imagine how much more fucked up the history of the world would be if eating someone's brains reliably conferred on you their memory and knowledge

when I feel bad about my ability to write interesting stories I try to think about the skyrim wizard college questline

you join wizard college. in the main room there is an elf in all black robes who stands there all day. the other characters are like "I think that guy is a spy for the elf cops". you can talk to the elf and he says he's an elf cop. later you find a magic orb, and the other wizards are like "I bet that elf is planning something with the orb" and once again elf cop is like "we the elf cops should have that orb". you have to go fight some skeletons in a dungeon because uhhhh and when you get back elf cop has killed the head wizard off camera with the orb for some reason. you fight more skeletons in a different dungeon to get a magic staff to turn off the orb and kill elf cop. then elf CIA shows up and takes the orb because I guess it was theirs and they dropped it. you are now the most powerful wizard in skyrim

Can't wait for the uniqueness of the holocaust to be a topic of importance in a political campaign in america in 2024. That's how it should be. That's normal

It's true, the Holocaust isn't unique, it holds the largest impact because it is the most recent one, at least for jews, given time other genocides will overshadow it, and it should be taught in the same vein as other historic atrocities.

There was the Effacer le tableau.

The Hutu massacres of the first Congo war.

The Rwandan Genocide.

The Bosnian Genocide.

The Isaaq Genocide.

The Anfal campaign.

The Gukurahundi.

The Cambodian Genocide.

The East Timor Genocide.

The Ikiza.

The Bangladesh Genocide, which may have a repeat very soon.

The Holodomor.

The Great Leap Forward.

The Armenian Genocide.

I can go on.

To limit education to but one atrocity, when all of these happened in the same century is an attempt to reframe or even hide these atrocities, for instance I have seen many socialists defend both the Holodomor and the Armenian Genocide, it does those being educated a disservice by treating the Holocaust as unique while surrounded by a myriad of other heinous genocides.

I will say context is important, and I don't know the context here, but yeah he's right to acknowledge the many other genocides that exist.

I mean the context in the screenshot provided is obviously correct and vindicates what Walz is saying. Someone screenshotted that as proof Walz was wrong because they could not read the words in it, just that it somehow disagrees with them.

He fucking says, right there, "to exclude other acts of genocide severely limited students' ability to synthesize the lessons of the Holocaust and ability to apply them elsewhere," that's the quote that this thread's OP and Twitter OP both looked at and got enraged by without reading! Guess what? If you teach people the Holocaust was completely unique and unprecedented and unrelated to any other patterns of behavior, the take-home lesson is that it might as well have been done by space aliens and there's no reason to be concerned with what humans are doing!

and by divorcing the Holocaust from all other genocides, it also allows people to not have a framework of other mass atrocities, which surprisingly enough seems to make them believe that the holocaust could have actually NOT happened, considering how they don't have a framework about how often atrocities happen.

the follow-up here is that when walz taught his class of sophomore high school students about the holocaust, he had them extensively study other genocides and the social conditions that preceded them. the class wrapped up with a group project trying to predict where the next genocide was most likely to take place

(this was in 1993)

and where did they collectively conclude the next genocide was most likely to happen?

Rwanda.

if, like me, you can't remember the date of the Rwandan genocide off the top of your head, it kicked off in April 1994.

So ... when Tim Walz says that studying the Holocaust as part of a pattern is vitally important, he is not talking out of his ass.

If your democrat friends start muttering about stolen election conspiracy theories, the time to have a sit down with them and express your concerns is NOW, while you still have a chance to reach them, not 6 months from now when they're fully conspiracy-pilled.

Here's some of the talking points and why they're bullshit:

But just as importantly as the facts: sit down with your friend and talk about the anxiety that's behind their conspiracy leanings. Acknowledge their pain and fear. Help them find ways to feel less powerless and regain their sense of agency. Take them to a mutual aid event, involve them in a fundraising event for a marginalized group, invite them to a local community effort. If they spend more time feeling connection and empowerment and less time doom scrolling online, they're far more likely to stay in reality.

This this this

I worked as an election judge across multiple polling locations and election types in my state from 2018-2023 (presidential primary and general elections, midterms, and special elections like for the school board etc.)

US elections are extremely secure. There are so many safeguards in place. Everything is double and triple counted.

The number of ballots electronically counted by the box are checked against the number of physical ballots at the end of the night, and also the receipt papers that individuals exchange for their ballot. All three of these counts MUST MATCH. Sometimes you're off by 1 number and it means everyone stops and triple counts these papers until you find the error (human error, it's been 16 hours and two pieces of thin receipt paper were stuck together and the second person to recount finds it and everyone cheers because thank fuck, it means no one dropped anything on the floor anywhere.)

There are eyes everywhere and there's a deliberate mix of poll workers across political parties/affiliations. It's simply not possible to alter even 1 ballot at 1 polling place, much less thousands.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump won this election. If there was interference, it was NOT at the voting booth. That's simply not possible. The "interference" (if you can even call it that) comes from right wing propaganda convincing stupid and/or hateful and/or selfish people to vote for him.

In 2016, we had 60% turnout.

In 2020, we had 66% turnout.

It's too early to know what this year's number is, but I bet it's around 60%.

Trump got 1.5 million more votes this year than he did 4 years ago, which is more or less in line with population growth.

His base showed up. Harris's base didn't. That's it. There's no deep mystery here, just the usual disenfranchised minorities and disinterested populace.

When turnout is high, Republicans lose. When the electorate stays home, Republicans win. This is simple math that has been true my entire adult life, and yet every 4 years, like clockwork, people ignore it.

Disney banned an episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur called "The Gatekeeper," because of the current political climate in the US. So the episode is about Lunella's friend Brooklyn being targeted by the coach of a rival volleyball team, Greer, who found out she was trans and tried to stop her from playing. She even goes as far as to trap Brooklyn, Lunella and the others in the locker room, and will only let them out if they follow her "rules."

Brooklyn: "I'm trans, my very existence breaks Greer's rules, which means, as long as I'm a member of this team...we'll never escape..."

And they break out of the room specifically by breaking the rules. There's also an awesome video game-like scene where the team fights a monster-like version of Greer by throwing volleyballs at her, with streaks colored like the trans flag.

Brooklyn: "It doesn't matter how many doors people like you slam in my face. With my fight, plus my crew backing me up, I'm always gonna find my way out."

This episode is EXACTLY what trans kids need right now, but no, Disney was too spineless to air the episode. They can claim for the 69420th time that XYZ is their first gay character, they can sell rainbow Mickey Mouse pins, they can put up pride month collections on Disney+, but it's clear that they only "support" the LGBTQ+ community when it's profitable for them.

the main problem with this time of year is the irresistible urge to get fully into bed at like 5:34 pm and outside is like yesss, yesss do it, it's what you deserve yesss. like is it depression or is it just november

So, I guess as a middle range millennial, I now get to tell all you young queer kids that what you are feeling right now is exactly how it felt in 2004 when we re-elected George Bush, and not only that but many states put in bans against gay/same sex marriage at the time.

This is probably not comforting, but it is true, and it helps me when I feel hopeless: For every revolution there is a counter revolution, for every step forward there is a step back, that things may not be good forever but they will not be bad, either. That we clawed our way to get where we are and we can claw our way forward from here, too. Talk to your queer elders, the ones who have been here before and will be here again and who threw bricks at Stonewall.

When I was a child, if you got AIDS it was a death sentence. Now it isn't. Now you live on.

So I'll quote angels in america: You are fabulous creatures, each and every one. And I bless you: More Life. The Great Work Begins.

QUEERSKIN SERIES: camila by johnny moraes, styling by gabriel paulo + thalia passos & makeup by sasa ferreira + nilo

i thought my laptop was on its last leg because it was running at six billion degrees and using 100% disk space at all times and then i turned off shadows and some other windows effects and it was immediately cured. i just did the same to my roommate's computer and its performance issues were also immediately cured. okay. i guess.

so i guess if you have creaky freezy windows 10/11 try searching "advanced system settings", go to performance settings, and uncheck "show shadows under windows" and anything else you don't want. hope that helps someone else.

hey this is apparently helping a lot of people! adding that on top of this you can also go to settings > personalization > colors and turn off transparency to also boost performance. this wasn't the Big Fix for me but might as well do that too if you're trying to optimize.

past a certain note threshold on tumblr posts you unlock a bloodborne-esque insight and the strange lives of this site's users become visible to you

(x)

we fucking found them?

Ok I know we joke about this but I just went to the settings and first clicked "adjust for best performance" and then re-checked only 1 box:

"Smooth edges of screen fonts"

My computer was running hot before I turned everything off; the office I'm in is very warm, I could feel the heat of my CPU through the keyboard. The fans were going, not as loud as they usually get, but they were still blasting.

Y'all.

I can barely feel the warmth through the keyboard now. It's been like 2 minutes. The fan is nearly silent.

Click the Windows key and start typing "System settings", and "View Advanced system settings" will pop up. Then click "Settings" under Performance:

Then you'll see this:

TURN IT ALL OFF.

I turned "Show window contents while dragging" and then turned that off again. It's up to you.

namineweek ✬ day 2: favorite quote 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Best game 10/10

WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? NARRATE | The Maltese Burger

How dare you leave this Jason Todd discourse in the tags.

"omg can't 2 men just have a beautiful friendship without you people making it gay" THEY CANT! the sex part always gets in the way..

The collection is complete!!! This series of portraits took so long 😭 but I am happy with how they turned out 🥲💕

These will all be available as prints when my shop launches on Friday! And, if you’re interested in a giveaway for the whole set, check out my instagram (same username!) where we’re celebrating 15k 🥰