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capitalism-and-analytics · 3 months

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We're not really sure what it is, but experts say America is now deep in the throes of a terrible thing called "late-stage capitalism." Paul Krugman and Che Guevara tried to warn us, but we didn't listen. The consequences aren't for the faint of heart.

To help you prepare for the terrible things you're going to witness as we reach this horrific time in human history, The Babylon Bee has compiled the following list of frightening features of late-stage capitalism:

Readily available food: And you don't even have to stand in lines all day for it. Disgusting.

Air conditioning that freezes your wife to death: Late-stage capitalism is especially hard on women.

People running for fun: You see that guy running in your neighborhood? Nothing is chasing him. It's unnatural.

Cruises: Thousands of middle-class people squished on a boat having a great time? Might as well be a concentration camp.

Tom Cruises: We must stop capitalism before they multiply!

Stanley tumblers: Nobody needs to drink that much water.

Banned books being available at every bookstore: Only unadulterated opulence makes things that are banned so widely available.

Plenty of free time: You might end up getting roped into a nice board game with your family. Ugh.

So many entertainment options that you spend all night on the couch trying to decide what to watch: And then your wife falls asleep as soon as you find something. Curse you, capitalism!

Chick-fil-A: Capitalist fat cats love the luxury of having delicious chicken and waffle fries handed to them in their cars. Obscene.

Long lines at amusement parks when it's hot outside: Hell on Earth.

So few actual problems that we have to invent some: Like being born the wrong gender.

Donald Trump: AAAAGGGGHHHH!

There's no denying it, you're seeing unmistakable signs that the outright collapse of capitalism is imminent. Switch over to communism while there's still time!

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ant111fragile · 1 year

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Hiiiiiiiiiiiii. Ok let me introduce myself. my name is seri. I’m a master shifter and my main destinations are different points in history. I have no idea why history isn’t more popular in the shifting community. Like the things I’ve experienced first hand are amazing. Like I’ve seen things with my own eyes that we learn about in history textbooks. It’s the most amazing experience. I’ve been to alot of drs too like hogwarts, mcu, fame, love dr, avatar and so many more but nothing compares to seeing our worlds history for myself.

Some of my fave times I’ve been too: ( I changed my gender to a boy for most of these drs because I wouldn’t be able to experience it properly as a woman because of the time periods and I didn’t want to change history )

The making of the pyramids

Cleopatras ruling

King Tutankhamen

The making of the Great Wall of China

The first man to land on the moon ( I scripted I was a part of crew for the mission )

Queen Elizabeth the firsts ruling

The independence of America

The battle of Hastings

Ancient Greek

Ancient Rome

Seeing the Mona Lisa being made

Meeting Vincent Van Gogh

The Black Death ( I didn’t go to see people die I lived as a part of the government cause I always wanted to know how they tried to deal with it. There was so much panic )

Seeing Martin Luther kind jr give his “ I have a dream” speech in person

The crowning of queen elizabeth the seconds coronation

Meeting William Shakespeare

The Christmas truce

Pompeii before it way destroyed ( it was beautiful )

Seeing the 7 wonders of the ancient world

Hanging garden of babylon

Seeing ancient structures when they were actually In use ( the colosseum, temple of Hera, so many more I can’t even list )

Getting the great honour to learn kalaripayattu in ancient India

And genuinely just getting to live life seeing these people go about their own lives. Beautiful

I’m not going to list anymore cause there so many but I have experienced the beginning of the first humans millions of years ago to the making of the I phone. I am so honoured I get to experience these events and meet the people in the stories we learn. It’s crazy because to us it’s this amazing history we can only imagine but to them it’s just life. They no nothing else. They don’t know how truely incredible they are in our history. I can’t wait to experience more. Maybe one day I’ll even go into the future. Who knows.

Also something else I did was meet Van Gogh and take him to the dr future to the Van Gogh museum so he can see he wasn’t a failure. So he could see he made it. I took this idea after watching doctor who and it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I still get chills. To see this man who died thinking he was nothing getting to see a the future where he is known as one of the greatest artists of all time. My favorite shifting experience ever

Woooaaahhhh!! That's like suppoerr cooll!! I'm so happy for you and that is such a cool idea ajajajsk😭❣️

#shiftblr #reality shifting #shiftinconsciousness #shifting

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redpool · 9 months

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Because we are moving, I've been rewatching Supernatural while packing and I've decided i want to make a list of the episodes that i actually like (meaning that I actually like what I'm watching).

Season 1:

Episode 1 'Pilot' - Minus the intro, i usually skip that

Episode 2 'Wendigo' - That last bit, where Dean has the bandage on his throat... *insert debby ryan meme here*

Episode 3 'Dead in the Water' - Enough said, i mean come on..

Episode 5 'Bloody Mary' - I used to be terrified of this ep. But the way the boys are so soft and comforting towards the girls. (and Mary is pretty)

Episode 7 'Hook Man' - Love me some hook man. and the black shirt and brown jacket combo on Dean *chefs kiss*

Episode 12 'Faith' - Dean is just really attractive to me i this ep, he's so sick and pathetic looking and i love it... THE HOODIE

Episode 17 'Hell House' - AHDHGDGDHGDHBGDGDCVGDCB PRANK WARS!!!!!!

Episode 19 'Provenance' - Idk why "HOLY, BLONDE, CHEERLEADER, BATMAN" < I quote that so so much

Season 2:

Episode 2 'Everybody Loves A Clown' -

I want to say Bloodlust because of Benny but I hate that other shitbird

Episode 4 'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' - Its just a fun ep

Episode 5 'Simon Said' - ASH MY LOVE!!!!!

Episode 6 'No Exit' - America's first known serial killer

Episode 11 'Playthings' - "Of course, the most troubling question is: Why do these people assume we're gay?" "Well, you are kinda butch, but I just think you're overcompensating."

Episode 15 'Tall Tales' - GABE MY LOVE!!!!!!

Episode 17 'Heart' - uhhh werewolves, need I say more?

Episode 18 'Hollywood Babylon' - another idk why

Episode 19 'Folsom Prison Blues' - two words, Blue. Steel.

Season 3:

Episode 3 'Bad Day At Black Rock' - Bela *Insert debby ryan meme*

Episode 5 'Bedtime Stories' - another fun one

Episode 6 'Red Sky at Morning' - Bela, my love!'

Episode 8 'A Very Supernatural Christmas' - Protective Dean, "You fudging touch me again, I'll fudging kill ya!"

Episode 11 'Mystery Spot' - GABE MY LOVE!!!!!!

Episode 13 'Ghostfacers' - GHOST- GHOSTFACERS, I also love that we see a whole different version of the Winchesters. (sweary)

Season 4:

Episode 1 'Lazarus Rising' - The beginning of the longest queerbaiting relationship ever

Episode 4 'Monster Movie' - do I really need to explain?

Episode 6 'Yellow Fever' - "I'll man the flashlight!"

Episode 7 ' It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester' - ngl the title makes no sense, and there is a reason, i just can't think of it.

Episode 8 'Wishful Thinking' - another fun episode, this is the episode that, that kid that killed his mum and set out to take the Canadian prime minster out is in.

Episode 12 'Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag' - *shrugs*

Episode 13 'After School Special' - BABY SAM, younger Dean 😏

Episode 14 'Sex and Violence' - BI DEAD BI DEAN BI DEAN BI DEAN

Episode 18 'The Monster at the End of This Book' - also *shrug*

Episode 19 'Jump the Shark' - ADAM!!!! Adam ☹️😢

Season 5:

Episode 5 'Fallen Idols' - another fun episode

Episode 6 'I Believe the Children Are Out Future' - JESSE!!!!! There was so much potential in this kid, we could have the greatest duo with Jesse and Jack.

Episode 7 'The Curious Case of Dean Winchester' - BI DEAD BI DEAN BI DEAN BI DEAN

Episode 8 'Changing Channels' - GABE MY LOVE!!!!!!!!

Episode 9 'The Real Ghostbusters' - fair enough

Episode 11 'Sam, Interrupted' - ✨therapy✨

Episode 12 'Swap Meat' - fun episode

Episode 14 'My Bloody Valentine' - "I don't like it!" "No one likes it."

Episode 17 '99 Problems' - "Not you. Or me. Sam of course is an abomination. We'll have to find someone else." & "Well, what is she, exactly?" "The whore." "Wow, Cas, tell us what you really think."

Episode 18 'Point of No Return' - ADAM!!!! Adam... ☹️😢

Episode 19 'Hammer of the Gods' - GABE!!!!! Gabe.... ☹️😢

Episode 21 'Two Minutes to Midnight' - OH, DEATH, OH, DEATH, OH, DEATH,

Episode 22 'Swan Song' - THE BEGINNIG OF MIADAM!!!! funny story, when i had an iPhone i had "Hey, Assbutt" as my text tone and it was almost as scary as when I had Obi-Wan's "Hello there"

Season 6:

Episode 3 'The Third Man' - BALTHAZAR MY LOVE!!!!!!!!

Episode 9 'Clap Your Hands If You Believe' - Souless!Sam is a dick but I kinda love him.

Episode 17 'My Heart Will Go On' - BALTHAZAR!!!!!!!! "Sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with you."

Episode 18 'Frontierland' - Why is Elias kinda hot...?

Episode 19 'Mommy Dearest' - I just like the bar scene

Season 7:

Episode 1 'Meet the New Boss' - "And who says you speak for God? You're wrong. I am utterly indifferent to sexual orientation. On the other hand, I cannot abide hypocrites like you, Reverend." "Okay, fun's over, friend" "Tell your flock where your genitals have been before you speak for Me." "And who the heck are you?" "I'm God.", basically the whole church scene

Episode 5 'Shut Up, Dr. Phil' - It's just a funny episode

Episode 9 'How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters' - "I think you pissed off my sandwich."

Episode 14 'Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie' - "Ha! I'm sorry, you look like you got attacked by some PCP-crazed strippers."

Episode 20 'The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo' -CHARLIE BABY!!!!!!

Episode 21 'Reading is Fundamental' - KEVIN MY LOVE!!!!!!

Season 8:

Episode 1 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' - That whole first scene, BENNY MY LOVE!!!!!!

Episode 2 'What's Up, Tiger Mommy?' - ALFIE!!!!!!!!! BENNY!!!!!!!

Episode 4 'Bitten' - outside perspectives are always funny

Episode 5 'Blood Brother' - BENNNY!!!! Vampirates.

Episode 6 'Southern Comfort' - GARTH!!!!!

Episode 7 'A Little Slice of Kevin' - KEVIN!!!! Dean isn't even trying to hide his gay.

Episode 8 'Hunteri Heroici' - I'll introgate the cat."

Episode 9 'Citizen Fang' - I hate this episode but yeah

Episode 11 'LARP and the Real Girl' - CHARLIE, MY LOVE!!!!!!

Episode 12 'As Time Goes By' - HENRY, MY LOVE!!!!!!

Episode 13 'Everybody Hates Hitler' - Adam Rose is in it, do i need to continue?

Episode 15 'Man's Best Friend with Benefits' - I hate witches but this ep is good.

Episode 20 'Pac-Man Fever' -

Episode 23 'Sacrifice' - The last scene and speech that Dean says to Sam.

Season 9:

Episode 1 'I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here' - GADDY!!!!!! MY BABY!!!!!!

Episode 4 'Slumber Party' - CHARLIE!!!!! TIIO!!!!!!

Episode 5 'Dog Dean Afternoon' - just a fun one, the pigeon is the best character in this episode.

Episode 7 'Bad Boys' - BABY DEAN BABY DEAN BABY DEAN

Episode 8 'Rock and a Hard Place' - "But when you get down to it, what's the big deal? Sure, there's the touching and the feeling all of each other, my hands everywhere, tracing every inch of her body. The two of us moving together, pressing, pulling, grinding, and then you hit that sweet spot and everything just builds, builds and builds until it all just... [Makes explosion noise] ...But the whole thing was just a little too sticky."

Episode 13 'The Purge' - Out of all of the creatures in this show the Pishtacos are my favourite.

Episode 15 '#thinman' - the return of the Ghostfacers, they're so gay for eachother.

Episode 16 'Blade Runners' - sexy

Episode 19 'Alex Annie Alexis Ann' - ALEX!!!!!!!

Season 10:

Episode 1 'Black' - DEMON!DEAN FOR THE WIN!!!!

Episode 2 'Reichenbach' - Demon Dean...

Episode 3 'Soul Survivor' - Demon Dean.

Episode 4 'Paper Moon' - KATE!!!!

Episode 5 'Fan Fiction' - Do I really need to explain why I like this one? 🎶"JOHN AND MARY, HUSBAND AND WIFE, BRINGING HOME A BRAND NEW LIFE, HIS NAME IS SAMMY, I'M BIG BROTHER DEAN"🎶

Episode 6 'Ask Jeeves' - the interactions are just really funny.

Episode 7 'Girls, Girls, Girls' - ROWENA!!!!!! the only witch I can stand.

Episode 8 'Hibbing 911' - JODIY AND DONNA SUPREMACY!!!!

Episode 12 'About a Boy' - Just a fun episode

Episode 13 'Halt & Catch Fire' - ghosts are always fun episodes

Episode 14 'The Executioner's Song' - the end of Cain

Episode 15 'The Things They Carried' - probably my favourite Cole episode.

Episode 16 'Paint It Black' - I just like this ep

Episode 19 'The Werther Project' - BENNY!!!!!!

Season 11:

Episode 4 'Baby' - self explained, i'd say.

Episode 5 'Thin Lizzie' - idk why

Episode 7 'Plush' - its just funny

Episode 8 'Just My Imagination' - 'She's got sparkle on her face!'

Episode 11 'Into the Mystic' -

Episode 12 'Don't You Forget About Me' - DAD DEAN DAD DEAN DAD DEAN DAD DEAN

Season 12:

Episode 6 'Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox' - It's just funny watching people react the way they do towards the boys.

Episode 8 'LOTUS' - ARTHUR!!!!!!

Episode 11 'Regarding Dean' - Considering that he was going to die this and the Zanna episode are my all time favourites.

Season 13:

Episode 1 'Lost and Found' - JACK!!!!!!! MY BABY!!!!!!!

Episode 2 'The Rising Son' - Jack means a lot to me.

Episode 4 'The Big Empty' - ✨therapy✨

Episode 6 'Tombstone' - GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY

Episode 10 'Wayward Sisters' - GIRLFRIENDS GIRLFRIENDS GIRLFRIENDS GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY

Episode 16 'Scoobynatural' - I like it when they give us a break from the on-going trauma filled story lines.

Season 14:

Episode 4 'Mint Condition' - fun episode

Episode 6 'Optimism' - fun episode

have you guys seen this yet? this is such a cool picture.

Season 15:

Episode 1 'Back and to the Future' - BELPHEGOR!!!!! (i only like Alex's version)

Episode 2 'Raising Hell' - a trip down memory lane

Episode 3 'The Rapture' - *shrugs*

Episode 7 'Last Call' - I just think its funny how Dean faked being able to sing for all those years, I assume to make Sam laugh.

Episode 8 'Our Father, Who Aren't In Heaven' - ADAM!!!!!!! MIDAM!!!!!!! THATS A RELATIONSHIP I WANNA JOIN!!! Oh and its a win for Destial too i guess.

Episode 15 'Gimme Shelter' - Jack & Dean bonding experience.

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vintagegeekculture · 1 year

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RIP John Jakes, Pulp and Fantasy Author

A man who’s career began in pulp scifi, then was one of the greatest group of fantasy fans turned authors, and who finally ended it as one of the most commercially successful “men’s adventure” paperback novels of the 1970s, John Jakes died at 90 last week. What a life! He started his career in scifi pulp of the 1950s, switching to sword and sorcery action in the 60s, and finally, ending the 70s as one of the top selling authors of the decade. In one guy’s life, you can see the ebb and flow of trends in men’s adventure fiction over the decades.

Let’s start the John Jakes story at the end, and then work our way back. Does this book series above look familiar to you at all?

If you have grandparents and they live in America, I 100% guarantee the Kent Family Chronicles (also called the Bicentennial Series) are in your Mee Maw and Pep Pep’s house right now. You probably handled them while visiting their house and went through their bookshelves as a child, right next to their Reader’s Digest condensed books, Tai-Pan and Shogun by James Clavell, copies of the endless sequels to Lonesome Dove, and old TV Guides they still have for some reason next to the backgammon set. If your grandparents are no longer with us, you probably found this series when selling their possessions after death. That’s because these things sold in the millions, back when the surest way to make money in writing was to write melodramatic, intergenerational family sagas of grandiose sweep set around historical events. Weighty family sagas, ones critics call bloated and self important instead of “epic,” were a major part of 70s fiction as they were four quadrant hits: men liked them for war, action, and history (every guy at some point must choose between being a civil war guy, or World War II guy) and ladies loved them for their romance and melodramatic love triangles (after all, the Ur-example of this kind of book is Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind). This was the kind of thing turned into TV event miniseries, and ably lampooned in the hilarious “Spoils of Babylon” series with Kristen Wiig and Toby McGwire, which, decades after the fact, did to this genre what Airplane! did for the formerly prolific airport disaster movie: it torpedoed it forever by making it impossible to take seriously.

This genre eventually went away because men stopped being reliable book buyers and book readers in the 1990s (or at least, were no longer marketed to as an audience), Lonesome Dove’s insane popularity was the last gasp of this audience. I’ve said this before, but men and boys no longer reading is the single most under remarked on social problem we have. “YA books” now basically mean “Girl Books.”

John Jakes did not suddenly come out of nowhere to write smash hit bestsellers set around a family during the American Revolution. He came from one of the weirdest places imaginable: a crony of L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter in fantasy and weird tales fanzines like Amra, he was one of the original “Gang of Eight,” people drawn from fantasy and horror fandom to become pro-writers now that fantasy fiction had a home at Ballantine Publishing, just before the rise of Lord of the Rings and the paperback pulp boom, which is an incredible case of being in the right place at the right time. There, John Jakes, a fanzine contributor and ERB fan, wrote “Brak the Barbarian,” which is amazing as L. Sprague de Camp and Ballantine hadn’t even reprinted the Conan stories yet and Conan was as well known as Jirel of Joiry or Jules de Grandin. Only superfans of pulp knew who that guy was at all, there was no audience for it. He wrote Brak the Barbarian as a superfan, and was lucky the paperback market found him.

The tireless work John Jakes, Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, and the Gang of Eight did in preserving fantasy novelists of the pulp age into the 50s-60s is one of the great historic feats of preservation and keeping fandom flames alive. It’s no exaggeration to say that you know who Conan the Barbarian and HP Lovecraft are right now because of them, fans who kept the flame alive tirelessly and thanklessly in the ultra-rational 50s that had no place for dark horrific fantasy.

Like his friend in fantasy and pulp fandom, L. Sprague de Camp, John Jakes started as a scifi guy in the endless scifi pulp magazines of the 1950s. Unlike his friend de Camp or Hugh B. Cave, who were full of humor, characterization, and satire, Jakes was often pessimistic, dour, and downbeat, and he disliked to laugh.

It’s shocking to lose someone with a connection to, in one lifetime, the first great group of fantasy fandom, 50s scifi pulp, and 70s men’s adventure. John Jakes’ life spanned all of them.

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worldcylinder · 23 days

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Alright. I think it's finished so I am ready to share this mix with the world, by which I mean, the 500-odd mostly dead blogs following me on here. I present to you all...

This is a hifi mix I made to listen to while I commute to and from my TMS treatments, which seems Goats-appropriate. Tracks under the cut, or you can just check it out on YT.

Surrounded - Moon Colony Bloodbath EP (with John Vanderslice)

Training Montage - Bleed Out

The Great Gold Sheep - Getting Into Knives

Roger Patterson Van - Black Pear Tree EP (with Kaki King)

Half Dead - Get Lonely

Abandoned Flesh - Goths

The Diaz Brothers - Transcendental Youth

Getting Into Knives - The Jordan Lake Sessions, vol. 1

Michael Myers Resplendent - Heretic Pride

Butter Teeth - Palmcorder Yajna (single)

Linda Blair Was Born Innocent - We Shall All Be Healed

Damn These Vampires - All Eternals Deck

Alibi - Sail Babylon Springs EP

Foreign Object - Beat the Champ

Stench of the Unburied - Goths

Waylon Jennings Live! - In League With Dragons

New Chevrolet in Flames - See America Right (single)

Murder at the 18th St. Garage - Jenny from Thebes

Possum By Night - In League With Dragons

Tyler Lambert's Grave (unreleased)

Pinklon (unreleased)

#mixtapes #mine #the mountain goats #tmg

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groanings-of-a-dying-empire · 22 days

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American Ingredients Vs. European Ingredients😒🇺🇸

#food additives #european food #american food #food ingredients #Babylon #babylon the great #america babylon the great #america is the valley of the shadow of death #my uploads

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books-by-gauss · 9 months

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Are we witnessing the end of the American empire?

#end times america #america in the bible #babylon the great #america in prophecy #revelation 18 and america

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lightman2120 · 1 year

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youtube

America’s time is running out.

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tricornonthecob · 7 months

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We did a trot and it was fun

LK 118: An American Krispy Krunchy Chicken

(pt1)(pt2)(pt3)(pt4)(pt5)

And almost a decade's experience serving with them during the Seven Year's War.

Babylon 5 jumpscare

Its infuriating when the oblivious beagle/great dane puppy is correct.

Oh dear. Nothing good comes of the Adult In The Room making that face.

"Taking his ease" lol according to Turn, Lee was being a horny dumbass. According to Wikipedia, he was bitching about Washington in a letter. I don't know which one is funnier, Artistic Liberties or the Reality.

Enlist the help of everyone's favorite Unhinged Ginger, of course! (or was he brunette I can't tell now)

Also why the fuck is my boy T-Paine here and was he just... hiding behind a tree, waiting for the best time for an entrance?

Okay but I feel like Henri's voice talent had entirely too much fun with the French accent, they go hard into the French HUHN!

Just fuckin. Skulkin around. Hiding behind trees. Listening in on your conversations.

My guy you ARE a Moody Man.

oh my GOD look at this ADHD-ass beagle/great dane puppy. This is the best little detail about him and I wish we actually saw this more.

"Stop telling the professional how to do his job."

Did T-paine actually say this, or did a Boomer have a moment of self-reflection for once? There was this odd period of time pre-2008 when Boomers were real starry-eyed about their kids and also seemed to be aware that their actions would lead to the world their kids would inherit. I guess then the shock of their investment and retirement portfolios getting abso-fuckin-lutelty FUCKED by the 2008 crash due to, y'know, unhinged bank behavior by their peers, totally rewired them.

oh my god they're being so nosy rn, let the man write!

youtube

Its a secret, for once.

oNlY tHiRtY MiLeS goddamn could dead people flex on people of today.

Ok but this man's shoes are fierce.

Oh my god she already thinks of America as her home Sarah its gettin' real hard to believe you when you talk about being a loyalist.

youtube

(volume warning)

ya girl is not amused.

Noooo not Moses! He's underpaid!

#liberty's kids #amrev #Thomas Paine #tricorn on the cob watches LK and makes inane commentary #tricorn watches

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on-blast · 2 months

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Let Em Burn🔥Fuck Em 🤦🏾‍♂️

https://youtu.be/ogQh2vmi7DY?si=eN-orQXkX3nnYxc2

She IS right about something. There is no place underground where you burn forever. America Babylon The Great will be turned into a "lake of fire" when it gets completely obliterated by literally MILLIONS of thermal nuclear warheads (Rev. 9:16). If she even makes it that far, she will get her wish of a terrifying, painful death (2 Esd. 9:12). Dumb ass...

#hell #bible #war #nuclear war #atheism #atheist #hell is a condition #hell on earth #my uploads

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very-grownup · 1 year

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Numbered List of Manga

I don't really understand what's meant by the X to know me by thing going around, because I thought it was generally agreed that media consumption is not a substitute for personality, but here are 10 (licensed) manga series that stick with me.

Hikaru no Go (Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata)

Tokyo Babylon (CLAMP)

KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE (Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki)

From Eroica With Love (Yasuko Aoike)

X-Day (Setona Mizushiro)

Pluto (Naoki Urasawa)

Goodnight Punpun (Inio Asano)

Otherworld Barbara (Moto Hagio)

Banana Fish (Akimi Yoshida)

Berserk (Kentaro Miura)

Hikaru no Go

The first sports manga I read and the gold standard for Shounen Jump sports manga. The slow maturation of Obata's art with Hikaru's character arc compliment each other so perfectly (when he does his own writing I don't have time for Obata), the triangle of skill/interest/desire in Hikaru's relationship with the game, JUST PUTTING A GHOST IN YOUR SPORT SERIES AS A MENTOR TO THE PROTAGONIST -- the natural end of the series is perfect (and not undone by continuing for several more volumes) and I still think about it twenty years later and get teary. Any subject can be engaging in the right hands.

Tokyo Babylon

My age and gender mean not including a CLAMP title would be a lie. It would be like a dude my age denying having seen any Dragon Ball. Tokyo Babylon is my go-to, with the heavy contrast of the art, chunkier and less streamlined than CLAMP's later titles, and the themes of death, environmentalism, and the disconnect between people and the world around them in post-Bubble Tokyo, are things I keep coming back to in contemporary series, and looking back is both nostalgic while showing me how things have improved in terms of what's accessible and considered marketable in North America. There was a time when the idea of Tokyo Babylon being licensed was laughable! And now it's been licensed, published, and had the license lapse MULTIPLE TIMES.

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

You should read Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Ask me about Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. It's a kind, primarily episodic horror manga with strong anthropological roots. It's supernatural and incredibly real, with stories dealing with xenophobia, the criminal justice system, homelessness, environmental destruction, war crimes, aging populations and the lack of support, isolation, idol culture, otaku culture, employability after receiving a liberal arts education, urban legends, aliens, the dangers of technological innovation, parental loss, revenge, abortion, infanticide, juvenile offenders, cloning, blackmarket animal imports, the continued military presence in Japan, cryonics, the postal service, immigration, what if Jack the Ripper was a ghost and he possessed a cool thing you had imported and continued his serial killings as a ghost. You should read Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Ask me about Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

From Eroica With Love

This series started with superpowered teens, including one named LEOPARD SOLID, and Aoike decided that was boring and she made it a series about a British aristocrat with a secret identity as a flamboyant gentleman thief with amazing hair and a sexually charged rivalry with a German intelligence agent who hates him. It's amazing. It needs to be rescued. There's something like 40 volumes. The pope gets stolen. There's a car chase with a tank and a bazooka on the autobahn. It's perfect and outrageous and over-the-top.

X-Day

I love Mizushiro and she's been tragically unrepresented in English licenses (X-Day is an ex-Tokyopop license, for a one-two punch of tragedy). X-Day is about lonely young people connecting on the internet and planning to blow up their school. There was a panel that felt like my depression had been put perfectly, beautifully, heartbreakingly onto the page.

Pluto

Urasawa's one of the greats and Pluto sees him adapting another of the greats into a smart, often sad, science fiction mystery thriller, and I still haven't been able to bring myself to read it a second time, despite it being Urasawa's shortest series.

Goodnight Punpun

Have you ever read something so profoundly raw and honest and recognizable that you had to quit reading it cold turkey? I think about Goodnight Punpun a lot and I stare at it on my shelf and I know I'm still not ready to read the rest of it.

Otherworld Barbara

No one draws the way Hagio does, with lines that look like they will dissolve if you touch them, and she understands that soft, dreamy beauty should be able to encompass things that are hard and violent and bloody because girls love romance and dream realms and clones and question of identity and beautifully androgynous characters with dark starry eyes and cannibalism.

Banana Fish

I have often gone on, at length, about one of the core components of shoujo, especially classic shoujo, being BIG FEELINGS, and the hugeness of the feelings make the events correspondingly BIG AND POWERFUL AND IMPORTANT but Banana Fish ties that with extreme violence and a plot that becomes increasingly Metal Gear Solid, with impossible drugs and mind control and knife fights and snipers and torture hospitals and the American military industrial complex. And then it comes back to feelings. It's another title where you really see the art evolve, which I love, and it's one of those perfect tragedies, where you can feel bad things coming, sometimes see them coming, but there's a rightness in the tragic ending. It hits the catharsis necessary in real, proper tragedies.

Berserk

I resent how superficial readings of Berserk kept me from reading it for so long. Do I love the hyper-violence and the gore and Miura's obsessive attention to the tiniest details in his shitty, blood-soaked world? Yes, of course, it's powerful and visceral and shocking and wild, which makes the hope and the realness of the trauma and how difficult everything is and how exhausting just living is and the cycles the characters are trying to escape from more engaging. Despite everything it isn't constant, grinding misery. It's a series full of sparks of optimism and so much more than BIG MAN BIG SWORD, with hurts more complex than demonic abominations. But the demonic abominations DO look rad as hell.

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