#systematic xenophobia

[yourlocalshapeshifter]

Me as Hamlet: “O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have no legal rights”

Me as GenZ Hamlet on tumblr: “god made me queer and an immigrant because if my legal status went unchecked I would have bested him in hand to hand combat by age 16”

[michaelhholden]

¡500 posts!

[angelicreprobate]

Literally fuck anti-money laundering (AML) legislation and the assholes who put it in place.

I can't get a fucking bank account in the UK because I don't have 'proof of address'. Yeah, and I can't get 'proof of address' until I can pay a bill or rent a place. Both of which need me to have a fucking bank account. Can't even have a phone contract until three months in so they can have credit history. Which I can't get until I have a bank account. Like oh no, if I bounce on $17 a month that's really gonna cripple the big telco and contribute to money laundering.

If push comes to shove, I can probably get my name on a utility bill for someone I know in the UK. But how many people don't have that option open to them? The fuck do you do if you have nothing open to you? How many people has this xenophobic system fucked over? And does that not seem like it's actually the sort of shit you don't want to be encouraging? Like the fact it might end up being my only option seems contrary to the spirit of AML legislation.

AML legislation is a piece of law thought up by upper-class pricks who can't fathom ever having to prove they aren't a criminal. I wish them a very merry die.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

"THERE'S NO MENTAL HEALTH UNDER BOMBING AND COLONIAL OCCUPATION": Open letter from Brazilian psychology associations calling for an end to the violence against the Palestinian people

We call on all people, the international community, especially mental health professionals, to work towards a non-violent and definitive solution to the ongoing conflict, to take concrete actions for an immediate ceasefire in the area, and for the ending of the brutal colonialism in place. We also emphasize the importance of opening the borders to humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.

In these last days, Israel’s brutal and cruel bombing in the Gaza Strip – a territory that has been besieged by Israel for the last 17 years – has resulted in  the deaths of more than 8,000 Palestinian (including more than 3,400 children), and more than 20,000 injured people. Alongside, millions of people have been forcibly displaced and deprived of basic needs (PRCS, 2023)[1].

However, the figures fail to represent the current reality, as the death toll and injuries rise second by second.Israeli air strikes destroyed more than half of Palestinian residences, besides deliberate attacks on hospitals, schools and universities, erupting a massive humanitarian crisis.

We also condemn and deplore the violence against Israeli civilians, victims of Hamas’ violent retaliation, especially because it has affected innocent people, many of whom are still kidnapped.

Recent statements released by an official representative of the Israeli governmentrefered to Palestinian people as “human animals”[2]. Accordingly, the entire Gaza population  be held like hostages, through a complete blockade of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicines. Israel very recently blocked access to internet signals, isolating Gaza from the rest of world. (MSF, 2023)[3]

The collective punishing of innocent people constitutes a war crime and, hence, must be strongly condemned. (ICRC, 2022).[4] We consider that Israeli government pronouncements have amplified the racist ideology, relying on international impunity and compliance. Xenophobia reinforcement turns migrants, refugees and stateless people – not just Palestinians – the main victims of the dehumanising discourse.

It’s crucial to keep an eye on what’s going on in Gaza: 2.2 million people – most of whom were already displaced migrants from historic Palestinian territories irregularly occupied by Israel – have been living in an open-air prison for 17 years[5]. Israel determines what comes in and out of Gaza: people, energy, food, medicine, fuel and humanitarian aid. Whole families have their homes destroyed by bombings, children are born and die surrounded by walls, and their national identity and existence as a people have been denied for decades.

The systematic ethnic cleansing of a walls-confined population living under a military siege by air, land and sea is undoubtedly a horrendous crime.. The colonial measure imposed on this population, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and other parts of historic Palestine, has already produced 6.1 million Palestinian refugees (UNRWA, 2023)[6].

While witnessing the unacceptable thousands of deaths, we note with concern the harassment and attempt to silence supports of Palestinian rights. Under any circumstance, it should be acceptable to persecute those who denounce the existence of stateless people living in apartheid conditions.

These claims are incontestable. The UN Human Rights Council 2022[7] presented a report pointing out 3 essential elements: Palestine is strictly an open-air prison, the largest prison in the world; there is an apartheid regime throughout Palestine; and some aspects of everyday life in Gaza share similarities to a concentration camp. None of this began on the 7th of October 2023. There is nothing new except for the intensification of war propaganda against the Palestinian people. That can be named as Media Genocide, which is the intentional elimination of a people through war propaganda and, the circulation of false news and narratives.

The Palestinian struggle is also a struggle to be waged in Brazil.. We perceive the Palestinian tragedy as deeply connected to the war against the poor, Black people and traditional communities in our country. The same logic of racial and ethnic supremacy relies on Brazilian whiteness, which justifies police incursions into favelas systematically murdering Black people including children, teenagers and young people. It is important to emphasise that there are numerous agreements between the Brazilian security forces and the Israeli armed forces, with Brazil being one of the biggest markets of Israel’s arms industry[8]. Israeli ammunition finds Black and peripheral Brazilian bodies.

The supremacist rhetoric of brutalisation and dehumanisation has historically been denounced by the Black movement in Brazil, for example in the context of the former South African apartheid regime and also in international solidarity actions for the Palestinian people. Black liberation movements have also experienced the ideological condemnation of their freedom efforts, which were labelled under the rubric of “terrorists”. The dehumanisation of Black people is also the dehumanisation of the Arab people, a violence consolidated by the whiteness global alliance and its genocide and ethnocide practice.

THE SOCIAL COMMITMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IN DEFENSE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

We, as psychologists committed to every human life’s dignity, guided by the Fundamental Principles of our Ethic Code, urge for a radical commitment to the anti-racist and anti-genocide struggle, which is connected to the ethical and political duty of psychology.

We call on our professional category and psychology students to bravely tackle this issue affecting the whole world. A call to fulfill  our ethical duty to uphold human dignity, by keeping a critical distance from war propaganda and demanding humane and dignified relations throughout all the ongoing situations.

Almost every child or teenager in Gaza has been born in a state of segregation, a situation that combined with constant attacks, and the side effects of the siege and occupation has been triggering severe psychological distress and psychiatric disorders[9]. The colonial and apartheid regime imposed on Palestinians, described in six reports released by United Nations and recognised by several humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International,  are social determinants of mental health deterioration.[10].

Therefore, a historical analysis of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, the Nakba effects and the 1948 catastrophe is essential. Psychology, as a science and a profession, must reject superficial or improper analyses in this sense. We criticize institutions and associations in the mental health field whose statements endorse the dehumanising rhetoric worldwide spread. For instance, the APA declaration[11] neglected the Palestinian historical context, disregardingthe violence imposed on the besieged Gaza population. There is no mention of the terrible bombing of the small enclave [a territory or part of a territory surrounded by another state] affecting Palestinians in an incomparable way to Israelis. We consider that these statements[12] ignore contingencies such as precarious mental health, besides amplifying the collective trauma resulting from decades of oppression, continuous violence, humiliation and injustice inflicted by Israel’s occupation.

Politics and mental health cannot be dichotomised. One cannot analyse the occupation of Palestine without examining the strategies of dehumanisation, and the stripping of dignity and life of the Palestinian people.

The dehumanisation of Palestinian lives – whether in deeds or speeches – normalises Palestinian suffering, as if it was natural, obvious and impossible to stop. Palestinians have been vocalising their suffering for decades and pleading for visibility to the international community. They do so in countless non-violent ways: resisting every minute, every second, to avoid disappearing. They produce art, music, and poetry. They cultivate and care for their original land and territory.

Until we see a Palestine free of Israeli colonial domination, no number of bombs will extinguish the innate desire to live with dignity. In this way, the Palestinian resistance is incurable, quoting Mahmoud Darwish.

As psychologists, we understand and accept the historic call to stand alongside the Palestinian people. The complicity with mass genocide, ethnic cleansing and the murder of children in particular, shall not be in our name.

We condemn the system of segregation, discrimination and collective punishment imposed on Palestine. There is an urgent need to build peace, which only comes through the consolidation of the Palestinian State and establishing a regime that respects the universal rights of all those who live in the region.

The Palestinian people – like all people in their self-determination – need to be able to exist beyond the imposed walls, the barbed wires, the refugee camps and all the dehumanisation: they need to be able to make their contribution to the beautiful story, yet to be built, of collective emancipation and the development of the humankind.

Link to the letter.

Link if you wish to sign it.

[zumurruds]

talk about laurent the way laurent fans talk about damen

oh, this is going to be fun!

"i have to get this meta off my chest, because the way laurent fans interpet his character is upsetting - they want to erase his shortcomings and make him boring, when the only thing interesting about him is his flaws :/ first and foremost pacat wrote laurent intentionally as a white supremacist, and we're not supposed to sympethize with him. he represents privilege, patriarchy, prejudice, classism, feudalism, misogyny, narcissism, xenophobia, toxicity, abuse, mesopedia, colonialization, racism and in fact all the -isms you can think of. he's the ultimate white slave master archetype, and people who like and sympathize with him are doing it wrong. when we're first introduced to laurent, he's a parallel to the regent. they're mirror villains. they're both second sons who use their intellect for evil, and love wielding rape as a punishment. they both exist to uphold the systems of sexual abuse, patriarchy and white male supremacy, and sadistically relish in the control they have over others.

laurent fans love to forget that he is a blood purist: he hates all illegimate children, despite their birth being out of their control. the way laurent calls innocent children "bastards" throughout the books, and genuinely thinks they "curse the line, and sour the milk, ruin the crops, and drag the sun out of the sky" is horrific and backwards, and only furthers the harmful patriarchal ideals of blood purity and legitimacy. laurent literally prioritizes marital status over individual worth and i never see any of his fans talk about it. i love how pacat intentionally wrote laurent and all veretians upholding systematic inequality and social exclusion, unjustly burdening innocent children with shame and psychological distress. it really makes his villainous character so interesting and layered...

but burdening innocent children with pyschological distress isn't new to laurent, seeing as he unapologetically bullies and manipulates an impoverished, lowborn child (nicaise) who is being sexually abused by his uncle, and is ultimately responsible for his death. he also later tells damen that it is better for a veretian pedophile (the regent) to rape and sexually exploit nicaise, than to be a slave in akielos, where every slave in akielos is of age, and according to the author, consents to being in a "safe space for erotic escapism: the slaves are chosen because they have pre-existing submissive tendencies, and the masters are culturally bount to treat them well. [a slave's] desire to submit is in no way a pro-slavery argument." source, source. when laurent is crowned king, he does not abolish the pet system that victimized children like nicaise in the first place, further compounding his hatred for children and other victims of abuse. we love a villain who turns into the very thing that he feared most!

i also love the way pacat exposed laurent's misogyny in the series... veretian men aren't allowed to spend time with women becaues it's forbidden, isolating them from the opposite sex, which really manifests in laurent in disturbing ways. in prince's gambit, his misogyny comes to a forefront when he bribes a poor lowborn woman who cannot refuse a prince's order to give govart, a known violent rapist, oral sex, knowing exactly how govart abuses his "partners"... and then when laurent is hiding in the brothel with damen, he commands prostitutes to have sex with damen against his will, treating both the women and damen like sex objects without any regard for what they want or feel, reinforcing to readers that he's a sociopath with toxic masculinity due to his obsessive need to dominate and control others sexually.

laurent also wants to indescriminately annihilate every akielon off the face of the earth, playing a game of "kill all the Akielons and restore the old empire" with auguste as early as childhood. this deep-seated racism and prejudice informs the way he abuses, rapes and tortures damen in the books, and how he sadistically treats all the akielon slaves in the series. he doesn't give a shit about them at all, and is only coerced to help them after he is bribed to by damen. when damen confronts laurent's gaurds about letting govart rape erasmus, laurent's response was: "The Prince's Gaurd doesn't intefere with the Regency. Govart can stick his cock into anything of my uncle's he likes", displaying a callous disregard for the well-being and dignity of others, as well as a troubling acceptance of abuse and exploitation within his own ranks. it doesn't only stop in the first book, this is a patterned behavior that continues into kings rising, where laurent forces a poor slave, isander, to kneel and kiss his boots in order to humiliate him and anger other akielons, and then forces isander to serve and feed him against his will, establishing his white supremacy in the books.

laurent fans love to erase the fact that he's a black-and-white thinker, possibly the most black-and-white thinker lacking any nuance in the whole series. he genuinely believes someone being killed in battle means they were murdered in cold blood, and not defending their country. he believes anyone who does this deserves to be raped, tortured and killed, despite the fact that he and auguste have also killed people in battle, and by this logic, deserve to be raped, tortured and killed by those fallen soldier's family members too. he's a hypocrite, and his fans who try to pretend he's a "good person" are completely missing the point of the series, which is a critique on the white, mediocre, blond, evil character trope like lestat, draco, etc.

laurent fans love to focus on his "trauma" and make it his entire personality, which is annoying because he doesn't really have trauma, he's just spoiled and privileged. in fact, he actually loved the regent and enjoyed their relationship, and only started hating him because the regent left him for a prettier person. stop being petty laurent! i also find it amusing how laurent keeps playing his uncle's game and believes he won't kill laurent despite years of his uncle openly trying to do just that... laurent's blind trust and love for his family is a huge character flaw that should definitely be held against him. he's super dumb and the most oblivious character in the series, like seriously a kindergartner could see that the regent is bad and would try to kill him.

it's so obvious that pacat meant to write laurent as a villain who has gone off the deep end, and must attone for his crimes against damen and others by attempting to kill himself in king's rising, and when that is foiled by damen's heroic efforts, makes laurent promise to atone to damen for the rest of his life in the summer palace because that's the only way to rehabilitate and redeem a character like laurent whose sole purpose in the books is to offer a scathing critique of white supremacy and toxic abusers.

anyways, i obviously love laurent and understand his character better than anyone else, and it's really weird that his fans try to erase his flaws because they are doing laurent a disservice and making his character boring, because his villainy is the only thing that is interesting about him. in fact, if you write any positive post about laurent and DON'T preface it with how much he is a villainous slave-owner and bad person, then you really don't love or understand laurent, and are endorsing every bad thing he does. muah send post xoxo #meta #characteranalysis #villainlaurent #canon."

the way laurent fans would be shitting bricks, puking, moaning, crying, etc if damen fans posted "character analysis" like this under the guise of "loving his character" every 5 minutes in the tags the way they do about damen is hilarious. they'll put genuine effort into trying to undestand laurent's background and motives, and give laurent endless grace and approach his character with nuance, but with damen they're hellbent on twisting his character, motives and background with the intent of villifying him and making him out to be something he's not. the amount of victim-blaming, bad faith takes, mental gymnastics, and full-blown racism i've seen laurent fans engage in while making these "analyses" of damen is genuinely disturbing, moreso because nobody in their own circles are willing to call it out. instead, they try to gaslight everyone and deflect by claiming its canon and attack anyone else who doesn't share the same toxic hive mind. anyone can write bad faith takes, but it certainly doesn't make it valid.

every single damen fan i've met likes laurent, but every single person who makes loving laurent their only personality trait seems truly resentful and bitter towards damen's character and constantly feel the need to willfully misinterpret his character to make up for laurent's flaws. instead of enjoying both characters separately, they turn it into a competition of morality, attempting to make damen out to be the ignorant bad guy who needs laurent to rehabilitate him, while portraying laurent as the true voice of morality, compassion and modernity in the books. the old fandom trend of trying to make the "noble, heroic" character (pacat's words, not mine) really the bad guy of the series, and laurent the "true good one who must teach damen right from wrong" is so tired and boring. do better, guys.

[qqueenofhades]

I’m learning so much from you today but it’s so weird because in school (I’m British by the way) we learned very little about recent British history but one of the few things we were told is that the Queen has no real power and she was pretty much just a ceremonial figure head they bring out for special occasions. I think that’s very odd. Also, I’m finding out today why we weren’t taught much about our own history.

You're welcome. As a person who did their PhD in a UK university and taught in the history department at said university: my freshmen students would come into class having studied the Tudors, the Industrial Revolution/Victorians, and World War II (where Churchill saved the world!) during their time in secondary school, and that was it. That was the only thing they knew about British history, their own past, or anything else in the premodern era. I have written about the British penchant for "imperial nostalgia" before, where the country still largely thinks that the British Empire was actually a good thing, and how this rampant, embedded, and systematically unexamined xenophobia and sense of British exceptionalism gave way to Brexit.

Likewise, of course it's useful for them to teach you that the Queen is "apolitical" and "doesn't have a role in government" and "just has to follow the advice of her ministers." On that topic particularly, I advise you to read the entire investigative series on "Queen's consent" that The Guardian did, which explored how her political power was used in direct, secretive, and extensive ways to benefit herself and her family, including personal exemptions from pretty much any law, taxation, or civil rights requirement that she damn well pleased.

[metanarrates]

i don't talk about growing up in a cult too often on here because it IS quite personal but I will reiterate as I have done before that cults are usually an intensification of every other mechanism of societal control. misogyny + bioessentialism + patriarchy + everything that goes into rape culture is the most prevalent, but any form of financial control, wealth + housing inequality, familial control, ageism, community policing, ACTUAL fucking policing depending on cult, racism, xenophobia...

very little in a cult is unique to cults. even the more obvious cult aspects (cult leader worship, community pressure and groupthink, lovebombing, demonization of outsiders, ostracization/scapegoating) are not uncommon in lower levels in outside communities! a cult simply intensifies those aspects of how communities can work.

a cult leader, as far as I can tell, is simply someone who has figured out how to exploit and intensify systems of control that broader society already engages in, and who uses that to prey on those who society has left the most vulnerable. it is further systematization of already systemic issues. yes, of course there's more shit that goes into it, but I find it important to talk about how cults are not some external Other. to treat them as such further isolates victims, and sensationalizes the very real abuse we have faced.

a cult is frequently the strongest, most intense outgrowth of a controlling society. its victims are just like you. don't forget that.

[felis-artis]

What is Fireheart like jn this rewrite

In a simple way? Naïve. He doesn't understand what stalks his vigil, and when it pounces? The venom sinks deep into his bones.

He and his littermate Tiny were adopted to the same home, and they grew close. When Wildfire dies, Crowtongue loses a part of himself he wants back.

Wildfire does a lot of different things in his life. He advocated for half-clanners rights, and pushed for less systematic xenophobia within the clans. He was often pitted against Prairieclaw in ideology, but not as liberal as Bluestar.

This all blows up in everyone's faces. It turns out that peaceful political debate was not what Prairieclaw wanted.

Timberstrike captures Wildfire later on, and executes him at a Gathering upon becoming the Vigil of Shadow's leader. He laughs that the Vigil of Thunder will pay for exiling him, when he was just sharing his political opinions with Bluestar.

(As a side note, Bluestar actually starts to accidentally destabilize her vigil after this, in a desperate panic to figure out what Timberstar had told the Vigil of Shadows.)

Wildfire's life was valuable, for their great diplomatic skills, but their death pushed a message.

[pwecie]

Hello everybody, before I start this, I need to preface everything that I’m about to say with some facts

My maternal grandfather is Palestinian, he has also lived in Israel.

My uncle fought in Afghanistan against terrorists.

Because of these, I feel like it’s important to clear up some misconceptions about the events going on.

Number 1: Israel’s primary target is Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Hamas has taken Israeli hostages who are just innocent citizens and have no connection to the fighting.

Number 2: It is very realistic that Israel is not all that innocent themselves, as my grandfather has told me stories of anti-Palestinian behavior within Israel that resulted in the death of a family member.

Number 3: Any organization that aids to help the people of Palestine is good, unless that funding or the actions of that organization aid Hamas as Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Number 4: The definition of Zionism is “the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.” The definition does not mention Palestine specifically or any hate to other nation as the term was coined in 1897, long before the formation of Israel.

Number 5: Zionism became popularized around the end of World War 2 in 1945, and the nation of Israel was founded 3 years later in 1948, probably because Jewish people wanted to feel safe and a sense of community after the mass genocide of Jews during the Holocaust.

Number 6: People are incorrectly using the term Zionism as the “dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.” Which is actually the definition of Xenophobia.

If you really cared about the war in Gaza, then you wouldn’t be picking either Israel or Palestine specifically. You would be on the side of the people unrelated to this conflict that are suffering from the actions of corrupt Israeli soldiers and the terrorist organization Hamas. Do not support Hamas. do not support Xenophobia. Do not support Islamophobia. Do not support Antisemitism. Practice media literacy. Do your research on organizations that donate and make sure they don’t support terrorism or corruption. Posting an Israeli or Palestinian flag on your social media doesn’t do jack shit, especially when all the information you have on the situation comes from social media blogs that are tailored to give incomplete or false information to specific demographics. This situation is not black and white. We have a responsibility to protect innocent humans. Not nations, not ideals, innocent human beings.

I will be doing research and providing organizations that you can donate to that solely support affected people and not terrorism. I don’t care if you block me, but at last dig deeper and educate yourself, but if you attack me or send people to attack me, saying that I’m a zionist, terrorist, or anything under the sun without reading the entire post, then you are part of the problem.

Edit: I want to reiterate, while Israel has every right to want to fuck up Hamas six ways to Sunday, it is SO EXTREMELY and HIGHLY REALISTIC that war crimes have been committed by select individuals within the Israeli military. I cannot ignore these instances. While the war on terrorism is just, systematic Xenophobia does exist within Israel, which resulted in the death of my grandfather’s sister, or at the very least she received less priority with her medical care within an Israeli hospital. This whole post is neither a defense of Israel or Palestine and I cannot pick sides because of my family background being related to both a Palestinian AND a Nazi from WW2 (I didn’t include that in the beginning because I felt people would just read “Nazi” and shut my whole argument down on just that one factor). I have a moral obligation to make sure the genocide of Jewish people never happens again, but also to support my grandfather and his people overseas. My only purpose is to reiterate that this situation is not good-side bad-side, black or white. My goal here is to inform people of the history surrounding the situation and correct any misinformation. Which there is a lot of holy crap. My heart goes out to all the families within or related to those of the Gaza Strip, as well as Israeli families and individuals who have been affected by terrorism.

[plain-white-knuckles]

I've returned from thesis-writing-hiatus to say one thing:

I'm so incredibly ashamed of the German government. I went to high-school for 8 years, 4 of which we spend most of history class talking about the Drittes Reich, Hitler and the Holocaust. My grandpa was in the Hitler Jugend as a child. His dad died somewhere in Russia fighting for Hilter. My Polish grandma told my mom stories about how the Germans devastated the Polish people during WW2. I am very well aware of my German heritage and rightfully so are most of us Germans. We've been taught about the unforgivable acts our ancestors have committed against the Jewish people and we are aware of the xenophobia still taking place in Germany today. And I am all for keeping this knowledge alive in each new generation for the purpose of never forgetting what people, regular ass human beings, are capable of doing.

The German representatives at the UN have chosen to not vote for the ceasefire that almost all countries of the world are asking from the Israeli government. And I cannot fucking fathom this. I'm ashamed. So goddamm ashamed. Us Germans, after what our ancestors have done to the Jewish people, as a result of them commiting a GENOCIDE, we have an obligation to forever be the first ones to get involved when we see someone else committing the exact same heinous crime! How can our politicians and parts of our people think that the main lesson from the Holocaust for us Germans needs to be: "Never again criticise or hold accoutable any Jewish person ever again for anything they do because of our past." When the ONLY lesson we should have learned from this devastating crime should be: "We can never ever again let this happen. We need to be the first ones to call it out. We owe this to every single person that was killed during the Holocaust. So that no human being has to suffer throught this again".

I understand that us Germans feel the guilt. We all know what we did to the Jewish people and that these actions can never be forgiven. However, we cannot let this guilt be the reason to stay neutral right now. It cannot justify us watching on as thousands of human beings are being slaughtered by the Israeli government and military in the present day. They are actively murdering civilians. They are systematically destroying the health care system in Gaza. And they are not even trying to hide those atrocities from the world. It's a genocide they're commiting right now. And it's well past time to start believing that.

Again, I can't put into words how disgusted and embarrassed and ashamed I am that many of our German representatives are acting like spinless cowards. Yes the matter is complex. Yes there's been death and destruction on both sides. However, only one side is currently invested in eradicating an entire people from existence. They don't want anyone to survive this! Call it what it is. We owe it to every person that died by our peopels hands nearly a centuries ago. And for every person alive in Palestine right now scared to death that each moment could be their last.

[skelltan]

was takano right? (spoilers for the original 8 chapters of the higurashi vn)

when i was playing higurashi, my mind went a million places trying to solve the mystery, and one of those places was in the political realm

from fairly early on, i thought of the exclusion of keichi as an outsider and himinazawa's general hatred of outsiders as perhaps some sort of commentary on xenophobia, or their strong community as some bizarre commentary on communism, and of course the dam conflict gave me a lot of thoughts

however, i thought a lot of those were pretty big stretches... until matsuribayashi. obviously, matsuribayashi, being the climax of the story and having the contents that it does, deals a LOT with politics and made me re-evaluate just how valid my wild thoughts were. (explicit spoilers below)

in the prior chapter, minagoroshi, keichi gets the help of everyone he can to enforce systematic change for the better. if you have literally any understanding of politics, it's pretty easy to draw comparisons toward movements which revolve around banding together to create systematic change, the most obvious of which being communism.

i thought the strong emphasis on community and conflict with the government in prior chapters was already pretty communist-coded (down to communist ideology being briefly mentioned in himatsubushi), but minagoroshi and matsuribayashi helped exacerbate that feeling for me in the ways i mentioned, but one thing remained - if they were so community minded, why were they xenophobic?

this brings me to hinamizawa syndrome. again, pretty obviously if you've finished the vn, it's the reason why everyone suddenly grows hostile towards those they deem suspicious and a lot of the supernatural lore behind hinamizawa. but what was hifumi's theory?

that hinamizawa syndrome effects the ideology of people.

so, consider... we have a village that's pretty community minded, but because of an external factor, this mindset can be instantly shattered and turned into an environment of suspicion and disdain of outsiders.

i dunno about you, but to me this sounds similar to how leftists can all have an ideology centered on building and supporting community, but then external factors - such as leftist infighting, or sabotage from a higher level - can kneecap leftist efforts so easily.

again, if you are politically-minded, you've seen it! from russia down to obnoxious online leftists, and the numerous US efforts against communism, it's an ideology that is always under pressure from external factors.

so, i think hifumi might've been onto something about ideologies being influenced by hinamizawa syndrome, if we are to view it as a metaphor.

i don't think ryukishi necessarily is the biggest communist ever or that in the end higurashi is actually all about communism, but i thought it was a pretty interesting read on the story from various fragments (no pun intended) that i had floating around in my head, with some being pretty integral to the story itself.

but thats just a theory..... a game theory...... thanks for reading

[dastardly-lemondrops]

I actually really love the headcanon that there is a larger magic population of the UK than the one served by Hogwarts and acknowledged by text. The implication that there are magical people alienated by the ministry is imo pretty realistic. That there is systematic prejudice and wilful ignorance of certain magical populations based in the UK and how classism, racism, and xenophobia play into that. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. Fandom is escapism for people, and it's valid that for many people, that means writing about a world where those things aren't present. For me, it means writing a world where those problems exist but giving the main characters ways to fight back against them. That's a big point of catharsis for me when I'm writing/enjoying fanfiction. Maybe it's similar to the found family trope, but I love the idea of magical people who are systematically alienated finding eachother and finding power in those connections.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

After suffering a set of embarrassing defeats in last year’s elections, Michigan Republicans tapped their worst-performing statewide candidate, Kristina Karamo, to lead them back to relevance in 2024 as state party chair.

Unsurprisingly, however, Karamo—who once accused Beyoncé of spreading paganism and believes demonic possession is “real”—is already doubling down on the far-right rhetoric that doomed her own campaign for Secretary of State in 2022.

Speaking at a party function on May 17, Karamo laughed off concerns about a tweet from the Michigan GOP that invoked the Holocaust to condemn gun control measures, according to audio obtained by The Daily Beast.

The tweet amplified the popular right-wing argument that the Nazis’ campaign of systematic mass murder was possible because of gun ownership restrictions. On top of an image of wedding rings left behind by murdered Jews, the Michigan GOP tweet reads: “Before they collected all these wedding rings… they collected all the guns.”

Figures in both parties criticized the tweet as an offensive trivialization of the Holocaust; the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition called it “absolutely inappropriate” and called on the Michigan GOP to take it down “immediately.”

In her remarks at the Lincoln Day dinner in Montcalm County, Karamo made clear she did not care about such concerns—even dismissing the continued anger over the tweet “hilarious, completely hilarious.”

“They’re still going on and on about that,” she continued. “‘Are you going to apologize?’ I’m like really, are you guys still going on about this?”

Referencing her identity as a Black woman, Karamo said, “I get this mail and it’s about how I’m encouraging white supremacy and xenophobia all this… I just laugh so hard.”

In her remarks, however, Karamo may have unintentionally laid bare how she, and a significant portion of the party base, views the role of firearms.

“Us being armed is not about stopping a burglar,” she said. “It’s not about hunting. It’s about stopping a tyrannical government. And if you know a thing or two about history, we know that governments have a tendency to be very abusive to the citizenry.”

Mentioning “basic things like history” on several occasions to defend the Holocaust meme, Karamo also depicted Democratic opposition as “very violent” and “Godless people.”

For Michigan Republicans, if their chair’s fringe style prevails, it’ll likely point to more embarrassing defeats in 2024 for a once-proud party organization. That outcome would have national implications: Michigan is not only a crucial battleground in the 2024 presidential race, but will host an open-seat U.S. Senate contest that could help decide the majority in that chamber.

But as Karamo’s career trajectory shows, in today’s GOP, election blowouts are no impediment to personal success for rising MAGA leaders.

After a failed run for local office in 2018, Karamo rose to prominence after serving as a poll watcher in Michigan during the 2020 election and pushing conspiratorial claims of widespread voter fraud and illegal voting.

With a newfound platform, she would go on to claim the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was a “false flag” operation and to speculate that Michigan was the epicenter of “The Great Reset,” a spinoff COVID conspiracy theory positing that the World Economic Forum fabricated the pandemic to install a global government. Wackier still were her repeated claims that modern concepts like evolution are demonic scams, or that abortion is akin to pagan sacrifice.

Such comments helped Karamo win the GOP nomination for Secretary of State in 2022. After a conspiracy-laden campaign, she lost to Democrat Jocelyn Benson by 14 points, practically a blowout in evenly divided Michigan.

But her ascension to Michigan GOP chair just months later demonstrated that Karamo had figured out the incentive structure of a party reshaped by former President Donald Trump. Pushing all manner of conspiracy theories, she capitalized on the MAGA base’s appetite for more extreme rhetoric and a distrust of institutions above all else—including the imperative to win elections.

As The Daily Beast previously reported, Michigan Democrats have been surprised by the dearth of top-tier Republican recruits in their state. Right-wing media personality Tudor Dixon, the 2022 challenger to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, lost by nearly 11 points after running a campaign focused much more on culture war issues, such as transgender women in sports, than economic ones such as inflation.

A leaked memo from within the Michigan GOP following the 2022 losses lamented that Dixon had “no statewide operation” and called for changes at the top of the party.

“There were more ads on transgender sports than inflation, gas prices and bread and butter issues that could have swayed independent voters,” the memo stated. “Voters simply didn’t like what Tudor was selling.”

Beyond concerns about Republicans being able to compete statewide, conservatives who have drifted away from the GOP worry the problem runs much deeper.

Once a mighty force and a winning machine, the Michigan GOP is now considered a national bastion of extremism, in a state which was quickly becoming a hotbed of far-right militia activity even before the 2020 election.

“It’s dangerous and it’s concerning, because there’s been some very famous violent actions and threats of violence from some of these militia extremist groups, but we’re seeing not just dotted lines or offshoots, but direct connections between those same groups and the Michigan Republican Party,” said former Michigan GOP chair Jeff Timmer, who’s since become a vehement critic of the party.

Karamo’s rhetoric, Timmer told The Daily Beast, “is becoming very alarming, talking about citizens taking up arms against the government, like we saw on January 6th.”

It’s hardly just the party chair espousing such rhetoric, too—ambitious Michigan GOP hopefuls running elsewhere are, too.

At a June 5 campaign event, Dean Brandt—who lost a bid for the state legislature last year—presented his run for Allegan County Sheriff as a major opportunity for the Michigan Liberty Militia, one of the groups that sent armed members to take over the state capitol in Lansing in 2020 to protest COVID public health restrictions.

Aside from backing the now-mainstream GOP position of arming school teachers, Brandt also said he wants to deputize members of the militia and bring them on to help the sheriff’s office.

When a member of the crowd told Brandt “the sheriff can deputize anybody in his county”—which is not true—the candidate showed his cards.

“That is exactly why I’ve been asked not to use the word militia, because it targets me,” Brandt said, according to audio obtained by The Daily Beast. “Well, guess what? That target [is] standing right here.”

Brandt made it abundantly clear he’s eager to incorporate the militia into formal law enforcement tasks—or tasks well outside their remit—should he get elected to the job.

“I will deputize as many organized militia members as I can. Period,” Brandt said. “As a community watch. That will have a direct line to me. Any unconstitutional shit that hits the fan. Call me.”

The Michigan GOP and the Brandt campaign did not return requests for comment.

“It’s not just lone wolf action,” Timmer said of extremism in Michigan. “It’s becoming part and parcel of what it means to be in the party.”

[shihalyfie]

I’ve noticed that some of the dub writers have gone on record as saying that some of the changes they made were not because of censorship or network reasons, but rather because they thought it would be “funny” or “better”.

I don't doubt that. Basically, my perception is that of all of the potential answers to what went on in the dubbing process are "all of the above".

This was industry standard, so it was an expectation that this would be the norm for dubbed children's anime, especially because it is true that there was no precedent for more closely translated anime so you could really assume anything about how audiences would take it, especially since even if the kids were open-minded you couldn't necessarily say the same about their parents who get the final say in what they can and can't watch

Saban, the company in charge of the older Digimon dubs, infamously had a very derogatory view of Japanese media and had an aggressive attitude towards pushing dub changes to make it "better" for Western audiences (and the biggest evidence that the company itself had a lot to do with this is that the dub changes drastically toned down once Disney took over dubbing, then shot back up when Saban took it back again for Xros Wars/Fusion)

The networks that aired Digimon wanted it to be localized to their tastes

Even the Japanese companies themselves pushed for aggressive changes to "Americanize" their own content because they were genuinely that convinced it wouldn't catch on stateside otherwise (I don't know if this happened specifically in Digimon's case, but this is actually on the record as having happened for several children's anime dubs such as 4Kids ones)

The dub writers themselves had a dim view of the Japanese script and felt they were making it funnier/improving it

...are all probably true at once. The late nineties and 2000′s were full of systematic racism and xenophobia all over the place. The conviction that "American (or other Western) kids can't handle media that's too Japanese" came from every single direction in every possible place. And for an example of this in the opposite direction, the Japanese Transformers: Beast Wars dub infamously turned what was originally a serious show into a gag dub as well, presumably because they thought the Japanese audience couldn't handle the original content. It’s not really an issue of boring or funny or America or Japan; it’s being xenophobic about any Weird Foreign Thing that comes from another country and being certain it won’t sell unless you “fix” it.

All of it is the same thing: racism, xenophobia, and underestimating kids' ability to be open-minded. Cultural localization is necessary, but beyond that, I honestly believe it would have caught on fine with the kids either way -- but also, I am not sure about the parents, and perhaps it is true it wouldn’t have caught on without all of those changes, if only because parents of that generation were liable to be equally as xenophobic and refuse to let their kids touch those Weird Foreign Things. (It’s not like we don’t currently have issues with video games that are “too Japanese” not catching on well with modern adult Western gamers, so there is some truth to that. Look what happened with the Survive review bombing incident and the heavy stigma that still surrounds visual novels here.) I do hold the writers responsible, I just don't think it's productive to hold a grudge against them or to consider them the sole perpetrators of the issue because even if one given factor had been different, the others would still have been in place, and there's not a lot we can do about that.

[ryuchaekkeuhyojeonsaejia]

Songs that Remind me of Star Beam (Part 2 of x)

JEONAH - "GORGEOUS" BY TAYLOR SWIFT

And I'm so furious At you for making me feel this way But what can I say? You're gorgeous

Noona romances are a common occurence in the SeuBim universe but Jeonah and Jeno's hits different

Jeonah is gorgeous so does Jeno (FACTS).

This song reminds me of how Jeonah tried her best to avoid NCT Dream at all costs while Jeno has a long time crush on her. When Jeno became an adult, he took time to get to know Jeonah better. After two failed attempts, Jeno got to date Jeonah (who eventually learned to love him as a man and not like a little brother).

CHLOE - "ALL-AMERICAN BITCH" BY OLIVIA RODRIGO

Got what you can't resist I'm a perfect all-American bitch With perfect all-American lips And perfect all-American hips

This song mirrors Chloe navigating the K-pop industry as a Wasian girl (trying to deal with double standards, high expectations, self doubt and systematic xenophobia)

Being a Wasian girl in K-pop is hard thanks to xenophobia from both countries (thankfully, MBF gave her opportunities to do solo activities) and it's even harder when your boyfriend is as equally mistreated (read: Hendery is a Macanese K-pop/C-pop idol under SM Entertainment who is infamously sinophobic). And yes, Chloe and Hendery have a trauma bond sometimes thanks to how K-pop industry is harsh on foreign idols. Chloe may be a bitch sometimes (only when justified) but she is Hendery's All American Bitch.

PS: I know I keep on saying xenophobia in Chloe's context but yeah...

CHLOE (again) - "ALCOHOL FREE" BY TWICE

Did you put a spell on me? Just a look to make me yours All my problems float away I ride the wave of letting go I don’t even need no sleep When every minute, I fall deeper in this love

Ah... Chloe and Hendery...

They used to hate each other's guts (but Chloe is already secretly having a crush on Hendery). They drink together at a bar after MAMA 2019 talking about being homesick and hopes for their future then they suddenly kiss (which was considered scandalous: both of them are adults but Chloe is a senior with almost 3 years in the industry while Hendery was a rookie. And SeuBim is about to end their dating ban). Chloe have to apologize to Hendery privately for almost ruining his career and she wanted him to live his life even if it means not talking to him anymore. Little did she know, he kissed her like he means it. Fast forward, they are happy together for more than three years (recently, Hendery won her parents' hearts after he visit her family when Star Beam and WayV were in Los Angeles for K-Con)

Chloe is such a fascinating girlie...

I might do another part for Ryuna, Chae and Jia

[wrotelovelytears]

Sooo I was a thinking

in the shower nonetheless

I remember a conversation I held with @d4rkpluto and a couple of other folks about Planetary Rules in terms of different races. I'll be honest its not the first time I've heard of that concept, I just know different folks have different interpretations.

So I just wanted to expand on one I heard about Saturn ruling over Black people and my personal thoughts about it.

..........

If anyone knows Black people (pretty sure everyone on here should, its the internet), we struggle and prevail (and struggle yet again). That's been our history for literal centuries (millenniums depending on where you talking about). There's the Trans Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, the caste systems of Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France and America and much more in the Western hemisphere. There's the Arab slave trade (fun fact almost all of Asia is guilty of participating), colonization and neo colonization of Africa, Australia, the Philippines (and more, modern day slavery, xenophobia against Africans+ other Black folks, the displacement and systematic destruction of Melanesian societies and people in the Eastern hemisphere.

The story of struggle is not new to Black people on a global stance. What also is not new is the prevailing/ survival of Black folks either.

We have AAVE, Patios, Creole and various other Black dialects (languages if we'll be honest), Samba, Rap/Hip Hop, Hood culture (Favela etc also apply), Country, Rock, Story telling, and hairstyles in the West. The forming of the African Union, reconnection of Aboriginal people to their lands (we gotta talk about that more), the acknowledgment of Melanesian groups in South and Southeast Asia (as well as the Pacific), and new cultural revivals in the East.

All in all tragedies are used not as an end all be all but a method to spark change. Change of the things that are able to be controlled. It made something new out of something old with what was had.

What the hell does that have to do with Saturn???

Saturn is one of the strictest teachers there is. If you don't get a lesson, you'll just be faced with it again in a different form. You can try to avoid it and it will force you to adapt to circumstances you can't control by controlling what you can.

Saturn frankly can be seen as a hidden blessing because you learn to let go of what can't be controlled outside of you. To be a change that sparks change in others and not let what currently is stifling you end you.

I'll be honest Black people definitely fit that whole criteria. We as a global collective have gone through so much shit. We continue to go through so much shit, and yet we always come up on top.

I would also say some key themes of both Saturn and Capricorn can easily be pointed out in any Black person or culture.

What are those themes?

I'd like to start off with money since we all love talking about it.

From my perspective Black people do not hold generational wealth. Especially not in the same sense as other folks. You can point out any rich Black person and I promise you go back a generation or two they didn't have that same standing, go forward a generation or two the same applies.

Why is that?

There are (global) systematic things that prevent Black people from raising from the bottom of the socio-economic to even the middle or top. In all honesty every society has at least one thing in place that prevent it due to some "balance" wanting to be kept. In the US you have things like redlining/gentrification, in all the of Latin American countries you have the caste system (la casta) (its anti Black (and Indigenous), ask Black Latinos), in South Asia there's also the caste system (I don't even wanna get into this) West asia still holding on to stereotypes + slavery, Europe... Racism and xenophobia (also slavery), South East Asia also has a caste system and the Pacific Islands (+Australia) have anti Black policies and colonial rooted issues.

These things are all in place that limit the amount of land, money, food and even shelter Black folks can global have. If you are highly focused on survival you not going to be focused on saving money. Which is another reason why generational wealth doesn't exist, there's a need to spend money before its gone.

That's a very Capricornian trait. You understand that money equals respect (and for Black people more than just surviving), so the more you have to freely spend the more respected you are. So sometimes you spend it all in the need of respect rather than the need of security.

Since I mentioned security you already know that was about to be the next topic.

Are Black people safe anywhere?

No. Don't mention Africa or other predominantly Black countries either, neocolonialism is an issue.

Black people haven't had security for a very long time. We just make do with what we have and as my dad says "keep it pushin". There's an understanding that most things are out of our control (because everyone knows that antiBlackness would've been gone yesterday). We have to just understand what we have or do individually is what we can do. "It is what it is" pretty much.

Anytime you see a sense of security in a Black community, you will also see some new problem (complete out of our control) pop up. I'll use Jim Crow and sharecropping as an example:

When Black folks (African Americans) were freed from slavery, we didn't have much of anything to our names beside our culture. We were able to find certain jobs and once it was seen that we could thrive off of them, that was quickly replaced by sharecropping. For those who don't know what that is, its being "lended" some land to farm on, however the rent, type of land and prices you could sell your crops for was outrageously different. So Black people farmed, could starting gaining traction, a white (or NonBlack in general) landowner/shop owner/law maker etc wouldn't like that and pretty much screw the Black person over until they were indebted to them. Then the Black family eventually lost their farm (which ties into generational wealth) and had to seek out another source of income.

Some folks turned to railroad work, some went North, some left the US completely. All in all there was a huge factor uncontrollable by Black people that pushed them to adopt, change, and make do with current circumstances.

Saturn's lesson

Saturn has taught me, to never conform. Especially not my language(s) to make another comfortable. Its taught me that people will be uncomfortable with me, and that's okay as long as I'm comfortable with me. Its taught me that security (in a material sense) doesn't and never will last because something I can't control will change it, its how I cope with the change that happens.

That's a lesson all Black people are born knowing and die passing on. That we aren't meant to struggle, we are meant to adapt, thrive, fall and do it again.

Saturn isn't bullying anyone (especially Black folks), its showing us we are truly thrivers who can create out of seemingly nothing. That we will also overcome. That we are always blessed someway.

Plus I think its pretty cool or rains diamonds on some of Saturn's moons and has a ring around it (kinda like how various Black cultures popped from absolutely outrageous circumstances).

If you read this long ass post, thank you. If you would like me to talk about other groups and how I think certain planets rule them, ask below :)

And Black lives always will, and always have mattered

(If you learned something new or would just like to support me you can leave a wittle tip via the tip button or one of the links in my bio. Ko-fi: nymphdreams 🧸)