that not only her fanbase, but the wider pop landscape would accept complex ideas delivered with a complex vocabulary. in some ways i think she was really burned by me!— she had been taught that it’s the we are never ever getting back together and shake it offs that you send to pop radio, not the all too wells. and then me! got torn apart (deservedly or not), and then the world shut down and it’s not like she needs to find a tour off her next album so what the hell, let’s take out the immediate hooks and replace it with flowery language. and it was a massive hit! twice! but it’s not the kind of music she wants to make forever. so midnights was an added gamble— can you marry the hooks with the collegiate vocabulary? and you can! anti-hero was her biggest chart success ever! so i expect more dictionary/thesaurus starter pack memes in our future, no matter what genre it’ll end up in

that being said, i think she’ll be staying in pop. i maaaaybe could see a kind of pop rock thing happening— think like, the electric guitar she adds to don’t blame me when it’s preformed live.

regardless i do think she’ll be pulling in more rep influences— i’m not super in the buisness of trying to track down when exactly she’s been re-recording, so this is coming from swiftie brain rot not timeline brain rot, but if i had to guess i would say she was mostly recording rep over the summer and with the occasional ts11 track thrown in as well. but i could be wrong maybe she has three albums recorded. idk. i am very interested in what the rep sounds like though, i think that’ll be the biggest clue to what ts11 will sound like

i’m curious how auto-biographical it’ll be. honestly, i could see taylor creating a single character to inhabit and tracking their story throughout an album, which would parallel the emotions she’s going through, but not the exact situations. but that’s me projecting what i would need to do to process the fucking year she’s been through, and taylor has consistently been saying how much she gets from having people sing back the words thought she must be alone in thinking, so like maybe it’ll be intensely About Her, who knows

as for release, i’m a big post eras tour believer. like i know it’s been said a million times but god how impossible would it be to add another set to that thing. like we might get the announcement and lead single while still on tour, but not a full album

i’m also expecting a more talk-y rollout. i would bet we’re getting a couple of print interviews— not anywhere near 1989 or lover levels, but like, you know. rolling stone, vogue, maybe another time, that kind of thing. and in front of camera stuff too— zane lowe, a bbc live longe, some late night appearances, maybe going on kelly clarkson’s show. and maaaaybe a hot wings episode. maybe. i think taylor got a bit burned by the long roll out for lover, and regardless she had other priorities when it came to the midnights release, but it’s been a while and she does like to surprise people by doing something completely predictable. but also this is totally me being like pleaseeeee give interviews they help me with timeline research so much

i predict this every time but visual album!!! if i keep saying it one day it’ll be true!!! it just makes sense she’s been getting so into directing!!!

while we’re in the realm of things that would make me specifically go insane i just think it would be funny if she got paul mccartney to feature on a song. just to be petty. imagine your ex is releasing an album and she gets one of your favorite musicians to play on it. and after the sweet nothing debacle too. oh. so ouchie. also she would have paul fucking mccartney on an album that’s insane in its own right

while we’re throwing spaghetti at the wall. two word title. let’s get crazy maybe 3+ words why not (this is by far the least serious prediction if the title is more than one word i’ll lose my mind)

maybe some religious imagery for the visuals? i’m trying to think of aesthetics taylor hasn’t thoroughly explored. what’s coming to mind is stained glass windows and like, the wild west. this is not at all influenced by me being raised catholic in the american southwest what are you talking about

so to sum up i think i want a pop rock opera with a title along the lines of “the blank of firstname lastname” about a woman in the wild west that has climatic scenes in a cathedral?? i guess that’s the shape i want?? i was not aware that’s what i wanted when i started writing this post okay

[bisluthq]

Crazy how many swifties are now suddenly widowing on main because apparently Joe made her be political and Travis made her stop so she should be back with him so that way she’ll be political again 💀 like I’ve legit seen sooo many people say this

well tbf Taylor herself credited Joe for becoming political because SHE said her boyfriend made her learn about politics and encouraged her to speak up so that’s actually not really widowing lol it’s believing what Taylor said and following the logic. I don’t think Travis stops her from being political but I do think Joe pushed her to say things and maybe she actually didn’t always feel that comfortable about it so 🤷🏻‍♀️ good that she no longer has to, I guess.

What’s funny to me is I remember when she SAID Joe taught her about politics and made her speak out there were soooo many Swifties saying that was taken out of context and she did it because she’s a liberal progressive queen and it had nothing to do with Joe and I was like “mkay” and turns out no it wasn’t taken out of context and that type of shit was deeply annoying to her in hindsight and what she’d rather have done is… partied lol.

Fair enough.

[rainbowdaisy13]

Hey Rainbow, do you think you're still a fan of Taylor's? I noticed you said your lavender-colored glasses were off, and that makes a lot of sense given what she's showing the public. I kind of wish at this point that I never entered the fandom last summer. :/ There was so much joy (for some there still is, I know), but I wish I never got my hopes up about what I thought she was doing or who I thought she might be. That is, I don't think I should be showing her any grace about something that may or may not one day come to fruition. Maybe I can decide to show her some grace when/if she ever does one of the grand somethings I might have hoped for, but yeah...I shouldn't be a fan based on stuff I THINK she's doing, and that's been the heart of my interest from the beginning.

It sucks...I liked listening to her music through a Karlie love story lens. I guess I could still do that, but can I care about this love story if I don't care about Taylor?

I think one of my straight Swiftie friends had it right, tbh. She's read the gaylor theories and she thinks they're very plausible, but she also thinks we will never know if we were right.

I just want to feel cozy in this space and it's not very cozy anymore. :(

First I wanna put out there—if you or anyone else wants Taylor to be a fun and light topic only please by all means unfollow me! I don’t pay attention to who follows me, who I’m mutuals with—unless you are messaging me not on Anon and then I only know bc tumblr tells me if we are mutuals. I take zero offense to people unfollowing—you have to do what’s best for you as an individual

Secondly, am I still a fan is such a hard question I don’t have an answer to yet. I’m definitely not morphing into a hate blog even if it feels that way right now

I’m using this space right now to vocalize how it feels to defend someone and their art for nearly a decade, to believe there was some grand purpose to all the bullshit they have created and participated in, and to one day realize it all may be a lie….the plan may have been to make as much money as possible for as long as possible and that’s it

You really nailed it on the head for me too “I should’nt be a fan for what I THINK she’s doing” or going to do—that’s also been my main interest as well, and maybe that’s on me? The caveat here is that Taylor has continued to encourage the idea and actually does hide secret codes and messages and Easter Eggs and throw backs and has been actively doing this for YEARS with her art—so if we follow the signs she lays down, how is it just us being parasocial idiots? I don’t believe it is—she absolutely shoulders some responsibility for what she’s taught us all to look for even if she never acknowledges that or even cares how it’s impacted other people

Thanks for being honest & do whatever you need to do 🩶

[jamesmarriottistrilingual]

Jack Wilder is a swiftie

Daniel liked Jack for a couple of reasons:for example the way that Jack made quesadillas every Sunday lunchtime. He originally thought that it was stupid however he eventually came to lie about it. However there was one thing that he loathed about the younger man. HE LOVES TAYLOR SWIFT TO DEATH!

He realised that the younger horseman was a swiftie when he heard him singing to “New Romantics” in the Shower. Moreover,Jack had brought tickets to see Taylor Swift live(The Eras Tour or something stupid like that) during June time. Two tickets. Great. Henley must also be a swiftie-she could be surprisingly disappointing like that sometimes(similar to the time where she was too big to fit through that trapdoor-she should’ve been better). He knew that Merritt would be better than to be a swiftie. 

One day,he walked through to the shared kitchen when he heard Jack talking to Merritt. 

“So Merritt. Please go to the Eras Tours with me.”,Jack pleaded. “I need someone to go see Taylor with. Everyone else is busy.”

“Urmm.” he hears the hesitation in the older guy’s voice. “I think that I’m busy that day but as Danny. He’ll say yes.”

“DANNY!” Jack yelled. The younger man runs into the living room and halts in the middle of the room. “CAN YOU SEE TAYLOR SWIFT WITH ME?”

“Do you want to know my honest feelings about Taylor Swift?” Daniel said. He sees Jack’s face turn quickly into a sadden expression. “She sucks. She’s annoying. All her music seems the exact same. All she does is ruin the music industry. She’s basically everything that is wrong with music. Why do you feel the need to listen to her? It's because your mother never liked you growing up so you listened to Taylor Swift to cope with it. You pretend she’s good so you could say that your childhood was decent. Don’t lie Jack. We all know that your childhood was shitty. Why do you need to go to this shitty woman’s concert? You need to grow the fuck up Jack. You honestly need to.” He storms out of the living room not noticing Jack’s breath hitch up. 

By the time he reaches his bedroom he shuts the door and just hopes to ignore everything Taylor Swift related for the rest of his life. However,Henley and Merritt had other plans. 

Firstly the redhead lady barges into my bedroom and taps Daniel on the shoulder harshly. “WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH A DICK ALL THE TIME DANIEL. BECAUSE OF YOU JACK IS BAWLING HIS EYES OUT IN THE LIVING ROOM.”,she yells at Daniel. “JUST QUIT BEING A PRAT FOR ONCE AND MAYBE ONE OF YOUR TEAMMATES WOULDN’T BE HAVING A PANIC ATTACK IN THE LIVING ROOM RIGHT NOW!”

“I just told him the truth!” Daniel replied in a harsh voice.

“Maybe get your ass in the living room now.” Henley said back dragging him out of the bedroom and into the living room where Jack was still struggling to take in a full breath and had a couple of scratches on his neck from where he tried to catch his breath again. From the look on Merritt’s face Daniel knew he fucked up. 

“Look Jack I’m sorry but she still sucks.” Daniel replied with. Henley wacks Daniel with her hand and he winches a bit. Then Merritt fulls on slaps him around the cheek leaving a bit of a mark around his cheek. “Well I apologise for having an opinion. Maybe you all need to grow up.”

“Or maybe I have a better idea” Merritt said just as Daniel was turning around. “Jack. Daniel will go to the Eras Tour with you.” Henley nodded in response. Daniel’s face turned in anger.

That day Daniel got taught an important lesson.

DON’T INSULT TAYLOR!

[cottoncandywhispers]

no, you don’t get it: “ the voices that implore, "you should be doing more" to you, I can admit that I'm just too soft for all of it” YES, @taylorswift has taught me to accept that I AM a sensitive person, that I should be proud to be a soft person !! being a swiftie since debut has taught me many things and has helped me to understand myself, to accept myself. I was five years old the first time I heard taylor's music and since then, she has been by my side in my best and worst moments.

"you know how much i hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back, just like that" yeah. that's why i don't expect that from her, I want her to take her time!!! because she's just been there for me in my worst moments and she's given me energy so that when i was ready, i would come back stronger than ever. thanks to taylor I learned to love, to live, to dare to write my own poems, to cope with difficulties through art.

all too well and dear john were there when I went through my first love, as troublesome as it was. fearless and debut were my childhood and they don't fail to make me laugh, dance and smile every time I listen to them. 1989 accompanied me in other hard times, clean taught me that despite my problems with mental illness, I can have hope. reputation gave me hope, made me feel brave to fall in love again, now I KNOW that it's ok to DISAPPEAR SOMETIMES!! to take a break!! . lover made me feel understood, as if for the first time there was something that expressed 100% who I am. soon you'll get better helped me during one of the worst times of my life. midnights just make me happy; accompanies me when I can't sleep, when I feel good about myself and when I'm coping badly. TAYLOR IS ALWAYS FOR ME!! and I am so grateful and PROUD!! of her!! of how far she has come, I see her do 3-hour-long concerts with ENERGY!! and being successful and deserves all that!! I love her with all my heart and wish I could give her all the happiness she offers me every day!!!

[thepalmofyourfreezinghand]

Oh I hadn’t even meant it in reference to Taylor more so grateful to see you have such level responses, but your point about the general echo chamber that’s developed of “x is 34, been in relationships so they must know what they want” is bleeding into being almost a damaging rhetoric and as a whole it’s so prevalent in society still that marriage and babies is the ultimate goal so thought processes like that just feed it and pressure women

Yes, don’t worry, I just reiterated the point that it’s not about Taylor because I don’t wanna be misunderstood!

And getting married and becoming a parent is an extremely valid goal, if you’re the one choosing it and it’s not “imposed” by society.

And I’m not even judging because we all live in a patriarchal society and we all fall victim to sexist ideas, it’s just the way it is.

For example, I love my boyfriend so much and he’s a “perfect” person for me, but sometimes I do wonder if there are some things I like about him that I like only because society tells me those are things women are supposed to like in a man, rather than things I love spontaneously.

Very banal example, but he’s 6,2, and I do like tall men: do I genuinely like them? Or is it more like “yeah the guy is supposed to be much taller than the girl because that means that he’s a “real” man and he can protect her!”. Another example: he’s graduating soon and he wants to get a very well-paid job. I used to like the idea, but then I did a bit of self-reflecting and I realized that I only loved the idea of having “a man who provides” because I was taught that, but I actually personally think that choosing a job over another only because it pays better (which is something he’d totally do) is not a great idea, and his “love” for money is now not something I’m crazy about. On the other hand, he doesn’t go to the gym and he’s very slim: should I want someone who’s more “strong” and can pick me up or whatever?

Of course it’s very difficult (sometimes impossible!) to distinguish between what we want and what society wants from us. The important thing is that we’re aware of how much external factors play a role into our decisions and likes, imo.

And the fact that a lot of Taylor’s fans are women in their 20s and 30s (the target audience for the sexist talk that a lot of swifties are having right now) certainly doesn’t make it better.

[netherfeildren]

vic, as if I couldn’t love u enough, the 1/MTR/don’t blame me are some of your faves 😭😭🥹🥹🥹 and damn right I feel u on Joel digging cowboy like me & him ~not~ being a John Mayer fan!! and pls stay beautiful for sarah 😭 I also feel like an honorary mention for ivy somewhere in Joel’s list - I can feel him strumming along n singing justin vernon’s harmony whilst sarah is cooking up eggshells

who would’ve thought the author of some of the greatest fics in existence also has impeccable music taste, huh? stay well my love 🤍🤍🧚

ok despite rwylm being my number one favorite ever i think it can be objectively argued that my tears ricochet is the best song she’s ever written herself just from a crafting standpoint it’s just so strong in every way

also ivy yes!!!!!! evermore is his personal fav album i think and then i’d say debut bc he digs the country vibes

before i am a human i am a SWIFTIE!!!!! she taught me everything i know my best friend my big sister

[notexactlyrocketscience]

If all young girls were able to openly disclose (without all the mysoginistic victim-blaming) the way their toxic older boyfriends fucked with their minds and left them, then the world would be a much better place.

Instead, all we get is boys and men claiming all their exes were crazy, hysteric women. Outright lies that everyone wants to believe, easily.

I didn't know all that much about Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor's age difference when they were dating (gasp I know, should probably have kept more tabs on our girl's well-being), and I have to admit I was feeling slightly sorry for him because of the upsurge of memes about Red (Taylor's Version) coming out soon. I mean, it was a decade ago. He might be a ✨ changed person ✨ by now, you know? And Taylor probably doesn't care that much either for sure, so she might not totally be on board with Swifties making a big deal about the exes instead of focusing solely on the music.

Well, guess what—Red (Taylor's Version) is out now, and there are SO MANY SONGS ON THERE ABOUT HIM (including From the Vault ... few have anything good to say), and All Too Well (10 Minute Version) is an appalling depiction of an abusive relationship that broke the younger Taylor enough that she cried on stage singing it countless times over the span of years.

And you know what? I don't care if Jake Gyllenhaal is a changed person now or whatever. Victims of emotional neglect get to tell their stories whenever they want to, however they want to, and the abusers in question deserve to be held accountable by the audience, no matter what. He was thirty. She was a teenager. A PERSON IS NOT FREE REAL ESTATE TO ROMANTICALLY MESS WITH (AND/OR SEXUALISE AGAINST THEIR WILL) SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY'RE JUST BARELY PAST THE ARBITRARY "ADULT" AGE OF EIGHTEEN.

He could've so easily just ... lain off. Kept his distance instead of successfully luring her in only to decide soon enough that he'd had his fill. Going on to continuously reject, bully and gaslight her on whim just to get rid of her in the most (unnecessarily) painful way possible, with him holding the higher ground (of course). This is what happens when men are not taught to make responsible decisions or give a shit about the collateral damage their own immaturity costs others.

If you're with someone like that now, this is your sign. You deserve better, and there is better out there in the world for you. I promise.

TL; DR: Jake can take some jokes. I'll sit back and watch. Popcorn would be nice, so would a 10-page apology and proof of some valid redemption arc. To set an example, y'know. If he's so mature by now, shouldn't be a big deal. Fun Friday evening activity.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to replaying all of Red (Taylor's Version), moping and biding my time till the All Too Well Short Film to comes out to inevitably destroy my soul.

[revelationinthelightofday-writes]

some kailex headcanons !! (bc uhhh do i really need to have a justification??)

Obviously Akarnae's Resident Power Couple TM

They're both really socially intimidating and are friends with a lot of popular people, but don't... really participate in a lot of teenage rituals, especially when there's masses of strangers? Chances are, if they're at a party, they're scaling a building together and hoping their friends haven't fallen down a pit or something in their absence

Kaiden was the first person to show Alex how to properly throw knives, mostly because it was a skill neither Karter or Niyx ever bothered with her

Similarly, she taught him how to drive a car when she took him to Freya one summer (probably manual too bc he's a multitalented prick)

They do spend a lot of time together, but most people don't realise a lot of it is in comfortable silence. Alex has a tendency to fall asleep on him, not that he's complaining.

In general, Alex has a fairly disrupted sleep pattern because of nightmares and Kaiden is insomniac, so they tend to spend a fair few hours stargazing or night swimming.

Kaiden's the one who says 'I love you' first.

He rarely gets intoxicated, but when he does, he's a sappy drunk who suddenly loves everyone, and for the love of god, do NOT get him started on Alex. You'll be listening to him ramble on about her until four in the morning.

She's one of the few people who not only know about Kaiden's gift but are able to see past it to who he is, so he slowly gets more comfortable with getting to be excited about acquiring a new gift and actually sharing it with another person, that being her.

Alex is definitely a Swiftie and will absolutely belt out lyrics from time to time. (You bet she loses her mind with the release of the Taylor's Version albums and probably makes a bad "Hey Kaid, can you break up with me for about 2 hours so I can listen to this new album by a Freyan artist?" joke at some point)

Alex never wraps her hands for hand to hand combat and it drives Kaiden insane, so he always does it for her before classes/practise spars (so many knuckle kisses and the occasional cheeky ass smack)

Tbh, they probably butt heads every now and then because Kaiden tries to be a gentleman and Alex has an independency streak, and it doesn't work out well for them.

Alex is one of those girls who LOVES having multiple piercings -- but also absolutely hates needles, so guess who holds her hand when she's getting a new piercing done

(She almost breaks Kaiden's hand, on multiple occasions)

During one of the numerous visits to the piercer's, Kaiden gets quite familiar with all of the tattoo designs plastering on the walls, and decides to get one of his own. (Personally, I like to HC his late mum's name was floral related, so he gets a half sleeve of whatever flower.)

I've seen a lot of theories for when/if they have kids after a few years in the fandom, and whilst I have mixed feelings about Applying Heteronormative Expectations To Comfort Characters, @azymondias05 's headcanon of them adopting kids (Leo!!) makes me practically froth at the mouth bc I love that concept so much idk what it is about it

[alyssadeliv]

The Forgotten One

First       Previous

Chapter 2

Marianne was born a fighter.

Her training starts before she even knows how to read. Most of her lessons are different from the other kids in the League. Instead of being taught by fellow members, she’s mostly taught by monks from the Order of the Guardians. Not a lot of people know of her existence, and those who do are very loyal to her grandfather. 

By the time she’s nine, she knows more about the Miraculous than any other person alive. She knows she’s special, and that all her training is to prepare her for when the time comes and she’s allowed to be given a Miraculous. Master Wang Fu is the Grand Guardian of the Miraculous Box, and only he is allowed total control over that secret jewels. He and the other guardians teach her about the balance of the universe, and how nothing is black and white. Teach her about the old language of the Miraculous and how to properly decipher its writings. They do not know why she was born with healing abilities or how she always seems to learn things faster than normal, but one thing they are certain of is that Marianne Al Ghul was appointed by Tikki, the Goddess of Creation to be her Chosen One.

Aside from her responsibilities with the Order, she must oblige to her role as a high member of the League. Even if no one really knows about her relationship with the Demon Head she must always be on top of her game, always ready for anything. For those that do not know, Marianne is simply another orphan that was taken in by their leader. When she was younger that used to make her very upset, but now older she understood that it was mostly for her protection. The League believes her to be an orphan, niece of Sabine Cheng, one of the elite assassins trained by her grandfather. She’s her godmother and taught her a lot of what she knows. 

As she grows, she’s trained in every martial art style, how to wield different types of weapons, and to speak a diversity of languages. She’s ten when she finally gets to pick a weapon to specialize in and is allowed on solo missions. 

Her life wasn’t easy, aside from the constant pressure from her grandfather, Marianne was put through a lot of hard training sessions that left her sometimes bloody and broken. She had more scars on her arms than any child her age should have. But in the end, they only helped her to be a stronger version of herself.

She specialized in knife and sword fighting. Normally people would underestimate her because of her size and age, but that’s when she would get them unprepared. Her favorite weapon would be daggers. They were easy to conceal and easy to wield. 

Marianne never liked the killing part of her training, but after years she understood that it was a necessary evil. She most enjoyed the whole preparation for a mission, depending on her goal sometimes she got the opportunity of designing the clothes she would wear, to best hide her weapons. The monks believed that this creative side of her was a result of Tikki’s influence on her. But for her it didn’t matter, it was something she enjoyed and was good at. Normally that type of indulgence wouldn’t be allowed in the League, but because she helps in creating complex designs for the most complex missions, her grandfather allowed this one thing that made her happy.

Her mother wasn’t very present, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t loved. Marianne knew her mother cared for her, but she was a very busy woman. Most of the time she would be training with the monks, and that didn’t leave a lot of free time. So it was normal for her to only see her mother two times a month. It was in one of these meetings that Marianne’s whole world changed.

“What’s that?” She was no more than five at the time and had just begun a more intense type of training, going against children twice her age in combat. Her mother recently had a lot of missions, one after the other, and it had been weeks from when they last had seen each other. Talia was a very beautiful woman, one that commanded respect, but only her daughter was capable of bringing a softer side of her. 

“That habibti, is your brother” A brother? That didn’t make much sense, she knew where babies came from, and that giant green orb couldn’t possibly be her mother’s womb.

“That’s not how babies are made Mother”

“You’re right my child. After you, we couldn’t possibly take the chance of me birthing another girl. This artificial womb ensures that the perfect heir will be born” Marianne knew that her grandfather longed for a male to continue his legacy and that if it wasn’t for her abilities, she might not be allowed the same privileges she has.

Growing up an only child and being purposely separated from the other children her age most of the time, she lacked the social skills, someone, her age would have. To live in the League meant that you could never let your guards down, and always be ready to fight for your life. It was hard and never fair. At the time she didn’t understand why there was so much violence around them.

One thing she always understood very well was loyalty. 

She was loyal to herself.

But at that moment, as she looked at her growing little brother, she vowed to do whatever necessary to ensure his life would be easier than hers. 

She would protect him even with her life.

Next

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[tibby]

swifties that think they’re superior for saying all too well is overrated are the weakest link and will be the first to die when society decides to go ahead and wipe out swifties in their entirety. you think you’re too good for “autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place?” do you really hear “you taught me ‘bout your past thinking your future was me” and think that you’re somehow ABOVE that? is pretending like “maybe we got lost in translation maybe i asked for too much but maybe this thing was a masterpiece til you tore it all up” doesn’t rip out your heart REALLY going to get people to like you? you think god is going to let you into heaven because you denied the brilliance of “you call me up again just to break me like a promise so casually cruel in the name of being honest?” are you actually convinced that “time won't fly it's like i'm paralyzed by it, i'd like to be my old self again, but i'm still trying to find it” doesn’t deserve all the hype it gets? is the brief flash of moral superiority you feel after insulting ”plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own, now you mail back my things and i walk home alone but you keep my old scarf from that very first week 'cause it reminds you of innocence, and it smells like me” worth admitting that you’ve never felt love? just what are you trying to prove for hating on “cause there we are again when i loved you so, back before you lost the one real thing you’ve ever known?” because if you’re trying to prove that you care more about seeming cool than ever experiencing any emotions then you have succeeded. 

[dessarious]

What Makes a Family? Pt13

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The next time Marinette woke it was still dark. She was in her bed this time and when she looked around she found Luka and Kagami on her Chaise and Chloe on the floor. It was a common enough configuration and Marinette was ready to just go back to sleep when Tikki spoke.

“Alfred’s downstairs and wishes to speak with you.” She fished around the bed for her phone to see the time. Four in the morning. That didn’t bode well. “I think he just wants to speak with you before the others arrive.” That comment woke her up like a blast of cold air. She was going to be meeting her birth father and his kids, not to mention her twin. She was absolutely not prepared for this. She quickly descended the ladder and then the stairs to the living room. Alfred was sitting at the kitchen counter with her parents.

“Tikki said you wanted to talk?” Her parents started but Alfred just smiled at her.

“Yes Miss. I would like to talk to you about Miss Cassandra before the others get here. She had a very… unusual upbringing and there are some things it would be best you knew beforehand.” She just blinked at him for a moment trying to figure out what he could possibly mean.

“Okay.” He looked to her parents. “They can hear it. I’m sure they’ll be meeting her sooner rather than later.” She didn’t want them at the initial meeting because she wanted to feel out Mr. Wayne without them glaring at him, but she had no intention of keeping them apart permanently.

“As you wish. Your mother made a deal with Miss Cassandra’s father. Her life in exchange for a child.” Marinette frowned. She wasn’t certain if it was worse that the offer had been made or accepted. “Talia used the agreement to also create you. Sort of a test run for Damian from what we can gather. Your mother was furious at the deception and since that wasn’t part of her deal she ran with you and left Miss Cassandra with her father.”

“Well that explains why she left me here. She never wanted children in the first place.” She watched her parents exchange a look and Alfred seemed at a loss. “But that’s not the point. You were going to tell me about Cass’s childhood.” Alfred gave a nod but hesitated.

“Yes. Her father had her bred and trained for one purpose. To be the perfect bodyguard for Ra’s al Ghul.” Her parents sucked in a deep breath and Marinette felt her mind go blank. That was… not what she expected. When she didn’t say anything Alfred continued. “She was meant to be the perfect weapon. He chose your Mother for her ability to read body language, and trained Miss Cassandra in only that and combat from birth. In order to do that he deprived her of everything else. She was not spoken to, so she never learned to speak, nor was she taught to read or write. She had no way to communicate with others.” Marinette felt fury that she’d never even imagined at that. At their mother, Cass’s father, and the league. How dare they do that to her little sister. That thought caused her to pause. She didn’t know their birth order… did she?

“How long was she there?” Her parents were side eyeing her and she realized how much anger was still in her tone. She couldn’t help it though.

“Until she was eight. She was sent on a mission and just never went back.” There was a lot more to that story, but she honestly would rather hear it from the source. So there had been five years between that and her being adopted by Mr. Wayne. Five years when she’d likely been completely alone. Marinette felt guilt well up even though she knew it wasn’t her fault.

“She’s been with Mr. Wayne for four years now so I imagine she’s learned some things.” Alfred reached forward to cover one of her hands and she gave him a small smile. He cleared his throat.

“She has. Her speech is still rather broken. She has trouble finding the words she needs. She’s far more fluent in sign language.” That made sense given she was far more used to watching than listening.

“Chloe knows ASL so she’ll be able to teach me, and translate if necessary.” She chalked it up to her luck that Chloe had decided to piss off her mother by learning sign language rather than something ‘useful’. Audrey had expected her to pick Mandarin or something else that was more widely used but Chloe noticed one of her mother’s employees in New York was deaf. That had been an interesting blow up.

“I have a feeling the two of you won’t have a problem communicating.” Alfred’s voice was dry but amused.

“They may not but the rest of us likely will. If Chloe doesn’t have time to help we’ll have to take classes.” Her Maman said it more as a proclamation than a comment and her Papa just nodded in agreement. She felt herself choke up as she thought about how lucky she was. That brought a new wave of guilt.

“We really are the epitome of good and bad luck. I have to wonder if it’s my fault her life was so horrible.” Tikki and Plagg both flew up to her face looking pissed off.

“Your good luck rubbing off on her in the womb is likely the only reason she was able to escape in the first place. It’s definitely the reason she ended up with your birth father. You are not to blame.” Tikki sounded certain and now she had a whole host of other questions.

“Tikki’s right. As my Chosen, bad luck and misfortune were bound to follow her. I’ll be able to shield her from the worst of it once she has the ring.” Plagg sounded… determined. She’d never really thought about that, but now she had to wonder if Plagg’s ‘I don’t care’ attitude was to cover their own guilt.

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