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copperbadge · 1 year

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Hey Sam! Since it's currently AO3 donation time, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on it? I'm asking because you've written RPF and it's one of many "anti-AO3/anti-AO3 donations" people's favourite things to bring up when they're complaining about AO3 getting so many donations that it continuously obtains an excess of its donation goal whenever donation time rolls around? (Wow, how many times can I say "donation" in an ask?) Sorry if this question bothers you! I don't mean to offend or annoy.

Hey anon! Sorry it took a while to get to this, I don't even know if the drive is still going on, but the question came in while I was traveling and I didn't really have the time for stuff that wasn't travel-related. In any case, let's dig in! (I am not offended, no worries.)

So really there are two issues here and as much as some people who are critical of AO3 want to conflate them, they are different. While some criticism of AO3 may be valid, rhetoric against AO3 tends to misinterpret both in separate ways.

First there's the issue of what AO3 hosts -- RPF, yes, but more broadly, varied content that some people find distasteful or think should be illegal, which is a misunderstanding of the purpose of the archive and more broadly a dangerous attitude towards the concept of freedom of expression.

Second, there's the issue of AO3 generally outpacing its fundraising goals while not allowing monetization, which is a misunderstanding of the legal status of AO3 and to an extent a misunderstanding of philanthropy as a whole.

The longer I watch debates about content go on, the more I come to the conclusion that I was fortunate to have a teacher who really wanted to instill in us an understanding of free speech not as a policy but as an ongoing dialogue. It's not only that freedom of expression "protects you from the government, not the Justin" as the meme goes, but also that freedom of expression is not a static thing. It's an ongoing process of identifying what we find harmful in society and what we want to do about it.

Should the freedom to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater be restricted? Should the freedom to yell slurs at drag performers? Should the freedom to teach prepubescent kids about gender, sexuality, and/or safe sex? Should the freedom to wear a leather puppy hood at Pride? Who gets to say, and why?

I was nine when my teacher did a unit on freedom of speech and the intersection of "harm prevention" and "censorship", which is (and should be) a discussion, not a set of ironclad rules. This ambiguity has thus been with me for over thirty years, and I'm comfortable with the ambiguity, with the process; I'm not sure a lot of people critical of AO3's content truly are. Perhaps some can't be, especially those affected by hate speech, but RPF is not hate speech. It's just fiction. Or is fiction "just fiction"? This is a question society as a whole is grappling with, although fandom seems to be a little out ahead of society in terms of how explicitly we discuss it.

The idea that prose can incite violence or cause harm is both valid to examine (witness the rise of fascism on the radio in the 20s, on Facebook and Twitter in the past ten years; they're very similar processes) and a very slippery slope. Because again: who decides what harm is, and what causes it, and what we do about it? Our values align us with certain beliefs, but those are only our values, not universal truths. So AO3 is part of the ongoing question of harm and benefit both to society and individuals.

AO3 itself, however, has a fairly defined policy that it is not meant to police content; it is an archive, not a bookstore or a school board. AO3 refines its TOS and policies as necessary, but the goal is always open access and as much freedom of expression as possible, and if that's uncomfortable for some people then that's a discussion we have to have; ignoring it won't make it go away. But it has to be a discussion, it can't be a unilateral change to the archive's TOS or a series of snaps and clapbacks, and I don't see a lot of people ready to move beyond flinging insults. Perhaps because they were taught a much more binary view of freedom of expression than I was.

So, self-evidently, I support AO3 and I don't have a problem with RPF. Whether other people do is something we're going to have to get to grips with, and that's likely to be a process that is still going on when most of us are dust. I'd rather have a century of ambiguity than a wrong answer tomorrow, anyway.

But whether AO3 hosts RPF is truly a separate issue from its donation drives, because it's a criticism some people level at the site which exists whether it's fundraising or not. So people can criticize AO3's open policy and they can give it as a reason not to support the site, but it's just one aspect of the archive and the fundraising as a whole should be examined separately.

I think AO3's fundraisers are deeply misunderstood (sometimes on purpose) because even people who are anticapitalist get a little crazy when money gets involved, and this is, to fandom, a lot of money -- a few hundred thousand, reliably, every fundraiser. To me, a fundraiser that pulls in three hundred grand is almost quaint; my current nonprofit pulls in better than ten million a year and my previous employer had an endowment of several billion dollars. At my old job I didn't even bother researching people who couldn't give us a hundred grand.

On the other hand, AO3 is an extreme and astounding outlier in the nonprofit world, because basically it's the only one of its kind to work the way it does. It is entirely volunteer-run on the operational side (ie: tag wranglers, coders, lawyers, etc) and has no fundraising staff (gift officers, researchers, outreach officers) as far as I'm aware. To pull in three hundred grand from individual one-time donations, without any paid staff and without even a volunteer fundraising officer? That's insane. That doesn't happen. Except at AO3.

What people misunderstand, however, is the basic status of a nonprofit, which is a legal status, not simply a social one. (I'm adding in some corrections here since it gets complicated and the terminology can be important!) The Organization for Transformative Works, the parent of AO3, is a nonprofit, which indicates how it was incorporated as an organization; additionally it is registered federally as tax-exempt, which carries certain perks, like not paying sales tax, and certain duties, like making their financials transparent to a certain extent. (Religious nonprofits are exempt from the transparency requirement.) If you're interested in more about nonprofits and tax-exempt status a reader dropped a great article here.

Nonprofits, unlike for-profit companies, cannot pay a share of their income to stakeholders. Nonprofits don't have financial stakeholders, only donors. They can have employees and pay them a salary -- that's me, for example -- but if a nonprofit pulls in $10M in donations, my salary is paid from that, I don't get a percentage and nobody else does either. That's what it means to be a nonprofit -- the money above operational costs goes back into the organization. The donations we (and AO3) receive must be plowed under and used for outreach, server maintenance, further fundraising, services expansion, et cetera. You can see this in the 990 forms on Guidestar or ProPublica, or in their more accessible breakdowns on Charity Navigator. Nonprofits that do not put the majority of their income towards service provision tend to get audited and lose their nonprofit status. So nobody's getting paid from all that money, and the overage that isn't spent goes into what is basically a savings account in the name of the nonprofit. (I'm vastly simplifying but that's the gist.) Using that money for personal purposes is illegal. It's called "private inurement" and there's a good article here about it. The money belongs to the OTW as a concept, not to anyone in or of the OTW.

So the biggest misunderstanding that I see in people who are mad at AO3 fundraisers is that "they" are getting all this money (who "they" are is never clearly stated but I'm pretty sure people think @astolat has a special wifi router that runs on burning hundred dollar bills) while "we" can't monetize our fanfic. But "they" get nothing -- nobody even earns a salary from AO3 -- and you can easily prove that by looking at the 990 forms they file with the government, which are required to be made public. You can see the most recently available 990, from 2020, here at Guidestar. Page seven will show you the "highest compensated" employees, all of whom are earning zero dollars or nonmonetary perks (that's the three columns on the right).

Either AO3 is entirely volunteer-run or someone's Doing A Real Fraud. The money the OTW spends is documented (that's page 10 and 11 primarily) and while they may pay for, say, the travel and lodging expenses of a lawyer going to DC to defend a freedom-of-expression case, they don't pay the lawyer for their time, or give them a cut of the income.

Despite what you've read, the reason "we" can't monetize our fanfics on AO3 has nothing to do with the site being the product of volunteer handiwork or AO3 having it in their terms of service or it being considered gauche by some to do so; it's because

IT'S ILLEGAL.

I cannot say this loudly enough: It is against the law for a nonprofit to be used by its staff, volunteers, or beneficiaries to earn direct profit from the services provided by the nonprofit.

You can be paid to work at one, but you cannot side-hustle by selling your handmade friendship bracelets for personal gain on the nonprofit's website. If the nonprofit knowingly allows monetization of its services, it can lose nonprofit status, be fined, be hit with back taxes, and a lot of other unpleasant bullshit can go down, including prosecution of those involved for fraud. If you put a ko-fi link on your fanfic, you are breaking the law, and if AO3 allows it, they are too.

Okay, that was a sidebar, but in some ways not, because it gets to the heart of the real complaints about AO3 fundraising, which is that people in fandom are sick or unhoused or in some form of need and other people in fandom are giving to AO3, a fan site that is financially stable, instead of giving to peoples' gofundmes or dropping money in their Ko-Fi or Paypal. And while it is a legitimate grievance that there are people who are in such desperate need while we live in an era of unprecedented abundance, that's not AO3's fault. AO3 doesn't solicit actively, there's no unasked-for mailings or calls from a gift officer. They just put a banner up on their website, and people give. (Again, this is incredibly outlier behavior in the nonprofit world, I'd do a case study on it but the conclusion would just be "shit's real, yo.") You might as well be mad that people give to their local food bank instead of someone's ko-fi.

You cannot lay at AO3's feet the fact that people want to give to AO3 instead of to your fundraiser. That's a choice individuals have made, and while you can engage with them in terms of why they made the philanthropic choices they did, to blame an organization they supported rather than the person who made the choice to give is not only incorrect but futile, and unlikely to win anyone over to supporting you. We know from research that guilt is not a tremendous motivator of philanthropy.

It is also not necessarily a binary choice; just because AO3 gets a hundred grand in $5 donations doesn't mean most of the people giving don't also give $5 elsewhere. I support the OTW on occasion, and I also fundraise for UNICEF and the Chicago Parks Foundation and BAGLY and others, in addition to giving monthly to several nonprofits that I have longterm relationships with -- my alma mater, the animal rescue where I got the Cryptids, my shul. And I give, occasionally and anonymously, to fundraisers that pass through Radio Free Monday, which are mainly individuals in need, because I was once in need and now I pay it forward. These are the choices I have made. Nobody twisted my arm. I respond poorly to someone making the attempt to do so by attacking places I've given.

I think the upshot is, after all of this that I've written, that we cannot begin to come to grips with questions of institutional inequality in philanthropy, or freedom of expression and censorship, until people actually understand what's going on, and too few do. So all I can do is try and explain, and hopefully create a forum for people to learn and grow when it comes to charitable giving.

Archive Of Our Own and the Organization for Transformative Works are products of our community and as that community changes, we will necessarily continue to re-evaluate what aspects of it mean and how AO3/OTW express the community sentiment. I hope that the ongoing discussion of support for AO3 also leads to people learning more about their philanthropic options. But criticizing AO3 for fundraising by attacking it for fulfilling one of its stated purposes is silly, and attempting to guilt people into giving in the ways one thinks they should give rather than how they do give is just going to make one extremely unlikable.

As members of this community, we have to be a part of the push and pull, but it's difficult to do that competently in ignorance. So, I do my best to be knowledgeable and to educate my readers, and I hope others will do the same.

#ao3 #otw #nonprofit #fundraisers #ao3 nonprofit #that's my new tag for posts like this #if anyone has any of the earlier posts I've done drop a comment in them so I see the post and can tag it #archive

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fumifooms · 19 days

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I don’t like minimizing the importance and gravity of Laios and Toshiro’s fight into just being a childish squabble, even if to a degree it is framed that way, because to both of them it has a lot of personal significance and emotional weight and runs very deep to their characters… The fight isn’t nothing it’s a LOT, they made up but it’s not something easy to express and to get over for either of them which makes it all the more meaningful! I’m on both sides but there very much are sides, there’s no "they’re both having a ball, Toshiro and Laios hand in hand yay" side to the fight, that comes after

The fight with Toshiro WAS very scary to Laios, almost existentially so, but it’s moreso the "I thought I’d made a friend!!" bit and my god. My god actually

Like it’s not "just" about oh his friend liking him less than he thought, THAT IS SO MUCH. It’s a bond he thought he had being a lie it’s all the time and moments spent together either being a lie from his perspective or marred now looking back. It’s not only being upset at Toshiro for lying but upset at himself that he’s so easy to fool, it’s being upset that there’s something so wrong with you that you can’t even tell if your "close buddy" even actually likes you or not, it’s like. Holding my head. He can’t trust his own vision of events that happened do you see. There’s always this film of distrust that it could be a lie that should be there when he interacts with people there’s always this sense of cloak and dagger to expect backstabs out of nowhere because you CAN’T see it coming you CAN’T you CAN’T there’s something about you which makes it impossible so you CAN’T-

He’s so scared of not being able to read people. He knows it’s a weak spot he has, he’s always known. All of these bits are centered around social expectations and betrayals, the assumption that he doesn’t belong either in society or with other humans.

And Laios’ level of awareness is actually sort of complex to analyze, but it’s there, there’s how out of him and Falin he was the one sensitive to the ~aura of hatred~ he felt from the townspeople, there’s of course his nightmares whispering to him about the mocking looks, and how yeah actually he realizes that his gold stripper coworker was taking advantage of him. There’s of course the Winged Lion speech about his trauma and how he fundamentally mistrusts/dislikes humans to some deep seated degree, this distrust that he still keeps under control always. There’s how pre-canon he often wanted to suggest eating monsters but never worked up the courage to bring it up with the others. There’s how he gets across as stoic when he isn’t being enthusiastic…… We don’t know how aware and wary he is exactly in the moment but we do know he has some anxiety around social stuff, and looking back he does notice and aughh augh, the sense you have to hide yourself to not get hurt and be on your guard and shit and.

When you don’t know what to look out for and when to look out for it, the general ‘common sense’ of not always trusting people or noticing when someone’s messing with you becomes hypervigilance in social settings

"Man they really know what you hate huh". Being socially unaware literally plagues him, he knows, he knows it so well.

It’s so quick that it’s almost hard to digest how literal and blatant Laios summoning his monster to crush all the people who’ve hurt him is. His literal go-to coping mechanism for comfort in his literal monster-induced emotionally intense nightmares, saving him by taking away the upsetting element (the humans)

"Monsters are his coping fantasy, where they can whisk him away from humanity, all the hurt it’s caused him and its arbitrary rules" with the subtlety of a brick. Monsters are his comfort safe zone "because they kill humans" yes but no it’s because he pits them as the guardians against humans who to him are in the role of the agressors. To him they represent freedom from the shackles of what it means to be part of humanity, a fundamentally social species

#Fumi rambles #Was asked to post this but a lot of this is present in my shuro-Laios fight analysis from Laios’ pov #Bite sized fumi #Laios touden #Meta #happy nightmare chapter day #Character analysis #Spoilers #dungeon meshi manga spoilers #And humanity being a social species is ofc ultimately not shown as a negative.#Dunmeshi is about unity and coming together when seeking to understand that which you do not!!!#But yeah like imagine if you will that you can never really trust your own perspective of events because you literally can’t tell #Wether the person likes you or hates you and you just can’t tell. Even when they ARE being obvious about it #The nightmare scene is so real like I def have vivid memories where I’m like ‘Ah yeah they cringed here #that should have been a dead giveaway’. It wears on self-esteem and self-trust. Like “you don’t belong in society” in a way they’re #sorta like factually not wrong and like. Oh ok man. Sitting down #Just spitballing here obvi. Personal experience. Hey did you guys know that dunmeshi is good. Man. It’s good #Dungeon meshi #Analysis #Feeling The Owl House Gus meltdown episode in tha club tonight #Sobbing about how the flashbacks we see of Laios’ childhood are only happy when it centers around Falin or the dogs

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vague-humanoid · 1 month

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A pro-Israel “surveillance network” that has offered bounties for information on pro-Palestinian protesters is establishing a foothold in Australia and claims to have secured meetings with key federal politicians, leaked messages show.

Shirion Collective, which has largely focused on the US and UK, boasts of its ability to scrape digital fingerprints to “aggressively track and expose antisemites”. It is one of a number of groups that have gained prominence on social media during the Israel-Gaza war, publicly naming individuals it accuses of being antisemitic.

Shirion Collective claims it has an AI tool called Maccabee which can identify and track targets.

In one post on X, Shirion outlines a scenario in which the tool creates and releases deepfake videos – falsified content that looks and sounds genuine – to embarrass individuals who take down posters picturing Israeli hostages.

On its X account, Shirion Collective has claimed to offer bounties of US$500 for information on people in videos. In a December post it claimed it would pay up to US$15,000 for “crucial insights” about politicians, US$7,500 for medical doctors and US$250 for students.

Leaked screenshots of Shirion’s Telegram channel, shared with Guardian Australia by the White Rose Society, an anti-fascist researchgroup, show Shirion has become active in Australia, with participants identifying potential targets and boasting of attempts to meet the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, and the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson.

Anonymised Shirion members discussed presenting O’Neil and Paterson with a list of names to ensure they were “brought to justice according to the rule of law”.

“Need help. We managed to get into home affairs calendar, need to come prepared with people with hate speech and names that the government didn’t held [sic] accountable,” one anonymous user said.

“Meeting with Clair [sic] or her stuff [sic] … we also have a meeting with the shadow minister.”

Both O’Neil and Paterson’s offices said they had not met anyone who identified themselves as part of Shirion Collective.

The leaked texts show people on the Shirion channel discussed adding the names of individuals to a “watch list” and mass reporting posts on social media.

Some Australians whose social media accounts were linkedin the channel had shared antisemitic, racist and conspiracy theory content on social media. Others were pro-Palestinian activists who do not appear to have posted or shared antisemitic content.

When contacted via its social media accounts, a Shirion member describing themself as the “social media guy” said the “Ai is a quiet project with an internal team”.

The Shirion member said “bounties were for info and was in the USA not Australia”. The member said Shirion’s Telegram channel was open.

“The telegram [sic] is open and we do a soft verification that people are real. But freedom of speech is welcome there,” the Shirion member said.

The member said they would refer Guardian Australia’s questions to a “commander” but no further response was received.

Shirion Collective is one of several groups that say they track and fight antisemitism, largely through identifying individuals online.

Canary Mission, which has been operating since at least 2015, maintains lists of students, professors and other individuals on its website who it claims “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews”. Another prominent account on X, StopAntisemitism, shares the names and employers or academic institutions of individuals, and often directs its more than 298,000 followers where to make complaints.

The leaked posts from the Shirion Collective Telegram channel point to some publicly available material its contributors regard as antisemitic, but also discuss creating “infiltrator” accounts to view and share material from private Instagram accounts.

In the leaked posts seen by Guardian Australia, contributors do not reveal personally identifiable information about any individual that is not publicly available.

The Shirion Collective account on X/Twitter has identified people it alleges have posted antisemitic material, or statements in support of Hamas, and tagged in their employer or academic institution in the case of students.

Naming someone online is not necessarily illegal, but Michael Bradley, a managing partner at Marque Lawyers, warned there were potential implications depending on the nature of the claims, such as harassment and intimidation or even racial vilification.

“Using social media as a mechanism for coalescing groups that want to engage in doxing activity, it’s obviously extremely powerful,” he said.

Last month, a Sydney resident named Theo had a picture of his house and his street address posted to a Facebook group.

Theo, who asked that his surname not be used, had raised a Palestinian flag and placed a blackboard with messages critical of Israel in front of his Botany home.

Less than two weeks later, a jerry can with rags stuffed into it, a disposable lighter and large bolts were placed on the bonnet of his car with a message that read: “Enough! Take down flag! One chance!!!!”

The incident prompted the deployment of the bomb squad and local police.

The investigation has not been transferred to the counter-terror investigators and remains with local police.

also

@huzni @el-shab-hussein @dirhwangdaseul

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dsybouquet · 5 months

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ceo! ellie - 4

“see the stars, they’re shining bright. everything is alright tonight”

read part 3 here !

ellie woke up by the sound of glasses moving. tiredly, she rolled around, noticing your absence. the light was already beaming in from your bedroom window. how late was it? regardless, ellie got up and made her way down the hallway to meet you in the kitchen.

„morning!“

you smiled, noticeably already running on a cup of coffee. ellie rubber her eyes, groaning a small ‚morning‘ back with her raspy morning voice.

perhaps you had a little heartattack because of how how she manages to sound and look that good while you‘re fumbling around with cups and plates.

„want a coffee?“ you ask while already pouring some in a cup and handing it to her.

ellie, in the meantime, sat down at your kitchen table, watching you clean up your kitchen. she had to admit, you looked adorable while doing so. still in pyjamas, no make up, hair a little messy.. she could get used to that view.

“what time is it?“ she asked after the first few sips of coffee.

you looked at the time on your microwave. „9.45 am“

quickly, ellie pulled out her phone to see if there was anything to be missed. in fact, she had 4 missed calls from dina, 5 from jesse and 1 from an unknown number. she didn’t dare to take a look into her messages app.

„fuck.“, she groaned, letting her head fall into her hands.

“what‘s wrong?“ you asked her, sitting down on the other side of the table.

„work. still have to plan an event.“ her hands still supported her head. truth is, ellie didn’t want to. she hated planing and holding speeches on events. she hated the people acting all nice around her when truth was they despised her for taking over joels work.

you nodded, almost forgetting that ellie wasn’t just a girl, she was a business woman.

“i suppose you need to go soon then?”

“yeah.”

ellie looked up to you, her eyes covered in almost a sad glace. the time she spends with you makes her feel so free, like there isn’t a company to run or an event to plan or an problem to solve. its pure sweet freedom, the one she has been seeking for ages.

“if you need fresh clothes, check my closet. this way you don’t need to drive home first.” you said with the softest smile on your lips. maybe you also just liked the thought of her wearing your stuff although it may not fit her perfectly.

“i would just keep that hoodie on, if you don’t mind, dear?”

“of course not!”

the way the petnames rolled off her lips made you weak in the knees.

no matter how stressed ellie felt, she took her time drinking her coffee, keeping up a conversation with you while doing so. she kindly declined breakfast as she wasn’t the person to eat right after getting up.

slowly, you two got ready for the day. brushing teeth and hair, getting changed. ellie enjoyed the slow morning with you - although she knew dina and jesse would fuck her up for this.

together you walked to the beautiful white bentley outside. in your eyes, ellie looked so adorable. the tailored suit pants paired with your oversized university hoodie. she looked so casual, so suit, no black turtleneck - just a pretty girl that spend the night at someone’s place.

“i’ll text you later, okay? maybe we can grab some food?” she asked as gentle as always, smirking slightly.

“i’d love that.”

ellie knew you’d spend your day with your laptop and books, studying for the upcoming exams. maybe a little dinner date would make you feel better after.

she pulled you in a tight hug, stroking your hair lightly.

“see you later, pretty girl.”

°˖✧✿✧˖°

“what the fuck took you so long?”

dina was pissed, and maybe she was right about it. after all, miller enterprises almost got sued over some stupid agent.

“sorry.” ellie groaned in return, letting herself drop onto her leather office chair.

rolling her eyes to the back of her head dina called jesse and a few more members of the team to meet in ellies office.

“everything is set. while you were gone enjoying youself, we organised an event hall and a catering service.” jesse explained, putting some contacts and sheets of paper on ellies desk.

“invitations have been sent, celebrities and influencers as well as important business people have been invited. the charity event, as per wish of the andersons, will be dedicated to the saint mary hospital. helping finding a cure for terminal child illnesses.” dina continued, catching ellies attention.

“this is a lovely topic. helping research for kids that need it.. very well done, team.” she admitted, signing the checks that were in between the paper stack jesse put infront of her.

everybody stood around her desk, watching her silently, waiting for an objection or something to change. to their surprise, ellie was calm. soft tempered, reading through every detail.

“next friday?” she then asked, looking up at everybody.

“yessir.”

“fine. we can get everything done by then.”

they kept on discussing business manner some of the lower tier agents for organisations didn’t understand. after all some were too stunned by the fact that they were standing in their ceos office.

“everyone aware of what to do? are we all aligned?”

everybody nooded. some ‘aye sir’ and ‘yes ma’am’ coming from different corners. ellie took that as a clear yes.

“i expect a perfect event. i shall keep my eyes on your hands while doing so. if you need anything, be it budget or approval, send it to your team leader or to jesse to let me sign it, all clear?”

again, nodding and silent approvals.

ellie grinned, sometimes she loved the power.

“you’re all dismissed then.”

everybody, except for dina and jesse, left her office. ellie wished her friends left too. she wasn’t ready for tales about how she was irresponsible by being inactive and not checking her phone.

“didn’t know you went to university?” dina joked, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed. “another girl to play and show off with? is it that bartender girl?”

this woman knew how to piss ellie off. she rolled her eyes and got out of her comfortable leather seat.

“first of all, thats none of your business, dina. i didn’t say a word about you and jesse as well.”

“well you just di-“

“jesse, not know!”

jesse laughed demonically, knowing his jokes can be quite a bit.

“and second of all, i am always on top of everything. once i sleep in you act like my fucking mother!”

“didn’t you wish for one?”

if dina wasn’t her best friend, ellie would’ve grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall. it was a button you shouldn’t be pushing when talking to ellie. she was quite reserved about her past, about everything before joel.

„dina that’s enough!“ jesse threw in, getting in between the women.

„i‘ll send you approved contracts to sign.“ dina added before leaving the office.

ellie felt defeated and just looked at jesse.

„can you like leave too? i got work to do.“

„if you need anything let me know.“

„i won‘t but thanks, jesse.“

and so he left her in her huge office by herself. a huge groan left her throat before she activated her coffee machine for another cup. ellie light a cigarette and sat down at her desk. dina always had to pull the family card, opening old wounds that haven’t properly healed inside of ellie yet. there was no time to heal when you had a company to run.

she did her paperwork, read the contacts dina mailed her and approved or declined them. she took boring business calls and attended meetings with the top tier managers.

finally she called it a day and called you on her way to her car.

„hey ellie!“ you sweet voice light up her moof immediately.

“hey dear, can i come pick you up?”

oh, how you hoped she wouldn’t hear your smile in your voice.

“of course ! didnt finish studying yet but it can wait.”

ellie made her way to the garage of the office building, still having you on the phone.

“alright, i will be there in 20!”

°˖✧✿✧˖°

and she was. perhaps your were already waiting outside, wearing your favourite skirt paired with a hoodie and leather jacket, heeled boots underneath.

“hey.” again, she pulled you in a soft hug after getting out of her bentley before opening the door for you to get in.

“so, where are we going?”

“my apartment. im not feeling many people in a restaurant right now.”

you nodded, understanding the burden of work and after studying for what felt like ages, you were happy to not have dinner in a restaurant.

ellie drove off your street, 80s rock playing again. the sun was already down due to the winter nights. still, her car and her aura was so warm.

she stopped in front of an huge building that looked way to expensive to be an apartment building. pressing a little button on a remote control in her car, the doors to an underground garage opened. being an student that’s hardly living on budget, you were stunned.

and before you could notice, you stood in an elevator driving to the top floor of the apartment. the doors opened, and in front of you was probably the most gorgeous apartment you’ve ever seen. plants, led lights and lamp, nerdy posters and figures.

“welcome to my place.”

you were a hooked by the view from the enormous windows all around you. the skyline of the town was beautiful.

she helped you take off your jacket and put it on the hanger - as gentle as always. “thank you.” you smiled.

she showed you around. showing you her kitchen which was an dream, her two bathrooms that were so huge and beautiful, her living room, her bedroom and office. this apartment was an absolute dream. all black and white furniture, color coming from plants and posters.

“ellie this is an insane place.”

“took me a good while to get it like this, thank you.”

she smiled before getting wine glasses and a bottle of way too expensive looking wine.

“i was thinking about ordering pizza, im not a good cook unfortunately.”

“i would love that.”

and so you ordered pizza and drank way too expensive wine, talking, smoking cigarettes and maybe a little bit of weed too. you never felt so full filed in your life - neither did ellie.

“______?”

“hm?” you replied, looking up and taking a sip of the wine. ellie adored the way you look, slightly drunk, eyes full of life. how she wanted to have you for herself, but you hardly have entered the talking stage, did you?

by staring at your pretty eyes, she forgot what to say.

“ellie?” you laughed, putting her back to reality.

“uh yeah ! i wanted to ask uhm.. my company is having a charity event next friday and aah if you’re free, i’d love to have you coming alongsides me.”

you smiled, moving slightly closer to her.

“so like your date?”

ellie started blushing, but hid it well.

“if you wanna call it that.” she smiled in return, ignoring the fact that she was starting to get shy by your energy. the tension was think enough to be cut with a knife. god, you wanted to kiss her right in that spot.

“i’d love to.” you said, close enough for her to grab your face and kiss you. but she didn’t, not yet.

°˖✧✿✧˖°

and with that, merry christmas my loves ! sorry for taking ages. this is not proof read so if anything doesnt make sense, mind i wrote this in the middle of my christmas stress and cooking etc. anyways, one more part is yet to come. <3

love, daisy xx

taglist: @harrysslutsstuff @vwonnie @mikaaj @elliewilliamsgf69 @weridcattty @feelsoseencantdream @honeymoonbbie @katymae12344 @aouiaa @bbglmfao @crxmxnzl-c0rpzes @nakimushiohime @p4ison1vy @keilyskei @angelicagellyka @kerst666 @littlegingerperson

#ceo ! ellie #ellie williams tlou #tlou ellie #ellie williams #ellie the last of us #ellie tlou #ellie tlou2 #ellie williams x reader #ellie x fem reader #ellie williams the last of us #ellie williams fluff

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kittyball23 · 6 months

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Visitor (a Trolls fanfic)

Summary: A month after his imprisonment, Veneer is paid a visit from someone he didn’t think he’d ever see again

__________________________________________

“Aw, no…”

Veneer moaned to himself, slumping down on his cot and facepalming in dismay. He was so not in the mood for this. He never was. And today it was hitting especially hard. Maybe because it had been exactly a month since his incarceration. Maybe because his attempt to speak to his sister had resulted in the throbbing pain that plagued his left cheek. Or maybe because of the haranguing speech that he knew awaited him once he left his cell.

He peeked a glance at the guard awaiting him, arms crossed and eyebrow raised as if to say “Well? Are you coming or not? You may have all day, but not everybody else does!” They were usually stoic, poker-faced, and unsympathetic towards inmates’ desires. Rightly so. Much of the prisoners were delinquents who, if shown even an ounce of freedom, would take it to the extreme. His own sister had learned the hard way when her request to have the ankle chain removed from her leg was surprisingly granted. The teen was quick to make a run for it, but even quicker to have been thwarted by the security. Veneer hadn't really seen Velvet around since, but from what he heard, she was taken into solitary confinement.

That was why he had made it his mission to be on his very best behavior. He'd speak when spoken to, eat the entire tray of slop that they called “food,” and hit the hay as soon as lights out was called. He never looked for fights or started any, and mostly kept to himself. So maybe, just maaaybe, if he asked really nicely, he could get out of this.

“Say, you know what? I'm not really sure if I can do this. You think maybe we could pick some other time?” Veneer grinned, hoping he looked and sounded polite.

But the guard was unmoved. "NO.”

“But… I'm really not feeling well!” It was a little true. Veneer's stomach was churning at the thought of leaving his cell for what was intended for him. In a desperate attempt, he clasped his hands together, stuck his bottom lip out in a pout and made his eyes big. “Pretty pleeeease?”

The guard had an unreadable expression for a moment, before he raised his walkie talkie up to his mouth to speak. “Increase the prison sentence for inmate number 8231978.”

Veneer dropped and act and gasped. “What? No! Okay, alright, I'll come!”

The guard humphed, unlocking the cell door so the teen could exit. With cuffs secured to his hands and an ankle chain to his left leg, the guard guided Veneer down the hallway.

The former Pop-star suppressed a groan and kept his eyes fixed to the ground. This was one of the parts he hated about this. The ‘Walk of Shame.’ The glares he'd receive. The jeers sent his way. Veneer wished he could burrow himself in the ground if it meant he didn't have to see the dirty looks being cast at him. And if looks could kill… Veneer shuddered to think that he'd probably be dead many times over.

Among other treacherous felonies, it seemed Mount Rageons truly despised frauds. Veneer supposed he understood why. It broke a golden value that was very challenging to win back - trust. He needn't look any further for an example of that, not only with what he and his sister had done, but also for his own sentiments towards her now. The resentment over Velvet’s manipulation… and the painful sorrow he felt in his heart at her stubbornness in refusing to ever speak to him again.

He focused on the sound of the clinking chain rather than the colorful words of the other inmates, and felt only a fraction of relief once he was out of that hallway and brought into the next room over. Veneer stared at the familiar tile flooring beneath his feet. It was perhaps slightly more welcoming in sight than the cell units, for its brighter lights and fresher smell. But that's where the welcome wore out. So far, this room hadn't been a place of positivity for him.

Veneer lifted his head slightly to assess the scene today. The booths were not as busy as it could be, which he was silently grateful for. The less folks to see him, the better. Inmates, all donning the same shabby orange jumpsuit he had on, were seated at them and already engaged in their own conversations with the recipients on the other end of the glass that separated them. He heard snippets of the chatting as he passed by.

“Six more months in the brig, can you believe it? Six months! I'll be old and wrinkled by then - “

“ - and you can't even tell the difference between the chicken and the broccoli sometimes. Ugh, it's awful! How can that even be allowed? That should be a crime!”

“Friends? In prison? Pfft, come on, dude! This isn't gradeschool - “

Veneer attempted to swallow down the lump in his throat, and thought about who his visitor would be this time around. Maybe it was a Mount Rageon, reminding him of how they used to be a fan of his music until he turned out to be a phony, while he sat, quietly mumbling an “I'm sorry” that fell deaf upon their ears. Or, they could whisper about how they still liked him, and believed that the whole Troll-talent thing was an elaborate hoax to spice up the drama. Veneer hated that scenario more than the first, and he would get frustrated in explaining that his jail-time was deserved. Or maybe still, it could be his parents, there to chew him out and express their disappointment in him and his sister. The first time they'd come, Veneer had easily taken the verbal beating, but Velvet only had her anger spiked. He shuddered remembering the way she'd spewed a string of obscenities so foul, even a sailor would be put to shame.

Veneer didn’t dare look up to see who it was at the booth when the guard told him to be seated. He just picked up the phone, and tried to sound somewhat alive as he mumbled into it.

“Hello?”

“It isn't as hip as your old pad, but at least it's something, huh?”

Veneer gasped, recognizing the serene voice at once, and whipped his head up. “Floyd?”

Sure enough, it was the teal Troll speaking into the phone’s receiver. When Floyd offered a gentle smile, Veneer couldn’t help grinning back. Floyd had that effect on folks, it seemed, one of shining positivity even in the darkest times. But that grin disappeared when he caught sight of the Troll’s hair, a rich sweep of magenta… save for the significant white streaks that ran through it. Ones that had been caused by Veneer’s own doing. The guilt bit at him, and the teen suddenly didn’t feel comfort in his unexpected presence. “Floyd, what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean? I came to see you,” he answered simply.

“Why?” Veneer asked, flailing his arms in a baffled manner. “If I were you, I’d be the last person I’d wanna see!” It was only when the guard standing at the far end of the room had shot him a warning look that Veneer realized his outburst had been too loud, and he toned it down.

“That’s not true, Veneer,” Floyd said, and then he smirked. “I’d say your sister wins in that category, wouldn’t you?”

Veneer had to chuckle at that. “Yeah, you are so not wrong there.”

Floyd laughed a little, too, and then spoke again. “But even then, I’m still gonna try to talk to her at some point, too.”

“Good luck with that,” the former Pop-star scoffed. “Anytime I’ve tried to talk to her, it just ends like this.” He turned his face to the side a little so Floyd could see the ugly purplish bruise that was his left cheek.

The Troll winced. “Ouch.”

“Ouch is right,” Veneer whimpered, gently touching the injury in hopes that perhaps it didn’t throb as much. Nope. Still did. He pinched the bridge of his nose and gave an exasperated groan, unable to contain it in him anymore. “So much for my sister not treating me like garbage. This has literally been the worst month of my life! Vel’s never gonna talk to me again. This uniform stinks! And you can only chop so many rocks before it starts to get to your head…” He huffed and heaved a sigh. “You’re SO lucky you don’t ever have to go through something like this. You’ve probably never done one bad thing in your life!”

Veneer expected him to agree right away, but became curious at Floyd’s silence, and the shamed look accompanying it. “Don’t be so sure.”

The teen cocked his head. “Wha?”

The Troll nodded. “I did something twenty years ago that I regret to this very day.”

“Geez,” Veneer said, considering the amount of time. He was hardly twenty years of age himself! “What happened?”

“I abandoned my baby brother. I promised I’d come back, but I never did…” Floyd’s voice got quieter as he continued to explain. “Turned out he wasn’t as well off as I thought he’d be. Our Grandma died, and there wasn’t anybody else to take care of him.”

Veneer winced. “Oof. Sounds rough.”

“Believe me, he let me know,” Floyd confirmed. “He was pretty upset. But then do you know what happened?”

“What?”

“He forgave me. Sure, it’s gonna take some time to heal the hurt of the past, but we know we can do it. And I'm confident that you and Velvet can do it, too.”

But Veneer disagreed. “How can you say that?” he blurted. “You’ve seen Vel. You’ll have better luck talking to a brick wall! It’s hopeless!”

Floyd paused for a moment, considering his next words. “You know, I felt pretty hopeless inside that diamond. You seemed pretty in love with all that fame and money, and whatever other ‘bling-a-ding’ you had…”

“Don’t remind me,” the teen whimpered, embarrassed for the selfish behavior he’d exhibited.

“And yet, you listened to me… didn’t you?”

“Yeah…” he replied warily.

“Then I trust Velvet can with you.”

“But you don’t understand!” Veneer cried. “Vel and I aren’t the same! Well… not entirely,” he amended, recalling how he and she hadn't been so different when it came to their desires for fame and fortune. “Just because I listened doesn’t mean Velvet will. That part of her that would listen has been long gone.”

Floyd cocked his head. “What part?” he pressed.

“Oh, you know,” Veneer went on, “the part that liked to make up bad dances, and didn’t care if we sang off key, as long as we were having fun.”

“Ohh,” The Troll said, nodding in understanding. “But you never know. That part of her could still exist.”

Veneer gave a dry laugh. “Yeah right.”

“I’m serious,” Floyd said. “She’s still there. You just gotta help her find it again.”

The teen eyed the Troll. “You really, truly think that’s possible?”

“Cross my heart, hope to die.”

“Let’s hope not,” Veneer said, feeling a shudder go down his spine as he remembered the way the Troll had gone transparent and nearly succumbed to death. But then he thought about what the magenta Troll said. Velvet being that sister she once was? It would be wonderful. “I guess she's been a diva for so long, I never thought it'd be possible for her to change…”

“It is,” Floyd assured with a smile. “It really is.”

Suddenly, a ping resounded, and he looked down at the bracelet on his wrist and gasped. “Oh! I promised my brothers I’d be only fifteen minutes. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have even let me come. They’re outside waiting for me. I’m sorry.”

Veneer nodded. “It’s all right, I understand. You don’t have to apologize.”

“Thanks. It was nice talking to you,” Floyd said sincerely. “Ooo, and make sure you check the mail! The letter I sent should have arrived today.”

Veneer nodded again. “Oh! Okay, I will. And it was nice talking to you, too!”

Floyd smiled, and was about to head off, when Veneer stopped him. “Wait! I, um… do you have a quick second? I've been working on something… I was kinda hoping you might wanna hear it?”

As Floyd glanced at him expectantly, Veneer cleared his throat, suddenly second-guessing himself. What if he sounded awful? What if Floyd laughed at him? Regardless, he’d already stopped him, so he had to follow through. The song flowed out of him softly at first, his voice cracking a couple of times and making him inwardly cringe. But soon his voice became stronger, the notes rich and beautiful. When Veneer was done, he was met not only by applause from Floyd, but from the other inmates and recipients at the booths as well! He blushed as Floyd offered his compliments.

“That was great!”

“And I swear it was all me,” Veneer hurriedly explained. “No talent-stealing here!”

Floyd chuckled. “That’s good. You really do have some real talent.”

Veneer shrugged. “Guess I just had to work hard at it.”

Floyd gave him a thumbs up. “Right.” Then he turned to go. “I’ll see you around, Veneer.”

The Troll waved, and he waved back. A sense of uplifting filled Veneer. He was in slightly better spirits than he had anticipated himself to feel, and was glad for it. On his way back to the cell, he questioned the guard on any mail delivery for him, and true to Floyd’s word, one letter, sealed with the BroZone lightning emblem, was awaiting him.

Veneer didn’t waste a minute as he tore open the envelope and began to read:

Veneer,

It’s amazing how time passes by so quickly. I can hardly believe it’s already been a month’s time since the incident, of which I don’t believe you need me to mention for you to know what I’m talking about. But, I AM going to mention it anyhow, as it was an experience which has produced great effect. I also see this as an opportunity to debunk or confirm any assumptions you may have regarding me on the matter.

Spending two months encased within a small, and rather uncomfortable diamond imprisonment was, to put it bluntly, an awful experience for me to have undergone, as I’m sure you can imagine. I can’t lie there, or try to sugarcoat anything. Matters were not helped when you were under the impression that this was a necessary thing to do. But shortcuts can sometimes be more ‘cut’ than ‘short,’ as came to be you and your sister’s case. But this is not to say that cuts can’t heal. With time and learning they can, and from there, things are bound to get better.

In the same manner that everyone deserves to be treated kindly, everyone also deserves a second chance. I can’t say that the first impression you left of me was a good one, but have an inkling that my sentiments will change in the near future. Know that you are forgiven for your actions, so long as you understand where your mistakes were, and so long as you have learned from it. I know I can’t make you heed to any advice that I or anybody else may give you, though I strongly recommend taking it, for your own benefit.

I have been on my way to recovery from everything, and am living with my brothers. If you are interested, I can speak to the prison management team and see if we could get you work release at my older brother’s cantina. It’s on a beautiful little island that I think you will find quite becoming (plus, it has a karaoke stage!)

By this point, I would imagine that we would have already spoken to each other, and, should the conversation have gone the way I envisioned, I believe that we can likely look forward to speaking again.

Your friend,

Floyd

P.S. If you choose to respond to this letter, send it out attached with the postcard in the envelope. Trust me, it will get there :)

Veneer wondered what he meant by that last part, and soon understood when he pulled out the said postcard - with no return address or sender information. But, he shrugged it off. If Floyd had said it would get there, then surely it would get there! And so, Veneer got to work composing a return letter, finishing it with just a few seconds to spare before lights out. The letter looked something like this:

Floyd,

It was unexpected seeing you today. If I was in your place, I would have just moved on with my life and not looked back - especially at the guys who captured me. I want you to know that I am very, VERY sorry for what I did to you and regret it very much. You can take my word that I will never do something like that again to anybody. I was too afraid to say anything about it to my sister before, but now she knows where I stand on this. I hope you’re right and that she will come around one day…

I’m glad to hear that you are recovering and hope that you continue to regain your health. I think that work release idea sounds great! (Although, I’ve never been to an island before… do you mind telling me a little bit about what it’s like?)

I was afraid to talk to you at first, but I actually did like the turnout of it and, if you have any time to spare in the future, I really would like for us to talk again!

Sincerely,

Veneer

P.S. Gonna try and have the full version of that song ready by the time you come back :)

__________________________________________ A/N: I like the idea of Floyd and Veneer becoming friends after the whole ordeal

#trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #floyd trolls #veneer trolls #velvet trolls #velvet and veneer #branch trolls #dreamworks #fanfiction #kittyball writes #brodacious fanfiction #100+

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eretzyisrael · 5 months

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Israel’s Enemies Tell Five Big Lies

Following the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, antisemites mount a series of vicious attacks, threats and malicious lies against Jews and Israel

With no shame or sign of humanity, the enemies of Israel have doubled down on their insistence that Israel is an illegitimate state that must be destroyed and that the savage slaughter of 1,200 innocent Jews was justified—all based on five “Big Lies” about the Jewish state.

What are the facts?

The world for Jews and Israel will never be the same. Wellesley College students receive official messages saying Zionists (i.e. most Jewish students) are not welcome in the school’s dorms. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad in a TV rant swears Hamas will repeat October 7 over and over until Israel is annihilated. West Bank Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi says “What Hitler did to you was a joke—we will drink your blood and eat your skull.”

While Hamas’s October 7 atrocity shattered the hope of many Palestinian supporters, causing them to rethink their positions, the event only ignited an explosion of hate from other of Israel’s enemies. Tens of thousands of demonstrators made clear they no longer support two states living side by side in peace. Rather they demand “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free . . . by any means necessary”—meaning, clearly, slaughter of civilians.

Power of Big Lies: Though Israel was the victim of a mass murder of innocent Jews, its enemies blame the Jewish state—not only for the Hamas massacre, but also for responding in defense. The reasons many blame Israel for the atrocity are based on five Big Lies. Big Lies were used by Nazi leader Goebbels, who noted that if he told an outrageous lie often enough, people would begin to believe it. Alternatively, if you use truth as a basis for your judgments, you may these facts useful:

Lie #1: Israel is a colonial state that stole Palestinian land. A colonizer is a foreign nation that conquers and exploits another nation. First, the Palestinians have never controlled any land in Palestine: They were also never a nation. Nothing was stolen. Second, Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel. They have lived there continuously for 3,000 years and had two commonwealths for over 1,000 years: They are not foreigners. No colonial state.

Lie #2: Israel commits genocide. Genocide is the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members. Israel does not, nor has ever, targeted innocent Palestinian civilians for killing—no mass murders, no pogroms. All Palestinian civilian deaths have occurred as collateral damage while fighting terrorists who hide in residential or other public areas. Tellingly, the population in in and around Israel has mushroomed since Israel’s founding in 1948—from about 700,000 to seven million today: Zero genocide.

Lie #3: Israel practices apartheid. Apartheid is a system of legalized racial segregation in which one racial group is deprived of political and civil rights. Israel has no laws or policies separating or limiting the rights of any of its citizens—including two million Arab-Israeli citizens—nor any Palestinians outside Israel. Political and civil rights of all Palestinians outside Israel are controlled by their respective dictatorships, who allow virtually no freedoms, such as speech or the vote. No apartheid.

Lie #4: Israel is committing war crimes. War crimes include torture, hostage taking, acts of terrorism, rape and intentional targeting of civilians. While Hamas committed all these acts on October 7, Israel commits none. Though some media bristle at what they consider excessive civilian deaths during Israeli military efforts, in fact, Israel attacks only military structures and personnel—never civilian-only targets. Unfortunately, Hamas places its fighters in dense residential areas or in tunnels beneath them, endangering civilians. No Israeli war crimes.

Lie #5: Israel brutally oppresses the Palestinians daily. Oppression is the malicious exercise of power to discriminate against some groups. Because Israel completely exited Gaza in 2005, it has no power over of the daily lives of Gazans. However, because of Hamas’s continuous terror, especially efforts to kill Jews and destroy the Jewish state, Israel and Egypt have placed Gaza under a strict blockade to prevent terror attacks. Likewise, because of the Oslo Accords, Israel and the Palestinian Authority share governance of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Thus, Israel plays virtually no role governing Palestinians daily lives and only enters Palestinian-controlled areas when terrorists flee to and hide in them. No oppression.

Above all, Israel and the U.N. have made numerous offers of land for an independent Palestinian state. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have turned down five offers of land for peace since 1948, three of them over the last 23 years. Apparently, their dream of conquering Israel “from the land to the sea” is more important.

The bestiality of the October 7 massacre shocked us—beheadings, incineration, rape, torture, heartless executions, brutal kidnappings. Even worse, the gates have opened to unlimited Jew hatred on American streets and campuses—to condoning savagery with the excuse of Palestinian liberation . . . based on utter lies about the Jewish state. But Hamas and the haters should know that “Never Again,” means fighting and defeating evil forever.

#big lies #israel's enemies #israel #hamas #gaza

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matan4il · 3 months

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Daily update post:

I don't have an online source yet other than a tweet in Hebrew, but I heard a report about at least two Hamas divers who tried to invade Israel through the sea. The threat has been neutralized, but this shows once again, that as long as Hamas exists, the civilians in southern Israel are NOT safe. That's along with Hamas still firing rockets at Israeli civilians whenever they can.

This morning also saw another independent Palestinian terrorist attack, this time on one of the major roads leading into Jerusalem. Two Israelis have been stabbed and injured, a 25 years old man, and a 19 or 20 years old woman (I heard contradicting reports, so I'm citing both options). The terrorist was 15 years old, and has been neutralized. He reached the scene of the attack riding on electric bicycles. Just a reminder, inciting and recruiting a teenager to carry out a terrorist attack is morally wrong, if not downright criminal, and it should be where everyone's ire is directed.

The IDF has confirmed that it has killed a Hamas leader in Lebanon, Mustafa Hadi. He was in charge, among other things, of promoting terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets outside of Israel.

I've heard a journalist saying that there are enough aid trucks entering Gaza, the issue is that Hamas is confiscating about 60% of the humanitarian aid brought in. The info is confirmed in this article, about a new pilot the IDF is trying, to try and bypass Hamas. If the last attempt (which backfired) was to bring aid in from the south, and the IDF would secure it as it's transferred to the north (instead of handing it to local elements for the transfer), now they're going to check the trucks in the south, but bring them into Gaza directly in its northern part.

I've already expressed my POV about what is probably the worst speech given at the Oscars this year, maybe ever. Now, the Holocaust Survivors' Foundation has denounced the Holocaust-hijacking, anti-Israel speech at the Oscars as "factually incorrect and morally indefensible." The ADL sent out the same message.

I've already pointed out that the absolute majority of survivors were and are Zionist (as were many of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust), but I think it really matters that the survivors who are still around are using their own voices to speak out against this distorted narrative. Will this director and others like him, who have hijacked the Holocaust for their political messages, actually listen and apologize? I kind of doubt it. Holocaust survivors are to be listened to! ...But only if they're one of the 5 or so who hate Israel.

And while we're at it, it should also be mentioned that the red hand pin that many stars wore at awards ceremonies this year stems from a symbol featured in many anti-Israel protests, leading back to the 2000 brutal lynching and murder of two Israelis who took a wrong turn into the Palestinian city of Ramallah. I think it says a lot in itself, that Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular SAFELY walk around Jewish majority Israeli cities every day, or live in them, but Jews have to fear for their lives when they enter, even accidentally, Arab areas that have been ethnically cleansed of Jews. Regarding the red hand symbol, I'm not saying that every person using it fully understands its origin, that it became a feature of anti-Israel demonstrations only after the lynching, it was never spotted at them before that, it became a prominent feature of the Second Intifada (2000-2005), I'm also not saying this is the only use of a red hand as a protest symbol ever, so people who saw the pin would have easily been unaware of its origin in this context. But it feels like another sign of the same problem: people are ignorant about this conflict, yet they allow themselves the freedom to talk about it, or use its symbols and terms, without truly understanding them, and without seeming to care about the consequences. It's a bit like someone who might have watched Dukes of Hazard, and started wearing a pin of the Confederate flag, initially not knowing (but later also not showing any care for) why this would hurt the feelings of many African Americans.

Here's another reminder from November 2023, that informed people knowing about the origin of this symbol pre-dates the Oscars:

BTW, I should probably mention that the Italian press crew, which documented the lynching and the proudly presented bloodied hands of one murderer, shared the footage despite threats to their lives from Palestinians (while another Italian film crew threw that one under the bus, promising that their TV station abides by the rules of the Palestinian Authority, implying they comply with the PA's censorship of Palestinian-committed violence). An American news team from ABC, was attacked and prevented from documenting the lynching. A British photojournalist, Mark Seager, who tried to document the lynching as well, was attacked by Palestinians, his equipment was destroyed, and he said he would have nightmares for the rest of his life. Back in 2009, Fatah (the ruling party of the PA) used the lynching to claim they were more deadly towards Israelis than Hamas. ANYONE who lived through this, as many Israelis and Jews did, or even just heard about it growing up, would not easily forget the symbolism of the red hand in this context.

This is 13 years old Mai Zuheir abu Subeich.

She was an Israeli Arab Muslim Bedouine. She excelled as a student, and dreamed of being an English teacher. Family members say she was even already teaching her siblings and cousins. On Oct 7, she was killed when a Palestinian rocket from Gaza hit her home, in the Negev desert. This Ramadan, as IDF soldiers continue to fight in Gaza, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bedouins and Druze, please remember they're fighting to keep the Muslim citizens of Israel safe from Hamas, too.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish #israelunderattack

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aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman · 20 days

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Some of my fave religious-themed movies in which God provides the protagonist with divine spiritual revelations through his wisdom!

Last Temptation is controversial because it’s perceived as blasphemous, but I appreciate how it humanized and presented a different side of Christ. I really wanted to hate the Passion of the Christ because of its gory infamy, but it actually had me shook and helped me comprehend the real, raw pain of Christ’s crucifixion. And The Passion of Joan of Arc is absolutely gut wrenching as her life and trial also unfolded in a Christ-like manner as well.

The Ten Commandments, The Robe, and Ben Hur all speak to my love of biblical epics, as they beautifully illustrate parts of the New and Old Testament. Lion of the Desert and Malcolm X both show the power of Islam in strengthening the individual and giving him limitless power through belief in Allah.

As for the Holy Mountain and Siddhartha… they’re actually more like new age/shamanic/mysticism, as I think both Hesse and Jodorowsky have ambivalent and atheistic views towards organized religion. Yet they’re on the list because at least they tried to invoke something higher lol!

In compiling this list, I found that actual religious movies of substance are so rare?? And I don’t mean bad Protestant Lifetimes movies lmao. Like there are tons of movies criticizing religion, which is of course part of freedom of speech, but why so much venality in the film industry towards religion?

Whereas in the art and music world, religion plays a massive role. So it’s interesting to ask that question and to try and uncover cinema that actually affirms and strengthens one’s faith instead of just brewing doubt, ridicule and antipathy towards any sense of spirituality and worship.

#film #religion

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slavicbee · 13 days

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This whole situation with Fico is so bizzare to me. While I do not want him to die, he sort of put this on himself with the way he’s been putting blame on anybody but himself. And he had it coming, whether we like it or not.

No person in the Slovak politics is as divisive as he is. Some people blindly worship the ground he walks on, some people relentlessly criticise him, and some people downright hate his guts. True, I have my own grievances with him, and I’d rather not have him anywhere near the amount of power he has. But he does. And he’s been shot.

The repercussions of this are potentially very severe. His already unreasonably high animosity towards the freedom of speech will worsen and the coalition, which, let’s not lie to ourselves, is extremely conservative, corrupt and prone to power trips, can and already is blaming the press, the independent journalists, and the liberal opposition.

They do not see that no normal representative member of the opposition, which is already trying to do everything in its power to gain the trust of the conservative public, would stoop this low, and that a move like this could cost them any ounce of following they have. They do not care. They will say anything, do anything, to push their propaganda to make themselves the victims.

The attack on Fico is a symptom of a larger issue. The parliament had already crumbled under its own pressure before, back when Matovič was the PM. With a historical event like this, I can see it crumbling again, and harder. This government is such a mess that I cannot see it surviving in any productive, healthy way.

At least for the moment, the world is watching. It may not give a shit, we rarely make the international news as it is, but at least for this brief moment, the world has its eyes on us. The government needs to realize that Slovakia is not a closed circle, and that we are a part of a larger picture, and that we are responsible for our future, that they are inscribing themselves into history books, culturing this hostile environment in which the ordinary citizen has to live.

I already predicted that things will get much worse before they get better. I will not be surprised if this is just the beginning.

#ťumbľr #slovakia #Robert Fico #assassination attempt

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odinsblog · 28 days

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Dear President Shafik,

We write as Jewish faculty of Columbia and Barnard in anticipation of your appearance before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, where you are expected to answer questions about antisemitism on campus. Based on the committee’s previous hearings, we are gravely concerned about the false narratives that frame these proceedings to entrap witnesses. We urge you, as the University president, to defend our shared commitment to universities as sites of learning, critical thinking, and knowledge production against this new McCarthyism.

Rather than being concerned with the safety and well-being of Jewish students on campuses, the committee is leveraging antisemitism in a wider effort to caricature and demonize universities as hotbeds of “woke indoctrination.” Its opportunistic use of antisemitism in a moment of crisis is expanding and strengthening longstanding efforts to undermine educational institutions. After launching attacks on public universities from Florida to South Dakota, this campaign has opened a new front against private institutions.

The prospect of Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of congress with a history of espousing white nationalist politics, calling university presidents to account for alleged antisemitism on their campuses reveals these proceedings as disingenuous political theater.

In the face of these coordinated attacks on higher education, universities must insist on their freedom to research and teach inconvenient truths. This includes historical injustices and the contemporary structures that perpetuate them, regardless of whether these facts are politically inexpedient for certain interest groups.

To be sure, antisemitism is a grave concern that should be scrutinized alongside racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and all other forms of hate. These hateful ideologies exist everywhere and we would be ignorant to believe that they don’t exist at Columbia. When antisemitism rears its head, it should be swiftly denounced, and its perpetrators held to account. However, it is absurd to claim that antisemitism—“discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews,” according to the Jerusalem Declaration’s definition—is rampant on Columbia’s campus. To argue that taking a stand against Israel’s war on Gaza is antisemitic is to pervert the meaning of the term.

Labeling pro-Palestinian expression as anti-Jewish hate speech requires a dangerous and false conflation of Zionism with Jewishness, of political ideology with identity. This conflation betrays a woefully inaccurate understanding—and disingenuous misrepresentation—of Jewish history, identity, and politics. It erases more than a century of debates among Jews themselves about the nature of a Jewish homeland in the biblical Land of Israel, including Israel’s status as a Jewish nation-state. It dismisses the experiences of the post-Zionist, non-Zionist, and anti-Zionist Jews who work, study, and live on our campus.

The political passions that arise from conflict in the Middle East may deeply unsettle students, faculty, and staff with opposing views. But feeling uncomfortable is not the same thing as being threatened or discriminated against. Free expression, which is fundamental to both academic inquiry and democracy, necessarily entails exposure to views that may be deeply disconcerting. We can support students who feel real and valid discomfort toward protests advocating for Palestinian liberation while also stating clearly and firmly that this discomfort is not an issue of safety.

As faculty, we dedicate ourselves and our classrooms to keeping every student safe from real harm, harassment, and discrimination. We commit to helping them learn to experience discomfort and even confrontation as part of the process of skill and knowledge acquisition—and to help them realize that ideas we oppose can be contested without being suppressed.

By exacting discipline, inviting police presence, and broadly surveilling its students for minor offenses, the University is betraying its educational mission. It has pursued drastic measures against students, including disciplinary proceedings and probation, for infractions like allegedly attending an unauthorized protest, or moving barricades to drape a flag on a statue. Real harassment and physical intimidation and violence on campus must be confronted seriously and its perpetrators held accountable. At the same time, the University should refrain whenever possible from using discipline and surveillance as means of addressing less serious harms, and should never use punitive measures to address conflicts over ideas and the feelings of discomfort that result. Where the University once embraced and defended students’ political expression, it now suppresses and disciplines it.

The University’s recent policies represent a dramatic change from historical practice, and the consequences are ruinous to our community and its principles. In the past, Columbia has periodically confronted attacks against pro-Palestinian speech, ranging from the vile slanders against Professor Edward Said to the reckless accusations from the David Project. But where for decades the University stood firm against smear campaigns targeting its professors, it has now voluntarily accepted the job of censoring its faculty in and outside the classroom.

Columbia’s commitment to free inquiry and robust disagreement is what makes it a world-class institution. Limiting academic freedom when it comes to questions of Israel and Palestine paves the way for limitations on other contested topics, from climate science to the history of slavery. What’s more, students must have the freedom to dissent, to make mistakes, to offend without intent, and to learn to repair harm done if necessary. Free expression is not only crucial to student development and education outside the classroom; the tradition of student protest has also played a vital role in American democracy. Columbia should be proud of having participated in nationwide student organizing that helped secure civil rights and reproductive rights and helped bring an end to the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa.

We express our support for the University and for higher education against the attacks likely to be leveled against them at the upcoming congressional hearing. We object to the weaponization of antisemitism. And we advocate for a campus where all students, Jewish, Palestinian, and all others, can learn and thrive in a climate of open, honest inquiry and rigorous debate.

Many members of our University community share our perspective, but they have not yet been heard. Columbia students, staff, alumni, and faculty can sign here to show your support for this letter’s message.

—Jewish faculty reject the weaponization of antisemitism

The 23 authors of this letter are Jewish faculty members of Barnard College and Columbia University. This letter derives from a much longer one by these same 23 faculty sent to President Shafik on April 5.

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