#countries as people

[ink-the-artist]

Love the contrast between the Americans’ “Apollo” and the Soviets’ “Sputnik.” You got the Americans naming their rocket after a Greek god trying to communicate the grandness and importance of this rocket. And you got the Soviets naming their rocket “fellow traveler.” Like a friend you go on an  adventure with together. This rocket is our little friend lol 

#i think its cute #they took the mars rover approach #humanizing the space craft making it cute making us (me) project emotions onto it #the soviets also used imagery of laika in propaganda a lot #which is pretty fucked up imo #but if i grew up in the soviet union that shit wouldve definetly worked on me lmao #the narrative of a heroic little dog going to space and being honored by the whole country #as cruely wrong as it is its very appealing #the soviets knew what they were doing man they didnt reveal how laika really died until like. the 2000s #bc they knew people really cared about that dog #they liked the narrative around her

[shitty-check-please-aus]

What we need to do is convince all the disney adults in america that high speed rail would be a preferable way of getting to disneyworld compared to driving or flying. We could maybe harness their fondness for the monorail or something, but this is a group of people that has time, income, and passion that we could leverage. If we could direct 5% of the enthusiasm they have for limited edition popcorn buckets into calling their representatives and demanding high-speed interstate rail, we could get it by 2030

#at this point I don't care whether rail is privately or publicly funded #I'll ride the Mickey Mouse Express if it means not having to drive or fly everywhere #if you're on the disneyland side of the country I just don't have as strong a grasp on your psychology as a demographic #but I went to school with some twice a year disneyworld people #if you are a disney adult and you're reading this please don't take it as an insult #I don't think it comes off that way but you never know

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

#9/11 #serious post #not a shitpost #this should be one of the first things kids learn when they learn about the 9/11 attacks #politics #this is just...it's such an essential and brazen fact and i rarely see basic outrage over it #i want outrage. i want fury. i want disgust over the way fundamental facts are disguised and discarded and downplayed #because there are things we should KNOW. basic fact we should ALL KNOW. and they are tucked away in the footnotes. #and no this is NOT to put the blame on other middle eastern countries #we know this was carried out by a specific terrorist organization not a national government #but King George the Second decided (and was encouraged by his cabinet!) to invade a nation! #a nation that was not at all related or responsible!!! #a dictatorship to be sure--but a dictatorship that King George the First had been happy to support #so what changed? why did we go in guns blazing to DEMOLISH a country *we had NO PLANS OF REPAIRING*??? #well. because they wanted a villain didn't they. a nice clean war. clarity of purpose. us the heroes against them the villains #and when you're in that mindframe--truth is irrelevant. you can pick your villain (your victim) by rolling a roulette wheel #truth is irrelevant #worse: to the people in charge #truth is a HINDRANCE #'Alternative facts' existed long before it became a catchphrase #facts don't matter. truth doesn't matter. the impulses of a handful of volatile & rich & power-high people--that's History. congratulations

[embraceyourdestiny]

to any americans who feel "paralyzed" and "dont know what to do" to help with gaza:

reading a fucking book. i beg of you.

in a time of knowledge suppression is it your duty to arm yourself with knowledge.

read about americas occupations in the middle east.

read about 9/11 from outside of america and see how they inflicted senseless harm and violence to countless amounts of people and have been suppressing your rights for the past 2 fucking decades.

read about any of the countless wars from the past 30 years. especially from a civilian's. and the victims and survivors' perspective. listen to the horror stories and do not plug your fucking ears as to what your country is doing.

and read about fucking gaza and palestine and keep up with what is happening no matter how "sad" or "uncountable" you might get.

dont look away from this.

you dont have the right to be comfortable during countless active genocides.

if you're knowledgeable, you're powerful, and our current state doesnt fucking want that.

you have the power to change things if you open your eyes and scream to the world.

wake the fuck up.

Edit: please check the reblogs there are readings and ways to help

#og #truly if youre not about it your against it and i dont fuck with you because you're complacent #wake the fuck up #we're all responsible and dont you dare say you're not #americans need to stop living in the world with their eyes closed and their ears covered #look at what your fucking 'glorious country' is doing to people #everyone should be against america no fucking exceptions because america is violent and evil and needs to be stopped #then read about what america has done to the natives of their land #radicalize yourself #decolonize your mind #free palestine #land back #palestine will be free #theres too many fucking movements of just the past couple years all happening at once to act like the world is fucking fine #we are in a human rights CRISIS #WAKE THE FUCK UP PLEASE

[euphorial-docx]

people need to realize that what’s going on with palestine and israel isn’t about anyone being jewish.

there are jewish palestinians, muslim palestinians, christian palestinians being trapped in what is essentially an open air prison for children and the elderly with no food, water, or electricity just because they’re palestinian.

this is about colonization, and unfortunately so many people are falling for the blatant propaganda being turned out by an apartheid government (israel).

the only solution to stop all this violence is to give palestine their land back. that is the solution.

#free palestine #and before anyone says it: there is a difference between everyday israeli citizens and the israeli government #of course i sympathize with the people caught in the middle #but i will never stand with the israeli government #i am a supporter of the land back movement. that also extends to countries likes palestine #it is not antisemitic to stand with palestine

[ibtisams]

When Palestinian’s say “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” they are not calling for the ethnic cleansing of Israeli Jews/all Jewish people entirely. They are just asking for decolonisation.

Between the river (the Jordan River) and the sea (the Mediterranean Sea) lies Palestine, which has been occupied by Israel for the past 75 years. When they say Palestine will be free, they mean exactly that- for decolonisation; to end the illegal occupation of land that was theirs first.

I don’t know where the idea that this motto means genocide or is a “rallying cry for terrorists” came from, but all sources I have seen that spread this message are all pro-Israel and have unreliable propaganda filled articles. There is one article specifically that says that the Palestine flag emoji is used as shorthand for this phrase, and using it is antisemitic.

I hope people keep using this motto, keep chanting it at protests, and know that it does not making them antisemitic, pro-genocide, or an ignorant person. For it to not be obvious at this point that no Palestinian wants an ethnic cleansing of any kind, is shocking.

decolonizepalestine has an amazing article with more details about the history of the phrase and the myths surrounding it.

#if I can’t even use the emoji of my country’s flag what can I use??? #the misinformation being spread about this motto is horrifying and quite honestly all of these claims are a projection from people #who support Israel #palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #🦢

[shadow-bender]

Please pray and raise awareness for Cole Brings Plenty, a Lakota actor and student. He was found on april 5th. Whoever killed him also cut off his braids. This is such an awful and cruel act of violence, im having a hard time finding the words.

April 8th Rising Hearts has organized Braids for Cole, so please wear your hair in braids and bring awareness so that Cole and his family can get justice.

#cole brings plenty #missing and murdered indigenous relatives #i went to undergrad with cole. i only met him a couple times and didnt really know him #indian country is a small place #and the haskell community especially #idk where im going with these tags #i feel so at a loss. the violence against our people its #its fucking awful #anyways #please raise awarness and also wear braids tomorrow

[jewfrogs]

this post sucks so bad massachusetts takes its name from the indigenous massachusett people who were genocided and whose land was stolen and that would be obvious if you would think for a single second and look up the etymology before posting. mocking a native language that was eradicated for centuries and is only now beginning to be revived is not fucking funny it is ignorant and racist and cruel

#ribbits #genocide mention #i am actually quite mad that that has 10k notes. scrolled through the notes and only saw one correction #someone asked ‘why did the founding fathers name it that’ first of all the fucking people who were already living here named it that #hundreds of years before this country was founded. second the first colonist to call it massachusetts was fucking john smith in 1610

[united-under-skyfall]

leverage is so fucking funny. man manages to find the most mentally ill and neurodivergent group of thieves on the market + an even more mentally ill guy whose literal job description was trying to chase all of them, and forces them into a found family speed-run by trying to blow them all up. they lowkey stage a full fucking country wide coup and are like eh 🤷 just another wednesday. this might be a fun place to vacation tho i guess. sophie shows up to her own funeral twice. they're so good at convincing people of their shit that they make a guy's body start reacting to an illness he doesn't have because it isn't real. go completely out on a limb and basically hand this one guy a new password for his computer so they can get into it and he goes with it. parker and hardison have straight up just "fake it 'till you make it"d into the fbi without even attempting to cover their tracks beyond just These Two Guys. half their clients never asked to be their clients and don't know they're their clients, and the other half are random people who find them who fuckin knows how, meanwhile no government agency can track them down without selling their soul to sterling. they make a point to have a dramatic scene w a Big Bad Shadowy Government Guy who doesn't actually get caught or brought to justice or anything telling them he's going to hunt them all down, and in any other show this would probably earn at least a minor arc later on but he literally never shows up again. an entire season finale hinged on a cake and a bunch of clams. they accidentally made eliot a celebrity not once, not twice, but three times. parker blew up her foster parents' house when she was like. nine. and it's hardly a footnote. hardison is just casually an artistic prodigy but it's only ever brought up for the most background of background gags. eliot's biggest beef with parker and hardison for like two and a half seasons is that they won't stop making weird food with lasers and refuse to realize they can't make a decent beer to save their lives. sophie's immediate response to being shot is to call her shooter a wanker. there's a character who has literally killed a man with a mop and they had the audacity to only put her in one episode.

#leverage my beloved <3 #ramble #leverage #i also feel the need to point out that. while yes sophie did show up to her own funeral twice. she also technically was the driver to bring #her own ''corpse'' to wherever interpol was sending it lmfao #re: eliot being made a celeb 3 times bc some people are confused—country singer; baseball player; hockey player #didnt count the knockout job bc i think that was p local focused? could be wrong #re: character who killed a man w a mop = mikel dayan (hitter from the two live crew job) #this post is getting people interested in leverage lets goooooooo #this post has also officially surpassed the number of people i expected to ever know or care about leverage by several thousands #bc even though logically i know it aired as an actual tv show over several years and a lot of people probably saw it #that does not compute in my head #leverage spoilers

[rubysevens]

anyway in the past week the irish government has voted down two motions which would have condemned the genocide in gaza.

i need everyone to stop lionising ireland as if its not also a european government with strong ties to the us. american weapons pass through shannon airport and will continue to, because yesterday the motion to stop that was voted down 83 to 50.

other governments have done much more but somehow people still act as though ireland is the ultimate palestinian ally and exempt from criticism on its handling of palestine bc it was once colonised, even though that past experience clearly isnt being taken into account by the irish government when creating policy.

i live here i know there’s a lot of public support and sympathy for palestine, which is great, but that isnt reflected in government, and i think ireland should be treated like other countries whose governments have done nothing.

#i mean i think theres also a discrepancy btwn the govt and the people on palestine bc there hasnt been a general election since early 2020 #before the last few rounds of aggression by israel brought it back into mainstream western discussion #but also theres a degree of privilege in ppl not having felt the need to think abt it in 2020 yk. palestinians have been thinking abt this #since 1948 #there’s also the fact that ideological support of palestine absolutely doesn’t equate to better treatment of muslims #i can promise you this country is still very islamophobic and racist no matter where you go #and i feel like that gets glossed over when ireland is treated as the ultimate ally of palestine when. realistically. it isnt #be quiet b #sorry this is like paragraphs but im becoming frustrated 👍 #ive seen other posts abt this im not the first to say it they were just unrebloggable. understandably

[lazylittledragon]

do i have to post an in-depth tutorial on how i make my frappes at home if it'll get people to stop going to fucking starbucks

#ramble #boycotting is not hard!!!! it says nothing other than you're a selfish fucking arsehole!!!!!!! #people are dying i don't care if you miss your $12 milkshake #'it's annoying' half of a fucking country is dead #anyway it's so much easier than you think and saves you SO much money #also better for me with ibs because i know exactly what's going into it #i will do this if you want i just have to wait for my new frappe base to arrive bc i've run out

[hilacopter]

it's the way american leftists will insist on separating themselves from their government because, you know, a single governing force does not represent an entire country full of people with differing opinions. and then they absolutely refuse to apply that logic to non-western countries.

#apparently being across the globe from the people that actually matter means your country is a hivemind of npcs #which are either to be saved or destroyed by said people who actually matter #i'm so fucking tired #i'm done pretending western leftists aren't being horrifically xenophobic about this conflict #leftist hypocrisy #i/p #hila has spoken #lukas rants

[suspiciouslandlady]

What I find extremely hilarious right now is how Sweden can’t accept that people aren’t focusing on them. How Finland isn’t just crying in the shadow of Sweden. How Finland is celebrating Käärijä even if he didn’t bring the trophy home. They don’t want to accept why we are celebrating. Swedish media is trashing Finland right now harshly and so does Swedes in media. Hell, even Swedish ice hockey coach made some stupid comments to Finnish ice hockey team. 

But why are Finns celebrating like we won?

We are celebrating because for the first time in ages THE WHOLE WORLD sees us as our own and not the shadow of Sweden. Käärijä made the world acknowledge us! Point us on the map! And that’s something that rarely happens. 

Sweden is acting like the bitter big brother who doesn’t accept that someone is paying attention to little brother Finland instead of them.

And that’s beautiful. 

#eurovision #esc #esc 2023 #Sweden #finland #Eurovision song contest #Käärijä #cha cha cha #This is the best outcome honestly #People are acknowledging Finland as the country! #As our own culture we are! #So STOP making Finland as the avec of Sweden all the time #We'll never return to be part of Sweden :)

[communistkenobi]

students in the social sciences can’t explain it either lol. “people in this country see no merit in studying any subject that cannot go on a resume” that’s because they go to school to get a job! I wonder what larger structural factors contribute to this widespread relationship people have to higher education. maybe this guy can use his big beautiful humanities degree to explain it to us

#‘this country’ I’m assuming this person is American also which is doubly laughable #I wonder why people going into tens of thousands of dollars into debt want to focus on shit that will get them a job. impossible to know #also profoundly arrogant & self serving. I’m sure this is a humanities person because they all believe art is inherently revolutionary #and artists are the most oppressed special and uniquely capable labourers on the planet

[wearenotjustnumbers2]

Journalists in gaza are posting their last message.

What are we waiting for, what have we allowed to happen?

Ismail and motaz are the same journalists in this video by the way. They're people who always find light in the dark. Praying for them and all Palestinians.

#my god my god #i am not in Palestine but i am hurting for my country and I'm tired for my people how do they feel? when they're right there #ismail jood shared this #can't stop thinking of his son #i am full on having a panic attack #but we can't let despair one #we will be their voices #please don't tire and don't stop! #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #palestine #gaza #israel #important #current events #free palestine #ethnic cleansing #free gaza #gaza strip #gaza under attack #journalist #journaling #journalism #we are not numbers