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You cannot opt out of capitalism to destroy it. At best you can save yourself from capitalism that way. If someone's plan to fight capitalism is to create a new community somewhere in the woods, they don't want to fight capitalism, they want to start a high control group nine times out of ten, the other one time out of ten they just want a few middle-class people to escape it.

Our mutual aid networks, our community organizations, our unions, must exist within the towns and cities of our nation, and must be things every worker has access to. That is what threatens capitalism. It's what scares them. They aren't scared by a commune in the woods, because that commune can never serve as an alternative to their system for most people, it will never be bigger than the capitalist world, at least without being forced to join it, if anything they'd be happy that socialists built their own gulag. What they're scared of is a network that any worker can draw support from, unions that their workers use to collectively bargain, within the towns and cities that their workers live, that's what an actual threat to their power looks like.

A commune that's separate from capitalist society isn't resistance it's surrender.

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That is exactly what I thought. What they're describing is a glorified sex doll in a prairie dress.

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Have some pointed memes to go with this tweet:

#feminism #toxic masculinity #that's genuinely sad #misogyny #sexism #unrealistic fantasies

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"Don't support X country! They literally hate queer people" I live in a shithole country and when I came out as queer and trans, three of my FAMILY MEMBERS came out to me as bi. One was even trans btw. I came out to my friends and a lot of mt friends came back out. I've been out for nearly nine years as queer and about four years as non-binary. People around me never make fun of me. Actually, they respect me and call me the pronouns I ask them to. People might default to she/her pronouns but as soon as I point them out, 99% of the time they say "okay, sorry" and use gender neutral or masculine pronouns for me. I'm not saying no one have prejudices against me but "this country's law says x so the people will say x too!" is simply not true.

We're here, we're queer and we're loved and accepted. It's just the damn laws are just trying to catch up with our times. I've seen the capacity for humanity's love for strangers. You should open your eyes as well. Do not revoke your support on causes because they might hate you.

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So here's a sad question for you all.

When Nym Orlith tells Halsin, "Legends spread of you throughout the city... We heard tell that you can change into a bear," do you think she meant that they heard of him in Baldur's Gate...

Or do you think it was the infinitely sadder option: he was a legend in Menzoberranzan because of his ability to turn into a bear when he was enslaved, and that's where the twins had heard of him?

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That discussion I had about Anora made me realize something: MOST of Loghain's henchmen are useless

It's just sad Cheems all around with Loghain's henchmen.

Well, I would, but they are far and away the most competent out of all Loghain's underlings. And that says a lot. That his most competent people are a suicidal assassin and a lieutenant who follows him out of blind faith. What says even more is that the latter can be persuaded to abandon him, and that the former begs you to let him join Team Warden instead.

#loghain critical #dragon age origins #dragon age

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Brosca: So you're telling me that Orlais invaded or tried to invade every human country on the surface except Tevinter. Orlesian! Duncan: *nods grimly* Orlesian!Alistair: *grimaces* Yep. Pretty much.

Brosca: And the elves too. But they don't have a country, they just wander around the wilderness or get treated like crap. And the noble caste...doesn't fight darkspawn?

Orlesian!Duncan: No, that is the job of us Grey Wardens.

Brosca: So then what do they do?

Orlesian! Alistair: *laughs nervously* Mostly they eat cheese, stab each other in the back, and wear masks all the time.

Brosca: So, they're completely useless?

Orlesian! Duncan and Alistair: *nod in unison*

Brosca: ....Your country is fucking stupid.

origins is set in ferelden because if you tried to explain the mere concept of orlais to a freshly out of dust town brosca they'd let the darkspawn win

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dwarf commoner origin #brosca #warden brosca #alistair theirin #crack au

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Your parents are not "narcissists". They're typical authoritarian assholes who treat you like their property because society allows them to.

Your ex boyfriend is not a "narcissist". He's a typical misogynistic douchebag who treats women like shit because society allows him to.

Your boss is not a "narcissist". They're a typical classist dipshit who thinks workers' entire purpose in life is to generate profit because society allows them to.

And even if they happen to be a "narcissist", that's not what gave them the power to get away with abuse.

So stop blaming mental illness and start blaming society's normalization of abuse. Stop acting like someone has to have a mental illness in order to do something cruel when ordinary people have been doing atrocious things since forever.

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#two out of three of these are reversable. they all count

#'my emotional constipation is too great to handle how much i actually like you goodbye' is the real pattern to notice here

"ooh mages, always beware the mage romances" what about the elves who, in some form or another, break up with you over liking you too much

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"and then silencing Jewish journalists for calling her out" Shit. I didn't think about that part. I mean, why didn't I-the lady's name is Rivkah for crying out loud.

JK Rowling has used her billionaire legal team to silence a Jewish woman for telling the truth about her contempt for trans victims of the Holocaust.

Scotland’s network of “freedom of speech” organisations, as per usual, have nothing to say about the use of wealth to gag critics of the wealthy.

However fast they race to condemn the LGBT+ community for saying the names of those who harm us. Statements at the ready to insist that transphobes no one wants to work with anymore must be given every possible opportunity to gain from their bigotry.

But it's not the billionaires who are being silenced, as our media breathlessly echo their every hateful proclamation.

It's journalists and activists forced to publicly humiliate themselves under the weight and the threat of billionaire legal teams or be driven into destitution.

We deserve better. Freedom of speech needs to mean something

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When a person is killed, especially by parents or caregivers, people's response is that the murderer needs to be locked up for life. Many even support the death penalty. People say that the actions were utterly disgusting and the killer needs to pay what they did. People are hostile toward the murderer.

However, people's views change when autism or disability comes into the picture.

The response is sympathy toward the person who committed the crime. The narrative changes from a cold blooded killer to a parent who suffered and snapped under the burden of caregiving or sometimes even the caregiver who killed because the other options were too unbearable. The term “mercy killing” is commonly used. Those who are convicted in these situations often face less severe sentences.

One study showed that of the homicide cases of autistic individuals under 21, 85% were murdered by their family. 63.5% by their parents, 13.5% by their caregiver, and 7.7% by their siblings.

23.1% died from gunshot wounds, 19.2% from drowning, and 19.2% from strangulation, suffocation, or asphyxiation. The rest from other causes such as neglect, medication overdose, blunt head trauma/physical abuse, fire, stabbed, thrown off a bridge, and unknown causes.

Sadly, the autistic victim's narrative tends to be the one talked about in a poor light. The person was too much to handle, requiring 24/7 care, they were a burden on their families, or they had an intellectual disability.

The murder of an autistic person is still seen as a tragedy, but the act of killing them is dismissed and seen as more permissible than in other murders.

The study showed that of those who committed this heinous act, 47.1% said that the stress of caring for their autistic individual was the contributing factor.

Following a murder of an autistic person, people are upset and demand more disability support. People talk about the need for parental support, respite care, and the like so that things like this don’t happen again. But people also agree not to judge the murderer because they haven’t been in their shoes.

We are in desperate need of greater support for the autism community. But that conversation needs to happen not following the death of another autistic individual because it excuses away the actions of the killer and oftentimes the lack of support is not even the reason why autistic people are murdered.

While services are desperately needed, reacting with murder is simply not normal.

Disability advocates believe murder cases like these have much more to do with our negative stance toward autism and special needs than they do with lack of support and services.

We can’t deny the negativity surrounding our narratives of autism. The “thief in the night” that “steals” an otherwise normal child, the idea that those with the disorder are mere shadows of people, or that autism has "taken a child hostage in their own mind". The unending focus on the “burden” autistic people are.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network said it best:

“When we say every parent of a disabled child has had moments like this or walk a mile in our shoes or the system failed everyone or but you have to understand how hard it is, we are excusing a parent murdering their child. It does not matter how many times we say not that I would ever condone this: if we attempt to make a parent murdering their child understandable, if we ever attempt to position it as a comprehensible or inevitable or normal thing, if we take and normalize the perspective and the side of abusers and murderers, we are minimizing and excusing this act. Doing so puts the lives of disabled people everywhere in danger.”

There is no moral gray here. Murder of an innocent person, even an autistic one, is wrong and yet it happens all too frequently.

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Alternate Ending to DA II where female! mage! Hawke just SNAPS

Up until this moment, Hawke has been a meek, obedient little mage. Borderline spineless, categorically unable to stand up for herself.

Can't bring herself to disagree with her friends or ask her family (*cough cough* CARVER) to treat her with respect. Never mind actual authority figures.

The introduction of Isabela and Anders into her life makes this SLIGHTLY better, but not much. The most she accomplishes is talking about mage rights in front of those two specifically. In front people like Fenris not so much.

Always doing WHATEVER her friends/the authorities/the randos of Kirkwall ask of her. Runs herself ragged doing so.

But then Act 3 rolls around. Leandra is dead, Carver is dead/a Grey Warden (because no spinal cord, she can't say no to Carver). Hawke has virtually no family left. No shits to give.

At the same time however, she is also immensely wealthy and beloved by all of Kirkwall at the exact same time Meredith really goes off the deep end.

Potentially everything to gain, almost nothing left to lose.

So, Hawke throws a grand ball at the Amell estate, to which every important person in Kirkwall is invited. The nobles, the templar high command, the Dwarven Merchants' Guild, you name it. Even First Enchanter Orsino, Meredith, and Elthina are present.

Those last two names are very important, because guess what? Suddenly Meredith Stannard ends up choking to death in front of everyone present.

Elthina shrieks, points at Hawke, and screams "Murderer!"

But, instead of being horrified, Hawke just slow claps and says: "What a splendid actress you are, Grand Cleric. You would have made a killing on the stage."

Almost everyone is shocked-especially Anders, Merrill, and Fenris. This is completely out of character for her.

Hawke then reveals that it was, in fact, Elthina who killed Meredith-all Hawke did was provide a window of opportunity. "Isn't that right, Sebastian?"

Sebastian, horrified, cries "I thought you were going to stop her! I never would have told you if I knew you were to just...let the Knight-Commander die!"

That's right-Sebastian found out about Elthina's plot, and, in a panic, told Hawke. But Hawke happened to agree with the Grand Cleric-Meredith needed to go.

The doors then burst open, and in walks Leliana, accompanied by Aveline, and several city guards and Seekers. "Grand Cleric Elthina, you are under arrest."

That's right-Hawke showed the evidence to Aveline, who in turn told Leliana and the Seekers, and both were lying in wait to arrest Elthina. "Although you conveniently failed to mention the part about Meredith actually dying," Aveline grumbles.

Elthina is taken away, and in one fell swoop, Hawke has eliminated both the Grand Cleric and the Knight-Commander. There is no one who can stand in her way. "Isabela? Did you get it?"

Isabela then shows up, holding none other than the Viscount's crown. "Yep," she says as she hands it to Hawke.

Hawke grins widely, turns to the crowd, and asks: "People of Kirkwall! Will you have me for Viscount?"

A chorus of "yes" erupts from the stunned crowd, all of whom then get down on their knees.

"The queen is dead," Hawke declares as she places the viscount's crown on her head. "Long live the queen."

#fanfic prompt #dragon age 2 #fanfiction #dragon age #marian hawke #villain origin story #elthina bashing #da2 #dragon age ii #sebastian vael #meredith stannard #knight commander meredith #hawke

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How can bioware have such self awareness about how bad Templars are yet at the same time have no self awareness about how bad Templars are?

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sometimes, when someone is criticizing the stay-at-home-wife movement being sold to young women by conservatives, it loses focus on the "selling you a repressive and authoritarian worldview" point and slides into... well... implicitly leaving disabled people to die.

and what i mean by that is, it's all well and good to say you should do everything in your power to make sure you're not financially dependent on another person... but what if "everything in your power" is "nothing?"

what if how society is structured means you have absolutely no choice but to be financially dependent on another person? what if it's that, or simply die? this is the choice disabled people are faced with. not even uncommonly... frequently. people who need full-time carers, or who have very expensive medication and assistive tech needs, or people who simply can't work in the current job structure, often have the choice of... well... find someone to be financially dependent on, or face a slow, painful death, usually without housing. even if you're lucky enough to get on a fixed income, it's never enough to even make monthly rent, and that's not counting the extra costs of food, toiletries, medicine...

in fact, a lot of disabled people (certainly notably women, but absolutely not limited to, and in fact i see this happen to trans men over and over again, and i've lost a dear transmasc friend because of this) are funneled into being stay-at-home parents and homemakers, forced to do all of the domestic labor and childcare in exchange for a roof over their head and access to their medications/assistive tech, and isolated in all the same ways tradwives are isolated. in fact, this even happens with leftist partners/parents. all the time, i see disabled people disappear from public life entirely, lose contact with all their friends, and consign themselves to a life of cleaning up after someone while struggling to handle their own health needs, even having their disabilities exacerbated and their lifespans shortened by the amount of domestic labor they're required to do.

but it isn't a choice... it can't be fixed by focusing on academia or work... and it's not due to buying into conservative propaganda. all i ask is, please remember this, and please never leave us out of these discussions.

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If a worker who isn't the owner says ANYTHING similar to "I'm not really supposed to do this but-" and then does something that helps you, under no circumstances inform the business, including through reviews. You tell them that the worker was polite, professional, the very model of customer service and why you like to go there. You do not breathe a word of the rulebreaking.

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This dynamic is healing for both of them.

i know it's supposed to be funny but alistair/wynne banter is so devastating to me... he's literally nineteen and has no other stable adult figures in his life...