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sleepysera · 2 years

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6.29.22 Headlines

WORLD NEWS

India: Udaipur state on alert after Prophet Muhammad row (BBC)

“The murder of a Hindu man in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan has sparked religious tensions in the area. The victim, a tailor named Kanhaiya Lal, was killed in Udaipur district on Tuesday by two Muslim men, who filmed the act and posted it online. They claimed the act was in retaliation for the victim's support for controversial remarks made by a politician on the Prophet Muhammad. The government has suspended internet services and banned large gatherings.”

Mexico: Journalist is shot to death; 12th so far this year (AP)

“A journalist was shot to death Wednesday in northeastern Mexico as he was leaving his house with his 23-year-old daughter, who was seriously injured, according to state prosecutors and the newspaper that employed him.”

Japan: Swelters in its worst heatwave ever recorded (BBC)

“Japan is sweltering under the hottest day yet of its worst heatwave since records began in 1875. The blistering heat has drawn official warnings of a looming power shortage, and led to calls for people to conserve energy where possible. But the government is still advising people to use air conditioning to avoid heatstroke as cases of hospitalisation rise with the heat. Weather officials warn the heat is likely to continue in the coming days.”

US NEWS

Ukraine: US boosting military presence in Europe amid Russia threat (AP)

“President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. will significantly expand its military presence in Europe, the latest example of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reshaped plans for the continent’s security and prompted a reinvestment in NATO.”

Immigration: Slow effort to ID San Antonio migrant dead, toll rises to 53 (AP)

“Victims have been found with no identification documents at all and in one case a stolen ID. Remote villages lack phone service to reach family members and determine the whereabouts of missing migrants. Fingerprint data has to be shared and matched by different governments.”

Abortion: Clinics scramble to divert patients as states ban abortion (AP)

“The ruling has set off a travel scramble across the country, with a growing number of states mostly banning the procedure. Clinics operators are moving, doctors are counseling crying patients, donations are pouring into nonprofits and one group is dispatching vans to administer abortion pills.”

#current events #news #india #mexico #japan #global warming #climate change #climate crisis #heat wave #ukraine #united states #immigration #abortion #roe v wade

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putri900 · 2 months

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Even i was hoping trump was just going to be only slightly worse than biden but then lo and behold! Out of fucking nowhere, they want to persecute and put every "illegal" in CONCENTRATION CAMPS. And they want to invade mexico. They're still persecuting trans people via legislation. They still had that fucking batshit crazy plan to DISMANTLE the entire democratic process.

So remember that even when your Democrat is basically satan himself, Republicans still figure out how to be satan times 10. Always. They're always going to be worse.

On another, sadder note, i think satan times 10 will win. Because progressives have broadly given up on this new, increasingly shitty status quo, theyll let in something significantly worse. Its not that i even necessarily blame voters when the Democrats themselves make themselves irredeemable, but itd be nice to just hope... that things couldnt get significantly worse.

#and i don't think 2016 is comparable to this election either #just so we dont forget trump did also put many many immigrants in concentration camps during his time #but he also planted the people necessary to revoke roe v wade and other rights of minorities #the amount of anti trans bills are already staggering but at least some of them are losing #another thing i find so worrying is that people also seem to forget trump did jan 6th like... a insurrection he tried to get the VP killed #for not allowing him to become a dictator and overriding the vote #if he failed once why would you let him try it again and with a SIGNIFICANTLY larger amount of support for it #what frightens me is that America isnt like Germany was #its THE global military and cultural power. it has the power #just like israel is being allowed to slaughter with no repercussions America will be allowed to do what it will with barely a word from #other global powers because why would they step in? its the USA.#theyd terrorize Mexico and other third world nations first; thats certainly not a priority for the rest of the powers that be #politics

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palms-upturned · 4 months

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But you can take direct action AND vote harm reduction as much as possible. In fact, you SHOULD be doing that. Yeah there are too many people whose stance ends at "vote for the least bad" but the problem is the worst of the politicians have dedicated followers who will aggressively vote their guys into the office to the detriment to everyone else. So, yes, get involved and march and everything else but please still vote harm reduction. That's all most of us are asking. Because the worse side of this is still going to be doing genocide, they're just going to be sure to bring some of that genocide home and use it to ensure immigrants and queer people here are killed as well.

I think you need to sit with that last sentence you wrote. The point of my post was that if you cast a vote for people who actively participate in genocide in another country because you think their domestic policy is better for you, then you have to be able to understand and sit with the fact that you are breaking solidarity with colonized people. You are voting for the “leopards who promise to only eat the faces of people in the global south” party. You have to be prepared to accept what people extrapolate about you and your politics from this rather than take it as a slight against your morals that you need to defend yourself from.

Immigrants and queer people are already dying here. The Biden administration has not curbed the sudden rise in homophobic/transphobic legislation we’ve been seeing. Roe v Wade has been repealed, and we very nearly lost the Indian Child Welfare Act, too. We’re seeing a covid surge with numbers rivaling the very start of the pandemic, but none of the protections that we had at the start, which weren’t even good to begin with. And now that people are mobilizing across the country for Palestine, this administration is actively making it more difficult to even express anti zionist sentiments in public. Palestinian communities here are facing increased policing. You can talk about harm reduction all you want, but I struggle to see the value in supporting a party whose only appeal is “at least we’re not the other guys,” who can brazenly go against the majority of the American people over and over and over because they believe that they’ll remain in power no matter what because hey, what’s the alternative, let the republicans win? If there are no stakes for them, then what’s the fucking point? Why would they ever accede any demand that their constituents ever made of them? And if not, then what good is it to put them in positions of power?

Personally, I will never forget any of what I’ve seen as long as I live, and you will never catch me voting for any of these people. I won’t legitimize their strategy. I think it’s a fucking bad one, and I think that these people are never going to do anything but toe the colonial line. I can’t stop you from voting however you want to vote, but I genuinely fail to see how trying to rally people to vote against their better judgment is a better use of your time and energy than trying to rally your party to do something that people would actually vote for. In the meantime, regardless of who’s in what seat, the work laid out before us remains the same. It is always the same. We have to protect each other separate from and in spite of the state.

#asks #anon #genuinely in awe that ppl are still sending me asks like this

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amaditalks · 1 month

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Heather Cox Richardson is a US based political historian, who connects facts from our history to current events to provide context. She writes daily on Substack, this is an excerpt from her March 17 post. It’s a longer read but very crucial toward understanding the American right’s plans for the future of this country, as illustrated by the close connections of The Heritage Foundation, a powerful right wing think tank, and Viktor Orbán, the autocratic prime minister of Hungary.

“The tight cooperation between Heritage and Orbán illuminates Project 2025, the plan Heritage has led, along with dozens of other right-wing organizations, to map out a future right-wing presidency. In Hungary, Orbán has undermined democracy, gutting the civil service and filling it with loyalists; attacking immigrants, women, and the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals; taking over businesses for friends and family, and moving the country away from the rules-based international order supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In the January interview, Roberts told Garcia-Navarro that Project 2025 was designed to jump-start a right-wing takeover of the government. “[T]he Trump administration, with the best of intentions, simply got a slow start,” Roberts said. “And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.”

Project 2025 stands on four principles that it says the country must embrace. In their vision, the U.S. must “[r]estore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children”; “[d]ismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people”; “[d]efend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats”; and “[s]ecure our God-given individual rights to live freely—what our Constitution calls ‘the Blessings of Liberty.’”

In almost 1,000 pages, the document explains what these policies mean for ordinary Americans. Restoring the family and protecting children means making “family authority, formation, and cohesion” a top priority and using “government power…to restore the American family.” That, the document says, means eliminating any words associated with sexual orientation or gender identity, gender, abortion, reproductive health, or reproductive rights from any government rule, regulation, or law. Any reference to transgenderism is “pornography” and must be banned.

The overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the right to abortion must be gratefully celebrated, the document says, but the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision accomplishing that end “is just the beginning.””

#project 2025 #heritage foundation #fascism

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denimbex1986 · 9 months

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'If you’ve ever read an interview with the Irish actor Cillian Murphy, you might think him shy, irritable, or even neurotic. Journalists love to write about how closed-off he is, that if you ask him anything too personal he’ll shut down and give one-line answers. This makes their job very hard, they say. But what those interviews don’t tell you, is that if you let Murphy talk about a subject that he actually wants to talk about – such as his epic new film about the father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer – he’ll go on for ages. And he’ll be very open and interesting while he’s doing it. He might even make a joke.

He does this when NME meets him at a posh hotel in Soho. We’ve just walked into the room. Murphy is sat down, wearing a black v-neck jumper over a white t-shirt, black trousers and a pair of very pointy Chelsea boots. He seems relaxed, and greets us with a cheery “hello!”. Then he recognises the thick paperback tucked under our arm as a copy of American Prometheus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography from which Oppenheimer is adapted. We’d intended to read a quote from the book later but Murphy cuts in on our explanation. “No, you brought it in here to be pretentious,” he grins. “Would you like me to sign it for you?”

There are people who would sell their grandmas for a mere glimpse of Murphy, let alone an autograph. He’s been dogged by screaming fans since the early days of his career – when he broke out as often-shirtless apocalypse survivor Jim in Danny Boyle’s 2002 horror hit 28 Days Later. Brummie gangster series Peaky Blinders made him a global star, but his most famous film roles are notable because they’ve often come from collaborations with the same director. Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi blockbuster Inception, war thriller Dunkirk and his Batman trilogy all featured Murphy as the supporting curio – a side character that pops up every so often to steal your attention from the main protagonist. But in Oppenheimer, the duo’s latest creative partnership, he finally is the main character.

And he’s a good one too. Oppenheimer was an American scientist who made vital discoveries in quantum physics during the 1920s and ‘30s, going on to oversee the creation of the atomic bomb for the US Government – two of which were dropped on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing an estimated 220,000 people. Oppenheimer spent the rest of his life campaigning for disarmament, appalled at the weapon (his preferred term was “gadget”) he had helped to give the world. He also drank heavily and had a reputation as a womaniser, despite being quiet and sometimes socially awkward. Murphy calls him “contradictory” and “complex”, which is like saying Suella Braverman doesn’t like immigrants. “I do think that he believed it would be the weapon to end all wars,” Murphy continues, attempting to explain how a left-leaning humanitarian could spend two years perfecting the ultimate killing machine. “He thought that [having the bomb] would motivate countries to form a sort of nuclear world governance.” Murphy pauses. “He was naive.”

Was that naivety a choice though? Oppenheimer had an explosive ego, once attempting to poison a university professor who chastised him when he was a student. Could his desire to achieve such as historic breakthrough have led him to ignore his own better judgement?

“That’s an interesting take,” says Murphy. He runs his hands through his hair, which is styled into wavy curtains. He does this a lot when thinking a question over. “Chris used this amazing phrase. We were talking about Oppenheimer’s arc and he said, ‘You know, he’s dancing between the raindrops morally.’ That unlocked something in my mind when I was preparing.”

To play the role of Oppenheimer, Murphy went very deep. He read the Bhagavad Gita – a 700-page Hindu religious text that the physicist famously quoted from (“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”) Then he started “skipping meals” in an effort to slim down to Oppenheimer’s rail-thin frame. During the actual shoot, Murphy smoked so many fake cigarettes that he worried it harmed his health. “They can’t be good for you,” he told The Guardian. Oppenheimer himself died of throat cancer in 1967.

On top of the physical strain, Murphy delved into some pretty dark emotional places. He had six months to research before filming began in February 2022, and during the 67-day production he often worked 18-hour days. War, genocide and the nuclear holocaust are unpleasant to think about at the best of times, never mind your every waking moment. It must have been brutal.

“You always have to take a holiday after a job,” he concedes, as though being a Hollywood actor is no different from plumbing toilets. “It’s not because… as some journalists like to think, you’re a method actor or whatever. It’s because you give so much time to the job and then suddenly you stop. You have all this displaced energy, you know, so you kind of don’t know what to do with yourself… But I’m a very easygoing sort of person. It doesn’t weigh me down.”

We suspect Murphy isn’t being entirely truthful here. Such is the intensity of his performance – all simmering discontent and wide-eyed panic attacks – that it’s difficult to believe he just shook the weight of global armageddon off each night before climbing into bed. Emily Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty in the film, has said Murphy regularly skipped cast dinners because of the “monumental” pressure he felt. “Of course he didn’t want to [eat] with us,” she told People magazine. Matt Damon, brilliant as mustachioed military boss General Groves, agreed: “His brain was just too full.” When we push Murphy on the subject, he reveals a little more. “I didn’t go out much. I didn’t socialise much, mainly because of the amount of work I had to do… I became so immersed in the role.”

To make the experience yet more profound, cameras rolled only “a couple of days” before Russia invaded Ukraine. The West united to impose stringent economic sanctions on Vladimir Putin and his people. The value of the Ruble plummeted, Russian billionaires were booted out of London and Moscow became a cultural ghost town with the likes of Green Day and Iron Maiden cancelling gigs. Putin’s response? To start lining up tactical nukes along his borders. Armageddon seemed closer than at any moment since the Cold War. Murphy (and his castmates) felt the heat. “It was everywhere, and we were fully aware of that,” he says. “The threat [of nuclear war] has escalated and receded over the years since 1945… and now it’s back. It’s always there, this Sword Of Damocles that is hanging over us.”

Murphy, 47, knows what it’s like to exist against the backdrop of conflict. He grew up during the Troubles in late 1970s and ‘80s Cork, Ireland, where reports of sectarian violence in the north often dominated the news. His mum was a French teacher and his dad worked for the civil service. As a teenager, he was obsessed with music. He read NME and loved Frank Zappa and The Beatles. To illustrate his fandom, he tells us about a trip he took to Liverpool, later in life, to see the legendary Cavern Club, where the mop tops first cut their teeth on stage. “I walked down to [the street where the Cavern Club is supposed to be],” he says, “and it wasn’t there. It was somewhere over there!” He gesticulates with his hands. “It’s not the real Cavern. It’s just a mock-up!”

Inspired by John, Paul, George and Ringo, Murphy and his brother formed a band: The Sons of Mr Green Genes, named after a Zappa tune from the avant garde groover’s 1969 album ‘Hot Rats’. The songs were similarly experimental, filled with “wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos”. Eventually, an indie label based in London, Acid Jazz, put a five-album deal on the table. He and his brother turned it down, citing reasons of artistic independence, but for a while rock and roll appeared more inviting than the movies.

Murphy is often disparaging about his songs to journalists, but they must have been doing something right. He’s also self-deprecating when we bring up the underrated 2002 short film Watchmen, which he co-wrote with BAFTA-winner Paloma Baeza – his only attempt at a screenplay. “I just never thought that I was good enough really,” he says. “It’s why I haven’t, you know, pursued the music either… I like to do one thing quite well.” He adds that it’s unlikely this will change in the future.

Murphy will be far too busy to write songs or screenplays for a while anyway. The first reviews for Oppenheimer are out, and some critics have him earmarked for an Oscar. He’ll charm his way through awards season no doubt, just as he does at the Paris premiere the night before our interview. Done up in a black suit with mustard shirt and matching oversized tie, he looks a bit like the handsome English teacher your best mate had a crush on. Walking the red carpet, he is happy to answer questions, speaking at length about Nolan’s genius and the “amazing” reaction to Oppenheimer so far. You can tell he’s enjoying himself.

Murphy’s not on duty tonight though, with London’s premiere scheduled for the day after our chat. Then he’ll be waiting to get on with his next gig, the dark indie drama Small Things Like These, adapted from Claire Keegan’s bestselling 2021 title, in which he’ll take the lead role. Following his breakthrough blockbuster with a low-key Irish drama is typically understated of Murphy, so not unexpected. More box office projects loom on the horizon – a standalone Peaky Blinders movie and the long-awaited horror threequel 28 Months Later – but he says he has “no new information” on either.

It’s difficult to say what Oppenheimer means for Murphy. He is a household name in the UK and Ireland, but less so in the States, where some still see him as a ‘TV actor’. In a recent interview to promote the film, Robert Downey Jr. talked of Murphy’s life “changing” after Oppenheimer, as if he’s a fresh actor on the scene. In a sense, Downey Jr. is right. This is Murphy’s first lead role in a sure-fire smash. And the parts he gets offered now may be a bit starrier. But don’t expect to see him in spandex on a Marvel soundstage anytime soon.

“I like unknowable, ambiguous, kind of enigmatic [characters],” he says. “To me that’s human life: the knotty, weird grey areas… A good man’s life is wholly uninteresting.”'

#Cillian Murphy #Oppenheimer #Christopher Nolan #Robert Downey Jr #Peaky Blinders #Small Things Like These #Claire Keegan #American Prometheus #28 Days Later #Danny Boyle #Inception #Dunkirk #Batman Trilogy #Bhagavad Gita #Emily Blunt #Kitty #Matt Damon #The Sons of Mr. Green Genes #Watchmen

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evilelitest2 · 9 months

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I wanted to echo a few points dimensionalrevolutionary said, as well as respond to a few things you said.

Firstly, implementing socialism without revolution has been tried before. Salvador Allende was a Marxist who was democratically elected President of Chile. As President, he began a number of programs to increase literacy, access to healthcare and employment, access to food, etc. You can look him up on your own time if you so choose. However, in 1973 a military coup forced him out of power and installed Augusto Pinochet, a dictator who killed thousands of innocents and caused many more to flee the country. This coup was backed by the United States, with Henry Kissinger saying “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

In Indonesia, the Communist Party operated within the framework of electoral politics and became the largest non-ruling Communist Party on the planet. In return, the Indonesian government and army conducted mass killings of communists in 1965, resulting in the deaths of around 1 million people (many of whom weren’t even Communist Party members, just wrongfully implicated). It is no coincidence that the socialist states that remain today are those that seized state power via a revolution rather than relying on electoralism. History has shown that any non-violent attempt to achieve socialism is doomed to brutal repression by the bourgeoisie.

Now to address some of your points. Your point on “Sweden’s backsliding is because it’s not diverse enough” is only looking at part of the picture. Obviously part of Sweden’s slide to the far right is due to racist and anti-immigration sentiments, this backsliding has been occurring long before that, as far back as the collapse of the USSR (which provided an incentive to keep Scandinavian workers happy, lest they be influenced by the socialists on the border). AzureScapegoat, a Swedish Marxist, has an excellent video on this through the lens of the Overton Window (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK1Ikx6el1E).

You say that most revolutions fail, which is true, but as I pointed out above every single attempt to achieve socialism via electoralism has failed. I would rather risk a low-percentage chance at achieving socialism than try the method that has NEVER succeeded.

Setting aside the fact that Hannah Arendt, a pivotal philosopher in defining authoritarianism/totalitarianism, was a massive racist who claimed anti-racism was totalitarianism (which immediately discredits the ideology for me), every government on the planet is “authoritarian.” Liberalism is just as authoritarian, it’s just that the powers-that-be are unelected and unaccountable billionaires who can set the rules of society to their whims by pouring ungodly amounts of money into the legalized bribery that is lobbying.

Regarding your final point on trans rights, while there are some parties that have bad views on LGBT+ rights (such as the KKE in Greece), in general implying that Marxists are uniquely bad when it comes to LGBT+ rights is laughable. The USSR, a country which dissolved over 30 years ago, didn’t have excellent LGBT+ rights? That’s so crazy, I wonder how LGBT+ rights were in the United States at the same time. It’s also laughable to say that the US has better LGBT+ rights than Cuba, a country which recently passed an incredibly progressive family law by popular vote (rather than via 9 unelected judges), and which provides trans Cubans free gender-affirming care (along with their other free healthcare).

Finally, bemoaning a socialist country like China for having worse LGBT+ rights than the USA is incredibly disingenuous. Less than a century ago large parts of China were still feudal. Less than 50 years ago China was a mostly rural society of poor farmers. Expecting Global South countries which have not had the same abilities to develop due to unequal exchange (and often had bigoted law codes forced upon them by imperialist countries) is intellectually dishonest. China’s LGBT+ rights are absolutely behind the United States, but the difference is that China is improving (recently Beijing made transitioning easier and Shanghai opened several clinics for LGBT+ youths), while the USA is backsliding. I feel the trajectory is far more significant.

Again, thanks for the polite response

I'm a historian, you can assume I know who Allende is, both Chille and Indonesia are some very dark stains on US history and the nation needs to apologize for it property. That isn't really a condemnation of social democracy though, its more a condemnation of School of the Americas, like any country is going to have trouble when an imperialist state overthrows there government to force a right wing mass murdering autocrat. Now the communist states who remain today have mostly become super capitalist at this point, so I'm not sure how much of a win that is.

Your youtube friend is simplifying things a tad, after the Soviet Union fell you had backsliding in some areas but also some major progressive reforms in others, its not a clear backslide until the last few years with the anti immigration nonsense because a major schism in Swedish politics has been the fact that it is a very homogenous country. Social Democracy tends to thrive better when it has a broad diverse base to draw upon and a more intersectional foundation

No friend no, you can't just gloss over the revolutionary logistics bit, your a Marxists, you are supposed to be consequentialist about this. WHAT IS YOUR SPECIFIC PLAN. A revolution without a plan is not a revolution, its a Che Guevara tee shirt with extra steps. What is your revolutionary plan in the United States (I assume you are American). What specific revolutionary steps are you taking. Do you know how to use a gun? Do you have an organized cell? What revolutions' are you modeling yourself after? Marx himself talks about this, Revolutionaries who are stuck on the romantic image of revolutions of the past rather than the realities of revolutions in the present. My argument against revolution is that in the United States, there is no model for it working unless circumstances change dramatically, or you secretly have control of the US military

For electoralism, you get tangible results, just compromised and disappointing one. Biden as I said is a centrist hack, but even under him, the United States has move to the left more in the last three years than in the 30 years before. The reason why so many unions are going on strike right now is because of Biden's policies (though possibly unintentionally). It also prevented Trump from turning the US into a dictatorship

I used to work for the Hannah Arendt society, I know her flaws, but she isn't the only scholar on Authoritarianism. (also Marx was racist, like come on dude) Liberals are often authoritarian, which is why i'm not a liberal, I'm a social democrat. Democratic foundations however produce more stable and egalitarian states than dictatorships, dictatorships are inherently right wing, you don't need Hannah Arendt to do that.

The US did have better policies on queer issues than the USSR. Not by much, its was pretty awful, but there is a reason why you managed to get a large gay rights organizing group going in the US and that never really took off in the USSR. This is to not let the US off the hook "better than the USSR" isn't a great moral accomplishment. And to be clear, the USSR was better than any far right government, so credit where its due, but its weird to mythologize a regime that was never good on any queer rights issue.

Cuba is a big reversals, because Castro infamously put gays into camps, but the regime has reversed itself a lot in the last 20 years. So you get one, one communist regime which genuinely got better on queer issues and got better than the capitalist states (though only after the dictators died and the state started to moderate but still). Credit where it is due

To be honest, I think you are taking a pretty patronizing attitude towards China. Even ignoring how China has had a very long homosexual tradition (again its not a Christian country) One of the entire points of communism is about "Dragging" nations in to modernity, even ignoring the problematic Hegalian framework of that, the fact is that the anti queer stuff in CHina isn't just coming from ignorant rural peasants, its from the party itself. In many ways, things got worse for queer people under Mao because the state was centralized enough to actually enforce its will more. China has made some progress in the last ten years, but the Party still to this day has not asserted Homosexuality as a human right

Also parts of the US have backslide, the Blue states have some of the best trans protections in the entire world, like its not good what is happening right now in America, but having lived abroad a lot, it can get so much worse. in the US at least, the majority of the country don't support this backslide, and while the Democrats do suck, they have not backslide as a party, if anything they have moved to be more inclusive (no where near enough though, I don't want to let them off the hook)

Finally, I tend to be much more comfortable with Marxists when they are clearly not tankies, but marxists places get so quickly infested with Tankie nonsense which inevitably leads them to repeat rightists talking points. So how the typical marxist response to the crisis in Ukraine is basically a copy/paste of Tucker's Carlson's talking points. I understand that not all Marxists are tankies, but I do think Marxism as an ideology really needs to get over the nostalgic worship of failed authoritarian states.

Cheers, fun discussion

#ask EvilElitest2 #communism #marxism #Tankies #Leninism

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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This day in history

Today (May 10), I’m in VANCOUVER for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and later a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall; on Thurs (May 11), I’m in CALGARY for Wordfest.

#20yrsago Lying, plagiarising NYT writer outed, ousted https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/times-reporter-who-resigned-leaves-long-trail-of-deception.html

#20yrsago COGECO’s Terms of Service: Assholes or idiots? https://memex.craphound.com/2003/05/11/cogecos-terms-of-service-assholes-or-idiots/

#10yrsago My Re:publica talk: “It’s not a fax machine connected to a waffle iron” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWqx_1tDyqE

#10yrsago What makes a project remixable? https://mako.cc/academic/hill_monroy-remixing_dilemma-DRAFT.pdf

#10yrsago Bike lanes led to 49% increase in retail sales https://web.archive.org/web/20130315222708/https://www.americabikes.org/nyc_study_finds_protected_bicycle_lanes_boost_local_business

#5yrsago FanFlick Editor: an entry in EFF’s Catalog of Missing Devices https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/fanflick-editor-entry-catalog-missing-devices-eff-supporter

#5yrsago Here are the official lyrics to the Mr Softee jingle https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/mister-softee-jingle-has-lyrics-who-knew

#5yrsago Bite-Sized Linux: a zine collecting awesome *nix tutorial webtoons https://wizardzines.gumroad.com/l/ltywT

#5yrsago West Virginia Senator laughed at the idea that hating on teachers would bite him in the ass — then he lost his job https://theintercept.com/2018/05/11/west-virginia-primary-teacher-strikes/

#5yrsago Pentagon sucks up to Trump by censoring mentions of climate change in its global risks assessment https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/05/10/pentagon-revised-obama-era-report-to-remove-risks-from-climate-change/

#5yrsago Teens are cyberbullying themselves as a form of self-harm https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/04/21/604073315/when-teens-cyberbully-themselves

#5yrsago Indigenous Canadians sue the Canadian government over decades of secret, involuntary, inhumane medical experiments https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/canada-indigenous-people-medical-experiments-lawsuit

#5yrsago Individual FBI agents can be sued for blackmailing potential informants with no-fly list threats https://www.techdirt.com/2018/05/11/court-fbi-agents-can-be-held-accountable-tossing-immigrants-no-fly-list-because-they-refused-to-be-informants/

#1yrago The (billionaires’) case against billionaires https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/11/a-dent-in-the-universe/#eminently-guillotineable

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

#pluralistic

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trilliansthoughts · 6 months

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Samhain

October 31st is the start of the Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-inn) since the Celtic day begins and ends at sunset, not midnight. Samhain is one of the most significant festivals in the Pagan calendar as it marks the beginning of the Celtic New Year. Samhain is also the Irish word for the month of November. Hallowe’en derives from the Christian term All Hallows Eve (saints evening), which was eventually contracted from (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en to Hallowe’en.

Our Neolithic ancestors believed that a thinning of the veil with the afterlife occurred at both Samhain and Beltane and the traditions of Hallowe’en originated around 4000 BCE. Many Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with sunrise on Samhain and are seen as portals to the Otherworld. Druids light fires and burn animal bones as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. The burning of bones is the origin of the word ‘bonfire’. Costumes are worn as disguises to repel spirits wandering the Earth and putting out food and treats to pacify spirits led to the modern-day tradition of trick or treating.

As costumes became more elaborate over the centuries, they began to represent occult beings such as werewolves, witches, vampires, and zombies. Many films, TV series, and books in popular culture that feature such beings often take place at Samhain or incorporate the traditions of Hallowe’en. Seeing a spider on Hallowe’en means the spirit of a loved one is watching over you and a person born on October 31st can allegedly see and talk to spirits.

‘Bobbing’ for apples originated from a Roman tradition celebrating Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Single women carved the peel from an apple in one long single cut and threw it over their shoulders where it formed the initial of their future husband. Hanging wet sheets in front of the fire or staring into a mirror at midnight was thought to reveal the face of your future husband or wife.

Barm brack is a yeast bread with added sultanas and raisins that is eaten during Hallowe’en. The brack contains items for a fortune-telling game: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the bean, a future without money; the stick, an unhappy marriage or continual disputes; a piece of cloth, bad luck or poverty; a coin, good fortune or riches; the ring, wed within the year. Nowadays, barm bracks only contain a ring to avoid disappointing people with bad news.

Irish immigrants brought the traditions of Hallowe’en to all parts of the world, where many local variations emerged and were themselves brought back to Ireland by returning emigrants. The tradition of carving pumpkins into Jack-o'-Lanterns originated in Ireland. The practice was inspired by the Irish legend of Stingy Jack who tricked the Devil and was forced to roam the Earth with a carved-out turnip as a lantern. In Ireland, it was traditional to carve a turnip or potato, whereas in the New World, pumpkins became the vegetable of choice. As these were easier to carve, they soon replaced the traditional turnip in Ireland.

While Beltane is a festival for the living, Samhain is essentially a festival for the dead. Hallow is another word for ‘saint’ and Christianity celebrates All Hallows Day on November 1st, in honour of all church saints, and All Souls Day on November 2nd, to commemorate loved ones who have passed from this mortal realm. In Mexico, Día de los Muertos on November 1st is one of the most globally recognized festivals that celebrates The Day of the Dead. Happy Hallowe’en, everyone!

#Samhain #Hallowe'en #Halloween #Celts #Pagan #Mythology #Ireland #Day of the Dead #Día de los Muertos

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commajade · 8 months

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Hello. I have been looking through your blog for the relationship between antiblackness, Korea and colonialism. But specifically do you have any academic works or recommendation reading on the LA Riot (or maybe any your personal analysis). I feel like sources online tend to be shallow in its analysis. I also wanted to thank you as another queer Korean for your analysis and work.

thanks! glad ur enjoying my v informal thoughts on this blog!

i don't have resources on hand because i find any writing about the rodkey king uprisings that aren't specifically about the way antiblackness is the foundation of the US economy and global capitalist society and south korea is a US neocolony to be fundamentally lacking. it's a complex historical event that has continuities with the rest of the US history of police brutality and resulting uprisings so i am in no way an authority on that aspect.

so this is a disclaimer that this is my attempt to show a limited political view as a korean person talking about the perspective of korean diaspora in southern california.

in my understanding the rodney king uprisings were a natural and historically repeating result of oppressed people expressing grief, anger, and communal political power in response to police brutality and the ways antiblackness is the foundation of the US economic, legal, and social systems. this iteration of this pattern involves korean-americans because of the murder of latasha harlins by a korean shop owner that was 1 year before and the way korean american small business owners became militant because they were targeted for looting and theft and property destruction by people agitated by the uprisings as well as well as the cops.

what happened is that the murder of latasha harlins was utterly evil and disgusting and happened as a result of a lot of different historical factors. there's a saying among korean diaspora that early korean immigrants, especially the ones in LA, tend to be meaner, harder, more jaded, and less trusting. the awful economic conditions and violent racism they faced made them very closed off. the history of US military presence in south korea and the ideas about race that experiencing US military occupation during the desegregation of the US military gave them + being outsiders setting up businesses in historically black urban areas made them wary, paranoid, and virulently antiblack. at the same time, the chief of police made a decision to protect white neighborhoods and businesses and not korean ones. so even those who were initially less prone to enacting antiblackness felt it was life or death situation to be militant in defending their property. meanwhile some black people felt it was right to get something during the chaos from businesses that are actively racist. it was a warzone, because white cops vs black people in their homes who are agitated by police violence is always an all out warzone. korean people remember it as sa-i-gu/4-2-9, as a war. they were completely unprotected by the state and their own part in policing black people in their own neighborhoods was what made them targets to the people agitated by the uprisings.

the event has had a huge impact on korean diaspora in california, any koreans that could move out of urban areas into suburban areas moved and went further and further south into orange county. the ones who remained simply have to live with the tension and fallout and distrust and many of them are very antiblack. there is a cultural memory of sa-i-gu that perpetuates antiblack myths that black people are more likely to be violent or dislike korean people. this solidifies the racist beliefs that military occupation instilled in korean people from the 1950s to now. this is another way that white supremacist racial capitalism works.

i guess my "take" is that colonization and military occupation of the US in south korea is what makes korean diaspora so antiblack and that the rodney king uprisings were another war of white supremacist cops vs people trying to survive. and korean diaspora need to realize that the entire world is built on a foundation of antiblackness and the US and its neocolony the ROK are the ones putting korean poor people in these life or death situations, not other oppressed people. what's necessary is korean reunification, removal of US military presence from the korean peninsula and turtle island (the north american continent), abolishment of the US government in all its carceral and brutalizing ways, landback to the indigenous people of turtle island, etc.

#asks #korean history #long post

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mrsgojosatoru · 22 days

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And I knew, I fully KNEW that after Trump was elected democrats would swing hard to the right and implode. And that is what is happening.

can u expand on this? why would they behave this way when youth and poc were enthusiastic for bernie in 2020

Because ALL politicians serve at the behest of our ruling class. For democrats it's not about winning the youth vote and people of color, it's not even about winning at all -- they fund raise better as losers -- it's about making sure the wealthy keep as much of their wealth as they can.

Republicans get in office, do a bunch of tax cuts, increase military spending, get rid of public goods and to get their votes cut rights to minorities. Unlike democrats Republicans work best as winners. And unlike democrats they LOVE fulfilling their campaign promises.

Then after our country has been decimated, there's no money to support community needs, and people have been stripped of their rights democrats come in and go "you NEED us." Then they dangle protecting our rights like a carrot. They go "you don't want .... [insert x fear tactic here. Project 2025. National abortion ban. Rolling back same sex marriage]. Then they fundraise and run on that. You can note that Biden is REALLY short on campaign promises as a winner. He doesn't know what to sell you other than fear mongering. Vote for him he's not Donald Trump.

When democrats get in office they don't actually .... do anything. They just make liberals feel okay about violence against people of color at home and globally, and do ... nothing. Like ask yourself, really ask yourself. Liberals were all up in arms over Trump but did they care about any of the following?

Do people care about those kids in cages now? Because the kids are still cages. Did they care about border patrol agents whipping people at the border? Did they push Obama to follow through on his campaign promise to codify Roe v Wade? Did they get up in arms over Biden wanting to pass the most draconian immigration reform in the past thirty years? Wanting to continue the border wall? Funding for the genocide of the Palestinians? Drone striking Yemen for their blockade of their own waters?

Nope! In fact they tell you to keep voting for Biden because he's the lesser of two evils when ... is he? I'm not saying he hasn't done anything, but I am saying that like ... he could do a lot more. For democrats our rights and equality isn't actually something to be protected they are something to dangle over our heads and threaten us with. Vote for us or else. Then do nothing meaningful about protecting them.

Because at the end of the day our ruling class just cares about staying wealthy. Lower taxes, lower wages, more shoes to fill their thankless minimum wage jobs. So they get politicians who will keep us beat down fighting to be seen as people, and we can never move forward in class equity.

The democratic party winning and surviving doesn't matter to them. If they implode under fascism they don't care. So long as the rich can stay rich. It's why they saw some enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders, collapsed the establishment immediately behind Clinton and Biden and pushed us straight towards this exact situation.

The ruling class would kill us all to hold on to their money and power a little longer, and that is at the root of everything.

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187days · 6 months

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Day Forty-Seven

Aside from the morning PLC meeting, pretty much nothing went according to plan today.

The first thing that threw me off was that I'd planned to show a 25-minute video about the hajj to my Global Studies students, but I realized as I was setting up that it's actually 35 minutes. In a 40-minute class, that's a crunch, and I had other stuff to go over first. So I decided to show it over two days instead of one, and mentally adjusted tomorrow's lessons to accommodate for that.

Then I started doing my grading, but the fire alarm went off.

I'm not sure if it was a drill, or not- we didn't have any notice that it was going to happen, but sometimes the fire department does it that way- but kids were slow getting down the stairs today for some reason, so... That's not great.

It took a while to settle my first section of Global Studies down after that, so I'm glad I'd already adjusted my lessons. I never could've fit the whole video into the class time I had remaining once I got students ready to learn, discussed upcoming due dates, and recapped yesterday's lesson on The Five Pillars. Rather, I played about 2/3 of it, and that worked out fine.

In APGOV, we discussed Fed. 78 for the first half hour or so, and then got into how the power of judicial review- which Hamilton describes, but doesn't name- was established in Marbury v. Madison. But, as I was explaining the crisis the case presented to the Court, I got several questions about the notion that the executive branch could ignore the Court's rolling. That led to some interesting tangents, including a lengthy one about DACA, the Dream Act, and illegal immigration in general; we jumped from A to Q on that one, not just A to B, but it's still about how the government works, so it's good.

Anyways, we got back to the original topic eventually, and we'll do some more with SCOTUS cases over the next few classes. A modified form of Court Madness is coming back, which is going to be fun!

I was going to leave right after work, but a student asked to make up a test, so I ended up staying, which meant I left at the same time as Mr. C, so I got to chat with him about how his year is going so far. It isn't easy being a first-year, especially coming in as a late hire, but he's figuring it out.

I was able to relax at home for a bit, but then I headed back out for a local political event my APGOV students were invited to (Democratic party's fall social). They couldn't all make it since they have busy lives, but the ones who were there got to meet their local state reps, as well as one of the gubernatorial candidates, and I was very proud to hear how well they articulated their political views when asked.

It was a cool way to end an atypical day. Tomorrow's the last day of the quarter, so here's hoping it's a good one!

#teaching #teachblr #high school #teacher #edublr #education #politics and education #Mr. C #court madness #day forty seven #social studies #plc #fire alarm

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brightgnosis · 6 months

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✽ Between the Worlds: Essays on People, Spaces, and Rituals ✽

CONTENTS

Preface

Ethnographic Essay

PART I ✽ LOCAL AND GLOBAL CULTURES

Non-Places as Sacred Places: Conflict, Contradiction, or Adaptation by Reet Hiiemäe

The Egyptians Dreaming оf а Better Yesterday by Mihaila Yordanova

Vishivanka Parade and Day of Vishivanka: Old Elements, New Practices, Local Origin, Worldwide Extension by Tanya Matanova

From the Veneration of the Virgin Mary to the Byzantine Folk Mantikê: Cultural Narratives and Religious Symbolism in the ‘Kalinitsa’ Festival in Asenovgrad by Zlatina Bogdanova

In the Footsteps of Medieval Traveler by Desislava Naydenova

Invasion and Immersion: Reconstructing the ‘Other World’ within an Exhibition Space by Elena Dyakova

PART II ✽ BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY

Adoption from Foster Care in Bulgaria – Latest Legal Ideas Analyzed through Some Recently Collected Empirical Data by Elya Tsaneva and Hristinka Basheva

Căluş in Romania: Tradition, Heritage, and National Calendar by Lina Gergova

Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Hemp? The Growing and Processing of Hemp in Eastern Serbia by Svetlana Ćirković

Some Aspects of Everyday Hygiene of Christians and Sunni Muslims in Bulgaria – ‘Clash’ of Two Religious and Cultural Systems by Iliyana Gancheva

Communal Celebrations in the Local Environment: Traditions and Modernity by Valentina Vasseva

PART III ✽ THE ENTANGLED HISTORY: MEMORIES AND IDENTITIES

Between Two Epochs: Roma Movement in the Soviet Union and in the Post-Soviet Space by Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov

‘Our’ and ‘Foreign’ in Bessarabia: Communicational Environment and Commemorative Practice by Svetlana Koch

Minority Policies in the Context of Political Borders’ Change: The Case of Montenegro by Sofiya Zahova

Binding the Present with the Distant Past by Evgenia Troeva

Culture Contact with the Tatar Settlers to the Balkans During the Middle and the Second Half of the 19th Century by Veneta Yankova

PART IV ✽ RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, SPIRITUAL SPACES AND HOLY PLACES

Between Worlds: Beliefs and Ritual Practices at Saints’ Graves and Relics by Vihra Baeva

The Thracian Sanctuary Near Dolno Dryanovo – a Bridge between Worlds and Cultures by Albena Georgieva

Evangelical Roma Foodways by Magdalena Slavkova

The Rise of Protestantism and its Role within Roma Communities in Bulgaria Between the World Wars by Alexandar G. Marinov

Islamophobia as a Social Phenomenon in the Western Societies by Hayri Emin

PART V ✽ HOME IN MOTION

Between Worlds – Magic in Immigration (Bulgarian Cases from the UK) by Mila Maeva

Integration by ‘Fencing’: the Case of Refugees in Bulgaria by Albena Nakova and Yelis Erolova

(In)Tangible Meanings of Tangible Belongings Within Mixed Families’ Life by Desislava Pileva

Sedentarization of Roma Nomads in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria by Plamena Stoyanova

#Slavic Folk Tradition #Religion & Magic #Bookshelf #Tumblr Staff Has Ruined Links Now And I Hate Them For It

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tealisa · 1 year

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highkey marvel is missing an opportunity by not having Steve be Irish & Native America (on dad and mom's side) and Bucky be Afro Boricuan/Latino whose family immigrated to the US

not b/c they'd be better like that (but it would be better ijs) but b/c it would add so much to the themes and politics of the story

or rather, the themes that story could explore of marvel wasn't so filled with white USian writers who back away from any interesting and potentially cool storyline & character development in favor of just using the Cap stories to tell really distorted references to IRL american history and tiringly centrist-at-best stories that always wrap around to patriotism and IRL status quo

it's frustrating b/c the first big story arc and potential character development of modern Cap is the whole Winter Soldier thing, and that comes the closest to what I'm talking abt: it has the whole Project Paperclip analogy and themes abt how the Western European and co. enders up "rehabilitating" and hiring the Nazis to work in their alliances and domestic industries. And the analogy is good! They have 2 WWII soldiers who fought Nazis and got pushed into modern-day USA to see the same Nazis still around, and they even have be personal w/ the characters themselves being subject to state violence and create emotional investment

but marvel still kinda does a copout and never have the characters personally question why the USA hired the Nazis and led to Hydra doing things w/ government funding, and instead marvel pushes it off as a "bad apples" thing to avoid questioning the American project itself.

And as the years go by they change the Hydra=Nazi Germany thing and add more Soviet/Communist stuff to it b/c Americans love their Double Genocide Theory (which Holocaust historians rightfully call it Holocaust Denial) b/c otherwise Americans would have to contend w/ the fact that Nazi Germany was inspired by US Segregation + Native Americans being corraled into reservations & West Europe's plundering of Africa

Its even worse w/ the current "Cold War" BS going on rn, they literally retcon Hydra & the Nazis as just a "smaller" villains controlled by a bigger "revolution" and toss the word socialism around like a conservative politician. And the fact that it's called "Cold War" creeps me out b/c Marvel recently got pissed at (and later fired) Victoria Alonso for promoting a movie abt a US-supported dictatorship in LatAm (spec. Argentina, her home nation) and how Pesto Pascal was in an interview and got nervous abt mentioning that the US funded the coup in Childe and assassinated Allende & installed Pinochet. This was all part of the IRL Cold War, installing dictatorships to crush revolution in the Global South, and the way Hollywood (and even marvel comics) line up to distort the US' bloody history and try to wash it away with weak centrist "criticism" that still supports US patriotism

that's why I feel like changing Bucky & Steve's ancestry (doesn't even need to be a retcon, it can be filling in the gaps and we can just say they're lightskin jjjjjj) would help the story. Tbh, even Steve's Irish ancestry should have affected his story, but marvel doesn't even care enough to give his mother a last name or any living relatives back in Ireland, much less use Steve's ancestry to help question his loyalty to a country that doesn't stand for his stated ideals at all.

it's v ridiculous b/c almost every story arc includes Bucky or Steve being subject to state violence and used more as a human weapon than anything, and yet there's no infernal questioning or progression or character development. The stories always manage to swing around and shift the blame onto a propaganda caricaturish villain to be like "USAmerica's heart is being corrupted by evil we must restore its purity" or if not, then they act like it never happened so they can go back to being loyal American supercops b/c actually admitting that America's heart has always been genocidal is too much for American liberal writers

tldr: Bucky should have Afro Caribbean family and Steve should be Irish and Native to better fit the story, and the writers should actually let them remember the time the US hired the Nazis they didn't kill in WW2 and how those Nazis ended up torturing and experimenting on (marginalized!) ppl and also them too, so they should be mad at being used as human weapons. B/c after the 2nd or 3rd rehashed "our country is being taken over by evil" Cold War-era propaganda story they should just get together and destroy the Captain America shield b/c at what point to they realize the problem is not some "outside force" the problem is America.

Ok anon idk what sparked this very long text in my art blog, but real actually. You speak about retconning their racial identities and while I agree with that, I also have to acknowledge that Marvel is already sleeping on what is a core part of Steve and Bucky's publication history and that should've been incorporated into their characters by long now: Their Jewishness. They were created by Jewish immigrants, precisely to rally support against the nazis in the U.S. The only reason they (and other marvel heroes like Jim Hammond) weren't openly Jewish was because of the times! It makes no sense that marvel today refuses to do acknowledge that and make them canonically Jewish. Steve has his Irish heritage and sure, I guess back in the 40s he got looked at with side eyes, but that part of his lore only feels like a replacement for what REALLY should've been there, which is his Jewish identity.

Steve's entire character is believing and fighting for a dream that he quickly learns couldn't be farther from the truth, and he works in order to assure that utopic dream -- the one sold to immigrants, of a land of freedom and opportunity without prejudice -- actually takes place. This dichotomy between dream and reality and how despite that he still fights relentlessly for the rights of the oppressed (that is his biggest thing, that he's the world's #1 ally) would be SO much more meaningful if he had a Jewish heritage, like his creators.

And yes, Marvel has much degenerated from the incredibly political, punk movement that it was when it arose in the 1940s. Even with all its bullshit, up until the 80s you could see the writers weren't afraid to criticize precisely the problems of the U.S., but after that 90s buy-out, all that was gone. And then 2001 happened and Marvel became the most neoliberal shit you could imagine, and along with that came many many cases of bigotry within those comics, including MANY instances of antisemitism, and the MCU's (and the Foxverse) whole existence is just more proof of that. From completely erasing characters' Jewish identities, to making nazi characters into 'lovable bad guys' like they did with zemo, to the sheer aberration that was making Magneto's children into volunteers for the nazis, Marvel has a gigantic problem with antisemitism and it goes hand in hand with the other bigotries present at marvel (their gigantic antiblackness and misogynoir, their antiromanism and demonization of roma women, all of its racism and fetishization of woc and dehumanization of all poc in general, really; and its massive ableism) and that is also intrinsically connected to all of this stupid ass Cold War Red Scare shit. It is VERY MUCH an intentional choice to make The Commies into their new Big Bads. And now that you mention Victoria Alonso (which is their new escapegoat) - i didnt know she was involved in Argentina 1985 -, all of it starts to make perfect sense, because I think back to Avengers EMH, where they made it very clear that S.H.I.E.L.D., basically Fantasy CIA/FBI were the bad guys, and where the heroes were making points of anti-punitivism and prison abolishment, it makes total sense that Marvel, after getting bought by Disney, would shut that down and release propaganda shit instead.

Anyways, long story short, Marvel as it is now fucking sucks, the creators should all get rightfully compensated and all of its IPs should go into the Public Domain.

#marvel #marvel comics #marvelposting #non-art stuff #steve rogers #captain america #asks #tealisa asks

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