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duhragonball · 3 years

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What version of the Saiyan Tuffle War do you prefer: the Tufflew subjugated the Saiyans or the Saiyans just straight up obliterated the Tuffles

Between the two options, I think I prefer the first one, simply because all the Tuffle characters we've seen have been diabolical villains, and it sort of undermines them as bad guys if the Tuffles were innocent victims in the war. But that's just a personal preference.

I'm not suggesting that the Saiyans were all sweetness and light either. But it seems a little naive to have an advanced civilization just welcome a bunch of Saiyans onto their planet with no ulterior motives.

I say this because most of what we know about the Tuffles is based on Baby's appearances in Dragon Ball GT. Supposedly, Baby was created by the last survivors of the Tuffles, and they "infused" him with the genes of their king, whatever that means. Baby only had two objectives: to take revenge on the Saiyans, and to to convert or destroy all non-Tuffle life forms. And that's... pretty fucked up when you stop and think about it. Baby was such an over-the-top villain in GT that it was easy to just go along with whatever crazy shenanigans he was up to. But he was programmed by the Tuffles, and presumably the Tuffle King was totally on board with this. If he had lived to see Baby Vegeta ruling over the restored Tuffle Planet with the entire population of Earth infected with his nasty mind control eggs, the King would probably be pleased.

And yeah, the Tuffles would want revenge against the Saiyans, but what did Earth ever do to them? Or any of the other planets Baby menaced? You can make the argument that Baby was a doomsday weapon that went beyond the intentions of his creators, but I think he did exactly what the Tuffles wanted him to do.

And that begs the question: If Baby's reign of terror was the last gasp of the dying Tuffle species, then what sort of weird stuff were they up to before? I'll put some thoughts on this under the cut.

First off, I think it's kind of weird how there's not a clear picture of what a Tuffle is exactly. I went looking on the DB Wiki for some pictures and found this Tuffle design by Akira Toriyama.

That design prevailed in DBZ Episode 20, and also in Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, when King Kai explains how the Tuffles welcomed the Saiyans to settle on their planet when they crashed there in a wrecked spaceship. The implication from Plan is that the Saiyans didn't just show up one day. They were refugees who needed help, and the Tuffles invited them with open arms.

But it's weird how the Tuffles in DBZ #20 are depicted as being much smaller than the Saiyans, but in Plan they're basically to scale with each other. Maybe that's a continuity glitch, and no big deal, but then you have Dr. Lychee, who looks like this:

He starts out as a regular-looking guy, and then he becomes this blue creature who looks a lot like a prototype for Baby. The blue form is supposed to be nothing more than one of the phantoms created by Hatchiyack in the OAV, like the phantom incarnations of Frieza, Turles, Cooler, and Slug. But those phantoms looked the same as the originals. Why does Lychee look so different? Is this a form that Tuffles can naturally assume?

Which brings me to Baby and his "Tuffle Parasites". By the end of his run in GT, Baby basically identified as a Tuffle, rather than a creation of the Tuffles. When he started infecting Earthlings with his eggs, he called them Tuffles too.

Then you've got Kamin and Oren from Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Apparently they're considered "Neo Machine Mutants", which are Tuffles modified become like Baby, for lack of a better explanation. I'm not sure if this was established in the DBGT days or not, but I guess the current lore is that Baby, Oren, and Kamin were natural Tuffles who were augmented into the form we see here.

I guess what I'm driving at here is that the Tuffles seem to have a very broad definition of what a Tuffle is. For them, it seems to be more about a way of thinking and feeling than any particular appearance or body plan. A machine can be a Tuffle. An Earthling infested with a parasite can be a Tuffle. So maybe those miniature humanoids in DBZ #20 were just one more variety of Tuffle.

I get a real transhumanist vibe from the Tuffles, particularly from the notion of archiving their King's DNA into Baby, and the way Dr. Lychee continued to exist as a "Ghost Warrior" after his natural death. Oh, and the Tuffles of Universe 6 augmented Kamin and Oren. That wasn't for revenge, by the way, they just wanted to see if they could do it, and apparently Kamin and Oren were outraged enough by this that they turned on their creators. Throughout the Dragon Ball franchise, the Tuffles are known for their advanced scientific knowledge, and also for making all these freaky creatures.

And maybe they weren't all evil. I wouldn't go that far. But I get the feeling that their leaders welcomed the Saiyans to their world because they saw a potential resource that they could exploit. Maybe they just wanted the Saiyans to pacify the uninhabited parts of their planet, or maybe they though the Saiyans could help them against other enemies. But maybe they saw the Saiyans as potential test subjects for their experiments. Just a thought.

I don't think the Tuffles necessarily subjugated the Saiyans, but it might have been more of a case of rising tensions. They lived in separate parts of the planet, with the Tuffles in the cities and the Saiyans in the wilderness, but the Saiyans grew more numerous, and the Tuffles probably saw that as a threat, and the Saiyans probably started to wonder why they needed the Tuffles at all. A lot of things might have instigated the war, but it wouldn't surprise me if the flashpoint involved Tuffles experimenting on Saiyan prisoners. If something like that came to light, then it would become a matter of survival. The Saiyans would have to wipe out the Tuffles to avoid being "Tuffleized" or worse. And the Tuffles would have to crush the Saiyans in battle to maintain control of the planet. There could be no return to the status quo; it would have to be total war until one side was completely defeated.

Once the war began, it must have taken a long time for the Saiyans to win. King Kai said that the lunar cycle on Planet Plant was eight years, and that each full moon allowed the Saiyans to gain ground in the war. So this implies that it took several full moons to end the war, so the conflict might have lasted decades, or maybe even a century. There might have been a few armistices or truces during that time, as each side would want to try to regroup and get as much momentum as possible before the next full moon. At least, that's how I'm picturing it.

One causus belli that sticks out in my mind is that the Tuffles were apparently a spacefaring people, but the Saiyans couldn't do much in space until they made contact with the Arcosians, and then King Cold's organization. So maybe the Tuffles were purposely keeping the Saiyans confined to Planet Plant, either to prevent them from escaping, or to isolate them from other civilizations. The Saiyans would take this poorly, I'm sure. So that might have a lot to do with it.

To be sure, the Saiyans of this era were real rat bastards, no doubt. I'm sure a lot of Tuffles of the time would make the argument that they were trying to contain the Saiyans as a matter of self-preservation, or even for the good of the greater universe. But I also suspect that the Tuffles aren't just friendly-looking anime folks. Creatures like Baby, Hatchiyack, Kamin, and Oren give us a peek into their more inhuman qualities, qualities that the Saiyans probably knew firsthand. It's possible that King Vegeta thought he was the one doing the universe a favor when he wiped the Tuffles out.

Something else to consider, in Episode of Bardock, we meet the Plantians, who were apparently the original inhabitants of Planet Plant. At some point, they were gone, and the Tuffles were living there instead, and then the Saiyans showed up and wiped out the Tuffles. So what happened to the Plantians? Did they just migrate to another world, leaving Plant empty for the Tuffles to move in? Or did the Tuffles do something to them? Food for thought.

#dragon ball #tuffles #i really ought to write some sort of fanfic about the saiyan-tuffle war #if only to crystallize my thought about it #i thought about using a tuffle villain in luffa but it seemed a little too obvious #like there was a whole war between saiyans and tuffles and that's where that conflict belongs #luffa's not part of that era so it shouldn't be part of her story #it'd make a good nanowrimo project if i ever finish the luffa thing #which... probably won't be for a while

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mc-critical · 3 years

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On Hatice’s character, I feel like she more or less was cheated of a better character arc which could’ve made her more likeable or easier to understand (almost everyone I’ve encountered who is into the series has extreme distaste for her character.) Though I don’t necessarily feel any particular form of intensity towards her character I do wish she could have been explored a bit more? I can see why she wasn’t likely due to time constraints/needing to stay consistent with plot lines but it would have been nice to see. I feel like everytime Hatice was on screen, mentioned, or involved in the plot line it was in conjunction to or in relation to Ibrahim. Even after Ibrahim was dead, Hatice’s whole storyline was just..Ibrahim. It was clear that she was emotionally unstable and dealt with attachment issues from the start of the series, likely resulting trauma from her father’s bloody reign. We’re told she was “her parent’s favorite/the spoiled one” according to her siblings, we’re hinted at some sort of past fued between her and Sah but no real context. We rarely got to see her interact with her children. It’s like we only were given tiny bits and pieces of Hatice as her own person and everything else about her just existed to string Ibrahim along. It’s quite sad..what do you think?

Eh, I absolutely adore Hatice as a character and I feel she got a very solid, well-written character arc. I'm pleased with what we got with her in the show and I think that her nuance tends to be massively overlooked.

The center of her character is not really Ibrahim, but rather the line between family and dynasty. And while that seems to be attributed with Ibrahim in the strongest way, it also channels in who Hatice is as a person and her interactions with other characters like her mother, Süleiman and Hürrem.

Hatice has always been the sultana of blood that is closest to the dynasty, but also the one that wants to detach the most from it. As you said, she had lingering trauma from her father's reign /which indeed is only hinted, to be honest, but that's the whole backstory of Selim Yavuz, what we got from his cruelty in the show was basically hints two flashbacks. We were told by Süleiman of his defining deed, we were told by Valide and Hatice that they saw his father in him, but the rest remained pretty much vague, which isn't a problem with Hatice's character. However, it may come off as a problem with SS's character, since more backstory would better explain his paranoia outside of actions of the "suspects" taken out of context, would render Mustafa's death a little more understandable and would highlight even more his character arc, for Selim Yavuz was his "Azraeel", according to him, but that is a post for another day./, but on a more personal note, she has witnessed the death her former husband, which puts her panic and fear over death in another light. Her backstory isn't that focused on, because it's not all that important for her character arc: because while Mahidevran has to get over her past and Şah Sultan tries to consistently set herself for the future, Hatice has to face the events of the present. She's an effective deconstruction of the Princess Classic trope she started up as: an innocent, fragile, kind hearted princess, no sign of trauma whatsoever who strives to create a family of her own, as a bonus. After she meets Ibrahim, she feels like she wants to be in that adventure with him, she not only falls in love with him, but he fills her with hopes and dreams for a better life. Look how when she marries him she wanted to get out of Topkapi as soon as possible and always repeated that she wanted for them to be a family, that she wanted to have piece. Even her love for Ibrahim is much more deep seated than some plain obsession that is only used as a plot device or to prop him up. She's grown with beliefs that have been a part of her life and sometimes she lets them out out of sheer ignorance, no matter how much independence she wants in her personal life. Her whole relationship with Ibrahim is a back and forth conflict between dynasty and family that is only a vector for her arc, not the entirety of it.

It's often ignored how pivotal is Hatice's relationship with Valide. The closeness she has with her, especially compared to her other sisters, shaped up all of Hatice's life long beliefs. Namely Valide is the root of Hatice's love and respect for the dynasty, being next to its female representative her entire life (see also Valide's flashbacks in E58) and witnessing the way she dealt with things, the way she ruled the harem, the way she made decisions. Even Hatice herself considered her as her role model and wanted to be like her. (she told her this in E61) It was as if Valide was a preserver of all the virtues Hatice deemed as worth having. She has a tremendous respect for her and her opinions and this is what brought her to hide her love for Ibrahim more than anything. The respect she has for the ottoman laws and the ottoman dynasty and the ways she got used to them made her to do anything but admitting SS and Valide her true feelings.

Valide is an indirect reason of Hatice's supposedly "inpartial" point of view in the harem that let her judge things more fairly. It's not that Hatice was completely unbiased in her relationships with Mahidevran and Hürrem early on, because oh no, she wasn't, Hatice always was on the dynasty's side in this war, but for her dynasty always advocated fairness and preserving piece and order. She wasn't afraid to call out whoever she thought was wrong at any time and even when her bias had completely (and honestly, rightly in many aspects) impacted her in terms of Hürrem, she wasn't afraid to admit that she was right about Firuze after all. Hatice also has a very reactive personality: she doesn't let anyone provoke her and quickly responds when she's provoked. She's not provoked only about Ibrahim, she's also provoked when it comes to both family and dynasty, overall, seeing Hürrem and Mahidevran quarrel in E11, Fatma and the concubines challenging Hürrem in E47, Mahidevran attempting to kill Hürrem's children in E55, Mihrimah defending Hürrem in E84 etc. Whenever something she cares about is opposed or attacked by someone, she would always spring into action, which is a very consistent trend of her character as a whole.

{There are many reasons why I personally find Hatice sympathetic: she's one of the most ethical characters of the show, acting as a peacekeeper wanting to keep everyone out of their struggle, she's always ready to help, she cherishes love (her wanting to marry Sadıka to Matrakcı), there are so many people she cares about outside of just Ibrahim - Mahidevran, Mustafa, Valide, her sisters and their problems impact her as well, despite of how "self-centered" she may seem at first glance. She, just like MCK Gevherhan, is so humane to everyone she interacts with, trying her very best to empathize with them. (to the point Mahidevran told her in E05 that if she keeps up worrying only about them, she will wither in this palace) Her trauma and circumstance also bring in a lot of empathy for me, because significantly little of it is her own doing, compared to other characters. We see a character that deteoriates both internally and externally often as a consequence of her simply fearing she would lose everyone she loves and that her life would be once again, filled with illnesses and death.}

[Truth be told, I don't get the Hatice hate, like AT. ALL. I don't know about you, but people I've encountered on the Internet couldn't give me a valid reason as to why they hate Hatice so much. They either reduce her to a "whiny", "crying", "spoiled" or "evil" bitch, either say they hate her because she breaks down a lot or because stood up against Hürrem for no reason, which is totally untrue, in my opinion. I genuinely haven't seen one (1) good argument as to why she deserves such ire. They mostly look at a more dimensional version of S03 Hatice and forget everything that set up S03 Hatice, or they hate Hatice exclusively because of S03, which.... eh? I would dare say that there are more reasons to hate Mahidevran than there ever were to hate Hatice (even though the hate directed at Mahidevran is, once again, for all the wrong reasons) and if someone gave me an actually good reason to hate Mahidevran, I would understand, but Hatice? Even her more questionable actions were ultimately provoked by something or someone.]

Her first traumatic experiences in the present is also connected to the kids she's lost. Yeah, giving her more time with her living children and seeing her more as a mother is the one thing I would definetly change in her writing. We didn't get enough of that and it would be a breath of fresh air. But then again, losing so many could've demotivated her and the last time she was pregnant we also had this prevailing, but understandable fear. It also just doesn't play such a big part in her deconstrustion-to-become-flanderization-in-character-development arc.

We gain a gradual, broader perspective into her a bit later in the narrative, and perhaps that eventually broken first impression would cause disappointment - Hatice could be prideful and while she wants to detach from the dynasty for her family, she values her own position and the rights that are offered with it. She could be easily offended by remarks made to startle her. She could be demanding sometimes. But that existed along with her good traits. Hatice was the most reasonable and morally unproblematic character of the main cast overall and by S01/2, that truly showed.

If we refer only to S03 Hatice, it would make a tiny bit more sense for people to not find her that sympathetic. Because while she underwent a good flanderization arc, it's still flanderization and some traits of hers seem to be more present than others in that season, especially knowing the trajectory of said arc. It may look like there isn't a sympathetic reason to do what she does, as if she's like this all of the sudden. But here's the rub: season 3 wasn't supposed to give this much context to Hatice's actions, it's the pay-off of a build-up, the peak of her arc that leads to a resolution. Season 3 wasn't supposed to repeat stuff that has already been established, all Hatice is doing there, has been set up for an entire season, if not more. We already know what's driving her, we already have the sympathetic reasons. That's why all the attention is given to her actions that bring her to tragedy, not to introspective scenes.

Back to Ibrahim's relation to Hatice's character: A common affirmation I hear is that Hatice's rift with Hürrem was caused thanks to Ibrahim and Ibrahim alone. There's so much more to it than that! While we had the scene that started the build-up and the one that ended it be about a possible/already a fact infidelity of Ibrahim's as a parallel, these are only a part of it, not it in its entirety. Keep in mind that the one thing that fully set the upcoming enmity in motion during S03 is Hürrem taking Valide's chambers. And at first Hatice wasn't about to blame Hürrem for it all when she went to tell it to his majesty (her saying to Gülfem that it doesn't matter who told her about the affair) with her claiming that Hü ruined her life only after their confrontation for Valide's chambers. And here we return to the center of Hatice's character: thing is, whether we liked it or not, Hürrem always was a threat to the dynasty in Hatice's eyes. Şah asked her the infamous question: "The dynasty or Ibrahim?" when she was asked why is Hürrem a threat in E81, but I think both are in conjunction, yet independent of each other here. Hatice values tradition just like her mother and Hürrem breaking them all would cause some kind of disturbance. She got distraught right after she was freed and married, claiming that it had to be stopped before it happened, look also how she told Afife Hatun that Hürrem had to be gotten rid of because she caused unrest in the harem! Not only Ibrahim's death, but Valide's death impacted her so much, she thought someone had to supposedly protect the dynasty for what is to come before everything goes haywire and that's what she attempted to do the entire time. In S03A personal motives clearly ran together with the apparent protection of the dynasty (I sometimes like to parallel Hatice's dynasty with Kösem's state in my head, despite that Kösem's urge to protect the state comes more with her role as a ruler and regent and measures out of necessity, while Hatice's comes from willingness to preserve balance and harmony in a more personal level.) and she considered Hürrem as a threat to everything Hatice believes in. She seems to also take on her mother's footsteps in that regard, in a way, using common for Valide methods like sending a concubine to SS etc. She considers Hürrem a threat for her own stability and well-being and that isn't limited to just Ibrahim.

Her relationship with SS is the one that is probably the most connected to Ibrahim, judging by their first more "nuanced" scene for me (him deciding to marry Ibro and Hati) and fallout (the confrontation for Ibrahim's death), but that could be also connected to what Hatice has previously experienced and genuine respect for him as a brother before all the rocky stuff happened. And interestingly, her deep resentment and then despise of him is targeted at him bringing Hürrem to their lives, not simply just killing Ibrahim, though that was also an intensely strong motivator of hers.

Hatice's bond with Mustafa is also strong even before she fell in love with Ibrahim. She also considered him "the future of the dynasty", played with him in the gardens, comforted him in tough times when she could. They didn't have as many scenes together, but the relationship added a good amount of flavor to her character.

A reason why I think Hatice's relationship with Mahidevran is so precious and criminally underrated, is that this is the relationship least centered on Ibrahim, second only to Hatice's with Valide. Their scenes early on is mostly them being there for each other and being happy with each other's moments of good time. They're very bound to each other and are very good friends that still have a dynamic relationship. The temporary S02B fallout between them has everything to do with Hatice's disappointment and disbelief of Mahidevran's own failings. She also threatened something Hatice cared about and did something she didn't expect of her. And that isn't barely noticeable, Hürrem even remarked that Mahidevran is becoming alone in E58. (oh my, I hate this scene with passion, but anyway.) After that their dynamic then remained basically intact for S03, expect that they could act more like allies than friends. But that's a given, due to the more intense events in the palace and the tonal shift of the show.

I find her dynamic with Şah fascinating due to their contrasting personalities and strained, yet loving relationship. The feud between them had enough context given to us through Beyhan's words to Şah in E83: that Hatice not only was Valide's favorite, but she apparently had the life Şah wanted to have, which explains Şah's ambition and supposed distance and secrecy well enough. More backstory would mean destroying the interesting duality in the relationship and wouldn't make Şah's motivation half as interesting and uniquely presented as it was, to be honest. Which is why I find her dynamic with Hatice way more interesting than her dynamic with Hürrem (which is good, too, but pretty generic), but that's also a post for another day. But Hatice is actually the more open person in this dynamic and the one more revealing her feelings. Şah wanted her to move on from her losses, but Hatice objects so strongly because it all has gotten to a completely personal level, with Şah trying to redecorate her castle, it would look like she's trying to change her from the outset, her as a person, which is something Hatice would never agree with. But then again, it's clearly shown that deep down Şah cares about what Hatice wants and is trying to do the best for her in her own way. And the emphasis is again put on family: they still get along and reconcile, setting their differences aside.

Many of Hatice's introspective scenes were with Gülfem and while they talked about Ibrahim many times, we could still see the amount of powerful support between them. Hatice shared everything with Gülfem, it was as if they knew everything about each other. They were each other's comfort.

She showed moral support to Beyhan, as well. That is another familial relationship that shows both casual and profound interactions. It's not there as much, but that's more because of Beyhan's limited screentime, not because of something to do with Hatice.

Even her arc with Ibrahim isn't all about him, but is also tied to the core of her character. The line between dynasty and family drives their whole fallout and if it wasn't there, the conflict between them wouldn't ever take place. Hatice ultimately forgiving Ibrahim is more about her getting out of her own dynastic outlook, which is a relevant character development of hers that happens along with her flanderization. And that plot-line is as important as the flanderization, even more so, and it pushes it forward. It was a resolution of the conflict with family and dynasty in Hatice, not exactly forgiving Ibrahim just for Ibrahim. (that is also a factor, no doubt, because she loves him and he is a part of her character, but not all her character.)

Overall, for me Hatice is a multi-faceted, amazing character that is actually very fleshed out in the span of three seasons. I don't find much issue with her writing: everything that happened with her is logical and well-explained if you look closely enough and I don't want more for her arc. It was original and outstanding for what it was, both as a character concept and a dynastic sultana of the franchise.

#magnificent century #muhteşem yüzyıl #muhtesem yuzyil #hatice sultan #ask #stuffandthangs

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mbti-notes · 4 years

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What do you think is the best way to deal with the fear of things getting even more conservative and harsh? I'm so scared about the future, living in a dystopian society and having all my rights taken as a non binary queer person. Infj.

I suppose you’re referring to US politics? Please be more specific because the majority of my readership isn’t from the US. You’re asking a loaded question that basically requires me to agree with the premise that everything will be doomed. I can’t agree with that, since I purposely don’t approach politics in a reactive way.

When you’re drowning in fear, you’re not thinking straight. One of the reasons political discourse has reached the lows that it has in the US is because of incessant screaming and hyperbole. The political mediascape is a for-profit machine that is designed to work people up, manipulate their emotions, and keep them living in fear of “enemies”. This creates the mindset of being in a constant fight for survival against various abstractions of “evil”, and it’s much easier to separate you from your money when you’re so threatened that you’re willing to pay to feel safe/validated. The more that people get sucked into this war mentality, the less capable they are of making wise political decisions, since every important problem gets made into an oversimplified “wedge” issue to test your loyalty to your team.

The world is a lot more complex than red vs blue. To make a living, I have to follow news from around the world very closely. Yes, people get heated about politics, but observe the political reporting from other countries and you will see a difference in the tone and quality. In some countries, there are, gasp!, more than two viable political parties, and thus, more ideas and approaches to choose from. The US has commodified political fear and outrage like no one else by purposely pitting people against each other like rival sports teams, in a state of perpetual conflict, and, most importantly, always distracted from the underlying power structures that are making their lives worse.

To be clear, I’m not a conservative, though I’ve been surrounded and preached to by conservatives my whole life - I engage with them continuously. I am certainly angered by people being stripped of their rights and opportunities. I am certainly depressed when I see people abused and oppressed. I am certainly frustrated when my life suffers from the decisions of politicians I did not vote for. However, I staunchly defend freedom and diversity of beliefs and values. I often have to remind people that many countries and cultures around the world are conservative, and they are not abject hellscapes. Do not equate conservatism with dystopia, barbarism, fundamentalism, extremism, terrorism, xenophobia, or lord of the flies - it doesn’t matter who is doing it, hyperbole and stereotypes are dehumanizing, which enables the violence of war mentality. Conservatism, at its best, is actually needed by society to function well. Progressivism, at its best, is actually needed by society to function well. Intelligent political discourse begins with each of us getting our facts and concepts correct, otherwise, there’s no hope of cooler heads prevailing. It’s important to correctly identify the cause of a problem by labeling it properly.

Every system has flaws and every system will eventually fall apart when those flaws are left to fester and worsen. The US is supposed to be a democracy, right? A democracy is only ever as smart as the people participating in it. Can you say, with a straight face, that Americans have a deep understanding of their political system and work hard to be well-informed of all the political, economic, social, and international issues that the country grapples with? Can you say that the majority of people even understand the political terminology they use?

The US is admired around the world for its individualism. Individuals succeed and fail by their own hand. Individuals are free to pursue their own happiness and well-being. “The Land of Opportunity”, right? Americans have exported this idea, drawing immigrants from all around the world. However, individualism, taken to an extreme, exacts a very steep price. The bonds which hold individuals together to form a well-functioning society gradually weaken over time. This is a huge problem if you hope to make good collective decisions, which is what elected officials are tasked to do.

The language and currency of politics is power. With power, you get to write the rules. Without power, you are subject to someone else’s rules. It’s really that simple and crass. The purpose of there being many different voices in a discussion is to make sure that no 1 agenda/group gets to dominate the discussion and become too extreme. Opportunists, corporations, and media companies figured this out a long time ago, so they do what they can to shut down nuanced debate and discussion. They all have a deep vested interest in hyping up the individualist ethos of American culture, not because they actually care about “culture” in any noble sense, but because they know that individuals have very limited power. One person alone cannot disrupt the status quo, and keeping everyone psychologically isolated means that those with power can keep enriching themselves without disruption.

Currently, almost every major aspect of American society is designed to stop you from realizing and using your power. Media keeps you locked in fear, feeling victimized, demonizing each other. Big corporate interests keep you hyperfocused on your own emotional vulnerabilities, telling you to earn and consume your way to a false sense of power, as they quietly dismantle workplace and social supports that would preserve your actual power. The prevailing social mandate to be ever productive and “successful” keeps you running like a hamster on a wheel, with little energy to spare for anything else. You are expected, at adulthood, to become a self-made person, never having to rely on anyone for anything, thereby eroding your ties to your roots and kin. If you fail, you are shamed and dubbed a loser, and expected to redouble your efforts to chase higher social status. And some people simply choose to drop out completely, thus relinquishing any social power they had.

In US society, those in power abuse the archetype of the “individual” and the virtue of “independence” to siphon more and more power. Individualism, in its most immature form, is really just self-centeredness. Everyone is only out for themselves and grabbing what they can before someone else does. People fight each other for scraps. And the ultimate goal of life is to have more than the people around you, such that you have the power and privilege to shield yourself from the other hungry dogs. There is no bigger picture to aspire to beyond one’s own survival and daily pleasures. If this is the underlying ethos of your society, are you surprised that the political system reflects it? A lot of people around the world look at the US and mostly see a bunch of immature adolescents.

Transcending social forces isn’t easy. Power is always unevenly distributed, so it is always ripe for abuse, and fighting against abuses of power requires sustained effort. Therefore, it’s important to understand the many ways that power is used to oppress. I’ve spent a lot of time studying historical movements, political philosophy, and power dynamics, so my view of politics is always the long view. I believe that political progress is constant work. I don’t believe in end goals or being free to rest on your laurels. I believe history teaches us that, whatever your political allegiances, the complacent eventually become the victims. I believe that social change is relatively easy to understand by observing the way that power changes hands in society.

Politics boils down to an endless series of change-and-backlash sequences. Whenever one group takes a significant political step, someone somewhere will lose out on some power and privilege, and they’re not going to take it lying down. Fear and anger drive the changes, and fear and anger drive the backlashes. Rinse and repeat. When the tide turns against you, it only means that it’s your turn to step up again. Fear and anger are not reasons to give up, rather, they are the wake up call that spurs the next round of changes. From conflict comes motivation.

Political power is gained through organization. The fastest way to accumulate power, especially in a democracy, is to stand together and pool your resources. But what is the motivation for organizing? Usually anger. Civil rights are never won by waiting around for the privileged to relinquish their power. No, people get together to claim their rights, DEMAND change, and MAKE the changes that they want to see, refusing to surrender to oppression. They loudly infiltrate social spaces, influence officials, run for office as representatives, and accumulate the political power to rewrite the rules. This is true whatever your political stripe. This is what conservatives have excelled at for the past thirty years in the US.

However, as soon as you change the status quo, there will always be people that want to reverse it. It is difficult for younger people to grasp, but politics has no end, it is merely an ongoing struggle for power, as power changes hands from the complacent to the aggrieved, and then back again. For example, LGBTQ people view a right-dominated supreme court as a danger to their existence, for good reason, and that should motivate them to fight back even harder to reclaim their right to equality. Conservatives view a right-dominated supreme court as progress, and having achieved that success, they will become complacent, which provides the opening for progressives to regroup and rise again.

The only escape from this cycle comes in the form of death or transcendence. To transcend means to see the bigger picture of what can be achieved, so that you are able to set aside the petty and work for something greater. Human beings have had their transcendent moments here and there throughout history, so they are certainly capable of it. Progress on civil rights has indeed been made over many decades, but there is always more work to do, as long as there are people that don’t view it as “progress”. For example, the fact that, after decades of tireless activism, the majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage, is something you should be building upon, rather than only focusing on the setbacks.

If you think that I’m singling out the US, I’m not. Oppression happens everywhere. It is a part of human nature to be egotistical, complacent, and short-sighted. But that’s not the only part of humans. For a democracy to work at its best, we have to appeal to the better parts of our human nature, i.e., the parts of us that: understand and care about how we affect each other, appreciate hard-won freedoms and never take them for granted, and envision a better future and plan well for it. The best changes come from passion and inspiration - not fear and anger. If you, as an individual, are not capable of bringing out and offering up your own better nature by transcending the worst parts of yourself, you can’t really expect the sociopolitical system to be capable of it, either. If you, as an individual, always lose sight of the bigger picture that you’re aiming for, then how will you help others see the importance of your cause?

Gandhi said: “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”

IMO, the job of a good citizen involves: 1) caring about the broader impact that your vote has and educating yourself properly so that you make wise voting decisions, 2) exercising your power by actively participating in organizations that advocate for the changes that you want, and 3) having enough self-awareness to avoid being emotionally manipulated into making destructive political judgments. Humans aren’t perfect, but they don’t have to be to create a well-functioning society. Humans make better decisions when the social atmosphere encourages them to open up the mind and heart. We all have a part to play in creating an encouraging social atmosphere for people to deliberate more carefully on their political beliefs.

Are you an unwitting pawn of the media, rewarding the players that only care about getting your eyeballs for ad revenue? Are you only caring about political issues because you read something that incited your outrage? Are you resigned to cynicism, indifference, gloom, or paranoia? Are you all about “owning the enemy”? Are you only concerned about your own prospects in life? Are you waiting helplessly for someone to hand you what you deserve?

OR: Are you joining organizations that create positive change? Are you listening to the experiences of the people around you and understanding how their reality informs their politics? Are you doing the hard work of inspiring the people around you to be their better selves? Do you hope that everyone in your country has a chance to live their best life? Do you stand up to support people in need and work to eliminate injustice? Will you learn the best way to (re)claim what is owed to you from those that deny or oppress you?

You are only one person, so your power is limited. What are you doing to amplify your voice and extend the reach of your power? Are you dying or transcending? A democracy is only ever as strong as the people participating in it.

#politics #lgbtq #history #conflict #power #media #social media #ask

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a-long-walk-in-the-forest · 3 years

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Itachi’s Taurus planets degree exploration

Since if I want to make a proper reasonable guess for Sasuke I need to have some idea about Itachi too so I’m going to just list any taurus degree that fit him. He has at least 3 things there (mars, venus, saturn).

I tried to keep different interpretations of the character in mind but not so much so that I can’t narrow it down at all. Note that these descriptions were mostly written by people decades ago so some of them may sound a bit ... Also the body parts mentioned are used for predictive and medical astrology.

0-1

It denotes a person of. a disputative mind, one who will have many enemies, and will need to exercise himself much in self-defense; one to whom life will open out into a great field of strife, but who, through his own native force and diplomacy, will eventually prevail. It is a degree of SELF-PRESERVATION.

The native will have to stand forever on the lookout ready to parry unforeseen attacks, as his destiny has fierce struggles in store. But in struggles he surely will thrive and revel as if it were his own element, and he will engage himself in them to his utmost. He has a great will power, is versed in tricks and makeshifts, and can be very reserved in spite of his liking for arguments and polemics. Churlish and insensitive to pain, he seems born to have things his own way in spite of the war furiously waged against him on all sides. He may even be endowed with magic powers. This hard character’s failing is ungenerous; it may even become cruelty.

Denotes a person of strong character; of a rather morose disposition, and possessing magical powers; one with strong will-power, very reserved, inclined to be cruel.

A persevering strategist; denotes good mentality; a prophet of a new order; love of home; brilliant 233 mind; renowned for benevolence; powerful in combining old principles in new application; beauty, devotion, fame or fortune; throat or gullet; palate.

Denotes one whose life is threatened in early infancy. The ideals are high, and he delights in all that is beautiful and sweet. The native is somewhat erratic and inconstant, loving “fresh fields and pastures new.” He inclines to the poetic and artistic, and may excel in such paths. It is a symbol of Cultivation.

This degree seems to blend the qualities of Aries and Taurus in a less desirable fashion. Here the stubbornness of Taurus is directed to the establishing of the ego. In so doing he alienates those around him so that he is left to carry his burdensome load alone. There is a strong tendency for men to be mislead by a woman usually because of his desire to possess her and make her subservient to his own ego. In most cases he desires and attracts someone extremely selfish and difficult to deal with. He seems not to be able to disassociate himself and pursue his course alone. This is an even greater threat if it is the man’s Moon or Venus which falls on this degree. At any rate it is the stubborn desire to establish his own ego irrespective of others which cause the insurmountable trouble.

This degree is favorable for a good mentality. Denotes a persevering strategist. More inclined to the artistic than Scorpio 0-1 degree.

1-2

It denotes one for whom life will be a severe lesson; whose ambition is likely to outstrip his power; one who will attempt great his discomfiture; whose efforts will prove futile, and whose hopes a will vanish as the clouds.

The present repels him, human society holds no attraction for him. If he, therefore, does not find an outlet in the pursuit of nature’s secrets or in historical studies and the like, he will lapse into a dull idleness, root of all evils. He must break the ominous spell isolating him spiritually from his kind if he is not to find realized in himself the biblical threat, Vae soli (Woe to him that is alone—EccI. 4:11). He must draw a wholesome lesson from his disappointments and realize that he has produced them himself with his wrong attitude of estrangement from life. Life must be loved if she is to present us with her gifts; these are not to be frowned upon in comparison with the unattainable daydreams, toyed with by cloud-dwellers apt to slump defeated to the ground if they cannot reach their aim. Any vital force that does not find a proper outlet will cease to flow. The greater one’s inborn vitality, the more quickly idleness will blight It.

Denotes that he, or she, born under this degree will live alone, isolated, mentally; not in sympathy with the present state of things.

Magic; a pleasing personality; a person who is above petty things; loyal and serious-minded; some interest in occultism; magnanimous; opening of throat.

Denotes one capable of immense sacrifices who surrenders self, expecting no reward. The life will be often lonely, but ever threatened by storms. In the end wisdom and worth will triumph and the second half of life brings good promise. It is a symbol of Devotion.

This degree is not a decisive one although it gives a strong will and a desire to protect the ego at all cost. There is also a capacity for cruelty. Self-preservation is the basic quality. When the self is not threatened the individual may relax and this degree will then be free to develop along other lines generally consistent with the chart as a whole. It is possible that the native could be so sensitive that even when the self was free from threat, defensiveness would be uppermost. Until this tendency is overcome there is not much hope of success. There is much ability both mental and physical.

This degree promises a pleasing personality. A person above petty things. Loyal and serious minded, with some interest in Occultism.

2-3

It denotes a person whose interest will be greatly enhanced in the autumn of life, who will reap benefits greatly enhanced in the autumn of life, who will reap benefits from old age and pleasures from maturity; whose chief characteristic is acquisitiveness, and whose designs will meet with much success. It is a degree of acquirement, of GATHERING TOGETHER.

This influence points somehow to untimely love. The native may have older people propose to her in her youth, or vice versa, will insist on marrying a younger partner in her elderly age. The planned match risks to come off whether the younger partner looks at it as a sincere and generous gift of his or her youth, or is driven to it by base interest-where the one alternative does not altogether shut off the other. Aside from the question of love or marriage, the native will be luckier in later years and will reap tardily the fruit of his days of labor.

Strong sympathies, excessive sensibility, very impressionable and mediumistic.

Scientific; artistic; degree of plot and strategy; an important degree in nativities of great military generals; a carefree traveler; inclined to live his one life regardless of others’ opinions; afflicted - may denote an unfortunate end; generous; uvula.

Denotes one favored by fortune. He will possess good judgment, and will do the right thing at the right time. His early life will be filled with struggle and with promise, expanding to favor as he advances in years. With a good insight into human nature the native can well choose others to assist in his work, and whilst holding work to be the true necessity of life, he knows the value of relaxation and pleasure to others as to himself. It is a symbol of Fortune.

Much indication of loneliness and self-undoing. Some of the artistic qualities of Taurus come through here. There seems to be little appreciation for life. These people generally find little to live for. They isolate themselves from other people. They tend to pessimism and despair. Much of this comes from inertia but it can also come from too much freedom and too many choices, which are not open at the same time but which sweep by in a maze of confusion to this individual. Idleness tends to atrophy any abilities that one might have. It would be helpful to him if opportunities were kept open to him for longer periods of time. He might continue to procrastinate, but in some cases this might lessen the frustration. Basically this is a problem the individual must solve for himself and realize his own part in humanity’s pattern. He must discover for himself the worthwhile nature of relationships with others. His childhood training will do much to over-come these problems if recognized and dealt with in meaningful way.

A carefree traveler, but adverse aspects may denote an unfortunate end. Artistic, scientific and generous. Inclined to live his own life regardless of other people’s opinions.

3-4

It denotes a person in whose life much sedition will prevail, whose affairs will be marred by his own violence, and whose house will be dismembered through strife, in whom wrath will effect great evils , and whose force will be turned against himself. If is a degree of DISINTEGRATION.

An exacting, disdainful, short-tempered being, destined to remain, so to speak, raw stuff throughout his life, who cannot possibly keep in harmony with the ones he loves. The native hat, however, a nearly military sense of discipline as something absolutely necessary for himself as well as for others. The keynote of this character is its lack of that indispensable minimum of feminine fluidity needed to melt and blend any spiritual alloy; therefore, both the native and his never sufficiently plastered buildings tend to harden and collapse. A male every inch of his boorish being, an irksome grumbler, easily roused to a fury, the native will not be able to put up with anyone; he will handle things and people awkwardly and clumsily and will be peeved and disgusted at any show of weakness in his neighbors. Hence a tendency to isolation and ultimately to self-destruction, as in Dante’s figure of Pier della Vigna (Inf 13, 70) who, embittered and nearly crushed by all his fellow courtiers’ envy and slander, ended by commiting suicide. Unless no other features balance this influence, the male native never will be able to appreciate feminine charm. The female native should never marry. This degree shows sometimes a remarkable feature: a special fondness for fireworks, which may well become a passion if the rest of the pattern helps (the Fire element). The native’s body will be subject to decalcifying.

Denotes one in whom the male principle predominates excessively, the female being nearly nil, sympathies towards the opposite sex wanting. if a man he rarely ever marries, If a woman, she ought not to many.

Literature (skill in working out plots); writers of detective stories; one accustomed to the exercise of authority; favors playwrights; military men. organizers who work to uphold the law; degree of plot; planning, tact, and scheming bodily injuries; destruction by fire, war or earth-quake; unscrupulous defeat; throat or larynx.

Denotes one whose destiny it is to come before the public in some professional capacity. The native will be impulsive, bold, and brave, and will be gifted with controlling and magnetic force. He will travel and move about a great deal, and will be exposed to danger with little or no hurt. It is a symbol of Intrepidity.

Gives an imagination guided by the eye. More a Mercury imagination than a Neptune imagination. A practical ability to plan and portray with mental activity to mentally see a completed project. This ability probably contributes to success in later life. Often brings a marriage to some one younger in later life although may be reversed and is not always successful but has better than average chance with the influence of this degree. It generally contributes to a building up of resources and a bringing together of people which usually results in a very prosperous and socially happy old age. 340 He does wait until old age to enjoy life but seems to enjoy the years of accumulating and building.

This degree of plot, planning, tact and scheming is found in the charts of novelists, play-rights, military men and organizers who work to uphold the law.

8-9

It denotes a man whose chief interest will be in his home, and in the care of his children; one who is attractive to young persons, and whose mind is pacific and benevolent; one who has the ability to inspire confidence and faith in other; whose footsteps will be followed in security and whose life goes by easy weay to a peaceful end. It is a degree of MINISTRATION.

The very figure of pater familias; love for one’s home and large family, careful upbringing of one’s children and well-meaning strictness toward one’s dependents. A humane, honest, peaceful yet energetic nature, such as to attract the young and inspire confidence in all. Love of nature and country life; good sense rather than common sense? efficient running of affairs rather than mere routine. The native will do his utmost for his children’s happiness, but is not in the least certain to reach happiness for himself; on the contrary, when particularly badly aspected elsewhere, he could look forward to death as a release, though no attempt at self-inflicted death can be foreseen; the good shepherd will not leave his flock. This degree may produce corpulence if other factors concur.

Denotes one who will have a very gloomy life and who Is likely to die be fore he passes his prime

A born teacher and scientist; hearing (afflicted - may in - cline to deafness); inordinately fond of food; afflicted - gluttons; if the will is weak, may become a drunkard; a tendency to be contrary and stubborn, especially with planets in 27 degree Aries-Pisces; frequently their own worst enemies; has much to do with healing; said to be a degree ruling the Irish; cervical vein.

Denotes one who acquires much by work and application, but who lacks the faculty of watchfulness in protecting his gains from the greed of others. He has an easygoing tendency, but gains come from labor, craft, and the management of his own affairs. He may be the victim of deceit or treachery, and should never put himself in the hands of others when his own well-being is concerned. He should avoid things and circumstances he does not understand. It is a symbol of Misleading.

Very subject to teasing. Easily taunted into futile efforts. This individual feels a responsibility which he cannot maintain. He is easily aroused into a defensive attitude. Part of this is due to a response to shadows and unreal images around him. If this person were born soon after a New Moon this tendency would be enhanced and become very difficult to handle. He is plagued by an environment too active for his lumbering nature. He has a slow heavy feel and is unable to move quickly. His record of success and failure would be improved by a protective cover of some kind under which he could take time to clear his vision before he struck out at the threat he fears. This degree also affects the vision adversely. If he could be made to feel a sense of protection rather than being subjected to constant teasing he would have at least an opportunity to correct his evaluation of his environment. This person however seems to have been born with the fuse lit. And it is very unclear what useful purpose this influence serves.

Contrariness when found with planets also in Aries, Libra in 27 degree. A born teacher and scientist.

16-17

This symbolizes a life of toil without much fruits; the misdirection of effort through ignorance of natural laws; a straining after that which Nature has not designed, and consequent failure in life. The native will be unpopular, moving against the stream, and by much exertion, hurting himself alone. It is a degree of FUTILITY.

The native’s habit of thinking with his own head is apt to make him unpopular; his failings will bring about his misfortune. His intelligence is like a river liable to flood the barren sands of Utopia instead of fertilizing the happy valley of originality. He is in for unceasing, often wasted, labors, which will not make him move a step forward. There is a guilty light-mindedness; the native will believe that he can solve single- handed and in his own way certain problems which repose on natural laws, as those of economics, dynamics and the like. On the other hand, such a being can easily rely on Divine Providence and reach that absolute faith which moves mountains and goes so far as to give sometimes personal success in spite of rationalistic logic and science’s “infallibility.”

A truly good person; one who has Implicit faith in the Most High.

Painting; business; musical ability (variations of pitch); singers; oratory; a powerful degree for men; color; and original person who has much influence on his sphere of society; ideas or popularity may grow by spurts, but unexpected falls sometimes follow too; homicidal tendency; abscesses of neck if with 25 degree Leo-Aquarius or 21 degree Aries-Libra; associated with explosions (of nuclear plants or bombings); often a tall person; tonsils.

Denotes one free as air, brave, spiritual, restless, and unfitted for the regular routine of daily life. Care in infancy is essential. He is of a wandering disposition and frequent changes are for him. It is a symbol of Wandering.

There is some contradiction in this degree. Basically the difficulty seems to be over-optimism. Stubbornness seems to be more prominent than the more desirable Taurian traits. One may well enjoy a certain measure of popularity which only seems to contribute a stubborn blindness to the weak spots which need attention. He also seems to enjoy a fair amount of luck which also tends to produce a false sense of security. If however, he has a genuine appreciation for his luck and is able to resist sheer flattery on the part of fair-weather friends without being rude and cutting himself off, he may come out pretty well. Luck in any form tends to run out if not used wisely. Here it seems to be built in that luck which is squandered does not continue. There is only enough to prime the pump. He must keep the flow going or it will stop.

A powerful degree for men. Denotes an original person who exercises considerable influence in his circle of society. Their ideas or popularity may grow by leaps and bounds, and unexpected falls sometimes follow.

18-19

It denotes a gentle, inoffensive but weak nature, inclined to indolence or hopelessness, and thus while Nature is luxurious and fertile, and all around speaks of wealth gained by industry, the native remains in a poor condition for want of determination. It is a degree of INCOMPETENCE.

An exquisitely feminine nature. The native may go so far as to be a genius, but even in normal cases she will have some very bright gift which she is not likely to exploit in full and will at least partially leave untapped. A gentle and sweet character, even too little self-assertive, which will tend to flabbiness, indecision, passivity and gloom. A certain typically feminine futility will accompany an equally feminine skill in getting things done. A voice of pure musical pitch, an unconstrained speech, a naturally smart and graceful demeanor. Her main virtues will be self-possession and cleanliness. In a mystic sense, the symbol may be taken to mean the Sacrament of Baptism. Destiny may have in store travel or emigration to the New World. Teaching may be a congenial profession, if the pattern contains such elements as to give the necessary authority for this.

This denotes a great genius. His home Is, or will be, the western hemisphere.

Music ( a trumpet); a person who rises from a humble birth place to a great renown through a process of unfoldment; hair; leader of party; often a tall person; maxillary artery.

Denotes one who is unable to estimate his abilities and who attempts things foolhardy and useless. There is a tendency to irritability and aggressiveness and lack of self-restraint. Thus he will court unpopularity and will suffer from his own actions. It is a symbol of Futility.

Mars N Node is located here and incorporates more violence than the previous degree. We should however learn more of the nature of Mars from this combination. In most reports the degree has characterized a violent misuse of the energy. It is considered savage and warlike. I am of the opinion that since the N Node of Mars is influencing this degree now we may expect to see some more constructive and positive action from people with planets here. One authority suggests an unfolding process which must proceed in an orderly fashion patiently as a flower blooms. There certainly is a contrast here between the growing power of life against the destructive but also temporary power of death.

A person who rises from a humble birthplace to great renown, through a process of unfoldment.

20-21

It indicates a silent, watchful disposition, inclined to caution, method, and thrift, but liable to assaults from unexpected sources, which will overthrow many carefully designed plans. It is a degree of ANTICIPATION.

A frugal, cautious, watchful, silent and close character bearing the hallmark of individuality, a deep mind, a pitiless logic, a precise and methodic intelligence, more suited for analysis than synthesis. The native will rely but on himself, yet destiny will baffle him with gleeful spite and take a cruel delight in hitting him just where rational logic would rule out failure or even danger. The collapse of his most accurately prearranged plans will tell on the native’s temper, whose guardedness may drift into suspiciousness, and misanthropy into wickedness.

Denotes one having an analytical mind. He may succeed as a chemist, or where application to minute analytical effects is called for; a very sound reasoner.

Music (variation of pitch); oratorical ability; doctors; homicidal tendency; undernourishment and poisons are in some way connected with this degree; immorality, violence, danger of accidents or poison; goiter; alcoholism; sinus artery.

Denotes one of sporting tendencies who delights in trials of skill and who is generally fortunate. To his nature there is a generous, sympathetic, and interesting side, which gains him many friends and much popularity. It is a symbol of Sportiveness.

This degree seems to have a dual nature and suggests varied and contradictory influences. There is perhaps the greatest tendency to cause one’s downfall by envy of another’s position. There is something here which suggests a Scorpion tendency to sting itself to death out of frustration rather than give up and walk away. There is a tendency to climb the ladder of success at the expense of competitors if necessary. But those who take this route pay for it one way or another. There is much rugged brute force strength of Taurus. This individual tends to feel he can go his way alone. There is one authority that suggests an ability on the part of this native to sacrifice himself for someone he loves. Of course there are many kinds of sacrifice. Some of them are beneficial and some of them are not. It is well to consider here whether the individual might not better correct his own faults in order to contribute something more worthwhile rather than sacrifice something which does not really pay the necessary price. Maturity of the human spirit should be the goal.

Undernourishment and poisons are in some way connected with this degree (May be denoted by planets here in aspect to planetoids.) Also Nymphomania.

24-25

It indicates a powerful and haughty nature; one who is disposed to justify himself by force of arms rather than by intrinsic merit. Such a person will make many his servants but few his friends and in the end his state will be a pitiable as that of a dying lion. It is a degree of PRIDE.

The subject’s inner world will stay closed and unknown to all. Yet this is no cowardly nature, rather an arrogant one; the native is innerly proud, haughty, overbearing, but not vain. As he is spiritually isolated among his fellow beings, he will have justice done to himself, if necessary, by having recourse to arms. As he is misunderstood, he will endeavor to have his own way even by resorting to violence; as long as his strength does not fail him, he will see subdued servants around himself, never friends. He will risk either to die a stray dog’s death, or to be kicked and spat upon on his death bed, like the lion in the fable.

This denotes a very mysterious character. Whilst living among men, a stranger to men. He has a life of his own, a world of his own, he is content to live and die unknown.

Sometimes have theories and ideas of doubtful value; homicidal tendency; alcoholism; women with planets here are usually intuitive, poetic, lively, and flirtatious; men careful with their money; lower jaw.

Denotes one of natural talent who will be beset with difficulties in gaining recognition, but whose mental strength will be the more determined because of them. When his time comes his power will be felt. He will force acknowledgment by sheer ability and energy. It is a symbol of Premeditation.

There is much disagreement about this degree. The most uniform expectancy centers around a peaceful highly spiritual being generally too soft for the hard blows delivered by life on this earth. If it pertains to mastership of a high spiritual nature, there are indeed few who could live up to such an influence. Therefore we would find few to indicate such evolvement. However, at the very least, this degree does have an influence contributing to a spiritual awakening. How far the native would be able to demonstrate such qualities would have to depend on the rest of the chart as well as the overall capacity he had to extract the good from any influence. At least there is very little that is derogatory to be said about this influence. I think it is quite obvious that it stimulates spiritual development. The steady persistent qualities of Taurus are blended with that influence and as humanity develops we should expect to see people improving on what has been accomplished with this degree by other people.

These people sometimes have theories and ideas of doubtful value. Women with planets here are intuitive, poetic, lively and flirtatious. Men with planets here are usually careful with their money.

28-29

It signifies a tyrant, who takes delight in power apart from its uses, and whose opinions are bigoted and selfish. To rule, without regard to qualifications, is the passing ambition of one born under this degree. Death, which frees the slave, will bind the hands of a tyrant in irons forged from his own heart. It is a degree of DESPOTISM.

Things are worse in a male horoscope. The other components ought, however, to be carefully weighed, and it has to be decided whether the omen refer to his (lawful or unlawful) mate, or to himself. In the former case, the man, of course, is the victim. Should contrary features of overbearingness be at hand, which could not possibly regard others, he is then certainly himself the tyrant looking at his dependents as pack mules, ignoring their human dignity, or taking a great delight in trampling upon it. The one hypothesis does not altogether exclude the other. Whether a woman or a man, the native would assuredly be in for a great many unforeseen events. He may well be cowardly as all real bullies are; but he is unlikely to have true foresight. Someone may thrash him within an inch of his life, or even shoot him as a dog. Vulgarity and bigotry usually complete the picture of such a character.

Be careful. A life full of strange events, and liable to grievous accidents.

Good organizing ability; strong will; usually magnetic, proud and stoical; heavy drinking; suicide; a degree giving “something to cry about”; Trapizius.

Denotes one who is continually beset with difficulties and who finds it hard at all times to decide his course of action. He is ever between forces of opposite natures, and is quite as likely to do the right thing as the wrong one. These conditions must be subdued by the steady cultivation of the will. It is a symbol of Embarrassment.

This degree is widely contradictory. And the two extremes may exist in the same person. There is potential mathematical and scientific ability, and at the same time a tendency to create and live in a dream world of his own. When the native is rebuffed or feels a sense of failure there is the temptation to withdraw. And yet his capacity to achieve is great. Many times this person gives up without a struggle especially if that dream world is comfortably constructed and the life situation is one that does not demand attention to daily details. Many daily details are of such a nature that they can be performed without much awareness but are accomplished by rote habit. When such is the case this native’s ability risks to stay dormant. Alcoholism is also a possibility here, although there really is no need for alcohol to escape into the fantasy dream world. There is also a magnetism here which may attract so-called karma or heavy problems to be dealt with or the magnetism may attract other people who add zest to the life.

These natives are usually magnetic, proud and stoical. Have a strong will and good organizing ability.

#itachi #itachi uchiha #degree exploration #n-astro

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blackfreethinkers · 4 years

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A racial realist IS a white supremacist!!!

By Greg Miller

In unguarded moments with senior aides, President Trump has maintained that Black Americans have mainly themselves to blame in their struggle for equality, hindered more by lack of initiative than societal impediments, according to current and former U.S. officials.

After phone calls with Jewish lawmakers, Trump has muttered that Jews “are only in it for themselves” and “stick together” in an ethnic allegiance that exceeds other loyalties, officials said.

Trump’s private musings about Hispanics match the vitriol he has displayed in public, and his antipathy to Africa is so ingrained that when first lady Melania Trump planned a 2018 trip to that continent he railed that he “could never understand why she would want to go there.”

When challenged on these views by subordinates, Trump has invariably responded with indignation. “He would say, ‘No one loves Black people more than me,’ ” a former senior White House official said. The protests rang hollow because if the president were truly guided by such sentiments he “wouldn’t need to say it,” the official said. “You let your actions speak.”

In Trump’s case, there is now a substantial record of his actions as president that have compounded the perceptions of racism created by his words.

Over 3½ years in office, he has presided over a sweeping U.S. government retreat from the front lines of civil rights, endangering decades of progress against voter suppression, housing discrimination and police misconduct.

His immigration policies hark back to quota systems of the 1920s that were influenced by the junk science of eugenics, and have involved enforcement practices — including the separation of small children from their families — that seemed designed to maximize trauma on Hispanic migrants.

With the election looming, the signaling behind even second-tier policy initiatives has been unambiguous.

After rolling back regulations designed to encourage affordable housing for minorities, Trump declared himself the champion of the “Suburban Lifestyle Dream.” He ordered aides to revamp racial sensitivity training at federal agencies so that it no longer refers to “White privilege.” In a speech at the National Archives on Thursday, Trump vowed to overhaul what children are taught in the nation’s schools — something only states have the power to do — while falsely claiming that students are being “fed lies about America being a wicked nation plagued by racism.”

The America envisioned by these policies and pronouncements is one dedicated to preserving a racial hierarchy that can be seen in Trump’s own Cabinet and White House, both overwhelmingly white and among the least diverse in recent U.S. history.

Trump’s push to amplify racism unnerves Republicans who have long enabled him

Scholars describe Trump’s record on race in historically harsh terms. Carol Anderson, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University, compared Trump to Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as president and helped Southern Whites reestablish much of the racial hegemony they had seemingly lost in the Civil War.

“Johnson made it clear that he was really the president of a few people, not the American people,” Anderson said. “And Trump has done the same.”

A second White House official who worked closely with Trump quibbled with the comparison, but only because later Oval Office occupants also had intolerant views.

“Woodrow Wilson was outwardly a white supremacist,” the former official said. “I don’t think Trump is as bad as Wilson. But he might be.”

White House officials vigorously dispute such characterizations.

“Donald Trump’s record as a private citizen and as president has been one of fighting for inclusion and advocating for the equal treatment of all,” said Sarah Matthews, a White House spokeswoman. “Anyone who suggests otherwise is only seeking to sow division.”

No senior U.S. official interviewed could recall Trump uttering a racial or ethnic slur while in office. Nor did any consider him an adherent of white supremacy or white nationalism, extreme ideologies that generally sanction violence to protect White interests or establish a racially pure ethno-state.

White House officials also pointed to achievements that have benefited minorities, including job growth and prison-sentence reform.

But even those points fade under scrutiny. Black unemployment has surged disproportionately during the coronavirus pandemic, and officials said Trump regretted reducing prison sentences when it didn’t produce a spike in Black voter support.

And there are indications that even Trump’s allies are worried about his record on race. The Republican Party devoted much of its convention in August to persuading voters that Trump is not a racist, with far more Black speakers at the four-day event than have held top White House positions over the past four years.

This story is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former officials, including some who have had daily interactions with the president, as well as experts on race and members of white supremacist groups. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a desire to provide candid accounts of events and conversations they witnessed without fear of retribution.

Coded racial terms

Most attributed Trump’s views on race and conduct to a combination of the prevailing attitudes of his privileged upbringing in the 1950s in what was then a predominantly White borough of New York, as well as a cynical awareness that coded racial terms and gestures can animate substantial portions of his political base.

The perspectives of those closest to the president are shaped by their own biases and self-interests. They have reason to resist the idea that they served a racist president. And they are, with few exceptions, themselves White males.

Others have offered less charitable assessments.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, one of the few Black women to have worked at the White House, said in her 2018 memoir that she was enlisted by White House aides to track down a rumored recording from “The Apprentice” — the reality show on which she was a contestant — in which Trump allegedly used the n-word. A former official said that others involved in the effort included Trump adviser Hope Hicks and former White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

The tape, if it exists, was never recovered. But Manigault Newman, who was forced out after clashing with other White House staff, portrayed the effort to secure the tape as evidence that aides saw Trump capable of such conduct. In the book, she described Trump as “a racist, misogynist and bigot.”

Mary L. Trump, the president’s niece, has said that casual racism was prevalent in the Trump family. In interviews to promote her recently published book, she has said that she witnessed her uncle using both anti-Semitic slurs as well as the n-word, though she offered few details and no evidence.

Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, has made similar allegations and calls Trump “a racist, a predator, a con man” in a newly published book. Cohen accuses Trump of routinely disparaging people of color, including former president Barack Obama. “Tell me one country run by a Black person that isn’t a s---hole,” Trump said, according to Cohen.

These authors did not provide direct evidence of Trump’s racist outbursts, but the animus they describe aligns with the prejudice Trump so frequently displays in public.

In recent months, Trump has condemned Black Lives Matter as a “symbol of hate” while defending armed White militants who entered the Michigan Capitol, right-wing activists who waved weapons from pickup trucks in Portland and a White teen who shot and killed two protesters in Wisconsin.

Trump has vowed to safeguard the legacies of Confederate generals while skipping the funeral of the late congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon, and retweeted — then deleted — video of a supporter shouting “White power” while questioning the electoral eligibility of Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the nation’s first Black and Asian American candidate for vice president from a major party. In so doing, Trump reanimated a version of the false “birther” claim he had used to suggest that Obama may not have been born in the United States.

These add to an already voluminous record of incendiary statements, including his tweet that minority congresswomen should “go back” to their “crime infested” countries despite being U.S.-born or U.S. citizens, and his claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” after torch-carrying white nationalists staged a violent protest in Charlottesville.

In a measure of Trump’s standing with such organizations, the Stormfront website — the oldest and largest neo-Nazi platform on the Internet — recently issued a call to its followers to mobilize.

“If Trump doesn’t win this election, the police will be abolished and Blacks will come to your house and kill you and your family,” the site warned. “This isn’t about politics anymore, it is about basic survival.”

As the election approaches, Trump has also employed apocalyptic language. He recently claimed that if Democratic nominee Joe Biden is elected, police departments will be dismantled, the American way of life will be “abolished” and “no one will be SAFE.”

Given the country’s anguished history, it is hard to isolate Trump’s impact on the racial climate in the United States. But his first term has coincided with the most intense period of racial upheaval in a generation. And the country is now in the final stretch of a presidential campaign that is more explicitly focused on race — including whether the sitting president is a racist — than any election in modern American history.

Biden has seized on the issue from the outset. In a video declaring his candidacy, he used images from the clashes in Charlottesville, and said he felt compelled to run because of Trump’s response. He has called Trump the nation’s first racist president and pledged to use his presidency to heal divisions that are a legacy of the country’s “original sin” of slavery.

Exploiting societal divisions

Trump has confronted allegations of racism in nearly every decade of his adult life. In the 1970s, the Trump family real estate empire was forced to settle a Justice Department lawsuit alleging systemic discrimination against Black apartment applicants. In the 1980s, he took out full-page ads calling for the death penalty against Black teens wrongly accused of a rape in Central Park. In the 2000s, Trump parlayed his baseless “birther” claim about Obama into a fervent far-right following.

As president, he has cast his record on race in grandiose terms. “I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said July 22, a refrain he has repeated at least five times in recent months.

None of the administration officials interviewed for this story agreed with Trump’s self-appraisals. But several sought to rationalize his behavior.

Some argued that Trump only exploits societal divisions when he believes it is to his political advantage. They pointed to his denunciations of kneeling NFL players and paeans to the Confederate flag, claiming these symbols matter little to him beyond their ability to rouse supporters.

“I don’t think Donald Trump is in any way a white supremacist, a neo-Nazi or anything of the sort,” a third former senior administration official said. “But I think he has a general awareness that one component of his base includes factions that trend in that direction.”

Studies of the 2016 election have shown that racial resentment was a far bigger factor in propelling Trump to victory than economic grievance. Political scientists at Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, for example, examined the election results and found that voters who scored highly on indexes of racism voted overwhelmingly for Trump, a dynamic particularly strong among non-college-educated Whites.

Several current and former administration officials, somewhat paradoxically, cited Trump’s nonracial biases and perceived limitations as exculpatory.

Several officials said that Trump is not a disciplined enough thinker to grasp the full dimensions of the white nationalist agenda, let alone embrace it. Others pointed out that they have observed him making far more offensive comments about women, insisting that his scorn is all-encompassing and therefore shouldn’t be construed as racist.

“This is a guy who abuses people in his cabinet, abuses four-star generals, abuses people who gave their life for this country, abuses civil servants,” the first former senior White House official said. “It’s not like he doesn’t abuse people that are White as well.”

Nearly all said that Trump places far greater value on others’ wealth, fame or loyalty to him than he does on race or ethnicity. In so doing, many raised a version of the “some of my best friends are Black” defense on behalf of the president.

When faced with allegations of racism in the 2016 campaign, Trump touted his friendship with boxing promoter Don King to argue otherwise. Administration officials similarly pointed to the president’s connection to Black people who have praised him, worked for him or benefited from his help.

They cited Trump’s admiration for Tiger Woods and other Black athletes, the political support he has received from Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and other Black lawmakers, the president’s fondness for Ja’Ron Smith, who as assistant to the president for domestic policy is the highest-ranking Black staffer at the White House, and his pardon of Black criminal-justice-reform advocate Alice Marie Johnson, expunging her 1996 conviction for cocaine trafficking.

In his speech at the Republican National Convention, Scott used his personal story of bootstrap success to emphasize the ways that Republican policies on taxes, school choice and other issues create opportunities for minorities.

Trump “has fought alongside me” on such issues, Scott said, urging voters “not to look simply at what the candidates say, but to look back at what they’ve done.”

For all the prominence that Scott and other Black Trump supporters were given at the convention, there has been no corresponding representation within the Trump administration.

The official photo stream of Trump’s presidency is a slide show of a commander in chief surrounded by White faces, whether meeting with Cabinet members or posing with the latest intern crop.

From the outset, his leadership team has been overwhelmingly White. A Washington Post tally identified 59 people who have held Cabinet positions or served in top White House jobs including chief of staff, press secretary and national security adviser since Trump took office.

Only seven have been people of color, including Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who are of Lebanese heritage. Only one — Ben Carson, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development — is Black.

Under Trump, the nation’s federal courts have also become increasingly White. Of the 248 judges confirmed or nominated since Trump took office, only eight were Black and eight were Hispanic, according to records compiled by NPR News.

Retreating from civil rights

Trump can point to policy initiatives that have benefited Black or other minority groups, including criminal justice reforms that reduced prison sentences for thousands of Black men convicted of nonviolent, drug-related crimes.

About 4,700 inmates have been released or had their sentences reduced under the First Step Act, an attempt to reverse the lopsided legacy of the drug wars of the 1980s and 1990s, which disproportionately targeted African Americans. But this policy was championed primarily by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and former officials said that Trump only agreed to support the measure when told it might boost his low poll numbers with Black voters.

Months later, when that failed to materialize, Trump “went s---house crazy,” one former official said, yelling at aides, “Why the hell did I do that?”

Manigault Newman was similarly excoriated when her efforts to boost funding for historically Black colleges failed to deliver better polling numbers for the president, officials said. “You’ve been at this for four months, Omarosa,” Trump said, according to one adviser, “but the numbers haven’t budged.” Manigault Newman did not respond to a request for comment.

White House officials cited other initiatives aimed at helping people of color, including loan programs targeting minority businesses and the creation of “opportunity zones” in economically distressed communities.

Trump has pointed most emphatically to historically low Black unemployment rates during his first term, arguing that data show they have fared better under his administration than under Obama or any other president.

But unemployment statistics are largely driven by broader economic trends, and the early gains of Black workers have been wiped out by the pandemic. Blacks have lost jobs at higher rates than other groups since the economy began to shut down. The jobless rate for Blacks in August was 13 percent, compared with 7.3 percent for Whites — the highest racial disparity in nearly six years.

Neither prison reform nor minority jobs programs were priorities of Trump’s first term. His administration has devoted far more energy and political capital to erecting barriers to non-White immigrants, dismantling the health-care policies of Obama and pulling federal agencies back from civil rights battlegrounds.

Under Trump, the Justice Department has cut funding in its Civil Rights Division, scaled back prosecutions of hate crimes, all but abandoned efforts to combat systemic discrimination by police departments and backed state measures that deprived minorities of the right to vote.

Weeks after Trump took office, the department announced it was abandoning its six-year involvement in a legal battle with Texas over a 2011 voter ID law that a federal court had ruled unfairly targeted minorities.

Later, the department went from opposing, under Obama, an Ohio law that allowed the state to purge tens of thousands of voters from its rolls to defending the measure before the Supreme Court.

The law was upheld by the court’s conservative majority. In a dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that voter rolls in African American neighborhoods shrank by 10 percent, compared with 4 percent in majority-White suburbs.

The Justice Department’s shift when faced with allegations of systemic racism by police departments has been even more stark.

After the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles in 1991, Congress gave the department new power to investigate law enforcement agencies suspected of engaging in a “pattern or practice” of systemic — including racist — misconduct. The probes frequently led to settlements that required sweeping reforms.

The authority was put to repeated use by three consecutive presidents: 25 times under Bill Clinton, 21 under George W. Bush and 25 under Obama. Under Trump, there has been only one.

The collapse has coincided with a surge in police killings captured on video, the largest civil rights protests in decades and polling data that suggests a profound turn in public opinion in support of the Black Lives Matter cause — though that support has waned in recent weeks as protests became violent in some cities.

A Justice Department spokesman pointed to nearly a dozen cases over the past three years in which the department has prosecuted hate crimes or launched racial discrimination lawsuits. In perhaps the most notable case, James Fields Jr., who was convicted of murder for driving his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, also pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges.

“The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice is vigorously fighting race discrimination throughout the United States. Any assertion to the contrary is completely false,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. “Since 2017, we have prosecuted criminal and civil race discrimination cases in all parts of the United States, and we will continue to do so.”

But the department has not launched a pattern or practice probe into any of the police departments involved in the killings that ignited this summer’s protests, including the May 25 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, who asphyxiated after a White policeman kept him pinned to the ground for nearly eight minutes with a knee to his neck.

The department has opened a more narrow investigation of the officers directly involved in Floyd’s death. Attorney General William P. Barr called Floyd’s killing “shocking,” but in congressional testimony argued there was no reason to commit to a broader probe of Minneapolis or any other police force.

“I don’t believe there is systemic racism in police departments,” Barr said.

Deport, deny and discourage

Days after the 2016 election, David Duke, a longtime leader of the Ku Klux Klan, tweeted that Trump’s win was “great for our people.” Richard Spencer, another prominent white nationalist figure, was captured on video leading a “Hail Trump” salute at an alt-right conference in Washington.

People with far-right views or white nationalist sympathies gravitated to the administration.

Michael Anton, who published a 2016 essay comparing the country’s course under Obama to that of an aircraft controlled by Islamist terrorists and called for an end to “the ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners,” became deputy national security adviser for strategic communication.

Ian Smith served as an immigration policy analyst at the Department of Homeland Security until email records showed connections with Spencer and other white supremacists. Darren Beattie worked as a White House speechwriter before leaving abruptly when CNN reported his involvement in a conference frequented by white nationalists.

Stephen K. Bannon, who for years used Breitbart News to advance an alt-right, anti-immigrant agenda, was named White House chief strategist, only to be banished eight months later after clashing with other administration officials.

Stephen Miller, by contrast, has survived a series of White House purges and used his position as senior adviser to the president to push hard-line policies that aim to deport, deny and discourage non-European immigrants.

While working for the Trump campaign in 2016, Miller sent a steady stream of story ideas to Breitbart drawn from white nationalist websites, according to email records obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In one exchange, Miller urged a Breitbart reporter to read “Camp of the Saints,” a French novel that depicts the destruction of Western civilization by rampant immigration. The book has become a touchpoint for white supremacist groups.

Miller was the principal architect of, and driving force behind, the so-called Muslim Ban issued in the early days of Trump’s presidency and the separation of migrant children from their parents along the border with Mexico. He has also worked behind the scenes to turn public opinion against immigrants and outmaneuver bureaucratic adversaries, officials said.

To blunt allegations of racism and xenophobia in the administration’s policies, Miller has sought to portray them as advantageous to people of color. In several instances, Miller directed subordinates to “look for Latinos or Blacks who have been victims of a crime by an immigrant,” then pressured officials at the Department of Homeland Security to tout these cases to the press, one official said. Families of some victims appeared as prominent guests of the president at the State of the Union address.

In 2018, as Miller sought to slash the number of refugees admitted to the United States, Pentagon officials argued that the existing policy was crucial to their ability to relocate interpreters and other foreign nationals who risked their lives to work with U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“What do you want? Iraqi communities across the United States?” Miller erupted during one meeting of National Security Council deputies, according to witnesses. The refugee limit has plunged since Trump took office, from 85,000 in 2016 to 18,000 this year.

In response to a request for comment from Miller, Matthews, the White House spokeswoman, said that “this attempt to vilify Stephen Miller with egregious and unfounded allegations from anonymous sources is shameful and completely unethical.”

As a descendant of Jewish immigrants, Miller is regarded warily by white supremacist organizations even as they applaud some of his actions.

“Our side doesn’t consider him one of us — for obvious reasons,” said Don Black, the founder of the Stormfront website, in an interview. “He’s kind of an odd choice to be the white nationalist in the White House.”

Trump’s presidency has corresponded with a surge in activity by white nationalist groups, as well as concern about the growing danger they pose.

Recent assessments by the Department of Homeland Security describe white supremacists as the country’s gravest domestic threat, exceeding that of the Islamic State and other terror groups, according to documents obtained by the Lawfare national security website and reported by Politico.

The FBI has expanded resources to tracking hate groups and crimes. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray testified Thursday that “racially motivated violent extremism” accounts for the bulk of the bureau’s domestic terrorism cases, and that most of those are driven by white supremacist ideology.

Major rallies staged by white nationalist organizations, which were already on the upswing just before the 2016 election, increased in size and frequency after Trump took office, according to Brian Levin, an expert on hate groups at California State University at San Bernardino.

The largest, and most ominous, was the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

On Aug. 11, 2017, hundreds of white supremacists, neo-fascists and Confederate sympathizers descended on the city. Purportedly there to protest the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, they carried torches and chanted slogans including “blood and soil” and “you will not replace us” laden with Klan and Nazi symbolism.

The event erupted in violence the next day, Saturday, when Fields, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, tossing bodies into the air. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old Virginia native and peace activist, was killed.

Trump’s vacillating response in the ensuing days came to mark one of the defining sequences of his presidency.

Speaking from his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., Trump at first stuck to a calibrated script: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.” Then, improvising, he added: “on many sides, on many sides.”

In six words, Trump had drawn a moral equivalency between the racist ideology of those responsible for the Klan-like spectacle and the competing beliefs that compelled Heyer and others to confront hate.

Trump’s comments set off what some in the White House came to regard as a behind-the-scenes struggle for the moral character of his presidency.

John F. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who was just weeks into his job as White House chief of staff, confronted Trump in the corridors of the Bedminster club. “You have to fix this,” Kelly said, according to officials familiar with the exchange. “You were supporting white supremacists. You have to go back out and correct this.”

Gary Cohn, the White House economic adviser at the time, threatened to resign and argued that there were no “good people” among the ranks of those wearing swastikas and chanting “Jews will not replace us.” In a heated exchange, Cohn criticized Trump for his “many sides” comment, and was flummoxed when Trump denied that was what he had said.

“Not only did you say it, you continued to double down on it,” Cohn shot back, according to officials familiar with the exchange. “And if you want, I’ll get the transcripts.”

Trump relented that Monday and delivered the ringing condemnation of racism that Kelly, Cohn and others had urged. “Racism is evil,” he said, “and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups”

Aides were briefly elated. But Trump grew agitated by news coverage depicting his speech as an attempt to correct his initial blunder.

The next day, during an event at Trump Tower that was supposed to highlight infrastructure initiatives, Trump launched into a fiery monologue.

“You had a group on one side that was bad,” he said. “You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say that. I’ll say it right now.” By the end, the president appeared to be sanctioning racial divisions far beyond Charlottesville, saying “there are two sides to the country.”

For all their consternation, none of Trump’s top aides resigned over Charlottesville. Kelly remained in his job through 2018. Cohn stayed until March 2018 after being asked to lead the administration’s tax-reform initiative and reassured that he could share his own views about Charlottesville in public without retaliation from the president.

Kelly and Cohn declined to comment.

The most senior former administration official to comment publicly on Trump’s conduct on issues of race is former defense secretary Jim Mattis. After Trump responded to Black Lives Matter protests in Washington this summer with paramilitary force, Mattis responded with a blistering statement.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” Mattis said. “Instead, he tries to divide us.”

In some ways, Charlottesville represented a high-water mark for white nationalism in Trump’s presidency. Civil rights groups were able to use footage of the mayhem in Virginia to identify members of hate groups and expose them to their employers, universities and families.

“Charlottesville backfired,” Levin said. Many of those who took part, especially the alt-right leadership, “were doxed, sued and beaten back,” he said, using a term for using documents available from public records to expose individuals.

“When the door to the big political tent closed on these overtly white nationalist groups, many collapsed, leaving a decentralized constituency of loose radicals now reorganizing under new banners,” Levin said.

Some white nationalist leaders have begun to express disenchantment with Trump because he has failed to deliver on campaign promises they hoped would bring immigration to a standstill or perhaps even ignite a race war.

“A lot of our people were expecting him to actually secure the borders, build the wall and make Mexico pay for it,” Black said.

“Some in my circles want to see him defeated,” Black said, because they believe a Biden presidency would call less attention to the white nationalist movement than Trump has, while fostering discontent among White people.

But Black sees those views as dangerously shortsighted, failing to appreciate the extraordinary advantages of having a president who so regularly aligns himself with aspects of the movement’s agenda.

“Symbolically, he’s still very important,” Black said of Trump. “I don’t think he considers himself a white supremacist or a white nationalist. But I think he may be a racial realist. He knows there are racial differences.”

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pengychan · 4 years

Note

Regarding your Heaven and Earth series, could you share a bit more on how Héctor, Imelda, and Ernesto’s parents met and got together?

Oh, I’d been planning to write something about it! But in the end, the focus should have stayed on the trio, so I scrapped it.

I didn’t come around to think up anything very detailed for Imelda’s parents past the fact her father was enough of an idealist to voluntarily leave his family to go to war and die.

With Héctor’s parents, I like to think they met when already in their thirties and had Héctor later in life, when they thought they were simply too old to actually have a child. The idea was that they both worked in the market, would look dreamily at each other from afar, and were basically Too Fucking Dumb to actually act on it, leading literally everyone else present to collectively roll their eyes and start forcing them into situations where they had to interact. (I have this image in my mind with her being a total klutz and knocking down stuff while repeatedly apologizing, while he watches from afar sighing and going “isn’t she just perfect”. And meanwhile he’s like, pouring coffee into an overflowing cup.)The wedding was no surprise. The baby that followed was. EDIT: oh wait I found some snippets about them too, scroll to the bottom!

As for Ernesto’s parents, I actually started writing something about their first meeting. I dug it up from the scrap folder, here you go! By the time they met, Adela had no family left. Estéban never had any to begin with.

***

The man laughed at her, which only made Adela angrier. She had worked hard to mend those trousers quickly; he shouldn’t get to walk out without paying.

“You have to pay for those!” she protested, taking a step forward. Her anger was met with a sneer.

“Or else what? You want them back?”

“I–”

“Want to come take them off?”

Three realizations hit Adela García at the same time. The first was that they were rather far from her home, halfway to the village, and that no one else was in sight. The second was that the man’s grin was just a little too wide. The third - he could overwhelm her in moments, and if he chose to–

Adela opened her mouth, to protest or scream, but she had time to do neither. She would never know whether that man had meant to do anything or was just trying to scare her away, because someone else spoke up, suddenly, loudly - more a growl than spoken words.

“How about you give her the fucking money, she stops shrieking about it, and I get to eat in peace?”

“… Huh?”

Both her and Delgado turned towards the source of the sound. There was a man sitting in the shade of a tree, which was… odd. Maybe she had seen him before, but it was hard to tell, because it was covered in dust the way only miners are, when it sticks to sweaty skin and hair and clothes. Miners usually ate their meals together, but he was a good walk away from the mine by the stream; he was sitting under a tree, a half-eaten piece of bread in his hand, glaring at them both like they’d just stepped uninvited in his living room

Adela fought back a bizarre impulse to apologize for the intrusion while Delgado scoffed.

“You can mind your own business and keep eating, cabrón,” he snapped, and walked off. Or tried to, because the man stuffed the rest of the bread in his mouth - barely visible amongst dusty black bear - and stood.

He was tall, broad, and probably strong as an ox, the way miners are. Delgado was not a small man, but all it took was a glance to see who would be worse off if it came to blows. And the man very much looked like he’d love an excuse to deal the first one.

“Call me that again,” he said almost calmly through the mouthful of bread. He swallowed, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Delgado took a step back, all arrogance gone. “Listen– I don’t want to fight.”

“And she wants her money. Plus an extra for making her run after you.”

“Who are you, some kind of–”

“Shut your mouth and pay her.”

For just a moment, it looked like Delgado might argue; but in the end, self-preservation prevailed over his pride. He almost threw the money at her, and left in quick strides, giving the other man a wide berth. Adela grinned - it was easily twice the amount he’d have paid if he hadn’t tried to run off, served him right - and picked up several coins.

“Thank you for–” she began, and trailed off when she said the man was already walking off towards the mine, without another word.

Rude.

“What– wait! Wait a moment!”

For the second time in less than ten minutes, Adela rushed after a man - but this time not to ask for money. He stopped, turned to her, and scowled when he realized she was trying to hand him part of what Delgado had given her.

“I need no charity,” he snapped, causing her to recoil.

“Oh! I meant no offense, it’s just– as a thank you, for helping me. This is more money than the job was worth. It seems only fair.”

He scowl softened in a look of mild surprise, and for the first time Adela noticed that, beneath the dust and grime, he was rather good-looking. In the end, however, he shook his head. Only later she’d come to know how much he despised the mere idea of charity - how humiliating he’d found as a boy, with the nuns running the orphanage reminding him to be ever so grateful for every scrap thrown his way.

“I don’t need it.”

“Then let me offer you something to drink,” Adela insisted. “Or to eat before you go back to wor-”

The church’s bell rang in the distance, and the man tilted his head towards it. “Got to go back now.”

“Dinner, then?”

He turned back to her, blinking. Adela’s brain caught up and oh God, she was rather sure her face was about to catch fire. That was stupid– what was she thinking– an unmarried woman living on her own, just inviting over a man she didn’t even know and had no relation to and–

“Or– or I could prepare some lunch for you tomorrow?” she spoke again quickly, faintly hoping the ground would open up to swallow her. “I’ll be making pozole, making a bit more than usual wouldn’t be a problem at all– you can come and pick it up. I’m not that good a cook but– better than just bread, no? Or maybe a few eggs, I have hens…”

He blinked again.

Shut up. Oh God. Stop talking.

“… I’d like that,” he finally said, a little astonished. He had nice eyes, a lighter brown then her own, almost amber under the sun.

(Ernesto has plenty of charm and precisely none of it came from his papá. But for some reason Adela’s brain short-circuited for a moment there. And by ‘some reason’ I mean ‘oh hey hot loner guy’.)

Also here’s what little I could find that I wrote about Héctor’s parents before I scrapped the idea.

“Maybe you need to sit down.”“Ricardo, I am fine.”“Maybe the baby needs to sit down.”“Ricardo.”The mixture of amusement and exasperation on Emilia’s face caused him to grin a bit sheepishly. She was right, of course - she was smart enough not to push herself too far, and countless women went on working while pregnant since the dawn of time - but he couldn’t keep himself from worrying.The old crib in their home had stood empty for so long, he couldn’t begin to contemplate the possibility something might happen and–“Mamá! Mamá! Mamá!”“I’m coming, Tito, just a moment–”“Maaaaaa…!”Making a face, Ricardo turned to the source of the unpleasant shrieking. A boy who couldn’t be older than three or four was dragging along a woman whose face was the very epitome of a suffering parent - a clear glance into what would likely become of him in a few month’s time.He couldn’t wait.“Adela! It’s good to see you,” Emilia, always better than him at recalling names, walked around the counter to greet them. “My, how he’s grown.”Adela smiled. “Big and strong like his papá. And how are you? It can’t be long before–” she trailed off when her child looked up at Emilia’s belly, as though confused, and reached up for it. “Ernestito, no! Not without permission!” his mother chided him, but he didn’t even turn: he just rested a tiny hand on Emilia’s stomach and tilted his head in a mute question. She smiled down at him.“There’s baby in there.”

Also

“Wait, what?”“What happened?”“They say something happened in the mine–”“Christ, what’s all the smoke?”“Madre de Dios!”“Someone call for–”“My husband works there.”Adela had spoken so softly, so calmly, like she was stating the weather; yet her skin was suddenly an ashen gray, her eyes huge and full of horror. Ricardo instinctively reached out to catch her should she falter, but she did not. Instead she turned - not to him, but to Emilia. Mother to mother. And Emilia knew what to say before she even uttered a word. “We’ll look after him,” she said, putting a hand on the child’s shoulder. “You go now.”

#pixar coco #heaven and earth #coco

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reading-while-queer · 5 years

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On A Sunbeam, Tillie Walden

Rating: Great Read Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, High School, Romance, Graphic Novel Representation: -Lesbian protagonist -Asian protagonist -Black love interest -Lesbian supporting characters -Nonbinary supporting character -Supporting characters of color Note: No sexually explicit content Trigger warnings: Bullying (not homophobia-motivated), Graphic injury, Misgendering

On A Sunbeam defies strict definition, which is the number one thing to love about it. Is this graphic novel by Tillie Walden science fiction, fantasy, romance? A high school coming of age story? At times, it feels more like a memoir. In the beginning, especially, On A Sunbeam mirrors the structure and mood of a nonlinear memoir or a slice-of-life realistic piece, all against the backdrop of a far-future in outer space where magic is real if you know where to go (or where you shouldn’t).

The story follows the main character, Mia, as she signs up to a cleaning/construction crew that preserves and restores historical architecture on far-flung planets. We don’t know why, or what her goals are. The reader only sees Mia from the outside, allowed to access choice memories of her days at school and her relationship with a mysterious girl named Grace - but this is all we get of Mia’s internal world. Through these memories, we gradually piece together more of Mia’s identity, while simultaneously seeing her build new relationships with her ship crew in the present day. This first piece of the novel is gentle and meandering. There is no central conflict, but many smaller character-building conflicts, in both past and present.

On A Sunbeam is concerned less with plot, in the early phase of the novel, than with piecing together a new reality. At every turn, Walden asks you to swallow something new: that the prevailing high school sport is played on flying, fish-shaped chariots, or that some rocks are alive - and in fact ambulatory - or the slowly mounting realization that there are no men in the book, nor any mention of them - lesbianism is the norm. Some things are familiar from our world: the fight against authority for one’s nonbinary identity to be recognized, for example, but very little else.

Walden’s invented world is made most convincing by the artwork. The expositional dialogue does its piece, but really the wonder lies in Walden’s art. Walden is not shy with beautiful full-page spreads of strange planets, vehicles, and crumbling ruins. Through the persuasive power of the artwork, you are led to believe in the story, no matter how strange. On A Sunbeam’s renditions of planets, space ships, and boarding schools are alike equal in their meticulous detail and realism.

Now, for the story itself. On A Sunbeam is a thick tome, and about halfway through, the plot begins to come together. It’s not a bad thing, but it is something that makes On A Sunbeam unique. Mia and the reader both play a self-reflective waiting game, biding our time for something unknown, until finally, Mia has her opportunity to share her motivations, and the plot starts rolling. Sharing much more about this turning point in the novel spoils part of the experience of reading the book, but I can say that it is around the half-way point that the chapters of reflection and backstory click into place, becoming a motivated whole. On A Sunbeam then launches into a more recognizably traditional plot of daring and danger. The pace is lightning quick. Whole side-character backstories are revealed in a flash. The characters face unprecedented violence and peril. It is delightful. Reading late in the evening, I kept telling myself I would put On A Sunbeam down after just one more chapter - but I ended up finishing the whole book.

There are some things I could pick at; one side-character desperately needed a full arc, instead of what they were allotted at the end. But in the grand scheme of things, a side character’s story being done slight injustice isn’t the biggest sin. The resolution was a little rough, as well, with status quo returning too quickly, and too easily. Mia worked diligently and quietly toward her goals over the span of 500 pages; by the end of the book, she deserved a pay-off to her character arc. Yet her victory was handed to her without being entirely earned. A tidy, happy ending is a good thing, but only if it doesn’t feel like cheating - and in this case, certain conflicts were not given their due, resolved by unlikely chance or miracle rather than something more substantial that would have allowed Mia or her friends to earn their reward more fully.

This is likely more an issue of genre than anything else. Walden is trying something new and exciting, and for the most part she does very, very well. Basically, she wrote a memoir set in outer space. The characters feel more like real people you might know than characters influenced by plot needs and archetype. If it is possible for a novel to be both science fiction and realism, Walden has the corner on the genre. However, it also means that once you introduce a plot, late in the game, you introduce reader expectations for how a plot should be resolved. The ending to On A Sunbeam is more or less what would happen if a real, living person was handed the central conflict of a space opera. She wouldn’t necessarily solve the conflict in a way that allowed her to self-actualize, or a way that was sufficiently probable so as to be believable to the fiction-reading market, etc. No, she would behave outside those constraints, because the style of memoir is inherently at odds with the demands of genre. Real people can not meet the lofty demands of adventure fiction, and Walden’s work is a reflection of “real” people as much as a work of fiction can be.

However, it is precisely because of this internal struggle of genre that I found On A Sunbeam to be so delightful. Take the above more as a study than a criticism - this novel is a challenge to what science fiction can be, and it meets the challenge successfully. Set your expectations aside and take it as a piece of art.

For more from Tillie Walden, visit her website here.

#tillie walden #on a sunbeam #great read #lesbian #Protagonist of color #reviews only #ya only #fantasy #science fiction #high school #romance #graphic novel

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fineillsignup · 5 years

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Bit of a weird question, but how do translators decide which terms to fully translate and which to romanticize? Like the difference between Akatsuki and Red Dawn? Thanks

I love these kinds of questions.

(First off, just a pedant thing because I cannot stop myself from correcting people and ruining friendships, 曉 akatsuki just means “dawn”, not “red dawn”. Also the word is “romanize” not “romanticize”.)

Ok so now the matter of choice. There are several angles to approach this question from.

First, cross-language interaction and communication is inseparable from larger issues of cultural exchange and principles of same. If you look over history, throughout most of history in Europe and East Asia (my knowledge of other areas is more limited, but I believe the pattern holds), cross-cultural communications of all kinds tended to be self-centric.

What I mean is that the names by which peoples called other peoples, other nations, other locations, etc etc, were not concerned with being accurate to the other peoples’ usage, and that’s being charitable. In fact, names for foreign places and peoples are very frequently deliberately offensive.

Hi China, said Japan. Hi dipshit, said China. Could you call us something else, other than dipshit, said Japan? - Bill Wurtz

Or when they do make an attempt to go off of what the foreign people are saying, they pronounce it according to local language rules. For example up until relatively recently, all across Europe everyone pronounced Latin according to their own language’s pronunciation. If /c/ is pronounced with a soft [s], that’s how they’d say it, or if it’s pronounced with a hard [k], etc. That’s how you get English Caesar versus German Kaiser for example. Or they may otherwise adjust the terms. In England they say Spain and in España they say Inglaterra. And this went so far as to also include individual people’s names. When you read European history in English, the names of rulers, for example, are usually given in their English equivalents: Francis, not Franz or Francisco; Joan, not Jeanne or Giovanna.

Lately (like within the past century-ish), the movement has gradually turned towards verbatim (or as close as possible) reproduction of the foreign people’s terminology for the names of places, peoples, and individual persons. This is inseparable from larger issues of anti-colonization; new principles of equity of peoples, nations, and states; and respect for self-determination.

This might seem like a bit of detour from the topic but I don’t think it is, because to a large extent what this is about is localization vs preservation. These two principles are not precisely opposites but they can often be considered on a scale. And the individual translator’s choices are never made in a vacuum.

Another angle is preservation of foreign terms verbatim is often, though I don’t think usually intentionally, a kind of class or insider signifier. This is more clearly seen historically in how middle and upper classes will use terms from the most prestigious language to show their class and education. In England this was French. Across the world nowadays, it is English.

Japanese has a similar prestige in the Japanese pop culture subculture. I have previously spoken approvingly of transliterating Japanese honorifics, so I’m not by any means opposed to transliteration, but I think it’s important to be aware of what the full implications of using a transliteration “just because you can” are. Do I really think a transliteration does a better job of communicating, or am I just trying to show off that I know the source term, or am I even obfuscating the meaning to keep it understandable only by those who are already in the subculture? (Did I use the relatively obscure word ‘obfuscate’ just now because it’s the best verb for the meaning I want to express, or because I’m obnoxious? Baby it’s a two for one deal.)

(Tangent: meme references can also be seen as a kind of insider signifier in this sense. If I say “using transliteration is all according to keikaku,” and you recognize the reference, and you get that teeny warm glow of amusement, where does that little positive feeling come from? Of course, part of the amusement is remembering the absurdity of the original incident, but there is also a pleasure in being affirmed as in the loop.)

Okay, anyone still with me? Back to Naruto.

So, in modern prevailing culture, most proper nouns from foreign sources are transliterated (romanized). A problem arises when the literal meaning of a foreign word that is conventionally transliterated is thematically or narratively important.

Use of parenthetical glosses and translator’s notes is ancient and very common, from “Golgotha, or the place of the skull” in the Bible to “that too is my nindo, my ninja way” in the official Naruto anime dub.

Another important principle in translating that frequently sways me as a translator of Chinese to English is this: If it doesn’t sound stupid in the source language, it should not sound stupid in the target language.

For example: English, culturally/historically, while not absolutely excluding literal objects in place and people names, is frequently biased against it. Names in English that are like Rose and Pearl Harbor are the exception, or in some cases a novelty, such as the very recent popularity of first names like Phoenix, Cannon, or Rebel. It’s worth pointing out also that in many cases these kinds of names are popularly perceived as downmarket (even trashy) or amusing. Lists of funny place names are often things like Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania; Possum Grape, Arkansas; and Big Arm, Montana. This is the case even though many “respectable” names have meanings far more ridiculous than these. No one will laugh if you say your name is Philip; people will laugh if you introduce yourself as Horse Lover. Peter sounds much more respectable than Rock. Mary, Miriam, and Maria are all sweet girls names, even though the literal meaning was Bitter!

Naruto is particularly tricky in this regard because many of its original names do sound funny to native speakers but they don’t sound as weird as they do when translated literally. Uzumaki Naruto, for example, could potentially be selectively over-translated into “Whirlpool Whirlpool”, making him the Moon Moon of shounen heroes. At least Naruto is meant to sound funny in the original; Sarutobi Asuma sounds basically normal in Japanese, but True Tomorrow Monkey Jump sounds like word salad.

Then we get into connotations as well. If Neji were translated to Screw, for example, it would have an unfortunate sexual connotation in English that isn’t there, so that’s another factor that can push towards transliteration.

Now in Naruto translations, including official ones, sometimes use a mix of transliterations and translations for place and organization names. Konoha, the Leaf, the Hidden Leaf Village, and Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, these are all commonly used. Frequently the place is called by the transliteration Konoha whereas the organization is called the Leaf. ANBU Black Ops is another mix of transliteration and translation/gloss, and when it’s reduced to just ANBU, it feels right because it sounds like an acronym which culturally in English is how these kinds of organizations are usually known (eg MI5, SEALs, etc).

Choices in translation are as much about communicating the feel of the original as the meaning.

Anyway I’ve hit my time limit and I need to go to Costco now. I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this topic. Translation is both art and science; it really is a social science, too. This is why machine translation will not replace human translation unless and until AI fully catches up with human sentience.

#how about sunrise land #translation #translation issues #i should have a tag for asks #naruto #japanese #i didn’t even get into chinese in this #curse you costco and your affordable prices and fair wages for staff

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mitsuhidethesnek · 5 years

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I am a Mitsunari convert.

(Mitsunari route review thus far, Ch 7 reactions. Not really any spoilers. Mostly character analysis/appreciation)

Look how far up he jumped in my personal ranking. He used to be second to last. My top 3 will prob never change, but Mitsunari is now solidly best boy after top 3. My feelings about everyone else is subject to change.

Mitsuhide, Masamune, Nobunaga, Mitsunari, Kenshin, Shingen, Ieyasu, Sasuke, Hideyoshi, Yukimura, Kennyo

To be real with you, I wasn’t looking forward to Mitsunari’s route. Mitsunari’s schtick can be annoying to me because Cybird goes ham on how airheaded Mitsunari is. Shingen and Ieyasu have the same problem where their tropes are really extra, but their characters are actually so deep and compelling. But my personal bias favors grumpy boys over getting cavities so I tend to get exasperated with Shingen and Mitsunari.

But that is obviously a mistake, and ya’ll probably saw that coming long before I did, like during Kenshin’s route. Mitsunari’s route is all about the power of intelligence, and that is my fucking kink man. I had my reservations about Mitsunari in Kenshin’s route because I didn’t know if he’s secretly more perceptive than he lets on. But he really does let most offenses slide. He’s not just putting on a face like Mitsuhide. He really is an angel who sees the best in people. And that, that is where his intelligence lies. Not in some veiled resentment. His intelligence lies in the fact that he not only knows how to see the best in people, but he knows where to place people so that they can make the most of their talents. That’s true leadership. Meaning he is my favorite kind of wholesome boy (similar to Deku if you watch My Hero Academia). He’s not just telling you all these wonderful things about you to be kind. He’s telling you because it’s a fact, and he genuinely logically sees your best and where you would be happiest.

I was waiting patiently for Mitsunari’s route for an explanation for why Ieyasu’s remarks just slide right off his back. Mitsunari isn’t fazed by anyone’s insulting remarks. They’re just not as important. And I think the pattern is that basically he doesn’t think about what’s bad for him... Including lack of food and sleep. This poor fried boy. He doesn’t even bat away cruel comments. Because that’s not what he cares about. This poor boy has no sense of boundaries or self-preservation. He only has the attention span and memory for stuff he truly enjoys, so I think that’s why insults--useless ad hominems, useless logical fallacies--don’t register at all. What is relevant to him as a strategist is your value, which is why he always sees Ieyasu’s best. Even when it comes to war and why this angel boy became a warlord, he’s not thinking about harm although the harm is certainly awful. He’s only thinking about how to do the most good. So my favorite line of his is that knowledge has the power both to harm and heal. He focuses on the positive and what’s productive. And he only registers the need to fight back when it comes to people threatening MC. I don’t think Mitsunari sees himself sometimes. He’s too busy observing others and calculating where they best fit and where the weaknesses are and how to adjust so that everyone is placed perfectly to support each other. So I think Mitsunari absolutely does notice bad things, he just quickly forgets if he doesn’t deem it to be relevant.

I also really appreciate Mitsunari’s route because it’s really refreshing. It takes really good writing to make a compelling story out of a character that’s all fluff. Characters with Tragic Backstories are easy; you want to get them through their baggage. But Mitsunari doesn’t have much baggage, yet he has a lot of exceedingly relatable themes in his route. He’s too hard on himself. He tries to help others and neglects to help himself. He isn’t interested in his own reputation, so he knows how to lift up others but not himself. Becoming successful is hard because he doesn’t brag. It doesn’t even occur to him that his accolades are anything to even be proud of. He’s just doing his job. Helping Mitsunari with day to day tasks like eating and sleeping are oddly charming, and I know quite a few people who might feel struggle with their health because they’re prioritizing their art, career or curiosity. And my favorite thing is MC’s growth in Mitsunari’s story. It isn’t dramatic, there are no arguments, but her growth is still massive, arguably bigger than in any other routes. Yes, I’ll argue it’s even bigger than in Kenshin’s route where she goes head to head with him on the battlefield. Because in Mitsunari’s route she learns how war, economics, and history work. She has so many amazing scenes where the knowledge spills from her lips effortlessly because Mitsunari is a great teacher, and she is a great student. This route is about valuing someone for what they’re great at and not for what they’re bad at. MC remarks that happiness is using your talents to make others happy. That right there is my life's mantra about happiness and about teamwork. This route is the flavor of quiet determination. All her knowledge isn’t flashy. She didn’t have to sweat in the training room to obtain it. Yet when she drops those truth bombs on people, jaws drop. And that’s empowering to know that in a room full of formidable fighters, knowledge and strategy are what prevail.

#ikesen mitsunari #ikesen analysis #my post #mitsunari ishida #ikemen sengoku

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mc-critical · 3 years

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I remember not too long ago, I had read an analysis on Kösem and Ahmed’s relationship, namely its development and whether or not it was truly healthy. I remember the sudden development of Kösem’s feelings for Ahmed were ascribed to stockholm syndrome, which as you dissect it further, even later in the series after Ahmed has passed away, makes total sense. However it made me wonder, why stop at Kösem/Ahmed? Truthfully, I think stockholm syndrome, trauma response and survival instinct were the primary factors in all of the sultanas “love” or attachment to the sultans. Hürrem, Mahidevran, Aysë, Halime, Handan..all of them. Hürrem had initially thought her fiance was murdered when she came to the palace, and within what looked like a couple of months if even, she was shown to be totally head over heels for Suleyman. No one can simply discard their former love interest so quickly unless trauma was a catalyst..and even when Leo came back to the palace that whole time period where he was in such a close proximity to her visibly caused Hürrem so much pain mentally and emotionally. Or with Handan and Kösem going on to fall in love after their sultans had died..it makes me think of when Handan was confessing her love to Dervish and called being a member of the royal family “her prison.” None of these women were truly in love with their sultans, nor do I blame them for it. Love is what develops when there’s no consequences, no strings attached, which is entirely untrue in the harem’s enviornment. Even with Mahidevran’s arc way back when Hürrem was first introduced and she started to feel like she was losing Suleyman. It looked to me Mahidevran ultimately feared lonliness rather than losing Suleyman himself. Harem rules wouldn’t permit her to fall in love with someone else if Suleyman lost interest in her. He was pretty much her only confidant and the only person she had been intimate with and likely from a very young age, unhealthy attachment is bound to develop due to those curcumstances. We all feel so sorry for royal borne sultanas when they’re forced to marry men they don’t love..but this courtesy is seldom extended to their mothers. It’s all very sad when I think about it. How do you feel about this perspective?

(~Fun fact: I got yours and the last ask in the same day and they are both somehow related to Kösem and Ahmet!!~)

Anyway, I have also read that analysis and it's really nuanced and awesome, Joanna always does such an amazing job with her blog and these posts! <3 It gives an amazing perspective to the nature of Kösem and Ahmet and makes us think hard on whether there are more relationship cases in the franchise where Stockholm Syndrome can be applied and how many women there are in the harem that aren't so in love with their sultans.

I also fully believe that, just like motherhood, love in the harem can't not be toxic in a way, because the environment itself won't ever let healthy dynamics happen, thanks to its very roots. And while mothers of children still have the small chance to forge some kind of a relationship with genuine affection despite of the toxicity, we have a totally different situation with the sultans who are basically on the top of the system that brought them in this mess in the first place. It's not easy to let go of the people you loved and it's even harder to get to truly love a person you not only don't know at all, but one you know you're supposed to at least try to win over by sheer force.

Survival instinct plays a lot into this, because sooner or later you see that you don't have a choice. You do what you have to do or else you'll either rot in this palace with everyone always bossing you around or be done for. Something I see some viewers forget is the way Hürrem was ultimately "convinced" to try her luck out with Süleiman. She wanted to get out of this place and let it burn in hell until Nigar told her what it took to win the game. Keep in mind that she hadn't met Süleiman yet back then and that faint was merely an act she pulled to gain his attention and she gained some kind of an affection for him only after some time had passed. This sheer pragmatism could've turned into something more eventually, but the beggining was precisely this survival instinct that was kept intact throughout the entire relationship and the birth and living of Hürrem's children. I think she had let go of Leo by the time when she met him again, but that letting go pained her so much, as seen by all her breakdowns when she saw him and lost him completely. It's something she knew she had to do; notice how she kept telling him to leave for "his own good" and for "the good of both of them". There is this looming, prevailing fear that if they had escaped, the consequences would be severe and Hürrem had already planted roots in the dynasty: as if she gained attachment after attachment she felt the need to protect. She's now responsible for these children and can't leave them behind for her own possible desires to get out of the system. Ibrahim did threaten the children in front of Leo and Hürrem in the S01 finale and that's a big reason why she decided it would be for the best to lose him in this particular situation, no matter how much it hurt afterwards. Hürrem already had a set goal to fulfill in the dynasty and letting go of Leo became the only plausible option for her thematically and narratively. Everything these women do in the harem they do is to survive, adapting to their circumstances and forging some kind of relationships with their sultans is the peak of it. A healthy dynastic is far from one where you have to be opportunistic at every turn. Even the favored women have to be as careful as ever, because a mistake can cost everything. They have to make sure they always have his approval and be in his good graces, behaving like he wants them to behave, not the way they actually are. The goal they have set for themselves in the harem is tightly linked with their love for the sultan. He isn't only love, he's also power, prestige and reassuring. The Sultanate of Women are probably even the most affected by this, because they are the ones who want to break the boundaries of power and by doing that they have to put the leg work to make him happy and pleased. These relationships need so much work and decisiveness for their flourishment, with the women having to be mindful of the sultan's moods and unpredictable nature. (especially when you have an unpredictable, very short tempered sultan like Murat!)

But attachment is still attachment and that's where Stockholm syndrome comes from. They do their best to win him over, but with doing that for such a long time, they learn to feel something for him. There is so much toxicity in the dynamic, but they get used to it and normalize it in their heads. The concept of the harem itself succeeds to make their life revolve around it and it's not something they question anymore. I absolutely agree that it's not limited to only Kösem and Ahmet - everyone is somehow subjected to it, no exceptions. The relationships each woman of the franchise has with the sultan certainly differ from one another, depending on the different personalities and goals, but its unhealthy core remains the same: it's still a toxic, dependant relationship with a massive power imbalance and will always remain so in these castle walls and rules. The big attachment makes it even scarier for one to discover that they might be losing everything, that's why there is such a resistence from Mahidevran, Hürrem, Kösem, Ayşe, Farya etc. when the sultan accepts or outrightly begins to favor other women and I always roll my eyes when these women get accused of "behaving like that while knowing the rules of the harem" without it being understood from a narrative standpoint - even though they know the rules, it still hurts, because the attachment is ultimately more self-centered than anything: they want the sultan to be all theirs, to have him all for themselves, perhaps for a validation of their efforts to forge and preserve their relationships. When they lose favor, everything seems to be crumbling and falling apart and that is so difficult to accept, you can't face helplessness like that, you can't face vulnerability like that and I guess for that it took Mahidevran so long to get over Süleiman. As you said, she got destructively attached to the person that seemigly gave her so much for years. (she herself even said that she's like a little kid in front of him in the second episode) And her suddenly not being regarded in the same way by someone she thought was her family (I still adore that thematic note of her character and perhaps it's the reason why we didn't get any backstory from her.) was catastrophic to her emotional stability and it took her 46 (55, if we begin from her direct confession) episodes to accept that she has lost and even then she was still trying to achieve vengeance at the very least, by thinking of her rule of the harem as a battle she fought with Hürrem, a last helpless try to prevail over her. (E63: "I congratulate you, Hürrem, you won.") That's also why Hürrem almost killed herself when Firuze seemed to have taken away her Thursdays, without having any regard for the children. It's like a chain, of sorts, that women are stuck in, fighting to the end to be the ones next to him, to the point of wanting to end their own lives if they lose. If they lose, that's the end. If they lose the favoritism or the sultan himself dies, leaving them to rest in the hands of the enemy, that's the end.

That's why Mahidevran and Ayşe getting over Süleiman and Murat respectively and realizing that it was more or less an unhealthy dynamic is so important, because these character arcs help spread awareness of the toxicity of this grown attachment to the sultan and the struggle it takes for them to take account of said toxicity, because of their attachments. Ayşe had a rough path accepting that Murat was the way he is, trying almost until the end to make things right with him, both missing in the process and slowly uncovering his unpredictability. While this realization rendered her to do the inevitable in killing herself along with the kids, her letter to Murat indeed felt so eye opening in this regard, putting this whole deal into perspective. Mahidevran, conversely, also found out his true nature and detached herself from it, daring to openly call out a root of the attachment (E139: "He decides the fates of all of us.") and put the free choice of everyone into light and question. (E139: "God, apart from reason, gave people free will.") It's rare for someone to gain such awareness of the system and that's a valuable quality to have, but in a future where Mahidevran and Ayşe aren't as grossly mistreated, would all this be possible to happen? No, I don't think so. And even from the ones that aren't favourites who are more likely to find this out, there are still people out there that probably would stay trapped in the attachment forever. And favourites would be the least likely to figure stuff out, judging by the series' themes. (Hürrem, E134: "I am the soul of all the women in the world and my existence is hidden in the love of the conqueror of my heart." - this assertion is honestly self-explanatory.)

[Handan's arc also extends on the traumatic response one gives the system and I think this aspect applies to her the most. She's a person with no real attachments that is so traumatized by fighting, she didn't even expect the possibility to win over players like Halime and Safiye. She's trying to adapt to her new role as Valide, give "cruel" advice to Ahmet in order to ensure it and make impulsive decisions, dictated by the fear it would all come back to square 1 again, but when she met Derviş, it turned out that nothing about the system made her fit. Hence, she "adapts out" from it by finding true love and killing herself for that love, leaving everything behind.]

So no matter how much these women come to idealize it, no matter how much they begin to think it is actually love or a "fairytale", there still are so many signs that it's not quite like that and that prevent it from being that. That truly includes everyone in the harem, it can't be denied.

#magnificent century #ask #stuffandthangs

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masshirohebi-moved · 5 years

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🚔 — get arrested after committing a crime they don’t remember doing.

Both our muses are drunk! Send a symbol for them to…🚔 — get arrested after committing a crime they don’t remember doing.“This is your fault. It was your idea to go drinking,” they accuse, the first few words spoken since they blacked out from over indulgence.The cell is a lot colder now that the alcohol has left their system, the lights a lot more glaring, the disapproving looks of nearby Jounin far less funny. This entire ordeal leaves them groaning softly, their slender figure pressed against the furthest wall available to them. They feel a touch pitiful with their form tucked in to a small position on the concrete bench, arms draped around one leg which is drawn to their chest, their other leg lazily hanging off the side of the chair. They don’t have much care for the consequences of being accused of a crime, only regret for having drunken that much alcohol.They don’t know how they managed to sleep in the frosty holding cell, but awakening in the office beside their comrade wasn’t how the imagined their morning when they’d agreed to go out with him. They soon notice however, that whatever cold they are complaining about must be even more prevalent for Jiraiya. For somewhere along the line during that blacked out and blurry night, they had accosted him for his haori and kimono shirt.

So while they are left bundled in their own kimono and two layers of his attire, he is very much offered little but a fishnet shirt for his upper half. The sober voice in their head reminds them it may be time to offer these items back, the shivering and sick part however is far more selfish. Surely, he’d ask if it was important. While they can’t for the life of them remember much of last night (though they do try their hardest), they do remember that the two had a mission briefing. Running a hand through the top of their ebony hair, they softly mutter this reminder to Jiraiya.“We’re supposed to meet Tsunade for our assignment in the next-” they look up and check the clock hanging outside their cell, before a resigned sigh falls from their lips at the realization, “two hours ago.”Well, too late to be worried about that then.

“He’s going to notice if you take it,” they chide, the glass in their hand already a touch less sturdy looking. It sways from left to right, threatening to spill until they bring it to their lips, “you’re a six foot walking disaster. And he knows you by now, you’ve already asked a dozen times.”When the bartender started to decline the two Sannins business, perhaps it had been a good sign that the night of drinking should come to a steady close. Of course, having been trained in tenacity (and both being terribly stubborn and crafty), the situation of not being served only turned in to a challenge of finding a way to get alcohol anyway.And somehow, they didn’t think Jiraiya’s talent in stealth would prevail this time around. Not when the mere task of walking was less… coordinated.“We can’t steal it, but we can get someone else to get our drinks for us,” they say, still forever a strategist even amidst their drunkenness. And they sight a target immediately, “the man over there, he’s been staring since we walked in. He’s got to be interested in one of us.”

It comes back to them in flashes, but the face of the man that they had managed to convince buy them more drinks is a blur. What was his name, Ara-something, or was is Ari-something? They don’t have the faintest clue anymore, as they finally get bored of sitting on their bench of misery and pry themself away from the warm bundle they had created. This was nonsense, the only thing keeping the two Sannin within the metal cage was their decision to be compliant. But the serpent knew for certain at least three easy ways out.“Excuse me,” they say with a clear show of impatience, trying to get the attention of one of the Jounin. Something tells them that while they were drunk, they had been just as difficult and vocal as they were currently about to be. For every man and woman in the office instantly bristles and ignores them. Almost as if the officers would sooner be carving their own eyes out than dealing with the pale inmate.

A steely look of annoyance crosses their features before they look over to Jiraiya. Dragging him in to their rebellion without bothering to check if he felt like being more diplomatic this morning, “you know, I bet these walls wouldn’t last very long against your rasengan.”And that appears to be all they need to say before troubled gazes finally look over to the Sannin. Which earns the indigent viper just enough time to meet eyes with one of them, and to force the Jounin to finally give in and deal with the ornery convict.

So their brilliant idea of getting others to provide drinks turns out a touch less brilliant when they and Jiraiya are kicked out the bar. In to the cold streets with a man, Aki-something, and his overly chatty trio. Something about being denied drinks at all has the two Sannin on a mission of locating more and more. Even if the scent of sake alone has started to make the vipers stomach turn. It isn’t long before Aki-something leads them to their next round at his house.And it is equally as short before he makes it clear his eyes had been on the taller Sannin. The serpent would be lying if they said they didn’t take a little insult, their vanity one of many sins. Either Jiraiya is oblivious by ignorance and alcohol, or he has mastered the art of socializing more than the serpent gives him credit, but he’s not falling in to any of the traps this Aki-something sets.His lack of reciprocation of course, doesn’t stop the serpents growing jealousy. And somewhere between their second glass, they’ve decided this unknown man is pushing his luck. By the third, they’ve decided Jiraiya ought to do something about it. By the fourth, they’ve decided that Jiraiya is an incompetent idiot, and that they are the only one capable of saving him. By drink five, they’ve found their way on to Jiraiya’s lap, tilting his chin in their direction as they cut off all conversation with a rather deep kiss. A kiss that takes too long to be called that for very long.They don’t put much effort in thinking whether they acted upon a well devised plan to rescue Jiraiya from unwanted attention or if they simply wanted to spite the man for not choosing them, and Jiraiya for daring to have even a second of wavering attention. But with his arm around their waist, and his tongue wrestling with theirs, they don’t truly need to fuss with the details.

Slim fingers coil around the paper handed to them, glossing over the report to locate the reason for being detained. It isn’t long before they find the short but accusing list, and they take the liberty of reading it aloud for the sake of Jiraiya behind them.

“Disorderly conduct for disturbing the peace, exhibiting threatening behaviour in a public space and destroying private property,” they say, they glance over to Jiraiya next, to assess him for any signs of guilt, or to hope he may have more memory on the subject than they do. But he appears to be just as clueless, hungover and fed up as they are. He also looks a touch cold, if the chills across his skin are any indication beneath his fishnet shirt. They eventually hand him his haori, keeping his slightly over sized kimono shirt for themself, while they mull over the list.

‘Just leave him’ Jiraiya had said, ‘we got free drinks’ he had insisted, ‘he was just being petty’ he attempts. But something about the mans ratty comments after their successful act of stealing Jiraiya’s attention made the serpent irritable. It was only after an argument when searching for their seventh drink that they and the man had a spat. Which got the two Sannin kicked out of their drinking venue a second time. What had he called them again? A Kasha, if they recall.They don’t manage to remember much about the myth, only the basic outline to understand his insult, a jab at their eyes no doubt, and less than human appearance. A yokai known for theft and preying upon bodies. But if they recall one other detail, it was the creatures affinity towards fire. That fact enough incentive for their drunken mind to decide to leave a small parting gift.“You didn’t leave anything there did you?” they ask, as they are pulling Jiraiya’s kimono shirt over their shoulders. When the taller Sannins answer is a definite ‘no’ the serpent glances back at the first floor apartment, the scent of smoke touching their senses.“Good.”

The words ‘destruction of private property’ and the removal of Jiraiya’s clothing do spark the final blurry memory. How they spotted the flammable looking shrubbery around the mans apartment, how they thought it appropriate to discreetly set his home alight on their way out. Because him having the final word was certainly not on their agenda. So maybe it was their fault… rather than Jiraiya’s innocent suggestion of drinking.But if he couldn’t remember the fire, then perhaps he wouldn’t remember the making out. Or how they had fought with someone in a clear show of jealousy, how they had managed to say ‘I’m in love with him’ without actually saying any of those words, their actions alone testament. All in all, it is a form of self preservation to not remind Jiraiya of anything. To hope this show of ignorance is not an act, and that he truly had ingested enough alcohol to forget. So it is a mixture of pride and embarrassment, that they toss the paper back with an indignant, “it wasn’t us.”

#peepingtoad #||●ANSWERED-❝disclosed❞#this is messy and long #enjoy :')

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mensbodybuildingtips · 5 years

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Use Sodium to Look Full, Vascular and Ripped

If I had a dollar for every time I have actually heard bodybuilders tell me they use Mrs. Dashboard throughout their reducing stage, I would certainly have a few grand in my pocket.

I always look at them as well as ask why they would certainly enjoy their salt while weight loss, and the typical feedback is, "I'm attempting to obtain lean and also do not wish to hold water." My reaction is, " Salt will certainly not inhibit your development in getting lean, as well as holding some water while diet programs is in fact beneficial." Then, naturally, I lecture them for an additional 20 mins and soothe them down as I inform them I desire them to start eating four pickles a day to obtain their bodies made use of to high salt intake.

If you are just one of those individuals that fear sodium as a result of its water-retentive reputation, please maintain reading, as I will certainly clarify to you why not having high salt intake is disadvantageous to looking your best.

When starting a diet programs stage for a bodybuilding competition or a special event where you have to look your best with minimal apparel, you will have to plan ahead. I always advise that, no matter your current problem or body fat, you begin a dieting stage at the very least 16 weeks out. If you genuinely are under 10% body fat, after that 12 weeks is the minimum.

Right of the bat, I tell individuals to start consuming alcohol a consistent 1 1⁄2 -2 gallons of water a day, together with getting utilized to a high salt in-take. Basically, add salt to all your dishes-- or, if you hate salt, after that eat pickles. Initially you will preserve fluid as a result of the quick water intake integrated with the high salt consumption. The mineralocorticoid steroid hormone aldosterone will be enhanced only momentarily, till homeostasis cancel your sodium-to-water ratio. After a week you must not be holding obvious fluid, and need to be eliminating salt and water with pee consistently, which now keeps aldosterone suppressed.

The crucial determinant in keeping aldosterone levels low is seeing to it to keep both your sodium intake and water usage high. When both water and also sodium levels drop, aldosterone increases, vasopressin is launched, as well as water plus salt reabsorption takes place with the distal tubules of the kidneys. Vasopressin, or anti-diuretic hormonal agent (ADH), is a peptide hormonal agent that is released when dehydration or reduced water and also salt consumption take place. Vasopressin is primarily the body's defense mechanism that begins when imbalances take place in the blood relating to water, sodium, and also glucose.

The Facts About Aldosterone

As you start to obtain leaner and also leaner via the program of the diet plan, you will certainly recognize just how important high salt intake really is. Normally around five weeks out of a bodybuilding contest, your body fat should be really low (5-6%) as well as your carb consumption need to be minuscule.

When carbohydrates are extremely low, you shed also much more water, since each gram of glycogen binds approximately 2.7 g of water. Lessened carbohydrate degrees could trigger a host of side impacts if sodium degrees are inadequate. Muscular tissue cramping as well as muscle mass tears prevail. A decreased blood quantity, which reduces vascularity and also muscle mass fullness, is now existing. The treatment to such problems is having high salt consumption. High degrees of salt will certainly maintain you appropriately hydrated for healthy and balanced muscle tightenings, and aid prevent cramping as well as injury.

I directly observe that when I am depleted of carbs, yet have my sodium consumption high, my muscular tissues appear very complete, difficult, and vascular, which are words many times made use of to explain being "carbohydrate packed."

When your body-fat levels are really reduced and also both water and sodium levels are skies- high, you ought to appear definitely weird looking, with road-map blood vessels all over your body from sodium-induced vasodilation. Having yourself in unbelievable condition three weeks of your muscle building competition or unique occasion makes the final couple of days of "drying" simple to manage. As perhaps a few of you know, that final few days prior to a bodybuilding contest can make or break a rival, as trying out out-of-date carb/sodium/water protocols could spoil 16 weeks of training and stringent dieting.

The discombobulated body builder will certainly employ insane strategies entailing serious water as well as salt constraint and crazy quantities of carbs. Such hazardous and destructive procedures are typically advised by so-called contest-prep "masters" who merely go far on their own on the sole basis of their "magical" drug suggestions. This path is very attractive to the malnourished body builder that isn't believing very reasonably and desires a side at any type of cost.

The Finishing Touches!

When coming close to the final few days before your contest or unique event, there are a few things that you can do to look also better. The initial thing I have people do 6 days out is enhance their currently high water intake by 1⁄4 -1 ⁄ 2 gallon, as well as include one more pickle or a few trembles of salt to their diet. If they still have 50-100g of carbohydrates in their diet plan, I bring them down by 25g each day till they reach 0g of carbohydrates a few days before the event.

Water and salt consumption constantly increases by 1⁄4 -1 ⁄ 2 gallon each successive day till eventually prior to the occasion, when salt stops being added to dishes. You consume exactly what is naturally taking place in your healthy protein resources. Water gets quickly reduced of at some time a day before the occasion. Generally water obtains shut of at night around 6-10 p.m. Most individuals are eating upward of 3 to 5 gallons of water by eventually out as well as will certainly be urinating every 15 mins. By ramping up water and also sodium consumption much more the final six days, we raise diuresis, which substantially reduces adolsterone as well as maintains your body in a "flushing state." When we eliminated added sodium one day prior and maintain water intake overpriced, we raise diuresis much more. Now when we abruptly cut of water intake as well as do not TAPER water like misinformed "masters" supporter, the body will "overshoot," since it is made use of to getting high water and also salt. Around 11 p.m. the night before your contest, you will certainly be urinating as well as drying out like crazy. By the time you awaken the early morning of your contest or event, you will certainly be bone dry. It is critical the early morning of your contest or occasion to manage the reintroduction of salt and water. I constantly have my clients consume a passionate breakfast 8 hours after water has actually been closed of. The morning meal will certainly include steak, eggs, bacon, and salute, as I make every effort to have salt, carbs, and fats in wealth. Your body is like a dry sponge, all set to absorb sugar, water, salt, and also fat into the muscle mass cells, because muscular tissue cells will was initially priority for replenishment.

You need to avoid fluids at this point, as liquid could make you hold water in such a delicate state. Having excess-sodium-laden foods without water intake will really make you appear harder, drier, and also fuller.

Remember that water complies with salt, so any type of remaining subcutaneous water that hasn't already been eliminated will be sucked up when sodium is consumed, creating the popular "shrink-wrapped" look. After prejudging mores than, or you are finishing your day at the coastline or photo shoot, gradually reestablish water in 2- to four-ounce increments. You will more than likely see yourself fill in right before your eyes and boost your conditioning a lot more. Just make sure to have discipline and also self-discipline and do not overdo it with fluid, because you remain in such a dehydrated state.

Once the competition or event mores than, please make certain to go back to homeostasis as promptly as possible by taking in Pedialyte, Gatorade, and also water to recover important electrolytes and minerals. You will certainly experience a temporary rebound of excessive bloating as well as water retention, yet if you keep the liquid intake high, signs will certainly dissipate within a few days.

So, following time you are carefully diet programs for a competition or event needing you to look your finest on a details day, please embrace the terrific mineral salt and leave your competition in the dust.

Note: The salt as well as carbs reintroduced the morning of the contest/special event are not determined or measured. Once in a completely dry, dried state you can consume sufficient amounts of salt and also carbohydrates without concern of "spilling over" or maintaining water. This is why it is crucial to NOT reestablish water throughout this time.

#bodybuilding #bodybuilding diet #weight

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reomanet · 5 years

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Remembering the Howard University Librarian Who Decolonized the Way Books Were Catalogued

Remembering the Howard University Librarian Who Decolonized the Way Books Were Catalogued Dorothy Porter challenged the racial bias in the Dewey Decimal System, putting black scholars alongside white colleagues Dorothy Porter in 1939, at her desk in the Carnegie Library at Howard University. (Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Manuscript Division, Howard University) smithsonian.com November 26, 2018 In a 1995 interview with Linton Weeks of the Washington Post , the Howard University librarian, collector and self-described “bibliomaniac” Dorothy Porter reflected on the focus of her 43-year career: “The only rewarding thing for me is to bring to light information that no one knows. What’s the point of rehashing the same old thing?” For Porter, this mission involved not only collecting and preserving a wide range of materials related to the global black experience, but also addressing how these works demanded new and specific qualitative and quantitative approaches in order to collect, assess, and catalog them. As some librarians today contemplate ways to decolonize libraries—for example, to make them less reflective of Eurocentric ways of organizing knowledge—it is instructive to look to Porter as a progenitor of the movement. Starting with little, she used her tenacious curiosity to build one of the world’s leading repositories for black history and culture: Howard’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center . But she also brought critical acumen to bear on the way the center’s materials were cataloged, rejecting commonly taught methods as too reflective of the way whites thought of the world. Working without a large budget, Porter used unconventional means to build the research center. She developed relationships with other book lovers and remained alert to any opportunity to acquire material. As Porter told Avril Johnson Madison in an oral history interview, “I think one of the best things I could have done was to become friends with book dealers… . I had no money, but I became friendly with them. I got their catalogs, and I remember many of them giving me books, you see. I appealed to publishers, ‘We have no money, but will you give us this book?’” Porter’s network extended to Brazil, England, France, Mexico—anywhere that she or one of her friends, including Alain Locke, Rayford Logan, Dorothy Peterson, Langston Hughes and Amy Spingarn, would travel. She also introduced to Howard leading figures like the historian Edison Carneiro of Brazil and pan-Africanist philosophers and statesmen Kwame Nkrumah and Eric Williams. As early as 1930, when she was appointed, Porter insisted that bringing Africana scholars and their works to campus was crucial not only to counter Eurocentric notions about blacks but also because, as she told Madison, “at that time . . . students weren’t interested in their African heritage. They weren’t interested in Africa or the Caribbean. They were really more interested in being like the white person.” Howard’s initial collections, which focused mainly on slavery and abolitionism, were substantially expanded through the 1915 gift of over 3,000 items from the personal library of the Reverend Jesse E. Moorland, a Howard alumnus and secretary of the Washington, DC, branch of the YMCA. In 1946, the university acquired the private library of Arthur B. Spingarn, a lawyer and longtime chair of the NAACP’s legal committee, as well as a confirmed bibliophile. He was particularly interested in the global black experience, and his collection included works by and about Black people in the Caribbean and South and Central America; rare materials in Latin from the early modern period; and works in Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and many African languages, including Swahili, Kikuyu, Zulu, Yoruba, Vai, Ewe, Luganda, Ga, Sotho, Amharic, Hausa, Xhosa, and Luo. These two acquisitions formed the backbone of the Moorland-Spingarn collections. Porter was concerned about assigning value to the materials she collected—their intellectual and political value, certainly, but also their monetary value, since at the time other libraries had no expertise in pricing works by black authors. When Spingarn agreed to sell his collection to Howard, the university’s treasurer insisted that it be appraised externally. Since he did not want to rely on her assessment, Porter explained in her oral history, she turned to the Library of Congress’s appraiser. The appraiser took one look and said, “I cannot evaluate the collection. I do not know anything about black books. Will you write the report? . . . I’ll send it back to the treasurer.” The treasurer, thinking it the work of a white colleague, accepted it. This was not the only time that Porter had to create a workaround for a collection so as not to re-impose stereotyped ideas of black culture and Black scholarship. As Thomas C. Battle writes in a 1988 essay on the history of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, the breadth of the two collections showed the Howard librarians that “no American library had a suitable classification scheme for Black materials.” An “initial development of a satisfactory classification scheme,” writes Battle, was first undertaken by four women on the staff of the Howard University Library: Lula V. Allen, Edith Brown, Lula E. Conner and Rosa C. Hershaw. The idea was to prioritize the scholarly and intellectual significance and coherence of materials that had been marginalized by Eurocentric conceptions of knowledge and knowledge production. These women paved the way for Dorothy Porter’s new system, which departed from the prevailing catalog classifications in important ways. All of the libraries that Porter consulted for guidance relied on the Dewey Decimal Classification. “Now in [that] system, they had one number—326—that meant slavery, and they had one other number—325, as I recall it—that meant colonization,” she explained in her oral history. In many “white libraries,” she continued, “every book, whether it was a book of poems by James Weldon Johnson, who everyone knew was a black poet, went under 325. And that was stupid to me.” Consequently, instead of using the Dewey system, Porter classified works by genre and author to highlight the foundational role of black people in all subject areas, which she identified as art, anthropology, communications, demography, economics, education, geography, history, health, international relations, linguistics, literature, medicine, music, political science, sociology, sports, and religion. This Africana approach to cataloging was very much in line with the priorities of the Harlem Renaissance, as described by Howard University professor Alain Locke in his period-defining essay of 1925, “ Enter the New Negro .” Heralding the death of the “Old Negro” as an object of study and a problem for whites to manage, Locke proclaimed, “It is time to scrap the fictions, garret the bogeys and settle down to a realistic facing of facts.” Scholarship from a black perspective, Locke argued, would combat racist stereotypes and false narratives while celebrating the advent of black self-representation in art and politics. Porter’s classification system challenged racism where it was produced by centering work by and about black people within scholarly conversations around the world. The multi-lingual Porter, furthermore, anticipated an important current direction in African-American and African Diaspora studies: analyzing global circuits and historical entanglements and seeking to recover understudied archives throughout the world. In Porter’s spirit, this current work combats the effects of segmenting research on Black people along lines of nation and language, and it fights the gatekeeping function of many colonial archives. The results of Porter’s ambitions include rare and unusual items. The Howard music collections contain compositions by the likes of Antônio Carlos Gomes and José Mauricio Nunes Garcia of Brazil; Justin Elie of Haiti; Amadeo Roldán of Cuba; and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges of Guadeloupe. The linguistics subject area includes a character chart created by Thomas Narven Lewis, a Liberian medical doctor, who adapted the basic script of the Bassa language into one that could be accommodated by a printing machine. (This project threatened British authorities in Liberia, who had authorized only the English language to be taught in an attempt to quell anti-colonial activism.) Among the works available in African languages is the rare Otieno Jarieko , an illustrated book on sustainable agriculture by Barack H. Obama, father of the former U.S. president. Porter must be acknowledged for her efforts to address the marginalization of writing by and about black people through her revision of the Dewey system as well as for her promotion of those writings though a collection at an institution dedicated to highlighting its value by showing the centrality of that knowledge to all fields. Porter’s groundbreaking work provides a crucial backdrop for the work of contemporary scholars who explore the aftereffects of the segregation of knowledge through projects that decolonize, repatriate and redefine historical archives.