the hostage situation is a really good example of the ways that “jews hold disproportionately vast political influence” type antisemitism poses just as much of a danger as other kinds. even goyim who recognize “jews control the world/are deceptive and greedy/arent human” etc as dangerous & unacceptable will frequently engage with “jews are more powerful politically than goyim” (or statements that imply that) as reasonable matters of opinion. this man took jews hostage not at random but because he believed that jews are inordinately powerful & a random rabbi across the country could therefore order the release of a prisoner in texas. any analysis that ignores the antisemitism inherent to this line of thinking fails to address the reality of this situation

I know a lot of you have rocks for brains, but no bisexual I’ve met could ever relate to cishet people on the basis of m/f relationships. Like…this isn’t even a revolutionary concept. We have talked time and time again that our attraction to the “opposite gender” isn’t the same as a cishet person’s, how we felt isolated when it came to discussing crushes and hookups and dating and falling in love and gender and such. As an adult, you have no excuse to not know this by now. 

Russian Naming Customs

With Shadow & Bone content making its rounds on Tumblr, I wanted to make a PSA and clarify that whatever its merits, it does not really represent Russian realities, and especially doesn’t represent Russian names.

I have nothing against people enjoying the show or the books, but I do want to show you how names work in Russia, so that a future generation of fantasy fiction writers doesn’t make the same mistakes that Bardugo did. (If you read to the end, I explain where she went right and wrong with character names.)

Keep reading

you know what? sometimes you are wrong. sometimes you are the toxic one. sometimes you are the bad guy in a story. but that does not make you a bad person. we all at many points in our life, no matter how healthy and good we are, have moments where we are wrong. don’t beat yourself up for this. reflect on the situation, identify what you did wrong and how you can avoiding making the same mistake, and move on. you’re human. you make mistakes. all you can do is learn and move on.

It's fine to want nothing to do with Harry Potter now that JKR is being regularly and publicly terrible (I'm listing that way myself even though I don't want to because the association is just overpoweringly distasteful), but seeing the shift in how people discuss HP on this website to be like, "It seems obvious to me that this franchise was always poorly constructed, derivative drek littered with red flags anybody would notice with a cursory glance - there's absolutely nothing genuinely appealing about it." ...That's just very funny, sorry. Like yes that is unfortunately not how the relationship between a person's moral character and their skills works, but mostly I was alive and had a developed consciousness between 2000 and 2008, so I cannot take this seriously. It wasn't the biggest literature phenomenon of recent times because it had a uniquely strong marketing strategy, guys.

The books are well written with engaging characters, great worldbuilding, and a story that captured people like no other. There is literally no overestimating the phenom the books were. And no the movies did not make it. They were MASSIVE even before the films. Before the films even came out, the NYT made a separate children's bestseller list because a ton of people complained that 'kid's books' were taking up too many sports on the NYT bestsellers lists. It's honestly ridiculous to argue that HP's popularity was made by the movies. Come on.

And the thing about red flags, is that most things that are legitimately problematic in the books are fantasy staples. JKR didn't invent the anti-semitic portrayal of goblins. It's an old as hell trope that's in countless fantasy stories. The house elves were based on Brownie folklore, even down to the tradition of their freedom coming from a piece of clothing being given to them. People were not talking a lot about the casual transphobia in doing things like describing Rita Skeeter's hands as 'mannish' because casual transphobia was so ubiquitous that it was the norm, and that transphobia was often actively violent. I just don't think it crossed many people's minds that 'wow JKR described Rita Skeeter's hands as mannish once in the year 2000, so I think she's probably a T*RF.' And this doesn't make it okay, and it doesn't mean these aspects of the books aren't problematic! But it does mean that like, no it wasn't 'so obvious' even to MANY progressive minded people. And I also don't think it makes her a terrible person. What makes her a terrible person is what she's doing NOW.

The idea that they've 'always been awful' and we 'should have known' is really and actually just... kind of cowardly? Instead of acknowledging that unfortunately yes, bad people can make good things, people are taking the easy way out and going 'well obviously a bad person makes bad art. it's ALWAYS been bad, and my brain is so huge I know this', because god forbid we have a more nuanced view and don't see the world in the most simplistic terms possible. It sucks when bad people make good art, but you're not special for not ever liking Harry Potter.

hey! i have something to say to all of you out there who identify as boys/men, whether you're cis or trans!

YOU ARE NOT A BAD PERSON JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A MAN. YOU'RE NOT. IT'S NOT TRUE AND YOU SHOULDN'T BELIEVE IT.

being a man is not an automatic one way ticket to being an asshole. i know there are a lot of people out there who say things like "all men are trash" and "all men should just die" and i'm here to tell you: They. Are. Wrong. that's it. full stop.

if you need to hear this, i'm here to say it- You are a man and you are a good person.

anyway, that's all i wanted to say, so go have a nice day! 😊

please don't derail this post by saying things like "You're not a bad person as long as you [blank]." that's not what this post is about. go make your own.

For vision-impaired: here's a link to the 5-Tweet thread above by Claire Willett, Apr 20. 2021.

Context: George Floyd's murderer is convicted on 3 counts. Afterwards, Nancy Pelosi makes a distraction of herself with offensively tone-deaf white-a-cism while expressing support for verdict.

As Mel Baggs wrote, “If you have ever existed, then some place in time, you always exist.” We’ve collected some of our favorite memories and writings by Mel here.

Do not come on my posts with “Black Women Are Superhuman Beings Who Can Handle Anything” takes. That’s a dangerous and reductive rhetoric rife with misogynoir. No, black women cannot take more negative and harmful attacks than other women can. Black women are not primed to withstand more attacks and harassment than women of other races. Stop. That is horrifying. Black women deserve grace, compassion, and a soft place to rest, not constant burdens.

people will be like “i am uncomfortable with kosher and halal slaughter because they slit the animal’s throat 😔 as opposed to the meat i eat, which magically and cleanly appears shrink-wrapped in the refrigerated section at the grocery store”

[ID: Tweet by @markos reading “So weird, not having to fact-check a presidential speech.” This tweet is quote-tweeted by @drmistercody who captioned it with “We, uh, still have to do that.”]

The Mother of all Derbies: Esto es... River de Boca!

Wow. WOW. I am so fucking excited to write all this! This… IS the Derby of ALL Derbies! This is a MUST SEE and you absolutely MUST include this fixture in your bucket list! This is the pinnacle of South American football, the holy grail of Argentina… Boca Juniors vs River Plate!

Seriously, such is the intensity of this rivalry, it’ll make El Clasico like a primary school kickabout and Liverpool vs Manchester United a circus. There really is and I mean this when I say it: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in comparison to this!

But how did this magnificently fierce rivalry come about? Let’s have a look.

History and background of the fans

Boca Juniors and River Plate both have origins in the working class docklands area of Buenos Aires, known as ‘La Boca.’ River Plate was founded first ironically in La Boca in 1901 and of course, Boca themselves was formed in 1905. River Plate spent their early years there however, they moved to the more posh area of Nunez, which is located in the north of the city, in 1925. 

Since then, Boca Juniors has been known as the working class club of Argentina, with also Italian connections as the fans came from the city of Genoa in Italy. That also explains why many Argentinians have connections to Italy despite being colonised by Spain and speak Spanish to this day. 

River Plate on the other hand, became known by the nickname, Los Millonarios, or ‘the Millionaires’ due to having richer fans in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires. Both clubs today though, have supporters from all social classes, with the same level of hatred they both exhibit to each other. 

The first official match between the two was played in 1913, with River Plate drawing first blood against Boca, winning 2-1.

Boca fans refer to River supporters as “gallinas” meaning ‘chickens’ because they thought River Plate don’t have the guts to face Boca Juniors. River fans refer to their Boca rivals as “los chanchitos”, or ‘little pigs’ because they claim that their stadium, located in the less affluent La Boca area, smells most of the time as well as being manure collectors. The smell could often be smelt in the whole stadium, so the nickname was being lived up to.

When you think about it, it’s a symbolic battle between the rich and poor, the higher end of the hierarchy and the lower class. That’s why this derby is special!

Boca Juniors play at La Bombonera, which is an iconic ground in its own right! Just… look at this!

River Plate on the other hand, play at El Monumental, also an iconic ground for rather similar reasons. But their passion is just as incredible as Boca Juniors fans!

Who has the more titles and better record?

It remains incredibly close to call though, in terms of who is the more successful team in Argentina. River currently boast the higher number of domestic league titles, having won 36 Primera Division titles to their rival’s 34 league titles.

However, Boca have been more successful when it comes to continental competitions, having won two more Copa Libertadores than their arch rivals. They also have lifted the Copa Sudamericana more times as well.

Moreover, they have the slight edge in competitive Superclasico wins, having tasted victory 89 times compared to Los Millonarios’ 83. But it goes to show just how neither side have been able to dominate the fixture, giving a genuine sense that every encounter could go either way. There is one thing that haunts every River Plate fan as well, with relegation to their history. Boca have never been relegated from the top flight.

River Plate though, will get to boast the ultimate bragging rights of all time.

Puerta 12 Tragedy

This fixture also saw a human tragedy of its own. On 23rd June 1968, in El Monumental, River Plate’s home ground, after a 0-0 match between the two teams, 71 fans were killed in a crush at Gate 12, with 150 fans left injured. The disaster was the worst football related incident in the history of Argentine football and the majority of the dead were teenagers and young adults. The average age of the victims was just 19.

There are various claims as to what exactly happened that day. Some claim that the disaster happened after Boca Juniors fans threw burning River flags from the upper tiers of the stadium, causing a stampede of their own fans in the lower tier. Others claim that it happened after River fans arrived at the Boca section, causing the stampede of the visiting fans. Yet others claim that gate 12 was locked, or would not open at the time, and that the fans at the back did not hear the ones at the front telling them to stop coming in. William Kent, River’s former president, claimed that the police were the culprits, as they began repressing Boca fans after they had thrown urine at them from the stands. Some witnesses claim that the turnstiles to the exit were blocked by a huge iron pole. 

After three years of investigation, a government inquiry found no one guilty, much to the disappointment of the families of the victims. Since the tragedy, the gates at El Monumental have been identified by letters instead of numbers.

Famous moments and clashes

One such incidents of many comes into mind, especially this one, when a young Carlos Tevez did this celebration in 2004 at El Monumental, which he is known affectionately by Boca fans for his chicken celebration, mocking River for Boca’s ‘gallito’ chant. 

Needless to say though, Boca lost this game by penalties.

How about River Plate players being sprayed with pepper spray! That’s right! It happened in 2015, when Boca Juniors were out of the Libertadores semi final by a 1-0 loss at La Bombonera. Boca fans reacted by using pepper spray at River Plate players.

There is more drama to come though.

It came in 2018. The Copa Libertadores final! Think of it as Real Madrid vs Barcelona Champions League final… times 100!

A two-legged tie to decide the South American champions league winners. It does NOT get ANY better than this! This was the ‘final to end all finals’ so to speak. This was to end all debates on who is better between the two clubs. And guess who comes out on top…

The rich men from La Monumental, River Plate. They won 5-3 on aggregate. But it was not going without controversy. After a 2-2 draw at La Bombonera, the second leg was delayed due to riots from fans before the game started. The game had to be moved from Buenos Aires to the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid of all places.

It goes without saying though, that River Plate were relegated in 2012 from the Argentine Primera Division. A riot also occurred from that too. The pain River felt from that disaster, they are within their right to feel that their ultimate revenge was complete.

Well, at least Boca can claim the greatest Argentine of all time as their number 1 fan and best ever player:

And of course, never been relegated from the Primera Division, but who gives a fuck when you’ve won a champions league final over your biggest rivals when it counts the most right?

When you see a match on TV or go to the actual match, you will always see fans passionate about their teams. If you ever go to a match you can feel the energy in the stadium. You’ll see fireworks, confetti, flags, banners, and paper. You’ll hear songs, you’ll hear yelling, you’ll hear cheers, you’ll hear groans. In a River Plate vs Boca Juniors game, you will hear a more amplified version of all that!

Is it the game that produces the most attractive football in the world? Maybe not. But for the pure spectacle and drama the fixture brings, makes it one of the best games to watch, and definitely one to experience live either at La Bombonera or El Monumental.

And it’s a derby that carries an intensity that will never go away, making it THE BEST rivalry in world football that exists today.

Listen, if performing femininity is an “empowering choice,” then it needs to be an actual choice. Meaning that woman can opt out of it without negative consequence. Meaning a woman can go to an academic event without heels or in a simple suit and still be “professional.” Meaning that a woman can go to a job interview without a full face of makeup and not be “tired” or “disheveled.” Meaning that a woman can walk around in shorts with unshaven legs and not be a dirty, unclean gremlin. Meaning that a little girl can play and break barriers and like STEM while wearing jeans and a t-shirt and not be considered less empowered or “just trying to be a boy.”

Meaning that a woman’s femininity and womanhood is not contingent upon the extent to which she buys and performs a time-consuming, expensive, uncomfortable mold of a very specific type of packaged femininity. 

This isn’t even going into the effect these double standards have on women who in some way, by their very existence, do not fit the standard white western beauty mold and are expected to perform hyperfemininity to be “women” at all. I.e. women of colour esp. darker-skinned women of colour, hijabi women and tznius-keeping women, fat women, disabled women, trans women, etc. 

Things I've learned driving around the country for work:

-Cracker barrels are always crowded. This is because they're great.

-Even if you're driving 10 mph over the speed limit in the right lane there will still be that one clown riding your ass. He likely has a punisher sticker on his rear window.

-that kind of dumpy guy you see in a white pickup and high vis clothing probably has a bigger part in making sure society properly functions than any politician.

- there are phrases that sound sweet and pleasant but are absolutely an insult. Bless your heart.

- every once in a while you'll drive through a dead town. Once there were thriving local businesses here. Somebody's hopes and dreams died here. Try not to think about it too hard or you'll get really sad

- You have not seen how bad roadkill can get until you've driven through a rural road in Appalachia.

- Opioids are a serious epidemic in this country

- this Jesus fella is still pretty popular, especially down south

- There are still stretches of this country where there is simply... nothing. No gas stations. No homes. Maybe farmland. It's eerie, especially at night

- that small restaurant you can barely see from the highway may have the best food you've ever tasted. It may also give you food poisoning. This is one of life's greatest gambles

- rest stops are a blessing and should be used whenever you need a break. They're also the best place to see dogs.

- everyone in this country, regardless of race religion or political affiliation, is just trying to make their way. Nobody really knows what they're meant to do. Everybody has dreams of what they want to do. This makes folks afraid, and people cope with this fear in different ways

- Hampton inns are overpriced.

I was in a mood.

I’m all for impeaching Trump - what happens if he’s replaced by Pence though? He’s arguably far worse in the long run (assuming we’re not plunged into nuclear war, etc. first).

Pence is not worse than Trump, and I will tell you why.

One, this is a choice of Chaotic Evil vs Lawful Evil. Lawful Evil we can deal with. Lawful Evil has its’ limits. Would Pence still be a shitty President with little to no consideration for the wellbeing of the people of this country? Yes he would. Is he likely to start a nuclear war? Fuuuuuck no.

Two, if we successfully impeach Trump, one of two things will happen. The first is that Pence becomes President and has to stare down a Congress that just completed the first successful impeachment of a sitting President in U.S. History. He will have to toe that fuckin’ line or else risk the same fate, however much it puckers his ass to do it. And Pence, despite his horrid policies, actually has political experience and understands how the government works. He knows you can’t just hand down executive orders and expect things to be carried, because he understands that the President is not the CEO of America. In short, he’s actually taken a goddamn Civics class.

The second is that, given the levels to which everything has already escalated, if/when Trump is impeached, it’s possible that members of his cabinet might be forced out with him. People are comparing what’s going on to Nixon’s Watergate scandal, but this is a bit of a misnomer. We are MILES beyond Watergate at this point. Nixon’s impeachment charges were obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. Trump has the first two, is well on his way to the third, and could collect a charge of high treason if the Russia investigation continues to go the way it’s been going thus far.

If Pence is found to be guilty of any of these same charges, he could be forced to resign as collateral damage, in which case Speaker of the House Paul Ryan would become President. Whatever happens, like I said before, the next person in that chair after Trump gets booted out of it will be under intense scrutiny from EVERYBODY. They won’t be able to put a hair out of line without getting utterly destroyed.

We need to stop thinking in perfections and absolutes as far as the presidency goes. That’s how Trump got elected in the first place. At this point, we are on damage control, and Trump needs to be ousted before he does something irreversible. After that’s dealt with, we’ll deal with what comes next. But we cannot drag our feet on calling for Trump’s impeachment simply because Pence is “almost as bad” or “might be worse in the long run.”

The long run isn’t going to matter if the country gets annihilated in the next four years or becomes the newest totalitarian fascist regime. We need to shut this down and we need to do it NOW.

This was the first thing he tweeted. The first thing. Not condolences for the attack. Not promises of aid or solidarity. 7 dead, 48 wounded, and his first thought is to use this to push his unconstitutional, human rights violating ban.

This is disgusting and shameful and if he has any shred of human decency he’ll make a proper statement for the victims of this attack.

He doesn’t.  He does not have a single shred of human decency.  

HE DOES NOT HAVE A SINGLE SHRED OF HUMAN DECENCY.

The damage he causes simply by existing can not be overstated.

Fandom is not your safe space.

Nor should fandom be your safe space. Fandom is for people to explore all sorts of possibilities in fiction and art. Not all of those possibilities are going to be fluffy, “wholesome,” “healthy,” “uplifting,” or whatever other adjective the Morality Brigade here on Tumblr wants to trot out.

Fiction is not reality. Depiction is not endorsement. No, it may never be “just a movie/fic/artwork,” but that does not make it reality. Fiction serves particular purposes, and one of them is to permit us to vicariously experience certain dangerous or otherwise unpleasant things safely.

If you believe that the purpose of fiction is to “uplift” us and fiction that does not is wrong and bad, congratulations: You’re a right-winger. (Or maybe you’re on the extreme left. When you get that far out to the ends of the spectrum, it doesn’t matter.)

If you think that anyone who writes or reads noncon is a rapist or rape apologist, you are too stupid for words. If you think that anyone who ships an incest ship or an adult/teen ship is an apologist for incest or pedophilia, you are too stupid for words.

It is none of your business what other people write, draw, and ship. Let me repeat that: It is none of your business what other people write, draw, and ship. You do not get to tell them they’re “trash,” you do not get to concern-troll them with passive-aggressive nonsense like “love yourself more uwu,” and you absolutely do not get to harass them off Tumblr or elsewhere.

Also, their past trauma or lack thereof is none of your business, either. Nobody has to present their “cred” as a rape or incest survivor before they’re allowed to enjoy fanworks that don’t meet with your approval. Total strangers don’t owe you their backstories. For that matter, not even your friends owe you every detail of their backstories. Mind your own business.

Don’t want to see all this “problematic” content on your dash or elsewhere? Unfollow people. Learn how to use Tumblr Savior, XKit, AO3 Savior, and similar tools. Control your own online experience. It is not the responsibility of others on this site to take care of you, who are a total stranger to them. Given how heavily female Tumblr skews, such demands are nothing but reinforcement of the expectation that women are supposed to take care of everyone else but themselves. (Yes, women are still oppressed as a class, even before you factor in intersectionalities.)

It’s amusing how some of you have the “courage” to dogpile, harass, and stalk others on this website whose taste doesn’t meet your oh-so-pure standards. People who create fanworks are soft, easy targets to kinkshame, aren’t they? Especially when, again, most of them are not cis straight men. Women have been policed and shamed throughout history for exploring their own sexuality — including by other feminists. The 1980s were full of feminists policing other feminists:

Yes, sex-positive feminism was eventually co-opted by patriarchal forces, but it started out because a great many feminists were heartily tired of radfems telling them they were “traitors” and “brainwashed” for liking anything but the blandest, most euphemistic, and most painfully egalitarian erotica. (If you like that sort of thing, more power to you. Your tastes don’t make you better than the rest of us.)

Getting back to the here and now, I don’t see you going over to 4chan or Reddit with these morality campaigns. More importantly, I don’t see you organizing to go after big media corporations, especially those whose TV shows, movies, and books help form the toxic backdrop of misogyny, racism, rape culture, homophobia, transphobia, and similar bigotries behind everyday modern life. The occasional blogpost calling out this animator or that author, no matter how many notes it gets, is not the same thing as an organized campaign.

No, harassing David Gaider off Tumblr doesn’t count, not when Bioware makes more of an effort with social justice in its games than any other game company does. You can scream all you want about how “allies suck.” You need them in the real world, beyond the hothouse environment of Tumblr. If people in general could be trusted to do the right thing for the right reasons all the time, without pressure, there would be no need for any kind of activism at all.

Nor does screaming “pedophile” at John Green and insinuating that any grown man who reaches out to teenage girls is “creepy.” Yes, his “cool dad” act is annoying, and his books leave a lot to be desired. Have you considered that such outreach is part of his job as a YA writer? Have you also considered that stigmatizing men for trying to be mentors to adolescents, when you have no evidence that they’re actually perverts, reinforces traditional gender roles?

Tl;dr: Fandom is not your safe space. Tumblr is not your safe space. AO3 sure as fuck isn’t your safe space. People will post things you don’t like in all three spaces, which they have every right to do. Get over it, grow the fuck up, take responsibility for your own mental health, and stop confusing your oversized sense of entitlement with “social justice.”