#the people most likely to die in your violent revolution are the people most likely to die under capitalism | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

is-the-fire-real · 2 months

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'Reminder that "punch a nazi uwu" leftists utilize Nazi rhetoric to justify punching Jews.

It was never about punching Nazis; it was about getting social permission to punch.'

It was this very mentality that drove me away from considering myself a liberal anymore (I AM VERY MUCH LEFT LEANING, I DIDN'T DECIDE TO BECOME CONSERVATIVE JUST TO BE CLEAR. I just don't feel like those spaces have any intrinsic safety any longer). It feels like so much of western leftism has become about "punching up". I don't think it's about compassion or concern anymore, it's about finding the "right" targets. And so often that was just used as a way to excuse bigotry. I'm a goy but I noticed this on a personal level plenty with people identifying as feminists, they'd be perfectly okay saying something unquestionably sexist, as long as "white women" was attached onto the front. It's very much the same with shaming people over physical features that others may have, as long as the individual person is "bad enough" it doesn't matter if wide foreheads or big noses or acne are features many people have and would feel hurt by seeing them used as an insult, because they're only "really" directing it at "one of the bad ones"

So, I'm going to link to this piece again because it's been embarrassingly useful, and explains why I say things like "pretending to believe" despite their clunkiness. For new material, I hope you don't mind that you have accidentally triggered a massive unskippable cutscene, but you tapped into a few things I have been pondering and I'd like to take advantage of your observances to add my own.

Part of what you're discussing here, which I agree with, is that toxic slacktivists pretend to believe that they are Good People Doing Good Work. They are Bad People and their work is Bad Work, but if they all get in a group and pretend together that it's Good, then that's almost the same as being Good, right?

Another worthwhile aspect of what you're discussing is something I became aware of in the aftermath of the collapse of Occupy Wall Street. One commenter on a liberal blog I still follow lamented that mass protest never seems to accomplish anything, and how the millions of people who turned out for OWS protests should have affected more political change. Considering most of them could also vote, write to representatives, etc., something other than littering and arrests could've been done.

Another commenter pointed out that he had personally been at most of the anti-Iraq War protests, including the largest worldwide protest on 15 February 2003 (6-10 million estimated participants). But most of those protesters did not agree with each other. There were at least four major coalitions of antiwar protesters showing up then and thereafter. The ones he listed were:

"Just war" advocates who believed the Iraq War was unjust.

Total pacifists who believed all armed conflicts are unjust, and therefore the Iraq War is as well.

Right-wing bigots who believed a war might potentially benefit those they thought of as religiously or ethnically inferior and subhuman.

Xenophobes, both left- and right-wing, who believed "the US can't be the police of the world" and that any action taken outside USian borders was immoral.

Imagine four people with these beliefs in a room talking about the Iraq War... then bring up the war in Ukraine to them and see how fast the coalition falls apart.

"Well, the war for Ukrainian liberation is a just war," says the just-war advocate. The pacifist starts to scream "HOW COULD YOU DEFEND ANY ACTION THAT MIGHT LEAD TO CHILDREN DYING, YOU MONSTER!". The right-wing bigot says they support the war, too--on the side of the ethnically and religiously superior Russians. And then a left-wing xenophobe says we're wasting money that should be supporting American workers and uplifting Americans out of poverty instead of buying new bombs for Ukraine.

And your "antiwar" coalition collapses, with the pacifist wandering off to agree with the xenophobe while the just-war liberal and the right-wing bigot scream at each other pointlessly and without resolution.

This is one of the wisest breakdowns of human behavior I have ever discovered:

Any coalition of people is made up of many sub-coalitions who only temporarily agree on a single aspect of a single issue. Making sure the group does not collapse prematurely is the true, unsung labor of movement maintenance.

To be real, it's much easier to let one's coalition collapse and scream about how The Menz, or The CIA, or Greedy Capitalists, or The Jews artificially forced your group's collapse than it is to admit that one might just suck a big one at coalition building. This is especially true among leftists, who are sometimes anti-hierarchy and frequently fall for populist, anti-expert nonsense. Having a leader means you're suggesting someone should have authority, and a lot of leftists are allergic to that suggestion.

Moreover, though, a lot of "leftists" are "leftists" but only agree with one or two aspects of leftism.

To use your feminism example: I have absolutely seen feminists who think they can be misogynists so long as they say "white" before they say "woman". I mean, who can even argue? I have also seen feminists who think they can be gender bioessentialists so long as they're doing it towards "men" (a category which includes a lot of people who neither look like men, nor live as men, nor benefit from male privilege). I have seen feminists who think they can call themselves "trans allies" while consistently ignoring, degrading, and dismissing the concerns of anyone who isn't a binary trans woman. Etc.

The thing is, they are all feminists. What makes someone a feminist, at bottom, is the acceptance of and opposition to patriarchy. That's it. It's similar to how what makes a person a Protestant Christian is the acceptance of Jesus as their Lord and Savior--you might need to do one or two things to be considered a part of a specific branch of Christianity, but all you need is that one specific belief about that one specific idea. There's a lot of bunk about how "you can't be a REAL Christian unless you do X" just like there's bunk about how "you can't be a REAL feminist unless you do Y", and it's all bunk.

There are people who might be really bad feminists or Christians, but that's not the same as not being feminists or Christians.

So, the coalition of leftism has several sub-coalitions who actually despise each other. Here is my proposal for the sub-coalitions. (Please keep in mind that I am not defining groups by how they define themselves, but by the far more useful metric of their actions.)

Liberals who agree with leftist economic thought, but strongly disagree with leftist conclusions regarding violent revolution. Liberals do not have time for online arguments and superficial action. They are generally participating in protests, running for office, writing postcards to advocate for candidates, informing voters, and working within the system for positive change that alleviates suffering. They are pro-expert but opposed to a vanguard party due to its inherent authoritarianism.

Tankies, whose primary interest in leftism is authoritarian. They oppose capitalism and support violent revolution because they imagine themselves as the vanguard party who gets to control everything when the revolution comes.

Anarchists, whose primary interest is opposing hierarchy. They want to burn down the system because it is a system, and frequently become angry and defensive if you try to ask them any questions about what would be built out of the ashes.

Progressives, whose primary interest is opposing liberals. They also oppose capitalism; they are, like tankies, positioning themselves as the vanguard party because they are already in political power. What makes them Not Tankies is that they care more about sticking it to "the Dems" than they do about actually being the vanguard, opposing capitalism, or achieving anything of worth or meaning politically.

"Red fash", who used to be called "beefsteak Nazis". They say all the right things regarding violent revolution and economics/capitalism, but they only believe what they believe for the sake of their specific ethnic group and nation (frequently, white and USian, but this is extremely popular in Europe too). IOW a red fash wants the vanguard party to only have whites of a specific ethnicity in control of the revolution; they only want universal health care for "their" people, that sort of thing. Some red fash are actual Nazis cosplaying as leftists, but some are just really, really, REALLY bigoted leftists.

Whether we like it or note, the acceptance of armed, violent revolution as a Good Thing means that leftism has always regarded punching up and violence as a necessary component of leftist thought. This is not a perversion of Real Leftism. This is leftism. If you think revolution is good and necessary instead of a terrifying possibility, then you also think punching up is okay; it's just a matter of who is Up and who gets to punch.

Of the five sub-coalitions I described, only one has rejected violent revolution--and it's the one all the other leftists accuse of being right-wing. And interestingly enough, only liberals are habitually accused of secretly colluding with the right... when red fash are natural allies to the right, and when all other forms of leftists openly ally with right-wingers so long as they say the right things about economics. (See under: "After Hitler, us" leftists, left-wing Trumpistas who think they'll rule the ashes after Trump burns down the current system.)

And if you believe in violent revolution, then (let me be facetious for a second) what's the problem with making fun of your political enemies for being ugly? If we believe Steve Bannon is a Nazi, aren't we obligated to stop him by any means necessary, and doesn't that include mocking him for his alcoholism? Isn't mocking someone for their appearance and intrinsic characteristics mild compared to, say, threatening them with exploding cars covered with hammers? Or retweeting pictures of pitchforks and guillotines?

If we believe Ben Shapiro is an opponent to the revolution we accept is necessary and vital to the movement, then what's a little antisemitism in the name of the people? Don't we have to be bigots to oppose bigots? And--

--oh. There's that horseshoe bending round to the right again.

#leftist antisemitism #horseshoe theory #coalition failure #political analysis #from someone who never attended college but who is old and has seen and read a lot. to be fair #the people most likely to die in your violent revolution are the people most likely to die under capitalism #the people who advocate the hardest for violent revolution are those most convinced they will live through it #as for me. well. i already live under threat of constant violence and kind of don't look forward to it #so a political philosophy that fetishizes violence was never going to fit me very well

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notaplaceofhonour · 3 months

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One of the most frustrating parts of the extreme rhetoric around Israel/Palestine (besides the obvious reliance on antisemitic & anti-Arab, Islamophobic tropes) is that it exceptionalizes so many things that are actually pretty standard features of nation-states and war in a way that completely compartmentalizes the criticism of these things into just being about criticizing the “few bad apple” countries instead of criticizing the entire institution of nation-states and war as a whole.

For instance: the fact is that war kills civilians, at an alarming average of 6:1 civilians-to-combatants deaths. The status quo of war, across the board, is that way more civilians die than combatants. And yet, despite the high death toll, despite Hamas using civilian infrastructure & noncombatants as human shields (which Hamas has openly admitted to doing), despite the imprecise & destructive nature of using bombs on urban targets, and despite the inadequate humanitarian aid that has been able to make it into Gaza… the IDF has still managed to stayed well below the average of civilian casualties.

The point of saying this is not “this is what war looks like so it’s not a big deal” it’s “this is what war looks like so we as a species need to stop doing it”—seeing the devastation war has brought to the people Gaza should move you, and it should make you never want to see another war again. It should make you want a ceasefire not just for Israel and this war but all wars always. And obviously, in practice, it’s not that simple—peace is more than “just don’t do war” and the thing about ceasefires and peace treaties is they kind of have to be mutual to mean anything—but the point stands: War Bad.

However, if instead you see the destruction in Gaza and think it’s an exceptional case, where Israel is evil and the only way war could be this destructive is genocide, you get to preserve this romanticized, idealistic fantasy of war as, violent yes, but perhaps only in a cathartic, tragic-but-beautiful way—a glorious struggle where two armies clash on a battlefield far removed from everyday life and only soldiers die. You get to preserve your belief in Just War, to look forward to a morally uncomplicated Glorious Revolution™️—you may even preserve your ability to cheer on the death of Israelis.

And that’s just one issue. There are others: the claim of “ethnostate” obscures criticisms of nation-states as a concept, the claim of “apartheid” obscures criticisms of how borders & citizenship are set up across the world, etc. This inverse Israeli Exceptionalism where Israel is treated as uniquely or exceptionally problematic isn’t simply discriminatory or rooted in prejudice (which are reasons enough to criticize it, as I have), it’s actively impeding the left’s ability to criticize the actual structural systems that are the problem.

#i/p #anti war

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spirk-trek · 4 months

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I would love to hear your thoughts on kirk's backstory and what happened on tarsus iv, I feel like I've read so many conflicting takes on here and none of them actually match up with the episode (conscience of the king)

Hi anon! The way you worded this makes me think you were just looking for information and not a fic request. Forgive me if I was wrong!! 😅

I think the reason there are so many conflicting ideas is because of how vague it is in canon itself (which is cool, leaves a lot of room for interpretation). Because of this, when I recently wrote a thing about Tarsus IV I also struggled with "research" for it. Here's what I came up with:

!!! Disclaimer! I am not declaring any of this the One True Canon™! This is just my interpretation/speculation based on existing lore !!!

To me, it makes most sense for Jim to be sent to Tarsus IV with his mother, and for her to be a civilian scientist/researcher of some kind. I find it very hard to believe the massacre could have taken place if Starfleet were present, which would include George Kirk, Jim's father. George is said to have been absent often due to his work (SNW), so it wouldn’t be strange for him to be separated from his family (this is also just normal in Star Trek in general, i.e. Sulu [AOS] and like… everyone with children in TNG).

A more recent Trek book called Drastic Measures seems to back this exact idea up (depends who you ask which novels are canon, and this book was written for Discovery so take it with a grain of salt).

Sam would, in the TOS timeline, be 10 years older than Jim (~23). That would make it unlikely he'd be tailing after his mother to remote colonies. It's much more likely he was concerned with his own career/family/life.

So, in summary of those points, I think it was just Jim and Winona. Jim is between 12 and 14 years old, and his mother was a civilian researcher (the novel I mentioned earlier made her a xenobiologist, probably for plot reasons).

Something I do see exaggerated sometimes is the method of killing in the massacre. An antimatter chamber appears to be what was used, similar to A Taste of Armageddon, so it would not have been mass carnage or a big dramatic fight in the end. Just... zap.

SPOCK: "He was certainly among the most ruthless, to decide arbitrarily who would survive and who would not [...] and then to implement his decision without mercy. Children watching their parents die. Whole families, destroyed. Over four thousand people. They died quickly, without pain, but they died.”

However, these are also quotes from the episode, so I can see why people might think the massacre itself was more violent:

- JIM: “Four thousand people were needlessly butchered.” - LEIGHTON: “I remember him. That voice. The bloody thing he did.” - JIM: “Are you sure you didn't act this role out in front of a captive audience whom you blasted out of existence without mercy?” - KARIDIAN/KODOS: “Murder, flight, suicide, madness. I never wanted the blood on my hands ever to stain you.”

There was a revolution of some kind, probably brought about by people easily radicalized out of hunger and desperation.

- KARIDIAN/KODOS: [reading] "The revolution is successful…” - SPOCK: “There were over eight thousand colonists and virtually no food. And that was when Governor Kodos seized full power and declared emergency martial law.”

If Kodos already had his ideas about eugenics, which it sounds like he did, he would have seized this as an opportunity. This would make him an even more solid comparison to Hitler, which they were definitely going for to at least some extent (this was written two decades after WWII which many involved in the making of star trek were deeply affected by if not veterans themselves).

Because of the above quotes, I also think there’s merit to the idea of there being multiple formal executions where Kodos gave his infamous “speech” each time rather than just once (this would be another reason Jim would remember it enough to write it down), rather than one massive execution of 4,000 people. However, this quote could be interpreted to mean the opposite:

SPOCK: “Kodos began to separate the colonists. Some would live, be rationed whatever food was left; The remainder would be immediately put to death.”

Arguably, the even more traumatic suffering would be the period of starvation and upheaval leading up to the massacre. To me, a 3-6 month period of slowly worsening starvation as the food supply shrank and shrank to nothing would make the most sense.

One aspect I don't quite get is that Kodos's body was supposed to have been "burned beyond recognition.” Since we know from Conscience of the King his death was staged, then this fake death can’t have been pulled off in the midst of Starfleet intervention upon arrival (they would have taken him into custody to stand trial rather than kill him on sight anyway). Burning yourself to death is a highly unusual form of suicide, so I’m not sure if that’s supposed to allude to him being fake killed in the carnage following the execution when the people didn't react the way he wanted or expected? My only theory is that there was unrest and rioting for the period of time between the massacre and Starfleet arriving with relief, and he used that to fake his death once he knew he would be put on trial.

Anyway, this is super long so I'll cut myself off there. Hope that answered your question, sorry for being crazy! If anyone has anything to add, please do!

#star trek #tw #cw #theory #analysis #captain kirk #tarsus iv #lore #tarsus iv massacre #discussion #reference #fanfic #canon #fanon

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hareofhrair · 1 month

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Please tell me if you're a zionist or not. Because the notes on that post of yours are absolutely rancid regarding Palestinian people and I need to know before I submit your url to the zionist block list

No, I am not a zionist. Israel, like any ethnostate, should not exist and what they are doing to the Palestinians is unquestionably genocide. I fully support Palestine and their right to resist in the face of annihilation.

I am also not anti semetic, for the record, and stand with the many Jewish people who support Palestinian liberation.

I also recognize that while Biden or any president is unlikely to ever stop supporting Israel as it’s too critical to colonial and capitalist action in that area, Trump has voiced support for Israel straight up nuking Gaza.

There is unfortunately very little we can meaningfully do with this particular election for the Palestinian people. Continuing to pressure the democrats may mitigate the damage to a degree, but I’m aware how thin a comfort that is to a country currently being massacred.

But we cannot help ANYONE if our democracy is actively overthrown, as Trump has made extremely, unambiguously clear he intends to do. He has every intention of making himself a Putin style dictator, with the full support of Putin himself, who knows he can use Trump as a puppet, in a manner so like the way we’ve overthrown democratic countries and installed puppet dictators in the past that the dramatic irony would be heavy handed were it fictional. We almost deserve it.

But we are a country full of innocent people the same as any other, who don’t deserve to suffer and die to punish the idea of western imperialism, which the vast majority of have zero control over.

The one tiny bit of control we DO have is through voting.

This is not a situation I’m happy with, but this isn’t a situation of trading Palestinian lives for American ones. This is a situation where saving Palestinian lives isn’t even on the table, and refusing to acknowledge that is only going to make the situation worse. We can either save American lives and hope it doesn’t make the situation in Palestine actively worse. Or we can refuse to do anything like petulant children and watch everyone die.

Vote, and then get back to organizing your community, participating in protests and direct action, volunteering and donating to relief and evacuation funds, and voting in local elections so that we can maybe end up with some better options next time!

And if yall ever get the violent revolution off the ground, I’ll be right behind you! But if you tell me you’re not voting because the only moral action is firebombing a Walmart, you’d better firebomb the goddamn Walmart.

And to the assholes in the notes of that post and talking shit in my asks, for the record, I’m a disabled trans lesbian living in goddamn Louisiana, living on less than $1000 a month. Aside from my friends in Florida, no one is getting the ass end of this garbage government more than us. And for the record, yeah, I’m boycotting McDonald’s, and anything else I can. I’d boycott Starbucks too if there was one within 50 miles. I vote in every local election. I organize as much as I can in rural Louisiana. I take direct action whenever I get the chance, which isn’t often given my lack of mobility and remote location, but I’m willing to bet I’ve done more than most of the assholes in the notes.

Let me put it very plainly, TLDR: if you refuse to vote because you think it doesn’t make a difference or you think it’ll make you complicit in this country’s crimes, you are actively putting your personal comfort and moral purity above the lives of the Palestinian people, as well as above every vulnerable person in this country on top of it. If you want to save Palestine, start by not letting our god damn democracy go up in flames.

#us politics

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kahlanmars · 11 months

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BAD FEELING 14

I am so early it's getting annoying, you know, but I feel so happy when I write this! Also, I'm a GREAT Taylor Swift fan so if you think "Uhm, that's a funny coincidence" it's not lol.

Comment if you want me happyyyyy! I don't know if it's worth it to keep going, I don't know if people like it or not!

MASTERLIST

gif not mine

14. One kiss, one page

The first days in District Thirteen are far from perfect. The suit they gave you is the most horrendous piece of clothing they could ever choose, and make up is forbidden. It is like they want to erase all the pretty things from the world.

You asked to be placed in Haymitch’s room, but they told you it wasn’t possible if you weren’t married.

You are in quarantine, which means no mom, no Effie and no Katniss, you are all in a room with a lot of beds and parasols and grey curtains. They love grey, from what you’ve seen. Perla and Lora are still asleep, they are worse injured than you, and Finnick is working with something technological speaking with someone, but you can’t sleep.

The bright side is that for a night you still have your man. Tomorrow he is sent to rehab, a violent and deeply wrong kind of rehab you can’t quite put a finger on. Are they trying to make him feel worse? Because he is a spectacular asset in the revolution, but even a genius can’t think straight with tremors and headaches.

«Can I tell you something without sounding ungrateful? Because I am. I am deeply grateful that you saved me.» You say, while Haymitch is in your bed. His hands are already shaking from the addiction, but you like to think your caresses can make the situation a little better. He hums in pleasure in response so maybe you are right.

«Go on.»

«I don’t like this place.» You whisper. «All these rules are weird. I am not saying I would go back to the Capitol, but…»

He shuts you up with a kiss. «You made your point.» And he made his. You couldn’t speak freely, not yet. From the Capitol to District 13 you are still in the game, just with another character.

«Maybe I will like it better after quarantine.» You humour him. «I really hope I’ll be able to visit you.»

«Perhaps you shouldn’t. They explained what will happen, and they mentioned rage, hallucinations, there is a reason why I’m in isolation.» You’ve seen him in bad places before, but hallucinations… that scares you a little, you have to admit it.

«I can handle it.» You murmur looking at his blue eyes.

«You don’t have to.»

«Yes I need to.» You shake your head. «You are not my mentor anymore.»

«I know but-»

«No. You are not my mentor anymore, or my employer for what it matters. You don’t need to protect me from the world, what have I told you before? I am an adult just like you. I took care of you before, I cleaned your mess and stayed with you. I’m strong, Haymitch. And I like you. And if we want to continue what we have, and of course you want to because I’m flawless and stunning, we have to take care of each other. Fifty fifty.»

He is silent. You didn’t want to give him a lecture, but at the same time he has to understand that he is not your boss. The power dynamics in your relationship are fucked up, but you are not a damsell in distress.

But maybe you overstepped. «If, if you want to keep going with it, of course.» You add, and now your eyes are on the floor.

«I wouldn’t have begun something with you if I didn’t know about the revolution.» He whispers.

«Funny, I thought I was going to die in a week.»

«I knew you weren’t. I mean, there was a chance, but not a high one.» He lifts up your chin, forcing you to watch him in the eyes. «I’m not good with those things.» He confesses.

«I know. I just want to know if you want it. Because if you don’t want it’s okay, but if you would like to be with me, without any label of sort, just you and me… Well we know we work well together.»

«I’m a mess.» He argues.

«Do you want it?» You insist.

«You are twenty four and I’m forty one.» He retorts.

«Do you want me?»

«I’m not a relationship type.»

«I never asked for a relationship but if you don’t want me I deserve to know.»

He shuts the hell up for a moment, and you can’t help but think of the worst. «Are you tired of me?»

He takes your lips in a kiss so fierce and powerful that is almost violent, all of his strength is on your body, all of his weight on you. «Never.» He answers between kisses.

You smirk. «I have broken ribs, you savage.»

«Oh fuck sorry, I didn’t think.» He tries to get up but you immediately take him and push him down to you. He didn’t think. Not “I didn’t think about it”, he didn’t think because he was so whipped by you.

«Nah-ah, mine.» You purr in his ear. «Is that a yes?»

He just nods. You get it’s hard for him, after his parent’s and girlfriend’s death. He was isolated from the whole world, he said it himself he didn’t want to get attached to you. You managed to keep him tied to you nonetheless.

«I like you so much. You don't have to tell me anything but I want you to know.» Because he thinks he doesn't deserve this. And maybe, just maybe, if you keep repeating it he will believe you.

«You have to get some sleep, sweetheart.» He kisses your forehead. You giggle at this exposure of tenderness.

«I don't want to waste time. What if there's a cute doctor and you fall in love with her?» This time you joke, but he rolls his eyes.

«Given the fact that I have been living like an hermit since I was seventeen, I think you are pretty safe in that field.» You hope. You tend to be the jealous type, you were with Clark and it wasn’t a sensual situation, you don’t know how you could react to jealousy in a relationship. Even if yours is not a relationship.

«They will have their claws on you. You are handsome, you know?» You start peppering kisses on his neck. «All the girls want to be me.»

«You are delusional.» You aren’t. As much as Perla can joke about it and Finnick can says he is old, he is not even fifty, he has strong arms and blue eyes, and he is magnetic in everything he does. You feel a little safer just because he is in disguise as this drunk grumpy crazy man who doesn’t want to talk to anyone, but it’s a charade. And even when he was playing the part he used to go to every shop in District 12 to buy something, just to help the people who worked there with his victor’s money. During Christmas he sometimes gave candies to the kids, or he gave you the money to do so without his name on it. He has a great heart. You hope women don’t notice it too much.

«Oh c'mon! Maybe this drunk character you've created is not that appealing, but you must know you are good looking.» Even Katniss said it, when he was younger he was a looker.

«I was. When I was sixteen. At your age I was already a wreck.»

«No you weren't! And you are not now.»

You stay silent for a moment, and you stroke his hair.

You hate Snow for what he has done to him, and you can’t help but wonder why you are not a wreck. You should be, you killed two people. People who had a family, dreams, ambitions. You always thought you would have been traumatised for that, thinking they had mothers who cried for them, children maybe, as for the Capitol man. In reality it didn’t happen. You can sleep at night. The Capitol man was a rapist and he deserved it, and you repeatedly asked Clark to be in an alliance with you, you begged him, and he was actively trying to kill you from the start.

Are you just evil? You know Haymitch is not, and he tries so hard to be. Maybe you try so hard to be good because you are evil.

«How was she?» You suddenly ask.

«Who?» He frowns.

«Marjorie.»

You are sure he will stand up and go away, and you see in his eyes he is about to do this but he squeezes your hand.

«We were very young. She was the baker's daughter, like Peeta. She was beautiful. All the boys wanted her, you know.» He indulges himself to be a little proud of his younger self, who succeeded in conquering the most beautiful girl in the district. You ignore the sting of jealousy, because it’s nonsense. She is dead.

«Did you love her?»

«I was sixteen. Sneaking in the meadows to have sex is not exactly love.»

«It is at sixteen.» You press a kiss on his cheek. «I'm not going to say it.» You didn't deserve this, you were a kid in a game stronger than you. And she didn't deserve it either, barely in a young love. It is not your fault. Not everyone you love will die. It is not a curse. You are not the problem.

«Thanks.»

He takes your face in his hands and he gives you a long deep kiss.

«You survived.» You can read his mind: you managed to survive despite him, it is a miracle, he should probably leave you alone because a miracle doesn’t happen twice.

«I'm pretty hard to kill. Thanks for the water.» You want to keep the conversation on a lighter note. He is done talking about his late girlfriend, it’s a great gift he even agreed to this at all.

«No problem, gorgeous.» He pats your leg. Oh if you weren’t in a room full of people you would have know how to spend the last night with your man.

«Would you read for me?» You suggest, «Since we are not sleeping. I want to read all the books you have, I've always been envious of your library.»

He laughs. «I clearly remember you stealing my books while you were cleaning.»

«What can I say? Now I've read all the books beside your bed. We know each other better.»

He nods, amused by your ability to speak your way out of any situation. «Little thief. Good thing you are so beautiful.» He is in a playful mode now, so he leans down for a peck.

«Shhh, read the book. Pleeeease.» You blush a little, but two can play at this game.

He takes a book from his bed and goes back to you. “Tales of Panem”, you didn’t read it. He is right, you borrowed several of his books. He had Capitol books, and the little school library in the district has four or five books. You had to.

«One kiss, one page?» He suggests, but your hands are already on his chest.

«One kiss, one line.» You debate.

«We will never finish the first chapter.» He laughs, but he kisses you anyway. You won.

«We have all night. Are you complaining?» You pat his arm, and he bites your neck. You should be more aware of marks now that you’ll live with your mother again.

«Never.»

The separation is not messy because he is not here when you wake up. There’s a note instead.

See you later, gorgeous. Take care of yourself, and visit when I’ll be better. Not before. Trust me, I’ll miss you.

Of course, he avoids the big goodbye. Maybe it’s better this way, you would have said something bad about the District.

«Can I get up?» You ask your nurse when she comes, and she caresses your cheek. You want to say to her you are not a kid, but it’s actually cute.

«You’ll take medication. Your body will be in shape in two or three days, ok?»

«Three days?» You whisper in disbelief. In Twelve everything was a big deal, you had a tiny hospital but it wasn’t so good and nurses here and there, like Katniss’s mother, who did what they had to do. Holly took care of pregnancies, for example. You didn’t want to be sick in Twelve.

«A lot of Capitol doctors are rebels, so now we have their medicine.» She explains. You nod, thinking how the hell doctors could know about the revolution.

There are a lot of things you have to catch up on.

«Thank you for saving me.» You add, and you know she didn’t do anything but it’s her home, and as much as you don’t like they still saved you. «I’m Daisy.»

«My name is Inez.» She greets you. There is something weird in her tone, though. Something like an accent. Yours.

«You… you have my accent?» You are surprised you see that, but after two weeks in the Capitol and one in the Games you are not used to your accent anymore.

«I used to live in District 12 when I was a kid.» She explains, a sweet smile on her face. She looks like your mother’s age, maybe they know each other.

«What happened then?»

«I became an orphan, I was in the system, I was in danger and… it was another time, another life.» She strokes your hair. «I’ve seen you in the Games.» She murmurs while she takes care of your medication. If she wants to change the subject you are fine with it. «How you saved the girl from Eleven and the girl from Four.»

«I also killed the boy from my district.» You have to add. She was in an orphanage? That’s the life Holly spared you.

«Wasn’t he going to kill you first?» She finishes it. «Do you really want to become a teacher?»

You are not sure anymore, if you have to be honest. You like kids and the prospect felt good in Twelve, but now you found out new labels of yourself. You like clothes, you like creating outfits, but in District Twelve it’s not really useful.

«I think so, yeah. I mean a week ago I thought I was going to be dead so I didn’t think much about my career, but since I’m not, yeah.»

«We have a lot of District 12 kids and we are actually looking for a substitute teacher. Would you be interested in that?» Well, it’s a way to settle down for the moment. You are not a tribute anymore, you obviously are not a maid anymore, you might as well be what you wanted to be for twelve years.

«Yeah, I would like that.»

She seems satisfied with the answer.

«So I’m sorry if I overstepped but… it is real?» Oh, the question. Everybody has The Question. Was it real? Was it for the cameras? Are you in love with a victor who won when you weren’t even born yet?

«Very real.» You confirm. She looks a little worried. That’s the prelude for your mother’s reaction.

«Isn’t he a little old for you? You are, what, twenty?»

«Twenty four. And no, he is not a little old for me.» You sound cranky now and you get that it’s not good manners, but that’s not that nurse’s business.

She gets it, luckily. «He seems like a good man.»

«He is the best.»

She ties your hair in a ponytail and she caresses your face. «Are you ready to get up?»

Turns out you weren’t so ready to get up, because you have to sit down after five minutes. You don’t have any resistance and you just want to rest.

The bright side is that you get to see District 13 and it sucks. There’s no silver lining for that, it’s horrendous. You are grateful you don’t have to fight to the death, but the place scares you. Everything is grey, there are a lot, a lot of tunnels and all the rooms are the same. You will get lost, you already know that.

Inez is near to you until you go to a room that looks like a cafeteria, and then she is gone again and you are alone.

For a moment.

«Daisy!» You’d recognize that voice everywhere.

«Mommy!» She hugs you tight, a little too tight given that you have broken ribs. You shouldn’t call her “mommy”, you are an adult, and truth to be told you almost never call her mom, but you really thought you’d never see her again.

«You are safe. You came back to me.» She strokes your raven hair, like you are a baby, and she refuses to let you go until you have to sit.

She looks twenty years older. You are not going to tell her, but she has a lot of wrinkles on her skin and white hair in her locks.

«I thought I’d lost you.» She repeats, and now she is crying.

«You didn’t.» You are vaguely aware you are making a scene, and you don’t want Perla or Lora to see you. They don’t have their mom here. You didn’t even see Chaff, you don’t know if he is here or captured in the Capitol. «I’m here.»

«When you were in the games, I- I didn’t want to watch it but I wanted to see you, and…»

«I think I nailed it, didn’t I?» You try to take a lighter note, but she seems upset.

«The poor Undersee boy.»

The poor Undersee boy wanted to end your daughter’s life, but before you could say something like that to her you are hugged again, and this time you scream too.

«Effie!» You are beyond happy to see her. She was your light in the Capitol and you can be her light here, in a place that you know better.

«My darling girl!» She winks at you and you hug her again, you want to keep her close.

She is so different. She doesn’t have her signature wig, but she covers her hair with a foulard. Grey, of course. And she doesn’t have any makeup on. «Your wig…»

«I am a political refugee, darling. Can’t ask for much.» That is deeply wrong. She helped you get out of the games alive, she saved you as much as Haymitch did, and now they repay them with a violent rehab and insufferable rules.

«You are still beautiful, it’s not something they can take away from you.» You try to reassure her, and it’s the truth. Even in a grey jumpsuit that is made to look bad she shines.

«Well, let’s say we are here and safe. And you are my roommate.»

You almost jump before you remember you can’t because you are bandaged. Inez would kill you. «That is fabulous! If we have any ashes I think we can make black eyeshadow.»

«You genius girl, I missed you so much.»

Holly is there, looking a little confused. Well, she doesn’t know how much you became close to Effie Trinket during your time in the penthouse, but she will understand. Effie is a good person, people in District 12 need to understand that.

«Mom, can I lie down now? I’m a little tired.» You still call her mom, because you missed her. You missed her hug, and you desperately needed her when President Snow decided you were a target.

You called her in your sleep when you killed a man, and it’s not her fault she didn’t hear you.

Still, Effie was there.

«Of course honey, can you handle going into your room alone?» You don’t think so, without Capitol medication you wouldn’t have been able to walk at all, but you don’t want to look spoiled or weak so you are about to say yes, when Effie snorts in a way that is somehow still ladylike.

«Nonsense, we can ask someone to carry her.»

«If she says she can, why bother someone?» Your mother argues.

«Because she’s turning blue.»

«Actually,» You interrupt them. «I don’t think I can do it alone.» You don’t want to portrait Holly like the villain, but it’s true you are turning blue from the effort.

With a satisfied glance Effie manages to ask a boy from District 13 to accompany you, but before you get to be in your bed, your mother stops you.

«Can we talk later?» She is worried, and a little angry maybe. You don’t want to deal with it right now. You know what she wants to say. You killed an innocent guy, you fraternised with the enemy, Effie Trinket is vain and shallow, and you admitted on national television you had sex with a guy who shared my class in first grade.

«Later.» You promise.

When she goes away it’s Effie who caresses your hair. Your room is the same as all the other rooms, narrow, poky and grey, two beds with white blank sheets and a little tiny toilet with a door - thank all the gods.

«I don’t feel safe here.» You whisper, and she just nods. «Can you stay with me?»

You and her are both stuck with you, you remember Haymitch’s words. Your loyalty is with them, and Katniss, and Peeta and your friends. And your mom, of course. You have to remember that.

She kisses you on the cheek and tugs your bed before sitting on your sheets.

«Always, darling girl.»

#fanfiction #haymitch abernathy #haymitch x fem!reader #bad feeling #haymitch abernathy x reader #haymitch imagine #haymitch abernathy x you #haymitch x reader #the hunger games #woody harrelson #daisy pinecone

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apollos-olives · 7 months

Note

Hi, I really appreciate your efforts to bring light to the unfair treatment of Palestinians. The massacre, the wrong done to them is harrowing. It brings tears to my eyes. May they find their peace and justice. I pray for their well-being.

My heart goes out to every single human who suffers.

Palestinians have suffered for over 80 years and they rightfully deserve true happiness. I pray and know their demands will be fulfilled soon.

There's one thing I don't agree with you about. You said you don't care about the CIVILIANS that died in Israel. Note how I used the word civilians. They maybe illegal immigrants for all I care, but they are humans as well. Why should they suffer even if the Israeli government uses them as shield/propaganda? They, like our Palestinian brothers and sisters are humans too. Their own leader forsakes them, and they die. But saying that we don't care about a human that dies for no fault of their own? Almighty will never forgive us for that.

I want peace to prevail, no human to suffer atrocities.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

We need a revolution, we need to support Palestinians. We must not forget what the almighty teaches us about our rage that sometimes gets the better of us. We need to support right, and be the right that He taught us. I know feeling enraged is very natural. I feel enraged too. And I pray and remember what He teaches us.

Before you say anything about this, I speak and support Palestine publicly and fully,

Let our prayers be answered.

May the Palestinians find happiness and serenity.

sigh. this is what i'm talking about when people say "we must be peaceful and no one should get hurt 🥺🥺"

anon. i understand your point, and ya Allah, if it could be peaceful then it would be. but it can't. it was never, and never will be, peaceful. zionism is built on violence, and any drastic form of resistance will be violent in retaliation.

i'm gonna start by saying this. most israelis are zionists. there are very VERY few zionist-critical israelis. and often times those zionist critical israelis leave because they do not want to directly contribute to the ethnic cleansing and genocide against palestinians simply by living there. that being said, again, most israelis are zionists. they are directly contributing to the genocide of palestinians. no israeli adult is innocent, and none of them are civilians, since they are forced to serve in their military. there are a few people exempt from the non-"civilian" status, as i've talked about in my other posts. any settler who brings their child to israel is to be held responsible for their children's death, since they brought them there while directly violating international law and also contributing to genocide. am i saying children should die? absolutely fucking not. that's horrific. but i AM saying is that people WILL die regardless, because that's what revolution is. the most effective form of resistance is violence against the oppressor, and in this situation, israelis are the oppressors, and so violence WILL happen against them, even if they are "civilians". do israeli "civilians" deserve violence? that's a debatable and conditional topic, but we're not focusing on whether or not they "deserve" it, we're focusing on fighting our oppressors, which is naturally violent in itself.

the fact that israel uses it's own people as human shields and kills them amongst their own assaults against the palestinian people is disgusting, and horrific. but this also should lead people to understand why we need to dismantle israel entirely and liberate palestine.

please understand that i know what you're talking about, but violence against the oppressor is inevitable and while it's sad that "civilians" are caught up in it, that only should make people understand why it happens.

palestinians can't wait for a glorious miracle from God. we are taking this into our own hands, and we will be fighting back.

palestine will be free. glory to the resistance 🇵🇸

#palestine #free palestine

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cherrybombfangirlwrites · 1 year

Text

General Cinderella ; a WIP Intro

Book 1 in my Fractured Stars Falling Series

Genre and Setting

High Fantasy, Cinderella Retelling, Dark Fantasy ; the magical world of Eltya, within the snow covered kingdom of Dinvirty which is based on the Vikings and the Roman Empire

Playlist

POV

Third person limited, 2 characters alternating

Status and Length

Drafting, less than 1k ; about 10k?

Tropes and Themes

Fighting/gladiator arena, Cinderella retelling, friends to lovers, revolution, semi forbidden lovers, lovers meeting at the dead of night in secret, super cool magical glass armor ; what do you do when a system is flawed, paradigm shifts and what to do when your beliefs are challenged

Warnings and Rating

Main character has an abusive family, violence, death and killing, mental health issues

Main Characters

Tris Lakewater

She/Her | Trans Woman | Black | Plus sized

Self trained knight, really strong and good with a sword

trying to escape her not nice stepfamily via the Princess Tournament

Prince Kaye

He/Him | Bisexual | Latino Mixed | OCD

Peacemaker born into a family of warlords

Quiet but not shy

has given up trying to satisfy his parents

closer to his siblings because they actually support him and try to keep their parents off his case

Antagonists

King Burningham

He/Him | Straight?

Strong as ten men and at least seven feet tall

Stoick the Vast if he were a really fucking terrible dad and leader

his solution to everything is yell at it really loudly

Favors Freya over his other two children

Queen Persephone

She/Her | Bisexual? | Latina

Beautiful in a terrifying way

very good with knives and super smart

literally licked the blood of her enemy off her hand in the middle of battle then proceeded to brutally kill him once

Favors Ragnar over her other two children

Lady Lavina

She/Her | Straight

Please imagine the Lady Tremaine from the 2015 live action Cinderella film played by Cate Blanchet

Personification of Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss in the worst way

The absolute worst ever, really not nice because she likes being mean and having power over people that she exploits

Side Characters

Princess Freya: The eldest, Kaye's big sister, very supportive of Kaye, long blonde hair in Viking style braids, rough and tumble daddy's girl, probably a lesbian

Prince Ragnar: The middle child, Kaye's big brother, bright red hair from his father, very supportive of Kaye, total momma's boy

Heather: a sweet girl Tris befriends in the tournament, gets killed off for theme reasons

Fare Godmother: may or may not be a fairy no one is really sure, knows where and how to get things

Drizella: stepsister #1, really good actor and uses it to get what she wants, most like her mother, very vain and uptight

Daeva: stepsister #2, winy and spoiled brat, only talent is throwing a hissy fit when she doesn't get what she wants

Plot and Sypnosis

The Princess Tournament for Prince Kaye’s hand in marriage is underway, and all the girls in the Kingdom are preparing to win or to die in the arena.

Tris Lakewater is preparing to use the tournament as a way to finally escape her stepfamily. She doesn’t care about marrying the Prince, because if she doesn’t win but survives the arena it will guarantee her a spot in Dinvirty’s great army. She’s excited for the chance at glory, she's been sneaking out into the woods behind her house and training herself for this.

What she doesn’t know is that the whole thing isn’t as great as it’s made out to be.

That the whole kingdom, the whole militia system, the Princess Tournament- isn't as great as it's made out to be.

~~~

Unlike his parents, Kaye is not looking forward to the Princess Tournament. It's no doubt going to be extremely violent- pretty much everything in the kingdom of Dinvirty is- and a lot of girls are going to be slaughtered in the arena for the fun of it.

And it seems as if Kaye is the only one who thinks that there is something twisted and horribly wrong with the whole thing. It certainly doesn't help that he's had horrible intruding thoughts of violent and disturbing things happening to him and people he knows ever since he could remember.

On top of that, his parents expect him to be a bloodthristy madman like them, craving the blood and death to come. They're hoping the winner of the Princess Tournament will fix him.

He's starting to think they're the ones that need fixing.

Extra Stuff

Writing this book in my WIP has been really hard. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to write Tris and Kaye and make their voices sound unique, but I'm working on it.

Inspirations for this book include: Cinderella (Mostly the 2015 film, but also the different version of the fairytale from around the world), Gladiator (2000), The Hunger Games book series, The Roman Empire, the Viking Age

Also here's some memes for your viewing pleasure-

FSF Taglist: @rose-bookblood @chalcid @evethenovicewriter @writing-is-a-martial-art @mjjune @fiercely-raging-writer @wildswrites @corishadowfang @surroundedbypearls

General Taglist: @enchanted-lightning-aes @thatprolificauthor @wip-nook @writeblrsupport

#writeblr #creative writing #writing #original writing #wip intro #book intro #writer #writers #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #cinderella retelling #my writing #my stuff #oc: tris #oc: prince kaye #oc: king burningham #oc: queen persephone #wip: fractured stars falling

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whitehotharlots · 8 months

Text

I fear we're all already dead

Just a few years ago, human decency--a concept that was admittedly always nebulous and contextual--became radically redefined. Whatever it used to be was inadequate. Now, decency is defined by one's willingness to perform obedience rituals regarding interpersonal comportment. You don't add the letter X to random words because you like it or because it changes anything; you do it because you just do it, because that's what it takes to be a decent fucking person.

Like most other social malignancies, this one started in academe and slowly slithered its way into white collar spaces before becoming mandated elsewhere. As recently as a decade ago, the more pointless and onerous of precepts such as this would either eventually die out or take a very long time before reaching the mainstream in some tempered form. The internet has hastened to speed of the spread. Today's bit of niche retardation is tomorrow's unbreakable mandate, and you will be punished if you refuse to obey. And why shouldn't you be? Are we as a society supposed to just sit there and tolerate behaviors that are as indecent as using naughty words or not posting a Black square on your instagram feed?

The left either celebrates developments such as this or, in their edgier and more honest moments, attempt to downplay them. Yes, a large majority of Hispanic people refuse the term Latinx and many of them find it actively offensive. But so what. It ain't hurting anybody. J-just go through the motions, keep your head down, obey in public and snicker about it when no one's watching.

But I fear we've lost something. Something essential. At heart, this is a social project meant to inculcate all Decent people into a form of didactic manicheanism. As nearly everyone acknowledges, none of this really changes anything. It's a social sorting mechanism, something that gives us all an excuse to automatically hate those who fall into the wrong side of performance.

The need to judge everyone, at all times and as harshly as possible, has stripped the concept of morality of all human traits. Assessments become more superficial at scale. Tasked with sorting every person, every thought, every action and utterance into Good and Bad piles means we don't really have the time or capacity to dig deep, no room to consider whether our judgments are reflective of anything more meaningful than our desire to judge.

The news was rough last week. It started with two separate incidents in which left-wing activists were murdered by strangers: one in his home, another on the street. Each did exactly what they were instructed to do in the wake of the Daniel Penny incident. They had been trained to ignore their basic survival instincts, that both flight and fight are problematic responses to encountering deranged and visibly angry men. What does it say about your privilege, if you confront or distance yourself from a man simply because he's verbally threatening to kill you? Are you some sort of Republican? Or are one of the Good ones, willing to reach out and attempt to provide deranged vagrants with the validation society has so cruelly denied them?

The right responded to these murders with unbridled glee. Everyone is sharing the same screen, after all... just looking it from one of two opposed angles. The men had supported what they thought were more humane policies in regards to crime and housing, and so that means their deaths were cause for celebration. Everyone is still either Good or Bad. They are labels, not humans.

And then, over the weekend, Hamas launched the largest offensive against Israel that's happened in my lifetime. Here we were treated to the ripest fruits of intersectionality: unironic racists allying with leftie keyboard revolutionaries to celebrate the victory of based hyper-religious trads over the heathen children of an EMD festival, august professors of Decolonization Studies attempting to reconcile their nagging support of violent revolution with videos of young women being raped and murdered. Context was secondary. The need to sort prevailed above all else. We need to determine who is Good here, and who is Bad, so that we can either cheer or cry. There is no human reality beyond my screen. There is no human reality beyond my judgment.

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iamafanofcartoons · 2 years

Photo

Adam Taurus is a classic example of

"I hate this character who's kind of an ***hole way more than I hate the actually evil villain"

Except this time both characters are the same guy.

Most people have probably not met a terrorist freedom fighter irl, so those crimes are like completely detached from reality for them.

On the flip side tho, almost everyone knows some possessive creepy dude who feels entitled to the women he dates, so it's a much more relatable level of evil.

Also?

Sienna was very clear about not liking the whole plan with Beacon, dividing the world, and all that bad stuff.

Not to mention the whole "making faunus look like violent murderers" deal he had going on, which he tried to pass off as being inspired by Sienna's "Mess with one faunus, and you mess with all of us" approach.

You should see how some people tried to “fix” sienna khan.

Yeah, This is why I do not like fixit fanfics. They don’t get that edgelord = ***hole AND villain.

The fact that people were talking about him getting a redemption arc back when he was a mass murder who killed innocent people but said he deserved to die when he became an angry incel stalker…

I don’t get people.

A misguided Freedom Fighter wouldn't go out of their way to get civilians killed and that is exactly what Adam did in his introduction. We've got to remember that the only reason given for him not wanting to remove the civilians off of the train, is that he didn't want to.

This is even worse when we consider real life terrorist groups like the IRA who in the past had tremendous public support because they went out of their way to minimize civilian casualties!

This means that not only did Adam not have a reason to not rescue those civilians, he actually had an incentive to do so but he just decided that he didn't want to!

But for the sake of discussion let's assume that the crew is made up of humans and this is something that Adam knows... why should that matter? These are civilian non-combatants and there is nothing to suggest that they couldn't rescue these people. Adam simply chooses not to despite how doing so could only help the cause.

How then can Adam be a freedom fighter if he allows innocent civilians to die for no reason other than personal satisfaction?

Let's imagine for a second that the day Adam first joined the White Fang he walked up to Ghira (a pacifist) and declared that he has no interest in equality, what he really wants is enslave Humanity and kill a bunch of them along the way to Supremacy... what do you think would happen?

The obvious answer is that they would immediately kick him out of the group, Adam has to lie and hide who he really is if he wants to advance his goal. That doesn't mean that his character is contradictory, it just means that there's a layer of deception to how he presents himself. He is wearing a metaphorical mask and the show uses the introduction to lift up that mask and gives us a very quick peek of the Man underneath it.

“But Adam said in V3 about revolution?”

Think about it, if he really didn't want his men dying for a human cause then why didn't he run away? He had the perfect opportunity to do so after Cinder showed up as a student since she and her crew can't be at Beacon and Mt Glenn at the same time. And then of course we cannot forget the chaos following The Breach which would have also provided him the perfect exit but what did he do instead?

“Will your men still be willing to work with us? A lot of the White Fang died in the tunnels”-Cinder

“No, but they’ll listen to me”-Adam

Instead of fleeing when he had the chance, he approached Cinder and offered to continue the partnership. If she was someone who truly cared about equality then this would make absolutely no sense since attacking innocent civilians with the Grimm would have not helped with that goal, it would have actually made things worse between the two races. But if his actual goal is a race war... then it all makes sense.

It wasn’t about the cause, it was about getting back at those who wronged him. And Blake’s been “wronging” him the most lately, hence the obsessive stalking.

“But what about Cinder forcing Adam to cooperate?”

There's a lot of people under the impression that the Huntsman way of life is different from a civilian's. Sure, the nature of the mindsets are different but the basic principles are close to identical.

If a mugger points a gun at a civilian's face, the dude does what he's told if he doesn't want to be shot. If a Huntsman is borne down on by a Huntress who has an insurmountable amount of killing power available in comparison to them?

Adam was playing along 'cause he don't want to be smoked, sure, but it does help that what he's asked to do makes humans wake the frick up in fear...

True he didn’t want to do mostly because it was a human idea. He doesn’t mind attacking humans but he wasn’t really aiming for beacon until cinder pointed him that way.

Tbf, one is Adam being an edgy terrorist, the other is Adam being an edgy incel.

It's like edgy icing on edgy cake.

#adam taurus #rwby fnki #fnki #rwby memes #rwby character analysis #celtic phoenix #fix it fanfics #rwby #rwby adam #rwby v2 #rwby volume 2 #rwby volume 3 #rwby v3 #iamafanofcartoons

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the-fiction-witch · 9 months

Text

Seventeen P9-11

Media The Maze Runner AU

Character Newt

Couple Newt X Reader

Rating Sweet AF

Seventeen Series

I had been pretty sheepish all day just trying to keep my head down maybe they forgot about me, Once the bell rang luckily I had model UN so I scampered there before I could get in trouble and sat in my UK-labeled chair.

"Okay, good afternoon everyone now before we move onto the current affairs of the day does anyone have any new business they would like to bring up?" Alby asks

Several hands raised

"Uhh okay, Yes Brazil?"

"Viva a revolcao!" she yelled and I glanced over

Brenda Young, the school activist and art freak never seen without paint on her hands and a soap box about something, I never paid her that much attention honestly just sort of saw her as a positive Karen I suppose, then again last year she did force the cafeteria to start at least stocking a vegan and vegetarian option for people thought four weeks of violent protests. they still haven't fixed the window and it still kinda of smells like chum around it.

she stood from her chair her hair cut short with a bright blue streak, her black clothes of net and leather a hand-drawn tattoo on her arm made of Sharpie,

"Brenda, I've told you before if you're not going to do this properly you can leave" Alby sighed "You can't call a revolution,"

"Fine" she pouted sitting back down

"Anyone else, Yes Eygpt" He says and she gets up from her seat

Harriet Toll, a fashion student and a sketchbook kept under lock and key, always wore the most up-to-date fashion trends and made the most of it as well. She didn't exactly like being here but the textiles room is closed on Thursdays and she doesn't get picked up till six so it's something to do other than sitting outside on the step.

"I know that this model UN is small and we are missing various countries but I cannot help but feel offended at the selection of countries" She explained

"I second that!" Brenda yelled, "The white boys are the rich countries and the rest of us are the countries with populations with the majority people of colour!"

"It feels -" Harriet began

"Racists!"

"Wouldn't you agree South Africa?"

"Humm? What's going on?" Fry yawns as he had basically been asleep since we got in here

"Calm down, calm down everyone, The assigned counties are assigned randomly," Alby says

"Randomly?" Harriet glared

"Completely randomly so sit down"

"Fine" she sighed sitting down again

"Anyone else" he sighed "Yes Denmark"

"What's up with the UK?" Zart asked as he clearly noticed me and the fact I'd barely spoken to him or anyone else today

"Is brexit making you sad?" Brenda laughed

"No" I sighed "I'm just a bit out that's all"

"Alright, now on to new business"

I left after the model UN was over starting to make my way out to go home when I saw three of those blue and white letterman jackets

"I don't like waiting, Newton" Ben yelled

"Fuck!" I complained trying to bolt as quickly as I could away but they caught up fast and threw me against the wall punching and kicking me

"The hell do you think you're doing nerd! You dare actually talk to a cheerleader? It would be funny if you weren't so fucking stupid!" He laughs "You are not to talk to her again, don't even look at her, not even think about her again, or I will cut your balls off and mount them on the flag pole, we clear Newton?"

"I can talk to whoever I damn want!"

"You wanna die! Let me explain something to you y/n is a cheerleader with a fat ass and tits that porn stars pay for, you are a scholastic decathlon, model UN, chess team little freakazoid. Now you will not do it again, are we clear!"

"Hey!" A voice came I could barely see as I likely had a black eye but I saw

Gally Anderson, cohead of the debate team, used to be the muscles of metal shop and woodshop until the school district cut the funding those rooms were gutted of equipment and turned into extra maths rooms and now were often stuck in the back of the art club making small wooden building sculptures while people like Brenda engaged in utter anarchy we used to be friendly but you drift Apart and all

"What's it to you? Art boy?"

"Leave the fuck alone before I knock those teeth down your throat, and we all know daddy paid to get them all nice and touched up for ya which you haven't paid off yet so unless you wanna root around your shit for those pearly fucks. Walk away"

"I'm -"

"I know what you're doing, everyone heard but she aint your girlfreind as I recall she Dumped your ass so fuck off home"

"Come on guys" he says heading to his car "I'm watching you newton!"

"You okay?" Gally asks helping me up and grabbing my stuff for me

"I think I'm dieing"

"Yeah he socked you pretty hard, we'll grab you some ice, come on I'll drop you home"

"Thanks man"

"No problem" he says taking me to his car and we stopped and he got me some ice for my eye and a bandage for my bleeding arm "I know what you did"

"Everyone knows apparently"

"I don't blame you, cheer girls are gorgeous, don't sweat it he'd have kicked your ass for being rude if you hadn't spoken to her"

"I don't get what his problem is"

"Dudes been butt hurt since she dumped him, still protective of her, he thinks because they used to date he owns her. Don't let it get to you" he says pulling up outside my house "You gonna be okay?"

"I think so, thanks gally"

"Don't worry about it, see you around"

"See you around" I nodded before climbing out and heading inside immediately to be met by

"Oh my god my baby!" She screams

"Mum I'm alright -"

"What the hell happened!" My dad yelled

"It's a long story"

Understandably my mother went crazy and I'd been sitting in the kitchen for over an hour while my parents paced and panicked, having replaced my ice and bandaged my cuts and bruises. when they finally let me go back to my room, so I headed to my bed Luckily I didn't have any homework or anything so I just crawled into bed and tried my best to get some god damn sleep.

When my alarm went off I forced myself up and quickly went for a shower Sonya was about to go in but she stopped short as she saw me

"What the hell happened to you?" she asks

"Don't. Say. anything." I warned her to go in the bathroom and lock the door tightly I put my music on as loud as possible ran myself a bath and climbed in trying to soothe my aching body, I took as long as I wanted in the bath, once done I went back to my room and got dressed for the day shoving my stuff in my bag even if It stung to add my bag to my shoulder and I headed downstairs to my mum and dad "Morning"

"Morning Kiddo, sit down and take your time with breakfast I'm taking you in today," he says

"You are?"

"Yeah, I want a word with the headmaster"

"Uhh okay" I nodded sitting down and my mum gave me as many strawberries, waffles, and french toast as I wanted "I'm happy to take the bus Dad"

"No, no. I want a word with him. phone doesn't do the same as turning up so If I'm going then I might as well take you"

"Why do I have to take the bus and he gets a ride to school!" Sonya yelled as she arrived downstairs

"And where were you while your brother was being beaten up like a 1930s gangster?'

"...at the movies with my friends"

"So you'll be taking the bus"

"Uuughhhh!' She yelled marching off outside

"You can take her too it's okay," I said

"You really should -" my mother began

"No, for once I'm not Bowing to that girl," he says finishing his breakfast he took my bag and we headed out to the car We started up and headed through the rainy streets he stopped for coffee of course and he even got me a few hash browns.

"So? Lead the way," he says I nodded and got out of the car he still carried my stuff for me as we headed into the still pretty empty school as the busses hadn't arrived yet I led him through the corridors to the headmaster's office but she wasn't here yet so we just sat outside. "You wanna tell me what this was all over so I have a little backing info?"

"I figured Sonya told you"

"She did but you know how your sister exaggerates."

"I was working, and the cheerleaders came in"

"All of them?'

"I think so, looked like all of them I don't exactly count them everywhere they go, Dad"

"Hu...I did"

"Did you?"

'When I was your age yeah, so?"

"So one of the cheer girls needed a hand with the slushie machine the cherry one always gets stuck so I pulled it for her we talked just casually while I did and told her I'd cover it. But clearly, people found out. I've been getting the cold shoulder from people all day because of it"

"Why? You did something nice for her?"

"Yeah, but she's a cheerleader. I'm...me. I can't talk to them it's like an unspoken law. So one of the track guys beat me up to teach me a lesson"

"And?"

"and lesson learned. I won't talk to her again" I sighed

"What's her name?"

"What does it matter They'll kill me if I ever even look at her again"

"Well tell me anyway"

"...y/n"

"Y/n. Cheerleader?"

"Yeah"

"Pretty?"

"Gorgeous,"

"Blonde?"

"Y/h/c usually with a little blue bow"

"Athletic?"

"As much as any cheerleader but... she's 'bottom of the pyramid"

"Oh, so she's got the hips and the thighs?' He suggested making a gesture with his hands and I nodded "I take it you have her the free slushie because you like her"

"Kinda, but what does it matter Ben will kill me if I look at her again. Not like I had a cat in hell's chance anyway'

"Why not? You're the most handsome boy in the world your mother tells you all the time"

"Dad. I'm me. I'm a nerd. I am as low as you can get on the totem pole except maybe Chuckie, the cheer team is at the top of the totem pole. I was being stupid"

"Hey, don't think like that, look Isaac. This stuff isn't some totem pole carved in stone or wood forever to be that way. It's more like... an elevator."

"An elevator?"

"Yes, an elevator. You might not see it but people are constantly moving up and down the levels Yes those at the top often don't think about the bottom and the bottom struggle to even imagine ever being at the top but no one stays in those places forever and believe me when you get out of here none of it would have mattered and you'll realize there never was an elevator you were all just living on the same floor convinced you had it better or worse when everyone else" he says "you know I was a pretty big nerd when I was your age Didn't stop me getting a firecracker like your mother. I was on the chess team, algebra club, top science student two years running and your mother was a flag girl"

"No offence but stuff is different nowadays it's not like them You were my age things have changed"

"...how old do you think I am?" He glared

"Well, I'm seventeen?"

"Yeah and I'm thirty-four," he says "AHH Miss Ava Paige just the woman I've been needing to see"

"Mr Newton of course step into my office," she says

I was kind of taken aback by what he said for a moment before I followed them into the office.

#tbs #thomas brodie sangster #thomas sangster #tbs smut #thomasbrodiesangster #tbs imagine #tbs imagines #thomas sangster imagine #thomas brodie sangster imagine #thomas brodie sangster smut #tmr newt smut #newt imagine #newt imagines #tmr newt imagine #newt maze runner

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aronarchy · 1 year

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i definitely agree with your positions on youthlib, adultism and the nuclear family model, however my question is - what's your positive plan, if any, assuming you could remove / already have removed these oppressive constructs?

Ok first off: this has been sitting in my inbox for several months, and I’m really sorry that I haven’t answered it sooner, and I feel really bad about that, and I’m not even entirely sure why (I started drafting my answer a while ago, then developed a sort of mental block around the whole thing and somehow only got over it today); I’m sure this probably feels irrelevant by now, or unnecessary, and sorry about that!

If the question is “what will replace adultism/nuclear family wrt performing their [actual] current functions,” the answer is—nothing. Their purpose is to control large swathes of people, to regulate certain behaviors, and to concentrate power and resource in the hands of some at the expense of others. There is no need for anything that oppresses and abuses youth to exist at all, and it should not exist, and the whole point of a youthlib movement is to get rid of them.

If the question is “what will replace adultism/the nuclear family/current educational institutions/etc in doing what they currently claim to do/be for,” that’s a rather different question.

Adultists claim that the nuclear family allows for youth to be sheltered, fed, clothed, and taken care of: that without it, youth will die en masse, will starve on the streets, etc. But this is not actually true; the prescription of the Family leads to many neglectful/abusive parents refusing to or inadequately feeding, clothing, and caring for their children. If youth were able to easily acquire food, clothing, shelter, and other resources without having to rely on parents, that would solve this problem. If youth were not forced to remain with their biological family, they could leave when they wanted, the same way anyone else would leave a living situation or relationship they find harmful to themself, or just not something they want, and form relationships that they do want, when they are able to do so and not under social, economic, and political pressures to remain.

I question the popular framing of what will you do when The Revolution is Over, as if these are only things we can do later, rather than things we are (or should be) doing now, and things which are a part of revolution itself and also contribute to the undermining of oppressive structures. What we hope we’ll be doing Then is what we’re struggling to do right now. One of those things is simply living our lives the way we wish (while not preventing others from living their own lives the way they wish). Like anyone else escaping abuse, youth who have escaped adultist oppression will start doing the things they want to do which they were previously unable to because they were forced to not do them. The youthlib project works toward maximizing the ability of doing these things unimpeded, and also doing the things themselves. i.e. moving around in public spaces without harassment, living with people they want to live with, dedicating their time to hobbies or projects they find useful or other things without being dragged away to meaningless forced labor daily.

One thing adultism (like other oppressive systems) promises is to prevent not only various harmless activities but also harmless ones. Adultists claim that if not subject to adult rule, youth will be violent toward each other, and that without adultism, there would be no recourse for victims of abuse by other youth. The adultist’s solution is to maintain figures with far more power than either party so that adults will be able to stop a youth abusing another youth. This is clearly wrong, of course: this makes it so that when adults abuse youth, there is no possible recourse (apart from seeking an even higher authority, which poses the exact same problems as this); most adults don’t even bother to use their power to stop abuse between youth, as it is in their interest to uphold hierarchies among the people they oppress, and they are themselves pro abuse, so why would they care to stop abuse? It is far more common for a parent, a teacher, etc who is called on to stop a case of bullying to disbelieve or blame the victim and to punish the victim instead. (When they do punish bullies/abusers, this isn’t usually great either, because they are simply enacting more abuse by the more powerful onto the weaker.)

How do adults resolve adult-on-adult abuse or victimization? Most appeal to a third party of higher authority than them both (the manager, the boss, the cop, the judge, the state leader). Some don’t, and instead resolve the conflict by seeing where they are at right now, and what they need, and acting accordingly. Without the reassuring (but ultimately poisonous) presence of a Higher-Up to solve the problem, how would youth deal with violence among themselves? The same things many are doing right now when struggling against abusive authority figures, or trying to stop a bully without the help of indifferent adults. Youth liberation simply means that the many barriers to this are taken down (and the process which takes them down is also the process that solves the problems themselves). Without the ability to lock up “violent juvenile offenders” in psychiatric wards to “fix” them or detention facilities to “neutralize their threat,” how would we stop harm? Community protocols, mutual aid, self-defense... everything everyone is doing now, as part of their day-to-day lives, these are the options that we struggle to make more available and more successful.

I generally don’t like trying to give answers to questions that are too vague or broad, because it’s rather difficult for me—my mind is much clearer when I am answering about specific situations—but I can discuss some of the things that have come up in conversations with my friends, or conversations I’ve seen my friends have. One was about the family. We talked about what could be the alternatives to the current “bio parents = raise them in their own house” model. I think we can generally agree that 1) a parent who don’t want to raise their kid should not have to, for both their sake and for the kid’s; adoption should be an easily available option, but without the bureaucratic bullshit and abuse and neglect we have going on right now; 2) if a child is too young to state which particular person(s) they would prefer to live with, and doesn’t indicate with other reactions that they dislike an adult/prefer a different adult, we’re not for grabbing babies out of bio parents’ arms to redistribute on some bizarre planning principle; 3) it should be easier for more than just two adults to live in one home taking care of a child/children, and children and adults should be able to get outside and move around more, and non-familial adults should be able to help out with raising a kid more (i.e. the old “it takes a village” mantra). Education not coercive and strictly regimented; information (i.e. libraries, bookstores, archives, the internet) available and more specific teaching programs (i.e. specialized educators, other teachers, classes) available but not forced. Better mental health services. Cultural shifts; earlier education about boundaries, consent, autonomy, and abuse being wrong. Disability accommodations without bullshit red tape. Neurodivergence, mental illness, physical illness, and disability testing and information more widely available and not limited by ableism. Improved mental health services, harm reduction, queerness not stigmatized/treated as taboo, youth who come out as weird early not invalidated or locked up.

Some less “formal” things I’m particularly interested in right now are things like accountability processes, protocols when harm occurs, and getting each other to get better and more proactive at stopping harm and de-platforming abuse/abuse advocacy. This involves things like group education/information sharing, but also practicing, and acknowledging and resisting incentives to enable harm for the sake of “group cohesion” or other social pressures. I imagine this would look similarly IRL, though I’m not really socially connected with anyone offline because of certain limitations in my circumstances. But I have been reading about how IRL leftist communities have fared; applying something like the above to youth would involve being more aware of predator red flags, working against incentives to ignore discomfort from boundary violations, encouraging each other to respect consent and to not tolerate boundary-crossing, and collectively removing predatory/abusive/bigoted adults from spaces/events or positions of power that allow them to continue carrying out harm. Some other things would be, i.e., distributions of food and clothing to those in need without violent and unjust gatekeeping; current versions of that look like mutual aid, or shoplifting and theft when otherwise unavailable.

There’s a lot I haven’t covered, and I don’t feel up to trying to cover everything that could fall under the above (especially not in one go); a lot of people have discussed other examples and answers elsewhere (tweets, posts, blogs, papers, orgs...) and there’s been even more written out in much more detail in books (first that came to mind was Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now & Abolish the Family, I haven’t read them yet but I’ve heard good reviews and they seem to have that kind of planning goal, specifically discussing the nuclear family and other possible kinship formations which were a thing your ask mentioned in particular so).

#ask #mrjocrafter #late answer

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astercomoasflores · 1 year

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On November 15, 1889 there was the Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil through a coup. During the next 5 years Brazil was governed exclusively by the military and the period is considered a dictatorship.

We were born, as a republic, as a dictatorship.

From 1937 to 1945 we had another dictatorship, that of Getúlio Vargas, who was nicknamed Father of the Poor and Mother of the Rich. He is a controversial figure in Brazilian history because, despite being a dictator, he was and still is very popular. So much so that years later he was democratically elected and governed the country from 1951 to August 24, 1954, when he committed suicide.

Something I find very interesting about Getúlio Vargas is the letter he wrote, which gave his death a grandiose tone, like a hero who dies in a Greek tragedy. He portrayed himself as a martyr. In his words, "Nothing remains except my blood. I gave you my life, now I give you my death. I choose this way to defend you, for my soul will be with you, my name shall be a flag for your struggle.(...) Serenely, I take my first step on the road to eternity and I leave life to enter History."

Then there was the Military Dictatorship, which began on April 1, 1964 with the support of the United States of America, with the justification that they were protecting the country from the communists. It was a dark and violent period, marked by the loss of rights, torture, persecution, censorship. It lasted until 1985.

In less than 100 years Brazil has gone through three Dictatorships, none as inhuman and violent as the most recent one. And people ask for it back. They extol torturers as if they were heroes. I will never understand this. I will never accept that the first president elected by the people after Dilma, who fought against the dictatorship and was tortured, is the same man who said that Ustra, a torturer, was a hero.

But that's not the point. What I really want to talk about is the music produced in 1964-1985.

Cálice (Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento).

“Pai, afasta de mim esse cálice”, translated to “Father, take from me this chalice” is a reference to a biblical passage.

C��lice sounds exactly like “Cale-se”, so the phrase is "pai, afasta de mim esse cálice" traduzido para “father, take from me this shut up”. A great pun, in my opinion. Here the “shut up” refers to oppression and censorship.

About the singers: both were censored several times during the Dictatorship. Buarque was exiled and Milton Nascimento was unable to see his son for almost 20 years, if he contravened these orders the military would kill his son.

Pra não dizer que não falei das flores (Geraldo Vandré)

This song is an invitation to popular revolt. No one was going to overcome oppression by carrying flowers. The idea of "peace and love" does not make a revolution. It does not prevent people from being tortured and killed. Geraldo Vandré also opted for exile. Fleeing the country was safer than staying.

"Along the fields there is hunger Even with abundant plantations And in the streets, Streams of doubtful people Who still take a flower As the strongest symbol of their convictions People who still believe that Flowers can put down the rage of guns

Come on, let's go away Because it's not wise to be waiting for The wise does not let the chance pass by He never waits for it to come

We see armed soldiers Some of them were ever loved, others were not Most are equally lost Holding a gun in hand In the headquarters, they are taught of That old pretty lesson 'To die for the sake of the Land' But to go on without an opinion"

Mosca na Sopa (Raul Seixas)

Raul Seixas wrote this song to mock the Military Dictatorship. He represented himself as the fly, because he always bothered the military. Raul Seixas was tortured and exiled.

“I am the fly that landed on your soup I am the fly that got here to abuse you I am the fly that landed on your soup I am the fly that got here to abuse you I am the fly that landed on your soup I am the fly that got here to abuse you I am the fly that disturbs your sleep I am the fly that is flying around in your room I am the fly that disturbs your sleep I am the fly that is flying around your room And don't even bother coming to kill me Cause I'm resistent even to DDT Because you kill one and then another one comes to replace me”.

There are many other songs, but I made this text without planning and I wanted to post it soon. Maybe I'll put others later. The translations of the lyrics of the songs were taken from internet sites, which I consider safer sources than I do.

#dictatorship #military dictatorship #brazil #1964 #music #raul seixas #chico buarque #milton nascimento #geraldo vandré #Mosca na sopa #Cálice #Pra não dizer que não falei das flores

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handgiven · 10 months

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bonus info: the trio

It all started with Anane. Together with their twin, they joined Lucifer's revolution, having seen way more wrong with the way Heaven dictated than with the means Lucifer meant to use to bring it down. The twin died, Anane did not. What's more, the twin was wiped from existence, a memory of them just a frail feeling in Anane's chest. They don't remember their name, or their face. It was moreso the loss of their other half than the fall itself that made Anane the way they were.

On their side, since the beginning of time, was Antoine. He was not always Antoine, but having fallen cast away his true name and swore never to use it again. Antoine did not care for war or rebellion, but cared deeply for Anane. He too knew their twin but he was left with no memory of them once they were gone. It only brought the two of them closer, though, and made Antoine more determined to keep Anane safe from harm.

They were in Hell, for a time, but ended up noting just how similar it was to Heaven in terms of following orders and caring little for both its inahitants and humans. So they ran, once again. This time it was Antoine leading the way, and Anane following. They stripped away most of what made them angels once, and they never fully adopted what could have made them demons. They were immortal, slightly less vulnerable than humans, but other than that powerless. They have lived their lives this way ever since.

While Anane still grieves for their lost half, still goes missing for days on end trying to find a piece of themself they can never get, Antoine makes sure they have enough to eat and a warm place to stay. Anane to this day does not recognise fully what they have turned into, so it is Antoine's duty to remind them that they need all that. Other than that, Antoine fell in love with the human Earth. Doing odd jobs all over, meeting people, he's become one of them. He likes cooking and writing poetry. Though there have been flings he's had here and there, particularly during the Renaissance, Anane always comes first. And when Anane needs to get away from a place, they both go.

Gwynn is the latest addition to their odd family. She is a witch born during the Great Depression, who'd met Antoine and Anane sometime in the 80s. They needed a flatmate in order to afford rent and she had nowhere to go. She sells her witchcraft for money, so she proves to be a steady source of income, though she is also a pain in the arse. They never meant for her to find out their true nature but you can only have so many mysterious holy strangers show up at your doorstep before you start the questioning. And that she did.

She moves around with them, quite enjoying the way they stick around for a while and then leave abruptly. Especially since ocassionally her immoral business pratices make it easier to just start fresh. She is not immortal but she does age slowly. If she does not die a violent death, they may yet have another 150 years together ahead.

#featured muses #// i miss them your honor. i think they will be included more.#// feel free to request them .) if ever they strike your fancy.

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rockofeye · 2 years

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Could you tell us a bit about Mambo Marinette? Where she stands in your lineage? Who she is? Do people serve her? Merci d'avance houngan Alex :)

Hello,

Manbo Mayinet is a spirit that I have a lot of hesitation to write about because the internet loves to make things trendy that shouldn't be trendy and people can get really hurt. On the other hand, people are responsible for their own demise and who am I to stand in the way of poor decisions?

Manbo Mayinet is a lwa who walks in the Petwo rite and other Petwo-adjacent rites. She is unpredictable, violent, and can be extremely difficult to deal with, even for experienced manbo and houngan. It's often said that she has no friends, only acquaintances, and that her loyalty is to herself only. She tolerates people, versus embracing them, and her tolerance can be really low.

She is definitely served in many lineages, including the lineage I am initiated in. A lot of times we talk about how we do not ask her to come to us, meaning we do not specifically call her down, but that we go to her which can be literal or metaphorical...either she can decide she's coming down and does so, or when we feed her we go to where she lives in the woods and leave her food for her to eat as she wants.

There are a lot of different stories about her origins and like all things it could very well be 'many stories, all true' because Mayinet keeps her own counsel. The way I learned is that she was caught during the early part of the Haitian Revolution, possibly during Bwa Kayiman, and it's unclear whether it was by other enslaved Africans (as a suspected traitor) or colonizers. She was pregnant, and her child was cut out of her stomach, murdered in front of her, and then she was burned alive. She's sometimes called Mayinet Pye Chech/Mayinet Dry Foot which refers to her skin being burned and possibly even burned off totally. Ti Jean Petwo is sometimes considered her spouse, or Zandor.

She is served and has her place in the regleman, but her service is done on her terms; we go to her versus having her come to us. We do what she likes (mostly); she usually prefers her animals burned alive and her food placed in a tree for her to take when she wants it. It's usually accepted that she'll show herself as an owl, but owls are often feared in Haiti as a sign of a lougawou...they are not considered good omens, and seeing one doesn't necessarily mean Mayinet is pleased.

Similarly, many folks do not go asking her to do things and instead pay attention if she shows up offering to do something. She provided me with an intense amount of healing at two pivotal moments when I was very, very ill. I experienced her as desolate and full of rage and this sadness that was all consuming to the point of annihilation. Like, if she was a living breathing person at that moment, I would have expected her to take her life in that moment.

When she is offended or angry (on someone's behalf or for herself), people get hurt. I spoke with someone once who had decided for some reason to approach Mayinet about their spouse being unfaithful, and the spouse's at-home art studio had a spontaneous fire while the spouse slept on a couch in the studio...they came away with some minor burning and smoke inhalation, and are luckier than luck itself that the didn't die. My husband is familiar with someone who owed Mayinet for work she did on their behalf and had not paid her. Mayinet mounted their head in ceremony and threw herself into the bonfire and refused to leave...when they finally dragged the chwal out, she had third degree burns over most of her body and died at home from her injuries.

I hope this is what you're looking for...let me know if you have more questions.

#vodou #haitian vodou #mayinet

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bugbastard · 1 day

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In the constant leftist (aka further left than moderate right liberal) debate between "propping up the decaying system we currently have" vs "gambling that we make a better system by toeing the line somewhat less", nobody actually seems to be under the impression that doing the same things that we did that lead us to where we are is actually going to change things, at best we can slow or stall things getting worse. It's just that the alternative is viewed as worse, quicker.

It's a mentality I've come to think of as the "liberal call to inaction". There's nothing you can do that can't theoretically have bad consequences, so you should do nothing that rocks the boat. There's literally nothing you can suggest doing that won't be met with this kind of pushback. There's the reasonable pushback to extreme suggestions, like "violent revolution can't happen without killing some people (such as disabled people reliant on the current systems, the ultra poor people who are barely surving as is, among others) as collateral damage", but you'll hear similar pushback from things as benign as doing any but the most toothless of protests, "doing things that might piss off cops means they'll take it out on POC" etc.

And it's an understandable because it's true, and even when it doesn't end up happening, theoretically it could. This catastrophising can be done in any situation, about any goal, because it's honestly got a point. There are always unintended consiquences to any action you could possibly take, because you don't know and can't plan for everything, let alone the actions others will take in response to your action. The more extreme the measure, the more extreme and likely the fallout.

But what, for some reason seemingly never gets discussed is that *all of that* is the ongoing fault of the current system. I'm not in favour of violent revolution yet, because the human cost is guaranteed to be obscenely high, and it seems like jumping the gun by a mile when there are countless other radical but more reasonable measures that ought to be tried first (eg if in america 1/100 "vote blue no matter who" people decided to get out there and get organizing with one of the *genuinely* left other political parties your country *already has*, that would scare your mainstream shitless and make big waves) but if it comes down to it? If you're against violent revolution no matter what, you aren't on the side of "let no disabled people die", you're on the side of "let exactly as many disabled people die as already die every day under the current system". Because again, not even you seem to think your strategy of radical inaction is going to make things better, it's a stopgap measure. You can say people who want change at any cost are being callous about human life, but the same could be said about you. The people you want to protect are *dying every day as a byproduct of this system's continued existence*, and either you can fundamentally disagree with that system and reject that, or you can fundamentally agree with this system accept that as a reasonable cost for as long as it takes for *voting harder* to magically make it reverse course.

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of-another-broken-heart · 4 days

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We've hit the point where the "progressives" are doing the conservative propaganda thing and telling victims they're not allowed to be upset about, much less retaliate against, systemic failures that are harming and killing them in the service of providing comfort and convenience to those more privileged.

A+ System working as designed. Those deemed expendable don't count. Their blood greases the wheels and we need that machine to keep turning.

Those people will die, but that's a sacrifice the system has conditioned you to not only accept, but demand in kind.

You Are Better. You Deserve Comfort And Peace.

The Undesireables Must Die. And They Must Be Happy To Do So.

Quietly.

This is me being quiet.

I think a lot about how, if the "glorious violent revolution" happens, every kid—and adult, and elder—with significant medical needs requiring a hospital with electricity, won't be an issue. If it's already happening now, and it's not an issue now, then why would it become an issue then? People already can't access care, can't safely visit a hospital, can't get professionals to do their jobs, can't access life-saving and life-preserving medicines and procedures.

Let's assume every person in need currently does have access, though. It's literally a war crime to target or interfere with emergency health services, but you're so wrapped up in your center-middle propaganda kool-aid fest, I guess you forgot. Any progressive "glorious violent revolution" wouldn't target hospitals, or any aspect of our shambles of healthcare infrastructure. And if you're going to strawman accidental outages/damages as if we don't already deal with those in our existing "peace" system—but you don't speak on them? Unbelievably unserious.

Presently, though? In real life? There are loads of kids—and adults, and elders—who are already suffering and dying to systemic failures. But those are fine, right? So long as we just keep doing the same thing. So long as we resist change. So long as we keep it comfortable. So long as the victims remain those you've been programmed to accept as losses, and use as strawmen in arguments where you need to seem like you care.

I think a lot about how, if the "glorious violent revolution" happens, every liberal with some degree of comfort and convenience that is served by the current ongoing preventable deaths required of the system that benefits them, will turn on the real victims. "You're going to die anyway, it may as well serve my conscience, my peace, my ease. Don't be disruptive. Don't ask us to change." Oh. Wait. That's already happening.

We couldn't even convince most of you to serve your own best interests and protect against the multiple circulating airborne pathogens that can (and will) land many you right in this "acceptable loss" category of disability. We were already there, getting told "Don't ask us to change" when we were advocating for your personal individual health. The pandemic is ongoing, by the way. Obfuscated and obscured by the selfsame systems you're so dutifully enforcing now, to remind all us Acceptable Losses, all us Waysiders, all us Useless Eaters, that we just need to lie down and die, quietly.

I think a lot about how, if the "glorious violent revolution" happens, the disabled and elderly and unwell that keep getting used as a strawman argument will have already perished, because absolutely every argument about "if" is already happening. Nothing will change for them, because they are already being denied, they are already being made to suffer, they are already being sacrificed to pay the blood price for system stagnation and social convenience.

Something something you don't get to tell everybody else on the planet that they're acceptable collateral damage.

Or does that only apply if you're punching down with it?

I think a lot about how those deemed unworthy to live are constantly told to shut up and die quietly.

I think a lot about how those in power twist the narrative to demonize the most oppressed for having any negative feelings at all about being systemically exploited and murdered.

I think a lot about the propaganda and appropriation of activism and language to uphold the status quo and fight against any change that doesn't come with a tax write-off warm-fuzzy feeling through a corporate sponsored charity.

There is no "glorious violent revolution" in anyone's plans.

What is there, is a desperation for others to act in solidarity and enact meaningful change—perfectly possible, reasonable change.

What is there, is frustration and anger at being perpetually lied to and gaslit about our lives mattering, about deserving equality and equity, about toughing it out until the time is "right" for change.

What is there, is grief and mourning over being abandoned and exploited and betrayed by our so-called allies, and friends. Over. And over. And over.

...

"You're going to die anyway, make your death benefit MY cause!"

No! I don't have to die! Your two closed-minded options are not the only ones. Why do you think there's no other way? You'd really rather I die, because it's easier for you, than put in the work WITH me, with everyone like me, to save lives instead of sacrifice them?

"You HAVE to die, though! I refuse to accept any alternative where this isn't true because then I will have to actually engage with my self-serving complicity and prioritization of my comfort over the lives of others."

#personal #in case anyone forgot #hypocrisy gets me really riled up #especially when it's paired with systemic power imbalances and activism language appropriation and eugenics in service of the status quo

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