#ignoring the fact that he was a confederate | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fuckmeyer · 9 months

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Jasper as a character is so interesting because he ends up a Confederate because he can't actually empathise with the slaves and because he simply accepts cruelty around him, and then when he becomes a vampire he literally can't ignore others suffering because it hurts him, but even decades after he becomes a Vegetarian he still can't get a hang of it partially because he still can't see humans as *people*. Idk there's smth to be said about him becoming a vampire because of his own cruelty and then being eternally in horrific pain because of said cruelty that fucks.

Jasper's whole life is a curse & i love to see it

here we have a Confederate supposedly so empathetic that he acquired a "gift"... yet not so empathetic as to recognize he was fighting for the enslavement of an entire race. despite seeing the consequences of slavery literally every day. now, the man who spent his last human days denying the humanity in others is forced to spend his immortal life being slapped in the face with their emotions. forever. hueeueueueu-

yeah, i would call that "gift" a curse, actually.

if Twilight weren't a horror story, we might see a discussion between Jasper/Bella about how immortality forces you to confront the darker side of your nature (e.g. "there will come a day when the societal beliefs imbued unto you leaves you standing on the wrong side of history"), & Jasper's journey with finding love & humanity. OR, y'know, he could've just had ONE (1) line where he says "yeah i'm not proud of my service." simply, if Twilight weren't a horror, Jasper could see the error of his ways & change for the better.

HOWEVER. Twilight vampires are "mentally frozen" when they turn, so Jasper is likely still a racist who does not regret his service. no matter how many times he is confronted with his cruelty, he won't change. meaning whatever life he chooses, his gift dooms him.

wow! eternal curse!

we see evidence of this frozen mental state in his decision to go vegetarian. he doesn't switch bc he feels bad about killing humans:

"I could feel everything my prey was feeling. And I lived their emotions as I killed them. [...] You've experienced the way I can manipulate the emotions around myself, Bella, but I wonder if you realize how the feelings in a room affect me." (Eclipse, Ch 13)

note the dehumanizing term "prey" & the focus on himself. he laments not that the human lives he's taking have value but that their dying moments harsh his vibe.

the irony! trapped as an empath while never possessing the ability to be an empath! CURSE CURSE C-

herein lies a bigger, juicier curse: Jasper is, himself, (hot take) enslaved in the sense that he will never know freedom, philosophically speaking, due to the choices he made in life. the series tries to paint him as a master tactician & competent leader; fanon often paints him as a free-thinking amoral black sheep. in reality, he simply obeys the commands of higher authorities & abides by their worldview regardless of how toxic it is to himself or others.

in the beginning, he had María.

he entered the Southern Vampire Wars not by his own volition but stayed because he was content not having a choice. however one feels about María, the fact of the matter is 1) as a newborn he was stronger, bigger, & faster than her & could have run away or overpowered her, 2) had the "gift" to identify emotions & could KNOW when/if she was malicious or manipulating him, & 3) could have escaped by influencing her emotions to make her disinterested in him. at any time in the 100 years they were together, he could have left. he talks about never knowing a life outside the war & discovering "options I'd never dreamed I had." ok???? run 100 miles in any direction & you would have seen a life outside of war. BOI-

instead, he took comfort in being submissive & adopting someone else's ideology. not only did it remind him of his past, but it meant he had no need to reflect on his actions or beliefs. he prefers others dictate his worldview & order him around even if it means being unhappy. he only left because he was going to be assassinated, & even then, it wasn't until someone else told him another life was possible that he "realized" another life was possible.

notably, the period where he's most free— living with Peter & Charlotte— is his rock-bottom where "the depression got worse." but, again, not because he realized the value of human life: "I was so wearied by killing [...] even mere humans."

then he meets Alice.

Alice, who has visions of being vegetarian & converts him so they can live with the Cullens. Alice, who dictates how her family should live their lives to the point where she manipulates them. Alice, who goes so far as to dress the Cullens, who orders Jasper to wait in the car while she & Bella go shopping, who Jasper refers to as "truly [...] one frightening little monster" because for all his experience she can still beat him in combat.

his eternal soulmate is authority.

despite being unhappy with his vegetarian life, as it makes him feel weak & coddled & a liability to everyone around him, he follows the lifestyle because Alice tells him to.

then there's the Volturi, another authoritative body. "We owe the Volturi for our present way of life," says acclaimed bootlicker Jasper Hale, who in the same moment shudders at the atrocities they committed, yet strangely sees no other way for a governing body to keep the peace... so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

but, since Carlisle outranks the Volturi as an authoritative figure in that he more closely aligns with Jasper's new worldview, Jasper sees no problem deposing the vampiric governing body if it means his sister-in-law of like 2 months can keep her demonic spawn. so i guess we don't really owe the Volturi that much

to his credit, we see glimmers of him questioning his leaders: 1) his decision to leave Maria, 2) his considering switching diets to defeat Victoria, & 3) going against the Volturi. but, again, these decisions are all just a result of his self-preservation & submitting to the higher authority du jour.

in the end, he has the perfect storm of conditions that would allow him to escape the prison he's created, to find freedom & to love humanity unconditionally... but he won't. Jasper's ultimate curse is that regardless of whether he realizes the enslavement of his own self, he will never leave his cage because it's cozy & easy & allows him to never think for himself.

AAAANYWAY Jasper's life sucks & he's trapped in an eternal prison of his own making. lol

#twilight #twilight renaissance #the twilight saga #jasper hale #twilight meta #twilight headcanon #you're right there really is something to be said about jasper the shitfuck confederate ending up in this situation!!!#like it would be tragic if it wasn't so comedic and if he didn't display a modicum of self-awareness!!!!#you make a great point about how he accepts cruelty his whole life and even when he's unable to ignore it he just is forced to accept it fo #ever #the absolute *chefs kiss* curse. smeyer coudlnt have written a better curse if she tried #in fact i do believe ALL the cullen gifts are actually curses in their own way #and it's so delicious to think about it that way #god i just love thinking about twilight as a horror #you're right riote- It Fucks #thanks for sending this my way!#cheers~

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k0droid · 27 days

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would they say the n-word / are they racist: twisted wonderland edition

Inspired by twstowo's taxes headcanon post.

I meant to post this during february but i just didnt.

REMEMBER THAT IS ALL FOR SHITS N GIGGLES. IF YOU THINK YOUR POOKIE IS/IS NOT A RACIST, REBLOG OR LEAVE A COMMENT

4/2 edit: JESUS CHRIST DON'T TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY 😭😭 THESE AREN'T REAL HCS, JUST SOMETHING STUPID FOR BLACK TWST FANS TO ENJOY

GRIM: Yess that's my baby boy my son my son yes I give him the pass

RIDDLE: Couldn't waterboard the n-word outta him. Uses 'Off With Your Head' to punish anyone who uses slurs

TREY: Wouldn't. Not a racist and has no interest in saying the word.

CATER: Researches what's offensive to certain groups so he can stay respectful, no n-word from him

ACE: ace is literally that one white friend who thinks his n-word 'jokes' are funny (they're not) and he walks around with Riddle's collar because of that. He def went to a middle school named after a Confederate, but he's not racist for the most part "I play basketball so-" or "I'm gonna say the n-word: ninja!!" - 🥸

DEUCE: No. He's a good guy. He would never and if he said something remotely offensive, he'd apologize with tears

LEONA: YESS BLACK KING 🗣🔥🔥‼‼‼‼

JACK: Could and he does, but only occasionally. Punches the shit outta Ace's shoulder if he says something distasteful

RUGGIE: YES he just light-skinnted 😕 Ace would make fun of him for eating all the stereotypical foods

AZUL: Slightly racist. Just slightly. Seems like the type to get a lil tense when a tanned, well-built dude walks into the Monstro Lounge. starts clutching his pearls n shit

JADE: No, I don't really see him being racist or saying the n-word

FLOYD: Probably the least likely to say the n-word and would get offended that you even assumed. Like his entire mood would change if you mention it "Ehh Shrimpy? You tryna get squeezed? What made you think I would say that??" *fucking kills you*

KALIM: No, no n-word from Al-Asim. I could see him as a racist though. i think of kalim as purposely ignorant so in my mind, he's INTENTIONAL with his microaggressions but no one really calls him out on it.

JAMIL: Yes but only cuz I give him the pass.

VIL: Doesn't say the n-word (he knows better) but probably screams it in his thoughts. idk guys vil just seems a bit racist.

ROOK: Who's in Paris. LOL but I don't think he'd say the n-word. Also probably one of the least racist here. But he'd bring up eugenics in a convo and ruin the mood completely.

EPEL: I genuinely don't know if he would or not. Like because he from some rural area (to my knowledge, i js started book 5), i feel like he wouldn't because he'd know better. but i also heard that epel is misogynistic and hating black people & hating women go hand in hand (misogynoir)

IDIA: No but it wouldn't be surprising. i can already imagine him in that cod lobby. probably gets his slurs from cater

ORTHO: No my sweet child would not say the n-word. would blast idia out of this world with a charged beam if he said anything offensive

MALLEUS: No.

LILIA: Probably has said it before and is the most educated when it comes to black culture in the diasomnia group other than sebek (my 4c king)

SEBEK: No, in fact i might give him the pass (#mixedking😍❤️)

SILVER: No but probably a little colorist. yk how some black men love to scream from the mountain tops that they love white women? well silver is that white woman. js saying

this was fun to make. pls remember that its just a silly post, dont get mad because only hit dogs will holler.

"what abt the staff/yuus/extras-" send an ask :3

4/2 edit: its crazy cuz the only mad people are white🧍🏾‍♀️

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mlm-ficcollection · 2 months

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Jasper Hale X Male! Reader (part. 2)

(I'm only a little bit ashamed that I forgot to post the second chapter on here. Anyways, enjoy!)

(Part. 1)

----------------------------------------------------

The newborn lay in bed, glaring up at the unassuming and undeserving roof, and wondering how someone had just managed to come out for him.

After the incident, (y/n) stormed off into his room to cool off a bit (before he murdered Edward. Which he would be justified in doing thank you very much).

Coming out was, or had been, important to him. It was supposed to be a heartfelt moment of acceptance and love, a chance at something he'd never gotten before. And he knew that the others weren't blind to that fact either. He'd seen the look in Carlisle's eyes. The doctor certainly wasn't stupid. He knew he had his suspicions.

But this was not how coming out was supposed to go. He wished he had a rock or something just so he could chuck it at something (someone).

A soft knock came from the door, interrupting his seething. (Y/n) growled in frustration, turning over in the bed and facing away from the door.

"Fuck off Edward! Apology not accepted, go fuck yourself."

A small pause came from the other side of the door, sounding vaguely like someone stifling their laughter.

"... Well, what if it's not Edward?"

(Y/n)'s eyes shot open and he sat up with a start, recognizing the southern drawl on the other side of the door as definitely not Edwards. He slowly laid down again,

"Come in Jasper."

The door opened and closed, and the man approached the bed. (Y/n) did not avert his gaze from the roof. He felt no need to. The sheets of the bed shifted a bit as Jasper laid down next to him, staring at the roof as well.

For some reason, it didn't feel awkward. It just felt... safe, and calm.

"What're we lookin' at?"

Jasper asked, blinking at the empty grey roof. The newborn hadn’t the heart to tell him he was just glaring at the roof and imagining chucking rocks at his brother.

"It's new to me, this whole vampire sight. I can literally see the tiny insects on the roof." (Y/n) answered, not technically lying.

"... I'm not sure I like it. I lived in blissful ignorance of how I was surrounded by bugs before."

Jasper let out a huff of a laugh, and then they fell into a comfortable silence once more. There was tension brewing under the surface though, as if Jasper was waiting to say something that he didn’t quite know how to phrase. That wouldn’t surprise him. The man wasn’t exactly a star at navigating social interactions, mostly opting to stand back and observe.

Brooding, (y/n) had called it once, to which Jasper had responded with the most unamused of looks, making him throw his head back in laughter.

"You know it's okay right? To be gay, I mean."

Jasper stated, breaking the silence, but not the gaze on the roof. The poor roof had been subject to their scrutinising gazes for quite a while now.

(Y/n) didn't know how to respond. He couldn’t exactly argue. He knew it was technically not wrong - but some part of him still believed it was. His whole life he had been told he was wrong, a sin, a disgrace.

"... Is it?"

He mumbled, more so to himself than as an actual question. Life lessons were not always so easily unlearned. Then again, he had been taught vampires weren’t real too, and that had been unlearned pretty quickly.

Jasper frowned. (Y/n) wondered if he had upset him, as the silence between them stretched on.

"... I'm gay too, y'know. Sorta. I don’t really know all the… Words. Labels. Alice, uh, tried explainin’ but it ain’t sticking." He motioned noncommittally with his hand,

“I like women and men.”

Bi, (y/n) thought to himself, while also reeling from the weight of the words Jasper had just spoken. (Made sense though, that he had a hard time with the labels. From what he knew, Jasper was from a time you were either gay or not. Preferably not.)

…

Bi. Jasper was Bi. Jasper liked men and women.

“Wasn’ easy to come to that conclusion. Confederate Texas wasn’t the most open a’ places, believe it or not.” (y/n) snorted. Jasper smirked at the reaction, but continued. “I had to… Unlearn a lot of stuff, I’m sure you can imagine. Alice helped a lot. Anyway, it’s not wrong.”

They fell back into silence again after that. They tended to do that. Neither of them minded it.

(Y/n) couldn’t just… Unlearn everything on the spot.

But with time he’d get there.

“Thank you, Jasper.”

He responded eventually, looking over at the blond. He nodded at him.

“It means a lot.”

And Jasper simply nodded in response, returning the newborn's gaze before averting his eyes, back at the roof.

They both laid there, watching the roof. Or maybe just thinking. It didn’t matter.

Eventually, Jasper stood up to leave, nodding goodbye to the newborn once in the doorway. The newborn held up its hand, tipping a pretend cowboy hat at him, eyes twinkling mischievously. Jasper rolled his eyes. The fond smirk on his face was still there when he closed the door.

…

Jasper was bi. A tingle of hope spread through (y/n)s body, shooting through him like adrenaline.

————

Time passed, and… Nothing happened.

A couple of longing looks, a couple of too many lingering touches at training, but still, nothing. Let it be known that neither of the two men had a reputation for being fantastic at communication. It was likely that neither of the men wanted to assume the other one liked them back for fear of being wrong, of accidentally pushing the other away, of ruining what they had.

It was disgustingly adorable and horrendously frustrating to watch.

“I don’t get it.”

Alice declared, standing by one of their very large windows and peering out. In the woods, Jasper and (y/n) were training once more. Jasper brushed a hand against the newborn's shoulder, and Alice had to turn away from the window to stop herself from throwing a rock at them.

“How can they be this oblivious! I don't understand!”

“They are both afraid of making a mistake,” Edward stated from his place on the couch, distantly gazing into the trees. He seemed to be listening to them, more so than watching them. “Each wallowing in their own personal pit of self-doubt.”

“Yes, but it’s so obvious!”

Alice dramatically gestured with her hands - and it was obvious that this was killing her, not being able to just… Tell them that they were both wrong, that the feelings were requited. To not be able to help them.

“We have to let them take their time.”

Alice spun around, and there was Carlisle, coming down the stairs slowly. His gaze was set on the two men in the woods as well, before he looked over at Alice, his eyes gentle, and kind, and understanding.

“They have to realise it on their own. We can’t force their hands on this.”

He was right, of course. And Alice, if anyone, knew they’d get there eventually.

But holy shit could they take their time.

#jasper hale x male reader #twilight #jasper hale x reader #x male reader #male reader #twilight x reader #gn reader #jasper hale x gn reader #jasper hale #jasper whitlock #jasper cullen

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fruity-pontmercy · 2 months

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Les Mis adaptations and apolitical appropriation

I think it's no secret on this blog that I love the original Les Mis 1980 concept album in French, and that I also love comparing different versions of the stage musical. I've noticed that Les Mis seems to get progressively more vaguely apolitical as time goes on, not only in the way it's viewed in our culture, but in the actual text as well.

It's natural for specifics to be lost in adaptation. It's easier to get people to care about 'the people vs. the king' in a relatively short musical rather than actually facing the audience with the absolute mess that were 19th century french politics (monarchist orleanists vs monarchist legitimists vs imperialist vs bonapartist democrats vs every flavour of republican imaginable). Still, I feel that as time goes on, as more revivals and adaptations of the stage musical come out, the more watered down its politics become. Like, Les Mis at it's core is just meant to be a fancily written, drawn out political essay, right?

In a way I feel that the 1980 concept album almost tried to modernise it with its symbols of progress. Yes, through Enjolras' infamous disco segment (and other similar allusions to the ideals of social change), but perhaps most interestingly to me, through one short line that threw me off when I first heard it, because it seems so insignificant, but might actually be the most explicitly leftist line of all of Les Mis.

"Son coeur vibrait à gauche et il le proclama" (roughly "His heart beat to the left and he proclaimed it" i.e: he was a leftist) Feuilly says, while speaking of the now dead général Lamarque in Les Amis de L'ABC.

What's that? An actual mention of leftism??? in MY vaguely progressive yet apolitical musical??? More seriously, this mention of leftism, clashing with the rest of the musical due to it's seeming anachronism, is interesting not because it's actually more political than anything else in Les Mis, rather, because it's not scared to explicitly name what it's trying to do.

But we've come a long way from the Concept Album days, it's been 43 years, and Les Misérables is now one of the most famous and beloved musicals in the entire world. It's been revived and reimagined and adapted in a million ways, in different mediums, in different languages and countries, and it's clear that it's changed along with it's audience.

On top of pointing out a cool line in my favourite version of the musical, I wanted to write this post to reflect on the perception of the political message of this work. We as a Les Mis fandom on Tumblr are very political, I don't need to tell you that, however, I feel that because this very left leaning space has sprung out of a work we all love so much, we oftentimes forget to revisit it from a more objective point of view.

Les Misérables has a history of being misrepresented, this has been true since it's publication, since american confederate soldiers became entranced with their censored translation Lee's Miserables. However, with it's musical adaptation, this misinterpretation has been made not only more accessible but also easier. As much as I love musical theatre and I think it is at it's best an incredible art form able to communicate complex themes visulally by the masses for the masses, I think it'd be idealistic to ignore the fact that the people who can afford to go see musicals regularly are, usually, not the common folk. Broadway and the West End are industries which, like most, need money to keep them afloat, and are loved people of all political backgrounds (and unfortunately, often older conservatives) not just communists on tumblr. We've seen the way Les Miz UK's social media team constantly misses the mark regarding different social issues, and the way Cameron Makintosh has used the musical to propagate his transphobia, and most of us can agree that these actions are in complete antithesis with the message of Les Misérables as a novel.

But I must ask, how does Les Mis ,as a West End musical in it's current form, actually drive a leftist message, and how are we as a community helping if every time someone relating to the musical messes up if we just claim they "don't get it"?

I'm thinking in particular of incidents like last october, where Just Stop Oil crashed Les Mis at the West End. Whether you think it's good activism or not is not the question I think, this instance is interesting particularly because it shows that, outside of Les Misérables analysis circles and fandom spaces, it is not recognised as an inherently leftist, political or activist work, and instead of just saying they completely missed the point of the musical, I think it'd be interesting to take a step back and look at what the musical as it stands actually represents in our culture today.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, so I won't try to give one, but I do hope we can reflect on this a bit.

#this is my first time making a well thought out les Mis post in possibly like 2 years PLEASSEEE BE NICE #wrote this instead of listening to my Marxist Philosophy lecture so i hope it technically counts as productive procrastination #Btw in this i use Les Mis when reffering to the musical and Les Misérables when talking about the book (and Les Miz talking about the #west end musical so)#les mis #les miserables #les miz #les amis de l'abc #the brick #musical theatre #enjolras #litblr #meta analysis #media analysis

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emmafreakecreations · 4 months

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When ever I think about Rhys saying "Both sides did bad things." It just reminds me so much of Americans who like to wave away that the confederates in the Civil War were fighting to keep slavery and/or spew The Lost cause Mythology.

For those of you who are not American or maybe never learned this but the Lost Cause mythology is basically lies and rewriting of history that confederates did themselves starting soon after the end of the war to mask their true intentions of the war. Things like, "it was all about slave rights and taxes! The north was being aggressive; during Sherman's march they burned, pillaged, and raped! Slavery wasn't actually that bad and if anything black people needed it!" All of it lies. The real reason they succeeded from the Union was slavery; they wanted to keep slavery and expand it into future states. They wanted to keep it so bad they written it into the confederacy constitution. The fight over slavery started very soon after the revolution ended and then built and built with every compromise on which new states would be free states and which would be slave, the rise in abolitionism, and more laws making it harder for slaves to escape. It exploded when Lincoln was elected President. He wasn't even inaugurated and states had already succeeded. The founding fathers didn't do anything about it because a) some owned slaves b) they believed it would die out because it was expensive, it became super profitable once the cotton gin was invented.

And while the Union initially wasn't fighting for the end of slavery but to keep the union, it only turned to ending slavery because Lincoln recognized as the only way to keep the US together and the Union soldiers who marched through the South who had never been there before saw how awful slavery was and wanted to end it. Yes General Sherman lead a campaign in the South and burned things but the things he burned (from my understanding) were the plantations and a few cities. Slaves who had escaped followed the union army as they moved through the south. I even learned that some point some union soldiers killed the dogs of a plantation that the owner used to hunt down escaped slaves and let his slaves beat him. I'm not going to deny that there probably was stealing and rape happening but there was also reports of confederates stealing too.

The point I'm trying to make is that while the Union wasn't perfect you also can't ignore the fact that the other side was fighting for slavery. That's why it feels similar, both Rhys and some people say, "that side did bad things too." while completely ignoring the fact the other side was fighting to keep the right of enslaving human beings and keeping them like cattle. And in the case of the humans of ACOTAR they were fighting for their freedom as some black union soldiers were fighting for theirs and the rest who were still enslaved.

Feel free to correct me on my facts about the Civil War, it's really only in recent years that historians are trying to fight against the years of lies the Lost Cause created in the American public's conscience. Like it is so pervasive that in the 21st century media has 3 vampire characters that fought on the side of the confederacy and paint them as not that bad. Vampire Diaries in a later season had an episode explaining that Damon didn't want to fight in the confederacy he only did it because his dad forced him. And the only one who questions and confronts Bill in True Blood is Tera and her white friend tells her to stop being rude. Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter is the only one I have seen making wealthy plantation owners vampires and the bad guys. If you want know more about the American Civil war check out Atun-Shei Films and his series called checkmate, Lincolnists on YouTube. He goes through a lot of misconceptions and lies about the civil war while being very honest, down to earth, level headed, and not show favor towards the union or confederacy because he does also talk about each of their faults.

#anti acotar #anti ic #anti sjm

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angelsdean · 9 months

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Hot take: between Sam and Dean, Sam is the one more at risk of being Republican.

(Maybe he had been at Stanford but, please, the whole Secession War episode. How people are forgetting their two very different reactions at Confederacy?)

hot take: this isn't a hot take dsjfkdsfk. idk if i'd go as far as say republican. but sam def leans toward some brand of conservative liberal. people use stanford to back up the fact that he's a little liberal college boy but imo stanford is what gave him some of these whacky conservative ideas. he drank a bit of the ivy league rich kid kool-aid to fit in at stanford imo. s1 sam and his judgement and opinions toward dean abt how he makes money is not a cute look. esp since he grew up dirt poor alongside dean !! he teases dean abt wanting to use a free bbq to scope out leads for their case in 1x08 and like yea, sibling teasing, but there's def judgement in his tone re: the free food part. like dude !! you were food insecure throughout your whole childhood !! but dean of course bore the brunt of that trauma, made sure sam didn't realize how bad it was. so, to be fair to sam, i think some of these conservative judgements and beliefs stem from sam just being a bit oblivious, ignorant, and unaware.

HOWEVER, yea he's had some questionable things to say on other topics, like you said his attitude re: the civil war and reducing it to a fight between brothers or some shit and trying to be respectful toward the confederate soldier ???? meanwhile dean was like very vocally FUCK THAT. we won. etc etc. also sam in folsom prison blues when dean was like "innocent people are in danger" re: the ghost and sam was like "we're in a prison i wouldn't call these people innocent" like..........this guy was gonna be a lawyer! (yea tax law, but still, you know what i mean). not everyone in prison is guilty !! and even still, they're not ghost bait.

anyways yea, dean (esp in the early seasons) represents the acab fuck authority working class Othered communities living on the fringes of society while sam is coming out of being very much Part of Society and cosplaying as Upper Class and operating with a very ridged view of morality, right and wrong, little room for shades of grey, which is what most of reality consists of (this is the guy who suddenly wanted to become catholic after zero religious upbringing ! like my dude. what) and he's slowly trying to untangle himself from those beliefs that he absorbed during his pretending-to-be-a-normal-guy years. but yea if i had to choose a brother to end up republican it would Not be dean !!!!!!

#i went to catholic school for 10 yrs my guy. you don't want to be catholic #replies

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gaypirate420 · 8 months

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Curiosity here: {Discussion}

If you could re-write Jasper but keep 2 things about him, what would you keep? Besides appearance and gift! How would you explore this new version of Jasper?

For me, I'd keep his army past and Alice. But I'd explore how he changes over time and comes to realize how bad being on the Confederate side & being racist is. (I think you get it I'm trying to keep this short.)

Such as what makes him change and how he copes with his new understanding, and y'know the whole process of that.

Ofc, she comes into play too, maybe she's the catalyst that gets him to thinkin' about the topic at the surface, but it eventually goes deeper as she overtime explains things to him, and he thinks further on his own. IDK BRO I'm just thinking and wanted to read what you'd do. {Have a discussion.}

I'd change him shacking up w/ the Cullens though...or maybe their relationships with each other. I'd love to explore everything basically around canon while still being divergent to an extent. (Canon Related?)

He'd be the main character, but I think you already knew that if you read or at least skimmed this. But I have a terrible fear of people misunderstanding me. (⊙﹏⊙)

But yeah, I was just curious! I know a lot of people have done all sorts of things with him in Fics regarding his past and such, but I do always enjoy reading your responses to things.

This is just a purely hypothetical discussion. {If this was ever made that would be ambitious as hell cause like mf is like... 150 years old!}

I don't even want to think about all that time, and they never sleep either so like holy hell. So many moments of introspection and guilt and etc. to write I'd have a mental collapse. {But that's me when I write anything but also editing sucks ass.}

But not to mention ofc the huge amounts of research everything would take, and I am a huge perfectionist.

-Sincerely a mutual who tried to ask a few questions then freaked out over my own questions.

I'm making this anon now because I fear this ask now.

I think we have the same idea dear mutual!

(this is so fucking long omg I went off the rails, let me know what y'all think.)

I wouldn't rewrite anything, I'll just play it differently, I'll give it a nice depth.

I've always been on the side that just rewrite or ignore Jasper's confederate past is- not ideal. Yeah it's okay for a silly little comfort fic with your favorite vampire but not when talking about his actual canon characterization.

I would keep him serving for the Confederate army. I know a lot of people don't like that about him, but, I think it's a huge part of his character but there was something lacking there.

And what was missing is guilt.

Jasper, as to how he is written, and how we see the scenes of his past are played on both the book and the movie makes him look like he wasn't ashamed of his racist past or that he was even still prideful for it.

And it's so weird for me, how could this man who spent a century long depression, a self described "monster" a "nightmare" that just floods with self loathing couldn't feel guilty for not only taking someone's life but their freedom?

How could he feel guilty over killing the newborns but not black people? It doesn't make sense and it makes it worse, it makes you think that he, in modern times, it's still a confederate and also because vampires are "mentally frozen." He's not changed that much really then.

(I think Jasper lacking guilt and remorse about these fact about him is because of SM and her own views she not so subtlety spread all over her books though.)

So yes, I am keeping him as an ex-confederate soldier. Jasper was 17 so we are just to assume he was ignorant, and that's okay, we can live with an ignorant white boy for now. I cannot stress enough about how there is no need to make mental flips and splits to justify this choice of thinking in a 17 y/o southern boy from the 1840's. But, he gets to change, he, after the first years of him killing the newborns reflects about this, he might not be completely educated but he has the spirit.

Now let's talk about Alice.

I love her, but, if we are really analysing this then her and therefore the rest of the Cullens (because they welcome her and Jasper on their family) are okay with Jasper serving for the confederacy and I don't like that.

Why did Alice make him feel hope and all this shit and get him to change and learn a new life but didn't make him reflect on that maybe, perhaps, fighting for the enslavement of an entire race wasn't a good thing to do.

She says "you'll never be that again." referring to him being a vampire killing machine, not a racist, may I remind y'all.

So, I think the change would be about Alice teaching him things, Jasper spent so much time with Maria and then he was seriously depressed, I get the idea he wasn't interested on- going outside besides to feed from humans.

I think there are two types of vampires, those who love seeing humanity grow and change and come up with all these little inventions and then the ones who just see humans as prey.

Alice being the first and Jasper the second, but not for long after he meets her.

I think Alice could update him about the modern world that was the 50's, she would educate her that yes, Jasper's gentlemanly ways are charming and make her blush and giggle but there are some comments that aren't okay, just because in "his time" it was "okay", "funny" or "right", to say these things doesn't make them less offensive, dismissive and hurtful.

Alice would ask Jasper what did he felt while serving? And why? Was he even fully aware of what he was fighting for? Did the years of him seeing countless human's fight and go to wars that got bloodier and more destructive made him stop and think about the damage of his own army career?

Make the man reflect. Make him think for days and days about these questions he asked himself but never truly took the time to answer them. I need Jasper to have a slight mental breakdown before he gets to know the more peaceful life with the Cullens and Alice.

Alice asked these questions in her endless curiosity, not in innocence, but rather to know Jasper, really know him and understand him.

I want him to feel disgusted about having to feed from humans now that he realizes how much harm he did, and that's were the Cullens come in, Alice knows about her new family of course and it's more than excited to know her mate wants this life too, not because oh he's so in love with her he'll do anything (he is) but because he wants to change.

Carlisle let's him stay because he knows this, he understands in a way and he can't help but sympathize with him and Alice wanting to change herself and help her partner.

But Jasper can't fully because his body is asking him to kill constantly. He doesn't want to keep harming people, but his body can't forget, not only his body it's scarred as a reminder, but there's this annoying bloodlust that doesn't want to go away just yet.

But he has Alice, holding his hand and make him feel like everything will be alright.

Jasper is struggling but he is changing, he is getting more and more mental peace, finally, after a century and a half. It's slow, it's painful but it's there, self forgiveness and change.

One of the things that I love, a concept, Jasper being into philosophy, history and just literature, him loving to learn.

I love that in Breaking Dawn Jasper wanted to help Bella with her thirst. And of course I love him being hurt when she's way more successful than he is after so many years.

Seeing someone who you share the same experiences is so amazing, it helps you, but seeing them overcome this challenges that you also endure it brings you down on such a horrible way, it hurts you, but it makes you think of who you were before and how much you have accomplished. How much you've changed and that's my take on Jasper Hale.

I am not normal about him.

Also, I think I would change vampires not being able to sleep or cry, I think Jasper deserves both, as a treat :). I love him.

#i could go on #but I won't because I think I got the right thing #jasper whitlock x reader #jasper hale x reader #jasper whitlock hale #jasper whitlock #jasper hale #the twilight saga #twilight headcanon #twilight saga #twilight renaissance #effervescent

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empirearchives · 2 months

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The introduction of the Napoleonic Code in Bavaria

Probably the best codification work of the Rhine Confederation period was the draft of a "General Civil Code for the Kingdom of Bavaria" from 1808/09, which was essentially based on the suggestions of Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach. By starting codification work, the Bavarian King Maximilian IV wanted to give in to Napoleon's urging to introduce his code in Bavaria as well. In a report for the Ministry of Justice in 1808 "on the manner of introducing the Code Napoleon in a German country", Feuerbach highlighted the main ideas of the Code Napoleon: freedom of the person; legal equality of subjects; equality of laws for all citizens of the state ; Freedom of property as well as independence and independence of the state from the church in all civil matters. For him, the Napoleonic Code was a result of the French Revolution: "It was the purpose of French legislation, on the one hand, to completely end the Revolution, on the other, to perpetuate the beneficial results of the Revolution".

Anyone who wants to destroy the basic ideas of a code of law through modification kills “the truly spiritual life of it and turns the living body into a corpse. In the modification retort, on which the inconvenient spiritus rector was supposed to evaporate, nothing more than a caput mortuum would ultimately remain, which would hardly be worth keeping. Precisely those parts of French legislation which contradict our existing German principles are its brightest points." When the discussions of the draft in the Privy Council were almost completed, the conservative aristocratic opposition brought down the proposal in 1809/10. Particularly because of the changes to mortgage law proposed by Feuerbach, the Bavarian draft represents a German version of the Napoleonic Code that is quite equal to the French original. Feuerbach paid particular attention to the linguistic version: insofar as a regulation of the Napoleonic Code should be retained, he was concerned with translating the French original into a "pure German legal language, not tainted by any provincialisms, possibly with the same advantages." However, this should not obscure the fact that the Commission has often exceeded the limits of mere translation. The most important change was that almost all traces of the French judicial constitution were erased from the draft. Article 530 of the Code Napoléon was also modified so that the replacement of perpetual basic pensions should only be permitted with the consent of both parties. The inheritance law was based on the succession order of Austrian law. The property law, which was almost completely ignored by the Napoleonic Code, was regulated in a separate chapter.

Source: Werner Schubert, Der Code civil (Code Napoléon) in Deutschland und das Reichsgericht

[Bold italics by me]

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andrew-nobody · 2 months

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What character of Twilight would you be and why?

I hate to say it, but… I would probably be Edward. I would say Jasper but I can’t ignore the fact that he was a Confederate soldier. I mean. Come on.

#answered asks #ash dark desires #twilight

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republicansaredomesticterrorists · 1 year

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Without a mandated vaccine the military will be incapacitated by a massive number of Covid cases. That is what Russian oligarchs want, that is why they buy Republikkkan politicians.

When you join the military you are required to literally every vaccine known to humankind and then even more if you deploy out of the country. George Washington began the practice during the War for Independence.

Republikkkans are all about feeding red meat to the base and they don’t care how many suffer or die or what damage is done to the country by their reckless actions. Very few current Republikkkan politicians have ever served and with each passing generation fewer and fewer rural Confederates serve. Repubs and rednecks think they control the military but in fact it’s always been predominantly working class urban whites from the north until Vietnam in the 60’s and 70’s. Since Vietnam it’s been a mix of those blue collar urban whites and “minorities.” Non-whites serve in numbers far greater than their percentage of the population. Further it’s estimated that 75% of military members vote Democratic.

What we are seeing in regards to refusing Covid vaccinations isn’t going to end with just that disease. The deplorable MAGA’s are already refusing ALL vaccinations. There have been polio outbreaks and there currently is a large measles outbreak here in the US. Some of these may start with unvaccinated immigrants, as Repubs claim, but diseases are taking root with poor white southern and rural Republikkkan conspiracy theorists and ignorant MAGA’s. This all began in the UK in 1996 when that crackpot doctor started the vaccines create autism hoax. Even though it’s been debunked and he admitted he fabricated it, it has taken route with the poorly educated crowd. Again southern and rural communities have had their educational systems plundered for decades by Republikkkan politicians and billionaires with for profit charter schools (DeVos et al).

So many of us on the left never dig deeper than the surface, that is they choose politicians based on personality or identity politics, I’ll vote for the person who belongs to my group or is a strong ally of my group. When you scratch below the surface and begin doing opposition research you’ll find that the Republikkkans are running a highly effective and hierarchical political machine. The Republikkkan party or GOP is a tool of the top 2% and big multinational businesses. They have been running the most sophisticated and organized political organization since the late 70’s that the world has ever seen. Billionaires and corporations have a vast network of right-wing foundations that fund everything most of you are against. They panicked when Hillary try to exposed this “vast right-wing conspiracy” and labeled her nuts which eventually took root in the American psyche. Today there are articles, books, documentaries, and even college courses that examine this vast right-wing conspiracy.

Ted Cruz, MTG, BoBo, Graham, etc are secretly planning a campaign against you. They are literally given legislation to introduce into Congress by the Koch and Walton families to name a few. They are given daily talking points and daily targets. Their “celebrity personalities” and media outlets are telegraphing the exact same messages, often word for word, every single day. Koch, Walton, etc pay an army of conservative lawyers and scholars to write and disseminate things they want made into law or policy. For decades the NRA has been paying a small army of lawyers to create a base of litigation that can be called upon as case history in future cases in front of higher courts. Occasionally they give the base some culture war things like expanding access to guns or banning abortion but that is just to keep the masses voting for Republikkkans. Their ultimate goal is unrestrained capitalism with legislation that preserves, protects, and expands their ability to amass wealth and power. In a few decades they will remake America into a clone of Brazil where the wealthy live in luxury inside gated compounds while the rest of us are literal peasants living in poverty and disease in favelas on the outskirts of society.

Do your own research. You can begin by googling ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Foundation to name a few. It’s a non-stop 24/7/365 war against Dems, unions, the poor, the middle class, the working class, people of color, lgbt, the handicapped, intellectuals, urban dwellers, coastal elites, immigrants, Jews/Catholics/Muslims and any non-evangelical or Protestant religion and many more groups.

This last part is a hard truth. While the Nazism, racism, discrimination, dominionism, and general bigotry and hatred is very real-it is not their ultimate agenda. Their ultimate goal is the accumulation of wealth and power at any cost. The bigotry and culture war nonsense are just tools to create an army of Republikkkan voters, foot soldiers for the right-wing. The Republikkkan politicians, deplorable racists, rural deploranles, militias, conspiracy theorists, and garden variety red state hicks are just pawns, tools, a means to an end. Multimillionaires, billionaires, and corporations only care about the color green. Don’t let them divide us with their lies and propaganda. Follow the money.

This is a war. We must defeat their pawns in elections, battle their foot soldiers in the streets, and most importantly prevent the oligarchs from buying our government.

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mswyrr · 3 months

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The second pillar of the argument Texas is making is the so-called “compact theory” – an idea that has not been entertained by serious people in a long, long time. According to the compact theory, the constitution is just a contract that entails certain duties the federal government, and especially the president, has to fulfill. If those duties are neglected, the states, understood as sovereign entities, are free to disregard federal authority, ignore federal law, and, ultimately, leave the Union. This is precisely the argument slave states used to justify secession. As Mark Joseph Stern succinctly put it with regards to Abbott’s statement: “This language embraces the Confederacy’s conception of the Constitution as a mere compact that states may exit when they feel it has been broken.” Honestly, it makes sense for Abbott and today’s reactionary Right to adopt these neo-confederate arguments. In a way, they are just explicitly emphasizing the tradition in which their political project stands, as they are once again defying the federal government and deploying “states’ rights” in order to justify inhumane brutality in service of upholding white nationalist domination. The fact that this argument was resoundingly defeated – politically and on the battlefield – does not matter to them: The Republican Party and the extremist Right are all in. Among the first to announce support for Greg Abbott was Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. 25 Republican governors have endorsed the position of Texas, pledging their support for Abbott’s fight against the federal government and for the legal theories justifying it; some are even vowing to send their national guards, itching to escalate the situation further. That is something Donald Trump would very much like – he has already called on Republican states to “deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border.” And nothing mobilizes rightwing extremists like a standoff with the federals in service of white domination: Elon Musk is on Abbott’s side, propagating Great Replacement conspiracies, the barely concealed subtext of this whole thing, by accusing Biden of wanting to bring in immigrants as illegal voters. And far-right activists have called for a “Take back our border” rally. What could possibly go wrong. [...] But as much as I am professionally obligated to caution against facile historical analogies, Republican states are, right now, openly and aggressively endorsing the argument that led this country into a Civil War. There are, at the very least, some very concerning echoes; and more importantly, there are powerful traditions and continuities. Republican governors are proudly taking up the “states’ rights” mantle to defy the federal government. On the level of the underlying political project and vision of what America should be, there is a fairly direct line from the secession of slave states to today’s neo-confederate use of the “compact” theory as a way to justify the cruel crackdown on an “invasion” of people of color. And as much as the Civil War analogy may tend to invoke misleading associations, it can actually be helpful if it alerts people to the seriousness of the situation and to the prospect of violence. Because the fact that we will not get a rematch between vast armies dressed in blue and gray meeting on the battlefield does not mean the current situation isn’t extremely volatile and dangerous, or that there won’t be violence. There is likely going to be a lot more political violence.

#us politics tag #us history #thomas zimmer #quotes #awful that US media is such a mess #that this isn't being covered well #media consolidation has destroyed a lot of good journalism #you've got news rooms firing reporters #even as we go into one of the most dangerous periods of recent history in US politics

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reasoningdaily · 7 months

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Schools do a poor job of teaching about America’s legacy of white supremacy, according to a scholar who researches racial discrimination.

A Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington, D.C., in 1926

When it comes to how deeply embedded racism is in American society, blacks and whites have sharply different views.

For instance, 70 percent of whites believe that individual discrimination is a bigger problem than discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions. Only 48 percent of blacks believe that is true.

Many blacks and whites also fail to see eye to eye regarding the use of blackface, which dominated the news cycle during the early part of 2019 due to a series of scandals that involve the highest elected leaders in Virginia, where I teach.

The donning of blackface happens throughout the country, particularly on college campuses. Recent polls indicate that 42 percent of white American adults either think blackface is acceptable or are uncertain as to whether it is.

One of the most recent blackface scandals has involved Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, whose yearbook page from medical school features someone in blackface standing alongside another person dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe. Northam has denied being either person. The more Northam has tried to defend his past actions, the clearer it has become to me how little he appears to know about fundamental aspects of American history, such as slavery. For instance, Northam referred to Virginia’s earliest slaves as “indentured servants”. His ignorance has led to greater scrutiny of how he managed to ascend to the highest leadership position in a racially diverse state with such a profound history of racism and white supremacy.

Ignorance is Pervasive

The reality is Gov. Northam is not alone. Most Americans are largely uninformed of our nation’s history of white supremacy and racial terror.

As a scholar who researches racial discrimination, I believe much of this ignorance is due to negligence in our education system. For example, a recent study found that only 8 percent of high school seniors knew that slavery was the central cause of the Civil War. There are ample opportunities to include much more about white supremacy, racial discrimination and racial violence into school curricula. Here are three things that I believe should be incorporated into all social studies curricula today:

1. The Civil War was fought over slavery and one of its offshoots – the convict-lease system – did not end until the 1940s.

The Civil War was fought over the South’s desire to maintain the institution of slavery in order to continue to profit from it. It is not possible to separate the Confederacy from a pro-slavery agenda and curriculums across the nation must be clear about this fact.

A Confederate treasury note from the Civil War Era shows how reliant the South’s economy was on slave labor. Photo from Scott Rothstein / www.shutterstock.com.

After the end of the Civil War, southern whites sought to keep slavery through other means. Following a brief post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction, white southerners created new laws that gave them legal authority to arrest blacks over the most minor offenses, such as not being able to prove they had a job.

While imprisoned under these laws, blacks were then leased to corporations and farms where they were forced to work without pay under extremely harsh conditions. This “convict leasing” was, as many have argued, slavery by another name and it persisted until the 1940s.

Southern jails made money leasing convicts for forced labor in the Jim Crow South. Circa 1903. Photo from Everett Historical / www.shutterstock.com.

2. The Jim Crow era was violent.

While students may be taught about segregation and laws preventing blacks from voting, they often are not taught about the extreme violence whites enacted upon blacks throughout the Jim Crow era, which took place from 1877 through the 1950s. Mob violence and lynchings were frequent occurrences – and not just in the South – throughout the Jim Crow era.

Racial terror was used as a means for whites to maintain power and prevent blacks from gaining equality. Notably, many whites – not just white supremacist groups like the Klu Klux Klan – engaged in this violence. Moreover, the torture and murder of blacks was not associated with any consequences.

During this same time, white society created negative stereotypes about blacks as a way to dehumanize blacks and justify the violence whites enacted upon them. These negative stereotypes included that blacks were ignorant, lazy, cowardly, criminal and hypersexual.

Blackface minstrelsy refers to whites darkening their skin and dressing in tattered clothing to perform the negative stereotypes as part of entertainment. This imagery and entertainment served to solidify negative stereotypes about blacks in society. Many of these negative stereotypes persist today.

3. Racial inequality was preserved through housing discrimination and segregation.

During the early 1900s, a number of policies were put into place in our country’s most important institutions to further segregate and oppress blacks. For example, in the 1930s, the federal government, banks and the real estate industry worked together to prevent blacks from becoming homeowners and to create racially segregated neighborhoods.

This process, known as redlining, served to concentrate whites in middle-class suburbs and blacks in impoverished urban centers. Racial segregation in housing has consequences for everything from education to employment. Moreover, because public school funding relies so heavily on local taxes, housing segregation affects the quality of schools students attend.

All of this means that even after the removal of discriminatory housing policies and school segregation laws in the 1950s and 1960s, the consequences of this intentional segregation in housing persist in the form of highly segregated and unequal schools. All students should learn this history to ensure that they do not wrongly conclude that current racial disparities are based on individual shortcomings – or worse, black inferiority – as opposed to systematic oppression.

Americans live in a starkly unequal society where health and economic outcomes are largely influenced by race. We cannot begin to meaningfully address this inequality as a society if we do not properly understand its origins. The white supremacists responsible for sanitizing our history lessons understood this. Their intent was clearly to keep the country ignorant of its racist past in order to stymie racial equality. To change the tide, we must incorporate a more accurate depiction of our country’s racist history in our K-12 curricula.

#3 Things Schools Should Teach About America’s History of White Supremacy #white supremacy #american hate #american white supremacy #education #white lies #white history of hate #homegrown supremacy #systemic racism #convict leasing #13th amendment #vagrancy laws #racism in american systems #systemic oppression #Jim Crow #Jim Crow Laws #Black Codes

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kemetic-dreams · 2 years

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Meet Mary. She was Free, Educated and A Spy. Her Disguise… Confederate European House Slave!

Mary was the best as she was working right in The Confederate President’s home. She had a photographic mind. Everything Mary saw on the Rebel President’s desk, she could repeat word for word.

"Ellen Bond" was neither dim-witted, illiterate, nor a slave. In reality, she was a free, well-educated African-American woman by the name of Mary Elizabeth Bowser. And she was a Union spy working right under Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s nose.

For months during the most crucial period of the Civil War, as General Ulysses S. Grant maneuvered to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital, Mary supplied critical military intelligence to the Union army. In recognition of her contributions to the Union war effort, she was inducted into the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in 1995.

Elizabeth was able to arrange for a friend to take Mary with her as a servant to help at social functions held by Varina Davis in the Confederate White House. Mary performed her servant role so well she was eventually taken on full time as, presumably, a slave hired out by her master.

As a spy, Mary enjoyed a significant advantage: invisibility. It’s not that she was unseeable, like H. G. Wells’ Invisible Man, but rather that as a black slave, she was unseen and unnoticed by the whites she served. Her entrance into the dining room to serve at table in no way affected the conversations Jefferson Davis might be having with visiting generals. When she went to his office to clean, it did not occur to the Confederate president that this seemingly ignorant and dull-witted African woman could have either the capacity or the interest to glean information from the papers he left lying on his desk.

In fact, Mary’s role went far beyond the norm. Whatever she read or heard she was able to remember and pass on word-for-word. That’s the testimony of Thomas McNiven, the official head of the Richmond spy ring. McNiven ran a bakery and made daily deliveries all around the city, including to the Confederate White House. This allowed Mary to regularly meet with him for a few minutes as he delivered his goods to the Davis household. Years later, in 1904, McNiven recalled those days to his daughter and her husband, who eventually recorded his story:

Mary was able to continue her espionage activities until January of 1865. Jefferson Davis had become aware that information was somehow being leaked, and suspicion apparently began to fall on Mary. She made the decision to flee Richmond and seems to have made her way to the North. One unsubstantiated account says that in her last act as a Union agent, she tried to burn down the Confederate White House, but was unsuccessful.

Sometime in the early 1850s, Mary was sent to Philadelphia, as Elizabeth had been, to be educated at a Quaker school for African Americans. In 1855, with Mary’s schooling complete, Elizabeth arranged for her to join a missionary community in Liberia. Mary, however, hated living in the African country, and by the spring of 1860 was back in Richmond with Elizabeth.

A year later, in April 1861, Mary was married to Wilson Bowser, a free African man. Interestingly, the ceremony, like her baptism, took place at St. John’s Episcopal. The wedding notice listed both Mary and Wilson as “colored servants to Mrs. E. L. Van Lew” (Elizabeth’s mother).

#mary #spy #confederate army #african #afrakan #kemetic dreams #brownskin #afrakans #africans #brown skin

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 8 months

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By Kirk Swearingen

In the face of what seems like endless gun carnage in the U.S., Republican politicians call for more mental health funding even while withholding it. Not only are there now more guns than people in this country, many Republicans and the right-wing media continue to profit by leading people, especially younger men, to despair.

They're projecting their own unexamined mental health issues on others. As Salon's Amanda Marcotte has often pointed out, for Republicans it seems that every accusation is a confession.

When Donald Trump and his confederates claim that Democrats cheat in elections, that's what is known as a tell, since cheating at elections is precisely what they themselves are trying their best (or worst) to do.

When Ivy League–educated Republicans attack the liberal "elite." When Trump Republicans profess outrage about the "Biden crime family." When the malignant narcissist who formerly occupied the White House claims that liberals (whom he claims are "socialists," "radicals" or "Marxists") are out to destroy the country. Every accusation is a confession.

So Republican politicians and their media allies call for more mental health spending as a supposed solution to the gun violence crisis, one suspects that's a reflection of their own mental strain in championing an absurd interpretation of the Second Amendment and steadfastly ignoring the fact that people in other large Western nations have issues with mental health too, but for some reason don't shoot each other, or themselves, nearly as often.

Many men who vote Republican, it seems, are too focused on propping up their fragile masculinity to seek help in any case. (It might make them look like "betas.") Far too often, a right-wing man gets so worked up about a perceived threat to his manliness that he goes on a shooting rampage with assault-style weapons, which the Supreme Court has helpfully explained is every American's God-given right, under the twisted logic that there was no "history or tradition" in the 18th century of prohibiting high-powered firearms that hadn't been invented.

So many American conservatives live in a seemingly incessant state of fear — about books and experts and science and liberals and immigrants and independent women and people of color and people with different sexual preferences or gender identities — that it's no wonder they appear mentally and emotionally unhealthy. Then there are the evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who form the most reliable MAGA Republican base: Their alleged belief in Jesus Christ has become so warped they now perceive their savior in the person of our twice-impeached, four-times-indicted ex-president. None of this signals a group of well-adjusted human beings. The HBO series "The Righteous Gemstones," a dark comedy about shallow, grifting televangelists stunted and spoiled by wealth, has to work hard to outdo what we see at Trump rallies.

Come on, it's not like we weren't warned about all this. Remember Trump's infamous 2016 response to Hillary Clinton: "No puppet, no puppet … You're the puppet!" Did that sound like a mentally well-adjusted adult? Or an adult of any kind? How about this lovely Mother's Day greeting, earlier this year. Who defends themselves against allegations of criminal actions by saying, "I'm a legitimate person"? Who frequently posts in all caps on social media, flinging incomprehensible accusations at political opponents?

As for anti-"woke" warrior Ron DeSantis, his campaign against Trump appears to be a spectacular failure, even as he apparently mimics Trump's fragile ego, accompanying vindictiveness and bizarre obsession with manliness. Like "personality" Tucker Carlson's 2022 special on "The End of Men," DeSantis' anti-Pride video was pretty darned homoerotic.

Along with the right-wing cable news machine profiting by actively diminishing the mental acuity of its viewers, "manfluencer" grifters like Andrew Tate, selling "alpha male" misogyny to lonely, insecure young men, have made fortunes encouraging them to become misogynistic white nationalists — essentially mini-Trumps, but with actual muscle tone (not just in risible fantasy). It's good to see some mentally healthy young people fight back with satire.

When a serial liar and hatemonger like Trump remains the choice of a large majority of Republican voters even after two impeachments, an ever-growing count of felony indictments and an ongoing attempted coup; when voters send deeply unserious, dysfunctional or delusional individuals to Congress as their representatives; when fascist-fanboy Governors like DeSantis and Greg Abbott model their states after authoritarian regimes and deploy stochastic terrorism to put marginalized populations at risk of violence, is it any wonder that ordinary citizens feel permanently on edge, in a state of chronic existential dread?

But the right won't give up — I don't mean on issues of principle or policy, since it doesn't have any, but in its crusade to "own the libs," take rights away from people who are not like them and enforce theocratic minority rule. In fact, that mean-spirited crusade is the basis of the right's tribal identity. As Adam Serwer of The Atlantic famously pointed out some time ago, the cruelty is the point:

“Taking joy in that suffering is more human than most would like to admit. Somewhere on the wide spectrum between adolescent teasing and the smiling white men in the lynching photographs are the Trump supporters whose community is built by rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them, who have found in their shared cruelty an answer to the loneliness and atomization of modern life.”

As I reread those lines, I think back to the cheering and laughter of the Trump supporters during CNN's pathetic "town hall" rally for Trump in May, as he turned in his typical shameless performance of lies, bluster, bullying and whining. Here's a suggested campaign slogan: "Trump 2024: Come for the Lying, Stay for the Crying." As Salon contributor Mike Lofgren has observed, the GOP's "heart of darkness" has moved beyond just whining; They want retribution, payback for all the real or perceived slights they have suffered, and they believe only their cult leader can deliver it.

Brian Klaas, a professor of global politics at University College London, writes that we end up with bad people in power so often for three main reasons: power acts as a magnet for corruptible people (often "Machiavellian narcissists, perhaps with a dash of psychopathy thrown in too"); holding power tends to corrupt people; we tend to give people power for the wrong reasons.

"Corruptible people are disproportionately drawn to power, disproportionately good at wriggling their way into it and disproportionately likely to cling to it once they've got it," Klaas notes. We can fix this, he argues, by fixing our political system, recruiting better candidates and instituting real accountability for wrongdoing. Good systems, he says, attract good people. Fighting corruption is an integral part of the Democratic Playbook published by the Brookings Institution. A political system dominated by money, "dark" or otherwise, is not working.

Most politicians would not entertain the thought that they are mentally unwell. They are simply playing the game; looking to gain advantage in any way that works and is not blatantly illegal (with some notable exceptions. But does that kind of Machiavellian behavior, part of the "dark triad," suggest a well-functioning mind and spirit? We too often shrug at politics, accepting the narrative that it's just a game. But it's not; it is freedom or tyranny, dignity or subjugation, life or death.

Those who dehumanize their political opponents by referring to them as enemies and who call teachers, librarians and parents "groomers" have mental health issues far exceeding those of young people struggling with questions of sexual orientation or gender identity. Men who work to limit women's autonomy over their own bodies, or for that matter conservative women who punch down to bolster their fragile status have serious issues to work on and should quit afflicting them on the rest of us.

To be fair, a great many of us in America face our own mental health issues across the political spectrum. More of us, almost certainly, should seek the counsel of friends and professionals. We are chronically depressed and lonely. Political polarization has separated friends and family members from each other. The religious right has embraced an evangelism of intolerance against other people whose mental and emotional struggles they don't understand. While Republicans play-act as defenders of the working class, they labor tirelessly to drive working people deeper into lives of endless labor and debt servitude.

As the late, great American novelist Kurt Vonnegut would have said, about this and about his currently banned books: "So it goes." I don't think he meant to indicate cynical acceptance, more like an acknowledgment of humanity's deep history of stupidity and intolerance — and the need to carry on nonetheless. So we work diligently to maintain our own sense of self, our fragile balance, our purpose and our will — even in a country where, far too often, the inmates are running the asylum.

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lesbian-shadow · 1 month

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My Opinions and Interpretations of "The Tales Of Beedle The bard"

Introduction:

"The Tales Of Beedle The Bard", is a collection of stories written for young witches and wizards. They have been popular bedtime reading for centuries, with the result that the Hopping Pot and the Fountain of Fair Fortune are as familiar to many students at Hogwarts as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggle children. Beedle's stories resemble our fairy tales in many respects; for instance, virtue is usually rewarded, and wickedness punished. However, the is one very obvious difference. In Muggle fairy tales, magic tends to lie at the root of the hero's or heroin's troubles - the wicked witch has the poisoned apple, or put the princess into a hundred-year's sleep, or turned the prince into a hideous beast. I'm the takes of Beedle the bard, on the other hand, we met heros and heroins who can perform magic themselves, and yet find it just as hard to solve their problems as we do. Beedle's stories have helped generations of Wizarding parents this painful fact of life to their young children,that magic causes as much trouble as it cures.

Another notable difference between these games and their Muggle counterparts is that Beedle's witches are much more active in seeking their fortunes than our fairy-tale heroins. Asha, Altheda, Amata, and Babbitty Rabbity are all witches who take their fates into their own hands, Rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return their list shoe. The exception to this rule, the unarmed maiden of The Warlock's Hairy Heart, acts more like our idea of a storybook princess, but there is no happily ever after at the end of her tale. Beedle the Bard lived in the fifteenth century, and much of his life remains shrouded in mystery. We know he was born in Yorkshire and the only surviving Woodcut shows that he had an exceptionally luxuriant beard. If his stories accurately reflect his opinions, me Rather liked Muggles, whom he regarded as ignorant rather than malevolent; he mistrusted Dark Magic, and he believed that the worst recess of Wizardkind sprang from the all-too-human traits of cruelty, apathy, it arrogant misapplication of their own talents. The heros and heroins who triumph in his stories are not this with the most power-full magic, but rather those who demonstrate the most kindness, common sense, and ingenuity. One modern-day wizard who held very similar views was, of course, Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin (first class), Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Winzengamot. The similarity of outlook notwithstanding, it was a surprise to discover a set of notes on The Tales of Beedle the Bard among the many papers that Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives. Whether this commentary was written for his own satisfaction or for future publication, we shall never know; however, we have been been graciously been given permission by Professor Minerva McGonagall, now Headmistress of Hogwarts, to print Professor Dumbledore's notes here, alongside a brand new translation of The Tales by Hermione Granger. We hope that that Professor Dumbledore's insights, which include observations on Wizarding history, personal reminisces, and information on key elements of each story, will help a new generation of both Wizarding and Muggle readers appreciate The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It the belief of ash who knew him personally that Professor Dumbledore would have been delighted to lend his his support to this project, given that all royalties are to be donated to the Children's High Level Group, which works to benefit children in desperate need of a voice. It seems only right to make one small, additional comment on Professor Dumbledore's note. As far as we can tell, the notes were completed around eighteen months before the tragic events at the top of Hogwarts's Astronomy Tower. Those familiar with the history of the most recent Wizarding war (everyone who has read all seven volumes on the life of Harry Potter for instance) will be aware that Professor Dumbledore reveals a little less than he knows - or suspects - about the final story on this book. The reason for any omission lies, perhaps, in what Dumbledore said about truth many years ago, to his favorite and most famous pupil; "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." Weather we are with him or not, we can perhaps excuse Professor Dumbledore for wishing to protect future readers from the temptations to which he himself has taken prey, and for which he payed so terrible a price.

-J.K Rowling, 2008 (from the official Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K Rowling)

#The tales of Beedle the Bard #Harry potter #Harry potter lore #The wizard and the Hopping Pot #hp lore

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someguywriting · 10 months

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throwing in my two cents to GBU analysis, trigger warning if you don't do well with discussion of human suffering

It's very important to me that other people understand the pure horror that was civil war prison camps, to better understand the context of what Tuco and Blondie saw

Andersonville, a confederate prison camp which housed union soldiers caught on the battlefield, was a hellish nightmare death camp. There was quite literally a wall of death, lined with blood and bodies from people who approached it: the water was poisoned, POISONED, unfit for humans or animals because of the amount of sickness, death, and bodily horror within the prison: here's some passages from an NY Times article published in 1865 painting the horror of it all

the Confederate soldier Henry Wirz who ran Andersonville was executed for WAR CRIMES

if you were a confederate soldier captured on the battlefield, you likely stood a slightly better chance of survival because the Union was better funded than the south, and they generally had more resources to feed their prisoners

but generally, the point I'm trying to make is that even in a union camp (for example, Elmira Prison, which may loosely be worth studying in connection to the GBU) the three would see horrors. men starved to the bone, dying in their own rotting guts, abused by guards, etc, this is why I appreciate this specific scene, the actor playing the violin who managed to show all that emotion.. brilliant

the prison camp, I think, is one of the greatest indicators of the difference between the good, the bad, and the ugly

the bad, angel eyes, commands the camp and is a guard there, an instrument in these poor suffering prisoners literal hell: he's very heavily implied to be abusing them and torturing them, even before Tuco and Blondie showed up! and why would he do that, why would he torture them if it's not bringing him anything? when conditions are that terrible, and the prisoners likely have nothing left to give, why is angel eyes still torturing them? because he truly is the bad, and he likes it, he likes seeing the fear and suffering, causing it

the ugly, Tuco, doesn't give a damn about it and cares about his own personal gain: it's not like he stops to smell the fresh blood and take in the sight of rotted organs, in fact he's shown to be somewhat disgusted by it, but that doesn't mean he's empathetic at all; he's devoid of caring, apathetic about the bloody war in front of him, a truly ugly point of view

imagine being a prisoner of war, captured and thrown into a hellish place where your captors don't care whether or not survive the winter, and then along comes a man who has not fought in your war, has not really taken in or cared about the suffering surrounding him, and still jumps with glee at the chance for what he wants. yeah, that's pretty fucking ugly

Blondie is the good, which from a technicality standpoint, is questionable because he has the highest kill count of the movie: but from a historical civil war standpoint, he is the most empathetic (mostly inwardly) of the three

his act of blowing up the bridge later in the film is shown to at least somewhat connect with what the major says about the bridge, and how it's the source of fighting: some part of Blondie, however small, did it out of empathy and to stop the constant slaughter, and later in the film the more well known scene of him comforting a dying soldier (as he gets his signature poncho) is a direct act of empathy

Blondie isn't bad, directly contributing to the suffering of human lives, he's not ugly, apathetic and wilfully ignorant, but an outward part of his already repressed emotions is sympathetic towards conditions and deaths of the civil war

so, did I just explain the very obvious? Yes! but I really wanted to put it into historical context, on why from an anti war and historical civil war context, these men truly are good, bad and ugly

ps, do not search up any info on civil war prison camps if you don't do well with grotesque images/facts of human suffering

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