#so thankfully. we also have hama <3

[comradekatara]

If you're still doing the ship opinions, could you do jet/katara?

I think they’ve grown on me bc when I was a kid I was just like “katara can do so much better 😤” (and that’s true!) but I also think what he means to katara (whether or not he truly lives up to her image of him in her mind) is really interesting. like something that I think is really crucial to understand about their relationship is the fact that the reason she feels betrayed by him isn’t because he’s “a bad revolutionary” but because he treated her like a naive child and lied to her face about his methods, manipulated her into trusting him by exploiting her tendency to dismiss sokka, tried to kill her brother (which is something she immediately understands judging by the way her eyes well with tears as she asks “where’s sokka”), and played her for a fool. “I trusted you, you’re sick and I trusted you.” yes she takes issue with his methods, but she mostly hates that she trusted someone who didn’t deserve it and didn’t truly respect her.

she hates putting her faith in someone and being taken advantage of, especially because it’s one of the points that sokka is especially condescending towards her about, and she always wants to be proven right in their arguments (which is natural, who doesn’t), so the fact that sokka is usually right when it comes to reading people is particularly infuriating. and it’s especially egregious in this circumstance, because katara’s trust in jet over sokka is what directly led to jet killing sokka (or at least, the attempt to). in her pursuit of winning the lifelong argument against her brother, she nearly got her brother killed. so jet is interesting insofar as he informs katara and sokka’s dynamic, and also as he reflects a major part of katara’s psychology as someone who genuinely wants to form connections with others over shared trauma, which is an incredibly noble and beautiful tendency of hers.

I think the way he sweeps her off her feet (literally) is kind of adorable, not because he’s a likable love interest (imo), but because her reaction is nonetheless very cute. the ugly ass hat she makes him after they kissed (offscreen, but canonically) is soo precious to me I think about that all the time (and the fact that aang is also the one who ends up wearing it…. my heart). and her reaction when they reunite later is fascinating, because even though it’s in such a different context and jet is literally brainwashed, katara acts like a scorned lover while sokka (number one jet hater in the world) approaches the situation in a more detached and logical way. it’s clear that her feelings for jet were incredibly strong, and the terror and guilt she felt over nearly letting sokka die at his hands has stayed with her and impacted in a very profound way, whereas sokka never actually felt like he jet had his life in his hands because he always knew that jet was a con artist who doesn’t really pose a threat to him.

but katara actually held a lot of respect for him, and he betrayed that trust and shattered her admiration irreparably. and then, of course, he nearly redeems himself, helps her in a major way, and dies in her arms. she cannot save him, and suddenly whatever could have been is gone not because he failed her, but because she failed him. and it’s subtle, and hardly mentioned, but I do think the trauma of that, in both instances, really informs katara’s perspective in many key ways, if not consciously, then subconsciously. it informs how she reacts to aang’s death only a few weeks later, and it informs her anger at zuko when he betrays her. jet is a key player in katara’s life and how she approaches her relationships going forward, and for that, he cannot be discounted.

#but I made him this hat…….. #asks #twitterpat #katara #jet #sokka #jetxkatara #katara&sokka #analysis #I don’t like jet but I do love the idea of him #so thankfully. we also have hama <3

[albiclalepsza]

This is the most lukewarm take one can have but I absolutely despise Elon Musk. The man grinds my gears with every fucking thing he does and says, but the shit he pulled now is just so fucking atrocious.

This article does a pretty good job at summarizing it.

The fucking gall it takes to look at your social media platform, a breeeding ground for the alt-right and fascists, and say that it would stop the Holocaust. Holy shit.

And Margolin gifted him with a piece of Hamas rocket that hit Kibbutz Beeri. What a fucking joke. This shit is so performative. In the middle of a genocide that Israel is commiting, they parade the torment of their own people around. If they could get away with it they would probably carry the bodies of people killed on Oct. 7 around to aid their rhetoric. Not to add that if Palestinians wanted to do the same they could send rocket pieces to every single politician that remains complicit in this situation.

The rest of the article is here:

And like, all this happened after Musk visited Auschwitz. His platform is the main place to propagate antisemitism online, and he uses arguably the place where Jews suffered the most to pretend that that's not true. And of course when the topic of concentration camps comes up the narrative focuses on Jews, wich is obviously absolutely understandable - this was a genocide aimed at erasing them, and it destroyed so much Jewish culture. But like, 3 million Jews that died were from Poland. If you add the non-Jewish Poles to that number you get 6 million people dead over the course of the war, most of them killed by the very same Nazi death machine that perpetrated the Holocaust.

Holocaust is also a Polish national tragedy. It erased almost 20% of our population. We learn about it basically before we're conscious enough to understand it. The shadow of that hangs above the country, so much destruction, so many lives and so much culture erased.

A beautiful synagogue that stood in my hometown got demolished by the Nazis, along with the whole Jewish district of the town. Pretty much all Jews from my town were taken to camps or murdered on the streets. The atrocities were so common that there are memorials pretty much everywhere. And it all happened within living memory of course.

My grandmother and her sister almost got executed by the Nazis. They both managed to avoid that thankfully and are old, alive and well (my grandma's sister just celebrated her 99th birthday in good health). Pretty much everyone in Poland has had someone in their family killed by the Nazis or who fought the Nazis 2-4 generations ago. My great grandfathers all fought against them, one lost a leg during the war. The history of the Holocaust and Nazi terror is just so completely interwoven with the general history of Poland that the two are inseparable.

And it pisses me off so much that this weasel, this mistake of a man takes it and feigns an apology, making a farce out of our biggest national tragedy.

Even worse, Polish media is very polarized about the whole situation. Half of the articles ignore the atrocious things he said to suck that billionaire's dick and lick his boots. No mention of this asshole disrespecting our history, just saying how cool it is that the guy who won capitalism appeared in Poland. Fuck them.

Thankfully some newspapers retained a semblance of integrity and called him out. My two favorite ones are these:

Krytyka Polityczna made a headline that says:

Elon Musk in Auschwitz. Photobooth for the pro-Russian antisemite.

And I love the summarizing paragraph here.

"By claiming that if social media existed back then a genocide like the one in Auschwitz wouldn't have happened Elon Musk admits that he understands the Holocaust about as well as his own social media platform - X."

Great takes guys. No notes.

#elon musk #fuck you elon #antisemitism #poland #palestine #israel

[thenewdeadseascrolls]

Judges 3: 12-14. "Eglon."

The Angels call the earth an island that floats in a Black Sea. They call God the One Walks the Black Shore. Across from Heaven, along this shore is humanity, what they call the City of Palms. This is when they are in a good mood about us. You can imagine what they call us otherwise.

Mankind is supposed to exist like a copse of palm trees, lazily flapping their leaves in the clement breezes that come and go off the sea, feeding the world with their plentiful dates. This image called Tamar in the Torah is prominent in Islam as well.

When things go wrong with fulfillment of the ideals named in the Torah and the Quran, etc. and we fall back, it is time to revisit our principals. We are obviously the latest generation of mankind and we should not be making the mistakes our forbears made, nor should our children make ours. We study religion to capitalize on this process of learning hoping this will one day cause the root causes of sin to vanish.

For this purpose every religion has established a Church Year during which it observes specific sacraments at specific times in order to continually weed the garden and allow the fruitful things to grow. Even still, the world positively freaked out about Ramadan this year as if the concept was automatically going to cause every Muslim on the planet to twist their panties out of whack beyond the point of no return.

During this most recent Christmas season, US politicians blatantly refused to help an ally seeking refuge and we said no. The people of Palestine also refused to honor the holiday, their biggest money making opportunity of the year.

In October, just before that, the Mormons and Hamas attacked Israel because they think they need to walk in Jesus's fantasy footfalls in order to go to heaven and they want to own the sand in which he impressed them. This would have meant an all out war with everyone on the planet if it had proceeded.

Our traditions then are also not enough to remind us we were made by a Gracious God for specific purposes that do not include being anxious, stingy, superstitious, weird, or retarded in our approaches to life. We are missing out. And no one wants to do that for too long, so thankfully our Jewish ancestors worried about us before we were even and wrote this Handbook to Being Jewish and it says we do not have to lose out on anything if we practice the Words of Moses with all of our enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm for being Jewish has to come first. This is how we know we are doing things right and will never go wrong again. The term for this is called ehud: "to confess praise to God for being worthy."

The related verbs ידה (yada), to praise, and הוד (hod), to be worthy of praise, conjugate into such similar forms that it's often not clear which verb in which tense is used. From the verb ידה (yada), to praise, come:

The plural noun הידות (huyyedot), meaning songs of praise.

The noun תודה (toda), meaning confession or praise.

From the verb הוד (hod), meaning to be praise-worthy, comes the noun הוד (hod), meaning splendor, majesty, vigor, glory or honor.

Coincidental to ehud is something called Moab, "who's your Daddy?" which does not always mean flattering things if one's daddy is abusive and some in the Torah have been.

As with the other types of possible antagonists that crop up in the Palm Tree Garden like the Ammonites (a kind of clique) and Amelakites (the people that wring) there are two ways one can swing. A Moabite could lead one to the feet of Ha Shem, it could lead one back into slavery. An Ammonite "the in-crowd" might be the right one for one's resume, it might be nothing but a puking fraternity.

If one is not sure one needs to fast track to the Land of Ehud:

Ehud

12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. 

13 Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.

 14 The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.

Eglon King of Moab= "the Cycle of the Calf." We can't be calves forever.

The unused verb עגל ('agal) probably had to do with being round or going in circles. Noun עגל ('egel) describes a male calf, and noun עגלה ('egla) means girl calf, or heifer. Adjectives עגל ('agol) and עגול ('agol) mean round. Noun עגלה ('agala) refers to a cart and noun מעגל (ma'gal) denotes an entrenchment or track. Noun עגיל ('agil) describes a hoop or ring.

Ammonites=

The verb עמם ('mm) probably expressed to be inclusive or comprehensive. Its rare uses in the Bible relate to making secrets or making info available to an in-crowd. Preposition עם ('im) means 'with', מעם (me'im) means 'from', and עמה ('umma) means 'beside'. Noun עם ('am) means a people, ranging from all of mankind to the in-crowd of a small village. Noun עם ('am) refers to one's (paternal) kinsman.

Amelakites= people that wring out the violence or lap it up.

The Values in Gematria are:

v. 12:  Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The Value in Gematria is 7680, ז‎ו‎חאֶפֶס, "they detected the limits."

v. 13: Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Value in Gematria is 4863, דחו‎‎ג‎ "postponed."

In Jewish thinking the calendarized versions of the sacraments are "postponed" or scheduled. As we approach the next festival or holiday, which was postponed from the prior year, we are really stating it is closer to time to relearn the object lessons listed in the Torah so we don't forget how to live appropriately.

Every year, clergy will establish the dates and themes so they build upon what we have learned in the past but remain pertinent to current events. This year's Ramadan observance, for example should have a specific focus, and the Quran should be read as if it were being studied for the first time and all the Accounts Muhammad listed need to be relearned to see as the Quran says "what we used to do."

Even still I saw little kids in festive costumes, coloring in coloring books and hanging streamers, balloons, and lights, getting ready for the Ramadan Easter Parade while the world cringed, waiting.

So the Postponement of Ramadan for example should include ways to avoid the same melee for next year and drill down into the Accounts instead.

v. 14: The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. The Value in Gematria is 3880, גחח אֶפֶס, "zero grinning."

The Torah says for eighteen years we need to be like calves with our nose rings in and follow the Leading Cow around. After that, we need to live how we were taught. Anyone who reads the Torah, the Gospels, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, etc. will realize nothing these books say is happening around here.

Ramadan itself, revealed in Quran 2: 195, which begins today, has close resemblance in its Rubric for Ehud:

The month of Ramadan is the one in which the Qur’ān was revealed as guidance for mankind, and as clear signs that show the right way and distinguish between right and wrong. So those of you who witness the month must fast in it. But the one who is sick, or is on a journey (should fast) as much from other days (as he missed). Allah intends (to provide) ease for you and does not intend (to create) hardship for you. All this is so that you may complete the number (of fasts as prescribed) and proclaim the Takbīr of Allah for having guided you, and (so) that you may be grateful.

Ramadan is supposed to be when we thank God for taking an interest in our affairs and to renew our trust in His Prophets hitching ourselves once again to their wisdom.

We don't have eighteen years left to spend pretending that we know what we are doing when we clearly do not. The Shoftim says our departure point from ignorance to success is "detect the limits." A few come to mind.

[debunkingtherightwing]

Facts Don't Care About Your Feelings, Ben: Debunking the December 18th 2023 Edition of the Ben Shapiro Show.

Well, over the weekend news broke out that a senate staffer had gay sex in a congressional hearing room which led to the Grifterverse collectively losing it's mind. Before we dive into the hellscape that is AmericaFest 2023, I figured we'd take a look at someone who at least pretends to be running a news show.

Now, Ben does talk about the gay sex video but most of the episode is spent on a poll Harvard did that supposedly shows that the youth support Hamas taking over Israel as well as running cover for Israel, basically what his show has been since the conflict started. We'll talk about why that's bologna and more today.

So, let's get into it shall we?

00:23: "According to the latest Harvard Harris poll, while a strong majority of every age group agree that the October 7th slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of another 240 was indeed a genocidal terror attack, some 60% of people aged 18 to 24 said that genocidal terror attack can be justified by the grievances of Palestinian's."

There are a couple issues with this poll that prevent me from taking it seriously. First of all, it was a very small group of people and cannot be viewed as representative of all young people. They surveyed 2,034 registered voters and Reason Magazine, a conservative leaning publication no less, estimates around 170 of them were 18-24.

Also, look at the way the question is set up. The question is "can be" not "is". While I personally don't think the attack was justifiable in the same way I don't think what Israel is currently doing is justifiable, someone could justify it. It would be interesting to see this poll redone with the question as "is justifiable".

Whatsmore, there are multiple things in the poll that seem to contradict antisemitism and support for Hamas among 18-24 year olds. For example, under the question "Does protesters on university campuses calling for the genocide of Jews constitute hate speech or not?", 70% of people aged 18-24 voted yes. 69% of young people also stated that Israel has the right to exist.

Another question was "Does Israel have a right to defend itself against terror attacks by launching air strikes on targets in heavily populated Palestinian areas with warnings to those citizens or does it not have the right to launch such attacks?" to which a whopping 80% say yes.

This poll is also an outlier amongst other polls. For example, the GenerationLab poll found that only 12% of college students viewed Hamas' actions as justified. So given all the weird contradictory info in the Harvard-Harris poll and the way larger group polled in these other polls, I feel like these other ones are more reliable.

So when you factor all that in you realize that this story isn't quite as airtight as Ben is making it out to be. I'm not saying that there hasn't been a rise in antisemitic incidents but I personally think that the people committing those crimes were antisemitic beforehand and are using the war as an excuse to commit and spread their hate.

3:05: "51% the solution to the Arab Israeli conflict is for Israel to be destroyed and handed over to Hamas."

The smaller sample group you use, the closer the numbers will look. If they polled 5,000 or 10,000 people I bet you those numbers would look way different.

4:41: "So what the Hell is going on? Well thankfully this poll actually spells out the answer. The biggest question and answer takes place on page 56 of this poll. This is where we learn that American's were asked a very simple question, quote 'There is an ideology that white people are oppressors and nonwhite people and people of certain groups have been oppressed and as a result should be favored today at universities and for employment. Do you support or oppose this ideology?'"

Yes, this showed that 79% of American's aged 18-24 supported this ideology. It also showed that when asked if it the ideology was helpful or hurtful, American's of that exact age group were split almost down the middle. Pretty strange contradiction right?

Well here's one of the issues right off the bat. As Reason Magazine pointed out in a very good takedown of this poll which has the same general points that I am making, there isn't an I don't know option. This forces someone who might be confused by the question or genuinely doesn't know to pick between yes or no on a topic they might genuinely know nothing about.

it also ignores the possibility that someone might believe one thing or not the other. What if somebody believes that white people or Israeli's are oppressive but don't deserve to be treated like oppressors?

There are glaring issues with this poll, especially when you consider the fact that other polls say the exact opposite.

6:42: "The evil of Critical Race Theory or as we now call it more innocuously 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, DEI', stuff you might hear on your campus or your corporation, it rears it's head in all of the ugliest places."

The very framework of this argument is incorrect because CRT and DEI aren't the same thing. DEI is essentially a framework being used in companies to make them more inclusive towards all groups whereas CRT is a legal theory that says that racial bias is inherent in the system. Also, the notion that CRT was being taught outside law schools is a myth.

7:39: "But the lefts core oppressor/oppressed philosophy is that all that matters is your group identity."

So the argument that Ben is trying to make here is that there is a rash of anti-white racism in America caused by the left....pointing out that systemic racism is a thing I guess?

The extremely ironic thing here is that Ben is making it oppressor/oppressed himself, only instead of minorities it's white conservatives. For a man who is supposedly so against making everything about one race oppressing the other, Ben really is making this about one race opposing the other.

Ben also dabbles in group identity in other ways. He regularly declares that every single person he disagrees with is a "leftist".

7:51: "As the radical left wins ideologically it's no surprise that group minority identity, a demographically growing piece of the American pie, is driving anti-white hatred in larger numbers."

This is race based fearmongering, plain and simple. He's essentially saying here that minorities are being trained to hate white people. This kind of rhetoric, as well as being a complete lie, is also dangerous and could inspire violence.

Don't take my word for it. Just look at how the Quebec Mosque Shooter checked Ben Shapiro's Twitter feed 93 times in the month before the shooting.

9:44: "The New York Times, in other words, is a font head of censorship, they are anti-free speech. But this is the same Times suddenly concerned about free speech when you're chanting 'from the river to the sea', or they are lying and they don't care about free speech they just are radical."

Ah yes, the New York Times, one of the most radical leftist publications out there. I sometimes wonder if these guys live in an alternate universe.

The reality is that in Ben's mind, being even mildly critical to Israel makes you a radical leftist. If the New York Times doesn't care about free speech, neither does Ben Shapiro.

9:59: "What the radicals want is to use the tools of liberalism in order to push radical liberal evil designed to tear down the west."

This feels extremely dogwhistle-ey to me. I would love to ask Ben who he feels the radicals are and what racial group they belong to. After all, they are trying to push anti-white hatred so they probably aren't white themselves! This is the same game Alex Jones plays when he rambles on about "the globalists" (Read: Jews) only polished up and pointed at minorities, especially Muslim's involved in Palestine demonstrations.

The other thing I would ask is what about "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" is radical and liberal evil? Could it be the inclusion of minorities Ben doesn't like?

10:21: "That is why young people are preaching 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion' in the United States and what they REALLY mean is anti-white hatred in the name of 'reparative justice'"

Ben is in quite the fearmongering mood today. So, if I understand correctly, pointing out that racism is a thing and including people who aren't white is somehow "anti-white hatred" and as proof of that he's got a poll that is an outlier among every other poll, contradicts itself repeatedly, and only surveyed 170 people instead of any legitimate instances of anti-white racism.

Great stuff.

Ben waxes poetic about "radicalization" (rich from an alt-lite commentator who is many peoples introduction into the alt-right pipeline), the segment ends, ad, and then it's time to talk about more Israel news. Ben talks more about the poll and says basically the same stuff only with fancier words. He then goes on to talk about the recent Hamas attack tunnel footage. He doesn't really say anything important, it's just him talking over clips. He then talks about the IDF shooting those three hostages and decides to spread this chunk of disinfo.

19:45: "Israel thought that was a trap. Why did they think that was a trap? Because that's what Hamas does. Hamas sets traps with fake hostages."

Hamas has done extremely terrible things, but I couldn't find anything about them using "fake hostages". Even if you think this group is bad and deserving of criticism, which I think it is in the same way that I think Israel is, you can't just make shit up. You're a journalist!

20:21: "Meanwhile members of the left-wing are saying 'Well it's obvious that Israel is committing human rights violations.'"

The indiscriminate bombing of civilians is a war crime, yes. The defense minister of Israel outright referred to civilians as "human animals".

Another ad, blah. Ben then decides to talk about America's response to the conflict. I will say, I do appreciate that Ben at least tries to be a news show as opposed to the other guys at the Daily Wire. Ben opens up with the story of the US putting pressure on Israel to focus on Hamas to avoid civilian casualties. Sounds like a pretty good thing, right? Not to Ben!

23:07: "But, I have to say, there is nothing more tiresome, and this is true whether we are talking about American troops in harms way in Felucia (or) whether you're talking Israel troops in harms way in Gaza, there's nothing more tiresome than listening to politicians jabber about civilian casualties while armies are doing their best to protect both their own soldiers and civilians who are being used as human shields."

So what would Ben have us do? Give every army the go-ahead to do whatever the hell they want, to hell with who gets hurt!

Also, the indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza is a significantly different thing than troops on the ground.

The argument that Israel is so focused on preventing civilian casualties isn't rooted in facts at all. According to a study from Open University of Israel, civilians make up 61% of casualties from Israel's airstrikes. This is higher than the average civilian death toll in every conflict since the second world war in which the casualty rate was around half. What makes Israel so special that they get to kill such a significant increase in civilians yet still claim that they are the most humane army in the world?

24:07: "Question, what would the acceptable level of civilian casualties be given that Israel's ratio of terrorists killed to civilians killed is actually lower than any other modern conflict ever, in a heavy urban area?"

How about the average of every other conflict since WWII? Also, about the ratio, the closest thing I could find was that Israel claims they've killed one Hamas militant for every two civilians and that's only from Israel so that report is very likely bias. Absolutely nobody except for Ben is saying that the ratio of civilians to terrorists killed is lower than any modern conflict ever. I also like how even he realized how ridiculous that claim was and tacked "in a heavy urban area" on at the last minute. How about you add "In Gaza" as well?

24:20: "But what it really underscores is that for the west there is still this sort of baseline liberal belief that if you cave to intransigent terrorists somehow this makes the world a better place."

Reducing civilian casualties isn't "caving to terrorism", it's following the Geneva Convention.

Ben switches topics in order to talk about the Houthi led Yemen shipping attack.

25:05: "Well now, according to the Wall Street Journal the press is reporting that the Biden Administration is contemplating the use of military force in response to continuing attacks on commercial shipping by the Houthi militia in Yemen, it's about time."

While it's easy to make this kind of judgement when you aren't the leader of a nation, it's a way more complicated situation when you think about this from the standpoint of a leader who wants to preserve peace.

The war in the middle east is already a situation that is threatening peace in the Middle East and the Biden administration knows this. Since Iran is backing the Houthi, a strike on them might trigger an even larger war throughout the Middle East, so naturally the United States has to treat this situation carefully in order to avoid a broader conflict.

26:18: "Thomas Jefferson was willing to use American military power against the Barbary Pirates."

That situation was radically different. The most obvious difference is that that was in the 1800's which was a radically different time compared to today. Technology was way less advanced for one and warfare itself was

Also, Jefferson declaring war against the Barbary Pirates didn't risk triggering a massive war that would tear apart the entire Middle East.

27:06: "I notice that Iran seems rather angry and they have for several decades at this point."

Yeah, but you don't want to make them angrier. There are legitimate reasons why the Biden Administration has been playing this rather carefully and I wouldn't be so quick to judge unless I myself were in that situation. Given the multiple wars going on in the world right now, we don't need to throw another onto the pile.

Ben then decides to talk about the senate sex scandal, but not before advertising DailyWire+ and PragerU. Four whole minutes of ads, great.

33:32: "So, in the worst story of the day, and there are a lot of bad stories, it turns out that there is a Democrat staffer. This persons name is Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a staffer for Maryland Democrat senator Ben Cardin. He was terminated over the weekend because he was identified online as allegedly one of the two participants in a very graphic porn video filmed in a senate hearing room."

So, let me get this straight, Ben just spent 30 minutes ranting about how the entire youth is being radicalized to hate white people and yet this story is the worst one of the entire day? Guess that narrative was B.S.

Anyway, this isn't as big a deal as Ben is making out to be. It was certainly a dumb thing that these two guys did but it was a staffer, who cares? The entire griftersphere is acting as if it was Joe Biden himself in there.

Some low-level employee did something dumb, big whoop.

Ben makes some dumb jokes.

35:28: "Bottom line is this. This is what congress is now good for. We're like 'guys, could you reign in the national debt and you know, build up the military?' and they're like 'Best we can do is give you an aid who bangs.'"

Again, you'd think this random low-level employee was the human incarnation of the Democrat Party itself.

Also, is $886 billion dollars not enough to build up the military? Because that's the amount of money in the new defense bill that Biden is about to sign into law.

35:49: "It's coming from an entire culture that basically says that the chief form of human intellectual development is sex."

Spoken like a guy who can't get some (sorry, couldn't resist).

But seriously, who on Earth thinks that the chief form of human intellectual development is sex?!

35:57: There's an entire article from Politico magazine about the nations outgoing STD chief. Here is the title, quote 'Sex is a Normal Activity and Part Of Our Human Experience.' And this idea that all over America people are just deeply ashamed of sex, they won't talk about it. Have you been in America lately?"

Sex is still a pretty taboo subject in a lot of states, particularly more conservative ones. Also, it's pretty hard to argue against sex being a normal human activity, unless Ben thinks a stork dropped him off at his moms house.

36:48: "Yes, America's STD breakout is because people are too shy talking about sex. Nailed it!"

Or, due to the lack of sexual education (which is being pushed by conservatives like Benny boy), people aren't educated around how to have sex in a safe way.

Ben then talks about the border thing. I find this truly bizarre because he's trying to frame it as if it's the Democrats fault when it's the Republicans holding the thing up, but it's not particularly important (even though I want to stall before I start watching AmFest). Ben then argues that Trump actually isn't racist, he's stretching pretty hard but again, not important. The show then ends.

Conclusion:

Well, I started writing this post before I decided to cover AmFest and I will say that Ben continues to be one of the more polished conservatives. He's still a race-baiting asshole, but he's a slick race-baiting asshole. Shorter post today but we'll make up for it in the coming weeks.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

#ben shapiro #right wing bullshit #journalism #conservative bullshit #fact checking #bad takes #conservatives #daily wire #debunking #disinformation

[zuzuslastbraincell]

Katara!

KATARA KATARA KATARA

why I like them

oh god where do i even start. katara just contains so many multitudes - she's sweet and feminine and caring and attentive but she's never reduced to just that, she's never just 'the girl', she's also allowed to get mad, to be petty, to laugh at her brother, to be headstrong and stubborn, to express vulnerability, to cry and to laugh, to make ridiculous facial expressions and *be* very expressive. she's dealing with a lot of trauma not simply from the loss of her mother but that loss represents also how her tribe have been decimated by the fire nation, how she's the last waterbender, how all this pressure exists on her shoulders (but also pride, but also determination, to bring it back) and that is expressed subtly throughout the series with the same depth and love that male characters are afforded with regard to their respective traumatic experiences. and despite all this she never tries to stop making the world good? She's always pushing for change, she's always wanting to make things better, she's relentless and doesn't give up when it comes to her vision for a better world... she has such a big heart. and that coexists with a deep anger in her, and deep hurt. Not to make an ocean metaphor so early on but she's as deadly and deep as the ocean but she chooses to be kind and warm and that's so powerful.

why i don't

honnestly while katara's instincts to mother people are a sad symptom of how she was forced to grow up to soon and automaically asigns herself a role of emotional responsibility she has mixed feelings about, i know that if katara tried to mother me, i would be annoyed. but that sounds more like a me problem.

favourite episode

oh it's either the episode where she beats the fucking shit out of pakku or it's the southern raiders. the first one because it's so gratifying to see how she's grown and developed as a bender and really come into her own. the second because... god i love how *messy* the southern raiders is, and it really taps into what i love about katara - she's flawed, she runs off on an ill-thought out revenge mission with zuko, she's got a great capability for darkness as she quite seriously considers murdering a man she has every right to loathe and to kill - but she chooses against it, in the end. it would not be right for her, if not him. she chooses what's right for her in the end.

favourite season

I'm gonna be a wee bit controversial and say book 1 had the best conception of katara's arc from student to master and really saw her grow and flourish, from someone yelling at her brother' oafish prejudice to a real master, that really solidified her as an idealist and presented that as the strength that is, that showed her struggling with petty jealousy of aang's progress and had her stumble in ways that made her character comeplling and interesting - like what an introduction to her character! book 2 had some fantastic moments but i can't think of anything particularly remarkable about hee character arc - largely because it tied into aang's romantic arc i think at this point. book 3 had some absolutely fantastic moments (scam queens katara and toph!! painted lady!! southern raiders!! the final agni kai) that really shone but also book 3 lays a lot of groundwork for fanon i hate (e.g. katara as the mom friend - wish that headcanon would die tbh)

favourite line

fuck there's a lot of good ones but my underrated fave is when sokka says he's kissed a girl before but she's never met her and katara says 'Who? Gran-gran? I've met gran-gran' and it's bruuutaaall

but my favourite serious line is 'I will never ever give up on people who need me'. powerful.

favourite outfit

water tribe anything!! and i actually think her book one/book two braids are her best hair. underrated katara hair. personally she looks just adorable in her parka in the flashback to when she was like. eight.

OTP

katara/personal fulfilment

katara/happiness

katara/fulfilling her goals and dreams

katara/loving minor background character who is never named

there's some ships i like in AU situations - yuetara is actually one i lov, especially with waterbender yue, i just love the whole sea/moon thing as well as katara and yue rebelling in loud/quiet ways, being girlfriends who refuse to have their lives defined by the expectations of older men, who have a great sense of duty towards their nations and won’t let gendered expectations stop them.

and most of you know i like the messy drama of katara/azula in a lighter AU situation where they're like, school or academic rivals, and the legacy of imperialism isn’t quite so personal (and azula makes better choices, obviously), but it’s not as much as i “ship” them as i just find the potential dynamic interesting, they’re both driven by a sense of duty for their home, it’s just that means *very* different things depending if you’re SWT or FN.

none of them are OTPs though - they’re more just fun thought experiments

brotp

katara & sokka - absolutely love their sibling dynamic its amazing. both have been impacted negatively by the shit in their lives and are not always dealing with it in functional ways but theyre there for each other, through thick and thin, always have each other's backs, they roast each other and bicker and sometimes make stupid decisions and sometimes lash out but at the end of the day their love pulls through, they’re able to work past those conflicts.

katara & aang - honestly while i feel kataang was just so poorly executed in the show (listen guys I just can’t after ember island players, i know that was a bad episode, but i can’t) & i cant imagine katara wanting to leave the south pole after the war for long spells (it would have to be long distance love, lots of profound and heartfelt letters and occasional visits, if anything, but i dont know if that’s what katara wants or needs? so maybe it wouldn’t pan out?), but regardless, i really do think these two had a life-changing friendship where each really represented hope for each other, that's at the core of it, they both truly believe in each other, and inspired each other. katara & aang good.

a headcanon

chief katara anyone?? chief katara?!?! 

oh oh OH i also think that katara, while primarily a combat bender during the war, actually takes to healing a lot more after the show and gets proper healing training at some point with the help of a trained medical expert and maybe yugoda. tbh i feel like the show was a bit dismissive of healing as an ability - i feel like having that is *extremely* useful in any combat situation, you always have a medic on hand - but i understand why katara, who wanted to be recognised as powerful regardless of her gender, and wanted to hold herself in a fight alongside sokka & aang, pushed for combat waterbending training because that is what 'powerful' looks like to her in the moment. obviously katara is capable of incredible healing feats (see: saving aang) but i think given we see her as a healer in lok (not a decision i necessarily disagree with) would mean a shift in focus. i think katara actually comes to realise she likes healing a great deal, but really she excels in all aspects of waterbending and is the south’s most respected master who helped rejuvenate southern style waterbending  

unpopular opinion

the main reason people think katara is straight is because we see her have very few meaningful interactions with other girls outside of toph. ATLA as a show is a bit romance obsessed, and very heteronormative in that regard, and so interactions with minor characters almost always line up with a potential crush for sokka or katara, and later, zuko (suki, haru, jet, yue, song, jin....). we rarely see katara build friendships with other girls and it’s such a damn shame.

(anyway bi katara for life)

a wish

the version of the puppetmaster we saw was actually fire nation propaganda, i feel like katara would have felt deep compassion for a prisoner of war and after maybe some clashes, would have agreed to help smuggle her out of the fire nation and secure passage home for hama, and tried to assure her that she still has a place there. the treatment of hama in that episode was awful (but also hama was written to be almost cartoonishly evil, very much an evil witch in her cottage in the spooky woods? like the whole horror movie / spooky story opening was such a big tell) and tbh i reject the thesis that we saw ‘katara’s dark potential’ in that episode completely, or that bloodbending as a power is inherently dark, or katara’s use of it to stop hama ‘corrupted’ her. I feel like katara might feel this way as a teenager perhaps but with time (she can be a little black and white at times), and especially with more training as a healer, i think she might realise that’s not the case, she’ll realise that she was right to try and oppose hama, her elder (she was lashing out rather than really trying to oppose the fire nation), and it wasn’t a betrayal of her or her beliefs, but also her use of bloodbending wasn’t wrong or evil inherently at all? and maybe she’d find ways to use it for healing purposes? anyway my wish is that, i like the idea that they meet again, speak about their differences, reconcile a little / come to an understanding, and katara learns more from hama again

an oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen

anything where katara’s character is reduced to a comforter or a healing device for a man and his trauma. particularly zuko. (they don’t have that dynamic in canon thankfully, zuko would never, zuko respects her too much)

5 words to describe them:

idealistic, hard-working, powerful, headstrong, kind

my nickname for them:

chief. or comrade. :^)

#katara

[trans-girl-sora]

Hey, tell me more about those kickass fan kids!

Ah yes, an anonymous ask that absolutely wasn’t sent by me at myself for an excuse to talk about the fan kids I came up with. Perfect.

SO!

Sorikai have two kids: their daughter Hama (Japanese for “shore” - i.e., where the land meets the sea) and Jack (Sora named Jack and refused to tell anyone where he came up with the name, but he likes to call him “Cap’n” sometimes). 

Jack is Sora and Kairi’s biological child, and Kairi delivered him herself when the trio was about 21. Hama is Riku and Kairi’s biological child, conceived through IVF, and Naminé actually delivered her. They were expected to be delivered within the same month, but they actually ended up being born on the same day! What are the odds lmao

Kelley is Naminé’s adopted daughter! For a while Naminé sort of dated around, but after helping Sorikai have Hama, she decided that she was done with romance and relationships and decided she just wanted to have her own family, so about two years after Jack and Hama were born, she adopted Kelley, who’s a year older than the twins. 

Callisto is the IsaLea baby, and she’s MUCH older than the others. They adopted her essentially RIGHT after everything settled down, and kinda raised her alongside raising Xion and Roxas, so they view her almost as a younger sister. (Fun fact: She was named Aidan up until she was 10! :o That’s a scene I’m gonna write at some point lol)

Oleander is the Rokushi baby. They had him when they were about 19 - Callisto was maybe 4 - because damn it, they’re adults now and they want a baby too! “Lea’s probably about the same maturity level as us anyway, so we’ll be at least just as good at parenting as him, if not better” (they were :p). Despite the best efforts from both parents, Ollie is an incredibly quiet and timid boy, who tries not to start trouble or let his friends get into any danger. Kelley - who’s a year younger than him - helps to get him out of the house and actually DO stuff, and they’re good at balancing each other. 

Hoo boy uhhhh. So. 

The Terraqua baby Valentina (though that changes to Vincent when he’s 15). Vincent’s actually a fairly new baby, two years younger than the Sorikai twins, and second youngest of the bunch. When Vincent was born, Terra and Aqua were FLOORED - the mix of brown and blue hair making it almost black, his brown eyes and her blue somehow mixing to an almost yellow-green hazel. For years they worried, raising him with as much love as they could, and he turned out… just fine. More than fine, actually, he’s sort of a brown-noser. A child of TERRA and AQUA means this Vincent views rules and laws as unbreakable bonds, and he’s kind of a narc honestly lmao. The others rope him into doing dangerous and stupid shit and he’s not HAPPY about it, but he figures if they’re breaking the rules he’d better be there to protect them and make sure they don’t get hurt. 

Last is an OC x canon baby because I can’t control myself and also my friend Rox made me lmfao. (If you don’t know who Seren is go check out my Stellar Wind series on AO3) So Ventus and his partner Seren have a child named Astra! She’s the youngest of the group, 3 years younger than the Hama and Jack and NINE years younger than Callisto. She’s definitely got some of Ven’s seriousness, and despite being the youngest still oftentimes finds herself leading the pack. While she has some of Ven’s seriousness, she has a LOT of Seren’s goofiness and really just is a big dork like all the time. She likes to play pranks and tease the other kids. She’s definitely an “I’ll follow the rules unless they’re stupid” kind of girl. 

And that’s them! The “Seven New Lights” fdjsakldasfjds. Part of me wants to make 13 Organization fankids but thankfully I only MOSTLY hate myself. 

I’m hoping to make my friend draw at least Hama and Jack but we will see……

Shoutout to me for sending myself that good anon so I could ramble on about these dumb fankids, I’m the real MVP 💋

#ship: sorikai #ship: rokushi #ship: terraqua #ship: serven (oc) #ship: isalea #kairi #riku #sora #namine #roxas #xion #terra #aqua #ventus #seren (oc) #isa #lea #hama (oc) #jack (oc) #oleander (oc) #vincent (oc) #astra (oc) #callisto (oc) #fan kids #fankids #kh gen 2 #PHEW that's a lot of tags #kh #kingdom hearts

[evilwickedme]

I'm not Jewish but I had a question about anti-Semitism. If you're not up for the emotional labor of answering that's cool but I saw a post that compared seeing the Wonder Woman movie to supporting facism and that seemed wrong to me, but I'm not sure I know enough about the nuances of the situation to express why. I was wondering if you could help me understand if that's a bad comparison and why? If not I totally understand.

hey anon, great question. short answer: yes. long answer: abso-fucking-lutely. longer answer:

hell yeah, comparing seeing the wonder woman movie to supporting fascism is terrible. here are a list of posts I’ve seen in this context:

a literal blood libel on gal gadot, comparing the way she looks at chris pine to the way she might look at palestinian children before she eats them

the amount of times I’ve seen people say she supports killing palestinians because she opposes hamas, or saying she was a combat soldier, if I had one cent for every time I’d probably get a seven-digit check along with my actual paycheck on monday

comparing israel to the apartheid, fascism, or the nazis isn’t new, but hey, it’s always good to see it on my dash, ffs

so here’s why all of that is fucking bullshit.

1. we’re going to start with the convenient timing of all of this. see, you may not remember this, but gal has already been wonder woman before - in the dc film batman vs. superman. arguably, one of the worst films of all time, but she still had a relatively large part in it, appearing in at least a quarter of the movie’s scenes if not more. she also had a large part in a fast & furious movie, which I haven’t watched, so I can give no commentary on it. and in that movie earlier this year, keeping up with the joneses. all of these movies had moderate to starring roles by our favorite amazon, gal gadot. all of them went unbanned in arab countries, unprotested by palestinians and tumblr and the antisemitic left. would you like to guess why?

see, here is this movie, starring a woman, who is good, and strong, in that order, who saves the day, who isn’t sexualized, who is a goddamn hero, who isn’t joss-whedon “strong” but rather compassionate AND goddamn powerful. and imo - and other people on this agree with me - that fucking scares people.

people don’t want to support wonder woman. but since there’s nothing wrong with the movie itself - sans the car that appeared out of nowhere - they have to find something else to latch onto. and oh, how convenient, gal gadot is in this movie, and she’s jewish and israeli, so she’s double evil, let’s get people to avoid this movie that way.

to clarify, I don’t think everybody doing this is doing it maliciously. I think it’s understandable for a palestinian to not want to go see a movie with an israeli in it. especially if they’re told that gal gadot was a combat soldier who killed palestianians herself, who wanted to join and joined willingly. it’s understandable if somebody who doesn’t actually know much about the situation - who gets all their information about israel from tumblr and other leftists gentiles - hears the literal lies and antisemitic bullshit and believes it, because, funnily enough, the sjw movement has completely skipped us and many times fucked jewish people over. so again, it’s understandable. but there’s a reason the controversy is only surrounding the movie led by a woman who is actually everything tumblr claims to want - and that is plain old sexism.

2. let’s address the idf, mmkay? the idf is mandatory service for all citizens. that’s right! every 11th and 12th grader in israel misses at least a dozen days of school to go to various army bases till they decide where you’re going to go once you enlist. some people, like myself, get a special permit not to enlist - but it is very, very rare, and very difficult to obtain even if you have good reason for it - they dragged me around for a whole year, from city to city, until they finally issued me mine. not enlisting means jail otherwise. so gal gadot enlisted in 2004 when she was 18, like the rest of us, sure. but she didn’t choose to. and she didn’t join the combatant forces. she didn’t even go to the ever-popular intelligence units. she was a fitness instructor. she helped people get in shape. (sidenote: גל, אם את רוצה לעזור לי להכנס לכושר, תשלחי לי הודעה.) in addition, gal gadot is a fierce feminist, who shows up to premiers in flats cause her back hurts, who posts pictures of herself with her husband wearing no make up, who became wonder woman for her daughter.

but what about that three year old facebook post???? you mean, the one where she writes she supports the israeli troops in their efforts against hamas? people write about it as if it’s one of many posts she’s written about killing innocent palestinians. and just to clarify: that’s the only fucking post. and hamas is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization. it uses human shields and schools as centers for their activity on purpose. saying you’re angry at her for supporting her troops - as if you’d say anything like that to a retired american soldier for saying they support their troops, as if you’d dare - in the face of a battle with a literal terrorist organization - what could possibly go through anybody’s head that would make that sentence logical.

not to mention, she’s said repeatedly that she wished there was no need for the idf, that she wished that there could be peace. hey, I feel the same way. but the political situation doesn’t work like that. and so she supported eliminating hamas, a terrorist organization, and people actually hated her for it. literally what the fuck.

3. is israel apartheid or fascist? no. does it have problems with racism, and serious problems at that? hell yes. but we’re not fucking apartheid.

4. and finally: the antisemitism. because… dear god, the antisemitism. I’m going to break this down from the most “innocent” to the absolute worst.

wonder woman is white feminism - jewish. people. aren’t. white. they can be converts, or identify as white for other reasons - but antisemitism is racism against jews, aight? is that clear? the white/poc dynamic that is the common theory in america right now doesn’t work with jewish people. pale ashkenazis like gal gadot are not poc, but not white either, because white people were our oppressors for literally thousands of years, they raped us and killed us, and equating us with our oppressors is fucking antisemitic. see the first link for more detail on that.

a blood libel is a blood libel is a blood libel. for those of you who don’t know, blood libels are among the oldest forms of antisemitism. a blood libel is an accusation, specifically against jews, of killing non-jews, with little to no evidence, as an excuse to prosecute jewish people and kill them. the most common form is the claim that jewish people kill children, either to serve the devil, to use their blood for a matza or otherwise religious sacrifice, or even for fun. when searching for the blood libel I had seen - which thankfully, I couldn’t find - I found this post. this is an example of a blood libel torn apart. and just to clarify, ffs: yeah, claiming she killed palestinians and put notches on her gun is fucking antisemitic, especially when she did none of the above. it’s a classic blood libel, it’s literally garbage, and don’t fucking perpetuate it.

my personal favorite antisemitic trope is the elders of zion. saying every jewish person or israeli has connections to the people who secretly control everything!!!!! we’ve never been oppressed, we’re just pretending to be while secretly running the antisemitic media, the antisemitic american government, and of course, the ever popular antisemitic idea we run the banks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!! here’s a secret: gal gadot, beyond voting, has no connection to the israeli government, or to any policies it has, racist or otherwise. she’s an actress, for god’s sake.

and the worst of it. comparing israel to nazis. comparing jews to nazis. comparing the magen david (aka the jewish star) to a fucking swastika. all the height of antisemitism. people on this site so conveniently forget that the nazis targeted jews more than any other group, that we still haven’t reached pre-wwii numbers, that around half of all jews worldwide live in israel, and that, ffs, we aren’t a fascist government, we’re the only true democracy in the middle east. call it pinkwashing or brainwashing, call it whatever you like, I call it antisemitism, because we’re not fascist, and we’re definitely not fucking nazis.

and once again, I’d like to remind you that even though I myself am open to talking about my opinions cause I can’t fucking shut up, asking every jewish person to talk about israel and its actions is fucking racist as fuck.

tumblr: don’t ask every muslim person to immediately denounce isis, a terrorist organization that literally kills other muslims!!!

jews: aight, don’t ask us to denounce the only place where it’s even a little safe to be jewish - 

tumblr: what???? no!!!! no way!!! here’s a jewish person, if you’re not explicitly for the destruction of israel and extremely vocal about it, you’re literal garbage!!!!

essentially.

anyway, so to summarize: yes, anon, your instinct was right. wonder woman is feminist as fuck, intersectional as fuck, and a great fucking movie which I’ve already seen twice, and not going to see it because of gal gadot, who is a literal sweetheart, makes me go:

#antisemitism #wonder woman #ww #wonder woman movie #dc #jewish #judaism #ip conflict #israel #anonymous #ask #(i have a lot of jewish memes. maybe i should make a post.) #jew tag