The Abyss Also Stares

damnfool-of-a-took: slashmarks: One of the reasons it’s important to know that the US has done...

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 20:07:49 -0400

slashmarks:

One of the reasons it’s important to know that the US has done things like this before (for almost any value of this, not just the current border situation) is because people have fought things like this before. Knowing what tactics they used tells us what worked and what didn’t.

And some of those policies stopped because of activism. It’s possible to win.

All I’m seeing in most “This is America” posts is incitement of despair and hopelessness. Don’t encourage people to give up.

Yes, this! I’ve been trying to be careful myself to avoid reblogging posts with too much despairing commentary, but I see an unfortunate amount of them.

I’ve seen some commentary positing that at least some of those posts are psyops specifically designed to impose a sense of inevitability and helplessness, but whether they are or not (although I’m inclined to believe that at least some are), that is certainly the effect they have.

If u have the time, can you draw naoto shirogane from p4

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 20:00:10 -0400

the original detective prince at your service…

kristmarian: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 18:00:09 -0400

kristmarian:

“See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”

nd43taags: taagnitzshit: nd43taags: I legit wrote up a whole thing about dwarf beards and the...

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 22:00:18 -0400

nd43taags:

taagnitzshit:

nd43taags:

I legit wrote up a whole thing about dwarf beards and the different types of braids (they have three distinct genders and some smaller variations of non-trinary genders that are less common but still recognized) and how the braids indicate like a whole host of things beyond gender including marital status, preferences of partner, and whether or not they wish to raise children with a potential mate, and it was awesome but then something happened and i lost it and i will be forever sad.

Conversely, elves did not know what A Gender fucking was until they met humans. They only have one pronoun, and it causes a lot of confusion to outsiders. This is why it’s hard to tell the difference between male and female elves - they don’t give a shit about separating the two.

This is so so cool. I love elves just, , not knowing what a gender is.

humans, meeting elves for the first time: are you… man or woman?

elf: i am elf?

human: no i mean what gender are you

elf: *gesturing wildly to themselves* elf???? ELF??

ruffboijuliaburnsides: terezis: terezis: terezis: terezis: hello im HERE and i wanna talk about...

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 20:00:20 -0400

ruffboijuliaburnsides:

terezis:

terezis:

terezis:

terezis:

hello im HERE and i wanna talk about TAAKITZ

a skeleton? getting seduced by an extraplanar alien in a pointy hat? it’s more likely than u think

actually what i want to talk about is how taako is an alien. he’s an elf but he’s also an alien. yeah. he’s not like the other sun elves on this plane… his teeth are sharper. his eyes do that thing cats’ do when you happen across one in the dark. that’s not normal. he can echolocate. that’s not normal! that’s canon, babey.

taako echolocates to find something in the quad one day and avi’s like “what the fuck” but this seems very ordinary and mundane to magnus and merle. yeah, they say. all elves can do that, right? avi’s just like what??? n. no???

taako just stands up and screams. oh, tight, there’s his magazine.

across the quad, lucretia, suddenly realizing that elves here do not echolocate, whispers “fuck" very quietly to herself. forgot to put that one in ya books, huh, luce.

OH MY GOD

alak-cool: DM, while I’m in combat: “Give me a perception check.” Me: “Uh, 14?” DM:...

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 18:00:18 -0400

alak-cool:

DM, while I’m in combat: “Give me a perception check.”

Me: “Uh, 14?”

DM: “Nevermind.”

Me:

socialistexan: socialistexan: friendlylycanthrope: babyanimalg...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 22:00:15 -0400

socialistexan:

socialistexan:

friendlylycanthrope:

babyanimalgifs:

I am morally opposed to there being glass between me and these puppies (Underlook.org)

Is this updog?

randomitemdrop: thedurvin: Do women know about truck stop men’s...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 20:00:18 -0400

randomitemdrop:

thedurvin:

Do women know about truck stop men’s room cologne dispensers?

Item: Wall-mounted truckstop coin-op cologne dispenser, granting a character 2d4 hours of a scented aura that can be detected with a 3d6 Knowledge check:

Polo: character knows how to ride a horse expertly

Polo Sport: +4 on Skill Check (Sport)

Drakkar: the spirit of Drakkar, a long-dead Barbarian chieftan, advises on battle tactics, +1 on all melee weapons, and the use of Barbarian’s Rage.

Eternity: as if affected by the Foresight spell: can’t be surprised and has advantage on Attack rolls, Ability Checks, and saving throws. Additionally, other creatures have disadvantage on Attack rolls against the target for the Duration.

Obsession: before using the machine the character chooses a creature type, gaining Favored Enemy against them for the duration

karruechelle:Wholesome.

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 18:00:18 -0400

karruechelle:

Wholesome.

the-bi-writer: killerchickadee: truth-has-a-liberal-bias: zesh...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 14:46:58 -0400

the-bi-writer:

killerchickadee:

truth-has-a-liberal-bias:

zeshuetoral:

pewresearch:

As of April, 59% of U.S. adults who are eligible to vote are Gen Xers, Millennials or “post-Millennials.” Yet if past midterm election turnout patterns hold true, these younger Americans are unlikely to cast the majority of votes this November.

Time to break the mold! This year, everyone votes!

The only (peaceful) way to keep Trump and the Republicans in check, is to vote.

Register to Vote and Confirm or Change Registration

If you’re not voting against these people then you’re voting for them. You can’t bitch about what Trump is doing to this country if you’re not even attempting to do something about it.

listen i say this every time i see a voting post, but if there’s a barrier that keeps you from physically voting (like, you go to college in a different place than your permanent address, you have work/school, you’re home with kids, you’re disabled, etc) YOU CAN GET A MAIL IN BALLOT.

It’s called “absentee voting”, and over half of states don’t even require any sort of documentation for you to get one. You can literally just. Request one. And then you can vote by mail ahead of time, saving yourself So. Much. Stress.

[info on how to get an absentee ballot in each state]

Oregon has mail in ballots for everyone, and we consistently have high voter turn out, which is why I spread this info, every chance I can.

Note: Also, technically your employer has to give you a couple hours off on election day if you’re working more than a certain number of hours, but losing paid hours isn’t an option for a lot of people. So get on that absentee request!

skyelle0: thebibliosphere: penfairy: zetsubouloli: penfairy: Women have more power and agency in...

Sun, 24 Jun 2018 12:47:29 -0400

skyelle0:

thebibliosphere:

penfairy:

zetsubouloli:

penfairy:

Women have more power and agency in Shakespeare’s comedies than in his tragedies, and usually there are more of them with more speaking time, so I’m pretty sure what Shakespeare’s saying is “men ruin everything” because everyone fucking dies when men are in charge but when women are in charge you get married and live happily ever after

I think you’re reading too far into things, kiddo.
Take a break from your women’s studies major and get some fresh air.

Right. Well, I’m a historian, so allow me to elaborate.

One of the most important aspects of the Puritan/Protestant revolution (in the 1590’s in particular) was the foregrounding of marriage as the most appropriate way of life. It often comes as a surprise when people learn this, but Puritans took an absolutely positive view of sexuality within the context of marriage. Clergy were encouraged to lead by example and marry and have children, as opposed to Catholic clergy who prized virginity above all else. Through his comedies, Shakespeare was promoting this new way of life which had never been promoted before. The dogma, thanks to the church, had always been “durr hburr women are evil sex is bad celibacy is your ticket to salvation.” All that changed in Shakespeare’s time, and thanks to him we get a view of the world where marriage, women, and sexuality are in fact the key to salvation.

The difference between the structure of a comedy and a tragedy is that the former is cyclical, and the latter a downward curve. Comedies weren’t stupid fun about the lighter side of life. The definition of a comedy was not a funny play. They were plays that began in turmoil and ended in reconciliation and renewal. They showed the audience the path to salvation, with the comic ending of a happy marriage leaving the promise of societal regeneration intact. Meanwhile, in the tragedies, there is no such promise of regeneration or salvation. The characters destroy themselves. The world in which they live is not sustainable. It leads to a dead end, with no promise of new life.

And so, in comedies, the women are the movers and shakers. They get things done. They move the machinery of the plot along. In tragedies, though women have an important part to play, they are often morally bankrupt as compared to the women of comedies, or if they are morally sound, they are disenfranchised and ignored, and refused the chance to contribute to the society in which they live. Let’s look at some examples.

In Romeo and Juliet, the play ends in tragedy because no-one listens to Juliet. Her father and Paris both insist they know what’s right for her, and they refuse to listen to her pleas for clemency. Juliet begs them – screams, cries, manipulates, tells them outright I cannot marry, just wait a week before you make me marry Paris, just a week, please and they ignore her, and force her into increasingly desperate straits, until at last the two young lovers kill themselves. The message? This violent, hate-filled patriarchal world is unsustainable. The promise of regeneration is cut down with the deaths of these children. Compare to Othello. This is the most horrifying and intimate tragedy of all, with the climax taking place in a bedroom as a husband smothers his young wife. The tragedy here could easily have been averted if Othello had listened to Desdemona and Emilia instead of Iago. The message? This society, built on racism and misogyny and martial, masculine honour, is unsustainable, and cannot regenerate itself. The very horror of it lies in the murder of two wives.

How about Hamlet? Ophelia is a disempowered character, but if Hamlet had listened to her, and not mistreated her, and if her father hadn’t controlled every aspect of her life, then perhaps she wouldn’t have committed suicide. The final scene of carnage is prompted by Laertes and Hamlet furiously grappling over her corpse. When Ophelia dies, any chance of reconciliation dies with her. The world collapses in on itself. This society is unsustainable. King Lear – we all know that this is prompted by Cordelia’s silence, her unwillingness to bend the knee and flatter in the face of tyranny. It is Lear’s disproportionate response to this that sets off the tragedy, and we get a play that is about entropy, aging and the destruction of the social order.

There are exceptions to the rule. I’m sure a lot of you are crying out “but Lady Macbeth!” and it’s a good point. However, in terms of raw power, neither Lady Macbeth nor the witches are as powerful as they appear. The only power they possess is the ability to influence Macbeth; but ultimately it is Macbeth’s own ambition that prompts him to murder Duncan, and it is he who escalates the situation while Lady Macbeth suffers a breakdown. In this case you have women who are allowed to influence the play, but do so for the worse; they fail to be the good moral compasses needed. Goneril, Regan and Gertrude are similarly comparable; they possess a measure of power, but do not use it for good, and again society cannot renew itself.

Now we come to the comedies, where women do have the most control over the plot. The most powerful example is Rosalind in As You Like It. She pulls the strings in every avenue of the plot, and it is thanks to her control that reconciliation is achieved at the end, and all end up happily married. Much Ado About Nothing pivots around a woman’s anger over the abuse of her innocent cousin. If the men were left in charge in this play, no-one would be married at the end, and it would certainly end in tragedy. But Beatrice stands up and rails against men for their cruel conduct towards women and says that famous, spine-tingling line - oh God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace. And Benedick, her suitor, listens to her. He realises that his misogynistic view of the world is wrong and he takes steps to change it. He challenges his male friends for their conduct, parts company with the prince, and by doing this he wins his lady’s hand. The entire happy ending is dependent on the men realising that they must trust, love and respect women. Now it is a society that is worthy of being perpetuated. Regeneration and salvation lies in equality between the sexes and the love husbands and wives cherish for each other. The Merry Wives of Windsor - here we have men learning to trust and respect their wives, Flastaff learning his lesson for trying to seduce married women, and a daughter tricking everyone so she can marry the man she truly loves. A Midsummer Night’s Dream? The turmoil begins because three men are trying to force Hermia to marry someone she does not love, and Helena has been cruelly mistreated. At the end, happiness and harmony comes when the women are allowed to marry the men of their choosing, and it is these marriages that are blessed by the fairies.

What of the romances? In The Tempest, Prospero holds the power, but it is Miranda who is the key to salvation and a happy ending. Without his daughter, it is likely Prospero would have turned into a murderous revenger. The Winter’s Tale sees Leontes destroy himself through his own jealousy. The king becomes a vicious tyrant because he is cruel to his own wife and children, and this breach of faith in suspecting his wife of adultery almost brings ruin to his entire kingdom. Only by obeying the sensible Emilia does Leontes have a chance of achieving redemption, and the pure trust and love that exists between Perdita and Florizel redeems the mistakes of the old generation and leads to a happy ending. Cymbeline? Imogen is wronged, and it is through her love and forgiveness that redemption is achieved at the end. In all of these plays, without the influence of the women there is no happy ending.

The message is clear. Without a woman’s consent and co-operation in living together and bringing up a family, there is turmoil. Equality between the sexes and trust between husbands and wives alone will bring happiness and harmony, not only to the family unit, but to society as a whole. The Taming of the Shrew rears its ugly head as a counter-example, for here a happy ending is dependent on a woman’s absolute subservience and obedience even in the face of abuse. But this is one of Shakespeare’s early plays (and a rip-off of an older comedy called The Taming of a Shrew) and it is interesting to look at how the reception of this play changed as values evolved in this society.

As early as 1611 The Shrew was adapted by the writer John Fletcher in a play called The Woman’s Prize, or The Tamer Tamed. It is both a sequel and an imitation, and it chronicles Petruchio’s search for a second wife after his disastrous marriage with Katherine (whose taming had been temporary) ended with her death. In Fletcher’s version, the men are outfoxed by the women and Petruchio is ‘tamed’ by his new wife. It ends with a rather uplifting epilogue that claims the play aimed:

To teach both sexes due equality

And as they stand bound, to love mutually.

The Taming of the Shrew and The Tamer Tamed were staged back to back in 1633, and it was recorded that although Shakespeare’s Shrew was “liked”, Fletcher’s Tamer Tamed was “very well liked.” You heard it here folks; as early as 1633 audiences found Shakespeare’s message of total female submission uncomfortable, and they preferred John Fletcher’s interpretation and his message of equality between the sexes.

So yes. The message we can take away from Shakespeare is that a world in which women are powerless and cannot or do not contribute positively to society and family is unsustainable. Men, given the power and left to their own devices, will destroy themselves. But if men and women can work together and live in harmony, then the whole community has a chance at salvation, renewal and happiness.

In the immortal words of the bard himself: fucking annihilated.

instead of reporting the murder, i would like to help you bury thE BODY CAUSE DAAMN

positive-memes: Tourist

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 22:00:07 -0400

positive-memes:

Tourist

disc80s: 遊んどる from...

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 20:00:07 -0400

disc80s:

遊んどる

from https://twitter.com/yukaloooom/status/989542267831500802?s=21

thoodleoo: what people think ancient greek and roman art is like: white marble statues, lots of...

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 18:00:08 -0400

thoodleoo:

what people think ancient greek and roman art is like: white marble statues, lots of columns, tasteful frescoes and mosaics with a lot of geometric patterns

what ancient greek and roman art is actually like:

ancatmom: lilacbreastedroller: BIG DISCLAIMER: i was 9 when...

Sat, 23 Jun 2018 10:46:02 -0400

ancatmom:

lilacbreastedroller:

BIG DISCLAIMER: i was 9 when 9/11 happened, so this might be more about my own crystalizing tastes than anything else. i think it’s a pretty darn good theory tho and other people have validated it.

BIGGER DISCLAIMER: i am not saying that country music prior to 9/11 was free from nationalist, racist, misogynist undertones - i just think that these themes became more the norm!

MY HOT TAKE:

with very few exceptions, including goodbye earl, before he cheats, and daddy Iessons (side note - all women!) 9/11 ruined country music. around 2014 onward we’ve got margo price, sturgill simpson, jason isbell etc., who are making country music great again (wink), but those folks are mostly considered “alternative” country. the mainstream country music for well over a decade now is a glut of trash performative patriotic / working-class-but-not-really lab-crafted budweiser-sponsored nonsense that has managed to sound rebellious (or has convinced its fans that it sounds rebellious) without ever actually questioning any power structure. so much so that artists who ACTUALLY criticized the government were literally blacklisted for nearly a decade (the dixie chicks)

pre-9/11 country music, though not perfect or ideologically pure by any stretch, did not have the raging american flag painted truck boner that comes to mind for a lot of people who say “i like everything except rap and country”

SPECIFICALLY, toby keith’s “courtesy of the red, white, and blue (the angry american)” (2002) literally destroyed country music. it was a direct answer to the 9/11 attacks and war song in support of the invasion of afghanistan. the lyrics read like a disjointed feverish email chain letter forwarded from your great uncle sprinkled with glittering american flag gifs and heavily saturated pictures of bald eagles. the entire song is lifted from an estimated 248 peeling bumper stickers collected from rusted trucks on cinder blocks in overgrown yards, cut up and arranged to fit a catchy, formulaic tune that is almost certainly the background music playing in george w. bush’s head at all times.

“we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the american way
and uncle sam put your name at the top of his list
and the statue of liberty started shakin’ her fist
and the eagle will fly, and it’s gonna be hell, when you hear mother freedom start a'ringin’ her bell”

country music and the new country musicians that toby keith paved the way for became so pro establishment and so unquestioningly nationalistic that, again, the dixie chicks who went against this grain were blacklisted by the industry and received death threats from country music fans. hell, there are folks who STILL froth at the mouth at the mere mention of the dixie chicks.

9/11 killed outlaw country - how can you sing the praises of law breakers when your main circuit consists of singing to troops? there are some great classic country songs critiquing the police state - especially from johnny cash and merle haggard - now country music artists hold fundraisers for FOPs. new country music is basically in-law country music.

you don’t have to write a pro-bush patriotic anthem to be part of this post-9/11 ruination. playing meaningless songs about living in the heart of (read: white) america, eschewing the city (read: not white), and cracking open a cold one with the boys for “authentic” country music is also important to the war effort.

there’s a progression of themes here:

post 9/11 top tier: war anthem, vocally patriotic, directly used as pro war propaganda;
which paved the way for: “things used to be so much better” thinly veiled racist laments, good for campaign ads;
which paved the way for meaningless party anthems - attempts to make things “like they used to be” and craft a reality that neither the artist nor listener likely ever experience.

that brings us to what most people think of today when they say they hate country music: the country party anthem - “tiny hot gal in tight jean shorts who can drink beer like the guys, she doesn’t like beyoncé Like Other Girls, oh she’s so into me and my truck, i’m gonna take her fishing after i finish sowing my corn - sung by a guy who’s never touched a tractor” - has overtaken the tragic, done me wrong, despairing country ballads of tammy wynette, george jones, and even up into pre-9/11 contemporaries like reba mcentire and george strait. you didn’t necessarily have to be country to relate to their pain. now you have to perform suburban redneckness to enjoy luke bryan.

when was the last time you heard a sad country song?

after 9/11, cowboys (whether or not they had ever been near a cow) weren’t allowed to be sad anymore (no more done me wrong country), and they certainly weren’t allowed to question authority (no more outlaw country). partying hardy became the most important American Thing and if you don’t sing about that, our Enemies Will Win.

so - understanding that country music has always had bad stuff, and that like any genre it suffers from commercialization, 9/11 DESTROYED COUNTRY MUSIC. and toby keith gleefully helped destroy it.

for some further evidence of the decline of country music, please listen to the dixie chicks’ “long time gone” which is an indictment of the industry (i believe it was written before 9/11 but my point still stands - the genre was on the decline and 9/11 was the major cultural event that hastened the decline).

maybe i am a curmudgeon - almost every generation of country music has had its own “country music is not what it used to be” anthem, but i really think something distinct happened with 9/11.

This is so fucking legit though. No wonder I always have to say “I don’t like modern country music” when I explain I hate the genre. That’s literally what happened. It’s not even a conspiracy theory though. It’s just the reality of what happened.

semitics: The thing that I hate about atheism as a movement is that it doesn’t just want to critique...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 22:00:08 -0400

semitics:

The thing that I hate about atheism as a movement is that it doesn’t just want to critique the hegemony of Western Christianity, it wants to kill spirituality. There is no joy, there is nothing about it that isn’t founded in a pessimism that sees itself as so self-important that it cannot exist outside of destruction. The face of atheism is a white male disgruntled ex-Christian who decided that if he can’t find joy in religion, then nobody else can. There’s a leftover missionary sensibility to “enlighten” people to atheism that exposes itself as racist, antisemitic, and islamophobic, that’s ultimately not unlike the dominance exerted through colonial Christianity

santapau: New Secret Knots…

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 20:00:11 -0400

santapau:

New Secret Knots…

lolita-wardrobe: A Gorgeous Qi Lolita Style Dress Inspired By...

Fri, 22 Jun 2018 18:00:12 -0400

lolita-wardrobe:

A Gorgeous Qi Lolita Style Dress Inspired By Chinese Online Game :)

Photo

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 22:00:05 -0400

fizzityuck: iraesid: random-cluster-missile: fizzityuck: we’re all getting “older” but age is a...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 20:00:06 -0400

fizzityuck:

iraesid:

random-cluster-missile:

fizzityuck:

we’re all getting “older” but age is a relative thing. i’ve licked things that are 250 million years old. you’re not that old and you’re not worth licking.

Clare this is by far the most terrifying post you have ever made

Is this person an archaeologist and referring to the “lick test” for fossils or does she go down on the old gods…?