#that it’s not supposed to be a manifesto it’s just supposed to be a 12 episode snapshot into four insane months in this group of young

[khaothanawat]

i’ve been sort of unintentionally sitting on most of my only friends opinions but really they largely just amount to ‘thank you, she was perfect, if you get it you get it, if you don’t you don’t.’

[devine-fem]

Why I think Hellbeetle is an adorable ship although it’s so rare and I want more people to see my vision.

I don’t mind it being rare and to be honest it has its perks but this is my manifesto.

1. They hated each other at first.

Rather it was about Eddie feeling replaced or ignored in his friend group, his hatred for Jaime grew slowly and slowly over time. Especially when it came to Rose finding interest in Jaime over Eddie, him having a crush on Rose and it rubbing him the wrong way. Although, people tell him over and over that if he just talked to Jaime then they’re sure they’ll get along and even become close immediately but Eddie refuses to accept this.

2. Scarab bonuses (1)

Because of Eddie’s high body temperature the scarab can find Eddie somewhat easily and track where he is and I think that is so adorable to think about.

3. There is a whole issue entirely about their hate for each other and blooming friendship which is the gayest thing to me.

Throughout the entire issue it talks about how Eddie irrationally hates Jaime when he’s done nothing to him, and it irritates him. They end up finding common ground to be able to track down a bad guy and prove to their teammates they’re more than goofballs and valuable teammates. This also means they have similar struggles which is so cute.

So when everything is said and done, they start over and become friends on a better note.

4. Undiagnosed telepathy. They always weirdly know what each other is thinking and that is so cute to me.

(This is shown more times than just here and throughout their entire relationship they share the same braincell.)

5. They get established as a duo, they are ALWAYS right next to each other constantly in almost every panel where they’re both in it.

6. Scarab bonuses (2).

I imagine that Eddie’s body is extremely hot, especially around his mouth and eyes so if he were to kiss someone, it would probably scorch them. Khaji Da would not like that Jaime would actively be pained when around Eddie if they were to display affection. That is so cute to me.

7. Making up a little nickname for Jaime.

I’m sorry, bug butt is such an adorable pet name for someone, especially Jaime and immediately Eddie starts to call him this and so often that other people like Jaime’s friends seem to catch on and EVEN joke about it’s flirty nature. This is sealed in the bag for me, to be honest.

8. When it comes to Eddie’s bigger secrets, he decides to tell Jaime first before anyone and Jaime tells him that he cares and even takes off his armor so he can be more vulnerable with him because he knows Eddie lost his powers too.

9. They have more content compared to most of their ships.

Jaime’s most popular ship is Bluepulse which doesn’t function outside of the Young Justice universe. Eddie’s most popular ship is JayEddie probably because Jason is a bat boy but they have like two interactions.

Meanwhile these two were big parts of each others lives and established so much chemistry with one another.

Even Eddie’s supposed love interest was not around nearly as much as Jaime.

I also realize that Jaime fans literally don’t have any like ships really so maybe you guys will like this. I wish he had more ships too.

10. They get formatted like the “other couple” and that’s just shipping fodder to me.

They also go on a dinner date. I’m so serious they go on a Dinner date and sit across from each other and chat/have a good time whilst also being formatted like the other couple which is literally just a date to me.

11. When Eddie thinks his life might be over, the last thing he thinks about is Jaime’s laugh. I wish I was kidding.

12. When Eddie passes, it starts to become painful for Jaime to gear up with the scarab and I’m not sure why but it felt like it had something to do with his feelings as a hero and how he was greiving.

13. Beyond Teen Titans Vol.3 Eddie shows up in Blue Beetle (2006) Issue 33 so they writers care enough to add him.

14. They also are together in a holiday special. 15. Aesthetics. They have a red and blue color palate meaning they contrast in a way aesthetically when they are together. Red and Blue has been a cherished duo for years. Red Devil, Blue Beetle. Also, the fact that they are both anthropomorphic based heroes in a way also helps.

In conclusion, I know this was a rare ship once upon a time that people talked about like years ago and no matter how rare it is I refuse to stop talking about them even if I get no interactions because I love Jaime and I love Eddie and I love them together.

[angelsanarchy]

Glass Houses: Jack Thurlow x Y/N Series CH 12 -> CH 13

"I'm kind of terrified of her getting to know the real me." "Hey, the real you might be a pretentious dick but you're not a bad person."

Tagging: @roryculkinluvr @thatsthewrongwallcraig @icarus-star @cc-luvr @madamemaximoff06 @shady-the-simp @quicksilversg1rl @s-0lar @kristennero-wallacewellsver @ophelialaufey @mayathepsychic1999

Jack kept busy moving his laptop and writing journals into his dad's old art studio. He's decided that he needs a separation of where he works and where he sleeps, a recommendation made by Dr. Carty.

He was actually surprised how much more he got written now that he was in a different space of the house. He felt almost like he was channeling some of his father's creativity as he wrote. He had the curtains pulled open and the window crack slightly allowing the breeze into the room. It gave him a since of freedom he hadn't truly felt since being back in the house.

"Bitchface!? Are you up there?" Jack startled hearing Shanda's voice coming up the steps.

"In here ya stupid slut." Jack called out to her, making sure to save and shut his laptop. She came up the stairs an spotted him immediately as he threw his arms open.

"What do you think? Not too bad right?" Jack looked around the room and Shanda nodded.

"It looks great. You look like shit but the house is really coming along." Shanda hugged Jack and could feel how much thinner he was since they last saw one another.

"What are you living on? Slim jims and coffee?" Shanda ran her fingertips under the dark circles of his eyes.

"I'm working on it. I have an appointment with my doc coming up to talk about a medication change. Too many side effects are making it a pain in the ass just getting up in the morning." Jack explained.

"Can you even do that? I mean will that set you back?" Shanda asked curiously.

"Yeah Y/n explained that sometimes you need to find the right cocktail of medication so you don't live a miserable life with a bunch of fucked up side effects." Jack explained

"Well did you want me to stay and keep an eye out while you go through the change?" Shanda asked making Jack laugh.

"I'm mentally ill Shan, not a werewolf. I'll be fine. Y/n checks in almost daily so if I have any issues, she's right down the street." Shanda's eyebrow went up.

"You made a friend?" Shanda smirked.

"Yes I made a friend. Technically she's a neighbor and owns the dog that looks like Rusty but yes we're pretty friendly." Jack couldn't hide his smile and Shanda laughed out loud.

"You're friendly. Friendly like you have a book club or friendly like you 69 in the kitchen?" Shanda was happy to see Jack making progress but she will always worry about him.

"Jesus Christ. Is that the friendship spectrum with lesbians?" Jack teased.

"Hey I just want to make sure I don't eat off the counter where your ass has been." She held her hands up in defense.

"No we aren't fucking. We just...hang out. She mostly brings me food and let's the dog stay when I'm having a bad night. It's been nice.." Jack trailed off and Shanda could tell something was up.

"But?"

"I'm kind of terrified of her getting to know the real me." Jack tucked his hair behind his ears and Shanda shook her head.

"Hey, the real you might be a pretentious dick but you're not a bad person." Shanda defended.

"Jack be serious. Do you really think you're supposed to be stuck in this house all by yourself, writing some manifesto forever alone?" Shanda asked.

"I'm not writing a manifesto." Jack laughed.

"Jack." Shanda's tone was serious.

"I don't know Shan! I just don't want to hurt anyone like I did Cleo. I mean I was going through something but even you've admitted that it was a bastard move. Y/n has a lot going on in her life and I don't want to make it worse." Jack had to admit that the more time he spent talking with Y/n, the more he wondered what she was doing during the day. They texted often and he enjoyed her insight and sense of humor. There was a piece of him that felt like he didn't deserve this feeling. He didn't deserve a second chance to find someone to spend his days with that he truly cared about.

"You did everything you could to try and apologize to Cleo. She may not have reached out or accepted it but she's moved on with her life, Jack. She moved out of your old place, she's got a new boyfriend..." Jack's eyes lit up.

"Really?" Shanda wonders if she said too much.

"Yes and she's happy. You can't keep punishing yourself for what happened in the past. Things could have been so much worse. Your relationship was collateral damage but you shouldn't live the rest of your life miserably because of it. You deserve happiness just like she does." Shanda threw her arm around Jack's neck and he nodded.

"I love you you fluffy haired bitch. Love yourself a little...and let your neighbor suck your dick for a bit." Shanda teased.

"And they say I'm the fucked up one." Jack put his arm around Shanda and she laughed.

"Hey we're all fucked up. I just know how to have fun." Shanda pulled Jack with her out of the room.

"I'm happy you're here. Thanks for always showing up for me." Jack knew this visit was going to be interesting now that she knew he had an infatuation with the neighbor. All he could hope was that it didn't end in disaster.

[fxreflyes]

thank you for tagging me my loves <333 @kaaaaaaarf @faggylittleleatherboy @sugarsnappeases @dieonysian its so fun seeing what yall r listening to :) also i hope youre all doing well i am sending much love <333

rules: shuffle ur on repeat and put the top 10 songs

this assortment of songs is as chaotic as iv been feeling recently and im not sure id really recommend them but here we r!

bullet w/ my namE on - bring me the horizon, underoath

hurt - nine inch nails

thunderbolts! - iron chic

numb - brennan savage (guys ... my emo rap era resurfaced for a hot sec... listening to it helps u feel a little ironic abt being sad idk like u cant take urself seriously so then ur less sad this makes sense of course (alternatively i listened to this a lot when i was 18 so nostalgia i suppose))

babys out of luck again - april june

esruc - one step closer

top 10 statues that cried blood - bring me the horizon (sorry oli im not typing it like that thats a lot of work)

the end is her - blood command

bellyache - spanish love songs

driver, surprise - the national

this is not on the list bc it said 10, but yall shld actually check out push by the cure, but the instrumental version! its v nice v atmospheric (the version I added below)

im quite late doing this (and doing anything on tumblr.com) so sorry if im tagging u again! but np @cosmmicdancer @polaroidcats @shipsnsails @fruityindividual @greengrug @magneto-manifesto @ethercain and open tag!! like literally please please tag me i just don t know who wld like 2 do this!

[runningpsychic]

CalderaFest: A short GVH fanfic

Author’s note: this is 100% me just trying to process my own emotions after playing a music festival. GVH gave me a framework on how to feel after being chosen for CalderaFest, but not for how it’d feel after playing CalderaFest. This is my attempt to express those feelings through the eyes of Fang.

0

"This is it", said Fang to themself, as they walked alone onto the stage at CalderaFest.

It felt like forever since Trish quit the band, but the events of that night were still fresh on Fang’s mind. Reed quit the band shortly after, as it just didn’t feel the same without all three, so Worm Drama became a solo act. Fang was honored that LJ chose them for CalderaFest, but that sweet victory was tainted by the bitter taste of the split.

"Trish did say I could do CalderaFest solo, and I need this as my ticket to a successful career. I've put too many eggs into this basket to turn back now."

The show was everything Fang could've dreamed of. A big stage, a cheering crowd, and a sick guitar. Once Fang started playing, it's like everything else around them just melted away. The crowd becomes one amorphous blob, and time becomes abstract. There's nothing but the music, and Fang. It’s the closest thing to heaven a musician could wish for. Songs came and went. The midi controller worked overtime as it took on the job of two band members. Playing these songs felt like second nature to Fang, having practiced them so often, not to mention they wrote most of the songs.

The spotlight was blindingly hot. Fang has never felt more seen in their life. Isn’t this what every musician desires? To be heard? Fang spent so much of their life trying to be heard, literally and figuratively, that it almost feels wrong to have such a large audience. Did they really deserve it?

"Thank you! Now for my last song, 12 o'clock!"

This was originally a song with the whole band, but after that night at Lava Java when they played during a power outage, the song became better known as an acoustic track. Most fans don't even know what it sounded like with the entirety of Worm Drama behind it. Fang strummed the opening G chord.

"Took my time to get it all worked out"

Fang thought about all the times that Worm Drama has auditioned at Lava Java. All the new songs they wrote, trying to make the dream work. They practiced every day after school, tried to get gigs at various places (and getting kicked out), and in general, just trying to get noticed.

"At 12 o'clock i'll write a manifesto, it's a way to go"

Fang thought about how their parents disapproved of their career path, but they still soldiered on, determined to follow their passion. After all, what else do they have? Maybe if they were successful, their parents would finally approve of them, and their gender too.

"It's just the blinking of an eye the culmination of today"

Fang thought about how Trish became more and more distant from the band. Having to raise her sister after her mother died, and having to balance schoolwork and band practice with what little free time she had left. Maybe if they had been more sympathetic to Trish, she wouldn't have had to leave the band. But now, it is too late.

"All the things I didn't do I guess it's over"

As the final G chord rang out, Fang could barely make out the audience through the tears. This is their moment. They made it to CalderaFest. Fang opened their wings and waved their guitar in the air at the cheering crowd. But if this is it, why did they feel so….conflicted? Isn't this supposed to be a moment of triumph? But that doesn’t matter right now. It’s time for celebration.

Naomi was waiting in the green room as Fang made their way off the stage. Emotions were high. Fang had just fulfilled their most important dream. All of their friends were front row in the audience to cheer them on. Fang and Naomi embraced, and Fang excitedly talked about the show while Naomi helped them reapply makeup.

+1

Fang woke up in the afternoon the next day, alone in their bed. The events of the previous day have exhausted them. As the events from that day settled, Fang felt…numb. Fang didn't feel any more like a Real Musician after the performance than before. Was this it? Was this the life they signed up for? How was this single performance supposed to turn into a career? Sure, performing at CalderaFest comes with bragging rights, but that doesn’t exactly pay the bills. The revenue from the show couldn’t even afford a tour van. The meager amount of merch sales did not help either. A new text came up on Fang’s phone.

Naomi You did amazing last night! I am so proud of you! Fang Thank you!

Fang didn’t really know how to express their feelings in a way that would be coherent to anyone else. It would sound incredibly ungrateful to say they felt nothing after the show, or that they felt even more hopeless about their future. Fang felt like the only emotions they were allowed to have were excitement and accomplishment, but there they were, feeling down, wishing they were back on that stage, but at the same time wishing it never happened. Is this why celebrities get broken by fame, because they can’t just go back to normal life? Were they wrong to dream about performing at CalderaFest?

Fang thought about the band. How much they wished they could have shared that moment on stage together. Fang thought about the spark, and what kept them going through all those years of failure and disapproval. Why was it that they kept making music despite it all?

Then it hit them. Those songs weren’t written for anyone. They weren’t even written for LJ. These songs came from the deepest corners of their heart. They are a cry into the world, a way for Fang’s feelings and thoughts to be heard. They weren’t written for anyone, they’re written for Fang themself.

"Fuck this. Music isn’t about success. I will keep writing no matter what!"

It doesn’t matter if Fang could turn music into a career. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t. But even if it doesn’t, it by no means diminishes their passion as a musician. Fang will always be a musician.

[maddy-ferguson]

Ngl, I really think that these bylers that are crying 24/7 about "purity culture" or whatever, are playing dumb when they start with their "but Nancy and Steve were 16 and 17 in that scene of s1!!!1" like... We got introduced to these characters at that age and the people playing them were already adults. So yeah, sorry but I think it's easy to see why most viewers would be uncomfortable with a more sexual scene of Mike and Will and it's not automatically homophobia, I think that would be the case with any of the kids since we got introduced to these characters when they were 12 and the actors were babies as well. We literally saw those kids grow. And I'm not saying byler should only get to peck or hold hands, It'd be cool if they have their epic kiss or whatever, but Will hasn't even had his first kiss yet and some of these people are already talking about sex scenes, like... Be for real 😭

funny you should say that...because i've used the nancy was 15-16 in season one argument (last tag) before while also saying that i understand why people find the sex part of their sexualities uncomfortable to discuss. and i wanna reiterate that, again, i totally understand that people feel like they've seen them grow up etc etc and that they still think of the actors themselves as children even thought they're not anymore.

i don't think it's all homophobia because like you said, people would probably feel the same about lucas and max and discussions of sex (i don't know if anyone is discussing that because there's much less discourse to have there and you can't argue that people are homophobic if they disagree with you) but i don't think it would be justified either. the "but we knew the characters when they were little" argument makes me think me of an ancient disney channel/abc show that old people and girl meets world fans who watched it for the first time in the 2010s will know, boy meets world (1993-2000). classic comic of age show, look at these kids. and eric in the back (he's fifteen).

they're eleven at the start of the show and then, what happens in any coming of age story happens, you guessed it...

they grow up. this is them in the later seasons, when the main characters are still in high school i think. they grow up, they talk about sex and about having sex at prom in season five and then they don't have sex right away because they figure it's not the right time yet or something like that, and then they have sex later and get married, the details don't matter. but my point is, who watches a show for five seasons, over years and years and gets upset at the main characters having sex because "this is crazy they used to be children"? isn't that the point of coming of age stories that cover multiple years or that focus on the latter years of adolescence, that they're not children forever and that at one point the characters "come of age" which usually includes their first sexual experiences?

i don't think the having sex part is particularly important in stranger things but also it doesn't have to be for it to be portrayed (see jonathan and nancy), teenagers have sex, it's just the way the world works. i'm not advocating for sex scenes of any kind especially because stranger things isn't a show that features a lot of sex in general, the only "explicit" sex scene being nancy and steve in season one with cuts to barb dying, but i genuinely don't think the duffers would have any qualms about portraying teenage sexuality in general with the party. if they did, they wouldn't have included erica threatening lucas to tell dustin what she found under his bed (it wasn't the communist manifesto) and they wouldn't have had max looking at a shirtless steve for an amount of time that's supposed to make the audience laugh. it's been 7 years. if they do a time jump, the babies will be about 17, played by actors who will all be around 20, the age natalia was when filming season one. the characters are teenagers, babies grow up. it happens to the best of us. i get why people would find it uncomfortable and maybe i would find it uncomfortable too but i wouldn't be scandalized. the duffers had no problem having a child actor portray everything will goes through in seasons one and especially two, i really feel like sex is fine and...not traumatizing or hard to watch compared to every single thing will's gone through lol. and again, i'm not even expecting them to have sex lmao, but i wouldn't cry myself to sleep if they revealed that everyone in the party actually knows what sex is.

last question: do we have any indication that jonathan had talked to more than one other girl (the girl at the halloween party being the one girl i'm counting for him) before he got together with nancy. i'm just asking because of your last sentence, because if we don't he should have slowed down also😭

[fettesans]

Top, photograph by Carlos A. Moreno, from the editorial Amazon was supposed to transform a Tijuana slum. It failed to deliver, for Rest of World, December 12, 2022. Bottom, installation view Thomas Hirschhorn, Fake It, Fake It — Till You Fake It at Gladstone Gallery, January 24 – March 2, 2024. The installation resembles the aftermath of a gaming session gone bad, with screens showing images from video games mixed with pictures of actual destruction. Via.

Nueva Esperanza is a neighborhood of several hundred inhabitants. Above it looms the sky-blue Amazon building, towering over abandoned parts and mattress springs, all soon to be turned into building materials for people’s homes. The only paved street is the one that goes in and out of Amazon’s fulfillment center. During her shift, Martínez works with two other colleagues from the neighborhood. The three make up the entirety of the night-time cleaning shift at the distribution center, a massive 32,000-square-meter building that is a 500-meter walk from their homes. When it rains, dirt roads turn into knee-deep rivers of mud. There is no other way for them to get to their job. Martínez must change all her clothing and shoes each time she arrives at work.

Limited to contractor work in the cleaning and canteen areas, pay is scant. Amazon workers from Nueva Esperanza currently working at the distribution center are paid 52 pesos (just over $2.6) per hour. Tirso Hernnández, a 59-year-old cleaner at the warehouse, told Rest of World this is less than what other employees are paid for doing the same work for other companies nearby.

“It was the only thing we could have direct access to,” Martínez told Rest of World, “because for other jobs, you had to apply online and, well, many of us don’t know how to do that, let alone have a computer.”

--

In October, the venture capitalist and technocrat Marc Andreessen published on his firm’s website a stream-of-consciousness document he called “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” a 5,000-word ideological cocktail that eerily recalls, and specifically credits, Italian futurists such as Marinetti. Andreessen is, in addition to being one of Silicon Valley’s most influential billionaire investors, notorious for being thin-skinned and obstreperous, and despite the invocation of optimism in the title, the essay seems driven in part by his sense of resentment that the technologies he and his predecessors have advanced are no longer “properly glorified.” It is a revealing document, representative of the worldview that he and his fellow technocrats are advancing.

Andreessen writes that there is “no material problem,” including those caused by technology, that “cannot be solved with more technology.” He writes that technology should not merely be always advancing, but always accelerating in its advancement “to ensure the techno-capital upward spiral continues forever.” And he excoriates what he calls campaigns against technology, under names such as “tech ethics” and “existential risk.”

Or take what might be considered the Apostles’ Creed of his emerging political movement:

We believe we should place intelligence and energy in a positive feedback loop, and drive them both to infinity … We believe in adventure. Undertaking the Hero’s Journey, rebelling against the status quo, mapping uncharted territory, conquering dragons, and bringing home the spoils for our community … We believe in nature, but we also believe in overcoming nature. We are not primitives, cowering in fear of the lightning bolt. We are the apex predator; the lightning works for us.

Andreessen identifies several “patron saints” of his movement, Marinetti among them. He quotes from the Manifesto of Futurism, swapping out Marinetti’s “poetry” for “technology”:

Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Technology must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.

To be clear, the Andreessen manifesto is not a fascist document, but it is an extremist one. He takes a reasonable position—that technology, on the whole, has dramatically improved human life—and warps it to reach the absurd conclusion that any attempt to restrain technological development under any circumstances is despicable. This position, if viewed uncynically, makes sense only as a religious conviction, and in practice it serves only to absolve him and the other Silicon Valley giants of any moral or civic duty to do anything but make new things that will enrich them, without consideration of the social costs, or of history. Andreessen also identifies a list of enemies and “zombie ideas” that he calls upon his followers to defeat, among them “institutions” and “tradition.”

“Our enemy,” Andreessen writes, is “the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable—playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.”

The irony is that this description very closely fits Andreessen and other Silicon Valley elites. The world that they have brought into being over the past two decades is unquestionably a world of reckless social engineering, without consequence for its architects, who foist their own abstract theories and luxury beliefs on all of us.

Adrienne LaFrance, from The Rise of Techno-authoritarianism - Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It’s past time we call it what it is, for The Atlantic, January 30, 2024.

[reasoningdaily]

The small town of Attica in upstate New York may appear quaint and subdued today. But it became infamous in 1971 — when the Attica prison riot exploded into the bloodiest prison uprising in U.S. history.

The four-day revolt began on September 9, 1971, and saw more than half of Attica's prison population take up improvised arms. At that point, their calls for improved living conditions had gone unanswered for months. So, 1,281 inmates decided to take matters into their own hands. They took 39 prison guards and employees hostage, hoping to negotiate with state politicians.

At first, it seemed like authorities were willing to cooperate. But when negotiations stalled, police made the fateful decision to launch a raid on September 13. On that day, a helicopter dropped tear gas from the sky — as state police rushed the yard and fired 3,000 rounds — killing 10 hostages and 29 inmates. By the time the uprising was over, 43 people were dead.

These 33 images capture the historic chaos of the Attica prison riot — and how it helped galvanize the prisoners' rights movement.

Meant to hold 1,600 inmates, the Attica Correctional Facility held around 2,200 at the time of the uprising — which led to overcrowding and the harried rationing of essential supplies. Many prisoners were limited to just one roll of toilet paper per month and one shower per week.

As one historian later wrote, "Prisoners spent 14 to 16 hours a day in their cells, their mail was read, their reading material restricted, their visits from families conducted through a mesh screen, their medical care disgraceful, their parole system inequitable, racism everywhere."

It was only a matter of time before tensions boiled over — and that's exactly what happened in September 1971. The riot began shortly after dawn on September 9, when inmates were supposed to be on their way to breakfast.

A small group of prisoners overpowered the nearby guards before charging through a shoddy gate and reaching "Times Square" — a central hub in the prison. Within moments, the initially small band of rioters swelled to 1,281 participants. They quickly began attacking prison officers with homemade shivs and clubs — and it was clear that the Attica prison riot had begun.

After burning down the prison chapel and taking over three cell blocks, the inmates encountered state police wielding tear gas and machine guns. While the authorities soon managed to regain control of the cell blocks, the rioters had already taken 39 prison guards and employees hostage outside.

At around 10:30 a.m., the prisoners settled in an exercise yard, blindfolded the hostages, and dug trenches into the soil. Drawing up their demands, they began delegating duties. Some prisoners would serve as security or medics. Others would serve as representatives to demand negotiations.

Titled The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands, the prisoners' proposal listed 33 requests, including better medical treatment, more religious freedoms, "an end of physical abuse for basic necessities" like daily showers, and more than one monthly roll of toilet paper.

The five inmates elected to wield negotiation power called for outside observers to aid in the talks. These included lawyer William Kunstler, New York Times columnist Tom Wicker, Minister Louis Farrakhan, and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale. While some like Farrakhan declined the invitation, others like Seale agreed to meet with the prisoners.

New York Commissioner of Corrections Russell Oswald eventually agreed to 28 of the demands. Though negotiations moved forward, the prisoners' demand for amnesty for the uprising — and some other requests — proved a bridge too far. On the night of September 12, both Oswald and Governor Nelson Rockefeller decided that force was needed to retake the prison.

How The Police Took Attica Back By Force

Santi Visalli Inc./Getty ImagesThe aftermath of the Attica prison riot on September 14, 1971.

It was 8:25 a.m. on September 13 when Oswald delivered the prisoners a final written warning. It demanded their full surrender — but instead saw them put their blades against their hostages' throats. State Police and National Guard troops lined up outside the gates while the inmates dug into their trenches. Helicopters soon appeared at 9:46 a.m.

With tear gas flooding the yard, hundreds of State Police troopers, Attica correctional officers, sheriff's deputies, and park police officers rushed the field. Brandishing shotguns loaded with buckshot and Geneva Convention-violating unjacketed ammunition, they laid waste to the prisoners.

Thousands of rounds were fired into the yard, killing 10 hostages and 29 inmates and wounding 89 others. One emergency technician witnessed a state trooper shoot a wounded prisoner lying on the ground in the head. Another inmate was shot seven times and then ordered to keep crawling.

By 10:05 a.m., it was all over. "On a much smaller scale, I think I have some feeling of now of how Truman must have felt when he decided to drop the A-bomb," reflected Oswald after the massacre.

Both Oswald and Rockefeller initially claimed that all 10 dead hostages had been killed by the inmates, but autopsies quickly showed that the state had recklessly gunned them down. The death of one prison guard had been correctly attributed to the prisoners — as well as the deaths of three other inmates — but those deaths had happened early on in the uprising.

Ultimately, the Attica prison riot led to nationwide demonstrations in support of prisoners' rights. It also spawned a congressional investigation and a $2.8 billion class-action lawsuit that represented the inmates involved.

Decades later, an $8 million settlement was to be split among just 502 inmates who were involved in the uprising. A further $12 million would be paid out to prison guards and their families in 2005.

Despite the notoriety of the uprising, it did not make nearly as much of an impact on the U.S. prison system as some activists were hoping. Though it did lead to some changes in regard to prison reform — most notably more religious freedom behind bars — many of the inmates' demands for better conditions were either ignored or put into place and later reversed due to the "tough on crime" era of the 1980s and 1990s.

It's little wonder why many prisoners and prisoners' rights activists are still fighting for many of the same things today — such as better wages for prison work and better medical treatment — as they did decades ago.

[theculturedmarxist]

The more I look into "landback" shit the more it seems like a grift. The landback website has nothing substantial on it, and so far I haven't found any definitions or explanations for what "landback" means in concrete terms. It's usually nonsense like:

What is the LandBack movement really asking for? The land. Back.

NDN Collectives "Manifesto" is just a bunch of corpo-gibberish bullet points:

It is a relationship with Mother Earth that is symbiotic and just, where we have reclaimed stewardship. It is bringing our People with us as we move towards liberation and embodied sovereignty through an organizing, political and narrative framework. It is a long legacy of warriors and leaders who sacrificed freedom and life. It is a catalyst for current generation organizers and centers the voices of those who represent our future. It is recognizing that our struggle is interconnected with the struggles of all oppressed Peoples. It is a future where Black reparations and Indigenous LANDBACK co-exist. Where BIPOC collective liberation is at the core. It is acknowledging that only when Mother Earth is well, can we, her children, be well. It is our belonging to the land – because – we are the land. We are LANDBACK!

LANDBACK Organizing Principles

Don’t burn bridges: even when there is conflict between groups or organizers remember that we are fighting for all of our peoples and we will continue to be in community even after this battle

Don’t defend our ways

Organize to win

Move from abundance – We come from a space of scarcity. We must work from a place of abundance

We bring our people with us

Deep relationships by attraction, not promotion

Divest/invest

We value our warriors

Room for grace—be able to be human

We cannot let our oppressors inhumanity take away from ours

Strategy includes guidance

Realness: Sometimes the truth hurts

Unapologetic but keep it classy

How about an explanation in concrete terms what "sovereignty" is supposed to mean? Or how they're planning to administer the land in relation to the other people that they share it with? If this land is supposed to be Indians' private property, there should be some kind of theoretical explanation for how this real estate transaction is supposed to lead to "the abolition of the United States’ concept of real estate altogether."

Then there's the NDN Collective itself. Generally, my rule of thumb is that if NGO money is going to something, then it's probably not radical or revolutionary, and that probability goes up the more money it gets. Black Lives Matter was radical and revolutionary, then its radical members "mysteriously turned up dead," and then it got hundreds of millions of dollars from the Ford Foundation.

NDN Collective in late 2021 was named a recipient of a Bush Foundation grant of $50 million. The organization has announced plans to redistribute these funds to indigenous individuals in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota[15] Through other funding, including grants from the MacArthur and Skoll Foundations, NDN redistributes capital through two loan pools. The Social Enterprise & Economic Development for Indigenous Growth (SEEDING) program offers loans of $500,000 or more, while the Relief & Resilience program provides small business loans to Indigenous entrepreneurs.[16] Prominent donors to NDN Collective include Mackenzie Scott [ex-wife of Jeff Bezos], in 2021, due to her concerns about wealth inequality, discrimination, and the need for investment in education,[17] and the Jeff Bezos Earth Fund, which in 2020 donated $12 million for their work against climate change.[18] NDN Collective was also funded by the Target Foundation in 2022, as one of its "Ecosystem" grant recipients.[19]

So the "collective" is itself an NGO worth tens of millions of dollars. It plans to "redistribute" that money in the form of grants and loans with the explicit aim of "wealth building." According to NDN, it defines wealth as

“Indigenous wealth is a quality of life and mindset that encircles family and community well-being and the care of relationships (self, family, extended family, community, land, environment), and a spirit of generosity. Money is a tool to support basic needs (safety, food, shelter, education) and bring financial security and self-determination so that one can live a “good life,” abundant in social and cultural sharing.

Which isn't really a definition at all. I don't know how "a quality of life and mindset that encircles family and community well-being" is supposed to pay back a half a million dollar loan. I'd be more forgiving I think if there was some explanation about what this money was intended to do, but the Collective Abundance Fund Report doesn't offer much in that what. The grant application does elaborate on what the money can be used for though, including purchasing or expanding a home, paying for higher education, business development, and land purchases.

The anti-Capitalist, pro-communcal stance just seems like posturing to me when instead of distributing this money to the community level for the development of community projects, the money is being distributed on the individual/family level, for the development of private property. This doesn't seem like a fund for all, but one specifically to cultivate a Native middle class along bourgeois lines and provide a return on investment.

To return back to the HCN article, it mentions in one paragraph:

While some private landholders may resist, others, including mainline conservation groups and even art galleries, have already taken it upon themselves to donate property to tribes or Native organizations. These acts are a positive and inspiring step, even if still largely symbolic.

The "mainline conservation group" it mentions is called Save The Redwoods, which seems to have a sketchy past.

During the 2010s UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library began organizing and curating a particularly revealing trove of primary documents that would allow me to unmask Save the Redwoods League as the first, the largest, and the longest-lasting example of an inward political and economic phenomenon that today we call “greenwashing”— that is, rhetorical support for environmental protection by an institution actually working on behalf of destructive corporations. These were the League’s own records, dating back to 1917, some 200,000 pages of eye-popping revelations that would keep me in thrall for years.

Through deep examination of the League’s papers (I would eventually copy 10,000 pages) and many other sources, I learned that in 1917 a small coterie of powerful industrialists had gathered at the secluded Bohemian Grove, in Sonoma County, during the annual encampment of the exclusive San Francisco Bohemian Club. The industrialists included some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the nation, and the world, virtually all of whose businesses relied on redwood lumber to undergird the swiftest and most forceful expansion of industry and wealth in human history. They created Save the Redwoods League not to save redwoods as parks, but as standing inventories for use by industry. 

STR is also a massive NGO with a yearly revenue of $20 million and an endowment of over $100 million. It's president Samuel Hodder was a guest on a podcast called Climate One, which is a product of the The Commonwealth Club of California, which is another massive NGO with ties to the highest levels of government and big business.

And on the subject of the highest levels of government, again from the HCN article:

The federal government has slowly and selectively begun to engage with the idea since the appointment of Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) as secretary of the Interior, and of Chuck Sams (Umatilla) as director of the National Park Service, the first Native people to hold either office. The United States is currently piloting tribal co-management of certain federal lands, a step in the direction of LandBack.

If you're getting tens of millions of dollars and aid from NGOs, major universities are putting out papers in your favor, and you're getting help from the federal government, then yeah, I think at the very least there's something deeply suspicious going on.

[joanlattanzio]

Women’s anger, publicly and loudly expressed, is all of that: unnatural, chaotic, upsetting to how power is supposed to work. Women’s determination to voice that fury toward men in 2017 and 2018 had led those men to feel some fraction of the anxiety that nonwhite non-men feel daily. That these men experience any anxiety or discomfort is intolerable enough that in 2018, a Canadian clinical psychologist named Jordan Peterson became a mega-bestselling author of a kind of men’s manifesto, called 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. “Order is where the people around you act according to well-understood social norms. . . . Chaos, by contrast, is where—or when—something unexpected happens.” And just in case it wasn’t clear, Peterson sexes both sides of the paradigm; according to Taoist symbolism, he claims, “Order is the white, masculine serpent; Chaos, its black, feminine counterpart.” Chaos is the thing that Peterson and his devout readers were searching for an antidote to in their struggle to reimpose . . . order.

Good and Mad - Rebecca Traister

[hereticpridevinyl]

Ok I finished your gay!dean manifesto and SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE!! I am incabible of putting words together and sounding coherent cause my brain is melting from my ears and psalms 40:2 has gone and replaced it. Gonna think about it for life but honestly it’s made me such a gay!dean stan now! Can I hear more of your thoughts on it and just why cause it’s so big-brained snd there but I feel like my head has been caved in by the concept cause how tf am i only seeing this NOW???

first of all, i'm so glad you enjoyed my fic! thanks for reading :)

as for the gay dean brainrot... WELCOME BESTIE, JOIN US! gonna preface this all by saying that i adore every sexuality headcanon for dean (except straight—vile energy. evil, even, and wrong) and as a bi person i would be remiss if i didn't acknowledge how wonderful bi dean is. however. HOWEVER.

(under the cut because this got away from me enormously)

i've talked about this a lot on twitter, and i know a lot of people have said this more eloquently than i, but i'll try to sum up my thoughts here.

the way dean is into women is so incredibly performative that often it can't help but be read as an act. there's almost a routine to it: dean meets Beautiful Woman, dean flirts with Beautiful Woman, dean (sometimes, but not always) sleeps with Beautiful Woman, dean pats himself on the back for fulfilling his role of Most Hetero Man In America. it's as if being into women is another aspect of his job, another skill he was taught and forced to utilize, much the same way he was taught to hunt. in early seasons, dean's interactions with woman quickly gain a stale, rote sort of taste. we as the audience expect dean will hit on any attractive woman he sees; dean as a character seems to expect it of himself. there's no anticipation behind these interactions. they're predictable and often lead nowhere—especially if dean thinks the woman is unattainable. dean's hot-blooded all-american cishet lady's man persona is just that—a persona.

we see the cracks in this persona most often during moments that are ostensibly played for laughs. haha, dean likes a show about a sexy male doctor! he gets flustered when he's around the lead haha! he's so masculine and straight and tough but he falls apart when his favorite wrestler shakes his hand and winks at him! he can't form a coherent sentence when he thinks this man is flirting with him, and he's so flustered that he doesn't try to stop it haha! he's psyching himself up for this hookup with a woman because it's funny if he's not confident! look, he likes wearing panties and his comfy bed and cooking for his family and dressing up like a cowboy but those are all things he does in private because he's actually very straight and manly! see? in an effort to make dean seem incontrovertibly heterosexual, his character becomes a parody of himself. these brief moments that we're supposed to laugh at become tragic; watching dean winchester perform his compulsory heterosexuality becomes a waiting game, seeking out those flashes of his true self, his most genuine self, from-moment-to moment.

and then something insane happens: post-season 12, dean stops hooking up with women at all.

his hookups had been waning in the two or three seasons leading up to this point, but after s12 he stops trying completely. it's as if that aggressive need to perform this learned role eventually died out. he just... stops. late seasons dean is a man who would rather stay home and watch lost boys with his husband and his brother and their son for the millionth time than have sex with a woman he's never going to see again. this is who he becomes—and the show forgets to make us laugh this time.

and we all know that supernatural has a disease that almost always keeps them from writing women well—all marginalized groups, actually, but that's a topic for another rambling post—which could be a significant factor as to why dean's most compelling romance-coded relationships are with men, but it can't be the only reason. sam's relationships with women are frequently interesting to watch, and if not groundbreaking, they seem natural. there isn't anything forced or performative about sam being into a woman. obviously the brothers are very different people and cannot be compared one-to-one, but there's definitely something to be said about sam's lack of go crazy go stupid hot girl summer star-crossed lovers cas-benny-crowley situation that dean's got going on at all times.

in my opinion, the best chemistry dean has with a woman is charlie—and while that's very strictly platonic seeing as she's a whole lesbian and probably wouldn't go for dean even if she wasn't, it's undeniable that there's just something intoxicating about watching them on screen together. while i might be biased with this analysis, i think it's worth pointing out: it's like dean's letting out a breath he's been holding his whole life when he's with her. because he knows she's unavailable, he knows there's no world in which she'd be into him, and therefore he doesn't have to bother putting on his macho straight dude persona. he doesn't have to go through the motions of hitting on her, or sleeping with her, because it's out of the question. he can be himself. turns out, "himself" is a huge fucking nerd who likes to pretend he's someone he isn't and hang out with a woman because he loves being her friend and not any other reason. the axe of heterosexuality is no longer hanging over his head.

there's a throwaway interaction way back in s2e11 that sums this up more succinctly than i can:

DEAN: of course, the most troubling question is why do these people assume we're gay?

SAM: well, you are kinda butch. probably think you're overcompensating.

DEAN: (pause) right.

we've got some splendid jacting here where dean gets control of the vessel for a moment and sort of nervously smiles at sam, a sad kind of scoff that just gets me. here's another moment where we're supposed to laugh, but there's nothing funny about the way dean reacts to sam's words. there's no overblown anger, there's no begrudging laugh, he doesn't roll his eyes. he just smiles. looks down. doesn't argue.

[vaicomcas]

My Castiel Manifesto, Part 3

Intro https://vaicomcas.tumblr.com/post/679832135876640768/my-castiel-manifesto-intro

“I do know what blind faith is.”

This was very intriguing. In one of Castiel’s last episodes, he gave a speech that in retrospect is a sad recap of his arc on the show.  

Castiel: My name is, um -- well, my name is not important. I do know what blind faith is. I used to just follow orders without question, and I did some pretty terrible things. I would never look beyond the plan. And then, of course, when it all came crashing down, I found myself lost. I didn't know what my purpose was anymore. And then one day, something changed, something amazing. I... I guess I found a family and I became a father. And in that, I rediscovered my faith. I rediscovered who I am.

His line about “blind faith” and “all came crashing down”.  Most probably interpret this as (and was probably written as) referring to before he rebelled from heaven.  However, that was 12 years ago. Then, when exactly was this “one day, something changed—found a family and became a father”?  

  Possibility 1) -- the common assumption: Suppose “found a family” refers to Dean and Sam, because they often made such references in those earlier seasons; if so that should be at the very beginning - middle of Season 4, once he rebelled. If so, has he been rediscovering himself continuously for 8 or 9 years until he became a father? How is that “one day”? If “one day” he found a family in Dean and Sam, then becoming a father 8 years later would seemed to have no contribution to him “rediscovering” his faith and who he was— and that seemed not quite fitting the situation when he was speaking essentially directly to Jack, his son.  

Possibility 2) “found a family” and “become a father” refers to a single thing, in which case, “one day” was tied to Jack, end of season 12 or possibly some time Season 13 if we consider Jack+Dean+Sam to be this found “family”, which meant he was still lost and operating under “blind faith” from Season 4-12, despite having followed the Winchesters, being sometimes called family all that time.  

My interpretation of it is of course possibility 2), with the implication that Castiel had also been lost from his blind faith in the Winchesters, and Dean in particular.  It did “come crashing down” for him, over and over, didn’t it? And becoming Jack’s father really was when he got some agency and independence back, being able to break with the Winchesters when Jack is concerned, despite his deep love and dedication for Dean.

Castiel is an angel, and he is driven by mission and service.  When he rebelled from heaven, he replaced his mission with Dean Winchester. Jorge Luis Borges said, “To fall in love is to create a religion with a fallible god.” It would certainly be like second nature for a fallen angel to attempt to reconstruct his faith in this way.  Blind faith and blind love are both self-perpetuating.  It is my belief, my hope, that Castiel finally understood it, after he “rediscovered himself” through his choice to be Jack’s father.

[vampireqrow-moved]

um its my birthday so wait until 12:01am pst to block me if u hate this post 🥰🥰

long story short the pansexual label is redudant and actively harmful (its far from the worst problem bisexuals face but it is one issue) and i dont hate anyone who identifies as pan because A) those ppl are bi like me and B) i used to identify as pan myself.

if thats enough for you to block me and make a callout post for me then i cant stop you but pretty please either read this whole thing or just wait a few minutes for my bday to end 🥰🥰

anyways im kicking off this point with some personal experiences bc i love to talk to myself. i got introduced to the pan label at maybe 10ish years old, and started identifying with it pretty much right away. i heard about it before bisexual and it was pitched as attraction to all genders and of course trans people. i was of course a trans ally! i had trans friends! i was trans also but hadnt figured it out yet! the way i had heard of it, there was no bisexual, there was no need for bisexual, and identifying differently was excluding trans people, which I was certainly against. being bisexual was trans exclusionary and why would i exclude trans people? the 'hearts not parts' slogan was thriving around this time and i genuinely said it and meant it.

as i started to become more online, mostly through roleplaying websites and tumblr here, i started hearing of bisexuality. it was supposedly an older term, so older people still used it, but it was common knowledge that pansexual was the better, inclusive label and younger people should adopt the new inclusive language instead of the old and transphobic words like bisexual. /s

and then bi and pan solidarity was all the rage! pansexual wasnt erasing bisexuality, why did anyone ever think that? bi and pan were two separate and complete identities that were valid and had to be respected or youre a mean exclusionist. and an asexual person, hearing people labelled exclusionist always meant they were excluding people from the lgbta community who rightfully belonged, denying peoples lived experiences, and generally telling people theyre wrong about their sexuality because theyre too young. and all of those things were bad and had hurt me, so it would be ridiculous to change labels and support "pan exclusionists" because they were just as bad as ace and aro exclusionists, and they were all the same people. or so it seemed to me at that time.

then, 'hearts not parts' began getting called out for blatant transphobic by insinuating that pansexual was the only identity that loved people for their "hearts" and personalities instead of those gross gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and even straights who only saw people for their "parts". (STRAIGHT PEOPLE ARE NOT OPPRESSED. I AM MERELY POINTING OUT THAT PANSEXUALITY WAS SHOWN AS ABOVE ALL OTHERS.) many pan people, including myself, began to denounce the slogan and insist pansexuality wasnt transphobic, there had just been a coincidence that a transphobic slogan was everywhere and a huge part of people's explantions of and associations with pansexuality. hint: it wasnt a coincidence.

from my perspective, this is when i began to see people discussing dropping the word pansexual. that seemed to be a huge step from getting rid off a transphobic slogan, and these people were just meanies who hated microlabels. and i like microlabels! as a genderfluid person, and someone who has friends who use specific aro and acespec labels, ive seen how people can use them to name specific experiences while still acknowleging their presence underneath umbrella terms like aromantic, asexual, nonbinary, lgbta, and for some people, queer.

pansexuals dont do that. they dont label pansexuality as a specific set of experiences under the bisexual umbrella, they see themselves as a separate identity, and even if they started to, the history of biphobia and transphobic undeniably linked to the existence of pansexuality in enough to stop being worth using. but i digress. pansexualitys shiny new definition that many people cling to is that pansexual is attraction to all genders. bisexual is two or more genders.

which. frankly? doesnt make any sense. my guess is that its supposed to be inclusive of nonbinary genders and those a part of cultures who historically have not had a binary gender system in the first place. i cannot speak for the latter group, but as a nonbinary person, its not inclusive. anyone can be attracted to nonbinary people. literally anyone. theres no way to know if everyone you meet is nonbinary or not. whether or not a nonbinary person reciprocates those feelings and is interested in pursuing a relationship is completely up to the individual, regardless of the sexualities of the people involved.

bottom line is that you cant number the amounts of genders someone can be attracted to, thus rendering those definitions pointless. people can be attracted to all kinds of people regardless of gender, even if they are gay, a lesbian, or straight. all people can date thousands of nonbinary genders if all people involved are interested and comfortable with it. numbering the genders you can be attracted to diminishes the post of nonbinary, as it is not a third gender, it simply any experience not fitting within the western concept of the gender binary (if the person so chooses to identify as such. if you cant tell already, the nonbinary experience is varied between every single nonbinary person.) important to note also that no widely accepted bisexual text defines bisexual as attracted to exclusively two genders or even the "two or more genders". i know this is used a lot but please read the bisexual manifesto. its free online i promise.

some people also claim pansexuals experience "genderblind" attraction while bisexuals feel differently attracted to different genders. this is very nitpicky for whats supposed to be two unconnected idenities, but thats only part of the problem. this definition is also not in any widely accepted bisexual texts, and bisexuality has never excluded those who experience genderblind attraction. i am in fact a bi person who experiences genderblind attraction. this does not mean i am not bisexual. it simply means i experience bisexuality differently than other bisexuals, and thats wonderful! no broad communities like bisexuality are expected to all share the same experience. we are all so different and its amazing were able to come together under the bisexual flag.

last definition, or justification i should say, is that yes these definitions are redundant and theyre the same sexuality, but people prefer different labels and thats okay. i agree in principle. people can define themselves as many things like homosexuals or gays or lesbians or queers or even other reclaimed slurs, while still not labelling themselves under the most "common" or "accurate" labels.

but pansexuality isnt the same as bisexuality, which may sound silly but hear me out. it has been continually used as a way to further divide bisexuals, who are already subject to large amounts of lgbta discrimination. "pansexuality was started by trans people who were upset with transphobia within the bisexual community! it cant be transphobic OR biphobic!" except of course that it can and it is. to say that trans people cant be transphobic is absurd. transmedicalism is right there, but thats not what im getting at. all minorities can have internal and sometimes external biases against people who are the same minority as them.

pansexuality was started as a way to be trans inclusive at the expense of labelling bisexuality as transphobic when its not. transphobia is everywhere, and bisexuals are not exempt. instead of working on the transphobia within the community, the creators of pansexuality decided to remove themselves from it to create a better and less tainted word and community, and the fact that pansexuality is intended to replace bisexuality or leave it for the transphobes goes to show a few things. pansexuality and bisexuality are inherently linked because the pan label is in response to the bi label. due to its origins, it is inherently competing with bisexuality and it cant be "reclaimed" from its biphobic roots. pansexuality is not a whole, separate, and valid label. its a biphobic response to issues within the bisexual community.

to top off this post, heres something a full grown adult once said to me. in person. she was my roommate. "i feel like im pan because im attracted to trans people. trans women, trans men, i could definitely date them. but not nonbinary people because thats gross and weird." she saw pan as trans inclusive and defined herself that way as opposed to bi which is shitty!

also a little extra tidbit about my experiences identifying as pan. i saw myself as better than every bi person. all of them. even my trans and bi friends. whenever they brought up being bisexual i would think to myself "why dont you identify as pansexual? its better and shows people you support trans people." because i was made to believe bisexuality didnt and was therefore inferior. thats the mindset that emerged from my time in the pansexual community. i am so sorry to all of my bisexual friends even if they never noticed. i love you all and hope you have a great day. this also goes to any bisexuals or people who identify as bi in anyway, such as biromantic or simply bi. love you all.

ummm yeah heres some extra reading i found helpful and relevant. here and here. also noooo dont disagree with me and unfollow me im so sexy 🥴🥴🥴

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: Ministry’s 1983 debut, With Sympathy! It’s not a metal album, and it’s not even an industrial album--it’s just some damn good synth-pop, despite who made it! Whether you’re curious where Uncle Al got his start and why he hates his first LP, or you just want some excellent New Romantic music, you should check this one out. Full transcript of the video under the break, as always.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be tackling the debut album of one of the best-loved industrial bands--though it actually isn’t all that “industrial.” This is With Sympathy by Ministry, first released in 1983. Ministry are one of those acts that have gone through many stylistic evolutions throughout their career, and if you’re familiar with some of their more acclaimed works, it may surprise you to learn where they started out. While With Sympathy was the first full LP released under the Ministry name, it’s not the very first thing in their discography--that honour goes to the 12” single “I’m Falling,” released in 1981.

Music: “I’m Falling”

With a springy post-punk bass line and a tinny mechanical rhythm, “I’m Falling” is a rough-edged piece of cold wave. It was released on the famous Wax Trax! Records, well-known as the home of many of the most illustrious industrial acts of the 80s and 90s, from Coil and Laibach to Meat Beat Manifesto. But for their follow-up LP, Ministry would work with a major label, Arista, and twist that bass-heavy sound into something with less hiss and more groove.

Music: “Effigy”

On the opening track, “Effigy,” a bright synth line artfully fences an electric guitar riff for dominance, showing the extent to which the sonic blueprint of British New Wave acts like A Flock of Seagulls prefigured With Sympathy. This is an album that could only have been conceived in 1983, in the full flush of synth-pop’s mainstream popularity, and it does feel like a cash-in on the success that imported European synth-pop achieved in the first few years of the 1980s--even in Ministry’s native America.

While I’ve covered some albums with somewhat controversial legacies before, With Sympathy probably sets the record for the work that’s most despised by its own creator: Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen has disowned this album even harder than Ralf Huetter did the Kraftwerk albums before Autobahn, even going so far as to claim its affable, fairly commercial sound was entirely the product of Arista’s executive meddling. As with all legends of how great art was made, I don’t particularly believe or disbelieve this legend, or think it’s possible to know if it’s “true”--I simply present it to you as a piece of context, a myth that informs the history of this work. It’s worth noting that the acerbic, aggressive track “Here We Go” is often held up as a form of evidence for this story.

Music: “Here We Go”

The lyrics of “Here We Go” seem to imply that the song is, itself, intended as some sort of offering to the pop charts, but the confrontational style of the vocals is hard to overlook. I suppose it’s somewhat catchy, but not exactly in the same way that a real hit song is--there’s a certain fetching incompetence behind it, that makes its energy that much more compelling. “Here We Go” was released as a single, but only as the fourth selection from the album to receive that honour. A similar quality of dissonance between words and music can be found on the closing track, “She’s Got a Cause.”

Music: “She’s Got a Cause”

Like so many pop-leaning albums by artists who belong more on the underground side of things, With Sympathy has this constant tension bubbling within, and that crass, subversive industrial mindset is straining within the soft prettiness of its synth textures. The darkly playful “She’s Got a Cause” presents us with a narrator who seems to enjoy an idealized abuse at the hands of their lover, in a manner that’s reminiscent of the common industrial preoccupation with sado-masochism. And yet, it sounds downright bubbly--surprisingly so for a closing track, too. The album’s third single, “Work For Love,” is another that plays with this dysfunctional relationship theme.

Music: “Work For Love”

With tight handclap percussion, a call-and-response hook, and even a rhythm break, “Work For Love” certainly delivers on a “work chant” feel. Like “She’s Got a Cause,” it’s a very fun track, on the surface, but the more you think about its gleeful commodification of love and intimacy, the more sour it seems. Given the expected hard R in “work,” this seems like as good a time as any to note frontman Al Jourgensen’s apparent decision to ape something of a working-class English accent, by far one of the most derided features of With Sympathy. Personally, though I’ve never found this all that offensive--there are many styles of music in which vocalists adopt something of a trade cant, and the conventional twang of country singers is as much of a stylistic convention of the music as country guitar. I tend to see a person’s art as a deliberately crafted creation, where the self might be re-imagined in creative ways, and I think the unrelenting demand for complete “authenticity” from artists is little more than rockist hogwash. But that’s just me.

The cover of With Sympathy is one that really puts the capital-R “Romantic” in “New Romantic.” An artfully splayed hand, with very vampish black nails, gestures ambiguously towards wilting, crumbling red roses, an iconic symbol of the impermanence of youth, love, and idealism. The out-of-focus backdrop for the image might be interpreted as veined marble, adding a classicizing touch, or perhaps a stormy sky filled with lightning, adding to the sense of melodrama. The title “With Sympathy” calls attention to the album’s gothic morbidity in a gleefully tongue-in-cheek fashion, and I wish it weren’t so easy to miss on the cover, placed as red-on-red text in the middle of the roses.

As I hinted at earlier, Ministry have never made anything else that sounds similar to With Sympathy. Their second LP, 1986’s Twitch, is a marked sonic departure, featuring harsh, mechanistic industrial assaults. An extremely different album, for sure, but one that I also like quite a lot, in its own way! By the 1990s, Ministry would adopt an increasingly guitar-driven sound, eventually blossoming from industrial into full-blown heavy metal--a transformation that makes With Sympathy look even more bizarre in the context of their catalogue.

Music: “Over the Shoulder”

While I’ve provided a lot of contextual information about With Sympathy, I do want to mention that when I first discovered this album as a teenager, I didn’t know much about industrial music at all, let alone Ministry. And I loved the album! At the end of the day, I think With Sympathy is a very enjoyable New Romantic album, in a vacuum, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in early 80s synth-pop. Don’t let those later metal albums scare you away from some damn good pop.

My favourite track on With Sympathy is “I Wanted To Tell Her,” the album’s second single. It gets off to a great start, playfully introducing us to an impressively groovy bass guitar, and features a duet between Jourgensen and one Shay Jones, who’s also credited as a co-writer on the song--the only writing credit on the album besides Jourgensen. While Jones would later release some house singles under her own name, she seems to have been a session musician at this point in her career, but does an astounding job for a hired gun. The instrumental of “I Wanted To Tell Her” is almost identical to a bonus track from the “I’m Falling” single called “Primental,” albeit with a bit more studio polish--but that extra bit of professionalism, and its superbly bitter and bitchy duet, push it over the top for me. That’s all for today--thanks for listening!

Music: “I Wanted To Tell Her”

[celestial-gold]

excuse me- sorry to be a bother but do you have any good books to learn about theistic satanism?

edit: mildly unrelated, but i just read your blog, and i suppose i should let you know im absolutely an anti-anti/pro-shipper so violate your own dni or block me idc either way

A reading list depends on what exactly you're trying to learn. There is no codified set of beliefs amongst theistic satanists, so there's no one book I can point you to that's like "okay here's our beliefs and origins and stuff." But I can send you in a few different directions:

If the satan youre interested in has Abrahamic origins, youll want to read the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran. There are also some non-canon stories like the Book of Enoch that may be of interest.

If you're looking to read about the history of satanism, unfortunately you're going to bump into Crowley and LaVey, whose ideas are shitty but ultimately important to our history. LaVeyan satanism is athiestic, but athiestic satanism and theistic satanism continue to impact each other, especially in history and popular culture, so reading a mix of both is kind of unavoidable.

If you're looking for philosophy, you're gonna be a bit on your own here. Every theistic satanist believes something different, though I'd say most of us lean queer/feminist/anti-fascist/anti-racist/anti-capitalist, so books on those topics (anything from the Communist Manifesto to How to be an Anti Racist by Ibram X Kendi), while not directly related to satanism, are part of a satanic mindset. Being an adversary to systemic societal problems and all that.

Personal books that I'd suggest reading? The Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Paradise Lost by Milton, Faust, and Dante's Inferno. Not all of them focus on a satan character, but the beliefs in the series deeply informed my ideas of satanism, and theyre also dope ass books to read for fun.

Attached below is a pretty decent reading list by another user (I haven't read them all and can't vouch for them) that might give you more specific titles and other places to start. They do have a kabbalah section which, while no one can stop you from reading them of course, the practice of kabbalah is closed to non-Jewish people.

https://brightestandbest666.wordpress.com/2020/01/12/a-suggested-satanic-reading-list/

[inkribbon796]

Dr. Strangelove and Ticking Timebombs Ch. 2: Slippery Fingers

Summary: A strange container, strange meet-ups and zero coincidences.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3

When the heroes got to the warehouse, they were stopped by the bomb squad and several individuals in full hazmat gear walking around. Abe was sitting on a bench and rubbing his temples, Oliver was standing next to him. His vape in his hand.

Which surprised Logan because Oliver usually didn’t travel this far from the base.

“What happened, did the situation get worse?” Logan asked.

“You could say that,” Abe rubbed his face and stood up. “I was planning on showing you what was in that container in person, but Bing was in some camera feed and he called Brighton’s Health and Safety, and they came with fucking hazmat suits. Then he came in and started clearing people out.”

“Why?” Logan asked in confusion.

“Lo,” Bing shot out of the closest electrical panel, “there you are. An’ Marvin, perfect, I was about ta call you.”[1]

“Yeh wanted me an’ Logic?”[2] Marvin asked in confusion.

“Yeah,” Bing answered. “So you can’t go inta the warehouse, they’re still sortin’ out the pitchblende an’ findin’ what else got contaminated.”[3]

“Excuse me, did you say “pitchblende” why is that here?” Logan demanded.

“What’s pitchblende?” Tommy asked

“It’s a radioactive ore,” Logan explained. “Uranium-235 and Uranium-238 can both be synthesized from the ore to build nuclear reactors, but why is it here?”

“Why are you guys here then?” Silver asked.

“Well the ship’s manifesto caused some red flags to get raised,” Abe answered. “Some good Samaritan called the cops and pulled the container to the side. But instead of there being people in the cargo, there were some crates. And one of them was a lead box full of what Bing identified as pitchblende. He was watching us through some camera because he was bored, or some shit. And I’m glad he did because he saw what was in the box when my partner lifted some of it out and he cleared all of us out instantly. He was looking out for us.”

“Do we know where this shipment was supposed to go after it reached port?” Logan asked.

“Apparently a truck was supposed ta[4] come fer[5] it last night,” Bing answered. “But they pulled the container an’[6] no one saw a truck pull up fer[5] it. So I bet it scared ‘em[7] off.”

“I believe you might be right,” Logan decided. Then he looked at Abe. “Was there a name orva destination?”

“Just a name, a Tuberculosis Gadget,” Abe read with the type of smile he usually had just before he hit someone . . . typically that someone was Wilford. “I’ve seen some bad fake names, but this one is pretty up there.”

“Tuberc—” Tommy repeated in recognition.

Which immediately got Abe and Logan’s attention.

“That name ring a bell, kid?” Abe asked.

“I’m not a kid,” Tommy shot back.

“Whatever big guy,” Abe rolled his eyes. “Do you know the name or not?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why it would show up here,” Tommy shrugged. “Don’t know what Tubs would want with somethin[8] radioactive. He’s a lawyer, not some crazy maniac.”

“Does he have other aliases, do you know this individual’s name?” Logan demanded.

Tommy hesitated for a second before he opened his mouth, but Ghostbur had started glancing around, half bored and half unable to put his concentration on any one thing for too long.

As the other heroes were trying to get information from Tommy, Ghostbur spotted two people off in the distance, watching them. He was so excited he spoke without thinking. “Tubbo? Hey Big Man, look, it’s Tubbo and Jack.”

The heroes looked at the two people just inside the cordoned off area. One was a man with a shaved head and red and blue glasses, the other was a much shorter man with a fluffy vest and brown hair that covered his eyes and most of the burns on his face. The second figure had a set of curled goat horns coming from his forehead.

“Tubbo?” Logan repeated in surprise, recognizing the burns.

Abe startled a bit, “Excuse me, but this is an active crime scene investigation, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Ghostbur, what are you doin’[9] here?” Tubbo asked before his eyes scanned the crowd before he just stared at Tommy. “Tommy, why the fuck are you workin’[10] with these assholes?”

Tommy sputtered in surprise, as the other heroes braced to intervene, “I am not some common pleb named “Tommy” or some such shit.”

“Tommy, don’t be a fuckin’[11] idiot,” Tubbo shouted. “I know it’s you, I’ve known you fer[5] fuckin’[11] years. You’ve only covered half yer damn face, an’[6] you didn’t even try to even talk deeper at the very least. You’re shit at hidin’[12] yer[13] identity.”

Tommy paused for a second or two, then said in a deeper voice, “I am not Tommy.”

“That’s worse, mate,” Jack Manifold told him, rolling his eyes behind his 3D-colored glasses. “Please use yer[13] normal voice. That one’s just complete dogshit.”

“Well fuck you too,” Tommy scowled, his tone a touch quieter.

Logan’s head was spinning, unable to reconcile the young man at the bed and breakfast who loved bees, with this same young man arguing in front of him. His whole body felt on edge. “Did you order this shipment?”

“Yer[14] gonna half to be specific,” Tubbo asked with a smile. “I order a lot ‘a[15] things.”

Jack looked at the amount of heroes, “Maybe we should just—”

“Save it, you can go, but I’m not goin’[16] anywhere,” Tubbo warned with almost an angry growl to his voice.

“This is an investigation, you can’t just be here,” Silver warned.

“Were you here to pick up a shipment from dock 14?” Logan asked.

“The one with my new smoke detectors an’[6] lanterns?” Tubbo smiled.

The other heroes were confused, but Abe and the androids weren’t.

“That’s not the only thing in there you sick fuck,” Abe spat.

“So it is yours?” Logan reeled a bit, Tubbo’s smile didn’t drop. “I don’t understand, you own a bed and breakfast, what on Earth do you want with Uranitie?”

“Ehhh, science marches on, big guy,” Tubbo shrugged.

“This not just for the sake of science,” Logan rebutted, a desperate tone to his voice. “This is a potential ecological and natural disaster waiting to happen. What do you intend for these items?”

Tubbo’s answer was given with terrifying calm, “To prove a point, really.”

“Ta[4] us?” Marvin gestured to them. “We get it, yeh[17] wanna be some big scary threat. We’ve faced worse.”

“Nah,” Tubbo dismissed. “You’re still human. Don’t care what you think ‘a[15] me.”

Then he gestured to Logan, “I meant ta[4] them.”

“Me?” Logan scoffed in disbelief as the pads of his fingers tapped once to his chest. “I thought you proved your point more than effectively at your establishment. But clearly I was gravely misinformed about your character.”

“I meant demons in general,” Tubbo dismissed. “Don’t take it personally. Although speaking ‘a[15] you, how lifelike are yer[13] little arms because the one that liked spiders had a whole personality an’[6] everythin’[15]. Did you give him that or is he naturally that skiddish. Hope it’s the second one because that’s seriously fucked up, dude.”

“The—” Logan felt alarm pass through him, he hadn’t been aware that Virgil and Tubbo had done more than look at each other across the game room of the bed and breakfast. “When did you speak with him?”

Tubo’s entire demeanor seemed to change. “The purple one? Can you not see everythin’[18] the others do?”

The skin and hair on Logan’s body stood on end, as if one current was going through him, “I think you must have confused me with someone else.”

“That depends on if you’re still the one who said you liked my bees,” Tubbo asked.

“I don’t think it wise of me to give my identity to you,” Logan warned.

Tubbo nodded, “Then tell yer[13] boss that Dream wants to speak to him. Has fer[5] a while now, we just haven’t been able to get past his door guards.”

Tubbo and Jack then looked up at something.

“Well, I think you’ve all made yer[13] point clear so you win an’[6] get to keep my stuff,” Tubbo shrugged. “G.G, we’ll just be off then.”

“No wait a second,” Abe ordered as Jack and Tubbo pulled out some green eye orbs and were already turning.

“Give me those!” Marvin yelled as the heroes raced forward. The orbs went sailing as Silver and Marvin raced for the two of them. Marvin grabbed onto Tubbo’s arm. “Yer not goin’ anywhere yeh—”[19]

The eyes opened and Silver flew back in surprise but Marvin didn’t and felt something rip Tubbo right out of his grasp.

Marvin screamed in pain as all of his fingers broke and the two people were gone.

“Fook!”[20] Marvin shouted in pain, holding his hand. “Motherfooker!”[21]

“Marv,” Silver began. “I’ll call the docs.”

Marvin screamed as he tried to keep his fingers still. “No, I’ll go after, we need ta[4] find these guys.”

“****!”[22] Bing cursed. “When did someone ****[20] with the cameras?”

“What?” Abe shouted and raced back into the warehouse. Logan was already on the phone with Henrik for Marvin.

Tommy and Ethan were a bit torn on who to go with for a bit but he shouted for Tommy to start getting into communication with Jackie and the other heroes.

Bing and Oliver were faster into the warehouse, keeping Abe out until they were sure it was clear. When the two androids got inside they saw several agents and hazmat workers lying dead around the facility. Arrows sticking out of some of them, bullet holes in others, and one or two of them had three lined up puncture wounds like they’d been stabbed with a trident or a multiple-pronged weapon like it.

Besides the dead people, the boxes were all missing. There were a few stray smoke detectors and a lantern or two that had been thrown by the wayside and were probably broken. But the lead boxes were gone, as were the box of magical crate

Bing tested the radioactive signature on the air and still found it slightly contaminated and therefore unsafe.

“Hey Bing,” Oliver messaged the other android.

“Yeah?” Bing replied as he was messaging Abe and giving him pictures and a report of the situation.

“Found something,” Oliver held up a small box that had come from the crate of magical supplies. Bing took a few pictures of it before opening the box and found that someone from the investigation team had already started labeling it. It was full of chunks of raw coconut.

“Weird,” Bing commented, taking more pictures and then placing the box in a radioactive-leak proof container so they could decontaminate it later.

They had missing radioactive material to find.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Accessibility Translations:

1. there you are. And Marvin, perfect, I was about to call you.

2. You wanted me and Logic?

3. So you can’t go into the warehouse, they’re still sorting out the pitchblende and finding what else got contaminated

4. to

5. for

6. and

7. them

8. something

9. doing

10. working

11. fucking

12. hiding

13. your

14. You’re

15. of

16. going

17. you

18. everything

19. You’re not going anywhere you—

20. Fuck!

21. Motherfucker!

22. Shit!