There has hardly ever been so much darkness and confusion as in the present age. People are muffled up in lies and falsehoods and, more often than not, chance and passing impressions are their only guides through the maze of present events. Illusions, and particularly the illusion of power, overawe everyone.

Nikolai Berdyaev, "Political Testament"

imagine being so bitchmade you try to make calling people bigots virtually illegal lmao

"you can call proud bigots what they are but it'll cost you at least $35,000 + legal fees" ok pussy

free speech for me but not for thee bullshit, kiss yourself

History speaks for itself.

I'm 5 feet tall with a delicate build, and I work out regularly. No amount of body-building changes the fact that the average man could easily wrap his entire fucking hand around my neck and EASILY choke me to death, or break my wrists or my fucking spine. That terrifies me. It terrifies me than in a real one on one fight to the death, I'd probably be the one dying. I'm thinking of that video where a woman stabbed a guy with a big knife like 15 times, and he still kept fighting, whaling on her. What the fuck are those tiny "self defense" blades supposed to accomplish ? My best bet would probably be to slice his jugular or push my thumbs into his eye sockets, but how the fuck am I supposed to do that if he's restraining my arms. It TERRIFIES me that I can't fight, and even if I could, I'd probably not stand a chance against the average man, and definitely not if there were more than one.

Do any of you know self defense tips that ACTUALLY work? No convoluted moves. If a brute has got me in a fucking chokehold, I won't be thinking about the steps of popular self defense moves. I'll be panicking, losing strength and consciousness. The way i see it, my best bet would be carrying a fucking dagger, but even that requires intense training to learn how to use efficiently.

After watching Legend of Zhen Huan so many times, I really believe that the whole situation with Fuzi was a set-up from Yixiu against Shilan. Yixiu is aware that Shilan is jealous of other concubines, and arranging a pretty 17-year old maid at Shilan's side which Shilan would regard as Yixiu's spy on top of her jealousy seems like the perfect trap to lure Shilan into making a mistake that would destabilize her position. We cannot know for certain if Yixiu had predicted that Fuzi would catch the Emperor's eye as soon as she did, but I think she was banking on Shilan retaliating against Fuzi at some point to serious consequences for her; if not a demotion, then she would have certainly lost her harem management power. But the discovery of Fuzi's dead body coinciding with the Emperor needing to mobilize Nian Gengyao's military power effectively ruined the plan, since the Emperor couldn't crack down on Shilan at that moment.

In a keynote speech to a gathering of Christian nationalist lawmakers Tuesday night, House Speaker Mike Johnson compared himself to Moses, leading the GOP conference — and America — through the parted waters of the Red Sea.

Johnson addressed the National Association of Christian Lawmakers at the group’s award gala at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Perhaps unaware that the event was being recorded for the NACL Facebook page, Johnson told the crowd: “I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here.” (“Thank you for not allowing the media in,” Johnson added, alleging that journalists have been taking his comments “out of context” with “great joy for the last few weeks.”)

Johnson then revealed that — in the lead up to the “tumult” of Kevin McCarthy losing his gavel and the chaotic GOP process of selecting new Speaker — he had been speaking directly to God. “Look, I’m a Southern Baptist, I don’t wanna get too spooky on you,” he said, provoking some laughter from the attendees. “But, you know, the Lord speaks to your heart.”

The message he received from God, Johnson said, was to prepare for a “Red Sea moment” — both for the Republican conference “and in the country at large.” Johnson said found the directive confusing but he continued to seek the counsel of God.

“The Lord began to wake me up, through this three-week process, in the middle of night to speak to me,” Johnson insisted. “Now at the time,” he continued, “I assumed the Lord is going to choose a new Moses.” But because of his own lesser rank among the GOP’s leadership, Johnson said, he believed the heavenly message to be: “You’re gonna allow me to be Aaron to Moses,” citing the role of the Old Testament prophet’s brother and biblical sidekick.

But then Johnson watched as candidate after candidate failed to generate the necessary Republican support to win the Speakership. “Ultimately 13 people ran for the post. And the Lord kept telling me to, ‘Wait, wait, wait,’” Johnson recalled. “So I waited, I waited. And then at the end … the Lord said, ‘Now step forward.’” Johnson regaled the audience with his surprise to be tapped as the Moses figure: “Me?” Johnson said. “I’m supposed to be Aaron.” But that was not the message, Johnson insisted, recalling: “‘No,’ the Lord said, ‘Step forward.’”

Johnson’s speech to the National Association of Christian Lawmakers — a group that seeks to enact its anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ “biblical worldview” into law — is just the latest evidence that the politician who is now second in line for the presidency views himself as on a divine mission. Rolling Stone previously reported on Johnson’s exhortations to save a “depraved” America from God’s wrath and vengeance.

Johnson told the NACL crowd that his “core conviction” that “God wants us to seek Him for the path through the roiling sea.” The Speaker then underscored his pessimism about the state of the nation, asserting that America is facing the “greatest collection of challenges since maybe World War II, maybe the Civil War.”

America, Johnson insisted, is “engaged in a battle between worldviews” and “a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” The specifics of that struggle remained unspoken. But the NACL mission, according to materials promoting the gala, includes: “abolishing abortion”; restoring “traditional marriage between one man and one woman”; and “exposing the ungodly effort to undermine our culture by Leftists,”. Johnson added that he believed far-right Christians will prevail: “We should not be daunted. In the face of these challenges. Our hope is in the Lord, our hope, and our trust is in God.”

At the gala, Johnson was awarded with NACL’s “American Patriot Award for Christian Honor and Courage.” It was bestowed to recognize what the group’s leader, former Arkansas state Rep. Jason Rappert, described as Johnson’s “statesmanship, bold Christian leadership, and faithful service to our Lord Jesus Christ.”

me desiring to be a smol menace on the dash vs the fear of accidentally being mean instead of funny: a constant battle.

I’m going to sound like a filthy british bastard by saying this but one of the things I think turns me away from this heavily fandomized tumblrification of the american revolution is genuinely the lack of british perspectives. I obviously don’t fault tumblr for this being the case (it goes without saying that it is a far deeper issue than just that… cough cough american nationalism and exceptionalism and the effect that has on the media) but in spaces like this there really just isn’t… any nuance at all to this conflict which was so undeniably nuanced in so many ways. it’s all about gay founding fathers and cool spies which. I understand the appeal but at a certain point I’m genuinely not sure how much of it we can call history

No one today likes truth: utility and self-interest have long ago been substituted for truth.

Nikolai Berdyaev, "Political Testament"

Testament - Over The Wall

SHORTEST-SERVING EVER PRIME MINISTER LIZ TRUSS

yesterday i found out lenin´s wife was a girlboss

This week on a whim I decided to start a book filled with interviews discussing what it was like to live through the fall of the USSR and trying to reconcile that past with the 'present' situation in Russia (the book came out in 2015 I think) and I'm so glad I picked it up, because this is the first thing I've read in a long time that has genuinely changed me as a person and the way I think about my life. There are so many touching tales about humanity and hope and cruelty and having to live and cope with bitter disappointment and unchangeable situations outside of your control and it speaks so much to what it feels like to be alive today, even though the interviews took place in the 90s/early 2000s and I've never lived through anything like what the people in this book have experienced. I'm not even halfway through this book, the audio version is nearly 24 hours long!! But it's been consuming me with Thoughts and I just needed to get some of them out