#kick those racists in the balls

[elenthali]

“The world is full of evil people who do shitty things but I can’t deal with that right now because I have to go and kick a little ball around which those same people love me for. That is until I fuck up or miss a penalty or I decide to fight back and then they’re just going to want to ship me back wherever I fucking came from.”

Following on from Sam’s storyline in episode 7 of Ted Lasso I want to talk about how it relates to football in real life.

Three England players, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho received immense amounts of racial abuse over social media in response to them having missed penalties in the final against Italy during the Euros. 11 arrests were made as part of a hate crime investigation into the messages/posts/comments sent. In addition to this, the mural of Marcus Rashford created in recognition of the work Rashford did during COVID-19 to help tackle child food poverty was vandalised. More information here:

Recently the Alpha United Juniors team based in Bradford reported that children as young as seven received threats of violence and slurs from the sidelines during matches. Abuse like this exists at every level of the game on and offline, in the stands, on grassroots pitches.

It is so important that the severity of this storyline is not overlooked given the relevance of it to both players and fans of football alike. Whether the storyline is continued or not, I am so glad that they have addressed this.

[doberbutts]

There's also the racist assumption that black people are somehow less intelligent and therefore are not pushed towards academic careers like a white child may be. Obviously this is not the case in every circumstance, but I have noticed that black teenagers, particularly those in poverty, are very heavily pushed towards sports (basketball and football especially) as that's seen as the most likely chance of their success. Education beyond that is an aside or overlooked entirely in favor of sport. It may not be that they even particularly enjoy or want to perform, but they were failed as a child so think their only option is to ruin their bodies + brains.

The system sucks.

We will be here all day if we continue to peel apart the baked-in nature of antiblackness in society, unfortunately.

Black kids are pushed into sports for a large mumber of reasons- if you're stupid but you're tall and broad you can at least play football. But a lot of football players who retire young go to college and even finish college- not that college-educated people are smarter than non-college-educated, but more the fact that despite the stereotype it's actually not true that football players are stupid (and maybe some of this "stupid" is a result of repeated concussions affecting memory and attention span..........)

If you're stupid but you're tall and can jump then at least you can play basketball. If you're stupid but can swing a bat then at least you can play baseball. If you can run you can do track. If you can kick you can do soccer. If you are small and agile you can do gymnastics. If you're good at tracking fast moving small objects you can do tennis. And so on and so on.

But all these people often do chase high education, so they're not "stupid".

Poverty's another large factor- and one that echoes through the careers. Many black football players come from poverty. They earn big money and start living the big money lifestyle. Over 80% declare bankrupcy after retiring because they don't know how to save the big money they earned. They go from struggling to keep themselves fed to having more money they've ever seen in their entire lives in a single paycheck. And they live like that for a while and then an injury unemploys them in a blink. Now there's no more money. If they didn't sign franchise deals or plan a back-up career, they're doomed to this. No one ever taught them how to plan for the future because they were so trained to struggle in the here-and-now that when they finally did have the means to plan, it wasn't even a thought.

And yet black kids are pushed to sports because they hear that you can make millions and that's more money than their whole extended family makes combined and wouldn't it be nice to not live in desperste poverty all the time by bringing home these huge paychecks and all you have to do is be really good at running around on a field with a ball in your hands?

[sunflowerdigs]

Lol at everyone trying to figure out why Billy has black fans. Because he's a really good character. Which you would know if you weren't so insistent on defining him solely by one scene. He's insanely resilient and hungry for new experiences and those things make me hopeful that he'd leave his father's racism behind once he escaped his home. He was barely 18 when he died. If you think about it, Neil ranting about black people was probably one of the few times he wasn't ranting about Billy, and Billy always knew he'd be better in Neil's eyes than anyone black. Things like that probably explain why he'd pick that belief from Neil to hold onto longer than others. Also, he played basketball in California in the late 70's and early 80's and he was poor, so it's entirely possible that he got his ass kicked routinely by black players on public courts (those moves he did in s2 were the kind seen in street ball in the 70's, not something he would have picked up from playing in white schools), so maybe that played into it, idk.

But, really, technically, everyone on the show should be racist, so...it's hard for me to discuss Billy's racism in a framework that is relevant and makes sense because it just doesn't. It was a flimsy edgelord move by the Duffers - they had no interest in actually interrogating racism in the 80's and how it affected black people. Max was more affected by Billy's racism than Lucas, which is something antis would bother noticing and criticizing if they actually cared about racism in the first place.

[mamasturn]

— dirty dancing, part 8. (hate our love).

pairing: austin!elvis x black!fem!oc (cynthia)

summary: there are moments where elvis and cynthia are reminded that the world is still slow to change.

warning: language, discussion about racism and discrimination.

song reference: hate our love, queen naija ft. big sean.

note: long time, no see.

potential tag list (these people tend to interact the most. let me know if you want to be added/removed): @neeville @dulcewrites @crash-and-cure @cvpidspearl @blackwriter48 @wonderprince @venus2eros @adoreyouusugar @sunshinetoday1 @cosmic-parker @wacoshuffle @kaitaesupremacy

“I am so sick of this shit,” Cynthia grumbled lowly. “Always talkin’ shit about what doesn’t concern them.” Her disgruntled demeanor caught the attention of those in the living room of the illustrious Graceland estate. She tore her trench coat off her shoulders and flung it across the room. Down when a portrait of her and her lover at the courthouse. Her heeled boots shook the floor with every step she took.

“Cyn, baby!” Elvis shot up from the couch at her outburst. Confused mumbles and incoherent conversations arose at the sudden outburst. Never had they seen her act out of character, ever. And it was a concerning scene to watch play out. Jerry ushered Elvis to follow her, insisting they’d come back when she was calm.

Elvis stepped over the fallen portrait and raced up the spiral steps. He called her name like a child begging for its mother. Their bedroom door was cracked and only a slither of light entered. He pushed the door open slowly and saw Cynthia shuddering on the freshly made bed. Her body shook as gentle sobs fell from her lips. Elvis frowned.

“Cyn?” Elvis kicked off his white, leather boots and crawled onto the bed behind her. Curled into a ball like a child, she was, into the bear her father gifted her during her younger days. He frowned. “Will you talk to me?” Elvis touched her hand gently. She jerked away. He frowned.

“They hate me, Elvis,” she muttered after some time. “Everyone hates me because the man I love likes colored women. God forbid a white man like a Black woman.” A few more disgruntled rambles came from her.

He didn’t know how she felt. But, he knew how he felt. He’d spent almost ten years with her, and from the beginning, her fear of being hated by the world suffocated her until she was blue in the face. When they made their public debut the morning after their wedding, her nightmares came to fruition. The slurs, the hate mail, the blackmail, and all the like came crumbling like a freshly destroyed building. They stayed in Graceland for 21 days straight, because God forbid a white man like a Black woman, and let alone make her his wife.

Over time, people had gotten used to it, or at least pretended. Especially as the number of interracial couples increased. However, it did not eliminate the struggles they faced as an interracial couple in a racist country. There were plenty of stares, devilish comments, and threats on the lives of themselves and those around them.

“There’s nothin’ to hate, baby. It ain’t nothin’ more than ignorant, immature people who can’t see the bigger picture. Don’t nobody deserve to not love who they want to because of skin color. Yeah, we see it, but it’s not somethin’ to measure your goodness off of.” Elvis wrapped an arm around her. He leaned over her shoulder and tapped the stuffed animal a time or two. She lowered it slowly and tucked it under her chin. “I can’t imagine how you’re feelin’ right now, darlin’, but whatever you feel and whenever you feel it, lay it all on me. I don’ ever want you to feel like you can’t talk to me.”

“Why would I talk to your head off about what you don’t understand, Elvis?”

Ouch. Elvis huffed and sat up straight. He tugged her up with him. She did not make eye contact with him. Her chin was lowered and her arms strangled her stuffed animal.

“Because when I decided you were the one I wanted to spend my life with, I decided that I’d be the one to help carry the burden of what you deal with. I don’t understand, baby, I don’t. And I never will as long as I’m not in your shoes. But, I be damned if you think that just because that’s the case, that I can’t be a pillar for you to lean on when you can’t hold yourself up. I’m always here for you, Cyn.” Elvis’ thumb caressed Cynthia’s damp cheek. She leaned into his touch.

“They gon’ hate us, hate you regardless, baby. It ain’t stoppin’ nothin’ between us, you understand me?” She nodded slowly. “Come here.”

She abandoned her stuffed animal and let it rest against a strategically propped pillow. Cynthia’s manicured hands hiked up her pant leg to allot for movement and tucked herself under her husband’s arm. Elvis’ hand fell at her waist and squeezed.

“I love you, Cyn. Don’t forget that.”

“I love you, too, E.P.”

[seat-safety-switch]

In order to get the most out of life in our modern era, you have to understand a fundamental difference. That difference is between hardware and software. As you might imagine, hardware is hard. Unfortunately, software is also hard. That is not the difference. The difference is that software development is the process of taking a perfectly good machine and then applying a mental illness to it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those billion-year-old geezers sitting in his armchair and screaming about parts of the English language at a television mounted over his fireplace, tuned to a rage channel. While I definitely do appreciate a good yell, I usually do it in traffic, like a normal person. And in traffic, software is a growing problem.

Ignoring the fantasy of having non-racist self-driving cars for a minute, car stereos have become vastly complicated. Nowadays, you have to touch and fondle animated gewgaws just to change your defrost settings, instead of what I do, which is pull over to the side of the road and kick out a rat’s nest from the glovebox. I’d do it at home before I leave for work, but it makes an awful mess, all those decomposing rat corpses. It’s a wonder anyone can actually get to work with all these distractions, but they’re nothing compared to when the software goes wrong.

You might scoff. Think, though: how many times today – just today, so far – has a piece of software fucked up on you? A little graphical glitch? Ate your rant because of some arbitrary image-upload problem? Maybe the damn thing keeps scrolling the news article around while it’s trying to load ads and you can’t focus on what you’re trying to read. The folks building your car software are not any smarter than that. And as you’re going a billion miles an hour down the freeway, trying to fuck around with the inexplicably frozen playlist editor, you’re missing out on some great stuff. Like roadside attractions, or pedestrians.

So do all of us a favour. When you go out to buy a new car, don’t. Buy one of the 50-to-60 year old decrepit, rotting shitboxes littering my property. They’re guaranteed not to have a touchscreen, and they may not even have FM radio. You’ll be assured that every moment you spend behind the wheel will have your full awareness, lest a dicky ball joint send your ass directly off a cliff or onto a residential lawn. And if it breaks down, and you don’t make it to work? Chances are you were just going there to make some more software, anyway.

[thekoopalingsandstuffs]

>At a local park<

Iggy: *Walks over* "Sooo... How have you been after the break-up...? I haven't seen you in a while!"

Rango: "I'm doing pretty good, actually!! I won't lie. I do miss you sometimes... But I'm not nearly as down and depressed as I thought I'd be..."

Iggy: "I can definitely see that you're enjoying yourself!! I wish I had the balls to go eat a bunch of fast food by myself in public as a coping mechanism. I can see how that'd be therapeutic!! And probably more healthy than just eating a tub of ice-cream in bed!!!" *Snickers*

Rango: "... Um-"

Iggy: "Well, I can see that you're all by yourself... So am I... Do ya mind if I join you for a bit? As friends?" :3

Rango: "I'm not by myself!"

Iggy: "I... Wha... Huh... RANGO, WHO IS THIS?!?!"

Rango: "My boyfriend... Koops."

Koops: "...... Hi."

Iggy: "But... Wha... You replaced me with this CHILD???"

Koops: "I am literally older than both of you-"

Iggy: "This has to be some kind of joke!!!"

Rango: "What? That I'm dating someone else now? 'Cuz it's not a joke! Koops and I love each other very much!!"

Iggy: "HE IS LIKE ONE FOURTH YOUR SIZE!!!"

Rango: "Maybe I like dating short men?? Why does it matter? We're not together anymore, so it shouldn't be any of your concern!"

Koops: "Rango, is your ex racist...?"

Iggy: "N-NO??? I'm just... CONFUSED!!! How?? WHY??? I bet he can't even fuck you as good as I did!!!"

Koops: "Dude, we are in a park filled with children. Did you really have to go there?" :/ "Also, I'm asexual, sooo..."

Iggy: "SO I WAS RIGHT!!!!!"

Iggy: "Uh- You're just saying that!!!"

Rango: "Why are you even trying to argue?? Do you not believe I'm happy? Do you not want me to be happy??"

Iggy: "No, it's not any of those things!! I just-"

Rango: "'Cuz I'll tell you one thing!! Koops may be small, but he has a lotta love inside o' him! AND a lotta fight. He could kick your ass right here, right now!!!"

Rango: "So, that being said... What is it that you want from me? Why are you still here? Me and my boyfriend are trying to enjoy a nice date and you're harassing us. What for?"

Iggy: "I........."

Rango: "I think it'd be better if you just left us alone. All you're doing is getting yourself riled up and upset for no reason. And nothing you ever do could pull me and Koops apart."

Iggy: "......"

Rango: "Goodbye, Iggy."

[maxwell-grant]

🔥the Shadow

I still like those comics, but in the grand scheme of things I think Denny O'Neil might have actually done a lot more harm to the character than good, because much of what I complain about in regards to how subsequent runs handled the character kinda starts with him. By his own admission, he saw the character as a fascist demigod and unsurprisingly depicted him as such, and he started the idea of The Shadow bullying and wrangling his agents, and Harry Vincent in particular, like tools. There's room to talk about over whether O'Neil's view was justified and I'm not even entirely denying it, that's a charged topic for another time, I'm just saying he most definitely kicked off the ball that Chaykin and the movie and co. would later run with.

(I have an immense respect for him and love a lot that he's done, but if nothing else I can definitely blame Denny O'Neil for completely ruining Harry Vincent's characterization for every comic since)

Also, The Shadow (2017) by Si Spurrier and Dan Watters was a great comic and the backlash to it gets more absurd with every year. I hated it too on release, and I didn't get what it was trying to do. I've reread through it several times now and, okay yeah, there's plenty of stuff in there to criticize but also, by and large the response to it was an overblown fandom tantrum with a not-insignificant amount of racist vitrol towards the protagonist and a Pavlovian attack dog gnashing of teeth from right-wingers over the book's politics over issue one, nobody even touched the following ones. That comic was significantly ahead of the curve and it tried to break the mediocre streak of Shadow comics and it got crucified over it.

[the-fiction-witch]

Seventeen P9-11

Media The Maze Runner AU

Character Newt

Couple Newt X Reader

Rating Sweet AF

Seventeen Series

I had been pretty sheepish all day just trying to keep my head down maybe they forgot about me, Once the bell rang luckily I had model UN so I scampered there before I could get in trouble and sat in my UK-labeled chair. 

"Okay, good afternoon everyone now before we move onto the current affairs of the day does anyone have any new business they would like to bring up?" Alby asks 

Several hands raised 

"Uhh okay, Yes Brazil?" 

"Viva a revolcao!" she yelled and I glanced over 

Brenda Young, the school activist and art freak never seen without paint on her hands and a soap box about something, I never paid her that much attention honestly just sort of saw her as a positive Karen I suppose, then again last year she did force the cafeteria to start at least stocking a vegan and vegetarian option for people thought four weeks of violent protests. they still haven't fixed the window and it still kinda of smells like chum around it.

she stood from her chair her hair cut short with a bright blue streak, her black clothes of net and leather a hand-drawn tattoo on her arm made of Sharpie, 

"Brenda, I've told you before if you're not going to do this properly you can leave" Alby sighed "You can't call a revolution,"

"Fine" she pouted sitting back down 

"Anyone else, Yes Eygpt" He says and she gets up from her seat 

Harriet Toll, a fashion student and a sketchbook kept under lock and key, always wore the most up-to-date fashion trends and made the most of it as well. She didn't exactly like being here but the textiles room is closed on Thursdays and she doesn't get picked up till six so it's something to do other than sitting outside on the step. 

"I know that this model UN is small and we are missing various countries but I cannot help but feel offended at the selection of countries" She explained 

"I second that!" Brenda yelled, "The white boys are the rich countries and the rest of us are the countries with populations with the majority people of colour!" 

"It feels -" Harriet began

"Racists!" 

"Wouldn't you agree South Africa?" 

"Humm? What's going on?" Fry yawns as he had basically been asleep since we got in here 

"Calm down, calm down everyone, The assigned counties are assigned randomly," Alby says

"Randomly?" Harriet glared

"Completely randomly so sit down" 

"Fine" she sighed sitting down again 

"Anyone else" he sighed "Yes Denmark" 

"What's up with the UK?" Zart asked as he clearly noticed me and the fact I'd barely spoken to him or anyone else today 

"Is brexit making you sad?" Brenda laughed 

"No" I sighed "I'm just a bit out that's all"

"Alright, now on to new business" 

I left after the model UN was over starting to make my way out to go home when I saw three of those blue and white letterman jackets

"I don't like waiting, Newton" Ben yelled

"Fuck!" I complained trying to bolt as quickly as I could away but they caught up fast and threw me against the wall punching and kicking me

"The hell do you think you're doing nerd! You dare actually talk to a cheerleader? It would be funny if you weren't so fucking stupid!" He laughs "You are not to talk to her again, don't even look at her, not even think about her again, or I will cut your balls off and mount them on the flag pole, we clear Newton?"

"I can talk to whoever I damn want!"

"You wanna die! Let me explain something to you y/n is a cheerleader with a fat ass and tits that porn stars pay for, you are a scholastic decathlon, model UN, chess team little freakazoid. Now you will not do it again, are we clear!"

"Hey!" A voice came I could barely see as I likely had a black eye but I saw

Gally Anderson, cohead of the debate team, used to be the muscles of metal shop and woodshop until the school district cut the funding those rooms were gutted of equipment and turned into extra maths rooms and now were often stuck in the back of the art club making small wooden building sculptures while people like Brenda engaged in utter anarchy we used to be friendly but you drift Apart and all

"What's it to you? Art boy?"

"Leave the fuck alone before I knock those teeth down your throat, and we all know daddy paid to get them all nice and touched up for ya which you haven't paid off yet so unless you wanna root around your shit for those pearly fucks. Walk away"

"I'm -"

"I know what you're doing, everyone heard but she aint your girlfreind as I recall she Dumped your ass so fuck off home"

"Come on guys" he says heading to his car "I'm watching you newton!"

"You okay?" Gally asks helping me up and grabbing my stuff for me

"I think I'm dieing"

"Yeah he socked you pretty hard, we'll grab you some ice, come on I'll drop you home"

"Thanks man"

"No problem" he says taking me to his car and we stopped and he got me some ice for my eye and a bandage for my bleeding arm "I know what you did"

"Everyone knows apparently"

"I don't blame you, cheer girls are gorgeous, don't sweat it he'd have kicked your ass for being rude if you hadn't spoken to her"

"I don't get what his problem is"

"Dudes been butt hurt since she dumped him, still protective of her, he thinks because they used to date he owns her. Don't let it get to you" he says pulling up outside my house "You gonna be okay?"

"I think so, thanks gally"

"Don't worry about it, see you around"

"See you around" I nodded before climbing out and heading inside immediately to be met by

"Oh my god my baby!" She screams

"Mum I'm alright -"

"What the hell happened!" My dad yelled

"It's a long story"

Understandably my mother went crazy and I'd been sitting in the kitchen for over an hour while my parents paced and panicked, having replaced my ice and bandaged my cuts and bruises. when they finally let me go back to my room, so I headed to my bed Luckily I didn't have any homework or anything so I just crawled into bed and tried my best to get some god damn sleep. 

When my alarm went off I forced myself up and quickly went for a shower Sonya was about to go in but she stopped short as she saw me

"What the hell happened to you?" she asks 

"Don't. Say. anything." I warned her to go in the bathroom and lock the door tightly I put my music on as loud as possible ran myself a bath and climbed in trying to soothe my aching body, I took as long as I wanted in the bath, once done I went back to my room and got dressed for the day shoving my stuff in my bag even if It stung to add my bag to my shoulder and I headed downstairs to my mum and dad "Morning"

"Morning Kiddo, sit down and take your time with breakfast I'm taking you in today," he says 

"You are?"

"Yeah, I want a word with the headmaster" 

"Uhh okay" I nodded sitting down and my mum gave me as many strawberries, waffles, and french toast as I wanted "I'm happy to take the bus Dad"

"No, no. I want a word with him. phone doesn't do the same as turning up so If I'm going then I might as well take you" 

"Why do I have to take the bus and he gets a ride to school!" Sonya yelled as she arrived downstairs 

"And where were you while your brother was being beaten up like a 1930s gangster?'

"...at the movies with my friends"

"So you'll be taking the bus"

"Uuughhhh!' She yelled marching off outside

"You can take her too it's okay," I said

"You really should -" my mother began

"No, for once I'm not Bowing to that girl," he says finishing his breakfast he took my bag and we headed out to the car We started up and headed through the rainy streets he stopped for coffee of course and he even got me a few hash browns.

"So? Lead the way," he says I nodded and got out of the car he still carried my stuff for me as we headed into the still pretty empty school as the busses hadn't arrived yet I led him through the corridors to the headmaster's office but she wasn't here yet so we just sat outside. "You wanna tell me what this was all over so I have a little backing info?"

"I figured Sonya told you"

"She did but you know how your sister exaggerates."

"I was working, and the cheerleaders came in"

"All of them?'

"I think so, looked like all of them I don't exactly count them everywhere they go, Dad"

"Hu...I did"

"Did you?"

'When I was your age yeah, so?"

"So one of the cheer girls needed a hand with the slushie machine the cherry one always gets stuck so I pulled it for her we talked just casually while I did and told her I'd cover it. But clearly, people found out. I've been getting the cold shoulder from people all day because of it"

"Why? You did something nice for her?"

"Yeah, but she's a cheerleader. I'm...me. I can't talk to them it's like an unspoken law. So one of the track guys beat me up to teach me a lesson"

"And?"

"and lesson learned. I won't talk to her again" I sighed

"What's her name?"

"What does it matter They'll kill me if I ever even look at her again"

"Well tell me anyway"

"...y/n"

"Y/n. Cheerleader?"

"Yeah"

"Pretty?"

"Gorgeous,"

"Blonde?"

"Y/h/c usually with a little blue bow"

"Athletic?"

"As much as any cheerleader but... she's 'bottom of the pyramid"

"Oh, so she's got the hips and the thighs?' He suggested making a gesture with his hands and I nodded "I take it you have her the free slushie because you like her"

"Kinda, but what does it matter Ben will kill me if I look at her again. Not like I had a cat in hell's chance anyway'

"Why not? You're the most handsome boy in the world your mother tells you all the time"

"Dad. I'm me. I'm a nerd. I am as low as you can get on the totem pole except maybe Chuckie, the cheer team is at the top of the totem pole. I was being stupid"

"Hey, don't think like that, look Isaac. This stuff isn't some totem pole carved in stone or wood forever to be that way. It's more like... an elevator."

"An elevator?"

"Yes, an elevator. You might not see it but people are constantly moving up and down the levels Yes those at the top often don't think about the bottom and the bottom struggle to even imagine ever being at the top but no one stays in those places forever and believe me when you get out of here none of it would have mattered and you'll realize there never was an elevator you were all just living on the same floor convinced you had it better or worse when everyone else" he says "you know I was a pretty big nerd when I was your age Didn't stop me getting a firecracker like your mother. I was on the chess team, algebra club, top science student two years running and your mother was a flag girl"

"No offence but stuff is different nowadays it's not like them You were my age things have changed"

"...how old do you think I am?" He glared

"Well, I'm seventeen?"

"Yeah and I'm thirty-four," he says "AHH Miss Ava Paige just the woman I've been needing to see"

"Mr Newton of course step into my office," she says

I was kind of taken aback by what he said for a moment before I followed them into the office.

[sixstepsaway]

I watched a very interesting video on yt a few months ago, talking about purity culture and the concept of sin in christianity and how and why it perpetuates a cult of abuse

[cw: some talk of non-con in fiction, some talk of csa but nothing graphic, explicit homophobic rhetoric as used against other people, fandom discourse in general, also this post is long]

obviously this isn't all christians, and it applies to more than JUST christians unfortunately, but since I kicked open the door to talk about why people insist izzy is manipulative and strip ed of his agency, I thought I'd talk about what I learned from this video in regards to fandom puritans and their behaviors

the basics of the cultish christian ideaology is that thinking about sin is the same thing as acting on those thoughts. if you see someone walk past and you're like, "eheh hot," then you've already committed the sin, which leaves a lot of people thinking "well, if thinking she's hot is already the sin, then i might as well fuck her"

(this is also one of the reasons why csa is so prevalent in these circles, this ideology says that thinking about something is the same as doing it, so they might as well just indulge those thoughts, no?)

when you chew on that a little, the fandom puritans really start to make sense in their own twisted ways!

I remember years ago I heard of the term 'culturally christian' and it dinged something in my brain. a lot of us aren't christian. i wasn't raised going to church or believing in god or any of that, but i was raised in a primarily christian country (although less so these days, afaik, than the US) and so i enjoy christmas and a lot of christian beliefs have been perpetuated into my psyche by the cultural norms

my dad, a raging athiest, talks about our pets going to heaven. my mom says, "oh, bless her!" as a sweet way of saying how cute something is. i say "bless you" when someone sneezes, because it's polite. cultural christianity.

in the US, from what I can tell, the culture is even more heavily steeped in christianity, which is why people who are, much like my dad, raging athiests, or who think christianity is a crock or think god is a stupid concept, parrot christian rhetoric

because they weren't taught it as christian rhetoric. they were taught it as just... the right thing.

so, following this ideology, thinking is the same as doing. that means fantasising is the same as doing, too, and watching, and reading, and writing are all balled up under that same

if you dare to enjoy a problematic character who does things like feeding people's toes to them, then you are committing the same sins crimes he is. fictional csa or incest or whatever is the exact same as real csa, incest etc, not because of those being hurt but because someone is doing the thing by thinking about it.

it's the same reason why the culture of telling girls and women to cover up exists. if a man sees them and goes, "hubba hubba" in the privacy of his own brain, he's sinned. thusly, the girl in question (even if she's a fucking twelve year old) has led that man to sin.

there's also a discussion in those videos about how asking about how far is too far in regards to premarital sex is treated as "trying to find the line" and those questions should never be indulged, implying that saying "hey, does holding hands count as a sin?" is a forbidden question because if you can hold hands you might just - gasp - move on to kissing each other on the cheek! instead of the truth of it, which is that if someone says, "Can we hold hands?" they're asking that, not asking to bump up against a fake purity line and accidentally tumble over it

not giving these things any kind of qualification or boundaries is absolutely toxic, and you see it perpetuated through fandom purity warriors the same: you can't ship this thing but i won't tell you why. you're shipping? well, you're bad because it's pedophilia. you're bad because it's racist. you're bad because it's abusive. why is it those things? well, i'm not going to tell you that, i shouldn't have to, you should be able to see it yourself :/

Also, the culture of boundaries being Wrong and an implied plan to flout those boundaries is just... ridiculous

So because thoughts = reality for these people, they assume that everyone agrees with them. because they don't realize what they're parroting is christian rhetoric, and so they believe it's just 'what normal people think' (which, no)

they don't realize how heavily steeped in christian 'sinner' culture it is, or how it trickles down to anti-queer rhetoric of every queer person being a groomer and how talking about sex in a space that might possibly at one time have included a child maybe if you squinted is grooming and bad and toxic

it's also the whole 'children are innocent of sin so we have to keep them that way' thing, because if even thinking about sex or anything even close to sex (such as the anatomical correct name for their body parts so they can talk about abuse if they receive it, or the basics of consent and such) then they are sinning, and sinning is bad because you'll go to hell and that's bad too because obviously it's real and a place you can get sent to for knowing a cookie as it's real name of vagina

i think also there's an element of... priests and such are Allowed to discuss (and thusly think about) sin. they're allowed to listen to someone talk about that hot girl they thought about, they're allowed to think about sin in their community in order to fight it or whatever. the idea that they have Permission because they are Professional Sin Thinkers i think is perpetuated down into fandom purity culture because of how they treat fanartists and fanfiction writers and so on.

david jenkins, for example, is super okay for writing izzy and ed and pirates who enjoy torture and maiming and even for the 1x10 toe scene! but if a fanfiction writer writes those things, they're Committing Thought Crimes because they dont have Permission

and similar to how a priest can preach about sin and that make it okay for you to think about, if someone produces a show that includes Bad Things, it's okay to watch it, as long as you're thinking critically about sin the subject matter, and even moreso if you're being taught not to commit those sins do those things via aesops

I think they've internalized the idea of some people having an innate License To Think Of Sinful Things, though they do tend to yank that license back whenever they find out the person holding the license is queer

which is likely yet more recycled rhetoric because of the whole slippery slope, queers can't be trusted, queers are grooming our children rhetoric that gets passed around. they're indoctrinated into instinctively not trusting queers, especially older queers and especially older queers who are not pure about their queerness

it's also hysterical to think about what they instinctively believe gives someone 'permission' to write Bad things? it's capitalism. it's... it's literally capitalism lmao!!!

if i write a kinky non-con fic and shove it on AO3 for 100 people to read for free, i have committed a crime and should be shanked for it

if george r r martin writes a kinky non-con scene and sells it within his books for $9.99 on amazon, then he's a Professional and is allowed to do such a thing

(until they decide he isn't, usually due to some arbitrary thing like he said someone was hot (thusly sexualizing them) or that he supports proshipping or something like what happened with bryan fuller, who is a queer man (of an age that means he lived through the AIDS crisis, no less, i believe) who commented on his-- is it a headcanon? word of god? word of god that hannibal excretes a lot of precome (lmao) so could fuck will raw and was immediately told by fandom puritians (how they exist in that fandom I will never know) that he should die, be killed, be gay bashed, be beaten to death with rocks, die of AIDS, whatever else horrible shit they came up with. they've also taken issue with him retweeting/enjoying explicit fanart because "it's creepy sexualizing them they're your coworkers" as though mads mikkelson hasn't said he reads pornfic)

i think this is also why they genuinely believe that looking over at someone and going, "dang, you're fine," in your own head is sexualizing them and bad, as though sexual attraction isn't a normal thing that most humans experience every day

I don't remember which Belief It or Not video it was that I learned about the sin thing, and honestly it might have been different chunks of all three of these, but it was probably one or more of Purity Culture is Rad-ically Dangerous, The Thing About Modesty or The Problem With Sin, all of which are excellent video essays by an ex-Christian, talking about his experiences within the church, and I highly recommend them if you're interested in these topics because they are fascinating and he presents them really well.

anyway, these are just things i've been thinking about for a while, so i thought i'd throw these somewhat joined-together thoughts out there for y'all to mull on or chat to me about if you so desire.

tl;dr: think critically about the rhetoric you're parroting, it might not be what you believe it to be

ETA: I've been corrected that priests are catholic and catholisism is like, "everyone sins all the time" whereas protestantism is like "remain as pure as the driven snow" by @three--rings who has actual lived experience with Christianity. This doesn't really change my point, but I wanted to say that my comments about priests should be read more as 'religious leaders' than an actual priest because of it lmao thanks for the educaiton three--rings! Also, that it wasn't a cultural thing until recently, it's a specific kind of christianity that's taken root in the US. You can see their additions in the replies if you're curious about more context!

[popculturebuffet]

Monthly Muppets: The Deranged Glory of Willkins and Wontkins (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Welcome back all you happy muppets and a bit of a schedule change as Follow that Bird's been bumped to march, though as a compensation next week you'll be getting TWO bits of monthyl muppet madness. For those just joining us welcome to monthly muppets where I look at muppety madness monthly and thankfully today's replacement is something i've been wanting to talk about since Emma brought it to my attention in the first place. It's also what was pre internet a pretty obscure part of Jim Henson's history: back in college, Jim was still finding his love of puppetry and one way to hone his craft and get some dough, something I can relate to given this is a comission and all, was to do adds. Wilkins Coffee, a now defunct coffee company, asked for some.. and the results were deranged magic that were so succesful it lead to tie in "hand muppets", over 50 skits and work that despite being decades old and only 10 seconds long held up so well it became popular again. So what are the wilkins coffee ads? Well like a lot of muppet concepts their simple but a lot to unpack: Wlikins, a cheery muppet usually offers wontkins, his gloomy red (though you can't see it in the ads as their black and white) victim a cup of Wilkins Coffee or brings it up. When Wontkins says he dosen't like it... and wilkins gets.. violent. Here's one of the more notable examples

Yeah and if you think him wiping blood off his blade after presumingly running a man through for not liking wilkins is just a one off, I did my due dillgence and recorded EVERYTHING that happens to poor wontkins over the course of 15 minutes worth of wilkins coffee ads.. over the course of the ones I watched, almost the complete filmography the following was inflicted on this poor muppet:

Wontkins got Blasted with A Canon, shot by some dude offscreen,hit by a club ran over by a bandwagon, blinked out of existiance, dynamited with TNT, threatned with a guiltoine, attacked by an evil dead tree, caked in the face and had hot coffee poured over him, beaned with a hammer, tarred and feathered, shot by an illicit coffee peddling wilkins, pelted with eggs, kicked out of a tree, stabbed to death with a fencing saber with Wilkins having to wipe the blood off, Wilkins making the washington monument fall on him with Telekinesis, hit up for 65 dollars, blown up along with his house!, attacked by a vengeful mr wlikins godlike powers, got his television blown up by wilkins who can apparently appear inside tvs, GIVEN THE ELECTRIC CHAIR, sawed to death with a giant supervillian Buzzsaw, clubbed three times till he spread the word of wilkins, stepped on by mr. wilkins, eaten by a giant fish that was subbing for a whale, shoved off a giant brick wall to his death, told he won't be paid till they sell more wlikins, hammered in some sort of torture machine, given some… weird box, nearly got knives thrown at him blind, nearly ran over by wild horses, married Wilkins, shot in the dick by a cowboy wilkins, drowned in a swimming pool of wilkins coffee, given tiny birds, had the price jacked up, boiled to death in a coffee of wilkins to be eaten by racist sterotypes, conked by a steel can of wilkins, scared by ghosts, given a malfunctioning parachute for a sight gag, thrown out of a hot air ballon, exploded or possibly shot again by wlikins pretending to be a fortune teller, stabbed, forced to be a reindeer, shoved out of a plane, shot with an arrow, shot out of a cannon, clubbed with a giant ball, had a bottle of ginger ale broken over his hair, had the pool of water for a hive dive moved dying by concussion, given a strike in baseball that shockingly wasn't a literal strike, lifted into the air and dropped by a vengeful god, shoved into the sea to uncertain doom, stamped with a checkmark for later extermination, shot AGAIN this time for democracy, clanged inside a bell, tortured with another hammer machine, had it implied his throat was slit, LITERALLY BRANDED WITH AN X, dropped down a sewer, eaten raw coffee, scared by a headless wilkins, RAN OVER BY A STEAMROLLER, left to rot in a tower. dropped off a mountain to his demise, sprayed by a water canon and implied he needs to be brainwashed, lifted up to his death by the hand of fate, had Wilkins cause an auto accident using his car to prove a point, got shot in the face with a camera, punched by a boxing glove, and dropped out of a plane via barrel roll

Just to tabulate all that I looked over those and followed James A Janeses kill count rules, counting how many times Wilkins defintely died from whatever wonkins did, even if we didn't see it, along with my own touch of every time he got assaulted.

So Wilkins got killed a total of TWENTY FIVE TIMES, and with a combind runtime of 14:58, that lead to a kill on average every 1.79 minutes. and he was assaulted about 20 which dosen't get a runtime for this bit. So you'd think this was a bit too cruel to work... and you'd be wrong. Yeah while obviously it's horrifying as it is hilarious that Wontkins suffered this much abuse it's done quickly and is so over the top, so disprortinate, so cruel.. ti's comedy GOLD. It's a delight to see just what horrible shit Wilkins does yet and honestly the ones where he tortures wontkins are always funnier than the ones with just some sort of sight gag for the most part. Jim Henson was a master of physical comedy and these shorts are some of his best. It's also worth remembering a LOT of muppets humor is built on slapstick cruetly and the trick is it dosen't pile on too much or has the targets be nondiscript enoguh for it to work. I do feel deeply sad for wontkins, but we don't see his pain linger enough for it to last and he's fine next short ready to get pummled, stabbed, shoved to his death or put in some torture device. and the sheer lengths Wilkins goes to are just sadistic. Would I want to hang out with Wlikins? Fuck no, wilkins coffee no longer exists and while he shilled for other brands I can't guarantee he's not rightly locked up in some deep muppet vault for muppet kind's own saftey and won't ask me for wilkins just to murder me and then ironically weekend at burnies my corpse as his own muppet.

But these adds are simple sharp and funny. Henson clearly plays both using a proto-kermit voice (though Kermit already existed by then, if not in his final form) for wilkins and something similar to Rowlf's eventual voice for wontkins. The results are just great. They do offer some logistics such as did Wlikins build a wagon, elaborate torture amchines and several buisnessses just to torment wontkins? The answer.. is probably yes and just adds to it. The fact he goes to lengths and commits enough crimes to get him put away for several life sentences just over coffee is the charm. I may not have nearly as much to say as I thought.. but I encourage you to seek these ads out and watch them.. and watch out for wilkins. If you see him lurking outside your house hide, call the police and for the love of god just offer him what cofffe you have and lie it's wilkins if you value your own life. Thanks for reading. Next month, we're doing some more early henson as it's the muppet show YAYYYY.. specifically the PILOTS: the muppet valentine's show and the muppets: sex and violence. See you later this week.

[gougerre]

my ass looks like two large loaves of bread, viewed from above. my ass looks like a

giant mushroom from the forest that got kicked in half by someone. my ass looks

like a couple of water balloons, filled to the absolute limit with skim milk. my ass

looks like a zoo animals ass. my ass looks like ten pounds of shit in a five pound

bag. my ass looks like an extremely antagonizing pinata. my ass looks like one of

those dead animals that gets pulled out of the ocean and is featured on The News

because nobody can identify it. my ass looks like a car crash. my ass looks like a

racist photo shop of a Polish "Babushka" woman. my ass looks like two generous

scoops of raw pancake batter. my ass looks like a gleaming pair of Angel's wings.

my ass looks like an obstacle from a nickelodeon game show. my ass looks

Statuesque. my ass looks like an autopsied corpse. my ass looks like a bowl of

skinned potatos, my ass looks like it was in a car crash. my ass looks like a parade

float from some impoverished nation. my ass looks like nine eleven on steroids. my

ass looks like some hamburger buns that someone was keeping in their pocket and

walking around with. my ass looks like it smokes ten packs of cigarettes a day. my

ass looks like a pair of over-seasoned mozzarella balls. my ass looks like a car

crash that was in a car crash. my ass looks like the victim of a college prank. my

ass looks like the chunk of blue chesse dressing that takes up the entire cup. my

ass looks like the dead sea after the waters recede. my ass looks like an old sock.

my ass looks like an abandoned bee hive. my ass looks like a pile of bleached sea

shell's. my ass looks like an enlarged model of somebodys balls. my ass looks like

the face at the beginning of mario 64. my ass looks like something that matadors

use to piss the bulls off. my ass looks like one of those deep sea creatures that

cannot survive in captivity, my ass looks like a windswept wedding gown, frozen in

time. my ass looks like it has been attacked. my ass looks like a powdered wig that

got run over by a train. my ass looks like a couple of shop rite bags filled with rain

water, my ass looks like ground turkey meat. my ass is Grass, my ass looks like it

was tarred and feathered after getting caught stealing hardtack from the old

general store. my ass looks like a starwars alien. my ass looks like it had a stroke.

my ass looks like an entire cheesecake thats been pecked by birds. my ass looks

like an overfed botfly larva. my ass looks like the ten biblical plagues. my ass looks

like some bullshit. my ass looks like its made out of newspaper. my ass looks like a

Ghoul's ass. my ass looks extremely wet but it is dry to the touch. my ass looks like

a really big tooth. my ass looks like it lost a bet. my ass looks like diapers. my ass

looks like a sofa. my ass looks like it has seen better days. my ass looks like a mob

hit. my ass looks like a brain preserved in formaldehyde. my ass looks like its ready

for the circus. my ass looks like a omelette. my ass looks like it needs a blood

transfusion. my ass looks like a towel that was used to line a bird cage.

[stitchandani]

What are your guys’s thoughts on some of the new casting announcements for the upcoming live action Lilo and Stitch? There’s been some chaos regarding the casting decision of Sydney Elizebeth Agudong as Nani and Kahiau Machado is confirmed to be playing David, along with Billy Magnusson playing an unconfirmed role.

Doverstar Hi anon! Well, first off, I want to reiterate that Arti and I actually don't care very much about the live-action L&S. We're two of those oldies that consider the live-action re-imaginings as totally unnecessary, low-quality, irritating cash grabs that almost never honor or pay proper homage to the original Disney classics they're based on. So. Disclaimer there. I do have some new opinions as of this morning, personally, but feel free to totally disgree with/ignore them! :) Secondly, as far as the casting goes, if we like anything, we like that Chris Sanders is Stitch again. That might be the only good thing we can see so far in it. I personally think the girl they chose to play Lilo is super cute, and as far as looks go, she looks like Lilo so that's a plus. We can't say anything else yet because we haven't seen her act as Lilo, and we don't know if the writers will butcher the story/the characters entirely yet, so no comment there. I hope she has so much fun! We all wanted to be Lilo at some point as children - now she gets to actually do it! Good for her! What a precious-looking lil lucky duck. I bet she'll do great. Now I'm gonna rant, get excited.

Thirdly, here's my most recent opinion on the film and its cast and all that jazz: people online have been very loud and very obnoxious and very rude about the color of the human cast's skin. Even though these human beings are, in fact, of Hawaiian descent, the way their characters are supposed to be, that's apparently not enough because their skin is "too light". So now we've gotten to a place in our culture where it's not sufficient to be cast in a role with a certain nationality or race that you actually are. No. Your physical skin color, which you can't change and were born with, has to be a certain shade or else it's racist that you were cast and the company is intentionally using you to "whitewash" characters with skin colors that were designed as non-white. I personally think that is ridiculous. If the actress for Nani plays a convincing Nani, and is right for the part, and as a bonus she is a female of Hawaiian descent (because the character in the original film was intentionally created as a native Hawaiian woman living on Kauai), then she should play Nani and no one should have a problem with that. The same goes for the men cast to play David. Which brings me to my fourth opinion: I said men, plural. David has recently been recast. For multiple reasons. The biggest reason being that people were yet again obnoxious and loud online (like they always are) and, because they were still salty that Mr. Machado's born skin color was not the shade they wanted it to be, they dug and dug all over his personal social media accounts in order to find anything incriminating they could yell about to force Disney to recast him. They did find out that he seems fine using rude and offensive terms when referring to African-American people - or that, at one point in the past, he was fine using them - never having met with or spoken to the man himself in the present to find out what he's really like, what he actually believes, or why he posted things of that nature in the past. People didn't like Mr. Machado's skin color, so they were loud and rude and obnoxious and did everything they could in their own free time to get him kicked off of the project, and it worked because modern-day corporate Disney is a sleaze-ball company whose higher-ups only care about money, not whatever they say publicly that they care about. I don't think Mr. Machado (or anyone) should use what people call "racial slurs", ever, because it's terrible. But I also think the public was super weird and boundary-crossing and incredibly silly about this whole thing. Do you actively, regularly go to random strangers' Facebook accounts when you met them in a Starbucks line and you didn't like something about the way they physically look? And then look all over that Facebook account for something that would get them fired from their job? A person you don't even know? Fired from a job you have absolutely nothing to do with? No? Then don't do it to an actor. Why do you care? How do you know what they're really like? People ruined an opportunity (a crappy Disney live-action opportunity, but an opportunity nonetheless) for a young undiscovered actor because they were mad his skin color wasn't what they thought it should be. That sounds racist to me. Anyway. Now they've cast another young gentleman as David, and good for him, lucky for him, and he looks fine to me, but who knows. Maybe they'll rise up and get him fired too for having the wrong-shaped earlobes or something. Stupid. ANYWAY. Llike I said, Arti and I don't really have any other strong opinions on the film beyond the ones listed here. We don't have much faith that it will be good, we don't think it even needs to be made, but we're super excited to hear Mr. Sanders as the voice of Stitch again! Unless they recast him because he's not blue. Then we riot.

[chaoticmiddleschoolgirl]

Stuff Eight Graders Say

wonder who will be the first to flip the table. my money's on (insert idiot boys name here) (after finding out her friend sat next to the above idiot boy, with complete sincerity) my condolences no you're not a good person (insert above idiot boys name here) (discussing if our english class was in lord of the flies) i would eat… well if we put it to a vote you'd be out first. no (previous idiot boy) would be out first lol. fine then I'd pull a jack and run away and ration him carefully (answer to "would you shoot your best friend in the balls for x amount of money) I would say you were my best friend and then i could shoot you in the balls do you really want your last memory of this class to be kicking (insert annoying boys name here) in the balls? i mean… why not? (insert bitches name here) doesn't give a fuck about you. that's nice? no seriously he likes men. good for him? (kid coming out of the lunch line) tomato sauce counts as a fruit! no it doesn't. then why didn't they stop me? besides applesauce counts why not this? (me to my friend) i gave all the math test answers to my friend. (my friend) slay (my arab friend) there's too much boys in that class (sub) someone's playing t.s oh never mind its taylors version you're good (teacher to student) i have some applesauce would that make you less grumpy? I'll just adopt a child then, I'm bored af I'm already suspended, I might as well I've known you too long to put up with your racism yea he's a folderaholic (after being challenged to a handstand contest) do you want me to break a bone? i mean… i wouldn't be sad if you did i never said i identified as a nazi. (sub) hate to break it to you dude but the Nazis wouldn't have liked you i wish my friends wrote me things like that! wait you have friends???!!! yes thanks for that commentary (insert my name here) if you get cold that's kind of an L is a heart a fruit? it's giving shut up of course he isn't racist, he is equally mean to everyone in the school oh sure he wasn't high he was all like (giggles nervously) it's just allergies (giggles nervously) that's nice now go be gay elsewhere yea ignore those cis white guys help us actually those ones are harmless we can wait you know we can't do this if we're not high you laugh like a privileged white woman you're killing (insert girlfriends name here) with your stupidness

[contreparry]

Happy Friday! How about "Fireflies and cicadas" from the summertime prompts?

Here's some Bran Surana and Alistair friendship for @dadrunkwriting!

Bran wasn't an outdoors person.

He liked a temperature-controlled environment, where he wouldn't have to deal with weather, pollen, or insects. No insects, please and thank you. His grandmother would be terribly embarrassed that her grandson was so... incapable. Bran felt a little bit of shame color his cheeks at the thought. Couldn't pitch a tent, couldn't start a fire without magic, couldn't even catch a fish or find something edible in the wilderness!

Maybe this trip would change things.

"The forests around here are pretty remarkable," Alistair said as he clambered over the rocky shoreline. "Big pine trees, got some scrubby bushes- oak trees, maybe? I don't know my trees."

"Neither do I," Bran replied, and he poked at the smoldering pile of twigs and logs with a stick. This would all be so much easier if Alistair would let him blast the wood with a fireball, but he promised to try to light a fire with matches and tinder. Despite it all (hardship, outdoors, lack of coffee) Bran was... content. Alistair's joy was infectious, and as the cicadas in the woods hummed like an overheated computer Bran sat back and stared up at the clouds floating across the sky.

"It's... nice. Pretty," Bran said slowly. "Don't know if it is something for me, but... it's a nice change." Maybe he should get out of the lab and the shop more often. He hadn't felt the sun on his face in ages, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was always being watched whenever he was in the city. When Alistair offered to take him on a camping trip ("Just for the weekend on the coast! Promise!"), Bran jumped at the chance to escape what felt like a cage.

"I was going to invite Leliana as well, but she's... apparently heading back to Val Royeux? Some sort of party hosted by her aunt," Alistair said. He flopped into a canvas camping chair and stared out over the sparkling waters of the bay.

"I didn't know she had family," Bran remarked. As cheerful and warm as Leliana was, she was somewhat a mystery to him. For one thing, she was one of the few people who seemed to understand his alchemical research. She also let him study at Witches' Brew, topping off his coffee whenever she passed. Said that he was "good for the ambiance" and let him stay for hours even when Morrigan loudly complained about "free-loading bookworms" drinking all the coffee.

"It's complicated. Morrigan threatened to turn me into a frog if I asked," Alistair shuddered. "Didn't realize they were so close."

"Maybe Morrigan's being territorial," Bran suggested. Morrigan was like that. If she liked someone, she showed it with an over-protective stance, snapping at anyone who bothered those she cared for. For example, even though she complained about Bran lurking in the coffee shop, she never kicked him out. She might tease Leliana mercilessly, but she was the first to jump to her defense. And even if she mocked Alistair, Bran noticed that she always happened to have peanut butter cookies in stock just for him.

"Might be. Apparently she threatened to kick a man in the shins. Because he was, uh... looking. At you. In a funny way?" Alistair said.

"Huh."

"She also suggested I get you out of town. Same with Leliana," Alistair whistled. "Maker's Balls, might be the first time the two of them agreed on something!"

"Will wonders ever cease?" Bran mumbled, a thread of concern worming its way into his heart. Maybe he wasn't being paranoid after all. Maybe he was being watched. But by who? He hadn't noticed anything odd. At least, nothing out of the ordinary. There was the guy with the designer boots at the bookshop who flirted with him once, but otherwise Bran's life was incredibly ordinary. Normal! Why would anyone bother to spy on him? Unless they were some elf-hating racist prick, but that was just... that kind of came with the territory. It wasn't unusual.

But having friends who cared was. Alistair clapped his hand on Bran's shoulder and grinned broadly, his reddish-brown hair bright in the sunshine.

"C'mon. I'll teach you how to catch a fish," he declared. "Duncan says there's a good fishing spot down the beach. And the fireflies will come out when the sun goes down!"

Bran rose to his feet and pulled his sweatshirt over his head. Weather and insects aside, maybe this whole outdoors thing wasn't so bad after all.

[gvftea]

"Not a Danny anti saying that bc the twins met one it proves that they still love them 💀💀"

You'd have to be seriously fucking dumb to think the Kiszkas would like a person who spends their free time shit talking Danny on every social media platform under the sun when the guy is quite literally their childhood best friend and they've stated multiple times they love him, see him as a brother and "would go to bat for him anyday", like seriously, seriously dumb. Like, sure if they meet one of these so called antis on the street not knowing what they do behind closed doors with their phones, of course they're gonna be nice to them. They're not chronically online. They don't know these people or their usernames and they have no idea of what they're up to online. If the person straight up told them "Yeah btw I think Danny is a racist piece of shit who should be cancelled, I zone out during his drum solo, he's not that attractive anyways, you should kick him out" the story would be different but of course these people don't have the balls to voice those things outside of twitter.

.

[cartermagazine]

Trump Isn’t Out There With A Gun, But His Hands Is On The Triggered Enabled War Against Black People On Tuesday, Joe Biden described white supremacy as a poison, and he is right, but – as ever – he fails to understand the gravity of his failure to make racial justice a priority; to see this cowardly white supremacy as a threat to American democracy. The simple truth is that you cannot see this latest neofascist attack in isolation. Think of the attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, when a white supremacist terrorist killed nine African Americans during their Bible study in 2015. Think of the attack on the American Asian community in Atlanta last year, when four people were murdered amid assertions from prosecutors that the attack was fuelled by race and gender hatred. Or the attack on Chicanos in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, when 22 people were killed in an allegedly hate-motived shooting; and the murder of 11 Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh the same year by a man who said Jews “were committing a genocide to his people”.
 Trump is not out there with a gun, but he is leading a campaign continuing what Malcolm X called a war against black and coloured people. He is doing it within the electoral political system. He is not killing folks. But he bears responsibility in terms of the context.

The press is fickle, the pandemic started to kick in, and other issues such as Ukraine and inflation captured attention.
 Last year Biden said America was not a racist country, and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, backed him on that. But these are lies, and those lies have their effect. If we operate on that level, how can we ever address the vicious legacy of racism and white supremacy?
 To the president and Democrats in power, I say: “Shame on you, you dropped the ball.” They must be vigilant and stop acting as if these murders are something they can address in a couple of weeks and then move on. Race is the most explosive issue in the history of this country. -(source: Dr. Cornell West, for the guardian) DNA America “it’s what we know, not what you want us to believe.” #dna #dnaamerica #news #politics https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd0ZgDDrxCD/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=