#we literally went through our own genocide

[flamingo-strikes]

Nothing more embarrassing than the Desis running around every loophole they can find not to support Palestine. “Oh Arabs are racist to us. Why should we care?” Because it’s the right fucking thing to do, you sack of shit. If you are a South Asian whose own country has been violently colonized and oppressed, and you can watch all these atrocities and still only think about yourself, you’re just a waste of life atp. No backbone, no values, you don’t deserve to be here. Like yes, I know South Asians get treated horribly and taken advantage of in Arab countries. I know a lot of them look down on us. Lmao I’ve been called a p*ki by only Arab men. But I don’t care how they see me because I care more about Palestinians suffering, or any innocents suffering in SWANA countries. Because a literal genocide is more important than your feelings at the moment. Those children in Gaza haven’t wronged you. If you are Desi and don’t support Palestine, you’re either violently islamophobic or can’t grasp the idea of colonialism with the lack of brain cells in your head.

[4ft10tvlandfangirl]

You know what's incredibly upsetting? Seeing so many pro-Israel or pro-Zionist posts parrot that the only reason anyone could be pro-Palestine or call for a free Palestine is because they hate Jews.

I know what this tactic is meant to do and I know how making people apathetic, how discrediting their knowledge of a topic or questioning the genuineness of their empathy and other similar tactics are used to benefit the oppressive group but it's still pissing me off.

I am a descendant of enslaved people.

Our history lessons always begin with the slaughter & genocide of the indigenous peoples that were here first, primarily the Taino, who thankfully have a few descendants living in isolation along with the protected Maroon villages. It is normal throughout high school to take history trips to former great houses & plantations and see for ourselves the sites where our ancestors were brutalized and massacred; the weapons and tools of torture preserved and on display so that we knew but a taste of what they went through.

My university is built on the grounds of a former plantation. There are businesses and homes built on top of mass graves & on top of sites of slaughter. There is literally no escaping our colonial history because it touches everything. Our last names are not even our own! Most of us have English, Scottish and Irish last names given by the plantation owners to our ancestors. Or you know...because many children were the product of rape. We cannot accurately trace our true heritage more than 4-5 generations back because most families have no complete records.

A lot of you like to bring up grandparents. Cool. My great-great grandmother was the daughter of a mulatto free woman and a white Scottish sailor. She was white passing. Because land and work were hard to get here under colonial rule, she left the island for a better life with her husband who was a Cuban born mulatto and they ended up living in the US through WWII and after. They were considered an interracial couple (black & white rather than both being seen as mixed) and could not live in certain places because it was illegal. Papa couldn't find work, was treated horribly, because he had darker skin but Grandma found work passing as white and was treated much better. She worked 2-3 jobs to provide for them and their 5 children.

But, there were times when she would appear darker like if she was out in the sun too long or her curls would start to show and a Jewish neighbour/coworker suggested to her it might be safer to tick Jewish on forms rather than white if her race was ever questioned. I suppose due to that kindness the family formed friendships within the Jewish community where they lived & Grandma's eldest son actually married a Jewish woman. His kids and grandkids are all Jewish and they still live in the US.

I share this specific thing because I have very real concerns for those members of my family. But while I worry for them in this time of increasing anti-semitism and absolutely decry any verbal/physical attacks against them, I am still going to speak against things that are wrong. What Israel is doing is wrong. Of course as a non-Jewish person I can acknowledge I may misstep and if I say/do something that is genuinely anti-semitic I'll take the correction. But if your aim is just to intimidate me into silence it's not going to work.

And trying to tell me 'well black people are not welcomed there or black people wouldn't get treated well in Palestine' as if that affects the cost of bread. Guess what? Black people face racism everywhere. Even among our own and colonialism has a lot to do with that. That same grandmother, I was fortunate to grow up with her in the latter part of her life after she returned to the island and every time I went out with her there were questions of whether my family worked for her. Or why was I, this little black girl with this little old white lady as if I meant her harm. She had to say proudly, "This is my granddaughter." How other people view me or treat me isn't going to stop me from speaking up for what's right.

With the history of my people I could never ever ever side with the oppressor. Ever. Whether its here in the west or in the east, whether it's happening to my fellow black people, or any other group of people, I cannot in good conscience stand with the oppressor. My ancestors were forcibly stripped of their humanity, called savages, animals, barbarians and all of that was brutally beaten into them. That same language and similar acts of brutality are being used against Palestinians today.

You think you can cower me into staying silent on that? With unfounded accusations of hate? I refuse.

N.B. - my use of the word mulatto here is strictly to provide the historical context of how my grandparents were seen/classified and spoken of. It is not a term we use.

[superb-fox]

I wanna talk about how Sousou no Frieren treats heroes and demons, because in my opinion it's masterfully done.

We really only learn about one hero, Himmel. Sure there's the Hero of the South but what do we really know about him besides he had future sight and he died? I'll focus on Himmel. I think what sets Himmel apart is how he acts, in typical hero stories they're portrayed as kind, strong, willing to do what's right, all that nice stuff and while I do think those are good traits for a hero, Himmel is shown differently. We almost never see him fight, every time we see him it is in relation to an action he took that influenced people for the better. He takes on countless detours and quests because he can't turn down people in need, every where he goes he's doing good, when people talk about him they never talk about how strong he was or how cool he was it's always about how his act(s) of kindness changed their lives. They're happier, better people because he came through their town. He changes everywhere he goes for the better because of who he is and how he acts. He quite literally changed the world not because he killed the demon king, but because everywhere he went he improved people's lives, and those people because they are better change more people's lives and it spreads and spreads and spreads until the world is better. From random towns people to our main characters, everyone is better because of him. Look at Frieren for example, a complete stoic who before Himmel just was living her life in the woods doing whatever. But after? She takes on an apprentice, travels from place to place continuing the good Himmel did, she learned so much kindness from him in the relatively short time they spent together. Pre-hero party Frieren would have gone to a town, blended into the background, and moved on. But now? She's taking on quests, helping people, and making lives brighter. Why? In her own words it's what Himmel would have done. Fern owes her life to Himmel despite never meeting him because Heiter took her in because that's what Himmel would have done. Frieren looks after her after Heiter's passing because that's what Himmel would have done. Think of all the good she's doing traveling with Frieren just because of that! It ripples outward forever because of a great hero's influence. In other words, he's not a hero because of his great feats or his power, it's because of who he was and that's how you write a truly great hero. 

Now let's talk about demons. People with third grade reading comprehension have made the comparison to real life peoples. That the text is saying that demons being just an irredeemable evil race is racist and compare it to how in real life people do that to justify genocide, but this cannot be further from the truth. Demons in this world are an offshoot of humans like elves and dwarves are. They're similar enough to look like humans, speak like humans, their magic is something special to them but similar enough that with study humans can use it just as well. However demons are truly the farthest thing from humanity you could be. The best way to describe them is how when you see two animals that look so similar but they're in entirely different evolutionary families. How a rabbit and a hare look similar but are so SO very different. Demons are closer to animals in that they do what they can to survive. They trick, they deceive, they hunt. These are not evil things, this is nature. A lion is not evil for hunting in packs to eat one antelope, a bird is not evil for walking a certain way to imitate rain and attract a worm. However when it's applied to something that looks and acts so incredibly human it can be seen that way. The lion ganging up on someone is not a fair fight, the bird is lying to and tricking the worm, these are absurd statements. Demons are a divergent evolution of humanity that cannot comprehend the traits that make us human but will use them to hunt us. They do not understand malice or bonds or guilt or love, they are solitary beings that understand power and magic. They biologically cannot understand it, them learning these emotions is like if a cat suddenly sprouted tentacles, it just can't happen. But because they lack the very traits that make us human while looking so human, they appear evil to us. How could something so human-like act so inhuman? Perform such evil acts without a seconds thought? But they're not evil, they can't even understand evil. Them using maternal love to have someone drop their guard and become easy prey is such a basic thing like waking up in the morning they cannot comprehend why people think it's bad. The problem isn't that one is evil and one is good, it's that evolution set these two species on such polar opposite courses that they truly can never understand each other. Yet they're still so close that there's always that feeling of that things could be worked out, that these two peoples can co-exist, but it is just biologically impossible. And that's tragic, that's heart breaking, for one species to exist peacefully the other must die. These beings so close to us yet so far must die. There's no way around it, no negotiating, no compromise, evolution and nature have played this sick dance to pit these two brothers against each other and it absolutely should hurt your soul, but it must happen.

[gffa]

I saw your post defending the way Jedi adopt the children/accept them into their culture, and I absolutely loved it! It was so well-informed, and you are right: It is all there in the original content!

I find it very ironic that many people spew these lies about the Jedi when that’s exactly what the Empire did. Iirc, this argument of Jedi being “kidnappers” was actually fueled by Emperor Palpatine and the Empire in their campaign against the Jedi. They wanted to discredit them and make the people turn against them so that they could erase them all more easily. So I find it very ironic that these lies are now being upheld by some people as the truth. (Really, have people forgotten the Empire was created bases on the Nazi’s and their own racist strategies?)

You are not inmune to the Empire’s propaganda.

Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not as good at pulling examples and proof from all the SW content as you are.

Hi! Thank you for the very sweet ask! Navigating stuff in fandom like this can be difficult at times, because there has to be room for compassion and tolerance for disagreement, like it's fine if people disagree with my views, I'm not your mom, I'm not telling you want to do or say, especially since this is fiction, these are made up space stories. But there also has to be room to understand that sometimes our commentary on fictional stories are echoes of reflection of real world attitudes--we can't just go around spewing racist, sexist, homophobic commentary and be like, "It's just fiction, you can't get upset!" There's no easy line for any of this, no single hard set in stone rule for when it's truly just fiction and when it's an echo of a real world attitude, especially in Star Wars, which often draws influence from a lot of non-Western sources and traditional Western sources. (My general rule of thumb is: I think it's fair to criticize those things through the influences they have, but if your criticism is then ended with, "So that's why we shouldn't have or acknowledge any Buddhism/Black people/queer people/women in Star Wars!" then fuck right on off with that.) And I also understand a lot of the anti-Jedi attitudes (or at least what I've personally experienced of them) because I've talked a bunch of times about how I started out as pretty Jedi-critical myself! I did the whole, "They had grown stagnant and refused to evolve with the galaxy, so they needed to be wiped out." thing because nobody had framed it explicitly as what it was: a genocide. It wasn't until a friend and I were talking and they mentioned that lens of it that it just sort of crashed down on me, oh, that's literally what it was and genocide is never justifiable. I did the whole, "The Jedi failed Anakin and taught him to repress his emotions." thing as well, because I saw it all over the place in fandom and just automatically folded it into my view, until I went back and actually watched Lucas' movies and Lucas' animation (first six movies + first six seasons of TCW) and read his interviews, which blew me onto my ass when I saw Obi-Wan being supportive of Anakin, when I saw Anakin not listening to the advice he was given, when I saw that Jedi were expressing emotion all over the place, when I saw they were respecting other Force traditions in the galaxy. I can't speak to why so many people think badly of the Jedi, there's probably a thousand reasons and I'm only vaguely aware of like half of them, but I do think that it's often unpopular to promote the idea of emotional regulation already being achieved, instead of something to be struggled with. I think we're all primed by a lot of mainstream media saying that an explosion of anger is what will save the day. I think there's so much anger in the world today that we're all angry and being told to let go of it feels really insulting at times. (But, as someone who has lost years of my life when I was younger to anger, I gotta say, I am so much better off having let go of as much of that shit as I can. It was poison in my veins, carrying that anger around. I lost so many friendships and opportunities and just time to being miserably mad about stuff.)

I'm getting off topic of the kidnapping aspect about the Jedi, but a lot of it starts to swirl together in what I've experienced (especially people who try to put this stuff on my posts--thankfully, that's died down/I block the people who won't respect boundaries) and so I kind of bounce from one aspect of it to another.

I do think it's good to talk about these things--both from "it's fun to analyze the content of the story on a meta level" perspective and "here's how this echoes into and from the real world" perspective, like I enjoy saying, okay, here's what's actually said in the movies/TCW, but also I think talking about how the Jedi are Buddhist influenced is important because that means they're going to have values that are meant to be reflected in that and Western fandom has a really big problem of being derisive about non-Western influences or automatically saying they're wrong. (I come from anime/manga fandoms, let me tell you, it's a big problem.)

And, yeah, in a way where it's really awful, but I think one of the most well-done things Disney's Star Wars has done is that it's really focused on showing that the Empire was a fascist one and the propaganda they used about the Jedi are ones that are super relevant to the conversation.

[sherylhooper]

There's a reason that even tho my country and my people push very hard to have us included in Europe, and discard everything that make us similar to Asia, I don't count myself as just European but more Asian, because our country is moatly located in Asia and also because the Silk Road and other Asian coutries' culture is very similar to us. That's the conversation for another time tho but when someone reads this, I want them to know that foreigners may call us white because of our skin color (even tho my ethnicity is very diverse 😒) but they still always count us as Asians because we aren't white and European enough for them.

What I want to say with that is that as much as I like that damnei, and especially MXTX books became popular, western people with their idiotic ideas make my skin crawl.

Unpopular opinion here but Wen remnants weren't innocent just because they haven't done what Wen Ruohan did. If someone doesn't something horrible, doesn't make them innocent and good. This is why I can't stand western people. Someone made a tiktok about how horrible Jiang Cheng was for leading the siege against Wei Wuxian and how horrible he was and how heroic WWX is and I wanted to make something very very clear.

MXTX herself very clearly wrote during Sunshot campaign that "no Wen took Sunshot Campaign seriously". Here it doesn't say that every Wen, besides Wen Qing and Wen Ning and Wen Qing's branch, took Sunshot Campaign seriously. No, she very clearly wrote what she wrote. People assume way too much that Wen Qing couldn't leave Wen Ruohan's side. I'm sorry but yes, yes, she could, She could've taken Wen Ning with her, gone to Lan Xichen or Nie Mingjiu and given up as a prisoner, but she didn't.

The fact very much remains: neither she, nor Wen Ning or others gave up on Wen Rouhan. They clearly expected him to win (and he was very much winning before WWX turned up with undead army and turned the tides.).

Now I want to address another thing and it's called POW, i.e. what Wen Remnants were.

The phrase, Prisoner of War for the first time, has been used in 1610 but the idea of losing side of war being "either slaughtered of enslaved" has been there since ancient times: Romans, Greeks, Turk Sejuks, Turk Ottomans, Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, etc. They all have taken people from losing side of war as prisoners.

Now I want to adress what these POW were used as - "Typically, victors made little distinction between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although they were more likely to spare women and children. Sometimes the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a practixe known as raptio."

My people were part of raptio many times, as our enemies captured women from my country because they were beautiful and they wanted to "verbessern" (improve) their blood and bred them for that purpose as disgusting as it sounds, this is a very reason why many foreign leaders in history, especially in Asia, had my people as grandmas or mothers, most of the time unwillingly and my people also took their own life before that kind of fate would befall on them too.

That was what happened to women prisoners after war most of the time, as for men, they were used to work manually almost every time for their captors.

Now, as much as Jin Guangshan and Jin Zixun make me very very angry, (not because how they acted against Wens but because they were simply disgusting people) they weren't wrong to take Wen Remnants in and make them work manually till they died (what could be argued that Jin Zixun was wrong in following that bat and capturing and impriaoning WN and his group during nighthunt). If everything WWX acting the way he acted was abnormal. He literally stole and freed them and went to the enemy's side.

Here is where I want people reading this to forget their western opinions and Geneva Convention (which was created in 1949 AFTER two world wars.). I know that most of them and their countries have never been to war in near history (USA involvement in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in iran, in many other countries doesn't count and neither does WW1 and WW2), have never had their people expeciance genoc!de so I want them to shut their mouth and listen to us, who have had wars at the hands oppressors and colonizators for more than 2000 years, yes two thousand years, who have experienced genoc!de multiple times. Even nowdays 20% of my country is occupied by our oppressors and we had 2 wars in last 32 years also at the hands of them. In 1992-1993 and in 1998 my people experienced ethnic cleansing alongside with our allies at the hands of Russians. And last war we had was in 2008, which I remember very well and it was hardly a war and more likely bombing the civilians!

Keep that in mind that I actually was in Jiang Cheng's shoes and understand that I also have a sibling. If, God above forbid, my sibling after what happened to us, got up, defected and went to Russians side, I'd kill that traitor with my own two fucking hands!!

Does people even understand what kind of bullshit they are speaking when they say that WWX was actually not wrong to take "innocent" Wens' side? There was no such thing as innocent people there!! They were elders, sure, but you can't make me believe that if they were younger they wouldn't fight in that war or that WRH wouldn't force them to fight. Did anyone from Wen Remnants say "oh, Wen Ruohan was such a bad person, we weren't actually on his side even tho we never defected during the war but just because we have done nothing against others, we are innocent". That doesn't work like that. They couldn't have been innocent when they stayed by WRH's side in the war!! At best, they simply were indifferent in it! They alao profited from war. Funding, medicine, etc have to come from somewhere, right?

Now I want to adress Wen Ning and Wen Qing and why I don't particulary care about them. Wen Qing was a healer, we have to understand that today's medical ethics that was created by Thomas Percival, is different from what physicians thought was correct in antient times, especially in ancient China.

"The traditional Chinese medical ethics emphasized heavily on physician's morality and set high standarts for medical practice. To summarie the ideas in these historical works, the phyaicians nuat rescue every like without any preconditions."

At that time there was no such thing as patient's automony. For that reason we can't fault WQ when she performed the golden core transplatation. She just did what WWX asked her.

There'a one thing that I'm gonna argue tho. When WQ and WN saved Jiang Cheng from other Wens, WQ told WWX that their debt from now on was null and void.

So when people say that Jiang Cheng should've always be in debt with her, is actually not correct. I also want to argue that she trully only cared for her brother. When she fell on her knees in front of WWX, she only wanted him to save Wen Ning. Nowhere did she say "oh, Jin clan is treating my branch so horrible, we all want to save ourselves. Help me save them."

Now about Wen Ning. He is a guy who has no other personality than just being m nice. He helped JC and WWX after Jiang Sect annihilation and that was also because he was nice. He is just a nice guy, nothing more, nothing less. He just exists to be "just nice guy".

I can't seem to force myself to care about him.

Someone on above mentioned tiktok commented and I quote:

"there is nothing jc went through that was significantly worse than what others went through yet people baby him so much 🙄 sry i don’t like mr genocide everyone"

The tiktok author replied:

"NO FR like “he lost his family” hate to break it to u bud but so did like. Everyone else … it was kind of a war,,,"

Did I read it correctly or did they simply compared Jiang Sect Genocide to people losing one or two relatives in the war??

The author in their bio had "free Palestine". Unfortunatelly that comment here clearly speaks that they don't actually care about anyone's genocide and they probably only do it for the trend.

Apparently these people also think that Jiang Cheng hunted down that tortured "pure innocent Demonic Cultivators for fun".

Are they dumb or do they trully think that these Demonic Cultivators all were like WWX and not blood-hungry like Xue Yang?? The only remotelly normal Demonic Cultivator was WWX!! Nowhere did MXTX say, even in interviews that JC hunted Demonic Cultivators for fun! Some people have never read a book in their life and it shows!

Especially when they act as if WWX was second coming of Jesus and has never done anything wrong.

First of all, WWX did, in fact, have an army in Burial Mounds, the army of undead, fierce corpses and ghosts. That army may not have Wen Remnants, but it was still an army! Also wasn't WWX the one who wrote death threats with his own blood and sent them different sects? He, obviously, wasn't in right mind at that time but he really was the threat to the Jianghu. He was arrogant and, what we know is that Jiang Cheng led the siege (please, remember that we also hear that from other people - who love rumors and speculation and etc. We don't know for sure if JC led the siege or not.).

WWX did betray him. He left him alone when he took Wen Remnants. They were brothers!! What kind of older brother abandons their little sibling? Wei Ying also indirectly caused Jiang YanLi's death. Mind you, Wei Ying didn't die on the same day as JYL, but three months later.

That alone left Jiang Cheng trully alone with a newborn nephew!!

It's a wonder he didn't go out of his mind.

Just because WWX suffered doesn't mean other people, especially Jiang Cheng didn't lose everything in the world. He had to revive a dead sect with his two very hands in his early twenties.

Some people also don't understand what kind of power vacuum Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan's deaths created! Take cultivation out of the novel and you are left with 5 big sect with Sect Leaders who are like the kings in their own land! People pay taxes here canonically. Do some people trully believe that Yumeng Jiang would remain untouched when there was no Jiang Sect left to rule it? Jin Guangshan and other sects, big or small, would start fighting over the land. Jiang Cheng had more problems at his hands than caring about leftover Wens and the problems that Wei Wuxian created because at that time, when he stole Wens from Jin Sect, he was still a part of AND the Head Disciple of Jiang Sect 🤌🏻

Wen Ruohan wiped out one of the 5 big sects and he may have done the same if Wei Wuxian didn't insult Wen Chao, but he indirectly gave Wen Chao the reason to hate Jiang Sect even more than his father's brainwashing and people think it's not that important.

People also genuinely hate Lan Xichen because he never cared about Wen Remnants enough to take them in or save them 🤦‍♀️

Wei Wuxian should also have cared enough for his sect to at least help JC revive it or something as his Head Disciple. Him giving JC his golden core meant nothing at that time, I said what I said! Especially because he didn't know! 🤷‍♀️ I blame Jiang Fengmian for raising him all highty and mighty and lone wolf or smt, but that's the discussion of another time.

I trully believe that some people read the novel with their eyes closed! This here is exactly why I hate westerns so much when they seriously think that JC is the worst character and hate him more than Wen Ruohan, Jin Guangyao/Meng Yao and Jin Guangshan 🤌🏻

MDZS fandom is clearly very toxic and I'm very glad I'm not a part of it. I'll stay in my SVSSS bubble for eternity.

P.S. just so I can make something very clear. The Siege didn't happen because of Wen Remnants as Jin Zixun allowed WWX to take them away, but because WWX killed Jin Zixuan, who was a sect heir and also husband of his Shijie. Wen Ning killed him indirectly, WWX had no control over his abilities, he was powerfull but with no control and his mind was deteriorating at that time. He was a danger to the cultivation world. Siege happened because of him, against him, and Wen Remnants died as a colletal demage. Morally right or wrong, what he created was a political disaster and it ended with every Wen, excluding WN and Wen Yuan, and with himself dead!

UPDATE. someone from China reblogged this post and called me quite horrible things, but that's okay. They also questioned if my people have even gove thro genocide at all. Okay, denial of my people's genocide is not new either. What they said next was that Siege of Burrial Mounds was a genocide of Wen Remnants. No, actually it wasn't. They died as an collateral demage because Wei Wuxian was there, that's the tragedy. I'm gonna repeat once again, Siege happened because of WWX, not because of Wens.

Another thing what they said is that people have empathy that I lack and I'm a horrible person for that, and I should be ashamed for even thinking that or that I'm Chinese literature to spread my hate, etc, etc.

My empathy died when things such these happened to my people.

Mind you, this is only one, one single city and it's not even the whole list of crimes they have done. I'm gonna find and update this post once again, cuz it's clear that I need to spread awereness, I won't let their names be forgotten...

Today the remains of 12 people, who were considered as "lost during war", were found and transferred to my country for burial and it was very emotional as many remains still haven't been found after 30+ years yet and people still hope that there could be even a single bone found and returned so they can bury it.

So, yeah, I bury whatever empathy I have left with the remains of people everytime something like this happens. Every time people deny the genocide of my people, every time these people call US colonizers and many degrading things, saying that we oppressed them when in reality it was other way around, when we couldn't speak our language, when they called it the "dog's language" and and laughed at it, couldn't get any service if we spoke it and they mockingly told us to speak "human language", which to them was Russian, WE were oppressed in our own country and land and they took everything from us and made the world believe that we were oppressors and colonizers, they even stole the name of our region for themselves....

And no one in the world did anything about this because they didn't care. So no, everytime I'll always imagine myself in JC's shoes that I'm asked to care about ethnic Russians and Apsuas, I simply can't care, don't care and won't even care unless justice is served, unless all the land they have stolen is returned, unless they all apologize for what they have done and stop spreading lies about us....

So, good for you, if you have empathy and are a better person, unfortunately, I am not...

[unsentlettersforpalestine]

Friday, April 12, 2024

To you, fellow human

What time did you get up? Did you get enough sleep? How was your morning? What did you have for breakfast? You took shower with clean water, didn't you? Did you hear some birds chirping ? The morning breeze was certainly very tranquilizing, wasn't it? You were able to do your morning routine without any hindrance, right? There might be some inconveniences during the day but overall it's been quite a good day, right?

While you are spending your day with your family, relatives, friends, coworkers, clients, neighbors, strangers, or even only by yourself, don't forget to take some time alone to express gratitude. Contemplate about all the blessings God has given to you. Realize that you are living a damn good life. Make no mistake, I am not trying to belittle your problems or the shit you've been dealing with, but trust me when I say: you're lucky. Because you really are.

You might unintentionally come up with some grievances about your life every now and then, but be brutally honest and tell me, on a scale from one to ten, how much you are grateful for your life? Five? Six? Seven? Eight? If your answer is under 5, then I am begging you, please, sit down for a couple of minutes and listen to me.

I know we all have our own problems—both major and minor. But tell me, has someone ever bombed your house? Have you ever felt afraid of being kidnapped or ruthlessly tortured or sexually assaulted or shot at? Have you ever lost a bunch of family members and relatives and neighbors and friends at the same time? Do you, by any chance, know what it feels to experience forced starvation not for a day, not for a week, but for a really long period of time? Have you ever ran out of water, electricity, and fuel for months? The answer for all these questions is a clear no, right?

You are lucky. I am lucky. We are all lucky. Because despite everything, we are living a decent life. We have all that we need (or most of what we need or whatever) and we have never gone through what Palestinians have been going through for more than 75 years. Even the biggest ordeal that we ever went through is nothing compared to what Palestinians are constantly going through.

Some of us might complain about the same/ similar menu we have on a regular basis, don't we ever realize what a luxury it is have enough foor and be able to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day? Palestinians are literally being starved to death by Israshit and some of them don't even have a small bag of flour to make simple bread and look at us, here we are shamelessly throwing our foods away. Palestinians feel happiest when they can get a bag of flour and a glass of drinkable water but here, we are constantly grousing over trivial matters—be it intentionally or unintentionally.

It's worth nothing that regardless of what our respective life looks like, we are all privileged. Because unlike Palestinians, we are living a pretty decent life. We are never living under continual brutal occupation. We are not being massacred. We are never going through a fucking genocide. We are safe. We are good, we truly are.

Just a friendly reminder that as a human being, we have a duty to bear witness, be in solidarity and support Palestinians in any shape or form. I am not asking you to ceaselessly watch harrowing pictures and videos coming out of Palestine. I am simply asking you to have some sympathy with them. Do something, anything, to help them. Use the voice that has been bestowed upon by God for you. Spread awareness. Educate yourself and the people around you about Palestinian cause. Go to the nearby protests if you can. Have uncomfortable conversations with both friends and strangers. Don't stop talking about Palestine. Always remember Palestinians in your day-to-day life. And most importantly, keep making prayer for them.

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[carlyraejepsans]

you just mentioned in the tags ''toriel stopping sans from [cutting the humans' journey short] by killing them'' ive always wondered, do you think sans would actually have killed the human if he hadnt made the promise to toriel? i think you mentioned once that the ''youd be dead where you stand'' moment is another one of sans fumbling attempts to seem threatening but despite that, do you think he wouldve actually done it ? if hed seen them kill monsters or during a pacifist run? or do you think it wouldve played out similarly to canon in the genocide route or that he wouldve been just less involved with the human during their journey in a pacifist run?

(ok i found this in my drafts and I don't remember where i was going with this, but i kinda went off so have this as it is lol)

i keep 5 versions of sans that are Ever So Slightly Different According to How I Interpret Different Details simultaneously rotating in my brain at all times. so uhhhhh yes and no.

jokes aside, I'm starting to gravitate more towards the interpretation that like... the threat he made at the restaurant? full on jackassery. shithead extraordinaire. he WAS messing with us.

but would he have tried to kill a human if toriel hadn't made him promise otherwise?

...yeah i think so. let me elaborate

here's the thing though: i think people put way too much weight on that! i mean it's a fighting RPG, every single other character—bar toriel—fights you to either capture and have you sent to the capital or to kill you themselves. either way they want your SOUL. papyrus... is his own neutral case here with his refusal to kill you.

my point being: every monster you meet wants to fight you. it's through that fight (or what happens afterwards) that you actively challenge their point of view and befriend them.

you don't go through this with sans. he never fights you, so you never need to change his mind because that belief was challenged before we even got to the underground, through toriel's words alone. that's... kind of admirable?

but it does frame his actions in a very creepy way from our point of view in-game. not to forget his dumbass scary pranks. because we go from someone a bit mysterious though ultimately friendly and goofy whom we thought we could trust, to someone who openly tells us he could've been a threat for us... and then never delivers. at least, not in any playthrough where we hear that line of dialogue.

so much of sans' character and appearance stems from tonal dissonance. he's shamelessly comfortable in the game's tone and vibes, but still stands out as an outsider. he plainly doesn't play by the same rules as everyone else, so we don't judge him by the same standards, either.

even more, if he actually kept his promise the way toriel meant it, that would've meant playing the entire game like a tutorial. sure, you can enjoy the story, but did you enjoy playing the section in the RUINs when she's with us? it's basically handholding the entire time. it's BORING for us, and ultimately, Undertale is a game! so it should be enjoyable to its player. which brings me to our next point:

ultimately... yeah maybe he would've tried to kill us. and yes it is kinda shitty that he only kept his promise by not doing that. in a sans characteristic troll way, i mean. but acting like the "sans was happy to watch a baby get beat up and killed" jokes are, well, anything other than jokes is just a plain bad reading. forget about post pacifist. during a gameplay, frisk IS the Human IS us IS the PLAYER. which means capable of RESET and SAVE. which means essentially immortal, at the end of the day. it's the "special power" sans tells us about in his judgement. you can't treat us with the same moral lenses as an NPC. the power we hold over their world in the game is lovecraftian. we can literally destroy it entirely, an outcome that was scientifically predicted by some characters in the game...

...sans being one of them. every interaction with you, every joke and every hand extended in friendship and eye closed to your shenanigans. all of it, the good and the not-so-good. it's all colored with the knowledge that the "human" in front of him could end the world. whether you actually do that or not.

this is one of my favorite moments in the canon. one time. one second where the mask slips and we see through the cracks in the façade of laid back confidence. and what we see is a mirror, held up to our face.

and it's fucking terrifying.

"waaaa sans is bad because he lets us die" boo-FUCKING-hoo brother! cry me a river then throw ice cubes in it. mans goes through all of this on the daily and still gives us a chance, you should be thanking him.

i have a few other opinions on this topic that i feel are relevant, but I don't feel like putting them into a coherent argument so I'll just list them instead:

there are some collateral factors that i think would've prevented him from killing us outside of toriel's promise. mainly the fact that papyrus was feeling down and meeting a real human would've cheered him up. then he would've befriended us because of course he would, and of course sans wasn't going to kill his brother's new bestie.

so would he have fought us in a pacifist or papyrus-friendly netral run? maybe not! but he WOULD'VE whooped ass sooner if things got out of hand.

it's kind of a given that sans figures out you can manipulate time very early into the game. he works for/with asgore, who knows from first-hand child-murder experiences that it's an ability humans have, he's a scientist who studied the space-time continuum of their world and he's a friend of alphys', the royal scientist who studied human souls and determination (and let's not even get into his connections to gaster). he's a bright lad. he put two and two together.

while he COULD have seen taking a humans' soul as a necessary evil for monsterkind's freedom (promise to toriel aside) he openly sympathized with the anomaly. he's not there to be a time cop. he just wants to avoid the literal annihilation of the universe.

[...? yeah i never continued this. still stands tho.]

[akiizayoi4869]

Why do you think so much of the ATLA fandom just violently hates Aang? It really confuses me how so many fans just seem to resent everything about him even to the point of making up reasons that don’t even exist to bash him and demonizing everything he does. I’ve never seen such an innocent and kind character get such a hateful reaction so it’s weird.

It's a lot of reasons honestly. One reason is because a lot of people in the fandom like Zutara, but since Bryke didn't want Zutara to happen and instead went for Kataang, that made a lot of fans angry. Another reason is because some things that Aang does in the show that should have gotten called out by the narrative never were. Also a lot of fans felt like he should have killed Ozai instead of taking his bending. But I think the main reason why a lot of the fandom just doesn't like him is because for most people he isn't relatable in the way that Zuko is. The show was made for a western audience, an audience who doesn't know what its like to lose your people to genocide, to have your entire culture stripped away just because another party thinks that their way is "better and civilized".

This may be controversial, but I also think race has a lot to do with it. I remember seeing a post on here a while back and the op was saying they noticed something very interesting when they spoke to poc about Aang and the air nomad genocide and when they spoke to white people about it. The poc seemed to sympathize with Aang a lot more because to a degree they know what that feels like, to have your culture ripped away from you and to have your people wiped out thanks to genocide. Because their ancestors were victims of it. When the op spoke to white people about it, however, they said that they could not connect with Aang at all because they don't know what that feels like, so to them he wasn't all that special. To them Zuko was much more relatable, so that's the character that they latched on to. Me personally I absolutely agree with this and think that there is truth to it. I'm African American, so in a way I can relate to what Aang went through. Thanks to racism and slavery in this country, many black people were killed for no reason, they were ripped from their homes(although this can also be blamed on black people too seeing as we sold our own people to the Europeans, who then took it to a whole other level) and were told that their culture was meaningless and that they would learn to live like white people. They were stripped of their names and given new ones, they were forced to speak a different language, practice a different religion that they had never heard of before. Now based on what little I know about my family history, at least on my dads side, we go all the way back to Kenya I think. But that's all I know. I don't know what tribe we come from, if we have any family there, or what my native tongue is. That's all gone now. So when I was rewatching the show last year and I got up to the part where Aang went into the avatar state upon finding Gyatso's body and from that being forced to realize that his people and culture were entirely wiped out by the fire nation? I felt that. I literally felt a chill go through me, and I actually cried a little bit.

The fandom I noticed also seems to give Aang shit because he would talk about what the monks taught him every now and then, and a lot of fans found it to be annoying after a while. But you know what? Aang had every right to do that. He was literally the only human being alive that represented what was once the air nomads. So him repeating his teachings whenever he got the chance to was his one way to hold on to his culture, to make sure that the air nomads would not be forgotten.

Wow this got pretty long, lol. But yeah, that's what I think as to why Aang gets a lot of hate in the fandom.

[beevean]

I would pay good money to see how Netflix Hector actually did his job as a general back in the past.

And Dracula's reasoning for keeping a literal manchild in charge of half his army

See, this is one of those points that I never see anyone talk about, but it's another example of stupid writing that has little to do with "muh games".

Hector and Isaac are generals. They command armies, of monsters but armies nonetheless, they lead forces into battle. They are Dracula's direct underlings. He listens to their proposals, and in fact he agrees with them when they suggest to move the castle to Braila. They have a very important position, and one of the very first things we hear about them is precisely that Dracula trusts them, due to their human nature.

So why in the name of fuck is Hector so damn disrespected? Remember: Dracula was 100% honest with Isaac regarding his genocide plans, he even tells him "I believe you are the only one who grasps the necessity of it all", but he lied to Hector to enlist him, he was all "oh, you think I'm going to cull the humans and be merciful to them? You don't understand that I plan to kill them all? Err, sure, let's go with that". Then they both sit around and call Hector "a child in a man's body", "a gentle soul, like a little boy" and "a simple creature".

"ohh but he's powerful, he's a prodigy, Dracula needed him" okay but let's be real: would anything change for Dracula if Isaac were his only Devil Forgemaster? What does Hector actually do for Dracula that we see? Isn't it counterproductive to have a GENERAL that you do not trust with your full plans, no matter how allegedly powerful he is? No wonder Hector then falls for Girlboss Vampire Lady #1, it wouldn't have worked if Dracula actually respected the damn guy and ensured his loyalty! This is why I cannot buy his sudden chad moments in S4 - that's not character development, that's just being OOC with what was presented before!

I am still baffled that we just. Don't see Hector actualy doing his job. I mean, we kinda do... but only for Carmilla's sake, after he was coerced. And even then it pales to the Devil Forging Isaac does, which in S3 literally becomes "stab stab stab there you go the entirety of hell at my command". Why can't we see why he was so damn prized by both Dracula, to the point that he'd lie to him to convince him to work for him, and Carmilla, who went through all that trouble to bring him with her?

Oh right. That would mean actually giving him respect :V can't have that, now, can we, that would cut in the time we can show him bruised and bleeding and fetishized :V

You know an underrated line of Hector's?

"All I'm saying is that our goals can be met without gleefully paddling in the blood of children."

There you go. Hector still had a sense of decency. He was indifferent at the thought of killing people, but he did not enjoy cruel slaughter. You can have a competent Hector willingly on board with Dracula's plans, but with standards that get in the way... which is more or less an expansion of canon Hector. No need for annoying Girlbosses when you have a good moral dilemma on your hands.

I have so many thoughts about anti-villain Hector who was willing to work for a vampire who wanted to exterminate his own kind, but wasn't evil about it, he was simply very alienated. What an absolute waste of an interesting interpretation.

[redjaybathood]

It's kinda funny to mention, but when I was little, like middle school age, right, I was - still thinking about myself as Russian, or at least half- Russian, but that's beside the point - liked communism. Not the communists that were in Ukraine or Russia at the time (00s) because those were just parasites feeding on nostalgia about colbasa for 5 kopecks. Not the communism that was the USSR - my grandma, the one who raised me, haven't died at that point, and she liked to tell the stories about her childhood. Horrifying stories, to be honest. So I had less illusions about communists in the USSR than someone who knows about it only from Russian-approved books. The ones that were: genocide of Ukrainians and Qazaqs didn't happen, but if it did, it wasn't intentional, if it was intentional, it was justified.

But theoretical communism, ideas of Marx, ideas for the true democracy (ha! I've been young, pls forgive me). Those were something I really believed in.

But if you don't scroll down my posts when you see them on your feed, you probably know what attitude towards communism do I have now.

The worst part of communism isn't that it's not achievable, it's... Communists. They don't want to achieve communism. They don't live by communism.

There's no solidarity from communists with people of Ukraine, as far as I can see. There's a whole lot of working for Russian propaganda, intentionally or unintentionally. There's a total ignorance of real struggles that ethnic minorities, religious people (especially religious minorities), LGBTQA+, people went through, and - in case of Ukraine - are still going through thanks to their communism avatar, i.e. Russia. Not just ignorance, but maliciousness.

I've seen a girl with two sickle and hammers in her username posting this today:

Can't show you the full post because I was banned. See, this person insists that Ukrainians are lying about honor killings in Russian occupied Ichkeria, lying about gay bashing, lying about anti LGBT legislation that Russians themselves advertise, lying about Russians literally using LGBT NATO instructors in Ukraine as a thing they're scaring their own people and make them despise Ukrainians even more. Or our Prides: see, Ukrainians are all filthy pidorasy (homos/fags) because of Gayropa (gay Europe) influence! That's what Putin is protecting Russians from!

Or we're lying about how one of anti Euro integration ads that were posted in Ukraine in 2013, ads sponsored by Russia, for they wanted Ukraine to never get closer to Europe and stay as Russian quasi colony; that advertisement literally was about how Europe will turn us all gay. The horror.

Russia with its prison culture where to be gay is about the worst thing you can be, except being gay and not white christian. God forbid if you don't live in Moscow or St Petersburg.

Yeah, that Russia.

So that person with hammers and sickles (which is truly ironic considering how in the USSR if they weren't shot or imprisoned in GULAG, they would fully understand what punitive psychiatry means; and don't say, well, capitalist countries also did that; no, not on that scale, and no, nobody there will be going, hey, this is good, this needs to be brought back, the way Russia does) says, eastern Europeans are lying about Russia and in truth, they're just awful to LGBT people. They say: just look at what comments I am getting.

Because yeah, being mean to someone on Internet is literally hundred times worse than killing LGBT people, or outlawing so much as saying publicly they're LGBT. Or, you know, invading a sovereign country.

They, a hammer and sickle person, don't live in Ukraine or Eastern Europe. They don't see the huge progress we made since we distanced ourselves from Russia, and that's because we distanced ourselves from Russia. They don't listen to LGBT people from Ukraine and EE, and in case of Ukrainians, they literally condemn them to die when they support Russia.

Where's the fucking solidarity? Where's the fucking equality? It's a fucking joke.

[mitskistevens]

Quick but lengthy rant post.

What happened in Rafah has really changed how I went through my life today. When I was watching the news with my parents, I just wanted to turn the TV off because all the anchors were talking about how great the Super Bowl was and how funny the commercials were. The whole NFL is run by zionists, so of course they would glorify it. Nobody cares that people are dying in Palestine. Nobody cares that there is a literal genocide going on that could wipe out a country and have horrible environmental effects on the planet! Of course!

Well, they did care a tiny bit. There was a 3-4 minute segment they did on updates of the "Israel-Hamas War". Most of that time were talking about Israel dropping strikes and trying to find new points where Hamas could be hiding.

Only less than a minute was dedicated to telling us of the casualties in Rafah. Less than a fucking minute. Take that all in.

At school, I was drained more. All my classmates would talk about is the freaking Super Bowl! All I heard was, "The 49ers should've won!" "That was a long game." "Usher's performance was good, but I wasn't expecting him to strip!"

One of my peers even asked me about how I felt. I could barely keep my composure as I told him my feelings. My head was wanting me to scream, "You should've never even watched it! You're supporting zionists! PEOPLE IN RAFAH ARE DYING!" But trying to prevent myself from breaking down, I didn't say that.

A part of me is jealous of zionists. In fact, that part of me envies them. They are able to consume what they want, watch what they want, support most people they want, etc. They don't have to boycott major brands. They don't have to lose sleep over people they barely know. They don't have to cry at a desk because their friends talk about a football game rather than a literal holocaust.

But then again, the major side of me LOATHES them. Their inability to recognize major human rights mistreatment and get educated, their inability to see and hear Palestinian stories, but only able to focus on some capitalist, greedy governments who only care about destruction and not the people. Even if they learn and join our side, a part of me will still hate the person because of their past. "Love the sinner, hate the sin," my ass.

Yesterday, I did some very zionist things because of my parents. I never thought I would have the guts to admit it, but here I am. My mom and I ate McDonald's. And later that night, we all watched the Super Bowl. I tried to avoid them both, but peer pressure always lured me in, and I was stuck, pretending to love what everyone else does.

Eating the greasy food, watching greedy celebs getting more attention than actual players - scratch that, protestors and actual good people in general - made me sick. And hearing about the massacre in Rafah happening right on the day I let my guard loose? I lost hours of sleep regretting it all.

The main point of this? Might as well be nothing. But I suppose I have one: I hope zionists learn to regret. I want them to get educated on the genocide in Palestine and look back on everything they've done that has supported Israel and America. I want them to ponder their actions, I want them to lose sleep, maybe even shed some tears. I want them to change who they are - be more socially active, turn down zionist requests, make their own power - because of what they see and know.

And then, only then, will I forgive a zionist.

I will never forgive myself for what I did yesterday. And I hope they'll come to think it that way too.

(If you've come this far, thanks for reading. I know it sucks, but I needed to get this anger out. Have a good day, and remember, ALL EYES ON RAFAH. -Kamryn)

[rodolfoparras]

i saw that we were talking about the pledge and whatnot - and you're actually not supposed to ask about political beliefs but you can typically talk religious. you're not supposed to bring your personal beliefs in schools but if there's one thing that the US is good at it's projecting our beliefs and opinions in places no one asked lmaoo

not to mention it is very cultish to see a group of people get up at 8am every day to pledge to a country that fucks them over... also we're supposed to have separation between religion and government (separation between church and state) but most of the decisions made in our government are based off of some weaponized version of (most of the time) christianity. or just general hate for minorities

also its funny that we play national anthems at like every event considering the second part of it literally talks about slavery????

but gotta love 'merica

How interesting that they allow y’all to discus religious belief but not political all while being fully aware that the two are closely intertwined over there…

Genuinely I’ll start from my own country who went through a whole genocide patriotism does no good no matter in what way one decides to express it

Also unfortunately Sweden is the same when it comes to weaponizing religion:/ like none of these ppl are religious but if they can oppress a minority by pulling the Christianity card best believe they will

[carinelian]

02272024 | notes on writing

These days, it's getting harder to separate hobbies from means of living. On most days, I can tell whether I'm doing something as a means of living, something for survival, or something as simple as a human being.

On most days, I also delude myself that it's all a matter of compartmentalization. Like choosing which clothes to wear for the day. Except the world is burning, all my clothes are worn down and made for a time long past, and even if I went out butt-naked, there's no way I'm coming out of it unscathed. That's what writing feels like for me, as of late. Or living, in general.

Maybe someday I can flesh out a timely piece on late-stage capitalism, how creative work is reduced to content, the essence of separating fiction and reality, and all the ways they influence each other without being mistaken as one and the same. We're living through an ongoing health and climate crisis, multiple genocides, and rotting from the inside out thanks to decades of exploitation and systemic ills. Global fuckening to the highest, most damning scale. I wish this is fiction. The context behind that thought terrifies me.

I wish I can save the serious writing for when it really, really counts, but as it stands, tomorrow isn't promised. Never was.

That's what spurred me on, to write this little note. I think I'll be writing more. I have my WIPs, I have my vague little scenarios in my head that will probably haunt me until they get their well-deserved 100K novel, and these occasional trains of thought that derail and create their own train tracks in my mind. There's also the shitstorm that's going on in real life, real time. There's no neat shelf for me to separate the things I care about and things I don't, because it affects us all.

To write online, without capturing all the possible nuances of whatever the fuck it is you're writing about, is an invitation to be flayed alive. For this reason, I shied away from writing about things that matter to me -- much like this one -- because shutting up means no trouble. No room for mistake. After all, what's there to criticize?

But then I realized, well, it's a sad way for a writer to live (at least for me), knowing that writing has been long ingrained in my life. It's a hobby. It's a means of living (hopefully *side-eyes publishers*), and it's a means of survival, with the way it calms me down and is an outlet for my anxieties. It's a way of life, it's not all of me, but it's a HUGE part of me.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. Fiction and real-world issues overlap. They bleed into what I write, regardless of whether or not I permit it, and I look for fiction -- hope for fiction -- in the face of staggering, depressing, and bleak reality. Perhaps the intersection here is where fiction is supposed to inspire you to take meaningful action in real life. And real life finds its way to fiction, one way or another, in the little bits and pieces of us writers that we leave in our stories. I'm so chronically online that I could think of a thousand ways critics can gut this paragraph like a fish and come up with the worst meanings.

But then again, maybe the people who need some comfort will find it, too. Maybe people will add into it, I learn something new, and we ALL learn something new. If you're having complicated feelings about writing, questioning what the fuck is it to you, trying to deal with that maddening shelf -- well, here I am. Write whatever the fuck you want to write. Write loudly, unapologetically, meaningfully, purposefully. May your words add a little bit of hope. And if doesn't, may it free you, may it release you, may it provide some relief. Or if you're out there to disturb, then do it. Put your horrors and your fears into paper. Trap them with ink. Slap them with periods and put a name on whatever haunts you.

Write, for fuck's sake. And this is a reminder to myself, in the most literal sense.

[itsclydebitches]

Yeah, there's also things floating around about how the rigging team in RT was crunched specifically, and how mishandled they were by management. But I keep thinking that if vol. 9 doesn't come out, then RWBY ended literally with the four protagonists falling to their deaths, after being the people who decided to destroy two cities. Like, Salem didn't crash Atlas into Mantle, Ruby did. If vol. 8 is the end then this story led up to Ruby committing genocide and then dying.

You know, as messed up as it would be, I kinda wish we could have that ending. In reality though, if we consider all official promo material part of the story (which I personally do), then our ending is more that they "died," ended up in some strange world with a talking mouse, and... that's it. That's all we get. Like don't get me wrong, ending the story on the heroes' failure of Volume 8 is #NotGreat when your story isn't supposed to be tragic (totally different case if RWBY had always been aiming for an unhappy and/or ambiguous ending), but at least it's about as wrapped up as a story can be when it unexpectedly gets cancelled. Team RWBY went to Beacon to become huntresses, got caught up in a war, tried to fix things by taking a classically heroic route that prioritized ethical perfection over morally gray practicality, utterly failed, died, doomed a kingdom to drowning/death by grimm, and the villain is poised to end the rest of the world on the heels of that failure. The End. As someone who has been reading RWBY through the lens of what the story is actually saying as opposed to the thematic intention of the writers, there's something compelling in that. Whether RT realizes it or not, they'd have written a cautionary tale about "simple souls" leading the charge in a world that is not, in fact, a fairy tale.

Instead though, we'd end up with a muddled, "They totally survived and there's still hope because it's heavily implied through storytelling expectations that they'll escape this world and go fight Salem again! ... You just don't get to see that lol." RWBY Volume 8 is arguably a complete story, regardless of how awful we might think that story is. RWBY Volume 8 + promo material for a presumed Volume 9 is a mess of implied information with no actual resolution attached and I personally find that to be the more frustrating option of the two. Especially when said promo material is currently defined by problems that hypothetically might never get resolved: Why does Ruby only get two seconds of tears after she's lost everything? Why is our only nonbinary rep a mouse? Why did we heel-turn back to Jaune as the emotional cornerstone of the story? Everything that currently makes us go, "Yeah, it looks like a potential problem, but I'm sure the Volume itself will fix things!" would never get that chance to improve. This is all we've got and what we've got from Volume 9 so far doesn't stand well on its own imo.

To be clear, I don't actually think we're losing RWBY. At least, I won't think that until I've seen concrete evidence that these revelations (unlike many previous revelations) are actually threatening RT's position. Until then, this is just another round of, "RWBY is dying!!" a claim that crops up during every hiatus and, of course, amounts to nothing. But yeah, if we did end the story there with no possibility for even a quick conclusion through a movie, special, etc. it'll be severely disappointing. For those who still love RWBY and for those who have been critical of it.

[zazter-den]

Hey guys, letting you know I won't be online much this weekend. The more upset I get, the less coherent I am so bear with me.

I don't talk about it on my porn blog due to the Dark Content nature and the risks of being outed/doxxed, but I'm a Rrom activist and I am fucking drowning in grief and rage.

Most of you aren't aware that I went to a university with a large Jewish, Black, and Middle Eastern community- And in response to that, a man named Matt Heimbach started the 'White Student Union'.

I stood with Israeli and Black Lives Matter friends as we forcibly kicked Heimbach's ass off our fucking campus- Literally matching his white patrols with our own groups to protect people. We all knew the dangers of a man, even one with little to no *real* power, who was spouting genocidal rhetoric.

My activism comes from having a ferally empathic heart, knowing my own people's experience in the holocaust, and because of the emergenza nomadi. When in 2008, a woman was tragically murdered by a Rrom man- and the Italian Government publicly declared my people as the cause for all rising urban crime rates. The Italian government recommended deporting pretty much all Rrom and Sinti from the country or surveilling the ones that could prove 100% that they were born in Italy, and going as far as to say that my home region should be napalmed for a brighter future.

Even sports teams chant that they hope Vesuvius will erupt and wipe us out.

At the time, my friends stood by me in declaring how morally reprehensible it was that a government could do such a thing. Sparing not a scathing comment for either the officials or the residents that supported the right-wing government either directly or through their silence. -And those same friends are silent or bitching about "virtue signaling" while the Gaza Strip, and probably the entire population of Palestinian Domari, are razed to the ground. An entire romani people wiped out of existence, where even the holocaust had failed.

I need you all to understand, that the rhetoric is the same. The Holocaust, the Emergenza Nomadi, and what is happening now in Gaza is both Genocide and Genocide Ideation.

[shut-up-rabert]

2/ booked under doesn't allow police to keep them over 60 days. another thing about law, there's a law in pakistan that allows the kin of a murdered person to "forgive" the victim's murderer via diyat. Afghanistan's spy chief and former vp amrullah saleh's directly said that pakistan was responsible for funding the taliban and bringing them to power and who can forget the bangladeshi genocide. pakistan's history textbooks play down the atrocities so much it's insane

Pakistan’s history books tell people that Hindus persecuted muslims, that Partition happened due to India’s brutality (Notice how our books have actual events listed which can be google checked while theirs are all in all “source: bro, trust me”?)like we didn’t try to save your ass during amritsar masssacre, that Jinnah, the guy who divided India just to feel important was a saint. those books are a shitfest of propaganda with a dash of victim card.

As of murder forgiving, dear God. Imagine letting a murderer free, only for him to make someone else’s family go through what you went through. Kya muh dikhaoge apni mari aulad aur dusre victim ke gharwalo ko? Honestly, I feel like this system itself explains ki why these people are funding taliban and why their leaders have such beautiful relations with this shithole of a “government” (read: militant’s rule)

Pilla hai ye desh, China ka, (usse pehle america ka) Taliban ka, aur har muslim country ka. These guys just want to establish themselves as a noticeable Islamic nation ,and their want for power has them waging their tails to whatever powerful country will help them feel more important than they are. Fuck, they’ll go as far as nesting Islamic terrorists (even international ones like Bin Laden) that orchestrate attacks on India (even using our own territories as bases, the fucking gal) because they think that’ll make them important on basis of religion atleast and get other Islamic countries to want to have relations with them (The actual face of Sunni Islam, Saudi, has a zero tolerance policy for terrorists. see the difference?) but literally no country stands with them. Rather, the karma has come to bite them back in the butt with Baloch protest, Taliban hold on western pak, etc. etc.

Desperation ka dusra naam Pakistan