#can we not keep falling for Democrat's bullshit? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

transrevolutions · 1 year

Text

les amis & co. as penelope scott songs:

enjolras- born2run- here's a little fact I cry all the time / about the state and healthcare and the grand design / sometimes it's sad sometimes it's bittersweet / but it's how you'll know I'm me

combeferre- shitty song to listen to after a shooting- I don't have to read anything you ever read or wrote / you're not special just for torturing the poor / you unoriginal spineless monster it's been done before

courfeyrac- 7 o'clock- so it hits me real hard round 7 o'clock / drink a coffee and floor it and get ready to rock / but there's nobody here and nobody downtown / if nobody hears you are you really around

jehan- drizzle the categorical imperative- trees lose their leaves when they flower I grieve / and everything always feels wrong / the state kills the innocent / god picks on job

feuilly- montreal- and I don't wanna die / but I'll jump before I'll fall / and did you really think so I mean / no one fucking thought I'd make it to montreal

bahorel- lukewarm- throw a punch watch it sail through the air / keep talking but there's nobody there / can't remember anything that you say / slit your throat and die and wake up the next day

joly- american healthcare- I fucking helped people / I thought that I could save the sick / but if it's all the same to you there's one more thing I gotta do / with god as my witness you corporate fucking prick / I did not become a doctor for this

bossuet- lavender- trying my best / giving my all / but it turns out that's not very much at all / what am I gonna do / when you leave me too / what am I gonna say / when you walk away

musichetta- soap- there's salt inside my veins / sugar on my tongue / freckles on my cheeks from goddamn fucking west coast sun / I feel so beaten up and bruised / I don't know what I'm gonna do / I can't keep anything at all from slipping through my raccoon claws

grantaire- moonsickness- fuck I'm not a marxist / I'm not a fucking democrat / but because of all this bullshit I'm not anything at all / all I wanted was a framework / none of them can live here / there's nothing to believe in and there won't be til we fall

marius- hammerhead- all I really know is that I'm never coming home / and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you so / I'm gonna go and get an internship / and then I'll get a job / and then I'll pack all my shit up and fucking go

cosette- honeysuckle- there will be many kinds of trees / there will be plenty of bees / all the movies will be free to watch / we'll sit in the garden with our bunnies drinking honeysuckle lavender butterscotch

eponine- rat- I loved you I loved you I loved you it's true / I wanted to be you and do what you do / I lived here I loved here I bought it it's true / I feel so stupid and so used

gavroche- this night will not suck- I miss my home / take bullshit to the face and just let it go / the system is fucked I'm alive by sheer luck / but with god as my witness this night will not suck

montparnasse- cigarette ahegao- trash on the walls trash on the floor / liquid eyeliner stuck to the door / screwing everything up and doing everything wrong / in my defense I wasn't supposed to be around this long

#penelope scott #les mis #les amis #enjolras #combeferre #courfeyrac #jehan #bahorel #feuilly #joly #bossuet #musichetta #marius pontmercy #cosette fauchelevent #eponine thenardier #gavroche #montparnasse #les miserables #pigeon.txt

29 notes · View notes

theculturedmarxist · 10 months

Text

I think what artists, musicians, writers, pretty much every creative person really, all need to understand is that under capitalism, everything they make is worthless. AI, piracy, whatever, they're all just windmills you're tilting at. Even if by some miracle you did manage to defeat it, it would soon be replaced by some other terrible mechanism which alienates you from your creation, because that's how Capitalism works.

This is just the latest iteration of a process that's been happening for over 500 years now. It's just now instead of enclosing a physical commons for the private profit of aristocrats, oligarchs are enclosing the digital commons. Consolidating the public spaces of forums, message boards, webrings, and other democratically driven online spaces into the few mega-sites of Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and so on has run its course. Now the capitalists have turned to trawling the rest of the internet to try and wring whatever value they can get from it.

And just like the process of enclosure or mechanization or industrialization, there's no putting that genie back in the bottle. They've already scoured the internet for untold trillions of pages of data and images and what not. The damage is done. It doesn't matter what further damage is going to come from it either, because the dirty not-so-secret of the tech world is that this is it. They have no more bright ideas. Pretty much every great thing to Google's name, they bought. All their in house initiatives failed. Google video? Google groups? Google glass? They make their money selling ads that nobody cares about. Same with Facebook. They just spent billions to create a crappy Second Life clone that no one gives a fuck about. These tech corporations are massive, lumbering, doomed empires, especially now that covid has pretty much brought the era of 0%-interest loans to an end. Without the billions of dollars of venture capital being pumped into Uber and Twitter and all the rest, now they've got to actually start making money, which none of them are actually able to do. Now they're desperate for some new gimmick to latch onto to try and turn a profit or attract ever dwindling venture capital. Bitcoin was the last big scam. Remember Libra? NFTs were the big thing after that. NFT images! NFT tv shows! NFT games! Here we are a year later and no one fucking talks about them any more. AI is just more of this magic bean bullshit.

Aside from all of that, even if AI was managed to be beaten back, you can assume that whatever the cure the powers that be settle on will be worse than the disease. Whatever "protections" get put into place will only be used against individual artists. At the end of the day, these big corps are just going to end up keeping all the information they've already stolen, the algorithms they used to steal it, and then will put laws into place legitimizing that theft after the fact. You're simply not going to win that fight, because the battle's already been lost.

The only long term solution to this is to attack the root cause, which is a system that relies upon exploitation in order to accumulate profit. Profits are what feed these massive corporate beasts, and as they're starved by falling profits, they'll only grow more ravenous and rapacious. We're only at the opening stages of this trend now, and things are only going to get worse.

#inteligência artificial #artificial intelligence #capitalism #economics #art #artists

17 notes · View notes

that-sarcastic-optimist · 1 year

Note

if you are taking prompts but I would love to see one where Everyone is trying to get klaus and Caroline together and Klaus falls for Caroline right away and everyone knows. She could be in denial and keep refusing him but has a soft spot for him as she gets to know him. And maybe he overhead a conversation recently saying she isn’t interested in him and never will be, and he is really hurt cause he always had good intentions but over time she realizes she 's falling for him and tries to try to tell him and he is always trying to be respectful and not push her? So basically lots of denial on Caroline’s part and mutual pining!

Disclaimer: This is pure fluff. I do not own the rights of TVDU.

“I don’t know about this, Damon.”

“Come on, Elena, this is the only way to do it.”

“No, it isn't,” Bonnie says sharply. “We are not locking Caroline in a room with a sadistic murderer.”

“But he’s her sadistic murderer.”

“Stop it, Damon,” Bonnie snaps. “Klaus is dangerous. He could hurt her—”

“Bon Bon, you know I love you, but we both know Klaus wouldn’t harm a single hair on Blondie’s pretty head.”

“Don’t call her that, Damon,” Stefan says, rubbing his temples, and Damon shrugs. Stefan turns to Bonnie, “Look, we both know that Caroline wouldn’t get in a room with Klaus on her own. The only way to get them together is to do it against—”

“Against her wishes?” Elena asks, raising an eyebrow. “Do you hear yourself, Stefan?”

“Listen, Caroline’s not oblivious to the fact that he likes her. And she’s not subtle, either. We know she likes him too—”

“Supposedly,” Bonnie grumbles.

“God, stop being such a buzzkill, Bon Bon. And even if we do lock them together, it’s not like they’ll be bored or anything,” says Damon, wiggling his eyebrows. “I thought we agreed to put food and condoms—”

“No,” Bonnie snaps. “No, that’s where I draw the line. No condoms.”

“Bonnie—” Stefan starts.

“No,” Bonnie says firmly. “And Elena’s on my side, aren’t you, Elena—Elena?”

Elena shrugs and looks at her knees. “I don’t know, Bonnie…Caroline does seem to like him, remember the Mikaelson Ball—”

“That’s because she had to go with him!” Bonnie screeches. “Out of obligation!”

“Then what was with the sappy looks they kept throwing each other while they were dancing?”

Bonnie says nothing.

“Okay, fine,” Stefan sighs. “We’ll do this democratically. Those in favour of locking Klaus and Caroline in a room with food and condoms and only releasing them until they’ve had sex, say aye.”

“Aye,” chorus Damon, Stefan, and Elena. Bonnie stubbornly crosses her arms.

“No.”

“But, Bonnie—”

“No.”

OOO

“He’s the most irritating person I've ever met!” Caroline screeches, and Bonnie winces. “And I try. I try, and try, and try, to be nice, to cooperate, but does he care? Nooo. It’s always me who has to compromise, me who has to put up with his bullshit. I can't believe I ever actually liked him. I never would’ve dated him, if I had known he was going to be such a pain in the ass—”

“Why don’t you just break up with him?”

“I did,” Caroline growls. “But then he came running back with his fucking werewolf tail between his legs, saying, come on, Care, remember how good we were together?”

“Did you say no?” asks Bonnie, biting into her sandwich.

“Yeah,” Caroline fumes. “But he won't leave me alone—”

“He’s stalking you?” Bonnie asks sharply. “Care—”

“No, he isn't stalking me,” Caroline sighs, taking a bite of her pasta. “He blames me.”

“Blames you? For what?”

“For Klaus,” Caroline grumbles, and Bonnie’s stomach turns. “He says we were just fine before he came to town. Just because Klaus has this creepy fascination with me, Tyler thinks it’s my fault. I didn’t ask for this!”

“Just tell him you and Klaus had nothing, and then tell him to fuck off. It’s not his business anyway.”

Caroline’s gaze drops to her pasta, and Bonnie narrows her eyes. “Caroline? You can tell him that you and Klaus had—”

“He’s nice,” Caroline bursts out, and Bonnie clenches her teeth. “He’s really nice. Klaus, I mean. He—he’s different than I thought he’d be.”

“What do you mean, different? He’s a murderer, Care.”

“So are Stefan and Damon,” says Caroline, biting her lip. “So am I.”

“Care, you're different.”

“Yeah, I know I am,” Caroline snaps. “I don’t like killing people. I kill when it’s necessary to save you guys. Klaus murders people for funsies. And I'm not saying I'm interested in him. I never will be. I'm just saying he’s nice to me.”

“Because he wants to get into your pants.”

“…yeah. I guess.”

OOO

“NIK!”

Klaus growls irritably. “What do you want, Bekah?”

“I want to go to the Mystic Grill again to see Matt, and Kol keeps threatening to eat him.”

“What do you want me to bloody do about it?”

“Dagger Kol,” Rebekah suggests, shrugging. “Obviously, I'd prefer it if you didn’t, but maybe just tell him to stay put?”

“Has Kol ever listened when we tell him to stay put?”

“No. But even when I snap his neck he threatens to just eat Matt when he wakes up and I can't feed Matt my blood or he’d never forgive me.”

“Well, it’s not my bloody problem, is it? Go talk to Elijah.”

“Elijah says we need to sort this out ourselves.”

“Well, I can't say I disagree.”

“Nik,” says Rebekah frustratedly. A light of inspiration suddenly shines on her face. “If you go to the Grill and just feed Matt some of your blood, it wouldn’t be a problem. He hates you anyway.”

“No, Rebekah, I will not give your insipid boyfriend—”

“Don’t call him that,” she snaps.

“Well then, don’t tell me to—”

“Caroline will be there,” Rebekah bursts out. “You know she will. We saw her there fifteen minutes ago.”

Klaus growls at the mention of her name. “That means nothing to me.”

“When I said goodbye to Matt. I told him I'd see him again, you glared in Caroline’s direction. Anyway, I don’t know her that well, but I know she’d appreciate it.”

Klaus makes a non-committal noise.

“Oh, piss off, Nik, don’t even try to pretend to not care. The whole bloody town knows about the crush you have on her—”

“I am not a teenage boy,” Klaus spits out, “to have a crush on a girl.”

“That’s rich, coming from the man who was practically begging her for a date yester—”

Klaus whirls around and flung a paintbrush at her head, which she narrowly dodges. The paintbrush impales the wall, sinking up to its bristles into the plaster, and Rebekah looks at him, unimpressed. “What is it, Nik? Did she reject you too many times?”

“I do not like Caroline,” Klaus hisses. “Now get out before I stab you with a dagger this time. And I promise you, I'll make it hurt.”

“What's got your knickers in a twist?” Rebekah frowns, ignoring the threat. “I'm sure if you just talked to her, Nik—”

“Get out, Rebekah,” Klaus warns, his tone dangerous. “Now.”

With a huff, Rebekah stands up and flounces out of the room. Klaus growls and turns back to the easel, his paintbrush slashing across the canvas.

“Klaus murders people for funsies. And I'm not saying I'm interested in him. I never will be. I'm just saying he’s nice to me.”

“Because he wants to get into your pants.”

“…yeah. I guess.”

Red. Red. Red. More red.

Maroon. Crimson. Scarlet.

The canvas is soon dripping red paint.

For such an intelligent girl, she really was quite daft sometimes.

And that stupid Bennett witch, encouraging and filling Caroline’s head with that nonsense about how he was only nice to her because he wanted to have sex with her.

Love is a vampire’s weakness.

He thought it had been true.

He isn't sure anymore.

OOO

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Caroline mutters as she tugs on her foot.

Who wore fucking high heels after a storm? Stupid people, that’s who.

She and Tyler were broken up, anyway. She doesn’t know why she had gone to that stupid party at his house. But then again, she had been making poor decisions lately.

The result of said decision is staring at her as she tugs on her foot.

“Fucking shoes,” Caroline says through her teeth. They’re her mother’s and Liz is going to kill her for ruining them.

Exaggeration. Probably.

“Caroline?” a voice asks, and Caroline stiffens, turning around slowly, her heartbeat not slowing down at all when she sees her companion.

Kol Mikaelson.

“Kol,” she says, releasing her leg, standing up, and trying to look dignified, which she’s sure she’s failing miserably at since she has her fucking foot four inches deep in mud. “What do you want?”

“Just passing by,” he grins, his smile flashing at her. Caroline is suddenly reminded of Klaus, and how he smiles the same way at her, the same devil-may-care look. “You look like you're in need of some help.”

“Do I?” Caroline grits out. “Well, you're mistaken, since I'm perfectly fine. What are you doing out here, anyway?”

Kol’s grin turns shark-like. “I was just at the nearest pub with a friend.”

“Wow, you people have friends?”

“Kol, Nik just went home—what are you doing with her?” Rebekah Mikaelson’s drawl cuts through the air, her expression turning vicious when she spots Caroline.

Kol ignores her. “As I was telling the lovely Caroline, I was drowning sorrows, see. I've been told a pub is the best place to do that.”

“You don’t look very sorrowful.”

“I'm sorry, did you miss the part where I said I was accompanied by someone? It doesn’t matter, though, since I wasn’t the one elbow deep in a bucket of bourbon. Nik truly has a very good tolerance, although how he managed to drink so much of the revolting alcohol they serve there is beyond me.”

Caroline grunts. “What does he have to be sad about? Original hybrid with an army of slaves, and all.”

Rebekah’s expression turns ugly. “You don’t know Nik at all, and you say such things about him. Perhaps the narrow-mindedness of this town is really starting to seep its way into your conscious as well, Caroline.”

“You have such a restricted opinion of my brother,” says Kol, the laughter on his face gone. “You think of him as a deadly monster, incapable of even an iota of feeling. Have you ever, for once in your current infinitesimal life, thought you could be wrong?”

Caroline narrows her eyes. “Did he tell you to say that? Is he here?”

Kol flashes over to her, much closer, and even though he is three feet away, Caroline can't help the stab of fear that goes through her heart. “I sometimes wonder how my brother fell for you,” he hisses. “Niklaus has daggered me numerous times over the years, and yes, I loathe him for it, I want revenge, but just because he has committed misdeeds in his life, does not mean he is an unfeeling monster.”

“His misdeeds are murders,” Caroline hisses at Kol. “Thousands of them.”

“And where would you think your kill count stand, I ask you, if you had been alive for more than a thousand years?” Kol asks, raising an eyebrow. “Where would the Salvatores’? Correct me if I'm mistaken, Caroline, but you yourself are a murderer, aren’t you?”

“Shut up,” Caroline hisses.

“You're angry at us because you know we’re being truthful,” says Rebekah, flashing over to her along with her brother. “You don’t know how Nik is at all.”

“Nik is a sadistic murderer.”

“You kill people and drain them because you feel peckish. You do that, I do, and Kol does as well. Even Elijah. Even your precious vampire friends.”

Caroline opens her mouth but nothing comes out.

I fancy you. Is that so hard to believe?

Rebekah makes a disgusted sound. “I must say, I honestly thought Nik’s taste was better. Let’s go, Kol.”

Kol says nothing but flashes away silently along with his sister, and Caroline is left standing in the mud, her throat dry.

OOO

Caroline remembers how Klaus had looked at her at the Mikaelson Ball.

I fancy you.

OOO

Caroline remembers Jenna’s face when she had dropped lifelessly to the ground during Klaus’s ritual.

She also remembers the faces of the innocent humans she has drained when she fed on them.

We’re the same, Caroline.

OOO

Caroline still hasn’t thrown away the bracelet and the drawing he has given her.

She can't bring herself to.

OOO

The dress sits in Caroline’s closet in the box it came in.

Sometimes, unconsciously, she feels herself opening her closet just to get a glimpse at it, running her fingers through the fabric.

Her eyes flying to the back of the invitation card every once in a while.

OOO

I fancy you.

Why?

He had sounded incredulous when she had asked him that question. Like he couldn’t believe she would question why anyone would find her beautiful.

OOO

Tyler’s birthday gift to her, the silver bracelet with the wolf charm, sits at the bottom of her jewellery box.

Klaus’s bracelet is in its case in her bedside drawer.

OOO

Hummingbirds are beautiful, Caroline thinks, as Elena gushes about the tattoo of the sparrow she got on her arm for her eighteenth birthday.

She’s turning eighteen soon, even though her face is frozen in time. She’d like a tattoo.

OOO

She has vague memories of Tyler calling her sexy-smart and crazy hot.

You're beautiful, you're strong, you're full of light. I enjoy you.

Klaus thinks she is more than sexy-smart and crazy hot.

OOO

Klaus has dimples, Caroline notices when she sees him smile indulgently at Damon when Damon attempts to threaten him.

She hasn’t noticed.

OOO

She remembers the feel of Klaus’s hand on her hip as they had danced together at the ball.

Firm, but gentle.

Like he had been…hesitant.

He’s an Original. He could’ve compelled her to want him.

He hadn’t.

OOO

She had felt safe with him when he had rescued her from Alaric.

She isn't afraid of him anymore.

OOO

She knows how he had looked at her.

Like she was everything. Like he had felt complete.

I fancy you too.

OOO

Klaus growls when the loud knocking at his door continues even after his numerous attempts at making his visitor flee by making various threats. He flings his paintbrush to the ground and stalks over to the door. “For the last time, I said—”

Caroline stares at him, her expression stricken. “I—I'm sorry. This is just important.”

Klaus’s shoulders relax, before they tense again. “Did your friends send you over to distract me again?” he asks bitterly, turning away from the door, leaving it open. “I can't imagine why, since I have absolutely nothing that—”

Caroline leans over and kisses him, her lips barely brushing his. It lasts for about three seconds.

He is shell-shocked when she draws back, her expression calm. “I've had time to think about this. About you. About me.”

She sucks in a breath. “You're a murderer. I'm a murderer. I'm a monster too. I don’t regret being turned into a vampire. We are the same.”

Klaus stares at her dumbly as she continues speaking. “You were right. I do prefer the girl I am, to the girl I once was. And you are the only person in my life who has ever liked me for who I am. Not for who I was. To be honest, not many people liked me when I was human, either,” she says, laughing softly, running her hands through her hair.

“I—I haven’t been fair with you. I understand if you don’t want me anymore—”

Klaus leans over to Caroline’s and kisses her, and her hands hang in the air beside her shoulders, her eyes wide open. He pulls away almost immediately. “You are beautiful.”

Caroline’s mouth is slightly open, her eyes hazy. “I—I thought you wouldn’t want me anymore. I've been such a bitch to you, and—”

Klaus tucks a strand of hair behind her. “You are also very oblivious.”

She laughs, the sound throaty. Klaus cocks his head at her. “Is this what you came to tell me?”

“No,” she shakes her head, then stops herself. “I mean, yes, but also—I mean, this isn't all I wanted to tell you.”

“What is it, then?”

Caroline’s expression softens as she reaches for his hand. “I fancy you too.”

OOO

Klaus is way too cuddly in this fic but I just couldn’t help myself. I think Kol and Rebekah standing up for their big brother is really cute, so I had to write that.

Hope you liked it! Please review!

Cheers!

#klaroline drabbles #caroline x klaus #klaroline fic #klaus mikaelson x caroline forbes #klaus mikaelson #caroline forbes #rebekah mikaelson #elijah mikaelson #kol mikaelson #bonnie bennett #elena gilbert #damon salvatore #stefan salvatore #tyler lockwood

11 notes · View notes

warsofasoiaf · 2 years

Note

Do you think old school thinkers, who happen to be left leaning, get more of a pass for problematic thought than right leanings ones? Specifically wondering why Karl Marx is still widely read and respected despite problematic views on the Jewish People and the British conquest of India, but also Che Guevara

Obligatory I hate the left-right political spectrum caveat. I hate ideas and people being categorized on it. It's simplistic, actively working to deny understanding and greater comprehension. But I've had a little whiskey, so who gives a shit now?

If you're talking about academia, yes. Academia has been loathe to call out Karl Marx for his anti-Semitism. It's not just the anti-Semitism though; we've had extensive time with which to see Marx's predictions, the ones which asserted actual data figures that we can measure like the rate of profit to fall over time, have failed to materialize. At this point, Marx is exclusively junk philosophy and pseudoscience; it has no place in rational theory, but it's still there. Chomsky is dismissed for his largely bogus political takes and genocide denial, but still held up as a serious academic even in his field, despite the numerous failures in the Propaganda Model (though it has some value in the conceptual level). Now, this might be me, but I see the failures of Manufacturing Consent as part of a long-running tradition of conspiracy theories within left-wing movements far older than Chomsky that are easily debunked (I particularly hate the "First Red Scare killed the American socialist movement" myth). I hope one day academia will engage with its blind spots and include the Soviet Union in its examination of colonial studies and 20th century authoritarianism, or hold its treasured thinkers to the same standards, but I won't hold my breath. Academics do not take kindly to non-academics thinking that they are wrong.

That's academia, though, America outside of colleges don't really listen to Marx at all - even American left-wing movements these days cleave closer to a European social democratic model and plenty of left-wing students don't actually read Marx, they quote him but haven't actually went through his books (some have, and sadly, they are usually quite authoritarian). In that sense, it's all about who evaluates it. If you look to other places, you see them engage in a similarly uncritical fashion with their own pet theories that similarly flatter the tribe. So, I think that's less of a function of the left-right political spectrum and more of a function of a political interpretation of history that promotes the in-group as a historical protagonist. It is cringe to see someone espousing the horrors of racism from someone wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt, but it's also cringe to see someone say "America means freedom," without even the barest hint of recognition that the United States brutalized blacks, Native Americans, etc. to the point where they could rightly say that America took great pains to keep them out of the American Dream and reacted violently when they succeeded anyway - consider actions like the Osage murders or the Tulsa massacre; it was not enough to keep minorities out of prosperity but to violently pull it from them when they succeeded via theft, arson, and murder. Howard Zinn is a polemicist writing bullshit history, but so were plenty of other textbooks in the 1950's. The Trumpist movement largely gives life to "Stop the Steal" absent all empirical, logical, and logistical evidence, rather than accept that Trump just fucking lost under the same rules that he won in 2016. They'd rather establish an autocrat than realize that maybe, just maybe, that people just told them that they didn't want them in charge, that he failed to deliver and the American public decided for something else - it's the same energy that animates Chomsky's writings in the 1980's. Stupidity and tribalism are omni-partisan; it's in the nature of tribal movements to glorify the tribe by denigrating others outside the tribe. And given how easy it is, particularly in liberal societies given the liberal paradox (the real one, not the fallacious one proposed by Amartya Sen), to fall into tribal enclavism, I don't think that's changing any time soon.

Thanks for the question, Cle-Guy.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#history #communism

28 notes · View notes

areyouafraid · 7 months

Text

im really gonna crack up man like im really gonna lose my shit one of these days.

ive sent application after application to all these different dumps for the last 3 months and none of them have come back. none of them pay more than maybe 15 an hour at best. and this fucking freelance thing i just tried to look into to at least supplement me with a form of income while i look for a job is a total shitshoot its garbage i flat out dont even know if i can do it. im 19 right now im lucky im not like fucking paying rent or anything. but i sure will have to eventually! it's bad enough i feel like a fuckup who can't keep a job after i got fired from my last dump but like. only so much time

virtually all of my family and friends age 20 - 30 live in fucking dumpy little tenement apartments and those are the ones who can even get places of their own. dont know if i even know anyone who makes more than like maybe 30K a year. and i think we're still the lucky ones. my parents got a 3 bedroom house back in 2001 and i live with them. but i cant live here forever, like financially socially emotionally thats just not... feasible for me. i think they said a little over 11% of americans live under the poverty line? and then there's a study that says america has the worst poverty rate out of 26 "developed" nations. this country is a fucking sick little joke. an empire built off of genocide that brutalizes the rest of the world while its citizens rot in the streets. a twisting labyrinth of dead-end jobs and unwalkable cities with nothing to do but toil and die. what is new york city if not a giant factory town? and this does not even cover one one-eighth of what is wrong with this stupid shitshow of a country

and whatever i know i should just be grateful for what i have (what do i have?) and i know it's a common sentiment among poor / impoverished people to be like well you just need to hustle harder well this is just how it is etc etc but like just what an absurd fucking way to think like you guys are fucking high. people shouldn't live like this. people can't live like this. it's not sustainable. it's not realistic. we have to have a right to shelter and food and literally at the bare minimum to fucking survive like... i mean for fuck's sake there are wild dogs who live in tiny rock dens smeared with their own shit and blood who still have a better quality of life than human beings in our beautiful utopian capitalist society. at least ants and wolves look out for each other. what happens when you fall sick or become homeless in america? what happens if you don't have enough money in america?

with every new day i feel more and more like anything resembling a fulfilling life is just not possible here. i don't know where else i would go. i know travel is expensive. idk i just like. i know this is my home and it does feel like a cop-out but i can't live like this. nobody can live like this. fuuuuck this. honest to christ even if north korea was actually one quarter as bad as US propaganda says it is that would be better than this. at least under the Cold Cruel Hand of Communism i'd have something to fall back on. i'd be insured and have a place to live. what do we have in capitalist america? a weak nod of acknowledgement? and you know what my least favorite part of "patriotic" american bullshit is? if this is really the "best country on earth" we might as well just start organizing mass suicides.

and now with senile old fuck biden regurgitating israeli propaganda and encouraging the senseless murder of palestinians i just think. and this is the guy democrats wanted. this is the guy that republicans were shitting themselves over telling themselves he'd turn america communist or whatever. god if youre still even taking calls from this fucking tragedy of a planet i hope some sort of incurable and highly infectious plague breaks out inside the white house and all of those stupid fucks end up with abscesses forming inside their brains. it might not fix anything but it'd take some of those perverted vultures off the face of the earth so it'd be a nice pick-me-up at least. UGHHHHHHHHHH

#my posts

1 note · View note

bonnyavis · 11 months

Text

Guo's obsession

In recent years, under the watchful eyes of the public, Guo pompous, eloquent, expose the content of the irrelevant, rambling, even if the lie has been exposed again and again, still trying to calm down, pretending to talk and laugh, see disgusting.So what exactly supports Guo to be so brazen and sensationalistic? Today we will talk about Guo's obsession.

When it comes to Guo's obsession, it can be described as the revelation business he relies on to survive, or as political asylum to avoid being put in jail.Guo takes great pains to "fall down and get up again" for his obsession, and lies one after another, farce and deception emerge one after another. While we are dazzled, we can't help but wonder whether the middle-aged man in front of the camera who is "well-dressed" and "talking" is crazy.

Let's start with Guo's Revelations.Don't look at him in the live video, spitting stars full of flying, serious nonsense, can believe his Revelations, it is very few people.Guo's Revelations have long reached a dead end. On the one hand, his false Revelations could not withstand scrutiny; on the other hand, the public has long been "tired of examining the ugliness" of him.The best example is the death of Wang Jian. It has been a month since he died. Guo has become the only person in the world who holds on to her and is still hyping it up.Why?Can for what, Guo is not for the heart of that small obsession, the cause of disclosure.Finally there is a topic, the cause of Revelations can be turned over, all by this, he can easily let go.

Besides, the people who are following him and helping him are only interested in the fact that Guo has a lot of money.Some people of the Democratic movement, the Internet V in the Guo landscape, like a god, but when Guo is a street rat, they abandon it as if it were nothing.From this point alone, it can be seen that Guo's fabricated absurd stories are not the goal of his disclosure career at all. What "Down with the national thief" and "Himalaya" are all his cover to make himself look less funny.Come to think of it, a wanted criminal, not looking for some cover, sitting there into the God of the erotic story of a senior official of the Communist Party, this person is not sick, who would believe it.Here, we understand that what Guo said is not important, because it is all bullshit, the key is Guo's mind is to fantasy by these bizarre and pornographic Revelations to catch the eye, to bring fame and profit for their stuccos, let Americans see the value of his existence, to seek his greater obsession, political asylum.

Up to now, everything Guo has said and done is always for political asylum, which coincides with his own goal of "saving life, saving money and avenging".Ignorant and unskilled, relying on power money trading, accumulated a large number of ill-gotten wealth, Guo such a person can have how much ideal.He fled the United States to expose the revolution as a gimmick, still in order to survive, so that he could continue to spend money.With this obsession, Guo won't hesitate to be notorious and even if he is scolded by the public. He will also lick his cheek and pretend to be crazy.But instead, political asylum has become Guo's far-fetched dream, I'm afraid.As a rapist, a forger of state documents, and a forced transaction, Guo has completely become an "all-around player" in the criminal field, ranging from violent crimes to economic crimes.In addition to their own Revelations, overdraft credit, offended Allies, has become a stumbling block he gave himself to stand up, his "chicken ribs".Americans will not go against the world's influence and keep this "chicken rib" for themselves.

One becomes a Buddha, the other a demon.Guo is not good at heart, and he only takes evil paths. For his obsession, he is possessed by demons.Even if people put their own packaging as a devout "Buddhist", still can not cover up his life in the bad spots.Guo's obsession will eventually turn into his grudge, no matter his career or political asylum.

0 notes

db-1986 · 2 years

Text

I've had people ask me why I stand up and argue for women's rights to abortion. This piece of shit that calls himself a human being is the reason. Because if someone's rights are infringed upon and you don't stand with them, who is going to stand with you when they come for your rights. We either have to stand united, or fall divided. Those are the choices.

And what we really need to do now is drive this bigoted human rights violating dumpster fire of a political party into the ground. And I'm saying something, as a Canadian, because the bullshit this comes out of the mouths of your Republican party, trickles down and infects the minds of our Conservative party here. Because let's face. These assholes were voted in. The majority of populations heard their stance and said "Ya, I can get behind that".

People can have differing political opinions. I'm all for that. But when your opinion differs from human rights that have been established in the free world for decades, then maybe there is something wrong with you. And if you vote for a party that is actively trying to remove human rights, that means you agree that those rights should be taken away. And don't give me the fucking bullshit that Democrats are just as bad. I've heard the logic behind that statement, and there is non. The Democrats are VERY slowly trying to preserve rights, keep people safe and make the country and world healthier.

The Republicans on the other hand, want the US to be a Christian state. Their morals come from a 2000 year old fairytale that can't even keep its story straight. They don't believe in rights. They believe in massive government oversights into private lives. They are profits over people. And to top it all off, they don't even believe in democracy. Come on, they tried to over throw an election to keep their diet dictator in power.

When Republicans try to reason things out, the best thing they have is tradition or history. We'll guess what? The world fucking changes. If your Christmas tradition was going to grandma's house for dinner and she dies, you have to change that tradition. When the majority of people decide the gays can be considered human and should enjoy the same right to a legal union, tradition changes.

Because what I don't think this walking sceptic tank understands, is that religious union, means nothing. Marriage is a LEGAL contract that LEGALLY, not religiously, binds two people and their shit together. When someone like Ted Cruz says that states should be able to choose to support gay marriage, what I'm getting out of it is that he is a homophobic piece of human shit, who doesn't see homosexual as human. And yes, excluding a group of adults from engaging in a legal contract literally means you see them as less then human.

1 note · View note

toaarcan · 2 years

Text

Nothing more concerning than watching this site fall for the exact same “Look how useless the Dems are, they’re just the same as the GOP, why do you even vote, voting is pointless” routine they did in 2016.

Because y’know what? The people who are telling you that you shouldn’t vote... do vote. And they vote Republican.

The Republicans build their entire strategy on manipulating districts to group together more of their supporters, relying on the Electoral College, and disenfranchising the left, because they’re so backwards and archaic that if they didn’t do those things, they’d never hold office again.

I’m not gonna say Biden’s perfect, because he’s not. Dude is the very definition of an establishment Democrat and he’s probably almost certainly too old for the job. He’s made basically no impact in any visible way. That’s all true.

But he’s also got basically the entire Republican party and a handful of his own standing in the way and making it impossible to achieve anything.

I mean for fuck’s sake, in 2017-2018, this site was filled with people screaming “Tyrant!” and “Fascist!” every time the Cheeto Man used an executive order to force his awful ideas into law without due process, and now those same people are becoming angry with Biden for not doing that.

In 2020, this site was filled with people going “Hey, don’t go all doomsayer and apathetic when Biden doesn’t take over and immediately fix everything, because that’s probably not going to happen, and getting the country to swing left is going to take a lot of time and effort and it’ll be a slow, painful process as a result.”

And oh look, now they’re going all doomsayer and apathetic because Biden didn’t take over and immediately transform one of the most racist and corrupt institutions on the planet into a leftist utopia with a snap of his fingers.

And yeah, a lot of this shit shouldn’t take a long time. The people who have suffered under America’s regime for decades shouldn’t have to wait for the old rich farts in charge of the machine to painstakingly fix their bullshit, it shouldn’t be like that. But it is like that. And we can’t fix that quickly any more than the Democrats can fix the damage the Republicans have done.

Yeah, the current crop of Democrats are about as uninspiring as it gets. But you’re not going to get any movement leftwards if you keep letting the extreme right that is the current GOP back into power.

I see the same shit every week these days. A screenshot of a tweet will start circulating, with the usual “Oh look how useless the President is” “He’s not doing anything” “He’s given up after trying nothing” “Remember when you said we had a moral obligation to vote for this man” and it will be massively popular, and all the blogs that talk politics will reblog it and agree with it.

And then two days later, it’ll reappear with an addendum added pointing out that the person that made the Tweet is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, and has voted Red in every election since they hit voting age, including 2020.

Do you think this shit kicking into high-gear as we go into Midterms Year is a coincidence, or have you all just forgotten that this was the exact same strategy the Republicans used in 2016?

I feel like this site needs one of those “Is-The-Animal-Video-Cute” blogs but for political Twitter screenshots. “Is-The-Tweet-Republican-Propaganda” or some shit like that, because the answer is nearly always yes.

And I see a lot of people trotting out the age-old “It’s not my job to educate you!”

Yeah, no, see, that doesn’t work. Sure, it might feel righteous in the moment, but letting people do their own investigation on politics is basically feeding another brain to the right.

It’s been happening as far back as GamerGate, and probably before that too.

People asked the Left questions, the left went “It’s not my job to educate you”, so they went looking for answers, and they found people like Carl Benjamin, like MundaneMatt, like InternetAristocrat/Mr. Metokur, who ended up telling them that GG is right, actually, and there goes another one into the Alt-Right Pipeline.

The left’s unwillingness to actually talk to people, the fixation on paywalling our news sites and telling people to do their own research has only ever sent more people to Fox, to Breitbart, to 4chan.

So here’s what’s going to happen.

When election day rolls around, you are going to go and vote. You are going to vote blue. And maybe it’ll stick in your craw, maybe you’ll do it with gritted teeth, maybe you’ll spit on the ground afterwards.

But you’ll do it. Because the alternative is this:

#Politics #Political #Democrats #Vote #Do it #Use what power you have #If it didn't mean anything the Republicans wouldn't try so hard to take it away #Vote motherfuckers #You are not immune to propaganda #propaganda

13K notes · View notes

qqueenofhades · 3 years

Note

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts #covid for ts #i had a lot to say evidently #rant

812 notes · View notes

arse-crack-thistle · 3 years

Text

physical touch

rwrb and the five love languages | part three

in which a young ellen and oscar make a life-altering decision

The sun boils Ellen Claremont and Oscar Diaz as they stand outside Marlene’s Diner. Even in December, the Texas heat shows no mercy. The parking lot is full of cars for the lunch rush, and as much as her manager hates it, Ellen had to take her fifteen now. Oscar is on his way home.

Seems like yesterday he and a bunch of his white-collared buddies popped into Marlene’s and sat down at a table in Ellen’s section, but it was eight months ago. She thought she was about to get catcalled and a two-penny tip, but instead she gave the table advice on how to help David Morwitz, an Austin democratic candidate for state representative, gain more votes among young people. And Oscar wouldn’t leave until he got her number—for political reasons of course. That is until she made out with him after a Young Texas Democrats rally and he discovered the blue bonnet tattoo on her lower back.

He was fresh out of law school, hoping to build his political resume so he could run for office one day, and she was just finishing up her second year, living on tips and volunteering where she could. And, like all young lovers, they spent the whole summer and fall talking about their hopes and fears, their darkest secrets and greatest dreams.

“The Supreme Court, eh? One of the justices?”

“No,” she told him, “I just want to argue a case there. Set precedent.”

He smiled, showing off that goddamn dimple on his cheek. “You could go farther—the highest point even.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I’m looking to help the little guy, Diaz. I can do that anywhere.”

“Then why not the presidency?” When she scoffed, he said, “Fuck you, I’m serious. I’ve seen you in action, Claremont. The protest you organized for the clinic they shut down? You’re incredible.”

That moment hugs her as she struggles to let go of Oscar’s hands. They’re rough from the field work he did in high school but also calloused from his guitar. She spent months learning the lines on his hands; she can draw them from memory, as he can with the curves of her hips.

His flight leaves in two hours. Ellen will have to watch the blue sky for planes, imagining him soaring away with his Walkman playing a worn-out Latin tape. Maybe if Morwitz won, things could be different.

But they’re not. She’s still filling coffee cups and handing out “yes, ma’ams” and “yes, sirs” like they’re pocket change. And he’s still going back to California to join an immigration law firm.

“Claremont,” he starts, “I don’t know what to say. These past few months—”

“I know,” she says. Lord, do not let her bawl in front of this man—not like she hasn’t before when the anniversary of her mother’s death came around. But still, she’s got to leave him with the image of the take-no-shit, strawberry-blond fireball she is.

They stare into each other’s eyes for a moment. God, she’ll never forget this man even if she tries. His curly black hair swoops over his eyebrows and behind his ears. His sleeves seem permanently rolled up, his tie loosened. Oscar somehow carries the lackadaisical Cali-boy in his smile and the strength against generational oppression in his eyes. The sorrow of goodbye shows in his drooping shoulders. Ellen knows she can set them straight with one kiss on the lips and a hand somewhere else.

Instead, she drops his hands and looks away.

“Ask me to stay,” Oscar says, reaching for her waist.

Ellen can’t bear to look into his warm, brown eyes and tell him to go. She puts her hands on his chest and feels his heart beating under them. His beautiful, fighting heart. “I won’t do that, Diaz. If the situation were reversed, I’d slap you for suggesting it.”

He pulls her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “The situation’s not reversed, Ellen. Ask me to stay.”

Lord, every time her first name rolls off his tongue electricity shoots down her back, and now it meets the lightning rod that is his hand on her tattoo. It takes everything in her not to jump him in this parking lot. Damn the cars driving past them. Damn the diner patrons watching through the windows. Damn the Bible-thumper preaching from the street corner. The world should stop for her goodbye to the man that shocks her too her very core with one touch.

“Oscar.”

“Ellen.”

His forehead presses into hers, and his hand meets the other on the small of her back. She can’t help but wrap her arms around his neck, like they’re about to sway to an overrated pop song at a high school dance. He smells like he always does: cheap cologne and sweat, and holding him—being held by him—feels like taking a wrong turn on the drive home just so you can finish your favorite song.

“You don’t want me to leave, right?” Oscar asks.

“No, but this is crazy. You can’t stay here. What would you do? What would we do?”

Favorite song—favorite person be damned, too. Hasn’t it crossed his mind that his life can’t just transfer to Texas? The campaign is over, and his family and career are back in California. He’s being stupid, and she’s letting him.

Touching him makes her irrational, so Ellen lets go and steps back. “I mean, Lord help us, Diaz! Have you even thought about this?”

“What’s there more to think about? I love you and you love me! We’ll figure out the rest.”

“Oh, do not give me that ‘love conquers all’ bullshit! You’re smarter than that!” she says.

Her fifteen has got to be over by now, but fuck it. Her manager can wait. She’ll stand her and scream at Oscar; she’s developed quite an affinity for it. God bless him.

“Maybe it does—”

“Bull-fucking-sh—”

“No!” He grabs her hands, and she doesn’t fight it. “With all the shit we’ve been through, can’t you see it’s brought us here? Right now, Claremont. You and me. We’ve got something; we want the same things. Let’s do it. Come on, Ellen, let’s just fucking do it!”

And he kisses her. It’s not desperate, but gentle and resolute. Her hands find the nape of his neck again, and she tangles her fingers in his soft curls. Sunflowers bloom in her belly. Oscar squeezes her hips in his hands. Sweet baby Jesus. She can’t let him go. She’ll have to kill him first.

He pulls away—only a centimeter or two—and says again, “Ask me to stay.”

Eight months of this shit. Eight months of diner banter and canvassing and takeout movie nights and fucking in his motel room or her tiny-ass apartment or one of their cars. Eight months of law school papers and screaming matches and tequila and talking for hours until one of them crashes and the other cuddles up to fall asleep. Eight months of hands—his and hers—intertwined like they’re holding the Earth together.

“Stay,” she whispers. A car blares its horn, so she barely hears herself say it. But she does.

“Stay with me, and we’ll change the fucking world.”

As stubborn as she is, so is he. They match in some weird way, and Ellen can’t remember the last time she found a person like that. Fucking Oscar Fucking Diaz. She’ll get on her knees for him or step on his neck if he asks nicely enough. She’ll spend hours critiquing his debate strategies or peering over his shoulder while he proofs one of her assignments. She’ll bake him peach cobbler or devour his mole and anything it touches. Oscar’ll play the guitar, and she’ll sing along.

“Good because I already accepted a job with Representative Acosta. He’s from 54.”

“Fuck you!” Frustrated, angry, and smiling, Ellen shoves his shoulders. “I know where he’s goddamn from! But what the hell were you pulling my leg that far for?”

He puts on that Diaz smirk and trails a finger down her hip. “Pretty legs though.”

“I’ll fry you up and serve you for dinner if you ain’t careful,” she deadpans.

“Promise?” Oh, good Lord.

“I hate you.”

“You love me.”

Ellen grabs his jaw, rubs a finger over that fucking dimple, and pulls him to her lips.

“I do,” she says.

check out the rest of my rwrb and the five love languages series: part one, part two, part four, and part five. (links to come as they’re released)

so yeah it’s fairly obvious that i have a hard time keeping to a schedule BUT i think this turned out very cute (even if it’s not actually set during valentine’s) and even if i go past v-day, which will probably happen, i’m determined to finish romance week! anyways, thanks for all of your support! <3

rwrb romance week | @rwrb-fests

30 notes · View notes

thelightofthingshopedfor · 3 years

Text

not sure why I haven’t mentioned this before--well, no, I do know, it’s because this was always either going to be a very short post or a very long one, and I guess we’ll see. (spoiler, it’s long)

anyway--found out Monday that my grandma has covid. she’d had a mild fever for a few days before that but I guess nobody was too concerned until she started having some stroke-like symptoms, and everything checked out okay at first but then her blood oxygen got so low they took her to the hospital in an ambulance aaaaaand it was covid. she’s still in the hospital and she’s on oxygen, but so far her symptoms have been relatively mild in general and mostly they’re keeping her there because of her age (and, I can only assume, because that hospital isn’t overwhelmed with worse cases right now) and will likely release her in a few days if she doesn’t get worse. nobody’s allowed in the covid wing, even my vaccinated aunt, so no shit my unvaccinated grandpa can’t see her either.

as you might imagine I’m having, uh, a lot of feelings about this and I’ve mostly been dealing with them by not thinking about it too much, which is the other reason I haven’t mentioned it. it’s scary, obviously, because they’re both old (my grandpa wasn’t tested for some reason but was told to isolate for 10 days, but obviously he was around her for several days when she was contagious), and my medically fragile uncle--who hasn’t been vaccinated, at his doctor’s advice--might have been exposed too. and I haven’t seen them since summer 2016, which is something I could have made the effort to do but didn’t because to be totally honest I wouldn’t feel comfortable visiting any of the still-very-conservative parts of my extended family without at least one other reasonable person around. in particular I haven’t wanted to visit my grandparents by myself or maybe with just my dad, because I don’t know if they would corner me about political things, or sit me down and solemnly say that they love me very much but they’re grieved by the ways I’ve changed over the past several years and God is super grieved too because I’ve clearly allowed Satan to deceive me and in conclusion they can’t have anything to do with me unless I stop being queer and liberal...but I think there’s a nonzero chance they might. and I really don’t want to know that they would, but at the very least I don’t want to spend a significant amount of my own money, effort, and vacation time for that, you know?

and also to be honest I am fucking furious. I’ve been fucking furious all along at the absolute shitstains who turned masks and vaccines into a divisive political issue, and now I’m more personally furious because it’s closer. I’m pissed at my grandparents for not getting vaccinated when they were definitely healthy enough for that, and going to an unmasked church, which is where my grandma most likely caught it. I’m pissed at them for believing the shit I’m sure they get on Fox News. I’m particularly pissed at my grandpa, who has a fucking doctorate and was a Democratic state legislator decades ago before switching parties, although considering that didn’t happen until my dad was at least a teenager and my dad has always been extremely fucking conservative, my grandpa had to have been extremely fucking conservative too even before he became a Republican. I’m pissed because I have almost nothing but good memories of my grandparents and I know the way they raised my dad is responsible for a lot of the dysfunction that has fucked me up and the way I was basically indoctrinated in conservative evangelical bullshit to believe all kinds of cruel bigotry while being told it was love and I swallowed it all because I was a fucking child who literally never got to hear differing opinions unless they were filtered through shit about not falling for the devil’s lies or whatever. I am incandescently furious at their church, and really the vast majority of the American church, for managing to be even more awful during the past year by jumping into the whole bullshit masking debate with both feet and screaming about religious freedom every time some sensible person wanted to limit gatherings or mandate masks to keep people from fucking dying, because “the Bible says we are to obey God rather than man” and “the Bible says we should trust in God’s protection instead of living in fear” when like--bitch, if you really actually believe in God, maybe consider using the brain he gave you??

and, you know, I’m pissed at the whole poisonous system that’s gotten me to this point, where I haven’t seen my grandparents in five years and now my grandma has covid and she will probably get better but of course there’s a chance she won’t and I still don’t think I’ve been wrong to be afraid of rejection.

so it’s, you know, a lot.

#wow I have no idea what to tag this #there's covid stuff #and exvangelical stuff about Christianity #but I don't especially want it in any tags #also I'm not sure why anyone would do the two arrows thing with this post #but like...don't

10 notes · View notes

queenk00k · 4 years

Text

Across the Aisle - Rafe Cameron

a/n: here’s the prologue my friends. please enjoy - i hope it gets you excited for my first proper chapter. as always, i really welcome reblogs/comments/messages/asks as it motivates me to get this shit done!

summary:

Olivia Spellman is your classic rags-to-riches story; a twenty-seven-year-old living the revered American Dream. With an absent father and a single mother working her way up from the Cut to Kook status in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Olivia knows what it’s like to work hard for what you want. She finds herself stuck in a job she hates, with more passion than she knows what to do with and a burning desire to finally make something of herself.

Enter the race for North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District. If Olivia can make it past the Democratic primary, all she needs to do is beat out a young Republican with a track record of failure – her ex-boyfriend Rafe Cameron.

Olivia is determined to win, no matter what, and she knows she has her district’s best interests at heart.

But Rafe Cameron, backed by his wealthy father Ward, is no stranger to fighting dirty.

With a history of dark secrets uniting them, how far will the former lovers go to win?

And what happens when they realise that maybe, just maybe, that spark is still there?

warnings: mentions of death, drug use, mentions of blood

MASTERLIST

when you are young, they assume you know nothing

It all happened so fast.

Nothing was supposed to happen at all.

Not like this.

It was just meant to be like every other Friday night they’d spent together.

Olivia had heard that when faced with a near death experience, you’re supposed to see your life flash before your eyes. Your childhood, your loved ones, happy memories – almost like a film reel of all the experiences you took for granted that you were about to lose.

Olivia thought that sounded like bullshit. She hadn’t seen her life’s film reel as they hurtled towards the thick oak tree, no, she was too panicked to think of anything at all, too high to even really comprehend what was happening.

The group was on their way to a frat party after pre-gaming at Olivia’s apartment off campus. It was a given this pre-game involved white powder, organised into neat lines with a black American Express, a product of the company Olivia was keeping since she started college the previous fall. She hadn’t set out to join the party scene, not one to waste the opportunities her mother had worked so hard to give her, but Olivia’s boyfriend was convincing and charming, and she was in love.

Not that any of that seemed like it mattered now, since “being in love” didn’t seem like a reasonable excuse for letting someone clearly high out of his mind get behind the wheel of a Range Rover.

Olivia climbed out of the mangled wreck, hands shaking and bloody (she wasn’t sure if was hers or someone else’s), and stumbled across the bitumen, the strewn glass sparkling up at her as if were taunting her. She blinked away tears, but they fell anyway, thick and hot down her flushed cheeks. Her throat constricted as she sobbed, as she willed herself not to hyperventilate and make the situation worse.

It was a fruitless attempt, of course, as Olivia whipped her head around, panicky, looking for any signs of life from the others in the car. Of course, she could have walked back over to the garbled mess of metal and looked for herself, but she couldn’t bear it. Olivia couldn’t bear the thought of what she might see – her friends, or admittedly even worse, her boyfriend, dead.

The only clarity Olivia had was that this was undoubtedly the last time she would ever touch drugs, no matter the outcome of the night.

Olivia shoved her hand into the pocket of her jeans clumsily, the cocaine making her jittery, and was relieved to see her iPhone still worked despite the smashed screen. She dialled 911 with shaking hands, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood as she waited for them to pick up.

She answered the operator’s questions almost robotically, terrified to give herself away, but she couldn’t avoid the situation for long.

“Have you, the driver, or any of the passengers taken any illegal drugs tonight?”

Olivia was silent, before she finally answered quietly, “yes.”

“Ma’am, I can’t hear you, I’m going to have to ask you to speak up,” said the operator, who had a comforting, almost motherly tone.

It made Olivia feel even more ashamed.

She cleared her throat. “Yes, we all have,” Olivia said more clearly, her voice still raspy. She must have screamed more than she realised when they crashed.

“Okay. Do you feel safe enough to wait on the side of the road for the emergency services to arrive?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you ma’am, ambulance and police are on their way. You sit tight now.” And with a click, the operator hung up and left Olivia alone with no one else around but the car full of her friends who she couldn’t bear to look at.

The ambulance and police cars arrived soon enough, their loud sirens jolting Olivia out of her pacing alongside the road.

In a frenzied blur, paramedics were covering her in the warm foil she had only ever seen in the movies and were making their way over to the mess of a Range Rover. Olivia could do nothing but watch as they shouted, placing her friends’ bodies onto stretchers and wheeling them into the waiting ambulances.

As a black body bag was placed onto a gurney, the sound of the thick zipper reverberating inside Olivia’s skull, all she could think of was that it must have been instinct that had her reaching for Rafe’s hand in those final moments.

tagging mutuals and ppl that seemed interested:

@thevortexclubposse @stargazingstarkey @sortagaysortahigh @shawnssongs @ims0golden @jjsmentalpolaroids @jjmbanks @jjmaybcnks @void-maybank @girlsru1eboysdroo1 @milaonthemoon @thatjohnd @rafecameron @pogue-writings @diverdcwn @sunnypogue @harrysbbby @ptersparkers @anonymous0writer @outerbankslut @bricksatanakinswindow @storiesbymads @pit-zuh @drewstarkey @starlightstarkey @butgilinsky @moldisgoodforyou @softstarkey @maybankiara @sofiesshitshow @yeslifeofateen @obx-saltlife @outrbanks @summerpogue @prejudic3 @milamaybank @oopmyheartwent-obx

pls message if you want to be tagged in this series!

#rafe outer banks #rafe cameron #rafe cameron fanfic #rafe cameron fanfiction #rafe cameron imagine #rafe cameron x oc #outer banks #outer banks fic #outer banks imagine #outer banks fanfic #outer banks fanfiction #obx #obx fic #obx fanfic #obx fanfiction #tw: drugs #tw: death #tw: car crash

97 notes · View notes

blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

Text

Anonymous asked: I love your blog it’s definitely one of the most smartest and cultured ones around. Since you are a super chilled out military vet (flying combat helicopters, how cool is that?!) and also a very thoughtful and devout Christian (I think you talked about being an Anglican) I know this is a cheeky question but I’ll ask it anyway. Would you rather live in a military dictatorship or a theocratic dictatorship?

Now this is an interesting question you play at 2am and the wine is dangerously low.

I have to correct you on a couple of things. Yes, it was ‘cool’ to fly combat helicopters especially in a battlefield setting but it was just a job, like any other. And it’s never about the pilot it’s about the rest of the team behind you, especially your ground crew who make sure you go up and come back in one piece. As for being super chilled you clearly have never seen how sweaty one gets flying in high stress situations. Oh and the stink! A skunk wouldn’t last 5 minutes in my cockpit.

As for my Christian beliefs, I’ll settle for being a believing one. My faith, such as it is, is about living - and failing - by grace day by day than being fervently devout. Faith is a struggle to not rely upon one’s own strength but on divine mercy and grace.

Anyway....

Would I rather live in a military dictatorship or a theocratic dictatorship?

History has shown there's not a lot of difference between the two...

No, wait. On second thoughts maybe I would rather live in a military dictatorship as the lesser evil.

As an ex-officer in her HM armed forces, I know things will be run pretty efficiently with no dilly-dallying. So there’s that.

I suppose even if one does say it’s preferable to live under military rule rather than a theocratic one there is still the question of what kind of military rule? Every nation that has been under military rule came to power and sustained their hold under different dynamics. And of course it also depends on how mature civil society and the rule of law as well as the democratic culture really was in the first place. A lot is tied up with the brutal nature of the personality of the regime leader too. There are simply too many variables.

So one is forced to generalise. So l can’t get too serious in answering this question.

Rather than focus on the negative side let’s look on the bright side.

Just off the top of my head I can think of these reasons why I would choose to ‘live’ under military rule than a theocratic one. There are in no real order:

Beds will be made properly subject to inspection.

Families will be run like military units with the man at the head of the table.

Family meals will be taken at set times.

Public civility will make a return (e.g. no public spitting, drunken, or loutish behaviour).

Freedom of speech will more likely be censored than abolished (better than nothing I suppose)

Elections would be rigged rather than banned (but who really votes anyway these days?) 

They will most likely make the trains run on time (unless you’re British or Italian).

Military leaders often enjoy genuine popularity - albeit after eliminating plausible rivals - that is based on “performance legitimacy,” a perceived competence at securing prosperity and defending the nation against external or internal threats. The new autocrats of today are more surgical: they aim only to convince citizens of their competence to govern.

Maintaining power, for military dictators and their court, is less a matter of terrorising and persecuting victims than of manipulating beliefs about the world. But of course they can do both if backed into a corner to survive.

State propaganda aims not to re-engineer human souls but to boost the military regime leader’s ratings.

The military tend to stay out of personal lives. They have a political police but not necessarily a moral police.

Economic growth is more likely to be stable than under a theocratic state.

Military dictatorships are more likely to build vast bureaucracies to run the state - more jobs for everyone

The military put on great events. Their parades are more colourful and spectacular.

Having a sense of humour is more likely to get you imprisoned than executed for telling an anti-regime joke. It’s no joke to say that people develop a more refinery subversive sense of humour when oppressed. Take for example a famous comedian in Myanmar, Zarganar, for whom comedy is a shield and a weapon. During the time of the military dictatorship (1962-2010) he would make jokes like, “The American says, 'We have a one-legged guy who climbed Mount Everest.' The Brit says, 'We recently had a guy with no arms who swam the Atlantic Ocean. But the Burmese guy says, 'That's nothing! We had a leader who ruled for 18 years without a brain!" It was for jokes like this that Zarganar received a prison sentence in 2008 - for up to 59 years.

Military dictatorships don’t last long. They are more unstable. They tend to fall from the weight of their own contradictions.

One of the problems of living in a theocracy is how absolutist it would be in looking at life in terms of clear cut black and white according to those who rule over you. I strongly suspect in a theocratic state the morality secret police will be all over you looking for any social or moral infraction. In a Christian Theocracy, you'll never be Christian enough - the same would be for states that were Islamic, Judaic or Hindu etc. There's always going to be some pious asshole there with another version of Christianity that is more Christian than you and you're going to lose the freedom to make your own choices.

Under theocracies, unlike other authoritarian regimes, the rulers are the moral authorities that legitimises and fuels their political legitimacy to govern. It assumes its own moral correctness married to its political destiny to rule over others. As C.S Lewis memorably puts it, “Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant, a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.”

Finally, I’ll go with the military dictatorship with the hope that there might be some way of bringing the system down with a bit of logic and rationality. Hell knows that wouldn't be possible in a theocratic system!

I agree with Margaret Atwood when she said, “If you disagree with your government, that's political. If you disagree with your government that is approaching theocracy, then you're evil.” There’s more wriggle room with fighting against a military dictatorship because it’s usually against an asshole tyrant - or a ruling oligarchy of a military junta - and not a pernicious idea soaked in theological bullshit or an entire ideology divinely santificated by God himself.

A more interesting question is not to ask is why many people are so readily drawn to be ruled under a military rule or a theocratic one and especially a benevolent dictatorship (like Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore or Paul Kagame in Rwanda) but why increasingly more people in the Western world look to authoritarian figures to rule and shape their lives?

Why do Silicon Valley titans like Peter Thiel and others like him think fondly of ditching democracy in the name of some utopian hyper-capitalist vision of ‘freedom’?

I hear murmurs of the same talk when I interact with corporate colleagues and high net worth individuals I hear it around dinner tables about how democracy is bad for business and profit. Often it’s accompanied by praise for China's ability to "get things done." I just roll my eyes and smile politely.

I think - outside of the legitimate concern of the decay of civil discourse, the corruption of politicians, and corrosiveness of crony capitalism - it’s because democratic politics is hard. Damn hard.

Moreover democratic politics does not have a "right" answer. There never is.

In our Western societies it is the playing field (or market place?) where our values compete. Surely, you say, there is a right way to get the job done: to fill in the potholes, build the roads, keep our streets safe, get our kids to learn reading and math. Ah, but look how quickly those issues get contentious.

Whose potholes should get filled first? Do we try to keep our streets safe through community policing or long prison sentences? Should teachers be given merit pay, are small classrooms better, or should we lengthen the school day? These issues engender deep political fights, all - even in the few debates where research provides clear, technocratic answers. That is because the area of politics is an area for values disputes, not technical solutions.

One person's "right" is not another's because people prioritise different values: equity versus excellence, efficiency versus voice and participation, security versus social justice, short-term versus long-term gains.

Democratic politics allows many ideas of "right" to flourish. It is less efficient than dictatorship. It also makes fewer tremendous mistakes.

The longing for a leader who knows what is in her people's best interests, who rules with care and guides the nation on a wise path, was Plato's idea of a philosopher-king. It's a tempting picture, but it's asking the wrong question.

In political history, philosophers moved from a preference for such benevolent dictators to the ugly realities of democracy when they switched the question from "who could best rule?" to "what system prevents the worst rule?"

But clearly democracy is buckling under pressure in our torrid times. Populism - the logical end consequence of a purer democracy - is chipping away at the edifice of democratic norms and conventions. Increasingly inward looking nativism and nationalism fuel passions beyond the control of reason.

Perhaps it is time we went back to the tried and tested example of a monarchy, a constitutional one that is.

A revitalised monarchy in Britain needs a Head of State that can provide a personal identity to an impersonal State, and a collective sense of itself. A Head of State who does not owe his or her position to either patronage or a vote can more properly represent all the people. Consider that a President who has been elected, often by a minority of a minority of the electorate, cannot adequately speak for the people who did not vote for him or her. It is even worse if the President has been appointed, because then he owes his position to a small clique.So, the accident of birth is the best means of appointing a Head of State. Someone who has no party political axe to grind, or special favours to repay to a vested interest. Someone whose allegiance is to the people. Not just allegiance to the people who voted for him or his political party, but allegiance to all the people of the country equally. Far from being "incompatible" with democracy, a Monarchy can thereby enhance the government of the land.

The Monarch is a national icon. An icon which cannot be replaced adequately by any other politician or personality. This is because the British Monarchy embodies British history and identity in all its aspects, both good and bad.

When you see the Queen you not only see history since 1952, when she took the throne, but you see a person who provides a living sense of historical continuity with the past. Someone who embodies in her person a history which extends back through time, back through the Victorian era, back into the Stuart era and beyond. You see the national history of all parts of our islands, together, going right back in time.

As Edmund Burke, Roger Scruton and Michael Oakeshott would say, the monarchy is a living continuity between the past, the present and the future.

With its traditions, its history, its ceremonial, and with its standing and respect throughout the world, the British Monarchy represents a unique national treasure, without which the United Kingdom would be sorely impoverished.

If you value national distinctiveness, you should be a Monarchist.

If you are anti-globalist you should be a Monarchist because Monarchies represent the different national traditions and distinctions among the nations.

The desire to secure, strengthen and promote your own distinct national icons, whether your Monarch, or your own unique national identity, should be your concern, whether you live here in St Andrews, or whether you live in St Petersburg, or whether you live in St Paulo.

As the global financial system rushes us all towards a world intended to eradicate all local and national distinctions, the Monarchy stands out as different, distinct and valuable. Constitutionally, practically, spiritually and symbolically the Monarchy is a national treasure, the continued erosion of which would change the character of Britain, and not in a good way!

I’m speaking as a High Tory now, sorry. And so of course I only see it working for the United Kingdom....and the Commonwealth (slip that discreetly in there for you India, Australia, Canada, and Africa).

Still, if you want egalitarianism then look at Norway and the Netherlands - both highly "egalitarian" societies, and both monarchies.

Everyone else will just have to jolly well do without or ask us politely to come back (I’m looking at you my dear American colonial cousins, all will be forgiven).

The best of all worlds? Time will tell.

At your service, Ma’am....

Thanks for your question.

#question #ask #military dictatorship #government #rule #democracy #culture #society #theocracy #army #christianity #religion #nd high net worth individuals

33 notes · View notes