#or using russian Propaganda terms and things

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Favourite two parts from the new German interview with Zelenskyy.

1) The interviewer asks him with which leaders he's close with (on a personal level). Zelenskyy names several people, including BoJo, Duda and Macron: "Macron always tells me: Write me on WhatsApp or just call me."

2) Also: Our chaotic smol president is our chaotic smol president. At the start of the war he had only 1 or 2 of his now famous green T-Shirts and he lost them (or gave them away / gifted them to someone - he isn't sure). But he got T-Shirts from all kind if sources (soldiers sent him T-Shirts as well as companies who specifically designed / made T-Shirts for him). He says, people still want to sent hin T-Shirts but right now he has enough (20-25, but isn't sure).

Honorable mention: Zelenskyy spoke Russian in the interview. Can't wait for little kremlin troll brains to explode after that. 😏

[aroacemisha]

Okay politics time.

The Russia-Ukraine thing really exposed the fact that for some in the American Left, their only position is “America bad”, and every other opinion is determined not on the basis of facts or reality, but whatever is opposite of what America does. Thoughtless contrarianism. Also they completely ignore anything Ukrainians have to say, because to them only Russia and America matter.

And they think they’re sooo smart for not falling for American propaganda, only to fall for propaganda of one or even several dictatorships, purely because those dictatorships are anti-America, and some use(d) communist aesthetics. Because apparently only America lies and does propaganda, and anyone who opposes it is automatically truthful and doesn’t do propaganda.

Nuance and critical thinking? In MY politics? Unacceptable! (/sarcasm)

American “anti-imperialists”: We must fight against imperialism.

Ukrainians: [fight back against their imperialist oppressor, continuing their centuries-long fight for independence]

American “anti-imperialists”: No not like that, you’re supposed to bow down to the great anti-imperialist hero Russia, because you see, it’s only imperialism when America does it, and you’re actually the imperialist side here because America gives you aid. Also you’re all Nazis, because Russia said so.

They aren’t anti-imperialist. They’re just anti-the wrong country doing imperialism. Just like centrist neoliberals are only against the wrong individuals being in charge, but don’t see an issue with the system itself.

[eowyntheavenger]

No, left-of-center US tumblr user who refuses to vote blue in the presidential election and spreads posts about how "voting doesn't work" or how you'll only vote third party... I don't think you're a Russian bot. I think you're a useful idiot.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a useful idiot is a person who can be manipulated or exploited to advance someone else's cause or political agenda. And if you're part of the left and you're refusing to vote blue in the presidential election, then you're being manipulated to serve Trump's, Putin's and Netanyahu's agendas.

Let me explain. First, I hate to break it to you, but the US has a two party system, and as much as I despise it, I know it's not going away before the 2024 election. Either the Democrats win or the Republicans win. That's just how it works. Vote for whoever you want in the primaries, but when it's time to vote in the presidential election, vote blue—if you don't, it's a win for the Republicans, who want to turn the country into a christofascist dictatorship full of concentration camps.

Secondly, you need to understand that anyone telling you not to vote blue is trying to suppress your vote. Trump supporters obviously want Trump to win, but their strategy isn't to convince the left to vote for him. They know that won't work. What they are trying to do is to discourage you from voting for Democrats. They can do this by making you feel too hopeless to vote. They can also do this by making you decide that Biden has done too many unforgivable things for you to vote for him. And Biden has done many unforgivable things, like help arm Israel—but you need to realize that Trump winning a second term would be a hundred times worse for Palestine.

Third, you should think about the fact that there are right-wing foreign leaders—notably Putin and Netanyahu—who want Trump to win. This is where the bots and the propaganda come in. You may not be a bot, but there are bots churning out propaganda to try to influence you, whether they're controlled by Trump donors or by foreign actors.

Don't be a useful idiot.

[zvaigzdelasas]

When I was 16, I attended the Laureate International School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I followed the British curriculum.

I played sports, and my coach used to organize trips to North Korea.

I was 16 the first time I went in 2015, and 17 the second time I went in 2016.

The camp was very accommodating. All the time, we just felt special.

They were always on our case: "Do you guys need this? Do you guys need that?"

Also, as Africans, we usually tend to have very different traditions and cultural choices.

But out of all the countries that I've been to, North Korea is one of the few that actually has a linkage to our culture.

I remember we spent two days in Pyongyang and went to the war museum and found out that our first president, Julius Nyerere, was actually friends with their first president.[...]

It was interesting to go there and hear about my country from their perspective because our ways of life were so different.

For example, North Korean kids didn't have phones, and even we were not allowed to use phones in the camp.

There was no internet network, but they had service, so we could call through landlines. It was like taking a network break.

When we came out of the camp for visits in Pyongyang, North Korean civilians came and talked to us.

That reminded me of home. If you come to Tanzania, people are going to come and talk to you. They're going to want to get to know you.[...]

My favorite memory was performing in front of a thousand people. Both times I went to the camp, I had to represent my country as a singer.

Tanzanians complained a lot about not having internet on camp.

But that was just perfect for me because sometimes I try to look for the perfect hideout and don't find it.

The scenery was beautiful, lively, and natural.

I also really made long-term friends from the camp, especially with Russian kids.

I'm still in touch with them today. I wouldn't have met them here. Most of them are from Moscow, Nakhodka and Vladivostok.

The only thing close to propaganda that I saw was that when we were at the airport, a friend of mine had some sort of film about the US president and the North Korean president on his laptop.

When we were passing through the last checkup at the airport, authorities somehow saw the clip and had him delete it.

But I didn't feel scared anywhere in the country.

27 Jul 24

[ohsalome]

the intention of comparing the reaction to Palestine vs Ukraine is typically not to criticize Ukrainian victims of war. The criticism is directed at American spectators, because the people in power here are insanely anti Palestinian but have made overtures to help Ukraines resistance efforts despite comparable situations. Regular citizens also mostly support Ukraine but many hate Palestinians. People are just comparing palestine to Ukraine as a point of reference to try to make those people understand.

As kindly as possible, I do not think you can educate people out of islamophobia by appealing to their conscience, at the very least because if they had one they wouldn't be islamophobic in the first place.

And when it comes to people in power, appealing to their empathy in the case with Palestine is fruitless because the help Ukraine got wasn't motivated by emotion either. I do not expect you to know the history of current russo-ukrainian war well, so you probably don't know that the western world was perfectly happy to watch russia roll all over us punishment-free as long as they felt that other "properly european countries" won't be involved. Russia has been butchering us since 2014, and nobody gave a fuck about it. Even during the first few weeks of the full-scale invasion NATO refused to send us any military help, because they expected us to fall and were okay with it.

The current support we have did not fall on us from the sky by the graceful kindness of "our american overlords" - it is a consequence of the cumulative effort of our diplomats, pre-existing agreements with NATO countries, and the economical ripples the full-scale war caused (Ukraine being one of the major world exporters of grain being one of the most relevant).

This is why, sadly Palestine cannot follow the Ukrainian scenario of foreign support. The surrounding circumstances of both of our wars are way to different, and while it is easy to ignore them while making simplistic quick-dopamine-hit posts on hellbr dot com, they do influence the real-world situation on the ground. Which is what posts like the one I replied to do - they create a no-nuance misinformed image of the war in Ukraine. Which amplifies the problem even more, because even though "most americans" can agree on a generic "war in Ukraine bad", their idea of what is going on here is hugely misinformed as it is. And this has harmful real-life consequences on which our very survival depends.

Look. I understand that the war between Palestine and Israel has been going on for decades. I understand that there are many contexts that are obvious to the people in the respective countries that I am oblivious to by the virtue of never being there and not speaking arabic nor hebrew. I understand that there is a lot of propaganda that I may accidentally spread out of my ignorance, and therefore I try to be careful to avoid doing so, out of respect to the people living there. So why is it too much to ask you to give the same respect to us?

Like I have said before, the biggest issue with that infographic post is that it spreads misinformation. In the simplest of terms, misinformation is bad. People are trying to do any smallest thing to help Palestinians - who are currently barely surviving in inhumanely horrifying conditions - and out of ignorance they are spreading anti-ukrainian propaganda. Downplaying the number of ukrainian victims (and, as a result, making russian war crimes look "not as bad") is anti-ukrainian propaganda. Making it seem as we are getting "too much american help" is anti-ukrainian propaganda, because USA is our biggest military exporter, and getting less ammo/vehicles/etc will have catastrophic effect on the amount of death.

Which is why am not staying silent on this, even if your collective intentions are noble and good. Because, I will repeat myself again, your intentions do not matter if the consequences of your actions are harmful. And if (a) comparing Ukraine and Palestine is uneffective; (b) it portrays your ignorance of either one or both of the wars; and (c) simultaneously with spreading support for the palestinian cause you are spreading harmful anti-ukrainian pro-russian propaganda, I do not think it is too much to ask you to stop.

[desire-mona]

forgive me for leftist-posting abt the gay movie, but the dead poets society is soooo leftist-adjacent in my mind. "mona wtf does that mean" im not entirely sure! something about rebelling against a school with such strict rules and reliance on tradition just to read poetry in the woods seems very.. path to leftism to me. i feel like i can explain better with the original dead poets so ill do that.

warning: this isnt even speculation at this point, its me making shit up about the og poets for the sake of projection + i think it would be interesting + og poets being taught ww2 propaganda is smthn im always thinking abt. if u dont agree, thats more than fine, u have literally no obligation to esp considering this barely makes sense. also this isnt meant to be informative at all so if i get shit wrong then lmk, im neither a historian nor an expert in leftism.

to specify off the bat, ive always hced keating as an avid and involved leftist, although probably not publicly. is there any merit to this? absolutely not, it's entirely just me projecting, so take this with a heaping spoonful of salt.

so, around the time the original dead poets society was formed, we were in the sorta beginning of WW2 (if we assume the dps was founded in 1941, definitely couldve been later. u should read @pencileraser1's post about keating.), and if ur familiar with US history, propaganda surrounding the war was RAMPANT, most commonly in the form of "we want u to join the military!!!!1!!!!" ive mentioned this in a previous post from however long ago that pro-military propaganda was so rampant that they often taught it in schools, no doubt especially so in private schools. now this could ultimately mean nothing in relation to the og poets, they so easily could have eaten it up and thought nothing of it, they did essentially just do homework in the woods. but in my joe biden's america ass brain thats not how it goes, just cuz. to me its sort of a pipeline of start to rebel by forming the dps > slowly realise after talking that the things theyre teaching u in terms of "rahhhh military!!!" is kinda fucked up > growing distrust of us military in general > something something US wasting money on weapons and war and shit > something something anti capitalism.

is this a stretch? absolutely, but it makes sense to me so thats what matters. also the leftist-ness?? exists on different spectrums in my mind, ranging from being against US military propaganda being taught in class to straight-up socialism (keating socialist...) so definitely dont take this as the dps being some sort of mini socialist party, in my mind its just a group of boys who happen to agree abt some aspects of society (hah). i also dont think this translated to any permanent ideals for a majority of the og boys, especially since anti-capitalism didn't exactly mix well with the cold war, the red scare, and all variants of etc after WW2 ended. except for keating, keating stays a socialist, CPUSA and eventual SDS keating (if he chose to stay in the US) are real to me.

now, would this translate to the reprisal of the dead poets (the movie ones)? i doooont think so? originally i was gonna say this only applies in my mind when the US is at war, but the US is kinda always at war, sooooooo. lets just say it applies when the US being at war is sort of a main concern to the general population (ex both world wars, vietnam, war on terror if welton was still around, etc). as to why this sorta hc only applies concerning militarism? i have absolutely no idea, probably something to do with my views on the military sorta long term leading me to my political opinions. but also! the effects that the red scare and mccarthyism definitely were still prevalent in 1959 despite soooooorta dying down around 1957. no doubt the US population's fear of anti-capitalism = ur a russian spy was still there. was that sorta thing taught in schools at that point? not sure, this is also a fictional school so it doesn't really matter and im going on a tangent. i suppose if the dps reprise continued for more than ~3 months then they could've gone down a similar path under the right circumstances? but i doubt it. although leftist neil is quite special to me. neil for SAG! neil for unionisation!

i like applying this logic to other periods, like the 60s for example (i knowwww keating was gone by then, lets just pretend, make it an au i guess) i can definitely see the poets (or some at least) delving into the hippie movement on the down-low, although its easy to call into question whether hippies were an actual group of activists or just a sort of cultural movement. again - i dont know much about the history of hippies so i dont have much to add, lets go with a general "anti vietnam war" ideology to keep things simple. sorta similar to the og poets in terms of war bad > socialism pipelines, and the SDS was formed roughly around this time? peak was in 1968-69, but thats kinda all i got. if anyone enjoys this idea and knows a lot abt that point in leftist history then definitely feel free to add anything on if u want.

in conclusion: mona hates war and the military and projects it onto the poets because they wanted to and also they had a conversation with tristan about propaganda in relation to dps. this is a bunch of random sorta points just strewn together so my apologies for how messy this is.

bonus: FANTASTIC point by @lookingglasswolf

[tomorrowusa]

Some people in the West believe Putin's propaganda about Russia's overwhelming strength. Though if you do a simple reality check, you'll notice that Russia's "3-day special operation" in Ukraine is now in Day 870.

Yekaterina Shulman used to work as a consultant to the Russian government. She left Russia soon after Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Here are some excerpts from an interview she gave to RFE/RL.

I’ve called Russia a “bureaucratic autocracy.” It’s a personalist autocracy in strict political science classification. We don't have a ruling party like party autocracies. Russia is not run by a military junta like military autocracies. We don't have an established succession mechanism that monarchies have. So we’re a personalist autocracy: Power is concentrated in the hands of the leader and his immediate surrounding. However, we’re a big country that can't be run by a president and his five friends [alone]. [ ... ] The Russian state has never paid that much money to its people for anything -- for their work, for their life, for their death, for whatever. The idea that Russia is a country of limitless resources is a propaganda picture. But the strange thing, and it is so strange that we can't realize it, is this: It has always been the case in Russia's history that people are abundant but money is scarce. Hard currency, gold, or foreign currency have value; people have no value whatsoever. “We have as much [human capital] as we need.” Now it's the other way around. I can't adequately explain to you, I can’t even explain to myself what a gamechanger it is. They don't understand it themselves, because they've never seen anything like this. [ ... ] [W]e don't have enough Russians. We have more money than we know what to do with, but we don't have the people -- either on the front lines or back home. We have a huge labor deficit, and very slowly there comes a realization that you can't pay 1.25 million rubles to a person who in two weeks’ time will be killed in a senseless “meat grinder,” as the expression goes. The army management doesn't understand this yet. The political leadership doesn't understand it yet but is slowly beginning to realize it. I don't know what the implications will be; I can only tell you as a social scientist that it's a huge change. [ ... ] Whatever factor we take -- be it the labor crisis that I mentioned, the demographic situation, the economic imbalances, the aging of personalist rule, the infighting of the clans, where now everyone has a little private army of their own -- each and every one of these factors and all of them in combination are factors of long-term decline. As a Russian citizen, as a Russian educator, I get no pleasure at all in saying this. The question that I get is whether this or that event or occurrence or tendency will, in stark terms, upset Putin or defeat Russia; and the answer is no, not immediately. But none of them will go away. It will be a country with an aging society, with a disbalanced economy, with an incompetent leadership, and these are the factors of inevitable decline. It’s very bad. It's bad for the country; it's bad for the continent.

Russian rulers dating back to the tsars have regarded their large populations of poor people as cannon fodder to be used in wars when needed. This has sometimes compensated for corrupt and incompetent military leadership. But Russia is running out of troops to send on "meat wave" attacks in Ukraine. And hundreds of thousands of tech savvy young people have already left the country since the war began. Russia is experiencing a self-inflicted demographic wound.

Putin has to rely on technology from China and arms manufacturers in North Korea to keep his war going. Out of frustration he's bombing children's hospitals and apartment buildings in Ukraine. Terrorism is his only response to a deteriorating situation.

Russia may look real big on maps but in economic terms, it has a GDP similar to that of Italy.

Narcissism is a common trait among dictators. This war is driven by Putin's nostalgic desire to bring back the USSR of his youth in all but name. He wishes to be the Peter the Great of the 21st century. This is essentially the War of Putin's Ego. But all the bluster of Putin, his propaganda machine, and his Western lickspittles can't indefinitely mask the precarious nature of contemporary Russia.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Man, the more I think about future alternate history of Temeraire the more it looks like the 20th century would see a massive decline if not outright near-extinction of heavyweights dragons, at least those in Europe and maybe Russia

It's 1914, dragons in Europe have had rights for a while now, still not 1:1 to humans (not sure where women's rights would be at in Temeraire universe so maybe dragons are on par with human women) but we're getting there. They aren't seen as beasts or intelligent warships anymore. But then World War I begins and the propaganda machine is everpresent and merciless. It is every man's duty to defend his country or else he is a coward and a weakling and deserving of shame, and for dragons, whose size and strength is incomparable to humans, this applies tenfold. Not to mention the fact that dragons require lots of food from the already dwindling wartime resources. The pressure on dragons to "pull their weight" would be massive. And so most of them join the war effort, working as messengers, reconnaissance, moving cargo, or serving as soldiers in their own right, old but still capable dragons once again taking on harnesses and crews like they have 100 years ago and teaching the younger ones the tactics they still vividly remember. But this is not the 1800s anymore, technology has progressed and just like the traditional cavalry, dragons and their crews fall prey to modern artillery and machine guns. Smaller, lighter breeds manage to keep ahead of the relatively primitive technology, but the large and slow heavyweights become little more than gigantic moving targets. In this world, the term The Lost Generation rings even more true.

Meanwhile in Russia the period of chaos after the dissolution of Russian breeding grounds during the Napoleonic wars has long since passed, with sky-high costs in both human and dragon lives. By the 1830s, some of the few remaining dragons were lured back to human society with promises of steady food and treasures, and it did not take long for things to return to what they used to be. Dragons were indeed treated better now, but still far from equal, their situation more reminiscent to pre-Temeraire Britain, and there was still a strongly baked-in hierarchy of preferential treatment based on dragon size. Come 1917. The war drags on, living conditions plummet and unrest rapidly rises in the Russian Empire. Still not seeing any of the societal changes that dragons of Western Europe enjoyed, Russian dragons find much common ground with peasants, especially the small lightweight dragons, and calls for a change became louder. Humans and dragons alike united by the vision of peace, freedom, prosperity and equality for all, the Socialist Revolution sweeps through the country with the speed of a grey courier's flight. A republic is established, the tsar and his family are executed, same as thousands of other members of nobility, the wealthy, and others seen as enemies of the state. This includes many dragons who did not side with the revolution, particularly those who refused to part with their hoards. Many heavyweights saw themselves as targets, viewed as symbols of the imperial power by the people and as tyrants in their own right by smaller dragons. Then the middleweights, and even lightweights do not avoid suspicion. Talks of the inherent greed and savagery of dragons find more and more voices, people remind themselves of the brutality unleashed by freed dragons a hundred years ago. With the increasing industrialization and technological development, there are opinions that dragons have no place in a modern world, claims that "why need dragons when we can achieve just as much with machines and pure human ingenuity". Many dragons find themselves out of work and out of food, and retreat to the wilderness. Those who remain are mostly the small ones, just large enough to live similar to humans, eat as much as humans and work according to human standards.

[slavicafire]

I started doing some research on Slavic wedding and funeral rituals as well as other things, and I noticed that most sources are mainly about Russia? Sometimes they mention traditions coming from more western territories like Poland, but a lot of them seem to be focused on Russia. I began to wonder why. Do you perhaps have any thoughts or information about that?

the first question goes towards you: what sort of sources are you reading? where are you accessing them, and who are the authors? are you researching in multiple slavic languages or just one? some sources are more accessible and easier to obtain, yes, but at the end of the day what you read depends on your skill and patience in research itself, too.

when it comes to russian prevalence in certain sources, the size alone plays a part in it: with how big russia was and is - how it encroached on multiple territories and peoples throughout the centuries, simultaneously sucking up their traditions and snuffing them out, and oftentimes being their only chronicler - and how powerful and prominent it was. we have precious little sources regarding slavic beliefs across the ages - it is much easier for your documents, chronicles, and even oral histories to survive and be studied by new generations, including foreign scholars, when you are the winning party and the conqueror; when you have the resources to preserve them, and the numbers to fuel their study.

it is also important to understand that historical and ethnographic studies have been used since, well maybe not the dawn of time, but close to that, as tools for nation building. with enough money and human resources, and strong enough propaganda foundations, those tools aim to create and/or rewrite the common consciousness of people by the state that rules them with high degree of success - and russia has certainly never shied away from using them. these are nearly inherently political fields - it's building national foundation myths and establishing seemingly innate qualities linking people the state wants to govern, from small things like the songs children are singing in school and what the text boxes at the museums say to steer the explanation of a given exhibition in a certain direction, up to justifying martial conflicts and horrifying ideologies. if nationhood itself is not already a horrifying ideology, that is.

it might seem like a bad faith stretch to attribute the prevalence of russia and russian sources in many slavic-related studies, historical or religious or ethnograpic, simply to its size and power and degree of success of state propaganda, but the more you delve into this subject the more probable it seems. for example, many texts on slavic customs (pre-christian or not) in english, especially older ones, rely quite heavily on rybakov - the champion of anti-normanism and, nowadays, an author understood widely as very eager to build the nation-myth no matter the cost to actual historical accuracy. if "accuracy" is even a term that can be used while discussing history - but that's a whole different subject.

luckily, today we are getting more and more studies, more research, more researchers - and while it might seem naive, I do believe plenty of them are actively acting against pure nation myth-building, and are eager to focus on lands and peoples different than russia. accessing their works is, as I've said, a matter of one's personal skill and patience while looking for texts.

[damnhitsuzen]

Once I thought that "serious nazi problem" was a scarecrow exaggeration that made a easy manipulation for population.

I mean, all the progressive folk calling anyone that mildly disagrees with them "nazi" was a part of a problem. Overuse makes the term less serious.

Also I could clearly see that world believed russian propaganda about "scary Ukrainian nazi cult". There was obviously none, this shit is so marginalised in Ukraine, there was no actual far-right sufficient representation in government or parliament.

I knew that nobody cared for us and that's tough and not right, but I never expected to be celebrated, you know.

But then, in 2022, I suddenly discovered thousands of people, living in safe, "progressive" countries, actually cheering for genocide of Ukrainians. Tons of American and European teens of all colours saying that we deserved every genocide and oppression we faced. Students and academia folk knowing zero, null, NOTHING about Eastern European history that blamed us in settler imperialism and colonisation. My dudes, most of us are descendants of literal slaves (slavery was a thing up to the mid 19 century in russian empire, but hey you're too busy wanking to tolstoy to learn how horribly he abused his slaves).

Along with it, I saw endless self-importance that made faithful liberals or socialists believe it is THEIR right to decide: whose suffering is like a thing this month and whose is so last season. Loud whining about islamophopia that always failed to include Syrians, Nokhchiy, Crimean Tatars, hell, even Iranians and Yemen people who oppose their government (or rather horrible factions in civil war). So I started to wonder if what I saw was allies of Muslims people, or allies of their dictators?

(who am I kidding, you won't fucking believe how different all the activism will be, when russia stops pumping money in most destabilising movements)

So I came to a very painful conclusion.

Nazism is a very big problem. Just not in Ukraine.

It made its way into the heads of young, carefree people of the Western world, that never seen wars and never bothered with history. It has long been poisoning communism, but hey, it's not like all the cool tumblr kids ever bother listening to actual witnesses of communist regimes? It has made its way into weak, polarised liberalism that went into solving every little specific problem, ignoring the global danger of undemocratic ideologies.

But hey, new global war is coming, so people will probably catch up at some point. Probably.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Propaganda for Sergey Razumovsky and Oleg Volkov (Major Grom comics)

I picked "implied" but I'm gonna be straight (haha) with you, if they were officially canon everyone involved in the making of this book would be at least fined out of business. It's from a russian publisher, they're doing their best but they also don't want to go to prison over fictional characters. They're as canon as they can be though, and have been since the 2010s. Anyway Sergey and Oleg are always together, they're basically a single unit and when they're separated it's almost always because something bad is happening to them. For the entirety of Plague Doctor they act like a married couple. They literally live together in an apartment that only has one bed and fuss over each other and flirt with each other. In Major Grom (their first appearances) Sergey was the villain to Grom's hero, and Oleg was his childhood friend / current head henchman, but after some (a lot) of plot happening they agreed that they're actually equal partners (in a conversation that sounded more romantic than some actual kisses). One of their most important plot points is that Oleg is as important to Sergey as Grom's girlfriend is to Grom. Literally that was on the page. They had a one-shot issue that was about them taking a trip to Mexico, which in comic book imagery pretty much always means a honeymoon. Idk, you tell me if that's implied or canon. Technically they're murderers / terrorists but the Plague Doctor comic book (their own spin-off! woohoo!) is pretty much all about them raising a younger woman to take up the mantle of the titular vigilante plague doctor because they're retired from that. Which doesn't prevent them from getting into bloody fights, mostly for each other. Sergey loves his knives and Oleg is very proficient with every weapon, and even when they're not physically in the fight they stay together to make sure nothing goes too wrong. After a spousal abduction and spousal rescue arc they now have matching scars. The artists / writers regularity spend a page or two or three just focusing on them fighting in synch. They literally fight back to back many times, because it's more safe and efficient and they trust each other like that. A couple in work in life and in battle. Also the artist who pretty much defined their entire characters drew a lot of fanart of them, which I'm aware doesn't really count as canon, but. Well.

They sleep in the same bed. When Sergey is working on his computer and worrying too much Oleg makes him a meal. The things Oleg does for Sergey include breaking him out of prison, kidnapping and/or killing people, training someone to be the next Plague Doctor, even dying for him. It looks like a very unbalanced relationship to some other characters but those characters don't really know them. There was an entire arc that was mostly about Sergey being willing and ready to risk everything (his recent comfortable anonymity, his long-term project, even his sanity) to go save Oleg. At a time when he thought Oleg was dead Sergey agreed to let a god take control of him and effectively erase his own existence. It didn't work ultimately but it still happened. Their post-injuries "oh god I thought you were dead I'm so glad you're mostly alright" hug was the most emotional scene in the entire series. They're not doing physical fighting so often in this comic book because while they're main characters the actual protagonist is the girl they're training to be the new Plague Doctor, but they're always working together behind the scenes, and when they do fight it's a feast for the eyes (very violent and bloody). They have different weapons because Sergey just loves knives and Oleg is much more pragmatic so he mostly uses guns when he's at liberty of choosing his weapons, but they work extremely seamlessly together. If the publisher wasn't in Russia they'd be wearing matching wedding bands for years.

3. i think the reason they're not currently wanted by multiple countries is because they're still presumed dead. they're officially criminals, maybe terrorists? sergey began his criminal career by killing the corrupt rich, so then of course the publisher had to make some late changes to the story and his motivations to make him less likable. i don't think they really managed it. he's most people's favorite character from that comic book, i'm pretty sure that's why they gave him a spin-off years later. oleg is an even later addition (actually just an arc or two later), because they needed sergey (the villain) to have someone who would be a parallel to the hero's girlfriend. so they introduced his childhood bff / kinda estranged best friend / worried right hand man to fill that role. they made him a scary mercenary with experience from the special forces and he's ready to kill anyone who needs to die for sergey's plan. sergey can also stop him anywhen too. they weren't really equal in their first arc together, because sergey was going through a lot and his alter didn't like oleg and was always bossing him around, but since then they both went through A Lot More and talked a lot and made things between themselves clearer. they're equal partners, for better and for worse. sergey once killed over a dozen of mercenaries just with a knife and a wire, because someone had kidnapped oleg as a trap for sergey and he knew it and still went there to save oleg. they're fighting for the same things, together, and sometimes it's literal and they go kill people with guns and knives, sometimes separately but more often together. their canonicity is… it's complicated. i think you'd consider sergey and oleg canon if you consider the guys from good omens to be canon. * like there's no i love yous, no kisses, or maybe just not yet, who knows, but it's still evident that they care so much about each other and only have eyes for each other. except in this case i'd even say they're more canon because there's no yearning or will-they-won't-they anymore, they're just together since their childhood or teenage years, they have no problem talking or touching or holding each other or living together.

*Mod note - This was submitted before season 2 of Good Omens came out.

[hadesoftheladies]

Girl I FEEL you on the cities thing 😭 there's just something so strange about it. Not all of them ofc but I think it's just what happens when so many strangers are in such tight quarters, empathy can get people hurt if they show too much and that has the weirdest unexpected effects on behavior

i live in the capital city of my country and it gets more populated every day. it is common for us to have positive and enthusiastic conversations with strangers. please note, my city is also one pumping with migrants from all over the world and i live at the CENTER of it. it is nothing like what i experienced in florida, new york or central missouri. i was in the suburbs of central missouri. i saw both manhattan and queens in new york, and i stayed for some time in miami, florida. it was actually the less populated places that had the weirdest people. like both the white and black americans had very strange behaviours. anti-social to the extreme. (in central missouri people would just stare at you and then fake smile or walk away and they'd avert their eyes, keep their heads down, greet no one even people they knew, mumble, stare into the abyss through you LIKE???) it made me question if i grew up speaking english my whole life just because of how weird their communication was. like we had no lingual cues in common and i had an american education! we were literally there to compete as schools under the same curriculum. (most normalest people there were anyone of asian decent, anyone from africa, the guys from honduras, and the two russians that came, and the canadians, at least half of them)

it was actually people from the southern states and new york that talked the most normal throughout my entire trip. new york actually had the most normal people, even among the students i met there. like conversation was natural with them. new york felt like being in my home city, just more ocean-smell. (although in most cases i was only meeting and talking to poc). however, i've also never seen despair on so many people's faces than i did in manhattan. i've never been scared of someone looking miserable but when i say i saw a man whose eyes were black with hopelessness . . . i've never forgotten that look on that caucasian man's face. i've never in my life and in all the places i've been to seen such abject despair on a human being.

i think, bringing it all together, and given what i know about friends and families staying there (i have family in scarsdale, new york and some old childhood family friends in redding, california, and a cousin of mine who stayed in philadelphia for a while) i just . . . let's just say the US is the capitalist capital of the world and it shows in their population. like the mental state of North Americans is just radically different from what a lot us go through. having such a highly consumerist and individualistic culture has really done numbers on so many people there. not to mention its such an efficient empire in terms of mass destruction and propaganda. china is its biggest competitor in that department. i think it's also why that part of the continent has some of the highest rates of mass shootings and serial killings. that system is just so efficient at making sociopaths out of human beings. and the large-scale violence that underscores nearly every interracial relation is just incredible. a family friend is doing university in the US--forgot the state--and he was just like being a black person there is so different from studying in the UK. like it's just so much more oppressive. UK has racists but it's not as dire as the US. you're insulted but not as heavily profiled. in the UK, there's some unspoken respect or understanding given toward foreign students (at least from east africa) because they know we're just there to study and get to work. there's also just way more accommodation and consideration.

the US . . . like it's just depressing going there. also didn't realize how much equatorial privilege i had until i was in florida in the summer with hurricane alerts on the TVs. i have never been blown sideways by the wind. it was crazy!

like my country has frequently struggled with tribalism, but by god it's just not that bad (although our police force is also heavily underfunded). like y'all's government and oligarchs fucked y'all up so bad. your history and economy have just been roasting the humanity you guys are fighting to keep to death. good luck, man. like for all your wealth, i sincerely would never trade places. and im not just saying that to make myself feel better lol. i would not survive. my anxiety would spike up by 1000000000x I'd just get cancer from the stress in like two months.

that being said i also desperately need to leave my city for like a six month vacation XD. i crave the countryside and there's too much noise.

[mariacallous]

Meduza: Russia's ideological curriculum

The recent unveiling of Russia’s new history textbook has me thinking about the ideological curriculum that was introduced to Russian schools a year ago — most notably, “Conversations About What’s Important,” a weekly class covering topics like the “reasons” for the war in Ukraine and how to properly “love the fatherland.” As a new academic year approaches, I thought it would be useful to look at what we know about the results of the Kremlin’s efforts to justify the invasion to schoolchildren so far.

A survey conducted by The Moscow Times' Russian service in June found that in schools that were considered “good” before the war, many teachers found ways to avoid using the government’s “patriotic” lesson plans, whereas most teachers in “average” schools taught the curriculum as intended. In February, the Russian authorities began airing video versions of the lessons on television, perhaps suspecting that a lot of teachers who quietly oppose the war would be willing to present the material if it became the path of least resistance. (The Education Ministry said this initiative was for students at home, but multiple kids told journalists they have to watch it at school.)

At the same time, reporting others to the authorities for illegal speech has become more common in Russia, spurring teachers who are inclined to speak out against the invasion in class to self-censor. One English teacher told the outlet Current Time: “[When the war started], I wasn’t afraid that one of the children would turn me in. Now I am.”

Another teacher told The Moscow Times that while she feels like she and her colleagues managed to protect their students from propaganda this past year, she’s not optimistic about the future. “We’re talking about kids who were already [essentially adults] on February 24 — they knew how to think. […] But as for what these new [students] and their parents will be like, God only knows.”

Daniil Ken, the head of the anti-Kremlin trade union Teacher’s Alliance, said he doesn’t believe the government’s “patriotic” curriculum is made with any long-term goals in mind: “The purpose of the propaganda is to subjugate society [right now].” Whether or not that’s the case, one thing appears certain: the second year of pro-war messaging in Russia’s schools will be more intense than the first.

[anakinsafterlife]

More Thoughts on Dune

I had to go see Dune again, so I booked the afternoon showing in the Imax theatre, which was bound to hurt my ears, especially whilst fasting, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it. 😅

Having now seen the 1984 movie and the 2001 miniseries, I realize what a comparatively great job Villeneuve did with heavy issues like race and religion (1984 Fremen were all white, while 2001 looked mostly like tanned/slight darker Caucasians, with a few dark skinned extras. But both older versions are mostly very silly and, artistically speaking, poorly rendered. I can see why people kept trying to remake it).

I do still stand by my original post, because of course the director could have done better, but the movie is still a masterpiece and honestly a thousand times more sensitive and informed than the other two attempts to film it. I just feel like if they were going to go to comparatively great effort to get it right this time, why not go all the way and hire more Arab actors (there are plenty even in Hollywood), use more Arabic terms and religious accuracy, etc, instead of indulging in orientalist tropes.

Anyway, I won't go back into the rant, but basically the only negative things I noticed...

... the second time around, were 1) Added, probable anti-Russian racism in the Harkonnens. I didn't notice the first time because I was focused on the mixed treatment of the Space Arabs, but given that Dune was written in the 60s, I'm fairly sure that that the struggle between Harkonnen and Atreides represents the Cold War struggle between the USSR and the United States and Western Europe over physical resources and land power.

2) I also noticed this time copious usage of the "Yellow Middle Eastern Filter."

Even if you haven't heard of it, you have most definitely seen it. It's that yellow haze that lies across the landscape whenever American movies go to some place "exotic," like the Middle East, Mexico, India, etc. It's unspoken propaganda of the most insidious kind, as it imparts to the audience a sense that this place is dry, dusty, and dangerous. (Someone else IRL also mentioned to me that the yellow filter makes people's skin look darker, which is another valid point given the potentially racist implications and assumptions).

The yellow filter is so common, in fact, that I remember being shocked and uneasy when I moved to Dubai, some years back now, because the sky looked blue and normal and not, in fact, hazy and yellow. I didn't even know why I was confused at the time, as the filter is insidious enough that, even when you see it, you often don't really notice it. I only learned officially about the yellow filter a couple of years or so ago, and it makes me mildly furious now every time I actively notice it used in a movie.

So yes, that the yellow desert filter was used is another 'code' for Space Arabia. Which...obvious.

On the story side, I noticed that Jessica and Paul change sides in terms of their opinion of the "prophecy" and whether Paul should claim that narrative. Jessica seems initially opposed, saying, "Your father didn't believe in revenge," while Paul says that he does. But once he grows close to Chani, he eschews the prophecy, only embracing it again after he drinks the Water of Life. That is interesting, because the water gives clear prophecy that the drinkers see as absolute truth. They then attempt to fulfill those truths, which makes me think that these prophecies, like so many, are self-fulfilling. That also explains why Jessica's demeanor changed so absolutely after she drank the water. In becoming a Reverend Mother with prophetic insight, she ironically became less Fremen than she might have before. Is this a metaphor for even the friendliest Westerners losing their sincerity once they have 'tasted' the profits to be made in the Middle East/Global South? 🤔 (But also, obviously, Jessica was always a mother in this story and she would do anything to protect her son, including exploiting an entire culture and religion, *even* if it meant driving him away from her. That is, of course, why one of the first scenes in the movie is of her saving Paul's life by brutally murdering a man.)

I am so, so torn about this movie. I love it and am drawn to it in numerous complex ways that tie into my own personal history as a person who lives, culturally, at the crossroads of east and west. It also clearly articulates the struggle for power and resources that lies at the heart of colonialism and other extended occupations. Yet, again, I recognize the weaknesses of this movie as well as its many strengths.

So torn. Going away to cry now. 😢

[machine-saint]

i think i've finally been able to identify why posts like this one from brendanicus annoy me:

I've made this post way too many times already but again, any analysis of Russian state-sponsored homo/transphobia is incomplete without considering 1) the disastrous fallout of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the political ascendancy of US-backed reactionaries such as Putin, and 2) the blowback effect the use of LGBTQ rights by US imperialism to justify itself has had not just in Russia but throughout the world, is incomplete and incorrect.

LGBTQ people being designated “extremists” in Russia especially can’t be considered in isolation from the extremely vile conflation of LGBTQ people and Ukrainian nationalism (including Banderite Nazi apologia) we’ve seen aggressively pushed by the US + Ukrainian governments and Western MSM in the last two years, which I cannot stress enough is possibly one of the worst things in terms of LGBTQ rights to happen in the FSU. We’re seeing the same thing play out in Palestine with occupiers hoisting the pride flag in literal bombed out ruins and it will have similarly disastrous consequences for LGBTQ people in SWANA. This is why reactionary homonationalism and imperialism must be dismantled as quickly and aggressively as possible.

in that doesn't outright say anything (it just mentions that an analysis without certain factors would be incomplete!) but it heavily implies that, like, the 'blame' (to the extent that that's a coherent thing) should be laid at the feet of the US, Ukraine, et al. i'm going to focus on Russia here since it's a world player in its own right.

the problem is that if you want to do this sort of causal chain analysis, you can't just stop at "well, the West did it". why is there the usage of LGBTQ/pride symbols in the first place? the "LGBT propaganda law" dates to 2013, well before "the last two years". and of course you can trace the chain back to why that law was passed, etc etc etc.

like, suppose I said that "any analysis of Christian nationalism in the united states is incomplete without considering the blowback effects of the Soviet Union being an atheist state and atheism being doctrine of many Communist parties.". is this true? sure; "under god" was added to the pledge in the 50s. but if I went on to say that Soviet state atheism was "one of the worst things in terms of religious neutrality to happen in the USA", people would wonder why I'm blaming the Soviet Union for what the USA does in reaction!

feels like a very "the people that I like don't have agency when they do things I don't like" kind of deal

[best-romanov-monarch]

Finale

Put the champaigne on ice, everyone, we are at the final step of our journey! By this time next week, we will know who is the very best Romanov, as found out by the most scientific method you could possibly use - a tumblr poll. The winner (along with a winner of every bonus poll) will be announced in a big celebratory post that will be pinned as sign that this epic competition has finally come to an end. Consider this a reminder that this week is your final chance to participate in propaganda, antipropaganda and all the other shenenigans that come with holding a monarchical poll on tumblr. This blog may end up endorsing other polls (look forward especially for our favourite weirdo Alexander I. on the Napoleonic Sexymen Tournament), but this will be effectively the very end of its active service.

As mentioned in a previous post, the two final candidates for the Best Romanov aren't fighting just for the title, but for the very definition of the term. The thing is, you can theoretically see both of them as Best Romanov, just by completely different metrics. Are we going by moral criteria, at which point we must endorse the least autocratic ruler Russia had untill... Maybe Gorbachev? Look the point is, the bar is on the ground here, and Alexander II. stepped over it.

Or are we searching for a ruler that best embodied Romanov traditions of dynastic drama, autocracy, imperialism and very, very light reformism, while closing a book on the whole era of interdynastic shenenigans (Pavel I. and the dekabrists aside, because dynasty members didn't actually participate in those - at least in any capacity that we can prove) and being that quintesential Romanov creature - a toxic girlboss?

Both of these people are still well-regarded, for the most part (for a Russian monarch I mean). Both of them were incredibly sexy, as is the Romanov way. You could (and should, seriously, post propaganda, people!) make the case for both of them being deserving of the title. But there is only one crown of Monomakh and one throne (unless you're Ivan V. and Pyotr I., we guess). There can be only one victor.

So... Who *is* the best Romanov monarch, really?