#but yeah to get rid of the racism you basically have to throw out the whole suitcase and start over so

[bestworstcase]

What would you have thought if Madam Canardist was designed and characterized without the racially negative stereotypes against the Romani people and voiced without an accent?

she’d be a completely different character in that case. 

her basic role in the story, as a character accompanied by a disguised/shapeshifted demanitus, who ends up facilitating the important exposition in lost and found, is completely fine on its own. so, i wouldn’t have a problem with a different, hypothetical non-racist character filling that role

in the context of... sticking with canon and the episodic cartoon format and trying not to deviate too much from the canon plot, here’s how i’d design that character:

1. obviously just... completely scrap her canon visual design. i think she should still be a woman of color, because there aren’t enough women of color in tangled. actually you know what this is all hypothetical so let’s get real self indulgent with it and say she’s voiced by and modeled after ciara renée, Because Reasons.

2. she’s still named canardist, but to lean more into the pun, demanitus’s shapeshifted form is a duck, not a monkey. [in english, a “canard” is an unfounded rumor, story, or hoax, and in french, a “canard” is a duck. :P]

3. she’s a village bard and team corona first encounters her in her hometown of fortuna. rapunzel and eugene are on a date, rapunzel sees this woman chilling with her lute and her slightly deranged looking duck by a fountain or something and is like !!!, and canardist not-very-begrudgingly agrees to perform, like, the epic ballad she’s composed about the town’s history. 

4. it turns out that the history of fortuna’s founding is absolutely fucking bizarre, like this town is a total weirdness magnet and all kinds of utterly bonkers stuff has happened and when canardist finishes the tale eugene is like hahaha, yeah right. canardist, put out by his skepticism, is like “look my duck is psychic fortuna is just Like This okay” and eugene loses it. 

5. rapunzel is intrigued by the psychic duck and wants to pay for a fortune, but canardist is like no way, your boyfriend is a jerk, get lost, so they go. they stop in the market to pick up supplies on their way back to the caravan, discuss eugene’s cynicism, hear some rumors about the thieves who’ve been terrorizing the town lately. rapunzel persuades eugene that they should loop past the fountain again and apologize to canardist for him, you know, laughing in her face and insulting her pet, and when they get there the duck is gone and she’s distraught because two kids grabbed him and ran off. cue the rest of the canon plot of vigor the visionary, with the girls and everything. except vigor is a duck. 

6. in the end, they bring vigor the duck back to canardist, and to thank them, she offers rapunzel one of vigor’s fortunes. it’s vague and confusing and won’t come into play until, let’s say happiness is—when we (and rapunzel) realize that it was warning her not to fall for the illusory happiness offered by the lorb idol. eugene is still skeptical, insisting that the “fortune” was vague and it only lined up with the events on the island by coincidence. 

7. now—fundamentally, bards were chroniclers. they recorded history. and canardist, being a rather good bard, figured out pretty quickly just who rapunzel is and, after team corona left fortuna, decided “you know what? that’s history in the making. i’m going to follow them and write down what happens.” 

8. so she hops a ferry across the sea and waits for them on the other side. rather than the whole lombard’s pass / telescope theft / nonsense with the curse, the episode after peril on the high seas is shenanigans with canardist being all, “i want to join your group and chronicle you” while team corona is like um. there’s a b plot with vigor the duck kind of terrorizing eugene/following eugene around and refusing to be shooed away; the a plot maybe has to do with a clash between canardist, who’s accustomed to nobility paying her for the privilege of having her chronicle their lives, and rapunzel, who has Uncomfortable Feelings about being important enough for a professional bard to be wanting to travel with her and write about it; maybe they still have to cross lombard’s pass, canardist helps (she’s a bard, she’s well traveled, she probably knows a trick or two), and at the end of the episode it’s like—okay, rapunzel’s not comfortable traveling with what’s essentially a biographer, but she and canardist come to some sort of agreement to go their separate ways but with the understanding that canardist is going to trail after them and interview people about what they did and at some point, when she’s ready, rapunzel’s going to give her side of the story.

9. canardist gets tied back into the narrative in brothers hook. this time it’s not because she’s following them, but because hook hand’s a friend of hers and she, completely independently of team corona, decided to show up and support him at his big gig for king trevor. it’s a much more amiable meeting and, after hook foot leaves, rapunzel decides to invite canardist along. because she’s doubling down on her decisions in the great tree, she feels more secure than she did the last time they met and letting canardist chronicle their journey no longer seems as scary. so canardist takes hook foot’s place in the party.

10. her presence then becomes yet another thing putting pressure on cass, because the thing is... it’s clear that cass is just a footnote in the story canardist is chronicling. she’s not important, in the context of the history they are making. rapunzel is. cass is on track to end up as rapunzel’s nameless bodyguard in this ballad canardist is writing and she tries not to let that bother her but it really really does. 

11. i think it’s sort of funny if canardist gets just, completely skipped over by all the whacky evil shenanigans in the shell house. because tromus recognizes that vigor the duck is demanitus and he’s like okay, that’s a grenade i’m not going to touch with a ten foot pole, and zhan tiri is like yeah good call, so canardist ends up just like, sipping tea and casually strumming her lute and making small talk with tromus while the rest of team corona gets terrorized by mirror demons and time-twisting tops and lotus dreams. 

12. so lost and found. there’s some tension in the group because canardist wasn’t harmed by anything in the shell house and that has eugene feeling just a mite suspicious, and maybe cass is backing him up too to distract attention away from what she went through and her “do i take the moonstone or not” dilemma; and partly to smooth it over canardist is like look, rapunzel, eugene, take vigor, he has something he wants to show you.

13. by this point everyone is sort of used to canardist talking about vigor like this even though he is, to all appearances, a slightly deranged duck, and rapunzel is insistent that canardist is completely trustworthy so she’s like okay!! sounds great!! and drags eugene along. the maze stuff happens. vigor reveals himself to be demanitus. it’s basically canon except he’s, you know, a duck. also it just occurred to me that i never specified what kind of duck i’m imagining when i say duck so i feel the need to do that now: 

one of these guys, but like, a little bedraggled and crazed-looking. it’s the red eyes that really sells it. 

14. anyway vigor also reveals that, yes, canardist knew he was demanitus the whole time; turns out she comes from a long, long line of bards stretching back to an ancestor of hers who knew demanitus and agreed to protect his undying birdbrained duck vessel until such time as he was ready to emerge. eugene feels bad about distrusting her, they make up at the end of the episode, she slips him vigor’s fortune about one of the group turning traitor in the dark kingdom. he’s like, fuck.

15. destinies collides happen, cass gets the moonstone and fucks off, for the rest of s3 canardist’s role is like... she and vigor stick with the group, she’s still chronicling them, but she also, because of her own history with demanitus, is able to help fill in some of the gaps; she reveals to rapunzel that gothel was once a servant of demanitus—and betrayed him for zhan tiri, and then betrayed zhan tiri for the sundrop. basically she’s how we get more of the the gothel+zhan tiri lore we were all craving in s3

16. other s3 stuff—maybe with her help team corona starts sketching out a plan for dealing with zhan tiri immediately after race to the spire, rather than putting it off until plus est en vous. maybe she gets to be a kind of foil to cass; as a bard, she’s always the one telling the story—never participating in it directly—and perhaps she has some complicated feelings about that that could parallel cassandra’s feelings about always being in the shadows, just a footnote, just a bit player, never someone the story is about. maybe she can have a cute bonding moment or two with varian the demanitus fanboy or xavier the legends buff. also whacky vigor and canardist shenanigans during lost treasure are mandatory. anyway the point here is, she’s not just yeeted out of the story 

[peralta-guaranteed]

Hey! I have a fic/HC request - it's a bit specific - jake and Amy are on a date and they see a guy who went to the academy with Jake and worked with Amy at the 64 and when amy goes to the washroom he tries to make fun of her/says creepy stuff about het in front of Jake and he gets all angry and protective

“Gotta say I’m surprised.”

“About what?”

“That you got Santiago.”

Jake stares at Daniels over the rim of his beer glass. There’s a million instincts shouting in his brain, mixing into a little symphony. To tell him to fuck off, basically. Tell him he worked hard to ‘get the girl’, and continues to work hard to keep her. Tell him that whatever he’s got in his head about their relationship is probably far stranger than whatever he’s-

“Whyyyy~?” Is unfortunately all he manages to squeeze out inbetween anger, confusion and a bit of shock. It seems to be enough for Daniels, who guffaws.

“Well, no offense, Jakey, but you’ve been a detective for what, eight years now?”

“Eight and a half.”

“Amy Santiago needs more than a detective to keep her career floating.”

It had started out as a frankly lovely evening. It wasn’t date night, per se - just a random evening where they’d both found themselves out of the precinct earlier than expected, and Jake had spun Amy round on her heels once while holding her hand, grinning and asking if he could ‘take a lady for a drink’. (He was well aware that he did corny-romantic the best, and it usually worked with Amy. Like it did that night, making her giggle and roll her eyes and lead him down the streets to Shaw’s anyway.)

“I mean, that’s all she was about back at the 64. Going up the ladder. Nice girl, but jesus, her constant work chatter really pushed down her ratings.”

“Ratings.”

“Yeah.” Daniels grins and Jake tries not to think about punching those teeth out. “You remember from the academy, yeah? We set them all up during darts night. Much better than the 0-10 scale.”

“I never went to darts night.”

“Oh right.” Daniels sips on his beer. “You were always hanging out with that Rose biker chick.”

“Detective Diaz.”

And since it wasn’t established date night, and they were only having a beer each before they’d probably head home, it didn’t feel all that wrong to invite an old academy pal to their table when he bumped into him ordering at the bar. If it had been anyone from the 99, Amy would’ve probably done the same, and Jake was a bit too busy introducing him and laughing about the fact that they actually knew each other from Amy’s old precinct to notice her raised hackles.

“Diaz, sure, sure. Gotta tell you, if she wasn’t such a hardass bitch, she’d be a straight A.”

“Oh good, a letter rating system.” Jake groans through gritted teeth.

“Your Santiago, though...” Daniels leans onto the table with a wink, and Jake imagines his face crashing into it if he slapped the elbow he’s leaning on away. “She was a whole A+ at the 64th. Until she opened her mouth, and got into that whole career shit with the captain.”

He was not too busy, however, to notice her complete silence ever since Daniels had sat down - nor his clear disinterest in changing that, talking to Jake only, slapping his shoulder and recounting those ‘good old days’ Jake didn’t really remember the same way. Not too busy, either, to notice her jumping up ‘for the bathroom’ when Daniels started on their time in the 64th, and rushing through the rest of the bar patrons like something had stung her.

Jake sees red, and tries to blink it away. Unsuccessfully.

“Amy’s ambitious, and rightly so. She’s one of the smartest detectives we’ve ever had, and she’s gonna be a sergeant, lieutenant and captain before any of us even manage to get the first test topics into our brains.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, right.” Daniels grins and winks again, and the red turns into pure fire in Jake’s eyes. “With a bit of shmoozing, those tests are a doozy, I know.”

Jake’s hand slams onto the table so hard the guys next to them look over for a second, and Daniels’ beer topples over right into his lap.

“Hey, dude, what the fuck-”

Amy’s been in the bathroom for a good 10 minutes. Daniels chatter has turned from good academy pal to annoying classmate to ‘jesus fuck, I remember this douche, Rosa used his picture as her personal darts board’. He’s been talking about ‘Santiago’ as if she hadn’t been in the same room as them only minutes ago, and his face as Jake calls her his girlfriend says more than enough.

“You know jack-shit, you stupid piece of crap.” Jake snarls, and the guys next to them quickly shuffle away. “You’ve bumbled your way into your job by being a mediocre white guy with just enough racism and sexism in his brain to appeal to the same brand of assholes in higher positions, and now you think it’s okay to spew that kind of trash to anyone with a badge. Amy and Rosa are gonna wipe the floor with douchebags like you. Without the need for shmoozing, or rating systems, or whatever else fucked up shit you’ve been using to get where you are.”

“Listen, you gotta take a joke, man-”

“It’s not a joke, and I’m not going to listen to any of your shit for a second longer. You’re gonna take your beer-stained pisspants out of this bar, and if I find out you’ve been talking like that about any of my colleagues again, or talking shit to them, I’m pretty sure either Diaz or I still have some of those ‘fun’ graduation party pictures you probably don’t remember taking.” Jake’s fist is shaking, but his face is steadfast enough to convey the message (and it’s not a lie - he does know Rosa keeps a blackmailing backlog, and he’s well aware of the academy photos in there, right next to the folder of his own fuck-up proofs that she keeps throwing at his head if he ever tries to refuse one of her demands).

Daniels mouth opens and closes a few times, like a fish trying to breathe out of water, before he sputters something that might be an insult, but gets up, so it doesn’t matter. He runs into a few other patrons as he leaves, two of which give him as clear of a stink eye as they give Jake a nod as he passes them, but he’s barely noticing them.

-*-

“....Ames?” Jake steps into the, luckily, uni-sex bathroom Shaw’s had decided on years ago, and finds only one of the stalls locked. “You okay in there?”

“S-sorry.” comes as an answer, and he knows her slightly stuffy voice after crying far too well not to recognise it even when reverberating through an empty bathroom. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

“I made Daniels leave.”

“...You did what?”

The stall door finally opens, and Amy’s red-rimmed eyes are looking at him almost confused as she clings to the handle.

“I told him to fuck off, basically.” Jake shrugs, but then takes a step forward, lays his hand as softly as he can on hers still gripping the doorhandle like it was a lifeline. “I’m sorry I let him barge in like that at all, and didn’t remember what a colossal jerk he actually is.”

“It’s okay.” Amy sniffs, and his hand on hers tightens. “You couldn’t have known.”

“I could have. Should have remembered how much he pissed me off in the academy already. And even if not, I shoulda noticed how uneasy you were with him straight away.”

“Yeah.” Amy only nods, and sniffs again before he can wipe another stray tear off her cheek. “Thanks, anyway. For getting rid of him.”

“Don’t thank me for doing the bare minimum.”

“It’s good to encourage proper behaviour.” Amy tries a little grin even with a wobbly lip, and Jake answers it with a snort as she leans against him, finally letting go of the doorhandle to wrap him in a hug he gladly reciprocates.

“He wasn’t the worst of them, anyway.” She mumbles into his flannel shirt, and his arms around her shoulders grow tense.

“Alright, I’ll need a kill-list then. To hand over to Rosa.”

Amy snickers into his shoulder, but shakes her head.

“It’s okay. I don’t have to deal with them anymore. I’m at the 99 now.” She mumbles, and it sounds a little bit like she’s trying to remind herself of it, too.

“You’re with the 99 now.” Jake nods. “We take care of each other.”

Amy sniffs once more before looking up at him.

“Did we need to have this heartfelt moment in a bar bathroom?”

“Let’s go home, Ames. Before they make me pay for the beer I spilled all over the seats.”

“Wait, what?”

-*-

She’s deep asleep next to him, her hair all splayed out over the pillow since he played with it until she dozed off, her lips slightly open for that little, high, whiney noise she makes that he knows means she’s completely gone into dreamland.

He turns his phone screen’s brightness all the way down to keep her there before starting to type.

- Roger Daniels u remember him?

- what did the douche want. Do I need a new dartboard

- can we break him somehow

- why

- made Amy cry. probs for years

- gimme 2 days

Jake sends only a thumbs up before he slides down under the covers, Amy’s cold hands immediately finding their way around his waist as he shuffles closer to spread his warmth over to her side of the bed as well.

[poormeowmeowcollector]

Let me give you my life

Pairing: Loki x Tesseract

Warnings: Major Character Death, Mourning, delusions, mental illness, alcohol, Original Character Death, Odin, fantastic racism

Summary: After Frigga's funeral, Loki starts hearing a voice. It changes their life completely.

Chapter 4: Bridge and Chorus

Chapter summary: the aftermath

Chapter warnings: Odin, Major Character Death, suicide

Chapter note: this chapter is dedicated to @lucywrites02 because she pretended to be a bad bitch yesterday.

Previous chapter AO3

No masters or kings when the ritual begins

The shackles sing as Loki walks towards the throne, fighting back a grin. Odin, on the other hand, sits on his high quality chair, believing to be intimidating.

"You have committed a grave crime against the-" Odin tries to speak, but Loki chuckles.

"I know what I have done, Odin. No need to repeat yourself," they interrupt, using a voice they've been hiding in their throat since they learned how to speak.

And it has so much to say…

"Has your mother taught you no respect for your king?" They yell, their favourite way of speaking to Loki. In all these years, Loki cowarded away at this voice, scared of a physical expression of the anger. This time, he laughs at it.

"Not my mother, and I have no king but myself," they smile, watching a new wave of anger flashing in the old charlatan's face.

"Silence! You never knew how to shut this mouth of yours!" Odin raises his voice, hoping to see the now natural cowering of Loki. The only answer is another laugh.

"Do you really want me to start speaking, Odin? To see who is truly guilty, with all these good dicks and whores listening?" Loki asks, a glow in his eyes as he gestures around as wide as the shackles allow. The harshness of their tongue makes the nobles who watch the "trial" gasp.

"Who taught you this language?" The old man spits, narrowing one eye.

"Apart from your anger? And that old warrior you ordered to teach Thor and me how to survive in a forest? And there are the guards, I can name a few but stitching is a worse crime than murder…" he mutters, acting if like he's chatting with a cup of tea other than being on a trial for murder.

There's no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

"Enough with your games! Why did you murder Lord Gæirasson in cold blood?" Odin asks the "big question", as if the right answer will lift the charges from Loki's name.

"Because… one, because he was a racist and offended me, to which the punishment is death. Two, because he started a war-"

"You started a war, Loki," Thor interrupts, taking Odin's side, like every time.

"A war had been started. Let's not blame people, Thor. Now where were I? Oh, yeah, at how Gæirasson started a war. Also, he refused to pay his taxes and you know how seriously I took my responsibility of being in charge of the palace's finances. Did war crimes against my people, father would be proud the son of a bitch is dead. And lastly, but definitely not least, a dreadful sense of fashion. Have you seen what his grooms wear? I think I threw up in my mouth when I saw it…" they finish with the rumbling, not even thinking of answering seriously. Odin will execute him anyways, would some fun be so bad?

"I said, enough with the games!" Odin basically screeches, their face going red.

In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene

"For the murder of a lord, cause of a war and disrespect towards the throne, I Odin Allfather sentence you to a life in the dungeons," he decides.

"Dungeons? Not axe? Did Frigga's ghost or this moron talk you out of killing me?" Loki questions, taking their turn to narrow their eyes.

"If you keep talking, I might change my mind," Odin sighs, rubbing his temple.

"And get rid of this perfect pawn to hold King Laufey from the balls? A shame, really," Loki poutes and shrugs, pretending awfully that he cares.

"I will not stand your disrespect any longer! I had granted you your life, Loki, more than once! You will learn to respect me for it! Take them to the dungeons!" Odin speaks the final order. Four guards grab the chains that lead to Loki's shackles and push him away, forcing him to walk with them

Only then I am human / only then I am free

On the way to the dungeons, Thor stops the guards and demands to speak to Loki.

"Just tell me why, brother. Please. What didn't we give you to make you care so little?" they ask, grabbing Loki's shoulder, just like they always used to do.

"A family. That's what you didn't give me. And that's what I've earned," Loki answers, staring right into his no-brother's eyes, the blue in them and the pale lines that resemble his lightning. They know they won't see Thor from this close ever again, and they deserve a proper last memory.

"Then, I'm sorry. It's late, I know, but remember this, please… I shall visit, whenever I can, Loki. I swear. You shouldn't be in prison all alone," Thor promises. Loki gives only a nod, enough to make Thor dismiss the guards and let them keep walking Loki to his future and last chamber.

The only sign of emotions they allow themselves to show is a sigh, only out of sympathy.

For he knows that his freedom just begins.

Take me to church / I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies

The moment the guards put Loki back into the white vacant cell and take their eyes off them, they cast an illusion of them settling on the floor and staring at nothing. The real Loki is walking up and down the room, waiting for the Tesseract to speak.

"Now?" he asks, feeling it close.

"Now, you need to learn who your family is. Not Odin, not Laufey, your true family, Entropy," they answer.

"What with this name? After all this, can't you call me by my name?" Loki groans.

"I am. You have many names. Entropy, the Chaos Stone, the Death Stone, the Knot… the last one, actually, is the name you're most familiar with, translated to Old Jötunn tongue," they speak, all matter-of-factly.

"You're lying, the Chaos stone is a myth," Loki brushes off the answer.

"It does exist. A black gem, created by billions of ropes, strings and threads tangled together. The hardest one to wield and command and impossible to find. The Jötnar had found it and worshipped it. And when Laufey found out that his son is nothing but a dead baby, he sacrificed the infant for the infant. And Odin found the baby crying in the altar, the gem gone,"

"So I own my life to an imaginary stone, apart from an old piece of shit. What a surprise…" Loki throws their hands in the air.

"No. You are the imaginary stone. In order to give life, the Chaos gem entered your body and never left. You are the flesh of a corpse and the mind of an infinity stone. And it's time to leave the corpse and join us,"

The aimless walking stops, and Loki's heart skips a beat

I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife

"You made me kill a man, for this?" he asks, glaring at nothing. They don't answer.

"You made me kill a man! Just so I could die!" boiling hot tears streaming down their eyes and slither into their shirt as burning red eyes stare at the empty room for something. "I trusted you! You promised me a family!" he yells between his sobs.

Their feet cannot support them, and they kneel down, turned into a crying sobbing and yelling mess. A hand, created by mist, grabs his shoulder, trying to provide comfort.

"I hate you," they spit, flaring their nose drills as they stare into the blue eyes of the illusion they use to pretend they're close to them.

"I'm sorry, hurting you was… if I could prevent it…" the stone says and gives him a small squeeze. And they mean it. If there was a way to do it without any pain, they would. But it's too late, Loki is already hurt…

Offer me that deathless death

Loki throws themselves into the tightest embrace they ever had, weeping like a baby. "I don't want to die. Please, I don't wanna die. Anything but this, anything, please!" he whispers, diving his head into their shoulder without a thought of holding back the tears.

"Shhhh, you won't die. Not truly. Your mind is the stone, as long as it exists you exist. And the body will stay intact until you need it again. You will be fine, I promise," they whisper, hoping of making them feel better.

"I'm scared, Tessie. I'm so scared, I can't," for a prince, Loki sounds so small, almost like the small child they used to be. Tessie starts playing with his hair, hoping to calm him down, even for a bit.

"It's alright. Everything will be fine, no matter if you do it or not," they shush them.

"If I do it or not?" Loki repeats, sniffing quietly and breaking the hug only to look at the misty blue eyes of Tessie.

"I… you're in so much pain… if you decide that you had enough, you'll be left alone," they explain. Loki nods, still quivering from the crying, but determined.

"No. We got so far. I-I-I'm not giving up," he lets his voice get louder, and then stands up. "What do I do?" they ask, collected once again.

"Get comfortable in a position. And once you're ready, make the ropes appear and let them wash over you," Tessie explains, holding this sympathetic voice. Loki nods and sits back down against the white wall, moving to get comfortable.

Then, with just a thought, the ropes appear and fill him with this calming sensation. Tessie walks closer and cups their cheeks. "See you on the other side, Loki," they smile and kiss their forehead before vanishing.

Loki takes a deep breath, and looks around the cage. He remembers a field day he had when little, a good day. Odin was sleeping on a bench and Frigga was yelling at them and Thor to not get into trouble as Thor dragged Loki, who was just above six, on an expiration of the forest around a castle in Vanaheim. Of course, they returned after the sun was down, with scraped up knees and dirty clothes and Loki had traces of tears in his cheeks because a bug scared him. But it had been, and still is, the best time they ever had with Thor.

He holds tight into the memory as he lets the ropes cover him and closes his eyes.

Good God, let me give you my life

The guards don't know how this happened. One moment, Loki was gazing at nothing and the next…

How does one say this to the Allfather?

The healers walk out of the cage when Thor storms in the dungeons, on the verge of panicking. "Is he alive?" It's all they ask.

The healers won't answer, it's enough to know.

Thor walks in and sits beside what used to be Loki, holding their cold and deformed hand and letting tears run down his face.

Loki doesn't respond, how could he?

He's a statue, as if made from black stone, and his hands covered in stone black ropes, with a faint glow where his heart should be being the only sign that there was once life there.

Loki's face doesn't have the signature smirk, and there's no gleam in their closed eyes. But he does wear a peaceful smile. A smile Thor regrets he had to see this body in order to know that his brother knows finally peace.

[ferventfox]

Okay, I didn’t got into it as much on the original post but one of the things that bothers me about the Splash Mountain thing, other than the fact that I hate change and want to be able to experience the original version of the ride when I want, is that a lot of the discourse reveals a widespread ignorance of the fact that the Br’er Rabbit Stories are actual African-American folklore.  Everyone’s just like “ew gross the ride about the racist movie made by racists.” I literally saw someone say that its based on a story written by a white guy and that someone pointing out the characters’ origins was doing backflips to justify racism. People have just decided that the character and the story are inherently racist, mostly because that’s what they’ve read on twitter, and there’s no choice but just to throw them out of pop cultural consciousness. Stories told by enslaved black people based on African folktales aren’t racist. And besides that, I just can’t stress enough how much I object to the idea that old things of impure origin should just beforgotten about. “Yeah [thing] has good qualities, but its outdated/problematic, so its time to stop celebrating [thing] and leave it behind” is a sentiment I see with alarming frequency.  Everything old is of impure origin.  I’ve seen people smear things, up to and including whole mediums and industries as being “built on racism.” These things aren’t built on racism, they just came from a time when racism existed. Everything in the past comes from a time when racism existed. Everything now comes from a time when racism exists--including everything made by marginalized people and everything considered progressive or groundbreaking or that sparked some kind of social change. The attitude now seems to be “It doesn’t fit in with the culture today so its disgusting and we should get rid of it.”  Because purity culture. There’s not such thing as a pure, un-problematic anything, and even if there was in 20 years it would probably be considered just as backwards and offensive as the things we objectionable now. 

Not that these tales don’t exists anymore just because the Disney corporation doesn’t deign to acknowledge them or anything, but the fact remains that theirs is the most well-known version in pop culture. Song of the South was the only cultural touchstone for these stories many people had, and when it got memoryholed, all poor Br’er Rabbit had was his ride. And now he’s not even going to have that. That’s a shame, I think. If Disney really wanted to make Splash Mountain connected to a bankable IP (and make no mistake, this is their actual motivation for doing this. They have it out for attractions like that these days), I think they could’ve made a new movie that re-adapted the source material with just the Br’er Rabbit stories and all the weird racist Uncle Remus framing device stuff completely excised (y’know, like the ride). I’ve been saying for years I’d support all this Disney remake nonsense if they were revisiting their flawed properties instead of the ones that still hold up. I think these folktales deserve to be shown to a modern audience. If they got the right people working and consulting  on it, which Disney has ample resources to do, they could probably make something really good and respectful that is palatable to audiences today.  And even if they didn’t knock it out the park, it would still have put these stories back in the cultural spotlight and would revive interest in them.Seriously, as much as there was a time that I rolled my eyes at it for being “inaccurate”, when I saw Hercules as a kid I asked my mom to get me a book that was “like Hercules” and that’s how I got into Greek mythology and mythology in general. I am who I am today because of that dumb Greek Myth Rocky movie, and I think it would be awesome if  Disney’s The Adventures of Br’er Rabbit  (or whatever snappy one word title it would inevitably be given) was some other kid’s Hercules. Or even some adult’s. 

And hey, Disney doesn't have to do it. Anyone could try to bring attention to these stories through a new adaptation. But do you think anyone would try now? Now that a bunch of people have decided they���re too tainted by being in a seventy year old movie to be show to the public? That people are making the associations between Br’er Rabbit and the Uncle Remus stories and glorifying slavery? Even if somebody did try and did everything right, purity culture still dictates it’s problematic because its history wouldn’t be free of racism. Remember that article when Cuphead came out  about how rubber hose animation was racist because a lot of early animations using the technique had racist subject matter? Yeah. It would be “these stories were in that racist movie about how slaves loved being slaves so its problematic to tell them now” or “actually these stories aren’t authentic, because they were written down by a racist white man.Only pure, non-existent, unadulterated by biases folktales allowed!” It’s just sad and frustrating to think about. Basically: Stop being mean to Br’er Rabbit, everyone! He deserves better than to be inextricably linked to the idea of “being racist”   

In short, Bad things are bad, but don’t throw out Good, or even Neutral, things just because they stood next to a Bad thing one time. We’d lose so much of value if we always thought like that. 

[theexecutionerssong]

TW: racism, homophobia

I’ve always spoken my mind on this hellsite, so here are my two cents on the whole “let’s cancel the girls” movement that’s been floating around all season. Long rant unde the cut once again, sorry not sorry about that.

I come from the North of France, grew up in a very white, very heterosexual, very privileged town. During my childhood and teenage years, I heard shit like “black people stink”, “black people are fat”, “black people are dumb”, “Arabs are lazy”, “Arabs are violent”, “Arabs are stealing our jobs”. This kind of things was coming from my Dad, my grandmother, my uncles, kids at school. My mom would sometimes try to challenge my Dad like “honeyyyy don’t say that in front of the kids” *giggles* but that was it. It was a comment like that once every 6 months but with time, I internalized a lot of it. And grew up racist.

The day I realized I was racist was a slap in the face. Because I had black friends, I was disgusted at white history for treating POCs the way it did, I had never myself wished bad things to happen to POCs so how could I be racist? Racism is slavery, it’s not... thinking black people are uncultured, right? (I can’t believe how dumb that sounds now a decade later)

How did I realize I was racist and privileged? Well, first, I realized I liked girls. When all my life I had heard my grandmother say “if you bring a girl home, you are never allowed to step a foot in my house again”, seen her make fake throwing up noises at the TV when a same gender couple was on screen, heard my Dad make jokes about lesbians, saw my uncles openly make fun of the waiter in the restaurant who looked too gay for their taste, and here I was maybe being… a lesbian? I didn’t even know. But I hated myself because surely it can’t be happening to me? I’m fine with other people being gay but not me? I was 17, I had never really left my hometown, I knew a grand total of zero LGBTQ people, I didn’t have access to a computer to research anything. So I didn’t say anything to anyone and cried and cried and cried.

And then I left home and went to study in a bigger city. And then again in a bigger one. And I ended up in the biggest capitals in the world, where I met queer people and people coming from so many different backgrounds. They reassured me I was not wrong for liking girls. And they made me realized that it was the other way around, that so much of the things I had learned growing up was wrong. That I had internalized homophobia, misogyny, and racism. It was in the things I would let slip, the things I would catch myself thinking without wanting to. I took to the internet to learn and unlearn, to read about people’s experience. It took years. There might even be things I have internalized and I haven’t realized yet.

And damn was I mad. For a couple of years, every time I would hear something racist or homophobic, I would snap. I would lash out completely at the person. The day my sister said “yeah that guy is nice but he isn’t my type - for starters, he’s black”, I completely blew up at her. And it did nothing. She didn’t understand where my fury was coming from. My town voted for Marine Le Pen at the last presidential election, a whooping 56% and that day, I called my mom and cried because I couldn’t believe it. She told me to stop “getting myself in such a state over politics”. At least one of my uncles voted for her. I wanted him out of the house the day he told us, I was ready to pounce on him. But this time, I tried patience. I tried to tell him that he himself is an immigrant (my family is from Italy) so he can’t go around telling immigrants to go back to their country. France welcomed him when they were fleeing poverty so why can’t he accept that the same thing is happening to other people? And he realized he had never thought of it that way.

People don’t react well to anger. They dig their heels in and don’t listen. It’s so frustrating. Educating people who don’t even seem willing to recognize they might be wrong is the hardest thing in the world. But if people hadn’t done it with me, I wouldn’t be who I am today. So now I try patience. I try discussion. I try to reign in my anger. Not every time of course, because some situations are too extreme and dialogue is clearly impossible.

I get tired. It’s not my fucking job to educate people. Like Lucas in Skam España said, I’m not a walking gay wikipedia. I get tired of educating people on LGBTQ matters, of having to explain and/or justify my bisexuality. I get tired of casual homophobia, of this heteronormative society. So sometimes I say nothing and let it go. My bisexuality doesn’t show on my skin, so in that, I have it WAY easier than POCs. I can’t begin to imagine what it’d be like to be in your shoes.

If people had cancelled me and cut me off of their lives 10 years ago, I wouldn’t be able to be myself. I would maybe still hate myself. I wouldn’t be able to spread awareness in return. So I’m not excusing the girls’ behavior, especially Ingrid’s. She seems to be pretty aware what she’s saying and doing. But the rest of the girls reminds me of past me. Living in their bubble privileged world, never being challenged for anything, never being directly exposed to anyone in their close circle who’s different than they are. Basically being ignorant.

Not knowing is not a good excuse for anything, but it's an opportunity to learn. And I wished the girls were given that chance by the fandom. Imane is right to call them out. It might be the wake up call they need to realize how badly they are acting. But cancelling them? Wishing Imane would just get rid of them? I’m just not sure it would help anything in the long run. I don’t think it makes the season less about Imane. Because that’s her daily life. She has to deal with this kind of attitude every single day, at least that’s what Assa said she has to deal with. She said the season was a reflection of her life. as infuriating and hard to watch as it is, it’s unfortunately her reality.

[bitegore]

Hey, I’m just dishing out the tough facts. Megatron was forged for heavy labor in the mines. That’s what he’s good for in IDW2. The fact that he pretends to be a senator won’t change his nature as a violent hunk of metal. He’s not worth sh*t and honestly, deactivating him would just be like throwing away a toaster oven or a broken alarm clock. He’s an appliance and that’s it. In fact, IDW2 proved that he doesn’t even have feelings. He’s a mindless robot without a spark.

1 - He’s not pretending to be a senator, he is a senator. Or is Optimus Prime also pretending to be a senator? IDW2 hasn’t been incredibly clear on how senatorship works, but it’s very clear that they aren’t sparked for it. Optimus was an archivist first, as you see with Codexa. 

2 - being a public policy maker (eg: a senator) doesn’t make you nonviolent. False equivalency. He can be a violent hunk of metal and a senator at the same time. Come up with a better way to phrase that or drop that part of the argument.

3 -  At the very least, he’s a decent public speaker. He’s the public face of the Ascenticons. If you want to argue that that’s Termagax, tell me how many times she’s given a speech- Megatron is the face that’s attached to the movement. She even says so herself.

(Image source: edited together from panels in issue 8)

They wouldn’t be such a big movement if he were good for nothing but mining, because no one needs a poetic or talkative miner. Having your nearly-nonsentient drone inspire the other nearly-nonsentient drones to rise up and kill the people holding their chains is the last thing a mine owner who needs nearly-nonsentient mining drones wants to happen! 

4 - “deactivating him would just be like throwing away a toaster oven or a broken alarm clock“ lol i don’t even know how to explain that throwing away the public face of your movement would be a bad idea. Even if he’s just a puppet, which he’s clearly not, you’d have to be a moron to do that. At the very least he has use as a senator and therefore an infiltrator of the government the Ascenticons are trying to change. Nonetheless, he’s not actually useless. He is shown as directing the Ascenticons and the Rise both. 

(Image source: issue 10)

Sure, he’s coming over as a mercurial dick here, but you don’t speak to your boss like that. Shockwave is clearly taking orders, as much as he dislikes to admit it. He’s operating within Megatron’s plans and working the way that Megatron wants him to, and Megatron came here to yell at him for going off the playbook, not to ask him to explain what the plan is or something. He’s not stupid and he’s not just playing along- he’s actually writing the plans. 

(Image source: issue 10, one page later)

Oh, yeah, definitely just a broken appliance. 

5 - “ In fact, IDW2 proved that he doesn’t even have feelings. He’s a mindless robot without a spark.“ 

This point breaks down into a few parts. 

I - you can’t just take the story at it’s word. If a character is consistently shown acting on emotion, going “they have no feelings” is kind of, and I wish i could put it more kindly but I can’t, really fucking dumb. The on-page text is really just dialogue and imagery, as this is a primarily visual medium. The dialogue that is used as world building is therefore unreliable, as it’s coming straight out of biased characters’ mouths. Megatron is shown snarling, arguing, using aggressive body language- signs of at least one emotion, anger. You even mention it yourself! He couldn’t be a “violent hunk of metal“ if he didn’t have the capacity to get angry and therefore violent. That’s kind of an important thing. He’s also shown playing people fairly well- that doesn’t necessarily mean he has emotions but it definitely means he has the ability to understand and manipulate them, making him not mindless. This is just basic reading comprehension skills. 

II - Secondly, a spark isn’t equal to having feelings. I’m not going to pull out things from IDW1 and RID/The Transformers where they go into that kind of thing because it’s a different continuity, but even in IDW2 there’s no real evidence that sparks are linked to or made of emotions. It’s just never mentioned lmao. 

III - I can’t even find any point where it would be shown that he doesn’t have feelings. I think you’re just projecting your distate onto the character, but if it’s not backed up by canon, you don’t have a reason to claim it is. Don’t tell people who read the comic that you know better than they do, if you don’t seem to be able to read it yourself.  

6 - Being that Functionism literally isn’t a thing and has never come up in the entirety of IDW2, I have to conclude that you’re using the IDW1 definition, which I’d like to point out was a very thinly veiled metaphor for racism, classism and sexism. I just wanna point out that you’re endorsing that. Just wanna point that out. Maybe you can restate your stance but I’d be realllll fucking wary of taking the side of “fantasy racism is good because I dislike this one character”, personally. Makes you kind of sound like a douchebag. Just a little bit. 

In conclusion: you don’t seem to understand this comic or Megatron’s role in it very well. Try harder.

(Note: I do actually like IDW2, but you have to also take into account that this is the very beginning of the war. Of course no one’s all that competent yet. They don’t have the experience they need. And I would agree that Megatron is foolish and incompetent at this point- I just wouldn’t argue that there’s anyone else in the entire comic that isn’t, therefore making it completely irrelevant.)

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Last Thursday, the 2020 Democratic candidates covered a wide range of topics during the three-hour debate, including health care, race and criminal justice, immigration, gun control and climate change.

But what issues do voters care most about? In our FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll, conducted using Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel, we surveyed the same set of respondents both before and after the debate to find out what issue was most important in determining their vote in the primary. And what we learned was Democrats are most concerned about defeating President Trump — nearly 40 percent of respondents said this was their top issue. For reference, the next-most-common top issue — health care — was picked by just 10 percent voters before the debate and 11 percent after.

So what issues should the candidates be talking more about? Less about? And if Democrats care more about winning this year, what’s the best way to talk about beating Trump?

A lot of Democrats really want to beat Trump

Share of respondents to the FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll who said that each issue is the most important to them, before and after the debate

Share for whom issue is most important issue Pre-debate Post-debate Ability to beat Donald Trump 39.6%

–

39.6%

–

Health care 9.9

–

11.0

–

The economy 8.0

–

8.7

–

Wealth and income inequality 7.9

–

8.4

–

Climate change 7.4

–

6.5

–

Gun policy 4.2

–

4.8

–

Immigration 3.3

–

3.7

–

Something else 3.3

–

3.5

–

Social Security 3.4

–

3.2

–

Education 2.5

–

2.4

–

Racism 3.0

–

2.4

–

The makeup of the Supreme Court 1.7

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1.7

–

Taxes 1.3

–

1.3

–

Jobs 1.9

–

1.1

–

Foreign affairs 1.3

–

0.7

–

Crime 0.7

–

0.4

–

The military 0.3

–

0.4

–

Sexism 0.1

–

0.2

–

From a survey of 4,320 likely Democratic primary voters who were surveyed between Sept. 5 and Sept. 11. The same people were surveyed again from Sept. 12 to Sept. 16; 3,473 responded to the second wave.

nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst): Well, to state the obvious, the candidates should be talking about their ability to beat Trump.

It’s important to a ton of Democratic voters.

And the more it goes untalked-about, the more other candidates are ceding that ground to Joe Biden, IMO.

Electability is a very fuzzy concept without a ton of data behind it, so pretty much any candidate can make a plausible argument for their “electability.”

sarahf: What are some ways candidates can do that, though?

I know Biden has leaned into his performance in head-to-head polls against Trump, but as we know … general election polls don’t really tell us that much about the strength of candidates in the primary.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): I mean, it’s a little tricky. If you talk too much about electability, you raise the salience of the issue, which might work to Biden’s benefit.

ameliatd (Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, senior writer): On the other hand, the fact that electability is a fuzzy concept can also be difficult for the candidates to address directly — for example, the female candidates.

nrakich: Amelia, if you ask me, the female candidates should be trotting out the studies that show women do just as well as men when they run for office!

ameliatd: Well, but those studies aren’t about presidential candidates! Most political scientists agree that people don’t cross the aisle to vote against a woman (or for that matter, to vote for a woman) — party loyalties are stronger than gender bias. But that’s not an easy sound bite, and it also may not be especially reassuring to voters who think sexism was a factor in Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016.

natesilver: In particular, I think it’s risky (by which I mean dumb) for any candidate other than Biden to talk much about his or her head-to-head polls against Trump, because Biden still does better than any other Democrat in those polls by some margin.

sarahf: But is that what will convince voters someone is electable?

nrakich: Amy Klobuchar is pointing to her past election results, where she really ran up the score in the swing state of Minnesota, as evidence that she’s electable. The problem is that she just hasn’t gotten a lot of attention for it (although voters in our poll thought she was slightly more likely to beat Trump after the debate).

sarahf: How else can candidates talk about their ability to defeat Trump without getting into their performance in head-to-head polls?

natesilver: I thought Warren’s response to Delaney in the second debate was good. Basically, like, if you’re not running on ideas, then why are you even running?

nrakich: If you’re Klobuchar, you can also argue that a moderate candidate is better positioned to win over swing voters. Or if you’re Kamala Harris or Cory Booker, you can argue that a black candidate will have the most success increasing black turnout (which could help Democrats win back Midwestern states like Michigan and Pennsylvania and might put new states, like Georgia, in play).

natesilver: I’m not sure that the candidates themselves do a lot of good by litigating more complex points about electability with the public. Their campaigns might do it on background with journalists, but it’s probably best left there.

ameliatd: I agree with that, Nate. One recent study did show that people were more likely to rate female candidates as electable when they were first reminded about how many women won in 2018 — but I don’t think having the candidates make that pitch will necessarily work.

sarahf: But if the best way for a candidate to run is on their ability to beat Trump, how can their stances on other issues help them accomplish that? Or make them seem more electable?

Let’s start with an issue that a lot of voters also care about (it was the second most popular pick for top issue in our Ipsos poll) — health care.

Should Democrats being talk about health care more?

Less?

nrakich: Exit polls showed that health care was the most important issue to voters in the 2018 midterm elections, which obviously worked out well for Democrats. So I think that’s good ground for the candidates to focus on for the general election.

For the primary, maybe less so — it depends on their position on health care!

natesilver: I remain convinced that health care is the best issue that Sanders has going for him.

Although, according to our poll, Biden actually gained ground with voters who prioritized the issue. Warren and Harris have been somewhat stuck in the middle on health care, though, and I think it’s a real problem for them.

nrakich: But Nate, what about those polls that show that a single-payer health care system is less popular, even among Democrats, than building on Obamacare (with, say, a public option)?

natesilver: At least Sanders has leadership on the issue. True, Biden has the most popular position. But Harris and Warren got nothing.

sarahf:

Who voters think is best on health care

Among the 435 respondents who said health care was the most important issue to them in an Ipsos/FiveThirtyEight poll

candidate share of respondents Bernie Sanders 32.9%

–

–

Joe Biden 28.8

–

–

Elizabeth Warren 16.5

–

–

Someone else 6.4

–

–

Pete Buttigieg 3.3

–

–

Kamala Harris 2.8

–

–

Amy Klobuchar 2.2

–

–

Julián Castro 1.5

–

–

Beto O’Rourke 1.3

–

–

Andrew Yang 1.3

–

–

Cory Booker 0.9

–

–

Poll was conducted from Sept. 5 to Sept. 11 among a general population sample of adults, with 4,320 respondents who say they are likely to vote in their state’s Democratic primary or caucus

Yeah, going into the debate, Sanders had the lead among voters in our poll who prioritized health care. (But Sanders wasn’t the only candidate to gain potential supporters among voters who prioritized health care after the debate — Biden, Yang, Warren and Buttigieg all made bigger gains.)

ameliatd: Part of the challenge, too, is that people still don’t understand the details of all of these plans — for example, Medicare for All, as Sanders and Warren talk about it, involves getting rid of private insurance. That could be more and more of an issue for the candidates on the left. Warren and Sanders keep saying people don’t like their insurance — but that’s not really true.

The health care debate is hard because people want something better, but they’re also afraid of losing what they have.

sarahf: Yeah, the branding of “Medicare for All who want it” that Buttigeig and others are pushing is pretty ingenious, even if it’s just as difficult or costly to pull off as the version of Medicare for All that Sanders and Warren are pitching.

ameliatd: It is weirdly off-brand for Warren to not have a detailed plan on health care. But maybe she’s trying not to get beaten up in the fight over Medicare for All.

natesilver: It’s very off-brand. And, sure, there might be tactical reasons for it. All of which goes to my theory that Warren is more of a politician than she’s assumed to be, which you’d think is a pretty normal thing to say about someone who’s a professional politician but will probably come across as something of a hot take.

I dunno, sometimes Warren’s strategy seems predicated on the idea that she doesn’t need to throw a lot of elbows or make a lot of tight pivots to beat Sanders.

sarahf: Well, if part of the primary is to pitch voters on big ideas, it makes sense to me that Warren isn’t curtailing her vision for Medicare for All just yet.

ameliatd: I wonder also if she thinks there’s too much competition on health care. It can be pretty difficult to follow which candidate is proposing what and what the actual differences are. It’s simpler to just say she’s with Sanders.

nrakich: I do find it interesting that Warren is doing so well in the polls despite not really emphasizing the top two priorities that Democratic voters cited in our poll (electability and health care).

sarahf: In its analysis of swing voters in 2020, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that in addition to issues like health care, where Democrats have a big advantage among voters (18 percentage points), Democrats also have a whopping 38 percentage point advantage on climate change.

So … should the candidates be talking about climate change more?

(According to an analysis by Bloomberg, only 6 percent of the third debate was devoted to it.)

nrakich: I think you have to draw a line between the primary and general election for a lot of these.

As you alluded to with that poll, Sarah, I think the eventual Democratic nominee could have success by talking a lot about climate change next year.

But the differences between the primary candidates on climate change are pretty in the weeds, so I’m not sure whom it would help to talk about it more.

I also think the failure of Jay Inslee’s campaign to win on climate change showed that the issue just wasn’t a big differentiator either (although IMO he had other problems too, like not being very inspiring on the stump).

sarahf: That’s interesting, Nathaniel. So unlike health care, where there’s an incentive for the candidates to hash out their differences, maybe something like climate change should be saved for the general?

Do others agree?

nrakich: Yeah, I think there are pretty major differences between the candidates on health care. And having a nominee run on single-payer vs. a public option could be important to swing voters in the general. But I don’t think Republicans will attack a nominee any harder if he or she is trying to get the U.S. to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 instead of 2050.

ameliatd: Well, another difference between health care and climate is that they’re both fairly technical, complicated issues, but one has a direct and personal impact on people’s health and bank accounts, while the other is more diffuse. It’s harder to get concrete on climate change, too. Which is sometimes why you end up with candidates talking about banning plastic straws.

natesilver: Also on climate — the political willpower to get things done when Joe Manchin is the median vote in the Senate is far less than any of the Democrats’ plans would like.

In some ways, I’m surprised Democrats haven’t spent more time talking about structural issues, like gerrymandering, adding new states (Puerto Rico, D.C.) and things of that nature.

sarahf: I mean, they did wade into blowing up the filibuster in the last debate.

Do you really think that’s good politics for the candidates, though?

natesilver: Oh yeah, sure. I think it’s a good way for Warren to differentiate herself from Sanders, for instance.

ameliatd: Blowing up the filibuster seems like it’s become a way for candidates to say they’re serious about passing their agenda. So it’s kind of a proxy for how far the candidates are willing to go, and how much they care about compromise.

nrakich: I think it has the potential to be good politics, Sarah. People don’t like it when they perceive the system to be unfair, and Democrats can pretty easily make the argument that the system is currently biased against urban dwellers, people of color, and others.

Gerrymandering is a good example of something that few people defend. But no Democrat is out there shouting about it from the rooftops.

Voting rights also don’t register very high on the priority list when voters are asked what issues they care about, but there is a lot of political science research that says that politicians can influence what voters care about. And I bet the issue would become more salient if a top-tier candidate talked about it more.

ameliatd: I have also wondered why the Supreme Court hasn’t been a bigger issue so far — it is more unpopular with Democrats than it has been in 20 years, and progressive activists are advocating for some pretty big court reforms, like increasing the number of justices on the bench. And if you’re talking about roadblocks for your progressive agenda — a Supreme Court with a conservative majority is certainly at the top of that list.

nrakich: Maybe it hasn’t been very salient in the primary because it’s assumed that every possible nominee would appoint pro-choice, pro-voting-rights, generally liberal justices?

ameliatd: But there are differences between the candidates on how to approach the Supreme Court — big ones! At least seven candidates still in the race are open to the idea of adding justices to the court, according to The Washington Post. And some have talked about changing its structure in other ways (adding term limits, for example) which would also be quite dramatic.

nrakich: Good point. Maybe Democrats aren’t bringing it up, then, because the issue risks activating Republican voters in the general election?

ameliatd: It is definitely true that the courts historically have been a motivating issue for Republican voters and not really for Democrats. But I think there’s potential for the Democrats to make the Supreme Court into an issue that their voters care about.

natesilver: And I think after Kavanaugh’s nomination last year, there’s still an open question about whether which party gets most motivated by the Supreme Court has shifted. In a Gallup poll just before the midterms, roughly as many Democrats as Republicans called Kavanaugh an important issue in deciding their vote.

That said, I don’t think calling for Kavanaugh’s impeachment is a very wise general election position.

ameliatd: No, I agree — a focus on impeaching Kavanaugh seems tailor-made to rile up Republicans. I think part of the issue is that there just isn’t a clear message among Democrats about the Supreme Court or the judiciary in general. Some people want term limits. Others want court-packing, or they want more talk about the type of judicial nominees the candidates would nominate.

sarahf: But what about an issue where Democrats don’t have an advantage (like the economy) and are in a weaker position among voters than Trump? In that same poll on swing voters, KFF gave Trump a 12-point advantage for his handling of economy. And in our Ipsos poll, we found that economy-focused Democrats gave candidates worse marks across the board than voters focused on four other top issues, suggesting that economy voters were maybe unsatisfied by what they heard in the debate.

nrakich: Yeah, I think Democrats could stand to talk more in the primary about the economy in the traditional sense, like jobs.

For the general election, though, that does seem to be a good issue for Republicans (for now).

natesilver: Isn’t the obvious way for Democrats to talk about the economy to talk about inequality and how the economy ain’t workin’ for some people?

Unless the economy actually goes way south, in which case you have a lot more things you can say.

nrakich: Yes, but we did offer “wealth and income inequality” as an issue in our poll, and those voters seemed to have different perspectives than the “economy” voters.

If we’re talking about the primary, I think Warren and Sanders have gotten pretty far by talking about inequality, but our poll does suggest there’s a subset of voters for whom that isn’t what they want to hear about the economy.

sarahf: And while trying to motivate voters around economic inequality sounds good in theory, in practice, I don’t think it actually moves the dial much. Although, there is evidence that voters are keen on a tax on the uber-wealthy, so maybe that’s a good tack for Democrats to take in talking about the economy more?

ameliatd: Right, talking about making the wealthy pay their fair share seems like a smart way for Democrats to approach this.

But what do you think voters want to be hearing on the economy front, Nathaniel? In our poll, “jobs” was listed as a separate option and not that many people seemed interested in hearing about that.

nrakich: Yeah, Amelia, I’m not quite sure. Given their candidate preferences (i.e., voters who prioritized the economy also liked Biden and were much less likely to be considering a vote for Warren or Sanders), maybe those are the fiscally minded voters who oppose Warren and Sanders’s efforts to redistribute wealth.

In other words, business-friendly Democrats?

natesilver: I do think Democrats need to be careful on this issue.

Socialism is still not a popular concept with swing voters. Maybe it will be once the millennials and zoomers take over. But for now, it’s a big general-election vulnerability for Sanders, for instance.

nrakich: Wait, this is the first time I’ve heard zoomers as a nickname for Generation Z and I love it.

natesilver: “Let’s get the economy workin’ for workin’ people and make the rich pay their fair share” is probably fine for a general election message. “Let’s topple the entire system” maybe isn’t.

sarahf: But as Nathaniel said earlier … this is the primary. And isn’t socialism more popular than capitalism among Democrats?

So, similar to some of the candidates being more radical on health care, isn’t there an argument to be made they should dream bigger on the economy, too?

natesilver: Well, yeah, but part of what smart candidates do is avoid driving wedges on issues where it might give you a slight advantage in the primary but a big disadvantage in the general election.

nrakich: And while it’s true, Sarah, that Democrats think more highly of socialism than of capitalism, their views of capitalism are still mostly favorable, according to the Pew Research Center. We’re also forgetting that 40 percent of Democrats think the most important thing is to beat Trump! I can imagine plenty of pro-socialism Democrats being persuaded to tone down the rhetoric (but maybe not the policies — Warren is basically doing this) in order to avoid being general-election poison.

ameliatd: Also, isn’t Warren’s wealth tax, which would be applied to rich people’s accumulated fortunes rather than just their income, be an example of Democrats dreaming big? She seems to be doing a good job of selling it as “just making the rich pay their fair share,” but it’s still a pretty radical change from the status quo.

sarahf: That’s fair, Amelia.

And to wrap, if candidates could only run on one issue — and it isn’t beating Trump, because let’s treat that as the overarching argument of everyone’s campaign — what would it be?

nrakich: I think it’s got to be health care, especially if you’re not a single-payer Democrat. Follow the playbook that worked in 2018.

natesilver: It depends on the candidate. For Biden, it’s electability. For Sanders, it’s health care. For Warren, it’s … I’m not sure, exactly? But I think probably inequality.

nrakich: Breakin’ Sarah’s rules (“and it isn’t beating Trump”), Nate …

Intriguing side question: Is it a problem for Biden if he runs on an electability argument during the primary and then doesn’t have a clear rationale for running come the general?

sarahf: What other issue does Biden have to lean into? Health care, maybe?

natesilver: Maybe Biden could adopt a signature issue — or two.

I’m not sure what it would be, though. Guns, maybe?

ameliatd: We didn’t talk about gun policy, but I’ll be interested to see if that has sticking power as the primary moves forward. That’s a big priority for voters right now, but maybe it’s also an issue like climate change where the candidates struggle to differentiate themselves.

Also, I am shamelessly dodging the question, but personal characteristics are also important to voters. A Pew survey from last month asked Democrats to name the most important factor for deciding which candidate to support, and 28 percent named something like honesty or competence. About the same share pointed to a policy. So … maybe policy just matters less than we assume?

nrakich: Great point, Amelia. We basically just did a whole chat on issues while ignoring the fact that people mostly don’t vote on issues!

ameliatd: Shut it down, guys.

natesilver: But you can still vote on the aesthetics of a candidate’s policy positions even if you don’t care about policy per se.

Like, people can like the idea that Warren has a plan for things, even if they don’t know what those plans are, exactly.

nrakich: Right, but to the original chat prompt, does it matter, then, what issues are and aren’t being discussed?

As you pointed out, Warren doesn’t have a meaty health care plan but still gets credit for being issue-driven.

ameliatd: I wonder if Warren’s focus on an overarching theme like corruption can also help with the perception that she’s honest, or something like that.

But then it does make you wonder how much the details matter, as opposed to how the issues fit into a candidate’s overall brand.

[rilorana-bluescale-blog]

Yeah I dont fucking know man

I’m just writing random shite while absolutely exhausted but here’s a state of the union (the union being this little planet of ours) from yours truly! We’ll start with bad stuff then good stuff

Bad Stuff

Everyone hates everyone

Almost every politician is corrupt and chooses to support popular social movements to gain votes

If you hold a single view other people dislike you’re the devil in their eyes, even if you agree on everything else. 

Vocal minorities are making the majority of groups look bad

Nazism is still a thing for fuck knows why 

Communism and support of the Soviet system is still a thing for fuck knows why

My generation is claiming to be much more open minded and tolerant than the previous and forgetting the previous had the same attitude about themselves and in truth we have a natural tendency to assume ourselves better than our past when in 20 years chances are 50% of what you believe will no longer be socially acceptable

Racism is still a thing. Like people, why? Can we just...not? 

Sexism is still a thing. Yeah erm. What the actual fuck people. 

Now on the good side: 

People are realizing how crazy and polarized we all are

some people are actually loving those whom they VEHEMENTLY disagree with

Some are coming to realize that morals can violently clash but individuals can still cooperate for the common good in some capacity

Turtles 

Puppies

Also music is a thing. 

Hey, did you know they make raisins covered in chocolate? That’s fucking genius. Why don’t we put THAT in cookies? It’s like two of the best things combined. Cmon people, let’s make it happen

Random thoughts:

So like I was playing Rainbow Six siege and I realized that like the coolest characters of that game are of a diverse range of sexes and races. Caviera, aka spoopy binch, is a brazilian woman who basically kicks all the asses. Meatball Maestro is an italian chap with a laser gun. Hibana is basically an anime girl with fucking exploding fidget spinners and a .308 rifle. How can you not love that? THERE’S EVEN A LITERAL RUSSIAN DEITY! No one bitches about forced diversity even (far as I know) cause the point of Siege is people from all nations forming a task force to fight evil dudes. Cool shit. If ya wanna do diversity, look at Siege. Except get rid of the toxic 12 year olds. Pls. 

Also can people pls not shoot off fireworks in the middle of june? It’s been storming, and the storms and fireworks made my dog throw up from stress. he is a good pupper, he does not deserve this! 

Hey you ever like go from the stage of guitar where you’re scared of alternate tunings to first discovering open G? Its like the whole world changes with this new tuning that just means you can BARRE WITH JUST YOUR INDEX AND ITS A FULL CHORD WTF ITS SO MUCH FUN WITH A SLIDE THIS SHIT IS MENTAL 

One final note: I really want some cake. Not like the nice homemade, but that shitty cheap store cake. But like I’m 17 so mum’d probably be confused if I just bought a fucking cake. 

NIGHT YALL IM OUT 

As the cool kids say: TOO TOO ROO! 

[pluckyredhead]

Daredevil 101: Black Panther: The Man Without Fear, Part 2

The continuing adventures of T’Challa as the protector of Hell’s Kitchen! Last time, Matt asked T’Challa to look over his neighborhood while they both got their heads on straight, and T’Challa took down a new crime boss. This time, he’s got a more overt opponent, and a more insidious one. Also: Storm!

Content warning: Racism and xenophobia, suicidal ideation, ableism.

Our story picks up with T’Challa on the trail of his former employee Brian, who was subjected to nonconsensual experiments by the creepy Dr. Holman. It turns out Brian isn’t the only living thing she’s experimented on:

T’Challa escapes from the evil monkeys, but Dr. Holman ups the ante by hiring a much more serious threat to take T’Challa down:

KRAVEN THE HUNTER!!! I do love him so.

This is the most relatable page in comics. If two guys dressed as jungle cats started fighting where I was having dinner, I would also be filming it immediately.

Kraven isn’t really a mercenary, but he’s working for Holman because he recently died and then came back to life and is now immortal, and doesn’t want to be. Holman has promised him death, basically - she swears she has a cure, or reverse cure, or whatever you want to call it, for his “condition.”

T’Challa and Kraven fight their way onto a bridge, and Kraven gets the upper hand:

Luckily, in swoops a SURPRISE RESCUER:

IT’S QUEEN ORORO OF WAKANDA, AKA STORM!!! She’s so preeeeetty.

We saw how butthurt T’Challa was every time another superhero tried to help him before, so you can imagine that he doesn’t take this surprise terribly well:

Ororo is vastly more patient than I am, I would have kicked him in the shins. Also, I do appreciate that she’s like “You’re literally dressed as the Black Panther, if people haven’t already figured out that’s who you are, me being here won’t change that” but also this comic is written by the same guy who wrote the preceding ones so he’s kind of dragging himself and it doesn’t really make sense?

Anyway, T’Challa calms down and thanks her for the save, but they are then attacked by Kraven - and Brian, who is under Kraven’s command and can...move stone I guess? That wasn’t the same as Vlad’s powers but sure:

I find T’Challa’s endless strategizing so much more charming than Batman’s. It’s also probably a nice surprise to the residents of Hell’s Kitchen. “A guy with pointy ears saved me last night, but this one had a little to do list!”

The fight makes its way back to Holman’s lab, and T’Challa drops some truth bombs:

Note to self: do not trust creepy kidnapping doctors who make monsters to keep their promises.

Kraven’s like, “Okay, that’s legit,” and now all they need is for Holman to agree to cure Brian:

Ororo may be a very patient, nurturing person, but she can also be stone cold when she wants to be. T’Challa is totally heart eyesing behind his mask.

Anyway, Holman caves, Brian is whisked away to presumably be cured, and Ororo has T’Challa “show her his walkup apartment” (their cheesy euphemism, not mine, bless) before returning to Wakanda or the X-Men or wherever she was hanging out in 2011.

On to the next plotline! We begin with this racist piece of trash:

The dig at the wife’s “chronic fatigue syndrome” is unnecessary, but otherwise this is a pretty prescient look at how young men in the far right get radicalized. He starts wearing his ridiculous Klan-esque hat to work:

With no job, Racist McGee (he probably has a name, but who cares) spends his time ranting on the internet about immigrants and living off of his wife’s parents until he hits her and she files a restraining order. He gets caught at attempted robbery by T’Challa, who ties him up and leaves him for the cops. Soon after, he hits rock bottom, homeless and ranting on the street.

Meanwhile, the Hate-Monger returns to Earth. This is a clone of Adolf Hitler turned into a spirit that can possess people but was eventually shot into space, obviously. In Racist McGee, it finds the perfect host:

Soon after, the company-wide crossover “Fear Itself” hits. BP:TMwF doesn’t touch on it much except to basically say that the streets are in chaos and everyone’s freaking out, but it causes T’Challa to turn his diner into a makeshift triage center. Hate-Monger arrives with a mob eager to use the “disorder” of a triage center as an excuse to attack an immigrant-owned (and black-owned) business:

When T’Challa tries to get rid of them, the muscle shows up:

Yeah, I don’t even know who this asshole is - the series never really tells us. Throw him in the garbage with his stupid costume (and hope alt-right cosplayers never stumble across this comic).

Sofija reminds T’Challa that discretion is the better part of valor, and they leave the diner rather than give away T’Challa’s secret identity or endanger those who are there for triage - but they are then immediately apprehended by an immigration officer:

Yeah, they’ve caught on that Foggy forged T’Challa’s immigration papers, and they’re both thrown in jail - which means that Foggy, who only just got his license back (he lost it due to yelling at a corrupt judge), will lose it again. At least Becky’s able to get them both out on bail:

T’Challa is like “I WILL SAVE YOU, FOGGY NELSON” because he is one of us. But first he needs to deal with the Hate-Monger and his lackeys. And he has a plan, because he always does:

T’Challa and Sofija allow themselves to be rounded up and brought to the precinct that the Hate-Monger has turned into his headquarters, and then Sofija deploys a small EMP that knocks out the power. T’Challa does some knocking out of his own:

Then he takes on Hate-Monger, who’s gone outside to rile up the masses:

Note to self: tase racists.

Here, have another shot of T’Challa punching a racist, just because I like you guys:

And with that, Hate-Monger and the American Panther are vanquished, and Hell’s Kitchen calms down. “Fear Itself” is resolved elsewhere, and the city returns to normal, but there’s still one task on T’Challa’s aforementioned to do list:

It kind of looks like he’s deleting Foggy from the matrix (lol @ his nickname being in his government file) but I promise he’s not, just deleting the charges. Which hopefully no one will remember? WHATEVER, IT’S A NICE GESTURE, OKAY?

Next up: Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive faces off against Lady Bullseye, Typhoid Mary, and the Kingpin!

[magenta-storm]

I've finally caught up on LoT, (except the Ava robot episode because my TV failed to record it) and sadly it was mostly disappointing.

- The way they tried to make Damien Darkh sympathetic was absolute bullshit. No Country for Old Dads was an especially frustrating waste of time. Sure, many of the lines were funny, but that’s where it should’ve ended, instead of getting serious and spending so much time on development and humanization for villains when the majority of the main characters have gotten close to nothing all season.

And then it only went further downhill, with the whole oh let's all weep sad sad tears for this Nazi collaborator who fed his daughter to a demon because now he feels real sad about being too dumb to realise that maybe feeding her to a demon wouldn't be very good for her.

There have been times that I've found him entertaining/a good villain, but he has thoroughly worn out his welcome. If they just hadn't overused him, he could still be an enjoyable villain, but no. There is absolutely nothing left for the character, they have beaten that dead horse into a bloody pulp. If he comes back again oh my fucking god I will lose my damn mind.

- I also hated that Ray let Nora escape at the end of the finale. Yeah, she's not as bad as her dad and maybe she could be redeemed, but that doesn't mean you can just casually help her escape from prison just because you really really really hope that she won't keep killing people. The writers need to Stop making Ray such a dopey, buffoonish caricature. He should've grown up somewhat by now.

- Everything with Ava/Sara was just a giant WTF as always. Even if I didn't hate Ava, and the way she's nuked Sara's character progression this season, I'd still think it was ridiculously poor writing that she went from hating Sara to 'loving' her in only a few episodes with zero build up. Honestly, even if she'd gone from neutral to loving Sara with only a few episodes build-up, it would have been too rushed.

-Speaking of zero build-up, the Zari/Jonah Hex thing was weird too. This show sure does love it's badly written, out of the blue, shoe-horned in romances. Hopefully the Zari/Hex thing was a one-off joke, never to be referenced again.

- I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I've always thought Nate/Amaya was the least badly-written romance on the show, and I'm glad they got some closure, and I’m especially glad that Nate's awful, sexist behaviour in the first few eps of this season seems to have been an anomalous moment of terrible writing and he went back to acting normal for the rest of the season.

- I'm cautiously optimistic about the news that Maisie will still be a cast member in season 4. Of course it could all go horribly wrong, but hopefully whoever she plays will be more Harry, less HR in terms of successful same actor/different character scenarios. On one hand, I'm very glad she's sticking around in some capacity, on the other hand, if they fricken do something to ruin Amaya, i.e. bring in some annoying or evil version of her, or have some timeline change that ruins her life, especially after she got a reasonably well-concluded story arc and respectful sendoff, I will be furious.

- I don’t have much of an opinion on Wally. Aside from his first episode with Rip (which I loved), he didn’t get enough focus for me to really make up my mind whether his addition to Legends is going well or not. (Unless of course there was more focus on him in the episode I haven’t seen yet.) Assuming he’s still on Legends next season, I hope they’ll do something interesting with him.

It’s been pointed out before of course, but I will add my agreement that his referring to Amaya as a basic bitch was OOC badly written nonsense. Even if he was supposed to be quoting Nate, which I don’t really think he was, it still was just weird and jarring. That said, I don’t think it’s unrecoverable from. As long as they don’t make a habit of giving him lines like that, I’m still thinking he’s better off on Legends than Flash, because you could practically forget he existed on Flash half the time after season 2. On the other hand, he may suffer from the same problem all over again, that he’ll need to be taken out early all the time and just basically never do anything much so the plot can work. That’s the unavoidable problem with overpowered characters.

- I've heard that apparently it's not absolutely confirmed that Jax's departure was Franz Drameh’s choice. If not, then it's absolute bullshit that they'd write him out so unceremoniously. Literally what the flying fuck was the point of making his arc in the first half of the season learning how to be on the team if he's not part of Firestorm, if they were just going to have him decide to leave anyway? If the actor wanted to leave, sure, fine, whatcha gonna do? but if not... I'm having trouble thinking of a reason besides racism for treating a character and actor so poorly.

- Rip's death felt very lazy and cheap as well. It left me with a very strong sense that the writers just decided in 0.2 seconds that they couldn't think of anything else to do with him so why not just throw him out? At the very least, his big Heroic Sacrifice should have been the climax of the penultimate episode, not just 'shrug idk how do we fill up five minutes of airtime plus get rid of a character we're sick of? oh hey, Rip could blow himself up!'

I never overly liked Rip, especially in the first season I found him incredibly boring, but he still deserved better than a stupid death like that, and I’m sadder than I thought I would be. Still, out of everyone who’s been there since season 1, if someone had to go, I’m glad it wasn’t anyone else. Other than Mick, of course.

-The time that was wasted on a rat funeral, which, like several of the funny scenes in No Country for Old Dads, would have been fine if it wasn’t for the fact that they were taking up space that should have been used for character development for the mains and respectful goodbyes for those that have died/left.

- One of the few things I absolutely loved was the Beebo vs Mallus fight. It was one of those hilariously wacky fun things the show does well, how could anyone not appreciate the glorious ridiculousness of the big showdown of the finale be between Discount Furby and Discount Balrog? But it was bittersweet because it was just a reminder of how unfortunate it is that the show can be so fun, but also fuck some things up so badly.

The John Noble bit was hilariously amazing as well. Also, I did not know he played Denethor until now. Didn’t recognize him because of the wig, I guess.

I’m... not sure what I thought of Grodd trying to kill Obama. It was just too odd to process properly.

-The less said about Mick the better. I just don’t know why he’s still there when he hasn’t done anything except complain about being on the team and make bigoted jokes in a season and a half.

[regular-lord-reckoner]

AFI: Secret Nazis?!?!

Alright, so...let’s jump into this, I guess 

I’ve posted before about Davey’s clothing line Eat Your Own Tail here because that’s just a wholllllle bucket of problems, although like I said in my post, I’m not gonna take that as solid 1000% proof that dude’s a secret Nazi 

Do I think what he’s doing there is the most responsible thing? No. Have I called him out on it? Yes. Is he gonna do something about it? Idk, that remains to be seen 

I realize that this has caused a looooot of emotional turmoil for fans and it’s even garnered the attention of non-fans who have looked further into the band and the situation as a whole and there’s a post going around that lays out what it claims to be proof that AFI is basically a beehive of racism 

And here’s the thing, like...we all understand on just a base line level that white people are inherently racist. We were born into a racist society and we benefit from white privilege and it’s not like reading a few articles or watching 13th magically cures any of us of being racist 

Is it possible that this group or at least half of it is totally fucking racist and at the very least Nazi sympathizers? I mean...yeah, anything’s possible. 

Given some of the posed arguments, though...Idk. I might be an oblivious fan over here with my head stuck up my own ass, but I’m not swayed by arguments such as “They have a song called ‘White Offerings’” as proof of them being racist 

Like...okay, and? 

These are the lyrics: 

If I were only If I were only here I'd try I'd try to give you little birds I've made Oh, everyone takes flight never to return again White offerings are all I bring Welcome to white room, white room White offerings are all I bring I welcome you, I offer you this white room If I were only If I were only here I'd try I'd try to gift you paper birds I free And you'd set fire to my sky Oh, but I will offer you White offerings are all I bring Welcome to white room, white room White offerings are all I bring I welcome you, I offer you this white room I can feel your color changing I can feel your color changing I can feel your color changing I can feel it change White offerings are all I bring Welcome to white room, white room White offerings are all I bring I welcome you, I offer you this white room White White room White room White offerings are all I bring I offer you this white room

Now, perhaps I’m just super duper ignorant here, but...this doesn’t sound like a pro-ethnic cleansing anthem to me ???? 

As someone who’s listened to this band for years I can tell you that the lyrics often reference colors (white, black, gold, grey, etc.) and that there are a loooooot of songs about failed relationships 

Another way of looking at this song could be that the use of the color white here is symbolism for the absence of something. I’m no color theory major, but I know a lot of people tend to think of white as being the absence of color (which I feel like is actually wrong but regardless it’s still something people believe so bear with me) 

You could interpret this song as being about a situation being disturbed or changing, becoming tumultuous or chaotic. “I offer you stability and you reject that” in other words. 

Or, y’know, you could take it to mean Davey wants to see the destruction of all other races, that’s a thing, too. 

I guess by that logic any time I hear the word white in a song sung by a white dude I’m gonna have to rethink everything. I’m lookin’ at you, Thom Yorke and your “Daydreaming” song. “WHITE room, by window?” I see you. 

Another point was that Kerrang! magazine rated AFI’s most recent album with a series of Ks because their name begins with a K so I guess instead of stars they made the piss poor decision to giving albums ratings in Ks? Or maybe just this one? I don’t fuckin’ know, but it sounds like Kerrang!’s problem if you ask me, but Idk maybe Davey asked for that rating specifically as a shout out to his brothers in the klan. 

Yet another point is in XTRMST lyrics and this one I can see because that’s some angry, violent shit but...here’s the thing, I dunno why we all suddenly have amnesia and are pretending that we don’t know what that band’s purpose was 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t XTRMST supposed to be an angry, violent straight edge thing? Meaning...the references to Xs have to do with straight edge symbolism. The lyrics are talking about drugs culture, alcohol culture, meat/dairy culture, and religion? The talk about eradicating shit is in reference to doing away with society’s acceptance of what Davey perceives to be toxic behaviors and mindsets as they pertain to drugs, alcohol, meat/dairy consumption, and religion. 

Because it’s not really any big secret that these are things Davey has a pretty big problem with, like he’s not been quiet about that in interviews and in songs and look, like...I like AFI and shit, but I do find some of that shit to be borderline obnoxious 

I bought into straight edge culture at one point in time and thought myself morally superior and better than, etc.,etc and now I’m just like...let people fucking live their lives, man. If someone wants to get fucked up on drugs, that’s their choice. If someone wants to believe in something I don’t, I’m cool with that as long as they don’t try to force it down my throat. If someone wants to eat meat and consume dairy I’m cool, just don’t insist that everyone else do the same and we’ll be okay 

So yeah, on that level that kinda makes him a dick, like I get that he has strong feelings about this shit, but the name XTRMST itself suggests that he knows as much but he’s gonna go ahead with it anyway 

But like I said, I get how you could look at that, especially given everything else, and be like, “Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes” And I could be totally ass wrong about this, I really could 

My thing is, though...I’m trying not to go into this with confirmation bias. Like...I think people are understandably uncomfortable and displaced with the EYOT shit, fine. But I think now people are looking into other things and trying to find further evidence to compound this situation and I just...I’m not sure it’s really there??? 

Again, I could be totally, totally ass wrong and if I am then believe you me I’ll be right there with you throwing away all my posters and albums and shit because fucking no, man 

But like...before I start just burning everything down and wailing and screaming I’m gonna try to take a step back and really think about this shit and think about what the other possible explanations could be 

Ideally, yes, they would be 100% up front about this and it would be clear as fucking DAY where they stand and I realize that’s caused a lot of anxiety and uncertainty and I feel ya on that one, I do 

But I think it’s also worth noting that like...people have pointed out how good Hunter and Adam especially have been about speaking out against all the bullshit that’s been happening lately in the world and with politics. And if nothing else, maybe that’s something to consider? 

Because here’s the thing, either these two are somehow completely hookwinked by their bandmates and somehow would have just no-fucking-clue whatsoever that they’ve been friends with Nazis for like 20 some odd years and they’re completely innocent in this or...

They’re okay with it. They don’t think it’s that big of a deal and by proxy then, they’re assholes as well and belong in the trash right alongside Davey and Jade 

And I would hope to fuckin’ god that Adam especially isn’t in the latter category because heyyyyy someone tell his wife she needs to fuckin’ run because apparently Adam’s down with his bandmates wanting to kill her 

So, there’s that. 

Again, like...I’m not here trying to excuse a bunch of shit and act like, “my faves aren’t problematic!!!” because uh, yeah, they are 

Personally, I’m of the camp that I think Davey’s clothing line disaster was an effort to try to pay homage to the occult/witchcraft shit it’s just...so many of those fuckin’ symbols and shit are tainted now and should probably go in the fucking trash, Idk. Being that that’s the theme I could understand why there’s an image of a church with a noose in front of it because correct me if I’m wrong, but supposed witches were hung in the gallows in addition to being burned and thrown in rivers with pockets full of stones and being that this persecution came from churches, well...ya know

But again, the image of a noose brings up a lot of other shit that, given this whole situation makes people go, “Eh????” so I get that, I do, I’m just saying like...that’s not the only explanation, especially when you put the image in the context of what at least was trying to be intended here 

Again, though, I could very well be wrong and this whole thing could Davey’s way of trying to make his Nazi affiliation be known, I’m not necessarily ruling that one out because the world’s a fucking garbage dump, my country’s basically on fire, and I say you kill your heroes and fly, fly baby don’t cry because people you look up to usually end up disappointing and devastating you in some way or another, right? Might as well go big or go fuckin’ home in this case 

As of right now, though, right in this moment I’m sorry but I can’t get on this bandwagon of, “Let’s throw all AFI shit away and wash my hands of this!!!” because I feel like this is a clusterfuck of a situation and that there are other explanations besides, “Well clearly this is the work of some racist mother fuckers who want ethnic cleansing” 

Yes, XTRMST lyrics are...what they are and maybe I’m being misdirected by the creators themselves, but if you look at the songs again from the lens of someone who’s talking about rejecting/destroying these things that he finds abhorrent (again, drug culture, religion, consumption of meat/dairy, drinking) it leaves less room to interpret it as, “Oh, well clearly this is all about ridding the world of races other than white” 

Hold Davey accountable for his misstep with his clothing line and keep trying to reach out, try to get him to listen because I agree that even if his intentions were good, even if he was trying to reclaim these images back to their original context, given the climate of things right now it’s A. not really his place to be doing so and B. just overall not a good idea and comes off as super sketchy and not okay 

But I will implore you, if I can, to not jump to conclusions. To not try to twist every lyric you find that has the word “white” in it into something it’s more than likely not. And to just sort of take a step back if you’re starting to feel overwhelmed and upset 

Also to realize that yes, we need to do our best to recognize and identify and reject symbols that have Nazi affiliations, but to also realize that guys, there are...a fuck ton. Because as I said in my other post, that’s part of their insidious nature is to hijack shit that doesn’t belong to them and fucking taint it and ruin it for everyone else. The fucking Swastika should tell you as much (and although there are cultures that have since given up the symbol there are some that still continue to use it because it belonged to them first and they refuse to let someone take it from them, fair enough). 

In the case of the occult/witchcraft symbolism Nazis have borrowed pretty heavily from this well. The image of three figures cloaked in black has been circulating with some of these posts. These, again, are images meant to signify the occult, these are as far as I know meant to represent witches. The pointed hood, however, lends itself to klan imagery which came after and which stole from this look, taking the all black look and turning it all white. You could then argue that continuing to use the all black imagery is a middle finger to the klan for trying to re-purpose and make shitty what doesn’t belong to them, but that’s sort of a tricky area, I think. I’ve seen recent photos taken of covens at some of the protests that have been happening and these individuals are still wearing the black garb with pointed hoods because it’s still integral to their imagery. If the two are too similar, though, I think we need to have a larger discussion then about what needs to be done in those communities regarding certain imagery, wardrobe, and symbolism and if Davey wants to get in on that and contribute in a positive way, then great. If not then that’s unfortunate and we need to continue to try to address that point with him. 

And here’s the thing, like...I get it, man. Nobody wants to be the fucking asshole. Nobody wants to have egg on their face and it’s better to err on the side of caution by just saying, “Yeah, they’re probably a bunch of racist Nazi fucks, fuck them” because if you’re wrong then...oh well, but if you’re right then you dodged a bullet and you have the satisfaction of knowing that you made the right call 

At the same time, though, maybe don’t make villains out of people because they’ve done problematic shit? Still hold them accountable for what they’ve done wrong, absolutely, but like...you don’t have to go on a fucking treasure hunt to uncover more fucked up shit that might not even be there to support your argument 

I think the clothing line shit within itself is bad enough without having to take lyrics out of their original context in order to say, “And as you can see, this clearly proves my point that these dudes are racist as FUCK” 

They may very well be, but I guess I say all of this to say I’m gonna need something besides what’s been provided to convince me and maybe that’s just shitty and terrible and ignorant of me, maybe I’m being a stubborn fan here, but I’m just not seeing it. 

I am seeing the problems with EYOT (even though I don’t think there quite as severe as some have made them out to be) but when I see these posts dragging out lyrics and shit all I can think is: it’s not that deep 

I understand that this is a serious and sensitive issue and I’m not saying people are wrong for being concerned, but...being that it’s a serious and sensitive issue I guess I want to see it treated with a little more care than just going, “Well, he used the word white in a song so clearly he’s racist” or “he used occult imagery that’s since been tainted by Nazi use so let’s rule out the possibility that he’s misguidedly trying to reclaim these images and instead insist that it means he’s a full blown Nazi because here’s some pictures of witches with pointed hoods and a picture of a church on fire, clearly this can’t have anything to do with his views on religion or interest in the occult, it’s gotta be the Nazi thing and the Nazi thing only and if you say different then you’re a Nazi, too!”. Like is that really helping? Nazis are a legitimate problem right now, we’re dealing with some serious shit and there are people insisting that if you don’t reach to connect these dots that you’re the real problem here. I realize that not all Nazis exist in the spot light, not all Nazis do super obvious Nazi shit, but like...we’re also not going anywhere if we’re going to, forgive me, go on a witch hunt. 

Be skeptical, keep your eyes open, pay attention, watch this EYOT closely and like I said, keep trying to push this point with him if you can and hopefully we’ll get some answers or going forward he’ll start using symbols that haven’t been tainted in his designs instead. But digging into lyrics and taking shit that’s honestly likely about failed relationships and straight edge culture and twisting it to fit a certain narrative isn’t really helping anything. You can still be 100% on your fuckin’ guard about this shit without having to reach 

By all means, if I end up being wrong you can come rub it in my face and tell me how badly I have fucked up and how wrong and stupid I am, but I honestly, i feel like people are jumping to conclusions here and I’m not saying there’s no basis for it whatsoever, because there is unfortunately, and I understand the mindset of “no fucking excuses” and that’s fine, but like...these arguments are just not that good, my dudes. Beyond the already established problematic use of symbols in EYOT the rest of this is relying on taking things out of context and finding a way to apply it to this particular situation and it may in all actuality be completely valid and I’m just too blind to see that right now, but I just...yeah, I can’t get on this particular outrage train 

From what I’ve seen from this band so far is that even though some of its members are a little extreme in their edge life shit that overall they’ve been on the progressive side of things and before you say anything like I get it, there are people who are fairly liberal and supposedly open-minded who are still racist sacks of shit and I understand that, I’m just saying it’s something else to keep in mind 

We need to be aware of who the enemies are, for goddamn sure, but I think it’s also important that we don’t make enemies out of people who might not actually be enemies. 

Do your own research. Look into these symbols, see what their origins are and what the other meanings consist of. Think about shit for yourself, not just what someone else is telling you to think. You can take everything I’ve said and throw it out the goddamn window if you don’t agree and that’s fine because I don’t want someone to just mindlessly read what I’m saying and go, “Yep, that sounds good, I’m gonna believe that now!” 

I think people mean well and I think you’re trying to do the right thing, I do, but I see a loooooot of people who just let someone else dictate to them what is and isn’t good and bad. Someone posts an argument and it sounds convincing and suddenly everyone’s on board with that, they’re fully behind it, but someone poses a counter argument that’s just as convincing and suddenly there’s some doubt there, there’s some uncertainty and people are reevaluating their feelings 

I know it’s tempting to sit back and let someone else do your thinking for you, I fall prey to this as well, but I implore you to really take a step back here and reassess and if you feel the same way then that’s totally fine, I won’t hold it against you, but I just...I really feel like this is verging on fear-mongering and I can’t get behind it 

[deniscollins]

In a Homecoming Video Meant to Unite Campus, Almost Everyone Was White

This fall, more than 30,000 undergraduates began the school year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fewer than 1,000 of them are African-American (3.3%). Statewide African-Americans are 6.7% of Wisconsin population. The university homecoming committee created a video on school spirit where virtually every student is white. If you were an administrator what actions if any, would you take? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

The video was just two minutes long: a sunny montage of life at the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus in Madison. Here were hundreds of young men and women cheering at a football game, dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, “throwing the W” for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.

“Home is where we grow together,” a voice-over said. “It’s where the hills are. It’s eating our favorite foods. It’s where we can all harmonize as one. Home is Wisconsin cheese curds. It’s welcoming everyone into our home.”

Days before Homecoming Week, the student homecoming committee, tasked with producing the video, posted it online. The outrage was almost instantaneous. Virtually every student in the video was white.

This is the story of a video that galvanized and divided a university plagued by a history of racist incidents, as told by the people who saw it happen. Black students in particular say the homecoming video crystallized a daily fact of life: They feel they are not wanted at the University of Wisconsin, where there are significantly fewer African-Americans per capita than in the state, which is mostly white. This fall, more than 30,000 undergraduates began the school year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fewer than 1,000 of them are African-American.

On the first day of classes in September, to get a deeper understanding of life on a college campus, we began interviewing students in Madison about their academic aspirations, about race, about free speech, debt and relationships. By the end of September, reaction to the homecoming video erupted, and our conversations with students throughout the fall semester began to be dominated by the topic, a window into their complicated and evolving views on race.

To students of color, the homecoming video was a glimpse of what they experienced every day as they walked through campus. The video prompted a burst of student activism, an attempt by university officials to educate about diversity and a reckoning over who feels at home at the University of Wisconsin.

Here is how the episode unfolded.

LATE SEPTEMBER

‘It Woke People Up’

The video was never supposed to attract much attention.

The homecoming committee, a group of several dozen students, has a simple mission: celebrating the university during Homecoming Week with a string of events including a 5K run, blood drive and parade.

A video would boost the promotional aspect of it all, the students decided, a short, visual ode to school spirit. The committee enlisted student organizations to be filmed — among them Alpha Kappa Alpha, a historically black sorority.

At the end of September, the video was finished and posted on Facebook. No one expected it to be seen very widely.

One evening, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha noticed that the video had been posted online.

Payton Wade, 21, a senior and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha: We were tagged on Facebook when they said a “thank you” to all of the organizations who participated in the video. And I watched the video and I realized that we weren’t in it.

Olivia Lopez, 22, a senior from Milwaukee who identifies as biracial: People started talking about it Monday, and they actually took it down off their website and their Facebook. But a couple of our peers had screen recorded it so that people could still see it and know what all the uproar was about.

Payton Wade’s Facebook page:

I am sharing this post because the Epsilon Delta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. was asked to participate in this video and explain what we thought “home is” here at UW-Madison. Not only did we tell them what we thought home was but we also took hours out of our day to film as well and were told we would be in the video and notified when it was completed.

UW-Madison is home to students who see Black students as less than and unfit to be at this university. UW-Madison is home to Black students who fear for their safety because of the color of their skin.

Olivia Lopez: I was just like, how did they not realize how wrong this is?

Soon, the homecoming committee issued an apology.

Statement from the homecoming committee:

To promote student Homecoming, we recently produced a video called “Home Is Where WI Are,” and we invited various student groups to participate in the video. Unfortunately, not all the video images produced were included in the final product, including those of students from under represented populations.

We regret omitting those images and we recognized that, by doing so, we unintentionally caused hurt to members of our campus community.

We are sorry that our video failed to show the full breadth of the university experience and made members of our community feel excluded.

Students of color were upset, the university’s administration was scrambling and even many white students agreed that members of Alpha Kappa Alpha should have been included. But the video stirred a different feeling, too.

Emilie Cochran, a reporter for The Badger Herald student newspaper who covered the story: It made people uncomfortable, seeing a lot of people who look alike representing the university. And it woke people up, saying, this is actually what our university looks like.

TWO WEEKENDS LATER

‘You’re Trying to Fix Things’

The video had been deleted for more than a week, but it would not go away.

Copies that students had made were watched on phones in dorms, coffee shops and the student union. Campus newspapers covered the story, and so did The Wisconsin State Journal, in which a headline declared, “UW-Madison Apologizes for Now-Deleted Homecoming Video of Nearly All-White Student Body.” The students of the Homecoming Committee continued with their planned week of events before the homecoming football game, hoping the furor would die down.

Students of color pushed in the other direction. They formed a group called the Student Inclusion Coalition. Their suggestion was to use the upcoming game to address outrage over the video. The administration agreed to help make a new video. This one would feature students of color — and it would be broadcast at halftime.

As tens of thousands of students and alumni were gathered at Camp Randall Stadium to watch the Badgers face off against Michigan State University, the new video began to play:

Kingsley-Reigne Pissang, 21, a senior and president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, who narrated the new video’s voice-over: I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan, and my family came up for the Michigan State game. My mom went to Michigan State, my uncle went to Michigan State, and so it was really like a family affair. When it came on, my aunt was kind of watching, and I took a video of her reacting to it. And at the end my mom was just like, ‘Was that you?’ It was just like watching their faces kind of brighten up and seeing that support system, of just how great it is, that impact. That’s going to be something that sticks with me forever.

Emilie Springsteen, 18, a freshman theater major who is white, from Cumberland, Wis.: All of us, the whole student section, almost started laughing at it. We were just staring at it with disgust, almost as if, O.K., you’re trying to fix things.

Nile Lansana, 22, a junior and poet who is black, from Chicago: For people who didn’t exactly know what was going on, they’re like, “Oh, yeah, that’s cute. People of color. Yay!” But for people who do know what was going on, I feel like the university might try to use that as an excuse to say, “Oh, O.K., we did this for y’all. Now let’s go back to our regularly scheduled programming.”

Ms. Pissang, the student who narrated the new video, said she hoped to eventually feel the same deep sense of loyalty to the University of Wisconsin that her relatives clearly have for their alma mater, Michigan State. But she said she just was not sure that she would ever feel that way.

Kingsley-Reigne Pissang: I would like to feel the pride of that, of saying, yeah, I am a Badger. That would be great.

Emilie Springsteen: I feel like on this campus, everyone has always been viewed as such an equal. And that’s part of why I picked it. Because this campus, as far as I had known, had basically gotten rid of the minority terms. They were everyone’s an equal. This is what we stand for. We are UW. There was a whole movement about it and that was really cool. And now this happened.

SIX DAYS LATER

‘A Big Explosion of Racial Tension’

The campus woke up to a message, scrawled in black.

Someone had taken a copy of The Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper, and written a message on it in large block letters: “UW 4 WHITES ONLY!”

The newspaper was taped outside Science Hall, a stately red brick building on campus, and it stunned the first people who saw it. The response from the university was swift.

At 6:46 a.m., the @UWMadison Twitter account wrote:

UW stands against hate and racism. We’re aware that, last night, a racist message was posted on a building sign outside Science Hall. We are removing this message and any others and @UWMadisonPolice is investigating.

That morning, more signs were discovered around campus. One read, “UW DON’T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE.” Another read, “I’M TIRED OF HAVING TO TEACH MY TEACHERS.”

Soon, the university released a new statement, which read, in part:

These posters appear now to be part of a coordinated campaign calling attention to experiences of underrepresented students.

The Student Inclusion Coalition said it had not orchestrated the campaign. University officials have declined to identify the people involved.

But the campus was shaken and confused once again. Some students argued that whoever posted the signs should be punished for inflaming racial tensions. Others said it was a clumsy protest that was born of frustration. No one claimed responsibility by name, but a group of anonymous students issued a public apology.

Nile Lansana: I think it was poorly executed and poorly worded. I know for me, and it’s not really like this matters, but when I heard about it, I definitely thought that it was a white person doing it. And then when I found out it wasn’t, I was like, O.K., I get where you were.

John Lucas, university spokesman: It was not a hate or bias act. It was more an act of student activism or protest.

Nile Lansana: I don’t think that it’s an inaccurate representation of how folks of color are feeling right now. These first two months have been a big explosion of racial tension.

ONE WEEK LATER

‘If You Don’t Like It, Then Leave’

For decades, the University of Wisconsin has been a hotbed of political activism, and in that tradition, members of the Student Inclusion Coalition decided it was time for a protest.

On a Friday in October, they dressed in black and gathered on top of Bascom Hill, a spot with sweeping views of the campus and the granite dome of the State Capitol.

The location was laden with meaning. They stood outside Bascom Hall, the building that houses the university chancellor’s office, near a cherished statue of Abraham Lincoln that, according to campus legend, brings students good luck.

Hundreds of student protesters linked arms and held signs. Dozens more stopped to watch or join in as they walked by on their way to class; but to other students, the demonstration was alarming and difficult to process.

Students representing S.I.C., in unison: What are we sick of? UW! What are we sick of? UW!

Carson Biber, a freshman business major who is white and from Cedarburg, Wis.: When you hear like, oh, ‘Did you hear about those protests on campus?’ I was like, ‘What bad happened now?’

Emilie Springsteen: One of my friends, she has a class in Bascom. And she was in there and her lecture hall faces out. And she saw a whole bunch of people out there with signs and things. And I know she told me what they were protesting — I think they were protesting the school. They were bashing our school. And I was like, you go here. Why are you? They’re like, “UW sucks.” And I was like, why are you bashing our college? If you’re a student here, you can leave.

Lori Reesor, a top university official, has an office inside Bascom Hall, in a sunny room with a bowl of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that she offers to visitors.

Since the homecoming video episode began, Ms. Reesor had been at the center of the university’s response. She and the university’s chief diversity officer, Patrick Sims, have met with student leaders and listened to their proposals for how the university could be more welcoming to students of color. Given the nature of a college campus, she said later, it is work that repeats itself.

Lori Reesor, the vice chancellor for student affairs, who is white: With students, every year there’s 8,000 new ones, and it’s all brand-new, and so we have to start it again. They just got here. This is a new day. It’s a reminder of, every day is a new day for somebody on our campus.

In an interview, Mr. Sims said the university had tried and failed to attract more African-American students in a state where 6.7 percent of people are black. According to university data, 959 undergraduates in the fall of 2019 identified as African-American; some of those students said they were African-American as well as Hispanic or another race or ethnicity. Qualified students often choose to leave Wisconsin, Mr. Sims said, finding other places more hospitable. (Among the more than 30,000 undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin, about 2,200 are Asian and 1,700 are Hispanic, according to federal data.)

Patrick Sims, deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, who is African-American: They don’t want to come to Wisconsin. Not because Wisconsin isn’t a great institution but because the state writ large over all has challenges.

That Friday afternoon, the protest was complete, the crowds had drifted away, and a handful of students who represented S.I.C. gathered in front of Abraham Lincoln.

In Madison, the statue — known simply as Abe — is a watchful, benevolent presence on top of the hill, a landmark and meeting place. After graduation, it is tradition to hoist yourself onto the statue, wearing a cap and gown, and pose for a triumphant picture on Abe’s lap.

Kingsley-Reigne Pissang, Payton Wade and a few other students paused in front of Abe. As they snapped a few pictures, they saw an African-American teenager and his mother walking toward them. He was a high school junior, checking out the campus.

The teenager had questions. Did they like going to the University of Wisconsin? His mother asked: How’s the diversity?

Kingsley-Reigne Pissang: We just stood there and talked to him, talked to his mom and answered their questions. He was trying to figure out from us what to do, what he should know, trying to understand.

The students tried to answer honestly. They told them there weren’t many African-American students at Madison. That many other schools were the same. That he would have to do his research before he made his choice. That despite the difficulty, they had found each other.

[junker-town]

‘The Bachelorette’ Episode 6 recap: Lee finally goes home, Rachel spews romantic word salad, people go on lots of boats

Thank god the racist storyline is over.

Okay, hello, we’re back. I can’t believe they made us watch two episodes in one week. It’s the meanest thing you could do to me professionally. BACHELORETTE RECAPPERS HAVE LIVES, TOO, ABC!!!!!

But The Bachelorette waits for no woman, so let’s dive back into this black hole. When we left off last night we were primed for the disastrous end of Kenny and Lee’s two-on-one date. The previews showed Kenny bleeding and Rachel crying. I am ... not excited about this.

EXCEPT ALL THAT HAPPENS IS LEE GOES HOME

After three episodes of Lee’s garbage racism, all the teasing of tonight’s episode as a big showdown was a pump fake. Rachel says she believes Kenny when he says he’s done nothing wrong, and she tells Lee she doesn’t trust him. She gets annoyed with Kenny after Kenny rubs it in Lee’s face that he lost.

Kenny unloads the most impressive series of swears I’ve ever heard:

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.

(Kenny is me when i find out The Bachelorette is on two nights in a row.)

Then Kenny and Rachel fly off in a helicopter and leave Lee sitting on a peninsula in the middle of Norway. He could still be sitting there. He probably is. There’s no way of knowing.

I do this recap completely chronologically, but I have to skip ahead for a second and tell you that Lee does not come back all episode. I was worried he might, because that’s what happened on JoJo’s season after she got rid of Chad on a two-on-one. Chad came crawling back to the Pennsylvania hunting cabin and dragged his hand down the glass of the sliding door like Leo DiCaprio in the fogged up car in Titanic, but ten times less sexy.

The fact that Lee, the human garbage can, is gone? That’s fantastic news. We can finally get back to watching this show as a silly, fun diversion from the banality of our repetitive adult lives.

HOWEVER: What is not fantastic news is that the producers primed this whole storyline as an epic firestorm between two mortal enemies and used racism as lighter fluid. Thankfully it did not result in violence, but that set-up was shitty, and even for this depraved franchise, a new low.

There. Now let’s get back to Rachel’s husband hunt.

KENNY FACETIMES HIS DAUGHTER AGAIN AND CRIES

Kenny FaceTimes his daughter for the second time in two episodes. Her face is painted like a cat, which is cute. He says he misses her. I have to be honest: This feels somewhat exploitative. I always feel that way when they put kids on this show — remember Nick’s little sister Bella, who appeared on like ten seasons of this show because Nick made an entire career out of going on The Bachelor?

Kenny’s like, “I just want to be with my daughter so bad!” but says he’s doing this for both of their own good. And I’m like, dude, if you miss your kid so much, why’d you go on a reality show where you knew you’d be separated for months to have a one-in-30 chance of ending up with this woman who is probably out of your league? But hey, he did get exposure, so maybe more people will watch him wrestle now. Or he can sell FitBits on Instagram or something.

Maybe that’s all way too cynical, but I just don’t have a lot of faith in this show these days.

ROSE CEREMONY

They’re showing Josiah being super confident about how he won’t get sent home, which means he’s going to be sent home for sure.

I can’t believe that this one white dude who definitely has hair plugs and whose name I can’t remember is still around. Ah, Matt, that’s his name. Anyway, I can’t believe he’s still here.

“What I see in this room is my future,” says Rachel. She’s such a good Bachelorette. She says what she has to say and sticks to certain platitudes. It feels a little stale, but then again, this isn’t, like, groundbreaking artistic programming.

Is Peter wearing a scarf? A la John Kerry at that Pats game a few years ago?

I can’t find a picture of Peter at the rose ceremony to show you guys, but yes, Peter is wearing a John Kerry scarf.

“If she doesn’t give me a rose, there’s something wrong with her brain,” says Josiah.

Josiah goes home. So does Anthony. Which is dumb, because I would marry Anthony in like two seconds — he’s a Fulbright Scholar, he’s hot, and he seems fun. SMDH.

You know who doesn’t go home? Hair Plugs McGee.

I’m not sure I understand Rachel’s taste in men.

ON TO DENMARK!

The whole crew goes to Denmark. Eric gets the one-on-one. I wonder if Rachel is allowed to have a cell phone. I know the dudes can’t, but can she? It seems important to be able to text your friends about the guys you’re dating and might marry. I don’t know how you even begin to date guys if you can’t text your friends about them.

Eric is so happy to have a one-on-one. I like Eric on this date — he’s dancing, bopping around. He says “swag, swag, swag.”

Dancing on the docks in Copenhagen! #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/PLOfDE1H4e

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 28, 2017

“I love sports,” says Rachel, when Eric asks what she does for fun. “So I just go to a bar and kick it with friends. Eat, drink, watch the game.”

Hell yeah, Rachel. Sports! Sports, sports, sports. Love ‘em.

At dinner, Eric tells Rachel that he always got good grades, wasn’t ever in trouble, and was “a cool square.” But he says that when he was young he never really “got love.” His mom wasn’t very affectionate, so when he started getting in relationships with women, he’d run away.

He’s falling for Rachel, though.

This feels like a big moment for Eric personally, even if he doesn’t end up with Rachel. Which he won’t, because Peter will, so I don’t know why we’re even still watching this. My biggest question is why aren’t they eating the burgers sitting in front of them? I never see them eating on these dates. They just sit there with the food on the table.

Eric gets a rose.

VIKING DATE

Rachel makes the dudes go on a group date where they row a viking boat. Now, let me tell you, as someone who’s rowed a boat before: it’s hard. It isn’t fun. They’re wearing these nerdy lifejackets that inflate when you pull the cord, which is not a cool thing to do on a boat (trust me, I’ve been on boats). You need a real one that looks like a vest if you want not to be a nerd on a boat (have I mentioned I’ve been on boats?).

The best part of this date is Tom and Morton, two Danes who do viking reenactments and pronounce viking as “wiking.” Rachel’s dudes are dressed up in furs and, this might be weird, but I think they look pretty hot.

Tonight on #TheBachelorette. Peter is quite the pick up artist...literally! http://pic.twitter.com/g94KPgjd1U

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 28, 2017

“The guys look hot dressed up as vikings,” says Rachel. Phew, I’m not alone.

They play all these ancient viking games, and Kenny and Adam end up bleeding from their eyebrows. I feel so stupid for falling for the previews that made it seem like Kenny and Lee got in a fist fight. Of COURSE the producers took something out of context for drama. That’s on me for falling for it, but also, it’s so slimy.

I’m still mad.

THIS IS BORING

I’m bored. Maybe they milked the Kenny and Lee storyline because everything else was so unexciting (that doesn’t excuse it). Bryan and Rachel are talking about their feelings in the typical emotional word salad you’d expect. She asks if his family would accept her. He says yes. They make out. Yadda yadda yadda.

God, Peter is hot. Rachel tells him that. They make out. Yadda yadda yadda.

KENNY GOES HOME

Rachel cuts Kenny loose when she can tell that he’s spiraling. Stockholm Syndrome usually sets in for a few contestants at about this time in the arc of a season, so his come-apart makes sense. Kenny is basically asking Rachel to tell him she wants to marry him and Rachel is like... I can’t do that, so you should probably go home. She says it nicely though. It’s thoughtful. She doesn’t want to waste his time.

WILL’S DUD OF A DATE

“I’m in wifey mode right now,” says Rachel, and I throw up in my mouth a little. She and Will go on a date to Sweden. They take a boat there from Denmark, and Will’s like, “It’s crazy to take a boat to Sweden.”

I’m like dude, how do you think people used to get across bodies of water before the invention of flight? You can take a boat to Canada from the U.S. You can take a boat from Europe to the U.S. You can take a goddamn ferry from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Do you not know how boats work, Will? They take you places.

The whole date is boring, and Rachel is pissed that Will won’t touch her. At dinner he tells her he’s a very physical person, and she’s like, so, why won’t you touch me? And he’s like uh...

She asks him what kind of women he dates, he and he’s like, white women, mostly. And she’s like ... okay. And he’s like, “Because I grew up around mostly white people.” And Rachel says, “Clearly I’m open to everyone, and I always have been, but I grew up the same way you did.”

She says her “mind is going a mile a minute,” and Will keeps laughing his awkward laugh. Will has a really bad awkward laugh (not that you can really have a good one). He realizes he blew it. Rachel sends him home.

She’s very good at sending people home tonight.

ROSE CEREMONY

We finally get a rose ceremony at the end of an episode! Thank god, enough of this “to be continued” trash. There’s a shot of a swan to signify romance. I love the idea of some producer being like, “Yeah, we need B-Roll of a bird. Can we a close up on that one? Ah, it’s diving! Butt in the air. Perfect. Thanks, Gerry, you get a raise.”

Our fearless leader, the always huggable @chrisbharrison! #TheBachelorette http://pic.twitter.com/gMuHDh1qr6

— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) June 28, 2017

Chris Harrison shows up. His hair looks terrible. Maybe he and Matt have the same hair plugs guy. Rachel’s crying, because goodbyes are so hard. She quotes Hamlet, because Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in Denmark, and that’s where they are.

SHE SENDS ERIC HOME!

WTF? Rachel keeps Matt, Hair Plugs Matt the Construction Worker, but she sends Eric, sweet, vulnerable Eric, home??? My theory is that she’s getting rid of any guy she might like besides Peter so that she can focus on him and kind of fake her way through the other ones. Except for Bryan — he could give Peter a run for his money. Maybe narrowing the pool is a way of protecting herself emotionally, so she can focus on the dude she likes most without being distracted by other dudes she kind of likes. And also so that if she and Peter end up together she can be like, “Yeah I totally didn’t like any of the other finalists,” and mean it.

But: there are mostly white guys left now, and I can’t help but wonder if ABC was steering the ship in this direction so that the next Bachelor will be white.

Poor hunky Russian Alex goes home. Why would you keep Matt over Alex? Ugh. In the previews, it looks like Peter might manage to eff this up, but I think that’s also a fake-out.

Awesome. Cool! Can’t wait for next week. LOL. If there are two episodes again I’m quitting my job, moving to a farm in Maine with no TV or internet, and living off the land.