#origin of state societies

[hersurvival]

I loved him, I did, I swear.

I did.

Passive-aggression grows thorns,

Becomes resentment,

Blossoms into violence.

Forced ourselves to be symbiotic

But never meant to be in the same garden.

And I love her, I do, I promise.

I do.

But perhaps she is a trellis

I have simply grown attached to

Because she was near.

Or maybe we were placed here with intention

In this same dirt, to entwine together.

Time will tell.

Though my heart is flourishing, overgrown,

Tangled with her.

And I already know.

@nosebleedclub June 13th - The State of Your Heart

[matt-barber58]

Fever Dream, the other shot

[seriousbrat]

100% agree on the last post! James is the norm in terms of teenage boys in his society, unfortunately that is not speaking much of that society considering he’s blackmailing his crush through doing harm to her friend and pantsing people. Which is honestly the problem, that specific behavior isn’t seen as an issue it’s the other stuff he does (his arrogance is what’s mostly focused on by the other characters). Looking at violence and gender in that society and how it functions, I really don’t think James is transgressing any of these norms but falling right into them. Which again is the problem. His behavior is a product of the culture which shaped him, that’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation.

Exactly. Like on a scale from Woke Feminist King to Inbetweener, I think James would have been decent enough, average, like I said, maybe even a little bit better than average because of his sense of 'honour' or whatever lol. But not that much.

Also, I know people might not agree with this but I do think the WW is less misogynistic than the Muggle. I think this is logical in a society where magical ability is what primarily contributes to raw labour rather than physical strength. Not to get Marxism 101 on everyone but if we look at the origins of patriarchy as based in the Agricultural Revolution, the division of labour following the emergence of private property (men work in fields, women produce men to work fields, men accumulate resources) is somewhat lessened if everyone can use magic equally, and when women can defend themselves very effectively against becoming the resources that are accumulated.

I say somewhat because yes, women (cis women, I don't think we can expect neolithic farmers or Engels to be trans inclusive haha) are still the ones who can give birth. Obviously for this reason (and also because of influence from the Muggle world) the WW is still a patriarchy and misogyny does still exist, just slightly less acutely than in the real world, and women have an easier time advancing within it.

(((In pureblood society, because they value bloodlines and heirs, there is undoubtedly more misogyny. But we know from pottermore that pureblood supremacy is a relatively recent advent, certainly much more recent than the Agricultural Revolution and the emergence of private property haha. I can imagine that misogyny grew stronger alongside pureblood supremacy quite naturally. This is why Narcissa acts more as a handmaids tale esque wife to Lucius than Lily or Tonks or even Molly and Fleur, who are still housewives themselves.)))

I think there's evidence of women generally faring a bit better in the WW, such as female Ministers long, loooong before Muggle women even had the vote, and culturally I think this is reflected too:

From the intro to Beedle the Bard, which goes on to talk about 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart' in which the female character does have a passive role, so it's not like this is unheard of, just a bit less common. In 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune,' the aforementioned Asha, Altheda, and Amata are all much more useful and powerful and active characters than Sir Luckless who basically just follows them around. (I actually really like that story, and 'Hairy Heart' is delightfully creepy. Probably my faves.) James would have grown up with these stories.

Anyway this got VERY off track but for for this reason too, I think James and the other Marauders would probably be a little bit better than their Muggle equivalents, but also not perfect. Just like Ron, to whom it's perfectly normal that Hermione would be top in everything and that Gwenog Jones ('THE Gwenog Jones') would be someone to idolise, but he also displays misogyny such as when he calls Hermione a 'scarlet woman' lol. As do others. (For contrast, ask an average teen boy in our world to name 3 female football players. Yeah.)

And yes maybe some of it is jkr's learnt misogyny leaking through too, from growing up in a patriarchy along with the rest of us (and let's be objective about this, she has been a victim of it too, very much so.) But personally I think the WW still being misogynistic but slightly better than irl actually ends up being realistically relatable while also providing a level of escapism and aspiration for young girls. It doesn't feel that inconsistent to me but idk. Hermione easily outstripping her male peers in intelligence and talent, Ginny and other female Quidditch players being on the level of men and often better, and this just being accepted, was inspiring for me, anyway.

[watermelinoe]

i'm also a bisexual woman and i feel exactly the same way you do re: penises. i actually found your post really validating lol

i think attraction takes a lot of forms and it's really not just about genitalia - which is why it's so frustrating when transactivists go on abt ~genital preferences~ as if intimacy doesn't involve the whole body. if you somehow mister potato head slapped a vagina onto a male body, lesbians are not suddenly going to see him as a viable sex partner like the rest of him isn't there??

on the other hand, i can find the rest of the male body attractive up until the peen and balls are involved and my attraction shrivels up, and i'm still bi. maybe there's a psychological reason for my aversion, maybe not, in the end it doesn't really matter bc i was only hurting myself by trying to like it

lesbians aren't attracted to male voices, male hands, male stature

i am genuinely attracted to males and i like being bisexual now that i understand there's nothing i have to fix about my bisexuality

[zatna]

my zatanna is transfem btw

[nando161mando]

Poem by Marcellus Williams

[litchiteany]

Midnight’s Rite💫

What I whisper into midnight

wakes into certainty—

words carved into bone.

The ancient tale holds:

fate spirals through space

only to return where it began.

As if some silent watcher

plucks each misstep,

corrects my course—

unmerciful, precise,

etched in stark design.

I tread along parallel lines—

a path foretold.

To drift astray

and call it written?

Should I rage against design,

or bow to whispered truths

that sweetness dwells

just beyond my fingertips—

cool as dew on sealed buds?

A star in my orbit

teases the cords—

tugging with false promise.

I dull its light, forgo the fight

rehearse the fall before flight.

A heart armored in doubt

never bleeds surprise.

And heavens above

never challenge

one who kneels willingly.

JI

05-19-2025

🌌

[claire-de-lune-poetry]

Identifying the python-

Reoccurring images stir me wide awake

The deep illuminated fear of this ginormous snake

Pythons are unique a select set of skills

Patient kind of hunters will have you in chills

Often remaining motionless for the unexpected strike

Not the type of creature you'll find on a hike

Not a poisonous bite but constricting in suffocation

Becareful for your waking life a plan might be in placement

Watch those around you, for they watch you too

A cold-blooded killer found a warm-blooded prey

Or am I entirely wrong in my interpretation display

Could I be rebirthed the symbolism misconstrued

Brought to my attention to usher in the new

I hope I can decipher the image in my mind

For on this back and fourth debate I seem to loose the time

Maybe it is both a warning and remind

For with either answer to not be so blind.

[gainaxvel3o]

Gotta confess something... during a flight, I watched the original Ghost in the Shell, then watched the Solid State Society movie. Since I did no research before watching them, I thought Solid State Society was a sequel to the original and Motoko's absence was because of what happened in the original. Was confused why she had purple hair and had a new body, but I figured that was some weird evolution thing from the ending of the last one hahahaha. I didn't know Solid State was a separate continuity.

[matt-barber58]

children and men

[cumtotheuniverse]

𝑴𝒚 𝑽𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑸𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒆

[eager-wolfboy]

Whenever you consider making specifically a bottom/top joke, please consider using omegaverse dynamics instead.

[shivasdarknight]

Oh wow would you look at that, a picture of Katsuro that isn't the one I keep using. Would you look at that!

[sprachspieler]

Good morning and thank you for the picture of the bee! I didn't know anything about carpenter bees, but they are quite interesting.

Structuring the posts is probably a good idea. So I'll start with some minor comments, then there's the main section about money creation, and lastly a brief note about money-as-power.

Minor comments

You see both check and cheque in NZ. For that sort of word, I think generally older people use the British spelling and older people the American spelling. Though it's sort of a moot point, since they've pretty much entirely disappeared in the last few years.

A note about small transactions: I can definitely see that it'd be difficult to get the police to go after someone for stealing a small amount. My disagreement is that I don't think this makes sense as a cause of inflation. I doubt any firm (or whoever sets the prices) has thought, "Oh, there's a lot of money around nowadays. The government won't be able to enforce the value of all of it. I'd better raise prices." Possibly it works as an abstract interpretation of what inflation represents, like a sort of metaphor. But then we get into very philosophical questions about how theories relate to the world.

Money creation

I'm not really sure if you don't understand how commercial banks create (non-physical) money or if you do understand the process but just view it differently, so I'll try to cover both possibilities.

Say Alice, Bob, and Carol all have an (at the moment) empty bank account with the same bank. The government prints $100 and gives it to Alice (I suppose she works for the government). She deposits the $100 in the bank, so the bank records $100 in Alice's account. The bank might then loan Bob $50, which it does by just recording in its ledgers that Bob has $50 in his account and owes the bank $50 at a later point in time. Alice and Bob then buy goods from Carol, which costs them all their money. The bank records that Carol has $150 and Alice and Bob have $0 each.

The crucial step for commercial bank money creation is the loan to Bob. When a bank lends, it just declares that the borrower has however much money in their account. They need to have enough currency in their possession to allow for withdrawals, but beyond that the sum of demand deposits is not limited by currency. That's how money is created.

I think you probably view the extra $50 as fake? I argue that a definition of money where that's the case is suboptimal* because (1) people can actually spend it to buy goods and services (favours if you want to be an engineer about it), (2) they can do this simultaneously (without the extra $50 being backed by an extra $50 of currency), and (3) it comprises the majority of money in our economies and is the way in which most transactions take place** (and the definition of money ought to recognise how transactions actually occur).

*I think definitions can't really be false, but they can be worse in various ways.

**It might differ in the US, but I don't even remember the last time that I used cash.

There is a sense in which the money is in a superposition of states that might collapse (or something; I don't know physics), but that is specifically if Alice and Bob want to convert their money into currency. As long as they're happy to keep it in a demand deposit, it's all fine. (And I wouldn't characterise money in a bank account as being unobserved, since it can still be spent, as above.)

Summarising, my contention is that:

Banks create more demand deposits than the amount of currency that exists.

Even when multiple people's money 'comes from' the same currency, they can still spend all of that money.

Because this money can be spent, it is 'real' money.

So not all 'real' money is created by the government.

Last bit

I think also I might've been conflating your theories about power/money and those about where money comes from. I don't have much of a specific disagreement with the former, but I have a technical disagreement (or maybe it's just semantics) with the latter. There is some connection between the two, but I don't think they're the same. You can still understand money as power without asserting it is all created by the government.

It's so weird to me when people are like 'but that will cost the government money!' So what? They're the government, they're supposed to be spending money. What, you want them to take your tax dollars and then do nothing with it? Lock it all up in a big government vault and just look at it? Why are you so scared of giving a third grader lunch or a homeless person a house.

[reasonsforhope]

"The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer.

Texas researchers proposed in 2022 using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now, they’ve found that okra and/or fenugreek extracts attracted and removed up to 90% of microplastics from ocean water, freshwater, and groundwater.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, Rajani Srinivasan and colleagues at Tarleton State University found that the plant-based polymers from okra, fenugreek, and tamarind stick to microplastics, clumping together and sinking for easy separation from water.

In this next stage of the research, they have optimized the process for okra and fenugreek extracts and tested results in a variety of types of water.

To extract the sticky plant polymers, the team soaked sliced okra pods and blended fenugreek seeds in separate containers of water overnight. Then, researchers removed the dissolved extracts from each solution and dried them into powders.

Analyses published in the American Chemical Society journal showed that the powdered extracts contained polysaccharides, which are natural polymers. Initial tests in pure water spiked with microplastics showed that:

One gram of either powder in a quart (one liter) of water trapped microplastics the most effectively.

Dried okra and fenugreek extracts removed 67% and 93%, respectively, of the plastic in an hour.

A mixture of equal parts okra and fenugreek powder reached maximum removal efficiency (70%) within 30 minutes.

The natural polymers performed significantly better than the synthetic, commercially available polyacrylamide polymer used in wastewater treatment.

Then the researchers tested the plant extracts on real microplastic-polluted water. They collected samples from waterbodies around Texas and brought them to the lab. The plant extract removal efficiency changed depending on the original water source.

Okra worked best in ocean water (80%), fenugreek in groundwater (80-90%), and the 1:1 combination of okra and fenugreek in freshwater (77%).

The researchers hypothesize that the natural polymers had different efficiencies because each water sample had different types, sizes and shapes of microplastics.

Polyacrylamide, which is currently used to remove contaminants during wastewater treatment, has low toxicity, but its precursor acrylamide is considered toxic. Okra and fenugreek extracts could serve as biodegradable and nontoxic alternatives.

“Utilizing these plant-based extracts in water treatment will remove microplastics and other pollutants without introducing additional toxic substances to the treated water,” said Srinivasan in a media release, “thus reducing long-term health risks to the population.”

She had previously studied the use of food-grade plant extracts as non-toxic flocculants to remove textile-based pollutants from wastewater and thought, ‘Why not try microplastics?’"

-via Good News Network, May 10, 2025