it is funny anyway how beauty and intellect will not save you

for @graintourette

Pupils Dressed as Owls, Their Schools Insignia. Manchester Grammar School, UK (1920s)                          

WWII era isekai movies be like

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: my spiritual guide is an allegory for Jesus - kind, loving, and showing me how the be better

Pan’s Labyrinth: my spiritual guide may be intimidating, but is ultimately trying to protect me from the much greater evils of the real world

The Boy and The Heron: I Am Going To Beat My Spiritual Guide To Death With Hammers

A manatee rescue that I follow responded to a call about a female manatee with two calves because one of her babies had been injured by a boat strike. The entire family was temporarily relocated from the wild into a wildlife rehab facility for the injured male calf to undergo treatment. While there, vets noted the female calf was significantly larger than the little injured male. They did genetic testing and determined that big sister calf actually wasn’t related to the other two manatees at all! She was in fact an orphan calf that the adult manatee had found and taken in to care for right alongside her own little one.

Wild to think this manatee calf was literally adopted and nobody would have ever known if it weren’t for random coincidence and human curiosity. Every animal that you cross paths with in life has a fascinating personal story that you’ll only ever catch a glimpse of (if you’re lucky).

Family photo 💕

Monty Python's Flying Circus

thats the thing thats missing from america-centric discussion of fascism: this shit is global. every country in “the west” is seeing the same rise of fascism in real time, all of it focused on murdering migrants. like giorgia meloni is campaigning to deport people to “migrant camps” in albania. last year the greek coast guard outright drowned a boat of 500 asylum seekers. and as that last post said im not dismissing the suffering of people within the US, i’m just saying its so supremely frustrating that every conversation is about the minutiae of american domestic policy and not the horrifying ultranationalist global trend scapegoating arabs and africans.

my point is you need to be horrified that “border control” is an accepted talking point. you need to be aware of the fact that climate change is currently driving what will become the largest forced movement of people ever as the “third world” becomes uninhabitable. people—specifically people from africa and west asia—are dying in the name of white supremacist “borders” around the world. and whether your european or american when you see this rhetoric manifest in your country you need to push back.

wheeeeee wahooooo lalalala

Why do people keep on giving me horrified looks in the train station. It’s Halloween, I’m a bunny 🐰

Cute little medieval bunny 🐰

@hrimceald

sketches

--Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

GNU Sir Terry

Hey.

The Onion just bought ALL of info wars. Like, ALL of it. The company, including the trademark and all trademarks under it, the rights to their supplements, all of their broadcast equipment. Everything.

Alex Jones was auctioning it off as a means of paying off his $1.5B debt to the victim families of the Sandy Hook shootings, who won two separate lawsuits against him.

And the families actually chose to forego a portion of the money they'd be receiving to increase the value of the Onion's bid.

For one, this is incredibly funny. Like, what a fucking hilarious development.

But on a sociological level, I consider this a HUGE win for propaganda.

source.

Propaganda is not inherently evil, it's an entirely neutral acting force in the modern world of information dissemination. "Propaganda" just references mass produced media meant to influence or persuade people towards thinking something, nothing more and nothing less.

This tool, like any tool, can be used towards evil means. Info Wars was, unilaterally, white supremacist and xenophobic propaganda for profit. It is understandable that you'd think that this was a win AGAINST propaganda.

But propaganda for good can be made. I've posted this before, but I am a propagandist. That is not a tongue in cheek joke, an exaggeration, or a haughty, up-my-own-ass self assessment from someone who's a little too academically snooty for her own good. I have a large audience which spreads my messages, thus my influence is not insignificant, and my words carry weight. Same can be said for any social media personality you follow. They're called "influencers" because they sway large populations of people.

The reason I consider this a win for Propaganda is because Info Wars and its legacy have been a sizeable cloud polluting the zeitgeist, and with its seizure by what I would consider a GOOD propagandist company (The Onion) there will be a not-insignificant shift in the flow of the current that is online discourse.

And yes, the Onion DOES make propaganda, full stop. Every headline you see from them like "we taught his monkey about the median voter" (note, this is actually from The HARD Times, but same idea. that's also propaganda) or "'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens", that is propaganda with a political message. Presented coyly, but left on the table nonetheless.

Hence, I consider this a win for propaganda.

what was wrong with this guy's parents

9/11 special interest

Some valuable added context

this feels like a setup to a CIA-themed comedy sketch