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thoughtsforsoob · 4 months

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responding to the anonymous hater in my inbox

a/n: guys it was so hard to write this response with eloquence but I wanted to show that I'm capable of not letting anger completely control my actions! while I did consider turning off anon for a while, I decided that would be fair to those who want to request without showing their actual profile. also, please be kind to others. you never know what someone else is going through.

(I put a break so that you don't have to read if you don't want to!)

the comments sent to my inbox:

“You're content actually sucks. You should quit now😢😢”

“I recommend going to university for journalism or writing or something, cause your writing sucks. And everyone who follows you have zero taste whatsoever. Imagine how the people you write about would feel if they knew you did this. They'd probably hate you. You have no real love for them, just lust”

“Miss 'Ari', I find it hilarious how women always complain about people sexualizing them, while dressing in the lamest excuse for clothing ever. Yet, look at what you write about. I'm sure if a random guy in your life wrote these things about you, you'd call him a creep. So, what does that make you, Ari? “

—

my response:

I just want to write this message to the person who sent me all of these extremely disrespectful comments. I do not appreciate that fact that you left these but, everyone is entitled to their opinion! If you had some constructive criticism that would have been helpful but you chose to just outright be rude, which is not cool at all. I know this is cliche but I highly doubt you would appreciate if someone did this to you or someone you care about. Then again, I question if you truly have the capability to care about anyone but your own ego.

Not that I need to justify myself to you but your little jab about “going to university” is pointless because I am in uni. I am studying English and Japanese. If anyone between the both of us understands grammar and language as a whole, it would most likely be me.

Lastly, this sort of writing has been around for a long time and it isn’t going to stop. I have the ability to respect my idols and write this content as well. I’ve been to concerts and have been about to compose myself like I usually do at shows. I actually saw txt live twice and composed myself like a normal human being (im not sure if you could say the same but I’ve seen them in person and had an interaction of 2). I’m sorry if that makes you upset or jealous.

If the roles were reversed, I truly wouldn’t be very bothered because as an artist you should know this type of content exists. If you don’t wanna see it, don’t. If you do, then you can. There are literal videos of artists/actors/kpop idols reading thirst tweets but thats not weird according to people like you.

I will not waste another moment of my life responding to your disrespect but I did wanna let you know what I thought about your commentary on my writing. Please have a good life and find peace.

#tomorrow x together #txt #txt post #txt x reader

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bllsbailey · 4 months

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RedState Weekly Briefing: Biden's Chicken Parm, Ramaswamy's Master Class, Trump's Teamster Tête-à-Tête

Welcome to the RedState Weekly Briefing — where we take a quick look at the week’s most viewed stories in case you missed any of them. Grab a cup of coffee — or, hey, to ring in the New Year, some champagne — and sit down with this 21st Century Weekend Edition of your favorite (online) publication!

#1 - Biden's Brain Turns to Mush During New Year's Eve Appearance With Ryan Seacrest — by Bonchie

Jill Biden's discomfort is obvious as she gives a deep sigh halfway through his answer and turns to glare at him momentarily. I would assume this was a rehearsed answer that he went in on even though it didn't fit what he was asked. That's one of the results of having a president who can't do something as simple as a light-hearted New Year's Eve spot without canned responses. He looks so inauthentic because he is. I mean, come on. Who needs notecards to answer softballs from Ryan Seacrest for a few minutes? This is supposed to be one of the most capable men on the planet filling the most important job in politics. But hey, at least he likes ice cream.

#2 - WATCH: Female Influencer Visits Gym in Painted-On Pants, Gets Reaction She Deserves After Playing Victim — by Sister Toldjah

Though Reynolds has a modest following at Twitter and Kick.com, she's built up a following of 356,000 people on her Instagram page, where the predictable thirst trap pictures and obnoxious videos are regularly posted. READ: 'Kroger Andy' Gets Last Laugh After Targeted by Social Media Shamer in Grocery Store Mask Dispute Strangely, the gym video wasn't posted to Instagram, which is probably intentional since the one she posted to Twitter did not go according to plan. Because she got called out so badly for arriving to the gym nearly naked, she has since posted tweets showing other women at gyms dressed in bikini bottoms and also pictures of bodybuilders in bikinis as though it justifies her arriving at a fitness center in painted "clothes" and accompanied by a video director who clearly wanted to put the man who protested on blast as an alleged example of sexism and misogyny.

#3 - NEW: Iowa School Shooter Identified, Allegedly Part of the Transgender Movement — by Bonchie

That revelation didn't come from police, who have yet to officially identify the shooter, but news organizations (including The Daily Mail) have ascertained his identity from what appears to be a TikTok he posted just before the shooting. In it, you can see Butler making a face while standing next to a blue duffel bag, presumably containing the weapons he used. Who is Butler? His social media has largely been scrubbed already, but some were able to capture screenshots and videos of his online presence before that happened. Specifically, he had a "pride" flag in his TikTok bio, shared the transgender flag in his posts, and had allegedly participated in a transgender Reddit group under the name "dylanpickles1996."

#4 - NEW: Vivek Does It Again, Flips Script on NBC Reporter As She Has Meltdown on Camera — by Nick Arama

They should just learn their lesson and stop trying to play these games, but then they wouldn't be the liberal media if they did that, would they? They keep trying to shape reality into the narrative they want, but reality doesn't comply.

NBC News reporter Dasha Burns tried again on the subject of white supremacy with Ramaswamy, as though anyone would believe that he is a white supremacist or in favor of white supremacy, and it's more than a little hilarious that it's a liberal white reporter trying this on a man of Indian descent. What they don't like is the way he says to stop racism by not being racist, to anyone. He ripped apart how some of these definitions from people on the left of "white supremacy" include things like "punctuality," which would itself be a racist construct.

#5 - The Pic of Trump and the Union President That May Spell Doom for Biden's Chances — by Nick Arama

The picture alone says plenty — they almost don't have to say more. It also seems an implicit acknowledgment that Trump is leading and may win, so they want to cover their bets. I think it looks like they think he's going to beat Biden. It's fascinating for them to do this at this point rather than an endorsement for Biden, who has been bending over backward and trying to jump through hoops for union support. That says something about the weakness of Biden and perhaps also the support of Trump among union workers. He showed in 2016 that he was able to bring in more voters, and this may be more evidence of it. This looks all kinds of bad for Joe Biden's chances. The funniest thing was the reactions of the left to this. They were just melting down because they understood what it could mean for the election. They were mad, saying Trump was supportive of "Right to Work." All the typical Biden sycophants were losing their minds.

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caffeinejournalist23 · 2 years

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This is Halloween (10-25-22)

⚠️TW: Jeffrey Dahmer⚠️

I think this is the first "normal" Halloween since Covid.

I remember my freshman year we went out clubbing for Halloween weekend. I was dressed as "Minnie Mouse." I got roofied at my first frat party. Thankfully one of the girls I went out with was a good friend and looked after me; I don't remember a thing from the incident after drinking beer for the first time, but I woke up on that friend's couch and I had a huge bruise on the back of my hand from a fall I don't remember having.

This year, most of my friends aren't interested in going out; most are planning to cuddle with their finances/so's in matching Halloween pajamas from Target to watch Hocus Pocus 2. I saw it already - I adore it, it was a welcome stress reliever from the end of midterms.

It seems like most people are on a budget this year for costumes, so the trend is to create a clever "look-a-like" costume with clothes you already have. I've seen lots of Cheetah Girls, "witches" styled like American Horror Story (just all black and black fedoras), zombies, nerds..

and Jeffrey fucking Dahmer.

I don't know who in their right mind thinks it's okay let alone sensible to idolize Jeffrey Dahmer and mimic him in a Halloween costume. After Netflix recently released a new tv show called "Dahmer" - which essentially makes a cinematic/theatrical series instead of a documentary about Jeffrey Dahmer's horrendous crimes - many people have begun to idolize Dahmer and romanticize him. I've seen dozens of TikTok's from white girls trying to argue that Dahmer should not have died and that his crime were excusable.

For those who don't know/remember, Jeffrey Dahmer raped, murdered, and ate several men - including children.

I saw a tweet the other day of a mom showing how proud she was of her home-made Dahmer costume that she put together for her 9 yo son. I've seen thirst edits of Dahmer - not Evan Peters who plays the serial killer, but edits and fan pages for the actual serial killer.

I've been talking about this with friends and I've theorized that those who idolize people like Dahmer struggle with violence/bloodlust repression; they idolize Dahmer because they see him as an inspiring rebel who relished in his bloodlust and desires for violence instead of repressing those urges to fit into society.

I knew this girl once in high school who would fit this narrative; she idolized and was obsessed with people like Hitler. She believed that Hitler was justified and that he should not have been punished for ordering the mass genocide(s) that still haunts us today. She had a deep attraction to blood and violence, and one time she punched a kid in the face because she wanted to see what his blood would look like coming out of his nose.

I am a very morally/conscious convicted person, and I even told myself that if it came down to it I'd shoot this girl in an instant - perhaps the only person I'd kill without hesitation if the circumstances required it.

It seems like most of Dahmer's admirers are white women - interesting because most of Dahmer's victims were black men. I've been having discussions about this with a friend who's a psychology major, and we've talked about generational trauma between races. Jewish people have the generational trauma of the holocaust, black people have the generational trauma of slavery - but, in general (and not taking specific cases into account) it seems like white people do not have generational trauma based on their religion, race, etc. Yet these are the people (in general) who go crazy, who shoot up schools and make sport of killing sprees. I just don't understand how or why people can be so.. evil? Unempathetic, certainly. Selfish. Entitled. Unemotional. Even some of the guys in my circles are still struggling to handle their emotions in a healthy way; most guys think if you have any emotion at all then you're a pussy, but then half of those same guys are overly emotional and snap at the slightest thing because they don't know how to manage their emotions. It's so weird.

Anyway, y'all please be safe out there - especially with Halloween coming up. Stick with a good reliable group of friends you can trust, keep your wits about you, and don't be dumb.

#halloween2022 #nojeffreydahmercostumes #toxic masculinity #true crime #psychology #gender theory

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gesu-ko · 4 years

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Shouto's really going through it.

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spadesinglasses · 3 years

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Korean BLs (Series)

Under the see more is a compilation of all of my thoughts for the korean bls that came out in 2020 and in the start of 2021 so namely, the BLs that will be mentioned here are; Where Your Eyes Linger, Mr. Heart, To My Star, Color Rush, and Wish You : Your Melody From My Heart.

As a TLDR this is how I would rank these five.

To My Star

Wish You : Your Melody From My Heart

Where Your Eyes Linger

Mr. Heart

Color Rush

Let’s do this in order.

Wish You : Your Melody From My Heart

I ADORE THIS BL SO MUCH.

It was such a light series. The conflict was not heavy and it was resolved very quickly. I think it would’ve been more dramatic if the series was longer, but since its very short, they fortunately decided to resolve it as soon as possible, and because of that no time was wasted between the leads. And the actually got a happy ending.

Kang In Soo and Yoon Sang Yi are both precious ;A;.

Sang Yi’s thirst was so strong and palpable it was a miracle that In Soo didn’t realize it, specially when homeboy was staring hard hard at his hard body lololol.

I get lowkey annoyed whenever I see reviews about this series and then putting a mark on the story as like 6 out of 10 or something, because most of the time the thing they are criticizing it for, and the reason why its so low is because of the length. They really went flexible who?

Personally yes the story or conflict was easy and light, but if you’re going to critic it base on how long the entire series it, it was pretty smart to do so. The conflict was not just the father blocking his son’s debut, It was ongoing from start to finish, from even the series started.

WE SEE in the first episode at how much In Soo struggled on the streets busking, getting his music out there one way or another. The Problem was not created at the time his father did what he did, it goes way before it.

The issue wasn’t also farfetched. We all know in real life that parents can be fucking assholes. So also claiming the story was out of the blue or nowhere is fucking dumb.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC. Honestly I’m no wise dude regarding music. I listen to a song and I base whether I like it or not, on how the song or music makes me feel. And honestly, the music in the series were beautiful I truly love it.

The supporting characters are also dope! I forgot the person who basically pushed Sang Yi to In Soo, but in this house we stan her so much!

Where Your Eyes Linger

I was hesitant on starting this one. I don’t like violence specially around homosexuality. It just stirs so much bad emotion in me. So when I saw that scene of Han Tae Joo’s father beating Kang Gook, i cannot make myself see more of the show.

But I gave in and watched it. It was adorable and actually heavy. I think its the heaviest out of these five examples and I’ll tell you why. (because I just know you’re wondering why this is heavier than Color Rush.)

The story revolved around multiple tropes or relationship marks. First is the servant and master trope, then it went to unrequited love to a friend, then to a master, and then after that it went to jealousy with a new love interest, and then it ended with them not realizing their own feelings until it’s already too late.

Now before I watched this series, I’ve already heard about the opinion of this series being a fanfic plot brought to life, and honestly yes.

the Servant Master trope and then falling in love with one another is a very popular trope in fanfics, and the way the dealt with it is very reminiscent to how a fanfic writer would usually go about it.

Other than that, the story actually help quite strongly despite the tropes they used.

Kang Gook’s fears and uncertainties were actually reasonable. I wished we got more of their backstories, but its logical to see Kang Gook struggle that much with how he feels for Tae Joo.

Han Tae Joo’s realization after Kang Gook started spending time with the girl was similar to the feeling of “only realizing what they have after they already lost them” feeling and it was such a heart breaking moment. It was a bit annoying to see him struggle that much to put a name in the feeling he was feeling as if homosexuality was just created right before his eyes, but he eventually got there i guess.

Tae Joo’s father was annoying. What he did was a typical parent move, hence annoying.

The ending was satisfying, but also questionable.

I found Kang Gook’s sudden ... change in how he dress and move completely out of the blue. I don’t know if it was just to signify that he was finally not working for Tae Joo’s father and now he’s not restricted to some hyper masculine facade or if it’s a way of the director show what being gay and accepting homosexuality looks like. But whatevs, I’m not gonna dissect that one because I’m sure it’s gonna be a blood bath when I do it.

Mr. Heart

This show was confusing at first then it made sense. Let me explain.

The series started with the two already chummy.

Go Sang Ha is already open about what he feels for Jin Won. While Jin Won was the typical ass with repressed feelings. Their main conflict was the constant miscommunication between the two.

They show love in two different ways. Act of service, and gifts and money. It’s one of the reasons why the two didn’t get together in the first place in my opinion. They both have issues that both are running away from.

Aside from that there was also the minor conflict with Sang Ha and his debt. The debt people were of two extremes, being very chummy with Sang Ha or downright horrible, e.g. the scene where he beats Sang Ha up.

There is not much to say about this series. It’s very straight forward, and Jin Won actually straight up called out Sang Ha for running away during the time they actually do need to communicate to one another.

ALTHOUGH I SHOULD SAY JIN WON PUNCHING SANG HA WAS UNNECESSARY AND OUT OF PLACE. That was stupid of him to do and I was very annoyed at him during that time. If you want to put Sang Ha out of his spiral, you could’ve just shout, or shake him. But no, you punched him, IN THE GODDAMN FACE.

That was stupid honestly.

To My Star

I LOOOOOVE THIS ONE.

The start of the series was confusing because I literally kid you not, i was confused who the guy with the motor helmet on is. Like I genuinely thought he was a different person and not Kang Seo Joon.

The characters are phenomenal. They portray and embrace the opposite attracts trope but also found a compromise, or stable footing for each differing personality to meet the other.

It was lovely to see mr hot, and mr. cold be in the kitchen. Seo Joon’s personality was so bubbly and light that I was surprised to what really happened in that restaurant. (Altho to be fair he did keep it a secret mostly because of his issue and not just because he doesn’t want his friend to have bad press lol I really thought it was because someone was being homophobic while they were on a date lolol)

I RELATE SOOOO HARD TO JI WOO. I myself loves not disrupting my peace bubble. I would literally do everything I can as to not have any form of conflict with another person. It’s very problematic and destructive to my own being in the long term, but for short term comfort, I would take it lol.

So to see Ji Woo express what he was thinking while he was rejecting Seo Joon’s advances, made me cry so much. Because I see myself doing that. I see myself saying no to someone because I’m so scared. Add to the fact that homosexuality is still judged in public spaces, I WANNA LOVE A GUY THAT I CAN HOLD HANDS OUTSIDE WITHOUT FEAR.

SO I do get it, I do get Ji Woo and it was so heart breaking to see him suffer because people are fucking assholes.

Seo Joon’s lines about loving people who have high walls because they look so strong and sturdy is a mood because that is so relatable. I wanna be surround by people who looks sturdy, and will be there for me. Seo Joon hiding this side of him with bubbliness and bursts of joy was so sad.

I tweeted this on twitter but let me repeat it here.

I LOVE THE FACT THAT SEO JOON WAS STILL THE ONE WHO CAME BACK TO JI WOO.

People might disagree with me and say that it’s better to see Ji Woo be the one who takes the initiative this time to get Seo Joon back, because it shows character development BUT HONEY.

Big changes like that are not a thing in real life! PEOPLE CAN’T JUST CHANGE THEMSELVES INSTANTLY LIKE THAT. Yes they can do stuff out of a sudden burst of emotions but its not a common thing.

So to see Seo Joon come back, and see Ji Woo so heart broken was so fucking good I love it so much.

Seo Joon pushed for the last time, and you can just see Ji Woo just tired of fighting inside him. He probably has a monologue inside him shouting, “please come back, please come back” when Seo Joon left. And to see him just deflate when Seo Joon did came back was soooo satisfying.

THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO NOT KNOW WHAT A NO IS. You’re not Seo Joon and you situation is not like theirs, so shut up.

lol.

OH DON’T GET ME STARTED WITH THE ANTAGONISTS OF THIS SERIES. Let’s talk about the actor from Seo Joon’s side. The bitch ass really took Seo Joon’s decision and ran away with it like nobody’s business. He really deluded himself and justified in his head all that shit. AND THE AUDACITY to ask Seo Joon to take the fall more was fucking hilarious. He deserves the hate bitch ass shit.

NOW FOR THE FUCKER THAT IS JI WOO’S FRIEND. BITCH KNOWS JI WOO FOR SUCH A LONG TIME NOW, and he has the audacity to pull that shit up in front of him?

Like bruh you know your friend, do you really think he’s the type of guy to do something like that? HILARIOUS.

I think his friend secretly likes him, so when he saw Seo Joon getting chummy around Ji Woo, and seeing Ji Woo show sides because of him, he got extremely jealous.

SO YOU KNOW WHAT ITS A GOOD THING THE REPORT WOMAN ALSO LEFT HIM BECAUSE FUCKING THAT DUDE.

The US reporter woman was funny tho. xD She really went to arms and defended Seo Joon and Ji Woo to him. The bit with the other employee was funny too. He deserves all the misfortune in his life lmao. That’s what you get from outing a gay guy.

WOOPS THIS GOT TOO LONG. I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Color Rush

OKAY.

So Color Rush has the most interesting premise of all of them. That I have to admit.

Other than that the series was lacking.

There are two main plots happening, one is the killings of the mono or probe? I forgot, and the plot of whatever is happening between Choi Yeon Woo and Go Yoo Han.

The series was too short for these two plots. The plot behind the killing was completely disregarded. While the relationship between Yeon Woo and Yoo Han were emphasized.

The ending also confused me. Everyone just forgot that Yeon Woo and Yoo Han ran away? and that Yoo Yan’s family basically threatened to claim Yeon Woo kidnapped his probe? REALLY?

Specially with all of them being in high positions of power? That’s dumb. I really think that they were wrong as to what plot they should emphasize. If the series focused on Yeon Woo and his aunt Yoo Yi Rang solving the case of the killed probes while Yoo Han secretly helps them out with his connections, it would’ve been a much more interesting series.

The ending of Yeon Woo and Yoo Han would also be more acceptable because now they all know that someone else was behind the killings and its not just the monos going crazy.

Aside from the cute very seldom scenes between the two, and how awkward some of them are. The series really lacked for me.

If you like Color Rush good for you.

This might be unnecessary to add but, something about the actor of Yoo Han makes me uncomfortable. His recent or at least post series statements really unnerves me. If you have no problem with it, cool.

That is all! I think there’s a new incoming korean BL from the same director or at least same universe/line as Where your eyes linger, mr heart, and To my star, called You Make Me Dance? That will be something to anticipate about :D.

FINAL REMARKS

Despite being new to the game of BL, korean BLs were really so good. The plots are not as problematic, or toxic as the other bls from other countries were and honestly I’m very impressed.

They seem to have a much more knowledgeable grasp of what a BL should be by avoiding toxic behaviors and just annoying ass plots. Not naming any names but ya know.

Any who, these five were a nice thing to watch.

I ENTHUSIASTICALLY ADVOCATE AND SUGGEST FOR Y’ALL TO WATCH TO MY STAR AND WISH YOU YOUR MELODY FROM MY HEART IF Y’ALL WANT TO BE HAPPY.

#where your eyes linger #to my star #wish you your melody from my heart #mr. heart #color rush #korean bl #kbls #glass thoughts

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dindjarindiaries · 4 years

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I refuse to stay silent on this—so I’m going to say a little something. This is all I’ll say because I don’t want to entertain this; I just want to create.

Pedro is not an object by any means. He’s a living, breathing human being with feelings who acts because he loves to act. Not because he wants to “sell himself” to an audience. He’s said on multiple occasions that he doesn’t even feel like a celebrity (x)—so obviously he doesn’t wish to be treated like one, like a person who owes the public something. There’s a difference between thirsting and absolutely objectifying/fetishizing, and I’m begging you to do your research.

As someone who’s had an interaction with him, it truly worries me to hear people saying he’s a mere product. Let me remind you that he took the time out of his day to watch a video of me being literally so silly and responded so sweetly addressing things he could’ve only gotten from watching it. And then to hear that same man being called a product? Not to mention the way his “you say my name perfectly in every way” line in his response to me was extremely twisted by some, whereas it was definitely just meant as a soft reassurance that he knew I was trying my best to pronounce his name. That made me uncomfortable as well, but I tried to ignore it. Not anymore.

There is a difference between the actor/actresses and their characters, and I am begging you all to remember that. Please. Do not pull up those screenshots of him interacting with thirst tweets or the video of the interviewer saying she’d grope him to justify your arguments—he handled those situations with grace, but I’m sure he felt extremely uncomfortable with the way they were brought up. I’m begging you to please consider the feelings of a living, breathing human being. Please.

Much love to Pedro and to all of you, always. Please learn and grow from this. Let’s do better.

#please y’all!#let’s be better!#i believe in us #discourse

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transienturl · 3 years

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I’ve been thinking about making a separate 18+ sort of blog for a while, but... well, see, here’s the problem: the topic which this post is supposed to discuss is, obviously, at least adjacent to being nsfw, which would sort of imply that if I were to make one of those, it should go there, but the topic is also about what kind of content should or shouldn’t be corralled over there, and certain answers to that question would mean that this doesn’t qualify for that, in which case it would belong over here. Which is, to say the least, somewhat confusing.

Anyways, this post is ultimately quite safe, I think, so this readmore is really for length.

So the original thing I wanted to post was:

I wonder what the distribution and frequency/popularity of people’s sexual preferences/kinks are. It seems kind of absurd, actually, that this kind of data isn’t public. And moving one step backward from that: does anyone even know? Like, similar to the impossible-to-answer-with-accuracy question of even roughly what portion of the population would, with some basic awareness and the magic removal of society’s discriminatory history, identify as straight, is there a single human in the world who can point to some data they collected and estimate with some confidence (and some methodology-based caveats) how much of the population is into... literally anything?

It seems... surprising to me that the first few pages of google results didn’t have anything, I guess is my point. I don’t expect big sample sizes, rigor, a sampling of any general sort of population, whatever. But, like, in a world where Facebook can tell with remarkable precision not only whether you’ll vote, but what specific thing could be shown to you in order to change that... shouldn’t someone have at least a vague idea of, say, what portion of people like sex toys at all, and thus how big the market could be for them? Or... know anything about sex toys at all? Hm, I guess that second part is the real issue: discomfort with talking about this stuff due to the sexuality taboo aside, people probably have no idea what their feelings on a lot of what would be in one of these hypothetical surveys is, and might not have even heard of plenty of them, and so the data might be mostly terrible and so it might be incredibly difficult to justify doing. I guess that would make sense.

Anyways, do you think this discussion should be on a separate blog? I can imagine a whole hierarchy of potentially useful opt-ins. Like...

One: should this blog never mention sex existing? Answer: no, that ship has sailed. This is a personal blog, anyways, and given that I think sex is a positive thing and I don’t post anything of general public value here, if someone needs to not follow me because this is where I say I support comprehensive sex education, that’s totally fine.

Two: should this blog be reasonably safe for the sex-repulsed? (I think I follow someone who has mentioned it, but I don’t remember who and I don’t thiiiink they follow me...?) I don’t actually know anything about being sex-repulsed, so I don’t actually know what does and doesn’t cross the line for the median person who identifies as such. If you are, and are at all interested in discussing it, I would be quite interested!

Distinction two here is, of course, the one under which I dunno if the above paragraphs should be opt-in. It would be somewhat easier to talk about this general-topic sort of stuff if I knew the audience had opted in, simply because I could use specific examples for things. but this continues:

Three: should this blog be limited to, in short, discussions like this one that would make just as much sense if I myself were asexual. Basically, should one avoid being horny on main, as the kids say. I am personally totally comfortable reading my followed users’ hypothetical nsfw thirst tweets - er, reblogs? - but I imagine lots of people are not, especially when said followed users are strangers, and of my 200 followers, I know like... 3 of you? So, I’d lean towards “yes, make a sideblog to discuss sex in the first person, no matter how vague.”

Four: should this blog avoid personal details that it would be at least arguably kind of weird for IRL friends to know abou- YES OBVIOUSLY

So, here is the problem that I have: if I actually do want to talk through all of those categories (e.g. the end of those two paragraphs, I could continue with “for example, this is what I’m into and I have no idea how rare it is, but let’s speculate”), then to make all of those opt-ins separate, I would need 2-3 sideblogs? And that just seems patently ridiculous. I recognize that I’m clearly overthinking this, considering that of the 200ish followers I have, I’d guess without evidence that all but ~30 are defunct blogs, maybe 5 of you read the multiparagraph text posts, and somewhere between zero and two people thus care about exactly how much explicit shit you do or don’t know about me? But obviously I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable by accident.

Eh, y’know what, screw it: transienturl2.tumblr.com. If you’re interested, head over there and we can work the details out, how’s that? (And if you’re not interested, but read all the way down here, I’d love a reply or like or w/e just noting that, too!) Hm, I really didn’t think this through, did I.

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awed-frog · 4 years

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they took absolute sweetheart, ex teen heartthrob ZAC EFRON to play Ted Bundy! I LOVE ZAC, I know he probably wanted to have this under his belt as an actor or what not, but you think a 25 y.o Karen who grew up with Troy Bolton will differentiate between actor and character? y'all saw the tweets, thirsting over Ted Bundy! but also, this is a killer from 70s! when white men were even more powerful in society and people even opened their doors to strangers! is 2020! Do better!!!

Plus, again - personally, I have a RPF plot bunny folder that’s bursting at the seams because there are so. many. people. out there doing amazing things. Literally every time I leaf through any history book I am blown away by how many badass and crazy and visionary men and women did amazing things. I would think someone who does this professionally and had the time and resources to get period movies right would pick literally anyone but Ted Bundy if they wanted to tell a breathtaking story.

And this is another pet peeve of mine, but - it’s not just Karens. There are thousands of posts here on tumblr (written by people who’re certified 100% Woke™) justifying the worst possible acts because ‘critical thinking’ and whatever else. But, funnily enough, 100% of those posts are about sex-on-legs villains. I’ve yet to read anything defending Timothy Spall’s Pettigrew or Cameron Britton’s Kemper or Brad Dourif’s Gríma. Even Voldemort is barely mentioned, probably because horns and tentacles are okay but even monster stans draw the line at noseless fascists.

I don’t know. I guess I’m just fed up with everybody these days.

#ask #villains #pet peeve #everybody thinks they're nabokov

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thegreymoon · 4 years

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I'm not much for rpf either but 1) I like Brolin as a friendship and 2) as long as someone tags their smut, I'm good. My squick is not your squick. It's a shame that you're getting random hate from the Colin twt crowd. otoh your responses are spot on so :))) // Hi, I am wondering why this anon has brought Colin’s fans into it? I’ve been following you for a while but I don’t want to follow if you are against us..

Wait… what? I am not against Colin fans, I am a Colin fan! Does this really need clarification after I’ve spent more than two years very obviously thirsting over this guy and squeeing about him publically on various social media platforms? 😶

Some anon sent me some angry asks recently on the recurring (and at this point, quite frankly, tiresome) topic of Bradley James being a terrible human being, which I disagree with. This is a sentiment that certain Twitter users (some of whom also declare themselves as Colin fans) express vocally and one or two of them drop by my Tumblr anonymously every so often to yell about it in my inbox. I assume they are the same people (or more likely, the same person, if we’re honest) because they always repeat the same talking points. If I understood the previous anon correctly, they were referring to those incidents and being sympathetic, along with the added commentary on the anti!Brolin ask.

With all that said, I am very unhappy with the shorthand here on Tumblr that refers to a handful of hate-tweeters as “Colin twt” 🤨 I too am a Colin fan on Twitter (albeit a not very active one), I follow the same Colin fans there that I follow here and all of them are absolutely lovely people. Admittedly, I am not on Twitter very often, but I never run into any hate and drama unless I deliberately go looking for it (and I usually only do so when somebody shows up in my inbox to yell at me about it). A few weeks ago, I got a somewhat disturbing ask where somebody told me how they no longer like Colin because they now associate him with some loud Twitter bullies, which I feel is an unhealthy attitude to have, so let me summarize:

1. I find the idea that you can’t be a Colin fan if you don’t hate Bradley and are also a Bradley fan absolutely ludicrous.

2. I think that hating on Colin just because somebody out there who likes Colin also hates Bradley and sends him hate tweets is a very unhealthy attitude to have and that it will eventually lead you down the same path as the previous group.

3. I think that you are allowed to dislike anyone for any reason (Bradley, Colin, whoever), your feelings are valid and you don’t have to justify your reasons to anyone. However, hate-tweeting at a celebrity and sending anon hate to people who don’t share your opinions is just wrong and vile and anyone who is doing this needs to sit down and take a long, hard look at their behaviour. This also goes for sharing hate and slander on a public platform, even if you do not tweet it directly at the person in question.

4. As a principle, I am against fandom wars, anti!campaigns, calling people disgusting for the kind of fiction they write and enjoy and general nastiness directed at actual people. Ship and let ship and don’t involve actors in the fandom, unless they come into our space of their own accord!

With all that said, anon, I don’t know who you are and which group of people you belong to, but feel free to unfollow if any of the above bothers you! I feel like I am generally a friendly and reasonable person, but all of the above is just common sense as far as I am concerned! Let’s all just be nice and tolerant of each other! 💙

#Anonymous #fandom #fandom discourse #rpf #fpf

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thezfc · 5 years

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Does anyone else hate how some fans refuse to see Loki as a bad person? I'm a huge Loki stan, obviously, but I've seen fans on twitter straight up ignoring the horrible things Loki did. Loki is a great character, but I saw someone calling him a feminist for saying he likes Jane (as a joke) and people in the replies were like "yeah the Odinson bros respect women!" not joking. Loki basically called Black Widow a cunt in Avengers 1. He's murdered people and lied. Why do they ignore this? 1/2

2/2 I'm not trying to be extra about it, because it's just a movie and empathising with villains is cool. But these same people will tweet at the Russo bro or Taika for being "cruel" to their precious Loki saying he deserves better. In my opinion, Loki is still not a good person and doesn't deserve to be totally forgiven for the thing he did. He murdered Phil Coulson. He does bad things because he wants to but some fans are like "Loki just needs love

Yeah- it’s just so they can justify thirsting after the bad guy- he can’t be fully bad or it makes them bad for liking him.

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beatrice-otter · 7 years

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Disabled People Destroy Science fiction!

Every year, Uncanny Magazine does a special "Destroy Science Fiction!" issue. (Women Destroy Science Fiction! Queers Destroy Science Fiction! People of Color Destroy Science Fiction!") This year, it's "Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction!" The issue itself isn't out yet, but many of the personal essays about disability and science fiction are available for free on the Kickstarter page. They're all good, and you should totally check them out. Here are some of my faves: K.C. Alexander, We Are Not Your Backstories:

Science fiction shapes generations—how we think, the way we act. It influences the careers we choose and our thirst for knowledge. It cautions against the worst of our impulses, and quietly teaches us empathy. Without knowing it, we are slowly acclimated to people and beliefs that live outside our rigid monocultures.

A.T. Greenblatt, The Stories We Find Ourselves In:

So, I'll let you in on a secret, the thing I've learned about having a life-long disability, the thing that lots of stories never quite grasp: The real trick, the true solution to a disability, is to find a balance between your abilities and your goals.

Michael Merriam, We Are Not Daredevil. Except When We Are Daredevil:

I live in this world. I can't toss my white cane aside when I need to spring into action: the cane goes with me everywhere. I travel around my city on public transportation. My other senses are not supernaturally sharper because I am blind. I simply pay better attention to those other senses. It's a learned skill. I live within my blindness every day, and I want to read about fictional characters who also live with and within their blindness.

Marissa Lingen, Malfunctioning Space Stations:

Since I have read and written science fiction for decades, what my sleeping brain knows to do with this much disorientation is to process it into a malfunctioning space station. And so I dream. Occasionally my dreams veer into carnival rides, roller coasters, giant swooping swings. But that is someone else's genre. This is mine.

H. Ace Ratcliff, Nihil de Nobis, Sine Nobis:

I narrowly avoided the temptation to throw my Kindle and watch the book shatter into a million plastic pieces. If it had been a printed paperback, I’m positive I would be able to show you the dent in the wall. “For the record,” I tweeted out to the hashtags The Expanse was using, “you can be a fucking Valkyrie in a goddamn wheelchair.” I can assure you that any human with the wherewithal, sheer willpower, and pain tolerance to put her skeleton back into place on an hourly basis absolutely deserves a place in any mythological pantheon.

Day Al-Mohamed, The Stories We Tell and the Amazon Experiment:

As an example, I once asked a room full of authors what their response would be if I asked them to make the protagonist in their current Work-in-Progress a woman – most nodded, yesses were heard around the room. Then I asked if they could make their character a person of color – again, nods around the room. Then I asked if they would make the character disabled – silence. The discomfort was palpable. In theory diversity and disability was great to include in fiction but when it came to implementation, they couldn’t easily connect disability with their protagonist. They had trouble adjusting to the practical reality of disability existing outside of the boxes they knew. This is why 134 stories on Amazon could be broken down into five story categories.

Ada Hoffman, Everything Is True: A Non-Neurotypical Experience with Fiction:

When I read #ownvoices autistic characters, I often think the authors have had that same feeling. Many of these characters have devoted family, friends, romantic partners, even when the world at large is awful to them. Most of them first have to overcome a broken relationship with themselves. To learn to believe that they're worthy as they are. With autistic characters written by NT authors, it often feels like everyone is tired of their shit from the start. You don't have to be tough. People sometimes say things like, "If you can be discouraged from writing, you should be," and use that as a way to justify being unkind to people who are tender. I don't think it's meant as a cudgel against disabled people specifically, but it can function as one. If you doubt your abilities, if you are sometimes crushed, if you feel like an impostor—that's fine. It's normal. If only tough people wrote stories, then we'd only have their perspectives, and we would lose all the things other people—you—have to offer.

Haddayr Copley-Woods, Move Like You're From Thra, My People:

I was glad I didn’t have this unfortunate internalized disableism stilling my movements, but I didn’t know why I’d found it so easy to make the switch until I sat down with my little boys to watch The Dark Crystal, which I hadn’t watched in decades. I didn’t know. It took my breath away. The reason why I am fine with moving like this, the reason I am fine with people staring and why I love myself this way, is because of The Dark Crystal.

The issue is more than fully funded, right now they're adding content left and right as more people pledge, and if they get to $45k (they're at $39,425 with 9 days left to go) they'll do a hardcopy of it for supporters pledging $50 or more.

comments

Comment? http://ift.tt/2i4IzAP

#science fiction #sci-fi #fantasy #disability #ableism

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pitchlag · 7 years

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Joe noticed my tweet :D

Maybe I should have rewatched the season in one go before writing this, but I'm me so it's better to get it all down when I feel like writing it and it's still fresh in my mind.

General s15 opinions below, finale spoilers included, criticism but perhaps not overly so? I prefer being optimistic when possible. Also this ended up kinda long sooo

Let's get over the negatives first

So as I mentioned in my episode 21 commentary that ending was in my opinion the weakest arc finale. In a waay you could say it still follows the pattern every other arc had, the villain of the season goes down, the future of the BGC is pretty open and some died. Except that in this case it was VIC so the impact was hardly as great as that of the former fallen ones.

A lot of what contributed to the season finale being pretty dang lackluster was the pacing, which is a fairly constant issue trough the season. The finale felt like there was two episodes worth of material that were fitted into one. Many things, that could produce an episode's worth of material were pretty much sidelined (Wash's injury was given like 5 whole minutes to wrap up, there could have been more about Grif's time alone, what Locus had been doing and what was the aftermath on Chorus) and things that could have been scattered throughout to keep the thing established were smushed together in few, far between and way too long scenes (Dylan's boss and husband ended up serving very little to no purpose).

The plot was also fairly unpredictable, both in good and bad ways. The payoff to Dylan reaching the BGC was amazing, Church seemed to be alive but he really wasn't, Loco's machine was theorized to be a time machine, but it wasn't, then it was. On the other hand there was our Unicorn Guy who was hyped in the trailer and ended up being nothing more than a punchier to a one-off gag.

Speaking of, there's the issue of Tucker's story particularly this season. In many ways it went a couple steps forward, several steps back, some in more justifiable ways than others. It's great to see he's more confident in his abilities and for a good reason, he is the most competent fighter aside from Wash and Carolina and it shows. However, things got out of hand with him falling for Temple's flattery and later him charging into a battle that almost got Wash killed. Not to mention the thing with the Tower of Procreation which is very much controversial for a reason.

Negative character development is very much a thing and there are issues that can't be solved in a satisfying manner in one season. It's true that a good amount of Tucker's - and Sarge's - recklessness can be attributed to confirmation about Church's death and simple lack of meaningful things to do, respectively (also Grif's departure). In my opinion, however, much of the negative developments or blunders seemingly happened because the plot called for a catalyst, not because the character would naturally be susceptible to fucking up. That sucks.

See Grif leaving the Reds and Blues vs Tucker falling for Temple's lies. Grif's frustration with his situation has been building up this whole time throughout the seasons and so when things finally blew, it felt like a drastic but ultimately a natural development. Tucker however, had just been fooled by Felix just two main season's ago so it felt really off for him to fall for flattery now.

Same goes for, say, Wash and Carolina just walking into Temple's trap without their usual suspicion.

Same goes for folks just kinda letting Wash walk into the middle of a firefight without supervision.

There's been quite a bit of discussion about the animation usage this season. Personally I don't mind the small animated scenes, although I can definitely see why there are folks against it.

In general, the earlier arcs used the animations differently and rather sparingly (aside from Freelancer flashbacks obviously). S8 and present time-moments of s10 used it for Monty's pretty amazing battle scenes only, and thus basically every one of those moments is pretty dang memorable. From s12 onward however, casual/non-combat motion capture was included in some scenes, so s15 doing it isn't all that new. However, the big difference here seems to be that a lot of the animations were used for jokes more than anything.

The big thing about Blood Gulch Chronicles was that using non-game animation was not an option, so they relied on other, mostly verbal methods to deliver the jokes, leaving most of the action to the viewers imagination (Getting on another's shoulders to reach a window and Kaikana's health inspection for example). Now that these jokes were made visual, they had a bad tendency to go on a bit too long (Sarge going rock, paper, scissors against Locus for example?)

I made a little breakdown about the issues with the Tex vs Carolina fight earlier here* (tl:dr; pacing is extra faulty, moves are too floaty, the character's actual fighting styles are nowhere to be found.) . I also added extra commentary about the usage of blood and timeline stuff/BGC vs BaR here. (I can say I did like the animation usage in episodes 19 and 20 though)

...btw at this point, can we say the Carolina vs Reds/Tex battle was ridiculous not just because of Temple but also Jax being an unreliable narrator? (I know it was stated what we saw was what happened but I'm taking that with a grain of salt. Basis of the events? Yes. Details, like fighting styles and stunts? Fuck no, that can't be how it went.)

*Also includes my thoughts on how canon handles hypothetical Carwash. Btw that's another thing that surprisingly didn't go anywhere yet???? Would have liked some continuation to it actually

Now then the positives

While there are the very obvious and somewhat detrimental pacing and plot thread issues, I think most of that is because this is Nicolosi's first season. That's something time should eventually fix if he continues writing more, which I'd be more than happy to see.

It's a good thing for him that RvB is a very character driven show (although bigger plotlines have been done fantastically earlier which I ranted about here almost a year ago) because he nailed it in the character interactions department.

Aside from constantly writing off Wash and Donut that is. One thing that makes me thirst for more is to see Nicolosi get better with writing these two. Goddammit he did so well with the rest I know he can manage these two with some more practice and I swear I will be there to see that day.

BUT LIKE

THE GRIMMONS INTERACTIONS queerbaiting aside Joe why The way Simmons dealt with Grif's departure, the way Grif reacted to being alone, the "Why are we here?" scene MMMMM That's the Good stuff

But wait, there's a lot more: Carolina's affection towards all her boys, Wash having caught the BGC's silliness, the trust between Wash and Tucker, Tucker defending his friends, TUCKER AND CABOOSE and how they deal with the loss of Church, SIMMONS AND CABOOSE WHAT, GRIF AND TUCKER, LOCUS AND GRIF

JUST. YES. YES TO ALL.

Also hugs.

Personal high points for this season include episodes 1,5, 6, 10, 15, 16,17, 19 and 20, 5 and 20 in particular. Very strong and fascinating start, I loved Dylan and actually wanted to see more from her, and again, when pre-established characters interact on screen it was pure beauty.

Aside from a little low in the middle and a pretty flat finale, the whole season kept me engrossed with ease. I couldn't wait to see what would happen, even though a good amount of plot threads were dropped.

I have no idea what's next, if anything, but I would very much be willing to see more. I'm, cautiously optimistic about possible improvement in writing plotlines and there's still some stuff to expand on.

How did the crew's reunion with Wash go? Where did Locus go? What did he do after Chorus? What's going to happen on Chorus now? Did Kaikana rejoin the BGC roster? What did Grif do when he was alone? What the fuck was that thing with Donut and the time machine? Has there been any talk about a future season? Main story or another anthology? I wanna knoooooooowwww

.... Boy if you had told me of three years ago that I'd be invested enough to write basically essay length things about a Halo related thing I would have considered you insane. If you actually read this whole thing then congrats, come blabber about this series with meeeee

#red vs blue #rvb #rvb15 #rvb15 spoilers #rvb critical #Looking forward to s16?#Is that a thing?#It's a thing right???

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socialjustus-blog1 · 7 years

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‘Subtle Racism’ of the Midwest: The Most Potent & Effective Kind

By: T.J. Nichols | Original Source: http://socialjust-us.com/

I’ve said it for a while now…Institutional racism in America’s Midwestern region, in my opinion, is far more potent and oppressive than in any other geographical region in this country. The Midwest is home to the most racially segregated cities in the country and boasts some of the worst economic statistics in America for black folks. Hell…ultimately, it’s the working-class whites in the Midwestern “flyover” states that got the racist, xenophobic Trump get elected in 2017.

The Common Assumption

When most people think of the history of racism in America, most of those thoughts are of events that took place in America’s southern states. Slavery was a staple of southern states and the Confederacy and Jim Crow reigned supreme in the Deep South. Many of the leaders and most progressive events from the Civil Rights Movements were born right there in the South. This gives an impression that the level of racism in the Deep South is more extreme than it is in other regions. Beware; this is a false and dangerous assumption.

Subtle Midwestern Racism vs. Overt Southern Racism…Why Does It Even Matter?

This all stemmed from a conversation I had with my little sister, whose a fellow Sociological-thinker. She had just attended the Trump Inaugural Protests and the massive Women’s March in DC, and the question arose as to which kind of racism was worst: Subtle racism of the Midwest that got Trump elected, or the more overt racism of the Deep South that gave us Jim Crow & Slavery? Before I go on, let me answer the question, “Why does it even matter? Why spend time comparing racism across different regions?”

Most young black men in America, unlike many other ethnic groups, are forced to confront race and racism at almost every turn of the day. While you’re at work, at the gym, watching TV and generally living life you have to deal with your ethnic group being stereotyped and marginalized more so than other groups. At some point, it’s hard not to be analyzing race & racism all the time.

Growing up in the Midwest, I’ve interacted with many Euro-Americans (white people) who showed clear racist and prejudice tendencies and beliefs, but were adamant that they could in no way ever be considered racist or prejudiced. They never called me a ni*ger or nigga directly, or burned down any churches, but would make claims like, “Dude, I’m not racist, but stereotypes about black people exist for a reason. They actually do dance better & are way more athletic,” or “I’m not racist bro. Black people just have a higher incarceration rate because they love that rap stuff and wana commit a bunch of crimes to be cool.”

It seems like in the Midwest, there’s this widespread, subtle idea of, “It’s ok to have stereotypical beliefs and unfound biases, just as long as I never do anything overtly racist.” This ultimately justifies a lot of actually racist and insensitive behavior and, in my opinion, plays a major role in the high level of poverty, unemployment, incarceration, and overall misery for many black folks living in the Midwest.

The Difference

I call this type of racism found in America’s Rust-Belt, “Subtle Racism”, and based on my experiences and observations, it’s far more powerful than the more overt racism that we’re used to seeing in the movies and documentaries. Overt racism (EX: businesses refusing to serve specific ethnic groups, direct physical or verbal attacks on ethnic groups, church-burnings, etc) happens far less frequently, and is much easier to address and correct when it shows it’s ugly head. Just label it a hate crime or illegal discrimination, punish or embarrass the perpetrator, and thus set an example that this type of overtly racist behavior is socially unacceptable The fact that the behavior was clearly and overtly racist can’t be denied, so it’s addressable, hence correctable.

On the other hand, Subtle Racism (micro-aggressions, stereotyping, racially insensitive behavior, biased hiring practices at companies) is much more common, much more difficult to address and call out, thus far more impactful with longer-lasting effects.

Experience

This is the story of racism in the Midwest; subtle and extremely effective in achieving long-term oppression. Growing up in Milwaukee, WI, I’ve spent a good amount of time in the Midwest. My father is a southern man from Winfield, LA, so I’ve also spent a lot of time in the Deep South, visiting family on a regular basis. As a kid, I remember being nervous when our family would pack up and drive 17 hours to Louisiana to visit family. Isn’t the south where all the lynchings happened in the movies and textbooks? Isn’t that where MLK and other Civil Rights leaders were murdered? Isn’t that where the KKK and Jim Crow reigned supreme? Are we even safe traveling down there?

I remember arriving, and to my surprise encountering some of the kindest people I had ever encountered, white or black. See I was from the big, bad City…I wasn’t used to driving through a small town on dirt roads where people stood outside their homes and kindly waved at every car driving by, just being polite. I wasn’t used to seeing my aunties have conversations and friendships with co-workers and friends who were white. I saw that in the South.

I’m not at all downplaying or undermining racism in the south; I know it’s very prevalent just like it is everywhere in America. Where I’m from (north side of Milwaukee, WI, statistically the most racially segregated city in America) white people tend to live amongst white people, blacks live amongst blacks, and there isn’t much in-between. If you were white, it was rare that you had a black neighbor, and vice-versa. If you were black driving through a mostly-white suburb, friendly waves from strangers would be the absolutelast thing you’d expect (intimidating stares & eventual police sirens following your car were far more common).

Time after time, as I grew into adulthood I’d visit my family in Southern states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia and return home to Milwaukee wondering, where was all that crazy racism that I expected? When eating at a restaurant, walking into a business, dealing with police, and just generally moving around, I had experienced far more stereotyping and witnessed far more residential segregation take place in my midwestern hometown than in the south. How could this be?

When I started reading the works of Malcolm X as a teenager, I started to gain a thirst for his keen ability for Sociological observation. I admired how he’d analyze something in his environment, like drug-dealing or residential segregation, then connect that observation with historical facts and statistics to make a Sociological point. I eventually started to do the same with my surroundings.

After years of doing research on Social Justice matters, racial disparities, and attaining a BA degree in Sociology, I’ve come to the conclusion that the acceptance of covert and Subtle Racism in the Midwest is very dangerous, with it being so hard to identify and stop. Again, don’t think I’m downplaying the experiences or the historical experiences of African-Americans in the South at all! I’m only asserting that the Midwest is home to a very sneaky type of racism…the kind that we don’t even realize exists until it becomes too late to address and correct.

Statistics…

A recent study done by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) examined cities across the country that had a black population over 5%, and came up with a list of the 10 worst cities in America for African-Americans (EPI Report-10 Worst Cities For African Americans). Literally every city on this list is in a Midwestern state (with my hometown of Milwaukee, WI sitting gloriously at the top, as the #1 worst city in America for black folks).

That same organization did a similar study on the 10 worst states in the country for African-Americans (EPI Report-10 Worst States For African Americans) and saw a similar pattern. Half of the states with the worst conditions for African Americans are Midwestern states, and when you look at the top 5, 3 of those are also Midwestern states (with my home-state of Wisconsin shining at the top again, as the #1 worst state in America for black folks).

To come up with these lists, the EPI took into account factors like the percentage of the black population, disparities in incarceration rates, educational achievement, median household incomes for African American families, and the black unemployment rate. I find this astounding.

In a separate case, Professor Monica Stephens, from Humboldt State University, published a study that focused on the prevalence of hate speech on social media, breaking the occurrences down by geographical regions. One of the patterns she noticed was a much more prevalent use of the N-word & hate speech, “in smaller towns, particularly in the Midwest, sort of the Rust Belt area, more so than it is in the South.” In the article, possible explanations are offered:

“It doesn’t surprise me that you’d have a lot of racist tweets out of Illinois or Indiana. Being a native Midwesterner, there are certain regions and hot spots within these individual states that have a reputation for people being very vocal about minorities. And in the case of Illinois and Indiana, and even my home state of Missouri, you have a significant African-American population, not enough where we’re the majority in any type of capacity, but just enough where people feel the need that they can be very expressive in how they want to complain about it.”

That Time When Midwestern Subtle Racism Was So Powerful, It Decided Our President

Think what you want, but it’s safe to say that President Trump is a racist. Here’s a dictionary definition of the term, “racism.”

Racism: the belief that all members of a race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

Trump exhibited this when he doubted the competence of a federal judge, claiming the judge was unable to do his job without bias because he was of Mexican heritage. He exhibited this when he said that black people in America are “living in hell,” generalizing and stereotyping millions of African-Americans.

It’s also safe to say that it was the white working-class voters of the Midwest who played the biggest role in getting Donald Trump elected. While Trump’s behavior during his political career has been clearly racist, many white Midwestern voters were able to subtly ignore the racism and vote for him under the guise of a desire for job creation. This is exactly what I see when I look at the economic oppression that exists in most black communities of the “flyover” Midwestern states. While numbers show that there are clear racial disparities in incarceration, household incomes, educational outcomes, poverty and unemployment rates for black people in the Midwest, many white Midwesterners are able to subtly ignore these racial disparities and brush them off.

Claiming “I’m not racist! I just think _____ about black people,” isn’t an overt act of racism; it’s very subtle. Thinking “I’m not racist! I didn’t pull over that car full of black kids because I dislike black people. Black kids in inner-cities just tend to commit more crimes” isn’t overt racism; it’s very subtle. Believing, “Im not racist, the reason I don’t hire many blacks because they usually just don’t have the qualifications” isn’t overt racism, it’s very subtle. In each example, the perpetrator was able to ignore their racism, which actually allowed them to exhibit more racist behavior that could be exercised subtly, covertly, and without being called out on it.

Thinking, “I’m not racist. I don’t agree with the racist or sexist stuff Trump says; I’m just voting for Trump because he’ll bring back jobs” isn’t overt racism; but I do think it is subtle. I’m not crazy enough to believe that all Trump-voter are racists. I do believe that being able to conveniently ignore the fears & concerns that many Muslims, Mexicans, and African-Americans shared during the time of his campaign speaks volumes to your views toward those groups.

What I call Subtle Racism…this failure to acknowledge obvious bias and racism that results in more subtle, micro-aggressive acts…helped lead to an epidemic of white-flight in the Midwest, which birthed America’s most heavily segregated cities. It resulted in companies leaving the inner-city to go to the suburbs under the guise of ‘saving money’, all while being able to deny the fact that they were taking opportunities from black workers. Most recently, it resulted in a racist being elected into the most powerful office in the American government.

Statistics and experience prove that Subtle Racism in the Midwest is alive, well, and potent, whether we acknowledge it or not…

#racism #social justice #midwest #bias #microaggressions #racial prejudice

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tortuga-aak · 7 years

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WeWork just bought a coding camp and it's actually a great idea

Business Insider

Office-space startup WeWork confirmed on Monday that it bought a New York-based learn-to-code bootcamp startup called Flatiron School. Terms were not disclosed.

This is the latest acquisition from WeWork after it closed a massive $4.4 billion investment from SoftBank in April. WeWork is now valued at $20 billion by its investors.

This acquisition signals how WeWork plans to offer more services that cater to tech startups.

WeWork, the mega-unicorn startup that operates trendy office spaces across the world, announced today that it acquired the New York-based coding bootcamp, Flatiron School.

Tweet Embed: https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/922415518023389184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Excited to welcome the team of educators, engineers and innovators at @FlatironSchool to the WeWork family: https://t.co/m15UYcflcr http://pic.twitter.com/mD8xGpb2iE

The Flatiron School offers immersive software development education, allowing students to learn to code in just a few months. At $15,000, tuition is a fraction of what you could expect a four-year computer science degree to cost.

This is the latest, and arguably the most high-profile acquisition in WeWork’s seven year history, which has seen it snap up the likes of Israel’s Unomy, FieldLens, and the Singapore co-working space, Spacemob. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, however FlatIron was VC backed and had raised $14.5 million, according to Cruchbase.

At first glance, it seems like neither company has much in common. The education market and the office-space market couldn’t be any more different. So, why did WeWork spend what was likely millions to snap up a single New York-based coding bootcamp?

The answer lies in WeWork's value-added services it offers to it's clients, which is how it justifies charging premium prices for its office space. Hotdesking and office space at WeWork are not cheap, especially when compared to community-run co-working spaces, or older established players like Regus. It differentiates itself by offering little extras: from office spaces that Business Insider has aptly described as “startup kitsch,” to free beer on tap, and member-only networking and professional development events.

Given the desperate thirst for developer talent, particularly in New York and the Bay Area, I asked Flatiron School dean Avi Flombaum if WeWork intends to use its latest acquisition to place junior developers with its members. Flombaum confirmed that was the case, saying “that synergy is a huge part.” He added that the deal will allow WeWork to “upskill” its existing members by offering evening and weekend classes.

This, arguably, is a more compelling reason to rent from WeWork than free beer. Startups will have a pipeline to junior developers, right at the start of their coding careers. Crucially, they’ll have learned from a curriculum that’s current and relevant, and focused not on academic skills but professional ones. They’ll have learned things that often fall to the wayside on university degrees, like managing properly managing source code with Git, and writing code that considers security and readability.

Flombaum also said that the deal will also allow the company to introduce an in-person element to those currently studying on its online course. The company also plans to branch out from computer science education to cover other fields, with Flombaum saying “the goal is to really introduce a new model for life long education.”

WeWork’s multi-billion dollar success can be attributed to the fact that it’s several things at once: workplace, lounge, bar, and business networking event. Now, you can add classroom and recruiter to that list.

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