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pencopanko · 7 months

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Antisemitism and Islamophobia are very similar (if not the same), actually

So I was scrolling down the #palestine tag for any updates and important information, and I came across this:

And I think we need to sit down and talk about this.

I am a Muslim. I live in Indonesia, a country that is predominantly Muslim and a lot of Muslims here also support the Palestinian cause. Hell, even our government supports it by not only allowing Palestinian goods enter the country without fee, but also by taking in Palestinian refugees and even acknowledging the status of Palestine as a state while not having any political ties with Israel. The topic of the Palestinian tragedy has been spoon-fed to us at schools, sermons, media, etc., so your average Indonesian Muslim would at the very least be aware of the conflict while non-Muslims would hear about it from their Muslim friends or through media.

However, there is a glaring problem. One that I keep seeing way too often for my liking.

A lot of them are antisemitic as hell. The sermons I would hear sometimes demonize Jewish people. Antisemitic statements are openly said out loud on social media. Some are even Nazi supporters who would literally go to anime cons and COSPLAY as members of the Nazi party. This is not just an Indonesian Muslim problem, no, but this is a glaring issue within the global Islamic community as a whole. Today, this sense of antisemitism is usually rooted in general hatred towards the Israeli government and its actions against the people of Palestine, but antisemitism amongst Muslims are also rooted in certain interpretations of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith mentioning Jewish people and Judaism (particularly the Bani Israil), but in a way that is more ridiculing instead of life-threatening when compared to how antisemitism looks like in the Western world.

As someone who prefers to become a "bridge" between two sides in most cases, I find this situation to be concerning, to say the least. While, yes, it is important for us Muslims to support Palestine and fight against injustice, we must not forget that not every Jewish people support the Israeli government. A lot of them are even anti-Zionists who actively condemn Israel and even disagree with the existence of Israel as a state as it goes against their teachings. A lot of them are also Holocaust survivors or their descendants, so it is harmful to think for one second that Hitler's actions and policies were justified. It's just like saying that Netanyahu is right for his decision to destroy Palestine and commit war crime after war crime towards the Palestinians.

As Muslims, we also need to remember that Jewish people (the Yahudi) are considered ahli kitab, i.e. People Of The Book along with Christians (the Nasrani). The Islam I have come to know and love has no mentions of Allah allowing us to persecute them or anyone collectively for the actions of a few. While, yes, there are disagreements with our respective teachings I do not see that as an excuse to even use antisemitic slurs against Jewish people during a pro-Palestine rally, let alone support a man who was known for his acts of cruelty toward the Jewish community in WW2. They are still our siblings/cousins in faith, after all. Unless they have done active harm like stealing homes from civilians or celebrating the destruction of Palestine or supporting the Israeli government and the IOF or are members of the IOF, no Jewish people (and Christians, for that matter) must be harmed in our fight against Zionism.

Contemporary antisemitism is similar to (if not straight up being the exact same thing as) contemporary Islamophobia, if you think about it; due to the actions of a select few that has caused severe harm towards innocent people, an entire community has been a target of hate. Even when you have tried to call out the ones supporting such cruelties, you are still getting bombarded by hate speech. It's doubly worse if you're also simultaneously part of a marginalized group like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc. as you also get attacked on multiple sides. This is where we all need to self-reflect, practice empathy, and unlearn all of the antisemitism and unjustified hatred that we were exposed to.

So, do call out Zionism and Nazism when you see it. Call out the US government for funding this atrocity and others before it that had ALSO triggered the rise of Islamophobia. Call your reps. Go to the streets. Punch a fascist if you feel so inclined. Support your local businesses instead of pro-Israel companies.

But not at the cost of our Jewish siblings. Not at the cost of innocent Jewish people who may also be your allies. If you do that, you are no different from a MAGA cap-wearing, gun-tooting, slur-yelling Islamophobe.

That is all for now, may your watermelons taste fresh and sweet.

🍉

Salam Semangka, Penco

#palestine #free palestine #gaza strip #free gaza #israel #israeli occupation #boycott israel #penco writes #penco rambles #yupyupyup #antisemitism #islam #islamophobia #thought piece

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fatehbaz · 3 months

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[A]nti-homeless laws [...] rooted in European anti-vagrancy laws were adapted across parts of the Japanese empire [...] at the turn of the 20th century. [...] [C]riminalising ideas transferred from anti-vagrancy statutes into [contemporary] welfare systems. [...] [W]elfare and border control systems - substantively shaped by imperial aversions to racialised ideas of uncivilised vagrants - mutually served as a transnational legal architecture [...] [leading to] [t]oday's modern divides between homeless persons, migrants, and refugees [...].

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By the Boer Wars (1880–1902), Euro-American powers and settler-colonial governments professed anxieties about White degeneration and the so-called “Yellow Peril” alongside other existential threats to White supremacy [...]. Japan [...] validated the creation of transnational racial hierarchies as it sought to elevate its own global standing [...]. [O]ne key legal instrument for achieving such racialised orders was the vagrancy concept, rooted in vagrancy laws that originated in Europe and proliferated globally through imperial-colonial conquest [...].

[A]nti-vagrancy regulation [...] shaped public thinking around homelessness [...]. Such laws were applied as a “criminal making device” (Kimber 2013:544) and "catch-all detention rationale" (Agee 2018:1659) targeting persons deemed threats for their supposedly transgressive or "wayward interiority" (Nicolazzo 2014:339) measured against raced, gendered, ableist, and classed norms [...]. Through the mid-20th century, vagrancy laws were aggressively used to control migration [and] encourage labour [...]. As vagrancy laws fell out of favour, [...] a "vagrancy concept" nonetheless thrived in welfare systems that similarly meted out punishment for ostensible vagrant-like qualities [...], [which] helps explain why particular discourses about the mobile poor have persisted to date [...].

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During high imperialism (1870–1914), European, American, and Japanese empires expanded rapidly, aided by technologies like steam and electricity. The Boer Wars and Japan's ascent to Great Power status each profoundly influenced trans-imperial dynamics, hardening Euro-American concerns regarding a perceived deterioration of the White race. [...] Through the 1870s [...] the [Japanese] government introduced modern police forces and a centralised koseki register to monitor spatial movement. The koseki register, which recorded geographic origins, also served as a tool for marking racialised groups including Ainu, Burakumin, Chinese, [...] and Korean subjects across Japan's empire [...]. The 1880 Penal Code contained Japan's first anti-vagrancy statute, based on French models [...]. Tokyo's Governor Matsuda, known for introducing geographic segregation of the rich and poor, expressed concern around 1882 for kichinyado (daily lodgings), which he identified as “den[s] for people without fixed employment or [koseki] registration” [...].

Attention to “vagrant foreigners” (furō-gaikokujin) emerged in Japanese media and politics in the mid-1890s. It stemmed directly from contemporary British debates over immigration restrictions targeting predominantly Jewish “destitute aliens” [...].

The 1896 Landing Regulation for Qing Nationals barred entry of “people without fixed employment” and “Chinese labourers” [...], justified as essential "for maintaining public peace and morals" in legal documents [...]. Notably, prohibitions against Chinese labourers were repeatedly modified at the British consulate's behest through 1899 to ensure more workers for [the British-affiliated plantation] tea industry. [...]

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Simultaneously, new welfaristic measures emerged alongside such punitive anti-vagrancy statutes. [...] Such border control regulations were eventually standardised in Japan's first immigration law, the 1918 Foreigners’ Entry Order. [...] This turn towards instituting racialised territorial boundaries should be understood in light of empire's concurrent welfarist turn [...]. Japanese administration established a quasi-carceral workhouse system in 1906 [in colonized territory of East Asia] [...] which sentenced [...] vagrants to years in workhouses. This law still treated vagrancy as illegal, but touted its remedy of compulsory labour as welfaristic. [...] This welfarist tum led to a proliferation of state-run programmes [...] connecting [lower classes] to employment. Therein, the vagrancy concept became operative in sorting between subjects deemed deserving, or undeserving, of aid. Effectively, surveillance practices in welfare systems mobilised the vagrancy concept to, firstly, justify supportive assistance and labour protections centring able-bodied, and especially married, Japanese men deemed “willing to work” and, secondly, withhold protections from racialised persons for their perceived waywardness [...] as contemporaneous Burakumin, Korean, and Ainu movements frequently protested [...]. [D]uring the American occupation (1945–1952), not only were anti-vagrancy statutes reinstituted in Japan's 1948 Minor Offences Act, but [...] the 1946 Livelihood Protection Act (Article 2) excluded “people unwilling to work or lazy” from social insurance coverage [...].

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Imperial expansion relied on not only claiming new markets and territories, but also using borders as places for negotiating legal powers and personhood [...]. Japan [...] integrated Euro-American ideas and practices attached to extraterritorial governance, like exceptionalism and legal immunity, into its legal systems. [...] (Importantly, because supportive systems [welfare], like punitive ones, were racialised to differentially regulate mobilities according to racial-ethic hierarchies, they were not universally beneficial to all eligible subjects.) [...]

At the turn of the century, imperialism and industrial capitalism had co-produced new transnational mobilities [which induced mass movements of poor and newly displaced people seeking income] [...]. These mobilities - unlike those celebrated in imperial travel writing - conflicted with racist imaginaries of who should possess freedom of movement, thereby triggering racialised concerns over vagrancy [...]. In both Euro-American and Japanese contexts, [...] racialised “lawless” Others (readily associated with vagrancy) were treated as threats to “public order” and “public peace and morals”. [...] Early 20th century discourse about vagrants, undesirable aliens, and “vagrant foreigners” [...] produced [...] "new categories of [illegal] people" [...] that cast particular people outside of systems of state aid and protection. [...] [P]ractices of illegalisation impress upon people, “the constant threat of removal, of being coercively forced out and physically removed [...] … an expulsion from life and living itself”.

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All text above by: Rayna Rusenko. "The Vagrancy Concept, Border Control, and Legal Architectures of Human In/Security". Antipode [A Radical Journal of Geography] Volume 56, Issue 2, pages 628-650. First published 24 October 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Text within brackets added by me for clarity. Presented here for criticism, teaching, commentary purposes.]

#abolition

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intersectionalpraxis · 5 months

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⚠️tw: violence against children, graphic details and descriptions of amputation⚠️

We were told that there was a safe passage south. When the tank saw us, it started hitting. It killed everyone who was with us. The tank made my daughter lose her leg. The doctors has to cauterize her leg without anesthesia. There were some knives in the apartment. They brought a gas jar to heat the knives, and began the amputation of the leg. And the girl was screaming. You know, amputation. We later wanted to change [the bandages]. Whenever we tried to go towards Al-Shifa Hospital, the tank would hit us. I begging the doctor and saying that my daughter's leg was rotten and smelled bad. Until another part of the leg was amputated. My daughter says that I have two legs, and her brother has two legs, and everyone has two legs, except her Video caption: Hospitals across Gaza lack the basic supplies and fuel to safely deliver care. The medical system has broken down under the amount of injuries, lack of resources being let into Gaza as well as military attacks on hospotals and healthcare workers.

There aren't safe zones in Gaza. There haven't been since the beginning. The IOF purposely targets Palestinian civillians and fires at them and kills them indiscriminately (it was even most recently revealed they use an AI system to murder predominantly women and children). I cannot fathom the amount of Palestinian children who have been traumatized and will carry this trauma for the rest of their lives -I have seen videos of children who have evident signs of PTSD and trauma responses to sounds, words, and their circumstances if they have been orphaned due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I have seen children's bodies being maimed, amputated, and destroyed by explosions and attacks. It's all horrifying and despicable. This is a reminder -always, to keep posting. To keep sharing videos and content. The IOF must be tried for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, and for blatant crimes of ethnic cleansing. Because this doesn't just end with a permanent ceasefire -but until the occupation ends and all of Palestine is free.

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starflungwaddledee · 6 months

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hii!! i just wanna say your comic and starspeak lore are SO cool omg!! the way you incorporate the essence of the starfolk culture into their language is incredibly creative and very fitting auauagahsahdbsnsnn <3

i'm pretty interested in all the grammar of the language!! i think you mentioned that there's a question particle that kind of works like mandarin chinese, do other final particles exist? little tone indicators in the language seems like it would help mutual understanding between a bunch of mystical star-beings :0

also, if it's been developed yet, how do verbs work in this? granted, i don't know a lot about greek/latin languages or if you're basing the grammar off of them too, but does it lean more towards romance language's crazy conjugations, or a simpler "subject verb noun" structure?

sorry if this is a lot haha i know the language is still a wip, but it's such a cool concept! i think languages are really interesting and the way you incorporate it into kirby is so mmbdbbrnzmxfh✨✨

alright, this one took me a very long time to get to (because i knew it would be long and i've been working on it on and off for a while) and i'm so sorry! thank you so much for your patience veve! and it's been a little while since we've had a starspeak post so let's go!

(i will preface by saying again that the language is still very much a wip which i could change at any time, and that i'm no trained specialist; i'm just doing this for fun and there's a high chance i fully have no clue what i'm talking about 😅)

❓ i'll start with the easiest one of these and go for the question particle!

i think that Celestials are not often doubtful or questioning things, but when they do the particle is an opener rather than a sentence-final (such as ma (嗎/吗) in mandarin chinese). it otherwise works extremely similarly in that it is tagged on to turn a sentence into a question.

so the most common starspeak question particle is tc, almost a mouth sound than a word. the letters are a combination not often used elsewhere in their speech patterns, which i like to think also wraps back around to them being fairly certain of most things they open their mouths to say.

tc is predominantly used when seeking clarification about someone else's experiences, which is probably one of the more frequent times they wouldn't know something in (self-presumed) absolution.

combining it with some other things we've learned; épios (see) and eu (you) we can ask someone what they're seeing presently, where the target of the speaker (eu) is in active possession of the seeing action and vl is an active tense:

"tc vlépios eu?" // "(what's) seen (by) you?" // "what do you see?"

unfortunately in the conlangs current state, moving things around even a little bit throws out the meaning of sentences a lot, which is something i could probably iron out more with significantly more time 😅 "tc eu vlépios?" for example would be closer to "you're seen?" and "tc vlépios-eu?" would probably be like.. "what sight possesses you?", which is... still kind of the same i suppose but it's just an unnecessarily intense way to say it 😂

🥰 okay! question particle done and it was not actually the easiest but anyway; onto the personaliser! "ki".

i'm not 100% sure if this sort of thing exists in other languages or what it might be called to begin researching, but it's ostensibly a way to turn an external item or concept into something internal or individualised

asté (star/s) for instance is a very overused word in their language, understandably. you can use it to refer to gaseous bodies, other Celestials, other non-Celestial beings, or even a specific individual rank within a relationship system. ei asté applies an amount of ownership over the star/s, but still does not make them an individual in their own right. you would most likely use this if you happened to be carting around an actual giant flaming ball of gas

ei astéki however immediately makes the star something more personal, a little soul-deep. maybe it's a warm light inside you, or maybe it's the beating heart of another living being. dropping the 'ei' you could use this as a nickname, though it'd be kind of like calling someone 'person'.

"ei astéki skotei koris eu" // "my stars dimmed lacking you" // functionally just a really big ham "i missed you"

🤏 alright rolling on, last one: a diminutive. this one's easier i think; maybe i ought have started here. oh well!

like it says on the tin, this is to make things small and/or cute! the particle is ró and it is usually tacked on at or towards the end of a word. much like in english i think this is usually done affectionately. though it could be done a little pettily or rudely, being small in size is significantly less of a negatively-judged-concept by Celestials than being low in brightness.

here's some examples, probably the easiest way to go about this one! all of these are actively affectionate, not unlike a pet name?

moiydísró - (small) cheeky one astéróki - small star (personaliser; makes this a clear nickname) ei Vaýtitaró - my little gravity

💬 and then to wrap up, this last part about verbs and conjugations!

answering this one with complete confidence would require that i were a bit better at this and had it more fixed and figured out, but i'll do my best!! i'm not really basing the grammar off any one language in particular (I only use translations to form a rough sound/word and go from there), just kind of what feels like the right sort of vibe.

because i was just doing this for myself and for fun i didn't start out with any rules, just rolled with what i enjoyed! if you were doing conlang more seriously i think it would help to set those rules up at the outset 😅

in its present state, my starspeak seems to me to be a topic prominent language with less individual conjugations and more modifiers; including significant reliance on sentence order and word placement

so instead of having many different words for see (seen, saw, to see) it's more about the placement, word combinations, and other modifiers;

ei épios - me see (a request, often used in place of 'wake up') vlépios ei - seeing by me (active tense added by vl but it's not strictly necessary) eu épios - you see (the speaker sees the target) épios-koris eu - without seeing by you (sight possesses a term for "lack", so the sight itself is lacking. "you don't see clearly", ostensibly.) épios ei prioto - seeing by me before (i saw it earlier)

this is sort of a necessity because right now the overall variety of words is limited; both by the earliness of its development and also because i think that this is a species that might not have needed a lot of words.

maybe they moved the same few hundred words around and minced them up in new ways rather than making lots of new ones. maybe they might have communicated through body language as much as with words (despite how much galacta knight clearly loves the sound of his own voice) or maybe i'll change my mind and they'll be a talkative bunch and we'll have dozens of new words soon 😂

anyway, i hope this is a ~fun and cool answer~ that you will enjoy despite its incredible lateness and sprawling length!! thank you so so much for asking me about the language; as you can tell i dearly love to talk about it despite its nebulousness, and i'm sorry it took me so long to get this out!

#shout out to my gf who has learned this conlang by proxy and promptly gave me the nickname 'wanyaró' (little wanya)#who needs flirting when you can just pay attention to your gfs boring conlang efforts and then fire it back for 1000hp damage #it's true ~rhomance~#starspeak #my headcanons and worldbuilding

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hondacivicbrain · 4 months

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One thing I've been thinking a lot about amid the argument over the Barbie movie's lack of nominations is the aggressive level of hate it gets.

FYI, this is not about whether I think the Barbie movie deserved more nominations or not because it doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if it was a good movie or not. It doesn't matter that it was about feminism either. What matters — and what is at the core of all the hate — is that it's a movie for women. For girls.

Anything whose target audience is young women and teenage girls is inevitably slammed with hate.

It will be called overrated. It will be called basic. It will be shit on. The comments and reviews will be FULL of people saying how stupid or terrible it is, how they've always hated it, and how anyone who watches or listens or consumes it is too.

Again, it does not matter whether x product or y performer is overrated, or not talented, or a thousand other insults people (mostly men, but anyone seeking to set themselves, even subtly, apart from people who like popular, feminine things). What matters is the alarming level to which we've normalized the hate that gets thrown at young women — and especially at teenage girls — for daring to like something popular.

Since when has popular become a bad word? Products that are marketed towards women are hugely profitable, and yet critically shamed. Remember pumpkin spice lattes? I've never seen one girl fawn over them as much as I've seen 100 grownass men spew nonsense about how silly and childish and girly a flavor is. A flavor.

It doesn't matter what Taylor Swift's most adoring fans are like, even the ones who are over the top, because no one attacks men who get too enthusiastic about their favorite sports teams or fantasy football the way people attack her fans for being excited to see her in concerts. It's because her fanbase is predominantly young girls, and anything young women are into must be shamed.

The relative anonymity — or at least, the safety — of the internet has enabled people to be harsher than they might in real life, but bullying young women and girls for their interests is not a new phenomenon.

Romance has occupied the lowest rung of the genre ladder for arguably hundreds of years. Wholly romantic movies (meaning movies in which romance is the primary drama, rather than a subplot within another genre) must be *exemplary* to get critical praise. More male-centric genres like dramas or any movie seen as "intellectual" often only have to be *good* to get the same kind of attention. This is not a dig at Oppenheimer or any of the other movies nominated (nor am I saying Barbie is a romance). The point is that romance is held to a significantly higher critical standard because it is largely not for a male audience.

(As a side note, plenty of romance is genderless the way many other genres' audiences are, but as a society we've boxed it into a 'feminine' box and decided feminine=bad. I could write a whole essay as to why.)

I am absolutely not saying Barbie deserved or didn't deserve this or that, or that Taylor Swift should never be criticized, or that romance is a perfect genre. I am not saying these examples are the most important of their kind.

What I am saying is that anything that is both popular and centered around women is always, inevitably, and extremely harshly attacked by people who do not like it, and this has the potential to be incredibly damaging to teenage girls, especially in an age where social media use starts younger and younger.

What happened to, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all? Or, let people like what they like? You don't have to like something, but you don't always have to voice your hate for it either.

#barbie #barbie movie #oscars #ryan gosling #barbie 2023 #barbie oscar nominations #greta gerwig #margot robbie #taylor swift #swifties #romance #rom com #pumpkin spice #girlhood #women #seriously stop hating everything guys just chill #gothic theorist anne williams describes a line of good and a line of evil #pythagoras created a list of opposites #ie man versus woman light versus dark even versus uneven #ending in good versus evil #but because of how the lines of opposites are arranged one line goes from man to good and the other from woman to evil #you can see how this applies to products geared towards female consumption #because over time we've come to view anything associated with women as lesser - not necessarily as evil #but definitely as lesser #why are we holding women to a higher standard while simultaneously defaulting them to a lower one #let girls be girls #nothing will please everyone but isn't it easier not to hate so much?

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thedemonofcat · 10 months

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For those who have yet to have the pleasure of reading "The Accidental warlord and his pack by inexplicifics." Please go to so because it's amazing. It also the inspiration behind this.

The protective nature of Geralt the White Wolf, the renowned warlord of the north, over his beloved consort Jaskier, is widely acknowledged across the continent.

Due to the constant threat of individuals seeking to harm Geralt, Jaskier, despite being a Bard, tends to keep a low public profile. Aware that Jaskier is an easy target as Geralt's romantic partner, both of them take precautions to ensure his safety. As a result, Jaskier predominantly resides in Kear Morhen, and when he ventures out, he is typically accompanied by Geralt or a sizable group of Witchers who have sworn to defend him.

While Jaskier wholeheartedly loves Geralt, there are moments when he yearns for the freedom of his former life as a wandering bard. Before assuming the role of Consort to the warlord of the north, Jaskier embraced his nomadic nature, constantly journeying from one place to another. It is likely due to this inherent wanderlust that, one day while Jaskier and Geralt were visiting a foreign kingdom for diplomatic purposes, Jaskier conceived the adventurous notion of sneaking out for the day

All Jaskier desired was to indulge in playing his lute at the local tavern. His plan could have succeeded if it weren't for his extravagant taste in clothing. Jaskier always had an affinity for the finer things in life, and his attire was no exception.

Two bandits happened upon Jaskier's performance and mistakenly perceived him as a wealthy lord's child masquerading as a bard. Seizing the opportunity, they devised a plan to abduct Jaskier and hold him for ransom. Consequently, Jaskier found himself bound, gagged, and draped over one of the bandits' horses, en route to their leader. However, upon reaching their leader, the bandit leader immediately recognized Jaskier for who he truly was.

The Bandit Leader possessed full knowledge of Jaskier's significant role as the consort to the warlord of the north. Acutely aware of Geralt's fiercely protective nature towards Jaskier, the bandit leader understood the dire consequences they would face should even the slightest harm befall the beloved bard.

Now, the three bandits found themselves desperately seeking a way to clandestinely return Jaskier to the castle where Geralt was engaged in diplomatic meetings, without arousing any suspicion that they were the captors. As fate would have it, Geralt had already noticed Jaskier's absence and a search party was diligently scouring the surroundings to locate him.

Knowing the stakes were high and fearing the wrath of the White Wolf, the bandits grappled with the urgent challenge of ensuring Jaskier's safe return, all while concealing their own involvement in his disappearance.

#the witcher netflix #joey batey #geralt of rivia #jaskier the witcher #the witcher #henry cavill #the witcher jaskier #geralt x jaskier #geraskier #fic ideas #The Accidental warlord and his pack #jaskier #gerskier #headcanon #the witcher season 3

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dogboyklug · 10 days

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klug's sam & max au full entire whole

i am so tired

this is more an extensive collection of hcs than a fully-fledged au but yeah

this is also th basics of my entire. fanfic story im making ig. fun times.

enjoy

when sam was a child, he was heavily traumatized by the general environment. his parents put a lot of pressure on him, and a majority of his relatives (extended or not) were cruel towards him due to their military histories. sam is a transgender man, and he was allowed to partake in more "masculine" activities solely due to the hope that he might join the military once he was older

max had a similarly awful relationship with his family, being almost entirely starved of both attention and praise for all of his childhood. many of the women in his family were alcoholics, which was joked about and normalized even when that alcoholism led to violence. he's also a trans man, but his family are so apathetic they didn't give a shit and just let him dress and act however he wanted

the two met by chance in school and ended up immediately bonding. the two were basically inseperable throughout their shared childhood, relying on each other for basically all warmth and support - especially considering the two were prime targets for basically every bully in a five-state radius, being obviously queer (especially bc max kept screaming joyfully abt how him wearing dresses was crossdressing) and (equivalent of) black and mixed respectively in a predominantly white town in the 60's

being autistic, sam had a lot of special interests, more specifically noir detective films (which he dissociated from cop shows for years, somehow...) and computers/robotics/machinery in general. he made some of the most advanced videogames at the time everywhere he went, leaving bits and pieces for other people to find and put a patent on while he stayed entirely unaware.

max, meanwhile, didn't give half a damn about anything but himself, his best friend, and proving to the whole wide world that he was a boy. though being significantly less violent than sam was (thanks to all those damn noir films sammy watched i'm sure. kids those days), he defintiely wasn't above using his AWE-INSPIRING MANLIKE STRENGTH to beat up bullies who didnt immediately confess and repent for all their sins. he also read a LOT of comics (and ripped out all the oversexualized caricatures of women that were put together with the leads [and replaced them with himself])

once the two were teenagers, sam decided to go on a diet in the hopes that girls would like him more, styling his naturally coily hair into a very unnaturally-colored tiny afro to seem Hipper and Cooler while ending up just looking goofy. around this time, max realized he was near-sighted, and (due to sensory issues) decided to get perscription sunglasses instead of contacts

during highschool, sam was still studying engineering despite his future self's best efforts. though the highschool they went to didnt have a computer lab or anything, he taught himself everything he could about computers, learning from library books and "learning" from comics. max, however, Still didn't give a damn about any sort of schooling thing, only going to stick around with sam. he picked up a lot of random tidbits of information, and started becoming more perceptive (mostly to avoid bullies)

once max graduated, he immediately went on the road, roadtripping across the country in an attempt to leave everything about his past (sans sam, who he occassionally called) behind.

sam ended up getting a job (probably in computer repairs?) and detransitioned due to a do-goodery belief that him pretending to be a woman would somehow help fix sexism (while feeling a lot of guilty pleasure after finding out he was seen as " one of the boys " in his class)

in max's absence, sam ended up incredibly depressed, refusing to cook or clean for himself, overworking himself both as punishment and as an excuse to further avoid responsibility for himself. only after he got a health warning from the landlord did he clean up his apartment, which he ended up having to call max to help out with (which s a fic m actively working on actually)

though max only stayed in sam's apartment for a while, he ended up deciding to end his roadtrip prematurely, and started "stalking" sam around the campus out of a twisted desire for human[oid] contact with a dear friend. sam knew and did not care, especially when max later snuck into his graduation ceremony and screamed his praises so loud everyone near him ended up with tinnitus

honestly im not sure what happens in between then and them deciding to become cops. probably max suddenly forgets all he learned from travelling w a buncha hippies and anarchists and sam gives up becoming a computer scientist or engineer due to the toxic and constantly shifting environments ... and they needed an excuse to work together of course considering max is a bit less than qualified to work with computers

while searching for an office, the two saw flint paper throwing several men out his office window and immediately begged the landlord to set them up so they would be right next to him.

personally i think both of them have NPD, so the reason that the comics feel like they have more 'npcs' is because neither saw people (other than themselves, each other, and flint paper) as people, just background characters in their story

anyway i dont rlly have any changes from this until telltale. EXCEPT FOR ONE KEY FACTOR.

around 2009, much to their shared horror, sam & max found out (/fully realized) they were disabled. not just in mind, but in body too. crazy that.

turns out max being extremely stretchable without any real Training was a symptom of hypermobile joints, and sam's aching back, frequent migraines and near-constant Agony were signs of arthritis and fibromyalgia. who knew!

anyway, final note is that altho i havent played tdp i do know how it ends and im gonna say that after that, Somehow, sam & max recieved their respective past & present selves's memories, allowing past max to 'remember' 305 and for sam to 'remember' how tdp went in the past timeline which explains that one weird line in ttiv.

Also. Sybil moved and has divorced abe. superball prolly has a job woodworking and training interns. bosco found dead in miami. ms. momma bosco is thriving. and sam & max are gonna have kids at some point in the timline. cya

#sam & max #sam and max #freelance husbands #au #hc #klug's writing

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puttingherinhistory · 5 months

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Sibling abuse is the most common but least reported abuse in the family. Prevalence is higher than spousal or child abuse combined with consequences well into adulthood similar to parent-child abuse. Up to 80 percent of youth experience some form of sibling maltreatment; yet, it’s been called the “forgotten abuse.” [1] Therapists also frequently overlook it. Usually, the perpetrator is an older child (often the eldest) exploiting the emotional dependence and weakness of a younger sibling. Girls are at greater risk of abuse, generally by an older brother. When a brother abuses a sister, it often involves physical or sexual abuse. Sisters abuse one another also.

Lack of Reporting

Under-reporting is predominantly due to societal denial of the seriousness of the problem. There is no definition of sibling abuse or laws governing it (except for some sexual abuse laws.) Resources for families are also lacking. Parents have no support and are misinformed. Many expect sibling conflict and fighting. Hence, they typically overlook abuse and confuse it with sibling rivalry. When they don’t protect the victim, it constitutes a second wound–first inflicted by the sibling, then by the parent.

Sibling Rivalry

Sibling rivalry and abuse are different. Squabbles, jealousy, unwillingness to share, and competition are normal sibling behaviors. Fighting between equals can be, too. Rivalry is reciprocal and the motive for is for parental attention verses harm and control. Rather than an occasional incident, abuse is a repeated pattern where one sibling takes the role of aggressor toward another who consistently feels disempowered. It’s often characterized by bullying. Typically, an older child dominates a younger or weaker sibling, who naturally wants to please his or her sibling. Unlike rivalry, the motive is to establish superiority or incite fear or distress. Intent and the degree of severity, power imbalance, and victimization element are all factors to be considered. Inappropriate parental discipline or ineffective attempts to respond to rivalry or abuse can compound the problem by the lack of consequences or by targeting one child. When parenting is toxic, such as when it's overly strict or abusive, the perpetrator often vents his or her rage on the younger sibling.

Types of Abuse

Abuse may be physical, psychological, or sexual, and can be expressed through seemingly benign behaviors, including ordering, manipulation, poking, or tickling. It’s damaging when there is persistent emotional abuse, teasing, denigration, or physical harm by one sibling on another.

Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse between siblings is common, but is difficult to research. However, its effect should not be underestimated. Emotional abuse includes name calling, belittling, teasing, shaming, threats, intimidation, false accusations, provocation, and destroying a sibling’s belongings. The abuser may use manipulative tactics, such as playing the victim, deceit, threats, withholding, bribes, stonewalling, or trickery in order to exploit and gain an advantage over a younger child.

Physical abuse

Physical abuse is the deliberate intent to cause physical harm or injury. It includes rough and violent behavior, pinching, choking, biting, slapping, tickling, hair-pulling, physical restraint (such as pinning down), shoving), and may include weapons.

Sexual abuse

More than one-third of sex offenses against children are committed by other minors―93% are brothers abusing younger sisters. [2] Sexual abuse is distinct from age-appropriate curiosity. It may involve nurturing without the use of force. Behaviors include fondling, lewd acts intended to cause sexual arousal (that needn’t be on bare skin) masturbation, unwanted sexual advances, or forcing a sibling to view porn. Victims are usually sworn to silence and have no one to turn to. As they mature, they resist ongoing sexual violations, offenders use threats of exposure or retaliation to ensure secrecy. When parents are told, victims aren’t believed or are met with hysteria rather than empathy. Often, parents are in denial and doubt the victim’s story to protect themselves and the perpetrator.

Risk Factors

Sibling abuse is a symptom of a dysfunctional family in an environment of family stressors, such as marital conflict, financial stress, family disorganization and chaos, and lack of resources. Parents are unable to manage their own emotions and model appropriate communication and behavior. They can’t be present for their children’s needs and feelings. These are factors that make sibling abuse more likely: [3]

Spousal/intimate partner abuse or child abuse (physical or emotional, including criticism and shaming)

Cultural norms that condone abuse of power

A hierarchical family structure, where one spouse controls the other, and older siblings mimic that authoritarian behavior and attitude toward younger siblings

Gender and birth order matter. First-born children are more likely to be offenders. Younger females are more often victims. Siblings close in age or an older brother-younger sister pair are risk factors.

The father has anger issues.

An older child overseeing a younger sibling breeds to resentment, boundary confusion, and abuse of power.

Parental neglect or lack of supervision

Parental normalization of abuse by ignoring or minimizing it. Silence is taken as assent.

Parental inability to resolve sibling conflict or respond appropriately

Parental favoritism toward one child or comparing siblings

Coercive parenting

A parent taking sides, blaming the victim, or shifting responsibility to the victim, e.g., “Don’t play with him, then.”

Substance abuse by a parent or the abuser

Children with a conduct or mood disorder or ADHD are more predisposed to violence.

The offender has experienced abuse, has an aggressive temperament, lacks empathy for victims, has lower or higher self-esteem than peers, or has unmet needs for physical contact.

The affects of sibling abuse mirror parent-child abuse and have a long-term negative impact on survivors’ sense of safety, well-being and interpersonal relationships. Victims of all ages experience internalized shame, which heightens anger, fear, anxiety, and guilt. Both victims and perpetrators often have low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. Children may complain of headaches, stomachaches, and bowel, eating, and sleep disorders. Some have development delays or social and academic difficulties in school. They may run away or stay for periods at friends’ homes. Victims may engage in substance abuse, self-harm, or delinquent behavior. Abuse causes fear of the perpetrator that may lead to PTSD and produce nightmares or phobias.

Survivors continue to struggle into adulthood with shame, depression, boundaries, low self-esteem, PTSD, loneliness, hopelessness, and drug abuse. They may have somatic complaints, fear the dark, and have sleep and eating disorders. Survivor trauma accumulates “Adverse Childhood Experiences,” which are linked to codependency and negative health as adults.

Survivors’ low self-esteem, lack of assertiveness, and inability to protect themselves lead to difficulties resolving conflict at work and in intimate relationships. They’re confused about boundaries and what constitutes a healthy relationship. They may become aggressive or develop codependent, pleasing behaviors and repeat their accommodating, submissive, victim role in adult relationships. Having been betrayed by a sibling and parent (through lack of protection), they’re distrustful and fear dependence and vulnerability. They may be hypervigilant and emotionally unavailable or attract someone who is. Consequentially, they seek self-sufficiency and independence because they perceive depending on someone as dangerous. This leads to intimacy problems, loneliness, and isolation.

Long-term effects of sexual abuse include excessive self-loathing, guilt, anxiety, confusion, difficulty with sustaining long-term intimate relationships, vulnerability to sexual re-victimization, suicide, delinquency or criminality, and promiscuity or fear of sex. Therapy is recommended to work through trauma. Clients should present the issue, because most healthcare providers underestimate the impact of sibling abuse and don’t ask about it.

#abuse tw #csa tw #incest tw #cocsa tw

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mariacallous · 1 day

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Despite Bosnia and Herzegovina’s progress towards European Union accession, Bosnian Serb authorities continue to “actively subvert” the state, peace overseer Christian Schmidt said in his latest update to the UN secretary general, citing in particular “unprecedented pressure” on the judiciary.

The leaked 40-page report is the sixth submitted by Schmidt, a German politician, since his appointment in August 2021 to oversee the country’s adherence to the peace deal that ended its 1992-95 war. The five others made similar complaints about authorities under Bosnian Serb strongman Milorad Dodik in the predominantly Serb-populated Republika Srpska entity.

Their threat to “paralyse” state authorities, he wrote, “is a threat to the functionality of the State and its ability to carry out its responsibilities”.

Dodik repeated the threat most recently last month in response to a German and Rwandan draft United Nations resolution that would declare July 11 an international day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, a characterisation the Republika Srpska disputes.

In March, the European Union gave the green light to the start of accession negotiations with Bosnia, a major milestone in the country’s recovery from war and integration with the bloc. But even against such a backdrop, the pressure on the state from the Republika Srpska continued.

“Besides promoting the abolishment of the BiH Court and the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, the RS ruling coalition undermines the BiH Constitutional Court as the guardian of the constitutional and legal order of BiH,” wrote Schmidt, whose official title is High Representative.

“If pursued, these actions could lead to a de facto if not a de jure dissolution of the State of BiH, which is what RS President Milorad Dodik continuously advocates. This would be a scenario with grave consequences.”

Historical revisionism

Schmidt noted that, during the reporting period from mid-October 2023 to mid-April 2024, the ruling coalition in the Republika Srpska continued to organise rallies on the administrative line between Republika Srpska and the mainly Bosniak and Croat Federation entity under the banner, ‘The Border Exists’.

“Besides promoting the idea of secession, these rallies create a divisive environment prone to security incidents,” Schmidt wrote in the report, which BIRN has seen.

He also warned of efforts by Republika Srpska authorities to limit civic action and suppress political dissent via intimidation and punishment.

Dodik and the Republika Srpska government do not recognise Schmidt as High Representative, citing the abstention of Russia and China when his appointment was voted on in the UN Security Council; the report noted their continued “inflammatory rhetoric and actions” aimed at undermining his office.

The report also cited further regression in how the past is addressed as well as a rise in ethno-nationalistic historical revisionism, denial of genocide and war crimes and the glorification of war criminals.

Such trends go hand in hand with broader declines in “democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, leading to increased mistrust and polarisation within society”, Schmidt wrote.

He cited deteriorating inter-community relations in Srebrenica over the previous two years, as well as incidents targeting returnees.

The report should come before the UN Security Council on May 15.

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heatedpirate · 3 months

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Why I think Wuthering Waves will NOT be the Genshin killer.

Before I get this post started, I just want to say that I believe competition is the best incentive to improve, which is what Wuthering Waves is the most suitable competitor in the open-world gacha scene.

However, I do believe we should refrain from calling it the Genshin killer. Because calling it a Genshin killer leads to high expectations, and eventual failure, much like Tower of Fantasy witnessed. Instead, we should either refer to it as a competitor of Genshin, or refer to it as its own thing.

Now, why do I think it's not the Genshin killer, or hell, sparingly think of it as Genshin's competitor? Simple; it boils down to a few monumental differences.

1. The intended audience.

This point is self explanatory in and of itself. However, it's a bit more complicated than that.

Genshin is marketed towards a predominantly casual audience, people that don't do challenging content; people who either have limited time on their hands or don't browse the same Internet websites that Wuthering Waves' intended audience tends to browse (gaming forums, discord, reddit, etc.)

Wuthering Waves is more so targeted towards the opposite audience, an audience that predominantly loves challenging endgame content, which is much less common than the intended Audience for Genshin.

2. The setting

Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves both have different settings. That much is obvious, HOWEVER-

Genshin's audience is more colorful and vibrant than Wuthering Waves. While Wuthering Waves has gotten more vibrant in its second beta test, there are still some areas that have the intended, monochromatic feel, such as Tacet Fields, for instance.

Genshin believes in a more classic heroes and villains framework, however, there is more to that than meets the eye. Wuthering Waves explores the main protagonist waking up and finding their true identity, while the major factions fight over the trust of the Rover. And finally:

3. The game mechanics

Genshin focuses on elemental reactions and a simple Basic Attack, Charged Attack, Skill, and Burst system, which has proved successful for the game's audience. Elemental reactions help fuel much of the game's combat, and they are complex on their own.

However, Wuthering Waves' combat is much more complex while lacking elemental reactions, with the need to time dodges, parry, intro and outro skills, memorize the bosses and stun the bosses themselves. This allows for a more in depth, complex and precise combat compared to Genshin's simpler combat system.

TL:DR

Wuthering Waves is not a genshin killer because, fundamentally, it differs from Genshin in terms of Audience, Gameplay and Setting. Calling it a Genshin killer holds it up to impossible standards, and would lead to its eventual failure when said expectations are not met.

#pirate's musings #wuthering waves #the whole genshin killer thing is overrated tbh #just let WuWa be its own thing.#wuwa

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arkipelagic · 2 months

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The Japanese, the Dutch, and the last invasion plan on Spanish Philippines

[T]he 1637 invasion plans … appears to have been the brainchild of the two current bugyō of Nagasaki, Sakakibara Hida-no-kami Toshishige and Baba Saburōzaemon Motonao, who hoped thereby to curry favour with their superiors. The matter was raised at a meeting held toward the end of September 1637 with François Caron of [the Dutch East India Company] … The bugyō listened respectfully to Caron, then changed the subject to help from the loyal Dutch to destroy the Iberian bases of Manila, Macao, and Keelung. Of these three potential targets, the bugyō believed Manila was the top priority because its status as the source of supply for Catholic priests would be the best bargaining counter to use with their superiors in Edo when the time came to gain official permission to invade.

That was of course essential, but so was an army—and the bugyō were civilan officials, not commanders of samurai. The invading army would have to be supplied either by the shogun or by a daimyō, such as Matsukura Katsuie, acting on the shogun's behalf … The bugyō were, however, astute enough to realise that once again naval power would be a serious weakness, so a guarantee of Dutch naval support would ensure that the army could be transported. It also would reduce the costs of the operation, which was another positive point to place before the shogun.

… Dutch support having been pledged, the matter was placed before the shogun, who agreed that the invasion should go ahead. His decision may have been influenced by the recent arrival of another group of missionaries from Manila under Father Marcello Mastrilli. No mention was made of who would supply the invading army.

Matsukura Katsuie was the obvious candidate, but he soon became involved in a serious development that would sound the death knell for the entire expedition. An uprising on the nearby Amakusa Islands quickly spread to the Matsukura territory of Shimabara. The predominantly Christian rebels barricaded themselves inside Hara Castle, the dilapidated fortress that Matsukura Katsuie's father had replaced with Shimabara Castle. The quelling of what became known as the Shimabara Rebellion soon proved to be beyond the capabilities of Matsukura Katsuie. It sucked in all the military resources of the Tokugawa shogunate for well over a year, and the Dutch naval support promised so loyally for the Philippines expedition was used instead for a reluctant and largely ineffective bombardment of the rebel castle. There was no spare military capacity for an invasion of the Philippines, and even less of a stomach for one.

… The shock caused by the Shimabara Rebellion then brought about the worst fears for the remaining Portuguese in Japan: the shogun decided they should follow the Jesuits in being deported. With the Sakoku Edict of 1639, all contact was cut off from Catholic Europe, and even the loyal Dutch were confined to the artificial island of Deshima in Nagasaki Bay.

Excerpt from Wars and Rumors of Wars: Japanese Plans to Invade the Philippines, 1593–637 by Stephen Turnbull, published in 2016

#japan #philippines #tokugawa shogunate #shimabara rebellion #asian history #military history #history #spanish colonialism #x #luzon

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celticcrossanon · 8 months

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“With the Commonwealth Realms, I expect Charles to fulfil his role as their Head of State regardless of which government is in power.”

Until John Major signed, Maastricht treaty in the mid 1990’s we had anchor butter and New Zealand Lamb. These things, and others, disappeared from supermarket shelves and EU produce was prioritised.

After the Lisbon Treaty was signed in 2009 military co-operation with Europe (France) was prioritised, seemingly above UK Commonwealth and NATO links, in terms of funding and development.

The Late Queen and now the King are Head of a realms whose army swears allegiance. It means something, or it should. Our shared history should mean closer, cooperation, and trade and travel. The similarities in our Parliaments and Health Service and peoples should be highlighted with the monarchy as an umbrella or lynchpin. But on none of these things can the king or the late Queen act independently of government.

A resurgent, China started rolling out the Belt and Road initiative in 2013, directly targeting Commonwealth Realms and Nations. And government moved out of the way to let them because no one saw Brexit coming.

Thing is Sunak’s Windsor framework reverses the closer ties Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were working towards post Brexit which would mean not only enhanced trade but closer military co-operation.

It’s why the King went to Germany as his first state visit not Australia, New Zealand or Canada imho.

The Commonwealth of Nations is different, because there it is predominantly trade I believe, as well as the opportunity for cooperation. And that will continue, although I do not think Prince William will be head of the Commonwealth. I think there may be a revolving head by then, i.e. the representative from a certain country for certain amount of years.

Hi Nonny,

Thank you for that explanation of what is happening in GB. I always read "the Commonwealth" as "the Commonwealth of Nations", so I will have to remember that other people mean "the Commonwealth Realms" when they say "the Commonwealth".

"Our shared history should mean closer, cooperation, and trade and travel. The similarities in our Parliaments and Health Service and peoples should be highlighted with the monarchy as an umbrella or lynchpin." - I agree, but I don't see this happening. Instead I see the Commonwealth Realms drawing further and further apart.

China is a concern to me as well.

I also think that after King Charles the position of Head of the Commonwealth will change and not longer be the ruler of Great Britain.

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dreamofmetoday · 1 year

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What exactly makes you think that le sserafims target audience are otaku-coded men and what is the „wholesome porn“ category?

just to clarify, a target market is defined as a group of people that have been identified as the most likely potential customers for something due to shared characteristics such as age, income, gender, attitudes, interests, values and lifestyle. you cannot run a business or effectively promote a product without a target market.

it’s not a secret that young to middle aged men make up a huge chunk of consumers of kpop girl groups in general, and given that kpop is predominantly indulging in visible content (concerts, music videos, stages etc). i think it’s just common sense and experience of how the industry has worked that makes it obvious who le sserafim is targeted towards - since we can see it with our own eyes. they have racier and more “grown up” outfits than other groups, their choreos are more sexual, the way their videos are filmed have more suspicious angles etc.

le sserafim including two minors in their debut just makes this worse but the group was already not for me or not something i was comfortable with anyway. if i were to compare it to newjeans, which is also a girl group under hybe that debuted minors, the actual target market is already extremely different - newjeans seems to be the girl group hybe has chosen for the next biggest market, young girls who will be dedicated fans for years (they’re the “unnie” group for school aged girls and young teens). they’re given extra long safety shorts, childish and usually colourful styling, sillier choreo that’s easy to follow etc.

though to make it clear again, i don’t support the debut of young minors in the industry, but that’s why i implied le sserafim is the “worst” of the two to me.

tw for p*dophilia below:

the wholesome porn aspect of kpop is one of those secrets that isn’t really a secret. the industry has p*dpohilic, overly sexual undertones which has existed for years (and only calmed down more within the last 5 years or so despite still being present). that’s why there was an abundance of groups catered towards men (sexy concepts and sweet “i am ur gf” concepts) and even partly why they are literally called idols as opposed to singers, with an image that is supposed to be virginal. more specific examples include how tzuyu was mistreated as a minor, wonyoung dancing to side to side on a survival show, and seungri’s v.v.i.p music video in which it implies he literally sleeps with a little girl.

this is what someone who worked on produce 101, the survival show, had to say:

The PD answered, “If a program is solid and organized well, people regardless of gender watch. The issue is with quality. The reason why we did the female version first is, I don’t know how to express it. It was from the thought that we needed to create wholesome pornography for males. (laughs) If you look at the contestants, they look like your younger sister or niece but aren’t they cute? I wanted to make that style of pornography.

end of tw.

this is why i don’t “support” le sserafim or want to do readings on how the group itself is operating because we already know the answer: hybe is going to give these men want they want because it’s literally why this group was created.

i hope this makes sense to you and other people who may read this answer. it’s not an attack on the girls themselves or more normal fans of the group 💗

#answered #long answer #kpop tarot #kpop #melody tarot #tarot #celebrity tarot #newjeans #le sserafim #personal #feminism

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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House Republicans are planning to launch a barrage of attacks on government institutions that administer to and support labor unions if the party takes control of the House this fall, new reporting reveals, showing that the GOP likely feels threatened by the growing labor movement that’s taken hold across the country in recent years.

Politico reports that Republicans in the House Education and Labor Committee have compiled a shortlist of labor officials to target if they take control of the House in the midterm elections. Republicans are looking to go after labor regulators in the Biden administration, like Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, as well as the NLRB itself and the White House’s pro-worker task force.

Targeting these figures and curbing pro-union policies that the administration has put in place “will be one of their first orders of business,” Politico reports.

“I’ve joked with my colleagues that we will probably be holding two oversight hearings a day, because we’re going to be so busy with oversight,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (North Carolina), top GOP member of the House Education and Labor Committee, told Politico. “We’re going to hold the NLRB and [Department of Labor] accountable.”

Though major labor priorities like the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act have stalled in Congress, the Biden administration has been friendly towards unions; Joe Biden appointees like Walsh and Abruzzo have been celebrated by labor leaders as pro-union picks.

Abruzzo in particular has been examining and reconsidering federal labor laws, which are predominantly skewed toward anti-union employers, in order to remove considerable barriers that stand in the way of unions and unionizing workers. Guidance that’s been handed down by Abruzzo — which labor leaders have said is crucial to giving power back to workers — is in the Republicans’ crosshairs.

Unions and the labor movement have been seeing a major resurgence over the past year. Successful union campaigns at corporations like Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joe’s have surged across the country, while workers increasingly leverage their power with work stoppages and strikes. These groups could potentially be at the forefront of turning around the unionization rate in the U.S., which has declined considerably over the past decades. Currently, only about 10% of workers in the U.S. are part of a labor union.

Labor advocates and progressive activists have celebrated the new energy around labor organizing, saying that such organizing is the public’s best chance of fighting the consolidated power that corporations and the wealthy exercise over the U.S. and its politicians.

Likely sensing a threat to corporate power, Republicans have already been waging efforts to combat labor organizing. Republicans on the Education and Labor Committee say they have sent 57 letters about labor and unions since Biden was inaugurated, including 26 to the Labor Department alone and eight to the NLRB.

Republicans have also attempted to address supposed “conflicts of interest” within the NLRB, though they appear to only object to pro-union officials and sentiments.

Last year, Foxx and other Republicans sent a letter asking the NLRB to address the fact that two of its members were previously employed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). They claimed that this constituted a conflict of interest, though the very mission of the NLRB is to protect workers’ rights and shield workers from anti-union employers.

The Republicans made no mention of an established conflict of interest from 2018 concerning former board member William Emanuel, a former shareholder in notorious anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson. Investigative reporters revealed that Emanuel had broken NLRB ethics rules when taking part in a case that directly involved Littler, which the board itself later confirmed, though Emanuel still served on the board until August of last year.

Like union-busting Starbucks lawyers, Republicans are likely angling to throw doubt into the legitimacy of the NLRB, which would then allow them to throw doubt into the legitimacy of any newly formed or existing union.

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some-pers0n · 8 months

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I just typed out this when talking with some friends in a Discord server, but I think it probably could go here as well not gonna lie.

I have a lot of opinions on the views of fanart VS fanfic. A lot of fandom things in general are mocked by people who aren't really in them, despite other things being normalized. People who buy all sorts of merch for their favourite sports team or take off their shirt and paint their body the colours of the team aren't seen as that strange, but if you try to express that you like something more niche you're seen as weird.

Twilight is a great example of how something that's relatively innocent and light-hearted is twisted into a dead horse for people to routinely beat over and over again. Are the books that great? In my opinion, not really. However, a lot of people (in particular young teens) loved it. They however were made fun of and mocked relentlessly for their interests. A lot of the time you'll see fandom mocked because it's seen as something weird kids, do. Halo and Call of Duty aren't talked about in the same breath as something like Twilight, because despite being targeted towards a similar demographic (pre-teens and adolescents), they're seen as cool and nostalgic. Twilight? That's some dumb girl stuff. They should do something better with their lives than talk about a dumb stupid book all the time. Criticizing the writing and themes were a shield a lot of people used to bully others. A lot of the time, it's making fun of people for liking things. I bring gender into this because fandom culture is predominantly queer and neurodivergent oriented with a ton of teenagers. They are spaces for queer and neurodivergent people to express themselves and find safety in the comfort of media. A good chunk of the time when a person complains about fancontent and media, it ties back to ableism.

Anywho, back to fanart. Fanart is iffy in that sense. Some fanart is seen as cool and amazing. I find it absolutely hilarious when some guy will complain about young girls drawing fanart of DSMP characters doing. literally nothing bad. Maybe they're just hanging out and talking. I dunno. Regardless, those type of people are more than likely to have hyperrealistic Joker art as their background. You know the type. It makes me laugh because like…how do you think that came into existence? But, still. Depending on who makes the fanart, it's seen as a cool and badass thing. If it's some random guy who paints Scrooge McDuck smoking a cigar and counting dollar bills or the Joker in front of an explosion, that's based and cool. But if it's like Gordon Freeman chatting with Barney and maybe being a bit vulnerable after being subjected to all of this trauma, it's lame and weird. Gordon Freeman is a cool strong guy!! Re-enforcing ideas that there's a certain level of tolerance. Somebody drawing your favourite cartoons from your childhood or your favourite characters doing generic and random stuff in a somewhat hyper-realistic style? Cool! If it's in a style that may vaguely resemble something softer, lame and gay. A lot of artists in fandom spheres will draw these characters doing silly things because it's an expression of their admiration for the media. It's comforting to them. Art in general is very personal, with fanart being something you make from your heart. You were inspired by this piece of media to not only create art, but create art of this media. Fanart is a bit iffy. Fanart is cool when it's Chell hopping through portals or standing over GLaD0S's destoryed body. Fanart is not cool when you make shipart of Winter and Qibli.

Fanfic however? You'd be pressed to find anybody who isn't involved in fandom defend this. Why? Because most fanfic at its core is queer. A lot of the criticism thrown at is is because of it being seen as something weird young teenagers do as some sort of wish fulfillment. Depraved weirdos who want to see your favourite characters kiss??? How horrible!! God, what weirdos. Not just that, but you're STEALING these characters!! You're taking them and using them as your own little dolls to do things with (these things being like. I dunno. making them kiss or hold hands). God, who would even write this stuff? Fanfic is almost always associated with NSFW content as well, far more than fanart. A good chunk of the reason I feel is because of stuff like Fifty Shades of Gray breaking out into the mainstream and being well-known for originally being a Twilight fanfic. It's. uh. known for not being the most PG of books, so yeah. Again, it's associated with young teens being stupid and dumb and writing this dumb stupid stuff because they are weird little freaks. It's stereotyped as being bad and generally kind of immature, far more than fanart ever was. While fanart is occasionally hit with the "drawn by stupid children who are barely even talented" stereotype (mostly with fangirls and such), fanfic is almost always is.

But, fanfic is so personal. It's incredible. Wonderful. I'm biased indeed, I mean, look at me writing my TF2 fanfic where I take the insane healer character and make him into a silly guy who is aro/ace and autistic (as well as having 97 other mental disorders). I'm no different than these other people who write slashfic of these video game and TV characters holding hands and kissing. However, I've seen so much passion and love. People pour so much of their time into creating these long and beautiful works of art. Thousands upon thousands of words, a good chunk of the time stretching over the length of entire books. These characters mean so much to these people. Fanfic is seen as lesser and more heavily stereotyped IMO because, more than anything else, it's about queer and neurodivergent people expressing their emotions, sexuality, traumas, and thoughts. Not to say that EVERYBODY who writes fanfic is gay or autistic or that there isn't any cis/het/allo neurotypical people out there, but just that it's heavily dominated by women, queers, and neurodivergent people.

But, that's just me and my silly opinions, ya know?

#fanfic #ao3 #fanfiction #sp-rambles

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blackautmedia · 9 months

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Troq - What Teen Titans gets wrong about Racism

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Troq is well-intentioned but misguided. I feel discussing episodes like this are still helpful because the way people write fictional bigotry ends up reflecting how they view the real thing and it's my hope that analyzing this episode will help people better understand how to approach these situations.

Some Excerpts:

Why is the Black disabled boy meant to be made the face of poor allyship in an episode of nearly entirely white voice talent as written by predominantly white writers?

Writers constantly project this white-gaze fantasy of putting Black people especially in these positions to picture themselves as the victims and to be able to tell off Black people.

The entire episode works on the idea that a slur used to dehumanize Starfire is only bad because it hurt her feelings, feelings she is framed as sympathetic by too many viewers for ignoring in favor of focusing on "the bigger picture."

Slurs are mean and hurtful, but the root issue with them is that they connect to systems of institutional violence.

It's not just that it's mean and ends with hurt feelings and judgement, it's that there's a power differential in the society where the slur exists where institutional violence toward a targeted group is normalized and rationalized by the narratives the slur evokes.

There is violence toward Starfire though. The episode just decides it's not important.

Val-yor weaponizes this mission and sends Starfire off on a deadly job. He assigns her the task of exiting the ship and carefully moving mines that could easily explode and kill her.

That's what makes Valyor's targeted violence toward Starfire all the more gross when the episode never takes it into consideration with Starfire deciding to set aside her feelings.

"Troq" comes to the right, if obvious conclusion that slurs are bad and you should stand up to people like Val-Yor and and support oppressed people, but the problem is it does it in a way where Starfire is subjected to the very respectability politics the show is supposedly trying to critique.

#teen titans #robin #cyborg #raven #starfire #beast boy #teen titans go #teen titans 2003 #Troq #Youtube

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