Reminder:

Collective attacks on/villificaiton of "the media", etc. are Both Sides-ism, they normalize the worst actors, they encourage cynicism and apathy, they encourage people to turn to extremist and conspiracy theorist outlets, and they lay the ground work for justify authoritarian attacks on the freedom of the press.

Be specific in your criticism of bad reporting. Do not engage in sweeping, generalized, stereotypical attacks, as they are worse than pointless, they are actively damaging.

ik i talk abt high control groups kinda often but i do encourage anyone involved in discourse in any capacity to watch folding ideas' "this is financial advice" video, because a lot of what he says about the gamestop apes being a self-organizing high control group imo also explains the more toxic discourse tendencies, and i feel like most discussion around high-control groups on here focuses on the tradtional kind that has one or a few distinct leaders which makes it harder to draw parallels between the signs. so i think its important to point out that these kinds of groups can still create that same energy as a unit even if there isn't one specific person calling the shots

Happy birthday Lobos <3

Everyone go wish my friend @gaylos-lobos a happy birthday (and show love to their art) 🫵

every time i see someone say “proshipper dni” they always mean. like. very specific ships from very specific fandoms theyre in. like they dislike certain ships that you can argue are morally objectionable from a certain perspective so they put it under the umbrella term of “proshipper” like im supposed to know wtf theyre talking about.

likewise every time i see someone say “antishipper dni” it’s always because they like very specific ships from very specific fandoms they’re in. and other ppl in the fandom don’t like the ships that they do so instead of saying what specific ships they don’t want to argue about they just say “no antishippers” like im supposed to know wtf that means.

like babygirl vaguing ppl like that is only if you dont want them to know youre talking about them. just say you like/dislike certain ships/types of ships and ppl who disagree with you can take the hint or get blocked it’s okay.

thoughts on anarchism?

The anarchists I've met IRL, especially while organizing, have been some of the most wonderful comrades and I wouldn't hesitate to work with them again. I'm sure there's many online too who're just like them. I do admire how quickly they are willing to use direct action, even if it's not the best tactic to be used or the only means to an end. Some anarchist ideas, while not necessarily achievable on a large scale, are certainly is very helpful for short term, small scale survival, like mutual aid for example.

Anarchism as an ideology though, I do have strong disagreements with. When I was first dipping my toes into studying political-economy, I had a very brief time where I was following both anarchist and marxist accounts and forums. And often, when I asked the marxists a question about how things would or potentially could work, they could point to real examples as much as they could theoretical ones, and they could point out the pros and cons of their own systems. But when I asked anarchists similar questions, there was generally a kind of hesitancy or wishy-washiness or vagueness which I really didn't get from the marxists. As a poc, I remember a black man had asked anarchists what the solution to a group of racist factory workers voting him out of their work force was and no one had any answers beyond, "well at that stage you really wouldn't expect racism on that level". But the marxists would say racism is a social ill that takes time to combat, even after the revolution thus the proletarian state exists to ensure cases like that are investigated and corrected. A more poignant example would be like the Chinese trans woman who sued her former place of work for firing her for being trans and the state sided with and supported her rights. In some ways, I think I was always inevitably going to go down the marxist route given my family background, but that's not to say I didn't give anarchism a fair shot in the beginning.

More theoretically, the roots of anarchism has always been deeply entwined with petite bourgeois ideology. Similar to liberalism, it supposes that the liberation of the collective comes from the liberation of the self. That's not to say anarchists are liberals (well, actual anarchists anyway), but rather, has been influenced by a deeply individualistic ideology like liberalism. The reason we marxists tend to call anarchists idealists can mainly stem from our biggest disagreement, which is the utilization of the state. It's unreasonable to destroy the greatest tool a class has in the class war once that class gets its hands on it, especially since the bourgeoisie have no qualms about using it as a bludgeon against the proletariat. The state has always been used as a mediator for class warfare and whichever class controls it controls the arbitration on class conflict. Like it or not, revolution, just like the construction of socialism, will come at different times with different arising conditions for every country. It's simply not enough to rely on hopes of either a total revolution or to defend your own revolution without the tools provided by a state. After the October Revolution, the nascent USSR was invaded by over 20 foreign countries and they threw them all out. During the second world war, more than 4 million fascists were killed on the eastern front and the Red Army marched into Berlin in the end. Both feats would be impossible without strong state apparatuses. There's more to it than just this, of course. If you want, you can read a (admittedly, pretty scathing) critique by J.V. Stalin, Anarchism or Socialism?, for some more detailed information.

My last point is that in many online spaces, there's no doubt a big overlap between radlibs and anarchism or at the very least, anarchist aesthetics. I can't tell you how many times I've been called some slur or 'tankie' or some variation of the two by someone presenting themselves to be anarchist who then turn around and say the most unbelievably liberal talking points. I've now come to realize that the reason for this overlap is two-fold. The first is that in liberal democracies, where individualism is extremely strong and thus anarchism, as a more individualistic ideology, appeals more to radlibs. The second is that anarchism is very easily marketable, even more so than marxism. These two kind of go hand-in-hand as well.

In the west and usamerica in particular, we don't have much of a choice in regards to who we side with and I would actually take an anarchist comrade over the "queering the MIC" libs in the DSA or whatever. I'll still jest about about anarchism tho.

All day on Twitter, pro Palestine westerners of both sexes have been attempting to justify the scenes in the viral video of the deceased, bloodied, half naked woman, being paraded through the streets in a pick up truck by men with machine guns chanting Allah Akbar.

It's come in 3 forms:

1. saying "where were you when the IDF did [X crime] to [Y woman]?" to people they've literally never met and do not know the politics of. They're just assuming that anyone distressed at the footage is a Jewish/Israeli supremacist who doesn't care for innocent slaughtered Palestinian people.

These whataboutery addicts are disingenuous as all fuck, and completely desensitised to acts of violence, so much so that they project their own inability to extend compassion for murder victims on "the other side", onto those whose tweets they're replying to. Victims are just gotchas to them.

But they're cupcakes compared to the next 2 categories.

2. saying that these men's murders of women, abduction of elderly ladies (separate viral incident) and other crimes against civilians is a justified reaction against apartheid and/or settler colonialism, and that Israeli people have had it coming.

I cannot believe I have to say this, but regardless of your opinion on the conflict, whether you’re a Zionist or believe Israel is an apartheid state, if you believe random women, young and old, and their children, being abducted, bombed, raped, murdered and paraded through the streets by men, is a justified response to oppression, then you are dead inside. That’s not brave rebellion. It’s plain old male savagery.

There is, sadly, an academic case which could be made that such brutalities assist the war effort of a nation to gain independence – this being a reference to the fact that the most savage empires, the ones willing to commit the most gruelling acts, tend to be the ones to come out on top during wars. History shows us - think of Rome, Japan, etc.

But this type of speculation almost always crosses the line into justifying such crimes, because it was never about speculation for speculation’s sake. It was about wanting the other side - including women and children - slaughtered. Pro-Palestine Twitter have demonstrated this perfectly today.

Please let me make this excruciatingly clear, this political behaviour is exhibited by practically every male-dominated movement and ideology there is, which is… everything other than radical feminism. Zionists do this too. As do conservatives, liberals, marxists, fascists, progressives, pacifists, nationalists of all stripes – supremacist and anti-colonial, theocrats, Islamists, etc. It’s just that the issue of today is the Israel Palestine conflict, so this is the obvious example to reference.

And the 3rd form of response, much like the 2nd, is to justify these crimes against civilians as an act of rebellion, but go one step further and laugh about it. Saying things like "play stupid games, win stupid prizes 🤣🤣", "Imfao at Israelis suddenly pretending to be victims", making wojak memes and spamming them to the people expressing distress over seeing that video of the dead woman, etc. See this example from a trans-identified man:

Notice how at no point have I said my opinion on the Israel Palestine conflict? Because I have one. And it's probably not what either side would expect. And that’s exactly the problem. My disgust at Palestinian men parading a dead Israeli woman through the streets and spitting on her is automatically interpreted to be me supporting the Israeli state.

But your political view on the conflict should have a 0% impact on this fundamental principle: as a feminist, you do not EVER, FUCKING EVER, think that a woman on "the other side" of a mens war deserves to die.

To accuse someone of not caring about dead Palestinian women, as pro-Palestine Twitter have been doing all day, to random stranger who simply said "this is horrific" re: the dead woman in the truck, is:

a) to project your own heartlessness toward women on "the other side" onto them.

b) to further normalise the glorification of violent men, under this false veneer of their crimes being a necessary and justified revolt against whatever type of oppression they have in their society. As if stripping a woman bare and parading her through the streets has ever been a practically useful or ethical war tactic.

And c) to imply that those on "the other side" deserve whatever cruel fate meets them, simply because the male class of their society committed unjustifiable crimes.

I cannot think of anything less pro-woman, anything less feminist, than that.

source

joe biden makes me want to throw up but the USA's actions under his admin have much less to do with him personally and more to do with the entire putrefying mass of USA policy and its entire history and the situation of a compromise-based government system half dominated by the most rabid, hateful fascists imaginable.

every day I see a hundred posts on here saying "look at how bad Biden is, the two sides are the same and he is no better than a republican would be" and the revulsion in my heart at my country's actions agrees, yet the Republicans are frothing over Biden being marginally less bloodthirsty and furiously demanding far more violence and repression.

Honest to God I don't even know what to do with this. I'm not telling y'all, because I don't know. This country is a suicide bomb and the whole globe is strapped to it.

Like, on a lot of policies, it seems like both parties are further right than the majority of Americans. I don't think I even know anyone IRL who is pro- helping Israel bomb Palestine, and a lot of these people would probably consider themselves "moderate conservatives" or "centrists." The government makes no pretense of representing us at all.

It's the exact same with the climate; majorities in EVERY state, even red states, support taking action to mitigate climate change, and even the moderate liberal folks support policies more radical than anything the government manages to do. Republicans are attacking the Endangered Species Act, one of the most popular laws Congress ever passed! How do we even BEGIN to get out of this mess?

I looked up this Tom Cotton's Facebook and it is just as the article says and worse

I can't even begin to describe how monstrously Fox News has just straight up lied about the genocide in Palestine, calling any and all protests in support of Palestinians "Pro-Hamas." And there is a substantial minority of Americans whose whole grasp of the world is framed by Fox News, which turns their brains into a disgusting slurry like a racist plasmodial slime mold whose primitive network of neuron-like impulses responds to no other stimuli apart from fear and paranoia

When Ron Desantis was still running for presidential nomination one of his campaign promises was that we would stop sending humanitarian aid to Gaza and that we would not allow Gazan refugees into the country. It was on his Instagram back in November. How would Gazan refugees make it all the way over here??? Like sure we should take them if they wanna come but I think they just want their home back! That fucker had to INVENT a hypothetical opportunity for a compassionate act so he could demonstrate that he would choose the cruel option. He was widely despised, but still, it's terrifying.

And before you say "violently overthrow the government," the small percentage of Americans who are straight up openly Neo-Nazis own a LARGE percentage of the guns, and they love to organize into stupid little militias about it. You bet cops and ex-military overlap with this category a lot. A "leftist revolution" is a wet dream for these guys.

I know, I know, it's not unsolvable, I know the hateful folks are in the minority, I know a future is possible, I know violence and oppression cannot continue forever, but AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHHHH

I always find the “warhammer/40k is fascist propaganda”-discussion fascinating.

On one side there are acctual fascists seeing this horrible and depraved world and going: “Goals!”

On the other there are people saying its indeed fascist propaganda and glorifying its abuses. “Just look at the former group and how they act”

And im just sitting here in the corner going “its a cautionary tale, sometimes handled not very well since they have like 400 different authors and a lack of cohesion.

I'm being screamed at from both sides, and im starting to actually doubt my own reading and comprehension abilities, is satire truly dead? And am I beating its dead horse?

So I went and checked out the biggest BL authors twitter pages, its editors, game developers and lore experts too.

Pretty much every single one of them reblog or post about social issues, are anti-royalist and pro free healthcare and feminist issues. They genuinely seem like good guys, very unlike the “fans” in the first group.

I find is so bizarre that this discussion even exists when social media makes it so easy to reach out and just go “Hey, what are the allegory and moral behind this story?” and its author actually answers.

And still, people misconstrue things, claims it isn't satire, and just make things up that aren't there. When the truth is so easy to find with just a few minutes of research.

Reminder that even though its probably not popular to say this, and even though there is indeed a lot of shitty news coverage, making sweeping, generalized attacks on "the media", "the MSM", etc. (which is now one of the most common rhetorical lines on the Left) is still both sides-ism, in the same vein as the "all politicians are corrupt (so who cares if a r*pist endorsed by the Klan wins)" sentiment that helped Trump gain power in 2016. Like all Both Sides rhetoric, it plays on cynicism and oversimplification to erase nuances, and normalize the worst players while belittling the best. It does not hold corruption to account, but actually normalizes it, by treating it as universal and inevitable. It encourages people to disengage, or turn to extreme, conspiratorial "alternatives". And it strips most of the Left of any grounds on which to object when Trump, or someone like him, says things like "fake news" or "the press is the enemy of the people", because most of us seem to be taking that position as well, even if we're not advocating that journalists be arrested or killed.

In defense of the Dobbs case, Trump took full credit for the Supreme Court decision and boasted he did more for the “pro-life” movement than any other president in the past 50 years. He repeated the hateful and dangerous lie that, pre-Dobbs, babies were being killed after birth. He said this three times, and Collins failed to correct him each time. Congratulations, Licht and Zaslav. Bravo! What a wonderful precedent to set for your employees, especially the women who work at the “new CNN.” When it came to lies, Trump was a firehose. Collins tried her best to counter, but it was like standing in a hurricane holding an umbrella. No matter how hard you try, you’re going to get wet. Trump spent the entirety of the Town Hall repeating his Big Lie and election fraud conspiracies, which radicalized members of his base to attack the U.S. Capitol and support a failed coup against the United States. Last year, David DePape, who was in part radicalized by this lie and other right-wing media conspiracies, tried to finish the job by visiting Nancy Pelosi’s home and attacking her husband, Paul Pelosi. Trump said he was inclined to pardon “many” of the violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists, adding: “Many are great people.” These are individuals who called for the execution of his own vice president, Mike Pence, who Trump again blamed Wednesday night for not going along with the failed coup attempt. He also managed to lionize Ashli Babbit, who was shot and killed by a Capitol Hill police officer as she was trying to illegally enter the building. Trump praised her and called the officer, who happens to be Black, a “thug.” Trump then made a both-sides equivalence between the Jan. 6 insurrectionists and BLM protesters, who were overwhelmingly peaceful and simply demanded that police officers refrain from shooting and killing innocent Black people. Trump’s comment went unchallenged.

CNN Failed America With Its Trainwreck of a Trump Town Hall

The Fascists who own CNN and make their editorial choices got EXACTLY what they wanted. No sympathy for Collins, who knew EXACTLY what she was going to be part of and played her role perfectly.

RESTRICT Act: The TikTok Ban is a Smokescreen for PATRIOT ACT 2.0. EDIT: KOSA and EARN IT Act are also back.

EDIT: So now we not only have RESTRICT to worry about, but we also have the EARN IT Act and the Kids Online Safety Act to deal with.

See here for my previous post on it. Fuck Blumenthal and Blackburn for trying to bring back two pro-censorship bills on top of the RESTRICT Act.

And Evan provides some insight on it.

EDIT: SO it turns out that Meta IS partly behind this, but it’s also due to Silicon Valley AND the government wanting more power and control. More information in the links provided below.

EDIT: List of Sponsors has been removed for easier reading. You can still find the list in the Link to the bill itself.

EDIT: Meta-related information apparently incorrect. Updated for accuracy.

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Here is a link to the bill:

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This RESTRICT Act is EXTREMELY authoritarian and violating privacy and the 1st Amendment. It’s being disguised as being about banning TikTok, but it’s VASTLY overreaching and basically gives far too much power to the government.

How bad is this bill? Bad enough that pretty much every side of the political spectrum opposes this bill once they took a closer look at it beyond the TikTok smokescreen.

The following points were articulated succinctly by tumblr user @logan-galbraith (used with permission):

This act, while saying it's to insure American's personal information will be safe from foreign powers, it goes much deeper than that.

It will give the United States Government the power to remove and ban ANY online service they deem "a security risk" while making it so they do not need just cause and do not need to clarify or release a public statement.

It allows them the power to gather American's data without our knowledge or consent and even force us to submit documentation for anything they wish.

It protects the government from scrutiny on this, and if you try to speak about it and inform people on what it ACTUALLY allows, they can claim it to be false information and charge you.

It prevents you from using a VPN as it's seen as a breach of information security, thus they can charge you. (Uncertain on accuracy. Crossed out until more concrete information is revealed)

Failure to abide by these "guidelines" can lead to a fine up to ONE MILLION DOLLARS and/or 20 YEARS in prison.

And above all it does NOTHING to prevent AMERICAN companies from collecting and selling your data.

It doesn't matter what political party you're on, because BOTH parties in office want this. This is not about sides. This is about the ENTIRE government stripping our rights away so they can keep lining their own pockets.

And that’s what the TikTok ban really is; a smokescreen for Congress to grab more power. This is the PATRIOT ACT VERSION 2. This has BIPARTISAN support and approval from the Biden Administration.

The scary part is that this bill is being approved under THIS administration...and it’s STILL incredibly bad.

What would end up happening if an openly fascist leader were brought into power? All of sudden, ANYONE and ANYTHING could become a target or considered an adversary under the flimsiest of pretenses.

What should YOU do?

Well, the same thing as past horribly invasive bills like EARN IT and KOSA; we make a LOT of noise, and get the word out.

While there has been increasing amounts of negative press and opposition on this bill, it’s hard to tell how much this has really slowed thing down. As such, getting the word out on how bad this bill is CRUCIAL. Make it EXTREMELY CLEAR that the TikTok ban is just a smokescreen, and that this is nakedly authoritarian and dangerously unconstitutional.

And PLEASE call your Senators.

Find your 2 senators numbers here.

Fax them, email them.

Tell them they MUST oppose this bill. Calmly make it clear to them that if they support this bill, then you will vote for someone else who doesn’t go along with this blatant act of authoritarian intent. CONTACT any major human rights and cybersecurity related organizations and let them know about this bill. Get this out to any local news groups that you can.

There’s some petitions by groups like ACLU: https://go.peoplepower.org/letter/tiktok-ban

They are betting on people being blissfully ignorant of this, that it’s “Just about a Silly App”, so they will not expect you to contact them about this. They are trying to weasel this through in order to give themselves more power, and we won’t be able to do anything about it without the risk of being jailed or censored.

Here’s a part of a rough script if you need one. Add in more based on what is relevant:

"Just to make you aware I do not support the TikTok ban and I do not support the Restrict Act. If this bill is passed I will not support any official who supports that bill. Instead, I will be spending all my time and energy supporting your opponents in the primaries."

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A list of links/citations:

Truthout Article 4/02/2023: Restrict Act Critics Call the Far-Reaching “TikTok Ban” Bill a “Patriot Act 2.0”

Dailydot Article 3/10/2023: “The RESTRICT Act isn’t about banning TikTok—it’s designed to force a sale”

Lawfareblog.com 3/23/2023: “Two New Bills on TikTok and Beyond: The DATA Act and RESTRICT Act”

Reuters Article 3/28/2023: “If TikTok is banned, brace for epic First Amendment fight”

VICE Article 3/29/2023: The 'Insanely Broad' RESTRICT Act Could Ban Much More Than Just TikTok

Reason Article 3/31/2023: The RESTRICT Act Would Restrict a Lot More Than TikTok

ArsTechnica Article 3/31/2023: Meta can’t buy TikTok, so it hired GOP operatives to run a smear campaign

https://twitter.com/evan_greer/status/1642721929013362688?s=46&t=9ilK5pqP73XDblTtTbb4Qg

https://twitter.com/Imani_Barbarin/status/1640527908790837250?t=nTf7qCAcXB1s1RE-fb2Cwg&s=19

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Americans, we gotta talk voting

Okay, my dear Americans. I right now see a lot of "Don't vote for Democrats" posts coming up, and those are just not... very politically informed. I am sorry. I know your political system sucks. Because it does. Because it does not allow you anything but to vote for the lesser of two evils - and there is no doubt that these are both evil. They are.

But Republicans are the bigger evil. There is just no doubt about this. No matter what topic you care about, they are the bigger evil. And due to the system being rigged as fuck, not voting basically is a vote for the Republicans.

I have seen so many posts now with "Don't Vote for Democrats, because Palestinian Genocide", which yes, is true. That is genocide and the Democrats are helping to fund it. But... The Republicans are very much pro-Israel as well. If not even more so. The current situation in Palestine is very much a result of Trump's actions regarding Israel in 2017. If you don't know, what I am talking about, look it up.

Even the entire "America First" thing will not stop the Republicans from also funding Israel. Because one of the core voter bases for the Republicans are Fundi Christians. And those Fundi Christians do believe that Jewish people should rule Israel, because in their point of view this fulfills part of some fucking apocalyptic prophecy!

The Republicans do right now plan to turn America into a fascist dictatorship. That is not a conspiracy theory, but something they are very open about. And under this dictatorship a lot of people will suffer, including but not limited to people who aren't white, queer people, disabled people, homeless people, children. And there is a very good chance that a lot of people in the global south will also suffer more - for one reason or another. Oh, and of course Muslims in general, given that the Republicans are also very openly Islamophob. If you have already forgotten: Just think of Trump's travelban.

I know it sucks to vote for the lesser of two evils - because both sides are evil - but... It is not as if there is much of a choice.

And, yes. Ideally there should be a revolution. The American government should be overthrown, because it is evil to its core. But until you can mount that revolution (which you should work on and not just talk about) you gotta vote for the lesser evil. Because the bigger evil is really, REALLY bad for everyone.

Inspired by a post i just saw,here is the only correct take on a Batfam Atla au(Tw for things present in Atla canon such as racial and misogynistic violence)

@mayameanderings @desi-pluto

Duke is the Avatar-No ifs or buts,he's literally THE SIGNAL OF HOPE FOR GOTHAM

Jason is a Fire Nation commoner who got adopted by the Fire Lord after his parents' death

The Fire Lord is Black Mask and Talia is Ursa but it's not shipping because EW,she's got no positive relation to him and was instead Jason's firebending teacher he thought BM succeeded in killing in his rage after finding out she was trying to adopt him but she actually escaped and got amnesia and a matching burn scar to Jason's but only the opposite side because she's his other half his father burned the bridge to

You know the drill-Jason's sent to capture Avatar Duke,Duke redeems him with his little shit sunshine boy swag without even trying,they are hashtag brothers in every universe.Lil bit more on Duke is that he's actually a Fire Nation Avatar but of the black etchnic subgroup in the comics and his parents were driven mad by spirits sent as 'punishment' for their 'impurity' by General Joker and this is why he is a nomad at the beginning,having fled the Fire Nation because he was sick and tired of still being the problem child at school but getting no comfort this time

(Note:Jason is part of this subgroup and for self-indulgence,every other element has their own black etchnic variant too)

Stephanie is an Airbender-Air Nomads are objectively the best part of Atla so she deserves it.She's tibetan AN and black AN mixed and is pretty much an Aang and Ty Lee fusion-Both in design and personality.Her plot is getting tangled up with Duke and Cass as the og trio when they end up at her temples and she ends the series as the Earth King's consort(that king being Cass)and an ambassador but beforehand spends her time doing anti-imperialist war crimes

Cass is the daughter of the Cains,who lied to everyone about her being mute so they could train her to be the perfect submissive obidient daughter only for it to be blasted back in their face as she learned Earthbanding at the tutelage of badgermoles since they couldn't speak either and she became an underground pro-bender as 'The Silent Bandit' to make money for herself to run away from home and her first instinct when she made enough was to go to the Air Nomads for safety.This more or less worked in the end as she ended up getting crowned Earth King over the actual bloodheirs

Tim is a nonbender who knows chiblocking,the last skill Janet taught him before she died and he used it to avoid getting bullied but isolated himself from other kids as a result because they thought he was a freak.He accidentally joined the main gang when they visited his hometown in the Fire Nation and helped them blend in and they went on an adventure where they gave him honorary member status and he became an official one when they returned

Dick is a trans waterbender and she's their mentor who joined in on their travels because she wasn't about to let a bunch of kids run around fighting fascists without an adult around so they'd have backup and someone to take care of them.She herself was the leader of the Teen Titans,a resistance team,but retired after having her bending taken away and it's returned to her by Duke a bit into her time with them.She leaves Roy to take care of the tribe and when they reunite,he pulls her into a passionate kiss as a confession in front of the whole Duke's Court(their team name)and they have your typical grossed out kids reaction and after this he becomes the Team Dad to her Team Mom

Damian is also trans and named Yasmine and here comes the big previous Avatar plot twist:It was actually Talia,who is of arab and chinese Earth Kingdom descent and not Fire Nation!!Part of the BM tragedy is that she died during childbirth due to Fire Nation induced sickness and this manifested in a Spirit World fiasco that ended with her being ressurected but no longer the Avatar because her soul'd been passed onto Duke by then and she was given a new one and her being lied to about Yasmine being stillborn so she'd stay in the FN.Yasmine's a Talia Warrior and does her best to uphold her mother's legacy due to all the thing's she'd been told about her

She joins Duke's Court,they find Talia again,Duke learns how to cure his parents with Avatar powers and they live happily ever after despite the struggles,Jason gets Lightningbending and white fire as symbolism for healing his inner child and the ages are Duke and Damian-12,Stephanie and Tim-13,Cass-14,Jason-17,Dick and Roy-25 and Talia-40s

So in light of the response to nex's murder by republicans in Oklahoma are you still going to deny that trans genocide is a legitimate fear for us?

something can be terrible without being a literal active genocide! we don't have to water down that word in order to condemn other bad things I promise!

I think that republican senator calling lgbt people "filth that no one wants here" in response to the murder of a trans identified teenager by her peers is fucking vile. downright evil. so I fully acknowledge that there are conservative politicians who absolutely & unambiguously have violent intentions, & I do agree that some of the things they say sound very much like genocidal rhetoric (the dehumanizing of whole groups of people, saying they don't belong in their state/country, trying to pass all of this demented, discriminatory legislation, etc). trans people, same sex attracted people & gnc people all need to be on the same page about this. we can be against kids being medically transitioned, call out misogyny/homophobia from the trans movement, & point out when they're being overdramatic/alarmist (such as saying they're on like, state 7 of the 10 stages of genocide) while ALSO recognizing that there's a real threat from the reactionary right against everyone who doesn't fit into their conservative utopia.

of course the problem here is that a majority of trans people have fully bought into the propaganda about the Evil Terves & thus can't comprehend that we'd ever be on their side, since they think we want them all dead & blame us for what these fascists are doing, despite the fact that conservatives despise us for very similar reasons. we are a group of women who are pro choice, anti traditionalist, anti gender roles, anti organized religion & anti patriarchy, in addition to many of us being gnc, lesbians & bisexuals. they HATE us just as much as they hate you guys, I promise! they call all lgbt people pedophilic groomers who are orchestrating the downfall of society, they call feminist women baby killing manhaters, they want to regress to 1950s level gender roles & often will jist straight up say that they don't think women should have the right to vote. this is their ideal society.

I think one big roadblock in getting trans people to understand that we do not in fact want to lock them up in concentration camps is the fact that whenever they see a genuinely transphobic person they tend to just label them a "terf", even when the person in question not even remotely aligned w/radical feminism (often they're literally a man). idk what can be done about that at this point. they think bc right wing ppl & rfs both agree on things like "puberty blockers for kids should not be legal", that we must agree on everything when we truly aren't approaching this conflict from even remotely the same angle that they are. conservatives want to eradicate gender nonconformity, we want to normalize it without automatically pathologizing and medicalizing it the way many trans activists do. very different goals.

Asked by YouGov in May whom they feel most sympathetic towards, more than double the number of voters said Palestine (23%) than Israel (10%); the rest were either unsure (48%) or backed both sides (19%). The same poll shows that no demographic views Israel favourably, not even Tories (-6). How spectacularly out of touch this makes Britain’s political class appear – perhaps most of all, Keir Starmer. The Labour leader’s backing of Zionism “without qualification” – in fact, he has previously suggested that to be anti-Zionist is inherently anti-semitic, and punished MP Kim Johnson after she called Israel an apartheid state governed by fascists – could not be further from the feeling of Labour voters, a massive 41% of whom support Palestine, versus a negligible 3% who are pro-Israel. It just so happens that the faction that has Starmer’s ear, among them NEC member and We Believe in Israel director Luke Akehurst, belong to this vanishingly small minority. What’s more, the public is only becoming more pro-Palestine as time goes on. Back in 2006, Brits felt more sympathetic to the Israeli cause by a two-point margin, but a series of Israeli military operations – such as the 2014 assault on the Gaza strip, where Israel killed 2,300 Palestinians – have caused British support to plummet. In 2019, net support for the Palestinian cause was +9 – but after the Gaza border protests and the 2021 conflict, it rose to +15. Similarly, Israel’s approval rating has plunged following a series of brutal military operations. Following the border protests in 2018, in which Israel killed 223 Palestinians, the state’s net favourability fell from -24 to -32 in the space of just six months. During the 2021 conflict, when Israel killed 256 Palestinians, it plunged from -14 to -41 in only four months. Meanwhile, then-PM Boris Johnson was vocally opposing an international criminal court investigation into Israeli war crimes, while Starmer was busy condemning those who boycott Israel. Indeed, the unified opposition from Labour and the Tories to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is notable for being thoroughly detached from the electorate. Starmer has consistently made clear that Labour opposes BDS, evidenced recently by the fact that, when the Tories brought a Bill to ban public bodies from engaging in BDS, Starmer instructed his MPs to abstain (95% of them dutifully did). Yet polling in 2017 showed that most people view BDS as an entirely reasonable response to Israel’s occupation, including 51% of Labour voters and 40% of Tory voters.

Let's talk about statements like this.

TLTR: The coup is good for Ukraine and the counter-offensive but nevertheless bad news because its not "good guy vs bad guy" - Putin and Prighozin is "awful fucking bad guy" vs "awful fucking bad guy".

As long as they are tearing each other apart and fighting each other, it is good news for Ukraine. The situation in the combat zones will most likely be massively disrupted and makes it easier for Ukraine to launch a / continue their counteroffensive. (In the absolute ideal case, the Russian system collapses, because both fight each other until the end, the war is over and the Russians get the fuck out the occupied territories. In the absolute ideal case.)

But: No matter which of the two sides in Russia "wins - it's not good news for Ukraine. Putin is a fascist dictator. Prighozin is the leader of a Nazi army. Both want the war, support the war, are pro-war. Both are war criminals. And are "arguing" about how to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people more effectively.

All of this.

It's still a very clear sign that the system Russia and Putin are about to collapse. Maybe right now. Maybe in the few days. Maybe ... . But it's collapsing.