#plus the antis are terrible there i've found

[solar-sunnyside-up]

hey, something i've been struggling with recently is i've been struggling with "finding my people" because i'm a minority in my hometown, and a lot of people... aren't. they don't understand me, and often when i try to get them to understand they seem like they fall back into the old systems they were traumatized with (elitism, classism ect.,). 1/2 -solidarity anon

Im gunna say this at the top, this is so rough and im so sorry you gotta go through this sweetie. We are so isolated and filtered into categories within our current system in order to keep that isolation and to fight solidarity and unity. Now I cannot know for 100% sure what your going through or the extend your suffering. But will say I am from and currently still live in a oil loving, god fearing, anti-LGBT, and very racist city while i was raised wiccan by a poly core family and all my gay aunts/uncles and have been dreaming of an earthship my whole life plus every summer id be stuck in an even more harsh farming community that was so small they gotntheir first street light when i was 9 and the chruch is also town hall (mayor works in a wing off of the building). So there is at least some overlap in the experiences your having.

But that being said, how I got weirdly connected to people and involved in so many projects and stuff might not work for you.

Personally? I just yelled and yelled about the injustice of the system at work, about cool forestry projects and people buying ghost towns to start up Co-loving villages. Sharing discworld and different philosophers with coworkers backed up by their fave hobby. About how terrible the conservative politics are. About how cool transit could be if we funded it. About community art projects and how cool solar glass would make things look. About drags shows and events and did you know there is A SOUP FESTIVAL? I'm autistic and have only really interacted my whole childhood with friends with ADHD so my brain is weird and won't shut up once it starts going.

As a result of my ramblings, I have gotten a lot of responses mostly ones that are positive since if they didn't agree with my absurdist philosophy ramblings or solar project ideas they'd just leave the coffee shop. If they enjoyed it, say they want to join a community garden/event or if someone was as stoked as I was about again UNLIMITED TASTINGS SOUP FESTIVAL than we'd chat about that. The thing is a lot of these things have overlap. Someone who wants to convert their lawn into a pollinators habitate prob also likes little libraries and as a result prob also likes the idea of dark sky street lights. And down the rabbit hole you go.

That being said... my best actual advice is 2 pronged.

RESEARCH and REACH OUT

I personally have done years worth of research on my city. What local events and politics are happening? Even in rural places there is at least garderns, there's engineers, there's usually a LGBT focused club. And from these spaces, you can build a network. Doing research I found out about 5 different organizations in my city (most of which was founded 40 yrs ago??) That where sustainability focused. Doing research made me realize how cool community associations could be and how I could help mine out. It also gives you all those ideas for convos.

Second, I reached out to those groups about weird ideas I had, about if I could hang up posters for them in my local area, if I could buy groups worth of tickets in advance, and than also reaching out to the ppl I already talked to and had these ppl interact. My fave example of this is T. T is an engineer who built a fully functioning solar car during his degree program but specializes in hydroponics (how we ended up talking was over plants) he than gets shown my fave farm near by and now he's building the farms hydro system and Seedling house. Writing in to newsletter ppl and showing off weird layout design. This is ultimately very anxiety indusing. What if I'm bothering them? Why should I be spamming them like this? But the secret here is-

No one will ever be mad about you showing interest in their interest once you find those ppl. They want the interaction just as much as you do.

[myopicry]

I read your last response to an ask (sending love and luck to that anon, what happened to them is awful) and you mentioned "until popular opinion shifts". I found that interesting! I've never thought about that possibility when it comes to lgbt stuff tbh.

Do you think popular opinion will change/shift? (/gen) Personally, I can't really see it for some reason, or if it does shift I can't see the shift being positive. I feel like it's more likely that things will regress (think classic Conservative hate) than change to, for example, an environment where discussions about gender and the concept of transgenderism can be safely discussed. Maybe I'm just a pessimist lol. I hope the latter will happen, but if it comes down to it, I'd rather have more weird gender stuff than the aforementioned "anti everything hate" ... It's kind of depressing to think about lol. Whoops.

~🪼

good to see you again !! apologies in advance for how long and slightly uncoordinated this one is, it's a good question and something I feel like I have contradictory thoughts on so lots to unravel :D

it really is an interesting thing to consider. I think I do agree with your take, for the most part that (at least in the states) things are so likely to regress. it already looks like conservatism is on an upswing again, especially as the right gets more and more extreme, but is still able to capitalize on touchy issues (like gender) to get people who would be left-leaning or moderate on their side and buy into harmful traditional ideas about gender stereotypes. and I would agree that at least if we exist in a world of gender weirdness, there'll still be space to critique it and nuance can eventually be carved out. new problems are preferred to old problems, I suppose. so yeah, that I definitely have to agree with. plus, it's probably smart to take a bit more of a pessimistic perspective in reality so that if good things do happen, we can be pleasantly surprised lmao

however, I am kind of (maybe baselessly?) hopeful that within leftist spaces and just general populations (I guess of younger generations specifically), people will become more receptive to feminism or radfem beliefs that involve critique of gender. especially as more topics directly surrounding women's rights become more and more urgently in need of support (abortion, birth control, etc.), progressives might shift their attention, and younger women might become more politically active specifically with these issues of women's rights.

I also do think now, more than ever, it's pretty easy to have some kind of "awakening" towards radical feminism if you're young. I mean, not to literally speak from experience, but it happened to me! maybe on some level I believe all women* have the capacity to hold radfem beliefs. and now, it's both easier to connect with other women who feel this way, and it's easier to see real life examples of the arguments radical feminism proposes (just think of how easy it is to find examples of the terrible way men think of women, or literal examples of women's oppression online, or discussions on feminism and theory in general). I would also say it's easier now to "peak" on gender ideology, but in a more nuanced way than it was before. from what I see, at least, more people are starting to understand variance in gender expression, and that gender non-conformity is something to accept instead of immediately pushing people to transition because it ties into regressive gender stereotypes (if I had to guess, I'd say the growing voices of detransitioners, therapists, and healthcare specialists who criticize gender might be pushing this more). of course, there is still the bleed of traditionalists and conservatives in the mix, but a growing amount of gender criticism does lean more moderate or left, with the people less concerned about "weirdness" or "degeneracy" of it all, but instead medicalization and the harm on same-sex attracted/gender non-conforming youth, which can obviously come from a more progressive angle.

I guess I just like to believe that out there, there are a lot of people dissatisfied with the options they've been sold, and they want to strive for a better, compassionate, and more functional world, and so they'll eventually find their way to engage with nuance in discussions over topics of ideology. I think these small shifts in conversation may at least make people more open to discussions on gender even within spaces fairly hostile to the idea. (there's also a point I can make about how most people are open to talking about certain things as long as you use different words about it, semantics and optics really run the conversation on gender, honestly, so I can absolutely also picture opinion shifting just based on the changing language people use to talk about certain things. at least in personal social circles, I can definitely see this happening. maybe not as easy on a broad societal level, but I digress. might tangent about semantics later lmao) is any of this founded on facts or consistently observable trends? not really! however, something is changing, and it is what I base a lot of my hope for the future of gender discussion on.

okay, maybe that last part is too built on wishful thinking lol. this answer kind of got away from me, most of it is based on personal experiences and hopes for the future, it's really not very scientific or like, concrete political theorizing (I go to art school lmao, unfortunately I'm not exactly qualified to exactly posit what the political landscape might be headed towards). yknow, there is a part of me (most of me, honestly) that thinks it's all doomed. the prevalence of social media will digitize people's lives further, the patriarchal status quo in america will live on forever from the left and the right, consumerism will destroy the environment and people's capacity for empathy, and all the major cities will be wiped out by natural disasters and whatnot. and maybe that's inevitable. but I do like to let myself build a world around me where at least I can try and contribute to the environment I wish I could live in. try to make the most out of life for myself and others like me, I guess. and for me, it's at least nice to hope that the conversational environment will shift because then I can at least strive for that with how I personally engage in conversation with others. kind of like believing a future I want and attempting to create it around me with my actions.

and maybe again all of what I said is bullshit because I do still have an astonishing lack of social interaction in real life (evidenced by how much time I can spend on tumblr sigh) but hey, the internet is basically real life for a lot of people now, so maybe it will hold true to some extent? ¯\_(ヅ)_/¯

I hope any of that was interesting or even answered your question! sometimes I realize I've blabbed so much that I probably went completely off topic, but the structure of the rambling is too far interlocked within itself that I can't really delete anything :p

but as always, thank you for the thoughtful ask! anon, you are very good at framing questions with lots of substance to consider, and I admire your patience for reading the subsequent avalanche of words and tangents I throw back at you !! have a good one, and I hope to see you soon!

*realizing now I basically only am talking about women right now lmao. this is almost entirely based on the interactions I've had with women/seen women have. yeah, not sure how these kinds of discussions really go down with men. I dunno, maybe it's something I'll test out irl and see how receptive men who identify as leftist/queer/gendery are to a conversation. fun stuff!

[cursedvibes]

I've been picking up Killing Eve again. I watched the 1st season when it was initially airing, quite liked it, but then didn't manage to pick up the following seasons as well. Now it popped up on my Netflix recommendation and I gave it another shot. Uff, it's quite different from what I remember.

I think the story is most interesting to me not as a love story, but as a story about Villanelle, where one of her obsessions happens to be Eve. I don't feel much of a spark between them anyway beyond Villanelle being aimless and having mommy issues, and Eve wanting some dangerous thrill in her life. I watched the first two seasons and I still don't quite understand why it has to be them who get together and not someone else. Plus, I think relationships like Villanelle and Constantine are much more layered and interesting than what Eve and Villanelle have going on.

Generally, I find the story interesting, particularly in the 1st season, but I think their handling of Eve is very poor. She gets the worst writing in my opinion. Or more like the writing isn't "bad", it's just very predictable and not exactly deep. Eve often feels very blatantly edgy "I'm not like other girls, I want to finger an assassin and am bored of my husband treating me nicely". It kinda feels like the protagonists of these 50 Shades of Grey-esque books, but wlw. Some of the dialogue she gets is really cringey and just doesn't sound believable. Sandra Oh does her best with it, but man...

Her character development is the crux of it. When the story starts, you already know her archetype and where she's going with barely any new twist to it. From the first episode you already know what will happen. She's kind of similar to Will Graham, but written with way less subtlety. You can just tick off all the boxes as you watch the episodes. Gets a kick out of killers/assassins. Check. Becomes married to her job. Check. Becomes fixed by violence and crime. Check. Neglecting her personal life. Check. Neglecting her husband and resenting him for being a good person. Check. Gets very blatant murderous urges. Check. And the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. They put so much effort into making Villanelle a more three dimensional and compelling character that they neglected who is supposedly the main character of this series.

Also, the stuff this series spouts about "psychopaths" or anyone lacking empathy is just disgusting. Nothing new in this genre, but they do it especially blatant. Just straight up saying people who lack empathy/have anti-social personality disorder are not human, just killing machines, and that they are fundamentally broken. Do they know that these people they're talking about actually exist? And aren't all gleeful serial killers?

Also Villanelle is a terrible assassin. She's leaving evidence and her fingerprints splattered everywhere. If she didn't have such important people covering for her, she would've been found ages ago.

So yeah, my main problem with this is that the writing of Eve is just way too edgy and generic. Everything else is quite interesting actually, but man...getting pretty difficult to watch these episodes and apparently it gets worse in the coming seasons.

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #35:

Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece

To date I've put off writing about two of my favorite 60s/70s artists, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell. This requires some explanation, as leaving either of them out of the Dollar Bin is like leaving rice and beans off your shopping list; life is better when you have these staples available at all times, yes?

In the case of Joni, I'm continuing to procrastinate because what the hell could I really say that's either of interest, insight or humor about her classic records? Um, they're classic; you should get your act together if you don't have them all memorized.

And when it comes to everything after Hejira, where do you even start? Um, well, they're less good. But you should still listen to them. What the hell else are you going to listen to right now? Your kids, you say? Your spouse? Tell them to simmer down and stand aside because it's time to crank Dancin' Clown loud in the living room.

Yep, that's Billy Idol doing his obnoxious thing in the track; apparently Tom Petty's involved too but he's smart enough to stay in the background. Yikes, this is not Joni's great hit.

Even so, I always plead with the student DJ's at my high school school's (that's where I work whenever I climb out of the Dollar Bin) dance's to slip this pop chestnut, along with the B-52's Love Shack, into the Winter Formal mix. I long for the terribly awkward, you see. (To be clear: I'm not a big Dancin' Fool fan. But Love Shack? That's my jam.) Happily, the students never listen to me. If they did I'd feel obligated to get down on my own like a Dancin' Clown.

Anyway, we'll all drink a case of Joni together at some point soon; maybe Mitchell Mondays will be a thing when Shakey Sundays start to wind down (which, at Neil's pace of releasing records should be around 2045). Thanks for your patience Joni!

I've been putting off Van for some of the same reasons I guess. He's not on Joni's level for me, but I recognize that every one of his records are either stone cold classics or have greatness within them up until the mid 70's. But then he hit a brick wall and, frankly, I've never taken the time to survey a lot of the wreckage. If you ask me How Long Has This Been Going On? (the self congratulatory name of Van's mid-90's record) I'll tell you, "beats the hell outta me; I don't listen to Morrison after Feel the Music."

After all, who wants to hear synthesizers mingling with old white man jazz moves, all of it fronted by back up singing ladies and Van's grumpy indifference? And don't even get me started on his recent anti-vax crusade; were I to meet Van today I'd mask up and tell him to get a goddamn life.

Yes, it's true: my buddy Greg, who's reading this right now and freaking out, tells me that No Guru, No Teacher, No Method, No Pizza, or whatever it's called, is a good record, and I'm sure he's right. But I have never found the energy to really listen to it.

Don't get me wrong: I hear Van about gurus; I don't have one either, and Dylan's song about working on one is terrible. But I am a teacher, so I don't appreciate Van trying to get me fired. And I tend to employ methods of all kinds, except while I'm pumping out this nonsense. Finally, I enjoy pizza. And Van apparently doesn't want me to have any. Damn it, Van: give me slice!

But I'm hear to tell you that Veedon Fleece is a Dollar Bin classic: it's soulful, weird, relaxing and elegant; plus, it's just about the last will and testament of Van the Man before he became No Plan Van.

I resisted this album for a long time, not giving it a chance until my late 20's. Why? Well, for one thing, I'm not that into domesticated animals - my cat Batty should be named Compromise, Surrender or Capitulate. Because that's what I did when we got her.

Just look at this beast, busy trying to block out the last 45 years of Morrison's career:

Van appears with giant dogs on the cover of Veedon Fleece, and that fact alone made me pass on this record in the Dollar Bin until around 2003.

The dogs on its cover look far too much like the drooling, child-eating ones my famous brother and I cowered before at ages 6 and 3 respectively at some babysitting co-op lady's house. There we stood, 4'1 and 3'nothing, doggie biscuits in hand, supplied by that well intentioned mother who'd sent us outside to greet them. In the face of all that sniffing, shuffling and terrifyingly hairy life-force my famous brother and I did the only reasonable thing at the time: we ate the doggie biscuits ourselves and then got the hell back in the house.

Frankly, I can't think of a single album cover which features domesticated animals and contains good music. Pink Floyd's Animals doesn't count: that pig ain't real. There are no dogs on the cover of Hounds of Love and the cat on Tapestry is benign. Joni's own Dog Eat Dog is majorly mediocre, Elvis / Old King is a grainy footnote to the cover of Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, and I'll be damned if I ever listen to the Alice in Chains' album with a dog on it or this other Van Morrison record which, for all I know, features the same terrifying dogs as Veedon Fleece, only this time they've been shorn and one is muzzled so as to leave the other free to gorge independently upon my flesh:

But somewhere in the early to mid-aught's my buddies Ryan and Ned cranked up the first song on Veedon Fleece's B Side as we rolled out of town, heading for a men's weekend in the desert. During that trip I melted my shoes in our dead yucca tree bonfire while wearing them (it's amazing what can happen under the influence) and fell in love with Veedon Fleece.

Here is that first track on the record's flip side, and it's the closest thing on the record to a pop single:

The song features just about all the wonderful bits Van had to offer back in the day: he grunts, warbles and shouts whenever he isn't soaring along, plus we've got driving acoustic guitar, chasing bass and drums, pick-me-up piano and complimentary six string riffs.

But the country folk rock of Bulbs, and the stately, epic white blues track that follows, Cul De Sac (which features what may be the greatest scream by a white male in popular music) are outliers on an album which is otherwise concerned with some of the most obscure and introspective music Morrison ever recorded.

Before we get into that truer tale of the record, here's Cul De Sac with its aforementioned scream ready for your pleasure at the 4:56 mark.

I once had a school-wide tug of war rope snap like gunfire in my hands, instantly shredding four of my fingers, one of which still feels funky ten years later. My scream was just as loud. But it was not musical.

Morrison recorded these two tracks separately from the rest of the record, and it shows. What's more, in true Morrison style, he basically wrote off the whole album afterwards: he's almost never performed any of the songs live and he spent the following few years singing only to his gargantuan hounds.

The other record Morrison has treated with similar disdain is Veedon Fleece's spiritual companion, Astral Weeks. Both records must be too thoughtful, complex and warmly spiritual for his liking. It's like he twice got caught gardening turnips in the nude by his neighbors and decided each time to skip town and bail on the mortgage as a result.

Take a listen to Veedon Fleece's opening track, Fair Play: all his ginormus dogs and lady friends are elsewhere; this is just Van, surrounded by sympathetic peers, searching for deliverance among magpie topics that veer from The Lone Ranger to Transcendentalism and back again.

Everything else on the record matches this yearning, graceful tone. Often you lose track of just how obscure and particular the lyrics are; indeed I often forget that Morrison is actually singing in a language I know.

The record's second and third songs depict a sensitive, San Fran everyman psychopath who wields a hatchet at human heads and never misses church on Sunday; the last two songs on Side A are is basically Van's own - albeit highly vague and vastly abbreviated - Intro to Major British Authors II course, and they are way better than the course I took by that title as an undergraduate. Every song flows together; every stands on its own; everything is supremely weird and lovely: what could be better?

But it's the record's two final, so-sparse-they-are-barely-there songs that mean the most to me. Come Here My Love is probably the last thing any of Van seventeen ex-wives ever want to hear him say again, but when he sings it you can dig why they all married him in the first place. It's pretty damn sexy, and if I were into 78 year old covid deniers who should never missed an open casting call to play The Penguin in the next Batman movie I'd swipe vigorously left or right or whatever direction indicates heavy interest on Van's Christian Mingle dating profile.

The album then closes with something even spacier, even sparser, even more astoundingly beautiful. Listen for the ghostly choir emerge way in the backspace, explore the majestic Country Fair:

There's nothing in his catalog that beats Morrison guiding the dense and stretched melody on this track. While the recorder forrays about on its own, Van leads every other musician, and all of us, on a brooding, Pied Piper ramble through endless green ways and shimmering, summer fields.

Country Fair, and Veedon Fleece as a whole, leave me incredibly sad and wonder struck at once. It's a Dollar Bin journey I'm always so eager to take. I'd even feel safe enough to reach out and pet Van's dogs if I came upon them mid-record. And if I had a dog biscuit in hand at the time I'd split it in three equal parts. Then we'd all enjoy it together.

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Merle Haggard - Down Every Road 1962-1994

I've spent four consecutive hours on Merle Haggard now. This is basically the mans entire career it's a lot to take in and I just don't understand why there are so many compilations on this list. Early Merle Haggard is great, some of the singing cowboy croon but with a bit of edge, and stark lyrics about his real life growing up at the end of the depression, living as a vagrant and being in and out of jail. It's the original outlaw country and it's fantastic. Unfortunately Haggard had a major hit with the song Okee From Muskogee, a conservative anti hippie pro Vietnam war anthem. The question of whether he meant the song as satire or not is a debate that ultimately does not matter because, while a lot of left wingers including Phil Ochs found the song funny, it still became a republican anthem that got Haggard the attention of Nixon. The rest of his career is marked by a combination of reactionary politics and occasionally very interesting instrumentation. The inclusion of more and more elements of jazz, blues, and bluegrass throughout the 70s was neat, but he just fades back into blandness as his career rolls to a stop. I'll recommend this comp up until you hit Okee From Muskogee then just stop.

Donna Summer - Bad Girls

This isn't just Donna Summer's magnum opus, it's disco's as well. The combination of Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder were unstoppable when it came to producing the best music in the world. This double album absolutely makes the most of its length bringing us extended disco grooves, a bit of rock influence and some soul numbers, plus Moroder's deliciously goopy synths. It's the most variety of any disco record I've listened to. Just listen to this one. Bad Girls my favorite disco album and prolly just one of my favorite albums period. This might be the first album that I think is exactly where it belongs on this list.

Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours

If you gotta get really dramatic about your divorce then this is the way to do it. I'm typically more a fan of swingin' Franky than crooning Franky but this album is so dramatic I gotta respect. The perfect collection of songs about love and loss are matched by Sinatra's overly syrupy voice and the amazing orchestral jazz arrangements of Nelson Riddle. Sometimes personal and sultry and other time large and dramatic. It's a fantastic collection of ballads from the great American songbook.

Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson

Harry Nilsson was an artist who didn't really ever find his audience, if there was ever one to find. His only hits being covers and the terribly racist Coconut which is unfortunately featured here. In the world of 70s adult contemporary there were two types of sound, folk rock and art pop. Nilsson is the latter with dynamic arrangement and a sense for rock flair. The music itself works really well most of the time, but lyrically he can't decide whether he wants to be somber and morose or deeply unserious and goofy. If you don't mind the whiplash then it's mostly enjoyable, but I can't reconcile a piece of shit like Coconut with a masterpiece like Jump Into The Fire.

50 Cent - Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

It is impossible for me to take 50 Cent's ridiculous persona seriously. Just cause he got shot doesn't make this any less an act of kayfabe. I cannot get into his stupid fucking bravado at all. I don't know why, I tolerate a lot of campy bullshit from all kinds of artists, but 50 Cent is apparently my limit. Every word out of his mouth is the most ridiculous claim you have ever heard, from the people he's killed, to his sexual prowess, to the level of respect he commands. Plus his integration of melodic elements into the beats and hooks are really lazy. His hard ass persona and sing song hooks are so at odds with each other. The production kinda blows too, but the inconsistency is less 50 Cents fault than the trend in hip hop at the time of having a different producer for every song.

Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York

This concert is a great snapshot of Nirvana at their peak. It is nearly devoid of hits. The most popular song they play is Come As You Are and the rest is deep cuts and covers. The covers are honestly the focal point of the album. The Vaselines Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam, David Bowie's Man Who Sold The World, three Meat Puppets songs in a row, and it closes on a version of the folk song Where Did You Sleep Last Night. The Bowie cover is probably the most famous, but my god does Cobain nail the vocal delivery on Lake Of Fire and Where Did You Sleep Last Night especially. There may not be any cryptic suicide note to uncover here, but you can tell he was a tortured soul.

Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy

I like Zeppelin best when they are experimenting. Houses Of The Holy definitely sees them experimenting, although just fucking around might sometimes be more accurate. The album mostly consists of some of their best work. The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song, and Over The Hills And Far Away are truly amazing. However we also have to contend with the mess that is D'yer Make'r, a pathetic attempt at a reggae song, and whatever the fuck The Crunge is supposed to be. It's only two shit songs, but on an eight song album that's a quarter of the runtime.

Alicia Keys - The Diary Of Alicia Keys

I can't in good conscience say that Alicia Keys is a bad musician, but if there was a factory default setting for neo soul singers it would be her. She never really reaches beyond the confines of 'I need a good man' balladry and she doesn't do it as well as most of her contemporaries.

Radiohead - The Bends

The entire Radiohead catalogue is a parade of angst ridden melancholy, but The Bends is more alt rock and more grounded than the rest. While the 90s were a hotbed of aimlessly dramatic alternative rock sad sacks, Radiohead brought this air of hopelessness that really just makes you feel bad. I don't think I'm selling this album very well. It's good, really good. Thom Yorke is very good at going from a whisper to a wail to a falsetto all in one verse, and Greenwoods guitars have an atmospheric quality that just drowns you. While their next couple albums would ramp up the quality and experimentation to unprecedented levels, The Bends still set the benchmark for quality in a Radiohead album.

[obis-kenobis]

because i can’t stop thinking about these

obikin thoughts under the cut

a training/sparring session between them, and obi-wan eventually covers anakin’s eyes because he wants him to rely on his other senses besides just his sight. because, of course, sight can sometimes be misleading. 

anakin is getting frustrated because obi-wan is beating him soundly, but also, he likes to see obi-wan. especially when they’re training. because his master is beautiful and talented and he wants to watch him (but of course he can’t tell him that).

but i think obi-wan probably knows these things because anakin has never been very good at hiding things like these. and he gives him a little kiss at the end while he still has the blindfold on. then slips away quickly. leaving a very confused anakin, his heart beating like a drum. 

[forever--rain]

I just want someone to talk about GBBO with, even though idk if you can answer all the questions for it (are there ship wars in GBBO?😂) -hope you’re having a nice night! 😊

B, we can ALWAYS discuss GBBO. I am 100% here for that. And I have thoughts.

my favorite female character contestant: Nadiya from series 6. She is my queen. I love how she was such an underdog at the beginning and overcame it to win. She's the only contestant I've ever rooted for who's actually won. And now she has her own cooking and baking shows! 😭💜 (And you best believe I've tried her recipes and loved them.) ALSO, I really loved Briony from series 9. She was my early favorite to win and I was legitimately furious when she didn't make it to the final.

my favorite male character contestant: *looks at Richard from series 5, Tamal from series 6, and Selasi from series 7* I literally can't choose between them. Richard should have won his series. He was the obvious favorite going into the final, but the pressure obviously got to him. I was so upset when he messed up the signature and the technical because I knew there was no coming back from that. Tamal's personality was so endearing. And he was so good at what he did! If Nadiya couldn't win, I would've wanted him to win. That final showstopper?!?!?! WOW. And Selasi was just so calm and his friendship with Benjamina was one of the most wholesome, heartwarming things I'd ever seen on the show. He was so steady. I would've loved to see him in the final.

my favorite book/season/etc: Series 6. Hands down. There were a lot of good bakers in that season and I still consider it the strongest final they've ever had. (Plus, Mary, Mel, and Sue were still around.)

my favorite episode: It's so hard to pick one episode out of all of them, so I'm going to pick a theme instead. And I've gotta go with cake weeks. I love seeing that baseline get established. For something so basic, people really do get onto the show and mess it up because of nerves. (Also, I love seeing all the cakes that are...informal. They make me laugh. But don't get me started on how Dorret managed to make it through cake week in series 6 when she literally made something the judges described as rubber and which didn't taste good. AND THEN SHE MADE IT THROUGH BISCUIT WEEK?! I don't get it.)

my favorite cast member: Noel Fielding. He's added such a chaotic element to the show and even though I miss Mel and Sue, I really just love him so much.

my favorite ship: everyone x all the innuendos

a character contestant I’d die defending: Kimberley from series 4. I wanted her to win so bad. And, look, I know everything she did in the final was flawed, but she was doing well up until then. I'm really salty that they get to the final and just disregard everything contestants have done up until that point. Because they'll literally go from week to week and say, "Yes. There's a trend. This person has been doing terribly. It's time for them to go." Then they get to the final and just throw that out the window! Which leads me to the next thing...

a character many contestants I just can’t sympathize with: Frances from series 4. How many times did they have to remind Frances that she was choosing style over substance? HOW MANY TIMES? She should have never made it to the final let alone won it! I also found Nancy from series 5 absolutely insufferable because she could never admit when she'd messed up. Ian from series 6 really bugged me. There's just something about him and I can't put my finger on it. Candice from series 7 irritated me and I'm still mad that she won because I think Jane and Andrew were much stronger bakers.

a character contestant I grew to love: Alice from series 10. I want to be her best friend.

my anti otp: Paul Hollywood x handshakes. I'm over it. And I hate how everyone always wants to impress him when Mary (or Prue) is always standing right there with him. Everything is about Paul. Shut up, Paul.

And those are my trash opinions on GBBO. I hope we can still be friends, B. 💜

Ask me about a thing I'm into!

[silvergeek]

Debunking Misinformation About Kamala Harris

Most of the misinformation regarding Harris is valid information that leaves out the bigger picture, context, and details. They're snapshots rather than the full movie reel, if you catch my drift. I've read that she has been over-targeted because she is an easy target. People (all people - because racism is��systemic and it embeds itself deep) have strong, implicit bias against Black people and against women ("misogynoir" they call this). Plus, many folks will *more willingly* eat up negative information without fact checking. The slew of widely believed misinformation about Kamala Harris - even from progressives all of diverse backgrounds - is due in part to strong, implicit racial and gender bias. In other words, it's real easy to get rumors going about women using fractions of truths. People will believe them. People are less likely to fact check them (especially as thoroughly as I just did). This is because of bias. Even PROGRESSIVE folks are guilty of this. 

Not long ago, I posted a meme defending Kamala Harris to racist and sexist bias. It was loved and hated - pretty divisive, which is unsurprising for something as simplistic as a meme. I apologize. For all of those tumblr accounts that reblogged the meme with flagrant misinformation about the VP elect... I am going to rectify what I did with thorough, sourced information. 

Also check out this twitter: https://twitter.com/blackwomenviews

Debunking Information: 

Claim: Kamala pushed a law that forces schools to turn undocumented students over to ICE 

 The Real: Kamala Harris has consistently been a supporter of sanctuary status and a champion for immigrant rights. The false claim arises from a change in how undocumented youth arrested for felonies were reported to ICE. Kamala Harris was not responsible for nor did she push for then Mayor Gavin Newsom’s 2008 unilateral decision to modify his policy to include reporting undocumented youth charged with felonies to ICE. Previously the policy only applied to undocumented adults. Newsom changed the policy in response to reporting that San Francisco had been footing the bill and illegally flying Honduran youth accused of dealing drugs back to their home country as well as sending them to other parts of the state. The statement that writers have taken out of context to inaccurately use as evidence Harris pushed for a change was a statement in response to the scandal over the illegal flights. Harris stated, “While detained juveniles are under the custody and control of the juvenile probation office and the court every city agency needs to work together to balance our obligations under federal law and the sanctuary ordinance to solve crimes and put the offenders behind bars.” The statement was made prior to Newsom’s policy change and from the contemporaneous reporting it is clear that the policy was not a collaborative change.

 (Ref: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/ILLEGALS-CALLED-COURT-S-PROBLEM-3206302.php)

A fact checker wrongly accused Kamala Harris of being untruthful when she said that the change by Newsom had unintended consequences, but in fact the elected Public Defender Jeff Adachi made a similarly statement that the policy resulted in unintended effects when discussing it a year after it was implemented. Adachi stated “When this policy was put into place, the intent was to deal with what was then identified as a specific problem with Honduran youth,” Adachi said. “But we’re seeing this policy affecting youth who have lived most of their lives in San Francisco, are in school and make a mistake.”

Claim: There are multiple variations of the false claims levied at Kamala Harris over the Kevin Cooper case such as: withheld DNA evidence to keep a man on death row; denied DNA testing to exonerate a man on death row; kept a man on death row despite DNA testing that exonerated him.

The Real: Kamala Harris played no role whatsoever in the Kevin Cooper case for several reasons: 1) Convicted of four murder counts in 1983, Cooper had exhausted all of his court appeals in November 2009 which was prior to Harris taking office as AG; 2) Cooper’s only recourse left was clemency which is solely within the Governor’s powers. (Ref: https://miro.medium.com/.../1*IWka2R0J2hUcUR70rh6iBw.jpeg)

Governor Schwarzenegger first denied Cooper clemency in 2004 then again in 2010. Cooper requested clemency from Governor Brown in 2016 which was not granted. Governor Brown issued an order for new DNA testing in December 2018 shortly before leaving office. Governor Newsom expanded the testing in February 2019. Testing is still ongoing so claims that Cooper has already been exonerated and was held in prison despite of it are false.

Claim: There are many smears and distortions about Kamala Harris’ anti-truancy record including: false claims about laughing about putting parents in jail if their kids missed school; locking up parents; targeting poor families and people of color.

The Real: Truancy has been a prosecutable offense in California since 1977. Kamala Harris made the decision to tackle the elementary school truancy crisis in San Francisco after discovering that 94% of homicide victims were high school drop outs. Tackling truancy was not about punishing or prosecuting parents (which was a rarely used last resort), it was about providing parents resources needed to get their children in school.Kamala Harris did not lock parents up. A widely circulated HuffPost Editorial painting Harris as a truancy zealot contains many distortions about her record on this issue. The most egregious distortion is using a woman by the name of Cheree Peoples as a horror story of Harris’ doing when her case was a result of a local Orange County program. More details debunking the article can be found here. Kamala Harris achieved success in lowering truancy in San Francisco by 20% during her tenure. As AG, Harris created the Bureau of Children’s Justice which formed private/public partnerships to increase resources available to educators and parents to reduce truancy. (Ref: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1181175579837632513.html)

Claim: There are various versions of the false claims that Kamala Harris: blocked the release of prisoners; kept prisoners locked up for cheap prison labor; kept prisoners locked up for slave labor; refused to address prison overcrowding; kept prisoners locked up to fight fires for cheap.

The Real: The false claim arises around one specific court filing by one of the 1,000 attorneys (Patrick McKinney) working for the CA DOJ . The role of the CA AG office is to represent various state agencies in litigation and in this case the state agency was the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The court rejected McKinney’s filing on behalf of the CDCR, therefore prisoners were not in fact kept locked up despite earning 2 for 1 good time credits. Kamala Harris was not involved in the court filing nor aware of the filing prior to a news report. With over 20,000 cases per year in the Civil Law division alone (resulting in exponentially more court filings) it would not have been customary for the Attorney General to be involved in a case that only required the expertise of a mid level Deputy AG III that was several levels of management below the Harris’ level. (Ref: https://www.calhr.ca.gov/state-hr.../pages/5730.aspx)

Claim: Oversaw a state prosecutor falsifying a confession to get a life sentence and then destroyed the evidence.

The Real: This claim is in reference to wrongdoing by Deputy District Attorney Robert Murray of Kern County. The Attorney General oversees 4,500 employees including over 1,000 lawyers, but the AG does not supervise local District Attorneys and their deputies. In 2013, prior to trial during plea discussions, ADA Murray admitted to falsifying a translated transcript in the case of Efrain Velasco Palacios who faced 5 counts of lewd and lascivious acts against the 10 year old daughter of his live-in girlfriend. Palacios was facing 8 years for the 5 counts and was not charged with a crime that faced a life sentence. Superior Court Judge Staley threw the case out due to Murray’s misconduct and Palacios’ attorney being removed from the case for allegedly saying his client did not have a viable defense. The judge’s decision was appealed, arguing that Palacios could still get a fair trial with a new counsel. The judge’s decision was upheld on appeal. In 2015, Efrain Velasco Palacios plead no contest to lew or lascivious acts and unlawful intercourse with a 13 year old girl and was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

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A quote that is backed by sources above and further sources down below:

"On the DNA case. This wasn't a case of Kamala actively trying to suppress the evidence. I believe the defendant was asking for the DNA evidence to be reexamined years later using newer, more reliable, methods. Problem was there was some bureaucratic rule that wouldn't allow it in the DNA department or something like that. 

The jist of it as it applied to Kamala was there was a department within the CA DOJ that was denying the testing, and to my knowledge it was never directly raised with her till after she was out of office. She has since called for him to be given access to the testing, and I thiiink he got it. But like I said I'll try to get more detail tomorrow.On jailing black men disproportionately and coming down hard on cannabis, these are examples of folks taking statistics for the entire California criminal justice system and placing blame solely on Kamala. 

Yes, black men made up a disproportionate share of prisoners in California during Kamala's tenure as AG. That was the case before she was AG and that is still the case today. It's terrible, but it's not really fair to put the effects of the entire system on Kamala. AG's don't have sole authority when it comes to law enforcement. Kamala made efforts to curb this; through reentry programs, not enforcing the 3-strikes laws, being the first AG in the county to require her officers wear body cameras and take implicit bias trading, etc.

The problem is she only had authority over the California Department of Justice. The bulk of prosecutions and incarcerations happen at the local level, with city and county DA's and police. She could not direct them to take the same steps she was taking, all she could do was try to set an example. But the law being what it was, those DAs and police had the authority to be as stringent as the law allowed (which was very very stringent). But if you look at the statistics in the areas Kamala had authority over (and again I'll try to find citations tomorrow) you'll see that she actually reduced incarcerations.

The same goes for marijuana incarcerations. People point to the 19k marijuana convictions that occured while she was AG as evidence she was a avid warrior in the War on Drugs. But that is the statistic for the entire state, and the bulk of those convictions were at the local level. And even still, over all Marijuana convictions across the state fell every year she was in office to eventually there being only like 900ish across the entire state in her last year. She obviously doesn't get all the credit for that decline, but it's another example of people manipulating statistics to fit their narratives."

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Examples of things she did to improve the criminal justice system as DA & AG California: 

Kamala Harris announces police anti-bias training program

California’s attorney general announced a statewide training program aimed at getting police officers to avoid having built-in biases compromise their ability to enforce laws fairly and with appropriate force.

The announcement Friday came as Kamala Harris outlined the results of a 90-day review by her agency that sought to find ways to strengthen the trust between police and the public following recent slayings of unarmed civilians by officers in cities across the country.

Harris also said that under a pilot program, of Justice Department special agents would be outfitted with on-body cameras similar to those worn by officers of some local forces in.

Source: https://www.mercurynews.com/205/04/17/california-kamala-harris-announces-police-anti-bias-training-program/

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continued: SAN FRANCISCO / D.A. won't pursue death in cop slaying / Harris fulfills campaign pledge with decision.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris said Tuesday she will not seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a San Francisco police officer over the weekend, a decision that legal experts say is rare if not unprecedented in California.

The death penalty was restored in California in 1978, but The Chronicle's review found only limited documentation about the outcome of cases before 1987.

Focusing on 90 cases since 1987, the newspaper found that prosecutors sought the death penalty in nearly every case in which a suspect was arrested.

source: https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-D-A-won-t-pursue-death-in-cop-2767716.php

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ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING GAINING ACCEPTANCE

Back on Track, a San Francisco program for first-time young adult drug offenders, involves job training, apprenticeships in the building trades, G.E.D. preparation, money-management skills, child care and other features. Because failure to complete the program means the defendant goes right to jail, the recidivism rate has been less than 10 percent. Back on Track costs $5,000 per year per participant, a significant reduction from the average cost to incarcerate someone, which can run anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 or more.

source: https://psmag.com/news/alternative-sentencing-gaining-acceptance-23551

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She also helped spread this program:

L.A. County Jail launches program to keep inmates from coming back.

source: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-antirecidivism-jail-20150311-story.html

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She was the only AG to investigate big banks for their role in the mortgage crisis.

Without her the national mortgage settlement would be watered down promises rather than the guarantee it was.

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/business/how-kamala-harris-finessed-a-foreclosure-deal-for-california.html

In 2012, Harris helped win a massive, $25 billion settlement with Wells Fargo and other financial institutions for foreclosure abuses:

"As the fraud was being uncovered, many of the AGs were yelling 'Settle, settle, settle.' They just wanted to get their hands on the money," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who during the negotiations was setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the Obama administration. Warren has endorsed Harris for U.S. Senate and has appeared in one of the attorney general's campaign ads. "[Harris] was the one who said 'No, we have to do better, and we have to investigate more. Too many families have been destroyed by the crisis and the illegal activity of these banks.'"

In 2012, Harris also helped push through a bill in the California Legislature that offered homeowners some of the strongest protections in the nation against aggressive foreclosure tactics by banks, which was credited in part for a plunge in foreclosures in the state. The measure also gave private citizens the right to sue financial institutions if they violated the law.

Shortly after taking office, Harris created a mortgage fraud task force that not only assisted with the mortgage settlement, but also went after financial firms that targeted homeowners facing foreclosure. The task force also took legal action against the banks and financial ratings firms for the massive losses that California's two giant public pension systems, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and California State Teachers' Retirement System, sustained after unknowingly investing in securities that included risky subprime mortgages.

Harris' office collected $921 million in mortgage-backed securities settlements with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Inc., Bank of America Corp., Standard & Poor's and Goldman Sachs.

Troncoso, who led the mortgage fraud strike force, said building a criminal case against bankers involved in the foreclosures that led to the national mortgage settlement would have been "extremely difficult." Harris acknowledges as much.

"I too, like most Americans, am frustrated. Clearly crimes occurred and people should go to jail," Harris said. "But we went where the evidence took us."

source: https://outline.com/8cPJ2j

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As DA filed an amici curiae brief in support of DC's handgun ban in DC v Heller.

source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-dc-circuit/1713643.html

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As AG she made clerks begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples immediately after prop 8 was overturned.

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J93691asilw

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Talked about defunding, i.e. shrinking budgets and reallocation of funds, the police all the way back in 2006.

source: https://mobile.twitter.com/adamjsmithga/status/1269761430322139136?s=21

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She has introduced bills to (1)provide a tax credit of up to $6,000 for lower and middle income individuals and families and (2)tax credits for renters. (3)Vox did an analysis of the candidates' anti-poverty bills and Kamala's LIFT Act and Rent relief act have the potential to lift the most people out of poverty, 9.6 million and 7.8 million respectively.

multiple sources:

(1)https://www.bustle.com/p/what-is-the-lift-the-middle-class-act-kamala-harris-has-a-bold-tax-reform-proposal-12606048

(2)https://nlihc.org/resource/senator-harris-introduces-rent-relief-act

(3)https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/1/30/18183769/democrat-poverty-plans-2020-presidential-kamala-harris-booker-gillibrand

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She supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

source: https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-harris-joins-colleagues-in-support-of-15-minimum-wage-bill

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She has also introduced bills to address (1)bail reform and start (2)body camera programs at CBP and ICE.

Two sources:

(1)https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rand-paul-kamala-harris-team-reform-bail-practices-n794031

(2)https://www.thebeatdc.com/blog/2018/10/3/kamala-harris-wants-to-establish-body-worn-camera-programs-at-cbp-and-ice

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She supported the FIRST STEP Act, as a first step, but she said would like there to be more prohibitions on private prisons in the FIRST STEP ACT.

"All of the Act’s sentencing reforms should be applied retroactively, and the Act should further expand application of earned good time credits, place more prohibitions on private prisons which profit from the incarceration of individuals, and further limit the use of electronic monitoring," Harris added.

source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/421719-harris-announces-support-for-white-house-backed-criminal-justice-bill

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She has also supported banning private prisons.

source: https://m.facebook.com/KamalaHarris/posts/10154833054297923

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She co-sponsored Booker's bill legalize marijuana.

Here is an old summary of that "tooth and nail" quote:

So when the judge in question says the AG office "fought tooth and nail" to sustain the false testimony in question, he was referring to the actions of the office under the prior attorney general. Which the judge says in the immediately preceding the quote in the same sentence! "Your office, now under a prior Attorney General, but your office, fought tooth and nail to keep the 1998 sentencing transcript away from the Court of Appeal." Timestamp 32:01. So the quote specifically about Kamala's predecessor but has been used to smear her. 

source: https://thehill.com/regulation/legislation/387101-kamala-harris-backs-booker-bill-to-legalize-marijuana

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On the DNA case:

Kevin Cooper: I won't go deep into the facts on this one because they aren't really the point and because I did a terrible job at brevity with the last case. I'll just note that the origin of this case is 1983. Now, the person you're quoting here doesn't seem to have their facts straight. They don't even align with what is in the sources cited. The NYT article referenced (which isn't even the one cited, here - sourced below - is the actual one) does call her out but does not assert that she "refused" to grant DNA testing. Here's what the article actually says with regard to Kamala:

Kamala Harris, who was state attorney general and is now a U.S. senator, was unhelpful.

That attorney general's office was in possession of the evidence and could have conducted the test. It didn't. And in the NYT article cited in the quote Kamala said she regretted that it did not happen and that her office should have done it. You may not care what she has to say, but she owned up to it. And then she went a step further and she called on the governor to allow the testing to proceed. Not the other way around, as your quote states.

source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/opinion/sunday/kevin-cooper-death-row-innocent.html

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And here is an article debunking a meme about her disproportionately incarcerating black men for marijuana possession. It also debunks some particularly racist and sexist stuff that was out there, so if you don't want to have to wade through that bullshit here is the section on marijuana and convictions:

“IMPRISONED 2,000 BLACK PEOPLE WHILE CALIFORNIA AG” – NO EVIDENCE 

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) shared state level statistics of incarcerations by offense with Reuters via email (it is important to note their statistics are for state prisons and exclude data from county jails). The admissions for marijuana and hashish related offenses for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 was 581 (page 37 in report also visible here ). Their 2013 data is unavailable, while 2011-2012 data shared with Reuters indicated 921 offenders in 2011 and 505 for 2012 for these drug categories. This adds to a total of 2,007 offenses for the years 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. This drug offender data was not, however, categorized by race. (Calculations by Politifact reached similar numbers in 2019, here ) 

Mercury News noted that most of the marijuana cases in the state were not prosecuted by the AG, but by county districts attorneys, so the total number for the state is likely a lot higher than the CDCR data. As San Francisco’s DA, the paper says, Harris oversaw “1,956 misdemeanor and felony convictions for marijuana possession, cultivation, or sale”, some of which did not conclude in jail time (here). 

In California, the possession of over 28.5 grams of marijuana and possession with the intention of distributing the drug are considered misdemeanors (here). Kamala Harris is listed as AG in the California Department of Justice (DOJ) data reports from 2010 to 2015 (DOJ reports for 2016 data onward fall under Xavier Becerra, Harris’ successor as AG). California DOJ statistics for 2015 show the number of Black people arrested (not imprisoned) with misdemeanors relating to marijuana offenses was 656 (table 34, page 42 here ), in 2014 it was 717 (table 34, page 42 here ), in 2013 it was 768 (table 34, page 42 here ), for 2012 it was 1,069 (table 34, page 42 here ), for 2011 it was 981 (table 34, page 42 here ) and for 2010 it was 8,985 (table 34, page 42 here ). This totals to 24,211 arrests for marijuana related misdemeanors (the substantial drop from 2010 is likely a result of legislation changes.

see source https://www.cjcj.org/news/5542 

In short, both California DOJ and CDCR reports show that marijuana related arrests and state level incarcerations for Black people during Harris’s time as AG (the closest data to what Reuters assumed the claims are implying) were not reflective of the 2,000 figure stated in these claims.

source: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-kamalaharris-five-claims/fact-check-misleading-meme-featuring-five-claims-about-kamala-harris-idUSKBN25H2F2

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If you're interested in how she handled Marijuana convictions when she was DA and had a more direct role in those cases, and her record generally as DA, here is a piece by Niki Solis who was a public defender when Kamala was DA. (And if you know anything about local court politics, you know DA's and Public defenders often do not exactly see eye to eye).

source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2020/08/10/kamala-harris-progressive-pioneer-san-francisco-da-column/3334668001/

Marijuana sales cases were routinely reduced to misdemeanors. And marijuana possession cases were not even on the court’s docket. They were simply not charged. Unless there was a large grow case, or a unique circumstance, this was the reform-minded approach then-DA Harris’ office took. The accusations about marijuana prosecutions being harsh during her tenure are absurd. The reality was quite the opposite.

Other quotes from Solis:

“Sen. Harris’ progressive approach did not end with marijuana prosecutions or lack thereof. She co-founded the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids. She then spearheaded a task force combating the human trafficking of girls. Upon her invitation, I went to the task force meetings to speak on behalf of one of my juvenile clients. My client, a beautiful teenage girl, had aspirations of joining the military. She was selling her body to earn money when her life was cut short; she was found dead in a San Francisco dumpster. Harris and I talked about my client and the exploitation of young girls happening on a constant basis. Unlike her predecessors, she did something about it. She stopped prosecuting young girls for prostitution — acknowledging that they were victims who needed treatment for trauma and not criminals who needed to be incarcerated.

For those who have heard contrary arguments about Harris’ past work as a prosecutor, rest assured that you are hearing this from someone whose life’s work has been dedicated to the cause of equality and justice. I am the chair of the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office Racial Justice Committee and have scratched and clawed for some semblance of justice in our courts for well over two decades. I grappled with this idea of defending a former prosecutor for a long time, but Harris is more than that. I have to acknowledge the truth and say what I feel is right to set the record straight. Should Joe Biden decide not to select Kamala Harris as a running mate, her track record as San Francisco district attorney should certainly not be one of the reasons.”

[saveloadreset]

sorry. what's the proof that chara and gaster were alive at the same time? i've never seen anyone talk about this before. Nobody in the larger theory world and gaster fandom talks about when gaster was alive and when chara was alive being the same. but i'm no good at my own theories, i just follow other people's theories. And im used to theories outside of theory mainstream, like gaster having horns or sans being a dead human, being crap. so i was overly wary and hostile. plus was in a bad mood.

Oh man, I remember that horn theory, it was so bad! 

I understand your hesitance, but I think that this is a more grounded theory. I hope I’ll be able to convince you. For clarification, our anon is asking …

WHY I BELIEVE GASTER AND CHARA WERE CONTEMPORARIES

Part One: Gaster

The first thing we must do to build this theory is to try to figure out when exactly Gaster had his accident. We don’t know much, just that he had to have made the CORE sometime before he fell into his creation. It’s my thought that, because he built the CORE, he was likely present while the monsters colonized the rest of the underground after leaving what would become the RUINS.

My reasoning being; NEW HOME itself appears to be built on top of the CORE, and deeply reliant on the power its process generated to keep running smoothly. So I assume that, before the monsters colonized the Underground, Gaster was fine.

Part Two: Chara

Why does this imply that Chara knows Gaster? On a surface level, perhaps it would be easier to suggest that it does not. After all, the residence of HOME has evidence of one child living there, while NEW HOME has evidence of two.

As you can see, in HOME we have one chair for a child, and in NEW HOME we have two chairs for a child. This does imply quite strongly that only Asriel lived in HOME.

The beds in here seem to suggest the same. But, there’s something odd about this, actually. There’s something that exists in HOME that shouldn’t exist there, unless Chara had already fallen. 

You can’t reach the object in HOME, at least not to look at it. There’s a box of shoes in the way. But you can still see it pretty clearly, the picture of a golden flower. Perfect mirror of the one in NEW HOME. The one that Chara drew with their own hands. 

Clearly these designs were made to mirror each other, but I’d gently remind everyone that the HOME design was created FIRST, in the demo. Toby always knew that flower was gonna be there. If you assume that the importance of the golden flowers were already known to him … and considering the odd weight those flowers are given, that seems likely … Then that art would HAVE to have come after Chara’s fall.

Could Toriel have come back and hung it up? Maybe, but it feels a little curious, as far as compulsions go, to take a keepsake from a lost child and hang it up in a room that they don’t appear to have slept it. It feels a little more believable to me to think that Chara drew this picture for Asriel, and that he hung it up on his wall, considering how important it is that Golden Flowers never even existed in the Underground before. They could only come from Chara’s imagination. 

I take this (among other hints I’ll get too later) to imply that Chara fell and spent some time in the RUINS, but maybe not a lot of time, and maybe they did not spend that time living with the Dreemurrs as their adopted child.

By itself this is piecemeal though. What really made me think of this theory were a few things we learned in Snowdin …

Let’s go back to history class … By which I mean, ‘books, lots and lots of books.’

Here’s what we find in Toriel’s house. Straightforward. Nothing here we didn’t know already. They were afraid of humans, so they retreated. Nothing weird about that. But again, I said Snowdin was what set my brain on fire. What did I learn there?

This appears to be a continuation of the original monster history!

… But why does it say part 4? Parts two and three do not exist, either in game or in the strings. Whatever events led into this, UNDERTALE is being very deliberately mum about it. Even asking the shopkeeper bunny will have her brush it off and jump ahead to when Snowdin was founded. It’s a mystery to everyone.

But we do know the result of Parts 2&3. ‘Fearing humans no longer.’

Monsters went from fearing the retribution of humans terribly to being comfortable leaving the comfort of the RUINS and their defensive door, running up and settling the very EDGE of the barrier. Something took away their fear of humans.

So. Let’s brainstorm. Did they suddenly find themselves unafraid of humans because now they could fight back? I don’t know, it feels like if they had discovered an anti-human superweapon back then, we would have encountered it over our adventures, pacifist or otherwise, and Mettaton is a VERY recent invention.

So. They don’t have tools to stop humans or deal with humans. And yet they don’t fear humans? What could cause this? If humans still have the same destructive power over them, and they can’t circumvent that, what gave them that comfort, that reassurance? Did they think that they could coexist with humans, somehow?

We KNOW that Asgore didn’t think that at first. Gerson makes it very clear that he and Asgore had a very clear idea of what humanity would do to them, given the chance. (Forgive me for not having screenshots of this! I gotta use the strings)

* Long ago, ASGORE and I agreed that escaping would be pointless…* Since once we left, humans would just kill us.* I felt a little betrayed when he eventually changed his mind.* But now, I think…* Maybe he was right to.* ‘Cause after all, even though we never escaped…* A human’s killing us anyway,  ain’t that right?

That’s a pretty radical shift in attitude! What could possible cause it? What changed that led Asgore to believe in …

… the future of humans and monsters?

You might think that it’s a little much for me to imagine that the monster history would deliberately include Chara’s story into their chapters. But here’s the thing . ..  in a way, they do. There are other chapters of monster history that are less commonly seen.

In the interest of full disclosure, these monster history chapters I am about to show you are NOT accessible from inside the game, and must be accessed through datamining. Therefore, their canon status IS debatable. However, most of the information contained herein is already included as canon in the game, from different sources. 

Monster History 5 - Absent

Monster History 6

* (It’s a book labelled Monster History Part 6.)* Unfortunately, monsters are not experienced with illness.* However, when monsters are about to expire of age, they lie down, immobile.* We call this state “Fallen Down.“* A person who has Fallen Down will soon perish.* In a way, this confusing situation was all too familiar.

Monster History 7

* (It’s a book labelled Monster History Part 7.)* When a human dies, its soul remains stable outside the body.* Meanwhile, a monster’s soul disappears near-instantly upon death.* This allows monsters to absorb the souls of humans…* While it is extremely difficult for humans to absorb a monster’s soul.* This is why they feared us.* Though monsters are weak, with enough human souls…* They could easily destroy all of mankind.

Monster History 8

* (It’s a book labelled Monster History Part 8.)* There is one exception to the aforementioned rules:* A certain type of monster, the “boss” monster.* Due to its life cycle, it possesses an incredibly strong soul for a monster.* This soul can remain stable after death, if only for a few moments.

I would give these ‘dead’ entries less credit, were they not almost identical to what we learn of humans and monsters and the story of Chara and Asriel later. It feels like most of the reason that these books do not exist in the world is that there were better ways for Toby to tell this story …

But told like this, if we assume that these entries are reliable to the canon, (and I acknowledge that is up for debate), then we actually have a fairly clear timeline, and can get a firm idea on what the progression of monster history was across these tomes.

1: Monsters retreat into the underground and settle HOME.2&3: Chara arrives.4: Monsters leave and settle the rest of the underground.5: Chara falls ill.6-8: Explanation of the behavior of (dead) human SOULs and SOULs in general.

For these reasons I believe that Chara first fell before the monsters moved out to colonize the rest of the Underground.  In fact, I think that Chara may have provided the impetus for that decision.

Conclusion

This is going to be the shortest of the segments, because all this is is about putting the conclusions from the other parts together. If we take the conclusion that A: Chara fell before colonization, and B: Gaster had time to build the core before his accident, then Chara and Gaster were DEFINITELY around at the same time.

What’s more, since Gaster was the royal scientist and Chara was deeply involved with the royal family, it would shock me immensely if the two were not aware of each other.