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#because there are a lot of different education systems in the world and there is no good perfect translation for these things
susponte · 1 month
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not to vent on main, but the lack of critical thinking in the rpc is honestly so annoying sometimes. people will block me thinking that this is an uncritical portrayal of law/etc and at this point, i honestly don't know how to make that more clear? the themes are there. tim was abused didn't have any options in life. he became violently loyal to a system that oppressed and rejected him, and doing so ripped him apart. he suffered mental and physical disabilities due to those affiliations. i shouldn't have to hold people's hands and spell it out in neon.
#like ngl i feel like half the rpc is the kind of person to watch jarhead and think its military propaganda#there are lots of reasons that law/etc is the way it Is. focusing on the lens of how it impacts/changes/harms the people who perpetuate it#is also a critique. and honestly an important one because it's less talked about#me in my rules: hey i don't share tim's views i'm just a damn good writer and accurate with this portrayal#dumbasses: secret republican?????#why is reading comprehension so fucking low in a community of writers#people don't think about themes or narrative devices#like bro someone blocked me and changed their rules to be like no military/law if u aren't critical#WHAT. he gets kicked out of the military for being trans and his entire post-show arc is about leaving the marshals#and also?? the marshals aren't cops. its an entirely different ballgame since hes dealing with people that have been convicted#and obviously there are flaws with the courts and wrongful convictions. but thats not relevant to tim. he's not the one doing that#so Why am i going to post about that when people could just educate themselves on real world topics and not get all their news#from the fucking dash 😭 i know how fucked up the systems are#my mom was falsely arrest for a theft once and my dad has literally been hunted by the us marshals. stfu about my portrayal#yes there are real innocents who are victims of the system / government / war / etc#but your neighbor greg who went to war because he was poor is also a victim of war#the marshal who Wants To Die is also a victim of the system#people when situations aren't black and white and there are moral complexities: suddenly i can't read#its almost like the system is damaging on all sides#negative tw#⠀⠀⠀⌖ ‚⠀⠀ᴄʟᴀssɪғɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ 𑁊⠀⠀ discussions .
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arielmagicesi · 10 months
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hey, do you want to lose money AND your will to live all for the opportunity to make very little money doing a job that everyone warns you will sap you of your will to live? try applying for teacher certification oh my GOD
#i feel like the world's rudest idiot because i finally went full 'i want to speak to your manager' on the njedcert people#because i had no other options!!!!!#and after a while of trying i got a phone call from an extremely nice woman (apparently the only reasonable person who works there)#who was so helpful and nice and finally told me all the information i should have been given 3 months ago#i guess if i wasn't dealing with [redacted family emergency things]#and if i had a degree in the NJEdCert Portal from Bureaucratic Bullshit University#then all of this would have been sooo obvious and i wouldn't have needed to call and email everybody on earth#begging them to explain things to me#but like. it is weird how confusing it is! it is weird how much effort i had to put in!#i'm a young millennial! i should not have had this much trouble navigating this online portal or whatever the fuck!#THERE IS A TEACHER SHORTAGE. THIS SHOULDN'T REQUIRE THE TWELVE LABORS OF HERCULES TO FIGURE OUT#aaaaahhhhh it's fine it's FINE!!! it's fine#i spent so much money and screamed a lot. not at the people working there. just during my nightmares#but it's fine. i can finally get the certification to do the unpaid student teaching so i can maybe later get a different certification#to do the paid teaching. which i'm sure will pay so so great#and so equivalent to the effort i put in and the way i'll be treated at that job#the new jersey education system is lucky that teaching is my 1 passion and that i'm really good at it and that i love it#because otherwise i would've given up and become the joker by now#written by me
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exalted222 · 3 months
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Scorpio Through The Houses: Part 2
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Scorpio 7th house: You are married to death. This is the literal embodiment of corpse bride. You love relationship connections with people that transform you. There’s a deep need to want a partner that feels secure and powerful enough to defend you. While others may fear your partner, you find a deep sense of safety around them. There’s definitely an air of mystery surrounding your love life and relationships. People think you are closed off when it comes to speaking about your love life and you like to keep it that way. However, there may be a tendency to be very possessive and protective of your partner. Likewise you may want a partner that is obsessive over you. While this can be seen as negative, the truth is you just desire someone that you can share the chaos in your life with. You want your relationships secure because you want to feel like you can fully express the deepest parts of your emotions and share your secrets. A desire to be consumed by your connections with other people and be transformed to a whole new being. You want to be changed through the relationships you have. Other people may fear you because you can be seen as someone who is very picky about who you hang around. The truth is you value loyalty, so you’re very skeptical about who you want to lean on.
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Scorpio 8th house: This one was a little hard for me to describe as the themes of the 8th house and Scorpio somewhat merge into one another. However, what separates Scorpio in the 8th versus other houses is that these individuals will strive for death. There is an innate understanding of the cycles of death and rebirth. They charge fearlessly into danger and deadly situations in order to become renewed. It’s probably because they have inherited a lot of trauma and dealing with difficult challenges growing up. Once they get down to uncovering the shadows that have plagued their past, they become very skilled at dealing with things that others are scared of. Unafraid at diving head first into the void and coming out transformed. Reckless behavior can be an issue though because of the idea that you’ve dealt with death before so you can do it again. Other people fear your ability to still remain unscathed and brave even through the darkest times. Scorpio here is really a reservoir of personal power and endurance. It’s a placement of building tough skin to deal with the pains of life.
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Scorpio 9th house: Death is seen as something worthy to be revered. Scorpio on the 9th depicts how you deal with themes of faith and belief. These individuals believe that death is a part of life that we all must go through. Death is seen through a philosophical lens for them. Whatever belief system they have can help cope with the inevitability of death. They pursue and try to learn more about the darker themes of life. Higher education and travel are very important for you, as it transforms your understanding about the world around you. These are the people that come back after a trip and are a completely different human being. A deep desire to understand the pain and emotional complexities of humanity in a wider lens. This might lead you to pursuing psychology, diving into the occult and learning about things considered taboo. Some will fear your beliefs and the amount of knowledge you may have. Knowledge especially about things that aren’t usually spoken about. Others will think you are psychic for being able to point out the shadows in their own lives. Many will rally behind your beliefs and support as they believe you have valuable information to offer. The issue is when you manipulate the information you know and using knowledge for your own personal benefit.
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Scorpio 10th house: Scorpio here shows that you meet death within the public eye. The way you have changed and grown over the years is put on full display for others to see. They are oftentimes viewed as someone who is deadly and can face a lot of demonizing scrutiny. I’ve noticed a lot of people can be obsessed with the transformations these people have made. You will probably have to deal with authority figures being threatened by you. Tendency to be called a liar and receive hate for not being the same person others believed you to be. When it comes to your career, you may face a workplace where your coworkers and bosses are afraid of you. So you will have to deal with these people alienating and trying to diminish you. The reason being is because they see the amount of potential you have. There is an innate ability to become someone that transforms the way things are done. Being able to change how the industry you are in functions and having radical ideas to push things further. The public view of you can be filled with people that are obsessed and protective over your business accomplishments. As well as, people that will try to not give you credit for all the hard work you have done. Whatever field of career you choose can involve you looking into the darker themes of that field.
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Scorpio 11th house: Death is your best friend with Scorpio in the 11th. You have dealt with constant changes and challenges when it comes to your network of friends. A lot of your friend groups have significantly shifted over time. There is a tendency to keep company with people that have faced significant hardships in their lives. It’s because you like to make friends with people that will transform you. You learn a lot from them and become anew through them. Stagnant friendships and connections don’t sit right with you. There has to be an evolution involved in order to be your friend. This might make you secretive about the people you hang around. That’s cause others may view your friends as intimidating and scary. You personally have built deep emotional bonds with your friends that others can’t see. So you become protective and hide your friendships from facing scrutiny. Some of your friends though, can be shady people. You may have dealt with a lot of backstabbing in the past so you are very picky on who you like to keep company. A negative aspect of this would be not trusting the people in your community. Feeling like you don’t need friends or anyone to support your needs. This lack of trust can cause you to even become slightly manipulative and controlling over your friends. So be careful and remember that you will find friends that demonstrate loyalty.
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Scorpio 12th house: In the 12th house, Scorpio symbolizes meeting death when you are alone. These people face death on their own. The constant internal battles and transformation they face are kept hidden behind the scenes. These are the type of people to have a fun and optimistic exterior, but once alone can become pessimistic. The reason being is when you are alone, that is when you can see your own shadow. All the deepest parts of yourself, traumatic events and wounds are brought up to the surface. It can be terrifying to some as it is parts of your psyche that has been kept hidden away. You can sometimes have random flashbacks of events that have been painful to you that you believed you outgrew. The issue lies when these people are afraid of being by themselves. Don’t be afraid as this is a great source of your power. You gain a lot of insight and knowledge when you are alone. Isolation is extremely transformative in order to help you become a better version of yourself. Treat your alone time with a lot of love and care. Learning to be a nurturing figure when no one is around is key for your self development. This is why others may fear your ability to withstand being by yourself and still retaining your personal power.
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The End
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starastrologyy · 2 months
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Astrology Notes 🪐
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Hi everyone :) My chart readings are still open! The link is in my bio for those who are interested 🤍 My reading reviews are on my Masterlist :)
When your Solar Return Mars is in the 6th house, this is likely to be a very productive year. However, you need to make sure you’re taking care of your health and not overworking yourself. Burnout and poor health will often emerge in such a year, if you are not prioritizing your health and peace.
If you have the ruler of your midheaven in the 10th house, you may own your own business or be in a managerial position at your job. People who reach great heights in the careers often have this placement. It is also possible that you may work in a traditionally ‘prestigious’ or well respected career. Examples are working as a doctor, lawyer, CEO of a successful company etc…
If you have the ruler of your 8th house in the 4th, you may find that you make a lot of money investing in real estate. This is also a placement that can suggest receiving an inheritance from a family member.
Saturn transiting your 3rd house can be a very somber time in your life. You may feel unmotivated or prone to feelings of loneliness and melancholy during this time. Similar to Saturn transiting the 9th house, your outlook on life in general may not always be the most pleasant during this time. Nevertheless, this can be a good time to enroll in a short course or some kind of educational program.
Saturn in the 9th house of a composite chart can be that the two people have very different belief systems and that consequently causes restrictions within the relationship. However, it can also be the opposite. Meaning, the thing that “binds” the couple together is in fact their shared belief systems. Saturn in the 9th is also common to see in the composite charts of couples who are long distance or those who travel long distances together(couples who travel to different countries together).
Something so interesting is that we often have aspects or placements that are associated with the sign over one or both of our parents 5th house cusp. For example, your mother may have Uranus in the 5th house, and you may have an Aquarius Sun, Moon, or rising. Alternatively, it could be that Uranus aspects many of your other placements. I know this may not apply to everyone, but look into your parent’s birth charts! You may be surprised!
A new romantic or business relationship can often start when your Progressed Moon makes a conjunction to your natal descendent. This is especially true if it is a “progressed new moon”. Meaning, your progressed moon is making a conjunction to your natal sun.
Moon square Mars synastry can at times be difficult (especially if it occurs at an orb that is less than 3 degrees) because the Moon person may perceive the Mars person as being insensitive, harsh, or even impulsive. Whereas the Mars person can view the Moon person as being overly sensitive. In a romantic relationship, this aspect can add to the attraction. However, if there are no mitigating factors there can be hurt feelings over time.
When someone’s Mercury falls into your 12th house in synastry, you may feel comfortable opening up to them, and telling them things you would not ordinarily tell someone else. You could often talk about spirituality, mental health, and things you prefer to keep “hidden” from others. At times you may even feel like they can “read your mind” or easily sense what you’re thinking.
People with the North Node in the 7th house tend to be hyper independent (South Node 1st house). Thus, actively dedicating time to connect meaningfully with others is a big part of their karmic destiny here on earth. There is a tendency to self isolate with a 1st house south node, especially when the individual is struggling in any capacity.
On the topic of isolation, those who have the ruler of their Ascendant in the 12th house are also inclined to isolate themselves from the world when struggling. Escapist behaviors can also be high with this placement. However, these are some of the most compassionate and resilient people you will meet.
People with Mars retrograde in their charts may struggle when it comes to the manner in which they express anger/their drive. These people can often hold onto anger for extended periods of time only to let it all out at once. Thus, their anger can often seem misplaced or to come from “out of the blue”.
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star-anise · 1 year
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Fun upside of rats and spambots fleeing Twitter for Tumblr are all the new fucking, uh...
They're not TERFs this time, they're "not feminists" because "feminism is cancer", they're, uh...
"Violent Misandrists"?
Like, huge use of Judith killing Holofernes vibes. 15yos posting "Kill all men (except my male mutuals lol!)" and insinuating that banning pornography will end child abuse forever.
(deep breath)
Look.
If you are a teenager from the USA, and your parents are Republicans, please consider that EVERYTHING you were ever taught about media, politics, gender, sex, feminism, and the advisability of mass murder as a political tool
has been carefully tailored to make you feel enraged with the state of the world, which is full of Good People and Bad People (groups it is very easy to sort everyone you meet into) and the way to Fix Society is to criminalize, incarcerate, or brutally murder as many Bad People as possible. You have probably seen several different sorting systems proposed, and may not have seen much political discourse beyond debates about "Which PART of society are Bad People who should be punished?"
And yes, I realize you've also been taught that people like me insisting on bullshit like "nuance" and "tolerance" and "educating yourself" are literal Satan and probably in favour of ritualized child abuse and puppy-kicking.
We're not. I'm not. I'm like a lot of people you wouldn't think are Good People, who nevertheless work to make the world better in what we understand to be the best methods available.
I don't know why I'm saying this. I'll probably end up a target of vitriol and regret ever speaking up. Just.
You are not smart for coming to the conclusion that the world is full of Bad People who just need to be killed. You did not figure out (or find the true prophet of) The Secret Truth of the Entire Universe. You haven't figured out how to fix the world. You just followed the fucking breadcrumb trail laid down by people who want to recruit you to commit atrocities in their name.
The world is so much more complicated than you've been led to believe. Fixing its problems is so much more tedious and difficult. Cruelty is so much less useful. And you've got so much more learning to do.
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rnelodyy · 1 year
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The Owl House And Restorative Justice
At the end of Season 1 of The Owl House, it is revealed that Lilith, the main overarching antagonist of that season, was the one to curse her sister Eda, one of the protagonists, to win a tournament when they were teenagers. This information causes Eda to fly into a screaming rage and attack Lilith, and understandably so.
Eda’s curse is essentially a chronic illness, one that, in Eda’s own words, has ruined her life, being the reason she’s considered a social outcast and why, before meeting King and Luz, she hadn’t gotten close to anyone in years. In season 2, it’s revealed that the curse is why she pushed away her partner Raine to the point that they broke it off with her, and that during a particularly bad flareup, she accidentally maimed her own father, leaving him half blind and with permanent nerve damage to his hands, making him unable to continue working as a Palisman carver. The curse has ruled Eda’s life for decades now, so to Eda, this is the ultimate betrayal.
In the first episode of Season 2, Lilith has defected from the Emperor’s Coven, split the curse between Eda and herself to mitigate the symptoms for her sister, and has moved in with Eda at the Owl House. While Lilith herself still feels guilty and feels she has to make it up to Eda, everyone else, Eda included, has seemingly either forgiven her or chosen to look past it. Eda even makes fun of her for feeling bad about cursing her, and Lilith’s guilt is seemingly absent for the rest of the series. 
The response to this was… Less than stellar, shall we say. A lot of people were angry, saying Lilith got away with her crimes without even a slap on the wrist, and that Eda’s forgiveness of her was far too sudden.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of critique. Amity spent years bullying Willow after her parents forced her to break off their friendship, and when she began trying to mend that relationship, the response from fans was that Willow should have been a lot more angry at Amity, and that they went back to being besties far too soon. I’ve even seen this criticism leveled at Hunter for the things he did while working for Belos, at Vee for impersonating Luz for months to trick her mother, and at Luz for hiding the fact that she helped Philip find the Collector from her friends. And it does seem strange for the show to keep tripping on this same point again and again.
Except, it’s not really. Because I think that, when viewing this show from a different angle, those supposed flaws are actually symptoms of something very important to understand – The Owl House operates on a system of crime and punishment that is very different from our world’s.
More specifically, our world mostly utilizes retributive justice. The world of The Owl House utilizes restorative justice.
So first, what do those terms mean? Broadly, they’re two different forms of handling interpersonal disputes, or dealing with crime. 
Retributive justice is the one our current justice system uses, where the focus is primarily on punishing the perpetrator. Retributive justice can mean detention, suspension, expulsion, jail time, monetary fines, some kinds of community service, exile, or in more severe cases, corporal punishment or the death penalty. It’s the lens most people view the world through, where if someone hurts you, hurting them back is the correct response.
Restorative justice is a very different approach, where you instead focus on helping the victim recover from what happened, and rehabilitating the perpetrator to prevent this from happening again. Restorative justice can look like verbal or written apologies, monetary compensation for costs and trauma, therapy for both victim and perpetrator, education for the perpetrator, mediation between victim and perpetrator, a restraining order, etc. 
When viewed through a retributive lens, The Owl House lets its characters get away with a lot of shit. Lilith cursing Eda, Hunter rounding up Palismen knowing they’ll be killed, Amity tormenting Willow for years, it’s all stuff that, in a retributive environment, they should be punished for, and they’re just not. Eda is only genuinely angry at Lilith for two scenes, Amity and Willow fix their relationship very quickly once Amity starts making amends, and Hunter isn’t punished at all. 
However, I believe the story of The Owl House is best viewed not through a retributive lens, but through a restorative lens.
Let’s look at the Lilith-example again. Lilith’s offense was cursing Eda, which she did because she wanted to win a spot in the Emperor’s Coven. Knowing Eda was better than her, she cast a curse on her, thinking it would only last for a day. But when the time came, Eda forfeited the match, soon after which she transformed into the Owl Beast and was pelted with rocks until she ran. The curse turned out to be very permanent, and Lilith spent the next 20 years trying to fix her mistake by working for Belos to try to capture Eda, since he promised to heal her curse. 
However, when she finally succeeded, Belos went back on his promise. Instead of healing Eda, he ordered her to be publicly executed. When Lilith protested, Belos essentially told her to shut up, that it was the Titan’s will, and left her there. 
So, having realized her method of fixing her mistake has gone real bad, Lilith sneaks down to the Conformatorium to free Eda herself, but arrives too late and finds Luz instead. After a brief fight they end up teaming up, and Lilith leads Luz to the elevator, but they are captured by Belos and Lilith is thrown into the cage with Eda. There, she restores Eda’s partially petrified body, and after fleeing with her, Luz and King, uses a spell to split Eda’s curse evenly between their two bodies.
From a restorative justice point of view, Lilith has done pretty much everything she reasonably could do to fix things. She’s denounced the Emperor’s Coven, returned Owlbert to Luz, helped Luz find the elevator to the execution platform, saved Eda from petrification, apologized to Eda, and while there’s no way for her to cure Eda’s curse entirely, she took on half of the curse at great expense to her own health, in order to ease Eda’s symptoms. 
Eda isn’t angry anymore because in her eyes, Lilith has already fixed things with her. Punishing her more at this point is pointless. What more could Lilith do, really? What other lessons could she learn? The only thing that punishment would bring at this point would be more suffering. 
Let’s look at another example: Amity and Willow.
Amity’s offense was breaking off her friendship with Willow because she was a late-bloomer, bullying her for years, and allowing her friends to do so too. Willow is left with horrible self-esteem issues because of this, and combined with her failing grades, turned her into a horribly shy and withdrawn wallflower (no pun intended). After she’s moved to the plant track she starts actually getting better, but Amity and Boscha especially continue to torment her. While Amity’s bullying of Willow does peter out over time, Willow is clearly still extremely resentful of her. In an attempt to make Willow forget their friendship, Amity accidentally sets most of Willow’s memories on fire, leaving her confused, amnesiac, and unable to grasp basic concepts like that chairs are for sitting in.
Luz pushed Amity into fixing Willow’s brain by going into her mind together and piecing her memories back together. There, the Inner Willow revealed what happened to Luz and the audience.
At this point, Amity shows her that her parents were actually the ones who forced her to end the friendship because they didn’t think Willow was a suitably powerful or influential friend, threatening to make sure Willow would never get accepted into Hexside if Amity didn’t force her to leave. Amity then apologizes to Willow for going along with it, and for the bullying, and vows to make sure her friends never mess with Willow again. 
Willow accepts her apology, but also makes it clear that, while it’s a start, she’s not yet ready to accept Amity in her life again. Restorative justice has not been fully attained, because to Willow, Amity hasn’t fixed everything – Boscha and her squad are still bullying her, and still consider Amity one of them. This changes two episodes later, when Amity tells Boscha to grow the fuck up when she starts bullying Willow again, and joins her and Luz’s Grudgby team despite her personal issues to get Boscha to back off. Willow doesn’t make a grand gesture of forgiveness in this episode, but it is after this point where the two become comfortable around eachother again. 
Did Willow forgive Amity too quickly for years of trauma? Maybe. If she had chosen to continue keeping Amity at a distance I certainly wouldn’t have blamed her. But in the end, Amity fixed the mess she caused as best she could, and has proven herself to want to be a better person, to want to be Willow’s friend again. She worked hard to prove herself to be a person worth trusting, and Willow decided to give that trust a chance again.
And while they did become friends again, that friendship was clearly still affected by what happened, which led to bumps that the two of them had to work through. Like in Labyrinth Runners, where Amity’s overprotectiveness over Willow makes Willow feel like Amity thinks she’s incompetent, and still only sees her as the helpless person she used to be. 
Willow continuing to be mad at Amity and punishing her for what she did wouldn’t be an unreasonable reaction, but it wouldn’t have fixed anything. It would certainly have an impact on Amity, seeing her former best friend rejecting her attempts to make up for what she did, but the hurt on both sides would have continued festering, because deep down, Willow missed Amity too. 
In Hunter’s case, there’s the question of whether he can even be held responsible for his actions. The Palisman-kidnapping in specific was explicitly done under duress – if he failed he would face verbal and physical abuse, and be threatened with his nightmare scenario: getting thrown out of the Emperor’s Coven. 
And that’s not an empty threat either. Hunter has no magic, and Belos has drilled it into him that witches without magic have no future. Without the Emperor’s Coven, his only future prospects would be starving to death on the streets or wasting away in prison. Either way, Hunter would be alone, without family or friends, without a job or job prospects, without anyone to turn to for help. Any child would be terrified of that. Hunter wasn’t always acting on direct orders – in fact he defied direct orders to stay in his room in Eclipse Lake to go look for Titan’s Blood, and then again in Hollow Mind to arrest the rebels. But he made those choices based on the idea that Belos wouldn’t want him if he was a failure, and that he needed a chance to prove that he could still be useful.
And contrary to popular belief, Hunter does know right from wrong. He has a very strong moral compass, he’s just been forced to ignore it in favor of doing whatever the Emperor wants. To shut up that little voice telling him he’s doing the wrong thing, he uses what’s called a thought-terminating cliche, a statement that feels so fundamentally true that the argument need not continue. In Hunter’s case, that statement is “It’s for the greater good.” Sure, kidnapping his new friends and abducting Palismen to feed to the Emperor and threatening someone who’s been nothing but kind to him to take the portal key from her girlfriend and justifying terrorism makes his stomach feel like he swallowed a cactus and saying it out loud makes him sound like a horrible person – but it’s for the greater good. He’s doing it to serve Belos, and Belos knows what’s best. 
So by the time Hunter is out of active danger and able to rest and recover from what happened to him… what would further punishment accomplish? He already knows that he did fucked up shit while working for the EC, and he’s proven time and time again that while he’s not fighting for Belos’s approval, he’s actually a genuinely kind-hearted kid. Punishing him now would likely cause him to react very poorly, because he’s been at the wrong end of that stick so often that he’s developed severe PTSD because of it.
And if you think restorative justice is still in order – Hunter is currently hyperfixated on making sure Belos can never hurt anyone again, and for the long term, he has expressed that he wants to become a Palisman carver when he grows up. While it won’t bring back the Palismen that were killed, it will help the current Palisman population recover and reintroduce Palismen to witches who may have had to give up theirs. 
When viewed through this lens, the writing of The Owl House starts to make more sense. As a show, it is extremely forgiving towards its characters – they’re still held accountable for their actions, but as long as they’re willing to grow and learn and fix the damage they caused, they are very quickly forgiven. 
However, I do understand why these writing choices can be… controversial, so to say. Because it doesn’t feel very satisfying, does it? When someone hurts you on purpose, your first impulse would be to try to hurt them back, that’s just how people work. 
That’s the hardest thing to come to terms with when you become an advocate for prison abolition for example – you’re not just arguing for freeing a guy who got 5 years because a cop found weed in his pockets, you’re arguing for the release, and most importantly, the humanity of some of the most vile, disgusting people this planet has ever produced. Even now, when someone commits a truly awful crime and gets sent to prison for life, my first thought is “Good, I hope they rot in there.” But that’s not justice. That’s just revenge. And revenge is not something we as a society should want to build our justice system on.
It’s not satisfying to see Lilith go from using Luz as a human shield in her fight against Eda to sleeping on the couch in Eda’s house within 2 episodes. It’s not satisfying to see Willow let Amity back into her life when Amity has hurt her so badly before, or to see Hunter become romantically involved with Willow after he literally abducted her the first time they met. But that satisfaction isn’t really the point. Revenge is satisfying in the moment, but an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, and if someone shows a genuine willingness to change, it’s often better to give them a chance to.
However, my final point is about what happens when this approach fails. Because not everyone is willing to change. Some people, when faced with the consequences of their actions, decide to dig their heels in and refuse to admit fault, or blame the victim(s), or use those same thought-terminating cliches that Hunter used to justify their actions, “I was just following orders” being a big one.
And thus, we come to Belos.
If Belos showed a willingness to change, a genuine one, not an attempt at manipulation, should he be given the chance to? That vengeful part of me is VERY empathetically saying no. But logically, reasonably, he should be given that chance, if only because he’s a human being and no human being deserves to be mistreated. That doesn’t mean his victims are obligated to forgive him or be around him again, in fact I think that, for the sake of Hunter’s mental health, Belos should stay as far away from him as humanly possible. But he should be given the chance to start over, to truly better himself and do something good with the rest of his life.
But Belos isn’t willing to change. 
Belos is a product of a bad environment and grew up with a cult-like mentality and hatred for witches that he had to adopt for his own safety. It’s hard to break out of that mentality, but not impossible. Case in point: Caleb. The tragedy of Belos’s character to me is that he had so many chances to change, so many people to help him make that leap, but all of the people who offered him that help ended up dead by his hands because he couldn’t handle the idea that he may have been wrong.
At this point, Belos is stuck. Changing would mean not only giving up on his life’s work, but acknowledging to himself that everything he’s done, mutilating his body, killing his brother, slaughtering thousands and installing himself as God-Emperor of a population he despises more than anything in order to facilitate a genocide, was completely pointless.
He can’t admit that to himself. Especially the thing about Caleb’s death. He’s sunk-cost-fallacied himself so far into a corner that all he can really do when faced with opposing viewpoints is dig his heels in even deeper and lash out in a rage at anyone who challenges him. Even now, when his body is literally falling apart at the seams, he’s still trying to commit witch-genocide, because it’s all he has. 
Restorative justice doesn’t work in this case, because the perpetrator needs to be receptive to it. Logically you would assume the show would default to retributive justice, and characters like Willow and Camila do take a very vengeful glee in imagining themselves beating the snot out of Belos. But right now, the primary motivation of the Hexsquad and Hunter in particular when it comes to Belos is to end the threat he poses. As long as Belos is alive and free, he will continue to hurt and kill people, and if he can’t be talked down, he needs to be either contained or killed to prevent him from causing more harm.
The Owl House provides, in my opinion, a very nuanced take on restorative justice. It shows how it works in action, how different situations impact what it looks like, and what happens when it’s simply not an option. It’s not the most satisfying story to tell your audience, because when someone hurts our babies we want them to suffer, no matter how sorry they say they are. But in this case, I think that sacrificing that bit of audience comfort is worth it to tell the story like this.
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i learned what is the most bizarre government in world history?
A bit strange that no one speaks of Italian city-states here.
I think they tried just every conceivable form of government. I will tell a bit about my dearest Florentine Republic.
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In 13th century, Italian city-states witnessed an intense fight between pro-Emperor and pro-Pope factions. Most nobles were pro-Emperor. Florence was one of the places where they lost the battle, which led to the establishment of democracy.
Of course, this democracy was very different from what we call democracy today. Modern Western countries are representative democracies where people only vote in the elections and countries are governed by professional politicians. A medieval Italian would call such system aristocratic.
Of course, Florentine democracy was also exclusive. Wage labourers, people in debt and women were excluded. But all others could directly participate in government of their country: 5,000–8,000 people out of 25,000–50,000 adult citizens.
Political parties were forbidden (actually, the word party was invented as a slur, something that people do not remember now). Elections were seen as aristocratic mechanism because the rich and the educated would be capable to convince or bribe others to vote for them. So the main mechanism of democracy was casting lots.
Florence was subdivided into four quarters, sixteen neighborhoods and twenty-one corporations (seven major ones representing rich citizens and fourteen minor ones representing poor citizens): every citizen was a member of one of those. Initially, corporations had something to do with profession. Nobles renounced their nobility and joined corporations to be able to participate in the government. For instance, nobleman Dante Alighieri entered the corporation of Doctors and Apothecaries, and the ancestors of Niccolo Machiavelli registered in the corporation of Winemakers.
The main government body was Signoria. It consisted of eight Priors (two representing every quarter, six representing major corporations and two representing minor corporations) and one Gonfalonier of Justice, the chairman. They ruled the city during the period of two months only and then replaced by others. Signoria was the main legislative and executive authority. However, it could take major decisions only in common with other bodies such as Twelve Good Men (three persons from every quarter, mostly rich people) and Sixteen Gonfaloniers (one from every neighbourhood). These three bodies (Signoria, Twelve Good Men and Sixteen Gonfaloniers) were all chosen by lot: notes with their names were chosen from special leather bags preserved in the sacristy of the Santa Croce cathedral.
The laws were approved by the Council of the Commune (192 people, 48 from every quarter, majority rich) and the Council of the People (160 people, 10 from every neighbourhood, majority poor).
There was an enormous quantity of other governing bodies that regulated everything that needed to be regulated in the Republic, from quality checks of the bread to the licensing of the sex workers. In most cases, people served from three to six months. It meant that every full-fledged male citizen of the Florentine Republic could hope to be chosen for one of these positions.
The judicial and military power belonged to the podestà, a foreign citizen with good reputation, legal education and a military company or at least a group of armed servants. Florentines believed that a foreigner would be a more impartial judge in Florentine discussions. A podestà was invited to Florence for six months.
Finally, the Medici family managed to circumvent the system and become rulers of Florence but it took time. The system of checks and balances did work.
However, no one was able to circumvent the government system of Venetian Republic. Do you know why?
For more than five centuries (from 1268 to 1797) the procedure to elect the doge (chief of state) did not change.
Choose 30 members of the Great Council by lot.
These 30 people are reduced by lot to 9.
These 9 people choose 40 other people.
These 40 are reduced by lot to 12.
These 12 people choose 25 other people.
These 25 people are reduced by lot to 9.
These 9 people choose 45 other people.
These 45 people are reduced by lot to 11.
These 11 people choose 41 other people.
These 41 people elect the doge.
Funny that many Americans blame their electoral system for being complicated. You may think what you want about the Venetian system but it guaranteed what was probably the most stable government in the history of mankind.
By the way, despite the fact he was elected for life, the power of the chief of state in Venice was very much limited.
He could not appear in public without other officials present (security from populism). He could not meet foreign diplomats or open foreign dispatches without other officials present (security from collusion with foreign governments). He could not possess any property in a foreign land.
However, he had a nice place to live.
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fuck-hamas-go-israel · 5 months
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Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Apartheid?
Throwing around these buzzwords to describe the Israel-Hamas war because you’ve seen them on social media doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you an activist.
It makes you ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and lazy for parroting biased talking points with no concept about what these terms actually mean.
What is apartheid?
Well, it was first used to describe the political system in South Africa and today’s Namibia whereby racism was institutionalised. This manner of governance meant that clear racial segregation would occur, in a manner that benefited the white race and would actively oppress those who had darker skin.
This meant that there were white-only spaces, white people would get prioritised when it came to education and jobs, and relationships/marriages between white peoples and coloured people were illegal.
Is Israel objectively an apartheid state? There are no laws that actively favour one group over the other. There is a sizeable population of Israeli Arabs that can thrive in the same way as the Israeli Jews can. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to work in Israel through a work permit system. There are about 150,000 Palestinians working in Israel, most of which live in Israel and some come from Gaza/the West Bank. They aren’t denied rights institutionally.
Is it harder to get a job or education in Israel if you’re a Palestinian from Gaza? Sure, because of different governments. It’s like how it’s a lot easier for you to find a job in your own country (in terms of paperwork and bureaucracy) than overseas. But you’re not denied the right to apply.
Of course, if you have a history of violence, a criminal record, or your family has ties to terrorists, then it’ll be a lot harder to get an approved work permit. But that’s not apartheid. That’s common sense, and a regulation practiced by all countries that minimally desire to protect their own population from danger.
Ethnic cleansing and genocide
These two concepts can go hand-in-hand. Ethnic cleansing refers to the mass expulsion or killing of a group of people based on their ethnicity. Similarly, genocide is the purposeful killing of a group of people solely with the intention of annihilating them.
Famous examples? The Holocaust, of course, where the Nazi regime believed in the superiority of the Aryan race and decided to declare genocide on the Jews, Romanis, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, people with “Asian features”, and many many other groups. Anyone who they didn’t think was “pure”.
Their aim was to ensure that the Aryan race propagated without having “impure” blood affecting the bloodlines. They even started a eugenics programme called Lebensborn to ensure that more pure Aryan babies were born.
More recent examples? The Rwandan genocide where the Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis on the basis of ethnicity. They mandated that Tutsis mention their ethnicity on state-issued ID cards in order for the Hutus in power to be able to identify them and then kill them.
Or the Yazidi genocide which happened so recently, in which ISIL killed, raped, and sent thousands of Yazidis into conversion camps on the basis of their ethnicity. They also took Yazidi women as sex slaves and raped and tortured them.
Or the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State in Myanmar, and how there was a mass killing and expulsion of them from the country, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh to take refuge, crating the world’s largest refugee camp.
Or how ISIS killed thousands of people from Christian groups in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya because of their faith, leading the US, EU, and UK to label this as religious genocide and condemned their actions.
Has Israel been practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on Palestinians all these years?
Well, the birth rate of the Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel has been steadily increasing all these years.
So, no. No ethnic cleansing, no genocide. They are free to have as many children as they desire.
The UN Genocide Convention
The United Nations has 5 actions that constitute genocide.
1. Killing members of a target group
Israel is targeting Hamas officials with the aim of wiping out the terrorist group and ensuring that such a deadly attack on Israeli soil doesn’t happen again. I suppose you could call it genocide against Hamas, but they’re killing Hamas because they’re terrorists, not because they’re Palestinian. Shouldn’t everyone believe in genocide against terrorists?
But look at Black Saturday. Look at Hamas’ rhetoric. They repeatedly call for the annihilation of Israel and genocide of Jews. When will the media start believing what they say, word for word, instead of trying to spin it into “hmm maybe they want to kill all the Jews because they’re freedom fighters!”
War has collateral damage. Of course the innocent civilians don’t deserve to suffer just because of the actions of their government, but there have been warnings given to the Palestinian civilians prior to Israel striking the areas. There are consequences of attacking a country first, and then having that country attack you back.
2. Causing people of the group serious bodily or mental harm
The UN refers to sexual violence as the prime example of non-fatal harm.
Sexual violence has occurred. Hamas have kidnapped and raped women and even paraded the bodies of half-naked women around. But I f Israel had done the same, it’ll be the first thing appearing on everyone’s BBC push notifications (without even being confirmed as true).
3. Imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group
Many people refer to the blockade that Israel imposed around the Gaza Strip as an example of this.
This blockade was imposed by both Israel and Egypt in 2005. Its aim was to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and isolate the reign of Hamas to the region. This was to ensure the safety of Israel and Egypt.
Did this blockade pose serious challenges to the Gazan civilians? Of course. But that’s a consequence of having a terrorist government. If you have a terrorist group running your country, don’t be surprised if neighbouring countries are extra careful about who or what they allow in or out of the borders.
Many authorities from other Arab nations have also expressed approval of Egypt’s border restrictions, and even encouraged Egypt to flood the terror tunnels that Hamas has dug under the city. As a side note, other Arab nations have not historically been very kind or welcoming to Palestinians. Syria has killed over 4000 Palestinians, and many Arab countries are now refusing any refuge for Palestinians. But no one cares about that because it doesn’t make Israel look bad. All they do now is use the images of dead Palestinians under the hands of Syria and reuse them to propagate fake news.
The blockade has been labelled as a human rights violation because of collective punishment. Many humanitarian organisations believe that the blockade has caused the Palestinian civilians disproportionate harm.
Contrary to popular belief, Israel isn’t disallowing humanitarian aid from coming through the borders. Fuel, food, hygiene products, clothes, and shoes have been coming through the borders regularly for years. The Gaza Strip also has electricity and internet access and water.
Do all these items reach the Palestinian civilians? Well, there has been evidence that Hamas has been intercepting a lot of the supplies sent by humanitarian groups. This is not surprising since the UNRWA tweeted that Hamas has stole fuel from hospitals in Gaza in order to launch more rockets at Israel (but quickly deleted it after realising that it goes against their agenda to paint Hamas in a bad light.) In addition, the returned hostages have mentioned that there are many aid supplies hidden in the terror tunnels by Hamas. Instead of giving them to the civilians, they are hoarding it for themselves.
There has also been video evidence that some people are reselling these aid items in stores at exorbitant prices in order to turn profits. This has been well-documented for the last 10 years.
Is blockading the region to mitigate terrorism a disproportionate response? Well, it’s like asking if heightened security and stricter border control at airports is a disproportionate response after 9/11. Is being cautious and worrying about the security of your country an irrational reaction to the constant threat of terrorism?
4. Preventing births
Gaza’s population growth rate per annum is about 1.99%, which is the 39th highest in the world! Their population is allowed to propagate freely.
Israel isn’t preventing births of Palestinian babies.
5. Forcibly transferring children out of the group
No, Israel hasn’t been taking Palestinian children and forcing them to convert/keeping young Palestinian girls as sex slaves. Like I said, if this was truly happening, all the news outlets would be so quick to publish the story before verifying it.
Can we trust the UN Genocide standards?
The UN is known for corruption and have been exploiting the Palestinian people by selling them the humanitarian supplies instead of distributing them for free, which they should because these supplies literally are donations.
The UN also has differing standards of what they would label as genocide. For example, they refuse to call what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, even though the situation does fit many of their own criteria.
Hence, to all of you out there overusing these terms without knowing what they mean, make up your own mind about things. No one can force you to believe anything and no one can force you to change your mind.
But at the very least, do your due diligence and educate yourself before spouting tired buzzwords. Repeating misinformation doesn’t help anyone and can be very harmful.
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chronicallycouchbound · 8 months
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Intelligence Doesn't Equal Morality
Intellect is rooted in ableist systems and stupidity and intelligence are pointless social constructs that don't relate to morals or character.
I try to be a pretty good person, I fight for human rights, I regularly engage in mutual aid, and I care for my community. I try to do the right thing and support causes I care about and make positive changes in the world.
But I also am not very smart. I have several neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as cognitive disabilities. I can’t do simple, basic math, it’s hard for me to remember facts or algorithms, I rely entirely on spellcheck and speech-to-text to write, I failed many classes in high school and I barely passed with a low GPA, I had low pSAT scores and I never took the SATs. I moved around a lot all through school starting in third grade, and I missed a lot of basic fundamentals in learning (like how to do division and multiplication) so when I went to a different school they had already passed it and expected me to know. After my TBI, I could barely read AFTER I was cleared from my “concussion” symptoms because letters and words would flip around and I’d get headaches. Which still happens sometimes.
A lot of people see me as smart because I've learned a lot of academic language and can formulate thoughts into cohesive posts. But I lack a lot of necessary skills and rely on my caretakers to assist me. Things like budgeting and planning are extremely difficult for me. If I need to do simple addition or subtraction, even with a calculator, I quickly get confused and struggle. I forget basic information about myself all the time, let alone other subjects. I'm talking, has to check my ID for my birthday type confused. Doesn't know my name or address or what year it is confused. It happens daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Being able to type out posts like this often takes weeks and many adaptive tools to get there. Focusing is extremely difficult on many fronts, severe chronic pain, ADHD, dissociation, fatigue, migraines, and TBI, are just some of the contributing factors. I struggle daily with many things because of my lack of intellect.
I’m also privileged in the fact that I had some access to education as a homeless youth, that I had some supports in place to help me (towards the end of school), that I was somewhat able-bodied at the time and could walk or bike to and from school when the school system didn’t provide transportation. I was fortunate to have a chance to succeed, and I’m proud that I graduated high school because it was a difficult task for me, and others often aren’t offered that chance or get accommodations. I almost didn’t and I dropped out many times before graduation. I passed on sheer luck and what little privileges I had. 
That all being said, me being stupid (reclaiming it here) doesn't make me a bad person. I don't hurt people because I can't do math. I may mess up things or get confused but it doesn't make me want to harm others.
We often (wrongfully) equate morals with intellect. Being ‘stupid’, ‘dumb’, or an ‘idiot’ doesn’t automatically make someone a bad person. Plenty of evil, awful, and abusive people are extremely intelligent. 
I see this most notably with people advocating for IQ tests to be able to vote. Often from left-leaning people, in hopes it'll make the right (that they view as unintelligent), unable to vote. The reality is, it just hurts some of our most vulnerable members of the community while not actively doing anything to restrict some of the most dangerous members of our community-- those who know what they're doing to harm others and deliberately doing so. My voice matters, and I speak up against injustice and participate in dismantling oppressive systems. Taking away my right to vote won't make the right stop oppressing minorities (which also puts a lot of faith into the two-party voting system, which is a post for another day).
Additionally, legislative measures that discriminate against intellectually disabled people such as IQ tests for voting are also rooted in racism and classism. 
Yes, education can be a vital tool when it comes to addressing discrimination and creating safer communities. But the kind of education that is measured with an IQ test (or any test) isn't the same. Building compassion and caring for others can (and should) happen at any IQ level. We can all practice this, we can all participate.
It harms our communities and stagnates our progress when we equate intelligence with high morals.
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venvellan · 8 months
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da2's arishok is a good villain. if you have a fundamental understanding of the qun and listen to his thought process, the things he does makes sense. he uses the qun to justify slaughtering kirkwall's people, which is utterly inexcusable and what makes him a villain, but his character is complex enough to make dealing with him that much more thought provoking. he sends agents to kill petrice because she was killing his people, he doesn't give up the elves because they committed their lives to the qun, no matter how recently they converted, and he refuses to leave without the tome (and isabela) because his idea of justice hasn't been done. his logic makes sense, generally, though it is wrong on more than one occasion. he isn't moral, but he is methodical.
i feel this way about solas, too. i like da2's arishok for the same reasons that initially draw people to solas, i think. when we meet them, i find them interesting and educational to talk to, someone worthy of respect, and someone very honorable in their own way. similarly, many of my issues with solas compare with flaws in the qun/the arishok.
solas asserts that all of his beliefs are correct, and we're never allowed to challenge him on any of it. if he has high enough approval, he'll approach you to go, "yknow, i thought you were all [insert prejudice or stereotype] but YOU showed me that some of you guys are actually okay," which is NOT what it looks like for someone's beliefs to be challenged.
brief aside, i want to be fair in that we don't get this opportunity with many of the companions, and it's not even an inquisition specific issue. the dialogue format is agree, joke, be mean, and it's flawed, but it works in the majority of interactions. we don't really get to engage in nuanced discussions with characters, but there are positives and negatives to the system overall. it is possible to challenge and shape a character within this dialogue system (i.e., garrus vakarian) but in dragon age that really only comes in the form of harden/unharden. it was a little more doable with origins' system, but it really hasn't been a huge part of any dragon age game. most characters' beliefs remain largely unchanged by you regardless of how you play.
solas also possesses a strong sense of duty and purpose, though what duty he has, what his true goals are, he keeps hidden as long as he can. the most damning comparison though, to me, is how willing he is to destroy the world and bring back "his people," while the qunari fight to conquer the world and homogenize society into "their people."
in any case, with both him and the arishok, you can see the wheels turning in their heads. you can see why they do what they do, even if it's wholly immoral. it makes their threat a lot more personal, a lot scarier, psychologically, that a "normal" person, who doesn't want to cause suffering, can hold such specific beliefs and such strong conviction that knowing that they'll hurt people doesn't give them any pause. the root of their motivation is understandable. solas wants to right his wrongs, at his core. the arishok implicitly believes that the qun is safer, better for its people than life outside the qun. we can see that they're taking it too far, but they don't care. it makes them good villains.
"i am not corypheus, i take no joy in this." sure, which is a very similar sentiment, emotionally, to the qunari sense of duty. you can say you don't enjoy it all you want, you're still committing genocide. you can hate the qunari all you want, but you fight with their ferocity, their unshakeable faith in their own cause. their need to "do what's right," no matter who's caught in the wake.
i understand why people like solas, i go back and forth on it myself, but i don't think he's all that different from the arishok in method and motivation. they're each thrust into a world so different from what they believe is "right" that they demand it change around them. if we had to kill the old arishok, then if solas refuses to give up, he will have to die. he doesn't get to do genocide just because he's romanceable. he's a good character, he's a good villain, but he's not a good guy, and unless he stops before he does any real harm (which he will not do), he should share the arishok's fate.
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wwolflesbian · 2 years
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I think a lot of leftists don't understand that:
a. the revolution is not going to be a bloody battle because pretty much every communist revolution like that has led to us all getting murdered by the state and the state using it as an excuse to install fascism as quickly as possible. most of us softie leftists don't even own guns and have never fired one. the US has the highest military spending of any country ever. we lose if we go to war.
b. while voting is never going to create the world we want it can slow the tide of fascism to give us time to work on the actual revolution. we need to work within the system somewhat, even if it can't fix the problem outright.
c. the revolution is already happening. it is happening in an underground way. not as in people secretly planning military plays cause again we lose in that scenario. but in order to properly get rid of the system of capitalism we need to create a system that runs counter to it. basically building the alternative without permission from the state.
d. everyone has their own unique jobs in the revolution. educators and propagandists, protestors which keep the cops busy and keep attention on issues, people building labor and renters unions, people making cop monitoring networks, people providing shelter and food to those in need, people protecting their friends and creating mutual aid networks, people running underground medical networks or whatever else is in their power. hell even people openly living as their truest selves is revolutionary, the fight against capitalism is the choice to do whatever is in your power to help someone you know who is in need. this is the revolution.
yes, violence is called for in many instances and we should be ready to fight back but genuinely stop expecting for someone else to start a war and do something to help someone. you want a community? start building. talk to your neighbors and start a renters union or something. I keep seeing leftists lament that they can't do everything but babe no one can but you can still do SOMETHING and it will help. even if that something is just letting yourself be helped for now so you can help someone else later.
also learn conflict resolution I swear to god so many communities fall apart because they don't know how to handle differences. teach yourself to not react before you think and allow yourself to be humble even when you are right.
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i find it so interesting to look at sam and dean's respective views of society and people vs monsters, especially in early seasons, and then how that shifts and evolves throughout the show. like when we first meet them dean is very anti establishment whereas sam is literally studying law at an ivy league college. dean is very vocally anti police, and you're like wow for someone who was raised by an authoritarian father and is trying his hardest to please him this guy sure hates authority. he is aware of and cares about issues like racism and classism. but then when it comes to anyone non human he pretty much has no grey area, he sees them all as monsters to be put down. they are Things and they all killed his mum. whereas sam is pretty neutral about people, he doesn't even seem to be aware of systemic inequalities, he has a more individualistic approach to society. but this means he also sees monsters as individuals, just as capable of being good or redeemed.
This has everything to do with the way they grew up and the challenges they faced that affected them the most. dean's biggest challenge was putting food on the table. dean grew up poor and hungry. he was arrested for stealing, he had to use his body to get by, and he had to starve to try and feed sammy. and sam also grew up poor, but he was somewhat shielded from the reality of it. he wasn't the one who had to get food and pay for the extra week in a motel john left them in. his issues were much more personal. because sam knew he was a freak by all standards, he felt impure, and he knew in his heart that the monsters they hunted weren't too different from him. so his hope was in believing that anyone could be saved. anyone could choose to be good. where dean saw a system, with people in power and people who suffered because of them, sam saw grey individuals, and he was drawn in particular to the ones that had something "wrong" with them (max, madison, the kid from bugs, etc)
dean grew up so isolated that he couldn't be individualistic. he could only look at people from afar and that's why he sees the systems. and the violence he faced wasn't targeted at him personally, it was targeted at people like him. poor people, drifters, queer (or queer-looking) people. sam grew up trying to make connections. he made friends, he wanted an education. he tried so hard to belong.
and it's interesting to me that dean ended up being the one who formed the most personal bonds with people who were different, or ostracised, or monsters. see crowley, benny, charlie, claire.
sam tried to build communities (see his s14 arc) but every time he tried to get close to someone it ended in disaster so he ended up keeping his distance. and building a system. throughout the show he takes on leadership roles, and as time progresses he keeps his relationships more and more goal-oriented. whereas dean ends up forming personal bonds with a lot of people, and focusing less on helping oppressed people in general, and more on saving the individuals he cares about. i'm not saying they switched roles, they both kept their original views of the world, but they shifted towards a more confused and confusing moral compass that pointed somewhere in the middle and made it harder for them to understand each other. and ain't that just what growing up is like. dean cared about the whole world as a teen and young adult, but then that became too much to bear, and he had to focus his energy on his circle of loved ones. still caring about the world, but he had individual connections now and had to prioritise them. and sam still saw the potential for redemption and goodness in everyone, but he grew weary of people too, afraid of them or afraid of losing them, and he built walls. tried to help by giving himself missions rather than getting personally and emotionally involved.
psychologically speaking this show is so rich, the characters don't feel one dimensional (despite some of the writers' best efforts), and following their journey for 15 years means we saw them change and evolve, they don't remain the same people they were in season 1, but they keep some of that, and they just grow organically. sometimes i just love spn
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akajustmerry · 4 months
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Hey can u tell me wat race were the thg characters in the books? Was Katniss gale peeta finnick etc not white?
so this is kind of difficult to answer because in the world of the novels, The Dark Times™ whatever they really were clearly were so destructive to the fabric of society that the USA ceased to be what we know it as.
The process not only changed the land itself and how it was governed, but the language used to do that (states become districts, America becomes Panem, etc.). The fascistic government of the Capitol, when you read the books, clearly controls language as much as any other resource. Both Katniss and Snow (the only 2 pov characters in the novels) refer to words that have been forbidden and forgotten. Throughout the books you also come across words that are clearly mutated versions of known words "morphling" is one, which is the word used for what we call morphine.
I say all that to say that the people in the world of these novels, while they still obviously use English, they don't have the same concepts we do now because they've been eroded along with the language itself.
One of the crucial steps to control and oppress a population is deprive them of the ability to conceptualise and communicate that oppression. This is even happening right now wihh right wing governments around the world attempting to outlaw education and content on sexuality, indigenous histories, etc.
I say all this to say that the characters we read the POVs from in the thg novels do not and probably cannot define race in the way that we do now because doing so has been lost and repressed.
BUT!!!! that's not to say that racism does not exist, even though the language to define race is absent. Katniss is described as dark olive skinned, with dark eyes and dark hair. so is gale. I can't direct quote it, but Katniss talks in the early chapters of book 1 about how she is treated differently to her mum and sister who are fair and blonde. specifically, it says people do not warm to her as quickly like they do her sister and mum. Katniss also comments that the Capitol stylists make a mockery of her thick body hair. It's also worth noting she's among the poorest of district 12, living in the Seam. Not for nothing but Katniss also talks about how her father was also dark skinned and knew a lot about native plants.
These things on their own probably wouldn't necessarily point to Katniss being a person of colour, but together they paint a pretty clear picture of someone who experiences racism both systemically and personally even if she can't conceptualise it as that. Due to the fact Katniss' knowledge of plants and animals and carving weapons was passed down to her from her father, many people headcanon her as Indigenous, same for Gale.
As for Finnick? Jury's out. When I read catching fire well before the films came out I thought Finnick was maybe not white because he was described as very tanned and golden and in my experience white people just don't tan that way.
But Suzzanne Collins had very clear subtextual racial commentary in the books. Especially in the demographics of the districts. District 11 is predominantly Black (Katniss describes every D11 person as having typically Black features) and they're the agriculture district, described as the one that does the most physical labour. It's also the first district in the novel main story to do an uprising. And if you think a little bit about that and what Suzzanne Collins was saying with that particular subtext it's a very obvious racial commentary on the legacy of slavery and antiblackness.
Peeta was definitely white. Not only is he described that way physically. But his family is one of the wealthiest in D12 which means they had intergenerational wealth of some kind which it's clear Katniss and Gale did not.
Suzanne Collins is white and I think she did what the best white authors do when writing about race which is to acknowledge it and be realistic without overstepping or pretending to know. I'll forever hate the movies for eliminating that subtext.
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exalted222 · 9 days
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Aquarius Through the Houses: Pt. 2
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Aquarius 7th house: You have a fatal attraction towards unconventional people. You easily attract individuals with Aquarian-like energy that are different from the norm. A love for people who are intellectually stimulating and have unique viewpoints about life. Caring towards the underdogs, and people that are often outcasts in society. The close relationships you have in your life teach you how to be true to yourself. They propel you forward to stand out in your own personal identity. People can see the people you date as an alien because they stand out from you and the norm. Some of your partners might be emotional detached in your relationship. Love life can be somewhat karmic and take a while to have a meaningful connection. Each lover will teach you a lesson about standing out in society. Unpredictable events can occur in your love life. You have innovative approaches towards gaining affection from people. Might do things that are considered scandalous and unconventional to gain love. Aquarius here teaches you that your platonic and romantic relationships will stick you out from other people. They are here to teach you to embrace the unconventional side of your own self to shine out in society. You desire to be surrounded by people that care about the whole and not just themselves. This way you can see the world outside from just your own point of view. A humanitarian at heart, people with this placement care for the social welfare of the collective. In turn they can gain a lot of popularity and love from the masses.
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Aquarius 8th house: The ability to tap into the taboo parts of society is what differentiates you from the rest. Rebellious towards what is considered evil and should be feared. Knows a lot of information about things others would not like to talk about. Knowledge about the occult and hidden subjects. They have a unique perspective on loss and death. Death can oftentimes be a liberating process. Each transitional phase these people make, they gain more freedom than before. This is also why loss is handled well for these people, as they know that after loss comes something new. That is why they may appear detached and ready to move forward after a death has occurred. Coincidently though, these people hold a lot of fear towards new experiences and innovation. They are oftentimes comfortable with things not changing frequently. Mainly because they know change will bring unpredictable upheavals in their lives. You could have inherited unique traits from your ancestors. Even unique psychic gifts that give you glimpses into the future. Can know before-hand when a death will occur.
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Aquarius 9th house: These individuals hold differentiating beliefs that are considered polarizing from the norm. Unique philosophical and spiritual standpoints on how they view the world. Rebellious attitude towards belief systems that don’t align with them. Aquarius here strives for believing in different ideologies that are suited for you. Conforming to others system of belief will only cause more disruption and confusion in your life. Believing in the collective consciousness and working towards the unity of the community. People may see your faith as controversial, but you’re just doing what works for you. A unique outlook towards what higher learning and knowledge means to you. You probably won’t go the same route of university and gaining education as your peers. Unforeseen changes will occur within your university life. In foreign lands, you will stick out for your individuality. Going to foreign places will create dramatic changes within you. It will also broaden your understanding of faith and religion. You might have a unique style of traveling from the norm. Might opt out to go seeing places that are usually unknown.
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Aquarius 10th house: There is a focus in not conforming to societal expectations when it comes to your public career. The public sees you as a unique individual and you stick out like a sore thumb. The Alien Superstars. Even when you don’t try, people will notice that there’s something different about you. You feel very different when you’re out in the public spaces. You're meant to be innovative and create new advancements in the public world. Your network will help you a lot when it comes to your public image. You can present yourself as an intellectual individual that knows a lot of foreign information. People will be drawn to you because of your intelligence. Rebellious attitude towards authority figures, including your parents. You can have a reputation for being nonchalant and not really caring. People can at first gain the impression you are a detached person. In your career, you can focus on entrepreneurship as working a regular job can present issues with being forced to conform. Interest towards unconventional career paths that are unique to you. Might focus on technology, science and fields that promote the welfare of humanity. Whatever job you work, technology can help you a lot with optimizing and getting your work done. Aquarius pushes you to be a trailblazer who brings forward thinking ideas into the work space. Think outside the box about what you would like to do and focus on doing work that aligns with you.
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Aquarius 11th house: A tendency to keep company with the outcasts and outliers of society. People find the friends you keep to be very unique. You have a love for future oriented people that strive for a better world. A unique style when it comes to networking with other people. You thrive in groups that allow you to express your progressive ideas and rebellious views. Can’t stand superficial people who can’t see the social issues in the world. These people can gain a lot of popularity and friends online. Able to easily adapt and maneuver through social changes. A lot of care towards humanitarian causes and the betterment of your community. You can be called to lead organizations and community groups that fight for liberation. Your friends see you as a rebel who doesn’t conform to what others want. Aquarius here gives you a lot of potential to know various groups of people. Networking will be what makes you stand out from the rest of your peers.
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Aquarius 12th house: Hidden intelligence is a trait for these people. They can present themselves as innocent, but know a lot of hidden information. It’s because of the time they spend by themselves. You have a unique outlook towards being alone that differentiates you from other people. While others may run from loneliness, you are often pushed towards embracing it. Solitude leads to clear understanding. However, when left alone for too long you can be very detached to everyone else around you. So finding a balance is important. Able to tap into the collective unconsciousness to gain deeper insight. This can be through dreams, visions and sensing when something is off. With this being the house of bad spirit, you often feel liberated when it comes to the unseen world. The intangible. You understand that the self undoing means coming back to the collective unity in our universe. The world often wonders where these individuals come from. People are often at loss to where you go.
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Fin.
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youremyheaven · 7 months
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A beginner's guide to Vedic Astrology
1. Vedic astrology is based on a very different way of perceiving the world. It will take some time to get used to it but be patient. Its not as quick and easy to compartmentalize as western/tropical astrology. it addresses the human condition in all its nuance and complexity. It will take you a lot of time to understand even one nakshatra but this is normal and part of the process. Avoid looking at twitter/tumblr posts that try to tropicalize Vedic astrology by giving really weird takes with 0 context or explanation. Read blogs and articles, do a google deep dive, there are many websites run by Indian astrologers who will provide you with good introductions to your chart/naks.
2. There are 27 nakshatras divided over 12 rashis, these come under the rulership of 8 planets and are further classified on the basis of their aim, tattva, ganas, yoni animal, function etc. Familiarize yourself with the mythology of your naks and their basic classification. This is the most accessible starting point for a newbie.
3. Zodiac does not automatically become redundant in the Vedic system. They are called "rashi" and each rashi houses 2 or more nakshatras.
4. 90% of the time the moon occupies only ONE nakshatra over the course of one day. its UNCOMMON for the moon to occupy more than one nakshatra in one day. if you don't have someone's birth time and use 12 noon as the standard time (which is common practice since its right in the middle of the day with 12 hours behind and 12 hours ahead) 90% their moon sign will be correct. Since the ascendant changes every hour or so, its hard to narrow it down unless you know the person and can make an educated guess.
ive seen people argue that xyz is ashwini moon instead of bharani moon etc and please go to a good vedic birth chart generating site (i recommend either astro seek or faraway) and you can check their birth chart for every hour of the day of their given birthday if you have the time. the MOON STAYS IN THE SAME NAKSHATRA OVER THE COURSE OF ONE DAY!!!! its RARE for it to be in the preceding or following nak and it usually only happens for a VERY small window of time.
5. if you can, just get your chart read by someone who knows their stuff. avoid consuming the misinformation rampant on twitter/tumblr.
6. approach Vedic astrology with an open mind. many websites will tell you you're a horrible person with zero luck , jealous and doomed to live in perpetual misery but please understand that these come from the narrowness of their own knowledge and understanding. any wisdom possessed by an individual has to pass through their filter of perception in order to be written down. astrology is not a doomsday machine tool condemning some and glorifying others. do not make a religion out of this. think of your birth chart as something that provides context as to why you are the way you are. don't let it be something that holds you back.
7. please don't randomly pick up tantric practices and chant mantras or perform rituals just because you know a little bit about vedic astrology. this is a whole new turf and these practices can be life changing if done right but disastrous if done wrong. trust your intuition, always. i hate that tiktok/social media etc has made witch craft/magick/esoteric occult rituals look like some quirky, "woo woo" thing that anyone can do. please stay safe ya'll <33 don't blindly follow others <33
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libbee · 8 months
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"Bad people" and 8th house
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So, there is a default fantasy that life is meant to be fair, just, polite, safe, soft and soothing. But it is rarely that. I have often observed the correlation between 8th house and turmoils, craziness, mental instability. A lot of times it is caused by human behaviour, personality, conversations and the feelings.
At first, after years of turmoil and confusion, I was so angry why people speak and act badly. Why speak sarcasm, lies, humiliation, belittle others, speak comments to break others down and harsh judgmental comments? Do they not realize that they are doing evil? How do they think that they are so righteous and flawless? How are they so fake and hypocritical? Are they self aware or not?
But later I began to realise that they are teaching very valuable lessons about ego image. That if ego and persona are believed to be everything, the person refuses to see the darkness behind the ego image that they craft in other people's mind. Conversations are crucial to get to know someone and they are important to create the image you want in other people's mind. If they are naive enough, they will believe your words and deny their own perception. But if they have any awareness of the human ways, they will observe your behaviour privately, inconsistencies in speech, the content of conversations, intensity of your feelings, tone of voice etc to judge whether you are being a fake one or not.
Therefore, 8th house is like that lifting of mask. It is that penetrating vision to see beyond the words and actions of somebody to judge their actual patterns. Conversely, doing so will make you realize that you are not a good person either, like you thought. An 8th houser may have existential dread whether they are projecting their own darkness on others, whether someone is actually bad, whether they still have a grip over reality or they are going crazy?
The bad people you meet are in fact blessing in disguise. Ruminating about them will show you how you were caught up in your own ego ideal. How you may have even been a bad person in many situations but fail to realise this. Though when you see the badness in others, you accept your own behaviour. The 8th house enlightenment only comes after intense turmoil, confusion, conflict, crisis, emergency. That intense anger and self preservation you felt around someone bad will eventually help you understand that you are too caught up in image, validation, fantasy, appearance.
Though for many natives in the world, life is actually very different. They never reach the point of self reflection even by force of nature or necessity. They may continue to say and do the unwholesome things but maintain the self image that they are in fact right and better. Remember! Truth lies in depth. To understand the 8th house, you must lose sight of the shore and go deep. Even though most of the world seems to be caught up in egoistic instincts, persona, validation seeking and language, you must realize that sooner or later these structures will collapse too.
The worst a person is, the more you learn of psyche from them. If 8th housers dont have a guidebook on psychoanalysis yet, they must keep it handy. Because the world is about to unpack and shed its masks, while you need information, knowledge, language to stay stable and sane. To know what is going on around you. Psychological education and information is the support system you need. Do not go into the 8th house with bare hands thinking you can fight the monsters naturally. You need knowledge and preparation to face those monsters and win without fighting.
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