#by a non-native no less

[mostly-mundane-atla]

So what kinds of food would Aang and other Air Nomads be able to eat during visits to the Water Tribes? Assuming that their brand of vegetarianism allows for animal products like milk and eggs, but no fish or animal fat or anything that would involve killing a living creature.

Naturally, some of these will be seasonal, but this really depends on if you want only pre-contact circumpolar ingredients and cooking methods

If you want some inspiration from purely traditional foods, and can imagine a way they'd collect unfertilized fish eggs:

Wild bird (ptarmigan, grouse, corromant, etc) eggs, raw or boiled. Chicken broth could be replaced with a tea of birch bark, fireweed leaves, or tundra tea leaves to make something similar to an egg drop soup.

Roots like those of masru/eskimo potato and wooly lousewort, raw, boiled, or roasted. Could be fried in theory, but as the only fats available would be attached to animal flesh, this would violate vegetarian dietary restrictions.

Fish roe (eggs) on their own or ground up and whipped into akutaq.

Greens like sourdock, mountain sorrel, and wild celery, dressed in unsweetened syrups of fireweed blossoms or berries instead of the traditional seal oil.

Berries such as wild cranberries (lowbush and highbush), blueberries, cloudberries, wild raspberries, and crowberries, fresh or as jam (unsweetend and probably unpleasantly messy with nothing to eat it on) or akutaq.

Fireweed shoots, roasted and could be served with unsweetened syrups like the aforementioned fresh greens.

Young puffball mushrooms, eaten but not very commonly from what I can tell

And, of course, what the entire fandom was expecting: seaweed. With the lack of any proper substitutes for sessame oil or garlic, however, i'm not sure you could get something resembling a Korean style seaweed soup.

Now, if you want to include things that would have to be imported and cooking utensils and methods that aren't traditional, then you'll see foods that look a little more familiar.

Traditional foods can be stirfried in woks and served over rice or used for noodle dishes.

Here's where things like hotpot and congee are possible.

Flour can be used for doughs and batters or combined with butter to make pastry for frying in plant based oil or baking in ovens to get things like frybreads, cakes, and pies.

Milk can be added to foraged eggs to make custards which can be flavored with local berries and eddible flowers.

Mushrooms and tea can be used to replace meat broths for hearty soups.

Vegetables like cabage and onions can be added, as can protiens like beans and tofu.

And seasonings like ginger, pepper, garlic. And other ways to alter the flavor like soy sauce and vinegar (which also allows pickling). Sugar means syrups, jams, and akutaq can be sweetened, and now that bread is an option, can be eaten in combination with more foods.

This also has me wondering if other aspects than food would be given special attention to align with Air Nomand customs. Would they light lamps with plant-based oils instead of animal fat? Would they be sure to have utensils carved of wood rather than antler, bone, or ivory? Would it be seen to that sleeping mats be made of woved grass and stuffed with mosses and lichens instead of the typical skins?

Anyway, if you want to browse through common tundra plants and like two fungi and Inupiaq uses for them, check out this site

#response #eskimo on main #helpful hints for non-natives writing for avatar canon as well as fan writers #atla #avatar the last airbender #atla headcanons #let's get all those tags on there so this fandom can be a less stupid place #water tribe

[n7punk]

do they even MAKE dumb tvs anymore

#i need a non-roku tv and i need one with Good Sound because my soundbar is on the fritz and the native audio is untenable #i do not have the money to be getting a new TV... well period but much less in the same month as a new phone #and budget options dont usually have good sound HHRG #mylife #i was looking at a list of budget TVs and one was 800$ 💀 we need to kill tech writers

[the-last-dillpickle]

one thing I've noticed over the years is that oftentimes many of the best, most interesting, and memorable english language fics are the ones written by non-native speakers

#i first noticed this in like 2015 #like. obv fics by native speakers are still v good but there's something that they just frequently lack #they're less adventurous in story structure and topic i think #and the writing itself from non-native speakers is more engaging--idk how to fully explain it

[nazuna-tunnel-vision]

genuinely wondering how much of the enstars experience changes if you access enstars mainly from engstars, given how many.. questionable translation decisions they make.

everytime i see a screenshot of 'name-chan' being TLed as 'little (name)' i just instictively feel anger on behalf of the person called 'little'. calling someone 'little' in english is almost always snide and condescending, unless the person in question is actually young or little - which is not the case in enstars. they're talking to people in their age bracket. my brain just registers it as the character being passive-aggressive until i remember that Engstars is TLing it from Chinese, where calling someone 小(name) is a cute and endearing nickname the way you might nickname an Allison 'Allie'.

like. i promise it's okay to include '-chan' and 'Kao-kun'. English speakers can learn honorifics.

This is just hoping that the native English readers who have internalised English-specific connotations also understand the translation difficulties on two layers (here, that JP -> CN -> EN is -chan -> xiao -> little). It's making readers do the tedious work of 1. already being familiar with 3 languages 2. already being familiar with how they're commonly translated 3. consciously parsing through the TLers intentions instead of immersing in the story. It's ridiculous.

#mimin on engstars #granted this difficulty probably doesnt apply for non-native eng speakers #since they dont have the connotations internalised already #which is fine. thats good. #but engstars was launched in primarily eng-speaking regions #i feel like theres gg to be a lot less motivation for TLers to TL since engstars is catching up #but like... the TLs are. like this........ #so much lost in translation and so much erroneously added in translation

[gorekiss]

lots of nb leftists thinking they know about the black experience 2day……

#to say we benefit from imperialism is one thing #its true! #to say we are perpetrators and america goal is to assimilate #u are out of ur fucking mind #and to that story about ur native american family in poverty who all prefer iphones #very cool for ur family that is NOT the standard for people living in poverty what the FUCK are u on #grew up in/around poverty and have worked with people in poverty #u do not know what poverty is if u think u still have access to a phone much less a fucking iphone like u are fucking on somethinf #ur familys experience ur familys NON BLACK experience is NOT the general experience of poverty in america go absolutely fuck yourself #and to the perpetrators thing #how can u say displaced indigenous people (and yes im talkinf about blck americans bc thats what we are) #who were forcefully taken to a different country #and who are trapped here because of systemic racism #TRAPPED HERE #are perpetrators of a system they had no fucking choice of being in #again: do we benefit? absolutely #and those fucking medical graphs #yeah u know what those are based off of? #medical care that ur average black american DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO

[viva-la-topknot]

I've been digitizing old sketchbooks and loose art and have come across some pretty cool stuff. Like, here's Kitti when she was first solidifying as a character in 2006 compared to her again on the left [in the lower left of the drawing] from 2023, this year.

A lot has changed with her character between then and now, to name a few she's in a totally different setting, her markings have changed a fair bit, and she grew an extra couple of limbs.

💫 Knights of Nodd 💫 Kitti 💫 Rose 💫 🎨 General art tag.

Also this is my first post with the new post editor, and it makes the art look so blurry! I hope that the actual upload isn't blurry.

#art #2006 #2023 #knights of nodd #nodd #kitti #rose #worldbuilding #fantasy #drifters #shaman-ai #darox #less than three #places in nodd #nodd non-native

[natequarter]

for the most part i try not to share my extremely judgemental but ultimately meaningless opinions on fan interpretations of certain characters but dear god if you insist on misinterpreting their speech patterns.

#🗡️ #the sheer amount of people who see a character with an accent or less than perfect english #and immediately either play up the accent beyond belief or make the character use very simple grammar. #just admit that you see them as lesser for their non-standard or non-native language lol

[vonlipvig]

my pre-dinner entertainment now consists exclusively of me sitting down to read this french revolution textbook out loud to myself, which is great for many different reasons:

i get to read and learn more about the french revolution, which is always fun. what an eventful moment in time!

i get to practice my english speaking, which i don't have much of a chance to do (my pronunciation and my accent are both very good, but trying to speak as natively as possible is a pretty tiring but fun exercise!)

sometimes i get a little silly with it and start speaking in funny accents, like i'll attempt a british accent to sound all history channel, or i'll pretend i'm philomena cunk and just say whatever bullshit comes to mind.

talking to myself is fun :).

#10/10 would reccommend. topic of your choice ofc but it's great fun for all non native speakers #and for native speakers as well idk! it's way less silly to speak in your own language tho lol #according to jules

[ladyqueth]

When husband told me his boba tea order yesterday was “TGY with 3Q” (pretty regular order of ours), I had the stray thought that this is just as much alphabet soup as my danmei abbreviations. Like, yes I’d like a LWJ with WY, please. 😉

TGY = tie guan yin, trans. “iron Buddha”, a type of oolong tea

#old guard boba places that are more ‘americanized’ just call it iron buddha #but the newer boba places tend to be… uh less friendly to non-native speakers #I’ve gotten so used to it there was a time I got tgy from boba guys #and someone saw my drink and asked which one it was #and without thinking I just said ‘oh it’s the tie guan yin’ #and only then did I realize she was white and now staring at me blankly #so I had to continue ‘uh… I mean the oolong’ and point it out on the menu 😬 #anyway yeah now that I think about it plenty of the other teas still get translated #like high mountain (my favorite oolong) or sun moon lake (nice complex black tea) #it’s just tgy that seemingly everyone leaves in pinyin now #except tea era <- one of the og boba places #ok I’m done with my study of bay area boba tea and language now

[ketchuppee]

During the 2008 recession, my aunt lost her job. Her, her partner, and my three cousins moved across the country to stay with us while they got back on their feet. My house turned from a family of four to a family of nine overnight, complete with three dogs and five cats between us.

It took a few years for them to get a place of their own, but after a few rentals and apartments, they now own a split level ranch in a town nearby. I’ve lost track of how many coworkers and friends have stayed with them when they were in a tight spot. A mother and son getting out of an abusive relationship, a divorcee trying to stay local for his kids while they work out a custody agreement, you name it. My aunt and uncle knew first hand what that kindness meant, and always find space for someone who needed it, the way my parents had for them.

That same aunt and uncle visited me in [redacted] city last year. They are prolific drinkers, so we spent most of the day bar hopping. As we wandered the city, any time we passed a homeless person, my uncle would pull out a fresh cigarette and ask them if they had a light. Regardless of if they had a lighter on hand or not, he offered them a few bucks in exchange, which he explained to me after was because he felt it would be easier for them to accept in exchange for a service, no matter how small.

I work for a company that produces a lot of fabric waste. Every few weeks, I bring two big black trash bags full of discarded material over to a woman who works down the hall. She distributes them to local churches, quilting clubs, and teachers who can use them for crafts. She’s currently in the process of working with our building to set up a recycling program for the smaller pieces of fabric that are harder to find use for.

One of my best friends gives monthly donations to four or five local organizations. She’s fortunate enough to have a tech job that gives her a good salary, and she knows that a recurring donation is more valuable to a non-profit because they can rely on that money month after month, and can plan ways to stretch that dollar for maximum impact. One of those organizations is a native plant trust, and once she’s out of her apartment complex and in a home with a yard, she has plans to convert it into a haven of local flora.

My partner works for a company that is working to help regulate crypto and hold the current bad actors in the space accountable for their actions. We unfortunately live in a time where technology develops far too fast for bureaucracy to keep up with, but just because people use a technology for ill gain doesn’t mean the technology itself is bad. The blockchain is something that she finds fascinating and powerful, and she is using her degree and her expertise to turn it into a tool for good.

I knew someone who always had a bag of treats in their purse, on the odd chance they came across a stray cat or dog, they had something to offer them.

I follow artists who post about every local election they know of, because they know their platform gives them more reach than the average person, and that they can leverage that platform to encourage people to vote in elections that get less attention, but in many ways have more impact on the direction our country is going to go.

All of this to say, there’s more than one way to do good in the world. Social media leads us to believe that the loudest, the most vocal, the most prolific poster is the most virtuous, but they are only a piece of the puzzle. (And if virtue for virtues sake is your end goal, you’ve already lost, but that’s a different post). Community is built of people leveraging their privileges to help those without them. We need people doing all of those things and more, because no individual can or should do all of it. You would be stretched too thin, your efforts valiant, but less effective in your ambition.

None of this is to encourage inaction. Identify your unique strengths, skills, and privileges, and put them to use. Determine what causes are important to you, and commit to doing what you can to help them. Collective action is how change is made, but don’t forget that we need diversity in actions taken.

#long post #some thoughts I’ve been having

[pathsofoak]

*hisses* stop speaking in the first person you're skewing my data

#I'm doing research on reference usage in a foreign language #like whether non-native speakers are more specific than native speakers so they'll say ''the mother bird'' instead of just ''the bird'' etc #anyway #a Number. of people. narrate these stories (which are told from text-less 6 panel comics) entirely in the first person #as if they and the interviewer are there. #the problem is that ''I'' and ''You'' are Completely irrelevant to me #but I do need to write them down bc they're pronouns and bc Occasionally they fill in dialog for the animals in the story #so after I've finished this shit I need to like write up notes and what not #ughhhhh

[bogleech]

Anyway while we're on the subject of public misconception towards living things (which is completely understandable because have you SEEN living things? There's like dozens of them!) here's a fresh rundown of some common mistakes about bugs!

Arachnids aren't just spiders! They're also scorpions, mites, ticks and some real weirdos out there

Insects with wings are always finished growing! Wings are the last new thing they ever develop! There can never be a "baby bee" that's just a smaller bee flying around.

That said, not all insects have larvae! Many older insect groups do look like little versions of adults....but the wings rule still applies.

Insects do have brains! Lobes and everything!

Only the Hymenoptera (bees, ants and wasps) have stingers like that.

Not all bees and wasps live in colonies with queens

The only non-hymenoptera with queens are termites, which is convergent evolution, because termites are a type of cockroach!

There are still other insects with colonial lifestyles to various degrees which can include special reproductive castes, just not the whole "queen" setup.

Even ants still deviate from that; there are multi-queen ant species, some species where the whole colony is just females who clone themselves and other outliers

There is no "hive mind;" social insects coordinate no differently from schools of fish, flocks of birds, or for that matter crowds of humans! They're just following the same signals together and communicating to each other!

Not all mosquito species carry disease, and not all of them bite people

Mosquitoes ARE ecologically very important and nobody in science ever actually said otherwise

The bite of a black widow is so rarely deadly that the United States doesn't bother stocking antivenin despite hundreds of reported bites per year. It just feels really really bad and they give you painkillers.

Recluse venom does damage skin, but only in the tiny area surrounding the bite. More serious cases are due to this dead skin inviting bacterial infection, and in fact our hospitals don't carry recluse antivenin either; they just prescribe powerful antibiotics, which has been fully effective at treating confirmed bites.

Bed bugs are real actual specific insects

"Cooties" basically are, too; it's old slang for lice

Crane flies aren't "mosquito hawks;" they actually don't eat at all!

Hobo spiders aren't really found to have a dangerous bite, leaving only widows and recluses as North America's "medically significant" spiders

Domestic honeybees actually kill far more people than hornets, including everywhere the giant "murder" hornet naturally occurs.

Wasps are only "less efficient" pollinators in that less pollen sticks to them per wasp. They are still absolutely critical pollinators and many flowers are pollinated by wasps exclusively.

Flies are also as important or more important to pollination than bees.

For "per insect" pollination efficiency it's now believed that moths also beat bees

Honeybees are non-native to most of the world and not great for the local ecosystem, they're just essential to us and our food industry

Getting a botfly is unpleasant and can become painful, but they aren't actually dangerous and they don't eat your flesh; they essentially push the flesh out of the way to create a chamber and they feed on fluids your immune system keeps making in response to the intrusion. They also keep this chamber free of bacterial infection because that would harm them too!

Botflies also exist in most parts of the world, but only one species specializes partially in humans (and primates in general, but can make do with a few other hosts)

"Kissing bugs" are a group of a couple unusual species of assassin bug. Only the kissing bugs evolved to feed on blood; other assassin bugs just eat other insects.

[jewish-sideblog]

Are you fucking for real with this? Y’all have really been whipped into such an antisemitic frenzy like.

“Members of a non-European ethnic group were displaced from their ancestral land and forced to take European names in Western nations hundreds of years ago. Now they’re changing their names back to names that have historical precedent in their native languages. (Black people)” is universally accepted as a good thing by liberals / leftists / anti-racists. But for some reason

“Members of a non-European ethnic group were displaced from their ancestral land and forced to take European names in Western nations hundreds of years ago. Now they’re changing their names back to names that have historical precedent in their native languages. (Jewish people)” is considered a horrifyingly evil colonial tactic?

Most Jews living in European diaspora didn’t have surnames at all until a handful of centuries ago. Sephardim were forced to take on Spanish surnames to avoid being killed by the Inquisition following the Alhambra Decree in 1492. Ashkenazim were forced to adopt Germanic and Eastern European names in different nations at different times between the 1780s and the 1850s. Both Ben Gurion and Netanyahu’s “white” names were forced upon them by local Prussian, Russian, or Austro-Hungarian officials less than three hundred years ago. Adopting Hebrew-or-Yiddish-derived last names were banned by most of these laws. When Jewish families left the nations that had forced them to adopt white Germanic last names, they adopted indigenous Jewish last names instead.

David Ben Gurion was born David Güre. He literally just added a Hebrew patronymic prefix to his father’s last name. Meanwhile Mohammed Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay. Amiri Baraka was born Everett Leroy Jones. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor. When you commend black people for shaking off names that were forced upon them by Europeans three hundred years ago, but vilify Jewish people for doing the exact same thing, you’re antisemitic. There’s no other way around it.

#jumblr #antisemitism

[hazard-symbols-that-fuck-hard]

Okay time for the PBS Kids essay

Read it under the cut!

:readmore:

In 1968, before there was PBS Kids proper, there was Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. While it came several decades before the children’s block, it laid the foundation for the themes and values present in every facet of the network’s history.

Mr. Roger famously hated children’s programming at the time. To him, it all was droll and useless. But he didn’t dissuade the medium entirely— he saw potential. Potential that led to a few smaller television jobs, and eventually the creation of Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.

Rogers didn’t invent educational TV for children, but he did perfect it. He poured real heart and soul into probably the most sincere, heartfelt program in history.

Honestly, he could have his own essay. The more things you learn about the real man of Mr. Rogers, the more you’ll like him.

Anyway, the biggest thing that makes PBS different is the fact that it earns money through grants, fundraisers, and private donors— not through sponsorships and merchandise sales. This way, PBS Kids can push programming that it feels is important, rather than programming that merely sells well.

This also means PBS is less afraid of pushing social boundaries. Money doesn’t go away when their shows become subjects of debate— and Mr. Rogers took full advantage of this.

For context, this was 1969. The Jim Crow era had just barely, barely ended. Pool segregation was still very much legal.

Mr. Rogers sharing a pool and a towel with the Black Mr. Clemmons was a pretty big deal at the time— especially on a show made for children.

Rogers was far from the untouchable sacred cow of today. When he was alive, he had a large number of detractors. Let’s just say that scene didn’t fly nicely by everyone.

Just one year after the debut of Mr. Roger’s came Sesame Street.

While Mr. Roger’s was made for all children, Sesame Street had the explicit goal of supplementing the education of underserved communities— especially inner-city Black (and later Latino) children.

While it was made to be accessible to children of all races and income levels, they definitely went the extra mile to make it something special for inner-city Black and Brown kids. (Why do you think it it’s “Sesame Street” and not “Sesame Cul-de-Sac”?)

At the time, a wholesome, sweet show set in a brownstone street was practically unheard of.

Jon Stone, the casting director, deliberately sought to make the cast as rich with color as he possibly could, bringing on a huge amount of Black talent such as Loretta Long, Matt Robinson, and Kevin Clash, as well as featuring Black celebrities as guest stars. Later, the show would expand its horizons, bringing on actors from Latino, Asian, Native American, and many more backgrounds.

White actors were and still are a minority on show.

In addition to letters and numbers, the purpose of Sesame Street is clear: make kids of color know that they’re smart, beautiful, and loved.

It doesn’t get more explicit than this.

I want to point out this comment because it’s funny

You’re telling me this bitch isn’t Hispanic???

Anyway, these two were followed up by Reading Rainbow in 1983. And guess what?

That’s right. Non-white focus.

These three shows, (along with other, lesser-known programs like Lamb-Chops Play Along, Newton’s Apple, and Shining Times Station (who featured Ringo Starr himself?? seriously how did that happen and why does no one talk about it) and some other nostalgic favorites like Bill Nye the Science guy, The Magic Schoolbus, Arthur, and Thomas the Tank Engine) aired on the new PTV block, which evolved into PBS Kids in 1999, bringing along Between the Lions, Dragon Tales, and many more.

Arthur is another stand-out that I’d like to talk about— it doesn’t have the same racial focus of Sesame Street, but it does focus on different income levels. The characters have various housing situations, from apartments to mansions to no home at all.

It also takes cues from Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s in regards to talking about tough topics, though as Arthur has a slightly older target audience, it discusses things through stories rather than talking directly to the audience.

Cancer, religion, workplace discrimination, along with current (at the time) events such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina are all discussed on the show.

Another big focus on Arthur is disability. For once, they don’t stick a character in a wheelchair and then pretend he’s not in a wheelchair. A striking number of major characters either develop or get diagnosed with physical disabilities and/or neurodivergences, such as asthma, severe food allergies, and dyslexia, and they deal with them in very realistic ways.

A handful of minor characters have more obvious disabilities, and THANK GOD they go beyond the trite messaging of “disabled people can do everything abled people can do! everyone clap now!”

One episode in particular has the awesome message of “holy shit stop trying to help me all the time— it’s patronizing as fuck. I can get around just fine without you stepping on eggshells and trying to be the hero all the fucking time”

There are sooo many other shows I could talk about, but I can’t write about them all. I’m definitely gonna point out some more standout ones, though.

Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

Created by Chinese-American woman Amy Tang

Dragonfly TV

Features a multitude of female and non-white scientists to foster an interest in science with kids in those groups

Maya & Miguel

One of the network’s first Hispanic-led shows

SciGirls

I shouldn’t have to explain what the goal of this one was.

Molly of Denali

When was the last time you saw a show that treated Native Americans as people? Much less a children’s show? 90% of the cast is Athabascan, and the show revolves around Athabascan culture, not shying away from topics like boarding schools and modern-day racism. Most of the writers are also Athabascan, and the show even has an official Gwich’in dub!

It’s this commitment to real, authentic social justice that makes PBS Kids so much different from its competitors. Could you imagine the Paw Patrol dog looking at the camera and earnestly discussing what happened to George Floyd? I don’t think so— but Arthur talked specifically about it, Sesame Street did an hour long special about race in general, and the network itself made a 30 minute special.

Disney Jr. could never. (Other than trying to teach colorblindness, of course.)

I’m gonna have to cut this into two parts, since I just hit the image limit

[thesmpisonfire]

QSMP LANGUAGE DAY

It will be in March 3rd‼️‼️

Since this weekend there's still the strike so not everyone will be online, so moving it to next weekend!

What is "QSMP Language Day"?

It will be a day here on qsmpblr that everyone will speak their native languages and, those who speak english by default, try and speak other languages they're learning and get some help as well!

The goal is to make everyone feel more comfortable speaking their mother tongue here on our hellsite and even find other peers that speak the same language as we do and we never knew about!

If it all goes right and we enjoy it, we could have it happen more often, even weekly if so, to also make qsmpblr a little bit less english-centric and maybe even rope some non-english speakers in here

The translator use is not only recommended but also actively cheered upon!! You can use Apple's in-built translator, you can use Ok Google's in-built translator, you can go copy text it in translator, or download a browser extension if you use desktop!! Everything is allowed for your better understanding

So everyone!! Prepare! Spread the word! Cram some duolingo lessons more!!

Let's all be ready for March 3rd!!!

#qsmp #qsmp language day

[heritageposts]

how do i start to read marxist leninist/leftist stuff ? i searched on the internet but it’s super confusing lol

the most important value for me as an ML is anti-imperialism, so i guess i'll always recommend that people start with works centred on that

some suggestions below (all books should be available either on marxist.org or as pdf/epub files on libgen)

American Holocaust by David E. Stannard

about the colonization of america. not explicitly marxist, but it's probably done more to radicalize me than any other piece of writing. this is the pile of corpses capitalism is built on:

Within no more than a handful of generations following their first en counters with Europeans, the vast majority of the Western Hemisphere's native peoples had been exterminated. The pace and magnitude of their obliteration varied from place to place and from time to time, but for years now historical demographers have been uncovering, in region upon region, post-Columbian depopulation rates of between 90 and 98 percent with such regularity that an overall decline of 95 percent has become a working rule of thumb. What this means is that, on average, for every twenty natives alive at the moment of European contact-when the lands of the Americas teemed with numerous tens of millions of people-only one stood in their place when the bloodbath was over. To put this in a contemporary context, the ratio of native survivorship in the Americas following European contact was less than half of what the human survivorship ratio would be in the United States today if every single white person and every single black person died. The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. That is why, as one historian aptly has said, far from the heroic and romantic heraldry that customarily is used to symbolize the European settlement of the Americas, the emblem most congruent with reality would be a pyramid of skulls. - David E. Stannard

2. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin

Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed. - Vladimir Lenin

3. The Wretched of The Earth by Franz Fanon

Let us look at ourselves, if we can bear to, and see what is becoming of us. First, we must face that unexpected revelation, the strip-tease of our humanism. There you can see it, quite naked, and it’s not a pretty sight. It was nothing but an ideology of lies, a perfect justification for pillage; its honeyed words, its affectation of sensibility were only alibis for our aggressions. A fine sight they are too, the believers in non-violence, saying that they are neither executioners nor victims. Very well then; if you’re not victims when the government which you’ve voted for, when the army in which your younger brothers are serving without hesitation or remorse have undertaken race murder, you are, without a shadow of doubt, executioners. And if you chose to be victims and to risk being put in prison for a day or two, you are simply choosing to pull your irons out of the fire. But you will not be able to pull them out; they’ll have to stay there till the end. Try to understand this at any rate: if violence began this very evening and if exploitation and oppression had never existed on the earth, perhaps the slogans of non-violence might end the quarrel. But if the whole regime, even your non-violent ideas, are conditioned by a thousand-year-old oppression, your passivity serves only to place you in the ranks of the oppressors. - prefrace by Jean-Paul Sartre

4. Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire

Yes, it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him, that Hitler inhabits him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he rails against him, he is being inconsistent and that, at bottom, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the coolies of India, and the blacks of Africa I have talked a good deal about Hitler. Because he deserves it: he makes it possible to see things on a large scale and to grasp the fact that capitalist society, at its present stage, is incapable of establishing a concept of the rights of all men, just as it has proved incapable of establishing a system of individual ethics. Whether one likes it or not, at the end of the blind alley that is Europe, I mean the Europe of Adenauer, Schuman, Bidault, and a few others, there is Hitler. At the end of capitalism, which is eager to outlive its day, there is Hitler. At the end of formal humanism and philosophicrenunciation, there is Hitler - Aimé Césaire

5. Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism by Michael Parenti

probably the most accessible introduction to communism that doesn't demonize countries that have undergone—or attempted to undergo—a transitation into socalism (like the ussr, cuba, etc.)

The very concept of "revolutionary violence" is somewhat falsely cast, since most of the violence comes from those who attempt to prevent reform, not from those struggling for reform. By focusing on the violent rebellions of the downtrodden, we overlook the much greater repressive force and violence utilized by the ruling oligarchs to maintain the status quo, including armed attacks against peaceful demonstrations, mass arrests, torture, destruction of opposition organizations, suppression of dissident publications, death squad assassinations, the extermination of whole villages, and the like. - Michael Parenti

#i'm too lazy to write an introduction for all of them #but i've included some quotes #get reading sickos #this is now on the tumblr university curriculum