#my head already knows fascism is bad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

beatrice-otter · 5 months

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I’ll be honest, when one party’s aiding and abetting the genocide and the other’s outright gonna kill all my friends, I don’t really care if the fascists “win”. They’ve won already.

You know who would be delighted to hear that? Trump and Putin. The US far right and the Russian government have poured lots of time, effort, and money over the last decade+ into convincing US leftists and liberals that things are hopeless, there's no point in even trying to make things better, and the Democrats and Republicans are functionally interchangeable. They do this because one of the easiest ways for them to win is if the left gives up and stops trying. Every person on the left they can convince to give up in despair brings them closer to complete control. Defeatism on the left actively supports victory on the right.

I think your statement is wrong on a number of levels, both factual and emotional. It comes from not understanding what the actual options are for the US government and the President specifically, either at home or abroad. And it will allow actual fascism to flourish and make the world far worse than it is now.

On an emotional level, the way to address this is to stop doomscrolling. Stop focusing on the worst things happening in the world. Don't ignore them! but don't let them consume you. Start looking for the things that are going well. Find places in your community that you can get involved in making things better. Even if it's only on a small scale like volunteering in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, it will help you realize that you aren't helpless, that there are things that can be done to make the world a better place. Stay informed about things on a local, national, and international level, but limit how much time and attention you give to things that depress you that you can't affect. Instead of sitting there thinking about all the ways the world sucks and how awful things are, look for things you can do that are productive, and then do them. You'll feel better and you will have made your corner of the world a little better. And you will be a lot less likely to unintentionally fall into the despair, nihilism, and passivity that the fascists want you to be consumed by.

Always remember that the worlds problems are not resting solely on your shoulders, or solely on America's shoulders, and neither is the hope of fixing them. Everyone has things that we can do to make the world a better place, but there are also things that are beyond our control. We can control what we do; we cannot control what others do. We can and should try to make the world a better place, but focusing on the things we can't change has no positive benefits. Focusing on things we can't change accomplishes two things: it makes you feel bad, and it stops you from doing the things you actually can do to make things better. Neither of these things is good for you or anyone else. Look for things you can do and do them. Keep informed on the things you can't change, but don't focus on them.

On a factual level, let's look at "aiding and abetting genocide," shall we?

First, it's important to remember that the US President is not the God-Emperor Of The World. The US government has limits to what it can and can't do in other countries, and both legally and practically. If the US wants to intervene in a problem in another country, there are a variety of things we can do that boil down to basically four categories. It's a lot more complex than this in practice, of course, but in general here are the categories of things we can do:

Send in the troops. Invade, either by ourselves or as part of a NATO or UN operation. (Or maybe just send in a CIA wetworks team to assassinate the head of state.) I hope you can see the moral problems with this option, and also, we've done this a shitton of times over the course of the 20th Century and pretty much every time we've done it, we've made an already awful situation worse. On a moral level, it's pretty bad, and on a practical level, it's worse. Sure, we could stop the immediate problem, but what then? Consider Afghanistan and Iraq. We got rid of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, and everything went to shit, we spent twenty years occupying Afghanistan with pretty much nothing to show for it. (The Taliban is back in control of Afghanistan.) Things were worse when we left than when we arrived. So this option is pretty much off the table (or should be).

Diplomatic pressure. Now, the thing is, they're a sovereign nation, they don't have to listen to us if they don't want to. We have a lot of things we can leverage--including financial aid--but the only way to force them to do what we want is to invade and conquer, and that only works temporarily. Since we can't force, we have to persuade. This requires us to maintain our existing relationship with the country in question, and possibly strengthen it, because that relationship is what we're leveraging to try and influence them to do what we want them to do. If we do not maintain our relationship, they have no reason to listen to us.

Cut ties and go home. Break off any existing relationship and support, loudly proclaim that they're awful and doing awful things and we wash our hands of the whole situation. This keeps our own hands lily-white and pure, but it also means we have zero leverage to work on any kind of a diplomatic solution. They have no reason to listen to us or care about what we think. We can pat ourselves on the back for doing the right thing, but we destroy our own ability to influence anything. Not just now, but also in the future. Let's say the current crisis ends, and then ten years later there's another crisis. If we want to have any effect then, we would have to start from square one to start building a relationship. Cutting ties would be great for making Americans feel better about ourselves, and there are times when it's the only option, but it should be a last resort. If there is any hope of being able to influence things for the better this will destroy it at least temporarily.

Cut ties and impose sanctions. Break off any existing relationship and support, loudly proclaim that they're awful and doing awful things, but also use the might of the American economy to isolate and punish them. We've done this a lot over the 20th Century, too, and it has never actually resulted in the country in question buckling down and toeing the line we want them to. What happens is the sanctioned country has an economic shock (how long it lasts and how bad it gets depends on a lot of factors) and then pulls themselves back together economically, except this time they're more self-sufficient and less reliant on international trade and financial networks. They tell themselves that America is evil and the cause of all their problems, and so not only do they not listen to us, they actively hate us. And they have fewer international relationships, so fewer reasons to care about what the international community thinks about them. So they're most likely to double down on whatever it is they're doing that we don't like. This one is completely counterproductive and utterly stupid. It's great for making Americans feel better about ourselves, but if we actually care about being able to use our influence for good (or, at least, to mitigate evil) this option shoots us in the foot. It encourages other nations to do the very thing we're trying to stop them from doing.

So, with those four options in mind, both option one (invasion/assassination) and option four (sanctions) are off the table for being immoral and counterproductive. That leaves "breaking our relationship and going home" and "using diplomatic pressure" as our only two viable options.

Biden has chosen option two, diplomatic pressure. Yes, he and our government have continued financial support for Israel ... but with strings attached. They have put limits on it that have never been put on any US foreign aid before. They have taken legal steps to lay the groundwork to target Israeli settlers (i.e. Israeli citizens who confiscate Palestinian homes and businesses). We've been hearing reports for months that Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister, and a far-right-wing demagogue) hates Biden's guts, because Biden is pressuring him to stop the genocide and work towards peace. Biden is maintaining the relationship, and he's using that relationship to try and influence things to curb the violence and pave the way for a just peace settlement of some sort. Biden has also mentioned the possibility of a two state solution where Palestine becomes its own completely separate country. That's huge, because up until this point the US position has always been that Israel is the only possible legitimate nation in that territory. If Biden stopped US support for Israel, it wouldn't force Israel to stop what it's doing ... but it would let them ignore us. It would remove any leverage or influence we might have.

Biden's hands aren't clean. But the only way for them to be clean would be to also give up any chance of influencing the situation or working to protect Palestinians now or in the future. Only time will tell if it works, but I personally would rather have someone who tried and failed than someone who didn't even try. You might disagree about whether this is the right course of action, and there's a lot of room for honest disagreement about the issue (there's a lot of nuances that I'm glossing over or ignoring). But please do acknowledge that Biden isn't supporting Israel because he supports genocide; he's doing it so that he can continue to maintain diplomatic pressure on Israel to stop the violence.

Which brings us back to "aiding and abetting genocide." Trump is not like Biden. Trump is good friends with Netanyahu and backs Israel to the hilt. Trump thinks that all Arabs are terrorists (and all Muslims are terrorists) and genuinely believes the world would be a better place with them dead. Biden is continuing to support Israel, but using that support as influence to get them to stop or slow down. Trump would be using that influence to encourage them.

And those are the two choices. Someone who is trying to curb the genocide, and someone who actively supports it.

I really hope you can see the significant and substantial difference between those two positions.

But let's say that you're right and Biden's policy towards Israel and Palestine is every bit as bad as Trump's would be. If there was nothing to choose between them on foreign policy grounds, there would still be a shitton to choose between them on domestic policy grounds. You admit that the right wants to kill your friends, and yet you don't seem to think that stopping them from killing your friends might be a good thing to do.

"We can't save Palestinians, so we might as well let Republicans destroy the rights, lives, and futures of LGBTQ+ people, women, people of color, people with disabilities, poor people, non-Christians, and anyone else they don't like." "We can't save Palestinians, so why bother to try to save the people we might actually be able to save." "We can't save Palestinians right now, so there's no point in trying to build up a longer-term political bloc that might drag US politics to the left over the long run."

Do you get why there's a problem with that line of thought?

#us politics

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silent-raven13 · 1 year

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And my man, thank you to my man 😝💖👨🏿‍❤️‍👨🏾

Miles happily smiles as he received a bouquet of Sunflowers, stuffed patched up teddy bear with markers drawn on it, and Jamaican take out for his lunch. The 18 year old saw his two friends looking at the gifts, while they decided to eat outside of the cafeteria. A nice change in location, to enjoy the view of Miguel's world.

Gwen: What's all of this? -one hand on her hip, she placed her tray of Mexican take out down on the table-

Pav nodded having his Chinese take out for lunch, he's so hungry he shove noodles into his mouth then spoke: Yeah?

Miles playfully said: They're gifts! -he sniff the bouquet of flowers loving the scent- They smell so fresh!🥰

Gwen: Let me guess, Hobie?

Miles nodded his head very fast with excitement: You know, he likes to spoil me. ☺️ -he couldn't help but snuggle his teddy bear- He made this for me! Isn't that cute?

Pav sips his soda: Whoa, he did! Wow, what did you get him?

Miles: My love! -He laughs playfully- I should, huh? Let me think... hmm🤔

Gwen: It should be something functional. It's the best way to use the gift.

Pav: or romantic!

Miles snaps his fingers: I know! I can get him a new guitar pick with our names on it! 🥰

Gwen: That is a great gift.

Hobie appears with his arms wrapping behind Mies' shoulder: Gift? What gift? -He kisses Miles' cheek- Aye, luv. Love your gifts?

Miles smiles widely showing off his teeth: Yes, bae! The bear is so cute! -He gave many kisses on his boyfriend's cheeks, and his hand caressing Hobie's arms- I love'em! 😘

Hobie smiles widely: I'm glad. You know, you don't have to give me nothing, dear.

Miles pouts: But I should. You're my man!

Hobie's face flustered: That's enough for me. 🥰

Pav giggles: Awwwweeeee.

Gwen: What if Miles' want to give you something to show that he loves you as much as you do.

Hobie: Oh he can never love me as much as I love him. -He sits besides his boyfriend, then lowly said- I would conquer the world for him!

Miles hearts flutter: Awe, I know you would! -he hugs his boyfriend with his arms around Hobie's neck- And you would make me a God?

Hobie grins widely: Of course, luv! I would make everyone worship you!

Gwen: Sounds like fascism...

Pav: Yeah! Wouldn't that go against what you believe in, Hobs?

Hobie chuckles lowly almost a bit amusing: Heh, funny, ain't it. It will be different because it will be my Sunflower! And everyone would get to worship my darling! -He playfully tap his boyfriend's nose- He's too precious!😌

Miles snuggles against: Love you, baby! 🥰😍

Hobie: Love you, darling. 😘 Oh I almost forgot -he handed Miles' his favorite soda, OK Kola Champagne- I forgot to give you this!

Miles gladly took his drink with his eyes widen: No way, bae! How did you get this? The Cafeteria doesn't sell this! 😲 -He grew up with this soda, one of his favorites. His mom would buy them in glass bottles and they would always drink together as a way of bonding. He opens the can hearing a small hiss then sips- Mmm, so good!

Gwen looks at Hobie, who's already pink: Man, you gotta stop spoiling him!

Pav chuckles: Damn, I'm not even like that with Gayatri... maybe I should be 🤔

Miles giggles having to share his lunch with his boyfriend, he offers him to try the soda: Here, have a sip. -he watches Hobie taking a sip then shrugs- Too sweet?

Hobie: You know me, luv. I rather drink ale than a Pop... -He use to drink a lot of beer before meeting Miles. Now, he rarely drinks it.- But this isn't bad.

Miles wraps his arms around Hobie's left arm, his head snuggling against him. Hobie's body turns red with magazine words of love and hearts: Well, I still need you to try Pegao and other Puerto Rican snacks.

Gwen only eats as she listen to the couple then asked: What's Peg-Ow?

Pav burst out laughing: Gwen, what?

Miles: Pegao? It''s crispy rice. It's so good. Dominicans call it Concón.

Hobie said with a smile on his face: I'll try anything for you, Sunflower.

Miles: I know, you will, baby! Mwah! -he kisses Hobie's lips-

Gwen: Oh brother, here they go again. -The lovey dovey sometimes be too much for her-

Pav: They are here for the long run!

Hobie: For sure!

Miles turns to his friend: Yeah, he's my baby!

Gwen turns to Pav: And he will be the first one to proudly let everyone.

Pav: Miles would give a whole speech about Hobie!

Hobie smiles widely hearing his boyfriend: I would! I would like to thank my bae for these gifts and lunch -then chuckles- And my man, thank you to my man! -he playfully stuck his tongue out while hugging his boyfriend-

Hobie could only chuckles having to put Miles on his lap: Amazing speech, luv! 🥰 It's the best one I heard!

#punkflower #miles morales #hobie brown #spiderverse #spider verse #across the spider verse #fanfic

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uranium235s · 2 months

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HIIII!!! once again so intrigued about your courier. if you wouldn't mind explaining the context in THIISSS post for your choices in symbolism i will totally devour it. :D

THANK U SO MUCH BELOVED MUTUAL I WILL ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll even include little close ups of the symbols in question. long post under the cut probably

CHESTER

1. COLOR - yellow/magenta/dark turquoise

tbh there's not much color symbolism put to thought for my color picks for chester or for arcade they are just colors I picked because I associate these pallettes with them which is CRAZY because i LOVE COLOR SYMBOLISM!! THE CURTAINS ARE ALWAYS BLUE FOR A REASON!!! but I will put depth to them anyhow

yellow, representing joy and optimism reflects chesters outward feelings towards his life and his circumstances. he's a realist in the sense that he knows that things will probably not go his way/he might die but I'd wager that's a pretty common thought process across the post-apocalyptic united states. however he approaches situations with the idea that he can make things better or easier, or resolve things peacefully or with as little conflict as possible, and maintains a positive and upbeat attitude as often as he can manage

magenta is representative of balance, kindness, compassion, which is pretty true to chester's character. he doesnt approach any situation with a mind of violence, and only resorts to it when left with no other choice or pushed into a hard place. he enters every encounter with the idea that other people are human too, even when they're human and evil. he tries very hard to see and understand everything eye-to-eye even when the scenario is way over his head, i.e. pretty much everything about the struggle for power over the dam.

turquoise, on the positive side, has a lot of similar symbology to the other two colors, but on the negative side can represent stress & high alert, which, I mean, come on... I fear there's no couriers out there in the wide world of fnv ocs that aren't constantly unyieldingly stressed out ... darker shades of colors usually have a dour effect to them, seeming unsaturated & devoid of spirit, which I think plays well with chesters mental state throughout the game (and at times after it), a bright and cheerful color that has been stripped of its spark, suddenly looks sadder and has less joyful connotations

2. FLORA - dill

wellll according to the flower dictionary, dill represents power against evil. I am for sure not on flower language & can't speak 100% to the accuracy of random flower almanac online but for the sake of this post let's say it's real. I don't think I need to go into meticulous detail about why dill fits chester so well hashtagindependentvegas, but I think it's more than just him killing "the bad guys" and more his dedication to helping the individuals living in these conditions. his highest faction relationships are with goodsprings, novac, freeside & the followers. yes chester ends up being very powerful in that way that he takes out the biggest heads, but the strongest weapon against oppression and fascism is the simple act of caring about and for other people ,which is what turns out to be what chester does most and loves best

3. FAUNA - cow

cows symbolize generosity and nurturing, but I think I've already covered things similar to that with the previous couple of things so I want to focus more on the cow as an image of butchery and sacrifice, and in contest to the Legion using the bull as it's token symbol. I think chester is frequently in a position in which people are trying to use him and kill him, getting him out of the way so that some aspect of what he has can be useful, or sending him to his death or into danger for personal gain. need I even mention old world blues and being literally hacked apart . also I've never mentioned chester has legion lore but he was owned by the legion for several years as a child and I think it's quite interesting if he's represented by a cow, a softer and arguably more toothless vision of the same creature (I am aware all bovines are quite big and strong but I'm talking about representations here <3)

4. OBJECT - screwdriver

while in the legion his primary job was repairing and cleaning weapons and technology, and he grew a real hatred for mechanical upkeep after escaping, letting his own property (weapons, furniture, etc) go to waste because he couldn't bring himself to diddle with things anymore. i think the screwdriver kind of represents the apprehension to grow and heal from his own past (as opposed to running away from it + changing himself to ignore it). it sounds kind of silly when I write it out but it's okay 🥹

5. SONG - Life During Wartime - Talking Heads

I actually don't know what to say about this one for real because explaining how I relate my characters to music is like trying to say what a color tastes like it's so hard because it's very much about feelings and lyrics and lyrical analysis is a whole other beast for me BUT this is my excuse to post the chester playlist ;)

6. FEELING - enduring

Chester is experiencing a near sisyphean struggle day in and day out but he still makes it to the end of the fucking game BABYYYY. chester knows that the struggle in the mojave will never be over and he loves it anyway, chester knows there will always be someone trying to hurt others and he keeps trying to prevent it anyway. he will always be doing something in the face of adversity and will keep going anyway. maybe a bad explanation but idk! he just doesn't give up! indomitable chester

ARCADE

1. COLOR - off-white/light yellow/blue

for off white I was thinking of white being representative of purity & innocence & off white being kind of an off-kilter interpretation. arcade had such strong ideals and wants such cut, clear good things for the people of the wasteland. I agree with what he wants very much but I think in action, some of the things you have to do to achieve them have more complicated outcomes than is let on in theory sometimes!!! you have to kill a LOT of people in this game!!!

fun fact yellow is also a color that represents intelligence + clarity, things I think arcade has in spades, obviously . I chose light yellow because I like it for him more, it's a gentler color and i think arcade is a more gentle person than he gets credit for (am not calling him weak or anything, just tactful & cautious)

as for blue , I think the obvious call is that it is symbolic of sadness and melancholy, but i also find I like that blue can represent stagnation and boredom and loneliness, all things I think arcade vocally struggles with before becoming involved in the escapades of the courier (in my case chester of course). I think the dialogue he has when you ask him about his research in the old Mormon fort does not spell the story of a person that is happy where they are at, talking about how the research is boring and fruitless, and apologizing for rambling to you because he never has an outlet for his thoughts. not being a people person, being "stuck" with his research because he doesn't want to interact with others despite being a for serious doctor. I'm clutching my chest I'm so distressed by him

2. FLORA - rosemary

chester and arcade with their herb symbology. aren't they so special. apparently rosemary is symbolic for remembrance! Arcade's story is deeply steeped in themes of memory and the past, I think it is only suitable that he would have something likewise for this. he grapples strongly with how lovingly he remembers his family vs. the reality of what they participated in. most of his pertinent ambient dialogue is him reminiscing on things from his childhood, old world technology and science, politics, writing and history. arcade, before his growth, is living both in the past of his own life, and other peoples

3. FAUNA - elephant

you know the old adage about elephants having excellent memory is actually true and not an exaggeration but since I've already said my piece about arcade and memory I will instead say that elephants are one of the most nurturing animals on the planet and travel in family herds ! Male elephants do break off from the herd after some years but female elephants will stay forever. I often think about how arcade lost his father at a young age and then had his mother and Daisy to turn to most of all. the maternity of it all wounds me!!!!

4. OBJECT - scizzors

i fear the symbolism as scizzors as a means to cut ties/cut free makes me sick when I think about encouraging arcade to grow and become his own person outside of the enclave + his fathers' shadows. also scizzors medical utensil, finish of stitches, open wounds , et cetera. I feel so silly with these surface level explanations of things that's my bad

5. SONG - Runs in the Family - The Roches

oooh you wanna listen sooo bad

6. FEELING - guilt

maybe a bit on the nose its in my opinion kind of that arcade feels like he has to make things up to the world based on his family's behavior... I think arcade does what he does for the right reasons of course but I also think it's so beautiful & telling that this guy is so passionate about knowledge, learning, and restoration, which are things the enclave had too, to some degree, but wants these things to be put to action in a way that aids and benefits the lowlifes that would've been put to death in an enclave-run mojave. poor drug addicts and land starved farmers, traders and prostitutes and more. the common person and all their flaws become just as worthy in arcades eyes than they would've been to others. I think there is a shadow of responsibility to be this better person hanging over his head that is made bolder by a genuine enthusiastic passion for medicine and research & an understanding of what would be actually useful to people in a world such as this. he wonders if this is what his father would've wanted him to be. I think I could've found a more apt word than guilt but to my defense I was at work when drawing this

#some of these might he kind of badly worded or not very well written i start throwing up when asked for my ideas #THANK YOU THOUGH FOR ASKING AGAIN EVEN SO I LOVE TO YAP #oc -> chester #ocs -> fallout

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andmaybegayer · 8 months

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Last Monday of the Week 2024-01-22

Snowing again

Listening: Went looking for some very funky guitar and came across the album Parallels by Evan Marien and Dana Hawkins. Here's "Forever"

Reading: Not The End of the World by Hannah Ritchie, a book focussed on taking a realistic eye to sustainability.

This book largely rehashes stuff you'll already have seen if you read Ritchie, albeit in a nice compact form factor and with a lot of your generic pop-sci book flourishes. Better than median pop-sci because it has sources cited.

I do think that knowing these kinds of things is important. It helps you recognize what is worth worrying about and where you really don't need to obsess so much. Much of this book is about agriculture and food, since food is the easiest part of most peoples' lifestyles to change and this is squarely focussed on individuals, but it does also cover other pollution, general habitat loss, disease, disasters, and plastic pollution. A lot of this still ends up linking back to food, because agriculture is a huge user of land, and land use drives a lot of those things.

There's also a lot of debunking of bad stats that get quoted, which is useful. You see a lot of these On Line and even if you avoid propagating sensationalist headlines, you still read them and they can be sticky. In general this book doesn't as much assuage anxieties as try to shift them to more productive terrain.

Even if you disagree with the philosophy of the solutions proposed here, the data are mostly pretty good and well covered, it's solidly grounded more often than its not. Having relative comparative values for things like land use from meat vs plant foods, relative proportions of plastic landfilled vs recycled vs dumped in different parts of the world.

Watching: Porco Rosso, because like three years ago someone told me to watch it and I finally did it. Perhaps the lowest time to fantastical flying machine possible in a Miyazaki movie, although I haven't watched Nausicaa.

It is so funny that he's just some guy who got cursed! The human hands and pig head form a perfect comedic item. Killer one liners. It's tricky to make a movie simultaneously about fascism in Mussolini's Italy and also about a big cartoon pig who outsmarts a bunch of goofy pirates.

Playing: Still on Dark Souls, made it into The Depths, video on that just went up.

youtube

Making: Did some microscopy over the weekend, on a random snow sample. Not as interesting as algal samples or pond scum, but the pond is frozen over at the moment. I'll go back once it's melted with a stick.

Tools and Equipment: If you keep on dealing with shit-ass audio from your computer, a dedicated audio handling device is probably going to solve your issues.

I've spent years dealing with crap audio from devices plugged directly into my motherboard but I recently got a Zoom H1n portable recorder and I'm using it as a basic USB mic interface plugged into my old Video Mic for the Video Games Recordings seen above and my audio is SO clean. I can finally actually do proper audio stuff like recording with headroom and gaining in post without destroying my noisefloor, I did not know just how much goddamn noise my motherboard was dumping into audio signals.

I like doing video and audio to complement my photography but unlike with photography, I've never really used good quality tools to do that, so I'm in the process of changing that.

#last monday of the week #Bandcamp #Youtube

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alephskoteinos · 11 months

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OK, there is something about this sort of line that irks me and I feel the need to address this idea right now, especially because the Tumblr comment sections won't let me explore my issue in full.

The pop cultural representation of Satan and Hitler being talked about is based on a lot of bad ideas. It has nothing to do with Hitler being a kind of evil archetype (he wasn't, he was just an asshole antisemitic failson who committed genocide), and everything to do with our society's attempts to try and understand how the horrors of the Holocaust, the Third Reich, and World War 2 could all be possible.

One of the ways people tried to explain that is through the idea that the Nazis were ontologically evil because they were spiritually evil. This means the idea that the Nazis were evil because they practiced "black magic", were into the occult, and opposed Christianity. Some people even tried to claim that Hitler was possessed by demons. This would be one way how popular culture in Christian capitalist democracies receives the notion of Hitler as some sort of archetypal evil. But of course it's all nonsense. The overwhelming majority of the Nazis, including Hitler himself, were Christians, and some form of Christianity was enshrined as the religious basis of National Socialist ideology.

Let's say it for everyone in the back: Nazism is a Christian fascist ideology!

Of course there were exceptions, a handful of Nazis who ostensibly did not consider themselves pagans despite this fact. But these were often ridiculed or ultimately pushed out. Even Heinrich Himmler's ostensible rejection of Christianity was really quite superficial: on the one hand he was ostensibly a non-Christian "God-believer", but on the other hand he was only really anti-clericalist rather than anti-Christian, having more issue with the church as it existed than the teachings of Christianity themselves.

So using this trope to talk about the relationship between Satanism and Nazism is simply wrong-headed. There are people who do make the connection between Hitler and a general idea of "evil" in that they seem opposed to Christian society, and that probably does animate certain Nazi Satanist trends and also things like NSBM (shit like Nazi black metal does exist after all), but that whole thread is made possible by the cultural zeitgeist of Christian capitalist societies and their attempt to separate Nazism from the continuum of capitalist statecraft in which it emerged and from which it drew life. Christianity and capitalism can't ever accept their role in ultimately generating Nazism, because it will always taint them, so it must externalise Nazism in every possible respect until it appears as some kind of demonic outside emerging from the abyss to tear society apart, and not the folkist Christian ideology and logical extension of capitalist hegemony that it actually is.

Besides, we all know Nazism is not entirely transgressive. The law is illustrative in this regard, because even though you will be arrested if you get involved in neo-Nazi terrorist activities, the police still tend to protect you if you rally in support of neo-Nazism. Fascism itself tends to appear as an element of social heterogeneity, which explains its appearance in certain subcultures, while actually always appearing in the employ of social homogeneity. And if you've been paying attention to the Right for long enough, you've probably already seen Nazism by another name emerge as a disturbingly respectable ideology served up by the bourgeoisie and right-wing think tanks in the media. In many respects, Nazism as a kind of evil outside in relationship to society remains a facade. That Satanists may fall for the idea shows only their failure as Satanists and nothing else.

The same ultimately goes for the Order of Nine Angles, some of whose members, strangely enough, do not even claim to be Satanists. Nazism is a core component of their ideology, which means some of their racial Christianity without the name. True, a certain form of ritual moral transgression is part of their belief system, that much is well documented, but I think the author of the comment understands this as being for its own sake, which is ultimately only an appearance. They do everything that they do in the hopes of bringing their gods into the world, and in turn spiritually transforming themselves into fascist godmen and bringing about their "Galactic Imperium" (btw, that's also pretty much a spin on fascism by way of Francis Parker Yockey).

To couch opposition to "pure opposition" in this setting is ultimately very meaningless. For one thing, nothing really changes the fact that Satan is, among other things, opposition. I mean come on, that's in the name! The difference between all of us Satanists comes down to what that opposition means. For another, even the O9A has some definite parameters with opposition, and if you scratch beneath the surface of their occult transgression you will find that their rejection of morality is actually just couched in a fascist rejection of "decadence", which of course, being the Nazi antisemites that they are, they blame on Jews.

"Pure opposition" is a concept that begs elaboration in this context. If by this we mean the total opposition to society and the moral basis thereof, then, taken seriously, that's just anarchism. And before fascists ever got their hands on Satanism, it was, even if as a romantic literary device, embraced by the anarchists of the past precisely because it meant uncompromising rebellion and opposition to the state and its web of values. For this reason anarchists and Satanists both recognise themselves as fundamentally opposed to the moral basis of society. That idea has nothing to do with fascism.

#satanism #fuck fascism

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avatarwarriordreamwalkers · 2 years

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My spoiler free review of Avatar 2.

I finally caught Avatar The Way of Water, after waiting patiently 13 years and after having to cancel my tickets on opening day with my dad, because I tested positive for COVID. Went through 5 days of quarantine and had a negative test, and headed off to the east coast for Xmas, where I was planning to watch it with some friends and family. But bad weather thwarted my trip, so while in travel limbo, had to catch a showing.

After seeing in IMAX 3D, my mind was thoroughly blown! This sequel was stunning on so many levels, and I wasn’t disappointed. I did however notice some things that were frustrating. The high frame rate in IMAX was excellent, but transition from HFR action scenes back to 24 fps dialogue was a bit jarring. At times it felt like the movie was streaming from online and had to buffer during certain scenes after the HFR action. I wish they offered a full high frame rate version with no interruptions in its 48fps glory.

Another thing that frustrated me, I felt like there was a bit of rehash from the first Avatar, kind of like Force Awakens tried to reformulate Episode IV. But on some level, it was a step above 2009! ✨👏🏽✨ And definitely a better sequel than Star Wars VII was to Return of the Jedi.

The creativity and mind blowing effects made up for what was lost in trying to repeat a formulaic success. It was emotionally moving on a level that was even more potent than the first, with family relationships taking center stage. Simultaneously, the story could not help but remind me of what’s at stake in our own oceans, while setting up another stunning allegorical retelling of a story most of us are not proud of; the betrayal and destruction of indigenous peoples and their lands. Pandora was North and South America before the Europeans moved in and claimed the new world as their own.

This is the quintessential premise of Avatar and Cameron’s message; unless we have a change of heart, with the Na’vi representing our higher selves, we will continue destroying our oceans and planet. And the only thing preventing us from doing it again to an alien world, is our lack of current know how to sail the deep seas of space, with enough weapons, manpower and technology to colonize a new paradise.

This is why Avatar and its sequel are such powerful films; they get us thinking about our own world, and the beautiful dream it could become if our higher selves prevail. Imagine if we all just went “Na’vi” on our current intolerable order, that’s causing the destructive free fall / tail spin we are currently experiencing with a climate catastrophe. What if we woke up and decided we didn’t want to play the self destructive end game nations are preparing to wage (WW3) when refusing to act like states in a global country. What if the enlightened side of us all won the race for our future, where like the Na’vi, we decided we are all one tribe on this beautiful world, all truly seeing each other, respecting all beings and the environment, living in balance and collectively uniting to defeat militarism, fascism and corporate greed destroying any chance of a livable future.

I already crafted an entire video sharing why I loved the first Avatar so much and how it inspires me to turn dreams into reality! https://youtu.be/SfrhQrz4Vg4 I can’t wait to start my next video on Avatar 2, and how the way of water is a metaphor for what can unite us all, finding more in common for peace than irreconcilable differences, sending us to the brink of new World War. ✌🏽👁🌍👁

24 hours after seeing Avatar 2, I tested positive for COVID again, this bout hitting me much harder than the first. And again it makes me think about the environmental challenges we face that have been proven to exacerbate the global pandemic, while promising to unleash even newer and more deadly viruses. The Avatar franchise has come to us all at the prefect time, and I can’t wait to see how Avatar 3 wakes US up even more, while inspiring a much needed shift in our collective consciousness!

#avatar #avatar2 #james cameron #pandora #jamescameron #navi #thewayofthewater #worldspirit

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krakenartificer · 2 years

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I posted 2,048 times in 2022

That's 356 more posts than 2021!

65 posts created (3%)

1,983 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@oma-goodness

@turtletotem

@frenchtoastpanda

@ms-demeanor

@radwolf76

I tagged 2,044 of my posts in 2022

#too tired to tag - 319 posts

#laugh rule - 101 posts

#reblog - 95 posts

#undescribed - 92 posts

#video - 92 posts

#recovery - 72 posts

#leverage - 69 posts

#meme mutation - 57 posts

#gpoy - 55 posts

#read out loud to spouse rule - 49 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#like. nerds feeling superior and basing their identity around being ‘smart’ is bad. but so is basing your identity around being ‘stupid’

My Top Posts in 2022:

I just watched a video clip of David Tennant being asked what “is the most Scottish thing that Captain America could shout from behind his shield”

And I’m re-reading the Tiffany Aching books

And now I really want to see Steve Rogers in a kilt yelling, like ,,, idk,,,, “Nae Fascism! Nae Genocide! Nae Nazis! We willna be fooled again!” or something like that

135 notes - Posted September 3, 2022

Behold! The most uselessly complicated piece of fanart (I have) ever made!

(Minor spoilers for @derinthescarletpescatarian's web serial Curse Words)

Medium: macrame and embroidery Fiber: acrylic

What is it, you ask? Why, it's a picture of the lake monster's tentacle, magnified 80,000x!

The what? you ask. Well let me just let Max explain it:

The four materials detected by the enchanted microscope showed up in the photos as four distinct colours. Mostly blue and red, with a generous dash of green throughout and rare fine threads of yellow. With the four materials easily distinguished, the structure of the tentacles was obvious. A whole lot of long strands, twisted together. “It’s rope,” Kylie gasped. “Or thread or cotton, I guess, given how small it is.” “It’s much finer than thread or cotton,” Max said. “These filaments are subcellular in diameter.

But that's not all! The description goes on!

These parts are just twisted like rope,

See the full post

147 notes - Posted October 23, 2022

Leverage fandom

There's an episode where someone else is running the briefing for some reason, and Nate gets impatient like "We know all this!" and Hardison says something like, "On the contrary, while you are familiar with this already, some of us have focused on technology and have no knowledge of {whatever it was}. This is new information, and I am fascinated, quite. Please, go on."

I would like a gif of "I am fascinated, quite. Please, go on." (or whatever the actual line is). Does anyone have one, or at least know which episode that is?

232 notes - Posted March 27, 2022

As I was heading out the door to watch the Superbowl with parents-in-law, the image popped into my head of Eliot and Nate discussing the Big Game, and Parker saying "What big game?" and Hardison being like, "? ?? You don't know about the Superbowl?" and Parker being all scornful "Of course I know what the superbowl is." and then just as Eliot is calming down, she adds "It's the safest day of the year to steal stuff from a residential neighborhood."

(And then she totally misinterprets Sophie's astonished expression, and conscientiously adds "in the United States")

280 notes - Posted February 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

You know what Leverage needs?

A bibliography.

Like, obviously don't interrupt the show for it. But somewhere ... on a website, a wiki, something ... there should be links for all the outrageous bullshit the marks get up to.

When Breanna explains how an already-bad policy exacerbates racism? I would like a link for that.

When Harry explains the loophole in federal law that makes this theft legal? I would like a link for that.

When Eliot goes off about the ways working-class families are being harmed by something we consider "normal"? I would like a link for that.

And more than any of that, I would like a link to people who are working to change it. Like you know how we all got together and said "Yeah, medical debt is horrendous and this charity buys it up and then forgives it, be a superhero like Parker and delete someone's oncology bill!" -- could we do that for, like, all of this?

Just because I learned it from a TV show doesn't mean I don't want to share it with everyone I know. Quite the opposite, actually.

530 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #I posted (on average) an extra one per day; that's kinda fun #tumblr wrapped #lotta leverage this year #also a lot of being on tumblr while I'm non-verbal #I'm curious to know which 4 posts I didn't tag #gpoy

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garudabluffs · 1 year

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Fascists in Congress are already howling about the unfairness of holding a fascist leader to account, just as Hitler’s supporters were when he was arrested in November of 1923.

That arrest and subsequent imprisonment didn’t end Hitler’s political career: it boosted it.

If ever there was a time when Americans need to be conscious of what’s really going on in our nation — to be “woke” — this is it.

Pass it on.

Daily Take

Dead School Children are a Sign of America’s Trump-Fueled Fascism Problem

Many Americans are baffled. Why, they ask, would Republicans refuse to act when semiautomatic weapons designed for the battlefield are used against our children?

READ MORE https://hartmannreport.com/p/dead-school-children-are-a-sign-of

18 Comments 4 hr ago "Mr. Stuart R. Hayes relied way too much on Elbridge Gerry's fear of the military part of the constitution,and from my understanding, he basically refused to sign the document on the grounds there should be no army. I am slightly confused about Gerry's position, but it does seem he thought the Mass. govt. had overreacted against the western farm revolt, commonly called Shay's Rebellion. But overall Shay's Rebellion was a wake-up call and directly resulted in an understanding of the elite in the various states that the power brokers didn't to prevent internal strife both within and between the states. That would tend to indicate that Mr. Hayes was incorrect. In the Federalist Madison does address the concern of balancing state militias against the federal army. Nowhere does Madison address the idea that states shouldn't be able to regulate guns within their boundaries and Madison, personally, did not thing individual citizens needed guns. The concept that the 2nd amendment was somehow absurd. The Mass. Bill of rights of 1780 does say the state needed to be able to defend itself, but to say it means individuals should be able to have private militias or guns was the opposite of its meaning. It explicitly says to prevent runaway military dictatorship the state (the legislature) must have full control of any regulation or use of force via weaponry and any action of any group or individual contrary to legislated authorization. When the incorporation theory began to take hold in jurisprudence, both the states and the courts saw that that amendment's purpose was so clearly obvious it was non-incorporable. When ex-Chief Justice Burger retired, he wrote an entire book countering the current judiciary's interpretation. For the most part the intent was not as much to protect the states from the federal military but to enable the states to be able to engage in state militias to protect itself from its own citizens. And in fact the Whiskey Rebellion began actually before the passing of the 2nd amendment and had to rely on federal military initially. But the 2nd was always meant to protect the states from the citizens. Even at the start of the civil war there wasn't any talk on either side about arming its citizens against the state, although we know there was in both sections armed resistance to be drafting of citizens who had no allegiance to their sector's cause. Notably in western North Carolina, mountainous Virginia , and many of the border states. Neither the north or south wanted to encourage internal armed rebellions and the south often tried to take away and seize all arms that were non-military. So much for the theory because it is another attempt of reinvention that never existed. In 1870 Tennessee there were at least three cases limiting the rights of individuals to bear arms individually (James Andrews, Frank O'toole, and Elbert Custer). Cruikshank, the next year, while a pretty bad case for civil rights, was a supreme court decision saying states could regulate who could have guns and the 2nd amendment only stated that the federal govt. had no authority to prevent any state that chose to regulate control of guns in its own state. Presser was the first case to confront the right head on and said individuals could have a gun right (for hunting or personal defense) but any attempts to form unauthorized citizen militias was unconstitutional, .we could go on. It wasn't until Heller in '08 that any court ever suggested an individual right protected by the 2nd amendment, although as Mr. Hartmann suggests the agitation began nearly forty years before Heller.

Apparently, as Mr. Hartmann illustrates, the implications of Heller are that if guns cannot be controlled then it must be all right to use guns. No need to wring your hands in anguish if your kid is killed by a gunman, because Heller allows people to use guns, and if guns can be used, it is implicitly implying murder is not a crime. So from my own ignorant perspective shooting people with guns is okay because of our right to use guns. So wake up call, how can we say shooting people is a crime at all if there is no laws that can be made against their use. So yeah, that congressman from Tennessee, whatever his name was, nothing any legislator can do about people shooting people if scotus says individuals have a 2nd amendment right not only to possess guns but to use guns. Frankly with our current court gleefully cheering on the dissolution of society, I doubt any laws, even red flag laws would almost certainly be stricken down. Sorry this is an obscene post, forgive me. But how else can one talk about what is going on with guns and not be obscene? How else?' "

#Trump fascism 2nd Amendment

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formulinos · 2 years

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Hyperfixation Corner: The Three Brides of Alain Prost

before he was the chauffeur for the ceo of brazilian fascism, nelson piquet was a regular formula 1 quote-giver. to be fair, and don't let the guy know i said it, some of them were undeniable facts - "golf is a sport for old people," in particular, is probably written somewhere in the bible - while many others show us we shouldn't have been exactly surprised at his lack of moral fiber. there is, however, one quote that stands out against many as it could easily be true as it could just be another wattpad fanfic from the same author of "i was better than senna" - the claim that alain prost ruined three marriages.

today, in this special of hyperfixation corner, i try to give you all the evidence i have gathered over the years on whether alain fucked so hard he would ruin the holy instition of matrimony for bants or not.

the claim the first bride: bernadette cottin the second bride: catherine bleynie the third bride: madame x

The Claim

Over the years, Nelson has claimed repeatedly that Alain's modus operandi was to become close friends with someone so that he could sleep with their wife, since this was the only way he could pull chicks since he's, quote unquote, "ugly". I swear to God, I've listened to and heard this sentence so much I could tell it to a doctor after hitting my head BUT until relatively recently, it stopped at "he did this to three people in the paddock" and BITCH. TO WHOM?

Enter Lemyr Martins, a Brazilian writer and photographer who has covered our participation in F1 from Fittipaldi to Barrichello, writing a good chunk of books while he was at it. One of those was "Os Arquivos da Fórmula 1" (The Formula 1 Files, in English), published in 1999 and basically filled with stories from his time of coverage. It contained some small interviews with drivers as Lemyr went through the eras, and at some point Piquet, who had already featured quite a bit in the book, decided to talk a bit about his resentment of Brazilian media's lack of standing up for its drivers. You'll find, though, that the point gets lost so surprisingly quickly you'd think Nelson invented DRS here, 12 years before the real deal.

Look at the difference between French newspapers and ours. How they preserved, for instance, Alain Prost. He is a latte* kind of guy, super political, who has never driven a bad car. But he has always had the backing of his press, something we've never had in Brazil. This Prost wasn't ethical at all in his private life. He ruined the marriage of Didier Pironi (Ferrari driver), Gérard Larrousse's marriage (former driver and Larousse-Lola's team owner) and Jacques Laffite's (French driver), but the French newspapers didn't write a single comma about it. He had the nerve, he would start going to his friends' houses, wouldn't come out and then he'd fuck the wife. That's what he did to Pironi, to Larrousse and to Laffite. But I even think he had to act this way to get something because he is really ugly. I took the piss out of Prost the day he changed the shards of teeth he had for veneers and went out smiling to the world. He would circle around the track not to run into me. He spent half a season running to avoid smiling at me.

* in this context, latte (café-com-leite in Portuguese) means he is a small, weak, bland kind of guy.

I know all of you want to unpack the last few sentences here, and so do I, but we need to stay focused. We got names: Jacques Laffite, Didier Pironi and Gérard Larrousse. From these, one we can tell for sure it was true, one for sure it is fake and one… is inconclusive. Let's start with the juicier of them all.

The First Bride: Bernadette Cottin

Jacques Laffite was Alain Prost before there was an Alain Prost. Now, I'm not saying he was as talented, because the difference between six Grand Prix wins and four WDCs is considerable, but he was a Driver Superstar in France anyway - and still is, considering only Alain and René Arnoux won more GPs than him. Six years Alain's senior, Jacques drove from 1974 to 1986 in F1, basically alternating long stints between Williams and Ligier, a French team. He decided to retire from F1 after suffering a very grisly accident during the 1986 British Grand Prix, where he broke both of his legs.

Piquet had a point in saying the French press wouldn't write a single word on this all because I simply can't find much on the whole thing, so forgive me for my lack of sources. The earliest mention I could find of Jacques' love life was in this Motorsport Magazine article from October 1981. In it, you can find a reference to a girlfriend, named Bernadette, to whom he was linked from 1967. This Bernadette is, in fact, Bernadette Cottin, who would later become Laffite-Cottin after getting married in November 1977.

I'm sick and I can't be arsed with photo edits this time, so here is a Getty pic of Jacques and Bernadette (left) with her sister, Geneviève and her husband, Jean-Pierre Jabouille

Bernadette and Jacques were the real deal, as soon after their wedding they had two kids, Camille (1978) and Margot (1980). While I can't pinpoint for sure if there were rocky times between them during their time together, Bernadette was around the paddock somewhat often, as you can see from pics of the couple double dating on a few occasions. When Jacques had his career ending accident, Bernadette was there to nurse him back to health.

Double date with The Rosbergs, 1983

Bernadette and Jacques together after his accident, 1986

Now this is the part where it becomes a bit of oral history - and I bet it was oral alright for Alain and Bernadette. Again, it hasn't been written in detail, so none of this can be attested for sure, so don't sue me. Alain and Jacques were homies, like apparently on the level of business partners and, even more serious in the world of F1, golf buddies. While I can't for the life of me find out what they were business partners in, exactly, there are enough pics of them interacting to be able to assert they were mates alright.

I had so many other pictures I could choose and yet....

Well. After Jacques recovered from the broken legs, he decided to give a go to competing again, mainly focusing on DTM and the 24 hours of Le Mans. However, he also liked to dibby dabby on the Paris-Dakar Rally, and word on the street is that when he got home earlier one year after flopping, he caught Bernadette and Alain together. Genuinely struggled to pinpoint the year here as people accuse it of happening either in 1989 or 1990, BUT there are two points to consider:

In that period, the Dakar rally usually happened in March (1988, 1989) and in 1990 it literally started on Christmas day. If you consider Alain had a limit to being a slag and he spent Christmas at home, that leaves 1988 and 1989 available only. From those two years, the F1 season started April 3rd in 1988, while in 1989 the first race happened on March 26th. While it looks like Alain would have more free time for Bernadette in 1988, he went to check their activities out in that year as you can see here:

Another point is that Sacha Prost was born on 30 May 1990, which means that Alain and his first wife, Anne-Marie must have been together at least until September 1989 for her to get pregnant. I'm not saying that it is completely impossible for him to have been caught, then forgiven by the lady wife, then they had a band-aid baby before deciding to separate for good but it is less likely than Alain and Bernadette being caught having an affair later than 1990 and the following separations ensuing. Therefore, I have to call bullshit on the Paris-Dakar story for now.

Either way, the fact is that Bernadette and Jacques officially divorced in 1992, also known as the year that Alain Prost spent out of F1. While Alain and Anne-Marie remained officially married until 2017, Alain and Bernadette started living together and had a child, Victoria, in 1996.

According to Prostfan, they still live together in Switzerland, so at least there's that. And hey, time heals all wounds, as Alain and Jacques have occasionally mingled over the years after the whole deed was done.

Playing cards together on a train in 1998... Like girl Victoria was just two back then, I don't know how no one threw punches there.

A bit more "recent", 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. That I can understand, it's been over 15 years at that point and they're both balding and grey by then.

Was Nelson right? Yeah, probably. While no one can tell for certain, it's the one story that's passed around with more detail, so….

The Second Bride: Catherine Bleynie

So. This is a funny one. I mean, sort of, if you have a weird sense of humour.

It was April of 1982. Didier Pironi was, at the time, doing REALLY well. Professionally, he was at the top of the world, driving for Scuderia Ferrari, which is even better than winning as we all know. On a personal level, he was about to get married to his girlfriend, Catherine Bleynie. In fact, they were in a bit of a hurry, since Didier was about to race in a fortnight. Didier and Catherine didn't know it yet, but this was the end. Why? Because the race was in fact, the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix.

Catherine and Didier on their wedding day, 14 April 1982. I lack the explanation for the chef guard of honour.

Just two weeks later, Pironi fought on track with Gilles Villeneuve and won the GP. He also fought with him off track, and Gilles swore never to talk to him again. He kept that promise alright, as he died in an accident during the qualifying for the next race, in Zolder. Needless to say, this was a bit of a headfuck to Didier who was forcibly linked to this disastrous turn of events for the rest of his life, even though he wasn't to blame for it (and neither Gilles, we've already been through this). Just a few months later, in August, it was Didier's turn to retire from the sport after an accident that almost had him need both legs amputated. Naturally, he was emotionally sensitive after going from championship frontrunner to retiree in less than a year, so he really relied on the support of his partner…. Véronique Jannot.

I? What?

Now, if you were paying attention, then you know that Didier had just got married in April, to Catherine. Yet, it's August and he's with a whole other woman doing covershoots about his accident. What happened?

Well, we have no clue. Streets say he cheated, streets say she cheated, but again, the French media sweeped it under the rug and all we know for sure is that by July of 1982, Didier and Catherine were on separate paths. In fact, Catherine was about to live lavish on the jetset, also featuring on many high society events and magazines with her boyfriend, French legend Alain…………………..

……… wait for it…………………

Delon.

ENOUGH!!!!!

I shit you not. Catherine's rebound guy was fucking Alain Delon, whom she dated for 3 years from 1985. Catherine and Alain weren't strangers, in fact they met 14 years prior when Catherine was a wee intern for a couturier who designed clothes for him. However, they only became friends after meeting again on a flight to Rio de Janeiro in 1982. Catherine was off to see Didier race while Alain was off for a festival with his then wife, Mireille Darc. Considering the three year gap and the fact Alain had another girlfriend before making it official with Catherine, it doesn't sound like he was responsible for the doom of the Pironis. However, it does make it hilarious imo as it means that Nelson Piquet mistook Alain Prost with Alain Delon. Like.

The two Alains together at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix. In case you are confused, Alain Prost is on the left

Imagine being so Frenchphobic you think these guys are the same person somehow? Amazing. A clear L for Nelson Piquet on this one.

The Third Bride: Madame X

Two wives down, one to go. The reason I saved this one for last is that I just don't fucking know what happened here, ok? I don't even know the woman's name, let alone if they really banged or not! You see, Nelson Piquet claimed it was Gérard Larrousse's wife, but in some versions of the story it's a random untitled senior Renault executive who got cucked.

Alain and the guy he supposedly cucked, Gérard Larrousse, during their Renault tenure

Here's what we know: Alain had already managed to get close to the WDC with Renault twice, getting to 4th place in 82 by only a 10 point difference to Keke Rosberg, the champion. Renault were the pioneers of turbo engines, but hadn't managed to master its reliability, which makes it even more astonishing that Alain still managed to contend for the championship when he had 16 DNFs in two seasons. When you consider that each season had 15/16 races back then, my guy literally had one full championship of retirements with Renault at that point.

Obviously, it was getting embarrassing and all parties vowed they wouldn't act like fools in 1983 and to be fair, they solved the reliability issue, for Alain at least. In fact, Prost was doing well in the lead, followed by Piquet and the two Ferraris (<3). This meant nothing to the team though, as inside the boxes the turmoil was so great that it led to Alain's Mercedes being burned at his home by Renault workers after he criticised the team. He ended up moving to Switzerland and got turned off the whole thing. Four races to the end, my guy crashed into Piquet while trying to overtake him in the Netherlands and the lead went down the drain with two turbo failures in two of the other races remaining, losing the championship to Nelson "Prost Whistleblower" Piquet himself.

As a good Frenchman would, Alain took the defeat with the grace of a giraffe walking on a slippery ice rank, and proceeded to talk shit to the press:

The team was torn apart in every way. Instead of leaving it to competent men, the decisions were taken by the upper management [...] Renault did everything not to win the championship, because they were scared of winning anything at all.

Damn. Who hurt you Alain ?

To be fair to him, Renault had factually ran out of money to keep developing the car in 1983, according to Bernard Dudot, an engineer for the team at the time. Back then, Renault was fully in the ownership of the French government, the inventors of bureaucracy. So, while there was no budget cap and Renault was a constructor with an endless amount of cash in comparison to other teams, there was just no way to expand the budget in the middle of the season. Prost was sacked mere two days after his defeat in Kyalami and the sore comments were attributed as the official reason… but were they?

Dudot says that "The truth remains that he made some mistakes that contributed to our loss." The Holland accident is the key moment, but this doesn't take away from the fact the other two DNFs were mechanical failures and that he had only been out of points in three other races, spending most of the time on the podium. Like sure, he wasn't invested in Renault after getting his car burned but he was still very much down to win a championship and his form showed it. So the reason couldn't be individual mistakes because they were seldom there, especially knowing he lost the championship lead literally in the last race.

This brings us to the conspiracy theory that I mentioned at the start of this section. The lore is that Alain got caught banging the wife of then team principal Gérard Larrousse, who only didn't sack him then and there because it was the middle of the season. The story is still embellished, depending on the source, with the fact that this all supposedly went down during the 1983 Dutch Grand Prix and this is why Alain crashed into Piquet. He was such a pile of nerves he made an uncharacteristic mistake. Still, the story changes a lot and I've even seen claims that Alain screwed the wife of the Renault CEO at the time, so it genuinely sounds like an urban legend. Still, it is worth noticing that the people working in F1 are, first of all, major gossipers, so if Nelson was openly talking about it, it means at the very least that it's a Known Story in the paddock (or at least it was back then). So, while I can't say for sure it's true, I guess only the people involved can say for sure if it's false.

To conclude, did Alain Prost wreck three marriages as Nelson Piquet claimed? No, just one. Two, tops, but we lack enough information on this. As much as Alain fucks, he doesn't fuck that hard, he is just French. That's what they do. Either way, I needed to get this out of my chest so that I could forget about it for a bit. I'll keep looking for info on Gérard Larrousse's wife because this is the one we know the least about, if any of you have any info on the subject feel free to share with the class! In the meantime, screw you guys, I'm going home.

PS: Here's the video of Alain trying to bag a fourth wife, in the shape of Jean Alesi's then girlfriend in 1991:

youtube

I have to stan a man who isn't scared of his reputation!

#hyperfixation corner #alain prost #nelson piquet #<- this one is for the black list #fuck them racists!#I went insane but it was worth it because I got some old René Arnoux tea on the way so #this might be a peak shitpost truly

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ukrfeminism · 3 years

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I had an abortion – and my experience shows how broken the UK system truly is

When she found out she was pregnant, Maya Oppenheim knew that, like thousands of women, she could face difficulties trying to have a termination. But what she discovered were problems at every stage of a process that experts warn is at breaking point

TW: medical trauma

I was squatting on the floor of the toilet in Westfield Stratford shopping centre when I found out I was pregnant. Squinting at the test, I initially thought it said “progress”, but on closer inspection, the word “pregnant” was flashing in front of me. Before long, another sign popped up, reading “2 to 3 weeks”, but that turned out to be wrong. In fact, I was far further along in my pregnancy.

As soon as it dawned on me that I might be pregnant, I needed to know for sure immediately. But as I marched through Boots, frantically asking where the pregnancy tests were, in my heart of hearts I already knew. With breasts so tender they felt like they had been inflated with a bicycle pump, and my period nowhere to be seen, there were few other plausible options.

One of the first things I did after taking the pregnancy test was to call my mum. Before I’d even got the words out, she told me: “I know what you’re going to say – I could see it in your face.” A million different thoughts hurtled around my head as I tried to remain calm in the most uncalm of places. It felt surreal to be standing inside a shopping centre while struggling to come to terms with the fact that I was pregnant, though there was something almost comforting about the indifference of the sea of preoccupied shoppers hurrying around me.

Sod’s law would have it that there was no escaping the subject of pregnancy that evening: I had to go to a family gathering, which included my cousin’s wife, who was eight months pregnant. I asked how bad her morning sickness had been. “I don’t know why it’s called morning sickness when it’s constant nausea,” she replied. Those words stayed with me in the days that followed, as my normally indefatigable appetite shrank and I entered what was, for me, uncharted territory.

The decision

I had known immediately, on that toilet floor in an East London shopping centre, that I wanted an abortion. Despite being in a relationship and wanting children one day, I did not feel mentally, financially or logistically ready for a baby. For the moment, work and a career supersede the desire to have a child. This will no doubt enrage the people who do not believe women should have autonomy over their bodies, or think women’s sole purpose is to be breeding machines.

However, I am not alone, with statistics released last month showing record numbers of women were turning 30 without having had a child. The data, released by the Office for National Statistics, showed that around half of women in England and Wales who were born in 1990 did not have a child when they reached 30.

As a women’s correspondent, I am all too aware that there are still many people with retrograde views on reproduction and motherhood. As the far right has grown emboldened in recent years, so too have anti-abortion activists. Populist neo-fascism often has misogyny at its core. Take a troubling report by charity Population Matters last November, which warned that more countries were adopting policies that coerce women into having more children, with “right-wing, populist and nationalist administrations stigmatising women who choose to have smaller families as unpatriotic”. The report noted that Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, promotes debt-free education for women – but only if they have at least three children.

Having written dozens of articles about countries where terminations are criminalised – even in instances of rape, incest or a threat to life – I felt both relief and guilt that I live in a place where it is legal. I assumed that the process of having an abortion would be simple, straightforward and speedy. How wrong I was.

Struggling for an appointment

The same day I found out about my pregnancy, I rang Homerton Hospital in Hackney, the hospital in which I was born, to try to book an appointment for an abortion. Nobody picked up the phone, but I was placated by an automated message that promised someone would call back within 24 hours.

Those 24 hours came and went, but no phone call came. Unwilling to wait, I rang up the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK’s largest abortion provider. “We are currently experiencing exceptionally high call volumes,” another automated voice said. I proceeded to stay on hold for 13 minutes, the soothing music playing on the end of the line having the opposite effect to that intended. In the end, I gave up and opted to send an email instead.

Two days later, I received a call from a man who told me I would have to wait three weeks for a phone consultation, meaning I would not be able to have the actual abortion until a month after requesting the procedure. This would have left me just a couple of weeks away from the 10-week cut-off point for a medical abortion, which involves taking pills. While abortions are extremely safe, it is better to have the procedure earlier on in the pregnancy.

The wait I was facing was at loggerheads with the NHS website, which stipulates: “You should not have to wait more than two weeks from when you (or a doctor) first contact an abortion provider to having an abortion.” The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides evidence-based recommendations for healthcare in England, says providers should “ensure minimal delay in the abortion process, and ideally provide the assessment within one week of the request and provide the abortion within one week of the assessment”.

The man on the phone admitted BPAS was grappling with massive delays, telling me they were receiving 1,000 requests for abortions a day. I stated the obvious – that this was a time-sensitive procedure and I wasn’t willing to wait that long – and he said I could have a phone consultation for an abortion a week later. However, if I wanted something sooner, I was told I would have to travel hundreds of miles to Doncaster or Liverpool for an in-person appointment. This was beginning to feel like a nightmare.

For me, someone in stable employment, it’s possible to travel that distance, but still difficult to juggle alongside a full-time job and the rest of my life. However, this would not be at all feasible for young women hiding their pregnancy from abusive parents. Or women facing domestic abuse. Or those trapped in precarious, low-paid work with an unforgiving boss. BPAS says access is a common issue across the UK, with some women even having to travel from Scotland to London for surgical abortions later in their pregnancy.

Katherine O’Brien, of BPAS, said the surge in women needing abortions was likely to be linked to the struggle to access contraception in the wake of the pandemic.

A recent study found that almost a third of women seeking long-acting contraceptives, such as coils or implants, were unable to do so during the Covid crisis. “Women are returning to normal life, but contraceptive support has not returned to normal,” Ms O’Brien explained. “At the same time as the surge in demand, there are unprecedented numbers of staff off sick, isolating, or ill with Covid, and this is an issue across the whole NHS.” One of BPAS’s abortion services was hit with a 700 per cent rise in staff absence due to coronavirus in the first week of January, when compared to the same period last year.

A gruelling journey

As crippling exhaustion left me struggling to do day-to-day tasks, the prospect of continuing with a pregnancy I didn’t want felt like torture. I found another leading abortion provider, MSI Reproductive Choices UK, which managed to get me a telephone consultation that evening.

During my telephone consultation, I explained I’d had a minuscule amount of discharge, which triggered a request to come in for an in-person appointment and a scan, rather than simply sending the abortion pills in the post. I was offered a consultation in Waterloo in central London a week later, but ended up opting for an appointment in the small Kent village of Aylesham, which meant I would be seen a few days earlier. My granny had unexpectedly died a couple of days before I’d found out I was pregnant, and I couldn’t face the prospect of being in too much pain to attend her funeral.

Even the journey from London to this unremarkable village in the home counties became a gruelling five-hour round trip. Fortunately, I had my boyfriend there to support me. As we sat in the waiting room, another woman vented on the phone about the fact that she had travelled for four hours for an abortion, yet would not be seen that day.

I was called in, and the nurse and midwife tried to carry out an ultrasound, but initially did not have any luck detecting a pregnancy. My immediate thought was, “Oh God, I’m not actually pregnant. What a waste of time and stress.” But deep down I knew this could not be the case. There was no mistaking the fact that I was pregnant, my mind feeling like it was trapped in someone else’s body. After doing another, substantially more intimate scan, they told me I was about six and a half weeks pregnant – far further along than I had realised.

Services on the brink

Having a medical abortion involves taking two tablets. Prior to the pandemic, getting the first tablet, mifepristone, required a visit to an abortion clinic. But after Covid hit, the government allowed the medication to be sent by post to be taken at home after a phone consultation, a system referred to as “telemedicine”. Those rules were due to run out on 25 March, with ministers taking a long time to clarify whether they would be extended. The government finally declared a six-month extension for at-home early medical abortion last week. But providers were incensed that they did not make the provisions permanent. About half of all abortions are delivered via telemedicine. BPAS notes that if the system reverted to how it was before, the service would be likely to see a 43 per cent rise in abortions being carried out after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Jonathan Lord, of MSI Reproductive Choices UK, said abortion services are in disarray. “The whole sector is really struggling at the moment,” Mr Lord, who is also the co-chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, told me. “We’ve had reports from across the board from all the NHS trusts we know of, and all charities, of unprecedented demand. As soon as things get a little less efficient, the gestation of women goes up, and more have to get surgical abortions, which are harder to provide.”

Surgical abortions also require operating theatres and staff, which have been hard to secure with resources diverted for the pandemic.

I took the first abortion pill on a train hurtling back to London, and was relieved to experience no side effects. If you throw up within an hour, you have to let the doctors know, as the pill may not be effective. That evening I did feel a little strange, but it was when I took the second abortion pill 24 hours later that the all-consuming agony hit: the worst pain I remember feeling in my life.

Intense pain

I chose to put the second pill in my mouth for 30 minutes, rather than the other (substantially scarier) option of inserting it into my vagina. The pill pretty much wholly dissolved in my mouth in 20 minutes. Before long, I was writhing on the floor in pain, with paracetamol and ibuprofen scattered around me. No matter how I positioned myself or where I placed a cushion, there was no way to get comfortable or escape the cramps. I must have gone to the toilet about 30 times in the space of three hours – partly as a way to distract myself from the deep, roaring pain.

While the nurse and midwife had been kind, gentle, supportive and calm, they had failed to properly explain how painful an early medical abortion would be. This is something friends who have had abortions tell me they also experienced.

Crawling out of the toilet on all floors, groaning and too plagued by pain to sit up and drink water, I kept wondering if what I was experiencing was normal. What’s more, the nurse and midwife’s warning that I must be on guard for severe bleeding had me a little on edge, after they said I must go to the hospital if I soak through two sanitary pads in an hour and blood is “pouring out like urine”. I even had a nightmare in which this happened. Fortunately, it did not happen in real life, but that did not stop me from incessantly checking to ensure I was not about to bleed to death.

But after three hours, the pain did abruptly subside; the feeling was reminiscent of a sea of calm after a violent storm. Despite the pain having gone, the next two weeks were to be devoid of fun, and filled with rules and a fair amount of bleeding. The advice isn’t consistent – I was told by MSI that there must be no sex, baths, sports or heavy lifting for two weeks. As well as no tampons or mooncups until the next period.

After the abortion, when I asked MSI if this was consistent with their wider advice, they said the guidance on baths was inaccurate and you only have to wait 48 hours. MSI also explained that they have no official, generic advice on how long to wait until you exercise, and their guidance on waiting to have sex has been reviewed and is currently being updated to “whenever you feel ready”.

While their advice felt perfect for me, it was completely out of sync with advice on the NHS website, which does state that you can “have sex as soon as you feel ready” – adding that “you can usually return to normal activities as soon as you feel comfortable to, including having a bath or shower, using tampons, exercising (including swimming) and heavy lifting”. BPAS, on the other hand, though it says you can have sex as soon as you feel ready, does not offer any specific advice on how long to wait until you exercise.

The aftermath

So how do I feel now, a few weeks after having had an abortion? Deeply relieved I am no longer pregnant, and massively grateful I live in a country where abortions are legal. But this relief is bittersweet due to my frustration, disappointment and shock at how poor abortion provision is in the UK, due to this critical aspect of healthcare being neglected by the powers that be.

The lack of attention abortion care appears to receive from politicians makes even less sense when you bear in mind how common abortions are. A record number of women in England and Wales had a pregnancy terminated in 2020, with the increase sharpest among women aged 30 and older. In 2020, just over 209,900 abortions were recorded, an increase from around 207,400 the year before.

“One in three women in the UK has an abortion, yet it is so stigmatised,” Ms O’Brien, of BPAS, said. “It is a standard part of women’s healthcare. Everyone will know someone who’s had an abortion. There isn’t a concerted effort to make the service the best it can be for women. The taboo and the stigma, and almost a view that women undergoing abortion do not deserve the best care, is part of the reason the government sidelines this issue. If telemedicine was a clear benefit to one in three men, do you think we would be having this constant debate?”

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, the NHS signposts to support through this page. Or you can speak to someone in confidence at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the UK’s largest abortion provider, by calling 03457 30 40 30 or emailing [email protected]. Or you can ring MSI Reproductive Choices, another leading abortion provider, on 0345 300 8090.

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 2 years

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There is something worse than a character dying and being killed, and that’s to make the character just…fade away. I feel like that’s what’s happening to Loki now. He’s just going to fade away. Like it’s not enough for them to just kill Loki now, now they must thoroughly destroy him and everything about him. It’s really tragic, what they’ve done.

Does anyone even remember what Loki was all about? What his trauma was? Everything he said and did, everything he felt and everything that was done to him and everything he went through? What happened to it, where did it all go? Where did HE go? Did it all just really mean nothing?? Was it all really just “imagined slights”??

I already have my money riding on Loki being killed in season 2, because you know, that is standard protocol for dealing with Loki, but it’s funny because I actually have this worry that they won’t kill him – but hand him over to a different fate. Resign him to the background, the shadows, you know, where he belongs. I have a feeling the TVA isn’t going anywhere, judging by the amount of brown and tan crap they’re selling, and I worry that the MCU is going to give Loki a “permanent position” there. Before the show aired, I had this feeling that the TVA was the MCU’s “retirement home” for Loki. And honestly, I’d rather see him dead first.

So I’ve narrowed it down to two fates – he’ll either die wearing the Dirty Three-Piece of Humility, most likely as a sacrifice for Sylvie and/or Mobius (because you know he’s never cared about anyone ‘til now so sacrificing himself would be totally new🙄 ), or he’ll be given a position as Time Keeper or Hunter or a nice comfy desk job since things like fighting, using magic and walking have suddenly and inexplicably become difficult for him. And then he’ll just…fade away. Become the background fixture he was always meant to be.

Damn... 😥 At this point killing him off would be mercy.

I think of him ending up his time in the MCU as a TVA worker or worse ruling the entire thing and it makes my blood boil, what a way to destroy him would that be. Almost.... sadistic in nature? He's the embodiment of chaos and they would have him running a place that takes away free will, that champions order! The main character who had always tried to break free ending his days as the head of fascism.

I wouldn't put it past them to change rulers in the TVA and try and tell the audience that now that whoever is running the TVA are good then whatever the organization does is not bad anymore. Their morality is so disgusting it wouldn't surprise me.

But killing him off as he protects Sylvie or Mobius? Sure, go ahead, let him rest. Let us rest.

Your first few paragraphs (I loved your ask, by the way) made me remember just how much I used to love Loki before 2021 and how I feel about him now and the change has been huge, like night and day. I've ended up loving Stephen more.

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mingot-studios · 3 years

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Things currently polluting my mind (will be added to as i think of things)

How bad the Star vs. Finale was, and weather i should even bother trying to watch the show again at this point

The fact that the next JoJolion chapter is coming out soon and I STILL haven’t read 107 with my mom even though I’ve already read it

Not being caught up on One Piece and having 0 IDEA of whats happening at this poin as well starting to flaws with the series (racism, transphobia, and homophobia) that i knew was there but chose to ignore and weather it should hinder my relationship with the series. Also wanting to murder Oda for demoting Franky to ‘Pervy Grandma’ (srsly wtf oda)

Upset Infinity Train was cancelled even though i never watched it, and wonder why the fans cry for it to come is suddenly not happening?

The fact i’m going to be returning to in person schooling which is my personal HELL

my brother leaving for college upstate (Me and my brother have never really been that close, we fight alot but I cant imagine life without him)

The fact that my procrastination has gotten so bad that I nearly had to retake PE, World History, and English

The Owl House coming back on the 12th but i had downloaded the first 2 episodes but haven’t watched them and debating if i should, also having a meltdown over Disney screwing the show over and having its third be 3 or 4 (i cant remember) 44-minute specials

The fact that me and brother STILL haven’t finished our Yume 2kki Let’s Play

I haven’t been watching anime regularly with my mom

I haven’t posted anything to my DeviantArt or YouTube in months

I have so much energy right now but no outlets

I still haven’t tried out my drawing pad i got for my birthday last year

I have so many drawing ideas but my spiral sketchpad is filled up and I have yet to get a new one

Ive many intricit and detailed story ideas that i know im gonna forget if i dont write them down bu due my procrastination i haven’t done so im prolly gonna lose everything

The fact Thurston Waffles hasn’t posted anything since late April as well as the fact that he’s got Kidney problems

So many ideas for videos but I only have WindowsMovieMaker and the HumbleBundle my mom got me idk YEARS ago won’t install

I’m gonna be 17 at the end of September, which i only have until next June before I graduate High school, have to give up my Chromebook, start thinking about college and getting a job, possibly moving out and living on my own, the knowledge that my parents are in their late 50′s and early 60′s so hey might be gone sooner than most parents and I dont know how to function without my parents doing everything for me

These weird tingles ive been getting in my body for he pas couple days

The fact that im not gonna a kid soon and im gonna have to grow and stop doing whatever i want whenever i want and i’m gonna never accomplish my dream of creating a successful cartoon and will probably end up at a dead end job I HATE just to make ends meet and eventually dying alone because I dont wanna be in a relationship or have kids

Everything is too overwhelming. The light, the sound, my thoughts, its all too much. I wanna curl up into a tiny ball and disappear from this awful experience called life

Capitalism

i hate being so passionately when i’m upset, everyone else is calm but i have meltdowns and freaks outs over things i shouldn’t even care about or are miniscule (Comes with being autistic i guess)

I have 0 patience and i hate it

I’m starting to regress back to being a childish brat after all the progress i’ve made

i’m constantly surrounded by either criticism or praise that contradict each other so i dont know what to believe about myself

the fact that i have so many great story ideas but i cant write a cohernt thought with proper grammer or sytax or spelling o save my life, nor the art skill or the patience or the tech to draw comics

i haven seen my therapist in days and i need help but i know im not actually gonna change

having gender panic

I have no in person friends and ive forgotten how to interact with people

ive become a noodle limbed nerd

Ive gotten super skinny

I want someone o break through my shell and help me change bu I know thats just a fantasy and im the only one who can do that but im too lazy to put effort into it

everything i used to enjoy suddenly feels tedious monotonous repetitive and uninteresting

I feel trapped and scraed

The fact after being bulied so much the only way i can really assert myself is to get violent and angry because they would want me breakdown and cry

I have this image in my head of who i want to be; And badass that people including adults, are scared of and know not to fuck with me or they’ll get hurt (Basically Jotaro, bu I’ve had this image since before i even knew what jojo was) And the fact I KNOW that i’s a pointless endever and that i only dig my own grave when i get mad but its like ingrained Branded into my my psyche so im always going to larp that vision of myself but not get anywhere and only regress further

I want to address my problems and change but I never do and stay static and regress

I cant take crticisim even though i know its true

The reason im so scared of writing fanfiction is because i know its gonna be a mess despite what i think is a great story and people will end up mocking it and what little self confidence i have will shatter

Star Vs wasted potential

the fact that I dont know where to take the whole “Rubi dies at the end of he first season but comes back o life except she’s not actually she’s just a walking meat sack containing an anchint eldritch god that will, sooner or later, burst out of her and destroy her body, and she’s fighting for control of her ow body due to Skarlotus trying to devor her soul and Data’s medience is only delaying the inevitable” storyline of my concept cartoon, The Crypto Club

I have an AMAZING idea for an Invader Zim storyline that has fascism, rascism, mass genocide, child soldiers, political intrigue, propaganda, baiscally space hitler and more (okay that came out sound REALLY bad, but NONE of it painted as good!) It also involves Zim and Dib coming together to stop an even bigger threat and there is a really ironic ending that brings my OC GA83′s story full circle

#the owl house #yume 2kki #thurston waffles #star vs the forces of evil #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #jojolion #one piece #vent #save infinity train #infinity train #amphibia #gravity falls #the crypto club #invader zim #Princess Ovilium Midorihato Metamorphosis Androma Serugi The First #Princess Ovil

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qqueenofhades · 4 years

Note

Trump's SCOTUS pick scares the ever loving shit out of me. I'm trying not to have a full blown panic attack actually.

Sigh. I know.

I’m not going to say that picking someone literally, un-exaggeratedly out of The Handmaid’s Tale for SCOTUS, especially to replace someone like RBG, isn’t mother fucking terrifying. It is. Especially since Mitch McConnell is trying to set her final confirmation vote for October 29, literally five days before the election. Yes indeed, that would be a third Supreme Court seat filled by an impeached president who lost the popular vote by three million votes, (possibly) confirmed by Republican enablers (some of whom are absolutely going to lose their seats in this election) who represent a sizeably smaller fraction of the US population than their Democratic counterparts, in a display of outright, staggering, truly breathtaking hypocrisy about the protocol of election-year vacancies on SCOTUS, which they themselves shouted about to no end with Merrick Garland in 2016. This is how tyranny by minority rule works, and... yeah. It’s bad. It’s awful. When is this going to end.

That said, however: we do not yet exist in this theoretical grimdark future where some dystopian 6-3 (or even 7-2) conservative SCOTUS strips us of our rights at every turn, with no recourse except for us to sit passively and take it, and there are a lot of things that we ourselves can do between now and then to make sure that it never happens. First off, House Democrats have proposed a bill to introduce 18-year term limits for SCOTUS justices, rather than it being an automatic lifetime appointment. This would also give every president the ability to appoint two justices per four-year term. Because SCOTUS has become such an instrument of partisan warfare, and because the obvious implications of having a partisan head of state pick the senior federal judges for a lifetime is part of what has fucked us up now, this would be a GREAT improvement. House Dems can’t make it into law right now, because Democrats do not hold a majority in both chambers of Congress and they do not hold the presidency. You know how this COULD be passed? If Joe Biden was elected with a blue House and Senate. That way, even if God forbid the GOP horror show snuck Coney Barrett onto the bench just before the election, this could be fixed.

Here’s another way to think about it. I myself have a HUGE problem with catastrophizing: a bad thing happens, and then it seems like an inevitable chain of nonstop bad things until everything gets irredeemably, unfixably even worse. This year, obviously, has not done much to help that, because yes, the bad things keep coming. But they’re still individual events and have not yet crystallized into some unbreakable, unavoidable future. History is made up of thousands of millions of choices, accidents, unforeseen developments, total random bullshit, and much more, as much or more as it is made up by the macro-scale actions of oligarchs. Obviously, globalization and capitalism have made us all more connected to each other, and thus changes to the system can ripple more broadly, but they are not the only people who make history. If there’s one thing I can tell you as a historian, it’s this: the future is just history that hasn’t been made yet, and it is subject to the exact same unpredictable bullshit that has constituted history throughout, well, history. Nothing is unavoidable and we have never existed in a world where we can’t do anything at all. Also, authoritarian regimes (especially those imposed without the consent of the people -- willing subjection to authoritarianism is one thing, but the other, yeah) have a relatively short shelf life, historically speaking. That won’t help all of us who could be hurt right now (though we can STILL fight back and speak up and help our neighbors), but it’s the truth. Authoritarian rule (especially when it’s not balanced by economic security, which sure as hell isn’t happening right now) can last for a while, sure. But it is always its own worst enemy, and it will always be ended. How that ends is a choice we can make.

This isn’t the “get out on the streets and Start The Glorious Revolution!!!” nonsense that the armchair internet leftists, none of whom are actually starting a glorious revolution or doing anything except bitching on Twitter about how Biden and Trump are alike, are fond of. This is an active choice to realize that there are always things you can do, that there are things you can do right now, and one of them, most obviously, is voting. This mess was all completely goddamn avoidable if people had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But well, they didn’t, and we get one last shot to fix this by democratic process. Trump is already openly setting up to contest the election results/try to invalidate them/throw out ballots. This is all old-school fascism. This is what is happening. He is counting on another razor-thin margin of votes that he can then contest in his hand-picked SCOTUS; he wants another Bush v. Gore very, very badly. The only way to blow away any legitimacy for anything like this is to vote in such overwhelming numbers that there’s no question of Biden’s victory, no need to wait for mail-in ballots (another reason the GOP has been trying so hard to destroy the post office) or anything else. At heart, Trump is a coward. He’s also an egomaniac. If it comes to stepping aside peacefully or being dragged out of the White House by the FBI for everyone to laugh at for the rest of time, hmm, I doubt he’s going to go for that. (And if he does, well, I will also savor the sight of him in handcuffs for all eternity.) However, that doesn’t mean the GOP machine won’t TRY, because Trump is not just Trump, but is his entire miserable cabal of enablers. I have written my fingers raw about how badly people need to vote. This is literally your last chance to do it.

I’ve seen a lot of the-sky-is-falling, we’re-doomed, they-have-the-votes-so-don’t-even-bother handwringing in the last few days. To some degree, yes. We all feel doomed. We have all been asked to find strength to deal with massive and unending waves of terrifying bullshit past anyone’s normal capacity, and we’re tired. We want it to end. But it’s SO CLOSE to ending, if we can all just get out and vote for Joe Biden in massive numbers on November 3 (or if your state has early voting, sooner; BANK YOUR VOTE). That’s such an easy thing to do. Nothing is set in stone. We can still fix things and make it so, you know, we’re not living in a fascist state ruled by Gilead. (And besides, all this Chicken Little rhetoric is super easy for the Russian troll farms to exploit. Don’t listen to it. Shut it down. Reject it.)

They want you to think you’re powerless. You’re not.

They want you to think this will never end. It will. We decide how.

They want you to think this is a foregone conclusion and you should just go back home and let it happen. You don’t have to.

They want you to think your vote doesn’t matter. It does.

They want you to think your rights are gone. They’re not.

They want you to think this future is inevitable.

IT’S NOT.

Hang in there.

Lots of hugs.

#politics for ts #anonymous #ask

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renardtrickster · 3 years

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Hot take: Fascists absolutely deserve to not only get deplatformed, but also killed so that they don't spread their harmful ideas around. The only good fascist is a dead fascist. And anyone who disagrees is a fascist sympathizer.

I do agree that deplatforming is pretty okay. Not only because most fascist rhetoric, talking points, discussion, etc., violate the Terms of Service of most self-respecting websites, so it's 100% within the rights of the website to remove and ban them. But because removing fascists removes their capability to do harm. I've seen some people worry that banning fascists would have far-reaching, negative effects, but I disagree.

By banning fascists from mainstream social media platforms, they'll be forced into their own private circles, which makes them hard to monitor. To this, I say "good". They'll be forced onto 4chan (full of shitposters and feds) or their own platforms which I don't think they're dedicated to do on a grand scale (Parler was the exception but it's dead now). It effectively removes their voice, which doesn't mean they whisper now, so they’ll engage in secret plots we can’t predict or act to prevent, it means they speak hoarsely now.

By banning fascists, we basically burn books and will never learn from our their mistakes, which ironically opens ourselves to fascism. This isn't how this works. You can learn that slavery was bad without having to give Neo-Confederates platforms. Not to mention, some fascists actually get documented before the boot. I remember two videos made by open fascists that are gone now, but videos still exists dissecting them and pointing out how they're not only bad, but wrong. So we still retain the ability to learn from their stupidity without letting them have an audience.

By banning fascists, slippery slopes they come for you next first they came for the etcetera etcetera. Conservatives love pulling out the fantasy that as soon as you make it internet illegal to say the n-word, they'll make it internet illegal to say anything bad about an individual black person ever (leftists already talk shit about individual black people, Candace Owens is not particularly well-liked), and then you won't be able to say anything. One fresh dose of basic familiarity with reality affirms this is not the case and never will be.

The big one. By banning fascists, you make fascism a "forbidden fruit". So you essentially create the next generation of fascists. Well, the opposite is true. By revoking fascists of their platforms, you sever their ability to recruit and indoctrinate. They can no longer spread their fearmongering and messages of hatred as wide as they once could, which cuts off their ability to convince old people and young people with no critical thinking skills (or perspective) who passively absorb what is essentially propaganda. Yes, they would still be there for people who really want to dig deep for their daily dose of fascism, but it will only be those people, and not the twelve year-olds who just discovered triggered feminist compilations, and not your grandparents.

But I'm gonna have to cut you off there chief. To me at least, the best kind of fascist is an ex-fascist, and dead fascists are more likely to be ex-fashies who never got the chance rather than the irredeemably evil and stupid. And both of those exist. Ben Shapiro is probably gone forever, there's nothing in that head anymore. But do you remember Lena Luxray? The anti-SJW blogger who came out as an anti-semite? She's not like that anymore! Officially ex-nazi. And that's good, because I kind of knew her and would definitely take "she's not a fascist anymore" over "she died like she lived, as a nazi" because the latter is kind of depressing. And in general there's a lot of people who honestly don't deserve death. Consequences, yes, but if reform is possible, I'd prefer that. Not only is it the ethical and moral (and optically good) option, but it's useful. To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy, and who knows the enemy better than former enemies? Being the subject of indoctrination makes you that much more of an expert on indoctrination, which is an assist when it comes to preventing and deconstructing it.

That's my true and honest opinion, and I hope holding onto that opinion doesn’t make me a fascist sympathizer.

#now using violence is a different question entirely and i'd have to think about that but either way it's an entirely different topic #kill fascists in self defense though #infoxicated #oh no renardie is posting #Anonymous #ask and receive

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headoverhiddles · 4 years

Text

Wrapped In Plastic - Marilyn Manson x Reader [Smut]

Synopsis: The new kid at school intrigues you. He’s infatuated too, but beneath that scary exterior, you’ve got no idea what’s in store.

Notes: Era: Spooky Kids! Requested by anon: “High school Brian having a crush on you.”

There he is, sitting in front of the principal again. Brian Warner. You're surprised he hasn't been expelled yet, frankly, even though he just moved here to South Florida recently.

You watch from afar, sitting with your friends. He's making that face. That expression... or lack of expression. He doesn't give a fuck what he got in trouble for, and you, he and the principal know it.

"Hey. (y/n)," your best friend says, "What the hell? Are you listening?"

"Yeah," you mutter, glancing back into the office. God, he would probably fuck like an animal, taking you in some old haunted forest somewhere while spanking you and telling you you're his dirty little slut...

Your friend scoffs when she sees where you're looking.

"That guy is dangerous, quit fantasizing. That isn’t your picture perfect bad boy-- that’s like dating the next Son of Sam killer.”

Your other friend chimes in. “My sister told me she saw him and his pack of weirdos out lighting an abandoned house on fire. My sister’s friend said she hears him jerking off in the washroom every lunch hour. The whole school knows about it. Also apparently in creative writing, he turned in this story about this guy fucking his sister's corpse or something. Seriously weird, probably evil. He's gonna end up in jail, mark my words." You ignore your friend, but turn back into the conversation.

Eventually, the principal gives up, dismissing him. You see Brian join his friends outside the office door, who have been waiting-- Jeordie and Stephen, you think you've heard them called in class. The one with the brown comb-over is called Pogo outside of class, because of his fascination with serial killers. You think it's funny. Those guys just do whatever they want.

Your breath hitches. Brian tucks his long black hair behind his ear, looking up and grinning at his friends. He's describing what he did, and he looks like a gleeful child who just got away with murder as the other two bust out laughing and dig for details. How could anyone think he's evil?

Cold chills run through your body as he meets your eyes. Oh, fuck. He smirks a little bit your way, but you quickly look away. His features harden, and he turns back to his friends. You turn back to yours.

You can't help watching after him as he walks down the hall to fourth period, though... his head nearly reaches the ceiling, and that metal Planet Of The Apes lunchbox makes you smile. You've heard him make a threat or two to beat someone's ass with it, and you believe he'd do it. For every bully who promised him he'd be nothing, there's something about him that promised so much more.

The bell goes, and Brian sits down at the desk.

"She was looking at you."

"Yeah, she was talking to her friends about me," Brian mutters back.

"She looked like she was wetting her panties over you," Jeordie grins, "She looks like she wanted to suck your dick right there in front of Mr. Ogilvie!"

"That'd be the day," Brian sighs.

"Yeah, you'd have beat off material forever," Pogo laughs.

"But she wasn't," he said, "You guys are just fucking blind."

"I don't know, I got some blow job vibes from her,” Pogo says.

“You get blow job vibes from everyone.”

“I’ll blow you for lunch money,” Jeordie mentions. Pogo shrugs.

“I might take you up on that.” His obnoxious laughter rings out as you walk by the door. You recognize it immediately, and look back. Brian’s sitting there, knees tucked under the desk like his legs won’t fit. Shit. In your experience, being this preoccupied with someone meant you were into them... or at least, wanted to see more of them.

Brian looks up again, and sees you staring at him. This time, he frowns. You’re drawn away by your friend, who pulls you toward your next class. As you're walking, someone calls your name.

“Hey! (y/n), right?”

You turn as your friend keeps walking ahead. You scoff slightly as he approaches. “Like you don’t know my name.” You pause, backtrack. “I- sorry. That was mean."

“That’s okay. I’ve been known to be a little mean too,” he smirks, and he flips his hair out if his face. “I guess when you hang around a bunch of catty bitches all the time, it rubs off on you.” His voice is so deep and calm. It throws you off whenever he speaks, but does other things to you as well.

"Hanging out with a pair of delinquents can do the same." Your eyes dart inside the classroom to his friends, who are carving something into a desk. He gives a small smile.

"Touché."

“Speaking of rubbing off,” you raise an eyebrow, “Did you want to talk to me?”

He blushes, then forces his embarrassment away. “That rumor’s not true.”

“No?”

“Nah. I did light that abandoned house on fire though.” He grins, and you do as well, hugging your books closer to your chest.

“So. You’re a rebel, huh?”

“If not putting up with everybody’s bullshit counts as rebelling, then yeah. I guess so.”

“I can respect that,” you nod. “I feel the same way... but I’m not as fearless as you.”

“Are you saying you might commit arson with me, (y/n)?”

“Maybe. How did the conversation progress to lighting things on fire with you?”

He laughs, ducks his head nervously. “Well. Um, I saw you staring like a creep, and... I was wondering if you wanted to be creeps together. Y’know... hang out sometime? Come see my band, or...?”

“Are you asking me out?”

“Yeah, I am.”

You smile, poking his black shirt that read Christianity is Unnatural, Abnormal, and Perverse. “You’ve got balls, Brian.” You look at the clock, and back to his class. “What do you say we fuck off for the rest of the day?”

His eyebrows shoot up. “You wanna skip class today?”

“Sorry,” you walk your fingers up his chest. “I know I’m not quite at your level of rebellion yet, but it’s a start.”

He laughs as he follows you to your locker.

---

“So. Do you have a car?”

“No.” He scratches his head. “We can walk back to my house, though. My parents aren’t home.”

Following that plan, you make it back to his house. For someone hailed as the Antichrist of the school, he's got a relatively normal looking home, white picket fence and everything. All that changes once you get to his room.

"Wow," you say, looking up at everything. He's got serial killer-like writing scrawled on the wall by his bed, lyrics that seem like they're straight out of a porno or a horror film, or both. There are pentagrams drawn on his bed posts, and posters of bands like Nine Inch Nails, Ozzy Osbourne, KISS on his walls.

"I know it's stupid, but I'd give anything to meet those guys," he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's not stupid," you say, examining the edges of the posters, freyed from the move no doubt. "I actually think it's awesome. I love Ozzy."

"One day I'm gonna beat his record for most drugs consumed over a lifetime."

"Have you started practicing?" you tease.

"I... well, I haven't had the chance."

"Right. Let me know when you do." You smile, going over to sit on his bed. He looks down at you, seems to have a mini panic attack, then acts cool with it, playing with his lip ring and sitting beside you. You look around the messy floor. He's got a strange mix of stuff that oddly seems to perfectly fit his personality: leaking boxes of black hair dye, various lipsticks and nail polishes, a bag of weed, books on the rise of fascism and Carl Jung's red book, an antique-looking switchblade, a Willy Wonka hat, condoms with little angry faces drawn on them, an old deflated football with "FIGHT" written on it, and... "What's that?" you ask, leaning down. Brian coughs.

"Oh. Yearbook from last year."

You pick it up, looking at all the little drawings of candy, needles, Charles Manson and other doodles he's defaced the book with. "But you didn't go to this school last year."

"I traded my mom's diet pills for it."

"Huh. Hustling already. Must have been some good stuff." You hesitate. The page was open to the photos of you as the lead in the play last year. You smirk, pretending to squint. "Is that a cum stain I see on my face?"

"You wish," he huffs, but he's blushing, hair curtaining around his face. You give him a look, turning fully toward him.

"Why'd you really invite me over?"

"To tell you I hate you, knock you out, and bury you in my backyard." You laugh.

"I mean, if you think about it..."

"It's the perfect plan. Invite the girl you've got a crush on over, assume she's gonna make fun of you, lure her in, then get your revenge." You smile, laying back on his bed.

"You just admitted to having a crush on me."

"Wasn't it obvious?" he asks. "I only ever threaten to kill the people I really wanna fuck."

"And do you really wanna fuck me, Bri?" you ask coyly, crawling dangerously close to him. He swallows, Adam's apple bobbing in his long, graceful throat. "You wanna fuck me right here, right now, while your parents aren't home, make me scream your name while you blare your favorite metal record and act like things'll never change?"

"That sounds good," he groans. His hands wander up your thigh, and you smile, bouncing on his leg. "...I also wanna share my music with you. Read a book over your shoulder. Maybe pop a few pills, key someone's car, grab a milkshake and look at the stars on Special K so we feel like we're floating, you know. Before I bang the shit out of you. Date stuff."

"Is this not our first date?" you ask. His tongue flicks up over his lip ring again.

"I guess you could say it is."

"Good. Cause I never fuck on a first date," you say, "Or so I tell people." He clenches his jaw, and braces a skinny arm beside your head, leaning down to capture your lips. His lips taste sweet, like mint and those sugary rocket candies. He takes his shirt off, and you rub your hands down, feeling a few scars. He lets out a whimpered noise at your touch, shuddering a little.

You make out and grind against one another for a few minutes, your hands pulling his hips closer by his black belt loops and his fingers tangling your hair. Your breath gets faster as he grinds harder, more desperately, and you reach a hand down to help him out, give him something to rut against.

"You feel so big," you moan, and he runs a hand through his hair, lips falling open.

"I'm gonna..." He makes another desperate noise, and you feel it right where you need him. But since all his condoms in here seem to be used or have faces drawn on them in scented marker, you opt for over the clothes stuff only.

"Use your fingers?" you breathe. He looks like he's about to cum, and you know it'll tip you over as well, what with all the times you had thought of him like this.

He reaches into your jeans, unzipping them, and messily finds your clit. For a teenage guy, he's not bad. He starts to rub, then reaches three fingers down to thrust them into you.

"Fuck, Bri! Three?!" you breathe. He looks into your eyes, not stopping.

"I thought girls were whores for that kind of thing!"

"It's..." you moan, "That's... oh... y-yeah... Jesus...” He really start to work them in, watching your reactions while rutting his clothed erection against your leg. "Fuck, Brian, grab my tits... yeah... this is just how I imagined it when I..."

He freezes for a second, and his whole body convulses. He gasps, and you see him reach down to cover his crotch, face going beet red. He doesn't stop, though. He keeps fingering you, and now that he's not worried about grinding, he can explore you in other ways. He attaches his lips to your neck, and sucks a hickie right below your ear.

“Brian... Bri, make me c--”

"Cum for me, you filthy little slut," he snarls, and you arch your back up, grinding down into his fingers as your orgasm hits. You rock through it, and he kisses you again, sloppy and hot. When he pulls away, he gives you your fingers to lick clean, which you do through a heated stare.

Things calm down into you laying back against his pillows with his stringy body tucked in a cramped position beside you. "I didn't know you were that..." you search for words. "Experienced?"

"What, you thought I was a virgin?”

You giggle. “I didn’t know what to think about you, to be honest. Kinky, inexperienced, I had no idea. Of course, I hoped that you were kinky.”

“I’ve been known to use restraints when asked,” he smirks.

“I’ve got that to look forward to. I thought you were cute too, though. I don’t care if you’re some devil worshipper who parents and teachers everywhere shiver at the thought of." He's quiet for a second.

"I thought you were scared of me."

"That too, a little bit. But what scares me turns me on." He rolls over to face you, a vulnerable position for him, you can tell.

"The way I dress is what I perceive to be beautiful. Looking like this, doing what I want to, it keeps the assholes who like to give my face their own version of plastic surgery away if they think I'm a Satanist who's gonna... cut off their mom's head or something if they fuck with me. Makes the hypocrites who call themselves teachers question their morals too, ‘teaching’ someone like me to be a good little boy and follow society’s rules. It’s all brainwashing, everything they feed us with their sugar and shit, and I’m the bad guy for standing up to it."

You stroke hair out of his face, and he looks up at you, lips pursed. "There’s always gotta be a scapegoat. I guess you fit that role.” You look beyond him. “You think it would ruin your image if those bullies found your poetry books?” He smiles.

“Nah. One day, I’m gonna grow up to be a big rock and roll star. I’ll use my own poetry and turn it into music, and I’ll look ten times more extreme than I do now. Then they can all say they knew me, and I’ll tell them to go to hell.”

You snuggle into him. "Mmm. Speaking of extreme... we should pull a Sandy and Danny. I'll come to school dressed all goth and shit Monday. Throw my friends for a loop."

"Does that mean I have to dress like a cheerleader?" he asks.

"You've got the ass for it."

He grins. "Stop it, you're making it very hard for me not to wanna fuck you for real right now."

"Here's the deal," you say, "I'll show you where I live this weekend. You tell me what your favorite fruit is, because that's a soul searching question. At that point we'll know each other better... and I'll be fair game."

He bites his lip. "I feel like I've known you forever."

"Yeah. Me too."

Just then, there's a knock at the bedroom door. Startled, you sit up quickly, and who you can only assume to be Brian's mom pops her head in. "When the fuck did you two get home?!" Brian blurts.

"About five minutes ago, honey. Don't worry, we didn't hear anything. Jeordie called, said he 'left the smoke bomb under the urinals.' I hope you aren't getting up to trouble like the last school, your father had a heck of a time getting you into this one.”

“Mom.”

“He had to switch jobs too, and with his back, you know how difficult long drives can be. Oh, how rude of me-- hello sweetie, you can call me Barb."

"Mom--"

"Brian, is this the sweet thing you had that dream about the other night?"

"MOM!"

“Hugh, Brian’s got a girlfriend over, we should turn the TV up to give them a little privacy.”

“GIRLFRIEND?!” a voice calls up, “GOOD ON YA, SON. THAT’S MY BOY!”

“Jesus fucking Christ...” Brian groans, burying his face in a pillow. You laugh so hard into his chest you nearly tumble off his bed. Most dangerous guy in school, your ass.

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