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viv-hollande · 6 months

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As Promised, The Israel-Palestine Megapost of Doom

Content Warning: This post discusses both the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the current Israel-Gaza War. As such, it contains frank discussions of apartheid, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocides both past and present, racism, antisemitism, colonialism, terrorism and more. As an additional tone warning, I guess: I am by nature a pretty flippant person. I’ve been criticized for that in the past, and probably will be again in the future. I don’t know if it's just who I am, or if maybe I need a therapist. I have tried to reign in some of my worse impulses, especially when talking about the actual events themselves, to try to give due respect to those affected. Nevertheless, if that kind of attitude offends or disturbs you, maybe sit this one out.

This post is brought to you in its current form thanks to the generous actions of Dr. Henry Kissinger, whose untimely death many decades after it was deserved nevertheless brought me joy great enough to drag me out of angryposting mode and into hopefully more coherent essay-writing mode. So here is the partially revised, partially rewritten, and greatly expanded post that I promised.

While I don’t have a cohesive thesis, I have written this with the intention of addressing/responding to the state of conversation around the Israel-Palestine conflict, and around the ongoing Israel-Gaza crisis. I am focusing substantially on the online discourse because it’s the only thing I have even a chance of changing. I’m a soon-to-no-longer-be-teenage college sophomore without a lot of disposable income. I’ve already called my Senators and House Rep. I really don’t have much influence beyond my power to try to persuade random internet users to be less bad.

I’ve tried to restrain my tendency for purple prose, self-righteousness, and gratuitous moral judgements; you can be the judge of whether or not I succeeded. I know that I am definitely not an expert or authority on this topic, but neither is most anyone else on this fucking website. It didn’t stop them and it won’t stop me.

But before that, some brief words on my previous post. Unlike my usual angryposting where I tend to regret everything I say and do while in the anger spiral, I can actually say that I stand by more or less everything I said in that post. I do have one correction and one clarification though. Clarification: the “Stealth Echoes” I am referring to are instances where the word Israel or Israeli are placed in quotation marks specifically. Example: As per a spokesperson of the “Israeli” Defense Forces, “Something something ceasefire violation.” Used as such, the “Stealth Echoes” around Israel or Israeli are used to signal belief in the illegitimacy of Israel. It’s literally just (((echoes))) revived. A few people thought I was talking about the use of quotes in quotation marks. Now, the correction: in my anger, I believe that I overstated the prevalence of the “Stealth Echoes”. I said 20-40%, which upon reflection was too high, brought on by seeing a long string of said posts in rapid succession. I would now say that the figure is closer to 5-10%, jumping up to 10-15% if you include instances of censoring Israeli like I*****i and the use of words like Isntreal. I feel that as a practical matter they are indistinguishable; they serve the same purpose. Whatever the number, it is too damn high and should not be going unchallenged. If you’re using them, stop. If you see someone else use them, either in a tweet or on Tumblr, don’t share them.

That done, on with the post!

To start with, I want to establish some important concepts and ideas that I’m going to expand upon later so that you are aware and thinking about them going in. Some of these will seem pretty basic, but they are important. Trust me.

Words mean things. Seriously. Words have meaning, both in isolation and as part of sentences. Many words have very specific meanings, and it is important to use them correctly. Incorrect usage of words deprives language of its utility and power. At certain points in this essay, you might think that I am being overly pedantic, but that specificity is important.

Humans possess a strong drive to create narratives, especially out of history. This is normal; almost all humans do it. However, the tendency towards narrative creates a pitfall where the narrative begins to supplant the actual events in discussion and popular consciousness. Actual history is reshaped, often through omission or erasure, to fit the existing narrative. It is this narrative, not the actual history, that informs attitudes and debate. This is a problem for all history, but especially with a history as long, divisive, and deeply emotionally effective as the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Pragmatism and idealism are broadly speaking two competing approaches towards making plans and decisions. Pragmatism is generally concerned with evaluating the state of reality and making decisions based on their objective practical effects. Though they are not necessarily incompatible, pragmatism possesses no inherent obligations to concepts like justice, morality, or good. Idealism, by contrast, is concerned with defining what the world should look like and aims to achieve that goal. This ideal world can theoretically be informed by anything, but is usually defined by morality. I generally believe that what is is more important than what should be. Whether in matters of politics, diplomacy, or war, it is better to evaluate the state of reality as best you can and tailor your goals to what is practically achievable rather than trying to force reality to conform to your idealized future.

In general, I will try to avoid ascribing intent to any individual or action, except where I feel that concrete evidence of intent is publicly available. Astute readers may know where I am going with this.

Rivers of ink have been spilled teasing apart the differences between Israelis, Jews, Zionists, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and more, and between Palestine and Israel. This post is long enough without retreading all of that here. Nevertheless, I will do my best to use specific, accurate terminology where applicable.

The past is not the present. There are many facets to this point, and they will come up fairly often. For now, just keep this in mind.

With that over with, on to…

Anti-Colonialism & History

The Israel-Palestine conflict is usually characterized by the pro-Palestinian camp as an anti-colonialist struggle. In isolation, this is not a statement that I would disagree with. The modern history of Israel and Palestine is a history of colonialism, or near enough for government work. However, as I mentioned earlier, the actual history of Israel and Palestine has been reduced to a simplified narrative of righteous anti-colonialist struggle. That narrative erases the genuine complexity and nuance that is present in the Israel-Palestine conflict. I have not the time, patience, nor expertise to explain the 100+ year long history of this conflict; for a reasonably comprehensive, and as far as I know, accurate summation of the origins and course of the conflict, see this video. However, I do want to note some things that I see as important to the conflict or my arguments about it.

The Jews, whether defined as a group ethnically or religiously, have a historical connection to the land of Israel, and thus possess a potentially (we’ll get to it) legitimate claim to the land; this is, in my opinion, an important intellectual and practical difference from other examples of colonialism.

The ideological motivation behind Zionism was and still is complex, but an important and undeniable part was a desire for a safe haven from antisemitism. Keep in mind, Zionism as an idea first began to spread in earnest in the latter half of the 19th century, during an aggressively antisemitic period in European history. France experienced a surge in the popularity of antisemitic, pro-Catholic revanchists, monarchists and proto-fascists after their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War; this would culminate in the Dreyfus Affair. The Catholic Church itself was a powerful institutional advocate of antisemitism. It took until the Second Vatican Council, in the 1960s, for the Catholic Church to declare as official church doctrine that Jews, literally all Jews, past, present, and future were not in fact categorically guilty of the death of Christ, as had been church doctrine for literal centuries. The 1960s. Russia experienced wave after wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms that lasted well into the 1920s, only really ending after the Bolsheviks victory in the Russian Civil War (though this would not be the end of Russian, and later Soviet, antisemitism). The rise of German nationalism was intimately and irrevocably tied in with antisemitism's rise to cultural ubiquity in the German Empire and later Weimar Germany. Even in the United Kingdom, which in the 19th and 20th centuries was positively tolerant by contemporary European standards, reflected in to appointment of Jews in prominent political positions up to and including Prime Ministers, was facing a resurgence in antisemitism. It may seem that I'm harping on the point for far too long, but a) I want to emphasize the truly dire straits facing the Jewish diaspora even before the Holocaust and b) while I would like to believe that the historical threat of antisemitism is accepted as common knowledge, I have been wrong before. See also: previous angry rant.

This point is possibly the most important: many Zionists, before and after the Holocaust, believed that the only way to secure the safety of the Jews in Israel was the creation of a Jewish majority state. Back when the land that was to become Israel and Palestine was believed to be mostly empty, this would have seemed easy to achieve by simply settling the area with a new Jewish population. However, after it became known that the land intended for a Jewish state was in fact inhabited, and by a substantial population no less, any intelligent Zionist would have known that the creation of any substantial Jewish majority state would require the forced eviction of the land's extant, mostly Arabic population.

I was struggling to find a place for this, so it’s going here. I have thus far avoided the use of a popular term used in relation to Israel; settler-colonialism. I have avoided its use because I see it as overused, poorly defined, and ahistorical. According to Wikipedia, accessed 30 November 2023, “Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers.” If defined as such, I argue that the term settler-colonialism is practically useless because it describes literal millennia of human history. Using this definition, I have compiled a non-comprehensive list of examples of settler-colonialism, in roughly reverse chronological order: Israeli settlements in Gaza, Russification of Kaliningrad, Russification of the Crimean Peninsula, Sinicization in Xinjiang and Tibet, started by the late Qing and restarted by the PRC, British conquest of independent Boer states, Boer conquest of modern day South Africa, Ottoman colonization of Greece and the Aegean Islands, Russian conquest of Siberia, the Japanese colonization of Korea and Taiwan, centuries of successful and failed conquests of Cambodia by Vietnamese and Thai kingdoms, conquests by the Inca Empire, European colonization of the Americas, Venetian colonization across the Ionian and Mediterranean Seas, Turkic migrations into Central Asia and Anatolia, the Mongol conquests, the maritime empires of Indonesia, the Muslim conquests and subsequent Arabicization of North Africa and the Middle East, the entire history of the Roman Empire, any of the dozens of examples of Classical Greek colonies in Greece, Anatolia, Sicily, and southern Italy, the Achemenid conquests. Hell, the Phoenecians were so into colonization that one of their colonies eventually became a colonial empire in and of itself, and if you believe that all of those colonies were established on empty, virgin land then I got a seaside condo in Almaty to sell you. Though I don’t have time to go through them all, all of the above examples have either been cited by academics as examples of settler-colonialism, or share substantial commonalities with cited examples in my opinion. My problem with settler-colonialism as a term is that it is fundamentally based in modern concepts of indigeneity and nationalism. To put it bluntly, applying ahistorical modern concepts to a time and place that knew nothing of them is stupid. The vague definitions and overuse of the term compound these problems and threaten to misrepresent a near-universal human practice as an exclusively Western European phenomenon, and serve to complicate and frustrate conversation around instances where a more specific definition would be useful to meaningfully distinguish between it and other colonial projects; South Africa being a prime example. Specific language used accurately is important. All that being said, modern European colonialism more broadly and the effects thereof are important fields of study, and due to both temporal proximity and geographical reach, colonialism as it was practiced by modern European empires has had an outsized negative impact on the living conditions of billions of people currently alive in the year 2023. Sorry for all that, I just had to get it off of my chest.

So, back to the problem at hand. The point of view that sees Zionism as simply another expression of European colonialism is, in my opinion, oversimplified or even outright wrong. The fundamental problem with viewing Zionism as just another European colonial endeavor is that European Jews were generally not seen as European, but as either foreign invaders or domestic subversives. European Jews were generally excluded from the national identities developing across Europe, with very few exceptions. Where Zionism did recieve gentile support, it was secured through moral arguments and intellectual persuasion, not sinister influence. Zionism, while it was influenced by colonialism, Orientalism, and even aspects of white supremacy, was an intellectual idea and practical endeavor primarily advocated by a subset of the Jewish diaspora. In contrast to European colonialism, which was motivated in part or in whole by a mix of greed, national pride, white supremacy, and the belief in a ‘benevolent’ civilizing and christianizing mission, the intellectual underpinning of Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people possess the most legitimate claim to the land that is now Israel and Palestine as their historical homeland. That belief beggars an obvious question: do they?

Maybe?!

This is a large part of the reason why arguments about Zionism get so tangled and ugly and GAHH!. Zionism is the product of applying late 19th century concepts of nationalism and a people’s right to a homeland to a people exiled from their homeland over a thousand years before. Except it’s still more complicated than that, because the return of the Jews to Israel is an idea that is as old as the exodus itself. So the end result is that who you support is often decided by your personal answer to any number of thorny, complicated questions. Are the Jews indigenous to Israel? Are the Arabs indigenous to Palestine? If a people are expelled from their land, do they have the right to return? If yes, does that right expire? If it does, then how long does it last? Should special privilege be afforded to a people without a current homeland? What about a people who have experienced suppression, violence, and social rejection? Is it possible for a land to have multiple indigenous groups? If so, what about the right to return? Can one indigenous group act in a colonialist or imperialist manner towards another?

These questions do have answers, but even a simple yes or no requires additional explanation, elaboration, and will inevitably conflict with opposing answers. The concepts they rest on are complicated and nuanced. One that I’ve mentioned before, and one that you’re probably sick of hearing about at this point, is indigeneity. The reason I harp on this is because it is another modern idea, overused and poorly defined, that is useful, but whose applicability is less universal that an America-centric conception would suggest. Unlike in the Americas, where the dividing line between indigenous and immigrant is fairly clean cut, the Old World’s long list of conquests, migrations, depopulations, pandemics, and famines make the concept of indigeneity really fucking messy. As an example, consider the Turks. The Turks live in Turkey, or at least most of them do. Turkish nationalism, as it developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, considers Anatolia to be the homeland of the Turkish people. Do you know where the Turks are from?

Mongolia.

Or at least that general area. Archeological evidence is a little vague. I had a summary of that whole process here, but it was too long and I cut it. Summary2, the Seljuk Turks came to rule over Anatolia in the 10th century, starting a roughly 1000 year long process of cultural, ethnic, and linguistic conversion. In the late 19th century, the multiethnic but Turkish-ruled Ottomans began to develop and promote Turkish nationalism, partly in response to European nationalism. Because the Turkish people lived mostly in Anatolia when Turkish nationalism was developed, modern day Turkey adopted the status of homeland to the Turks. In conclusion, shit’s wack.

This is just one of literally thousands of examples of ways in which the concepts of nationalism and indigeneity are, seriously, I’m not just saying words here, complicated. They just are. These questions don’t have simple, satisfying answers and the discussion around them should reflect the nuances of the situation, but usually don't.

I have seen people expressing sentiments along the lines of, “Sitting back and debating the inexhaustible complexity of the Israel-Palestine conflict ad nauseam is obscuring the active suffering of the Palestinian people.” This is a sentiment that I understand, but do not agree with. It is important to talk about the abuses that Israel is committing in Gaza and in the West Bank, and to condemn them as criminal and immoral. But the discussion around the Israel-Gaza War does not take place in a vacuum. Discussions of the current war and of the wider conflict inevitably leave the realm of discussing what just happened and enter the realm of why. And the answer to that why? is almost inevitably wrapped up in narrative. There is an overwhelming tendency for the pro-Palestinian camp to reject the idea that Zionism might, in even a small way, have a legitimate argument. For most of the pro-Palestinian camp, the answer to the fundamental underlying question of Zionism, are the Jews indigenous to Israel? is no. Full stop. That is the narrative of Palestinian resistance. That is the narrative of anti-colonialism. That is the narrative that says that Israel is a European settler-colony. That is the narrative that delegitimizes the State of Israel. And that is a narrative that needs to change because that narrative makes negotiation and compromise impossible. Delegitimization is to nation-states what dehumanization is to people. Throughout the entirety of the American Civil War, President Lincoln referred to the conflict as a “rebellion” and the Confederacy as “rebels”, “insurrectionists”, or “traitors”. Direct quotes. A legitimate state possesses rights, can be negotiated with, and once recognized cannot be derecognized easily. An illegitimate entity must be crushed. Regardless of the crimes of Israel, and oh boy, are we going to get into those, an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict will have to be a negotiated resolution, because Israel isn’t going away.

I have my own personal beliefs about all of the above questions and more. I won’t share them because they aren’t important, and it's not really my place. However, to reiterate some of what I have said; I do think that the history of Israel and Palestine can be accurately characterized as a colonialist history, but I feel that the narrative of anti-colonialism papers over the moral complexity of the situation and intentionally delegitimizes Zionism and Israel.

Now, you may have noticed that I’ve mostly been focusing on my problems with the pro-Palestian side, for several reasons. Once again, this essay is supposed to be less about the conflict itself and more about the narratives that I have been seeing online. Since this is an overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian website, addressing that narrative has taken precedence. For that same reason, posting anti-Israeli content does feel a little bit like preaching to the choir. Nevertheless, I have many, many thoughts about Israel and the pro-Israeli narratives, and I clearly have no compunctions whatsoever about screaming my bullshit into the void, so let us now talk about…

Israel & Narrative

And also a little bit more about the Palestinian narrative. Sorry, everything’s kinda interconnected and it's hard to separate sometimes.

So I know that I tagged my last post as “kicking the hornets’ nest”, but this next bit is more like throwing a hornets’ nest at a bees’ nest sitting on the back of a tiger, but here goes.

For at least 90% of the people on this site, the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict is completely irrelevant, except for its utility in constructing narratives.

A bold statement, you say. Well yes, but it’s a bold statement that I will stand by. Most of the discussion on this website, and elsewhere, is being driven by people for whom the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict is either an academic matter, or a cudgel to beat their opponents with. There are, as always, a few exceptions. The Holocaust is one, in no small part due to its scope and relevance even outside Israel-Palestine. The First Arab-Israeli War, and concurrently the Nakba, is another due to its status as as the opening salvo of the Israel-Palestine conflict, due to the immense suffering it caused to the Palestinian people, and due to its close relationship with the right of return, which holds importance both as narrative component and as a practical political issue directly affecting the lives millions of Palestinians. Things are messy and everything has caveats.

Jupiter the nonbinary MCR stan from Wisconsin did not buy an authentic keffiyeh from a Palestinian factory or participate in the local Free Palestine march because they’re intimately versed in and personally affected by the geopolitics of the Six-Day War.

They’re doing all of that because Israel is a colonialist Amerikkkan puppet that attacks its neighbors without provocation, and Bibi’s latest genocide just killed a few 9/11s worth of children.

David, 41-year-old 4chan refugee, closet brony, “Classical Liberal” of the Carl Benjamin variety, born and raised in Buttfuck, Upstate NY, isn’t ranting and raging about the ceasefire agitators over Thanksgiving dinner because he’s thoroughly studied and is greatly aggrieved of the history of terrorism in the Palestinian liberation movement, or because he put the work in to fully understand the 2006 elections in Gaza and wholeheartedly regrets their outcome.

He’s worked up ‘cause the bus-bombing towelheads have done it again, and he doesn’t give a hoot how many Gazans die ‘cause they shoulda known who they was votin’ for.

Tumblr user viv-hollande, pro-incest Kaeluc truther from [redacted] USA wasn’t crouched over the toilet losing his lunch studying the long, tragic history of the Israel-Palestine crisis.

He was losing his lunch because they just bombed a hospital, 500 people are dead, the bastards did it and they’ll deny it just like with Hook and Miller and Abu Akleh, shitting hells it’s never going to end-

viv-hollande jumped to a conclusion that was informed by a narrative, and proceeded to waste several hours angrily arguing with an Israeli Tumblr user and stubbornly denying credible evidence and what he was seeing with his own eyes because of a narrative, much of which he read about but did not live through. There remain many questions about what happened at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, but the preponderance of evidence has fallen on the side of a Palestinian misfire. If you think that the evidence provided by over a dozen governments, media outlets, and independent analysts was all fabricated on the orders of Puppet-master Bibi, stop. You’re being an antisemite. Please learn from my fuckup.

The above statement mostly applies to the world worth of spectators to this conflict and not to Israelis and Palestinians themselves. For those who lived through those events, or who have family who lived through them, there is obviously a direct personal connection to that history which, on a human scale at least, really isn’t that old. There are survivors of both the Holocaust and the Nakba still around.

I also want to re-emphasize, just in case it got lost in the sludge, that the above statement concerns the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, not current events. Even for those far removed from the conflict, witnessing the ongoing bloodshed in real time is still a traumatic experience that is bound to provoke strong emotional responses and influence people’s position on the wider conflict. Narrative or no, seeing dead children is going to have an effect on you.

With that out of the way, on to the actual pro-Israeli narrative. In no small part due to less exposure, I am less confident in my analysis of the pro-Israeli narrative than I am of the pro-Palestinian narrative, especially as it pertains to Americans arguing online. But, I have divined a few significant main points.

One of the most important parts of the pro-Israeli point of view is that of a siege narrative. The Israeli narrative holds that the state of Israel has existed under the threat of existential annihilation since its inception. I have also seen in many places a direct conflation of the military and political threats to Israel’s existence with the wider history of antisemitism and specifically with the Holocaust. This goes all the way up to Benjamin Netenyahu himself, who falsely claimed, among other wrong things, that it was the Grand Mufti of Palestine who convinced Hitler to order the Holocaust. This statement was roundly condemned by basically everyone, whether Jewish, Israeli, or Palestinian, for good reason. It’s tantamount to Holocaust denialism.

The pro-Israeli narrative fundamentally denies the legitimacy and/or existence of Palestinian identity and a Palestinian state. In many cases, it denies the Palestinian right to a state in Palestine at all. This stance is directly related to the perceived necessity for a Jewish-majority Israel, and serves to facilitate the forced removal of the Palestinians from Israel and Palestine. In addition to being morally abhorrent, this stance represents a fundamental obstacle to a negotiated end to the conflict. While I can’t prove it, I very much suspect that some, especially the loudest deniers of Palestinian identity, are aware of this and continue to do so intentionally to undermine peace and facilitate Israel’s continued expansion at Palestinian expense.

For Americans, especially after 9/11, the narrative of the Israel-Palestine conflict has been folded into the wider narrative of the War on Terror. Israel-Palestine and the War on Terror are connected, but that connection is a lot more complicated than the American narrative, which, in its own racist, uninformed way, can’t tell the difference between Palestians, Arabs, Muslims, Iranians, Afghans, and the completely uninvolved Sikhs, several of whom nevertheless were attacked and killed by racist, overzealous American “patriots”. This conflation degrades the conversation around the Israel-Palestine conflict and reduces the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause. And while this last bit is essentially unfalsifiable conjecture, I suspect that the collapse of the War on Terror, and the changing narratives around it, plays a part in why the reaction to the current war has been substantially more pro-Palestinian than past flare ups.

As you can see, Israel and its advocates are guilty of many of the same tactics and narrative techniques that I criticized so fervently among Palestinians. The biggest, and most infuriating, has been the consistent denial of Palestinian identity and insistence that Jews/Israelis are the one and only true indigenous people in Israel and Palestine, and the consistent delegitimization of any Palestinian state. This attitude has no doubt played a significant role in prolonging and extending the conflict, and with it the suffering of the Palestinian people. For more details on that suffering, let us now turn to…

Israel & War Crimes

“Israel is definitely committing a campaign of forced displacement, possibly amounting to ethnic cleansing, but I remain unconvinced of the crime of genocide,” - viv-hollande

The above statement in my previous post generated some pushback. I expected this, and planned to dedicate a whole section of the longer essay to supporting this claim, and elaborate on my meaning. Here is that. Oh, and full disclosure, this is probably the most pedantic that I am going to get in this, and I fully expect that that will piss people off for eminently understandable reasons. Nevertheless here I go.

I would like to start by recalling the first of my establishing points: words have meanings, some words have very specific meanings, and it is important to use words with specific meanings correctly or else risk the degradation and dilution of the words themselves. Meaningless words are useless. With that out of the way:

Genocide, as defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, is defined as any of five acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The five acts are:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Deliberately inflicting upon group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

So, we’ve clearly seen evidence of four of the five acts which potentially constitute a genocide, so why am I opposed to its use? The answer is intent. This is an issue that has been raised by others online, and the response is always a mix of a) harping on definitions while thousands of Palestinians are being murdered obscures their suffering and allows Israel to act unchallenged and b) here is the evidence that Israel intends to commit genocide. Addressing those in reverse order:

I have seen many posts with supposed evidence of Israeli intent to commit genocide. But when they are coagulated, they look less like an actual argument and more like a conspiracy board filled with singular quotes, out-of-context statements, and tweets from some random Israeli expressing dehumanizing, borderline genocidal sentiments. I’m sorry, but this is not evidence of intent. Neither is pointing to Gaza, saying, “Look at what is going on! This clearly shows intent”. It doesn’t. Is a genocide happening in Gaza right now? Maybe. Its unsatisfying and frustrating, but intent is something that will likely be impossible to prove or disprove without access to Israeli government documents. It is classified meeting minutes that will prove or disprove intent, not tweets from Israeli bloggers.

If you are angry at me for harping on definitions and technicalities, that’s understandable. But remember, words have meanings. I am not convinced that a genocide is happening in Gaza. But d’ya wanna know what is happening?

War crimes. Crimes against humanity. Ethnic cleansing. Forced displacement. Criminally disproportionate military action. Killing and targeting of journalists. Attacks on medical workers and facilities. Attacks on shelter areas. Attacks on UN workers and facilities.

All of these are crimes. In a just world, their perpetrators would be spending the rest of their lives behind bars. They are barbarous acts of cruelty that should be condemned, regardless of whether or not they meet the qualifications of being an act of genocide.

Israel’s attacks on Palestinian water sources is a crime, regardless of whether or not they were committed with genocidal intent.

Involuntary detention of children without charge is a crime, regardless of whether or not they were committed with genocidal intent.

Indiscriminate bombings of civilians are crimes, regardless of whether or not they were committed with genocidal intent.

The Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip, both before and after the 7 October attacks, is a crime, regardless of whether or not they were committed with genocidal intent.

The word genocide is used on this platform like a fire alarm. Pull here to warn people about oppression and mass slaughter. But genocide, like all of the other crimes mentioned above, is a word that has a meaning, a definition. That definition is imperfect, but it is what we have to work with. Using these terms specifically and correctly is important.

It feels sometimes that discussion around atrocities turns into a matter of genocide or nothing. People treat the usage of more accurate and specific, but ‘less severe’ terms as a form of denialism. It is that attitude that makes discussing these supposedly ‘less severe’ crimes incredibly difficult. ‘Cause guess what!

Every single one of the crimes listed above is a barbarous crime, and you should fight and condemn every last one of them with the same fervor as you should genocide. None of them are tolerable, none of them are lesser. They are, one and all, abominable acts of criminal violence. The overuse of the term genocide makes it harder to effectively fight all of the others and perpetrates a narrative, consciously or not, that its a matter of genocide or bust.

Hamas & Revolution

The Islamic Resistance Movement, more commonly known by its Arabic acronym Hamas, is in my estimation the most militarily and politically powerful Palestinian organization in the world. Although its stated goals have changed several times over the years, Hamas has generally characterized itself as a defender of Palestinian nationalism, an advocate for Palestinian liberation, and an opponent to Israel, colonialism, and imperialism.

Hamas is also an aspirationally genocidal terrorist organization, and every time I see expressions of support for them you should feel sick. I certainly do.

Open expressions of support for Hamas have been rare, but far from zero. Most of those who do support Hamas uncritically accept the premise that Hamas is an anti-colonial revolutionary resistance organization fighting against Zionist occupation. This post is way too long and my deadline is rapidly approaching, so instead of breaking down all of that, let us assume, for the sake of argument, that that statement is true. Even if true, none of that prevents Hamas from also being an antisemitic, aspirationally genocidal terrorist organization.

One of the basic assumptions of the anti-colonialist narrative is that colonized=good, colonizer=bad. This flattens nuanced and complicated conflicts and leads to the excusing and justifying of criminal acts on the basis that they were committed in pursuit of a just cause.

Anti-colonialist struggles are justified according to the right of self-determination. Many of them nevertheless committed criminal acts.

There is a tendency to treat conflicts, past and present, less as actual events and more like culture wars. It has become fashionable to condemn the United States by rote, to shout “Up the Ra”, without actually addressing the reality of the situation one is commenting on. As an example of what I mean, take Morocco. Last year, Morocco was briefly appointed as the symbolic standard-bearer of anti-imperialism for… winning football matches against tHe DrEaDeD cOlOnIzErS. Today, Morocco is imperialist persona non grata and traitor to the Palestinian cause. Neither of these judgments were made because of the practical, on the ground reality of decolonization, anti-imperialism, or the Palestinian cause. These judgments were made because of the narrative of anti-colonialism. If the actions of Morocco, or anyone else for that matter, work in favor of the narrative of anti-colonialism, then they are lauded. If their actions contradict that narrative, they are condemned. Are there important geopolitical implications of Morocco’s decision to support Israel in exchange for support in Western Sahara? Yes, of course. Realistically speaking, they will probably be minor and mostly symbolic. Morocco isn’t sending soldiers to help occupy Gaza, and Israel won’t be sending soldiers to support the conquest of Western Sahara. Does any of that matter to users on www.tumblr.com? No.

To the supporters of Hamas, I don’t have a lot to say here. Hamas has been open about its antisemitism, and both Hamas leaders and official Hamas statements have openly called for genocide against Israelis, and sometimes Jews more broadly. Hamas engages in blatant conspiracism and has gleefully spread stories about a Jewish-controlled globalist shadow government trying to bring about the NWO. While they did officially amend their charter in 2017 to state that their fight is with the “Zionist enemy” rather than the Jewish people writ large, I find it difficult to believe that they are being honest with their intentions, and even if they are, the 7 October attacks show that they consider Israeli civilians as part of the “Zionist enemy” and thus fair game.

River & Sea

In my previous post, I made the assertion that the popular pro-Palestinian slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is an antisemitic slogan. As I expected, I got some pushback on this, but have no fear, I have a qualified justification.

Slightly modified, I uphold the statement that, as a practical matter, in the year 2023 “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a de facto antisemitic statement.

To fully explain what I mean here, and to address some of the confusion that I have seen with regards to the history of the statement. Shoutout to @starsakura17 and @screaming-weevil for having a conversation about the term and trying to research the history of the phrase to better inform themselves. That’s something we all, including me, should do more often on more topics.

As far as I can discern, the origins of the “River to the sea” part of the phrase are unknown, but Zionist sentiments about creating a state between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea actually predate the First Arab-Israeli War and may predate Mandatory Palestine. The phrase first became associated with the Palestinian cause in the 1960s, when it was used to express opposition to the partition of Palestine and support for a single state in Palestine. How exactly this state was envisioned varied dramatically, but even back then, the 1964 PLO Charter expressly excluded the mostly Jewish immigrants to Palestine from their definition of Palestinians. Gee, where have I heard that before. Now, the PLO do not and did not speak for all Palestinians, and there were many Palestinians and Israelis who advocated for a single state that would be democratic and secular, thus creating a free Palestine between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Thusly, if you asked me in the 1960s whether the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic, I would say no, but I would probably note that it is used by antisemites and caution you to be careful with your usage.

However, it is no longer the 1960s, and the usage and users of the phrase have shifted over time. The most important change is the rise of Islamic militant groups, most of whom have adopted the phrase as a call to destroy Israel and purge Palestine of Israelis and/or Jews. In addition, the geopolitical landscape of Israel and Palestine has changed. In the early 1960s, when the land between the river and the sea was under total occupation by Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and when the idea of a single, secular, democratic state was at least theoretically possible, non-antisemitic usage of “From the river to the sea” was both possible and fairly common. There were individuals and organizations with actual influence on both sides that could have or did try to lead the charge for this exact solution. In 2023, that is no longer the case.

When I see people using the phrase “From the river to the sea”, my first question is how will that happen? Who will end up in charge of the land from river to sea? Remember, words have meaning, and political slogans do not exist in a vacuum. In the year 2023, there is only one organization with the political clout, popular support, and military might even hope to create a free Palestine stretching from the river to the sea: Hamas. Barring an externally imposed settlement, there is no other entity that could feasibly achieve such a state. You saw what they did on 7 October; what do you think their plan is for the rest of the Jews in Israel?

If you object to my connection between “From the river to the sea” and Hamas ruling over the whole of Israel and Palestine, then go ahead. Tell me how, exactly, a free Palestinian state from river to sea can be created without giving Hamas free access to the people they openly want to exterminate.

Regardless of its origin, regardless of your intention when you say it, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a statement that has been proudly adopted by the most virulent and violent antisemites on the Palestinian side. Whatever its intention, it is at best a slogan with a confused and muddy history that is deeply linked with antisemitism; at worst it is incitement to genocide.

SO STOP USING IT. Any slogan that has to be regularly qualified with “but not in an antisemitic way” is a slogan that you should not use. There are better, non-antisemitic slogans already in use; you do not need to cling desperately to this one.

While I’m here, I may as well address the phrase “Free Palestine from Hamas”. Like “From the river to the sea”, it's a theoretically neutral or even positive slogan. However, I see it most commonly used by those who vocally support the ongoing, indiscriminate destruction of Gaza and slaughter of the people living there. Whatever your intention, this phrase is associated with those who believe that any action is justifiable as long as it might possibly kill even a single Hamas member.

Conclusion

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter, or at least a more coherent one.” - viv-hollande

If you made it this far, you have my respect. I’ve said a lot here, probably too much. I am sure it means something; I am not sure if it means anything significant.

A lot of people are probably mad at me right now. Some of that is probably fair. Some of it is probably not.

I had someone accuse me of being “fundamentally unserious” under my last post, which is a very weird and kind of funny thing to say to a teenager.

I’m really struggling with how to finish this, ‘cause I am well and truly running low on steam, and I have French homework that I’ve been putting off. I’ve scrapped, like, three entire sections that I either didn’t have time to finish, or that I felt were even more poorly written than the rest of this incoherent mess. Maybe I’ll turn them into dedicated posts.

As a final conclusion: The Israel-Palestine conflict has been saddled with millions of uninvolved rubberneckers who all seem to have a lot to say about every aspect of it. As humans tend to do, these bystanders have created narratives of war and struggle, of oppression and revolution. It is these narratives, shaped by history, but also by biases, bigotries, personal values, and misinformation. We choose a good side, and subsume that side into our own personal in-group. We excuse the faults in our allies, and exaggerate or fabricate faults in our enemies. The Palestinian cause categorically dismisses the Jewish right to a secure homeland. The de facto leaders of Gaza are aspirational génocidaires. The pro-Palestinian cause as a whole doesn’t care to consider the fate of the Israelis, millions of who were born and raised in Israel and have nowhere else to go. Simultaneously, the Israelis deny the suffering of the Palestinian people, wherever they may reside. Many current and past leaders of Israel are war criminals, and few, if any, of them will be brought to justice. Make no mistake, this is not a case of “both sides”. As the stronger party to the conflict, backed by the strongest nation on Earth, Israel has had most of the power to choose the timeline for the end to the conflict. As it stands, it seems more and more likely that that end will result in the final, irrevocable extinguishing of the dream of a Palestinian state. That end would be a tragedy, and it would be a crime.

If you’re not sick of me telling you what to do at this point, you have the patience of a fucking saint. To those still here, I say this: condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, and bigotry wherever they occur; all conflicts have long, complicated histories that get flattened by the desire to ‘pick a side’; exact language, used specifically, is a delicate, precious thing that must be safeguarded; Israel’s crimes in Gaza, whether they qualify as a campaign of genocide, rank as some of the worst committed in decades, and the western political establishment’s tacit acceptance and endorsement of that campaign of horrors is, in and of itself, criminal and immoral, and both should be fought with as much energy as you can possibly spare.

Fuck Bibi, and all those who enable him. Fuck Hamas. Fight war crimes. Ceasefire now. Free Palestine.

A Message To Israelis and Palestinians

I struggled the most with what to say here. As I’ve repeatedly said, this post is intended not for you, but for the crowds of virtual bystanders to the incomprehensible crimes being committed in Israel and Gaza. As someone with, as they say, no skin in the game, I feel uncomfortable addressing you in a way I generally don’t when confronting my peers. I don’t know if you want or need the perspective of yet another rubbernecker, especially when what I do have to say is so insubstantial. But I would feel remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the people over whose heads I have been shouting for so long. So, for the final time, here goes.

I am so sorry for what you are going through. To the Israelis, to those living in fear of rocket attacks and suicide bombers, and especially to those who lost loved ones in the 7 October attacks, or who are living in limbo hoping and praying for the release of the hostages, I express my deepest condolences. To the Palestinians of the West Bank, who have suffered the encroachment and aggression of Israeli settlers and Occupation soldiers, and who must soldier on through the ever-tightening vice of apartheid, your resilience inspires me and your suffering devastates me. To the Palestinian refugees, who have been driven out of their homeland and now must wait endlessly for a return that may never come, please know that you are in my heart. And finally to the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, who have been subjected to years of indignity, abuse, and violence, who have endured overwhelming, disproportionate, and indiscriminate retaliation for every terrorist provocation, who have been starved, bombed, shot, beaten, and brutalized in ways that I, sheltered as I am, could never possibly imagine, and who are at this very moment deep in mourning over the thousands and thousands of parents, children, siblings, cousins, friends, uncles, grandparents, nieces, nephews, acquaintances, colleagues, and everything in between, I offer you have my most sincere apologies and my grief at your losses, pale as they must be in comparison to your own. I don’t know if they’ll help, but they’re really all I’ve got.

I wish I could offer you hope. I wish I could offer you a solution. I wish I could do something, anything, that would actually have a meaningful impact on any of this. But I can’t. I’m sorry.

#long post #really long post #israel palestine conflict #i/p conflict #i/p #israel gaza war #antisemitism #islamophobia #war crimes #crimes against humanity #ethnic cleansing #viv lectures #fuck bibi #fuck hamas #free palestine #ceasefire now #kicking the hornet's nest #and the bee's nest

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

Text

Pluralistic is three

Though I didn’t know it at the time, Jan 29, 2020 was my last day at Boing Boing; as it happens, that was nearly exactly 19 years after my first day at Boing Boing. Though it was a tough decision, it was the right one, and while I’m no longer helping to write the site, I’m still an ardent reader, a co-owner, and a well-wisher.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/drei-drei-drei/#now-we-are-three

I started writing Boing Boing at the age of 30. When I stopped, I was 49. That’s a lot of living. Web-writing had come a long way since then, and so had the web, and the world — and so had I. While the way I blogged had evolved substantially over my years at Boing Boing, all those changes had been evolutionary — a series of incremental shifts.

After I left Boing Boing, I spent three weeks thinking about how — or whether — I would continue to write the web. In a world where platforms have interposed themselves between creative workers and their audiences, manically twiddling the knobs that determine whether the people who ask to hear from you ever get to, starting a new publication was a daunting proposition.

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

It felt like my two choices were to pick one or a few platforms and devote my efforts to platform kremlinology, trying to figure out what words, subjects or formats would cause The Algorithm to block the people who’d subscribed to my feed from seeing it; or to start a standalone website, which no one would ever see, but which I would control.

Both of these are bad choices, so I chose neither — or, depending on how you look at it, both. POSSE stands for “Post Own Site, Share Everywhere,” and it’s an idea that comes out of the Indieweb movement. Under POSSE, you post your work to a site you control, but syndicate to all the platforms and silos, with a link back to the original:

https://indieweb.org/POSSE

Though the platforms might punish you for this — think of Instagram and Facebook hiding posts with links to the public web, or Twitter’s short-lived policy of suspending the accounts of users whose bios included their Mastodon address — any attention that did slip past their stingy, tight-pinched sphincters would at least have a chance of connecting users directly to your own site and its feeds.

Three weeks after I quit Boing Boing, I launched Pluralistic, my POSSE project, which sees me publishing one or more essays, five or more days per week, homed on my own non-surveilling, non-tracking, ad-free Wordpress site, a fulltext RSS feed, and a plaintext newsletter, and mirrored to Tumblr, Mastodon, Twitter and Medium:

https://pluralistic.net/

Today, Pluralistic is three years old. Even with the global pandemic that followed shortly on its founding, I still find myself marvelling at how quickly the time has flown by — and, thinking back over the past three years, I’m also profoundly satisfied with how it has shaped up.

Even though Pluralistic isn’t a group blog — a Metafilter wag commented on the irony of calling a solo project “pluralistic” and they weren’t wrong! — I couldn’t have done this without help. First, and most importantly, I must thank the incredible Ken Snider, who has hosted my servers for decades, and who is one of the most thoughtful, diligent, and skilled network administrators I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. I can’t thank Ken enough — without his help, I’d be hamstrung.

Early in Pluralistic’s history, the pioneering cryptographer Loren Kohnfelder noticed that I was making the formatting errors characteristic of someone who is trying to do a lot of fiddly work manually. Loren wrote to me out of the blue and volunteered to write some python scripts to make my production more streamlined and — crucially — less error-prone. If you are interested in the minutiae of how these scripts work, here’s a process post I published in 2021, on the 20th anniversary of my first blog post:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/13/two-decades/#hfbd

Even Loren’s excellent automation tools can’t fix my own errors. I am a bottomless font of typos and other PEBCAK-type errors, and many readers write to point these out, but none are so diligent, regular and thoughtful as Gregory Charlin, who has helped me fix more typos in my work than anyone except my mother, who is the world’s greatest proofreader (Gregory is a close second).

Pluralistic has a (far too) irregular podcast component. I started podcasting in 2005, when Mark Pesce, John Perry Barlow and I got on the subject at a speaker’s dinner at a conference in Montreal and Mark demanded to know why I wasn’t doing one. I blamed it on my travel schedule, saying that I wouldn’t be able to sit down in a quiet room with a good mic on a regular basis. Mark insisted that I was being too precious and that I could just record with my laptop mic from wherever I happened to be — a hotel room, a taxi-cab, whatever. The result was a lot of fun, but very rough:

https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_01

In 2009, I was at a club in London when a guy came up to me and introduced himself. That was John Taylor Williams, a sound engineer in DC who loved my work and hated the sound quality of my podcast. He graciously volunteered to master it for me and while he promised that he wouldn’t insist that I upgrade my recording situation, he did offer multiple useful suggestions. He’s still mastering today (and is the engineer on all my audiobook projects) and under his patient tutelage, I’ve bought some decent gear and learned how to use it — and my podcast sounds great today. Thank you, John!

https://craphound.com/podcast/

A year ago, when Pluralistic turned two, I reflected on the way the site had changed over the 550 posts I’d published thus far (today, it’s 767), focusing on the fact that I have no metrics for any of the channels I manage — not even a humble page-counter:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/19/now-we-are-two/#two-much-posse

Rather than using analytics and usage statistics to guide my work on Pluralistic, I focus solely on qualitative elements — feedback from readers (and critics). Mostly, that’s feedback on substance. I call my blogging process “The Memex Method” — a way of iteratively improving my own ideas by presenting them to other people, rather than working through, say, a private commonplace book:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-memex-method-238c71f2fb46

I’m generally less interested in people who want me to write about something other than the things I’m interested in. From the start, the beauty of being an independent web-writer is being freed from the tyranny of trying to identify and please an audience, and instead using my work to attract the audience that shares my interests (even if they disagree with my views):

https://doctorow.medium.com/so-youve-decided-to-unfollow-me-7452c96b4772

One kind of non-substantive disagreement/suggestion I do pay attention to is readability suggestions; the point of Pluralistic is to discover and engage people who share my interests. Over the past year, reader feedback has led to improvements in my headline style and other formatting elements.

However, there are elements of the Pluralistic project that are more important than readability. For example, many Mastodon readers have asked why I don’t switch to a server with a 5,000 character limit. The answer is that the server I use, mamot.fr, is run by the digital rights group La Quadrature Du Net, an organization with a long history of standing up to censorship demands. Censorship-resistance is simply more important than character limits. Ken is working on standing up a new Masto server for my use, but it turns out to require some new hardware, and that process takes a while, especially if you care about getting the hardware right.

Another example: I post bare links in all my syndicated posts, rather than using anchor text. One reader wrote to ask if I could stop to make things easier for the text-to-speech tool he uses to listen to my posts while on the move.

I had to disappoint him: the bare links are there for a reason. In an age where platforms routinely rewrite links so that they pass through an analytics filter, it’s possible to select a bare link, copy it, and paste it into your location bar, bypassing surveillance.

The reader suggested that bare links would pose a problem to visually disabled users, who would have to endure listening to URLs, but I’ve never heard this from a visually disabled person directly, and the one blind friend I asked about it said that he had become so accustomed to skipping over URLs and other machine-readable passages that he didn’t even notice them.

One place where I pay a lot of attention to accessibility is in the alt text for my images. I am not a visual person by nature, and I don’t have a subscription to any of the stock art sites (and most stock images are incredibly bland). Instead, I make weird, phantasmagoric, often barely competent (but enormously satisfying) collages out of public domain and Creative Commons materials:

https://doctorow.medium.com/a-year-in-illustration-ba89d31f5d68

These are often so abstract as to be barely comprehensible (as befits someone working on the weird and abstract issues that are my life’s work) and adding alt text doesn’t just make these more accessible, it also helps me spot areas where I could be clearer.

Three years is an eyeblink — and it’s an eternity. In the three years since I started publishing my work on Pluralistic, under a Creative Commons Attribution-only license, I’ve moved into much longer-form, considered, synthetic pieces, a process that has only accelerated over the past year. Magazines and other commercial publishers have begun to syndicate these pieces, sometimes picking them up for free under the CC license, sometimes paying me to edit or adapt them for their pages. Both are fine with me. I’ve got a lot on my plate — seven books in production! — and I am happy to have my work syndicated for free if it means I don’t have to do more work.

Like Woody Guthrie once said:

This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.

[Image ID: William Blake's watercolor of Cerebrus, the three-headed hell-hound.]

#pluralistic #posse #process posts #web writing #anniversaries

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kafkaguy · 5 months

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8, 9, 19, 22, 23, and 26 for the mash asks <3333333

8. what’s your favorite ridiculous storyline ?

s2e2 5 o'clock charlie is one of my favourite episodes and also one of the funniest storylines and i think it counts as pretty ridiculous, what with the various ways trapper and hawkeye try to stop frank from firing the gun at the plane and the various ways frank fails without anyone else even trying. also the whole premise of 5 o'clock charlie is hilarious. but a close second is s5e6 the abduction of Margaret because a) anything involving colonel Flagg is ridiculous b) frank assuming she's been kidnapped by communists is very silly c) it could all have been easily avoided if klinger had just remembered to tell everyone where Margaret went and I relate to that ❤️

9. episode you could genuinely write an entire essay on?

there's definitely quite a few. the two that come to mind are s2e6 'Kim' with a focus on Trapper and the phenomenon of orphaned kids in war and members of "the other side" feeling the need to take care of them, and s5e22 'Movie Tonight' because I love "a movie within a movie" and the way it sort of reflects on itself as a show (fictional people in a real war watching a movie with fictional conflict vs real people watching a tv show about fictional people in a real war)

19. favorite character that’s talked about but never onscreen?

sparky! he's done so much for radar and mash 4077, he always comes through for the favours radar asks of him and generally sounds like a cool guy, seems to be good company down at the other end of the radio :) and the way Radar always gets so enthusiastic talking to him i like to imagine they have a really good relationship :) I'd also love to be in sparky's position tbh. I'd love to be in his position.

22. a klinger outfit you’d want to “borrow" (and probably never give back)?

most of klinger's outfits are too femme for me and most i appreciate their beauty and grace in the way that *he* wears them, but i love his cute little nurse outfit complete with the cape and everything

Next halloween costume... images taken from tumblr user klingerfashionarchive

23. a storyline you wish they’d gone a little deeper on?

i don't even know. Anything involving trapper, especially his kids, like in Kim or the first mail call episode. also Henry's death! I think the show could have referred to Henry a lot more because after Abyssinia Henry the only time I remember the consequences of his death being shown is in s4e4 the late captain pierce when Hawk says "Henry's dead and they're still coming" but idk! I feel like I didn't see it leave enough of an impact on radar 💔 or hawkeye and Margaret, who were the ogs who knew him best. or even potter, who's taking the place of a dead man! maybe I'll write my own episode

26. blog gets to pick whichever question they want to answer

answering question 5: do you have a favorite patient? it's definitely the guy in s6e16 patient 4077 who they try the new clamp on and is so delighted about it he's like "i'll send you guys Christmas presents every Hanukkah" I remember him always because a) Jewish mention! and b) he was just happy to be there and happy to be alive. honourable mention to s1e17 Tommy gillis who was the first important guy to die in mash he did so much for the lgbt community 🫡

#bonus answer to the essay question: s7e3 Lil...#something about that episode really stuck with me and i think it's everything about margaret #and also their specific choices of A plot and B plot bcos those two storylines may have nothing to do with each other #but they're in the same episode and i think i have a lot to say on the matter! anyway.#THANK YOU RYAN I KNEW I COULD ALWAYS COUNT ON YOU 🫡❤️#ryan ⚔️#mash #📬

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nedlittle · 1 year

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Top 5 doomed expeditions

bet you thought this was going to be the franklin expedition huh? well it's not. it's endurance baby!!!!!!!!! genuinely i have to not talk about this one because it makes me so emotional. how the FUCK did those guys survive. one of the questions asked during recruitment was whether you could "shout along with the boys". endurance is destroyed on her maiden voyage she was "a bride of the sea" but we FOUND HER my beautiful wife at the bottom of the weddell sea. shackleton and the lads sail 1300 km of the most dangerous water in the world in an open lifeboat and scale cliffs for five (?) days to find help and they DO and three months after they left, they return to the rest of the crew and nobody has fucking died. every single member of the expedition survived--albeit many after losing toes to frostbite and getting severe scurvy. just this once everybody lives!! also the shenanigans! shackleton told perce blackborrow that stowaways will get eaten first if it comes to that and sweet baby perce blackborrow said "there's more meat on your sir" and then everyone got along :) frank hurley and leonard hussey shoved handfuls of lentils in thomas orde-lees's open mouth when he wouldn't stop snoring. they named the cat mrs. chippy because it was obsessed with the carpenter (called "chippy") and now that cat's grave is decorated and cared for by people over a century later (also thank u mrs chippy for your sacrifice and also for naming MY mrs chippy <3). i have been debating writing an essay about the More Life of it all but especially all of frank hurley's photographs however it would come out as incomprehensible as this. my first month in china i missed my stop on the last metro of the night because i was detailing this expedition to my friends back home and i didn't have my mobile payment set up yet so i had to pay an exorbitant amount of money in cash for a taxi to go one (1) single kilometre

i mean, as tumblr user nedlittle, i am contractually obligated to say cold boy winter 4ever. 177 years ago, 128 men went missing in the arctic circle and as a result i have made friends for life <3. endlessly fascinating as a historical event and a classic example of imperialistic hubris those guys absolutely should not have been up there but they did and now a weird canadian identity has emerged as a result. i remember waking up to news that they found the wrecks and absolutely losing my mind

franklin adjacent doomed australian expeditions! a two-parter! so in 1861, the burke & wills expedition set off with a goal of crossing western australia from south-north and everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. 7 out of the 23 men died (wills perished either on my birthday or canada day) and only one guy made it across the continent and back to melbourne alive. beyond the fact that william john wills was the first cousin of erebus lieutenant h.t.d. "get in the soupp" le vesconte, there are a couple other similarities with franklin's expedition including death by scurvy, the food that they were eating was probably killing them (the early reports of lead poisoning with franklin; burke & wills ate seed bread after their rations ran out but depleted their thiamine levels and likely gave them beriberi because it probably wasn't prepared properly), relief efforts were sent but found little more than graves and bones, burke & wills tried to reach a place called mt. hopeless while the southernmost point any of franklin's men were known to reach was starvation cove on the adelaide peninsula. and THEN in 1874 another australian expedition led by ernest giles attempted to cross the deserts of western australia from east to west (looking at a map, they didn't go a very good job). the expedition was mostly fine except for one dude who straight-up vanished into the desert and was never seen again. that dude? alfred gibson, younger brother of terror steward william "breakup gone wrong" gibson

i didn't know a lot about the belgica before i read madhouse at the end of the world which was fantastic! everyone was having experience psychological terrorism as a result of antarctic isolation meanwhile motherfucker unlimited roald amundsen and scam king frederick cook were having the boys trip of the millennium. 19 men and innumerable rats. gentoo penguins are communists. tfw you almost shoot you doctor because you thought he was a seal

i am not as big of a fan of scott as some of my beloved mutuals but damned if i didn't devour the worst journey in the world. there are passages i think about daily. one time i was shivering really horribly during a migraine and all i could think of was that one passage where cherry talks about shivering so badly he thought his spine would snap. i am currently experiencing Cold and Wind and if i go outside...oh cherry we're really in it now

#sorry this has been rotting in my inbox for weeks :( i have had Work #also my laptop cries if i have more than 5 tabs open and try to write a long post :(((#if you're cold they're cold bring them inside #murraybaeman #answered #ice ice baby #there are many names in history

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kingdarkstalker · 2 years

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I don’t feel like rewording this so here’s my original post:

Wings of Fire’s third arc reads like Tui Sutherland is one of those (white) people who gets offended by people bringing up slavery and discussing how 1600s-1800s white slave owners and slavery endorsers are bad people who should know better, so wrote an entire arc of books on why racism and fascism aren’t caused by indoctrination, hate, and selfish people benefitting off of the oppression of others, but a fucking magic aliens plant and a couple people it’s puppeting, and and all the fascist, racist, sadistic, child-bullying, dictator-supporting, environment-destroying, slave-owning individuals who choose to engage in a system that oppressed and exploits others for their own personal gain aren’t that bad, but all the people who feel like it’s necessary to use violence to rise up and overthrow the oppressors that have been literally endangering their lives are very bad.

The tags mention that I’m a white person not attempting to speak on behalf of BIPOC people, but just pointing out that I see a white person being moronic and problematic.

Can you tell I’m mad the HiveWings frequently get more sympathy than the LeafWings? The LeafWings, the race who was almost wiped out, with half their remaining population resorting to violence out of desperation, get less sympathy than fascists. Like, I get they’re immediately racist to all HiveWings, but you can teach them to cut that out while still having consequences for the majority of the HiveWings that either directly participated in or allowed slavery because they benefit off of it, which the series doesn’t. Or wait until after they can stop fearing for their lives every day. And Sundew’s racism towards SilkWings are hardly a footnote because it’s all about the HiveWings, like they’re the victims here.

This is disgusting and I’ll forever be grateful I didn’t turn into one of these people. And yeah, Tui should fucking retire. ASAP. But she isn’t gonna do shit until the fans realise the shit she put in her books and call her out for it. What a lot of fans, particularly the younger ones, need to hear is just because someone is a nice person does not mean they are a good one; case in point, Tui is a foolish, wilfully ignorant, racist, aggressively victim-blaming abuse apologist who isn’t even that good of a writer when you look back on her books. Like, the whole “IceWings are tiger moms thing”.

I was reluctant to call this otherwise well-meaning woman a racist, but that video essay you recommended, revealing a legitimate clip of her confessing, humorously and without any sense of shame or regret, that she based most of the IceWings’ culture off of a fucking Asian stereotype, I felt horrified. That’s outright racist, whether she knows it’s a racist stereotype of Asian moms or not, aside from the she damn well SHOULD, she is a grown-ass woman with access to the internet. And the fact no one even showed any visible discomfort fustrared me. Too many people make excuses for this woman.

I’ve had enough, I’m pissed off, and it’s nice seeing I’m not the only one. I stg, without this blog, yourself, and the askers here, my mental health would be in shambles. I was a young child when I had to realise on my own how fucked this series was because I didn’t have any blog like this, I couldn’t find a soul in this fandom who called this out for years, and the wiki only made excuses for it like the fact they’ll disregard Tui’s word and make up their own ageing system to defend Glorybringer. Why is no one calling them out on this?

I am a split second away from making a Google Doc or Word Doc or something on the list of bullshit this woman has put in her series since no one else but a small handful of Tumblr users and a YouTuber feel like calling this out. Scholastic should be doing something for fuck sake! And this woman should NOT be writing childrens’ books, or making any kind of media, end of story.

👏👏👏👏👏👏

#asks #wings of fire #tui sutherland

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heavenlyyshecomes · 1 year

Text

I posted 1,623 times in 2022

328 posts created (20%)

1,295 posts reblogged (80%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@heavenlyyshecomes

@elderf1ower

@riinasawayama

@lovlettres-moved

@engulfes

I tagged 1,514 of my posts in 2022

Only 7% of my posts had no tags

#aes - 258 posts

#asks - 186 posts

#food - 138 posts

#words - 130 posts

#notebook - 109 posts

#film - 92 posts

#art - 64 posts

#mb - 53 posts

#poetry - 39 posts

#interiors - 35 posts

Longest Tag: 91 characters

#u are so cute and funny i love u so bad smooch 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

My Top Posts in 2022:

do interact: miffy lovers, people who always nap, horror media enjoyers, faux film snobs, regular jewellery wearers, puzzle enthusiasts especially crosswords, people who romanticise everything, ya haters, notion users, lonely girls, ex-catholics, mommy issues havers, people whose hobbies include making lists and cataloging things, sweet coffee enjoyers, glasses wearers, anxiety havers, people who don't watch video essays, city lovers, people who consider themselves a wong kar wai protagonist, themed pinterest board makers, fantasy readers, and haters in general <3

2,522 notes - Posted March 18, 2022

hi my reader friends lithub has a new syllabi section that has some great (u guessed it!) syllabi from much beloved writers like ocean vuong and ross gay here's the full list that i have already added half of to my tbr:

ekphrastic poetry with victoria chang (featuring works of john ashbery, joy harjo, paul tran)

the literature of obsession with julia may jonas (obsession as transformation, destruction, catharsis and form)

place, space and landscape with alexandra kleeman (featuring didion, okorafor and hernan diaz)

lyric research with ross gay (books that combine research with an "I" like nelson's bluets or christle's the crying book)

hybrid poetry with ocean vuong (traditions, innovations and possibilities featuring bhanu kapil, rimbaud, clifton)

multigenre experiments in form with paul lisicky (for writing that explores connections between genres)

reading about writers with peter ho davies (books that teach the craft and give writing advice, think 'the outline' trilogy)

speculative women with lina maria ferreira cabeza-vanegas (a look at speculative works by women writers like jemisin, butler, k le guin)

writers and the world with viet thanh nguyen (rankine, baldwin, and coates)

sports and contemporary writing with sam lipsyte (exactly what it says on the tin)

3,783 notes - Posted September 9, 2022

what's in my bag post but it's what's open in my browser... twenty articles, five short stories, one bandcamp album, one film newsletter, one video lecture, two crosswords, two websites i want to check out, and one wiki article on a horror film

4,647 notes - Posted February 16, 2022

girl help i can't stop seeing patterns in life and the interconnectedness of everything

20,036 notes - Posted November 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Do you understand? When I am done telling you these stories, when you’re done listening to these stories, I am no longer I, and you are no longer you. In this afternoon we briefly merged into one. After this, you will always carry a bit of me, and I will always carry a bit of you, even if we both forget this conversation.

—Hao Jingfang, ‘Invisible Planets,’ in Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, tr. & ed. Ken Liu

22,799 notes - Posted February 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #Hiiiiiii so insane btw

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corpsesbaby-main · 2 years

Note

i've actually been trying to find your blog for weeks to not only binge atp for the millionth time but to reblog it with comments as i finally made time to do it 😅 i'm sorry for being part of the problem!

i'm a writer (yikes i know) who's dealt with a similar issue on wattpad where the only interactions i got were people adding my stories to reading lists, so likes are super rare and i literally don't know the last time i got a comment or a reply to a comment (and i doubt ny notifications go back far enough to see 🙃). it's one reason why i've kind of stopped putting stuff on there (again: yikes i know).

yet i'm terrible at commenting?? especially on here because i always want to write an essay everytime because i know how much work goes into writing something as short as a blurb so i feel bad about writing a 'i love this!' even though i personally enjoy those comments? no one will be more pissed or confused about me being affected by yet contributing to this problem more than me. again, i'm sorry. i know much a heart emoji means and how much silence hurts.

i'm so sorry that i contributed to your frustration.

i adore atp and your writing but never knew how to put it into words (ironic). i'm angry at myself for not supporting my fellow writers especially seeing how many fic writers are talking about the lack of comments are discouraging and angry for contributing to this problem. and to anyone reading this or other fic writers' vents, non-fic writers like me and published writers are having issues getting feedback. (hence why i said no one is more pissed about my lack of comments than me)

i hoped tumblr was glitching when i was having issues finding atp until i saw the asks and your answers. you have every right to be angry and upset and disappointed in readers like me. anyone who says otherwise is a dick because it's true.

i'm sorry i waited too long to try and reblog and comment. i truly am and i hope you enjoy finishing atp and any other works for yourself 💙 if you ever decide to share your writing again, i will be sure to reblog and comment with everything.

thank you for apologising lovey and i completely understand! it's not you in particular that made me leave, just a collective problem if that makes sense? i don't bear any ill feelings towards anyone in particular just more how this like-culture has formed bc of tik tok and instagram and users of tumblr not using tumblr the way they did 5 years ago when my stuff was actually reblogged

the only thing that genuinely grinds my gears (besides the like problem) is that ive received asks of anons telling me im being 'hurtful to fans' when i say that everyone who just liked and never reblogged or even send an ask yk were part of the reason i left and refuse to roll out chapter after chapter, request after request with the same people demanding more to get nothing in return. the fanfics everyone reads are already free, so are reblog, yk?

as if i want fans? i just want a community and people who support me in my writing and who i can support back in whatever they create, who chat with me not just about my fics but fandoms in general, life, etc! and thats not achievable through likes

thank you for also giving some perspective! it's good that more writers step up and talk about this and offer a different viewpoint to those who don't write bc it's impossible to know how discouraging this feels until you're in the middle of it. im sorry you feel that way too and that people interact so little with your works as well! im not sure if you're a corpse writer and i havent read corpse stuff in so long but if you are, send me some of your stuff and i'll be happy to read and comment! ❤️ (this goes for everyone btw for most fandoms)

and i completely get being horrible at commenting! i always write essays too (especially on ao3 lmao) and i understand how you wanna carve out some time to do so!

i dont know if tips will help you and i certainly dont wanna tell you what to do but maybe i can give some tips in general to fic readers reading this:

i have a fanfiction sideblog (which i will not share bc there's shit on there that's between me, the author who wrote it, and god) bc i didn't want to reblog on the account i post my own writings on, mainly bc i feel like it will annoy people if i reblog every fic i read bc... there are a lot lmao. so first tip is maybe run a sideblog where you just reblog fics you've read and loved?

second tip is to have a queue running if you're scared it will annoy people?

i have a system where i reblog when there's a fic i see that i wanna read but i dont have the time for yet and tag it with 'to read' then i'll reblog it again with insight/comments. that way the post is in circulation and even if i dont get to it ever, i've still helped out he author?

i hope you don't feel too guilty. it's something we all have to work more on to make sure writers feel more appreciated! i genuinely dont have any vendetta or ill feelings towards you or anyone, i just choose to write for myself now <3

feel free to dm me any time if you wanna chat! im genuinely open to sharing my works with the friends ive made on here and other writers!

#asks

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wangshu · 2 years

Note

YOU KNOW I HAVE TO DO IT MAN. you know what i want... i um um methinks . all of them if you woulf be so kind 😁

CRIES AND GOES INSANE!!! i should not have expected anything else cyno beloved. IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG.

Height - five five or five six!

Virgin? - no i am the bang master

Shoe size - i have no idea

Do you smoke? - no and i honestly think people who do are cringe

Do you drink? - have drank but im not a fan of it, so no and i don't plan to. not a grand experience.

Do you take drugs? - aside from prescription medication, no.

Age you get mistaken for - early 20's

Have tattoos? - no!

Want any tattoos? - yes i definitely plan to get some. i want a genshin themed tat as cringe as it is.

Got any piercings? - no!

Want any piercings? - yes! i almost got my ears pieced but i chickened out. one day maybe.

Best friend? - tumblr user onemillionvolts aka CYNO!!

Relationship status - taken by my lovely lovely girlfriend starlynx!

Biggest turn ons - oh god uh. definitely. my girlfriend. my girlfriend. and my girlfriend.

Biggest turn offs - ducklips iykyk but also over confidence. people who believe they are higher beings (queen, angel, god, etc) when they are just some guy make me and everyone they know uncomfortable. especially religious terms or pronouns on yourself is something i find extremely disrespectful. i could write an essay on that topic.

Favorite movie - zombieland

I’ll love you if - you're funny and look exactly like a certain general mahamatra and and and

Someone you miss - my girlfriend

Most traumatic experience - almost had cancer. almost drowned to death. lost my best friend because he chose weed over me. got my trust betrayed by someone i thought had changed and now they're impersonating someone close to me and someone important to my best friend.

A fact about your personality - i have multiple. but uh, im very emotional and also deadpan there is no in-between it is horrible.

What I hate most about myself - oh god, im a suck up and a people pleaser.

What I love most about myself ‐ i can write okay and im good at listening to problems and giving advice if they want or need it. i'm also pretty okay at problem solving.

What I want to be when I get older ‐ a musician honestly, but my fingers lock up and it's hard to play what im passionate about.

My relationship with my sibling(s) ‐ neutral, i don't talk to them.

My relationship with my parent(s) - i like my mom but she's a little overbearing, my dad is.. something else. /neg

My idea of a perfect date - anything at night and not too high energy, unless it's like roller skating then im so down. i love calm environments and just getting to talk and get to know each other, im a sucker for psychological conversations too.

My biggest pet peeves - liars and cheaters and people who say they'll change and never do. waste of everyone's time.

A description of the girl/boy I like - my girlfriend

A description of the person I dislike the most - tumblr user s *gets shot* no but actually, probably my ex, man looks like shane dawson now and he's got the personality to match.

A reason I’ve lied to a friend - ive lied to someone so they stopped asking me out. they still won't stop. don't know what i gotta do to make them stop but oh well.

What I hate the most about work/school - bad education system + im autistic and i can't handle those environments. school was very, very neglectful.

What your last text message says - not copypasting but i asked my girlfriend if she wanted to play mario kart when she got home. ps im great at mario kart.

What words upset me the most - i don't really like being called fam. is that something? oh well.

What words make me feel the best about myself - any positive words of affirmation.

What I find attractive in women - being my girlfriend

What I find attractive in men - being my girlfriend

Where I would like to live ‐ somewhere cold and away from people, i love the country.

One of my insecurities - i have a lazy eye but im getting surgery for it very soon, so i guess.. my chest? and my permanent baby face.

My childhood career choice - taxidermist

My favorite ice cream flavor - black raspberry!!! tastes the absolute best.

Who wish I could be - something better.

Where I want to be right now - somewhere cold and comfy, or at my girlfriends

The last thing I ate - burger king original chicken sandwich yum

Sexiest person that comes to my mind immediately ‐ my girlfriend

A random fact about anything - boreal forests have six seasons instead of four.

#‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ╭ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ sadie answers ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ╮ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎#‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ╭ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ mutuals beloved ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ╮ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎#‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ╭ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ neon beloved ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ╮ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

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aseriesofunfortunatejan · 2 months

Text

(Masterpost)

Rules: - Vote for one of these two characters based on who you personally think should win. It can be anything from "I follow aseriesofunfortunatejan and she talks about this character way more" to "I know this guy and not the other guy" passing by "who are these? This one's hotter" and of course "holy shit this is ALSO my blorbo" - You may reblog this poll and you may even talk about why you voted for who you voted! - You may NOT complain about the other character if you dislike them! These characters are all the poll runner's beloveds and the goal of this tournament is to have fun, be silly, be nice, eat hot chip.

Introductions and propaganda (under the cut):

be nice to me danganronpa fans. i speak your language

Korekiyo Shinguuji is getting in the blender. Absolutely the fuck he is. No you can't stop me. In the blender he goes. WHIIRRRRLLL! I feel like my first Shinguuji character essay might even have been the start of my character essays...? I can't tell exactly - the Despair Disease, which I relate to Owari, is also something I feel like I wrote about early on - but it was an iconic moment. I knew I had an interest in him but couldn't really figure out what I wanted from him, until I saw tumblr user and Instagram cosplayer (that's what I remember them from) plantsarehardcore (I think) post theories about him and that awoke something within me. I was inspired to explore his character, read between the lines, stare at his design, look at his quality and flaws, and I knew I could have fun writing all about it. He has like - a solid place in my mind as a character that is for me to write meta about. And I like how he looks

Akane Owari is one of the two over-hated girls in these tournaments I'm ready to sacrifice my life to defend, although thankfully I wouldn't say people really hate her in the current day. She underrated however. Not only have I always been interested in her role in Chapter 3, but when I did end up replaying Danganronpa 2, I found her an extremely engaging character. Similarly to Shinguuji, she is a character I associate to my experience with writing meta. She's not the only character from DR2 I feel like is very misunderstood by players (the other one is Souda) but she really stands out to me as a character I'm rooting from and would choose as a fave.

#danganronpa #danganronpa 2 #danganronpa v3 #akane owari #korekiyo shinguji #korekiyo shinguuji #poll #polls #my blorbos tournament

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shadowkat678 · 1 year

Text

I posted 26,487 times in 2022

That's 6,310 more posts than 2021!

247 posts created (1%)

26,240 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@acidmatze

@taulupis

@bumblerhizal

@meabeck

I tagged 634 of my posts in 2022

#the legend of vox machina - 30 posts

#tlovm spoilers - 26 posts

#unreality - 19 posts

#critical role - 18 posts

#dungeons and dragons - 16 posts

#tlovm - 10 posts

#the raven queen - 10 posts

#toh spoilers - 9 posts

#lovm spoilers - 8 posts

#the owl house spoilers - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but i have it on good authority their home blueprints of the layout shows that the true basement should be ten feet deeper from the stairs

My Top Posts in 2022:

👀

44 notes - Posted October 1, 2022

So apparently people really like my Dragon Heist remix!

It has been suggested I put all my documents in actual PDFs and sell them on DMS Guild but I have no idea how to do that. Maybe eventually.

But in the meantime y'all can check it all out here!

Anyway tell me what you think. This was a lot of work and yes I do seek validation. Any ideas on areas I could expand upon more? What I should tackle next? Let me know!

45 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

I want to see my writing be psychoanalyzed like I see with media on Tumblr. That’s how I’ll know I made it. I don’t care if I sell like 100 copies of something one day someone can send me a letter digging into the details and writing a ten page essay and I’ll be like “Okay I’m content now.”

46 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

Well I was blocked so let me just put this here.

Asexual cisgender people are, by default, not hetrosexual cisgender. It doesn't matter if they're romantically attracted to the opposite sex or not. They are not cishets, and in places where any queerness is punished by law and by social norms, being a queer identity is enough to put you in danger.

Even if you're operating under the assumption that in places like the USA ace and aro people don't face as much structural impression, that absolutely IS NOT TRUE everywhere. When gay people are thrown off buildings, and someone hears you say you're Xsexual instead of cishet, they are not going to pause to ask the nuances. They will hate and harm you for the sole reason of existing as a queer person.

I've seen aces and aros have to run away from their home countries right alongside trans and gay people who had to.

It's 2022. Can we please stop the discourse over this and realize any queer person, in a good very sizable chunk of the world, will not get you ANY amount of privilege akin to being a cishet.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk and that is the end of my thoughts on the matter.

51 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So I got this new ad:

And got ~vibes~, so I looked it up and when I dug into it this school is a Catholic organization that's widely been blasted for pushing native cultural assimilation in their past. Supposedly they're currently trying to right wrongs and pushing classes that teach native languages and crafts.

But I know there's been talk about stuff still occuring and being swept under the rug as well as avoiding responsibility for past actions by shutting down lawsuits and supporting laws that protect them from legal action.

I'm not native, but I wanted to draw attention to this new ad and see if there's any native users who know more that can chime in on this.

I'm going to blaze this post in hopes of getting seen by someone with more knowledge on this. On the surface my first impression was it was a school run by native cultural activists pushing to teach kids more about their culture, as I've heard of them popping up more to fight back against historical assimilation. But it's a Catholic school and, uh, they obviously have a HISTORY behind them that's not great, to put it mildly.

346 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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charsal24 · 9 months

Text

Fan Autoethnography

In summary: This autoethnography summarizes the various ways I interact with fandom and how each one has shaped me differently. My relationship to every media is fundamentally different, as this will share. I've learned that while in style and talk I haven't been effected by fandom, creatively and the themes that carry with me, has.

Note: My peer review partners did not suggest changes, so I've kept it as is with the summary above added.

My experience as a fan ebbs and flows between deeply engrossed in the tv show/book/series, etc. to casually enjoying. With the former, I’m on Tumblr reblogging GIFs and fanworks like a madman, occasionally rambling in the tags about x character’s arc and y’s characterization and — fuck, tumblr user Kinegg, you must be a prophet from the Gods. Modified the actual user’s name there, but their take on Collector from The Owl House? Absolutely immaculate. Even in my fandom spaces, I can’t escape my writing-major-ness, and I really search for those users who share my love of analysis of characters/themes/subtext. It’s crazy the amount of essays that will be poured out over what could be a single line, a single painting, a piece of clothing.

In the Owl House (spoilers —albeit somewhat vague — ahead!), users poured essays over the tapestries in the Archive house and what they meant for the Collector’s backstory. I had found myself following along with their detailed descriptions and theories in such a way that I rewatched the scenes they mentioned and found myself nodding along to their takes: of course Collector is an orphan of war! Of course his siblings didn’t like him mixing with the titans! Of course this parallels the segregated magic system!

Surprisingly, despite the glory and beauty of anonymity, and my deep love of character analysis, I’ve never actually thrown my hat — or, well, a post — into the void, into my fandom community. Instead, I stay to the tags or rambles in friends’ DMs.

Here’s a particular long example about the game Dredge, another fandom favorite of mine taken from a friend’s DMs.

Massive spoilers ahead for the game!

Just the fact that like… it’s been Y o u and it’s always been Y o u just augghhhhhhhh when hands of love become hands of destruction and you burn away every piece of yourself resisting the natural course of grief because goddamn !!!!! You *will* bring them back !!!! But if you do, they can’t recognize you anymore, and if you can’t, then you destroy every part of yourself trying and just aughhhhhhhhh aughhhhhhhh just the way grief warps every part of you until all you can think of is *them* I just augghhgghhhhhhhh and then you can’t move on because to move on would be to leave them would mean it was all for nothing and you’ve come so far to stop and it’s just another step and then they’ll back and just another step until they’ll be back and just another step until you have buried yourself neck-deep in the ocean and still you will go one more step because you’re !!! So !!! Close !!! But !!! You !!! Can never!!! Be close !!! And just aughhhhhhhhh

Okay so there’s like three main colors, right? This sorta dark purple red — raspberry-esque — this sorta slightly darker sea foam green and I think there’s either like a yellow or another green, can’t remember. I think it’s another green. There’s also the colors of different fishing areas: coastal, shallow, dredge, abyssal, hadal, but not important I’m taking about the dialogue and some item colors

So — and as you can guess — the colors coincide with their usual associations: red is bad, green is good, etc. now what’s interesting is that parts of the horror elements come with that color association that “oh red is evil/corrupt” and so there’s a really neat sorta psychological element of like when a text reads “be careful” and it’s in red and those color associations tell you that “oh no something bad” and the like. But what’s really really fucking cool and sorta subtle is that during the game this “Collector” guy — so cool lore around this guy but won’t spoil anything if you wanna play/watch — asks you fish up some relics for him and in exchange he compensates you very nicely with some nice power ups that are very much Monkey’s Paw-esque.

So, you fish up some of the relics: necklace, ring, music box, key, watch, and other stuff and when you put them in your inventory, the items are *red* whereas usual items like wood or metal or non-relic rings are just like grey or whatever. Now what’s also red you may ask? Four things, but let’s talk about the first two first. One: mutant fish. Sometimes when you’re fishing you’ll pull out an oddity like a bass with three heads or its spine out—something mangled and warped beyond recognition. And that, too, is *red* in your inventory whereas regular fish are like grey

Two: panic. So, if you stay up too late you start to get this thing called “panic” and it presents itself as an eye appearing under the time looking around worried and not only that but everything gets red like a red fog and rocks may appear out of nowhere or scarier creatures start to chase you—it’s a lot like a gameplay mechanic of “oops you’ve stayed up too late now you’re paranoid and seeing things that aren’t there or are they” kinda thin

Three: crimson and silver book, which is the source of corruption happening in this place and causing all the auroras to turn red and shit to get warped and corrupted and stuff

Four: infection. One of which you never actively see so much as much as you just see a dialogue of a package you can deliver saying that it’s “squelching and wet” or something like that

And so back to relics and mutant fish! If you notice those colors when the mutant fish appear, you can start to notice that hey !!!! These relics you are fetching are fucking cursed !!! And not only that but like when you use the “power ups” that fetching the relics gets you, they come with a cost

So like the power-ups you get are: haste (move faster, but increase panic), manifest (teleport back to the first island, increase panic/time speeds up), atrophy (catch a whole area of fish in one go, fish rot and get infected faster), and I thiiiiiiink one has to do with like sounding a signal to scare fish away or something like that

But like all of them are strengths that come at a cost!!!!! Which feeds into the narrative of “everything has a cost/you cannot get what you want without sacrifice” and just that theme of time and madness and aughhhhhhhh power comes with sacrifice and you are losing a piece of yourself for every “power-up”

And like!!!!!!!! Everyone knows more about you than you do!!!! And like they are just watching you spiral once again and once again and once again and just aughhhh aughhhh everyone knows of the madness except for you

And then you have green!!! Green is like the stuff that’s good, that’s helpful!! And like you see certain characters who dialogue highlights some words in green !!! And you can tell “oh yes this is friend, they are good” like the lighthouse keeper who is wearing green and has green dialogue occasionally !!

And then you have the other green as like “location for you to go” and again it’s like you can use these colors to 1. Make things easier to remember 2. Have a psychological impact 3. Associations !!!!!!!! And it’s just such a subtle thing to impact how you intake and receive information and hints to the overall corruption of the items you’re fetching and the corruption of the book itself and just aughhhh aughhh aughhh aughhhh

God and just the eye imagery is so cool fucking love eye imagery !!! But god yeah just the fact that it’s you and it’s always *been you* AND THE POCKET WATCH!!!! One of the relics is a pocket watch whose hands cannot move forward because you !!! Cannot !!! Move forward !!! You cannot move on !!! And you keep finding pieces of your life you can’t remember and aughhhhhhh!!!! Aughhhhhhhh

God. Just….. unable to move forward without That Person in your life, unable to move on, the need to rewrite what was written, to grab death by the bones and shatter them until your beloved has returned, until your beloved has returned and sees not a shadow of who they knew and just…. God.

You were always bait……. You were always the hook on the fishing line going to and fro… all to see her again, all to see her again…. And everyone knows except You that she isn’t coming back and will never come back and still you will burn yourself to pieces to try

*Goddamn* just unable to go back, unable to play god, unable to bend the forces of nature to your whims. Aughhhhhhhhh

As the above long example suggests: I love the deep analyses and most importantly the emotional core of any given work. As I said, couldn’t escape my writing-major-ness even if I wanted to and that dips into my main fandom experience: fanfiction writing.

Surprisingly, it’s only Gen loss and Gravity Falls I’ve written fanfiction for. Gravity Falls was the first, of course, and I still remember the cringey Wattpad “Author Notes” — a staple of the ol’ era of a 12-year old’s writing in 2013. I haven’t revisited those old Wattpad fics and I never will, but I know for all their cringe, they’ve been stepping stones for my writing.

Gravity Falls, especially, hugely influenced what became of my writing style and interests. The show introduced a world that balanced its lightheartedness with moments that had you staring at your screen like “what the fuck just happened?” and it balanced those moments beautifully. Not only that, but the premise of “normal kids move in to weird town but everyone who lives there just kinda deals with the weird stuff so it’s normal to them” has become one of my favorite things to write. I think what I like the most about that kind of premise is that it challenges the idea of what normal even is. Especially since “normal” means something different across cultures and what I, as an American, may find completely normal (let’s say, steering wheel on the left instead of the right), completely boggles the mind of someone who’s never seen that. To them, I’m the weirdo, and to me, they are the weirdo, but neither one of us is wrong or right and that’s the beauty of it.

This lends itself into the question of “us” vs. “them” — again, thinking about the “what is normal?” — that appears in some spaces in fandom. I think an “us” vs. “them” in fandom comes from the lack of acknowledgment that no one is right and that’s okay. There’s definitely a huge “us” vs. “them” in fandom spaces when it comes to shipping. Personally, I’ve never really understood why some people feel so personally to certain ships, and I’ve never really cared, but maybe it has something to do with what Jensen talks about: compensating and parasocial relationships.

For me, I find myself less compensating and more so either exploring pieces of myself through the other (a lot of this with grief narratives as found in Dredge) or examining other people. Characters and studying them and their actions is fascinating for me and I find that understanding characters allows me to be better at understanding people in my own life. After all, what is the self if not a character we all play?

@officeofdocmalone

#255fandom #the office of doc malone

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wernerherzogs · 5 years

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I agree with your tags, but i also think (if hes gay, which i think he is) hes super bad at performing heterosexuality? Either because hes just genuinely bad at it or because maybe he just doesnt care that much? for example during txf i saw some comments from viewers on twitter that just assumed he was gay and nothing changed? Again this has no point but its so interesting how hes heavily closeted but doesnt really has to do /anything/ about it at the same time (again, if he is indeed gay)

oh interesting points! i think i’d agree.

also some ppl wanted me to expand on why louis “has to” be straight if he wants a uk/europe-centered career. i think everyone who says shit like “it’s 2019, why won’t xyz just come out?” probably is an adult who lives in a very big city and has a carefully curated friend group. can’t speak for the continents i’ve never been to, and i don’t have any Official Data, and am Obviously Generalizing for Discourse’s Sake, but i’d guess that in an average european family (with the exception of scandi countries, maybe, since they’re Advanced in almost Every Area) for every 2 (potentially) supportive family members there are at least 5 other ones whose reaction to you being gay would fall somewhere on “i don’t understand it/why?/you’ve been lying to me!/this is so wrong/you need to get help”. and that’s not even me touching the situation in the uk specifically, especially the middle/lower class part of the market. tl;dr while no one /has/ to stay in the closet, of course it’s still easier to launch a solo career (be it music or film) if you’re not Openly&Loudly Gay?

i’ve been thinking about how Wildt it is that dan wootton of the sun is still asking for larry stylinson takes three years after freddie, and after the last time harry and louis Officially saw each other was that txf performance. and then i started thinking about some other stuff. despite the fact that ppl like perez hilton tried to make xarry happen, or that nick grimshaw tries to make gryles happen from time to time, the man harry styles has been linked to most often throughout the Sexuality Rumours part of his career is louis tomlinson. harry styles is the /only/ man louis has been linked to. they both have “general” sexuality rumours, but those are framed differently, too. people on tumblr dot com who think that “harry is practically out” truly don’t realise how little the GP knows, and how little it gives a shit about him possibly being lgbt. i’m sure there were exceptions of the rule, probably mostly on some us and uk media outlets, but a large part of those syndicated press articles after harry first performed “medicine” was very Telling. before “medicine” it was “harry styles has dated taylor swift, kendall jenner, and 23428 nameless models” (occasionally cara delevingne gets namedropped too). after “medicine” it was “harry styles has dated taylor swift, kendall jenner, 23428 nameless models, and maybe has sucked a friendly dick or two here and there, Like Famous People do, especially high or drunk, but probably still lives on p*ssy 24/7”. like people absolutely don’t take bisexuality seriously, especially male, unless there’s solid photographic evidence. once there’s evidence, they usually don’t think it’s bisexuality, but someone being gay/lesbian, but afraid of “coming out Fully”, because they love that biphobia. the article that harry’s bisexuality rumours after “medicine” got on the most popular gossip site in my country is the perfect example of that. ik y’all don’t speak the language, but trust me when i say that while they acknowledge that harry has had sexuality rumours going on for a while now, they don’t namedrop /any/ man in that context, not louis, nor nick, nor anyone else, and look at them ending the article with a pic of harry hugging TOMMY THE FUN DAD of all people. like. not even poor el jefe, akfjsa. that’s how Little some people know, if they even know who harry is, or if they care about him.

now let’s imagine that harry and louis are both closeted, but have never dated each other. JUST FOR FUNSIES, bear with me. if any of them was to come out (in a Grand Gesture Way, not “those are just rumours” way, like getting photographed with someone who’s not the other one), especially while trying to release their first solo album, the other would automatically get asked about that. automatically. (and what if one them wanted to be out, but the other wouldn’t, and wouldn’t want to be Dragged into a public coming out?) and not only them! look at all the journalists still pressing members of 1d for quotes on the hiatus and on zayn (and other things! like them asking louis about the dirt on liam and naomi, for example) /three years/ after the disband, while all of them are currently trying to make their name for themselves, and two of them don’t even have proper solo albums out yet. so the other 2 (3) band members would absolutely get asked about that, too, and then also about other stuff. because if someone was being closeted while in 1d, what were the other Dirty Secrets? journalists would go hard after substance abuse especially (in zayn’s case most of all). now let’s all remember that thanks to those leaked “got talent” (i think?) contracts we know that simon cowell makes ppl sign the clause about /anyone in the fucking solar system/ not being allowed to say /any/ bad thing about him.

tl;dr if at least one of the members of 1d is closeted, it’s not wild to assume that they have to think about not only themselves, but also 3 (4) other people if they were to make A Big Deal out of coming out of said closet. (i obviously want to add that they don’t owe anyone shit, and that coming out should never be an obligation for /any/ celeb). i think harry is in the easiest position if he is indeed “only” bisexual, not “fully” gay. he can go with “yeah i knew i liked boys even while being in the band, but dated all of those girls for real because i do also like girls, and the other band members were supportive”, which wouldn’t necessarily spark too many angry takes about Injustice of Having Been Closeted (because he does like girls too, bless him!) and make people inquire about Other Things That Might Have Been Covered Up during that time.

but tl;dr literally no matter what you believe in, this situation is so complicated that it makes me lose my mind a little whenever i try to consider it from /any/ goddamn angle. r i p.

#me: stop writing essays on tumblr like That One User #also me: and another thing #anonymous #a response #long post #hopefully the cut shows #SORRY IF IT DOESN'T #I DO GENUINELY WISH I COULD JUST SHUT UP #I'M SO SORRY

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isaacthedruid · 3 years

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Please allow me to tell you about one of my favourite cartoons through this informal essay I did for school a couple of months back.

Gravity Falls and How it Did The Unimaginable

**SPOILERS... KINDA**

The 2010s saw the creation of some of the most iconic animated tv shows ever made, the likes of Adventure Time (2010), Steven Universe (2013), Over the Garden Wall (2014) and The Legend of Korra (2012). To explain why this era’s shows are so admirable is honestly rather difficult. Yet, there are many factors that can be taken into consideration when looking for an answer.

The past decade was very successful in perfecting their craft and utilizing the animated format to their favour, creating some of the wackiest and fascinating cartoons ever made. With the advancements made in both 2D and 3D animation for film, this bled into the world of TV as well.

To mention that 2010s cartoons have stunning visuals would be an understatement. Everything about the animation was beautiful; the strong colour palettes, the clean and imaginative character designs, the colourful and immersive backgrounds and especially the mesmerizing worlds that can be found within episodes that are half an hour.

This era’s cartoons also led to a massive shift in storytelling, writing longer-running stories that spread out across seasons while also swapping out episodic adventures for serialization. This heavily aided in the popularization of these shows, due to the rise of internet fandoms and dropping the taboo that cartoons were only for kids. Many shows acknowledged their older viewers by leaving clues and even puzzles to be solved by the theorists who have a large appearance on social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter and Tumblr. As the shows progressed, their fandoms created many theories for what they believed might happen within their favourite series. The top three shows from this era all utilized these changes, being at the forefront of the shift and helping guide the creative vision of 2010s cartoons.

Often regarded as many people’s favourite cartoon, Gravity Falls presented one of the best mysteries of the decade with two seasons and only 40 episodes. Inspired by Twin Peaks and The X-Files, it’s considered as the kids’ version of these two iconic shows as this cartoon acts as many people’s first introduction to horror through bright colours and fun characters.

This series follows the adventures of Dipper and Mabel Pines, twins, who are sent to spend their summer with their great-uncle or Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. This town is full of oddities like supernatural creatures, insane and eccentric inhabitants, and many puzzles. The Pines twins must adjust to the weirdness while uncovering the mysteries and protecting their new town.

While living in Gravity Falls, the twins are forced to work in the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap created by their Grunkle Stan that overcharges unlucky tourists, teaching about fake monsters despite there being real creatures all over town. On his first day in Oregon, Dipper accidentally came across a mysterious journal written by an unknown author that explains all the oddities to be found in this strange town. This book acts like an encyclopedic of the Weird for Dipper, an inquisitive 12-year-old kid who seeks answers.

Dipper is an extremely intelligent kid, his brain being far more developed than his body. He’s rather awkward and self-conscious as he often stumbles over his words or gets embarrassed trying to talk to girls. Despite this, the boy is an adventurer at heart who just wants to grow up and skip his upcoming teenage years.

While Mabel is quite the opposite in many ways, she is loud and has an in-your-face personality. Mabel is bouncy and fun, she is so excited to start high school. She is easily excitable and for the larger part of the series, she is in her boy-crazy phase. Mabel is a girly-girl as she likes all things; glitter, unicorns, rainbows, partying and crafting. Yet, she doesn’t often compare well with many of the other girls in town, they see her as weird and “too much”.

(In all fairness through, it is not too kind to either of the characters as their personalities are more complex than just awkward nerd and artsy girl-girly.)

Dipper and Mabel’s personalities are very different but somehow, they—along with their Gravity Falls family—manage to solve mysteries and save the town, multiple times.

Gravity Falls is an honestly genius series that completely changed the way cartoons were made. Originally when writing a series, you’d create a base of your story; characters, the universe and a basic plot. Yet, when creator, Alex Hirsch (who was in his early/mid-20)s and his small team first began constructing their show, they planned out everything they could possibly think of for the first season. Additionally, outlining some answers for their biggest mysteries that would be answered at the end of the series.

Despite being rated TV-Y7, this series really pushed the boundaries of kids’ television. From the teeth being ripped out of a deer’s mouth by a demon, rearranging the functions of every hole on a man’s face to an aggressive pop-rock sock puppet show that ended in a dramatic slow-motion scene of the puppets burning. Gravity Falls wasn’t afraid to get a little weird or creepy. Or create some genuine nightmare fuel.

From the beginning, Gravity Falls had built a mystery into its series, hiding secrets and clues all throughout the show. Most notably were the backwards-recorded message and cryptograms, using roughly nine different kinds, even creating two of their own.

The inclusion of cyphers and mysteries for fans to solve is possibly the reason why this series was so successful. As one of the first shows to do something like this, Gravity Falls used social media and internet fandoms to its advantage.

As mentioned earlier, cartoon fans have quite a presence on social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. They create theories and share fun ideas about their favourite shows. Viewers of Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe were all included in their share of theory fun.

Sometimes, fan theories end up being correct but when you’re Gravity Falls creator, Alex Hirsch, you don’t just watch from the sidelines as your viewers figure out the biggest mystery of your show. No, you create a hoax to get your viewers off your trail and that is what he did. Around 2013, only halfway through the first season of the show, viewers had started to follow the clues, theorizing who was the author is Dipper’s mysterious journal.

Unfortunately for the Gravity Falls production crew, the viewers were right— for the sake of readers who have never seen the show, I will not mention who the author was as it would be the biggest spoiler.

In 2013, a supposed leaked image of a tv showing a younger version of the show’s crazy old man character, Old Man McGucket, writing in the infamous journal was uploaded anonymously (by Alex Hirsch) to 4Chan.

Despite the image only being on up for a few hours, it spread like wildfire. Much to the team’s success, theorists stopped searching for the answer to “who is the author” and just accepted the image of McGucket as the truth.

To further push the fake-out, three words were posted to Alex’s Twitter, “fuming right now.”

The tweet was deleted a few minutes later and fans genuinely believed that someone from the Gravity Falls team had leaked the most important part of the story.

While doing research, I came across a Reddit post from April 10th, 2013, the day after ‘leak,’ Alex’s tweet was uploaded. In this post, user, TheoDW uploaded an image of Alex’s tweet with the caption, “It seems that Hirsch got mad at last night’s leak. He already deleted this tweet.”

Seeing the reactions of these Redditors in 2013 is kind of weird and crazy to look at. “He has every right to be upset. Someone internally released a plot revealing screen shot of series breaking spoiler information,” a deleted Reddit account commented.

“This is Alex Hirsch’s biggest success by far, he spent a huge amount of time carefully planning out the series, and then in a moment someone releases a major spoiler. It would make anyone upset,” the user, Time_Loop commented.

“Seriously, this is a nightmare for a storyteller, and shows a breach of trust. I feel so bad for him–honestly, I hope whoever did the leak gets caught and appropriate action is taken. You don’t f–k with someone’s story like this. It’s unprofessional.” the user, lonelybeloved angrily commented.

In 2014, this ‘leak’ was finally disproven when viewers were given an episode on McGucket’s backstory and an amazing tweet from Alex Hirsch.

Alex had post an image of himself playfully pointing at a monitor with the supposed leaked picture with the caption, “1) Make hoax 2) Upload to 4Chan 3) Post angry tweet about "leak" 4) Delete tweet 5) Let internet do rest”

It is so interesting to look at these comments know that all of this was orchestrated by Alex.

I wish I had been old enough at the time to follow theories and fandom stuff like I do now with current cartoons but really looking at this from an outside perspective, this was insane!

The real author wasn’t revealed until 2015 and when viewers first got the answer to this biggest show on their screens, they must have freaked out!

Following the finale in 2016, a single frame of a stone version of Bill Cipher, the show’s villain, flashed in after the credits had finished.

Alex Hirsch and his team actually created a real-life statue of their villain for their viewers to find and on July 20th, 2016, the Cipher Hunt began.

By following clues, the Hunters found themselves all over the world; Russia, Japan and then travelling throughout the United States for the final 12 clues. When the hunt took them to Los Angeles, actor, Jason Ritter (voice of Dipper Pines, also a massive fan of the series) and Alex Hirsch’s twin sister, Ariel Hirsch (the inspiration for Mabel) joined in the fun helping the search.

Finally, the hunt ended on August 2nd when someone tweeted out an image of the found statue in Oregon, the same state in which the fictional town of Gravity Falls exists. The Cipher Hunt had ended but finding the statue wasn’t Alex’s goal for the scavenger hunt, it was about the journey and bringing together the viewers, more than having them actually find the statue.

Creating its own hoax, an international scavenger hunt and quite a bit of nightmare fuel, Gravity Falls was a show truly unlike any other.

The 2010s saw some of the strongest cartoons ever made, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe acting as the leaders for multiple different changes in the medium; storytelling, worldbuilding, interaction with viewers, utilizing social media, representation and further pushing music into the cartoon world. From what was created this past decade and what has already been released in 2020, I’m so excited to see what comes next.

I have another one of these which is on Steven Universe’s representation and music if you would like to see that too!!

#isaac rambles #long post #gravity falls #cartoons #cartoon review #dipper pines #alex hirsch #OH MY GOD I LOVE ALEX HIRSCH'S BRAIN!!!#disney #disney channel #disney cartoons

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t4tlawlight · 3 years

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YOU'RE AN AVENGER, A DEATH ANGEL. YOU KILL PEOPLE WHO ASK FOR IT, WHO DESERVE TO DIE. YOU'RE A WATCHDOG, A PROTECTOR OF THINGS DECENT. YOUR COMFORTS ARE SACRIFICED FOR EFFICIENCY -- YOU CAN'T DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE WITH PEOPLE MOANING AND CLINGING TO YOU, YOU CAN'T STRIKE WITH POSSESSIONS WEIGHING YOU DOWN. YOU HAVE A CLEAR HEAD AND NO REGRETS. YOU CAN TAKE OUT ANYONE BECAUSE YOU'RE STRIPPED DOWN AND YOU DON'T DEPEND ON OR TRUST A SOUL. YOU ARE EFFECTIVE BECAUSE YOU DON'T LOVE ANYBODY OR ANYTHING. YOU'RE A ONE- MAN FORCE, THE PERFECT INSTRUMENT OF DESTINY.

– "INFLAMMATORY ESSAYS 5" by Jenny Holzer

(this is a companion piece to Love and Belonging, my early drama light analysis! [LINK] i heavily recommend reading it before continuing this analysis, as i reference events and ideas explained in that post.)

in my previous analysis of drama light, i focused on the events that led him to become the man we see in the beginning of the drama: a gentle, kind man who is underachieving but still brilliant, who takes a maternal role in his household after the death of his mother. This is all crucial to understanding Light’s character in the drama and how the events leading up to him becoming Kira change in line with his altered characterization, but that analysis only barely skimmed the surface of Light’s character development throughout the drama, and especially after L’s death.

the drama fandom--including me!--is somewhat guilty of making blanket statements about drama light’s morality as opposed to his manga counterpart, that drama light is kinder and gentler in comparison to manga light. this may be true early on, but i would argue that as the series progresses, drama light willingly and deliberately throws away his love and humanity just as much--if not more!--than his manga counterpart.

to understand what i mean it’s important to compare light’s relationship with his father between the adaptations.

in the manga, light grows up idolizing his father, loving and admiring him and wanting to follow in his footsteps as a police officer. his morality that leads to him ultimately becoming Kira comes from Soichiro, as does his dissatisfaction with the world as he sees his father work himself to the bone trying to eradicate crime that seems to never end.

there’s a lot more that can be said about the nature of their relationship and about how Light desperately seeks his father’s approval, but instead of typing out an entire analysis i’ll link you to this post by tumblr user mikami [LINK], which is a very good analysis of the two of them in the manga.

conversely, in the drama Light begins much the same, but Soichiro choosing to chase a criminal instead of being by his wife’s deathbed--leaving his children to witness their mother’s passing alone--strains Light’s relationship with him. Light has much of the same morals and worldview as manga Light, but now believes that his father’s morality is more or less worthless, since he had to give up his family to pursue justice.

Light: When my mother died when I was a kid, my father was off chasing a criminal… I thought my father’s form of justice couldn’t be worth much, if he had to sacrifice even his family to see it through.

– Episode 7

however, it’s important to note that while Light is cold with his father and resents his occupation, that does not mean that Light does not still love and idolize his father. he wants his father’s love and support, and he cares as deeply for him as does his manga counterpart. in fact, drama light only becomes kira out of a desire to protect his father--after his first, accidental murder, he throws away the Death Note and tries to forget about it. however, his father is taken hostage by a criminal who intends on seeking revenge for Soichiro putting him in jail years ago, and Light is forced to retrieve the note and write the criminal’s name to protect his father.

[photo: a zoomed in shot of the Death Note. Light is writing the name “Otoharada Kuro” in Japanese. the penmanship is shaky and nearly illegible from how hard Light’s hand is trembling.]

– Episode 1

Light is literally shaking with terror as he writes the name of the man about to kill his father.

and this is not something Light does lightly--after he saves his father and it’s announced that Otoharada is dead, Light is absolutely stricken with guilt and horror for murdering two people, including the man who was about to kill his father. he saved his father’s life at the price of another, because he loves his father--and his entire family--very deeply.

it’s also worth noting a slight difference between the manga and the drama; after the mock execution, drama Soichiro admits that he believed Light could be guilty and was prepared to die. Light--who at this point has no memory of being Kira and thus completely believes himself to be wrongly accused--does not blame his father for not trusting him. Light, who desperately wants his father’s approval, does not blame him in the slightest: instead, the subject of his anger is Kira himself for putting Soichiro in this position and making Soichiro suffer.

Light: I… I hate Kira. Kira, who made you suffer this way… I hate him so much. Soichiro: Light… Light: Please catch him. I believe that you can catch Kira, Dad.

[photo: Light and Soichiro in an abandoned parking garage. the two of them are crouching beside Soichiro’s car. Soichiro is hugging Light, who weakly raises his hands to hold his father in return.]

– Episode 6

the two of them embrace and weep before collecting themselves and returning to Countermeasures.

by this point in the story, it’s obvious that both versions of Light love Soichiro very much. Light is creating his “new world” for the good of humanity but also for the people he loves the most--his family.

later, the emotional death of manga Light comes after the passing of his father, which he never wanted nor planned for. he never wanted Soichiro to be in a position to get hurt and he is never, ever the same after Soichiro's death, especially because he never gains his father’s approval for his actions as Kira--in fact, Soichiro leaves him with an outright rejection of Kira entirely.

[panel 1: a close up of Soichiro’s eye. he looks like he’s in pain. the speech bubble above his head reads, “I still have the eyes. And according to that Shinigami… Ryuk, I can’t see the lifespan of someone who owns a notebook.

panel 2: Light is standing above his father’s prone body. Matsuda stands behind him, bandages on his face and arms. Soichiro continues, “Light, you’re not Kira… I’m so glad…” Light looks shocked in response, a speech bubble above his head reading only “!” Matsuda says, “O-of course he isn’t! You were still worried about that?"]

the fact that Light can never gain that approval leads to him becoming incredibly dissatisfied and simply going through the motions--it’s what leads to him treating other people like cogs in a machine that will listen to him without any free will of their own, which is what makes him not foresee that Mikami might take action of his own accord. this is how Light gets caught in the end.

in the drama, however, Light experiences more than just his father’s rejection. Soichiro confronts Light directly about being Kira, catching him in the act. this is, of course, Light’s worst case scenario--he does virtually everything he can to lie his way out of it, to get his father back on his side, but fails. Soichiro acknowledges the fact that it was his fault that Light turned out this way, and also that he failed to notice that Light was suffering up until now--and then begs Light to turn himself in, in a scene that echoes L’s confrontation with Light from a couple of episodes prior.

when Light refuses, Soichiro begins to write his own name in the book.

Light: No way. Dad… Stop it. Dad! Stop it! Dad! Soichiro: There’s a struggle going on in your soul right now, isn’t there? That’s what it means to take someone’s life. That’s the weight of a human life. Do you understand, Light? Light: If this suffering is the real thing, I really can’t forgive criminals. I realized it, Dad. Even someone like me… There’s something even I can do to serve the world. Soichiro: How does killing people serve the world?! Light: I’ve sacrificed a lot of things, too! You of all people must understand how I feel! We’re working for the same thing. To protect the peace for everyone. With that notebook, I can create a world without crime! I’m just like you! Soichiro: You’re wrong. Open your eyes, Light. Come back, Light.

– Episode 10

with this ultimate rejection of Light’s actions, Soichiro finishes writing his name and Light allows him to do so. it isn’t as though Light couldn’t have stopped him if he really wanted to, either; on one level, turning himself into the police as Soichiro requested would have saved his father. on another, we see him rip the Death Note from Soichiro’s dying hands moments later as his father attempts to burn the book. Light is perfectly capable of saving the book and only acts when the Note is in danger, not his beloved family member.

of course, we never see manga Light exactly in this position, either, and I can’t say that I think that manga Light would have turned himself in or physically ripped the Note from Soichiro’s hands. both Lights did virtually everything they could to never be in a situation where they had to choose between the safety of their family members and being Kira, and I doubt manga Light would have done well emotionally with Soichiro outright rejecting him, his actions, and his ideology.

however, their actions and behavior immediately after Soichiro’s death is extremely telling. when manga Light is rejected by his father, who died as a result of a plan gone awry, he is completely devastated.

[photo: a panel of Light Yagami screaming over his father’s body. tears are running down his face, and he yells, “Dad! Dad! Don’t you die, damn it!”]

he sheds tears--which are rare for manga Light--and he mourns over his father’s dead body for quite some time. as i said previously, he is never the same man again after his father’s death.

drama Light sheds tears as Soichiro writes his name and is clearly upset by his passing, but his mourning period is immediately interrupted by desperation to get the Note back. he spends Soichiro’s last moments wrestling with him for the Note, and once his father collapses he takes the note, wild-eyed, and holds it to his chest protectively. in this instant, he cares more about the safety of the book than his dead parent--because he had just chosen the notebook, and being Kira, over his father.

after Soichiro’s funeral, Light thinks this:

Light [internally]: Dad really did open my eyes. If I am to become a God, sacrifices are inevitable. No matter who it is that pursues Kira, I will erase them.

– Episode 10

this is Light implicitly saying that sacrificing his family members--sacrificing Soichiro, the man he began killing in order to save--is inevitable if they oppose Kira. of course, this is very similar to the way that manga Light distances himself from Soichiro after Soichiro’s death, to save him from the hurting that it caused him.

[photo: a panel of Light Yagami’s face, zoomed in close so we can only see one eye, his nose, and most of his mouth. He is scowling, most of his eye cast in shadow, and he’s sweating and panting. He asks, “Dad? Are you talking about Soichiro Yagami?”]

of course, all of this begs the question of how drama Light--who began a sweet, gentle boy who was more or less coerced into using the Death Note to begin with--got to a place that even manga Light didn’t have the chance to get to, where he was more willing to save the Death Note than his own father. it’s important to consider another relationship that drama Light has that’s much different from manga Light’s--his relationship to L.

manga light respects L's intelligence and sees him as an equal, as entertainment at times, but he doesn’t like him. not even during yotsuba arc, where they’re ostensibly on the same side--in fact, i would say yotsuba Light has more reason to dislike L, seeing as though he believes L to be falsely accusing him and having tortured him for virtually no reason. they're not actually friends--it’s a manipulation tactic. moreover, L sees him the same way. they were not friends and they both intended on killing each other until the bitter end.

by comparison, drama light and L's relationship starts that way--with the two of them wanting to kill each other, with a pretense of friendship that is actually an excuse to get close to each other to try and test for weaknesses--but the difference is that they, well, fall for their own bullshit. during yotsuba arc, Light’s memories are rewritten in such a way that he believes that L and light are genuinely on friendly terms, and L finds himself over the course of the arc going from respecting Light’s talents and thinking him as something interesting to genuinely wanting him to not be Kira and seeing him as a friend.

if you want to know more about L’s thought processes during the series and specifically the blue scene I recommend reading my analysis about him [LINK] but what is important to note is that L does not want to kill Light anymore by the time episode 8 rolls around. like Soichiro later will, he attempts to convince Light to confess--with the intention, we later find out, to potentially give him a way out. of course, Light doesn’t understand this and believes, for the moment, that it’s a fight to the death--so he writes L’s name in (what he believes to be) the Death Note.

this is intrinsically different from the way Light kills L in the manga. manga Light convinces someone else to do the dirty work and he is absolutely gleeful when L dies, gloating over his dying body--but up until this point L has made manga Light’s life an absolute hassle and expressed time and time again that he intends on executing Kira, who he believes to be Light. L wants to kill him, and they are not friends. while drama Light also believes it’s a “me-or-him” situation, he cannot deny that he actually likes L, that he wanted to be friends with him--he wanted, like Soichiro, for L to accept him and to be a part of the world Kira would create.

[photo: Light, cast in blue light, is bent over double. we’re looking at his face from below, from L’s point of view on the floor. his face is contorted with grief, face wet with tears and spit. He says, “I’d have wanted to be your friend forever.”]

– Episode 8

these are what Light believes to be his last words to L, so he has no reason to lie. he’s weeping as he says it, seeming absolutely heartbroken. this is the first time that Light kills--or attempts to kill--someone he cares about, and it’s the moment he decides to throw his humanity away. if he hadn’t cared so deeply for L before deciding to kill him, I don’t think the scene with Soichiro would have played out quite the same. Light even says it himself right before he writes L’s name:

Light: I can’t afford to lose to you. I’m creating a perfect world, without crime. To see that happen, I… L: Light… Light: I… I’ve decided there’s nothing I won’t do!

– Episode 8

these words are immediately followed by Light attempting to kill L. this is the fundamental moment that Light throws away his humanity, literally deciding that he would do anything for his new world, including killing his friends if they stand in his way. this culminates in him letting his father die and ripping the Note from his hands. he believes that the ends justify the means and that this is the only option he has.

it’s important to note that it isn’t that Light stopped loving his father, or stopped liking L--it isn’t that he lacks guilt over their deaths. it’s exactly the opposite. while their deaths--and the deaths of the Countermeasures team that he planned to take place, as well as the FBI and countless other people--are a necessary evil in order to make the world a better place, Light has to absolutely jump through hoops to justify it to himself and compartmentalize the guilt. as I said earlier, Light saying that Soichiro’s death was inevitable is a way to distance himself from the pain and guilt and rejection he feels, but as he’s dying that guilt cracks back open wide. when he sees that the Death Note is on fire, he panics and begins crawling towards it.

Light: Not yet. I can still do more. If I give up now… What was it all for?

– Episode 11

this is immediately followed by a flashback to Soichiro’s death, where Soichiro questions him about how killing people serves the world--after he crawls a little further, he flashes back again to L, recalling L’s desire to be friends with him.

these flashbacks go to show that Light feels a deep and profound guilt for killing both of them. he’s justified and rationalized it to himself as being for the good of the world--he chose being Kira over both of their lives. however, this means that if Kira fails, if he dies and the world goes right back to the way it was, then all of it was for nothing. he gets himself into a situation where he has to keep killing and killing people he cares about because if he stops then it means that all of it was for nothing.

it’s honestly an incredibly sad situation, that someone so full of kindness would become ultimately cold-hearted in an effort to cope with guilt.

#death note #death note drama #light yagami #soichiro yagami #death note analysis

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