#de colonize your state

[kosmic-apothecary]

I have some thoughts I'd like the pro-Israel Jewish community to consider with an open mind and open heart.

As a white person who has been fully supportive of calling out the evils white people have done in the past (and to a lesser extent continue to do in the present), I can't come to grips with how so many Jewish people who have been at the forefront of every other social justice movement in American history can be so resistant to recognizing that Jews can commit evil acts too, and in admitting that supremacy and racism are never okay, even when it's your own people who are doing it!

What Zionists have done to Palestine over the last 75 years is a disgrace that should be condemned by every decent person on earth, just like any other instance of colonization, ethnic cleansing, apartheid or genocide. If you expect white people to admit that many of our ancestors had slaves, and ethnically cleansed and genocided native Americans (which I fully support), then you must also be willing and able to recognize that a great many Jews are currently taking part in commiting same horrors in Palestine right now. (I know Zionists claim, and some genuinely believe, that they're "de-colonizing" Palestine and therefore the ethnic cleaning and mass murder of the "invasive arabs" is flipped on its head to be seen as moral and just. To that I will remind you that Zionists openly admired they were "colonizing Palestine" for decades until it became unpopular to do so. Now they claim that same statement they used pervasively is "antisemitic", which is obviously disingenuous and entirely hypocritical.)

Secondly, it wouldn't matter if Israel actually were a decolonization project, the people of Gaza have been trapped there with the vast majority never allowed to leave, for 17 years. Bombing innocent people who have been held captive like animals is barbaric and inexcusable, no matter WHO was there first.)

I never felt personally threatened when people call out white supremacy or white privilege, because I want those things to end. It's not anti-your own race or religion to want it to become more moral and less harmful to others, but for some reason a lot of Jewish and Christian zionists apparently believe that any criticism of Israel or Jewish supremacy is antisemitic and intolerable. This doesn't make ANY sense. All systems of oppression are unjust, no matter WHO is benefiting.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, so if you care about social causes and human rights at all and you're not yet loudly and boldly condemning Israel and demanding a permanent ceasefire, a total withdraw from Gaza, and a sovereign and free Palestinian state, then you were never serious about social justice at all, you were simply following trends.

To date over 30,000 people have been killed (a number that’s been static for weeks despite continued attacks on civilians) half of them children. Never again is now. This is another Holocaust, and Jewish voices have the most influence to stop it.

[whumble-beeee]

The Name of The Game

The (Un)Official Guide to Hero-Keeping | Cont'd from Part 8

Content: mentioned past attempted noncon, hysterical whumpee/nervous breakdown (seriously yall, it gets bad), disabled whumpee, trans whumpee, tied up/handcuffs, noncon unshirtening, past captivity references

* * * * * * * *

Excerpt from: The (Un)Official Guide to Hero-Keeping; a self-help guide for villains and bounty-hunters

[While following this guide, as well as generally while playing the wonderful game that is villainy, you will find that the advice can rarely be fitted to every specific scenario. But one piece of advice is universal: If you value your freedom, your loved ones, and your life, you must never reveal your secret identity to your captured hero. As soon as you do, there is no more facade. Villainy is no longer a game. It is your life. And heroes will not hesitate to destroy your life if it means they can win the game. 

If a hero (or ANY untrusted party) ever happens upon your secret identity, it is your responsibility, as a villain and as a human being, to accept the end of your life as you know it…

Or to ensure that the hero can never tell another living soul.]

* * * * * * * *

“See you soon?” Deeby repeated Sweater-vest’s last words incredulously. “See you soon?! Christ, and you know he knows– god, he just needs to stop being such un pendejo and shut the hell up, stop making everything about his goddamn god complex and shoving it en las caras de todos–”

The sudden anger from the usually cool and smug Deeby did not help the apparent panic attack seeping ever so quickly into Stan’s consciousness, especially with said seething bounty hunter circling around the room like an angry shark as he muttered to himself and gesticulated wildly. 

Stan cowered to hide his shirtlessness from said angry shark. His chest and limbs started to buzz from all the excess oxygen entering his system as he took in heavy breaths, his head spinning, dizzy, hurting, every muscle clenching.

“--y quién se cree ese cabrón para venir a joderme MI TRABAJO?” 

He was so angry. So loud, talking so fast, and what the hell was he even saying?! It was too much, too much.

 “Y la puta Lana no puede ni aparecer para decirme que me está jodiendo la vida OTRA VEZ porque es lo único que le encanta hacer, joderme TODO lo que–”

Stop it stop it stay calm stay calm please not now please please please not now you can’t show weakness like this in front of your kidnapper you can’t stop it STOP IT–

He took in an involuntary loud heaving breath. Then fell into a stuttering slew of smaller breaths as he tried to keep quiet, and Deeby finally took notice of the state of his captive. 

Stan squeaked and pulled the jacket around himself tighter. He was small, he was silent, he was invisible. 

Then he gasped in another desperate heaving breath with an involuntary cry of panic when he suddenly ran out of air. He’d stopped breathing entirely with all his efforts.

“Stan? Qué es–... Ah, you good?”

Stan nodded quickly, shaking. “F-fine, fine.”

Deeby raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t lie to me. What is this, you having a panic attack?”

He couldn’t get his eyes to focus, but he shook his head fervently. Then reeled as it made the dizziness and headache so much worse.

“Stan, talk to me, chiquito. If he actually did something to you, tell me. I need a good reason to kill him, you’d be helping me out a lot.”

He didn't actually even hurt me, did he? 

“No–! I-I u-uh-uh yes-s-s, but– but–” 

I don't WANT to ‘help you out’! I don't want to talk about it! ESPECIALLY not with you. 

He let out a whine and failed to swallow the giant knot forming in his throat.

“Alright, is this about the shirt then? Or the uh, the chest thing? Is that why you went from colonizer white to ghost white when you thought I was gonna make you strip earlier?” He walked over to the tattered shirt and scooped it up. “Because if that's what got you, I can assure you I don’t give a single crap what you’ve–... got in your...”

Deeby trailed off as he held up the grey strips of fabric that used to be Stan's button-down. 

And just stared.

Stan gawked at the unrecognizable shredded fabric hanging in the bounty hunter's hands. His breath caught in his throat. He hadn't realized how utterly destroyed his beloved shirt was. What was he supposed to wear now?

“That… Motherfucker…” Deeby muttered, almost as as aghast as Stan. “Christ, I knew he'd pull some grade-A bullshit, but this–”

“Y-you KNEW?!” Stan gasped out, surprising himself with the volume of his outburst. “You– You knew he was gonna– gonna try to...”

Deeby didn't look up from the tatters in his hands. “Yeah. He's predictable, if nothing else.”

Stan's entire body felt like it was full of angry bees. “You–... You left me-e alone with ‘im. On pu-urpose.”

“And everything turned out fine, you're fine. Look runt, we need to have a little talk about what–”

“NO!” Stan cried, ignoring the drop in his stomach when Deeby's eyes took on a slight challenging glint at the interruption. “No, don’t change the subject! You left me alone with him! You knew he was gonna try to– to rape me and you left me alone with him! Handcuffed, chained to the floor, powerless, immobile, beat up to hell and– a-and unable to defend myself and you-you left me alone with him!”

The floodgates were opening. The stifling sense of justice suffocating Stan from the inside out wouldn’t let the injustices go unsaid any longer, crashing through his body and just about ready to make him burst. Ironic, given the everything.

Deeby’s jaw set. “Stan. I wouldn’t have left that shit-for-brains alone with anyone if I didn’t have to.”

“Oh, but you– you had to?” Stan taunted, hoping the sarcasm came through in his voice even with the stuttering and heaving breaths. “What, Dee-deeby the great bounty hunter actually answers to someone? Enough to put the uh, the bounty in danger? Or are you just scared of him, wanted to get away?!” 

Deeby snorted.

“Hell yeah, I'll do whatever if the buyer asks it,” he proclaimed. "And I'm not scared of that human cringe-fail. The day I'm scared of him is the day I'm dragged away screaming and turned into… well, you, basically. But I mean, that's when he's actually dangerous…" 

He seemed to think on it for a moment. Then crouched down in front of Stan, smug grin replaced with something like the look a friend gives when they think you're about to ruin your life with a single dumb decision.

“Honesty, bud… I wouldn't be so tough around a guy like that if I were a guy like you. Best to just fuel his ego.”

Stan physically recoiled. “Don't tell me what–! Who-wh–…”

That insult sounded way too genuine. Since when was the mercenary genuine?

“Wait, wait, you'd…” Stan shook his head, trying to untangle his thoughts from the spaghetti of his mind. This concussion was killing him. He could barely think. “If you were… Who even was th-that?”

Another chuckle. “What, Tweedy? That was Vaughn. He said that earlier, though I applaud your ability to block him out. Wish I could do that.”

Then again, the hunter was most likely just trying to psych him out. Get him to behave again. Stan wouldn't fall for something like that.

“No, idiot, I mean–... I meant who is he? Why is he going to-to see me soon?… And– and for that matter, are you working together? Because it seems like you hate each other.”

Deeby let out a huff of air. “Look, bud, we need to talk about that phone call I had to take, the boss–”

“You're avoiding the question.”

“Well frankly, there's more important things to talk about,” Deeby dismissed quickly. “So I was talking with the boss-lady on the phone while you were–”

“I don’t care about what that Lana person has to say!” Stan said, slamming his hands on the floor for effect, a breath-stealing pang running through his ribs at the jostling. “Jus– Just tell me who you guys are, tell me why I’m here, tell me why I should be scared of ‘a guy like that’! Who ARE you?!”

Deeby narrowed his eyes slightly. “We need to talk about what's going to happen to you next. And you're gonna listen to that. Not yell demands at me like some asshole 6-year-old, because you already know I don't deal with all that ‘who am I, secret identity’ crap, so you're not getting those answers.”

Well actually, judging by the horrible sticky weight that slammed Stan in the gut when Deeby said that, he didn't want to know what horrors awaited him next. So next best thing? Keep being an asshole 6-year-old.

“Why?”

“Anonymity is the most valuable tool you can have in this game.” Deeby recited it like a script, exaggerating a monotone boredom. “Also I'm not an idiot, it's protocol that's saved me before, it helps me do my job without getting invested… take your pick.”

“You're not even wearing your mask any more!” Stan cried. “So much for secret identity!”

“I think what you're meaning to say is ‘thank you for rushing to save my damsel-in-distress ass from some twink with scissors when you heard me screaming for help even though you were dealing with a really important phone call from the worst person ever’. And you're very welcome. Now we need to talk about what I found out in that dumbass phone call and what it means for you.”

He always had an answer for everything, huh? Always another quip.

Stan's blood started to boil, and he may have actually, genuinely growled a little. 

“S-so-so so what, you are scared of her, then? You're scared of her and that's why you left me with that monster?!” He tried, spitting back as much smug asshole-ness as Deeby had been throwing at him. “Is that why you hate them, you’re just their damn lackey doing whatever they tell you to do?! Just a puppet for them to guide around, running around capturing supers and serving them up on a silver platter like a good little servant?!”

Deeby stared at him, genuinely stunned by the sudden venom in the captive's words. His fists clenched by his side.

 Hm. Stan may have gone too far.

“Look, McKellen,” Deeby spat as he took an authoritative step forward, voice slow, low and dark. “There are things at play here that you can’t know about–”

“Why not?!” Stan felt like he was losing it, voice creaky and high and hoarse. “Obviously I’m gonna be trapped here with you assholes for the rest of my short life until you kill me with some new form of torture experiment bullshit! Why not tell me everything?! Why not do whatever you want with me?! Just tell me! Please!!”

Stan glared desperately at the bounty hunter. He knew he wasn’t even just crossing the line at this point; he was sprinting over the line and stomping on it repeatedly in a panic-fueled frenzy, kicking at it and letting out his full fury as if the line itself had done this to him, as if absolutely decimating the line would somehow fix everything.

Way deep down, almost too far down to admit to himself, he almost hoped the mercenary would see through the insults and the fighting to see the pleading, hurt, scared man underneath. And then take pity. Just let him have this one thing, before he broke entirely.

But the bounty hunter glared right back at him.

“No.” He stated venomously. “Right now, you're going to shut up. And listen.”

As if Stan would ever listen to the orders of his kidnapper. Of a villain.

A small laugh, just a little chuckle, took root his chest. A disbelieving smile cracked across his face.

The absence of the signature unbothered grin, the absence of the mask, the deathly seriousness? Not to mention the gun, the knives, the chains, the handcuffs, the power suppressing collar, no cane or crutch or any viable mobility aid in sight, and beaten so hard multiple times that he probably couldn't run properly anyway even if he did have a knee that actually worked…

This really was hopeless, wasn't it? 

He could rage against the dying of the light all he wanted. Scream and shout and cry and fight and say witty things to hide the excruciating, never-ending pain. 

But the light would still die all the same.

He clutched Deeby's very own stupid cowboy-ass jacket around his shoulders. He couldn't even defend himself from getting his shirt ripped to shreds right off his body!

And this bitch–

“You– you don't think…” he had to pause to let out a barrage of inappropriate giggles, then shoved up shakily to his feet, back braced against the wall. “You don't still think I'm gonna– that, that I'm gonna escape, do you?!”

Deeby gave pause, eyeing Stan up and down. Really thinking about it. He took a deep breath. A low grumble emanated from the base of his throat.

“No. I don't.”

Stan laughed out again, full force this time. Desperate. Tearful.

“Then just–... just TELL ME!! IT DOESN'T MATTER!! IT DOESN'T!! IT'LL DIE WITH ME!!”

The mercenary's mouth pressed into a thin line. Was that confusion etched into his features? Or worry? Maybe anger…

“It does matter,” He growled through gritted teeth. “It's probably the most important thing you could know, who I am. Who we are.”

Stan let out a loud cry of anguish, screeching out every single frustration at the unfairness of the world, at this situation, at Deeby and Vaughn and whoever Lana was, at the collar and the chains and the cut and bruises and broken bones and his broken, useless knee into a single, guttural sound. 

“WHY WON'T YOU TELL ME ANYTIN-GAH-AH!!”

Very, very suddenly, the lapels of Deeby's loosely draped jacket tightened around his body and slammed him back into the wall, the fleece-lined collar of the jacket twisting and pulling on the power-suppressing strap clamped around his neck, contracting it, choking him just as the slam forced all the breath out of his lungs. 

Stan clawed back against the force, only managing to grasp at Deeby’s forearms uselessly as they twisted the jacket ever tighter around him. Pinning his arms. Trapping him. He had to heave in and out gasping breaths just to get enough air to breath through his half obstructed airways.

“Look at me, chiquito,” the bounty hunter snarled. “Look me in the eye!”

Stan's panicked eyes paused their sporadic dance around the room. They locked dead onto the mercenary's fiery gaze.

“Did you break your damn brain in the 3 minutes I was gone?” Deeby hissed into his ear. Stan almost screeched in terror. “I don't know what sort of fuckery your mind has been conjuring up that you can't get this very simple concept without going insane,” he jolted Stan and dragged out an involuntary whimper from his throat. 

“But whatever it is, shut it down. Now. I'm gonna tell you the bare minimum of what you need to know, and you're gonna sit there and listen or else I won't tell you jack shit and knock you unconscious so I don't have to deal with your bullshit. Agreed?!” 

“I– Ah, a-ah, I– No, I- I, no-no no No-o–”

He couldn't get his thoughts to line up properly. They swarmed around his head like locusts in a dust bowl, bouncing into each other, frenzied, an indecipherable cloud of fear and frustration that his horrible attempt at defiance, futile as it may have been, always just made everything worse.

He could never stop himself.

Angry tears rimmed at Stan's eyes. His body hurt. His brain pounded in his skull. His ribs cried out in protest as they pressed into the wall. The various bruises and their dull, throbbing aches, the cuts and bleeding wounds and their sharp, searing screeches, the sticky and caked on dried blood, so familiar now it was almost a second skin, Deeby's weight pinning him to the wall, so similar and yet so different to the way Vaughn had done the same.

No. No, no, no, no.

He squeezed his eyes shut, tears finally falling in hot, fat drops down his cheeks. The bounty hunter was so close, too close. Stan tried to pull away, and he just leaned on him harder, their faces barely inches apart.

“Agreed, chiquito?” The voice rumbled through his entire body, sending shivers up and down his spine.

No no no no no no no he needed to get away, get away now, please please that's all he needed he couldn't get away he couldn't even move his arms he could barely breathe–

“WHY DON'T YOU JUST RAPE ME ALREADY?!” Stan screamed into the endless cacophonous void.

And silence.

And the entire world went still.

Deeby’s mouth fell literally agape.

His grip on Stan loosened considerably. Not out of pity or any other considerate emotion. Just shock.

At least Stan could finally breathe again. Not that he took a single breath in the silence.

“I–...” Deeby finally choked out. “I-I beg you finest fucking what?!”

“Just fucking do it,” Stan hissed, gasping. “We both know you could. I couldn't even stop Vaughn, you think I could stop you?!”

The words spewed out of his mouth faster than he could stop them, like a volcano that had finally exploded its top off in a fiery glory. And the way Deeby looked at him, as if his features were having an all out war over shock, horror, or honestly very justified anger? Oh, that did nothing but fan the flames of Stan's sorrow-filed hysteria.

“Tall ass muscle-bound freak with an actual gun that captured me and beat me up again and again then left me to die?! I don't even know who you are! You can do whatever you want and I can't do jack shit to stop you! Just do it, hurt me, rape me, it doesn't matter! Vaughn knew that, you can too!” Stan attempted to shove the bounty hunter off, but he still didn't move. 

“Please, please, I'm begging you, is that what you want?! I'll get on my knees!”

Stan collapsed against Deeby's hold, and to his surprise, Deeby finally let him. Well, not ‘let him,’ more like ‘recoiled and jumped back when he felt Stan collapsing in his grasp'. 

All the same.

“Chiquito,” Deeby rasped. “I'm– not exactly sure what or why you're demanding, but I'm not going to–”

“Why not?! It doesn't matter!” Stan assured, holding his arms out to fully present himself now, shedding the jacket onto the floor behind him and taking a daring scoot forward. “I bet you just kicked Vaughn out because you wanted me all to yourself! I bet you just love seeing me scared and helpless and half naked in your stupid fucking yee-yee jacket–”

“Alright, Stan, enough!”

“AT LEAST VAUGHN had the decency to not pretend like he was a decent fucking person like you!” Stan yelled. “We both know you're not above it, fucking professional kidnapper and torturer! So just do it! Like Vaughn wanted to, like he tried to! Finish what he started, you have me all to yourself now! DO IT! DO IT I DARE–”

“The name's Declan.”

The statement was a whisper in the storm. Stan almost missed it. But the resolute certainty of the southern twang stopped him dead in his tracks.

“What–… What did you just–?”

It was astounding how quickly his voice had turned meek from the cacophony of chaos mere seconds before. Dark freckles stood out against an even starker white face than usual.

“It's Declan,” the mercenary stated once more. “My name. My name’s Declan. You wanted t’know who we are, who I am? Fine then, I'm Declan. Want the last name too?”

“I– wait–!”

“It's Cansano. Declan Cansano.”

Stan was shaking, a million thoughts crashing down upon him like a tidal wave. If he weren't already on his knees, surely he would have collapsed. 

He hadn't actually… meant any of that. No. Had he? No. He couldn't have. He didn't want to know who the mercenary was. No, he didn't. He didn't, not really! He would never want that! Never!

“That’s not… Wh-why would you…?”

The bounty hunter shrugged. “You wanted to know who I am. You asked, you screamed, you insulted me and you went fuckin’ nuts over it.” His thunder-filled eyes betrayed his completely relaxed demeanor. “Declan Cansano. Don't forget‘t.”

“I just– That's not what– Wait, Deeby, you– Where are you going?!”

Deeby was already halfway to the door when he swiftly spun around, fists clenched and any trace of the easy demeanor vanished in those bright blood-stained eyes. 

“I can't fuckin’ deal with you right now!”

Stan nearly launched himself back in fear, right back onto Deeby's stupid, soft jacket. He grasped it up as a barrier between him and the mercenary without even thinking. The mercenary's demeanor relaxed from absolutely terrifying to merely extremely angry at the sorry sight.

“I'm leaving for a bit.” He whipped around and grasped for the lapels of his jacket to yank it on, only for his grasp to come up empty. He whipped around a third time. “And I'll be expectin’ my coat back when I get back! You better've calmed the hell down by then, if you know what’s good for you.”

Wait, wait, he was leaving? No!

Stan tried to scramble after Deeby, but immediately fell to the agony of his knee and the length of his leash. 

“Don't go, please!” he pleaded.

Deeby didn’t stop. “Why?”

What if you come back with more torture tools? 

What if you don't come back at all? 

I still have more questions for you. 

You can't just leave me here, I'm hurt! 

I shouldn't be alone right now. I can't. I'm scared of what will happen, I'm going insane.

Even you are better than no one at all.

“What– what if Vaughn comes back?!”

Deeby scoffed. “I'm not going that far, damn. Eat some protein bars while I'm gone so you don't die, should help with the insanity. Back soon.”

And the door to the room closed shut behind him, the click echoing off the walls in the sudden unbearable silence. 

Stan collapsed to the floor, defeated.

He clutched the jacket closer. 

Pulled it tight around his shoulders, fingernails leaving small crescent-shaped indents on the well-worn hide. The cotton lining was so surprisingly soft against his skin. Hell, he could smell the dirt and musk that permeated the jacket from years of use, the smal signs that this jacket had seen the capture of dozens of supers.

Declan.

Declan Cansano.

Professional Superhero-Hunter.

Stan screamed into the endless abyss around him.

And this time, Declan didn’t come back to save him.

* * * * * * * *

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Taglist: @flowersarefreetherapy | @pirefyrelight | @cakeinthevoid | @painsandconfusion | @books-are-everything | @paperprinxe | @lovethiswriting

[matan4il]

what does it mean when you call us nonnie?/genq

It's just a cuter (in my mind) way of addressing an anon.

And in my attempt to catch up with replying to asks (all of which you can find in my ask tag), here are a few more with responses:

yo, as an openly jewish person, i just wanna make this post to appreciate you and give you a virtual hug :)

Thank you sooooo much, Nonnie, I'm so happy that I can do anything that helps fellow Jews! I hope you're doing good and taking care of yourself throughout this, and please know my blog is ALWAYS open to you if you need anything. Sending much love! xoxox

I vaguely remember someone saying Hamas/Gazan health ministryss numbers haven't been reliable despite that being the quote that keeps getting passed around. Do you know where this was discussed?

I've discussed it a lot on my blog, and you should be able to find posts about it, more and less recent ones, between my UN tag on my blog and my resources one.

congratulations on Independence! I only have some Jewish ancestry but I grew up being taught what an amazing miracle it was that Israel was established, that the hope of thousands of years of exile came to pass! The people who hate you only ever convinced me to dust off my duolingo Hebrew lessons. I really hope I get see your beautiful country for myself one day עם ישראל חי

Thank you so much, Nonnie, and I absolutely believe in the same thing, that our return to our ancestral land, de-colonizing it, re-establishing our ancestral language and culture, reviving our native roots, allowing us to walk the same streets and sites our ancestors (and yours!) did is nothing of a miracle. This should be a cause for celebration for all people who believe in native rights, not just for people with a Jewish identity and our allies. That notion is only reenforced by the fact that the generation who got to see this dream realized included so many Holocaust survivors, people who were human skeletons in May of 1945, and were called to defend the Jewish state from the invasion of several Arab armies in May of 1948, people who somehow won that war, despite having inferior numbers of soldiers, weapons, less training, no British help (including donated airplanes, weapons and even British commanders in the field) like the Jordanian and Egyptian armies did, and when many of these survivors were not even all speaking the same language (so just imagine how difficult even giving a simple order was)... Truly, even when I put Jewish sentiments aside, Israel winning its Independence War is a true miracle.

Just take a second to process that the people on the left are also the people on the right, who won this war, a victory the anti-Israel crowd mourns, because I guess they think it would have been better if these Holocaust survivors would have been subjected to a second genocide, this time at the hands of the Arabs? For having the audacity to return to their ancestral land after Europe almost completely wiped out their families and their people?

I love that you're studying Hebrew! :D It's so beautiful and so rich to me, and I hope you enjoy it, too. Don't hesitate to listen to Israeli songs as well, it def contributes to learning and to enjoying it! And congrats to you as well, since it feels like you're very much a part of this celebration, too! Am Yisrael chai! <3

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[la-pheacienne]

100% for Palestinian liberation and self determination. You comparing Israel to Hitler/Nazism (as a white European) is so fucking stupid and harmful for those trying to educate about what is happening to the people of Gaza. There’s a reason 80% of Jewish people live in the US and Israel. Europeans are largely at fault.

That's cute except I didn't. That was you. What I said is :

"How do we call the systematic extermination of 7 thousand innocent people in the span of a few days - on the basis of their origin/religion/ethnicity- being an integral step in the pursuit of "living space", proclaimed as a birthright ?"

And it is an open question. I didn't compare Israel to anything. I explicitely stated its core caracteristics.

You want to "educate" people about "what's happening TO the "people of Gaza" (educate? what's happening by whom? a mysterious supernatural power? the will of god? who are the people of Gaza? don't they have an ethnicity? )? You want that?

Let me tell you what's happening. "People of Gaza" (Palestinians, that's their name) are being:

ethnically cleansed

by a fascist entity

by means of terrorism and genocide

backed up by systematic propaganda (ongoing for decades) using fascist terminology in order to dehumanize all members of this particular ethnicity

with the explicit goal to colonize a land that the fascist entity feels it has a birthright to

with the full unwavering support of the western world.

As you see, I am not comparing it to a fascist entity, I am calling it a fascist entity. And that's all I am doing, because I don't need to say anything more to stress the gravity and the horror of the situation. It is plain to see, as it is. As such, any further "comparison" is completely redundant, misleading, and irrelevant. But you did it, so, that's your problem.

"There’s a reason 80% of Jewish people live in the US and Israel. Europeans are largely at fault".

Fuck off. US, a country that is historically structured on racial, de jure segregation, a country that was created through genocide in the first place, a country that has comitted atrocious, ongoing crimes against humanity in modern and contemporary history, does not get to flex any moral superiority whatsoever on any country, ever. Cope.

[useless-catalanfacts]

Pls pls pls share any info you have about marches and solidarity in Catalunya/Barcelona for our brothers in Palestine. I don’t see anything. A genocide is happening as we speak, that has been going on for 70 years of struggle for freedom. They are civilians, with the majority under 18, not Hamas. They have no water, no electricity, no hospitals. They’re told to run for their lives like animals but the borders are closed!!!! Isreal bombed Lebanon and Egypt to stop them from even opening their doors. This isn’t a war. They are being buried alive, families are staying home in the hope of dying together. Imagine going to the funeral of a friend and coming back home to your kids under rubble, the faces and garden burned by white phosphorus. The media relying countless debunked lies. Nothing said of the illegal settlement, kidnapping, sexual abuse, UN crimes against humanity, nothing is done. The US and Europe are rolling out laws to stop even showing the Palestinian flag, can’t write on insta or twitter. Few jewish ppl are speaking up against the violences but are immediately shut down. Anyone expressing support is automatically a terrorist. Sounds familiar? Sounds fascist? Have we forgotten that the colonizer’s gov has always been religious far-right since it’s creation. They desperately want to us to believe they are defending themselves in a 2 sided war. It’s not 2 sided when one side is being obliterated with and the other side can take a commercial light to their second house in New York. It’s not 2 sided when one side is waiting for death and the other side can go around the corner to a McDonald to cry about how horrible it is that the other McDonald is closed. Nothing makes sense. I feel sick. My heart cries, their struggle is our struggle, of all the oppressed minorities fighting for their right to freedom, their right to speak their language and live on their lands

Hi. Hm I think if you haven't seen anything, you haven't been looking much, nor watching the news. There have already been rallies to show support to Palestine in Barcelona.

Last Monday in Plaça Sant Jaume, Barcelona:

Photos shared by Crida LGBTI.

On Wednesday, hundreds protested in front of the EU delegation in Barcelona:

Photo from Europa Press.

Today (Saturday) again, more than 700 hundred people have marched in the center of Barcelona:

Photo from ACN.

The movement in solidarity with Palestine has been very strong in the Catalan Countries for decades. You can keep up by following the Palestinian and solidarity organisations in our country, I'll copy-paste the links from a post I made some months ago:

Organitzacions de solidaritat dels Països Catalans amb Palestina:

Prou complicitat amb Israel: web, Instagram, Twitter.

BDS Catalunya: web, Twitter.

BDS País Valencià: Instagram, Twitter.

Comunitat Palestina a Catalunya: web, Twitter, Instagram.

I a nivell internacional:

Jewish Voices for Peace: web, Instagram.

BDS National Committee: web, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.

(That being said, of course Israel is the only one who can stop the violence because they're the ones who are occupying Palestine and enacting violence on Palestinians every single day since the creation of the state of Israel, but there are parts of your ask that don't seem very tactful where right now there is also Israeli people dying. That doesn't change the fact that this was fabricated by their state, but I don't think it does anyone any favour to pretend like they're not having a bad time as well. It just seems like an odd way of phrasing this.)

[thisworldisablackhole]

Endymion, by Dan Simmons - 4.2/5

This book surprised the hell out of me. The general consensus online and amongst people I know who have read Hyperion, is that Endymion and The Rise of Endymion are not as good. A majority of people don't even bother reading them. Those people are missing out, and I don't put that lightly. Luckily for me, I bought all 4 books in the Cantos without looking up any ratings or reviews, so my choice became; read all of them, or waste your money. I was hesitant to start this one, and it did honestly have a bit of a rough start, but I was head over heels for it by the mid way point.

Endymion is a masterclass in world building, if nothing else. It takes place 274 years after the fall of the Hegemony, and the destruction of the TechnoCore and it's network of farcaster portals which connected the web worlds with instantaneous travel. Simmons did an amazing job at evolving his universe over this enormous gap in time. Planets became isolated from each other, terraforming projects failed and mother nature returned these worlds back to their natural state, billions died of starvation and war, or simply by getting stuck on the wrong side of a portal after the fall. During this dark age, The Church harvested the cruciform parasites from the labyrinth of Hyperion and harnessed the power of immortality to colonize former web worlds and essentially create their own version of a religious hegemony. The irony here is that despite harvesting the cruciforms which were created by the TechnoCore, the Church admonishes artificial intelligence and has banned the manufacture or use of AI tech. This distrust of AI permeates culture so much that there are even points during the story where the main characters straight up decline vital help or knowledge from the Consul's old ship and comlog device, claiming it's useless and essentially telling it to shut up. A small but humorous detail. With the power of immortality in hand, the Church was also able to create a new kind of space craft which was unconstrained by the limits of the human body's ability to withstand extreme g-forces. These new space crafts could travel anywhere almost just as fast as they could have by using a farcaster portal, with the understanding that the occupants of the craft would die immediately, and be resurrected upon arrival to their destination. It's truly fascinating stuff, and it proves that Simmons' unique and borderline outlandish ideas didn't die with The Fall of Hyperion. He clearly had some juice left in the tank for this one.

The book has some great characters too, just maybe not who you would suspect. The main character, for example, is simply a vessel for us to watch the story unfold. Raul is a typical commoner-thrust-into-heroism type character with seemingly little in the way of personality or flaws, save for a smidge of overconfidence. This is not to say he is unlikeable, he is just a little too perfect and predictable to be interesting. Aenea was not that interesting either, apart from the fact that she is the hybrid child of a human and AI cybrid, who can contact the assumed-dead TechnoCore through her mind and activate old farcaster portals on the River Tethys.

Who are the good characters, you ask? A. Bettik and Father Captain Frederico de Soya. A. Bettik is an android servant who Raul recruited from under the care of Martin Silenus to aid in his quest to protect Aenea. He is cool, calm, collected, largely impassive, and sports an unintentionally humorous deadpan delivery. Despite his cold android personality, I was constantly surprised by his displays of courage and humanity. He was the rock that held the group together, and I honestly almost cried when he lost his arm and almost died near the end of the book. Father de Soya on the other hand is the Pax officer and Catholic priest who is tasked with capturing Aenea. Throughout the journey, he displays surprising complexity as he undergoes a hundred deaths and resurrections that slowly drives him mad. Despite being solely responsible for Aenea's capture, de Soya is not the bad guy. Yes, he is faithful and obedient to the Church, but he's also smart enough to know when the truth is being manipulated, and can make decisions based on his own judgement. He ends up being possibly the best written character in the entire series.

The main story arc of Endymion is essentially just an interplanetary manhunt. It's a much simpler and more linear tale than Hyperion, but I'd argue that it's also more fun. Being taken on a wild ride down the River Tethys, revisiting all of these planets and finding out how much they have changed since The Fall, all the while being relentlessly pursued by someone who is dying over and over and over again to fulfill his duty to the Church... it's all so fascinating and exciting. By the time I was 3/4 of the way through the book, I was finishing every single chapter with an audible string of "holy shit, oh my god, what the fuck". If you have read the two Hyperion books and were unsure of whether or not Endymion is worth your time, I promise you it is. If you love the world that Simmons created, then there is more than enough here to satisfy your thirst. Time for me to jump into the finale.

[nonsensical-shitposting]

Me and my brother’s Humans-B-Gone! theories are an excellent microcosm of how both of us treat theorizing about where a work of fiction’s plot is going, because it’s like...

Him: I think Sophodra and Rose will start a communist revolution. And perhaps be lesbians, if time permits.

Me: Alright, so I actually have TWO theories. The shorter, more likely one is that Gregorsa’s showing us Humans-B-Gone because we’re being used as a test audience and he’s planning to show the final product to humans from the HBG world in hopes of using it as a stepping stone to some form of coexistence.

Him: The other one’s some ludicrous overcomplicated bullshit you have almost no evidence for, isn’t it?

Me: What’s my second theory? GLAD YOU ASKED!

Him: I didn’t ask at all, please don’t start explaining it-

Me, pulling out a conspiracy corkboard plastered in badly-cropped HBG screencaps: So the longer, more convoluted theory is that the size of Tricularia, the existence of macrovolutes and demivolutes, the warping of vertebrates into less recognizable forms, the Unknown Nature, and whatever the bolecore is are all byproducts of the influence of some kind of mycorrhizae-based intelligence which incited Tricularia’s mutation and overgrowth and grew along with it until it’d attained a “mind” of its own at a near-incomprehensible scale. Most of the life within it didn’t exist until it was brought there from Earth (maybe through some kind of space-time rift or by a wayward colonization ship, but we don’t know enough about what humans are up to in the HBG universe for me to make an educated guess) and was “engineered” into the forms we see in HBG after this entity absorbed a lot of human cultural ideas and neuroses- morphing into a de facto egregore in the process- but got its wires badly crossed for a lot of it, which is why so many of the vertebrates got mutated!

Him: What did I JUST say?

Me: Additionally, it got “confused” when it came to the size difference between invertebrates (particularly arthropods) and vertebrates and tried to invert them, which caused the development of macrovolutes from protocules; the macrovolutes’ biologically-based technology is foreshadowing for how the mycorrhizae-egregore “engineered” them under this theory. Insects and arachnids’ greater prevalence in human culture as compared to other arthropods is another thing the mycorrhizae-egregore picked up on and is why they’re the only arthropods capable of gaining intelligence. It also created the Unknown Nature by carefully growing a high-mass layer of some kind under Tricularia’s “skin,” with it being more negligible to macrovolutes but “as binding as gravity ever was” for humans serving as further proof for its organization of Tricularia along human-influenced lines-

Him: Dude, I just wanted to talk about the cringefail queer bugs, stop overthinking everything! Have you ever considered, just once in your life, that maybe it’s not that deep?

Me, seamlessly flipping him off with one hand as I whip out a second conspiracy board with the other: -and Professor Gregorsa (whose name is also a subtle hint at the word “egregore” that’s intentionally masked by the more obvious Kafka reference) figured out how to plug himself into the mycorrhizae-egregore and “ascended” to a more powerful state of existence, carving out a corner of its “mind” for himself and deciding to use his new abilities for good; during this process the mycorrhizae-egregore’s “mind” was influenced by Gregorsa in a more macrovolute-like direction, and it’s what’s putting the hidden text at the end of the episodes. Gregorsa somehow used it to make contact with our world and figure out our ingrained cultural ideas regarding storytelling mechanisms, science, and arthropods, realizing in the process that the mycorrhizae-egregore based its “engineering” of Tricularian life on human ideas, or at least “tried” to-

Him, futilely rattling the doorknob: DID YOU LOCK THE DOOR SO I CAN’T WALK OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR UNHINGED RANTING?!

Me, throwing the key out the nearest window: -and after using the test animation of him and the Ask Gregorsa questions to confirm he could gather an audience, he chose Sophodra and Rose to present to us and set his plan in motion, which is to use the Humans-B-Gone show and his “translations” throughout it to accumulate the viewers’ subconscious understandings of what macrovolutes look like and how they act (all tailor-made by him) while we’re watching it, then channel them back into the mycorrhizae-egregore to “trick” it into creating a force inspired by the Unknown Nature, but affecting sight, hearing, and olfaction rather than as an attempted replacement for gravity-

Him: There is not enough material for you to be making theories this complicated! You- wait, why is your hoodie inside-out now? And where did those bags under your eyes come from?!

Me, progressively disheveled and exhausted-looking as I insanely gesticulate: -with Gregorsa’s hope being that he can create a sort of “background” mass hallucination that places a veil over the vision and hearing of all humans so they can understand macrovolutes and see them as more “familiar“ in appearance, essentially taking the translations he’s been showing us and projecting them throughout everywhere the mycorrhizae-egregore exists. This wouldn’t be limited to humans, because it’d later be revealed that Gregorsa also created a “reversed” version of HBG focused on the Hivers for orchideos, translating and filtering the humans for a macrovolute audience similarly to how he translates and filters macrovolutes for a human audience, then channeled that to create a similarly reversed version of this mass hallucination/“veil” that affects macrovolutes, letting them understand humans and subconsciously regard them better as well; similarly to how I’ve previously speculated that Gregorsa picked Sophodra and Rose to show us because they subvert human cultural views of their respective species, it’ll slowly be revealed that Vera, Mobia, and any other humans of note shown were also chosen by Gregorsa due to them subverting macrovolutes’ cultural views of mammals and/or humans-

Him: PLEASE stop talking, I’m begging you, you have to know none of this is correct-

Me, manically shaking a third conspiracy corkboard in his face: -but this is just the FIRST STEP of Gregorsa’s ultimate plan, which is to leverage the immediate shock following the descent of this “veil” to play himself up as a villainous puppet master, forcing an alliance of humans and macrovolutes against him by presenting himself as their mutual enemy and then maneuvering them into overthrowing the ants! Following that, he’ll “show his hand” enough to bait the human-macrovolute alliance into figuring out how to DESTROY THE MYCORRHIZAE-EGREGORE’S “MIND,” THUS PREVENTING IT FROM ANY FURTHER BIOLOGICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL ENGINEERING OF THE ENTITIES LIVING IN TRICULARIA BUT LEAVING IT INTACT ENOUGH TO KEEP THINGS LIKE THE UNKNOWN NATURE AND HIS “VEIL” FUNCTIONING, ADDITIONALLY GIVING GREGORSA FULL CONTROL OF ALL OF THE MYCORRHIZAE-EGREGORE’S ABILITIES! WITH THIS HE’LL KEEP HIMSELF IN THE POSITION OF A CONSTANT MUTUAL THREAT TO BOTH HUMANS AND MACROVOLUTES, THUS ENSURING THEY STAY ALLIED AND WORKING TOGETHER AT THE COST OF LETTING HIMSELF BE UNIVERSALLY HATED AND FEARED, BUT IRONICALLY ALL THIS DOES IS REPLACE ONE ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR WITH ANOTHER DESPITE GREGORSA’S BEST INTENTIONS! SEE, IT’S AN ANTICAPITALIST ALLEGORY FOR H

[talkingparrotkee]

What are your personal theories/hcs on Shuri's future interactions with the other avengers?

This is a brainracker, especially since the Avengers rooster has been flipped upside down and switched out with new blood. However, I think I can answer for a few.

▪︎ Princess Shuri and Peter Parker (Spider-Man)

I think this, by far, is the easiest answer to give. I think Shuri and Peter would click the fastest and the most seamless. Their character arcs entirely mirror.

Not only do they start out similar (quippy, mentored science geeks with more light-hearted, slow-to-anger personalities), they are taken down a path of loss, grief, vengeance, and near-consuming anger. Both were protagonists to their own "coming of age" movie.

Pair this up with their admirable brilliance and skill in technological design. Spider-Man also shares similarity to Riri Williams, and we saw how Shuri near immediately clicked with her.

They even get along in the comics, with an almost amusing brotherly-sisterly dynamic. Honestly, Shuri just overall gets along with Spider-men.

There is no doubt in my mind that they'll immediately snap together like magnets. A comfortable relationship where they don't need many words, and when they do speak, they instantly understand the other.

▪︎ Princess Shuri and Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier)

Does Bucky count? If so, I would think their personal interaction would be positive, for the most part. They are already friends and bonded in Wakanda, with her at his side nursing him.

They have an amiable relationship. Yheir end-credit scene indisputably shows that. He was even named, "The White Wolf."

However, I think he will be in the Thunderbolts, a team employed by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (her favorite colonizer's good for nothing ex-wife), undertaking tasks for the United States Government and CIA.

You know... The same people who sought to destablize Wakanda (Shuri's nation) and take Riri Williams (Shuri's bestie)?

They will very much be on opposite sides. I think Bucky will be immensely torn, maybe Shuri hurt.

▪︎ Princess Shuri and Scott Lang

In the Wakanda Files book, Shuri is quite envious of Lang and Pym's excursions in the Quantum Realm. She states this in her Kimoyo logs.

I feel like she'd definitely pick his brain if given the chance, maybe ask for Hank's digits for discussion. There would be some respect (not only for his groundbreaking advancements, but the way he operates for the love of his family) jealousy, and want for collaboration (something Shuri expresses several times in the files, like with mourning Iron-Man and feeling sad that she cannot do so with him) there.

Shuri also flexes how she, Wakanda, can do things better in both Wakanda Files and virtually all of her appearances. So I can imagine her fixing or improving something of his.

Lang is also kind of goofy, so I'm interested how tha5'll play

▪︎ Princess Shuri and Sam Wilson

Funny enough, the panther siblings don't quite get along with Sam Wilson in the comics. So if they ever take any note from that, they won't be frolicking in a field of flowers hand-in-hand.

While MCU proven time and time again, butting heads on political issues or on the principle of their nationality difference (Shuri is Wakandan, Sam is American. It's been shown that Shuri can have awkwardness or a difference with American characters, from Riri to Ross) seems very much viable. It is foreshadowed that Wakanda will be at war with surface nations, primary ones being France and the United States of America. Sam is now Captain America, that is the mantle he bears.

I don't think it will be too great of a rift, though. I would presume temporary conflict and challenge. He is friends with Bucky, Sam makes an effort for social change (identifying the problems in America himself in Falcon and The Winter Soldier) so I doubt he'd be for the corruption, and they have been on the same side before.

Now I'm not sure if Shuri will become a common, frequent, or permanent member of the Avengers, even if T'Challa was more or less one in the comicbooks (she is not T'Challa and these are not the comics). However, I can expect collaboration. They already collaborated before, and Shuri is the kind of character who can easily be a team player. She enjoys collaboration, is a teacher, leads two programs, and has a slow-to-anger, perceptive personality.

Additionally, she worked with previous Avengers founding members, and Wakanda garnered the development of outreaching to those outside of them who are in misfortune. I would think it'd be optimal and easy for her to work with them, maybe even serve as a temporary member for the time being.

I may add further onto this later (Dr. Strange, She-Hulk, and Shang-Chi). Thanks for the ask!

[shunsellon]

vestal: an analysis

notes on the vestal society and political system + analysis that makes it make more sense to me lmao

vestal is an absolute hereditary monarchy. there are no mentions of a parliament on vestal nor laws or constitutions that the head(s) of state needs to follow. both zenoheld and hydron exercise power freely throughout the show with no checks and balances.

no mentioned justification, i.e. divine right, for the existence of the monarchy.

it has your very typical (possibly de facto) feudal class system. monarchs on top followed by the noble/upper class (shadow is mentioned to be a nobleman, possibly the fermins as well), and the peasantry/working/lower class (volt is shown to be from the slums, while it's implied that baron is also lower class). by the time of new vestroia, upward social mobility is possible through bakugan battling (volt and gus, possibly mylene as well). do vestals have capitalism? we'll never know.

vestal is a dystopia. their reason for colonizing new vestroia is due to overpopulation, but basing it off of real events - overpopulation is a myth. the concept of overpopulation (in connection with ecofascism) is used to cover the unequal distribution of resources brought upon by class hierarchy, i.e. the upper classes accumulating everything for themselves. with the issue of overpopulation, vestal is more than likely to have a poverty problem, which can be hinted with volt and his previous living situation.

another point for vestal as a dystopia: they feed their citizens state-sponsored propaganda, particularly with the bakugan. they hold gladiator-like bakugan battles to keep citizens happy. this diverts the population's attention away from the fact that they're oppressing sentient beings and from their unethical experiments behind the scenes.

the vexos work directly underneath the highest seat of government and are part of the propaganda machine. they're celebrities and practically politicians themselves, maybe even a paramilitary. they serve the interests of the ruling class and it's shown in how they willingly partake in televised gladiator battles - they enforce the societal view that bakugan for bloodsport is okay and to be celebrated.

[horizon-verizon]

I never thought I’d the see people praising the Faith of the Seven. Women’s rights are something that so many Christian churches have been against for nearly the entire history of Christianity, and this oppression is still alive and well today. Organized religion always has been and remains the greatest enemy of women’s rights and emancipation. The Bible created a blueprint for vilifying powerful women leaders and there are more than 200 verses that specifically demean and dehumanize women. The very basis of Christianism is misogynistic, every thing starts with a woman’s ‘original sin’.

“What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman… I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children.”—Saint Augustine: De genesi ad litteram, 9, 5–9

“Nor are the women to smear their faces with the ensnaring devices of wily cunning. . . The Instructor [Christ] orders them to go forth “in becoming apparel, and adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, subject to their own husbands.”  –Saint Clement of Alexandria, Christian theologian (c150-215): The Instructor

“In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know that you are Eve ? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die… Woman, you are the gate to hell.” –Tertullian, “the father of Latin Christianity” (c160-225): De Cultu Feminarum (On the Apparel of Women), Chapter 1

“For it is improper for a woman to speak in an assembly, no matter what she says, even if she says admirable things, or even saintly things, that is of little consequence, since they come from the mouth of a woman.” –Origen (d. 258): Fragments on First Corinthians, 74

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” –1 Timothy 2:12 

“If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, you shall...stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help...and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. [If the woman is notengaged] the man who lay with her shall give 50 shekels of silver to the young woman's father, and she shall become his wife.” –Deuteronomy 22:23-27

“But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die.” –Deuteronomy 22:20-21

“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” –1 Tim. 2:11-14

While Catholicism and other religions passed on from European colonizers are not as directly influential in state politics thanks to the supposed Age of Reason, these religions and their cultural impact on how people think about family organization and gender roles still shape much of European and American politics, society, and law. In the beginning of European imperialism and events like Japan's moving out of isolationism. Even for PoCs like Black people. Then there is the accelerated commodifictation of PoC and queer culture (especially Black) AND political organizations to resist oppressive laws and structures through media representation, social media, and groundwork discussions that it's hard to effectively hide from activists publishing their thoughts or queer/PoC people so visibly changing infrastructure.

It was pretty much inevitable that people who want "the good old days" of rich Christian straight white cis-male privilege to push back.

[bonmonjour]

Some Thoughts

“A few years ago, I was in DC in the summer. The week of July 4th, to be specific. On America’s Independence Day, I was on the wharf, a few miles south of the Mall. This was during Trump’s presidency, and this year, he had decided he wanted his own military parade. There, on the wharf, the most I saw of that was the planes. I saw Air Force One fly by, though I didn’t get a picture. At one point, a few fighter jets flew over and it was at that moment that my outlook changed completely. “The wharf on that day was not a war zone but hearing those jets and feeling how they hurt my ears, I pictured what hell those in the Middle East must live through. Imagine those planes and the bombers flying over your land, over your house, day after day for years. Imagine a star of metal, falling from the sky and lighting your neighborhood ablaze. Imagine the sound and sight of those buildings collapsing, the rubble falling. The things that are usually relegated to the newspaper once before moving on with their lives suddenly became real for a second.  “That is the reality for the millions living in occupied zones all around the world. In Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and (most relevant to the past week) Palestine.”

I wrote that more than two years ago at this point (writing October 9th, 2023) and unfortunately it still holds true. It was the week that the IDF shot worshippers in Al Aqsa during Ramadan, and civilians chanted “may their names be erased.” I think the reason I never finished what I started writing last time is because I bit off more than I could chew. I was all over the place, frankly. With this, I hope to talk about what Palestine is like, what this conflict is about as far as I understand it, (de)colonization, settlers and violence, and perhaps end with some thoughts on propaganda and the international “community.”

This week, Gaza broke down its prison walls. War has broken out, Netanyahu has promised genocide on the captive population of Gaza, and the international press stands against Palestine. All too predictably. Many, incredibly many, official statements include the word “unprovoked” in their descriptions of Palestine’s rebellion. For some reason, perhaps even intentionally, no one’s memory can be bothered to be longer than that of a goldfish. The very state of Gaza’s existence today is horrid proof of Israel’s wrath–the open satisfaction of its anger and hatred against the people it dispossessed. 

I don’t even have to go back to 1948 to find examples of cruelty, nor to 2014. Nor really to 2021, but I wrote this then and I’m re-using it. The second week of May 2021 began with the seizure of Sheikh Jarrah by Israeli settlers. Imagine if, one moment, you’re sitting in your house, and the next, your door’s been broken, and an Israeli family starts moving in. You try to argue, they harass you. Attack you. Force you to the streets. They break the shop windows and burn the buildings. These aren’t terrorists working for some shadowy organization, these are average everyday Israeli men and women who participate in this theft. On top of the seizures, Israel controls Palestine’s food, their mud that passes for water, their electricity, and their movement. ("I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly." —Yaov Gallant) They could be bombed at any hour of night or day without warning. Residents are frequently subject to the whim of Israeli military and police; they are always at risk of physical violence, lethal and sexual. The whole of Gaza has been blockaded since 2005. 44% of its population is under 15 years of age, with a further 21% being 15-24 years old. Half of Gaza’s population has lived their entire life–their entire development–inside this open-air slaughterhouse, never having been allowed to venture out.

What’s perhaps even worse is that the children trapped there are used to it. Two years ago, there was a video going around of a little girl jumping on her trampoline while in the left of the video, a building goes up in flames with thunder ascending from the earth. She kept on jumping. This literal hell, this world of fire in the sky and brimstone on earth, is the only one they’ve ever known. What happens to the ears when all one hears are bombs exploding, guns firing, jackboots marching, and children crying? What happens to the eyes when all one sees is stars of fire and brimstone on earth; structures falling and your impending death a furlong in front of you? What happens to the mouth and stomach when the food is dung and the water is mud? And to call that just another Thursday takes an inhuman, immorally inflicted amount of desensitization. Each day, nay, each hour, you hear of how so and so many kids were killed in such and such a bombing. Those kids had families, mother and father, brothers and sisters, they had dreams and hopes. They wanted to live, and they were snuffed out, and relegated to being a statistic in the morning paper that peoples’ eyes skip over. Even right now, Israel orders houses, apartments, schools, and hospitals be bombarded. White phosphorus has gotten involved.

These hellish conditions are part of the reason for why Palestinians even fight: freedom from that. This conflict that has raged for over 70 years now has never been about religion, as some might be inclined to believe. It is not a simple story of Jews contesting the Holy Land with Muslims. Yes, no one should ever forget the atrocities of the Holocaust committed against Jews, but Jews are not immune from fascism–no group of people is. From its very inception, Zionism was meant to be a colonialist project intended to drive out the mostly non-Jewish Palestinians, settle the land, and create a Jewish nation-state. When you have a nation (ein Volk) and a state (ein Reich), it shouldn’t come as a surprise when eventually someone decides to complete the quote. On the other hand, Palestine is not all Muslims. There are plenty of Palestinians of other religions, most notable for European Christendom, Christians. If this were strictly a religious war, a crusade for the Holy Land, why would European Christians, many of whom are anti-semites (let’s face it), side against Christians in the Holy Land? Just as Spanish colonialism was never about which god the Aztecs should worship, the conflict in Palestine was never about which of Abraham’s children should get exclusive right to live there. I have not seen many liberals come at it from the religion angle, but for the few that do, they always side with Israel because to them Islam is a barbaric backward religion that murders queer people and rapes women, and so why should they support that. Almost always, they end up being ridiculously racist, and the one I had the misfortune of seeing was arguing with a Muslim woman. 

Israel is a settler-colonialist state founded on the dispossession of Indigenous people. As such, the only way forward for Palestine is decolonization. Eve Tuck and K.W. Yang’s 2012 paper, “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” gives the definition of settler-colonialism, what it entails in terms of relations, and its incommensurability with other social justice movements.

Settler colonialism operates through internal/external colonial modes simultaneously because there is no spatial separation between the metropole and the colony. For example, in the United States, many Indigenous peoples have been forcibly removed from their homelands onto reservations [mirroring the removal of Palestinians from their homes into Gaza or the West Bank], indentured, and abducted into state custody, signaling the form of colonization as simultaneously internal… and external… with a frontier… The horizons of the settler colonial nation-state are total and require a mode of total appropriation of Indigenous life and land, rather than the selective expropriation of profit-producing fragments (5). Land is what is most valuable, contested, required. This is both because the settlers make Indigenous land their new home and source of capital, and also because the disruption of Indigenous relationships to land represents a profound epistemic, ontological, cosmological violence. This violence is not temporally contained in the arrival of the settler but is reasserted each day of occupation. This is why Patrick Wolfe (1999) emphasizes that settler colonialism is a structure and not an event (5). In order for the settlers to make a place their home, they must destroy and disappear the Indigenous peoples that live there… For the settlers, Indigenous peoples are in the way and, in the destruction of Indigenous peoples, Indigenous communities, and over time and through law and policy, Indigenous peoples’ claims to land under settler regimes, land is recast as property and as a resource. Indigenous peoples must be erased, must be made into ghosts (6).

Basically, what these passages illustrate is that due to Israel’s very nature as settler-colonialist, apartheid ends up being the only situation. Israel lays claim over the whole land, but as long as a pocket of Palestine exists, it exists as a colony within Israel’s contiguous claim. Thus, Palestinians are turned into colonial subjects, subject to different law than that of the metropole. To make this relatable to Americans, many of the indictments against George III are the unfair application of the legal system between Britain itself and the colonies across the Atlantic. In the region, if an Israeli and an Arab commit the same crime, they are subject to different laws in different legal systems: the Israeli to civil court, and the Arab to military court.

Furthermore, it’s not just the internal colonialism of Arabs that Israel is interested in, such as “segregation, divestment, surveillance, and criminalization.” No, Israel needs Palestinian land as well, for lebensraum and for capital. The violence of this (recent, remember Sheikh Jarrah) settlement is reasserted every day that the settlers remain settled, and the Indigenous people remain dispossessed. The need for land as lebensraum also necessitates the total elimination of Indigenous peoples from the land “because the presence of Indigenous peoples–who make a priori claims to land and ways of being–is a constant reminder that the settler colonialist project is incomplete” (Tuck and Yang 9). That is, the very existence of Palestinians is a daily reminder to the Zionists that Zionism is incomplete. Thus, the only way to complete Zionism, to complete the project of a “Jewish homeland,” is for Palestinians to be made into ghosts.

They go on to say the following about decolonization:

In this set of settler colonial relations, colonial subjects who are displaced by external colonialism, as well as racialized and minoritized by internal colonialism, still occupy and settle stolen Indigenous land. Settlers are diverse, not just of white European descent [or European Jewish, in this case], and include people of color, even from other colonial contexts. This tightly wound set of conditions and racialized, globalized relations exponentially complicates what is meant by decolonization, and by solidarity, against settler colonial forces… Decolonization in a settler context is fraught because empire, settlement, and internal colony have no spatial separation (7). Though the details are not fixed or agreed upon, in our view, decolonization in the settler colonial context must involve the repatriation of land simultaneous to the recognition of how land and relations to land have always already been differently understood and enacted; that is, all of the land, and not just symbolically. This is precisely why decolonization is necessarily unsettling, especially across lines of solidarity. “Decolonization never takes place unnoticed” (Fanon, 1963, p. 36). Settler colonialism and its decolonization implicates and unsettles everyone (7).

What they mean here is that real geopolitics is complicated. There is no one demographic that is completely the victim or completely the perpetrator. In the US, there have been many, many people who came here fleeing from hard times in their own countries or were brought over to face a hard time in this country. It doesn’t matter what non-Indigenous group it is (the Africans who were stolen to be slaves, and their descendants; the Irish, Italians, Swedes, Germans, Poles; immigrants from China, Japan, India; refugees from Central America and the Middle East), they are still settled on stolen Indigenous land. They are still settlers. And so, it doesn’t really matter who lives in Israel, how they got there, or why they came, because ultimately, they settled there on stolen Palestinian land and thereby continue the everyday settler-colonialist violence against Palestinians. 

Tuck and Yang further bring up the complication of immigration. Basically, immigrants must abide by pre-existing laws; settlers upend pre-existing laws. As an immigrant in Canada, I do not establish my own laws, I have to abide by Canadian law. The settlers who came here hundreds of years ago did not abide by pre-existing laws of the Indigenous peoples. And even in me having to abide by Canadian law, I am upending the pre-existing Indigenous laws. Israeli settlers in Palestine do not follow the pre-existing laws of the Palestinians, they bring their own law with them. Immigrants who come to live in Israel have to follow the Israeli settlers’ laws (and be complicit in the upending of laws and ways of being that went before.)

I think this is one of the reasons why decolonization is such a fraught issue, incommensurable with many other social justice movements. To me, decolonization is a non-negotiable that every colonized people deserve. My own great-grandfather, who I knew for about 6 years, was probably one of the worst people I’ve known: he yelled at me, he was mean to my grandma, he was apparently a physically abusive father. Despite all his flaws that I would never defend, he was born and grew up under British colonialism. Even he deserved to have Britain’s knee off his neck. I’ve seen quite a few posts I can bring up here. 

Many people, usually liberals, are offended at the mere suggestion of supporting Palestine because apparently Palestinians (just in general, I guess. Twitter: where nuance goes to die) are racist, they’re misogynists, they have a barbaric religion, they hate queer people, and on and on and on. I frankly don’t give a single shit. I don’t care if they were even the rudest, meanest, ugliest people on the planet interpersonally. For the sake of argument, even if every Palestinian was a barbaric racist, sexist, and queerphobe, they would still not “deserve” Israeli colonialism. Being colonized is not some punishment doled out by the colonizers for some flaw of character. J.K. Rowling is a horrible, wretched woman responsible not only for crimes against humanity (the Harry Potter books /j), but also for spreading her vile transphobia all across Britain and the rest of the world. Even on her, I would not wish rape. Because it’s not some punishment for flaw of character.  It is easy enough to fight for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to fight for the miserable and corrupt.

On the other hand, I’ve also seen some people defending Israelis (is that the right phrase?) by pointing to anecdotes about how nice the Israelis they know are. I’m sure they’re sweet, kind people who say nice things to you, and bring you gifts and knick-knacks and so forth. They’re still settlers on Palestinian land. Not to compare everything to the Nazis, but I’m sure many, many German citizens who moved to SS-occupied Poland as part of the Race and Resettlement Bureau’s initiative were good and fine citizens if you knew them. They probably greeted you friendly, threw parties, gave gifts, and so forth. And yet, they were complicit in the actions of the Reich. My own grandma is one of the nicest people I know. Frankly, she spoils me whenever I visit. She’s nice to all her grandchildren, she gives us all gifts and money, she’s well respected in her community. She still thinks “Hitler wasn’t that bad” (real quote) and supports Modi’s BJP. Even the nicest people can be complicit in horrible violence, and even the most wretched can be victims of that violence. Personality and attitude mean absolutely nothing.

One thing that all this discourse around settlers seems to take for granted is that the situation in Anglo countries today is at all anything like Israel/Palestine today. The people who throw out strawmen about “if the Native Americans started decolonizing, should they gun you down too?” and the people who say “Yes” both seem to hold to that. The reality is that in the Anglo countries, most of the settlement was done hundreds of years ago. All the Native land has already been divided up and settled by the White men, the freed slaves, the European migrants looking to get their free acres. The Homestead Act and Dominion Lands Act were passed more than 150 years ago. For settlers and recent immigrants who buy land today, they buy it from another settler/immigrant, and so on. No, the situation in Israel/Palestine is much more akin to the first European settlers that came to the New World in the 15th and 16th centuries. There is a reason Opechancanough and his men killed 347 people in Jamestown. Maybe it wasn’t justified, but they did have reasons. Maybe another example is the German settlers in SS-occupied Poland. Their very presence, very settlement, in Germany’s eastern occupations was predicated on the resettlement of the Poles that were there before elsewhere. 

And let’s be honest, it’s not like the average Israeli citizen is the paragon of morality. Israeli civilians chanted from the Book of Judges “may their names be erased” when Al Aqsa mosque was thought to be on fire during Ramadan. Civilian children signed missiles meant for Lebanon. Ordinary civilians are largely the ones seizing Palestinians’ homes. It was civilians treating the massacre of Gaza as “the best reality show in town.” It’s Israeli civilian settlers calling for lynchings in occupied Jerusalem. I could sit here, safe in Canada, saying Palestine should’ve done this or that, but I am not the victim of Israel’s daily violence. I will not make grand-standing moral judgments on how the victims of colonialist abuse should respond to their abusers. I could debate whether an Algerian child wanting to cut a Frenchman into pieces was morally right, but I can’t deny that there were very real and valid psychological conditions for the child wanting that.  

Someone also brought up the notion of “sins of the father” and I think that’s very interesting to think about. In general, I say it’s not very leftist to blame children for their parents. Children are not their parents’ property, nor are they responsible for something done before they were even born. But as I’ve mentioned, settler colonialism is a structure. It doesn’t matter whether you personally went out and killed a Native and stole his land, you live on stolen Native land nevertheless. You materially benefit from your ancestors’ settlement and perpetuate settler-colonialist violence. Without any notion of “sins of the father,” projects like reparations or LANDBACK do not make any sense. After all, who am I to give this land back to the Musqueam, I didn’t take it. I think perhaps a comparison to other structures like patriarchy or white-ness might be apt here. Even though any given man might never have committed violence against a woman to explicitly maintain patriarchy, nevertheless he benefits from the structure of patriarchy. I did not come up with laws or social norms treating women as lesser, but still I inherit them and am responsible (at least in part) for what happens to them: whether they are perpetuated or abolished. A white person living today never invented the concept of race, played no part in coming up with concepts of racial supremacy or polygenism, but still they materially and psychologically benefit from being white in a world where white people are still at the top at the expense of others. However, despite the complicated web of relations involved in settler-colonialism, the fact of the matter is that no one chooses to be born a white man, but many a white men have chosen to be settlers. Or in this case, nobody chooses to be born Jewish, but many Jews have chosen to settle.

I keep coming back to this quote from Gerrard Winstanley, a proto-communist writing during the time of land enclosures in England:

The power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, yet you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land. (A Declaration, p. 2)

Notice that he does not say, “till you, bloody thief, be rooted out of the land.” No, he says, “the power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword” and “that sins of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children… till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land.” The power of settler-colonialism is what needs to be rooted out, not necessarily the people. 

Palestine’s only main way out is violent rebellion because no peaceful supplication will ever be satisfying to Israel or its friends. Israel doesn’t want a subjugated Palestine; it wants an extinct Palestine. And also, a note on terminology, under Israeli law, every resident of Palestine is a combatant. Every bit of violence in the name of resistance Palestinians do can be labeled as the action of combatants. Palestinians are often called “terrorists,” and Palestinian resistance “terrorism.” The word itself means nothing. Groups like ISIS, the Taliban, Hezbollah, etc. can all be called terrorists. As can the US government. And so can the protestors fighting against Cop City or against pipelines. Thus, the usage of “terrorism” gives a very easy way for anti-Palestinian people to portray their resistance-violence as akin to ISIS-violence. These takes often come from those who think Hamas is Palestine or statements like “What did you think decolonization was going to look like?” are blanket excuses for war crimes.

All that said, rape and the indiscriminate killing of children is morally reprehensible and should be condemned equally. I say “equally” because Israel massacres Palestinian children everyday, and commits sexual violence against Palestinian men and women, boys and girls. And yet, there is never any international outrage at these daily occurrences. After all, Palestinians are not human, right, why should we care? I don’t know if the video of the woman in the back of the truck is real. If it is, then obviously Hamas’ actions should be condemned. Hamas is not a paragon of virtue either: they’re a right-wing anti-communist Islamic fundamentalist organization that openly wants to kill Jews. They should not be praised for who they are. But still, they are the enemy Israel created for itself. Even today, they threatened to air the killing of civilian hostages.

However, funnily enough, that woman is the only incident I’ve heard brought up against Palestinian rebellion. Every day Israeli men rape Palestinian women, and I don’t see the outrage online. But when those ‘barbaric’ Palestinians might have done it, suddenly the whole timeline is equating “support for Palestine” as “support for rape and beheading and etc.” This, even though many Palestinians say the evidence is lacking. I do think a part of this selective outrage is the racism involved. Palestinians fighting against their oppressors are “terrorists;” Ukrainians fighting against theirs are brave warriors. Israeli war crimes are downplayed; Palestinian groups’ war crimes are blown up to “those brown savages are coming for our women”-levels of racist. The number of posts I've seen along the lines of “Palestinians are sand-dwelling rape monkeys” is so incredibly disheartening. In short: war crimes are bad; Hamas and Israel both doing war crimes is bad; resorting to racist caricature to criticize Palestinian groups is also bad. The unfortunate reality is that pretty much every armed force has partaken in sexual violence against women and children. This does not change the validity of the cause they fight for. Sexual violence is not legitimized by anti-colonialist causes, nor does it delegitimize the causes.

I’ll end this by just mentioning how none of the violence that Israel does ever matters to those outside. Israel can commit flagrant war crimes–collective punishment, executions, rape, white phosphorus–and receive no backlash from the leadership or media in its ally countries. Israel knows that it can do this with total impunity. It can steal homes and massacre children on camera, have that video footage published by major outlets and still expect no punishment. Not even a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to. It’s that same gall, that same flagrant arrogance that allowed them to literally bomb and collapse a building that housed the offices for the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and others back in 2021. It truly speaks to the effectiveness of their propaganda and the sickness of their ideology that other press outlets will voluntarily cuck themselves by defending Israel in attacking their fellow journalists. The amount of brain worms it takes to look at reality, refuse to accept it because it doesn’t fit your preconceptions, invent a fictional narrative, and then accuse the victims of being the real aggressors is truly staggering. Israel will constantly play up their “right to self-defense” so that people will sympathize with them, and they will accuse anyone critical of them of antisemitism. No matter what Israel does, the reaction will always be “Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop,” without an ounce of support for Palestine’s right to not be wiped off the face of the earth.

[pearwaldorf]

I finished watching RRR last night. It's really long, ridiculous in good and bad ways, and absolutely a piece of Hindutva propaganda (background). There are people who think nobody should watch the film because of how loathsome its tenets are, and I understand that. I also think it's useful to understand how this sort of thing works when it's done well, because honestly? Most Western propaganda fucking sucks. It has to work as entertainment first to make people receptive to its message, and it goes down so, so easy when you do it right.

The tonal whiplash of the movie is honestly incredible. I watched the first hour during a work night and felt like I staggered out of a pinball machine. It is so overwhelming all you can do is try your best to keep up. And that sort of exhuberance is attractive, in an age where it feels like every film is either calculated to show how fucking smart and clever the writer-director thinks he is or some sort of Disney mass-market grey nutritional paste.

It's so much it's almost camp, especially every interaction Ram and Bheem have. Like of course there are cultural differences in how men express affection towards one another, but it can only explain so much. There are literal! montages! Ram does a full Cyrano de Bergerac for Bheem to help him court Jenny! He takes an L in the dance contest so his bro can look good in front of his crush!

Please understand, I don't want to impose a Western gaze on something that should not be interpreted this way (and if I've missed the mark I'm happy to hear about it). But there are only so many fanfic tropes I can deal with dancing their way on screen, sometimes literally, before I can conclude it crosses the line from homosocial to homosexual. (Also given the Hindutva stance on homosexuality, it would not surprise me if somebody was just like "No they're just really good friends I swear.")

The dynamic between Ram and Bheem becomes so much more uncomfortable after Ram reveals his mission. Bheem is, and I say this with affection, strong of heart and dumb of ass. I know some of it is meant to reflect his naivete as a tribesman, but sweetheart, when your bestie shows up in the literal uniform of the colonizer I don't think the appropriate response is "Are you yanking my chain?"

Maybe I wouldn't make so much of it if I didn't know about the movie's nationalist stances. But in that context a man who hits so many of the uneducated but noble savage tropes explicitly submitting to somebody who we later see as the literal representation of Rama is, uh, really troubling.

Random observations I just wanted to throw out there:

That first bit where the crowd is storming the barracks? Every person Ram beats down has a turban or a skullcap. And that's kind of gross.

Every woman in a piece of media pushing nationalist messages is the same flat cutout, I swear. Seetha has no personality other than to exist as the exemplar of (Hindu) womanhood. Jenny is kind and compassionate but in an essentialist way that sets her off as uncorrupted by colonialism and empire, unlike her evil aunt.

The portrayal of the British as ridiculously, cartoonishly evil but somehow still grossly incompetent (ie the Star Wars stormtrooper problem) trivializes the real harm and devastation suffered by the entire country under their rule.

It's not a movie I would watch again, but I think it was useful to get a glimpse inside a propaganda machine. Knowing more about your enemy enables you to understand how they're going to try and get into your head. And given that Modi doesn't appear to be going anywhere and there's plenty of people sympathetic to Hindutva ideals here in the States, it's good to know about.

[mediumsofmayfair]

CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE !!

BORROWED FROM: @radicalrascals.

TAGGING: @opheliaximmortal, @eclipsecrowned, @behindviolenteyes, @sangcreole, @withinycu and @godpyre.

 ✧･ﾟ   ���𝐀𝐒𝐇 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄.

► ROWAN, MONA & MERRICK MAYFAIR. 

★  ⸻   GENERAL

Name: Rowan Mayfair | Mona Mayfair | Merrick Mayfair

Alias(es): The thirteenth (13th) witch | Ophelia | practitioner of Vodou

Gender: genderqueer (she/they) | female (she/her) | demi-girl (she/they)

Age: 26+ | 20+ | 24+

Date of Birth: November 7, 1959 | October 24, 1983 | September 20, you do the math

Place of Birth:  NOLA, Garden district | New Orleans, garden district | New Orleans, French quarter

Spoken Language(s): French, English, Telekinesis, ghost/demon conjuring, French Roman Catholic, foresight and spells | French, English, intersectional feminism, telekinesis, ghost/demon conjuring, spells, and ghost hunting | Haitian creole, French, English, aave, ghost/demon conjuring, spells & ghost hunting

Orientation: bi (male lean) | bi (non-discriminating!) | bi (female lean)

Occupation(s):  that’s Miss Doctor Rowan Mayfair, PHD to you! | running the coven of the articulate when Lestat becomes histrionic 🤷‍♀️ | practitioner of Haitian Vodou & Talamasca member

★  ⸻   APPEARANCE

Eye colour: green | blue | brown

Hair colour: blonde (canonically) (black in the TV show) | auburn/red | dark black

Height: 5’8” | 5’0” | 5’4”

Other: the emerald necklace connecting her through a deal her great ancestor, Suzanne Mayfair made to the preternatural ghost/demon Lasher akin to a whip and the sound of the wind. | dresses exceedingly feminine, performing her femininity like a Shakespeare thespian or drag Queen/King. | At minimum Merrick always has a book on hand and a hair accessory in her creole curls.

★  ⸻   FAVORITE

Colour:  purple the queenly kind | baby blue | Mayfair (emerald) green. Song: Rowan | Mona | Merrick

Food: beignets | gumbo | shrimp po’boy

Drink: champagne | wine | bourbon

★  ⸻   HAVE THEY...

Passed university: with above average marks! | no - but more than capable of doing so! | no but only because time never let her

Had sex: yes | yes - perhaps… a lot | yes

Had Sex in Public: no | don’t tempt her sounds thrilling | no

Gotten pregnant/someone else pregnant: yes | no | no

Kissed a boy: yes | yes | yes

Kissed a girl: yes | yes | yes

Gotten tattoos: no | no | no

Gotten piercings: yes | yes | yes (ears for all of the above) Merrick, also pierced her nose

Been in love: yes | yes | yes

Stayed up 24+ hours: yes | yes | no

★  ⸻   ARE THEY...

A virgin: no | no | that’s a colonizer social construct.

A cuddler: yes | yes | no

A kisser: kinda? | yes | depends who you ask

Scared easily: no | no | no

Jealous easily: no | no | yes

Trustworthy: they’re Mayfair women, the answer is collectively no.

Submissive: yes | switch | yes

Dominant: in the mental sense | switch | no

In love: as a whole, not yet, they’d know.

Relationship status: collectively? It’s messy and complicated, of course Quinn Blackwood, Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt count! In that case… taken but complicated. Let us not begin on the family ghost.

★  ⸻   RANDOM QUESTIONS

TW for self-harm/suicide mention.

Have they harmed themselves: yes | not deliberately | (yes in canon) no (in my portrayal)

Thought of suicide/ideated: yes | yes | yes

Attempted suicide: yes | no | yes

Wanted to kill someone: yes but shush | he deserved it! | with good reason

Have/had a job: yes | of a kind | yes

Fears: a family legacy she can’t outrun, Lasher, violent men, the church, the state, and the future and being “enough.” | existential stuff, none of your concern | misogyny, racism, violence, injustice, the burden and blessing of family, and upholding her mothers legacy.

★  ⸻   FAMILY

A mess, that puts the Ptolemaic dynasty to shame.

See here.

On the Mayfairs and Lasher.

Lives of the Mayfair Witches.

Bonus, these threes collective playlist.

[ausetkmt]

Portugal “must apologise and take full responsibility for colonial period”

And that includes apologising for “exploitation, human slavery”

President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa used Liberty Day commemorations today to say that Portugal must apologise and “fully assume responsibility” for the exploitation and human slavery that characterised its colonial past.

Marcelo delivered this arguably popular opinion (a number of countries have decided similarly recently) at the commemorative session in parliament of the 49th anniversary of the April 25 revolution.

He used the example of President Lula da Silva making the first address of the morning as making “perfect sense” because Brazil “pioneered decolonialisation”.

“It’s not just (a question of) saying sorry – which is undoubtedly due”, Marcelo explained, “ because sometimes saying sorry is the easiest thing to do. You say sorry, turn your back, and the job is done. No, it is the assumption of responsibility for the future of the good and bad things we did in the past”, he said.

According to Portugal’s head of State, colonisation of Brazil had some positive factors, “the language, the culture, the unity of Brazilian territory”.

But the negatives were “the exploitation of the indigenous people (…) slavery, the sacrifice of the interests of Brazil and Brazilians.

“The worst of our presence that we must assume, just as we assume the best of that presence. And the same can be said of the best and the worst, the worst and the best of our presence in the empire throughout colonisation”, he concluded.

Literal translation of the president’s speeches can leave readers a little breathless. But the bottom line is clear: apologies are due for what long-dead Portuguese citizens did in the past.

Okay We Will Respond Now -

What Portuguese Colonialism Did to the World ?

RE Ausetkmt 4/27/2023

we asked Bard, Google's AI to write an essay about the said Portuguese colonialism, including facts, and outcomes and this is what it gave us. Enjoy

What Portuguese Colonialism Did to the World ?

RE Ausetkmt 4/27/2023

First We asked this question for comparison to give focus to our thought pattern :

How many countries did Portugal colonize globally?

Portugal colonized over 50 countries, including many in Africa. Some of the most notable Portuguese colonies in Africa include:

Angola

Mozambique

Guinea-Bissau

Cape Verde

São Tomé and Príncipe

Mozambique

Angola

Guinea-Bissau

Cabo Verde

São Tomé and Príncipe

Portuguese India

Portuguese Macau

Portuguese Timor

But we asked again and got a real list -

Sure, here is a complete list of the countries that were colonized by Portugal since the country of Portugal existed:

Africa

Angola

Mozambique

Guinea-Bissau

Cape Verde

São Tomé and Príncipe

Portuguese Guinea

Portuguese Mozambique

Portuguese Angola

Portuguese Cape Verde

Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe

Portuguese India

Portuguese Macau

Portuguese Timor

Americas

Brazil

Portuguese America

Portuguese Caribbean

Portuguese Newfoundland

Asia

Macau

Portuguese Timor

Portuguese India

Portuguese Malacca

Portuguese Goa

Portuguese China

Portuguese Japan

Portuguese Ceylon

Portuguese Mozambique

Portuguese Angola

Portuguese Cape Verde

Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe

Europe

Azores

Madeira

Oceania

Portuguese Timor

Portuguese Macau

We corrected once again with this question and response:

where is portuguese america located and what is it called today

There is no such thing as Portuguese America today. The term Portuguese America was used to refer to the Portuguese colonies in the Americas, which included Brazil, Portuguese Guiana, Portuguese Cape Verde, Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese Angola, and Portuguese Mozambique.

All of these colonies gained independence from Portugal in the 20th century, and are now independent countries.

Brazil is the largest country in South America, and it is the only former Portuguese colony in the Americas that is still considered to be a Portuguese-speaking country.

Portugal's colonial empire was one of the largest and most powerful in history. It lasted for centuries, and it had a profound impact on the people and cultures of the lands it colonized.

Portuguese Colonialism

Portugal was one of the first European nations to engage in colonialism, and its empire lasted for centuries. At its peak, the Portuguese Empire stretched from Africa to Asia, and included territories in South America, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean.

The Portuguese were motivated to colonize by a number of factors, including the desire for economic gain, religious conversion, and territorial expansion. The Portuguese were also skilled navigators and explorers, and they were able to establish colonies in some of the most remote parts of the world.

The Portuguese had a significant impact on the people and cultures of the lands they colonized. They introduced new crops, animals, and technologies, and they often forced the local people to convert to Christianity. The Portuguese also enslaved millions of people from Africa and brought them to their colonies in the Americas and Asia.

The Portuguese Empire had a mixed impact on Portugal itself. On the one hand, the empire brought great wealth and power to Portugal. On the other hand, the empire also drained Portugal's resources and led to the neglect of its own people.

The Portuguese Empire began to decline in the 18th century, and it finally collapsed in the 20th century.

Historical Dates

1415: Portugal conquers Ceuta, its first overseas territory.

1420: Portugal begins exploring the coast of Africa.

1498: Vasco da Gama reaches India, opening up a new trade route between Europe and Asia.

1500: Portugal establishes a colony in Brazil.

1510: Portugal conquers Goa, its first major territory in India.

1580: Portugal is united with Spain, forming the Iberian Union.

1640: Portugal regains its independence from Spain.

1755: A devastating earthquake destroys Lisbon and much of Portugal.

1822: Brazil declares its independence from Portugal.

1961: Portugal's African colonies begin to fight for independence.

1974: A military coup in Portugal leads to the end of the Portuguese Colonial War and the independence of Portugal's African colonies.

1999: Portugal returns Macau to China.

Groups of People Enslaved by the Portuguese

The Portuguese enslaved millions of people from Africa, and they brought them to their colonies in the Americas and Asia. The majority of the enslaved people were from West Africa, but people from other parts of Africa were also enslaved. The Portuguese enslaved people for a variety of reasons, including to work on plantations, in mines, and as domestic servants.

Economic Growth for Portugal as a Result of Colonialism

The Portuguese Empire brought great wealth and power to Portugal. The empire provided Portugal with access to new resources, markets, and labor. The empire also helped Portugal to become a major player in global trade. As a result of the empire, Portugal became one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in Europe.

Conclusion

Portuguese colonialism had a profound impact on the world. The Portuguese Empire was one of the largest and most powerful empires in history, and it had a significant impact on the people and cultures of the lands it colonized. The legacy of Portuguese colonialism is still felt today, and it continues to be a source of conflict and debate.

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Diosa Luna (Taíno Moon Goddess), Los Hermanos Guillén, Yamasá, República Dominicana. La Española was the first Spanish colony in the New World, preceding Puerto Rico by 15 years. It became independent twice, in 1844 from Haiti (which had invaded in 1822) and in 1865 from Spain (to which Santo Domingo had been restored by President Pedro Santana in 1861 due to bankruptcy). After 1865, Spain's colonies in the Americas were reduced to Cuba and Puerto Rico. Cuba obtained independence from Spain in 1898 and from the United States in 1902. Puerto Rico became a possession of the United States in 1898. "Of all Spanish colonial possessions in the Americas, Puerto Rico is the only territory that never gained its independence." Marisabel Brás, The Changing of the Guard: Puerto Rico in 1898

Site banner photo: a garita (colonial sentry box) of the Old San Juan Spanish fortress complex —which includes Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro) and Castillo San Cristóbal, the largest Spanish fortification in the New World— keeps silent watch over the tropical Atlantic. Photo by Michellewint @ Wallpapercave.com

San Juan National Historic Site

National Park Service

Diego Azeta has no actual physical existence in four-dimensional space-time. He is an imaginal cognitive framework emerging from abstract symbolic domains etched in textual, audial or visual substrates, oftentimes electronic. Diego, as a functional entity, interacts with the world as a cybernetic systems analyst.

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The last of the European colonial possessions can shed much light on the social behaviors of countries the world over, including the former colonial powers themselves. It is often easier to diagnose the failings of other cultures than to critically examine those of your own. (This is the overlooked beam in thine eye judgment bias.)

Another key point illustrated here is the use of unfair policies that ruling powers impose on ethnicities and inchoate nations they control. (This is the might makes right political fallacy.) These extraneous conditions, often intended to crassly project colonial power, become psychosocially onerous and contribute to the erosion of the cultural fabric that sustains the moral traditions and norms of conduct of the colonial society.

The main point of the presentation, however, is to showcase the egregious irresponsibility of the colony's political and social leaders when they abdicate their patrimonial duty to demolish the mentality of submission and lead the people to freedom, not just from the colonizers but more importantly from the rank, metastasized corruption the colonial leaders and inhabitants have learned, adopted and further developed on their own. People are always responsible for the consequences of their deeds and attitudes.

Borikén Taíno Map c. 1508 —goodrusk.com

Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities (offshore islands not distanced to scale) —CameraMundi.com

Enjoy your visits here, my friends.

Brush up on the basics:

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What is a logical fallacy? - Grammarly

What is critical thinking? - Monash University

{Breve Historia de Puerto Rico - EnciclopediaPR.org

Brief History of Puerto Rico - EncyclopediaPR.org}

History of Puerto Rico - Britannica

{Historia de Puerto Rico - Wikipedia

History of Puerto Rico - Wikipedia}

Puerto Rico - Britannica

Puerto Rico - CIA World Factbook

Puerto Rico - NationsOnline.org

Puerto Rico - Wikipedia (English, Español)

Puerto Rico - WorldData.info

Colonialism - National Geographic

Colonialism - Wikipedia

Colonialism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Columbus lands in Guanahaní (San Salvador), 12 October 1492. Image: PBS Learning Media/GBH. Columbus also discovered Borikén (San Juan Bautista, later Puerto Rico) on his second voyage on 19 November 1493.

Juan Ponce de León y el cacique Agüeybaná en Borikén en 1508.

-> Afírmalo con integridad en tus obras y proceder.

“Los buenos somos más.” 🇵🇷

— Profesora B. López

Los corruptos serán los menos. ☣️

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