#it has to come from grassroots

[dchan87]

You cannot replicate or recreate Barbenheimer. Barbenheimer was organic, spontaneous because people saw that these two movies--bright, colorful, comedic Barbie and dark, moody Oppenheimer--were being released on the same day and ran with it. Barbenheimer was lightning in a bottle.

Execs will try to replicate it because money. But it won't work. Consumers will see right through the astroturfed marketing, and whatever the execs try will fail. We must let Barbenheimer be a one-and-done for the sake of the movie industry.

[etz-ashashiyot]

Friendly reminder that A Land for All is an excellent organization that is still, even now, working to create an equitable resolution to the conflict. Please check them out:

I also strongly recommend reading through their full proposal here.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me FRIDAY NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The Democratic Party Pizzaburger Theory of Electioneering is: half the electorate wants a pizza, the other half wants a burger, so we'll give them all a pizzaburger and make them all equally dissatisfied, thus winning the election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

But no one wants a pizzaburger. The Biden administration's approach of letting the Warren/Sanders wing pick the antitrust enforcers while keeping judicial appointments in the Manchin-Synematic universe is a catastrophe in which progressive Dem regulators (who serve one term) are thwarted by corporatist Dem judges (who serve for life):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

The Democrats – like all parties in two-party systems – are a coalition; in this case, a "progressive" liberal-left coalition with liberals serving as senior partners, steering the party and setting its policies. These corporate dems like to color themselves as "neutral" technocrats with "realistic, apolitical" policies that represent what's best for the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This sets up the left wing of the party as the starry-eyed, unrealistic radicals whose policies are unpopular and will lose elections. But for a decade, grassroots-funded primary challenges have made it possible to test this theory, by putting leftist politicians on the ballot in front of voters, especially in tight races with far-right Republicans (that is, exactly the kinds of races that the corporate wing of the party says we can't afford to take chances on).

The 2022 midterms included enough races to start testing these theories – and, unlike traditional midterms, these races enjoyed high voter turnout, thanks to the unpopularity of GOP positions like abortion bans, book bans and anti-trans laws. Jacobin teamed up with the Center for Working-Class Politics, Yougov and the Center for Work and Democracy at ASU and analyzed those races:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11134429/CWCP-Report-2024.pdf

Their conclusion: candidates from working-class backgrounds who campaigned on economic policies like high-quality jobs, higher minimum wages, a jobs guarantee, ending offshoring and outsourcing, building infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back to the US won with a 50% share of the vote in rural and working-class districts. Dems who didn't lost with a 35% share of the vote:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-18-how-actually-existing-democrats-run-for-office/

In other words, in the kinds of districts where Trumpist politicians are beating Democrats, running on "left populist" policies beats Trumpist politicians.

That's the good news: if Dems recruit leftist, working class politicians and put them up for office on policies that address the material reality of voters' lives, they can beat fascist GOP candidates.

Now for the bad news: the Democratic establishment has no interest in getting these candidates onto the ballot. Working-class candidates, by definition, lack the networks of deep-pocketed cronies who can fund their primary campaigns. Only 2.3% of Dem candidates come from blue-collar backgrounds (if you include "pink-collar" professions like nursing and teaching, the number goes up to 5.9%):

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters

All of this confirms the findings of Trump's Kryoptonite, an earlier Jacobin/CWCP research project that polled working-class voters on preferences for hypothetical candidates, finding that working-class candidates with economically progressive policies handily beat out Republicans, including MAGA Republicans:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08125102/TrumpsKryptonite_Final_June2023.pdf

Since the Clinton-Blair years, "progressives" have abandoned economic populism ("It's not a burning ambition for me to make sure that David Beckham earns less money" -T. Blair) and pursued a "third way" that seeks to replace half the world's of supply white, male oligarchs with diverse oligarchs from a variety of backgrounds and genders. We were told that this was done in the name of winning elections with "modern" policies that replaced old-fashioned ideas about decent pay, decent jobs, and worker power.

These policies have delivered a genocide-riven world on the brink of several kinds of existential catastrophe. They're a failure. The pizzaburger party didn't deliver safety, nor prosperity – and it also can't deliver elections.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/#bread-and-butter

[afeelgoodblog]

Best News of Last Week - July 3, 2023

🐕 - This dog is 'disc'-overing hidden treasures! Get ready for the 'paws'-itively successful fundraiser, Daisy's Discs!

1. Most unionized US rail workers now have new sick leave

More than 60% of U.S. unionized railroad workers at major railroads are now covered by new sick leave agreements, a trade group said Monday.

Last year railroads came under fire for not agreeing to paid sick leave during labor negotiations.

2. Missing teen found after being lost in the wilderness for 50 hours

Esther Wang, 16, had been hiking with three other people through the Maple Ridge park on Tuesday.

The group made it to Steve’s lookout around 2:45 p.m. that day.However, when they headed back down to the campsite, after about 15 minutes of hiking, the group leader realized Wang was missing. They returned to the lookout to look for Wang but couldn’t find her. The leader headed to the trail entrance to notify a park ranger and police.

“Esther Wang has been located. She’s healthy, she is happy and she’s with family.”

3. A dog has retrieved 155 discs from woods. They’ll be on sale soon, with proceeds going to the park in West Virginia where they were found

Meet Daisy, the yellow Labrador retriever with a unique talent for finding lost Frisbee golf discs at Grand Vue Park in West Virginia. Four years ago, while on a walk with her owner Kelly Mason, Daisy discovered a disc in the woods and proudly brought it back. Since then, Daisy's obsession with finding stray discs has grown, and she has collected an impressive cache of 155 discs.

Mason and park officials have now come up with a plan to return the discs to their owners if they are labeled, and any unclaimed discs will be sold as a fundraiser to support the park's disc golf courses. Daisy's Discs is expected to be a success, with many excited about the possibility of recovering their lost discs thanks to Daisy's remarkable skills.

4. Australian earless dragon last seen in 1969 rediscovered in secret location

A tiny earless dragon feared to be extinct in the wild has been sighted for the first time in more than 50 years – at a location that is being kept secret to help preservation efforts.

The Victorian grassland earless dragon, Tympanocryptis pinguicolla, has now been rediscovered in the state, according to a joint statement issued by the Victorian and federal Labor governments on Sunday.

5. Detroit is going to power 100% of its municipal buildings with solar

All of Detroit’s municipal buildings are going to be powered by neighborhood solar as part of the city’s efforts to combat climate change – check out the city’s cool grassroots plan. Meet Detroit Rock Solar City.

The city has determined that it’s going to need around 250 acres of solar panels in order to achieve 100% solar power for its municipal buildings.

6. Canada Officially Bans Cosmetic Testing on Animals

The fight for cruelty-free beauty in Canada has seen a significant breakthrough as the Canadian government legislates a full ban on cosmetic animal testing and trade, marking a victory for Animal rights advocates and eco-conscious consumers.

This landmark decision is part of the Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-47), not only prohibiting cosmetic animal testing but also putting an end to the sale of cosmetics that use new animal testing data for safety substantiation.

7. Belize certified malaria-free by WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Belize as malaria-free, following the country’s over 70 years of continued efforts to stamp out the disease.

“WHO congratulates the people and government of Belize and their network of global and local partners for this achievement”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Belize is another example of how, with the right tools and the right approach, we can dream of a malaria-free future.”

----

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Support this newsletter ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog.

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

Men can never be feminists

One of the most freeing things in my feminism has been my acknowledgement that men can never be feminists. The feminist cause is an antithesis to the empire they've built with the blood, sweat and tears of billions of women throughout history.

For years I would fervently argue with male peers. I would feel anger and anguish at their apathy which led me to question whether there was something fundamentally wrong in my arguments. However, looking at things from a radical's perspective, men are acutely aware of the wrongs the women around them suffer. They either choose to ignore it or satiate their morality with cognitive dissonance. It is futile to argue with them because they will always put the "Man's" comfort over the survival of women.

This has resulted in me focusing entirely around the women around me and practicing female separatism. Now, I would never waste an ounce of my energy on getting angry at the profound evil that men come up with to torture women, rather think of ways to protect women around me from that. The law is skewed to the male perspective. Asking justice from the seat of male judges is a losing cause. The patriarchy has taught men at large well that to uphold their power over women they need to protect the violent men that keep this power in check.

For the common man neither possesses the resources nor the strength to control the multitude of women, they vote and purposefully bring those men in power that will ascertain their position as man the oppresser and woman the victim. They will give false testimonials for their rapist friends in court or dissuade the women around them to file a case against the man they consider as "the good guy". A "good guy" to men is a guy that oppresses women.

We, as women, have understandably a tempest of emotions roaring in our hearts at the violence this patriarchal world bestows upon us. However, this only leads me feeling helpless and claustrophobic at how little I can do to remove the evil from grassroot level.

This is why I have decided to hoarde my resources and share them only with women. My prime focus is educating the women around me to practice celibacy and increase their self esteem along with dismantling the consumerism in process. Opening domestic violence and rape shelters is my life's goal. My feminism is for women and for women only.

[hellyeahscarleteen]

It’s our 25th birthday! We’ve been doing all we do for a quarter century, for somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 million people in total.

You heard us right: 25 years of actually groundbreaking, original, smart, brave, pleasure-forward, caring, inclusive, shame-free, body-loving, learner-led, holistic, progressive, feminist, wholly independent and for-real and FOR FREE comprehensive queer sex ed for around 90,000,000 people around the world and counting under our belt now. That's a helluva thing for a scrappy grassroots sex education resource that started completely from scratch.

Our work is as essential now as ever. We’ve been experiencing a growing wave of legislation designed to cut young people off from vital and wanted information, support and community, especially young queer and trans people. In the last several years, we’ve also seen many sources of independent, feminist and queer, media shutter or give up their independence, some at the cost of their ingenuity or integrity. Scarleteen is and has always been fully independent, feminist, queer media. We don’t de-fang our content in order to appeal to advertisers or other sponsors. We offer unapologetically queer, pro-abortion, feminist, justice-minded and pleasure-forward sex education, and we have since we were a 🦄 in all that.

To help sustain Scarleteen through 2024 and the coming years, we need about 750 new people to sign up as recurring donors (you can see our progress towards that goal in the second graphic on this post). If we were there for you when you were younger; if you use us in your class, your curriculum, your counseling or healthcare office; if you refer young people to us; if you share our content on your social media, pass it to friends, or as a resource for your own research or writing; if our work has helped or does helps you in any way? We hope that if you're able, you'll consider becoming a recurring donor today, and will let others know about both the value of our resource, and our need for some help to keep on doing everything we do. 💗 🎉

Check out a 25 year timeline of our work and learn how to help with a donation or by hosting an online fundraiser

[kaijutegu]

Are you angry/scared/worried about potentially losing Roe vs. Wade? Do you want to help?

A lot of people are REALLY WORRIED about the leaked Alito draft, and for good reason. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, many states will enact trigger laws that revoke the right to safe abortion access. But that doesn’t mean that safe abortions won’t be possible. They’ll just be harder to access.

Fortunately, we aren’t powerless. There are things we can do to help preserve the right to abortion and, if Roe falls, help people get the abortions they need.

Here are some actionable things you can do to help!

Donate to your local abortion fund.

This is a financial commitment, obviously, but these funds are vital to helping people access abortions. There are different types of funds. Practical funds help with transportation, housing, and other practical needs. Clinical funds help with paying for the procedure. Both types of funds are necessary and helpful!

If you’re in a state with protected abortion access, see if there’s a practical fund in your state that you can donate to. These funds make it possible for people for other states to afford travel and lodging in your state. You might also want to consider donating to funds in states or regions that have trigger laws, like the Yellowhammer Abortion Fund, which helps people in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Deep South.

To find an abortion fund in your state, you can google “abortion fund + your state” or open up this google doc that’s a maintained list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-aDTsZXnKhMcrDmtcD35aWs00gw5piocDhaFy5LKDY/preview?pru=AAABgKwRCFs*fZxkvUyYtHx7T4KXmRnOLA

There’s also https://abortionfunds.org/, but as of right now (2 May 2022, right after the SCOTUS leak happened), their website is down. Too much traffic!

Volunteer with a hotline.

As of writing this, a lot of abortion fund websites are completely overwhelmed. Lots of people are rightfully upset and looking for some way to help. Many of these funds have hotlines that you can help out directly from your own phone! Google “abortion fund + your state (or your region) + hotline” and see what comes up. These hotlines are going to be SWAMPED soon and many orgs are going to be onboarding volunteers very quickly to help deal with the onslaught.

Donate to grassroots causes. 

I love Planned Parenthood as much as the next gal, but donating to them isn’t actually going to help as much right now as donating to an abortion fund. Smaller, grassroots networks are going to be more effective at allocating resources to the people who need it most. Independent clinics are also going to need substantial help. Independent clinics provide the majority of abortion care in the US, and many are the only clinics operating in hostile states. Check out https://keepourclinics.org/ if you’re interested in donating.

Make a list of resources.

There are a lot of people out there who aren’t going to have the time or energy or emotional bandwidth to deal with this dumpster fire. If you have the capacity to do so, then maintain a file somewhere with the following information:

- any abortion funds that serve your area with their contact info- email and phone and links

- any abortion hotlines in your area

- national care hotlines, ESPECIALLY RAINN because this is going to be really, really hard on survivors

-a list of crisis pregnancy centers in your area, clearly marked with their names, contact info, and primary links. Make sure that these are highlighted in a way that separates them from the actual abortion providers because these centers are highly predatory and manipulate people who are distressed and confused. If somebody has access to that list and know who’s operating in an area, it might help them avoid these places!

Have this file ready to go so that you can share it with people who are overwhelmed!

Help the safe havens.

Losing Roe feels inevitable at this point. It might not be, but the world is terrifying. However, some states are safe havens and will maintain abortion access, regardless of what SCOTUS eventually decides. Practical access funds in these states will need help because they will help people traveling from unsafe states to safe states. Refer to this map: https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/

Look for funds in states that are blue or yellow. This means they have expanded access or protection if Roe falls. But be sure to hover over and look at the summary of the protection– for example, Florida has abortion protection, but they just passed a 15-week ban. That’s basically protection in name only!

If you’re not sure which practical fund you’d like to support, I highly suggest the Midwest Access Coalition. MAC is based in Chicago and helps people from all over the Midwest come to the city for reproductive healthcare. A lot of the Midwest is really hostile to abortion, so MAC can help a lot of people. But there are many, many others!

In the coming days and weeks, there will be more to do. There will be marches, protests, and other organized action. But right now, tonight, these are things you can look into doing.

[jewish-sideblog]

I think people forget that the Nazis never said they were the bad guys. If someone says, hey, I’m evil! You don’t let them take over your country. They presented themselves as scientific, not hateful. By their own account, they were progressives, and the superiority of White Europe over the other races was a proven and immutable fact. They had scientists and archaeologists and historians to prove it. They didn’t tell people they wanted to kill the Jews because they were hateful. They manufactured evidence to frame us for very real tragedies, and they had methodological research to prove that we were genetically predisposed to misconduct. Wouldn’t you believe that?

Hollywood has spent the last 80 years portraying the Nazis as an obvious and intimidating evil. That’s a good thing in some ways, because we want general audiences to recognize that they were evil. But we also want them to be able to recognize how and why they came to power. Not by self-describing themselves as an evil empire, but by convincing people that they were the good guys and the saviors. They hosted the Olympics. Several European countries capitulated and volunteered themselves to the Empire. There were American and British Fascist Parties. They had broad public support. Hollywood never shows that part, so general audiences never learn to recognize the actual signs of antisemitism.

People today think they can’t possibly be antisemitic, because they’re leftist! They abhor bigotry! They could never comprehend Nazi ideology coming from the mouth of a bisexual college student wearing a graphic tee and jeans. How could they? The only depiction of antisemites they’ve ever seen have been gaunt, pale, middle-aged men in black leather trench coats with skulls on their caps.

If the Nazis time-travelled from the 1930s and wanted to take power now, they’d change their original tactics, but not by much. They would target countries suffering from an identity crisis and an economic collapse. They would portray themselves as the pinnacle of what that society considers progressive. Back then, it was race science. These days it’s performative wokeness. Once they’d garnered enough respect and reputation, they’d begin manufacturing propaganda and lies to manipulate people’s anger and fears at a single target— Jews.

If the Nazis made an actual return, they wouldn’t look like neo-Nazis. They wouldn’t be nearly as obvious about their hatred. Their evil wouldn’t give them yellow eyes, and no suspenseful music would play when they walked in the room. They’d be friendly. They’d look like you. They would learn what things your community fears and what things you already hate. They would lie and fabricate evidence to connect the rich elites and the imperialists you revile to a single source of unequivocal Jewish evil. It wouldn’t be hard— they already have two-thousand years of institutional antisemitism they can rely on to paint their picture.

If you’re curious why antisemitism today is coming from grassroots organizations, young, liberal college campuses, suburban neighborhoods with pride flags and All Are Welcome Here signs? That’s why. It’s because, as a global society, we’ve forgotten that the world didn’t used to see the Nazis as bad guys. And what is forgotten about history is doomed to be repeated.

[tomorrowusa]

« In a country defined by the ongoing existential battle over whether this will be a white nationalist society or a multiracial democracy, the majority of people reject the idea of making America white again. Most people in America prefer the Democrats’ vision of a multiracial America (however halfheartedly it may be expressed at times) to the raw, unapologetic white nationalism espoused in coded and not-so-coded ways by Republicans. With the sole exception of the 2004 presidential election, the Democratic nominee has won the popular vote in every single presidential election over the past 30 years.

Republicans understand this reality better than Democrats which is why they ferociously focus on suppressing the vote far more than Democrats emphasize expanding voting. »

— Steve Phillips at The Guardian.

Republicans will use every trick they know to suppress the non-MAGA vote. In addition to legal methods such as restricting voting hours and making absentee voting more difficult, they will work with their partners in Russia to spread disinformation to discourage moderate and liberal voters from casting ballots.

We need to do more grassroots work to get out the vote. There's no substitute for person to person contact to identify potential supporters and to make sure they vote. And the earlier we get started, the better.

At the very least, we need to be certain that like-minded people are properly registered. We should not be reticent about asking others whether they're registered.

Because voting is highly geographic, it's necessary to remind people that they need to register at their new address after they move. Even if you move across the street, you need to register at THAT address. After you've reminded the people who have moved, follow up two weeks later to make sure they've done so.

If friends think that voting is important to you, they are more likely to vote when the time comes.

I Will Vote

[ukrfeminism]

2 minute read

JK Rowling is founding and personally funding a new service for women survivors of sexual violence. Launched days before Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial Gender Recognition Reform Bill is expected to pass through the Scottish parliament, the Edinburgh-based centre, Beira’s Place, will be female-only.

The author, who has written about the sexual and domestic abuse she suffered in her twenties, believes there is an “unmet need” for Scottish women who want “women-centred and women-delivered care at such a vulnerable time”. She hopes Beira’s Place, which will employ professional staff to provide free one-to-one and group counselling, “will enable more women to process and recover from their trauma”.

Rowling’s board of directors are all vocal opponents of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which will permit anyone to change the legal sex on their birth certificate by making a simple statutory declaration, a process known as self-identification. Feminists, including Reem Alsalem, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, have raised grave concerns it will open up women’s services and private spaces to abuse by male predators.

Beira’s board comprises Rhona Hotchkiss, a former prison governor, who has opposed the Scottish government’s policy of moving trans-identified male sex offenders to women’s jails; Johann Lamont, a former leader of the Scottish Labour Party and a lawyer; Dr Margaret McCartney, an academic, broadcaster and Glasgow GP; and Susan Smith, director of For Women Scotland, a grassroots feminist group founded to fight the gender reform bill. Beira’s chief executive is Isabelle Kerr, a former manager of Glasgow Rape Crisis who received an MBE in 2020 for her work supporting British citizens who had been raped overseas.

The provision of single-sex services has been a key battleground of the gender reform bill. Already in Scotland, most domestic violence refuges and rape support services are “trans inclusive” and accept referrals from both sexes. In recent years councils have removed grants from women-only refuges in favour of generic organisations. Monklands Women’s Aid in North Lanarkshire, which was set up more than 40 years ago, had its council funding withdrawn in favour of a social justice charity which also helps men.

Most controversial is Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre whose chief executive, Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman, told the Guilty Feminist podcast that women sexual assault victims who request female-only care will be “challenged on your prejudices” and told to “reframe your trauma”.

Yet in her recent book Defending Women’s Spaces, veteran campaigner Karen Ingala Smith, the chief executive of Nia, a domestic abuse charity in London, describes how women traumatised by male violence fare better and feel safer in female therapeutic spaces.

Beira’s Place is legally permitted to exclude males under the exemptions of the 2010 Equality Act, which allows single-sex services if they are “a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate end”.

It is named after Beira, the Scottish goddess of winter. JK Rowling said: “Beira rules over the dark part of the year, handing over to her sister, Bride, when summer comes again. Beira represents female wisdom, power, and regeneration. Hers is a strength that endures during the difficult times, but her myth contains the promise that they will not last for ever.”

The service is not a charity, but privately funded by Rowling, a noted philanthropist. The amount she will donate to set up and run Beira’s Place has not been disclosed.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Palestinian liberation is a feminist issue. While this truism should need no elaboration, it has, as with so much that relates to Palestine, necessitated discussions, clarifications, analysis and documentation, again and again. Palestine rights activists have long been familiar with the all too common phenomenon known as PEP: Progressive Except for Palestine. Less known, but no less common in feminist circles is FEP, the Feminist Except for Palestine phenomenon. Books such as Evelyn Shakir’s 1997 Bint Arab recount incidents of FEP going back to the ’60s, with many Arab feminists being shunned by their American friends over their support for Palestinian liberation. FEP had one of its early expressions on a global stage at the 1985 United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya, when Betty Friedan, an icon of second‑wave western feminism, with its slogan ‘the personal is political’, tried to censor the late Egyptian feminist Nawal el‑Saadawi as she was about to walk up to the stage to deliver her address. ‘Please do not bring up Palestine in your speech,’ Friedan told el‑Saadawi. ‘This is a women’s conference, not a political conference.’ Sadly, little has changed in global north feminism’s rejection of the very humanity of the Palestinian people, as evidenced in their continued exclusion from national and global discussions of women’s issues. White feminism has continued to align itself with orientalist imperialist militarism; Ms Magazine cheered the Bush Administration’s US war on Afghanistan in 2001, calling it a ‘coalition of hope’, and suggesting that invasion and occupation could, indeed would, liberate Afghan women. The white feminists in the Feminist Majority Foundation, which bought Ms Magazine in December 2001, never consulted with Afghan feminist organisations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, who denounced both religious fundamentalism and western intervention in Afghanistan, and who opposed the US attacks on their country. More recently, hegemonic feminism’s desire to exempt Israel from criticism led to the fragmentation of the Women’s March, the coalition of women’s and feminist groups that came together to denounce the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the US. The co‑chair of the 2017 Women’s March was Brooklyn‑born Palestinian American Linda Sarsour, a grassroots organiser who had long championed Palestinian rights. When journalist Emily Shire asked in the New York Times ‘Does Feminism Have Room for Zionists?’, Sarsour responded with a resounding ‘No’. Many felt threatened by her outspokenness and visibility. Another Palestinian feminist, Mariam Barghouti, also asserted in a 2017 article that ‘No, You Can’t Be a Feminist and a Zionist’, and explained that: ‘When I hear anyone championing Zionism while also identifying as a feminist, my mind turns to images of night raids, to the torture of children and to the bulldozing of homes.’ In the wake of Israel’s latest war on Gaza, white feminists are denouncing the unsubstantiated accusations of sexual violence against Israeli women, without addressing the Israeli state’s amply documented gendered violence against Palestinian women, children, and men. ‘Feminism cannot be selective. Its framework comes from true and absolute liberation not just of women, but of all peoples,’ Barghouti continues, building on bell hooks’ analysis of feminism as a complete liberatory movement. ‘A feminist who is not also anti‑colonial, anti‑racist and in opposition to the various forms of injustice is selectively and oppressively serving the interests of a single segment of the global community.’ Simply, ‘feminism’ that aligns with regimes that engage in racial and ethnic oppression is gendered supremacy; no ideology that hinges on supremacy and discrimination is reconcilable with feminism.

[startrekprodigyfan]

So here’s a short recap of thing as they stand now.

Star Trek Prodigy was designed as a way to help kids and a new generation enter into the Star Trek franchise with a clean slate. It is entry level Trek which is ultimately a good thing for the aging Trek fandom.

It was initially dismissed by Trekkies as being “childish” just because it was on Nickelodeon, and initially a lot of long time Trekkies did not watch it.

Fast forward a few episodes and during the mid-season break of Season 1, Trekkies start to take notice. The show becomes popular and applauded. It wins some awards. It gets some much needed recognition. And it comes back from its break with a much needed BOOST thanks to a great episode featuring voices of longtime legacy Trek characters.

At this point Prodigy is still on Paramount+ and it’s doing GREAT…

Then shortly after the first season concludes and the creators are in the middle of wrapping up Season 2 (as in they were literally almost done with final animation) Paramount+ announces they will be removing ALL OF SEASON 1 from Paramount+ as a tax write off for their struggling streaming service. Season 2 will be allowed to be finished, but Paramount now has absolutely no intention of releasing it. wtf?

Trek fans go into emergency overdrive mode and begin a “save prodigy” grassroots campaign, begging some other network to pick up Prodigy so they can release the (now completed) season 2. And it works! Netflix decides to pick up the show and re-releases Prodigy on their service which actually helps INCREASE visibility of the show even more.

We still have no official release date for Prodigy Season 2, but we know the season is completed because THE ENTIRE SEASON is released over in FRANCE on TV! Without the creator’s knowledge or ability to advertise for it.

There is a possibility of a 3rd season, but only if enough people watch the show and Netflix (who is notorious for prematurely cancelling shows) deems the show worthy enough to continue (since they’re technically only licensing the rights and didn’t actually fund the creation of the show).

And now Paramount+ has cancelled the only other animated Star Trek show: Lower Decks which does not bode well for the Trek brand or the future of animated Trek shows going forward…

It’s been a roller coaster.

[masochistartt]

okay fuck it jamie self perception post

jamie has been signed to city since he was a child. this is how the academy system works - they recruit players (children) from local grassroots leagues and bring them into their club system, hoping to raise them up to play for their club in the future (or sell them off to other teams for profit). these players are typically between the ages of 9 and 10 when they're first recruited, but can be younger/older. they're evaluated every year, and players can be cut at any time.

i think jamie joined city when he was around 9, solely because of the fact that he said his dad started showing up when he got good at football, and georgie my beloved would not let jamie go on a trip abroad with a complete stranger to him when he was 14. i think james started coming back around when jamie was somewhere between 11 and 12, playing for city's u14 team, and his skill at that age level is how james heard about him (it's not uncommon to hear about great players who are that age. city recently signed a like. legendary 14 year old and i've heard about it (young boys should not be having their egos inflated like that at 14 but that's beside the point)).

that's a whole lot of rambling before i even start touching on the original point – the contract jamie's had signed since he was ~9 that dictates what he must and mustn't do. this is the idea that he's had of himself in his head from that very young age.

screenshots are provided from the 23/24 premier league youth development forms bc honestly i cba to go back and find anything older (i've tried looking and it's not working so you're getting this) but

the scholar here is the academy player. 5.1.3 and 5.1.4 are what interest me here. jamie was obligated to not only train & play to the best of his ability always, but he was obligated to maintain a high standard of physical fitness at all times from the age of 9.

think of the thoughts that might put in a young jamie tartt's mind. he had to be at his peak always. if he wasn't at his peak, he was disobeying his contract. he was owned by his club, and he knew that if they sell him, they'll make a whole lot of money off of him (there's a certain base fee x number of years the player was trained + extras = total homegrown player transfer fee algorithm but i don't want to do math rn so im not touching on that). i don't think jamie ever wanted city to sell him, so i think he put pressure on himself to be at his best always, to never let his standards slip, and when james came back into the picture, that pressure only grew exponentially.

it's also interesting looking at the "the scholar shall not" section of the contract. 5.3.1 is interesting bc like. if the club (city) didn't think his house on the estate was safe they could've fully just. Moved Him. but 5.3.3 is insane to me. especially the beginning. "the scholar shall not indulge in any activity or practice which might endanger his fitness". this means no fun roller skating birthday parties. this means jamie probably knew how to ride a bike before he was 9 bc if he "indulged" in learning when he was with city that might have endangered his fitness. no rock climbing. no tree climbing.

and if jamie took things as seriously as i think he did (boy really wanted to play football, that was his dream in life, i don't think he would've purposely done anything to endanger that dream), i think he missed out on some fun in his childhood solely bc he was Keeping His Body In Full Fitness For His Club.

which brings us to Adult Jamie. bc he was raised in this environment, raised with the mindset of My Body Belongs To My Club, My Body is an Asset for my Club, it makes even more sense why he'd put up with the auction at the gala without starting a fight (even if the whole manipulate keeley & possibly bribe bex thing happened behind the scenes).

his club (even though he was on loan, it was his club for the season), was auctioning off Its Own Asset (jamie's body) to the highest bidder for a night. jamie's body, from a very, very young age (does jamie remember much before he was signed to city? i don't think so) has always Belonged to His Club.

this is also part of the reason that i headcanon jamie doesn't like driving - driving is, in his mind an Activity Which Might Endanger His Fitness.

also. for the record. this stuff is also in the professional player's contracts too.

the player agrees to maintain a high standard of physical fitness at all times and not to indulge in any activity sport or practice which might endanger such fitness.

3.1.6 is another reason i think jamie went along with the stuff at the gala too. the player agrees to comply with and act in accordance with all lawful instructions of any authorised official of the club. rebecca/higgins/whoever put on the gala is an authorised official of the club. he kind of. had to by contract not put up a fight with them about this

the player agrees that he shall not undertake or be involved in any activity or practice which will knowingly cause to be void or voidable...policy of insurance maintained for the benefit of the club on the life of the player or covering his physical well-being including injury.

he still can't do anything that might get him hurt. i ignore that he engages in kink practice both in canon and in my own headcanons bc i think the heavier kink stuff really only comes in later seasons' timelines and even then he's engaging in that kink stuff with someone(s) who knows that this stuff is in his contract. they know his limits.

anyways something something jamie's body is an asset for his club (city and then richmond) and i think that says a lot about the way he views himself. you know ?

[accord-vn]

Major Players in the War Against the Firmament

The Republic of Stauros

The Republic of Stauros is a global superpower that controls the Americas and much of eastern and southern Africa, its imperialist agenda funded by the exploitation of abundant natural resources. This influx of resources means that they have been able to rapidly advance technology, particularly in bio-science, engineering, and materials science fields, and their advanced technology in turn makes for political capital with which they can bully nations into being subsumed by the Republic.

Stauros is a meritocratic oligarchy with republican structures, and presents itself as being a place where the best can rise to the top. It is centrally governed in its capital of Etorios, by a council of (what were originally) six departments that oversee facets of government such as treasury, military, agriculture, etc. These department heads are chosen from among a democratically elected parliament that makes up the upper levels of each department by the previous council. In short, the system rejects change very stubbornly as those who are eligible to lead have been entrenched in the system for a very long time. This entrenchment means that the Republic, while founded on progressive ideals, has now fully embraced the authoritarian streak that has haunted it since its inception.

Most prominent in Stauros's war against the Firmament is the ExoCorps, the executive arm of the Department of the Exterior. The Dept of the Exterior was created in order to protect Stauros's offplanet interests, however in the decades since they have come to rival the power of the Dept of Military, even surpassing it in many instances. The most notable example of this power imbalance is in the ExoCorps' development of Synaptic Transfer technology and the resulting Janissary program.

The Sophic Church

The Sophic Church originated as part of the Third Awakening, a reactionary revival in religiosity coupled with anti-Christian sentiment and strong undercurrents of paranoia brought about by a sharp rise in conspiratorial thought. What were several grassroots Gnostic revival movements came together to form a single ecclesiastical society, united in their desire to dismantle current institutions and build something new. These movements, originally different sects, syncretized their beliefs, though after several decades of transformation, their doctrine has evolved into a largely ahistorical conflation of Valentinianism and Sethianism alongside some entirely new ideas.

The Sophic Church played a key role in the formation of the Republic and rose alongside it, shaping it in the process, and as a result, within Stauros there is a strong presumption that most residents of the Republic are a part of the church.

Naturally, due to this relationship the Church has amassed a large amount of wealth and influence, and has invested this wealth into a number of corporate assets. The most prominent among these is Ascension, a corporation with child companies for mining, manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and many other industries.

As a result, the Sophic Church has control over a substantial amount of the economy not just of Stauros, but the rest of the world as well.

The Stereomatos

In 2068, Olympia, Stauros's first permanent Martian research base, collapsed due to mismanagement. Due to the nature of the Stauros Dept of Research's control over the research base, while researchers lived permanent lives on base and even raised families there, leadership was not only appointed from a bureaucracy located on Earth, but also frequently rotated. As a result, most Directors of Operations viewed the position only as a temporary station, and ultimately failed to carry out their duties.

This culminated in 2067, when a failure in the water system caused dozens of people to become ill and 14 deaths. Civil unrest had already started to stir, but now was in full swing.

A nearby ExoCorps detachment was then stationed inside the colony to dissuade uprising, but the additional strain on resources that they caused served only to exacerbate discontentment. Before any violence broke out, the base was declared no longer fit for human habitation and disbanded, its residents either returned to earth or stationed in other colonies. The base was leveled shortly thereafter.

A mere two years later, Synesia was founded on Olympia's ruins. Synesia was intended to serve as a colony and an experiment in autonomous government, as well as a center for Stauros' civic operations offplanet. This quickly expanded into a semi-autonomous satellite state, granted nominal independence by Stauros in return for serving as the governing body for bases and offplanet stations too large and too distant from Earth in order to be effectively managed by a planetary bureaucracy.

In practice, the Stereomatos is a puppet state. Most of its leadership is either beholden or sympathetic to Stauros, and lives under constant threat of dismantlement. Stauros maintains exclusive trading rights with the Stereomatos, and uses the leverage of their monopoly on space infrastructure as means of controlling the nation.

The Firmament

The Firmament is a revolutionary movement across the Stereomatos with the ultimate goal of eliminating Stauros control over space.

The movement is comprised of several cells across both inner sphere and outer sphere colonies and stations, which frequently work together to improve the living conditions of Stereomatos citizens, smuggle goods and resources across planetary boundaries, and wage asymmetric warfare against Stauros.

The Firmament's immediate strategy is to hold Stauros at resource-point through piracy and targeted attacks on military installations so that they'll agree to several key conditions:

The right to self-govern independent of Stauros control, including reforming the government from a parliamentary republic into a syndical state.

Better access to tertiary industry, including the means to utilize synaptic transfer tech

Access to Stauros trade networks in order to carry out trade with other nations with minimal interference

The Stereomatos as a whole may be generally divided in their opinion on the Firmament's methods, however it is an unspoken rule to side with them whenever possible, because the Firmament represents hope for a freer future and an end to overcrowding and military police actions. Even those ideologically opposed tend to avoid speaking out, because the members of the Firmament are ultimately members of their community. A number of Stereomatos politicians have direct connections to Firmament leadership, and work to achieve the movement's aims through diplomatic means.

On Earth, however, the opinion is generally much more divided. Typically the details of their actions are largely reduced to the effect that they've had on Stauros, and are branded terrorists due to civilian casualties from their attacks. Within Stauros, media is sufficiently skewed that those who are aware of them despise them. Outside of Stauros, the Stereomatos is shown more sympathy, and even those who skew more conservative are open to the idea of free trade with the Stereomatos.

Federated Oceania

As climate change ravaged the global south, Aotearoa (formerly New Zealand) successfully pushed back the encroaching ocean with a sea wall, reclaiming additional land in the process. Having secured their new position as a safe haven for climate refugees, they pushed Australia into adopting a similar strategy. As a means of allowing displaced people to retain their sovereignty as well as protect against the threat of a subjugation-hungry Stauros on the horizon, the bloc of Federated Oceania was formed.

With a vested interest in environmental sciences and sustainable energy, Oceania rose to prominence by implementing the first viable fusion reactor and selling off excess energy from successive plants. This paved the way to further successes until it became the non-Stauros leader in technology on a global stage, and served as the first country to challenge Stauros's self-proclaimed "monopoly on space".

As a staunch rival of Stauros, Oceania is one of the few terrestrial nations to openly provide support the Firmament.

The Archon Program

The disappearance of the Caesarea is a mainstay of conspiracy circles system-wide. From independent blogs hosted on the clearnet to chatrooms on planetside LITEs to forums and message boards maintained on Firmnet servers in the belt, no hushed whisper passes through the internet's lips without mentioning its name, and the Caesarea is rarely mentioned without the words "Archon program" in its wake.

However, there is little consensus on what those words mean.  

They say that Archon Program is run by the Dept of the Exterior— no, by the Sophic Church— no, it's the secret Dept of Suppression— as a psyop— actually, it's in order to crush unions (the IPU has NEVER been able to touch Ascension)— no, to serve as a counter to the Firmament's dark matter bomb— and eventually, to dominate the world— utilizing heinous machines that are larger than any Cataphract, that bleed, that drive their enemies and pilots to madness.

When asked for proof, however, the stories converge. A would-be whistleblower from Ascension Aerospace, killed when lightning struck her complex as she was uploading the leak, severing the connection and her life at once. All that was uploaded was the first gigabyte of a single file, titled Archon Program, completely blank except for the image of an A with an ouroboros divided into seven pieces.

Nothing more is known by the public.

[just-s0me-stranger]

Statement

I wish to make a statement regarding what happened on the 14th of April, 2023

I, at first, wanted to move on from what happened and start again

But, seeing as some people aren't willing to let go of what happened, I feel I have no choice but to give my side of the story

I'll admit, I haven't been perfect in all this

I made mistakes

Many I wish I could take back, and would do if it was possible

But, whether I'm forgiven or not isn't up to me

That being said, however, the person who started all this in the first place isn't innocent either

I wish to address the accusations against me regarding, defending a transphobic person, racism, me fetishising trans men in my Perfectly Imperfect roadrat fanfic, and my conduct with minors, in that order

First, the accusations of me defending transphobic person

These accusations were first brought against me on the 14th of April, 2023, when user @sodapoptisms dug up a tweet from someone who said the following

Link

They then followed up with a quote tweet saying the following

Link

Now, I knew the person being screenshotted

I don't defend how they said what they said

Out of context, it's very poorly worded

What I DO defend is the fact that I took issue with Soda wanting the roadrat fandom to "band together and force the bigot out"

In other words, Soda wanted to rally a mob against this person for their political beliefs

I took issue for several reasons

The first one being like I said, I knew this person at the time

I knew they weren't anti trans rights

But forcing someone out for not agreeing with every aspect of the trans community can cause someone to become anti trans out of spite

Which brings me to my next point

I knew not speaking out against Soda could have a detrimental effect on the support for trans rights on the grassroots level

How?

Because this person had said they'd had many bad experiences with members of the trans community

Many people have sadly come out against the trans community for those reasons as well

Including many gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and even some transgender people

Clearly, bullying people for not holding your exact political views isn't working

And may actually be making things worse

That isn't to say that you win rights by coddling people's feelings

But you don't win people over by bullying and demonising them either

There is a balance that needs to be met, which isn't at the moment

You can't just demand people be your ally, then treat them like shit when they refuse, or don't live up to your standards

The second accusation I want to address is the one of racism

I was accused of this after writing an open letter to Soda shortly after what happened on the 14th of April, which no longer exists

But in it, I used the term Flying Monkeys to refer to the mob Soda had rallied against myselfand the other person

The term, Flying Monkeys, is commonly used as a nickname in pop psychology for the friends of narcissists

However, because Soda has many friends who are black, they twisted the words to accuse me of referring to them in a racially derogatory way

This was despite me pointing out the fact that I did not know Soda's friends were black, as even if they have that in their bios, I don't tend to read bios in detail, if at all. So, I was unaware unless I saw a photo of them

Thirdly, the fetishising of trans men in fanfiction

I never thought I'd have to bring this up

After all, no artist or writer should has to explain or justify why they made the choices they did in their works, but here we go.

Long story short, I tend to write stories with mpreg in it

You can think ill of me for it if you like, I don't care

But, I do not write these sorts of fanfiction for fetish fuel

I wrote Perfectly Imperfect for several reasons

The major one being that I have a lot of unresolved Daddy Issues

I won't get too much into my personal history, other than my father wasn't much in the picture when I was growing up

The few times he was in the picture, he was abusive

Not just to me, but to my mother, my sisters, & his previous two families, which he had left prior

I was estranged from him for eight years until I learned he had cancer, & I decided to reconnect with him two years before he died

I began writing Perfectly Imperfect a year prior to my father's death

Why use Mpreg to deal with Daddy Issues, you may ask?

The answer is twofold

I want to have my own family one day, & I tend to project that desire onto my favourite characters

I'm also fascinated with the father/child bond I guess

Particularly those that, while they may not be perfect, they at least are there for their child/ren, and don't abuse them

As for the fact that I've written Junkrat giving birth

That tends to be how a pregnancy concludes

But, I always focused on Junkrat himself, & what he's going through while giving birth

Such as his the pain he's in and how scared he is

How he looks to Roadhog for comfort

And how Roadhog helps him through it

It's about the emotion & vulnerability of the scene, in other words

Birth is messy, & can be gross, I can understand why many are squicked out by it

But it's a fact of life, much like death

Fourth, I'd like to discuss my supposedly inappropriate conduct with minors online

As many of you will know, I used to run Roadrat server. This server was an 18+ server, as I didn't feel I could, nor did I want the extra responsibility of, keeping minors safe within it

However, I would ask around to see if many people wanted to join, provided they were of age

As at the time, there was a content drought, & I wanted to keep the fandom as active as possible through it

Which I felt I could do through Discord

Unfortunately, not everyone has their age in their bios, which is fine

I understand not everyone feels safe showing people their age

But, it does sometimes mean I'm unsure, & have to ask about the person's age

This person there were a minor & then asked if they knew of any other Roadrat servers

I didn't really know of any that were as active as mine was a the time, so I made them an offer

They tell me when they come of age, & I'd let them into my server on the day

As you can see, nothing inappropriate took place, & the conversation pretty much ended after that

So, that is the context of everything that happened

Lastly, I want to address @sodapoptisms aka @sodapopblast directly

I'm sorry

I'm sorry I ever had the misfortune of knowing you and your friends

I'm sorry I ever thought of you as someone worth my time

I'm sorry I never saw how much you use your gender identity as a sheild to bully and harass people who step out of line

I'm sorry I never saw how much of a manipulative and cowardly bully you are

And I pity your friends who don't see you for the worm you truly are

It's because of you that I've had to endure being mischaracterised and demonised by your false & deliberately misleading accusations

For months

I've endured multiple accounts of abuse, and many death threats because of you

I lost my standing in the Overwatch community

All of this took a major toll on my mental health & general well-being

It not only affected my ability to perform my job as a care worker, which I was so scared I'd lose because of you

But also my self-confidence & and self-esteem, which I had painstakingly built up by writing my Roadrat series over five years

Only for you to tear it down in the span of one day

I used to hold such ill-will towards you for a long time

But that's only stooping to your level

You deserve to get better as much as I do

But the sad thing is, you probably won't

You're way too comfortable where you are right now, surrounded by your fandoms & your Yes Men

I doubt you'll find true happiness while you're where you're at

And that's enough for me

[kittensartswriting]

I watched a book review video, where there was a broader argument that political fantasy is inherently hard to end in a satisfying way and it got me thinking. Because I'm writing a political fantasy myself, I have a lot of thoughts.

I do agree with the argument in some ways. I think many fantasy genre conventions work against political plotlines, so ending it in a satisfying way requires breaking those conventions. So, the argument was that there's broadly three ways for a political fantasy to end and none of them is very satisfying. First, it can end to the protagonists losing. Second, it can end to a protagonist becoming the monarch. And third it can end to the protagonists abolishing monarchy. First is kinda obviously unsatisfying. Second is unsatisfying because it doesn't address the underlying systematic problem about the previous regime, monarchy being inherently unjust, that in a political fantasy should be one of the core themes explored. Third is unsatisfying because establishing democracy after monarchy is in reality a process that takes generations of political struggle, not last act of a book.

There is of course couple of assumptions already in these arguments, which are typical genre conventions. Fantasy governments are usually feudal monarchies and the protagonists are very often royalty or have potential in becoming one, and this is doubly true with political fantasy. I agree with the argument that all those three options are unsatisfying, but I don't think they are the only possible endings, just what usually happens in political fantasies. Specifically I think they are the options when following genre conventions. The genre conventions I'm talking about are not necessarily the assumptions I already mentioned (monarchy and royal protagonist) though changing them can open more possibilities, but rather protagonist with strong character agency, closed endings and story structure with rising action and decisive battle at the climax. Basically I'm talking about the story where saving the world/country rests upon the hero and they defeat the villain which fixes everything.

There's nothing wrong with these genre conventions on their own and they do work very well in a lot of fantasy, but I would argue that they clash with a political story. In reality real political change doesn't come to the scheming or battle between couple of people, it's collective work done for generations. Every person under a political structure has agency (though often power to use that agency is not evenly distributed), which means that politics is in mathematical terms a chaotic system - unpredictable and complex. That's why it's impossible to predict in the moment the political outcomes, but later, when looking at history, the patterns are easy to see. The agency of one person doesn't mean much in grand scheme of things, not even a very powerful person. Their power comes from something, so if they wish to wield that power, they have to uphold it. So if you give the protagonist in a political story a lot of agency, suddenly they are the one single-handedly making the politics and the people of that world become a mass of drones without agency, who don't have ideology, material interests or even opinions. This completely flattens politics and imo any ending will be unsatisfying.

One thing that I find is very much lacking in most political fantasies, is ideology. I think because we are not often taught about the ideological debates and disagreements that led to every political change in history, we often think of ideology as a very modern thing, but it's just inherent part of politics. Every political change starts with ideology, which comes usually long, generations even, before any large political action. It can start with intellectual elites or on grassroots level, but there will always be some thought leaders that define the emerging ideology, which allows it to spread. For ideology to spread the ground needs to be fertile for it. For example instability, economic or otherwise, is very fertile ground for anti-authoritarian ideologies, even more so than injustice and lack of personal freedom. Different classes are also more fertile for different ideologies. Those in power are obviously more open to ideologies that justify their power, while those not in power are more open to ideologies that question the power structures. After ideology has become popular, it still needs power to actually enact change. If it's popular among those with high relative power, that's easy, but if the opposite is true, to gather enough power, they need a popular uprising with power in numbers. That requires much more resolve from each individual, because while they have collective power individually they are still vulnerable, so uprising is personally extremely risky. Which is why a popular uprising needs in addition wide spread desperation.

Still, popular idea and power to enact it is just the beginning. Then starts the long and hard process of actually doing it, which is basically never linear. There were peasant uprisings thorough Middle Ages trying upturn feudal system, but it took centuries for it to actually collapse, in some places in Europe and around the world there were still feudal structures in 1800s. For a major change to really take root, it has to become generally accepted, and when you have just overturned a previous regime, there's obviously still a lot of people who do not accept the new system. There's couple of options, you can go the guillotine route, where you can try to forcibly strip them of their power and/or kill them and their supporters, which most certainly leads to a civil war with uncertain outcomes. Or you can try to work with the old powers, which most certainly leads to them resisting change as much as possible and diluting the changes. It's not really possible to get a clean change from one system to another at one go. It can even get reversed quite quickly. Usually large systemic changes require at least couple of attempts before they stick.

The point of this tangent is to illustrate that if a political story ends neatly tied up, it feels untrue to reality. A revolution, a coup or a reformation is just the beginning of a structural change. The structure of rising action and decisive climax also doesn't fit to how politics work. Winning an army or dethroning a monarch is just a step to the direction of a new regime. The ideological opponents won't just abandon their deeply held beliefs the moment they lose power. It also ties to the character agency, if the protagonist is part of a regime change, they definitely shouldn't be the one coming up with the new regime or it's ideology. There should be already existing popular movement for it before the MC comes into the picture. (Looking at you game of thrones with the last episode going "what if we come up with a new system out of nowhere without any prior ideological discourse on the spot and everyone just agrees?")

But usually strong character agency, closed endings and decisive climax are thought of as basis for a satisfying fantasy story, so how would a political fantasy be more satisfying without them? Firstly I would argue they are not always necessary for a satisfying story, but I will say it's harder to make a story satisfying without them. My solution to this is to have different primary plot than the political plot. By that I mean for the protagonists to have different primary goal from the political struggle and it's pursuit being the primary plot, while the political struggle is the secondary plot. The primary goal should of course be connected to the political goal. I think the best way to handle it is to have that primary goal be the reason why the character has their political goal, so the political struggle is an obstacle in their primary goal. The primary goal should be something personal, more intimate in scale and tied to their character arc. This allows the character to have more agency over the outcome of their primary goal and for their primary plot to have a closed ending even if the political struggle doesn't, and has the added benefit of making the political struggle more personal and concrete. The primary plot could be revenge against a monarch or freeing from a political marriage or a lot of other options that forces the character to enter the political arena.

With a dark political fantasy, the ending also doesn't need to be perfectly happy to be satisfying, in fact in dark fantasy the ending is usually more satisfying as a tragedy or bittersweet ending. It could even have a corruption arc, where we watch the hero turn into a power hungry villain, or the protagonist could be antihero from the beginning. In a story like that it can be a perfectly satisfying tragic ending for them to lose or to get to the throne and be just as terrible as the previous monarch. Related to this, I have seen couple of popular posts that express annoyance at people who complain about fantasy having overwhelmingly monarchies as settings. The argument is often that part of fantasy is exploring a completely different mindset from us and to people who lived under monarchy it was just expected fact of life. I think this is generally compelling argument. For a fantasy adventure to have monarchy that goes without questioning is not some secret monarchist messaging. Same goes for a dark fantasy where there's oppressive monarchy that's not changed by the end. But I think with political fantasy it's different, because the main theme should by definition be about politics and power. So if monarchy (or a different political structure) goes without questioning in a story like that, I think the story is lacking in depth. Or maybe it is secret monarchist propaganda.

Also just to add to what I alluded in beginning, I think there's a lot of potential for interesting and satisfying political fantasy with different political system from monarchy and/or protagonists with lower class status, but I wanted to mainly make the point that I think the issues with political fantasy are mainly in the story structure. I don't think there's anything wrong with monarchies in fantasy, I have written monarchies in fantasy, and will in future too, but I do think that beyond political fantasy too sticking to monarchies by default is a little limiting.

To be clear, these are just my thoughts on this, not any rules that would apply to every story that could be described as political fantasy, definitely not. And a lot of this is about preferences. I would love to hear other toughts too!