#five republics faction

[catboybiologist]

The year is 2030.

At the Cincinnati stop of her "world tour", Taylor Swift ends her set. As she walks off the stage, she leans into a nearby mic and says "oh by the way, I'm lesbian".

She's still milking a public relationship with a man named Chett Whitesman, so this is met with a combination of cheers and confusion. Immediately, the media mobilizes. They have to intercept her before she gets onto her private jet, and ambush her for an interview. Luckily, this has become much easier these days. Since the release of her 2027 album, "The Carbon Emissions of my Heart", T Swizzle has performed a ritual sacrifice of an endangered species on live camera every time she boards her jet, a #girlboss way of saying that her emotional pain can only be healed by the tortured screams of drowning polar bears.

(Since this practice started, a devoted faction of Swifties have started a carbon negative algae farming commune, with the express intent of negating taytay sweezie's contributions to climate change. Apparently "her tortured soul deserves to pollute without guilt". They haven't even come close to their goals.)

Taytor Twift is intercepted after this ritual, as she's walking up the steps of her plane. When asked what the lesbian statement was about, she nonchalantly says "oh, I thought it was clear that was a joke. Anyways, G T G!" , before biting into the still beating heart of an emperor penguin.

During her flight, discourse on the newly renamed twitter-X-ElonIsExtremelyVirile Corp goes nuclear like it never has been before.

There's a camp of swifties thoroughly convinced that her relationship with Chett is all a beard so that she can still keep touring in the New Christian Republic of Florida, and the interview at the plane was deepfaked.

A different camp of Swifties feels insulted and betrayed that she would be anything less than a paragon of allyship. To them, this is the worst slight the queer community has ever experienced.

A third camp of Swifties insists that she *is* dating Chett, and is also a lesbian. They get insulted that anyone would police Taylor's labels. Comparisons to the Boulder, Colorado shooter are made.

A group of non Swifties tries to point out that everyone is fucking insane and that 'ole taytay regularly tear gases pride rallies to make way for her promenade to stadium venues, and who the fuck cares about this shit and point out that what a billionaire celebrity does for five minutes of PR is not worth your attention or discourse, nor does it warrant harassing other people for the labels *they* use, and isn't it really fucked up that Taylor is making a joke of how people describe their identities? They are promptly doxxed, harassed, and banned.

Bi lesbian discourse is off the charts. Nothing Taylor said has anything to do with it, but it happens anyways.

A lone transsexual who actually goes outside once in a while tweets "hey guys isn't it kinda fucked up that 2.4 billion people have been displaced by mega storms this year that her jet contributes to and is also specifically designed to fly over" and is promptly doxxed and harassed off the platform.

After an exhausting 9 minute plane ride, Tailing Swiffer lands in Columbus for the next performance of her world tour. She unveils a new single that contains the line "ride my horse after dumping him, stepping up onto my SAD dle".

All is forgotten. All is quiet. The Swifties continue as usual, moving on to the next discourse about these lyrics.

[i-was-today-years-old-when]

i learned what is the most bizarre government in world history?

A bit strange that no one speaks of Italian city-states here.

I think they tried just every conceivable form of government. I will tell a bit about my dearest Florentine Republic.

In 13th century, Italian city-states witnessed an intense fight between pro-Emperor and pro-Pope factions. Most nobles were pro-Emperor. Florence was one of the places where they lost the battle, which led to the establishment of democracy.

Of course, this democracy was very different from what we call democracy today. Modern Western countries are representative democracies where people only vote in the elections and countries are governed by professional politicians. A medieval Italian would call such system aristocratic.

Of course, Florentine democracy was also exclusive. Wage labourers, people in debt and women were excluded. But all others could directly participate in government of their country: 5,000–8,000 people out of 25,000–50,000 adult citizens.

Political parties were forbidden (actually, the word party was invented as a slur, something that people do not remember now). Elections were seen as aristocratic mechanism because the rich and the educated would be capable to convince or bribe others to vote for them. So the main mechanism of democracy was casting lots.

Florence was subdivided into four quarters, sixteen neighborhoods and twenty-one corporations (seven major ones representing rich citizens and fourteen minor ones representing poor citizens): every citizen was a member of one of those. Initially, corporations had something to do with profession. Nobles renounced their nobility and joined corporations to be able to participate in the government. For instance, nobleman Dante Alighieri entered the corporation of Doctors and Apothecaries, and the ancestors of Niccolo Machiavelli registered in the corporation of Winemakers.

The main government body was Signoria. It consisted of eight Priors (two representing every quarter, six representing major corporations and two representing minor corporations) and one Gonfalonier of Justice, the chairman. They ruled the city during the period of two months only and then replaced by others. Signoria was the main legislative and executive authority. However, it could take major decisions only in common with other bodies such as Twelve Good Men (three persons from every quarter, mostly rich people) and Sixteen Gonfaloniers (one from every neighbourhood). These three bodies (Signoria, Twelve Good Men and Sixteen Gonfaloniers) were all chosen by lot: notes with their names were chosen from special leather bags preserved in the sacristy of the Santa Croce cathedral.

The laws were approved by the Council of the Commune (192 people, 48 from every quarter, majority rich) and the Council of the People (160 people, 10 from every neighbourhood, majority poor).

There was an enormous quantity of other governing bodies that regulated everything that needed to be regulated in the Republic, from quality checks of the bread to the licensing of the sex workers. In most cases, people served from three to six months. It meant that every full-fledged male citizen of the Florentine Republic could hope to be chosen for one of these positions.

The judicial and military power belonged to the podestà, a foreign citizen with good reputation, legal education and a military company or at least a group of armed servants. Florentines believed that a foreigner would be a more impartial judge in Florentine discussions. A podestà was invited to Florence for six months.

Finally, the Medici family managed to circumvent the system and become rulers of Florence but it took time. The system of checks and balances did work.

However, no one was able to circumvent the government system of Venetian Republic. Do you know why?

For more than five centuries (from 1268 to 1797) the procedure to elect the doge (chief of state) did not change.

Choose 30 members of the Great Council by lot.

These 30 people are reduced by lot to 9.

These 9 people choose 40 other people.

These 40 are reduced by lot to 12.

These 12 people choose 25 other people.

These 25 people are reduced by lot to 9.

These 9 people choose 45 other people.

These 45 people are reduced by lot to 11.

These 11 people choose 41 other people.

These 41 people elect the doge.

Funny that many Americans blame their electoral system for being complicated. You may think what you want about the Venetian system but it guaranteed what was probably the most stable government in the history of mankind.

By the way, despite the fact he was elected for life, the power of the chief of state in Venice was very much limited.

He could not appear in public without other officials present (security from populism). He could not meet foreign diplomats or open foreign dispatches without other officials present (security from collusion with foreign governments). He could not possess any property in a foreign land.

However, he had a nice place to live.

[tanadrin]

This is the Palestinian resistance. It’s not beautiful. It’s not inspiring. It’s desperate and futile and sad. Generation after generation of children, throwing themselves into the path of one of the most brutal military machines in human history, smashing their skulls against its steel hull, mangling their limbs in its treads, thousands of them, for seventy-five years, destroying themselves as they try to face down an engine that simply rolls on over the dying and the dead. These kids were brave, much braver than I’ll ever be. They rose to defend their honour. It’s noble. But stupid beyond belief. Later, Hedges talks to Lieutenant Ayman Ghanm, a Palestinian police officer who says he’s given up on trying to save these boys’ lives. ‘When we tell the boys not to go to the dunes,’ he says, ‘they taunt us as collaborators.’ I began by saying that this is a war without opposing sides. Israel is not actually trying to defeat the resistance; it has no political objectives, just violence. But the same goes for the resistance: they are not, in fact, doing anything to meaningfully resist. Think about what actually happens in Hedges’ story. The Israeli soldiers call through their loudspeakers for the Palestinians to come, come and be killed—and the Palestinians obediently show up. Their resistance is indistinguishable from following orders. The Israeli state wants a certain level of violence from the Palestinians, it actively courts it, and the resistance factions keep doing exactly as they’re told. They teach Palestinian children that the best thing they could do with their lives is lose them. This is not a very healthy attitude, but when you start up your bullshit about the glorious resistance you are part of that sickness. What would actual resistance look like? Maybe it would start with not handing over your life to the enemy. Not climbing up the dunes. In saying all this, I’m obviously breaking one of the biggest taboos on the left, which is that you must not presume to tell Palestinians how to go about their resistance. I might have spent time in Palestine, but I’m not Palestinian. I’m not subjected to the daily nightmare of occupation. Who am I to start preaching? My only reply is this: if the armed resistance factions were resisting sanely and effectively, this kind of taboo wouldn’t need to exist. If there were a better argument for their actions than don’t criticise the victims, you’d be making that one instead. But there isn’t, so you can’t. It’s not a coincidence that the exact same rhetoric is deployed by Israel and its apologists: yes, we’re committing hideous atrocities, but how dare you notice? Who are you to say anything to us? Whoever’s saying it, the fact remains that there is no military path to a free Palestine. This fact is inconvenient and unfair and doesn’t leave much room for the optimism of the will, but that doesn’t make it any less true, and if you think there’s an exemption from unfair truths that’s awarded to especially just causes then you are wrong. Israel has nuclear weapons: it will not be overthrown with small arms and explosives. I don’t think I have the right to condemn violent resistance altogether—but I can reject violent resistance that’s doomed to fail, that achieves nothing and produces nothing except violence for its own sake. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claim to be fighting for an Islamic republic, in which Jews will be free to live peacefully as long as they don’t dispute the sovereignty of Islam. The PFLP claims to be fighting a revolutionary people’s war for a liberated workers’ state. Their critics say that both are actually fighting for an unlimited genocide, the death of every single Jew in Israel. But what difference does it make? This is all make-believe! None of it matters, because none of it is ever actually going to happen! They’re not fighting for anything at all. They’re just fighting.

This is a good essay in general, but this point draws out something I think is important: the need to believe that, if there is a group of Bad Guys in a conflict, doing Bad Things, there must be an opposing group of Good Guys doing Good Things. But there's no law of the universe that says it must be so; mostly there's just the churn of senseless, sickening violence, to no useful or redemptive end.

[transrevolutions]

@rex-and-regina

1) marat did not encourage "murder of innocent civilians" in l'ami du peuple. while he did sometimes use violent rhetoric (like in the "five hundred heads" quote that people love to throw around with no context), that was pretty much the norm for political journals at the time. they were sensational and emotional and dramatic and hyperbolic. that was pretty much the stylistic standard. if you compare marat's paper with, say, hebert's or even desmoulins's, you'll find he's actually pretty academic and straightforward for the era.

2) if you try to counter my first point with "but the september massacres", you need to know that marat was not directly responsible for those either. the narrative that he caused it stems from the fact that he put out an issue of his paper a little while before the massacres that said some stuff about taking up arms to defend the homeland from conspirators and traitors, etc. etc. except, y'know, a bunch of people were saying stuff like that in their papers (see above). it's true that he didn't explicitly condemn the massacres, but nobody in the government really wanted to talk about it because of how messy of a situation it was. someone else even said something like "we will draw the curtain over this event and leave its judgement to posterity".

3) robespierre.... did not cause the "reign of terror". in fact they did not even call it the reign of terror at the time (historians came up with that later). actually, if we want to get pedantic, the term terreur had a very different connotation in the 18th century than it does now, but I digress. robespierre was the subject of a massive smear campaign when his coworkers realized they couldn't make him shut up about various crimes that they were involved in and killed him to keep him from airing out their dirty laundry. they also killed a bunch of his political allies because they couldn't have them exonerating him, could they? look it up it's actually wild. so they blamed him for all the issues that the government had, even the ones he was trying to fix (he opposed the shitshow in lyons and nantes, cautioned against needless bloodshed, abhorred the practice of treating executions as a spectacle). also he didn't actually have nearly as much power as people seem to think now. he was a member of the national convention (the french republic's elected legislative body), and a member of the committee of public safety (a council elected from members of the convention to deal with the escalating war situation and some other stuff). he was not the leader of the CSP (which did not have a leader) or the convention (which had a presidency that was mostly ceremonial and worked on a rotating basis). he also never sentenced anyone to death because it was the tribunals that did that, not the convention or CSP.

4) the time period that is generally considered the "reign of terror" (as flawed a concept as that is) is usually placed after the assassination of marat. because a big reason for the paranoia that led to the escalation of security measures was the fact that marat was killed. marat was seen as kind of unkillable by the people of paris (won his own political show trial, etc.) so if you could kill marat, you could kill anyone. so it's kind of hard to say what marat would've supported or not supported after he died, especially since his death itself heavily influenced the next stage of the revolution.

5) charlotte corday wasn't even a monarchist. she was aligned with the girondins, who were moderate republicans in favor of the free market. she didn't like marat because marat was calling the girondins corrupt in his newspaper after a prominent girondin official turned traitor and deserted to the austrians (whom france was at war with). not entirely sure what she thought she would accomplish with this, because a great way to make your political faction seem really corrupt is to brutally murder a guy for criticizing it.

6) a bunch of people actually tried to stop marat through various means, legal and illegal. namely lafayette and brissot and capet and barbaroux and necker and... you get the picture. charlotte corday was just the one that succeeded.

a final point: why do you criticize marat for "encouraging" (but never committing) murder while you simultaneously praise corday for committing a literal actual murder? only one of the three people (marat, robespierre, corday) you mentioned actually killed anybody, and it wasn't marat or robespierre.

[saphronethaleph]

Counting Noses

“This is an interesting document,” Palpatine said, looking up from it at Senator Amidala. “But you must understand… at this critical time in the war, to change the means by which it is being waged would be a terrible mistake.”

“I must understand no such thing, Chancellor,” Padme replied. “The argument for your emergency powers was that they were necessary to cut through the gridlock of Senatorial factions. No such gridlock now exists. The Grand Army of the Republic exists and has been winning victories. The powers you have are emergency powers, and it is no longer an emergency.”

Palpatine gave her an odd look. “I was kidnapped yesterday, Senator.”

“We are quite aware,” Bail Organa agreed. “However, a move like that is…”

“Similar to what I did, during the Naboo crisis,” Padme said. “A desperation move – and one that failed. The Confederation would not have launched an attack of that nature if they were confident in bringing about a successful conclusion to the war.”

She clasped her hands. “Chancellor – this is a request, out of friendship, that you give back your emergency powers before it becomes necessary to force the issue.”

“Are you threatening me?” Palpatine asked. “Senator, I realize that your past may have given you an exaggerated view of how easy it is to replace a Chancellor, but this is a time of crisis.”

“I think our views on the crisis are different to yours, Chancellor,” Mon Mothma stated.

“Chancellor, you don’t appear to remember one of the core principles of the Republic,” Sweitt Concorkill added. “That principle is democracy. You have been taking all kinds of actions based on a single vote from the start of the war, and you are refusing the clearly expressed will of the Senate.”

“What?” Palpatine snapped. “I am doing no such thing! You don’t speak for the Senate!”

“Read the title of the document,” Padme said. “None of us would have come here to make empty threats, Chancellor. We represent two thousand Senators who are of like minds on this matter.”

“That’s eighty percent of the Senate,” Mon Mothma provided, helpfully. “Indeed, this is the most unified that the Senate has ever been on anything.”

Palpatine scowled.

“I disagree with your assessment,” he said, shortly. “And you will not use weight of numbers to bully me into doing the wrong thing.”

“Isn’t that literally the definition of democracy?” Meena Tills asked, quietly.

“Well, that could have gone better,” Bail muttered, as they left the Supreme Chancellor’s office.

“I know,” Padme replied, already on her comlink. “Hey, Ani! Just to tell you, we met with the Chancellor…”

There was a pause, during which Bail Organa leaned in to Mon Mothma.

“You know it’s not quite eighty percent?” he asked. “Thirty-six columns, seventy-two rows, it’s actually seventy-seven percent. Seventy-three if you account for junior reps.”

“I was accounting for the Senators and Representatives who’ve left their positions during the war,” Mon replied. “It’s actually eighty point five if you do that. Does Padme really think she’s being subtle?”

“All I know indicates that she’s the subtle one of their relationship,” Bail shrugged. “Maybe she should have had some body doubles pretend to be in a relationship instead.”

Padme shook her head. “...yeah, he refused because he didn’t believe he should give up the powers, like the war might still go the wrong way,” she said. “Like you guys would just stop fighting if he lost emergency powers! It’s weird… yeah, I’ll probably have to no-confidence him… I know, I know, but it’s the principle of the thing, he could get voted back in again but that would reset the emergency powers and that’s what actually matters… love you too!”

She turned the comlink off. “I intend to call a vote of no confidence in the next session tomorrow morning.”

“Wow,” Chi said, blinking. “Padme, do… do you understand that people can overhear com calls?”

“No, I’m not using speaker mode,” Padme replied, with a shrug.

“Just let it go,” Bail advised the Pantoran senator.

[ultrameganicolaokay]

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, Mike Baron, Olivier Vatine, Fred Blanchard, Vincent Rueda, Terry Dodson and Edvin Biuković. Cover by Mathieu Lauffray. Out in 2024.

"One of the most popular STAR WARS stories of all time! Five years after the glorious rebel victory against the second Death Star, Luke Skywalker remains the last of the Jedi! Han Solo and Princess Leia are married and have taken on many of the burdens of stabilizing the fledgling New Republic. But the galaxy is not yet safe. Far, far away, something festers. One lingering faction of the Empire – near death, but all the more dangerous for it. And the discovery of a long-lost force could spark it back into life! The last of the Emperor’s military masterminds, Grand Admiral Thrawn, is ready to seize his chance to control the remaining Empire – and the galaxy! Collecting STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE #1-6, STAR WARS: DARK FORCE RISING #1-6 and STAR WARS: THE LAST COMMAND #1-6."

[casteliacityramen]

Munday Tuesday Lore Post - Unovan Kingdoms and Wars

| Light and Dark Stones |

Pictured: Icirrus City Museum of History

Twin Heroes

At the end of a struggle for independence from the Paldean Empire, two human brothers arose from the chaos to bring an end to Paldean rule in the region. 

These two brothers were heralded as the Twin Heroes, backed by an all powerful dragon. 

The brothers agreed that they needed to be ready in the potential event of another invasion. The Twin Heroes dreamed of a unified nation, leading to them split their dragon and travel eastward and westward to strengthen their numbers.

In the West, the Vidraco Kingdom started as a conglomerate of various tribes indigenous to the region. Composed of draconic cultures of harsh lands, they came to recognize the strength of the Hero of Ideals.

In the East, the Vellumblanc Kingdom combined the native population with the remnants of Paldean and Kalosian colonists. Benevolently led by the Hero of Truth, Vellumblanc flourished as a contender for world trade. 

The First Unovan Civil War

When the brothers met again after twenty years, in what is now known as Relic Castle, they disagreed with each others’ methods and ideologies. In the name of their kings, the people of Vidraco and Vellumblanc fought a bloody five-year war before an armistice was signed.

With no clear winner, both kingdoms believed that they lost. Vellumblanc and Vidraco were ravaged, with social and economic livelihoods taking a downturn. Ten years of misery passed, ending with the untimely demise of both kings, distraught as their dream of a unified region fell apart.

The Second Unovan Civil War

The kingdoms and dragons were inherited by the Twin Heroes’ sons, both of whom grew restless at the inaction of their fathers post-armistice. In their inexperience, the new kings disregarded their advisors and continued the war. Although a breaking of armistice means the continuation of the first war, this new conflict is still considered by most to be the second Unovan Civil War.

Not long after the fighting began, the commonwealth of each kingdom paid a higher price in food, resources, and population in order to continue the fight. The people of these two kingdoms, no longer enchanted by the benevolence of their old kings, had enough of the conflict. A new middle faction was born from insurgency and rebellion, with the main driving force being none other than the draconic shell left behind of Reshiram and Zekrom's split: Kyurem.

Vidraco and Vellumblanc, slowly hemorrhaging their citizens to this new united faction, couldn't fight each other and an insurgency at the same time. Before long, both kingdoms crumbled and the Unovan Republic rose from their ashes.

Most of the events of the second civil war are shrouded in mystery. While each kingdom regarded the preservation of history to be paramount, much of it was lost. Traces of the times are strewn about everywhere, with little to be gained from carved stones, written parchment, or glyphs on the walls of Relic Castle and the Abyssal Ruins…

… and that’s by design. 

Just as the Order intended. 

Head Scholar and Triumvir Lok

|| The Order of Arceus ||

(A big thank you to @ask-the-royal-absol, @lightofunova, @lustrous-dawn, @sinnohsiblings and @askcapital for listening / providing input in naming the countries and figuring out the colors for these banners (you should hopefully already be following them!))

[legobiwan]

1-the character everyone gets wrong for Gravity Falls and 16-you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) for Star Wars ??

The character everyone gets wrong (Gravity Falls)

I want to preface this answer by saying that I think there are a plethora of fantastic Gravity Falls fics, comics, and metas out there that address and explore Stanley's possible mental health issues in light of everything we've learned about his backstory, which is pretty damn bleak. And yes, I do enjoy reading this angst.

The fandom tends to focus on this particular side of Stanley and with good reason - it is absolutely fertile ground for analysis and there is no doubt he is a tortured individual.

But there is a tendency to "blorbo-ize" Stan and his sympathetic history. While he was absolutely forced into some horrendous situations and had to make decisions based solely on survival probability, this is also a man who has a rap sheet a mile long, has outstanding warrants throughout the majority of the country, and is heavily, heavily implied to have been dealing in cartel business.

You don't get that far in these circles without having a backbone of steel and the capacity to do some seriously shady - and bloody - shit. Sure, Stan eventually bailed from the more hardcore aspects of his existence. And this isn't to say he's fundamentally a bad person or even liked everything he was doing - but he is a dangerous man, whether that danger comes at the end of a gun barrel or a marked ace of spades.

And I think this aspect of his character gets underplayed in a lot of fandom. (Interestingly enough, Ford is the one who is generally allocated this role, due to his dimensional hobo life on the run. And Ford is a badass, but Stan is equal to his brother in this, albeit in a different context). Stan maybe wants to forget that part of his life (understandable), but he didn't get as far as he did being a criminal (you don't get to rack up that kind of sheet and stay mostly clear of the law without some considerable feats) without developing certain skills and he'd be dead five times over if he weren't some kind of threat. Yes, by the time we meet him in the show, those instincts may have been dulled, likely intentionally, but this is the same man who admits to having 10 firearms in his household, even if his reasoning is (seemingly) ludicrous.

Runners-up: Mabel and the Flanderization of her zaniness. (Let's not forget she put the majority of the puzzle pieces together in Not What He Seems). Ford's seemingly god-like combat skills (the man gets his ass handed to him on multiple occasions in the show and is in constant need of rescue after he comes back from the Portal. Don't get me wrong - I love a badass Ford - but he wasn't exactly batting 1.000 after returning to Gravity Falls).

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) (Star Wars)

I fully expect to get pilloried by certain factions of the fandom for this opinion, and to be honest, it's been a long-standing thorn in my side.

The Jedi were not 100% without fault and yes, some of decisions they made fed into their ultimate demise.

Was it deserved? No. Were they evil? No.

Were they a stagnant organization led by a creature who had lived long enough to distance himself from the day-to-day concerns of the majority of mortal beings under his care? Yes. Did they have an effective strategy to combat their massive, massive PR problem - a problem which ended up with them characterized as a baby-snatching cult of superbeings that could easily usurp the will of a (corrupt) Republic government? Nooooo, not at all.

They refused to play politics. Until they had to play politics. And they lost on all sides.

There was so much emphasis on tradition and purity of said tradition in the organization - even if the highest members of the Council didn't necessarily 100% agree with this - the mythology of it was present enough in the Jedi Temple, that constant, subtle pressure to do things in a certain way, to avoid wholly the Dark Side (even if the individual teachings of the Masters went against this). The Jedi wanted to change, but at the same time, couldn't budge the 1,000 ton boulder of their past until it was too late to avoid Palpatine's machinations.

The ultimate tragedy is that the Jedi meant well, but couldn't collectively nudge their organization towards change.

And they did make some baffling decisions - Anakin being allowed to train at all being peak among them. (And then letting Obi-wan - a grieving 25-year old being held hostage by a deathbed promise - to train Anakin, as per the "will of the Force..." This was not well-thought out by anyone involed.)

Dooku had legitimate criticisms of the Order, even if he ultimately expressed his grievances by betraying everyone and everything he loved and aligning himself with an ultimate evil that not even he could overcome. Qui-gon, for all of his many fault, had some great ideas for the Order and should have been on the Council - if for not other reason, than to upset the status quo (and yes, I know he turned it down, and that's another story altogether).

It feels, that in a certain way, the Jedi were crushed by their own mythology, and by the time that leviathan breached the surface, it was far too late for change.

Discussions of the Jedi have a tendency to polarize quickly, and I'd love for there to be more space for exploration of where they did fail without consigning the whole organization to the out-of-touch and evil-by-incompetence box.

(And caveat lector: post this fully admitting I haven't meditated on Star Wars lore in quite some time, so excuse some of the broader strokes of this analysis).

Ask me a spicy fandom question

[petrolstationflowers]

You've been all over - Lucky Palms, Strangetown, Neighborhood 1 - but have you ever headed for the bright lights of Vegas and the wasteland beyond? For those who are looking for a cheap place to live and employment that's open to anyone, the New Simfornia Republic Army might be the career for you! Based on Fallout: New Vegas' New California Republic Army faction, but with a Sims twist!

This is a branched career that splits at level five. You can choose to take the Combat or Political branch -- are you looking to become President of the New Simfornia Republic, or are you looking to be at the helm of the Rangers? The choice is yours. As always, you will need NRaas Careers for this to work!

Levels and other info under the cut!

For the initial five levels, there are a few custom tones:

Run Laps (builds Athletics), Maintain the Barracks (builds Handiness), and Tend Crops (builds Gardening).[/list]

For the Combat branch, we have:

Perform Weapons Drills (builds Athletics), Spar With Fellow Recruits (raises Martial Arts), and Write Reports (builds Writing).

The Political branch, on the other hand, has:

Prepare Talking Points (builds Charisma), Study (builds Logic), and Network With Other Politicians (builds Gambling). As this is a hidden skill that comes with Lucky Palms and the casino content, you will need that world downloaded for the skill to work correctly. Otherwise you may be able to alter this through MasterController.

I have made three opportunities that appear for Level 10 at both branches. These are to read a book, throw a party and invite a coworker, and attend a meeting. This is my first time making these so please let me know if you have any problems! There are also no carpools as thematically they wouldn't make sense1

Here are the levels and descriptions for the initial five before the branch:

[*]Wastelander - 10 simoleans p/h - M-F Description: New Simfornia is an okay place to live. Electricity runs for at least six hours a day, and the water supply is mostly clean. But there’s bills to pay and food to put on the table; scavenging pipes from the scrapyard and selling mutated wildflowers just doesn’t pay like it used to. The New Simfornia Republic Army is looking more appealing by the second… Recruit - 20 simoleans p/h - M-F Description: You’ve hiked your way out to the barracks and impressed the recruiters with your enthusiasm. Now it’s time to show them what you’re truly made of; mud, sweat, and dubious rations shipped from Strangetown. Hope you like green meatloaf and hard tack so solid you could use it as a weapon! Labourer - 25 simoleans p/h - M-F Description: Boot camp is over and done with, thank the Watcher. Now you’re stuck with menial labour; dull, but safe. You’ll spend your days planting crops, making flour, or putting together weapons on the factory line. Long hours for half decent pay, it’s not a bad life (unless you actually like scavving or fistfighting the creatures in the mine for food). Auxiliary - 30 simoleans p/h - M-F Description: An actual uniform, your own dog tags, and a waterproof pair of cowplant hide boots, it’s like every Snowflake Day come at once! At least now you’re inside most of the time, even if the most exciting thing you do is drop off letters from Sunset Valley and listen to gossip from Vegas. At least there’s free coffee. Private - 40 simoleans p/h - M-F Description: Your commanders have made a big deal about how they’re trusting you with patrols now, where you’re let loose with a basic weapon and have the tiniest bit of authority. Citizens might respect you and you’ll get to see the sights of Strangetown and Lucky Palms, but you know what they say; patrolling the Simoran almost makes you wish for…

Then for the combat branch levels:

[*]Captain - 70 simoleans p/h - M-F Description:You’ve spent your years slogging away as a cog in the machine and now the higher ups have finally recognised your efforts. You’re leading your own team, which can somewhat be like herding cats, but at least you get to go on more interesting missions now and have so say in the logistics. Even if those command meetings could have been an email. Major - 80 simoleans p/h - M-F Description:Your own office, specialised assignments, and the authority to get someone else to clean the bathrooms… the life of a major isn’t a bad one. But it does come with a price; you’ll be leading troops into battle and having to command the bigger outposts, which is a headache in itself. Solving squabbles over caravan routes and shipments of energy drinks, followed by a firefight at the New Simfornia border? All in a day’s work. Colonel - 200 simoleans p/h - M-F Description:You’ve moved somewhat away from petty disputes, but even if the pay is better, the responsibilities increase with it. You’re looking after entire regions and their platoons, making sure troops are dispatched to the right areas and civilian areas are kept safe (as much as they can be). Ranger - 500 simoleans p/h - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Description:You’re finally the ranger with the big iron on their hip and hefty bounties to track down. You’re the one they call when the alien threat gets out of hand and the two-headed bears start rummaging through cabins on the Hidden Springs lakesides. You’ve got the chance to earn decent money on your own terms, provided the ghouls or yetis don’t take you out first. Chief - 750 simoleans p/h - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Description:You’re out in the field less these days and spend more time dispatching the rangers under your command to get the jobs done. Still, you get a cut of the bounty that they bring back, and you don’t have to scramble through radioactive swamps to take out a target! It doesn’t get much better than that.

And the political branch levels:

Intern - 50 simoleans p/h - M-F Description:You’ve got a knack for bright ideas and saying the right things at the right time. This hasn’t gone unnoticed, and your superior has suggested working in the political branch of the New Simfornia Republic Army. At the moment it’s more running missives and making coffee of dubious quality, but everyone has to start somewhere! Law Maker - 75 simoleans p/h - M-F Description:After many, many years of dealing with the general public and your fellow squaddies, you’ve gained enough knowledge to know what needs to change – and spent plenty of time daydreaming how to do it. It might not be a seat of power, but determining which laws make it to the senate and writing detailed bills is a step in the right direction. Senator - 250 simoleans p/h - Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday Description:Finally, you’re where you deserve to be. Away from the dust and dirt of the Wasteland, your days involve a freshly cleaned suit and arguing with your fellow senators about the day’s agenda. Even if people don’t know you, they still have a healthy amount of respect for you (and maybe some fear). What you say, goes, and after all – you know best. Councillor - 500 simoleans p/h - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Description:Unlimited power! … almost. You’re the one pulling the strings, whispering in the President’s ear and making sure they’re steered along the right track. You mostly work from the shadows now, only making appearances when needed, but your words are weighted like the finest Aqua Pura. Use them wisely. President - 1000 simoleans p/h - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Description:The sky’s the limit; everything the light of the bomb touches is your kingdom. Whether New Simfornia flourishes or fails is entirely dependent on your whims. The army? Your personal bodyguards and playthings. The populace? Dolls to rearrange and position as you please. Watch out, Vegas; a new sheriff’s in town…

Translations: I've included the English Strings in the file; if anyone is talented enough to translate, I would be incredibly grateful, so please let me know in the comments!

With thanks: A huge thank you to all the kind people on MissyHissy's Discord server for helping me to test and troubleshoot, and to the person who requested this career and very kindly made the icon for me!

[lady-raziel]

Arcade Gannon:

New California Republic. Brotherhood of Steel. Caesar's Legion. The City of New Vegas. Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony—just kidding, all these guys have been trying to kill each other for ages. That didn't stop the Legion from attacking the Hoover Dam anyway. Only someone with allegiances to all four factions could stop the conflict, but that person never appeared. Five years passed, and a Courier was found outside of Goodsprings after being shot in the head. And although the Courier has the potential to join any faction, they have a long way to go before they're ready to stop a war. But I believe Courier Six can save the Mojave...and eventually, the world.

{FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS TITLE SCREEN}

[dostoyevsky-official]

Isabel Crook, anthropologist and chronicler of China’s communist revolution, 1915-2023

Crook, who has died at the age of 107 in Beijing, was born in 1915 in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan. She attended Christian schools in the city, before leaving to study anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Immediately after graduation in 1939, she returned to southwestern China and carried out research in a village near Chongqing, the provisional capital where the Kuomintang government had retreated after the Japanese invasion. There, she studied 1,500 households as part of a rural reconstruction project funded by the National Christian Council of China.

“Banditry was endemic,” she wrote, describing how she and her collaborator Yu Xiji would set off for house visits armed with sticks to beat off guard-dogs. But as young women in their early twenties, they were seen as non-threatening and were eventually welcomed by the villagers.

Crook chronicled intimate moments of village life, from the responses of citizens to the state’s attempts to reform marriage and legalise divorce, to their efforts to avoid conscription. Crook later published their observations as a book: Prosperity’s Predicament: Identity, Reform, and Resistance in Rural Wartime China.

While in Chengdu, Isabel met David Crook, a British communist who had initially arrived in China as a Soviet spy but became disillusioned with Stalinism over the course of his stay. She was inspired by his politics and he by her audaciousness — a mutual male friend described Isabel as “nice, but frankly, so much character scares the hell out of me.” The pair moved to London, where they married in 1942. Soon after, Isabel joined the London School of Economics’ anthropology department.

[...] On October 1 1949, the couple witnessed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. They settled in the capital, and taught English at what became the country’s top languages university, the Beijing Foreign Studies University. She gave birth to her three sons in the city.

Crook stayed at BFSU until her retirement, her tenure only interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, which arrived in 1966. The duo joined a couple of the factions on campus and were, in David’s words, “carried along by the revolutionary storm”.

David was seized and jailed for five years by a group of student Red Guards, some of whom had been his friends at the university; Isabel was detained on the campus for three years. Their interrogators played their testimonies off against each other, trying to prove their dishonesty as traitors to communism. After their release, they were both rehabilitated, and went on to witness the national mourning that followed Mao Zedong’s death in 1976.

The Crooks’ life-long commitment to communism was often tested by the way the party centralised and wielded its authority. Seeing their students mobilise for the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, the Crooks wrote to the state media urging the government not to use force.

At a banquet given by senior officials in 1990, David criticised the bloodshed of the June 4th massacre, but ended his speech pledging their life-long devotion to China — a narrative that, as foreigners, placed the Crooks beyond political reproach.

Despite their criticisms of the state, the Crooks remain highly celebrated by the government. David died in 2000, but in 2019, Isabel became one of 10 people to receive the Friendship Medal, created by President Xi Jinping as China’s highest honour for foreigners.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group I Round 1: #I8 vs #I1

#I8: Magical girl club gets silly and depressing

In her everyday life, Yuuna Yuuki is a hero. As proof, she is in her middle school's Hero Club, where she does her best to help others and bring a smile to everyone's face.

But Yuuna, always up to any task, is about to become an even bigger hero. Mysterious destructive forces called Vertexes begin threatening the world she loves, and the Hero Club is called upon by a strange phone app to save it. Along with her best friend Mimori Tougou, as well as sisters Fuu and Itsuki Inubouzaki, they must transform into magical girls in order to battle the Vertexes.

#I1: The 86 are forced to fight someone else’s war.

According to the Republic of San Magnolia, their ongoing war against the Giadian Empire has no casualties—however, that is mere propaganda. While the silver-haired Alba of the Republic's eighty-five sectors live safely behind protective walls, those of different appearances are interned in a secret eighty-sixth faction. Known within the military as the Eighty-Six, they are forced to fight against the Empire's autonomous Legion under the command of the Republican "Handlers."

Vladilena Milizé is assigned to the Spearhead squadron to replace their previous Handler. Shunned by her peers for being a fellow Eighty-Six supporter, she continues to fight against their inhumane discrimination. Shinei Nouzen is the captain of the Spearhead squadron. Infamous for being the sole survivor of every squadron he's been in, he insists on shouldering the names and wishes of his fallen comrades.

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#I8: Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero (Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru)

Propaganda:

I adored this show from the moment I watched it because throughout it all, it’s hopeful. These girls go through a lot. A LOT. A lot of horrible, horrible things, and yet they bounce back. These girls bounce back pretty much every single time and do anything to help their friends do the same. To me, that is insanely inspiring.

The cast of characters here are also insanely compelling. They feel like actual, real friends—doing things together, hanging out, comforting each other and laughing with them all the same. This point I feel helps that sense of hope this show has absolutely.

The character designs in general too are absolutely breathtaking, and are nothing like I’ve ever seen from any other magical girl anime. Also, one last thing: this show’s soundtrack is done by MONACA. MONACA is also known for doing the first two NieR games. Take that what you will :)

Trigger Warnings: Flashing Lights, Self-Harm, Suicide

#I1: 86 (Eighty-Six)

Propaganda:

The characterization and character development in this show is amazing. It also has a very good depiction of survivor’s guilt/mental health, which you don’t see a lot. The animation is great and the soundtrack is done by Hiroyuki Sawano, who’s amazing and it’s one of the best soundtracks for a show ever.

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Racism, Suicide.

A main subject of the show is racism. Active war, lots of violence. Character acts without regard for their life, so suicide was included. Child abuse relates to the backstory of a character.

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

[theculturedmarxist]

War Games

You need to be ready because war between the United States and China is inevitable.

I hate to use the word "inevitable" because it implies that it is preordained, a foregone conclusion irrespective of circumstance or volition. In this instance it is apt because the US has crafted the circumstances and shaped itself internally and externally so that it has no other choice but to engage in conflict.

To fully explain why this is would require a substantially longer post, several posts in fact, at the very least. In summary though, the welfare state created by the New Deal and the activist sentiment cultivated by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement spurred a reaction by the bourgeoisie, which resulted in the "Reagan Revolution." Proletarian empowerment was to be checked and dismantled at every opportunity and any impediment to corporate power was to be removed. Unions were dismantled. Public Education was attacked. Trusts were to be facilitated in the name of "efficiency."

Over the course of forty years, the players of the US political and economic system have taken steps favorable to themselves which have made reform impossible. Aberration from the desires of the ruling class is treated with extreme intolerance and the heterodox are expelled from "polite society." Alternative conceptions to the current state of things are portrayed as quixotic at best and foreign or evil at worst.

The result is such that any attempt to reform or ameliorate the social, economic, or political status quo of the United States is virtually impossible.

The US's foreign policy goals since the fall of the Soviet Union has been the dissolution of the Russian Federation and the subjugation of the People's Republic of China, as set out in the policy document "Project for a New American Century." 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the destruction of Libya, occupation of Syria, etc, etc, have all been stepping stones on the war towards those ultimate goals. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden have all facilitated those goals.

The problem is that the "United States," by which I mean the bourgeoisie which represent its interested parties, its political facilitators, and its petite-bourgeois factions which occupy its implementation mechanisms, have crafted the internal and external national circumstances so that novel responses to emerging circumstances are impossible.

To give an example, the war in Ukraine proves that its patently impossible for the US to wage war directly against Russia. In terms of production capacity, the United States simply cannot compete. Case in point, the Russian Federation is producing 4.5 million artillery shells per year. The US meanwhile is producing somewhere in the neighborhood of 450,000. The reason this is is because monopolies have hollowed out the US's production capacity. Increasing production would mean decreasing profit, and that would mean bankruptcy, and then no production. So the US government has to guarantee profit in order to guarantee production. Russia and China don't have this defect currently. Part of the reason Russia has been able to out-produce the US is that its production companies and facilities are state owned. The Russian government says "jump" and their MIC says "how high?" Profit isn't the goal, but rather production.

These circumstances aren't entirely alien to the US. During World War 2, the US government intervened heavily in its domestic economy, dictating wages and benefits, ordering production in support of its war effort. Now though the tail is wagging the dog. In the name of the "economy," monopolies dictate economic and state policy. We saw this recently when the CEO of Delta airlines got the isolation period for covid cut from two weeks to five days.

So we have is a situation where the US can't achieve its goals because of its own inadequacies. If the US wanted to achieve parity with its rivals, it would have to at the very least assume the sort of state-directed production that its rivals have. However, currently that isn't possible because the monopolies which control economic production enjoy control over the state which is ostensibly supposed to regulate it. Put another way, in Russia and China, the state dictates economic activity. In the US, the economy dictates political activity. To use an American saying, "the inmates are running the asylum."

These circumstances cannot be reformed as they currently are. We saw in 2016 that attempts to do so were legally thwarted. If the political system cannot be restructured so that the people's will is preeminent before the will of the bourgeoisie, then the will of the bourgeoisie will dominate. That means that economic monopolies will continue their stranglehold over policy, and profit will retain preeminence before any other consideration, including militaristic victory.

The significance of Taiwan currently is that it accounts for at least half of the planet's semiconductor microchip production. This produces a dilemma for the United States. This essential resource is at least de jure in the hands of an ideological enemy and a presumed economic subordinate. Furthermore, it has no way of ameliorating this state of affairs without military intervention. To the first part, this state of affairs would give China de facto control over US economic policy, both foreign and domestic, as it would give Beijing control over how many microprocessors the US has access to to put into its various domestic products as well as the military hardware it requires to enforce its domestic policy. To the second part, in its efforts to crush the working class all those skilled trades necessary to facilitate its own domestic production, along with the educational institutions necessary to impart the knowledge and expertise for their creation, have been systematically gutted by the bourgeoisie.

In short, if the United States started today to try and achieve the productive capacities currently existing in China and Russia, it would be at least ten years before it could accomplish what either of its adversaries are currently capable of. It lacks the skilled personnel. It lacks the machinery necessary. Its institutions lack the candidates or the program to train its citizens at scale. It very simply lacks the capability to produce more than its limited quantities of boutique weaponry, which means it cannot possibly compete with its chosen adversaries.

The rational response to these facts would be to adjust its course in relation to the existing circumstances. The period of American hegemony outlined in the PFANAC is as unrealistic as traveling to the moon on a hot air balloon, so rational course of action would be to adjust policies and expectations accordingly. Unfortunately, these adjustments cannot be made. They would require upsetting the dominance of the monopolies over the American political and economic status quo, and the monopolies are unwilling to let that happen and the US government is incapable of making that happen. For the American economy to continue, the monopolies must continue to exist as monopolies, and also for American politics to continue. It is a reciprocal relationship, where reformers that endanger corporate profits like Sanders are kept out of positions of power, so that those in power can continue to guarantee corporate profits. One hand washes the other, and nothing is allowed to fundamentally change.

The problem, as any Marxist could tell you, is that change is the fundamental state of things. In spite of the war and sanctions, Russia's economy is strengthening while Europe's is weakening. China alone has more than twice the consumers as all of NAFTA combined. The bottom line is that the United States simply cannot compete, and what's more is that it has fashioned itself into such a state so that it can never, ever do so, because the necessary changes are simply impossible to achieve and implement while also keep profits up and proles down. To keep things as they are, change is utterly impermissible, in spite of how devastatingly necessary it might be.

Yet regardless, the status quo is not only viewed by the bourgeoisie as the natural state of things, but totally essential. Unable to escape their own ideology, they are restricted by its prescriptions. The United States must, must, dominate not only Russia, and China, but the entire world. It cannot do so economically, and yet it cannot alter itself so that it may do so. In terms of production the US can never, ever surpass China in its current state, but at the same time it cannot realistically alter itself to do so. The American bourgeoisie has achieved victory over the American working class, but in so doing it has forfeited the struggle to dominate internationally. It has very little to offer in terms of real goods. Its only useful product is its currency and the ascendance of BRICS severely limits that's lifetime. Since 2001 the US has let its diplomatic strength atrophy, and in its hubris reality has increasingly passed it by.

If it has no real goods to offer, no useful currency, and no means of persuasion, then the only thing left that the US has to ensure its necessary, is essential dominance is its military weaponry. While much of it is dated and inherited from the First Cold War, it still has the capacity to wreak fearful destruction, especially its nuclear arsenal.

We see the evidence of this fact even now. The US's puppet Ukraine cannot possibly win against Russia. This was a fact even before the start of the most recent phase of this conflict in 2022. Yet in spite of the unrelenting slaughter of the Ukrainian people the conflict continues because the US as instigator of this war has no other alternative. It cannot allow peace to break out. It cannot pursue an alternative to war. It cannot even fathom a world where it doesn't dictate the state of affairs. So in spite of bleeding itself dry trying to wear down an enemy that surpasses it in virtually every capacity, it insists on continuing, because the alternative cannot possibly be countenanced.

Russia, in spite of its growing strength, is nowhere near the level that China currently enjoys. If the United States cannot even defeat Russia, it would be absurd to court conflict with China, especially considering how much the US relies on Chinese goods for, well, practically everything. The pandemic "shutdown" saw the US practically on the verge of collapse and panic as essential goods grew scarce. Still, the US continues to ratchet up tensions with China, provoking it, while preparing itself for war insofar as its capable. For the United States and its controlling monopolies, there is no other choice. Profit must be assured, which can only come at the expense of its imperial subjects, and without any other alternative those subjects must be maintained at the barrel of a gun—or the tip of a nuclear weapon.

[lira456]

Sasuke's revolution is 100 percent effective and has foresight only demerits is you have to kill few super powered shinobis like 5 kage and naruto well warcriminals, maniac killers, ignorants, hypocrites like them deserved painful death who belived in their own village interest without giving damn innocent lives and crimes like massacre morelike genocide,child soldiers,invasion etc, anbu culture etc.

Thing is Sasuke's revolution had its merits, we know through many revolution and lessons of violent wars and loss and human greed today we achieve constitutional republic where also prioritizes lives and rights of minorities like uchiha clan civilains(not rebellious faction who planned the coup but innocent children like izumi uchiha and yashiro's 7 years old son who did not agree and know about the coup) or vulnerable and naive child like rin and ryogi and boruto who would indoctrinate to the system without knowing truth of shinobi past, even think of its honorable to die for the village, sad ending,conclusion and execution and future. That's why support sasuke's revolution, his first task to create deterrent and make 5 villages hate him and some might fight against him and defeat them only killing the strongest shinobi would be enough to slowly shinobi losing their desire to fight against him and but they will stick together for assistance and in case of shortage of power if sasuke attacked suddenly with that sentimental fear, then slowly sasuke would go for social,law related change then political then with progress go for the economical change and they go for the continental and international change thus totally destroy the shinobi system and past, only new way chakra usage with strict laws and regulation for every sides with equal footing so that no one used it for wrong purpose or be questioned immediately, sasuke needs only 60-100 years to destroy this system and create another one to make people used to the new system without no existence of shinoi army,ranks,missions or structure or kage dictatorship, for that long he needs to acquire immortality and reincarnation with powerful able bodied chakra power like demi god of shinobi only problem jigen and momo even he can destroy kara organization completely.

Now you people know why sasuke said i am all alone and can bear the darkness of five villages because in past sharingan named power was connected with uchiha clan which caused genocide because of obito's wrong doing because he was an uchiha and uchiha were falsely accused because of sharingan power even people with no sharingan, if sasuke became all alone meaning no connection with five shinobi villages or other villages in public(he might have recruited orchimaru and taka and small numbers of white clones though) punish corrupt kages like kurotsuchi then no one will harm konoha, becuase he is also enemy of konoha with no secrecy becasue of his killing 5 kage deterrent from the past and all alone with no ties with any of the shinobi villages(might create his own organization like one that akatsuki and kara) and also his plan has nothing similar like danzo he would not wipe out entire country,clan and village because of his objective even don't use children others for his biddings only magical creatures like bijjus who should have eliminated by hagoromo because their power caused destruction they better off dead completely if hagoromo did think good of the mankind, wher danzo would sacrifice total or other or stick with them like parasite for his dream and village, sasuke would only take agency by his own hand without killing or sacrificing innocents, only judge,punish and execute the wicked ones like danzo,five kage and kurotsuchi who would be main perpetrators of violence,conspiracy,discrimination,inequality,power imbalance,greed, personal ambition and dream like hashirama's,selfish desire,resources and benefit seeking in unfair ways,wars,invasion,paranoia,systematic discrimination, corrupts dictators among kage and daimyos, corrupt shinobi etc. which danzo would never do he would just destroy other people community based on person and aspect and assumption and for his greed, which sasuke would never, he would take agency for the revolution he wanted to execute like batman a global threat with no ties to any shinobi villages, more like in itachi's way without causing genocide or mass killing that's why he would work from the shadow

[historians-french-revolution]

The Importance of Robespierre on Democracy: Do you know it’s Robespierre who boosts the concept of Democracy dramatically in our modern political context first? By the way, democracy is not a good word for a long period and so does Robespierre. Why not read John Dunn’s Setting the People Free to know more about it?

In the Bishop of Imola’s homily, democracy scarcely features as a load-bearing element in any serious attempt to understand politics. Even in Paine’s writings or speeches its appearance signals more a relaxation than a tautening in intellectual attention. But with Maximilien Robespierre, for the first time in modern history, democracy at last appears not merely as a passing expression of political taste but as an organizing conception of an entire vision of politics. In due course Robespierre was to become an unnerving figure even to the man who did most to launch the Revolution. (‘If M. Robespierre asks for me’, Sieyes warned his Brussels housekeeper forty years later from the depths of flu, in muddled geriatric reminiscence of the year of Terror, ‘tell him, I’m out.’) By that time Robespierre himself had been dead for well over three decades; but in the five short years between 1789 and 1794 he set his intensely personal stamp permanently upon the entire Revolution, defining its main goals with unique authority, and identifying himself ineffaceably with some of its greatest achievements and many of its most odious political techniques.

‘Democracy perishes by two excesses, the aristocracy of those who govern, or the contempt of the people for the authorities which it has itself established, a contempt in which each faction or individual reaches out for the public power, and reduces the people, through the resulting chaos, to nullity, or the power of a single man.’ (Maximilien Robespierre, Discours et rapports à la Convention (Paris: Union Générale des Éditions, 1965), 236.)

In this great and terrible address the Revolution comes into clear view, rending itself to pieces. But already, mere months before it completed the task of self-destruction, it had inscribed this old, battle-scarred, but for so long also oddly scholastic, term ineffaceably upon its standard, handing it on without apology to fellow humans across the world and far into the future. It was Robespierre above all who brought democracy back to life as a focus of political allegiance: no longer merely an elusive or blatantly implausible form of government, but a glowing and perhaps in the long run all but irresistible pole of attraction and source of power.

The democracy which Robespierre affirms is synonymous with the republic as a form of state. By 1794 it made some sense to insist that a republic, the reluctant political product of France’s turmoil, could no more be an aristocracy than it could a monarchy. That was a lesson which no one could have drawn solely from the record of history, in which very many republics, from the grandest of all (ancient Rome) to the longest lived and most politically effective of its modern successors (Venice), had been ostentatiously aristocratic. France had begun its Revolution by declaring war on aristocracy; and its efforts to re-educate its monarch into dependable enmity towards its own aristocracy had been a conspicuous failure. The quest to combine democracy with monarchy in varying proportions persisted in France itself at intervals for almost a century, with at least one notable triumph along the way in the person of Napoleon.

[beardedmrbean]

The most riot police in Irish history were deployed to deal with Thursday's street violence in Dublin, the country's justice minister has said.

Helen McEntee praised the police response to a riot which began following a knife attack in the city.

Three children and a school care assistant were stabbed outside a primary school several hours earlier.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said about 500 people were involved in the riot.

He said they "brought shame" on Ireland and promised new laws within weeks to bring those involved to justice.

Officers arrested 34 people after vehicles were set on fire and shops looted.

Ireland's police chief Drew Harris blamed the rioting on a "lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology".

Two of the five people injured in the stabbings outside a primary school, Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuir, on Parnell Square are critically ill.

They include a five-year-old girl and a school care assistant who "used her body as a shield" in an attempt to protect children from the attacker

A man in his late 40s who was also seriously injured is a person of interest, according to police.

They said they were not looking for anyone else in relation to the stabbings and were following a definite line of inquiry.

In a statement, the school said it is "deeply shocked and saddened" by the incident and that its thoughts are with the pupils and creche worker who were injured.

"Offers of support have been pouring in and are greatly appreciated," it added.

Why did the Dublin riot happen?

Just hours after the knife attack, rioters destroyed 11 police vehicles, while 13 shops were badly damaged and more were looted during clashes with riot police.

Three buses and a tram were also destroyed and several police officers were injured during over three hours of sustained violence.

Two Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) water cannon vehicles are being sent across the border, following a request from Irish police.

The PSNI said they would be solely operated by An Garda Siochána (Irish police) officers

The "extraordinary outbreak of violence" had come after "hateful assumptions" were made based on material circulating online in the wake of the stabbings, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.

It is understood that included false claims that the attacker was a foreign national.

Sources have indicated to the BBC that the man suspected of carrying out the attack is an Irish citizen who has lived in the country for 20 years.

"These are scenes that we have not seen in decades," said the Garda commissioner.

"What is clear is that people have been radicalised through social media."

Thirty-two people have since appeared in court in Dublin in connection with the riot.

The accused - 28 men and four women - face charges including weapons offences, public order offences and theft of items such as clothing and cigarettes.

After the stabbings, rumours spread on the WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal messaging apps and far-right agitators decided they would protest at the crime scene.

But that escalated into violence and the rioters, including children and young adults, soon took over a large area of Dublin city centre.

For months there has been real concern that something like this could happen.

The far right in the Republic of Ireland has grown and become incredibly emboldened, recently holding a protest outside the Irish parliament.

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The Dublin Fire Brigade said a fire engine that attended the stabbing scene was later attacked by rioters.

Geoff McEvoy from the fire service said: "One of the first calls that truck responded to [after the stabbings] was a petrol bombing of a refugee centre."

He said "the truck was pelted with projectiles" and "beaten with iron implements" while its crew dealt with that incident.

'Nation unsettled and afraid'

Under questioning from reporters, Commissioner Harris denied that his police force had failed to protect Dubliners and their city from the violence.

"We could not have anticipated that in response to a terrible crime - the stabbing of school children and their teacher - this would be the response," he said.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said police in Dublin needed more support and should be supplemented by officers from outside of the city.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald - the Irish opposition leader - said she has no confidence in Commissioner Harris or Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

She said the "cold, hard truth" was that police "lost control of the centre of our capital city".

"The idea that this violence was unforeseeable is frankly nonsense," she added.

Ms McEntee said she would not be resigning and criticised those calling for Commissioner Harris to resign.

"Anyone who wishes to sow division at a moment in time, when we need to be unified in our response to a group of thugs - they should really think about what their priorities are here," she said.

The taoiseach said the violence had left the nation "unsettled and afraid".

"Yesterday we experienced two terrible attacks - the first was an attack on innocent children; the second was an attack on our society and the rule of law," said Mr Varadkar.

"Each attack brought shame to our society and disgrace to those involved and incredible pain to those who were caught up in the violence."

Mr Varadkar said the rioters' motivation had nothing to do with Irish patriotism.

"Their first reaction to a five-year-old child being stabbed was to burn our city, attack its businesses and assault our gardaí (police officers)," he said.

The taoiseach vowed to use the "full resources of the law to punish those involved" but added that Ireland's hate crime legislation was "not up to date for the social media age".

Eyewitness Patricia MacBride, who is originally from Londonderry, said many of the rioters were "young people - late-teens, early-20s".

"But what was disturbing was there was an older generation of people egging them on," she told the BBC.

Stabbings motive 'entirely unclear'

The knife attack took place outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, a primary school in the city centre, after 13:40 local time on Thursday.

It is understood that a group of young children were lining up when a man carried out the stabbings.

A fast-food courier helped to stop the attack by taking off his helmet and using it as a weapon against the suspect.

"[I] just hit him in the head with all power I have and he fell down," said Caio Benicio, who is originally from Brazil.

Irish President Michael D Higgins condemned the attack and the subsequent disorder, which he said "deserves condemnation by all those who believe in the rule of law and democracy".