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eyndr-stories · 2 years

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The Stranger The Better (FNAF SB fanfic) C16 - OBJECTION!

Read the intro to Chapter 1 (Enter A Sleepy Bitchard) for more details! I'd start reading there anyways else things won't make a whole lot of sense lol

In Summary: Reader is a forever exhausted young adult who has social difficulties doing their best to pay the bills, so when they get hired at the well-paying, almost entirely automated Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizza-Plex, they don't really hesitate to think things through before stumbling headfirst into a horror mystery surrounding this company and its crew of quirky (and surprisingly kind) animatronics.

Things To Know (lmk if I should add anything):

There are some horror elements in several chapters! This chapter is not particularly spooky, there's just feelings of stress and some paranoia, but this chapter does heavily discuss just about every spooky thing that happened in the fic. So just to be safe, tags for everything that is mentioned to have happened but does not directly happen in this chapter: Feelings of fear, being hunted, being grabbed, being attacked, being controlled, attempted murder, feelings of stress, a taser being used, manipulation, blackmail, a gun being used.

Eventual romance, minorly important to the plot.

Reader has paranoia.

There is much swearing.

Reader is also addicted to energy drinks, though at this point in the story they are doing well with battling said addiction.

Reader is nonbinary (and also trans masc) though it's not vital to the plot and only comes up once or twice.

Reader is from the south, is protective of their friends, and if you threaten their friends then I'm afraid you've yee'd your last haw and yes that is important to the plot

Previous Chapter | Chapter 15 | Next Chapter

C16 - OBJECTION!

You'd never been in a real court case before.

You straightened your suit yet again and shifted anxiously in your seat. The finely dressed lady sitting next to you looked calm and confidant. This was her job, after all. You tried willing yourself not to sweat and mess up your nice clothes. You'd check your phone, just to do literally anything else but sit here, but it had gotten a weird virus sometime yesterday and was no longer working.

Paige was sitting across the room from you. Several suited people sat and stood around her, talking quietly about one thing or another. Behind you were aisles packed with lots of people you didn't know, and a few you did. Omari caught your eye and held up a hand in greeting. You gave her a small wave.

You took a deep breath. You straightened your suit again. The jury funneled into the room, and the judge took a seat before you.

Your head was swimming with anxieties and stress and a small amount of pain from the events that had transpired two nights ago. Your shoulder still hurt, but at least the swelling had gone down.

The case began, and the judge whacked their gavel down. The room quieted.

"Alright, it's time for the opening statements. Prosecutor, you may begin," said the judge.

The woman next to you got up from her seat.

"Thank you, and good evening. My name is Alexandria Norwich, and I am the prosecutor in this case. It is my pleasure to represent the people of this state. The defendant in this case, Fazbear Entertainment, a company run on greed and corruption, represented today by Paige Anderson, is guilty not only of blackmail, the violation of multiple health and safety requirements, but also violating the 13th amendment, which I'm sure you know abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. You'll hear from several witnesses today, all of whom have worked for this company, have interacted with management, and who know the true lengths to which this company will go to for the sake of greed. For the sake of lining their pockets, they have committed these atrocities. Now of course, I'm sure their money has hired a very persuasive defense attorney, but rest assured. The evidence against them is staggering. Don't trust me, or any other lawyer sitting over there when you make your decisions. Trust the facts, and the evidence, which I believe you will find there is quite a lot of. You'll see for yourselves, without a shadow of a doubt, that the defendant is guilty, on all accounts."

Alexandria sat back down next to you.

"Defense, you may begin with your opening statement," said the judge.

The defense attorney, a clearly upper-class woman who you had no doubt management paid big money to hire, rose from her seat next to Paige and cleared her throat.

"Thank you, your honor. My name is Rachel Smith, and I am the defense attorney in this case. Despite what the prosecutor would have you think, neither me or the company I represent is out to get you, or anyone else for that matter. We are just people, in the business of bringing joy to your children, and even yourselves. I won't judge, that's your job." Rachel gave the jury a charming smile. "As for the accusations thrown at our historically family friendly company, I will say this. Consider who has more to gain here, and who has more to loose. If Fazbear Entertainment were to be found guilty, not only would this staple attraction of our community be shut down, but the prosecutor would be written a very nice fat check. Just keep that in mind as the so called evidence the prosecutor may bring to you is put forward." Rachel sat back down.

The judge nodded, then said, "Following opening statements, the prosecutor begins direct examination of her first witness."

Alexandria stood again. "I call Y/N to the stand."

You'd been prepared for this, but you still winced when all the attention in the room came down on you. You got up from your seat and crossed the floor to sit in the witness booth. You adjusted your suit again as you sat back down.

"So, Y/N. You've been employed at Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizza-Plex for two months and two weeks, correct?" Alexandria asked you.

"That's correct," you said.

"And during your employment, you met and befriended several of your fellow coworkers, yes? Among them animatronics by the names of Sun and Moon."

"I did," you confirmed.

"You also happened to record several incidents pertaining to this case, did you not?"

"I did, yes."

"Would you mind telling the court about the first incident you recorded, Precisely two weeks after being hired?" Alexandria asked.

"Right." You took a deep breath, and spoke as clearly as you could. "So I drove home from my shift, and there was someone waiting for me at my house. I got nervous because, you know, I hadn't invited anyone over at six am in the morning, and the person standing there in front of my door was a stranger at the time. Turns out it was Ms. Anderson, but I had opened an app on my phone and started recording just in case someone was about to try and rob me or something."

"We have this audio file to share with you today. It has a confirmed time stamp, and the voices you will hear are confirmed to match precisely Y/N and Paige Anderson's voices," Alexandria said. She lifted her smart watch and tapped through a few screens. Audio began to play over the court's speakers.

You could be heard quietly whispering 'what the fuck' as there was some shuffling background noise. Then your car door opening and closing, and then your voice calling out with much more clarity, "Who are you?"

Paige's voice responded. "Hi, Y/N. My name is Paige. I’m the official head of the A.R.D. at Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizza-Plex management offices."

You and the rest of the courtroom listened as you invited Paige around back for an impromptu meeting. Right after you mentioned the incident with Moon, "…I believe you tried to dissuade me from engaging with one of your biggest safety concerns. After an incident had already occurred. I have the proof, if you’d like to review it…" Alexandria paused the audio clip.

"We'll discuss in a moment the incident in question, of which we have video-graphic evidence taken from a security camera inside the building," Alexandria said.

You realized Paige was glaring at you, and the suited lawyers around her were discretely whispering to one another.

Alexandria resumed the audio. Paige's voice filled the courtroom. "…No need. I’m aware of the incident. Here’s the thing… It would be rather unfortunate if word got out about an incident like that. We’d have no choice but to decommission the animatronic. Permanently."

Alexandria paused the recording again. "That brings us to our first count of blackmail. The company sought to silence Y/N, to keep them from exposing the results of the company's negligence for the health and safety requirements. Listen to what Paige Anderson has to say on the matter."

Alexandria played the recording.

There was a moment of silence, and then your voice, "…Why haven’t you jackals gotten your specialist in to fix Moon’s bug yet?"

Paige's voice responded. "You know as well as I do that at the end of the day, its all about money. Profit. Budgets. That’s why you came back to work after the incident. Gotta pay the bills. It’d be a shame for you to loose such a nice little place, especially so soon after the last move."

Alexandria paused again. She told the jury about how you'd come upon hard times, loosing your house after your fiancé ran off with your roommate. You wanted to crawl into a corner and die. Alexandria went on to tell the jury that Fazbear Entertainment had dug up this personal information to use against you, to further persuade you that you should not cross the company.

Alexandria played the rest of the tape, where Paige told you about how management wanted to decommission Moon, and your idea to save him. Paige left, and you went inside and went to bed, forgetting all about the recording, which recorded your snoring for the next hour before hitting the audio file size limit. Luckily, Alexandria didn't make everyone sit through your embarrassing snoring for an hour.

Then, Alexandria went over the video footage you'd saved, the clip Sun had helped you download. You didn't want to watch it again, so you stared at your hands and focused on your breathing for a minute.

Alexandria went into detail about the virus that caused the animatronics to turn violent, how it was her virus that had made Moon aggressive in the first place, and how Vanessa had conspired for literal years within the company's own building, able to inflict her virus and build her mech and endanger a countless number of people over the years, all because of the company's negligence and lack of care for its employees.

She talked about the working conditions, the photographic evidence of the access tunnels she'd gotten and how disgusting they were. She said a lot of complicated words about specific regulations that you sort of tuned out.

Alexandria turned back to you. "The second incident you recorded was from two nights ago, the night that brought this all to light at long last. Is this correct?"

"Yes." You nodded. You were grateful that Alexandria was making your job so easy. You were not looking forward to being cross-examined, however.

"Now before I play this audio, I will warn you and everyone else in this room that what you are about to hear may be disturbing to some. There is discussion of death, threats of death, loud noises, a gunshot, and some screaming." Alexandria paused politely while two people excused themselves from the aisles and stepped outside.

Alexandria hit play. Your voice filled the courtroom again. "Uh. So this is Y/N. Just gonna leave a little message, just… just in case. Preparing for the worst case scenario to help ease my anxieties. So, let me explain…"

You laid everything out, the virus, how it made everyone act violently against their own will or recollection, putting everyone in safe mode, the notes Monty left, how Greggory had gotten trapped in the plex with you and everyone else. "I'm not sure what happened to Vanessa," your voice continued. "I hope she isn't… I hope she's okay… Uh. I think that's everything. So yeah, there's some freaky virus, the animatronics are not at fault here, they are not acting of their own will. If… Sun and Moon, if you two hear this… well, I'll be damned if I kick the bucket without coming clean. There's something I've been meaning to tell you… I-" you were beyond grateful that Greggory interrupted you there, calling you back into the security room. The embarrassment of admitting your crush to a courtroom full of strangers… you thought you would have died on the spot.

The audio went on, you and Greggory proceeded to the delivery bay, where you were confronted by Monty and Vanessa. You listened to Vanessa's confession a second time. She talked about her late husband Cameron, how he'd died and how Fazbear Entertainment covered everything up and so she had no proof but knew what they'd done. Vanessa admitted everything, the virus, plotting the murder of a building full of people, and how she wouldn't hesitate to kill you too.

Alexandria turned the volume down slightly as the fight happened. She paused to briefly explain what was going on in the audio. There was a lot of background noise and shuffling as you moved around, the phone still in your pocket. Then, everything quieted down, and Alexandria turned the volume back up.

Your voice came through the speakers. "Vanessa, are you alright?"

There was a few moments of silence. Alexandria paused briefly to explain that Vanessa had, according to several eye witness accounts, climbed out of the mech and pulled out a gun.

Vanessa's voice spoke up. "You think… I'd do all this shit… and not have a backup plan? I've got enough bullets for management and you."

You replied. "Vanessa… don't do this. Cameron wouldn't want this."

A few seconds of silence, and then the gunshot. You could hear Vanessa screaming, exclaiming at Moon to get off of her. You heard Sun's voice.

"Sunshine, I'm here. Are you alright? Y/N??"

Sirens could be heard quickly getting closer. The next hour was a cacophony of noise, cops asking all kinds of questions, an emergency responder asking Sun if you'd hit your head or were injured anywhere.

Alexandria stopped the recording after a minute of this.

"So. By all means, the evidence shows that the defendant manipulated and blackmailed Y/N. They did not follow the outlined heath and safety regulations." Alexandria looked to you again. "Now. This next question may seem out of the blue, but it leads to our third accusation regarding Fazbear Entertainment's violation of the thirteenth amendment. How do you define sentience? What makes me, or you, or the person next to you sentient? Y/N, would you mind attempting an answer?"

"Oh. Well…" You thought about it for a moment. "Thoughts, feelings. Ideas. Advanced reasoning?"

"And how would you describe the animatronics you've been working with for months?" Alexandria asked.

"Quirky," you started with a small smile. "They're kind, in their own ways. Thoughtful. Sometimes a little rude, but once they warm up to you, you see that they're really just under a lot of stress. They're anxious about one thing or another, or they had a bad day or something. They're a great bunch."

"Would you say that they meet your definition of sentience?"

"Oh, yeah. Without a doubt."

"Would you, as Ms. Anderson put it, consider them Fazbear Entertainment property?" Alexandria asked.

"I would not," you said.

"And why is that?"

"Because they're people. Same as you and me. Just because they're made of metal doesn't mean they're tools. My fourth cousin back home, his brain is more metal plate than anything else. And he's not a tool. Well, at least not most of the time."

Someone on the jury coughed to cover a laugh.

You went on. "They're sentient, feeling, thinking people. Like, all I am is just a meat sack being piloted around by stubborn electricity, you know? Just because someone's vessel looks different doesn't mean they're not worth the same care and respect as anyone else."

"Thank you, Y/N," Alexandria said, ending your rambling. "I have no further questions."

"Defense, would you like to cross-examine the witness?" the judge asked.

"Yes, your honor." Rachel got up as Alexandria took her seat.

You shifted uncomfortably, but held Rachel's gaze.

"Firstly, I would like to discuss these audio files. They may be time stamped, but that does not mean they were not staged. What proof do we have that this wasn't all staged by Y/N? Everything from their tragic backstory to the personification of robots programmed to be nice to kids. The prosecutor accuses Fazbear Entertainment of greed, but who is really the greedy one here?" Rachel paused.

You stared at her blankly. She could not be serious. Right?

"Who's to say that this hasn't all been orchestrated to pull at your heartstrings? A poor, down on their luck underdog using a supposed friendship with some robots in order to sway you to their side, so the court might award them a nice paycheck."

Your face felt warm. You didn't want to get worked up, so you put your years of bottling up your feelings to good use.

"In this brilliant age of technological advancement, it's not hard at all to add sounds effects to recordings, cut things out, omit context, move words around. Would you agree with that statement, Y/N?"

"I mean… I dunno? You can ask literally anyone who knows me, I don't know a damn thing about computers." You glanced apologetically at the judge. "Er, sorry for swearing."

Rachel stared at you. "I'm sure. I'm also sure you probably think you really are friends with these robots. Y/N, can you confirm that you have been medically diagnosed with paranoia, depression, and anxiety by a healthcare professional?"

God, was there anything these fucks didn't know about you? "…Yes, which I went to therapy and took medicine for. The treatment proved extremely effective. I'm no longer in therapy or on medication."

"Yet you still suffer from paranoid delusions, correct?" Rachel asked.

"…On occasion," you said. "It's manageable, else the doc wouldn't have taken me off the medication."

"Of course. However, wouldn't you agree that your perception of reality is not entirely accurate?"

You knew she was trying to make you look untrustworthy, to make everything you'd said unbelievable. At the same time, only a few nights ago you'd been entirely convinced that the drink you'd left alone on the other side of your locked house was definitely poisoned, and that if you drank it, you would die. "I am, at times, very worried about things that are highly unlikely to be true."

"How can we trust anything you've said if you can't even give us a straight answer?" Rachel asked.

"I have spoken nothing but the truth," you said.

"The truth as you believe it to be." Rachel smiled at you in an almost pitying way. "No further questions."

You went back to your seat. Alexandria called another witness, Omari, and asked her about her experiences working for Fazbear Entertainment, and her experience interacting with the animatronics. You were having trouble focusing. You felt embarrassed, and honestly, a little doubtful. What if it really was all in your head? What if the animatronics were all just very well programmed to emulate nice personalities for the kids, and you were just lonely enough to believe that you'd been making friends? You shrank in your seat. You felt like everyone in the room was watching you, judging you, not believing you.

Wait. You were paranoid. You were feeling anxious right now. You looked around. Everyone was looking at Omari and Alexandria. No one was paying any attention to you beyond a brief glance. You thought back on your time at the plex. You thought about how it didn't make sense for the animatronics to talk to you at all, or each other, if they weren't sentient. They'd just stay in their rooms and rest for the night once the plex closed. Freddy wouldn't have sat with you in your car that night. Monty wouldn't have smashed lightbulbs with you to relieve stress. Chica wouldn't have kept you company or enthused with you about your passions. Roxy wouldn't have been so crass with you at the beginning, only to trust you to sit and comfort her while she cried a handful of nights ago. Sun and Moon… they cared about you. Moon saved your life when Sun was about to bash your skull in. Sun had literally taken a bullet for you. You were not imagining things. Logically, it didn't make sense. You took a deep breath, then turned your attention back to the case.

Rachel was questioning Omari, who answered her questions with the curt dispassionate tone of someone very used to dealing with frustrating corporate bullshit.

Finally, Alexandria called her final witness.

To the surprise of several people, including yourself, Paige, and everyone on her team, Sun walked into the room. He had traded his usual costume for a very slick suit and a bright yellow bowtie. He gave you a small smile as he passed you on his way to the witness stand.

The last you'd seen Sun, you'd woken up once the aftermath of everything had cooled down. You'd gotten to talk to Sun long enough to learn that Moon had managed to restrain him and manually shut him down. Once he'd rebooted in safe mode, Moon had explained everything, and Sun had experienced a bit of a breakdown. The two left to look for you and the others, (they'd gotten around Sun's programming not allowing him to leave the daycare by Moon lifting him and carrying him through the doorway) searching high and low without success until they found the no longer secret door in the security room, just in the nick of time to come to your aid.

Sun assured you that he was fine, yes he had been shot but he was fine, he was made of metal and wires, remember? You'd calmed down, only to be whisked away into a confusing chaotic hailstorm of lawyers and news reporters and police asking you all sorts of questions. Someone asked if you’d be pressing charges, to which you replied on the spot “hell fucking yeah I wanna press charges”, not really fully comprehending what all that would entail. You'd sent word to Sun and Moon to talk to Greggory, who still had your house key, and if any of them needed to stay the night at your place they were more than welcome to. Then, your phone had gotten that virus and shut down, (luckily all your recordings and evidence were in your writing app, so you could just log in on a computer and access it) and you were back in it with the lawyers and stayed overnight in protective custody.

You stared at Sun, searching him for scrapes or injuries or any sign that he wasn't okay. He looked normal. Well, as normal as Sun could look, dressed in a suit instead of a silly jester costume.

"I won't ask you about your relationship with management, since the topic of Fazbear Entertainment's relationship with its employees has been covered extensively. Instead, I'll ask you this. Is it true that you are programmed not to lie?"

"Yes, that's true," Sun said.

"Any objection?" Alexandria asked, turning to look at Paige, who only glared at her. "So, Sun. You've known Y/N for over two months now, is that right?"

"That's right." Sun nodded and smiled at you.

"Do you have any reason to believe that Y/N would have or did orchestrate the events that transpired two nights ago?" Alexandria asked. "Furthermore, do you have reason to believe that Y/N forged faulty evidence, tampered with recordings, or conspired in the slightest against Fazbear Entertainment at any point in time?"

"Absolutely not! Nothing was planned. Except by Vanessa, of course," Sun answered.

Rachel shot to her feet. "Objection, Y/N did conspire against the company. After their first meeting with Ms. Anderson, Y/N began doing research into the company and its past, presumably to dig up dirt on the company!"

"What evidence do you have to back these claims??" Alexandria asked.

"Y/N's search history," Rachel stated.

"How do you have my search history??" you exclaimed. "Besides, it's not weird to do research on the company you work for."

"I'm sure if the jury saw the precise terms of your 'research' they would disagree," Rachel argued.

"I'll pull up my history right now and prove it," you argued, certain that you hadn't even gotten very far into your research. You reached for your phone, then remembered it was busted.

"You can't," Rachel shot back with a grin.

You paused. "…How do you know I can't?"

Rachel paled. Murmurs rose throughout the jury and the rest of the courtroom.

You got to your feet and pulled out your dead phone. "How did you know my phone was busted, that it had conveniently gotten a virus yesterday, shutting it down and not allowing me to prove wrong whatever you said my search history was??"

There were gasps and chattering throughout the room.

The judge banged their gavel. "Order in the court, please. Everyone take your seats."

Rachel's face was beet red. Paige put her face in her hands. The other lawyers around her whispered furiously to each other. Alexandria smiled at you.

During the closing statements, Alexandria recounted everything very neatly and stated that, as she'd said it would, the evidence spoke for itself. Rachel got herself composed enough to deliver a final speech about how much good Fazbear Entertainment did for this town, how it would be a financial travesty for the town if it shut down. She mentioned that the daycare was a life saver for many busy parents in town, and remarked on how sad the children would be without the pizza-plex.

After the case was concluded, the jury left to make their decision and everyone was excused. There was some more nonsense with the lawyers, and then you were finally allowed to go home. You had to appear in court for the final verdict, and you couldn't skip town, but that was all fine by you. All you wanted to do was go home and curl up in bed.

To your relief and joy, both Sun and Moon were waiting for you outside. You pulled them both into a tight hug, and felt an incredible tension ease from your body as they hugged you back.

"Common, Y/N. Let's get you home," Moon said.

You sighed. "Yes please."

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themculibrary · 2 years

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Angst With A Happy Ending Masterlist 2

Links Last Checked: April 13th, 2024

part one

A Marriage of Inconvenience (ao3) - WhinyWingedWinchester loki/tony, natasha/thor M, 80k

Summary: Forced into an arranged marriage with Prince Loki of Aysgarth, Tony knows that he is not the ideal husband to the son of a king, but he still hopes that he might find true love with his husband like the stories he loves to read of adventures and happily-ever-afters.

Prince Loki, however, does not wish to be married, and he makes this clear to Tony even after their vows have been said before the priest. Life is no better for Tony in Castle Aysgarth than it was back in Iron Reach - he is as unwanted by Loki as he was by his father.

But slowly, things change. There is a steadily growing affection between them, something that might, perhaps, grow into more and Tony can only hope his love for Loki might one day be returned.

But then an assassin strikes unexpectedly, pirates attack, and Tony very well might be living an adventure from one of his books, but it looks like happily-ever-after might be too much to hope for.

As the World Falls Down (ao3) - BowieGirl T, 7k

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Becoming Belonging (ao3) - sahiya G, 18k

Summary: Peter barely remembered the week after he came back, five years and two minutes after dying on Titan. But he did remember this: looking at Morgan Stark and feeling––to his immediate shame––wildly, insanely jealous that Morgan had had those five years with Tony and Peter hadn’t.

Between how it is and how it should be (ao3) - frostysunflowers T, 13k

Summary: ''Doesn’t Captain Rogers ever…wonder,'' Peter winced as he fumbled for the right word, ''where you are?''

Bucky smirked. ''Steve’s a regular mother hen. Used to be me that worried about him.'' He gave Peter a pointed look. ''Better question is, isn’t Stark wondering where you are?''

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Then, along comes Tony Stark with an offer he can’t refuse. The plan is to remain professional, to not get too close to the Stark-Rogers’ family. Not getting comfortable means not slipping up and saying anything that he can’t take back.

...but for Peter- things rarely go as planned...

G.I. Joes and 2AM Diners (ao3) - OhCaptainMyCaptain steve/bucky E, 100k

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And Bucky thinks to himself that maybe it’s little moments like these – fleeting as they may be – that remind him why life is still worth living.

Heroes are Easy, People are Hard (ao3) - Halbereth, Lorien steve/bucky, pepper/tony T, 152k

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He calls Tony and surrenders on the condition that Tony tries to help Steve.

From there, it's basically three variously messed-up guys’ trajectories from "This Is Fine", "Reasonably Speaking I Know It’s Fine", "I Will Be Fine With It" to actually being fine, guest-starring a far-better-adjusted teenage boy who climbs walls, a 1957 Ford Thunderbird, two women with a keen sense of the absurd, and Bruce, the Zen master of “it’s fine that it’s not fine.”

Add in the fact that Bucky's been secretly in love with Steve since the thirties and things only get harder. Learning to be a person is the hardest thing Bucky Barnes will ever have to do--but he's got company along the way.

Hold Me in Your Heart (ao3) - STARSdidathing loki/tony T, 3k

Summary: No one knew about Loki and Tony. No one knew what had developed between them behind closed doors and off the battlefield. No one knew that capturing Loki, that sentencing him, was going to be as much a death for the man behind Iron Man, as the mage behind the bars.

honey, you're familiar (like my mirror years ago) (ao3) - yusufsmoon steve/bucky T, 9k

Summary: Or: Bucky comes back to Steve and somehow remembers everything but their relationship. Suspicious.

Learned to lose you, can’t afford to. (ao3) - sunsetmoonrise N/R, 7k

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like clockwork, when it dies (ao3) - killerqueenwrites T, 3k

Summary: Tony jerks awake in a chair that feels a little too small, blinding light searing through his eyelids before he even opens them.

It’s off. Wrong. Sideways. He can’t put his finger on why.

The clock is ticking for both Tony and Peter, but Tony can't help but feel that this torture wasn't meant for him.

Peter and the Jailbirds (ao3) - beautifullights mj/peter, steve/sam M, 86k

Summary: “If you did play chess," Ross said, "you’d remember that a pawn can become a queen. The most powerful piece on the board, Parker, remember that? But—” Ross smiled— “only if it obeys.”

He adjusted his tie, stood, and looked down at Peter. “I’ll ask you again,” he said. “Eventually. You may feel differently after you’ve been living in a six-by-six cube without sunlight or fresh air for a few years.”

“What pawns do,” Peter said, voice shaking slightly, “is sacrifice themselves for the greater good. I have no regrets.”

He had a lot of regrets.

Like, a lot. A crapton. A shitload. An overloaded dumpsterful.

“When I visit you on the Raft,” Ross said, “you’ll be old enough to grow a beard.” The cell door clicked shut behind him.

That Moment Divine (ao3) - synonym4life steve/bucky, bucky/ofc E, 61k

Summary: “‘S okay. It don’t have to mean nothing,” Bucky said, trying to convince himself as much as Steve. “‘S just rutting. Just a bit of rutting.”

His lips were so dry, his mouth too, and his throat, but the rest of his body felt like hot languid liquid was flowing through it. Steve swallowed, licked his lips. Maybe Steve’s mouth was dry too?

One hot summer, when Bucky and Steve are fifteen, the line between their friendship and something new that Bucky can’t quite name blurs. It is only years later that the line disappears completely and Bucky can finally put a name to that something.

'tis the damn season (ao3) - NoStringsOnMe steve/bucky T, 18k

Summary: || Or the one where, in the aftermath of his ma's death, Bucky reconnects with his ex over the holidays. And not just any ex. Steve. But Steve has a kid now. And Bucky's still grieving. It should be a recipe for disaster. Unless?

Trial and Error (ao3) - BowieGirl T, 11k

Summary: Or, alternatively: Peter Parker gets in trouble, gets sick, and gets a dad.

Two-Point Perspective (ao3) - FestiveFerret steve/tony E, 109k

Summary: Dear omega,

Congratulations! You've been selected. Alpha #95847872 has been assigned as your pre-bondee. A group bonding ceremony will take place on the 14th, unless other arrangements have been made by your alpha or their family. A valid bonding license must be submitted to Omega Services within 45 days of this letter or all services will be cancelled and any transferable benefits will not be applied to your alpha's package.

If there is some reason why you cannot be bonded on this date, please apply for an extension by calling 1-800-555-6827 within 7 days of receiving this letter.

Sincerely, National Omega Services

We always know (ao3) - bangyababy steve/bucky, steve/thor M, 32k

Summary: Steve and Bucky were best friends until middle school when Steve overheard Bucky saying it was weird he didn’t talk. Soon after, Bucky moved away and they never spoke again. Almost fifteen years later, they've somehow managed to become roommates.

we leave through the fire (ao3) - justanotherblond steve/bucky T, 41k

Summary: The soldier doesn’t remember his son’s birth or how he came to be. He doesn’t remember bedding a woman and watching her belly swell, but they said the boy was his. He does know that he will protect and teach the boy within the confines of their cell walls. Even when the handlers berate him. Even when the good guys take him away

we're pretenders (ao3) - snufkin103 steve/bucky N/R, 10k

Summary: Bucky sets up a double date. Things don't go as planned.

where the memories reside (ao3) - swingingparty pepper/tony T, 110k

Summary: Peter Parker has been dead for six months.

Six months, three days, and 18 hours.

At least, that's what everyone things. Even Tony Stark, though he'd kill rather than admit it. But then a school in Queens is blown up and suddenly Peter Parker is back on the radar.

Except he's not Peter Parker anymore.

He doesn't even remember who that is.

#themculibrary #mcu #marvel #masterlists #angst with a happy ending #angst with a happy ending masterlist #angst #fluff

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michaelcosio · 1 month

Text

THE ORIGINS OF MODERN DAY POLICING

"Tough on crime" laws have put an unprecedented number of non-violent offenders behind bars and our neighborhoods feel no more secure. This system has deep roots in slavery.

SLAVE PATROLS

The origins of modern-day policing can be traced back to the "Slave Patrol." The earliest formal slave patrol was created in the Carolinas in the early 1700s with one mission: to establish a system of terror and squash slave uprisings with the capacity to pursue, apprehend, and return runaway slaves to their owners. Tactics included the use of excessive force to control and produce desired slave behavior.

"I [patroller's name], do swear, that I will as searcher for guns, swords, and other weapons among the slaves in my district, faithfully, and as privately as I can, discharge the trust reposed in me as the law directs, to the best of my power. So help me, God."

North Carolina Slave Patrol Oath

Slave Patrols continued until the end of the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment. Following the Civil War, during Reconstruction, slave patrols were replaced by militia-style groups who were empowered to control and deny access to equal rights to freed slaves. They relentlessly and systematically enforced Black Codes, strict local and state laws that regulated and restricted access to labor, wages, voting rights, and general freedoms for formerly enslaved people.

In 1868, ratification of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution technically granted equal protections to African Americans — essentially abolishing Black Codes. Jim Crow laws and state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation swiftly took their place.

By the 1900s, local municipalities began to establish police departments to enforce local laws in the East and Midwest, including Jim Crow laws. Local municipalities leaned on police to enforce and exert excessive brutality on African Americans who violated any Jim Crow law. Jim Crow Laws continued through the end of the 1960s.

"The crisis in policing is the culmination of a thousand other failures — failures of education, social services, public health, gun regulation, criminal justice, and economic development."

The New Yorker, July 13, 2020

A CONTINUING BIAS

The criminal justice system is heavily impacted by the bias of police mentality and outdated judicial precedents. The system is largely driven by racial disparities and the Black community continues to be a target. The results are brutal and long lasting.

"All cruelty begins with dehumanization — not seeing the face of the other, not seeing the whole humanity of the other. A cultural regime of dehumanization has been constructed in many police departments. In that fertile ground, racial biases can spread and become entrenched."

The Atlantic, (June 16, 2020),The Culture of Policing is Broken

The legacy and effects of biased policing are far reaching. The U.S. is home to the world's largest prison population and the highest per-capita incarceration rate. As of May 2020, there were 655 people incarcerated per 100,000. Prison, parole, and probation operations cost U.S. taxpayers $81 billion a year.

The relationship between law enforcement and our communities is fractured because of decades of a bad system that has let countless issues go unaddressed.

- Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO

DID YOU KNOW?

HOLDING POLICE OFFICERS ACCOUNTABLE IS DIFFICULT

In 2020, there were 1,021 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 there were 999 fatal shootings. Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 35 fatal shootings per million of the population as of March 2021. (statistica.com)

Since 2005 (through June 24, 2019), 104 non-federal law enforcement officers have been arrested in connection with fatal, on-duty shootings. (Police Integrity Research Group, Bowling Green State University)

To date, only 35 of these officers have been convicted of a crime, often a lesser offense such as manslaughter or negligent homicide, rather than murder.

Only four officers have been convicted of murder during this period and seen their convictions stand.

Another 23 officers were acquitted in a jury trial and nine were acquitted during a bench trial decided by a judge.

Eleven other cases were dismissed by a judge or a prosecutor and in one instance, no true bill was returned from a grand jury.

Currently, there are 24 non-federal law enforcement officers with pending criminal cases for fatal shootings.

THE COST OF POLICE BRUTALITY IS HIGH

While many police brutality and fatal police shootings are not prosecuted in criminal court, victims and the families of victims have been able to pursue civil judgments, which cost millions of taxpayers dollars each year.

$175.9 million in civil judgments and claims for police-related lawsuits was paid by New York City during the 2019 fiscal year. New York City has the largest police force with 36,000 members serving 8.3 million people.

$500 million was paid out by the City of Chicago between 2004 and 2014 for police misconduct-related lawsuits. The Chicago police department has 12,000 officers serving 2.7 million people.

THE NEED FOR A SMARTER CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

We advocate for smarter, positive, results-based criminal justice policies to keep our communities safe. These policies include issues that are very important to us: treatment for mental health issues and addiction, judicial discretion in sentencing, and an end to racial disparities at all levels of the system.

65%

Percentage of Black American adults who have felt targeted because of their race.

from The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

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joanofnavarre · 2 years

Photo

A CHRONICLE OF THE REIGNS OF RICHARD II., HENRY IV., HENRY V., AND HENRY VI.RICHARD II. Of Kyng Richard the secunde aftir the Conquest, the sone of PrinceEdwarde; and of the risyng tyme; and of meny othir notablethyngis.*

[Concerning Henry the IVth’s reign]

A.D. 1399.

And whanne he hadde be there a litill tyme, ser Henri of Bolyng|broke, erl of Derby and duke of Hereforde, whom kyng Richard*. [Hoc anno obiit dux Lancas|triæ.] hadde exilid, heryng that his fader ser John of Gaunt, duke of Lancastre, was ded, cam doun out of ffraunce vnto Caleys.

And there mette with him maister Thomas Arundelle that was archebisshoppe of Cauntirbury, and the sone and heir of the erl of Arundelle, that was broke out of prison of the castelle of Reygate; and thay shippid at Caleys, and cam in to Englond, and landid at Rauenesporne in the*. [[July 4th.]] north cuntre.

And there mette with thaym the erlle of Northum|birlond withe a gret power to helpe and socoure the said duke, that cam for non othir entent, as he saide, thanne forto chalange the duchie of Lancastre his enheritaunce.

The duke of York that was lieutenaunt of Engelond wolde haue gon ayens thayme, but noman wolde folowe him; and ser William Scroope, tresorer of Englond, offrid men wonder large wageȝ, but he coude noman haue, for no money.

Thanne wroot the said duke of Hereforde to the citeȝeyns of Lon| [folio 152a] doun, and callid himself duke of Lancastre and stiward of Englond, and saide that he wolde refourme and amende that was amys; and anon Londoun him fauerid and supportid, and alle the kyngis castellis were delyuerid to the duke.

Ser William Scrooppe, tresorer of Engelonde, Busshe, Bagot, and Grene, knyghtis, that were the kyngis chief counselours, fledde in to the castel of Bristowe, and wolde haue gon in to Yrlond, but thay were take, and thair heddis smyte of: but Bagot ascapid in to Yrlonde and was take aftirwarde.

Whanne kyng Richarde herde telle alle this, he cam in haste out*. [[August 13th.]] of Yrlond in to Walis, and abood in the castell of fflynt to take counsel what was best to do; but no counsel cam to him, and alle his ost landid in diuers partieȝ and wolde not folowe him. Thanne ser Thomas Percy, stiward of the kyngis hous, brak the rod of his office in the halle befor alle men and saide, "The king wille no lenger holde householde," and anon alle the kyngis mayne forsook him, and lefte him alone.

Tho cursid the kyng the vntrouthe of Englond, and saide, "Allas! what trust is in this fals worlde!"

Thanne wrot the duke to the stiward of the Archebisshoppe of Cauntirbury, ser Roger Waldenne, commaundyng him on peyne of his hed to kepe alle the godis of the forsaid ser Roger to the vse of maister Thomas Arundelle, and anon the said Roger remeued alle his [folio 152b] iewelx out of the paleis of Cauntirbury, and thay were take at Rouchestre and put in to the castelle there to be kept safly.

Whanne this was ydo, the duke and maister Thomas Arundel*. [[August 19th.]] wente to the kyng to the castel of Flynt, and aftir a fewe wordis thay tolde him shortly he sholde no lenger regne; and thanne maister Thomas Arundelle saide vnto him in this wise:

"Thou art a fair man, but thou art falsest of alle menne. Thou promisist and assurid me, sweryng on Goddis Body, that thou woldes, do my brothir non harm; and whanne I hadde brouȝt him to thi presence, I myȝte nevir se him aftir. Thou also promisest me to calle me agayn in haste fro myn exile, and that ther sholde nevir be othir archebisshoppe of Caunterbury but I, whileȝ I livid; and now thou hast maad anothir archebisshop, and also procurid my dethe. Thou hast not rewlid thi reme and thi peple, but hast spoilid thaym be fals raisyngis of taxeȝ and talageȝ not to the profit of the reme, but forto fulfille and satisfie thi cursid couetise and pride. Thou hast alwey be rewlid be fals flaterers, folowyng thair counsel and thaym avaunsyng befor alle othir trew men, refusyng the counsel of thi trew lordis; and because thay wolde haue withstonde thi cursid malice as reson wolde, thow hast thaym slayne unrightfulli, and disheritid thair heiris [folio 153a] for evirmore, aftyr thyn ordenaunceȝ and statutis; but thay shalle not longe stonde, be Goddis grace. Thou hast also livid incontinentli and lecherousli, and with thi foulle and cursid ensample thou hast enfectid thi court and thi reme."

Thanne saide the duke, "No more, ye haue said ynoughe." The kyng wist not what he sholde say, but yeld him vnto the duke and saide he wolde resigne and renounce his righte; and thanne he was lad to the tour of Londoun, and there*. [[Sept. 1st.]] ykept in strong hold.

And aftirward in the vigili of saint Mighelle, were sent vnto him*. [[Sept. 28th.]] bishoppis, erlis, barons, knyȝtis, and notarieȝ, forto enquire and wite of him, if he wolde resigne as he hadde promised.

First he said Nay, and thanne thay saide unto him that he moste nedis resigne withoute eny condicioun, and delyuerid him a cedule conteynyng the fourme of his resignacioun; and he redde it in presence of the forsaid duke and of meny othir lordis and a gret multitude of peple; wherof the tenour was this:

"I, Richard kyng of Englond, renounce*. [Nota resigna|cionem Regis Ricardi.] and resigne alle the right that I haue in the croune of Eng|lond with thappurtenaunceȝ; that is to say, in the remeȝ of Englond and ffraunce, Yrlond and Scotland, and in the duchieȝ of Guyenne and of Normandie, and in the counte of Pountif, and in Walis, Caleis, and alle othir castellis and fortaliceȝ, that I haue now or may [folio 153b] haue aftirward be righte, beyonde the se and in this side, or in eny parti of thayme, for me and myne heyris for euermore."

And wit|nessiȝ there present requirid notaries to make instrumentis vpon that resignacioun. And thanne kyng Richard confessid how he hadde gretly trespast ayens God and the reame, and that he was not worthi forto regne, for he wiste welle, he saide, that he loued nevir the peple, ne the peple him.

After this, the duke wente to Westmynstre, and there he was re|*. [[Sept. 29th.]]ceyued with procession solemly of bishoppis and monkis, and there was said a solenne masse of the Holi Gost; and aftir masse, he wente in to the halle and the kyngis swerd was bore befor him, and there he sat doun in his fader sete, and othir lordis sat there also, and moche peple standyng aboute; and there was red openli the forsaid resignacioun of king Richard, and was acceptid of alle peple.

And thanne were there red and declared meny notable and grete defautis that king Richard hadde do ayens his oth, and the laweȝ of the reme, and how he hadde exilid and slayn his lordis that were pieris of the reme, and meny othirt hyngis: wherfore he was deposid, and, in the name of alle men of Englond, proctours there assigned yeld up to hym thair homageȝ; and maister Thomas Arundelle, be comune assent of alle that were there, [folio 154a] dampned the said king Richard to perpetuelle prisoun.

Thanne aros the said duke of Lancastre and of Hereforde, and blissid him, and redde in a bille how he descendid and cam doun lynealli of kyng Harri the sone of king Johan, and was the nexte heir male of his blod, and for that cause he chalanged the croune; and alle the lordis and comuneȝ assentid therto.

Thanne arooȝ the Archebishoppis of Cauntirbury and of York and kiste his handis, and ladde him to the kynggis sete that was for him rialli araid; and the Archebisshoppe of Cauntirbury, Arundelle, made there a colacion, and his theme was this: "Vir fortis dominabitur populo:" that is to say,

A strong man shalle be lord ovir the peple.

And aftir the colacioun, the Chaunceller of Englond theliverid the seel unto the kyng Harri, and othir officers delyuerid vp also vnto him thair selis and officeȝ, and the kyng forthwith put thaym yn agayn.

And thanne tharchebisshoppe Arundelle notified vnto the peple, that the king wolde be crovned at Westmynstre on saint Ed|wardis day, commaundyng alle menn to be atte parlement on the Monday next comyng, &c.

Whanne kyng Richard was deposid and putt out of his kyng|doum, the lordeȝ and the comuneȝ chosen ser Harri of Bolyng|broke,*. [[Reign began Sept. 30th.]] duke of Lancastre and of Hereforde and erlle of Derby, sone and heir to Johan of Gaunt duke of Lancastre, to be kyng of Engelonde; and he was crouned at Westmynstre on saint Edwardes day, of maister Thomas Arundelle, archebisshoppe of Cauntirbury,*. [[Monday, Oct. 13th.]] and was anoynted with the oyl of the egle before rehersid: and he was the firste that was anoynted therwith, as it was said.

Thanne continued he the parlement that king Richarde hadde be|gonne, and therynne adnullid and hadde for noughte alle the orde|naunceȝ and statutis that there were maad be king Richarde; and restorid the erlis sone of Arundelle to his landis, and made him erlle off Arundelle; and delyuerid the erlle of Warwic and the lord Cobham and othir out of prisoun; and brende openli at Londoun alle the blanc chartris that kyng Richard and his counselle hadde compellid men to sele; and disgradid alle the dukis that kyng Richarde hadde maad in his laste parlement, and restored ayenne maister Thomas Arundelle to his Archebisshopperiche of Cauntirbury; and made ser Roger Waldenne, whom kyng Richard hadde [folio 155a] maad Archebisshoppe, bisshop of Londoun, that tyme beyng void; and made the said ser Roger forto restore alle that he hadde take of tharchebisshopriche of Cauntirbury vnto Arundelle: ffor the pope Boneface dampned and adnullid the iugement that king Richard hadde yeue ayens the said Arundel be a bulle, and declarid be the same that the chirche of Cauntirbury was not void.

This kyng Harri made Harri his eldest sone and heir Prince of Walis, duke of Cornewaille, and erl of Chestre.”

#house of lancaster #plantagenet dynasty #henry iv #henry iv of england #kyng harri #king henry of england #king henry iv of england #henry of bolinbroke #henry of derby #charlie hunnam #as #king henry iv

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sinsbymanka · 3 years

Note

Hey. I'm sorry. So. Your post about sunseekerknight is really long and it seems out of date. I thought everything had been resolved and she promised to make amends but this all started back around again and it sounds like your issue isn't solved. Can you update me real quick? Sorry.

Thanks for being polite and coming to me. I’ll try to summarize things to the best of ability while also noting this is kinda a clusterfuck. It got long, so it’s under a cut.

In March 2020, I commissioned @sunseekerknight (I’m blocked so I can’t actually @ her) to do a Tarot Card commission of my Inquisitor for $80. I sent the money via PayPal friends and family as she requested which is something I no longer do for artists, even though I’d done it before with no problems.

The main post goes over my initial experience really well - the repeated attempts at contact and missed deadlines. This post was made on June 18, 2020 and blew up. I informed Ada that day I was making the post and she told me she’d be doing so as well.

I’d already filed the PayPal claim which was ultimately denied because I’d sent the money via friends and family, despite SSK’s assurances she’d help me resolve it in my favor.

I didn’t hear from SSK after this and I didn’t contact her. My father passed away on June 20th and I was busy dealing with the personal fallout of that (he’d been in the hospital the whole month of June as it was) so my priorities swung towards processing my own grief and planning what happens next.

On July 10th, my PayPal claim was denied. I forwarded the claim to SSK with the following message:

I want to inform you that PayPal has indicated, due to the way you asked me to send the funds (friends and family), they are unable to provide any sort of refund based on their policies. It is your responsibility to make the refund.

Because of the history of fraud I've uncovered, I will be pursuing this further. I am, in particular, asking PayPal to mark this account as one used for fraudulent transactions and scamming money before closing it. My hope is that this account is in your real name and that getting this account marked for fraud has real consequences you have to live with.

I honestly didn’t expect to hear from SSK again, but I did on July 12th:

Oh, I see. Now the difficult situation has become even more difficult. I'm sorry to say this, but, as I said earlier, I had only two offers for people affected by my actions - a PayPal dispute or finished art. And since PayPal is useless in this situation, all I can offer you - is art. I’m still ready to finish your commission because I don't want you to be left with nothing. I would like to return the money, really, but it will take time and I don't know how much, considering the current situation on Tumblr. I still want to resolve this issue peacefully, despite what is happening now. I know that you don't trust me, and I understand this, as well as the fact that you are disappointed, angry, etc., but still I want to do at least something so as not to leave the situation as it is now. But if this is your final decision, then okay, I understand and accept it.

This message struck me as victim blaming. I am, after all, responsible for the situation on Tumblr which means she can’t get commissions. I reacted with some venom and my tone is not great here, but I do ask you to understand the frame of mind I was in here on July 13th:

I don't think it's fair to claim that PayPal is being unhelpful in this situation when it is you who are refusing to refund money for a service that was purchased and not completed. I think it would make me feel better if you started phrasing the "situation" in a way that took responsibility for it. Such as: "I cannot refund the money to you myself, because I spent it before delivering what you paid for, and I cannot get your dispute resolved through PayPal because I asked you to send the payment a specific way that precludes disputes."

I also feel hurt that immediately after I sent my email on Friday, you blocked me from Tumblr and turned all your social media accounts private. I can't think of why you would do this when you claim to still want to resolve this and when I have been more than kind. I find it difficult to believe that you didn't know what my review would cause - it sounds to me like this is something that has been brewing for awhile. Frankly, I'm amazed it took three years. I would also appreciate if, instead of blaming the "situation" on Tumblr for your inability to receive new commissions, you began taking responsibility for that as well. May I suggest: "My actions in the past three years have harmed many people and they are angry about it with good cause. Because I have damaged my reputation to a great extent, I will probably not receive many, if any, people willing to pay me money for commissions."

I fully expect to receive nothing from you: art or my money returned. When speaking with PayPal on Friday, they advised the only way to shut your PayPal account down is if I file a criminal complaint with the IC3, which is the US's Internet Crimes division of the FBI. I did so and sent them the screenshots I have of all our conversations, your posts on Tumblr, and links to the posts of other people who publicly came out regarding the same behavior they experienced. I'm uncertain I can withdraw my complaints from both PayPal and the IC3, and if I could I don't think I would. I'm sure this isn't something that is high priority for them, but I assume eventually they will contact you to discuss your actions. The way I see it, you have three options at this point in time:

Find some way to issue a refund to me, and any other customers you've wronged. If I am contacted by investigators, I will say a refund was eventually issued in my case.

Deliver the art you promised to me, and any other customers. If I am contacted by investigators, I will say a product was eventually delivered in my case.

Continue to ignore what you've done and hope that no real consequences come of it.

As to the art, I don't want it anymore. It has been tainted by this awful experience and I will not enjoy it. I will, however, accept it if you choose to do it to lessen whatever consequences you may end up facing because, truly, I'd rather you learn from this than end up with financial or legal consequences that are even more burdensome.

Honestly. I never expected to hear from SSK again. But I did because this is the drama that never ends. On July 20th:

I must apologize for the long silence. Sorry, I just got home from an unexpected vacation with my family, and I followed the advice of my parents and friends - spend these days away from work and the Internet to feel better. As I said, I understand you. You sound reasonable and you are totally right - it is my responsibility for that. And I'm trying to work it out, even if these are rather strange ways. And it wasn't about you personally. This was part of another problem with a friend I was trying to protect, and I followed the advice to keep the accounts private during the "war" and block some people on the tumblr during this time to avoid any collisions. But still, I was available for correspondence via email, and now all my accounts are again freely available. I know how it looks like, especially for you, when you have really been more than kind to me, and I cannot apologize enough to somehow change and improve this situation. I just fucked up on all fronts and I admit it. And I see, yes. I don't mind returning your art or money, it's just a matter of time. These are not days, these are weeks or months, and it is solely a matter of your patience. If you do not mind waiting, then I will try to return the money to you, since you no longer want art for obvious reasons. I understand and accept it, and it's okay. If you're willing to wait, I'll keep you informed of the refund situation and will do it as soon as I can.

You’ll note earlier I told you I can’t tag SSK cause I’m blocked. I’ve never been unblocked since July despite her saying she would. This is also the last email I got from SSK. I’ve had no communication since to my knowledge.

At this point in time I was tired. Really tired. It was bad news I got this email exactly a month after my father passed because I just didn’t want to do it anymore. This is my second to last email to SSK in response also on July 20th:

Please feel free to do what you need to do to manage the situation. For my part, I have said and done all I can. I have asked for a refund for a service you have been unable to provide in a reasonable time frame, and thus you are legally obligated to return my money in the same reasonable time frame. That time frame has passed already.

When I am contacted by authorities about this matter in response to my complaints, I will tell them you have promised refunds but have not delivered. The only thing you could do to change this answer is to issue a refund before I am contacted.

This exchange is draining and unhelpful for me. I ask that you please do not contact me again until you are ready to issue a refund.

On September 25th, I was informed SSK had successfully opened commissions on Twitter and Instagram. This spurred me to send one final email:

I've been informed you recently reopened commissions to buy yourself something and met your goal, even though you only advertised on Twitter and Instagram.

I would like to remind you that I'm still owed a refund AND you shouldn't spend that commission money until you deliver on that art. Please do not rip and entire new group of people off.

There are other people, in the notes of the original post, who can attest to terrible experiences similar to mine. In particular, @starsandskies, @vorchagirl, and @charlatron have all come forward to talk about what she’s done and their experiences. Her pattern seems to be to open commissions, deliver a few, have the rest dragged out of her, and then to not do other ones. I drew the short straw this time.

I don’t know if she’s reading this - if she is, at this point all I really want is an apology, a list of people who are waiting for art/refunds from her, and a plan as to how she’s going to make it right. If she doesn’t do those things, I suspect I’m going to keep getting dragged back into this cluster for awhile to talk about my experiences.

If you’re waiting for artwork Non, open PayPal disputes and file complaints if you need to. The sooner the better.

#manka answers asks #sunseekerknight #this again #I'm tired of it again #sorry guys

93 notes · View notes

aceofthyme · 3 years

Note

Wait I'm really curious about Lincoln 2 and Lincoln 3: the reckoning, can u please elaborate???

Oh yes I can. Buckle up, because this is going to get absurdly detailed and I apologize in advance lol

For a bit of context: I met several of my friends in a high school government class, and we ended up being in the same US History class the next year. We did a lot of our group projects together (because we all trusted each other to actually do our portion of the work lol), and one of our required projects was watching a historical film and writing a paper about the film's level of accuracy. Our teacher gave us a list of possible films, and on the list was Lincoln; since I owned a copy, I invited my friends over and we sat and watched the film together.

One of my friends wrote his paper about the accuracies of the film and contrasted it with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, because. why not? This then prompted a discussion between us about film accuracies, during which my friend proclaimed he wanted to make a film based off of AL:VH called Lincoln 3: The Reckoning. He went into extreme detail with this, explaining every detail of the film and giving us a play-by-play that we later wrote down in case we ever get the chance to actually film it lol. We all contributed a little bit to the ideas, but most of the major details (and the following quotes) are from him! (I'm just. putting these synopses under the cut, this got super long cjdkcjd)

His general idea for this Lincoln 3: The Reckoning film is that the ghost of Roger Taney is upset over the 13th and 14th Amendments voiding the Dred Scott decision, and somehow seeks assistance from beyond the grave to bring down Lincoln. Lincoln sees what's going on, and pulls together a team to take down Taney; this team includes "Grant as muscle" and "Sherman as the uncontrolled chaotic wildcard" as well as a good handful of other generals and officers like Sheridan who just "shows up with Horses". This team then goes around "like 19th century ghostbusters taking down other vindictive judicial phantoms and ghouls as they track down Taney, the mastermind" (I should probably also add that every member of the team has like. special powers or weapons, and he specifically stated that Grant and Sherman "have access to Ray-Bans at all times"). The ending is very dramatic, Lincoln turns to stone and then the Lincoln Monument is just. built around him, with everyone waiting for the day that he will rise again.

Clearly quality filmmaking.

Anyways, at some point a few months after this lovely explanation of Lincoln 3: The Reckoning, I asked if the series would just go straight from AL:VH to Lincoln 3 or if there was some sort of Lincoln 2 in between. I then received another super-detailed plot, all about the middle film (as well as a little tidbit informing me that after the critics "didn't like Lincoln 2 and the zombie magic, the directors went and made George Washington: Zombie Slayer as a prequel”).

The general idea of Lincoln 2 would be Lincoln as an immortal vampire fighting rebel soldiers raised from the grave, with the main villain being zombie John Wilkes Booth, and there's a whole secondary plot where someone tried to strengthen the Union forces with magic and it accidentally backfired, giving some of the officers magical powers. He then specifically detailed a very tasteful love confession between Grant and Sherman, and described the resulting relationship scenario as the Love Square because "they're going to stay married to their wives, we'll just assume it's a poly, and it's a cool name". The generals all gather and Grant explains to Lincoln that they can use their abilities to undo the curse and defeat the risen Confederate soldiers, and they succeed "with the power of the Love Square". He also said that the real power of the Love Square would be the women, and that Ellen would get a gun. The very end of the film would be this big showdown between Lincoln and zombie Booth (he didn't elaborate beyond that lol).

This was followed by an explanation that Lincoln 2 would actually not be a theatre release but rather a straight-to-video affair, because "the critics would find the love confession not historically accurate, and they'd say that the film lacked reality because the Love Square could never undo the curse". I don't know who these imaginary critics are but I definitely disagree lol

Anyways this is why I love my friends, I can't think of anyone else who would come up with this stuff and then fully detail it and even reenact it via text and video. One day I will turn these into scripts and do some sort of home film version, I have leftover uniforms from my Civil War mini-documentary project from that class so. Maybe someday I'll have clips of this to share. All rights go to my friend, though, and his brilliantly creative and wonderful ideas!

#i feel the need to also share that sherman's power is just. turning into a flaming person and sometimes a flaming skeleton #so when this love confession happens they're. standing in a riverbed (that's a long story) and he's just a slowly-regenerating skeleton #a slowly-regenerating skeleton in his uniform #another addition to this was that julia should get like wonder woman bracelet/bracer things or a shield because 'she was so tiny'#asked and answered #bardengarde #sorry that this is so long btw!#my friends and i tend to be very detailed when we come up with ideas #and yes there are more details than this but i felt like it was getting really long and didn't want to cause an information overload lol #history things #history #alyssa speaks #acw #lincoln 3 #lincoln 3: the reckoning

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somethingusefulfromflorida · 3 years

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2024 prediction

The Constitution does not guarantee any American the right to vote for the President of the United States. Nowhere within its text. The 15th, 20th, and 26th amendments simply say that the government can’t deny us the right to vote based on race, gender, or age respectively. There’s nothing saying they can’t deny that right for any other reason.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 reads as follows:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Each state may decide for themselves how the electors of the Electoral College are chosen. It just so happens that all 50 states have chosen to appoint electors based on statewide popular votes, but that is, by definition, not the only way it can be done. If the states so decided, they could appoint any elector for any reason; Clause 2 only prohibits them from holding federal office.

That said, my prediction is that in 2024 (or possibly 2028), a state, singular, will change its laws so that the electors are appointed not by popular vote but by some other quote-unquote “independent” means. That’s a fancy way of saying a state can just choose whoever wins their Electoral College votes; the state legislatures could appoint the electors directly, choosing loyalists who will vote for whichever candidate the legislature wants them to,regardless of the will of the people. It will be a small state, something like Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, one of the Dakotas. The state legislature will directly appoint Republican electors, under the assumption that the state would have gone Republican anyway; I am predicting that they will appoint members of the state government to be the electors. The governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, however many positions are necessary, and then those politicians will directly vote for whichever candidate they want.

The majority of people in that state will rejoice in this decision; Republicans will see it as a guarantee that their guy always wins, as protection against any future liberal theft, and because the small state in question is predominantly Republican anyway, it will do little actually change the balance of power in the first election. The first state was an experiment, they just wanted to test the waters, see how the country would react to the abolition of elections. The primaries still exist, and the people can still vote for their representatives and Senators (the 17th amendment protects that right), but the presidency will be chosen by oligarchs.

There’s nothing legally preventing this from happening. That’s the Republican MO; exploit legal loopholes, no matter how heinous. This could easily be dismissed as the slippery slope fallacy, but they’ve already proven that they have no morals when it comes to filling Supreme Court vacancies during election years, allowing the Senate majority leader to hold legislation hostage,or accepting the results of the presidential election to ensure a peaceful transition of power (as of November 13th, 2020 at 9:30 PM EST), so there’s no reason to think they WON’T try this. If it’s not explicitly illegal, they assume it must be legal.

Give it a few election cycles and it will happen to a bigger state, one that matters. Yeah yeah, all states matter, but you know what I mean; swing states, a state that could conceivably effect the outcome of the election. Florida continues its rightward shift; I doubt a Democrat will it again for decades, as happened with the rest of the south (thank God for Blue Georgia). I wouldn’t put it past the Florida state legislature to do this. Or the Michigan legislature, or Wisconsin, or any state where Republicans hold a slim advantage. They only need to hold power for a single term to do immeasurable damage to our democracy.

The only thing stopping them from doing this is right now is popular support, but they’re actively working to undermine confidence in our elections, so it’s only a matter of time before they decide to do away with the elections entirely. They’ll frame it as though they’re actually protecting the elections! They’ll sell it to the people, ad the people will fall for it. They’ll call it the Election Security Act or the Make Elections Great Again Act or some shit like that. The state governments will pick the president with minimal input from the people; keep all the power in the hands of the Party.

I don’t mean to stoke fears, I’m not trying to make people angry, I just see a viable path forward that they could very easily take, and want to raise awareness of it so we’re not all caught with our pants down if and when it happens. I am not speaking this into existence, I’m just some schmuck from Florida, a nobody shouting into the void, it’s not like me saying this could happen will inspire anyone to make it happen; I figure that if some schmuck has thought of it, you know some experienced political operatives have thought of it, and have done more research and have better fine tuned their legal defenses to ensure the Supreme Court rules in their favor.

I don’t think this WILL happen, I just fear that it CAN happen.

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caffeinatedvagitarian · 4 years

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I see a lot of people criticizing B99 as cop propaganda, and they're right to do so.

Yes, the characters are diverse and likable and they seem to be on the "right side", but they are still upholding a system built on white supremacy. They still violate the rights of the people they're arresting in the show. They make people think that the police system can be fixed with reforms, but it can't. We must defund the police, if not abolish them completely. We must abolish our current prison system and get rid of the 13th amendment, which allows for prison labor slavery. We must invest in social programs, medical care, housing, mental health care, education, rehabilitation, and so on in order to address the root problems that cops use their guns to "solve".

Trust me, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been one of my favorite shows for years, but you can't separate fiction from reality. B99 is spreading the harmful rhetoric that cops are our friends when they're not. If you continue to watch the show, be mindful, critical, and aware that you are being presented with propaganda.

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remusfreakinloopin · 7 years

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I’m torn between “Make the next Doctor a woman you cowards” and “don’t make the Doctor a woman if she’s not gonna be written by a woman”

#it's moffat's fault #i was terrified of the 13th doctor being a woman because moffat would make her a disaster #and then we'd never have another woman doctor #because people would say #we had one and look what a disaster it was #i don't trust moffat with women and i'd rather have another man doctor than a moffat woman doctor #i don't know about the next guy and maybe he'd do a great job #but my instinct is not to trust a man writing women because let's be honest when has it not been a disappointment ??#i mean ok bill is well written #but honestly ?? don't tell me bill isn't moffat trying to make amends for all his previous disasters #and bill's womanhood is quite little exploited #she's a good woman character but that's because she's written like all the other characters #which is a good thing #she's a well written CHARACTER #i don't know if I'd go as far as to say she's a well written WOMAN #if the next guy CAN be trusted with women characters #or if he has plenty of women surveying his writing #then ok for a woman foctor #but i'd rather have another man doctor than a disastrous male-gazeful woman doctor #because it would make it even harder to have other GOOD women doctor in the future #also how about a nb doctor ??#I mean honestly ??#Time Lords are by essence genderfluid right ??#i mean ok yes there would be exclusively man or woman time lords #but it wouldn't be the norm and it wouldn't be the majority #how about making an agender doctor ??#the partner would be like so are you a man or a woman #and the doctor would be like #i don't think i'm either #and be relieved because come on gender is a pain in the ass

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tormundjonthings · 5 years

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GOT Politics Thoughts! (I know, I’m not original)

So I’ve been thinking a lot about the last couple seasons again after reading the finale script last week, specifically about how Game of Thrones handled politics in it’s last few seasons. A lot has been written about how the characters or relationships or fantasy elements were bungled, but I’m interested in how they muddled the political end too. And not just the in universe politics, like conflicts between houses or the challenges of moving/feeding armies. Although...that also pretty much vanishes, outside of that stray line of Sansa’s from s8 about feeding Dany’s armies (which is mainly there so Dany can get in a sick line about how cool dragons are.)

No, I’m more interested in how the larger political questions / parallels to politics in the real world vanish or become so confused that any message is lost entirely.

Lets venture back a few seasons, say to like season 5, and look at some of the big political topics being addressed. (This got SUPER long, so more under the cut)

Political Question One: What are borders?

The storyline at the Wall was always one of the most interesting parts of the show to me, mostly because of the nature of the conflict between the Nights Watch and the Free Folk. The the Wall was always a foil to the pettier political games happening elsewhere in the series. That whole Mormont quote “when the dead rise, do you think it matters who sits on the Iron Throne?” Like they’ve got a big, giant existential disaster to deal with, makes all the squabbling between houses look pretty damn silly!

Yet they also participate in some of this political squabbling, which is very interesting to me! They spend several SEVERAL seasons dealing primarily not with the existential threat at hand, but trying to fight off people who largely just want to escape to safety.

The reason Jon Snow is one of my favorite characters in the series is that he’s one of the very few people who looks at an underlying bit of “common political wisdom” in Westeros, something that’s been unchanged for thousands of years regardless of who sits on the Iron Throne, and says, “Hey, this is both very wrong and very dumb.”

He meets the Wildlings, notes that they follow the same religion as the North, speak the same language, have a lot of the same customs, and most importantly notes that they’re just people trying to live their lives in safety.

Some of them raid and kill, yes. But lets be honest...plenty plenty plenty of people born and bred in the Seven Kingdoms do that too.

The division between people of the Seven Kingdoms is entirely arbitrary. Other people in the series have noted this (Benjen, Tyrion) but Jon actually tries to do something about it. He says they’re all the same, that the Free Folk are part of the realms of men, and manages to get many of them south of the Wall.

This is incredibly controversial; he’s broken a huge political taboo here. The northern Lords hate “Wildling invaders.” Many members of the Nights Watch don’t care much about the White Walkers and see the Free Folk as their primary enemy. This is so controversial that Jon is murdered for it.

Now, if you live in almost any part of the world right now, you’ll note that this has many, many parallels to real life events. Especially if you see White Walkers as Climate Change. People trying to escape to safety from disasters and the complete immorality of holding up largely arbitrary borders in the face of existential threats to humanity is already an enormous political issue, and likely to be more so in the years to come. This is a good thing, maybe an essential thing, to explore and talk about through fiction right now.

So how is it handled after Jon is resurrected? Well...it kind of isn’t really. Some of the northern Lords are pissed about it when Jon asks for support during the Battle of the Bastards, but Robb’s old mess-ups are generally more the issue there. Apparently all the Nights Watch members who were uncool with it get hung for treason and...no one else in the manned castles says anything. There are some pissed off northern Lords again who mention Wildling invaders once they’re back in Winterfell but its pretty much skated over and they still all crown Jon king like immediately. The focus on borders and arbitrary divisions, how harmful and damaging they can be, which was a big part of the Wall plotline for several seasons, is pretty much just dropped.

Political Question Two: What is a Revolutionary?

So this is pretty much the whole question surrounding Dany’s plotline. I do think, especially in her earlier seasons, that Dany genuinely felt sympathy for enslaved people in Slavers Bay and wanted to free them. Like, if Jon is one person who looks at the underlying nature of this world and sees injustice, the other person who does so is Dany (at least initially.) I do truly think she saw parallels to her own terrifying situation when Viserys sold her to Drogo, and she wanted to help.

The problem is, despite her dragons and her military power, she is absolutely the wrong type of person to lead a revolution.

This is actually a quote from my sister, we were talking and she said “Dany is the kind of person who believes in a better world, but can’t see that she’s not the one who can bring that world into being.”

Dany was raised by an insanely scary brother who constantly went off about his rightful claim to the throne and their noble family history. The only adults in her life were the kind of Targaryen loyalists who wanted to see the precious heirs safe, or else the kind of people who thought they could get something out of Viserys and repeated his own bullshit back to him.

This has all clearly sunk into Dany; despite the fact that she started the incredibly huge political project of ending slavery, something that will require years YEARS of work, she still constantly wants to go off to Westeros and rule because she believes it’s her right. She’s also got a huge self myth about herself as a queen, and what that means, versus an interest in being a leader.

I’m not a politician, I’m a queen.

She likes to command, demand, pull the whole fire and blood thing. This all comes from her upbringing, from her understanding of who the Targaryens were and what they conquered/deserved.

Her status as someone from an old Westerosi house also means that she has a tendency to trust the rich and well named, especially rich people from Westeros, waaaaay more than she should. Trusting Tyrion, for example, is a huge huge error. Especially, again, given that she’s attempting the truly revolutionary project of ending fucking slavery. Tyrion is part of an old rich house, part of an old rich system. He is from a culture that does not have slavery, but he is still from a culture with a HIGHLY stratified class system. Fundamentally, he’s got more in common with the slavers than the slaves. Which is why he listens to the slavers, why he comes up with the oh so reasonable compromise of phasing slavery out over several years, and why he gives the slavers HUMAN BEINGS as presents to seal the deal.

One of the most interesting scenes in the entire series for me is the bit directly after Tyrion makes this deal, when we see Missandei and Grey Worm’s reaction to it. They are horrified.

Because the ones with a real read on this situation, the ones Dany should let have more input, are absolutely Missandei and Grey Worm. They are the two people the former slaves look to most when they have questions. They are seen as leaders by Dany’s base in the city, the formerly enslaved peoples. They are the ones who have suffered under the hands of this system, who know that it is not wise to make “reasonable compromises” with the kind of people willing to own human beings. The kind of person willing to buy and sell people will always try to take advantage, there is nothing to which they won’t sink. You don’t use them, they use you.

Yet Missandei and Grey Worm’s power is largely often ceremonial. Dany makes a lot of her real big choices listening to people like Jorah, like Tyrion. People from old Westerosi houses. Because she’s been raised to value that kind of power.

Dany’s whole plotline; her freeing slaves quickly without a plan, then letting the slavers into her ear, letting them take back some control, and ultimately leaving the situation in a whole mess to gain more personal power, is a great example of why top-down revolutions, revolutions where a wealthy savior wants to free/help the less fortunate, do not generally work out.

For a revolution to stick, for it’s ideas to stick, it needs to be led by those from below, people who are fully invested, people who understand the monstrosities of the system. People like Missandei and Grey Worm.

That whole scene where Dany talks to Tyrion about breaking the wheel is also super interesting to me. Because...they are both part of the wheel. And as long as Dany’s goal is still to rule, and Tyrion’s goal is to help her, they aren’t going to break that thing. That wheel won’t break until monastic power, until rule by a few families, ends, and that’s not really Dany’s goal. Because she wants to rule. And her family is part of the wheel.

Again...all of these poltical questions are important. We live under a system where the few, the very rich, rule us. This power is often inherited (because money is often inherited.) Some of them say they want to help...but ultimately nothing really changes.

And there’s a pretty recent example in world history of slavery ending, but politicians failing to root the perpetrators of that system out of power. Letting those people stay in power, letting them use influence and take advantage, led to slavery essentially returning in a different form (hello 13th amendment of the US Constitution!) So it’s an important thing to explore through fiction.

I kind of thought all this was going to come to a head, especially with Missandei and Grey Worm. Dany clearly trusts them with some power, but she lets Westerosi advisors like Tyrion make more and more of her decisions. The whole plotline with Missendei and Grey Worm is them moving past their trauma and becoming more self-actualized people. I thought they’d start to challenge Dany. I thought maybe they’d take issue with Dany’s desire for power at any cost, especially use of the Dothraki, who famously take and sell slaves. I thought they’d take issue with Dany wanting to leave for Westeros at all, with leaving the slaves of Mereen in such a desperate, hopeless situation. I thought maybe the show would highlight how becoming more folded into the powers that be in Westeros and ignoring the downtrodden people she met in Essos led to her downfall. It certainly seemed to be heading that way.

But then...Missandei and Grey Worm were relegated fully to the background. They don’t differ with Dany on anything at all in the last half of the series. Issues were raised with how Dany was approaching power, but most of these were centered around her individually being a bad person, having the “Targaryen madness,” not with her being part of a system that sees rule by a few powerful families as just and right. It’s just all a problem of one person being insane and power hungry! Not a problem of systems!

And then a member of another house on the wheel takes control at the end, but he’s from the Good House...so it’s framed as a win!

Political Question Three: What happens when the rich ignore the poor / What happens when religious movements redirect class consciousness?

This is one I really really wanted the series to get more into. The smallfolk are often talked about and seen in the background as the true victims in the wars that tear through Westeros. They suffer and starve and die because of things they had absolutely no say in, so a few people they’ll never meet can have a little power. And this tension between the poor and the rich was building throughout the series; the smallfolk were getting pissed the fuck off. That riot in King’s Landing where the poor literally tear the septon to pieces still gives me chills.

And we finally, finally started to see this start to come to a head with the Sparrows. I think it’s really interesting that they chose to use a religious movement. Religious grifters often do swoop in during moments of desperation and steal the energy / direct people away from class consciousness to build their own power. And the poor are so desperate for something anything different that it becomes easy for these grifters to thrive.

And the High Sparrow is this kind of religious grifter to his bones. It’s very interesting to me that when we finally learn his backstory, he wasn’t truly poor. He was a merchant, and one doing pretty okay. If Westeros had an emerging middle class, he was part of it. He wasn’t the lowest of the low in Flea Bottom; Gendry for example was likely worse off. But the Sparrow presents himself as of the poor, part of the poor, truly one of the people, and because of this he is able to build a shitton of power very quickly from smallfolk who are fed up with all the bullshit and want to see something anything done about it.

And I was very interested in this! Again, this is a good political problem to discuss; religious movements and charismatic grifters build power all the time by telling people that really they’re unhappy because of “these sinners or outsiders” and not because of the larger systemic issues. A LOT OF THAT has been happening lately.

Like this was the moment that the political scheming of people like Cersei and her absolute lack of interest in helping the people she’d supposedly ruling should have come home to roost. I was interested to see what would happen; how that tension would be resolved, IF that tension could be resolved.

And then...Cersei just blows up the Sept of Baelor and apparently every single member of the reactionary religious movement was inside of it because it’s never really brought up again.

There are no riots, no anger from the smallfolk at her destroying both the major religious figures AND the major religious site for a large chunk of Westeros. People still gladly flock to Cersei when Dany shows up with dragons, even though they KNOW Cersei is very willing to blow people up. It’s just..all dropped. Cersei spends the next several seasons drinking wine and wearing spiky dresses.

Granted, there were a few big political issues that D&D still tried to discuss through the end but uhh...I don’t think they did very well. For example -

They Tried! #1 - White Walkers = Climate Change and the Uselessness of the System as Usual in the Face of Existential Threats

So I do think D&D were kind of going for this a little bit, and it was certainly discussed a lot in all the blogs and meta posts leading up to season 8. And there was a lot of talk, especially in season 7, about how silly the petty political differences between Cersei and Dany were in the face of such a threat.

But the fact that the White Walkers were destroyed relatively easily all things considered, without fundamentally changing the existing power dynamic, without being forced to resolve the differences between Dany and Cersei...kind of ruins this whole parallel. Jon’s been saying throughout the whole series that they needed to fully unite to defeat the threat but uhh...they didn’t unite with Cersei and they still won so I guess it was all good!

Don’t worry guys, we don’t need to fundamentally approach politics differently to deal with climate change, lets just go to Antartica and stab the carbon emissions monster in the heart!

And the fact that ultimately the main battle of the series, the finale of the series, was focused on the various ruling houses opposing each other...kind of ends up saying that the most important thing really is the petty politics after all.

Well that’s a bad message!

They Tried! #2 - Dany the Imperialist

Now of all the political messages D&D were trying to get across in the series, I am absolutely 100% certain this one was intentional. They were trying to draw parallels between Dany and modern imperial regimes, specifically the US.

It’s all over that last script, explicitly. The dragons have frequently been portrayed as weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, and in the script here there is an explicit connection between the destruction of King’s Landing and Hiroshima, an atrocity committed by the US. In the finale script, they also use the phrase “they burned the village in order to save it” which is a famous quote from a US general regarding the destruction of a Vietnamese village by American troops during the Vietnam War.

And Tyrion’s whole speech about Dany destroying evil men looking great from afar but horrible when you’re on the ground / closer to the reality of it has clear US parallels. The US often uses humanitarian justifications for war (taking out dictators, spreading democracy, etc) and does not much care about the atrocities the actual human beings who live in those countries face when their countries are torn apart by war (Afghanistan and Iraq are prime examples of this.)

They are very very clearly trying to make this parallel. To make a political point about how imperialism is bad. But Jesus Christ, it’s so muddled.

For one, it’s uhhh not great that the perpetrators of these atrocities are largely non-white and the victims are members of a culture that closely parallels western Europe. Given that the way the last several hundred years have played out...it’s usually been the other way around. This shows a lack of care in D&D’s part in truly wrestling with this topic, a lack of interest in really dealing with real world politics and history. Just no interest exploring how imperialism and white supremacy, how the idea that “we come from a ‘superior culture’ so clearly we know what’s best and can go around the world doing as we please” are INCREDIBLY linked.

For two...it’s mostly just Dany that’s the problem. Jon doesn’t want to destroy King’s Landing, Varys doesn’t, Tyrion doesn’t. Grey Worm does, but he’s barely a character at this point in the story. They all give her like, a million outs. Especially the bells. And those bells ring, the battle is won, but Dany decides to go on her murder rampage anyway.

The problem isn’t a system, it’s one person who has “the madness!” It’s one person being a psychotic dictator, and all the problems are solved when that person gets stabbed.

Which is absolutely not how it works in real life. We didn’t just go to war in Afghanistan in Iraq because George Bush was a bad person. If we had, we would have been out when Obama got into office. The US went to war in those countries because of a giant system of war and profit, a system that benefits many many people, that has been built over the past several generations. The US went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and stayed there, because weapons contractors wanted to be there so they could make money. Because oil companies and heavy mineral companies wanted the resources those countries had. Because the military itself has a huge amount influence over the government, and to justify their massive budget and continued influence they need to have things to do. The Afghanistan War continues loooong after the death of Osama Bin Laden because of a whole web of CEOs and lobbyists and generals and politicians, all of whom benefit from it. The problem is not one person. It’s a fundamental flaw in how the system is set up. How it rewards those who can buy influence.

And it’s so so clear to me that D&D do not understand this. Like...even a little. They don’t think in terms of systems, just good people and bad people. That’s why the end of the series, which is still a fucking monarchy, is framed positively. Because it’s not the system of power that’s the problem, it’s just that bad people were in charge! But now the good people are in charge, so it’s all good!

They like talking about the tragedy of war, like referencing historical atrocities in scripts, like talking about how deep it all is. They love to talk about how they wanted to create a fantasy series grounded not in magic, but political reality. But they have no understanding of political reality beyond the most basic basic shit. Like war is bad dontcha know! Yeah, no shit!

So these two messed up the characters, they messed up the fantasy, but they also messed up the part they claimed to care about most, the politics. Because they’re dumbshits.

Jesus this got long. If you read all this, thank you for listening to the ramblings I wrote while I should be working.

#got #got season 8 #game of thrones #anti game of thrones #anti d&d #holy shit why did i write so much #this is entirely just for me #no one else can be expected to read this

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seokjinchuriki · 5 years

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My Story?

Hi!

So, this is new? Not really. Maybe not for the people who’ve been following me for a while, but to the new people following me! Hello, I’m Linh! I’ve been very inactive, BUT in that inactivity, I’ve been getting my life together and now I have a story to tell that I feel is important. Trigger warning by the way: mentions of suicide and other things people might find triggering. The rest will be under the cut.

Hello again! If you’re here. I’m Linh (or Kayla). I’m 17 years old. A senior in high school... and for the longest time, I wanted to die. It started at 11 years old when I was finally exposed to what felt like reality. When every day is a reality. At 11 years old, I could finally name all the bad thoughts in my brain. I could finally put a label on what I felt... and I finally found a way to cope with it. Harming myself.

I thought there was no other way to feel better. My small world was ending. I felt like it could never get better, but reaching the beginning of February, a day after Lunar New Year. I was caught. My aunt had told my mom and my mom had told my dad... who wasn’t, at the moment, very aware of this stuff. In Vietnam, mental health is and is still very taboo. So he yelled at me, and that yelling... scared me. It made me realize what I had done.

I stopped. I stopped harming myself but the pain of being alive never really went away. Over the summer, I managed to find a distraction... playing Minecraft with a bunch of friends who meant the absolute world to me. I trusted in them and I changed myself to meet their standards of what they called a friend. I was different.

I wasn’t me... but I was numbed. That was all I cared about.

Until they left. They all left, which was, what I felt at the time, the worst thing that could ever happen to me. I couldn’t blame them though, who would want a suicidal friend? I began hanging out with the wrong crowd. People who would bully me, belittle me, yet I still put them on a throne. I was thrown around a lot, I was miserable.

Three days before my 13th birthday, I made an attempt to commit suicide. I was finally ready to go, but luckily for me, someone told my mom and my mom was there to help me. Which sounds a bit dramatic, but everything about this feels dramatic to me. I was checked into a behavioral hospital where I got a small amount of treatment... and for the summer that came ten days later, I was okay.

I felt okay.

The beginning of eighth grade, I made a new friend. We’re going to call her A. She was the best friend ever. I told her everything, she came over to dinner, my parents loved her and her parents loved me. Eighth grade was when I got my first “boyfriend”, we’ll call him J.

A and J, at the time, were my lifelines. I trusted them with my life and they held me up, but I realize now that I was too dependent on them, especially when everything went to literal shit. For months behind my back, A and J were seeing each other... lying to me when I asked and leaving me out. Finally, J broke up with me and A denied everything, and I only had one thing I could do: forgive her. I blamed myself for not being enough and I was young too.

You’re probably thinking ‘wow! She let a silly little boy take over her life’ and now, I think the same, but four years ago, this was everything. So, we continued to be friends. A had told me that she and J stopped talking, being gullible me... I believed her.

So nearing March of that year, it had become known that A was moving to a different city and she needed a place to live to finish out the rest of middle school, so, I had offered for her to stay at my house. It took time to convince my parents since my dad was skeptical of people because of my situation, but he got into it. Let’s just say I should’ve listened to my parents.

On a fateful night, I woke up in the middle of the night... A’s hands were down my pants and she was biting my neck. So I had to force myself to sleep, to do anything. The next morning, I woke up seeing hickeys on my neck in the mirror and when I confronted A about it, she had told me that if I tell anyone about what happened, she would ruin my life.

So I kept quiet.

Until I fell asleep on the couch days later and my parents found them... the tiny bruises on my neck and I had no other choice but tell the truth.

And A... A wasn’t lying. A told the whole school rumors about me

‘She’s pregnant’ ‘She’s a whore’ ‘She made me do all those things to her’

I lost almost everyone I cared about. Going into high school, I barely had any friends and no dignity left to my name. The only people who still talked to me were the three little sixth graders I taught in the beginning orchestra and a few people who knew I was still good deep down, that I wasn't a liar. I’ve made amends with most by now. Finally kept myself in a good place.

My freshman year was honestly a blur, I was happy for a good period of time. Content with my fresh start... and then comes sophomore year, the year where I began roleplaying bts (yup, ya heard it folks)... and to be honest, I loved it. In the beginning, I remember doing it just to kill time and meet new people... but I got TOO involved. I remember it all VERY VERY VERY vividly. I met so many people who I considered close friends, and then like the story keeps going, they left and I didn’t know how to cope. I use to get panic attacks during school. Someone wrote a painful letter to me explaining why they hate me in detail because of some stuff I did and I take responsibility for (i.e my passive aggressiveness, my relationships), but also because I left a group chat for my wellbeing, my mental health, which I believed I didn’t owe anyone an explanation for because I was at my most vulnerable, they barely knew me.

So many, SO MANY people hate me because of what other people have said about me and it’s the new year, I’m in a better place, I’m over it now but every time I think about these moments, I shock myself because I spent two years of what were supposed to be the best years of my life caring about what other people thought of me. When the only person whose opinion really mattered was mine. My junior year SUCKED, and that’s the truth, but I got help. I started my first day of therapy in March 2018 and have been going and getting the help I needed since.

But, I wrote all of this, not to tell a sob story, but to tell you that you can make it. Yeah... YOU. The person reading this. Right now, I’m planning my graduation and 18th birthday party. I’ve gotten accepted into my top choice university. I have friends I KNOW I can trust, people who have told me things because they know they can trust me and I tell them things because as I’ve said I trust them. I am in a very loving AND healthy relationship with a boy who treats me like a queen and whom I treat like a king. I have all A’s. I am in the national honor society. I woke as a CNA at a hospital. I have a baby sister on the way.

I am alive. I am thriving. And so will you. Every bad moment will find its place in your life, trust me. What you feel now isn’t what you’ll be feeling in years to come. You got this... and I got you. My DMs and ask box is ALWAYS open, I won’t always be able to reply, but I will always listen. You can vent. You can just talk to me.

YOU GOT THIS. Stay alive for you because you will find your peace. You will see the sun over the horizon. You will make it out of whatever mess you’re in. Trust me.

I am always here if needed. Thank you for reading and I hope you found some inspiration in whatever I just wrote here. Leave me an ask, if you want!

#personal #linh talks #stay alive #suicide #life

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provincianx-blog · 5 years

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what i learned from unlearning everything that i know

lessons from middle school, aurora, and beyond.

at the age of fifteen, my mom forced my brother and me to leave our home in hayward, ca upon discovering that my dad had been using meth again and wasting all of his money on catfishes on the internet.

my mom and dad had been separated for longer than my brother and I were aware of, but my mom finally had the courage to really leave him in july of 2011. she loved him her entire life, but she was done taking care of someone that wasn’t taking care of her. she was done taking care of someone who didn’t love her enough to take care of himself. she was done.

while this seems incredibly simple, leaving hayward prompted what would turn into a 7 year identity crisis.

as an outcast at every school i transferred to, i found a community on this website with my best friends from middle school and random strangers who loved harry potter and other fandoms as ridiculously as we did. true commitment to friendship would transcend from anonymous messages on tumblr to mutual follows on twitter. and here we are: in the age of twitter.

upon switching up different meds, after over a decade of looking for mental and emotional stability, i found out that i have bipolar-1, which still doesn’t make that much sense to me, but i’m beginning to understand it more than i did before.

i’m grateful to have been obsessed with star wars when i first saw revenge of the sith on opening night because of my tita and her husband’s work perks. i loved padme and she was my first crush but also my first example of a strong girl in mainstream film in addition to mulan (bruh i used my mulan costume for like 3 years and never gave a single HECK). i would then beg my dad to take me to blockbuster to watch the original trilogy, where i met carrie fisher/princess leia, who would radically transform how i saw the world and myself.

i grew up with my tita and tito. they took care of me when they were in college, and they’re still taking care of me now. i want to be able to take care of their kids and love them as much as they loved me growing up. i love them with all that i am and all that i can give.

i studied politics because i wanted to make sure that my younger cousins and my baby brother would have a better world to grow up in than i did. it seems that my undiagnosed mental illness of nearly 14 years has been exacerbated by the political climate we live in today in 2018.

i learned so much about life by learning about my own history, and i hope that everyone has this opportunity in their lifetime. it feels great, and the only one who seems to really get it is ariana grande.

so here are 14 things i learned from being mentally ill and emo while being passionate about wanting to make the world a better and more habitable place.

1. don’t trust the feds: a lot of 2nd amendment boys actually don’t trust the government as much as people think, and the 2A comes from settlers’ distrust in colonial Britain. the problems we see today are because the GOP has lured these same people and their kids (and their kids) into their corner by advocating for organizations like the NRA; gun control has reached the Supreme Court, but the 2nd amendment took precedent (i believe). gun control must come from the state and local governments, but political participation in these arenas are very low, especially for younger voters. i, as someone who has been involuntarily hospitalized despite voluntarily seeking medical help, am not allowed to buy a gun in the state of california for 5 years. and honestly, i really don’t care because i don’t want to need a gun anyway, but the poor and the middle class in the south feels that they need guns.

2. stay woke: deray said this nearly everyday after michael brown was shot by darren wilson in ferguson, missouri. michael brown was my wake up call to reassess my complacency in the status quo and my participation in reinforcing anti-blackness. in the bay area, the n word was used so casually in places like union city/hayward that we became so desensitized to it. it’s still used casually, but non-black people like myself have no agency in saying it because we’re not black. it’s as simple as that. i began noticing how my family reacted to what would turn into the Black Lives Matter movement, and for the first time, i felt that i could no longer trust my relatives if they were complicit in the murders of black youth simply because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. i couldn’t even talk to them without crying because of how upset i got from the anti-blackness i would hear. i began to isolate myself and found community on twitter.

3. our youth is a reflection of how good things were and how good things can become if we learn to build community: in addition to the community i found on tumblr through avatar, harry potter, and the beatles, i found community with all the losers who had xbox’s instead of ps3′s. we would hang out and play search and destroy (which i still cannot succeed in after all this time smh agjhgarhdfhre) or 1v1 each other on rust. my nerd friends would let my brother and I play with them regardless of how much we sucked, and they hyped me up even when my KDR was trash. these friendships would then transcend from mw2, halo 3, and into runescape. my brother is now really good at overwatch, and the friends i made in middle school are also really good at overwatch. the difference now is that they’re making money off of it, and i’m just like, “let’s get this bread, nerds!” thank you for being there for me even though i sucked at everything i tried doing. i was reminded of this when i watched “mid90s” by Jonah Hill. our youth was such a pure period of time, but it was also the time we lost ourselves through imposing harmful social norms onto each other, such as the idea that a girl cannot be “just friends” with a boy. but - here’s the kicker - i’m queer, and i don’t really like cis-het men hahahahahahahahaha but whatever.

4. becoming american made me forget who i am: our immigrant parents teach us that the only way is to assimilate into white America, which is essentially what happened to black and brown people following the civil rights movement. the notion of egalitarianism/equality has been nothing but harmful for all of us nonetheless, fueling debates on affirmative action and pitting black people against asian people. one of my best friends from elementary school is in prison for trying to make a living with the resources and skills made available to him. he was apprehended in thousand oaks. he is a black man, and we grew up in the same environment, but his life has been so different since we were in elementary school. the concept of equality/egalitarianism stemming from civil war gains (13th-15th amendments) has manifested into the racial inequality we see today; in other words, the idea that white americans and POC are equal has been harmful because this has never been true and continues to be untrue. my filipino friends and i would get bullied by white latinos for not speaking english in america, which is why i learned to hate myself and my culture. i love myself and my culture, and i am fighting so that i can return home to the philippines someday.

5. our bodies are different, and that’s okay: can y’all believe that i got bullied for not having boobs in the 3rd grade? this is what happens when young girls are sexualized so early. boys participate in this, and they turn out to be shitty boyfriends later on. girls will be girls. girls just wanna be treated like human beings instead of sexual objects. i don’t think this needs to be explained further.

6. america is a settler-colonial state turned global power, and that is problematic: this country began with the murders and deaths of indigenous people because of imperalistic pursuits. it was built on the backs of slave labor from africa. it was reinforced by colonialism through the conquering of countries such as the philippines. we’re socialized to believe that there’s no place like america and that america is such a good place to be in, but that is only true for white Americans and POC who have integrated into white American suburbs.

7. know history, know self: - jose rizal

8. if my life wasn’t funny, it would just be true, and that is unacceptable - carrie f. fisher

9. at times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of - carrie f. fisher

10. rebellions are built on hope - princess/general leia organa + jyn erso

11. we have nothing to lose but our chains - assata shakur

12. keep ya head up - tupac shakur

13. everything i’m not made me everything i am - kanye west

14. i remember you was conflicted

misusing your influence

sometimes i did the same

abusing my power full of resentment

resentment that turned into a deep depression

found myself screaming in the hotel room

i didn’t wanna self destruct

the evils of lucy was all around me

so i went running for answers

until i came home

but that didn’t stop survivor’s guilt

going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes i earned

or maybe how a-1 my foundation was

but while my loved ones was fighting the continuous war back in the city

i was entering a new one

a war that was based on apartheid and discrimination

made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what i learned

the word was respect

just because you wore a different gang color than mine’s

doesn’t mean i can’t respect you as a black man

forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets

if i respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us

but i don’t know, i’m no mortal man

- kendrick lamar

#star wars #fandoms #reflection #politics #writing

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1-n · 3 years

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July 13th 2021

It’s been a long time coming and I thought that I knew everything that my bf was doing. He met a guy named (P) early this year and I gave him the okay to “have fun” because we still are doing the open relationship thing.

Fast forward to July 10th. I chatted with the guy for the first time one on one. The first questions he asked were, “are you guys still together? Have you broken up? Are you two on a break?” I was really surprised that he would ask that because to my knowledge, my bf told (P) about us. I know that my bf is very secretive and I don’t really know HOW he goes about saying things. He’s always had a problem with communicating ideas across. He’s always being misinterpreted by everyone. I confronted my bf about all the accusations that (P) told me and he was confused, almost not bothered by what he was hearing… maybe for him it wasn’t like that in his head.

(P) told me that when my bf first met him, they were very passionate/loving/caring and said that they started being boyfriends. My bf said that (P) wasn’t used to the way my bf was treating him… they are just supposed to be friends… but why would one say “I love you” call you “babe/baby” kiss often, and have unprotected sex all the time… (that’s what me and my bf do) so I understand why (P) felt a little strange and decided to keep my bf at different distance emotionally than before.

I asked my bf why he would lead someone on falsely. He denied it and just said that it doesn’t mean anything when he does it. Kissing outside of sex is not nothing… that’s not what our open relationship was about. It’s intimate to do those actions, and it will affect the other person. Just because in my bf’s mind, he wasn’t leading (P) to believe they were dating, doesn’t mean he can go ahead and do actions of people who are dating.

He never had protected sex with (P) even after I told him many times to be protected. It’s disrespectful to me that he would be so intimate with someone else on a level we are on.

The accusations kept going. (P) said that my bf was very jealous when he would see other guys and even go to the extreme to check his phone. (They both check each other’s phones). Me… the real bf has, never asked my bf to check his phone.

(P) claimed that my bf made promises to be together again in Taiwan (like to continue their relationship) after he came back from his work.

I confronted my bf with all of this… and he didn’t understand why (P) would believe that they could be together. My bf did say that he keeps (P) in a special place in his heart… more than friends but less than boyfriends. WHAT THE FUCK?! Do you see why I was hesitant to allow an open relationship? Because I single handedly sent Mr. Right into my bfs arms.

All of the actions he did with (P) led to my bf having feelings for him. Up to the point that he wants both of us… to be in a polygamous relationship because he can’t stand the thought of losing either one.

It’s selfish. Careless. Irresponsible.

I never believed that he would take an open relationship this far with someone… to copy all the things he does with his real bf… to a guy that was only supposed to be a fuck buddy. But allowing (P) to wear his clothes, sleep in his room, kiss at random outside of sex, have unprotected sex, take him to see my bfs family, take him hiking and stuff… that was a Relationship they were having. ALL the actions of boyfriends ARE THERE.

Me.. being so in love with my bf even forced it out of my bfs mouth to reveal his true feeling for (P), and asked him to tell (P) himself. But he would only do it if he was sure that I wouldn’t leave him.

Long story short… (P) was not having any of it. (P) was played and misled by my bfs careless actions. He said that he’ll never trust him again and called him a big liar and what my bf knows about (P) is that he will be quick to cut someone out of their lives… which is exactly what my bf is terrified of… being cut out. So, my bf cried and told him that he wants (P) in his life forever.

The truth is… (P) will not consider dating my bf because of all the lies he was led to believe, even though he said “we’ll see” (about 3 people in a relationship), he told me that it’s a definite “no”. My bf was completely lost (P)s trust, but he does not hate him. (P) will always love my bf, and he’s over it.

He officially left today to work and will be back in 9 months. My bf and (P) have made amends and have put that chapter to a close. I told my bf that the open relationship thing is OFFICIALLY OVER. Honestly, my bf doesn’t know the boundaries of having relationships. He treats all his friends the same, his fuck buddies the same, and his boyfriends the same.

He doesn’t know how to categorize his actions. Which actions are appropriate to which group.

Kissing randomly is what boyfriends do… it should’ve never been done with (P).

Unprotected sex is what WE do… it should’ve never been done with (P).

(P) will come to taiwan but there is no chance that he will join me and my bf in our relationship. (P) has made it clear that that’s not what he wants. He will just strictly be our friend.

Now… when it comes to me and how I should react… I honestly told him… because he nurtured a budding relationship with (P) and I knew that something strange was going on between them, and now you have feelings for this guy that won’t go away… my heart would fine leaving him to go on and be happy. My bf immediately burst into tears. That wasn’t his plan, and that’s not what he was expecting.

Although he loves (P) and doesn’t want to lose him…

He loves me more and sees me as his life partner, and doesn’t ever want to lose me. He wants me and (P) to be friends so he can keep both of us. The thing is… that… is selfish.

My bf says that (P) and I will get along great. We are similar in a lot of ways… and if that is true…we don’t take heartbreak like it’s nothing. I’ve been right about so many things and I know I’m right when I say… (P) will move on and it will hurt my bf… but that is what my bf deserves.

Moral of this story? Learn not to be so careless with actions that will end up confusing unsuspecting souls.

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ericleo108 · 3 years

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Trump’s Effect on America

I wanted to make a quick statement about American politics. For a large part of the country, it was a sigh of relief that Trump lost the presidential election. Trump's presidency was particularly bad not only because the majority of the country didn’t agree with his policies, but because of his approach, attitude, and behaviors.

Deflecting Blame

Trump and the Republicans have taken to denying reality and then deflecting accusations upon democrats. The Republicans would claim Biden has dementia which is really his stammer and is more of a disability. Meanwhile, in reality, Trump’s aides were thinking about invoking the 13th amendment to get Trump removed from office because they thought he was in the early stages of dementia. When the winter storm hit Texas Republicans blamed the blackout on the green new deal even though the majority of Texas’s electric grid is gas, privatized, and the Green New Deal has never been passed. One of the most pathetic though is how conservatives try to claim Antifa also covertly stormed the capital on January 6th.

Emboldened Aggression

Republicans are not the party of reason, they’re the party of religion so they don’t necessarily listen to logic. What has become even more concerning is their delusions and aggression. Qanon supporters lead storming the capital which is quintessentially what has happened to white America. Racist, militant ignorance that’s pursued with vigor and hurts the country.

Trump has emboldened white supremacy, racism, and xenophobia. He has created a wave of ignorance of people who deny reality. Trump’s rhetoric has always been dangerous (examples #1 & #2) but it’s no more evident with his 2020 presidential campaign loss.

Because Trump saying that the election was rigged poll workers got death threats, regardless of party affiliation. Republican poll workers that verified the results for Biden received death threats thanks to Trump. Trump said nothing to curtail or stop the aggression, if anything he encouraged it. Gabriel Sterling, a Republican, has come out to publicly condemn Trump saying “someone is going to get hurt.” This is why Bernie Sanders says Donald Trump is the most dangerous president in US history.

Cognitive Dissonance

Trump has provided an alternative view of the world as an authority to the point that the world he presents is the world his followers believe. This is all too normal considering an ancient book provides many with a worldview that Trump plays to, called the bible. It’s to the point that it’s obvious Trump’s followers have cognitive dissonance. Instead of changing their worldview to fit the evidence, they change the evidence to fit their worldview. They believe Trump and think everyone else is lying instead of believing (the CDC or other) authorities and thinking Trump is lying.

Some have pointed out that on top of the cognitive dissonance is the Dunning-Kruger effect. Basically, stupid people think they are smart. Unlike educated people who know how much they don’t know, (in this case) Trump supporters are so ignorant they think they know without any knowledge, experience, or education.

Cult Trump

Cultivate an irrational fanatic following and Trump supporters are more like a cult than a political party. Trump’s supporters idolize him, think he’s a God, is sent by God, and loves them. There is a disconnect when talking to some of my friends that are Trump supporters in Michigan. They can’t grasp reality and see that Trump is a con man, inept, and mentally ill.

Who is to blame? Trump or his supporters? Here's how to bring QAnon believers back to reality. The consensus in America is one of schadenfreude about Trump and the capital rioters. Most people are happy to see Trump get banned from social media and rioters get arrested for their assault on the capital.

Impunity

Trump is as corrupt as they come but it may not all be his fault. In her book, Trump’s niece who has a Ph.D. in psychology thinks Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder and a long-time undiagnosed learning disability. Coupled with a life of extreme privilege and full of little to no consequences it’s no wonder he acts the way he does.

Trump acts with impunity. For months he lied about a rigged election and provoked the insurrection. He contributed to Qanon conspiracy theories. For me, the insurrection wasn't a surprise. I've been saying Republicans are the most dangerous radicals in America.

Trump is making money from undermining the confidence in democracy. He has made more money after the election complaining about the results. He gets to keep his campaign money and can spend it on whatever he wants.

By Affiliation

Trump will never stop. It is vitally important he is punished for January 6th. He’s dangerous and should never be allowed to hold public office again.

But again, the real problem is that Senators like Marjorie Greene are emboldened to follow their perverted and ignorant agenda. Trump is only concerned with dividing the country. He can’t even lose graciously or come together for the betterment of the country. His Easter statement claims he won the election and blames “the radical left.” Trump is either intentionally hurting our democracy by contradicting the official results or he is delusional and can't grasp reality and is unfit for office. Either way, Trump should never be trusted.

Throughout all of this, I can’t help but think of the closing Voltaire quote. It couldn’t be any more relevant or true today.

“Those that believe absurdities are likely to commit atrocities” - Voltaire

#politics #donald trump #qanon #cult #insurection #republican

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