#capitalism sucks but that's the world we live in so unless that changes let people market so they can live!

[nazuqi]

Even If You Become a Stranger, I Will Fall In Love With You Again

— CHAPTER ONE: I AM NOT YOUR DAUGHTER, AND I AM NOT YOUR LADY

The Countess and Count are so kind. Unlike most nobles, they married for love, which helped create a healthy environment growing up. It’s nice to be complimented, spoiled, and taken care of so attentively by everyone. It makes me wonder how that had gone away through the years. 

To be truthful, even though it’s been just under 10 years, I can’t get used to being “Astelle Belrose”. Even though I’m Astelle, I’m also Qian. Having the knowledge of a teenager as a baby was… quite the experience, to say the least. 

“Aste~lle! Are you there? Is my baby studying?” Countess Hyacinthe Belrose knocked on the door to my study.

I grumbled. “I’m not a baby.” I knew she was affectionate that way, but I really wasn’t a baby. Seventeen and being called a baby? That was too much- although it was hard to blame her, because as Astelle, I’d only been born 10 years ago. 10 year-olds were still babies- although my case was quite odd. 

Learning the basics like walking took up a lot of time and energy, and with a baby’s body, talking was hard. It was easier to go through normal things I’d be able to do as time passed, and being in a 10-year-old’s body isn’t as different as before. It’s changing, slowly. 

“Oh? Them again? I always wonder who they are; I always see you drawing them, and I’ve never seen them before,” she took a closer look at them. “They look very cute~” 

Of course she’d never seen them before. Ra*bits didn’t exist in the Empire, and I’m the only fan of a group that “doesn’t exist”. How could I tell her that? “They’re my characters! They like to be cute and sing and dance for everyone and they’re happy when all of their fans are happy!” I wish I could tell her that- but it wouldn’t be right to call them characters. They’re real to me, the people closest to me. 

“That’s a secret, mama.” I say with a proud look on my face. They respect my privacy, and it’s easy to act when you know they won’t see through you so fast.

“Alright, I look forward to getting to know them~” she giggled. “Anyways, guess what?”

“What.”

“My best friend is moving to the capital! We’re visiting her next week,” she put her hands to her hips. Countess Hyacinthe’s best friend is Duchess Ariane Lambert- Leveret’s mother. When Duke Lambert had an affair, she’d decided to take her children with her and move to the Capital, far away from the Northern Region where the Lamberts had resided for generations. 

“Oh… do I have to go?” It was risky for me. Leveret was always my favorite character; I’ll get attached far too easily. 

“Of course, silly! You’re shy now? Having friends is good, I promise.”

“But I have friends in the mansion.”

“Have a friend your age! Just try it out, and if you two don’t work out well, then you don’t have to meet them again unless we both end up going to the same event. Is that okay?”

I nodded. I can’t really argue with that. I don’t want to sound like I hate Leveret; I can’t sound like someone who hates someone for no reason. 

Hyacinthe got up from her seat, “We’re meeting your father in a restaurant near the palace tonight for dinner, so get ready, okay?” Oh, the restaurants in the Capital are good, it’s hard to say no to that.

She left to let me get ready with the maids. Needing them to change into a dress for dinner sucks, but the fashion is too difficult for me to get into myself. I let the maids in, and they fixed me up before dinner.

“Eat well, my lady!” I waved to them as I got into the carriage with Hyacinthe. At first, I’d hate being called “my lady”, but it was normal here. Making people bend the normal in their reality to fit my “reality” is too cruel. 

I hate living a lie. If only I could tell the Countess that I wasn’t her daughter, never to begin with, the servants that I was never their lady. I have no choice but to move on; I’m stuck as Astelle as long as I am in this world. 

[anonymouswarriorhumanist]

The Trope of the Prodigy and the Genius

Class, Privilege, Capitalism and the Myth of 'Talent'

Do you just see the young 8-year-old girl able to play Vivaldi so effortlessly, you wonder why the heck you can't do the same. Do you observe the news of people going crazy over a child who skipped grades or finished school early and is now going to college at the tender age of 11? Do you see the chess prodigy becoming a grandmaster at 12 years old when you cannot even tell a rook from a knight? Do you lament your childhood and woeful life when your best friend is a skilled ballet dancer, practising for a decade when you cannot even walk properly (personal for me)?

If YES, then welcome to this Dilemma. I cannot put a name on it since it can be anything like genius, talent or whatnot people use it to praise others and distinguish some but hear me out on this.

It is capitalism guys. Look, I know that capitalism is to blame for EVERYTHING but let's add one more thing to its already inflated list of sins throughout centuries and that is: The Myth of Talent and the Creation of 'Genius'

See ik I can imagine the eye rolls but since my thoughts are in a jumble, let me start with a genius and its idea.

So, I feel it is fixed that a capitalist society does not give a shit about us in general as normal people who are not billionaire CEOs or Presidents/Prime Ministers. But unless you help capitalism or suck up to it, it will not put you on a pedestal and adore you more than your own parents could love you. However, things change when you have something called a 'skill', a 'talent' or are a 'genius', right? People look at you with awe and wonder in their eyes, your boss hails you as the bestest amongst the best, and your teachers think you are the eighth wonder of the world. And all this boils down to Whatever the fuck you bring to the table for capitalism to bloom. Notice how it always is about how much you can work or think or give.

Your boss complimented you as a 'talent'. Bestie, wake up, they do not give a fuck about whether you were having a bathroom breakdown 20 mins before. All he cares about is how much you worked today, and what you will do tomorrow (ableism says Hello.)

Your teacher praised you and called you a 'genius'? Babe, all they care about is how much you score on a shitty objective paper that will decide whether you are desirable in this world or not according to your brain/mental capacity (ableism says hi again and so does the Golden Child Syndrome).

Many of our authority figures in this world whilst we live, even our own parents sometimes (yikes), fall into this trap of praising us not because of who we are (or that us living on this shithole planet and breathing on it is itself is a beauty) but rather what we offer: be it our talent, qualities, etc, etc. And this is the Ultimate Capitalism Trap- Make a shitty world and mentally ensnare people by loving them for what they offer and then taking control of their minds with the whole 'genius'/'talent' bs and reducing them to mere skills and capabilities.

This goes on to my next aspect of this: Privilege and Class.

'Talent' and 'Genius' DO not fall out of trees, it has to be cultivated, right? Nurtured in a child, adored and encouraged?

NO.

It NEEDS TO BE FED.

FED by class: money, wealth, privilege. Child prodigies do not jump out of the sky onto their chessboards, pianos or blackboards. It takes a HELLUVA upbringing filled with sheltering and privilege that lead people to cultivate such 'talents'. Upper-class/caste upbringing, family wealth and present, doting (slightly overbearing) parents all contribute to such things more or less.

Now, Am I shitting on 'prodigies' and 'Geniuses'? NO. All I am pointing out is that their glamorisation is not only ableist and rooted in capitalism but rather there are inherent dynamics of privilege and wealth at play to make them who they are. I am certainly not negating the fact that many people do rise up even from underprivileged backgrounds but keep in mind that in most cases, they are the exception rather than the norms. In this world, when most marginalised communities are struggling (be it Palestinians being genocided, Black and Dalit people being incarcerated and killed), 'talent' can only come from conventionally privileged backgrounds and wealthy upbringings.

So, my main point: We live in a world where everyone seeks validation by being different, by seeking to bring something new to the capitalist table hell-bent on flipping us over eventually (yet we still place all our chips on it :) and are even forced to coz no other choice atp). But sometimes, being a normie is NICE, being a non-talented person and a non-genius is great tbh. Not only are you not putting too many chips on the capitalist table but are instead accepting yourself and letting YOURSELF BE. Coz that is what MATTERS. When you give up and protect yourself and get over that FOMO, you are defying that capitalist conditioning, when you rest, you are going against every cell in your being guilting you for taking a breather.

AND THAT IS AMAZING.

So instead of being a 'prodigy' or a 'phenomenal genius', let's just REST and do the bare minimum in this capitalist world and just close our eyes and think about kittens and puppies and procrastinate more and more coz we are human, not fricking machines. (Procrastination and the guilt around it need a separate post btw). One day, just take a stroll with your earpods in at midnight wherever you are and sorta kinda defy capitalism in your way...............yeah comrade???

AND JUST BE AND LET IT HAPPEN

(Love Tame Impala ;))

[gffa]

I KNOW STAR WARS IS PROBABLY GOING TO TRY TO FORGET THIS PART, BUT I’M NOT GOING TO. HERE IS WHY AHSOKA'S WORDS AREN’T FAIR AND WHY SHE’S RIGHT THAT SHE’S NOT TRYING TO BE AND WHY OBI-WAN ISN’T PUTTING POLITICS AHEAD OF PEOPLE’S LIVES JUST FOR THE SAKE OF POLITICS.

Ahsoka wants the Jedi to go to Mandalore because the people there need them.  And she’s right!  And she’s right that people have lost faith in the Jedi Order, but there is no way that going to Mandalore--or even any mission like it--was going to make the Jedi any more popular/have more faith in them.  (Nor, would I argue, that they should be doing things based on what other people think of them or what makes them popular, especially when the general public’s view of things are, uh, not always the greatest or most reliable, I mean, these are the people who think Palpatine’s great, maybe they’re not the most narratively reliable???) But the above cannot come without context of the bigger war, because I remember Ryloth.  And I remember Mon Calamari.  And I remember Kiros. And I remember Revenge of the Sith, I remember the Battle Over Coruscant, I remember that the Separatists aren’t just kidnapping Palpatine, THEY ARE THERE ON CORUSCANT.  GRIEVIOUS AND DOOKU AND THEIR BATTLE DROIDS ARE RIGHT THERE.  ATTACKING THE PLANET. And I remember what the Separatists do to worlds they invade. They slaughter them, they oppress them, they enslave them. Now they’re heading towards Coruscant.  They’re not suddenly going to be nice to the capital of the Republic, Grievous and Dooku aren’t going to have a sudden change of heart and go, well, it’s Coruscant, I guess we won’t do the same thing we always do to planets who resist. Here’s how the bit right before their conversation goes, by the way: the sirens go off, the clones start dashing around to prepare, it’s clear they’re going to battle.  Anakin assumes the attack on Mandalore was what set this off, but Obi-Wan says, no, it’s Coruscant.

When Obi-Wan talks about the mission they’re being tasked with, he doesn’t mention the Chancellor at all, it’s Anakin who asks after his friend.  In all the conversation around this episode, it took even me having to go back to make gifs to get me to realize, oh, they don’t even know Palpatine is going to be kidnapped at this point!  THAT HASN’T HAPPENED YET.  They’ve lost contact with him, but the danger is that Grievous has attacked Coruscant. THIS ISN’T ABOUT PALPATINE BEING IN DANGER.  HE HASN’T BEEN KIDNAPPED YET.  THEY MIGHT BE WORRIED ABOUT HIM, BUT THAT’S NOT THE IMPORTANT PART UNTIL ANAKIN MENTIONS HIM. (This reading is furthered by how Obi-Wan’s voice goes significantly gentler when he says, “Not to worry.  Our fleet can be there within the hour.”  He is specifically saying this to Anakin, he is gentling his tone because he knows Anakin will worry about his friend, not because he’s prioritizing Palpatine.) THIS IS ABOUT WHAT OBI-WAN SAYS:  GRIEVOUS HAS ATTACKED THE CAPITAL. So when Ahsoka says the Jedi are going to Coruscant because of Palpatine, it’s not a fair accusation to say that the people of Coruscant don’t need them.  She’s saying that the Jedi are protecting Coruscant because it’s important to the Chancellor, not because Coruscant’s people are important, when Obi-Wan is saying, yes, the people of Coruscant are important and her accusation isn’t fair or correct in that sense. The battle is on their planet now, the Separatists are there, if they lose that battle, the people of Coruscant will be facing the same thing those other planets did and it’ll go exactly the same way--utter horror unless the Jedi are there to protect them. Coruscant doesn’t just need their Chancellor rescued, Coruscant needs protection to not be the next Ryloth, to not be the next Mon Calamari, to not be the next Kiros, because the Separatists are there and that’s what they do. Ahsoka’s wrong that the people of Coruscant don’t need the Jedi.  She’s right that Mandalore needs help, but in her letting her emotions cloud her judgement, she would be condemning the heart of the Republic (the only thing that stands between the Separatists and unfettered atrocity after atrocity, they’re the only thing that can stand against those horrible things Dooku and Grievous do). She’s being unfair about how Coruscant does need their help. She can try to frame it as what they’re really doing is rescuing the Chancellor or sucking up to him or whatever, but this is also Obi-Wan Kenobi and he doesn’t come without context as well, that he’s not the type to not want to help someone just because it’s inconvenient.  Seriously, this is Obi-Wan, that guy is all about helping people! Yes, the Chancellor is there, but, you know, that’s also where Dooku and Grievous and the Separatists are.  They’re going to fight the Separatists, we see that when they’re in battle over Coruscant, when they board the Invisible Hand, when they face off against Grievous and Dooku.  They’re rescuing Palpatine, but they’re also protecting the planet below them from some genuinely awful shit that’s going to happen if they’re not there. And I know Star Wars will probably want to forget that part, in order to accuse the Jedi of playing politics in a bad way, but it’s still true.  Without the Jedi on Coruscant, Dooku would have done to the people there what he’s done to so many other worlds.  We’ve seen him do it again and again. The people of Coruscant are going to be dead or in chains or used as human shields or put in concentration camps (all things the Separatists have done in canon) if they put Mandalore first, just like the Mon Cal, the Togruta, and the Twi’leks.

[comrade-meow]

Capitalism, the New, New Left and the Gender Industry

“Inclusivity is more than a social cause, it’s a business opportunity.  It’s time to maximize your business growth.”

 - dmi Consulting

Let me get this out of the way, because it seems more than a few people still need to hear this.  

CORPORATIONS DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU!

“Diversity and inclusion ”(D&I) comprise a new business mantra.  Programs and language, based on the normalization of body dissociation, are being corporately cultivated, around the world. The programs being instituted appeal to our emotions, to entice us to believe that companies care about people and just want to create one big happy, diverse, work-family, which include marginalized sectors of society - most importantly, those who imagine they have a sex (gender is a euphemism) that is not male or female.  The overlooked are finally being given a place at the table!

Or are they?

The new, new liberal left in America, the left that has emerged out of a traditional new left, which cared about the working class, blacks and women’s rights, who yearned for a more equal and just social order, is unrecognizable to many of us who’ve long been of the traditional left.  That left, just a decade ago, sparked a potentially revolutionary movement on Wall street, calling out the financial industry and the monopolies ruining our lives and our planet.  Emerging out of the carcass of that potentially revolutionary movement, is a left that has recently climbed into bed with those same big banks.  Snuggled up in bed with them, fluffing their pillows, are Big Pharma and Big Tech.  The left, are running around screaming at protests, get wide media coverage, voices in our universities and institutions, crying that people claiming their sex is not male or female, need human rights.  These manufactured sexes are being supported by, promoted by, and advertised by Big Pharma, Big Tech and Big Banking.  This new, unrecognizable left sees no irony at all in their behavior.  

These purported new sexes, ostensibly requiring special human rights, depend on a narrative that sexual dimorphism isn’t real, that it exists on a spectrum of sexes.  This is the gender industry and with projected profit margins reaching into the billions by 2026, for surgeries on healthy sex organs alone, and the amount of advertising curated to sell it, it is going to be very profitable indeed.

How has the left been so duped about new markets being manifested out of sex, that they scream liberation every time someone dares to mention the glaring inconsistency of human rights for corporate profiteering off of young adults and children’s bodies?

The left knows corporations do not care about the color of our skin, whether we are oppressed because of said color of our skin, whether we live in an igloo or a cardboard box, whether the icebergs are melting, or whether Fukushima nuclear plant is dumping millions of tons  of radioactive waste into the oceans, externalizing the cost of doing business.  How do they not understand that corporations do not give a fu*k about anybody’s identity?  Unless those identities are opening markets.  

The constant business-woke-posing (D&I), for Black Lives Matter (BLM), the LGBT Inc, and the often, corporate mixing of both under the “Black Trans Lives Matter” slogan, is about profit. Every little advertising slogan, every word, is carefully selected to appeal to an ever-increasing fragmentation of humanity, into subcategories, to be marketed to.  It is all about the corporate bottom line.  If they can convince us that the disembodiment movement of “gender identity” is akin to the civil rights movement for black Americans, or has anything at all to do with LGB, they’ve roped us into their narrative of care.  Further, if they can convince more black Americans of their insane narrative of disembodiment-as-progress, it supports the illusion they are selling to all of us. Fortunately, that isn’t going well, so far.  Despite their efforts to corral black youth, and the relentless corporate propaganda aimed at them, black youth are not crying about their “gender identities” or clamoring for cross sex hormones.  

The left knows corporations don’t care.  The working class knows this.  It’s why the Occupy Wall Street movement evolved so quickly.  I was there,  a decade ago, at ground zero, with 40,000 people from every walk of life, as we traversed the Brooklyn Bridge, in protest of the choke hold the financial sector had on us.  Now these same people are waving flags in traditional, baby-colored, pink, blue and white, screaming about human emancipation through medical identities, while many sew themselves to the techno-medical complex for life.  

For a concise and readily comprehensible explanation of how capitalism functions, I urge you to examine the work of Stephanie McMillan, a life-long activist and an anti-capitalist.  She explains, in language that is completely accessible, how corporations are set up to compete in the global marketplace:  “To care about people over profits would jeopardize the corporatist’s position within that system, and their own livelihood.” Corporate heads, consist of those with the greatest wealth and depend on an exploited working class not just to function, but to suck wealth upward, from the bottom, creating ever more wealth for a few, leaving the masses at the bottom, with less and less.  This is a worse crisis for women across the world, who, according to UN stats, put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each day — a contribution to the global economy of at least $10.8 trillion a year. The reporting of these statistics will no longer be a true measure of what is transpiring globally,  since men will be included in the stats for women, under the new corporate gender regime.  

We are living in an oligarchic gulag, one that isn’t very private.  Our communities, as I addressed in an interview last year, are being opened to the acceptance and normalization of a male fetish based on disembodiment, creating a sexual psycho drama of our corporate and civil landscapes, for profit, while literally dismembering people and creating more identities to market to.  

Because we are governed by corporate monopolies, and the billionaires behind them, driving a steady stream of propaganda through our media, we no longer know what fake news is and what is real news.  We don’t know what men and women are (or we pretend not to know to fit in). We don’t know if people on social media or advertising are real or computer generated and our ability to speak about anything outside the corporately generated illusions plaguing us, are being penalized in myriad ways, not the least of which is controlled and censored speech.  Yet suddenly, we are to believe, and many on the new, new liberal left do believe, these monstrous monopolies that have colonized the entire natural world, have suddenly changed their ways and care about people.  They especially care about these new imaginary sexes being manufactured out of philanthropic funding, corporate cash, and the techno-medical complex.

Will Meyer, in a recent issue of Business Insider, gives us a look at the corporate woke hypocrisy, posing as care about the marginalized.   “IBM and Microsoft,” he reports, “claimed they would no longer sell facial recognition software to law enforcement, signaling their alignment with Soros backed, BLM movement, despite the fact both corporations remaining deeply invested in punitive systems that continue to harm Black and brown lives.”  The BLM movement has the same capitalists behind it as the gender industry.

Selling D&I to the public, is such big business, that there are corporations that teach other companies how to market it effectively. This fracturing of humanity, via the colonization of human sex, is how capitalism functions.  It splits everything into smaller and smaller fragments to open markets.  Where we once had a single-family physician to help us heal, we now have a plethora of specialists to treat everything from lung cancer to toenail fungus.  Where we have had a sexually dimorphic species, we now have medical identities that deconstruct sex, being foisted upon us, to open markets.

Those with wealth create more wealth for themselves, while underlings, not having access to wealth, land or goods, are forced to sell their labor for less and less money. The wealth, goods and land are all siphoned off by the corporatists. Well now the corporatists, with little left to extract, have come for human sex and they are not leaving until they have it, or we rise in resistance and reclaim what is left after their ravaging.

[masquerade-story]

Chapter 4 - Memories

Lillian awoke late into the evening, after everyone collectively agreed to take a nap and process everything Crystal told them. Her throat was dry and scratchy, so she carefully rolled out of bed to avoid disturbing Grey, who'd crawled into her bed for comfort like he always did when he was upset, and padded quietly out of the bedroom.

Since there wasn't going to be any sort of heating bill, they'd left the mysteriously working heater on to combat the unexpectedly cold weather. Lillian stopped by a window to peek outside, and was momentarily startled when she could pick out individual leaves on distant trees.

"Right, our vision got all fancy." Lillian laughed softly at herself, turning her gaze from the trees to the starry sky.

An unfamiliar sky.

Three moons scattered across the horizon, a couple of planets close enough for their rings to be distinct to the naked eye, and a brilliant aurora ribbon streaming across more stars than Lillian ever remembered seeing when she looked up back on Earth.

"There's no North Star," she whispered to herself, her warm breath briefly melting some frost on the window glass. "Different constellations, different horoscopes... I wonder how long a year is here? Or a season? Can we... Even communicate with people to find out?"

An oppressive sense of loneliness settled in her chest. Lillian blinked back a few tears and turned away from the window, resuming her earlier mission of a glass of juice. She slipped downstairs into the kitchen, drank an entire glass, and went to bring her second cup upstairs in case she woke up again, when a soft sound caused her to pause mid-step toward the stairs.

Sobbing. Wretched, mournful sobbing, from the living room which currently had no light on.

Lillian felt her heart clench in sympathy, and changed route.

Rayne sat on the couch, curled into the corner with a blanket around her shoulders and a phone in her hands. She glanced up when Lillian approached, hurriedly dashing her tears with the corner of the blanket. "H-hey, what's up?"

Lillian had the sense to put her juice cup down on an end table before sitting heavily on the couch, encroaching on Rayne's personal space with reckless abandon. "I was gonna ask you the same thing. Why are you down here alone in the dark?"

"Oh, I..." Rayne muttered, her gaze flicking back to the phone. Lillian glanced down, and saw a photo of Rayne and her boyfriend trying on mouse hats during their trip to Disneyworld. His expression was exasperated, but his affectionate gaze was fixed on Rayne's laughing face.

Rayne locked her screen and set the phone down, but it was too late and she knew it. She retreated further into the warmth of her blanket, faking a shiver to cover the fact she was trying to hide her face.

Neither Rayne nor Crystal appreciated it when other people saw them cry, but Lillian knew that it was sometimes exactly what someone needed, whether they wanted it or not. So she leaned on Rayne's shoulder, resting a gentle hand on the other woman's knee.

"You know," Lillian said softly, closing her eyes. "There's three moons."

Rayne was quiet for a moment. Then she sniffled, before whispering: "Really?"

"Yeah. And some ringed planets, and an aurora. Wanna see?"

The bundle of blanket shook in a hesitant nod, and both Lillian and Rayne moved to sit on the window seat overlooking the front yard, keeping throw pillows between them and the frozen glass to seal in their bodily warmth.

Silence stretched on between them as they stared together at the foreign night sky. Whenever Rayne gave a soft cry or pained whimper, Lillian reached over to squeeze her hand without turning to look at her, giving the other woman a measure of privacy while still providing comfort until she was ready to talk.

"It's unfair," Rayne whispered finally, reaching out of the blanket to draw a frowning face on the frosty glass.

Lillian nodded. "It ate our bonds so they all forgot us, but we still have to remember them? It's totally unfair."

"Actually..." Rayne looked over, locking gazes with Lillian, her dark brow furrowed. "That's the thing. Lils, do you remember your parents?"

"Of course. Robin and Larry-"

"Their faces, Lils."

Lillian opened her mouth, then immediately shut it. Her curious expression turned to one of realization, then panic suffused with horror. "No, I... What...?"

"I don't remember his face if I'm not looking at the photo," Rayne said, crossing her arms tightly under the blanket. "I don't remember his voice anymore. I did at first, but... Every passing moment, it's harder to remember the times we shared. The bad, the good. Even while looking at the photos! And I just... I felt like I should have a good cry, while I still felt enough lingering emotion for him to do it."

Lillian felt as though her heart was caught in her throat. She swallowed, swallowed again, then wheezed as she tried to remember how to breathe. Rayne hurriedly wrapped her arms around Lillian's shoulder, squeezing tight in a hug that contained all her comfort and sympathy.

"We'll do everything we can to remember, them, okay?" Rayne whispered, her voice shaking with emotion. "Let's go wake Grey and Crystal, then we can all start writing stuff down. Alright?"

Nodding, Lillian clung desperately to Rayne's hand as they both hurried upstairs, rolling their respective siblings out of bed for an emergency meeting. Grey's horror was contrasted starkly by Crystal's numb nodding, as she apologized for not realizing it would happen. They dug into the boxes of personal belongings, finding some notebooks and pens, and sat together in the master bedrooms writing down everything they remembered about Earth and their loved ones until well into the next morning.

"On the one hand it's a mercy," Grey said sleepily, as he doodled another picture of his parents in the margins of his notebook. "So we won't be grieving our loss very long, I guess? But it still feels..."

"Wrong," Lillian mumbled, looking through her phone for a picture of her cat to use as a reference.

"It's not like the time was wasted," Rayne said, adding another bullet point to the list she was writing. "Our experiences shaped who we are whether we remember them or not. It does feel pretty crappy, though..."

"I wonder, will they forget us like this?" Lillian asked, unable to stop the words in her heart from escaping. Her hand paused above the page, the pen in her hand shaking violently. "Will they just... Slowly forget us? Or was it sudden and merciful? Because this... This is cruel."

"Cruelty implies intention," Crystal said softly, her voice shaking almost as much as Lillian's pen. "That... Thing. The Eater. It didn't have any malice, it was just hungry. But I dunno if that makes things better or worse..."

"I dunno man, you ever seen a cat catching prey? Pretty sure eating something alive has some inherent malice in it." Grey grumbled, trying to force his chicken scratch handwriting into something legible.

Crystal, who'd already given up on her own handwriting and embraced the chaotic glyphic nature of her lettering, nodded sagely in agreement. "That's true. I got the impression the Eater wasn't exactly sentient or sapient though. More like a force than a being, if that makes sense? Or maybe I just can't conceive of it, since that thing exists outside our dimensions of understanding."

"You say that so easily, do you even know how wild that whole statement was?"

"Do you even know how wild this whole situation is?"

"Look, we've passed absurdity at this point. Now I'm just down with whatever weirdness comes our way."

"We don't have to pay bills anymore," Rayne said slowly, staring at her paper. Her handwriting was the neatest by far, and she'd finished writing down most important events she could think of, but she kept having a nagging feeling she'd left something out so she kept reading the pages over and over hoping to trigger another memory. "We won't have to buy groceries unless there's things we want specifically that wasn't in our house to begin with. The electricity will never go out, damage to the property will be repaired, and even though we're in a new world with unknown levels of development and technology, we will never have to worry about toilet paper. In exchange for a very comfortable standard of living, we lost our connection to our home and families."

"Personally speaking I think it's fair," Crystal said with a scoff. "But that's because our family sucks so I'll be glad to forget them. All my most important people are here with me! I know Robin and Larry will take good care of all our cats, my exes all sucked, and my other friends will get along just fine without me. I don't have anyone to worry about, just regrets for stuff I never got to do. Like visiting the Grand Canyon, or going on a long cruise."

"I wanted to hike around Europe someday..." Rayne said wistfully.

"I wanted to vacation in the tropics. Or maybe Spain? For like, two years. With some hot guys and infinite fruity alcohols." Grey said, staring off into space with a dreamy look in his eyes.

"I wanted to be famous enough for us to visit the space station," Lillian sighed. Grey snorted, and everyone started laughing in a combination of absurdity and delirium from lack of sleep. They started listing everything they could think of, starting with shopping sprees and game show appearances, and ending with complex bank and casino heists to dismantle capitalism.

When Crystal started dozing off while sitting up, they all agreed to get some sleep for real. The notebooks were stacked lovingly on one of the end tables, which reminded Lillian to run downstairs and chug her long-forgotten cup of juice in the living room before trudging back upstairs into bed.

------

"We can't just stay in the house forever, right?" Grey muttered as he stared out the living room window later that night, curled up on the window seat with his knees hugged to his chest.

"Technically we could," Rayne said, drumming her fingers against the recliner arm as she waited for her laptop to boot. "Infinite food and basic supplies, stuff for our hobbies... We have our instruments, we have our computers and game consoles and several external drives worth of movies and books and music since you and Crystal obsessively insist on collecting or hoarding anything of interest for later use."

"Hey, hey." Grey wagged a finger and feigned an offended scowl. "Look at our situation. How bored would we be if the two of us didn't hoard everything? In fact, maybe our desire to hoard entertainment was preparing for this day!"

"Damn psychics always preparing for everything they couldn't possibly know about," Rayne muttered rebelliously, and Crystal laughed. She'd stretched out on half of the corner couch taking up an entire section of the living room by itself, looking cozy with a pile of blankets and her special edition Switch.

"It's only gonna get worse from here, Ray."

"Open your town, I need to sell my oranges," Lillian interrupted, nudging Crystal's feet from her spot on the other side of the corner couch.

"Alright, lemme finish making this waterfall first."

"Your villagers are never gonna have scurvy again for like, three generations."

"That many oranges? Isn't that a bit overkill?"

"If they don't want an entire island nation's agricultural sector's worth of citrus they should learn to adjust their economy for inflation."

"You know the shop is run by literal children, right?"

"It's good to learn early that nepotism leads to ruin. The business world is harsh and so am I."

Rayne chuckled at the sound of Lillian's low, malicious cackling, but her expression swiftly turned serious. "What do you mean it's gonna get worse, Coco?"

"All four of us have abilities for real, right? Being in this world is gonna make them grow exponentially, whether we try to train them or not. New ones will pop up too, or existing ones will change a little as they grow. Okay Lils, gate's open." Crystal spoke nonchalantly, but every word drained a bit more color from Rayne's face. Meanwhile, Grey turned away from the window with an excited glint in his eyes.

"So psychic powers can get real strong in this world?"

"Yeah. The impression I got when we were coming over was... Magic exists here, and it's something anyone can learn to use with practice. But abilities like ours, psychic powers? Those you have to be born with, and it's rare. That's about as much as I know about it though," Crystal sighed and shrugged.

"Can you list everything you know about our situation?" Rayne said, opening a new document on her computer and typing away with her nose inches from the laptop screen. "I wanna write it all down. I got the thing about our bonds and memories, and the house being indestructible-"

"It's not indestructible, just protected." Crystal seemed startled as soon as the words left her mouth, as though the information was somehow new. She furrowed her brow, nose wrinkling as she carefully examined her thought process. "I see, protected... Like a barrier, almost? It'll always rebuild itself and restock supplies overnight no matter what happens, even if it's all burnt to ash, but the property itself is also shielded unless we draw attention from a big threat."

"A big threat? Like what?"

"I don't know. Big animals like those Nessies on the beach yesterday. Or monsters like the Eater, maybe?"

"Monsters?!" Lillian sat up straight, pulling her feet under her body. "There's monsters!?"

"There's magic, why wouldn't there be monsters too?" Grey pointed out, but his twin just stuck her tongue out at him.

"It's just an assumption," Crystal hurriedly explained. "For my power to work, I'd have to come into contact with stuff related to what I want to know about in order to get more information, I can't just pull stuff out of the ether whenever I have questions!"

"Then how do you know what you know already?"

"Well, we were in contact with the house. The house is made with really powerful magic, so I learned magic exists, and that it was used to make the house echo and ensure our supplies remain the same. I think I also learned about the barrier then, but didn't think about it or really absorb the info cuz I was thinking about other things, so it only just popped up." Crystal shrugged and let out a half-hearted laugh.

"What about the Eater?"

"The Eater was menacing us directly and I looked at it so I was able to get some info on it and the bond-eating shenanigan, but not much else because it's way stronger than me, I think? And my power activated as soon as we started our... Transfer, I guess? Away from Earth. And you all were in the room with me, so I knew you all had powers as well as myself, got the basic gist of how mine work, and that we'd all get much stronger whether we wanted to or not. That's really about it for what I know. I told you it wasn't much."

"Why the house though?" Rayne muttered. "It just wanted to eat our bonds and it did that. So why did it drop us on another planet, and why give us this cushy house echo thing?"

Crystal shrugged again. "I honestly have no idea. I think I could know if I got a lot stronger, but... That won't be any time soon. I can tell there's a reason, though. I just dunno what."

"Maybe it's compensation?" Grey said, his expression hopeful.

"Or bait, like a beacon, so it can find us again..." Lillian whispered with a shiver, and everyone's faces fell. Seeing their reactions, she hurriedly straightened her spine and forced a smile to her face. "But it didn't hurt us, and we're all still together. Imagine if we'd been flung to different planets instead of staying together!"

"That'd really suck," Grey agreed. "So like, Crystal, your power activates if you come into contact with stuff?"

"I think so. I'd have to test it to get the hang of how things work, precisely."

Grey chuckled, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. His expression made the three women exchange worried glances, especially once he started rubbing his hands together like a two-bit cartoon villain. "Looks like we got ourselves an excuse to head to that town for some reconnaissance!"

"In the snow?" Rayne asked, raising her eyebrows.

"With only summer clothes in our wardrobes," Crystal pointed out.

"We wore hiking boots for the walk up here so that'd be fine, but the warmest clothes we have right now are..." Lillian trailed off, then suddenly doubled over and started giggling.

Realization dawned on the others soon after, and Rayne covered her face with her hands. "Oh no."

"Oh yes!" Grey hissed, pumping his fist into the air. "That'll make one heck of an entrance, wouldn't it?"

"Our music video costumes? In PUBLIC!?" Rayne wailed while the others laughed.

"That might not be what we want to do though," Crystal said after her moment of laughter had subsided. "We don't know what kind of world this is. If they'll be friendly to strangers, especially ones who can't speak their language - or any language on this world. They won't know English, you know."

"But do we really have a choice?" Lillian asked, putting down her console and staring up at the ceiling. "We don't know anything about this world. About magic, except that it exists. About the people. And hiding here in our safe cozy house will be fine short term, but what about long term? Are we gonna spend our whole lives holed up in here?"

"I, for one, embrace the forest witch hermit lifestyle," Grey said. "And I know Crystal does too."

"Sure do. Cottage life."

Rayne sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I don't wanna be caught completely off guard by whatever nonsense comes our way. We know it's winter, but we don't know what the other seasons are like yet. What if they have a raining magma and diamonds from the sky season? We can't apply Earth logic here! Or if we can, we don't know to what extent! There were dinosaurs on the beach!"

"That's a fair point. There were indeed dinosaurs on the beach. Counter points?"

"There were dinosaurs on the beach."

"A fair counter point as well. I do want to see the dinosaurs up close."

"From a safe distance."

"Up close from a safe distance, of course."

"Plus, we don't know what's gonna happen with our powers. You said they'll get stronger, what does that mean?"

"I don't know. More powers will manifest, I think? And the ones we have already will be more potent. But I don't know how potent, or what exactly will happen."

"Exactly! You psychically downloaded only a little info about our situation and it gave you a nasty seizure! Right?"

"Pretty much."

"So what if something worse happens? A big huge infodump? If you can't control your powers, or shut it off when needed or whatever, what if..." Rayne's shoulders sagged.

"What if I have a big seizure every time I use my powers now?" Crystal finished, a wry smile on her face. "Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Honestly, everything about our situation has me so terrified I've circled back around to just feeling numb about it all."

"That's a hell of a mood," Grey sighed, stretching out on the window seat and propping his feet up against the wall. "Everything's happening so much, am I right? It's hard to be freaked out about everything simultaneously. It's easier to just phase out of existence, mentally speaking."

"I... Have an idea."

Everyone turned to look at Lillian, who sat perched on the edge of the couch. She glanced at all their faces, then offered a shy smile.

"Well? What's your idea, sis?" Grey encouraged, when his sister kept fidgeting in place instead of finishing her thought.

"Well, those warmer clothes we have... They're our costumes, right? And Crystal said we dunno how people would react to that sort of outfit, or to strangers in general, but what if... I mean... We have our instruments? What if... We pretended to be minstrels?"

[ticklish-m]

hey how do you like gas prices? do you work? does it bother you people crossing the borders get free healthcare and aren't tested for Corona while tax payers get stuck paying for them all? how about the lie saying stimulus money won't raise out taxes. but it's raising them. how about that stimulus money was taxpayer money that we've already been taxes on....now they are taxing again??? glad you are happy with the new president

you and your political views are as lame as the language you use in those political opinions of yours!!! when you move outta mommy and daddy's house maybe you'll have different views!! but for now shut your fucking mouth unless you know what you are talking about!!!!

You fucked with the wrong bitch today.

Let’s break this down question by question:

How do I like gas prices? Well yeah I think they’re pretty high right now. But it doesn’t help that there were idiots who decided to hoard a shit ton of gas just like they did toilet paper at the beginning of this pandemic. The less supply we have of something, the more expensive it’s going to be. It’s simple supply and demand, ya know the shit we learned in elementary school?? And if you think I’m going to blame Biden for this, you’re sadly mistaken. See, the president doesn’t control gas prices, he never has. If you would like to read about why gas prices are rising and why is definitely not ANY presidents fault, here: https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/mar/02/are-gas-prices-going-and-it-joe-bidens-fault/

Do I work?? Yes, I do work. I have to drive an hour to and from my job that only pays $9 and hour. Keep that in mind for later questions.

Does it bother me people crossing the borders get free healthcare and aren't tested for Corona while tax payers get stuck paying for them all? No it doesn’t bother me. I believe that universal health care is a right for ALL people. As President Biden has said, “I think that anyone who is in a situation where they are in need of health care regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see to that they're cared for.” (Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5485242002) What kind of person looks at an undocumented immigrant who is ill and thinks they don’t deserve to have health insurance? That’s right, an asshole one. As ass for the corona virus comment, Biden has actually not stopped COVID-19 testing at the border. (Source: https://www.factcheck.org/2021/02/biden-hasnt-reduced-covid-19-testing-at-the-border/) The claim that was made said that Biden was releasing detained immigrants without COVID-19 testing, is in fact false. So maybe double check google first before spreading lies?

[Does it bother me] how about the lie saying stimulus money won't raise out taxes. but it's raising them. I’m assuming you’re talking about Biden’s $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan?? Please correct me if I assumed wrong. Let’s see, it’s going to raise corporate tax rates (so companies, ok), and individual tax rates for high earners (I wonder what he considers a high earner?). The corporate tax rate will probably increase from 21% to 28%. While the individual income tax rate will increase for people earning more than $400,000 per year, and raising the capital gains tax for people earning more that $1 million per year. (Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2021/03/15/biden-gears-up-for-new-tax-hikes-to-pay-for-more-stimulus-heres-what-we-know/amp/) So this sounds like people who earn more, get taxes more. While people who earn less, get taxed less. So if you fall into one of these categories, which I feel is highly unlikely, then you have enough money to pay for the raise in tax. If you don’t fall into any of these categories, shut the fuck up and quit complaining.

[Does it bother me] how about that stimulus money was taxpayer money that we've already been taxes on....now they are taxing again??? Wow if you google “is the stimulus taxable” guess what pops up first? This: ““None of the stimulus payments are taxable." The IRS already has records of the stimulus checks in its system, so taxpayers who are certain that they received the stimulus payments they were due don't have to take any additional action” (Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/04/13/how-stimulus-checks-will-affect-your-2020-taxes.html) In fact, this says that people are making the mistake as putting the stimulus check AS INCOME which then makes it taxable. The IRS could eventually issue a refund for your mistake but there is no guarantee the IRS will catch this mistake. So do your homework before coming at me.

Now I am not completely happy with Biden. Joe Biden is a human being, he makes mistakes. Some of which he needs to be held accountable for. It is my duty as an American who voted for him, to watch him under a microscope and make sure that no one tries to treat him as some God.

However, he is actually supporting a lot of movements which makes him look good. He spoke against police brutality, and supports the Black Lives Matter movement. Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/4876710001 However, there have been allegations against him in the Me Too movement. There hasn’t been any investigation into this allegation so I am still very wary about President Biden. If there was an investigation and he did end up doing that to her, he should be prosecuted, just like Trump should be. But if he didn’t, then I believe there should be an investigation into the woman who accused him and why she would lie.

“when you move outta mommy and daddy's house maybe you'll have different views!!” First of all, you don’t know me. You don’t know who I am, where I live, who I live with, anything. You know nothing. But here, let me tell you a bit about myself even though you don’t deserve it. My mother and father split when I was 5 years old. Since then my father had barely anything to do with me. In fact, he passed away this year because of Stage 4 lung cancer and having strokes every week. Did he want me in his life when he found out he was dying? No. Did i get notified when he died? Also no, i found out through my brother. So technically, I never lived under my dads home nor used his dirty money. As for my mom. She is a strong, independent woman. But because of COVID, she lost her job. So she has been using the money that her sister left her when she died, to pay for food and bills. So the stimulus checks definitely help us, along with many other people. And I also help with food and bills where I can with my $9 an hour paycheck that I get once a month. So even when I do move out, my views are not going to change.

“but for now shut your fucking mouth unless you know what you are talking about!!!!” How about you suck my fucking dildo you piece of shit. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve done the research throughout the years. I’ve seen the world and been involved in protests. I’ve stood in front of people of color during these protests because I know the privilege I have. So how about you shut your fucking mouth, because you definitely don’t know what you’re talking about and who the hell you’re talking to. If you want to start more shit, my DMs are always open.

And if you want to know the color of the dildo you’ll be sucking, it’s purple, bitch.

-M 🖕🏼🤣

[hamliet]

Hello! Have you seen TROS yet? [Spoiler alert] I was really devastated by the ending - coming out the theater feeling upset and disappointed. Do you have any thoughts on it? Or maybe any plan to write fix-it fic? Thank you!

I am seeing it tomorrow. That said, I’ve read the plot summary, and no good execution can save that. So I was planning on posting this after I watched it with amendments made as I hope to enjoy it, but I’ll just post it now and amend this as necessary based on the film as I see it. (I still believe I will enjoy the film, even if I don’t think it’s a good film. I do think that. I really do... I hope.)

BASED ON THE PLOT SUMMARIES ALONE (grains of salt everywhere!): 

I think it’s technically… messy writing at best and downright bad writing in other parts.* 10/10 it’s a blockuster-y, JJ Abrams-esque, (hopefully) fun, messy narrative movie that will be forgotten in 0.3 seconds.

Disclaimer before everyone comes after me: if you like it, AWESOME. If you think it’s good writing, great! Good writing and bad writing are inherently subjective; that said, there are general consensuses among literary studies about what constitutes bad and good writing. Hence, I’m relying on those consensuses when I call it messily written.

Before we get into specifics, I’ll compare it to two other major pop culture endings: Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame.

TROS is similar to the GoT final season in that it attempts to incorporate every aspect of fan speculation ever. However, it’s more like Endgame in that it is still somewhat true to the themes and characters—but unfortunately also like Endgame, it is not transformative or particularly interesting as a story on its own. In fact, it’s rather boring and honestly… bad storytelling. It tries to rehash Return of the Jedi but it doesn’t succeed in any way because the world and the overall story has grown since the early 1980s, and so the same story doesn’t work anymore.

Showing a cyclical story remaining cyclical with no sign of that breaking–instead, the cycles are even reinforced–does not give optimism nor does it give hope.

Redemption=death needs to die already. If we really want to reach people and tell them that the message is that you can always make a better choice (as Daisy Ridley and JJ Abrams have said about Kylo’s arc), maybe don’t send the message in each and every story that you have to die to redeem yourself. Look outside of cultural secular Calvinism, for the love of God and the betterment of the world and stories as a whole.

Now let’s talk Rey’s parentage.

We know Rey Palpatine wasn’t planned from the beginning (Trevorrow, the original write/director of IX, who was thankfully fired, said that he never planned for Palpatine to return), which means Rey’s parentage was most likely retconned from TLJ and there was no real plan for the sequel trilogy’s overall character arcs (save for Kylo’s, according to the actors and writers).

Listen to me. You don’t have to have everything planned when you start a three-film saga, but you gotta know the major beats.

This is like a sad game of movie telephone. 

Yes, I know the OT Star Wars didn’t have a plan either and it’s like one of the only examples I can think of where no plan worked out–albeit not without hiccups (Leia kissing Luke, anyone?) If you expect lightning to strike twice in the same place, I’m sorry, but you are hopelessly naive.

Having Rey decide she wants to carry on the name Skywalker at the end is lame as shit. It’s a way to appease fans while being like nah she still isn’t related. Trying to please every fan is a sure way to guarantee that you will please no one. It might make for a perfectly pleasant film experience (I really hope it does), but not good, lasting storytelling (though not like, horrific either). It’s meh. It’s like… giving someone who is starving oatmeal. It will get the job done but will it satisfy and enthrall people? Not quite.

And let’s switch gears for a minute to Finn and Rose, my first and third favorite characters in this trilogy (Kylo is second, Rey is fourth). The sidelining of Rose is nothing short of a terrible attempt to please the white-supremacist-aligned Fandom Menace. Let’s not pretend it’s anything else. JJ’s lipservice about how wonderful it was that Kelly was cast at SW Celebration is, in hindsight, absolutely nauseating.

Shame on JJ. Shame on Disney.

But the main problem I have with this film is this:

Why did it need to exist?

The answer is money. Obviously. I know, I know stories exist to make money. That doesn’t mean I can’t criticize the fact that the story was sacrificed on the unholy altar of capitalism and Disney’s desire to own our souls. (Disney–the reason I like your movies is that a lot of them are good stories. I’m not interested in pandering soooooo.)

The Rise of Skywalker does not enhance the Star Wars narrative. Nothing about this film satisfies the Skywalker Saga nor the sequel trilogy, and it kind of all comes down to Kylo Ren’s death being the nail that sunk the entire world of Star Wars.

Keep in mind Kylo is not my favorite character when I’m saying this. Finn is. But I never spoke about Finn as much because the story didn’t utilize him properly. I never had concerns about Finn getting a happy ending while I was worried for Rey and Kylo’s arcs. (Finn’s arc, however, did have a ton more potential than was capitalized on; in particular, he would have been better if he was more conflicted over say, shooting other stormtroopers. His whole character humanized the usual red shirts, which when paired with Rose’s everywoman character, had so much potential I could shriek about it all day. That he didn’t lead other brainwashed stormtroopers into rebellion and freedom saddens me. Also, his ending again seems to bring about a good victim/bad victim dichotomy when it is compared with Kylo’s. The reason these two are my faves is that they were brainwashed as kids which, well, I can kinda sorta heavily relate to.)

Kylo Ren and Rey’s relationship doesn’t really get much better than it did in The Last Jedi. It actually rehashes that arc significantly. We already knew Kylo would fight for Rey and the galaxy, so… how was this different? Now, if he had lived, it would have been different, because it was the after the fight that proved that Kylo wasn’t ready to redeem himself in The Last Jedi. It was Kylo’s choice to stay at the expense of Rey and the Resistance that was literally the set up for conflict in the next film. This… turned it into nothing? Their conflict is rehashed and then whoo-hoo! Easy way out! Kill him so that they don’t have to deal with the “after” this time! They never have to deal with the conflict literally set up in The Last Jedi.

That’s bad writing, fam.

Life is infinitely more interesting. Leaving the story open with a living Skywalker instead of killing literally everyone involved with the Skywalkers except Rey who now adopts that name is… so unsatisfying I can’t even. Even if later material shows him showing up as a Force Ghost, like: cool saw that with Vader so this… adds nothing to the existing films. It doesn’t really reconcile anything.

It also… does not help the Rey=Mary Sue argument. She is NOT a Mary Sue, and that is a sexist term itself, but in no way is it a satisfying ending to her arc, because it isn’t a well-written ending which means it isn’t a well-written arc. The problem with Rey’s ending is a mirror of my problem with Kylo’s ending: it’s the very much a combination of her ending in The Last Jedi and her life before The Force Awakens.

She and Kylo are now separated (permanently this time).

She’s has her Resistance friends.

She’s alone on a desert planet.

But wait! Now she’s now happy!

Uh, why? The only reason I can think of is that the narrative demands it. Because honestly, what changes? The family she chose–the Skywalkers–are just as dead as her Palpatine birth family, soooooo. I suppose she reconciled with her heritage and come to peace with it and so that’s why she’s happy now, but… I can’t lie. It’s not hopeful. It’s not optimistic. It’s not Star Wars and it isn’t consistent for the message (especially if this is supposed to be the ending to the saga!) to be both:

life sucks for the Skywalkers and then they die–seriously, look at Shmi, Anakin, Padmé, Leia, Luke, Han, Kylo–it is LITERALLY ALL OF THEM; and

deciding to be a Skywalker means you’re at peace.

I can only assume Rey’s life will suck and then she’ll die, tbh, unless of course she is better off because of her blood… which negates the point of her being a Skywalker and is a really gross idea.

YOU CAN’T HAVE BOTH IN YOUR ENDING. PICK ONE.

Rejecting the Skywalkers would be anti-Star Wars, for sure, but marrying into them as a way of bridging the unfinished pain between Anakin and Padmé and Leia and her father? Much better. Or just leave it open. Honestly, leave it open for Kylo and Rey to both be alive and see each other again.

But you’re just upset your ship didn’t get a happy ending!

No, I’m upset about the storytelling, of which shipping is a part. A canonical part just as much as the lightsaber fights are. Anakin and Padmé. Leia and Han. Finn and Rose. Poe and Zorii. Rey and Ben.

The Force created Anakin, remember? All films–even the spin-offs–encourage our heroes to trust the force. “May the force be with us.” But the Force created an ENTIRE FAMILY THAT LIVED LIVES THAT SUCKED AND MADE LIFE SUCK FOR EVERYONE AROUND THEM AND THEN THEY DIED.

May the Force stay far the f*ck away from me, amen.

But seriously I can’t trust the world of a galaxy far far away or its narrative anymore. It’s a contradiction that causes all nine films to unravel. Why?

Again, let’s return to my earlier GoT comparison, because there is one thing TROS does that is more similar to GoT than to Endgame: Endgame drew together a bunch of unique distinctly separate stories into a crossover. TROS, just like GoT, relied on cliffhanger, incomplete endings to its films and therefore the ending matters a hell of a lot more than a stand-alone story.

I’m not dying to rewatch it like I am with stories where I realize I might learn more the second time. And by “rewatch it” I mean the entire nine-film saga. Knowing that canonically Leia, Luke, Han–they all die and their last descendent dies, the last descendent of Padmé and Anakin–for me, it’s personally gonna be hard to watch again. It’s gonna be hard to watch TROS going into it the first time.

And so the saga of bad endings continues.

Game of Thrones remains the worst at a -100 out of 10. It’s followed by Tokyo Ghoul:re which is still 2/10, and Star Wars is, on paper (meaning after I see it I am hoping it rises a few notches) now… 4/10. Endgame is a solid 6.5/10.

Banana Fish, sweetie, I’m sorry you were ranked down there. Your ending is a 7/10 but the rest of your story is like, 10/10 so you are sprung from this list.

Help me, Shingeki no Kyojin. You’re my only hope.

[struwwelzeter]

Why do you think Richard would be a nightmare client please? And do you think Till would be one too?

Oh, because he’s hands down the person that goes «It doesn’t feel right, this is not what I asked for ☹️» and then can’t tell me why in a way that I can fix it.

So, I’m gonna elaborate on that because it does tie into the Zoran thing and I am in the mood to blab about my work. Sorry, this got long. I’m a graphic designer/art director, aka the person that makes logos and designs event posters and such. I mainly work in culture (museums/exhibitions) at the moment, but I have done a few record packagings in the past and musicians generally are the worst clients, followed only by painters/sculpturers/other artiststs. It’s understandable and not really their fault and they are precious babies that need to be protected at all costs, but oh man.

The thing is, someone who just poured their heart and soul and failed relationships and personal nightmares into a record for the past 5 years and now needs a cover for it has a completely different level of investment into how things should be than let’s say a dentist who needs a new logo. They often have a very, very strong idea about how things should be but can’t at all articulate it because it’s so deep set into their soul and if they could articulate it they wouldn’t be coming to me in the first place, they’d just do it themselves. We all know Richie is a little control freak that needs things to be just so, and that’s just a very tough crowd to please because a design school education doesn’t come with a manual on how to read minds, particularly ones that don’t even know what they want.

If someone like that comes to me, I know I’ll be working unpaid overtime. I’d always make sure to give him a few extra (small, like a changed font or different color) variants even if that’s not part of the agreed upon comission (usually I’d bill more the more variants I offer to choose from) to reassure him there’s still alot of options we haven’t tried yet and to make him feel in control and show that I’ll try whatever I can to make it right. I’d try to talk to him more than other clients and get him to talk about stuff he visually likes more to get an idea about what exactly he means if he says stuff like «I want it to look clean» because surprise, surprise, not everyone means the same when they say that they just think they do. I’d probably make more time for revisions because we’ll need them, I’d have him come over for an afternoon and work with him live, infront of my monitor to test different things and see what speaks to him.

This is broad generalisation, but: The thing is, if I have an investment banker come in and ask for all that extra service, I’d be able to bill every last second of that and the dude wouldn’t feel ripped off. With artists you can’t do that. They’re used to creativity being something you can’t measure that way, they’re used to work themselves with very little monetary compensation for what they do (even someone as successful as Richard feels that. There is interview evidence.) They will feel like things become morally compromised when every tiny little thing I do becomes a question of budget first. They’ll feel taken advantage off alot quicker. That’s why especially with clients like this, you respect budgets out of principle. Mainly because the average musician or photographer isn’t a multi platinum selling big shot, but also because they’re sensitive about it morally. Being a designer is weird because artist people will see you as one of them, and business people will too, and you better be able to wear both hats. In other words, with artists, as a general blanket statement, I’ll take alot more shit and a lot less pay to get to the end of it if I want the thing to work out. That’s the nightmare part because walking on eggshells isn’t fun.

The fun bit is the part where you manage to bring someone’s heart out in the open and make it visible. One of my first paied projects was an editorial piece for a fashion designer. It was everything I described above, but when we nailed it she sat crying next to my desk. You can’t measure that shit in money anyway. I remember Richard saying in an interview that the title A Million Degrees came up while he was working with the graphic designer on it, and that, that right there is what you’re shooting for. You’ll want to help someone express themselves. It’s beautiful, pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. AMD was designed by Dirk Rudolph, one of the indusyry greats and who’s worked with him for years. I’m not surprised it worked out that way.

The point is, offering creative work as a service takes a truckload of empathy. Nobody talks about this when you start art school, but it’s one of the most empathetic and human connection based professions out there if you want to do it really well. You need to know and understand who you’re working with. The job is to make somone elses vision look it’s absolute best and shine and speak to the people it’s intended to speak to in the way the creator has invisioned it. That’s a big, big ask. You’re always translating in languages only one person speaks.

The problem is, that most of the people who became creators are pushed into offering it as a service for monetary/capitalism reasons and they want their own ego in it too because they never signed up for this shit where you give up your own vision and make it all about someone elses. It sucks and it’s unfair, because someone like Zoran would be worlds better and happier if he could just do whatever he pleases. He can’t tho, because he’s selling a service, and someone who buys a service expects a service. And that’s the part that always leads to problems, unless the chemistry works out really well. It bothers me a little when I see it happen like that tho. Because he basically says «forget about what we agreed, here’s MY thing.» and that’s just ... I don’t know, it’s just very much against my own work ethic I guess.

As far as Till goes, I think he’s pretty excitable and easy to please because he’ll just enjoy seeing it come to life. I also think that with someone like Zoran who he considers a friend he’ll be “whatever” about money, because he can afford it and probably doesn’t feel it’s worth quarreling over. Freedom, etc. Lucky as hell landing a client like that.

[mistikapoetry]

A Mirror of The Way

I was never particularly in love with my job. It just paid the bills. I did not enjoy being a cork in the machinery of the corporate world. Waking up every morning to check my emails. Logging in the court orders for all the employees who would now see less of their paychecks because a company they owed money to now decided to garnish their wages. Sifting through document after document to make sure another company got no more, and no less than what the court allowed in a subpoena order. Pouring over a new contract for a word that could cost the company a few hundred thousand dollars, should the designated person sign on the designated line. Calling one Union representative after another to let them know when their respective unionized employees would see the extra cents they bargained for with their nails and teeth. Reading union contract after union contract and translating it into numbers the company could tuck away into its pockets to push more and more people out of unions. Soul-sucking work for a self-proclaimed democratic socialist like myself. But it paid the bills.

When COVID-19 hit Wuhan, the Chinese government quickly locked down the city, sterilized the streets, and stabilized its stocks market. The U.S. did not. A few weeks after working from home became the new norm, I watched the stock market fall into shambles, and I knew it was a matter of time before another recession unfolded. Hundreds of thousands of industries were not equipped to work remotely, and others relied on daily profit. Not to mention the fact that service industries, such as beauty, production, and food markets would see a huge decline in their income, not only because their mode of operation had drastically changed, but also because in times of crises it is human nature to want to save and cut spending on what are considered “luxury items”. Things that could wait until the clouds of the storm have passed.

I was trying to take a nap at noon when the email came. “Shahd,” my boss wrote, “due to the current economic instability our departments have been asked to take quick action. You will be laid off effective March 31st to May 1st... You will continue to receive company benefits and healthcare”. I had received a message a few minutes prior from my manager asking how I was “holding up”. I replied “meh”, turned off my screen and went back to sleep. In an hour I woke up to finish my work. My manager had texted a heartfelt apology saying she was not aware the company was doing this and that she hoped they could get me back as soon as possible. I thanked her, responded to emails, logged in court orders, supported my colleagues, and replied to my boss “I understand, thanks”. After the day was over and done with, I turned out the lights, went back to bed, held myself, and cried. It is a terrible thing to feel so dispensable. A terrible thing to be pitied. I knew I was not going to die of starvation. I knew I would not lose my home. I had no children to support. I really had no reason to feel this bad. I had enough experience to find another job, should I want to skip the wait. But I did. I felt terrible. And small. I had not been “unemployed” since I was seventeen. I did not know what it meant to not to be working for too long. Even as I was a young high school student, with no responsibility for anyone but myself, and no bills owed but to my next meal out with friends… I had a job. I paid taxes. I identified as someone who earned an income. And perhaps realizing that, at that moment, was the most painful reckoning yet. I had become my worst nightmare. I was my job. The same job I hated. I had become nothing more than my paycheck. So, I cried. I cried because I had been furloughed. I cried because I felt this bad for being furloughed. I cried when my mother, my brother, my sisters, and my father came and tried to comfort me. I cried when they offered to help, because I had always been the one to split my last $10, or take another job behind my parents’ backs, just to help my siblings pocket some change. When times got tough, I got tougher. I found a way… I sold something… I covered the bills… I bailed my family out… But now I cried…

When I was a young girl of nineteen, in my third year of college, I remember vowing to my friend over the phone, that I would not yield my neck to the chains of capitalism. I was a fierce fire that ate everything that opposed it back then. I had a straight spine, a loud voice, and a sharp mind. I was also very young and naïve. Once I graduated, I was perhaps going to take a job that made some good money, just to pay the bills, and then I was going to claim my destiny. This is what I told myself. But as time passed, I realized that there was no way to get through capitalism but to go through it. To walk through its burning flames with all your open skin. There is no way to poke at the bear from the sidelines, when you owe the bear debt in the form of student loans. You will have to dance with the devil if you want to become anything, if you want to save anything… least of all yourself. This is what that young girl of nineteen did not know. This is what the virus has taught me. The worst thing that can happen is not losing the race, it is losing yourself in the race.

In the days that followed, I was able to take a good look at myself. At my LSAT books, at all my dreams and aspirations. At the life I had told myself I wanted; and to tell myself— here, the worst has happened. Everything you have ever feared has barged into your home and laid claim to your life. Now what? There is nothing left to hide behind, so who do you want to become? I would be lying if I said this was a liberating experience. I still cling on to the expectations that I have worked towards for so long. Expectations that I’ve held before my eyes for so long that I’ve forgotten if they are what I want for myself or what people have always wanted for me. None of this is easy, and none of it will ever be. When we are young, we are in a hurry to grow up because we assume that with age, we will gain freedom. And perhaps this is true. But it is the nativity of youth that leads us to presume that freedom is a borderless terrain of happiness. When we are in college, we live out some of the best days of our lives. But it is not enough. Our present is lived in the future. We live out our days planning for what we will do when we graduate— what form of our unchained selves will we become once we receive that piece of paper that says we are now students of life? It is only a matter of time until we realize there was nothing worth rushing to. Life is a lousy teacher. It does not leave notes on our test paper to let us know how we can get better scores next time. It is an uphill battle, and when we tire, we sit on our knees in the middle of the path and turn the mirrors away. We do not want to see how disheveled life has made us. How unlike ourselves we’ve become, as we climb towards who we think we are destined to be. This is the hardest truth to swallow, so some of us walk through life spitting constantly. Becoming whatever the path wills us to be. A mirror of the way. Unless…

[alittlelessalone]

Backsliding - a Winston Billions fanfiction

Characters: Winston and Taylor

For some reason, I can’t post links on tumblr and still have the tags work, so I just decided to post this here. It’s also on ao3 if it’s easier to read there (the fic’s name is the same and I’m ArabellaTurner).

Also, Winston doesn’t have a last name, so I gave him one. Make what you want of it, but don’t feel the need to read into it unless you want to. Anyways, here we go:

Taylor rubbed the back of their neck and sighed. It had been a long day and they were happy to finally be heading home. Ever since they had joined back up with Axe Capital, Taylor’s days seemed to just be one headache after another.

Today had been worse than most. With every day Taylor continued their charade of being allies with Axe, they could feel his grip tightening just a little bit more around them. Yet it was still too soon to betray him. There were still too many moving pieces and unknowns.

As Taylor made their way through the desolate office, they were relieved at least that everyone else seemed to have gone home already. Lauren had offered to wait up, but Taylor had sent her home a few hours earlier. There was no reason why she had to sit around waiting just for Taylor’s sake.

Taylor was immensely grateful for the support, but they were not going to ask too much of their employees anymore. They had dragged everyone unfairly into battle before and this time they planned on being more careful.

Lost in their thoughts, Taylor almost missed the dim light coming from the southern stairwell. Those stairs lead down to the the quant work area, or quant dungeon as they knew Winston had taken to calling it.

Taylor frowned at the electricity wastage. Winston usually knew better than to leave the lights on when he left. Although Winston did have Math Meetup on Thursdays, so perhaps he wasn’t the last one out that day.

Taylor made their way over to the stairwell to turn the lights off, but froze when they heard noises coming from below. There was no way that anyone was still down there, was there?

Taylor squared up their shoulders before heading downstairs. It would not do to show any signs of fear, especially in their own office.

“Hello?” they called out. “Is someone down there?” They were greeted in response by a startled yelp.

“Winston?” Taylor asked, recognizing the voice and heading down the stairs. “Shit. You scared me. I guess I sort of got into the zone and lost track of the time,” Winston responded.

He stood up to greet Taylor as they got to the bottom of the steps. “What are you still doing here at...” Winston paused to look at the clock on his computer.

“Holy shit. What are you still doing here at 1:30am?” Winston asked, looking at Taylor with concern.

“I was taking care of some things,” Taylor responded vaguely. “Why are you still here?” they countered. “I was coding,” Winston responded, a little defensively.

Taylor made a mental note of Winston’s tone as they gave him a once over. He looked tired and defeated. “Don’t you have Math Meetup on Thursdays?” Taylor asked gently. Winston shook his head.

“Not anymore,” he replied miserably. He slumped back into his chair and stared dejectedly up at the ceiling.

Taylor frowned slightly. “What happened?” they asked. Winston sighed. “Well, you know how I’m an asshole?” he began. Taylor felt the corners of their mouth twitch, but refused to smile and Winston’s self deprecating comments.

“I know how you can be somewhat abrasive,” they replied diplomatically. Winston let out a slight chuckle at this. “Yeah, well, apparently they don’t want ‘abrasive’ people there,” he admitted.

Any degree of amusement Taylor was feeling before instantly disappeared. They though back to how Winston’s eyes lit up whenever he talked about Math Meetup. It was clearly something that meant a lot to him. Losing it like this was surely a painful blow.

Taylor stared at Winston’s sad eyes for a moment before making a decision. They quickly grabbed a chair and sat down next to him. “Did I ever tell you about my times as a child poker star?” they asked. Winston shook his head.

“Well, back when I was younger, I discovered the world of online poker. It was an amazing experience, really. I was just a kid, but I was already playing against and beating adults at that point. And I won quite a bit of money too. I felt like I ruled the world.

Only my rein was short lived. Eventually the other players grew tired of my success and rebelled. They kicked me out of the server and refused to let me back in. And even if I made a new account and pretended to be a different person, it was clearly only a matter of time before that one was banned as well.

They took something that I, just a kid at the time, loved and ripped it away from me. And even today it still hurts to think about,” Taylor concluded, their face more open and vulnerable than they had intended to get.

Winston blinked in surprise and let out a small exhale of breath. “Shit. That sucks ass,” he responded. Despite it all, Taylor felt the corners of their mouth twitched up again as they let out a slight chuckle.

“Yes,” they replied. “It does, as you so elegantly put it, suck ass. It really turned me off from the whole concept of poker for a long time. In fact, it wasn’t until Axe signed me up for the poker tournament that I was willing to play again. It was one of the few positive impacts that man has had on my life.”

Winston cocked his head and smiled at his boss. “So you’re saying that I shouldn’t let being kicked out of Math Meetup stop me from doing what I love?” he asked.

Taylor only raised an eyebrow mysteriously. “I’m simply telling you a tale about myself. What you take away from it is up to you,” they replied.

Winston stared at them for a second, then suddenly started to laugh. He continued to laugh until tears streamed down his cheeks. Only the tears continued even as the laughter died away.

“It was the one place I felt I truly belonged,” Winston admitted. “It wasn’t just about the math or the code. I felt like I had friends there. I saw those people all the time. Sometimes we would all even order food in during the meetup and eat together. Do you know how many other people willing eat together with me?”

Winston stared sadly at Taylor. “Without Math Meetup, what do I still have? All I’m good at is math, programming, and making stupid and inappropriate comments. I just lost the people who accepted me for the first two because of the third.

I feel like I’m backsliding so far. I promised I would become a better person, but here I am, months later, and nothing has changed. I’m still the same asshole I always was, only now I have less to show for it. If my skills can’t outshine my shitty personality, then what hope do I have for my future?”

Taylor stared at the sobbing boy for a few seconds before holding out their arms to him. Winston paused for a moment before realizing what Taylor was offering and sinking into them.

Taylor winced a little at the warm, wet form collapsing into their chest, but wrapped their arms around him regardless.

“You still have us, you know,” Taylor said gently. “You asked what you still have, and you still have this. You are an important part of the team here at Mase Cap and that’s not about to change.”

“But only because you don’t care about my personality,” Winston protested. “You are willing to overlook flaws in exchange for skill, but what if the other employees eventually can’t? I’ve already driven people away. What if I keep making that mistake?”

Taylor felt a small pang in their chest and let their arms wrap a little tighter around Winston’s body. “You’re wrong about that,” they admitted. “I didn’t hire you despite your personality at all. Your personality was one of your selling points.”

Winston sat up in surprise. “What?” he asked in confusion. “But you rejected me because of it! Then you only offered to let me try again if I stopped being such a piece of shit. And you only let my backsliding slide because my algorithm was so good.”

Taylor shook their head. “I reached out to you because I needed someone with passion and drive. I needed someone who was able to take risks and wasn’t afraid to challenge me. You were always so much more than just your code.”

Winston felt his body start to tremble. Was he really more to Taylor than just some extremely talented code monkey?

“Just recently you helped me realize how dangerous the path I was walking truly was. I lost sight of my goals, my values, and myself, but you helped guide me back. And sure, you were a little self-centered and abrasive in your words, but your anger was well-founded. And only you had the courage and passion to take me on.

There is a reason why you come to all my executive meetings and it isn’t because of your code. You are a valuable part of this company. You, Winston Kleinman, are the resource I was after when I hired you, the incredible code you produce is just a side effect.

And I’m sorry if you never realized that. It was my job to make you feel welcome and I guess I failed to do that.” Taylor looked around at the quant room. It was easy to see why Winston called it a dungeon.

“And you are important to me. Me, personally. Even if you were not my valuable employee, you would still be my friend,” Taylor concluded. Their body grew a little more rigid now that the words were out there. These were not words easily uttered, but they were completely true.

For his part, Winston was in a daze. He honestly couldn’t believe his ears, but he know better than to ask Taylor to repeat themselves. These were midnight words, he determined. They were the sort of words that were only uttered late at night while alone together in a windowless room.

Yet they caused Winston’s heart to swell. He had a friend. There was somewhere where he belonged, somewhere where he was wanted.

“Thank you,” he whispered. There was nothing else he could think to say. Taylor simply patted him awkwardly on the back.

Winston got up and moved back to his own chair. Taylor’s arms were a warm and safe place, but he didn’t want to overstay his welcome.

The pair stared at each other in silence for a few minutes. The tears in Winston’s eyes had dried up and the pain had faded from his eyes, but there was still uncertainty and fear there.

“Have you eaten?” Taylor finally asked, breaking the silence. Winston’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “I completely forgot to,” he admitted.

“There’s not much open at this hour,” Taylor continued, but there is a 24 hour diner not too far away from here. They have some decent enough vegan options there and you could use something in your system. Want to join me for a late night meal?”

Winston was once again rendered speechless, but as Taylor stood up and held out a hand, Winston found himself taking it. Wordlessly, he followed Taylor up the stairs, absentmindedly flicking the light off as he climbed the last one.

“I thought you always turned that off when you left,” Taylor remarked when they noticed Winston’s actions. “What?” Winston asked, startled a little by Taylor’s voice suddenly filling the air. “I almost without you left earlier,” Taylor explained. “But I saw the light was on and wanted to see what was going on. I’m glad I did.”

Winston felt his cheeks grow warm. He had thought that Taylor’s compliments would be limited to the confines of the quant dungeon, but they were on the main floor now.

“I’m glad you did too,” Winston agreed. “You should look for a new programming group to join,” Taylor suggested. “I’m sure there are plenty of others out there.” Winston nodded reluctantly. He knew that Taylor was right, but he was still scared.

“Once you find it, let me know the meeting dates. Then we can plan our dinners around them,” Taylor concluded, a smile once again tugging at the corners of their mouth.

Winston nearly tripped on a desk. “Our dinners?” he inquired. Taylor nodded. “You implied earlier that you wanted to eat dinner with friends from time to time, so I thought you might want to grab a bite with me sometimes after work. If I’m wrong then...”

Winston shook his head empathetically, cutting Taylor off. “I would love to grab dinner with you,” he assured them. “I’m just still getting over the fact that you want to spend time with me outside work.”

“Well, I do,” Taylor replied. “And I bet others do too. Have a little bit more faith in yourself, okay. Backsliding isn’t just about how you treat others. Treat yourself kindly too.”

Winston nodded. The tears were back in the corners of his eyes, but this time they weren’t from sadness. “Okay,” he agreed. “No more backsliding. This time I’m going to get it right. Just you watch! Winston Kleinman is ready to face the world! Nothing can stop him now!”

As his excitement grew, so too did the volume of Winston’s words. On the last ones, he jumped in the air, pumping his fists. And Taylor couldn’t help themselves. They laughed, bright and clear. And then Winston laughed too. The entire ride down the elevator was filled with the joyous sound.

And as they stepped into the cool night air, Taylor realized they weren’t stressed anymore. Their problems had not gone away, but they seemed so much smaller in the moment.

Taylor shot a quick text to Lauren informing her that they had left the office and were going to grab a bite before heading home. They then slipped the phone back into their pocket and turned back to Winston.

“Shall we?” they asked. Winston nodded and grinned. “We shall,” he replied. He then jumped up once more and did another fist pump. “Lead the way, my friend!” he declared, enjoying the sound of his voice echoing throughout the city. And with another smile, Taylor did.

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

How does middle/high school work, what's it like and what's the difference between the two? I really need some help! (I know this is a weird question but I was homeschooled most of my life so I have no idea how middle/high school work and what's it like.)

No problem!

How to Write About Middle School/High Schools

Middle school and high school are key times within a child’s life.

Gone are the days where they only had one teacher to tell them everything; now they have to change classes and have harder content that they have to study.

There’s more friend drama now that they’re all developing their own identities and their sense of who’s a good person and who’s not, and along with that comes astronomical stress compared to their elementary school years.

There’s also puberty, which sucks, and the beginnings of serious extracurricular activities that require a lot of time and dedication.

*This may vary from school to school*

Middle school = Grades 6-8 (Kids 11 to 13)

High school = Grades 9-12 (Kids 14 to 18)

Since many people have no idea how to write about schools, whether they be homeschooled or have graduated a while ago, here’s a few tips on how to write middle school and high school.

Just a note that I’m going to be describing public schools and not private schools, Also, schools are going to be different across the country; I’m a New Yorker, and my school knowledge and experience can be way different than those of someone who went to school in the south or in the midwest.

**IMPORTANT NOTICE!**

“High school” and “middle school” are not capitalized! Only capitalize it when you’re saying the name of the school. (Example: Eldridge Middle School)

1. Know What Grades Take Which Courses (AKA Know All the Technical Stuff)

Nothing demonstrates complete lack of knowledge about the school system than not knowing the basic technical side of it, such as which grades take which classes. Aside from various exceptions, an eighth grader isn’t going to be taking Physics and a twelfth grader isn’t going to be taking Biology.

Here’s the list of the core classes in middle school and high school:

English

Math

Science

Social Studies

Foreign Language

These classes are going to be the hardest and the ones that the students stress out the most about.

Grade 6

- English

Read things like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Tuck Everlasting

- Math

Multiplication and division

Decimals

- Science

Basic physics…like, very, very, very basic. Also a bit of chemistry.

-Social Studies

Ancient history

Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, China, India, Renaissance, etc.

- Foreign Language

In my school, we didn’t start a foreign language until seventh grade.

This year is very stressful because it’s the transition from elementary to middle school. They now have things like detention and multiple teachers and changing classes.

Grade 7

- English

Reading books like My Fair Lady, The Miracle Worker, The Pearl, etc.

- Math

Starting to work with “x.”

Percents, statistics, basic algebra.

- Science

Basic biology

- Social Studies

Beginnings of US history. From the Native Americans to the Industrial Revolution.

- Foreign Language

Very basic facts

How to say hi, describe yourself, furniture, food, activities, ask questions, etc.

This is a pretty chill year. You’re all adjusted from last year and have more stable friendships.

Grade 8

-English

Reading books like Call of the Wild, The Outsiders, the White Mountains.

Starting to get into Shakespeare

More in-depth analysis

-Math

Algebra

Equations, find x, etc.

-Science

Earth Science

Rocks, weather, space, etc.

-Social Studies

End of US history, from the Industrial Revolution to present day

-Foreign Language

Developing the basics learned in seventh grade.

This year can be hard because students start taking more difficult, high-school level classes.

Grade 9

- English

Reading books like To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Great Expectations, and Romeo and Juliet

Introduction to research papers

- Math

Geometry

Learning about shapes and how to find the area and sides

Most useless math there is unless you want to build things

- Science

Biology

Learning about living things, cells, ecosystems, etc.

- Social Studies

Global History

Beginning of the world to the Renaissance

- Foreign Language

More complex sentence structure. Learn different tenses other than the present tense.

Yikes! This year is incredibly hard; high school is so much more difficult than middle school! There’s an open campus and a lot more freedom, but there’s also a lot more room for error. The first year where the grades start actually counting.

Grade 10

- English

Reading books like Macbeth, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, and Animal Farm.

- Math

Trigonometry/Algebra II

Very difficult Algebra and Trigonometry

- Science

Chemistry

Learning about molecules, elements, formulas, and reactions.

This is the science with the periodic table and mixing stuff that blows up.

- Social Studies

Global History

The Renaissance to present day

- Foreign Language

Learning new tenses other than Past, Present, and Future (Ex: Imperfect, Conditional)

This year is okay. Mostly spent worrying about Junior year.

Grade 11

- English

Reading books like Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, and Farenheit 451

- Math

Pre-Calculus

Yikes

- Science

Physics

Also Yikes

Learn the science of movement

- Social Studies

Complete US History

Advanced Placement US History is abbreviated to APUSH (pronounced ay-push)

- Foreign Language

Same class but hard now

This year is very stressful because it’s the year that counts the most; colleges look mostly at the grades from this year.

Everyone is freaking out and taking AP and SAT and ACT prep classes. A shit-show in its purest form.

Grade 12

- English

Read books like Othello, The Crucible, and The Scarlett Letter

Senior paper

- Math

Calculus

YIIIIIIIIKKKKKEEEEESS

College course

- Science

AP Biology, Chemistry, or Earth Science 

Students must choose one or the other or an elective science like Marine Biology or Anatomy

- Social Studies

Government and Economics

Two courses that are each only a semester long. You either take one class for the first semester and switch to the other class second semester or switch the classes every other day

- Foreign Language

Nobody even cares anymore

This year is the most fun year of high school; although some colleges do still look at the grades, many students are already committed to college and get a case of “Senioritis” which is when they let their grades slip and take it easy because they don’t have to worry about impressing colleges.

OKAY THAT TOOK A LOT MORE TIME THAN IT SHOULD’VE

2. Know the Types of Classes

Depending on their skill level in the area, kids can take a variety of different versions of these core classes. There’s reagents classes, honors classes, and advanced placement (AP) classes.

At least in New York, reagents classes take state-made reagents at the end of the year as a final exam.

Honors classes are basically advanced versions of reagents classes. They teach at a faster pace and go more in-depth into the topics. They, too, take reagents at the end of the year.

AP classes are the hardest of them all. They’re college-level classes and make students eligible to take the AP test. Depending on what score they get on the AP (1-5), they can skip the 101 classes in college.

(Example: If a girl gets a 4 on the Global History AP, she can skip Global History 101 in college)

Junior year is also the year students take the SAT and ACT, huge tests that are very important for college.

Other schools may have other kinds of classes like IB, but this whole list is JUST ACCORDING TO MY EXPERIENCES.

3. Just Know that School Is Not the Worst Place on Earth

Although there are certain times when school can be the absolute worst thing ever and there are a lot of flaws in the education system, it’s not all downsides!

School is a place where you learn new things, meet new friends, and get to hang out with people you wouldn’t hang out with otherwise.

There are extracurricular activities available for FREE that you can join, and aside from being academic, school sponsors a very nice social climate that is crucial for kids to develop skills in communication and interaction with others.

Of course, high school is also the place where people start getting into serious relationships, which you can research here.

I really hope this helped!

[millimallow]

pt 23 - silver spoon

kindness can be the worst thing.

well, the day they came to kill me has come sooner than i expected.

something about proximity to the cursed sea makes people… off. maybe it’s the curses. potentially, it’s living in a chilled hellhole for the vast majority of the year, considering all the cold tides and winds which get pulled in with the current. our capital is inland, even though it’s trading that makes a nation rich. and there’s not a single breszian who’ll let a kind stranger in their house, not for any reason under the sun, not now and not ever. they’re afraid- afraid of the darkness in the corners of houses and the moon when it blots out the sun. while most other cultures have amicable relations with creatures that lurk in the dark, so long as the peace is maintained, this is the place where your worst nightmares are supposed to come true. particularly those dreams of eternally elusive individuals clad in black and transforming into animals. not witches, no, but close.

vampires.

and i’m one of them.

let me start by saying i’m not a natural vampire. and that natural vampires do exist- it’s very much possible to be born a vampire to similarly vampiristic parents. i’ve met said individuals. we look alike, and can’t be distinguished aside from familiarity with vampire youth culture. as you might worry, i was turned from a human. my family line stretched back in murentz bres for a good few hundred years, almost as far as decipherable records go back. not only that, i had provided my enthusiastic consent for the procedure regardless of the cost to my personal life. what’s the cost? even those able to reject the group-think paranoia were wary around a creature known for sucking the blood of others in order to survive. understandable. nowadays i can’t help it if people make me hungry. in the eyes of many, there’s no reason why someone could choose that lifestyle with their minds intact. so here’s the story, the last record of me before i leave in such a hurry.

every man wants his son to take after him. they want him to inherit the family business, run it like their father does, then to have children with some upstanding public figure. it’s a pressured life, regardless of the privileges and comforts it might offer you to be the offspring of a well-established middle-class family. yet nobody chooses against it. in other places, people live for adventure and difference. sea-dwellers are used to the irregular and ever-changing oceans, city-dwellers are packed too tightly to not notice the world that shifts and morphs around them to better fit a different world. before i knew of vampires and their secret society, my dream was only to move elsewhere. i might never be truly one of them, but the relief and freedom it would grant me was immense. better than my father’s old butchery and his wire-frame insistence that it would be mine one day. that i had to shape up for this singular future goal which he had set ahead of me. but my mind was secretly set on escape from the first moment he mentioned the future of the business to me. i counted out the pennies i found on the street, exactly an in order, trying to decipher the price of a ferry to canfu sen. better destinations existed than a conflict-wracked semi-tropical island country, but was i in a place to be picky? the cheaper the journey and destination the better. while i could never accumulate much, my stash gave me breath in the morning. kept me going.

however, my best laid plans were set to go immediately awry. years in the future, during my later teenage years, my father encountered a spot of financial trouble. some below-the-table debts had came to collect after a fire upset the underground business he was linked to. the money was there, but his pockets were empty after he was forced to repay. and i do mean forced- it took the threat of burning his remaining stock for him to give in to the shadowy figures bursting into our house one morning. desperate to accumulate funds for the future, by some miracle he was able to locate my own hoard. looked at me in the eyes and told me that he was taking it for my own good, of course. once the business had been revitalized i would once again be able to inherit it and its success, then i would become rich. from there my plans changed- i realized i was property, and that my father would chase me down to the ends of owa all so he could reclaim me. but he was exactly like all of the others surrounding him. closed-minded. shiftless. afraid of the dark.

the cheapest widely-available meat is that of people. nobody will eat it unless they don’t know what it is. but it can be passed off as something else- and if you do it right, profit waits for you like an unclaimed prize. you just have to acquire it first. and under the guise of interest in his business, i was able to track my father’s business associates. i had a good clue as to who, or what, they were. people whose powers were sufficient enough to obtain the necessary human meat for a business to be founded on it. vampires. capable of knocking people unconscious, far-derived from their humanity enough for them to kill and prepare without remorse. so beneath their chambers in the town centre, in the basement, i met with them. and during a business transaction, having verified their otherworldly features and sharp twinkling fangs, i asked for one more thing amongst the “pig’s legs” i was to deliver to my father.

for me to join them, and become forever one with the night. for such a service i would return all the meat we purchased without looking for our money to be refunded. the next minute, i was bitten. from then, i was running. but i was running with the wind behind me and the world on my back.

[dewbond-blog]

On the Radar for Fall 2018: 3 Episode Check-In

Hey guys.

The fall anime season is well underway and we are already 3 or 4 episodes deep for many series! Now that enough time has passed, I wanted to check in on the ten anime I have been watching and give my thoughts. Are they still good? bad? Let’s take a look after the cut!

Double Decker!

My Thoughts after 3 Episodes: This show continues to have a great premise, a colorful world, uniquely designed characters, but I’m ready for the actual plot to get going, Kirill is great and is a fun riff on his archetype, but let’s get into some high-stakes drug-busting already.

Status: Still watching, but ready for the plot to start.

Uzamaid!

My Thoughts after 3 Episodes: Uzamaid! has to walk an incredibly difficult tightrope in balancing its cuteness and comedy, with the controversial concept of its story. Some have already written this series off and that’s ok if you’ve done that. So far though I am having an absolute riot with our titular maid and her one of a kind design. Coupled with some touching moments about a girl trying to get past her mother’s death, I hope Uzamaid! can continue walking that tightrope all the way to the end of the season.

Status: Watching, laughing and enjoying, but praying Japan doesn’t let this veer into anything super creepy.

Goblin Slayer

My Thoughts after 3 Episodes: So now that all the anitubers, article writers and moral grandstanders have milked every drop of political and social capital out of the ‘most controversial anime of the year” how is Goblin Slayer holding up? Pretty well actually, I love the brutal atmosphere, the singular focus on ONE aspect of a fantasy world, and the music, characters, and action are holding strong. I’m in for the ride and counting the kills!

Status: Watching this show, loving it and it is 100% ok if you couldn’t.

Rascal does not dream of a Bunny Girl Senpai

My Thoughts after 3 Episodes: Bunny Girl Senpai has already had the best three episode run out of any series this year. Gentle, mysterious, melancholic and with two leads who just ooze chemistry, this is the sort of anime that people will be talking about for quite some time. I just hope now that the first story arc is finished, that Bunny Girl Senpai can continue to carry the torch.

Status: Loving every single second of this series.

Ulysses: Jeanne d’Arc and The Alchemist Knight

My Thoughts after 3 Episodes: This show feels like it should have been a two cour series because so far it’s got a fun premise and interesting take on the legend of Jeanne d’Arc (who Japan just seems to love lately) in a more fantasy version of France. It is just a shame that it feels like someone is holding down the fast-forward button on the story. Slow down, take a breath and pace yourself.

Status: Still watching, but the pacing needs to slow the fuck down

That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime

My Thoughts after 3 Episodes: Unlike the Alchemist Knight, Slime is a two cour show and that is helping it greatly. By having 24 episodes to tell the story, Slime is using the time to slow down, take a breath and have its lead experience the world and his powers at its own pace. I’m sure the series will move faster once the main cast gets introduced, but right now I’m enjoying this leisurely stroll through familiar Isekai fun.

Status: Watching and glad this series has enough space to actually be slower paced.

Conception

My Thoughts after 2 Episodes: I knew the plot twist before going into this story and I was ok with it, but I can’t forgive breakneck pacing, no real explanation of what’s going on (seriously they say ‘go check the website’) and what seems like a bunch of video game cutscenes edited together. It’s a damn shame considering the art style is the same as ReZero, but sorry, I just couldn’t bother.

Status: DROPPED

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master

My Thoughts after 2 Episodes: I don’t know anything about the Senran Kagura franchise, but beggars can’t be choosers when the Ecchi offerings are super slim this time around. Actually airing completely uncensored on Crunchyroll, Senran Kagura is boilerplate, but it’s entertaining boilerplate that fills the ecchi quota and actually looks nice doing it.

Status: Watching it for the PLOT, and a little bit of the Plot.

My Sister, My Writer

My Thoughts after 2 Episodes: I am very forgiving of lackluster animation because I am aware of how awful Japanese animators can have it sometimes, but this? This looks SO FUCKING BAD, that I have to wonder if High School DxD HERO and How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord sucked up all the ecchi budget this year and this show was left with the remains. The story could be interesting if it wasn’t just an ecchi version of Eromanga-Sensei, but it just looks like complete ass.

Status: Dropping it after the next episode unless there is a miracle turnaround.

Golden Kamuy Season 2

My Thoughts after 2 Episodes: Golden Kamuy is still the freshest, well crafted and downright fun series it has been since the first season. Every time I think I might put it down, it pulls me right back in with great characters, great plot and a look into Japan that is rare in the rest of the industry. It is already my (non-ecchi) anime of the year and unless there is a massive dropping of the ball, that won’t change anytime soon.

Status: Live it, Love it, Watch it.

So there we have it! How is your anime season going? Does anyone still care about Sword Art Online? Will My Sister, My Writer actually get pulled from airing? Will Goblin Slayer continue to slay goblins (yes). I’m looking forward to finding out! We’ll check back in on these series at the eight-episode mark!

[cynicaldesire]

I’m not living up to their expectations, but I’m far exceeding mine. And that’s good enough for me.

Went to Ube for the Thanksgiving dinner one of the shopowners have every year. He runs a sushi place, but for one day in November, he invites all the foreigners to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner since they can’t on their own. No families or ovens or turkeys available at a basic Japanese grocery.

So we go there and I’m nervous, but not as nervous as I would have been 6 months ago, which I didn’t realize until after we were on our way back home. We encountered a random English speaking woman on the train headed that direction, a woman who loved Toronto, who was divorced, who studied psychology and wanted to go back to Toronto. She was nice, added us on Line and then we had to change trains so we lost track of each other. So it was kinda good practice?

Then we took a nap on the next train. But we made it to the Thanksgiving venue and started chatting with people.

And this is where it starts going downhill. For me.

Most of the foreigners in Japan require a Visa, which means you have a job. I don’t, and before I came here, I didn’t. So most introductions consist of your name and occupation. I do my best to stay quiet because I’m so fucking terrible at conversation that I just avoid it altogether and look at my husband. He can field these things way better, having a higher CHA stat and doing it for work. But he still looks to me to answer or I want to clarify important things, or they want me to answer directly.

So my occupation is normally “Wife of Drew” now. Which then gets either surprise from people that know him, or a funny look and further questions of “What did you used to do?” or “What will you do when you go home”. Neither of which I have an answer for. I am a housewife. I enjoy housewifing. I enjoy not having much to do except vacuum, cook, clean, and love my husband. (Mostly because I’ve been stuck in a toxic hellhole, but it’s hard to convey that in a brief, shouted conversation at a busy party.)

At least one guy had the wherewithall to ask if I had hobbies. I enjoy writing, I might want to do that professionally, then he snarked over the fact that I’m American because he doesn’t know the distance between Georgia and Texas just like I don’t know the distance between Melbourne and Sydney. (You’re right, I don’t, but it’s not super necessary to point that out.) (He also joked, when I did the Look At My Watch Thing when I said we’d been together for 10 years that I had a very good watch.) He got called away for cooking duties and everybody else that showed up, because I’m not used to social interaction, got mostly dumb but hopefully friendly looks from me because I don’t know how to start or continue conversations. Probably because my family just keeps fucking talking so I just let them go unless I have something to say.

One girl sat down to chat with us and her boyfriend was at another table speaking in Japanese with the Japanese people. But he was doing it to the exclusion of other foreigners, so to me he was just being a pretentious douchebag. They had showed up to greet us and he had gotten distracted and wandered away in the middle of me speaking. So that didn’t help. She asked us when we realized we wanted to be together and get married and we didn’t have a good answer because... we haven’t really lived together? We got married so that we could continue living together. So this is the longest. But I figured she was asking so she could have a better idea of how much she loved her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend eventually showed up to chat and my husband did the basic questions of name, occupation, how long have you and her been together. But this guy said something odd: he wanted to go back to the states, probably move to New Hampshire with a bunch of other people in a collective, and study the science of aesthetic? I tried to clarify what he meant, and I think his desire is to find empirical date to research and define a Universal Aesthetic to Make The World A More Beautiful Place. He framed it initially as a desire to force companies like Google to reveal their studies about what users prefer to see on their websites and shit, which I thought was interesting, but I wasn’t interested in finding out about from him. Like, noble cause to force companies to make their marketing research public knowledge for other people to utilize in their own businesses, that’d be rad. But my husband was like Nah, I wanna know what that means for when you get home.

So over the next several minutes, Twiggy Hobo Beard tried to explain shit to my husband who was very much not asking him to explain himself so my husband had to keep fighting him about shit and then eventually realized he had been talked away from the original question of “What does that mean? How does that employ you and make you money?” His girlfriend showed up and we had a very small bond over the fact that they were fighting about art and we only really took 1 art class each and didn’t care this much.

It wasn’t until Twiggy Hobo Beard said his favorite piece of art is duChamp’s Fountain. My husband said he knew what it was and later I found that he didn’t remember it, but I did. For those that don’t know, duChamp’s Fountain is a urinal that has the letters R. MUTT on the edge. We then discover that Twiggy Hobo Beard used to be a Modern Artist that has been displayed in galleries. Which is news to us because he was introduced as a guy that fixed old arcade machines, sound systems, and other electrical shit. Which I am totally down for because my Dad does that.

Come to find out it was all a ruse for this Dada-douchebag.

So they argue back and forth and I’m getting frustrated because it’s fucking stupid and also I don’t care but mostly he’s a pretentious ARTIST. So eventually my husband gives up and the dust settles and he heads to the bathroom. So Twiggy Hobo Beard is left with me. And I stare at him, having no desire to enjoy this man’s company. I’m still trying to accept that my husband just argued hard with this hippy ARTIST who is also a Full Capitalist and blah blah. So he keeps looking at me, expecting me to have some conversation and eventually asks if I play WoW.

No, my family did so I stayed in it longer than it deserved but I don’t play it anymore.  (I had used it as a way to explain something THB was saying earlier, see.)

Eventually he asks what I do/want to do. As I don’t know and I am a terrible liar, but I also wanted to posture that I had done programming, I said that I went to school for code, didn’t like it, and wanted to become a writer instead. But I have no idea if I can do that either.

And he starts asking if I want to just be a housewife forever, if I wanna have kids.

Yeah, I want kids, but it all depends on how my uterus feels that day. Hahaha, I have a disease and it’s uncomfortable to think about.

I don’t remember how this came up, but I said something about how I hate all this rhetoric about hating men, his girlfriend - previously distracted trying to let the shopowner let her make persimmon crumble - turns around and he gleefully says I was telling him about how all men are evil. Which.... I was saying how I hate that rhetoric because all my best friends have been guys and I haven’t been able to make friends with woman. She laughs and says “So you’re a feminist!” And I wanted to kill them.

I have been watching videos on Youtube about capitalism and why it sucks and so I used the verbiage they used of calling the wealthy Reptiles, which prompted them to ask if I watch Alex Jones. It took me a second to register who the fuck that was and then they all started joking about TURNIN’ THE FROGS GAY.

Eventually they got bored with me and my housewife contentment and wandered off. I have spent the rest of the day joyfully hating these people.

They were followed by a couple of nice people that showed up tardy and missed all the not-great food - mostly because nothing I eat will ever be as good as my family’s, so I’m super biased - and they got distracted by not being friends with us. But we entertained them pretty well. My husband’s replacement is French-Canadian and a little weird, but he seems a cool guy, if a little odd.

And on the way home, I realized... while mostly everyone had been casting glances or aspersions on my current lifestyle, I didn’t feel as inadequate or shitty as they wanted me to feel. I’m a housewife, yes, but I’m dieting, I’m exercising, I’m working on my social anxiety. I’m leaving the house, able to climb the damn hills, and when I encounter an issue with the cashiers, I don’t freak out for hours on end. I go through a cycle of I FUCKED UP but it all worked out okay until I stop thinking about it. It hasn’t crippled me. Hell, I went to this party, engaged in conversation that maybe I didn’t do correctly, but I didn’t roll absolute 1s.

So maybe I’m not living up to their expectations, but I’m far exceeding mine. And that’s good enough for me.

[unst242group2]

(1/8) “I had a lot of people asking me how they could be stronger allies or accomplices for the marginalized communities and particularly the black community, because I have built quite a platform through hip hop. I’m a hip hop artist, I play in a six piece funk hip hop band called Speaker Minds, and I do solo music with a DJ, and I’ve been doing that for my entire adult life. My music often talks about social justice and injustices, citizens, community outreach, and uplifting, things like that. I’ve done a lot of philanthropy work in my day, a lot of culturally specific jobs where I’ve been like a mentor for black and brown youth on probation. I worked as a student advocate for low income young adults, just with a lot of those communities. So people got to know me as that. And so they reached out and I also go to PSU right now. I’m finishing my bachelor’s in Black Studies and Social Science. I’ve learned a lot about a lot of the oppressive, exclusionary ways of Oregon and the nation. So I thought it would be a good idea. When people ask me how they can help, I said, ‘look, you gotta share your resources. Especially if you come from privilege and you have benefited from exclusionary practices, so share your wealth’. Then the idea to repair homes came from the fact that I grew up in Portland, I'm a native, I grew up in Northeast Portland, so I watched the neighborhoods change. Now that I have an idea of why that's happened, I realized, a way that we could really help is by getting some of these repairs done, for the homeowners that still have survived gentrification. That will keep the city off their back. Because a lot of the ways displacement happens is white people move into these neighborhoods and then they start complaining about Black people's houses, not looking adequate enough for their standards. And then the city comes out and puts lines on their homes and stuff. So this is a good way to combat gentrification in that way.”

(2/8) “I had no idea it was going to take off like it did. I thought it was gonna just be maybe a couple of homes. Well, when I started there, I was very naive. Cause I'm not from the housing world. I was a renter at the time. I didn't know the capacity. I thought we would just get a bunch of volunteers together and find some materials and start swinging hammers at homes and try to make them look better. But there's a lot more to it than that. And a lot of people were like, ‘well, , I don't really want to come out and help, especially with the pandemic, but here's some money to put towards it’, and it just took off after the first house. We were able to do quite a bit of repairs and then another house came in and then just words got out and then the news started getting a hold of it. I did a bunch of news interviews and then that was when it really took off. I was not expecting this kind of response at all. I think people liked that I started it guerrilla style because I wasn't waiting to get through all the red tape. I've been on enough committees and been in enough groups that I know that red tape can take years to get through. So I was like, send me your money and I'll put it towards the house and I'll deal with Uncle Sam later. I would've never imagined how big this got and how fast and it's still going strong.”

(3/8) “Right now, we're not really encouraging volunteers unless you're licensed, bonded and insured. We got over 400 volunteers signed up and we don’t have enough work for that, especially in the winter. If you want it to, you could go to our website and there's a volunteer section, takingownershippdx.org, but we're not encouraging that unless you are skilled in a trade and licensed, bonded, and insured. So we can actually do quality and insured work on these homes.”

(4/8) “The state, the city, the nation, the, the feds, anybody that can make policies to stop this thing. Make policies that provide reparations. And I mean, I strongly believe reparations are needed for particularly the black community, but other communities as well, natives need better reparations too. If you have any idea of how horrible this country has been to nonwhite people, particularly black people and the natives, you would understand that there is some sort of equity in the form of monetary gifts that needed to be given. I mean, think about Oregon. They were, when they found Oregon, they were just buying up. They're just giving 300 to 600 acres of land to white men, and black people couldn't even live here. With that understanding, they think that it has to be through equitable practices. They have to put in policies for developers that they have to give the developers the same rules that residential people have. So developers can come into neighborhoods and buy up houses and tear them down and build up some garbage 30 unit building without asking the community what they want. Let's say if you're a homeowner, a residential homeowner and you want to just build a garage or something, you gotta ask all your neighbors what they think, what color. It's not fair that these developers just because they have multi-millions and they can house more people, can come in here with their own set of rules and it actually impacts the whole, the rest of the neighborhood because utilities go up, property taxes go up. You bring a whole different demographic into these neighborhoods. That's another thing where I live. I just bought a house in Albina. It's mostly white people around here. This is a historically black neighborhood. They'd lost all that culture. I think there has to be some policy in place that keeps the culture in the neighborhoods to give the neighborhood a voice. They definitely have to do something reparation-like, and maybe that's providing property or monetary gifts.”

(5/8) “I think most change starts from the bottom and it does, I don't know anything, any kind of change like that on a legislative level, I feel always has to start with some individuals getting together and making some noise and then they're like,’Oh, okay, fine. It just looks like they're not going to shut up about it’. So now we're going to start. When you even think about marijuana passing, anything, we've really got to make some noise unless it's benefiting the corporations. If it benefits everyday people on an individual level, we have to make noise and then they'll consider passing some stuff.”

(6/8) “I don't think enough people really understand the capacity of what gentrification is. What it's done, how severe it's been. When you grew up in capitalism, you just think that's just the way it is. They want to take your house, they'll take your house. They want to do that. You just got to work harder. You just got to pull yourself up by your bootstrap to keep your house. They don't understand the policies and just like the nuanced ways in which they operate to take their homes. And if you're one of the people benefiting from gentrification, you're usually one of the people that has the most resources and the most power to enact the change. That's why we always tell white people, y'all got to talk to each other. Y'all got to be the ones out here really making that change, because this is a system that was built by y'all, so y'all gotta dismantle it. It can't just be us. I think it's hard for white people who benefit from it because they're content and they think, all right, I just bought this house, but, I'll put a Black Lives Matter sign in my yard’ and they think that's enough? Just for instance, some serious accomplice ally work that just happened is I bought this house from a white lady. She sold it to me for what was left on the mortgage, because she didn't want to make any money off it. And she wanted to put a black family back in the Albina neighborhood. That's that radical philanthropy work that I think needs to happen that I don't think a lot of people are going to do. This woman's on some other shit, which I'm thankful for. I don't think that there's not going to be a lot of people that are going to do that. And she didn't put herself out cause she's wealthy and she's a successful business owner and owns multiple properties. I don't know if I can say enough people care to make the actual radical decisions and actions that it will take to reverse gentrification. And gentrification is already done. There's no black community in Portland anymore. It's gone. I guess you could say it's in the numbers, but that's not really it, so it has to be reversed at this point.”

(7/8) “I think it's one of the most important things as far as what humans need is, shelter, and as somebody who is a brand new homeowner - I just bought this house two months ago - I was a renter all before that. With two, I became a father at nineteen years old of two, and I've lived in maybe 12 places since they were born. We're renting apartments, living in garages, whatever I could find and, it's miserable and it's not knowing, having to move. First of all, moving sucks. We all know that. Bouncing my kids around from place to place just to be able to stay. And to be able to pay into your property and then actually get towards paying off your property is huge. An actual mortgage is amazing. When you're renting, you're just giving your money away all the time. Especially when you get older and the cost of living going up, it's harder to find other places to live. It's important. And then familiarity in communities is I think so important to people. I think it's just so many aspects of it is important.”

(8/8) “I also want to say the importance of aging in place is also to be able to pass down your property to the next generation. I think that's actually really huge. Ways to raise awareness, do your research. I think that's important. There's a great class - I'm actually in my capstone class right now, it's racial equity in Oregon. I'm learning a lot about gentrification and just the origin of all that in that class. I recommend y'all take it. Take that class if you want, but it's a good one. Do your research on Portland or even other cities too, but I mean, Oregon has its own unique story. My way of raising awareness is social media. That's how this whole thing started. If I didn't have a platform on social media, there's no way I would've got the word out so fast. And provide resources. I think that's the way to go these days, is social media. And action. Don't just talk about it. Be about it.”

[maximuswolf]

A serious discussion about the future of the left. via /r/communism

A serious discussion about the future of the left.

Introduction:

Comrades who share this wonderful discussion forum of r/communism, I want you to take a moment to ask yourselves, what is it that we want? What are we fighting for? I imagine most of us are fighting for abolition of private property, collective ownership over the means of production and distribution, a dissolution of the state as an apparatus for control by the bourgeoisie, democratization of all parts of life, better healthcare and welfare for those who need it, and other such extremely noble aims. I myself believe in all of these very strongly. But I'm afraid that many on the left (unintentionally, I hope) are preventing us from achieving these aims, or even actively taking us backwards, towards fascism. So, in what I'm sure will turn out to be an extremely long essay, I want to take a while to discuss action that we all should be taking. I hope everyone reads this through to the end. If you dislike it, feel free to downvote, but please read till the end regardless.

Part I: The Current State of the Left

This might start out kinda rude, but we on the left really suck. A lot. We seem to view people with other beliefs as inferior, deluded, and misinformed idiots who are only capable of seeing just past the end of their noses and unable to view the big picture. And, on some level, I do understand the impulse. It can be hard to put up with their stupid arguments, blatant mistruths, and denial of facts. But a lot of leftists (I myself am also guilty of this) respond to these with insults, ad hominem and name-calling. This is not effective. As hard as it is to get this through our heads, we need more people. If you hang out only in far-left chatrooms, patting all your Marxist-Leninist comrades on the back at how great it feels to own liberals and progressives, you are the problem. The future of the left lies in those people. If you ask an average person off the road what they think about leftists, they’ll usually respond in one of three ways; They’ll either shrug and say they don’t care, call them whiny snowflakes who only complain, or call them belligerent pricks who won’t shut up. Across all my time on planet earth, even when I talk to people who I know hold similar values to my own, they all think of leftists as these 3 things. This isn’t a group that’s going to attract new people. If anything, they’ll be pushed further away. And we need these people. I know many like to talk about revolution like it’s an excuse for them to not have to engage with liberals and progressives, but you’re delusional if you think that. If today, a revolution began in The United States, do you think it has any chance of succeeding? Revolution can only occur with a large enough power base, either among the people or among armed forces. We don’t have any opportunity to raise forces like the red army, so our power base needs to come from people. Average, milk-toast liberals and progressives. That is where the future of the left is.

Part II: Liberalism and Marxism

Liberalism, that is, the philosophy of the enlightenment, is a philosophy that is incompatible with Marxism. Liberalism came about as a way to justify capitalism, and pushed faux progressivism to legitimise capitalism’s promise of a new, equal society. Hate liberalism as much as you want. But liberals, the people who believe in the ideology, are not incompatible with us. Many share similar ideals of a free and equal world, many do in fact support things like healthcare, women’s rights and greater equality of income. They’re just misinformed. They have been the target of misinformation and propaganda from the day they were born, and so are unable to believe in socialism. They view communism as some sort of demonic entity, trying to take over the foundations of society and enslave everyone. And you insulting them isn’t really helping matters. It’s a sad fact that far-left leaning people, and even socialists, are an extreme minority in most of the world. Most people are moderates. Its just that the people with the most extreme beliefs are also often the loudest, and so are disproportionately represented in media and online circles. This is also why neo-nazis seem so common on the internet-they’re just the ones who shout the most. This isn’t about who’s right or wrong, it’s just a fact that the vast majority of people in every country are moderates, neither far-right nor far-left. And so that’s why we need to go on a crusade against misinformation. Now, let’s go onto Marxism. I won’t demean you by defining Marxism, so let’s get to the point. Don’t. Call Yourself. A Marxist. 99% of the time, if you call yourself a Marxist, people will automatically stop listening. As hard as it is, call yourself a socialist (or some variation thereupon). People have been conditioned to associate Communism with authoritarianism, even though they aren’t at all related. Socialism, while still heavily bastardised, lacks that same association with the regimes of Stalin or Mao, so they’re more palatable to the general public. And again, our aim is to convert the people who are aligned with us socially into being aligned with us politically.

Part III: The Art of Proselytising

To convert the liberals is a difficult task. It can be hard, because a lot of leftists get very invested and personal in defence of their ideology, which can be a good thing in small doses. However, when a person listens to a debate or reads transcripts, do you think they will side with the one who shouts and talks incoherently, or the one who has complete control and is calm and confident? When talking with anyone about politics, stay calm. Calm and collected people are far more attractive to others than brash and loud ones. Even if the opponent’s points are patently bullshit, counter them in a way that doesn’t actively demean them. Wait for them to lost patience and get flustered. Your aim is to try and win over people who may have an open mind. So far has been advice pertaining to formal debate. But how do you chat with liberal friends just in general conversation? Very simple. Don’t demean them. If they talk to you about a liberal policy that they like, support them. Agree. As long as that policy isn’t actively harmful, there is no harm in saying that you like it too. Don’t respond by going, “Heh, this changes nothing. The problem is capitalism, and these policies are just to keep you content enough to stop asking questions.” This actively discourages them from your ideas by putting it in their head that the things they want are fundamentally different from the things you want. Instead you respond with, “yeah man, that’s really cool!” Agree, and then later bring it up how you think that we could expand on that idea and bring it into the realm of something more in line with actual socialism. And when they talk about a liberal policy they dislike, try and show them how a more left-leaning policy would be more in line with their ideal society. I know this is vague and unspecific, but I want this to be as universally applicable as possible. Lastly, know when to stop. If someone seems averse to your ideas, don’t push them into reading Das Kapital or the Communist Manifesto. Just accept it and move along. After all, if you push too hard, they may give up on you completely and we don’t want that. Their will always be more chances in the future to try and convert.

Part IV: Choosing your Targets

This is a short section. Don’t bother trying to convince ethnic nationalists, neo-nazis or other members of the alt-right in informal forums. It’s a fruitless endeavour. You need to accept that they have committed themselves to a belief which holds no evidence to support it, and so no matter what evidence you bring up to dismiss their claims, it wont matter. In formal debates you can engage them and show how their beliefs are false, but just don’t bother otherwise. Anarcho-capitalists are generally beyond help, but not always. A good litmus test is to ask them if they think trans rights should be promoted. If yes, there is still hope. If not, give up. Ancaps take a lot of work to convert though, so you’ll be in for the long haul. Liberals are your prime targets. They have social values which align with our own, we only need them to realise that those social values would be best served under socialism rather than capitalism. Because one thing to remember is that when it comes to pure facts, logic and evidence, we have the right beaten hands down. Its not even a contest. We just need to make ourselves feel more appealing to the liberals.

Part V: Please, Think Realistically

Change will not happen just suddenly. It needs to be systematically created, and we are the ones who need to do it. It can be comforting to think that the revolution will come, it will be glorious and we will henceforth live in a communist utopia. That’s not going to happen. First off, we need enough people for a revolution. As someone who lives in India, I can tell you what the general reaction to the Naxalites is here- fear, paranoia and mistrust. I understand their goals, but unless more people support them, they will be able to do nothing. We need to plant seeds of this support ourselves. It really disturbed me to see leftists unironically planning to vote for Trump because it would show the Democrats that their model wasn’t working (or something like that) while forgetting that by doing so they would be giving power over to a far-right demagogue who would probably just directly execute you if he could. Us being correct doesn’t mean we are above the mundane conflicts of society. We are as much a part of it as anybody else and so we need to be able to put ideals on the backseat to pragmatism. So why do I bring this up? Because arguing for ideas like the abolition of private property will get you nowhere. Most people are going to frightened by such ideas, so instead we need to dial it back. We can still keep our ideals, but when converting people start small. “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if you could visit a hospital without going bankrupt? Or maybe if you had a say in the decisions at your company rather than just listening to your boss all the time? Or maybe if the people at the top weren’t so much richer than everyone else?” Such ideas will seem mundane to us. But to the average person they’re incredibly attractive. Don’t talk in terms of vague, high-minded ideals or all-encompassing social change. Focus on how their life would improve under socialism. The sad truth is, not many people care about the greater good. To get through to such people, you need to show them how they would be better off.

Conclusion: It’s 3:30 am here, I’m really sleepy

We need the support of more people. When talking to them, approach people with earnestness and respect. It leaves a better impression. Don’t be overly humble however. Talk about tangible change that the average person can clearly see would improve their lives. Stop insulting people, and get out there to start actively engaging with others. Lastly, know how to prioritize your enemies. Don’t treat fascists, liberals and soc-dems the same, they all warrant different reactions and by acting like they’re the same, you actively push them closer together.

Good Night Comrades.

Submitted November 13, 2020 at 02:26PM by ARandomAnimeFanNo16 via reddit https://ift.tt/3lumWG5