#end racism on planet earth

[stemcellstencil]

A few things come to mind other than just your typical oh that’s awful, so sad…

The white racists I know with these names.

Very low low frequency trash energies. Revised stories for what and why.

Sometimes black Americans even … men specifically.. will try and jealously push me.

“I’m an ordained priest.”

No you’re not. You’re a damn drug dealer who wants to sell women.

— but why push me?

#black American men #religiosity #priestesses #childhood racism #the lynching of frazier baker #White trashy racists usa #sex trafficking #fbi #they fell asleep apparently if the child wasn’t white and wanted alive #sexism in ministry #Africa ego well… #theta frequency I believe #children shouldn’t have to tolerate your ego #but American children are often such garbage #spirit poor usa #end world hunger #end racism on planet earth #Roswell NM #Area 51 #Pakistani #bindi lion vex #fixing botched astrology #the stars are a weather report too #Egyptian pyramids #what weather is that? #black history month

[specialagentartemis]

Something always fascinating to me is the "character who thinks they're in a different genre" phenomenon. The theme of the story you are telling determines what the right and wrong actions to take are; but the characters, reacting in-universe to the situation, don't know what story they're in, and the exact same responses can be what saves you or damns you depending on what kind of story the author is telling and what the story's message is about what life is like.

In Wolf 359, Warren Kepler approaches the mysterious and powerful aliens with threats; he kills their liaison and tries to position himself as a powerful opponent. However, he's shown to be wrong and making things worse: his preemptive aggression is unwarranted and unhelpful and bites him in the ass. The aliens want to communicate and understand humanity and share our music. It's Doug Eiffel, the pacifistic (and kind of scaredy-cat) communications officer who loves to talk and share pop culture, who talks to them and understands that the aliens are scary not because they want to kill us but because they don't understand the concepts of individuals and death. Talking to them, communicating with them, understanding where they're coming from and and bringing them to understand a human point of view, is what succeeds. Openness rather than suspicion, trust rather than aggression. Kepler thinks he's a dramatic space marine protecting the Earth from the alien threat by showing them humans are tough and can take them, but that's not the kind of story this is.

Conversely, in Janus Descending, Chel is in awe of the strange and beautiful alien world around her. She wants to touch it, understand it, get up close to it. When she sees a crystal alien dog, she wants to befriend it, despite Peter's warning. But when she gets close to it, extending her arm in greeting, it attacks her and drags her down into the cave to try to eat her. This sets the inevitable tragedy in motion. Suspicion is warranted; trust will get you killed. Because this is a sci-fi horror, with a major running thematic reading about how racism and sexism will destroy your brain and your society, and how the people who think they're too smart to be prejudiced don't see their own prejudice and will end up ruining the lives of the people they still don't fully see as equals, this kind of trust that Chel shows this strange alien is tragic. However it is also a horror story where there are very real hibernating space snakes ready to wake up and eat the fresh meat that has landed on their planet, and by being too trusting Chel has accidentally introduced herself to one.

Kepler, suspicious and ready to shoot any alien he doesn't understand, would likely have survived Janus Descending; Chel, with her enthusiasm for learning about and meeting aliens, would have been a wonderful and helpful member of the Wolf 359 crew.

In a similar manner, in Alien, Ellen Ripley yells to the rest of her crew not to bring the attacked crewmember with the alien on his face back on the ship and into the medical bay, you don't know what contamination that thing might have; she's ignored. She tells them not to let the crewmember out of quarantine even though he seems fine; she's ignored again. Ripley is the one person protesting this isn't safe, we don't know what's going on, and she is consistently ignored, until an alien bursts out of her crewmate's chest and then eats everyone and Ripley is proven to be right and also the only survivor. (And it turns out that the science officer consistently overriding her protests was an android sent by the company that contracted them, and said android was given orders to bring the alien back so the company could study it and do weapons development with it, try not to let the crew find out about it, and kill them if he had to in order to do so!)

Ripley's paranoia and mistrust of the situation was correct, because Alien is a space horror and the theme is in space no one can hear you scream (also corporations consider you expendable).

Conversely, in All Systems Red, we have a damaged and almost-combat-overridden Murderbot being brought back into the PreservationAux hab medical bay after being attacked by other SecUnits. Gurathin becomes the one person protesting this isn't safe, we don't know what's going on, he doesn't want to let Murderbot out because it's hacked and probably sabotaging them for the company contracted their security and sent it with them. Gurathin thinks he is the Ellen Ripley here! He is trying to warn his teammates not to make a dangerous mistake that will get everyone killed!

However, All Systems Red is a very different story than Alien, and Murderbot is neither a traitor on behalf of the company to sabotage them and steal alien remnants for weapons development, nor a threat to the humans - it's a friend, it's a good person, and it wants to help them against both companies willing to screw them over. Trusting it and helping it is the right thing to do and is what saves their lives. Gurathin is proven to be wrong.

If everyone on the Nostromo crew had listened to Ellen Ripley, they would still be alive (except Kane. RIP Kane), because this is a horror story about being isolated and hunted and going up against this horrifying thing that wants to kill and eat you and just keeps getting stronger. If everyone on the PreservationAux team listened to Gurathin, they would all be dead, because this is a story about friendship and teamwork and trust and overcoming trauma and accepting the personhood of someone very different from you.

Same responses. Different context. And so very different moral conclusions.

Warren Kepler was about how the brash violent over-confident approach to things you don't understand is wrong, and that openness and developing that understanding between people is what's important; Chel was about the tragedy of trust destroying a Black woman who wanted so much to believe in a world that could be kind and beautiful. Ripley was about a woman whose expertise and safety warnings were ignored and brushed aside and everyone who did so died because of it; Gurathin was about how even justified fear shouldn't mean you make someone else a scapegoat and mistrust them because they seem scary.

Sometimes you're in the wrong genre because you need to be, because the author is trying to show how not to react to the situation they set up in order to build the mood and the theme they're trying to convey.

#Wolf 359 #Janus Descending #Alien #The Murderbot Diaries #Murderbot #meta #my meta #it's about what the author is saying about the nature of the world and how to respond to it

[jesncin]

Coddling Colonizer Guilt

"Performative diversity is when MAWS features a Native American variant of Lois Lane in the multiverse episode only to end the season on a Thanksgiving episode."

...is something I like to joke with my friends as a shorthand for referencing MAWS' squeamish approach to politics while still trying to reap the clout of "diverse representation". I want to get my thoughts out there and perhaps start a discussion over why this feels off.

Some disclaimers: Firstly, I'm not Native American. Understand this is an observation I'm making from an outsider perspective with no personal authority. I'm just a disappointed Asian Lois Lane fan. Secondly, I know the MAWS crew/creators had no malicious intent in any of these (what I consider) poor writing decisions. I'm simply here to challenge and analyze these narrative and visual choices.

MAWS takes a fairly controversial take on Superman mythos so far. Unlike Superman's historic roots as an allegory for Jewish immigrants with Clark coming from a Kryptonian socialist utopia (leading the imperfect people of Earth to a better tomorrow), MAWS chooses instead to reimagine Superman as a descendant from a planet of "alien invaders". If the leaked(?) concept art (warning potential spoilers for s2) is to be believed, Clark is the direct descendent of the leaders of the "Kryptonian Empire". Supposedly gone are the parents of Superman being scientists that warn of the destruction of their home planet- instead we have the "proud, loving, brilliant" "leaders of the Kryptonian Empire".

While we don't know if this is the direction the show is going in, there are already cryptic hints of it being planted and thematic elements set up that point to it being a possibility. Clark had spent a majority of the season wondering what/who he is (being incapable of talking to Jor-El's hologram because of a language barrier) only to find out his supposed origins in episode 9. He's devastated learning that he's an alien invader and, once he regroups with his friends, angsts about believing he's a weapon sent from Krypton to invade Earth. Asian-Lois Lane and Black-Jimmy Olsen assure White-passing-alien-man Clark Kent that he's different and not like other colonizers. Clark ultimately saves the day, proving he's an exception. It's curious then that the season ends on Thanksgiving.

As I've mentioned before, MAWS is exhaustively squeamish with getting political. Whatever happens in the show that resembles "themes" is quickly contradicted with very little consistent internal logic. One minute Superman is supposedly a threat that "wipes out good American jobs", should "go back to where he came from" and Lois makes a hope speech about how we shouldn't treat people who "are different" and "don't look like us" (??) with cruelty (so Clark's an immigrant going through xenophobia?) and the next he's a redeemed colonizer (a more prominent thematic arc). One minute Clark is "different" and scared of being othered- likened to a gay couple and allegorically closeted, and the next his friends call him out for being a lying liar for not disclosing his marginalized identity within a week (the narrative frames Lois and Jimmy as being in the right). This show's writing is non-committal with what it wants to say, and largely goes on vibes. That is to say I don't think the writers intended for the themes of colonizer guilt to accidentally tie into Thanksgiving as a set piece for their final episode.

I'm sure the reason the writers chose Thanksgiving as their final episode is because it's "relateable". Half the episode is dedicated to slice of life family reunion shenanigans and the dang turkey still not being cooked through. But in choosing Thanksgiving, the writers told on themselves here with their biases. The existence of Thanksgiving implies the existence of genocide (of Native American people) by colonists in the MAWS universe. And yet Black Jimmy Olsen doesn't know what racism is (Mallah and the Brain give him a judgmental stare as Jimmy admits he can't relate to being violently marginalized) and Asian American Lois Lane doesn't understand immigration and xenophobia (constantly being entitled to Clark's immigrant identity, being incapable of comprehending why he would keep it a secret, because secrets are lies). The MAWS crew wanted a "relateable" set piece but in doing so ended up reinforcing the historical revisionism the holiday entails. A foreign colonizer sharing a meal with his friends of color on Earth, whose culture, history, and identity are all white washed.

I would like to challenge this idea that Thanksgiving is somehow the "relateable" choice. Why pick this holiday? Why not celebrate Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning (as some Native Americans do)? Why not pick any Jewish holiday as a nod to Superman's creators (ignoring this version's colonizer interpretation for a second)? Why not pick Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated by many people including Koreans (Seollal in South Korea)? It could've been another fun opportunity to showcase Lois' heritage, and create a fusion of cultures from Jimmy and Clark's families. At its most non-political and secular, why couldn't they pick any weekend? This is what happens when a show doesn't consider its world building and setting in a holistic way. MAWS will nod to xenophobic rhetoric, portray allegorical queer marginalization, and make the vaguest nods to systemic bigotry (Prof Ivo displaced a whole neighborhood! Yet we never hear from those figurative displaced people). But it does nothing to discuss any of that on a deeper level. Its characters of color don't know what racism is and Thanksgiving is just a fun family reunion, guys.

All this and they had the audacity to sneak in a Native American Lois Lane in the multiverse episode?? Why is she, out of all the Lois Lanes in this screencap, the only one in full traditional wear? Why isn't she in a smart casual business fit like Black Lois and STAS white Lois? Would she not have been recognizably Native American to the non-Native audience otherwise? Isn't this tokenizing? Do you think she has a xenophobic dad in the military like Korean American Lois does?

But that fits MAWS' approach to diversity, doesn't it? Surface level cultural nods, maybe make Lois wear a hanbok one time, and let the audience eat it up. Never mind that both Korean American Lois and Native American Lois have been stripped of their culture and history in every other aspect.

I use the word "relateable" a lot here, but I think the important question to ask is "relateable for who?". 'Immigrant' is too charged a word, so MAWS universalizes Clark's marginalization to "being different". Superman isn't even an immigrant in this version, that was all a smokescreen for the twist that he's actually a descendent of colonizers! Being wracked with colonizer guilt is way more relateable to the white audience than being an immigrant, surely. Thanksgiving is more relateable than celebrating any culturally specific holiday our "diverse reimagining" could have represented. Characters of color being functionally white (in a way that doesn't threaten middle America) is way more relateable. MAWS is a show that doesn't want to delve into Native American history. It would rather put a Native American Lois hologram on a pedestal and call it a day.

#ramblings #jesncin talks maws #media criticism #includes discussion of that leaked(?) concept art btw so warning for potential s2 spoilers #this is long but I wanted to provide context as I talked #hope yall enjoy! and also pls be nice!! #jesncin dc meta

[old-school-butch]

The shrinking global population

This is something that is getting lots of media attention, especially in anything focused on economics and global growth.

The narrative goes like this: as a country’s wealth grows and living gets more expensive, women get more educated and push back the age of marriage and opt to have fewer kids.

There is an incoming deluge of think pieces and policies too to ‘encourage larger families’ that will range from abortion bans to baby subsidies.

As feminists, we must insist that these discussions focus on the reality of women’s labor as the unpaid resource that is being exploited in our society.

Some key points:

1. Even women working full-time jobs do more housework and childcare than their male partners. This is called the ‘double-shift’ and it’s been observed since the 60s.

2, Women in advanced economies that have more supportive programs for mothers, (where having a child doesn’t mean abandoning your career) have more kids that women in advanced economies that offer no support. In nations where those measures - like parental leave - extend to fathers, dads take on more of the work of raising kids and ultimately... this also leads to more kids. So the patriarchal argument that women’s rights need to end so women will return to being barefoot and pregnant can be rebutted with the simple notion of ‘maybe try making motherhood less shitty for women?’

3. Even without government subsidies, women around the world who have male partners who take on more of the house work and childcare have more children. A specific complaint of South Korean feminists, for example, is that men have not changed their attitudes about the role of wives as domestic servants. Why marry a man and have your workload triple - caring for yourself, him and a baby too? Women are making rational choices.

4. Limiting those choices will be attempted. Bans on birth control, abortion rights will be a theme for the next decade.

5. Appealing to racism and/or weird guilt trips will be attempted. Resist all messaging to ‘save’ whatever ethnic, religious, racial or cultural group you are in by having more children than you want.

6. We must resist another rational choice that will be available for some women - to offload the work of child-raising onto an underclass of women. From using surrogates, maids, or low-paid childcare workers - the ‘solutions’ available to upper/middle-class women will continue to exploit economically vulnerable women as a group. Men already exploit these women as mail-order brides, and this practice will increase since so many countries have aborted so many girl fetuses that there’s an excess population of males. Instead, we need to examine how to make childcare more efficient and extend health care for all families to protect women and children’s health.

7. A shrinking population is always framed as a disaster in the making, but surely some economists can come up with ways to manage this process in a way that makes a bit more room on this planet for plants and animals. Growing populations have driven famines and wars for millennia, surely it’s time for humans to learn to how to create a slower, more stable impact on the earth.

[orchres]

The more time goes by the less I like Wakanda as a concept. I've said this before but how I see it the central idea of this fictional place is 1 part hotep "we was kangz!!" wishful thinking and 3 parts the awful, ahistorical and antiblack myth that any Africans who weren't kidnapped and sold into slavery in the west were just chilling and having a good fucking time and counting their coins from having sold their kin. like the latter in particular makes me sick to my stomach because how on earth could that EVER be true given that Africa has some of thee poorest countries in the world despite having 60% of all resources used on this planet to make things. like, please think critically. who benefits from this lie. antiblackness is a global project of extraction, slavery and disenfranchisement. Anyway my point is the wakanda narrative is at its core antiblack and it shows up in certain choices they make in the movie for instance, why would wakandans who famously have never experienced a single hardship in their blessed negro lives be wearing lip plates? when they emerged as a way of identifying kin and deterring slavers from kidnapping and selling you off to the Arabs? like it's not just some random inexplicable thing that primitives, sorry, East Africans do. but of course who gives a shit right? as long as it's a narrative that can make sense to those who would rather we resent each other and imagine the other had/has it better when at the end if the day it actually doesn't fucking matter at all because nobody cares to distinguish is unless it is to pit us against each other so we can stay distracted by racism. i despise the continued assertion that our culture can only be aesthetic and there's no thought whatsoever behind it because everyone knows that natives don't be thinking they just commune with the trees and soil because they're basically animals. fuck that movie.

[aquaaquila]

As for Marcy's name translating to god of war, for some reason my brain always sorta associated it hinting how war started in amphibia, one that did (unintentionally) forge through Marcy's hands via Andrias

Ok, rant time since it's like my first ask which isn't about reblog games or some support scam:

All Calamity Girls represent each race they were sent to in their entirety. All the wars, invasions, and conflicts started with newts. Down from Valeriana and her order creating the Calamity Box that would be later used to conquer the other worlds which would be directly under the command of the Newt dynasty Andrias belonged to (all 3 races contributed though, much like all 3 girls came together to waste their lives together, and sure Sasha was the ultimate control freak, but it was Marcy who "always had a plan" according to Sash and both Sasha and Marcy bonded over pragmatic understanding that Anne is too "nice" (granted it's usually Sasha perceived as mean, Marcy as nice and Anne as in-between, it's more so about Anne being moral to Sasha's immoral and Marcy's amoral), and how she should go along with their schemes like them throwing dance parties + Marcy also always inviting Sash and Anne to do stuff with her even if they weren't interested). And of course the aftermath of Leif's betrayal in which Andrias started Amphibia's racism and used newts specifically to uphold such a system by making them in charge and most privileged, and then leading another invasion on Earth which was basically a war to end all wars.

Because as I said, Marcy represents the newts, she also kickstarts all the conflicts in the show. She got all 3 of them stuck in Amphibia, which finally made Anne confront Sasha, all of their misadventures, and finally enabled Andrias to lead the invasion to Earth by supporting him. And we shall also not forget about Darcy, who while not the same person as Marcy, is still part of her character. Darcy's color scheme also matches the planet Mars which is where the part of "God of War" in Marcy's name comes from, whereas Marcy's normal color scheme represents the Planet Earth, ironic considering she was the least eager to come back to Earth. Darcy of course was the ultimate Mastermind behind the invasion and the tradition of starting wars. Darcy was one of the final bosses of Amphibia to defeat, the one representing the ultimate consequences of how far the toxicity of all 3 girls could've gone.

So yeah, personality-wise Marcy may not seem like she would suit her name, heck people probably would think she should be more like Athena. However without doubt the name of Marcy Regina Wu fits her actual role in the story, even if it wasn't exactly her willing choice. Though it's not like she doesn't have it in her, I mean she is a gamer who always slays-

Just in case you haven't noticed I just love how the entire trio was crafted, they're such perfect characters ong-

#keep sending me more asks and I'll give you meta analysis on all 3 girls #and also Hunter x Calamity trio xD if it escalates out of hand #amphibia #marcy wu #darcy wu #sasha waybright #anne boonchuy #amphibia newts

[khruschevshoe]

"You too, huh?": An Unhinged Ten/Jack/Martha Meta

Alright, so, Ten/Martha/Jack's dynamic has been rotating rent free in my brain all week. You have two people- Jack and Martha- who both admit to fancying a man who could never love them back, a man who is so embroiled in grief over a woman that Jack clearly once loved as much as he loved the Doctor, a man who showed them the stars and showed them the horrors of the universe. A man who directly leads to them both becoming greater and worse than they ever were before, a man who took their lives and twisted himself inside of every strand of them forever, a man who offered them a hand and kissed them and became the best and the worst thing to ever happen to them.

And it's not just the Year That Never Was- it's more than that. It's Jack dying for the Doctor and then being cursed with eternity and yet despite a century of being tortured by Torchwood/waiting for the Doctor, he never lost hope in the Doctor being able to fix him. It's Martha going through some of the worst shit any companion has had to in a single season (the racism/hopelessness she had to face in Human Nature/Family of Blood, being stuck in the 1960s for months and having to get a job with no guarantee that she'd ever make it out, having to walk the dystopian earth for a year with the weight of the literal world on her shoulders, nearly burning to death due to a living sun, taking on the psychological weight of keeping the Doctor steady- hell, the Doctor's purposeful ignorance of her feelings isn't even at the top of the list and yet it still did damage) and yet managing to find the strength to respect herself and leave.

It's the way that both of them have their images of the Doctor irreversibly cracked at the end of the Year That Never Was. They still believe in the Doctor, would still go to the ends of the earth for the planet, as we see in Journey's End, but they don't quite fancy him anymore. They can't. Jack was tortured and killed over and over again by the Master for a year straight and Martha was forced to walk the burning earth for a year straight while her family was tortured and yet at the end of it all, the Doctor didn't comfort them. He cradled the Master in his arms and begged him to regenerate and sobbed when he didn't.

It's the way that Martha and Jack are the ones to make the initial threats to Davros in Journey's End. (Yes, Sarah Jane helped with the warp star, and made threats of her own, but Martha and Jack opened up the comms. They looked the creator of the Daleks in the eyes and said do you hear me?) Martha and Jack walk off at the end of Journey's End holding hands, because they're so similar, at the end of the day, because they understand each other, because "you too, huh?"

But it's also the Doctor looking at them both and seeing Jack and seeing something wrong with the man he once loved (don't tell me that Nine didn't reciprocate his feelings, I've got a whole post on the Rose/Jack/Nine dynamic) that he can't ignore, because he's the last one of his species and he's the only one left to pay attention to the laws of time. It's the Doctor needing a doctor of his own, someone with a better grasp on themselves than he does, and completely ignoring the damage that it does to her to keep him steady.

It's the Doctor being unable to love Jack while Jack over and over again coming to his call. It's the Doctor coming the second that Martha calls him in the Sontaran Stratagem and maybe, just maybe, realizing that he got something wrong. It's about Martha being a doctor being a soldier and the Doctor being a soldier who never wanted to be a soldier but won't admit that he's a soldier and Jack being a con-man who was fixed and broken by a doctor and so became a soldier to find his Doctor.

(It's about the fact that after Journey's End happened and the Doctor lost Donna and Rose, he really should have realized what he could have had waiting for him. Maybe gone back and groveled and maybe gotten slapped and then gotten hugged. Or kissed. Or they slept together, if that's your jam.)

#did not mean to ramble for so long #i want to read every fic about them #i want to explore the fucked up dynamic between them #I want Jack and Martha to have comfort sex after the Year that Never Was #i want the Doctor to grovel for forgiveness #i want him to understand that he loves them and actually figure out what to deal with that #never would have happened but a girl can dream #ten x jack x martha #tenmartha #jack x martha #ten x jack #listen just as unhinged as the nine/jack/rose ot3 but WAY less wholesome and way more damaged #captain jack harkness #martha jones #tenth doctor #rotating RENT FREE in my brain #meta #i don't even know if this is proper analysis #i just have some FEELINGS about them okay?

[chuthulhu-reads]

[ID: a panel from Trigun Maximum. A number of Gunsmoke bounty hunters are exchanging chaotic gunfire with Earth Federation robots. The bounty hunters are shouting, "Hey! It's those dickless earthlings!" The Earth Federation soldiers are shouting, "What do you fucking natives think you're doing?!" Someone, possibly both, is shouting, "Get them! Get them! Get them!" End ID.]

Ahhhhh, humans. After the apocalypse winds down and with it the emotional union of humanity, in-group/out-grouping returns and with it, casual racism (planetism?) and unnecessary violence. The song of humanity continues indeed.

#Trigun #Trimax #This is not doomerism I just think it's incredibly funny #thing is a disaster can force unity but that's just it #it's forced #the unity lasts only as long as the shared threat #true understanding takes time and communication #and now that the world isn't ending #they have that time #isn't that wonderful?

[davekat-sucks]

Hello monsieur davekatsucks. Sorry if this is a lot but your cherub talk reminded me. I am thinking about how hypocritically sexualized all the friendsim trolls were. You know, on the planet whose society's whole deal is that *only kids live there*... and then one of the authors said Chahut would be over 18 earth years of age like that matters? It's a whole different society man, they aren't considered adults until they go off planet, they would think you're a sicko, it's just another "erm she's actually technically 30 she's just a species that ages slower" argument (mixed with a fun flipped sprinkling of "erm actually the age of consent in some places is xyz"!) except all of the antis bought it this time because they personally thought the character was hot and that justifies as many loopholes in their logic as need be to make them not feel icky or ever have to think about their own capacity to do bad things. It's almost like the randomly generated number they stick on the wiki page for a character doesn't matter at all in comparison to how mature they look and act! You're so close to getting it!!!! Idk I'm tired. And randomly paranoid that tumblr won't keep me anon for this ask, if it's not then kmn ig

It doesn't help as well that Chaut also tells Amisia that she knows trolls YOUNGER than her that have already in quadrants. So that implies someone as young as say 3-4 years old, would have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe she doesn't imply outright sex or do pailing, but it shows that trolls in Alternia are aware of how their species reproduce and the consequences if they contribute for the Mother Grub. Just try to comprehend someone as young as that would have to know about sex and said child is told if they don't contribute to sex, they will DIE. By that logic, if someone as young as that could start a quadrant, then that means age gap would be NOTHING since they are all kids and they need to fuck with someone else to make future troll babies. If Alternia is not just a dangerously environmental planet that grooms aliens about racism and violence, it's also a breeding ground for the young. The other time WhatPumpkin backed down on the Hiveswap Trolls being older than the humans was with Hiveswap Act 2 where Elwurd would flirt with Joey. It has been implied in Elwurd's route in Hiveswap Friendsim that she is or close to an age of adulthood that she would have to leave the planet when she tells MSPA Reader that she and her ex (Bronya) wanted to request combat assignments on the same ship so they won't be separated.

Nobody was sure how old Joey was and people think she is 12 or 13. It wasn't until Homestuck Team in a Curious Cat question that they clarify that Joey is 14 years old since she was born in the year 1980, that Elwurd was 16 and Bronya was 17. But that raises the question on what can be considered adulthood at this point if someone like Elwurd and Bronya could request early to be on the same group before they can leave the planet for good. And knowing that most Jadebloods would have be sent to isolation upon adulthood, a request for a cerulean and jade to be together might be rare, but could be possible if planned ahead of time. So would the years of 16-18 are considered the early stages of young adulthood before becoming legal adults? So wouldn't that mean Elwurd will still be older than Joey in that regard because in Elwurd's POV and stance within Alternian society, she is already an adult at that point. And yeah, the trolls in Friendsim are kind of sexualized. At least by the end in Lanque's route where Ardata reminds you that the Hiveswap Friendsim game is for MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY. And the Bad End in Lanque's route if you confirm you are an adult, is him and MSPA Reader (You) having a ONE NIGHT SEX STAND. Sure it fades out to black, but they don't beat around the bush that the two of them FUCKED. Lanque is stated in that same CuriousCat question that he is 18. So if the person playing the game was like 13 when they first played this game and would think MSPA Reader is the same age as them.... then yeah, that makes it all worse because of that 5 year age gap.

#homestuck #homestuck fandom #Hiveswap #Hiveswap Friendsom #Hiveswap Fandom #Hiveswap Act 2 #Chahut Maenad #Amisia Erdehn #Elwurd #HS Elwurd #Hiveswap Elwurd #Elwurd hiveswap #Bronya Ursama #Lanque Bombyx #Joey Claire #Homestuck Team #WhatPumpkin #What Pumpkin #MSPA Reader

[cosmichighpriestess]

As I feel my emotions and move through them to become more aware of the pain in my physical vessel I in turn help heal my world and I am able to give more by giving myself the self forgiveness and self love that I needed. We help benefit everyone we are worried about by changing ourselves first because we are one, we are everything, we are the entire Universe and we affect the entire multiverse by changing ourselves. We could all use some good news right now don't you feel that way?

Don't you feel like something is coming? Well I have good news. The apocalypse is not coming. But all your dreams are. You can relax. Breathe. You get to choose whatever timeline feels the best for you. There is not one future, there is not just one Earth, and there is not just one human collective. You shift by changing your vibration. You shift to another planet when you change yourself. The end of the world and doom and gloom predictions will not play out for you. You are too far on the ascending timelines to ever have to worry about being on those dark worlds where they have forgotten their humanity. We want to give you the keys to the kingdom. 🗝️

Because even if you're not ready, you will be soon and you will ascend to the fifth dimension and beyond. That is a guarantee. Here is the curriculum you've given yourself. You must face this challenge to be love in the face of evil, the wicked ones, the evil-doers, the bad guys, the ones who trigger you in real life and behind a screen playing their roles in the dark. Because what are they doing? They are there to trigger you. Once you say, " oh thank you demon, thank you fear, thank you trauma, thank you person pretending to be something they are not which is Source which is love. Thank you for triggering what needed to be triggered within me to heal this trigger. Thank you for reminding me to come back to Source /God. Thank you for reminding me to be forgiving of others who do evil, our oppressors who do unjust things, and to forgive myself for reacting negatively out of character before and giving myself these opportunities to grow."

Now, what I just said may have triggered you. You may be thinking, "Be love to my abusers? Be love to the darkness? HOW? Are you crazy? After what they did? Don't you know what they did to me? To those innocent children and people all over the world hurting people? HOW?" Believe me, I know. It's ridiculous how many people betrayed me. It's ridiculous how abused I was. The state of these evil people is so insane. It's ridiculous how much we saw innocents go through. I know. But, the pain serves a higher divine purpose. What did this pain teach you? It taught you a lot. This is a game. Remember it's a simulation. If you want to move to the next level of the game you must do this: Our oppressors give us the opportunity to be love everyday they do something to oppress us.

We are creating our realities, this is your Earth, your kingdom, you are everything, we are one. That person spewing hate, racism, bigotry, misogyny and anything else that separates us and causes more division, that person or group will not go away just because you pointed out their ignorance and flaws. Instead of focusing on teaching them a lesson, you actually create more of them in your reality. And they become more popular. It doesn't make them go away. It creates more of them. The more we fight, the more your reality responds to that vibration and your oppressors will rise up to be fought. Put your swords down. You don't need them anymore at this level. They used to serve you to protect yourself but now you're ascending to the 5th dimension. There's no war in the fifth dimensional level of consciousness.

The more you love, forgive, and have compassion for them, the more of them will change. The more we judge them and call them negative the more they stay the same. When you accept them completely as they are and you offer forgiveness and compassion to them, that is the only way they will ever change. They will change to reflect the change in you when you lay down your sword and you offer yourself up as a being of unconditional love. And you may be saying "okay, I can do that but what happens to the innocent children and people then if we don't defend and fight for them?" Remember this always. You are always helping yourself whenever you offer love to someone else, someone who is in great need of that love. When you change yourself, you change everything, EVERYTHING, you shift to another parallel Earth version including the number of people being oppressed in your reality. YOU must change, reprogram yourself, forgive yourself first, then you can forgive others if you want to free those innocents who are enslaved, you must change your inner world to see it reflected outwardly.

Why? Because it will give you the opportunity to evolve and not stay stuck in a reality you don't prefer. But you must accept everything and everything in your reality as it is now, and don't judge it negatively, just be neutral to it from there you can create positive change within yourself. Some of you want to impact and help as many people as possible in your lifetime, then all you have to do is be love, that's how you do it because you already are unconditional love you just have to remember that you are Source. The only way to get to a place of self-forgiveness and self-love is by being honest with yourself. So start there and work your way up to having compassion, forgiveness and love for yourself and for others. You are affecting the totality of the entire human collective by forgiving everyone.

That is how you level up, that is how you demonstrate your superpower of forgiveness to the higher dimensions and earn the respect from the entire Universe and change the entire world by changing yourself first. The next step of your Ascension will be so much easier and you will feel so much more peace, ease, love and joy. Do it by being the love you want to see first. Level yourself up and you will be living in the fifth dimension before you know it.

#ascending to the 5th dimension #level up to the next level #forgiveness #rose messages

[ouachitafolkwitch]

April 8th, 2024 New Moon Total Solar Eclipse Manifestations:

This celestial event is in the sign of Aries, the zodiac’s symbol of release & rebirth, taking action, endings & new beginnings, resistance & revolution. This eclipse is a prime time for humanity to do the work to abolish oppression and manifest universal peace, love, compassion, joy, healing, and liberation for all.

Under the power of this eclipse, We are focusing our thoughts and actions to manifest an end to the oppressive old world during this 21st century to bring in a new world and reality of universal peace, love, compassion, joy, healing, and liberation. We are all awakening to the divinity that lives within each and every one of us, inspiring us to take action to recycle the old oppressive world and transmute its negativity into the new universally liberated world that we all long for.

During this 21st century, We will put an end to the ongoing Palestinian genocide and colonization of Palestine, as well as the Zionist regime, Christian nationalism, Christian supremacy, Christofascism, and more. All individuals, organizations, corporations, and entities that enable Palestinian (and all other) oppression will have their influence, resources, capital, and power banished from them; these enablers will also receive sufficient divine punishment for their numerous crimes.

The Collective will continue to awaken, being enlightened with divine light, wisdom, and spiritual clarity. We are all open to channeling and transmitting the loving, peaceful, and liberating energy of the divine for the highest good of all! We will no longer support any individual, organization, corporation, or entity that enables and supports any form of oppression. The Collective is screaming for Palestine, Hawai’i, Turtle Island, Aotearoa, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey, India, Iran, Iraq, Australia—DURING THIS 21ST CENTURY, EVERYONE WILL BE FREE TO EXPERIENCE THE UNIVERSAL LIBERATION WE HAVE ALL WORKED FOR!

With the renewing power of this eclipse, We the Collective will abolish all forms of oppression that run rampant throughout our universe, including the colonization of Turtle Island, Aotearoa, Palestine, Australia, and other lands; slavery, violence, land theft, war, crusades, genocide, cultural erasure, ecocide, racism, sexism, queerphobia, xenophobia, capitalism, classism, ableism, poverty, mass hunger, homelessness, and more. All these forms of oppression will cease to exist in the new reality of universal liberation thanks to the perseverant efforts of the Collective.

Humanity and all other organisms that We share the earth with (with the help of our ancestors, spirit guides, deities, what have you-) will collectively do the work to manifest us all a reality of universal love, peace, compassion, joy, healing, & liberation; this reality includes ecological restoration, land back, and decolonization; liberation of all indigenous peoples, cultures, lands, and languages; abolishing all forms of religious and spiritual oppression including sexism, queerphobia, xenophobia, racism, colonization, “mission work,” compulsory spiritual conversion, genocide, and more; abolishing capitalism and all other oppressive economic systems; promoting food sovereignty, climate change mitigation, and poverty reduction through local sustainable farming and foraging, native agroecology, agroforestry, and regenerative/indigenous farming; making sure everyone has a healthy home; taking care of ourselves *and* others; ensuring the survival of rural communities; ensuring the survival of all life on our planet.

In the 21st century of this Age of Aquarius, the Collective will ultimately manifest the abolishment of all oppression and the creation of universal peace, love, compassion, joy, healing, and liberation.

And it is so.

#witchcraft #autistic witch #mentally ill witch #neurodivergent witch #green witch #kitchen witch #witches #leftist #land back #indigenous rights #turtle island #decolonisation #indigenous resistance #eclectic pagan #pagan #pagan witch #pagan community #leftist politics #anti capitalism #progressive politics #free gaza #free palestine #decolonization #decolonize your mind #decolonize the world

[cielsosinfel]

I never posted a list of my favorite books I read last year, so here's something brief (with links to posts I made about the books, if I did):

Fiction:

Bloom by Delilah S Dawson: An F/F horror romance that I would describe as "An Eroguro Yuri Yandere Visual Novel Bad End In Western Book Form." A woman coming out of a terrible break-up, and cutting her mother out of her life before uprooting to a town where she knows no one, falls head-over-heels for a beautiful and eccentric woman at the farmer's market. A downward spiral into obsessive love ensues. Short, sweet, perfect build-up, would recommend for an easy fun grotesque read. (Major CW warnings: short but graphic descriptions of past CSA and violent animal death.) Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh: a young human girl growing up on a space station of the remainder of human separatists, waging a fruitless war against the alien empire that decimated humanity years ago, suddenly has to confront the fact her entire upbringing and understanding of the universe and its politics and the foundation upholding her beliefs and ideals was a lie. There's F/F and M/M romance but they're not the focus (and tbh not very satisfying. The story is satisfying.) has one of the most artfully written explorations of the horror of incestuous grooming that I've ever seen written. Major CW: Characters facing racism, Incest and ever-present threats of sexual violence and forced pregnancy.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling: F/F SF horror fiction: a woman lies about her credentials to take on a very dangerous, but lucrative, cave diving job in order to escape her backwater mining planet has the slow realization that her employer and handler does NOT have her best interests at heart. A terrifying visceral psychological horror that spirals out of control into an emotionally and mentally abusive romantic relationship. What's better than this, two women becoming unhealthily and abusively condependent as they face the horrors of deep caves, isolation and family trauma together.

Walking Practice by Dolki Min, tl. Victoria Caudle: A South Korean self-published novel translated into English, about a carnivorous, shapeshifting alien trapped on Earth who uses dating apps to find its prey amongst the lonely citizens of a major city. A very harrowing exploration of social isiolation and ostracization of people who fall outside the majority norms, with a definite focus on disability, sexuality and transgressive gender.

The Wicked and the Willing An F/F Gothic Horror Vampire Novel by Lianyu Tan: What the title says lol. This takes place in colonial-era Singapore, where our heroine Gean Choo takes on a job as working as a live-in housekeeper for wealthy white European Verity Edevane, who she's drawn to and desires despite every single warning flag, and is introduced to Po Lam, Edevane's faithful and most trusted employee. And then Gean Choo realizes her new employer is a vampire and handsome Po Lam, who has been murdering young women for her to feed off for years, is determined to protect her. This novel does not go the way you will think it might go. There is a lot going on it that I LOVED and really recommend it. Major CW: Characters facing Racism throughout and descriptive discussion of past CSA that comes up several times.

Nonfiction & Poetry:

Wanting: Women Writing About Desire: A nonfiction anthology of short memoir pieces where women from a very diverse background and of diverse identities, write about their relationships to sex, their bodies, and the act of desiring. I really, really am glad I read this. There is some of the most thoughtful and truthful, uncensored, writing on the complicated sides of being a CSA survivor, that I've ever read, in this book. Many women also write about the intersections of sexual desire and race and culture, transgender status, non-straight sexuality, disability.

Cartographies of Desire: Male-male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950 by Pflugfelder: A very comprehensive overview of the history of sexual and romantic relationships between men in Japan from the Edo Period through to the post-WW2 period, as well as government efforts to control and repress such relationships. I really appreciate this book because it heavily cites Japanese-language sources to show that the repression of homosexual relationships between men was not purely a part of Meiji-era Japan's process of "modernization" via adopting many Western moral and political concerns- control and repression of male-male sexual relationships has happened all throughout Japanese history, but for more complicated reasons than disgust and moral disapproval of men fucking.

Major CW: A lot of the text is about historical pederasty (that is, sexual relations between men over the age of 18 and boys under the age of 18) and sexual violence is a major element of what is examined.

I'm gonna add to this when I come home but I'll just post this for now since it's pretty long.

#reading log #mine poste

[realjaysumlin]

'Goon Squad' officers receive prison sentences

Systemic racism is very much alive and has never died in this world. Christianity and colonization double down by whiteness is a cancer that needs to be removed from our Black Planet and these shit people need to be put in their place.

I don't know why it's so hard to see that the shit people are the ones who are destroying everything on earth and we really need to end this stupid ass people now.

Why is everyone acting like they are afraid of these inferior cowards who are afraid of their own shadow? Black on Black Love is our only weapon of defense and if we continue to be disenfranchised from each other we are all doomed.

Black supremacy is better than white supremacy because these mother fuckers have everything coming to them, they should have never started a fight that they know that they can't win, simply because they have been a problem for everyone on earth; which includes themselves.

#black love #black positivity #black africans #black history #black rebellion #black on black love #global black unity #black supremacy #Youtube

[goddamnwebcomics]

My Not-so-Brief Review of Gene Catlow (Part 6)

In the final part we wrap up the characters talk, as well as talk about my overall thoughts on the comic as a whole.

Characters (Part 5)

And then we have Cydnee. Cydnee starts off good, she is a matagot whose powers were repressed by Jeremy because he is an asshole, and Matt ends up allowing her to become his bride as they take over the planet under Feline Empire. Cydnee and Matt have their differences, Cydnee can sometimes be bratty and even overestimate her influence with Matt, but Matt often keeps her in her place. It’s odd because it’s supposed to be a complete opposite of Gene and Catwhis’s relationship, but it never crosses to the point of abuse. It’s more like a student-mentor relationship than a romantic one, outside of the fucking. And then out of nowhere, Cydnee becomes fucking turboracist against dogs. It starts off as playful banter with Dorzoi, but it becomes more and more violent until Cydnee just straight up wants to murder every dog on Earth. Thankfully Matt finds her racism and her obsession with it very discomforting and it even costs them a mission. Cydnee’s racism really doesn’t make sense in this universe when there are dozens of other species in the universe. It is implied she would become a cat supremacist with her background, but why not make her turboracist against other species as well? Also there’s the whole thing where Cydnee randomly turns into Catwhis, which is implied to be Cydnee trying to predict Matt’s desires, but then we see Catwhis turn into Cydnee and really the whole thing just seems to discomfort Matt.

And speaking of, let’s finally talk about the shining light of joy and happiness, the best character in this comic and my favourite character in all of fiction, Praetor Matthias. Matt starts off as an ambiguous figure Gene has nightmares and flashbacks about, a really ugly cat who once abused Catwhis in their youth. He returns during Friendship Island arc and tries to assassinate Gene, but fails. It is implied Matt desperately wants Catwhis to come back to his life, but why though. Eventually we see more of him during Borzoi arc and there we finally see his true nature in full glory, he is a manipulative and powerful yet charming bastard who understands nature of reality better than any other character. He also manages to come up with a plan in a minute no matter what setbacks he faces. He is intelligent and also very handsome and both men and women want his D. He is also a really good boss, he treats his employees fairly, he lets them leave if they disagree with him, he compliments people when they do good job. He has bad temper sometimes but that seems to stem from his hatred of backstabbers, which is 100% justified, because earlier in this part of the review I had an ENTIRE SECTION dedicated to them. Why would anyone want to backstab such a charming and intelligent hottie? Well, it’s not what he is, but what people SAY he is. Every character that isn’t part of Matt’s group sees him as an evil demon, a monster, a tyrant, a turboracist, an irresponsible and incompetent moron who shouldn’t exist, but who also shouldn’t be killed because “he has already been punished”. Every character knows exactly what he is up to at any given time, whether it’s Gene, Catwhis, Simmy, Friendship Island, Toothy, Jeremy, one of the bodyguards, Dawn and Dusk, Borzoi, Dorzoi, Forzoi, Michelle, Big Cats and even Diane. He doesn’t get ONE FAIR SHOT, his plans are always instantly exposed and figured out. Matt really comes across like an underdog, he is eternally trapped in a game he can’t win because all of his opposition is OP. It would be different if Matt was stupid but he’s not. He’s extremely intelligent, it’s just that his luck just fucking sucks and all his enemies know everything what he is up to. He even gets his powers taken away from him, almost all the members of his group consider leaving at once and his girlfriend becomes a racist that seems to use Matt mainly for dog genocide rather than any real goals. And yes, Matt has done some morally corrupt things but he is more or less 100% justified, because Matt hates, hates, FUCKING HATES Backstabbers. Borzoi backstabs him, he reduces him to a bloody pulp, Webcats consider backstabbing him, Matt sends one of his CGI cat puppets to assassinate them, Dorzoi implies he knows about Matt’s assassination attempt of the webcats, Matt fucking kills him. And when you think that I’ve ranted about his enemies for half of this fucking review, you know that Matt is right, and the universe is out to get him. And yet many characters still think that Matt might CHANGE. I am glad that we will never ever know how Matt would’ve been defeated.

In a nutshell, Matt is a fucking great character, but a terrible villain, because he is the hero in the greater context of this comic. Why else would he share a name with one of the disciples?

And that was all the characters worth talking about in Gene Catlow, and only one quarter of them are likable.

Conclusion

Gene Catlow is a comic I will never forget, I encourage anyone who thinks they’ve seen it all to read it, and try to comprehend it’s themes and messages. Maybe they will find its themes to be genius, and its story to not be as batshit as I thought. Either way, more people should read Gene Catlow.

Albert Temple may not be the most perfect storyteller in the world, but he was very passionate, and seeing him die before his epic could be finished, is tragic to say the least. Nobody deserves it, not Kentaro Miura, not J.R.R. Tolkien, not him. I found myself getting invested in the world he had created, his characters may be many things but boring is not one of them…even if one of the characters was literally named Mr. Boring. I hear stories about Albert Temple being a very sweet and nice guy who was always talking with people. Sure, he may have pulled a harmless long con, but nobody really felt betrayed or angry by that revelation. The more I hear what a kind person he was, the more bad I feel for dragging on his flaws. Yes, you can make bad art even if you’re a good person, but Albert is a special case. His works do deserve to be read and studied by a lot of people. I want his works to receive a fanbase. He will always leave a hell of an impression no matter what he does. That alone makes him one of a kind.

Rest in Peace, Albert Temple. You were loved.

#gene catlow

[mwebber]

im p confused rn lol, feel free to ignore this ofc but questions are meant genuinely.

is it the domination that you have a problem with? the lack of fight at front?

or is it more simply you want seb to keep his record(s)?

or just with verstappen winning?

i understand the first 2 and hear the 3rd a lot but just ur prev posts came a lil outta left field for me lol. i'd like to hear your thoughts, with peace and love on planet earth <3

pourquoi pas les trois... actually i think it might boil down to two main things: my frustration at the continued erasure and diminishing of seb's achievements, and my pet peeve of Total Fucking Bullshit.

it's no secret that this sport has a problem with dominating teams. and yes, you could argue that's the point--hello, it's a constructor's championship, the point is to have the best car. and red bull have built beasts the last couple of years! seriously, all my respect to the team as a whole for pulling everything together. i was and remain a red bull fan at heart despite it all, and it makes me happy from an objective standpoint to see so many elements of a team come together in harmony. red bull is a well-oiled machine at work.

but i genuinely don't think there's been this level of domination by a singular driver in a singular team since like, 2013. think: if lewis' era of domination was so much "worse" than this as the dudebros like to say, why hasn't lewis come close to beating 9 wins in a row? the main phenomenon at play is the sport's short term memory--but really, the way fans like to completely forget 2015-2018 and arguably 2019 too really frustrates me. it wasn't like 2014 hit and suddenly lewis was winning everything. nico won the 2016 wdc. seb posed a real fucking threat in 2015, and in 2017-18 the messaging from the sport was that the battle between him and lewis was, quote unquote, titanic. a battle between, quote unquote, titans of the sport. fast forward to 2020/21 and the narrative is that nothing has stood in lewis' way for the last 6 or 7 years, and that his era of domination needs to be ended for ~the good of the sport.~

so seb makes a couple mistakes, fine, but mostly gets visibly cucked by his team for years, and suddenly he's nothing. his four championships mean nothing, his 3rd most wins in the history of f1 mean nothing, he's just ferrari's next failure.

but then the narrative around max. max, who's introduced in 2021 like he's an up and coming driver intent on toppling lewis' throne. it's a great narrative, right? mercedes took red bull's ball. red bull want it back. casually ignoring how max has been in the sport since 2016, max is red bull's new young golden boy, the one who's going to lead them to victory as the youngest driver like seb already did before and wow, wait, sorry for mentioning seb in relation to success there, let's keep on reinforcing that he's an old man who needs to retire. anyway, max is someone who doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone or anything except racing! max is a beast on track! max is [checks notes] our great white hope!

let's put the racism discussion on hold, because i think people try really hard to pin him down as this like, absolutely sociopathic bigot who is the most racist person in the world, and while he's not NOT racist, i don't think the extreme conclusion ppl are reaching is true. plus this rhetoric is mostly smoke and mirrors to try and find a leftist/social justice reason to hate on him anyway. so let's get fucking real: i dislike max for the same reasons i dislike taylor sw*ft. i hate that there's this blatant marketing campaign that fans buy into and perpetuate, that these people are the greatest of their generation, that they're masters of their craft. like, what? max's racecraft is just threatening to crash people out or push them off the track, something multiple drivers have been quoted saying. that's not ruthless, that's just bad fucking driving. that's an asshole on the dvp suddenly merging into your lane without using their blinkers or checking their blindspots and forcing you to pull out your defensive driving skills from that one class in drivers ed just to avoid a massive pileup on the highway. and i'm expected to suck this guy's dick?

max wins a fraudulent championship in 2021 and proceeds, for the next two years, to basically cruise at the front. it's like the second half of 2013, except it's lasting for a YEAR AND A HALF. only this time, instead of the sport trying to diminish this stint by saying it's just the car or that the golden boy has put himself above the team, people are......... celebrating? listen, i enjoy a singapore 2013 moment as much as the next seb fan but come on. get real. if every race was singapore 2013 that would be boring. and that's what we're seeing, but that's not what fom wants us to think we're seeing. it's complete bullshit.

which leads me to my posts. oh my god, i hated the comparisons between max and seb's first championships. the circumstances could not be more different--it was fucking insulting. seb won his championship fair and square, no rulebook bending required. seb's most violent moment on track that year was in turkey with mark--but he didn't park his car on top of mark's head and walk out saying that's what you get. how could people say that seb was anything like max.

seb's 9 wins at the end of 2013 were the culmination of five years spent fighting tooth and nail for his success. even for how dominant he was in 2011, there were still other teams up there! he had to fight his own teammate for so many years! and even with displays like singapore 2013, there were races where he was fighting in the second half of the season! and now we see this current streak of wins from the last two years where everyone else has tumbled behind and perez is contractually obligated to be a doormat. (not to say that teams haven't tried--i had so much hope at the start of 2022 when ferrari showed up with that pussy monster.) so look me in the eyes and say that max has fought with everything in him just to get that #1 spot. the two of them are leagues apart, but people--the same ones who have said seb is washed--are inevitably going to say that max has beaten seb, that max is on par with the third most successful driver in the sport. it's like a slap to the face.

and so we end back with the constant retconning of seb's position in f1 history. it drives me insane. he's nothing when it comes to propping max up, and then he's the benchmark to prop max up. he's a titan of the sport, and then he's just a failure. come on. come on. i'm just tired of my favourite driver never being given the credit he deserves, and i'm tired of having this fictional story shoved down my throat that max is anything like the goats in the sport. tl;dr. get real.

#inbox

[surpriseroundtellyourfriends]

I’d love to hear more about your thoughts on Solomon

oops. this turned into a long-ass essay about racism, financial morality, and child programming, so I'll put it under a readmore. click at your own peril.

oughhh ughhhhh thinks about Solomon and gets ill.

I've given my Ben 10 racism speech before so bear with me if you know me and you've heard this before. (if you haven't: yes, you read that right, my Ben 10 racism speech.) listen listen listen. okay, so.

as someone who was raised as a conservative, homophobic, capitalist christian who fully held onto those beliefs and acted on them for a long time: it means the WORLD to me when I see an objectively terrible, morally awful person portrayed in a sympathetic light.

and it makes me want to KILL A MAN when I see a "sympathetic racist" (or capitalist, or homophobic, etc.) and the reasons they're supposed to be sympathetic are so laughably stupid that it ends up encouraging the idea that all bad people are intrinsically bad and cannot be redeemed.

the most common bad "sympathetic racist" character I see is "their family member was killed by a member of the group they despise. therefore, they hate that whole group."

that is NOT how ANY form of discrimination—including financial discrimination—works. I don't have a fear or hatred of long-haired boys because my stalker ex who tormented me for years was a brown-haired boy. even children can grasp that one trait of a person does not necessarily correlate to their other traits.

discrimination—for the vast majority of cases—happens due to child indoctrination. when an impressionable child is told, over and over again, that a certain group is inherently "bad" or "flawed," and told to exercise caution or hatred towards that group, a precedent is set. that child will likely be sheltered from good interactions with the targeted group, and therefore, any experiences they have of that group will be negative.

growing up, they will rub elbows with the targeted group a bit more, but they will already have a strong belief that has been "confirmed" by their tailored experiences. if they have any good experiences, they will cherry-pick information and repackage any positive feelings as "an exception" or the targeted group "deceiving" them, or even "having some good qualities but being bad/flawed at the core." they may avoid any future experiences with the group to avoid cognitive dissonance—effectively sheltering themselves like their parents sheltered them.

the reason I call this my Ben 10 Racism Speech is because Ben 10 is the first show where I ever saw a good depiction of a sympathetic racist character. we meet this one alien is a eugenicist, whose race believes they are the ultimate lifeform and that all other species are inferior. obviously, he's an antagonist. but Ben tries to befriend and help him, over and over, even when he refuses help. finally, when the alien loses an arm, Ben uses his powers to implant a new one on him. the alien assists Ben in getting back home—but refuses to go home himself, as he believes he is now "contaminated" (having DNA from another species inside of him) and is unfit to go back to his planet.

he literally tries to stay in a desert where he will die because he is so conditioned to think of his race as superior, that he is not immune to the racism. when a helpful medical procedure changes his own DNA, he thinks himself a lowly, disgusting creature fit only for death.

what does this have to do with Solomon?

well, Solomon certainly isn't a self-hating racist. (that would be Michelle.) but he IS—inarguably and unequivocally—a prime example of a monster who was raised to be a monster.

Solomon was literally raised by, and around, demons in hell. he was taught that mortals, especially the poor, were only designed to serve greater beings such as himself. in fact, the whole reason his family moved out from hell was because they were at the bottom of the social ladder there, but the top of the ladder on earth. he was taught that this was just the way things worked. he was trained by his father to one day kill his father, and consume his ashes, and that one day he would lay an egg and do the same.

he was taught these things as a baby. he has been raised his whole 17 years of life without contact to humankind. in fact, it's kind of astounding just how friendly he is on his first day of Valor Academy, even if he DOES see everyone else as "lesser than" him. he seems very strongly to desire a friendship and companionship that hasn't been provided for him at home, but he doesn't exactly recognize that friendship and companionship—the things he wants—necessitate equality.

but then he meets Benji. Benji, who—as far as he knew at the time—was an orphaned pauper boy with nothing to his name. quite literally at the bottom of the social ladder. but Solomon likes Benji. he's witty, he's funny, he knows a lot about the world. Solomon likes being around him. and Benji starts working to reform him. forcing him to volunteer at a soup kitchen. taking him out of that sheltered state and making him actually meet other humans, mortals, poor people.

and then.

then he meets Vika.

and Vika is a character I could do a whole other analysis on, but by god is she a bad combination with Solomon. because on one hand, she tells Solomon just how wrong he is, she's loud and brash and not afraid to state things as they are without coddling him.

but on the other, she refuses to take off her rose-tinted glasses about the slave colony she grew up in. she frequently refers to it as the best time of her life, as a perfect society, as something to be emulated. because she, too, was indoctrinated into a lie, and told that Donovan King Jr was their savior. and even if she no longer defends HIM, she still defends the slave colony.

and when she repeats that rhetoric, it re-activates Solomon's programming.

someone who didn't grow up with rigid doctrine, especially for such a length as 17 years, can probably never hope to understand how hard it is to break out. pathways in the brain are physically etched to rearrange morals, indecipherable from what might be "common sense" to someone else. and like the Winter Soldier, sometimes just one key phrase or story can set someone back years by triggering old programming associated with feelings of piousness or guilt.

Solomon was raised to be the worst kind of person on earth. and he wants to be better.

but god, is it going to be a struggle to get there.

#valorpunk #solomon dracul #character analysis