#fuck every capitalist nation

[inkskinned]

one of the things that's the most fucking frustrating for me about arguing with climate change deniers is the sheer fucking scope of how much it matters. sweating in my father's car, thinking about how it's the "hottest summer so far," every summer. and there's this deep, roiling rage that comes over me, every time.

the stakes are wrong, is the thing. that's part of what makes it not an actual debate: the other side isn't coming to the table with anything to fucking lose.

like okay. i am obviously pro gun control. but there is a basic human part of me that can understand and empathize with someone who says, "i'm worried that would lead to the law-abiding citizens being punished while criminals now essentially have a superpower." i don't agree, but i can tell the stakes for them are also very high.

but let's say the science is wrong and i'm wrong and the visible reality is wrong and every climate disaster refugee is wrong. let's say you're right, humans aren't causing it or it's not happening or whatever else. let's just say that, for fun.

so we spend hundreds of millions of dollars making the earth cleaner, and then it turns out we didn't need to do that. oops! we cleaned the earth. our children grow up with skies full of more butterflies and bees. lawns are taken over with rich local biodiversity. we don't cry over our electric bills anymore. and, if you're staunchly capitalist and i need to speak ROI with you - we've created so many jobs in developing sectors and we have exciting new investment opportunities.

i am reminded of kodak, and how they did not make "the switch" to digital photography; how within 20 years kodak was no longer a household brand. do we, as a nation, feel comfortable watching as the world makes "the switch" while we ride the laurels of oil? this boggles me. i have heard so much propaganda about how america cannot "fall behind" other countries, but in this crucial sector - the one that could actually influence our own monopolies - suddenly we turn the other cheek. but maybe you're right! maybe it will collapse like just another silicone valley dream. but isn't that the crux of capitalism? that some economies will peter out eventually?

but let's say you're right, and i'm wrong, and we stopped fracking for no good reason. that they re-seed quarries. that we tear down unused corporate-owned buildings or at least repurpose them for communities. that we make an effort, and that effort doesn't really help. what happens then? what are the stakes. what have we lost, and what have we gained?

sometimes we take our cars through a car wash and then later, it rains. "oh," we laugh to ourselves. we gripe about it over coffee with our coworkers. what a shame! but we are also aware: the car is cleaner. is that what you are worried about? that you'll make the effort but things will resolve naturally? that it will just be "a waste"?

and what i'm right. what if we're already seeing people lose their houses and their lives. what if it is happening everywhere, not just in coastal towns or equatorial countries you don't care about. what if i'm right and you're wrong but you're yelling and rich and powerful. so we ignore all of the bellwethers and all of the indicators and all of the sirens. what if we say - well, if it happens, it's fate.

nevermind. you wouldn't even wear a mask, anyway. i know what happens when you see disaster. you think the disaster will flinch if you just shout louder. that you can toss enough lives into the storm for the storm to recognize your sacrifice and balk. you argue because it feels good to stand up against "the liberals" even when the situation should not be political. you are busy crying for jesus with a bullhorn while i am trying to usher people into a shelter. you've already locked the doors, even on the church.

the stakes are skewed. you think this is some intellectual "debate" to win, some funny banter. you fuel up your huge unmuddied truck and say suck it to every citizen of that shitbird state california. serves them right for voting blue!

and the rest of us are terrified of the entire fucking environment collapsing.

[psychotrenny]

It’s fucking insane to me how normal Yankee Liberals are about Hawaii. As in like the way they just treat it as an unremarkable fact that their nation controls the island. Like the annexation of Hawaii wasn’t just any old example of Settler-Colonialism, the subjugation of a decentralised non-urbanised people that could be just dismissed as mere “tribes” or what have you. Not to say that such forms of “typical” Settler Colonialism are any less abhorrent or disgusting, just easier to justify from a Liberal point of view. Easier to claim that they weren’t *really* using the land properly or that they were an hopelessly and eternally backwards who only really benefitted from their conquest or that they were doomed and dying anyway and their fate was a mere tragic inevitability not worth dwelling on or… Point is all these arguments are all wrong and stupid and cruel but they can serve well enough to downplay or justify such atrocities in the eyes of Imperial Core Liberals.

But like with Hawaii you don’t have that. The Kingdom of Hawai’i was a sovereign state that was internationally recognised as such by the Great Powers of Europe even at the very height of Western Imperialism. Literacy rates were high and compulsory education was introduced in 1841 (pre-dating the US by 77 years), healthcare was given to all Hawai’ian subjects free of charge, Christianity was dominant (so even the most ardent Imperialist couldn’t claim that the people were in the thrall of some “barbaric superstition” that necessitated the “civilising influence” of empire) and it had a well-developed Capitalist economy dominated by Sugar production.  Like even if we take the Western model of statehood as the be all end all of what separates the civilised from the savage (to be clear hear you really fucking shouldn’t, but many people do so for a second that’s the frame of reference we’ll employ) then Hawai’i was very much unambiguously the former.  But that didn’t stop the US from shamelessly interfering it’s politics Indeed those aformentioned markers of Western-Style “civilisation” and “development” came with the price of allow US missionaries and investors to settler in the islands and become very wealthy and influential. For decades the US used the threat of force to influence the policy decisions of the kingdom, going as far as to regularly send warships in a classic display of “gunboat diplomacy”. In 1887 a US settler militia called the First Honolulu Rifles staged a coup where they forced Kalākaua to accept a new Constitution that heavily favoured the interests of USamerican settlers who had grown very wealthy through their investment in sugar production on the island.  It stripped the Monarchy of much of its power and introducing requirements for voting that heavily favoured US settlers; re-introducing wealth/property requirements that were now higher than even, allowing resident aliens to vote and just outright banning any Asian immigrants from voting (which at that point had as much to do with plain racial hatred as it did to any acting threat they might have posed). This wasn’t enough for the Yanks and 6 years later a group of 13 US settlers known as the “Committee of Safety” outright overthrew the newly crowned Queen Liliʻuokalani when she refused to co-operate. It existed briefly as an “Independent” USamerican dominated republic before the US government decided to official annex it in 1898 (similar to what you saw with Texas or California).

While incredibly controversial at the time due to both strategic concerns with the annexation of ultramarine territories and some level of outrage at the shameless take-over of a sovereign nation (hence the time gap between the coup and the actual annexation), nowadays Yanks enjoy their control over the island without the slightest care in the world. They even turned it into a tourist destination, a heavily romanticised one that not only receives many millions of visitors every year but is constantly mentioned in the popular culture the US then proceeds to export all over the world, literally revelling in their land that is by literally any definition (even the most nakedly pro-imperialist) stolen. The land itself is severely exploited to the point of significant ecological damage, the indigenous peoples too are exploited as many of them live in poverty while US investors grow wealthy from their land and labour. Even their very culture is stolen and monetised, the most marketable parts bastardised into cheap kitsch and the rest of it left to rot, only kept alive through over a century of continued resistance from the indigenous peoples. It’s a very common story of course, but I think it stands out with how utterly ghoulish it is even under the most Liberal of consistently applied worldviews. It would be like if in say 2007 someone set up Disneyland in Bagdad. And yet by the vast majority of the US (and by extension the vassals states whose view of the situation is filtered through the lens of US media and propaganda) it isn’t seen that way. Hawaii is just the 50th state, the only state outside North America and in the tropics (hahaha ain’t that a neat little fact. Geography is so fun J), an island paradise perfect to visit with the whole family and yet still as American as Apple Pie. Even many self-described “progressives” talk about it in this way, at most mentioning the plight of the indigenous Hawaiians with minimal though as to how this situation came about. Like while the story of Hawaii is far from unique; even in terms of the US doing colonialism to Westernised peoples you examples such as the ethnic cleansing of the Five Civilised Tribes from the Eastern USA, it still stands out to me with the sheer level of international recognition and Western-style development that the Kingdom of Hawai’i possessed. Like it’s just such an obvious example of the naked greed at the heart of the USamerican empire, and how utterly bullshit talk of a “civilising mission” and “spreading democracy” is. No matter what they may claim, no matter what excuses they may trot out, Imperialist rapacity has no limits.

[madlori]

ICYMI

Things continue to go Very Badly for That Fucking Guy.

Someone in his campaign - who has to be a double agent, there's no other explanation - decided he should speak in front of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he was questioned by a trio of hypercompetent black woman who did not let him get away with shit and who within 0.5 seconds drove him into a frothing frenzy. He tried several tacks to get the audience on his side, none of which worked (and bizarrely included a claim that Harris never claimed her black heritage until last week - Harris who attended Howard University, mind you - and revealed that he doesn't seem to comprehend that someone can be black AND Indian). He continued to babble and rant until his people pulled him half an hour into the interview while the audience booed and laughed at him.

After trying to claim that the campaign is just a babe in the woods about all this Project 2025 stuff, just no idea what any of that's about, come to find out that the foreword to an upcoming book written by the the Project's leader was written by...JD Vance.

Democratic leaders appear to have tired of the "go high" ethos (like...about time) and are straight up calling Republicans unhinged freaks at every opportunity, with receipts to support that assertion, of which there are plenty.

Yesterday it was also reported that NONE of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies are endorsing Trump. This is likely the result of some reports last month that top nationwide business leader had a meeting with Trump in which he was so unhinged and nonsensical that they all walked out saying they wouldn't support him. [ETA: it's been pointed out that Tesla is a F500 company and Musk is definitely supporting him, but it's still good news]

And today, Mark Cuban and the founder of LinkedIn announced they were forming a PAC of about 100 venture capitalists with a lot of money to support VP Harris.

[txttletale]

Wtf is Lancer and why is it shit (serious question)

lancer is a tabletop roleplaying game made by the guy who drew kill six billion demons and another guy. i wouldn't call it 'shit', necessarily--it's good in a lot of the ways that matter. it's first and foremost a tactical mech combat game and on that level it's incredible. its ruleset is finely tuned, provides great amounts of GM support to make running what might otherwise be overwhelmingly crunchy combat easier, and has a truly stunning and cool level of character customization available. so as a game, i think it's great fun to play and run, genuinely innovative, and a huge step forward for battlemap tactical wargame type TTRPGs in general.

the lore though, kind of sucks. i think it has two clear and overlapping core problems. problem #1 is that it is a utopia as envisioned by a social democrat. it's a world which the text describes as 'post-capitalist' (but there are still evil megacorporations with private armies who own slaves) and 'post-scarcity' (but only in the developed 'core' systems, so. y'know. there's scarcity). at many points in the text they say that Union (the game's main faction) is utopian, throwing around that exact word a bunch of times as well as 'mutual aid' and 'direct action' and the like. but what they describe is just kind of an imperialist Space Sweden with several distinct forms of slavery that constantly expands and uses its Benevolent Imperial Power to intervene on the Backwards Violent Worlds on its outer border but its good because its just trying to bring them UBI.

to show what i mean, here's one of the game's writers¹ talking about how it would be morally wrong for Union to, say, appropriate the property of a private military corporation that also operates as a fascist nation-state:

it's 'revolution' as imagined by the limpest of social democrats. and of course this would honestly be fine, whatever, most sci-fi settings are fundamentally achingly liberal, but the game goes so out of its way to signpost how Radical it is and how Hopeful and Liberationist you're meant to see the setting as

the other core problem is closely related--it feels like the lancer guys put every cool sci-fi idea they had into lancer even when it completely clashes with the core ideas behind it. like, AIs in this settings are callled 'NHPs' (non-human persons) and they're eldritch god-like beings from another dimension who have be kept 'shackled' (lancer's words, not mine!) to keep them as pliant and obedient AI assistants instead of hostile eldritch abominations. this is obviously horrifying and dystopian but it rules, it would be sick fucking worldbuilding for something with the tone of 40k or a one-off doctor who or star trek episode--but as a fundamental technology foundational to what we are supposed to believe is a post-revolutionary society founded on mutual aid and solidarity and blah blah blah it's glaringly dissonant.

bear in mind this is all just going off the rulebook. lancer fans have told me that the supplements and campaign modules fix some of this or contextualise it. but on the other hand communists have told me that they make it worse and i trust the communists more. i leave you with this incredible passage from the game's foreword:

[ursa-the-stranger]

Op had to restrict replies but I wanted to reblog so heres a copy paste of it sans op's name. I will take this down if they ask however.

I have been noodling over posting this for several days but I think it's important for some people to hear.

At a March on Saturday, at a pro Palestine march, my group and I were targeted by by nazis. Not targeted for violence, but targeted for recruitment. They weren't wearing swastikas, they weren't spewing blatant antisemitic hate speech. They seemed like two normal dudes. They marched with us, talked about how awful everything in Palestine was, how we wished world leaders would grow a pair and hold Israel responsible for fucking war crimes, how existing in the world right now was hard. They were empathetic, they were kind, they seemed like genuine good dudes.

Until we passed a synagogue where people were handing our water to marchers. They had signs defending Palestine on their table. But the tone of the conversation changed. These two seemingly normal dudes started talking about how "performative" the gesture felt, that Jewish people should be doing more. That they needed to PROVE it. They started talking about "Zionist" propaganda in the US, about how it was deeply entrenched in capitalism. Things that, on the surface, seemed reasonable but it set off alarm bells in my head.

When I was a kid, I remember getting the speech of "don't repeat anything your uncle or cousin so and so says and don't argue with them. Try to avoid them but if you can't be polite." Because those uncles and cousins said a lot of hateful things about anyone who wasn't like them, but their favorite targets were black people and Jewish people. I would find out as an adult it was because many of those uncles and cousins were in the Klan. When I studied hate symbols for a class in college, I found my self looking at images I'd seen on arms and necks and hands my whole life, because I live in an area of the US where the KKK is still around. And standing in that crowd, listening to these guys talk, i had the most horrible realization I've had in a long time.

We were being fished by Nazis. We were a group of able body, white American leftists. At a march in support of stopping the murder and genocide of Palestinians, these motherfuckers were out here, trying to find people they could get to hate Jewish folks. I wasn't the only one in my group who clocked it, and when we called them on it, the masks came off. They called us a bunch of "Jew loving bitches" before they moved on.

But we're marched with these guys for a couple hours, talked with them, laughed with them, brought them into our circle. For a moment we forgot we also weren't immune to propaganda, we weren't immune to people who make hate sound reasonable and that people like that never start out saying the quiet part out loud, they lean on your anger and your sense of helplessness to move you where they want you. If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that fascists know how to adjust to the times, to work with what they got, to recruit. They know how to radicalize people, how to weaponize anger and helplessness. And I'm sitting here, every day, seeing posts that sound exactly like these guys did and it worries me.

I know I'm talking to the No Reading Comprehension Website, but I'm begging you guys to develop some now.

You are not immune to propaganda. We are all angry, as we fucking should be. We are watching an entire culture, thousands of lives, whole bloodlines, being wiped out in real time, and for many of us our nations are at best, wringing their hands, and at worst, shipping them weapons, all to protect capitalist greed. It's monstrous, it's disgusting. But look, REALLY LOOK, at the things you are tweeting, sharing, look at the language and how it's used. Take the time to educate yourself about how hate groups use social justice causes and civil unrest to recruit, research the posts your spreading, check your sources. If you are out protesting, be situationally aware, and do not be afraid to clock and call out Nazis. Listen to Jewish people, listen to their concerns, educate yourself on what Zionism and antisemitism actually are and how they can be weaponized. It doesn't feel as good as rage, it doesn't feel as good as having a group you can functionally rail against in a way we can't against a nation a world away, but it's a skill that's going to help you and a lot of other people in the long run.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

World War Z is one of my favorite novels, but every time I reread it I am reminded of how painfully American it is. Very "third-way centrist," very "Democratic Liberal during the Bush years," very "I believe in America, we're the best country on Earth, let us show you the light." it is vehemently anticommunist, and plays the "both sides" card by having a character whose family suffered under Pinochet claim that imperialism and white hegemony are ghosts from a bygone era that developing nations need to get over; "far-left is just as bad as far-right, why can't we all just get along?"

A lot of the stories are interesting, and I want to do an in depth analysis of the timeline of the Great Panic someday, but this is a book that suggests Colin Fucking Powell would have been a great bastion of democracy and freedom, so I can't take any of the politics seriously anymore.

Iran becoming a nuclear nation and going to war with Pakistan

A Chinese civil war splits the PLA and dissolves the PRC, but not a single word is spoken about the multiple separatist movements in the United States after they were abandoned by the federal government for YEARS in zombieland (only that they were "given the option to be readmitted peacefully" when the feds came marching back)

Floridians turning Cuba into a "capitalist utopia" and Fidel Castro taking credit for the subsequent Cuban Evolution

Nelson Mandela personally signing off on an Apartheid-era plan to abandon half the country as human bait

The whole situation between Israel and Palestine (that is a can of worms I am neither qualified nor willing to dissect here)

Hollywood military propaganda gives people the will to live

The British royal family "shielding the soul" of the UK under the burden of their godlike mandate?!? (gag me with a fucking spoon...)

This book would be VERY different if it were written today. Published in 2006, it was obsessed with the Cold War but barely glossed over the War on Terror with one reference to "Gulf War 2" (Iraq) and a handful of references to a low-intensity "brushfire war" (Afghanistan) that ended in American victory by 2008, although a Pyrrhic one. I do not remember nor can I even imagine a time when ANYTHING within this book could be considered plausible outside the deepest fears and/or wettest dreams of the most diehard 'Mericans.

The more I get into it, the worst is sounds. I think I like the idea of the book more than the book itself now.

The prologue ends with a hint at an eventual sequel. The narrator says that a lot of people consider it too early to write a history book about a war that only just ended (and in fact is still being fought in some northern countries), and that it will take a few generations for people to fully process what happened. "Perhaps decades from now, someone will take up the task of recording the recollections of the much older, much wiser survivors." That is a book I would like to read; a retelling of WWZ with far less hero worship and characters who don't all sound like a 30-something American SNL writer.

[wadebae]

[copy pasta post because OP needed to turn off reblogs due to harassment. Another person asked them about doing this and they said it's fine, they just can't personally handle the harassment right now. These are not my words. Not giving credit solely to protect OP's inbox. Reblog or don't, but I wanted this on my blog.]

I have been noodling over posting this for several days but I think it's important for some people to hear.

At a March on Saturday, at a pro Palestine march, my group and I were targeted by by nazis. Not targeted for violence, but targeted for recruitment. They weren't wearing swastikas, they weren't spewing blatant antisemitic hate speech. They seemed like two normal dudes. They marched with us, talked about how awful everything in Palestine was, how we wished world leaders would grow a pair and hold Israel responsible for fucking war crimes, how existing in the world right now was hard. They were empathetic, they were kind, they seemed like genuine good dudes.

Until we passed a synagogue where people were handing our water to marchers. They had signs defending Palestine on their table. But the tone of the conversation changed. These two seemingly normal dudes started talking about how "performative" the gesture felt, that Jewish people should be doing more. That they needed to PROVE it. They started talking about "Zionist" propaganda in the US, about how it was deeply entrenched in capitalism. Things that, on the surface, seemed reasonable but it set off alarm bells in my head.

When I was a kid, I remember getting the speech of "don't repeat anything your uncle or cousin so and so says and don't argue with them. Try to avoid them but if you can't be polite." Because those uncles and cousins said a lot of hateful things about anyone who wasn't like them, but their favorite targets were black people and Jewish people. I would find out as an adult it was because many of those uncles and cousins were in the Klan. When I studied hate symbols for a class in college, I found my self looking at images I'd seen on arms and necks and hands my whole life, because I live in an area of the US where the KKK is still around. And standing in that crowd, listening to these guys talk, i had the most horrible realization I've had in a long time.

We were being fished by Nazis. We were a group of able body, white American leftists. At a march in support of stopping the murder and genocide of Palestinians, these motherfuckers were out here, trying to find people they could get to hate Jewish folks. I wasn't the only one in my group who clocked it, and when we called them on it, the masks came off. They called us a bunch of "Jew loving bitches" before they moved on.

But we're marched with these guys for a couple hours, talked with them, laughed with them, brought them into our circle. For a moment we forgot we also weren't immune to propaganda, we weren't immune to people who make hate sound reasonable and that people like that never start out saying the quiet part out loud, they lean on your anger and your sense of helplessness to move you where they want you. If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that fascists know how to adjust to the times, to work with what they got, to recruit. They know how to radicalize people, how to weaponize anger and helplessness. And I'm sitting here, every day, seeing posts that sound exactly like these guys did and it worries me.

I know I'm talking to the No Reading Comprehension Website, but I'm begging you guys to develop some now.

You are not immune to propaganda. We are all angry, as we fucking should be. We are watching an entire culture, thousands of lives, whole bloodlines, being wiped out in real time, and for many of us our nations are at best, wringing their hands, and at worst, shipping them weapons, all to protect capitalist greed. It's monstrous, it's disgusting. But look, REALLY LOOK, at the things you are tweeting, sharing, look at the language and how it's used. Take the time to educate yourself about how hate groups use social justice causes and civil unrest to recruit, research the posts your spreading, check your sources. If you are out protesting, be situationally aware, and do not be afraid to clock and call out Nazis. Listen to Jewish people, listen to their concerns, educate yourself on what Zionism and antisemitism actually are and how they can be weaponized. It doesn't feel as good as rage, it doesn't feel as good as having a group you can functionally rail against in a way we can't against a nation a world away, but it's a skill that's going to help you and a lot of other people in the long run.

[apas-95]

what zero class analysis does to a mfer

the republicans and the democrats are both competing with each other for the same goal - to be the ruling capitalist party. they both want to 'fuck you up' exactly the same amount in any way that matters - being, they're both political wings of the exact same political class, the bourgeoisie, and on anything regarding class matters, i.e., regarding us, the workers, they agree wholeheartedly. the democrats are not your friends, they're not even comparatively your friends unless you're yourself bourgeois.

and, i mean, hell, look at the rest of the fucking world - try saying 'the ones who actively want to fuck you up are republicans' to the people drone-striked by obama. to anyone affected by the US empire which both parties wholeheartedly support.

you cannot try to argue that one of these parties is somehow ambivalent to the working people when they are both parties of a class that only subsists off of the exploitation and violent repression of workers! not just their power, but their continued existence and survival, is entirely dependent on the workers being repressed and murdered at every turn

there is no neutrality on class matters, the US government is not sitting above society, deigning itself to represent neutral Citizens, it's an organ of a ruling class that functions as a class dictatorship - there are elections for the bourgeoisie, between bourgeois candidates, where the outcome is determined by the bourgeoisie (not just because the candidate that wins is 91% of the time the one with more money, but also because the electoral college literally doesn't have to follow the popular vote anyway, and can vote how they like). the proletariat isn't represented in US politics, and is that at all surprising to anyone?

this is a nation built on genocide and slavery, and somehow people have convinced themselves that it must have a fair and just system at its core, that it's simply impossible for it to be built in a way that makes political power impossible for certain groups of people. how can anyone possibly think this? the people who built it owned slaves.

[himedanshicult]

its like. marxism is survival for me. adorno's minima moralia literally saved my life. a lot of my interest in theory is entirely downstream of the fact that i need theory. i need to understand and analyze the world because my life depends on it. communism is the only hope, its not a utopia, its not heaven, its not some vague wish-washy sentiment that money is stupid, it is pure survival. i need communism because any other realizable society is one that will kill me and people like me. this capitalist society is killing me and my friends and my family, and if communist revolution fails or never materializes, we'll all either be buried, in prison, in an institution or a labor camp or rotting in the depths of an amazon fulfillment center. and then you have these smug, baby-faced suburbanites who go WOWEEEE when their sociology professor half-assedly goes over a chapter in dialectic of enlightenment, because gee, they never thought that money was oppressive before! and they join theory discussion groups, and social media and activist groups and they talk. dear god, do they talk. incessantly. their hunger for theoretical and political knowledge knows no limits, and jesus fuck do they have the time, energy and money for it. before you know it, they're running circles over you and you can barely keep up w what theyre talking about. because its a fucking game to them. they talk about adorno and benjamin and brecht and fanon and lukacs and all the rest but they dont give a shit about any of that stuff. they dont care about colonialism, or the administrative society or the culture industry or the impersonal domination of anything but they're uni housing authority. they're checking off their obligatory "student radical" phase in their university checklist. eventually, they'll realize that they actually dont give two shits about capitalism, then their vast theoretical knowledge is ammunition to attack, degrade, mock and browbeat anybody with more serious radical convictions than theirs and they'll make up the most convincing, radical sounding arguments to justify retreating back into the warm, safe environs of shithead liberal middle class politics and push other leftists to follow suit.

because its a game, its all a fucking game. they aren't fighting for their fucking lives. and every motherfucking left wing scene in this god forsaken refuse dump of a nation is swarming with them. they're like half the leadership of any given "party" or ngo. they're the ones w megaphones at the protest. they're the ones who start pushing for pro-palestine encampments to be dismantled the moment the uni administration promises them a little chocolate treat after class from now on. they're the ones who will never ever shut the fuck up and guarantee that the us left will remain a tiny subculture of psuedo-intellectual posturing and all-consuming fear of disrupting the status quo in any way. at least, up until operation condor goes domestic

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

More and more each day the UK becomes a worse parody of the US political landscape.

I wish I was fucking joking

this woman is actually off her fucking rocker i swear to god,

This woman got in trouble because parents started suing her for mistreatment of the children under her care, she also in the article goes on to say that supporting England was seen as odd in areas proportionally ethnic and made up of immigrants as if said people don't likely have a home country separate to England or that England fans - and in saying this I am talking exclusively about the ones that engage in football hooliganism of the 'make racist taunts and actions when black football players don't play how they want them too' variety- have been more and more associated with white nationalism in recent years.

I'm not a parent, but I am someone who very recently came out of the England educational system and I can verify that she's talking utter nonsense.

I did not learn about the slave trade in school, or the imperialism of the British Empire - or about the empire full stop. I was expected to know those things because every level of school expects the other to teach it to you. I was not taught about LGBTQIA+ in school, in fact in ethics I was explicitly compelled to debate the legality of it, and if it could ever really be marriage if it was a same sex union through an exclusively Christian lens.

I was not taught about gender, other than the standardized punnet square level things that are on standard material, I was not taught about ethnic diversity or anything in relation to people that were not *like me* that is to say, white. Even in regards to subjects where we studied actual complex topics - such as media pieces that were anti-capitalist- my teacher implored us to keep any mention of socialism and especially marxism out of our analysis since they 'weren't allowed' to talk to us about stuff like that even at ages 16-18. At ages where I could have sex; vote; get married with parental permission if I so wished. But I could not be spoken to about things such as socialsm.

Because that is how 'woke' the British school system is. The idea of teaching people - not children because they always frame it as if little 6 year old Cathy is being sat down and told about the intricacies' of lesbian sex orgies when in reality some of the things they suggest are being taught are part of government approved curriculum for GCSE and A level which puts you firmly between the ages of 14-18- real facts of the world they live in is so shocking and horrific that they can't handle it.

link to the original article

[wack-ashimself]

I have been waiting....most of my life for this MUST BE HAD conversation on antisemitism.

I have said the same thing MY WHOLE LIFE: Whoever is in charge (banks, ceos, militarizes, politics, etc) is to blame for everything going wrong and should be held accountable. Fired immediately.

That is the leaders of the USA, israel, and the UK.

I, in no form, care what their background is. I don't care their sex, sexuality, nationality, religion, culture, etc. If they're in charge, they are to blame. PERIOD.

Because it took till THIS FUCKING YEAR for people to accept 'we ain't hating these people for their background, rather, FOR WHAT THEY ARE FUCKING DOING TO THE WORLD!"

only took like...30 years for this fucking conversation to finally happen.

If a bunch of people in charge come from one background over another: I DO NOT GIVE A SHIT. I judge them ONLY based on their actions and they are the actions of FUCKING PSYCHOPATHS!

I'm just glad I got to fucking say it. I want everyone, everywhere to win...EXCEPT the rich and powerful. They can burn in fucking hell.

oh and side note: all these hate crimes on both groups, worldwide, is exaggerated to a cartoonish level. Sure-we knew they would increase, but why in the world would a multi billion dollar propaganda machine need to tell you of EVERY small instance? Cuz they want this to spread worldwide. The only thing that should spread is love....and guillotines. Lovely lovely effective guillotines. "Violence solves nothing, wack" TELL THAT TO THE CAPITALISTIC WAR MACHINE THAT HAS BEEN USED SINCE BEFORE YOU WERE CONCEIVED. If violence doesn't work, how about to tell that to the rich people who RUN YOUR FUCKING LIFE thru perpetual violence. If we just started with the federal reserve, wall street, IMF, and big banks....they'd have nothing. We would too, but...we already have nothing. Let's bring them down to our level. We'll definitely have the advantage...

[txttletale]

wanted 2 ask u cuz i think u know more than me:

most of the acab / police aboltion stuff i see is based on the US system, backed up with US stats and events, and suggesting changes to the US policing system.

but a lot of the proposed changes i see are similar (i think?) to what we currently have in the UK, and the power imbalance and training issues and violence are much worse in the US (but not absent here obvs). while the institution is still racist. but I'm wary of the usual 'it doesn't happen here' response that ppl usually employ to dismiss movements like BLM in the UK.

how much of acab rhetoric applies here, and how should we adapt the plans for reform for the UK policing system?

i mean the USA is definitely an outlier in terms of police and prison violence but this is broadly a quantitative rather than qualitative difference. i assure you that the police in the UK are just as horrifically racist and violent--they're just not as armed and don't have the same amount of political capital as the far more militarized USAmerican police.

the Metropolitan Police's own report (lol) found them to be 'institutionally racist'. police in the UK have fucking absurd powers, such as being permitted to commit any crime while undercover without judicial review, as long as it's in the interests of 'national security' or 'preventing disorder' or 'protecting the economic well-being of the United Kingdom' (!). they are relentlessly and disproportionately violent towards BAME people. they have a systemic culture of violence and brutality. Bristol police tased their own race relations advisor, twice. when a woman, sarah everard, was raped and murdered by a police officer, police suppressed and brutalized protesters at her vigil.

here are stop and search statistics for the UK police in 2021:

the UK policing system is just as racist and just as much of an oppressive apparatus as the USAmerican one. don't trust anyone from the UK who tries to tell you otherwise. all cops are bastards because the institution of policing under capitalism exists first and foremost to protect capitalist property relations.

obviously the demands of BLM protesters in the USA cannot be adapted 1-for-1 to the UK, and as a revolutionary communist i think there are very hard limits to what can be meaningfully accomplished under liberal democracy. but i think a good place to start if you want achievable short-term reform to happen is relentless protest and action against the recent bills that have expanded police powers more than ever, against the Blair-era counterterrorism legislation, for the abolition of the Met Police, and for justice for victims of police brutality.

Because the state arose from the need to hold class antagonisms in check, but because it arose, at the same time, in the midst of the conflict of these classes, it is, as a rule, the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which, through the medium of the state, becomes also the politically dominant class, and thus acquires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class […] This public power exists in every state; it consists not merely of armed men but also of material adjuncts, prisons, and institutions of coercion of all kinds

— Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State

[emblemxeno]

Legend of Korra First Watch: Book 3 Thoughts

Full thoughts under the cut!

-----Fight choreography and animation is even better, was absolutely amazing to watch.

-----Zaheer and The Red Lotus are a much better antagonistic force than Unalaq. The bar is low of course, but it's actually such a difference in quality.

Now, Unalaq formerly being a part of the Red Lotus? Eh, okay sure, I guess. Idk how considering his bending isn't all that's cracked up to be and he gets his way through manipulation and sneak attacks most of the time.

Each major member of the Red Lotus is intimidating and a force to be reckoned with, and that makes each encounter with them a sight to see. I've got to be honest however: could've used a little work on the personality side. Zaheer is obviously exempt of course, but the others come just short of being as personable or as engaging as Tarrlok. There were attempts of course! Mako and Bolin talking with Ghazan and Ming-Hua, as well as P'li's relationship with Zaheer are good moments of characterization, but I feel it just misses the mark.

...Though, thinking about it, I could be incorrect. There's plenty to glean from their personalities just through what they do in the journey to get to Korra. Ghazan is affable and calculated, bringing down entire structures with surgical lava strikes. Ming-Hua is fucking nuts, and is most prone to violence as a way to counter-balance her lack of a rare skill. P'li is determined and is the most dangerous when considering how damn calm she is. It's little wonder that each of them meet their ends when getting these aspects taken advantage of: Ghazan's fear of going back to prison overtakes his laid-back attitude, and that in tandem with Bolin learning lava-bending and being fought by him and Mako, he crumbles and tries to take them down with him. Ming-Hua's love of the hunt narrows her mind, and she doesn't even consider how her water-arms can be used against her, especially by a firebender; it's little wonder she gets electrocuted, she probably didn't think or wonder if Mako could do it, and is so full of herself that she thought she could take anyone so long as she has water. P'li, in spite of her calm demeanor, is so cemented in her role and making sure Zaheer is alright that she misses how she's kind of an easy target. She's strategically always put in places where she's just out of reach so she has the greatest advantage and the lowest chance of getting hurt, but loses whenever her blind spots are used against her. Her blind spots are getting hit in the third eye, anything that's not in front of her or in her peripheries... and Zaheer. When Zaheer is out of his element, she loses concentration; her earthly tether is in danger so she gets more frazzled, which is ironic considering Zaheer himself got more dangerous when he loses P'li entirely.

-----Zaheer himself is extremely compelling and interesting to think about. Anarchism is something that's not taken seriously by most of the general public because they have a shallow view of what anarchism is. It's the skepticism and dislike of authoritarian institutions that divide and beat down the marginalized, such as capitalist nation-states. But like every school of thought, it has extreme, utopian, and dangerous limits and sects. In Zaheer's case, he believes disorder is natural and something that people will come out of stronger for it.

He has a point to a certain extent (and trust me, as a leftist, I'm aware that TLOK falls into a similar liberal writing trap that ATLA did in that bad people who have good points/ideas are written to be even more evil in their actions in order to undermine their ideas as a whole, but that kind of discussion is best saved for a different day), but his extreme relies upon two fallacies: one, that people will maintain the freedom that goes by his design-which if the Red Lotus were to try and maintain that design, he'd just end up a hypocrite-and two, that people wouldn't just band around another leader. In fact, creating such a big power vacuum could lead to an even more oppressive force to take over in the previous one's destruction. And I know all about the fascist-allegory in season 4 of LOK, so... yeah, that didn't work.

Something else I like about him is how he's almost a corruption of Air Nomad culture. Freedom's negative extreme is chaos and selfishness, and it's in deep contrast to what Tenzin wants the new Air Nation to accomplish at the end of the season, which is harmony and justice. So in a way, Zaheer got a little of what he wanted, but ironically in losing all his tethers, he lost what makes a person a person, and becomes so utterly lost in his self-made void of emptiness, that when brought back to the earth, he loses his mind.

Thinking back on it, it's what I liked about Amon and Tarrlok as well. Water is the element of change, and the water tribe celebrates community and emotion. The natural negative extremes of that is enforced rules and proticols to quell unrest and protect the people from themselves, which is like trying to redirect a powerful river (Tarrlok), and violent, immediate social unrest and revolution, which is like a sudden current shift or careening down a waterfall (Amon). Were I to think on it more, I could probably do a similar thing with Unalaq and the Water Tribe civil war, but given I just pulled the previous examples out of my head near instantly, it kind of goes to show that Book 2 is a bit too bloated with other things for me to properly dissect and reconnect the philosophy to the elements of it.

-----I think Tenzin has moved into comfort character territory for me, I just love whenever he's onscreen. The weight of the air nation culture on his shoulders was resolved last season, but it comes back now that harmonic convergence re-established balance by having new air benders pop up. I think that was a fair way to bring back his angst, and it parallels neatly with Jinora's continued main role as an airbending master and spiritual guide in her own right. What Tenzin lacked in natural talents or skills in maintaining community, he makes up for in raw experience, and its vice versa with Jinora. The air family's dynamic was always a treat to experience, and Kai's introduction into the show was quite beneficial IMO. It gave Jinora an earthly tether and all the good and bad that comes with it (heightens her immaturity and rebelliousness, but also fosters a better connection with her spiritual side and improves her ability to talk and direct others).

Back to Tenzin and him being a comfort character though... Guys I was almost brought to tears when the Northern Air Temple was attacked. I hated seeing Tenzin get beat up, like I was actually upset. "As long as I'm breathing, it's not over." 🥹🥹🥹

-----Lin and Suyin! I like their dynamic a lot, and I'm so happy that Lin is a major character again in this season. The Beifong family is fun to watch, and I like how stubborn each of the sisters were, until Opal-much like an airbender would-was able to enlighten them by reminding them of their sisterhood and love for each other. Achieve freedom from your past by letting go of resentment, and all that.

Given that Kuvira was introduced in this Book, I expect Lin and Suyin to have even more screen time next season, and with that I also expect deeper moments to comment on. I have other thoughts I could share, but I think watching season 4 would make them more solidified. Also, Suyin voiced by Anne Heche? Absolutely love, it's a treat for the ears.

-----Bolin and Mako! Finally I have nothing but positive things to say about each of them! Now that they're not sharing the spotlight with police drama or political bureaucracy, they have new opportunities to grow. I'm glad they got to meet their Earth Kingdom family, and as a mixed kid myself, I have a soft spot for mixed ancestry depictions in shows.

Bolin thrives when he's having a crisis about his identity and who he wants to be; giving him lavabending (something relatively unique) instead of metal-bending (something most other earthbenders, now including Korra, can do) is brilliant, as it gives him an opportunity to chart his own path on almost uncharted territories, rather than try to fit into the mold.

Mako thrives when his connections to his family and his past are brought to the forefront; he's always been a talented bender, but his power as a bender and his goodness as a person, shine brightest when he needs to help/encourage Bolin, when giving Kai advice, when rescuing his extended family, or when he's reminiscing on his past on the streets. He's out of his element when boxed into a poorly written love triangle, and boring to watch when he's a police officer. He's a great watch when he's freed from those restrictions, and it's a great layer to the overall theme of freedom in Book 3.

-----Man Korra was put through the wringer in this season. Now, I still don't like how the connections to past avatars was done as a consequence to Raava getting defeated, but I do like how it impacts Korra as a character, when deciding her own path without needing to seek advice at every turn. I... don't think it results in a completely rash decision on her part, just that her insecurity over being considered a poor Avatar means she's more willing to self-sacrifice for the benefits of overs, even if it means everyone suffers in the long term.

I was so proud of her character at the end of the season but also so heartbroken when she was shown in the wheelchair. She's so despondent, and it's clear that it's not just physical trauma she's suffering from anymore. I hope season 4 capitalizes on this.

Honest confession, I was crying heavy during the final scene during Jinora's tattoo ceremony, for multiple reasons. Jinora reaching her peak and being respected for her mastery, Tenzin being proud, Korra being traumatized, and Korra crying both because of her experiences as an Avatar so far and because-or at least what I headcanon-it's subtly Aang also crying through her seeing his culture and people restored. I just think it's a bittersweet and emotionally well done finale to the season.

-Korrasami ship tease in this season was so cuuuuuute!!! Sorry if this is an awkward way to end this post, but I just really like them together. Any time it's just the two of them, I smile. I wish there was more overt ship tease, but I understand it was the execs behind the scenes breathing down the necks of the writers. At least Korrasami won out in the end.

Book 4 is next! What a wild ride it's been!

[thenookienostradamus]

The constant barrage of horrific world news combined with the international mixing bowl of online forums has combined into a toxic blend of blame, and we need some perspective.

Every time news of a new human rights violation arises, people in online spaces rush to share it, to demonstrate their outrage. This inevitably leads others to pipe up with something like: "Well, what about [other ongoing atrocity]? I bet you've forgotten!!" Or "How can you talk about [persecuted group] when [other persecuted group] is suffering?"

In their indignation and rush to judgment, folks in online spaces forget a couple of key facts.

1. The people of a given country or region are not their government. Even if the Russian government is still committing war crimes in Ukraine, we are allowed to feel for Russian LGBTQ+ people who have been declared enemies of the state. Even if Israel's government is still committing war crimes in Palestine, we are still allowed to feel for the families of Israelis killed by Hamas and anyone working for peace who is caught in the crossfire. Even if America's leaders are aiding and abetting crimes against humanity abroad, we are still allowed to feel for the people there who are literally enslaved in the prison industrial complex or who die of manageable diseases because they cannot pay for healthcare.

"X people deserve what they get, because look what their country is doing elsewhere." With no due respect, no the fuck they do not. The bald-faced audacity of sitting on high and condemning all citizens of "colonizer nations" or "communist countries" or "dictatorships" or "late-stage capitalist hellscapes" to death because of decisions made by a dictator or a king or a group of oligarchs or billionaires.

"Your country did x so you're not allowed to voice your suffering. You have to minimize it. You are undeserving of empathy because of your nationality." Do you understand how sociopathic that sounds? Unless you allow yourself to sit with the cognitive dissonance of "a government - even a more-or-less democratic one - can still do things considered objectionable by some or most of its citizens," you run the risk of falling prey to black-and-white fascist thinking.

And along those lines,

2. It is impossible for any person or group to maintain the same level of outrage at foreign OR domestic atrocities indefinitely. It's paralyzing; we would be incapable of living our lives. But that doesn't mean people have forgotten. The structure of online spaces makes it all too easy to assume because sharing of news has died down that the world has forgotten about a particular instance of suffering. Then you get the inevitable "How can people think about y while x is happening?" Just as the body begins to break down under constant inflammation, the mind begins to break down under a constant barrage of sorrow and suffering. We cannot wake up and go through a mental list of atrocities every day to ensure we give each its due solemn weight. They ALL have weight, but to expect that is to wish everyone so incapacitated that they can't do anything about any of the atrocities. We do all sometimes need to focus on personal, interpersonal, or domestic suffering, during which period the performative outrage over other suffering diminishes.

Stop judging people's character by their online behavior. Or, even more accurately, accept that online behavior mirrors real life in that it is inconsistent. Because humans are inconsistent and need to take time to address issues that aren't globally visible for their own self-preservation.

All people cannot be occupied with all issues simultaneously; it's paralyzing. Use your own suffering to find empathy for the struggles of others, or else we are all lost.

[ebenrosetaylor]

Reblogs were turned off in the original post because op was getting death threats by Nazis, reposting with IDs to keep the information circulating

[Text transcrption from screenshots:

"I have been noodling over posting this for several days but I think it's important for some people to hear.

At a March on Saturday, at a pro Palestine march, my group and I were targeted by by nazis. Not targeted for violence, but targeted for recruitment. They weren't wearing swastikas, they weren't spewing blatant antisemitic hate speech. They seemed like two normal dudes. They marched with us, talked about how awful everything in Palestine was, how we wished world leaders would grow a pair and hold Israel responsible for fucking war crimes, how existing in the world right now was hard. They were empathetic, they were kind, they seemed like genuine good dudes.

Until we passed a synagogue where people were handing our water to marchers. They had signs defending Palestine on their table. But the tone of the conversation changed. These two seemingly normal dudes started talking about how "performative" the gesture felt, that Jewish people should be doing more. That they needed to PROVE it. They started talking about "Zionist" propaganda in the US, about how it was deeply entrenched in capitalism. Things that, on the surface, seemed reasonable but it set off alarm bells in my head.

When I was a kid, I remember getting the speech of "don't repeat anything your uncle or cousin so and so says and don't argue with them. Try to avoid them but if you can't be polite." Because those uncles and cousins said a lot of hateful things about anyone who wasn't like them, but their favorite targets were black people and Jewish people. I would find out as an adult it was because many of those uncles and cousins were in the Klan. When I studied hate symbols for a class in college, I found my self looking at images I'd seen on arms and necks and hands my whole life, because I live in an area of the US where the KKK is still around. And standing in that crowd, listening to these guys talk, i had the most horrible realization I've had in a long time.

We were being fished by Nazis. We were a group of able body, white American leftists. At a march in support of stopping the murder and genocide of Palestinians, these motherfuckers were out here, trying to find people they could get to hate Jewish folks. I wasn't the only one in my group who clocked it, and when we called them on it, the masks came off. They called us a bunch of "Jew loving bitches" before they moved on.

But we're marched with these guys for a couple hours, talked with them, laughed with them, brought them into our circle. For a moment we forgot we also weren't immune to propaganda, we weren't immune to people who make hate sound reasonable and that people like that never start out saying the quiet part out loud, they lean on your anger and your sense of helplessness to move you where they want you. If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that fascists know how to adjust to the times, to work with what they got, to recruit. They know how to radicalize people, how to weaponize anger and helplessness. And I'm sitting here, every day, seeing posts that sound exactly like these guys did and it worries me.

I know I'm talking to the No Reading Comprehension Website, but I'm begging you guys to develop some now.

You are not immune to propaganda. We are all angry, as we fucking should be. We are watching an entire culture, thousands of lives, whole bloodlines, being wiped out in real time, and for many of us our nations are at best, wringing their hands, and at worst, shipping them weapons, all to protect capitalist greed. It's monstrous, it's disgusting. But look, REALLY LOOK, at the things you are tweeting, sharing, look at the language and how it's used. Take the time to educate yourself about how hate groups use social justice causes and civil unrest to recruit, research the posts your spreading, check your sources. If you are out protesting, be situationally aware, and do not be afraid to clock and call out Nazis. Listen to Jewish people, listen to their concerns, educate yourself on what Zionism and antisemitism actually are and how they can be weaponized. It doesn't feel as good as rage, it doesn't feel as good as having a group you can functionally rail against in a way we can't against a nation a world away, but it's a skill that's going to help you and a lot of other people in the long run."

Reply to the original post:

"A lot of right-wing commentators on Twitter have pivoted to pro-Palestinian talking points and/or lies that sound good because they have a pro-Palestinian veneer. Don’t boost them. They are not your allies."

A link to an article about alt-right X (Twitter) accounts riding the surge of pro-palestine content to gain money, spread misinformation, and eventually antisemitism. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/twitter-hate-speech-accounts-palestine-clout-1234867382/ "

END ID]

[moki-dokie]

Already posted this on twitter but tumblr tends to be a better place for this sort of thing. so. just basically gonna copy-paste the qt I did for this.

so, interesting thing that i feel is a prime example of why this "problem" is utterly made up bullshit capitalist propaganda.

back in the 90s, OKC was essentially dying. downtown was one of the worst in the nation. gang infested, falling apart, roads not only in severe disrepair but very poorly planned, and utterly reliant on offices nobody wanted to work in for good reason. it was BAD. (edit: also the 1980s recession hit here especially hard so it was suffering in general from the fallout of that, too.)

enter the MAPS program. a 66 month long temp raise on sales taxes to completely revitalize, restructure, and rebuild our downtown from the ground up. nothing like this had ever been done before in the nation, not on this scale. and keep in mind OK has notoriously been very red.

this was a bipartisan project (and continues to be still) and believe it or not got some of the most support during republican rule. i don't think there's ever been a project proposal before or since that received such outstanding support by voters either. everyone wanted it.

with MAPS our downtown got a convention center, music hall, trolley system, baseball stadium, library, arena, new streets, and like 3 miles of river dammed and moved to create a canal and set the foundation for future projects on the river itself.

by the 2000s, downtown was completely transformed. MAPS was so successful that another one was proposed and passed. And then 2 more.

since the original MAPS, theres been new parks added, river sports, cultural centers, hiking/walking trails, more street upgrades, a senior wellness center, state fair improvements, public transit upgrades, and too many infrastructure improvements to name.

OKC is now a contender to other major attractive downtowns in the nation. it is now a place you WANT to go. we got our own NBA team now that shaped some of the best in the league currently. it's one of the few walkable areas in the whole state too. its honestly beautiful.

point is, we got here by adding enrichment, art, entertainment, and public spaces. not more offices. not more soulless cooperations. not more industry. those were the problem, getting rid of them and replacing them with ways to improve happiness and community was the solution.

and we did it in one of the most socialist ways possible. in one of the reddest states in the nation. if your downtown is dying bc nobody wants to return to offices, then your downtown was dead already to begin with. work should not be the reason a downtown thrives.

so don't believe the capitalist propaganda for a single second. we have 30 years of evidence right here in OKC to prove that shit wrong at every turn. and any politician who spouts that rhetoric is 100% bought and paid for by some major corp.

anyway MAPS is really cool and everyone should read up on it https://okc.gov/government/maps-3/maps-history and advocate for similar projects like it in your own metro. if one of the poorest, most conservative and oft forgotten about places in the nation can do it, any city can.

and PS: all of this was happening at the same time as the Murrah bombing recovery - at the time the largest domestic terrorist attack in the nation. so like. there really is no excuse for a city to allow their downtown to die other than politicians licking the boots of big corps.

PPS: the newest MAPS was just passed a couple of years ago and is the largest one of them yet. we'll be getting more parks, a youth center, another senior center, a mental health and addiction facility, more public transit, more upgrades to streets, a new animal shelter, additions to the state fairgrounds, a civil rights center, lots of beautification, a multipurpose stadium, and three pretty fucking amazing projects that are worth going into more detail about. A family justice center - a temporary one exists but this one will be permanent. this is a really fucking cool place that helps victims of sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, domestic violence, and children who've been through traumatic situations. a diversion center - this will essentially be a way to get people out of the prison system and back into society. it's for low-level, non-violent offenders that really shouldn't have landed in prison in the first place. our prisons are fucked around here, and so extremely overcrowded. I'm sure that could be said for most around the nation. this is more like rehabilitation and its really awesome to see. and lastly, a wholeass chunk dedicated to fighting homelessness - the first time this has really, truly been addressed with logical solutions. i gotta give big fuckin kudos to everyone involved on this one - its something they discussed openly with citizens, something they asked for suggestions about, something they've wanted to solve rather than just hide and needed the public's help to figure that out. the goal is to completely eradicate it by shifting focus to a housing-first program, create truly affordable housing (of which there is an extreme lack of in the heart of OKC), and offer services at every step of the way to make sure once a person is housed, they are able to also support themselves and stay housed. with $50mil from MAPS and $400mil from outside sources, this will be the largest of any of the projects to date and I am SO thrilled about it.