#republicans are fucking wrong

[adult-female-with-aspergers]

Me living in a Trump town.

#anti trump #high functioning autism #neurodivergent #fuck trump #vote democratic #vote blue #all republicans are wrong

[compacflt]

I just wanted to say as someone who has stumbled across your blog and has read your Wednesday wips and posts about anything topgun related that your thought process and consideration of mav and ice, specifically their political beliefs and relationships with their own identities, is honestly so impressive and cool. You have brought such realism and life to these characters which is just so refreshing to see. idk i just wanted to express how cool and awesome i think that is

Because of the thought into these characters does it make it difficult to like them or understand them if you have differing opinions from them? for me personally i feel like if i were to ever actually have a convo with ice or mav regarding identity politics i would actually start to lose my mind (like how one feels when your dad or fun uncle talks for too long at thanksgiving dinner). If it does make them difficult to like, does that make it difficult for you to write them sometimes?

oh yeah! i think, my ice i really empathize with & really love & really could get along with, once he grows out of the sexism of his teens & twenties, but my maverick drives me crazy. someone sent in an ask a while ago that was like “WHY is cyclone simpson your one true love??” And it’s because i too would absolutely hate maverick & hate working with him lol. people who are overly cocky & un-self-aware & a bit self-centered make me CRAZY. (narrator voice: compacflt is a hypocrite as all these things also apply to compacflt.)

Politically… It’s difficult to say. no one really wants to hear the intricacies of one person’s political journey, which is why i won’t give you mine, but suffice to say—since the start of the russian invasion of Ukraine, and my semi-concerted effort to learn more about the political landscape of modern warfare, my own personal beliefs have shifted a whole bunch. definitely aided in that shift by my top gun fic project that specifically aims to understand the conservative straight-passing male mindset as it relates to military matters… there are many end goals to a project like mine, but one end product is a filter you can take away and hold up in front of your eyes and see the world through it. When writing from the eyes of a conservative straight (passing) white man, your priorities totally shift. I had to write from the perspective of someone who doesn’t care about identity politics. Because they don’t! A core tenet of conservatism is very proudly not caring about that stuff, and being very annoyed when people (usually left-of-centers) make that stuff very visible and want you to care about it! “Don’t shove it in my face,” etc., etc. Don’t force me to care about this taboo, private thing I really don’t care about. It violates my freedoms, or whatever, to be forced to care—or even bear witness to—stuff that i don’t care about. Etc. And then, to be nominally a part of that community that you really, really don’t care about, and then to be told that you have to care about it because of your publicity… people asking you to be proud of something that has had a negative connotation for much of your entire life… that’s not a transformation that happens easily.

Jesus, I could write an essay about this. I have, several times by now in responses to asks over my blog. But there is so much that I could talk about. I think… I really worry that some of my writing falls into the first of the below categories:

I really try not to romanticize conservatism in my writing—I tried to show that ice and mav’s happiness is the price they pay for their conservatism. They’re actively choosing to be unhappy—but because they prioritize their honor over everything, due to EXTERNAL PRESSURES they cannot control, and which I think are often ignored in the fandom space for one reason or another. The fact of the matter is, in 99% of IPs, characters prioritize something other than their sexualities. It’s never Maverick’s personal identity that is at stake in either Top Gun or Top Gun: Maverick, because he has built himself so impermeably masculine that there are no grounds upon which to question his personal identity. He just isn’t thinking about it. He’s thinking about how to get into Charlie’s pants, how to win the Top Gun trophy, how to uphold his promise to Goose, et cetera. If he’s fucking guys on the side, it’s because he wants to and because hes maverick and he does what he wants without thinking about it—that’s the whole point of his character, from a story-construction standpoint. That’s his archetype. He’s a renegade maverick superstar who is both thoughtlessly brilliant and thoughtlessly dangerous. He’s thoughtless. His priorities are to survive and to look cool doing it, and that’s it. He is a savant in the Naval Air Force, where honor is your lifeblood, who feels he has been dishonored by his own family name, and who willingly joined the conservative post-Vietnam Navy right when/after Ronald Reagan was elected President, and who wears cowboy boots and who disrespects women to their faces, and who is eager to get into altercations with Soviet-Chinese-DPRK-X-second-world-country-coded-but-EXPLICITLY-Soviet-manufactured-Mikoyan-Gurevich-MiG-28s(-F-5s-painted-black)… I’m sorry. In my opinion, the conservatism is baked into him as a character. I find it extremely difficult to separate him from his conservatism, because in some ways his patriotic conservatism is his raison d’etre. IMO if you take that away from him, he ceases to exist.

Same thing with Ice and his unwillingness to openly rebel or go against the grain. That is his whole reason to exist in the story at all. I know that I’m saying this in a fandom space where the whole point is to change characters & put them in different situations (fanfic) but… in kind of a perverse self aware way, as in I know I sound ridiculous and pretentious, i guess i don’t really understand an impulse to change the core tenets of a character irreparably in fanworks. We are shown that ice always goes by the books in TG. Then we are shown that he achieves the fruits of that labor (four stars) in TGM. So he is rewarded for never rebelling, whereas Maverick, who always rebels (but NEVER in a way that challenges his personal identity), has stagnated in the ranks at full-bird O-6. And that’s Ice’s character. That’s what he’s there for in the story—he’s a tool to show us the value system of rank and prestige you earn by following the rules of the Navy. Why take that away from him? That’s his priority! Canonically, that’s his priority and reason for existence! And historically the way to achieve that priority is through conservatism.

And you ask me if it’s hard to like my ice and mav. Yes, but that’s not my choice. The movie already did that for me. They are not, I’m sorry, likable people. I am not a straight white conservative male writing about straight white conservative men to validate my own beliefs—I’m a queer AFAB person of color writing about straight white conservative men because I want to understand the limits of their conservatism. What they do and do not care about, and what it takes to make them care. And from what we are shown in TG… ice and mav would not care about ME. At all. And they would not want to be forced to care about me. Ice’s casual careless dismissiveness… “the plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies’ room…” mav following Charlie into the bathroom… turning the key in the ignition and driving away while pretending not to hear her… “what?? i can’t hear you! 🙉” … they do not care. They have no desire to care.

Again. Maybe I subscribe to a very very old-school and labored and pretentious ideology when it comes to writing… I know a lot of people write just to have fun. I do not. I wish i could, but I don’t. And when you’re not writing to have fun, you don’t have to like the characters you’re writing about. They’re nothing more than tools at your disposal to get your point across more effectively. No, I don’t like them! Of course not! My ice is cruel and cowardly and careless and hypocritical and subservient and weak, and my mav is demanding and dangerous and dismissive and oblivious and so, so, so unbelievably bitter.

And that’s what my story needed, to get my point across. So, shrug. My point was my priority. I don’t care too much about the characters themselves.

Re: icemav & identity politics. Part of hopefully selling this story is the attempt at empathy for the conservative male, to bring this discussion back to the top. Why write fiction at all if you’re not going to write about people different from you, and why write about people different from you if you don’t want to understand them? So… part of trying to understand them was to understand and have empathy for this shift in priorities. Conservative guys do not want to care about labels, or sexual orientations, or, God forbid, discussion of their gender identities. I can kind of see Ice tolerating it by the end… but, there are limits. Again, it’s supposed to be private. I think he’d chafe against getting labeled gay—he wouldn’t want to be called the first gay compacflt, or SECNAV, etc. He can’t say, “i slept with like a hundred fifty women before I even MET the ONLY man ive ever slept with,” because that’s like intensely private personal information!! No one deserves that information, but people still want to call him gay, even though in his head he really is not!!!! Again—from the conservative perspective, it’s a public imposition of left-wing, overly sexualized, too-neat labels and politics onto an area of life that has typically been kept private and respectable—I don’t agree with the conservatism, but I can at least empathize with it. Pre-Maverick’s death (pre-coming to terms with it), it would’ve been shameful & embarrassing to him; but even after coming to terms with it, it’s still not something he “takes pride” in. I think he thinks of it like this—most people aren’t proud of being straight. Like, it’s weird if you are. Same thing with being proud of being white, etc. Why be excessively proud of things you have no control over? Why not take pride in your ACTIONS—for instance, his career that he has actively sacrificed so much of his pride for? I can really empathize with that thought. I don’t necessarily agree, but I get it, especially in his professional circumstances, where he has so much to be professionally proud of, and yet people keep wanting him to publicly care about this private part of him he has no control over and can’t change.

Maverick though. I think he’d be actively hostile about talking about it in public. He Does Not Care. he does not want to care. It’s all an insult. They call him the first openly gay Ace cause he’s married to another man— “okay, but, like, I’m not. Stop calling me that. Neither of us are. Oh my god we have slept with so many women. Stop calling us that.” Ok then what do you want us, the press corps, to call you? First openly bisexual Ace? “No that’s worse!! That’s a word some teenager made up and doesn’t mean anything!! I’m sixty years old stop asking me to talk about this stuff im too old.” What do you have to say to LGBT kids who want to go into the navy? “😎👍 there’s a place for you etc etc. Let’s go back to talking about all the planes I shot down.” Maverick does what he wants without thinking about it. That’s the core tenet of his character. Very conservative. Don’t ask him to care too much.

Idk. No I don’t like them. But I understand them, if that makes sense. Like their conservative anti-label logic does make emotional sense to me. So that’s part of what I took away from this project, for better or worse… probably worse: I understand why conservatives don’t like the modern over-publicity of sexuality. They don’t care and they don’t want to care. And because they are small-C conservative, my ice and mav still don’t care lol. So, yeah. It doesn’t make them hard to write, because thats why I wanted to write them in the first place.

#what does it say about me that i put myself in their shoes & understand their position #i don’t agree with it but I understand it #the annoyance and the bad optics and the over labeling of hard-to-label sexuality #being a gay republican has got to be the seventh circle of hell #note my ice and mav are not republicans #but also note my story would not change even one bit if they were #i don’t LIKE gay republicans because they’re republicans. but i can empathize with them cause that’s gotta fucking blow. #normie median biden voter ice #now I think if a kid came up to maverick at an airshow and was like… #sir im trans and I think I want to go into the navy to fly & you’re my hero… #he’d freak out like ‘omg that means so much to me actually thanks!! it might be difficult for u i won’t lie but we need more people who #can overcome adversity…omg let me set you up with this admiral i know… yes yes yes…’ #he doesn’t like the conceptual discussions but he likes the people if that makes sense #& he really likes people massaging his ego #i find them incredibly annoying. but that’s what character development is for. if u start out liking ur characters ur doing smth wrong #& if they weren’t incredibly annoying then i wouldn’t have a story to write. #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #icemav #top gun #top gun maverick #asks #edts notes #**obvious disclaimer this is just my interpretation!!!**

[hungee-boy]

not gonna tolerate any of the "vote blue no matter who" crowd

imagine your entire family, your house, your school, your work, your parks, your libraries, temples, community centers, neighbors, old friends, current friends, your pets, EVERYTHING

was bombed into nothing

you have nothing and all sides of the government says that destroying your home was a good thing

who are you voting for then?

#the correct answer is no one #this country only has power if we give it power #so fucking take back control and refuse to play their game #you shouldve seen this when they censured rashida tlaib #you shouldve seen this when biden smiled at protesters being thrown out when they interrupted his speeches with calls for ceasefire #you should be seeing this right now as there are countless #countless images and videos #that show clear as day who is in the wrong #and israel still is crying hamas #and the us is supporting that #democrats are supporting that #republicans are supporting that #everyone in power is in support of wiping an entire ethnic group clean off the map #this is the worst nakba #dont fucking vote

[snekdood]

"if we make america worse and more of a dictatorship that will be even harder to unravel and make it the way we want the country to be, maybe then everyone will join our Glorious Revolution!" bb girl you cant even be in the same room with someone who thinks you should vote, how in tf do you think you're gonna unite people to fight in The Revolution with you? it's gonna be you and your 5 friends, i hate to break it to you.

#i dont think you realize how repelling you and your politics are to everyone else #you get all of your validation for how Smart You Are from your friends and ignore any kind of feedback that suggests you should #change or do something differently. thats the only reason you're so convinced average people will go along with you bc you keep getting #affirmation from the people who ALREADY agree with you- but you have NO IDEA how to bridge the gap between people who agree #with you and disagree with you. you're horrible at convincing people of your side of things outside of straight up guilt tripping them #or bullying them like a highschooler. im sorry but the tools you learned to survive with as a kid aren't gonna help you in this situation. #the ONLY THING you can come up with to bridge that gap is a bloody revolution. thats how bad you are at this. #and you're also so bad at this and unimaginative that you dont even realize how THAT might not even be enough. #you cant imagine ANY kind of avenue to getting people to change AT ALL outside of blood and fire. and thats why people call you #an authoritarian. #i'll be honest- i really do think the world would be a better place if we did incremental change under a democratic president who wont #set the world on fire vs the godkingemperor republican WHO WONT EVEN LISTEN TO YOU AT ALL EVER AND MIGHT KILL YOU #FOR PUTTING UP A STINK. idk if you noticed but if that evil fuck gets into office we are severely outnumbered if he gets police #n shit to go after his own citizens. letting trump win is making this battle so much harder than it needs to be. #you are choosing trying to fix the world while its exploding vs trying to fix it before it explodes at all. #what is this like a procrastination thing? you wanna wait till the last minute to try? idfgi. wtf is wrong with you #throwing minority lives away to prove a point. and then you try to tell me you care. gtfoh. #accelerationists should never be taken seriously.

[saltypiss]

Anyone at all surprised Israel is using AI to identify "Hamas"?

37,000 people. To be clear.

Oh and they bombed humanitarian aid...again. Three missles, one after the other, ona humanitarian truck the IDF followed.

They then tried to claim Hamas. As they do every casuality.

Friendly reminder that Dems and R's are supporting the Genocide and you Should Be Pissed.

#genociden biden #democrats #republicans #to a lesser extent #they're always on the wrong side of history #maybe don't fucking join em????? #genocide #israel #palestine #hamas #ai #dystopic as fuck #37 #thousand #human lives turn to numbers and accused of being enemies of the country #and dems support this!!! #the fuck man

[wishingforautumn]

Imagine bitching and moaning for two years about having to wear a mask for the health and safety of others in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Crying about vaccine mandates, how they're against your religious freedom and how the government is trying to control you and your body autonomy.

While simultaneously agreeing that the government and state should be able to regulate a persons reproductive rights and force them to give birth or go to jail for having an abortion. That because your fucking imaginary "god" is against abortion it should be illegal for everyone else... Like what the fuck.

#Like what the fuck is wrong with Republicans & the right #Why do you think this is okay? #But seriously this country sucks #And FUCK the Supreme Court #roe v wade #PRO CHOICE #Inb4 all the not all Republicans comments #Health care #Abortion #Reproductive rights

[qqueenofhades]

My mom, after I told her the news about Democrats holding the senate while we were out at dinner: "That’s great! [Long pause] It would be nice if Mitch McConnell died."

#xourviolentdelightsx #ask #politics for ts #she is NOT WRONG #anyway fuck yeah nevada! #time to win the georgia runoffs and really make some republicans sad!

[nyano64]

Just a reminder that a vote for no one is a vote for the opposition

#Get real #You can't be neutral on this #We're not looking for an ally #We're trying to keep Republicans out #Ebcause you can belly ache about how Democrats are just as bad or how they don't do anything all you want #They're not the ones killing us in the streets #Voting blue in the 2024 election is so important you don't understand #My family is getting passports and considering skipping the country if the election goes wrong and there are a TON #Of reasons why we don't want to do that. #I'm fucking begging you #Vote blue no matter who #Even if it's Joe #Voting third party is a waste of time. It just makes the chances of winning smaller #us politics

[drhu0806]

Listen say what you want about TikTok and the decisions of its CEO but when Shou Zi Chew says he's a fucking Singaporean citizen maybe don't keep asking him if he has ties to the Chinese Community Party, the ruling political entity of an ENTIRELY SEPARATE NATION

Tom Cotton I swear to god I want to kill you and all the other racist white Americans who refuse to brush up on the basic fucking geography of Asia it is not that hard. Crackers want everything to be an outpost of China so so so bad

#what does the owl say #us politics #anti asian racism #maybe the us govt can't find so many of these supposed chinese hackers #BECAUSE THEY'RE LOOKING FOR THEM IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES #where the fuck is ted cruz put him on #and grill him on his fucking canadian birth or whatever it is #fuck republicans i stg

[quinnick]

I can’t believe it is allowed for conservatives/republicans to say that the shooting like in Colorado Springs will continue to happen until queer people stop being queer. Until we go back until the closet. How fucked up is this country that one side can outright say that they are fine that queer people die because they think we are evil. Are you kidding me?

#tw shooting #tw homophobia #tw queerphobia #lgbtq #queer #Colorado shooting #us politics #Queer people need to protect each other because this shit is getting bad #Protect the groups most vulnerable in queer spaces too #I fucking hate it here #What the fuck is wrong with you all??? #Republicans are literally facists

[todayisafridaynight]

something something some yakuza antagonists ideals are completely valid and if they just went about them a different way the whole situation wouldnt have been life or death something something. something something i will agree with an antag (nishiki WHO SAID THAT) more if their reasoning behind what theyre doing is solid enough (yeah girl be mentally ill i support you i'll get you help too) something something

this goes for outside of yakuza too idk why im adding it but like. personally i love antags more than the protags because 1 more interesting 2 bro 99% of the time theyre just so mentally unwell if they had help as a child or just someone by their side supporting them enough in life they wouldnt be doing any of that shit 3 half the time theyre just. right. about the status of things? and i got that autistic sense of justice behind me so i automatically side with them like they go about it the wrong way but theyre right my bad 4 not all antags are evil even theyre literally there because the protaganist needs a foil the whole light needs dark dark needs light thing blah blah 5 theyre bad bitches i cant deny a bad bitch their non-heroic deeds.

i need to type up another slideshow about the intricacies of characters and why so and so did what they did or why so and so shouldnt be faulted for their ideals. god i love writing about characterization i love writing i need to write of course people can dislike "bad guys" theyre written to be disliked because of the perspective you see them from but i love being like oooh hoo hoo you are a hidden gem you are a diamond in the rough damn ya ass fat whats ya trauma? oh god this is long uhm. yeah :]

anon you're spitting but im too drunk to make a good response just know im nodding and listening and agreeing

#snap chats #i stand by that aoki's only flaw was that he was a republican #but Real i get you i usually like antags more than the protags #or i at least gush about them more #maybe its a psychological issue where i see bits of myself in them and can ergo relate #cough cough masato cough cough mine sorry who said that #moreover antags are just funnier. i can excuse 90% of crimes if you're funny #like antags are fun because they're like. they're like if we listened to every intrusive thought we had #like 'damn thatd be fucked if we did that let's watch this guy do it from the safety of our couch' #tho tbh anon ily but i feel like youre tping this mostly from a nishiki lens #cause what nishiki did is probably the easiest to justify from our antags ?? #i mean ryuji was just fucking around tbh. his motives are funny #but mine wanting to kill a man he loves because he sees his life as useless now is p twisted #and i dont have to explain aoki we know. like there's no justifying those two's actions #there's reasoning but it's harder to justify them compared to akira 'everything went wrong so i became stronger' nishikiyama #he's the most sympathetic villain out of the batch My Drunk Brin Is Telling Me #idk where im going with this ramble anymore point is Ask Good

[misano17]

Breaking news, maga republican law maker in Alaska comes in with this new hot take “if there is going to be child abuse it should be fatal so the state doesn’t have to pay for damages” more news at eight.

#Tagging this one with US politics for Korka 😎😎 #us politics #tw child abuse #child abuse mention #tw republicans #tw american politics #tw stupid people #Losing my shit actually #What is wrong with these mfers #Are they demons????? #Cuz they seem like demons #How the fuck a whole ass human gonna come in here with this take

[lemoncranes]

Am I laughing, I’ve been practicing.

#I love her #taylor tomlinson #this shit is gold #I am reliving happy Netflix be happy for me #I grew up religious #I had to be nice to a republican politition today fucking JESUS ON A CROSS WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME #WHY DIDNT I TELL HER SHE MAKES ME UNCOMFORTABLE 😳 OVER A LAWN SIGN

[roseband]

every time i see “ohhh see this is how dems should govern... when repubs try to block popular policy....... ppl then protest and vote”

i want to start killing these brats

yes.... no one listened to disabled people having die-in protests at the capitol and senators offices every time our health care was threatened over the last twelve years, that’s what the main thing in obamacare is.........filling the insurance gap for people who aren’t disabled enough to qualify for ssdi/medicare, and are too gross and ill and expensive for insurance to cover (cause 12 pt sessions a month for three months straight isn’t profitable, why would anyone want to cover my injury prone ass without policy to make them)

young brats only have like a 12% population with preexisting conditions... when u get into older ages it gets to 50-60%......... it literally affected u the whole time u will eventually get sick, im sick of this fucking hubris from the “young and healthy” you will get sick, everyone gets sick, it doesn’t matter how much exercise you do, how healthy you eat, you will eventually have something happen

since the roe decision and now the student loan thing, i keep seeing more and more people waking up to how bad actual legislated oppression is vs. social oppression, and my guys, my dudes,,, i want to kill some of you....... the lack of empathy while people were trying to take my health care away, to take my equal rights away legally, the bOtH sIdEs crap, you fuckers were going to just let me die?????? 

people love to talk about ted cruz’s “green eggs and ham” but don’t seem to care (or even know) that that was to prevent me from getting health care when i became an adult and aged off my mom’s union plan. 

#i was supposed to see a geneticist as a child.... and didn't #i didn't see a geneticist cause of FUCKING HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY and the idea that with dcd as my primary diagnosis #i would have been able to get partial coverage pre-aca #so i didn't find out about the heart valve issues i have until 3 weeks ago #i thought it was fucking asthma causing my breathing issues while exercising... not my fucking heart valves???????? #republican obstruction of clinton-care....... which was basically obamacare during bill's term that hillary wrote #should have passed before i was born... and then i could have seen genetics and cardiology in 1997 #instead of an atraumatic dislocation pushing me to rheumatology and the rheum having O.O face in 2022 #THAT'S A 25 YEAR DELAY #and within those 25 years there's a whole lot of situations where republican policies and obstruction could have KILLED me #where i could have gotten wrong treatment in an emergency that could have KILLED me #personal

[straightfromthetorturedpoetsdept]

The day I found out society was gaslighting us with that stupid "jack of all trades" misquote was the day I was radicalized into becoming a socialist.

#im so fucking serious #my whole life #i was fucking lied to #and made to feel like shit for not being a master at one thing #when the ENTIRE TIME THE QUOTE SHITS ON BEING A SINGLE MINDED GENUIS? #Fuck you capitalism #fuck you hustle culture #fuck you elon musk #fuck you billionaires who would rather go to jail for not buying twitter instead of solving world hunger like they promised. #if ur not a socialist i think ur subhuman trash #sorry not sorry #you survived a whole pandemic in america and didn't want to burn the system down afterwards #there is something wrong with you #republicans have something evil inside of them #they need therapy #before they kill us all

[nexttothelamp]

Jesus fucking christ I hate this country I hate it so god damn much FUCK this place the moment we manage to drag ourselves into a debt free state we're abandoning this sinking ship as fast as fucking possible

#politics #usa #taggin it so yall who hate this shit can get it out your face but #AN 858 BILLION DEFENSE BILL #REALLY #THATS WHAT THE FUCKING SENATE CAN AGREE ON? #if you think republicans give a shit about americans you are wrong #and if you think democrats are liberal you are also so so wrong #if i had the power to burn this place to the ground and slaughter ever polotician over the age of 50 i would #these fucking dinosaurs are going to KILL US #god i miss my grandparents #gpa charlie would be FROTHING AT THE MOUTH IF HE SAW THIS SHIT #but of course its the old people who dont give a SHIT about the world they leave behind #its them that get to live forever #long enough to punish their children and their grand children and the generations after that they wont even get to see #we cant afford FOOD #full disclosure my partner and i are technically a like.... 110k household? not that youd fucking know it by looking #the house we rent is literally full of holes and broken windows and locks and rot #and we LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK #WE CANT AFFORD A N Y T H I N G #WE WORK OUR ASSES OFF AND DAMNIT IM IN THERAPY TWICE A WEEK #IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO LIVE #BUT WE HAVE MONEY FOR THE MILITARY #WE HAVE MONEY FOR DEFENSE #WHO ARE DEFENDING OURSELVES FROM??? #everyone #god i wish the rest of the world would team up and wipe this shit stain of a country off the map #not that i want to die or any actual people to die honestly #but if i was asked i would be more than willing to lay down my life to make america go away forever #and if you ever actually believed america was a positive influence in anyway? if you think youre a patriot? you should want to kill it too.