#nature under totalitarian rule | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tomorrowusa · 10 months

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Large mammals such as elephants, whales, and tigers tend to get a disproportionate amount of attention when it comes to conservation. Birds and beneficial insects are often overlooked.

Northern Ontario residents are building bee hotels to attract them and to encourage them to produce more bees.

Bee my guest: Northerners build hotels for pollinators as spring unfolds

Lawns are one of the worst things for pollinators and birds. They encourage wasteful water practices and unnecessary chemical use.

Michael Pollan put it best...

"A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule."

It's time to help our airborne friends and overthrow the tyranny of lawns.

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Natural looking green space may require a bit more effort at the start of the growing season but is a lot less work from week to week. It's worth it just to get rid of the noise pollution and fumes from lawn mowers.

Get your local municipal governments interested in supporting nature-friendly and climate-friendly landscaping practices.

#birds #bees #nature #bee hotels #north ontario #herbicides #pesticides #lawns #conservation #water use #nature under totalitarian rule #michael pollan #kill your lawn #monte wolverton

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iberiancadre · 16 days

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I want to preface this question by saying that it is in genuine good faith, I am a communist exploring the issues they have with the various branches and not trying to stir the pot, and you seem pretty thoughtful and clear-headed so I hope you don't mind my asking.

To be direct - what do MLs make of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the following Soviet-Nazi Commerical Agreements?

Naturally I recognise that a lot of what's said in the West about the USSR is propaganda, and I absolutely recognise & respect Lenin's leadership, but I really don't see a way around the fact that Stalin sold oil to Hitler, and as the descendent of a Ukrainian Jew who fled the famine and crossed the continent to escape the rising tide of violent anti-Semitism I don't feel that I could, in good conscience, ally myself with people who support a leader that had any sort of positive relations with the Nazis, no matter how MLs otherwise do have strong merits.

Omg a good-faith question on Stalin and the Holodomor, I feel honored, thanks for you calmness, anon. Everything you've asked I've already made a post about it, or a far more informed tumblr comrade has made a post about it, so I'll just link/quote those ^^

Molotov-Ribbentrop:

(I wanted to put the text of the post here in an indent but it's not letting me post it with it so.)

Personally I'm not as informed on the commercial agreements as I am regarding the pact, so I will not say much in detail except that, knowing the foreign policy of the USSR at this time, it was probably wagered that the trade would have benefited the USSR more than it did Germany. Of course, there are many things to criticize about their foreign policy without having to resort to meaningless handwringing about "totalitarianism" and horseshoe theory. It is doubtless that, in the time of peace when the trades happened (assuming it is a simple as the USSR just selling oil to Germany), this helped fuel their conquest and oppression. It is also doubtless that the benefit it brought to the USSR contributed to their eventual victory.

Before talking about the Holodomor, a quick quote on anti-semitism in the USSR pre-WW2:

It was German practice as they entered Soviet territories to encourage the local populace to engage in pogroms against the Jews as a first stage in their genocidal policy. They had some success in those areas which had become part of the Soviet Union since 1939 but in the Soviet Union proper there was no evidence of spontaneous anti-Semitism. A Jewish historian commentated that “In Byelorussia, a conspicuous difference is evidenced between the old Soviet part of the region and the area which had previously belonged to Poland and was under Soviet rule from September 1939 to June 1941. Nazi and anti-Jewish propaganda drew a weak response in the former Soviet Byelorussia: we encounter complaints in Nazi documents that, ‘it is extremely hard to incite the local populace to pogroms because of the backwardness of the Byelorussian peasants with regard to racial consciousness.’” Another view of the cause of the racial attitudes in Byelorussia was given in a secret memorandum by a collaborator to the chief of the German army in August 1942. He wrote: “There is no Jewish problem for the Byelorussian people. For them, this is purely a German matter. This derives from Soviet education which has negated racial difference … The Byelorussians sympathize with, and have compassion for the Jews, and regard the Germans as barbarians and the hangman of the Jew, whom they consider human beings equal to themselves …”

The Russians are Coming: The Politics of Anti-Sovietism, by V. L. Allen

The USSR managed like no other European country to so effectively suppress antisemitism in an region that just 30 or 40 years prior was witness to pogroms.

The Holodomor: (This is a reblog and not the original post because OP is deactivated).

This is I think a good summary of my beliefs and it's well sourced. Basically, it wasn't a genocide, but a famine which was part of a long historical cycle of famines in the general region. It didn't just affect Ukrainians, and almost just as many Russians died in the famine than did Ukrainians. Moscow was particularly affected by this. It is also of note that it was the last famine that happened in the region. This is a similar accusation to the famine in the years of the Great Leap Forward in China, which was also the last famine in a more than a 1000 year cycle of famines in China. Weird how in both of these DotPs, a cyclical famine happened, it was also the end of the cycle, but capitalists assign it the category of genocide just this once. Nevermind the very targeted and constant global famine which, through the unequal distribution of resources, kills 9 million people each year, almost exclusively in imperialized countries whose wealth is syphoned to the imperial core. Mind you, this is not saying that the famines discussed were less bad because capitalists worldwide and throughout history have killed more people and continue to do so. This is just to point out the very obvious double standard when it comes to labeling famines as genocides.

#real marxist hours

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girlactionfigure · 18 days

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THURSDAY HERO: Mildred Harnack

Mildred “Mili” Harnack was a writer and academic from Wisconsin who moved to Berlin with her German husband in 1930. As Hitler rose to power, Mili created the largest resistance group in Nazi Germany and was targeted for execution by the Fuhrer himself.

Mili was born Mildred Fish in Milwaukee in 1902. Her father William was a teacher, and her mother Georgina was an activist for women’s suffrage. Mili had a natural facility with languages, and was fluent in German by the time she reached adulthood. Throughout her life, Mili loved German literature and culture. She attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she majored in English literature. Mili lived in a rooming house popular with writers, and worked as a film and drama critic for a local newspaper.

After receiving her BA, Mili went on to earn an MA in English in 1925. The next year she moved back to Milwaukee and worked as a lecturer at the Milwaukee State Normal School (now the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.) She met Arvid Harnack, a German economist and lawyer who was studying at the university on a Rockefeller fellowship. Arvid was from a prominent family of German intellectuals. After a whirlwind love affair, they were married in August 1926 at her brother’s farm. Arvid’s fellowship ended and he returned to Germany, followed by Mili the year later, after she completed a teaching session at Goucher College in Baltimore.

In Germany, Mili worked on her doctoral thesis and lectured at universities in German cities Jena and Giessen. The country was plunging deeper into political turmoil, and the Nazi party was rising to power amid the chaos. More than half of Mili’s students were outspoken Nazis. She moved to Berlin in 1930 to be with her husband, and began working as an assistant lecturer in English and American literature at the University of Berlin. Mili lectured about her favorite English and American writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw. She was so popular with students that in just a year and a half, enrollment in the class tripled.

Mili connected with other American expatriates in Berlin and formed a literary salon where anti-Nazi academics and intellectuals could express themselves freely. By 1934, the Nazi secret police were everywhere and the salon was disbanded. Fellow ex-pat Martha Dodd, a close friend of Mili’s, later described her Berlin salon as “the last of the meager remnants of free thought.” Many of those who had participated in the salons continued to meet in the Harnacks’ living room but instead of discussing literature, they planned anti-Nazi political activism

Meanwhile, Mili achieved renown as a writer. She published essays in prominent German literary journals until the mid-30’s, when magazines started to print only “approved opinions” (in support of Hitler). She was able to continue working as a translator, and her German-language translation of Irving Stone’s biography of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life, was published in 1936.

Mili returned to the U.S. on a book tour in 1937, and her old friends were shocked at the drastic change in her personality. Earlier she had been friendly and easy-going, but four years living under Nazi rule made Mili anxious, stiff and guarded. She’d had to wear a metaphorical mask to survive in the totalitarian German state, and couldn’t shed the mask even when she left Europe. Mili’s family urged her to stay in the U.S. but she was determined to return to her husband and her political activism group, now called “The Circle.”

Mili’s unassuming manner combined with an extremely sharp intellect enabled her to penetrate the highest circles of German politics and diplomacy. She used these connections to get exit and travel visas for Jewish friends and colleagues, among them prominent publisher Max Tau. Mili also surreptitiously gleaned information from highly placed contacts, which she transmitted to fellow members of the resistance.

Mildred was fired from her teaching job at the University of Berlin because of her political beliefs, and she began teaching at night school, where her students were mostly working class or unemployed. She recruited many of them to join The Circle. The group published anti-Nazi leaflets, written by Mildred, and secretly left stacks of them in public places throughout the city.

German intelligence called them “the Red Orchestra” and falsely smeared them as communists working for the Soviets. Undeterred, the group increased their activities and cooperated with other resistance units. Around this time Mili wrote, “I saw it clearly before my eyes. From then on our work not only implies the risk of losing our freedom, from now on death was a possibility.” Led by Mili, The Circle became the largest resistance group in Nazi Germany. They incited civil disobedience against the Nazi regime, documented Nazi atrocities, and transmitted military intelligence to the Allies.

In the summer of 1942, the Nazis intercepted radio transmissions that revealed the identity of prominent resistance fighters including the Harnacks. On September 7, Mili and Arvid were arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned. Arvid was tried by the Reich Military Tribunal and sentenced to death on December 19. He was hanged three days later at Plotzensee Prison.

Mili languished in a squalid prison cell for months, where she was tortured and contracted tuberculosis. She went on trial and was sentenced to six years in prison. However, Hitler heard about the American woman who fought so effectively against his regime, and he ordered a new trial for Mili. The kangaroo court delivered a pre-determined death sentence, and at Hitler’s explicit request Mili was beheaded by guillotine on February 16, 1943. Her last words were, “And I have loved Germany so much!” After her execution, Mili’s body was given to an anatomy professor at Humboldt University to dissect for research. After he finished, he gave the rest of her remains to a friend of hers, who had Mili buried in Zehlendorf Cemetery in Berlin.

The only writing that survived from her time in prison were a few translated lines from Goethe: “In all the frequent troubles of our days/A God gave compensation – more his praise/In looking sky-and heavenward as duty/In sunshine and in virtue and in beauty.”

Mildred’s brave actions and tragic death have not been forgotten. In Berlin, a street and a school are named for her, and in her native Wisconsin schools observe Mildred Fish Harnack Day. The University of Wisconsin-Madison hosts an annual Mildred Fish-Harnack Human RIghts and Democracy Lecture, and a sculpture of Mili was unveiled in Madison in 2019.

For fighting Hitler at the cost of her own life, we honor Mildred Harnack as this week’s Thursday Hero.

Image: Gestapo mug shots of Mildred taken after her arrest in 1942.

#Thursday Hero 🎖️

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doccywhomst · 6 months

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thoughts on the recent children in need announcement?

daleks feel like an apt enemy, given all the fascist rhetoric wafting about the world, but we just had so many daleks…. like way way too many daleks, and i wish they’d gone for something a little more original. then again! maybe it’ll be great, i dunno.

i would’ve gone with a story like The Natural History of Fear (BF audio), but shorter and with more jokes, because that was a very potent and powerful representation of life under totalitarian rule, but a bit too high-concept for children in need, lol. maybe the doctor could rescue kids from a dalek refugee camp - quite dark, but that seems to be what they’re going for.

#‘this is the voice of light city. *WHOOOOOM.* your state loves you. *WHOOOOOM.* happiness through acceptance.’#that would’ve scared the crap out of me as a kid #doctor who

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bestepisode · 2 months

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The top 8 episodes from each season will move on to the next round.

Vote on the second half of the season here!

Episode descriptions are under the cut.

After All These Years

Three years after the defeat of Zaheer, the vain Prince Wu is about to be crowned Earth King, and Mako is assigned as his bodyguard. In the Earth Kingdom, Opal and Kai try to protect a community from bandits with limited success. Kuvira, who now styles herself the "Great Uniter", appears at the head of an army that includes Bolin, Varrick and his assistant Zhu Li. She offers the governor supplies and protection – if he submits his state to her sovereignty. The governor reluctantly agrees, and their conversation reveals that this has become a pattern as Kuvira consolidates more and more of the Earth Kingdom under her authority, which begins to appear increasingly despotic. Elsewhere, a despondent Korra is fighting and losing cage matches, having apparently renounced her identity as the Avatar.

Korra Alone

Over the past three years, a despondent Korra has been slowly recovering her health with the aid of physical therapy and healing administered by Katara at the South Pole, following her torture and poisoning at the hands of the Red Lotus. However, the effects of the assault and the other suffering and losses that she has faced has left her psychologically traumatized, and haunted by doubts that she will ever be the same again, and she has not been into the Avatar State since the assault. Tricking her family and friends into believing she has returned to Republic City, she is in fact wandering aimlessly throughout the world, isolating herself as much as possible from human contact. She is haunted by a dark vision of herself as she appeared in the fight with Zaheer, which appears to watch her wherever she goes. A spirit leads her into the banyan swamps which previously featured in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where her doppelganger apparition chases her down and attacks her, and she suffers a hallucination of drowning, but regains consciousness in the abode of Toph Beifong.

The Coronation

At Wu's coronation in Republic City, Kuvira refuses to yield power to him, instead announcing that she will consolidate the territories under her control into a new Earth Empire. This creates a rift between her and the other world leaders including Suyin, as well as between Bolin and Mako, who has to protect the unpopular Wu from angry supporters of Kuvira. Meanwhile, in the banyan swamp, Toph agrees to help Korra regain her strength, though her methodology largely consists of browbeating Korra and beating her up with still formidable earthbending. She finds residual metal poison inside Korra but can't remove it – Korra subconsciously resists, scarred by her previous traumas. Meanwhile, Tenzin sends Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo to search for Korra, and Varrick experiments on spirit vines for Kuvira.

The Calling

While the young airbenders look far and wide for Korra, Ikki is briefly captured by two Earth Empire soldiers. Based on what they say, Ikki leads the trio to the Foggy Swamp. There, Korra is still haunted by visions of being hurt by her past enemies, but manages to connect to the siblings through the great banyan-grove tree's roots. After they beg her to resume her Avatar duties to face Kuvira, Toph's advice helps Korra to let go of her fears, bend the rest of the poison out of herself and re-enter the Avatar State.

Enemy at the Gates

As Kuvira's army marches on Zaofu, Suyin refuses to let her city join the new empire, and Korra tries in vain to negotiate a peaceful outcome. Varrick and Bolin come to realize the totalitarian nature of Kuvira's rule, but their escape is foiled by Kuvira's fiancé, Suyin's son Baatar Jr.. While Zhu Li pledges her allegiance to Kuvira, Varrick is forced to weaponize the spirit vines for her, and Bolin is to be sent to a "reeducation" camp. In Republic City, Asami reconnects with her imprisoned father, Hiroshi.

The Battle of Zaofu

After Suyin and her twin sons are captured while infiltrating Kuvira's camp to take her out, Kuvira agrees to a duel with Korra to decide control of Zaofu. Although now free of the effects of the Red Lotus poison, Korra remains off-balance and Kuvira goads her to gain further advantage, consistently outmaneuvering Korra. Unable to otherwise gain the advantage, Korra enters the Avatar State and prepares to deliver a devastating blow, until she hallucinates a vision of her dark spectre in Kuvira's place and collapses to the ground. Opal, Jinora, Ikki and Meelo save Korra and flee with her on the back of an air bison. Meanwhile, Varrick and Bolin escape after Varrick improvises a spirit vine bomb. Kuvira forces Zaofu's citizens to submit, and has Baatar Jr. and Zhu Li continue work on the vine superweapon.

#the legend of korra #tlok #tlok best episode

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cyberpunkonline · 6 months

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Navigating the Neon Labyrinths: Political Constructs in Cyberpunk Media

In the dim-lit, neon-illuminated landscapes of cyberpunk media, political themes are as ubiquitous as the towering skyscrapers and omnipresent surveillance cameras. Whether it's in literature, TV shows, films, or video games, cyberpunk doesn't shy away from probing the intricate dynamics of governance, power, and societal structures. If you're keen to decrypt the political DNA of this genre, buckle up; you're in for a ride.

Corporatocracy: When Boardrooms Rule

Characteristics:

Concentration of Power: Mega-corporations have monopoly-like control over resources, technology, and often even the law.

Exploitative: Workers' rights are close to nonexistent; society becomes a breeding ground for inequality.

Profit-Driven: Ethical concerns take a backseat to the omnipotent bottom line.

Examples:

Books: William Gibson's "Neuromancer"

Films: "Blade Runner"

Video Games: "Cyberpunk 2077"

Anarchy: Chaos as a Canvas

Characteristics:

Decentralized Power: No one entity has control; power vacuums are common.

Resource Scarcity: The focus is often on survival rather than the accumulation of wealth.

DIY Culture: Citizens take matters into their own hands, often through hacking or grassroots movements.

Examples:

Books: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash"

Films: "A Scanner Darkly"

TV Shows: "Altered Carbon"

Totalitarian States: Under the Iron Thumb

Characteristics:

State Control: Government regulates every aspect of life, often through technological means.

Surveillance: Citizens are constantly monitored; privacy is a myth.

Oppression: Dissidents are silenced, and propaganda is pervasive.

Examples:

Books: George Orwell's "1984" (Proto-cyberpunk)

Films: "V for Vendetta"

Video Games: "Deus Ex"

Techno-Socialism: Equity in the Electronic Age

Characteristics:

Public Ownership: Citizens have control over resources and means of production.

Egalitarian: A focus on reducing inequality through technology.

Community Focus: Society prioritizes collective well-being over individual gain.

Examples:

Books: Cory Doctorow's "Walkaway"

TV Shows: "Black Mirror" (specific episodes)

Hybrid Systems: A Melting Pot of Mayhem

Some cyberpunk worlds are too complex to fit into a single category. They combine elements of various political systems, often reflecting the messy, unpredictable nature of human society.

Examples:

Books: "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson

TV Shows: "Ghost in the Shell"

Films: "The Matrix"

Conclusion

From shadowy corporations and anarchist rebels to despotic governments and techno-socialist utopias, the political landscapes in cyberpunk media are as diverse as they are thought-provoking. By engaging with these systems, creators and audiences alike can explore pressing questions about governance, freedom, and the human condition, all under the guise of entertainment. Now, who said politics was boring?

- Raz

#cyberpunk #politics #media

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aloeverawrites · 4 months

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Biden and Trump are the same you say.

Trump wants to destroy the left. Biden is considered center-left wing.

These are quotes from the Mandate of Leadership, the promise that conservatives are going to try and fulfill if they get power again.

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.

Right now Biden is in power. So the time we're under him must be the same as being under a government that believes this:

"children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens"

"Overseas, a totalitarian Communist dictatorship in Beijing is engaged in a strategic, cultural, and economic Cold War against America’s interests, values, and people—all while globalist elites in Washington awaken only slowly to that growing threat."

Contemporary elites have even repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known today as “The Great Awokening.”

"Most alarming of all, the very moral foundations of our society are in peril. Yet students of history will note that, notwithstanding all those challenges, the late 1970s proved to be the moment when the political Right unified itself and the country and led the United States to historic political, economic, and global victories.

The Heritage Foundation is proud to have played a small but pivotal role in that story. It was in early 1979—amid stagflation, gas lines, and the Red Army’s invasion of Afghanistan, the nadir of Jimmy Carter’s days of malaise—that Heritage launched the Mandate for Leadership project.

"Conservatives should be confident that we can rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American Left—at home and abroad. We did it before and will do it again.

"This is an agenda prepared by and for conservatives who will be ready on Day One of the next Administration to save our country from the brink of disaster.

The Heritage Foundation is once again facilitating this work. But as our dozens of partners and hundreds of authors will attest, this book is the work of the entire conservative movement. As such, the authors express consensus recommendations already forged, especially along four broad fronts that will decide America’s future:"

"The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists"

"In our schools, the question of parental authority over their children’s education is a simple one:

Schools serve parents, not the other way around. That is, of course, the best argument for universal school choice—a goal all conservatives and conservative Presidents must pursue. But even before we achieve that long-term goal, parents’ rights as their children’s primary educators should be non-negotiable in American schools. States, cities and counties, school boards, union bosses, principals, and teachers who disagree should be immediately cut off from federal funds. The noxious tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country"

"they are taught to deny the very creatureliness that inheres in being human and consists in accepting the givenness of our nature as men or women. Allowing parents or physicians to “reassign” the sex of a minor is child abuse and must end."

"But the pro-family promises expressed in this book, and central to the next conservative President’s agenda, must go much further than the traditional, narrow definition of “family issues.” Every threat to family stability must be confronted".

"Finally, conservatives should gratefully celebrate the greatest pro-family win in a generation: overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision that for five decades made a mockery of our Constitution and facilitated the deaths of tens of millions of unborn children. But the Dobbs decision is just the beginning. Conservatives in the states and in Washington, including in the next conservative Administration, should push as hard as possible to protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America. In particular, the next conservative President should work with Congress to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support while deploying existing federal powers to protect innocent life and vigorously complying with statutory bans on the federal funding of abortion."

"-A combination of elected and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangles domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rulemaking processes; "Bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security, following the lead of a feckless Administration, order border and immigration enforcement agencies to help migrants criminally enter our country with impunity;

-Bureaucrats at the Department of Education inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms

-Bureaucrats at the Department of Justice force school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists;

-Woke bureaucrats at the Pentagon force troops to attend “training” seminars about “white privilege”; and

-Bureaucrats at the State Department infuse U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about “intersectionality” and abortion."

So, the year is 2025. Every mention of "sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights" has been erased from our laws.

Abortion is crminalised across the country.

Schools can't teach about being trans, gay or about race.

Parental control over their children's and teenagers education is absolute.

A cold war is "won" following in the footsteps of Ronald Regan.

The environmental protection agency has been targeted and domestic energy production, fossil fuels, are safe.

There has been a further crack down on migrants entering the country "illegally".

Federal programs that teach about intersectionality, abortion or white privileged have bene shut down.

And "transgender extremists" are no longer allowed to "control" women's sports.

A world where they have fulfilled their promise to reverse every human rights progress Biden has made and ensure that nothing as "liberal" happens again.

Oh and "[Trump's] Republican rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination competed with one another to show who could be more vicious in encouraging uninhibited Israeli military action in Gaza,"

" Trump has also used the Israel-Hamas War to reinforce his positions on other issues remote from the conflict itself, particularly his hostility to Muslim refugees, making it clear that Gazans (and, likely, Muslims generally) would be stopped from entering the U.S. if he is reelected." https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/12/trump-israel-hamas-stance.html

Is that the world you want to live in in 2025?

#children's rights #resoucres #please reblog #human rights #project 2025 #project 2025 masterpost #trans rights #lgbt rights #anti racist #leftist #leftism #women's rights #intersectional feminism #pro choice #palestine

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comradekatara · 2 years

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may i humbly request modern!gaang and being asked to write a piece of creative fiction for school? what would they write about? would they enjoy it? would it be any good? if anyone knows, it's you!

okay for the sake of limiting my potential scope i'm just gonna say that they all had to write a short story in prose for this hypothetical assignment (esp because i've already talked about them writing poetry and miscellaneous forms).

aang pens a very lovely and whimsical tale about a boy who goes exploring in a sunny wood and comes across various talking animals who say funny, charming, and sometimes deeply profound things about the nature of the world. think le petit prince meets winnie the pooh. it is a delightful read, but unfortunately his teacher thought it "needed more conflict." lame.

katara writes about a brave and valiant knight who goes off to slay a dragon to bring its head back as a trophy for his king, only to learn that the dragon was really just minding her own business, leading him to question everything he thought he knew about the monarchy, and ultimately beheading the king instead. her teacher deemed it "intriguing, but slightly concerning." (again, lame!!)

sokka writes a dark comedy about a horrible pathetic man who makes everyone around him miserable including himself because he refuses to adjust his insane principles even when presented with tangible evidence that contradicts his beliefs. at one point he commits a murder and gets away with it, leading his peers to argue that this character "needed to be punished more" by the narrative. sokka's just like "thanks... i'll keep that in mind."

toph writes a story about a girl who escapes a totalitarian society and goes to start an anarchist commune in the woods with other refugees. the fact that there are no rules and everyone does what they want is epic and she doesn't miss her old life at all even a little bit and they all live happily ever after the end. her teacher claims that "while her writing style is direct and incisive, the story ultimately lacks nuance."

zuko pens a tragic fairytale about an empress who loses all her children to various causes, and ultimately kills herself. the style is very poetic and beautiful, but the story itself is so unbelievably sad that his teacher is prompted to ask "what was the point of this" and also "do you need help i can recommend a good therapist if you need one"

suki writes a story about a lesbian pirate who starts an affair with a bisexual tavernkeeper who is cheating on her shitty husband right under his nose. one day the husband finds out and gets violent so they kill them and serve chunks of his flesh to stray alley cats. her friends really enjoy this story, but her teacher doesn't understand "why everything suki writes needs to have such an agenda."

mai writes a story about ghosts throughout time occupying a single house together, haunting each other, every temporality overlapping in a cacophony of grief. while coherent, it is very dense, and most of her classmates don't bother actually unpacking it, so they mostly just complain about the non-linear timeline being "too confusing." (lame of them!) her teacher loves it though.

ty lee writes a series of diary entries from the perspective of a teenage girl. at first she's just talking about stereotypical teenage girl stuff, like the boy she likes and the mean things her friends said at the mall, but then at some point the narrator begins to realize that she is in a story, and her diary entries get more introspective and frantic and meta as she is ultimately crushed under the weight of her own narrative. her teacher deems it "brilliant" and suggests submitting it to literary magazines for publication, to which ty lee responds "haha no thanks ^_^"

azula writes about an ubermensch who is able to valiantly resist the liberal indoctrination of the pathetic sjws who are triggered by his inner strength and sharp intelligence. it reads almost identically to sokka's story (except with a vastly different prose style), but unlike sokka's, it is completely sincere and not remotely a satire. unfortunate.

yue writes a story from the perspective of an electron that doesn't know that its entangled but can sometimes still feel that it is connected to something else across the universe when it spins. it is a brilliant, poignant story about star crossed love and the significance of relationality across the cosmos, that neither her teacher nor most of her peers understand because "it all sounds too sciencey."

jet writes a story about a "really cool" alpha male whose girlfriend unfairly dumps him after their wannabe sigma male acquaintance who was jealous of him because he loved his girlfriend gets him cancelled for having said faggot on twitter once 10 years ago, but it turns out said guy who steals his girlfriend is actually a terrible person who treats women like shit despite posturing as a feminist for clout. sokka reads it and is like "wow, this would actually be a really incisive critique of performative male allyship and how any kind of man can be equally toxic and entitled to the women in their lives... if not for the fact that it is CLEARLY ABOUT ME and JET SEEMS TO THINK THAT I TOLD KATARA TO DUMP HIM BECAUSE I WAS SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH MY SISTER??????"

#this was a really fun ask thank u #the gaang and #kidprophet #asks #modern au #i guess #kind of tempted to write the ty lee one and the yue one now #fwiw it was very obvious that the villain in jets story was sokka #he spends a long time describing his appearance and its literally just sokka #in a vacuum its actually a pretty good short story #but a) its an incredibly inaccurate retelling of the situation #and b) the author seems to think the alpha male was the heroic victim of the story when it could not be more clear that both guys in this #actually suck equally #which sokka ultimately finds even funnier than the implication that he is secretly in love with katara

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winterandwords · 8 months

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WIP themes tag

Thanks for the tag, @elbritch-kit!

Rules: Bold the themes that appear in your WIP (& italicize those that are loosely covered)

I'm doing this for Project Aria...

Tagging @serafyyn, @sergeantnarwhalwrites, @serotoninshift, @shellyscribbles and @sleepy-night-child if you'd like to do it, with an open tag for anyone else who wants to join in.

Template is under the cut 💜

#wip themes tag #writeblr tags #project aria

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verkja · 9 months

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Writing Theme Tag

Thanks for the tag, @i-can-even-burn-salad :)

Rules: Bold the themes that appear in your WIP (& italicize those that are loosely covered.)

Also making bold text green and italicised text blue because it's easier for me to read that way.

Tagging... @space-writes , @soheavyaburden , @whumping-in-the-wings , and @whumpinthepot if you want to do this - no pressure!

Template under the readmore:

#i don't intentionally write for themes most of the time #and this list doesn't include some of the themes which *are* present #but it's a tag game #tag games #writing

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maria72508hp · 1 month

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1984: My Analysis

🗺🖥☭👁☭🖥🗺

So this was an English project for school but I thought I would post it on here for shits and giggles because I think it's kinda hopefully good? Just know that it was a presentation assignment not an essay to the structuring is different. Feedback is welcome even though nobody is going to see this :D!

🗺🖥☭👁☭🖥🗺

Script

Today we are exploring George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.

Imagine a world where every step you take is monitored, every word you utter is scrutinized, and every thought you harbor is policed. This is the reality that Orwell depicts with the statement "He was a lonely ghost muttering a truth nobody would ever hear," and opening line used to eco the isolation that characters are subjected to. Via this we are plunged into a realm where isolation and totalitarianism reign with no counter. By dissect this chilling reality and exploring how Orwell uses his narrative to shine a light on the insidious nature of authoritarianism and it’s effects on the human psyche.

Our exploration will revolve around answering the question; how does society based on religious oppression and totalitarianism as a means to prevent collective understanding and cohesion inflict alienation and isolation as a tool to maintain this regime and how are the subjects to these methods affected? To that I say, the government, through religious oppression and totalitarianism, inflicts alienation and isolation upon its subjects as a means to maintain control and prevent collective understanding and cohesion.

Firstly, to unravel the semantic field of isolation and loneliness present through out. Orwell paints a image of solitude as he wrote, "He felt as though he were wandering in the forest of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster." Encapsulating the bottomless sense of emptiness and despair via the archetype of forest being unknown wonderous places, with the description of being underwater gives us as readers the sense of suffocation, all encapsulated with the reflection of ones self being distorted as a portrait of the imposter syndrome the Oceania citizens face. This loneliness faced by Winston serves as a poignant reminder of ones mentality under an oppressive regime.

Contextualizing this theme within the setting, comprehending the Parties fervent surveillance tactics is a necessary element. The oppression of the people is symbolized by the telescreens, the is conveyed as Winston and Julia are visiting O'Brien and he describes the room as, "long-shaped and softly lit. The telescreen on a low murmur; the richness of the dark-blue carpet gave one the impression of treading on velvet." The usage of long-shaped illudes the reader into a sense of restriction, as a narrow space is implied. This spatial confinement depicted illustrates the constriction of freedom that the characters are experiencing, despite maintaining that they are joining the Brotherhood. The ‘low murmur’ is used to exhibits the constant feeling of being scrutinized by the Party, coupled with the sensory trigger of dark rich velvet used as a evoking of luxury and given the context, used to highlight the artificiality of the environment as this luxury is used in stark contrast to the Party’s run down building. This passage further emphasizes the toll of living in a world devoid of genuine human connection, privacy, and autonomy.

Expanding our analysis beyond the confines of 1984, in Suzanne Collins prequel to the Hunger Games, a true reflection of the isolation faced by subjects to dystopian rule is encountered, "Try not to look down on people who had to choose between death and disgrace." This passage sheds light on the harrowing choices faced by individuals living under oppressive regimes, where isolation and persecution are wielded as weapons of control. Through this lens a deeper understanding of Oceania is acquired as it prompts readers to reflect on the ethical complexities inherent in totalitarian societies, fostering a deeper understanding of the themes of power, control, and resistance depicted in 1984.

Turning our gaze towards the insidious nexus of religion and totalitarianism, we confront the Party's relentless crusade against individual thought and autonomy via the elimination of diversity of thought especially in a religious context. This is done so that Big Brother, the symbolism of the party, is the only idol worshipped and power is centralized and fixed.

We confronted by the Party's relentless crusade against individual thought and autonomy in the haunting proclamation, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." Orwell captures the essence of the danger of a hivemind and a lack of ideological variance. The imagery of a boot is symbolizing the absolute dominance and power held by the Party over the individual, crippling any semblance of freedom. By instilling fear and enforcing doctrine into citizens, the regime aims to eliminate any collective understanding or cohesion that may arise from religious beliefs as the Party forces any practices not aligned with it’s agenda into submission.

We further uncover the Party's cunning manipulation of reality and truth by delving deeper into the relationship between religion and authoritarianism. Orwell poses the disquieting question, "After all, how do we know that two and two make four?," in a way that subtly questions our understanding of reality. Through this rhetorical interrogation, Orwell reveals the weakness of truth in a society where reality is manipulated and distorted through this rhetorical inquiry.

We come across an external quotation that clarifies the theme of Orwell's investigation and speaks to the widespread power of totalitarian governments. The source highlights the loss of personal autonomy and agency in the face of repressive governments, stating that "the nature of being human and possessing identity is under attack." It alludes to the negative consequences of societal fragmentation and the restoration of a sense of social cohesiveness, which can be achieved by promoting a sense of community, shared purpose, and active participation. This outsider's viewpoint highlights the general applicability of Orwell's warning story by providing a fascinating parallel to his story.

As the journey approaches an end, let's consider the important insights acquired while studying tyranny and isolation in 1984. We have been exposed to the harsh realities of oppression and control through Orwell's narrative, where the human spirit is put to the test against the powers of dictatorship and manipulation. Let us acknowledge, in closing, the ongoing importance of Orwell's writing in questioning the current quo and motivating us to defend the values of truth, freedom, and personal autonomy in the face of difficulty. Thank you.

#1984 #analysis #George Orwell #orwell 1984 #literary analysis #literature #english #speech #school assignment #text analysis #dystopia #religion #totalitarianism #big brother #hunger games #presentation #humanity #isolation #lonliness

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softlyspector · 1 year

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Thank you for the tag @johnwatsn!

rules: bold themes that are strongly explored in your wip, and italicize themes that are loosely explored!

This is about the upcoming significant prequel! Or, clueless Din thinks you know he's courting you.

no pressure tags: @batsingotham @welcometostayingawake @campingwiththecharmings

(clean template under cut)

#bec talks #tag game

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philosophicalconservatism · 1 year

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I have a couple questions for you. First, as far as I can tell you're essentially a "libertarian conservative", believing small government both socially and economically is a core aspect of conservatism, why do you consider freedom of both kinds, which includes the freedom to perform progressive acts, to be an inherently conservative value? Second, do you believe the more authoritarian conservative states, like Iran, are "more progressive" than a libertarian state due to the authoritarianism?

Well I'll begin this reply by posing the following question. What kind of political order do you see as the logical opposite of a Conservative philosophy? Here is my own answer: A totalitarian political ideology is the complete opposite of a Conservative philosophy. Why? Because under such a system absolutely everything must entirely bend to the whim of some ruling political entity; nothing is permanent, nailed down or stable. All things are in principle in a state of flux. Any given thing that is here today can potentially be gone tomorrow (with the exception of the regime itself).

Now under any interpretation of Conservatism "tradition" is a key concept. This necessarily places it at odds with the kind of ideology I have just described above, under which the day to day temporal power of an autocratic government may instantly overthrow any law or aspect of the society on a whim. There can be nothing called Conservatism until there is first of all "limited government" (which means a context for the conservation of certain vital political and social items). Now what exactly does the word "tradition" mean in Conservative philosophy?

"Tradition" is a set of ideals, customs and attitudes that characterize a community, and which are so deeply rooted within it, that they are untouchable by its political apparatus, and ultimately determine the structure of that apparatus itself. I'm moving rather quickly here, but in the final analysis, liberty is itself a kind of tradition. Let me give you an example. In the U.S. free speech is a tradition. It is not our constitution or our laws that ultimately assure this right. That is why if a law or a ruling came down tomorrow that attempted to revoke the right of free speech, we would not see the end of free speech but the beginning of a revolution.

Free speech is deeply rooted within who we are as a community (as Americans). It is an ingrained aspect of the American culture and lifestyle. It is not simply the product of some political ordinance, and thetefore it cannot be instantly erased by one. But in various other nations across the world and across time, limitations on speech are, and have been just as deeply ingrained within the culture. Conservatives do not believe that we can radically separate law-making from the historical development of a society.

One cannot transform a nation like Afghanistan overnight into a Jeffersonian Democracy with a political decree. Societies do not progress/develop from the top down ( from the state down to the people) but from the bottom up (from the people up to the state). Their traditions and instinctual attitudes must change. Thus there are in general two types of "big government" (and this is why I did not answer your question more directly). There is the natural and organic big government of a society that has simply not had the historical opportunity to develop free institutions (and this type of society must simply be allowed to develop in its own time).

But then there is the type of big government that is truly the target of Conservative criticism. This is the unnatural and artificial big government that is pushed by the political radical, which seeks to overthrow and entirely reinvent all of a nation's political/social institutions and traditions, in the name of an abstract ideology. Anyone who has defended this type of politics whether under utopian Communist rhetoric or traditionalist pretenses (for example the Nazis) has proceeded in a non-Conservative manner. The only difference is that the Communist openly declares that he is fabricating a completely new and unprecedented political reality, while Hitler's Germany fabricated a completely new and unprecedented political reality while appealing to historical myth.

Hitler's great Aryan antiquity was obviously a fantasy divorced from actual history, and was certainly not an extension of contemporary German politics. Every assumed absolute dictatorship is by its very nature a break from the continuity of history, and therefore by definition non-Conservative.

But does this kind of radical expansion of the state serve some greater moral cause? Is it better than allowing a natural progression of freedom which can lead to social immorality? No. The most morally atrocious governments in history have been those that were established on the basis of radical ideological reinvention. When there is a complete break from historical precedent there remains only the unfettered imagination of an autocratic government, and therefore there is no limit to the evil that is possible. And a great deal of that evil is secret and covert. On the surface there is the front of the good and decent moral order.

The real solution for societies that have developed a liberal order and free institutions is not to cast them away, but to more responsibly and wisely make use of them.

.

…………

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livums · 11 months

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WIP Theme Tag

I was tagged by @violets-in-her-arms-writes ! Tysm!!! 💜 find her post here!

Rules: Bold the themes that appear in your WIP (& italicize those that are loosely covered) then tag 10 people.

{or some amount of people, I guess}

THAT’S RRRRRRIGHT WE’RE BACK TO THE MARKING BLOOD TODAY BABYYYYYYY

I did some selected explanations under the cut for anyone who’s interested 💖 (not the ones that are spoilers lmao go bananas)

Betrayal - Sonea learns and fears again and again that those closest to her cannot be trusted to keep her safe...

Change vs. Tradition / Chaos vs. Order / Convention vs. Rebellion - Sylah desperately trying to wrangle her sisters as she notices them slipping further and further away from the vampire hunting profession. Sonea being the Donkey Kong to Sylah’s Jumpman (hurling the plot down at her while she desperately tries to dodge it). Sonea questioning society’s fear of vampires, and hunters’ drive to slay them. Zova wondering if there is more for her in life.

Corruption - : )

Death - The inevitability that haunts Sylah, the ultimate, unavoidable loss of control. The death of her father has come and gone, and she can hear the bells in the distance.

Facing Darkness - There’s something unique and awful that lives in each of the sisters, something grown and fed at the hand of their father. In order to survive and protect their loved ones, they have no choice but to reckon with it.

Faith vs. Doubt - Sylah knows the Rules, and staunchly abides. Sylah knows the righteousness of her cause above all else... until she doesn’t. There is little that could shake the faith of one such as Sylah. But, hey, when it rains...

Family - THAT’S THE WHOLE GOD DAMN STORY!!!!!!!!

Fate - Sylah is haunted by omens and visions of the future. She does her best to warp fate to her desires, but fails again and again. The impossibility of control is the bane of her existence.

Fear - It’s a Gothic romance, baby! Fear and anxiety ripples through the townsfolk long before the appearance of the stalking evils. Fear is a constant companion of all three sisters--frequently commingled with some flavor of desire.

Fear of Failure - Sylah can feel the clock ticking. She has a limited amount of time to save her sisters, her love, and her town. She cannot fail. She cannot fail. She cannot fail. Not with Father watching from the grave.

Good vs. Bad - The empire and the Guild have long devised the dichotomy of Good and Evil, Man and Vampire. Sonea and Zova have begun to understand that the truth of things is far more complex. Sylah is not so easily swayed.

Guilt and Forgiveness - Sylah has wronged Nieve--this much is known. The guilt threatens to consume her every time she thinks of her beloved. Nieve struggles against the desire to fall back into Sylah’s arms. Sonea has a number of sins for which to atone--and Father yearns for absolution of his own from beyond the grave.

Injustice - To become a vampire is to have been wronged and failed by society at large. Where a helping hand is needed, one finds instead a fist, closed about a wooden stake.

Lost Love - Sylah has yet to understand what went wrong between herself and Nieve. Sonea suffers beneath the realization that Cascabel cannot give her what she needs above all else.

Love - Sylah, who loves heavy and strong, but speaks it in thorns. Sonea, who loves from afar, perched, awaiting the cue to flee. Zova, who loves with the depth and the fury of the raging ocean, who drowns all in her feelings.

Manipulation - In her time of need, Sonea reached out for her family, and found Cascabel instead. To be doomed to be a vampire’s plaything is, perhaps, a fate worse than undeath.

Power - Control. In all things, Sylah seeks this. It eludes her when she yearns for it the most. It crushes all it tries to hold tenderly.

Prejudice - The vampire, the stalking evil, the night-creeping horror. No longer human. We forget they ever were.

Relationships - To be (or to have been) human is to submit to the pain of knowing oneself from another. In romance, in friendship, in family, the sisters learn this again and again and again. To call someone a “lover”, a “sister”, a “father”... how could one word possibly encompass all that it entails to hold the knife that wounds your precious ones? By accident? On purpose? Does it matter?

Revenge - Zova seeks to find the truth behind the death of her father. She doesn’t know, despite everything. How could she possibly know?

Secrets - Concealed from the sisters, concealed about the sisters, concealed by the sisters--Sylah, Sonea, and Zova are plagued by that which is better left unsaid and unknown.

Self-awareness - If the sisters cannot realize the truth of their being, they and their town will suffer the cost.

Self-preservation - Who cares for you, when you are scorned by the one on whom you should rely? Who cares for you, when you’ve done the unforgivable? You have to do what you can. You can’t believe they’ll keep you safe.

Sexuality - The. Girls. Are. Fucking. 🎉

Temptation and Destruction - You know what it means to cross into undeath. All know this. And you do everything right, you are good. But the siren song of immortality rings--but you’re strong enough to resist it. Right?

Tagginggggg (gently…if you haven’t done it already….) @thewardenofwinter @lorenfinch @writernopal @writinglittlebeasts @yedithwrites and anyone else who may be interested.... <3333 (i mean it idk how else to express . i do mean it)

#writeblr #writeblr community #writers on tumblr #writers of tumblr #tag game #{sanguis in monte}

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ceph-the-ghost-writer · 9 months

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WIP Themes Tag

Tagged by @k--havok!

Gently tagging @liv-is @elean0rarose @halfbit @likegemstone @fayeiswriting @the-blind-one-speaks and anyone who wants an open tag.

Rules—bold themes that appear in your WIP and italicize themes that are loosely covered.

From a combo of Dysthanasia and The Primrose Path:

Blank template under the cut

#writing tag games #a lot of these are interconnected #so ofc they're all bound to show up to some degree

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alphaman99 · 9 months

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we have arrived....

Huxley wrote “Brave New World” about 1932, and then in 1956, "Brave New World Revisited". He was alarmed by how rapidly the world was moving towards the BNW. His major essay on the technological takeover of the world (and a place where I learned a new word), contained this part — remember it is limited to the technology of the mid-fifties — which i have never forgotten:

"We may expect to see in the democratic countries a reversal of the process which transformed England into a democracy, while retaining all of the outward forms of a monarchy. Under the relentless thrust of accelerating over-population and increasing over-organization, and by means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms —elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts, and all the rest will remain. Their underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans,

will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial, but democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile, the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought manufacturers, and mind manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit."

"Pickwickian" is one of those near-unfindable words that is derived from a Charles Dickens novel, and involves a starving pair of guys eating a boiled boot and calling it roast beef. As such, it fits perfectly in the sentence it is used.

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